12
B haratiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday said that the farm- ers will stay put at borders of the national Capital till October 2, demanding to repeal the Centre’s agri-marketing laws. “We will sit here till October 2,” said Tikait, who is leading the ongoing farmers’ protest at Ghazipur border, one of the protest sites. Tikait also said that they had received inputs regarding some miscre- ants who will try to disrupt peace during the chakka jam on Saturday. “Because of these inputs, we had decided to call off the ‘chakka jam’ in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” the 51-year- old Tikait, credited with reviv- ing the farmers’ stir, said. “Nobody can touch the farmlands, the farmers will protect it. Both farmers and soldiers should come forward for it,” Tikait said. Interacting with security personnel who were on the other side of the barricading, Tikait said, bowing his head and folded hands, “My pranaam (a respectful saluta- tion) to you all. Now you all will protect my farms.” Loud rustic protest songs blared from speakers, the Tricolour fluttered atop trucks and tractors, and commuters mostly waited patiently as farmers blocked the KMP Expressway on Saturday as part of their three-hour “chak- ka jam” to press their demand for repeal of the three new agri- cultural laws. The call for the nationwide “chakka jam” between 12 pm and 3 pm was given by the farmer unions protesting at the Delhi borders the Centre’s agricultural laws. “I came to the stretch at 11 am. There were very few peo- ple then, but the number swelled in no time. The pur- pose is to peacefully do just what is instructed to us by our leaders — block the road till 3 pm,” said Mukesh Sharma, a local farmer supporting the movement. Biscuits and fruits were distributed among the protest- ing farmers sitting on the road. Those coming to the stretch with their vehicles were polite- ly informed about the protest and requested to turn back. “We don’t want to cause any inconvenience to the peo- ple,” said Ajit Ahluwalia (29), from Haryana’s Hisar. “That’s precisely the reason why the call given was for three hours only. Security forces have been blocking ours and theirs passage for so many days. We expect the ‘aam aadmi’ to cooperate with us for some hours at least. And the truth is they are,” he said. Some vehicles, carrying people with emergency health conditions, were allowed to pass without any delay. The 136-km Kundli- Manesar-Palwal (KMP) was built to decongest the ever-busy roads of Delhi, especially by reducing the number of trucks entering the national Capital, thus helping to curb pollution. The commuters, mostly wait- ing patiently, said they knew about the “chakka-jam” but had to be out due to social and professional engagements. While Satnam Sandhu (42), a private contractor, had to attend a business meeting; Sonu Ahuja and his family were going for his cousin’s wedding. “We are farmers our- selves, and support the farmers’ movement completely. I have gone to the Singhu Border many a times for the protest,” said 36-year-old Ahuja. I ndia has so far supplied Covid-19 vaccine to 15 coun- tries and another 25 nations are in the queue at different levels for the jab, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said here on Saturday. He said there are three categories of countries which are keen to get the vaccine from India — poor, price sensitive nations and other countries which directly deal with phar- maceutical companies that make the antidote. “I think right now we have already supplied to about 15 countries (as per my rec- ollection). I would say there would be another about 25 countries which are at differ- ent stages in the pipeline. But what it has done is today it has put India on the map of the world,” Jaishankar told reporters in a Press confer- ence. The Minister said some poor countries are being sup- plied the vaccine on a grant basis while some nations want- ed it on par with the price that the Indian Government pays to the vaccine makers. Some countries have direct contracts with the Indian vac- cine producing companies and have negotiated commercially, he said. The Centre has already given the nod for two Covid- 19 vaccines — Covaxin of city-based Bharat Biotech and Covishield of Oxford, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India in Pune, which are being administered to frontline workers from January 16, under Emergency Use Authorisation. Drug maker Dr Reddys recently said it will approach the Drug Regulator for the EUA for Russian vaccine Sputnik V in March. Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea was to establish the country as the “Pharmacy of the World”, taking advantage of the domes- tic capabilities and the way India emerged as IT leader dur- ing the Y2K issue. A rtificial intelligence (AI) cannot replace a doctor’s assessment of medical condi- tion of a person infected with deadly virus, but it can defi- nitely help the fraternity with up to 90 per cent certainty to determine whether an unin- fected person will die of Covid- 19 on catching the infection, a study has said. Also, once admitted to the hospital with the infection, the computer can predict with 80 per cent accuracy whether the person will need a respirator, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found. In doing so, the computers can also help decide who should be at front of the line for the vac- cines. The diseases and health factors that, according to the study, have the most influence on whether a patient ends up on a respirator after being infected with Covid-19 are in the following order of priority: BMI, age, high blood pressure, being male, neurological dis- eases, COPD, asthma, diabetes and heart disease. T wenty-two people have so far died after taking the Ciovid-19 vaccines in India, but the Government has claimed that they didn’t succumbed to any complication arising from vaccination. Making this claim, the Health Ministry on Saturday said so far over 56 lakh persons have been inocu- lated. “There have been 22 deaths subsequently, but these are not linked to the vaccination,” the Health Ministry said. The Government has also asked States and UTs to com- plete the first dose adminis- tration to all health-care work- ers by February 20 and mop-up rounds by February 25. Of the 56,36,868 benefi- ciaries vaccinated, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Manohar Agnani said 52,66,175 are health-care work- ers and 3,70,693 are frontline workers. He further said that 54.7 per cent of the healthcare work- ers registered on the Co-WIN app have been vaccinated. “No new case of hospital- ization or death reported in the past 24 hours,” he said. A complaint has been lodged against American pop star Rihanna with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Delhi for using mica extracted by child labourers in Jharkhand and Bihar in cosmetic products and hair colour manufactured by her company, Fenty Beauty Foundation, members of the child rights panel said on Saturday. Vinay Joshi, a founder member of Legal Rights Observatory (LRO), a civil society organisation affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has lodged the complaint against the popular singer, requesting the NCPCR to take cognizance of alleged child rights violation in func- tioning of the cosmetics com- pany owned by the pop star. “We have received a com- plaint against Rihanna’s com- pany for encouraging child labour by using mica extract- ed by children from mines in Jharkhand. Necessary actions will be taken as per the provi- sions of the law after thorough investigation,” said Priyank Kanoongo, the chairman of NCPCR. Rihanna has been in the news lately for extending her support to the ongoing farm- ers’ protest in India on microblogging website Twitter. The singer found herself in the crosshairs of several famous personalities and commoners in India, who maintained that interference by outsiders in internal matters of the country, shall not be entertained. Several hundred children visit the abandoned mica mines in Koderma and Giridih dis- tricts of Jharkhand daily to gather mica flakes, risking their wellbeing and inviting various respiratory diseases. Activists claim that almost a dozen chil- dren die every year in mine cave-in at mica mining sites, but their deaths are never reported. The mica, which these children collect, is often sold in the open market from where they are exported to other countries, said Rishikesh Mishra, an activist from Giridih. Mica dust is one of the major causes for tuberculosis among locals in the area. Mica miners are prone to lung ail- ments, and the local villagers were at a higher risk due to lack of protective gear and aware- ness. “Besides mine cave-in, tuberculosis and other lung ail- ments claim several lives here,” said Mishra. India is one of the world’s largest producers of mica, which has gained prominence in recent years as an environ- ment-friendly material, used in the car and building sectors, and electronics and cosmetics. Jharkhand, researchers say, produced the most superior quality of mica, which was exported to foreign countries back in the 1970s. The Forest Conservation Act 1980 banned mica mining in forest areas, where most of Jharkhand’s mines were oper- ating since the Birtish era. However, in wake of casualties and health hazards associated with illegal mica mining and scavenging, the government is proceeding with regularisation of mica mining in the tribal state, officials from the mines and geology department of Jharkhand said. Sanjay Mishra, former member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) said that local agents purchased mica from children at throw- away prices, and sold them to cosmetics and hair colour com- panies. “This matter needs to be taken seriously as several children have lost their lives while extracting mica and many more are compromising with their future and health by visiting abandoned mica mines every day,” Mishra said.

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Bharatiya Kisan Union(BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait

on Saturday said that the farm-ers will stay put at borders ofthe national Capital till October2, demanding to repeal theCentre’s agri-marketing laws.

“We will sit here tillOctober 2,” said Tikait, who isleading the ongoing farmers’protest at Ghazipur border,one of the protest sites. Tikaitalso said that they had receivedinputs regarding some miscre-ants who will try to disruptpeace during the chakka jamon Saturday.

“Because of these inputs,we had decided to call off the‘chakka jam’ in Uttar Pradeshand Uttarakhand,” the 51-year-old Tikait, credited with reviv-ing the farmers’ stir, said.

“Nobody can touch thefarmlands, the farmers willprotect it. Both farmers andsoldiers should come forwardfor it,” Tikait said.

Interacting with securitypersonnel who were on theother side of the barricading,Tikait said, bowing his headand folded hands, “Mypranaam (a respectful saluta-tion) to you all. Now you allwill protect my farms.”

Loud rustic protest songsblared from speakers, the

Tricolour fluttered atop trucksand tractors, and commutersmostly waited patiently asfarmers blocked the KMPExpressway on Saturday aspart of their three-hour “chak-ka jam” to press their demandfor repeal of the three new agri-cultural laws. The call for thenationwide “chakka jam”between 12 pm and 3 pm wasgiven by the farmer unionsprotesting at the Delhi bordersthe Centre’s agricultural laws.

“I came to the stretch at 11am. There were very few peo-ple then, but the numberswelled in no time. The pur-pose is to peacefully do justwhat is instructed to us by ourleaders — block the road till 3pm,” said Mukesh Sharma, alocal farmer supporting themovement.

Biscuits and fruits weredistributed among the protest-ing farmers sitting on the road.Those coming to the stretchwith their vehicles were polite-ly informed about the protestand requested to turn back.

“We don’t want to causeany inconvenience to the peo-ple,” said Ajit Ahluwalia (29),from Haryana’s Hisar.

“That’s precisely the reasonwhy the call given was forthree hours only. Securityforces have been blocking ours

and theirs passage for so manydays. We expect the ‘aamaadmi’ to cooperate with us forsome hours at least. And thetruth is they are,” he said.

Some vehicles, carryingpeople with emergency healthconditions, were allowed to

pass without any delay.The 136-km Kundli-

Manesar-Palwal (KMP) wasbuilt to decongest the ever-busyroads of Delhi, especially byreducing the number of trucksentering the national Capital,thus helping to curb pollution.

The commuters, mostly wait-ing patiently, said they knewabout the “chakka-jam” buthad to be out due to social andprofessional engagements.

While Satnam Sandhu(42), a private contractor, hadto attend a business meeting;

Sonu Ahuja and his familywere going for his cousin’swedding. “We are farmers our-selves, and support the farmers’movement completely. I havegone to the Singhu Bordermany a times for the protest,”said 36-year-old Ahuja.

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India has so far suppliedCovid-19 vaccine to 15 coun-

tries and another 25 nations arein the queue at different levelsfor the jab, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar said hereon Saturday.

He said there are threecategories of countries whichare keen to get the vaccine fromIndia — poor, price sensitivenations and other countrieswhich directly deal with phar-maceutical companies thatmake the antidote.

“I think right now wehave already supplied to about15 countries (as per my rec-ollection). I would say therewould be another about 25countries which are at differ-ent stages in the pipeline. Butwhat it has done is today it hasput India on the map of theworld,” Jaishankar toldreporters in a Press confer-ence.

The Minister said somepoor countries are being sup-

plied the vaccine on a grantbasis while some nations want-ed it on par with the price thatthe Indian Government pays tothe vaccine makers.

Some countries have directcontracts with the Indian vac-cine producing companies andhave negotiated commercially,he said.

The Centre has alreadygiven the nod for two Covid-19 vaccines — Covaxin ofcity-based Bharat Biotech andCovishield of Oxford, beingmanufactured by SerumInstitute of India in Pune,

which are being administeredto frontline workers fromJanuary 16, under EmergencyUse Authorisation.

Drug maker Dr Reddysrecently said it will approachthe Drug Regulator for theEUA for Russian vaccineSputnik V in March.

Jaishankar said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s ideawas to establish the country asthe “Pharmacy of the World”,taking advantage of the domes-tic capabilities and the wayIndia emerged as IT leader dur-ing the Y2K issue.

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Artificial intelligence (AI)cannot replace a doctor’s

assessment of medical condi-tion of a person infected withdeadly virus, but it can defi-nitely help the fraternity withup to 90 per cent certainty todetermine whether an unin-fected person will die of Covid-19 on catching the infection, astudy has said.

Also, once admitted to thehospital with the infection, thecomputer can predict with 80per cent accuracy whether the

person will need a respirator,researchers at the University ofCopenhagen have found. Indoing so, the computers canalso help decide who should beat front of the line for the vac-cines. The diseases and healthfactors that, according to thestudy, have the most influenceon whether a patient ends upon a respirator after beinginfected with Covid-19 are inthe following order of priority:BMI, age, high blood pressure,being male, neurological dis-eases, COPD, asthma, diabetesand heart disease.

��� �.���./0�

Twenty-two people have sofar died after taking the

Ciovid-19 vaccines in India, butthe Government has claimedthat they didn’t succumbed toany complication arising fromvaccination. Making this claim,the Health Ministry onSaturday said so far over 56lakh persons have been inocu-lated.

“There have been 22 deathssubsequently, but these are notlinked to the vaccination,” theHealth Ministry said.

The Government has alsoasked States and UTs to com-

plete the first dose adminis-tration to all health-care work-ers by February 20 and mop-up rounds by February 25.

Of the 56,36,868 benefi-ciaries vaccinated, AdditionalSecretary in the Union HealthMinistry Manohar Agnani said52,66,175 are health-care work-ers and 3,70,693 are frontlineworkers.

He further said that 54.7per cent of the healthcare work-ers registered on the Co-WINapp have been vaccinated.

“No new case of hospital-ization or death reported in thepast 24 hours,” he said.

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Acomplaint has been lodgedagainst American pop star

Rihanna with the NationalCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (NCPCR), Delhifor using mica extracted bychild labourers in Jharkhandand Bihar in cosmetic productsand hair colour manufacturedby her company, Fenty BeautyFoundation, members of thechild rights panel said on Saturday.

Vinay Joshi, a foundermember of Legal RightsObservatory (LRO), a civilsociety organisation affiliated tothe Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS), has lodged thecomplaint against the popularsinger, requesting the NCPCRto take cognizance of allegedchild rights violation in func-tioning of the cosmetics com-

pany owned by the pop star.“We have received a com-

plaint against Rihanna’s com-pany for encouraging childlabour by using mica extract-ed by children from mines inJharkhand. Necessary actionswill be taken as per the provi-sions of the law after thoroughinvestigation,” said PriyankKanoongo, the chairman ofNCPCR.

Rihanna has been in thenews lately for extending hersupport to the ongoing farm-ers’ protest in India onmicroblogging website Twitter.The singer found herself in thecrosshairs of several famouspersonalities and commonersin India, who maintained thatinterference by outsiders ininternal matters of the country,shall not be entertained.

Several hundred childrenvisit the abandoned mica mines

in Koderma and Giridih dis-tricts of Jharkhand daily togather mica flakes, risking theirwellbeing and inviting variousrespiratory diseases. Activistsclaim that almost a dozen chil-dren die every year in minecave-in at mica mining sites, buttheir deaths are never reported.The mica, which these childrencollect, is often sold in theopen market from where theyare exported to other countries,said Rishikesh Mishra, anactivist from Giridih.

Mica dust is one of themajor causes for tuberculosisamong locals in the area. Micaminers are prone to lung ail-ments, and the local villagerswere at a higher risk due to lackof protective gear and aware-ness. “Besides mine cave-in,tuberculosis and other lung ail-ments claim several lives here,”said Mishra.

India is one of the world’slargest producers of mica,which has gained prominencein recent years as an environ-ment-friendly material, used inthe car and building sectors,and electronics and cosmetics.Jharkhand, researchers say,

produced the most superiorquality of mica, which wasexported to foreign countriesback in the 1970s.

The Forest ConservationAct 1980 banned mica miningin forest areas, where most ofJharkhand’s mines were oper-

ating since the Birtish era.However, in wake of casualtiesand health hazards associatedwith illegal mica mining andscavenging, the government isproceeding with regularisationof mica mining in the tribalstate, officials from the minesand geology department ofJharkhand said.

Sanjay Mishra, formermember of the StateCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (SCPCR) saidthat local agents purchasedmica from children at throw-away prices, and sold them tocosmetics and hair colour com-panies. “This matter needs tobe taken seriously as severalchildren have lost their liveswhile extracting mica andmany more are compromisingwith their future and health byvisiting abandoned mica minesevery day,” Mishra said.

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Malcolm & Marie reminds one of amovie that’s closer to home. Manywould remember the 1964 movie and

Anil in Yaadein played by Sunil Dutt. Yaadein,a black and white film is all about a man whoreminiscences hisindiscretions when,one day he comeshome to find that hiswife and son are notthere. This movie onlyhad Sunil Dutt with asilhouette of Nargis atthe end.

Malcolm & Mariemay not be about alone man but it isabout relationships, amovie that spends 106minutes of runningtime in trying to get it’slead — Malcolmplayed by Washington — to apologise to hispartner, a woman he loves, for not thanking herfor her contribution in his life at his debutmovie as a director.

