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Although online classes seem to have become the new norm in the wake of the disruption caused to academic calendar and schedule by the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey has found that 70.9 per cent parents in Telangana feel that online edu- cation is not useful for children. The survey was conducted by the Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) between June 22 and 27 in 1,868 villages of 489 mandals, covering all 33 districts in Telangana state. As part of the survey, the TSUTF took feed- back from 22,502 parents and 39,659 students. In all, 17,282 parents' wards are studying in government schools and 5,220 parents' children are studying in private schools. Of the families surveyed, only 4.4% felt that online class- es are useful for the students. The survey also revealed that 39.6 per cent of the families cov- ered do not have smartphones. Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy has alleged that the Centre's draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 is designed to trample upon states' rights. The Bill is a ploy to pri- vatise completely the essential ser- vices of electricity, he said, while taking part in a national level con- clave hosted via video conference by Union Power Minister Rajkumar Singh on Friday. Participating in the confer- ence from Vidyut Soudha here, Jagadish demanded the Centre to give a discount of 1 per cent on the loans advanced to Discoms, which had been fac- ing grave financial problems due to Covid-19. He suggest- ed that the Centre should give loans at 8.5 % interest, instead of charging 9.5%. Later, while speaking to media persons, he described the amendment Bill as "detrimen- tal to the interests of farmers in the state". The state govern- ment had been opposing the Bill keeping in mind the inter- ests of all sections of beneficia- ries availing subsidies. In the context, he cited the letter that Chief Minister K Chandra- sekhar Rao had addressed to the Centre expressing TS' reser- vations about the Bill. Domestic consumers could lose their subsidy under the provisions of the bill, he men- tioned while criticising specif- ic provisions of the Bill. The Centre was not willing to change even one line in the proposed Bill in spite of staunch opposition to the measure from states. He cited the example of how Punjab and Kerala had expressed their opposition to the Bill. Sending a strong message to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the era of expansionism is over and that India's enemies have seen the "fire and fury" of its armed forces as he made a surprise visit to Ladakh in the midst of a tense border standoff between Indian and Chinese armies in a num- ber of areas in the region. In an address to troops, Modi paid glowing tributes to the 20 Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clashes and said tales of the bravery and valour of the armed forces are echoing in every part of the country. "Bharat Mata's enemies have seen your fire and fury," Modi said in an apparent reference to the Galwan Valley clashes. He said bravery is a pre-requisite for peace and that the weak can never accomplish it. The prime minister said the world has taken note of India's strength due to the "exemplary bravery" of the armed forces in the recent weeks, adding histo- ry is proof that "expansionists" have either lost or perished. "The era of expansionism has come to an end. This is the era of development...History has proved that expansionist forces have either lost or were forced to turn back," he said. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States, that have almost exhaust- ed their borrowing limit through auction of bonds under FRBM norms within three months of the current fiscal are now utilis- ing the enhanced FRBM limit granted by the Centre recently to overcome the corona-induced financial crisis. Governments of both the states continue to be heavily dependent on auction of bonds since April to raise funds to meet salaries and pensions for staff, retired staff and to meet expenses towards welfare schemes and development programmes. Where should we go? Pregnant women protest at Koti Maternity Hospital Scores of pregnant women, exasperated at the denial of even basic in-patient services, staged a flash protest at the Government Maternity Hospital, Koti here on Friday. The protesting women alleged that the authorities, hav- ing suddenly stopped admis- sions, were attending to only emergency cases. They are offer- ing only out-patient services. One of the distraught women said, “I came in the morning to get antenatal card. But they asked me to go away. When they gave the card on Wednesday and Thursday, why deny it now? They said, we are not admitting even those who are 9 months pregnant; only emergency cases will be taken.” The antenatal cards are used to keep track of pregnancy and health checks. These cards are typically issued from the 5th month of pregnancy. However, the protesting women charged the hospital authorities with not issuing the cards even to those in their 8th or 9th month of pregnancy. Another woman, resident of LB Nagar, said, “I came for new antenatal card. They informed me saying only people with card are seen; no new cards are issued. But there is no board here stating the same. I came at 5:00 am in the morning and at 10am they asked us to go back. TS, AP to raise 22k crore through auction of bonds 70.9 percent parents feel online classes are not really helpful Telanganga State Home Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- charged on Friday. Mahamood Ali was admitted to Apollo Hospital on June 28th after he tested Covid-19 positive. He was discharged on Friday, after he tested negative. Thereafter, Ali went to his house. He said that he had recovered with the prayers of all and thanked all. Already TRS MLAs Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy, Ganesh Guptha, Bajireddy Govardhan have recovered from Corona. Corona enters Pragathi Bhavan? That Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in TS with the GHMC area accounting for a lion's share of the daily addition to the caseload is no longer shocking, because Hyderabad alone has recorded thousand plus cases per day in the last couple of days. What perhaps is entirely dis- tasteful for the health authori- ties is the 'pragathi' (progression) of Corona to Pragathi Bhavan, the nerve-centre of the state administration and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's official residence and principal workplace. The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Principal Secretary and the Director of School Education Department of the state as well as Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy District Education Officers and asked them to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by the Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) against the conduct of online classes and collection of fee by private schools. Draft amendment was a ploy to privatise electricity: Jagadish TS-NIMS and AP-KGH get nod for Covid clinical trials With 1,892 more cases, TS crosses 20,000-mark Telangana on Friday reported roughly 1892 new coronavirus infections, marking the biggest single-day spike in cases so far. The state tally has now reached 20,462 while the death toll crossed 283. Of the 1892, GHMC alone reported 1658 cases on Friday. On Friday, 8 person succumbed to the infection. Silver lining to the scary situation is the number of discharges were as high as 1126 on Friday. At 1 lakh tests, TS has high positivity rate Although Telangana has ramped up testing for coron- avirus, what is alarming is the high positivity rate and low number of tests per million. The cumulative positivity is 18.92 percent, making it high- est in the country. India’s cumulative positivity rate is around 6.92 percent, as per the dashboard Covid Today creat- ed by AIIMS doctors. Telangana is followed by Maharashtra with cumulative positivity rate of 18.24 percent. The positivity rate of Andhra Pradesh is lower than nation- al average at 1.73 percent. As on Friday, Telangana conducted 1,04,118 tests, of which 83,656 proved negative. The test positivity rate on Friday was 31.7 per cent. Out of 5,965 samples tested on Friday, 1,892 were positive. This in itself means every third person among those tested on Friday turned out to be positive. Congress pres- ident Sonia Gandhi on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding reservation for students from other backward classes (OBC) in state medical colleges under the All India Quota of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) - the country's sole entrance exam for undergraduate medical and dental students.

TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

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Page 1: TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

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Although online classes seem tohave become the new norm inthe wake of the disruptioncaused to academic calendarand schedule by the Covid-19pandemic, a survey has foundthat 70.9 per cent parents inTelangana feel that online edu-cation is not useful for children.

The survey was conductedby the Telangana State UnitedTeachers' Federation (TSUTF)

between June 22 and 27 in1,868 villages of 489 mandals,covering all 33 districts inTelangana state. As part of the

survey, the TSUTF took feed-back from 22,502 parents and39,659 students. In all, 17,282parents' wards are studying ingovernment schools and 5,220parents' children are studyingin private schools.

Of the families surveyed,only 4.4% felt that online class-es are useful for the students.The survey also revealed that39.6 per cent of the families cov-ered do not have smartphones.

����� ���������

Energy Minister G JagadishReddy has alleged that theCentre's draft Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2020 isdesigned to trample upon states'rights. The Bill is a ploy to pri-vatise completely the essential ser-vices of electricity, he said, whiletaking part in a national level con-clave hosted via video conferenceby Union Power MinisterRajkumar Singh on Friday.

Participating in the confer-ence from Vidyut Soudha here,Jagadish demanded the Centreto give a discount of 1 per centon the loans advanced toDiscoms, which had been fac-ing grave financial problemsdue to Covid-19. He suggest-ed that the Centre should giveloans at 8.5 % interest, insteadof charging 9.5%.

Later, while speaking tomedia persons, he described theamendment Bill as "detrimen-tal to the interests of farmers inthe state". The state govern-ment had been opposing theBill keeping in mind the inter-ests of all sections of beneficia-ries availing subsidies. In thecontext, he cited the letter thatChief Minister K Chandra-sekhar Rao had addressed tothe Centre expressing TS' reser-vations about the Bill.

Domestic consumers couldlose their subsidy under theprovisions of the bill, he men-tioned while criticising specif-ic provisions of the Bill.

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The Centre was not willingto change even one line in theproposed Bill in spite of staunchopposition to the measure fromstates. He cited the example ofhow Punjab and Kerala hadexpressed their opposition tothe Bill.

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Sending a strong message toChina, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday said the era ofexpansionism is over and thatIndia's enemies have seen the"fire and fury" of its armed forcesas he made a surprise visit toLadakh in the midst of a tenseborder standoff between Indianand Chinese armies in a num-ber of areas in the region.

In an address to troops, Modipaid glowing tributes to the 20Indian soldiers killed in theGalwan Valley clashes and saidtales of the bravery and valourof the armed forces are echoingin every part of the country.

"Bharat Mata's enemies haveseen your fire and fury," Modisaid in an apparent reference tothe Galwan Valley clashes. Hesaid bravery is a pre-requisitefor peace and that the weak cannever accomplish it.

The prime minister said theworld has taken note of India'sstrength due to the "exemplarybravery" of the armed forces inthe recent weeks, adding histo-ry is proof that "expansionists"

have either lost or perished."The era of expansionism

has come to an end. This is theera of development...History

has proved that expansionistforces have either lost or wereforced to turn back," he said.

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Telangana and Andhra PradeshStates, that have almost exhaust-ed their borrowing limit throughauction of bonds under FRBMnorms within three months ofthe current fiscal are now utilis-ing the enhanced FRBM limitgranted by the Centre recently toovercome the corona-inducedfinancial crisis. Governments of

both the states continue to beheavily dependent on auction ofbonds since April to raise fundsto meet salaries and pensions for

staff, retired staff and to meetexpenses towards welfare schemesand development programmes.

Where should we go? Pregnant womenprotest at Koti Maternity Hospital����� ���������

Scores of pregnant women,exasperated at the denial ofeven basic in-patient services,staged a flash protest at theGovernment MaternityHospital, Koti here on Friday.

The protesting womenalleged that the authorities, hav-ing suddenly stopped admis-sions, were attending to onlyemergency cases. They are offer-ing only out-patient services.

One of the distraughtwomen said, “I came in themorning to get antenatal card.But they asked me to go away.

When they gave the card onWednesday and Thursday, whydeny it now? They said, we arenot admitting even those who

are 9 months pregnant; onlyemergency cases will be taken.”

The antenatal cards are usedto keep track of pregnancy and

health checks. These cards aretypically issued from the 5thmonth of pregnancy.

However, the protestingwomen charged the hospitalauthorities with not issuing thecards even to those in their 8thor 9th month of pregnancy.

Another woman, resident ofLB Nagar, said, “I came for newantenatal card. They informedme saying only people with cardare seen; no new cards areissued. But there is no boardhere stating the same. I came at5:00 am in the morning and at10am they asked us to go back.

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TS, AP to raise 22k crorethrough auction of bonds

70.9 percent parents feel onlineclasses are not really helpful

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Telanganga State HomeMinister MohammadMahamood Ali has recoveredfrom Corona and was dis-charged on Friday.

Mahamood Ali was admittedto Apollo Hospital on June28th after he tested Covid-19positive. He was discharged onFriday, after he tested negative.Thereafter, Ali went to hishouse. He said that he hadrecovered with the prayers of alland thanked all.

Already TRS MLAsMuthireddy Yadagiri Reddy,Ganesh Guptha, BajireddyGovardhan have recoveredfrom Corona.

Corona entersPragathi Bhavan?����� ���������

That Covid-19 is spreadingrapidly in TS with the GHMCarea accounting for a lion'sshare of the daily addition to thecaseload is no longer shocking,because Hyderabad alone hasrecorded thousand plus casesper day in the last couple of days.What perhaps is entirely dis-tasteful for the health authori-ties is the 'pragathi' (progression)

of Corona to Pragathi Bhavan,the nerve-centre of the stateadministration and ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao's official residence andprincipal workplace.

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The Telangana High Courton Wednesday issued noticesto the Principal Secretaryand the Director of SchoolEducation Department ofthe state as well asHyderabad and RangaReddy District EducationOfficers and asked them torespond to a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) petition filedby the Hyderabad SchoolParents Association (HSPA)against the conduct of onlineclasses and collection of feeby private schools.

Draft amendmentwas a ploy to privatiseelectricity: Jagadish

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TS-NIMS and AP-KGH getnod for Covid clinical trials�������+ .�����%���,&������&��#�%������$��������$�$������%�D�"���$������&��#�%���� �����$�A��# B+�� %�����%���%�6��

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With 1,892 more cases,TS crosses 20,000-mark����� ���������

Telangana on Friday reportedroughly 1892 new coronavirusinfections, marking the biggestsingle-day spike in cases so far.The state tally has now reached20,462 while the death tollcrossed 283. Of the 1892,GHMC alone reported1658 cases on Friday.

On Friday, 8 personsuccumbed to theinfection. Silver liningto the scary situation isthe number of dischargeswere as high as 1126 on Friday.

At 1 lakh tests, TS hashigh positivity rate��'����������� ���������

Although Telangana hasramped up testing for coron-avirus, what is alarming is thehigh positivity rate and lownumber of tests per million.

The cumulative positivity is18.92 percent, making it high-est in the country. India’scumulative positivity rate isaround 6.92 percent, as per thedashboard Covid Today creat-ed by AIIMS doctors.

Telangana is followed by

Maharashtra with cumulativepositivity rate of 18.24 percent.The positivity rate of AndhraPradesh is lower than nation-al average at 1.73 percent.

As on Friday, Telanganaconducted 1,04,118 tests, ofwhich 83,656 proved negative.

The test positivity rate onFriday was 31.7 per cent. Outof 5,965 samples tested onFriday, 1,892 were positive.This in itself means every thirdperson among those tested onFriday turned out to be positive.

/�� ������3+������ �����'������������*����&+� Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi on Fridaywrote to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi demandingreservation for students fromother backward classes (OBC)in state medical collegesunder the All India Quota ofNational Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET) - thecountry's sole entrance examfor undergraduate medicaland dental students.

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Page 2: TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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There is an apocryphal storyabout the cyclone that struckKrishna District, AndhraPradesh in 1977 and led to ahuge loss of lives. As therelief workers were unable tolift the putrefying bodies,AVS Reddy (special officer)issued liquor to them so thatthey could cremate the deadbodies. Calamities producesuch sort of disarray in theminds of frontline workers.

What this example revealsis there is a need to reducechaos in the mind or, using ananalogy from thermodynam-ics, increase psychic negen-tropy (negative entropy).

In 1943, Nobel LaureateErwin Schrödinger gave alecture at Trinity CollegeDublin entitled what is life; ayear later “What is Life” waspublished as a book. In thisbook, Schrödinger answersthe question - “How wouldwe express the marvellousfaculty of a living organism,by which it delays the decayinto thermodynamical equi-librium (death)?”

His answer is that by means

of the process of metabolism,a living organism“... feedsupon negative entropy,attracting ... a stream of neg-ative entropy upon itself, tocompensate the entropyincrease it produces by livingand thus to maintain itself ona stationary and fairly lowentropy level.” In other words,it is possible to boost the psy-chic negentropy entropy byengaging with one’s surround-ings in a manner that increas-es the order in the mind.

The noted psychologistMihalyi Csikszentmihalyi inhis book Finding Flow sug-gests some principles ofdevoting attention to tasks ina way that calms the mind aswell as increases effectiveness.

The modus operandi con-sists of setting clear goals, get-ting immediate feedback onactions and fully using one’sskills while overcoming chal-lenges.

If the challenge is too high,one gets frustrated, then wor-ried and finally, anxious. If thechallenge is too low, the resultis apathy. Disorder in thepsyche is reduced when highchallenges are evenly matchedwith high skills. In such a casethere is complete clarity onwhat should be done andhow, and there is no place fordistracting thoughts or irrel-evant feelings.

Let us apply this to Covid-control operations.

First, clear goals have to beset. In the post-lockdownscenario, goals have changed.During lockdown the goal of

Covid-control was mainly toenforce stay-at-home orders.After its withdrawal, the pri-mary goal is implementationof a public health model oftesting, tracking, isolatingand quarantining. Second,testing was important earliertoo, however, now it hasacquired even more saliencebecause it has to be stepped-up in the face of an increas-ing number of people testingpositive. Third, test resultshave to be followed-upthrough micro-level actions.For this micro-level data onrelevant indicators is required.Otherwise as Gov. Andrew

Cuomo forewarns “- whenyou just reopen with noregard for metrics or data —it's bad for public health andfor the economy, and statesthat reopened in a rush arenow seeing a boomerang”.

Let us consider the case ofpeople with co-morbidities(e.g. high blood pressure, dia-

betes and tuberculosis). Theyrequire special attention inorder to avoid contractingCovid-19.

