HYDERABAD, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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MONEY 8OVL ACQUIRES OZ’S FAR LTD STAKE

BLOCK FOR $ 45 MN

ANALYSIS 7A WAKE-UP

CALL

SPORTS 12EXECUTION WAS PERFECT

FROM ALL BOWLERS: ROHIT

}KRACK, A SONG AWAY FROM

COMPLETION

Page 11

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Sensex rallies 316pointsto close at freshpeak

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Tejashwi Yadavgave veterans arun for theirmoney

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KTR rolls out red

carpet for South

Korean companies

HYDERABAD

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putnik Vaccine for Covid-19, being developed by Russia's GamaleyaNational Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, has

demonstrated an efficacy rate of 92 per cent.The confirmation is based onthe first interim data from the largest randomised, placebo-controlledPhase-III clinical trials in Russia involving40,000 volunteers, a press release said. Thetrials evaluated the efficacy among over16,000 volunteers who received the vaccine orplacebo 21 days after the first injection. Thecase split between vaccinated individuals andthose who received the placebo indicating thatthe Sputnik V vaccine had an efficacy rate of92 per cent after the second dose.

‘SPUTNIK V’ VACCINE 92%EFFECTIVE, CLAIM RUSSIANS

SC GRANTS INTERIM BAIL TOARNAB IN ABETMENT CASE

Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal on Wednesday credited PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's welfare policies for the ruling NDA's win in

the assembly polls and said all anti-incumbency claims have beennegated by the mandate for a fourth termto the Nitish Kumar government. He alsomade it clear that Kumar will continue tohead the NDA government in Bihar andasserted that the gap between the numberof seats of BJP and JD(U) will have noimpact on the ruling alliance dynamics inthe state. "Certainly, 100 per cent," Jaiswaltold PTI when asked whether Kumar willremain the chief minister.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said while she agrees withthe Supreme Court's "outrage" on right to liberty, it has been selective

when it comes to Kashmiris. Her remarks came in light of the SupremeCourt's observations while hearing the bail plea of Republic TV editor-in-chiefArnab Goswami. "Agree with SCsoutrage on right to liberty. But sadlythis outrage has been selective asthere are hundreds of Kashmiris &journalists languishing in jails onbaseless charges. Forget court rulingthey didn't even get a hearing. Whyno sense of urgency for their liberty?"Mufti wrote on Twitter.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail tojournalistArnab Goswami in the 2018 abetment to suicide case,

saying it will be a "travesty of justice" if "personal liberty is curtailed".The apex court also expressedconcern over state governmentstargeting individuals on the basis ofideology. The court granted interimbail to two others in the case --Nitish Sarda and Parveen RajeshSingh on personal bond of Rs50,000 each and directed that theyshall not tamper with the evidenceand shall cooperate in the probe.

NITISH TO REMAIN CM,REITERATES BIHAR BJP

SC'S ‘OUTRAGE' ON RIGHT TOLIBERTY SELECTIVE: MEHBOOBA

KCR to counter BJP withlure of nominated postsL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

After the shocking defeat at thehands of BJP in DubbakAssembly by-poll, the TRSleadership has come to a con-clusion that the upcomingGHMC polls will be a battlebetween TRS and BJP and notbetween TRS and Congress.

Accordingly, TRS chief andChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and party'sworking president K T RamaRao are devising strategies forthe civic body elections, keep-ing in mind that BJP will be its

main political rival inTelangana and it has to take onBJP head-on starting fromGHMC polls in January 2021to the December 2023

Assembly polls. After theDubbak debacle, KCR andKTR are learnt to have held areview meeting on Wednesdaywith senior party leaders withfocus on ways to contain thegrowth of the BJP, notwith-standing the Dubbak outcome.

In the meeting, party lead-ers reportedly brought to thenotice of KCR and KTR thatBJP was indulging in"Operation akarsh", aeuphemism used to suggestways of luring disgruntled TRSleaders into the saffron fold, todeal a death blow to TRSahead of the GHMC polls and

to create an impression amongthe public that TRS party wasweakening after Dubbakresults and that negotiationshave already begun with a fewof the TRS leaders.

They pointed out that BJPleaders were trying to poacheven second-rung leaders inGHMC limits, besides TRScorporators who doubt gettingparty tickets in GHMC pollsafter KTR declared that "a fewTRS corporators" would notget party tickets this timebased on their performance.

OPERATION AKARSH Telangana government gamefor drone policing now

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State govern-ment is inclined to introducedrone policing now. MunicipalAdministration & UrbanDevelopment and IT MinisterK T Rama Rao indicated thishere on Wednesday, after inau-gurating India's first and themost advanced integratedTelangana State Police PublicSafety Integrated OperationsCentre.

Drones have so far beenused by the police in someparts of India for crowd man-agement; surveillance andsanitisation amid the Covid-19

pandemic, and to reach out topeople in inaccessible areas.Gujarat, Delhi, Kerala andTamil Nadu police forces haveused drones extensively. InTelangana, the WarangalMunicipal Corporation has

collaborated with a privatecompany to deploy its UAVs(unmanned aerial vehicles)for surveillance and spraying ofinfectants in the city.

PNS n HYDERABAD

As witnessed in all the previ-ous elections, the city is nowfull of posters and hoardingsshowcasing the Telangana gov-ernment's initiatives forHyderabad. Every nook andcorner of the city has beenfilled with information ongovernment schemes, be it onMetro pillars, GHMC hoard-ings or at bus stops. In fact, theonly visible things in the citythese days are these posters

with faces of Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao and TRS

working president K T RamaRao.

The predicament forGHMC is that it can neitherstop ruling party leaders andhyper-active activists fromputting up posters at unautho-rized locations nor can it col-lect fines from those whobrazenly violate rules.Although imposition of fine onruling party leaders is publi-cized, in general the GHMC isnot able to extract a pennyfrom the violators.

1 in 5 Covid survivors gets mental illnessPNS n HYDERABAD

While long Covid complica-tions are actively being treated,nearly one in five Covid-19survivors develop mental ill-ness within three months. Asper a study published in thejournal Lancet Psychiatry, anx-iety, depression, and insomniawere most common amongrecovered Covid -19 patientsassessed in the study and allhad developed mental healthproblems. Moreover, peoplewith pre-existing mental healthconditions are more likely to beprone to Covid -19 than thosewithout.

The analysis, conducted byresearchers of the University ofOxford and NIHR Oxford

Health Biomedical ResearchCentre, was on the basis ofroughly 70 million US healthrecords, including more than62,000 cases of Covid-19 thatdid not require a hospital stayor an emergency departmentvisit.

The research pushes psychi-atric disorder to the list of riskfactors for Covid-19.

Even the state governmenthas realised the importance ofhaving a psychiatrist in allgovernment hospitals.According to officials from

the Health Department, thestate is deploying doctors forthe rehabilitation of patientssuffering from post-Covidsymptoms across all the dis-tricts. Officials indicated thatthis was the direction from theCentral government as sever-al patients were reporting post-traumatic stress disorder(PSTD).

An official said, "After recov-ering from Covid-19, manypatients find themselves endur-ing the post Covid-19 symp-toms. These symptoms mounta challenge in physical andmental well-being and mayprevent the resumption of anormal healthy life.

Kishan warns TRS:Stop vilifying Centre

PNS n HYDERABAD

Union Minister of State forHome Affairs G Kishan Reddysaid on Wednesday that thestate government should stopits "vilification campaignagainst the Centre" with regardto relief efforts taken up in thewake of the October heavyrains and consequent floodingof the city and other areas inthe state. Kishan pointed out that thestate government did not sub-mit a "comprehensive report"on the crop loss in Telangana,though a Central team of offi-cials visited the state to assessthe crop loss due to the recentrains. He accused the stategovernment of "completelyneglecting farmers' welfare".He mentioned that he hadspoken to the state govern-ment officials, but the latterhad failed to give him "a clearpicture".

The Union Minister want-ed Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao to hold areview meeting with officialson the crop loss and thereaftersubmit a report to the Centre.

BANDI : BJP WILL GIVE

‘SANKRANTI GIFT’ TO KCR

HYDERABAD: BJP state unitpresident Bandi Sanjay onWednesday dared Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao toappoint a BC leader as the headof the TRS party and accusedhim of unleashing repression onthe BCs to encourage Muslimswith quota. Passing controver-sial remarks against the ChiefMinister, Bandi Sanjay calledhim a passport broker referringto the CM's past. He said that the BJP defeatedKCR's daughter in NizamabadLok Sabha polls and defeatedthe CM's nephew in theDubbaka by-polls. In fact,Harish Rao shoulderedresponsibility of ensuringvictory of the TRS candidate inDubbaka. He warned the CMthat the TRS would receivesevere drubbing at the hands ofthe BJP in the forthcomingGHMC polls too. He exhortedthe people of the GHMC to takea cue from Dubbaka people andensure victory of the BJP in theGHMC polls.

MIM to contestUP, Bengal pollsPNS n HYDERABAD

Buoyed by the results of BiharAssembly elections, theAIMIM which bagged fiveseats is now looking to spreadits wings to states such as UttarPradesh and West Bengal.

Addressing reporters hereon Tuesday night, MIM's pres-ident Asaduddin Owaisi saidthe party will fight for justicein the eastern state'sSeemanchal region.

Reacting to allegations thathis party was dividing anti-BJPvotes, Owaisi said he was run-ning a political party that hasa right to contest on its own.

"You mean we should notfight elections. You (Congress)went and sat in Shiv Sena's lap(in Maharashtra). If anyoneasks why did you fight theelections... I will fight in WestBengal, Uttar Pradesh andwill fight every election in thecountry…

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The world’s second famous pil-grimage Tirumala was in thenews for all wrong reasons onWednesday after a manclaimed that he received alink to a porn site in his mailinstead of religious materialfrom the Bhakti channel.

The email was allegedly sentby TTD's Sri VenkateswaraBhakti Channel (SVBC) andcarried the link to a porn siteinstead of religious material.

Acting swiftly, the SVBCdismissed from service anemployee discharging duties as

an attender.In a statement, the SVBC

CEO said that action wastaken against the employeeafter a high level inquiry wascompleted.

Earlier, a devotee, identifiedas Venkata Krishna, lodged acomplaint with the TTD chair-man and the EO that he hadrequested details of theShatamana Bhavati pro-gramme through email andwas aghast to find the link toa porn website instead.

The SVBC employee sent aporn link to the devotee fromsb@svbcttd.org.

Reacting swiftly, the TTDTTD Chairman YV SubbaRao and EO, Dr KS JawaharReddy assured severe actionagainst the guilty employees.

HC setback to Govt onSadabainama PNS n HYDERABAD

In a setback to the state gov-ernment, the Telangana HighCourt on Wednesday direct-ed it not to process the6,74,201 applications thatwere received by it afterOctober 29,2020 for regular-ization of unregistered saletransactions (referred to incommon parlance asSadabainama). The HC saidthat it was issuing the orderssince the new revenue lawTelangana Rights in Landand Pattadar Passbooks Acthad come into force fromOctober 29,2020.

SVBC employee sacked forsending porn link to devotee

Online news media,social sites, nowunder govt controlPNS n NEW DELHI

The government has issued anorder bringing online newsportals and content providerssuch as Netflix, AmazonPrime Video and Hotstarunder the Information andBroadcasting ministry. Thenotification, signed byPresident Ram Nath Kovind,was issued on Monday. Thegovernment regulations alsoapply to news on social mediaplatforms such as Facebook,Twitter and Instagram. Films,audio-visuals, and news andcurrent affairs content ononline platforms will comeunder the domain of the min-istry.Until now, there was nolaw or autonomous body gov-erning digital content.ThePress Council of India takescare of the print media, theNews BroadcastersAssociation (NBA) monitorsnews channels, the AdvertisingStandards Council of India is

for advertising while theCentral Board of FilmCertification (CBFC) takescare of films.Last month, theSupreme Court sought thecentre's response on a petitionfor regulating over-the-top orOTT platforms by anautonomous body. The topcourt issued notices to the cen-tre, Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting and Internetand Mobile Association ofIndia.OTT platforms includenews portals and also stream-ing services such as Hotstar,Netflix and Amazon PrimeVideo, which are accessibleover the internet or ride on anoperator's network. OTT/-streaming and different digi-tal media platforms have sure-ly given a way out for filmmakers and artists to releasetheir content without beingworried about getting clear-ance certificates for their filmsand series from the censorboard, the petition said.

Nation's maiden Police Public Safety IntegratedOperations Centre inaugurated

Civic body hits awall when it comesto recovering Rs 43crore in levies andfines imposed forputting upunauthorizedhoardings over twoyears

GHMC fighting a losing battlewith unauthorised billboards

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(IN HYDERABAD)

PNS n HYDERABAD

IT and Industries Minister KTRama Rao on Wednesday par-ticipated in the India-KoreaBusiness Forum. Officials fromIndian Embassy and SouthKorean Embassy along withIndustrialists from SouthKorea participated in the ses-sion. In his opening lines, KTRsaid, "Telangana has enjoyed asuccessful relationship withseveral reputed Korean organ-isations."

"The Government ofTelangana will provide com-plete assistance to the SouthKorean industries who comeforward to invest inTelangana," said KTR whileinteracting with the industryheads at the India-KoreaBusiness Forum.

Talking about the TS-iPASS,KTR stated that Telangana hasits unique and progressive

industrial policy in the form ofTelangana State IndustrialProject Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-iPASS). He also mentionedthat this policy has beenattracting major investments toTelangana and is appreciatedby various industry leadersacross the globe. He stated thatinvestment of about $30 billionhas come to Telangana sinceTS-iPASS came into function-ing. Minister said that

YoungOne, a Korean company,has come forward to invest inTelangana. He also mentionedthat the Government ofTelangana had entered into apartnership with South Korea'sGangwon Techno Park(GWTP) for technology andcluster cooperation in the spaceof med-tech devices. He alsomentioned that Hyundai Indiaset-up their only state-of-the-art R&D Center in Hyderabadwhich is the largest Hyundai

R&D Centre outside Seoul. Assuring complete support,

KTR stated that theGovernment of Telangana willset up a Korea Industrial Parkexclusively for Korean compa-nies which come to Telangana.He sought help from embassyheads of Korea and India andalso the industrialists fromKorea. Minister highlightedthat Telangana has a stable gov-ernment and all other naturalresources suitable for setting upindustries such as availability ofwater and uninterrupted sup-ply of electricity.

Going a step forward, MinisterKTR also stated that Telanganagovernment will provide trainingto the local youth at its own costto provide skilled labour to theKorean companies which comeforward to invest in Telangana.IT and Industries PrincipalSecretary Jayesh Ranjan also par-ticipated in the session.

KTR rolls out red carpet forSouth Korean companies

Big scope for eco, adventuretourism in state, says VinodPNS n HYDERABAD

The Vice-Chairman of StatePlanning Board B VinodKumar on Wednesday met CRajashekhar, IFS OSD (States)of Ministry of External Affairs,during his visit to Delhi.Rajashekhar explained thatPrime Minister NarendraModi directed the Ministry ofExternal Affairs to work withdifferent states so as to ensurebetter coordination andgrowth and relationships ofstates with other countries.

He further pointed out thatthis is a novel initiative of theMinistry of External Affairsand aimed at working syner-gistically with different statesto build effective relationships.Rajashekhar, who hails fromTelangana paid a courtesy visitand discussed the avenues andscope of improving ties andpromote allround progress andprosperity.

Vinod Kumar highlighted

the achievements ofTelangana under the leader-ship of Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao. VinodKumar explained him theprogress of the state in Water,Irrigation, Power, Stabilityof Law and order andimproved ease of DoingBusiness (EODB) and facili-tation and quicker disposalthrough establishingCommercial Courts to reducependency of business litiga-tions. He also stressed theneed to tap the huge tourism

potential of the State ofTelangana, keeping in viewthe great heritage sites andflora and fauna and attractivelocales.

It was also proposed in themeeting that foreign touristfootfalls can be substantiallybe increased which will leadto improving employabilityand entrepreneurship in theTelangana. Rajshekhar, IFSassured Vinod Kumar that ajoint high level meeting ofMinistry of External Affairsand of Telangana can beplanned in this year inHyderabad to develop anaction plan to facilitate bet-ter interaction and interfacewith Ministry of ExternalAffairs. Vinod Kumar alsocongratulated the officer forhis keen interest to workwith the states and hoped thatmany investments possibili-t ies and potentials wil lemerge from these interac-tions.

TS continues to record more recoveriesPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana continues to seemore recoveries from Covid-19than the new cases. Accordingto the health department, 1,745people recovered from theinfection while 1,196 new caseswere detected during the last24 hours. The new infectionspushed the overall tally to2,53,651. Five more peoplesuccumbed to the virus duringthe last 24 hours, taking thedeath toll to 1,390. The state'sfatality rate stands 0.54 per centagainst the national average of1.5 per cent.

The health officials said44.96 per cent deaths were dueto Covid-19 and 55.04 percent due to comorbidities.The cumulative recoverieshave now gone up to 2,34,234.

The recovery rate now standsat 92.34 per cent, slightlylower than the national aver-age of 92.7 per cent. GreaterHyderabad reported less than200 cases. With 192 cases itcontinues to record the high-est number of new infections.

The cases in districts alsoshowed a downward trend.Rangareddy district saw thesecond highest number ofcases at 121 followed byMedchal Malkajgiri (101),Nalgonda (89), BhadradriKothagudem (81),

Karimnagar (73), WarangalUrban (51) and Khammam(42).

The state now has 18,027active cases, of which 15,205are in home or institutionalisolation. According to amedia bulletin by the healthdepartment, a total of 44,635samples were tested during thelast 24 hours and out of them41,600 were conducted in thegovernment-run laboratories.

There are 18 governmentand 47 private laboratoriesconducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENATtests. There are also 1,076Rapid Antigen testing centresrun by the government. Thecumulative number of testsrose to 47,29,401. Samplestested per million populationsurged to 1,27,066.

Tiger killstribal youth inAsifabadPNS n ASIFABAD

A tiger mauled to death atribal youth in Telangana'sKumaram Bheem Asifabaddistrict on Wednesday, forestofficials said.

Sidam Vignesh, 23, wasattacked by the tiger on theoutskirts of Digida village inDahegaon mandal when he,along with his two friends,was going towards the forestwith his cattle for grazing.

The tiger, which wasreportedly hiding behind cot-ton crop, lunged at Vigneshand dragged him into near-by bushes. The youngster'sshocked friends rushed to thevillage and alerted people.

The villagers began thesearch for the youth andfound his badly mauled bodyat some distance.

Forest officials confirmedthe incident. They, however,said an inquiry will be con-ducted to ascertain if theyoungsters provoked the tigerleading to the attack.

An official said since thebig cats in the forest are notunder any stress and neverharmed humans, they aretrying to find the facts.

Some youngsters are saidto be taking photos andvideos of big cats to sharethem on social media plat-form. The forest officials saidsuch action irritate the ani-mal.

GHMC fighting a losing battlewith unauthorised billboards

HC setback to Govt onSadabainama Continued from page 1

A division bench of the HighCourt, headed by the ChiefJustice of the State Justice RSChauhan, and includingJustice B. Vijaysen Reddy,however, allowed the stategovernment to process the2,26,693 application that werereceived by it betweenOctober 10,2020 andOctober 29.2020 and to causeenquiry into such applica-tions.

The HC made it clear thatthe decision taken on allsuch applications would be

subject to the final out-come of the Public InterestLitigation (PIL) plea filed onthe issue challenging GOMS No. 112 issued by thestate government onOctober 12 this year for theregularization of the unreg-istered sale transactionsunder the Telangana Rightsin Law and PattadarPassbooks Act, 1971, sincerepealed. The High Courtlater adjourned the casehearing by two weeks, whileissuing directions to the stategovernment to f i le itscounter affidavit in the case.

The case was filed by a 61-year-old farmer ShindeDevidas from Nirmal districtof the state. In his petition,he told the HC that the GOwas issued under therepealed 1971 Act. He alsosaid that although the GOwas issued before theenforcement of the new Act,the inquiry on the claims ofthe applicants was being done as per therepealed Act.

Telangana government gamefor drone policing now

Continued from page 1

While discussing the crimesituation, KTR suggested to TSDirector General of Police M.Mahender Reddy to explorethe prospects of using dronesin policing. Referring to therise in cybercrimes KTR askedthe DGP and the police brassto train policemen as 'CyberWarriors'.