The entire movie is strangely cathartic andyet exhaustive as the only two people here goback and forth talking about their relationship,art, politics and how White people see acoloured person and sees everything with a

tainted vision and turning it into a racist orpolitical issue. It is taxing to see these charactersgo back and forth with highs and lows on arepeat like q broken record.

Still the acting by Washington is brilliant.His almost 10 minute tirade of what hethought of the review by a White lady of Imani,a coloured person who struggles with addiction,is an absolute joy to watch even though the fourletter word finds its way at 50 times if not more.

In fact, that is the high point of Malcolm &Marie; this and the climax.

Zendaya, the only other character her playsher part rather well and matches Washingtonto bring out Marie’s need to be thanked for herrole.

Watch this for its roller coaster emotionsthat has well-fleshed out characters.

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Here is another movie that not onlyexhausts one, in trying to decipher whatis happening, it is confusing since one tries

to discern between reality and fiction. While somemay find the narrative of this film easy enoughto follow from the word go, others, who hate looseends will want to know the answers to questionsthat remain unanswered.

One would have thought that a moviestarring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson wouldbe far more entertaining and fun to watch butBliss, unlike it’s title is anything but that.

Interestingly, despite the major drawback ofthis movie, it manages to capture one’s attentionand hold it all through the 103 minutes. Thereis something that captures imagination. Curiositykilled the cat and the need to see how things endkeeps one glued.

Allow yourself to be drawn into the rollercoaster ride that its characters go through and letthe drama unfold however confused it nay leaveone at the end. .�+!����+� ����

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��� 1��30�B

Inspecting the Smart Cityproject in Ranchi on

Saturday, Union Housing andUrban Affairs Secretary DurgaShankar Mishra said theCommand Control andCommunication Centre in theSmart City campus will func-tion as the brain and nervoussystem of the city for manage-ment of traffic and law andorder situation.

“The Smart City beingdeveloped in Ranchi will notonly change the lifestyle of thepeople of Ranchi but alsobecome a model city for othertowns in Jharkhand,” said Mishra.

The Secretary on Saturdayinspected the Command

Control and CommunicationCentre here, he saw a 3D modelof the Smart City and alsoinspected the Bicycle SharingSystem in the State capital.

CEO of Smart City, AmitKumar provided him withmany important informationrelated to the project. RanchiMunicipal CommissionerMukesh Kumar shared how the

services being provided by themunicipality are being regu-larly monitored from theCommand Control andCommunication Centre.

“This centre is the brainand nervous system of theentire city. You should try tobenefit the citizens as much aspossible. Along with this, thechildren of school and college

should also be shown the cen-ter and informed about theinfrastructure that has beendeveloped in their city,” said Mishra.

The Smart City in Ranchiis being developed on 656acres of land. It will use the lat-est technologies in road, streetlights, drainage, sewerage, util-ity duct, cycle lanes, sidewalkconstruction etc.

Mishra toured the entire

campus and gave many neces-sary suggestions. The UnionSecretary said that after the con-struction of this city, there willbe a big change in the lifestyleof the people of Ranchi. Ranchi,he said, will become modelcities for other cities of the State.He also planted saplings on theSmart City campus.

Earlier in the morning,Mishra sought informationabout the Public Bicycle

Sharing System operated bySmart City at MorhabadiGround in the morning andcycled with the MunicipalCommissioner and Smart CityCEO. He took detailed infor-mation about bicycle serviceand expressed great pleasureover its functioning.

During the visit, along withthe Union Secretary, MunicipalCommissioner of RanchiMukesh Kumar, Suda Directorcum CEO Ranchi Smart CityAmit Kumar, Director of UrbanAdministration DirectorateVijaya Jadhav, PDT of JUDCORamesh Kumar, DeputyMunicipal CommissionerShankar Yadav, GM Smart CityRakesh Kumar Nandakolyar,Project Director L&T JildarTripathi, Smart City Piro AmitKumar, Project ManagerHonivel Automation Ltd SharatKumar along with several offi-cials from DMA, MunicipalCorporation and Smart City,JUDCO and L&T were present.

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��� 1��30�

In an attempt to support thefarmers agitating across the

Country against three farmlaws brought by the CentralGovernment, people blockedthe roads in many districts ofthe State on Saturday. Thepolitical parties' workersblocked the roads in the dis-tricts such as Ranchi,Hazaribagh, Khunti, Lateharand Koderma and others.

Jharkhand AgricultureMinister Badal reached BootiMore in the State Capital andjoined the Chakka Jam pro-gramme and supported thefarmers demanding immediatewithdrawal of the farm laws.

On behalf of the SamyuktaKisan Morcha, people sat on adharna on the main road ofBooti More, Chanho andBundu Chowk in Ranchi dis-trict and were supporting theagitating farmers. Along withthis, they were demanding thewithdrawal of new agricultur-al laws. In the Namkum area ofRanchi, Mahagathbandhanworkers blocked the road atDurga Soren Chowk underthe leadership of Khizri MLARajesh Kachhap. Senior leaderand workers of the ruling partyin the State,

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) held the Chakka Jam atShivaji Chowk in Ranchi. JMM

General Secretary SupriyoBhattacharya, JMM MahilaMorcha Chief, Mahua Majhiand others were present.Jharkhand Rajya Kisan Sabhaalso held chakka jam in supportof the farmers near the Bootimore of Ranchi. Many leaderswere present during this period.

In Koderma district of theState, people blocked the roadby sitting at Maharana PratapChowk in Jhumritilaiya in sup-port of the peasant movement.In Ichak of Hazaribagh district,people blocked the road sup-porting the farmers. JMMworkers blocked the Khunti-Simdega road in Khunti district.

Congress workers andleaders also took part in theNationwide agitation of farm-ers' organizations against theagricultural law. JharkhandPradesh Congress Committee(JPCC) Chief, RameshwarOraon said that farmers acrossthe Country are agitating

against the dogmatic attitude ofthe Central Government andthree agriculture laws. "Despitethis, why the BJP-led CentralGovernment wants to imposethis black law on the public isbeyond anyone's understand-ing. In the history of 70 yearsof the Country, many lawshave been made and many lawshave been withdrawn and if thefarmers are demanding towithdraw this law made for thefarmers, then who will benefitfrom this law the Governmentshould clarify it" he added.

JMM General Secretary,Supriyo Bhattacharya said thatthe party extended its supportto the Chakka Jam held by thefarmers across the State and theparty will keep supporting thefarmers' agitation against thethree farm laws brought by theCentral Government. Theparty is with the farmersdemanding immediate with-drawal of the laws, he added.

��� 1��30�

Under the aegis ofJharkhand State Legal

Services Authority, Ranchi, adistrict level programme onlegal services cum empower-ment was organised in theState capital District LegalServices Authority and Ranchidistrict administration onFebruary 6 at Ratu. DLSAChairman cum JudicialCommissioner Navneet Kumarand Deputy Commission (DC)Ranchi Chhavi Ranjan distrib-uted materials and assistanceamongst the beneficiaries.

Many welfare schemesincluding Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana, Laxmi Yojanawere given to the beneficiaries.On the occasion, DALSA chair-man and the DC also did the

muhjutthiceremony for chil-dren. The DC also purchasedproducts made by women fromself- help groups.

During the camp benefi-ciaries of Pradhan Mantri AwasYojna were given homeentrance kits, acceptance let-ters.Mukhyamantri KanyadanYojana, Sukanya Yojana,Pradhan Mantri MatriVandana Yojana, distribution offorest rights lease, distributionof old age pension, distributionof green ration card, distribu-tion of pant- shirt to workers oflabour department, MNRE-GA job cards and soil testinghealth card was also done.

Stalls of legal service cumempowerment were also set upthrough which people wereinformed about the variouspublic welfare schemes.

��� 1��30�

In a bid to develop the horticulturesector in the State, clusters of var-

ious horticulture enterprises arebeing developed at small levels inmany places of the State and the scopeof the cluster of enterprises will haveto be expanded and accelerated, saidDirector Horticulture, Varun Ranjanon Saturday.

Ranjan said this as Chief Guestof the two-day training of horticul-ture instructors of Directorate ofHorticulture, Government ofJharkhand, on the integration ofgovernment schemes of better hor-ticulture system in sustainable devel-opment of horticulture sector orga-nized at Birsa Agricultural University(BAU).

On the occasion, the Director saidthat to speed up the rapid develop-ment in the horticulture sector in theState, the horticulture officials need tobe in constant contact with the ben-eficiaries of the schemes. He empha-sized on giving training to the gardeninstructors according to the area andenterprise needs of the farmers. Hesaid that in the current year, programsof establishment of center of excellenceon vegetable and flower in Dumka andHazaribagh respectively, strengthen-ing of 25 nurseries, re-development ofall 150 nurseries in the next 5 years,development of Birsa Smart AgroFarm in 2 districts and others are beingrun. Due to the scarcity of staff in thedepartment, coordinators will beappointed soon at the block and dis-trict level to speed up the operation ofthe scheme, he added.

On the occasion, the Director hon-ored the resource person and partici-pating garden officials and KVK sci-entists by giving certificates andMomento.

On this occasion farmers gottraining through the Sarva Seva

Samiti, Ranchi. The team was givenpractical information by giving adirect overview of the techniquesthrough the Directorate of ExtensionEducation of the University. Duringthe visit, Head of the DepartmentRekha Sinha, told about the usefultool in processing and value additionof crop products to farmers. The teamwas informed about mushroom cul-tivation throughout the year in theuniversity's mushroom productionunit. On the occasion, Smita Swetaapprised the farmers about the tech-nical characteristics of various cropsin the Technology Park of theUniversity.

After the visit, a farmer-scientif-ic interaction program was organizedby the Directorate of ExtensionEducation. On the occasion, DirectorExtension Education, JagarnathOraon shared the agricultural expe-riences with the farmers.

The farmers were informed aboutthe proper use of irrigation resourcesand the success of the farmers of theState. Deputy Director(Communications), Valeria Lakra gaveinformation about watershed andwater management.

��� 1��30�

The erratic weather conditions beingexperienced across Jharkhand are

likely to continue for the next few days.Residents across the State need to bracethemselves as the mercury level is expect-ed to drop by two to four degree Celsius.

According to the MeteorologicalCentre, Ranchi, the overcast skies beingwitnessed will be clear from the morningof February 7,thus bringing down theminimum temperature levels. Dry weath-er conditions will prevail across the State.

The Meteorological Centre Ranchihas also issued a warning of cold wave inthe northern and central districts includ-ing Palamu, Garhwa, Chatra, Koderma,Latehar, Lohardaga, Ranchi, Ramgarh,Gumla, Bokaro, Hazaribagh and Giridihfor February 7. The north western andsouth western districts can witness a coldwave on February 8.

“In the next few days, there will be adrop in the minimum temperature levelsby two to four degree Celsius and thenorth westerly wind pattern will againbecome active. From February 9 onwards,it is being predicted that there will be agradual rise in the temperature levelsacross the State. This will be due to thepresence of a feeble western disturbancewhich is likely to affect the higher reach-

es of Jammu- Kashmir and Ladakh fromFebruary 8,” said Deputy Director, METCentre Ranchi Abhishek Anand.

The weathermen further stated thatthere will mist and fog in the early morn-ing hours in some parts of the State.

As per the bulletin released by theMET Centre Ranchi on February 6, in thepast 24 hours, the lowest temperature wasrecorded in Chaibasa at 9.8 degree Celsiuswhich is 3.5 degrees below normal whileJamshedpur was observed at 11.8 degreeCelsius which is 2.7 degrees below nor-mal.

The minimum temperature in theState capital was 1.7 notches above nor-mal at 13.2 degrees while Daltonganj andBokaro were at 14.1 and 13.1 degreeswhich is 3.2 and 5 degrees above normalrespectively.

The communiqué further stated thatfrom February 7 to February 10, the min-imum temperature in Ranchi and its sur-rounding areas will be at 10- 11 degreeswhile the maximum temperature will beat 26- 27 degree Celsius.

��� 1��30�

On the second day of IndianInstitute of Management

Ranchi’s Agon-Rush 2021, theAnnual Management, Cultural,and Sports fest, more than10,000 students from top B-Schools across the countryattended the events. More than20 competitions were organisedon the second day, with win-ners bagging handsome cashprizes for winning the contests.

The day witnessed aplethora of engaging events incultural and sports competi-tions, and all the teams par-ticipated with team spirit andsportsmanship. Finopsis, theFinance Club of IIM Ranchi,conducted business valuationcompetition, Plutus, with cashprizes worth Rs 45,000. TeamBuyside Boys from IIMRanchi emerged as the win-ners while TeamBackbenchers from NMIMSemerged as the runners-up forthe event. Crack the Case 6.0was organized by Sankriya,the Operations Club of IIMRanchi had prize moneyworth Rs 2,00,000. NITIEemerged as the winner, withGIM Goa and IIM Ranchibagging 2nd and 3rd place,respectively.

Symvoulos 6.0 Case StudyCompetition was organized byConundrum, the ConsultingClub of IIM Ranchi. Prizesworth Rs. 20,000 were baggedby the participants, with theteam from IIM Sambalpur bag-ging the first position, fol-lowed by teams from DoMS,IIT Madras, and GIM Goa.

In Recruitment basedBidding competition

“Maneuver 6.0” conducted byHiRe- The HR Club of IIMRanchi, Team Convivial Crowsfrom IIM Ranchi came out onthe top, Team The Thinkersfrom XIMB, Bhubaneswar andTeam Sparks from IIM Ranchiemerged as first and secondrunner-up respectively. Cashprizes worth Rs.15000 will begiven to the winners for thecompetition.

Samarpan-The SocialResponsibility Club of IIMRanchi, as part of AGON-RUSH 2021 launched SQuiz, aCSR quiz with cash prizesworth Rs. 9000. Ambar Guptafrom IIM Kozhikode won thequiz on Day-1 of the event.

The singing event, DriftingRhythm conducted by cultur-al committee of IIM Ranchihad 25 participants performinglive in the finale from all overIndia; It was streamed live onfacebook and gained great trac-tion. Judge for the event wasMs. Hriya Banerjee fromKolkata, Trained classical musi-cian. Nandini Sinha fromAmity University, Ranchiemerged as the winner of thecompetition while JananiHamsini Narasimhan fromSymbiosis Institute of Media

and Communication (SIMC),Pune won the second prize.

Staying true to the themeand the year, the students par-ticipated with a diverged senseof enthusiasm towards thebright lights and new begin-nings. Results for the rest of thegames and competitions areawaited as we wait for theaction to unfold.

Plethora of events is yet tobe witnessed by the students forthe day. Encase: The FlagshipLive Case Study Competition(E-Cell), Vorstand: Simulationbased Case Study Competition(HR Club), Marcase(Marketing Club), Chess(Sports Committee),Vishleshan-A caseCompetition (Polynomics),Terra Nullius (Literary Club),Carrom(Sports committee),Parivridhi (UNGC), CricketMandi (Consulting Club),Think-O-Vation (Institution’sInnovation Council),Entrepreneurship Quotient (E-Cell) are some of the eventsthat will be further conductedon Day 2 of Agon-Rush 2021.

The Day 3 of the fest ismuch awaited and is expectedto be more fun-filled, engagingand enthralling.

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The Congress activists onSaturday extended support

to the countrywide 'chakkajam' called by farmer unions byblocking Tata-Ranchi road onNH 33.

As a result of the blockade,a long queue of vehicles,including trucks, buses, carsand two-wheelers remainedstranded on either side of thehighway for about three hours.

On the call of District pres-ident, Bijay Khan Congressworkers in solidarity with theprotesting farmers supportedthe protest. "We are here to lendsupport to the cause of farm-ers, we are taking full care thatthe ambulance services, elder-ly, patients and women andchildren are not inconve-nienced due to the protest," saida party worker.

He said that this farmers'movement, which is beingsteadfastly supported by thepoor, farm labour, SCs, STs,OBCs as well as every "right-minded Indian", is not onlyaimed at protecting agricultureand farming but also saving thepublic distribution system.

The blockade delayedGhatshila residents bound forRanchi's Birsa Munda Airport."I was scheduled to catch aflight for Delhi from Ranchi inthe afternoon. But, I think dueto the jam I won't be able tocatch the flight," said ManishPatel, a local trader.

"I was scheduled to reachRanchi to attend a businessmeeting. But, it seems difficultto reach the venue of the meet-ing on time ," said an entre-preneur.

Congress leader IqbalAnsari, said that the fight offarmers have been now becomea global issue but still the

Union Government is not pay-ing heed to their problems. Thegovernment should listen to thefarmers because the farmers of

the country are the foodproviders”.

He went on to add it is nowopen secret that the farmers'organisations have held elevenrounds of talks with the gov-ernment during which theyprovided point-wise detail ofthe deficiencies and lacunae inthe three laws, but still theGovernment is not willing tolisten to the farmers.

“ It is really a shame thatthough thousands of farmershave been protesting at Delhi'sborders with Haryana andUttar Pradesh demanding therollback of the Farmers'Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)Act, 2020, the Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and Farm

Services Act, 2020 and theEssential Commodities(Amendment) Act, 2020, theGovernment is not willing tolisten to their plight,” saidanother Congress worker.

He appealed to thePresident to direct the govern-ment that by convening a jointsession of Parliament, theamended Agricultural law beremoved.

