2020/06/25  · apart from fresh presence of the chinese inside the indian region in the galwan...

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E ven as the two sides have agreed to disengage from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh after the bloody clash killing 20 Indian Army personnel, China is con- tinuing with its military build- up in Galwan valley and Depsang. They are part of the eastern Ladakh region. While Galwan valley wit- nessed the skirmish on June 15, Depsang saw a face-off for more than three weeks in 2013. The two armies then pulled back after intense diplomatic and military level talks. The latest satellite images clearly indicate that the Chinese have built infrastruc- ture, including black top roads and culverts on the river in the Galwan valley inside the Indian region thereby ringing alarm bells. However, there was no official reaction to these devel- opments so far. Amid all these develop- ments, Army Chief General MM Naravane on Wednesday visited some forward areas in Ladakh. He also gave com- mendation certificates to some of the soldiers who fought back the Chinese in the free for all. The Army chief also reviewed the situation on ground with his commanders. On the fresh Chinese build up, the satellite images showed the Chinese have re-erected an army post in the Galwan val- ley which was removed by the Indians on June 15. This tem- porary structure is very close to Patrolling Point 14. When the month long face-offs started in early May, Galwan valley was one of the sites besides Pangong Tso (lake), Gogra and Hot Springs. When the Corps Commanders met on June 6, the two sides decided to mutu- ally pull back their troops in a gradual manner from the con- frontation points. In fact, the troops had started moving back from the Galwan valley but the Chinese came back on June 15 leading to the brawl. Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side of the LAC in the Depsang valley in north- ern most part of the LAC. It is close to the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) airfield and the 250-km long Shyok-DBO road running parallel to the LAC. This strategic road gives the Indian forces advantage of quickly deployment in case of any emergency. Naravane’s two-day visit to forward areas in Ladakh beginning Tuesday came a day after the Corps Commanders level talks between India and China where the two sides arrived at a “mutual consensus” to disengage from several standoff points along the LAC. Continued on page 2 A mid political instability in Manipur, the CBI on Wednesday questioned former Manipur CM Okram Ibobi Singh in a corruption case for three hours on Wednesday at Imphal for alleged misappro- priation of 332 crore devel- opment funds for the State. The CBI move comes amid the BJP-led coalition Government in the State facing existential crisis after nine MLAs withdrew support to the current dispensation there. The CBI summoned retired IAS officer O Nabakishore Singh, also former chairman of Manipur Development Society, for ques- tioning on Thursday. A team from the agency had reached the Mizoram cap- ital on Tuesday for questioning Singh and others after sum- moning the former CM as also other accused to appear before it on Wednesday and on sub- sequent days, sources said. Both Okram Ibobi Singh and O Nabakishore Singh have been booked as accused in the corruption as they held the post of Chairman of Manipur Development Society, the agency which is the centre for alleged embezzlement of funds, they said. On a question on the tim- ing of the agency’s move, offi- cials said it was part of an ongo- ing investigation in which some of the accused have already been examined. The CBI had taken over the case in November on the request of the State Government. Ibobi allegedly conspired with others during his tenure as the Chairman of the MDS from June 2009 to July 2017, and misappropriated 332 crore, out of 518 crore that was entrusted to them for development works, officials said quoting from the FIR. T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to bring all urban and multi- State co-operative banks under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through an Ordinance and approved participation of the private sector in the entire range of space activities, including planetary exploration missions. “Government banks, including 1,482 urban cooper- ative banks and 58 multi-State cooperative banks, are now being brought under supervi- sory powers of Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar detailing the Cabinet decisions. After the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) banks’ collapse last year, the Union Cabinet in February amended Banking Regulation Act to strengthen the cooperative banks in the country. During Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced coop- erative banks will be brought under the ambit of RBI. “There are more than 8.6 crore depositors in over 1,500 urban and multi-State cooper- ative banks across the country. Depositors’ money amount- ing to 4.84 lakh crore in the cooperatives banks will stay safe,” said Javadekar. Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who is the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said the newly-created Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) will pro- vide a level playing field for pri- vate companies to use Indian space infrastructure. This Centre will also hand- hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies and a friendly regula- tory environment, he added. The New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSU under the Department of Space, will endeavour to re-orient space activities from a “supply driven’’ model to a “demand driven’’ model, thereby ensuring opti- mum utilisation of our space assets, the Minister said. The Cabinet decisions come weeks after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced opening up of the space sector for private entities. Some of the planetary exploration missions will also be opened up to private sector through an ‘’announcement of opportunity’’ mechanism, a Government statement said. “This will not only result in an accelerated growth of this sector but will enable Indian Industry to be an important player in global space economy. With this, there is an opportunity for large-scale employment in the technology sector and India becoming a global technology power- house,” it said. F or the first time since Independence, diesel prices have overtaken petrol prices in the national Capital after the oil companies on Wednesday announced 18th day of con- secutive fuel price hikes. Fuel prices have soared after the Centre imposed heavy excise duty on them and States increased the VAT. According to a price noti- fication of State oil marketing companies, petrol price was unchanged after 17 consecutive increases, while diesel rates were increased by 48 paise per litre across the country. Diesel now costs 79.88 per litre in Delhi as compared to petrol price of 79.76 a litre. In 18 days, diesel price has gone up by 10.49 per litre. Petrol price had risen in the past 17 days by 8.5 a litre. On April 16, 2014, soon after the first Narendra Modi Government took charge, the price of diesel was as low as 55.49 a litre in Delhi. When BJP was not in power, the party would regularly hold protest across the country every time fuel prices went up. The Congress has been attacking the BJP-led NDA government for increasing the petrol and diesel prices every- day for the past 18 days after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the Modi Government over the increase in fuel prices and the mounting Covid-19 cases, say- ing it has “unlocked” the coro- navirus pandemic and petrol- diesel prices. “The Modi Government has ‘unlocked’ the corona pan- demic and prices of petrol- diesel,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Gandhi also tagged a graph captioned, “coronavirus is not the only rising curve”. Continued on Page 2 B haratiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors Jai Prakash, Nirmal Jain and Anamika Mithlesh were unanimously elected as the Mayor of North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) respectively in the general House meeting of the civic bodies on Wednesday. Subash Bhadana (SDMC), Ritu Goel (NMC) and Hari Prakash Bahadur (EDMC), were elected to the post of Deputy Mayor respectively. Anamika, who represents Hari Nagar ward, said her first priority will be to deal with coronavirus along with vector borne diseases within available resources. “I will also focus on desilting drains to avoid water- logging in the city,” she said. “We need to focus on bet- ter management to generate revenue for the corporation to speed up developmental works. The aim will be to make south corporation self sustainable rather expecting financial assis- tance from the Delhi Government,” she added. Before being elected as Mayor, she also held the post of Chairman of Department of Environment Maintenance Services (DEMS) committee for two consecutive terms. She was also a member of the Standing Committee in 2017. Five nominations were filled for the three vacant posts of member in the standing committee in SDMC but with withdrawal of nomination by Congress councilor Suresh Kumar and BJP councilor Mukesh Suryan, the remaining nominees of BJP Rajdutt Gehlot, Tulsi Joshi and AAP nominees Jitender Kumar were declared elected for the post. While in EDMC, Satya Pal Singh, Deepak Malhotra, Pravesh Sharma and Geeta Rawat were elected unopposed as the members of the Standing Committee. In the NMC, BJP’s Yogesh Verma, Chhail Bihari Goswami and Ajay Kumar (AAP) elected as Standing Committee members. Continued on Page 2 A mid raging controversy over Baba Ramdev’s so- called ayurvedic cure for coro- navirus, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has found 50 adver- tisements by Ayurveda and homeopathic drug makers offering cure for coronavirus in April alone and had flagged them to the Central Government for action. The advertisements across media platforms were found to be violating Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) order dated April 1, 2020, pro- hibiting publicity and adver- tisement of AYUSH-related claims. Interestingly, the list also includes a homeopathic medicine “Arsenic Album 30”, which is being widely used as a Covid-19 prevention drug. The disclosure from ASCI for April comes a day after the Government issued a gag order against Baba Ramdev’s com- pany Patanjali Ayurved from advertising a drug as Covid-19 cure within hours of him launching it. “The ASCI team picked over 50 such Covid cure adver- tisements in April, notifying the advertisers to withdraw them forthwith within a week. ASCI closely monitored digital media, social media handles and web- sites of the advertisers. Over 90 cases of potential violation of the drugs and magic remedies regulations were also flagged to the regulator,” it said. The ASCI said the AYUSH Ministry had sought its help to alert them about such adver- tisements and launched a drive to act against such misleading advertisements claiming pre- vention or cure Covid-19, which led to the discovery of the 50 potentially erring companies. As per the ASCI, these drug makers were found to have advertised about coron- avirus cure or prevention including selling coronavirus prevention kit, anti-viral med- icine (anti-corona ayurvedic medicine) boosts immunity and coronavirus medicine. There were no big brands in the list, and most of them seemed to be local firms from various parts of the country. T rouble seems to be in store for yoga guru Baba Ramdev on his claim to have developed Coronil — a drug for Covid-19 cure. The Uttarakhand Government on Wednesday said Patanjali Ayurveda never disclosed that its new medicine kit was for treating the virus when it applied for a licence. Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik too tried to dis- tance himself from the con- troversy and said it is a “good thing” that Ramdev has given the country a new medicine but it needs proper permission from his Ministry. “It is a good thing that Baba Ramdev has given a new medicine to the country but as per rules, it has to come to the AYUSH Ministry first. Anyone can make medicines. Anyone who wants to make medicines has to go through the AYUSH Ministry task force. Everyone has to send details of the research to the AYUSH Ministry for confirmation. This is the rule and no can advertise their products without it,” the Minister asserted. An official from Uttarakhand Government’s Ayurveda Department told news agency ANI, “Patanjali Ayurved had sought licence for immunity booster, cough and fever without mentioning coro- navirus in the application. As They didn’t mention coron- avirus, we only approved licence for immunity booster, cough and fever.” On Tuesday, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali launched the Ayurvedic tablet, “Coronil” claiming that it will help to cure coronavirus infection which has left the world to standstill. However, later in the day, the Ministry of AYUSH asked the firm to provide details of the drug’s composition and evidence for its findings and trials. “Facts of the claims and details of the stated scientific study are not known to the Ministry,” the Ministry said. The Government also asked Patanjali not to advertise the product until the issue is examined. While launching the drug, Patanjali had said, “100 per cent Covid-19 patients recover within seven days.” Dismissing the ongoing controversy, Patanjali Ayurved said the issue is unnecessarily being blown out of proportion. Continued on Page 2 C hina on Wednesday said maintaining peace along the Sino-India border is in the common interests of both the countries and requires joint efforts, even as it accused the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian media of making “some false reports” during the border tensions. In separate statements, the Chinese foreign and defence ministries repeated Beijing’s stand that India was responsi- ble for the June 15 violent face-off in eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers died. While Defence Ministry Spokesman Col Wu Qian asserted that China and India are “important neighbours to each other” and the two sides should make great efforts to jointly ease the current border situation, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian again accused India of “provoking” a border clash, saying “the onus is not on China’s part.” Zhao also alleged that the MEA and the Indian media have made “some false reports.” Asked why after a positive meeting between the army commanders of India and China, he is making these alle- gations, Zhao said, “What I have just said is meant to clar- ify the whole situation, tell the truth to everyone. We made this statement because the MEA in India and also Indian media have made some false reports.” Asserting that “China and India are important neigh- bours to each other” and main- taining a peaceful and tranquil border region is in the com- mon interests of both the coun- tries and requires common efforts as well, the Chinese Defence ministry spokesman said, “the two sides should make great efforts to jointly ease the current border situa- tion and uphold peace and sta- bility in the border areas.”

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Page 1: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Even as the two sides haveagreed to disengage from

the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Ladakh after thebloody clash killing 20 IndianArmy personnel, China is con-tinuing with its military build-up in Galwan valley andDepsang. They are part of theeastern Ladakh region.

While Galwan valley wit-nessed the skirmish on June 15,Depsang saw a face-off formore than three weeks in 2013.The two armies then pulled

back after intense diplomaticand military level talks.

The latest satellite imagesclearly indicate that theChinese have built infrastruc-ture, including black top roadsand culverts on the river in theGalwan valley inside the Indianregion thereby ringing alarmbells. However, there was noofficial reaction to these devel-opments so far.

Amid all these develop-ments, Army Chief General

MM Naravane on Wednesdayvisited some forward areas inLadakh. He also gave com-mendation certificates to someof the soldiers who foughtback the Chinese in the free forall. The Army chief alsoreviewed the situation onground with his commanders.

On the fresh Chinese buildup, the satellite images showedthe Chinese have re-erected anarmy post in the Galwan val-ley which was removed by the

Indians on June 15. This tem-porary structure is very close toPatrolling Point 14. When themonth long face-offs started inearly May, Galwan valley wasone of the sites besidesPangong Tso (lake), Gogra andHot Springs. When the CorpsCommanders met on June 6,the two sides decided to mutu-ally pull back their troops in agradual manner from the con-frontation points.

In fact, the troops hadstarted moving back from theGalwan valley but the Chinesecame back on June 15 leadingto the brawl.

Apart from fresh presenceof the Chinese inside theIndian region in the Galwanvalley, the satellite images have

shown the massive Chinesebuild up on its side of the LACin the Depsang valley in north-ern most part of the LAC.

It is close to the Daulat BegOldie (DBO) airfield and the250-km long Shyok-DBO roadrunning parallel to the LAC.This strategic road gives theIndian forces advantage ofquickly deployment in case ofany emergency.

Naravane’s two-day visitto forward areas in Ladakhbeginning Tuesday came a dayafter the Corps Commanderslevel talks between India andChina where the two sidesarrived at a “mutual consensus”to disengage from severalstandoff points along the LAC.

Continued on page 2

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Amid political instability inManipur, the CBI on

Wednesday questioned formerManipur CM Okram IbobiSingh in a corruption case forthree hours on Wednesday atImphal for alleged misappro-priation of �332 crore devel-opment funds for the State.

The CBI move comes amidthe BJP-led coalitionGovernment in the State facingexistential crisis after nineMLAs withdrew support tothe current dispensation there.

The CBI summonedretired IAS officer ONabakishore Singh, also formerchairman of ManipurDevelopment Society, for ques-tioning on Thursday.

A team from the agencyhad reached the Mizoram cap-ital on Tuesday for questioningSingh and others after sum-moning the former CM as alsoother accused to appear before

it on Wednesday and on sub-sequent days, sources said.

Both Okram Ibobi Singhand O Nabakishore Singh havebeen booked as accused in thecorruption as they held the postof Chairman of ManipurDevelopment Society, theagency which is the centre foralleged embezzlement of funds,they said.

On a question on the tim-ing of the agency’s move, offi-cials said it was part of an ongo-ing investigation in which someof the accused have alreadybeen examined. The CBI hadtaken over the case inNovember on the request of theState Government.

Ibobi allegedly conspiredwith others during his tenure asthe Chairman of the MDSfrom June 2009 to July 2017,and misappropriated �332crore, out of �518 crore thatwas entrusted to them fordevelopment works, officialssaid quoting from the FIR.

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The Union Cabinet onWednesday decided to

bring all urban and multi-State co-operative banks underthe Reserve Bank of India(RBI) through an Ordinanceand approved participation ofthe private sector in the entire range of space activities,including planetary explorationmissions.

“Government banks,including 1,482 urban cooper-ative banks and 58 multi-Statecooperative banks, are nowbeing brought under supervi-sory powers of Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI),” said UnionMinister Prakash Javadekardetailing the Cabinet decisions.

After the Punjab andMaharashtra Cooperative(PMC) banks’ collapse lastyear, the Union Cabinet inFebruary amended BankingRegulation Act to strengthen

the cooperative banks in thecountry. During Budget speech,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman announced coop-erative banks will be broughtunder the ambit of RBI.

“There are more than 8.6crore depositors in over 1,500urban and multi-State cooper-ative banks across the country.Depositors’ money amount-ing to �4.84 lakh crore in thecooperatives banks will staysafe,” said Javadekar.

Union Minister JitendraSingh, who is the Minister ofState in the Prime Minister’sOffice, said the newly-createdIndian National SpacePromotion and AuthorisationCentre (IN-SPACe) will pro-vide a level playing field for pri-vate companies to use Indianspace infrastructure.

This Centre will also hand-hold, promote and guide theprivate industries in space

activities through encouragingpolicies and a friendly regula-tory environment, he added.

The New Space IndiaLimited (NSIL), a PSU underthe Department of Space, willendeavour to re-orient spaceactivities from a “supply driven’’model to a “demand driven’’model, thereby ensuring opti-mum utilisation of our spaceassets, the Minister said.

The Cabinet decisionscome weeks after FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced opening up of thespace sector for private entities.

Some of the planetaryexploration missions will alsobe opened up to private sectorthrough an ‘’announcement ofopportunity’’ mechanism, aGovernment statement said.

“This will not only result inan accelerated growth of thissector but will enable IndianIndustry to be an importantplayer in global space economy.With this, there is an opportunity for large-scaleemployment in the technologysector and India becoming aglobal technology power-house,” it said.

����� ��������

For the first time sinceIndependence, diesel prices

have overtaken petrol prices inthe national Capital after the oilcompanies on Wednesdayannounced 18th day of con-secutive fuel price hikes. Fuelprices have soared after theCentre imposed heavy exciseduty on them and Statesincreased the VAT.

According to a price noti-fication of State oil marketingcompanies, petrol price wasunchanged after 17 consecutiveincreases, while diesel rateswere increased by 48 paise perlitre across the country. Dieselnow costs �79.88 per litre inDelhi as compared to petrolprice of �79.76 a litre. In 18days, diesel price has gone upby �10.49 per litre. Petrol pricehad risen in the past 17 days by�8.5 a litre.

On April 16, 2014, soonafter the first Narendra ModiGovernment took charge, theprice of diesel was as low as�55.49 a litre in Delhi. WhenBJP was not in power, theparty would regularly holdprotest across the country every

time fuel prices went up.The Congress has been

attacking the BJP-led NDAgovernment for increasing thepetrol and diesel prices every-day for the past 18 days afterthe lockdown restrictions wererelaxed. Congress leader RahulGandhi took a swipe at theModi Government over theincrease in fuel prices and themounting Covid-19 cases, say-ing it has “unlocked” the coro-navirus pandemic and petrol-diesel prices.

“The Modi Governmenthas ‘unlocked’ the corona pan-demic and prices of petrol-diesel,” he said in a tweet inHindi. Gandhi also tagged agraph captioned, “coronavirusis not the only rising curve”.

Continued on Page 2

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)councillors Jai Prakash,

Nirmal Jain and AnamikaMithlesh were unanimouslyelected as the Mayor of North,East and South DelhiMunicipal Corporation(SDMC) respectively in thegeneral House meeting of thecivic bodies on Wednesday.

Subash Bhadana (SDMC),Ritu Goel (NMC) and HariPrakash Bahadur (EDMC),were elected to the post ofDeputy Mayor respectively.

Anamika, who representsHari Nagar ward, said her firstpriority will be to deal withcoronavirus along with vectorborne diseases within availableresources. “I will also focus ondesilting drains to avoid water-logging in the city,” she said.

“We need to focus on bet-ter management to generaterevenue for the corporation tospeed up developmental works.The aim will be to make southcorporation self sustainablerather expecting financial assis-

tance from the DelhiGovernment,” she added.

Before being elected asMayor, she also held the post ofChairman of Department ofEnvironment MaintenanceServices (DEMS) committeefor two consecutive terms. Shewas also a member of theStanding Committee in 2017.

Five nominations werefilled for the three vacant postsof member in the standingcommittee in SDMC but withwithdrawal of nomination byCongress councilor SureshKumar and BJP councilorMukesh Suryan, the remainingnominees of BJP RajduttGehlot, Tulsi Joshi and AAPnominees Jitender Kumar weredeclared elected for the post.

While in EDMC, Satya PalSingh, Deepak Malhotra,Pravesh Sharma and GeetaRawat were elected unopposedas the members of the StandingCommittee. In the NMC, BJP’sYogesh Verma, Chhail BihariGoswami and Ajay Kumar(AAP) elected as StandingCommittee members.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid raging controversyover Baba Ramdev’s so-

called ayurvedic cure for coro-navirus, the AdvertisingStandards Council of India(ASCI) has found 50 adver-tisements by Ayurveda andhomeopathic drug makersoffering cure for coronavirus inApril alone and had flaggedthem to the CentralGovernment for action.

The advertisements acrossmedia platforms were found tobe violating Ministry ofAyurveda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddhaand Homoeopathy (AYUSH)order dated April 1, 2020, pro-hibiting publicity and adver-tisement of AYUSH-relatedclaims. Interestingly, the listalso includes a homeopathicmedicine “Arsenic Album 30”,which is being widely used as

a Covid-19 prevention drug.The disclosure from ASCI

for April comes a day after theGovernment issued a gag orderagainst Baba Ramdev’s com-pany Patanjali Ayurved fromadvertising a drug as Covid-19cure within hours of himlaunching it.

“The ASCI team pickedover 50 such Covid cure adver-tisements in April, notifying theadvertisers to withdraw themforthwith within a week. ASCIclosely monitored digital media,social media handles and web-

sites of the advertisers. Over 90cases of potential violation ofthe drugs and magic remediesregulations were also flagged tothe regulator,” it said.

The ASCI said the AYUSHMinistry had sought its help toalert them about such adver-tisements and launched a driveto act against such misleadingadvertisements claiming pre-vention or cure Covid-19, whichled to the discovery of the 50potentially erring companies.

As per the ASCI, thesedrug makers were found tohave advertised about coron-avirus cure or preventionincluding selling coronavirusprevention kit, anti-viral med-icine (anti-corona ayurvedicmedicine) boosts immunityand coronavirus medicine.

There were no big brandsin the list, and most of themseemed to be local firms fromvarious parts of the country.

