ˆ˙€¦ · 19/09/2020  · said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the...

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T he RSS affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has joined hands with critics of the three farm sector-related Bills that will come up for passage in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday. This could put up added pres- sure on the Government to bring in some changes in the Bills to allay the fear of the farmers about continuation of the minimum support price (MSP) regime in future. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on Friday. After Akali Deal leader Harsimrat Kaur walked out of the Modi Government to protest against the Bills, the BKS stand shows that the BJP stands completely isolated on introducing these radical mea- sures. Amid rising apprehen- sions that farm sector Bills passed in the Lok Sabha may not protect the interest of the agriculturists, the BKS has demanded that the Bills must be sent to the Standing Committee for wider consul- tations and changes. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the Opposition for misleading the farmers, the BKS said the Bill is “tilted heavily towards the corporate” and would not improve the lives of farmers and should be whetted by the Standing Committee on Agriculture headed by BJP’s PC Gaddigoudar for the benefit of small farmers before turning into a law. Opposing the Bills in their current form, the organisation has also written to Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, demanding pro-farmer provisions that do not benefit the big firms and corporates. On Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed two agriculture- related Bills — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 — by voice vote. On Tuesday, the House passed the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which seeks to deregulate food items, includ- ing cereals, pulses and onions. As famers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh hit the streets against three farm Bills and Harsimrat quit the Modi Government in protest, the Opposition described the move as “corporatisation” of the agriculture and in favour of big farmers. The Opposition unity will be tested in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday when the Bills come up for passage. As many as 10 MPs have tested positive for Covid- 19 and have been isolated at home. T he rising number of Covid- 19 infection among the Members of Parliament has compelled the authorities to cut short the duration of the ongo- ing Monsoon Session. The session is now expect- ed to be terminated on September 23 instead of its scheduled October 1 closure. The decision was taken on Saturday at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) chaired by Speaker Om Birla, said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The meeting was appraised that more than 264 people were found positive in the mandatory test. They included 30 MPs and staffers and media persons. The present RT-PCR Test has to be taken 72 hours before arrival in the House. Already three sitting MPs have suc- cumbed to Covid-19 and cur- rently 30 MPs are found posi- tive in the test. Apart from staffers and media persons, security per- sonnel are also subjected to the mandatory testing. Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Prahlad Patel have tested pos- itive in the tests. Three MPs have already died of Covid-19. Government officials accompanying their respective Ministers during Bill discus- sions also have to show a neg- ative report of RT-PCR test taken within the last 72 hours of their visit to the complex. “Since the commencement of the Session the number of positive cases has gone up, so the Government is thinking of cutting short the session. Next week also many have to under- go mandatory tests and the number of positive cases is ris- ing,” said an official. Before ending the session, the Government wants to get 11 ordinances passed as laws by Parliament, sources said. At Lok Sabha’s business advisory committee meeting several Opposition parties said that they are in the favour of the decision, asserting that conducting the full 18-day ses- sion could be a risky affair. The meeting also appraised that among the 264 total cases including MPs, the majority are from the staffers. T he National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted simultaneous raids at several locations at Ernakulam (Kerala) and Murshidabad (West Bengal) and arrested nine terrorists associated with Pakistan-spon- sored module of the UN- banned global terror outfit al- Qaeda. “The group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror in their minds,” the NIA said. The search operation fol- lowed registration of a case (No. RC-31/2020/NIA/DLI) by NIA on September 11 and subsequent investigation into the matter. This led the NIA to learn about an inter-State mod- ule of al-Qaeda operatives at various locations in India, including West Bengal and Kerala. “The NIA has arrested six terrorists from West Bengal and three terrorists from Kerala in the early morning raids. Large quantity of incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jehadi lit- erature, sharp weapons, coun- try-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices have been seized from their possession,” the agency said. As per preliminary inves- tigation, the arrested accused were radicalised by Pakistan- based al-Qaeda terrorists on social media and were moti- vated to undertake attacks at multiple places, including the National Capital Region. New Delhi: India’s single-day recovery outstripped the number of new infec- tions as nearly 96,000 people recuper- ated from the novel coronavirus, even as the total number of cases went past 53 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Saturday. New Delhi: “In a landmark global achievement”, India has overtaken the US and become the top country in terms of Covid-19 recoveries, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. The country has reported the highest num- ber of recoveries with 42,08,431 Covid-19 patients hav- ing recovered from the disease so far, pushing the nation- al recovery rate to nearly 80 per cent. A s many as 342 new Covid- 19 positive cases were detected under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area on Saturday. With this, the capital city’s total positive cases rose to 18, 267. Of the new cases, 104 were from quarantine, all linked with earlier positive cases. Besides, 238 were local contact cases. However, 421 persons recovered from the infection taking the city’s total recover- ies to 14,052. So far, out of the total 18,267 positive cases detected in the city 4,133 are active ones and 68 persons have suc- cumbed to the disease. “Further contact tracing was still continuing. Primary contacts and nearby houses are being quarantined, sanitised and would be under active surveillance,” the BMC said. T he Commissionerate police have tightened their grip against Covid-19 guidelines violators and shut down 41 shops and imposed fine on 2,833 persons in the last 24 hours in Bhubaneswar. “Today, 2,833 people have been fined for Covid-19 guide- lines violation in UPD Bhubaneswar. Also 41 shops were sealed for not following the norms,” tweeted Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash. Similarly in Cuttack, three shops were sealed and 1,186 people were fined for violating the guidelines. “During special enforce- ment drives for implementa- tion of #Covid19 guidelines at Cuttack city, we have booked today 1,186 persons for gross violation of social distancing 269 for not face masking in our fight to contain Covid19. Urge people to follow the guidelines and stay safe,” the twitter han- dle of Cuttack DCP said. T he State reported nine more Covid deaths on Saturday, taking the total toll to 691, the Health and Family Welfare Department said. While Bargarh district reg- istered two deaths, Bhadrak, Balangir, Cuttack, Gajapati, Puri, Rayagada and Sambalpur districts reported one each. The deceased in Bargarh were a 63-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman. The other deceased includ- ed a 52-year-old man of Bhadrak, a 55-year-old man of Balangir, a 78-year-old woman of Cuttack, a 37-year-old man of Gajapati, a 73-year-old man of Puri, a 52-year-old man of Rayagada and a 60-year-old woman of Sambalpur. Meanwhile, 4,209 new pos- itive cases were reported on the day from all 30 districts and the State pool. With this, the State’s total tally surged to 1,75, 550. Of the new cases, 2,441 were detected from quarantine and 1,768 were local contacts. Khordha district reported the highest 663 cases followed by Cuttack 491, Puri 326, Baleswar 183, Jajpur 176, Jagatsinghpur 146, Sambalpur 154, Kendrapada 123, Sundargarh 121, Bargarh 116, Koraput 114, Angul 109, Mayurbhanj 107, Kandhamal and Nawarangpur 102 each, Rayagada 92, Kalahandi 90, Subarnapur 83, Dhenkanal and Jharsuguda 80 each, Balangir 78, Keonjhar 72, Ganjam 65, Malkangiri 63, Boudh 55, Nuapada 52, Nayagarh 47, Bhadrak and Gajapati 43 each and Deogarh 23. Besides, 210 positives were recorded from the State pool. However, another 4,090 patients recovered on the day, taking the State’s total recover- ies to 1,41657. The highest 605 recovered in Khordha followed by Puri 412, Cuttack 371, Bargarh 169, Nabarangpur 160, Sunadargarh 155, Kendrapada and Rayagada 145 each, Jajpur 139, Balangir 123, Jagatsinghpur 121, Koraput 120, Mayurbhanj 115, Subarnapur 115, Bhadrak 104. Sambalpur 99, Jharsuguda 93, Keonjhar 92, Baleswar 91, Nayagarh 83, Nuapada 78, Angul 66, Ganjam 56, Dhenknal 50, Kalahandi and Malkangiri 44 each, Kandhamal 38, Boudh and Gajapati 18 each, Deogarh 14 and State pool 212.

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Page 1: ˆ˙€¦ · 19/09/2020  · said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The meeting was appraised that more than 264

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The RSS affiliated BharatiyaKisan Sangh (BKS) has

joined hands with critics of thethree farm sector-related Billsthat will come up for passage inthe Rajya Sabha on Sunday.This could put up added pres-sure on the Government tobring in some changes in theBills to allay the fear of thefarmers about continuation ofthe minimum support price(MSP) regime in future. TheLok Sabha passed the Bill onFriday.

After Akali Deal leaderHarsimrat Kaur walked out ofthe Modi Government toprotest against the Bills, theBKS stand shows that the BJPstands completely isolated onintroducing these radical mea-sures. Amid rising apprehen-sions that farm sector Billspassed in the Lok Sabha maynot protect the interest of theagriculturists, the BKS hasdemanded that the Bills mustbe sent to the StandingCommittee for wider consul-tations and changes.

A day after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi blamed theOpposition for misleading thefarmers, the BKS said the Billis “tilted heavily towards thecorporate” and would notimprove the lives of farmersand should be whetted by the

Standing Committee onAgriculture headed by BJP’s PCGaddigoudar for the benefit ofsmall farmers before turninginto a law.

Opposing the Bills in theircurrent form, the organisationhas also written to PrimeMinister and AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar, demanding pro-farmerprovisions that do not benefitthe big firms and corporates.

On Thursday, the LokSabha passed two agriculture-

related Bills — Farmers’Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)Bill, 2020, and Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Bill, 2020 — by voicevote. On Tuesday, the Housepassed the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Bill, 2020, which seeks toderegulate food items, includ-ing cereals, pulses and onions.

As famers in Punjab,

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh hitthe streets against three farmBills and Harsimrat quit theModi Government in protest,the Opposition described themove as “corporatisation” of theagriculture and in favour of bigfarmers.

The Opposition unity willbe tested in the Rajya Sabha onSunday when the Bills come upfor passage. As many as 10 MPshave tested positive for Covid-19 and have been isolated athome.

���� (.2��.3,��

The rising number of Covid-19 infection among the

Members of Parliament hascompelled the authorities to cutshort the duration of the ongo-ing Monsoon Session.

The session is now expect-ed to be terminated onSeptember 23 instead of itsscheduled October 1 closure.

The decision was taken onSaturday at the BusinessAdvisory Committee (BAC)chaired by Speaker Om Birla,said officials, adding that finaldecision will be taken by theCabinet Committee onParliamentary Affairs.

The meeting was appraisedthat more than 264 peoplewere found positive in themandatory test. They included30 MPs and staffers and mediapersons.

The present RT-PCR Testhas to be taken 72 hours beforearrival in the House. Alreadythree sitting MPs have suc-cumbed to Covid-19 and cur-rently 30 MPs are found posi-

tive in the test.Apart from staffers and

media persons, security per-sonnel are also subjected to themandatory testing. UnionMinisters Nitin Gadkari andPrahlad Patel have tested pos-itive in the tests. Three MPshave already died of Covid-19.

Government officialsaccompanying their respectiveMinisters during Bill discus-sions also have to show a neg-ative report of RT-PCR testtaken within the last 72 hoursof their visit to the complex.

“Since the commencementof the Session the number ofpositive cases has gone up, sothe Government is thinking ofcutting short the session. Nextweek also many have to under-go mandatory tests and thenumber of positive cases is ris-ing,” said an official.

Before ending the session,the Government wants to get11 ordinances passed as laws byParliament, sources said.

At Lok Sabha’s businessadvisory committee meetingseveral Opposition parties saidthat they are in the favour ofthe decision, asserting thatconducting the full 18-day ses-sion could be a risky affair.

The meeting also appraisedthat among the 264 total casesincluding MPs, the majority arefrom the staffers.

������������� (.2��.3,�

The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Saturday

conducted simultaneous raidsat several locations atErnakulam (Kerala) andMurshidabad (West Bengal)and arrested nine terroristsassociated with Pakistan-spon-sored module of the UN-banned global terror outfit al-Qaeda.

“The group was planningto undertake terrorist attacks atvital installations in India withan aim to kill innocent peopleand strike terror in theirminds,” the NIA said.

The search operation fol-lowed registration of a case(No. RC-31/2020/NIA/DLI) byNIA on September 11 andsubsequent investigation intothe matter. This led the NIA to

learn about an inter-State mod-ule of al-Qaeda operatives atvarious locations in India,including West Bengal andKerala.

“The NIA has arrested sixterrorists from West Bengaland three terrorists from Keralain the early morning raids.Large quantity of incriminatingmaterials including digitaldevices, documents, jehadi lit-erature, sharp weapons, coun-try-made firearms, a locally

fabricated body armour, articlesand literature used for makinghome-made explosive deviceshave been seized from theirpossession,” the agency said.

As per preliminary inves-tigation, the arrested accusedwere radicalised by Pakistan-based al-Qaeda terrorists onsocial media and were moti-vated to undertake attacks atmultiple places, including theNational Capital Region.

New Delhi: India’s single-day recoveryoutstripped the number of new infec-tions as nearly 96,000 people recuper-ated from the novel coronavirus, evenas the total number of cases went past53 lakh, according to the Union HealthMinistry data on Saturday.

New Delhi: “In a landmark global achievement”, Indiahas overtaken the US and become the top country interms of Covid-19 recoveries, the Health Ministry saidon Saturday. The country has reported the highest num-ber of recoveries with 42,08,431 Covid-19 patients hav-ing recovered from the disease so far, pushing the nation-al recovery rate to nearly 80 per cent.

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As many as 342 new Covid-19 positive cases were

detected under theBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) area onSaturday. With this, the capitalcity’s total positive cases rose to18, 267.

Of the new cases, 104 werefrom quarantine, all linkedwith earlier positive cases.Besides, 238 were local contactcases.

However, 421 personsrecovered from the infectiontaking the city’s total recover-ies to 14,052.

So far, out of the total18,267 positive cases detectedin the city 4,133 are active onesand 68 persons have suc-cumbed to the disease.

“Further contact tracingwas still continuing. Primarycontacts and nearby houses arebeing quarantined, sanitisedand would be under activesurveillance,” the BMC said.

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The Commissionerate policehave tightened their grip

against Covid-19 guidelinesviolators and shut down 41shops and imposed fine on2,833 persons in the last 24hours in Bhubaneswar.

“Today, 2,833 people havebeen fined for Covid-19 guide-lines violation in UPDBhubaneswar. Also 41 shopswere sealed for not following thenorms,” tweeted BhubaneswarDCP Umashankar Dash.Similarly in Cuttack, three shopswere sealed and 1,186 peoplewere fined for violating theguidelines.

“During special enforce-ment drives for implementa-tion of #Covid19 guidelines atCuttack city, we have bookedtoday 1,186 persons for grossviolation of social distancing269 for not face masking in ourfight to contain Covid19. Urgepeople to follow the guidelinesand stay safe,” the twitter han-dle of Cuttack DCP said.

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The State reported nine moreCovid deaths on Saturday,

taking the total toll to 691, theHealth and Family WelfareDepartment said.

While Bargarh district reg-istered two deaths, Bhadrak,Balangir, Cuttack, Gajapati,Puri, Rayagada and Sambalpurdistricts reported one each.

The deceased in Bargarhwere a 63-year-old man and a55-year-old woman.

The other deceased includ-ed a 52-year-old man ofBhadrak, a 55-year-old man ofBalangir, a 78-year-old womanof Cuttack, a 37-year-old manof Gajapati, a 73-year-old man

of Puri, a 52-year-old man ofRayagada and a 60-year-oldwoman of Sambalpur.

Meanwhile, 4,209 new pos-itive cases were reported on theday from all 30 districts and theState pool. With this, the State’stotal tally surged to 1,75, 550.

Of the new cases, 2,441were detected from quarantineand 1,768 were local contacts.

Khordha district reportedthe highest 663 cases followedby Cuttack 491, Puri 326,Baleswar 183, Jajpur 176,Jagatsinghpur 146, Sambalpur154, Kendrapada 123,Sundargarh 121, Bargarh 116,Koraput 114, Angul 109,Mayurbhanj 107, Kandhamaland Nawarangpur 102 each,Rayagada 92, Kalahandi 90,Subarnapur 83, Dhenkanal andJharsuguda 80 each, Balangir78, Keonjhar 72, Ganjam 65,Malkangiri 63, Boudh 55,

Nuapada 52, Nayagarh 47,Bhadrak and Gajapati 43 eachand Deogarh 23.

Besides, 210 positives wererecorded from the State pool.

However, another 4,090patients recovered on the day,taking the State’s total recover-ies to 1,41657.

The highest 605 recoveredin Khordha followed by Puri412, Cuttack 371, Bargarh 169,Nabarangpur 160, Sunadargarh155, Kendrapada and Rayagada145 each, Jajpur 139, Balangir123, Jagatsinghpur 121,Koraput 120, Mayurbhanj 115,Subarnapur 115, Bhadrak 104.Sambalpur 99, Jharsuguda 93,Keonjhar 92, Baleswar 91,Nayagarh 83, Nuapada 78,Angul 66, Ganjam 56,Dhenknal 50, Kalahandi andMalkangiri 44 each,Kandhamal 38, Boudh andGajapati 18 each, Deogarh 14and State pool 212.

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Page 2: ˆ˙€¦ · 19/09/2020  · said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The meeting was appraised that more than 264

� You play a negative character inPyar Ki Luka Chhupi for the firsttime. How is it going?

I am thoroughly enjoying it and thesame can be seen on screen. It dependson how far you are willing to take the roleand how you play it out. You know yourlimitations and playing such a characteris tougher since you are not playing justone role. Earlier, I have been part ofcomedy shows and done lead roles thathave been positive. Doing a show whereyou are playing a negative role, it givesyou an opportunity to explore yourselfand do something that you would not doin real life. You are portraying somethingthat is opposite to what you are, benegative and yet be funny.� Were there apprehensions in takingup the role?

I have always wanted to explore myacting abil it ies. When I got anopportunity to be part of this show, I hadno reason to turn it down. There weretwo things playing. First, I have beenwaiting to work with the makers of PyarKi Luka Chhupi. Second, since I hadalready done lead roles and comedy, Iwanted to take up this project. The onlychallenge was to train myself for theaccent. Kalyani is a totally Kanpuriyawoman.� You also had to perfect a newlanguage. What was the preparation?

When I gave the auditions, I knewthat I didn’t have the accent correct. Theonly reason why I got the role wasbecause they felt that I could act. But afterthat the team really helped me. The scriptcomes in the language that I am supposedto speak. The only thing that I had toperfect the accent correctly for thedialogues. For this, I heard a number ofjokes from the region. An assistant,Prem, who is from the area, would tell mehow to speak certain words. This helped.� How did you get interested in acting?

I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer.I have been dancing since I was three. Istill practice it and Kuchipudi. There wasa contest but I couldn’t participate. Theorganisers asked me to open the contest.I performed. Sachin Pilgaonkar, who wasthere, told me to take up acting. I toldhim, I couldn’t act. He said not to worryand took me for a role in an episodicshow of his. Once the make-up is on, ithas been on. I have done Hindi andMarathi theatre. I have worked with thelikes of Bhavana Balsavar and ShubhaKhote. My journey has been that of alearner. I have not taken any actinglessons. I am able to emote andunderstand the character because I havedone theatre.

� How did you get your first break withAkkad Bakkad Bambey Bo?

Actually, I did Hello Dolly before this.I had played a kleptomaniac forproduction house Sagar Films Pvt Ltd.When they came up with Akkad BakkadBambey Bo, they knew I could act andthat is how I came on board for thisproject as a lead. It was a different role.I played a student.� You have now been in the industryfor over a decade. How has the journeybeen thus far?

It has been good. One has to go withthe flow. Yes, there have been changes.But if we don’t move forward, we won’tbe able to move past the negatives. Thegood is that we are paid better. Then,there were actors, today we have stars. Itis important to understand that changeis a reality. To accept it is necessary. WhenI was young, I played roles according tomy age. Now I am doing roles that fit my

age.� What is the toughest thing aboutbeing an actor?