The two bills - the Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Bill, 2020 and theFarming Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020 - werepassed by the Rajya Sabhadespite uproar and strongprotest by the Opposition par-ties in the house.

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Railways is all set to startoperation of Black dia-

mond express after a gap ofeleven months . This train, thatwas termed life line.dkr bymany, is likely to give respite toJharkhand - Bengal passengerswilling to travel to Kolkata.

The train was suspendedfrom operation with the start ofthe lockdown period in March2020.

However, now the EasternRailway has commenced toDhanbad division to makearrangements for the racks sothat trains may be introducedfrom both sides.

Once made operation in aweek's time, the train would behelpful for people.of differentlocations of Jharkhand andBengal to have a direct con-nection at evening time toreach Kolkata.

Though , actual date ofoperation is yet to beannounced,

The operation is to helpdaily passengers mostly .

The Dhanbad railway divi-sion has prepared a rack for thesame.

��� ��/�����R�

The sit in agitation of the 21contractual personnel of

the Nilamber Pitamber uni-versity has entered into its fifthday on Saturday with no signof any let up in the agitation.

On Friday the agitatingcontractual personnel and ahigh powered team of the uni-versity sat to resolve the issuebut it remained inconclusive asboth the sides looked the otherway.

Sources said the NPU is onits unwarranted tough standwhile the agitating contractu-al personnel have their ownplea.

Sources said a stalemateprevails on the small campus ofthis university where its ownworking men are shouting slo-gans against the high handed-ness of the university.

Sources said the universi-ty on the other hand maintainsit goes by the rule only and willnot budge an inch.

One of the contractual per-sonnel, Nawneet Kumar Singh,said our demand is simple andlegitimate. He said we want ourregularization or absorptionin the services here in this uni-versity. He refers to a govern-ment letter which he claims

empowers the employer to reg-ularise the contractuals.

He said the striking con-tractuals are ready to furnishany undertaking for this if theuniversity so moves in thematter of these twenty onecontractual personnel.

He said the Friday dialoguebetween the university officialsand the agitationists fellthrough without any hint of itsresolution in near few days.

On the other hand registrarof the NPU S N Singh has toldthis correspondent that theuniversity will like to get thisissue of absorption of the con-tractual personnel here done bythe HRD government ofJharkhand.

Registrar said the issue isthat these contractual person-nel want the university to dotheir absorption at the univer-sity end while the university'sstand is to get it done from theHRD government ofJharkhand.

��� R�$�0.��1�

XLRI- Xavier School ofManagement, one of India’s

premier B-Schools, hosted the28th Annual JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics onvirtual mode.

This year, Fr. StephanRothlin, S.J., Ph.D., Director ofthe Macau Ricci Institute, andCEO of Rothlin InternationalManagement Consulting Ltddelivered the oration. FrRothlin gave his speech on‘China The EmergingSuperpower: The EthicalUnderpinnings.’

Fr. Stephan Rothlin’s ora-tion speech emphasized onthe ethical perspectives andexplained the key elements ofbusiness ethics, which he hasbeen teaching in businessschools in Beijing, Hong Kong,Macau, Singapore, and Taiwanfor the last 23 years that willallow business leaders andentrepreneurs to understandand embrace the challenge ofmoral leadership in business.He shared his insights aboutbusiness ethics in China, likethe increasing importance ofthe local Confusion cultureand its values. Case studiesshould be used as the mosteffective pedagogy for businessethics. Business schools shouldcombine both the wisdom andtraditions of India and Chinato cultivate moral virtues.Talking about China’s dramat-ic economic transformation, hereferred to the data from the2019 & 2020 OECD econom-ic survey and shared someoutstanding figures vis-à-visthe growth of China. Thegrowth has slowed in the firsthalf of 2020 but remains strong.

China has managed to controlCovid-19 pandemic and willremain the major driver ofglobal growth, as is reflected byChina’s significantly high GDPgrowth.

In his oration, he said,“China witnessed enormoustrade frictions, which hurt notonly both sides but also theglobal economy. As per the fig-ures of the OCED, when wehave 25 % of tariffs on goodsworth USD 50 billion is anoth-er key factor, the impact of thistrade frictions shaving off ¼percent of Chinese and USGDP and reduce world trade by0.4% by 2020. Import volumesin both the countries decline by¾ percent, and in the US, CPIinflation rise by 0.2 ppt in both2019 and 2020 as a result ofhigher import prices due to tar-iffs. Other countries are nega-tively affected through declin-ing trade growth, through inthe longer term, benefit froman improved competitive posi-tion in the US market. The sav-ing rate remains very high,even though it has decreasedover the past decade. China asan emerging superpowerintends to be a major player intaking responsibility for theenvironment”.

He observed,” China hasmade impressive gains claim-ing to have lifted 700 millionpeople out of poverty in 40years since the open door pol-icy. China should be givencredit for the alleviation ofmass poverty and handlingthe COVID-19 crisis very wellafter initial failures. If Chinamanages to opt for a more sus-tainable economic growth, itwould significantly impact theworld economy”.

He pointed out, “I con-sider social business as a bridgebetween business and acade-mia. India has made muchprogress in this area for manyyears. Original research onChinese moral philosophy andits contribution to the interre-ligious dialogue on businessethics must be very concrete.We have to further push fororiginal research on case stud-ies emerging from Chineseand Asian business experi-ences. The common complaintis that the case studies from thebusiness schools are still tooreliant on American andEuropean case studies. Wehave to develop online resourcedistribution further”.

While presenting severalcase studies focusing on the

importance of Business Ethics,Dr. Rothlin, in one of the casestudies, weighs “Business ethicsand the sciences” and referredto the lesson from Sanlu’sMelamine –Tainted milk crisisin China. Since science is real-ity-based, a business must bereality-based as well, and hesaid, “The Covid -19 crisis cer-tainly pushed us to take sciencesmore seriously. Failure toobserve the scientific specifica-tion associated with companies'goods may result in seriousharm not only to the customersof such products but also to thefirm itself and its leadership.Sanlu’s tainted milk crisis has adevastating effect until now,and the Chinese are very skep-tical about consuming theirown products. So if everyonecheats, then there is no advan-tage to be gained by cheating.Just as lying destroys trust inpersonal relationships, so frauddestroys trust in businesses”.

In his welcome address, Fr.P. Christie, S. J. Director ofXLRI said, “Globalization hasfurther enhanced the impor-tance of ethical, moral compassin business. Globalizationmeans that business strategyand business ethics cannot beseparated from each other.Corporations have entered anew era, the "prove-to-me"era. Unethical practices andorganizations are not beingshrugged off anymore. Evenreputed organizations andsome outstanding CEOs arenamed, shamed and fined, orimprisoned for their ethicallapses the world over. The cul-ture of an organization is estab-lished by the tone set at the top.Chief executives must lead byexample.”

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Under the aegis of MaterialManagement Division of

BSL, the Stores Department isorganising an exhibition ofimmovable materials in gener-al stores. The exhibition ofimmovable materials was start-ed in the presence ofAmarendu Prakash, Directorin-charge of BSL. On this occa-sion, Executive Director(Projects) and AdditionalCharge (Personnel andAdministration) R Kushwaha,Executive Director (MaterialsManagement) VK Pandey,Executive Director (Works)Atanu Bhowmik, ExecutiveDirector (Finance & Accounts)DK Saha, Chief GeneralManagers including senior offi-cers of various departments,planning engineers and per-sonnel were present.

During the exhibitionorganized under the guidanceof VK Pandey and ChiefGeneral Manager (MaterialsManagement) FR Azmi, theemployees of various depart-ments have been able to iden-tify the items which have been

used in their stores for a longtime by using the Idol itemsfrom the Store Will be able toissue With the initiative of theWarehousing Department, it isestimated to save about fivecrore rupees from the issue offixed materials. Workers ofvarious departments of BSLwill enjoy the benefit of thisexhibition by the month of

February.General Manager (stores)

Shailesh Kumar, DeputyGeneral Manager (Stores)Mahendra Singh, DeputyGeneral Manager (Stores)SushantShishir and other offi-cers and employees of theStores Department contributedimmensely in organizing theexhibition.

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Ahead of the Assembly pollsdue in five States — Tamil

Nadu, West Bengal, Assam,Kerala and Puducherry — inApril-May this year, at least 52political outfits are knocking atthe door of the ElectionCommission ( EC) for regis-tration. As per the EC, morethan 52 political parties haveapproached the poll body forregistration in the past threemonth. Interestingly, over adozen outfits are from thosestates where assembly pollsare due in the coming months.

As per the Act, registrationof political parties is governedby the provisions of Section29A of the Representation ofthe People Act, 1951. An asso-ciation seeking registrationunder the said Section has tosubmit an application to theCommission within a period of30 days following the date of itsformation, as per the guidelinesprescribed by the Commissionin exercise of the powers con-ferred by Article 324 of theConstitution of India andSection 29A of theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, 1951.

According to the Electioncommission of India, for reg-istration, there must be at least100 members present in the

new political party. Each mem-ber of the proposed partyshould possess a Voter ID card.Possessing a Voter ID cardimplies that the particularmember is above the age of 18.

National Democratic Partyof South India is based inTamil Nadu. Bharath SocialismParty’s office is located in TamilNadu and its president is CArumugam. Bharatha MakkalKazhagam is also Tamil Nadubased political party. UnitedRepublican Party of India isalso office in Tamil Nadu.Bhartiya Yuva Ekta Shakti Partyis Uttarakhand based partyand Neha Singh is the presi-dent. Jan Pragati Party’s officeis located in Uttar Pradesh.Swatanta Abhivyakti Party isfrom Gujarat. Rashtra SamanyaPraja Party is from Telangana.Jan Sahara Party’s office is inDelhi. Rising People’s Partyoffice in Nagaland. PehchanPeople’s Party is based inRajasthan.

The political parties whichapplied for registration includeMakkal Munnetra Peravai,Nava Kerala People’s Party,Makkal Rajjiyam Katchi,Bhartiya Hind Party, PrajaShakti Democratic Party,Bhagidari Party (P), SarvlokhitSamaj Party, Apni Janta Party,Makkal Thilagam MunnetraKazhagam, Vastavik Bharat

Party, Sudharvadi Party, KisanVishwa party, Majaloom SamajParty, Bahujan Lokrajya Party.

The number of registeredunrecognised political partieshas increased two-fold from2010 to 2019, according to areport by Association forDemocratic Reforms (ADR).From 1,112 such parties in2010, the number of unrecog-nised registered parties hasincreased to 2,301 in 2019.“Between 2018 and 2019, itincreased by over 9.8 per centwhile between 2013 and 2014,it increased by 18 per cent,” thereport said. Either newly reg-istered parties or those whichhave not secured enough per-centage of votes in the assem-bly or general elections tobecome a state party, or thosewhich have never contestedelections since being regis-tered are considered unrecog-nised parties.

Experts claim there aredifferent reasons for the mush-rooming of such parties. Peoplehave political ambitions and it’squite easy to register politicalparties. This is why so manysuch parties register. Besidesthese parties might also beused for money laundering asthey are exempted fromincome tax

Besides, Bharat VaibhavParty, Samajwadi Lok Parishad,Indian Movement Party,Sangjukta Anchalik Dal Asom,Krantikari Parivartan Party,Uttarakhand Navnirman Party,Azad Hind Krantikari Party,Bihar Justice Party , SudharvadiParty, Kisan Vishwa party,Majaloom Samaj Party,Bahujan Lokrajya Party,Bhagidari Party (P), SarvlokhitSamaj Party, Apni Janta Party,Makkal Thilagam MunnetraKazhagam and Vastavik BharatParty applied for registration.

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Persons in illegal occupationof Government or pan-

chayat land cannot claim reg-ularisation as a matter of right,the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices D YChandrachud and M R Shahsaid regularisation of the ille-gal occupation of Governmentor panchayat land can only beas per the policy of the stategovernment and the condi-tions stipulated in the rules.

The top court was hearinga plea filed by residents ofSarsad village in Tehsil Gohanain Haryana’s Sonepat districtwho encroached upon pan-chayat land and constructedhouses.

The Haryana Governmentin 2000 framed a policy regard-ing sale of panchayat land inunauthorised possession out-side ‘Abadi Deh’ (the residen-tial area of a revenue estate).

Haryana also amended thePunjab Village CommonLands (Regulation) Rules, 1964and issued a notification in2008.

Thereafter, in 2008, Rule12(4) was incorporated in the1964 Rules in terms of the noti-fication dated January 3, 2008,which authorises GramPanchayat to sell its non- cul-tivable land in Shamlat Deh(vacant land) to the inhabitantsof the village who have con-

structed their houses on orbefore March 31, 2000.

The petitioners in thiscase, who were in illegal pos-session of the land belongingto Gram Panchayat, made anapplication under Rule 12(4) ofthe Punjab Village CommonLands (Regulation) Rules,1964.

The DeputyCommissioner, Sonepat onperusal of the record and thesite report, rejected their appli-cation holding that as theapplicants are in illegal occu-pation of the area more thanthe required area up to a max-imum of 200 square yards, theyare not entitled to the benefitof Rule 12(4).

The Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court dismissed a writpetition challenging the orderpassed by the authority.

The apex court held thecompetent authority as well asthe high court both are justi-

fied in taking the view that asthe respective petitioners are inillegal occupation of the areamore than the required area upto a maximum of 200 squareyards, they are not entitled tothe benefit of Rule 12(4).

“It is required to be notedthat the persons in illegaloccupation of the GovernmentLand/Panchayat Land cannot,as a matter of right, claim reg-ularisation.

“Regularisation of the ille-gal occupation of theGovernment Land/PanchayatLand can only be as per thepolicy of the State Governmentand the conditions stipulatedin the Rules,” the bench said.

The top court said that ifit is found that the conditionsstipulated for regularisationhave not been fulfilled, suchpersons in illegal occupation ofthe government or panchayatland are not entitled to regu-larisation.

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Ahead of the nationwide‘chakka jam’ called by the

farmer unions protesting theCentre’s new agri laws,Congress leader RahulGandhi on Saturday said thepeaceful ‘satyagraha’ of the‘annadatas’ is in nationalinterest as the farm laws are“harmful” for the country.

Farmer unions had onMonday announced a coun-trywide ‘chakka jam’ onFebruary 6 during which theywould block national andstate highways between 12noon and 3 pm to protest theinternet ban in areas neartheir agitation sites, harass-ment allegedly meted out to

them by authorities, and otherissues.

“The peaceful satyagrahaof annadatas is in nationalinterest —these three lawsare not just harmful for farm-ers-labourers, but also for thepeople and the country. Fullsupport!” Gandhi said in atweet in Hindi.

Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraalso slammed theGovernment over the farmers issue by posting onTwitter a picture of the multi-layered barricading atone of the farmer protestsites.

“Why do you scare by thewall of fear?” she tweetedalong with the picture.

The Congress had onFriday extended support tothe countrywide ‘chakka jam’cal led by the farmer unions, saying party workerswill stand shoulder to shoul-der with farmers in theirprotest.

Thousands of farmershave been protesting at Delhi’sborders with Haryana and Uttar Pradeshdemanding the rollback of theFarmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotionand Facilitation) Act, 2020,the Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreementon Price Assurance and FarmServices Act, 2020 and theEssential Commodities(Amendment) Act, 2020.

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En t r e p r e n e u r - a u t h o rSangeet Paul Choudary

explains the importance ofplatform business models, theforces that power their rapidscale and the factors that willcement their dominance in apost-pandemic world in hisnew book.

“Platform Scale: For aPost-Pandemic World”explains the inner workings ofplatform business models andtheir ability to scale rapidly.

The book tells how thedecade leading up to theCOVID-19 pandemic wit-nessed the rise of platformbusiness models as they drovestock market gains and extend-ed their influence across eco-nomic and political activity.

The pandemic has accelerated these platforms further, it says, adding Apple,Google, Alibaba and Amazonhave made strong inroads intothe health-care industry.

The book, published byPenguin Random House India,serves as a maker’s manual,helping executives design andbuild platforms, and providesa lens to analyse the shifts currently underway and theirimplications for future plat-form-scale businesses.

The first edition of“Platform Scale” was pub-lished in 2015 and it was anoutcome of this growing fas-cination to unpack the innerworkings of business modelsin a networked world. Thisn e wedition significantly updates the original text andthesis to help executivesunderstand the ever-increasingimportance of platform scalein a post-pandemic world.

According to Choudary,author of “PlatformRevolution” and founder ofPlatformation Labs, as wemove towards a post-pan-demic world, digital plat-forms are increasingly medi-ating economic and socialinteract

“Their growing influence- in terms of wealth creation for their shareholders,but more importantly in termsof the positive and negativeimpact they have on all of their other stakeholders - isone of the defining shifts ofour time,” he writes.

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Ahacker group has alleged-ly leaked data of Army per-

sonnel using Bharti Airtel net-work in Jammu & Kashmir,however, the company hasdenied any breach in its system.

The group, with the nameof Red Rabbit Team, hackedsome Indian websites and post-ed the data on the web pages ofthose portals.

The hackers shared somelinks of those web pages onTwitter in a comment over atweet of cyber securityresearcher RajshekharRajaharia and tagged severalmedia organisations.