Mentioning that the stategovernment had allocated Rs280 crore to improve policemachinery and infrastructure,the IT Minister said thataround 15,000 CCTVs werebeing monitored simultane-ously from the newly inaugu-rated Public Safety IntegratedOperations Centre on thepremises of the CyberabadPolice Commissionerate. Inaddition to real-time monitor-ing, emergency response sys-tems for dial 100 and Hawk-Eye App center would act as'War room and Data Centre',he observed.

The new facility has beendeveloped using high-end

technologies such as ScalableVideo Platform, Big-Data-Driven Insights & ScalableData Lake, Computer Visionand Facial Recognition, IoTIntegration and DataCorrelation, MachineLearning, RecommendationEngine, Geo-spatial Analyticsand Cyber Security.

Recalling his childhooddays, when he first came to cityat the age of 13 years, KTRsaid, "The city was then riddledwith anti-social elements, com-munal violence and subse-quent curfew. But the situationis no longer the same. That isdue to the effective and effi-cient policing of the TelanganaPolice." Complimenting theTS Police for its efficiency,KTR said: "Several people hadapprehensions that therewould be regionals conflicts, alot of doubts and uncertainties.The state was formed amidst alot of apprehensions. Thanks tothe police machinery, theirpainful efforts, all these appre-hensions were resolved."

Highlighting the importance

of good law & order situation,KTR remarked: "For the last sixand a half years, there has beena stable government. But, inorder to achieve economicstability, we need new invest-ment coming into the state. Forthat, we need good law andorder to attract investments."

Speaking on the occasion,Home Minister Mahmood Aliobserved: "Telangana Policeis role model to many states'police. They are always at theforefront of embracing tech-nology. For every 1,000 peopleliving in the city, there are 30CCTVs available."

In his address on the occa-sion, Director General ofTelangana State Police M.Mahender Reddy said that theHyderabad Safe and SmartCity Project had been con-ceived with the objective ofproviding citizen-friendly,holistic, integrated and respon-sive CCTV-based surveillancesystem for the cities ofHyderabad, Cyberabad andRachakonda.

Kishan warns TRS: Stop vilifying CentreContinued from page 1

Due to the continued neg-ligence of the TRS governmentto address problems inGHMC, people had been fac-ing severe problems, Kishansaid. He alleged that the TRSleaders were resorting to irreg-ularities in the distribution offlood relief amount of Rs10,000 to those affected. Theyhave been extending the floodrelief with one hand and tak-ing it back with the otherhand, he said. Kishan want-ed the state government tospell out how it would extendflood relief to farmers in thecase of floods.

The Union Minister dared

the Chief Minister for a debateon the funds given by theCentre to the state governmentto rein in Coronavirus andutilisation of those funds bythe government. The Centredevolved funds directly onvillage sarpanches and munic-ipalities, he stated. The TRSgovernment had neglecteddevelopment of the Assemblyconstituencies represented byMLAs belonging to the oppo-sition parties, he said. Heblamed the TRS governmentfor turning the state, whichused to have a surplus budget,into one that is debt-ridden.The Kaleswaram Project tooreceived thousands of crores offunds from the Centre, he said.

BANDI : BJP WILL GIVE ‘SANKRANTI GIFT’ TO KCR

Continued from page 1

He called the state ministers asworthless persons who alwaysplay second fiddle to the CM.He sought to know from themwhether there is any meaningto their life at all. Bandi Sanjay, who lockedhorns with the TRS which is ona strong wicket in the state,won the Dubbaka seat for theBJP. He lived up to theexpectations placed on him bythe national leadership of theparty within eight months oftaking reins of the party unit in

telangana. He drew strategiesand counter strategies to gainupper hand over the TRS. Hevalued the opinions of seniorleaders and gave clear cutdirections to the party cadresand proved his mettle. He hashad unusual craze among theyouth and implemented puccaplans as per the expectationsof the youth. He alleged thatthe people of Dubbaka gave amemorable Diwali gift to KCRand predicted the people of thecity would give Sankranti gift toKCR by defeated the TRS in theGHMC polls.

MIM to contestUP, Bengal polls

1 in 5 Covid survivors...Continued from page 1

There have been such stud-ies of increased post-traumat-ic stress disorder, including arange of mental illnesses suchas increased tendency tocommit suicide in themonths, post-infection".

The authors of the studystated that similar trend wasfollowed in previous pan-demics that mental healthproblems usually follow inrecovered patients. Eventhough the results are notnew to health experts, theinformation and data provide

a better understanding of thepotential effects of beinginfected with Covid -19.

Hospitals in Hyderabadhave already made mentalhealth assessment and coun-selling as part of the post-Covid care.

An executive working witha private hospital said, "Apartfrom multi-disciplinaryassessment by departments ofpulmonology, neurology andcardiology, mental healthassessment and counsellinghas been included in Apollorecovery exclusive clinics forpost-Covid care".

Continued from page 1

DoI need to ask anyone'spermission to fight the polls,"he said when asked whetherthe party would contest in anyother state.

He however, did not clarifywhether the party would con-test on its own or in alliancewith other parties.

"AIMIM will fight in the2022 Uttar Pradesh Assemblyelections. Time only will tellwith whom we will ally,"Owaisi added.

Attacking Congress leaderfrom West Bengal, AdhirRanjan Chowdhury for report-edly calling AIMIM as 'votecutter' in the Bihar polls,Owaisi sought to know whathe has done for the welfare ofMuslims in his constituency.

".. Adhir RanjanChowdhury has to respondwhy the condition of Muslims

is so bad in his own con-stituency. He has to say whathe did for Muslims," he said.

"AIMIM will fight the pollsin West Bengal.. AIMIM iscoming to Bengal," he added.

Owaisi is often criticised byCongress and other parties asthe "B-team" of BJP dentinganti-saffron party's votes.

Owaisi-led AIMIM seemsto have cut big time into theRJD-led Mahagatbandhanvote in the Seemanchal regionin the third phase of the polls,according to poll pundits.

The Hyderabad MP-ledparty was in the fray in 20 seatsin Bihar elections, a majorityof which went to polls in thethird phase on November 7, aspart of the Grand DemocraticSecular Front that has fourother parties, includingUpendra Kushwaha'sRashtriya Lok Samta Partyand the Bahujan Samaj Party.

KCR to counter BJP with lure...Continued from page 1

For instance, on February 15,2020 the civic body levied a fineof Rs 5,000 on TRS MinisterTalasani Srinivas Yadav forputting up a hoarding wishingChief Minister K ChandrasekharRao a happy birthday (February17 is the birthday of KCR).According to an official, that finewas paid. However, it is rare tocome across ruling party leadersand activists who pay the finesimposed on them for such vio-lations. The already cash-starved civic body is losingcrores of rupees in unrealizedfines. Sources pointed out thatunpaid fines and levies owed tothe corporation over two yearstotaled nearly Rs 43 crore in

respect of such unauthorizedhoardings. Just about Rs 2.36crore has reportedly been paidover the past two years for

erecting illegal hoardings.Sources pointed out that ille-

gal billboards were helpingadvertisers skip paying taxes.Even though putting up bill-boards above 15 feet from theground level is illegal, the cor-poration is apparently goingsoft on the ruling party andadvertising houses. Instead ofdemolishing the structures, onlythe banners are being removed.Thus, in a way the civic body isfacilitating the advertising hous-es to wait for the right time andput up another poster.

It may be mentioned herethat just ahead of every elec-tion, the TRS virtually takesover advertisement space at allplaces, including flyovers, thor-oughfares, Metro pillars andportal frames.

Continued from page 1

At this point, KCR toldparty leaders that he knewhow to check BJP's 'Operationakarsh' and keep the partyintact.

KCR reportedly told leadersthat he would soon "reward"some party leaders with nomi-nated posts, including MLCpositions, for "working sincere-ly with commitment to theparty for long". He said scoresof nominated posts of chairmenof various state governmentcorporations were lying vacantand they would be filled soon

with TRS party leaders. Thisapart, he promised to fill threeMLC posts under Governorquota soon. He said all theseposts would be filled in a phasedmanner before the completionof all elections in Telangana byMarch 2021. KCR also gaveindications of a cabinet reshuf-fle after March 2021 when allelections in Telangana would beover, saying that non-perform-ing ministers in elections wouldbe shown the door and theywould be replaced with MLAs/MLCs who deliver results forthe party in the upcoming elec-tions.

Sources pointedout that unpaidfines and leviesowed to thecorporation overtwo yearstotaled nearlyRs 43 crore inrespect of suchunauthorisedhoardings

SVBC employee...

Continued from page 1

Following the complaint,TTD and SVBC officialslaunched a probe. It wasfound that one of the employ-ees copy pasted the pornlink inadvertently. As part ofthe investigation, the securi-ty audit of all the computersat SVBC was carried by thecyber cell team and investi-gation revealed that three orfour employees might havedone this.

The SVBC CEO said thatthey will identify all suchemployees who had misusedthe SVBC computers anddismiss them as well.

Investigation revealed thatsome of the SVBC employeeswere browsing the porn web-sites during office hours.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020 hyderabad 03

The 2nd Edition of Indo DataWeek for SustainableDevelopment Goals will be held

virtually from November 16, 2020and will conclude on 22 November.The virtual conference iscoordinated globally from India,Hyderabad. The maiden conferenceheld last year at Hyderabad at Hyatt Gachibowli was a huge success.The second edition is planned because of the encouragement itreceived last year. It is organised once a year. Since the first meetlast year, over 300 young change-makers were engaged in solvingsome of the pressing global social issues using emergingtechnologies. Disclosing this in a press note issued here inHyderabad on Wednesday, Parvathy Krishnan of DAV Data Solutions,the organiser, informed that as part of the weeklong programs a two-day International Conference will be held. It will be inaugurated byJayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana alongwith Rama Devi Lanka from Government of Telangana, Gerrit Janfrom World Startup, The Netherlands, and Sruthi Kannan fromCISCO Launchpad.

IBRUMTechnologies, anIndian Institute of

Technology-Hyderabad(IIT-H) students'startup co-developedby Priyabrata Rautray, PhD scholar, Department of Design, IIT-Hand Nibedit Dey, a former CfHE (Centre for Healthcare andEntrepreneurship) fellow, IIT-H, has won the best ten start-upawards (product category) at the 28th Annual HYSEA (HyderabadSoftware Enterprises Association) Awards for Swatchh Air. Theproduct development was guided and supported by Prof DeepakJohn Mathew, Head of the Department, Department of Design, IIT-H. Swatchh Air is a low-cost air stabilisation system that reducesthe overall viral load in the air. The solution is a UVGI (Ultravioletgermicidal irradiation) and negative ionisation based system tosterilise rooms with the possible presence of harmful pathogenslike COVID-19. Product not only won the Best Ten Start-up awardbut has also received 1-year associate membership of TiE (TheIndus Entrepreneurs) Hyderabad along with mentoring.

2nd

edition of virtual Indo Data Week from Nov 16

‘Swatchh Air' developed by IIT-Hstudents' startup wins HYSEA award

Glowing tributes were paid toMaulana Abul Kalam Azad, thelegendary Freedom Icon and first

education minister of the independentIndia, on his birth anniversary onWednesday at Maulana Azad NationalUrdu University (MANUU). TheGovernment of India has declared the occasion as NationalEducation Day. Prof Abdul Hameed Khan, Director, Maulana AzadChair, MaratIvA-ada University, Aurangabad through his onlinelecture "Asr-e-Hazir me Maulana Abul Kalam And H Manwiat"(Relevance of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in Contemporary times)enlightened about Maulana Azad's multifaceted, multidimensionalpersonality which encapsulated a scholar, theologian, journalist,linguist, literary expert, social reformer, and statesman. Prof AbdulHameed said that Maulana Azad was a man of modern thinkingand epitome of Hindu-Muslim unity. His legacy cannot be confinedto Indian politics only as his thinking was universal and for thewelfare of humanity.

MANUU pays glowing tributesto Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

CITY LIGHTS

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 22-year-old mentallyunsound man went missingwhile he was returning fromErragadda hospital alongwith his father. According tothe police, E Nagesh wastaken to Erragadda hospitalfor treatment on Octoberlast week. When he alongwith his father reached nearMedchal bus stop nearSecunderabad railway sta-tion to board a bus, Nageshwent missing. Based on thecomplaint from his 60-year-old father, the police bookeda case and started searchoperation.

PNS n HYDERABAD

JUDAs from Gandhi MedicalCollege have boycotted theirduties and started a strike onWednesday demandingrestoration of non-Covid ser-vices in the hospital. T-JUDAsaid, “Despite multiple repre-sentations to concernedauthorities regarding resumingnon-Covid services, there is nochange in the situation of res-idents at Gandhi Hospital”.They stated that the dutieswould be resumed only ifNon-covid services areresumed immediately.

Starting non-Covid serviceswould help many patients suf-fering from diseases otherthan Covid and would help inproper utilisation of work-force and healthcare facilities.JUDAs stated that BecauseGandhi was being converted tocovid specialty hospital, resi-dents lost their crucial clinicalexperience from last 7months.Furthermore, along withteaching faculty nearly 600Residents, 350 interns, 600nurses, 600 patient care staffare treating only 400 patientsout of around 1,500 beds inGandhi Hospital.

JUDAs at Gandhiboycott duties

PNS n HYDERABAD

Customs officials at the RajivGandhi International Airport(RGIA) in Shamshabad here bookeda case against a passenger anddetained him on Tuesday night oncharges of smuggling two gold barsweighing 233.06 grams. The passen-ger, who arrived on a flight fromRiyadh, had allegedly concealedthe gold bars, worth Rs.12.22 lakh,in specially designed pockets of hisjeans, officials said, adding that the passenger was detained forquestioning. On close examination, officials found a speciallydesigned pocket at the bottom and waist portion in the jeans.Custom officials seized the gold and booked the passenger andfurther investigation is underway.

Flyer caught withgold bars at RGIA

22-yr-old mangoes missing

PNS n HYDERABAD

Dr Kaloji Health University has made itclear that allotment of MBBS seats undersports quota for the academic year 2020-21has been cancelled.

The government has issued orders in thisregard. Of the total number of seats in con-vener quota, 0.5 per cent have been reservedunder the sports quota. The seats to be filledunder the sports quota will be pooled to theother reserved category seats, the univer-sity authorities explained. Currently, underthe Convener quota of admissions certifi-cate verification is going on. The verifica-tion will be held till November 13 and later,the university will invite applications to exer-cise web options.

No admissions toMBBS under sports quota this year

PNS n HYDERABAD

To prevent engineeringcollege managements fromcollecting exorbitant feesfrom parents, theEducation Departmentofficials have been contem-plating to introduce two-pronged fees structures onthe lines of medical col-leges to put an end to thispractice. This measure willbenefit both the engineer-ing college managementsand students besidesencouraging the meritori-ous students to seek admis-sion even under the man-agement quota.

Rules specify that theengineering collegesshould collect only the feesprescribed under the con-

venor quota under themanagement quota too.But throwing the rules towinds, the engineering col-lege managements havebeen resorting to illegalcollection of money fromthose who seek admissionunder the managementquota. A situation hascome that the fees beingcollected by managementsunder management quota

is the official fees.The officials are contem-

plating to fix the manage-ment quota fees by increas-ing the convenor quotafees by 50 per cent or tosome extent. Governmentfilling the managementquota seats would arrest allirregularities and meritori-ous students will getadmission in top colleges.But, the feasibility of imple-

menting is suspected. As the two-pronged fee

structure for engineeringcolleges will take somemore time to materialise,the question is whether itis possible to ensure trans-parency in collection offees by the college manage-ments. The state High

Court ruled that thereshould be transparency infilling engineering quotaseats and merit should begiven priority. The govern-ment issued orders in thisregards, but these ordersare far from being imple-mented. In undividedAndhra Pradesh, in 2011the then governmentpassed GOs (74 and 75)and again passed orders in2012 (GOs 66 and 67).When the college man-agements have moved theHigh Court on August 14,2014, the state governmentissued GOs 13 and 14 ask-ing the college manage-ments. The governmentasked the college manage-ments to fill the seats as perGOs 66 and 67 online.

Govt to tighten noose on engg colleges

An overflowing manhole posing danger to commuters at Sagar X Roads, LB Nagar on Wednesday — SSV CChary

DISASTER WWAITING TTO HHAPPEN?

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State Councilof Higher Education (TSCHE)has entered into an bilateralpartnership with Welsh gov-ernment for research andhigher education exchange.The Chairman of TSCHE,Prof T Papi Reddy, in the pres-ence of the EducationMinister, Government ofTelangana, P Sabitha IndraReddy, signed a Memorandumof Understanding (MoU) withthe Education Minister ofWales, Government of Wales,Kirsty Williams.

On the occasion, SabithaIndra Reddy said that thepartnership will enable thedevelopment of collaborativeand mutually beneficial pro-grammes in Telangana,besides increasing researchand social linkages in the fieldof higher education betweenthe two countries. Sheexpressed her trust and confi-dence in both the states andhoped that the project wouldbe successful in meeting theneeds of the students in high-er education and that thebilateral partnership wouldbe able to foster a brighterfuture for students ofTelangana.

The Chairman, Prof T PapiReddy explained that theMoU, a bilateral research andeducation exchange betweenboth the countries, is a contin-ued and extended collabora-

tion of the Telangana StateCouncil of Higher Education(TSCHE) with the UK whichis facilitated by the BritishCouncil. He said that theMoU with the WelshGovernment will certainlyimprove the skills of the stu-dents that are needed by theglobal market.

The key areas of interest thatare included in the MoU arepromoting research, entrepre-neurship, and innovation, uni-versity partnerships includingareas of Science and

Technology and improvingemployability and skills amongstudents in Telangana.

An action plan will be pro-duced to address the objectivesby the end of 2020 andreviewed annually. TheTSCHE and Welsh authoritiesdecided that they shall formal-ly communicate on a regularbasis, at least twice a year, totake stock, further developthe co-operation and dealwith any questions of commoninterest.

The authorities through theGlobal Wales programme,agreed to organise stakehold-ers' meetings with eminentacademicians, educationaladministrators, policy makersand regulatory bodies to facil-itate cross fertilisation of ideasand suggest suitable roadmapfor further planning of educa-tional and research pro-grammes.

Telangana takes a leap in higher education

The MoU to be in effect for three-years was exchanged virtually by EducationMinister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Welsh Government Education Minister, KirstyWilliams MS on Wednesday.

Sabitha said that thepartnership will enablethe development ofcollaborative andmutually beneficialprogrammes in TS

Edu Deptcontemplating to introduce two-pronged feestructure to checkirregularities in filling management quota seats

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

Hyderabad witnessed the sec-ond lowest temperature in adecade for the month ofNovember, as the city's mini-mum temperature dropped to12.8 degree Celsius, onWednesday morning. This is atleast 5.8 degree Celsius belownormal as per the IndianMeteorological Department. Inthe last 10 years, Hyderabad hadrecorded lower temperaturethan this, of 12.4 degree Celsiustwice, on November 18, 2012and November 11, 2016.

Several parts of Telanganaalso saw 5 to 6 degree Celsiusbelow normal minimum tem-perature. Adilabad was thecoldest, with a minimum tem-perature of 9.7 degree Celsius.Within the GHMC limits,BHEL recorded the lowest tem-perature of 10 degree Celsius.BHEL alone has seen a drop of

5 degree Celsius in the last fourdays. According to the IndianMeteorological Department(IMD) officials, the lowest-everrecorded minimum tempera-ture in the month of Novemberis 7.4 degree Celsius, on 26November, 1964.

Dr K Nagaratna, Director,Meteorological Centre,Hyderabad said, "We are antic-

ipating that winter will actual-ly set in December this year. Wewill witness a very harsh win-ter in Hyderabad this year. Theofficial predictions will take awhile, however this is not thefirst time Hyderabad is seeingsuch a dip in temperature.Similar temperatures wererecorded in 2012 and 2016. Infact, lowest temperature that the

city saw was back on January 8,1946, when it dropped to 6.1degree Celsius at the BegumpetAirport. Going by trends, how-ever, the temperature will dipfurther." The IMD has forecastthat the minimum temperaturesare likely to be below normal by3 to 4 degree Celsius at isolat-ed places across the State in thecoming two days. According tothe Telangana StateDevelopment Planning Society(TSDPS), the lowest tempera-ture in the State on Tuesday was7.1 degree Celsius at Kohir inSangareddy district. Many parts

of southern Telangana record-ed minimum temperaturesbetween 7 to 15 degree Celsius.

