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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 244*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

5

Maruti Suzuki chairman pens book on industrialising India

8

Optimisingpublichealthcare in corona times

2

‘Atmanirbhar callto help countrycapitalise on itsinherent strengths’

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated July 05, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Ashadha & Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Pratipada: 09:21 amNakshatram :Uttara Ashadha: 11:12 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:28 am – 09:05 amYamagandam: 10:43 am – 12:20 pmVarjyam: 07:05 am – 08:42 am,

07:00 pm – 04:58 amGulika: 01:58 pm - 03:35 pmGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 04:45 pm – 06:22 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:54 am – 12:46 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: HazeTemp: 30/26Humidity: 81%Sunrise: 05.46 amSunset: 06.54 pm

Andhra-Telangana to shareSrisailam hydel power equallyPNS n HYDERABAD

The Andhra Pradesh andTelangana governments havedecided to share the hydelpower generated by Srisailampower project equally at theKrishna River ManagementBoard meeting.

The government reportedlyhas questioned the Board whyit did not include theNagarjunasagar andPulichintala power sharingissue in the minutes of themeeting.

Furthermore, it got furiousover inclusion of Telanganagovernment’s contention con-tending that the Palamuru-Rangareddy LI scheme is nota new scheme in the minutes.Similarly, the AP governmenthas faulted the inclusion ofGovenrment of Telangana’scontention on Dindi, Bhakta

Ramdas, Mission Bhagiradha,Tummila LI scheme in theminutes.

No discussion on hydelpower generation atNagarjunasagar, Pulichintalapower stations figured at themeetings. In spite of it, the APgovernment has put forward apiquant argument questioningthe Board about non-inclusion

of these aspects in the minutes.The AP government has

put forward the argument stat-ing that the Government ofTelangana has been divertingGodavari water into Krishnariver basin. Therefore, the APgovernment has no business toshare 45 tmc feet of water withthe Government of Telangana.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India has now taken thethird spot in the list of nationsworst hit by coronavirus.The country logged morethan 6.9 lakh cases onSunday evening,according to datafrom state gov-ernments, over-taking Russia,which had 6.8 lakhas per America'sJohns Hopkins University(JHU). India is now pre-ceded only by Brazil andthe US. Brazil has over 15lakh cases and the US hasmore than 28 lakh.

India added a record numberof coronavirus cases on Sunday.In its daily morning update, thehealth ministry reported justunder 25,000 cases and 613deaths in 24 hours — the biggestdaily spike since the first casewas detected in late January.

The surge, that took the

numberof deaths to

19,268, came asinfections rose in

the western andsouthern parts of the

country amid heavymonsoon rains.Maharashtra, the

worst-hit state and hometo the densely packed financialhub Mumbai, recorded over7,000 new cases while TamilNadu and Delhi recorded morethan 4,200 and 2,500 fresh cases

respectively.India had imposed one of the

world's strictest lockdowns inMarch to control the virusspread, but it has been eased inphases in recent weeks to restarteconomic activity. Delhi nears 1Lakh cases Schools, metro trainsin cities, cinemas, gyms andswimming pools remain closedand international flights arestill grounded.

Authorities have made wear-ing masks mandatory in publicplaces, while large gatherings are

banned and shops and otherpublic establishments arerequired to implement socialdistancing.

WHO reportsrecord 2 lakhcorona cases HYDERABAD: India, theUnited States and Brazil haveeach contributed significantlyto the whopping 212,326Covid-19 cases recordedglobally in just the past 24hours, according to the WorldHealth Organization.Coronavirus infection reacheda record level in India onSunday, with the Union HealthMinistry saying 24,850 newcases were identified in the 24hours since 8:00 am onSaturday.

India overtakes Russia as thirdworst-hit nation in Covid-19

YSRCP rebelwrites to CMPNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP Narasapuram rebelMP Raghuramakrisha Rajuwrote a letter to ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy on Sunday remindingthat the government hadissued a GO last year reduc-ing the age limit of senior cit-izen pensioners from 65 yearsto 60 years. He reminded thatthe GO would be implement-ed from February 2020. Hementioned that the ChiefMinister may instruct officialsconcerned to release the saidamount to the beneficiaries.

SRM Hospital chosen for trialsof Coronavirus vaccinePNSn VIJAYAWADA

SRM Medical College Hospitaland Research Centre (SRMMCHRC), Kattankulathur hasbeen selected by the IndianCouncil for Medical Research(ICMR) as a clinical trial site ofthe country's first indigenousCovid-19 vaccine (BBV152Covid vaccine). SRM Medical

College Hospital and ResearchCentre is one among the 12 insti-tutions in the country to havebeen chosen by ICMR for under-taking human clinical trials ofcountry’s first indigenous vaccinedeveloped by the ICMR-National Institute of Virology,Pune, ICMR has partnered withBharat Biotech InternationalLimited, Hyderabad. SRM

MCHRC is also the only med-ical institution to be selected fromTamil Nadu for this purpose. Dr.Satyajith Mohapatra, associateprofessor from the Departmentof Pharmacology, SRM MedicalCollege Hospital and ResearchCentre, has been chosen as theprincipal investigator for thisclinical trial at SRM MCHRC.

CBSE partners with FB for curriculum on digital safetyPNS n NEW DELHI

The Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)and Facebook have partneredto launch curriculum on dig-ital safety and online well-being and Augmented Realityfor students and educators,Union HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank' announcedon Sunday.

I congratulate CBSE andFacebook on its partnership tointroduce certif ied pro-grammes in AugmentedReality for teachers and Digital

Safety and online-wellbeingfor students. I encourage the

teachers and students to applyfor the programmes com-

mencing on July 6, Nishanktweeted.

According to CBSE offi-cials, the comprehensive cur-riculum is aimed at ensuringonline well-being of studentsand preparing them for thefuture of work.

The modules are for sec-ondary school students. Thecurriculum is now available onthe CBSE website. This part-nership is led by Facebook forEducation, a global initiativeby Facebook, to build diverselearning communities andbring the world closer togeth-

er," a senior board officialsaid.

"As more and more youngusers get online, it becomesimportant to educate youngadults, and students on mak-ing well informed choicesonline and also help themdevelop skills they need tosafely navigate the internet,"the official explained.

The curriculum will coveraspects such as safety, privacy,mental health and Instagram'sguide for building healthy dig-ital habits.

998 new Corona cases reportedin State, highest in a dayPNS n VIJAYAWADA

In all, 998 positivecases were reportedacross the State onSunday, the highestever one day tally.The latest update takesthe cumulative tallyof Covid-19 cases to18,697, which includecases detected amongreturnees from other Statesand foreign countries. Duringthe 24 hours ending 9 am onSunday, the State also witnessedits highest single day death tollof 14 deaths.

A comparatively low numberof tests were conducted duringthis period. Health officials saidthat compared to the 24,962tests conducted on Saturday,only 20,567 tests were con-ducted in the preceding 24

hours. Incidentally, the Statecrossed the one million mark intesting with 10,17,140 tests con-ducted till Sunday.

Health officials said that 391persons were cured and dis-charged from hospitals in thelast 24 hours, while 10,043affected persons are currentlybeing treated in hospitals. Thecumulative tally of cured per-

sons now stands at 8,422.The death toll, too, rose sub-

stantially with 14 deaths report-ed during the past 24 hoursfrom different parts of the State.The highest number of fivedeaths was reported fromKurnool, followed by threedeaths in Anantapur, and twoeach from Chittoor and Kadapadistricts.

TDP formerMLA Prasadtested positivefor CovidPNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP former MLA fromPenamaluru Bode Prasad hasbeen tested positive forCoronavirus and went intohome isolation. Bode Prasadhas been touring the villages forthe past 15 days meeting peo-ple coming to his office. One ofhis family members was alsoreportedly tested positive.

A huge number of testsbeing conducted all over theState and the cases are alsoincreasing at the same level. Inthe past 24 hours, 20,567 peo-ple were tested and 961 posi-tive cases were reported in theState and 36 people fromother States and one fromother countries tested positive.

TTD on alert after staff test positive for CoronaPNS n TIRUPATI

With 17 of its employees testingpositive for Covid-19, theTirumala TirupatiDevasthanams (TTD), whichmanages the affairs of SriVenkateswara temple atTirumala, has sounded an alertand has started taking addition-al measures to contain spread ofthe disease among the staff.

The TTD is contemplating a

two-week shift for its employees,instead of the current oneweek. Officials said allemployees before thebeginning of theirtwo-week shift willbe tested for Covid-19 and only thosewho test negative willbe allowed to dischargetheir duties. Swab samples of100 employees will be collectedand sent for testing every day.

Officials said there was no needfor panic but if necessary,

they will review the cur-rent arrangements tocontain the spread.

TTD officials clari-fied that the 17employees got affected

by Covid-19 spread intheir respective places they

hail from and not in Tirumala."We will not compromise onspending money over the

health, safety and security of ouremployees and have alreadyinstructed the authorities toprovide them with the besttreatment," the TTD said.

Local legislators B KarunakarReddy and Dr C Bhaskar Reddy,along with additional executiveofficer AV Dharma Reddy willinstill confidence among theemployees by holding meetingswith employees associations.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 11-year-old Royal Bengaltiger died in a zoological parkhere, officials at the zoo saidon Sunday. Kadamba, whichdied on Saturday night, didnot show any sign of illness,but was off food for the lastfew days following which itwas under veterinarians'observation, a press releasefom the Nehru ZoologicalPark said. A postmortem

report detected shock due tocongestive heart failure as thecause of the death, it said.

SC comes out with fresh SOP for hearing PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court has comeout with a fresh standardoperating procedure (SOP)for e-filing of cases, mention-ing and listing of mattersand also for hearingthrough video-con-ferencing amidthe COVID-19pandemic.

As per theSOP, hearing ofmatters by thebenches of the apexcourt shall continuethrough video-conferencing.

It said fresh matters lying inthe pool, which could not belisted earlier, may be listedbefore the virtual court in theweek commencing July 6.

"In order to contain thespread of coronavirus(COVID-19), considering theprevailing situation, and tak-ing into account the sugges-tions received from various

quarters and the guidelinesissued by the Government ofIndia and Government ofNCT of Delhi from time totime, the Chief Justice of Indiahas been pleased to direct the

constitution of thebench(es) for hearing

of matters throughvirtual courts witheffect from July 6,2020," the SOPuploaded on theapex court website

said. It said thatfrom July 13, subject

to availability of mattersand also the requirement, themiscellaneous cases may belisted for hearing on Mondayand Friday. "On non-miscella-neous days i.e. Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday,miscellaneous matters includ-ing final hearing matters andregular matters may be listed,giving preference to part heardmatters," it said.

Royal Bengal tigerdies at Hyderabad zoo

3

3

33

3

33

3

3

6,97,069

18,69710,043 8,422

232 Deaths in State

number of cases in India

number of cases in State

active cases cured persons

active cases

2,52,402

recovered

4,24,885

19,699 deceased

106-YR-OLD MAN, WHO SURVIVEDSPANISH FLU IN 1918, BEATS COVID

KERALA MAKES CORONAVIRUSSAFETY RULES A MUST FOR 1-YR

Safety rules for the coronavirus pandemic will have to be followed forthe next one year, the Kerala government said on Sunday. Wearing

masks or face covers in public and social distancing are among the rulesthat will be mandatory. Masks will also have to be worn at workplacesand six feet of social distancing will applyeverywhere. Weddings can only be attendedby up to 50 people and funerals by 20. Nomanner of social gatherings, get-togethers,processions, dharnas, congregations ordemonstration can be conducted withoutwritten permission from authorities.

4 MAOISTS KILLED IN ENCOUNTERWITH SECURITY FORCES

At least four Maoists were gunned down during an exchange of firewith security forces in a dense forest in Odisha''s Kandhamal district

on Sunday, a top police officer said. Some rebels have also sufferedinjuries in the operation, DGP Abhay said. Acting on a tip-off, a team ofSOG personnel and District Voluntary Force (DVF) officers had launcheda raid in the forest in Tumudibandhaarea of Kandhamal district early in theday, he said. As the security personnelapproached their hideout, the Maoistsopened fire and a gun battle ensued,leading to the death of the four rebels.

A106-year-old man from Delhi, who was a four-year-old during the1918 Spanish Flu, has survived COVID-19 and recovered faster than

his son, who is in his 70s, at a coronavirus facility in the national capital,doctors said. The patient was discharged from the Rajiv Gandhi SuperSpeciality Hospital (RGSSH) recently after recovering,where his wife, son and another family member alsorecuperated after contracting the novel coronavirusinfection, they said. "Perhaps, he is the first reportedcase of COVID-19 in Delhi who also went through thedreaded Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 which likeCOVID-19 had also ravaged the world.

Lightning strikes killed 147 people in Bihar over the last 10 days,officials said on Sunday, warning of more extreme weather conditions

to come, driven by climate change. Around 215 people - farmers,labourers and cattle graziers - have died from strikes in the state sincelate March, the authorities said. "I was informed by weather experts,scientists and officials that risingtemperatures due to climate change isthe main cause behind the increasinglightning strikes," Bihar's DisasterManagement Minister LakshmeshwarRai said.

CLIMATE CHANGE ‘FUELLING DEADLYLIGHTNING STRIKES’ IN INDIA

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VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020 vijayawada 02

HC UPADHYAY n HYDERABAD

The Greek philosopher Plato(427-347 BC) once said, “Theideal society is one where therewill be a complete absence of thepolice.” In other words, peoplewould be enlightened, civilized,and self-regulated. In such a sit-uation, there will not be any needto have the police force becausethere will be no crime and henceno criminals.

At home in India, the conceptof Ram Rajya also is akin to thePlatonic concept of police-lesssociety. However, in reality it isimpossible to imagine such anidealistic society. Therefore,police force in all societies,whether developed or under-developed, forms an importantwing of the administration.

True, depending upon thegravity of crime and complica-tions involved therein, the policehave to use ‘reasonable’ force.Our courts also have concededthe use of minimum force by the

investigating police to extract therelevant information about thecrime.

However, these terms are ingrey areas. The law, particularlythe Code of Criminal Procedure,does not define as to what is the‘minimum’ or ‘reasonable” forcethat is permissible to be used bythe police. In practice what isgenerally seen is that several peo-ple are picked up and kept in ille-gal custody by the police, treat-ing them as ‘suspects’ without fil-ing any First Information Report(FIR). In order to escape fromthe clutches of brutal investiga-tors, the rounded-up peoplehave to succumb to all sorts ofpressures and illegitimatedemands from the police per-sonal. The demands includeunpaid physical labour workeither at the police station or atthe residencies of police officers,illegal gratification running intothousands or lakhs of rupeesdepending upon the gravity ofoffence and financial status of therounded-up suspects, sexual

favour from women etc. But allthese come only after a thoroughbash-up of the illegal captives.

Strangely, all these barbarism,which began in the Mughal eraand transcended into the Britishregime, is still continuing in freeIndia even after 73 years of free-dom. More so, the Constitutionof India guarantees every citi-zen some fundamental rights,including the right to life.Besides, the technologicalevolution has taken a quan-tum leap and with the helpof latest electronic gad-gets and scientificinnovations, the task ofthe investigating agen-cies has been simplifiedbeyond imagination.

Then what could bethe reason for continua-tion of the archaic bar-baric methods of investigationeven today? There are severalplausible regions. May be ourpolice force is ill-equipped withthe scientific methods and use oflatest electronic gadgets or there

requires a thorough over-haul of their mentality. Attimes, to please somewealthy, higher- ups or

political bosses,investigatorscross their

limits and put theiruniform into shame.

And, the most wor-rying thing is that eventhe directions of thehigher courts against theuse of criminal forceduring investigation are

flouted without impunity. Theincreasing number of fakeencounters and custodial deaths,the latest being Thoohtukodiincident, are really a matter ofgrave concern. Hope, the law-

makers, Sardar Vallabh BhaiPatel National Police Academyand all state-level police acade-mies and the judiciary will riseto the occasion and device amechanism to arrest thisunhealthy trend. The nationtoday needs an efficient andhumane police force and certain-ly not criminals in khakhi. Press freedom:Here and there

This piece is especially for thecritics of India who falsely spreadcanard that there is no freedomof expression in the country. Thisis evident from two judicial pro-nouncements concerning thefreedom of expression in Indiaand Iran just as an example.Recently the Bombay High

Court, in the case of ArnabGoswami, the Editor-in-Chief ofRepublic TV, against whom twoFIRs have been filed by thepolice for allegedly communal-ising the coverage of Palgharmob-lynching incident and theincident regarding gathering ofmigrants outside Bandra Stationduring lockdown, suspendedproceedings observing:“We can-not have the spectacle of aDamocle’s sword hanging overthe head of journalist while con-ducting a public debate. India isnow a matured democracy.Seventy years into our republicwe cannot be seen to be skatingon thin ice so much so that meremention of a place of worshipwill lead to animosity or hatredamongst religious communitiescausing upheaval and conflagra-tion on the streets. Subscribingto such a view would stifle alllegitimate discussions anddebates in the public domain.”

On the other hand, Iranianjournalist, Ruhollah Zam, whoallegedly inspired anti-govern-

ment protests in 2017, has beensentenced to death. The Courtconsidered 13 charges togetheras instances of ‘corruption onearth’ and therefore passed thedeath sentence.

In Iran “corruption on earth”is a charge often used in casesinvolving espionage or attemptsto overthrow the government.However, the sentence is appeal-able before the Supreme Court.

In this case, there was no alle-gation against Zam that heactively participated in the anti-government protests. Mereassumption that his writings‘inspired’ the anti-governmentprotests should not have attract-ed capital punishment, whichcan be awarded only in the rarestof rare cases of heinous naturelike sedition, premeditated mur-der, genocide, dacoity, rapesetc. Nagaland declared a 'disturbed area'

The Central government hasdeclared the whole of the State

of Nagaland as a disturbed area,and extended the operation ofthe Armed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act (AFSPA) for a peri-od of 6 months from June 30.

An official gadget opinedthat the whole of NagalandState is in a disturbed and dan-gerous condition; therefore, theuse of armed forces in aid of civilpower is necessary.Bail only if you are a 'swadeshi' !

Keeping in tune with thenation’s current anti-Chinamood, the Madhya PradeshHigh Court recently directedtwo accused to instal colouredLED TV at a local district hos-pital as a pre-condition for bail.Justice Sheel Nagu ordered:“The petitioner, along with peti-tioner in McrC No. 11789/20,undertakes to purchase andinstal a black coloured LED TVat Renbasera, district hospital,Morar, woth at least Rs.25,000/-manufactured in India orabroad, except China.”

LEGALROUNDUP

An official gadget opined that the whole of Nagaland State is in a disturbed anddangerous condition; therefore, the use of armed forces in aid of civil power is necessary

POLICE SHOULD ADOPT POLISHED WAYS OF INVESTIGATION

Yellow metal continuesto scale new heightsPNSn HYDERABAD

Amidst fast-changing geo-political equations globally,the yellow metal continues toscale new heights day afterday. If COVID-19 on the onehand impacted the globaldemand for gold adversely,hovering of war clouds overmajor political entities pro-pelled the price curve signif-icantly. Consequently, the New Yorkgold showed an upswing andfinally closed at US $ 1,774.40(per ounce); while silver fol-lowed suit and closed at $18.25 (per ounce). Platinumand palladium also marchedforward and closed at $ 800(per ounce) and $ 1,852 (perounce) respectively.

Other economic parame-ters continued theirjourney forward. Brentclosed at US $ 42.78(per barrel), whileCrude MCX oilwas quoted atRs.3,034 (perb a r re l ) .WhereasG o l dM C Xstood at Rs.48,046 (per 10gms), MCX Silver moved upand closed at Rs.49,177 (perkg). Copper closed atRs.423.35. Sensex and Nifty50 closed at 36021.42 and10607.35 points respectively.Leading foreign currencies’exchange rates were, US $:Rs.74.68, British Pound:Rs.93.23, Euro: Rs.83.98,Singapore $: Rs.53.33, SwissFranc: Rs.78.97, Australian $:Rs.51.86, Saudi Riyal:Rs.19.91, New Zealand Dollar:48.81, Kuwaiti Dinar:Rs.242.50, Omani Rial:Rs.193.96 and UAE Dirham:Rs.20.33, Japanese Yen:Rs.0.69, Hong Kong Dollar:Rs.9.64.

At home, with the onset of

inauspicious period of 4months, beginning with ToliEkadashi during which noauspicious religious eventsare to be held as per Hindurites, the demand dipped fur-ther with hardly any buyers inthe jewellery market.However, both the preciousmetals appreciated consider-ably moving to upward glob-al trend. Standard gold (24carats) marched ahead andclosed at Rs.50,890 (per 10gms). Ornamental gold too,moved in tandem and wasquoted in the range ofRs.46,180 - 46,280 on theclosing day. Similarly, silver(0.999) also recorded hand-some gains and closed atRs.48,550 (per kg) or Rs.800more than the previous week’sclosing mark.

COMMODITIESThe sentiment in prin-

cipal wholesale com-modity markets in thetwin cities remained

strong. However,rythu bazarsand the vari-ous commod-ity markets

located in Begum Bazar,Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj,Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar,Kukatpally, Bowenpally,General Bazar observed vol-untary closure, following thespike in COVID-19 cases.

Now that the current mar-ket situation is not likely tochange at least up toNovember, during whichmore than 80 crore peoplewould be given 5 kgs ofrice/wheat each and 1 kghorse gram per family free ofcharge, there is no need topanic about the supply offood grains. According tosources, we have enoughstocks of food grains to copewith demand up to June 2021.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Ravindra targeted forquestioning govt: NaiduPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Opposition leader NChandrababu Naidu onSunday launched a scathingattack on the YSRCP govern-ment and police for 'impli-cating and arrestingformer ministerKollu Ravindra in amurder case inMachilipatnam.Taking part in ateleconference withTDP senior leaders,Naidu asserted thatthe murder of YSRCPleader Moka Bhaskar Rao wasthe result of old rivalry andstruggle for supremacybetween two families inMachilipatnam but the Jagangovernment implicatedRavindra in that murder caseto suppress the oppositionparty.

