ai Plane sPlits wide oPen, 17 dead

OUR cORRESPOnDEnT

Kozhikode

Kerala’s rain fury on Fridayclimaxed when an Air IndiaExpress flight from Dubaito Kozhikode -- with 191 peo-ple on board -- skid off atable-top runway whilelanding in bad weather.The aircraft plummeted

30 to 50 feet into a valleyand on impact split intotwo halves. The crew borethe brunt with both pilots,including Captain DVSathe, perishing in themishap. There were atleast 15 more deaths – all ofthem passengers. Four pas-sengers were believed to beburied under the debris.Several other passengers –

about 45, who were mostlysitting in the front -- are bad-ly injured; the aircraft hadsplit near the base of thecockpit. They have been ad-mitted to various hospitalsin the city. The passengerswere mostly Kozhikode res-idents and NRIs returningon a Vande Bharat mission.The plane had 184 passen-

gers on board. In fact, 189passengers had bookingsbut five of them did notboard. The passengers in-cluded 10 children belowfive years of age. The res-cued included an infant,who is safe but has beenseparated from his parents,as they have been admittedto one of the hospitals.The cockpit is damaged

beyond recognition. It isbelieved that the pilotcould not see the runwaydue to the heavy rain. Thewings of the plane hit theairport boundary wall andbroke.Rescue operations were

hampered by heavy rain asambulances from varioushospitals in the city made abeeline to transport the in-jured. Luckily, the fire didnot engulf the entire plane,

probably due to the heavyrain. Kerala Health Minis-ter KK Shailaja said all 108ambulances in Kozhikodeand Malappuram havebeen rushed to the airport.The Kozhikode Collectorsaid relatives of passen-gers on board the flightcould contact the helpline0495-2376901 for inquiruies.The accident was very

similar to the one that oc-curred at another table topairport at Mangalore tenyears ago, when an Air In-dia Express plane fromDubai hit a mount andcaught fire, killing 158 pas-sengers.Prime Minister Naren-

dra Modi spoke to ChiefMinister Vijayan on phone.Sources in Air India said arelief aircraft is on stand-by from Delhi to Mumbaiand is waiting for theweather to clear up.

cops drag sikh manby hair, thrash him

FP nEwS SERvicE

Sendhwa

Two cops were suspendedafter a video that caughtthe duo assaulting a Sikhman went viral on socialmedia sites on Friday. Theincident is of Thursdayevening. According to re-ports, the video is of a po-lice checking drive in Pal-sud village of Barwani dis-trict. As the video clip went vi-

ral, union minister Har-simrat Kaur Badal and for-mer chief minister KamalNath objected to the policeact. Immediately afterBadal's objection, the stategovernment suspended as-sistant sub-inspector See-taram Bhatnagar and headconstable Mohan Jamrey.A departmental inquiry byRajpur sub-divisional offi-cer too has been initiated. As per information, po-

lice party stopped twoSikhs, including PremSingh of Ward No 15 in Pal-

sud. Cases are registeredagainst him with Panna-gar, Gohalpur andGwarighat police stationsof Jabalpur.When police personnel

asked for registration pa-pers of the bike, the duostarted heated argumentthat soon turned into abrawl. Meanwhile, a fewcops, suspecting that duowas inebriated, asked themto undergo medical exami-nation.

Contd. on P8

News Brief

VIRUS STRIKESHOCKEY TEAM

New DelHi: Indianmen's hockeyteam captainManpreetSingh and fourother playershave tested

positive for Covid-19ahead of the national campin Bengaluru, the SportsAuthority of India said onFriday. Besides Manpreet,defender Surender Kumar,Jaskaran Singh, drag-flickerVarun Kumar and keeperKrishna B Pathak have alsotested positive. All athletes,including Manpreet, whoreported to the camp,were undergoingmandatory 14-dayquarantine as per theHealth Ministry guidelines.

BHOJPURI ACTRESSCOMMITS SUICIDE

Bhojpuri film actressAnupamaPathakallegedlycommittedsuicide at herhome in Mira

Road area of the MumbaiMetropolitan Region, policesaid on Friday. Pathak, 40,was found hanging at herrented flat in Mhada Colonyon Sunday, police said.Hailing from Purnea districtin Bihar, she had moved toMumbai and worked inBhojpuri films and TVshows.A day before, she hadshared in a Facebook videothat she was cheated andwas unable able to trustanyone. In the video, shespoke about trust issues andand not having friends whocan be of help.

‘SSR•CASE PROBEQUARANTINED’

Accusing the authorities inMumbai ofobstructing theprobe in theSushant SinghRajput deathcase by

quarantining him, Bihar IPSVinay Tiwari left for Patnaon Friday. Four otherofficers of Bihar Police hadreturned to Patna yesterday."I would say that I was notquarantined, but theinvestigation wasquarantined. Theinvestigation of the BiharPolice was obstructed,"Patna SP Vinay Tiwari said.

WEATHER30.20C.23.90C.

sunrise: 06 : 01

sunset : 07 : 04

Thought for the daySahaja Yoga allows the

ndividual to become his

own guide

Her Holiness

Mataji Nirmala Devi

t INDORE t BHOPAL t UJJAIN t MUMBAI t PUNEN

ATIO

N nep foundAtion of 21st century 'new indiA': pm

EDIT

GLAM

mAnoj sinhA hAs mAjor chAllenges AheAd

r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2018-2020

‘Being Army kids, we AreAlwAys open to new ideAs’

free-pressvol. XXXvII no. 60 | IndoRe | SatuRday | auguSt 8, 2020 | PageS 12 | ` 3 www.freepressjournal.in

r RnI no. 38281/83

Kashi, Mathura our next focus: Akhara ParishadPRAyAgRAj

The Akhil BhartiyaAkhara Parishad (ABAP),the apex body of saints andseers, has said it will nowwant to focus on "liberat-ing" Kashi and Mathura.ABAP president Mahant

Narendra Giri told re-porters: "It is a matter ofsolace and pride that the

bhumi pujan for the con-struction of a grand Ramtemple in Ayodhya hasbeen done after a pro-longed battle."We now demand that the

flag of 'Sanatan Dharma'be hoisted in Kashi andMathura also, for whichthe Akhara Parishadwould do everything possi-ble, remaining within the

limits of the Constitution."He said that the seers

would soon hold a meetingto discuss plans for start-ing a movement for Kashiand Mathura and 'liberat-ing' the two key places ofimportance for the Hindus.Just days back, the Krish-

na Janmabhoomi Trustwith 80 seers from 14 stateshas been set up in Mathura

to 'liberate' the KrishnaJanambhoomi.The ABAP president

said: "The bhumi pujanceremony in Ayodhya onWednesday was a wonder-ful and unique event. Thefoundation of fulfilling thepledge taken by SanatanDharma has been laid. Thesacrifices of those associ-ated with the cause for

years have borne fruit."ABAP general secretary

Hari Giri said the con-struction of a grand Ramtemple will mark a newdawn for those who believein the establishment ofRam Rajya in the country."It is a matter of pride for

those who believe inSanatan Dharma," headded.

Disabled man dies in hosp, staff unaware, cops probe MOREnA

A 35-year-old disabled manlay dead in a governmenthospital in Morena inMadhya Pradesh with antsall over his wound but staffat the facility only foundout several hours later af-ter other patients alertedthem to a stink emanatingfrom his bed, a doctor saidon Friday.

Devendra Verma, a resi-dent of Firozabad in UttarPradesh turned unrespon-sive on Wednesday nightbut staff found out he haddied only after patients inthe ward complained of anodour on Thursday morn-ing.The hospital's civil sur-

geon, Dr Ashok Gupta, ad-mitted that staff at the fa-cility do not know when

Verma died, and alsoagreed that patients alert-ed them.Gupta said he came to

know about the death ataround 8am on Thursday,and Verma, who had com-plained of frequent bowelmovements, may have diedmuch earlier.He said police were in-

formed when Verma wasadmitted in the hospital

but his kin could not betraced, and relativesreached the hospital onlyafter news about his deathwent viral on social media."Verma, a disabled per-

son, was admitted onJuly 21, and we laterfound out his sister staysin Ganeshpura area ofGwalior. He had a woundon his back which wasoverrun by ants post his

death," Gupta said.However, nursing staff at

the hospital alleged theyhad informed the civil sur-geon about the rapid dete-rioration in Verma's con-dition and that he be shift-ed for treatment toGwalior, but in vain.Police said a case had

been registered and probewas underway in the inci-dent.

No public gathering onJamnashtami & Muharram

OUR STAFF REPORTER

BHOPAL

The government hasbanned public celebrationsof Janmashtami, Muhar-ram and Ganesh Utsav be-cause of corona pandemic. Taking out processions

on Janmashtami andMuharram has beenbanned. Besides, installa-tion of Ganesha idols willnot be allowed in pandals.At a review meeting of

the corona pandemic onFriday, chief ministerShivraj Singh Chouhanasked collectors to issueguidelines in this regard.He also asked collectors tohold a meeting of crisismanagement group beforeJanmashtami in this con-nection.“August is the month of

festivals. It should be en-sured that, there is no gath-ering at temples and pan-dals,” Chouhan said. He asked officials to en-

sure that there are no pub-lic gatherings. Chouhan

also said that the collectorsshould hold discussionswith religious leaders andensure there are no publicgatherings on Independ-ence Day.

15 killed, 60 missingin Pettimudi landslide

AgEnciES

Idukki (Kerala)

At least 15 people werekilled and around 60 othersfeared trapped in debris af-ter a landslide triggered byheavy rains flattened a rowof dwelling units of tea es-tate workers at Pettimudiin Rajamala in this high-range district in Keralaearly Friday, police and of-ficials said.Chief Minister Pinarayi

Vijayan said 15 people whogot trapped in the debriswere rescued and a specialofficer has been appointedto coordinate the relief op-erations.The incident is said to

have occurred in the weehours when a huge moundof earth fell on the "rowhouses" and two childrenand five women wereamong the deceased, mostof whom were plantationworkers from neighbour-ing Tamil Nadu.Efforts were underway

amid continuing rains tolocate the missing peoplein the first major rain-re-lated mishap since the on-

set of South West mon-soon last month thatbrought back memories ofdevastation caused byfloods and landslides inthe previous two years inthe state.Prime Minister Narendra

Modi, Kerala GovernorArif Mohammed Khan,Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and Congressleader Rahul Gandhi ex-pressed anguish at the lossof lives in the landslide.Three injured have been

admitted to a private Med-ical College Hospital in Ko-

lenchery in Ernakulamdistrict and one in TataGeneral Hospital atMunnar.Cooking utensils buried

in mud, asbestos and tinsheets strewn around wereall there to be seen at thearea, which was the habita-tion of around 80 odd work-ers at the picturesque areanear a tea plantation,about 30 kms from thetourist town of Munnar.Big boulders are also scat-tered around the site.Addressing a press con-

ference in Thiruvanantha-puram, the Chief Ministersaid 15 people died in themishap. Teams of NationalDisaster Response Forcepersonnel were on theirway to Pettimudi for join-ing the rescue operationsand the government hasalso sought an Indian AirForce helicopter to assistin the mission, he said.Crime Branch IG

Gopesh Agarwal has beenappointed as special offi-cer for coordinating therescue and rehabilitationoperations in Pettimudi,Vijayan said.

Debris lie on the ground after a landslide due to heavy rainfall in the area in Idukki district on Friday. Fivepeople were killed when a mound of earth caved in on a row of houses of tea estate workers at Pettimudi

COLLECTORS to issue guidelines for fests

Follow delhi Model

It was decided at the meetingthat patients without coronasymptoms should be kept inhome isolation like done inDelhi. The patients who haveproper facilities and want tostay at homes should beallowed go into homequarantine. However, theirtreatment and monitoringshould be proper, said chiefminister Shivraj SinghChouhan.

OUR STAFF REPORTER

Indore

It turned out a Black Fridayfor Indore as 184 positivecases were reported duringthe day. With this coronatally in city has gone to8,343 and rate of positivecases to 8.14%. In all, 2, 261samples were tested duringthe day and 2,049 of themreturned negative.With two more deaths, toll

reached 330.A 67-year-old man of

Mangliya and a 55-year-oldman of Rolay in Betma suc-cumbed to the disease. Ac-

cording to the bulletin re-leased by CMHO, reports ofsamples received till Fridaynight was 1,51,795. "We havetaken 2,524 more samples,"acting CMHO Dr Purnima

Gadariya said. As many as2,162 patients are undertreatment in various hospi-tals of the city. Total 5,851patients have been dis-charged so far.

184 cases in a day

2 SUSPENDED after Union minister & Kamal Nath take up issue

Video grab of two cops dragginga Sikh by his hair as anotherSikh with folded hands urgesthem not to do so

SILAWAT, PATEL OUT OF PANEL TOREVIEW CONG GOVT DECISIONS

BHOPAL:•A committee ofministers formed to reviewthe work of Congress gov-ernment during its last sixmonths in power has beenrevamped. The committeewill go through the workthe government had donebefore March 23 this year. The committee comprises

home minister NarottamMishra, finance ninisterJagdish Devda, food andcivil supplies ministerBisahulal Singh, revenueminister Govind Singh Ra-jput and minister for minesBrajendra Pratap Singh.

Contd. on P8

Aircraft skids on landing, dives 30 to 50 feet into a valley from table-top airport;splits into two halves; about 45 badly injured; passengers mostly Kozhikoderesidents and NRIs returning on Vande Bharat mission; both pilots dead

Rescue operation underway after an Air India Express flight with passengers on board en route fromDubai skidded off the runway while landing, at Karippur in Kozhikode on Friday

AIRCRAFT TRIED TO LAND AT LEAST TWICE at the table-top airport. Therunway is on top of a plateau with one end adjacent to a steep elevation

The accidentwas very similarto the one thatoccurred at

another tabletop airport atMangalore ten

years ago, whenan Air India

Express planefrom Dubai hit a

mount andcaught fire,killing 158passengers.

A child rescued. Parents arehospitalised

God’s wrath@own country

PM anguished

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday expressedanguish at the loss of livesin a landslide in Kerala'sIdukki district followingheavy rains.The PMO saidin a tweet that an ex-gratiaof Rs 2 lakh each from thePrime Minister's NationalRelief Fund (PMNRF) wouldbe given to the next of kinof those killed in thelandslide. Rs 50,000 eachwould be given to thoseinjured.

shahdol asP, sdM corona PositiveAdditional Superintendent of Police (ASP) and SDM havetested positive in Shahdol Friday.Earlier, a DSP tested positive. While inKatni, 24 members of same family havetested positive. Katni reported 51corona cases. Madhya Pradeshcontinued to record more deaths due to coronavirus onFriday. State recorded 19 deaths in last 24 hours. Thestate's tally on Friday evening stood at 37,499 positivecases and 962 deaths.

12 deaths in

24 hrs in MP

2 INDORE CITY Liquor worth 97K seized, 2 heldINDORE: Excise department officials carried out two raids and recovered 21 boxes of illicitliquor worth Rs 97,000 on Friday. A team raided a place in Depalpur area and arrested JaswantSingh and recovered illicit liquor worth Rs 52,000, and also seized the vehicle in which theaccused was travelling. In the other raid, 10 boxes of liquor was seized from an autorickshawin Rau. Accused in the case Akash Bhadkare was arrested.

FREEPRESSSATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020 | INDORE

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Devi Ahilya Vish-wavidyalaya (DAVV) hassaid that the Department ofHigher Education (DHE) islikely to release guidelinesfor final semester/year ex-ams within a week.

During a meeting withheads of teaching depart-ments, registrar Anil Shar-ma said that the much-awaited exam schedule forfinal semester/year examswould be declared onceguidelines from DHE is re-ceived.

He said that he had a wordwith DHE officers who in-formed him that the examguidelines would be sentwithin a week.

The disclosure came whenheads of teaching depart-ments of DAVV expressedtheir willingness to hold fi-nal semester exams of un-dergraduate and post-grad-uate courses.

During the meeting, theHoDs discussed the delay inconducting the final semes-ter exams of UTD students.They said that many stu-

dents who were offered jobsduring campus placementscouldn't join the companiesin the absence of final yearmarksheets.

At the meeting, the regis-trar told the heads theycould decide scheme of ex-ams if DHE fails to sendguidelines within a week.

Earlier, in mid-July, theuniversity had decided tohold final semester/year ex-ams of UTD students fromthe first week of August. Fi-nal year exams of collegeswere also underway inMarch when Covid-19 out-break led to the closure ofinstitutes.

Though the university isan autonomous body whichhas the right to decides itspattern and scheme of ex-ams, the government in thelast few years has en-croached upon its autono-my. Now, the leading univer-

sity of the state has to lookto the government for eachand every thing.

“When UGC chairmanProf DP Singh was vice-chancellor of DAVV, weused to takes decisions andothers used to follow us.Even the government usedto implement our decisionsin other varsities in thestate. Leadership is whatcounts,” said a senior pro-fessor wishing anonymity.

Guidelines for final semesterexams within a week: DAVV

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Special Task Force (STF)seized a rare snake, knownas a "two-headed" red sandboa from smugglers onThursday and handed itover to the forest depart-ment on Friday. Three per-sons, including a minor,were arrested in Dharam-puri, Sanwer while tryingto sell the rare snake.

The red sand boa is a pro-tected species, and lookslike it has two heads, be-cause its tail is shaped likeits head to help it defend it-self.

The snake is prized in theblack market becausemany believe it bringsgood luck or has medicinalqualities.

Constable Vishnu Yadavhad received informationthat some people were try-ing to sell a rare snake. Set-ting a trap, Yadav went un-dercover pretending to be awealthy buyer and agreed

to buy the snake for Rs 25lakhs. After the amountwas submitted by Yadav,the trio opened the boxwith the snake. The STFteam that was hiding near-by came out and arrestedthe trio.

The trio was arrested bya team on direction of SP(STF) Padma VilochanShukla on Thursday andthe rare snake was handed

over to forest departmenton Friday. The team washeaded by inspector SanjayBaghel and sub-inspectorMalay Mahant.

As shared by Shukla,“The three boys includingone minor were arrestedand presented before thecourt on Friday.” The triotold the STF that they hadfound the snake in Sagarand had decided to earn

lump sum money by illegaltrading of the rare species.

Two bikes and two mobilephones have also been con-fiscated.

The AccusedKrishnapal Singh son of

Mokam Singh, aged 24years, is a resident villageMerkhedi tehsil, Hatod.

Kamal Chauhan son ofChhaganlal aged 21 yearsis a resident villageDharampuri tehsil, dis-trict Indore

Another minor of 16years was arrested.

The 'Good luck charm' suffers immensely

The market for the ‘two-headed’ red sand boas is‘basically another form ofcheating’, TR Hatila,deputy forest ranger, said.

He added that it is invari-ably used to cheat peoplewho believe that it will actas good luck charm.

Hatila said, “It is a fallacythat it has two heads... the

head and tail of the snakelook alike, so if anyonetries to catch it, it strikesfrom the other end whichis the head.”

Thanks to the supersti-tion that the red sand boawill bring its owner treas-ure, demand for the snakeis high, with people evenhiring them out for cere-monies, he added.

Anita Bhandole, forest of-ficial said, "It is even usedfor conducting rituals onthe belief that it wouldbring in rain or money. It iseven believed that theheavier the snake, themore riches it will bring.So, the black market deal-ers shove ball bearings andother objects into thesnakes. Then these ani-mals die a very painfuldeath."

The rescued two-facedsnake weighs about 1 kgand is 3.5 feet long. Lucki-ly for this particular snake,though, it was rescued -and will be set free.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Despite orders and repeatedinformation about the suf-fering of the rescued leop-ard, forest department hasnot taken him for CT scan toBhopal till date. As per lastinformation, the leopardshould have been for CTscan to find the exact issuesfaced by him by Tuesday, i.e.August 4.

The orders for same weregiven by forest chief wardenon August 3 as well. Howev-er, the rescue team has stillnot taken the rescued leop-ard to Bhopal.

The rescued leopard isstruggling to recover at cityzoo for 26 days now. He haslost vision completely in theright eye already.

As estimated by Dr UttamYadav, city zoo in-charge, theleopard probably has opticnerve damage but it cannotbe determined without a CTscan. However, forest offi-cials have not been able totake leopard to Bhopal asyet, citing the wait for morenecessary permissions.

The adult leopard was in-jured in infighting. Noticing

that the leopard is unable tospot the food given to him,city zoo officials had alreadydiagnosed him to have losthis vision.

Suggesting CT scan thatcan be done in, zoo officialshave reported the matter toforest department officialsseveral times. However, noaction and instructions havebeen issued by forest offi-cials as yet.

The adult leopard wasfound injured and bleedingfrom its mouth in Nayapuravillage near Kampel. As perinformation, two leopardswere seen fighting each oth-er in Nayapura village.

As shared by Yadav, leop-ard is an adult male of about7 to 8 years. “Leopards gen-erally live for 14 to 15 years,so the leopard is in the

prime of his life,” he said.However, with critical in-

juries, it seems difficult forthe leopard to recover to nor-mal very soon. “Since, theleopard was rescued in time,there is a chance for its sur-vival and recovery now,” Ya-dav said. The leopard was se-verely injured and had lost alot of blood. “His right eyehas lost complete sight andhis left eye lid is open but heis unable to see anything asyet,” Yadav said.

Delay in recovery processis reducing the chance ofleopard going back to nor-mal life and regaining his vi-sion. “There is a chance insome cases that early detec-tion of problem in visioncan be cured, but too muchdelay in taking the leopardfor CT scan reduces thechances,” Yadav said.

Three including minor arrestedwith rare red sand boa

Despite orders for treatment, it'sCAT-astrophe for injured leopard

Rescued leopard at city zoo

PINTU NAMDEVIndore

A retired PWD engineerused his skills to develop a'Ram-Baan' solution forwater scarcity at his home.Sawyasachi Mishra devel-oped a water rechargeplant on his 15000 sq ftplot. He said, "I developedthe plant 10 year ago. I gota 12-feet-deep pit dug andconnected the same withall water outlets such asrooftop water outlet andother releases."

He said thus, the watercollected was sufficient forthe year. His area wit-nessed water paucity dur-ing the summer. He said, "I

retired in 2005 and studiedthe matter seriously. I usedmy engineering skills anddeveloped a waterrecharge plant".

Mishra has also grown akitchen garden near the

pit. Every year during themonsoon, a sufficientamount of water gets col-lected in the "catchmentarea" of the plants. Thisalso has improved thegroundwater level.

Ex-PWD engr's Ram Baanto solve water crisis

TI MA Syed holding the red sand boa snake

DID NOT SEEK DEPTPERMISSION,

THREE INCREMENTSSUSPENDED

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

For ignoring the provisionof taking requisite permis-sion to travel abroad twice,School Education Depart-ment suspended three in-crements of a governmentschool teacher Abha Arora.

As per governing rules,any government servant isrequired to obtain permis-sion in a written form fromthe department to travelabroad especially for his orher personal work.

Teacher at GovernmentModel School, Indore Abhaignored the rule and trav-elled outside India twicewithout obtaining permis-sion from the department.A whistle-blower SanjayMishra had filed a com-plaint against the teacherto Commissioner PublicEducation Directorate,Madhya Pradesh.

Taking cognizance of the

complaint, Commissionerordered investigation,which was handed over toManish Verma, Joint Di-rector Public Education,Indore. In investigation,the complaint was found tobe true citing Abha’s previ-ous travel records. As a

penalty with warning,Verma stopped threeincrements for theteacher.

Further, the com-plaint filed by Mishrasaid that as per rules,all government schoolteachers must attendthe school on the firstday of reopening after

vacation to claim salary ofvacation time. However,Abha who did not turn upon the required day still re-ceived her salary.

Further, investigation inthe case is in process tofind out about the secondpart of the complaint.

Travel travails: Govt teacher in a spotForms available till Sept 5Lottery on Sept 15

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Applications for purchas-ing the 130 flats in SchemeNo 136 (Niranjanpur) havebeen invited by the IDA,and the forms will be avail-able till September 5.

IDA officials said that the

flats will be provided undera free-hold, and the allot-ment would be on a lotterybasis. The forms are avail-able at Rs 590 at UnionBank of India's (IDA officebranch) and ICICI bank(Malwa Parisar branch).

There are 2BHK 108 flatsand 3BHK 22 flats. The su-

per built-up area for 2BHKis 92.18 sq mtr to 96.13 sq mtand 133.48 sq mt for 3BHK.The built-up area for 2BHKis 73.55 sq mtr to 76.70 sqmtr and 106.50 sq mtr for3BHK. Carpet area for2BHK is 60.90 - 62.75 sq mtrand 87.30 sq mtr for 3BHK.

IDA official said that theprice range for 2BHK flatsranges between Rs36.48lakh to Rs 38.02 and3BHK flats are of Rs 52.80

lakh. The earnest money tobe deposited for 2BHK flatsis from Rs 3.70 lakh to Rs3.80 lakh and for 3BHK itwill be Rs 5.30 lakh.

The applications will bedeposited to the IDA officefrom September 8 to Sep-tember 9. Lottery will betaken out on September 15.

Applications invited for130 flats in Sch No 136

FP NEWS SERVICESanver

Mask were distributed un-der 'Ek mask anek zindagi'in the presence of sub divi-sional officer RS Mandloi,tehsildar Tapish Pandey,chief municipal officerPrabhulal Patidar and for-mer Nagar Panchayat pres-ident Dilip Chaudhary. Peo-

ple were urged not to stepout of the house withoutwearing masks and the im-portance of social distanceto fight against coronaviruswas explained.

Chief municipal officerPrabhulal Patidar said thatin the next phase, ward-wise mask distribution andawareness campaigns willbe conducted.

Masks distributed inpresence of SDO

Government Model School, Indore

COMPLAINANTSANJAY MISHRA

ABHA ARORA, GOVTMODEL SCHOOL TEACHER

Mobile - 7710955555,WhatsApp - 1800224344

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

In what is a new facility, theLPG consumers of BharatGas can now book the cylin-der through missed call andWhatsApp also.

Mohammad SohailAkhtar, head of LPG in thestate for Bharat PetroleumCorporation Limited(BPCL- MP) informed thatthe company has taken thisinitiative for the conven-ience of consumers keep-ing in view the Covid-19pandemic.