The query sent to theIndian Army did not elicit anyreply but an Army official said“We are not aware of any suchinformation but it appears to be

malicious intent of some inim-ical elements”.

When contacted, BhartiAirtel spokesperson denied anybreach of its server.

“We can confirm there isno hack or breach of any Airtelsystem as claimed by this group.Multiple stakeholders outside ofAirtel have access to some dataas per regulatory requirements.We have apprised all the rele-vant authorities of the matter to,therefore, investigate this andtake appropriate action.”

“This group has been intouch with our security teamfor over 15 months now and hasmade varying claims in addi-tion to posting inaccurate datafrom one specific region,” thespokesperson said.

The links shared by thehacker were initially accessiblewith mobile number, nameand address of subscribers but

stopped working after some-time.

Red Rabbit Team in a mes-sage to PTI claimed that it hasaccess to pan-India data ofBharti Airtel through a shelluploaded on the company’sserver and will leak more datasoon.

Rajaharia said that hackershave failed to show any credi-ble evidence of possessing pan-India data of Bharti Airtel andit is also unclear on the way theygot subscriber’s data.

“The hacker group failed toshow evidence that they have awhole India database. Theirclaim of shell upload may bealso fake. The video of SDRportal seems real but only ashort portion of data may leakvia this. It is still unclear howthey got access to whole Jammu

and Kashmir subscriberdata,” he said.

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SARS-CoV-2 mutations sim-ilar to those in the new UK

variant could arise in cases ofchronic infection, where treat-ment over an extended periodcan provide the virus multipleopportunities to evolve, scien-tists have said.

Writing in Nature, a teamled by Cambridge researcherssaid they were able to observeSARS-CoV-2 mutating in thecase of an immune-compro-mised patient treated with con-valescent plasma. In particular,they saw the emergence of a keymutation also seen in the newvariant that led to the UK beingforced once again into strictlockdown, though there is nosuggestion that the variant orig-inated from this patient.

Using a synthetic version ofthe virus Spike protein createdin the lab, the team showed thatspecific changes to its geneticcode - the mutation seen in theB1.1.7 variant - made the virustwice as infectious on cells as themore common strain.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus thatcauses COVID-19, is a beta-coronavirus. Its RNA - its genet-ic code - is comprised of a seriesof nucleotides (chemical struc-tures represented by the lettersA, C, G and U). As the virusreplicates itself, this code can bemis-transcribed, leading toerrors, known as mutations.Coronaviruses have a relative-

ly modest mutation rate ataround 23 nucleotide substitu-tions per year.

Of particular concern aremutations that might change thestructure of the ‘spike protein’,which sits on the surface of thevirus, giving it its characteristiccrown-like shape. The virususes this protein to attach to theACE2 receptor on the surface ofthe host’s cells, allowing it entryinto the cells where it hijackstheir machinery to allow it toreplicate and spread throughoutthe body. Most of the currentvaccines in use or being trialledtarget the spike protein andthere is concern that muta-tions may affect the efficacy ofthese vaccines, they said.

Professor Ravi Gupta fromthe Cambridge Institute ofTherapeutic Immunology &Infectious Disease, who led theresearch, said: “What we wereseeing was essentially a compe-tition between different variantsof the virus, and we think it wasdriven by the convalescent plas-ma therapy.

“This effect is unlikely tooccur in patients with func-tioning immune systems, whereviral diversity is likely to belower due to better immunecontrol. But it highlights the carewe need to take when treatingimmunocompromised patients,where prolonged viral replica-tion can occur, giving greateropportunity for the virus tomutate.”

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday hailed

the country’s judiciary, sayingthat it has performed its dutywell in safeguarding people’srights, upholding personalliberty, and also in the situa-tions when national interestsneed to be prioritised.

He also said that theSupreme Court has conduct-ed the highest number ofhearings via video-confer-encing in the world during thecoronavirus pandemic.

Modi was speaking aftervirtually releasing a com-memorative postage stampon the completion of 60 yearsof the Gujarat High Court.

“Every countryman cansay that our judiciary hasworked with firmness to

uphold our Constitution. Ourjudiciary has strengthenedthe Constitution by its positiveinterpretation,” Modi said.

“The Supreme Court hasconducted the highest numberof hearings through video-conferencing in the worldduring the pandemic,” he

added.Judiciary has performed

its duty well in terms of safeguarding the rights of thepeople, upholding personal liberty and whenever suchsituations have arisen in whichnational interests need to beprioritised, the PM said.

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Ateam of scientists from theIndian Institute of

Technology (IIT) Kanpur hasfound that Ganga river can getrid of the heavy metal pollutionby a minimum of 50 per centin a short time span of a fewmonths if industrial waste-water discharge is cut down for51 days.

In contrast, inputs fromagricultural runoff and domes-tic sewage like nitrate and phos-phate remained almost thesame as these sources were notimpacted by the nationwideconfinement.

Based on these observation,they dismissed the general per-ception that the Covid-19 pan-demic induced lockdownimproved all water quality para-meters of the Ganga river andinstead asserted that the dif-ferent pollutants should be con-sidered individually.

Researchers in their article,

titled “A Time-Series Recordduring COVID-19 LockdownShows the High Resilience ofDissolved Heavy Metals in theGanga River,” said that theycould quantify the impact ofrestricted anthropogenic activ-ities on the water chemistryresilience of large rivers fol-lowing Covid-19 induced lock-down with minimal humanaction.

In the normal times, it is

estimated that industrial waste-water contributes nearly 20 percent of the total volume ofwastewater generated in theGanga Basin.

The research was support-ed by the Indo-U.S. Science andTechnology Forum (IUSSTF),a bilateral organization underthe Department of Science andTechnology (DST) and U.S.Department of States. It is pub-lished in ‘Environmental

Science and Technology Letters.“We therefore conclude

that the Ganga river has a highresilience toward dissolvedheavy metal concentrations andthat the river system wouldrevert toward pristine dissolvedheavy metal concentrations ina short time span of a fewmonths following reductions ofindustrial wastewater dis-charge,” said the team of scien-tists comprising Tanuj Shukla,Indra S Sen, Soumita Boral andSanjeet Sharma.

“We further emphasise thatCovid-19 lockdown improvedonly the dissolved heavy metalload of the Ganga river, and notall the vital parameters of riverwater quality, as claimed previ-ously,” they added.

“Therefore, the statementthat the Covid-19 pandemicimproved all water quality para-meters of the Ganga river isincorrect, and the different pol-lutants should be consideredindividually,” the scientistsasserted.

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Union Minister of State forCulture and Tourism,

Prahlad Singh Patel co-chairedthe 8th Meeting of ASEAN-India Tourism Ministers withhis Cambodian counterpartDr Thong Khon through videoconferencing on Friday, a state-ment from the ministry said.The meeting was in conjunc-tion with the 24th Meeting ofASEAN Tourism Ministers (M-ATM).

At the outset, the ministersexpressed their sympathy forthe loss of lives and livelihoodfor people in the region as aresult of the COVID-19 glob-al pandemic. The ministersreiterated the need for cooper-ative efforts in mitigating theimpact of the pandemic on thetourism sector.

Patel appreciated the effortsof the Prime Minister for notonly containing the COVID-19pandemic but also lending ahelping hand to other countriesby supplying medicines andmedical equipments.

Patel highlighted India’shistorical and cultural linkswith ASEAN countries andreiterated that ASEAN is a keymarket for Buddhist Tourismin India which generates majortourist traffic for the BuddhistCircuit, and the Ministry of

Tourism has substantiallyinvested to upgrade infra-structure in the circuit.

The Ministry of Tourismorganises the InternationalBuddhist Conclave (IBC) tocreate awareness about India’sBuddhist Heritage and toincrease foreign tourist trafficto Buddhist sites and invitedthe ASEAN member countriesto participate in the same asand when held.

Patel talked about theimportance of wellness andmedical tourism and empha-sized that India is emerging asa preferred country for medicaltreatments due to advancedquality healthcare, affordablecosts, lesser waiting time andeasy medical visa process.

He also touched upon theministry’s road map to revivetourism activities post Covid byhighlighting initiatives such as

SAATHI (System forAssessment, Awareness &Training for HospitalityIndustry) and the IncredibleIndia Tourist Facilitator (IITF)Certification Programme, anonline learning platform withthe objective of creating a poolof well trained and profession-al tourist facilitators across thecountry.

The initiative by Ministryof Tourism to organize a seriesof webinars under the themeDekho Apna Desh to showcasethe diverse culture, heritage,undiscovered destinations andunusual facets of populartourist spots has become verypopular, the minister said.

He expressed satisfactionover the deliberations and saidhe looked forward to strength-ening the ASEAN-India part-nership and cooperation intourism.

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Anumber of UnionMinisters and other BJP

leaders on Saturday addressedPress conferences across thecountry and many others willdo so in the coming days asthe ruling party launched anationwide campaign to high-light various aspects of the“pro-people” Budget.

In Andhra Pradesh,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar said the Modi gov-ernment has given priority tothe health and welfare mea-sures following the COVID-19 outbreak while MinorityAffairs Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi said the budget aims to ensureempowerment of all sectionsof society while boosting‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ exer-cise.

BJP’s chief spokespersonAnil Baluni said Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman and Informationand Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekarwill speak to reporters inMumbai and Pune respec-tively on Sunday.

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Punjab & Sind Bank onSaturday said its net loss in

December quarter 2020-21 spi-ralled to �2,375.53 crore onhigher provisions for bad loans.

The lender had posted anet loss of �255.49 crore in thesame period a year ago. InSeptember quarter also, thebank had a loss of �401.27crore.

Total income in the quar-ter under review also fell to�1,982.52 crore from � 2,077.01crore in the same period of2019-20, Punjab & Sind Banksaid in a regulatory filing.

Net income fell 9.1 percent to �1,763.10 crore andincome on investments wasdown 12.1 per cent to �455.42crore.

The bank's gross non-per-forming assets (NPAs)remained high at 13.14 per centof the gross advances as ofDecember 31, 2020, comparedto 13.58 per cent by the year-ago same period.

In value terms, gross NPAsor bad loans stood at � 8,489.89crore by the end of December2020 as against �8,923.49 croreearlier.

Net NPAs came downsignificantly at 2.84 per cent(�1,638.25 crore) as against8.71 per cent (Rs 5,417.79crore). Provisions for badloans and contingenices spikedto Rs 2,924.69 crore during thequarter, as against Rs 494.30crore. Of this, provisions forbad loans were Rs 1482.17crore, which was higher thanRs 464.01 crore a year ago.

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Ahead of the assembly pollsinAssam, Union Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitharamanon Saturday distributed �3,000each to 7.47 lakh tea gardenworkers in the State, totalling� 224 crore.

The Union finance minis-ter was in the city to participatein the programme to offerfinancial assitance to tea work-ers under the third tranche ofthe Assam Chah Bagicha DhanPuraskar Mela Scheme.

Before 2014 Lok Sabhapolls, Narendra Modi ji hadwished to work for the uplift-ment of tea garden workers andaccordingly several schemeswere launched after the NDAcame to power, the Unionminister said.

As part of the third trancheof the flagship scheme, anadditional amount of �3,000each will be credited to thebank accounts of 7,46,667workers.

Each tea worker had ear-

lier received �5,000 in twophases.

The incentive was madethrough direct benefit transfer(DBT) mode to 6,33,411 bankaccounts of tea gardens in2017-18 and 7,15,979 accountsin 2018-19 across 752 tea gar-dens.

Sitharaman said, all mid-dlemen have been eliminatedwith introduction of the DBTmode in various schemes andthe Centre will continue to sup-port tea gardens in Assam infuture.

"PM Modi favoured usingtechnology for the benefit ofpeople while implementing theschemes and so the concept ofDBT was introduced. Due tothis, middlemen were totallyeliminated and the benefitsreached directly to the benefi-ciaries," she said.

Sitharaman said that theUnion budget for 2021-22 hasallocated Rs 1,000 crore for thewelfare of women and childrenof tea gardens in Assam andWest Bengal as per the request

of the BJP-led government inthe northeastern state.

"After bank accounts wereopened for tea garden labour-ers, some issues cropped up.But when I instructed thebankers in February last year tocorrect the anomalies theyworked tirelessly, even duringthe COVID-19 crisis, andeverything is on track now," shesaid.

Speaking on the occasion,Assam Finance MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma saidthat Rs 224 crore will be spenton transferring the thirdtranche of the scheme to thebeneficiaries.

"We spent Rs 158 crore inthe first year and it increased toRs 202 crore during the secondyear.

The scheme won't stophere at Rs 3,000 each as we havealready begun the process tosend such an amount everymonth," he added.

Elections to the 126-mem-ber Assam Assembly are due inMarch-April this year.

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The National Bank forAgriculture and Rural

Development (Nabard) onSaturday said it has sanctioned�30,200 crore and disbursed �16,500 crore for various ruralinfrastructure projects acrossthe country under the RuralInfrastructure DevelopmentFund (RIDF) in the first 10months of the current financialyear.

The RIDF, which was setup in 1995, is a dedicated fundto create social assets in ruralIndia.

"In FY21, the sanctions tothe RIDF stood at �30,200crore as against the corpus of�30,000 crore. The disburse-ment for the current financialyear as on January 31, 2021stands at �16,500 crore,"Nabard chairman G R Chintalasaid in a statement.

Since the inception of thefund, Nabard has disbursed�3.11 lakh crore for differentrural infrastructure projects, itsaid.

Chintala said this fund has

constituted around 10 per centof gross capital formation inrural areas. Over the years,the RIDF has become adependable source of fundingfor states and union territoriesfor building.

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The start of vaccination dri-ves in several countries

globally along with higher fleetdeployment levels will sup-port the recovery of the airtransport sector in the comingmonths, India Ratings andResearch (Ind-Ra) said.

Accordingly, the agency'sIndia logistics sector reportsaid: "While passenger num-bers for airlines are still downon a YoY basis, the start of vac-cination drives in several coun-tries globally and the Indiangovernment allowing 80 percent of fleet to be deployed arekey positives recently."

"While both these devel-opments should be supportiveof a recovery in operating cash

flow and liquidity in comingmonths, this will likely be off-set at least partly by ongoinghigher fuel prices."

According to the report,since resumption of opera-tions on May 25th, domestic airtraffic continued to sequentiallyimprove in December 2020.

The domestic passengertraffic rose 15 per cent MoM inDecember 2020, although wasdown 43 per cent YoY.

"In the domestic opera-tions, passenger load factorstood at 65-78 per cent during

December 2020.""However, approval for

vaccines and governmentsundertaking vaccination drivesin major countries will likelyraise consumer confidence inair travel and be supportive ofa recovery over the mediumterm."

On an overall basis, inDecember 2020, key metricsfor the wider logistics sectorcontinued to report a sequen-tial recovery.

"India's port volumes grew4 percent YoY, while E-way billgeneration increased 16 percent YoY during the month."

"Railway volumes also rose9 per cent YoY in December2020, though they remaineddown 2 per cent YoY in April-December 2020."

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The large fiscal deficit thathas been proposed in

Union Budget 2021-22 couldbe inflationary in nature butnot an immediate threat, saidCrisil Research.

Accordingly, the budgethas replaced fiscal consolida-tion as a priority with expan-sion, well into the mediumterm.

Besides, the fiscal glidepath "itself has become foot-loose" with a deficit at 9.5 percent for FY21, 6.8 per cent inFY22 and 4.5 per cent by fiscal2026.

"A large fiscal deficit couldbe inflationary but given thereare under-utilised capacitiesand the economy continues togrow below potential, this maynot be an immediate threat,"Crisil Research said in a note.

"But sticky inflation, espe-cially core, and surplus liquid-ity sloshing around can poten-

tially breed trouble."In terms of the growth,

Crisil Research said the thruston public investment will bepositive for growth, not only inthe short but also the mediumterm as it has a higher multi-plier effect than revenue spend-ing and augurs well for jobs.

Besides, the note said thequality of expenditure isimproving, with capex risingand revenue expenditure stay-ing below trend.

"Receipts, on the otherhand, are estimated to remain27 per cent below the trend infiscal 2022. To be fair, this alsopartly reflects the somewhatconservative revenue targetsfor fiscal 2022."

"Government revenue, par-ticularly tax collections, go updue to either base effect or rateeffect.

Nominal gross domesticproduct (GDP) in fiscal 2022 isestimated at 10 per cent belowthe trend seen before the pan-

demic."According to Crisil

Research, the government, forgood reasons, has also notintroduced tax proposals. Thus,while the base has shrunk,rates have not changed.

"This will lead to under-performance of revenue con-tinuing beyond fiscal 2022,unless compliance goes upsubstantially."

In addition, the note citedoff-budget expenditures such asFood Corporation of India'sloans from the National SmallSavings Fund and govern-ment's fully serviced bondswill now be accounted forwhen calculating the fiscaldeficit.

"Excluding these two items,the fiscal deficit could havebeen lower by 0.5-1 per cent infiscal 2021 and 0.6 per cent infiscal 2022. That is to say, in themore transparent schema, thefiscal consolidation path maystretch longer."

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The Union Budget 2020-21proposal to reduce cus-

toms duty on gold and silverwill curtail the increasing trendof smuggling of these preciousmetals in the country, IndiaRatings and Research has said.

Accordingly, the Budgethas proposed to reduce the cus-toms duty on gold and silver to7.5 per cent from 12.5 per cent.