����� ��������

Trouble seems to be in storefor yoga guru Baba

Ramdev on his claim to havedeveloped Coronil — a drugfor Covid-19 cure.

The UttarakhandGovernment on Wednesdaysaid Patanjali Ayurveda neverdisclosed that its new medicinekit was for treating the viruswhen it applied for a licence.

Union AYUSH MinisterShripad Naik too tried to dis-tance himself from the con-troversy and said it is a “goodthing” that Ramdev has giventhe country a new medicine butit needs proper permissionfrom his Ministry.

“It is a good thing thatBaba Ramdev has given a newmedicine to the country but asper rules, it has to come to theAYUSH Ministry first. Anyonecan make medicines. Anyonewho wants to make medicineshas to go through the AYUSHMinistry task force. Everyonehas to send details of theresearch to the AYUSHMinistry for confirmation. Thisis the rule and no can advertisetheir products without it,” theMinister asserted.

An official fromUttarakhand Government’sAyurveda Department toldnews agency ANI, “PatanjaliAyurved had sought licence forimmunity booster, cough andfever without mentioning coro-navirus in the application. AsThey didn’t mention coron-

avirus, we only approvedlicence for immunity booster,cough and fever.”

On Tuesday, BabaRamdev’s Patanjali launchedthe Ayurvedic tablet, “Coronil”claiming that it will help to curecoronavirus infection whichhas left the world to standstill.

However, later in the day,the Ministry of AYUSH askedthe firm to provide details ofthe drug’s composition andevidence for its findings andtrials. “Facts of the claims anddetails of the stated scientificstudy are not known to theMinistry,” the Ministry said.

The Government alsoasked Patanjali not to advertisethe product until the issue isexamined. While launchingthe drug, Patanjali had said,“100 per cent Covid-19 patientsrecover within seven days.”

Dismissing the ongoingcontroversy, Patanjali Ayurvedsaid the issue is unnecessarilybeing blown out of proportion.

Continued on Page 2

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China on Wednesday saidmaintaining peace along

the Sino-India border is in thecommon interests of both thecountries and requires jointefforts, even as it accused theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) and the Indian mediaof making “some false reports”during the border tensions.

In separate statements, theChinese foreign and defenceministries repeated Beijing’sstand that India was responsi-ble for the June 15 violentface-off in eastern Ladakh inwhich 20 Indian soldiers died.

While Defence Ministry

Spokesman Col Wu Qianasserted that China and Indiaare “important neighbours toeach other” and the two sidesshould make great efforts tojointly ease the current bordersituation, Foreign MinistrySpokesman Zhao Lijian againaccused India of “provoking” aborder clash, saying “the onusis not on China’s part.”

Zhao also alleged that theMEA and the Indian mediahave made “some false reports.”

Asked why after a positivemeeting between the armycommanders of India andChina, he is making these alle-gations, Zhao said, “What Ihave just said is meant to clar-

ify the whole situation, tell thetruth to everyone. We madethis statement because theMEA in India and also Indianmedia have made some falsereports.”

Asserting that “China andIndia are important neigh-bours to each other” and main-taining a peaceful and tranquilborder region is in the com-mon interests of both the coun-tries and requires commonefforts as well, the ChineseDefence ministry spokesmansaid, “the two sides shouldmake great efforts to jointlyease the current border situa-tion and uphold peace and sta-bility in the border areas.”

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Page 2: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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The first plasma therapy hassuccessfully been adminis-

tered to two COVID-19 posi-tive patients at GovernmentMedical College, Amritsar.

Disclosing, the stateMedical Education andResearch Minister OP Soni onWednesday appealed to therecovered COVID-19 patientsto come forward for donatingtheir plasma.

Notably, the GovernmentMedical College, Amritsar, hasbeen enrolled in IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) project, titled ‘Phase IIopen label randomized con-trolled trail to assess the safe-ty and efficacy of convalescentplasma to limit COVID-19associate complications inmoderate disease’ — a multi-centre clinical trial to assess the

safety and efficacy of conva-lescent plasma to limitCOVID-19 associated compli-cations in moderate disease.

The plasma was donated aday before by a treatedCOVID-19 positive case fromChheharta, Amritsar, who hadreturned from Dubai, andfound to be carrying the infec-tion on his return.

“The plasma therapy hasbeen given to two COVID-19positive patients currentlyadmitted in Guru Nanak DevHospital, Government MedicalCollege, Amritsar, one fromPathankot and the other fromAmritsar.

The plasma therapy wasstarted at around 3:35 amtoday and has been successfullycompleted. These patients willbe followed up for improve-ment in their condition,” saidSoni.

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Atotal of 10 persons died asthe Coronavirus death toll

climbed to 188 in Haryana onWednesday. The number ofCovid-19 patients in Haryanajumped to 12,010 with theState health department report-ing 490 new patients of the dis-ease on Wednesday.

On a positive note, 427patients were discharged fromdifferent hospitals of the Stateon the day after their completerecovery from the disease.

The spike in the number ofCovid-19 infected patients infour districts of the State isshowing no sign of slowingdown. On Wednesday, 201new patients were reportedfrom Faridabad district, takingthe total in the district to 2797while 117 cases surfaced inGurugram, taking the total inthe district to 4762. In Sonepat,29 new patients were found,taking count to 954 while 22cases reported in Rohtak, tak-ing total to 481.

As many as 54 Covid-19positive patients are critically illand have been put on oxygensupport while 13 patients on

ventilator, said the HaryanaHealth officials.

A total of 10 patients of thedisease died over the last 24hours on Wednesday whichincreased the death toll in theState to 188. Out of 10 Covid-19 deaths on the day, six report-ed from Gurugram while onefrom Faridabad, three fromRewari.

With 6925 people curedand discharged from the hos-pitals, there are 4897 activeCOVID-19 cases in Haryananow.

Health officials said thatout of 2, 31, 673 samples, 2, 14,896 were found negative for thedisease on Wednesday. Headded that reports of 4767samples are still awaited by thedepartment. The State has arecovery rate of 57.66 per cent,fatality rate at 1.57 per centwhile tests per million beingconducted are 9139. The dou-bling rate in the State is 12 days.

8 MORE COVID-19 FATAL-ITIES IN PUNJAB, 230 NEWCASES

Punjab reported eightmore fatalities due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the

state''s toll to 113, while 230fresh cases pushed its tally to4,627, according to a medicalbulletin. Four deaths werereported in Jalandhar, two inAmritsar and one each inKapurthala and Sangrur, thebulletin issued by state healthauthorities said.

Of the 230 fresh cases, 64were reported in Sangrur, fol-lowed by 43 in Jalandhar, 33 inMuktsar, 27 in Ludhiana, 14 inAmritsar and nine each inKapurthala and Patiala.Pathankot reported seven cases,Bathinda six, Mohali five,Ferozepur four, Rupnagar threeand one each in Gurdaspur,SBS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib,Faridkot, Moga and Mansa.Sixteen people who tested pos-itive for COVID-19 in Punjabon Wednesday have travel his-tory to other states.Accordingto the bulletin, 52 coronaviruspatients were discharged fromvarious hospitals after theyrecovered from the infection.

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The Covid-19 death toll inJharkhand reached 12 on

Wednesday after a Hazaribagresident died of the viral infec-tion, data released by theGovernment highlighted.However, concerned officialsfailed to disclose details of thedeceased person.

As many as 17 fresh casesof Covid-19 infection werereported in Jharkhand onWednesday – the lowest in aday this month, officials said.At least 55 Covid patients alsorecovered on Wednesday andwere discharged from hospital,data released by the healthdepartment said.

With Wednesday's find-ings the total count of Covid-19 cases in the 2207. Out ofthese cases, as many as 1575have recovered and 632 areundergoing treatment, healthofficials said.

With the death toll rising,State's mortality rate for Covid-19 has also increased to 0.54per cent. The mortality ratehere, however, is lower than the

national average of 3.36 percent, @ bulletin released byNational Health Mission(NHM) stated.

The recovery rate inJharkhand is 71 per cent, thebulletin added.

Of the 2207 cases reportedin the State so far, at least 1841are that of migrant workerswho returned to Jharkhandafter May 5, health officials

said. The government has so farcollected samples of 1.3 lakhsuspects and tested 1.28 lakh ofthem.

Out of the 12 Covid deathsin Jharkhand so far, four werereported from Ranchi, twofrom Bokaro, two fromHazaribag and one each fromGiridih, Gumla, Simdega andKoderma, Government datasaid

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From Page 1

There is still no clarity onthe timeline of the plannedphased disengagement fromall the “all friction areas” inEastern Ladakh by the twoarmies. While the modalitiesfor this were agreed betweenthe Corps Commanders, sev-eral local commander leveltalks are scheduled to take for-ward the disengagement on theground at various locations.

The main problem area isPangong lake, where theChinese have come three tofour km inside the LAC on theIndian side, and dug in at‘Finger 4’. Some more rounds oftalks will take place to resolveit, sources said.

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From Page 1“All the required docu-

ments are in order and thecompany has also sent a replyto the Ministry. Everything isin order as per the mandatedprotocol,” Patanjali Ayurvedspokesperson SK Tijarawalahad said.

The medicines, “Coroniland Swasari”, come in a coro-na kit priced at Rs 545, whichwas to be sold across Indiawithin a week.

Ramdev claimed Patanjali’smedicines showed “100 percent favourable results” in clin-ical trials on 280 patients inDelhi, Ahmedabad and othercities. Patanjali collaboratedwith the privately-ownedNational Institute of MedicalSciences or NIMS University,

Jaipur.“With the help of NIMS,

Jaipur we conducted the clini-cal control study on 95 patients.The biggest thing which cameout of this is that within threedays 69 per cent patients recov-ered and became negative frompositive (cases) and withinseven days 100 per cent of thembecame negative,” Ramdev toldreporters.

The Ministry of Ayush hasasked Patanjali to providedetails like the composition ofthe medicines, the results of itsresearch, the hospitals wherethe research was conducted,whether the company had aclearance from the InstitutionalEthics Committee and whetherit had registered for the clini-cal trials.

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From Page 1The graph showed a steady

rise in the daily COVID-19cases and prices of petrol anddiesel after the lockdown. Leftparties have also criticised thegovernment over the fuel pricehike.In Mumbai, petrol ispriced at Rs 86.54 per litre whilediesel is Rs 78.22 per litre. Thesame in Kolkata for petrol anddiesel are Rs 84.98 per litre andRs 75.06 per litre respectively.While in Chennai, it is Rs83.04 per litre for petrol and Rs77.17 per litre for diesel.International benchmark Brentcrude surged 1.74% at $43.83on Tuesday.According to pric-ing data, the maximum rateshave increased in any fortnightwas Rs. 4-5 per litre. Prior to thecurrent rally, the peak dieselrates had touched was onOctober 16, 2018 when priceshad climbed to Rs. 75.69 perlitre in Delhi. The highest everpetrol price was on October 4,2018 when rates soared to Rs.84 a litre in Delhi. When rates

had peaked in October 2018,the government had cut exciseduty on petrol and diesel by Rs.1.50 per litre each. State-ownedoil companies were asked toabsorb another Re 1 a litre tohelp cut retail rates by Rs. 2.50a litre. Oil companies hadquickly recouped the Re 1 andthe government in July 2019raised excise duty by Rs. 2 alitre. Taxes make up for nearlytwo-third of the retail sellingprice. As much as Rs. 50.69 perlitre, or 64 per cent, in petrolprice is due to taxes - Rs .32.98is the central excise duty and Rs.17.71 is local sales tax or VAT.Over 63 per cent of the retailselling price of diesel is taxes.Out of the total tax incidence ofRs. 49.43 per litre, Rs. 31.83 isby way of central excise and Rs.17.60 is VAT. Protesting rise indiesel and petrol prices, AllIndia Motor TransportCongress (AIMTC) onWednesday said unbridled hikein fuel rates has made theiroperations unviable and threat-ened to suspend operations ifthe government fails to rollback the increase.”

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From P age 1The newly elected EDMC

mayor said his primary respon-sibility will be to maintain san-itation and ensure easy accessto civic services.

Talking about priorities,north mayor Jai Prakash saidensuring sanitation, providingquality education and healthwould be the first priority. Hesaid stress would be given tomake the corporation selfreliant.

The outgoing mayors areAvtar Singh (NDMC), SunitaKangra (SDMC) and AnjuKamalkant (EDMC), all fromthe BJP.

The mayoral five-yeartenure sees five single-yearterms on a rotation basis, withthe first year being reserved forwomen, the second open cat-egory, third for reserved cate-gory, and the remaining twoalso being in open category.

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In its endeavour to providebed facilities to its citizens

amidst high rate of coronacases in the national capital, theDelhi Government onWednesday attached ShehnaiBanquet Hall with Lok Nayakhospital.

While Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal visited alongwith his deputy Manish Sisodiato take stock of the prepara-tions being done in Delhi toramp up medical infrastructurein the wake of coronaviruspandemic, the new covid carecenter wil have 100 - bed forthe critical corona patients.

Following the visit,Kejriwal tweeted, "We havestarted a corona centre com-prising of 100 beds in a banquethall today. Every bed has oxy-gen. Corona centres will bebuilt in several banquet hallsacross Delhi in a similar man-ner. #DelhiFightsCorona"

Briefing the media after thevisit, CM Arvind Kejriwal said,"We are preparing this facilitycomprising of around 100 bedsopposite to the LNJP Hospital.I want to thank the NGO'Doctors for You' for taking upthe responsibility of operatingthis facility.

“Many NGOs are like theseare coming forward to supportthe government at the time ofthis pandemic,” “This banquethall will have 100 beds, andevery bed will have an oxygensupply attached to it. Thisfacility will be attached to theLNJP Hospital, which is situ-ated right across the road.Patients with moderate symp-toms can be admitted to thisfacility, and they can be imme-diately admitted into the LNJPHospital if their conditionworsens.” “This is the firstbanquet hall starting to oper-ate as a facility for the treatmentof Corona patients. In the lastweek, we had installed around3000 beds in the hotels, whichwere then attached to the pri-vate hospitals. We have suffi-cient beds now. Out of 13500beds, around 6200 beds havebeen occupied in both privateand government hospitals in

Delhi. This number has beenstagnant since yesterday, whichmeans that the usage of bedshas not increased, even thoughwe have observed 4000 newcases in the last 24 hours,” headded.

CM Arvind Kejriwal saidthat this also shows thatCorona is not very severe inDelhi. "People who are gettinginfected are majorly recoveringat their homes, and there is norequirement of additional bedsin Delhi right now. We are alsoobserving that the number ofcases recovering in Delhi is thesame as the number of newcases coming up daily, which ishelping to maintain stability inthe bed count required.However, it does not mean thatwe are not doing anything toenhance the bed capacity inDelhi. We already have 13500beds in Delhi for the treatmentof Corona patients. Just like thisbanquet hall, many more ban-quet halls across the city will beprepared for Corona treat-ment," said the CM.

Regarding the Delhi gov-ernments' request to the Centerto roll the new order makingclinical assessment mandatoryfor Corona positive patients,Kejriwal said, "Not only theDelhi government but evenjournalists are saying that thisorder of the home isolation bythe Centre should be changed.Since the morning, I havereceived calls from people whohave mild symptoms or areasymptomatic.”

“I have received manyrequests to reverse the homeisolation order because it is notfeasible for the people.Supposedly, your 80-year-oldmother gets Corona, and she isasymptomatic or has mildsymptoms, and needs treat-ment at home, how will youtake her to a quarantine centreor a govt facility? At home, shewill be taken care of better byher children. As per our earli-er order, if a person was testedpositive, we had our medicalteam visit the patient at theirhomes, do the required assess-ment, and then tell them if theyneed to stay in home isolationor go to a hospital.

Page 3: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Reporting the tragic martyr-dom of three to 20 soldiers

in 24 hours was a big jolt to aseemingly transparent govern-ment. That was not all- the gov-ernment had clearly stated that20 Indian soldiers were mar-tyred, followed by specificstatements that not an inch ofIndian soil was occupied andthat none was taken prisonerby PLA, eventually variousmedia stating that 10 Indiansoldiers were indeed released26 / 48 hours later. This hasbeen followed by serious drub-bing to voices that are pointingout the absolute flaws in gov-ernment stand and statementsin the days after the altercation.

However, the question shouldnot be whether our brave

hearts had guns or not, it is asfoolish a question as it is to aska cricketer if he carried a bat toa match. We don’t have anyright to pose such questions tothe best ever defenders calledthe Indian army. There are farserious questions to raise.

It is a clear communica-tions debacle to say the least.

Our flip flops internationalisedthe issue to an internationaldispute.

Firstly, the entire messag-ing has been exceptionallychaotic; were we armed ornot? Were the Chinese on oursoil or were we on theirs?Either way someone was occu-pying someone’s land otherwisethe brutal melee would nothave ensued. Of course Indianarmy is without a doubt themost disciplined and profes-sional army in the world andthat precisely brings forthanother important lapse of thesafety of our soldiers. There isnothing wrong if we did notuse arms as none of us arecompetent to make a judgmenton that situation in one of themost hostile and stressful bat-tle frontier of the world.

Same is true for PangongTso lake. We have all alongbeen saying that the PLA hascome into Indian side of theproclaimed LAC and yet we sayChina has not occupied evenan inch? So, what is a commonIndian supposed to make out of

this freckled Government com-munication? There are otherbrazen follies as well – everyvoice seeking clarity is nowbeing shown an alleged mem-orandum of understandingbetween China and theCongress party years ago andrightly so but then is thatsomething discovered in thelast few days?

The government has beenin power for nearly six yearsand has engaged at the highestever level with China – so whathappened? Why was this trav-esty never corrected?

I have a far more embar-rassing question for theCongress, far more embar-rassing than the 1993 honey-moon with the Chinese.

The Ladakhi students andactivists would hold demon-strations year after year inJammu in the 80’s and the 90’sto draw the attention of thegovernment about steadyadvancement of Chinese forcesinto Indian territories. No oneever paid attention to the criesof our frontline eyes and ears

in NEFA – the shepherds andfrontier nomadic groups. Yearon year, they would come,demonstrate and regrettablyreturn. It is embarrassing towrite that subsequent govern-ments in India have systemat-ically gifted our motherland toChina. We have been a nationrun by cowards at the centre.Fault lies with us too for choos-ing such people to govern us.

This fracas has led toanother fallout – the ban Chinawave. Regrettably, I have to say,given the challenges of theeconomic spectrum in India,we need to differentiatebetween plain rhetoric andharsh reality.

At least for next 10 years,there is no way India can suf-fice domestic commercialneeds sans china. Even so, towhat extent would it pose aroadblock to Chinese coer-cion? May be less than 1% - isthat good a consolation for ourbruises and the last full mea-sure of supreme devotion ofour soldiers? Ultimately, banchina wave will only harm our

own small time shopkeeperswhose windows will be brokenand glass smashed for display-ing Chinese products. Goodsworth a billion dollars havealready been paid for so whatare we going to do with them?Ask our fragile downtrade andSME to burn their investmentsto create a spectacle for TVnews channels?

Then there is a geo-politi-cal tragedy waiting in thewings. Can we go to war withChina- even if it is within theravines and deep alleys ofGalwan for a surgical five daysengagement?

Maybe, maybe not butwars are no longer mainlyabout valour but more of twoway communication state-ments of people in power.India is quite capable of givinga bloody nose to China in afocused mountain theatre ofwar but a resolute ascendingChina has been demonstratingfor long their intent to deliverknockout punches.

They have thrown in thetowel and the gloves now it is

up to India to stand up or seeka face saver. Short term eco-nomic sanctions may drive theshort term rhetoric but in thelong term any traditional sanc-tion on China will hurt Indiamore as the costs of multi-dimensional projects will rock-et by about 20 to 35%. This willbe a setback to a post coronaIndian economy. New alliesalong the Atlantic may be eco-nomic but the landed cost inIndia will be far higher and tipthe economics of scale. Maybeover the next five years, whenIndia builds a hinterland eco-nomic web to replace China,India can hurt China but anyinterim economic roadblockwill only be a face saver to anemotional balm to bruisednational feelings.

There is another aspectthat we risk by firing the salvo.We risk Daulat Beg Oldie andSiachen contrary to commonbelief.

A Chinese response willmake it challenging and eco-nomically unviable to maintainboth given the position of bat-

tle readiness backed by incred-ible infrastructure build upand back up China has.

In the ultimate theatre ofIndo-China short term adven-ture, India risks a permanentChinese buildup at a stone'sthrow from Leh.

Then there is CPEC goingright through Gilgit Baltistan.This is as embarrassing as itgets considering we proudlyinclude Gilgit Baltistan in ourmap; so the question remains,what have we done so far?

The answer to all this isapparently quite simple – yeswe are working on variousinternational diplomatic frontsto raise the issues and isolateChina. This is the same answerwe have been rendering for ourPakistan woes since 1947. Thebigger question is – does Chinacare about Internationaldiplomatic coercion or coali-tion against it? What doesIndia do then? Accede quietlyand seek an extended dialoguefor years to come or wait for theUS and Russia to rally for us –or be assertive?

It is a difficult position thatIndia finds itself in given Chinais not Pakistan. As far as I seeit, this is a defining moment forIndia.

India must decide sansdiplomatic coercion and standon its own.

It may falter, it may fail butwhat will rise is a new Indiathat will forever dominate theentire North South Asia as anabsolute symbol of democracyand resurgence.

Today, India is led by thebest ever government and themost popular and capableleader since Independence.The 125 crore Indians stand byour Prime Minister and we areprepared to face the frailties ofwar, of escalations and reces-sions for years to come butonce we are done then we willtruly wake up in a country thatis free from fear, from terrorand cowards masquerading aspoliticians; an India that fearsno one and threatens no one.

(The writer is a media vet-eran and a bestselling author.Views expressed are personal)

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Nepal is India’s friendlynation and people of the

two nations share familial andcultural relations. The twonations have been trusting eachother though recently some dif-ferences have emerged fromtheir side. However, the peopleof Nepal have been opposingtheir government on theseissues, said chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat whileaddressing a virtual rally inPithoragarh assembly con-stituency.