Everything that comes your way istough. Even with Kalyani’s role, I still getbutterflies when I am on camera. Thereis always the fear that I may not be ableto remain the skin of the character. Thegood is that it makes me moredetermined to do my work better.� How tough is it to shoot under thenew normal?

When we first started, I was afraid. Ihave a four-year-old daughter. My fatherlives with me. The fear was very high. I wasnot sure whether I should get back to workor not. But the makers have been thoroughwith precautions and I am doing the same.� What next?

I am concentrating on this show. Iwork 25 days a month. The rest of the daysI want to spend with my family and catchup spending time with my daughter.

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Trump roasts Trump withhis own signature brand ofstupidity, outrage and elan.

Season 3 takes off with theImpeachment sham that Trumpsurvived with flying colours. Ashe puts it: “I can do anything andget away with it as I have beenchosen by the people ofAmerica.”

The self-deprecatinghumour, the audacity ofimpunity that Trump wearsbrings in a lot of laughter intothis very American series muchlike The Simpsons. It will appealto the people who are in theknowledge of America’sdomestic politics, policyblunders and the demeanourthat the President sports.

Trump is undoubtedly aglobally recognised political

clown so situations around himare insanely funny and thescriptwriter has done well tocatch all the nuances to presentTrump roasting himself, morespecifically roasting the citizensof America for voting him in.

Ticklish subjects like foreignaffairs, economy and theupcoming Presidential electionsare issues some of the episodestouch upon and that includes theClintons coming into the picturefrom their living room televisionviewing and keeping their hypercandidate in the race who is ona personal high of anxiety,aspiration, scepticism of herprospects and yet compellingoptimism in dreaming to be thepossible first-ever nativeAmerican woman President!

Entirely up to you whetheryou are in a mood to connect tothis sort of very Americancomedy. One thing is therethough, Season 3 shows nofatigue whatsoever in pressingthe funny bone button.

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Some movies are made out of nothing, conveyingnothing and thinking nothing about theamount of waste they produce. Holly Slept Over

tops in that segment. A thoughtless, disastrouscomedy-drama propelling sexual adventurism tosave a sagging marriage where sex has becomeboring and a tool to somehow have babies, it is aromp in the bed by a committed couple and the wife’slesbian girlfriend who stops over for a night after12 years of a breakup.

Other than the protagonists being extremelypretty, the house where the action takes place beingsexy, the neighbours having their own between thesheets issues with yucky outcomes, there is nothingin the movie that will keep you interested, or let mesay not get you irritated.

Holly (girlfriend) breezes into the couple’s homewith not even a blink, sleeps straight seven hours,gets up all decked up and her friend’s husbandproposing a threesome! They agree and do it withoutwasting any time or sparing a thought to even their

viewers. And then it is all over, Holly leaves, thecouple rocks and the neighbours too learn to live,well, between the sheets once in a while.

Who, how, what, why? Don’t look for answersin this one which much too casually degrades theentire institution of marriage, fidelity and the works.

Can be totally ignored even on a very idle weekday or week-end.

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Off late, Bollywood has started makingmovies that are beyond glam womenand having them be an arm candy for

the hero and do a song and dance. Not thatthere is anything wrong with such films, theonly problem is that few realise that what theysee on the screen is a make-belief world andthere is more to life, especially for women —they have aspirations, ambitions and needs.

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare bydirector Alankrita Shrivastava and producedby Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor undertheir banner Balaji Telefilms is one such film.Shrivastava is known to make films thatexplore gender roles and the judgement onhow women in our society should behave

without questioning the moral values of themen. The film tries to bring out complexitiesof relationships, questions what is right andwrong as the story progresses.

The good part is that it doesn’t pass anyjudgement on the choices the women make.In fact, it goes on as far as saying that it wasthe choice that they made because there ismore to them that needs to be explored. Thetwo-hour running time may appear to be abit longer than what we are used to, but thestory keeps the viewer engrossed.

Konkana Sen as Radha aka Dolly givesa great performance as she explores herrelationship — with her husband, with heryounger son, with her sister, with her adelivery boy and her mother. BhumiPednekar as Kaajal aka Kitty too gives abrilliant performance. Amol Parashar,Vikrant Massey and Aamir Bashir do justiceto their performances.

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Almost all of us find it difficult to see acharacter that we have followed over theyears and identify with, see playing another

role — definitely not the fault of the actor. But thetruth is that the characters that they have playedleave such an impact that it becomes impossibleto break the mould in which we are used to seeingthem. This probably makes the task of the directorand the actor tough but the end result is worth itand The Devil All The Time is a prime example howactors step out of the mould that viewers put themin and show that at the end of the day, it is job anda role that they stepped into even if it was for a fewyears.

The psychological thriller based on the novelof the same name by Donald Ray Pollock is directedand co-written by Antonio Campos and producedby Jake Gyllenhaal and Randall Poster. The storyis simple enough. But there are many characters

and while it does, at times, become difficult tofollow the thread of each character’s journey, theytend to collide with each other from time to time.The way it all comes together is interesting.

What is even more brilliant about this movieis the performance that Tom Holland and RobertPattinson have given. Holland as a young mantrying to protect his family from all the evil givesa stellar performance. However, it is Pattinson whostands out here even though he doesn’t have asmeaty a role as Holland. He may have a total screenpresence of 30-35 minutes but the way he managesto break away from Edward Cullen is stunning. Asthe preacher in this one and a high-pitchedSouthern drawl, he is a surprise.

A report says that the actor had crafted theaccent in his room for days and didn’t let anyonehear it — not even Campos. It is riveting to watchhim deliver the dialogues in this accent, sodifferent from the extremely polished Cullen.

While the movie itself doesn’t have much tosay apart from the good versus evil, God versus thedevil, what makes this 138-minute film worth awatch are Holland and Pattinson’s acting.

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It was a big day for Odishawhen the State’s young BJD

MP Dr Sasmit Patra presidedover Rajya Sabha proceedingson Saturday. No member fromthe State had chaired proceed-ings in the Parliament’s UpperHouse during the past 20 longyears.

Dr Patra, as a Vice-Chairman of the Rajya Sabha,conducted a discussion onEpidemic Diseases

(Amendment) Ordinance,2020 Bill.

MPs cutting across partylines congratulated Dr Patraover his important role, whichhe played with patience andpoliteness.

Dr Patra dedicated thissignificant occasion to ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik and4.5 crore people of Odishasaying that without them, hisjourney to the Rajya Sabhawould not have been possiblein the first place.

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Ollywood actress VarshaPriyadarshini has moved

the Supreme Court seekingtransfer of the divorce suitfiled by her actor-husband andKemndrapada BJD MPAnubhav Mohanty in thePatiala House Court in Delhi tothe Family Court in Cuttack.

As Anubhav stays maxi-mum days at his MP quarter inNew Delhi, he has filed thedivorce petition at the PatialaHouse Court as per his conve-nience. Citing her inconve-

nience, Varsha requested to theapex court to transfer the mat-ter to a court at her home townCuttack.

Notably, Varsha has filed adomestic violence case at the

SDJM Court in Cuttack onAugust 7 accusing Anubhav ofphysical and mental torture. Amonth before the case,Anubhav had filed his divorcepetition on July 6.

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The National Green Tribunalon Saturday ordered the

Polavaram Project Authority(PPA) and the Andhra PradeshGovernment to hold a meetingwith the States of Odisha,Telangana and Chhattisgarhto address their apprehensionson the Polavaram Dam projectover the Godavari river.

The Central WaterCommission (CWC) and theGodavari Water DisputeTribunal along with the PPAand the Andhra Pradesh WaterResource Department were

asked to jointly convene ameeting with the upstreamStates within two months.

The upstream States wouldput forth the anticipatedPolavaram project impacts onthem which are likely to beexamined to devise appropriatemeasures to safeguard the damand as well as interests of theupstream States.

Notably, Odisha has beenopposing the construction ofthe dam by Andhra Pradeshciting that the project wouldcause permanent harm to theinterest of the State and its peo-ple.

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Sambad’ publisher BijayKumar Patnaik succumbed

to Covid-19 while undergoingtreatment at a private hospitalhere on Saturday. He was 62and is survived by wife and ason.

He was under treatmentfor the last one month.

Patnaik had joined theSambad newspaper since itsinception in October 1984.Besides, he was activelyinvolved in various social andreligious activities. He had alsocontributed to the develop-ment of the Baramunda areahere.

A pal of gloom descended

on officials and staffs of theSambad Group who termed hisdeath an irreparable loss.

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The Centre has provided atotal of Rs 4.7 crore to

Odisha during last two yearsfor conservation of the Chilikaand Ansupa lakes, informedUnion Minister DharmendraPradhan on Saturday.

The funds have beenreleased under National Planfor Conservation of AquaticEcosystems for nurturingChilika and Ansupa.

Pradhan extended his grat-itude to Prime Minister Modiand Union Forest &Environment Minister Prakash

Javadekar for taking the initia-tive.

The revival of Ansupa lake,which was a wasteland threeyears ago, has brought muchcheer to all and provides fur-ther encouragement for con-servation and protection ofwetlands, he said.

Stating that Chilika andAnsupa are a paradise fornature connoisseurs withimmense potential for ecolog-ical tourism, Pradhan said,“We are committed to conserveand protect these ‘Jewels ofOdisha’ for a sustainablefuture.”

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At a time when many Covid-19 patients are dying due to

respiratory-related problems, aventilation device developed bya group of students of the IIIT,Bhubaneswar seems to havecome as a big support to savelives of such patients.

The first-of-its-kind deviceis shaped as a helmet andworks on the principle ofhyperbaric oxygen therapy.With this device, a personwould inhale almost pure oxy-gen to speed up his body’s heal-ing process.

Named ‘Swasner’, it canact as an alternative for peoplesuffering from respiratory dis-eases in emergency situation,claimed the the engineeringstudents.

The device is completelymade up of medicated plasticcollected from the CentralInstitute of PetrochemicalsEngineering and Technology(CIPET). It has two plastic

rings bearing three ports tomake the base. A round-shapedpiece of mackintosh fabric isstitched to the rings so as tohave a T-shirt like grip on theuser’s neck. The base is fitted tothe bubble-like enclosure orchamber inside which pureoxygen is pumped in. Thedevice can be connected towall-mounted oxygen cylin-ders in hospitals, said the stu-dents.

Ananya Aprameya,Tapaswin Padhi, SidharthShankar Nayak, Sai SambitNayak, Divyajyoti Dash, ShovitMitra and Vitthal Gupta of theIIIT Bhubaneswar, JiviteshDebata of ITER and NandKishore Gupta of NSIT Delhitook four months to design thedevice.

The “Swasner” can be usedas an affordable alternativeagainst costly ventilator. Somepieces of device have been sentto hospitals in Cuttack andMumbai for clinical test,informed the students.

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The current trend of thenumber of Covid recover-

ies surpassing the number ofinfected cases on a daily basisin Ganjam district has notonly down-slid the graph lineof active cases but also createda sense of relief among thepeople of the district.

The numbers of positivecases detected during the lastfive days were 46, 68, 75, 58 and65, respectively. While a total of19,557 positive cases weredetected by Saturday, 223 (eightof them for reasons other thanCovid) of them have died and19,059 have recovered. Thus,the district has 285 active cases,a number which is less thannumbers of 28 other districts.Only Deogarh has 121 activecases. The share of Ganjamcases in the State’s Covid countis also decreasing.

According to the Health

Department data, while the dis-trict had shared 13.1% of theState’s count on August 14, it

came down to 5.29% onSeptember 1 and to 1.54% onSeptember 19.

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The State Government has ini-tiated the process for devel-

oping technical institutions likeITI and polytechnic to Centresof Excellence (CoEs) in allOMBADC areas.

It was revealed at a meetingheld under the chairmanship ofChief Secretary Asit Tripathy ona digital mode from the LoksevaBhawan wherein SkillDevelopment and TechnicalEducation Secretary SanjayKumar Singh presented the needand feasibility of such institu-tions.

Singh said the employabili-ty of students of many ITIswere also very high during lastyear. Leading industrial housesare in collaberative partnershipwith many ITIs, he said.

Chief Secretary Tripathydirected Singh to take steps fordevelopment of such institu-tions in the OMBADC areas toexpand avenues of employment.He stressed on imparting newage trades like drone piloting,solar technology, smart agricul-ture, smart horticulture, robot-ic technology, mechactronics,additive manufacturing tech-nology.

Singh to informed that 11ITIs of the State ( SevenGovernment and four privateones) ranked among Top-100ITIs in Phase-II ranking of theyear 2019-20. SevenGovernment institutions includ-ed ITI Berhampur (11th), ITI,Hinjilicut (15th), ITI Jajpur(24th), ITI Jahrsuguda (45th),ITI Puri (61st), ITI Takatpur(73rd) and ITI Bhubaneswar (88th). Similarly, four privateinstitutions included ITI,Bhadrak ( 52nd), ITI, Charampa,Bhadrakh ( 66th), Dalmia ITISundargarh ( 64th) and,SriguruITC Jagatpur, Cuttack ( 65th).

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The Biramitrapur police sta-tion IIC has lodged a com-

plaint of domestic violenceagainst her Lecturer-husbandwith the Rahunathpalli policeon Thursday.

In her complaint,Snigdharani Suna said she hadmarried 13 years ago. Threeyears after the marriage, herhusband reportedly torturedher both mentally and physi-cally.

Besides, her husbandallegedly attempted to kill her.Eventually she decided to lodgethe complaint.

A case has been registeredin this connection and investi-gation is underway, said police.Snigdharani’s husband is aLecturer at the GovernmentAutonomous College atPanposh here.

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On the allegation of socialdistancing norms as per

Covid 19 guidelines, the localadministrator of Bhograi hasimposed a penalty sum of Rs50,000 on an opera party pro-prietor.

On Thursday night hun-dreds of villagers of Nimatpurand neighbouring areas hadcongregated at Nimatpur underBhograi block to witness jatrawhich was organised on the eveof Biswakarma and ManasaDevi Pujas.

The pictures and videofootage went viral in socialmedia and other media. Afterconducting an inquiry addi-tional tehsildar SontoshPanigrahi slapped a fine of Rs50,000 on Sudam Das, ownerof the opera party ‘GourangaJeu Gana Natya’. However, theorganiser was spared of anyaction

The amount too was recov-ered from him.

About 1,000 spectatorsgathered to witness the Jatrafrom 11 pm till next morning.

Jayrampur GP neighbour-ing to the Nimatpur GP hasbeen sealed after it was declareda containment zone for 10days till September 27 as 37people were detected positive.In the Bhograi block, about 530people were detected Coronapositive.

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Around 40 ecotourism des-tinations, including beach

resorts, hill stations in tribalbelts, forests and nature camps,would be opened in the Stateafter the Covid-19 situationimproves, said TourismDirector Sachin RamchandraJhadav. Jhadav was attending awebinar on “Investment andE n t r e p r e n e u r s h i pOpportunities in Tourism inOdisha”. organised by theOdisha Corporate Foundation(OCF) on Friday.

The Tourism Departmenthas been taking measures topopularise handicrafts and tra-ditional cuisines of the Statebesides maintaining and reno-vating the tourist spots, he

said.Hotel and Restaurants

Association of Odisha (HRAO)chairman JK Mohanty said theState should give stress ondevelopment of the hotelindustry. “While States likeKerala and Maharashtra have93 and 90 star hotels, respec-tively, Odisha has only nine,” hesaid. Former Central Board ofDirect Taxes member PrasannaDash and former ChiefSecretary BK Patnaik spoke,among others.

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Police arrested five persons fortheir alleged involvement in

smuggling ganja in Koraput dis-trict on Friday and seized a hugecache of ganja. On a tipoff, thepolice searched two vehiclesnear Kokriguda Chhak underthe Semiliguda police station ofthe district at around 11 am onFriday.

During the search of theMahindra pickup and a motor-cycle, the police recovered 1,000kg ganja. Following this, five per-sons from whose possession thepolice recovered the contrabanditem were arrested.

The accused identified asParmesh, Kartika Chapadi,Gopal Bhoi, Shyama Bhoi andDamu Bhoi were forwarded tocourt on Saturday.

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Police seized ganja worth �50 lakh while it was being

smuggled from Gajapati dis-trict in separate incidents onFriday. Police arrested fourpersons in connection withthis and confiscated the twovehicles which were being usedfor transportation of the con-traband.

In the first incident,Mohana police station IIC SujitKumar Nayak and his teamintercepted a vehicle which

was on its way from Rayagada.Over six quintals of ganjaworth �30 lakh was recovered.The contraband was beingtransported to Haryana. TwoHaryana natives Manoj KumarTomar and Abinash KumarSingh were arrested.

In another incident, theAdaba police conducted a raidand seized 331 kg ganja froma vehicle. Two accused identi-fied as Ishwarbandhu Nayakand Kulamandi Nayak ofTalarsingh village under theMohana PS were arrested.

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As many as 80 were identi-fied as Corona positive in

Jharsuguda district onSaturday. Out of them, three arefrom Jharsuguda Blood Bank.The district administration hassealed the blood bank for 48hours.

After sanitising and swab

test of all the employees, theblood bank will be reopened.But in emergency cases,arrangements have been madeto provide blood to the patients,said CDMO Jagdish ChandraBarik.Sources said that out 80positives, 28 are fromJharsuguda municipality, threefrom Belpahar, 12 from

Brajrajnagar municipality, threefrom Jharsuguda block, 22from Lakhanpur block, fourfrom Kolabira block and sixfrom Kirmira block.

Now, the total positivecases in the district is 3,089.Out of them, 2,200 patientshave been cured and 888 areunder treatment.

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The Department ofPerforming Arts (DPA),

Faculty of Arts, Communicationand Indic Studies (FACIS), SriSri University in collaborationwith Srjan (Guru KelucharanMohapatra Odissi Nrityabasa)will organise a world webinarseries on the “Globalization ofIndian Dance,” from September

21 to 26. The series will feature 12

distinguished scholars/practi-tioners, who have been invitedto share their views and opinionson this pertinent topic.Conducted on Zoom, each ses-sion will be held for one hour,followed by a 15-minute inter-active Q&A session.

"The aim of the webinar isto expose our students, teach-

ers and dancers to variedthoughts and academic dis-cussions on the performingarts, enabling their profession-al growth as aspiring classicaldancers/artistes. We are alsoopening this webinar toFacebook live to the dancersand artistes of other classicaldance forms, art connoisseurs,and the audience," said a releaseof Sri Sri University.

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Samajwadi Party State presi-dent Rabi Behera on Saturday

requested BJD president andChief Minister Naveen Patnaikto oppose the Farmers’ Bill in theRajya Sabha on Sunday. “In thename of doubling the farmers’income, the Narendra ModiGovernment introduced threedraconian, anti-farmer and pro-corporate Bills and got thempassed in the Lok Sabha onThursday. These bills will comeup for discussion in the RajyaSabha. If these bills are passed,it will bring a bleak future for thefarming community.”, wroteBahera in aletter to CM.

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Page 4: ˆ˙€¦ · 19/09/2020  · said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The meeting was appraised that more than 264

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Suspended SO Anuj Sainiaccused of assault on BJP

MLA last month in Iglas ofGonda police station has beenreinstated but he did not receiveany clean chit. A departmentalinquiry from the SP city level isunderway against the suspensionand allegations against him. Thisinvestigation will determine thefuture of Anuj Saini. Currently, hewas posted to the police line.

Anuj Saini was suspendedafter last month's incident at thepolice station and the concernedSP was transferred from here. Theentire case was summoned fromIG.

However, so far, no ATR hasbeen sent to the district from theIG at the government level.

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The Health Department is notgetting doctors even during the

Corona pandemic. During the lasttwo months, 40 doctors left thehealth department after selection.Not only this, no private doctor isready despite offering five thousandrupees per day. There is already ahuge shortage of doctors in thehealth department. After the coro-na virus infection spread, thedemand for doctors rises. JNMedical College, Pandit DeendayalUpadhyaya Joint Hospital, 100 BedHospital Atrauli, CHC Harduaganj,Jeevan Jyothi Ayurvedic Medicalcollege, Government HomoeopathicMedical College at Chherat wereconverted into Covid-19 Hospital.