In case they get the infec-tion, then, they require urgentcurative care. In such cases,the micro-level actions are:(1) identify people with co-morbidities in micro-areas,(2) test them, (3) if the testresult is negative continue toget a daily feedback on theirhealth status (e.g. body tem-perature, cough), (3) if the testresult is positive, then takeaction for home isolation orinstitutional quarantine, (4)do contact tracing in order tolocate and test all the peoplewho came in contact with theinfected individual, and (5)test again once symptomssubside.

Next, use locally availableskills and resources to carryout grass root activities. Thefirst step is to identify vulner-

able people. This requires a rapid

house-to-house survey. Oneexcellent resource available isthe pulse polio team. Theseteams could be quickly bemobilised and deployed forthe survey. As the surveyprogresses, testing can bedone the next day (e.g. usemobile vans to collect sam-ples).

Based on the test resultsand the profile of the individ-ual (e.g. age, family support)and the severity of symptoms,a decision could be made forhome isolation or sending toa care-centre. Finally, theASHA workers or any othermicro-level resource would beused to trace all the peoplewho came in contact with theinfected individual andarrange for their testing.Based on the results of con-tact tracing, specific parts ofbuildings or areas would be

sealed for limited periods. Setting clear and consis-

tent goals, obtaining imme-diate feedback on actionsand using one’s skills fully toovercome the challengesthrown up by Covid-19enables one to allocate com-plete attention on tasks aswell as drive them.

As a result, harmony isestablished between the will,mind and emotions. This is amanifestation of increase inpsychic negentropy. A restfulpsyche goes hand-in-handwith better performance inCovid-control operations. Inthe long run, the coherent selfbecomes the unique person-al-reality (personality) of theindividual.

(Author is a Ph.D. fromUSA and a D.Litt. from

Kanchi University. The article is based on hisresearch and practice and

views are personal)

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Densely populated urban areahas huge demand for greenersurroundings and better envi-ronment. The urbanisationimpact added with the impactof climate change is deteriorat-ing, which in turn is taking atoll on the population. Theurban forest blocks can providea solace to this problem bydevelopment of urban forestparks for climate resilience forcity and its people.

Forest Minister AllolaIndrakaran Reddy on Fridayinaugurated urban forest parks -Anyaneeya and Narsimha ForestParks at Raigiri nearYadagirigutta. Speaking on theoccasion, the Minister said thatthe state government was devel-oping lung spaces in the cities andtowns by setting up urban forestparks and urban tourism parks inthe available forest lands.

"The Chief Minister hasdesired to develop parks on thebasis of KBR park model in allareas of Hyderabad city as wellin all municipalities in the state.

The Chief Minister alwaysemphasised on creating betterenvironment to live in as healthis wealth. These urban forestparks provide better environ-ment to nearby habitations andthere by better health, peopleshould visit/walk in forest parksfor their health instead of hos-

pitals for cure," he further said.No state except Telangana

has taken up plantation pro-gramme in such a big way inthe country, the Minister saidand added that the state gov-ernment has already identifiedforest lands located near citiesand towns and developing

urban parks in some area ofthem, he added. He made itclear that urban lung spaceswould be created at all citiesand towns in the state.

He said that the state govern-ment has taken up measures forprotection of forests besides tak-ing up plantation programmes

under Haritha Haram. Narasimhaand Anjaneeya Aranyams weredeveloped in Raigiri reserve for-est area to create a pleasantatmosphere near Yadadri hillshrine, which was being devel-oped on par with Tirumala by thestate government.

Narasimha Aranyam wasdeveloped in 97.12 hectors inRayagiri-II reserve forest blocwith Rs 3.16 crores whileAnjaneya aranyam in 56.65hectors in Raigiri- I reserve for-est bloc with Rs 2.83 crore. Thetwo urban parks were devel-oped in the manner that thepeople who would visit themwould recognise the impor-tance of the trees and protec-tion of the forests.

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Continued from Page 1

He further said: "Your courageis higher than the heightswhere you are serving today.When the safety of the coun-try is in your hands, then thereis a belief. Not only me, but theentire nation believes in you.We all are proud of you."

The prime minister wasaccompanied by Chief ofDefence Staff Gen Bipin Rawatand Army Chief Gen MMNaravane.

"Whether during the worldwars or peace, the world has

seen the victory of our bravesoldiers and their effortstowards peace," he said amidchants of 'Vande Mataram'.

"We are the same peoplewho pray to the flute-playingLord Krishna, but we are alsothose who idolise and pray tothe same Lord Krishna whocarries the 'SudarshanaChakra'," he said.

The Indian and Chinesearmies are locked in a bitterstandoff in multiple locationsin eastern Ladakh for the lastseven weeks. The tension esca-lated manifold after 20 Indian

soldiers were killed in a violentclash in Galwan Valley onJune 15. The Chinese sidealso suffered casualties but itis yet to give out the details.

In his address, Modi spoke

at length about how the virtuesof peace, friendship andcourage have been a part ofIndia's culture since timeimmemorial. He recalled thatIndia has always given a befit-

ting reply to anyone who hastried to disturb the prevailingatmosphere of peace andprogress. The prime ministeraffirmed that India is commit-ted to peace and friendship butthis commitment to peaceshould not be seen as India'sweakness. Today India isbecoming stronger, be it innaval might, air power, spacepower and the strength of ourarmy, he said, adding mod-ernisation of weapons andupgrading of infrastructurehas enhanced the country'sdefence capabilities manifold.

����������� ��� ��� ���������� ��������������������� ������������������� �Continued from Page 1

(,������$�%�"������%��&��%�� �)���13�&���$�1@������&����&�����$����&����������������&���&�$+�����������%��&�%��$���&�&�%$�&������%� ��&&�����&�-���'$���&��%��$$��&�/�)�,�����$'�����$&�$�'+��������������%�����������$�%$����$�)��������&��$+($�%�0��&��+�����$�&*�$���$&��&������,���$���"��$$ -

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. +��!��&���$��33*���---As per FRBM Act, States areallowed to raise loans up to 3 percent of their GSDP in a finan-cial year. Accordingly, TS waspermitted to raise Rs 15,051crore, while AP was allowed toraise Rs 15,153 crore for the cur-rent fiscal 2020-21. However,both the states almost exhaust-ed this limit in the first threemonths of the fiscal itself asthe revenue earnings took adrastic hit due to corona-induced lockdown from mid-March to June. TS and AP hadalready raised Rs 14,000 croreeach in the first three monthsof this fiscal. Fortunately for thetwo states, the Centre recentlyraised the FRBM limit of all theStates from 3% to 5% of GSDPto help states to tide over the

present financial crisis. Withthis, both the states got the flex-ibility to raise an additional Rs15,000 crore each for this fis-cal. Both the state govern-ments have now lined up auc-tions of bonds to utilise theenhanced FRBM limit in thenext three months from July toSeptember. Both the states areexpected to exhaust the majorpart of even enhanced FRBMlimit in the next three months.Yet, their governments arehopeful that coronavirus willbe brought under control byOctober and normalcy will berestored boosting the revenueearnings in the second half ofthe fiscal and they can managethe expenses with their ownresources.

Continued from Page 1

The move by the HRDMinistry comes after par-ents and students raised con-cerns about conducting theexams in July, at a time whenCOVID-19 cases are increas-ing rapidly. The decision wastake based on a report sub-mitted by a panel of expertsregarding the prevailing pan-demic situation.

70.9 % parents feel online...Continued from Page 1

One smartphone was availablewith 48.9 per cent families andonly 7.4 per cent families havetwo smartphones for two chil-dren.

Around 14.8 per cent of thefamilies do not even have acable TV connection forenabling the kids to watchlessons on government educa-

tional channels. Only 36% ofthe schools have TV sets, butthey are not in a usable condi-tion in 10.4% schools.

Unfortunately, only 11%parents have mobile dataplans that can support onlineclasses without buffering.Another 58.7% parents saidthat they do not have mobiledata.

About 93% of parents

demanded immediate reopen-ing of schools with all Covid-19-related precautions.

The TSUTF, in its reportsent to Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao, has sug-gested that the state govern-ment should first start ClassesIX and X. It also recommend-ed that all schools should beprovided with computers andinternet facilities.

Continued from Page 1

During the course of argu-ments, a division bench of theHigh Court, comprising theChief Justice of the state JusticeRS Chauhan and Justice B.Vijaysen Reddy, also asked thestate government if there wasany policy or set of guidelinesframed by it to conduct onlineclasses in the state.

Arguing the case, the coun-sel for the petitioner told the HCthat the private schools had vio-lated the lockdown rules issuedby the state government byconducting online classes. Thecounsel also said that the private

schools were harassing the par-ents of students to pay the feeeven before the commence-ment of the academic year in anofficial manner.

Countering the arguments ofthe petitioner, the counsel forthe state government told theHC that the DEOs of the twodistricts had received severalcomplaints on the issue andadded that they were also tak-ing action on the complaints.

The division bench asked thestate government to respond onthe issue within two days andadjourned the matter till July 13of this month for further hear-ing.

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.1� �����7 7;:�,�8���7<<<Continued from Page 1

The authorities have notheard our request.”

Health officials claimthat, in view of coronavirus,women had been advised tovisit the Area Hospital andto go to the GovernmentMaternity Hospital at Kotionly in case of an emer-gency.

It appears that, as womenin other government mater-nity hospitals had contract-ed coronavirus, more andmore women are prefer-ring to go to Koti Hospital.Not many women went tothe Area Hospital and thosewho visited are not happywith the treatment provid-ed there.

Continued from Page 1

About 20 staffers of PragathiBhavan have tested positive inthe last one week, it is learnt.They include security per-sonnel and outsourcedemployees. However, thedeeply disturbing news has notyet been made official.

The sanitation staff havebegun doing their bit atPragathi Bhavan under thesupervision of health officials.

Amidst all this, leaving lit-tle to public imagination,Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao has

stayed put in his farmhouselocated in Erravalli villagenear Gajwel for the past threedays.

A few days ago the stategovernment had sent feelersabout reimposing lockdown inview

of the increasing Coronacases in Hyderabad city. Later,the government changed itsmind and confined the'changes' to aligning the state'slockdown norms to Centre'sUnlock 2 rules, saying anoth-er spell of lockdown will notbe a solution to controlCorona.

Corona entersPragathi Bhavan?

With 1,892 more cases...Continued from Page 1

With this 10,195 patientshave been discharged.However this data is notactual as the data of one pri-vate lab has been suspended.As per the health bulletin,“One of the private laborato-ries has reported extremelyhigh sample positivity rate.The said lab has reported2,672 positive cases against

3,726 total samples tested.The Positivity rate is 71.7 %which is a gross variationand discrepancy in the noti-f ied posit iv ity rate ofCOVID-19 till date. Thetested Negatives are only962 out of 3,726 samples.The issue needs to be evalu-ated by an expert committeeand until then the data of thesaid lab has been kept underabeyance”.

�'�1�������� ����������������Continued from Page 1

Presently, Deputy Speaker TPadmarao is undergoing treat-ment for Corona. From otherpolitical parties-- ChintalaRamachandra Reddy (BJP), VHanumantha Rao (Congress)have recovered from Corona.TRS MLA TESTS POSITIVE

Another TRS MLA testedpositive for Covid-19 on Friday.Government whip and MLArepresenting Alair constituen-cy contracted the virus. She hadbeen admitted to a private hos-pital in Secunderabad and dur-ing her treatment she testedpositive for the virus. The testresults of her family membersare awaited.

Dont deny OBCreservations: SoniaContinued from Page 1

She said OBC students have lost11,000 seats since 2017 due tothe denial of reservation.

"I would like to bring to yourattention, denial of reservationfor OBC candidates under All-India Quota being filledthrough National Eligibilitycum Entrance Test (NEET), inState/UT Medical educationinstitutions," she wrote in theletter.

"Under the All India Quota,15%, 7.5% and 10% seats arereserved for SC (scheduledcaste), ST (scheduled tribes)and Economically Weaker

Section candidates respective-ly, in both Central and State/UTMedical education institutions.However, reservation for OBCcandidates under All IndiaQuota is restricted to CentralInstitutions," she added.

������������������������� ��!�����"��#�$���Continued from Page 1

Further, at 2,493 tests permillion by Telangana, thetests per million is secondlowest in the country, pre-ceeded by Bihar. The nation-al average of tests per millionis 6,603 persons, which is

nearly 3 t imes that ofTelangana.

As on Friday, the number oftests conducted in the state justtouched one lakh. Delhi at30,598 tests per million andAndhra Pradesh, at 17,303tests per million, are amongthe top states.

Continued from Page 1

However health experts haveraised concern over the let-ter as ICMR targets to rollout vaccine by 15August.Dr Anant Bhan a doctor andpublic health researcher saidin a tweet, “For a vaccine forwhich pre-clinical develop-ment is still ongoing, as perthe letter itself, how canclinical trial recruitment bestarting on 07th July? Andthat the vaccine will belaunched on 15th August? Avaccine trial completed in lit-tle over a month, efficacypre-decided?”

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Social distancing and wearingmask and gloves have been veryeffective in slowing down thespread of Coronavirus.Hyderabad's Maven Labs, astart-up firm based at theTechnology Business Incubator(TBI) at University ofHyderabad (UoH) has come upwith a tool SudRz (Sanskrit,meaning - keen-sighted) devel-oped under Project METIS(Medical EngineeringTechnology Industrial Strategy).

This tool can monitor socialdistance in a location withlarge foot-falls by detectingwhether the physical distancebetween people is at least 6feet. The tool analyses real-time video streaming fromcameras- eg. CCTV and iden-tifying physical distancing vio-

lations using ArtificialIntelligence (AI) algorithmbetween all pairs of individu-als. Distancing violations areconveyed, along with alarmfeatures on the screen withindividuals framed in a box.Cameras with IP enabled aresufficient to implement thesystem.

The tool has an added built-in feature for FacialRecognition using AI. Once anidentification of a face is madewith other identifying datasuch as passport number oremployee number, contact lessprocessing by remote facialrecognition can be used forfunctions and locations suchas selective entry into restrict-ed areas, attendance monitor-ing, airports etc. This helps toensure employee and publicsafety.

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For the past one week or tendays, a kg of tomato is beingtraded at Rs 60 a kg in retailmarket, registering three timeincrease in its prices (Rs 20-30a kg). In the wholesale market,a kg of tomato is being sold atRs 40 a kg. There are indica-tions that the red vegetableprices will increase further infuture. It is pertinent to notehere that the vegetable was soldat Rs 30 a kg in retail market.

Supply of tomato to citymarkets from city outskirtsfulfils the needs of the peopleof the city. Crop grown byfarmers on city outskirts arenot yet ready for harvesting. Astomatoes are in short supply, itsprices are ruling the roost.Market sources say that theprices of tomato will comedown if harvested tomatoes

reach the city markets withina month. The rise in prices oftomatoes is attributed to con-sumers hoarding tomatoes inlarge quantities for fear ofimposing lockdown. Besides,tomatoes are also importedfrom other states. The trans-portation charges, agents' com-mission and wholesale traders'margin and other factorspushed the prices of tomatoesin retail market. Tomatoesarrive in city market fromKarnataka, AP and otherplaces.

The GudimalkapurVegetable Market CommitteeChairman Venkat Reddy, in arecently statement, said themarket would remain closedtill July 4 as a person workingin the market contracted virus.The hamalis and traders aredemanding the committee toclose the market.

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Infected with Covid-19,Arpita Ash, a senior execu-tive at AIG Hospitals saysthat with the help of col-leagues, prayers of parentsand friends, she defeated theinfection in 14 days.

Arpita, a resident of WestBengal, who is deployed inthe Nuclear MedicineDepartment contracted theinfection from a cancerpatient. "First, I suspected inMarch, but at that time itwas negative. Again in JuneI suspected, I had feverish,body pains and body rashand I had all Covid-19symptoms. I underwentfree-of-cost test given tostaff at AIG. On June 12, Itested positive. After Ireceived my report, I got toknow that I came in contactwith a Covid-19 patient dur-ing endoscopy," she said.

From hostel in Madhapur,Arpita, 24, headed to hospi-tal in a cab and got herselfadmitted. With no-onearound, phone calls was theonly medium of communi-cation. While she had mildsymptoms for first threedays, soon her temperaturewas dropping and she wasexperiencing breathlessness.

"When I was first sentinto isolation room, I hadhigh BP. Then the Chest x-ray and 4-5 blood tests wereconducted after which the

treatment wasstarted. AIGtreated nicelyand even thefood was of finequality. Because ofisolation, since thereis no exposure to sun, I wasgiven vitamin D3. Every 4hours, the authorities con-cerned checked on me andgave water, fruits. Within 14days, I recovered fromCovid-19," she further said.

Arpita said that she usedto breakdown due to the fearof death. "Everyday, I usedto cry thinking why me.Moreover, almost every day,I used to hear about deathsof patients in adjoiningrooms and I was just wor-ried, especially because Iam the only daughter for myparents. My friends at hos-pital helped me a lot. I toldmy mother 4 days after I got

infected as theywould panic. Mydad supportedme and told me I

would recover.Even my friends

were cal l ing andchecking on me," sherecalled.