The company's rural con-sumers do not use Android

mobiles. Such consumerscan book a gas cylinder bymaking a missed call on7710955555 from their regis-tered mobile number. Theconsumers can also bookLPG cylinders on

WhatsApp number-1800224344. As soon as theconsumers send the hi mes-

sage on WhatsApp, the In-dia gas menu will appearon the mobile screen. If youwant to book an LPG gascylinder, you will have topress one, to pay you willhave to press 2 or if youwant to complain, then youpress three. The companyplans to launch a campaignfrom August 1 to 31 to popu-larise the numbers.

Under the Prime MinisterUjjwala scheme, there are12728 LPG consumers ofBharat Gas in Indore dis-trict. The

number of consumers ofcommon gas cylinders is279632. Most of the con-sumers in rural areas stilluse normal mobiles insteadof Android, and they cometo the shop for booking.

NOW book Bharat LPG cylindersvia missed calls, WhatsApp

City boy to essay childLord Ram's role in &TV

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

The show Kahat HanumanJai Shree Ram of &TV ispresenting a tale of devo-

tion in which city boy Nir-nay Samadhiya will be seenessaying the childhoodcharacter of Lord Ram inthe serial. Nirnay had earli-

er played the role of Bal Kr-ishna in the mythologicalshow Paramavatar Shri Kr-ishna, which made him fa-mous in every household.

Talking about the showNirnay said, "I am excitedto play the role of LordRam's childhood in the seri-al and to make a comebackon TV with another Mytho-logical show”.

My mother always tellsme different stories fromIndian mythology and thestory of the devotion ofLord Hanuman to LordRama is one of them. I havenow got this wonderful op-portunity to play the role ofLord Rama's childhood,which will help me under-stand Hanuman's devotionto Lord Ram in a better way,I look forward to it".

TEACHERS NEED TO TAKE LECTURES FROM CLASSROOM

Teaching departments of DAVVare gearing up to launch

online classes through GoogleClassroom app. In a meeting heldof heads, vice-chancellor ProfRenu Jain said that though theclasses will be held online, butteachers need to come todepartments for the same.“While students will take classesfrom home through mobilephones and tabs, the faculty willhave to deliver lectures whilebeing in classrooms,” said DAVVmedia in-charge Chandan Gupta.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Manish Singh, district col-lector, has said that for thepurification of the Kanhand Sarswati rivers, tap-ping of all nullahs flowinginto the rivers is a must,and directed officials to en-sure that it is done.

Singh was presiding overa meeting on Saraswati andKanh river purificationproject held at the SmartCity Hall on Friday. Collec-tor Singh said that we aredetermined to follow the in-structions of the NationalGreen Tribunal. Accordingto the instructions of NGT,the Indore Municipal Cor-poration must tap all the

drains falling in theSaraswati and Kanh riversso that only clean waterflows in them.

Various efforts have beenmade to purify the rivers.The Kanh river has beendeepened and the obstaclesen route to the river havebeen removed by the IMC.Both the rivers have beendemarcated by the Depart-ment of Revenue. A retain-ing wall is being construct-ed on both sides of this riv-er, and a massive plantationdrive will be taken up bythe Forest Department andthe Municipal Corporation.

Singh said that the rivershave been polluted due tosewerage water and if wecan prevent it from enter-

ing the rivers, we can bringthem to its original form.All the slums situated on itsbanks will be relocated.There are numerous slumsin the Chandrabhaga areawhose people will be dis-placed and flats will be giv-en to them by December2020. The city has not beenflooded for the last twoyears due to the deepeningof the Kanh

and Saraswati rivers. Anyconstruction work up to 33meters along its side will berestricted. Both theserivers originate from Lim-bodi pond and Bilawalipond.

Rainwater harvesting sys-tem is being installed in allthe big houses by the mu-

nicipal corporation in In-dore city by running spe-cial campaigns. So far, rain-water harvesting systemhas been installed in 12,000houses. According to the in-structions of the NationalGreen Tribunal, pollutedtubewells and hand pumpsare being identified in thecity.

IMC Commissioner Prat-ibha Pal, DFO Dr KiranBisen, CEO of IDA VivekShrotriya, Additional Col-lector Ajaydev Sharma,Deputy Collector SohanKanash, CEO of PollutionPrevention Board RKGupta, Deputy DirectorUrban AdministrationAbhay Rajangaonkar etc.were present.

For clean Kanh, Saraswati rivers,nullah tapping must: Collector

Two Eicheremployees test

Covid-19 positivePITHAMPUR ((Mhow:)(FPNS) Two employees ofEicher Motors of Pitham-pur have been found Covid-19 positive. One of them isin the head machine shopand the other one is at thenew machine shop. Bothwere referred to red zonehospital in Indore while allthose found in their contacthistory have been subjectedto home quarantine.

HR Manager of EicherMotors Pithampur plantAditya Shrivastava whencontacted said that one ofthem was on leave for Eidwhile the other one was onleave for rakshabandhan.He said that as far as theemployees of the companyare concerned, every em-ployee is getting examineddaily at the time of entrythrough the gate. Also, theyhave to give an undertakingregarding their health inwriting just after theirmedical examination .Apart from them, threemore residents of Pitham-pur have been found Covidpositive on Thursday.

Nine test positivein Mhow

MHOW: ((FPNS) Nine per-sons of Mhow tehsil havetested positive for Covid-19on Thursday. Of them, 7 arefrom rural areas while only2 are from the town. Oneperson each from Bunga-low no 74 and Tangakhanaarea of Mhow town werefound positive while 3 per-sons of Mhowgaon areahave tested positive. OtherCovid positive persons havebeen found in RasalpuraMission Compound, Mili-tary Hospital, Kewti villageand Sundar Nagar.

INDORE CITY 3Aerodrome PS in-charge tests Covid-19 +veINDORE: Aerodrome police station in-charge inspector Rahul Sharma has tested positive toCovid-19, said SP (west) Mahesh Chandra Jain. Samples of all the staff at the police station havebeen taken and the station premises has been sanitised. Sharma was transferred to Aerodromepolice station from Pardeshipura just a few days back.

FREEPRESSSATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020 | INDORE

MAN KILLED OVERGARDENING ISSUES

Indore: A man and his son al-legedly murdered a person fol-lowing a heated argumentover gardening. The incidentoccured at Jayraj Nagar underBanganga Police Station areaon Friday evening..

According to Banganga po-lice station incharge Raj-narayan Soni, Ashok Sharmaand his son allegedly mur-dered one Ramesh Tiwari, 40.Ashok was present with hisson and wife while Rameshwas accompanied by friends.

THE 'ROOT' CAUSE

Police said Ashok had leasedout a property to a tenant whichwas adjacent to Ramesh'shouse. The initial argumenttook place between them overgardening and wateringsaplings. Soon Ashok was calledto handle the situation.

Ashok reached the spot withhis son and wife in his vehicle.Following a heated discussionwith Ramesh, the father-sonduo assaulted him (Ramesh)and later stabbed him multipletimes. The Sharmas fled leav-ing their vehicle behind whichhas been seized by the cops..

Police said Ramesh wasrushed to a city hospital wherehe died. Police are looking forAshok and his family. Policeare also scanning the CCTVgrabs of the area to piece to-gether evidence.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Even as the number of positivecases and deaths due to Covid-19has been increasing in the city,people are risking their as wellas others' lives by getting treat-ed at home. Moreover, manydoctors are not informing ad-ministration and health depart-ment about symptomatic pa-tients approaching them for get-ting treatment. This is a majorcause of worry for the adminis-tration and the doctors.

Some of these cases came tofore on Friday during the deathaudit and review of clinicalmanagement of patients whodied between July 30 and August7, under the supervision of Di-visional Commissioner DrPawan Sharma.

During the review meeting,Dean of Mahatma GandhiMemorial Medical College DrJyoti Bindal said that as manyas 14 deaths were reported be-tween July 30 and August 7.

“Out of these 14 deaths, 93 percent patients had comorbid con-ditions like diabetes, hyperten-sion, and asthma,” Dr Bindal in-formed in the meeting.

Two of the deceased weretreated by local doctors at home

and they got admitted onlywhen they did not get any relief.Similarly, one of the deceaseddidn’t go to any hospital evenwhen the entire family hadfever.

The committee also suggestedthat awareness programme forCovid-19 should be intensifiedand orders should be issued thatall medical shops should informabout people buying pulse-oximeter and oxygen cylinders.

HoD of Transfusion MedicineDepartment Dr Ashok Yadavalso suggested going throughantibody test of blood donors sothat plasma can be taken fromthose who have developed anti-bodies.

CAUSE OF WORRY AS .....

Covid +ve patients hiding symptoms,doctors too fail to inform admin

CASES

A61-year-old male patient got symptomson July 7 but instead of going to a hos-

pital, he took treatment from a doctor knownto him. After failing to get relief, he was ad-mitted to Vishesh Hospital on July 13 andshifted to Medanta Hospital on July 15 wherehe succumbed to the disease after 15 days. Hecould have been saved had he got treatmenton time and the doctor informed about him tothe administration and health department.

A46-year-old lady got admitted to SAIMSon July 29 and died on August 3. She had

taken treatment from a local MBBS doctorand later from an MD. She was admitted toBombay Hospital and shifted to SAIMS. Shecould also have been saved had she been treat-ed on time.

A69-year-old male patient was admitted toSAIMS on July 29 and succumbed to the

disease on August 1. He and his family re-frained from going to a hospital even when allfamily members had a fever. He also had dia-betes.

A51-year-old lady was administered withinjection by a local doctor from treating

fever on July 21. She didn’t get relief and wasadmitted to hospital on July 24. She suc-cumbed to the disease on July 28. In this casetoo the doctor did not inform about her con-dition and symptoms to the department.

Yes, there are manypatients who stillhiding their symp-toms and taking

general treat-ment. People

should come for-ward to get testedand treated as de-lay in treatmentwill prove fatal forthem. Early diag-

noses can also help in con-taining the virus throughcontact tracing.

DR ANIL DONGREDistrict Contact

Tracing In-charge

3-DAYTRANSPORT

STRIKEOUR STAFF REPORTER

Indore

Members of All India MotorTransport Congress on Fri-day declared a three-daystatewide strike from Au-gust 10.

A video conference meet-ing was organised of theheads of the three associa-tions which includes headsof Transport Nagar associa-tion, Loha Mandi associa-tion and Dewas Naka associ-ation along with chairman,Rajendra Trehan and na-tional vice president, VijayKalra.

In the meeting, the mem-bers discussed the problemsfaced by truck owners,transporters and other peo-ple related with the trans-portation business. Amonghother things, they discussedincrease in rates of dieseland petrol, increase in ratesat checkpoints and taxes.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Indore Municipal Commis-sion commissioner Pratib-ha Pal on Friday slapped afine of Rs 10 lakh on L&TPvt Ltd, Chennai and Rs 1lakh on DRA ConsultantLtd, Nagpur for negligencein work.

The agencies are layingwater distribution pipelineunder Zone No 7 as part ofAMRUT project. Till date,the agencies have not donerestoration work. Plus itpassed HDD line from in-side sewerage chambernear Narmada Colony.

This led to a protest byresidents on July 15 as theyhad to face difficulty due todamage of the chamber.“Newspapers reportedabout the incident, and thenegligence in pipeline lay-ing work due to which the

image of IMC got tar-nished,” the commissionernoted.

She also noted that therectification work of theline going inside the sewer-age chamber was not doneby the agencies. It was alsoobserved that the compa-nies had been doing workfor long and haven’t com-pleted it within the dead-line which is a violation ofterms and conditions of thecontract.

Taking a note of thesetransgressions, the com-missioner slapped fine onboth the companies.

Besides, the commission-er directed the additionalmunicipal commissionerSandeep Soni and superin-tending engineer AshokRathore to take immediateaction for recovery ofpenalty amount from thecompany.

IMC slaps Rs 10 lakhpenalty on L&T fornegligence in work

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Come Saturday, ChhappanDukan fortunes are expect-ed to bounce back. The food-ies can eat, slurp and burpat the site provided they fol-low the safety protocol.

Collector and DistrictMagistrate Manish Singhreleased an order late onFriday to this effect. Fol-lowing the outbreak of the

Novel Corona Virus, Chha-pan Dukan shoppers haddowned their shutters be-tween March 25 and June30. Later, from July 13 July,permission for ‘takeaways’and ‘home deliveries’ weregiven. Now as per the order,shops will remain open be-tween 6 am and 8 pm. Visi-tors and shoppers bothhave to wear masks andshop owners will have tocarry out proper sanitiza-

tion of the place.Before issuing the order,

Collector Singh inspectedthe area and assessed theground reality. He alsoheard the suggestion of theshop keepers, who werekeen on reopening their es-tablishments and alsourged the authorities toprovide parking facilities tothe visitors.Singh had as-sured to resolve their prob-lems soon.

Foodies can have a blastat 56... eat at shops’ site

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

A man who was set to tiethe knot on August 19, wascaught smuggling five kgcannabis along with threeof his accomplices on Fri-day. The gang is involved ininter-state cannabis smug-gle.

Additional superinten-dent of police (narcotics),Dilip Soni said police ar-rested one Kasin Khan (21)son of Hamid Khan, AshifKhan (25) son of RafikKhan, Prakash Bhuriya(25) son of Ukiya Bhuriyaand Lilsingh Bhabor (28)son of Makna Singh Bhab-ora. They were carrying 80kg organic cannabis.

Police said the accusedare interstate cannabissmugglers. The accusedtold the cops that they werevegetable sellers andsmuggled cannabis too.

They also ferried cannabisto different districts. Police

are searching for the oth-ers involved.

4 arrested for selling cannabis

Four accused arrested by Narcotics department police with five kgof cannabis

TWO ARRESTED WITH 2 KG CANNABISA team of Tejaji Nagar police arrested Mukesh Jaiswal,37, and Chetan Parmar, 19, for carrying 2.200 kgcannabis for a prospective client. Police are searchingfor others involved.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Concerned over increasing burden on hos-pitals due to increasing COVID-19 pa-tients, district administration on Fridayeliminated the need of repeat COVID testfor asymptomatic, mild, and moderatesymptoms.

As per the new discharged guidelinesprepared by the administration, patientswith very mild, asymptomatic, and mildsymptoms need not stay in hospitals formore than 10 days and they can be dis-charged if their oxygen level is above 94per cent in room temperature.

Collector Manish Singh chaired a meet-ing with the representatives of varioushospitals and discussed the new policy ofdischarged.

“Patients have been divided in four cate-gories and discharges will be planned onthe same basis. Four categories of pa-tients would be very mild and asympto-matic, moderate, moderately severe, andsevere,” member of district COVID CoreCommittee Dr Sourabh Malviya said.

He added that the guidelines have beenprepared on the basis of guidelines issuedby Ministry of Health and Family Welfareand decision of patients health and cate-gory will be taken by doctors and not bypatients.

Patients with ‘Happy Hypoxia’ i.e. theiroxygen level decrease after few minutes’walk should be checked again while no pa-tient would be discharged without in-forming the administration.

Stung by Covid, hospitaldischarge rules 'relaxed'

CATEGORIES OF PATIENTS AND DISCHARGED PLAN1 Very mild or asymptomatic: Patients who don’t have cough, fever

or any other disease can be discharged from hospital in 10 days iftheir oxygen level is 94 percent and above without oxygen therapy.These patients don’t need repeat tests for COVID-19 and will have toremain in home quarantine for seven days.

2 Moderate symptoms: Patients who don’t have fever, cough or anyother symptoms for more than three days and their oxygen level is 94percent and above can be discharged in 10 days without any repeattest but with compulsory seven days home quarantine.

3 Moderately severe: Patients having cough, fever and other symp-toms and they require oxygen therapy would be discharged only af-ter recovering. Decision on their repeat test would be taken by doc-tors and they will have to remain in home quarantine for seven days.

4 Severe patients: Patients with severe symptoms and other comor-bidity conditions like cancer, heart ailments and lung infectionwould be discharged only after being recovered. They will be dis-charged when their repeat sample report found negative.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Hindustan Petroleum CorporationLimited (HPCL) rolled out its door-to-door supply service of diesel inthe state. To start with Indore andall the 16 districts around it will becovered. A tanker will be used forthe purpose. By simply bookingdiesel through an application, peo-ple can get the fuel delivered attheir homes/offices or schools.

Anil Aken, DGM HPCL (Retail)Indore Region and Mukesh PrasadManager launched the diesel de-livery vehicle at Maheshwari Fill-ing Station, Manglia Bypass. Afterhaving operated in cities likeMumbai, Pune and Bangalore,now it has been extended to Mad-hya Pradesh.

Talking to Free Press, DGM Akeninformed that the service is for sta-tionary units like homes, schools,offices, marriage gardens etc.

HOW TO GET DIESEL

Customers must book their con-

signment through the HPCL mo-bile App. While booking, they willhave to send their Google locationtoo. The nozzle of the pump willunlock only at the sent Google lo-cation. Diesel will not be sold onway/midway to the destination.

'Intelligent' vehicle

The delivery vehicle is fully com-puterized and has been certifiedby the Central government, Hin-dustan PCL, Ministry of Petrole-um, Petroleum and ExplosivesSafety Organization and Weightsand Measurement Department.

MECHANISM OF SUPPLY

Aken said the vehicle is associat-ed with a petrol pump, which madeinvestment of about Rs 25 lakh. Re-cently, 5 HPCL petrol pumps hadapplied for the services. Mahesh-wari Filling Station has baggedthe contract. There is no quantityrestriction on booking and deliv-ery at the door will be made at thepump rate. But for long distance,the pump owner may fix the rate.

Door-to-door diesel supply begins

CM, TOP OFFICIALSTAKE PART IN WEBINAR

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Sumit Suri, President of Hotel andRestaurant Association of WesternIndia, emphasised on promoting re-gional tourism and focusing on var-ious tourist destinations of thestate. Proper arrangements shouldbe made for tourists to visit nearbytourist destinations.

Suri gave suggestions on behalf ofthe association members from thecity while participating in a webi-nar organised by the Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday.He also appreciated the Chief Min-ister for this effort and said that thiswill help in preserving the tourismindustry in times of crisis.

This was the first webinar organ-ised by the Chief Minister to pre-pare a road map for the develop-ment of basic infrastructure intourist destinations. BesidesChouhan, senior officials of NITIAayog and industry leaders andabout 150 delegates participating inthe webinar.

Suri stated that the present Covid-19 disaster must be turned into anopportunity. Such quarantine cen-tres should be developed in hotelsand mega gardens where people cancome and stay. There should be goodarrangements for yoga and bal-anced nutritious food etc.

He said that the next six monthsare extremely important for thetourism industry, and urged thegovernment to give concessions tothe industry that had been badly hitby the pandemic.

HOTELIERS STRESS ONREGIONAL TOURISM

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Indore Obstetrics and GynaecologySociety organised a webinar on C-section to discuss the challengesand care of mother post-surgery, onThursday.

According to president of societyDr Nilesh Dalal, over 900 people in-cluding experts and students par-ticipated and viewed the webinar.

Various experts like Dr Parul Kot-dawala of Ahmedabad, Dr Tank of

Mumbai, Dr Maitra Saxena andothers shared the knowledgethrough case studies.

“Various issues were discussedlike precautions in surgery ofobese mother, regional anaesthe-sia, mother mobilisation, impor-tance of breast feeding and casestudies,” Dr Dalal said.

Secretary of society Dr JayashreeSridhar conducted the webinar andhighlighted the post-operative careand also need of C-sections. Shealso proposed vote of thanks.

Gynaecology Society webinaron mother's care post-surgery

4 UJJAIN CITY No water supply in Freeganj tomorrowAs per Gaughat filtration plant in-charge YK Nigam, water supply in Freeganjarea would be interrupted on Sunday due to regular maintenance of Gaughatwater filtration plant on Saturday. FREEPRESS

SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020 | INDORE

UJJAIN WEATHERMAXIMUM: 29.0°C, MINIMUM: 24.0° C

HUMIDITYMORNING: 84per cent, EVENING: 79 per cent

SUNRISE: 5.59 am , SUNSET: 7.05 pm

News in Brief

Habitual criminals arrested

The police arrested habitual criminals on Friday whowere involved in many thefts in the district. The policearrested Faizan Pathan (19) resident of Chitara Ki Bakhal,Waseem Pathan (28) Faisal Khan (19) and one moremiscreant and recovered 30 gram ornaments of gold andcash Rs 25, 000 from them. As per the ASP AmrendraSingh, the miscreants were wanted in many theft casescommitted in the city.

Priest returns signed blank cheque A priest of Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple returned a blanksigned cheque of a devotee to the official of ShriMahakaleshwar Temple Management Committee onFriday. As per the priest Yash Guru he found the chequeon the floor of the temple of a devotee named AyushiVijay Kumar Sahu.

5

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FREE PRESS CALL- 9425082195

Saka 1942 Samvat 2077

Month : Bhadrapad krishna 5 Saturday 4.19 A.M.

Nakshatra : Utt-Bhadrapad 4.12 P.M. then Revati

Yoga : Dhriti - - - - - - -

Karan : Kaulav 3.11 P.M. then Garaj

Moon : Min - - - - - - - -

PANCHANG 8.8.2020(DAKSHINAYAN)

COVID-19DISTRICTUPDATE

Patients near 1.3K markn Tally 1,283 n 4 women among 14 test +ve

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

With 14 more persons testingpositive on Friday, the num-ber of patients has reached1,283, in the district. Thedeath toll is 75. As per the medical bulletin

issued at 8.45 pm, out of 875sample reports received on theday 14 persons including 9 ofUjjain city were tested Coronapositive. They include a 44-year-old man from Man-chaman Nagar, 24-year-oldman from Fazalpura PoliceLines, 36-year-old woman fromShastri Nagar, 55-year-oldwoman from Dhancha Bha-van, 36-year-old man from 64Yogini Magar, Nayapura, 44-year-old man from Raja Royal

Colony, Dhancha Bhavan, 58-year-old woman from TirupatiHeights, 52-year-old man fromJaisingpura and 32-year-oldman from Indira Nagar (all Uj-jain City), 25-year-old manfrom Balai Mohalla, Unhel, 35-year-old man from Nazarpur,Ghattia and 42-year-old manfrom village Kherkhedi, Ghat-tia, 30-year-old man from Adi-nath Colony, Nagda and 30-year-old man from MaliBakhal, Mehidpur. Overall 166patients, 41 of them sympto-matic, are undergoing treat-ment. Samples of 51, 438 per-sons have been taken acrossthe district so far and no re-port is awaited. With 8 moredischarged on the day, the totalnumber of discharged per-sons has gone up to 1042.

Outbreak curtails I Day events FP NEWS SERVICE

Ujjain

Outbreak of novelcoronavirus has af-fected the pro-grammes of Inde-pendence-day acrossstate this year. As per reports at

district level theTricolour will beunfurled at the Col-lector’s office atKothi Palace thisyear where the na-tional anthem willbe sung and after-ward the address ofthe Chief Minister

of the state will beheard. Collector Asheeh

Singh has informedthe officials about theinstructions of thestate government. As per instructions

at zila panchayat, jan-pad panchayat andgram panchayat’ of-fices head of the of-fice will unfurl theTricolour and at theoffice of MunicipalCorporation mayorand president whileat other offices, headof the office will un-furl the Tricolour.

No public progs

As per government’sguidelines no public

programmes will beorganised on theIndependence Day thisyear due to Covid crisis.Cultural programmes willalso be not organised byany government andprivate institution this year,however the governmentand public buildings andbuildings having nationalimportance will be lightedup on the occasion of theIndependence Day.

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Confusion prevailedwhether liquor contract ofthe present licensee willget cancelled as his firmhas failed to deposit a sumof about Rs 18.50 crore asbank guarantee (securitydeposit) till Friday night.

4 pm deadlinen According to reliablesources, the liquor con-tractor failed to deposit therequired the bank guaran-tee. He was given time till 4pm of Friday to do so andas per the norms he coulddo so by mortgaging anyproperty, putting his FDRor depositing the cashthrough chhalan. But till10 pm, neither of suchprocess was accomplishedby the contracting firm.

Ball in admin’s court n Departmental sourcesrequesting anonymity toldFree Press that the situa-tion is confusing and un-clear. Meanwhile, reliablesources disclosed that theliquor contractor hassought time of two moredays to deposit his duebank guarantee though itwas not clear till filing ofthis report that whetherthe district collector or thehigher-ups of the excisedepartment from Bhopalhave allowed his applica-tion or not.

Backdropn Present licensee Sam-ruddhi Traders was award-ed the liquor contract forUjjain district on July 4 atthe rate of Rs 286.61 crore.As per terms of tender, thecontractor’s firm deposit-ed 5 per cent of the award-ed contract rate as licensefees in advance and 11 percent of the rest 95 per cent

amount was to be paid asbank guarantee in next 7days each in 20-20 percentratio and rest amount of 60per cent was to be paid on21st day of the contract. Asper tender, the licensee hasto deposit excise duty inevery 15 days. The firm inquestion paid 50 per cent ofthe due bank guarantee infirst 14 days but failed topay rest 50 per cent bankguarantee on July 29which was the last date ofdepositing the bank guar-antee amount, as disclosedby the sources.

Benefit of 5 daysn The local officials gave abenefit of 3 days’ grace pe-riod to the firm and he wasreportedly solicited twomore days on August 4 and5. But, as he failed to de-posit rest 50 percent of thebank guarantee amount,which amounts to about Rs18.50 crore, collectorAsheesh Singh while exer-cising his discretionarypowers granted the firmtwo more days and accord-ingly the firm were to de-posit the due bank guaran-tee by August 7 (Friday).

Provisionsn “Though the provisionssay that if contractor failsto deposit the due bankguarantee till the stipulat-ed date along with extra

time granted to him, hiscontract will be terminatedwith immediate effect,” re-vealed an excise inspector.

Scenario if contract is scrapped

n If the present liquorcontract is terminated,then the excise depart-ment will recall the freshtender and till then it willitself run the shops. In Uj-jain district, there are 141liquor shops which in-clude 37 foreign liquorshops and 104 county-made liquor shops.

Corona affectn It will be second occa-sion during the current fis-cal that the liquor contractbeing rejected. MahakaliTraders was awarded theliquor contract for the year2020-2021 and they had tostart working from April 1onwards, but in wake oflockdown due to coronaoubreak, the contractcould not be executed andfresh tenders were invited.

SyndicateAs per the existing policy,

liquor contract was to begiven to one firm in Ujjaindistrict only though the lo-cal licensee reportedlyformed a syndicate and as-sociated two partners fromoutside Ujjain.