Speaking on the occasion,he said that Pithoragarh districtshares borders with China andNepal. Considering the strate-gic importance of this district,the special efforts of the stategovernment have succeededin speeding up construction ofthe Lipulekh road to the Chinaborder. Rawat said that Chinais worried due to constructionof roads to Lipulekh and theborder in Ladakh along withexpansion of airfields in borderareas. “China is also anxious forthe marketing of its productsafter our Prime Minister

Narendra Modi spoke ofAtmanirbhar Bharat and goingvocal for local. China is alsoearning a bad name in theworld due to Covid-19, whichis why it is indulging in ques-tionable acts along the border.Our soldiers exemplified valourand bravery in the manner inwhich they faced Chinese sol-diers at Galwan. This is whyChina is now ready to return tothe past positions and maintainthe earlier status at the line ofcontrol,” said the CM. He alsomentioned the various effortsundertaken by the Modi gov-ernment and the State govern-ment to ensure the welfare of

people during the situationresulting from the Covid-19pandemic. He also appreciatedthe party workers for assistingin provision of aid to the needyduring difficult circumstances.Referring to measures beingtaken in the state againstCovid-19 he said that 1,600tests are being conducted dailywhile the recovery rate is about64 per cent. Within one week,the state will develop capacityfor conducting 2,000 tests dailywhich will also resolve thewaiting list. The government isattempting to ensure that thetest result is made available onthe same day, he added.

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While most people are lead-ing their somewhat reg-

ular life in Unlock-1 amid theCovid-19 pandemic, the seniorcitizens are feeling lonely andfrustrated in their homes.Several even stated that they arefeeling more isolated at homenow than before due to theresumption of the jobs of theirchildren. While the govern-ment has provided certainrelaxation to people in order toresume their lives while fol-lowing the protocols to avoidCovid-19 contagion, the oldpeople are still not advised toenter into various premises asthe risk of contagion is more insenior citizens.

According to a 68 year oldretired teacher Umed SinghRawat, life was better for himwhen there was a completelockdown in the State. "Duringthe lockdown days, my chil-dren were at home and we usedto spend time together but assoon as the lockdown was lift-

ed and their work resumed, Istarted to experience loneliness.I know why I should not gooutside much but staying home24 hours for about threemonths now is quite frustrat-ing," said Rawat. Another localresident Shyam Singh Dhyanisaid that he feels more annoyedwhen other adults of his fam-ily are allowed to go outside buthe is not because of his age. “Iam 71 years old and I likeevening walks but my childrendo not allow it. Now I cannotgo for a walk before 7 PM insummer as it is still hot at thattime and my children tell me

not to step outside after 7PM," said Dhyani.

"I do Yoga at home, watchtelevision and play video gamesbut now it all feels forcedrather than being enjoyable.Everyone is busy at home withtheir own tasks so I do not dis-turb them.

On the other hand, it feelslittle better on weekendsbecause all the family membersspend some quality timetogether but most of the timethey resume their work athome too,” he added.

Talking about the loneli-ness and frustration the senior

citizens are experiencing inthe current crisis, Dehradunbased psychotherapist AditiArora said that people shouldspend quality time with theolder people in their families asmuch as possible. She statedthat everybody has resumedtheir jobs but spending timewith older family memberscan help them to revive theiroptimism and make them feelmore integrated and less iso-lated in the current scenario.“The children can make a bigdifference in the lives of seniorcitizens in their families.

The families should bringback the old traditional way ofspending time including play-ing board games like ludo andcarrom or a musical game likeAntakshari," said Arora.

She also added that due toeverybody's busy schedule, thefamilies can make a plan to playcertain games during weekendsso that everyone gets thechance to interact with eachother and get to spend qualitytime with elderly members.

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Even as the south west mon-soon advanced into the

entire State on Wednesday, thestate meteorological centre hasissued an alert regarding thepossibility of heavy to veryheavy rainfall at isolated placesin five of the state’s districts onThursday.

The state meteorologicalcentre director Bikram Singhinformed that the south westmonsoon had advanced intothe entire state on Wednesday.On Thursday, the state mete-orological centre has fore-cast l ight to moderaterain/thundershowers at mostplaces in all districts ofUttarakhand. However, analert has also been issuedregarding the possibility ofheavy ro very heavy rainfall atisolated places in Nainital,Bageshwar, Pithoragarh,Rudraprayag and Dehradun

distr icts on Thursday.Dehradun is likely to experi-ence partly to generallycloudy sky with a few spells ofrain/thundershowers likely tooccur. The maximum andminimum temperatures arelikely to be around 32 degrees

Celsius and 24 degrees Celsiusrespectively.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday,the maximum and minimumtemperatures recorded in var-ious parts of the state were 33degrees Celsius and 25.5degrees Celsius respectively in

Dehradun, 33.9 degrees Celsiusand 25.5 degrees Celsius inPantnagar, 18.5 degrees Celsiusand 14.9 degrees Celsius inMukteshwar and 23.8 degreesCelsius and 17.2 degreesCelsius respectively in NewTehri.

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With 88 persons testingpositive for Covid-19 in

the state on Wednesday, thetotal of Covid positive cases hasrisen to 2623 in Uttarakhand.At the same time, according tothe health department, 68patients recovered from the dis-ease on Wednesday, taking thetotal number of recovered anddischarged patients to 1,721.

According to the healthbulletin issued by the healthdepartment a total of 88 Covid-19 positive cases came to lightin different districts of thestate on Wednesday. Theseincluded 16 cases in Dehradun,

26 in Udham Singh Nagar, 17in Tehri, nine in Pauri, seven inNainital, six in Haridwar andone in Pithoragarh district.While the total number ofCovid positive cases climbedup to 2623, on the positive side-68 patients also recovered onWednesday. With the total ofrecovered patients dischargedfrom the hospitals also rising to1,721 there are now 902 activecases of Covid-19 in the state.Meanwhile, more than 1,419samples were tested for Covidin government labs and morethan 53 were tested in private

labs on Wednesday. At least1115 samples were sent for test-ing on the same day. So far,more than 59,000 samples havebeen sent for Covid-19 test inthe state. The results of about3,636 samples are awaited.According to the chief minis-ter Trivendra Singh Rawat,about 1,600 tests are beingconducted daily in the statewhile the recovery rate is about64 per cent. Within one week,the state is going to developcapacity for conducting 2,000tests daily which will alsoresolve the waiting list.

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Two locals who recently diedin a road mishap turned

out to be Covid positive.However, this came to lightafter the cremation of the duowas conducted.

Two people hailing fromHaridwar died in a road acci-dent on Monday. The postmortem was conducted andsamples collected, after whichthe bodies were handed over tothe family members. The twowere cremated shortly after-wards. However, onWednesday, the sample reportof the two came positive forCovid-19.

All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS)Rishikesh, PRO HarishThapliyal said that according tocentral guidelines, bodies arehanded over to family mem-bers after post mortem. He saidthat he was not aware of thecremation of the two personsin question.

Meanwhile, Dr Ajay ofHaridwar health department

said that the Covid test of thetwo people was conducted atAIIMS in Rishikesh which isoutside Haridwar district. Thebodies were handed over to thefamily members and were latercremated. Efforts are underwayto sanitise the area and isolatethe primary contacts of the twodeceased, he added.

The Haridwar TehsildarAshish Ghildiyal said that thetwo deceased testing positivefor Covid-19 came to light onWednesday. Had this beenknown earlier, the cremationwould have taken place accord-ing to the guidelines for Covidpositive cases.

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The cardiac surgery department ofthe All India Institute of Medical

Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, has suc-ceeded in saving the life of a 5-monthold girl by surgery. The baby's heartwas not fully developed and thelevel of oxygen in her blood wasfalling recurringly.

This critical surgery at AIIMSRishikesh was conducted by paedi-atric cardiothoracic surgeon Dr AnishGupta. He said that the baby fromDehradun, weighing just 4.5 kilo-

grammes was struggling with a com-plication due to her heart being half-developed. Her parents went to var-ious hospitals in Delhi for treatmentbut the expense and lack of facilitieshad made them hopeless. However,the parents and their little girl foundrelief and cure at AIIMS in Rishikesh.Dr Gupta said that often children suf-fering from this type of disease diebefore the operation. He said thatafter four hours of complicatedsurgery and keeping the girl in ICUfor two days, she was shifted to theward on June 18. The girl is now com-

pletely healthy and has started drink-ing milk. The team that performedthis complex surgery included sur-geon Dr Raja Lahiri, Dr Ajay Mishraof anesthesia department, besidessenior nursing officer Keshav Das andDharmchand among others.

AIIMS director professor RaviKant said that the institute’s endeav-our is that patients coming to AIIMShoping for better treatment do nothave to return due to lack of moneyor resources. AIIMS administrationis always ready to treat every needypatient, he said.

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Chief minister Trivendra SinghRawat inaugurated the e-col-

lectorate system in Dehradun onWednesday. Speaking on the occa-sion, he said that as per the require-ments of the time, it is importantto maximise the use of technolo-gy. The e-collectorate system willnot only prove more convenient tothe citizens but will also save timeand prevent unnecessary visits tothe offices.The CM said that the e-office system will also furtherenhance transparency in officialworks. Efforts are also being made

to start the e-office system inother departments. Rawat alsocongratulated the Dehradun dis-trict administration for starting thee-collectorate system a week beforethe set period.

The Dehradun district magis-trate Ashish Kumar Srivastavainformed that the e-collectoratesystem has been started with thehelp of Dehradun Smart CityLimited, ITDA and NIC. All sec-tions of the collectorate have beenconnected to this system. With this,all the sections of the collectoratewill work through the e-collectoratesystem. The field staff of the rev-

enue department willalso work on this system.Along with enhancingtransparency, this sys-tem will also enable fix-ing the responsibility ofthe officer and employeeconcerned to completethe task within a giventime frame. The DM saidthat work would be doneat the Tehsil and devel-opment block level inthe second phase of e-office system.

The CM’s IT adviser RavindraDatt, Garhwal commissionerRavinath Raman, ITDA director

Amit Sinha, Smart City CEORanvir Singh Chauhan and otherofficials concerned were also pre-sent on the occasion.

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Page 4: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Over 1.6 lakh natives ofJammu and Kashmir been

brought back so far after theywere stranded in differentparts of the country due to thecoronavirus-triggered lock-down, according to the UnionTerritory administration.

As many as 1,60,945 peo-ple have been brought back onbuses and special trains withstrict observance of all neces-sary guidelines and StandardOperating Procedures (SoPs),officials said.

According to official data,the Jammu and Kashmiradministration received 63special trains with about50,873 passengers at Jammuand Udhampur railway sta-tions from different statesand UTs so far, while about

1,10,072 people, including328 from abroad, have beenbrought back throughLakhanpur till date.

As many as 1,272 strand-ed passengers have enteredthrough Lakhanpur betweenJune 23 and June, while 802passengers returned to

Jammu onboard a specialtrain from Delhi.

So far, 42 trains havereached Jammu with a total of35,177 stranded passengers,while 15,696 passengers haver e a c h e dUdhampur in 21 specialtrains, officials said.

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Several States in north Indiareceived rain on Wednesday

as the Monsoon fully coveredUttarakhand, Jammu andKashmir, and Ladakh, even asthe flood situation in Assamremained grim with one moredeath taking the toll to 12.

The national capital toorecorded light rains onWednesday, as the monsoonreached the doorstep of thecity.

“Monsoon clouds are atthe doorstep of Delhi. A fewplaces witnessed rains. As pre-dicted, the onset of the mon-soon in the city will be declaredon Thursday,” IMD DirectorGeneral Mrutunjay Mohapatrasaid.

The SafdarjungObservatory, which providesrepresentative figures the city,recorded 14.6 mm rainfall anda maximum temperature of34.6 degrees Celsius, threenotches below normal.

However, the humiditylevels shot up to 100 percentdue to the rains, causing incon-venience to the residents.

Kuldeep Srivastava, thehead of the regional fore-casting centre of the IndiaMeteorological Department,said monsoon clouds led torains in parts of Delhi onWednesday. However, theonset will be declared onThursday only.

Normally, the wind sys-tem reaches Delhi on June 27.

The flood situation inAssam, meanwhile, remainedgrim on Wednesday, with thedeluge killing one more per-son and affecting 38,000 peo-ple in five districts of thestate.

The fresh death wasreported in Sivasagar dis-trict, taking the death toll inthis year's floods in the stateto 12, as per the daily floodreport issued by the AssamState Disaster ManagementAuthority (ASDMA).

Around 38,000 peoplehave been affected due to thefloods in Dhemaji,

Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagarand Dibrugarh districts, itsaid. Dhemaji has been theworst-hit with 15,000 affect-ed people, fol lowed byDibrugarh with 11,000 and

Sivasagar with 10,000 peoplesuffering due to the deluge.

The monsoon alsoadvanced into northern partsof Punjab, bringing rains andcausing temperatures to drop,a Meteorological Departmentofficial said in Chandigarh.

Rain also lashed parts ofneighbouring Haryana.

Normal ly, monsoonarrives in Punjab andHaryana in the first week ofJuly. “The monsoon hasadvanced into northern partsof Punjab, and Chandigarh.Conditions are favourable forits further advancement intomost parts of Punjab andHaryana on Thursday,” aMeteorological Departmentofficial said in Chandigarh.

The monsoon hasadvanced into the entireUttarakhand, Jammu &Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad,the IMD said.

In Punjab, Patiala andAmritsar recorded maximumtemperatures of 34.7 degreesCelsius and 35.2 degreesCelsius, respectively, boththree notches below normal.

Ludhiana recorded a highof 34.8 degrees Celsius, twonotches below normal.

Heavy rains also lashedChandigarh, the joint capitalof Punjab and Haryana, in theafternoon. The maximumtemperature in the city settledat 33.3 degrees Celsius, fournotches below normal.

In Haryana, Narnaulrecorded a high of 31.4degrees Celsius, 10 notchesbelow normal, after the rains.

In Ambala, the mercurysettled at 33.5 degrees Celsius,four notches below normal,after light rains.

Karnal recorded a maxi-mum temperature of 33.5degrees Celsius, four notch-es below normal. Hisar'srecorded a high of 38.4degrees Celsius, two notchesbelow normal.

During the next two days,light to moderate rain orthundershowers are likely inmany parts of Punjab andHar yana, includingChandigarh, according to theweather department.

It has forecast heavyshowers at isolated parts innorth Haryana and Punjab

during this period. “Conditions have become

favourable for furtheradvance of southwest mon-soon into some more parts ofRajasthan, remaining parts ofUttar Pradesh, Delhi, mostparts of Haryana and Punjabduring next 24 hours,” theIMD said in its update at 5pm Wednesday.

Most parts of HimachalPradesh received rainfall onWednesday as the southwestmonsoon made its foray intothe state, about a week earlycompared to the last year, themeteorological departmentin the state said.

The maximum tempera-tures in the state dropped by2-3 notches as several parts ofthe state received light tomoderate rainfal l onWednesday, it said.

The highest temperaturein the state was recorded atBilaspur at 34.5

The monsoon hitRajasthan, covering 14 dis-tricts, a day prior to its usualdate of arrival.

“Condit ions arefavourable this time andtherefore, the monsoon hascovered over 14 districts ofRajasthan on the first day ofits arrival today.

Monsoon is likely to begood this time,” an official ofthe meteorological depart-ment in the state said.

Monsoon has covereddistricts in western and east-ern parts of the State. Theseinclude Jaisalmer, Barmer,Sirohi, Rajsamand, Udaipur,Dungarpur, Banswara,Chittorgarh, Jhalwara, Kota,Bundi and Baran.

This is the third time ina decade when monsoon hashit the State before its normaltime.

Monsoon normally entersRajasthan on June 25, as perthe MeT.

Rains lashed several partsof the State, with Kota record-ing 13.6 mm of rainfall, fol-lowed by 6.1 mm at Jodhpur,2.8 mm in Dabok and 0.7mm in Jaipur. Light rainfallwas recorded in Ajmer.

The monsoon has beennormal in Uttar Pradesh sofar, the Meteorological (MeT)Department said onWednesday.

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No fresh COVID-19 casewas reported in Ladakh

on Wednesday and as many as126 people, who were beingtreated for the disease, weredischarged from hospitals afterrecovery, health departmentofficials said.

While 119 recoveries werereported from Kargil district,seven were from Leh district.With these, the total number ofpeople cured of the disease hasincreased to 274 in the unionterritory, they said.

Ladakh has recorded atotal of 932 COVID-19 positivecases till now, including adeath, the officials said.

The number of active casesin the union territory stands at657, they said, adding that thecondition of all patients is sta-ble.

There are 503 active cases

in Kargil and 154 in Leh, theofficials said.

Meanwhile, Kargil DistrictMagistrate Baseer ul HaqChoudhary directed head ofdepartments and district offi-cers not to go out of station orallow their staff to do so with-out obtaining prior permissionfrom the competent authorityin view of the prevailing situ-ation due to the COVID-19pandemic.

“The officers/officials mustremain present at their stationduring this crucial situation,”read a circular issued byChoudhary, who is also chiefexecutive officer of LadakhAutonomous HillDevelopment Council(LAHDC), Kargil.

Non-compliance of theinstructions would be viewedseriously and action shall beinitiated against defaulters asper rules, the circular stated.

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Keeping in mind PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s

clarion call for ‘Atma NirbharBharat’, the HRD Ministry onWednesday set up a primaryschool education road map foracademic year 2020-2021 forwhich the curriculum has to beready by this year October.

The HRD Ministryannounced that the NationalCouncil of EducationalResearch and Training(NCERT) will draft the learn-ing outcomes effectively toachieve the motive of ‘Atma-nirbhar’ or self-reliant India.

The new NationalCurriculum Framework (NCF)for School Education byNCERT will be expected tomake changes in the textbooksin accordance with the new

NCF. Subject experts will ini-tiate this process for schooleducation and give an interimreport by December 2020.

The decision has beentaken in view of the decision toset up Foundational Literacyand Numeracy Mission underAtmaNirbhar Bharat, saidHRD Ministry official state-ment.

“In view of the focus ofSamagra Shiksha towards aLearning Outcome centricapproach, it is necessary thatNCERT develops the requiredresources for implementingthese in an effective and time-ly manner, leading to all-around improvement in learn-ing outcomes and learning lev-els of students,” said the HRDministry.

The HRD Department ofSchool Education and Literacy

has directed NCERT to take uptask on priority basis andimplement the LearningOutcomes (LOs).

While redesigning text-books, it is to be ensured thatnothing but the core content isplaced in textbooks. Also, thecognitive load of the text-books is too high. Additionalareas, such as creative thinking,life skills, Indian ethos, art, and integration, etc. need to be

integrated, explained a seniorHRD Ministry official.

NCERT will also startworking on the layout anddesign of the new textbookswell in advance, however, the

new textbooks shall be writtenbased on the new NCF. Thenew NCF is expected to beready by March 2021.

‘Under AtmaNirbharBharat, for PM E-Vidya,NCERT is also expected to pre-pare content for Class 1– 12 forSWAYAM PRABHA channels(1 class 1 channel) and start thechannels by August this year,”said the HRD Ministry Pressstatement.

The roadmap will alsohave Online Teacher trainingcourses for teachers of eachgrade for classes 1 to 5 in phas-es by December 2020; forclasses 6 to 12 in phases byJune 2021.

“Prepare supplemen-tary/alternative academiclearning material for the entirecurriculum for learners inCOVID-19 times, especiallythose without any form ofdigital/online access - for class-es 1 to 5 in phases byDecember 2020; for classes 6 to12in phases by June 2021,” saidthe statement.

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Supported by the private sec-tor, India has reported

record TB case notifications in2019 managing to register24.04 lakh patients and reduc-ing the numbers of missed TBpatients from an average of 10lakh a year since 2015 to just2.96 lakh in 2019.

India has set a target of TBelimination in 2025 ahead ofthe UN goal of 2030.

According to the latest TBIndia 2020 report, released byUnion Health Minister HarshVardhan on Wednesday, HIVtesting for all notified TBpatients also increased to 81per cent (2019) from 67 percent (2018) while due to easyavailability of molecular diag-nostics, the proportion of chil-dren diagnosed with TBincreased to 8 per cent com-pared to 6 per cent in the saidperiod.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said“The Government is commit-ted to achieving the SDG goalof eliminating TB in the coun-try by 2025, five years ahead ofthe Global Target. To alignwith the ambitious goal, theprogramme has been renamedfrom Revised NationalTuberculosis Control Program(RNTCP) to NationalTuberculosis EliminationProgram (NTEP)’.”

Underscoring the crucialcontribution that the privatesector can make to the nation-al TB programme by manda-tory TB notification and pro-viding quality TB care, headded that with both collabo-rative and regulatory steps,the country has notified6,64,584 TB patients in 2019 inthe private sector.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey,Minister of State for Healthsaid, “The Government hasalready incorporated a com-

munity-based response for TBas one of the key strategies toreach the unreached and tosupport TB patients in thecourse of their illness.

Towards this end, over700 TB Forums have beenestablished at the State/UTand District level involving allstakeholders. These TBForums will provide a multi-sectoral and community-ledresponse to addressing thechallenge of TB.”

In the categories of largerstates with more than 50 lakhpopulation, Gujarat, AndhraPradesh and HimachalPradesh were awarded as bestperforming States while in thecategory of smaller states withless than 50 lakh population,Tripura and Nagaland wereawarded. In the category ofUnion Territory, Dadara andNagar Haveli, and Daman &Diu were chosen as the bestperformers.

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Questioning a “royalDynasty” assuming itself

the “role of the entireOpposition”, BJP presidentJagat Prakash Nadda onWednesday claimed that“only one family” is opposingthe Government on the India-China border stand-off.

Without naming topCongress leaders, Nadda saidon Twitter that one ‘royal’dynasty is asking questions tothe Government and accusedits followers of peddling thefake narrative.