The officials inform that thedrop in temperatures is becauseof the northwesterly windsflowing into the State.Meanwhile, the medical expertssay that ailment related to skinand respiratory system can goup during. Talking about thesame, Dr Bhushan Raju, HOD,Nephrology, NIMS, shares,"Staying indoors can aggravateseveral health-related issues.Medical issues within the fam-ily can increase, such as TB.

Also Asthama patients willexperience difficulties.Pneumonia is also very com-mon during winters. Diabetespatients might also have someskin issues and their heart andkidney function will deteriorate.Several senior citizens don'tmove around as they can't goout, so people can experiencejoint pains as well."

Hyd shivers as temperatures plummetCITY RECORDS THE SECOND LOWEST TEMPERATURE FOR NOVEMBER IN A DECADE

PNS n HYDERABAD

Panjagutta Police onWednesday raided a brothelhouse and arrested twoorganisers and rescued onewoman late on Tuesday night.The accused were identifiedas Krishna Reddy, and GVishnu (19) who are organ-ising brothel house. Based ona tip off, Panjagutta Policeraided flat no: 102, MI Plaza,MS Maqtha, In addition tothe two organizers, the policefound three customers, GSheshidhar Reddy (24), DKarthik(27) and ASatyam(26) and rescued awoman. Further, PanjaguttaPolice arrest the accused andsent to judicial custody.

Brothel houseraided, 2 held

Hyderabad’sminimum temperaturedropped to 12.8degree Celsius, on Wednesdaymorning

Relief kitsdistributed to flood-hitPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State WakfBoard is providing relief kitsworth of Rs 20 lakh to 1,500families affected by the recentflash floods in the city.

State Wakf Board chair-man, Mohd Saleem, in thepresence of AIMIM partylegislators Ahmed PashaQuadri and others flagged offa convoy of the relief mater-ial consisting blankets andgroceries, at Haj House onWednesday.

Saleem said the Boardwould further providing assis-tance to the affected familiesin the coming days to supportthe education and health-care. He thanked KCR forproviding immediate reliefof Rs 10,000 to each of theaffected families. He reiterat-ed that the TRS governmentstands by the affected familiesand will take all possible stepsto rehabilitate them.

PNS n HYDERABAD

L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad)Limited (L&TMRHL) hasopened the skywalk at Irrummanzil Metro Station con-necting Next Galleria - Irrummanzil on Wednesday.L&TMRHL CEO and MDKVB Reddy inaugurated theskywalk for passengers andvisitors can use the same tovisit the mall.

With the opening of theskywalk for public access, pas-sengers can directly enter themall from the Irrum manzil

Metro Station. This facility isin addition to the skywalks atPunjagutta Metro Station con-necting Next Galleria -Punjagutta, and Hitec CityMetro Station connecting NextGalleria - Hitec City Malls.

Speaking on the occasionReddy said, "Transit OrientedDevelopment in HyderabadMetro Rail Project has set aninspiring trend in creatingvibrant urban spaces integrat-ed with a world class transitsystem that enhances qualityof life of our esteemed passen-gers."

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020 hyderabad 04

Directorate Of Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Manamgement teams have removed over 12,000 unauthorised boards andbanners in the past two weeks in the city. All such defacements are being removed throughout the city as part of the ongoingdrive.

CRACKDOWN

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVA

n HYDERABAD

Even as the authorities look theother way, many citizens ofHyderabad are asking for a banon firecrackers this Diwali.Several states and UTs includ-ing Delhi, West Bengal,Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim,Maharashtra, Chandigarh,Haryana and Karnataka havebanned the firecrackers already.

Supporting the ban and urg-ing the State government toimplement the same inTelangana, Prapulla Maddi,Content Head, Mr Viral,shares, "All of us are highlyconcerned about our environ-ment. Lately, we have been col-loquial about environmentalprotection, global warmingand more on social media. Weare getting our problems solvedby tagging government offi-cials. Now, is the time to takesome more responsibility andact upon it. As responsible cit-izens, let's say no to crackersfrom this Diwali. We alreadyhave Corona to deal with. Whyto make our stay critical bycausing more damage to envi-ronment?"

However, there are otherswho think that celebratingDiwali without crackers wouldtake all the fun out of it. AmitSharma, an IT professionalfrom the city, shares, "I under-stand that we are amidst a pan-demic, however, I would also

like to point out that each fes-tival has some traditionsattached to it. Crackers are apart of Diwali and while therecan be a limit on the time tillwhen we can burst it, thereshouldn't be a ban on them.Also, the labours who work infirecracker factories haven'tearned anything this year dueto the lockdown. By banningthe crackers completely thegovernment would push themfurther into the financial crisis."

Health experts however, saythat bursting crackers amidstthe ongoing pandemic willonly worsen the situation. DrRamana Prasad, a senior pul-monologist from the city,shares, "Diwali crackers aren'tgood for anyone with issues inlungs. Every year, we see anincrease in the number ofpatients who complaint ofshortness of breath and lunginfection. Apart from the asth-

matic patients and those suffer-ing from Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disease (COPD),we now are seeing two morechronic diseases, which arediagnosed rampantly --Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)and post-TB bronchiectasis.During Diwali these patientssuffer uneasiness and manycome in with acute injury tothe lungs, transient wheezing,cough and running nose. Whatis worse is this year we all arebattling Covid-19. The virusand chemical in the air aregood to put anyone in the hos-pital. Also several people cometogether to burst crackers.Most people will violate socialdistancing. And that can bevery dangerous."

Not only do the crackerscauses noise, air and light pol-lution hazardous for humanbeings, they disturb the ani-mals too. Sharing the details

about how crackers affect ani-mals, Animal Rights Activist,Priyanka Samyukta, shares,"During Diwali, we get at least40-50 injured animals eachyear. Sometimes kids tie crack-ers to the tail of a dog and burstit. Many people burn the rock-et near tree and they destroynests, killing the birds. It'svery difficult to rescue streetanimals, as they are already

scared and don't want to comenear human. Many dogs, in theprocess of escaping, also getrun over by vehicles on road.I think people should be edu-cated about these things. Manylet their kids go out burstcrackers on their own withoutany adult supervision. It's dan-gerous as the kid might get hurttoo if the animal turns aggres-sive."

Many citizens give thumbs-upfor ban on firecrackers

“Diwali crackers aren't good for anyonewith issues in lungs. Every year, we seean increase in the number of patientswho complaint of shortness of breathand lung infection,” said Dr RamanaPrasad, a senior pulmonologist

PNS n HYDERABAD

Hundreds of people inTelangana's Nizamabad districton Wednesday paid tearfuladieu to the Army jawan whowas killed in an exchange offire with militants in Kashmiron Sunday. The funeral proces-sion was taken out from RyadaMahesh's house in Komanpallyto the village outskirts, wherethe last rites were performedwith military honours.

The entire village and peo-ple from neighbouring vil-lages joined the processionand paid their last respects tothe brave soldier. Bannerswere hung along the proces-sion route to pay tributes tothe martyred jawan and hailhis supreme sacrifice Stateminister Vemula PrashanthReddy, Nizamabad MP D.Arvind, Zilla Parishad chair-man Vitthal Rao, district col-lector Narayan Reddy andother officials attended the lastrites.

The body of Mahesh (26)

was brought to the village inthe early hours of the day.Family members, relatives andfriends paid their last respects.Earlier, the body was flowninto Hyderabad on Tuesdaynight. Telangana GovernorDr. Tamilisai Soundararajanplaced a wreath on the mortalremains of Mahesh atBegumpet Airport. Accordingto a press communique fromRaj Bhavan, the governorrushed to the airport to receive

the body of martyr Maheshand paid rich tributes to hissupreme sacrifice in the ser-vice of the nation.

Paying homage to the mar-tyr, he stated that country isindebted to their supreme sac-rifice in protecting the coun-try's safety and sovereignty.Mahesh was among four secu-rity personnel and three mili-tants who were killed during afailed infiltration bid by themilitants along the Line ofControl in Machil sector ofKupwara district in Jammuand Kashmir, on Sunday.

Son of a farmer, Mahesh hadjoined Army five years ago. Hehad married Suhasini, daugh-ter of an Army officer a yearago. After completing interme-diate (plus two) from a privatecollege in Nizamabad, Maheshpassed a competitive examand was selected for Army in2014-15. After the training, hewas posted in Assam and laterat Dehradun before beingtransferred to Jammu andKashmir.

Tearful adieu to slain jawan

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Governor DrTamilisai Soundararajan onWednesday said that educationis vital for women empower-ment. "It is not easy out therefor you (women). Women needto be courageous to face chal-lenges and assertive to realizetheir dreams and make it big intheir chosen fields," she said.

The Governor was virtuallyinaugurating the two hostelbuildings and a vermi-com-posting unit at the VelloreInstitute of Technology (VIT),a Raj Bhavan communiquehere. She stated that though

women were lagging behind inmany fields, the scenario ischanging now. It is time thatthey should utilise the oppor-

tunities and realise their fullpotential.

Expressing concern over theincreasing number of cases of

depression among the studentsand youth, she stated that weneed not be worried about triv-ial things in life. Life is to liveand enjoy every moment of lifewith a purpose to achievegreater heights. Contribute tothe society. There must not beany place for depression in life.

"Student life is an invaluablephase in one's life. We mustrespect our teachers and learnfrom their knowledge. I salutethe teachers for all the goodthat they do to us. We need tomake our parents proud by ourachievements. You must com-mit to greatness. Effective useof time is very important," she

added. Emphasising on theneed to ensure quality andexcellence in higher educa-tion, the Governor called forsustained efforts to get world-class ranking for our universi-ties and institutions.

The Governor appreciatedthe VIT management for nam-ing the ladies hostel blocks afterNobel laureate Madam MarieCurie and renowned educatorand reformer Dr. Muthu LaxmiReddy. Referring to the settingup of vermi composting unit,Dr Tamilisai Soundararajanstated that eco-friendly initia-tives and waste recycling unitsare the need of the hour.

Edu key for women empowerment, says Guv

PNS n SIDDIPET

An ardent fan of TRS fromDubbak AssemblyConstituency committed sui-cide unable to digest thedefeat of TRS canddiate inDubbak by-poll. KothintiSwamy (34) of Konaipally inDulthabad mandal was foundhanging to a tree on the out-skirts of the village in theearly hours of Wednesday.Swamy was wearing a TRSscarf around his neck.

The victim was survived bythree children. He wasreportedly depressed as TRScandidate Solipeta Sujathalost the Dubbak by-poll toBJP candidate MRaghunandan Rao with aslender margin. It may berecalled that in a major set-back to TRS, the oppositionBJP wrested the DubbakAssembly seat by a margin ofover 1,000 votes. In a nail-bit-ing finish, BJP's M.Raghunandan Rao beat hisnearest rival S Sujatha ofTRS by 1,079 votes.

Depressed over TRS defeat,party worker ends life

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) ElectionCommission CoordinationCommittee convenor GNiranjan on Wednesday saidthat the internal fighting with-in the TRS party for the topleadership was resulted into thewinning of BJP CandidateRaghunandan Rao fromDubbak AssemblyConstituency.

In accordance with the planhatched to defame a Ministerwho had taken up all respon-sibility of campaigning and tobelittle him in the party. Thiswas done as he is a possiblethreat to the leadership of KT

Rama Rao. No other Ministerwas involved in this electioncampaign to make him targetand scapegoat.

Though the electioneeringlooked like neck to neck, the

caste equation of the candi-date played a greater role inchanging the attitude of TRSleadership and paving theway for his winning, Niranjansaid in a media statementhere on Wednesday.

He said, with the influenceof caste equation TRS leader-ship deliberately behaved tocreate sympathy upon theBJP candidate. TRS strategi-cally tried to damage the enti-ty of Congress by projectingthe BJP candidate byindulging in police searcheson him and his associates.Thus TRS itself created sym-pathy towards BJP candidate,Niranjan said.

TRS wanted to impress

upon the people that theCongress Party is nowhere inthe field and the fight is inbetween the TRS and BJPonly. Surprisingly, the TRSworking president KTR hadwritten a letter to ElectionCommission of India sayingthat BJP is trying to create lawand order situation in theState and requested for inter-ference of the ECI. Thus cre-ated an impression that BJP ismore powerful than TRSthough the TRS is in power.

The TRS government isalso responsible for creatingsympathy towards the BJPcandidate by indulging in thehouse arrests of BJP leadersthroughout the State.

Differences in TRS helped BJP: Cong

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Greater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) hasconstituted teams to identifyshops and persons sellingimported firecrackers andimpose severe penalties andpunishments. The Uniongovernment has banned sale ofimported fire crackers this yearand accordingly, there is no

import of fireworks from anycountry. Therefore illegal import,sale and distribution of foreignorigin fireworks is punishableoffence. The municipalcorporation has appealed tocitizens to share information incase if they come across anyoneselling imported firecrackers, atthe nearest police station forsuitable action, said a pressrelease.

GHMC to crack down on sales of imported fireworks

PNS n JANGAON

Minister for Panchayat RajErrabelli Dayakar Rao onWednesday inauguratedCotton Procurement centre atthe Om Shanti Ginning Millin Patel Gudem of Lingalamandal of Station GhanpurAssembly constituency.

Similarly, the Minister inau-gurated another CCI procure-ment centre at Venkata SaiGinning Mill at Nelapogulacross road. He assured thefarmers that the governmentwould procure till the lastgrain produced by the farmer.He told that the CCI wouldprocure cotton and the stategovernment would procurepaddy at MSP. However, hewanted the farmers to bringtheir crops as per the specifi-cations. There should not beany empty grains in the paddy.He called for implementingCOVID precautions at theseprocurement centres.

Cottonprocurementcenters launched

GHMC does it again, fails tofollow average voters criterion

PNS n HYDERABAD

Thirteen sandalwood treeswere chopped down andsmuggled from the sprawlingIndira Park. According to thepolice, the management ofthe park noticed that 13 treeswere cut down, allegedly bypersons in collusion with somepark staff.

The trees are suspected tohave been cut on Sunday andthe logs were shifted out insome vehicle to an unknowndestination. Forest officialshave been informed about thetheft, police said, adding thatthe park management hadapproached the Gandhinagarpolice, who then registered acase and took up investigation.The police are trying to iden-tify the vehicle which wasused to shift the trees from thepark so as to identify thosebehind the crime. For this,

CCTV camera footage fromnear the park is being ana-lyzed. The park, spread onabout 75 acres, has seen suchsandalwood theft earlier too.Cases of sandalwood theftwere also reported from parksin the city including KBRPark and the Deccan Parkhousing the Qutb ShahiTombs a few years ago.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Only 10 out of 150 wards inGHMC follow the equal voterscriteria while the remaininghave either more or less thanaverage limit.

As per the ward wise voterslist published by GHMC onNovember 7, Ward 59Mylardevpally has 79,290 vot-ers while RamchandrapuramWard-112 has 27,831 voters.This indicates that that workdone in 2015 was haphazardand is being continued in 2020elections as well.

According to Forum of GoodGovernance, division of wards

based on number of voters isdefective and causes injustice tosome and benefits others. Basedon the analysis of 150 wards withan estimated population of 74.04lakh, the average populationper ward has to be 49,360 vot-ers. M Padmanabha Reddy,Secretary FGG said, "In excep-tional cases because of fieldproblems like not able todemarcate the boundary of theward due to lack of land marks,10 per cent exemption on eitherside is permitted but it shouldbe an exception not rule. Whenthis is considered, the averagevoter list should be minimum45,000 and maximum 55,000.

There are 68 wards which arehaving either more of less vot-ers fixed using this norm".

In some localities smallnumber of voters will electmore corporators and viceversa. FGG pointed that sincebudgets are allocated wardwise, haphazard division ofwards goes against rules andnatural justice. The associationpointed that conducting elec-tions with defective division ofwards is violation of law. In aletter to GHMC commission-er and State election commis-sioner, FGG wanted GHMC toclear these mistakes of unevenvoters before elections.

PNS n HYDERABAD

CMO Secretary SmitaSabharwal on Wednesdaysaid that the MissionBhagiratha drinking water ismore safer than the mineralwater available in the market.She said that the MissionBhagiratha drinking is beingpurified as per the WHOstandards. In a review meet-ing with engineering offi-cials at the MissionBhagiratha office, she askedthe officials concerned tocomplete all the pendingworks by December end.

‘Bhagiratha watersafer thanmineral water’

Skywalk at IrrumManzil station opened

Harish urges cadre to maintain calmPNS n SIDDIPET

Finance Minister T HarishRao on Wednesday calledupon the TRS workers not tolose heart in the wake ofDubbak by-poll loss. TheMinister, who paid tributes toparty worker Kothinti Swamy(30), who committed suicide,appealed to TRS cadre tomaintain calm. Harish Rao,accompanied by Medak MP

Kotha Prabhakar Reddy,Forest DevelopmentCorporation ChairmanVanteru Prathapa Reddy andothers attended the final ritesof Swamy. The leaders carriedthe body to the burial ground.The Minister handed over Rs2 lakh cash to the bereavedfamily following directionsfrom KCR. Harish appealed toparty workers and leaders notto take any hasty decisions.

Themanagement ofthe park noticedthat 13 treeswere cut down,allegedly bypersons incollusion withsome park staff

Sandalwood stolenfrom Indira Park

Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy paying floral tributes to the mortal remains of Army jawan who was killed in an exchangeof fire with militants in Kashmir on Sunday

The entirevillage andpeople fromneighbouringvillages joinedthe processionand paid theirlast respects tothe bravesoldier

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020 nation 05

INDIA CORNER

Aspecial court here onWednesday extended by one

more day the ED's custody of MSivasankar, former principalsecretary to the Chief Minister,arrested in connection with thealleged money laundering in theKerala gold smuggling case.The Enforcement Directorate (ED)moved an application in theSpecial PMLA court here, seeking one more day custody ofSivasankar to investigate in connection with the case as his custodyperiod ended today. Considering the plea, the court extended byone more day the ED custody of the suspended IAS officer. Lastweek, the court had extended by six more days thecustody of Sivasankar to probe details of communication betweenhim and Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the sensational goldsmuggling case. Sivasankar, arrested by the agency on October 28,was arlier sent to seven day custody of the ED.

Smuggling case: Sivasankar'scustody extended till Nov 12

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Thursday co-chair a virtual summitbetween India and 10-nationASEAN that is expected tofocus on measures to recoverfrom the economic turmoiltriggered by the coronaviruspandemic and ways to furtherbroadbase the strategic ties.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) said the sum-mit will review the status ofASEAN-India strategic part-nership and take stock ofprogress made in key areassuch as connectivity, mar-itime cooperation, trade andcommerce, education andcapacity building.

The Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations(ASEAN) is considered one ofthe most influential groupingsin the region, and India andseveral other countries includ-ing the US, China, Japan andAustralia are its dialogue part-ners.

The summit is taking place

amid China's aggressivebehaviour in the disputedSouth China Sea as well as ineastern Ladakh. A number ofASEAN countries have terri-torial disputes with China inthe South China Sea.

Along with Modi, the17th India-ASEAN summitwill also be co-chaired byVietnamese Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc.

"The leaders will discussways to further strengthenASEAN-India engagementand in this context will notethe adoption of ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025). COVID-19, post-pandemic economic recov-ery and important regionaland international develop-ments will also be discussedat the summit," the MEAsaid in a statement.

The 10 member coun-tr ies of ASEAN areIndonesia, Malaysia, thePhi l ippines , Singapore,Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam,L aos , Myanmar andCambodia.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A day after the BJP-JD(U)alliance won assembly polls inBihar, the BJP's general secre-tary and the state in-chargeBhupender Yadav onWednesday said the NDA wascheated by its former memberLJP of Chirag Paswan in theelections and the confusioncreated by them caused somelosses.

In an interview with PTI,Yadav also said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's leadershipand credibility were the biggestfactors behind the NDA's vic-tory in the polls, while guid-ance of senior union MinisterAmit Shah and on-groundpresence of the party presidentJP Nadda also made a signifi-cant contribution.

Taking on Lok JanshaktiParty, Yadav said the party haslost its credibility and there arequestion marks about its pol-itics.

"LJP has chosen its ownpath and in a way, it cheatedthe NDA. People of Biharhave conveyed to them theirimportance in the state poli-tics," he said.