Liquor firm fails to provide Rs 18.5cr guarantee, again

Confusion prevails over status of contractSignificance of bank guarantee

According to informed sources, bank guarantee islike a security deposit, but in awarding the liquor

contract it assumes importance as like backbone en-joys in a human body. “This security deposit enablesus in recovery of dues from the licenses if he fails todeposit the bank guarantee or if withdraws from thecontract any time,” a department officer said addingthat if everything runs properly then at the expiry ofthe contract the security deposit is returned to the li-censee or even compensated in any other head or inrecovering any other due fees.

TI injured in road

mishap, dies FP NEWS SERVICE

Ujjain

Raghavi police station incharge TI RamchandraKoli who got injured whilereturning from his

parentalvillageRau in aroad ac-cidentcouple ofdays ago. As per

reportshis fami-ly mem-bers

rushed him to BombayHospital immediatelywhere he died duringtreatment. A pall of gloomdescended in the policedepartment when thenews of his death came.The police personnel paidtribute to him.

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Municipal CommissionerKshitij Singhal told that themunicipal corporation ismaintaining cleanlinessand sanitation for cleanli-ness survey 2021 and ex-pressed hoped that the citywill secure a good rank in it.As per the commissioner

survey on day to day basisacross the city is beingconducted to deal with wa-terlogging in the rainy sea-son, the municipal corpo-ration is taking necessaryaction by leveling the wa-terlogging prone areas,commissioner added. The commissioner ap-

pealed the locals to extendtheir corporation in main-taining cleanliness acrossthe city in view of cleanli-ness survey-2021.In view of spreading in-

fection of Coronavirus incontainment areas, theUMC is sanitizing rhedense and containmentarea on daily basis. As perreports sanitisation is be-

ing carried out regularly atManchhaman Colony,Ganesh Nagar, New Ab-hishek Nagar, RajnandiniParisar, Trupti Vihar, VedNagar, Rishi Nagar, Ma-

hakal Vanijya Kendra, Ma-hashweta Nagar, IskconTemple, Vasant Viharcolony, Mahananda Nagar,Alakhnanda Nagar,Adarsh Nagar, Nagziri andother areas of the city.

EMAZ evokes good response

As per municipal offi-cials Ujjain MunicipalCorporation (UMC) is con-ducting Ek Mask AnekZindagi (EMAZ) pro-gramme across the city tospread awareness to wardoff infection of Covid-19which is getting good re-sponse from the citydwellers. The drive willlast till August 15. Underthe campaign people aremaking understand to usesanitizers and followingnorm social distancing,the official added.

Dense, containment areasbeing sanitised daily

TI RAMCHANDRA KOLI

Sanitization being carried out

UMC employee cleaning drainages Mystery behindsuicide attempt of Dr Samdhanideepens

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Mystery behind allegedsuicide attempt of city’sprominent dermatologistDr Suresh Samdhani hereon Thursday evening,deepened on Friday as po-lice could not recorded hisstatements.Dr Samdhani who runs

his clinic at RK Plaza,Freeganj and presentlydealing with the patientsfrom his Geeta Colony res-idence under Jiwajiganjpolice station circle inwake of Corona pandemic,was found unconscious atthe backside of his resi-dence. He sustained multi-ple injuries during his re-ported suicidal attempt un-der suspicious circum-stancesHis neigbourers told me-

dia persons that soon be-fore committing the sui-cide attempt Dr Samdhanialong with his wife came totheir residence on a scoot-er and were indulged inheated verbal duel.

His neighbours informedabout the case to Dial-100,but his family memberstook him to GurunanakHospital located at GhaasMandi, Freeganj.If sources are to be be-

lieved, Dr Samdhani wasquite depressed owing tofamily disputes. He on Thursday at about

5.30 to 5.45 pm reached atthe terrace of his resi-dence and reportedlyjumped from there. Whenpeople found him uncon-scious and his body in poolof blood, police was in-formed. A head constable from

the police station reachedthe hospital on Thursdayevening and also on Fri-day afternoon, but doctorsforced him to return emp-ty handed saying DrSamdhani was not in a po-sition to record his state-ment. Meanwhile, a re-port which the hospitalmanagement sent to po-lice station mentionedthat Dr Samdhani sus-tained injuries as he sleptin the house. On being contacted CSP

AR Negi told Free Pressthat any leads into the casecan be achieved only afterrecording the statement ofDr Samdhani.

Cops fail to recordmedico’s statements

FP NEWS SERVICE Ujjain

Shiksha Sanskrit UtthanNyas (SSUN) will organise a6-day online lecture seriesfrom Saturday on facebook. A functionary of ‘nyas’ Dr

Zafer Mehmood told that theUnion Government with anambition to make India moreprosperous intellectually willimpose a new national educa-tion police (NEP) from nextacademic session 2021-2022across the country and theNEP is being welcomed inter-nationally. The ‘nyas’ is organising a

lecture series from Saturdaywhich will last till August 13in which educationists, schol-ars and intellectuals will fromacross the country will take

part online to throw light onits salient features.On the facebook page of the

‘nyas’ the progamme will beinaugurated on Saturday inwhich national secretary ofthe ‘nyas’ will deliver the wel-come speech. On Sunday na-tional convener ‘Charitra Nir-man an Vayktitva Vikas’ or-ganisation Deshraj Sharmawill share his views on NEP.On Monday Dr Pankaj Mittal,Tuesday Dr Chand KiranSaluja and on Wednesday Ed-ward Me would deliver hislecture. In the concluding ses-sion on Thursday AtulKothari will answer thequeries related to NEP. ZafarMehmood on this occasion ap-pealed the teachers, profes-sors and lecturers to partici-pate in the lecture series.

Lecture series onNEP from today

Ex-BMO terms Russian vaccinesans phase-3 trial as dangerousFP NEWS SERVICE

Nagda

Russia has surprisedeveryone with its declara-tion that it would startvaccinations with CoronaVirus vaccines in themonth of October. Thefact is that the phase-3 ofits vaccine is still not suc-cessful. Once the phase-3 of clin-

ical trials is successfulthen only a vaccine getsapproval from FDA, thenonly its production andmarketing can start. Rus-sia said that phase-3 trialswill continue and beforethe result, they will start

the productionand marketing ofthe vaccine. Theywill start vacci-nating peoplefrom October. This information

was given by For-mer Block MedicalOfficer (BMO), Dr.Sanjeev Kum-rawat serving cur-rently in Chirayu Hospitalof Bhopal as a Senior Doc-tor. Kumrawat said thatthis statement of Russia isirresponsible and danger-ous as before the success ofphase-3 trials, vaccinatingpeople will be playing withtheir lives.

This vaccine ofRussia has notbeen registeredwith the WHOfor even phase-3trial. As of nowin WHO 139 vac-cines are regis-tered for pre-clin-ical trials, 25vaccines are reg-istered for clini-

cal trials and only 3 vac-cines are registered forphase-3 trials. Among these America’s

Moderna, Britain’s Oxfordand China’s Sinovac arethere. Russia’s name is noteven registered for phase-3. After the success of

phase-3 and phase-4 , thevaccine is introduced to alarge population. Its sideeffects are analyzed by tak-ing data. This fourth phase is also

called post marketing sur-veillance and it takes twoyears. Normally, any vaccine

or drug takes ten yearsfrom the pre-clinicalstage to the market stageand it costs around onebillion dollars.From this we can infer

that it takes a long time,a lot of hard work andhuge expense to get anynew vaccine or medicineinto the market, he said.

DR KUMRAWAT

Rape accused getslife imprisonment

FP NEWS SERVICEBurhanpur

Special POCSO court in Burhanpur sentenced lifeimprisonment to one abduction and rape accused inBurhanpur on Friday. Police also slapped fine of Rs5,000 on accused after he found guilty under the rel-evant Sections of IPC for abduction and rape. According to information on November 10, 2018,

a complainant from a village under Nepanagar po-lice station limit in Burhanpur has lodged hercomplaint. In her complaint, she informed policethat some unidentified person has abducted herminor daughter. Based on her complaint, policeregistered case under Section 363 of Indian PenalCode. Within next 24 hours, police traced girl aswell as accused Sharif Pathan, 21, a resident ofSirola village. Police handed over girl to the familymembers after medical examination. Then super-intendent of police appointed Nepanagar sub-di-visional officer (police) Sakharam Sengar as theinvestigation and based on his investigation,medical examination and the girl’s statement tothe police, it was proved that accused abductedher as well as sexually assaulted her.

Advocate testspositive for corona

Alot: On Wednesday, anadvocate residing in Shivd-haam Colony, tested coro-na positive. Tehsildar BL Bamnia,

Town Patwari DevChauhan, Anganwadiworker Anita Chauhan,Sushila Khare and the CityCouncil team have homequarantined the advocateand his kin. Shivdhamcolony where the advocatelives and the court premis-es have been sanitised.In the city there were 20

corona positive cases out ofwhich 20 persons have re-covered and returnedhome. The patients whotested positive on Wednes-day were getting them-selves treated in Ratlamfor the last 4 days.

Thandla: A nation-levelvirtual workshop was or-ganised under the jointaegis of Madhya PradeshPublic Prosecution andCentral Police Academy,Bhopal, on child abuse andprevention recently.Police officers, prosecu-

tion officers, jail officersfrom all over the countryand prosecution officersfrom all over MadhyaPradesh participated in theevent which was conductedunder the guidance of Di-rector of Public Prosecu-tion, Madhya Pradesh Pu-rushottam Sharma.According to prosecution

media incharge Varsha Jain,prosecution officers fromacross the state joined the

training through webinars.Addressing the workshop,Director General of PoliceUttarakhand Ashok Kumarapprised the participantsabout the magnitude of theproblem and the laws avail-able at this point. He saidthat child trafficking is aserious problem and to pre-vent this, all agencies ofgovernance must adopt aninclusive approach. Cen-tral Police AcademyBhopal, director Pawan Sri-vastava, Manpreet Kaur,Sardar Vallabhbhai PatelNational Police AcademyAD Manpreet Kaur, PCBarulia Moderator, JG LSSonipat assistant professorNeha Mishra and othersalso shared their views.

‘Inclusive approach neededto stop child abuse’

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

All India Council for Tech-nical Education (AICTE),the regulatory of technicaleducation in the country,on Friday asked universi-ties to decide queries relat-ed to qualification requiredfor recruitments at theirstate government level.Through a circular,AICTE member secretaryRajeev Kumar said thatAICTE keeps on receivinga large number of repre-sentations/grievances, notonly from faculty membersof AICTE approved institu-tions but also from the fac-ulty members graduatedfrom various IITs, NITs,university departmentsand deemed universitiespertaining to their eligibil-ity, suitability and promo-tions to employ as assis-tant professors, associateprofessors or professorsfor different departmentsdue to the deviations innomenclature of theirqualifying degree at the

undergraduate and post-graduate levels.Grievances are also re-ceived about suitability ofcandidates for a particulardepartment if the PhD iscarried out from the de-partments other than theemploying department.In view of this, AICTEhas already published thegazette notification, “Ma-jor/Core Branch of Engi-neering/ Technology andtheir relevant/appropriatecourses leading to degreein Engineering/Technolo-gy for recruitment to teach-ing positions” dated onApril 28, 2017, which com-prises all the nomencla-tures which AICTE had ap-proved for their institu-tions to run.“It is beyond the scope ofthe AICTE to include andupdate form time to timethe nomenclatures offeredby various IITs, NITs, uni-versities, etc as these or-ganizations/institutionsare empowered to startcourses with the approvalof their BoG/Senate/Man-

agement Council/ Academ-ic Council or from UGCwithout the knowledge ofAICTE,” the circular reads.It adds, hence making anexhaustive list of nomen-clature to give further clar-ity is not practicable forAICTE not it is necessary.The AICTE said that theBoG of the concerned insti-tution on the recommenda-tion of duly constituted se-lection committee and withthe approval of their re-spective State /CentralGovernment/University/DTE etc as applicable maytake appropriate decisionon relevant qualifying de-grees suitable for recruit-ment to teaching positionsespecially keeping in viewinterdisciplinary nature ofemerging technologies. Thesame should however be no-tified at the time of adver-tisement for the posts.“Incumbent faculty re-cruited in the past based ontheir qualification ac-quired will continue to beeligible in the departmentsthey were recruited to if

found to be eligible as perthe AICT’E norms prevail-ing at that time,” the circu-lar adds.The AICTE said that suchqueries be resolved at thestate or the university leveland need not be raised toAICTE level.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Madhya Pradesh Board ofSecondary Examinationwill hold special examina-tion for class 12 from Au-gust 17 to 21. The examina-tion will be conducted forthose students, who couldnot attempt the examina-tion due to covid-19 out-spread.The time-table for thesame was released on Fri-day. As per the timetable, 6examinations will be con-ducted on August 17. An-other 6 examinations onAugust 19 and three pend-ing examinations on Au-gust 21.MPBSE issued orders forconducting the special ex-amination with requisiteprecautions to preventcovid-19 spread.The time for examina-tions will be from 11 am to 2pm.

Two rounds ofexaminations

Class 12 examination ofMPBSE had started fromMarch 2, 2020 this year.

However, the examinationswere postponed halfwaydue to covid-19 outspread.The remaining papers ofthe postponed examinationwere completed in twoshifts. The postponed ex-ams were conducted fromJune 9 to June 16.Class XII exam resultswere declared on Monday,

July 27, 2020. The overallpassing percentage was68.81 percent. As per basiccomparison, the test resulthad dropped 3.56 percentover the previous year.

250 applications forspecial examination

Many students could notappear in the exams due to

corona crisis during thesecond round of MPBSE ex-amination. Special exami-nation is being conductedfor them.This exam will start from17 August. So far, 250 stu-dents have applied for theexam in the state. “Studentswho are not able to partici-pate in this examinationdue to corona getting infect-ed, family infection or beingin the container area or dif-ferently abled students arebeing given a chance,”MPBSE divisional officerDeven Sonwani said.He added that in Indore,about 40 applications havebeen received for the spe-cial examination.

Corona preventionprotocols for special

examinationsAs per the latest update,the special exams plannedby the MPBSE will be heldfor Class 12th studentsamid strict protocols to en-sure safety of the studentsappearing for the exam aswell as of teachers and staffmembers on duty.To ensure this, all stu-

dents would be required towear face masks and covertheir face during their timeat the examination centre.· Exam Centres are to besanitized everyday as perthe examination schedule.· Sanitizer, hand-soap andwater will be arranged ateach exam centre.· Social distancing guide-lines will be followed strict-ly at all exam centres withalternate seating arrange-ments made to ensure prop-er distancing between stu-dents.· Facility for thermalscreening will be arrangedat the exam centre and if astudent is found to havefever, then appropriate ac-tion will be taken.

Virtual passport adalat from Aug 12BHOPAL: In view of Covid-19, Regional Passport Office (RPO), Bhopal, has organised a virtualpassport adalat for applicants for the first time from August 12. The applicants who had appliedfor passport but could not receive due to lack of documents/ adverse police verification reporthave an additional opportunity to represent themselves before passport issuing authorities. Unlike earlier passport adalat, a dedicated team will contact the applicants through WhatsAppvideo/ voice call from official mobile number ending with 918 from August 12.

MADHYA PRADESH 5FREEPRESS

SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020 | INDORE

MPBSE to hold special exams for Class 12 students

Between Aug 17 and 21, chance for those who were ‘barred’ by Covid pandemic

Date & Day Subjects17th August 2020 - Monday 1. Chemistry

2. History of Indian Art3. Elements of Science4. Business Economics5. Animal Husbandry / Milk Trade / Poultry Farming & Fisheries

6. Geography19th August 2020 - Wednesday 1. Biology

2. Still Life & Design3. Anatomy, Physiology

and Health4. Book-keeping &

Accountancy5. Crop Production &

Horticulture6. Economics

21st August 2020 - Friday 1. Political Science2. Higher Mathematics3. Drawing & Design

Varsities should resolve queries aboutqualification for recruitments: AICTE

First time in its115 yr history

ARSH RAFIK VISAALIndore

For the first time in its 115-year history, E-Lok Adalatwill be held at the districtcourt on Saturday to settleMotor Accident Claim cas-es. The district court start-ed functioning in Indorein 1905. The bench of sev-en additional judges willconstitute the E-LokAdalat.The District Legal Au-thority Officer (DLSO),Digvijay Singh said thatthe E-Lok Adalat will beheld under the leadershipof District Judge andChairman, District LegalService Authority (DLSA),Sushil Kumar Sharma. Allthe work and preparationfor the E-Lok Adalat iscomplete under the super-vision of Additional Dis-trict Judge and Secretary(DLSA), Manish KumarShrivastav.

The ADJ Shrivastavsaid, “We have organised aE-Lok Adalat under whichnobody is required to bepresent physically or on avideo conference. In the E-Lok Adalat we have takenall the Motor AccidentClaim cases which can besettled and then contactedboth the parties involvedin the case. We asked themto settle their issueamongst them over a voicecall, video call or any oth-er means and submit theirapplication for E-LokAdalat to the DLSA.”The DLSA receivedmany applications forpresentation before the E-Lok Adalat, and as manyas 250 or more cases willbe resolved by the bench ofthe judges.DLSO Singh said, “con-sidering the Covid-19 pan-demic situation in Indore,the District Judge andChairman Manish Shri-vastav has directed all thepresiding officers of judi-cial bench, advocates, liti-gants and other partici-

pants to follow the socialdistancing, use of maskand sanitiser and adhereto the directions issued byHon’ble High Court of MPregarding the same”.He said that in the sevenbench of judges, there willbe six adj for Indore whichincludes Joginder Singh(17th Adj), Sudheer Kumar(13th Adj Indore),Ashutosh Shukla (21st AdjIndore), ShahabuddinHashmi (27th Adj Indore),Anil Kumar Karoriya,(25th Adj Indore) and Man-ish Bhatt (10th Adj In-dore). For Tehsil court inDr Ambedkar Nagar therewill be Vikash ChandraMishra, (1st Adj DrAmbedkar Nagar). DLSO Singh said thatthe E-Lok Adalat is main-ly organised for provid-ing relief to people in-volved in Motor accidentclaim cases. On disposalof the case, there arechances that the victimwill get compensationwhich will help the per-son economically.

E-Lok Adalat in district court today

Courier service employee murdered, police cluelessBHOPAL: A 25-year-oldman was murdered in hisrented accommodation inMisrod. The body wasfound in a pool of blood onFriday morning. The newsspread panic near thewarehouse in Misrodwhere the deceased

worked. Police said the de-ceased was Sandeep Mal-wiya, 25, a resident ofBairagarh-Chichli. He waslast seen on Thursday. Theway the face of body wasdistorted indicates that hewas hit several times by atile. The tile was recovered

by the police from the spot.It is also said that he wasfirst murdered and then hitby tile as no one heard anycall for help. SHO MisrodNiranjan Sharma said theaccused in the case is Sahilwho lived with the de-ceased.

Is Cong againstMP’s farmers?CM to Sonia

GI tag for Basmati riceOUR STAFF REPORTER

BHOPAL

Chief minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan has dashedoff a letter to Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi over GItag for Basmati rice.In the letter written on Fri-day, Chouhan said Punjabchief minister CaptainAmarinder Singh had sent adispatch to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that if MP isgiven GI tag, Pakistan willget benefit in internationalmarket. Singh has givenwrong information to thePrime Minister, Chouhanwrote, because the taste andfragrance of MP’s Basmatirice is well known to every-body in the country,Chouhan wrote. “If MP getsGI tag for Basmati, India’sBasmati will get stability inthe global market,”Chouhan stated in his letter.According to Chouhan, thiswill increase the export ofBasmati, which MP hasbeen producing for nearly 25years.

Letters should be limited to 150 words and must be sent via e-mail. Letters may be edited for clarity or space. E-mail: fpindore@gmail.com

6EDITFREEPRESS

INDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

The two areas of the Union Government ex-penditures on health care are curative andpreventive. Let us consider the curative first.

According to the National Health Accounts Esti-mates for India, 2018 published by the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the Govern-ment spent Rs 9,134 crores in 2015-16 on the 31 lakhgovernment employees; or about Rs 7,000 per per-son if we include their families. In comparison, theexpenditure on the non-government citizens wasRs 38,794 crores on 131 crore persons or a meager Rs296 per person. This includes expenditures on gov-ernment-financed health insurance. The primaryobjective of MoHFW has, howsoever unwittingly,become to serve the government employees and, bydefault, not the public.In the Budget for 2020-21 MoHFW, which promotesthe allopathic system of medicine, has been allo-cated Rs 63,000 crores; while the Ministry ofAYUSH, which promotes alternative systems likeAyurveda and Homeopathy has been allocated ameager Rs 2,100 crores. No doubt the allopathic sys-tem is doing a great service to the country by bring-ing certain cures such as placing stent in the heartthat are not available in the AYUSH system. At thesame time, the AYUSH system is more oriented atproviding systemic treatments. Thus, while Mo-HFW provides cure for the heart patients replacingone stent with another; the Ministry of AYUSH pre-vents the need for a stent. Yet the Union Govern-ment allocates more money to cure and less to pre-vention. The reason for this lopsided allocation ap-pears to be that Multinational Health Companies(MNCs) supply the instruments and medicines thatare promoted by MoHFW.Within the MoHFW budget there is a lopsided al-location in favour of hi-tech treatments like stentsthat are called “tertiary,” and less on primary andsecondary treatment. In a paper titled “Health CareFinancing Reforms in India” published in 2012,Govinda Rao of the National Institute of Finance

and Public Policy has pointed out that the NationalHealth Policy had placed a target of 10 percent ex-penditures on tertiary care but the actual is 28 per-cent. Once again, the MNCs are the beneficiaries ofthese expenditures.As pointed out by Govinda Rao, most of the gov-ernment health expenditures are used up in payingsalaries to government health workers. I have notbeen able to access the share of salaries in thehealth expenditures of the Union Government,however, the share was 83 percent in MadhyaPradesh and Orissa.One step towards the correction of these anom-alies in MoHFW, as suggested by advisor to NITIAayog Rakesh Sarwal, is that the Central Govern-ment Health Service should be converted into aUniversal Health Service so that the expenditure ongovernment employees and people becomes equal.Second to increase the allocations of AYUSH andreduce those of tertiary treatment. The third step isto fix a maximum ratio of salaries in the healthbudget and, in case of a budget crunch, reduce thesalaries of government health workers. No purposeis achieved by paying them salaries without anymedicines to dispense and beds to treat.The second area of our health system is preven-tive care which includes vaccinations. A problemhere—in respect of COVID-19—is that the virus ischanging rapidly. Therefore, a vaccine against thevirus of yesterday may not be effective against thevirus of tomorrow. Another problem is that the per-formance of our preventive health within MoHFWis unsatisfactory. Govinda Rao says that the onlyseven percent children do not get measles’ vaccina-tion in South America against 30 percent in India. Ithink MoHFW will not be able to deal with COVID-19 by the vaccination route for both these reasons.The second issue in preventive care is our peopleneed to change their lifestyles like partaking of gar-lic, giloy, ginger and turmeric; undertaking yogaand meditation; and getting more exercise and sun-light. The MoHFW has successfully launched cam-paigns in favour of iodine-laced salt and breast feed-ing of infants. A similar campaign can be launchedby Ministry of AYUSH for promoting above-men-tioned changes in lifestyles; and, perhaps, provid-ing free packets of garlic, giloy, ginger and turmer-ic to every household.Of the Rs 38,794 crores in 2015-16 spent by UnionGovernment on health of non-Government citi-zens, only 12,000 crores were made on preventivehealth which included vaccination; information,education and communication; anti-smoking cam-

paign; free distribution of masks; and testing fordiseases like COVID-19, diabetes and cancer. TheGovernment must increase these expendituresdrastically and cut those on hi-tech tertiary treat-ment. Such a measure will improve the immunityof our people, reduce the spread of COVID-19 andultimately reduce the burden on MoHFW for pro-viding curative care.The third issue is to explore a different social par-adigm. A paper by Vaidya Vachaspati Tripathi pub-lished on the Uttar Pradesh Government websitesays that taking bath in the rivers during theKumbh leads to development of immunity. Largenumbers of pilgrims spread miniscule amounts ofvarious disease-creating viruses and bacteria in thewater. These enter the bodies of other pilgrims dur-ing the dip and prompt the body of the healthy pil-grim to fight these viruses and bacteria and devel-op immunity. In his words, as told to me, “one dip issufficient for good health till the next Kumbh.”Such festivals lead to community transmission ofimmunity just as we fear community transmissionof the COVID-19 virus. Subject to advice from theAYUSH Ministry, the Government can announce aparticular day when all citizens may be requestedto take a dip in their nearby river or pond. Thetransmission of miniscule amounts of the viruscan develop collective immunity.The main difficulty in implementing these meas-ures is the interests of the MNC suppliers of hi-techcurative medicine and the well-meaning and, at thepersonal level, very kind team of doctors who un-wittingly get focused on treating the individualhigh income patients not realising the resulting ex-clusion of the majority. The MoHFW is focused oneating the dessert not realising that the body willcollapse without nutritious dal and roti.The COVID-19 pandemic is not going away any-time soon. We certainly need to provide curativetreatment to those affected but even more we needto put in place preventive measures of a campaignto effect a change in lifestyle, free distribution ofgarlic, giloy, ginger and turmeric and developingcreative solutions like community bath as is doneduring the Kumbh and as was perhaps done in theGreat Bath of Mohenjo Daro. The doctors treatingCOVID-19 patients are forced to make a choice be-tween who will live and who will die. The choice be-fore the Government is whether the few will liveand many will die.