Congress leader RahulGandhi has been question-i ng Pr i m e Mi n i s t e rNarendra Modi’s statementthat there was no incursionon the Indian territory byChinese and even called

him “Surrender Modi”.BJP President said a

“re j e c t e d an d e j e c t e d”‘Royal household’ can notb eequated with the entireOpposition in the country.He said in the all-partymeet on the border issuebarring 0

the “one royal family”all other stood firmly withthe Government.

“One ‘royal’ dynasty andtheir ‘loyal’ courtiers havegrand de lus ions of t heOpposition being about onedynasty. A dynast throwst ant r u ms an d h i s courtiers peddle that fakenarrative.

Latest one relates to thethe Opposition asking ques-tions to the Government,”Nadda said in his tweets.

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Congress has hit back atBJP president JP Nadda

asking him to look at their“conduct” as Opposition partyduring the UPA rule. Naddahad called Rahul Gandhi a“dynast” and said opposition isnot only about one dynasty.The party also sought to cornerthe BJP-led NDA Governmentover the claims about Chineseintrusions in ArunachalPradesh made by a BJP MPfrom the State and asked it tocome clean on the issue.

Hitting back at the BJP, theCongress said, “BJP shouldnot hide on the back of thearmy.” Congress said the BJPshould look back its conductwhen it attacked theGovernment on delicate for-eign policy issues during theUPA rule.

“Will the Prime Ministeroffer public apology for BJP forits conduct during 2004-2014when BJP brought no confi-dence motion on Indo-US civilnuclear deal and Bhagat SinghKoshyari leading a delegationto India-China border, “ saidCongress MP Manish Tewari.

While in Opposition, theBJP had sent a party delegationto the India-China border toget first hand information onChinese incursions. The dele-gation was led by Bhagat SinghKoshyari, who is nowMaharashtra Governor.

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The Adjudicating Authorityunder the Foreign

Exchange Management Act(FEMA) on Wednesday issueda showcause notice to Kolkata-based builder and promoter ofMani Group, SanjayJhunjhunwala for allegedlyviolating foreign exchangerules for funds worth �206crore.

The show-cause notice hasbeen issued for illegal deal-ings/ trading in ForeignCurrencies in Singapore, ille-gal external borrowings andmaintaining foreign bankaccounts in an unauthorisedmanner.

The Show Cause Noticewas been issued after an inves-tigation carried out by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)on the basis of an overseasinput received from FinancialIntelligence Unit.

“Investigation underFEMA revealed that SanjayJhunjhunwala was the benefi-cial owner of account main-tained at UBS, Singapore inthe name of Tiger WoodsInternational, a companyincorporated in British VirginIsland,” the ED said in a state-ment.

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The process of the merger ofthe Rajya Sabha TV and

the Lok Sabha TV into SansadTV with two variants is in thefinal stages. While the liveproceedings of the Parliamentsessions will continue to betelecast, manpower and tech-nical resources will also beintegrated. Sources said thenew channel will work underan integrated management.

Under the banner of theSansad TV, sources said, thetwo will continue to telecastlive proceedings of the respec-tive Houses.

The attempt is to gobeyond the proceedings of thetwo Houses and show thefunctioning of Parliament andparliamentarians when theHouses are not in session.

‘During the inter-session

period and beyond the work-ing hours of Parliament, boththe variants continue to tele-cast common content to alarge extent. The LSTV plat-form would telecast the pro-gramme in Hindi while theRSTV platform would do soin English. The two languagevariants it was felt enables bet-ter branding and increasedviewership,” an official said.

Sources said the launchcould be by the end of theyear, though the deadline hasnot been finalised.

The LS Television waslaunched in 2006 and the RSTV in 2011. They have beenfunctioning independentlysince then.

In November last year,after discussions between LokSabha Speaker Om Birla andRajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu, a committee

headed by former PrasarBharati Chairman A SuryaPrakash was set up. The com-mittee submitted it’s report inFebruary. Three different sub-committees are examining thereport to finalise the integra-tion of technical and man-power resources.

The Surya Prakash com-mittee had also held a meet-ing with the MPs from variouspolitical parties who stronglyrecommended that the livetelecast should be continued.

The Rajya Sabha TV nowcomes under the control ofthe Chairman and the LokSabha TV under the Speaker.“The details are still beingworked out who will the inte-grated channel comes under.But it is not a sticking point.Once the technical issues aresorted this too will be clear,”an official said.

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The Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Wednesdayapproved �15,000-crore forsetting up Animal HusbandryInfrastructure Fund (AHIDF)to provide interest subven-tion of up to 3 percent to pri-vate players for setting up ofdairy, poultry and meat pro-cessing units.

“A fund worth Rs. 15,000crore has been approved by theCabinet that will be open to alland will help in increasingmilk production, boost exportsand create 35 lakh jobs in thecountry. The AHIDF approvedtoday would incentive infra-structure investments in dairy,meat processing and animalfeed plants. The eligible ben-eficiaries under the Schemewould be Farmer ProducerOrganizations (FPOs),MSMEs, Section 8 Companies,Private Companies and indi-vidual entrepreneur with only10% margin money contribu-tion by them. The balance 90%would be the loan componentto be made available to themby scheduled banks.

“Government of India willprovide 3% interest subventionto eligible beneficiaries. Therewill be a 2-year moratorium

period for repayment of loanwith 6 years repayment peri-od thereafter. Government ofIndia would also set up aCredit Guarantee Fund of Rs.750 crore to be managed byNABARD which would pro-vide credit guarantee to theprojects which are coveredunder the MSME defined ceil-ings. Guarantee Coveragewould be upto 25% of theCredit facility of borrower,”said Union Minister GirirajSingh.

The Cabinet also approvedto provide 2 percent interestsubvention to borrowers underthe 'Shishu' category of theflagship Pradhan MantriMUDRA Yojana (PMMY).Under the Shishu category,collateral free loans of up to�50,000 will be given to ben-

eficiaries. “The Union Cabinethas approved the scheme forinterest subvention of 2% toShishu loan category borrow-ers under PMMY, outstandingas on March 31, 2020, for aperiod of 12 months to eligi-ble borrowers,” Javadekar said.

Launched in 2015, thePradhan Mantri MUDRAYojana provides loans up to �10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.These loans are classified asMUDRA loans under PMMY.Commercial banks, RRBs,small finance banks, MFIsand NBFCs provide MUDRAloans.

The Cabinet also sanc-tioned �909 crore additionalinvestment for ONGC Videshfor the development of its oilblocks in Myanmar.

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New Delhi: On a day JamiaCoordination Committeemember Safoora Zargarstepped out of jail after shewas granted bail underhumanitarian consideration,two other Jamia students havebeen called in by the DelhiPolice for questioning.

The two students are --Suyash Tripathi from the Lawdepartment and ArsalanAlhmed from the departmentof Social Studies. Both werecalled by Delhi Police onWednesday and are beingquestioned regarding theiralleged role in the anti-CAAprotests and the conspiracybehind the Delhi Riots inwhich 53 people lost theirlives.

The two Jamia studentswere sent notices to appearbefore the Delhi Police'sSpecial Cell, a specializedwing based out of the capital'sLodhi Road area.

Jamia has been at the fore-front of the anti-CAA protestthat even saw violence.However, Jamia Millia Islamiaclaimed their students didnot take part in the riots orindulge in any kind of vio-lence.

On Wednesday, Zargar, akey member of the JamiaCoordination Committee thatwas leading the anti-CAAprotests in the capital, wasreleased from the jail after shewas granted bail on Tuesday.However, she also cannotleave Delhi without permis-sion.

The 27-year-old wasarrested on April 10, underthe draconian UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act, onconspiracy charges over theriots. IANS

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Page 5: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Coronavirus or Covid-19which had occupied the

narrative in Kerala’s politicaland social lives sinceFebruary 2020 has been rel-egated to the backstage. Thenew topic isVariyamkunnathu AhmedHaji, an extremist leader whowas the commander of theIslamic terrorist activists ofthe 1920s. Film lovers inKerala are in for a treat asthree movies onVariyankunnathu Haji aretaking shape in green rooms.

Ashiq Abu, an activist ofthe Social Democratic Partyof India who shot into famethrough the agitations hestaged in Kerala against theCitizens Amendment Billwho had directed a fewmovies announced early thisweek that he would make amovie on VariyamkunnathuHaji, in association withPrithviraj Sukumaran, anactor of repute.

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True to the words of Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan, the coronavirus sit-

uation in Kerala turned worse onWednesday as 152 persons were diag-nosed with the pandemic on a single day.Vijayan had said on Tuesday that situa-tion in Kerala was turning grave and seri-ous. Wednesday saw the State diagnosingthe highest number of covid-19 patients.This is the sixth day in succession Keralais testing positive for more than 100patients.

Vijayan said out of the 152 personstesting positive on Wednesday, 98 wereexpatriates while 46 were those whoreturned from other parts of the country.The cChief Minister said government hasdecided not to insist for “No CovidCertificate” from expatriates returning tothe State in view of the absence of test-ing facilities in some of the West Asiancountries. This is being seen as a volte-face by the government which had made“No Covid Certificate” compulsory for allexpatriates returning to the State.

“Since there is no testing facilities inSaudi Arabia, passengers coming from thatcountry should wear Personal ProtectionEquipment (PPE) kit, N-95 masks andgloves. Expatriates returning from coun-tries offering test facilities should get “NoCovid Certificates” from the authorities ofthat countries. ,” said Vijayan.

Lakhimpur (Uttar Pradesh):A tiff over cooking meat esca-lated into an alleged suicide bidby a young couple inLakhimpur district barely afortnight into their marriage.While the wife died duringtreatment on Tuesday, the hus-band continues to be critical.

The incident took place inIsanagar locality on Monday.Guru Dayal, 22, had got mar-ried to Reshma, 19, on June 12.

Reshma, a vegetarian,objected to her husband cook-ing meat in their kitchen. Sheasked her husband to cookmeat outside the kitchen butGuru Dayal asked his motherto coninue with the cookinginside the kitchen.

Soon the couple enteredinto an argument and later inthe night, both allegedly con-sumed some poisonous sub-stance.

Guru Dayal's father,Shivnath, rushed the couple toa private clinic form where theywere referred to the districthospital.

Station house officer(SHO) of Isanagar police sta-tion, Suneel Singh, said, “Thecouple attempted suicide overcooking of non-vegetarian dishin kitchen. The wife died dur-ing treatment while the hus-band is serious. We are yet torecord the statement of the sur-vivor. No FIR has been regis-tered in this case yet.” IANS

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The Agra district adminis-tration has scaled up its

efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19, after a wordy duelwith Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra, who has tweet-ed twice drawing attention tothe alarming number of deathsin the Taj city and the failure ofthe Agra model.

The Agra DistrictMagistrate P.N. Singh hasalready rejected the allegationsand asked her to revise herposition in the light of facts.

It may be recalled that theAgra model was hyped andflaunted in April. After the ini-tial success, conditions took analarming turn, first due to thescare created by the Tablighisand later because of the massinflux of migrant workersthrough the district.

Since private laboratoriesand nursing homes have eitherrefused or are reluctant to jointhe state government efforts tocontain the pandemic, the overall situation continues toremain grim at the groundlevel. Unconfirmed reportssuggest that the vast rural hin-terland has now been exposedto the infection spread. Thiscould only get confoundedwith monsoon rains about tobegin.

The reluctance on the partof the private hospitals is main-ly due to the rates fixed by thestate government. The man-agements of these private insti-

tutions do not find the ratesreasonable or justifiable, con-sidering the risks involved andexpenses on testing likely to beincurred.

Under pressure, after beingtargeted by the opposition lead-ers and the family members ofthe victims, the district man-agement has now deputed sixIAS officials to constantly mon-itor conditions and facilities inthe 66 containment zones. TheChief Development Officer(CDO) will randomly check allthe hot spots in the city.

Meanwhile, with two moredeaths, the number of fatalitiesin the district has gone upto 81.Ten fresh cases in the last 24hours have taken the Covidtally to 1,158. The Health offi-cials said 965 have recoveredand the number of active caseswas 112. So far, 19,389 sampleshave been collected.

As a precautionary mea-sure, most government officeshad made thermal screening atthe entrances compulsory.

Panaji: The Goa Governmentis likely to take key decision onthe resumption of tourismactivity in the State with thenext eight days, Chief MinisterPramod Sawant said onWednesday.

“Small and big hoteliers areall demanding that the tourismindustry should restart. Thegovernment is thinking posi-tively about it. A decision willbe taken in eight days, in orderto give relief to the tourismbusiness,” Sawant said.

Speaking to reporters at the

state Secretariat here, he saidthat hoteliers would have toensure that each room wassanitised after departure ofguests, as part of a new SOP forthe hotel sector. Only thosehotels which are ready to fol-low such conditions would bepermitted to resume opera-tions, he added.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that the existing norm ofmandatory testing for those vis-iting Goa would also be con-tinued with, once tourismactivities resume.

Asked if resumed tourismactivities wont't cause crowdingat public places, he said:“Tourists do not go to publicplaces. They do not go to busstands and marketplaces.”

Sawant said that there wasneed to inculcate a civic senseand hygiene-related disciplinein public places.

Commenting on a steepincrease in coronavirus cases innumerous containment andmicro-containment zones inGoa, Sawant said that the trendwas expected to continue. IANS

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The Karnataka Government hasidentified 66 private hospitals to

function as fever clinics and swab col-lection centres to cope with the risingCovid-19 cases, an official said onWednesday.

“The private medical colleges andprivate hospitals attached with thisnotification are instructed to work asfever clinics cum swab collection cen-tres,” said a health official.

This decision was taken at a meet-ing chaired by the Chief Secretary andattended by the private colleges andhospitals.

According to the state healthdepartment, fever clinics are the firstpoint of contact in detecting Covidpatients, whose symptoms includefever, cold, cough, sore throat, breath-lessness and others.

Currently, Karnataka has morethan 600 fever clinics and 1,172 swabcollection centres while in Bengaluruthere are 52 such government man-aged facilities.

“Many private hospitals and allmedical colleges in Bengaluru have thecapacity to run as fever clinic cumswab collection centres,” said the offi-cial. Triaging of Influenza Like Illness(ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory

Infection (SARI) cases to identifyCovid cases, drawing swabs, using thesoftware application meant for feverclinics and swab collection centres andmaking the swabs available to trans-port them to the testing laboratorieswill be some of their duties.

The transportation of swabs to thedesignated Covid testing labs will bearranged by the task leader for testingin the Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) area.

For triaging, the private medicalcolleges and hospitals are allowed tocharge regular OPD fees while swabcollection fees should not exceed Rs350.

Amaravati:With 448 newcoronavirus cases detectedin the 24 hours ending 9 amon Wednesday, AndhraPradesh's total corona casescrossed the 10,000-mark,the state nodal officer said.A total of 10 more coronadeaths were also reportedfrom the state.

The overall tally,including cases among for-eign and state returnees,stood at 10,331 while thedeath toll in AndhraPradesh climbed to 129.

Of the new casualties,Kurnool reported highest 4deaths followed by Krishnadistrict with 3 deaths,Guntur with 2 deaths andSrikakulam district withone death. Five deaths each

were reported on Sundayand Monday, and 8 onTuesday.

Anantapur districtreported the highest 90new cases, followed byKurnool with 76 cases, EastGodavari with 54 cases onWednesday.

Of the 13 districts inAndhra Pradesh, onlySrikakulam district did notreport any new cases in thepreceding 24 hours.

Andhra Pradesh nowhas 5,423 active cases, as4,779 patients have beendischarged. During the pre-ceding 24 hours, 37 newcases were detected amongpeople who returned fromother states to AndhraPradesh. While 5 are

returnees from Tamil Nadu,22 are returnees fromTelangana, and 3 returneesfrom Maharashtra. OnWednesday, 4 positive caseswere of returnees fromKarnataka, and 3 returneesfrom West Bengal.

The overall positivecases among returnees fromother states is 1,624, includ-ing 653 active cases and 971discharged patients.

Meanwhile, positivecases detected among for-eign returnees also contin-ues to increase in AndhraPradesh. On Wednesday, 8samples of Kuwait returneestested corona positive, 3from Kazakhstan, and onecase from Saudi Arabia. IANS

Lucknow: To increase the participationof women in sugarcane farming andpromote self-employment in the ruralareas, the Yogi Adityanath governmenthas decided to train women in prepar-ing cane seedlings through single budand bud chip method.

The women can make additionalearning by selling these seedlings to thesugarcane farmers.

State Cane Commissioner SanjayBhoosreddy said, “Sugarcane is culti-vated on a large-scale as a cash crop inthe state and there are immense pos-sibilities of employment in cane grow-ing districts. The department hasdecided to set up self-help groups of

rural women and train them to preparecane nurseries through single bud andbud chip method. This will generateemployment and ensure additionalincome.”

Sugarcane is propagated primari-ly by the planting of cuttings. The sec-tions of the stalk of immature cane usedfor planting are known as seed cane, orcane sets, and have two or more buds(eyes), usually three. Seed cane is thenplanted in well-worked fields.

The Cane Development Counciland sugar mills have jointly selected vil-lages for setting up the self-help groupsof women to impart training to them. IANS

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Till Wednesday evening,a record number of 67,

468 persons have been diag-nosed with Covid-19 sincethe pandemic was reportedin Tamil Nadu sinceJanuary. On Wednesdayalone, 2,865 persons werediagnosed with the diseasein the State, the highestnumber of cases to test pos-itive on a single day, accord-ing to the release issued bythe Government.

With 2,865 persons test-ing positive on Wednesday,the number of active cases inthe State shot up to 28,836and total near 70,000. TheState also saw 33 personssuccumbing to the pandem-ic on Wednesday. While 30persons died with co-morbidconditions, three patientshad no co-morbid condi-tions. Death toll till datereached 866 in the State.

The only news that gaveconsolation was the number

of patients who were dis-charged from the hospitalfully cured. On Wednesday,2,424 patients were dis-charged from the State’shospitals taking the totalnumber of persons whowere cured of the pandem-ic to 37, 763.

Massive testing acrossthe State continued in anaggressive pitch as 29,655persons were tested onWednesday. Till date 9.3lakh persons have been test-ed in the State through 88laboratories working round-the-clock.

According toDirectorate of Health offi-cials in Chennai, 17,000expatriates have returnedto the State since the VandeBharat flights commencedoperations. “The comingweeks will see this figurecrossing 20,000 as the nextround of flights begin theiroperation to bring backexpatriates who have regis-tered to return to the State,”said an official.

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In what the critics called a“handsome move” to fend off

and neutralise oppositionattacks over alleged corruption,nepotism, lack of transparen-cy, and shabby handling of thehealth and economy post coro-na and Amphan super cyclone,Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Wednesday calledan all-party meeting and con-stituted a task force comprisingsenior leaders from theOpposition ranks tasking itwith advisory and supervisoryrole over the proceedings.

“After some constructivedeliberations and suggestionsin the meeting an all-partycommittee has constituted”which will deliberate, adviceand oversee the entire pro-ceedings “for better tackling ofthe post corona and Amphancrises,” the Chief Minister saidafter a marathon three-and-a-

half hour closed-door meetingwith senior leaders. The taskforce headed by TrinamoolCongress general secretary andState Education MinisterPartho Chatterjee will consti-tute senior members from allthe parties BJP State chief DilipGhosh, CPI(M) State secretaryand politburo member DrSuryakanto Mishra, seniorleader and Congress MPPradip Bhattacharya apart fromsenior representatives of CPI,RSP, Forward Bloc, SUCI,NCP, SP etc, Banerjee said.

The meeting reportedlysaw the Opposition raising ahost of issues including lack oftransparency, nepotism andcorruption, particularly in thepost Amphan period.

“Deliberations were heldon a host of issues, and sug-gestions were accepted … fol-lowing which it was decidedthat the committee negotiatewith the Niti Ayog to find out

whether it can send a centralteam to permanently addressthe issue of flooding of theSunderabans,” Banerjee said.

Super cyclone Amphanhad devastated the area dis-placing more than a crore ofpeople.

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Bengal Forest Minister RajibBanerjee has composed

and sung a song for theGalwan martyrs of the IndianArmy.

The patriotic song com-posed by the Minister one ofthe young Turks of theTrinamool Congress is titledHindustan Meri Jaan. Salutingthe brave soldiers who foughtoff the Chinese aggressors onJune 15 he sings: “… Josh e dil,buland honsle … Duniy kodikhana hei …” (We’ll showthe courage and bravery to theworld).

On the night of theChinese attack 20, Indian sol-diers died at the borders whilefighting off the invaders and inthe process felling more than40 of them.

Two of the 20 martyrs --Sepoy Rajesh Orang fromBirbhum and LHav Bipul Royfrom Alipurduar --- belongedto Bengal.

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An Opposition BJP MLAGopichand Padalkar on

Wednesday courted a majorcontroversy, after he lashed outat NCP chief Sharad Pawar for“doing injustice” to the Bahujancommunity and described himas “a coronavirus that has infect-ed Maharashtra”.

Talking to media persons intemple town of Pandharpur inSolapur district of westernMaharashtra, Padalkar said:“Sharad Pawar is a Coronavirusthat has infected Maharashtra.He has consistently done injus-tice to Bahujan Samaj people. Ifanything, he has always to insti-gate the community. He has

ruled the state by either dodg-ing or evading 60 Bahujan com-munities. He has not allowedBahujan Samaj leaders to comeup in politics during the last 60to 70 years”.

Padalkar also charged thatPawar had no ideology or agen-da or even vision for the state.“I do not think Pawar is positiveabout reservations for theDhangar community. In thecoming monsoon session of theState Assembly, the OppositionBJP will corner the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Governmentover Dhangar reservations. Afterthe Coronavirus crisis, BahujanSamaj Youth across the State willtake to streets over Dhangarreservations,” the BJP MLA said.