Naidu said that they will

stage protests on Mondayagainst the harassment ofthe YSRCP government. Hesaid that Ravindra was beingtargeted by the YSRCP lead-ers for questioning the gov-

ernment's misdeeds andcorruption and

claimed that the factis that he had aclean record allthrough his polit-ical career.

He further statedthat the two families

of Surendra andBhaskar Rao were

involved in these murdersbut the YSRCP used this totake political revenge againstRavindra. He blamed the gov-ernment for bringing in anew vicious culture of impli-cating political rivals andopponents in criminal caseswithout even a preliminaryenquiry or investigation.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Minister for TourismMuttamsetti Avanthi Srinivason Sunday made it clear thatthe ruling YSRCP govern-ment has no grudge againstAmaravati farmers butOpposition leader NChandrababu Naidu wasenacting a drama to win theconfidence of farmers. Theminister challenged the TDPMLAs from Visakhapatnam toseek a referendum on theCapital City.

Speaking to the media hereon Sunday, the Minister saidthat N Chandrababu Naidushould explain how manybuildings he had constructedin Amaravati during his five-year regime. If the TDP wantsa referendum on the CapitalCity their MLAs from Vizagshould quit and seek reelec-tion on Capital City plank.

“During the TDP rule, noth-

ing was done by Naidu fornorth Andhra, all his focus wason making money in the nameof Amaravati, rather thandeveloping it. It is pathetic tosee the TDP MLAs represent-ing this region are opposingthe Chief Minister’s idea ofdecentralisation to developbackward regions,” he said.

“While ChandrababuNaidu sabotaged the 108 &104 ambulance services dur-ing his five-year term, ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy revived the servicessave people’s lives. Naidushould be ashamed for oppos-ing this initiative and accusingthe government of corruption,

despite maintaining trans-parency," he alleged.

ROW OVER CAPITAL CITY CONTINUES

Tourism Minister dares TDPMLAs to seek referendum

l “During the TDP rule,nothing was done by Naidufor north Andhra, all his focuswas on making money in thename of Amaravati, ratherthan developing it. It ispathetic to see the TDP MLAsrepresenting this region areopposing the Chief Minister’sidea of decentralisation todevelop backward regions,”he said

l “While Chandrababu Naidusabotaged the 108 & 104ambulance services during hisfive-year term, Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy revivedthe services to save people’slives. Naidu should beashamed for opposing thisinitiative and accusing thegovernment of corruption,despite maintainingtransparency," he alleged.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

ri Durga MalleswaraSwamivarala DevastanamChairman P Sominaidu onSunday informed thatShakambari celebrations wereperformed on a grand note byfollowing the Covid-19 guide-lines. Shakambari celebrationsconcluded after offering‘Purnahuti’ here on Sunday.

The Telangana Bonalu andMahankali Temple BonaluJoint Committee membersfrom Telangana State offered‘Bangaru Bonalu’ to GoddessDurga. They were accorded awarm welcome by ChairmanSominaidu and TempleExecutive Officer MV SureshBabu and others. Later, the

Bonalu Committee membershad darshan of Goddess andoffered Bonalu and later per-formed puja.

The temple EO said theBonalu Committee members,

along with the Durga TempleCommittee members, offeredpuja to Goddess at Brahminastreet and later through ghatroad they reached atopIndrakeeladri hill and offered

Bonalu to Goddess Durga.The EO further said that

about 8,000 devotees took partin the Shakambari festive cel-ebrations and during a three-day celebrations, the deity wasdecorated with 30 tonnes ofvegetables and fruits.

On the occasion, theTelangana Bonalu Committeemembers said that for theprosperity and happiness ofpeople of both Telugu Statesthey have been offering Bonaluto Goddess Durga for the past11 years. Due to Covid-19restrictions, a limited numberof devotees had come to offerBonalu to Goddess andexpressed hope that peoplewould be relieved from thedeadly pandemic soon.

SHAKAMBARI FETE CONCLUDES ON A GRAND NOTE

‘Bangaru Bonalu’ offered to Goddess DurgaDGP pats policemenfor Covid-19 fightPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Director General of Police(DGP) Gautam D Sawang onSunday commended policepersonnel for their measures tocontaining the spread ofCoronavirus across the State.He said that the lockdown isbeing implemented in accor-dance with the guidelines of theCentral and State governments.

Speaking to media persons inVisakhapatnam, he said thatpolice have done an excellentjob to curb the spread ofCoronavirus during these dis-tressing times. InVisakhapatnam only 98 positivecases were registered in three

months, he pointed out. "Thecases in Visakhapatnam haveincreased only after lifting thelockdown restrictions fromJune.

As many as 466 personsfrom the police departmenthave been tested positive for thedreaded Coronavirus so far.Our State is much more vigilantin containing the spread of thevirus when compared to theother States across the country.We have been also takingappropriate measures for thefrontline staff defeating thevirus. AP police department hastaken it as a challenge to fightagainst the Covid-19," headded.

Optimising publichealthcare in corona times The 1500-bed Telangana

Institute of MedicalSciences and Research

Institute (TIMS) inGachibowli, Hyderabad isbeing developed into a state-of-the-art facility for treatingCovid-19 patients. Thesprawling hospital has allessential facilities and theFinance Department hasaccorded permission toengage clinical and non-clin-ical staff in various cate-gories.

Already Gandhi Hospital,Government Chest andGeneral Hospital and FeverHospital have been designat-ed as Covid-19 specific hos-pitals. There are 17 ICMR-approved private testing labsand hospitals in Hyderabad.Those approaching BastiDawakhanas or UrbanPrimary Health Centres withcorona symptoms are beingreferred to Sarojini Devi EyeHospital, King Koti Hospital,or any other higher centre.Further, the Telangana gov-ernment has identified sevendistrict hospitals as Covid-19testing sites, which will facil-itate testing for 21 districts.

Medical and Health offi-cials have made it clear thatgovernment hospitals in thestate have the capacity, facil-ities and equipment to treatCoronavirus patients, regard-less of the caseload. GandhiHospital has facilities to treat2,150 patients and there are1,000 beds with oxygen sup-porting facility. Telangana isbetter equipped to face anysituation, whether in terms ofavailability of PPE or N95masks or any other require-ment for treating a patient. Inall the designated govern-ment hospitals, 3,600 beds areready with oxygen supportingfacility, according to medicalofficials.

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao has beenreassuring people time andagain that the government isready to offer treatment toCoronavirus positive patients,whatever may be their num-ber. Adequate test kits, PPEkits, ventilators, ICU beds,

beds and masks are available.Keeping in view the spread ofcoronavirus, the governmenthas augmented medical andhealth facilities by involvingnon-government as well asprivate medical and healthfacilities.

However, it seems thatthere is still need for anincrease in Covid-19 testingcentres as well as hospitals. InHyderabad, for serving peo-ple living in slums as well asoutside the slums either anexisting Aanganwadi Centreor a place which has beenused as a polling booth withminimum facilities may bedesignated as a CoronaTesting Centre exclusively forthose with symptoms and inexceptional cases for asymp-tomatic persons. Anganwadiworker and ASHA workermay be made as a team,headed by a doctor, to attendto the testing work there inshifts with full protection,after imparting adequatetraining to collect samples.

At the rate of say 2,500 per-sons (all are not required tobe tested) per centre, for thewhole of Hyderabad therequirement would be around

4,000 centres. One doctorcan serve two centres to workon average for about 8-10hours. A maximum of 2,000doctors are required to coverall the centres. These doctorscan be drawn from out of thein-service house surgeons inaddition to a few doctorshired temporarily for thispurpose.

On an average, every yearabout 3000+ admissions areregistered in both govern-ment and private medicalcolleges. Even if two-thirdspass out every year, the num-ber of house surgeons avail-able for corona testing centreswould be around 2,000. Theirjob is to do a clinical generalcheck-up and organize test-ing. This is in a way the pri-mary health care referral cen-tre. These centres may, tobegin with, be concentratedin slums, where there is near-ly 40 lakh population, andlater they can be scaled up.

The number of urbanhealth centres in Hyderabadmay be increased substantial-ly, with a qualified doctor, toserve as first referral centre.Corona testing centres maybe attached to each urbanhealth centre for an integrat-ed approach. PG medicalstudents of various privateand government medical col-leges should take care ofurban health centres, whichare supposed to provide sec-ondary health care and coun-selling to the virus-affected.On an average, in both pri-vate and government hospi-tals put together, there wouldbe around 1,000 PG studentsin Telangana. Later, after thestate is free from coron-avirus, these could be con-verted as a first referral health

care centre. Both in the primary and

secondary stages, that is in thecorona testing centres andurban health centres, requiredsample collections may betaken up and in the tertiarycare centres further diagnos-tic tests as to whether thepatient suffers from any othermedical and health problemslike heart, kidney, lungs, sugaretc. may be done. Tertiarycare could be provided eitherin the government-designat-ed hospitals like TIMS,Gandhi, Chest, Fever etc. orin the 17 ICMR-approvedprivate hospitals. There hasto be an integrated approachto enlist NGO-run hospitalslike Andhra Mahila Sabha,Mahavir and Saint Theresaand similar centres as well aslarge number of private nurs-ing homes, RTC, Railways,even Military hospitals.

Coming to rural areas, thepresent structure is beginningwith sub-centres. We havePrimary Health Centres,Community Health Centres,Area Hospitals and then theDistrict Hospitals. There arealso teaching hospitals. Wealso have Ayurveda, Homeo,Unani and Naturopathy hos-pitals in the state. These maybe integrated for the timebeing to effectively and effi-ciently contain the virus.

The services of all govern-ment doctors should beutilised optimally. The totalbed strength and the totalAnganwadi centres are to beoptimally utilized all overthe state. In every district withmedical colleges, the servicesof house surgeons and PGstudents could be effectivelyutilized at primary care, sec-ondary and tertiary care thatis CHC/PHC, Area/districtand teaching hospitals, wher-ever they are.

For the population living invillages, access to qualifiedprimary health care is possi-ble only either through Tele-Medicine or through FDHS(Fixed Date Health Services)scheme. So, FDHS MobileHealth Units can be strength-ened.

For the population living in villages,access to qualified primary health care ispossible only either through Tele-Medicineor through FDHS (Fixed Date HealthServices) scheme. So, FDHS Mobile HealthUnits can be strengthened

VANAM JWALA NARASIMHA RAOCPRO to Chief Minister

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020 vijayawada 03

Drugs seizedin VizagPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The City Task Force policeled by assistant commission-er of police A Trinad Raowith the support of Fourth-Town police nabbed fourdrug peddlers and has recov-ered 2.5 grams of methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine(MDMA), 61 bolts ofLysergic acid diethylamide(LSD), 60 gms of ganja, Rs9,500 cash and four mobilephones from them.

Based on the concreteinformation about the drugpeddling, police carried outa raid in the Old PortQuarters in the city andseized the drugs from thefour persons.

The arrested have beenidentified as ManukondaSatyanarayana (26), MajjiAjay Kumar (24), KandhiRavikumar (22) and KethiManoj Swaroop (24)

The use of drugs such asLSD, MDMA and a few oth-ers by the youth in Vizag wassurfaced when the policebusted a rave party atRushikonda in Vizag city inApril 2019. It was then theyrealised it was just the tip ofan iceberg.

The police said that someganja smugglers in the Vizagregion had developed linkswith Nigerians in Hyderabadand Goa. The ganja smug-glers are importing MDMAand LSD in exchange forganja.

The cost of one LSD blotis around Rs 500 in Goawhereas it is Rs 2,000 inVizag and similarly one kgof dry ganja costs around Rs5,000 in Vizag Agencywhere is it sold for aroundRs 35,000 in Goa.

M a n u k o n d aSatyanarayana was arrestedin April 2019 for supplyingthe drugs and his role in theRave Party in Vizag city.Police said that the arrest-ed Satyanarayana is a resi-dent of Seethampeta area inVizag city and he was oncearrested for ganja smug-gling and supplying theweed to others.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Director General of PoliceGautam Sawang, who com-pleted his wo days whirlwindtour of Visakhapatnam urban,told reporters on Sunday thathis visit was to identify govern-ment lands for the policedepartment and others whichmight be needed in future inthe event of shifting theadministrative capital toVisakhapatnam.

“I cannot say when the cap-ital will be shifted but we areprepared,’’ the DGP said whiletactically avoiding the ques-tions on when the shifting ofcapital would take place. TheDGP visited the proposed sitefor Greyhounds atAnandapuram mandal andThotlakonda hilltop onSunday.

He said the government

allocated 385 acres of land inJagannadhapuram villageunder Chandaka panchayatsin Anandapuram mandal,about 28 km fromVisakhapatnam city for set-ting up of Greyhounds head-quarters and setting up ofPolice Academy. As the allo-cated land was not enough

for a full-fledged headquar-ters, some more land wassought from the government.

Several more lands werealso inspected during the lasttwo days, he added. Speakingon narcotics, the DGP said theoutlawed Maoists are cultivat-ing and involved in the smug-gling while the peddlers from

Bangaluru and Goa aredumping dangerous drugs intomain cities of Andhra Pradesh.On the role of police in fight-ing the Covid-19, Sawangappreciated VizagCommissioner of Police RKMeena for effecting handlingof the lockdown and said only98 positive cases were report-ed in the first three months.

Stating that the number ofcases has increased after eas-ing the lockdown from June 3,he said the State stood first inprevention of virus infection.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Guntur Task Force policenabbed eight persons, whowere involved in smuggling ofthe banned ganja at RajagopalaNagar under the Old GunturPolice Station limits. Theywere trying to sell the materi-al when police nabbed them onSunday.

The accused were identifiedas K Podilam (28), A HarshaVardhan (27), N Sai BhaskarReddy (26), T Tilak Teja (25),D Praveen Kumar (25), GPranay Kumar Reddy (24), MJanakiram Reddy (34) and MVenkata Mani (24).

As per the instructions of SPRN Anni Reddy to crackdownillegal activities in the district,a team of police led by SDPOB Sitaramaiah swung intoaction and nabbed the gangmembers at Rajagopala Nagar,Sivalayam street under OldGuntur Station limits. A casewas registered and all the

accused were produced beforethe Guntur court.

Briefing about the incident,SDPO Sitaramaiah said that allthe culprits are graduates andare addicted to bad habits andresorting to illegal activities foreasy money. The main accusedamong the eight was HarshaVardhan was procuring thebanned ganja from one K

Podalam (Satish) fromChintapalli of Visakhapatnamdistrict. After receiving thematerial, they will repack it insmall packets and sell them topeople who consume ganja.Liquid ganja was also smug-gled from D Praveen Kumarand Jagan fromVisakhapatnam. The liquidganja was packed in 10 grams

bottles in an innovative way ina dictionary.

Police recovered eigth kgs ofganja, 55 bottles of liquid ganja,Rs 30,000 cash, nine cellphones and one small electron-ic weighing machine fromthem. Cases were registeredunder Section 269, 188 IPC &section 8 (c) r/w20(b)(ii)(A)(B) of NDPS Act.Guntur inspector R Suresh, SkMd Meraj and other police per-sonnel nabbed the accused.

Ganja smuggling gang busted

Ganja peddlers being produced before the media in Vijayawada on Sunday. Seizedganja,mobiles and cash displayed

Briefing about theincident, SDPOSitaramaiah saidthat all the culpritsare graduates andare addicted tobad habits andresorting to illegalactivities for easymoney

Pawan Kalyan demandsfinancial aid to lawyersPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Actor turned-politician andJana Sena Party presidentPawan Kalyan on Sundaydemanded that the govern-ment respond immediatelywith empathy and providefinancial assistance of Rs 10,000per month for six months to allthe lawyers irrespective of theirposition whether junior orsenior.

In a statement, Pawan saidthat a state of dilemma pre-vailed among the advocatesthat what happened to advo-cates welfare fund and why the'Law Nestham' scheme hasbeen discontinued since thebeginning of the Corona crisis.It is a fact that though thelawyers are in the high profes-sion after completing their lawcourse, many of them are notfinancially stable. Majority oflawyers are getting meagre

income. All courts from theMagistrate Court to the HighCourt have declared holidaysdue to lockdown induced bythe Coronavirus.

Junior lawyers would havesecured financial assurance ifthe 'Law Nestham' scheme,which allows them to get Rs5,000 per month, is continued.The government must answerto the lawyers why the schemeis not continued for four

months and why the financialassistance is not being paid tothem. He recalled that thegovernment has promised torelease Rs 100 crore for the wel-fare of the lawyers and issueda GO. But the government didnot release the funds till date.

Their condition will improveif the government takes steps toprovide loans without interestto lawyers. Along with contin-uing the ‘Law Nestham'scheme, the government mustrelease funds related toLawyers' Welfare Fund imme-diately, added Pawan.

n Junior lawyers wouldhave secured financialassurance if the 'LawNestham' scheme, whichallows them to get Rs5,000 per month, iscontinued

Vizag visit for identifyinglands for police dept: DGP

AP-TS to shareSrisailam hydelpower equally

Continued from Page 1

It asked the Board not togo ahead on the new pro-jects of Telangana till itsubmitted detailed projectsreports, technical appraisaland the projects cleared byapex council. The KRMBofficials say that minutes areprepared on the basis of dis-cussions that took placebetween the two States at

the Board meeting. TheBoard has sought environ-mental clearance obtainedby two States for executionof various projects. TheBoard member HarikeshMeena had written to thetwo Telugu States onSaturday asking them to fur-nish the Board the environ-mental, forest clearancesfor various projects pro-posed in the two States.

998 new Corona casesreported inState,highest in a day

Continued from Page 1

Krishna and Visakhapatnamdistricts also reported 1 deatheach in the last 24 hours. Thedeath toll in the State on accountof Covid-19 now stands at 232.

Guntur reported the highestday tally, with 157 cases detect-ed in the district. This was fol-lowed by East Godavari with118, Kurnool with 97 casesandSrikakulam with 96 cases.Visakhapatnam with 88 casesand Anantapur with 87 cases arethe other districts that reportedhigh numbers on Sunday.

Returnees from Telanganafigured prominently amongpositive cases detected inreturnees from other States. Ofthe 36 new cases that werereported in this category, thehigh of 26 positive casesbelonged to Telangana returnees.

On a lesser note, five of theCovid-19 positive samplesbelonged to returnees fromKarnataka, and four cases fromTamil Nadu. Apart from this,one case from Maharashtra wasalso reported.

Till date, 2,179 persons havetested positive for Covid-19among the persons, whoreturned from other States. Theactive cases tally in the State is755, while 1,404 persons havebeen cured till date.

Of the returnees from othercountries, the lone new case wasreported from a person withtravel history to Kuwait. Thecumulative tally of Covid-19patients in this category standsat 416, while 190 persons havebeen discharged after gettingcured. As of Sunday, 226 personsin this category are undergoingtreatment in hospitals.

Continued from Page 1

Seven states viz.Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka,Assam and Bihar -- have con-tributed to around 78 per centof the single-day spike, accord-ing to agency reports. This isthe ninth consecutive day thatIndia's coronavirus infectionsincreased by more than 18,000.

The Covid-19 positive tallyis now 6,73,165, leaving Indiajust a few hundred casesbehind Russia, which is thethird-most affected nationfrom coronavirus. India wit-nessed 613 deaths during thelast 24-hour period, takingthe death count to 19,268. Thenumber of recoveries stands at4,09,083.

The WHO’s situation reportshowed that just under 130,000of the new cases were in theAmericas, including the US,Brazil and Mexico, with South-East Asia, including India,accounting for a little undernew 28,000 new cases on

Saturday.In the US, Donald Trump

used his speeches onIndependence Day to promotewhat he described as America’s“victory” over the virus: “Wewere doing better than anycountry had done in history ...and then we got hit with thisterrible plague from Chinaand now we’re getting closer tofighting our way out of it,”adding that: “We’re on our wayto a tremendous victory.”

The President used the 4 Julycelebrations at the WhiteHouse to laud his country’sstrategy against the virus, say-ing the US was “moving alongwell” and, without evidence, heclaimed that 99% of casesbeing found through testingwere “totally harmless”.

His speech stood at oddswith surging infections inmany states, including dailyrecord cases being reported inNorth Carolina, SouthCarolina, Tennessee, Texas,Alaska, Missouri, Idaho andAlabama. Johns Hopkins uni-

versity’s tracker showed USinfections had passed 2.38m.

One of Trump’s biggest sup-porters, Brazil’s President JairBolsonaro, attended a USIndependence Day celebrationin Brasilia. He and othersattending declined to wear facemasks. On Friday Bolsonarovetoed clauses of new legislationthat would have requiredBrazilians to wear masks atchurches, schools, shops, facto-ries and private gatherings, butapproved their obligatory use onthe street and public transport.

Brazil, the world’s sixth mostpopulous nation, with morethan 210 million people, is oneof the global hot spots of thepandemic. There have beenmore than nearly 1.6 m con-firmed cases and 64,265 deaths,according to Health Ministrydata. Both are thought to beundercounts due to insufficienttesting.

Mexico recorded anothermilestone on Saturday, movinginto fifth for the country, withthe worst death toll. It jumped

France to report 30,366 fatal-ities from Covid-19, with infec-tions standing at 252,165,according to Johns Hopkinsfigures.

The government has previ-ously said the actual number ofinfected people is likely signif-icantly higher than the con-firmed cases. Citing unpub-lished figures from the coun-try’s civil registry, local broad-caster Milenio reported that asof 19 June almost twice asmany people had died from thevirus than reported by DeputyHealth Minister Hugo LopezGatell.