"The move will alsoimprove the government'soverall revenue from the sec-tor," Ind-Ra said in a report.

"The duty reduction willsupport sectoral demand in thelong term, as jewellery costswill come down and customers'purchasing power willimprove."According to thereport, the erstwhile duty struc-ture gave incentives for goldsmuggling into India.

In July 2019, as part of therevenue-raising budget, thecustoms duty on import of goldwas increased to 12.5 per cent

from 10 per cent.As per Ind-Ra's estimates,

unofficial imports of gold rangebetween 150-180 tonnes com-pared to the official goldimport numbers of 600-700tonnes for FY20.

"Ind-Ra believes thatreduction in import duty thusis favourable for the domesticorganised jewellery players."

"The move will alsoimprove the government'soverall revenue from the sector.The duty reduction will sup-port sectoral demand in thelong term, as jewellery costswill come down and customers'purchasing power willimprove."

Besides, the report saidthe majority of the gold jew-ellery demand in India is pricesensitive."Overall demand stallsfor any sharp rise in goldprices. Consequently, amid asharp rise in gold prices, rev-enue for the top organisedplayers declined by average 32per cent YoY in 1HFY21."

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Four more States - Assam,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh

and Punjab have undertaken"Ease of Doing Business"reforms stipulated by thefinance ministry.

With this, these States havebecome eligible to mobiliseadditional financial resourcesand have been granted per-mission to raise additional�5,034 crore through OpenMarket Borrowings.

The total number of statethat have undertaken the stip-ulated reforms to facilitate easeof doing business has gone upto 12.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu and Telanganahave also reported completion

of this reform, which was con-firmed by the Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT).

On completion of reformsfacilitating ease of doing busi-ness, these twelve states havebeen granted additional bor-rowing permission of Rs 28,183crore.

The ease of doing businessis an important indicator of theinvestment friendly businessclimate in the country.Improvements in the ease ofdoing business will enablefaster future growth of thestate economy, a finance min-istry statement said.

Government in May lastyear had decided to link grantof additional borrowing per-missions to states that under-take the reforms to facilitateease of doing business.

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Petrol and diesel price risewent on the pause mode on

Saturday after two consecutivedays of sharp increase wherepump price of the auto fuelsrose by 65 paise per litre.

The pause came on a daywhen global crude prices roseby close to 1 per cent to reachthis years' high level of $60 abarrel.

Petrol, diesel and other oilproduct prices in India aredetermined on the basis ofpetroleum product price inthe global markets and notcrude price. But movement inbenchmark crude has a bearingon pricing across the productcategories.

With price on the pause on

Saturday, the retail price ofdiesel remained at Rs 77.13 alitre in Delhi while petrol pricesremained at new high level ofRs 86.95 a litre in the capital.The retail price of the twoproducts had risen on February4 and 5, increasing the pricesby 65 paise per litre.

Across the country as well,the fuel prices remained atFriday's level.

Though firm global crudeand product price is the reasonfor the increase in retail priceof petrol and diesel in past days,it is interesting to note that eventhough crude has been hover-ing just over $55 a barrel for along time, OMCs had gone infor both a pause in price of autofuels as well increase in its retailprices on consecutive days.

Crude price have remainedfirm for last few weeks in wakeof unilateral production cutsannounced by Saudi Arabiaand a pick up in consumptionin all major economies global-ly.The petrol and diesel priceshave increased 12 times in2021 with the two auto fuelsincreasing by Rs 3.24 and Rs3.26 per litre respectively so farthis year.

The last few increases inpump prices in petrol anddiesel has taken its price torecord levels across the coun-try in all major metro cities andother towns. The last time theretail price of auto fuels werecloser to current levels was onOctober 4, 2018 when crudeprices had shot up at $80 a bar-rel.

Ghaziabad: At present, about355 acres of GDA land in themetropolis is occupied by theland mafia. The GDA admin-istration has prepared a blue-print to get this land occupied.To mark the land, the landacquisition department ofGDA is presently engaged inscrutinizing the land records.After the land washout fromthe occupation of landfields,the GDA will create a landbank where the entire record ofthe land will be kept with due

diligence. After this land will beused in various schemes ofGhaziabad. The GDA is churn-ing with its subordinate officersto washout the land with theuse of land and occupation ofland mafia. In this regard,GDA Vice President KrishnaKarunesh has issued instruc-tions to the Engineers of GDAEnforcement Zone EngineeringDivision to instruct them thatnot even one inch of GDA landshould be in the possession ofmafias.

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Washington: The impeach-ment trial of Donald Trump ismore than an effort to convictthe former president of incitingan insurrection. It’s a chance fora public accounting andremembrance of the worstattack on the US Capitol in 200years.

In the month since the Jan.6 siege by a pro-Trump mob,encouraged by his call to “fightlike hell” to overturn the elec-tion, defenders of the formerpresident say it’s time to moveon.

Trump is long gone,ensconced at his Mar-a-Lagoclub, and Democrat Joe Bidenis the new president in theWhite House. With the trial setto begin Tuesday, and a super-majority of senators unlikely toconvict him on the singlecharge, the question arises:Why bother? Yet for manylawmakers who were witness-es, onlookers and survivors ofthat bloody day, it’s not over.

One by one, lawmakershave begun sharing personalaccounts of their experiences ofthat harrowing afternoon.

Some were in the Capitol flee-ing for safety, while otherswatched in disbelief from adja-cent offices. They tell of hidingbehind doors, arming them-selves with office supplies andfearing for their lives as therioters stalked the halls, pur-sued political leaders andtrashed the domed icon ofdemocracy.

“I never imagined whatwas coming,” said Rep. MarkTakano, D-Calif., recounted ina speech on the House floor.

Memory is a powerful tool,and their remembrances,alongside the impeachmentproceedings, will preserve apublic record of the attack forthe Congressional Record.

Five people died and morethan 100 people have beenarrested in a nationwide FBIroundup of alleged ringleadersand participants, a dragnetunlike many in recent times.While that is sufficient forsome, assured the perpetratorswill be brought to justice, oth-ers say the trial will forceCongress, and the country, toconsider accountability. AP

Cairo: Aid agencies working inwar-torn Yemen on Saturdaywelcomed plans by PresidentJoe Biden’s administration torevoke the terrorist designationof Yemen’s Houthi rebels inorder to mitigate one of theworld’s worst humanitariandisasters.

David Miliband, head ofthe International RescueCommittee, said thoe designa-tion would have done nothingto address terrorism in theArab world’s poorest country,and would only hinder much-needed aid deliveries toYemenis living in Houthi-heldareas.

“This is a further, vital, cor-rect decision to bring hope toYemen’s crisis-stricken popu-lation,” he said. “The next steps

are to raise aid flows, negotiatea permanent cease-fire, and getthe diplomatic process movingto establish a sustainable polit-ical settlement.”

For years, the Iranian-backed Houthis have ruled thecapital and Yemen’s northwhere the majority of the pop-ulation lives, forcing interna-tional aid groups to work withthem. Agencies depend on theHouthis to deliver aid, and theypay salaries to Houthis to do so.

Mohamed Abdi, Yemendirector for the NorwegianRefugee Council, said themove represents a “sigh ofrelief and a victory for theYemeni people,” that sends a“strong message” that the USCares first about the interestsof Yemenis. AP

United Nations: In a first con-tact between the UN andMyanmar Army since generalsseized power in a bloodlesscoup, the Secretary General’sspecial envoy on Myanmarspoke with the country’s deputymilitary chief and expressed“strong condemnation” of itsaction and called for the imme-diate release of all detainedleaders.

Special Envoy of theSecretary-General onMyanmar, Christine SchranerBurgener, spoke overnight withDeputy Commander-in-ChiefVice-General Soe Win in cap-ital Nay Pyi Taw, StephaneDujarric, Spokesman forSecretary-General AntonioGuterres, told reporters at thedaily press briefing on Friday.

Through the virtual meet-ing with the DeputyCommander-in-Chief of thearmed forces of Myanmar,Burgener “reiterated theSecretary-General’s strong con-demnation of the military’saction that disrupted the demo-cratic reforms that were takingplace in the country,” Dujarricsaid.

Dujarric said Burgener alsoreiterated her call for the imme-diate release of all detained per-sons.

She emphasised the need toadvance progress on key areas

on the safe, dignified, voluntaryand sustainable repatriation ofthe Rohingya refugees, thepeace process, accountabilityand particularly engaging withthe International Court ofJustice (ICJ) on the ongoingcase.

Dujarric added thatBurgener and the deputy mil-itary chief had “quite a long”and “a very important” con-versation since it was the firstcontact the UN had with themilitary authorities since thecoup on February 1.

The 15-nation SecurityCouncil, the most powerfulorgan of the world organisa-tion, issued a press statementThursday on the situation inMyanmar three days after themilitary seized power in theSoutheast Asian nation.

The Council membersexpressed “deep concern” at thedeclaration of the state of emer-gency imposed in Myanmar bythe military on February 1 andthe arbitrary detention of mem-bers of the Government, includ-ing State Counsellor Aung SanSuu Kyi and President WinMyint and others.

“They called for the imme-diate release of all thosedetained,” the press statementsaid.

Dujarric described theCouncil statement as a “very

positive first step” in terms ofa “unified” voice from theorganisation’s body entrustedwith keeping peace and secu-rity. He added that theSecretary General continuesto have various contacts and hisSpecial Envoy also continues tohave her contacts.

Burgener has spoken tovarious representatives of theASEAN (Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations),including the bloc’s Secretary-General to “ensure that we’re allworking with the same goal.”

As the Security Councildeliberated a statement on thesituation in Myanmar, India

played the role of an “impor-tant bridge” among variousviews and engaged very con-structively to ensure a “bal-anced” outcome that stronglyunderlined the importance ofthe democratic process andtransition while not being con-demnatory in nature, sourceshave said.

An initial draft statement,prepared by the Council pres-ident for the month ofFebruary the UK, had called onthe Security Council membersto “condemn the military coup,”according to a report in thePolitico.

In the final Council state-

ment, the language waschanged to not have any men-tion of a coup.

India, into the secondmonth of its tenure as non-per-manent Council member,engaged “very constructively”during deliberations over thepress statement.

Sources told PTI that Indiaplayed the role of an “importantbridge”, bringing together vari-ous views and wanted to ensurean outcome which was bal-anced. It also wanted a statementwhich was not “condemnatory”in nature, but one which helpedthe process and not becomecounter-productive. PTI

Nairobi: Life for civilians inEthiopia’s embattled Tigrayregion has become “extremelyalarming” as hunger grows andfighting remains an obstacle toreaching millions of peoplewith aid, the United Nationssaid in a new report.

And the UN special advis-er on genocide preventionwarned Friday that withouturgent measures the risk ofatrocity crimes “remains highand likely to get worse.”

The conflict that has shak-en one of Africa’s most power-ful and populous countries —a key US security ally in theHorn of Africa — has killedthousands of people and isnow in its fourth month.

But little is known aboutthe situation for most ofTigray’s 6 million people, asjournalists are blocked fromentering, communications arepatchy and many aid workersstruggle to obtain permission toenter.

One challenge is thatEthiopia may no longer controlup to 40 per cent of the Tigrayregion, the UN SecurityCouncil was told in a closed-door session this week.

Ethiopia and allied fightershave been pursuing the now-fugitive Tigray regional gov-ernment that once dominatedEthiopia’s government for near-ly three decades. AP

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Beijing: In its first contactwith the Biden administra-tion, China on Saturday askedthe US to rectify the “mistakes”of former President DonaldTrump’s aggressive policiestowards Beijing and flaggedTaiwan as the most importantand sensitive core issue for it.

China resents US supportfor Taiwan, which Beijing viewsas a rebel province that must bereunified with the mainland,even by force.

During his tenure, Trumppushed aggressively on allaspects of US-China ties,including with his relentlesstrade war, challenging China’smilitary hold on the disputedSouth China Sea, its constantthreats to Taiwan, the massdetention of Uyghur Muslimsin Xinjiang, branding coron-avirus as “China virus” after itemerged from Wuhan inDecember 2019 as well asXinjiang and Tibet issues.

Newly-appointed USSecretary of State AntonyBlinken and senior Chinesediplomat Yang Jiechi onSaturday held what observershere say as blunt and outspo-ken conversation over thephone during which both sidessought to highlight the issues ofconcerns that will shape the tiesbetween the top two economiesof the world in the next fouryears.

Yang, a member of thePolitburo of the ruling

Communist Party of Chinaand director of the Office of theForeign Affairs Commission ofthe CPC, is Beijing’s point manfor Washington.

While Blinken told Yangthat the Biden administrationwill hold China accountable forits abuses of the internationalsystem and raised with him theissue of human rights violationsin Xinjiang, Tibet and HongKong and Myanmar, theChinese diplomat said bothsides should respect eachother’s core interests and choic-es of political system.

Yang said the US “shouldrectify its mistakes made overa period of time,” in an appar-ent reference to hardline poli-cies pursued by the Trumpadministration towards China,pushing the ties between thetwo countries to a new low.

He said the US shouldwork with China to uphold thespirit of no conflict, no con-frontation, mutual respect andwin-win cooperation.

The Taiwan question, themost important and sensitivecore issue in China-US rela-tions, bears on China’s sover-eignty and territorial integrity,state-run Xinhua news agencyquoted Yang as telling Blinken.

China considers Taiwan aspart of its mainland and appre-hends that the US is stepping itsengagement with Taipei withmilitary and political assistance.

The US should strictly

abide by the one-China prin-ciple, Yang said, adding thatHong Kong, Xinjiang andTibet-related affairs are allChina’s internal affairs andallow no interference by anyexternal forces.

Any attempt to slanderand smear China will not suc-ceed, and China will continueto firmly safeguard its sover-eignty, security and develop-ment interests, Yang said.

He urged the US to play aconstructive role in promotingpeace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region involving thedisputed South China Sea,where America looks to step upits engagement with allies tocontain Beijing.

China claims almost all ofthe 1.3 million square-mileSouth China Sea as its sover-eign territory. China has beenbuilding military bases on arti-ficial islands in the region alsoclaimed by Brunei, Malaysia,the Philippines, Taiwan andVietnam.

On the Myanmar coup,Blinken and Yang presenteddifferent views.

While Blinken condemnedthe military coup in Myanmarand threatened sanctionsagainst the military govern-ment, Yang stressed that theinternational communityshould create an enablingexternal environment for theproper settlement of theMyanmar issue. PTI

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Istanbul: Turkey’s presidenthas ordered the establishmentof two new departments in thecountry’s most prestigious uni-versity, which has been rockedby weeks of demonstrationsprotesting his appointment ofa new rector with governmentlinks.

President Recep TayyipErdogan’s decision, publishedin the Official Gazette Saturday,says law and communicationsfaculties are to be launched inBogazici University. Critics saythe establishment of newdepartments would allow thepresidentially appointed rectorto staff them with government

loyalists.For over a month, stu-

dents and faculty have ledmostly peaceful protestsagainst the new rector, MelihBulu, who has l inks toErdogan’s ruling party. Theyare calling for Bulu’s resigna-tion and for the university tobe allowed to elect its ownpresident.

In an open letter toErdogan, protesting Bogazicistudents called the decision toopen new departments intim-idation and “petty tricks.”

“Your attempts to pack ouruniversity with your own polit-ical militants is the symptom of

the political crisis you have fall-en into,” the letter said.

Police have detained hun-dreds of demonstrators at theuniversity and in solidarityprotests elsewhere, some takenaway following raids of theirhomes. Most were laterreleased.

Top government officialshave said terrorist groups areprovoking the protests, andErdogan has called the protest-ing students terrorists. Istanbulgovernor’s office press state-ments have listed detentionnumbers with alleged links tooutlawed leftist and Kurdishmilitant groups. AP

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China will provide 5,00,000doses of Covid-19 vac-

cines to Nepal on a grant basis,officials here said on Saturday,supplying the first batch of vac-cine aid for the Himalayannation.

During a telephonic con-versation with his Nepali coun-terpart Pradeep Gyawali onFriday evening, ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yiassured that China wouldaccord priority to Nepal in vac-cine cooperation, according toa press statement issued by theMinistry of Foreign Affairshere.

Wang announced that China will provide5,00,000 doses of Covid-19vaccine to Nepal on a grantbasis, it said.

According to a report bythe official Chinese newsagency Xinhua, during thephone conversation withGyawali, Wang said Chinaattaches great importance toNepal’s urgent need of Covid-19 vaccines and has decided toprovide the first batch of vac-cine aid for the country.

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Washington: President JoeBiden’s administration is mov-ing to revoke the designation ofYemen’s Houthis as a terroristgroup, citing the need to mitigateone of the world’s worst human-itarian disasters.

President Donald Trump’sadministration had branded theIranian-backed Houthis as aforeign terrorist organisation, amove that limited the provision

of aid to the beleaguered Yemenipeople, who have suffered undera yearslong civil war and famine.

A State Department officialconfirmed the move Friday aftermembers of Congress were noti-fied of the admin’s plans. Theofficial, who wasn’t authorizedto speak publicly and spoke oncondition of anonymity, said theremoval changed nothing aboutthe Biden administration’s views

of the Houthis, who have tar-geted civilians and kidnappedAmericans.