Jammu: Ahead of taking a finaldecision with regard to theannual Amarnath yatra, advisorto Lieutenant Governor, BaseerAhmad Khan reviewed thearrangements made for thesmooth conduct of ShriAmarnathji Yatra, 2020 at ahigh level meeting in Srinagaron Wednesday.

During the meeting, BaseerAhmad Khan also directed thesenior officers representing dif-ferent departments to completeall the arrangements like clear-ing of track, installation of lights,water tanks, toilets, generators,PSPs, Public Address System,communication towers and roadsignage before the scheduleddate of start of yatra. In the wakeof Covid-19 pandemic the yatra,scheduled to start from June 23this year, is expected to takeplace in the month of July.

Lt-Governor GC Murmu isexpected to chair a high levelmeeting after the reopening ofDurbar move offices in Srinagarin the first week of July to takea final call on the date of start ofannual pilgrimage.Meanwhile,during the high level reviewmeeting, DivisionalCommissioner Kashmir, PKPole Wednesday gave a detailedbrief of the arrangements madeat the Holy cave and enroute forthe yatra. PNS

Jammu: To expedite the work offilling job vacancies in fast trackmode, Lieutenant Governor,GC Murmu Wednesdayaccorded approval to appoint-ment of six persons as memberof the Public ServiceCommission for the UnionTerritory of Jammu & Kashmir.

A Statutory Order issuedhere in this regard said that inexercise of powers conferred bySection 93 of the Jammu andKashmir Reorganisation Act,2019, and S.O. 3937 (E) dated31st October, 2019, read withOrder issued in terms of sub-clause (i) of clause (c) of theProclamation issued by thePresident dated 31st October,2019, the Lieutenant Governorof Union Territory of Jammu &Kashmir is pleased to appointthe following persons asMember of the Public ServiceCommission for the UnionTerritory of Jammu& Kashmi:S. Ahfadul Mujtaba, IPS,Director General, Prosecution,J&K; Syed Iqbal Aga, retiredDevelopment Commissioner(Works); Subash Gupta, retiredDistrict and Session Judge; DesRaj, Chief Engineer, PublicWorks (R&B), Jammu; SameerBharti, IFS (retired) andShowkat Ahmad Zargar, retiredAssociate Professor(Mathematics), HigherEducation Department. PNS

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In a disturbing development,the number of police person-

nel who have so far succumbedto Covid-19 in Maharashtrahas gone up to 51, while alarm-ing 4,288 police personnel havetested positive for the pandem-ic across the State.

Giving the details of theCovid-19 fatalities and infec-tions among the police person-nel in the state, MaharashtraHome Minister Anil Deshmukhtweeted: “4288 police personnelhave tested positive for Covid-1 9 .Of these 3,239 have recovered &51 have tragically succumbed”.

“There's been a steady risein the number of #Covid_19calls on the police helpline 100.As many as 1,04,424 such callshave been received. 279instances of assaults on police-men have seen 858 arrests,”Deshmukh tweeted.

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Page 6: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

At the turn of the 20th century,George Santayana, Spanishphilosopher, writer and essayist,wrote, “Those who cannotremember the past are con-

demned to repeat it.” We Indians possess aunique ability to wax eloquent on our civil-isational heritage and yet remain remarkablyignorant, or pay little heed to, or learn fromevents that have occurred in the not too dis-tant past. There must be something terriblywrong with our psyche that allows us torepeatedly condone Chinese bullying overborder matters as it was recently done in east-ern Ladakh. Undoubtedly, without any deepintrospection or corrective action, our abili-ty to break this ever-tightening squeeze isbound to fail.

We seemed to have learned nothing fromthe manner in which former Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru’s strong advocacy of theprinciples of “Panchsheel” crashed andburned, taking him along with the debris ofthe reverses suffered during the Sino-Indianconflict of 1962. Undoubtedly, he was spurredon by the belief, however fanciful, that the mil-itary was an unnecessary burden on a poorcountry like ours. It did bring us to our sens-es, though given our limited attention, it last-ed for around a decade. During this period,much attention and expenses were showeredto rapidly enhance our military capabilities.The fruits of which we saw in full measurenot just in the manner in which Pakistan wasbrought to its knees in 1971 but even earlieras Chinese aggression was squelched atNathu La, Sikkim, in 1967.

However, the simple lesson — that apowerful and capable military is what keepsthe wolf, in our case the dragon, at bay —was soon forgotten as former Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi and those who followed in herfootsteps immersed themselves in domes-tic politics. For them, an eviscerated Pakistanwas no longer a threat. Surprisingly enough,despite all that had occurred, the threat ema-nating from China was either ignored or justwished away. To the political establishment,all that mattered most then, and which hascontinued since, was their grasp on powerand the ability to retain it. Thus, every movewas made with that one sole intent, no mat-ter what the means or cost, often even at theexpense of national interest. The result of thiswas the rise of religious and cultural funda-mentalism and fissiparous tendencies with-in. Our military was always there, ever will-ing to pull the fat out of the fire, no matterwhat the cost. This focus on combating andattempting to extinguish the fires of insur-gencies in the north and the east kept the mil-itary occupied. This at a huge cost to its con-ventional warfare capabilities.

Ironically enough, the subsequentnuclearisation of the subcontinent added tothe perception, especially among our politi-cians, that conventional militaries werebecoming increasingly redundant. The pos-sibility of conventional wars being foughtamong nuclear-armed adversaries appearedto be progressively more remote. In fact, theKargil conflict of 1999 appeared to confirm

these perceptions. Neither sidewas willing to escalate the con-flict either in terms of space or theresources utilised.

This line of thought result-ed in the military being confront-ed with falling budgets, manda-tory troop cuts and the drying upof new weapons and equipment.This left a large void within thearmed forces, making it increas-ingly dependent on obsolescentweapons and equipment andhaving to deal with critical short-ages in personnel, ammunitionand other warfighting stores. Anatural corollary to this sharpdecline in the military’s impor-tance was that it provided anopportunity to the politico-bureaucratic nexus to cut it downto size. Tampering with institu-tional processes, interference inselection boards and systematicuse of Central Pay Commissionsto reduce their pay and perksbecame the norm. A deeplydivided military was left to con-stantly battle against all odds.Fortunately, as was the case evenin the darkest days prior to the1962 conflict, middle officers andthe rank and file as well as thecombat units remained relative-ly untouched.

The UPA era left us with agoverning coalition that wasmore intent on financial skull-duggery than nation-building. Itignored Pakistani transgressionsin Jammu and Kashmir. It wentto the extent of not even attempt-ing a credible response to the das-tardly terror attack on Mumbai.Interactions with China contin-ued along a well-worn path that

allowed the governing coalitionmembers to bury their collectiveheads and ignore all provocationson our borders.

All of this abruptly changedwith Prime Minister NarendraModi assuming charge. Heattempted to revitalise our inter-national standing using a potentmix of grandiose vision, theatricsand posturing. However, whatthe international communityfailed to realise was that every ini-tiative undertaken by him wasaimed more to impress thedomestic audience. In effect,nothing changed as despite all thetalk and posturing, the militarycontinued to see a downward spi-ral, accelerated by Modi’s need foran ideologically compatible andcompliant military leadership.

Thus, while robust retaliationagainst Pakistani interference inJammu and Kashmir became thenorm, given our conventionalsuperiority, we continued to treatChina with kid gloves. TheDoklam standoff was an outlierin this regard, reportedly broughton because of the intransigenceand resolve shown by local com-manders unwilling to be bulliedby the People’s Liberation Army(PLA) or our Army headquar-ters. It forced the Government towalk the talk to preserve Modi’simage of being a robust, strongand powerful leader. He wasobviously able to persuadePresident Xi at the Wuhan infor-mal summit that this image wasonly for domestic consumption.He quickly agreed to a vaguelyworded statement that wasblandly referred to as the Wuhan

consensus. Two visible signs thatemerged from this agreementwere: First, our refusal to act asthe Chinese systematically occu-pied much of the Doklam plateauand other territories thatbelonged to our ally, Bhutan.Second, on their part, theChinese seemed to have kept totheir side of the bargain as no fur-ther incidents on the LACmarred Modi’s run-up to the gen-eral elections.

It was the unexpected andlargely unprecedented successat the hustings and the subse-quent support it received for itsactions on abrogating the specialstatus of Jammu and Kashmirthat made the BJP cocky. HomeMinister Amit Shah made themistake of proclaiming inParliament his Government’sintent to recover not justPakistan-occupied Kashmir butalso the Aksai Chin from Chineseoccupation. A grievous error ofjudgment that the Chinese didnot take kindly to, especially sincethey were already upset with ourattempts to enhance border con-nectivity along the LAC.

From what has since tran-spired, one can safely concludethat the bonhomie displayed atthe Mamallapuram summit waspurely for public consumptionand President Xi Jinping hadprobably already made up hismind to teach us a lesson andbring Modi down a peg or two.The PLA’s actions to change theLAC in eastern Ladakh under-taken at the beginning of thecampaigning season is a clearpointer in this regard.

This despite the CentralGovernment’s earlier studiedsilence to the allegations made inParliament by its own MP fromArunachal East, Tapir Gao, thatby December 2019, “the Chinesehad occupied more than 50-60kilometres of Indian territory.”This included the Longju sector.That we reportedly moved theIndian Army positions back sug-gests connivance on the part ofthe Union Government.

For those unfamiliar with the“Longju incident”, it was onAugust 25, 1959, that PLA troopsingressed 12 km into Indian ter-ritory and surrounded ourAssam Rifles post there, openingunprovoked fire, leading to thedeath of two personnel. Theincident was resolved throughdiplomatic efforts, the PLA with-drawal being tied to our aban-doning our post permanently. Itssignificance lay in the fact that itwas only after this incident thatNehru conceded for the first timein Parliament that the Chinesehad not only occupied 37,000 sqkm of our territory in the AksaiChin region but had also built ahighway through it connectingTibet to Xingjian without anysubstantive action on our part.

Ironically, Modi faces a sim-ilar dilemma as was confrontedby Nehru after the Longju inci-dent. He was forced to implementan unviable “forward policy”based on the untenable premisethat the PLA would not respond.The rest, as we say, is history.Under other circumstances,Modi may have gotten away.Perhaps this time, too, by resort-ing to obfuscation and doingnothing as he seems to have donein Arunachal Pradesh.Unfortunately, the unprecedent-ed events in the Galwan Valleyleave no room for Modi to wig-gle out as he attempted to do withhis statement following the all-party meet.

He now faces a Hobson’schoice but hopefully, he realisesthat he has to ace up his sleevebecause presently, our Armyretains an edge over the PLAgiven its combat experience,high-altitude warfare skills andthe advantages of terrain. Inaddition, our Air Force, Navy andSpecial Operations Forces arepotent force multipliers that willbe game-changers if a conflictbecomes inevitable. One hopesthat the Prime Minister learnsfrom past events and chooses acourse of action that is in thecountry’s interest and not farci-cal actions that the politicalestablishment has been indulgingin over the years and has got awaywith till now.

(The writer a military veter-an is a consultant with theObserver Research Foundationand a Senior Visiting Fellow withThe Peninsula Foundation,Chennai)

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Sir — Our hatred for China seesno bounds when border disputesflare up. Following the face-off atthe Galwan Valley, many citizenshave demanded a total boycott ofChinese goods. Hashtags such as#BoycottChina and#BoycottChineseProducts havebeen trending on Twitter. Butdoes this hate campaign offer anyhope for success? Or is it even rea-sonable?

In the current globalisedworld, countries are heavilydependent on each other withsupply chains of many firmsspanning various geographies.Practically speaking, it’s not pos-sible for any country to boycottone another in this age whenglobal trade is very much depen-dent on services of other nations.

Most importantly, in the caseof India, if we sever links withChina, several industries willsuffer. India’s anger after Galwanis justified but instead of takingknee-jerk decisions, this momentmust be used to boost manufac-turing and eventually reducedependence on China’s factories.

Santosh Kumar MohantyVia email

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Sir — The Government has donewell to ask Baba Ramdev’sPatanjali to stop advertising of amedicine, Coronil, which itclaims is the first Ayurvedic med-icine to cure COVID-19.

It must be understood that

what we are facing right now is aserious crisis that cannot be treat-ed like any another businessopportunity. That Patanjali couldlaunch a “medicine” without anyapproval by the Governmentproves how poorly the sector isregulated.

ShambhaviVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Rathyatra challenge” (June 23).The Supreme Court’s order allow-ing the Jagannath yatra to contin-ue with several restrictions inplace has set a bad precedent.Temples across the country will

now demand that their festivalsand rituals be allowed.

The court has allowed 500people to pull each chariot.Further, it has said that each servi-tor must be tested for COVID-19before he/she is allowed to par-ticipate. This will put enormousburden on the public healthauthorities. As it is, India’s testingcapacity is too low. Even thosewho need them the most arestruggling to get the tests done.Testing of thousands of people forthe sake of a religious festival wasunnecessary and very muchavoidable.

SrinivasBhubaneswar

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Sir — If Chinese goods arebanned in India, we will have toface reciprocity of the same pol-icy. Our exports to China accountfor 13 per cent of the total exportsand their exports to India aremerely 3 per cent. So, India willsuffer more by banning products.

TusharVia email

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Page 7: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Nothing throws the spotlight on the grave bet-ter than the conveniently-ignored issues ofmental health, depression and anxiety sur-

rounding a celebrity suicide. It forces us to face thefact that mental health issues exist in the countryand that we need to address them as a society andnot brush them under the carpet or be embarrassedabout seeking help before it is too late. Celebrity sui-cides make us realise that a life full of fame, for-tune and accolades is not all that it is made out tobe and that achieving more will not necessarily makeus happier. They reassert the fact that no one is safefrom self-doubt, depression, loneliness, mental anx-ieties and disorders and we need to address theseissues on a war footing, particularly during the cur-rent pandemic as people are undergoing a lot ofsocial, economic and emotional stress.

Undetected cases of mental disorders create anunrecognised burden on society as well as the work-force, which in turn lead to a massive economic lossto the country. According to an estimate by theWorld Health Organisation (WHO), mental illnessmakes up about 15 per cent of the total disease bur-den around the world. The same estimate also sug-gests that India has one of the largest affected pop-ulations on the planet. As a result, the WHO haslabelled India as the world’s most depressed coun-try, closely followed by China and the US.

So, what explanation can there be for this cat-astrophic state of our mental health? Unfortunately,there are no answers and initiations for solutionsin sight; there is no vaccine against suicide on theway. We just need to beef up our mental health sys-tem.

According to a study, between 1990 to 2017, onein seven people in the country suffered from men-tal illness ranging from depression, anxiety to schiz-ophrenia, with no discernible rural-urban differ-ences. And of all the age groups, it is the adolescentswho need mental health help the most. Current sta-tistics say that 7.5 per cent of the Indian populationsuffers from mental disorders and mental illness con-stitutes one-sixth of the country’s disease burden.It is no exaggeration to suggest that the country isunder a mental health epidemic.

Statistically, we are more likely to kill ourselvestoday than we were ten years ago. But the big ques-tion is that if life wasn’t worth living for people suchas film stars Sushant Singh Rajput, Kushal Punjabi,Jiah Khan, Pratyusha Banerjee and Cafe Coffee Dayfounder VG Siddhartha, how can the more ordinarylives hold up? Sadly, people with clinical depressionare more inclined to commit suicide after hearingnews of high-profile suicides. For instance therewere a couple of suicides by fans of Sushant SinghRajput within days of his death and there was a near-ly 10 per cent spike in copycat suicides in the USfollowing Hollywood star Robin Williams’ death byhanging.

By and large, suicide is impulsive and if themeans do not spring to hand, the impulse passesand people get on with their lives. Another factor,and most pertinent to today’s context is the fact thatsocial isolation is a significant risk factor for self-harm. People who believe (in that altered state ofmind) that no one will miss them have little to standbetween them and the final act.

Various reports, including one from the Centrefor Disease Control and Prevention, US, show a vastincrease in suicides over the decade and assert that54 per cent of these when reviewed didn’t have apreviously known mental health issue. Instead, thosepeople were suffering from other issues, such as rela-tionship problems, death in the family, substancemisuse, job losses, financial problems, a sudden cri-sis or traumatic events.

Suicide is a result of despair and hopelessness,

which can be fed by mental illness or bylife’s circumstances, but is almost alwaysthe result of both.

Renowned psychiatrist ProfessorThomas Szasz, in his book, The Myth ofMental Illness, argues that psychiatric diag-noses were too vague to meet scientificmedical standards and that it was a mis-take to label people as being ill when theywere really, as he termed it, “disabled byliving” — dealing with vicissitudes thatwere a natural part of life.

In the late 19th century, researchersexplored the brain’s anatomy in an attemptto identify the origins of mental disorders.The studies ultimately proved fruitless andtheir failure produced a split in the field.Some psychiatrists sought non-biologicalcauses for mental disorders while othersdoubled down on the biological approachand increasingly pursued a hotchpotch oftheories and projects. The split is still evi-dent today.

There’s a long history of scientificresearch searching for specific biologicalcauses of mental diseases. In 1885, theBoston Medical and Surgical Journal notedthat the increase in the number of thosewith an unsound mind had been excep-tionally rapid in the last decade. Mentalasylums built earlier in that century wereoverflowing with patients.

This pointed to a possible relation ofrise in insanity to the rapid spread ofsyphilis. What we now know to be a latestage of syphilis was at that time termed“general paralysis of the insane.” Patientswere afflicted by dementia and grandiosedelusions and they acquired a wobbly gait.Towards the end of the century, it becameevident that as many as one in five peo-ple entering a mental asylum had “gener-al paralysis of the insane.” Proof of a rela-tionship between the condition andsyphilis came in 1897 and marked the firsttime that a psychiatric illness had been dis-covered to have a specific biologicalcause. But after the work on syphilis,researchers couldn’t pin down any othercorrelation of a disorder of the mind to abiological pathology.

Neurologists of the time then heavi-ly focussed on autopsy findings of men-

tally-disabled patients. But none of thesemental illnesses left any trace in the solidtissue of the brain. Dr Anne Harrington— a renowned historian who had doneextensive work on evolution of psychia-try as a stream of medicine — framed thisoutcome in the Cartesian terms of a mind-body dualism: “Brain anatomists hadfailed so miserably because they focussedon the brain at the expense of the mind,”she said.

Austrian neurologist and the founderof psychoanalysis Sigmund Freudacknowledged the fact that the case his-tories of patients that he wrote should readlike short stories and lack the seriousstamp of science. He justified the approachby pointing to the inefficacy of othermethods and asserted that there was “anintimate connection between the story ofthe patient’s sufferings and the symptomsof his illness.”

Although psychiatry is yet to find thepathogenesis of most mental ailments —mild and severe — it is important toremember that medical treatment is oftenbeneficial even when pathogenesisremains unknown. Even in instanceswhere the discovery of pathogenesis hasproduced medical successes, it has oftenworked in tandem with other factors.Without the discovery of HIV, we wouldnot have anti-retroviral drugs and yet thehalt in the spread of AIDS owes much tosimple innovations, such as safe-sex edu-cation and the distribution of free needlesand condoms.

There are quite a few hypotheses onpathogenesis of mental illness and it is tooearly to say whether any of these couldhold the key to them. Many people havebeen helped with medication and psy-chotherapy. There have been otherapproaches, such as cognitive behav-ioural therapy, which was propounded inthe 70s by psychiatrists. They posited thatdepressed individuals habitually feltunworthy and helpless and that theirbeliefs could be “unlearned” with train-ing. An experiment in 1977 showed thatcognitive behavioural therapy outper-formed one of the leading anti-depressantsof the time.

The reason for India to lose its men-tal health is sheer lack of awareness andtotal insensitivity to the issue. When itcomes to physical health, people are soaware that they know everything there isto know: What super-foods to eat; themost cutting-edge workouts to stay fit;how to monitor every aspect of theirhealth with state-of-the-art fitness tech-nology and what health supplements totake. But when it comes to mental healththere is very little awareness even in cos-mopolitan cities.

And to add to this, there is still a stig-ma around mental illnesses. This leads toa vicious cycle of shame, suffering and iso-lation worsening the situation further.Although there have been several cam-paigns on mental health in the country,the count of suicide attempts due todepression hasn’t gone down much.Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, whohas battled depression in the past, has beentrying to spread awareness with The LiveLove Laugh Foundation (TLLLF) support-ed by her. TLLLF released a report in 2017,based on views of 3,556 respondents acrosseight Indian cities that highlighted theimportance of focussed stigma-reductionprogrammes. It said that as many as 87 percent of the respondents in the survey feltmental illness was a disorder.

However, the biggest impediment tosound mental health in the country is thefact that there is a severe shortage of men-tal healthcare workforce. According to theWHO, in 2011, there were 0·301 psychi-atrists and 0·047 psychologists for every1,00,000 patients suffering from a men-tal disorder in India.

Currently there are less than 4,000mental health professionals available fora demography of about 20 per cent (as pera WHO prediction for India by 2020) of1.3 billion Indians suffering from mentalillnesses of varied severity and type. Suchissues of basic need fulfillment aggravatethe scale of the problem and need imme-diate attention of policymakers and healthauthorities before they explode in anuncontrollable epidemic.

(The writer is a doctor by professionand an author)

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India is one of the 17 countries fac-ing extremely high water stress.Groundwater has been declining

at an alarming rate and more than athird of the country’s population livesin water-stressed areas. This numberis set to grow due to depletinggroundwater and rising urbanisation.However, before we probe as to whythis is occurring, let us first establishthat this unfortunate situation isindeed true. According to the NITIAayog, all of the largest cities in India

are in the process of losing theirgroundwater reserves. The plight isso great that it is likely that by 2030a whopping 40 per cent of the pop-ulation of the country will lackdrinking water.

Nor is this problem confined tothe cities. It also threatens occupantsin the periphery, specifically occu-pants of Ladakh, which has longdepended upon melting snow fromthe Himalayan mountains for its sup-ply.