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Multi-story building owners,tractors, and four-wheeler

owners have also been selected forthe Prime Minister’s housingscheme in the district. When theCentral Government again issuedan order to investigate the benefi-ciaries, then this fraud came to thelight.

The investigation teams havefound 1952 beneficiaries in the dis-trict who are ineligible. The Centerhas launched the Prime Minister’shousing scheme to provide hous-ing to the homeless.

Under this scheme, in theurban area, 2.5 lakh rupees aregranted for house constructionand �1.2 lakh in the village alongwith �12000 for the construction oftoilets and 100 days MGNREGA

wages. The government had selected

the beneficiaries according to the2011 Economic and Social Census. There were many people whosenames were not on this list. Twoyears ago, the central governmentconducted a re-survey in the dis-trict.

Block-level teams surveyedhomeless people across the district,in which 6737 needy werefound.

The district administrationstamped their names and sent thelist to the state government fromwhere it was finally sent to the cen-ter and the Central Governmentpublished the list of all the benefi-ciaries on the housing portal.Recently, the government receivedsome complaints about the selec-tion of ineligible beneficiaries.

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Fulfilling his commitmentmade with the business

community, Lt Governor,Manoj Kumar Sinha onSaturday announced a megarelief and revival package of�1,350 crore to help the J&Kbusiness sector to tide overtheir problems.

Addressing a press con-ference in the Raj Bhawanauditorium in Srinagar LtGovernor announced a pack-age of measures, both financialand non-financial, aimed athelping business and entre-

preneurs.In his opening remarks Lt

Governor also stated that thefirst part of overall economicpackage came fromGovernment of India in termsof Atma Nirbhar BharatAbhiyan.

Elaborating on the details,he said that so far �1,400 crorehas already been providedthrough JK Bank and otherbanks under this Abhiyan. Headded that it has many com-ponents which seek to helpbusiness entities in multipleways such as provision of liq-uidity and other financial sup-ports. He said that many wel-

fare measures such as freerations and support to themost needy were also beingprovided.

The Lt Governor said thatthe main component of today’spackage is 5 % interest sub-vention to all borrowers irre-spective of their sizes, whichwould cost about �950 crore.The interest subvention will beavailable for six months in thecurrent financial year and itwill be a huge relief in the cur-rent scenario.

Lt Governor went on tosay that government has alsodecided to provide 50 % waiv-er of fixed charges for one year

with respect to electricity andwater which would cost �105crore. He said that they havealso decided to assist bus dri-vers/conductors, auto/taxi dri-vers etc who may have losttheir livelihood by providingfor an appropriate mecha-nism.

Further 50% or �5.00 lakhsubsidy whichever is lowershall provided to the trans-porters for replacement of oldbuses and the insurance pre-mium shall be borne by theGovernment subject to maxi-mum of �5,000 per vehicle forBuses/Mini Buses, �3,000 fortaxes/sumos and �2,000 for

three wheelers. For Tourism Sector, sub-

sidy for installation of Bio-digesters in the houseboatshas been announced.

Assistance shall also beextended out of ‘JK ReliefFund’ to some 19914Shikara/House Boat own-e r s / T o u r i s tGuides/Pithuwalas/Dandiwalas/Sledge Walas/Pony/CamelRiders and cash assistance of�1,000 to all of them givenfrom last 3 months shall beextended for further 06months ending 31st December,2020.

There are more than 3100

artists who have lost theirlivelihood during the pan-demic. The artists associatedwith the cultural academyshall be paid Rs 1000 permonth out of ‘JK Relief Fund’for a period of 09 months w.e.f1st April, 2020.

For agriculture sector, dis-trict level bankers committeeshall be constituted to ensureloan coverage for agricultureand allied non-farm activitiesunder Mudra loans. Meetingswill be organised every monthto overcome difficulties facedby the borrowers.

Moreover J&K Bank shallframe customised “Help

Tourism” scheme for financialassistance to persons associat-ed with the Tourism Sectorwith attractive pricing andrepayment features. All stakeholders shall be taken on boardfor any modifications.

As far as tax concessionsare concerned, the filing of theGST reimbursement claimshas also been extended till 31stDecember, 2020. Handholdingto remove difficulties in filingreturns and mechanism toavoid delays in reimburse-ment claims shall be institut-ed. The accumulated interestshall be converted into fund-ed interest term loan.

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Giving a scare to the entire pop-ulation of the State, 4,644 new

patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Kerala on Saturday.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayansaid in his media briefing that 18persons succumbed to the pan-demic during the last 24 hours andthis took the death tally in the statetill date to 519.

Except in Wayanadu (95) andIdukki (47), the remaining 12 dis-tricts diagnosed more than 200patients each. Thiruvananthapuramhad the highest number of newcases on Saturday (824).

3,781 persons contracted thepandemic through social contactswhile 498 persons could not find outthe source from where they wereinfected. The State also detected onSaturday 86 health workers who gotinfected through social contact/

local transmission.There are 37,488 active cases

admitted to hospitals in Kerala. TheState administration found itself inan awkward position as it wasreported widely that the an exclu-sive Covid hospital built by the TataGroup in Kasaragod district was yetto commence its operations as theGovernment of Kerala failed toappoint even a single doctor in this550-bed hospital built by the busi-ness conglomerate at a cost of Rs 60crore. Though the keys of the hos-pital were handed over to the Stateadministration on September 9,the Covid-19 hospital remainsclosed.

Kasaragod district diagnosed191 new patients with Covid-19 .Though there is a medical college inthe district head quarters, it alsoremains without adequate staff,said a senior doctor in the generalhospital.

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Ajoint team of security forces havearrested three Lashkar-e- Tayyeba

(LeT) terrorists from the forest area ofGurdan in Rajouri. These three ter-rorists were spotted in the area by thesecurity personnel during a cordon andsearch operations.

Director General of Police, DilbaghSingh while sharing details of the oper-ation told reporters on saturday,“Rajouri Police along with Army’s 38RR had launched a cordon and searchoperation in the general area of Gurdanwhere three suspected persons carry-ing a bag each were spotted”.

Dilbagh Singh said, “the trioattempted to flee after throwing agrenade on the search party but thegrenade did not explode and the bravepersonnel of police and army managedto nab all of them along with huge

cache of arms/ammunition whichwere dropped by drone from Pakistan”.

He said the arrested terroristshave been identified and all hail fromSouth Kashmir. The DGP said thatdrones are being used by the Pakistaniagencies and its sponsored terror out-fits to supply arms/ammunition anddrugs inside our territory.

The DGP said that few days backPoonch police along with army arrest-ed two terrorist operatives and seizedarms & ammunition from them.

He also said that Rajouri Policewith the assistance of Poonch policebusted a narco-terrorism module byrecovering 11Kg of heroin during thepast few days. “

This is a huge catch cost of whichruns into crores of rupees and the saleproceeds of this were to be used byHizbul Mujahideen outfit to financeterrorist activities in J&K”,DGP added.

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Veteran communist leaderand former Lok Sabha

member Roza Deshpande diedof old age and prolongedchronic illness at her residencehere on Saturday afternoon.

She was 91 and is survivedby a son, daughter and grand-children. She was the daughterof one of founders of theCommunist Party of IndiaShripad Amrit Dange.

Roza, who was born amonth after her father Dangewas arrested in the Meerut con-spiracy case and sentenced tolife imprisonment, enteredpolitical movements throughthe All India Students’Federation (AISF) and TradeUnions. She also took part inthe Samyukta Maharashtramovement (for the creation ofthe state of Maharashtra) andthe Goa liberation struggle asan AISF member.

In 1964, she organised a

massive demonstration ofwomen from walks of life andsubmitted a charter of demandsto the government. It was thefirst demonstration of its kindin the history of Bombay'slabour movement, whichforced the private firms towithdraw an objectionableclause of forcing women work-ers to resign after marriage.

Having organised theworkers in drug, chemicalsand pharmaceutical industryinto one trade union, Rozawent onto form an All IndiaPharmaceutical Employees’Union and got it affiliated tothe Chemical and OilInternational of the WorldFederation of Trade Unions atPraha.

In 1974, Roza was electedto Lok Sabha from BombaySouth-Central Constituency asa candidate of the CommunityParty of India. As an MP, sheworked on the various com-mittees associated with labour

problems and women issues.She was subsequently elect-

ed to the National Council ofCommunist Party of India.

During the Emergency, herfather Dange and Roza stoodfirmly by late Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi, for which shewas and her group was expelledfrom the CPI. Dange was alsosubsequently expelled fromthe CPI. This led to the for-mation of All IndiaCommunist Party of India, ofwhich she was the general sec-retary. She was associated withthe All India Communist Partyof India from 1980 to 1987.

Ahead of the 1980 LokSabha polls, late Mrs Gandhiwanted her to explain her standon certain issues to Mr Breznev,the then President of the erst-while USSR. She specially sentRoza carrying her letter andhad delivered it to Mr Breznevpersonally.

After she won the 1980 LokSabha elections with absolute

majority, Mrs Gandhi offeredDange, Roza and her husbandBani Deshpande to contest theelection with the support of theCongress (I) but they refusedin protest, as the CPI disal-lowed Dange to contest theelections with Congress(I)’ssupport. However, Mrs Gandhiappointed Bani Deshpande onthe manifesto committee of theMaharashtra Pradesh Congress(I)

Later in 1990, theMaharashtra governmentappointed Roza as the head ofthe committee to study“Avenues for Women’sEmployment” under the EqualRemuneration Act. After adetailed study, she submitted areport to the Maharashtra gov-ernment.

Apart from trade unionactivities, Roza was a student ofMarathi literature and history.One of her lesser knownaspects of her was love for poet-ry.

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Amid spike in the Covid-19cases especially across

Jammu region, the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare onSaturday rushed a high levelcentral team headed byDirector National Centre forDisease Control (NCDC), DrSK Singh to Jammu to takestock of the ground situationand suggest measures to con-tain the spread of the virus andimprove health care facilities.

In the last one week,Jammu region has recorded 80Covid-19 deaths and over 5000residents have tested positivefor coronavirus.

The total number of activepositive cases in Jammu andKashmir Saturday stood at21281. Out of these, Jammu hasso far recorded 12318 activepositive cases while Kashmirvalley has reported 8963 activecases. The death toll hasreached 987 in J&k.

For almost two weeks thehealth care infrastructure wasstruggling to cope with thehuge rush of patients leading tochaotic situation in the dedi-cated Covid hospitals and iso-lated wards across other healthcentres.

According to the officialsources, soon after their arrivalhere in Jammu a team of doc-tors headed by Dr Vijay Hadda,Associate Professor,Department of PulmonaryCritical care, AIIMS, NewDelhi visited GovernmentMedical college hospital,Jammu and interacted withthe senior faculty along withPrincipal of the college DrNisab Chand Digra. He wasaccompanied by a senior epi-demiologist.

The team members tookcomprehensive feedback onreasons behind sudden spike incases of coronavirus, totalnumber of deaths, treatmentfacilities, challenges and short-age of trained manpower andinfrastructure facilities.

The team members alsovisited few other places wherepatients were admitted inJammu.

Another team headed byDr. S.K Singh, Director NCDCNew Delhi along with DrTanzin Joint Director NCDCNew Delhi visited Udhampurand took feedback from theground zero. A separate meet-ing was chaired by the centralteam along with Financial com-missioner, Health Atal Dulloohere in the civil secretariat.

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In a crucial arrest and conse-quent seizure of drugs that

may help break celebrity-drugnexus in Mumbai and thenational capital, the NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB) arresteda man linked to a network ofDJs and drug party organisersfrom neighbouring Palghar dis-trict, and seized 670 grams ofCocaine sourced from Ethiopia,at a location in New Delhi.

Close on the heels of thearrest of six more alleged drugpeddlers and seized 1.433 kg. ofCharas and Ganja in connectionwith the ongoing Sushant SinghRajput death-related drug case,the NCB arrested a man Vasai,who is linked to a network ofDJs and party organizers andsupply of cocaine to them.

The NCB seized 670 gramsof Cocaine from New Delhi,sourced from Ethiopia. As partof ‘Controlled delivery opera-tion launched by it, the NCBarrested the man linked to a net-work of DJs and drug partyorganizers.

Identifying the arrestedman as S. Ghangale, the NCBofficials said that he would beproduced before a Delhi court.

“The seizure took place inDelhi and the arrest of theaccused person was carried outfrom Mumbai. The contrabandwas sourced from Addis Ababa,Ethiopia. The distribution net-work in Mumbai was underprobe, which has possible link-ages with high profile users. Thecontraband was concealed in aparcel containing tailoringmaterial (thread roll),” NCB’sDeputy Director (Ops) K P SMalhotra said.

Malhotra said that the iden-tified network had the involve-ment of DJs and other partyorganizers, who are connectedto the party circles of Mumbai.

The “Controlled deliveryoperation” is a technique ofallowing illicit or suspect con-signments of narcotic drugs,psychotropic substances, con-trolled substances or substancessubstituted for them to pass outof, or through or into the ter-ritory of India with the knowl-edge and under the supervisionof an officer empowered in thisbehalf or duly authorised undersection 50A with a view toidentifying the personsinvolved in the commission ofan offence under the NDPSAct.

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Agartala: To 21,507 onSaturday as 535 more peopletested positive for the infection,a health official said.

Seven fresh fatalitiespushed the northeastern state'scoronavirus death toll to 235,

he said. West Tripura district,under which Agartala falls,has accounted for 130 of the235 COVID-19 deaths report-ed in the state so far, the offi-cial said.Tripura now has 7,107active coronavirus cases, while

14,142 people have recoveredfrom the disease so far, and 23patients have migrated to otherstates, he said. The state hastested 3,52,007 samples forCOVID-19 so far, the officialadded. PTI

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Even as the Bharatiya KisanUnion's Haryana unit will

hold a statewide protest againstthe Centre'' farm bills onSunday during which they willblock roads for three hours,chief minister Manohar LalKhattar has urged them todefer the agitation and invitedthem to talks.

In an appeal issued here,Khattar said that while onehand everyone in a democra-cy has the right to express theirviews, on the other maintain-ing peace in the state is also theutmost duty of anyGovernment.

Khattar said that the threeFarm Ordinances are in theinterest of farmers and it isunfortunate to see that theopposition parties are blatant-ly politicizing the issue so as toachieve their vested interests bymisleading the farmers. Khattarurged the farmers to rememberthe appeal made byDeenbandhu ChaudharyChhotu Ram in which he hadsaid that they should recognizetheir enemies.

Haryana BKU chiefGurnam Singh said the Centredid not withdraw the three

agriculture-related ordinancesand presented them as billsduring the ongoing session ofParliament, which have beenpassed in the Lok Sabha. “Wehad warned the governmentnot to go ahead with these''anti-farmer'' legislation.

We will be holding aprotest across the state duringwhich we will block roads forthree hours. However, the GTroad (national highway) willnot be blocked,” he said onSaturday, adding that they havesupport from other farmeroutfits.

He also said that farmersfrom Haryana and Punjab willstart a movement against the“anti-farmer” measures whichwill later intensify into pan-India protests. On September10, the BKU along with someother farmer outfits had held aprotest in Kurukshetra's Pipliagainst the farm ordinances.

Haryana Chief MinisterKhattar, said that at this timethose who are spreading con-fusion about Ordinances pro-mulgated by the CentralGovernment are the ones whoare the real enemies of farm-ers and are trying just to servetheir own political interests

rather than having any concernabout farmers.

He requested the farmersassociations that while holdinga Statewide road blockade theyshould ensure that least incon-venience is caused to citizensand passengers.

He said special care shouldbe taken to ensure no obstruc-tion in the way is caused for anypatients going to hospital, preg-nant women and vehicles sup-plying essential commodities.

Cautioning farmers aboutthe fact that at times under theguise of any protest, many anti-social elements try to spreadviolence just to fulfill theirvested interests, the ChiefMinister said that it is veryimportant to remain vigilantagainst such anti-social ele-ments.

Reacting to the protest call,Haryana Home Minister AnilVij said all arrangements havebeen made to ensure thatvehicular movement on high-ways is not disrupted duringthe agitation. The ministeradded that the opposition was"misleading" the farmers andthat they should realise that thefarm reforms were for theirbenefit.

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Ahead of the Statewide roadblockade call given by the

Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU)and some other organizationsto be held between 12 pm to 3pm on Sunday, HaryanaGovernment on Saturdayissued directions to ensure lawand order and minimize incon-venience to the people.

An official spokesman saidthat Deputy Commissioners,and Senior Superintendent ofPolice and Superintendent ofPolice have been directed tohold talks with the organizersand ensure a peaceful protest.He said that organizers havebeen advised to register theirprotest in a peaceful and law-ful manner and desist fromblocking the National or Statehighways.

All Executive Magistratesand Police officers have beenasked to remain present in thedistricts and they should notproceed on leave. TheExecutive Magistrates havebeen directed to remain sta-tioned along with their policecounterparts at all such placeswhere congregation of protes-

tors is anticipated.The spokesman said the

protestors should be dealt withtact and patience. Howeverthey should not be allowed totake law in their hands. Thespokesman said that theDirector General of Police,Divisional Commissioners,Inspectors General of Police,Police Ranges, DeputyCommissioners, DistrictMagistrates, Commissionersof Police Panchkula, Faridabadand Gurugram and SSP's/SP'sof the districts have beendirected to ensure its compli-ance.

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Despite concerted effortsfrom the administration,

coronavirus positive cases con-tinue to rise with figures cross-ing the 11500 mark in EastSinghbhum district. In the last24 hours alone more than 200fresh cases were reported. Thedistrict health department hasfocussed on rapid antigen testsfor COVID across the districtbut still the impact of the virusis refusing to slow down.

The recovery rate ofCOVID-19 patients at TataMain Hospital has improvedfrom 80.57 per cent to 81.12.The senior management of thehospital there is a marginalimprovement in the admis-sions of the COVID-19 patientstoo. While last week 258patients were admitted thisweek the numbers reduced to243.During a telephonic mediainteraction, Dr RajanChoudhry, COVID advisor ofTMH and former general man-ager, medical services, TataSteel said that there is a mar-ginal improvement in the num-ber of COVID patients beingadmitted at the hospital.

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Confederation of IndianIndustry-Indian Women

Network (CII-IWN) JharkhandChapter in association withTata Steel Foundation organ-ised a virtual session on ‘TheUnseen Leadership of WomenAgainst COVID- 19’.

This was the maiden ses-sion under the aegis ofKaleidoscope, which is aunique initiative undertaken byCII-IWN Jharkhand Chapterand Tata Steel Foundation.

Kaleidoscope is a series offive webinars which looks toweave beautiful patternsbetween the apparently dis-connected worlds and con-texts of women from deeprural hinterlands of India andwomen professionals andentrepreneurs who are settingbenchmarks in urban and peri-urban contexts.

During today’s session,Babita Mahato, Sahiyya fromBhalukpahadi Panchayat,Seraikela Kharsawan,Jharkhand, Geeta Nagar,Survivor Leader from JhansiDistrict, Uttar Pradesh andRashmaita Patra, Sarpanch,Benupur Panchayat, Odishashared their stories and expe-

riences in countering the pan-demic.

The session was moderat-ed by Sriparna Ganguly, inde-pendent consultant.

Speaking about the panel-lists, Swastika Basu, chairper-son, CII-IWN JharkhandChapter and chief-enterpriserisk management, Tata SteelLimited welcomed the panel-lists and participants and stat-ed, "We commend the out-standing spirit of these extra-ordinary women, who havenot only demonstrated courageand resilience in their lives butwho also rose to the occasionduring the pandemic and con-tributed immensely."

Sourav Roy, convenor, CIIJharkhand CSR & SkillDevelopment Panel & chief-corporate social responsibility,Tata Steel Limited opined''Aspiring towards a transfor-mative world where everywoman realises her potential,Kaleidoscope, co-hosted byCII-Indian Women NetworkJharkhand Chapter & Tata SteelFoundation is an effort tounearth unseen commonalitiesof successes and challengesexperienced by women fromboth rural and urban set-ups.