The writer is formerly Professor of Economics at IIM Bengaluru

Manoj Sinha has major challenges ahead

The appointment of former Central ministerManoj Sinha as Lt Governor of the Union Ter-ritory of Jammu and Kashmir is a well-

thought-out move with many motivations. In thecomplex politics of Jammu and Kashmir this marksa return to a politician as Governor, after a bureau-crat that G C Murmu (his predecessor) was. Sinha asa politician gave a good account of himself as min-ister in charge of the communications ministry andthen as minister of state for railways. He is known totake quick decisions and is well-rated by Prime Min-ister Modi. Whenever elections are held for the J & Kassembly for which a hush-hush move is on, Sinha’sexperience would come in handy. Skilled in the art ofpolitical jugglery, Sinha has a mix of tact and effi-ciency. He suffered a setback when he lost theGhazipur seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections toAfzal Ansari of the Bahujan Samaj Party, but withthis rehabilitation he would be deemed a politicalheavyweight again. With Jammu and Kashmir nowlooking towards a surge in infrastructural develop-ment, Sinha’s experience in catalysing investment inthis area is expected to prove useful. He would alsobe called upon to keep an eye on Kashmir’s bureau-cracy with the region’s past of rampant corruption.It would be foolhardy, however, to foresee a cushytime for Manoj Sinha. There indeed are challengesgalore for him which he would be expected to grap-ple with. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullahwas voicing the expectations of many recently whenhe hoped that the Centre would soon restore Jammuand Kashmir’s full statehood. But the Centre wouldlike to see signs of sustained normalcy and the newincumbent in the Lt Governor’s chair dealing effec-tively with militant terror. Tough decisions wouldhave to be taken as the state prepares for elections.Indeed, the Centre need not be in a hurry to hold elec-tions or even for full statehood for J & K. There aresinister forces abroad working in collusion with ele-ments within the country and the Centre cannot buthave its hands full. Sinha has an onerous task aheadof him to frustrate the designs of elements inimicalto India and at the same time to win back the heartsof the people of Jammu and Kashmir at large. Hewould need to work in tandem with political forces aswell as the army with a carrot and stick approachthat the situation warrants. This is no cakewalk.

Mumbai must besaved from delugesYear after year, Mumbai’s drainage system col-

lapses abjectly, flooding large areas of the me-tropolis and putting to shame its planners and

administrators. A paper prepared by more than twodozen experts in The Journal of Climate Changepublished in 2011 had said that by upgrading thedrainage system in Mumbai, losses associated witha one-in-100-year flood event could be reduced by 70per cent. Yet, other than paying lip service to the fes-tering issue, precious little has been done to solve theproblem. On Wednesday, large parts of south Mum-bai were inundated after the island city reported itsheaviest single-day downpour in August in 46 yearswith 293.8 mm of rainfall. Experts say the islandcity’s drainage system is 140 years old and in need offocussed attention for decades. On Wednesday, many areas in south Mumbai,which usually do not see waterlogging, were floodedfor hours. According to the India Meteorological De-partment, in nine hours, its Colaba observatoryrecorded 225 mm of rainfall. The last time the areahad seen heavier rain than Wednesday’s was in 1974.Areas like Churchgate, Marine Drive, Fort, Gir-gaum, Khetwadi, Walkeshwar Road, J J Marg, GolDeol, Bhendi Bazaar, Kalbadevi were flooded and wa-ter entered several houses. Indeed, we cannot be talk-ing of being a regional power if such basic issues arenot attended to and the city remains set for future ca-tastrophes. It is time that the civic authorities inMumbai wake up to the grim realities. The problemneeds to be tackled on a war footing. Whatever re-sources are required must be made available on pri-ority by the Centre and Maharashtra state. It wouldbe suicidal for governments at the Centre and theState to surrender to the vagaries of nature and notdeal with the problem head-on.

Redirect expenditure to prevention

Plain-speakRef: Fair criticism is notcontempt; August 7, 2020.Contempt of the SC ofIndia against an anti-corruption crusader is SC'sself-depreciation. To call aspade a spade (Truth alonewins/Satyamev Jayate) isconstitutional summumbonum of the SupremeCourt. But, as Duty is thesterner daughter of God,SC has opted to dance to thetune of Hegemony, Fascismand Injustice. What a fall ofIndian Judiciary! As ‘Truthis bitter, PrashantBhushan’s tweets are bitterpills to be swallowed by theGovernment and Judiciary.

Ramswarth Acharya

Complete unlockRef: Staring at a cripplingeconomic recession?,August 7, 2020. MPC hasdone the right thing by notfurther cutting repo rates;earlier cuts did not increasecredit flow from the banks.The Govt needs to assurebanks and make creditpolicy transparent so thatbankers need not worryabout the witch hunt onceloans go kaput. Also, theGovt needs to work on thegeneration of demand.With State Govts resortingto point-blank lockdown ontrading, manufacturing,and office activities,demand generation won’ttake place when easy creditis available, but whenpeople have stable jobs andoccupation. Let allbusinesses operate withoutrestrictions, onlycontainment zone policyshall be enforced with strictsocial distancing policy.

Bholey Bhardwaj

Beirut carnageRef: Anger mounts inBeirut, August 7, 2020. Evena slightest human errorcauses a major devastation,as the massive explosion inBeirut has proved it. Thereluctance of neitherremoving nor disposing ofthe highly combustible material from the storehouse caused suchdisastrous damage.Lebanon is already on thebrink of collapse amid asevere economic crisis thathas ignited mass protests inrecent months and itshealth system confronting acoronavirus surge.

Seetharam Basaani

Hinduism: All-encompassingspiritual consciousness

ViewpointBharat Jhunjhunwala

LETTERSTO THEEDITOR

More money allocated to MoHFW focused on cures, juxtaposed to AYUSH providing systemic treatment

Will the state of Kerala witness a flood for 3rd consecutive year? It's just a matter of time. And Narendra Modi will these incidents acrossthe country will finally force you to declare climate emergency and actually act on it?

Sachin Jacob, Climate and social justice Activist

This is a tragedy. I request the Centre to learn from its mistakes during the 2018 floods and not delay in extending resources as well asfinancial aid to Kerala. We have seen the devastation floods can cause. We cannot let the same lackluster response repeat every year!

Shama Mohamed, Dentist, National Spokesperson-AICC

This is devastating, takes me back to the 2018 floods when every bend in the road, every pristine tea estate bore gaping landslide wounds,families crushed under the debris. Every year since, it gets worse but reports by experts to manage this are ignored.

Aruna Chandrasekhar, Journalist

Kerala witnessed two major tragedies today. Many killed in landslide in Idukki & flight crash-lands in Calicut. Also facing a serious floodsituation. We stand united in this time of crisis. Prayers with families of those who lost lives.

Anoop A.J., National Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)

SATURDAY’S SWIPEONE FLEW OVER THE NEST #keralafloods

Article of FaithSumit Paul

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I assess the power of a will by how muchresistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to itsadvantage.

— Fredrich Nietzsche

"H indu mazhab ek deen se kahin zyada ek mukam-mal zaabta-e-hayaat hai." — Munshi Premchand in Soz-e-Vatan, confiscated

by the British govt.(Much more than being a faith, Hinduism is a complete wayof life)Ram mandir in Ayodhya may have given an impetus to Hin-dus in India, giving a sense of new-found religious assertive-ness to those who identify with this magnificent faith, the Hin-du consciousness is as old as the human civilisation.Chetanasya abhipretam Hindu sangyavalit pranidhanam (it'sthe blossoming of consciousness that culminated in Hindu be-lief/s). Having studied Islam and all Semitic religions atworld's premier universities viz, Oxford, Cambridge and Al-Azhar, what struck me specifically was the fabulous theo-lin-gual phrase: Culmination of consciousness (ChetnasyaParakashtha; to quote Kumaril Bhatt from Supradiptam/Slo-ka Vartika). No (organised) religion in the whole recorded his-tory of human civilisation ever mentioned Chetna or Con-sciousness even fleetingly. Here lies the loftiness of this reli-gion (having to use the word religion for the want of an appo-site word). It's well-nigh impossible to define Sanatan (nit nootanor everevolving) Hindu consciousness because it's unadulterated andunalloyed spirituality which is evolving all the time andsloughing off the cumbersome redundancy constantly. It's alsoapaurusheya (not man-made). This ever-evolving and all-en-compassing spirituality of Hindu faith has a scope to accom-modate all and sundry. That's why, Samkhya Darshan (it does-n't believe in the concept of a creator or god: Na va parivrajy-ate nirmiti abhiddasya), Charvaka Darshan (etymologicallyderived from Charu vakya: nice but misleading and plausible),Nyaya (Yask calls god a non-entity in his epochal work: Niruk-ta), Jainism, Buddhism, Ajivika, Agyanam and seven otherquasi-philosophical schools and sub-schools sit comfortablywith Vaisheshika, Yog (Not Yoga, that's exasperatingly angli-cized), Mimansa and Vedanta. The nonchalant juxtapositionof Aastik (Believing) and Nastik (Non-believing) in the bound-less corpus of Hindu consciousness is something that's sounique and integral to Hinduism because Hindu belief systemmakes no bone about whether you're a believer or non-believ-er. To quote Yagyavalakya: Ishastu Ishwaram nastikasyadharinan (God is even the atheism of the atheist!). What a sub-limely fabulous and the profoundest thought! The British ori-

entalist and Vendantist Sir Christopher Isherwood aptly saidthat the very core of Hinduism is perennially ultra-liberal. Sotheological dissent has always been alien to the idea of Hinduchetna. I used to shudder and feel a sense of uneasiness in my theol-ogy lectures at Oxford where Sir Edmund Blunden (a completeatheist who taught comparative religions!) would unemotion-ally narrate how Iranian mystic Mansoor Hallaj was excoriat-ed and finally decapitated for proclaiming An-al-Haq (I'm thegod/Truth) on March 26, 922 CE and at the same time in India,Vachaspati Mishra, Suketu Sridhar, Ajit Keshkambal amongothers would descant upon the existence of god or no-god in acompletely dispassionate manner sans any animosity and ran-cour whatsoever.It was Upanishadic Aham Brahmasmi (I'm the god or truth)that raised no eyebrows in the East. Rather, it was seconded byother evolved souls with a Philosophical Furtherance: Tatva-masi (Yes, you're!). Incredible! Isn't it? It was the Upanishadicmunificence of oriental spiritual nous that influenced theIranian mystics of Islam, esp. Jalaluddin Rumi, FariduddinAttar (Rumi's putative master), Hakim Sanai, Khaqani, Niza-mi, Urfi, Anwari, Bedil and Amir Khusro. "The Vedantic spir-it and Upanishadic generosity sublimated Hinduism into aWay of Life," opined Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in his cele-brated book Hindu Way of Life. In no other religious system ororder can one find the parallel existence of Non-theism,Monotheism and Polytheism. This makes Hinduism a Broad-way religion; choose anything of your choice and perceptionand there's no compulsion. You can be Nirgun, Nirakar, Sagun,Saakaar in the same breath and breadth. Such an all-embrac-ing ambit and attitude has no grudge against apostacy, sacri-lege or blasphemy. Because defiance and denial enrich Hin-duism. The ontological oxymoron and paradoxical acceptanceof Hindu belief system have full respect for Naro Va, KunjaroVa (this can be right and that could also be right). Mind you,this is not sophistry or misleading logic. This is spiritual abun-dance and a pluralistic approach to truth. Hinduism believesthat the truth is relative and can even be multifaceted! (Satyasaapeksha asti). All can be right and there's no one way totruth. In fine, it's not monolithic or lapidary. But there's a flipside to such extreme religio-spiritual liberalism as well. Here I must quote the analysis of one of the greatest mindsand my professor Dr Edward W Said of Columbia University,NY. Dr Said stated in his slim but seminal book Orientalismthat, 'The ingrained Eastern munificence seeped into orientalfaith/s and when there's so much religious liberty, some anom-alies and aberrations are bound to creep in. The same hap-pened in the case of Hinduism. Its extreme pliability and reli-gious flexibility also engendered scores of issues but thosewere more social and less religious...' (pg 49). The abominablecaste system, Brahaminical hegemony, hierarchical priest-

hood, denominational supremacy and ostensible non-equalitygot incorporated as well as interpolated into the fabric of Hin-du consciousness and sullied its immaculate escutcheon. Butright from the 10th century (when social ills began to raisetheir ugly heads in Hindu consciousness), Hinduism also wit-nessed great social reformers with a steely resolve. Here, I hasten to add that Hinduism is different from the Se-mitic faiths as reformers in Judaism, Christianity and Islamwere predominantly religious reformers. In Judaism, Islamand Christianity, the reformers like Thomas Aquinas andImam Ghazali and their tribe, were actually exegetes. Theyemended the scriptural texts and expatiated upon them. Butthe Hindu reformers, extirpated social ills and evils andamended societal superstitions, shibboleths and shenanigans.In other words, they were much more pragmatic and matter-of-fact. Raja Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda, Ishwar ChandraVidyasagar, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Maharshi Deben-dranath Thakur, Keshab Chandra Sen and many other re-formers tried to purge Hinduism of its socio-religious ills andworked relentlessly. But in the long and meandering process,they lost the narrative and got a tad too westernized. Pardonmy presumption, but there's no denying the fact, that RajaRammohan Roy, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Tagore's fatherand Keshab Chandra Sen hobnobbed more with the mission-aries with a missionary zeal and lost the wood for the trees, ad-vocating to throw the child out with the bathwater. Granted,Hinduism developed discrepancies, but those were not so ob-noxious as to condemn the whole faith with a pontificatingwestern mindset and call it primitive, nay prehistoric. Thisslightly condescending attitude of a few 'great' reformers wasroundly criticized by V S Naipaul and Nirad C Chaudhury intheir telling tomes. To encapsulate, Hinduism is not a structured or organizedfaith. It's a federal faith and an amalgamation of social, reli-gious, spiritual and theological concerns and considerations.Its fluidity is still intact, flow is hither-to unhampered, finesseis unspoilt and its fecundity is inexhaustible. It's a conglomer-ate of thousands of beliefs and a veritable canopy to protect araft of sects and sub-sects without tinkering and tamperingwith their identities. It's not grandstanding or grandiose of areligious system, but the grandeur of plurality that's a partand parcel of Hindu consciousness and the supreme legacy ofthe East. It doesn't threaten to engulf but allows all its off-shoots and also other organized faiths to revive, thrive and fi-nally survive in a religiously sardine-crammed world. Lastly,Edwin Arnold aptly said of Hinduism, 'Veil after veil will lift,but there'll be veil after veil behind.'

The writer is an advanced research scholar of Semitic languages,civilisations and cultures.

TAILPIECE

Indian-origin boy swept to sea surviveswith floating skills picked up from TV

A10-year-old Indian-origin boy, who was swept out to sea during afamily trip to the beach in northern England, has spoken abouthow he survived using the floating advice he picked up on a tele-

vision documentary show.Ravi Saini was able to battle the waves for more than an hour and

even earned praise from the rescuers who found him on his back, withhis arms and legs spread, shouting for help in the water nearScarborough, on the North Sea coast, on July 31.As someone who takes weekly swimming lessons and is a fan of the

BBC documentary Saving Lives at Sea, Ravi says that is where he sawthe "Float to Live" technique of lying on your back, staying calm andspreading out like a starfish."I felt like 'yeah I finally got a second chance to live'," said Ravi, in ref-

erence to his rescue.The schoolboy from Leeds had been at the beach in South Bay with

his father, Nathu Ram, 37, his mother, Puspa Devi, 34, and his nine-year-old sister, Muskan. He went into the water with his father and sis-ter when he suddenly realised he was out of his depth."I realised I was floating and I was like 'help me, help me'. My dad

tried to come but the water was higher than him," he recalled."I was petrified and I thought that this was the end of my life," he

added.After what felt like "five hours" at sea, he said he heard the lifeboat's

engine approaching.He returned to thank the lifeboat crew at Scarborough again this

week for saving him and toured the town's Royal National LifeboatInstitution (RNLI) base.

- PTI

FREE PRESSFOR FREE FLOW OF TRUTH

FREEPRESSINDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

ETCETERANEW DELHI: Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature to allow ShareChat users to play videos within its mainapp in the picture-in-picture mode.Spotted by WABetaInfo that tracks WhatsApp in Beta, the support for the ShareChat video service isavailable in the latest WhatsApp Beta for iOS and Android. “Latest updates officially support the possibility to play videos shared onShareChat within WhatsApp,” the website said on Thursday.Once you tap the play icon on a ShareChat video, WhatsApp will begin toreproduce the video in the picture-in-picture mode.The functionality will be available on both WhatsApp for iOS and Android. –IANS

Play ShareChat videos in WhatsApp soon on iOS and Android

C rona Vaccine Tracker

FALSE VS FACT

‘Pooch’ toh gadbad hai!News: Hyundai showroom in Kolkata adopts a stray

dog, hires him as a salesman

These days a collage image of a dog posing in the prem-ises of a Hyundai showroom is making everyone go‘awww’. The photos and the posts of the ‘salesman’ doghave become a hit among social media. According to thepost, one of the Hyundai showrooms in Kolkata not onlyadopted the dog but officially appointed him as a sales-man. The Facebook posts also feature an image of an IDcard with the dog’s photograph with claims that the carcompany decided to make him his unique identity card.“This munchkin used to wait outside a Hyundai show-room in Calcutta until they let him inside, so Hyundai de-cided to make him his own ID Card, now he’s a car sales-man, and lives there permanently (sic),” reads the cap-tion’s post. Everything the post says is true except onething…

Fact: The heart-warming post claimed this incidenttook place in Kolkata but the reality is that it happened inBrazil. According to an NDTV report, employees of aHyundai car showroom in Brazil decided to take care of adog that was spotted often outside the showroom andadopted him into their company. They named him TucsonPrime and made him an employee by assigning an identity card.

Conclusion: Neither the canine nor the Hyundai showroom is based in India. Wish the story was true!

(Source: Boom.live)

7

Switzerland signs vaccine deal with ModernaThe Swiss federal government says it has struck a dealwith Moderna to supply Switzerland with 4.5 milliondoses of a COVID-19 vaccine if the US biotech firmsuccessfully develops one.The Federal Office of Public Health says the agree-

ment aims “to guarantee Switzerland early access tothe vaccine of Moderna” and is one of the first suchdeals by any government with the company.The Swiss government is also in talks with other

vaccine companies and has already allocated 300 mil-lion Swiss francs (nearly $330 million) for purchasesof COVID-19 vaccine. It did not specify the value of theModerna deal.

Russia to register first vaccine on August 12Russia will register its first vaccine against the coro-navirus on August 12, Deputy Health Minister OlegGridnev said on Friday. The vaccine has been devel-oped jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute andthe Russian Defence Ministry. “The vaccine developedby the Gamaleya centre will be registered on August12. At the moment, the last, third, stage is underway.The trials are extremely important. We have to un-derstand that the vaccine must be safe. Medical pro-fessionals and senior citizens will be the first to getvaccinated,” Gridnev told reporters at the opening ofa cancer centre building in the city of Ufa.

SII to accelerate manufacturing and deliverySerum Institute of India (SII) on Friday said it has

entered into a new partnership with internationalvaccine alliance Gavi and Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation to accelerate manufacturing and deliveryof up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for In-dia as well as other low and middle-income countries(LMICs).“The collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII

to help them increase manufacturing capacity now sothat, once a vaccine, or vaccines, gains regulatory ap-proval and WHO prequalification, doses can be pro-duced at scale for distribution to India and LMICs aspart of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early asthe first half of 2021,” SII said in a statement.

Photodynamic therapy, atechnique which combines light and photosensitizingchemical substance to kill

microorganisms in respiratorytract, may help treat

coinfections and improveprognosis in severe cases

AGENCIESRio de Janeiro

Photodynamic therapy can be anefficient ally to combat secondaryinfections in COVID-19 patients,

according to a new study. The use ofthis technique combines light and aphotosensitizing chemical substance tokill microorganisms in the respiratorytract, the findings, published in thejournal Photodiagnosis and Photody-namic Therapy, reported.“COVID-19 can lead to complications

that go beyond the virus, and weshould also strive to find treatments forthese other problems,” said study re-

searcher Vanderlei Bagnato from Op-tics and Photonics Research Center(CEPOF) in Brazil.“Treating coinfections and secondary

infections can improve the prognosis insevere cases, above all for patients whoare intubated and face a higher risk ofinfection by other microorganismssuch as the bacteria that cause pneu-monia,” Bagnato added.The compounds used in photodynam-

ic therapy interact with light to pro-duce singlet oxygen, a highly reactiveoxygen species that kill viruses andbacteria by oxidizing their membranes.“When the patient inhales these sub-stances, the drug can be activated with

extracorporeal light, which then at-tacks pathogens in the airways,” Bag-nato said.Photodynamic therapy cannot be

used to attack the novel coronavirusSARS-CoV-2 directly since it does noteliminate harmful microorganismspresent in the bloodstream (only in theairways). However, researchers stressthe importance of developing tech-niques to combat COVID-19 coinfec-tions caused by bacteria and otherviruses, avoid the need for intensivemedical care, and minimize transmis-sion of the disease to other people.CEPOF has conducted several studies

on the use of photodynamic therapy totreat pneumonia, skin cancer, and oth-er diseases. “The propagation of oppor-tunistic pathogens occurs mainlythrough the upper respiratory tract ow-ing to natural colonization of theoropharynx and that photodynamictherapy can help not only to reduce thenumber of these microorganisms pres-ent in the oropharynx but also to pre-vent their penetration into the mucosalbarrier and hence their proliferation,”the authors wrote. –IANS

AGENCIESWashington

When we dream, ourbrains are filledwith noisy electrical

activity that looks nearlyidentical to that of the awakebrain. But researchers havepulled a signal out of thenoise that uniquely definesdreaming, or REM (Rapideye movement) sleep, poten-tially making it easier tomonitor people with sleepdisorders, as well as uncon-scious coma patients orthose under anaesthesia.The study highlighting the

first (electroencephalo-gram) EEG measure of REMsleep that allowed scientiststo distinguish dreamingfrom wakefulness, was pub-lished in the journal eLife.Each year, hundreds of

thousands of people under-go overnight studies to diag-

nose problems with theirsleep, most of them hookedup to an EEG to monitorbrain activity as theyprogress from wakefulnessto deep, slow-wave sleep andon into REM sleep. ButEEGs alone cannot tellwhether a patient is awakeor dreaming: Doctors canonly distinguish REM sleepby recording rapid eye move-

ment – hence, the name –and muscle tone, since ourbodies relax in a generalparalysis to prevent us fromacting out our dreams.“We really now have a met-

ric that precisely tells youwhen you are in REM sleep.It is a universal metric of be-ing unconscious,” saidRobert Knight, UC Berkeleyprofessor of psychology and

neuroscience and senior au-thor of the paper.“These new findings show

that buried in the electricalstatic of the human brain,there is something utterlyunique – a simple signature,”said co-author and sleep re-searcher Matthew Walker,UC Berkeley professor of psy-chology and neuroscience.“And if we measure that sim-ple electrical signature, forthe first time, we can precise-ly determine exactly whatstate of consciousness some-one is experiencing – dream-ing, wide awake, anaes-thetised or in deep sleep.” The ability to distinguish

REM sleep by means of anEEG will allow doctors tomonitor people under anaes-thesia during surgery to ex-plore how narcotic-inducedunconsciousness differsfrom normal sleep – a still-unsettled question. –ANI

AGENCIESWashington

As scientists search forsigns of life on plan-ets outside our solar

system, astronomers usingNASA’s Hubble Space Tele-scope have detected Earth’sown brand of sunscreen,ozone, in our atmosphere bytaking advantage of a totallunar eclipse.This method simulates

how astronomers and astro-biology researchers willsearch for evidence of lifebeyond Earth by observingpotential “biosignatures” onexoplanets.“One of NASA’s major

goals is to identify planetsthat could support life,” Alli-son Youngblood of the Labo-ratory for Atmospheric andSpace Physics at the Univer-sity of Colorado Bouldersaid in a NASA statement.“But how would we know

a habitable or an uninhabit-ed planet if we saw one?

What would they look likewith the techniques that as-tronomers have at their dis-posal for characterising theatmospheres of exoplanets?”“That’s why it’s important

to develop models of Earth’sspectrum as a template forcategorising atmosphereson extrasolar planets," sheexplained.For the study, Hubble did

not look at Earth directly.Instead, the astronomersused the Moon as a mirrorto reflect sunlight, whichhad passed through Earth’s atmosphere, andthen reflected back towardsHubble.Using a space telescope for

eclipse observations repro-duces the conditions underwhich future telescopeswould measure atmospheresof transiting exoplanets.These atmospheres may con-tain chemicals of interest toastrobiology, the study of andsearch for life. –IANS

This therapy can combat secondaryinfections in corona patients

Brain noise contains unique signature of dream sleep: Study

Earth used as proxy in a bid to spot life on exoplanets

Karna flood claims 5 livesBengaluru

Already under an omi-nous Covid-19 cloud, tor-rential rains continuedto batter Karnatakakilling at least five peo-ple. While there werethree confirmed deaths,five have gone missingdue to flash floods andlandslides triggered bytorrential rain in thepast three days in vari-ous parts of the state.Kodagu was the worst-affected district asBhagamandala virtual-ly went under water asthe region recorded

486mm in the past 24hours. Search opera-tions for five people hadto be stopped early atBhagamandala due toinclement weather. Themissing include thechief priest of the Tala-cauvery templeNarayana Achar (70),his wife Shantha (70),brother Anan-datheertha Swami (87)and two assistants —Ravi Kiran (26) andSrinivas (30).For the past two mon-soon seasons, Kodaguhas been bearing thebrunt. Like in the previ-ous years, the downpourtriggered landslides inthe Brahmagiri hills,the origin of river Cau-very where the Talacau-very temple is located.Meanwhile, most ma-jor rivers in the state in-cluding Krishna andMalaprabha are inspate, submerging roadsin several places inChikkamagaluru, Bela-gavi, Gadag, Haveri, Ut-tara Kannada, DakshinaKannada and Kodagudistricts.

Centre moves SC to make it partyto rhea's probe transfer plea

agencieS

New Delhi

The Centre has moved animpleadment applicationin the Supreme Court,seeking to be made a partyto the plea, filed by Bolly-wood actor RheaChakraborty, for transferof investigation in the caseconnected with death ofSushant Singh Rajput fromBihar to Mumbai.The Centre said the im-pleadment is in the inter-est of justice and would notcause prejudice to any ofthe parties in the transferpetition, filed by Rhea, andurged the apex court tomake it a party in this case.The Department of Person-nel and Training, which is-

sued the notification forthe CBI probe, said it is anecessary party in thecase.On August 5, SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta in-formed the Supreme Courtthat the Centre has, inprinciple, accepted the rec-ommendation by the Bihargovernment to order a CBIinquiry into the case. Hehad submitted before Jus-tice Hrishikesh Roy thatthe notification for theCentral Bureau of Investi-gation probe will be issuedsoon, preferably by the endof the day.In the last hearing on thematter, the top court, in itsorder, gave three days to allparties to put on recordtheir respective stand. It

also noted that the MumbaiPolice must submit itsrecords of investigationsdone so far. "We want toknow what Mumbai policehave done so far," said Jus-tice Roy.The counsel for the Ma-harashtra government op-posed the CBI probe and ar-gued that it is the MumbaiPolice that is authorised toinvestigate under theCrPC. Counsel also saidthat the Bihar Police's ac-tions are "politically moti-vated" and insisted that un-der the CrPC, it is only theMumbai Police that has"duty, power and functionto register the case".Hearing on the matter isnow scheduled for nextweek.