What, then, is the cause of thiscrisis? It has been attributed to pop-ulation growth, a tourist boom andGovernment mismanagement. All ofthese causes have the ring of truth tothem. But this could hardly be allthere is to the story, for the people ofthe subcontinent are not running outof other liquids, such as milk, orangejuice, oil, petrol, diesel and so on. Norfor that matter are solids, such as cars,

steel, bricks, air conditioners or bicy-cles in any short supply. If an increasein population and tourism canexplain water shortages, it is difficultto see why these other items wouldnot also be vulnerable to the sameantecedents. In order to arrive at abetter explanation of the problem, weask what do all these other consumerand producer goods have in commonthat is lacking for water? Or, to putthe matter inversely, what is true ofwater that does not apply to any ofthese others?

When put in this way, there isonly one element that pops up:Water is free or priced very nominal-ly across the country. People have topay a lot of money for every othergood on this list. Why is this diver-gence even of relevance? Cast youreyes back to economics 101 and thesupply and demand model. Whenprice was above equilibrium, supply

was greater than demand, and therewas a downward pressure on prices.That would cure the surplus. On theother hand, when prices were belowthis point, demand was greater thansupply and the tendency was for a risein prices. When this occurred, theshortage would tend to vanish. Butsuppose that the rate of exchange wasnot allowed to increase? Then,demand would continue to be greaterthan supply and the shortage wouldbecome permanent.

This is precisely what is going onwith regard to the water crisis inIndia. Price is fixed at zero/nominal,a rate below that which would occurunder free enterprise. How can thisshortage be solved? Simple. Placewater on the same economic plane asall these other goods and services.The shortage, all shortages, are causedby prices below equilibrium levels.Allow them to rise and voila, there is

no more shortfall. But wait. Shouldn’twater be free? Well, yes, in placeswhere there is plenty of it. But one ofthese places is not India. At least notright now, nor in the foreseeablefuture, if these prognostications arecorrect.

At present, air is a free good. But,when we get to the Moon, or Mars,it will not be. Not if we have anysense, that is. There is nothing “holy”about water. If it is not placed underthe cash nexus when it is in short sup-ply, people will go thirsty. There is nomore “right” to water than there isany right to air, or copper, or corn.Thinking that there is will only leadto the problems being faced by India.

Has this solution ever workedbefore? Has allowing prices to riseever called forth more supply? Oneof the most basic postulates in eco-nomics is that supply curves slope inan upward direction. Raise remuner-

ation and more quantity is calledforth. Want to encourage more peo-ple to work in Alaska? Pay themmore. Want to have any sanitationworkers at all? Their salaries mustexceed equally skilled but cleaneroccupations, to overcome the nega-tive effects of a difficult and unhy-gienic job (this is called compensat-ing differentials by economists).Want to encourage entrepreneurs tobring more food, toilet paper, babydiapers to Katrina-beleaguered NewOrleans? Then the last thing you needare laws criminalising “price gouging.”Yes, higher prices wend their waythrough the warp and woof of theeconomy, boosting supplies. India isno exception to this general rule, andneither is water.

(The writer is a world-renownedeconomist, author and Professor ofEconomics, Loyola University, NewOrleans)

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India applied sustained pres-sure to “detect, disrupt, and

degrade” terrorist activitieswithin its borders in 2019 andits security agencies are effec-tive in disrupting terror threatsdespite some gaps in intelli-gence and information sharing,according to a US report on Wednesday.

In 2019, India suffered ter-rorist attacks in the state ofJammu and Kashmir and partsof central India, the annualCountry Reports on Terrorismreleased by the StateDepartment said.

“The Government of Indiacontinued to apply sustainedpressure to detect, disrupt, anddegrade terrorist activitieswithin its borders,” it said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi and other senior Indianleaders made numerous state-ments to condemn domesticterrorist attacks and bring tojustice the perpetrators of ter-rorism, in cooperation with theUnited States and other like-minded countries, it added.

Indian security agencies,the report said, are effective indisrupting terror threats despitesome gaps in intelligence andinformation sharing.

“The United States andIndia increased CT cooperation

in 2019,” the State Departmentsaid.

In March, the US and Indiaheld the annualCounterterrorism JointWorking Group inWashington, DC, meeting con-currently with the second US-India Designations Dialogue.

Both countries announcedtheir intent to prevent terror-ists from obtaining access toweapons of mass destructionand underscored their respec-tive commitments to the imple-mentation of the UN SecurityCouncil resolutions No 2396.

In December, the UnitedStates hosted the 2+2Ministerial Dialogue, in whichthe ministers called for con-certed action against all ter-rorist networks, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed,HQN (the Haqqani network),Hizb-ul Mujahideen, andTehrik-i-Taliban, the reportnoted.

Referring to the changesmade in the counter-terrorismlaws, the report said that thenewly amended NIA Act canfurther improve bilateral lawenforcement cooperation.

“The efficacy and impact ofthe newly amended laws willlikely be tested in ongoing ter-rorism cases in the Indian stateof Jammu & Kashmir, as well as

cases involving what Indiacharacterizes as ‘left-wingextremists,” and cases involvinginsurgencies in NortheastIndia,’ it said.

In August, India amendedthe Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act of 1967 toauthorise the designation ofindividuals as terrorists – whichit did a month later by desig-nating four terrorists, includingthe leaders of LeT and JeM.

The Parliament alsoamended the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)Act of 2008 to provide the NIA with the ability to inves-tigate terrorism cases over-seas, it said.

The NIA Act was enactedin the aftermath of the Mumbaiterrorist attacks of 2008. Adecade later, the Act wasamended with the objective ofspeedy investigation and pros-ecution of certain offences,including those committedoutside India.

The National InvestigationAgency (Amendment) Bill,2019 was passed by Lok Sabhaon July 15, 2019, and by RajyaSabha on July 17, 2019.

In 2016, India and theUnited States signed anarrangement to exchange ter-rorism screening information,and India continues to work onimplementation.

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Voters rebuffed PresidentDonald Trump and nom-

inated two Republicans heopposed to House seats fromNorth Carolina and Kentuckyon Tuesday. Calls in higher-profile races in Kentucky andNew York faced days of delayas swamped officials countmountains of mail-in ballots.

In western North Carolina,GOP voters picked 24-year-oldinvestor Madison Cawthornover Trump-backed real estateagent Lynda Bennett. Therunoff was for the seat vacatedby GOP Rep. Mark Meadows,who resigned to becomeTrump’s chief of staff andjoined his new boss in backingBennett.

Kentucky Republican Rep.Thomas Massie, a libertarian-minded maverick who often

clashes with GOP leaders, wasrenominated for a sixth Houseterm. Trump savaged Massie inMarch as a “disaster forAmerica” who should be eject-ed from the party after heforced lawmakers to return toWashington during a pan-demic to vote on a huge eco-nomic relief package.Cawthorn, who uses a wheel-chair following an accident, willmeet the constitutionally man-dated minimum age of 25when the next Congress con-venes. Cawthorn has said he’sa Trump supporter, and Massieis strongly conservative. Still,their victories were an embar-rassment to a president whoseown reelection campaign hasteetered recently.As states easevoting by mail because of thecoronavirus pandemic, a delugeof mail-in ballots and glacial-ly slow counting proceduresmade delays inevitable. Thattorturous wait seemed a

preview of November,when more states will embracemail-in voting and officialswarn that uncertainty overwho’s the next president couldlinger for days. Kentucky usu-ally has 2% of its returns comefrom mail ballots. This yearofficials expect that figure toexceed 50%, and over 400,000mail ballots were returned bySunday.

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Defence Minister RajnathSingh said he was extreme-

ly proud that a 75-member Tri-service contingent of the IndianArmed Forces participated inthe 75th anniversary of theVictory Day Parade at theiconic Red Square here onWednesday.

Singh arrived here on athree-day visit on Tuesday atthe invitation of the RussianMinistry of Defence to attendthe celebrations.

“Attending the Victory DayParade at Red Square inMoscow today to commemo-rate the 75th Anniversary ofVictory of the Soviet People inthe great Patriotic War of 1941-1945,” Singh tweeted.

“I am proud that a Tri-Service contingent of theIndian Armed Forces is alsoparticipating in this parade,” hetweeted.

“Impressive turnout of theTri-Service contingent of theIndian Armed Forces at theVictory Day Parade in Moscowis indeed an extremely proudand happy moment for me,”Singh said in another tweet.

The Tri-Service contingentof the Indian Armed Forcescomprised 75 all ranks andmarched along with contin-gents of Russian Armed Forcesand 17 other countries, accord-

ing to an official statement.The British Indian Armed

Forces during World War-IIwere one of the largest AlliedForces contingents which tookpart in the North and EastAfrican Campaign, WesternDesert Campaign and theEuropean Theatre against theAxis powers. This campaignwitnessed sacrifice by over87,000 Indian servicemenbeside 34,354 being wounded,the statement said.

The Indian Military not

only fought on all fronts, butalso ensured delivery of goodsalong the Southern, Trans-Iranian Lend-Lease route,along which weapons, ammu-nitions, spare parts for equip-ment and food went to theSoviet Union, Iran and Iraq, itsaid.

On Tuesday, Singh calledon Russian Deputy PrimeMinister Yury Borisov and thetwo leaders held discussions onthe bilateral relationship,regional issues, and reviewed

the India-Russia defence coop-eration. Singh also conveyedhis greetings for the solemnceremonies of the 75th VictoryDay and congratulated the“friendly” people of Russia,specially the veterans, whohave contributed to the com-mon security of India andRussia, the statement said onTuesday.The parade wasreviewed by Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, war veteransand guests, including DefenceMinister Singh.

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New coronavirus cases inthe US have surged to

their highest level in twomonths and are now back towhere they were at the peak ofthe outbreak.

The US on Tuesday report-ed 34,700 new cases of thevirus, according to a tally com-piled by Johns HopkinsUniversity that was publishedWednesday. There have beenonly two previous days that theUS has reported more cases:April 9 and April 24, when arecord 36,400 cases werelogged.

New cases in the US havebeen surging for more than aweek after trending down formore than six weeks. Whileearly hot spots like New Yorkand New Jersey have seen casessteadily decrease, the virus hasbeen hitting the south andwest. Several states on Tuesdayset single-day records, includ-ing Arizona, California,Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.

Cases were also surging inother parts of the world. Indiareported a record daily increaseof nearly 16,000 new cases.Mexico, where testing rateshave been low, also set a recordwith more than 6,200 newcases.

But China appears to havetamed a new outbreak of thevirus in Beijing, once againdemonstrating its ability toquickly mobilize vast resourcesby testing nearly 2.5 millionpeople in 11 days.

In the US state of Arizona,which on Tuesday reported arecord 3,600 new infections,hundreds of young conserva-tives packed a megachurch tohear President Donald Trump’scall for them to back his reelec-tion bid.

As he did at a rally inOklahoma over the weekend,Trump referred to the viruswith a pejorative term direct-ed at its emergence in China.

Ahead of the event, theDemocratic mayor of Phoenix,Kate Gallego, made clear thatshe did not believe the speechcould be safely held in her city— and urged the president towear a face mask. He did not.Trump has refused to wear amask in public, instead turningit into a red-vs.-blue culturalissue.

Earlier Tuesday, DrAnthony Fauci told Congressthat the next few weeks are crit-ical to tamping down the surge.

“Plan A, don’t go in acrowd. Plan B, if you do, makesure you wear a mask,” saidFauci, the infectious diseasechief at the National Institutesof Health.

In China, an outbreak thathas infected more than 200people in the capital this monthappeared to be firmly waning.China on Wednesday reported12 cases, down from 22 the daybefore. Beijing reported sevennew cases, down from 13.

Officials in Beijing saidthey tested more than 2.4 mil-lion people between June 12and June 22. That’s more than

10 per cent of the capital’s pop-ulation of about 20 million.

Authorities began testingpeople at food markets and inthe areas around them. Theyexpanded that to includerestaurant staff and the city’s100,000 delivery workers.China also said it used big datato find people who had beennear markets for testing, with-out specifying how.

The vast majority havetested negative, though onecourier delivering groceriesfrom supermarkets tested pos-itive.

A single inflatable mobilelab in one district was capableof conducting 30,000 tests aday, the official Xinhua NewsAgency said.

South Korea, which suc-cessfully tamed its first wave ofinfections, is seeing anotherrise. While the first outbreakwas centered in its fourth-largest city, the current out-break is in the Seoul region,where most South Koreanslive. Authorities reported 51cases Wednesday.

Its increase of 40 to 50cases every day over the pasttwo weeks comes amidincreased public activity andeased attitudes on social dis-tancing.In India, with a popu-lation of more than 1.3 billion,the densely populated cities ofMumbai and New Delhi havebeen hardest hit. The countryhas reported more than450,000 cases of the virus,including more than 14,000deaths.

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Americans are unlikely to beallowed into Europe when

the continent reopens its bor-ders next week, due to how thecoronavirus pandemic is flar-ing in the US and PresidentDonald Trump’s ban onEuropeans entering the UnitedStates.

European nations appearon track to reopen their bor-ders between each other byJuly 1, and their representativesin Brussels are now debatingwhat virus-related criteriashould apply when lifting bor-der restrictions to the outsideworld that were imposed inMarch.

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State-owned gas utility GAILIndia Ltd on Wednesday

reported a 170 per cent jumpin its fourth-quarter net prof-it, as lower corporate tax rateoffset lower petrochemical andnatural gas prices.

Net profit in January-March 2020 at �3,018.20 crore,or �6.69 per share, was 169 percent higher than �1,122.23crore, or �2.49 a share, netprofit in the correspondingquarter a year ago, GAILChairman and ManagingDirector Manoj Jain toldreporters here.

Jain said the companyopted for lower corporate taxrates offered by theGovernment to firms willing toforego exemptions.

The lower tax rate offset adip in petrochemical, liquidhydrocarbon and natural gasprices. Besides, leading to a dipin energy prices, the outbreakof the coronavirus pandemicand the ensuing lockdown tocontain its spread also evapo-rated demand after industriesshut down.

Jain said natural gasdemand fell by up to 30 percent in April as industries shutdown and city gas operationscomprising of mainly CNGsales saw a slump with vehiclesgoing off road.

The demand has sincereturned to near normal afterlifting of the restrictions.“Except for CNG, we are nearnormal,” he said adding thatpre-COVID-19 levels for CNG

sales are expected in twomonths.The fall in domesticdemand led to the companyasking both domestic produc-ers as well as its overseas LNGsuppliers to reschedule supplyof some of the gas volumes.

In 2019-20, thecompany imported 74 cargoesor shiploads of liquefied nat-ural gas — 44 from US, 3 fromQatar, 15 from Gazprom ofRussia and 12 from spot orcurrent market. As many as 56cargoes of the LNG contract-ed from the US were sold inoverseas market in the finan-cial year ended March 2020.

In 2020-21, it has sched-uled 49 of US cargoes to cometo India and sold 28 of them inthe overseas market. Another8-9 cargoes are left untied, hesaid.

Considering the slump indemand in the first quarter,GAIL may end up cuttingdown on spot volumes.

Jain said the company hada capita expenditure (capex)spending of �6,114 crore in2019-20, mostly in laying ofpipelines.In the current finan-cial year 2020-21, it plans to

maintain a capex spend of�4,000-5,000 crore, he saidadding that there is no reviewof the spending in view ofCOVID-19 as most of theexpenditure is in ongoing com-mitted projects of laying gaspipeline grid. Jain said thecompany has decided to optfor the tax dispute resolutionscheme, the Vivad se VishwasScheme 2020, in respect of 44number of income tax cases,involving 21 assessment year1996-97 to 2016-17 having anestimated financial implicationof � 2,157.34 crore. “On set-tlement of these cases, in termsof the scheme, there would bean income tax liability ofapproximately � 1,183.15 croreand accordingly, after consid-ering the existing provision of�265.59 crore already made inthe previous years, additionalprovision of � 917.56 crore hasbeen made towards taxexpenses during the financialyear 2019-20,” he said. For thefull financial year 2019-20,GAIL recorded a 10 per centrise in its net profit to �6,621crore as the company opted forlower corporte tax rate.

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The IMF on Wednesday pro-jected a sharp contraction

of 4.5 per cent for the Indianeconomy in 2020, a “historiclow,” citing the unprecedentedcoronavirus pandemic that hasnearly stalled all economicactivities, but said the countryis expected to bounce back in2021 with a robust six per centgrowth rate.

The InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) pro-jected the global growth at–4.9 per cent in 2020, 1.9 per-centage points below the April2020 World Economic Outlook(WEO) forecast.

“We are projecting a sharpcontraction in 2020 of -4.5 percent. Given the unprecedentednature of this crisis, as is thecase for almost all countries,this projected contraction is ahistoric low,” Indian-AmericanGita Gopinath, IMF’s ChiefEconomist, told PTI as shereleased the World EconomicOutlook Update here.

The COVID-19 pandemic

has had a more negative impacton activity in the first half of2020 than anticipated, and therecovery is projected to bemore gradual than previouslyforecast. In 2021, global growthis projected at 5.4 per cent, thereport said.

For the first time, allregions are projected to expe-rience negative growth in 2020.In China, where the recoveryfrom the sharp contraction inthe first quarter is underway,growth is projected at 1.0 percent in 2020, supported in partby policy stimulus. “ I n d i a’seconomy is projected to con-tract by 4.5 per cent followinga longer period of lockdownand slower recovery than antic-ipated in April,” the IMF said.

The IMF’s record revealsthat this is the lowest ever forIndia since 1961. The IMFdoes not have the data beyondthat year. However, India’seconomy is expected to bounceback in 2021 with a robust sixper cent growth, it said.

In 2019, India’s growth ratewas 4.2 per cent.

The latest 2020 projectionfor India is a massive -6.4 percent less than it’s the April fore-cast of the IMF. The projectedgrowth rate of 6 per cent in2021 is -1.4 per cent less thanits April forecast.

“The COVID-19 pandem-ic pushed economies into aGreat Lockdown, which helpedcontain the virus and savelives, but also triggered theworst recession since the GreatDepression,” Gopinath said.

Over 75 per cent of coun-tries are now reopening at thesame time as the pandemic isintensifying in many emergingmarkets and developingeconomies. Several countrieshave started to recover.However, in the absence of amedical solution, the strength

of the recovery is highly uncer-tain and the impact on sectorsand countries uneven, sheadded.

In a blog post, Gopinathsaid that this global crisis likeno other will have a recoverylike no other.

“First, the unprecedentedglobal sweep of this crisis ham-pers recovery prospects forexport-dependent economiesand jeopardises the prospectsfor income convergencebetween developing andadvanced economies,” she said.

“We are projecting a syn-chronised deep downturn in2020 for both advancedeconomies (-8 per cent) andemerging market and devel-oping economies (-3 per cent;-5 per cent if excluding China),

and over 95 per cent of coun-tries are projected to have neg-ative per capita income growthin 2020,” she added.

“The cumulative hit toGDP growth over 2020–21 foremerging market and devel-oping economies, excludingChina, is expected to exceedthat in advanced economies,”Gopinath said.

In her blog, she noted thata high degree of uncertaintysurrounds this forecast, withboth upside and downside risksto the outlook. On theupside, better news on vaccinesand treatments, and addition-al policy support can lead to aquicker resumption of eco-nomic activity. On the down-side, further waves of infectionscan reverse increased mobilityand spending, and rapidlytighten financial conditions,triggering debt distress, shesaid.”Geopolitical and tradetensions could damage fragileglobal relationships at a timewhen trade is projected to col-lapse by around 12 per cent,”Gopinath said.

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Power Finance Corporationon Wednesday reported

about 80% decline in consoli-dated net profit at a �693.71crore for the quarter endedMarch 2020, mainly due totransaction exchange loss.

The company had posted aconsolidated net profit of �3,391.27 crore in the quarterended March 31, 2019, a reg-ulatory filing said.Total income

during the quarter underreview rose to �16,254.65 crorefrom �14,387.92 crore in theyear-ago quarter. For fiscalyear 2019-20, consolidated netprofit declined to �9,477.24crore from �12,640.27 crore in2018-19.However, total incomein 2019-20 rose to �62,275.36crore from �54,156.83 crore in2018-19.The drop in net prof-it is primarily due to transac-tion (foreign) exchange loss of� 3,084.78 crore for the quar-

ter ended March 31 as com-pared with a gain of �160.23crore in the year-ago period, itsaid. For fiscal 2019-20, trans-action exchange loss widenedto �4,991.32 crore from�1,041.44 crore in 2018-19.Commenting on the outlook,PFC CMD RS Dhillon toldPTI there is no reason tobelieve the COVID-19 pan-demic will have any significantimpact on the ability of thecompany to run its operations.

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Snapping its four-day risingstreak, the BSE Sensex sur-

rendered all early gains toplunge 561 points onWednesday as investors bookedprofits in banking and financestocks ahead of expiry ofmonthly derivatives contracts.

Weak cues from globalmarkets amid rising coron-avirus cases and a falteringrupee further sapped riskappetite, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex,which opened on a strongnote, came under heavy sellingpressure in afternoon trade. Itfinally closed at 34,868.98,down 561.45 points, or 1.58 percent.

Similarly, the NSE Niftytumbled 165.70 points, or 1.58per cent, to end at 10,305.30.

IndusInd Bank was the toplaggard in the Sensex pack,tanking 7.43 per cent, followedby ICICI Bank, PowerGrid,Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank andSBI.

On the other hand, AsianPaints, ITC, Nestle India, TechMahindra, Reliance Industriesand TCS spurted up to 3.82 percent. “In spite of openingpositive, markets finally endednegative, in sync with negative

global cues. The rising cases ofvirus infections worldwide,especially in the Americas,unnerved the global markets.Domestic cases too show nosigns of abating and this mustbe weighing on the investors.

“Almost all sectoral indicesended in the red, with the bankindex the major loser. Ahead ofF&O expiry (on Thursday),markets are expected to remainvolatile and investors advised tokeep booking profits,” saidVinod Nair, Head of Researchat Geojit Financial Services.