Unfortunately, whenArpita returned to her hos-tel on 26 June, the authori-ties didn't allow her to stayas she was Covid-19 sur-vivor. But since she paid herrent, they moved her toanother hostel in a singleroom. "I am planning to visitmy parents in West Bengalbefore joining work, but Ihave to see how the modal-ities will work - as there isno staff and they want me toreturn. After covid19, Irealised It is my life which isimportant fol lowed bywork-life".

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There is acute shortage ofblood in Gandhi Hospital. Notonly the blood units andplatelets of rare groups, butalso those of the most com-mon groups are found to be inshortage in the hospital whichhas been converted into aCovid-19 treatment facility.

Because of the Covid-19threat, donors have not beencoming forward to donateblood. A patient in children'swing in Gandhi Hospital hasbeen suffering from low countof haemoglobin. The hospitalblood bank has shortage of herblood group. Doctors triedhard and contacted one of thedonors. The life of the babycould be saved as a donordonated blood at last.

At least three to five patientsin Gandhi Hospital are suffer-ing from haemoglobin low

count. The blood bank hasabsolutely no blood units avail-able with it, it is alleged. Someof the Covid-19 patients havebeen suffering from lowhaemoglobin levels. The hos-pital authorities are requisi-tioning the blood units fromthe Institute of PreventiveMedicine and OsmaniaHospital in respect of somepatients. In respect of others,necessary blood units are hardto find. An officer of theGandhi Hospital said that

platelets cannot be stored likeblood. The platelets should begiven to be patient within fivedays of acquiring them.

The hospital medical offi-cers are welcoming blooddonors to come forward anddonate blood to save lives ofpatients who are in danger.They said that the donorsneed not come to GandhiHospital but made arrange-ments at the central bloodbank at the Institute ofPreventive Medicine.

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Officials of the North Zoneteam of the Commissioner'sTask Force on Friday busted aforeign cigarettes selling rack-et and apprehended fiver per-sons and seized cigarettesworth Rs 1.3 crore from theirpossession.

The arrested were identifiedas Vipul Ranka (42), JagadishKumar (19), DoongarchandShrishrimal (65), PavanKumar Perthani (42) and MAHaneef (40). Another personinvolved in this racket, iden-tified as Ravinder Singh Sarna(58), is absconding, the policesaid. "Vipul Ranka runs 'D.Rajesh Kumar & Co' at BegumBazaar, that sold tailoringmaterial and agarbatti mater-ial. Due to insufficient income,he decided to sell foreign cig-arettes. Ranka came into con-tact with the owner of SarnaTransports, purchased hugequantities of foreign cigarettesfrom him and sold them at hisshop in Begum Bazaar. Underthe guise of 'Sarna Transports',Pavan Kumar and MA Haneef

kept foreign cigarettes in theirgodown and distributed thematerial on the instructions ofthe owner, Ravinder SinghSarna" said Anjani Kumar,Commissioner of Police,Hyderabad City.

"Ranka soon came into con-tact with local distributorsJagadish Kumar and DoongarChand. They procure the cig-arettes from Sarna Transportsand supply to pan shop ven-dors, petty kirana shop ven-dors, local marketing agents inaround Hyderabad and gainhuge profits on the foreign cig-arettes," the official added.

"These foreign cigarettesare being illegally smuggledfrom countries like China,Malaysia, Switzerland andSouth Korea to evade taxesand are being sold in Delhi,Hyderabad and other states atcheaper rates with a heavymargin to the sellers. As com-pared to Indian brands, con-sumers also prefer to buysuch cigarettes due to itsinternational quality andbrand name" theCommissioner said.

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Parents of the students fromGlendale AcademyInternational School havelodged a police complaint atRajendranagar against theschool for charging inappro-priate fees and violating GOno 46 issued by the TelanganaState government.

One of the complainants,and mother of two Glendalestudents, Deepti Agarwal,said, "All the parents havebeen asking the schools thereduce the fees, since during

this pandemic it's a bit diffi-cult to pay Rs 20,000 everymonth to them. Many havesent several emails to theschool but the school is notresponding to the request ofdisclosure of the fee struc-ture." "Now the school hasstarted to harass the parentsasking us to make the feespayment and when I said thatI am ready to pay the tuitionfee stated on CBSE websitefor last year, the school is notagreeing and disconnectingthe online classes for mychildren," she further added.

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Tollywood film directorAjay Bhupathi lodged acomplaint with the CyberCrime Police againstunidentified persons whoimpersonated him andcheated several womenmodels.

The director said thatunknown persons had cre-ated a fake WhatsApp pro-file on his name and con-tacted women offering thema chance in his upcomingmovies alongside actorsVijay Deverakonda andVishal.

The fraudsters also col-lected the pictures of mod-els and started harassingthem. After being contact-ed about the issue by anacquaintance, the directorapproached the police whoregistered a case and areinvestigating.

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The officials of Directorate ofRevenue Intelligence (DRI)seized 356.9kg of marijuana,valued at Rs 71 lakh in thecity outskirts on Thursdaynight. The Hyderabad ZonalUnit of DRI intercepted aheavy goods carriage vehiclewhich was enroute toMaharashtra. The truck wasstopped near Isnapur on theoutskirts of Hyderabad onthe Bombay Highway, theofficials said. "Though it wasfound that the lorry wasempty, however, the officersnoticed a specially designedcavity behind the driver'schamber which is made toconceal Ganja. We found156 packages of ganja, weigh-ing 356.9 kg. The value of thecontraband is Rs 71.38 lakh,"the police said, adding thatthe driver was taken into cus-tody for questioning.

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The dead body of the primeaccused in the double murderand assault case of old city wasrotting for 36 hours beforepolice found it at his residence,during which 5 teams wereallegedly chasing leads to nabhim in different states. Howdid the police miss an obviousplace to check, which is notmore than 100 meters awayfrom where the family waskept under protection?

The 27-year-old murderaccused, Ahmed Bin SalamBaa Ismail, was earlier arrest-ed in January 2019 on chargesof murdering his wife and wasout on bail. Earlier this week,he murdered two of his sistersat Chandrayangutta onMonday evening. Police offi-

cials of two commissioneratesthen launched a hunt to nabthe absconding suspect.

He was residing with hismother, Puthli Begum, at SalalaBarkas. He attacked his two sis-ters with a dagger after invitingthem to dinner at his house.While Razia Begum (35) died onthe spot, Zakira Begum (45) suc-cumbed to injuries while being

shifted to hospital. After beinginformed of the incident, seniorpolice officials visited the sceneof offence and are supervisingthe investigation. The policehad launched a manhunt for theaccused and had reportedlyformed five teams, three ofwhich were in different states,as per sources. However, inves-tigating teams overlooked oneof the most obvious places andthe man's decomposing bodywas found 36 hour later at hisresidence.

"His residence and places ofknown associates were thefirst few places we checked andwe widened our perimeterlater. We followed protocolsand procedures to trace himbut unfortunately, he had com-mitted suicide," said an officialon the basis of anonymity.

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Two persons committed sui-cide in separate incidents inthe city. Preliminary investi-gation into both the casesreveals that the deceasedwere depressed before takingthe extreme step. In the firstincident reported atGandhinagar, a

19-year-old killed himselfby hanging from the ceiling athis house on Wednesdaynight. The deceased was iden-tified as P Vinay, a resident ofGandhinagar who worked asa private employee. Accordingto the police, in a complaintreceived, Vinay's family saidthat he was close with a girl forthe last one and half year. Shewas recently married to anoth-er person. After learning of hermarriage, Vinay was reported-ly depressed. In another inci-dent, a 29-year-old man com-mitted suicide by hanginghimself in his room atSantoshnagar on Wednesdaynight. Police said that the vic-tim was depressed over thedeath of his wife. The deceasedwas identified as K Ramesh, aresident of Arundathinagarcolony.

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Page 4: TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

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Industries Minister KT RamaRao sought loan assistancefrom NABARD for the imple-mentation of Telangana FiberGrid project on Friday. KTRduring his meeting withNABARD Chief GeneralManager YK Rao spoke aboutthe ongoing government pro-grammes aimed at strengthen-ing the rural economy.

"Telangana Fiber Grid isaimed at providing Internet tohome under the ITDepartment, will enable digi-tal infrastructure in rural areas,especially in rural areas, whichwill bring about drasticchanges in agriculture andfacilitate improvement in farmoperations," he said.

Pointing to the irrigationfacilities in the state, KTR saidthat there will be a revolutionin the agri-food sector, espe-cially in rural areas, which willfacilitate special food process-ing zones. He urged NABARDto come up with a special pro-gramme to promote food pro-cessing zones in rural areas.NABARD expressed interest in

partnering with the Telanganagovernment to strengthen therural economy, and increaseinvestment opportunities inrural areas.

NABARD CGM YK Raosaid that the Telangana govern-ment's many initiatives in thefield of agriculture are in linewith their bank goals and inspi-ration. Responding positively tothe suggestions made byMinister KTR, the CGMexpressed willingness to part-ner with the TelanganaGovernment on more initia-tives.

KTR also urged to con-tribute to their efforts to build500 godowns with a capacity ofabout two thousand metrictonnes through basic agricul-tural societies in rural areas. Hesuggested NABARD officials toprovide the loans on a satura-tion mode in Rajanna Sircilladistrict or any other district inthe State on a pilot basis.

Principal Secretary for ITand Industries Jayesh Ranjan,TSCOB chairman KonduriRavindra Rao, Rythu BandhuSamithi chairman PallaRajeshwara Reddy and other

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Excise Minister V SrinivasGoud and MLA HarshavardhanReddy expressed wonder atOpposition criticism onKondapochamma Sagar canaldeveloping breaches and clari-fied that it is tanks and canalsthat develop breaches but nothumans.

Addressing media atAssembly Media Point here onFriday, they charged the erst-while rulers of the undividedAndhra Pradesh for severaldecades with not excavatingirrigation canals and hence thequestion of canals developingbreaches does not arise.

Taking exception to therulers of undivided AP whoruled it for over seven decadesand those who obstructed for-mation of Telangana state crici-tising the TRS Government inthe state, which is emerging asa rice bowl to the country, theycharged the Congress withpraying to almighty that manymore canals in Telanganashould breach to derive polit-ical mileage. Canal developingminor breaches is natural asthere is water in canals every-where in Telangana andcharged the Congress withnot excavating a basket of soilduring its regime. The farmersof the state are well aware ofthe fact. Canal bunds develop-

ing breaches and pluggingthem is a natural phenomenon,they said. What is the linkbetween KondapochammaSagar canal developing breachand Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao? theywondered.

They turned tables on theBJP saying that did the TRSheld Prime Minister NarendraModi accountable for the deathof over 20 soldiers in clasheswith Chinese army at the inter-national border. The SardarSarovar Project developedbreaches. Was it the mistake ofthe then CM of GujaratNarendra Modi?

Describing Ram Madhav ofthe BJP as political tourist ofTelangana, they accused him oftalking nonsense accusing theTRS of half execution of irri-gation projects. Whether Ram

Madhav is aware of the factthat the CMs of BJP-ruledstates and Union Ministershave lauded the TelanganaProjects or not?

They condemned the state-ment of Ram Madhav whosaid that the day when peoplewould send KCR to home isnot far away. In almost everyelection, the people of thestate sent the BJP home. TheBJP strength nosedived inAssembly from five to just oneseat and BJP nominees forfeit-ed their deposits in 108 seats.

The people are ultimatejudges of the government, butnot Ram Madhav, they said.They demanded theOpposition leaders to show ascheme like Rytu Bandhu,being implemented inTelangana, not in India butanywhere on globe.

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In the wake of the Covid-19pandemic, devotees will not beallowed to attend the Bonalufestivities at Sri UjjainiMahankali Temple inSecunderabad from July 10 to13. Minister for AnimalHusbandry Minister TalasaniSrinivas Yadav said that tem-ple trustees and priests wouldoffer 'bonam' to the GoddessSri Mahankali while devoteesshould offer their 'bonam' tothe Sun God at their house.The festival will be celebrat-ed at the temple devoid of theusual participation of lakhs ofdevotees in it because of theCovid-19 threat.

The Minister exhorted thedevotees to cooperate withthe temple authorities as oth-ers are not allowed inside thetemple. As per the rituals, theritual of Rangam would beconducted on July 13, hesaid. The government wouldmake arrangements for thelive telecast of proceedings.

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The water from this historicwell was once used to quenchthe thirst of the Nizams, therulers of then Hyderabad State.Centuries later, it is stillbelieved to have the samemedicinal properties. Locatedat Molangur Fort nearKarimnagar town, about 170km from Hyderabad, DoodhBowli or milky well is alwaysthronged by people fromMolangur and surroundingvillages.

Doodh Bowli (not to con-fuse with Doodh Bowli in theold city of Hyderabad) stillserves many people, whobelieve that its water, which isas white as milk, can curemany ailments. It is said thatwater from Doodh Bowli usedto be transported in horse-drawn carriages every day toHyderabad for personal con-sumption of the Nizams, as theAsaf Jahi rulers of the prince-

ly state of Hyderabad wereknown.

People from Molangur andmore than a dozen surround-ing villages can be seen throng-ing the well and carrying cansof water to their homes.Though Molangur, like othervillages, is getting tap waterunder the Mission Bhagirathaprogramme of the state govern-ment, majority of the villagersprefer water from Doodh

Bowli for drinking purposes.Narahari Buchi Reddy, a

former sarpanch of the village,claims that hardly anyone inthe village has had any healthissues. Many villagers believethat people who use waterfrom Doodh Bowli don't takeill. Some believe that it even hasa cure for kidney ailments. It'snot just the people in the sur-rounding villages, but visitorsto the fort and the officials in

Karimnagar town also preferwater from Doodh Bowli.

The 24-feet-deep well almostdries up during the peak sum-mer, but in the remaining partof the year, it has enoughwater. During monsoon, wateroozes from it. Since monsoonalso brings with seasonal dis-eases, people from various vil-lages fetch water from the well.They believe the well hasmiraculous power. The fort is

believed to have been con-structed by VoragiriMoggaraju, one of the chiefofficers of Prathapa Rudra ofKakatiya dynasty in the 13thcentury. It used to serve as atransit halt for Kakatiyas trav-elling from Warangal Fort toElgandal Fort in Karimnagar.

Locals, however, lament theneglect of both Doodh Bowliand the fort. They have beendemanding the public repre-sentatives and officials to devel-op the fort and the well to taptheir tourism potential. "Webelieve the fort and the historicwell with lush green surround-ings can attract many tourists.They can be developed intosites of tourist attraction," saidformer sarpanch MaratiVenkateshwarlu. The local peo-ple have also been demandinga halt to granite quarryingaround the fort as they believethe activity is damaging the fortand polluting water in the his-toric well.

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BJP MP from NizamabadDharmapuri Arvind tookpotshots at the TRS govern-ment and blamed ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao for Covid crisis in thestate.

"Pr ime MinisterNarendra Modi is wagingf ight against Corona,whereas Chief Minister isrunning away instead oftackling the spread of thevirus. The Chief Minister ishiding the facts in regardwith Corona situation," healleged.

The Chief Minister is notconducting review meetingsand not conducting adequatetests, he said alleging that theChief Minister has no con-cern about the people. TheChief Minister, who is sup-posed to be a role model forthe people, is not wearing atleast mask.

Expressing anger over theHealth Minister EatalaRajender, Arvind said thatEatala has no right to com-ment on Central govern-ment. He suggested Eatala tolook after Health Ministry inproper manner. The patients,who succumbed to Corona,highlighted the plight of thegovernment hospitals andthe facilities being provided.Eatala has no right to contin-ue as Health Minister, hesaid demanding Eatala to sitin house after tendering res-ignation to his position.

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Telangana government hasidentified 7 district hospitalsas Covid-19 testing siteswhich will facilitate testing for21 districts. As per ICMRGeneXpert/CBNAAT plat-form can be utilised as a con-firmatory test for detection ofSARS-COV2 (COVID 19virus) using specific car-tridges as per Government ofIndia instructions.

These include GovernmentGeneral Hospital, Nizamabadfor Nizamabad, Kamareddy &Nirmal districts. DistrictHospital, Gadwal will conducttests for samples collectedfrom Mahbubnagar,Narayanpet, Wanaparthy andNagarkurnool. Area Hospital,Kothagudem will verify sam-ples from Khammam andBhadradri. District Hospital,Karimnagar will cater to thetesting needs of Karimnagar,Sircilla, Jagityal and Peddapalli.District Hospital Suryapet willtest samples from Suryapet,Nalgonda and Yadadri.District Hospital Asifabad willtest samples of Asifabad area.

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A delegation of TRS leadersfrom erstwhile Warangal dis-trict comprising GovernmentWhip Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar,local bodies' constituencyMLC Pochampalli SrinivasaReddy and VardhannapetaMLA Aruri Ramesh called onIT Minister KT Rama Rao atPragati Bhavan here on Fridayand sought his intervention forsetting up of integral coach fac-tory at Kazipet.

The delegation submitted amemorandum to the Minister

in this regard. They told theMinister that the coach facto-ry was the long-cherisheddream of the people of erst-while Warangal district. Series

of struggles launched toachieve it for the district werenot met with success, they said.