Mumbai SSR case stillstands, says Minister

Sanjay jog

Mumbai

The Maharashtra govern-ment will submit the statusreport on the investigationby Mumbai Police in theSushant Singh Rajputdeath case on Saturday.Home Minister Anil Desh-mukh told The Free PressJournal that the case, cur-rently being probed byMumbai Police, has notbeen taken over by the Cen-tral Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI), as reported bythe media.“CBI has launched an in-vestigation into the casefiled by SSR’s father in Pat-na. This was done after theCentre accepted Bihar gov-ernment’s proposal totransfer the case to CBI.

Clearly, there are two dif-ferent cases. Mumbai Po-lice is at present investigat-ing the case and it has notbeen taken over by CBI.The ball is in the SC’scourt, which has slated thenext hearing for August19,’’ he noted.An FIR had been regis-tered in Patna against Ra-jput's girlfriend and actorRhea Chakraborty, basedon a complaint filed by Ra-jput’s father KK Singh un-der several sections, in-cluding abetment to sui-cide. The Bihar govern-ment has filed an affidavitin the Supreme Court, say-ing the petition filed byRhea Chakraborty totransfer the police com-plaint filed by SSR’s fatheris “misconceived and not

maintainable”. Rhea andsix others have beenbooked by the CBI for theabetment of suicide, crimi-nal breach of trust, cheat-ing and theft. While thecase has now been regis-tered and the CBI is also intouch with Bihar Police forthe investigation that thelatter have conducted inthe matter, the orders fromthe Supreme Court are stillawaited.However, Deshmukh reit-erated that Mumbai Policeare conducting the investi-gation in a professionalmanner and it was pro-gressing in the right direc-tion. He had earlier saidthat Mumbai Police had al-ready begun investigatingallegations about SSR’s un-fortunate alleged suicide.

PilATuS DEAl

ED searches at 14locations in PMLA case

agencieS

New Delhi

The Enforcement Direc-torate (ED) is conductingsearches at 14 locationswithin India in connectionwith its probe into the 2009deal worth Rs 2,893 crorefor the supply of 75 PilatusPC-7 basic trainer aircraft,officials said on Friday.Top ED officials said thatthe searches were going onat locations linked to San-jay Bhandari and other ac-cused in the case registeredunder the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act.These locations included12 in Delhi, one inHaryana's Gurugram andone in Gujarat's Surat.The ED action comes af-ter it registered a moneylaundering case againstBhandari, officials ofSwiss company PilatusAircraft Ltd and some un-known officials of the Indi-an Air Force and the De-fence Ministry in the train-

er aircraft deal.Bhandari is already un-der investigation for al-legedly buying a 'benami'house for Congress interimPresident Sonia Gandhi'sson-in-law Robert Vadra inLondon.he ED registered the caseon the basis of a CentralBureau of Investigation(CBI) FIR in June last yearafter a preliminary en-quiry (PE).According to the CBI, theIAF issued a request pro-posal on December 16, 2009for the procurement of 75basic trainer aircraft.The CBI alleged that Pi-latus Aircraft Ltd ofSwitzerland, one of thebidders, in order to bagthe contract entered into acriminal conspiracy withBimal Sareen and Bhan-dari by fraudulently sign-ing a Service ProviderAgreement with the latterin June 2010 in violation ofthe Defence ProcurementProcedure 2008.

Deployment of IndianNavy warships increasedacross the Indian Ocean

agencieS

New Delhi

With a considerable in-crease in the deploy-ment of its warships inthe Indian Ocean Region(IOR), the Indian Navyis providing strategicsupport to its fellowservices in the ongoingactivities related to theborder tensions withChina.The Indian Navy is saidto have increased deploy-ment of warships in theIOR since the border ten-sions with China began,government officialssaid. Some estimates in-dicate that the increase isalmost 25 per cent.The officials said thatpast 100 days have seenthe Indian Navy operat-ing from the Ladakh(with its P-8I surveil-lance aircraft) in thenorth to Mauritius, 7,000km to the south, and fromthe Red Sea in the west tothe Malacca Strait in theeast, a distance of nearly8,000 km.Indian Navy deploysships on Mission BasedDeployments at key loca-tions in the IOR so as tobuild a comprehensivemaritime picture and re-spond to developing situ-ations.At any time, there arewarships patrolling theBay of Bengal, the Malac-ca Straits, the AndamanSea, the southern and thecentral Indian Ocean Re-gion, the Gulf of Aden

and the Persian Gulf.Additionally, followingmaritime security inci-dents, a combat-readywarship has also been de-ployed on OperationSankalp since June 2019for protection of Indianmerchant vessels passingthrough the Persian Gulf."Being a network-en-abled force, the Navymaintains total aware-ness of the IOR by usingthe IFC-IOR (InformationFusion Centre-IndianOcean Region), ships onMission Based Deploy-ments, P-8I and Dorniersurveillance aircraft andother high-end surveil-lance tools," a senior gov-ernment official said.Near-coast surveillanceis also coordinated by theIndian Navy by coordi-nating the resources ofnearly 20 governmentagencies to draw an elec-tronic fence over ourcoastline, to deter any26/11-type incident.After Chinese PeopleLiberation Army's activi-ties in eastern Ladakh in-creased in the months ofMay and June, culminat-ing in June 15 clashes inwhich 20 Indian soldierswere killed, the chiefs ofthe Indian Army, Navyand Air Force are meet-ing on a daily basis to co-ordinate the joint re-sponse.Since then, the IndianNavy has been at the fore-front of strategic sig-nalling to the Chineseforces.

Covid on rise in Karna,6670 test positiveShankar raj

BengaluruKarnataka recorded anothersurge in new Covid-19 caseswith 6670 testing positiveFriday, taking the active cas-es to 77,686 and the total case-load to 1,64,924. The statealso witnessed 101 deaths,taking the total to 2998.Bengaluru continued torecord a high number ofnew Covid cases anddeaths. The capital record-ed 2147 new cases and 22deaths, followed by Ballariwith 684 cases. But therewas a sharp rise in thenumber of Covid-relateddeaths in Mysuru whichsaw 15 people succumbingto the virus on a single day.

However, in some goodnews, with the number ofdaily recoveries on the risein Bengaluru, nearly 28 percent of the beds are vacant.“There are 4,276 beds in11 Covid care centres inBengaluru. Right now, 936beds, i.e. 27.7 per cent, arevacant. Out of the existing3,346 patients, 306 are duefor discharge today,” saidmedical education minis-ter K Sudhakar. “Most cas-es in the city have beenasymptomatic with the pa-tients requiring only isola-tion. If testing, tracing andisolation continues, we aregoing to see a huge declinein the number of cases inthe tech capital.

Arranging evacuation of 400Sikhs, Hindus from Afghanistan:World Punjabi Organisation

agencieS

New Delhi

The World Punjabi Or-ganisation Friday said itis organising charterflights for evacuatingover 400 Sikhs and Hin-dus from Afghanistan incoordination with theDelhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee(DSGMC) and the IndianEmbassy in Kabul.World Punjabi Organi-sation presidentVikramjit Sahney saidthe arrangements forchartered flights havebeen made in coordina-

tion with the Ministry ofExternal Affairs and theIndian Embassy in Kab-ul. All the Sikhs and Hin-dus in Afghanistan wantto come back to India af-ter the deadly terroristattack on Gurdwara inKabul on March 25, hesaid.The DSGMC will pro-vide them temporary ac-commodation in Delhi atvarious Gurdwaras andafter that all the familieswill be given funds bySikhs based in the UnitedStates to meet theirhousehold expenses for ayear, he said.

Cops drag Sikh...However, ASI Bhatnagar and Jamrey started bashingthem. Taking cognizance into the matter, superinten-dent of police Nimish Agrawal suspended both Bhatna-gar and Jamrey with immediate effect.

Silawat, Patel out...The committee was set up on May 13. Besides Mishra,Tulsi Silawat and Kamal Patel were the members of thecommittee. Now, Silawat and Patel have been removedfrom it.

Continued from page 1

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8 NATIONManoj Sinha takes oath as new LG of Jammu and KashmirSrinagar: Former Union Minister Manoj Sinha on Friday took oath as the newLieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. "Kashmir is the heaven of India. Ihave been given an opportunity to play a role here. August 5 is an important date.After years of isolation, Jammu and Kashmir came to the mainstream. Severalprojects started here after years. My priority is to take those projects forward,"Sinha said while addressing media persons.

FREEPRESSSaturday | auguSt 8, 2020 | Indore

View of under-construction metro line near Aarey colony, during Unlock 3, in Mumbai, on Friday

Punjab Police personnel try to stop workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha who were marchingtowards the residence of MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu during a protest over the hooch tragedy that claimed 112lives, on the outskirts of Amritsar, on Friday

Video spreading obscenity, SCtells activist, rejects plea

agencieS

New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Fri-day dismissed the anticipa-tory bail plea of Kerala ac-tivist Rehana Fathima whois facing charges of childpornography under POC-SO Act for allegedly mak-ing her children paint herhalf-nude body and upload-ing a video of it onYo7uTube."What impression willgrowing up children get ofthe country’s culture?" aBench headed by JusticeArun Mishra asked whiledismissing her plea. "You

might be an activist butwhy do this? What kind ofnonsense is this? It is ob-scenity clearly. And youare spreading it. It willleave a very badtaste," JusticeMishra said.The petitioner ismother to a 14-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl. Thecounsel contendedthat the children seen inthe video clip are "fullyclothed" and argued thatFathima had been chargedwith child pornographyand not obscenity. "Does fe-male nudity (even when

not visible) per se consti-tutes obscenity?" he plead-ed on behalf of his client.The counsel further con-tended that her stand has

always been thatif a man is semi-naked, there isnothing sexualabout it. But if awoman is so, it isconsidered ob-scene. The lawyer

insisted that his client is ofthe opinion that the onlyway out of this mindset isto sensitise people.The activist’s plea men-tioned that even "goddess-es in Kerala are frequently

depicted in idols and mu-rals with bare breasts.When one prays at the tem-ple the feeling is not of sex-ual arousal but one of di-vinity". "It may be notedthat the video is still avail-able on YouTube and hasnot been taken down be-cause it shows no nudity,"she pleaded."What kind of case youhave brought before us? Iam a little baffled," saidJustice Mishra. Notingthat the act in question pri-ma face fell within the am-bit of child pornography,the top court dismissed herpetition.

Woman consumessanitiser after policerefuse to file complaint

Srikakulam

A 50-year-old woman con-sumed sanitiser at a policestation in Srikakulam afterthe police allegedly deniedregistering her complainton Thursday.Erramma, a resident ofTarli Boddapadu village ofKotabommali Mandal inSrikakulam district hadclashes with a neighbour-ing woman for the past 3months. Erramma went toKotabommali police sta-tion to file a complaintagainst her neighbour.The police took her to thelocal hospital and later shift-ed her to Srikakulam gov-ernment general hospital.

According to the police, sheis safe and out of danger.Explaining the incident,Chiranjeevi, son of Erram-ma said, "We are doingsome renovation work toour house. Our neighbourwas lashing out on us assome of the sand fell on herdaughter. When my mothercountered her it turnedinto a verbal brawl be-tween the two." Followingthis, my mother went to thePolice Station to file a com-plaint against her. But theSub-inspector and consta-ble did not file her com-plaint. Instead, theyabused my mother. As a re-sult of which, my motherconsumed sanitizer."

‘How Can a party deaL witH CHina’From our Bureau

NEW DELHIThe Supreme Court, onFriday, junked a writ peti-tion (criminal) moved inthe form of a PIL by theeditor of a news portalGoa Chronicle and a Del-hi advocate seeking a CBIor NIA probe into a 2008agreement signed by theIndian National Congress(INC) with the rulingCommunist Party of Chi-na (CPC) for cooperationand exchange of high-lev-el information, claimingthe Congress had compro-mised national security.The petitioners' case isthat the Congress hadsigned the agreement

while leading a coalitiongovernment at the Cen-tre, despite having hostilerelations with China andit had hidden details of

the agreement. Theypleaded that this was a fitcase for probe under theUnlawful Activities (Pre-vention) Act (UAPA).At the outset, Chief Jus-tice Sharad Arvind Bobdeexpressed surprise, re-marking that he had nev-er heard of a foreign gov-ernment signing anagreement with a politi-cal party of another coun-try. In China, there is nodifference between thegovernment and the rul-ing party and so the CJIfelt, an agreement signedby the Communist Partyof China was as good asone signed by the Chinesegovernment.

SC SurpriSed on piL againSt 2008 agreement between Cong, CpC

NADDA TWEETS

BJP President Jagat PrakashNadda sought anexplanation from CongressPresident Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi on the2008 deal with China,tweeting that even theSupreme Court hadexpressed surprise over it.“...Does this explaindonations to RGF andopening of Indian marketfor the Chinese in return,which affected Indianbusinesses?” he tweeted.

NATION 9Fire breaks out at Geeta Kutir Ashram in RudraprayagRUDRAPRAYAG: A fire broke out at Geeta Kutir Ashram in Banswara, Rudraprayag late on Thursday night. Thefire destroyed goods worth lakhs of rupees. No casualties were reported in the incident. While the locals struggledto douse the fire, a rainfall occurred around the same time and facilitated the process of dousing the fire. Later, theadministration was informed of the incident. The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained. Earlier on Thursday,a fire broke out in Gujarat's Ahmedabad claiming the lives of eight persons including five men and three men.

FREEPRESSSATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020 | INDORE

News from South

Sea waves crash ashore near Thiruvalluvar Statue,following rainfall in Kanyakumari district, on Friday

BSF seizes silver ornaments atIndia-Bangladesh borderBASIRHAT: The Border Security Force (BSF)seized silver ornaments from a bike while it wasbeing smuggled to Bangladesh in West Bengal'sKaijuri, BSF South Bengal said. According to theforce, the incident occurred on August 6 whenornaments worth Rs 9,60,720 were seized whilethey were being smuggled on a bike. A smuggleron a motorbike was approaching the border onThursday night when BSF troops chased the bikesand stopped it. The smuggler then left the bikeand fled. The troops opened the toolbox andfound 13 kg of silver jewelery. The bike was alsoconfiscated while the border guards are trying tofind out the identity of the motorbike with thenumber plate.

Karna SSLC result: Class 10exam results to be out on Aug 10BENGALURU: The Karnataka SecondaryEducation Examination Board (KSEEB) to declarethe Secondary School Level Certificate (SSLC)result, 2020 on Monday, August 10, stateeducation minister S Suresh Kumar said on Friday.The result will be declared at 3.00 pm, he said.About 8,48,203 students appeared for the exambetween June 25 and July 4.

TDP leader warns cop for stoppingconvoy, police action soonANANTAPURAM: TDP leader and former MLAJC Prabhakar Reddy allegedly shouted at andwarned a cop here for stopping his convoy. Reddyand his son Asmit Reddy got bail on Thursday in acase of forgery of documents and otherirregularities related to a travel company. He wasgoing from Kadapa to Tadipatri accompanied by alarge number of followers. The incident tookplace when they reached Sajjaladinne area, wherecircle inspector Devendra and his team wereregulating the traffic.

Delhi Police nab 2 wantedsharpshootersNEW DELHI: Delhi Police arrested twosharpshooters belonging to infamous Sunil RathiGang, police said on Friday. According to thepolice, both criminals were wanted in a murdercase registered at Police Station Budhana,Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh. Both theaccused were carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 eachon their arrest, police said.

Dr Pradeep Kumar Joshi is new UPSC chairmanNEW DELHI: Dr Pradeep Kumar Joshi took oathas the chairman of the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC) on Friday. Joshi hassucceeded Arvind Saxena who completed histerm as UPSC chairman on Friday. Joshi was thechairman of both the Chhattisgarh and MadhyaPradesh Public Service Commissions. He joined asmember, UPSC on May 12, 2015.

6 civilians injured in Pak firingalong LoC in KupwaraKUPWARA: Six civilians were injured afterPakistan initiated an unprovoked ceasefireviolation on Friday morning along the Line ofControl (LoC) in Tangdhar Sector, Kupwara byfiring mortars and other weapons, according toChinar Corps, Indian Army. Indian Army is giving abefitting response. Further details are awaited.

Kerala nun rape case: Court grantsbail to Bishop, recalls warrantKOTTAYAM: A Kottayam court on Fridaygranted bail to Bishop Franco Mulakkal on a freshbail bond in connection with the nun rape caseafter he appeared before the court today.Additional District Court Judge G Gopakumargranted Mulakkal bail on fresh sureties. The courtalso recalled the NBW issued against him andcancelled the proceedings against the old suretiesand listed the matter for further hearing onAugust 13. Mulakkal was directed to remain in thestate till the next date of hearing.

KERALA GOLD SMUGGLING CASE

Kochi court reserves order onSwapna Suresh's bail plea

AGENCIESKochi

A Kochi court on Friday re-served for August 12 its or-der on the bail plea ofSwapna Suresh, a key ac-cused in the high-profileKerala gold smuggling case.Additional Chief JudicialMagistrate (Economic Of-fences) was hearing thebail plea, Swapna Suresh,claiming she was innocentand that the current case isthe offshoot of the politicalrivalry between the stateand the Central govern-ments.

During the arguments to-day, the customs depart-ment submitted that it hasstrong evience againstSwapna and added that thewife of another accused inthe matter has given astatement against her inthe matter."The customs has strongevience against Swapna.There are more evidencethan her confession.Soumya, who is the wife ofanother accused SandeepNair has given statementagainst Swapna," the cus-toms department submitted."Swapna tried to send

back the baggage becauseshe was sure there wasgold in it. And she left Ker-ala to Bengaluru by usingher higher connections.She was sure to passthrough the checkpostwithout problems, despitethe rigorous checking inthis COVID-19 period," itadded.The customs departmentsubmitted that all the ac-cused had one day gath-ered at a flat near the Ker-ala Secretariat to conspirethe smuggling along witha high-ranking govern-ment officer.

NEP foundation of 21st century 'new India': PMAGENCIESNew Delhi

The new National Education Policy (NEP)is the foundation of a 'new India', PrimeMinister Narendra Modi said on Friday,adding that the policy will help close thegap between education and research.The Union Cabinet had recently clearedthe NEP proposing sweeping changes inschool and higher education. It is a com-prehensive framework to guide the devel-opment of education in the country.Addressing a conclave on transformation-al reforms in higher education under theNational Education Policy', Modi said,"The New Education Policy is the founda-tion of the 21st century ‘new India'. It willgive youth the education and skills theyneed and will help close the gap betweeneducation and research."Emphasising on the need for criticalthinking, Modi said that the current edu-

cation system focuses on 'what to think' butthe new policy will focus on 'how to think'."There were no major changes in the edu-cation system in the past few years. It hadcaused a herd mentality in our society, in-stead of curiosity and imagination," hepointed out.he Prime Minister also said that there is aneed to lay emphasis on "inquiry-based,discovery-based, and analysis-based ways"to help children learn better."With changing times, a new global sys-tem has risen and hence it was essential forIndia to change its education system ac-cordingly. Creating a 5+3+3+4 curriculumand replacing the 10+2 structure was a stepin this direction," the Prime Ministeradded.Alluding to the mother tongue as a modeof teaching, he said that there is a need tomake students global citizens, but at thesame time, they should also be connected totheir roots.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends a conclave on higher education via video conferencing, in New Delhi,Friday, Aug 7, 2020. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (2nd R, top row) is also seen.

Vinay Tiwari returns to join duties at PatnaLAW KUMAR MISHRA

PATNA

Vinay Tiwary,SP of CentralPatna who was in quarantinein a SRPF guest house at Gore-gaon on the outskirts of Mum-bai since Saturday evening isscheduled to reach Patna thisevening. /BrihadMumbai Mu-nicipal Corporation has ex-empted him from quarantineon the condition that he wouldleave Mumbai by August.Confirming his release fromquarantine ,DGP,Gupteshwar

Pandey said following com-ments from the SupremeCourt,BMC agreed to free theI{PS officer from quarantinewhich was like house ar-rest..Tiwari after his releasesaid"Mumbai police did notquarantine me ,but investiga-tion of the SSR death case..Hesaid Bihar police will co-ordi-nate with CBI.Bihar police had sent threeletters to the BMC in last fourdays seeking his release.OnThursday,additional DG of po-lice also sent a DO letter to the

BMC commissioner seekingTiwari's release to facilitatehim resume his official dutiesin :Patna.Tiwari was leader ofthe four members team of Pat-na police which was sent to in-vestigate the complaints madeby Krishna Kumar Singh,fa-ther of film star SushantSingh Rajput at Rajiv NagarPolice station here on July 25. Hours after his arrival inMumbai,Tiwari was sent un-der quarantine by BMC for vi-olating the SOP issued by theministry of ho,me affairs.He

Let Italy compensate victims' kin:SC's condition to close Marines case

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Fri-day told the Centre to letItaly pay the victims com-pensation in the Italianmarines case, and then itcould allow the withdrawalby the prosecution. The topcourt insisted that it willhave to hear the kin of thevictims on adequacy ofcompensation and till thenit would not close the case.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice S.A. Bobde, JusticeA.S. Bopanna and Justice V.Ramasubramanian told So-licitor General TusharMehta, representing theCentre, "bring the chequesand the kin of victims here".The bench noted that thetop court cannot think ofany relief for the Italianmarines till their prosecu-tion is withdrawn in the Ker-ala court. Mehta replied the

Centre is willing to file a pe-tition for withdrawing prose-cution of the two marines.The Chief Justice replied"but the family of victimswill have a problem. Theywill have to be heard".Mehta contended beforethe top court that the Cen-tre is in favour of with-drawing the prosecution ofthe Italian marines in In-dia, as Italy is ready toprosecute them.

Corona benefits 3.5 lakhfailed examinees in Bihar

LAW KUMAR MISHRAPATNA

In a massive relief to the parents and theirwards,Bihar School Examination Boardhas declared 3.5 lakh examiness of tenthand 12th standard examinations conduct-ed by Board in February-March thisyear.They had failed in one or twosubjects.Their results were de-clared in March(for 12th) andM<ay 26 for matriculation ex-aminations.Education Minister,Krish-na Nandan Prasad Vermasaid the one-time exemptionhas been given in view of theCovid 19 pandemic .Duringthe ongoing Corona crisis andlockdown,compartmental exami-nations are not possible,ministersaid.Even if examinations are conductedin October,results may come in Decem-ber,leaving no scope for the students fortheir admission in institutes of higher ed-ucation.Their academic session could

have been destroyed,Verma said while de-fending the decision of the board.He said BSEB proposal to grant gracemarks and declare these examinees suc-cessful was discussed at a meeting held bythe additional chief secretary,R K Maha-jan and Board chairman,AnandKishore.Decision to dec.lare the failed stu-

dents successl was taken as a ;policydecision by the government

The one time exemption willbenefit 2.8 lakh matriculationexaminees and 1.32 lakh in-termediate examinees.Over 12 lakh examineeshad appeared in the two ex-aminations held before thelockdown started in March,Academicians associated

with the conduct of examina-tions in bihar said the decision was

aimed more as ;political convenience inview of the coming assemblyelections.Those getting huge relief may bewooed by the ruling parties in the elec-tions.

'Politically motivatedactivism': Ex-judges, CECcounter pro-Bhushan lobby

NEW DELHI

Trouble for prominent lawyerPrashant Bhushan seems to be farfrom over. After 131 "prominent per-sonalities" urged the Supreme Courtto withdraw its contempt noticeagainst Bhushan, a group of 174 emi-nent citizens have countered it, in-cluding 2 former High Court ChiefJustices, in a letter to President RamNath Kovind.In a no holds barred attack on thefirst letter in support of Bhushan, the174 people including former Ra-jasthan Chief Justice Anil DeoSingh, former Foreign SecretaryAmar Sinha and former Chief Elec-tion Commissioner N. Gopalaswamitermed the ones vouching forBhushan, as an "odd group of per-sons".Bhushan is being tried for contemptin the Supreme Court."It is a matter of concern that oneodd group of persons, claiming them-selves to be distinguished public menof the past, has been observed to re-peatedly avail of every opportunityto put Indian democracy and its sa-cred institutions like Parliament,Election Commission of India, andnow the Supreme Court of India, inpoor light before the whole world.They end up issuing ill-consideredstatements, and writing miscon-ceived communications to variousauthorities to attract media atten-tion," wrote the anti-Bhushan group,in a damning counter.This was a reference to the previ-ous group of 131 citizens which in-cluded former Supreme Court judgeJustice Madan Lokur and Swaraj In-dia President Yogendra Yadav, ex-pressing solidarity with PrashantBhushan. Their statement, arguingfor Bhushan read, "The initiation ofcontempt proceedings against MrBhushan, who had articulated someof these concerns in his tweets, ap-pears to be an attempt at stiflingsuch criticism, not just by MrBhushan, but by all stakeholders inthe Indian democratic and constitu-tional set-up."

• German state shuts 2 schools after new cases

• 3 India-returnees test positive in Singapore

• Mexico's coronavirus death toll passes 50,000

• Ohio governor tests +ve, then -ve on 2nd test

• Hong Kong offers free testing for all residents

• Pak to resume int’l flights from Sunday

DASHBOARD

UK quarantine list keeps growingLONDON: The UK "will not hesitate" to add more countries toits travel quarantine list in order to protect public health amidthe COVID-19 pandemic, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said onFriday. His remark came after the country announced thatarrivals to the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorrawill will need to self-isolate for 14 days. Asked whether Francecould be next to be added to the quarantine list, Sunak toldthe BBC that the government is keeping the situation "underconstant review" and that people should "be mindful" of the"risk" of disruption to travel given the global pandemic.