In Australia, health author-ities in Melbourne said thecity’s outbreak had “explosivepotential” as a lockdown ofnine high-rise towers began,affecting around 3,000 resi-dents. Victoria’s chief healthofficer, Brett Sutton, alsowarned authorities hadn’t“turned the corner” yet incontaining the outbreaks at thetowers, and that he expectedsome “big days ahead of us”

WHO reports record 2 lakh corona cases

SC comes out withfresh SOP forhearing throughvideo-conferencing

Continued from Page 1

"Parties may kindly note that, for thepresent, the matters shall be heard bythe bench through web-based video-conferencing system on the VIDYOplatform hosted on the servers ofNational Data Centre of NationalInformatics Centre, Govt of India andin case the video conferencing is notfunctional, through tele-conferencing,"it said. The apex court said that duringhearing through video-conferencing,the parties may kindly keep in mind that"they are participating in court proceed-ings, and hence it is expected that theywould not resort to any indecorous con-duct or dress or comment ." Earlier, theapex court, which has been hearing mat-ters through video-conferencing amidthe coronavirus pandemic, had decid-ed on May 15 to postpone its summervacation by five weeks and declared thatit would remain functional from May18 to June 19.

TDP formerMLA Prasadtested positivefor Covid

Continued from Page 1

A total of 998 cases werereported on Sunday alone.

The total number ofCoronavirus cases across theState increased to 18,697. Inall, 14 people died across theState in the past 24 hours. Thetotal death toll was 232. TheHealth Department said 391people have been recoveredin the last 24 hours takingtotal to 8,422 while 10,043people are receiving treat-ment at the hospital.

Royal Bengaltiger dies atHyderabad zoo

Continued from Page 1

Kadamba was brought to theNehru park from PilukulaBiological Park, Mangaluru,Karnataka, in March 2014 viaanimal exchange programme.With this death, the zoo is leftwith 20 Royal Bengal tigersincluding three cubs, the releaseadded. Last month, the zoo lostan eight-year-old white tiger toneoplastic tumour.

SRM Hospitalchosen for trialsof Coronavirusvaccine

Continued from Page 1

This is the first indige-nous vaccine being devel-oped by India and is one ofthe top priority projects,which is being monitored atthe topmost level of thegovernment. The Indiangovernment has envisagedlaunching the vaccine forpublic health use latest byAugust 15 after completionof all clinical trials. Thiscomes at a time when theentire world is reeling underthe Covid-19 pandemic andthere is a dire urgency tolaunch the vaccine.

Praising Dr SatyajithMohapatra for his role,President of SRM MedicalCol lege Hospita l andResearch Centre Dr PSathyanarayanan, said:"This is great news for us. Iappreciate Dr Satyaj itMohapatra and his teamfor making our institutiona part of this prestigiousproject. We will providehim with all the necessarysupport to perform thisexercise towards savingmankind. My best wishes tohim and the entire team forthe successful completion ofthe project."

Continued from Page 1

The module has beendesigned to guide studentsbecome responsible digitalusers, identify and reportthreats and harassment as wellas report misinformation.

At least 10,000 students willbe covered in the trainingwhich will be imparted by theCentre for Social Research(CSR), the officials said.

Also, as part of the collabo-ration, Facebook will supportCBSE in its first-ever initiativeto introduce Artificial Reality(AR) as a curriculum. In thefirst phase, 10,000 teachers willbe trained while 30,000 stu-dents will undergo the same inthe second phase. The three-week training, to be conductedin batches, will cover funda-mentals of AR and ways toutilise Facebook's software,Spark AR Studio in order tocreate augmented reality expe-riences," the official said.

"The objective is to give thelearners an opportunity andplatform to conceptualise, cre-ate and brand their own AR

experiences. The hands-onlearning experience of AR willhelp in preparing the studentsfor a career in the digital econ-omy. The teachers who success-fully complete the training inthe first phase will train 30,000students in the second phase,the official added.

According to Ankhi Das,Director, Public Policy, India,South and Central Asia, "thecurrent global pandemic is themost severe health and human-itarian crisis that the country hasseen, with far-reaching impacton our lives. We recognise thedisruption it has caused to tra-ditional pedagogical methods

necessitating a shift to virtualmodes of learning the most .

"Through our Facebook forEducation programme in India,we wish to support the educa-tional agencies in the country inenabling lessons on fosteringsafe online experiences, address-ing online well-being as well assharing easy toolkit for parents,educators and students to pro-mote resilience and learning inthe current environment, "Dassaid. "Besides, the AR curricu-lum offers an opportunity foryoung learners to explore emerg-ing technology for the first timeas part of their curriculum," Dasadded.

CBSE partners with Facebookfor curriculum on digital safety

TTD on alert after17 temple staff testpositive for Corona

Continued from Page 1

After remaining closed fornearly three months due to thelockdown, the temple re-openedfor devotees on June 8. TheTTD said it carried out a surveyon the pilgrims, who had dar-shan and reached their homeplaces. "Not even a single devo-tee has been tested positive. Butas the Covid cases are increas-ing across the country, we arenot going to enhance the pilgrimnumbers for darshan till thismonth end," TTD ChairmanYV Subba Reddy said after anemergency meeting of the tem-ple body on Saturday.

Currently, 13,000 devoteesare being allowed to have dar-shan every day. They are beingpermitted after screening atAlipiri, the starting point of thehill route.

The pilgrims have also beenfollowing the Covid-19 guide-lines prescribed by the TTD

with utmost discipline and hav-ing hassle-free darshan.However, the Chairmanappealed to devotees to booktheir darshan slots online onlyand avoid pilgrimage if theybelong to red zones or contain-ment zones.

More safety measures will beensured during tonsuring ofthe devotees. The barbers will begiven gloves, half PPE kits for thesafety of both barbers as well asthe pilgrims. The barber has tochange the hand gloves after ton-suring every pilgrim.

Dogs devour onhalf-burnt bodyof virus patient,video goes viral PNS n HYDERABAD

In a bizarre incident, body ofa patient who died of Covid-19 was left not cremated com-pletely at a burial groundleading to dogs devouring onthe flesh of the half-burntbody. The family membersare not allowed to attend thefuneral. Therefore, cremationof the body is left at themercy of the GHMC staff. Thebodies from Gandhi Hospitalare cremated at the burialground near ESI hospital. TheGHMC has appointed threepersons to supervise the cre-mation.

But they are leaving bodieshalf-burnt due to their lack-adaisical approach. A relativeof the cremated Covid-19patient who visited the burialground on Saturday was sur-prised at the site of dogsdevouring the half-burnt bodyof his grandfather. He cap-tured the incident on hismobile and posted it in socialmedia.

‘Don't feel embarrassedabout Coronavirus’NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

Many people in their 20s and 30s- no matter how healthy or withstrong immunity - have beenacquiring the Coronavirusacross the globe. SpuritaKondapalli, a 22-year-old fromthe city, along with a few of herfamily members, was testedpositive for Coronavirus onMay 11.

Talking about her experiencewith the disease, Spurita shares,"Initially, all my family membersincluding me were admitted inNature Cure Hospital inAmeerpet. Later on May 13, wewere shifted to the isolation wardin Gandhi Hospital."

Sharing about the Covid-19

treatment, Spurita says, "Theytreat the patients according tothe symptoms they have. I didnot have any pronounced symp-toms, but mild cold and cough,and so they treated me for that."

While there is a perceptionamongst people that the food ingovernment hospitals is notnice, Spurita shares that the foodbeing given to the patients inGandhi Hospital is very nutri-tious and tasty. " We were beinggiven upma in the morning,with a lot of peanuts. Then at 11am we were served tea and bis-cuits. For lunch they gave usboiled egg, banana, dal, rice, veg-etables, chapati and curd. In theevening were given 100g dryfruits. Then the same menu forlunch is repeated for dinner. "

Privatehospitals turnaway patientswith feverPNS n HYDERABAD

While patients are scared toapproach government hospitalsin case of emergency due toheavy load of Covid-19 cases,private hospitals have left themin a dilemma. Private hospitalsare turning away patients suf-fering from fever, cough andcold suspecting such patientshave contracted the Coronavirus. Even if patients are readyto pay exorbitant hospitalcharges, the managements aredenying admission to them onthe grounds of no vacant beds.They are asking the patients toget tested for the Covid-19 andapproach the hospital. Recently,a woman from Ramanthapurwith running temperature wasdenied admission at a privatehospital. She was taken to a pri-vate hospital on June 28.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

Chhattisgarh CMseeks Centre's nod toreopen gymnasiumsRAIPUR: Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel onSunday urged the Centre toallow conditional reopening ofgymnasiums, which have beenshut since the coronavirus-enforced lockdown came intoforce on March 25. In a letter toPrime Minister Narendra Modi,Baghel cited the financialhardhips being faced byoperator of fitness centres, astate government spokespersonsaid. Gym operators have beengoing through a tough phase astheir facilities are being shut fora long time since the lockdownwas imposed, a governmentspokesperson said quoting theletter. During phase-wiserelaxation of the lockdown,various activities, includingoperation of restaurants andhotels, were allowed oncondition of strict compliancewith Standard OperatingProcedure (SOPs) to curb thecoronavirus spread.

Mumbai top copmeets CM hours aftertransfer of DCPs

Eight killed in fire atcandle-making factoryin GhaziabadGHAZIABAD (UP): Eightpeople, including six women,were killed Sunday when a fireripped through a candle-manufacturing factory inGhaziabad where they worked,officials said. One of the deadworker was a 16-year-old boy.At least three other workerswere injured in the blaze at theModi Nagar unit which stockedhighly inflammable material.They have been hospitalised.The police said more than adozen workers were inside thefactory in Ghaziabad in NationalCapital Region when anexplosion brought down theroof and gutted the building.The police did not rule out thepossibility of some people stillbeing trapped under the debris.

MUMBAI: Mumbai PoliceCommissioner Param Bir Singhcalled on Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray onSunday, hours after the stategovernment revoked the homedepartment's order for transferof 10 DCPs in the city. Themeeting took place at'Matoshree', Thackeray'sresidence in Bandra, an officialin the Chief Minister's Office(CMO) said. Singh's meetingassumed importance as thegovernment on Sunday revokedthe home department's order totransfer 10 DCPs of theMumbai Police that once againtriggered talks about the lack ofcoordination between ShivSena and NCP, two of the threeconstituents of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)government. According to apolice official, the order for thetransfer of DCPs had beenissued on Thursday. But as perthe fresh order issued onSunday, the transfer wascancelled and the DCPs wereasked to continue with theircurrent postings.

PM meets President todiscuss host of issuesPNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday called onPresident Ram Nath Kovindand the two leaders discussedissues of national and interna-tional importance, RashtrapatiBhavan officials said.

The meeting comes afterthe Prime Minister had vis-ited Leh earlier this week andaddressed soldiers follow-

ing the June 15 clashes in thehigher reaches of that regionwith Chinese troops inwhich 20 army personnelsacrificed their lives for thenation.

After the meeting, theRashtrapati Bhavan tweeted,"Prime Minister @naren-dramodi called on PresidentKovind and briefed him on theissues of national and interna-tional importance...".

Notices to 30more schools,residentialsocietiesPNS n NEW DELHI

The South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) onSaturday said it has slappednotices to authorities of 30more schools, residential grouphousing societies and institu-tions to submit structural auditreports to check their seismicstability. Prior to this, theSDMC had issued notices toauthorities of 77 schools, resi-dential group housing societiesand institutions for the samepurpose. The move comes aday after Delhi was hit by atremor of moderate intensity."While intensifying action, wehave issued notices to (author-ities of) 30 more residentialgroup housing societies, educa-tional institutions, schools andasked them to submit a struc-ture audit report within 30 daysto ensure seismic stability of thebuildings," the SDMC said in astatement.

PNS n KANPUR/LUCKNOW

Police on Sunday shot at andarrested an accomplice ofgangster Vikas Dubey, whosehenchmen had killed eightpolice personnel at a villagenear Kanpur, an official said.

Dayashankar Agnihotri wasinjured in the leg during thepre-dawn encounter inKanpur's Kalyanpur area. Nopoliceman was hurt.

Police also took into cus-tody a sub-divisional officer(SDO) and another employ-ee at an electricity sub-sta-tion, from where power sup-ply was snapped ahead of thefailed raid to arrest Dubey inBikru village near Kanpurpast midnight on Thursday.

An employee told policethat power to the village wasdisconnected on the instruc-tions of a caller who claimed tobe speaking from the nearbyChaubeypur police station.

Sources said the call camefrom a number atChaubeypur police station,whose station officer VinayTiwari was earlier suspendedas police tried to find out ifhe had tipped off the gangsterabout the planned raid.

After being taken into cus-tody, Dayashankar Agnihotritold reporters that Vikas Dubeyhad got a call from the police

station about the raid. Dubeythen summoned his men toconfront the police team, hesaid.

Kanpur Range InspectorGeneral Mohit Agarwal saidAgnihotri, also known as Kallu,was named an accused in theattack on police personnel andthere was a reward of Rs 25,000for his arrest.

Agnihotri always used to

accompany Dubey and wasstaying at his house," he said.

Police got a tip-off and triedto stop Agnihotri on theKalyanpur-Shivli road around4.30 am when he opened fireat them.

Police later recovered acountry-made pistol and twocartridges from him. He hasbeen admitted at Lajpat Raihospital.

Hours after the Fridaymorning attack by VikasDubey's men, police shot downtwo of his alleged accomplicesduring a combing operation.

Police on Sundayannounced an award of Rs 1lakh for information leading toDubey's arrest, doubling theamount initially offered.

Over 25 teams have carriedout raids at hundreds of loca-tions, including near the India-Nepal border, and in otherstates, to track him down,police said.

Police nab accomplice after exchangeof fire, gangster Dubey still at large

PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onSunday targeted the UttarPradesh government over thedeteriorating law and order sit-uation and demanded account-ability for the rising number ofmurders in the state.

She said while ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanathclaims in his campaigns thatUttar Pradesh has becomecrime-free, but the reality isotherwise.

Gandhi also alleged thatover 50 murders have takenplace in the northern state inthe last one week.

"There have been about 50murders in Uttar Pradesh inthe last one week. The chiefminister's campaigns claimthat Uttar Pradesh has become'crime free', but the reality is

different. "As per statistics, UPis on the top in many crimesin the entire country. Again abrutal murder case came up inJaunpur today. Enough isenough. Who is accountable?she said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Congress leader alsoshared some statistics of var-ious crimes in Uttar Pradeshin a graph along with hertweet.

Priyanka hits out at UPgovt over rising crime

Rlys in talks with states to bring backdedicated freight corridor workersPNS n NEW DELHI

The Railways is in talks withstate governments to getlabourers back at worksites ofits largest infrastructure pro-ject, the Dedicated FreightCorridor, after its workforcereduced to 15,000 from 40,000due to the COVID-19 lock-down.

The Dedicated FreightCorridor Corporation Limited(DFCCIL), the implementingagency of the project, has tillnow managed to get back 7,000labourers, taking the numberof workers at sites to 22,000from 15,000. It brought themback by arranging buses andgetting bulk bookings ontrains. To facilitate their move-ment, the agency also submit-ted letters to district adminis-tration and arranged for e-passes for contractors.

Of the 7,000 labourers, whohave returned, around 3,250are highly skilled workersneeded for technical workslike electrification, mast cast-ing, track works, operatinghigh-end machines, which can-not be done by local workers,officials said.

Around 1,250 highly skilled

workers have returned to theMughalsarai unit of theDedicated Freight Corridor(DFC) project, 500 in twoMumbai units, 300 to theJaipur unit, 400 to the Noidaunit and 800 to the Ajmer unit,officials said.

"Before the (COVID-19)lockdown we had around

40,000 workers and within 15days of the Shramik Specialtrains starting, we werereduced to around 15,000workers. We are now facilitat-ing the return of around 20,000more on special trains throughbulk bookings or by buses. Wenow have around 22,000 work-ers at our sites, but we need to

get the full workforce back,"DFCCIL managing directorAnurag Sachan told PTI.

Most of the highly skilledworkers are from eastern India.While DFCCIL has hired locallabourers at worksites, it is dif-ficult to replace a highly skilledworkforce, he said.

We have identified theseworkers and decided to facili-tate their movement andworked with contractors toget them back.We are expect-ing our entire workforce to beback by September. We arespeaking to state governmentsas well as other agencies,"Sachan said.

The combined length of thewestern and eastern DFCs isaround 2,843 km. It is expect-ed to become operational in2021. However, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, it mayspill over to 2022.

Of the 7,000 labourers,who have returned,around 3,250 arehighly skilled workersneeded for technicalworks like electrifi-cation, mast casting,track works, operatinghigh-end machines,which cannot be doneby local workers,officials said

Covid-19 recovery rate in 21 states,UTs higher than national average PNS n NEW DELHI

Twenty-one states and UTs,including Delhi, Gujarat andUttar Pradesh, have a COVID-19 recovery rate higher thanthe national average of 60.77per cent, the Union HealthMinistry said on Sunday asIndia's case count mounted to6.73 lakh and the death tollrose to 19,268.

Collective and focusedefforts for containment andmanagement of COVID-19by the government of Indiaalong with the states and unionterritories have led to the num-ber of recovered COVID-19patients to rise to 4,09,082 sofar, it said.

Presently, there are 2,44,814active cases of coronavirusinfection in the country, theministry's data updated at 8 amshowed.

The recovered cases exceed-ed the active cases by 1,64,268as of Sunday, the ministrysaid. During the last 24 hours,a total of 14,856 COVID-19patients have been cured.

"This takes the nationalrecovery rate amongstCOVID-19 patients to 60.77per cent," the ministry said.

"There are 21 states andUTs with a recovery rate morethan the national average," itstated.

These 21 states and UTs areChandigarh (85.9 per cent),Ladakh (82.2 per cent),Uttarakhand (80.9 per cent),Chhattisgarh (80.6 per cent),Rajasthan (80.1 per cent),Mizoram (79.3 per cent),

Tripura (77.7 per cent),Madhya Pradesh (76.9 percent), Jharkhand (74.3 percent), Bihar (74.2 per cent),Haryana (74.1 per cent),Gujarat (71.9 per cent), Punjab(70.5 per cent), Delhi (70.2 percent), Meghalaya (69.4 percent), Odisha (69.0 per cent),Uttar Pradesh (68.4 per cent),Himachal Pradesh (67.3 percent), West Bengal (66.7 percent), Assam (62.4 per cent),and Jammu and Kashmir (62.4per cent).

40 websites of banned groupSikhs For Justice blockedPNS n NEW DELHI

Days after nine individualslinked to Khalistani outfitswere declared as terrorists, thegovernment on Sundayannounced that 40 websitesbelonging to Sikhs For Justice(SFJ), an outlawed organisa-tion, have been blocked forsupporting secessionist activ-ities. The US-based Sikhs forJustice (SFJ) is a pro-Khalistangroup.

"Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), anunlawful organisation underthe UAPA, 1967, launched acampaign for registering sup-porters for its cause. On rec-ommendation of MHA,MEITY has issued ordersunder Sec. 69 A of the I.T. Act,2000, for blocking 40 websitesof SFJ," a home ministryspokesperson said.

The Ministry of Electronicsand Information Technology(MEITY) is the nodal author-ity for monitoring the cyberspace in India.

Last year, the home ministryhad banned the SFJ for its

alleged anti-national activi-ties.

The SFJ had pushed forSikh Referendum 2020 as partof its separatist agenda.

It openly espouses the causeof Khalistan and in thatprocess challenges the sover-eignty and territorial integrityof India, another official said.

On July 1, the home min-istry had declared nine indi-viduals linked to separatistKhalistani outfits, includingfour based in Pakistan, as des-ignated terrorists under the

provisions of UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act(UAPA).

The individuals belongedto various terrorist organisa-tions. Among them wereWadhawa Singh Babbar, chiefof Babbar Khalsa International(BKI); Lakhbir Singh, whoheads International Sikh YouthFederation; Ranjeet Singh,chief of Khalistan ZindabadForce (KZB) and ParamjitSingh, who leads KhalistanCommando Force. All thesefour are Pakistan-based.

Modi's visit underscored India's resolve tobeat back Chinese aggression: ChellaneyPNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi's visit to Ladakh under-scored India's resolve to beatback Chinese aggression andhe delivered a clear messagethere to the neighbouringcountry with his reference toexpansionism , strategic affairsexpert Brahma Chellaney saidon Sunday.

Modi's visit and the speechwere morale boosters for thetroops and his reference toexpansionism echoed themounting international con-cern over China's "imperialoverreach under Xi Jinping,who has simultaneouslyopened multiple fronts", hesaid.

"Modi's visit to the Ladakhfront underscored India'sresolve to beat back China'saggression and encroach-

ments," Chellaney told PTIBhasha.

"After weeks of concertedgovernment effort to downplaythe Himalayan border con-frontation and obscure China'sencroachments, Modi's visitto Ladakh helped shine a spot-light on the war-like situation

India confronts," the strategicaffairs expert said.

Asserting that China hassought to take advantage of theworld's preoccupation withthe COVID-19 pandemic,Chellaney said Xi has beenpushing the limits, be it break-ing Beijing's binding commit-

ment to Hong Kong's autono-my, attempting to police thewaters off the Japanese-con-trolled Senkaku Islands orpicking up a border fight withIndia by encroaching on its ter-ritory.

President Xi's actions areshifting attention from China'sculpability in the global spreadof COVID-19 to the threat hisauthoritarian regime poses tointernational security, the pro-fessor of strategic studies at theCentre for Policy Researchsaid."Xi's ambition, coupledwith the concentration campshe has set up and the cult ofpersonality around him, hasled some to compare him withother expansionist despots ofmodern history. US NationalSecurity Adviser RobertO'Brien recently said that 'Xisees himself as Joseph Stalin'ssuccessor'," Chellaney said.

Threat call toMumbai'sHotel Taj: FIRregisteredPNS n MUMBAI

An FIR has been registeredagainst an unidentified personin connection with a threat callmade to Taj Hotel here, policesaid on Sunday.