Necessary land has beenearmarked for the proposedcoach factory, they said exhort-ing KTR to speak with theCentre and get it sanctioned tothe Warangal district.Moreover, the proposed coachfactory would solve unem-ployment problem to a majorextent. The factory would putTelangana on national mapand also earn good name forthe state government, theyanalysed.

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Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee Treasurer GudurNarayana Reddy strongly con-demned Health Minister EtalaRajender for not responding tohis request for framing guide-lines for plasma donation ashad proposed to motivatedonors through Plasma DonorsAssociation.

Narayana Reddy, in a state-ment, said that the state govern-ment, especially HealthMinister was highly insensitiveto the needs of the people."Neither Chief MinisterChandrashekhar Rao norHealth Minister Rajenderseems interested in saving peo-ple who are dying due to Covid-19 infection. Any responsiblegovernment will try to save thelife of its citizens and it will goto any extent even if could saveeven one person. However,TRS government has remainednon-responsive to a good sug-

gestion made by us whichcould save thousands of lives,"he said.

The Congress leader saidmany other States in the coun-try like Maharashtra have beenpromoting plasma therapy at alarger scale. However, TelanganaGovernment has become soinefficient and insensitive thatit was not showing any concerntowards the sufferings of peoplesuffering from Covid-19.

Narayana said since he him-

self has recovered from Covid-19 he has been trying to helpother patients. "Except for theguidelines on plasma therapy,I'm not expecting anythingfrom the government. I will takecare of all the expenses throughmy NGO GNR Foundation tocreate awareness and mobilisepotential plasma donors. TheState government can selectthe recipients and help us savethousands of lives," he said.

The Congress leader askedChief Minister and HealthMinister to stop treatingTelangana as their 'father's jagir'(personal fiefdom). He saidthat the Chief Minister hascrushed the opposition by pur-chasing a few MLAs just to sup-press the voices that could raisepublic issues and expose hiswrong decisions. However, hesaid that the Congress partywould continue to expose thefailures of TRS Governmentirrespective of its strength in theAssembly.

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Telangana Employees JAC onFriday submitted a memoran-dum to Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar urging the lat-ter to provide adequate protec-tion to the employees who test-ed positive for Coronavirus.

The JAC leaders explainedthat the employees are per-forming their duties by riskingtheir lives with the directionsof Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao. Theysaid that the employees whoare working among the people

are scared as the Corona casesare increasing rapidly. TheJAC leaders urged the govern-ment to include Covid treat-ment under Employees HealthScheme. The leaders also urged

the government to providespecial leaves to the employeesextending medical services.

They asked the governmentto record temperatures of theemployees at every govern-ment office and allow theemployees wear masks. Theyasked the government to ini-tiate steps to use sanitizers bythe employees. They urgedthe government to conductfree Corona tests to everyemployee. JAC leaders---Karem Ravinder Reddy,Mamatha and others partici-pated in it.

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With a large number of peo-ple showing no symptomstesting positive for Covid-19,the Union Health Ministryhas revised home isolationguidelines to include asympto-matic positive patients in thelist of mild or pre-symptomaticcoronavirus infection cases.

However, immuno compro-mised patients (included HIV,

transplant recipients, cancertherapy) are not eligible forhome isolation, state therevised guidelines released onThursday.

Elderly patients aged above60 years and those with co-morbid conditions such ashypertension, diabetes, heartdisease, chronic lung/liver/kid-ney disease and cerebro-vascu-lar disease among others shallonly be allowed home isolation

after proper evaluation by thetreating medical officer.

Patients under home isola-tion will stand discharged after10 days of onset of symptomsand no fever for three days, theguidelines stated.

"Thereafter, the patient willbe advised to isolate at homeand self-monitor their healthfor further seven days. There isno need for testing after thehome isolation period is over,"

the 'Revised Guidelines forHome Isolation of Verymild/pre-symptomatic/asymp-tomatic COVID-19 cases' stat-ed. According to the document,asymptomatic patients like theones who are pre-symptomaticand have very mild symptomscan opt for home isolation ifthey have the requisite self-iso-lation facility at their residenceso as to avoid contact withother family members.

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Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) presidentN Uttam Kumar Reddyinformed that the party wouldorganise protest against the ris-ing prices of petrol and dieselon July 4 and against theinflated electricity bills on July6. Addressing the Congresscadre through social mediaplatform Facebook on Friday,Uttam appealed to them toparticipate in both the protestsin large numbers while follow-ing the Covid-19 guidelines ofwearing masks and maintain-ing physical distance.

Uttam said that theCongress would organiseprotest in MandalHeadquarters, towns andmunicipalities on July 4 andsubmit a memorandum to thePresident of India through theofficials

concerned. He said theprotest was being organised atthe national level on the direc-tions of AICC President SoniaGandhi. He asked the partycadre to conduct hour-longdharnas from 11 am onwardsat Tehsil offices in MandalHeadquarters and at themunicipality offices in towns.

He asked them to submitmemorandums addressed tothe President to the Tehsildarsand Municipal Commissionersconcerned. Later, the Congressleaders should upload thevideo and photo clippings ofagitation on the social mediaplatforms like Facebook,Twitter, etc., as part of the'Speak Up' programme.

The TPCC chief said thatthe BJP-led NDA governmentwas extending the benefit ofdrop in global prices of crudeoil to the common man. Hepointed that during the UPA'sregime in 2004-05, the price of

petrol was Rs 30 per litre anddiesel was Rs 25/ltr when perbarrel cost of crude oil was $40.The fuel prices in the countrywere increased when crude oilbecame costlier. He said theprice of crude oil in the inter-national market today standsat $40. But the ModiGovernment has not extendedthe benefit to the commonpeople. Instead, it increased theExcise Duty to burden thecommon people. Similarly, hesaid the KCR government wascollecting the highest ValueAdded Tax (VAT) on petroland diesel in the countrywhich boosted the prices ofpetrol and diesel to Rs 83.49/ltrand Rs 78.69/ltr today.

Uttam also condemned theTRS Government for theinflated electricity bills chargedto the people for the lockdownperiod. He said each and everyfamily in the State received billswhich are 2-4 times higherthan the average. He said amassive protest would be heldon July 6 demanding waiver ofpower bills for the poor con-sumers and reduction in billamount for the middle class.He asked the party cadre toorganise protest with blackflags and badges.

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Former Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh, formerPresident of India PranabMukherjee, former unionministers P. Chidambaramand Jairam Ramesh andother personalities willdeliver lectures on the life offormer PM PV NarasimhaRao as part of birth cente-nary celebrations beingorganised by the TPCC.

The decision to invitevarious personalities todeliver a talk on NarasimhaRao was taken during themeeting of the centenary cel-ebrations committee headedby former Minister Dr. J.Geetha Reddy on Friday.The meeting, held throughZoom App, was attended byUttam, AICC Incharge RCKhuntia, Committee's ViceChairman D. Sridhar Babu,Convener Mahesh KumarGoud, former PCCPresident PonnalaLakshmaiah and others.

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Page 5: TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

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Some of the rioters used aWhatsApp group to coordi-nate with each other duringnorth-east Delhi riots inFebruary and killed nineMuslims after they refused tochant 'Jai Shri Ram', Delhipolice has alleged in its chargesheets filed in a court here.

The accused were part of aWhatsApp group -- KattarHindut Ekta -- that was cre-ated on February 25 to take“revenge” on Muslims, thecharge sheets said, addingthat they used it to coordinatewith each other and pro-vide, men, arms and ammu-nition to each other.

The creator of theWhatsApp group is stillabsconding, police said in thecharge sheets.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhitook a veiled swipe at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onFriday over Chinese intru-sions at the LAC, saying whileLadakhis claim that Chinahas taken their land, the PMsays otherwise and someone is"lying".

"Ladakhis say: China tookour land. PM says: Nobodytook our land. Obviously,someone is lying," he wrote ona Twitter.

Gandhi also shared thevoices of some Ladakhis in avideo alleging that the Chinesehave occupied Indian territo-ry in Ladakh.

The former Congress chief 'sdig came on a day when Modivisited Nimu, a forward loca-tion in Leh to interact with thepersonnel of the Army, AirForce and Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP), days

after a violent face-off betweenIndian and Chinese troops ineastern Ladakh.

Accompanied by Chief ofDefence Staff General BipinRawat, the prime ministerreached Leh around 9.30 am,sources said, adding that Modiwas briefed by senior Armyofficers. Gandhi has accusedthe prime minister of "surren-dering" Indian land to Chinaand "lying" on the borderstandoff issue.

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The Yogi Adityanath govern-ment in UP faced oppositiononslaught on Friday over thekilling of policemen in anencounter in Kanpur, withCongress leader Rahul Gandhisaying it was another proof of"hooliganism", while theSamajwadi Party said the statehas become "Hatya Pradesh".

Eight Uttar Pradesh Policepersonnel, including a deputysuperintendent of police, werekilled and seven others injuredin an encounter with criminalsin Kanpur, officials said onFriday.

Congress leader RahulGandhi slammed the UP gov-ernment over the incident."Another proof of 'goondaraj'(hooliganism) in UP. Whenpolice is not safe how can peo-ple be?. My condolences are withfamily of martyrs and I wishspeedy recovery of injured," he

said in a tweet.Congress General Secretary

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alsocondole the deaths. "Eight police-men were martyred while theywent to nab criminals. I pay mycondolence to the family of themartyrs. In UP, law and order hasbecome very bad and criminalshave no fear. From commonman to policemen, no one issafe," she said on Twitter.

"The responsibility of law andorder is with the chief minister.

He should initiate strict actionand there should be no laxity init," she added.

Samajwadi Party supremoAkhilesh Yadav said, "The BJPgovernment in UP is doing'natak' (drama) of small encoun-ters in fear that it stands exposed.This will affect morale of theforce and their anger willincrease." "Government shouldimmediately announce com-pensation and secure familymembers (of martyrs)," he said.

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The security cover ordered bythe Yogi Adityanath govern-ment to Samajwadi Partyfounder Mulayam SinghYadav's daughter-in-lawAparna Yadav has triggeredmurmurs over her proximityto the ruling BJP, a suggestionshe denies.

Aparna Bisht Yadav, wife ofMulayam Singh Yadav'syounger son Prateek Yadav,was last month provided “Y”category security by the BJPgovernment in Uttar Pradesh.

It triggered speculation thatthe she may be preparing toswitch sides ahead of the 2022assembly polls.

Her brother-in-law and for-mer UP chief ministerAkhilesh Yadav saw aBharatiya Janata Party plot inthe development.

"Providing her security is500 per cent BJP's trick," hesaid in a newspaper interview,which he shared over socialmedia.

When asked if she is stillwith the SP, Aparna Yadavtold PTI, "Yes, I joined theparty in 2016 on the directionsof “netaji” (Mulayam SinghYadav) and am very much a

primary member of the party."But she also criticised her

own party.“There is lack of discipline

in the SP. Party workers shouldknow the party constitution,SP's ideology and about social-ism.'Netaji' always talked aboutdiscipline in the party. What isthe place of women in theparty now?" she said.

"The old guard has changedin the party and the new oneshould take care of it. He mustbe working on it," she said,referring to the power shift inthe family from MulayamSingh Yadav to son AkhileshYadav. The woman rightsactivist also defended herpraise of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for his han-dling of the coronavirus crisis.

"I am a citizen of the coun-try and say whatever I feel iscorrect," she said.

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India has lodged a strong protestwith Pakistan over unprovokedceasefire violations by Pakistaniforces along the Line of Controland the International Borderwith an aim to push terroristsinto Jammu and Kashmir, offi-cial sources said on Friday.

They said 14 Indians havebeen killed and 88 sustainedinjuries in more than 2,432incidents of unprovoked cease-fire violations carried out byPakistani forces till June this year.

The unprovoked ceasefireviolations are in contraventionof the 2003 ceasefire under-standing between the two coun-tries, the sources said.

They said India has also con-veyed its "strong concerns" at thecontinued support being extend-ed by the Pakistani forces tocross border infiltration of ter-rorists, including by providingcovering fire.

"We have registered ourstrong protest at the continuedunprovoked ceasefire violationsby Pakistan forces along the Lineof Control (LoC) and theInternational Boundary," said asource.

Despite these concerns hav-ing been shared, includingthrough the channel of DirectorGenerals Military Operations,the Pakistani forces have notstopped such activities, thesources said.

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Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Friday met thefamily members of doctorAseem Gupta who died fight-ing COVID-19 and handedover a cheque of Rs 1 crore asan ex-gratia to them.

The chief minister termedlate Gupta as a "people's doc-tor' and said it was a duty of thegovernment to support thefamilies of those people whosacrificed their lives for others.

"Met with the family of LateDr Aseem Gupta ji who lost hislife to Corona. We cannot doanything to bring back the"People's Doctor", but it is ourduty to support families ofthose who lay down their livesfor us. An ex-gratia of ?1 crorewas given to the family today,"Kejriwal tweeted.

The ex-gratia of Rs 1 croreis being given by the Delhi gov-ernment to all its employeeswho succumb to coronaviruswhile discharging their duties

as frontline warriors in thefight against the pandemic.

Gupta, a consultant anaes-thesiologist at the state-runLNJP hospital, had contractedCOVID-19 while on duty. Hetested positive on June 6 whenhe had mild symptoms andwas shifted to a quarantinefacility.

His symptoms aggravatedon June 7 and he was admit-ted to the Intensive Care Unitof the LNJP hospital. Later hesuccumbed to the virus atMax Smart Hospital in Saket insouth Delhi.

The 52-year-old doctor wasremembered for going out ofhis way to serve his patients.

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Since April 1, the Centre hasdistributed more than 2.02crore N95 masks and over 1.18crore PPE kits among the states,Union territories and centralinstitutions for free, the Unionhealth ministry said on Friday.

In addition, 11,300 "Make inIndia" ventilators have so farbeen dispatched to variousstates, Union territories andcentral institutions, of which6,154 have already been deliv-ered to various hospitals, it said.

"The central government isalso ensuring their installa-tion/commissioning. This willhelp to bridge the massive gapin availability of ventilators inCOVID ICU facilities," theministry said in a statement.

The health ministry is alsosupplying 1.02 lakh oxygencylinders to the states and Unionterritories, of which 72,293 havebeen delivered to strengthen theoxygen-beds there.

Also, more than 6.12 crore

HCQ tablets have been givento the states and Union terri-tories.

The Union government,along with the states andUnion territories, has beenrelentlessly working for theprevention, containment andmanagement of COVID-19,the statement said.

The central role of the gov-ernment has been in strength-ening the health infrastructureto fight the pandemic, it added.

"Along with augmenting

COVID-19 facilities, Centrehas been providing medicalsupplies free of cost to the stateand UT governments to sup-plement their efforts," the min-istry said.

The statement underlinedthat most of the products sup-plied by the Centre were notbeing manufactured in thecountry in the beginning andthere was a global demand dueto the pandemic, resulting ina "scarce availability in the for-eign markets".

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Paying tributes to the 20 Armymen killed in a violent face offwith Chinese troops in eastLadakh, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Friday saidthe bravery shown by the sol-diers has sent a message aboutthe strength of India.

Addressing Army, Air Force

and ITBP personnel during hissurprise visit to Ladakh, he saidIndia's resolve for 'atmanirbharBharat' (self-reliant India)becomes stronger because ofyou and your strong resolve.He told the personnel thattheir will power is as strongand firm as the Himalayasand the whole country is proudof them.

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+;>��"���������)�������0����(�$�����3�>"���$�2�����)��$�>Union Home Minister

Amit Shah on Fridaylauded the visit of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toLadakh and said thetour will boost themorale of "our val-orous soldiers".

Modi's visit toLadakh cameamidst the ongo-ing stand-offbetween the IndianArmy and China'sPLA (People's LiberationArmy) in the forward areas ofthe high altitude region.

Tensions had escalatedbetween the two countriesafter 20 Indian Army person-

nel were killed in a fierce clashwith Chinese troops in theGalwan Valley in easternLadakh last month.

"Leading from thefront. Prime Minister

S h r i@NarendraModiJi with our braveand courageouspersonnel of

Army, Air Force& ITBP at a forward

location in Ladakh."This visit of honourable

PM will surely boost themorale of our valorous sol-diers," he tweeted along withmultiple pictures of Modiwith the soldiers.

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The Odisha government haslaunched a scheme 'Balaram'to provide agricultural cred-it of Rs 1,040 crore to land-less farmers who are facinghardships due to the coron-avirus outbreak, officials saidon Friday.

Around seven lakh land-less cultivators will be bene-fited from the programme inthe next two years, they said.

The decision in this regardwas taken at a high-levelmeeting presided over bychief secretary A K Tripathyon Thursday.

The landless farmers, whowere not able to avail farmcredit earlier, will get loansthrough joint liability groupswhich will act as 'social collat-eral', agriculture and farmersempowerment departmentsecretary Sourabh Garg said.

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Eight Uttar Pradesh Police per-sonnel, including a deputy super-intendent of police, were killedand seven others injured in anencounter with criminals inKanpur, officials said on Friday.

In a separate encounter, policekilled two criminals during acombing operation. InspectorGeneral of Police, Kanpur, MohitAgarwal said, "Two personsidentified as Prem PrakashPandey and Atul Dubey werekilled in a separate encounter inNivada village and a pistol,which was taken away by crim-inals from policemen in earlierencounter, was recovered."