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India has overtaken the US toregister the highest number

of Covid-19 recoveries in theworld.

It has reported the highestnumber of recoveries with42,08,431 infected patientsrecuperating from the viraldisease. About 60 per cent ofthe new recoveries werereported from five States —Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Uttar Pradesh.Incidentally, these are theStates that have reported highcaseload also.

R e c o v e r y - w i s e ,Maharashtra accounted forover 22,000 (23 per cent), fol-lowed by Andhra Pradeshwith more than 11,000 (12.3per cent) of the new recover-ies.

“The country has reportedthe highest number of recov-eries with 42,08,431 COVID-19 patients having recoveredfrom the disease so far, push-ing the national recovery rateto nearly 80 per cent, while thecase fatality rate has furtherdropped to 1.61 per cent, “ theUnion Health Ministry said onSaturday.

“India now accounts forclose to 19 per cent of the totalglobal recoveries. This hasstrongly pushed the nationalrecovery rate to 79.28 percent,” it underlined.

The Centre-led focussed,calibrated, responsive andeffective measures of earlyidentification through highand aggressive testing, aprompt surveillance and track-ing, coupled with standardisedhigh-quality clinical care, havetogether resulted in this glob-

al achievement, the ministrysaid.

A record 95,880 patientsrecuperated from COVID-19in a span of 24 hours, with 90per cent of the new recoveriesreported from 16 States andUnion territories, the min-istry’s data said.

According to the ministry,90 per cent of the recoverieswere reported from 15 Statesand Union territories.

The five states with themaximum caseload —Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Uttar Pradesh — have alsoaccounted for a majority of therecoveries, the ministry high-lighted.

“India has maintained asustained path of reporting avery high number of recover-ies. This is the result offocussed strategies leading tocoordinated effective actions inthe states and Union territo-ries,” it said.

India’s COVID-19 tallymounted to 53,08,014 onSaturday with 93,337 cases

reported in a day, while thedeath toll due to the diseaseclimbed to 85,619 with 1,247more people succumbing to itin a span of 24 hours, the min-istry said.

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Homemade masks help infighting the spread of

viruses like Covid-19 whencombined with frequent hand-washing and physical distanc-ing, researchers have said aftertesting the breathability anddroplet-blocking ability of 11common household fabrics,using a medical mask as abenchmark. The study hasbeen published in the journalExtreme Mechanics Letters.

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The Rajya Sabha on Saturdaypassed two legislations, The

Insolvency and BankruptcyCode (Second Amendment)Bill 2020 and The EpidemicDiseases (Amendment) Bill,2020.

The Epidemic Diseases(Amendment) Bill provides forup to five years in jail for thoseattacking doctors and health-care workers fighting theCOVID-19 outbreak or duringany situation akin to the currentpandemic.

Speaking on the Bill in theRajya Sabha, Union HealthMinister Dr Harsh Vardhansaid that the bill was requiredto prevent offences againsthealthcare professionals.

“Many healthcare workersincluding doctors, paramedicswere insulted in some form orthe other, due to stigmaattached to COVID-19. Centregovernment acted on this situ-ation found that there was aneed for a law, a prohibitorymechanism against such inci-dents,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

However, TrinamoolCongress (TMC) MP DerekO’Brien termed the Bill anattempt to encroach states’ con-stitutionally assigned func-tioning.

Speaking while the dis-cussions on the bill were under-way, the TMC MP said that

Bengal already had laws todeal with prevention of vio-lence against doctors andhealthcare workers.

“You thought of healthcareworkers now? Bengal hasMedicare Service Prevention ofViolence and Damage toProperty Act 2009. What hap-pens to it? Bill is an attempt toencroach states’ constitutionallyassigned functioning,” O’Briensaid.

The Upper House had ear-lier passed the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code, 2016(Second Amendment) Bill.

Moving the IBC Bill inRajya Sabha Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said, “IBCis such a critical part of businessnow. On the NPAs of scheduledcommercial banks, I just wantto highlight how IBC is actual-ly serving the purpose. The pri-ority is to keep companies to bea going concern rather than liq-uidate them.”

The Bill mandates that adefault on repayments fromMarch 25, the day when anationwide lockdown began tocurb the spread of coronavirus,would not be considered for ini-tiating insolvency proceedingsfor at least six months.

The upper house whichsaw minimal disruptions dur-ing the last two days passed fourBills together with the contro-versial Farmers bill andHomeopathy bill in Friday.

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President Ram Nath Kovindon Saturday said the new

National Education Policy(NEP) aims to reorient the edu-cation system towards meetingthe needs of the 21st century byachieving the twin objectives ofinclusion and excellence andwill also restore India’s glory asa learning centre.

Speaking at the inauguraladdress of Visitors’ Conferenceon ‘Implementation of NEP inHigher Education’, Kovind saidthe policy sets the vision ofdeveloping an equitable andvibrant knowledge society byproviding quality education toall.

Vice Chancellors of all

Central Universities andDirectors of IITs, NITs, SPAsetc were present on the occa-sion besides the UnionEducation Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank and topMinistry officials.

He drew inspiration fromBhagvad Gita and theKrishna-Arjun dialogue whilereiterating the concept of freecommunication and discus-sion between the teacher andthe student. “Effective imple-mentation of the NEP 2020 islikely to restore India’s glory asa great centre of learning asduring the times ofTakshashila and Nalanda,”Kovind added.

The President said accord-ing to the All India Survey of

Higher Education for 2018-19,GER for females is slightlyhigher than that for males.However, the share of femalestudents is extremely low inInstitutions of NationalImportance and particularlylow in technical education.Emphasising that NEP hasfocus on equity and inclusion,he said that such gender dis-parity in higher educationshould be corrected.

Union Education ministerRamesh Pokhriyal Nishanksaid the NEP has given accessto foreign universities to opencampuses in India and vice-versa which will be instru-mental in the process of mak-ing India a soft power, theMinister added.

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Former Jammu and KashmirChief Minister and

National Conference presi-dent Farooq Abdullah onSaturday sought talks withPakistan, saying if India cantalk to China to defuse theirborder row, it can also speakto its other neighbour to dealwith the situation at the UnionTerritory’s borders. He also

demanded a restoration of 4-G internet services in the UT.

“Border skirmishes havebeen rising and people aredying… A way has to be foundto deal with this. Except fortalks… As you are talking toChina to attempt that it with-draws (from Ladakh border),we should also talk to our(other) neighbour to find away to get out of this situa-tion,” he said in Lok Sabhaduring the Zero Hour amidshouting from treasury bench-

es.Abulllah was speaking in

the Parliament for the firsttime after his release from thedetention following the changein the Union Territory statusand bifurcation of the erst-while state in the wake of abro-gation of article 370, last year.He was released in March thisyear.

The MP expressed hishappiness at the findings of anArmy inquiry into the killingsof three men in Shopian in anencounter.

“I am happy that the Armyhas admitted that threeShopian men were killed mis-takenly. I hope the govern-ment gives a hefty compensa-tion,” he said.

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E-commerce portals likeAmazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal

and others have been forced toremove over 160 web links sell-ing products in the brand nameof “Khadi” after the Khadi andVillage IndustriesCommission’s (KVIC) servedlegal notices on over 1000firms for misusing its brandname to sell their products.

After KVIC served legalnotice, Khadi Global has alsodiscontinued using its websitewww.khadiglobalstore.com andalso removed its social mediapages on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram. It has sought10-day time to remove all suchcontents and product using thebrand name “Khadi”. KVICaction has also resulted in shut-ting down of a number ofstores across the country thatwere selling fake Khadi prod-ucts.

These e-commerce portalswere selling products like Khadimasks, herbals soaps, sham-poos, cosmetics, herbal mehan-di, jackets, kurta and many suchproducts through different sell-ers using the brand name“Khadi”. This created a falseimpression among online buy-ers that these commoditieswere genuine “Khadi” products.A majority of the products thathave been removed were beingsold by one Ayush E-Traders.This firm has confirmed toKVIC that it has removed 140

links for various products thatwere being sold as “Vagad’sKhadi Products”.

There has been a steep risein violation of Khadi trademarkas the popularity of Khadi grewmanifold in recent years afterthe Hon’ble Prime Minister’sappeal to buy Khadi products.Exploiting this opportunity, anumber of online sellers beganselling random products in thename of Khadi.

Also hundreds of storesmushroomed in different citiesthat were selling fake Khadiproducts. In recent months,particularly during the Covid-19 lockdown, there was a hugeproliferation of such fraudulentonline sellers. However, toenable online customers to buygenuine Khadi products, KVIChas launched its e-portal sellinga range of 300 products onlinea twww.kviconline.gov.in/khadi-mask.

KVIC Chairman Shri VinaiKumar Saxena said the KVIChas given violators the option ofeither stop selling products inthe name of Khadi or legalaction will be initiated forrecovery of heavy damages.“Legal notices have been issuedto various firms essentially tosafeguard the interest of Khadiartisans.

This trademark violationhas a direct bearing on thelivelihood of our artisans whoare making genuine handcraft-ed products,” Saxena said.

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Taking note of the delay ingiving compensation, the

Election commission (EC) isplanning to set up a database totrack the status of ex-gratiapayments to those who gotinjured or lost their lives whilepolling or poll-related duty. Ina letter to chief electoral officersof all states and union territo-ries, the EC has asked to trackall such claims. At present, thepoll watchdog pays �10 lakh tothe next of kin of those whodied in poll duties throughcheques.

“A stern view has beentaken of the institutional fail-ure and lack of sensitivity, bor-dering on apathy, on part of theadministrative machinery,which failed to respect thememory of the departed,” ECsaid in the letter. The letterasked CEOs to create a digitaldatabase to track the settlementof such legacy claims and all

future claims. A national leveldatabase will also be created bythe commission.

EC is also working out themodalities of how paymentswill be expedited to reduce anykind of inconvenience to thefamilies.

Last month, Pramila Devi,the wife of late Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) jawanRamesh Kumar, 31, wrote tochief election commissioner(CEC) Sunil Arora, highlight-ing the delay in such pay-ments. Kumar died in agrenade attack during the 2002Jammu and Kashmir elections.In her letter dated August 10,Devi said she had not receivedthe payment; she was entitledto �5 lakh as per the allotment18 years ago. Following her let-ter, the Commission actedimmediately to get the sumremitted to her without anyfurther delay and later alsotransferred �15 lakhs to heraccount.

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Following reports of short-age of oxygen in some

States threatening the man-agement of patients sufferingfrom Covid-19, the Centrehas asked the States to focuson analysing district level andhealth facility level status andeffectively plan and managelogistical issues related withoxygen availability.

The suggestion came inthe wake of an increasingnumber of cases across thecountry which is likely topush up the demand for oxy-gen as well.

At a high-level meetingheld here under the chair-manship of the CabinetSecretary, Rajiv Gauba , specialinstructions were issued foroxygen availability to the 12

States/UT includingMaharashtra, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, UttarPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha,Chandigarh, Telangana,Kerala, Delhi, Punjab andWest Bengal where about 80per cent of the Covid caseloadin the country is concentrat-ed.

The Cabinet Secretarywhile complementing theStates for significantly ramp-ing up testing, expressed con-cern that the case fatality ratesof several States are still high-er than that of the nationalaverage.

He urged the States toanalyse mortalities districtand hospital wise for identifi-cation of critical areas of inter-vention.

A day ago, Union homesecretary Ajay Bhalla had

asked all the States to ensurefree movement of vehiclescarrying oxygen “as it is anessential public health com-

modity and an important pre-requisite for managing mod-erate and severe Covid-19cases.”

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Pune-based SerumInstitute of India

(SII) is likely to startfrom Monday the finalstage of the clinical trialof University of Oxfordand AstraZeneca Plc.’sexperimental vaccine. The late-stage trial will take place at theSassoon General Hospital inPune.

In the third phase of theclinical trial, around 150-200volunteers will administer adose of Covishield. “Some vol-unteers have already comeforward for the trial,” a seniorofficial from the company said.The Sassoon General Hospitalin Pune has started enrollingvolunteers from Saturday.“Those who are willing to vol-unteer for the vaccinationshould contact the hospital,” hesaid.

The phase II trial ofCovishield was conducted atBharti Vidyapeeth MedicalCollege and King EdwardMemorial (KEM) Hospital inPune.

SII has inked a pact with

British-Swedish companyAstraZeneca to manufactureCOVID-19 vaccine candidate,developed by the University ofOxford.

The vaccine maker earli-er shortlisted 17 sites in Indiafor the Phase II clinical trial ofCovid-19 vaccine. At least1,600 candidates aged between18 to 55, participated in thePhase II clinical trial.

On September 10, thedrug maker had paused theclinical trials of the OxfordCOVID-19 vaccine candidatein India in the wake ofAstraZeneca suspending theclinical trials in other coun-tries. On September 15 theDCGI granted permission toSII to resume trial, whilerevoking its earlier order ofsuspending any new recruit-ment for phase II and III trial.

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Amid ongoing blame-gamebetween the developed and

developing nations on whoshould pay for increasing car-bon footprints, a study haspointed out that a fifth of car-bon dioxide emissions comefrom multinational companies’global supply chains which ineffect outsourced to poorerparts of the world.

The study, which is pub-lished in Nature ClimateChange, mapped the emissionsgenerated by multinationals’assets and suppliers abroadand found that the flow ofinvestment is typically fromdeveloped countries to devel-oping ones . “Hence emissionsbe assigned to countries wherethe investment comes from,rather than countries where theemissions are generated,” said

the study.Mapping the global flow of

investment, researchers fromUCL and Tianjin Universityfound steady increases ininvestment from developed todeveloping countries. Forinstance, between 2011 and2016 emissions generatedthrough investment from theUS to India increased by near-ly half (from 48.3 million tonsto 70.7 million tons), while inthe same years emissions gen-erated through investment fromChina to south-east Asiaincreased tenfold (from 0.7million tons to 8.2 milliontons).

In contrast, the study foundthat carbon emissions frommultinationals’ foreign invest-ment fell from a peak of 22 percent of all emissions in 2011 to18.7 per cent in 2016.Researchers said this was a

result of a trend of “de-global-isation”, with the volume of for-eign direct investment shrink-ing, as well as new technologiesand processes making indus-tries more carbon efficient.

The findings by UCL andTianjin University holdsimmense importance amid theongoing blamegame betweenthe developed and developingnations on the increasing cli-mate change threat owing to thegreen house gas emission.

T h eresearch showsthe impact thatmultinationalscan have byencouraginggreater energye f f i c i e n c yamong suppli-ers or by choos-ing suppliersthat are more

carbon efficient.Professor Dabo Guan

(UCL Bartlett School ofConstruction & ProjectManagement) said:“Multinational companies haveenormous influence stretchingfar beyond national borders. Ifthe world’s leading companiesexercised leadership on climatechange - for instance, by requir-ing energy efficiency in theirsupply chains - they could havea transformative effect on glob-

al efforts to reduce emissions.“However, companies’ cli-

mate change policies often havelittle effect when it comes to biginvestment decisions such aswhere to build supply chains.

“Assigning emissions to theinvestor country means multi-nationals are more accountablefor the emissions they generateas a result of these decisions.”

Lead author Dr ZengkaiZhang, of Tianjin University,said: “Multinationals areincreasingly transferring invest-ment from developed to devel-oping countries.

This has the effect of reduc-ing developed countries’ emis-sions while placing a greateremissions burden on poorercountries. At the same time itis likely to create higher emis-sions overall, as investment ismoved to more ‘carbon intense’regions.”

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The Centre on Saturday saida Cabinet note has been

formulated for the vehiclescrapping policy.

In reply to a question,Minister of State for RoadTransport and Highways(MoRTH) VK Singh informedthe Rajya Sabha that theGovernment has formulated aCabinet note on creation of anecosystem for voluntary andenvironment friendly phasingout of unfit and old pollutingvehicles.

The proposed policy, onceapproved, will be applicable onall vehicles, the governmenthad said earlier.

A MoRTH official said

that cabinet note on VehicleScrapping Policy- is preparingto implement the vehicle scrappolicy for the old four wheel-ers (car) and two wheelers(scooter bike) from nextmonth.

The policy was sent for afresh round of consultationwith stakeholders on the direc-tion of the PMO.

Road Transport andHighways Minister NitinGadakri had earlier this yearsaid once the policy isapproved, India could emergeas a hub for automobile man-ufacturing as key raw materi-al available from scrappingsteel, aluminium and plasticare bound to be recycled,bringing down automobileprices by “20-30%t”.

On July 26, 2019, theGovernment had proposedamendments to motor vehiclerules to allow scrapping ofvehicles older than 15 years ina bid to spur adoption of elec-trical vehicles.

In a draft notification, thegovernment proposed renew-al of fitness certificates forvehicles older than 15 yearsevery six months instead of thecurrent time-frame of oneyear.

When come into force,the automobile sector will gainmomentum as demand fornew vehicles increases. As pera report in the MoRTH, cus-tomers will get new vehicles upto 30 percent cheaper whileolder vehicles will reduce airpollution by 25 percent.

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Page 6: ˆ˙€¦ · 19/09/2020  · said officials, adding that final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The meeting was appraised that more than 264

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Lok Sabha on Saturday passedamendments in the Taxation

Laws with heated debate on thePM Cares Fund, leading tomudslinging between theCongress and the BJP. TheTaxation amendments wereaimed to give changes in the taxfiling dates including GST filingsdue to Covid-19 pandemic. Italso included the tax concessionsto the PM Cares Fund.

The face-off started withMinister of State for FinanceAnurag Thakur resuming hisFriday’s controversial speechattacking the fund flow to RajivGandhi Foundation fromPMNRF, where CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi is alsoa Trustee.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoicountered it charging theGovernment with acceptingmoney from Chinese companiesand challenged it to give detailsof the donors. Congress leaderAdhir Ranjan Chowdhuryobjected to Thakur’s allegations

against Sonia Gandhi, and theRajiv Gandhi Foundation andThakur took potshots onChowdhury for calling him“Himachal ke Chokra (boy).”

“You have the habit of call-ing names and later apologise.Yesterday you called me Chokraand I took credit for it. I comefrom Himachal and i am proudof being called as Chokra,” saidThakur.

Chowdhury said he meantBalak (small boy). “You yester-day adopted an aggressive line.You are just a Balak and shouldnot do that by commenting ongreat people like PanditJawaharlal Nehru,” he said.

Replying to the debate,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman also took objectionto Chowdhury ridiculingThakur. “He is young. But he isfourth time MP. Adhir ji, you areleader of the Opposition partyand should not use such words.”

The Finance Minister alsoobjected to opposition termingthe PM Cares Fund as “non-transparent”.

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Rajya Sabha on Saturdaypassed amendments to the

insolvency law for suspensionof fresh insolvency proceedingsfor at least six months startingMarch 25 amid the coron-avirus pandemic, with FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaying a decision on extendingthe suspension of relevant pro-visions will be taken next week.

In the wake of the COVID-19 situation, the governmentdecided to suspend the provi-sions starting from March 25for six months by promulgat-ing an ordinance in June.

Default on repaymentsfrom March 25, the day whenthe nationwide lockdownbegan to curb coronavirusinfections, would not be con-sidered for initiating insolven-cy proceedings for at least sixmonths.

The six-month period isending next week.

The Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (SecondAmendment) Bill, 2020, seeksto replace the ordinance issuedin June, was passed by a voicevote after a brief discussion.

Replying to the debate,Finance and Corporate AffairsMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaid the suspension of provi-sions will end next week.

“At the moment, amend-

ment to the Code gives me aprovision to only extend till oneyear. If at all, because it is com-ing to an end on September 25this year, September 24 itself wehave to make an announce-ment about what is going tohappen. But even if I do, itmeans by March it should beending...,” the ministersaid.

The minister also clarifiedthat insolvency proceedingsagainst corporates defaultingon loans prior to March 25 willcontinue and the amendmentwill not stall those cases.

A majority of the opposi-tion parties also supported thebill but urged the governmentto provide interest waiver onloans to farmers and poor peo-ple suffering due to theCOVID-19 crisis.