The caller, claiming himselfto be a member of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terroroutfit, had said he was callingfrom Karachi and threatenedto blow up the hotel in Colabaand Taj Land's End hotel inBandra, after which securityat both the places was beefedup on Tuesday. The FIR wasregistered on Friday undersections 506 (criminal intim-idation) and 505 (statementsconducing to public mis-chief) of the Indian PenalCode, a Colaba police stationofficial said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Accredited Social HealthActivists have emerged as inte-gral pillars of Rajasthan'sCOVID-19 response andreached out to nearly 39 crorepeople in eight crore households,in collaboration with AuxiliaryNurse Midwives, for active sur-veillance and information dis-semination, the Union healthministry said on Sunday.

While being vigilant aboutpeople with symptoms, ASHAsalso continued to provide carefor pregnant women, newbornsand children, and mobilisedtransport to health facilities incases when ambulances were notavailable, it said.In Rajasthan, theCOVID-19 pandemic coincid-ed with the harvest season andfamilies of most ASHAs expect-ed their support in harvestingactivities, the ministry said.

"This year though, the inten-sive involvement of the ASHAsin the pandemic prevented most

of them from doing so, leadingto considerable resentment andresistance from their families,"it said in a statement.

Citing the example of ASHAworker Gogi Devi, the ministrysaid she continued to servewith tenacity and fulfil her roleas a social mobiliser and a com-munity-level care provider.

Her efforts were rewardedwhen the pradhan of her grampanchayat publicly applauded

her role in COVID preventionand containment measures, itsaid. For Gogi Devi, her com-munity's acknowledgment andrecognition of her work arestrong motivation to carry ontirelessly, it added.

The work of ASHAs as inte-gral pillars of COVID-19response started immediatelyafter the first case was diagnosedin early March this year inJaipur, the statement said.

Hooda daresKhattar to contestBaroda assemblybypoll against himPNS n SONIPAT

Former Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda on Sunday daredChief Minister M L Khattarto contest the upcomingBaroda assembly bypoll, say-ing he is ready to face him inthe fray.

Baroda assembly seat inSonipat district fell vacant inApril following the demise ofsitting Congress MLA ShriKrishan Hooda. No poll datehas been announced as yet.

Hooda, who is the Leaderof the Opposition in Haryanaassembly, said if the Khattargovernment is confident of itsperformance, the chief min-ister should contest the by-election. Baroda assemblyseat falling Jat-dominatedDeswali belt of Rohtak-Sonipat region is consideredHoodas' stronghold and theCongress had reaped richelectoral gains in the 2019assembly polls from there.

Sources said the callcame from a numberat Chaubeypur policestation, whosestation officer VinayTiwari was earliersuspended as policetried to find out if hehad tipped off thegangster about theplanned raid

ASHAs pillars reached out to 39 crore people: Health Ministry

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

TMC MP calls FM‘venomous snake’,BJP hits backKOLKATA: In controversialremarks, TMC MP KalyanBanerjee has equated UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman with a "venomoussnake" for her handling of theeconomy, drawing sharpreaction from the BJP whichsaid Mamata Banerjee has lostcontrol over her party leaderswho are "uttering nonsense" outof frustration. Addressing aprotest rally at Bankura againstrising fuel prices and theproposed privatisation of trainson Saturday, Kalyan Banerjeedemanded Sitharamansresignation. "Just like avenomous snake kills a humanbeing, people of the country aredying one by one owing toNirmala Sitharaman who hasshattered the countryseconomy," he said. The TMCLok Sabha member also calledher "the worst finance minister"in the world.

Raut targets Oppnover MLCs nominationfrom Guv quota

Fadnavis expressesworry over COVID-19case surge in KDMCTHANE: Senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis on Sundayexpressed concern over thesurge in COVID-19 cases inKalyan-Dombivali belt in Thanedistrict, part of the MumbaiMetropolitan Region which hasseen spurt in new infections.After reviewing healthcarefacilities in the area, the Leaderof Opposition in the stateLegislative Assembly asked thestate government to provideadditional health workers in thearea if needed. "The number ofpatients in Kalyan-Dombivali(municipal limits) is increasingsignificantly. Testing of patientswill have to be increased soon,"the former chief minister toldreporters. Expressing the needto ramp up the number of ICUbeds, ventilators and othernecessary medical equipment,Fadnavis said the existinghealth infrastructure iscrumbling in the area. "Thesituation is worsening here. Itmight go out of hand if thestate government doesn't stepup its efforts," Fadnavis said.

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leaderSanjay Raut on Sunday hit outat the BJP over the issue ofappointment of 12 MaharashtraLegislative Council membersfrom the governor's quota,saying delay in their nominationwould amount toviolation of theConstitution and suppressionof freedom. In his weeklycolumn 'Rokthok' in Senamouthpiece 'Saamana', Rautsaid despite the COVID-19pandemic, "politicking hasn'tstopped", be it over the borderstandoff with China or handlingof the coronavirus situation.The Rajya Sabha member saidthere were speculations that theappointment of 12 LegislativeCouncil members from thegovernor's quota may be puton hold and the "newgovernment" (after ousting theSena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi)would make its ownappointments after October."This is just a dream as there isno threat to the MVAgovernment.

More Covid-19 patients gettingcured at home, says KejriwalPNS n NEW DELHI

The number of COVID-19patients requiring hospitalisa-tion in Delhi is decreasing asmore and more of them aregetting cured while staying inhome isolation, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidon Sunday.

The number of patients inhospital has gone down andthere are 9,900 COVID bedscurrently vacant, he said.

"Less and less people inDelhi are now requiring hos-pitalisation, more and morepeople are getting cured athome,” said Kejriwal in atweet.

“Whereas there werearound 2,300 new patientsdaily last week, no of patientsin hospital has gone downfrom 6,200 to 5,300. Today,9,900 corona beds are free," headded in his tweet.

The chief minister alsothanked the Union govern-ment for the DRDO buildinga 1000-bed COVID-19 hospi-tal in Delhi.

"The DRDO corona hos-pital of 1000 beds is ready.Thanks to the Central gov-ernment on the behalf ofDelhi people. It has 250 ICUbeds that are much neededin Delhi," he said in anoth-er tweet.

According to the Delhi gov-ernment's health bulletin onSaturday, there are over 25,000active COVID-19 patients inDelhi out of which over 16,000are in home isolation.

DU students flag incorrect questionpapers during mock online examPNS n NEW DELHI

Network problems, incorrectquestion papers and difficulty inlogging in — these were someof the issues that DelhiUniversity students faced on thefirst day of a mock online exam.

The Delhi UniversityTeachers' Association (DUTA)alleged that its members wereinundated with panic mailsfrom students.

When many students triedaccessing the site, they gotmessages like wrong email IDeven though it was the same idused in the form they filled upand earlier received communi-cation from the university, theDUTA said.

Some other students didn'tget the one-time password(OTP) to access the site, itadded. Many students whomanaged to access the sitefound that of the 37 questionpapers slotted, not even a sin-gle question paper belongs totheir course, they said.

"For example, there was no

question paper for Economics(Honours) students. The onlyeconomics papers availablewere for Annual System," theDUTA said.

Students also took to Twitterto share the issues faced bythem using the hashtag#DUAgainstOnlineExams.

"Being a student of B.Com(H) why is the mock testshowing me questions of othercourses?" a student tweeted.

DU professor Abha DevHabib also tweeted, "MockOBE, Day 1: Nonstop panic

messages from students, dutaemail account is full (and so isemail accounts of the Deanand VC). Student just report-ed: site has crashed!!@DrRPNishank @ugc_indiaYou share the responsibility forthe mess!#DUagainstOnlineExams#ScrapOBE." The mock examswill continue till July 8 whilethe online open book examswill commence from July 10.Students and teachers havebeen opposed to the onlineopen book exams.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A former bureaucrat has float-ed a political party —Rashtravadi Vikas Party —and decided to contest theassembly polls in Bihar duelater this year.

It is an initiative to bringback social harmony andinclusive growth in the society,party's founder AnupSrivastava, a retired IndianRevenue Service (customs andcentral excise) officer, said onSunday.

“This political organisationis going to be a different enti-ty. It will not indulge in pettypolitics but will work for thewelfare of all sections of soci-ety. We want to ensure bettereducation and jobs for ouryoungsters,” he said.

Srivastava, former presi-dent of all India IRS (customsand central excise) officers'association, said the party hasdecided to contest all 243

assembly seats in Bihar.“We have started a massive

membership campaign andare asking people of all caste,creed and religions to join ourparty. We will work for socialcohesion. We have got supportfrom a large number of peo-ple including bureaucrats,judges and armed forces per-sonnel," he said.

Srivastava said necessaryformalities are being com-pleted to ensure the early reg-istration of the party with theElection Commission ofIndia..

Former bureaucrat floatspolitical outfit, to contestBihar Assembly elections

MP bypolls: Congressstate in charge Wasnikmeets Nath, DigvijayaPNS n BHOPAL

Congress general secretary incharge of Madhya PradeshMukul Wasnik arrived in thestate on Sunday on a two-dayvisit to chalk out a strategy forbypolls to 24 Assembly seatsand help choose a leader ofopposition.

Twenty-two seats are lyingvacant as Congress MLAsresigned from the 230-mem-ber House and joined the BJP,and two due to deaths of leg-islators.

No date has beenannounced as yet for thebypolls.

The Congress governmentunder Kamal Nath fell inMarch, paving way for ShivrajSingh Chouhan to becomechief minister again.

After arriving here, Wasnikheld meetings with MPCongress chief Kamal Nath,veteran leader Digvijaya Singh

and others, a party func-tionary said.

He is scheduled to interactwith partymen in charge of the24 seats as well as district pres-idents there.

"Wasnik is going to hold ameeting with the party spokes-men on Monday," the func-tionary added.

Currently the BJP has 107MLAs in the House whoseeffective strength is 206, whilethe Congress has 92 MLAs.

‘Atmanirbhar call to help countrycapitalise on its inherent strengths’PNS n NEW DELHI

The call for a self-reliant India isnot aimed at encouraging "pro-tectionism or isolationism", butfor adopting a pragmatic devel-opment strategy to enable thecountry recognise and capitaliseon its inherent strengths, VicePresident M Venkaiah Naidusaid on Sunday.

Speaking at the virtual launchof 'Elyments' mobile app, Naidusaid the "atmanirbhar Bharat"campaign was aimed at giving anew boost to the economicpotential of the country bystrengthening infrastructure,using modern technologies,enriching human resource, andcreating robust supply chains.

"It is not a call for protection-ism or isolationism, but foradopting a pragmatic develop-ment strategy that would enablethe country to recognise and cap-italise on its inherent strengths,"Naidu observed.

India has come to be known

as one of the IT superpowers ofthe world because of its talentedscientists and technology expertswho are occupying leadershippositions across the globe, hesaid.

Naidu said it was quite appro-priate that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi announced the'Atmanirbhar Bharat AppInnovation Challenge' onSaturday as it would encourageIndian IT specialists to prepareapps for various uses to enhance

quality of life. The vice presidentnoted that more than a thousandIT professionals, who are alsovolunteers of the Art of Living,have together created the'Elyments' app.

Art of Living founder Sri SriRavi Shankar was also part of thevirtual launch. On the YouTubelink of the launch event, thedevelopers said on Elyments,"People will be able to connectglobally and shop locally".

Data of users is stored in

India and user's data will neverbe shared with a third partywithout user's consent, thewrite up said.

It allows free audio-video callsand a private chat connection.

The vice president said suchinitiatives by the Indian techindustry and professionalswere truly praiseworthy asthey not only demonstratedIndia's prowess in technologybut also were a step towards aself-reliant India.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Lalu Prasad Yadav's RashtriyaJanata Dal, once the numerouno political force in Bihar,observed its 24th foundationday on Sunday as Yadav's sonsled party workers in a bicyclerally aimed at targeting the rul-ing NDA over spiralling petro-leum prices. The RashtriyaJanata Dal (RJD) was floatedon this date in 1997.

The party came into being asa result of a split caused in theJanata Dal by Yadav, who wasthen its acting president andfeared a defeat at the hands ofchallenger Sharad Yadav inorganisational polls.

The move helped the wilyformer chief minister to passthe baton to his wife RabriDevi -- a demure homemakerwho had till then stayed awayfrom politics -- when he facedimminent arrest on account ofa charge sheet filed against himin the infamous fodder scam.

The party celebrated itsfoundation day in the absenceof its charismatic foundingpresident for the third consec-utive year, as Yadav has beenaway in Ranchi serving sen-tences in a number of casesrelated to the scam.

"I was too young back then,so I do not remember much ofthose days. Lalu is not anindividual but an ideology.He is missed not only by us,

but the people at large," Yadav'syounger son and heir apparentTejashwi Yadav told reportersbefore embarking on the cyclerally.

Tejashwi, who under thewings of his father made aspectacular debut in 2015assembly polls and went on tobecome the deputy chief min-ister at the tender age of 25, isset to face the hustings laterthis year as his party's chiefministerial candidate and theprincipal challenger to his for-mer boss Nitish Kumar.

"Bihar owes a lot to Lalu jiin terms of social justice andjob creation. Three railwayworkshops came up in the statewhen he held the portfolio atthe Centre for just five years.At present, when unemploy-ment and petroleum prices areat an all-time high, his inter-ventions would have beeninvaluable," the leader of theopposition in the state assem-bly said.

NGO members ‘assaulted'by locals while catching straydogs in Delhi's Rani BaghPNS n RANCHI

Members of an NGO,'Neighbourhood Woof ', wereallegedly assaulted by someresidents of Rani Bagh whilethey were catching stray dogsin the area, police said onSaturday.

Four NGO members,including a woman, had cometo the area to catch straydogs on Friday night when aheated argument broke outbetween them and the locals,leading to a scuffle, they said.Three locals sustained minorinjuries after being hit by thecar of the NGO memberswhile they were trying toleave the area, police said.

The four NGO membersand the three residents ofRani Bagh were taken toseparate hospitals for medicalexamination, they said.

A case was registered

under sections 323(punish-ment for voluntarily causinghurt) , 341 (punishment forwrongful restraint), 506(punishment for criminalintimidation)and 427 of theIPC against some residentsof the area on the basis of acomplaint lodged by thewoman, police said, addingt hat inves t igat ion wasunderway.

Yatri Niwas to be used as base camp inJammu for upcoming Amarnath pilgrimagePNS n JAMMU

The Yatri Niwas at BhagwatiNagar here would be used as thebase camp for the upcoming pil-grimage to the holy cave shrineof Amarnath in south KashmirHimalayas, an official said.

“The yatri Niwas is beingprepared as the base camp for theAmarnath yatra with all neces-sary security arrangements,” hesaid.

The Jammu and Kashmiradministration had decidedto allow only 500 pilgrims perday by road from Jammu to the3,880-metre high holy caveshrine of Amarnath during theyatra, which is likely to startfrom the Baltal track for twoweeks later this month.

Earlier, the yatra was sched-uled to commence from the twin

tracks of Pahalgam in Anantnagand Baltal in Ganderbal on June23 but was delayed due to theoutbreak of coronavirus pan-demic.

The Yatri Niwas, whichserved as the base camp for theannual pilgrimage in Jammu,was initially turned intoadministrative quarantine in

March and later upgraded to a500-bedded COVID care cen-tre with all the required facil-ities to lower the pressure onthe hospitals.

The official said the sprawlingcomplex would be utilised as thebase camp during the yatraperiod and later turned back intothe COVID care centre.

Morale of armed forces very high, readyto sacrifice lives for country: ITBP DGPNS n NEW DELHI

The morale of the Indianarmed forces is "very high" andthe troops are ready to sacrificetheir lives for the nation like inthe past, ITBP chief S S Deswalsaid on Sunday as the militarystandoff with China continuedin Ladakh.

The ITBP Director General(DG) said the recent visit ofPrime Minister NarendraModi to Ladakh and hisaddress to troops in Nimu"have raised the morale of allthe forces at the border".

"The complete national lead-ership, political leadership andthe forces and jawans...they arededicated to the nation.

"They are dedicated to bor-der security and the morale of

all forces, be it the IndianArmy, Air Force or ITBP, isvery high," Deswal toldreporters on the sidelines of anevent to inaugurate an over-10,000-bed COVID care cen-tre here. Delhi LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal inaugu-

rated the facility for which themountain-warfare trainedforce is the nodal agency.

The AAP government inthe national capital and volun-teers of the religious sect ofRadha Soami Beas have joinedhands to run the "Sardar Patel

COVID care centre" located insouth Delhi's Chattarpur area.

Deswal said armed forcespersonnel have sacrificed theirlives in the line of duty in thepast and they are ready to ded-icate their lives to the nation inthe future as well.

BJP ‘karyakartas'served the poorduring lockdown:J’khand leadersPNS n RANCHI

BJP workers in Jharkhandserved the poor and migrantworkers during the lockdownamid the COVID-19 pan-demic, state party presidentDeepak Prakash told PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSaturday.

Taking part in the "Seva hiSangathan" online pro-gramme participated by theBJPs central leadership,Prakash expressed gratitudeto the partys central leader-ship support to the people ofthe state. "With instructionsof the prime minister andnational (party) president J PNadda, lakhs of BJPkaryakartas served the poor,pravasi mazdoor and theneedy people during the lock-down period amid coron-avirus fear and it is anastounding example in thenations history," Prakash said.

Cops beginsearch forHarish BaliyanPNS n MUZAFFARNAGAR(UP)

After the Kanpur encounterin which eight policemenwere killed, theMuzaffarnagar district policehas initiated a search fornotorious criminal HarishBaliyan carrying a reward ofRs 2 lakh on his head, officialssaid on Sunday.

A team of police officials ofBhorakala police station inthe district are on the look-out for him. According toMuzaffarnagar SSP AbhishekYadav, the criminal is want-ed in more than 30 cases,including murder and lootand has been absconding formany years. Meanwhile, thedistrict police have openedhistory sheets of 40 criminals,14 accused booked underthe UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention)Act and 39 persons bookedunder the UP Control ofGoondas Act in the districtlast month.

IIT-Kharagpurfinal results afterJuly 8: DirectorPNS n KOLKATA

Indian Institute of TechnologyKharagpur will announce thefinal results for the academicyear 2019-20 after July 8, direc-tor Prof V K Tewari said. Theinstitute had earlier cancelledthe end semester examinationdue to COVID-19. It formed acommittee to evaluate academ-ic performance along withdecisions on grading scheme,supplementary examination,the director said in a statementon Saturday. Close to 13,000students enrolled in variousunder-graduate, post-gradu-ate and doctoral programmeswere evaluated based ongrades of mid-semesterexaminations, assignments,class tests, viva, etc, it said.

Arvind Kejriwal(@ArvindKejriwal)

“Whereas there werearound 2,300 new patientsdaily last week, no ofpatients in hospital hasgone down from 6,200 to5,300. Today, 9,900 coronabeds are free,"

India has come to beknown as one of theIT superpowers ofthe world because ofits talented scienti-sts and technologyexperts who areoccupying leadershippositions across theglobe, Venkaiah said

The ITBP DG saidthe recent visit ofPrime MinisterNarendra Modi toLadakh and hisaddress to troopsin Nimu "haveraised the moraleof all the forcesat the border"

RJD celebrates foundation day sansLalu Prasad; sons take out bicycle rally

The contours of a post-Corona world areemerging fast; so are thenew challenges thatevery sector will have to

face. With the novel virus upend-ing nearly every aspect of ourlives, an entirely new approach andinnovative solutions would beneeded to adapt to the “new nor-mal.” Changes would take place inevery sector but the importance ofSustainable Development Goals(SDGs) must gather greater humanattention. On January 1, 2016, the17 SDGs of the 2030 UN Agendafor Sustainable Development —adopted by world leaders inSeptember 2015 at the historicUN summit — came into force offi-cially. The SDGs were conceived atthe UN conference on sustainabledevelopment in Rio de Janeiro in2012. Their objective was to pro-duce a set of universal goals thatmeet urgent environmental, polit-ical and economic challenges facedby the world. The SDGs offer ablueprint to the world so as toachieve a better and more sustain-able future for all. They seek toaddress challenges faced by nationsacross the world, including thoserelated to poverty, inequality, cli-mate change and the ultimate goalof peace and justice. But how andwhy did we arrive at SDGs?

The 20th century witnessed theend of the colonial era and the ini-tiation of subsequent transitioninto another era — of progress anddevelopment — among the newly-liberated nations. Most of thesecountries were deficient in humanresources, education, experienceand expertise at every level. Severalnations transplanted education sys-tems that were established over theruins of indigenous traditions ofknowledge quest. The shortage ofeducated and skilled manpoweremerged as a great impeder forinternal experts to evolve indige-nous ideology of progress anddevelopment. In most cases, theideology of “progress” and “growth”was borrowed from the West andimplemented under the activeguidance of former rulers. Anothercontributing factor was the person-al fascination of new rulers to allthat was foreign, Western andmodern. Exploitative, ethicallyweak and unprofessionally envi-sioned plans and programmes fordevelopment led to serious imbal-ances in social, economic andman-nature relationship. In India,Gandhi, Gram Swaraj, farmer, vil-

lage, local artisan and produc-tion skills all were ignored, lead-ing to serious neglect of the agri-culture sector. Consequencesare before us.

The World War II and grow-ing public opinion against warsand violence highlighted theneed for international coopera-tion and collaboration among thenations. This led to the establish-ment of bodies such as the UN,UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO,UNSC and several others. Therehad to be some sort of partner-ship among nations on equal anddignified terms. This was the onlyway to tackle global issues andconcerns. SDGs are one of themajor outcomes of the globalhuman response to tackle issuesthat concern everyone. Could asingle nation ignore the plunder-ing of natural resources by vest-ed interests, resulting in irre-versible damage, creating a darkfuture for the generations ahead?

