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˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · government labs, while 3,264 tests have...

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  • ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent
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F irst time in the country amid the Covid-19 crisis the State Government airlifted 60 labour- ers, who were stuck in Leh, and brought them back home via Delhi on Friday. Incidentally, the airlifting took place only after a day when 180 labourers were sent by a special flight from Mumbai to Ranchi with the help of AirAsia and NLS Bangalore alumni association. Chief Minister Hemant Soren welcomed the labourers at Ranchi airport on their arrival and had conversation with a number of them. The CM, later speaking to media persons, said that more labour- ers of Jharkhand will be brought back to State through special flights. Several people are stuck in Andaman, who will soon be brought back, he added. “In areas where the choice of train or other means of transport is limited, the migrant labourers will be brought back by air. In this connection, the state officials are in constant contact with the Central Government. The State Government was constantly striving to bring the migrant labourers by airplane. In this regard, several letters have been written to allow the Union Home Ministry. I am happy that the migrant labourers in Jharkhand are back by plane,” he said. The CM said the process of bringing migrant labourers safe- ly will continue until all are back. “So far, about 4.5 lakh labourers have been brought back through special trains and buses in the State. Our state will bring back the aspiring labourers as soon as possible. Our Government is in constant touch with those states where migrant labourers are stranded,” he added. The labourers upon arrival were welcomed by the State administration and were given food and water following which they were sent to Dumka by special buses arranged by the State administration. Notably, the migrant work- ers stranded in Batalik- Kargil sector, working in a BRO pro- ject reached out to CM on Twitter to assist them to return on May 10. The CM urged Ladakh UT local administration to provide assistance. Jharkhand Control Room got them regis- tered on State portal and App. The BRO provided food rations regularly to the workers. According to sources the CM on May 26, entrusts the small team to work out all operational possibilities to work out a safe return of 60 Migrants from Dumka district stuck in Gorgodoh Village, Batalik in Kargil district, Leh. With support or BRO the workers flew from Leh by a SpiceJet flight arriving in Delhi around 2 pm and further they reached Ranchi by an IndiGo flight in the evening. Sources said the costs amounting to 8 lakh (Aprox) was borne by the State Government. N odal officer of Corona related issues in State AP Singh on Friday said 66 peo- ple have been brought back from abroad so far under the Vande Bharat Mission, while 12 more will be brought to Jharkhand by June 1. He said NOC has been given by the Government to bring back 170 employees of BHEL company working in Bangladesh. He said around one lakh migrant labourers have reached the State through private facilities and other means. In addition, migrant labourers have been brought to Jharkhand through special trains and buses. Secretary, Department of Disaster Management, Amitabh Kaushal, said that about 1,01,852 people have returned to the State through buses. At the same time 193 trains have come to Jharkhand from different states and 12 trains are scheduled for further. So far, 2,57,411 migrant labourers have returned to the State through the Shramik Express special train. Passes are also being issued for movement by private vehi- cles in the State. So far, a total of 3,58,263 people have been brought to Jharkhand. T he fifth coronavirus death in State was reported from Giridih district, officials said on Friday. State Health Secretary, Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni said that the man from Jamua block of Giridih district had returned from Surat on May 9. On May 26, he had come to Medica hospital for treat- ment. However, he left the hospital soon claiming that he was going to RIMS for treat- ment but he went back to his home and died of the illness. On Friday, State recorded 45 fresh cases with this the number of Covid 19 cases has gone up to 521. Friday record- ed the highest jump in corona cases in State since the infection surfaced here. Out of 45 fresh cases, 15 are from Jamshedpur, 10 from Hazaribag, seven from Koderma, nine from Ramgarh, three from Dhanbad and two from Bokaro. The health secretary also said that so far 521 people have been found positive with Covid-19 in State, out of which 216 people have been dis- charged after they recovered from infection while five per- sons (including the man from Giridih) have died from disease. The number of active cases in State is around 308 The State Government to tackle the pan- demic has intensified testing. “So far 57,876 tests have been done. Out of these tests, 54,612 tests have been done at Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent. To speed up testing 10 new TrueNat machines have been installed as well as 20 TrueNat machines are reaching Ranchi in a day or two, which will speed up the number of tests,” Kulkarni added. The health secretary also talked about the strengthening of infrastructure in fight against the disease. The health depart- ment has constructed 8669 beds in 207 hospitals out of which 3375 beds are ready with oxy- gen support system while 500 ICUs and 215 ventilation beds. The health secretary claimed that to check the spread of dis- ease a total of 134 containment zones have been created in State. The increase in cases has come up when Country is like- ly to extend the lockdown by another two weeks after May 31 and might come with some fur- ther relaxations. The Centre is preparing for the fifth phase of lockdown and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this connection has held a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday. Sources said the State is likely to go with Centre and will extend the lockdown for anoth- er two weeks as there has been influx of migrant workers in last few weeks. Meanwhile, in another development 60 migrant work- ers stranded in Leh were flown back to Ranchi, making Jharkhand the first State to use flights to help its stranded cit- izens return home during the lockdown in the wake of the Supreme Court’s order. T wo days before lockdown 4.0 ends, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday discussed about the views of Chief Ministers on further opening up several sectors of economy with strict social dis- tancing norms if the lockdown were to be continued beyond May 31. For the past three days, the Home Minister was collecting inputs and suggestions from all Chief Ministers. Highly placed officials say the Centre may give more power to the States to decide on opening up the economic activities and defin- ing containment zones. Many Chief Ministers have reportedly preferred the con- tinuation of the lockdown, but there is a near consensus