The first encounter took placewhen a police team wasapproaching to arrest VikasDubey, a history-sheeter facing60 criminal cases, in Dikru vil-lage under the Chaubeypurpolice station on the interveningnight of Thursday and Friday,police said.

As the police team was aboutto reach the hideout of thedreaded criminal, a hail of bul-lets was showered on them froma building rooftop, leavingDeputy Superintendent of PoliceDevendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constablesdead, the officials said.

Giving details of the incident,Uttar Pradesh Director Generalof Police H C Awasthi said thenotorious criminal might havegot an inkling of the impendingraid.

Dubey's henchmen put upmassive roadblocks to preventthe police personnel from pro-ceeding towards their hideout. Asthe police team was caughtunawares, the criminals fried atthem from a building rooftopleading to the deaths, Awasthisaid. A police spokesman said theattackers also took awayweapons, including an AK-47rifle, an INSAS rifle, a glock pis-tol, two .9mm pistols, from thepolicemen.

On getting information aboutthe incident, Additional DG(Law and Order), IG (Kanpur)and the SSP of Kanpur rushed tothe spot, where a forensic team

has started investigations.Interacting with media per-

sons, IG STF Amitabh Yashclaimed that an automatic 30spring rifle, which was seizedfrom Dubey's possession duringhis arrest by the STF in Lucknowin 2017, was used in the Friday'sattack on policemen.

The automatic rifle wasreleased in someone's favour bya Lucknow court, he added.

"We will investigate underwhich circumstances the auto-matic rifle was released in some-one's else favour," Yash said.

Dubey, who was carrying a

cash reward of Rs 25,000 on hishead, was arrested by the STFfrom Krishna Nagar in 2017. TheSTF had seized an automatic 30spring rifle and a number of car-tridges from Dubey's possession.

The state police chief saidseven policemen were alsoinjured in these encounters andthey have been rushed to a hos-pital. A combing operation is onand the entire area has beensealed, he said.

The injured policemeninclude two sub inspectors, threeconstables and a home guardpersonnel, the spokesman said,

adding a civilian has also sufferedinjuries the the attack by thecriminals. Sources said Dubeyhad allegedly killed SantoshShukla, an MoS-rank BJP leader,inside a police station in 2001.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath paid tributes to theslain policemen and conveyed hisheartfelt condolences to theirfamily members. According to agovernment spokesperson, thechief minister directed the policechief to take stringent actionagainst the culprits and collectdetailed report from the spotimmediately.

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Page 6: TS crosses 20,000-mark · said in an apparent reference to ... Minister Mohammad Mahamood Ali has recovered from Corona and was dis- ... letter. "Under the All India Quota, 15%, 7.5%

For the last two months, India andChina have been involved in a mil-itary and diplomatic stand-offalong the Line of Actual Control(LAC). The current skirmish is not

isolated from the main politics of China. Itis but an extension of the Communist Partyof China’s (CPC) domestic policy. Thedevelopments at the border have come at atime when the CPC is facing internationalbacklash over the outbreak of the pandem-ic. Back home, too, the Chinese are frustrat-ed over the CPC’s role in covering up thespread of the Coronavirus in Wuhan city,which eventually led to the deaths of thou-sands of people. As per the database leakedfrom the National University of DefenceTechnology in Changsha city, China couldhave had 6,40,000 cases instead of the offi-cial 84,000. This revelation has furtheralienated the CPC from the Chinese people.

What, however, is worrying is that 70years on, India’s Tibet dilemma remains.Before Tibet was invaded by China, there wasno sign of well-made road along the India-Tibet border. However, trade routes for packanimals existed. From Srinagar, a route runsto Leh and thence through Southern Tibetto Shigatse and Lhasa. From Lhasa, a much-used route goes to Chamdo. In short, therewas hardly any sign of a good road or anymajor bridge in Tibet. All of this changeddrastically after the Chinese invasion of Tibet.China became India’s new neighbour andwith this new development, the tranquilityacross the Himalayas was hijacked by anauthoritarian party-State.

Ever since the invasion of Tibet, thedevelopment of strategic roads became a toppriority for the CPC. It undertook massiveinfrastructure development projects formore than two decades. And by 1975, Chinahad completed 91 highways totalling 15,800km, with 300 permanent bridges in outerTibet alone, effectively connecting 97 percent of the region’s counties by roads. Thenthe People’s Liberation Army (PLA) startedfocussing on Tibet. Ever since, the numberof exercises and overall military activities inthe Lanzhou and Chengdu military regionshave been noteworthy. In one of the earlyinstances, in October 2011, the PLA wasreported to have carried out two joint exer-cises in the Chengdu and Lanzhou militaryregions.

The Global Times reported on January5, “In the new year exercises, the PLA TibetMilitary Command has deployed heli-copters, armoured vehicles, heavy artilleryand anti-aircraft missiles across the region:From Lhasa, capital of Tibet, with an eleva-tion of 3,700 metres to border defence front-lines with elevations of more than 4,000meters.” It further noted, “China’s latestweapons, including the Type 15 tank and thenew 155-millimetre vehicle-mounted how-itzer, were deployed in Tibet as the PLAbegan the first round of exercises in 2020.”Because of its continuous infrastructuredevelopment, today, the PLA is in a positionto carry out numerous military exercises

even on the inhospitable terrainsof Tibet.

One stone at a time: CPC’sterritorial strategy for futureclaims and control: Early in1995, after the PhilippinesGovernment discovered thatoctagonal bunker-type struc-tures were being constructedon a previously unoccupiedreef, the then Chinese ForeignMinister, Qian Qichen, hadclaimed that it was built by theauthorities of Hainan for theconvenience of Chinese fisher-men around the Spratly Island.Following this incident, therewas a series of diplomaticexchanges and visits by headsof both countries to satisfacto-rily resolve the issue. Despitenumerous diplomatic engage-ments, China continued toupgrade its physical presenceon the Mischief Reef. Laterthese structures became thebase for the CPC laying sover-eignty claim over the islands.

On November 26, 2016,satellite images released by theAsia Maritime TransparencyInitiative (AMTI) showed aseries of hexagonal structuresnow in place on each of theseven islets. They appear to belarge anti-aircraft guns andclose-in weapons systems(CIWS), AMTI said. In fact, thisweapon system can also be usedon land to protect the militarybase. By 2018, the reef hadbeen turned into a militarised

artificial island equipped withanti-ship cruise missiles.

As it is said, “Old habits diehard.” Despite pressurising Indiato stop the construction of roadsin the Galwan Valley andPangong Tso, China continues todevelop an enhanced transportnetwork and military infra-structure across Tibet’s regionsbordering India. The IndianGovernment should not allowthe installation of any temporaryor permanent structures by thePLA on the disputed territory.Any physical structure, eithertemporary or permanent, builtby the PLA should be either dis-mantled or a similar structure beinstalled in the area claimed bythe CPC. Else, it may argue inthe future that the structures arenothing more than shelters forthe PLA soldiers lost in theGalwan Valley. And the con-struction of roads or any otherpermanent military installationnear the disputed border maybecome a source of future claimsand control by China.

Dear CPC, home is whereyour threat is: In the history ofChina, the Chinese populationis a major factor for thedethronement of a number ofdynasties. China was not onlyinvaded many times by nomadicpeople from outside its bordersbut was also turned upsidedown many more times by itsown citizens, mainly peasants. Inall, there were 1,109 main mil-

itary conflicts between theChinese and the northernnomads from 215 BC to AD1684 and as many as 225,887recorded armed rebellionsbetween 210 BC and AD 1910within China. In 20th centuryChina, there were two massmovements, mostly led byyoung students, scholars and lit-erary figures. Later, people fromall walks of life joined in. Thetwo crucial movements were:The 1919 May 4 Movement andthe Tiananmen Square protests.In both these movements, poorgovernance, rampant officials’corruption, high unemploy-ment rate were the main caus-es for the outburst.

Before the TiananmenSquare protests, by October1988, the population of migrantlabourers in Beijing had reachedone million and was growingcontinuously. In Guangzhou,the capital of GuangdongProvince, more than 2.5 millionrural labourers flooded the cityover a short period betweenFebruary and March 1989. Notonly this, thousands of univer-sity graduates failed to get jobsof their interests and the unem-ployment rate was high. Risinginflation added to the woes. Allthese developments sowed theseeds of mass protests. In mod-ern times, too, despite the CPChaving an iron-fist control on theChinese people, between 1993and 2008, there were a total of

614,100 protests across China. This year, with the CPC

attempting to cover up informa-tion pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese peo-ple realised the importance offreedom of expression andaccess to the free flow of infor-mation. It was the denial of theserights that led to the death of LiWenliang and the spread ofCoronavirus in China. Thispandemic didn’t take a long timeto spread and brought the glob-al economy to its nadir.

China, being the source ofthe virus, has been the worst-hiteconomically. In late April, areport by Shandong-basedZhongtai Securities BrokerageCompany in China concludedthat the unemployment rate inChina is at 20.5 per cent withsome 70 million people out ofwork. While the official jobs datareleased by China’s nationalbureau of statistics on May 15put the unemployment rate inApril at six per cent.

Later, the report wasretracted and Li Xunlei, thedirector of the research unit ofZhongtai Securities, wasremoved from his post. Thisshows the CPC’s hyper-sensi-tivity towards unemploymentproblems in China. The onething that the CPC fears themost is the spectre of unem-ployment. During a conferenceon employment and entrepre-neurship related to generalcolleges and universities grad-uates on May 13, ChinesePremier Li Keqiang demandedmore emphasis be put on keygroups by offering college anduniversity graduates targettedjob-seeking services. One of themain reasons behind China’serratic behaviour in Asia is todivert the attention of aggriev-ed, frustrated and millions ofjobless people.

Xi’s predecessor, Mao-Zedong, too, had declared a waron India on account of growingunpopularity in China becauseof his failure of the Great LeapForward, which led to the deathof around 45 million people.Bertil Linter, author of China’sIndia War, concluded that “theborder dispute was only anexcuse to launch the 1962 war.”To secure his power firmly andto divert the attention of theChinese people, war wasdeclared against India amid theCuban crisis. In a bid to divertthe attention of the Chinese peo-ple on account of joblessness,the CPC is behaving erraticallywith its neighbours. In otherwords, in the coming days,developments inside China willshape its foreign policy becausethe real threat for the rulingparty lies within.

(The writer is is a formerresearch fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute)

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Sir — That Prasar Bharati has senta letter to the Press Trust of India(PTI), suggesting that journalismpractised by it was not in “nation-al interest,” wasn’t surprising.The supposedly autonomousbody is now said to be reviewingits future associations with PTI.Prasar Bharati used to pay �9.15crore annually to PTI for its ser-vices. However, since 2017, thepublic broadcaster has allegedlybeen holding back about 25 percent (current figure at �6.75crore) of the contribution as itwants to renegotiate the costs.

In tune with the NarendraModi-led Government at theCentre, Prasar Bharati seems to beequating “national interest” withthat of the Government. It appearsthat Prasar Bharati is upset withthe PTI for not just conducting aninterview with the ChineseAmbassador Sun Weidong —apparently for the first time theofficial conceded that the onus ofde-escalation of tension betweenIndia and China should fall on thelatter — but also for its tweet byIndia’s Ambassador to China,Vikram Misri, where he assertedChina’s obligation to move “back

to its side of the LAC”. In doingso, Misri incidentally acceptedthat the Chinese troops hadindeed ingressed the border and,thus, contradicted the PrimeMinister’s claim. It is likely thatthese two “offences” led PrasarBharati to take steps against PTI.

In the garb of nationalism, Modiand his Government seem to becoercing the media to carry onlythose articles which unfailinglyeulogise the Prime Minister. Thisis shameful.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — The situation is still precar-ious in the national capital withmore than 300 active contain-ment zones and ever-rising Covidcases. Concerned authorities

must not only identify varioustrouble spots but also strike at thebasic fault lines.

The Government must con-sider imposing a suitable fine forthose not wearing masks andthose flouting social distancingnorms at public places. The ChiefMinister must think about reim-posing the lockdown in all vul-nerable areas of the capital, irre-spective of their extant promi-nence, proximity and locationsbefore it gets too late.

SwetaVia email

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Sir — In view of China’s nefari-ous design, India, too, must comeup with equal alacrity. A ban onChinese apps is welcome butuncertainty prevails over itsimplementation and the roadahead. Nevertheless, India hassent the message loud and clear:It will not take it lying down andretaliate with full force both onand off the battlefield.

ShantanuVia email

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As the Indian economy witnesses a majordownturn, predictably a negative growth, thedichotomy between monetary and fiscal pol-

icy becomes an irritant. Monetary management byallowing for a nearly �13 trillion loan to the corpo-rate, MSME, agriculture and other sectors of theeconomy is a huge release of capital stuck in thebanking and non-banking sector. Arguably thiswould have turned the wheels of industrial produc-tion but COVID-19, with its multiple slowdowneffects, won’t allow it to happen. Critics have point-ed out that the absence of open chest financing ofGovernment debt and securities, as well as no last-resort cash support to about 14 crore jobless migrantworkers, have depressed the economy both in theshort and long-term. This impacts productive activ-ity negatively in the secondary and tertiary sectorsof the economy with falling demand.

In the absence of fiscal stimuli, distressed andrisk assets in the market stand in the way of anyattempt at recovery. Monetary stimuli in theabsence of effective demand cannot boost the busi-ness cycle. A huge shortfall in revenue, from bothtax and non-tax sources, has only created a spurtin public debt and the consequent rate cut for con-trolling debt has created a precarious imbalancebetween real output and interest rates. Failing inter-est rates create a vicious cycle of inducing stress inasset-based funds that now have to look for stim-uli from financial institutions to survive from debt.In effect, resources of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) and the available Government funds for loansrun the risk of turning into NPAs even in the short-term. So circulation of higher liquidity in situationsof Corona-induced insolvency presents a slipperyslope for the management of the macroeconomicpolicy.

The stimulus package of �20 lakh crore formacroeconomic management has not shown signsof much-needed neutralisation of the liquidity trapby raising demand for credit. The package establish-es that there is no liquidity crunch and indeed India’sforeign reserve reaches a peak of over $500 billion,covering much of its import bill. In such a situation,the demand for Government securities and bondsshould have gone higher but the demand situationis such that it prods the investors to hold back suchsecurities. In contrast, the Reliance JIO deal, by rais-ing funds through rights issues in the stock mar-ket, received a preferential treatment from theMinistry of Corporate Affairs to only offset its hugedebt without corresponding expansion of the cred-it market, which could have helped the banks to off-set the situation of a liquidity trap. Had theGovernment issued new bonds and securitiesusing the cut in the rate and generated some addi-tional funds like its blue-eyed boy Reliance, thatwould have probably eased excess liquidity. Instead,given the increasing rate of macroeconomic unem-ployment, almost at 14 per cent, the need for addi-tional funds for employment generating activitiesby way of stimulus packages announced by theGovernment got immobile in the widening liquid-ity trap. The Government has already printed cur-rency notes worth �1.6 lakh crore and only succeed-ed in creating a good accounting ratio between itsincome, expenditure and debt instead of flinchingitself out of the liquidity trap.

What can extricate the economy from the liq-uidity trap is the generation of demand, demand andmore demand. Significantly, two correlated and yethighly-fluctuating monetary instruments, likeIndia’s foreign reserve touching a record $500 bil-lion as external trade falls and the Government’s

internal borrowings from the marketplummeting only to pull down reporates, present a hard picture of control offund flows. It is not clear how the RBI shallchannelise reinvestment of cheaper bor-rowings into production, while suchinvestments in the stock market at presentdo not ensure gains. It is in this grim sce-nario that the Centre’s declaration of flex-ibility in tax slabs to industries, as part ofthe stimulus package, only helps thebusinesses to keep afloat. Deflationarypressure continues unchecked in theproduct market as the Government scam-pers for attracting investment throughfloating rate bonds.

The recent increase of employment inagriculture with the Centre’s �1.5 trillionpackage has generated some demand, yetit does not show signs of revival. Reversemigration from cities to rural areas is animmediate cause of such increaseddemand but last-mile delivery issues donot allow it to be an impact of theGovernment’s �1.5 lakh crore package. Ineffect, if one combines a stalemate in for-eign trade and piling reserve with fallingrates of investment and profit, the stimu-lus on the demand side cannot overcomethis simultaneous fall in both supply anddemand. Restarting the economy to off-set the slump in income and demand,combined with fresh doses of investmentin greenfield areas through stocks, are stillto gather much momentum against theearly signs of a recession. Recessionarytrends in the manufacturing sector com-bined with a deflationary fall in theWholesale Price Index produce a cascadeof compression in the economy, makingrating agencies predict negative GDPgrowth for at least the next two years.

A very paradoxical question to ask is,does a programmatic infusion of demandas the stimulus package enforce austerityand fund crunch arising out of an inher-ited fiscal deficit at the level of nearly fiveper cent of the present GDP? The ques-

tion could be further teetered by askingwhether recessionary trends at the macro-economic level require an open chest fund-ing for every sector of the economy, start-ing with the most distressed. The behav-iour of risk assets such as FranklinTempleton and DHFL withdrawing $25billion from the Indian stock market fur-ther depresses the already sluggishdemand. Does this recessionary symptomcause a decrease in the capacity of the Stateand the Government to respond to thechain of fiscal demands without saving itsback by generation of additional incomethrough revenue and extra-revenue routes?