Despite all this confusion,the people of Bihar reposedtheir faith in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's leadershipand his credibility and it is thebig achievement that the NDAwon for the fourth time in thestate.

"Modiji's leadership and hiscredibility was the singlebiggest reason for NDA's vic-tory in the state," he said.

When asked why NDAcould not repeat its Lok Sabhaperformance in Bihar assem-bly polls, Yadav said everyelection is different and thecentral and state elections arefought on different issues.

Besides, there were somelocal reasons, he added.

In assembly elections, votershave different preferences andthere are local issues, whiledynamics of the state politicsare also different from that ofthe national politics, he said.

"In terms of social equations,our alliance was in a strongposition and the NDA govern-ment had also done develop-mental work across the state.

But by continuously speakinglies, LJP created confusionand that caused losses for theBJP-JD(U) in the first phase,"he said.

There were some local issuesof the state also, due to whichthe NDA got a few less seats,but the alliance has managedto get a clear majority in thestate, Yadav said.

On what could be the rea-sons for the under-perfor-mance of JD(U), Yadav saidthe NDA government hadbeen in place for three termsin Bihar and it was a big issueto seek a mandate for thefourth term on the basis ofdevelopment.

PNS n PATNA

An avid cricketer whose careernever really took off, a politi-cal greenhorn who got poweron a silver platter but failed tokeep it, a scion of Bihar's mostpowerful family who could notget past the 9th grade.

That was Tejashwi Yadavuntil the 2020 assembly pollsmarked the coming of age ofa politician who valiantly went

down fighting an army ofbattle-hardened veterans.

He may have failed to learnthe textbook lessons at DelhiPublic School, R K Puram, inthe national capital but showedan uncanny knack of readingthe mind of voters, like hismore famous father, as he ledthe opposition Grand Alliance

to an impressive performancein the polls winning 110 seatsin the 243-member assembly.

The 31-year-old also pow-ered the RJD to the status ofthe single largest party in theHouse with 75 seats.

Analysts feel Tejashwi's pollpromise of sanctioning "10lakh government jobs at myfirst cabinet meeting" was amasterstroke which had theyoung voter swooning in astate reeling from widespreadjoblessness sparked byCOVID-induced lockdownwhen the return of countlessmigrants home brought thestate's largely agrarian econo-my under further stress.

The promise was good butnot good enough to bringdown the NDA government.

As part of a cleverly craftedstrategy that endeared him toliberals, he chose to steer clearof contentious issues like theRam temple, a bait thrown athim by top BJP leaders, andstuck to his core agenda ofunemployment and allegedcorruption in the NitishKumar administration.

For a young man whose

ability to lead the party wascalled into question after theRJD's unprecedented debaclein the Lok Sabha electionswhen it failed to win even one

of the state's 40 seats, it was nomean feat that he succeeded ingalvanising an organisationalmachinery in stupor after the-battering.

Doubting his leadershipqualities, allies HAM of formerchief minister Jitan RamManjhi, RLSP of former unionminister Upendra Kushwahaand VIP of Mukesh Sahnijumped the ship in search ofgreener pastures elsewhere.

Humility is a trait which,according to those who sawhim at school or later as anaspiring cricketer, defines theyounger son of two formerchief ministers which wasreflected in the manner inwhich he accommodated theCongress and the Left, seen asa spent force in the state ever

since it was swept over by theMandal wave.

Another hallmark of hispersonality is the ability tothink on his feet. After decid-ing early on in life that stud-ies were not for him, Yadavchose not to cling to his crick-eting aspirations either afterthe much-needed big breakeluded him. Contracted byIPL franchise Delhi Daredevilsfor some time he remained inthe reserve list.

He announced his "retire-ment" from cricket just a cou-ple of years before enteringpolitics in 2015 at the tenderage of 25. The new vocationcame as a perfect pitch to baton as he won from Raghopurin the assembly election com-fortably.

LJP cheated NDA; Modi biggest reasonfor our Bihar victory: Bhupender Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav gave veterans a run for their money

Guj bypolls outcome make BJP, Rupani stronger

Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal onWednesday said that the

NDA's victory in just-concludedBihar assembly elections wasdue to the charismaticleadership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and the goodgovernance provided by thecentral and state governments.He said that the election resultsagain proved that the people ofIndia have full faith in thedevelopment programmes ofthe NDA despite negativecampaigns by the opposition."People of Bihar reposed faith inNDA. The excellent results camedue to the charismaticleadership of Prime Minister

Modi and the good governanceprovided by both central andstate governments," he said in astatement. Sonowal said theoutstanding results of NDA inBihar polls shows that goodgovernance and progress arechoice of the people."Mycongratulations to all workers ofthe BJP in Bihar, CM NitishKumar and the NDA partners,"he said.The Assam CMalso saidthat the results of the Biharassembly elections have sentpositive vibes for BJP workersacross the country, especially inpoll-bound Assam and WestBengal. Assembly elections duein Assam, West Bengal and a fewother states in April-May next year.

Bihar polls results due toModi's leadership: Sonowal

PM to co-chair virtualIndia-ASEAN summit

Alocal court here sentenced aman to life imprisonment forraping a Dalit woman on the

pretext of performing exorcism,and also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on him.Additional DistrictGovernment Counsel Lakhan Lalon Wednesday said, "On Tuesday,Additional District and Session(SC-ST) Judge Jagdish Kumarsentenced Rahul Prajapati (an occultist) to life imprisonment forraping a Dalit woman on the pretext of performing exorcism.""The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. The Dalit womanwas raped at 8.00 pm on June 7, 2018," Lal said. He also said, "Whenthe woman was unwell, Prajapati under the pretext of curing herthrough exorcism, took her to a roadside eatery and raped her. Hewas found guilty after the incident, and was lodged in the jail."

Man held for raping Dalit womanon pretext of performing exorcism

The condition of RamJanmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra

Trust president Mahant NrityaGopal Das, admitted at theMedanta hospital here, remainscritical, a senior doctor said onWednesday. Uttar PradeshDeputy Chief Minister KeshavPrasad Maurya visited the hospital to enquire about the well being ofthe 84-year-old seer. Maurya spent around 15 minutes at thehospital."Yesterday (Tuesday) his (Mahant Nritya Gopal Das) dialysiswas done. He is critical, but his condition not deteriorating. He camein a very bad shape. At present he is not on a ventilator, and also notmuch on support system. His dialysis may be done again," Director ofthe hospital, Rakesh Kapoor told PTI on Wednesday.

Mahant Nritya Gopal Dasremains critical: Hospital

The NIA has arrested a manwho was part of various social

media groups run by Pakistan-based handlers of the outlawedLeT terrorist group to recruit andradicalise youngsters for carryingout terror activities in India, anofficial said on Wednesday.Sayyad M Idris, 28, a resident ofKarnataka's Uttara Kannada, was arrested from the southern state onTuesday, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) spokesperson said.

NIA arrests man in recruitmentcase of Pak-based LeT terror group

An artisan prepares an earthen lamp ahead of Kali Puja festival, at Sian in Birbhum district, West Bengal on Wednesday

MAKING OOF AA DDIYA

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High CourtWednesday pulled up the AAPgovernment for relaxing normsfor public movement and gath-erings even as COVID-19 caseswere increasing with no house-hold "left untouched", andsought to know if it had anypolicy or strategy in place todeal with the "alarming" situ-ation.

A bench of Justices HimaKohli and SubramaniumPrasad said that when Delhi, ascity state, was "hands downbeating" Maharashtra andKerala in the number of dailynew cases in the past twoweeks, what concrete stepshave been taken by the AamAadmi Party (AAP) govern-ment to contain the spread ofinfection.

The court noted that thedaily number of new COVID-

19 cases received for November10 was at 8,593 and "still count-ing" and the number of con-tainment zones in the citywere 4,016.

In the last 2-3 weeks whenthere has been an alarming risein COVID-19 positive cases inthe city, "alarm bells ought tohave rung" and the Delhi gov-ernment should have donesomething to deal with it, the

court said.It also noted that as per the

latest sero survey report of thegovernment the presence ofantibodies was detected in 25per cent of the people tested,indicating that one in fourpersons has been infected byCOVID-19.

"No household has been leftuntouched," the bench said,referring to the survey data and

questioned as to why the Delhigovernment was relaxingnorms in such a situationwhen other similarly placedstates were bringing in restric-tions.

The court questioned therationale behind allowing 200people to attend public func-tions instead of reducing thenumber and permitting publictransportation to be fully occu-pied, saying that these couldturn into "super spreaders" ofthe infection when the city was"already tottering under theweight" of the rising COVIDnumbers.

"There appears to be nocontrol or lack of control fromyour end," the court said andasked who will monitorwhether the public functionswould adhere to the limit of200 and that all attendees willobserve social distancingnorms and wear masks.

AAP eases Covid norms, faces HC ire

PNS n BENGALURU

Emphasising on learning theHindu way of life and adopt-ing ancient practices of well-ness, Karnataka HealthMinister K Sudhakar said hewill bring in policies to intro-duce a holistic and compre-hensive healthcare system inthe state.

n an interview to PTI,Sudhakar, who is a medicalpractitioner, said, "One shouldlearn the Hindu way of life.

One should go back to ourancient practices so far aswellness s concerned."

"I am moving ahead to

introduce this (ancient prac-tices of wellness) in Bengaluruand Karnataka in a holistic and

comprehensive manner. Iam bringing in new policies,"he said. Sudhakar further saidhe would stress on preventionof diseases such as diabetes,cancer, hypertension etc. Toa query on the lessons learntduring the COVID-19 pan-demic, Sudhakar said thehealth sector was 'neglected' allthese decades.

Lamenting that the spend-ing on public healthcare by allthe previous governments hadtaken a backseat, he said thisis an area where he would like

to focus. "We need to build arobust healthcare system, espe-cially when primary and sec-ondary healthcare should berobust. We should focus moreon prevention of a disease,"Sudhakar said. Asked whetherAyurveda was of any help dur-ing the pandemic, the minis-ter said he was not armed withany medical evidence to provethat it works the way allopathydoes. The infection and mor-tality in Karnataka has comedown drastically from over10,500 fresh cases and over 200deaths a day to somewherebetween 2,000 and 2,500 infec-tions and 20 to 30 deaths a day.

‘Will bring policies to introduceHindu practices of wellness’

PNS n MUMBAI

Bollywood actor ArjunRampal's girlfriend GabriellaDemetriades appeared beforethe Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) here on Wednesday aspart of its probe into allegeddrug use in Bollywood, anofficial said.

Gabriella reached theNCB's zonal office at BallardEstate in south Mumbai inher car just before 12 noon tojoin the investigation, theofficial said.

A large number of mediapersons gathered outside theoffice.

On Monday, the NCB hadcarried out a search atRampal's residence here aspart of its probe into the

alleged drug use inBollywood. It had askedRampal and Gabriella to jointhe investigation onWednesday.

However, sources said thatRampal is likely to be ques-tioned by the NCB onThursday.

The search at the residenceof the model-turned-actorcame a day after the NCBarrested Bollywood producerFiroz Nadiadwala's wifeShabana Saeed after ganjawas allegedly found at theirresidence in suburban Juhu.

The NCB had seizedelec-tronic gadgets like laptops,mobile phones and tabletsduring the search at Rampal'sresidence and questioned theactor's driver.

Arjun Rampal's girlfriendappears before NCB

The BJP, which had managedto retain power in Gujaratwith a slender majority in the

2017 Assembly polls, has nowimproved its position ahead ofthe 2022 state elections bywinning all eight seats in thebypolls held last week.The bypollresults announced on Tuesdayhas especially consolidatedGujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani's standing in the saffronparty as well in the state politics.By bagging all eight seats, theBJP has increased its countfurther to 111 in the 182-member House, while the

Congress's tally has come downto 65. In the 2017 Assemblypolls, the saffron party's tally was99, which was 16 less than 115that it had won in the 2012election. For the first time, theBJP's count had slipped belowthe 100-mark since it formed itsmaiden government on its ownin 1995. The Congress had madehandsome gains in the2017 polls by winning 77 seats.However, after that, the BJP hadincreased its numbersin the House by winningsubsequent bypolls.Speculations were rife in 2017

that the BJP might replaceRupani with some other leader.However, the party did not do so.Eight Congress MLAs hadresigned before the RajyaSabha elections held in Gujaratearlier this year, and five ofthem, who were given tickets bythe BJP, their new party. Despiteswitching sides, voters of theirconstituencies reposed faith inthese five leaders and sentthem to the Assembly.After the results, Rupani declaredthat the bypoll win was a "trailer"for the 2022 state assemblyelections.

Analysts feelTejashwi's pollpromise ofsanctioning 10lakh govt jobswas amasterstrokewhich had theyoung voterswooning in astate

River Cauvery, the lifelineof Tamil Nadu, flowsquietly nowadays. Thepolitical waters in theState, too, resemble the

flow of Cauvery, though the formermay not be as pure and serene as thesacred river. There are many under-currents and swirls beneath the calmthat can even take a wild tuskerdown to the river bed.

Uncertainty is the hallmark ofTamil Nadu’s political landscape asthis article is being written. Themain characters in the State’s vastelectoral arena are, as usual, theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) and the All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK). These two Dravidianmajors have so far played the leadroles while national parties like theIndian National Congress and theBJP, along with other fringe parties,have been mere sidekicks.

The Congress, which ruled theState uninterrupted till 1967, is a paleshadow of what it was in the 1960sbecause both the DMK and theAIADMK have sucked the entireblood out of India’s grand old party.It is left with more leaders than thecadre, according to political chron-iclers like N Kalyanasundaram, aclose associate of the legendary KKamaraj.

The DMK has been out of powerin the State since a political tsuna-mi by the name of J Jayalalithaa, whoobliterated the party in the twoAssembly elections held in 2011 and2016 and also in the 2014 Lok Sabhapolls. But Jayalalithaa, who single-handedly took on all her politicalrivals, including M Karunanidhi ofthe DMK, is not around to lead theAIADMK. After her untimely deathon December 5, 2016, the AIADMKhas started disintegrating fasterthan expected. The powerful factionled by VK Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’sclosest aide till she breathed her last,has come out of the AIADMK andformed a new entity by the name ofAmma Makkal MunnetraKazhagam (AMMK), claiming to bethe true inheritor of PuratchiThalaivi’s legacy. The factions led byChief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami (EPS) and deputyChief Minister O Panneerselvam(OPS) are at each other’s throat.There is no dearth of group wars inthe AIADMK as another faction ledby D Jayakumar, former Speaker, isalso in the fray to usurp the party’sleadership.

The AIADMK had an electoral

alliance with the BJP in the 2019Lok Sabha election. Both EPSand OPS would not like toremember that experiencebecause they violated the cardi-nal rule set by Jayalalithaa thatthere should not be any kind ofalliance with the BJP. TheHindutva party, which contestedas a junior partner, drew a blankwhile the AIADMK had to becontent with just one seat. Theother alliance partners, the PattaliMakkal Katchi (PMK), theDesiya Murpokku DravidaKazhagam (DMDK), theTrinamool Congress (TMC) andthe Puthiya Tamilagam (PT), tooended up as also-rans.

This time the AIADMK is like-ly to keep the BJP out from itselectoral strategy because it isafraid of losing the minorityvotes. The Muslims in TamilNadu are upset over theCitizenship (Amendment) Act aswell as the abrogation of Article370 of the Constitution. Thetightening of the ForeignCurrency Regulation Act andForeign Exchange ManagementAct have throttled the revenuesources of the churches and thishas affected many major initia-tives like the anti-nuclear reactoragitation at Kudankulam and theevangelisation drive.

Except in the 1998 Lok Sabhaelection, the AIADMK-BJPalliance has been a total failure inTamil Nadu. Though pro-DMKpolitical commentators push thetheory that the EPS Governmentis surviving because of the tacitsupport of the BJP, there are novisible signs of any deals betweenthese two parties. During the2019 seat allocation discussions,all that the BJP could get from theAIADMK were five seats. The

attitude of the AIADMK leaderstowards the saffron brigade was“take it or leave it”. The BJP didnot get any seats during the bien-nial Rajya Sabha election fromthe AIADMK. EPS played hiscards well and managed to getwhatever he had asked from theCentre.

When he was sworn in as theChief Minister in February 2017with the blessings of Sasikala,who had to surrender at theParappana Agrahara Prison fol-lowing the Supreme Court’s orderupholding the sentence in a dis-proportionate asset case, TamilNadu was agog with apprehen-sion about the longevity of theGovernment. Opposition leaderMK Stalin repeatedly said that theEPS Government was in ICUand hooked on to the life supportsystem provided by the BJP. ButEPS slowly and steadily took con-trol of the situation despite thewafer-thin majority in the House.

He survived many anxiousmoments when 18 MLAs, owingallegiance to Sasikala, withdrewtheir support to him but theywere disqualified by the Speaker.The byelection necessitated bytheir disqualification saw theAIADMK managing to win nineseats though the DMK wrestedthe remaining nine. TheAIADMK further consolidatedits position in the House bywresting two more seats from theDMK and the Congress. But thatis of academic interest only.

The AIADMK is, indeed,unlikely to repeat its perfor-mances in the 2011 and 2016Assembly elections and the 2014Lok Sabha polls anymore becauseof the absence of a charismaticleader like Jayalalithaa. The inter-nal struggle in the party would

add to the woes of EPS.Besides, there is an anti-

incumbency sentiment whichhas been fuelled by a section ofthe media. Though there arecharges of corruption against theGovernment, nothing has beenproved till date. Except for therioting at Thoothukudi, demand-ing the closure of the SterliteCopper Plant, which resulted in15 people losing their lives inpolice firing, there were no majorincidents in the sphere of law andorder. The Government has toconvince the people about thenumber of new jobs it has creat-ed during the last five years andalso the steps it has taken to revivethe micro, small and mediumindustries, which were shut downas a result of the 2018 floods inChennai as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DMK, too, is not in acomfortable position due tointernal squabbles in the party,though it has an advantage ofheading a secular front. Thegeneral allegation is that theparty is being controlled byStalin’s wife Durga, sonUdhayanidhi and son-in-lawSabari. The latter is creditedwith rebooting and rebrandingStalin, who has started sportinga new hairstyle and wardrobe insynchronisation with the chang-ing times. For Stalin, it is a do ordie battle because age is not onhis side. At 68, he is the oldestchief ministerial candidate in thefray and would be Tamil Nadu’sJoe Biden if he wrests power. MKarunanidhi, his late father,became the Chief Minister at theage of 45 while his bete noire MGRamachandran was sworn in atthe age of 60. Jayalalithaa becamethe Chief Minister for the first

time while she was just 43.The allocation of seats to allies

would be a major hurdle forStalin in the run-up to the elec-tion. Though the alliance part-ners are yet to be finalised, it isalmost sure that the DMK-ledfront would comprise theCongress, the Communists, theMuslim League and theViduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. Aquestion being asked is whetherPMK, the Vanniyar dominatedparty, and Makkal NeedhiMaiam, the outfit launched byKamal Haasan, would cast theirlot with the DMK. Dr SRamadoss, founder of the PMK,has only one mission in his life,to make his son Anbumani theChief Minister of Tamil Nadu.And film actor Haasan hasalready declared that he would bethe chief ministerial candidate ofhis party. On the other side, wehave Vijayakanth, founder ofthe DMDK, who too has thesame ambition.

There are only 234 seats atstake in Tamil Nadu. DMKwould certainly pocket at least130 seats because Stalin prefersto form a Government of his ownand does not like to share power.Even in 2006, when the partywon just 96 seats, M Karunanidhikept the alliance partners at bayand ruled the State for five yearswith outside support extended bythe allies. The Congress, theMuslim League, the VCK and theCommunists are sure to asktheir pound of flesh this time. So,Stalin is left with the task of win-ning 91 per cent of the seats tobe contested by the DMK forrealising his dream of becomingthe Chief Minister.

The question that remainsunanswered is Rajnikanth and hismuch talked about spiritual pol-itics. Time is too short forRajnikanth to emulate what NTRama Rao did in AndhraPradesh in 1982 by launching theTelugu Desam Party. The actorhimself is on record stating thathis doctors have advised himagainst heavy work and also to becareful about the pandemic.Rajnikanth has undergone a kid-ney transplant and at 70, isunlikely to gamble with his life.Moreover, he is more about hypeand politics is cricket to him.