“Our action is due entirelyto the humanitarian conse-quences of this last-minute des-ignation from the prior admin,which the UN and humanitar-ian organisations have sincemade clear would acceleratethe world’s worst humanitariancrisis,” the official said. AP

Gaza City: The father of aPalestinian boy killed in anIsraeli missile strike in 2014expressed renewed hope forjustice Saturday after theInternational Criminal Courtpaved the way for a possiblewar crimes probe into Israelimilitary actions.

The court ruled Fridaythat its jurisdiction extends tothe territories occupied byIsrael in the 1967 Mideast war,including the Gaza Strip whereSubhi Bakr’s 10-year-old sonMohammed and three of theboy’s cousins were killed as theyplayed soccer on a beach.

“Better late than never,”said Bakr, walking Saturday onthe beach where the boys werekilled during the 2014 warbetween Israel and Gaza’srulers, the Islamic militantgroup Hamas.

The ICC ruling openedthe door for possible war crimesprobes into Israeli militaryactions during that war andIsraeli settlement constructionon war-won land. Hamas couldalso come under scrutiny forindiscriminate rocket fire intocivilian areas of Israel.

The international tribunal’schief prosecutor, FatouBensouda, has yet to launch anofficial investigation. In 2019,Bensouda said there was a“reasonable basis” to open awar crimes probe, but she

asked the court to determinewhether she has territorialjurisdiction before proceed-ing. That came after the five-year preliminary inquiry todetermine whether war crimeswere committed during the2014 fighting.

Hamas, which has ruledthe Gaza Strip since 2007, wel-comed the ICC’s finding, call-ing it “an important step”toward justice for thePalestinian people. HazemQassem, a Hamas spokesman,urged the court to take “prac-tical measures on the ground”to hold Israel accountable forwhat he said were its crimes.

Hamas declined to com-ment on the possibility that itcould also be the subject of anyfuture probe. Bakr, thebereaved father, is anxious tosee quick action by the court.

“The most important thingfor the investigation is to start;if it did not, then there is nojustice in the world,” he said.

The story of the Bakrcousins, who were all between10 and 11 years old, grabbedthe world’s attention as manyforeign journalists witnessedthe 2014 incident from theirseaside hotels. Images showedthe children desperately run-ning away from a jetty as themissile falls, and then the boysfalling to the ground one afterthe other. AP

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Skipper Joe Root con-tinued to torment theIndian spinners with a

majestic double centurythat placed England in acommanding position andscuttled home team’s

chances of enforcing afavourable result in the first

Test here on Saturday.England ended the day

two at an intimidating 555 foreight, built around Root’s 218that was result of a near nine-hour effort in which he faced 377balls.

Root became the first crick-eter to score a double hundred inhis 100th Test but more impor-tantly it was an innings that willbe archived for future genera-tions as a ready reference on how

to play spin on Indian pitches.The pace of his innings on

the second day was a bit in con-trast to how he played on the firstday when he was the enforcerand Dom Sibley the grafter.

On the second morning, itwas Ben Stokes who entered thestage and made it his own withbig hitting. He smashed 82 off118 balls with 10 fours andthree sixes and let Root rotate thestrike in their 124-run stand.

England didn’t declare afterbeing well past 500 which waslike driving home a point and pil-ing on the misery on an Indianteam which has now been shak-en up on a track where nothinghappened for two days.

While Root will be laudedfor sure for his second doublehundred in last three Test match-es, it was Stokes, whose counter-

attack deflated the home team.He started by coming down

and lofting RavichandranAshwin over long for a six andthen used the giant stride to slogsweep the senior off-spinnerfor a boundary.

In fact, Ashwin (2/132),who was brilliant over two days,was only a bit rattled whenStokes gave him the charge.

Although Root hit Ashwin fortwo sixes — the second onebringing up his fifth career dou-ble hundred for the Englandcaptain — it was Stokes whogave him and the other spinnersa big charge.

Also the only one whoplayed Ishant Sharma with somedegree of confidence was Stokes.While Root defended well

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against the veteran pacer, it wasStokes, whose on-drive andsquare drive off successive deliv-eries from the pacer did changehis skipper Virat Kohli’s facialcomplexion, which remainedgrumpy for the most part of theday.

Ishant (2/52) bowled as bestas he had in any unfavourableconditions, something that thescoreboard wouldn’t perhapstell.

The veteran of 98 Tests final-ly got a couple of wickets at thefag end of the day but his perfor-mance with old ball on one of theflattest tracks will be remem-bered for a long time.

But Ishant, Ashwin andJasprit Bumrah (2/81)’s goodwork was undone once again byrookie Washington Sundar.

And Shahbaz Nadeem(2/167) for all his experience atthe domestic level for a decadeand half, probably understoodthat he probably is a bit less-skilled when facing a team fullof quality players of spin.

His wickets column wouldread that he had got Stokes andRoot but it was well after theyhad accomplished what theyhad set out to do.

Root’s strike-rate againstpacers was in mid-30s andagainst spinners, it was in thehigh 70s, underlining his dom-inance against Washington andNadeem.

They gave away easy singlesand doubles to Root, who scored130 runs in singles, doubles andthat odd triple apart from hitting19 boundaries and two sixes.

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Former captain Steve Smithclaimed his third Allan

Border Medal while BethMooney bagged her maidenBelinda Clarke Award, thetop two honours of theAustralian Cricket Awards.

Smith was honoured forhis performances in all threeformats of the game, whileMooney bagged the recogni-tion in the Australianwomen's game for the firsttime.

The awards were decidedby a voting process for theperiod 2020-21.

Smith was surprised toreceive the honour, insistingthat he felt his poor outing inthe Test series against Indiahad ruined his chances ofwinning the award.

"It's a great thrill, plenty ofhard work has gone into it(but) I didn't expect it; Ithought Marnus(Labuschagne) or PatCummins were the front run-ners because they both hadexceptional years," he said.

"I didn't feel I had thebiggest Test summer, whichnormally holds the most votes.I think my one-day cricketwas pretty good last summer.

"I'm just really honouredto have won my third ABMedal and hopefully I cankeep producing results forAustralia," he added.

It was double celebrationfor Smith as he also won themen's ODI Player of the Yearwith 28 votes ahead of Finch(23) and leg-spinner AdamZampa (19).

Smith amassed 568 runs

at 63.11 with centuries inBengaluru and twice at theSCG within three days, aswell as a knock of 98 inRajkot.

Ashton Agar bagged themen's T20 Player of the Year,beating fellow leg-spinnerZampa and Finch.

Flamboyant open DavidWarner won the Allan BorderMedal last year, while all-rounder Ellyse Perry hadclaimed the Belinda ClarkAward.

Smith scored 1,098 runs atan average of 45.75 across allthree formats during the peri-od 2020-21, which was severe-ly affected by the Covid-19.

Smith hit four fifties andfour centuries, with a topscore of 131 in an ODI againstIndia. With 126 votes in hiskitty, the right-hander He

edged out Pat Cummins (117votes) and limited-overs skip-per Aaron Finch (97).

Mooney, who polled 60votes, edged out Meg Lanning(58) by just two votes to takethe honour, with GeorgiaWareham (50) finishing third.

The duo received theirmedals at home — Mooneyon the Gold Coast and Smithin Sydney.

Money is the ninthAustralian woman cricketer towin the award since its intro-duction in 2002.

The 27-year-old left-han-der batswoman also won thewomen's T20 Player of theYear award.

Cummins won the Testplayer of the year award with16 votes ahead of JoshHazlewood's and MarnusLabuschagne.

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England’s James Vince blast-ed 95 and later took a cru-

cial catch as the Sydney Sixersdowned the Perth Scorchersfor their third t it le inAustralia’s Big Bash final inSydney on Saturday.

Vince’s fireworks pro-pelled the Sixers to 188/6 andthey restricted the Scorchersto 161/9 to win by 27 runs.

Coming on the back of anunbeaten 98 against theScorchers, Vince again blitzedthe Scorchers’ bowling, sur-viving two dropped catches inthe 80s before he was dis-missed just five short of a cen-tury in the Sixers 188 for six.

Vince crowned his nightwith a sensational diving catchat short extra cover to dismissbig-hitting Mitch Marsh for 11and put the defending cham-pion Sixers firmly on top inthe 15th over.

Vince earlier overcamethe unsettling run out ofopening batting partner JoshPhilippe for nine in a hugemix-up.

He failed to make contactand retreated back to hiscrease while Philippe chargeddown the pitch leaving bothbatsmen at the same end.

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Long before the COVID-19 pandemicupended businesses and daily lives, aradically different family of technolo-gies had been set in motion. Thesetechnologies, then nascent, showed

much promise in changing how things can bedone and how lives can be led. Now, fast-for-ward into the pandemic world, these technolo-gies are ushering in a digital-first attitudeamong companies and users.

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learn-ing (ML), blockchain, robots, drones, and theInternet of Things (IoT) are a few of the found-ing members of the family of new-age technolo-gies (NATs). These NATs are located at theintersection of business and human lives there-by transforming our world right in front of usin ways, in which we cannot entirely foresee.Yet, we can see them in action in many spheresof our lives. Let us meet two of these technolo-gies making an impact on business and society.

����������� �����������Sample this. When searching for informa-

tion, our first stop inevitably is Google. And inmost cases, the search results yield us what weare looking for, or at least point us in the rightdirection. What if, Google knew exactly whatwe want, the form in which we want it, andgive it to us as we need it? Better still, what ifGoogle can learn over time, our changingneeds, and preferences, and customise thesearch results accordingly. Essentially, it wouldbe a ‘personal Google’ that delivers resultsentirely applicable to you, and only you. Well,while we are not there yet, that is what Googleaims to become, according to its co-founderLarry Page. Currently, all the text, image, andmap searches from Google are powered by AI,and we must understand that. And beyondGoogle, many other companies possess suchcapabilities. The host of digital voice assistantssuch as Alexa (by Amazon), Siri (by Apple),Cortana (by Microsoft), and Google Assistant(by Google) that have befriended us and help-ing us solve real-world challenges are anotherexample of AI.

The AI technology draws from multiple dis-ciplines such as information systems, knowl-edge management, statistics, decision sciences,advanced computing systems, motion studies,and so on to deliver everyday solutions thatmeet our needs. Further, by analysing vast setsof personal information, AI can suggest person-alised offerings, which generally include adver-tisements and strategic discounts to influencethe consumers directly. Does this sound famil-iar? Yes, Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, and eBay,and many more companies use AI to providethe “recommended for you” listing as we spendtime online. Such features are important, nowmore than ever, as our needs and preferencesare constantly changing.

Today, AI allows businesses to examinethese instant changes and adapt to the fast-paced environment by quickly determining theright product configuration and pricing strate-gy, thereby presenting companies with a com-petitive edge. AI is also used by firms such asL’Oréal, UK to monitor customer sentiments onsocial media by personalising their social mediainteractions with consumers based on trackedconsumer preferences and develop tailoredofferings. AI has also been used in language

management (e.g., Grammarly can assist withcontent recommendations), advertising contentdevelopment (e.g., McCann’s AI tool aids thecreative team in scripting commercials), ensur-ing service consistency (e.g., Uber Eats uses AIto optimize delivery times), driverless vehicles(e.g., Tesla’s self-driving features), and so on. Inthe knowledge economy that we are in, dataappears to the currency. Companies are nowable to collect, store, process, and (re)use infor-mation through AI. This has thrust us furtherinto new frontiers, and AI is part of that newfrontier.

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Picture this. You are ready to leave forhome after a long day at work. You lookaround your work desk, many of your cowork-ers have already left for the day with theirworkstation lights turned out. As you walkdown the office corridor, the lights turn backon automatically (powered by motion sensors)to help you navigate your way to the parkinggarage. On your way home, you decide to stopat the grocery store to pick up a few essentialitems. As you shop, you are not sure if youhave milk in the refrigerator. No problem —using your smartphone you look into yoursmart refrigerator to check on what you have.As you turn into your street, using your carBluetooth, you activate the lights at the front ofthe home. Even before you get off from yourcar, you unlock your front door using yoursmartphone. Not just that, with the press of afew more buttons, you turn on the air condi-tioning in your room, turn on the water heaterfor your hot shower, thaw some frozen food inyour refrigerator for your dinner, and activatethe coffeemaker to end your dinner with anice, hot coffee. After you enter your home,with a press of a few more buttons, you lockyour entrance door and turn back on the homesecurity system and surveillance cameras, turnon your music system that playing yourfavorite radio station, and look forward to anice relaxing evening. Sound like bliss, right?

Through our daily lives, we see devices con-trolled through sensors and remotely locatedsoftware such as connected streetlights, self-dri-ving vehicles, smart home security systems,connected wearable devices, and much more.These devices collect, communicate and processinformation in real-time through the Internet toperform or aid in performing certain definedtasks. This elaborate and growing network ofdevices connected through the Internet isreferred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Where can we see IoT at work, you mayask. Just look around you. In our personal lives,IoT devices can be working in the backgroundof many routine chores, while constantlyenhancing the performance of devices andeliminating human involvement such as wear-able devices (e.g., Apple Watch), automated dri-ving (e.g., Tesla), home automation (e.g.,Samsung Smart Refrigerator), and so on. Incompanies, IoT allows large-scale data capturepossible that can be further utilised to influencethe devices and objects in the real world such asasset monitoring (e.g., Bosch’s smart tires), loca-tion-based marketing (e.g., beacons used byKenneth Cole and Heathrow InternationalAirport providing localized content), preventive

maintenance (e.g., monitoring sensor healthand optimizing production adopted by ABBand Hitachi), smart energy systems (e.g.,Honeywell and Verizon), and so on.

Looking even further, IoT serves wholeindustries in instituting best practices. IoTallows firms to monitor devices, control usage,and proactively initiating maintenancerequests, thereby leading to increased produc-tivity, improved efficiency, and reduced operat-ing costs. Such implementations include sup-ply chain operations (e.g., companies like DHLand Cargotec use IoT for overall logistics man-agement), inventory management (companieslike Amazon and Walmart use self-drivingvehicles for efficient floor operations), fleetmanagement (e.g., shipping companies likeMaersk monitors its entire fleet of ships andcontainers in real-time using sensors), and soon. Finally, at the national level, IoT allowscountries to actively manage nationalresources such as energy sources (e.g., citieslike Miami and Paris installing connectedstreetlights), urban city planning (e.g., India’sSmart Cities initiative), and governmental ser-vices to citizens (e.g., Los Angeles’ ‘QuakeAlert’ system for earthquake and tremor detec-tion, and Barcelona’s smart devices for water,lighting, and parking services).

AI and IoT are just two NATs that are mak-ing our lives better and enabling companies toperform faster and better. The other NATs ofprominence include robots (e.g., ElliQ, the eldercare assistant robot; Dash, Walmart’sautonomous shopping cart; and ROAR, Volvo’srobotic refuse collector, to name a few),machine learning capabilities (e.g., Shopify usesML solutions to determine the closest and mostefficient fulfilment centers for the businesses,Hitachi uses ML/AI solutions to monitor andcombat food waste in hospitals, and FICO usesML to develop its credit rating and to assessrisks for individual customers, and so on),drones (e.g., used in aerial photography, surveil-lance systems, flora/fauna management, cropestimation, yield assessment, irrigation leakdetection in agriculture, aerial surveys andprogress tracking in construction sites, delivery,and so on), and blockchain (e.g., cryptocurren-cy such as Bitcoin and Peercoin; data manage-ment activities such as contract managementand planning network infrastructure; dataauthentication activities such as document veri-fication and notary services; financial servicessuch as online payments and currencyexchange; business processes such as supplychain management and digital content manage-ment; and so on).

While the varied uses and applications ofNATs seem exciting for companies and users,are they necessary? That is, why do we needNATs, and why now? There are three main rea-sons for this.

������� ������ �������������NATs help us embrace the digital frontier

which is markedly different from conventionalbusiness practices. That is, companies have dab-bled with individual implementations of NATsfrom early on such as online chatbots, recom-mendation engines, and so on. But what haschanged now is an integrated implementationof NATs wherein multiple technologies such asAI, ML, robots, etc. are used in a unified man-

ner and within a specific area of operation.Amazon, for instance, uses a confluence of AI,robots, ML, drones, IoT, and blockchain tooffer, deliver and develop solutions that arealready changing the business landscape. Such aconcerted effort in implementing technologyopens several possibilities for data-driven busi-ness and marketing strategies.

�������� ������� �������������NATs enable us to promote meaningful

connections between people and between peo-ple and companies. It must be noted that eachof the NATs while maintaining their unique-ness, also portrays a high degree of intercon-nectivity. That is, unlike other technologies inthe past, the NATs cannot be neatly compart-mentalised into organisational silos. Put differ-ently, while each of the NATs is impressive andeffective individually, they also lend themselveseasily to be paired with other NATs. Forinstance, consider Google. YouTube uses AIfor understanding and suggesting recommend-ed videos based on viewer preferences and his-tory while using ML techniques to ensure thatbrands are not listed next to offensive content.Further, Google uses AI and IoT in tandem toreduce the colling costs of its data center; andhas developed Google Wing, a drone, that hasbeen used to deliver essential supplies duringthe COVID-19 pandemic in the USA. So, onecompany can gainfully incorporate all NATsfor delivering value to users and themselves.Such a scenario represents an exciting time forusers and marketers where new technologysolutions overlap, even blurring the lineswhere one technology platform ends and theother begins. And this feature is what drivesthe establishment of meaningful connections.