With 2/3rd majority, Rajapaksabrothers sweep Lanka elections

AGENCIES / Colombo

Mahinda Rajapaksa willbe sworn in as Sri Lanka'sPrime Minister for thefourth time on Sunday af-ter his party registered alandslide victory in thegeneral election, securingtwo-thirds majority inParliament needed toamend the Constitutionto further consolidate thepowerful Rajapaksa fami-ly's grip on power.The Sri Lanka People'sParty (SLPP), led byprime minister Mahinda

Rajapaksa, won in 145constituencies, bagging atotal of 150 seats with itsallies, a two-thirds major-ity in the 225-memberParliament, according tothe results announced bythe election commissionon Friday.It won all but four of the22 electoral districts on of-fer, polling 6.8 millionvotes (59.9 per cent).The 74-year-old PrimeMinister Mahindathanked the Sri Lankanpeople for putting theirfaith in the SLPP and said

that the country will notstand disappointed duringits tenure."Heartfelt gratitude toall SriLankans for plac-ing their trust in Presi-dent Gotabaya Rajapaksa,myself and the Podujana-Party and voting for the'Saubhagye Dakkama'election manifesto inoverwhelming numbers.We will ensure Sri Lankawill not stand disappoint-ed during our tenure," hesaid.Mahinda will be swornin as the new prime min-

ister for the fourth timeon Sunday at a ceremonyat the historic Buddhisttemple of Kelaniya, anorth Colombo suburb,according to an officialstatement.He created a record inpolling over 500,000 indi-vidual preference votes,the highest ever recordedby a candidate in the histo-ry of elections.Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi was among thefirst world leaders to con-gratulate Mahinda on theoutcome of the elections.

Facebook tells staff to work from home until July 2021AGENCIES / San Francisco

Facebook has told its 48,000-strongworkforce to stay at home throughJuly 2021 and is giving an addi-tional $1,000 to each employee tobuy supplies for a home office.The social network had earlierallowed the staff to work remotelythrough the end of 2020.

"Based on guidance from healthand government experts, as wellas decisions drawn from our inter-nal discussions about these mat-ters, we are allowing employees tocontinue voluntarily workingfrom home until July 2021."In addition, we are giving em-ployees an additional $1,000 forhome office needs," a Facebook

spokesperson was quoted as say-ing in The Verge on Thursday.With the Covid-19 pandemichardly showing any sign of slow-ing down, Google last month saidit would allow its nearly 2 lakh em-ployees to work from home till themiddle of next year if their rolespermit."To give employees the ability to

plan ahead, we are extending ourglobal voluntary work from homeoption through June 30, 2021 forroles that don't need to be in the of-fice," Google CEO Sundar Pichaisaid in an email to employees.Google had earlier set January2021 as a tentative timeline for itsworkers to return to offices.Twitter has allowed employees

to work from home "forever" ifthey wish so.In May, Facebook CEO MarkZuckerberg laid out a detailed re-mote-working plan to make half ofhis workforce work from home by2030. According to him, about halfof Facebook employees wouldwork from home five to 10 yearsfrom now.

FEEL THE MUSICA girl with face mask plays a violin from the bal-cony of her house during 482th anniversary of thecity of Bogota, Colombia.

AGENCIES Moscow

When Boris Prokoshev, aformer sea captain spend-ing his retirement years ina Russian village, woke upand found an email sayinga ship he once command-ed had carried the ammo-nium nitrate that blew upswathes of Beirut, he wasastonished.The email was from ajournalist, he said, and ti-tled with the name of theMV Rhosus, which he hadcaptained on a voyage thathe was never paid for."I opened my inbox andsaw a letter about the Rho-sus; I thought maybe they

were sending me money,my salary," he said.The 2,750 tons of ammo-nium nitrate that blew upin Beirut's port wasn't sup-posed to have been inLebanon at all. When theRhosus set sail from theGeorgian Black Sea portof Batumi, it was boundfor the Mozambican portof Beira.But it made an unsched-uled detour to Beirut asthe Russian shipownerwas struggling with debtsand hoped to earn someextra cash in Lebanon.The additional cargoproved too heavy for theRhosus and the crew re-fused to take it on.

Trucks destroyed by blast are pictured at Beirut port.

Unscheduled dock led to Beirut blast

UK Foreign Office’s Chief mouserwith 100K twitter followers retires

ADITI KHANNA / London

The resident cat at the UKForeign and Common-wealth Office (FCO) inLondon, dubbed "LordPalmerston the ChiefMouser" in reference to itsmouse-catching duties, is toretire from diplomatic serv-ice, the FCO said on Friday.Lord Palmerston, famed for regularterritorial tiffs with neighbouringDowning Street mouse-catcher Larry,will see out his retirement in the Eng-lish countryside, where he has beenspending lockdown already at thehome of a member of Foreign Office

staff.Both cats have theirown social mediaprofiles and arevery popular withnews photogra-phers on DowningStreet duties."In April 2016, a cat

called Palmerston ar-rived from Battersea

(dogs and cat shelter in London). Ithought I was employing a mouser.What I got was a social media phe-nomenon, with 105,000 Twitter fol-lowers," said Sir Simon McDonald,the Permanent Under-Secretary andHead of the Diplomatic Service at the

FCO, announcing Palmerston's re-tirement."After four happy years, @Diplomog(Palmerston's Twitter handle) will re-tire: he's enjoyed lockdown life in thecountryside so much, he's acceptedan invitation to stay. Everyone at theForeign Office will miss him (ourmice less so). We wish him a long &happy retirement," said McDonald ina Twitter statement.McDonald's own term as the head ofFCO also comes to a close this monthas the department is merged with theDepartment for International Devel-opment to create the new Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Of-fice from September 1.

US issues freshtravel advisoryfor India, China

LALIT K JHAWashington

The US has lifted the highestlevel of its global health trav-el advisory for Americansdue to the coronavirus pan-demic and restored the pre-vious country-specific sys-tem without changing thestatus of over 50 countries,including that of India andChina.The US state departmentissued the Level 4: Do NotTravel advisory -- the highestlevel of travel advisory -- onMarch 19, urging Americancitizens not to travel over-seas due to the coronaviruspandemic.

CLEVELAND: President Donald Trump billed his trip toOhio on Thursday as a chance to promote economicrecovery, but he quickly pivoted to a deeply personalattack on Joe Biden, even questioning without foundationthe former vice president's faith in God.

"He's following the radical left agenda, take away yourguns, destroy your 2nd Amendment, no religion, noanything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He's against God. He'sagainst guns. He's against energy, our kind of energy. Idon't think he's going to do too well in Ohio," Trump said.

Biden is ’against God’, claims President TrumpWORLDFREEPRESS

INDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

10

inger-actor Miley Cyrus has announced that her new single will be released on August14. The track, titled Midnight Sky, is the first single from her long-awaited album, She IsMiley Cyrus. The 27-year-old actor shared the news in a post on Instagram on Thursday.“I know it feels like you’ve been waiting forever and ever... but no more... She is finally

here. My new single Midnight Sky. August 14th,” Cyrus wrote. The singer also shared aposter for the single that features her with a diamond-encrusted glove and holding a mike. OnWednesday, Cyrus had teased that she will be releasing new music soon as she posted an oldmusic video of hers, featuring a section of the music video for her 2008 single Start All Over"Meet Miley Cyrus... again,” she tweeted. —PTI

SFREEPRESS

Miley’s newtrack to release

on August 14 11INDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

Did The Simpsons predict Beirut explosion way before it happened?

massiveexplosionrocked Beiruton Tuesday,

flattening much ofthe city’s port, damagingbuildings across thecapital and sending a

giant mushroom cloud into the sky. Over 70 people have beenkilled while thousands of others were wounded in the massiveexplosion. Miles from the port, balconies were knocked down,windows shattered, streets were covered with glass and bricksand lined with wrecked cars. Motorcyclists picked their waythrough traffic, carrying the injured. Several devastating picturesand videos have been doing the rounds of the internet suggestingthe magnitude of the explosion’s impact. Amid this, videos of analleged episode from Matt Groening-created The Simpsons wentviral on Twitter. Several user claimed that the satirical show hasonce again managed to predict a future event. Sharing the clip, a user wrote, “I don’t know if this is a

prediction but it seems we need to take these guys serious. TheBeirut explosion something close to the Simpsons.”Another tweeted, “The Simpsons already predicted the Beirut's

tragedy. I’m dead.” However, the clips that are doing the roundsof the internet are not from the same episode. While the first halfbelongs to Homer Celebrates the Fourth of July by Lighting a M-320 episode from season 7, the latter is from the Treehouse ofHorror episode from season 16. While the video of the mushroomcloud explosion looks quite similar to that of Beirut’s colossalexplosion, the episode showed Homer causing the SpringfieldNuclear plant to explode.From predicting that Donald Trump would become US President

to oil reaching $0 a barrel, The Simpsons which has been on airsince the late 1980s, have made several predictions.

—FPJ Web Desk

K-pop band BTS to release fourth film in September

-pop band BTS on Thursday announced that their fourththeatrical film, Break The Silence: The Movie, will releasein theatres. According to Variety, the film is set to hit thetheatres in more than 70 countries starting from

September 10 along with a rollout in additional 40-plusregions on September 24. “We’re delighted to partner with Big HitEntertainment on the release,” Variety quoted Marc Allenby, CEOof Trafalgar as saying. He further promised that the film “gives fans extraordinary

access to both their first international stadium tour and all sevenmembers of BTS. We look forward to welcoming the ARMY backto cinemas for the fourth time for this must-see BTS big-screenexperience.” The band had announced a list of regions that are expected to

witness the release of the film on their website and have alsoadded a caution note stating that release dates may vary for everyterritory on the basis of the reopening of theatres that arecurrently shut due to coronavirus pandemic. The film is slated torelease in India, America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and other 40countries on September 24 while Korea, United Kingdom, Japan,Spain, Russia, Italy, France, Thailand, and some other territorieswill get the film in their theatres on September 10. —ANI

The story Raat Akeli Hai is a typical 90s whodunit, in-fused with the goodness of Indian flavours.The family drama is premised in MadhyaPradesh, where a lusting, rich, politicianRagubeer Singh (Khalid Tayabji) is founddead on his wedding bed. Fingers are point-ed at Raghubeer’s newly wedded wife Rad-ha (Radhika Apte). Suspicions also rest onVikram Singh (Nishant Dhaiya), PramilaSingh (Padmavati Rao), Vasudha Singh(Shivani Raghuvanshi) and Munna Raja(Aditya Shrivastav). Jatil Yadav (Nawazud-din Siddiqui) is the one appointed to solvethe murder mystery. Who has really com-mitted the crime is for us to find out.

The review In the recent years, whodunits have losttheir charm. Gadgets and technology makeinquiries feel like a piece of cake! However,Raat Akeli Hai is slightly different. The in-vestigation gets intriguing from the verypoint when a Hawaldar states, “Humkoforensic kit istemaal karne ko nahi sikhayagaya hai.” How will the obsolete investiga-tive methods unveil the dark face of themurderer? Moreover, the moment Jatil Ya-dav enters Radha’s (Radhika Apte) room, hehas already guessed that she cannot be theone. Hence, one suspect down, and who’sleft now?Jatil Yadav relies on the house help, Chun-

ni (Riya Shukla), to give him relevant infor-mation. But, the revelation of the Singhfamily secret gets Chunni killed. The in-volvement of an elitist politician MannaBhai (Aditya Shrivastav) and a SSP, LaljiShukla (Tigmanshu Dhulia), makes it ahigh profile case.Tigmanshu’s part has been greatly wa-

tered down. Wonder what made him take upthe role, when he has played more criticallyacclaimed parts earlier. The narrative getseven more gritting from the point when

Chunni is murdered. Coming back to Jatil Yadav, he makes for

an interesting cop. He first understands thelarger picture, before he scrutinises thesame for details. However, Nawazuddin

needs to work on his romance. One can tellthat he finds it exceedingly difficult to tra-verse between something serious to playingsomething more romantic. This is just asevident in the film, Ghoomketu, where the

comedy is on point, but the romance is castaway like a piece of trash. Radhika Apte blends well into her role.

She plays a stark contrast from what sheplays in the film Phobia. Interestingly, shechooses her roles well and levels up withevery passing film. She could be one of thefewer actresses who understands the nu-ances of method acting well. Vasudha Singh (Shivani Raghuvanshi)

has braved a torrid past and confuses us byrestoring her fear with a normal attitude.She plays along by striking an unquestion-able rapport with her mother PramilaSingh (Padmavati Rao) who plays the criti-cal role of retaining the family’s honourwith her dark ways. Raat Akeli Hai, gives women the required

edge. Radhika Apte appears as the bold andfearless suspect. At the start one might as-sume, that only Radhika Apte’s displayingher strength, but as the plot unfolds it willgradually dawn upon the onlooker thatevery woman has an equally meatier part toplay. Shivani is a woman with gumptionwho can smile through the ordeal. PramilaRao emerges as an unsuspecting villain.Shweta Tripati could have played a strongerpart, as she has in the critically-acclaimedMirzapur, where she essayed something alot more bolder. Overall an exciting who-dunit, with very feminine shades.

—Review by Heer Kothari

nushka Sharma became the youngest female producer in Bolly-wood at the age of 25 with the clutter-breaking revenge thrillerNH10 and she has since then only shown her passion to tell re-markably new stories. From experimenting with genres to

backing fellow outsiders to shine bright in Bollywood, Anushka,through Clean Slate Filmz, has been an entrepreneur who, is a diversestoryteller.

Anushka feels her army background has shaped her content choices.“Being Army kids we are always open to new ideas and all that travel-ling really helped us understand local stories. Such experiences havenot only helped us in story-telling, but it also makes you look at thingsin different ways rather than a set societal perspective,” says Anush-ka, who runs the business with her brother Karnesh.

She adds, “Watching movies doesn’t always help you understandmovies better. Our life experiences have helped us in this business.We have approached everything with a fresh mind. If we have takenthe less travelled path, it is because we have followed our in-stincts!”

Anushka is riding on back to back successes as a producerwith both Paatal Lok and Bulbbul doing incredibly well.

The actress reveals that there is no formula for successwhen it comes to content production. “The business

of production is very tricky and even the most ex-perienced can’t say that they have figured it

out. You just learn from your mistakes.Even when things don’t work the way

you wanted, they give us learn-ings,” she says.

‘Being Armykids, we are alwaysopen to new ideas’

Says Anushka Sharma as she opens up abouthow she became a story-teller with the aim of

producing new and fresh content

A

ollowing Reese Witherspoon andMindy Kalings viral 2020 meme, ac-tor-singer Priyanka Chopra Jonascreated her own meme that cap-

tured a funny representation of the de-terioration of her mood and appearancewith every month of the year. The trend was started by Witherspoon

and Kaling, wherein they had used stillsfrom their films or shows to show how theirmoods and appearances hadchanged tothe worsewith the pass-ing of eachmonth in 2020.The collages

went viral onsocial medialeading toPriyanka andmany other ac-tors drawing in-spiration from itand creatingtheir own ver-sion. The collageshows the Bay-watch actor in ajovial mood at thebeginning of theyear which deteri-orates graduallythroughout theyear and ends intoan exhaustedPriyanka hittingherself with aglass of wine in the head. Several other ac-

tors including AnneHathaway, GalGadot have also cre-ated the 2020 memeusing the stills fromtheir shows andfilms. —ANI

Priyanka joins‘sad meme’ game

F

Web Watch

Name of the Film: Raat Akeli HaiPlatform: Netflix Duration: 2 hours and 30 mins Director: Honey Trehan Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte,Riya Shukla, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Ila Arun,Aditya Shrivastav, Padmavati Rao, NishantDahiya, Shivani Raghuvanshi, ShwetaTripathi, Ravi Sah Rating: 3.5/5

Raat Akeli HaiA whodunit done right!

Hollywood Talk

A

K

otivating fans to stay fit, actor Sidharth Malhotraon Friday soared temperature as he treated hisfans with a video showcasing his chiselledphysique and six-pack abs. The actor shared a

montage on Instagram featuring his different picturesas he puts on display his ripped physique. The video startswith a shot capturing a shirtless Sidharth as he demon-strates a perfectly shaped upper body. The short videoshowcases different pictures of the actor. The actor moti-vated the fans to stay fit as he mentioned in the caption,“#Hustle, Keep at it. Always #Motivation #SidFit.”Celebrity followers including fashion designer ManishMalhotra and more than 90 thousand fans liked the poston the photo-sharing platform. Lately, the actor has beenquite active and has been updating fans on his activitiesby posting pictures and videos on social media. —ANI

Sid gives major fitnessgoals with latest post

PIC: INSTAGRAM/PRIYANKA CHOPRA

M

head of the release of hisdirectorial Sadak 2, film-maker Mahesh Bhattpenned a note for his

daughter Pooja Bhatt, explain-ing his duties, privileges and lovefor the film. “Pooja my Gladiator. ‘Hum taxi

driver yeh kehtey hai ke safar shu-ru honey se pehley hum safar kemalik hotey hai magar jab safarshuru hotaa hai to safar hi malik

hotaa hai.’ Today as we begin thelast leg of our journey. I feel un-shackled! I carry no burden, noweight. No reputation to hold on to.No mission to accomplish. Nothingto prove to anyone. If the film worksit belongs to all of you. If it doesnot, it’s mine. That’s the duty andalso the privilege of the director.You all gave me so much love andsupport for which I am very grate-ful. I love this film because each one

of you made this possible. Ahh nowI feel like a free bird. My wildernessis calling me. Saying ‘Maheshchalein?’,” the note read. Pooja shared her father’s note on

her Instagram page. The film is a se-quel to 1991 film, Sadak, starringPooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt. Thesequel stars Alia Bhatt and AdityaRoy Kapur along with Sanjay andPooja. Sadak 2 will premiere onOTT on August 28. —IANS

‘No reputation to hold on to...’

Mahesh Bhatt pens emotional note for daughter Pooja ahead of Sadak 2 release

A

NEWS IN BRIEFHitachi Air posts Rs 23 crore loss in April-June vs PAT year agoMUMBAI: Johnson Controls Hitachi Air Conditioning India Ltdslipped into red in the June quarter, posting a net loss of 231.3mln rupees against a net profit of 636 mln rupees a year agoand a profit of 71.6 mln rupees in Jan-Mar. Revenue fromoperations plunged 71.7% on year and 37.7% sequentially to2.7 bln rupees. The company's other income fell to 9.9 mlnrupees from 22.9 mln rupees year ago.

Lemon Tree deeper in red in Apr-Jun,consolidated sales fall 71% on yearMUMBAI: Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd slipped deeper into red in theJune quarter, posting a consolidated net loss of 418.72 mlnrupees as against 16.7 mln rupees a year ago and 179.15-mln-rupee loss in Jan-Mar. The topline plunged 71.1% on year to406.66 mln rupees. Sequentially, revenue fell 76.9%. Analystshad estimated a net loss of 665.83 mln rupees, while revenuemissed expectations of 504.3 mln rupees. The company's otherincome rose to 31.17 mln rupees from 12.61 mln rupees a yearago.

Gujarat Petro's Apr-Jun net profit falls3% on year, revenue down 9%MUMBAI: Gujarat State Petronet Ltd's net profit for the Junequarter fell 3.3% on year to 1.99 bln rupees. Revenue fromoperations, net of excise duty, for the quarter fell 9.4% to 4.64bln rupees. Sequentially, the net profit fell 11.6% and revenuewas down 22%. The net profit topped analysts' estimate of1.75 bln rupees, while revenue missed expectations of 5.04bln rupees.

Square Yards Q1 gross profit jumpsover two-fold to Rs 28 croreNEW DELHI: Square Yards, which is mainly into property andhome loan brokerage business, on Friday reported over two-fold jump in gross profit to Rs 27.7 crore for June quarter onbetter sales bookings. Its gross profit stood at Rs 11.1 crore inthe year-ago period.

Sobha first quarter profit plunges 93%at Rs 6.6 crore on weak salesNEW DELHI: Realty firm Sobha on Friday reported a 93 percent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 6.6 crore for thequarter ended June as sales and construction activities werestalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its net profit stoodat Rs 90.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Prestige Estates' Apr-Jun consolidatedloss seen at Rs 190-224 croreMUMBA: Prestige Estates Projects Ltd is likely to report aconsolidated net loss in a range of 1.90-2.24 bln rupees inApr-Jun, according to the estimates of three brokerage houses,compared to a net profit of 1.15 bln rupees in thecorresponding period a year ago. Consolidated net sales forApr-Jun are pegged in a range of 5.78-10.00 bln rupees,compared with 15.39 bln rupees reported in the June quarterlast year.

Greaves Cotton April-June sales seendown at Rs 176-324 croreMUMBAI - Greaves Cotton Ltd's net sales for Apr-Jun arepegged in the range of 1.76-3.24 bln rupees, according tothree brokerage houses. The company had reported net salesof 4.77 bln rupees for the year-ago period. ICICI direct.comResearch and Edelweiss Securities Ltd expect a net profit of 8mln rupees and 127 mln rupees, respectively, while SharekhanLtd sees a net loss of 25 mln rupees. The company hadreported a net profit of 381.70 mln rupees for the June quarterlast year.

Prism Johnson Q1 net sales seen down 39% on year at Rs 930 croreMUMBAI: Prism Johnson Ltd is likely to report a 38.6% onyear fall in net sales for the June quarter at 9.26 bln rupees,according to average of the estimates of four brokeragehouses. Sequentially, the net sales are seen down 32.5%. Thecompany is seen posting a net loss in the range of 469-606mln rupees, according to three estimates. Anand Rathi Shareand Stock Brokers Ltd expects a net profit of 304 mln rupees.

GJEPC seeks Rs 900 crore package toboost jewellery manufacturers MUMBAI: The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council(GJEPC) on Friday said it has sought a Rs 900 crore package forthe sector to set up 'Model Manufacturing Workshop' toupgrade skills and implement Technology Upgradation Fund(TUF) that will help boost the industry. "Almost 85 per cent(5,931) of our members are in the MSME category, and most ofthem are involved in the manufacture of handmade goldjewellery, cutting and polishing of diamonds, precious andsemi-precious stones and imitation jewellery. Our industry ishighly labour-intensive and export-oriented," GJEPC ChairmanColin Shah said in a statement.

Sebi revises eligibility, shareholdinglimit for clearing corp at IFSC MUMBAI: Sebi on Friday amended international financialservices centre (IFSC) guidelines pertaining to eligibility criteriaand shareholding limit for clearing corporations that wish tooperate in such centres. The decision, aimed at streamliningthe operations of IFSC, has been taken after consultation withstakeholders, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)said in a circular. Under the norms, any Indian recognised stockexchange or clearing corporation, or, any recognised stockexchange or clearing corporation of a foreign jurisdiction, willform a subsidiary to provide the services of clearingcorporation in IFSC wherein at least 51 per cent stake is heldby such exchange or clearing corporation, Sebi said.

MUMBAI: Murugappa Group firmTube Investments of India Ltd (TIIL)has agreed to invest Rs 700 crore inCG Power and Industrial SolutionsLtd for a 51 per cent stake, the scam-hit company said on Friday.Tube Investments of India Ltd will

be issued 64.25 crore shares at Rs 8.56apiece aggregating to Rs 550 crore,CG Power said in a regulatory filing.Also, TIIL will also invest Rs 150

crore in the company over the next18 months in the form of buying war-rants that can be converted into eq-uity shares.The Rs 36,900-crore Murugappa

Group, which also had an engineer-ing arm, had made a non-binding of-fer to invest in CG Power.The board of CG Power at its meet-

ing on Friday approved the invest-ment, the filing said.The investment is, however, subject

to TIIL being declared the winner ofthe Swiss challenge process to be un-dertaken by the lenders of CG Powerby August 28.Under the Swiss challenge, other

potential investors can make a coun-

teroffer subject to the first investor(TIIL) have the right to match thecounter offer.The investment is also subject to

lenders accepting one-time settle-ment and restructuring of debt, thefiling said.The Rs 550 crore investment will

give TIIL about 51 per cent equitystake in CG Power and this will riseas and when warrants are convertedinto equity.Murugappa Group will be issued

fresh equity shares and the moneythat it brings in would be used tomeet operating and working capitalexpenditure.CG Power and Industrial Solutions,

erstwhile known as Crompton

Greaves, has an excellent order bookas well as human and technical capi-tal.It got derailed in August last yearafter a board-instituted investigationfound major governance and finan-cial lapses, including some assets be-ing provided as collateral and moneyfrom loans siphoned off by "identi-fied company personnel, both cur-rent and past, including certain non-executive directors".After the scam came to light, the

company sacked founder GautamThapar as chairman, and a newboard thereafter undertook cleaningup of the accounts and to fix gover-nance issues. The company is alsotalking to lenders led by SBI for therestructuring of Rs 2,200 crore ofdebt. CG Power said TIIL will be is-sued "64,25,23,365 equity shares ofthe company of face value of Rs 2each at a price of Rs 8.56 per equityshare aggregating to Rs 550 crore."Also, "175,233,645 warrants, each car-rying a right exercisable by the war-rant holder to subscribe to one equi-ty share per warrant within 18months from allotment.

As reality bites,Sunteck moves toaffordable homes

NEW DELHI:Expecting pro-longed restrictions in move-ments due to rising COVID-19cases, a foreign brokeragehas cut India's FY21 GDP esti-mate sharply to a contractionof 6% as against 4% earlier.In 2009, Sunteck Realty Ltd

shot into the limelight bylaunching super luxury resi-dences at Bandra Kurla Com-plex with prices upwards of200 mln rupees. Then came the demonetisa-

tion and now the COVID pan-demic, forcing the luxuryhouse maker to change itsstrategy. "There is obviouslynot very great demand fromthe uber and ultra luxury seg-ment," Chairman and Man-aging Director Kamal Khetan told Cogencis in aninterview. "We want to be there across

all segments, but 75-80% ofthe focus will be at the bottomof the pyramid and 20-25%will be on the top bracket," hesaid. Most of the collections for

the company in the Marchand June quarters came fromits affordable housing proj-ects in suburb of Naigaonwhere ticket sizes start from 2mln rupees and go up to 5 mlnrupees. "Compared to the popula-

tion of our country, ultraHNIs (high networth individ-uals) would be less than 0.1%and as you go down the pyra-mid, there is bigger volumeand bigger share." The company, he said, had

started at the top of the pyra-mid in the uber luxury seg-ment and "then slowly we en-tered the affordable seg-ment".