As things stand today, TamilNadu faces the prospect of a frac-tured Assembly and discussionsare taking place about the kindof permutations and combina-tions the alliance Governmentwould have after the election. Itis too early to predict more thanthis as the political line-up is yetto be decided. The election is stillfive months away and even fivedays are too long a period in politics. Meanwhile, quiet flowsthe Cauvery.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

Paternity leave is a serious issue even if we do notthink of it much in India. In many developednations, working men are given time off, time that

is often mandated by law to be with their new-born chil-dren and share parenting responsibilities. This is whereIndia’s patriarchal society actually counts against menas culturally they are not expected to be part of the child-rearing process as much as their Western counterparts.So much so that the concept of paternity leave is con-sidered alien in all but a few Indian companies. Indeedeven the Indian subsidiaries of many multinationals findextended paternity leave difficult to comprehend. And

it is even tougher for many professionals. We even have women going back to work daysafter giving birth, let alone men.

Yes, many Indians do not have the luxury of taking maternity or paternity leave butin case they can afford that privilege, why do we bemoan it? So what if Anushka Sharma’shusband happens to be the Indian cricket team captain and will leave a tour halfway tobe with her when she delivers their child. Virat Kohli has achieved huge milestones in hiscareer and owes nobody, other than his family, anything. Those who have come out andquestioned his professionalism and patriotism are talking nonsense. We do not talk likethis of other athletes, even cricketers, in developed countries. Yes, it is apparent that Sharmaand Kohli can afford the best help money can buy but why shouldn’t the two of them betogether when they do the single most important thing that a man and woman do togeth-er, that is bringing a new life into this world? Kohli is assured of his talent and his placein the Indian team. However, if afterwards, he wants to quit the sport to be with his child,so what? He is unlikely to do that but we have to all grow up and understand that fathershave to play a bigger role in the child-rearing process. Maybe Kohli doing what he is doingwill inspire other men to stand up and be a stakeholder in their child’s development. Sharingthe first few months of a new-born’s life may not be remembered by the child when he/shegrows up but will definitely be cherished by the father and mother for the rest of theirlives. So let Virat do his thing.

Is the BJP well on its way to becoming the grand rul-ing party and the Congress the grand old — obso-lescent would be more apt — party? Bihar may have

just been the microcosm for the rest of India as thebyelection results have largely borne out the two trendsit has thrown up. First is the continued popularity andacceptability of Prime Minister Narendra Modi despitethe bad year of the pandemic. People still believe he candeliver despite the lockdown-induced reverse migration,the sharp economic downturn and a moderate relief pack-age that was mostly credit-based. The common voterhas clearly responded to short-term stress alleviation

measures like the welfarist doles of foodgrains and some direct cash transfers as symp-tomatic of the Government’s larger concern and action. Of course, one doesn’t expect theModi aura to diminish within a year of a mammoth Lok Sabha victory but the pandemicthrew an unprecedented challenge and if he has emerged relatively unscathed through trou-bled times, then he is expected to hold on to his leadership stock, no matter how flawedthe pandemic management may seem. And through his repeated national address on eachcrisis and Mann ki Baat broadcasts, he has convinced ordinary voters that he was doinghis best and was purposive enough about the responsibility they had given him despitehis helplessness with resources. He has got the benefit of doubt. COVID is his boostershot considering the BJP lost Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi before it. The Congress,in comparison, hardly seems a catalytic converter of serious issues, ranting rather thanpresenting a better alternative that makes sense to the voter. Second, Modi’s persona isheaving down on the bread and butter agenda, making it look immaterial or secondary tothe larger scheme of nationalism, which has been dressed up with Hindutva. In his elec-tion speeches, rarely did Modi mention joblessness, education or a national rebuild pro-gramme except the old tropes of Ram temple, Pulwama and guiltless majoritarianism. Localissues are always more real and Modi’s monolithic swamping of regional parties and alliesseems to have supplanted them with demagoguery and bombast, one that made Biharvoters forget the promises that he did not keep from 2015. Young Tejashwi Yadav mayhave been a generational disruptor, forcing Modi to confront economic realities of the Stateand holding him to account on performance rather than shaming, but without the powerof governance, one wonders how feisty federal leaders will be, given the trampling narra-tive that is being played out across the country. Can federalism hold itself up to the BJP’scentripetal force in State after State, almost making development hostage to the Centralparty’s largesse and grace and the vote a transaction of mutual benefits rather than a demo-cratic process? Yes there is defiance but that is an abstraction, not as palpable as the num-bers needed on the board. And the BJP has clearly mastered arithmetic, ensuring all itsvoters turn out, deploying Modi as its magic wand in the last rounds of the campaign.

The BJP won 41 of the 59 seats across 11 States, including Madhya Pradesh (MP),where it stamped its rule, picking up 19 of the 28 seats. Contrast this with the one-timenational party, the Congress, which had sitting MLAs in more than 40 seats but won 12seats while two seats were won by the BJD. One seat each was won by the SamajwadiParty (SP), the JMM and the NDPP, and two went to Independents. The BJP wrested eightseats from the Congress in Gujarat, four seats in Manipur and retained its six constituen-cies in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It won two seats in Karnataka and one in Telangana. In Gujarat,the Congress, which had fought the BJP creditably in the last Assembly election and couldhave actually consolidated itself as a credible Opposition, instead lost MLAs to its rival. Itpaid a heavy price as five of those who won were once its own. This despite making Patidarleader Hardik Patel the State working president over senior claimants. This senior clout vsjunior aspiration cost the Congress its Government in MP. And the byelection there, pri-marily necessitated by Jyotiraditya Scindia’s exit with his loyalist MLAs, only proved whyfestering wounds can only bleed the party further. The bypolls became a prestige issuefor Jyotiraditya with 16 seats in the Gwalior belt. First, he had to prove to the Congressthat he commanded the ground on his personal merit and not because of the party or for-mer Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Second, he had to convince the BJP that he deserved aplace in the hierarchy of its State leaders. With his efforts, he won nine seats in his bas-tion as the BJP ended up getting more seats than it needed to stay in power comfortably.In Karnataka, the BJP wrested Sira and Rajarajeshwarinagar from the Janata Dal (Secular)and Congress respectively. The two-time Congress legislator, whose resignation had neces-sitated the byelection in RR Nagar, polled more votes as the BJP candidate. The BJP evenopened its account in Sira, considered part of the Vokkaliga heartland, which, given thatJD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda belongs to the same caste and the Congress has a size-able voteshare, should have voted predictably. As for UP, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav maydream of a regime change in 2022 but can he afford to be unrealistic winning just oneseat now? The Congress is now sadly a vote-cutter than a vote-getter and better rebuildits organisational matrix than chase verdicts. As for federal parties, they need to nurtureeven their known constituents, focus on State concerns and be as aggressive as Tejashwihas been in Bihar. They can be the only wall against the BJP’s wanton march.

Single party rule

Congress blunderSir — The Mahagathbandhan orthe grand alliance gave theNational Democratic Alliance(NDA) a tough competition inthe Bihar Assembly election andmanaged to win 110 seats.However, one cannot overlookthe fact that it is because of thedebacle of the Congress partythat it lost a good opportunity toform the Government. Againstthe 70 seats allotted to the grandold party, it was able to win only19, thereby spoiling the alliance’schances of victory. The RashtriyaJanata Dal (RJD) must be regret-ting its decision to accommodatethe Congress with such a hugenumber of seats.

The results of the Bihar elec-tion should be an eye-opener tothe Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK), which alsolost a fair chance of winning the2016 Assembly elections main-ly due to the abysmal perfor-mance of its ally, the Congress.The party managed to win onlyeight constituencies against abulk of 41 seats it had demand-ed. The DMK missed the magicnumber of 117 by just 19 in thesaid election. The southern partyhas a very fair chance of winningthe Assembly elections in 2021.

It should, therefore, take a firmstand not to allot more than whatthe Congress deserves, maybe amaximum of 10 seats. If theCongress disagrees, it should bedropped from the alliance andDMK should face the electionalong with other potential alliesor decide to contest in all the 234constituencies on its own.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

Delhi COVID scare Sir — On November 10, Delhirecorded 7,830 freshCoronavirus cases, the highestsingle-day spike till date, takingthe infection tally in the nation-al Capital to over 4.5 lakh with83 fatalities, pushing the num-ber of deaths to 7,143. The StateGovernment should re-imposepartial lockdowns in the city by

closing religious institutions,cinema halls, restaurants andother such places. With Diwalijust around the corner, super-spreading events with attendeesnot adhering to COVID proto-cols must be prevented.Following Mumbai’s system ofcomplete lockdown on Sundays,the national Capital, too, needsto work out a similar model.There should be a complete

lockdown on weekends from 10pm on Friday till 6 am onMonday.

Subhash Chandra AgrawalChandni Chowk

IPL 2020 endsSir — The Indian PremierLeague ended on a high notewith Mumbai Indians winningthe tournament. It is truly com-mendable how the Board ofControl for Cricket in India andEmirates Cricket Board alongwith other stakeholders wereable to pull off such an event dur-ing the ongoing pandemic. Withstrict COVID protocols in placeand all the eight teams being keptin strict, bio-secure “bubbles”since landing in the UAE, theorganisers made sure that theplayers and everyone elseinvolved were safe. And thoughthe stadiums were empty with-out spectators, the game didn’tlose its vigour and excitement asmillions of people followed itfrom the safety of their homes.It demonstrated how sport cansurvive in the new normal.

M PradyuKannur

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 nionHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020

06

Ripples beneath CauveryWith Assembly elections five months away and discussions still woolly about

possible alliances and vote combines, one cannot say the DMK will have it easy

I called on member States toreiterate their commitment tofair allocation of a COVID-19vaccine. We mustn't leaveany country behind in theresponse.

WHO Director-General—Tedros A Ghebreyesus

What Tejashwi needs to do now

Much against the predictions made in the exit polls,the Nitish Kumar-led National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) has been able to retain power in

the Bihar Assembly election. Despite the distress causedby the lockdown, which led to hundreds of thousandsof the State’s migrants returning home, there is a fun-damental trust that a large segment of the citizens hasin Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Make no mistake, ifModi had not been the face of the alliance, it would havebeen difficult for the NDA to retain its base. The factthat the BJP has emerged as the senior partner in Bihar,and has also won the majority of the bypolls acrossthe country, indicates that the voters aren't holding theparty responsible for the economic and humanitariandisaster caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) may have failed tooust the NDA but Tejashwi Yadav ran an energetic cam-paign focused on “economic justice” and emerged akey leader in his own right. The fact that the promiseof Government jobs became an agenda of competitive

politics is a reflection of how the youth are seekingreforms that can generate employment. While this trig-gered disillusionment and voters wanted change, thenature of change was equally important. And this iswhere Tejashwi failed. Unconvinced about the natureof change, voters stuck to the status quo.

N Sadhasiva ReddyBengaluru

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Let Virat do his thing

With the BJP wresting many seats from the Congress and reducingeven regional parties to irrelevance, can federalism hold out?

There is nothing wrong with the Indian cricket team captainwanting to be beside his wife when she delivers their baby

KUMAR CHELLAPPAN

The remarkable performance of RJD to emerge as the singlelargest party in Biharinspires confidence in our democracy.

DMK chief —MK Stalin

These next few months will beimportant for me and I hope Ican prove my mettle ahead ofthe Olympic Games. It is noteasy going about a set routineand living in a bio-bubble.

Hockey player—Gurjant Singh

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

S O U N D B I T EWe fought together withRJD and Left parties. Wehelped each other but wereunable to reach at magicalfigure of 122. So,we are notsatisfied with the numbers.

Bihar Congress chief —Madan Mohan Jha

A wake-up call

ON JANUARY 20, WE’LL HAVE A TRANSITION,

WHETHER IT’S TO A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OR

ONE LED BY FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT BIDEN.

—US SECRETARY OF STATE

MIKE POMPEO

SECRETARY POMPEO SHOULDN’T PLAY ALONG

WITH BASELESS AND DANGEROUS ATTACKS ON THE

LEGITIMACY OF LAST WEEK’S ELECTION.

—CHAIRMAN, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

ELIOT ENGEL

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

In an informal chat in April, the SamajwadiParty (SP) national president AkhileshYadav told this reporter that his party would

win 350 seats in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh (UP)Assembly elections. “Anger is brewing amongthe masses against the Yogi AdityanathGovernment. They have made up their mindto oust the BJP Government in UP. We onlyneed to channelise that anger to the pollingbooths and we will succeed,” he had said glee-fully. Theoretically he might be right but pol-itics is all about sending the correct messageacross. This requires political leaders to shuntheir air-conditioned comfort and slog it outin the heat and dust on the ground, shoulder-to-shoulder with party workers. What hap-pened in the recently-concluded byelections inUP clearly shows Akhilesh’s disconnect withground reality.

There is no doubt that people are angrywith BJP Governments — both at the Centreand in the State — for various reasons, rightfrom the poor law and order situation to theincrease in economic woes. But the bypoll resultshows that the BJP was able to placate that angerand convince voters that it was the only partywhich could work for the betterment of themasses. On the other hand, the Oppositionfailed to channelise that anger into votes.

The bypolls were necessitated by the deathsof sitting MLAs in Bulandshahr, Deoria,Malhani, Naugaon Sadat and Ghatampur. TheTundla seat fell vacant after its MLA, SP SinghBaghel, was elected to the Lok Sabha, while theBangarmau seat in Unnao fell vacant after theconviction of BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengarin a rape case. The results show that the SPbagged just one seat, Malhani, out of the sevenit contested, by a margin of just over 3,000 votes,while the BJP retained six seats. As per theElection Commission figures, the BJP got a voteshare of 36.7 per cent, followed by 23.6 per centby the SP, 19 per cent by the Bahujan SamajParty (BSP), 7.5 per cent by the Congress and11.4 per cent by others.

Seven is a miniscule number when youcompare it with the total strength of the UPAssembly which stands at 403. But the num-ber is enough to gauge the mood of the vot-ers, particularly when the election was held inthe backdrop of the Hathras incident where aDalit girl was gang-raped and beaten up,leading to her death after a prolonged strug-gle for life in hospital. The incident raised a hueand cry across the country and was equated tothe Nirbhaya case in Delhi. The Oppositioneven demanded imposition of President’s Rulein UP, saying the law and order situation in theState was at its nadir and Chief Minister YogiAdityanath had lost the moral right to rule.

Besides, the Opposition built a narrative ofthe Thakur Chief Minister being anti-Brahminafter the incident in Kanpur Dehat where gan-glord Vikas Dubey gunned down eight police-men and was later killed in a police encounterwhile in transit from Ujjain in Madhya Pradeshto Kanpur. The election in Deoria, in easternUP, where all the parties had fielded Brahmincandidates, carried the tag of “a contest forBrahmin samman (pride).” It was said that aloss in Deoria would prove the anti-Brahmin

credentials of the UP Government. Then there was the socio-econom-

ic impact of the COVID-19 pandem-ic and the reverse migration of labour-ers from the cities to their native vil-lages in UP and Bihar. This, and therise in prices of essential commoditiesin the recent past, also added to thewoes of the ruling party. In this sce-nario, the BJP’s loss in the byelectionswould have lent credence to theOpposition’s allegations that the pop-ularity of the saffron party was on thewane. But that did not occur.

So what happened? Many factorscould have led to the victory of the BJPin the byelections. One of them couldbe the BSP entering the fray and forc-ing a four-cornered contest, frag-menting the negative vote. The BSPdid not have anything to lose in thisbypoll as the party had not won a sin-gle seat in these seven constituenciesin the 2017 Assembly elections. At thattime it got 23.62 per cent votes andthis time, it got just about 19 per centvotes. Though there has been a dip inthe percentage, by and large the partyhas been able to retain its core vote-bank of Dalits. In western UP,Muslims, too, voted in favour ofMayawati in patches despite her sui-cidal statement about a secret dealwith the BJP to ensure the SP’s defeatin the UP Legislative Council elec-tions.

But the biggest sufferer is the SP,despite clocking 23 per cent votes.Though it won Malhani in Jaunpur, itcame second in the three seats ofNaugaon Sadat (Amroha), Tundla(Firozabad) and Deoria. Shockingly,the party was pushed to third positionin Bangarmau (Unnao) and fourthplace in the Ghatampur (Kanpur) seat.

Just a few days before polling, the SPhad roped in former Congress MPfrom Unnao, Annu Tandon, but thisfailed to give the party an impetus inBangarmau. In the 2017 Assemblyelections, the SP had got 25.27 percent votes in these six seats. So itsvoteshare declined by around two percent in this bypoll.

The SP had left the seventh seatof Bulandshahr for its ally, theRashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), whichcould manage only 7,286 votes. In the2017 Assembly elections, the partyhad got over 17,000 votes from thisconstituency but in the byelections,both the RLD and the SP failed totransfer their votes. The Congress, onthe other hand, did comparatively bet-ter than the main Opposition partieslike the SP and the BSP. The partycontested six seats and got only 7.5 percent votes but in three constituencies,the Congress did better than the SP.In Bangarmau and Ghatampur, itwas in second position while inBulandshahr it was in third placewhere the alliance partners RLD andSP came in fourth.

So the big question is if compla-cency cost the Opposition parties dear.The answer could be found in a com-parison of the election strategy of theBJP with that of the Congress, the SPand the BSP. Aware that it was facingan anti-incumbency factor, the BJPdid not leave anything to chance. Inthe saffron party, Yogi Adityanathtook the lead and campaigned in allthe seven constituencies. EightMinisters were made in-charge ofseven constituencies and otherMinisters and senior party leaderswere asked to carry out intensive elec-tion campaigns where they talked

about the policies of the Central andState governments and how they hadbenefited the poor.

In comparison, Akhilesh andMayawati did not address a singlemeeting, perhaps because they fearedthe Coronavirus outbreak. InMayawati’s absence, Satish ChandraMishra, who is the BSP’s Brahminface, led the party’s campaign. In thegrand old party, only State Congresspresident Ajay Kumar Lallu addressedsome meetings while senior leaders inDelhi “operated” through tweets andstatements.

The style of campaigning of polit-ical parties reflects the seriousness ofthe leaders in the elections. Yogi ledthe campaign by addressing publicmeetings in all the Assembly con-stituencies. The narrative of the bypollwas very simple and Yogi only concen-trated on the work his Governmenthad done in the last three-and-a-halfyears. The election results have put astamp of approval on the develop-ment-oriented approach of hisGovernment.

The UP byelection results havesent a message loud and clear to theOpposition. Its constituents need torevisit their election strategy. SeniorSP, BSP and Congress leaders need tocome out of their comfort zone andtoil with party workers in the field.This will not only invigorate theircadres but also make these leadersunderstand the ground realities. Ifthey fail to redesign their strategy, itwould be next to impossible for themto arrest the BJP’s surge in UP in the2022 elections. The time is now, forthem to learn some lessons in politics.

(The writer is Executive Director,News, Lucknow)

The UP bypoll results have sent a message loud and clear to Opposition leaders. They need to revisit their election strategy and stitch up a mass connect

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

A renewed focus on HR

HIMA BINDU KOTA

‘Talentship’ is the term coined for decision scienceon staff talent resources. It is to HR what finance is

to accounting and what marketing is to sales

BISWAJEET BANERJEE

THE STYLE OFCAMPAIGNING BY

POLITICALPARTIES

REFLECTS THESERIOUSNESS OF

THE LEADERS.YOGI ADITYANATH

LED THECAMPAIGN BYADDRESSING

PUBLICMEETINGS IN ALL

THE ASSEMBLYCONSTITUENCIES.

THE NARRATIVEOF THE BYPOLL

WAS VERYSIMPLE AND

HE ONLYCONCENTRATED

ON THE WORKHIS GOVERNMENTHAD DONE IN THELAST THREE-AND-

A-HALF YEARS.OPPOSITION

LEADERS DID NOTHIT THE GROUND

Human Resource (HR) management is considered secondaryto finance and marketing. Corporate leaders do not spare asmuch time for talent management as they do for investment

allocation, customer service, marketing, product line and technol-ogy. Hence, the HR function is limited to delivery of programmeslike skill development, incentives, hiring, learning, development andso on. This limits its scope exponentially. Therefore, there is an urgentneed for a paradigm shift to enhance the function of HR managersto include decision-making about talent, as one cannot emphasiseenough the importance of relevant human capital for the successof any organisation. Current business trends like globalisation, adop-tion of digital technology, labour scarcity, mergers and acquisitions,expanding and scaling down simultaneously and the changing demo-graphic profile of workers make this transformation vital.