Possibly this question brings out thereason why the Centre is raising the pricesof petrol, diesel and other fuels when crudeprices are at the lowest. Could this be theonly means to generate extra revenue sothat fiscal deficit can be covered up andprofits made by oil companies could beused for funding a longer crisis? Given thelockdown-induced loss of capacity, theGovernment is adopting this easy route inspite of its deleterious impact on the pricesof essential goods. The situation returnsto the same vicious cycle as fall in income,investment, interest, wage and demandmake it impossible to revive the economydespite good supply side management interms of monetary policy. Post lockdown,the economy then looks like a quicksandthat eats up the stimulus without thedesired impact. The economy continuesto move in the trajectory of decline in realGDP and rates of profit. This lies beyondthe scope of monetary and fiscal readjust-ments as the Centre struggles to maintainthe fundamentals of the economy.

Nothing could have been moretreacherous than the Chinese aggressionat this time of crisis. Though theGovernment is able to make large pay-ments for defence purchases such as �3 bil-lion to the US, �2.1 billion to Israel, �16billion to Russia, yet there is a seeming lackof funds for medical preparedness to fight

COVID-19 and defence preparedness tofight China. With a heady mix of grow-ing income inequality, falling consump-tion and revenue and stressed assets inmoney markets, a Government with itshands full of funds does not have manyoptions to spend. As a result, the much-needed panacea of Direct Cash Transferto 25 crore migrant workers and otherrural labourers has not been taken up byan internally and externally-shakenGovernment.

One requires a proper framework tounderstand such a dysfunctional state ofthe economy. Economist Thomas Piketty’sfamous thesis on India’s growth story, interms of the falling contribution of peo-ple at the bottom and an artificial attemptby the Government to keep rate of inter-est lower than the rate of return from cap-ital, seems to dominate the money mar-ket. The absence of an appropriate schemefor re-distribution of profit and income forsocial good turns advantages in themoney market ineffective as prognosticat-ed by Piketty and Paul Krugman.

In the deflationary pressure inducedby the pandemic, what remains inexplic-able is the hoarding of funds, which cre-ates a suffocating liquidity trap in the mar-ket. Piketty’s suggestion that India shouldinitiate a universal basic income schemecould have balanced out this excess liquid-ity in favour of increased demand had theGovernment succeeded in kicking off theeconomy at the level of pre-lockdown pro-ductivity.

Instead, the Government’s austeremove to curtail public expenditure due torevenue shortfall is in sync with the exist-ing recessionary trend in the economy. TheChinese perception of this economicrecession is the salient factor that promptsChina to create a war-like situation withIndia in the interest of augmenting its owninternal demands.

(The writer is a Political Economy ana-lyst and Philosopher based in Shillong)

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Though the economic fallout ofthe pandemic is more vivid, itsimpact has political dimensions,

too. Many short-term measuresimposed now may have a long-terminfluence on both national and inter-national governance and political ide-ology. The political impact, in thenational context, seems to be arisingout of four factors: Nature of responseby countries; manner of response;deepening of societal fault lines andnature of the regimes vis-à-vis theireffectiveness in controlling the virus.

It might impact the world order,too, due to the shifting of the balanceof power and the ideological debate on

global cooperation vs isolationismand liberalism vs authoritarianism.

Normally, the response to a dis-aster is 3R: Rescue, Relief andRehabilitation. But in the case of theCorona, a fourth R has crept in and thisis Regulation. The lockdown resultedin complete disruption of all move-ment, the economy and personal lib-erty. Across countries, not only theframework of regulations but themanner of imposition has a commonpattern.

The executive, with or without theconsent of the legislature and otherstakeholders, gave itself absolute pow-ers and responded by executivedecrees. The differential impact of sud-den economic disruption on differentstrata of society has exacerbated thestrain across the existing societal faultlines of rich vs poor, urban vs rural,region vs region, local vs migrants,employer vs employees and so on.

The crisis has also fuelled debateon the effectiveness of authoritarianregimes vis-à-vis democracies as major

democracies like the US, Germany andItaly faltered in their effort whileauthoritarian regimes of Singapore andVietnam controlled the virus well.Now, let us see the likely impact. Thefirst political impact is the centralisa-tion of power. The ruling elite inHungary, the Philippines, China, ElSalvador and Uganda have used thecrisis to accredit themselves withemergency powers, moving them fur-ther away from democracy. In India,the invoking of the National DisasterManagement Act, too, resulted incentralisation of powers in the nation-al executive.

The second is the abridgment offundamental rights, expanded Statesurveillance and banishing of protests.In Hungary, Jordan, Chile, Thailandand so on, punishments were pre-scribed for spreading misinformation,which opens the possibility of muz-zling any voice of dissent. Invasive sur-veillance systems in Israel, SouthKorea and Singapore, unthinkableearlier, are being hailed as effective

measures for slowing infections. Plus, the social strains caused by

economic disruption may changepolitical alignments and the landscapeof political debate by creating morefractured societies. The spirit of fed-eralism has also been impacted due toexcessive centralisation of power.

Another impact of this outbreakmay be reduction in the influence ofthe neo-liberal trend of decreasing roleof the State, considering the strong,dominant and pivoting role played bythe State to counter the virus. Giventhe experience of the current crisis, itwill be difficult to argue that the pri-vate sector and philanthropy can be asubstitute for a competent State dur-ing a national emergency.

While it may be argued that theseare emergency measures and wereneeded to tackle an unprecedented sit-uation with a firm hand, it cannot bepredicted with certainty that all thesemeasures will be done away with oncethe crisis is over. More so because thiscontagion is going to stay for some

time. The longer it prevails, the moredifficult it will be to dismantle emer-gency powers. Forget about authori-tarian or tending to be authoritarianregimes, it may tempt even democra-tically-elected governments to contin-ue the emergency measures in thesame or modified form, to centralisepowers and strengthen their hold onthe polity, given the comfort it providesto the ruling elite. The most danger-ous possibility is posed by the use ofhigh-end technologies for surveil-lance, which opens up many possibil-ities for misuse during normal times,too.

The current crisis has also broughtto the fore the debate over the futureof a new world order. There may betwo types of impacts on the worldorder. First may be the shift in balanceof power and resultant shifting dom-inance over international organisa-tions. The second might be a boost tothe ideology of isolationism vis-à-visglobal cooperation and authoritarian-ism vis-à-vis liberal democracy.

The global distribution of powerseems to be shifting away from the USand Europe, which are faring badly incontaining the disaster as compared tothe East Asian countries which havefared well. The slogan of “AmericaFirst” under the Trump presidency andits unwillingness to take the positionof a global leader, before and duringthe pandemic, has led to the beginningof China’s dominance and aggressionin the new world order. Beijing wasalready silently working towards dom-ination in the economic order, globaltrade balance and supply chains,spreading hegemony over the rulingelite of developing countries, in Africaand Asia through debt-trap diploma-cy and more recently in capturing theUnited Nations institutions. The out-break has only accelerated this process.

At the ideological level, the disrup-tion of global supply chains, the lead-ing role of State actors and centralis-ing tendencies may lead to a domi-nance of nationalist, isolationist andilliberal ideologies on the internation-

al arena. Globally, at the national level,we may see a rise in authoritarian, cen-tralising tendencies and changingpolitical landscape on account of frac-tured societies. At the internationallevel, in the absence of a change in USpolicy and its hesitation in providinga rallying point for liberal democracies,it would be a free road for China toadvance its ideology, technology andpolitico-economic dominance in theemerging world order.

Some scholars point to the lack ofgoodwill of China as a counter argu-ment to its rising influence but wemust remember that global politics isnot a popularity contest. Hard politi-co-economic facts cannot be ignored.Second, the failure to ensure globalcooperation in tackling the pandem-ic may lead to rising nationalist andisolationist tendencies and wear out theeffectiveness of international organi-sations.

(The writer is a senior IAS officerserving in Bihar. Views expressed hereare personal)

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India’s crippled services indus-try, the lifeblood of economicgrowth and jobs, contractedsharply in June as an extendedlockdown imposed to stop thespread of the coronavirusstalled business activity, a pri-vate sector survey showed.

Although the pace of declinemoderated from May - theNikkei/IHS Markit ServicesPurchasing Managers’ Indexjumped to 33.7 in June fromMay’s 12.6 - it remained a longway from the 50-mark separat-ing growth from contraction.June was the fourth straightmonth the index was sub-50,the longest such stretch since aten-month run to April 2014.

“India’s service sector contin-ued to struggle in June as thecountry’s coronavirus crisisworsened,” Joe Hayes, an econ-omist at IHS Markit, said in arelease.

“Simply put, the country isgripped in an unprecedentedeconomic downturn which iscertainly going to spill over intothe second half of this yearunless the infection rate can be

brought under control.”The lockdown of 1.3 billion

people, which started on March25, has been extended in someareas until the end of July asIndia now has over 600,000coronavirus cases, fewer thanonly the United States, Braziland Russia.

Although improved fromMay, sub-indexes showeddomestic and foreign demandcontinued to decline sharplyleading firms to cut jobs for thefourth straight month in June.

And with forward lookingindicators giving little hope foran imminent turnaround, firms

were at their most pessimisticabout the year ahead since thesurvey began in December2005. A composite PMI, whichincludes manufacturing andservices, also pointed to a deepcontraction in Asia’s third-largest economy, which aReuters poll said shrank 5.2%last quarter. It registered at37.8, up from May’s 14.8.

“A large fraction of the sur-vey panel are still reportingfalling activity and order bookvolumes, reflecting an intense-ly challenging domestic picturein India,” IHS Markit’s Hayesadded.

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Intel Corp’s investment armwill pay some $255 million fora small stake in RelianceIndustries Ltd’s digital unit JioPlatforms, the latest in a slewof share sales that havehelped the Indian con-glomerate pay downdebt.

Reliance has nowsold just over aquarter of JioPlatforms, the unitthat houses its tele-coms venture JioInfocomm and its music andmovie apps, raising $15.8 bil-lion from investors includingFacebook Inc and KKR & Co.

The telecoms unit hasalready decimated severalrivals with cut-throat pricing,while Reliance is also using JioPlatforms’ technology in itsnew e-commerce venture thatseeks to rival Amazon andWalmart’s Flipkart. JioPlatforms is also working onconnected cars, security sys-tems and smart homes.

The sale of the0.39% stake for18.95 billionrupees gives JioPlatforms an enter-

prise value of 5.16trillion rupees ($69

billion), Reliance saidin a statement. The deals anda $7 billion share sale havehelped Reliance become net-debt free, the company saidlast month.

The oil-to-retail conglomer-ate, controlled by India’s rich-est man Mukesh Ambani,plans to wrap up most of itsprivate fundraising for JioPlatforms by the third quarterof 2020 and then explore apotential public listing in theUnited States in 2021, a sourcefamiliar with matter has said..

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Indian companies will needgovernment permission toimport power supply equip-ment and components fromChina, according to an order bythe power ministry, amid ris-ing military tensions betweenthe South Asian neighbours.

India will inspect all importsrelated to electricity supply tosee if they pose a cyber threatand “to protect the security,integrity and reliability of thestrategically important andcritical power supply systemand network”, the ministrysaid in the order.

“This is something we can’ttolerate, we have a country that

transgresses and kills our sol-diers and yet we are creatingjobs there,” Power MinisterR.K. Singh told a virtual con-ference of state power minis-ters. The order comes weeksafter Indian and Chinese troopsclashed on their disputed bor-der, causing casualties.

Chinese firms such as HarbinElectric, Dongfang Electric,Shanghai Electric and SifangAutomation either supply equip-ment or manage power distrib-ution networks in India. Indianfirms have long lobbied againstChinese involvement in thep o w e rsector, raising security concernsand saying they get no recipro-cal access to Chinese markets.

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The chief of India’s top clini-cal research agency said in aleaked letter circulated onFriday it envisaged launchinga novel coronavirus vaccine byAug. 15, prompting derisionfrom some health experts whoquestioned the timeline.

Dozens of vaccine candi-dates are at various stages ofdevelopment around the worldto control the coronaviruspandemic.

One candidate, from India’sBharat Biotech, which is beingdeveloped with the IndianCouncil of Medical Research,was this week approved forPhase I and Phase II clinicaltrials.

“It is envisaged to launch thevaccine for public health uselatest by August 15, 2020, aftercompletion of all clinical trials,”ICMR Director GeneralBalram Bhargava said in theletter, dated July 2 and

addressed to institutionsinvolved in the trials.

Phase I and Phase II trialstypically test the safety of adrug before it enters Phase IIItrials that test its efficacy.

Each phase can last months,if not years, but regulatorsglobally have been fast-track-ing trials on medicines andvaccines aimed at tackling the

cornavirus, which has infect-ed more than 10.89 millionpeople globally and killedmore than 520,066, accordingto a Reuters tally.

The Indian vaccine projectwas being monitored “at thetopmost level of the govern-ment”, Bhargava said in the let-ter, which was widely circulat-ed on social media.

A Bharat Biotechspokesman declined to com-ment but an ICMR official,who asked not to be identified,said the letter was a privatecommunication and was beingmisinterpreted.

Anant Bhan, a doctor andpublic health researcher, ques-tioned the speed of the trialsuggested in the letter andasked if its efficacy was beingdecided in advance.

“To my knowledge, such anaccelerated development path-way has not been done EVERfor any kind of vaccine, evenfor the ones being tried out inother countries,” Bhan said

on Twitter.“Even with accelerated time-

lines, this seems really rushed,and hence with potential risks,inadequate attention toprocess.”

Several other health expertsalso questioned the proposedlaunch date of the vaccine.

The ICMR official said theaim was to complete all trialson the vaccine candidate byAug. 15. He did not say exact-ly when he thought the vaccinemight be launched for publicuse.

“The letter is somethingand interpretation is some-thing (else),” the official said.

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The income tax departmenthas issued refunds worth Rs62,361 crore to over 20 lakhtaxpayers between April 8 andJune 30.

This includes personalincome tax (PIT)refunds amount-ing to Rs23,453.57 croreissued to 19.07lakh taxpayersand corporatetax refundsamounting to Rs38,908.37 crore toover 1.36 lakh taxpayersduring this period.

"The income tax depart-ment has issued tax refunds ata speed of 76 cases per minutefrom April 8 to June 30, 2020.During this period of just 56weekdays, the Central Boardof Direct taxes (CBDT) hasissued refunds in more than20.44 lakh cases amounting to

more than Rs 62,361 crore," anofficial statement said.

These refunds have beendirectly deposited into thebank accounts of the taxpay-ers and no taxpayer had toapproach the Department to

request for release of refund.The CBDT furtherasked taxpayers to

provide immediateresponse to e-mailsof the departmentso that refunds intheir cases too

could be processedand issued right away."Such e-mails of the I-

T department seek taxpayersto confirm their outstandingdemand, their bank accountnumber and reconciliation ofdefect/mismatch prior to issueof refund. In all such cases,quick responses from the tax-payers would enable the I-Tdepartment to process theirrefunds expeditiously," itadded.

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Telecom industry bodyCOAI's director generalRajan S Mathews has quit theorganisation, and handedover the charge to formerTSSC CEO S P Kochar.

Mathews has been advo-cating for favourable policyfor the telecom industry sincethe last 10 years.

"I have been here for thelast 10 years. Finished 10AGM on Thursday. Now, it'stime for me to go back and bewith family in the US. I havehanded over the charge to thenew regime today," Mathewstold PTI.

When contacted, Kocharconfirmed taking over thecharge.

Kochar gave shape toTelecom Sector Skill Counciland continues to be with theorganisation as mentor andadvisor.

Mathews, who is an US cit-izen, will be heading to theUS to join his family in NewJersey.

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The power ministry hasmade prior permissionmandatory to import electric-ity equipment - used in sup-ply network - from prior ref-erence countries like Chinaand Pakistan.

The decision taken by theministry amid a stand-offwith China at the border.

For India, China andPakistan are prior referencecountries with whom itshares land border.

Earlier in the day, PowerMinister R K Singh told hisstate counterparts in a virtu-al conference that India willnot give permission forimport of power equipmentfrom prior reference counties.

The recent order of theministry is a step in thatdirection to discourageimports from reference coun-tries, mainly China.

He has also asked states notto order equipment for theirDiscoms from Chinese com-panies.

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Mutual funds' asset basedropped eight per cent to near-ly Rs 25 lakh crore in the quar-ter ended June 30, mainly dueto outflow pressure in equityand debt categories.

Average asset under man-agement (AAUM) of the indus-try, comprising 45 players,stood at Rs 24.82 lakh crore inApril-June quarter 2020 ascompared to Rs 27 lakh crorein the preceding quarter,according to a data byAssociation of Mutual Funds inIndia (Amfi).

The asset base of the indus-try was Rs 25.5 lakh crore in

the same period a year ago.The industry registered the

decline of eight per cent onquarter-on-quarter basis as net

inflows have reduced acrossmost of the asset and categoriesin mutual fund schemes, saidOmkeshwar Singh, who is headRankMF at Samco Securities.