Learning to live together ina village, region, nation and theglobe is the only alternative.SDGs form a comprehensiveglobal initiative that guaranteesvictory against all that impedesthe human march towards aworld full of peace, dignity andmutually respectful harmoniousliving. But this is possible onlywhen poverty, hunger, ill-healthand gender discrimination arediscarded; when there is equali-ty of opportunities, justice, workopportunity, decent workingconditions for all. Human beingsmust learn to take due responsi-bility to protect the natural envi-ronment, flora and fauna and searesources. They must be con-cerned about climate action.

SDGs can be achieved only

on the sound base of sustainableand responsible consumption. Allthese — and a lot more — finda place in the list of SDGs.Universal education is the primemover in each of the 17 goals.SDG 4 relates to educationalgoals. It aims to “ensure inclusiveand equitable quality educationand promote life-long learningopportunities for all.” Target 4.7expects: “By 2030, ensure that alllearners acquire the knowledgeand skills needed to promote sus-tainable development, includ-ing, among others, through edu-cation for sustainable develop-ment and sustainable lifestyles,human rights, gender equality,promotion of a culture of peaceand non-violence, global citizen-ship and appreciation of cultur-al diversity and of culture’s con-tribution to sustainable develop-ment.” It is also clearly mentionedthat education will achieve itsobjectives and goals only whenan adequate number of qualified,competent and inspired teachersare available. “By 2030, substan-tially increase the supply of qual-ified teachers, including throughinternational cooperation forteacher training in developingcountries, especially least devel-oped countries and small islanddeveloping states.” This is thebiggest challenge that India’sNew Education Policy must seri-ously respond to. No educationpolicy can neglect these aspects.

By 1950-60, experts and sci-entists began issuing a warningthat developmental activities —bereft of ethical, moral and socialconsiderations — and obliviousto the damage they were inflict-ing on air, water, forests, speciesand the natural environment,

could lead to irreparable damagesto the very existence of humanbeings. The sensitive linkbetween man and nature wasbeing crushed under ever-increasing human greed, emerg-ing out of materialistic acquisi-tions at the cost of spiritual pur-suits. Gradually, the glitz of glob-alisation blinded humans to theextent that the very existence ofplanet earth is at stake. How longcould the planet survive?

It became clearer that theonly way to avoid destruction wasto create global awareness, letpeople understand that theirfuture was being compromisedand that it could be preventedonly through an attitudinal trans-formation. It was realised that themost crucial and urgent stepwould be to universalise elemen-tary education. It just cannot beroutine education and has to bemuch more than that. It has to becomprehensive education, onethat achieves attitudinal transfor-mation, offers the right skills andknowledge and at the same timeensures internalisation of humanvalues that includes man’s respon-sibility to restore and sustain theman-nature mutuality.

For the first time, it was glob-ally acknowledged that the wan-ton depletion of natural resourceswithout replenishment — as wasalready evident globally in envi-ronmental pollution, deforesta-tion, climate change, depletion ofthe ozone layer, desertificationand so many other visible signs— must be checked and damagerepaired. Development is essen-tial but the survival of the plan-et deserves primacy. Hence,development has to be “sustain-able.” Its basis would be indige-

nous knowledge, cultural com-prehension and skills to utilisenew knowledge from everysource in the changing context.It has to be “rooted to culture andcommitted to progress.”

Human beings never hadproblems with nature so long asthey respected the “give andtake” relationship between manand nature. How this could beachieved was not unknown.Indian scriptures have discussedthat in great detail. Nature wasequated to gods. This had a sci-entific basis, articulated in amanner that would be easilycomprehended by people at everystage. Unfortunately, variousaberrations and disturbancesresulted in the snapping of tiesbetween the people and their cul-tural heritage. Alien rulers left nostone unturned to destroy natur-al resources of their “colonies”and augment their own coffers.

Global poverty is the creationof the materialistic pursuits andexploitative tendencies bereft ofhuman values, compassion, fel-low feeling and lack of respect fornature. As the disastrous conse-quences became evident, con-cerns grew and serious interna-tional deliberations followed.Take the example of theStockholm conference on envi-ronment in 1972, the UN confer-ences on water and desertifica-tion in 1977, the Rio conferenceof 2012 and the climate changeconference of 2015 among oth-ers. Expediting universal educa-tion emerged very prominentlyin each one of these every time.The World Conference onEducation for All, held in Jomtienin March 1990, was a watershedfor education. The objective wasto universalise education withina decade. Although this could notbe achieved, the purpose ofexpediting educational access toall was significantly achieved.

The World EducationForum of 2000 came out with theDakar Declaration, where 164countries resolved to achieveEducation For All by 2015.Indian achievements in EFAhave been lauded, particularly forthe fact that its population hasmore than trebled after indepen-dence. But we are very near thetarget in access and retention.Our previous efforts and achieve-ments, coupled with determinednew initiatives, have made Indiafully ready to achieve the SDGsby 2030. Our focus in the days tocome must be on quality, genderequality, skill acquisition andabove all, on “learning to learn.”If one has to observe a paradigmshift in one particular sector, itwould be education, worldwide.India’s New Education Policycan expedite the march towardssustainable development andself-sufficiency.

(The writer works in education and social cohesion)

Science cannot be rushed”, is a common refrainacross our scientific community as the nation’stopmost medical research body, the Indian Council

of Medical Research (ICMR), said it was attempting tolaunch the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin,on August 15. The Ministry of Science had to curb suchambition with a statement saying it would not be readybefore 2021. In effect, the ICMR is saying that whileall the other countries, who are way ahead of us in termsof their research and trials on the vaccine and still wouldnot be able to release it by the year-end, India by somemiracle, would be able to do so in less than two months

of it being approved for trial. This is a timeline unheard of anywhere in the world and eventhe Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, which is miles ahead of us, is expected to hit the Indianmarket at the end of this year at the earliest. ICMR may defend itself, saying it is cuttingthrough red tape but vaccine development does take time. Under normal circumstances,clinical trials on volunteers who are innoculated take over 10 years. However, given thepandemic and its effects on the world economy and health, this timeline has been com-pressed by most scientists around the world. The trials will now combine Phase 1 andPhase 2 to speed up the process. Phase 1, usually small, is used to determine a vac-cine’s safety profile while Phase 2 employs a bigger sample size and looks at the immuneresponses. However, a vaccine is deemed safe to be commercially available only afterPhase 3, which is a much larger efficacy trial involving thousands of participants. Buteven with a telescoped timeline, experts don’t expect to see a vaccine before 12-18 months.This makes the ICMR’s plans scientifically implausible.

Worryingly, for Indians, who will be the final recipient of the shots, the trial documentfor Covaxin does not mention Phase 3. Even for Phase 1 and Phase 2, there appears tobe some confusion over the sequence to be followed. Seven of the 12 participating insti-tutes are yet to receive a green signal from independent ethics committees, a prerequi-site for conducting clinical trials. And in one month, it is only possible to determine imme-diate safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of a candidate vaccine. It is not enough tofind out if it is effective in preventing infections. Earlier, Bharat Biotech (BBIL), the Hyderabad-based firm which is developing the vaccine jointly with the ICMR, had itself indicated itsavailability for mass use by early 2021. Now, it seems to be toeing the Government line.As the country’s top research body, ICMR should have the gumption to resist politicalpressure and explain to its political bosses that human health and lives cannot be put atrisk for the sake of showmanship or electoral gains.

For a man who crafts his moves in such a mannerthat they appear the only truth that obfuscates oth-ers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did slip up on

the narrative that he sought to build on the Chinese ingressin Ladakh. Worse, he completely denied that the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) had ever entered our territory. Acostly error considering he made this claim at an all-party meeting even as contrary versions came from hisown office, the MEA and satellite images. So he had todo something dramatic to wrest his credibility, some-thing which had been emaciated badly by the Chinese

with whom he stepped up bilateral engagements only to make the fatal flaw that some-body he likes to disown frequently did — Jawaharlal Nehru. Quitting the Chinese Twitter,Weibo, was hardly resonant. So he surprised everybody and definitely spooked the Chinese,too, by flying into Ladakh, visiting a forward position, encouraging frontier soldiers andsignificantly calling out Beijing’s expansionism. He abandoned the diplomacy of cautionand underplaying, one that had so far left quite a bit of legroom for both India and Chinato negotiate in private, and came much closer to calling a spade a spade. It was also hismost reactive gesture to domestic criticism, from opinion makers of all shades wonder-ing whether our nationalism and militarism were good enough against Pakistan, itself apawn in China’s game, while we were pusillanimous about the latter. And, of course, tosilence Rahul Gandhi, who has consistently been attacked for the follies of his great grand-father in fostering Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai and who accused Modi of surrendering our ter-ritorial integrity to Chinese suzerainty. Internationally, too, he is indicating he is ready tomake common cause with other nations against China. As the PM with the most num-ber of visits to Beijing and summitry with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he has only helpedChina get a deeper access to our markets while fuelling its territorial ambitions and height-ening its asymmetrical equation. One that has allowed China to scoff at our boycott ofits goods as inconsequential. Modi certainly wouldn’t like to be remembered for Doklamand the Ladakh standoffs. No matter what the rhetoric on de-escalation, both episodeshave shown that while the PLA retreats a few steps, it fortifies just beyond the lines orasks for territories in return. By choosing to visit Ladakh when the disengagement talksbetween India and China are still on, Modi has conveyed that he wouldn’t yield to terri-torial pressure or tradeoffs. And our soldiers would not back down from taking on thePLA if provoked. Modi’s big signal is that the “face-off vs trade-off” formula is out andno territory will be conceded to buy peace. Or that claimed positions in Aksai Chin andPoK will never be legitimised. Nor will India shift its positions or stop developing its bor-der infrastructure. For some time now, the local Army commands have been insistingthat cowering down had not given India any advantage and Modi seems to be cominground to the view that it is high time we stand up to the Chinese wherever we can. Particularlyin Ladakh, where troop positions and mountain warfare strategies are in our favour. Chinahad not bargained for an upgraded infrastructure on the Indian side and had hoped thatits geo-strategic domination in the region could be achieved at a very low cost. But withModi personally taking stock of frontline positions with the Army chief, he has sent a mes-sage that India is willing to bear the costs once and for all to restore status quo. ThatChina wasn’t prepared for such an offensive position is clear from its quick reaction tothe “expansionism” remark and dire warnings that India can never match its defence bud-get. But the PM has clearly gone past such warnings. And though we may not be ableto boycott all things Chinese, given their intrinsic worth in supply chain management,cost competitiveness and compliance of international standards, the Government is cer-tainly wiring out wherever it can. While the loss of trade volumes may not be a dent toChina’s export basket, it would definitely be sore about not having a stake in India’s infra-structure projects or consumption market.

Modi’s assertive stand on the border also means that he has international endorse-ment of some sort and is clearly veering further to the West. The US, which has beenhard-hit by the virus, won’t be giving up on China easily in an election year and is deploy-ing strengths in the South China Sea to stare it down. Officially, it said its decision is influ-enced by the Indo-China tension along the LAC. By referencing India almost as its proxy,there seems to have been some confabulation on the subject. France has offered helptoo. The UK and Australia are offering citizenship to Hong Kong residents following a newChinese law usurping their rights. Interestingly, even Myanmar has been calling out Chinafor abetting rebels within its territory and seeking international help. Clearly, there mustbe some sort of consensus on encircling the dragon. Modi seems to have based hisstrategies on this post-pandemic understanding between nations. But will he be bolderto talk about Tibet and Xinjiang? Maybe India could begin by supporting resolutions onthese. We have to come out of the cocoon syndrome and go for China’s Achilles heel.

Stop fake complaints

Sir — It is quite usual that manycomplainants, while filingcharges against Governmentemployees and others, markcopies to dozens of authoritieseven though the original letter isto be dealt with by a singleagency. Many times, anonymousand fake complaints are also filed.Such practice unnecessarily con-sumes huge man-hours andresources of public authorities.Even though some guidelinesexist for filing complaints, theDepartment of Personnel andTraining should issue freshnorms in this regard with duepublicity through advertisementsin newspapers and TV channels.To stop fake complaints, it shouldbe made compulsory to attach acopy of ID proof of the com-plainant.

SC AgrawalDelhi

Queen of dance

Sir — Saroj Khan was arguablyone of the most talented chore-ographers Bollywood ever had.In fact, she is credited with giv-

ing Hindi films some of the mosticonic and evergreen dance num-bers. Overall, this year has beenextremely tragic for Indian cin-ema. Noted stalwarts such asIrrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor, musicdirector Wajid Khan, lyricistYogesh Gaur, filmmaker-screen-writer Basu Chatterjee and now

Khan have passed away. It seemsthere has been one blow afteranother for every Bollywoodlover.

In her career spanning fourdecades, the dance maestro hadthe credit of choreographingmore than 2,000 songs. Most ofthe songs choreographed by her

had big names as lead actors.Khan had earned the reputationof being a legendary Bollywoodchoreographer who greatly con-tributed to the success of manyfamous Bollywood stars likeMadhuri Dixit, who dominatedin 90s.

Among her contemporaries

in Bollywood, Khan was themost original and was a hardtaskmaster who immortalisedthe stars and music. She re-defined every era of the indus-try with her iconic work and tookefforts to make dance look easyfor artistes, as if anybody coulddance. She will be rememberedfor her grace and simplicity.

Ramesh G JethwaniBengaluru

Better late than never

Sir — The ban on Chinese appsshould have come much earlier.The Government was forced toundertake the digital strike togive the Chinese a befitting replywhen it crossed all limits alongthe LAC. This is for the first timethat India will be using a directlever in the digital sphere to reactto military actions. Most impor-tantly, the ban will hurt China’smost ambitious goals, which is tobecome a digital superpower.This move is also an attempt toshow India’s intent.

Srinivas Bhubaneswar

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

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

op nionVIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020

06

A better report card

JS RAJPUT

India’s New Education Policy must incorporate a bottom-up approach to achieve the UN’sSDGs. Focus must be on quality education, gender equality and skill acquisition

Patriotic Ladakhis are raising their voice againstChinese intrusion. They are screaming a warning.Ignoring their warning will cost India dearly.

Congress leader—Rahul Gandhi

The refusal of filmmak-ers to give me a chanceto showcase my actingtalent pushed me toshift my attention to theother aspects of life.

Actor—Celina Jaitly

The US stands with India asyou fight against theCommunist China’s aggres-sion and I commend yourcontinued efforts to negotiatea peaceful resolution.

Republican Senator—Rick Scott

S O U N D B I T E

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

Police reforms are too important to neglect

The tragic deaths of P Jayaraj and J Benicks haveturned the spotlight on the dark underbelly oftorture as an instrument of policing. This inci-

dent has profoundly affected the collective conscious-ness of society. It is generally assumed that the Stateis the protector of the citizenry. As an arm of theState, the police force is bound to act in line withthis assumption. It is not just a supposition but aconstitutionally-mandated duty for the forces. Thepolice simply cannot presume the guilt and punishthose taken into custody on mere suspicion of thecommission of a crime. They must be disabused ofthe notion that khaki is a licence for committing bru-talities. Those who are tasked to protect the peoplecannot become perpetrators of crimes. Custodialdeaths resulting from police torture are an antithe-sis to the constitutionally guaranteed right to life; theyare extra-judicial and cannot have any place in a coun-try governed by the rule of law. Often custodial deathsare termed and counted as “suicides” or “encounterduring escape bids” and go unpunished. One wouldhave thought that the Corona pandemic has had a

civilising influence on the police force. Jayaraj’s andBenicks’ should be the last custodial deaths.

Humanising the police is long overdue. Policereform has been on paper since the Supreme Court’s2006 order. This must be actualised now so thatpolice excess becomes a thing of the past. The cul-ture of chastising people must be repudiated andreplaced with the culture of protecting the people.Citizens can’t end up dead in police stations and jails.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

The vaccine raceWhy so hesitant in takingChina's name? Today's show in Leh proves dushman (China) gharmein ghus ke baitha hai(the enemy has entered).

AIMIM chief—Asaduddin Owaisi

By touring frontline posts and calling out China’s expansionism,PM tries to cover up his early remarks, says India means business

Showmanship is for politics, not science, warn researchers on theICMR’s rush to launch Covaxin by August 15

Modi’s Ladakh move

Ball is in China’s court

MANY CHEELS (EAGLES) ARE CIRCLING AROUND ME ANDATTACKING ME. AND I WANT TO REMIND THEM AGAIN,

TIGER ZINDA HAI (THE TIGER IS ALIVE)—BJP LEADER

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA

WHEN HUNTING WAS NOT PROHIBITED, MADHAVRAOSCINDIA AND I USED TO HUNT TIGERS. NOW I ONLYSHOOT THEM WITH MY CAMERA —FORMER MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTERDIGVIJAYA SINGH

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The third Corps Commander-level talks heldon the Indian side at Chuhsul to resolve theborder stand-off with China also ended with-

out yielding any tangible result. Though nothingsubstantial was expected at the military-level talks,yet the hopes of the “de-escalation” process com-mencing were being entertained, but to no avail. Infact, rather than de-escalating, the forces of both thenations have begun “posturing.” Analysts feel thismay result in a long-drawn haul till the winter.

India and China have a lot of history togeth-er and signed five agreements between 1993-2013to maintain peace and tranquility on the borders.The aim was to avoid war between the twonations. No doubt, the agreements have succeed-ed in their purpose but at what cost? A close scruti-ny would reveal that we bought peace at the costof our national sovereignty. While China contin-ued unabated with its strategy of “walk in at will”to alter status quo and continued its salami-slicingtechnique to strengthen its territorial claims andexpansionist intent, we failed to respond adequate-ly and overlooked it under the notion of a varyingperception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Infact, the first cardinal mistake was done in accept-ing the unresolved border as a LAC. That, too, with-out exchange of any marked maps. It obviously suit-ed the evil intentions of China but we failed to readbetween the lines.

The Chinese on the other hand were creepingforward to the areas they believed to be theirs withno regard to the Indian claims. The Group ofMinisters in 2001 had suggested construction ofroads in border areas for better connectivity andasserting our claims. Even though road-buildingwork began soon after, the network was notimproved significantly till 2014.

While China developed not only the road net-work but also the allied military infrastructure toabet its war fighting potential all along the LAC,including extension of railway lines, oil pipelines andairfields apart from housing and storage facilities,we totally neglected our borders with China. As aresult, China succeeded in creating a huge asym-metry along the entire LAC giving it the advantageof controlling the LAC and ensuring rapid build-up in case of hostilities. China is now exploiting thisadvantage and preventing us from taking measuresto minimise the asymmetry.

China may even be preparing to convert theLAC to the Line of Control (LoC) because of theterrain advantage it enjoys. Though Indian troopsare better trained and acclimatised to fight at suchaltitudes, it would be a logistics nightmare to main-tain the troops at those heights if the posturing con-tinues beyond winter. The Indian Army is mental-ly and physically prepared for this but will theChinese soldiers be able to withstand the harshnessof weather is a question for the Chinese to ponder.Meanwhile, the Indian Army should induct morelocals. Ladakhis are not only hardy but also knowthe terrain well, especially when covered with snow.

Ladakh Scouts should not be viewed merely asan extension of an infantry battalion but beemployed as “Alpine” troops, using their advantageof being locals and trained in special skills like ski-ing, mountaineering and the ability to live off theland. As in the “home and hearth” concept, theyshould remain permanently deployed in areas closeto their homes and not be subjected to usual trans-fers like infantry battalions.

Over the years, China also built new villages andhabitation centres close to the LAC to settle the civilpopulation there. However, it objected vehement-

ly to any construction or developmentrelated activities in the villages situated onthe LAC on our side. However, in 2016and 2018, India continued with construc-tion of a lift canal in Demchok and con-struction of the road north of the PangongTso right up to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO).

While the Chinese continued to defythe provisions of the peace agreements atwill, we did not object strongly or seekreview of the agreements to preventrepeated Chinese incursions. We remainedhappy by adding provisions to avoid clash-es but ignored the central issue of wilfulsalami-slicing of our territory, resulting inreduction of grazing grounds and pasturesfor our inhabitants in the border areas.Every time the Chinese withdrew, theyhad a demand, to which we submittedmeekly. This emboldened the Chinesenext time and continued till India estab-lished a new normal of challenging theChinese at Galwan this time.

The Chinese have perfected the art of“grab first and negotiate” but beforenegotiating create a situation of hopeless-ness for the adversary so that it is left withno option but to submit to the Chineseterms. However, the Chinese leadershiphas failed to do it this time and is irkedby India’s firmness and resolve.

The Chinese plan to “teach India a les-son” also met its Waterloo at the icyheights of Galwan on June 15 night whenthe Indian Army gave them a major drub-bing. As a result the morale of Chinese sol-diers is so low that they are being taughtUnarmed Combat.

It is this loss of face, both domestical-ly and globally, that is compelling Chinato delay the de-escalation. Any hurriedwithdrawal of forces will further sully theChinese image. Gradual, delayed and un-noticed withdrawal suits the Chinese gameplan. If China wants to test the water fur-ther and is willing to go to war, India isprepared and is determined not to budge.

In a hard-hitting article titled Newtwist in dispute with China. Never ignoreIndia’s strategic interests, General VPMalik, former Chief of Army Staff, states,“It is becoming obvious that on India-China boundary discussions, India seemsto have given up its claim to PakistanOccupied Kashmir, Shaksgam and AksaiChin; China has knocked off almost thewhole of the Western sector boundary;and by reducing nearly 1,600 km from itsdefinition of border with India and ques-tioning Indian sovereignty over Jammu &Kashmir, it has added a new twist to theIndia-China boundary dispute.” He fur-ther says, “India, on the other hand, is per-ceived as a soft state. Our leaders and gov-ernments, more often than not, havelacked strategic thinking. There is a senseof self-righteousness and singular faith inwords without looking for underlyingfalsehoods and incompetence.” The lastline is truly prophetic. India somehow hadkept quiet for several decades on the AksaiChin and Shaksgam, which encouragedChina to move up.