BSE bankex, telecom,finance, realty, power andhealthcare indices plunged upto 4.08 per cent, while FMCGclosed in the green.

Broader BSE mid-cap andsmall-cap indices dropped up

to 1.24 per cent. Global equities skidded on

concerns over rising COVID-19 cases, even as economies areopening up.

Bourses in Hong Kongand Tokyo settled in the red,while Shanghai and Seoulended with gains.

Stock exchanges in Paris,Frankfurt and London sankover 2 per cent in early dealsfollowing reports that the USmay impose tariffs on certainimports from Europe.

International oil bench-mark Brent crude futures fell1.15 per cent to USD 42.14 perbarrel. On the currency front,the rupee erased its initialgains and provisionally settledlower by 6 paise at 75.72 againstthe US dollar.

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The CompetitionCommission on

Wednesday said it has clearedFacebook’s proposed acquisi-tion of 9.99 per cent stake in JioPlatforms, the digital arm ofReliance Industries.

The USD 5.7 billion (�43,574 crore) deal - the singlelargest FDI in the technologysector in India - wasannounced in April. The USsocial-networking major hadset up a separate entity - JaadhuHoldings LLC - for making theinvestment.The CompetitionCommission of India (CCI) hasapproved “acquisition of 9.99per cent stake in Jio Platformsby Jaadhu Holdings LLC”,according to a tweet.

Jio Platforms was created inOctober last year to house all-digital initiative of Reliance.

The deal would bringtogether JioMart, the e-com-merce venture of Asia’s richestman Mukesh Ambani, andFacebook’s WhatsApp plat-form to connect consumerswith neighbourhood kiranastores.

WhatsApp has over 400million users in India while Jiohas more than 388 millionphone subscribers. Facebookhas about 250 million users inIndia.Deals beyond a certainthreshold require approval ofthe CCI, which seeks to preventunfair business practices andpromoter fair competition inthe market place.

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It has been rightly said that peopledon’t change but their priorities do.Not too long ago, you had a wishlist

of all the “spring outfits you need to getright now” or the summer sales and dealsthat had to be taken advantage of. Butnow that the pandemic has resulted in aslowdown, job losses, furloughs and anincreasingly home-bound existence withoffices migrating to online operations,people are choosing to buy only thatwhich is necessary and functional.Impulsive shopping and succumbing tovisual temptation are just not happeninganymore. For example, loungewear orslothwear and work stations top people’sscale of preferences at the moment.

����$���������$���.����As an Amazon India spokesperson

shares, “We are seeing demand for workfrom home clothing, innerwear andkidswear in addition to maternity wearand loungewear for women. And this isacross brands. As our Wardrobe RefreshSale (WRS) is under way, there’s ademand for apparel products, includingT-shirts, home wear, kurtis, flip flops,casual shoes and sandals. Consumer elec-tronics, personal grooming, grocery andother essential products are also seeingheavy bookings. Luxury shopping is outat the moment.”

Rishi Sharma, Assistant VicePresident and Digital Head of Liva, saysthe pandemic has mostly impacted whatwe wear going forward. According to thebrand’s in-house survey, he told us how43 per cent of the consumers surveyedhad delayed purchasing clothes during

the outbreak as non-essential expendi-ture. One in three people (35 per cent)said they would buy clothes at discount-ed rates, while around one in two con-sumers would defer their apparel buys.Instead of defined shopping seasons,brands may have to look at planning anew collection every two months to keepthe buyer invested. The survey found thatonly one in four was likely to buy fromthe current Spring Summer collection.Three out of four consumers had alreadybought what they needed or would notbuy clothes for a while, choosing to usewhat was already there in their wardrobe.The only other USP that brands can nowdangle is how sustainable and environ-ment-friendly their lines are. The post-pandemic consumer is very conscience-oriented.

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Walking shoes, joggers and trainershave driven shoe sales at malls. Accordingto Bharat Shishodia, Central director,Vegas Mall, Delhi, brands like Puma andA6 have done good business. Electronicsare seeing good pick-up mainly becauseof work from home protocols and onlineclasses. Lifestyle brands make up for 25per cent of the overall sales. “Only twoto three people from a family are visit-ing the mall with a determined mindsetand a list of fixed items to buy. Home andsports categories are doing well,” says he.

Select Citywalk, Saket has seen amajor footfall from youngsters. Electronicsales have been on the rise. “There is aneed to tap all inventories online as well

as offline. There are a lot of customers atthe mega counter too. Many Applephones and MacBooks are also beingsold,” mentioned one of its spokesper-sons.

DLF Shopping Malls reported highconversions over the last week. Its exec-utive director, Pushpa Bector, says thatshopping priorities have changed andpreference is given to essentials. “We alsosee interest in segments like electronicsand beauty. ‘Made in India’ brands arepreferred more comparitively,” adds she.

As per the data shared by PacificMalls during a Shopping CentresAssociation of India (SCAI) webinar, itwitnessed great conversions over the lastweek. One of its spokespersons men-tioned that the Apple store has beendoing extraordinary well with 80 to 90per cent of sales, similar to that of SelectCitywalk.

Mohit Pruthi from Bharti Realty,Delhi, sees footfalls in the range of 15 to20 per cent with 50 to 60 per cent con-versions. Says he, “Healthcare products,groceries and beauty items are doing real-ly well while F&B is yet to pick up thepace. Parents can be seen at the mall inbig numbers, specifically for enablinggadgets for laptops or media.” But he ishopeful. Yes, the footfall is shorter thanpre-COVID days but even if this trendholds, we can expect normalcy by Diwali.

“About 70 per cent of the malls areoperational. Electronics, AC, refrigera-tors are doing great business as they doevery summer. Pandemic or not, you stillneed them. Customers are more interest-ed in casual wear but have downgraded

their brand loyalties, with Trends andMAX FBB doing well,” shares JustinMasih from Gaur Group, Noida.

��$�����.���A statistical graph of Liva’s in-house

survey demonstrates how India’s prefer-ence meter is changing drastically.“Women’s wear sales have seen a growthof 25 per cent, menswear 22 per cent,kids wear seven per cent while homedecor is at 15 per cent. And to cater tothe wedding market, jewellery brandshave conceived of a studio experience,where one customer is invited for adesign showcase. Slots are reserved inorder to provide a safe shopping expe-rience. We need retail innovations for thenext six months to track the change,” saysRishi.

��$��������������Does this mean that “need-based

purchases” will replace “want-basedpurchases” forever? Sanjay Vakharia,CEO, Spykar Lifestyle, explains thatnew arenas are opening up for theindustry. “Work from home wear andlounge wear will be big segments mov-ing forward along with basic clothing.Consumers are still demanding basics. Socomfortable jean variants, casual topwear and boxers are the lines we’reexpanding. We’re also coming up withtrendy face masks. Consumers are look-ing for quality and durability instead offashion and trends. Brands will be cre-ating utilitarian lines for the next season,”says he.

While social outings may be fewer,

people have been wondering what theyshould do with their ceremonial outfits.And will there be a market for it in thenear future? Sanjay has a tendency to seea silver lining in these situations. He feelsthat we will still dress up and put on agood front whether it’s at home whilespending time with the family and click-ing pictures or on a video call withfriends. Fashion plays a big part in help-ing people express themselves, so thiscurve is sure to move upwards.

While apparel sales, primarily inH&M have been on the rise at SelectCitywalk, Saket, DLF Shopping Malls toowitnessed good sales of clothes and lux-ury brands.

Zara’s lifestyle collection is said to bedoing great and apparel for men has seen40 to 45 per cent sale in Pacific Malls.

�����������As the F&B industry is yet to gain its

pace unlike other essentials, ShyamThakur, founder and CEO, Momo King,feels that there’s a drastic change as peo-ple are making tidal efforts to adopt ahealthy lifestyle. Says he, “Customerswant variations in flavours and a new andauthentic range, including vegan, whole-wheat and gluten-free. They have becomemore conscious about fresh and healthyingredients and prefer home deliveriesonly. And that will continue for sometime. Everyday could be the new exot-ic.”

Burger King and Dominos outlets inSouth Delhi area have also shown goodsales, indicating that traditonal quickfoods still figure in our choices.

ITC Hotels currently has 18 LEEDPlatinum certified properties including

it’s corporate office, the ITC Green Centrewhich was the first corporate building inIndia to be LEED Platinum rated as wellas the biggest Platinum rated green build-ing in the world in 2004.

Embodying the ethos of ‘ResponsibleLuxury’, Welcomhotel Amritsar is nowPunjab’s ‘First LEED Certified Hotel’under the aegis of USGBC (US GreenBuilding Council). Spread across eightacres, the hotel has achieved a Platinumrating under LEED 2011 for India NC(New Construction) programme withinjust seven months of its launch.

Platinum rating is the highest catego-ry of certification preceded by Gold,Silver and Certified. The hotel met the cov-eted rating for energy efficiency by using33 per cent less energy, reducing the waterconsumption by 46 per cent, developingrain water harvesting capacity of 30 percent of the peak rainfall and reducing thecooling demand with over 75 per cent ofroof area covered with high solar reflec-tive index tiles, among many such sustain-able initiatives.

Commenting on this achievement,Nakul Anand, Executive Director, ITC Ltdsaid, “We are committed to sustainablebusiness practices. As per USGBC builtto LEED or LEED equivalency doesn’texist, there is no substitute to LEED cer-tification. This is a proud moment for theWelcomhotel brand. Green buildings areenergy efficient, utilise renewable energy,conserve and recycle water while takingconcrete steps to preserve the eco-systemaround them.”

We have always prided for beingfuture ready. Be it ITC Gardenia — the firstLEED Platinum certified hotel in AsiaPacific (2009) to ITC Maurya — the firsthotel in the world to be awarded LEEDPlatinum in the existing building catego-ry (2010) or ITC Grand Chola — thelargest LEED certified hotel (2012).

Launched in November 2019, theWelcomhotel Amritsar is centered arounda colonnaded mansion, which traces its

origins to the early 1900s and has beenpainstakingly restored with all moderncomforts while preserving the cultural,architectural and culinary nuances of asplendid era. It redefines the tourism land-scape of Punjab and makes a meaningfulcontribution to the tourism potential of thestate.

For today’s experience driven traveller,the hotel is a window into the city’s localculture. From curated experiences thatenhance your leisure trip to those thatmaximise the efficiency of business stays,each designed to create enriching experi-ences. ITC Hotels currently owns andmanages 15 hotels under the Welcomhotelbrand. The brand currently has a portfo-lio of 15 hotels with over 1800 keys and

16 hotels in the pipeline, adding over 1600keys. Its splendour, the century-old her-itage property, which ITC has aesthetical-ly restored is set to redefine the tourismlandscape of Punjab and will make ameaningful contribution to the tourismpotential of the state.

Located close to the airport and a shortdrive from the revered Golden Temple‘Darbar Sahib’, the 101 room hotel blendsAmritsar’s famed exuberance alongside thetranquil calm of the rustic Raja Sansi.Historically also known as Ramdaspur andcolloquially as Ambarsar, Amritsar ishome to the The Harmandir Sahib pop-ularly known as the Golden temple. Thehotel promises to offer an experience oftimeless traditions, rejuvenating therapies,

curated dining experiences and more at theproperty that celebrates the warm and joy-ous spirit of this city. Amritsar has beenchosen as one of the heritage cities forHRIDAY — Heritage City Developmentand Augmentation Yojana scheme of theGovernment of India.

Various parameters from EnergyEfficiency, Water efficiency to sustainablesite development, Indoor EnvironmentalQuality and Materials and Resources areverified for the LEED Platinum rating.There were several factors that gave thehotel the coveted rating. Welcomhotel,Amritsar uses 33 per cent less energy thanASHRAE 90.1-2007 Baseline buildingperformance, usage of non-ozone deplet-ing gases for refrigeration. In terms ofWater Efficiency, only treated recycledwater is used for landscape, cooling towerand miscellaneous cleaning resulting infurther reduction of water consumptionas well as reduced water demand in cool-ing tower through automation.

Conforming to Sustainable SiteDevelopment, the hotel’s rain water har-vesting capacity is 30 per cent of the peakrainfall. This helps in reducing waterdemand and run-off. The project has pro-tected and conserved many trees thatexisted and many were more than 50 yearsold and draught tolerant native species.Over 75 per cent of roof area is coveredwith high Solar Reflective Index tiles,thereby reducing the cooling demand.Indoor Environment Quality has beenenhanced by increased treated fresh airinfusion for higher human productivityand better health with Co2 monitoringsystems, greater occupant thermal com-fort and Green Seal certified Housekeepingchemicals and equipment.

Special emphasis has been given to theMaterials and Resources. More than 50 percent of wooden products used in this pro-ject are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)certified wood, more than 30 per cent ofcivil and interior materials or productsused were extracted, harvested, as well asmanufactured, within 400 km of this pro-ject site.

With Coronavirus pandemicseriously impacting daily wage

earners and migrant labourers, whowere travelling long distances on footto get back home, actor BhumiPednekar, the brand ambassador fora footwear brand, came forward tohelp the poor and needy.

It was her idea to help as manypeople as possible after she saw gut-wrenching images of migrant work-ers walking home bare-foot withtheir children. Bhumi and thefootwear company, Lakhani, teamedup with The Robin Hood Army,which is a volunteer based, zero-funds organisation spread across 12countries in 180 cities for the activ-ity. They helped about 1,000 under-privileged people in and aroundGhaziabad in Murad Nagar,Govindpuram, Vijay Nagar and dis-tributed footwear among men andwomen across age-groups.

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Page 11: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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Indian Railways, the largest passen-ger transportation in the country,has been an active participant in the

country’s fight against the Coronavirus.As the lockdown came into effect inIndia, all passenger train operationswere stalled, over 12 thousand mailexpress, premium and suburban trainsstopped running — a situation neverencountered in the 167 years of IndianRailway. However, the goods trainscontinued their run unabated.

Rajiv Chaudhry, General ManagerNorthern and North Central Railways,shared that the task given to NorthernRailway was to maintain a steady sup-ply chain to feed 80 crore NFSA bene-ficiaries through continuous evacuationof food grain from the granaries ofPunjab and Haryana. The challenge wasstiffer on account of demanding work-

ing conditions due to the pandemic andconsequent lockdown. The availabilityof wagons, timely dispatch of food grainrakes, arranging staff and keeping themmotivated to perform in the tough con-ditions was an uphill task for the divi-sions involved.

As the lockdown period was furtherextended, the Government announcedto provide additional five kg food grainper person to NFSA beneficiaries. Tomeet the demand, deficient states werepermitted to lift three months’ stockfrom FCI on credit. There was morepressure on the railways to provide forthe enhanced evacuation. This result-ed in a sudden increase in loadingrequirement from average 15 to almost3.6 times more rakes in a day. An all-time high record of single day loadingof 54 rakes was achieved.

Since freight movement in coveredrakes was being discouraged, managingadequate supply of empty rakes fromacross the country and moving them toPunjab and Haryana for loading was anarduous task. To meet the demand, theflow of covered rakes plying in otherregions of India were diverted towardsNorth. Also, the maintenance pattern ofthe wagons were tweaked to increaseavailability. Meticulous prior planningwas being done with Food Corporationof India (FCI) for arranging destinationsas per requirement of states. For load-ing and off-loading, a constant coordi-nation for terminal release and labouravailability with the local administrationand at apex level with MHA was beingdone.

To ensure enhanced availability ofPublic Distribution System (PDS), food

grains reach the ration shops all acrossIndia in time. Northern Railway hasmoved a total of 2,218 rakes carryingabout 62.47 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheatand rice to 18 deficient states during thelockdown period. More than 47.06 lt ofrice and 15.4 lt of wheat were sent to thereceiving states from Punjab andHaryana. This is much higher in per-centage than the loading of food grainsdone in the same period last year. Withthis the zonal Railway has achieved thedistinction of carrying out almost 50 percent of the total loading of food grainby railways in the country during thelockdown period.

The beneficiary states are (figures inlakh tonne): Assam — 9.25, Bihar —12.29, Chhattisgarh — 0.05, Goa —0.21, Gujarat — 4.03, J&K — 0.94,Jharkhand — 0.42, Karnataka — 9.79,Kerala — 0.24, Maharashtra — 9.78,Nagaland — 0.70, Odisha — 0.24,Rajasthan — 2.64, West Bengal — 2.05,Tamil Nadu — 1.15, Telangana — 0.05,UP — 8.60 and Uttarakhand — 0.05.

Rajiv also added that special longdistance goods and time tabled parcelcargo express trains will continue to runfrom different regions of North India tomaintain the supply of food grains,items of daily use, essential medicinesand equipment reaching out to the mostremote places.

The GM informed that 10 pairs ofspecial Rajdhani trains made a total of361 trips in May. The punctuality per-centage was 89.77. Since the beginningof June, an average of 103 special MailExpress trains are being added besidesthe special Rajdhani premium trains.During the period of June 1 to 19, a totalof 2,075 trips were made by the specialRajdhani and other special mail expresstrains. With operational planning andexecution the punctuality percentagehas been bettered to 94.22.

Northern Railway is making all outefforts to provide as much travel oppor-tunities to the people as the situationpermits. “We will keep striving to bet-ter our safety and punctuality records,”added Rajiv.

Coming on the heels of the 2017 Doklamstand-off, the latest intrusion by a neigh-

bouring country in the Galwan Valley andthe ensuing loss of precious Indian lives is astark reminder that China trusted. Despiteongoing high-level talks to defuse the situ-ation, satellite imagery has revealed thatChinese troops had deliberately crossed theLAC with construction equipment andheavy vehicles.

The presence of Indian troops in theregion and regular foot patrols by the IndianArmy provide the much-needed on-groundintelligence. The inhospitable terrain of thearea with sub-zero temperatures andintractable mountain ridges make the collec-tion of intelligence an arduous task, besetwith danger and risk of exposure to a hos-tile neighbour.

According to unnamed sources, theIndian military’s need for a high altitude, longendurance Intelligence Surveillance andReconnaissance (ISR) platform is being pro-gressed with the United States havingapproved the sale of the MQ-9B SkyGuardianto India. An unmanned aerial platform likethe MQ-9B with similar or better sensorcapabilities as a Low Earth Orbit satellite, andbeing able to transmit surveillance data toground forces and command centers in near-real time is the need of the hour. It is under-stood that this platform equipped with longrange optical and infra-red cameras, groundsurveillance radar, signal and electronicintelligence sensors can provide Indianground forces with real time monitoring ofthe contested border areas. Thereby ensur-ing advance information to our groundforces. With its long range and endurance(over 35 hours), the MQ-9B can indeed bethe ‘Game Changer’ in such a scenario.

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In view of the world wide pandemicscenario, the Bordermen as per the tra-

ditions have again demonstrated theirresilience in dealing with the challengesto our way of life. Border SecurityForce, the First Line of Defence of thecountry has observed the 6thInternational Yoga Day with the themeof ‘Yoga at Home, Yoga with Family’.Border out posts are home andBordermen are family for every seemaprahari. They have observed the day fol-lowing prescribed norms of social dis-tancing. BSF endeavours to spread themessage of fitness through yoga thatthough the present pandemic hasreduced our mobility and contact withborder population but it can neveraffect our spirit and enthusiasm.

Yoga has taken a prime role inenhancing mental and physical fitness oftroops in Border Security Force. BSF hasa pool of approximately 5,000 yogainstructors trained from reputed insti-tutions. BSF Yoga team has also been atwo time winner of All India Police YogaChampionships.

+1�+�

Department of Women andChild Development,

GNCTD, celebrated theInternational Day of Yoga topromote the theme ‘Yoga athome and Yoga with family’with enthusiastic participation ofstaff and residents in the differ-

ent institutions.To encourage and highlight

the positive transformativeimpact yoga has on the lives ofpeople, especially women, ses-sions were organised in govern-ment and NGO-run shelterhomes, swadhar greh and onestop centre of Delhi.

The participants were

instructed about yoga asana,prayanam, dhyan and medita-tion as per the protocol issuedby ministry of Ayush,Government of India.

The celebrations were start-ed by informing about benefitsof practicing yoga in everydaylife and the potential for cus-tomisation to suit every one.

��+��

Housing and UrbanD e v e l o p m e n t

Corporation Ltd (HUDCO)organised a webinar on‘AYUSH for holistic healthcareduring COVID-19 outbreak’to mark the International YogaDay. The chief guest DurgaShanker Mishra, Secretary,MOHUA, stressed on the ben-efits of traditional Indian med-icine systems in boostingimmunity and promotingwell-being by achieving ahealthy balance between mindand body. Further, he high-lighted the revival of these sys-

tems, which have been anintegral part of Indian cultureand now their global accep-tance.

M Nagaraj, CMD,HUDCO, shared informationabout the sanitation, social dis-tancing and health care mea-sures taken by HUDCO toensure a safe working environ-ment. The key speaker, Dr DCKatoch, Joint Advisor,Department of AYUSH, pro-vided tips on self-care proto-col for holistic and healthy liv-ing through the use of Unani,Siddha and Ayurvedic medi-cines along with practice ofyoga.

While being committed toprovide 24x7 power sup-

ply to the country, NTPC Ltd isat the forefront of multiple ini-tiatives to fight the COVID-19pandemic.

NTPC stations located inNCR — DBF HQ, NTPC Dadri,NTPC Faridabad, NTPCBadarpur and APCPL, Jhajjar,located in Uttar Pradesh,

Haryana and Delhi have tilldate provided a total financialsupport of �15.25 lakh to theirrespective district administra-tion/local authorities to dealwith this pandemic.

Approximately 30,000masks, 140 set of gloves and 110PPEs have been distributed tothe stranded labourers, districtadministration, police and med-

ical authorities in Dadri,Faridabad and Jhajjar district.Almost 700 litres of sanitiser,bleaching powder and 2,600number of soaps have been pro-vided to district administrationand village panchayat.