Even when it performs well, traditional HR function falls shortof expectations. Unlike finance, operation and marketing, there appearsto be no clear distinction between strategic and tactical HR. Whilestrategic HR is more of a vision to be considered the best employ-er in the industry, tactical HR concerns the daily operations of man-aging employee benefit programmes and various rules and regu-lations. There are several areas that are left unanswered in tradi-tional HR, like a thin plausible association between the core busi-ness principle and the talent management process. Employee man-agement goals are mostly general in nature, such as headcount,labour costs, standard HR programmes and so on. These have nocorrelation with competitive success and shareholder value.

Although sizeable investments are done in HR management tech-niques, like balanced scorecards, analytics and so on to enhancestaff capabilities, they rarely play a significant role in mergers andacquisitions and new market entries. They also provide insufficientunderstanding of a company’s competitive advantage developedthrough engaged employees. HR programmes are more like “one-size-fits all.” For instance, in marketing, it cannot be suggested thatall products should have the same number of hours of advertising.Because, how can that be? Some may require it more than others.However, this way of functioning is prevalent in HR, that is, “50 hoursof quality training” can be a standard statement for all workers. Thistype of training is less precise and may not be fully effective. Hence,traditional HR functions do not help leaders make better decisionsabout those resources to drive organisational effectiveness.

Where does the solution lie? Many researchers believe that thekey is better metrics. As discussed above, HR measurements arelimited to Return on Investments of programmes, balanced score-cards and improvement in Six-Sigma scores. Metrics like HR account-ing, quality, branding and balanced scorecards are, no doubt, use-ful systems, if applied correctly, but they rarely address the funda-mental challenge of improving talent decisions. However, accord-ing to the Corporate Leadership Council (2001), the two most sig-nificant and crucial areas of HR measurement, that is to augmentdecisions about human capital and associate HR to strategy, areseldom taken care of. Decision science has long been used in mar-keting, finance and operations and can be extended to HR func-tions too. It helps by providing a valid, dependable and steady frame-work that boosts the decision-making capability at all levels. Similarto finance and marketing function, HR helps in another critical aspect— talent. For organisations to achieve success, effective and pro-fessional decision-making is required in finance, marketing and tal-ent markets.

“Talentship” is the term coined for decision science on stafftalent resources. In fact, “talentship” is to HR what finance is toaccounting, and what marketing is to sales. It is believed that fromthe point of view of HR, organisational success can be improvedby enhancing the decisions on talent resources. As this conceptof talentship evolves, success will come to companies not becauseof HR practices but due to the improved decision-making qualityabout talent resources throughout the firm. Similar to the financeand marketing department, talent decisions exist at various levelswithin a firm, with supervisors and managers deciding about theavailable staff and their personal talent. To gain any say in influen-tial and strategic business planning processes, HR should focusmore on a unique approach, focussed on talent, with a perspec-tive of improving decisions and not just a process of implement-ing decisions. Every firm must make the “talentship” decision sci-ence workable by creating tools that facilitate decision-makers tomake the right choices and develop interlinkages with strategic suc-cess. Without a proper framework, it is easy to get lost in myriadinformation and opinions and lose sight of the key issues, and there-fore, the strategic vision.

(The writer is Associate Professor, Amity University, Noida)

When Americans cast theirballot for the President onNovember 3, they weren’t

voting directly for Joe Biden or theincumbent, President Donald Trump,but rather for their State’s electors. Inthe US, a candidate becomesPresident by securing the most “elec-toral” votes rather than by winninga majority of the national popularvote. Electors generally cast their votefor the winner of the popular vote intheir respective States. They are slat-ed to meet on December 14 and thewinner must get a minimum of 270votes.

In case no one receives the min-imum prescribed votes, the House ofRepresentatives elects the Presidentand the Senate elects the Vice-President. The Electoral College andits procedure was established by

Article II of the US Constitution andthe 12th and the 23rd ConstitutionAmendments. Though Joe Bidenhas clearly won and is now thePresident-elect, the outgoingPresident has put unsubstantiatedcharges of electoral fraud andembroiled the process in court cases.Trump’s campaign on November 9filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania fed-eral court, seeking to block State offi-cials from certifying Biden’s victorythere.

In any case, the declaration offormal victory will have to wait as the538 members of the Electoral Collegewill cast their votes on December 14and the votes will be counted and cer-tified by the Congress in a joint sit-ting to be held on January 6, 2021 ina session presided over by the Vice-President. The President-elect will besworn in on January 20, 2021.

The question that agitates thepeople across the world is why thefounding fathers of the US enshrinedsuch a complex electoral system inthe Constitution. There are manypresidential electoral systems tochoose from. For instance, in India— a parliamentary system — thePresident is elected by an ElectoralCollege comprising the elected mem-

bers of both the Houses of Parliamentand the elected members of theLegislative Assemblies of the States.In France, the President is elected bypopular votes based on the two-round election system since 1965, ifno candidate wins a majority of thevotes in the first round. Many othercountries, like Brazil, Bulgaria, Iran,Poland, Russia, Turkey and so on,have the two-round system or secondballot/runoff ballot, if no candidatereceives the stipulated number ofvotes in the first round. Sri Lanka hasa variant of the contingent vote sys-tem to elect the President. If no can-didate receives an overall majority offirst preference votes on the firstcount, then all, but the two leadingcandidates, are eliminated and theirvotes redistributed to help determinea winner in a second and finalround.

However, the US Presidentialelectoral system is an amalgamationof popular election — that is popu-lar votes and indirect election —comprising the Electoral College.Alexander Hamilton, one of themain architects of the USConstitution, wrote in The FederalistPapers about the key advantages ofthe Electoral College, “The electors

come directly from the people and forthat purpose only, and for that timeonly. This avoided a party-run legis-lature or a permanent body that couldbe influenced by foreign interestsbefore each election.” The makers ofthe Constitution believed that sincethe election would take place amongall the States, so no corruption in anyState could taint “the great body ofthe people” in their selection. It wasalso felt that the “electors’ meetingin the State capitals would be able tohave information unavailable to thegeneral public.” Besides, it was arguedthat “since no federal officeholdercould be an elector, none of the elec-tors would be beholden to any pres-idential candidate.”

Another consideration was thatthe decision to elect the President bythe members of the Electoral Collegewould be made without “tumult anddisorder”, as it would be a broad-based one, made simultaneously invarious locales where the decision-makers could deliberate reasonably,without threat or intimidation. “If theElectoral College did not achieve adecisive majority, then the House ofRepresentatives was to choose thepresident....” The Constitution mak-ers were apprehensive about some-

body unqualified but with a talent for“low intrigue, and the little arts ofpopularity” attaining high office,and, therefore, conscientiously strucka novel compromise between the twosystems. However, in actual practice,the process of forming the ElectoralCollege has little significance as thevoters choose the presidential candi-date and his running mate and thewinner takes all the votes assigned toa particular State, regardless of anynarrow gap in the popular votessecured.

For instance, the State of Georgiais allocated 16 members in theElectoral College. As per the lastcount (final count awaited), JoeBiden secured 49.5, Trump 49.2 andJo Jorgensen 1.2 per cent votes. If afterthe final count, Biden retains the lead,there will be no proportional distri-bution of the votes secured and all the16 members thus elected will be ofthe Democratic candidate led by JoeBiden, giving credence to the dictumthe “winner takes it all.”

The States of Maine andNebraska are two exceptions where,instead of a winner-takes-it all sys-tem, the vote goes through what’sknown as the “Congressional districtmethod.” This system — used in

Maine since 1972 and in Nebraskasince 1992 — allocates two electoralvotes to the Statewide winner butallows each Congressional district toaward one electoral vote to the pop-ular vote winner in its locality. InMaine, this means that two out offour electoral votes can go to some-one other than the Statewide winner;in Nebraska, three out of five electoralvotes remain in play.

The members of the ElectoralCollege, with rare inconsequentialexceptions, do not disregard thepopular vote by casting their vote forsomeone other than the party candi-date. They hold, generally, a leader-ship position in their party or aretrusted party loyalists who willuphold their pledge. A majority of theStates have their own laws againstfaithless electors. Taking the votes onparty lines for granted, the rationaleof having an Electoral Collegeinspires little confidence as it hasbecome antiquarian and pointless.

Insofar as the federal character ofthe votes is concerned, that is guar-anteed by the number of seats allo-cated to each of the States and terri-tories, including District Columbia,for the presidential election, based onthe twin principles of federalism and

population. This is reflected in thecomposition of the Senate, which has100 members, two from each Stateregardless of its size and populationand the House of Representatives,comprising 435 members, elected byeach of the States and territories.California sends 53 members andsmaller States like Delaware have onemember.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gorereceived 50,999,897 votes; RepublicanGeorge Bush received 50,456,002. Inthe Electoral College count, howev-er, Bush, who tallied 271 electors toGore’s 266, became the President. In2016, Hilary Clinton received65,853,514 votes to Donald Trump’s62,984,828, but Trump got 304 elec-toral votes and Hillary Clinton 227.

The Electoral College systemdistorts the campaign as candidatesgive extra consideration to swingStates, often compromising gover-nance, and give over-representationto smaller States. Moreover, till thefinal count by the Congress, there isa long, eerie silence and speculationabout a possible tie. But perhaps thepeople of the US are happy and con-tent with this.

(The writer is former AdditionalSecretary, Lok Sabha)

A flawed system that needs to changeTaking the votes on party lines for granted, the rationale of having an Electoral College inspires little confidence as it has become antiquarian and pointless

DEVENDER SINGH ASWAL

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020

www.dailypioneer.comanalysis

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Larsen & Toubro onWednesday said its

construction arm has wonsignificant contractsincluding regional rapidtransit system (RRTS) orderin Uttar Pradesh. Theconstruction arm of L&T hassecured orders fromprestigious clients for two ofits businesses, the companysaid in a statement.A significant contract ranges between Rs 1,000-2,500 crore. It said its Heavy Civil Infrastructure Business hassecured another RRTS infrastructure order from the NationalCapital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in Uttar Pradesh toexecute a new, dedicated, high speed, high capacity rail project inthe Delhi - Ghaziabad - Meerut Corridor. RRTS is different from ametro rail system as it caters to passengers looking to travelrelatively longer distances with fewer stops and quicker.

MG Motor has partneredwith Automotive Skill

Development Council(ASDC) and Autobot India tolaunch Dakshta, a trainingprogram specialising inartificial intelligence (AI) andelectric vehicles, aimed atcreating skilled manpowerfor the automobile industry.

The partnership, which is a part of MG's vision of CASE mobilitywhich it has augmented in its product portfolio in India, is a steptowards democratising high-end car technologies in the countrythrough online and offline skill development courses for engineering students, MG Motor India said in a release. The eight-moduletraining programme training will focus on skill enhancement,thereby improving employability in the automotive sector whilecreating skilled manpower to cater to the automotive industry'sfuture requirements.

MG Motor partners ASDC, AutobotIndia to provide skilled manpower

State-owned NMDC onWednesday said its board

has approved a sharebuyback proposal of up to Rs1,378 crore. In a BSE filing,the company said thedecision was taken at ameeting of its board onTuesday. "The boardapproved a proposal forbuyback of 13,12,43,809fully paid-up equity shares ofa face value of Re 1 each from the company's shareholders at aprice of Rs 105 per equity share payable in cash," NMDC said. Thebuyback will be for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs13,78,05,99,945 (offer size), representing 5 per cent and 5.05 percent of the total fully paid-up equity share capital and free reserves,respectively, it added.

NMDC board approves up to Rs 1,378-cr buyback plan

The Income Taxdepartment has issuedrefunds worth over Rs

1.32 lakh crore to over 39lakh taxpayers so far thisfiscal. This include Personalincome tax (PIT) refundsamounting to Rs 35,123crore and corporate taxrefunds amounting to Rs97,677 crore during this

period. "CBDT issues refunds of over Rs 1,32,800 crore to morethan 39.75 lakh taxpayers between April 1,2020 to November10,2020. Income tax refunds of Rs 35,123 crore have been issuedin 37,81,599 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 97,677 crorehave been issued in 1,93,813 cases," the I-T department tweeted.

I-T refunds worth Rs 1.32 lakh crissued to 39.75 lakh taxpayers

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's flagship overseas firmONGC Videsh Ltd onWednesday announced theacquisition of Australian firmFAR Ltd's stake in the USD 4.2-billion Sangomar oil project offSenegal's shore for USD 45million. This is the first acqui-sition by OVL, the overseasinvestment arm of state-ownedOil and Natural Gas Corp(ONGC), in two-and-half-years. Sangomar is a joint ven-ture with Australia's WoodsidePetroleum and Senegal'snational oil company, Petrosen.

In a statement, OVL said ithas signed definitive bindingagreements for "acquiring13.6667 per cent participatinginterest in Exploitation Area(Sangomar Field) and 15 percent participating interest inRemaining Contract Area(Exploration Area) of Rufisque,Sangomar Offshore andSangomar Deep Offshore(RSSD) Block, OffshoreSenegal." The acquisition, itsaid, is subject to partners inthe field waiving the pre-emp-tion rights. Woodside inAugust exercised its right tomatch a USD 400 million offer

by Russia's Lukoil to buy CairnEnergy's stake in the RSSDproject, making it the largestshareholder.

Woodside, the operator ofthe block, now has a 68.33 percent stake in the Sangomar

field and 75 per cent interest inExploration Area.

etrosen holds an 18 per centstake interest in Sangomarfield and 10 per cent in theExploration Area of the RSSDBlock.

OVL said it will make anupfront payment of USD 45million as well as its share ofthe cost of developing thefield.

"Total investment involvedincluding the developmentcost until the first oil is expect-ed to be around USD 600 mil-lion," the statement said.

The Sangomar field, current-ly under development, is locat-ed in the deep waters ofMauritania, Senegal, Gambia,Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry Basin (MSGBCBasin), Offshore Senegal, cov-ering an area of 772 sq km andis planned to go on productionin 2023 under Phase-1 devel-opment.

"The completion of the pre-sent transaction would markOVL's entry in Senegalese off-shore in a significant projectunder development and is con-sistent with its strategic objec-tive of adding high impactexploration and near-term pro-duction assets to its existingE&P portfolio," it said.

OVL has 39 projects in 19countries spanning fromVenezuela to New Zealand. Ithas so far invested USD 29.28billion in projects abroad.

OVL acquires Oz’s FAR Ltdstake block for $ 45 mn

This is the first acquisition by OVL,the overseas investment arm ofstate-owned Oil and Natural GasCorp (ONGC), in two-and-half-years.Sangomar is a joint venture withAustralia's Woodside Petroleum andSenegal's national oil company

PNS n NEW DELHI

Fertiliser cooperative majorIffco on Wednesdayannounced a reduction in themaximum retail price of NPfertiliser by Rs 50 to Rs 925per bag of 50 kg with imme-diate effect.

This reduction in NP fer-tiliser, which contains nitro-gen and superphosphate, is inline with the declining agri-culture input cost to farmersand the Prime Minister's planof doubling the farmers'income by 2022, it said.

Iffco will keep on reducingprices wherever possible forfarmers, it added.

"We are glad to announcethe reduction of Rs 50/bag inthe price of #NP 20:20:0:13fertilisers across India withimmediate effect on allstocks," Iffco ManagingDirector and CEO U SAwasthi tweeted.

The reduction by Rs 1,000a tonne is done to give sup-port to farmers on sulphur, akey input nutrient for soil, hesaid.

A few months ago, it hadreduced prices of NPK andDAP (Di-AmmoniumPhosphate) fertilisers.

PNS n MUMBAI

Rallying for the eighth consec-utive session, equity bench-mark Sensex surged 316.02points to close at a fresh life-time high on Wednesday,tracking largely positive cuesfrom global markets andstrong foreign fund inflows.

After touching its all-timepeak of 43,708.47 during thesession, the 30-share BSE indexsettled 316.02 points or 0.73per cent higher at 43,593.67.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty touched a fresh intra-dayhigh of 12,769.75. It finished118.05 points or 0.93 per centup at its closing record of12,749.15.

Tata Steel was the top gain-er among the Sensex con-stituents, surging around 8per cent, followed by AxisBank, Bajaj Finserv, ITC,Infosys, Sun Pharma, KotakBank, ONGC and UltraTechCement.

On the other hand,IndusInd Bank, RelianceIndustries, Titan, Asian Paintsand HDFC Bank were in thered. Domestic marketsremained upbeat and extend-ed gain for the eighth consec-utive day as positive sentimentsamong investors followingclarity of coronavirus vaccine

by BioNTech-Pfizer and strong2Q corporate earnings persist,said Arjun Yash Mahajan HeadInstitutional Business atReliance Securities.

"While market witnessedsome amount of volatilitytoday led by profit booking insome of heavyweights, a sharprebound in pharma, metals, IT

and auto stocks supportedmarket rally," he added.

Additionally, NDA's win inBihar assembly elections bodewell for domestic equities, henoted. Elsewhere in Asia,bourses in Shanghai and HongKong ended in the red, whileSeoul and Tokyo closed withgains.

Sensex rallies 316 pointsto close at fresh peak

Tata Steel was the top gaineramong the Sensex constituents,surging around 8 per cent, followedby Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, ITC,Infosys, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank,ONGC and UltraTech Cement

PNS n NEW DELHI

GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL)on Wednesday said its busi-nesses are on a recovery path,and the firm is focussing oncash conservation by resched-uling its capex plan to mitigatechallenges.

It has also extended theDelhi airport plan to June2023, instead of the scheduledSeptember 2022, the companysaid.

The firm on Tuesday report-ed widening of its consolidat-ed net loss to Rs 750 crore dur-ing the quarter endedSeptember 30, 2020.

GMR is continuously adapt-ing to the situation and hasfocused on several measures tomitigate the challenges includ-ing cash conservation throughrescheduling of its capitalexpenditure (capex) plan, thecompany said in a statement.

It added, "Delhi airport'soriginal plan was September2022; now targeting to com-plete by June 2023, though wehave taken approval up toSeptember 2023."

For the Hyderabad airport,the original plan was March2022, which is now beingplanned to complete beforeDecember 2022, the companysaid. Besides, Goa airportcapex plan has been revisedfrom May 2022 to August

2022, it said. It said it is alsofocussing on consolidation ofinfrastructures to adapt to thenature of traffic and reduceoperating costs and hasreviewed all budgets with focuson only essential expenditures,resulting in reducing operatingexpenses. About the divest-ment of Kakinada SEZ Ltd(KSEZ), it said that with anobective to reduce the corpo-rate debt further, GIL hassigned definitive agreements

for the sale of its entire 51 percent stake in KSEZ toAurobindo Realty andInfrastructure Pvt Ltd.

As part of this, the 100 percent equity stake of KakinadaGateway Port Ltd held byKSEZ would also be trans-ferred to Aurobindo Realty.Total consideration for the saleof equity stake as well as thesub-debt in KSEZ is Rs 2,610crore. Out of this, Rs 1,600crore would be received on theclosing date and the balance Rs1,010 crore would be receivedin the next 2-3 years contingentupon certain agreed mile-stones, the company said.

t also added that it expectsbourses' nod on the strategicrestructuring scheme fordemerger of its non-airportvertical business by December.

The rejig aimed at simplify-ing corporate holding structureinvolves demerger of the non-

airport business of GIL intoGMR Power and Urban InfraLtd (GPUIL) alongside amal-gamation of GMR Power InfraLtd (GPIL) with GIL, as a steppreceding demerger.

"We have filed the compos-ite Scheme of Amalgamationand Arrangement among GPILand GIL and GPUIL and theirrespective shareholders withthe stock exchanges," the com-pany said. The companyexpects feedback from thestock exchanges by the end ofDecember, after which thecompany shall file the requisitepetition with the NationalCompany Law Tribunal, itadded. This restructuring is astep in right direction tounlock value of GIL throughseparate listing of both the air-port business and non-airportbusiness and simplifying thecorporate holding structure,the company said.

Focussing on cash conservation: GMR Infra

Iffco reduces NPfertiliser price by Rs 50 to Rs 925/bag

PNS n NEW DELHI

Passenger vehicle wholesalein India increased by 14.19 percent to 3,10,294 units inOctober against 2,71,737 unitsin the same month last year ascompanies despatched moreunits to dealers to cater toenhanced demand in the fes-tive season, auto industry bodySIAM said on Wednesday.