Now that India has constructed a roadup to DBO and operationalised/construct-ed airfields in the region, China isannoyed. China is surprised as to howIndia is now demanding Aksai Chin aswas clear in the Home Minister’s statementin the Parliament. India’s new posturingat political and diplomatic levels has rat-tled China, which, therefore, decided to“teach India a lesson” militarily. What fur-ther surprised China was India’s responseto military aggressiveness. India matchedChina brick to brick and responded to itsmilitary posturing in equal measure.

The recent news of Pakistan movingtwo divisions worth forces oppositeNorthern Ladakh in Gilgit-Baltistan is yetanother attempt by China to coerce theIndian leadership by posing a threat of atwo-front war. The reported resurrectionof Al Badr, a defunct terrorist outfit, is also

part of the same ploy. But India is deter-mined and prepared to meet the challenge.

China has to accept the blame for itscurrent misadventure in Ladakh. Insteadof doing that, it continues to blame theIndian Army and harp about the grow-ing Indo-American bonhomie for thedeterioration in Sino-Indian relations. Ina recent article published in its mouthpieceGlobal Times, it says, “The US, in partic-ular, is seducing India to counterbalanceChina and the concept of Indo-Pacificstrategy is turning into a reality. For quitea number of Indian elite, they are moreinclined to work with the West strategi-cally. They believe that by joining the UScamp to contain China, they are now aworld power on equal footing.” It’s anattempt to warn India to stay away fromthe US without realising that Indiareserves the option of maintaining strate-gic autonomy. But if needed New Delhiwould not hesitate to seek assistance, notnecessarily military, from other friends aswell. The Chinese arrogance is also evi-dent in the same article. “No matter fromhistory or reality, elements of India’s pol-itics and society are fertile for growinganti-China sentiments. It is understand-able that India views the 1962 Sino-Indianwar as a historic humiliation. But it wouldbe dangerous if New Delhi resents Beijingand launches anti-China waves fromnational education and strategic levels,”writes the Global Times.

India wants to resolve all disputesthrough peaceful bilateral negotiations butwould resist every attempt to challenge itssovereignty. India would prefer China tohonour various border agreements signedby it to maintain peace and tranquility andalso revisit or modify them if needed. Butif China wants war, let it be. India will notrelent. The ball is entirely in China’s court.

(The author is a Jammu-based veter-an, political commentator, columnist, secu-rity and strategic analyst.)

After the June 15 drubbing, if Beijing wants to test the water further and is willing to

go to war, New Delhi is prepared and determined not to budge

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

VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

INDIAWANTS TO

RESOLVE ALLDISPUTESTHROUGHPEACEFUL

BILATERALNEGOTIATIONS

BUT WOULD RESIST EVERY

ATTEMPT TOCHALLENGE

ITS SOVEREIGNTY. IT WOULD

PREFERCHINA TO HONOURVARIOUS BORDER

AGREEMENTSSIGNED BY

IT TO MAINTAINPEACE AND

TRANQUILLITYAND ALSO

REVISIT OR MODIFYTHEM IF NEEDED.

BUT IF CHINAWANTS WAR,INDIA WON’T

RELENT

The last 13 weeks or so have been exceptional and unprece-dented in experience, reflection and all that goes with it. Thedominant theme has been of worry, anxiety and the strange

feeling of helplessness, should one be unfortunate enough to beinfected with the Coronavirus. The fear of the unknown, coupledwith the pressure of several confusing containment operations,cushioned marginally by some precautions, can be a very diffi-cult process to go through. That may be another story for a dif-ferent day.

The coping experience is yet to be clearly comprehended tobe articulated here. A reflection on the time frame mentioned abovetriggers some thoughts which are a potpourri of notions and emo-tions, sometimes verging on exasperation. There have been a spateof webinars and obviously this has lubricated the business of com-munication platforms. They have seldom had it so good. The dis-infectant and the medical palliatives industry is booming, the lat-ter particularly on the promises of increasing immunity and giv-ing reserves to combat the dreaded disease. Both the narrativesare inductive and in the absence of anything better, rule the roost.

The pharmaceutical industry is much in demand and report-edly the top bosses of the Ministry concerned were working 24x7to keep the supply chain moving, specially for the export of someformulations. News channels and various media reports have itthat the US had mopped up the entire batch of the current glob-al production of Remdesivir. There was a concurrent protest onsuch matters, because the fear was that other formulations, whenperfected for use, may have a similar fate. During this pandem-ic, one is truly trying to find a response for the unknown and theunpredictable lay of the land. One can only hope for luck.

It is no secret that the global economy has taken one of itsworst beatings on all the conventional parameters of economicworth: Output, income and employment. However, the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) and its sister institutions are not yet out ofa job. The World Bank still has its pretensions. This is one areawhere the Chinese are still to catch up. The parallel institutionsthey tried to set up as alternatives don’t seem to be firing even ontwo cylinders. Perhaps the Chinese obsession with creating its21st century version of the Silk Route, with the Chinese econo-my being the hub of world economic operations, seems to be theundermining of their efforts.

The Indian economy still seems to be faithful to the tradition-al platform of sticking to bailouts, doles and largesse. For the eco-nomic strategic thinkers, who control this country’s State-orient-ed growth processes, 2020 could just as well be 2008. The com-fort of such thoughts is almost incredibly unreal and yet it cancreate the happy feeling of “something is being done.”

For those who can see, the writing on the wall is clear. Theparadigms of not only growth and welfare but of survival and safe-ty have to be rewritten. Doing a cadence count with rising tariffsand surcharges alternately (and sometimes together) on petrol anddiesel does seem to have exhausted its potential.

Yet the conventional economist knows that to be in businesshe must always tell a story of growth. The present one is that therecovery for 2021 will be 5.8 per cent. The repetitive accuracy ofdecimal precision these calculations always achieve is amazing.The unhappy sequence that some economists talk of, namely thecycle of contraction, recession and depression, is taken up onlyby the fringe elements. It’s not even fashionable to debate it any-more. Confidence is rarely sighted. And not enough thought is beinggiven to structural shifts the firms need to be considering.

For that matter, even household behaviour does not seem tohave change enough with the times. Many in the household set-up are practicing decontamination and hope to protect themselvesfrom the virus. It is not quite registering that this may need to becomethe new algorithm. There is a good case for doing so.

The kind of vegetable shopping which takes place, even innormal times, in the filthy cradles near drains in parts of somecities like Mumbai, needs to be stopped once and for all. Hygienecannot be only a contagion-specific behaviour. A more hygienicand enduring supply chain of daily goods needs to be put in place for households and this cannot be a COVID-19-based effortalone.

With the disruption of aggregate demands and weaknessesin conventional sources of supply, there was never a better timeto recast the survival safety net of human efforts in many partsof India. Deliberately, no claims are being made to an all-India model.That’s because the Indian economy is far too variegated for a one-size-fits-all model. If the current health emergency leavened byeconomic disruption can impact the structure of demand, reformof capital flow would follow. Commodity prices could beredesigned and an overall more stable platform of everyday oper-ations — both corporate and domestic — could follow.

(The writer is a well-known management consultant)

The Pakistani media continues tocarry reports about how largesections of society are being

careless in their attitude towards thepandemic. It slams the Governmentfor bungling the crisis by being mis-informed about the dynamics ofCOVID-19 and its spread. Many havealso criticised the regime for allowingits political biases to impact its contin-gency policies, which have so farbeen chaotic and almost entirelyunable to stall the virus’ rapid spread.Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan andmany of his Ministers have been cen-sured for “misinforming” the peopleabout the true nature of the disease

while, at the same time, vetoing theidea of strict lockdowns. So, as the out-break ravages the country with fright-ening speed, Khan does not have muchto say or show other than claim thathe knew things were going to get bad.

With examples like China, Italy,Spain, Iran and the US before us, it did-n’t require a genius to “know” thatthings would get bad here as well. Eventhough Khan was hailed by his syco-phantic circle of Ministers for beingoracular for this insightful prediction,he had also earlier described the dis-ease as, merely, a “flu.”

The Government then continuedto add unsubstantiated claptrap to itslargely convoluted narrative in thisregard, until intense media criticismtriggered a sudden volte-face and sawthe Government resort to accusing thegeneral populace for letting things getout of hand. What’s more, theGovernment also continued to ignoresome rational advice from provincialgovernments and health experts. Onesuch advice was for imposing stricter

lockdowns. But the PM disagreed.Instead, he began to rationalise his dis-approval of lockdowns as an egalitar-ian act, undertaken for the benefit ofthe poor.

This rationale was almost imme-diately debunked by some writers onthe economy. Business and econom-ics journalist Khurram Hussain point-ed out that lockdowns were, in fact,opposed by the business community,and members of this community wereinfluencing Khan’s anti-lockdown sen-timents. Veteran journalist and polit-ical pundit Najam Sethi shared simi-lar views. Martin Gak in a piece for theGerman news site DW explains theidea of opening up businesses (andthus, allowing the deaths of thousandsfrom COVID-19) as the 21st centuryequivalent of an ancient past, in whichhuman sacrifice was practised insome cultures, supposedly for thewell-being of the larger community.

The outbreak in Pakistan was fur-ther compounded by a controversialSupreme Court order in which the

court asked provincial governments toopen malls and markets before Eid.Not surprisingly, two weeks after that,Coronavirus cases in Pakistan wit-nessed an unprecedented spike.

But Pakistan is not the only coun-try where the Government has badlybotched the response to the pandem-ic and where the denial of its dangersor existence can be found in large sec-tions of society. Similar scenarios arebeing played out in the US, Brazil,Mexico and India. Interestingly, eachone of these, like Pakistan, have gov-ernments headed by populists.

The Brazilian PM actually tookpart in an anti-lockdown rally and thenissued an order that the number ofCorona cases in Brazil should not bereported. US President Donald Trumpclaimed that the virus threat wasinsignificant.

In India, it became apparent thatthe Narendra Modi regime only hadthe muscle to impose its Hindutva ide-ology but had no idea how to controlthe virus. In Pakistan, Khan with noth-

ing to show in this respect, ended upsomewhat absurdly gloating thatPakistan was the only Muslim coun-try where mosques were not closed forprayers. As if this were some colossalachievement in a time of a raging pan-demic.

Journalist and novelist Karl TaroGreenfeld writes that historically soci-eties often go through “four stages ofgrief” during pandemics and plagues.

Mount Saint Vincent University’sProfessor Jonathan Roberts, an experton the history of plagues, agrees.Roberts says that the historical patternin which societies behave during pan-demics has remained intact and thathe is seeing the same pattern beingrepeated during the current outbreak.

Roberts has been investigating theancient and modern histories of socialand political responses to contagions.The pattern he was talking about startswith outright denial of an outbreak, fol-lowed by a panic reaction. This is thenfollowed by scapegoating, which is tiedto the emergence of conspiracy theo-

ries. On a more hopeful note, Robertsuggests that in the fourth stage, thosein power finally allow the proliferationof correct information to get out. Butby then, thousands of lives have beenlost and economies devastated. What’smore, a community of people who areblamed for the outbreak during thescapegoating stage, would have suf-fered severe ostracism and harassment.This is related to what the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) calls an“infodemic”, when madcap theories,once relegated to the lunatic fringes ofsociety, suddenly emerge on the main-stream during the fear triggered by anoutbreak.

Author and medical sociologist DrRobert Bartholomew says that Jewswere blamed for the 14th CenturyBubonic Plague in Europe and the1918 flu pandemic — which killed mil-lions — was dubbed the Spanish Flu,not because Spain was the outbreak’sepicentre but because the SpanishGovernment was the first to identifythe problem. During the same pan-

demic, many in Britain believed thatthe virus was a germ created by theGerman military, even though anequal number of Germans were dyingfrom it. With the proliferation of socialmedia sites, unsubstantiated claims,denials and scapegoating haveincreased at an alarming rate about thesource country of the virus.

But for Robertson and Greenfeld,there is light at the end of this tunnel.Both claim that, historically, the laststage of the aforementioned historicalpattern is when societies and rulerscome to their senses and work toaddress and contain the problem.

Rational contingency plans andtheir implementation, scientifically-sound advice to the public and thedebunking of crackpot theories arevital. Unfortunately, many countrieslike Pakistan still seem to be stuck inthe earlier stages of reaction: Denial,confusion and scapegoating. Only ahandful of nations have moved into themore hopeful fourth stage.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

The four stages of dealing with the grief of a pandemicDenial, panic, scapegoating and ultimate sense are the usual way societies have dealt with new diseases throughout history

NADEEM PARACHA

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

ANIL GUPTA

Picking up the pieces

The writing on the wall is clear. The paradigms ofnot only growth and welfare but of survival and

safety have to be rewritten

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Mercedes to recall660,000 vehicles inChina for oil leakBEIJING: Mercedes-Benz willrecall more than 660,000vehicles in China later thisyear for a possible oil leak. Aseal between a high-pressurefuel pump and a low-pressurefuel pipe could weaken overtime, allowing oil to leak whenthe engine starts in coldweather, according to a noticepublished last week on thewebsite of China's StateAdministration for MarketRegulation. The official XinhuaNews Agency reported therecall Sunday. The recall of668,954 vehicles will begin onDec. 18. It includes severalmodels made betweenFebruary 2013 and June 2017including C-class, E-class, V-class, GLK-class, CLS-class,SLC-class, GLC SUV andVS20 VITO vehicles. Most ofthe vehicles were made inChina by Beijing Benz

Coal India suffersavg daily productionhit of 56 pcNEW DELHI: State-ownedCoal India suffered an averagedaily production hit of 56 percent during the three-daystrike by workers against thegovernment's move to openthe sector to private players,an official said. A union leaderof Coal India had earlierclaimed that there wassubstantial hit in coal outputduring the strike days. Thecoal workers were on strikefrom Thursday to Saturday inprotest against thegovernment's move to openthe coal sector for commercialmining. The average dailyproduction by the PSU on thethree days was 5,73,000tonnes, which is 44 per centof the last 10 days' averageproduction of 12,96,900tonnes, the official said. Thecoal ministry official saidproduction could take placeeven on strike days as CoalIndia employs around one lakhcontract workers.

SAIL Chairmanjoins office aftertesting negative NEW DELHI: SAIL ChairmanAnil Kumar Chaudhary hasresumed office after hetested negative for COVID-19 virus, an official said.Chaudhary had gone into athree-week institutionalquarantine after he testedpositive for coronavirus."Our chairman has testednegative in the testconducted after his three-week quarantine. He hasjoined his office also. Hejoined some time back," theofficial said. The official alsoinformed that no fresh caseshave been reported in SAILoffice at Lodhi Road sincemid-June. On June 13, asource had informed about25 positive cases, includingthe Chairman, at thecompany's headquarterhere. The list included somemore senior level employeesof SAIL.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The finance ministry may assessthe capital requirement of pub-lic sector banks after theSeptember quarter as therewould be greater clarity about aspike in bad loans by that time,sources said. There is wide-spread fear that non-performingassets (NPAs) of the banks willwitness a surge due to the eco-nomic slowdown triggered bythe COVID-19 outbreak andresultant lockdowns. This willneed higher provisioning bybanks as per the Reserve Bankof India (RBI) guidelines.

However, there could be a sil-ver lining if RBI accepts requestof loan restructuring for sectorshit badly by the coronaviruspandemic, sources said.

The pain of NPA will surfaceonly after the extended morato-rium ends in August, thesources said, adding it will beappropriate to assess capital

requirement only after the sec-ond quarter numbers arefinalised.

Veteran banker and CIIPresident Uday Kotak had saidthe public sector banks wouldneed financial support fromthe government to drive theeconomy, while private sectorbanks need to raise capital fromvarious sources to meet thefuture challenges.

"The COVID-19 outbreak

and resulting lockdown hasimpacted adversely the realeconomy, businesses, individu-als, government and financialsector.

"While the government isfacing the risk of higher fiscaldeficit, the banking sectorurgently needs the recapitalisa-tion to the tune of Rs 3-4 lakhcrore to meet the lendingrequirements," he had said lastmonth. Ratings agency Fitch has

estimated a shortfall of USD 15billion (about Rs 1.25 lakh crore)by Indian banks to achieve a 10per cent Weighted AverageCommon equity tier-1 (CET 1)ratio under moderate stress andin the absence of which bankswould show high risk aversion.The banking sector's NPAs wereexpected to increase by 450basis point through FY21 andFY21 under moderate stress.The government has infusedover Rs 3.15 lakh crore into pub-lic sector banks (PSBs) in the 11years through 2018-19. In 2019-20, the government proposed tomake Rs 70,000 crore capitalinfusion into PSBs to boostcredit for a strong impetus to theeconomy.

However, the governmentrefrained from committing anycapital in the Budget 2020-21 forthe PSBs, hoping that thelenders will raise funds from themarket depending on therequirement.

Finmin may review capitalrequirement of PSU banks

PNS n NEW DELHI

The tasks of making India acountry where manufactur-ing becomes globally compet-itive, and creating a sociallyjust society, are very difficult,argues Maruti Suzuki chair-man R C Bhargava.

The problems have beencompounded by losing almostseven decades afterIndependence without becom-ing a competitive industri-alised country, he says, addingduring this period, the gapbetween the rich and poorgrew wider and various condi-tions developed that are incon-sistent with competitive man-ufacturing and a socially justsociety.

Manufacturing, at present, is

far from competitive and con-tributes only 15 per cent of theGDP. As a result, removing thewide socioeconomic disparitiesremains a distant dream.

But Bhargava is optimistic."Despite the difficulties, it is

still possible and necessary to

achieve the objectives thathave eluded us for so long, pro-vided we exhibit a strong willto change and jointly work forthe development of the coun-try," he writes in his book"Getting Competitive: APractitioner's Guide for India".

"What needs to be done toindustrialize India and to cre-ate an equitable society?Becoming competitive is atask in which everyone in thenation has a role and needs tocontribute to the full extent.The government or industryalone is insufficient."

In this book, published byHarperCollins India, Bhargavadraws upon his experience ofmore than 60 years as a poli-cymaker and industry leader togive practical suggestions.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) is seeing betterdemand in rural areas due toless number ofCOVID-19 casesas comparedwith urbanregions whichcontinue toreel underthe highnumber ofcases of theinfectious dis-ease, as per asenior company offi-cial.

Buying sentiment in ruralareas is also better due togood initial spell of rains inJune which has led to a bet-ter sowing of the kharif crop.

"Rural demand is little bet-

ter than urban right now. InMaruti, the rural share hasgone up to 40 per cent in Junewhich is 1 per cent increaseover the last fiscal," MSIExecutive Director Marketing

and Sales ShashankSrivastava said.

"One is thatCOVID-19 hasimpacted thesentiment littleless in ruralareas. In factcluster of Covid

and containmentzones are largely in

urban areas.Secondly, rabi crop has

been good, and initial mon-soon in June has been goodso the sowing for kharif cropis much better, so rural sen-timent as compared to urbansentiment is little better,"Srivastava noted.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Italian super sports car makerLamborghini is banking on ahealthy order book to preventhuge sales dip in India this yeardue to the coronavirus pandem-ic as it resumes deliveries ofvehicles from this month afterrestarting operations followinglockdown relaxations, accordingto a senior company official.

While new orders are slow tocome by, Lamborghini India isnot witnessing any cancella-tions of bookings, althoughsome customers have asked fordelayed deliveries due to thehealth crisis.

"We still have a strong orderbank for Urus and also welaunched the new Evo RWD in

the beginning of the year. Thishelped us to build the orderbank for the year, which will be

acting as a big support in termsof getting some decent numbersthis year," Lamborghini IndiaHead Sharad Agarwal told PTI.

The company, which sold 52units of its super luxury vehiclesthat are priced above Rs 2.5crore in India last year, feels thatits sales this year will not matchthat figure.

"Definitely, we may not hit thesame number as last year butthis order bank will definitelysupport us in (preventing) adecline, which is not as bad asthe industry," he said, adding"the good thing is whateverorder bank we have we have notseen any cancellations and the

customers are still committedwith us."

Admitting that there aredelays in deliveries due to theshutdown of the company's fac-tory in Italy from March 13 toApril 25 due to the pandemic,he said there are also someinstances where customers areseeking to defer delivery ofbooked cars by one or twomonths.

"This is fair because this is thekind of environment which youcan't push. Overall, I still see apositive sign that we are not see-ing customers coming and say-ing now I don't want to take thecar," Agarwal added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Promoters of stressed compa-nies will get more flexibility inattracting investors and theprocess of determining theright price for assets would geteasier following a new set ofamendments introduced bycapital market regulator Sebi inits preferential share issuancenorms.

Market experts said the newguidelines provide flexibility tothe promoters and promotergroup entities to attractinvestors for their companiesrather than becoming com-pletely dispossessed as underthe IBC framework.

The amendments can alsohelp promoters get financialinvestors on board withoutlosing control of the company.Even if they get investors whowish to take control, theycould end up with a continu-ing role in the company whichmay be diluted but not com-pletely removed.

Therefore, due to such flex-ibility, promoters may preferrestructuring through theseguidelines as a better andfaster alternative than goingthrough IBC, the expertsadded. Sebi, on June 22, intro-duced guidelines relaxing pric-ing and open offer require-ments to enable easier fundraising through preferentialallotment by stressed listedcompanies. In order to ensurethat the relaxations can beavailed by genuinely stressedcompanies, clear criteria for acompany to qualify as a‘stressed company' have been

laid down. Adequate safe-guards have also been put inplace in terms of restrictingpersons who are eligible to par-ticipate, end-use disclosures,restrictions and monitoring,lock-in requirements, certifica-tion by audit committee &statutory auditor etc.

Prior to these guidelines, theSebi regulations providedexemption from preferentialissue pricing and open offerrequirements only for thosecompanies whose resolutionplan was approved under theIBC, but now a wider pool ofcompanies can get these benefits.