During the debate on thebill, many members expressedfears over its possible misuse bycorporates even as they hopedthat it will help in reviving theeconomy.

On members’ queriesregarding liability of personalguarantors in the IBC,Sitharaman said the corporatedebtor often has guarantors.

“So, for comprehensivecorporate insolvency resolutionand liquidation we felt it wasnecessary that the insolvency ofthe corporate debtor as well asits guarantors are considered

together to whatever extent itis possible,” Sitharaman said.

On queries about theurgency to bring the ordi-nance in the first place,Sitharaman said that “betweensessions if there is a need forordinance because the groundsituation demands it, I wouldthink a responsive govern-ment’s duty is to at least use theordinance to show that we arethere with the people of India.”

“So to that extent, I am surethe House will appreciate thatas and when the governmentdecides for ordinance it isbecause of that, and wheneverthe next session happens wecome back,” she said.

Because of the COVID-19pandemic, the minister said,businesses faced trouble.

So it was decided “that itwas better to suspend Sections7, 9 and 10 of IBC so that wecan prevent corporate persons,which are experiencing distresson account of the unprece-dented situation, being pushedinto insolvency proceedings”.

Sections 7, 9 and 10 dealwith initiation of corporateinsolvency resolution processby financial creditor, opera-tional creditor and corporatedebtor, respectively. The min-ister further said the IBC is acritical part of business now,and cited data to show how the

code had performed.Citing data for NPAs of

commercial banks during2018-19, she informed theHouse that Lok Adalats recov-ered 5.3 per cent, DebtRecovery Tribunals (DRTs)recovered 3.5 per cent andSARFAESI recovered 14.5 percent.

On the other hand, IBCensured 42.5 per cent of recov-ery.

Sitharaman further saidthat most of the resolutions arehappening to make the com-pany to be a going concernonly.

“Priority is to keep thecompany to be a going concernrather than to liquidate them atthe earliest,” she said addingthat 258 companies were savedfrom going bankrupt throughthe IBC process, while 965firms went for liquidation.

“... 258 companies wererescued which means employ-ment is back again with them.Companies which have beenliquidated in total, three-fourths of them were defunctand were also given liquidationsolution and therefore at leastloss of employment wasreduced,” she said.

According to her, 258 com-panies rescued had assets of Rs96,000 crore and the 965 com-panies sent for liquidation hadassets of Rs 38,000 crore.

New Delhi: Companies havingnot less than 300 workers willsoon be allowed to hire and fireworkers without seeking priorgovernment permission, withthe labour ministry proposingchanges to rules in a bill intro-duced in Lok Sabha onSaturday.

The proposal, which wasthe bone of contention betweenthe ministry and trade unions,is part of the Industrial RelationCode Bill 2020.

Currently, only thoseindustrial establishments withless than 100 employees arepermitted to hire and fire theirstaff without permission of thegovernment.

The bill was introduced byLabour Minister SantoshGangwar amid oppositionfrom Congress and few otherparties.

The Industrial RelationCode Bill 2019 was introducedin Lok Sabha last year and sub-sequently sent to theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Labour. This billwas withdrawn on Saturday.

An earlier draft bill circu-lated by the labour ministry fordiscussion had also proposed

the criteria that companieshaving not less than 300employees can hire and firewithout the government’s per-mission. However, this provi-sion faced stiff opposition fromtrade unions and was notincluded in the 2019 bill.

Earlier this year, theParliamentary committee alsomade a case of allowing com-panies having less than 300workers to go for retrenchmentof staff or closure without gov-ernment permission.

States like Rajasthan havealready increased the thresholdto 300 workers, which accord-ing to the labour ministry hasresulted in an increase inemployment and a decrease inretrenchment, the committeehad pointed out in its report.

With regard to the thresh-old, the government has pro-posed Section 77(1) in theThe Industrial Relation Code2020.

According to the Section,the provisions of “this Chapter(lay-off, retrenchment and clo-sure in certain establishment)shall apply to an industrialestablishment (not being anestablishment of a seasonal

character or in which work isperformed only intermittently)in which not less than threehundred workers, or such high-er number of workers as maybe notified by the appropriateGovernment, were employedon an average per workingday in the preceding twelvemonths”.

Apart from this code, twoothers -- Occupational Safety,Health And WorkingConditions Code, 2020 and theCode On Social Security, 2020-- were also introduced by theminister in Lok Sabha.

Among others, Congressleaders -- Manish Tewari andShashi Tharoor -- opposed theintroduction of the three bills.

Tewari noted these threebills are fundamentally changedversions of their earlier formsand urged the minister to with-

draw them and hold wider con-sultations before introducingthem.

These bills are also a blowto the rights of workers, headded.

With respect to the indus-trial relations code, Tharoorsaid it severely restricts theright of workers to strike andalso allows state or centralgovernments to amend thethreshold for applicability relat-ing to layoffs and retrench-ment.

In Lok Sabha, Gangwarsaid that over 29 labour lawshave been merged into fourcodes and that one of them hasalready been passed.

The Code on Wages Bill,2019 was passed by Parliamentlast year.

Gangwar noted that thegovernment engaged in widerconsultations over these billswith various stakeholders andthat more than 6,000 com-ments were received online onthe bills.

These bills were later sentto a standing committee and174 of its 233 recommenda-tions have been accepted, theminister said. PTI

New Delhi: VK Shukla, GeneralManager and Zonal Manager ofNorthern Zonal Office, NewDelhi of CSB Bank Limited for-merly known as The CatholicSyrian Bank Limited hasInaugurated Dwarka branch ofCSB Bank and Mr. NarendraChawla, Mayor, South DelhiMuncipal Corporation, inagru-rated Janakpuri branch of CSBBank on 18.09.2020. WhileInaugurating these branches Mr.VK Shukla has informed thatthree more branches at RohiniSector 3, Okhla and ShalimarBagh will be inaugurated by 12stOctober 2020. The proposedbranches are identified at areaswhere there is good demand forGold Loans, MSME, CorporateLoans and to extend support toother needy customers. Goldloan is the unique selling prod-

uct of CSB Bank Limited with itsattractive interest rate, higherLTV upto 90%, low turnaroundtime and easy takeover facilityfrom other financial institu-tions.

CSB Bank Limited is one ofthe oldest private sector banksand celebrating the centenaryyear. The Bank has a strong basein Kerala along with significantpresence in Tamil Nadu,Karnataka and Maharashtra. Itoffers a wide range of productsand services to their overall cus-tomer base of 1.35 billion. TheBank has been listed in the year2019 and launched IPO on22.11.2019. M/s Fairfax hasinfused capital of Rs. 1400.00 Crin the year 2019 and the bank iswell set to grow faster. Bank hasfurther expansion plan inNorthern & Eastern India.

Shri R.K. Singh, Hon’bleMinister of State

(Independent Charge) forPower, New and RenewableEnergy and Minister of Statefor Skill Development andEntrepreneurship, Governmentof India, today, inauguratedvarious developmental pro-jects and facilities in Bihar. Asa responsible corporate, NTPC,country’s largest power pro-ducer, is fulfilling its corporatesocial responsibility by creatingan infrastructure for the ben-efit of the people of Bihar.

Speaking on the occasion,Shri Singh appreciated NTPC,REC and Power Grid for theircontribution to the state ofBihar in its path of progress.

He said, “These companieswhich are among the largest inthe world, belonging toMinistry of Power, are one ofthe most professional and effi-cient organisations. The com-panies from the Power PSUs

are well known for their exem-plary performances, are alsofocussed on working towardssocietal development whichextends to villages across thecountry. These companies havecontributed extensively dur-ing the pandemic and havetaken complete care of theirworkers. Further, NTPC isdeveloping an ITI and con-structing a ward in AIIMS,Bihar which will immenselybenefit the people of Bihar.NTPC has played an instru-mental role in the developmentof Bihar with an installedcapacity of 6150 MW in thestate. In addition, 3800 MWcapacity is in pipeline.”

He further added, “Thepower PSUs together have con-nected India in its length andbreadth. The endeavour of thepower PSUs have made India apower surplus nation withalmost 1.25 lakh MW capaci-ty of electricity being added in

the past five years. Under theleadership of our Hon’blePrime Minister, we havebrought a revolution in thepower sector inching towardsthe target of making electrici-ty available in every Indianhousehold.”

Speaking during the inau-guration function, Shri AsitKumar Mukherjee, RED (ER1),NTPC said “We are committedtowards our social responsi-bilities and we strive to fulfilour commitment towards thepeople of Bihar. With six pro-jects in the state, we areextremely happy in contribut-ing to electricity requirement ofthe state. We are constantlyworking towards brighteningup every citizen’s face in Bihar.”

The projects would bene-fit the public by providingthem access to infrastructurebuilt for family and communi-ty functions like celebrating fes-tivals and social occassions.

New Delhi:The net direct taxcollection during April-Augustwas Rs 1.92 lakh crore, down31 per cent over the sameperiod of the last fiscal.

The net indirect tax col-lection during the five-monthperiod till August fell 11 percent year-on-year to Rs 3.42lakh crore.

In a written reply to the LokSabha, Minister of State forFinance Anurag Singh Thakursaid net direct tax collection wasRs 2,79,711 crore in April-August2019, compared to Rs 1,92,718crore in April-August 2020.

The net indirect tax col-lection in April-August 2019was Rs 3,85,949 crore, asagainst Rs 3,42,591 crore inApril-August 2020.

During April-August, theCentre’s Goods and ServicesTax (GST) collection stood atover Rs 1.81 lakh crore. TheBudget had estimated Centre’sGST collection for full fiscal atRs 6,90,500 crore. PTI

New Delhi: The government onSaturday said MSME units fromMaharashtra availed maximumloans under the EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS) as on September 16.

In a written reply to theRajya Sabha, Minister of State forMSMEs Pratap Chandra Sarangisaid loans worth Rs 14,364.30crore were disbursed to MSMEunits in Maharashtra as onSeptember 16.

It was followed by TamilNadu (Rs 12,445.58 crore),Gujarat (Rs 12,005.92 crore)and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 8,907.38crore).The scheme is the biggestfiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Self-Reliant IndiaMission package announced bythe government.

In a separate reply, he saidthe Department of FinancialServices has reported that as onSeptember 9, an amount of Rs1,63,103 crore was sanctioned to42,01,060 borrowers under thescheme. PTI

New Delhi: The PradhanMantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana2.0 (2016-20) will come to anend on March 31 next year andthe government is examiningthe next version, Parliamentwas informed on Saturday.

Minister of State for SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship R K Singhsaid there is no proposal underexamination for setting up aNational Institute of SkillDevelopment.The governmentlaunched Pradhan MantriKaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)in 2015 and revamped it in 2016to impart skills to one crore per-sons by 2020.

“The PMKVY 2.0 (2016-20) is coming to an end on 31stMarch, 2021, and the govern-ment is examining the next ver-sion of PMKVY taking intoaccount the lessons learnt dur-ing the implementation ofPMKVY 2.0,” he said in a writ-ten reply to the Lok Sabha. PTI

New Delhi:India’s total exter-nal debt increased by 2.8 percent to USD 558.5 billion at theend of March mainly onaccount of a rise in commercialborrowings, according to areport released by the FinanceMinistry.The external debtstood at USD 543 billion atend-March 2019.

The ratio of foreign cur-rency reserves to external debtstood at 85.5 per cent as at end-March 2020, as compared to76.0 per cent a year ago, thereport said.

External debt as a ratio toGDP rose marginally to 20.6per cent as at end-March 2020from 19.8 per cent a year ago,‘India’s External Debt: A StatusReport: 2019-2020’ showed.

Compared to end-March2019, sovereign debt shrank 3per cent to reach USD 100.9 bil-lion, it said, adding, this decreasewas primarily due to a fall in FIIinvestment in G-Sec – the sec-ond largest constituent – by23.3 per cent to USD 21.6 billionfrom USD 28.3 billion a year ago.

Loans from multilateraland bilateral sources underexternal assistance– the largestconstituent of the sovereigndebt – grew 4.9 per cent toUSD 87.2 billion, it said.

Non-sovereign debt, onthe other hand, it said, rose 4.2per cent to USD 457.7 billionmainly due to an increase incommercial borrowings. PTI

New Delhi: The government istaking various steps to reduceroad transport costs which inturn will make goods and ser-vices cheaper for common man,Union minister V K Singh saidon Saturday. Minister of State for

Road Transport and HighwaysSingh was addressing a globalvirtual summit, organised byAssocham. “The government isworking on several initiativesthat would reduce the cost ofroad transport”, he said. PTI

New Delhi: The FinanceMinistry on Saturday informedthe Lok Sabha that no decisionhas been taken to discontinuethe printing of �2,000 denom-ination currency notes.

In a written reply, Ministerof State for Finance AnuragThakur said printing of banknotes of particular denomina-tion is decided by the govern-ment in consultation with theRBI to maintain desireddenomination mix for facili-tating transactional demand

of public. During the year 2019-20

and 2020-21, no indent wasplaced with the presses forprinting of �2,000 denomina-tion notes.

“However, there is no deci-sion to discontinue the print-ing of �2,000 denominationbank notes by the govern-ment,” the minister said.

Thakur also informed thatas on March 31, 2020, therewere 27,398 lakh pieces of�2,000 notes in circulationcompared to 32,910 lakh pieces

on March 31, 2019.He further said the RBI has

informed that in view ofnation-wide lockdown due toCOVID-19 pandemic, printingof notes stopped temporarily.

However, the note printingpresses resumed productionin a phased manner, as per theguidelines issued byCentral/State Government, headded.

The production activities atBhartiya Reserve Bank NoteMudran Private Limited (BRB-NMPL) presses were suspend-

ed from March 23, 2020, toMay 3, 2020. Printing of banknotes at BRBNMPL pressesresumed with effect May 4,2020.

Thakur further saidSecurity Printing and MintingCorporation of India Limited(SPMCIL) has informed thatprinting of bank notes at theirpresses was also affected due toCOVID-19 pandemic.

Both, Bank Note Presses ofSPMCIL -- Currency NotePress, Nashik and Bank NotePress, Dewas were closed down

from March 23, 2020 due tolockdown.

Currency Note Press,Nashik and Bank Note Press,Dewas resumed full-fledgedproduction activities from June8, 2020 and June 1, 2020,respectively.

During the period of lock-down, note printing presseshave uninterruptedly suppliednotes to RBI offices/currencychests from stock of notesavailable with them throughIndian Railway TreasuryWagons, Thakur added. PTI

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Washington: US President DonaldTrump has said that the protesters, whowent violent in the aftermath of thedeath of African-American GeorgeFloyd, did not even spare the statue ofMahatma Gandhi in Washington DC,describing the demonstrators as a“bunch of thugs”.

George Floyd died in Minneapolison May 25 after white police officerDerek Chauvin handcuffed and pinnedhim to the ground, and knelt on his neckfor more than eight minutes while the46-year-old from Houston gasped forbreath.

The footage, which went viral,showed Floyd pleading with the officer,saying he can’t breathe. His deathsparked nationwide violent protestswith some protesters resorting to van-dalism, looting and rioting across thecountry, leaving behind a trail of destruc-tion.

“You know, they started rippingdown Abraham Lincoln. When they hit

Lincoln, I said wait a minute. This is theman and you can do - then they hitGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson.They had everybody,” Trump said at awell-attended election rally inMinnesota, a State that he lost by a lit-tle over 44,000 votes in 2016, on Friday.

He also mentioned about the stat-ue of Mahatma Gandhi in WashingtonDC that was vandalised by unknownprotesters at the peak of the nationwideprotests.

“They even had (Mahatma) Gandhi.All Gandhi wanted was one thing,peace. Right? We have peace. Rip downhis statue. We don’t like him. I don’t thinkthey have any idea what they’re doing,”President Trump said.

“I think they’re just a bunch of thugs,okay, you want to know the truth. I thinkthey’re a bunch of thugs,” he added.

The US President told his cheeringaudience that he had signed an execu-tive order that would put such vandalsin jail for 10 years. AFP

Washington: TikTok asked afederal judge in Washington toblock the Trump administrationfrom enacting a ban on the fast-growing social-media network.

TikTok and its parent com-pany, ByteDance Ltd., filed acomplaint late Friday night chal-lenging the Trump administra-tion’s recent moves to preventthe app from operating in theU.S. The lawsuit marks the sec-ond time TikTok has challengedPresident Donald Trump’sactions in court, bringing ahigh-stakes geopolitical fightover technology and trade intothe U.S. legal system.

Trump exceeded his author-ity, the company said, and did sofor political reasons rather thanto stop an “unusual and extra-ordinary threat” to the U.S., asthe law requires. TikTok alsosaid the ban violates its FirstAmendment free-speech rights.

The White House didn’timmediately respond to arequest for comment.

Trump’s actions would“destroy an online communitywhere millions of Americanshave come together to expressthemselves,” according to thecomplaint. The company

claimed that the U.S. govern-ment has “ignored evidence”showing TikTok’s commitmentto the privacy and security of itsAmerican users.

On August 6, Trump issuedan executive order saying hewould ban transactions with theapp within 45 days, arguing thatthe social network’s Chineseownership made it a nationalsecurity threat. TikTok sued toblock that order in federal courtin Californa in August. But onFriday, the Commerce Dept,moving to implement Trump’sorder, said TikTok would bebanned in the U.S. starting onNov. 12 unless it could completea takeover deal that assuages thegovernment’s concerns.

Trump’s order followed aninvestigation by the Committeeon Foreign Investment in theU.S., which reviews proposedacquisitions of domestic busi-nesses by overseas investors fornational security concerns. Andit set off a flurry of attempteddeal-making, pushingByteDance to seek a sale ofTikTok’s American operations toa U.S. company. TikTok is cur-rently in talks with Oracle Corp.about a possible deal. AFP

Tehran: The chief of Iran’sparamilitary RevolutionaryGuard threatened on Saturdayto go after everyone who hada role in a top general’s Januarykilling during a US drone strikein Iraq.

The guard’s website quot-ed Gen. Hossein Salami assaying, “Mr. Trump! Ourrevenge for martyrdom of ourgreat general is obvious, seriousand real.”

US President DonaldTrump warned this week thatWashington would harshlyrespond to any Iranianattempts to take revenge for thedeath of Gen. QassemSoleimani, tweeting that “ifthey hit us in any way, anyform, written instructionsalready done we’re going to hitthem 1000 times harder.”

The president’s warningcame in response to a reportthat Iran was plotting to assas-sinate the US ambassador toSouth Africa in retaliation forSoleimani’s killing at Baghdad’sairport at the beginning of theyear.

“We took out the world’snumber one terrorist and themass murderer of Americantroops and many, many troopsand many people all over theworld,” Trump said. “QasemSoleimani is dead. He’s dead.Bad guy. Bad guy. Very bad guy.”

Salami rejected the reportof an Iranian plot to assassinateAmbassador Lana Marks, butmade clear that Iran intends toavenge the general’s death.

“Do you think we hit afemale ambassador in return toour martyred brother?’ the

general said. “We will hit thosewho had direct and indirectroles. You should know thateverybody who had role in theevent will be hit, and this is aserious message. We do proveeverything in practice.”

In January, Iran launched aballistic missile attack targetingUS soldiers in Iraq in responseto the fatal drone strike.

Trump has stepped upeconomic pressure on Iranwith sanctions since he pulledthe United States out of Iran’snuclear deal with world pow-ers in 2018.

Tehran has continued toexpand its stockpile of enricheduranium and pressured othernations to offset the harm of USsanctions, while insisting itdoes not want to develop anuclear weapon. AP

Rabat: Despite a governmentban on large gatherings to pre-vent the spread of the coron-avirus, scores of demonstratorsprotested outside the MoroccanParliament to denounce Arabcountries agreeing to normaliseties with Israel.

Israel on Tuesday signedhistoric diplomatic pacts withthe United Arab Emirates andBahrain in a U.S.-brokered deal.Morocco was reported to beamong other Arab countriesconsidering a similar move,though the prime ministerrejected the idea last month.