According to the latest databy the Society of IndianAutomobile Manufacturers(SIAM), two-wheeler sales alsorose 16.88 per cent to 20,53,814units, compared with 17,57,180units in the same month lastyear. Motorcycle sales were at13,82,749 units as against11,16,886 units in October

2019, up 23.8 per cent.Scooter sales were also up

1.79 per cent at 5,90,507 unitsfrom 5,80,120 units in thesame month last year.

Three-wheeler sales, howev-er, declined by 60.91 per centto 26,187 units last month asagainst 66,985 units in thesame month last year.

"The month of October sawcontinuity in sales growth tra-jectory, drawing on from theprevious month. There weremarked improvements wit-nessed across certain segmentsdue to very good festivedemand," SIAM DirectorGeneral Rajesh Menon said.

Three-wheelers saw a slightimprovement in sales, com-pared to the last month, how-ever, it has still registered a de-growth of 60.91 per cent, overthe corresponding month oflast year, he added. "Octoberwholesale numbers have beengood on account of dealerspreparing to serve demandfor the upcoming Diwali festi-val, which is in November thisyear," Menon said.

Passenger vehicle wholesale in Indiaup 14 pc in October, says SIAM

PNS n LEH

Ladakh Lt Governor R KMathur has sought Centre'shelp to exploit the full eco-nomic potential of Pashminaproduced in the UnionTerritory.

Mathur raised the issueduring a meeting with UnionMinister of Road Transportand Highways and MSMENitin Gadkari in New Delhi,an official spokesman said.Mathur met Gadkari onTuesday to discuss develop-mental projects in Ladakh,the spokesman said. Hestressed on the need to sup-port promotion of Pashminaas a means of rural livelihoodand revenue generatingavenue for youth, thespokesman said.

LG seeks help toexploit fullpotential ofPashmina PNS n NEW DELHI

As many as 12 companies,including Trent and KotakMahindra Bank, have beenadded to the MSCI IndiaIndex, while Bosch and LICHousing Finance will moveout, according to the latestMSCI Global Standard Indexrejig announcement.

Other who made their wayto the MSCI India index areACC, Adani Green Energy,Apollo Hospitals, BalkrishnaIndustries, IPCA Laboratories,Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen& Toubro Infotech, MRF,Muthoot Finance, PIIndustries, Trent Limited andYes Bank.

The changes in constituentsfor the MSCI global standardindices will take place as of theclose of November 30, 2020.

Bosch and LIC Housing

Finance will move out fromthe list. Shares of Trentzoomed 11.66 per cent, ApolloHospitals jumped 6.19 percent, Adani Green Energy 5per cent, Balkrishna Industriesrose 4.99 per cent, Yes Bankgained 4.95 per cent, IPCALaboratories 3.86 per centand PI Industries 3 per cent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank rose2.97 per cent, Larsen & ToubroInfotech 2.61 per cent,Muthoot Finance 2.41 percent, MRF 1.58 per cent andACC advanced 1.22 per centon the BSE.

12 firms to be partof MSCI India Index

PNS n NEW DELHI

Consumer durables and elec-tronics category recorded pos-itive sales growth in Octoberas compared to last year asretailers overall continued towitness a steady month-on-month recovery, althoughbusiness is yet to reach lastyear's levels, according to asurvey by RAI.

As per its 9th round of busi-ness survey, the RetailersAssociation of India (RAI)said consumer durables andelectronics category saw agrowth of 8 per cent inOctober, a further increasefrom 2 per cent growth wit-nessed in September.

"While consumer durables

have done well, other cate-gories (are) yet to recover sig-nificantly," the survey said.

In October, apparel andclothing sales saw 35 per centdecline, while beauty, wellnessand personal care witnessed a55 per cent dip in sales.

Footwear category alsoclocked 30 per cent decline,while quick service restau-rants saw a degrowth of 35 percent.

Commenting on the find-ings, RAI CEO KumarRajagopalan said, "We arebeginning to see green shootsof recovery with a steadymonth-on-month improve-ment for businesses. However,we are yet to catch up to lastyear's levels."

PNS n MUMBAI

Global payments major Visaon Wednesday responded tothe Indian government's pushfor adoption of RuPay cards,saying presence of all kinds ofplayers fosters innovation andoffers customers a choice.

A day after Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman askedbanks to "only promote" RuPaycards, Visa's country managerfor India and South Asia T RRamachandran said that dig-ital payments penetration isvery low in India at only 18 percent of overall personal con-sumption expenditure.

"We all have our roles toplay," Ramachandran, whosecompany along with peerMastercard competes with theRupay alternative offered byNational PaymentsCorporation of India (NPCI),

said.Talking to reporters, he said

that India is a large countryand unlike the western coun-tries, where it is a zero-sumgame, where somebody has tolose for somebody to win.

"Given the statistics... thatunder 18 per cent of privateconsumption expenditure isdigitised, I would argue it

takes all kinds of players,domestic, international etcbecause that fosters innova-tion, that fosters customerchoice," he said.

Addressing the annual gen-eral meeting of the IndianBanks Association on Tuesday,Sitharaman had asked lendersto "only promote" Rupay cardsto their customers.

Green shoots of recoveryvisible in retail business

Competition offers innovation,choice to customers, says Visa

PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold prices witnessed amuted trend in the nationalcapital on Wednesday, risingmarginally by Rs 3 to Rs50,114 per 10 gram amidchoppy global prices, accord-ing to HDFC Securities.

he precious metal hadclosed at Rs 50,111 per 10gram in the previous day.

Silver prices rose Rs 451 toRs 62,023 per kilogram fromRs 61,572 per kilogram in theprevious trade.

"Spot gold prices for 24carat in Delhi were margin-ally up by Rs 3 on choppyglobal gold prices and rupeedepreciation," HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patelsaid.

Gold risesmarginally, silvergains Rs 451

L&T Construction wins significant contracts

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ThursdayNovember 12, 2020

VIEWING COMMUNITY ASRESPONSIBILITY & RESOURCE

It takes a disaster and not acelebration to realise who staysthe closest. The pandemic and

the flash floods in the citybrought several communities

closer, and the Parsi communityis one of them. They fought all

odds to be there with eachother, lending and sharing.

They talk to The Pioneer’sRACHEL DAMMALA on

how they waded through thetimes in the past few months

hey are all of athousand people inthe city, yet theirstrong, close-knitbond, is one thatwill leave every

community wanting to havethat. Their history is often got-ten wrong, their names mis-pronounced, but the commu-nity as a whole loves and isloved. We’re talking about theParsi community in the citythat managed to stay in touchand help each other and othercommunities too, even duringthe pandemic.

“It was tough to be there foreach other amid the pandemicgiven therestrictionslaid down bythe gov-ern-

ment,but wedid our best,especially forthe elderly inour community. We knewthem having to go out to pur-chase their monthly medicineswould be a huge risk, so mem-bers from the group volun-teered to get their medicines,and other essential suppliesand drop them off at theirdoorstep,” Jehangir Bisney,

Trustee of the ParsiZoroastrian Anjuman ofSecunderabad and Hyderabadshares.

The recent flash floods inHyderabad have been devastat-ing. Lives have been lost andhomes wrecked. Several organ-isations and volunteers havedone remarkable work in thelockdown, helping those whocouldn’t make ends meet. Theyhave aided those affected bythe floods.

The Parsi ZoroastrianAnjuman of Secunderabad andHyderabad, have been collect-ing relief material and aresending them to various NGOslike Safa Foundation for distri-bution. They collected and dis-tributed clothes, toiletries andsanitary needs, sanitizers,soaps, detergents, blankets,

bedsheets,sweaters, metalutensils, tarpau-lins, candles and

any several otheritems.

Gulbanoo Y.Chenoy, President,PZASH, on behalf ofthe organisation,

thanked membersof the communi-ty who respond-ed to the appeal

for donations inkind towards those who hadlost their family members andwhose homes were wrecked inthe recent flash floods inHyderabad.

The community has alsobeen taking care of variousother needs of the community.“We have different wings tolook after different people ofour community, like theZoroastrian Stree Mandal, forwomen, single mothers, wid-ows or any woman that needs

a helping hand. We’re alwaysthere for each other to sharethe burden and make life easi-er whenever we can. It alsocaters to employment opportu-nities, talks and more,”Jehangir tells us.

Given the diminishing sizeof the community, Jehangirbelieves it has become evenmore important for them tostay in constant touch. “Wehave always strived to meet asoften as we can, but the pan-

demic was a block. We decidedto follow the restrictions andrefrain from holding any fur-ther events or gatherings untilwe’re allowed to do so,” headds.

The community is knownfor its unique festivals and cui-sine. Anybody that frequentsSoda Bottle Openerwala willagree with the statement. Thecommunity is more thanhappy to share their recipes,knowledge of their culturewith anyone that’s curious.

Their community page onFacebook, called the ParsiZoroastrian Worldwide, aclosed group, not only servesas a medium to bring the com-munity together but is also asource for a wealth of informa-tion about the Parsi communi-

ty, their monuments, history,culture and rituals. You canpose questions about booksregarding their community,any recommendations, andyour queries will surely bereplied to. It also has variouslatest updates and news aboutthe community. One of themembers of the groupreviewed the page to be a goodresource of “intellectual,ancient information, friendlygroup of people, helpful forbusiness and religion-relatedqueries and a group of trust-worthy people.”

People of all age groups takepride in the culture of theircommunity and are trying tokeep in touch, for the timebeing, by over phone calls. “Ikeep calling up my friendsfrom the community as andwhen I can, keep the fervouralive through our groups onsocial media, as I can’t go outthat often, now that I’m old,”says a very dynamic senior cit-izen of the community,Shapoor Toorkey, who gave hisall for the community in thepast several years.

T

Gulbanoo Y Chenoy, President of PZASH

Ervad Aspi Patel, Head Priest

Jehnagir Bisney, Trustee, Parsi ZoroastrianAnjuman, Secunderabad and Hyderabad

THE COMMUNITY ISKNOWN FOR ITSUNIQUE FESTIVALSAND CUISINE. THECOMMUNITY IS MORETHAN HAPPY TOSHARE THEIRRECIPES, KNOWLEDGEOF THEIR CULTUREWITH ANYONE THAT’SCURIOUS.

Caution amid celebrationsights, selfies, and theglitziest silk kurtas arefixtures of Diwali likeevery year. But theHindu festival oflights will look differ-

ent for a lot of people this year.Dreaming about hosting a Diwaliparty for friends at your new flator packing your luggage to go ona vacation, expecting a return tonormality is still some time away.Dull customer sentiment and araging pandemic have taken awaythe sheen of Diwali for a lot ofus. In such a scenario, hosting aDiwali party is the last thing wecan think of. Also, the sky is illu-minated with firecrackers everyyear. “However, firecrackers canbe dangerous when not handledproperly and can cause seriousinjuries. Therefore, you can stillbeat the gloom by following cer-tain measures in order to makesure you and your family mem-bers are safe around firecrackers,”suggests Dr MuralidharRamappa, senior cornea consul-tant from L.V. Prasad EyeInstitute in Hyderabad. He givesa list of Dos and Don’ts you mustfollow to enjoy a safe Diwali.

L

DOS:

p Buy fireworks only fromauthorised manufacturers. Drythem in the sun for at least 2days.

p Store them in cardboard boxes,out of the reach of children andaway from inflammable materialsuch as a gas cylinder or oil can.

p Never leave children alone whileplaying with firecrackers.

p Only one person should light afirecracker at a time; others shouldwatch from a safe distance.

p Light crackers in an open area.

p Always use a long candle orphuljhari for lighting crackers.

p Keep two buckets of water handy.In case of burns, pour lots ofwater on the affected area.

p For major burns, after putting outthe fire, wrap the victim in aclean bed sheet and rush to ahospital.

p Always use protective shatter-proof goggles while burstingfirecrackers

DON’TS:

p Don't light crackers while holding themin your hand.

p Don't bend over the crackers whilelighting them.

p Don't light crackers inside a container,like a bottle, tin can or overturned pot.This can be very dangerous.

p Wait for a while before approachingcrackers that do not light immediately.

p Do not collect leftover firecrackers tomake your own recycled version. Don'tcarry crackers in your pocket.

p Don't store them near burning candles,diyas or agarbathis.

p Don't wear synthetic clothes; wear onlythick cotton clothes, when lightingcrackers. Don't wear loose garments.

reen tea hasgained wide-spread attentionas a weight lossproduct. Due toits nutritional and

antioxidant value, it hasbeen associated with severalhealth benefits with weightloss being the primary one.However, as they say, any-thing in excess is bad, nomatter how healthy a bever-age it is. Also, the question ifit really does work withoutexercises and diet plans doesarise? Also, can it causereverse effects? How muchof it is to be consumed in aday?

There is no robust scien-tific evidence to suggest thatgreen tea consumption helpsreduce excess body weight inmeaningful quantities whenused by obese individuals,believes Dr Ravi Sankar.There’s no magic pill thatcan miraculously help youlose weight quickly.

Shedding fat actuallyrequires a careful combina-tion of eating the rightfoods, exercising a bit,reducing stress and gettingenough sleep. As a popularmeme says — entire popula-tion can’t reduce by consum-ing a few pounds of greentea for weight loss from theirrespective kitchens. Most ofit is anyway not that appeal-ing to the plate. Green teamust be lining on yourshelves also right now and isavailable for a few bucks atalmost every market but howabout trying a healthy, bal-anced, low caloric diet inconjunction with a little bitof exercising and otherlifestyle changes underappropriate supervision toachieve those weight lossgoals instead of over-con-sumption? Sounds like abenefitting idea, doesn’t it?“We really do not know ifsuch over-consumption ofgreen tea several times a day

for several weeks or monthsaffects the body adversely inany way or not, but it mayaffect your kidneys, liver andother functional organs,”informs the senior endocri-nologist at Apollo Hospitals,Jubilee Hills.

Indeed, green tea is ahealthy powerhouse, but itcomes with its set of sideeffects that can affect indi-viduals who are consumingit in more than recommend-ed quantities. For most peo-ple, it must be a challenge toconsume the amount ofgreen tea suggested in limit-ed quantities but it’sextremely important torecognise the side effectsthat are attributed to it, likeheadache, nervousness,sleep problems, vomiting,irregular heartbeat, anddizziness, among others. Soenjoy it hot, cold or in apowdered form but be care-ful to not consume it inexcessive amounts.

G

Are you over-consuming?

The Pioneer wishes you a happy andsafe Diwali weekend!

PARTY

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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

10

Hyderabad Thursday November 12 2020 what’s brewing?

DIWALI BASHS

ocialites Anika Khara, Deepika Maheshwari, Shilpa SinghGour hosted a Diwali party for their near and dear atBanjara Hills on Tuesday. It was a fun filled evening with

women performing puja, followed by some games and ascrumptious dinner. The event was hosted keeping in mind thesafety of its guests by taking necessary precautions.

Rajkummar Rao:‘I don't re-watchmy performances'

riticallyacclaimed actorRajkummarRao is proud ofhis filmography,but he says he

does not watch his pastworks again in order toanalyse his performances.

Last month, the 2013biographical dramaShahid, which fetched hima National Award, turnedseven. Asked what he seeswhen he looks back at hiswork, Rajkummar toldIANS, “I feel proud that Iam part of such films thatpeople will know me of,because of this filmogra-phy. I don’t really re-watchmy performances, but if Isee bits here and there, Ialways feel that I couldhave done it better.”

“Also, you grow in life,you become more matureand understand thechanges, so yeah that feel-ing always comes,” addedthe actor, who hasimpressed audiences withfilms such as Trapped,Newton, Bareilly Ki Barfiand Stree.

He is now looking for-ward to the release of hissocial comedy Chhalaang.

“The story itself was soaspirational, so sweet, soreal and so funny. I havenever done a character likethis before, and we haven’tseen stories about PTteachers. They play a veryimportant role in our liveswhile growing up. But wedon’t really know theirlives,” said Rajkummar.

“So it was the opportu-nity to play a PT teacherand it’s a story set inHaryana, which is verynostalgic for me because Ihave been in this worldwhile growing up. Also, wehave so many talentedchildren in our film. It’s agreat package of entertain-ing you and trying to teachyou something, making

you feel motivated,” headded.

The Hansal Mehta-directed film will releaseon the eve of Children’sDay on November 13, onAmazon Prime Video.

Asked if the premiere ofhis film on an OTT plat-form makes a difference,he said, “Not really. Theseare the things that are notin our control.The makersdecide if they want torelease films on OTT ortheatres. Our job is doneby the time we are donewith shooting and dub-bing.”

As an actor, he just

wants the audience towatch his films.

“Right now is a righttime (to watch on OTT)because I don’t think they(audiences) are ready tostep out. So I think theyfeel comfortable sitting attheir home as per theirconvenience and watch afilm like Chhalaang, whichis so apt to watch withfamily,” he said.

Apart from the releaseof the “really sweet cleanfamily entertainer”, he iseagerly waiting to get onset to shoot for his upcom-ing projects, includingBadhaai Do.

C

l D

eept

hi

l Anika Khara , Deepika Maheshwari and Shilpa Singh Gour

l Soni

l Sara l Jhanvi Bajaj

l Vibha l Nanda

he cast of nation-al-award winningfilmmaker RajeshTouchriver’s next,Cyanide, has beenbolstered up fur-

ther. Malayalam actorSiddique, who has featuredin more than 300 films andworked with Rajesh for NaaBangaru Thalli earlier, is onboard for a key supportingrole. So is popular Kannadaactor Rangayana Raghu,who has featured in morethan 250 movies, winningKarnataka state award twiceas a supporting actor.

Cyanide is inspired fromthe life of the notoriouscriminal ‘Cyanide’ Mohan, aphysical education instructorin Karnataka who killed 20young women by givingthem cyanide. Rajesh has

already signed on Priyamanito spearhead the project. Shewill be seen as a specialinvestigation officer with anIG rank, who cracks the case.

To be shot in Hindi,Telugu, Tamil, Malayalamand Kannada at the sametime, with a mix of actorslike Rohini, ChittaranjanGiri, Tanikella Bharani, RamGopal Bajaj, Shiju, Shaju,Sriman, Mukundan, Sameerand Sanju Sivram and RijuBajaj from the five lan-guages, the film will roll inJanuary next year. It wouldbe shot across Hyderabad,Mangalore, Goa, Madikeri,Kodagu and Kasargode.

Pradeep Narayanan andK Niranjan Reddy are joint-ly producing Cyanide,which has music by GeorgeJoseph.

elugu girlSobhitaDhulipala, whojoined the setsof Adivi Sesh-fronted

Major in January,has wrapped upfilming her por-tions earlierthis month.As she bidadieu tothe unit,she postedan emo-tionalnote

on her Instagram space onTuesday evening, ravingabout the efforts of theprincipal crew and leadAdivi Sesh in bringingalive the heroics of Major

SandeepUnnikrishnan, a

National SecurityGuard comman-do, who wasmartyred inthe 26/11Mumbai ter-rorist attacksin 2008.“Wearer ofmany hats,writer andlead actor@adivise-sh, whowillswal-

low ahur-

ricane and tell you that itmay have tasted better withAppadams on the side.Can go from sweetheart toSatan and back in 0.1 sec-onds and will remember towear a mask through it,”she posted about Sesh.

Stating that the unitgave their all to the film,she added, “Major is apassion project that wegladly gave blood, sweatand tears to. I think of thisas a story about the anato-my of courage.Tremendous respect andgratitude to producers -@gmbents @urstrulyma-hesh sir and @sonypic-sprodns (sic).”

Directed by Goodacharifame Sashi Kiran,

the movie is beingshot in Teluguand Hindisimultaneously.Sony PictureInternationalProductions isforaying intoTelugu Cinemawith the film,co-produced byMahesh Babu,AdiviEntertainmentand SharathChandra andAnurag Reddy’sA+S Movies.

he filming of MassMaharaja RaviTeja-starrer Krackhas been complet-ed except for asong, which the

makers are planning to shooton the lead pair shortly. When

the film resumedin mid

September after a sevenmonth COVID-19 inducedbreak, it was two weeks awayfrom a wrap up. But a sourcepoints out that Ravi wasunhappy with some portionsof the film shot before March,

leadingdirec-

tor

Gopichand Malineni toreshoot them in brief sched-ules in the last one month.“With his last four films failingto light up the box-office, Ravididn’t want to take a chanceand so, asked the director toreshoot portions that he wasunhappy with. The directorobliged,” adds the source.