������������������������� The age of technological transformation has

well and truly begun, with recent developmentsin marketing that have embraced technologyand firmly placed it at the center of businessoperations. With the introduction of NATs,companies can now interact with users throughvarious touchpoints and often at several pointsin a day. Further, these NATs also enables firmsto facilitate and monitor interactions amongusers, thereby securing themselves an opportu-nity to collect real-time data about users andtheir needs. Subsequently, this knowledge isbeing used to develop personalised offeringsand implementing customer-centric marketingstrategies that result in the creation of customerengagement. Such a transformed marketplacesignifies the true convergence of marketing andNATs, thereby kickstarting an age of excitingand breathtaking technology experiences.

The NATs are shifting the business schemaat a rapid pace leading us to a world of tomor-row, one month from now, next year, five yearsfrom now. This age of reckoning will be revisit-ed by all in the future, as we do now when con-sidering other evolutionary periods in our his-tory. What we do know is that the NATs andtheir future advancements are poised to alterthe very fabric of our lives, and it’s going to be awhole new world!

The writer is an author and hasrecently published Intelligent Marketing:Employing New-Age Technologies with

SAGE Publications India

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IT’S A WHOLENEW WORLD

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Talking about Gandhi one week after the nation hasobserved his martyrdom may be a bit out of tune, butGandhi is ever relevant. The reason I write about

Gandhi risking the displeasure of the social media trollbrigade ready to fire on anything that doesn’t fit with theirscheme of things is because there is need to know Gandhibetter. Gandhi is certainly not in fashion when voices try-ing to justify his assassination are getting louder. But Gandhiis not just an Indian phenomenon. Gandhi is global and tran-scends time and space. Whether one likes or not Gandhi hasa worldwide following. History can be tampered or temperedbut not the truth. It was truth that was the main thrust ofGandhi’s philosophy. It was truth that was Dharma for Gandhiand it was truth that was the basis of his Satyagraha. Yes,truth in these times of post truth has taken a backseat, but,nevertheless, truth must prevail. Even if the head may haveits doubts in accepting it, the heart does acknowledge thetruth and accept its permanence. Gandhi’s ideas have becomeeven more relevant today as we witness confusion and chaosall around. Protests that are the order of the day are becom-ing violent and Satyagraha in practice has become an antithe-sis of the philosophy. Gandhi must be understood as Ramcatches the imagination of the nation. Understanding Ramis equally important in these times of Kaliyuga when powerand pelf become the sole means of sustenance. Ram was anepitome of sacrifice and values. He was that quintessentialembodiment of character which is almost extinct today. Itwas Ram’s character that made him proceed for the exile evenwhen the people of Ayodhya where solidly behind him andwanted him to stay. It was Ram’s character that made himturn down the request of Bharat, his brother, who had themandate to rule Ayodhya. Bharat, the king designate, wentall the way to the place where Ram was living in exile andappealed to him to reconsider his decision to decline thethrone of Ayodhya. Something that cannot be imagined today,when there is a mad scramble to assume power anyhow. Andremember it was not just Bharat who wanted Ram to rulebut everyone in Ayodhya. Still, Ram chose to carry out hisword. When lies are the norm Ram walks that extra mile touphold the sanctity of the spoken word. Gandhi and Ramboth have to be understood in the right perspective. Gandhidid not have any attraction for occupying position of power,nor did he claim any favour for carrying out what he thoughtwas his duty. For Gandhi Ram did not belong to any par-ticular religion but symbolised oneness of God. His Ram sig-nified both Ishwar and Allah. This is what he felt — IshwarAllah tero Naam, sabko sanmati de Bhagwan. That is You arethe God, You are the Allah; let good sense prevail on every-body. From that transcendental approach to the sectarian-ism of the present times, we certainly have come a long wayand the wrong way. As values crumble under the weight ofambition it is time to realise what Gandhi stood for. AndGandhi did not say anything new. He only emphasised thespirit of Hinduism that was represented by SwamiVivekananda. Catholicity is inherent in Hinduism andGandhi practiced it. Liking or disliking Gandhi maybe mat-ters of personal choices, but Gandhi still stands tall.

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What is the cosmic set-up?There is God — theomnipresent, the omnipo-

tent and omniscient. We learn fromBhagavad Gita that God is everything(7.19), i.e. He is the Master of the uni-verse. Then, there are gods and god-desses — special souls, who oversee thedivine arrangement under the super-intendence of God. (9.10) They rewardand punish us souls according to ourkarmas. We should not forget grahaslike the Sun, the Moon, etc. They affectour lives.

We, souls, come next. We remainin this position in the hierarchy eter-nally, except some souls maybe promot-ed to the level of gods and goddessesfor exceptional karmas. Wise personsrealise their limitations. These factsindicate that we should seek help fromGod, who is forever prepared to help.Not only the higher authorities, we needgenerous help from the material naturealso. The material nature is extremelyimportant to us for existing well in ourmaterial bodies.

Let’s look at this from anotherangle. When we are born, we are help-less. We need parental care to survive.When we grow up and get married,onus falls upon us to have a good fam-ily life and grow a support group con-sisting of reliable people around us.

God has provided the materialnature for exploitation, not in the waysome are presently doing, i.e. ignoringthe needs of the climate, polluting theatmosphere, water bodies, etc. We aresupposed to cooperate with others toco-exist well. Instead, we choose to benarrowly selfish, i.e. one rule for me andanother for the rest. The result of suchbehavior increases the degree of diffi-culty for us to live in this world.

Gods and goddesses, who overseethe workings of the material creation,deserve our respect for the task theyhave been entrusted. They occupy avery important position in the creation.Lord Krishna has spoken several timesin The Gita about them and has coun-selled to please them. (3.11-12)Somewhat similar is the situation withthe grahas. We can gain a lot byacquainting ourselves with their move-ments and positions. When they arefavourable for us, we benefit. Contrarily,if the movements of the grahas areunfavourable, the ill effects on us indi-vidually can be counteracted somewhatby worshiping the unfavourable grahas.Similarly, wearing particular stonesdepending on the birth date of an indi-vidual is helpful in many cases.

Next we come to the system, i.e.how everything functions. There areguidelines for us souls, which havebeen clearly laid down in scriptures likeThe Gita. (16.24) We must be dutiful,

follow dharma and use all our uniqueresources including goodness, mentalability and others for the commongood. We must contribute to the com-mon pool, because it is for our bene-fit. We should never try to becomemasters, because there is only oneMaster, i.e. God. We must be respect-ful and thankful to the Lord for all Hedoes for us. We need God for show-ing us the direction we should be tak-ing, because only He is aware of the bigpicture. Only He can pinpoint ourexact role in the present life. And thefastest way to improve the quality ofour lives is by serving the God and Hissystem.

Therefore, let us accept God whole-heartedly and take His shelter as He hasinstructed. (18.62) Then, we will bereally selfish, i.e. we will do ourselvesunbelievable favour. Yes, we should dothat.��!� ������������$�������������(������!��

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The impediments to spiritu-al growth are many, begin-ning with the mind and theinfluence of planetarymotions ranging all the way

to the lack of appropriate spiritualguidance. The awareness of theseroadblocks is certainly the first step toovercoming them but most definite-ly not the simplest one. In fact, thesolution to almost all impediments isone simple word that has proven to bethe most difficult task, faith. Faith inyour guru, faith in destiny, faith thatyou will grow in your own time andevery step you take is in some wayleading you to it. This faith comes froma complete surrender to your guru. Tofollow, without question everything headvises you. This surrender and faithwill lead you to realise you are one withthe consciousness supreme and all life.It is when you reach this understand-ing that you have truly evolved. Thethought of complete surrender isundoubtedly scary because with thissurrender comes thoughts of the fearof the unknown, and complete faith insomething that we mistakenly believewe have absolutely no experience in

which may lead us down a path of self-destruction. You aren’t entirely wrongabout the ‘self-destruction’, but I meanit in a positive way here, because as wedestroy our perceptions, impediments,biases, conditioning and tendencies,we align to the aspirations of not onlythe Isthul Sharir or the gross body, butalso those of the Sukshma Sharir or thesubtle body and the Karna Sharir orthe causal body. Faith enables you tolearn not only from your own but alsofrom the experiences of others moreevolved than you.

While faith is like walking acrossa bridge you cannot see over a chasmextending deep down below you, it isthe faith that exists after all that ittakes to overcome all impediments tospiritual growth. The first step to lift-ing the veil of maya is to accept theillusion that is maya, for which youneed to have faith in the higher exist-ing reality. Realising that ‘I’ meansnothing and everything at the sametime, that is to say every living beingis an extension of the supreme con-sciousness. The ego-self attached toevery aspect of the physical world isone we must learn to detach from in

order to transcend the five senses andexperience the beyond. Begin withacknowledging the oneness of allhuman beings, treating everyoneexactly the same not only in yourbehavior towards them but even informing opinions about them inyour own thoughts. Once you achievethis, and don’t expect it to be instan-taneous, you progress to seeing allother living organisms as one withyou, and eventually you find yourselfrealising the divinity within yourselfand identifying as an extension of thesupreme consciousness, the true real-ity. When we realise the true natureof reality, we know that all we seearound us is created by our mindthrough our memories and tenden-cies that exist within, the reality is justformless ethereal energy. In YogaVashisht it is said, “When we see amirage, we do not see hot air rise up,when we see the hot air, the miragedisappears. When one is seen as thetruth the other is not”. It is upto youto accept the supreme consciousnessin its ethereal state to be the realityto be able to life the veil of maya andlook beyond.

It isn’t easy to just discard every-thing you’ve been taught, only tobelieve something you haven’t expe-rienced, something you can’t see. Iremember struggling with this verytask, analysing every aspect of spiri-tuality, trying to find logic in every-thing I was told, a Gurudev had onesimple instruction for me, “Buddhuban ja” or become a simpleton.Spirituality is not a concept within thegrasp of a logical mind, it existsbeyond the known into the unknownand unfathomable.

There are other ways to overcomethe impediments as well. As you mayalready know, while there are multi-ple chakras, or convergence points forthe naadis or energy pathways, ofwhich seven are most important. Anelement of spiritual growth is the riseof the ‘kundalini’ or energy coiled atthe base of the spine towards thehigher chakras. There are variousways for you to help your Kundalinirise through the chakras includingmeditation, Mantra Vidya, Seva andimproving your Guna mix.

Mantra Vidya or reciting mantrasis one of the most successful ways ofovercoming impediments. The art ofmantra believes that if you use theright words to train your mind, tosharpen its focus and channelise thedivinity in the universe, you can riseabove every negative tendency thatholds you back and go past theshackles of your limited consciousmind to attain liberation. Being ini-tiated into a mantra by a siddh guruenables you, by his grace, to attain sid-dhi of the given mantra in a very shortperiod of years or months as opposedto multiple lifetimes, which would bethe case if you found the mantra foryourself.

Seva or selfless service for otherscan take countless forms. You couldfeed a group of homeless people,finance the education of childrenwho cannot afford it, teach childrenyourself, feed animals, plant seeds togrow trees, even leave a handful ofsugar out for ants to feed on!

Overcoming the five senses,improving your guna mix and all theabove-mentioned techniques help cre-ate a greater magnetic field in the high-er chakras that helps us to move up andstay there.

Overcoming these impediments isnot a onetime task, and is certainly noteasy. It requires a commitment to con-sistently work towards the upliftmentof your aatma. Having said this, theright guidance will help you speed theprocess and make the instructionmuch simpler to follow.

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Anger is a product of a three-wayinteraction between the nervoussystem, the endocrine system and

the circulatory system. Each time one getsangry, the adrenal glands get over activeand release hormones in the bloodstream. The aroused amygdala stimulatesthe adrenal glands to release hormonesand once these hormones are releasedinto the blood stream, the blood pressureas well as the pulse rate increase provid-ing one with the energy to deal with theperceived crises. However, every suchepisode creates an imbalance in the bodyand causes long term damage.

If your anger is a longstanding one,you may require more elaborate methodsto keep it under check. Louise Hay listssome very powerful methods for the pur-pose:

● Exercise 1 — Write a LetterThink of someone who you are still

angry with. Perhaps it is an old anger.Write this person a letter. Tell them allyour grievance and how you feel. Don’thold back. Really express yourself. Useadditional paper if you need it.

After you finished the letter, read itonce. Then fold it and on the outsidewrite: “What I really want is your love andapproval.” Then burn the letter andrelease it.

● Exercise 2 — Mirror WorkTake another person, or the same per-

son, you are angry with. Sit down in frontof a mirror. Be sure to have some tissuesnearby. Look into your own eyes and seethe other person. Tell them what you areso angry about.

When you are finished, tell them,“What I really want is your love andapproval.” We are all seeking love andapproval. That’s what we want fromeveryone, and that’s what everyone wantsfrom us. Love and approval brings har-mony into our lives.

In order to be free, we need to releasethe old ties that bind us. So once againlook into the mirror and affirm to your-self. “I am willing to release the need tobe an angry person.” Notice if you arereally willing to let go or do you still wantto hang on to the past.

● Exercise 3 — ReframingReframing in another method to

drain out suppressed anger. There is noabsolute reality in the world, everything issubjective reality, a reality from a particu-lar view point. Perspective thereforedefuses the event.

The second step would be to analysethe event or events from the perspectiveof all concerned that is get into the shoesof the offender.

Ask yourself the following questions:● Is the situation relevant now?● Are the people still in my life?● Are those people having the sameimpact and power?● What can I learn from the event andbecome better person.

A good reflection is what you need tofix a volatile issue. So, tie your shoelacesand embark on the voyage towards tam-ing the temper. Your mind and soul willtalk to your body more often and pots ofnectar are waiting to be served.

A more pleasing personality meansmore success. Robust health comes as acollateral.

The writer is an author, behaviouraltrainer, and sports commentator

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24����5�������33������������6����4�������Once known as world-class

trade centre, Hong Kong iscurrently encountering an ever-aggressive mainland China. Itis gradually slipping into anabyss. The locals are trying tosafeguard their basic freedomagainst the backdrop of theimposition of the draconianNational Security Law in Junelast year. Since then, millionsare protesting on the road toregister their utmost displea-sure against the sudden cur-tailment of their rights andfreedom.

In the wake of massiveoverhauling of the legal admin-istration of Hong Kong, theUK, the former colonial mas-ter of the city, proposed a citi-zenship offer to the islanders inthe middle of last year. Indeed,the offer is not only crucial forthose suffering in Hong Kong,but it also reflects a strong con-cern on what is unfolding inthe island territory.

The decision has alsodemonstrated the legacy ofBritish control for nearly acentury over this part of China.When Hong Kong was hand-ed over to China by then PrimeMinister Margaret Thatcherto Deng Xiaoping, President ofChina then, there was a call forissuing this kind of unique cit-izenship offer from Britain.However, such measures werenot considered by theGovernment of the UK duringthat time in July 1997.

What has provoked thecurrent Boris Johnson regimeto make the citizenship offer tomillions of Hongkongers? OnNovember 11, 2020, theChinese parliament decidedthat any Hong Kong legislatorwho promote or support HongKong independence, refuse torecognise China’s sovereigntyover Hong Kong, seek foreigncountries to interfere in theaffairs of Hong Kong, orendanger the national securi-ty of Hong Kong will be heldguilty of the breach of the par-liamentary oath and will be dis-qualified from the membershipof the Hong Kong Legislative

Council with immediate effect. The decision of the

National People’s Congress(NPC) eventually disqualifiedfour members of the HongKong Legislative Council. Backhome in London, it was advo-cated that this sudden move ofBeijing was a ploy to gag allvoices critical of the policiesadopted by the mainlandauthorities over the years.

Truly speaking, this newrule set by the bosses in Chinahas become another tool tosuppress the concerns of thelocals in Hong Kong. Today,the British Government feelsthat this decision of the NPCare in contravention of thelegally binding historic Sino-British Declaration signed onDecember 19, 1984 in Beijing.The Declaration which cameinto effect on May 27, 1985clearly outlines the adminis-trative arrangement of HongKong after the withdrawal ofthe UK on July 1, 1997. Whathas been highlighted by theWestminster today is thatChina has violated its earliercommitment of providing con-siderable autonomy to this for-mer colonial territory.

In fact, this high degree ofautonomy and freedom ofspeech for Hong Kong was verymuch guaranteed under theParagraph 3 and Annex I of thejoint Declaration. The BritishGovernment noted that this isfor the third time the ChineseGovernment has breached thelegally binding Declarationsince the handover of the ter-ritory in 1997.

The first such instancetook place in 2016, the second,when Beijing imposed theNational Security Law in June2020 and third in November2020. This clearly indicateswhat Beijing is aiming to pur-sue in Hong Kong.

The root of the current cri-sis spearheaded by the UmbrellaMovement and various demo-cratic protests lie in the blatantviolation of the Basic Law orMini Constitution under whichthe NPC had agreed to respect

the autonomy of the territory. Infact, since the formal transfer ofthe territory, it has been admin-istered as the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region(HKSAR).