Furthermore, as part of theircorporate social responsibility,DBF HQ, NTPC Dadri, NTPCFaridabad, NTPC Badarpur and

APCPL Jhajjar had distributed70,000 kg of food grains andpacked items among strandedmigrant labourers and under-privileged families.

All across the nation, NTPCprojects and stations are under-taking various activities for thewelfare of the underprivilegedpersons and migrant workers inthe vicinity of NTPC.

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SRM Institute of Science andTechnology (SRMIST),

Kattankulathur, celebratedInternational Yoga Day with ayoga demonstration followedby special guest lectures.

The yoga demonstrationwas held at the Institute’s premis-es as per University GrantsCommission (UGC) guidelineswith the social distancing proto-cols. The drill was for 45 minutesand was participated bySRMIST’s Vice-Chancellor,Associate Director (campus life)among others. The special guestlectures were facilitated through

a webinar. The welcome addresswas given by SRMIST’s Directorof Sports, Dr K Vaithianathan.

Vice-Chancellor of SRMIST,Dr Sandeep Sancheti, in hispresidential address said, “Thebest way to keep your body fit

and immune system strong isthrough yoga. It can be donefrom the comfort of our homes.Yoga brings harmony betweenman and nature and will help usdiscover a sense of worthiness.Regular practice leads to better

physical, mental and positivechanges in our lifestyle.”

Special guest for the event,Yogachemmal, Dr MeenaRamanatham, Associate profes-sor and Deputy Director, Centrefor Yoga Therapy Educationand Research, MGMCRI,Puducherry, gave a presentationon ‘Wholistic effects of yoga forthe benefit to the humanity’.

She said, “Yoga eases theconflict that happens betweenone’s body and mind. It easesstress and gives you a state ofrelaxation. Yoga practices donemindfully calms the mind. It hasseveral biochemical, physiolog-ical benefits that will help in

improving our health, strengthand immunity.”

She also explained how eachpart of our brains works andhow yoga helps to ease the tur-bulence that occurs within thenerves.

The other special guest, DrR Elangovan, Professor andHead, Faculty of Yoga Scienceand Therapy, MeenakshiAcademy of Higher Educationand Research, Chennai, stressedthe importance of five principlesthat one needs to follow — prop-er exercises, breathing, a gooddiet, relaxation, meditation andpositive thinking — for leadinga healthy life.

Centre for Disaster ManagementStudies (CDMS), IP University,

organised a webinar on twin disasters— Amphan and COVID-19.

Inaugurating the webinar online,the Vice Chancellor of the universi-ty, professor Mahesh Verma saidthat there are major risks involved inhandling of multiple disaster emer-gencies and stressed on the need foreffective implementation of the strin-gent rules and regulations. “Rules andregulations are in place for variousdisaster emergencies in our country.The need is that all the major stake-holders execute them on groundkeeping in mind the catastrophicefforts of multiple disasters at onetime,” he said.

Brigadier LC Patnaik, Chairman,Odisha PSC, gave a descriptiveaccount of the topic with respect tothe aspects of governance, manage-ment, resources and the coastal stateswhich were affected due to the supercyclone. He stressed upon the need toanalyse strategies and develop syner-

gised frameworks that can be enact-ed in handling such challengingtimes.

Major General R C Padhi, formerAdditional Surveyor General of India,articulated on how GIS and remotesensing technologies can be a forcemultiplier in managing a crisis situ-ation.

Anil Sinha, former ViceChairman, Bihar SDMA, gave light onthe finer nuances of how the stateadministration can formulate cus-tomised plans for every specificregion within the state with respectto their hazard profile.

Experts from National Institute ofDisaster Management (NIDM) elab-orated on the policies, framework,implementation, last mile connectiv-ity and resilient infrastructure devel-opment in the given reference.

The webinar was an attempt topave the way for refining, aligning andmainstreaming our approaches tostrengthen resilient to deal proactive-ly with disaster situations in future.

1 � �������21�

We s t e r nRailway

c e l e b r a t e dInternationalDay of Yogawith this year’stheme byencouragingsessions athome or atwork places byobserving allprecautionarym e a s u r e s .This supremem i n d - b o d ydiscipline and gaiety was observed at all the six divi-sions, workshop units, railway colonies and railwayinstitutes.

Alok Kansal, General Manager of WesternRailway, motivated the employees with his inspi-rational address and set an example by performingand demonstrating various yogasanas.

Speaking on the event, Tanuja Kansal, Presidentof Western Railway Women Welfare Organisation(WRWWO), said that yoga is an ancient physical,mental and spiritual practice that originated inIndia. It is a very powerful tool to deal with stressof uncertainty and isolation as well as maintainingphysical well-being during this pandemic. Whilesharing some of the other benefits, she gave the slo-gan: Yoga, an internal and external purifier.

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National FertilisersLimited observed

the International YogaDay, wherein all theemployees participatedby following this year’s

theme ‘Yoga at homeand Yoga with family’.VN Datt, C&MD, NFL,participated in the eventfrom home and urgedeveryone to make yogaand pranayama a part oftheir lives.

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Page 12: 2020/06/25  · Apart from fresh presence of the Chinese inside the Indian region in the Galwan valley, the satellite images have shown the massive Chinese build up on its side

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����� ����

Harry Kane believes he isas fit as he has ever beenafter netting his first

goal of 2020 as Tottenham kick-started their challenge for aChampions League place nextseason with a 2-0 win overWest Ham on Tuesday.

The England captain lookedfar more like his old self after alaboured performance in his firstappearance for six monthsagainst Manchester United onFriday, and was rewarded witha goal eight minutes from time.

“I’m in good shape. I’vebeen working very hard throughmy rehab, lockdown and train-ing. I feel as fit as I probably ever

have done before,” Kane, whohad surgery on a hamstringinjury prior to the season’s shut-down due to coronavirus, toldSky Sports.

“When you have beenout for six months it is justgetting that feeling back onthe pitch. You can train asmuch as you want butbeing out here is totally dif-ferent.”

Tomas Soucek’s owngoal had opened the scoring asWest Ham remain precariouslypoised outside the relegationzone only on goal difference.

But Hammers boss DavidMoyes was furious the openerwas not ruled out for a handballby Davinson Sanchez as he

flicked a corner into Soucek’spath.

“I can’t believe they haveruled that as a goal,” said Moyes.

“Who is on VAR tonight?He needs subbed I knowthat. That’s the rules.”

Jose Mourinho’s menwere well worthy of afirst win in eight gamesdating back to February.

Victory takes Spurs towithin six points of the

top four and within one ofManchester United in fifth.

Should Manchester City’sappeal against a two-season banfrom European competitionsnot prove successful, fifth wouldbe good enough to qualify forthe 2020/21 Champions League.

“I am happy with the result,the clean sheet, it means theteam is more solid, the playershave fewer doubts,” saidMourinho.

SCHMEICHEL SAVES FOXESEarlier, Brendan Rodgers

hailed Kasper Schmeichel as“world class” after the Leicestergoalkeeper saved Neal Maupay’spenalty in his side’s 0-0 drawwith Brighton.

Schmeichel came toLeicester’s rescue when heplunged to his right to stopMaupay’s spot-kick early in thefirst half at the King PowerStadium.

That was the highlight of a

patchy performance from third-placed Leicester in Rodgers’50th game in charge.

“Kasper has made a greatsave from the penalty, he’sinvaluable,” Rodgers said of theDenmark international.

The Foxes are now fourpoints clear of fourth-placedChelsea and nine ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United in therace to qualify for theChampions League.

Brighton move six pointsclear of the relegation zone, butMaupay’s miss denied them asecond successive victory afterthe French striker scored thewinner against Arsenal onSaturday.

����� 3�/�7

Arkadiusz Milik and HirvingLozano both scored head-

ers as Napoli followedtheir Italian Cup tri-umph with a 2-0 winat Hellas Verona intheir return to Serie Aon Tuesday.

Napoli beatJuventus on penaltiesin the Italian Cup finallast week after eliminating InterMilan in the semis, but this wastheir first league match sincebeating Torino on February 29before the coronavirus lock-down.

Almost four months later,they extended their Serie Awinning streak to four gamesagainst one of their rivals for aEuropean place, while keep-ing their slim hopes ofChampions League qualifi-cation alive by moving towithin nine points off o u r t h - p l a c e dAtalanta.

G e n n a r oGattuso’s sideremain sixth, threepoints behindf i f t h - p l a c e dRoma, who nextplay Sampdoria.

“We will notrelax, we have tocreate an identityand fight for goalslike the Champions

League,” said Gattuso, as lastyear’s Serie A runners-up facestruggling SPAL on Sunday.

“We must continue on thispath, believe that workgives us importantthings, as happened inthe Cup. I don’t know ifthese 11 games will beenough for us to get intothe Champions League,we must already thinkabout the challenge

against SPAL.”Polish forward Milik

opened the scoring on 36 min-utes, nodding in MatteoPolitano’s corner. DavideFaraoni thought he hadequalised for the hosts after anhour, but his goal was ruled outfor a Mattia Zaccagni handballin the build-up.

Lorenzo Insigne missed achance for a second for thevisitors with 10 minutesremaining by curling a shotover. But Mexican interna-

tional Lozano, on as an84th-minute substi-tute, rose high to headhome a FaouziGhoulam cross sixminutes later.

Napoli goal-keeper DavidOspina deniedSamuel Di Carmineand Miguel Velosoas Verona suffered

their first defeat since theleague returned to action.

���� 17/����7

Barcelona earned a hard-fought 1-0 win against

Athletic Bilbao to put the pres-sure back on Real Madrid inthe Spanish league.

Ivan Rakitic’s second-halfwinner on Tuesday movedBarcelona back in front ofMadrid ahead of the rival’shome match against relegation-threatened Mallorca onWednesday.

Rakitic broke the dead-lock in the 71st minute toleave Barcelona three points infront of Madrid, which canretake the lead with a winbecause it has bettertiebreakers.

“We can’t worry aboutour rival, just about us,”Barcelona coach QuiqueSetién said.

“We needed to win, andnow we wait to see what hap-pens in their match.”

Rakitic scored less than 10

minutes after coming off thebench, firing a right-footshot into the corner afteran assist by Lionel Messi.

“It was an importantwin in a very difficultmatch,” Rakitic said.

Messi, who turns 33on Wednesday, again wasn’table to score his milestone700th career goal for club andcountry. He came close twice

with shots that just missed thetarget late in the second half.

Elsewhere, Atlético Madridextended its good run after thepandemic break with a 1-0 winat Levante.

An own-goal by BrunoGonzález in the 15th minutegave Atlético its third straightwin and moved DiegoSimeone’s team back into thirdplace in the standings.

���������� Liverpool wouldprefer next week’s away fixtureagainst Manchester City to beheld at the Etihad Stadium andnot moved to a neutral venuedue to the Covid-19, managerJuergen Klopp has said.

Liverpool, who could poten-tially seal their first Englishleague crown in 30 years againstCity next Thursday, are awaitinga decision from a safety adviso-ry group on the venue.

“Honestly, I would prefer itis at Manchester, otherwise itwould be really difficult toorganise it,” Klopp told reportersahead of Wednesday’s leagueclash against Crystal Palace.

Authorities could shift thegame to a neutral venue due toconcerns Liverpool fans mightcongregate outside the stadiumto celebrate their success.

“I don’t know how it wouldbe but it would not be in

Liverpool so it would mean weboth have to go somewherewhere we both need a hotel.That is the only issue,” Kloppadded.

“Apart from that we playwhere they send us to but Iwould prefer it in Manchester... I’ll wait until the final infor-mation is confirmed whetherit is Manchester or not. Itwould be a challenge for bothclubs.” Agencies

������Three players from ParisSaint-Germain and four fromfellow French soccer teamToulouse have tested positive forthe coronavirus, their clubs said.

PSG on Tuesday said thethree players and a member ofstaff were infected by the virusduring the lockdown when theywere not in contact with eachother. They “are no longer con-tagious and can carry on theirtraining program,” the club said.

PSG was crowned Frenchchampion after the league decid-ed to abort the season. However,the team is still set to play twodomestic cup finals and hasmade it to the last eight of theChampions League, which willbe played as a mini tournamentin Portugal in August.

Toulouse, which has beenrelegated to the second divisionfor next season, said its playerswere tested Monday ahead of theresumption of training. AP

�����.��1;/���

Star Australia off-spinnerNathan Lyon on

Wednesday said that a Testseries against India is equiv-alent to the Ashes andcome December, their teamwill come out all guns blaz-ing to avenge the seriesdefeat of 2018-19. “You defi-nitely don’t likelosing games orseries while playingfor Australia.Obviously, India, acouple of yearsago, they out-played us. So weare looking to havethose guys come

out here,” Lyon toldreporters in a video onCricket Australia’s Facebookpage.

“It’s getting up there tothe pinnacle series along-side Ashes. Obviously, theyhave got a side full of super-stars and it’s going to be an

amazing challengethis summer whenthey get out here.”

Lyon was part ofthe Australian Testside that lost 1-2 to

India in the 2018-19home series. It wasincidentally thefirst time India

had won a Testseries in Australian

soil in 71 years.

����� ���������

Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasandeeply regrets his “silly mistake” of not

reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian book-ie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspensionfrom the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one yearof it suspended, for failing to report corruptapproaches during an IPL edition by an allegedIndian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

“I took the approaches too casually When Imet the anti-corruption guy and told them andthey knew everything. Gave them all the evidenceand they knew everything that happened,”Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz inConversation.

“To be honest, that’s the only reason I wasbanned for a year, otherwise I’d have been bannedfor five or 10 years,” he added on the ICC's inves-tigation. The 33-year-old, who was in brilliantform before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the2019 World Cup in the UK, saidhe regrets how he went aboutthe situation.

“But I think that was a sillymistake I made. Because withmy experience and theamount of internation-al matches I’ve playedand the amount ofICC’s anti-corruptioncode of conduct class-es I took, I shouldn’thave made that deci-sion, to be honest.”

����� 57/7��

The Asia Cup will go ahead asscheduled later this year in

either Sri Lanka or the UAE,Pakistan Cricket Board CEOWasim Khan has asserted.

Khan rejected specula-tion that the event could bescrapped to make spacefor the currently suspend-ed Indian Premier League.

“The Asia Cup will goahead. The Pakistan teamreturns fromEngland on 2nd

September so we can have thetournament in September orOctober,” he said at a media con-ference here.

“There are some thingswhich will only get clear in thedue course of time. We are

hopeful of having the AsiaCup because Sri Lanka has

not had too many cases ofthe Coronavirus. If theycan’t do it, then UAE isalso ready,” he added.

Khan said Pakistan,the original host of

the event, had

agreed to let Sri Lanka conductit in return for hosting the nextregional event.

He also confirmed that thePakistan board is working onoptions to play cricket in thewindow for the T20 World Cupif it doesn’t go ahead as plannedin October-November.

“We are to go to NewZealand in December after host-ing Zimbabwe at home. SouthAfrica are ready to tour inJanuary-February to play two orthree Tests and some T20matches,” he disclosed.

����� ����

Andy Murray insists he haslow expectations on his lat-

est return from injury despitewinning his first match forseven months at the Battle ofthe Brits tournament onTuesday.

Murray, 33, is aiming tocompete in a Grand Slam forthe first time since January2019 at the US and FrenchOpens in the next few months.

The Scot had career-savinghip surgery in 2019, before hislatest long-term injury layoffdue to a pelvic injury.

Murray showed plenty ofsigns of rustiness, but was stilltoo good for world No 211Liam Broady to win 6-2, 6-2 atthe National Tennis Centre inRoehampton.

“Rightfully so,” said Murrayof his low expectations. “I’vehad many injury problems,I’m very slow now so notexpecting much. For a first

match in seven months, I havenot been practising that much,I have not been doing that wellin practice matches, it wasalright.”

Next up, Murray facesBritish No 2 Kyle Edmund. “I’dbe surprised if I manage tocome through that one,” addedMurray.

The six-day Battle of theBrits event started on the sameday Novak Djokovic tested

positive for the coronavirus fol-lowing a lack of social distanc-ing from the Serb and severalof his fellow competitors in hisrecent tournament.

World No 1 Djokovic apol-ogised and admitted he waswrong to organise the AdriaTour events in Serbia andCroatia after he, GrigorDimitrov, Borna Coric andViktor Troicki contracted thevirus.

In Roehampton, social dis-tancing protocols wereobserved far more strictly.There were no fans in thearena, while ball boys and girlsand line judges were also absentto reduce the number of peo-ple on court.

Players used to being wait-ed on by ball boys and girls hadto retrieve their own balls andfetch their own towels. Theumpire was assisted by Hawk-Eye cameras instead of linejudges, while the players didnot change ends.

����� �;17

The Bangladesh cricket team’stour of Sri Lanka next month

was on Wednesday postponedowing to the Covid-19 pandemic,which has wreaked havoc on inter-national sports schedules world-wide. Bangladesh was scheduled totour Sri Lanka next month for athree-Test series.

“Bangladesh’s tour to Sri Lanka,scheduled to take place next month,has been postponed,” the ICC post-ed on its Twitter handle.

Later, Sri Lanka Cricket issueda statement to say that Bangladeshpulled out due to its players’ “lackof preparation” due to the pandem-ic. “...The Bangladesh Cricket Boardhas informed SLC that a conduciveenvironment has still not arrived fortheir players to take part in an inter-national cricket series, purely due tothe lack of preparation for its play-ers, caused by the Covid-19 pan-demic,” the statement read.

“...BCB and Sri Lanka Crickethave agreed that BangladeshNational Team’s tour of Sri Lankawhich was scheduled to be heldduring July 2020 will not take placeand will be deferred to a mutuallyplanned later date,” it added.

������ Four-times Olympicchampion Mo Farah says he istargeting the one-hour worldrecord at the AG MemorialVan Damme meet in Brusselson Sept 4, as he returns to thetrack for the first time sinceswitching to road racing in2017.

Athletes try to cover asmuch distance as possible inone hour in the event. Themen’s record of 21.285 kmwas set by Ethiopia’s Haile

Gebrselassie in Ostrava in2007.

The Brussels event is partof the revamped calendar ofathletics meetings announcedby the Diamond League due tothe Covid-19 pandemic.

“Together with my train-ing partner Bashir Abdi I’mgoing to attack the hourrecord at the AG MemorialVan Damme,” Farah, 37, saidin a statement on the event’swebsite. Agencies

������ ��������

Indian batting great RahulDravid narrowly beat his

former teammate SachinTendulkar in Wisden India’spoll for the greatest Indian Testbatsman of all time.

The poll was taken onFacebook and Dravid got 52percent of the 11,400 votes thatcame in from fans. It startedwith a pool of 16 Indian bats-men and came down to a finalfour of Dravid against SunilGavaskar and Tendulkar

against Virat Kohli.Gavaskar managed to later

beat Kohli in a closely contest-ed third place play-off.

“Dravid ended with 52per cent of the total votes — asmany as 11,400 fans took partin the poll for the final —despite trailing at 42 per centon Tuesday morning. Muchlike Dravid batted during hisplaying career, he dug in andfought back in the poll, even-tually crossing the line with adecent lead at the very end,”said Wisden India in its report.

�����.7����@+�/

Urging his team to riditself of the habit of

playing catch-up, WestIndies coach Phil Simmonshas put the onus on his bats-men to score runs first upand grab the advantage inthe Test series againstEngland.

West Indies are chasingtheir first series win inEngland in 32 years.

Batting has been anarea of concern for WestIndies but Simmons said“most of the senior batsmenare seasoned players” andhoped they will be readywhen the first ball is bowledat Southampton on July 8.

“Mentally I thinkthey’re tough, but I think wejust need to continue work-ing on our skills because Ithink when you look back atKraigg (Brathwaite), Roston(Chase) and Shai (Hope),they’re mentally toughbecause they’ve done it atthis level, so it’s about mak-ing sure they’re sharp andready to go in the first

game,” Simmons toldreporters in a video confer-ence.

During their last tour ofEngland three years ago,West Indies were bowledout within 200 in eachinnings, suffering an embar-rassing innings and 209-rundefeat at Edgbaston.

“We’ve had occasionswhen we’ve toured and onlyafter the first game we startreally playing cricket, so it’s

something we’re trying toget out of our system andmake sure we are readyand raring to go when weget to Southampton.”

Simmons said they havestepped up their preparationwith just two weeks left forthe series.

“It’s only two weeksbefore the first Test matchand preparation has to go tothe next level, so we’ve start-ed that today,” he said.

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��/������&+'� � ���������������� Veteran defenderDavid Luiz has signed a newone-year deal with Arsenal,the Premier League clubannounced on Wednesday.

The 33-year-oldBrazil internationaljoined the Gunners lastyear from Chelsea onan initial 12-monthdeal.

He was heavi-ly criticised afterbeing sent off inlast week’s 3-0 lossto Manchester City.But Arsenal techni-cal director Eduhailed Luiz’s influ-ence on and off the

pitch. “David is a really impor-tant player for us,” he told theclub website. “He has playedmost of our matches this season

and has been important forthe team. His passing, hiscommunication with theteam on and off the pitch —he helps everyone.”

Arsenal have alsomoved to make the tem-porary moves of fellowdefenders Pablo Mari and

Cedric Soares into perma-nent arrangements, whilemidfielder Dani Ceballos’loan from Real Madridhas been extended untilthe end of the 2019/20season. AFP

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���� #&��!��'��-� ! ��( #�#�&������������ All the Englishcricketers vying for placesin the squad for theupcoming Test seriesagainst the West Indiesreturned negative forCovid-19, the England andWales Cricket Board(ECB) said on Wednesday.

The ECB confirmedthat a total of 702 Covid-19 tests were carried outbetween June 3 and June23 with “several stakehold-er groups” working atSouthampton andManchester with somebeing tested multipletimes.

Fast bowler JofraArcher will, however, gothrough a second Covid-19 test.

The decision to gothrough another test wastaken as a precautionarymeasure after a member ofhis household felt unwellover the weekend. PTI

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