AGENCIESMumbai

Indian telecom operators re-ported strong revenue andearnings before interest, tax-es, depreciation and amorti-sation (EBITDA) growth inthe three months ending June(Q1 FY21) due to tariff growthand higher data usage, defy-ing the economic slowdownfrom the countrywide lock-down of 68 days up to May-end.According to Fitch Ratings,

revenue market share contin-ues to consolidate with mar-ket leader Reliance Jio andBharti Airtel as the third-largest telco Vodafone Idea islosing 10 million to 15 millionusers per quarter."Indian telcos are likely to

weather the coronavirus-ledslowdown as we forecast the

industry mobile segment'sEBITDA to grow by 25 to 30%year-on-year (FY20: 25%) de-spite expectations for IndianGDP to contract by 5% duringthis period," said Fitch.Robust growth will be driv-

en by sustained higher tariffs,feature-phone user migrationto 4G and high monthly datausage of 12 to 16 GB per user,one of the highest globally.Data traffic surged by 20 to

30% as the lockdown in-creased demand for data con-nectivity and remote accesswhich more than offset the

slower migration of feature-phone users to 4G as smart-phones sales declined by 48%in Q1 FY21.Jio's revenue and EBITDA

grew by 34% and 55% respec-tively while Bharti reportedQ1 FY21 Indian mobile rev-enue and EBITDA growth of19% and 35% year-on-year.Bharti reported a 21% rise

in monthly average revenueper user (ARPU) to Rs 157 asJio reported 8% growth to Rs140. Jio was boosted by 67 mil-lion net subscriber additionsyear-on-year to 398 millionwhile Bharti was flat at 280million."We expect industryARPU to grow by around 5 to10% in FY21 as users upgradegradually to higher-tariff 4Gprice plans. We estimate 250million to 300 million usersstill use 2G technology," saidFitch.

Telecom firms weather Covidwith strong revenues: Fitch

Tripped by Covid, discoms' dues togenerators rise 66% to Rs 1.20 L cr

MUMBAI: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to have awider impact on the country's power sector in the currentfinancial year with the acute slowdown witnessed in thefirst quarter period carrying on further, affecting bothdemand and supply and hiking the stress levels of statediscoms.

According to analysts, the poor run for the sector duringthe pandemic has led to a further deterioration in thefinancial position of the power distribution companies(discoms) as their pending dues to power generationcompanies (gencos) have shot up 66 per cent year-on-year(5 per cent month-on-month) to Rs 1.20 lakh crore, as ofJune.Discoms' total outstanding stood at Rs 1.31 lakh crore (+66per cent yoy/+5 per cent mom) - close to its November2015 peak of Rs 1.35 lakh crore.

Discoms in key states - Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UttarPradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, and J&K -account for 82 per cent of the total dues to gencos.According to an analysis done by Emkay Global FinancialServices, discoms' financial health has deteriorated duringthe lockdown due to a steep fall in power offtake across therevenue-generating commercial and industrial (C&I)segment. However, while the collection efficiency initiallyfell sharply to 25-35 per cent in April-May, it showed amarked improvement in June, rising to 55 per cent.

Punjab & SindBank posts

Rs 117 cr lossNEW DELHI: Punjab & SindBank posted a net loss of Rs117 crore for the quarter ended June, the sixthconsecutive quarterly loss, dueto higher provisions for stressedassets.

For Jan-Mar, the bank's netloss was at 2.36 bln rupees.Provisions and contingencies forthe quarter were at 3.83 blnrupees, slightly higher than3.35 bln rupees a year ago, butlower than 8.18 bln rupees aquarter ago.

Out of the 3.83-bln-rupeeprovision and contingenciesduring Apr-Jun, 3.31 bln rupeeswere for non-performing assets,as the state-owned bank's assetquality deteriorated further.

As on Mar 31, the bank'sgross non-performing assetratio was 14.34%, comparedwith 14.18% a quarter ago and12.88% a year ago.

Murugappa Group offersto buy scam-hit CG Power

Govt to develop 10 craftand handloom villages

NEW DELHI:Union Minis-ter Smriti Irani said the gov-ernment is aiming to developten Craft and Handloom Vil-lages in the country so thattourists from across the globecan visit them and learn therich legacy of Indian weaversand lend support to the Makein India initiative.Irani shared the Textiles

Ministry's vision while ad-dressing a function throughvideo conferencing to markthe National Handloom Day.Almost 95 per cent of thehandwoven fabrics used glob-ally are produced in India.The minister said the Na-

tional Handloom Awards,which are presented on theoccasion of the HandloomDay, are being deferredupon the request of weaverswho wish to celebrate thehonour instead of receivingit digitally due to the pre-

vailing circumstancesposed by COVID-19. Irani shared that students

from the National Instituteof Fashion Technology(NIFT) are contributing tothe upgradation of 9 out of28 Weavers' Service Centresacross the country in termsof design, marketing and re-search. These centres are located

in Delhi, Srinagar, Jaipur,Mumbai, Ahmedabad,Varanasi, Guwahati,Kanchipuram andBhubaneswar.

NEW DELHI: Siemens on Friday re-ported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1.9crore for June quarter 2020 mainlydue to lower revenues in view of theCOVID-19 pandemic.In the year-ago period, the company

logged a profit of Rs 250.1 crore, a BSEfiling said.Total income in the quarter declined

to Rs 1,417.9 crore from Rs 3,300 crorein the same period last year.The company follows October-Sep-

tember as financial year. Revenue dur-ing the quarter fell 59.5 per cent to Rs1,260 crore from Rs 3,110 crore in theyear-ago period, driven by the closureof all factories and project sites on ac-count of COVID-19.

This also resulted in a standalonenet loss of Rs 5 crore in June quartercompared to profit after tax of Rs 248crore in the year-ago period.The company, however, has a strong

order backlog of Rs 13,142 crore,which provides a visibility of morethan one year of revenue and has im-proved its cash performance duringthe quarter, it added.The decline in revenue across the

businesses extended from the previ-ous quarter due to the nationwidelockdown related to COVID-19 andcontinued weak demand, MD&CEOSunil Mathur said. "All our factories,logistics centers, supply chain andproject sites were only able to startramping up from mid-May onwards.In addition, we incurred substantialramp up costs including costs re-quired to maintain the highest stan-dards of Health and Safety in each ofour factories and project sites. As ondate, all our factories and approx. 75per cent of our project sites have re-opened and are at utilization levels of20-70 per cent," Mathur said.

Emami reports over1% rise in Q1 profitat Rs 39 crore

NEW DELHI: Homegrown FMCG firm EmamiLtd on Friday reported a 1.17 per centincrease in its consolidated profit-after-tax(PAT) to Rs 39.58 crore for the first quarterended June.The company had posted a PAT ofRs 39.12 crore during the April-June quarterof the previous fiscal, Emami said in aregulatory filing.

However, its revenue from operationsduring the quarter under review was down25.79 per cent to Rs 481.34 crore as againstRs 648.64 crore in the corresponding periodof the previous fiscal.

"Emami posted a resilient performance withimproved margins in Q1FY21, defying thechallenging times that the COVID-19pandemic presented," said Emami.

According to the Kolkata-headquarteredfirm, supply chain, sales improvedconsiderably in May and in June andrevenues were even better with a high single-digit growth over the previous year.

"During the quarter, Emami increased itsgross margins by 230 bps at 66.5 per centand EBIDTA margins by 490 bps at 25.5 percent.

Profit-after-tax increased by 1 per cent andPAT margins increased by 220 bps.

Siemens posts Rs 2 crore loss,but has order visibility for a year

NEW DELHI: Adani Trans-mission on Friday posted66.52 per cent jump in con-solidated net profit at Rs355.40 crore for June quar-ter 2020-21.In the year-agoperiod, the companyclocked a profit of Rs 213.42crore, a BSE filing said.Total income in June

quarter was Rs 2,542.84crore as compared to Rs2,889.74 crore in the sameperiod last year.The company sold 1,728

million units(MU) of elec-tricity in the quarter underreview as against 2,422 MUin the year-ago period.The electricity distribu-

tion losses stood at 13.47per cent in the quartercompared to 7.78 per cent inthe same period last year.About the COVID-19 im-

pact, the company said thatthe power sector is an es-

sential service with mustrun status.The company's (transmis-

sion) lines are operating at99.9 per cent availabilitiesand there is no adverse im-pact on billing.It further stated that due

to lockdown, even thoughpower demand was downdue to lower consumptionby industrial and commer-cial consumers, it wasslightly offset by the retaildemand.There is no significant

impact on EBIDTA marginas distribution business isa regulated asset.

Thousands ofBritish Airemployees

face job losses NEW DELHI: Some 4,000British Airways workersare learning Fridaywhether they will be fired asthe airline slashes jobs amidthe drop in demand andtravel restrictionsstemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.The trade union Unite

accused the airline offorcing workers out due to"naked company greed.''British Airways employeeswho keep their jobs face paycuts. "This is a very bleakday for the incredible BAworkforce and will go downin the history of the airlineas the day that it put theinterests of the boardroomahead of its passengers andworkforce,'' Unite AssistantSecretary General HowardBeckett said. "Theseworkers have given years ofdedicated service to thiscompany, some as many as40 years, and indeed to ourcountry, as many wereinvolved in the repatriationof British citizens at theoutset of this pandemic.

MUMBAI : As the land-mark Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC)has come a long way sinceits inception in the pastthree-and-a-half years,the Chairman of the In-solvency and BankruptcyBoard of India (IBBI),M.S. Sahoo feels that thecountry and the IBCregime is yet to reach aphase where corporatedebtors would voluntari-ly come up for resolutionof debt or exit from thebusiness with a sense ofcelebration rather thandespair.Speaking to IANS, Sa-

hoo noted that "the day anIndian entrepreneur says'I have tried and failed,now I want to walk awayand try something else', itwill be the real success ofIBC.""That is the real objec-

tive of the law, we areworking for that," headded. The IBBI chiefnoted that the insolvencyregime is on its way toachieve such a level of

ease in voluntary exit ofbusinesses.He was of the view that

such thought processamong the business fra-ternity will be achievedin the next three to fiveyears.He noted that suchproceedings would be ini-tiated under Section 10 ofthe IBC, which alreadyexists, and corporatedebtors file for resolutionthemselves under the sec-tion, but the psychologi-cal change of exiting abusiness with a sense of'celebration' is yet to beachieved.Sahoo said that it has

been a "fantastic" journeygiven the various con-straints.

‘Bankruptcy Codehas long way to go’

Adani Transmission Q1net up 67% at Rs 355 cr

NEW DELHI: The increase in loan-to-value(LTV) ratio for gold loans, or the quantum ofborrowing against a given quantity of theprecious metal, will heighten credit risksfor banks, a ratings agency said on Friday.The RBI had on Thursday increased the

LTV ratio for gold loans by banks to 90 percent from the earlier 75 per cent, in a bid tomake money available to people affected bythe coronavirus pandemic. "...an increasein the LTV ratio to 90 per cent increases thecredit risk for banks as the collateral avail-able in the form of gold ornaments or jew-ellery may not be sufficient to fully coverboth principal and interest components onthese loans," Brickworks Ratings said. Its Director for Ratings, Vydianathan Ra-

maswamy, said the increase in LTV will re-sult in a "negative carry" for banks as the to-tal exposure will exceed the value of thepledged gold. "It could adversely impact the recoverabil-

ity and asset quality of banks in the case ofa weakening in the borrower credit risk pro-file and/or sharp decline in gold prices,which have seen a strong rally over the lastfew months," he added.However, given that the higher LTV is only

till March 31 next year, the risk on the port-folio is for a limited period, the agency saidin a note.

Also, gold loans are mostly short-tenureloans of anywhere between 3 to 24 months,it said. The agency said given that the RBI's an-

nouncement on higher LTV gold loans islimited to the banking sector, banks arebound to garner a larger market share vis-a-vis their non-bank peers in loans againstthe pledge of gold in fiscal 2021. At present, non-bank financiers and unor-

ganised lenders like local pawn brokerswith a wider network enjoy a large marketshare in loans against gold ornaments andjewellery. They also charge high rates on these loans,

which can range anywhere between 20 percent to 50 per cent, whereas banks chargemuch lower interest rates, it said.

Brickworks flags goldloan easing risks

12 FREE PRESSINDORE | FRIDAY 8, 2020MONEY

OFFICE SPACE SUPPLY TO SHRINK BY ONE THIRD, BUT THAT WON’T HELP THE LEASING MARKET

AGENCIESMumbai

Leasing for office space will be mutedfor the rest of 2020-21 (Apr-Mar) in In-dia as companies restrategise theirbusiness and reassess their officeneeds even as supply of office space isseen shrinking by a third due to theCOVID-19-induced lockdown. “There have been (few) significant

lease deals announced during the pan-demic, but clearly there has been apause while businesses deal with thepriorities create by the pandemic. Weexpect the pause to continue untilcompanies finalise their mediumterm strategies,” said Mike Holland,the chief executive of Embassy OfficeParks REIT said during a media in-teraction. “But we think rest of the year will

be muted,” he added, referring to leas-

ing activity in the segment. Companies globally were working

on their strategies on real estate asthe debate on de-densification post-pandemic grows. Embassy REIT announced its June

quarter earnings on Thursday and re-ported 99% collections on its officerentals of 26.2 mln sq ft occupied of-fice premises, with occupancy levelsof about 92%.. The net operating income, a key

metric for the REIT, rose 1% on yearto 4.6 bln rupees during the quarter. It

distributed 4.5 bln rupees to its unitsholders for the quarter. During the quarter, the company

signed new leases for 200,000 sq ftwhile 325,000 sq ft of renewals tookplace with 20% mark-to-marketspread. It obtained contracted rentalsescalations of 14% on 22 leases cover-ing 1.8 mln sq ft office space. The company, which has predomi-

nantly office assets in its portfolio, isseeing an additional construction on2.7 mln sq ft space the earliest deliveryfor which would be July 2022. It has another 5 mln sq ft of poten-

tial development in its existing parksand construction on this would startas soon as demand came in, the man-agement said during the call. Holland said that the technology

sector stood to gain from the pandem-ic as companies became more tech-nology oriented.

Office space leasing to hit pause in FY21

India crude oil basket price down 18 cents at $44.14/bblNEW DELHI: The price of India's crudeoil basket fell 18 cents to $44.14 perbarrel on Thursday, Petroleum Planningand Analysis Cell's data showed. Theprice fell tracking global cues. On

Thursday, prices fell in global marketsdue to concerns over demand. India'scrude oil basket comprises Oman-Dubaisour grade and dated Brent sweetcrude.

BIZ BUZZFranklin Templeton MF's shutschemes get Rs 4,280-cr since closureNEW DELHI: Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund's six shutschemes have received Rs 4,280 crore from maturities, pre-payments and coupon payments since the announcement oftheir closure in April. The amount has been received withoutthe ability to efficiently monetise assets, Franklin TempletonAsset Management (India) President Sanjay Sapre said in aletter to investors on Wednesday.

Coal India logs 22% growth in e-auction fuel allocation in Q1NEW DELHI: State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Friday saidit logged a 21.5% growth in coal allocation at 19.76 milliontonnes (MT) under the four e-auction windows during theApril-June quarter. In the corresponding quarter a year ago,the fuel allocation by the PSU under all the four windows ofe-auction was 16.26 MT, a CIL statement said.

Kia Motors unveils compact SUVSonet; plans to launch next monthNEW DELHI: South Korean automaker Kia Motors Corporationon Friday globally unveiled its sub four meter compact SUVSonet which it plans to launch in India next month. Themodel would be manufactured at company's Anantapur-based(Andhra Pradesh) facility and would also be exported to othermarkets.

DICV introduces BharatBenzExchange for CV segmentMUMBAI: Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) on Fridayannounced the launch of used vehicle business 'BharatBenzExchange.' Under this, a customer can exchange usedcommercial vehicles (CVs) of any brand for used or newBharatBenz vehicles at dealerships across India. BharatBenzExchange will provide buyers with a carefully-picked pool ofused trucks that have undergone thorough quality checks,made available through its nationwide dealership network,

Mindspace Business Parks REIT risesnearly 11% in debut tradeNEW DELHI: Mindspace Business Parks REIT made its marketdebut on Friday, with a premium of nearly 11% against itsissue price of Rs 275 per unit. The units of the REIT listed atRs 304, reflecting a gain of 10.54% from the issue price onthe BSE. Later, it touched a high of Rs 308.90, zooming12.32%. On the NSE, it debuted at Rs 302, a rise of 9.81%.

Capital One fined $80 million for careless network security practicesWASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department has finedCapital One USD 80 million for careless network securitypractices that enabled a hack that accessed the personalinformation of 106 million of the bank's credit card holders.The Comptroller of the Currency said in a consent orderThursday that Capital One failed in 2105 to establish effectiverisk management when it migrated information technologyoperations to a cloud-based service.

Exim Bank extends $250 million lineof credit to MozambiqueNEW DELHI: Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) onFriday said it has extended a USD 250-million (about Rs 1,870crore) line of credit (LOC) to Mozambique for improvingpower supply quality in the country. The agreement to thiseffect was signed on August 3 through exchange betweenSaroj Khuntia, general manager, Exim Bank, and AdrianoIsaias Ubisse, national directorate of treasury, Ministry ofEconomy and Finance, Mozambique.

Audio solutions firm Harman bets big on gaming segment in IndiaNEW DELHI: Audio solutions provider Harman is betting bigon the burgeoning gaming segment in India and is investingin channel expansion, and sales and marketing efforts tostrengthen its position in the country, a company official said.Harman, which operates brands including AKG, HarmanKardon, Infinity and JBL, has recently launched JBL Quantumrange of headsets for gaming enthusiasts in the country.

French exports down 21.5% in firsthalf of 2020 as pandemic bites PARIS: New foreign trade figures released by France for thefirst half of 2020 reveal the economic devastation thecoronavirus pandemic has wreaked on the eurozone's secondeconomy. French exports of goods are down by 21.5%compared to the first half of 2019. It is a drop greater thanthat recorded in the first half of 2009, at the height of theGreat Recession. It's only partially offset by a decline inimports.

TV Today net falls 75%, suspendsprint publication of ‘Mail Today’NEW DELHI: TV Today Network reported a 74.99% fall inconsolidated net profit to Rs 12.76 crore for the first quarterended June 30. In a separate filing, TV Today said its Board ofDirectors has approved the proposal to suspend printpublication of its English daily newspaper 'Mail Today' witheffect from August 10, 2020, for now, given the viability ofprint media in the current situation. "It is pertinent to mentionthat since the newspaper 'Mail Today' comprises ofinsignificant portion of business of the company (Mail Todaynewspaper in physical mode contributed less than 2% to thetotal revenues of the company during the quarter ended June30, 2020), therefore the said suspension shall not have anymaterial impact on overall business of the company," it said.

UBS Principal Capital Asia sellsshares worth Rs 150 cr in Axis Bank PARIS: UBS Principal Capital Asia offloaded shares worth Rs150 crore in Axis Bank through open market transactions. Atotal of 35 lakh scrips of the private sector lender were soldat an average price of Rs 428.7 apiece, valuing the deal at Rs150 crore, according to block deal data on the BSE.

—Agencies

MONEY FREEPRESS

INDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

13

MUMBAI: Drug firm Ciplaon Friday reported a 26.58per cent rise in itsconsolidated net profit to Rs566.04 crore for the quarterended June on the back ofrobust sales.The company had posted anet profit of Rs 447.15 crorefor the corresponding periodof the previous fiscal, Ciplasaid in a BSE filing.Total revenue fromoperations for the quarterunder consideration stood atRs 4,346.16 crore. It was Rs3,989.02 crore for the sameperiod year ago, it added."During the quarter, ourbusinesses actively re-imagined their operatingmodels to drive stronggrowth across markets ofIndia, South Africa, the USand focused execution oncost optimization helpeddrive the quarter EBITDA to24 per cent," Cipla MD andGlobal CEO Umang Vohrasaid.

HDFC Bank reduces MCLR by 10 basis points across tenuresNEW DELHI: HDFC Bank has reduced its marginal cost offunds-based lending rates (MCLR) by 10 basis pointsacross all tenors with effect from Friday. The MCLRs for sixmonths, one year and two years stand at 7.20%, 7.35%and 7.45%, respectively. Bank of Maharashtra has reducedits marginal cost of funds based lending rate for overnightand one-month tenures by 20 basis points each and forone-year tenure by 10 bps, the lender said in a releasetoday. The lender has kept rates on the three-month andsix-month tenures unchanged. In addition to these banks, Indian Overseas Bank will

also cut its marginal cost of funds-based lending rates by10 basis points across tenures from Monday, the bankinformed the exchanges today. After revision, the rates willbe in a range of 7.20-7.65%. Reserve Bank of India normsrequire banks to review their lending rates, based on themarginal cost of funds, on a monthly basis.

Fuel prices may rise from nextweek as global crude flares upNEW DELHI: Consumers might see fuel prices going up again asoil companies are bracing up to pass the rise in global crude andproduct prices on retail sales.Accordingly, petrol and diesel prices may begin their rising

trend all over again much to the discomfort of fuel consumersthat have faced constant increasing prices since June 7.The pump price of petrol and diesel had remained unchanged

for last one week as oil prices were steady and crude washovering around $42 per barrel mark for past several days. Butwith crude price now rising and inching towards $45 per barrelmark, oil companies said that they will be left with no optionbut to raise retail prices of petrol and diesel."We will observe the price movement for next couple of days

and if oil prices remains firm, a decision may be taken to reviseretail product prices again under the daily price revisionmechanism," said an executive of a public sector oil company oncondition of anonymity.Diesel continues to be priced at Rs 73.56 per litre in Delhi

while petrol price remains static at Rs 80.43 per litre. This pricelevel has been maintained since last Friday when diesel were cutby a sharp Rs 8.38 per litre following Delhi government'sdecision to reduce VAT on the product from 30% to 16.75%.This price cut has again made diesel cheaper than petrol in the

city after more than month. In fact, diesel is cheaper than petrolin Delhi by the widest margin among all metros now.

AGENCIESSingapore

Indian telecom operators re-ported strong revenue andearnings before interest, tax-es, depreciation and amorti-sation (EBITDA) growth inthe three months endingJune (Q1 FY21) due to tariffgrowth and higher data us-age, defying the economicslowdown from the country-wide lockdown of 68 days upto May-end.According to Fitch Rat-

ings, revenue market sharecontinues to consolidatewith market leader RelianceJio and Bharti Airtel as thethird-largest telco VodafoneIdea is losing 10 million to 15million users per quarter."Indian telcos are likely to

weather the coronavirus-ledslowdown as we forecast theindustry mobile segment'sEBITDA to grow by 25 to 30%year-on-year (FY20: 25%) de-spite expectations for IndianGDP to contract by 5% dur-ing this period," said Fitch.

Robust growth will be driv-en by sustained higher tar-iffs, feature-phone user mi-gration to 4G and highmonthly data usage of 12 to16 GB per user, one of thehighest globally.Data traffic surged by 20 to

30% as the lockdown in-creased demand for dataconnectivity and remote ac-cess which more than offsetthe slower migration of fea-ture-phone users to 4G assmartphones sales declinedby 48% in Q1 FY21.Jio's revenue and EBITDA

grew by 34% and 55% re-spectively while Bharti re-ported Q1 FY21 Indian mo-bile revenue and EBITDAgrowth of 19% and 35% year-on-year.

Gold prices cross Rs 57K,gallop towards Rs 60K

AGENCIES / New Delhi

Gold price surged for the16th straight session onFriday and touched an all-time high of Rs 57,008 per10 grams in the nationalcapital, according to HDFCSecurities.Silver too continued its

upward movement, withthe price touching a record-high of Rs 77,840 per kilo-gram. Silver price jumpedby Rs 576 compared to theclosing level of Rs 77,264per kg on Thursday.In the previous trade, gold

had closed at Rs 57,002 per10 grams. On Friday, the price in-

creased by Rs 6 to Rs 57,008per 10 grams.Prices of both the metals

recorded all-time highprices, HDFC Securitiessaid."Spot gold prices for 24

carat in Delhi continued toscale new highs by gainingRs 6. Gold prices are trad-

ing higher for the 16th con-secutive day in India,"HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities)Tapan Patel said.In the international mar-

ket, both gold and silverwere trading marginallylower at USD 2,061 perounce and USD 28.36 perounce, respectively.MotilalOswal Financial ServicesVice President (Commodi-ties Research) NavneetDamani said, "another day,another all-time high forgold and silver. Both themetals are just jumpingnumbers with still a lot ofsteam left in them".

GOLD ETFS HITEIGHTH MONTHOF NET FLOWSNEW DELHI: Gold-backedexchange-traded funds (ETFs)and similar products recordedtheir eighth consecutive monthof positive flows, adding 166tonnes in July -- equivalent to9.7 billion dollars or 4% ofassets under management(AUMs), the World Gold Councilhas said.Global holdings have once

again reached a new all-timehigh of 3,785 tonnes and theprice of gold hit a record high of1,976 dollars per ounce by theJuly-end, leaving global AUMsstanding at 239 billion.Global net inflows of 899

tonnes (49.1 billion dollars) todate are considerably higherthan previous annual highs, andthe trend of inflows hascontinued in the first few tradingdays of August as the price ofgold has breached 2,000 dollars

CIPLA Q1 NETRISES 27% ONROBUST SALES

HOLDING ON

Kamath panel to work outfine print of loan recasts

AGENCIESMumbai

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) onFriday announced the constitution ofan expert committee led by KV Ka-math to make recommendations on aspecial window for Covid-relatedstressed assets under the bank's 'Pru-dential Framework on Resolution ofStressed Assets'.The panel led by former New Devel-

opment Bank President Kamath alsoincludes Diwakar Gupta with effectfrom September 1, 2020, after the com-pletion of his term as Asian Develop-ment Bank Vice-President, and TNManoharan with effect from August14, 2020, after completion of his termas Canara Bank Chairman.Ashvin Parekh, Managing Partner

at Ashvin Parekh Advisory ServicesLLP and the Indian Banks' Associa-tion (IBA) CEO will be the StrategyAdviser and Member-Secretary re-spectively, an RBI statement said.Former Punjab National Bank CEO

Sunil Mehta is the current Chief Ex-ecutive Officer of IBA.On Thursday, RBI Governor Shak-

tikanta Das had announced that in or-der to facilitate the revival of eco-nomic activities and mitigate the im-pact on ultimate borrowers, a windowwill be provided under the 'PrudentialFramework' to enable lenders to im-plement a resolution plan in respectof eligible corporate exposures with-out a change in ownership, and per-sonal loans, while classifying such ex-posures as standard, subject to speci-

fied conditions.He also announced the Kamath-led

panel to make recommendations onthe required financial parameters tobe factored into the resolution plans,with sector-specific benchmarkranges for such parameters."The expert committee shall also un-

dertake the process validation for theresolution plans under this frame-work, without going into the commer-cial aspects, in respect of all accountswith aggregate exposure of Rs 1,500crore and above at the time of invoca-tion," the RBI statement added.The committee will submit its rec-

ommendations on the financial pa-rameters to the RBI which, in turn,will notify the same along with modi-fications, if any, within 30 days. The IBA will function as the Secre-

tariat for the committee that is fullyempowered to consult or invite anyperson it deems fit.The panel may devise its own proce-

dures for its functioning. It will func-tion under the aegis of the RBI. Accordingly, its expenses and those

of its Secretariat will be borne by theapex bank.