Further, the mainlandauthorities have also commit-ted to maintain a uniqueadministrative system called“One Country, Two Systems”,under which Beijing will followthe Communist pattern andthis former colony will carry onwith the capitalist system ofeconomy and polity. And thisautonomy, wherein basic rightsand freedoms were to beenjoyed by the Hongkongerswill be continued for anotherfifty years i.e. till 2047. Clearly,many locals were happy thatthey will be able to have a freelife even under the CommunistChina and will not be affectedby the opaque and authoritar-

ian regime of Beijing.The decision to offer citi-

zenship to millions ofHongkongers is indeed affect-ed by choices made somedecades ago. It was a commit-ment that Britain shared withChina to maintain the statusquo in Hong Kong until 2047.But then China has violated thefundamental rights of free-dom of the islanders muchbefore the due date. Apparently,all these started taking placewith the coming of Xi Jinpingto power in the year 2012. Andnow with his life-time presi-dency, the international com-munity could hardly expect anypositive development in HongKong.

After removing two-termlimits for the office of thePresident, Xi has become themost powerful head of thestate after Chairman Mao

Zedong. His expansionisttrend, in fact, started with theBelt and Road Initiative (BRI)through which he aims toextend China’s economicprowess much beyond Asia.The aggression of the Chinesestate has increased manifold.And one of the strongest man-ifestations of it is Hong Kong.

With the coming of the cit-izenship offer from Britain,the counter reactions are pour-ing in from the mainland andthe pro-establishment figuresin Hong Kong. Regina Ip, amember of the ExecutiveCouncil and LegislativeCouncil of Hong Kong, hasalready issued a call for issuingcurbs on dual citizenship in theisland. She has argued thatthose who obtain foreignnationality should be strippedof the right of abode. Even sheis advocating that Beijing

should put an end to its specialtreatment of Hongkongers andimpose its own nationality lawon the city. The irony is thatthough she is trying to make astrong case of China’s full inter-vention in Hong Kong, the law-maker is not receiving adequatesupport from even the pro-Beijing bloc in the city Council.

Providing sanctuary tosome millions of Hongkongerswill not solve the crisis in thecity. But certainly, this stepwill offer an immediate relief tosome of the troubled citizens ofthe territory. Even the MPs inthe British House of Commonsopenly approved the citizenshipoffer to Hongkongers. Howserious London is about thecurrent situation in its formercolony is very much evident theway various government dig-nitaries are responding to it.Particularly, Dominic Raab,the Foreign Secretary, expressedhis anguished by saying, “Thisis a special, bespoke, set ofarrangements developed forthe unique circumstances weface and in light of our historiccommitment to the people ofHong Kong.”

This is how he says Chinacould be cohesively forced toallow the British OverseasNationals to come over to theUK. In fact, he termed China’scurrent steps in Hong Kong asa “flagrant assault” on the free-dom of speech and the right ofpeaceful assembly across theisland. The good part of theconcerns raised over HongKong in the UK is that thesemoves by the JohnsonGovernment almost enjoy sup-port from the Labour’s side aswell. The Labour Party said itwelcomed the Government’saction but said there must be nodiscrimination on thoseallowed into the UK on thebasis of income or other factors.

Even the party had goneone step ahead and said that theUK also had the responsibilityto consider the responsibility ofthose who were not able to relo-cate or who wished to stay inHong Kong.

The Labour Party’s shadowForeign Secretary Lisa Nandyurged the Government to workwith its international partnersthrough the UN to force anenquiry into police brutality inHong Kong and also called forthe UK to re-examine its com-mercial relations with China.This will be an added supportfor Johnson to act swiftly andhandle Chinese actions inHong Kong effectively.

How is the Xi regime react-ing to this citizenship offer bythe UK? Precisely, after theBritish citizenship offer, theSino-British relationship hascome to almost a deadlock.This month the ChineseGovernment announced that itwill no longer recognise BritishNational (Overseas) passport asa valid travel document or as aform of identification.

This declaration fromBeijing has come days before anew visa route for Hong Kongresidents is to be opened in theUK. While reacting to theannouncement coming fromauthoritarian Xi regime, theForeign, Commonwealth andDevelopment Office (FCDO)in London said it was disap-pointed but not surprised bythe decision. But for Beijing,London’s Hong Kong inter-ventions simply reflect its age-old colonial mentality only.

For Johnson, on one hand,his Government has justmoved out of the EU andstalled further immigrationfrom other parts of Europe tothe UK. And now, the sameGovernment has decided towelcome more than three mil-lion Hongkongers to the sameland.

However, as the UK is outof the EU stranglehold, it is atestament of the principle thatthe country is now free todecide who comes in and whogoes out. Let’s wait and watchhow this new saga of migrationfrom Hong Kong to the UKunfolds.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

�����������,��� �,������ ���:��������,������ �We often forget people are pri-

marily designed for action, notfor listening to lectures, not formanipulating symbols, and not formemorising facts. Perhaps that’s thereason we still continue to deploy thesethree methods while imparting mostof our primary and higher education.In fact, educators have known this atleast since philosopher of educationJohn Dewey advised in 1938:

“There should be brief intervals oftime for quiet reflection provided foreven the young. But they are periodsof genuine reflection only when theyfollow after times of more overtaction and are used to organise whathas been gained in periods of activi-ty in which the hands and other partsof the body, besides the brain, areused.”

The history of liberal educationhas so far made us believe that thepurpose of education should be togive people the knowledge and skillsto be independent thinkers. However,the idea that education shouldincrease intellectual independence isa very narrow view of learning. Itignores the fact that knowledgedepends a lot on others as well.

Learning, therefore, isn’t justabout developing new knowledgeand skills. It’s also about learning tocollaborate with others, recognisingwhat knowledge we have to offer andwhat gaps we must rely on others tohelp us fill.

In a community of knowledge,an individual is like a single piece ina jigsaw puzzle. Understandingwhere you fit requires understand-ing what you know and what othersknow that you don’t.

Learning your place in a com-munity of knowledge requiresbecoming aware of all the knowledgeoutside of yourself. And that’s wherethe interdisciplinary approach ofacquiring liberal education becomesmore relevant, where skills likeempathy and the ability to listenbecome more valuable to work wellwith others. This also means teach-ing critical thinking skills, not focus-

ing just on facts, facilitating com-munication, and exchanging ideas.

This is the value of a liberal edu-cation proposed in the NationalEducation Policy (NEP 2020) asopposed to learning that you need toget a job.

So far, the educational institutesof the 20th century have had a greatrun in signaling certain qualities likeintelligence, diligence, compliance,and conformity to potential employ-ers. As a result, there is a widespreadclamour among students to get themselves validated through a high-er degree, as it presumably increas-es the probability of landing a well-paying job.

The undercurrent of this line ofthought usually gets a strong expres-sion when students are told to scoreexceptionally well on the standard-ised test. It makes them eligible topursue further studies in the presti-gious STEM — Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics —field where every other stream findsitself at the mercy of the STEM fieldto attract the rest of the talented lot.

As long as we don’t find any faultin subscribing to a free market doc-trine — where only skills and expe-riences that are directly convertibleto income are considered useful —the need for the education system tomake itself sufficiently marketaligned remains the top priority,where it doesn’t find any problem inserving as a certification agency.

Historically, vocational traininginstitutes have been doing the same,fulfilling the industry-specificdemand for a particular set of skills— exemplifying the utilitarian modelof education.

Should the entire curriculum bemade hostage to occupationalprospects existing in the current jobmarket?

The premise that acquiringknowledge only helps someone graba high-paying job is very limited inits scope.

A doctor who is not exposed tothe concept of empathy might suc-

ceed in becoming a good doctor.However, s/he will fail to become anexceptional healer having wide-spread respect among his patients.

An architect who is yet to incul-cate a habit of appreciating the his-tory of beautiful artistic expressionthrough monuments might becomea professional architect. However,s/he will fail to become an excep-tionally creative designer capable ofmaking someone stop and appreci-ate the expression of beauty.

Therefore, as proposed in NEP2020, rather than making studentschoose only one subject for furtherstudies, the focus should be on iden-tifying their strengths through con-tinuous multidisciplinary explorationso that they could spend a majorityof their time on subjects that alignsperfectly with their interest.

Once the interest based on theirstrength is identified correctly, stu-dent invariably ends up on the pathof deep learning. And in the process,they become consistently good atproducing exceptional results.

The purpose of higher educationis more than just creating high pay-ing job opportunities for students.According to the National EducationPolicy, quality education has aninherent responsibility to play anenabling role in personal accom-plishment, constructive publicengagement, and productive contri-bution to society.

The broader objective is toengage faculty and students withlocal communities to learn a thing ortwo about real world problems whilefunctioning in collaborative, inclu-sive, and cross-disciplinary ways.

For instance, students opting todo their major in social work mightgain a lot in having interdisciplinarydialogues on the topics of home-lessness, poverty, and crimes withstudents pursuing their majors incriminal jurisprudence. The analy-sis of multiple deep-rooted problemsfrom a completely different vantagepoint invariably throws more con-textual and sustainable solutions.

This method of approaching socio-economic problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective is a welcomechange from the privileged expert-silo perspective.

The intent is to design diversecourses that allow students to expe-rience relevant local communityservice as part of their curriculum sothat it helps them become sociallyconscious citizens.

And as envisaged in the NEP, thisis made possible by combining theconceptual knowledge with practicalengagement having real-world impli-cations through fieldwork, internship,workshop, and student research pro-ject. Even the pedagogy for coursesstrive for significantly less rote learn-ing with an increased emphasis oncommunication, discussion, andopportunities for cross-disciplinaryand interdisciplinary thinking.

Compared to other scientists,Nobel laureates or nationally recog-nised scientists are much more like-ly to be musicians, sculptors, painters,printmakers, woodworkers, mechan-ics, electronics tinkerers, glass-blow-ers, poets, or fiction writers.

Spanish Nobel laureate SantiagoRamón y Cajal, the father of mod-ern neuroscience, says that “itappears as though they are scatter-ing and dissipating their energies,while in reality they are channelingand strengthening them.”

In fact, the main conclusion ofwork that took years of studying sci-entists and engineers, all of whomwere regarded by peers as true tech-nical experts, was that those who didnot make a creative contribution totheir field lacked aesthetic interestsoutside their narrow area.

As psychologist and prominentcreativity researcher Dean KeithSimonton observed, “rather thanobsessively focus(ing) on a narrowtopic,” creative achievers tend to havebroad interests.

This breadth in interest often sup-ports insights that cannot be attrib-uted to domain-specific expertisealone. For instance, electrical engineer

Claude Shannon, who launched theInformation Age, took a course onphilosophy to fulfil a requirement atthe University of Michigan.

In it, he was exposed to the workof self-taught 19th-century Englishlogician George Boole. He was theone who assigned a value of 1 to truestatements and 0 to false statementsand showed that logic problemscould be solved like math equations.It resulted in absolutely nothing ofpractical importance until seventyyears after Boole passed away whenShannon did a summer internship atAT& T’s Bell Labs research facility.

He recognised that he couldcombine telephone call-routing tech-nology with Boole’s logic system toencode and transmit any informationelectronically. It was the fundamen-tal insight on which computers rely.It just happened that no one else wasfamiliar with both those fields at thesame time.

In liberal education, explorationis not just a whimsical luxury; it is acentral benefit. Learning stuff is ofsecondary importance than learningabout oneself; the emphasis is ondeveloping all capacities of a humanbeing — intellectual, physical, emo-tional, aesthetic, and moral — in anintegrated manner.

With the visible change in thisemphasis, even the assessment needsto introduce a criterion-based grad-ing system to optimise the learninggoals, where the learning goals aren’tcast in iron. Students are assessed notonly on academic aspects but also onthe broad capacities and dispositionsthat are the goals of liberal education.

Along with critical thinking, thefaculty makes it a point to complementthe curriculum learnings throughthe magic of analogical thinking,keeping students’ needs in mind.

The pedagogy of analogicalthinking takes the new and makes itfamiliar, takes the familiar, puts it ina new light, and allows humans toreason through problems they havenever seen in unfamiliar contexts. Italso allows us to understand what we

cannot see at all. For instance, stu-dents might learn about molecules’motion by analogy to billiard-ballcollisions; principles of electricity canbe understood with analogies towater flow through plumbing.

Concepts from biology serve asanalogies to inform the cutting edgeof artificial intelligence: “neural net-works” that learn how to identifyimages from examples (when you search cat pictures, for instance)were conceived as akin to the neu-rons of the brain, and “genetic algo-rithms” are conceptually based onevolution by natural selection —solu-tions are tried, evaluated, and themore successful solutions pass onproperties to the next round ofsolutions.

We live in a society where thegap between the ideal and practiceis so immense that we could park afleet of Boeing 777 in the existingspace. Given that we don’t have a veryencouraging track record of imple-menting the ideals engraved in well-intended policy documents, theactual implementation of holistic andliberal learning by adopting a mul-tidisciplinary approach as proposedin the NEP 2020 will require us to gobeyond our usual method of com-mitment and execution.

Since the stakeholders (parents,teachers, and employers) involved inthis whole scheme of things do suf-fer from a skewed mindset, it isimperative to bring visible changesin their perspective. The speed withwhich we can correct the existingskewness in their perception woulddecide the ultimate fate of imple-menting the National EducationPolicy (NEP 2020).

As long as we keep resisting allthe changes needed to overhaul theoutdated legacy of the 20th-centuryeducational ecosystem, we wouldn’tbe able to prepare our next genera-tion for the challenges and oppor-tunities of the 21st century.

(The writer is an educator andformer IRS officer)

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Dhyana does not warrant tryingto forcefully stop our thoughtsimmediately when the process

is taken up. Remember, mind is invari-ably loaded with a bundle full ofthoughts, difficult to be stifled to one’sasking. The inlaid thoughts will contin-ue to knock us from within. So, one isbound to be confronted with distrac-tion, and all the more during medita-tion. Following withdrawal of sensesfrom the outer world, the indwellingthought impressions come into activeplay. So, as you begin, you are bound tobe flooded with thoughts, and there-fore, needs to be accepted as a neces-sary part of the process. All that isneeded is to train our minds to remaindisengaged from those thoughts. It isimportant to note here that only whenyou pay attention to something that itcould affect you. But following theprocess in right earnest does eventuallydrive away all inconsequential thoughtimpressions out of our reckoning, aswould be otherwise repeatedly chasingus from within.

Religious belief not mandatory:The process does not call for havingany religious or spiritual belief either.

Even atheist or agnostics can pursuethe process and draw benefit, as theprocess is all about securing orderlyfunctioning of mind. Religiousor spiritual belief does, how-ever, help invoke one’s emo-tions, and thereby calls fora sense of love towardsour cherished destina-tion. That helps pur-sue the process withease and comfortand greater intensi-ty.

Avoid guiltconsciousness: Italso needs to beremembered thatwe are all bornimperfect, andtherefore, we are allfallible. Our impres-sionable minds oftenget caught up in thetempting influences of theglare and glitter of theseeming world, often illusion-ary. Following which, we feel likemaking it our dream destination. Inthe process, unmindfully, we often

make undesirable choices, and evident-ly to one’s detriment. The impressions

there of, remain in our minds, oftenbringing in a sense of guilt. For, at

the base level remains the idealon which life stands, which

reminds us of our ownfault line. It would be,

however, desirable notto carry any sense ofguilt for some wrongdone earlier. Bettertry to ensure that themistakes do notrecur throughrepeated auto sug-gestion. Otherwise,you may fall into aguilt trap, which mayotherwise add to your

negative imprints,already overloaded

from before.Consequently, it may

retard your efforts. Be ready for change:

Bear in mind, the transitoryworld we live in, is subject to con-

tinued societal churning, leading tochange. Therefore, change is inevitable,

and accordingly, we need to be pre-pared to wilfully adjust to its callings.Also, never forget that hurdles have tocome in the way. Without gettingunnerved, one would need to continuethe efforts. We are very much empow-ered to intelligently take on the oddi-ties and hazards coming our way, withease and comfort. We just need to bealert enough to consciously invoke ourindwelling empowerment tool — thefaculty of discriminate intelligence —well in time and put them to use. Thismay help intelligently negotiate withchallenges coming our way.

Loving the process: Before webegin, first, one needs to firm up themind and resolve to pursue dhyanaprocess in right earnest. Second, havefaith in one’s own self, and induce asense of love towards what you are pur-suing. It will not simply motivate youto carry forward the task in rightearnest, but also make you put in yourwhole. Remember, unless you lovedoing what you intend to, you may failto put in qualitative effort, nor wouldyou enjoy it.

Yama and Niyama: Now comingback to the eight-fold path, first in line,

comes Yama. This calls for consciouslyrestraining all unseemly conduct —negative and immoral in nature. Thesecond step, Niyama, calls for submit-ting oneself to a set of moral discipline,as guided by our Guru and the scrip-tures. In this context, it is pertinent tonote that unless the intent is pure, andthe means adopted are right, onewould lack the spirit necessary to carryforward the process in right earnest.

Asana: Towards the third step, oneneeds to acquire a posture suited toeffortlessly follow the process, is whatthe word asana means. This, however,would be possible, only when one isphysically fit and bodily agile.Remember, but for due support fromgross-body platform, mind and the ele-ment of consciousness, would notmanifest. In fact, the gross body is per-ceived as temple of God, as the soul(the consciousness element) dwellswithin.

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