New Sebi norms to give more fund-raising flexibility to stressed firms

Global cues earningsmajor drivers for marketsPNS n NEW DELHI

Trading sentiment in theequity markets this week willbe guided by global cues,COVID-19 trends and quar-terly earnings by marketheavyweight TCS, analystssaid.

Investors willalso monitormovement ofrupee andcrude oi l aswell as progressof monsoon,they added.

"Participantswill be eyeingkey macro indi-cators like IIPdata. Besides, the progress ofmonsoon and developmentson COVID front will also bein focus.

"On the earnings front, ITmajor TCS, will announce itsresults on July 9," said AjitMishra, VP Research,Religare Broking.

Industrial production data

is scheduled to be announcedpost-market hours on Friday.

"Q1 result season wouldkick start from this weekwith TCS reporting on 9thJuly, which would be keenlytracked," said SiddharthaKhemka, Head - Retail

R e s e a r c h ,Motilal OswalF i n a n c i a lServices.

D o m e s t i cequity indicesadvanced forthe thirdstraight day toclose near four-month highson Friday.

During the lastweek, the BSE Sensex rallied850.15 points or 2.41 percent.

"Indian equity marketsended with strong gains lastweek on the back of better-than-expected economic dataacross countries and reportsof a potential COVID-19vaccine.

IHCL resilient to disruptivechallenges: MD & CEO

PNS n NEW DELHI

By developing strategicChabahar Port in Iran, Indianwill reduce logistics cost by 20per cent in container transportto CIS countries, bypassingChina or Europe, UnionMinister Mansukh LalMandaviya has said.

So far, CIS countries couldbe reached only via China orEurope, he said.

Chabahar port, located inthe Sistan-Balochistanprovince at energy-rich Iran'ssouthern coast, lies outside

the Persian Gulf and is easilyaccessed from India's westerncoast, bypassing Pakistan.

"In a strategic development,

loading and unloading of cargohas started at Chabahar Port.Container transport logisticcost to CIS countries will bereduced by 20 per cent through

Chabahar. So far, cargo to CIScountries from India could besent only via China or Europe,"Shipping Minister Mandaviyatold PTI.

"If we want to send contain-ers to CIS countries we canonly send via Europe or China.There was no other connectiv-ity with CIS countries. Now, wehave developed Chabahar portand there is direct connectiv-ity to these countries viaAfghanistan," the minister said.

Transshipment of cargostarted last week at ChabaharPort, he added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Biotechnology major Bioconaims to list its biosimilar unitin the next two-three yearsdepending upon market con-ditions, as per the company'sAnnual Report for 2019-20.

Sharing information withthe firm's shareholders, BioconCEO and Managing DirectorSiddharth Mittal said it isimportant for the company tounlock value of the biosimilarsbusiness.

"We intend to list BioconBiologics on the Indian capi-tal markets in the next two tothree years. However, it would

be early to comment on specif-ic IPO timelines as it is depen-dent on business performanceand market conditions," Mittal

noted. The Bengaluru-basedcompany had hived off itsbiosimilars division into a sep-arate unit — Biocon Biologics— in March 2019.

The subsidiary, with its owndedicated infrastructure, nowtakes care of development,manufacturing and commer-cialisation of the biosimilarssegment.

A biosimilar is a biologicmedical product highly simi-lar to another already approvedbiological medicine.

Lamborghini India banks on healthy order book

PNS n NEW DELHI

HMD Global, which sellsNokia brand of mobilephones, is betting on itsFinnish lineage and focus onsecurity to succeed in theIndian market where it com-petes against rivals likeXiaomi, Samsung and oth-ers.

The company, whose line-up includes both smart-phones and feature phones,also sees resilience in theIndian market and said salesnumbers are inching towardsthose in pre-COVID time.

"We are the only Europeanmobile phone brand. Wehave a simple idea at the coreof our operations that mobiletechnology can improve thelives of everyone around theworld...We believe that everyNokia phone is built uponthe foundations of security,reliability, and dependabili-ty," HMD Global VicePresident Sanmeet Kochharsaid.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Indian drug firms like Lupin,Marksans Pharma,Aurobindo Pharma andAlembic Pharmaceuticals arerecalling products in the USmarket, as per the latestenforcement report by the USFood and DrugAdministration (USFDA).

While Lupin and MarksansPharma are recalling dia-betes drug, Aurobindo andAlembic are recalling psychi-atric medication in the US

market.As per the latest enforce-

ment report, the US based-arm of Lupin is recalling6,540 bottles of MetforminHydrochloride extended-release tablets USP, 500 mg,due to CGMP (Current GoodManufacturing Practice)deviations. The US healthregulator said it detected N-Ni t r o s o d i m e t hy l a m i n e(NDMA) impurity above theacceptable intake level inproduct of both the compa-nies.

Aim to list biosimilar arm overthe next 2-3 years: Biocon

Good startcoal blocksauction

HMD Globalbets onFinnish roots

PNS n NEW DELHI

The auction process of com-mercial coal mining wit-nessed a "very good start" andthe response has been thebest in domestic coal history,Coal Minister Pralhad Joshihas said.

A total of 1,140 entities,including international play-ers, participated in the tech-nical session after the launchof sale of blocks, and 26companies bought tenderdocuments and 10 firms -domestic and foreign -evinced interest in the visit ofmines, he added.

The statement assumes sig-nificance in the wake ofapprehensions of theJharkhand government thatinvestors will not come forthe auction of commercialcoal mining due to coron-avirus pandemic.

"We launched commercialcoal mining on June 18.Prime Minister has blessedthis occasion.

Puravankarato launch 11projectsPNS n MUMBAI

Bengaluru-based realtorPuravankara Group, plans tolaunch 11 residential projectswith a total saleable area ofaround 10.23 million sqftthis fiscal, even as theCOVID-19 pandemic contin-ues to impact the sector.

The company, whichalready launched two projectsin the first quarter of the fis-cal, plans to launch a total ofsix projects under thePurvanakara luxury brandand five under the Providentaffordable housing brand.

However, there is demandfor projects that offer theright size, right price andright location, and we are see-ing a good response for that,"company's managing directorAshish Puravankara said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Finance Ministry's deci-sion to levy 1 per cent penal-ty on government depart-ments and agencies fordelayed payments to ven-dors selling goods on GeMplatform will assure timelypayments to them, particular-ly MSME players, a top offi-cial said.

Last week, the Departmentof Expenditure stated thatgovernment departments andagencies, procuring goodsand services from the govern-ment e-marketplace (GeM)platform, will have to pay 1per cent interest on late pay-ments made to vendors.

Welcoming the decision,GeM Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Talleen Kumar saidone of the biggest complaintsfrom sellers on GeM wasdelayed payments by govern-ment buyers.

"This has now beenresolved through a historicstep by the ministry offinance. All those who sell onGeM can now be assured oftimely payments," Kumartold PTI.

The government has beenrepeatedly emphasising onthe need for prompt paymentto vendors, especially theMSME vendors.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Hospitality major IndianHotels Company Ltd (IHCL)said it is adaptable to disrup-tive challenges and has defineda five-point strategy to navigatethrough the current challeng-ing times. "With a 116-yearlegacy honed by Tata values,

our ability to consistently deliv-er industry-leading growthwhile maintaining profitabili-ty and balance sheet strength,combined with our businesssense and thrift, makes usresilient to disruptive chal-lenges," IHCL MD and CEOPuneet Chhatwal said in thecompany's Annual Report for

2019-20. "This will not onlycater to the rapidly changingmarket conditions, shiftinggovernment policies anddynamic customer needs, butwill also focus on re-imaginingbusiness models, implement-ing various operational excel-lence interventions requiredfor safety and hygiene.

Experts said thenew guidelinesprovide flexibilityto promoters andpromoter groupentities to attractinvestors for theircompanies

Decision to levypenalty willyield results

Indian drug firms recallproducts in US market

R C Bhargava

Maruti Suzuki chairman pensbook on industrialising India

Mansukh Lal Mandaviya

Chabahar port,located in theSistan-Balochistanprovince at energy-rich Iran's southerncoast, lies outsidethe Persian Gulf

‘Supplying to CIS countries will save logistic cost’

‘Rural markets faringbetter than urban centres’

COVID 19 RISKS JOB SECURITY

The lockdown called due to thenovel Coronavirus has brought

with it a host of problems. While itmay not have killed the virus

completely, it sure did killhundreds of jobs. The Pioneer's

SHIKHA DUGGAL talks toemployers and employees of

several organisations across the cityto find how they're faring

everal organisa-tions haveannounced lay-offs, salary cutsare beings givenon slab basis

since it has been gettingextremely difficult for com-panies to pay salaries totheir employees. This seemsto be the norm for the nextfew months as companiesfight for their own survivalwith the novel Coronavirus.

Gautam Kumar, directorof Human Resources atSKF India Ltd., says thatthere is a liquidity crunchand that’s the bitter truth.“Although there are somesectors like the automo-biles, that are runningtowards progress, overallthere’s a demand for con-traction. There are issuesaround cost-management,”feels Gautam.

According to reports,over 73 per cent of employ-ers said they have plans todecrease the salary of

employees, 57 per cent saidthe layoff is temporary,while 21 per cent said theirlayoffs are permanent for atleast the next two years.

“Rural employment hasgone up, food security isone of the fundamentalprinciples of economy andthe entire shoot for econo-my begins from agriculture.However, transportation ofgoods is still a prevalentproblem. I completelyempathise with all thosewho have lost their jobsdue to the pandemic,” saysMuthukumar Thanu, thechief HR officer at TAFE.

The lockdown may nothave killed the virus, but itsure did kill hundreds ofjobs. Crossing sectorial bar-riers has hurt employees inall industries.

“Paying an EMI isbecoming a problem, also Ihave to compromise on myentertainment relaxations.These are very generalproblems yet these are tur-

bulent times and trouble-some enough,” says Jyotsna,an employee of media man-agement at a renownedphotography business inHyderabad. From main-stream companies likeReliance industries,TEGNA to Ola, Uber,Swiggy, etc., all haveenforced pay cuts.

Srinivas Reddy, the direc-tor of Met Life GlobalOperations believes it’s acrisis within a crisis andpayments are being termi-nated.

“It’s a financial challengefor many of us, we are los-ing out on our incomes sohow do we handle thosefeelings is a prime question.Businesses are droppingdramatically and it’s gettingharder to live on paycheckto paycheck,” shares thedirector.

Life will change again, itmay be a long haul buthopefully, we can keep oursense of balance.

S

Rural employment hasgone up, foodsecurity is one ofthe fundamentalprinciples of economyand the entire shoot foreconomy begins fromagriculture. However,transportation of goodsis still a prevalentproblem.

MUTHUKUMAR THANUCHIEF HR OFFICER AT TAFE

It’s a financial challengefor many of us, we arelosing out on ourincomes so how do wehandle those feelings isa prime question.Businesses aredropping dramaticallyand it’s getting harderto live on paycheck topaycheck.

SRINIVAS REDDYDIRECTOR OF MET LIFE

GLOBAL OPERATIONS

EXPERIMENTALENVIRONMENTto boost clinical research in India

ocusing on key fac-tors that will posi-tively influence theeffectiveness of theentire health careimplementation

process, FICCI FLOHyderabad chapter orga-nized a webinar on thetopic — Towards a newhealthy.

Noted corporatedenizens such as thePresident of Federation ofIndian Chambers ofCommerce & Industries,Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw,ExecutiveChairpersonBioconLimited, Sangita Reddy,Joint Managing Director ofApollo HospitalsEnterprises, andDeepanwitaChattopadhyay, Chairman& CEO — IKP KnowledgePark participated in thewebinar.

Speaking about clinicaltrials and why we needthem in India, today, KiranMazumdar-Shaw said, “ForIndia, it presents a greatopportunity. But it requiresmeticulous attention todetail. It’s a huge job cre-ator, value driver, and leadsto innovation at the end of

it. Because it creates a verystrong experimental envi-ronment and ecosystem inIndia so that you can startconducting clinical trialson new molecules, drugs,or new therapies, new regi-mens. I think what we needto focus on is the clinicalresearch part of it. Peoplemust be interested inresearching new concepts,new therapies, and newdrugs; then you will createan explosion of new ideasand translational research,so I hope that we can lever-age this. Today, we are talk-ing about developing newvaccines, about developingnew therapies, about plas-ma therapy, we need to doall of that, in a very strin-gent research mode. It’sabout understanding thescience and the regulatoryscience aspect of how weare doing clinical research.”

Talking about howimportant it is to integratetechnology into healthcare,Sangita Reddy said, “Thepower of technology is thatit can help us optimise ourprocesses, enable access,collate and synthesiseKnowledge so that theapplication of that

Knowledge can be replica-ble. It deeply impacts thethree significant tenets ofhealthcare, which is —accessible healthcare foreveryone, quality health-care, and affordable health-care. If we merge and usetechnology in the rightmanner, we can make a sig-nificant difference.However, technology is notthe single panacea; rightnow, telemedicine exists, yetthere are examples where itis not accessible. There isno reason why every prima-ry healthcare system in thiscountry should not have atelemedicine facility.However, there is a need tostrengthen Primary HealthCare; we need to incorpo-rate technology into it, cre-ate a standard-base acrossthe country.”

Usharani Manne,Chairperson, FICCI FLO,Hyderabad chapter,Founder-Director, PolmonInstruments Pvt. Ltd. saidthe organisation wasdelighted to have gotten theopportunity to host illustri-ous speakers such as KiranMazumdar-Shaw, SangitaReddy, and DeepanwitaChattopadhyay.

She added, “It wasenlightening to hear fromthem, the challenges andlearnings from the currentcrisis, and how they pro-vide a critical opportunityfor us to understand theunderpinnings of a large-scale transformative changein our healthcare industry.”

Speaking about howstart-ups in healthcare areplaying a key role,Deepanwita said,“Knowledge in one domainthat does not necessarilygive a solution for complexproblems. Medical start-upsneed to appreciate this fact.Many a time, I see start-ups, engineers are workingin domains like healthcarewithout any clinician onboard. We need a conver-gence of expertise,Knowledge and we needteams that can deliver.These kinds of networks,and interconnectedness, isextremely important. Ourrole as science parks orincubators is to bring theseelements together. This isthe way start-ups can deliv-er. They need to learn frompeers, mentors, experts inmultiple domains. It’s allabout working together.”

A nomad's journey through

bright watercoloursn interestingvisual travelogueshowcasing thehistories andcultures of vari-ous lands, has

come alive as an onlineexhibition by the IndiaInternational Centre (IIC),featuring the works of a tal-ented self-taught artist andillustrator.

An exhibition to celebrateand remember PremolaGhose (1953-2019), theCentre's programme divi-sion chief for four decadesand a prolific author, thisonline show titled ‘ANomad’s Journey: Travelswith Premola’ is free to viewtill July 12.

An avid traveller, withcuriousity about the histo-ries and cultures of thepeople and countries shevisited, Ghose madefriends easily with thelocals, getting lost in littlebookstores and discovering

cafes and lesser known sitesalong the way. A wonderfulstoryteller, travel tales werealways linked with vividmemories of food.

Her bright paintings —which have at their core a‘gang’ of animals — takesviewers through the sim-plicity of a calm water-body, as well as thegrandeur of a magnificentpalace. From vast land-scapes to intricate architec-tural details, and a glimpseof the people she sawaround herself — the lateartist has something foreveryone.

Her paintings on displayreflect a keen sense ofobservation for details,colour, texture and light.The exhibition presents aselection of thirty water-colour paintings on travelcreated by her from 1996 to2018. Most of the works onview have not been exhibit-ed before.

A

F

MondayJuly 6, 2020

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

merican rapperKanye West hasannounced his bidfor the US presiden-tial election slated totake place in Nove-

mber and has received backingfrom Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Taking to Twitter onSaturday, West wrote, “We must

now realise the promise ofAmerica by trusting God,

unifying our vision andbuilding our future. I

am running forpresident of the

UnitedStates...

#2020VISION.”Replying to the tweet, Musk

said, “You have my full support.”His wife, reality TV star Kim

Kardashian had little to sayimmediately after the newsbroke, but showed her supportby tweeting an American Flagemoji in response.

It was not immediately clearwhich party the 21-timeGrammy winner wouldpick in his apparent chal-lenge to PresidentDonald Trump and pre-sumptive Democraticnominee Joe Biden.

The rapper hassparked speculation overthe years that he wouldpotentially enter the presi-dential race one day, most

recently in November 2019,when he said he planned torun in 2024, said a DailyMail report on Sunday.

While there is no officialdeadline to enter the presiden-tial race, candidates must meetcertain filing requirementsunder Ballot Access Laws that

vary by state.The deadline to add indepen-

dent candidates to the ballothas not yet passed in manystates, including California.

In October 2018, West infa-mously

revealed his support for Trumpfollowing a Twitter rant.

Soon after, he paid a visit toTrump himself at the WhiteHouse, wearing the President’strademark “Make America

Great Again” hat and delivereda speech in which he discussedalternate universes and hisdiagnosis of bipolar disorder,which he said was actually sleepdeprivation, the Daily Mailadded.

Speaking to a crowd ofreporters in the Oval Office, headded the hat was like aSuperman cape and said thatTrump made him a billionaire.

Meanwhile, KimKardashian has also met thePresident on more than oneoccasion lobbying for crimi-nal justice reform.

With just Trump andBiden in the race as of now,

opinion polls have shown theformer Vice President with analmost double-digit lead overthe incumbent President as theNovember 3 election looms.

A poll published on June 26indicated that Trump’s approvalratings were at their worst level(40 per cent) following protestsagainst police brutality in theUS and amid a surge in coron-avirus cases in the country.

10

Vijayawada Monday July 6 2020 what’s brewing?

A

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

ilmmaker Ram Madhwanihas announced season twoof Sushmita Sen-starrerseries Aarya and said thesecond installment will seethe titular character facing

new obstacles.The Disney+Hotstar series, an offi-

cial remake of popular Dutch crime-drama Penoza, revolves around AaryaSareen, played by Sen, a happily mar-ried woman whose world turnsupside down when her husband isshot.

She gets to know that he may havebeen involved in an illegal drug rack-et which now threatens her family.

The show co-created by Madhwaniand Sandeep Modi marked Sen’sreturn to the screen, a decade afterher last Hindi film No Problem.

During an Instagram live sessionon Saturday, Sen asked Madhwani

about the future of Aarya’s characterand if she would get “more danger-ous.”

“Does she take control in seasontwo? Let’s look at like this, why is itthat the audience has loved Aarya somuch? It’s because of what she wants:to leave the business and protect herchildren. She then pays the price ofwhat she wants. Now in season two,what will she want... the obstacles weare going to put in her way, so thatyou can root for her more. Watch outfor season two,” Madhwani saidrevealing that the team is alreadyworking on an idea for the show’ssophomore run.

Aarya premiered last month andwas well-received for its taut narrativeand effective performances. The sea-son one also featured ChandrachurSingh, Namit Das, ManishChaudhary and Sikander Kher.

F

Sushmita Sen, RamMadhwani announce

season two of ‘Aarya'

nown formovies likeThe Fighter,The Departedand PatriotsDay, Mark

Wahlberg credits hisdaughter for changinghim and the actor sayshe’s now more “respect-ful” towards women.

Wahlberg has childrenElla, 16, Michael, 14,Brendan, 11, and Frace,10, with his wife RheaDurham.

“My firstborn being agirl completely changedme. I have friends withonly boys and they’ll belike, ‘Check that out’ or‘Look at her’ and I’ll say,‘Dude, have somerespect, that’s some-body’s daughter,”Wahlberg told Men’sHealth magazine, reportsfemalefirst.co.uk.

The actor says hewants his children to fol-low their passions.

He said, “I’m sittingacross from my son justyesterday and I’m like,‘Dude if you don’t workhard in school right now, you will regret itlater. You always give it110 percent then you’llnever have to live withregret.’ I’m speaking from experience. I’ve

got to instil that ethic, ifyou want to make some-thing happen, the onlyway to do that is to rollup your sleeves and dothe work. What I want togive them is the driveand desire to find outwhat they’re passionateabout and go and be thebest version of them-selves.”

He added, “Maybe onewill want to go into act-ing, others may want totake over one of thesecompanies we’re build-ing. And one may say, ‘Iwant to be a professionalskateboarder’.”

The actor says hedoesn’t want to force hischildren to go to churchevery Sunday with himbut he hopes his faithinspires them.

He added, “My faithand all that ways heavyon me too, in a goodway, to inspire them. Idon’t force them to go tochurch with me everySunday. And this is thefirst time I haven’t gonesince my wife has knownme in 19 years. Theyknow that’s the mostimportant thing for Dad,that’s how he starts hisday, every day. So hope-fully those things willrub off them.”

Mark Wahlberg:My firstborn beinga girl completelychanged me

K

Kanye West announces bidfor US presidential election

11VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 6, 2020

AFP n BERLIN

Robert Lewandowski passed the 50-goal mark this season as BayernMunich completed the double

with a 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusenbehind closed doors to win a 20thGerman Cup on Saturday.

Bundesliga champions Bayern dom-inated at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium asDavid Alaba smashed home an earlyfree-kick before Serge Gnabry added thesecond goal in the first half.

Lewandowski has 51 goals in totalthis season after scoring twice in the sec-ond half either side of a Sven Benderheader for Leverkusen.

Kai Havertz converted a penaltydeep into added time for Leverkusen.

“In the second half we showed thatwe are the better team and wanted to becup winners,” said man-of-the-matchLewandowski.

Bayern, crowned Bundesliga cham-pions for the eighth straight year lastSaturday, have won all of their 11games since the season resumedin mid-May after a two-monthshiatus due to the coronavirus.

They could finish the seasonwinning the treble as they areamong the favourites for theChampions League finals inLisbon next month.

This was the 13th time in the club’s

history they have won the double.Lewandowski, crowned Bundesliga

top-scorer for the fifth time last week-end, netted six times in the cup,has 34 league goals and 11 morein the Champions League this sea-son.

Leverkusen completed a hat-trick of defeats after also losing the2002 and 2009 cup finals in Berlin.