An intense action thriller,the film, which marks Raviand director Gopichand team-ing up after hits like DonSreenu and Balupu, is inspiredby incidents that transpired inboth the Telugu states. It tellsthe story of a powerful policeofficer P Veera Shankar(played by Ravi Teja) and willhave all elements that oneexpects from the actor’s film.

Shruti Haasan is cast oppo-site Ravi Teja in the film, while

the likes of Samuthirakani,Varalakshmi Sarath

Kumar, Devi Prasad,Pujita Ponnada andChirag Jani are play-

ing supportingroles. Producer

Tagore Madhu isplanning torelease it for

Sankranti.

Krack, a song awayfrom completion

11

Hyderabad Thursday November 12 2020

SHAURYA'S SIGNING SPREE CONTINUESWith his date diary filled to the brim, Shaurya gave hisnod to another project, which will roll next year.Sukumar's former assistant Sriman Vemula will make hisTelugu directorial debut with it, finds NAGARAJ GOUD

lready a part of pro-jects with SitharaEntertainments,NorthstarEntertainment andEastcoast

Productions-not to forget hishome production with AnnishKrishna — actor Naga Shauryahas green-lit another film, ThePioneer has learnt. According to asource close to the development,the actor was impressed with thescript of Sukumar’s former assis-

tant Sriman Vemula and agreedto spearhead it. Sriman made hisdirectorial debut with Kannadafilm Kumari 21F (2018). It was aremake of a Telugu film of thesame name written by his men-tor.

The source informs, “Srimannarrated an interesting story toShaurya and the latter gave hisverbal nod straightaway. In thefilm, the actor will be seen as astruggling director who is tryingto make his maiden film. It’s a

quirky character and the storyhas a lot of drama in it. A lot ofresearch has undergone into thebackdrop of the film.”

The source adds that withShaurya occupied with multipleprojects presently, the officialannouncement may take a littlelonger. “He has a commitmentwith Sivalenka Prasad of SrideviMovies and it’s likely that he willdo this film for him. The filmingwill commence from the summerof next year,” the source states.

A

tollywood

T

owerstarPawanKalyan onWednesdayunveiled thetrailer of cin-

ematographer VSGnana Shekar’s maidenproduction venture,Gamanam, toplined byShriya Saran, NithyaMenen, ShivaKandukuri andPriyanka Jawalkar, onthe sets of Vakeel Saabin Hyderabad. Directedby debutante Sujana,the film, a humandrama, will be releasedin Tamil, Kannada,Malayalam and Hindilanguages as well.

Speaking later, Pawansaid the trailer lookscreative and warrantsthe attention of viewersbefore lauding theeffort of Sujana.“Despite being a firsttime director, Sujanaseems to have handledthe sensitive subjectinterestingly. I wisheveryone would watchthe film. I congratulatethe producers for givingher a chance to directit,” the actor stated.

In the film, a compi-lation of three differentnarratives, one story

deals about a deafwoman (played byShriya) who is motherof an infant, waiting forher husband’s return toIndia from Dubai. Thenext one is of an aspir-ing cricketer (Shiva)who wants to representIndia, but the hurdlesseem insurmountable.Even his girlfriendplayed by Priyanka cau-tions him not to dreambig. The last one is astory of two slum-dwelling orphans wish-ing to celebrate theirbirthday. A flood in thecity lends a final twistto all the three stories.

Sujana Rao said, “Itmakes me very happyto finally share aglimpse of the worldthat we have been livingin for so long.Gamanam has a storyfor everyone and itgives you the choice toexperience it in the lan-guage of your prefer-ence.”

Gnana Shekar, whodoubled up as a lens-man, has produced thefilm in collaborationwith Ramesh Karutooriand Venki Pushadapu.Maestro Ilaiyaraaja hasscored the music.

P

PAWAN laudsGamanam

director Sujana

CYANIDE CASTGROWS BIGGER

T

roducer-director KJanakiram, who assist-ed Posani KrishnaMurali last decade, isconfident that his film,GST (GOD, Saithan

and Technology), will resonatewith the people as the story isstrong. “The world is filledwith people who believe inGod, in ghosts and in technol-ogy. At the same time, thereare naysayers as well. I’vetaken a concept from theirconcerns and penned a story.The film will paint a true pic-ture on God, ghost and sci-ence. It is a suspense thrillerwith commercial bells andwhistles. There is comedy,romance and horror in equal

measure. There’s also a mes-sage in it,” he told The Pioneer.

He added, “Despite the set-back I faced due to coron-avirus, I believe the film willfind its audience because ofthe content. I’m not a richman and I took loans to complete the film. It has comeout well and I’m waiting toshow it to the people. I’m notover confident at the sametime.”

Featuring Anand Krishna,Ashok, Swati Mandal, Induand Pooja Suhasini in the leadroles, the film, shot inAntarvedi and Machilipatnam,was wrapped up in 42 days.UV Niranjan has composedthe music.

P

Janakiram optimisticabout GST's chances

We gave blood, sweat andtears to Major: Sobhita

T

PTI n DUBAI

Delhi Capitals skipperShreyas Iyer says his

otherwise outstandingbowlers “lost it in power-play” after a disastrous startprevented them from post-ing a challenging total in theIPL final against MumbaiIndians.

Losing three early wick-ets pegged the Capitals backas they could post only amodest 156 for seven.

MI skipper RohitSharma then led his side to

a comfortable win with hismagnificent half-century.They raced to 61 for 1 in thefirst six overs that set astrong foundation for aneasy chase.

“It’s just the fatigue thatcrept in may be, bowlers justlost it in the Powerplay,” adisappointed Iyer said atthe post match press confer-ence. DC captain said hedoes not regret his decision

to bat first. After beingreduced to 22 for 3, Iyer (65off 50) and Rishabh Pant (56off 38) stitched 96 runs forthe fourth wicket to stabilisethe innings. “I thought it wasvery good decision (to batfirst). When you enter thefinal, it’s very important toget off to a good start andthat’s what we lacked in thisgame. Obviously, there waspressure of getting good

score in the Powerplay. Wehad already lost three wick-ets so it was important thatwe scored runs and also savewickets at the same time,” hesaid.

“I think we reached toa very decent total in thePowerplay and after that wecapitalised there onwardsand got to a decent total until15th over I guess but afterthat everything came down.”

PTI n KARACHI

The Pakistani selectors onWednesday dropped veteran all-

rounder Shoaib Malik and pacerMuhammad Aamir from a 35-mem-ber squad for the upcoming NewZealand tour.

The Pakistan Cricket Boardannounced a combined squad, whichincludes players for the senior teamand the Shaheen’s side. It did not spec-ify which player belongs to whichsquad.

Pakistan play three T20Is onDecember 18, 20 and 22 before theirICC World Test Championship fix-tures to be held in Mount Maunganuiand Christchurch fromDecember 26-30 andJanuary 3-7 respectively.

The scheduled ofthe Shaheens is yet tobe confirmed by NewZealand Cricketthough it is expectedto be played con-currently. Thesquad will departfor New Zealand

on November 23.Babar Azam has already been

announced Pakistan captain in all for-mats. His vice-captain in Tests will beMohammad Rizwan in the tour whichwill be staged in a bio-secure environ-ment in view of the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The PCB said both 38-year-oldMalik and 28-year-old Amir were leftout as the “selectors prefer youth” over

them.The dropping of formercaptain Malik, who nowplays only T20 cricket,

could mean that the selectorsdon’t have him in mind fornext year’s T20 World Cup inIndia. He played in the T20I

series against England inSeptember but was notin the Pakistan T20Iteam in the just con-cluded home seriesagainst Zimbabwe.

Left-arm pacerAamir was also notconsidered for therecent home whiteball series against

Zimbabwe. He last played a Test inJanuary 2019. He, however, played inthe T20 International series againstEngland in August-September thisyear. Another senior player AsadShafiq, who has played 77 Tests, wasleft out “due to lack of form.”

Uncapped Amad Butt, DanishAziz, Imran Butt and Rohail Nazirwere named, as also Abdullah Shafiqueand Usman Qadir in the squad whichhas an average age is 27.4.

“... Test players not involved in theT20Is in the first half of the seriesagainst New Zealand will be availablefor selection for Shaheens (PakistanA), who are expected to be playingfour-day matches against NewZealand A during that period,” thePCB said. “Likewise, when the nation-al side is involved in the ICC WorldTest Championship matches againstNew Zealand, national men’s teamplayers not part of those matches willbe available for selection for theShaheens, who are expected to beinvolved in 20-over games againstNew Zealand A during those days.”

The Pakistan squad will spend 14-days in quarantine and isolation after reaching New Zealand which is already hosting the West Indies.

PTI n DUBAI

His fluent half century madethe chase look effortless inthe IPL final but Mumbai

Indians skipper Rohit Sharma saidit was his bowlers who set up thecrushing win over Delhi Capitals,which fetched an unprecedentedfifth title for the side.

“We got a wicket on the firstball and we got a couple more afterthat. We just wanted to keep thepressure, the execution was perfectfrom all the bowlers,” Rohit said atthe post-match press conference.

“We knew Stoinis and Dhawanare Delhi’s key batters, so we want-ed to bowl our key bowlers atthem, getting early wickets was thekey, we wanted to take early wick-ets, when you have the best newball bowler inyour squad,why not gowith that?”he said.

R o h i tappl au d e deach andevery bowlerfor his contri-bution in theteam’s successthroughoutthe tourna-ment. Boult(25) andJ a s p r i tB u m r a h(27) were attheir lethalbest theentire sea-son.

“ B o u l thas been fan-tastic for usthis seasonand so hasBumrah. Theyare the ones whokept us in the gamethroughout. ( James)Pattinson, (Nathan) Coulter-Nile, (Rahul) Chahar, andKrunal Pandya also didtheir job.”

Coulter-Nile wasbrilliant during the slogovers on Tuesday. He gotrid of Rishabh Pant at acrucial juncture and alsosent back Axar Patel, crush-ing Delhi's hopes of posting an

imposing total on the board.The captain, who missed a few

games due to a hamstring injury,led the chase with a master-class.

Asked if it was his strategy toattack off-spinner R Ashwin, Rohitsaid, “There was no strategy assuch. I just wanted to be positivein my thought process.”

“Ashwin is their key bowlerand I just wanted to put pressureon their key bowler. He is a qual-ity bowler, it came off.

“When you are chasing a tar-get like that, you want to get off to

a good start, youwant to make sure

there is no pres-sure at the back

e n d ,w e

just wanted to capitalise on the firstthree-four overs,” he explained.

Young batsman Ishan Kishan(516 runs) and Suryakumar Yadav(480 runs) scored heavily in MI’swinning campaign. Rohit praisedboth of them heartily.

“Surya and Kishan have beensuperb with thebat, we sawthe resultson the

ground, they played with a lot offreedom, they are very talented inshot-making.

“It was important for us to givethem freedom, the owners alsogave them real confidence to go outthere and express themselves.”

The organisers pulled off a suc-cessful league amid a ragingCOVID-19 pandemic and MI skip-

per was pleased with theway it went off.

“Firstly we arevery happy to be onthe ground, everyonedid a good job to get

the tournament going,the safety of players was

taken care of.“I would like to congratulate

all the franchises as well regard-ing no hiccups in terms of thebio-bubble created, all franchis-

es were very disciplined in orderto make IPL this year a huge suc-

cess.“I hope this championship we

have won is something that bringsjoy to people back home,” he

signed off.

sport 12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Execution was perfect from all bowlers: Rohit ‘I don’t run behind myplayers with stick in hand’PTI n DUBAI

Rohit Sharma believes that hisstyle of leadership is not a dic-

tatorial one, which is precisely thereason behind Mumbai Indians’stupendous success in the IndianPremier League.

A peerless Rohit led from thefront in defending championsMumbai Indians’ demolition ofDelhi Capitals in the summit clashof the short-form extravaganza hereTuesday, giving them an unprece-dented fifth title.

“I’m not someone who’ll runwith a stick behind someone. Theonly way you can do it is by givingthem confidence. So you have tostrike that right balance,” Rohitsaid.

The humble leader remem-bered the backroom staff andpraised them for the work that goesbehind the scene.

“We couldn’t have asked for any-thing more, right on the moneyfrom ball one and we never lookedback. I think a lot of credit goes tothe people who worked behind thescenes - often they go unnoticed.

“Our work started long beforethe IPL started, and we wanted tomake sure we filled the gaps in pre-vious seasons,” Rohit added.

Skipper Rohit led from thefront with a 51-ball 68 as MI chaseddown a target of 157 18.4 overs, afterTrent Boult (3/30) had reduced theCapitals to 22 for three with an excel-lent display of fast bowling.

Rohit regretted the run out ofthe in-from Suryakumar Yadav whowas looking in good nick.

“The kind of form he was in, Ishould have sacrificed my wicket forSurya. But throughout the tourna-ment he has played some incredibleshots.

The entire tournament wasplayed behind closed doors in theUAE amid the COVID-19 pandem-ic.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t havethe fans at the stadium. We missedplaying at the Wankhede and hope-fully we can get back there next year,”Rohit said.

Thanks to pandemic, the lucra-tive event was held without its cus-tomary glitz and glamour.

I should’vesacrificed mywicket forSurya: RohitPTI n DUBAI

“Ishould have sacrificed mywicket for him,” said Rohit

Sharma as he regretted risingbatsman Suryakumar Yadav’s dis-missal in the IPL final whileattempting an improbable singlethat was actually called by theMumbai Indians skipper.

“The kind of form he was in,I should have sacrificed my wick-et for Surya. But throughout thetournament he has played someincredible shots,” Rohit said.

Yadav said he didn’t mind thesacrifice as he knew the skipperwould lead the team through.

He said no to the run whenRohit called for it in the 11th overbut crossed over nonetheless whenhe realised that the captain wouldbe dismissed if he didn't.

“...He was batting really well.Most importantly, he's beenanchoring well since the firstgame. I don't mind sacrificing forhim at all,” he said.

Pollard leaves Bravo behindafter winning 15th T20 trophy

IANS n DUBAI

West Indies all-rounderKieron Pollard has now

become the player with mostT20 titles following MumbaiIndians’ win in Indian PremierLeague (IPL) 2020. On Tuesdayevening, the Rohit Sharma-ledside won their fifth IPL trophyas they defeated Delhi Capitals

by five wickets in the summitclash.

“Dwayne Bravo you arebehind me now (aboutnumber of T20 titles), Ihave to say that on camera,”Pollard said.

Pollard now has15 T20 titles, five ofwhich has come forhim while playingfor the Mumbai-based franchise.Bravo, on the otherhand, has 14.

Pollard alsosaid that the titlewin meant a lot tohim and alsotermed MumbaiIndians as the best

T20 team in the world at themoment.

“It’s a great feeling, means alot. Fifth trophy...Have beenhere for 11 years. We have aquiet celebration. The amount of

trophies, the amount of talentthat’s there, you can sayMI is the best T20 teamgoing around,” he said.

Apart fromMumbai Indians, noother franchise haswon so many titles inIPL’s 13-year history;the second most suc-cessful team isChennai Super

Kings, who havewon the title three

times.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam

Gambhir andEngland’s MichaelVaughan have calledfor Rohit Sharma’s ele-vation to India’s T20captaincy with the for-mer national teamopener going to theextent of saying that itwould be a “shame” ifthe star batsman doesnot get the role.

Rohit led MumbaiIndians to a fifth IPLtit le on Tuesday,impressing not justwith a graceful halfcentury but alsoshrewd captaincy. Heis currently the nation-al vice-captain for thewhite-ball formats.

“If Rohit Sharmadoesn’t become India’scaptain, it’s their loss,not Rohit’s,” Gambhirtold ESPNcricinfo’sT20 Time Out pro-gramme.

“Yes, a captain isonly as good as his

team and I complete-ly agree with that, butwhat are the parame-ters to judge a captainon who is good andwho isn’t? The para-meters and bench-mark should be thesame. Rohit has led histeam (MI) to five IPLtitles.”

MI won anunprecedented fifthIPL title by beatingDelhi Capitals by fivewickets in Dubai onTuesday night.

“We keep sayingMS Dhoni is India’smost successful cap-tain. Why? Because hehas won two WorldCups and three IPLs,”Gambhir said.

“Rohit has wonfive IPL titles, he is themost successful cap-tain in the history ofthe tournament.Going forward, it’ll bea shame if he doesn’tget India’s white-ballor just T20 captaincy.

“Because he can'tdo much more than

It'll be India’s loss if Ro doesn't captain India: Gambhirthis. He can only help the team hecaptains to victories. So if he does-n’t become India’s regular white-ballcaptain, it will be their loss,” headded.

Gambhir had earlier said thatVirat Kohli should be madeaccountable for Royal ChallegersBangalore’s failure to make the IPLfinals in 13 efforts, eight out ofwhich were under Kohli’s leader-ship.

But the cricketer-turned-politi-cian clarified that he never meantKohli's captaincy is “poor”, insteadhe only suggested that split captain-cy model is the need of the hour.

“They can also consider split-captaincy. No one is poor. Rohithas shown in white-ball crickethow big the difference is betweenhis and Virat’s captaincy. One play-er had led his team to five titles, theother hasn’t won yet,” saidGambhir, who led Kolkata KnightRiders to two IPL titles.

“I’m not saying this becauseKohli is a poor captain. But he hasreceived the same platform thatRohit has, so you have to judgeboth of them on the same parame-ters.

"Both have been captains in theIPL for the same length of time. Ifeel Rohit stands out as a leader.”

We lost it in Powerplay itself: Iyer

No place for Malik, Amir in NZ bound squadDream come true: Babar after becoming

Pak captain in all formatsPTI n KARACHI

Handed Test captaincy along withleadership role in the limited

overs format, young Pakistan batsmanBabar Azam remembered his days asa ball-picker in a Test match, saying heis living a dream.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)on Tuesday announced that Babar hadreplaced Azhar as Test captain, just oneyear after it had appointed the seniorbatsman to lead the Test side in placeof Sarfaraz Ahmed.

“I remember being a ball picker ina Test match and at that time I thoughtwhat an honour it would be to play forPakistan. The dream has come true andI thank the PCB for showing faith inme as a captain as well,” the top bats-man said in a video message released

by the PCB. Babar said he will notmind reaching out to his predecessorsAzhar Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed forbecoming a good captain.

“I have played under and learnt alot from Azhar and Sarfaraz. And I willdefinitely seek their advice and pick upthings from their mindset which willhelp me become a good Test captain,”he said Babar’s message was releasedshortly after Azhar Ali tweeted that heoffered his full support to Babar.

Babar, just 26 and now captainacross all three formats, said he expect-ed a good tour of New Zealand as theteam was gelling well.

“The team has gelled well in whiteball cricket and I am optimistic we cando well on the coming tour. My aim isto go along with seniors and youngplayers.”

It was mentally tough in bio-bubble: Ganguly

PTI n DUBAI

BCCI president SouravGanguly on Wednesday

acknowledged that it wasmentally tough for players tobe in the just-concludedIndian Premier League's bio-bubble and thanked them forshowing resolve to make thetournament a success.

The IPL came to an endon Tuesday with MumbaiIndians beating Delhi Capitalsby five wickets here for arecord fifth title. The tourna-ment was held at three venuesin the UAE sans crowds due tothe COVID-19 pandemic.

“@bcci.Along with theoffice bearers I personallythank all the players of eachIPL team, for going thru thetuff bio bubble to make thistournament possible..It wastuff mentally, and ur commit-ment makes indian cricketwhat it is @JayShah

@ThakurArunS,” Gangulytweeted.

The event is usually heldin April-May each year buthad to be postponed afterCOVID-19 cases shot up inIndia. Following months ofdeliberation, it was shifted tothe UAE venues of Dubai,Sharjah and Abu Dhabi andwas conducted in a bio-secureenvironment.

BCCI treasurer ArunDhumal echoed Ganguly'ssentiment and hoped that theworld's biggest T20 event willreturn to its full glory nextyear.

“Congrats to Team IPLunder the dynamic leadershipof @SGanguly99 & @JayShahfor organising the most suc-cessful #Dream11IPL undersuch challenging times.

A big thanks to all thecricket fans for their love andsupport. We truly missed u.Hopefully the roar will be

Rohit Sharma celebrates after half century IPLT20.com

Indian players pose for photo together before leaving for Australia on Wednesday BCCI/Twitter