"In spite of a 24 per centclimb back in the Nifty for theJune quarter, fund's struggledto grow AUM - on account ofoutflow pressure both in debtand equity. While debt out-flows were triggered by debtevents such as the Franklin

Templeton issue, profit book-ing on rally led to equityinflows.

"Besides, lower investment,with economic uncertaintythreatening jobs and leading topay cuts, could be the reasonfor decline in the assets base,moreover, fresh inflows werealso relatively weak," VidyaBala, co-founder ofPrimeinvestor.in, said.

All the top five fund houses,

SBI MF, HDFC MF, ICICIPrudential MF, Aditya BirlaSunlife MF and Nippon IndiaMF have witnessed decline intheir respective average AUMs.

With an asset base of Rs3,64,363 crore, SBI MutualFund continue to be thelargest fund house in the coun-try during the June quarter2020. Although, average AUMof the fund house plungedfrom Rs 3,73,536 crore report-ed in the preceding quarter.HDFC MF, which is at the sec-ond position, have seen a dropin its asset base to Rs 3,56,183crore during the quarter underreview from Rs 3,69,783 crorein March quarter.

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The government will focus onstrategic stake sales to meet theRs 1.20 lakh crore CPSE disin-vestment target in the currentfiscal, DIPAM Secretary TuhinKanta Pandey said on Friday.

The government has alreadyinvited bids for strategic sale ofnational carrier Air India andoil major BPCL. However,their bid deadlines have beenextended amid the COVID-19pandemic.

For BPCL, in which thegovernment is selling 52.98 percent stake, the deadline hasbeen extended till July 31. For100 per cent stake sale in AirIndia, the deadline for bidsubmission is now August 31.

Speaking at a webinar onBharat Bond ETF, Pandey saidthe Department of Investmentand Public Asset Management(DIPAM) has minority stakesales of CPSEs on its table butthe emphasis is on strategicdisinvestment.

"Many of our strategic trans-actions are going on and mov-

ing forward. There was little bitof disruption due to COVIDand extensions given in termsof EoI (Expression of Interest)but the government has clari-fied that we are very much onthe same track of aggressivelypursuing strategic disinvest-ment. More focus on that.

"Of course, there will be OFS(offer for sale), buybacks...(but)it will be more focused onstrategic disinvestment," hesaid.

For the 2020-21 fiscal, thegovernment has set a disin-

vestment target of Rs 2.10lakh crore. Of this, Rs 1.20lakh crore will come from dis-investment of public sectorundertakings and another Rs90,000 crore from stake salesin financial institutions,including life insurance behe-moth LIC.

The government had inMay announced that a maxi-mum of four public sectorcompanies will be present instrategic sectors, while state-owned firms in other seg-ments will be privatised.

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L&T Finance Holdings(LTFH) plans to raise up to Rs2,000 crore by issuing prefer-ence shares through publicoffer or private placement,the non-banking finance com-pany said in its annual reportfor FY2019-20.

The company will seekshareholders' approval to theproposal at the annual gener-al meeting (AGM) scheduledto take place on July 28through audio/visual mode,the report said. The companysaid it will create, issue andallot 20 crore cumulative com-pulsorily redeemable non-convertible preference shares(preference shares), in one ormore tranches, of the facevalue of Rs 100 each for cashat par or at premium aggregat-ing to Rs 2,000 crore.

The preference shares willallotted to various personseither through public offer or

private placement, in one ormore tranches. In an explana-tory note on the fund mop-upplan, LTFH said the steadygrowth in the operations of thesubsidiaries of the companyhas necessitated regular infu-sion of equity and tier I or tierII debt in its subsidiaries.

"Being the holding compa-ny, the company would need toraise funds for such infusion.The company would also needfunds for its working capitalrequirements includingredemption of preferenceshares from time to time," thecompany said.

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Bharat Bond ETF, India'sfirst ever corporatebond exchangetraded fund, maylook at including'AA' rated securi-ties of public sec-tor companiesgoing ahead asthe governmentaims to deepen themarket, DIPAMSecretary Tuhin KantaPamdey said on Friday.

The ETF currently investsonly in 'AAA' rated bonds ofpublic sector companies.

To a query on whether theETF will include 'AA' rated

bonds going forward, Pandeysaid: "We have kept that

provision. We havenot restricted it to'AAA' rated infuture. As we goalong, we mayhave to consider,

because we want todevelop a bond mar-

ket. The opportunityfor more corporates".

Bharat Bond ETF with afixed maturity of 3 years and10 years, had fetched about Rs12,400 crore from its debutoffer in December 2019.

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SaturdayJuly 4, 2020

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fter a six-year-old career as anentrepreneur,image consul-tant, and ahealth coach in

Hyderabad, Anika Kherafounded Woman BusinessCult, a leading indepen-dent company to empowerwomen’s economic devel-opment in the metropolis.Belonging to the state ofMadhya Pradesh, she’s oneof the very few women inHyderabad who headsdiverse companies and hasmade her mother’s home-town the paradise of hersuccess.

An MBA graduate fromPune, her firm guides peo-ple in managing theirappearance for greater suc-cess. While growing up,she used to visitHyderabad for vacationand has always focussed ontransforming her lifestylesince then. Life took a U-turn and she got marriedin Hyderabad and today,she’s recognised as one of

the top influentialwomen ofthe town.

“Hyderabad is a city ofacceptance and love. It notonly constitutes the bestcorporate culture but alsogives you abundantchances to experiment,”says the entrepreneur.

‘Hau, mai Hyderabadihun’ (Yes, I am aHyderabadi), this slangattracts her! She has been apart of hilariousHyderabadi conversationsthat has ached her stom-ach. If you go to a store inHyderabad, you will beaddressed with ‘Kya Hona’(What do you want) andthat’s what makes Anikacherish about this city-itsabsurdity with greatprominence. She grew upin an urban middle-classhome and became a defin-ing woman for her family.It’s a city as beautiful as arainbow which lets out-siders mingle very easily.Drawing comparisonbetween her current abodeto the city of Pune, shesays, “Pune is fully com-mercialised. It has moreedge to its lifestyle with amore cosmopolitan culturethat can get a little difficultto afford, while Hyderabadprovides you with greatstart-up opportunities, andalso some of the main big-

gies such as Facebook andGoogle have been func-tioning from here such.Also, the development ofinfrastructure especially intimes of crisis is goinggood here.”

Her parents stronglybelieved that educationwas the best gift they couldgive her and throughouther formative years, theysent her to the best educa-tional institutions.Hyderabad seems veryclose to her heart since shebecame a mother in thiscity. It left her with a beau-tiful and overwhelmingfeeling. Since then she hasreserved a unique relation-ship with this city apartfrom giving her a tremen-dous boost in her careergrowth. “My professionstood the test of times andtoday it’s in great demand.Currently, I am trainingpeople from home and it’san excellent career oppor-tunity for women in

Hyderabad. Ithas com-

pliedwiththe

technological advances andis available online at thecomfort of your homes. It’snot a traditional careerchoice and I have taken upan independent responsi-bility,” adds Anika Khera.

Hyderabad is hometownto biryani; language isn’timportant here, but com-munication is, and Anikaconsiders it to be a bindasscity!

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ai KiranRathan and SaiKiranAnugadalarecentlyannounced the

launch of an app called“BingeIt” which enablespeer to peer recommen-dation platform for con-tent lovers. With an aimto help users easily findmovies and web showsbased on their interests,the BingeIt app alsoallows a user to knowwhat their friends arewatching! The appfounder, who is a comput-er science post-graduatefrom the University ofNew York, says, “My part-ner Sai Kiran Alagundala,and I, believe in solvingreal-world problems andwe were highly motivatedfor the success of our newventure.”

A one-step solution inthe world of digitisation,BingeIT tells what’s trend-ing globally. “Once I hadthis pertinent desire ofwatching a web show onan OTT platform but ittook me almost half anhour to choose. This trig-gered within us an idea todesign an app that letscontent lovers differenti-ate between what to watcheasily,” says Sai KiranAlugandala. His co-founder adds, “To validateour idea we carried outsurveys and picked up dayto day scenarios. Werealised, often we tend towatch shows suggested byour friends or family and

more the people suggest aparticular content, thestronger is our motivationto watch that content.This led to the birth ofBingeIT with user-basedpreferences.”

BingeIt also allows theuser to maintain a watch-list, and have alreadyacquired more than tenthousand users. It’s avail-able for free and mainlyfocuses on building a funexperience for the user.Considering the app to bethe next new thing in thecity, the team is develop-ing an immersive andpersonalised experiencefor users. At BingeIt, theyare constantly listening tothe demands of theiraudience and are creatinginnovative content forthem that’s highly engag-ing so that they can accessthe best content easily.

ith everyonestuck homeand lookingfor ways andmeans to notlose hope and

focus, YFLO chairpersonApurva Jain and commit-tee invited the renownedMeher Pudumjee,Chairperson ThermaxIndustries to help severalwomen refocus andinspire them to aspire.

Pudumjee is the lead-ing name in the energyand environmental engi-neering field in India.She is the chairperson ofthe AkankshaFoundation, a Trustee ofTeach to Lead, Mumbaiand, is also an activephilanthropist with akeen interest in the fieldof Education. Moderatingthe session of this busi-ness legend was our veryown Hyderabad basedentrepreneur, AnuAcharya, CEO ofMapmygenome, who sin-gle-handedly, with a

unique range of genom-ic-based reports success-fully bridged the gapbetween the mysterybehind DNA and the endcustomer.

Pudumjee spoke onhow COVID brought tothe surface many thingsthat already existed likethe fall in the economy,our relations with China,etc. In regards to theenvironment, she isamazed to see so manybirds around, singingbeautifully. “The noise ofthe pollution and trafficnever allowed us to hearthis. The sky, the air ismuch cleaner. Civil soci-eties all over the worldare going to startdemanding a cleanerenvironment,” she shared.

Pudumjee unraveledher childhood stories,learning, and relationshipwith her mother the leg-endary Anu Aga, andjourney with Thermaxwith ease and grace. Shestarted from the lowest

rung of the ladder in hercompany, worked her wayup, had her share ofstumbles, and learnt fromconstant persistence.Akanksha Foundation is ashared enthusiasm withher mother and sheworked on making it afree of cost educationmodel. “Education is thebiggest leveler in society”;was the key thoughtbehind Teach for India toprovide opportunities forunderprivileged kids. Sheanswered audiencequeries and explained theissues being a woman inthe business field, empha-sised on performanceenhancement, philan-thropic interests, and herpassion for music.

The session was alearning experience forall. Each question wasanswered with real-lifesituations. The rapid-fireround found her to bevery compassionate,humorous, and a brilliantlistener.

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REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

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CALVIN AND HOBBES

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horeographer Saroj Khandied of a cardiac arrest ina Mumbai hospital onFriday; she was 71. MsKhan was taken to GuruNanak Hospital on June

20 after complaining of breathingtrouble. A test for COVID-19 gave anegative result. “She passed away dueto cardiac arrest at around 2.30 am atthe hospital,” Saroj Khan’s nephewManish Jagwani told news agencyPTI. Just days ago, family sourcessaid Ms Khan was better and wouldbe discharged soon. Saroj Khan’sfuneral was held on Friday morning.

Bollywood celebrities includingAmitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumarand Farah Khan took to social mediato mourn the death of veteran chore-ographer Saroj Khan, who passedaway following a massive heartattack here on Friday morning.

One of the most prominent chore-ographers in Hindi cinema, SarojKhan, who was fondly called as“Masterji” in the industry, hasworked in over 2,000 songs. Hermost famous collaborations werewith Madhuri Dixit for (Dhak dhakkarne laga) and Sridevi (Hawahawai) among many others.

Her recent work includes Tabaahho gaye in last year’s Kalank pic-turised on Madhuri.

Here’s what the celebrities havewritten:

Amitabh Bachchan: T 3582 -Prayers .. haath jude hai, mannashant.

Akshay Kumar: Woke up to the sadnews that legendary choreographer#SarojKhan ji is no more. She madedance look easy almost like anybodycan dance, a huge loss for the industry.May her soul rest in peace

Kunal Kohli: Hindi cinema haslost its adaa #Saroj Khan.

Farah Khan: Rest in peace Sarojji..u were an inspiration to many,myself included. Thank you for thesongs #SarojKhan

Genelia Deshmukh: RIP Saroji ... Ithank God I got a chance to bechoreographed by you.. Prayers andStrength to the Family. #SarojKhan

Riteish Deshmukh: Rest in PeaceSaroj Khan ji. This loss is immeasur-able for the industry & filmlovers.Having choreographed morethan 2000 songs she single handedlychanged the landscape of how songswere shot. I had the pleasure ofbeing Choerographed by her in

Aladin. One tick off my bucketlistMadhur Bhandarkar: Woke up to

the news that Saroj Khan is no morewith us, Most talented trend setterchoreographer of Film industry, Mycondolences to her family members& admirers. We will miss you. #RIP

Anubhav Sinha: Kya masterji?What a loss... a legend, a star and eraSarojji. This is such a ridiculous year.#SarojKhan.

Rakulpreet Singh: 2020 pleasedon’t give any more bad news. So sadto hear about #SarojKhan ma’am.Always dreamt of doing atleast one

song Choreographed by her. Yourgrace and contribution to indian cin-ema shall always be remembered.May your soul RIP. Strength to thefamily

Hansika Motwane:#RestInPeaceSarojKhan ji . I stillremember your words of wisdom tome , when you told me “beta befocused and give it your all and youwill achieve whatever you want”.Grew up watching your choreogra-phy. This year has taken away way tomuch Broken heart May your hersoul rest in peace.

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adame Gandhi hasseen talentedwomen beingquestioned,silenced and over-looked simply

because of their gender, andfelt belittled because of thesame. The multi-talentedartiste feels we have to “pressmute on lyrics or visualimagery that perpetuatestereotypes about women,girls and LGBTQIA+ folks”.

“It has largely been due togender. That is why genderliberation and personalpower are such deep themesin my work,” Kiran Gandhi,known onstage as MadameGandhi, told IANS whileopening up about her strug-gle with stereotypical atti-tudes.

“I have felt quieted becauseI identify as female. I havefelt small. I have seen otherwomen who are richly talent-ed in their work be ques-tioned, silenced or over-looked simply because theway we understand commu-nication is so masculine,aggressive and loud. May weall be so self-aware as to diveinto the power of those whohave so much to say but areoften erased,” added the LosAngeles-based electronicartiste, who has come outwith her single “Waiting for me”.

Asked how havethings changedfor women inthe musicindus-try,she

said: “I only work withwomen and other queerfolks. This is our biggestpower. Keep putting eachother on fearlessly, instead ofaspiring to standards thatwere never designed for us!”

She feels everyone has arole to play when it comes toeliminating normalisedmisogyny.

“We have to change thechannel or press mute onlyrics or visual imagery thatperpetuate stereotypesabout women, girls andLGBTQIA+ folks thathold us down! Thistrains the industryand the algorithmsthat we demandbetter and we willnot listen to musicthat oppresses us!We live in a capi-talist society, somoving our spend-ing power else-where has hugelyeffective ramifica-tions,” she said.

With her rootstracing back toIndia,

Madame Gandhi uses hermusic to focus on femaleempowerment and fourth-wave feminism. Her music isa blend of thought-provokingactivism and non-binary gen-der views, and is embeddedwith cross-cultural influ-ences.

“I have embraced myIndian roots by celebratingcolour, fashion, style, andespecially the fierceness of

Indian womenand queer

folks! Iam

using the global platform. Ihave to shed light on thesejoyful aspects of my SouthAsian heritage,” said themusic producer, who grew upbetween Mumbai and NewYork.

Now, she has come outwith her first-ever video shotin India “Waiting for me”,released on Vh1 India.Through the song, she chron-icles her upbringing in India.Conceptualised and pro-duced by an all-female team,the video features queer,trans, female and gendernon-conforming cast mem-bers.

Talking about the song, shesaid: “In this song, I explore

personal and collectivepower! We move from theoppressed individual to

the empowered collective!I had a deeply powerful and

collaborative experiencewith the team, who workedto bring this piece to life. Weare daily in communicationon WhatsApp and Facetime,ironing out every detail, dis-cussing every choice. It hasbeen one of the best experi-ences of my life, and it allowsme to know that healthy,

major scale productionsare possible!”

“I am dying to hearwhat my Indian

audience receivesfrom this

video! I hopemore radicalart continuesto be made,allowing allof us toquestionsystems thatno longerwork for us,”she added.

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eading production houseUV Creations is creditedto have revivedSharwanand’s career withRun Raja Run six yearsago. Later, they collabo-

rated with the actor for Express Rajaand Mahanubhavudu (joint produc-tion with GA2 Pictures) successfully.Buzz about them joining forces againfor a new flick have been doing therounds for the past one month.Freshly, reports suggest that theactor green-lit a debutantSriram’s action-drama, whereinhe is tipped to play a ruthless cop.It is said the project will go to

floors sometime later next year.Sharwanand, who will first finish

pending portions of Sreekaram afteractive filming resumes, has projectslined up with Kishore Tirumala andAjay Bhupathi for the remainder ofthe year. Mind you, he also needs tocomplete portions of his Telugu-

Tamil bilingualwith Shree

Karthik.