When Lewandowski was clat-tered by defender Edmond Tapsoba on

16 minutes, it was Alaba who swung theresulting free-kick inside the post to giveBayern the opening goal.

They doubled their lead after JoshuaKimmich won the ball in midfieldeight minutes later.

His pass split the defence, Gnabrysprinted onto the ball and fired pastLeverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradeckyto make it 2-0 at the break.

UNDER CCONTROL“We are so happy that we got the

double. In the first half we had the gamecompletely under control,” said Gnabry.

With players’ calls echoing aroundthe near-empty terraces of the cavernousstadium, where Germany head coachJoachim Low was one of a handful ofguests, the game was played in an eerieatmosphere.

“It’s a bit of a sad moment,” admit-ted Bayern forward Thomas Mueller,who lamented the lack of fans, after win-ning the German Cup for the sixth timein his career. “If the fans are missing atsuch a cup final, it’s not the same.

“We’ve done well this season overlong stretches, but it also hurts a bit.”

Having skied a shot at goal momentsearlier, Lewandowski made it 3-0 whenhe controlled a clearance kick by goal-keeper Manuel Neuer and tried a long-range speculative shot at Hradecky.

The Leverkusen keeper parried theshot, but watched in horror as it rolledbehind him and over the goal line on 59minutes.

It fired life into Leverkusen, whosecentre-back Sven Bender slipped hismarker Leon Goretzka and headedhome on 64 minutes.

Leverkusen nearly got a secondmoments later when Kevin Volland andHavertz both failed to connect with across.

Lewandowski claimed his secondwhen he fired home Ivan Perisic’s passon 89 minutes.

Bayern defender Alphonso Daviesconceded the penalty in the fourthminute of added time which Havertzconverted just before the whistle.

AFP n BILABO

Sergio Ramos scored his22nd consecutive penalty

on Sunday as Real Madridheld on for another 1-0 winover Athletic Bilbao to inchcloser to winning La Liga.

Ramos’ fifth goal in sevengames since the restart givesMadrid a seven-point leadover Barcelona, who play laterat in-form Villarreal.

Anything but a victory forBarca would probably leavethem too much to do withfour games remaining, espe-cially as Madrid own thesuperior record head-to-head.

This was Madrid’s tough-est fixture left and they mighthave been content even witha point against a robust, well-organised Bilbao side.

But after edging out

Getafe on Thursday, througha Ramos spot-kick, Madridrepeated the trick at SanMames, their captain’s nervefrom the spot combining witha gutsy display to grind out apivotal win.

Ramos was perhaps fortu-nate not to concede a penal-ty himself when, off the ball,he seemed to slip andtread on the foot of RaulGarcia, but Madridescaped.

Instead, the defend-er’s 10th goal of the sea-son, the best tally of hiscareer, gave Madrid their third1-0 win in a row, as well as afourth consecutive clean sheet.

“It’s a massive win,” saidRamos. “We knew today wasgoing to be one of the biggestgames that we have left. It’salways a difficult game away

at Bilbao and we saw it likethat. We’re happy with anoth-er crucial three points that putmore pressure on Barcelona.”

Ramos said he is alwaysconfident on penalties.

“In those moments ofdoubt that’s when I feel mostcomfortable. I wanted to takethe responsibility,” he said.

“But if I wanted individ-ual recognition I wouldplay tennis.”

Bilbao’s Iker Munainsaid Madrid had againbeen lucky with deci-sions.

“We’re not going to win itthanks to the referees,” saidRamos. “People have to lookat themselves and be critical oftheir own performances.Based on the points, it seemswe’re doing well at themoment.”

PTI n NEW DELHI

It’s been six months since he struck IPLgold with a record-breaking bid but

Australian pace spearhead Pat Cumminssays his life hasn’t changed one bit becausehe has never been the sort to be too affect-ed by either success or failure.

The world No 1 Test bowler wasbought by Kolkata Knight Riders for arecord ` 15.5 crore, making him the high-est paid foreign player in the history of theleague.

“I would like to think my life doesn’tchange much at all,” Cummins said whenasked about the impact of the headline-grabbing event last December.

“I try my best in every game I play butI try to not let any successes or setbackschange my life too much,” the 27-year-oldadded.

Asked whether the high of that day hasfaded away, he said, “Not really.”

“May be, once I get over there to play,”added the star bowlers.

A lot of cricketers have had changedpriorities since the advent of private T20leagues but Cummins is a chip off the oldblock who, like India skipper Virat Kohli,values the Test format.

“I grew up watching and loving Testcricket and nothing has changed. I think itis the most challenging format because ittests your skill, stamina, mental strength,”he explained.

“Each and every Test win is incrediblysatisfying,” said Cummins, who has 143wickets from 30 Tests at an impressive aver-age of 21.82.

PTI n JOHANNESBURG

White-ball skipperQuinton de Kock

was named the men’s crick-eter of the year at CricketSouth Africa’s (CSA) annu-al awards ceremony, heldvirtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 27-year-old also bagged the Testcricketer of the year whileyoung opener LauraWolvaardt took home thewomen’s cricketer of theyear and ODI cricketer ofthe year awards. Pacer

Lungi Ngidi was namedODI and T20 player of theyear while David Miller wasvoted the fans’ favouriteplayer. Anrich Nortje, whomade his Test debut inIndia and took a five-for inthe Test series againstEngland, was adjudged theInternational men’s new-comer of the year. ShabnimIsmail took home thewomen’s T20 player of theyear with left-arm spinnerNonkululeko Mlaba wasrecognised as the women’snewcomer of the Year.

PTI nMANCHESTER

Pacer Kemar Roach feels theupcoming series against

England is equivalent to theAshes for the West Indies teamwhich will look to defend thetrophy it won at home last year.

West Indies had handedJoe Root’s men a 2-1 defeat whenEngland travelled to theCaribbeans last year and Roachsaid the visiting team wants toemulate that result in the three-match series starting Wednesday

at Ageas Bowl.“We were relentless and it

set the tone. Everyone put in and

we’re looking to emulate thathere. Taking the trophy backhome to the Caribbean is thenumber one goal,” Roach wasquoted as saying by TheGuardian.

“Winning in England wouldbe perfect but it’s about defend-ing the trophy. This is ourbiggest series, like the Ashes forus, so it’s about getting into thatzone,” he added.

Roach ended as the leadingwicket-taker with 18 scalps inthe last series between the twosides.

AGENCIES n ROME

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was ontarget again as Milan beat

Lazio 3-0 at Stadio Olimpico toderail their opponents'Scudetto hopes.

Juve moved seven pointsclear at the summit with a4-1 win over rivals Torinoearlier on Saturday andLazio were unable to closethe gap in their game inhand.

Lazio had not lost in 16home games since September2017 but were two down athalf-time - Ibrahimovic scor-ing a penalty after setting upHakan Calhanoglu for theopener.

Ante Rebic added a thirdfor Europe-chasing Milan inthe second half as Lazio, with-out leading goalscorer CiroImmobile, fell to just a secondloss in 25 league matches.

Calhanoglu continued hisgood form since the restart byopening the scoring after 23minutes, the midfielder's strikedeflecting off Marco Parolo tohelp it over Thomas Strakosha.

Ibrahimovic had a goalruled out for offside but did nothave to wait long to scorefrom the penalty spot afterAlexis Saelemaekers’ crossstruck Stefan Radu’s hand.

Strakosha got a hand to thespot-kick 11 minutes before

the break but it squirmedunder his body to leaveLazio, who recoveredfrom a goal down tobeat Fiorentina in mid-week, with a big moun-

tain to climb.Manuel Lazzari thought

that he had started a second-half comeback when he drilledhome, only for the offside flagto deny him, and further mis-ery followed when Rebic addeda third goal.

The Croatia internationaltook Giacomo Bonaventura’spass in his stride and sweptpast Strakosha for his ninthleague goal of the season.

Milan should have addeda fourth late on but TheoHernandez missed a sitter,having earlier been denied byStrakosha following an impres-sive run.

AFP n LONDON

Ross Barkley set up the openinggoal before scoring himself late

in the game as Chelsea eased past rel-egation-threatened Watford in a 3-0win to consolidate fourth place in thePremier League.

The England midfielder playedin Olivier Giroud to score in the 28thminute and put Chelsea ahead at avirtually empty Stamford Bridge onSaturday.

Willian converted a penalty inthe 43rd minute after ChristianPulisic was fouled to make it 2-0,before Barkley finished off a flowingteam move involving Pulisic andCesar Azpilicueta with a rasping fin-ish high into the net in second-halfstoppage time.

Chelsea bounced back from asurprising loss at West Ham in mid-week with a third win in four match-es since the return of the league aftera three-month suspension because ofthe coronavirus outbreak.

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea stayeda point behind third-place Leicester

and two clear of fifth-placeManchester United in the race forChampions League qualification.

Fifth place will be enough toqualify for the Champions Leaguethis season if second-placeManchester City fails with itsappeal to overturn a two-yearEuropean ban imposed by UEFA.

The result of the appeal isimminent.

Watford stayed one pointand one place clear of the rel-egation zone with five gamesremaining, and is yet to winsince the restart.

Earlier, Wolverhampton’s pursuitof a first-ever qualification for the

Champions League received a set-back after a 2-0 loss to Arsenal.

Goals from Bukayo Saka, a high-ly rated 18-year-old midfielder, in the43rd minute and substituteAlexandre Lacazette in the 86thensured Wolves dropped points forthe first time since the restart of theleague, with Nuno Espirito Santo’steam having previously recordedthree straight wins.

It meant Wolves lost ground onChampions League qualificationrivals Leicester and ManchesterUnited, who both won earlierSaturday.

With a fifth-place finish earninga spot in Europe’s top competition,all is not lost for sixth-place Wolvesthough they cannot afford manymore slip-ups in their remaining fiveleague games.

After back-to-back defeats fol-lowing the resumption, Arsenal hasnow won three straight games to riseto seventh — three points behindWolves. A finish in sixth will earn theteam a berth in the Europa Leaguenext season, as may seventh.

Bayern Munich players celebrate with the DFB-Pokal trophy after they beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in the final on Saturday AP

20 IN 2020Lewandowski crosses 50-goal mark as BayernMunich beat Leverkusen to win DFB-Pokal title

Sergio Ramos hugs Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema after scoring from penalty spot RMFC/Twitter

Pin-point Ramos holds nerve againReal opens up 7 point lead over Barca after seventh straight win

Pat Cummins in action for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL

Cummins remains unaffectedby record-breaking IPL bid

CHELSEA BACK IN TOP 4

Inzaghi's side misses Immobile in0-3 home defeat against Milan

Lazio’s Scudettohopes all but over

De Kock wins SA Cricketerof the Year award

England tour is likeAshes for us: Roach

Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates with Giacomo Bonaventura after scoring AP

American rapper Kanye West, a vocal supporter of USPresident Donald Trump, announced on Saturday that he

would run for president in 2020 in an apparent challenge toTrump and his presumptive Democratic rival, former VicePresident Joe Biden. "We must now realize the promise ofAmerica by trusting God, unifying our vision and building ourfuture. I am running for president of the United States," Westwrote in a Twitter post, adding an American flag emoji and thehashtag "#2020VISION". It was not immediately clear if West wasserious about vying for the presidency four months before theNovember 3 election or if he had filed any official paperwork toappear on state election ballots. Thedeadline to add independentcandidates to the ballot has notyet passed in many states. Westand his equally famous wife KimKardashian West have visitedTrump in the White House. ElonMusk, the chief executiveof electric-car makerTesla and anothercelebrity known foreccentric outbursts,endorsed West'sTwitter post: "Youhave my full support!"he wrote.

Meet the man with the‘golden mask'

Soon, fly to the ‘edge of space’If space tourism is in your bucket list, here comes some news

that will excite you. A Florida-based start-up is working towardssending people to the edge of space beneath a football stadium-sized high-performance balloon and pressurised capsule. Thishuman space flight company, Space Perspective, recentlyannounced plans to launch from the Shuttle Landing Facility atNASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, with the first un-crewed test flightscheduled in early2021 that willinclude a suite ofresearch payloads.The vehicle in whichit plans to sendpassengers to theedge of spacefollowing the un-crewed test flight iscalled the SpaceshipNeptune. "We'recommitted tofundamentallychanging the waypeople have access to space - both to perform much-neededresearch to benefit life on Earth and to affect how we view andconnect with our planet," Space Perspective Founder and Co-CEOJane Poynter, said in a statement.

In a unique incident, a Pune based businessman has gothimself a gold mask worth Rs 2.90 lakh in the time of the

COVID-19 pandemic raging across Maharashtra. The manhaving the costliest mask is Shankar Kurade who hails fromPimpri-Chinchwad town. Kurade is a connoisseur of the yellowmetal. His pictures of him went viral on social media and isgetting shocking reactions from people. Meanwhile, Kuradesaid that though it had minute holes to breathe and wascomfortable to wear, he was unsure if it provided any safetyagainst the deadly virus.The mask is made ofthin gold leaf along withgolden threads to tie itand the cost is roughlyequivalent to the cost ofover 175,000 ordinarydisposable masks ormore than 700 PPEs inthe market. Maharashtrahas many such men in itslist who are passionateabout gold and Kurade`sgolden mask is anotheraddition to it. Few otherpeople are Pankaj Parakh of Nashik owns a 4.10 kg pure goldshirt costing over Rs 1.30 crore which earned him a place inthe Guinness World Records.

MostRead

Tamil filmmaker Anandopens grocery store

Kanye West announces US Presidential bid

With disruption in the film business due to the coronaviruscrisis, a Chennai-based film director Anand opened up a

grocery store to make his ends meet during the pandemic. Afterbeing in the Tamil film industry for over 10 years, Anand had beenhoping to return to the film industry until he realised that themovie theatres in the country willremain shut until the next year.Using his savings, the directorrented in a building from hisclose friend and started a grocerystore in Chennai's Mowlivakkam."During the lockdown period, Iwas simply confined within myhouse. When I came to know thatonly grocery and provision shopshave been allowed to open inTamil Nadu, I decided to openone. I sell all products includingoil, pulses, rice and that too at a very less price to get morebuyers. I am happy," Anand said. When asked about what

prompted him to take the decision of ditching filmmaking andopening a grocery store, the director said, "I don't see thefuture of unlocking film industry this year because firstlypeople's fear has to go away." "Movie theatres will open onlyafter opening up of malls, parks, and beaches. We only have acareer after that, until them I will be here at my grocery store,"

he added.

NEWS

elugu superstar starAllu Arjun took tosocial media toshare the momentof his daughter Arhataking baby steps.

“Happiness lies in babysteps,” he wrote on Instagramalong with a picture of hisdaughter.

In the photograph, Arha canbe seen sitting on a staircase.She wears a lemon yellowfrock, has her hair open, andflahses a smile.

Recently, Allu Arjun's follow-er base on Instagram hit theseven-million mark.

“7 Million followers. Thankyou all for the love. Gratitude for-ever,” wrote the actor, thanking his

fans.Allu Arjun is one of the highest-

followed South Indian stars on socialmedia. The actor has over 13 millionfollowers on his official Facebook page.

On the work front, Allu Arjun’s lastrelease, the Trivikram Srinivas-directori-al Ala Vaikuntha-purramuloo, which hittheatres in January this year, and was asuperhit at the box office. The Telugufilm also featured Tabu and PoojaHegde.

Allu Arjun will next be seen in theTelugu action thriller movie Pushpa,written and directed by Sukumar. Theforthcoming film also stars RashmikaMandanna, Vijay Sethupathi andPrakash Raj. The Telugu film willreportedly be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil,Kannada and Malayalam languages.

n anonymouscaller issued abomb threat toactor TalapathyVijay by calling thepolice control

room on Saturday aroundmidnight. After a couple ofhours of thorough search atthe actor’s residence, policeconcluded that the bombthreat was fake.

A young man with psy-cho-social disabilities

from Marakkanam inVillupuram districtwas identified as thecaller. He was let off

with a warning.“He has made such

calls in thepast toformer

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa,Puducherry Chief MinisterNarayanaswamy andPuducherry Governor KiranBedi. He’d call 100, make ananonymous threat and hangup,” Marakkanam Inspectorwas quoted in the report.

Last month, an unidenti-fied person reportedly issueda bomb threat to actorRajinikanth. It was later con-firmed as a hoax call. Overthe years, several bombthreats have been made toRajinikanth and each time itturned out to be a hoax.

On the career front, Vijaycurrently awaits the release ofhis upcoming Tamil filmMaster. Directed by LokeshKanagaraj, the film starsVijay in the role of a collegeprofessor.

Vijay was last seen onscreen in dual roles in Atleedirected Bigil. He was seenplaying both the father andthe son and both the charac-ters were well received by theaudiences. Bigil, which alsostarred Jackie Shroff andNayanthara, went on to mintaround Rs 290 crore at the

box-office. It emerged as thehighest grossing Tamil

film of 2019.Meanwhile, Vijaywill soon team upwith ARMurugadoss orwith filmmaker

Sudha Kongara forhis next Tamil yet-

untitled project. Talkshave already been initiat-

ed.

ctor Sudheer Babuwent down thememory lane as heshared his schoolpicture in a newpost on social

media.Sudheer took to Instagram

to share the throwback pic-ture of his from his schooldays. In the image he is seenreceiving a medal.

“A nostalgic throwback toNational School Games ...That’s me receiving the run-ner up medal for badminton,”he wrote alongside the image.

Sudheer is a former bad-minton player. He wasranked number one inAndhra Pradesh and hasplayed alongside PullelaGopichand as a doublespartner once.

He madehis act-ing

debut with the film Ye MaayaChesave in 2010and waslater

seen in films like ShivaManasulo Shruti,Mosagaallaku Mosagaadu

and NannuDochukunduvate among

many others. He cur-rently awaits therelease of his nexttitled V.

V is an actionthriller directed byMohan KrishnaIndraganti. Thefilm also featuresNani, NivethaThomas and AditiRao Hydari in thelead roles. V was

scheduled to releasein March, but now has

been pushed due to theoutbreak of coron-

avirus.

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Vijayawada Monday July 6 2020tollywood

Sudheer Babu's‘NOSTALGICTHROWBACK'

Vakeel Saabset for Sankrantirelease?

ans and critics alike areall awaiting Power StarPawan Kalyan’s filmVakeel Saab to hit thescreens but looks like thewait will last longer than

we hoped it to be. Directed byVenu Sriram, the remake ofBollywood blockbuster Pink wassupposed to hit screens this May,but thanks to COVID and theensuing lockdown, the film could-n’t finish its shooting schedules.

Just when the actor-turned-politician’s awaited comeback tothe big screen seemed to becomedistant sources say that the film isgoing to resume shooting thisSeptember. Pawan Kalyan is to fin-ish shooting certain courtroomscenes within 20-days and the film’spost-production phase will start inOctober.

Vakeel Saab is being jointly pro-duced by Dil Raju and BoneyKapoor and are planning to releasethe film for the Sankranthi festiveseason, 2021. It stars biggies likeAnjali, Nivetha Thomas, AnanyaNagalla and Prakash Raj essayingcrucial roles.

F elugu pro-ducer PokuriRama Rao,best knownfor filmssuch as

Ranam and Yagnam,died after testing posi-tive for the coronavirus.He was 65. Accordingto reports, Rama Raowas admitted to a hos-pital after testing posi-tive for coronavirus. Hewas undergoing treat-ment and was on venti-lator support when hebreathed his last.

Nearly 10 monthsago, Rama Rao hadundergone a cardiacsurgery for heart-relat-ed ailments.

Rama Rao’s family isyet to officially confirmthe cause of death.Brother of popular pro-ducer Babu Rao, theyproduced films underthe banner Eetharam

Films. Rama Rao wasknown for his regularcollaborations withactor Gopichand.

Earlier this week,Telugu television actorsNavya Swamy andBoddu Prabhakartested positive.Both of themare currentlyundergoingtreatment.ProducerBandlaGanesh alsotested posi-tive for thecoronaviruslast month.

After experi-encing a mildheadache for three orfour days, Navya gotherself tested followingher doctor’s advice.While she has quaran-tined herself, the castand crew of the showhave also undergone

tests and have reported-ly quarantined them-selves.

“Last night, I cried alot while going home

and

evenuntil early in the morn-ing. I couldn’t sleep. Mymom is still crying. Myphone was busy; I wastalking to a lot of peo-

ple. My WhatsApp wasflooded with messagesabout the symptoms,treatment, and muchmore. It was chaotic. Iwas even feeling guiltythat I put my co-starsand crew in trouble,

too,” Navya was quot-ed in a report by a

popular mediahouse.

Navya alsotook to insta-gram to share avideo about hertesting positivefor COVID-19.

She revealed thatshe’s been eating

healthy and takingcare of herself to build

immunity.Two days back, her

co-star Ravi Krishnatook to social media toannounce that he, too,has been tested positivefor Coronavirus and isunder home quarantine.

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Bomb hoax at actorVijay’s home, policetracks down caller

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That Tollywood super-star NandamuriBalakrishna is work-ing on his soon-to-released film withBoyapati Srinivas is

old news. But here’s what’snew on the grapevine: Thatthe makers of the film aremulling over changing thetitle of the film to‘Superman.’

Yes, you heard it right!According to sources, theworking title of the film wassaid to be ‘Monarch’, whichis in line with his previousfilms like Ruler,Legend,Dictator,Sultan,andLionamongothers.Theactor

is said to be playing a simi-lar, yet a much bigger andheavier role in his upcom-ing film and so the mak-ers thought fit to havethe film called‘Superman.’

Sources say that themakers believe thefilm with such a titlewill do great over-seas thanks to thepopularity of DC’sSuperman. So onlytime will tell if thefilm will come tobe called‘Superman.’

Balayya's next to becalled Superman?

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Allu Arjun sharespic of daughter's

baby steps

Producer PokuriRama Rao diesdue to Covid-19