Protesters in Morocco’s cap-ital of Rabat Friday wavedPalestinian flags, decrying thedeals as “treason” and chanting“Palestine is not for sale.” ThePalestinians view the pacts as astab in the back from their fel-low Arabs in the Gulf and abetrayal of their cause for aPalestinian state. Israel and

Bahrain’s agreements have beencondemned by many acrossthe Arab world.

The protesters in Rabat alsoburned a mock Israeli flag.Dozens of police officerswatched the scene from a dis-tance.

Organisers interrupted thechanting occasionally to urgeparticipants to wear masks andto respect social distancing rules.“The normalisation deals are anattack on the Palestinian peopleand their cause,” human rightsactivist Abdelhamid Amine toldThe Associated Press.

“We are calling on theMoroccan government not tofollow suit and we urge it not tosurrender to the Zionist andimperialist pressure like otherArab countries,” said Amine,former president of theMoroccan Association ofHuman Rights and one of therally organisers. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan’s deposedpremier Nawaz Sharif is set tomake a comeback in active pol-itics following a year-longabsence after PPP chairmanBilawal Bhutto Zardari invitedhim to virtually attend theOpposition-led multiparty con-ference aimed at launching aprotest movement against theImran Khan-led governmenton Sunday.

Sharif, 70, the PakistanMuslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, has been living inLondon since November lastyear after the Lahore HighCourt granted him permission

to go abroad for four weeks fortreatment.

The three-time premier, hisdaughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar wereconvicted in the Avenfield prop-erties case on July 6, 2018.

Sharif, who was deposed in2017, was also sentenced toseven years in the Al-Azizia SteelMills case in December 2018.But, he was bailed out in bothcases and also allowed to go toLondon for medical treatment.

He was given eight weeks toreturn but failed to come backdue to health complications,according to his lawyer. PTI

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China sent more warplanestoward Taiwan for the sec-

ond day on Saturday as theisland’s leader, seniorGovernment officials and ahigh-level US envoy paid trib-ute to the man who led Taiwan’stransition to democracy, for-mer President Lee Teng-hui.

Keith Krach, the US under-secretary for state, kept a lowprofile at the service.

His presence at the eventand on the island has drawn astrong rebuke from China,which sent 18 warplanes acrossthe midline of the Taiwan StraitFriday in an unusually largedisplay of force.

On Saturday, Beijing dis-patched 19 more warplanes,two of which were bombers,according to Taiwan’s DefenseMinistry. The island’s air forcescrambled their own anddeployed an air defense missilesystem to monitor China’sactivities, according to a state-ment.

The service was held at the

Aletheia University in Taipei ona balmy Saturday morning,with President Tsai Ing-wenhonouring Lee for bringing apeaceful political transition tothe island democracy.

Lee had built a separateTaiwanese political identity,distinct from mainland China,which claims Taiwan as part ofits own territory to be reunit-ed by force if necessary.

Lee’s carving out of a non-Chinese identity and insis-tence that the island be treat-ed as an equal country broughthim into direct conflict withBeijing. He died on July 30 atage 97.

“We have a responsibilityto continue his endeavours,allowing the will of the peopleto reshape Taiwan, furtherdefining Taiwan’s identity anddeepening and bolsteringdemocracy and freedom,” Tsaisaid.

Former Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe and theDalai Lama also paid tributefrom afar.

“We Buddhists believe in

life after life, so most probablyhe will be reborn in Taiwan,”the Dalai Lama said in a videomessage.

“His rebirth will carry hisspirit continuously.” The guestsincluded another formerJapanese prime minister,Yoshiro Mori. They woremasks and sat spaced out inpews.

Lee, an agricultural econ-omist and politician, devotedhis career toward buildingdemocracy on the islandthrough direct elections andother changes.

He was the first govern-ment official to speak out andformally apologise for the so-called 228 incident, namedafter February 28, 1947, whensoldiers under theKuomingtang, or the sole rul-ing Nationalist Party, shot andkilled thousands of civilians inan anti-government uprising.

The bloodshed marked thebeginning of a decades-longperiod known as the WhiteTerror in which the island wasruled by martial law.

Washington: US SupremeCourt Justice Ruth BaderGinsburg, the history-mak-ing jurist, feminist icon and achampion of women’s rightsand social justice, has died ofcancer at the age of 87.

Ginsburg became only thesecond woman ever to serve asa justice on the nation’s high-est court. A lifelong advocateof gender equality, sheacquired the reputation of acautious or moderate judgeand will be remembered as alegal colossus.

“Our nation has lost a jus-tice of historic stature. We atthe Supreme Court have losta cherished colleague. Todaywe mourn but with confi-dence that future generationswill remember Ruth BaderGinsburg as we knew her —a tried and resolute champi-on of justice,” Supreme CourtChief Justice John Robertssaid in a statement. Ginsburg’sdeath on Friday could openup another battlefrontbetween President DonaldTrump and his Democraticrival and former vice presi-dent Joe Biden. AFP

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Bangkok: Protesters gatheredon Saturday in Bangkok for themost ambitious rally so far in apro-democracy campaign thathas shaken up the governmentand Thailand’s conservativeestablishment.

Organisers predicted that asmany as 50,000 will march overtwo days in an area of the cap-ital historically associated withpolitical protests, after an esti-mated 10,000 people turnedout for the last major rally onAug. 16. But the early turnoutwas modest Saturday as a steadylight rain fell.

Demonstrators wore facemasks, but ignored a Thursdaynight plea from Prime MinisterPrayuth Chan-ocha to cancelthe event, which he said riskedspreading the coronavirus andderailing recovery of Thailand’sbattered economy.

The core demands declaredby the protesters in July were thedissolution of parliament withfresh elections, a new constitu-tion and an end to intimidationof political activists. AP

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China’s embassies toSuriname and Guyana on

Friday accused U.S. Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo of “spread-ing rumors” and “smearing”Beijing, after Washington’s topdiplomat criticized Chinesecompanies during a four-stopSouth America tour.

In a joint appearance withnewly elected SurinamesePresident Chan Santokhi onThursday, Pompeo saidChinese companies often donot compete on a “fair andequitable basis.”

“We’ve watched theChinese Communist Partyinvest in countries, and it allseems great at the front end andthen it all comes falling downwhen the political costs con-nected to that becomes clear,”Pompeo said.

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Washington: The US military said that it hasdeployed additional assets, including radar sys-tems and armoured vehicles, to northeasternSyria, weeks after a collision incident between theAmerican and Russian army vehicles in theregion.

“The US has deployed Sentinel radar,increased the frequency of US fighter patrols overUS forces, and deployed Bradley FightingVehicles to augment US forces in the EasternSyria Security Area (ESSA),” US CentralCommand Spokesman Bill Urban said in astatement on Friday.

“These actions are a clear demonstration ofUS resolve to defend Coalition forces in the ESSA,and to ensure that they are able to continue theirDefeat-ISIS mission without interference,” Xinhuanews agency quoted Urban as saying.

US media reported that the latest deploymentincluded six Bradley vehicles and fewer than 100troops.

The deployment was believed as a responseto the collision between the vehicles thatoccurred in northern Syria in late August.

The US and Russia blamed each other for theincident, which left seven American soldiersinjured.

Kenneth Ekman, deputy commander ofCombined Joint Task Force Operation InherentResolve, said in July that US troops in Syria inter-act with Russians almost daily.

About 500 US troops are deployed in thenortheastern part of Syria to fight against theIslamic State terror group and secure the oil fieldsoperated by Kurdish forces. IANS

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Kolkata Knight Riders headcoach Brendon McCullum on

Saturday made it clear thatShubman Gill will open for themthroughout the IPL to give theteam some solidity at the top intricky UAE conditions.

The rising top-order batsmanwas tried out at different positionslast season without the desiredresult and it was considered to beone of the reasons why KKRmissed out on a play-off berth.

“They’re (wickets) gonna bequite fresh, I think they could bequite helpful for seam bowling. Ifthe wickets are going to be a lit-tle bit tricky early on against fastbowling, I think you want yourplayers who have the best tech-niques and the best batsmanshipand craft,” said McCullum.

“... He’s (Shubman) certainlyone of those guys... I see him bat-

ting at the top of the orderthroughout the campaign,” addedthe newly-appointed KKR coachin a media interaction.

Impressed with the way, the21-year-old Shubman carrieshimself, the Kiwi great said hewants to give the Indian young-ster his own space and groom theother junior members in theteam.

“I think he’s got a bit of a pres-ence about him, even at thisyoung age, very respectful aswell. I know DK (captain DineshKarthik) really respects him as aperson as a cricket brain as well.And I think he’s going to beanother wonderful resource forDK both on and off the field,”McCullum said.

“I want to see the most out ofhim is just to grow on his owntime, his own space but also takethose around him, who are stillreasonably inexperienced and

grow at the same rate that he’sgrowing in his own career.

“If we can do that, then theexperience we can get into theseguys at a young age, and pressuremoments is going to be a very,very good thing for KKR this sea-son. He’s got a very big role.”

KKR started off well winningfour of their first five matches, butthey lost six matches on the trotin the business end to miss thequalifiers by a whisker.

The team looked reallydependent on Andre Russell, butthis time reigning World Cupwinning captain Eoin Morganwill lend solidity in the middle-order.

Hailing the Englishman asthe best middle-over batsman inlimited overs cricket, McCullumsaid: “He’s probably the best mid-dle-order batsman in the short-er version, over the last couple ofyears. So we’re very lucky to

have him. His relationship withDK throughout this campaignwill give us a good opportunity.”

The England limited-oversskipper, who had a stint with KKRfrom 2011-2013, was bought atthe auction for �5.25 crore.

The 34-year-old Morgan willbe joining the side after leadingEngland to their maiden WorldCup glory in 2019.

“He was a guy who we weredesperate to get batting (at theauction) in the middle orderaround Russell and Karthik... Heprovides us with a really, reallystrong middle-order.”

KKR chief mentor DavidHussey had earlier said Russell isbest suited at No 3 but McCullumwas of the opinion that the starJamaican is an ideal finisher in theT20 format and the team willhave a ‘horses-for-courses’approach.

“I think his game is definite-

ly suited to probably the last 10overs of a T20 game. But theremay be times where the matchupsare right we can get in Andre a lit-tle bit earlier, up the order.

“That will be a horses forcourses type approach but thegood thing is we’ve got lots ofresources to be able to choosefrom.”

Clearly indicating thatRussell, Morgan, Sunil Narine andPat Cummins will be the fouroverseas players that he willmainly depend on during thetournament, McCullum said theteam can really shock the oppo-sitions if the wickets aid seamersin the initial few matches.

“Cummins has the ability totake early wickets and if we cando that, we know we’ve got somequality spinners. When you cou-ple them all together, I’m reallycontent with the unit that we’vegot, particularly on these wickets

because they might have a little bitmore in them than what mostpeople are anticipating,” he said.

“If the wickets play as weexpect, then I think we couldshock a few really with the paceand speeds with which ourbowlers can operate,” he said.

With the overseas combina-tion already set for KKR, TomBanton may have to wait for hischances.

“He probably won’t start forus in this campaign because wewill go with a slightly differentbalance but what he gives you somany different options. He hasalready made a bit of a splash inInternational cricket,” he said.

“He’s a guy who even againstvarious bowling attacks of theworld, can still shock them, anddominate them. And when hegets his opportunity, I’m sure hewill entertain the fans all aroundthe world.”

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Staying in self isolation for the firstsix days after spending five months

with family was the hardest phase,according to Mahendra Singh Dhoni,who spoke for the first time inmonths ahead of the IPL openeragainst Mumbai Indians.

In the run-up to 13th IPL,Chennai Super Kings were rockedby 13 Covid-19 cases, includingtwo players, and pullouts by thesenior duo of Suresh Raina andHarbhajan Singh due to per-sonal reasons.

As per the protocols,teams had to quarantinefor six days in Dubai and14-days in Abu Dhabi.

However, CSK hadto stretch their self-iso-lation period toSeptember 1 due to pos-itive cases in the campincluding players DeepakChahar and RuturajGaikwad.

“First six days in quaran-tine is very difficult. You arewith your family and sud-

denly you have to stay in a separateroom... Felt each individual used thattime well and nobody was disappoint-ed or frustrated,” the former Indiaskipper said after winning the toss.

“After the first 14 days it was niceto get out. The practice facilities werevery good.”

Back in action after a long gap,Dhoni, who had retired frominternational cricket a little overa month ago, said he worked onhis fitness during the coron-avirus-induced lockdown in

India.His bulging biceps

were there for everyoneto see.

“Have the liber-ty during lockdownto spend time on

yourself to keep fit. Haveto applaud every mem-ber of the squad forutilising the time well.”

Chennai had lostthe finals to MumbaiIndians in the last edi-tion.

Asked if revenge ison his mind, Dhoni said:

“Being a gentleman’s game you don’tthink about revenge (against MI). Youthink about the mistakes you made.”

Four-time champions MumbaiIndians skipper Rohit Sharma saidadapting to the conditions in UAE willbe the key.

“We have been here for fewweeks, so understand conditions bet-ter. Before coming here, we had acamp in Mumbai. Also had qualitypractice out here in Abu Dhabi. Keyhere will be to understand conditions,”he said.

“Pitches for the practice matcheswill be similar to what we’ll get here.So ready to go.”

The last time the IPL washeld in UAE, Mumbai Indianshad returned home emptyhanded. Asked if it plays onthe mind in any way, Rohitsaid: “We just have twomembers from that squad,so it is a new set up now.The way we’ve been playingcricket for the last couple ofyears, it has been good. Allin all we’ve had good prepa-ration. Now all about exe-cution.”

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Kings XI Punjab skipper KLRahul on Saturday said the

side is motivated to making thisIPL season a memorable one byplaying a good brand of crick-et.

“The team has been fantas-tic, we’ve been getting alonggreat and are looking forward toplaying a good brand of cricketand making this season a mem-orable one,” Rahul said.

“We’re confident, we’remotivated and we are reallyexcited to be a part of this edi-tion of the Indian PremierLeague,” he added.

Rahul, who has been hand-ed the Kings XI Punjab captain-cy after two stellar seasons withthe bat at the top of the order,said it will be a challenging expe-rience playing in the UAE with-out the fans but the team is readyfor it.

“It is going to be a differentexperience this year, but we asa team are up to the challengeand are playing for all the fanswho continue to support us,”Rahul said.

KXIP, who have never wonthe IPL, are aiming to go all the

way this time with a strongsquad at their disposal with thelikes of Rahul, Mayank Agarwal,Mohammad Shami and overseasrecruits Chris Gayle, GlennMaxwell, Sheldon Cottrell,Jimmy Neesham, the in-formNicholas Pooran and MujeebZadran.

“The team looks great andwe have a top-notch line up this

season. The boys have beenworking really hard and wehave a nice balance of youth andexperience in our squad,” headCoach Anil Kumble said.

“We are all looking for-ward to having a good seasonthis year. I truly believe thatKings XI Punjab have the nec-essary squad to go all the way inthis IPL,” he added.

Dubai: Captain Steve Smith along with star play-ers Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler have cleared themandatory Covid-19 test on arrival and are avail-able to play Rajasthan Royal’s IPL openeragainst Chennai Super Kings at the SharjahCricket ground on September 22.

The trio were part of the 21-strong contin-gent of Australia and England players, whoarrived in the UAE from UK by a special char-tered flight on September 17.

“Smith, Buttler and Archer underwentCovid-19 tests on Friday and results are nega-tive. So they are available for selection with quar-antine duration being reduced to 36 hours,” an

IPL source said.Former Australia skipper Smith

has had concussion problems andmissed all three ODIs againstEngland and his participation in theopening game is subject to clearance

from both franchise andCricket Australia’s medicalteam.

If Smith misses the firstgame, Buttler could leadthe side as he is one of theseniormost players in theteam.

As of now, the fran-chise is hopeful thatSmith will clear themandatory concussiontests and be available from

the first game itself. PTI

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Delhi Capitals coach RickyPonting believes that

senior batsman AjinkyaRahane’s inclusionadds “more depth” tothe side but there willbe a healthy competi-tion for middle-orderslots during this IPLseason.

The Capitals,which finished thirdlast year, will start theircampaign against Kings XIPunjab on Sunday and bothPonting and skipperShreyas Iyer agreed that RAshwin and Rahane have beengreat additions to the youngside with their experience theybrought in.

While the coach didn’t giveaway much but there is a pos-sibility that India’s Test vice-captain may have to wait for hischance in the playing XI con-sidering the explosive top five(Shikhar Dhawan, PrithviShaw, Shreyas Iyer, RishabhPant, Shimron Hetmyer) thatDC possesses. There is in-form Alex Carey also in themix.

“We really have a bal-anced side. There is a lotof competition for middle-order slots. Rahane gives usmore depth to our bat-ting,” the Australianlegend said onSaturday duringhis team’s pre-season virtualmedia con-ference sit-ting, along-side skipperIyer.

“Shikharhad as good a lastseason as anybody.Prithvi has beentraining very well.

Shreyas has had his best 12months for the Indian team.We have Pant, Hetmyer andAlex Carey (both left-han-ders), which gives us a goodmix of left-right combination.We have our bases covered,”Ponting said, giving a subtlehint about Rahane’s immediatefuture.

Iyer, on his part,said that Ashwin andRahane have mixedwell within the groupand never gave a sensethat they are seniorplayers.

“They give thatextra sense of confi-

dence. You don’t feel thatthey are seniors and arewilling to help every indi-vidual,” said Iyer, who

believes that Ashwin will bebeneficial for the team, givenhis idea of the KXIP core team(Chris Gayle, KL Rahul andMayank Agarwal) and theslowish nature of the Dubaitrack.

Ponting also felt that wick-etkeeper batsman Rishabh Panthas been shaping up well sincelast week and he is expectinganother good season from the

burly southpaw.“Pant, during

the last week, hasreally turned thecorner well and Iwould expect him toperform as well ashe did last year.

“In DC, we as acoaching group don’t

put added pressureon the players.

We like to takeas much as

p o s s i b l epressure offthem. Wen e v e r

expect anysuch thing

from themwhich they

don’t expect fromthemselves,” thecoach said.

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Mahendra Singh Dhoni's astutecaptaincy backed by some

brilliant bowling at the back endsaw Chennai Super Kings restrictMumbai Indians to 162 for 9despite some good start by theirstar-studded batting line-up in theopening IPL game here onSaturday.

CSK's new recruits leg-spinnerPiyush Chawla (1/21 in 4 overs)and left-arm seamer Sam Curran(1/28 in 4 overs) made fantasticfirst impression while Lungi Ngidi(3/38 in 4 overs) and DeepakChahar (2/32 in 4 overs) came backbrilliantly during death overs.

For Mumbai Indians, Quintonde Kock (33 off 20 balls, 5x4) andSaurabh Tiwary (42 off 31 balls,3x4, 1x6) played well but couldn'tconvert their starts as the defend-ing champions got only 76 runs intheir back-10.

De Kock started in a blazingfashion as he launched straight intoChahar and Ngidi as 45 came offthe first four overs.

The shrewd Dhoni then intro-duced Chawla into the attack andhe right away dismissed RohitSharma (12) who always have hada problem with wrist spinners. Itwas a straight delivery that Rohittrying to hit inside out couldn't getpast Curran stationed at the mid-off circle.

The seamer then was back inaction as he got rid of De Kock witha well dosguised off-cutter whichhe straight hit to Shane Watson atmid-wicket.

Suryakumar Yadav (17) andthe giant Saurabh Tiwary (42 off 31balls, 3x4, 1x6) added 44 to steadythe ship but some good outfielding

in the back-10 from the likes ofCurran and Faf du Plessis had MIslump to 124 for 5 from 92 for two.

Tiwary as an anchor proved tobe a decent choice as he hit the firstsix off this year's IPL off Ravindra

Jadeja. Someone who promised alot was Hardik Pandya (14 off 10balls) with a couple of lusty sixes

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Abu Dhabi: The IPL is back but theatmosphere isn’t.