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outh-Hindiactress NithyaMenen says thereare times whenshe finds her jobemotionally

draining. The trailer of herupcoming web seriesBreathe: Into The Shadowsis out now. In the briefvideo, she is seen breaking

down and trying to lookfor her missing child.

Asked if playingthe role was emo-tionally drainingfor her, Nithyasaid, “A lot oftimes, the job isemotionallydraining. Butthis characterwas very dif-ferent, in thesense whatwas expectedof me toemote. It's ahypotheti-cal situa-

tion. It’s not something thatany of us have experiencedbefore that we can imaginewhat it will be like. I want-ed to make the perfor-mance very authentic.”

“I was continuouslythinking what the graph is,what is she going to feelright now. It was quiteintense in the sense thatevery minute I was think-ing about her,” sheadded.This is also herdebut in the web world,but she is not nervousabout it.

“I rarely get nervous inmy life. I don’t think I wasnervous even for my firstfilm. I am very excitedabout Breathe because inmy opinion, it is one of thebest performances I havegiven till date. I am actuallycurious to see how it lookson screen,” said the actress.Breathe: Into The Shadowsstreams from July 10 onAmazon Prime Video.

ctor RanaDaggubati, who pre-sented the romanticcomedy Krishna andhis Leela, which pre-miered on Netflix a

week ago, believes that over-the-top platforms will be the

voice of independent filmmak-ers. “World is at the lowest inmorale, economy, and manyother things, so it is time forartists to tell inspiring storiesand shine. This is a moment tomake a future, and overcomethe big hit that has arisen dueto this pandemic. With plat-

forms like OTT, we have thepower to create. It doesn’t haveto be where we are. Talentedpeople will have the opportuni-ty to come forward and showtheir body of work. OTT willbe the voice of independentfilmmakers. There will be a lotof fun to watch out for,” Ranaexpressed. He was fieldingquestions on cinema, lifestyleand wellness at the CII Lifestyleand Wellness Summit webinarin Hyderabad on Friday.

When asked on what keepshim going during this pandem-ic, he noted, “I felt the uncer-

tainty would stay here for along time, so I have immediate-ly decided on a long term. I wassure we would not have filmprojects, so I planned back-wards, and we were able to cre-ate a pipeline of animation pro-jects for the next couple ofyears. I feel like I found anotherjob quickly. Finding things thatexcite you means it doesn’t haveto be big and doesn’t have to belike our main business.”

Replying to a question onwellness and being fit, he point-ed out, “Now am pretty mucheating clean, most of my diet

usually depends on thefilm I’m doing. If Ihave to look big ina certain film, Ihave to eat accord-ingly. Now it’s beenneutral, I just takefour meals a day and Idon’t eat carbs after 7pm. As I’m mostly con-fined to home, I’m noteating too much meat.Our family is growing alot of food, in the houseand on our farm, so it’sjust been eating cleanand training hard.”

aroj Khan, who isone of the mostcelebrated choreo-graphers of theHindi film indus-try, succumbed to

cardiac arrest in Mumbai dur-ing the wee hours of Friday.While most of her work — ina career spanning fourdecades — was confined toHindi cinema, the three-timeNational Award winner hasalso worked on a handful ofTelugu films. Prominentamong them includeChoodalani Vundi andDaddy, both of which fea-tured megastar Chiranjeevi.Speaking to us exclusively,Choodalani Vundi directorGunasekhar recalls, “The filmwas my fourth and ManiSharma’s second as a compos-er, so we took it as a challengeto deliver a super hit sound-track. If you observe closely,the album was sung by a mixof South and North singers(Shankar Mahadevan,Hariharan, KavithaKrishnamurthy), which was a

first-of-its-kind. It became atrend later. For a star ofChiranjeevi garu’s repute andimage, we tried to experimentmusically and we had his andproducer Aswini Dutt garu’sblessings. During this process,I felt Chiru garu’s dance,under Saroj Khan’s choreogra-phy, would augur well for thesongs. Dutt garu immediatelyendorsed the idea, saying it’s agood one. Back then, Saroj jiwas the highest paid Hindichoreographer. Plus, she wasworking round the clock, butChiru garu’s association withthe project meant that she was

in. For a choreographer likeher, working with a greatdancer like Chiranjeevi garuwas a delight, as he would ele-vate her choreography to thenext level with his unmatchedskills. Even if she was offereda big Hindi film back then,she would still chooseChiranjeevi garu’s film.Collaborating with him waslike work satisfaction to her.”

He continues, “Impressedwith the song, Oh Mariya(which she choreographed)from the soundtrack, she toldme that Mani Sharma has abright future. And when she

visited the set of the song, shewas floored by the art direc-tion and lighting pattern,appreciating the care I’vetaken as a director. Sheadvised me to maintain samework ethics all throughout mycareer. Later, I’ve realised thatshe was putting into practicethe advice she doled out tome. She was like a beginnerwho never believed in theidea of relaxing on sets. Shewould go about her job like apassionate beginner whowants to make it count.”

Guna adds that her part-nership with the megastar

erupted in claps from the unitafter every dance shot. “As aunit, we enjoyed their part-nership and so did the audi-ence upon the film’s release.The song fetched her NandiAward for BestChoreographer back then,” herecalls fondly.

The director wasn’t doneyet. He decided to repeat herfor the romantic melodyAbbaba iddu, much to theshock of the unit. “Some ofthe members asked why Iwanted her for a melody.There was also chat about herhigh pay check. They advisedme to go with someone elsebut I told them, ‘Her ability tocome up with great stepsaside, she ensures that actorsgive out great expressions’. Shedid that with Sridevi andMadhuri Dixit in Hindi. Shewas a pioneer when it comesto ‘expressive dance’ choreog-raphy irrespective of the typeof song. Dutt garu once againsided with me. The end resultwas that Abbaba too was asuper hit, with graceful movesby Chiru garu and fantasticexpressions by Soundarya,”the director points out.

Further, he is of the opinionthat it was Saroj Khan whopopularized Bollywood danceworld-wide with her leg-endary skills. “Her death is agreat loss to Indian industryand the dancing fraternityacross the country,” he ends.

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ooks like Prabhas haslined-up one more projectafter Nag Ashwin’s sci-fithriller. According to thegrapevine, the actor, whohas turned extremely

choosy after two-part Baahubali,has given his consent to frontMarathi-Hindi director OmRaut’s next. Raut recently madehis Hindi debut with AjayDevgn-starrer Tanjahi, whichwas a box-office smash. He wassupposed to team up with KartikAryan next for a 3D actionfilm but it’s been puton hold.

Apparently,Prabhas’ goodfriend Vamsi, whois one of thefounding mem-bers of UVCreations, wasinstrumental insetting up the pro-ject. It is believedthat T-SeriesBhushan

Kumar who understandsPrabhas’ taste felt Raut’s storywould satiate the actor’s fans inTelugu states and across thecountry, before ensuring that thedirector gets an audience withVamsi. Impressed by the content,Vamsi ensured that Prabhas toohears it. The actor was in later, itis understood.

We texted Vamsi for a confir-mation but it didn’t elicit anyresponse until the time of goingto press.

As things stand now, Prabhasneeds to complete his on-sets

film with Jil fame RadhaKrishna up next. Close to

45 per cent of the as-yet-untitled film’s shoothas been wrapped up,

with 90 days of shootingstill left. After wrappingup this film, he will

move to Nag Ashwin’snext, which will at least

take a year to becompleted.

— NG

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Jurgen Klopp admitted ManchesterCity are the one side capable of“smashing” his newly-crowned

Premier League winners afterLiverpool’s first match since becom-ing English champions ended in a 4-0 thrashing at the Etihad.

City sent a warning shot of theirintentions to take the title back nextseason as Kevin De Bruyne, RaheemSterling and Phil Foden all struckbefore half-time to inflict justLiverpool’s third league defeat in 71games.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s owngoal rounded off a miserable night forKlopp’s men, who could have conced-ed many more in the second half.

The gap at the top of the table

between the two remains 20 points,but Liverpool’s charge to better aseries of records set by City two sea-sons ago was stalled on a chasteningnight for the champions.

City began the evening by givinga guard of honour to their opponents,but showed little respect once theaction got underway.

The early signs suggestedLiverpool would be able to pick offa leaky City defence that has costthem their title.

Mohamed Salah struck the postand Sadio Mane headed wastefullywide as chances came and went forthe visitors. “We had our momentswhere we were really close to makesomething,” added Klopp. “Theyused our mistakes, we didn’t use theirmistakes.”

Liverpool’s first big error camewhen Joe Gomez pulled Sterling tothe ground inside the area and DeBruyne converted the resulting penal-ty. Sterling was suspended by Englandmanager Gareth Southgate after hesquared up to Gomez in the canteenon International duty the day afterLiverpool's 3-1 win over City atAnfield earlier in the season.

The City forward wisely did histalking on the pitch this time as hescored for the first time in a compet-itive match against his old side byturning inside Gomez and sending ashot through the defender’s legs asLiverpool were caught on thecounter-attack.

Foden has been hugely impres-sive since the Premier League’s restartfrom a three-month layoff and the 20-

year-old combined with De Bruynefor a brilliant one-two to leave AndyRobertson floundering before lifting

the ball over the advancing AlissonBecker to make it 3-0.

But for the Brazilian goalkeeperand some wayward finishing,Liverpool could have been on the endof an embarrassing scoreline early inthe second half as Gabriel Jesus firedstraight at his internationalteammate, Sterling saw a shotdeflected just wide and Virgilvan Dijk cleared off the linefrom Foden.

There was a touch of for-tune when City’s fourth didarrive as Sterling’s shot was headingwide before being turned into his ownnet by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Riyad Mahrez had a fifth goal instoppage time ruled out by a VARreview for handball as City just failedto match the 5-0 scoreline they

inflicted on Liverpool at the Etihadin 2017.

But City more than laid down amarker and also showed why they are

among the favourites to win theChampions League for the first timewhen European football returns inAugust.

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Real Madrid took a big steptowards winning La Liga on

Thursday by battling past Getafeto move four points clear ofBarcelona, with five games left.

Sergio Ramos’ late penaltyproved the difference at the

Alfredo di Stefano Stadiumwhere Madrid were made to feeluncomfortable by Getafe butdug out a gutsy 1-0 victory wor-thy of champions.

This was arguably Madrid’stoughest fixture remaining andwith a four-point advantageover Barca, as well as the supe-

rior head-to-head, the trophy isnow firmly within their grasp.

“We have not won any-thing,” insisted coach ZinedineZidane.

“We are doing things well,yes, but there are five games stillto go. If we continue like this,staying solid, it will be fine.”

�*� ���&+ Australia’s SteveSmith and retired SouthAfrican swashbuckler AB deVilliers are the two batsmen,India’s leg-spinner KuldeepYadav finds most challenging tocontain.

Yadav, who went through aprolonged lean patch in 2019,said both the batsmen haveunique abilities.

“Smith plays me mostly offthe back foot. He plays the ballvery late as well, so it becomeschallenging to bowl to him,”Yadav told Deep Dasgupta inthe latest episode ofCricketbaazi on ESPNCricinfo.

“In ODIs, AB de Villiers isa good player.

He has a unique style. Nowthat he’s retired, it’s a good thing!But other than him, I haven’tfound any other batsman whoI am sacred will hit me for a lotof runs,” he said. PTI

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Former Australian batsmanMichael Hussey is fearful of

the prospect of Australia host-ing the T20 World Cup inOctober-November and says a16-team event amid the ragingCovid-19 pandemic couldprove to be a logistical nightmare.Cricket Australia itself has said thatit is a bit “unrealistic” to stage theT20 World Cup as per schedule inthe current circumstances but theICC is yet to take a final call on thematter. Hussey too doesn’t see theshowpiece event taking place thisyear.

“I am really fearful about theT20 World Cup to be honest andthe reason for that is I think it isokay to bring out one team to playinternational cricket and get themto isolate and stay safe and prepare

well for a series,” he said in a pod-cast called HotSpot.

“But having to bring a numberof teams and getting them to iso-late to prepare and then movearound the country to differentvenues I think that will be a logis-tical nightmare. From what we are

hearing perhaps the T20 WorldCup will have to be postponed for2021 or even 2022,” said the south-paw.

The India tour of Australia thathas been scheduled after the T20World Cup is likely to go ahead asper the plan, according to Hussey.

“I am a lot more positive aboutthe Indian tour of Australia goingahead and the reason is bringingone team to tour here and gettingthem to a hub is easier.

“For example Adelaide Ovalhas just built a hotel connected tothe stadium, so the Indian teamcould base themselves there, trainand prepare for a series, and playagainst Australia.

“We have all got our fingerscrossed, as we know that this pan-demic keeps throwing these curveballs and we need to adapt andmove quickly,” said Hussey.

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Seasoned paceman ShannonGabriel, returning from an

ankle surgery, has been draftedinto the 15-man West IndiesTest squad for the Test seriesagainst England beginning onJuly 8.

Gabirel was among thereserves when the West Indiesplayers landed in England butproved his fitness with impres-sive performances in the twointer-squad warm-up matches atthe Old Trafford here.

He is now part of a strongpace attack which also includescaptain Jason Holder, KemarRoach, Chemar Holder, AlzarriJoseph and Raymon Reifer.

“I am delighted thatwe are able to addShannon to the Testsquad. He has shownthat he is fit and ready, hewill add experi-ence, firepowerand potency tothe bowlingunit,” RogerH a r p e r ,C r i c k e tWest Indiesselector said.

G a b r i e l

bowled in three inningsand grabbed eight wick-ets for 122 runs. The 32-

year-old had made his Testdebut at the Lord’s in

May 2012 andhas so far

played 45matchest a k i n g1 3 3w i c k -ets.

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Formula One worldchampion Lewis

Hamilton posted thefastest time in the first twopractice sessions for theseason-opening AustrianGrand Prix on Friday.

The British drivertwice finished ahead of hisMercedes teammateValtteri Bottas on the 4.3-kilometer (2.7-mile) RedBull Ring circuit inSpielberg nestled at thefoot of the Styrian moun-tains in southern Austria.

Bottas was .356 sec-onds behind Hamilton inthe damp and overcast

morning run andimproved to .197 back asthe track dried andbecame warmer in theafternoon. Late in thatsession, however, he hadto return to the pitsbecause of a braking issue.

Red Bull driver Max

Verstappen, who has wonthe past two races here,was third quickest in thefirst practice but slipped toeighth in the second ses-sion and encounteredoversteering problems.

Ferrari struggled forspeed in the morning with

Charles Leclerc 10thquickest and SebastianVettel only 12th, butimproved in the after-noon with Vettel pushingup to fourth behind SergioPerez in third. Perez’sRacing Point team usesMercedes engines.

Although Vettelshowed good corneringspeed, he was still a some-what distant .657 secondsadrift of Hamilton’s timein the second session.

Ferrari is racing withthe same car it used in pre-season testing in Februaryand has not made anyupgrades, while Mercedesand other teams have.

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Jose Mourinho claimed VAR willmake fans fall out of love with

football after Tottenham were thevictims of a controversial goalreversal in their 3-1 defeat againstSheffield United on Thursday.

Blades took the lead throughSander Berge’s first-half strike atBramall Lane.

But Tottenham were denied anequaliser moments later whenHarry Kane’s goal was chalked offby VAR for a dubious handballagainst Lucas Moura.

Lucas appeared to have the ballkicked against his arm in the build-up to Kane’s strike and Tottenhammanager Mourinho complainedangrily on the touchline. LysMousset and Oli McBurnie rubbed

salt into Mourinho’s wounds asthey both netted for Unitedafter the interval.

Kane’s last-minute goal wasno consolation for Tottenham,who are now in grave danger ofmissing out on next season’s

Champions League.In a Premier League season

marred by VAR making debatablecalls too often, Mourinho said hefears for the future of football if thesystem is not addressed.

“I can only say that normallyI’m a professional guy on the benchin these moments, I never complainat the guy with the whistle becauseit’s not the referee anymore,”Mourinho said. “This is the start ofeverything. I think the refereeshould always be the man on thepitch and the people in the officeshould just support and assist.

“That’s not the way it is. The ref-eree who is not very good on thepitch, we cannot expect that he’sgood in the office. “We’re going ina direction that’s really bad for thebeautiful game, the game thateverybody fell in love with.”

Tottenham now sit nine pointsbehind fourth-placed Chelsea andseven adrift of fifth-placedManchester United after their firstdefeat since the restart.

While the Blades, winners forthe first time in five games follow-ing the hiatus, moved two pointsabove Tottenham into seventh place,keeping alive their hopes of quali-fying for European action.

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(��������� �� ����� ����=���������(����-��(�+ England all-rounder Sam Curran onFriday tested negative forcoronavirus, making himeligible to return to training,the country’s cricket boardannounced.

The England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) said the22-year-old will return totraining in a day or two.

Curran, who went intoself-isolation in his hotelroom at the Ageas Bowlafter he felt ill, had given his

sample on Thursday. PTI

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Indian Railways operates2.8 km long train!

Man cycles 3,200 km toreach home amid lockdown

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