Business confidencelevel in India hits

record low since 1991NEW DELHI: ANCAER'sBusiness Confidence Index(BCI), an indicator of thebusiness sentiment acrossthe Indian industry, stoodat 46.4 in the first quarter of2020-21, a drop of 40.1 percent from its level of 77.4 inthe previous quarter.It fell 62 per cent in the

June 2020 quarter on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, ac-cording to a survey by theNational Council of Ap-plied Economic Research(NCAER)."This is the lowest that the

BCI has ever fallen in thehistory of 113 Rounds ofthe NCAER Business Ex-pectations Survey (BES),"the think-tank said.The decline of 40.1 per

cent in the BCI came on theback of a 30.4 per cent quar-ter-on-quarter decline inthe BCI in April 2020.NCAER said the BCI

tracks the business senti-ments of around 600 Indiancompanies to compute thecomposite index.

The NCAER survey elicitsresponses from firmsacross six cities: Delhi-NCRrepresents the north; Mum-bai and Pune, the west;Kolkata, the east; and Ben-galuru and Chennai repre-sent the south.The BES has been carried

out on a quarterly basissince 1991 by NCAER.The think-tank said the

latest, 113th Round of theBES, was carried out inJune 2020, when the coun-try had started slowly open-ing up after more than twomonths of lockdown due tothe coronavirus pandemic,following which, the spreadof the disease accelerated.

Lupin Q1 net catchesCovid, drops 60% AGENCIESNew Delhi

Pharma major Lupin Ltdhas reported 60% year-on-year decline in its net profitfor the April to June quar-ter at Rs 107 crore.It hadposted a profit of Rs 265crore in Q1 FY20 and Rs 390crore in Q4 FY20. The revenue in Q1 FY21

fell by 9% year-on-year toRs 3,528 crore from Rs 3,878crore in the previous year.The earnings before inter-

est, tax, depreciation andamortisation (EBITDA)stood at Rs 531 crore in Q1FY21 down 35% from Rs 813crore of Q1FY20 and 28 perfrom Rs 734 crore in Q4FY20."The quarter's perform-

ance was impacted by theCOVID-19 pandemic and re-lated lockdowns, affectingour key businesses in Indiaand United States," saidManaging Director NileshGupta."Despite the challenges

impacting revenues, we im-proved margins driven bytight expense control. Thisis a pivotal year for us to de-liver on our key complexgeneric assets and to sus-tain the momentum on thecompliance front," he saidin a statement.Lupin's global active

pharma ingredient (API)sales for Q1 FY21 were Rs409 crore compared to salesof Rs 349 crore during Q1FY20.The company filed four

abbreviated new drug ap-plications and received asmany approvals from theUS Food and Drug Admin-istration.

M&M Q1 profit falls 94%,seeks partners for EV biz

AGENCIESNew Delhi

Homegrown diversified group Mahindra &Mahindra on Friday reported 94% declinein consolidated profit at Rs 54.64 crore forJune quarter 2020, adversely impacted bythe COVID-19 pandemic.The company had posted a profit after tax

of Rs 894.11 crore in the same period lastfiscal, M&M said in a regulatory filing.Revenue from operations during the

quarter under review stood at Rs 16,321.34crore as against Rs 26,041.02 crore in theyear-ago period, down 37%, it added.Theautomotive segment posted a revenue of Rs6,508.6 crore in the first quarter, down fromRs 13,547.84 crore in the same period a yearago, the company said.Farm equipment segment's revenue was

Rs 4,906.92 crore as against Rs 6,077.9 crorein the same quarter last fiscal.Revenue from financial services stood at

Rs 3,031.69 crore as compared to Rs 2,822.03crore in first quarter last year.Hospitality segment recorded a revenue

of Rs 294.26 crore as compared to Rs 612.49crore in the same period a year ago, thecompany added.M&M is looking for strategic partners for

its electric vehicles business in order to

further scale it up.The automaker has invested significant

capital in the segment and that gives it con-fidence to find partners, M&M ManagingDirector Pawan Goenka."We are open to it and working on it. We

currently are engaged with multiple inter-ested parties to invest in Mahindra Elec-tric and the process is going on." "We haveinvested in Bangalore, and just completedinvesting in Chakan for high range of bat-teries.”

Data usagesoaring, Traiwants digitalinfra ramp-up

Indian telcos to weatherpandemic storm: Fitch

NEW DELHI: Telecom firms willneed to ramp up investment indigital infrastructure to meetever-rising demand for data,Telecom Regulatory Authorityof India Chairman R.S. Sharmasaid.

"The biggest challengebefore the industry in the nextfive years would be to meetthe growing demand of datacommunications and supportbillions of machines or thingsto communicate, it wouldrequire huge investments inthe digital communicationinfrastructure," Sharma said atan industry event

"My belief is that given thescale and the numbers whichwe have and given the price-sensitive market, which wehave, I think open architecture-based solutions, even intelecom are going to becomethe most appropriate solutionsfor our country," the chairmanof telecom regulatory bodysaid.

Farm equipment revenue was Rs4,906.92 crore as against Rs6,077.9 crore a year ago

A window will be provided toenable lenders to implement aresolution plan for eligible

corporate exposures without achange in ownership

14SPORTSFREEPRESS

INDORE | SATURDAY | AUGUST 8, 2020

“I don’t aspire to be likeother drivers – I aspire to be

unique in my own way”.

– Lewis Hamilton, England'sF1 driver

SPORTS CAFEAdidas launcheshome kit of Man UMUMBAI: Adidas has launched afresh new 2020/21 season homekit of Manchester United, Indiasmost-followed football club. The"Manchester United DNA" hasbeen a focus for manager OleGunnar Solskjaer and his team,and the home jersey for theforthcoming season aims toencapsulate the DNA of the club,using the threads of the clubcrest itself to produce a subtlypatterned base fabric.

Mumbai City FCends tie with PauloMUMBAI: Indian Super Leaguefranchise Mumbai City FC onFriday confirmed thatexperienced Portuguesemidfielder Paulo Machado hasparted ways by mutual consent.The 34-year old signed for theclub in August 2018 andcaptained Mumbai alongsideAmrinder Singh during his twoyears at the Club.

Jamshedpur FCappoints Coyle

JAMSHEDPUR: Jamshedpur FCon Friday announced the signingof Owen Coyle as their new headcoach ahead of their 2020-21Indian Super League (ISL)campaign. Coyle comes fresh ofa spectacular performance in the2019-20 ISL season, where hetook the then bottom-placed clubto the ISL finals.

Disasi signs 5-yeardeal with MonacoMONACO: AS Monaco onFriday announced that AxelDisasi has signed a five-yearcontract with the club. "ASMonaco is pleased to announcethe signing of Axel Disasi for thenext five years. The Frenchdefender is now linked with ASMonaco until June 2025," theclub said in a statement.

Bindra to take partin Sunfeast India runNEW DELHI: Former Olympicchampion shooter Abhinav Bindrawill participate in the 'SunfeastIndia Run As One' initiative.Bindra expressed that throughthe 'Sunfeast India Run As One'movement, the people of ourcountry have an opportunity tostand in solidarity with those whohave lost their livelihoods due tothe COVID-19 pandemic.

NSW offers to host2021 Oz Open

SYDNEY: The Australian state ofNew South Wales (NSW) hasoffered to host the 2021 edition ofthe Australian Open alongwithother sporting events that areusually held in neighbouringVictoria. The Australian Open isfirst of the four Grand Slamsduring the season and usuallystarts in late January. Victoria'scapital Melbourne has been thehost venue since 1972.

India’s Sharmalikely to miss cut

HERTFORDSHIRE: Indian golferShubhankar Sharma had an evenpar 71 and is in danger of missingthe cut sliding to a tied 110th placeafter the opening round in the2020 English Championship.Sharma hit couple of birdies onthe first two holes but was thenunable to maintain the tempo atthe Honbury Manor Marriott Hoteland Country Club course.

Only elite runnersfor marathon

LONDON: The pandemic-delayed London Marathon will bestaged on October 4 using adifferent route than usual andwith only elite runnersparticipating. Rather than startingin Greenwich in east London,there will be a looped 26.2-mile(42.2-kilometer) course featuring19.8 laps around St James's Parkwithin a biosecure bubble withspectators excluded..

Wild cards forClijsters, Murray

WASHINGTON: Former USOpen champions and world No. 1players Kim Clijsters and AndyMurray have received wild cardsfor the 2020 US Open, which isslated to begin from August 31.Belgium's Clijsters will be lookingto repeat her magic from the2009 US Open.

Champion Krolbanned for doping PARIS: Two-time European 800-meter champion Nataliia Krol ofUkraine has been handed a 20-month ban for doping violation bythe Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU)."The AIU has banned Ukrainianmiddle-distance runner NataliiaKrol for 20 months with effectfrom January 16, 2020 for thepresence and use of a prohibitedsubstance," said AIU.

Dutch cyclist conscious, in good conditionWARSAW: Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen is in good condition afterhe was brought out of an induced coma following a controversialcrash with one of his countrymen near the finish line at the Tour ofPoland, Doctors at the hospital in southern Poland where Jakobsenis being treated said Friday he is responsive and breathing on hisown and can move his limbs.

Gokulam Kerala FC sign RishadKOZHIKODE: Gokulam Kerala FC have signed Kerala playerRishad PP for the upcoming I-League season. Rishad, who is fromMalappuram, is a midfielder and has represented various clubs in I-League second division and Kerala premier League. He was alsopart of the Kerala Santosh Trophy team that won the South ZoneQualifiers.

WHAT’S ON

THIS DAY, THAT YEAR KANE YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT?

Birth of talented NewZealand batsman

Kane Williamson, who made acentury on Test debut inAhmedabad in 2010. Two years on,he made a match-saving hundredagainst a strong South Africanattack, this time batting five and a half hours for an unbeaten 102. Thenhe racked up 413 runs in three Tests against West Indies in 2014,including a second-innings 161 in Providence that helped his side securea rare away series win. Later that year he made 192 in a 297-run standwith Brendon McCullum that helped square a series against Pakistan.And three innings later he made a career-best 242 not out and added arecord 365 runs with BJ Watling for the sixth wicket, against Sri Lanka inWellington. In 2016, Williamson took over the New Zealand captaincyafter Brendon McCullum retired. Williamson was also masterful in the2019 World Cup, leading an inspiring campaign that fell short after NewZealand tied the final (and the Super Over that followed it) with Englandbut lost on boundary count.

1990:

06.30: NBA; Toronto vs Boston; Sony Six15.30: England vs Pakistan; 1st Test; Day 4; Sony Six16.00: Czech Republic GP); Eurosport SD / HD

23.30: Live Studio Show; CL; Sony Ten 1 / 200.30: UEFA CL; Bayern vs Chelsea; Sony Ten 100.30: UEFA CL; Barcelona vs Napoli; Sony Ten 2

Lexi Thompson hits a shot from the sand on the fourth hole duringthe first round of the Marathon LPGA Classic at Highland MeadowsGolf Club in Sylvania, Ohio.

AMANPREET SINGHNew Delhi

The national tennis federation AITAhas announced introduction of TW3test to tackle the menace of age fraud inthe sport but experts have spelled outthe limitations of the popular methodand suggested adoption of more reliabletechniques like the FELS method andepigenetic clock. The experts are divid-ed on using the Tanner Whitehouse 3(TW3) method but it is largely believed,even by the International Olympic Com-mittee (IOC), that it is inconclusive.However, since it is widely used andconsidered one of the accurate meth-ods, leading sports federations in thecountry including the BCCI, the All In-dia Football Federation (AIFF) and theSports Authority of India (SAI) subjectthe players to TW3 test.

What is TW3 Test

Assessment of skeletal maturity aremade from handwrist radiographs, us-ing either the method of Greulich-Pyle(GP), Tanner-Whitehouse (TW) or FELSmethod. The Blood samples, Ultra-sound, and MRI are non-radiation meth-ods but they too are not sufficient ac-cording to IOC. The TW3 method uses X-Rays of the left hand and wrist to exam-ine the skeletal maturity of a person todetermine their bone age. In wristscans, age is estimated by looking at 20

or so bones initially separated by carti-lage, but which progressively move clos-er to one another until they fuse in themature wrist. One of the reasons for us-ing left hand and wrist radiographs isthat most people are right-handed, andtherefore, the right hand is more likelyto be injured than the left hand.

Arguments in favour

Dr Sunita Kalyanpur and her Radiolo-gist husband Arjun Kalyanpur, whoconducted the TW3 tests on about 3000footballers for the AIFF, admit that it'snot 100 percent accurate but assertedthat it's very close to determining the ac-tual age. "The technology has changeddrastically in the last few years. We usea Danish software. The process is muchmore refined. It takes less than a minuteand there is no risk to the child. Earlierthe gap with the actual age was up tofour years but it's hardly 6 to 9 monthsnow. TW3 is the most accurate method,"Arjun said.However, experts say that chronologi-cal age could be different from the bio-logical age by as much as 2-3 years,whichever method is used."The child who is an early developercould look biologically 16 years old eventhough he or she may be just 13 or 14years old. Research has shown that in

team sports, children who are biggerand stronger are more likely to be cho-sen and on testing are invariably bio-logically more mature. "This means thatthe late developers are less likely to bechosen as they are usually smaller andweaker even though all differences willbe equalised when they are fully ma-ture," said Amanda Johnson, whoworked as a physio with the ManchesterUnited Football Club (MUFC). Amandaalso explained that MUFC had conduct-ed a study to investigate the differencesbetween skeletal and chronological age.Amanda recommends that more com-petitions should be introduced in thejunior ranks which consider Bio-band-ing where players compete against eachother as per their body weight and po-tential size.

IOC on the issue

The IOC in its consensus statement(June, 2010) on age determination inhigh-level young athletes had said, "Theonset and rate of growth and matura-tion varies widely between individualsduring adolescence, and consequentlythe maturational status of children ofthe same age also differs.""... the assessment of skeletal age by X-ray scanning is limited and does not al-low a precise determination of thechronological age. Variations up to sev-eral years in bone age have been ob-served in adolescents of the samechronological age."

How reliable is TW3 test?AGE

VERIFICATION

PRESS TRUST OF INDIANew Delhi

World champion P V Sindhu,along with B Sai Praneethand N Sikki Reddy, hit thecourts for training on Fridayunder strict safety protocolsat the SAI Pullela GopichandBadminton Academy in Hy-derabad, ending a four-month-long coronavirus-forced hiatus.This was after the SportsAuthority of India (SAI) de-cided to resume the nationalbadminton camp for theeight Olympic hopefuls fol-lowing Telangana govern-ment's approval on August 1."I am very happy to haveour elite shuttlers back foron-field training after thislong break. We are fullyequipped to resume trainingin a safe environment," chief

national coach Pullela Gopic-hand said.The eight Olympic hopefulsalso include London bronze-winner Saina Nehwal, for-mer world no.1 Srikanth Ki-dambi, women's doubles play-er Ashwini Ponnappa andmen's doubles pairing of Chi-rag Shetty and Satwiksairaj.Saina, who is based in Hy-derabad, didn't train on Fri-

day, while the others, whohad gone to their respectivehomes in March, and are yetto return to the city.On Friday, Sindhu was thefirst one to train with Gopiand foreign coach Park Tae-Sang separately."Sindhu trained today from6:30am to 8:30am. Gopi andPark were also present. Shewill be training everyday at

the same time this week. Inthe evening, she will haveher fitness training at Suchi-tra academy for agility andendurance," said the RioOlympics silver-medallist'sfather, P V Ramana."She has been training athome so physically she is ingood shape but there are notournaments till October, soshe can afford to go easy, nopoint exerting too much. Wehave to be careful." AfterSindhu, Praneeth and Sikkialso trained at the academyfrom 8:30 to 10:30 am."It was good to finally get totrain after a long time. I start-ed around 8:30-45am. Gopi sirand new coach Agus DwiSantoso and a couple of feed-ers were there. All protocolslike sanitising, thermal gunand oximeter were in place,"said world no.13 Praneeth.

Indian shuttlers back on courtSindhu, Praneeth & Sikki resume training after COVID-19 forced break

ASSOCIATED PRESSDuisburg

Sevilla beat Roma 2-0 in theround of 16 to stay in thehunt for a record sixth Eu-ropa League title, as Wolver-hampton, Bayer Leverkusenand Basel also qualified forthe quarterfinals.Full-back Sergio Reguilongave Sevilla the lead with asurging run through theRoma defense and a shot pastkeeper Pau Lopez in the 22ndminute. Youssef En-Nesyriadded the second just beforehalftime, tapping in a lowcross from Lucas Ocampos.Sevilla could easily havescored more, with two shotshitting the crossbar and agoal overturned for offsideon video review. Playing af-ter a packed run of Serie Agames, Roma didn't muster asingle shot on target in thefirst half and just one in thesecond."It was a great performancein all senses. We will enjoy ittonight, recharge our batter-ies and be ready for our nextfinal in a few days' time,"Reguilon said.It was a single game at aneutral venue in Germanybecause no first leg wasplayed in March before theseason was suspended amidthe coronavirus pandemic.No fans are allowed at anyEuropa League games.Roma defender GianlucaMancini was sent off inadded time after video re-view for making contactwith Luuk De Jong's head ina challenge for the ball.It was Roma's first gamesince its $700 milliontakeover by the Texas-basedFriedkin Group was con-firmed Thursday morning.The venue was a worldaway from that high-powereddeal making. Roma andSevilla played at the stadiumof third-tier German clubDuisburg, whose fans havebeen raising money from T-

shirt sales to help the clubwith the financial impact ofthe coronavirus.Sevilla had more rest thanRoma and it showed as theSpanish team played high-tempo football and pressedRoma intensely to forceturnovers high up the field.Since July 19, when Sevilla

played its last game in LaLiga, Roma had rattledthrough five Serie A gamesin 14 days, with a five-dayturnaround before the Eu-ropa League.Sevilla next faces a quar-terfinal Tuesday againstWolves after the Englishteam squeezed pastOlympiakos 1-0 on the nightand 2-1 on aggregate for itsfirst European quarterfinalin 48 years.Raul Jimenez scored theonly goal from the penaltyspot in the ninth minute af-ter Olympiakos goalkeeperBobby Allain gave away aspot-kick with a clumsy chal-lenge after he failed to con-trol the ball.Both teams had plenty ofchances to score in an action-packed second half but acombination of poor finish-ing and solid goalkeepingkept the score down.Bayer Leverkusen earned aquarterfinal against InterMilan, beating Rangers 1-0on Thursday thanks to apowerful shot from MoussaDiaby for a 4-1 aggregate win.Leverkusen's in-demandforward Kai Havertz volleyedthe ball over the bar and sentanother chance wide. Lev-erkusen has vowed thatHavertz will complete theclub's Europa League cam-paign before any transfer.

Sevilla, Wolves march on

FC Basel's Swiss defender Jasper Van Der Werff (L) fights for theball with Frankfurt's Goncalo Paciencia

EUROPALEAGUE

CHAMPIONSLEAGUE

Barca faceNapoli today

Barcelona: Barcelona coachQuique Setién says that he isready to count on youngstersAnsu Fati and Riqui Puig toeliminate Napoli and advanceto the Champions League finaleight in Portugal. Barcelona willbe without midfielders SergioBusquets, Arturo Vidal andArthur for Saturday's secondleg of their round-of-16 tie.“Both Rique and Ansu areready to play," Setién saidFriday. Setién has been underintense pressure sinceBarcelona lost the Spanishleague to Real Madrid lastmonth, when Messi called histeam ¨weak¨ and said thatunless the team turned thingsaround it would lose to Napoli.

IPL teams beginquarantining players New Delhi: An in principlegovernment approval hascome for the BCCI to takethe IPL to the UAE this yearand the eight franchiseshave started their prepara-tions by initiating quaran-tine and COVID-19 testingprotocols for their playersand support staff.A BCCI source told PTIthat the permission in writ-ing is due to come any timein the next few days."We have got the approvalin principle to go ahead andthe papers will be landinganytime," a top source said.Most of the franchiseswill be leaving base afterAugust 20 mandated by theBCCI. The Chennai SuperKings are set to leave on Au-gust 22.The Mumbai Indians, onthe other hand, has quaran-tined its Indian players atits base.

India-England homeseries put off

New Delhi: India's white-ballseries against England,scheduled at home inSeptember-October, was onFriday postponed to early 2021with both the boards citing theCOVID-19 pandemic, whichwrecked the internationalcalendar and created space forthe IPL during this window.Both teams were scheduled toplay three ODIs and as manyT20s and the matches couldnow be held after the Testseries between the two in Indiaearly next year. The series wasto be a preparatory one aheadof the T20 World Cup, whichwas originally scheduled fromOctober 18 to November 5 inAustralia, but has now beenpostponed due to thepandemic. Tour to India to runfrom late January to lateMarch.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIADubai

India on Friday retained the right tohost the 2021 T20 World Cup whileAustralia will conduct this year'spostponed edition in 2022, the ICCannounced after its board meeting,straightening out a schedule thatwent topsy-turvy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.This year's edition had to bee post-poned because of the raging pan-demic, which has severely impactedall sports calendars globally."The International Cricket Council(ICC) today confirmed that the T20World Cup 2020 that was postponeddue to COVID-19 will be held in Aus-tralia in 2022. India will host the T20World Cup 2021 as planned," the ICCstated in a press release.The global body also confirmed thatnext year's women's ODI World Cupin New Zealand has been postponeduntil February-March 2022 becauseof the impact the pandemic has hadon cricket globally.ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney

said: "We now haveabsolute clarity onthe future of ICCevents enabling all ofour Members to focus on therescheduling of lost internationaland domestic cricket."We will now proceed as plannedwith the Men's T20 World Cup 2021 inIndia and host the 2022 edition inAustralia."The format of the 2021 T20 WorldCup will remain as it was for 2020and all teams that qualified for thatevent will now participate in India in2021.A new qualification process will bestarted for the 2022 edition in Aus-tralia.That India will host the 2021 editionand Australian edition will bepushed to 2022 was reported by PTIon May 7."BCCI were never keen to host the2022 event which would have meantthat they had to host back to back

ICC events includingthe 50-over WorldCup in 2023. Thatwasn't a viable op-

tion," an ICC Board member told PTIon conditions of anonymity.However, it was a big setback for thewomen's game with the much-await-ed World Cup being pushed by a year.Sawhney said the decision would"give players from every competingnation, the best opportunity to beready for the world's biggest stageand there is still a global qualifier tocomplete to decide the final threeteams.An ICC Board member said that dueto various countries facing differentsituations with regards to the COVIDcase load, it would have been difficultto hold the qualifiers in time.The postponement also raisesdoubts about the future of India leg-ends such as Mithali Raj and JhulanGoswami, who probably would haveplayed their last ICC tournament in

2021.The decisions were taken by the IBC(the commercial subsidiary of theICC) following an extensive contin-gency planning exercise which tookinto account the health, cricket andcommercial impact of COVID-19around the world.The format of the postponed WorldCup will remain as it was for 2021.Five teams have already qualified forthe event and that will stand for 2022.The original global qualificationevent to determine the final threeteams to contest the event was sched-uled to be held in Sri Lanka in Julythis year, but was postponed due toCOVID-19.The qualification event will now beheld in 2021."There has been no women's inter-national cricket played since the con-clusion of the women's T20 WorldCup earlier this year and due to thevarying impact of COVID-19 global-ly that is likely to remain the situa-tion for a number of the teams,"Sawhney spoke about the impact ofthe pandemic.

India retains 2021 T20 WC rightsAustralia gets 2022; Women's WC now in 2022

ICCMEETING

ASSOCIATED PRESSManchester

England was bowled out for219, a 107-run first inningsdeficit, after losing six wick-ets to Pakistan's leg-spinnerson the third day of the firsttest at Old Trafford on Friday.At tea Pakistan stretchedits lead by another 20 runs totake control despite ShanMasood's duck.Ollie Pope's 62 was as goodas it got for the England bats-men, with the majority ofthose runs scored on day two,with Yasir Shah claiming 4-66 and Shadab Khan takingthe last two wickets.England resumed the dayon 92-4 with Pope and JosButtler hoping to continuethe rescue mission they hadstarted the previous evening.Pope had 46 to his namewhen he walked out but al-

most fell short of his half-century, deflecting ShaheenAfridi over the top of thestumps in an early scare. Hegot there soon after, off 81balls, but the first hour waslittle more than a trial for thehome side.Just nine runs came off thebat in that time, outscored bythe 10 extras Pakistan con-tributed, with the three-pronged pace attack of Sha-heen, Mohammad Abbas andNaseem Shah working up ahead of steam.Buttler edged the third ballof Naseem's spell just shortof second slip but after that itwas a string of plays andmisses. Somehow the duoreached the drinks breakwithout any crucial nicksand when both hit their firstboundaries of the day therewas a small hope they hadweathered the storm.

Tentatively, the fifth-wicketstand crept up to 65, everyrun hard-earned, beforeNaseem produced a memo-rable delivery to claim his de-served reward.Pope was hardly to blame,reeling back and fending togully after the teenager gotone to kick viciously off thesurface. Barring an earlyblow to the helmet for newman Chris Woakes, the re-mainder of the session wasbetter for England as theyeased the score out to 159-5.Buttler had scrapped hisway through to 38 but fell tohis second ball after lunch,leaving a gap between batand pad that allowed Yasirenough room to part thestumps.Broad then chippedin with the ball, getting Ma-sood caught down the leg-side for a duck, to leave Pak-istan 20 for one.

England bowled out for 219