The 20,000-seater Sheikh ZayedStadium was nearly empty, apart fromthe 22 men in the middle, officials, staff,security and a smattering of others, asthe IPL unlike any other began here onSaturday.

But, contrary to the expectations,it was not too quiet and not too placid,either. The pre-recorded cheers by thefranchises ensured the stadium was notenveloped in eerie silence.

Organised amid the Covid-19 pan-demic after several twists and turns,delays and discussions, the start of the13th Indian Premier League was stilldefinitely out of the ordinary, slightlyodd and even a bit weird.

It was different in many ways.Inaudible under normal circum-

stances because of the roaring cheersand chants raining down from thestands packed to the rafters with pas-

sionate fans, the thud of Rohit Sharmaand Quinton de Kock’s bats hitting theball could be heard across the world,breaking through the TV sets of mil-lions of viewers.

In this case, the pre-recordedcheers could quite swallow up thesounds of the bat hitting the ball, likeit would happen in the pre-COVID

world.In the VIP box, top officials of the

BCCI, including president SouravGanguly and secretary Jay Shah, as wellas the office-bearers of the EmiratesCricket Board, were spaced several seatsapart to maintain social distancing.

The celebration was far from beingover the top after Chennai Super Kings

made it 48 for two with the dismissalof De Kock in the sixth over of theinnings. And it was the same after theysent back the dangerous Rohit, whostarted the proceedings with a crackingdrive through the offside in the very firstball of the tournament off DeepakChahar, who recovered in time for thegame after contracting the dreadedvirus.

Rohit did not look like he was com-ing off a long break from the sport.Though the Mumbai Indians captainand every other player have beentraining for days, it is the first matchthey were playing in months, somethingthey have never experienced in the lastmany years.

Truly in sync with the extraordi-nary times, CSK’s talismanic skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni, in a lightervein, asked at the toss if he could “havea slip” in place owing to the social dis-tancing guidelines. PTI

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off Jadeja but then Chawla bowled an ideallength to keep him quiet.

The patience went off and Jadeja reaped thereward when Hardik tried to hit a third sixinstead of rotating the strike and was holed outat the boundary line by Faf du Plessis.

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Covid-19 has taken the country off-guard and is seen impacting theIndian economy. As per theMoody’s report published in June2020, India’s GDP is expected to

shrink by 3.1%. Going one step further, theDun and Bradstreet Report released in August2020 predicted that the GDP would contractby 4.5% this fiscal year. Amidst these dauntingnumbers, one industry that is still reflecting aray of hope while showing unprecedentedgrowth in India is the Education Technology,that is, the Ed-Tech sector. RS Components,analysing the Crunchbase data, observes thatother than the USA, India is the second coun-try that hosts the most number of Ed-Techcompanies in the world.

In 2020, Ed-Tech stands as the most fund-ed business sector in India. Only betweenJanuary and July $998 Mn has been investedacross 31 deals. Furthermore, the ed-tech sec-tor, according to the Omidyar, Redseer report,2020, is expected to touch a size of $3.5 Bn by2022.

To understand the inner working of thissector and map its growth, let us delve deeperand analyse the current scenario along withthe latest trends, impact, opportunities, possi-ble pitfalls and the way ahead for the Ed-Techindustry.

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The umbrella term of ‘Ed-Tech’ largelyconsists of five segments, which includeOnline Teaching and Test Preparation;Assessment, Guidance and Mentoring; SkillDevelopment and Certification; ProfessionalDevelopment Programmes, Infrastructuraland Administrative Solutions. Amongst thesesegments, Online Teaching and TestPreparation leads the market with a 64% shareand further anticipating size of $515 Mn by2021. The sector is lately experiencing a boomas it alchemises with artificial intelligence andneuroscience

The growth of Ed-Tech in India startedaround 2004-05 when ventures such asEveronn, NIIT and Educomp made theirmark through digital course content, smartclassrooms and skill development programs.The industry has been reaching new heightswith 3000 companies, including Byju’s,Unacademy etc. along with various investorslike Tiger Global, General Atlantic, SteadviewCapital, GGV Capital, Foundation Holding,Aarin Capital, Simplilearn and BlumeVentures venturing into this landscape.

����������������The Ed-Tech industry in India has been

going through three major push backs includ-ing resistance from schools, the lack of truston online education and the reach of internetand communication devices such as comput-ers, tablets and mobile phones. Covid-19served as a catalyst in resolving these con-cerns. The outbreak encouraged schools andother educational institutions to embrace

technological solutions. In addition to this, italso influenced offline institutions to collabo-rate with companies such as Embibe andSimplilearn.

Not just this, parents are also trying toadapt to the new normal and subscribing toeducational help platforms such as Byjus orToppr or Global Shiksha, Khan Academy andothers. People are going an extra mile to adaptto the Ed-Tech culture and connecting inter-net, mobile phones, TV, computers and tabletsmore to learning.

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The growth of technology in the educa-tion sector is, in fact, impacting lives of mil-lions majorly in five different ways:● Many of the top-notch teachers, courses andinstitutions were only accessible for peoplewho live in the city. But technology dilutes thegeographical borders. Today, a person sitting200 kilometres away from a city likeBangalore or Mumbai orThiruvananthapuram or Lucknow would geteasy access to high-class lectures and tutorials. ● Platforms such as Unacademy and Upgradare helping people to learn/get certified/pro-fessionally qualified even along with the jobthey do. This helps more people to up-skillthem without moving out of jobs. ● Technology in the coming years shall makeeducation accessible for more people who arenot able to afford fees at schools or colleges.This would also help the government to pro-vide education to children and adults withoutmuch capital investment in high rise buildingsand infrastructure, leading to the real democ-ratisation of education in India. ● Assessments, guidance and mentoring aresome of the areas that have to consider multi-ple data points at the same point. Most of thetime these aspects go wrong in education as itis humanly impossible to consider multiplevariables together. High profile technology is,in fact, solving this problem to a large extent.This would make assessments, guidance andmentoring people easier and more accurate,thus the right people would reach the rightplaces in life. ● Another major impact of Ed-Tech in the lifeof common people is that education becomesmore effective through visual aids, augmentedreality, virtual reality and videos with mean-ingful graphics. This will help children andadults to comprehend the conceptual level ofknowledge rather than mugging up as used tohappen during the early days.

���������� ����������������� ���The current trends in the Ed-Tech indus-

try in Indian can be presented through thefollowing four points: ● The growth of Ed-Tech in India is not a lin-ear or organised graph. It becomes extremelydynamic in nature. Thus only companies whoare really agile, open to change and vibrantcan sustain in the market. ● Early entrants to the market who could

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raise considerable capital, such as Byjus,increased the quality of content, visualtreatment and sophistication of tech-nology to a very high level. Thisdemands any new entrant to match thehigh standards of their products, inorder to satisfy the customers.● Ed-Tech being a very large and broadindustry with too many areas toaddress, a collaboration between non-competing players is becoming a newnorm. Assessment companies joininghands with content providers or infra-structure agencies partnering with skilldevelopment companies are a fewendeavours taking place all across theglobe. Organisations have understoodthe power of co-creation of success. ● The New Education Policy (NEP-2020) sets the tone perfectly for theintervention of technology in educa-tion. This would enable the Ed-Techindustry to make India globally com-petitive.

������������ ����� ����� �The significant areas where new

startups can work on and create newhorizons of growth will include the fol-lowing:● Vernacular Languages: 80% of Indiaspeaks vernacular languages. The NewEducation Policy, 2020 (NEP), alsoemphasises on education throughregional languages. In every vertical,ranging right from online tutoring toskills development to assessments, ver-nacular content is yet to be welladdressed. To understand its nature, itis important to note that even a unicornsuch as Byjus has not started venturinginto the vernacular market yet.Addressing the education requirementsthrough all 22 officials in India wouldbe a great space for start-ups to play. ● Technological reforms of the 21stcentury: Even though many companiesclaim that they use the technologies ofthe 4th industrial revolution such asartificial intelligence, augmented reality,big data analytics etc., very few compa-nies use them productively, that too ona very small scale. Majority of thebrands attempting to amalgamate artifi-cial intelligence in their modules/approach are yet to tap into its truepotential. On the other hand, somecompanies use augmented and virtualrealities mostly to enhance marketabili-ty than to manifest its real power. Thisis where the start-ups can work on anddevelop cutting edge technology solu-tions that can power any or all of the 5segments in the ed-tech industry. ● Research to blend Technology andBehavior Science: This is an areawhere research-based startups can pitchtheir ideas. Currently, a gap that the

Ed-Tech industry is coming acrossincludes not having alchemists who canblend technology and behavioural sci-ences seamlessly. Insightful research isone factor that could help in bridgingthis gap. Multifunctional teams consist-ing of technologists, psychologists, soci-ologists and neurobiologists can identi-fy hundreds of areas that require in-depth attention in the ed-tech domain. ● Assessments, Guidance andMentoring: Right people reaching thewrong places causes huge loss. In addi-tion to this, financial loss, lack of happi-ness, fulfilment, purpose are some vitalelements that people largely lack. Thiscan be resolved through addressingassessment, guidance and mentoringtechniques in the most appropriatemanner. Startups who tap this nerve ofthe market can become the gamechangers of the sector while rightlyusing the modern-day technology andimmersive solutions to one’s benefit.● Skill Development: National SkillDevelopment Council (NSDC), variousSector Skill Councils (SSCs) and differ-ent State Skill Development Missions(SSDMs) are on a mission to bridgeIndia’s skill gap. The speed of change intechnology is expected to make morethan 48% of jobs obsolete in the nextten years, as observed by the OxfordMartin School study. This makes itinevitable to train every student withthe best skillset, thus requiring moreplayers to step forward and up-skill alarge proportion of our workforce.

�� ����������� ����� ���� Considering that the Ed-Tech

industry is hardly 14 to 15 years old inIndia, its infancy stage does not enablethe newcomers to learn from a plethoraof successful cases. Thus, there are a lotof chances that lack of understanding ofthe market or misjudgment mightmake startups err. Some of the possiblemistakes are listed below. ● Online tutoring and test preparationthrough video content would be a busi-ness with fewer obstacles here andthere. Thus many people may just take adeep dive, considering the growth of ed-tech experiences. It is a fact that themarket still has space for newcomers.But the incumbents have raised the barof quality very high. Therefore any per-son who gets into the market with acouple of lakhs investment on a camera,microphone, a bunch of amateur teach-ers and a website created out of a tem-plate in Envato would not be growingfurther. If the newcomers overcome thecurrent quality players in the market, itwill get easier for the sector to grow.● Many of the start-ups see a captivemarket inside schools and with gov-

ernments. Even though the cost ofacquiring customers would be lesser,compared with the direct to customerstrategy, time to close a deal would bevery long in the B2B or B2G segment.Time and money would be lost if thenewcomers wait to close large busi-nesses with governments or largeschool chains. Thus it is ideal to startwith direct access to students andkeep B2B or B2G as a parallel track. ● Education is a vertical where humanbehaviour and mindset carries a lot ofsignificance. Only if technology solu-tions can consider the behaviouralaspects as well, companies can sustainthe market. Many players only developa team consisting of technical expertsor some content developers, but missout on collaborating with behaviourexperts. This could serve as one of thecommon mistakes and should beavoided.● The pandemic might be serving as acatalyst but it is imperative for us toremember that this scenario would lastforever. Education will not travel back-wards from the current affinity that it’sbuilt with technology. It’s essential forone to have a plan when thinking aboutthe road ahead for their venture.

���������������In India, the education sector is

considered as one of the most stable,robust fields with low-income elasticity.According to the Economic Survey(2018), the income elasticity towardsthe healthcare sector was 1.95, whereasit was 0.93 for products in the educa-tion sector.

This scenario, along with thewide acceptance of ed-tech duringCovid-19 would certainly lure moreinvestments in this industry. In thiscase, the intervention of policymak-ers, influencers, launchpads andmentoring bodies should be focusingon channelising this growth to theright direction by ensuring entry ofcompanies to the appropriate areas,channelising investment to theorganisations attending the rightrequirement and helping ventureswith proper hand-holding. We shouldaim at making India the hub ofEducation Technology, with the mostnumber of companies, maximuminvestment and high market size.This not only enhances business inthe country but also takes India tothe next trajectory of growth. Thiswould be the right time to develop‘Make in India’ as the most powerfulbrand in the global ed-tech space.

The writer is CEO, Lifology. Lifology isIndia’s first career eco-system for parents

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It was on a Friday (to be precise, onNovember 13, 2015) that I metManohar Parrikar, the country’sdefence minister for the first andlast time. He flew into the Indian

Naval Station Rajali, around 80 kmsouth of Chennai by a Boeing Poseidon-8 India (Boeing P-80I) the country’snewly acquired Long Range MaritimePatrol Aircraft, described as the coun-try’s eyes and ears up in the air.

As he strode into the auditorium, Icould feel the powerful aura of eleganceassociated with him. It was for theinduction into service of the eight air-craft, each procured at a cost of �1,500crore he flew down to Rajali despite theheavy rains and winds that tormentednorthern Tamil Nadu on that Friday.

The induction ceremony was as sim-ple as the chief guest. There was no bigspeech or show. The minister unveiled aplaque installed on the side of the 4.9km long runway and he was presentedwith a memento by Admiral Dhowan,the then chief of naval staff.

Before embarking the aircraft for hisonward journey to New Delhi, the min-ister was surrounded by journalists forsome possible ‘bytes’. All were askinghim about the One Rank One Pensioncontroversy generated by a section of ex-servicemen who had accused the gov-ernment with going back on thepromise. Some of them had threatenedto return the medals they received fromthe Government for their meritoriousservices to the nation. And some hadeven burnt the medals and ribbons!

“Returning the medals and burningthe medals are like insulting the nation.Medals are a recognition of bravery, forthe service to the nation. It has nothingto do with service conditions whereasOROP is with service conditions. It doesnot say you are entitled for medals,”Parrikar replied. He declined to com-ment when asked whether the continu-ing agitation has some political motives.“It is for those who are agitating to provethat it is not politically motivated. Letthem prove it themselves,” said the min-ister. When he was about to leave, Iasked him about his two hour long jour-ney in the Poseidon 80-I fromAndamans to Arkkonam and also aboutthe possibilities of the revival of DurandCup Football Championship hosted bythe Indian Army .

The word football literally ‘threwhim out of balance’. “Well, I’ll answeryour question on football first. I’ll defi-nitely and seriously look into how to

promote Durand Cup Football tourna-ment. It is Asia’s oldest and world’s thirdoldest championship and it is ourresponsibility to revive it,” he said.

To convince me about his serious-ness, Parrikar told me that he was pas-sionate about football. “Do you knowthat I myself was a football player andhave played in all levels of the games.Goans are passionate about the game. Itwas during my first tenure as chief min-ister I declared football as Goa’s officialgame. We have village level tournamentsas well as league matches featuring bigtime clubs. I had played the game evenwhile I was pursing my studies in IITBombay. It was because of an injury, Ihad to hang my boots so early,” heopened up. The enthusiasm and energywhen he spoke of football had to be seento believe. And that too from the coun-try’s defence minister.

It was another thing that politicstook the front seat as he had to return toPanaji as chief minister of Goa. Manohar

Parrikar looked so healthy and energeticon that Friday in 2015 and nobodywould have imagined even in theirwildest dreams he had some medicalissues which would snuff out that life sosoon.

Manohar Parrikar was the first BJPchief minister of Goa and also the tenthchief minister of the State. PramodSawant, the present Chief Minister is the13th to occupy the gaddi. Nobody hasbothered to write the biographies of theother 12 chief ministers while two youngjournalists, Sadguru Patil andMayabhushan Nagvenkar selectedManohar Parrikar as their subject speaksvolumes about the greatness and unique-ness of the man.

For people from Goa, Parrikar is aswayamsevak (volunteer) of the RSS, a BTech graduate from IIT Bombay in met-allurgical engineering (an important andtough branch of technology) and a BJPworker. The authors, who have inter-viewed or interacted with Parrikar more

than 20 times during his tenure as leaderof the opposition and chief minister, hadto walk a tight rope to convince theworld about their neutrality and impar-tiality while writing about the life andtimes of a Sangh Parivar man. They havesucceeded in it because they have left nostones unturned while writing aboutParrikar.

The authors while introducingParrikar to the readers said that he hadto settle for metallurgy engineering inIIT, ‘ranked low in the elite institution’sflaunting order compared to otherbranches of engineering’. Metallurgyengineering was a topic very much indemand in those days because the coun-try’s nuclear and space programmes andthe flourishing metal industries were onthe prowl for graduates in metallurgy.

How Parrikar single-handedly builtthe BJP into a powerful force in Goapolitics is interesting. A small state dom-inated by the MaharashtravadiGomantak Party and the Congress had

to yield space to the Hindutwa politicsonly because of the kind of work doneby Parrikar and associates. In a democ-racy, all political parties should havespace to grow, grow fairly. Parrikar hassucceeded in developing his politicalparty into a major entity like the manag-er/coach a soccer team builds a teamfrom scratch to that of a winning combi-nation.

Parrikar as leader of opposition andthen as Chief Minister were two differ-ent personalities, charge the authors.Since I am not familiar with Goan poli-tics, let me stay away from that contro-versy. But how many politicians are therein India who fight corruption with thesame dedication with which they fightthe system while in the Opposition?What happened to the 2G Spectrum,Coal Gate, Commonwealth Gamesscam, National Herald scam, Boforsscam and a host of other such cases? Theprime suspects are still seen in TV chan-nels and parliamentary debates cocking

a snook at the millions. This is India thatis Bharat.

But why didn’t Goans take up viola-tion of court orders, if any, in the mininglicence and casino issues have been leftuntold. It definitely would have added tothe value of the book. These instancesare also parts of the folklore associatedwith Goa and Parrikar. Similarly, theauthors’ criticism in Parrikar surround-ing himself with persons from the GSBcommunity to which he belongedsounded out of place. I have seen howministers belonging to the Dravidianparties appoint only members from theircaste in their personal staff. Same is thecase with Muslim League, KeralaCongress leaders in my home state! Theonly difference is that casteism in Keralais not severe as it is in TN!

“An Extraordinary Life” stands outonly because of the main protagonist,Manohar Parrikar. He reminds the read-ers about characters in Hindi movies,who succumb to fate which claims theirlives in the form of cancer or villains’gun shots. This Parrikar was a Manoharperson.

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In the evolution of humansociety and community liv-ing, religion, howeverprimitive, elemental orminimalistic, has always

had a place in some form ormanner. Even aboriginal andtribal denominations had pseu-do-religious totemic faiths, whichmany of them still carry withstaunch fervour. Religion, forthem, had a different meaningand purpose in life. It was morerelevant to mundane things inlife like warding off adversity, ill-luck, illness, etc. For some, reli-gion was a shield against naturalcalamities like droughts andfloods, earthquakes or volcaniceruptions. Religion, to this effect,treated everything incomprehen-sible as a god and worshipped itto propitiate for benevolence.Later, religion came to be soughtand followed for higher virtues,spiritual values, after-life treat-ment and salvation from rebirth.

Religion has evolved withtime as few spiritually enlight-ened beings were blessed withunique reverential experiencesand divine revelations, whichwere interpreted differently bydifferent groups of people, withshifting of emphasis on tradition-al tenets and prevalent rituals. Asa result, small groups tended tobranch off as separate religioussects with differential beliefs andvaried pronouncements on atten-dant rituals. Gradually, thesebreak-away branches developedtheir own tenets and conspicuousidentities with separate prayersystems and anomalized ritualis-tic practices that came to be rec-ognized as distinct from the

main religion, acquiring a differ-ent name and calling.

The same happened forSadasuhags. This sect, thoughoriginally part of mainstreamHinduism, leaned in a differentdirection, highlighting a promi-nent belief that all living personsare the brides of the Eternal God,irrespective of their gender. Thus,they remain brides forever andnever get widowed because Godis immortal and eternal. Withthis cognition and motivation,they dress as women, embellishthemselves in feminine ways andmentally pray to please God,imagining him as the groom.With passage of time and grow-ing disapprobation of cross-dressing by the prudish society,this sect went into hiding and hasgradually disappeared. Thesedays, few Sadasuhags are seen,

either near temples or seekingalms.

Besides, social customs, attimes, acquire oddities andunusual practices and turn intosuperstitions that defy commonlogic, where optical physicalitytends to be illusory or remainsunexplained in rational terms; forexample, the Koovagam festivalof transgenders, the weeping stat-ue, prejudice against the numberthirteen or the Spanish festival ofDevil's Jump. While some oddi-ties may be backed by reason likeexaltation of pigs for economicnecessity or the seasonal factsrelated to the Lenten Moon orMontanna for social justice. […]

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Koovagam is the time andplace, when and where transgen-

ders flaunt their uniqueness andsexuality in style without any fearof prejudice or stigma.Koovagam, a little-known villagein Villupuram district of TamilNadu, hosts the biggest festivalfor the third gender or eunuchs,called Aravanis in Tamil. Thisfestival lasts for one week and iscelebrated with big rallies, beautypageants, sports events, galafeasts and other festivities. Peoplefrom the transgender communityalso tie nuptial knots with a deityat the local Koothandavar templeand freely consummate theirmarriage in the open fields undera full moon sky. The final day ofthe week-long celebrations fallson a full moon night in April,every year.

Legend has it that LordKrishna turned into Mohini, abeautiful woman, to marry a

local boy, Aravan, for a night.This was because Aravan was tobe sacrificed the next morningduring the Kurukshetra war andno woman had come forward totie the knot. Lord Krishnablessed him with this bliss ofmarital pleasure. The eunuchs,called Aravanis in Tamil Nadu,assume the role of Mohini everyyear and marry the legendaryAravan at the Koothandavar tem-ple in a hallowed tradition.

The euphoric celebration hasbeen accepted so far as an age-old practice, but has been con-demned in the recent times, sincethe morning after the consum-mation of ritualistic marriage, thefields look like dump yard ofcondoms, which are often, inamusement, picked up by youngchildren to the embarrassment ofthe parents and possibly consti-

tute a bad influence on them. Ithas been seen lately that sexworkers, homosexuals, bi-sexu-als, bi-curious and even cross-dressers enter the fest and boldlymingle with their cognate peers.

Besides, many seem inunusual hurry to have multiplesex escapades during this licen-tious time. This has vitiated thesolemn environment and localresistance to the festivities isgrowing. In any case, the presentmessage being propagated is 'Nosex around the temple'. This ishow traditions are debased toattract a stigma.

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������!���?�����!�������F����,� ��+��There has been much talk

about the wishful shiftingof power from the West to theEast. The rise of China, alongwith India and Japan, wasshowcased as a precursor thatthe 21st Century is destined tobe an Asian century. But there’smany a slip ‘twixt cup and lip.The moot point is whetherChina can become a super-power like the erstwhileColonial Britain and the pre-sent day America to control theinternational system. And ifBeijing can’t, who can be.According to Richard Haass,one of the thinkers of worldpolitics, a superpower needs tohave, besides economic andmilitary prowess, an ability tointervene politically in anypart of the world and prove itsunparalleled strength. Anotherqualification is to use nuclearweapons and its access to anyentity across the globe. Chinaflatly fails on both the para-meters to become a super-power. The second problem forthe rising China theory is thatthere are more than two pow-ers emerging on the landscapeof international system. Themiddle powers like India,Germany, Japan, South Africaare inching up to shape theworld system together. Chineseaggressions in many parts ofAsia have exposed Beijing’sdesperation to become theunparalleled power in theregion.

In these situation if there isa world order which could bedeveloped beyond the con-ventional theory of world sys-tem, it can be a Green WorldOrder that creates a pitch fornon-fossil free energy systemwhich can preclude cata-strophic situations. This looksmore promising for a sustain-able world order. The world issitting on the brink of cata-strophe. Neither the US norChina is keen to safeguard theworld through its roadmap forthe Green World Order.

We have heard of aPanchtantra story: In the

extreme exigencies of flood, atree becomes a shelter for atiger, a human, a serpent and apeacock. None of them harmeach other; they hang on calm-ly. The reason for this unthink-able habitation in the peculiarcondition is the existentialthreat for each. The disruptionsin climate have pushed coun-tries in the same situation: toshelter on the same tree. Thecorona pandemic is a harshreminder of the undergoingchange. The beginning ofindustrial revolutions in theearly nineteenth century inEurope, along with the politi-cal ideology of an unchal-lenged charter of individualism,created a world order whichwas based on more consump-tion, better development andhighly racial and geographicalsuperiority. One after anothergeopolitical theorists fromHenry Mackinder to THMahan, Heartland theory toRim Land postulated to justi-fy the western interventionsand shaping the world systemthat keeps the western interestsintact. This is how the two hun-dred years of history of theworld is with us which has cre-ated a threat of existence notmerely for Asians and Africansbut for Europeans andAmericans as well.

Now the larger question iswhich country has the ability toshelter like a tree in the uni-versal f lood. America isabsolutely odd man out. It hasbeen the biggest disrupter ofthe Green World. It did notsign the Kyoto Protocol andwithdrew from the ParisClimate. China is developinghuge infrastructure of greenenergy, especially wind andsolar. China produced almost170 GW of solar energy in2018, but China has a dubiouscharacter. Dragon wants tokeep its house clean but littersother parts of the world withfossil fuels. The Chinese systemdoes not think magnanimous-ly to safeguard the planet withan inclusive approach.

The Covid-19 pandemichas completely eclipsed theChinese credentials in theinternational system. The wayChina manipulated the WorldHealth Organization which ledto an exponential spread ofpandemic in the globe, its anti-green and anti-humanitarianface has been unmasked. TheClimate Action Tracker givesChina a very poor gradebecause of its continuedreliance on coal. China hasfailed to stop the building of thenew coal-based plants. China isfinancing coal-fired powerplants outside the country, andincreasing emissions elsewhere.China remains the world’slargest producer of carbonemissions. It is planning tofinance and build roads, rail-ways, bridges, ports, and indus-trial parks abroad, beginningwith China’s neighbours inCentral, South, and SoutheastAsia and eventually reachingWestern Europe and acrossthe Pacific to Latin America.While China has imposed a cap

on coal consumption at home,its coal and energy companiesare on a building spree over-seas. Chinese companies areinvolved in at least 240 coalprojects in 25 of the Belt andRoad countries, includingBangladesh, Pakistan, Serbia,Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, andZimbabwe. It has a particulareye on the coal resources ofSouth Asia, Southeast Asia,Central and Eastern Europe,the West Asia, and the RussianFar East. Secondly, Chinesepolitical system is not trans-parent. Its next move is unpre-dictable. Third, China is verykeen to settle the historicalscores after becoming thelargest economy. Therefore, itsintentions are based on self-interests which would generatemore conflicts in the interna-tional system.

So far world politics wasdriven by the greed for oil andgas. Churchill after the end ofthe First World War venturedto use imported oil in place ofcoal for British fleets, since then

the oil became the drivingforce of world politics.Geopolitics of oil embargos arecommon. Oil and gas have notonly been used as sticks to hurtor deter foes, but also as carrotsto reward allies and ensuretheir allegiance. The climateconferences of the UN havebeen consistently remindingthe world to switch over fromfossil fuels to renewable sourcesof energy. But things are notmoving. American PresidentDonald Trump, in meetingwith CEOs of the companiesduring the pandemic, assuredthem of carbon-led economicdevelopment in future. Theimpact of fossil-fuel economyis visible. The trade warbetween America and China ispitching for carbon-led energysystem. The climate disruptionhas reached the tipping point.The whole world is severelyunder its grip. But certain partsof the world are more prone toclimatic change. Like SoutheastAsia and South Asia will facemore severe consequences of

climate change than other partsof the world.

The only country whichshines out in the crisis is India.It will have the largest worldpopulation of the world by2024. It has tested democraticcredentials and strong consti-tutional framework. Theancient Indian wisdom is basedon “Vashudhaiv Kutumbakam”which encapsulates each coun-try in its fold. India has dis-played its commitment for theresolutions of ParisCommitment. The 8 foldsjump in solar energy in the lastsix years proved a point. Indiais going to generate more than450 GW of energy throughrenewable sources by 2030.Prime Minister Narendra Modiwas awarded the “Champion ofEarth” by the UN SecretaryGeneral in 2018. He started tolead the International SolarAlliance. India has madeimportant progress towardsmeeting the United NationsSustainable DevelopmentalGoals, notably Goal-7 on deliv-

ering energy access. India’s percapita emissions today are 1.6tonnes of CO2, well below theglobal average of 4.4 tonnes.

Inequality and climatechange are parts of the samecoin. Therefore, climate changeis also related to lifestyle.Western economist ThoresteinVeblen, who coined the terms“invidious consumption” point-ed out how individuals useluxury goods to show off theirstatus. The US top ten per centemits six times more than 50per cent of the bottom at thehousehold level. Adam Smith,the father of economics,explained in his path-breakingbook “the Wealth of Nations”:It is the industry which is goingto make the country rich. Butancient Indian wisdom is con-trary to the views of AdamSmith. Mahatma Gandhi oncesaid that India cannot afford tofollow the British economicpolicy of greed. If two-thirds ofplanet failed to satisfy the greedof Britain, India had four timesthe population of Britain, so itwould need four planets likeearth to fulfil the greed.Unfortunately during the earlydecades after Independence,India became a copy cat ofwestern pattern of develop-ment. That is why the ModiGovernment is working on toreintroduce the ancient wis-dom. External Affairs MinisterS Jaishankar has also said thatClimate Change is not merelya fuel issue but it has a largercontext. Unsustainable con-sumption is the fundamentalcause of pollution and ecolog-ical destruction. India hasincreased its solar-energycapacity more than twelve foldsince 2014. The Indian stand isnot contradictory. It says whatit does. The democratic cre-dentials are well respected. ThisGovernment has prepared ablue print of Green WorldOrder. According to PM Modiit is secure, sure and pure.

(The writer is a professor ofpolitical science)

In Pakistan, the majoritycommunity has licence to kill

anyone, particularly personsfrom minority communities, inthe name of blasphemy withoutwaiting for court trials. Theugliest part is that the murdereris hailed as a “ghazi” or “mar-tyr” to the nation.

It’s time the world wakes upto the medieval treatment ofreligious minorities in Pakistan.The blasphemy law was firstintroduced in 1860 by thecolonial administration. Thelaw stipulated ten years ofimprisonment or fine or both.Later the law was amended in1927. In 1953, when anti-Ahmadiyya riots erupted,Jamaat-e-Islami demandedamendments to the law but theGovernment of Pakistan didnot entertain its requests.However, when anti-Ahmadiyya riots erupted againin 1974, the secondAmendment was introduced inthe Constitution of Pakistanand all Islamist parties cametogether under the banner ofTehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwwat (movement forthe protection of the finality ofthe Prophethood). Later in1984, the Zia-Ul-Haq regimepassed an anti-Ahmadiyyaordinance, which decreed that“Ahmadis cannot call them-selves Muslims” or “pose asMuslim”, and those who defied the law faced three yearsin prison.

Cases of extortion fromminorities in Pakistan are fre-quent but rarely reported toauthorities for the fear ofreprisals. Victims pay hugeransoms as protection moneyto mosques and madrassas tosave their lives. Otherwise theyhave to leave their business andproperties.

A Hindu friend of minenarrated one such incident tome: “Due to coronavirus, our

temple is closed so I am per-forming my early morningprayers (bhajans) at home only.One day my neighbourknocked at my door and threat-ened our family. ‘You Hindusshould go to India and singyour bhajans there. If you wantto live in Pakistan, live quietly,don’t chant Krishna nonsenseearly morning’.”

He added, “Believe me Iwas not chanting loudly. Myneighbour always look for anopportunity to browbeat us sothat under pressure we shouldsell our apartment to them andleave this place, while theyalways listen Indian musicloudly all the time. Even thereis a mosque-madrasa in ourapartments where loudspeak-ers keep on blaring out.”

In 2009, Aasya Noreen,better known as Asia Bibi, aPakistani Christian, wasaccused of blasphemy. “Whyyou used my cup for drinkingwater? You are non-Muslim, a‘kafir’.” Argument over this ledto Noreen’s arrest in 2010. Shewas convicted of blasphemy bya Pakistani court and sen-tenced to death. MinoritiesMinister Shahbaz Bhatti andPunjab Governor SalmanTaseer both were assassinatedfor advocating on behalf of AsiaBibi and opposing the blas-phemy laws.

Under global pressure, in2018, the Supreme Court ofPakistan acquitted Asia Bibi ongrounds that there was insuf-ficient evidence. But she wasnot released from custodybecause of safety concerns. AMuslim cleric Maulana YousafQureshi announced a bountyof 500,000 Pakistani Rupees toanyone who would kill AsiaBibi. In 2019, she finally got asafe passage and arrived inCanada, but she continues toreceive threat to her life.

Mishal Khan, a student of

mass communication of AbdulWali Khan University, waskilled in 2017 on the premisesof the university by a mob onallegation of posting blasphe-mous content online. He was inthe hostel of the universitywhen he was stripped nakedand severely beaten up by agroup of students and thenshot. He succumbed to hisinjuries. The mob was kickinghis lifeless body and beating itwith wooden planks. His bodywas then thrown from the sec-ond floor of the building. Themob even tried to burn hisbody while chanting “Allah-o-Akbar”. At least 25 law enforce-ment officers were present

there, but no action was taken.Later investigations found thatthe content Mishal posted hadonly secular views and refer-ences to books on democracyand equality of humanity. Butbefore this realisation cameout, Pakistan had already losta beautiful soul.

Recently, on July 29, TahirNaseem, an American, wasshot dead inside a Pakistanicourtroom where he had gonefor a trial for alleged blasphe-my. He was an Ahmadiyyabut one of my sources told methat he was having mentalissues. His murderer justifiedthe killing, “A light appeared inmy dream last night and

ordered me to kill this enemyof Allah so that I can be award-ed with gift of heaven.”

The murderer was praisedby a majority of people inPakistan and even Governmentofficials and politicians used hispicture as their display picture (DP) on their socialmedia profiles.

When I reported this caseand announced a campaign onsocial media against the blas-phemy laws, forced conver-sions and enforced disappear-ances in Pakistan and organiseda protest at the ConsulateGeneral of Pakistan in Houston,I received many life threats andwas targeted by unknown pro-

files on the social media.Blasphemy Law (Clause ,

295C) of Pakistan panel courtreads: “Whoever by words,either spoken or written or byvisible representation or byany imputation, innuendo orinsinuation, directly or indi-rectly, defiles the sacred nameof the Holy prophetMuhammad (PBUH) shall bepunished with death or impris-onment for life and shall alsobe liable to fine.”

The law prescribes thedeath penalty for those who arefound guilty of blasphemy. Theoption of life imprisonment hasbeen defunct since a 1991Federal Shariat Court judg-

ment.Blasphemy laws in Pakistan

are derived from the HolyQuran and Hadiths, but thereare differences between differ-ent Islamic schools of jurispru-dence in this regard. SeveralIslamic scholars believe thatQuranic verses are misinter-preted by dominant Muslimgroups in Pakistan with thesupport of establishment thatallows them to use blasphemylaws as a tool to achieve theirnarrow sectarian interests andagendas. A Quranic verse,which directly mentions blas-phemy, calls on Muslims to notblaspheme deities of other reli-gions, lest people of those reli-gions retaliate by blasphemingagainst Allah.

“And do not insult (wa latasubbu) those they invokeother than Allah, lest theyinsult (fa-yasubbu) Allah inenmity without knowledge.Thus, we have made pleasing toevery community their deeds.Then to their Lord is theirreturn and He will informthem about what they used todo.” — Qur’an, 6:108

However, a few Hadithsjustify severe punishments forblasphemy. But not everyoneagrees. Secular Muslims inPakistan have always demand-ed abolition of the blasphemylaws but didn’t succeed becauseof the interest groups.Whipping up religious senti-ments is a powerful tool inPakistan that has always beenused by rulers to control peo-ple, and create pressure groupsof religious parties to perpetu-ate fear. Minorities, especiallywealthy Hindus, are easy preyin Pakistan.

(The writer, an exiled polit-ical leader from Sindh, is vicepresident of Jeay Sindh ThinkersForum. He is currently living inthe US)

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One day, sense of reasons dawnedupon a feuding couple, when theycame together seeking guidance

on how to improve their relationship.Their common urge was: “Suggest somepuja or such remedial measure as wouldhelp improve our relationship.”

Well, caught up on the plane wherethe problem exists — both of you stuck toown perceptions — you can’t find a wayout. Unless you change your perception,things won’t improve. No belief drivenpuja can invade your mind space to makenecessary correction. You need to firstexplore the premise on which the institu-tion of marriage stands. You may then beable to understand where you are goingwrong. Following which, you maybecome keen to redo your perceptions.

Both of them then countered in cho-rus: “Sir our expectations from each otherare not being met, which remains thebone of contention. Is it not natural tocarry expectations?” Well, there is noth-ing wrong in having expectations. Butbefore that you need to appreciate thatevery being is born unique. Each wouldthus, reflect varying desire and mind-trends, coming as they may as Karmiccarryover from the past. So, differences of

opinion is natural. C oming to maritalrelationship, it is not simply meeting oftwo unique characters, but sporting dif-ferent psyche as well. And it needs noelaboration that convergence of two cor-responding opposites prove productiveand fulfilling. When there is discord, itbecomes painful. The choice is yours.Now, how to go about? It simply calls fora lesson in the art of living, which mayhelp you be in accord, overriding individ-ual limitations. Here, exposure to somefundamental truths of life becomesimperative.

All existences in the cosmos — plan-ets, stars and other astral bodies — havebeen serving the larger existence in a giv-ing mode, not expecting anything inreturn thereof. Such a humongous crowdof cosmic bodies are in perfect harmonyand balance, because they are bound bythe design underlying them, with noscope for making any exception. Look atthe beauty of cosmic design. All planetsin the immediate galaxy, while goinground the Sun, traverse their exclusivepath, each respectively moving at theirown speed. Each, thus, enjoys its ownindependent space, simultaneously main-taining relativity amongst them. It is, as if

a family discharging their individual andcollective obligations in service of thelarger existence. Even on earth plane,trees, plants, animals, birds and micro-organism are bound by their predefinednature, and therefore, continue servingthe larger existence in a giving mode.They are not bothered who benefits, nordo they have any expectation from us. Ifwe attend to them, it is to serve our owninterest. Trivial looking termites forexample, feed themselves by creating holedeep inside the soil structure. That facili-tate entry of oxygen to augments earth-mass’s dynamic potential. They have to,however, meet their end before the cropcomes up, but not before servicing thecause of larger existence.

Human beings enjoy the exclusiveprivilege to guide their actions by choiceand discrimination. This, coupled withthe sense of ego, make them live in ademanding mode. What we forget thatbeing an inseparable part of a unifiedorganism, necessarily framed into aninterdependent setup, we all have ashared destiny. No individual is capableof meeting one’s bare existential needs allby oneself. That makes complementingand supplementing each other’s effortsimperative, to carry on the cycle of life.

The problem with the two is that,bound by individualistic whims and fan-cies, the two are living in a demandingmode, trying to impose one’s will on theother, which creates conflict. Look atyour astrological pointers. Whereas one isborn in Sagittarius laguna, with Moonthere itself and placed adverse to Uranus,which implies being tactless, undiplomat-ic, and erratic. Mars placed adverse toJupiter is indicative of inflated ego. Moonagain ill-disposed to Neptune, impliesbeing stuck to one’s own delusional per-ceptions not open to look beyond for areality check. In the other case, the lagunaand Moon both, occupy fixed sign, whichindicates fixated one track mind. Sunplaced adverse to Jupiter speaks of swag-gering ego. Moon placed adverse toNeptune is indicative of being stuck toone’s own delusional perception. Theresult is there to see. Once, you start liv-ing in a giving mode, you will care foreach other’s concerns and sensibilities. Inthe process, you will be particular aboutservicing each other’s expectations. Yourlife will turn into a beautiful experience.

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