on opening up many sectors as well as malls and public transports, including metro services. While all Chief Ministers urged the Home Minister to speed up economic activities and gradual return of public life, they also expressed their apprehension about being flooded with surge of patients when the country relaxes the strict lockdown norms. As per sources, two special Covid-19 panels set up by the Centre have submitted their rec- ommendations for the exit strat- egy. The panels have suggested that the Centre should do away with all lockdown curbs except keeping schools, colleges, movie halls and religious places closed till situation improves. The panel has also recom- mended not to reopen inter- State travel and said that the efforts should be directed towards strengthening con- tainment measures in the worst-hit districts. The worst-hit 13 districts are: Municipalities of Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi/New Delhi, Ahmadabad, Thane, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata/Howrah, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu). These 13 districts are hav- ing 70 per cent of the positive cases in India. The Centre and the States of these 13 cities have already decided a plan on the geographical definition of con- tainment zones. The Home Minister also apprised the Prime Minister of the outcome of the talks between the Cabinet Secretary and 13 Municipal Commissioners and District Magistrates from the sensitive cities. The Central Government is expected to announce its decision on the lockdown with- in the next two days. Prime Minister may speak up on this on May 31 scheduled “Mann Ki Baat”, said officials. At present, the current lockdown rules prohibits open- ing up of hotels, malls, public transports in containments zones. There is expected to be a dilution on this and shops inside the malls and hotels may be allowed to open with limited number of entries. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said all religious places will be allowed to open in the State from June 1 but not more than 10 people can pray at a time. “Temples, Gurudwaras, Mosques and all religious places in the State are closed. They will open from June 1 but not more than 10 people will be allowed at any given point of time. No assembly would be allowed in religious places,” Mamata said. Religious places have remained shut across the coun- try ever since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 to curb the spread of coronavirus. Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has sought the permission of the Centre to open up places of worship, hotels, motels , lodges, and insisted that State’s must have authority to check the health status of the people coming from major containment zones in the country. At the same time, Goa CM Pramod Sawant told media that he informed Centre that the lockdown should continue but the hospitality sector in the State should be permitted to open up. The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijyan has expressed apprehension about allowing places of worship to open. After flattening the curve, the State has seen a resurgence of numbers as train and air trav- el restarted. Many North- Eastern states, where the coro- navirus numbers started spiking only after the Centre opened up rail and air travel, have told the Centre for thorough checking of passengers from the contain- ment zones itself. I ndia on Friday overtook China in terms of corona- related fatalities and raced towards 5,000 death count even as the number of fresh cases saw third straight day of spikes with Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh registering huge numbers. India has reported a total of 1,73,140 coronavirus cases and 4,975 deaths till Friday after it reported 7,783 infections and a massive 264 death count from across the country on Friday. China which had reported the first Covid-19 case in December last year has registered over 82,995 cases and around 4,634 deaths. Data shows 10,652 people have been treated and dis- charged so far. The recovery rate stands at 42.89 per cent. According to the Ministry’s website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comor- bidities. On Friday, Delhi, Haryana, Karnatakata, and Uttarakhand reported biggest single day spike as Covid-19 continued to spread viciously across the country. Maharashtra continue to remain headache for the health authorities, as it contributed another day of big spike recording 2,682 positive cases on Friday, with Mumbai alone contributing a total of 35,458 cases to the States tally. Coronavirus has infected a total 62,228 people in the financial capital of the country. The fatalities in the State have shot up to 2,098. Tamil Nadu, after slipping to the third position on Thursday, again disturbingly surged ahead on Friday to acquire second slot among the worst hit States. It witnessed high number of coronavirus cases at 874 taking the total count to 20,246 cases on Friday. At least 9 people have died due to coronavirus infection in the State taking the death toll to 157. Delhi recorded its biggest spike in Covid-19 tally in sec- ond consecutive day at 1,106 fresh cases while the number of active coronavirus patients stood at 17,387. It witnessed 82 deaths bringing the total fatal- ities to 357 in the State. The national Capital had recorded over 1,000 cases in a day for the first time on Thursday since the outbreak. In Gujarat, in the last 24 hours, 372 new cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths were reported. The total tally of positive cases rises to 15,944 including 8,609 cured/ discharged, death toll is 980 deaths. In Karnataka, 248 people have been tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 2,781 while death toll stands at 48. Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, 275 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths were reported, tak- ing the total number of cases in the state to 7445. In States like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha the migrant influx has started pushing up Covid numbers. Madhya Pradesh has reported 7,453 cases. Kolkata: West Bengal Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose has tested positive for coro- navirus, making it the first such case in the Mamata Banerjee-led State Cabinet, a well-placed source in the Government said on Friday. Bose has been advised to undergo home quarantine after his test results came. R enowned astrologer Bejan Daruwalla died at a private hospital here on Friday evening, his family said. He was 90. While speculation was rife that Daruwalla was admitted to Apollo Hospital here a few days ago after he tested positive for coronavirus, his son Nastur denied it, say- ing his father was being treat- ed only from pneumonia. According to his website, Ganesha Speaks, he had pre- dicted that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Moraji Desai, Narendra Modi will Prime Minister. C hhattisgarh’s first Chief Minister Ajit Jogi suc- cumbed to cardiac arrest in a hospital here on Friday at the age of 74, doctors and his family members said. Jogi suffered another cardiac arrest around 1.30 pm and doctors battled for over two hours to revive him but were unsuccessful. He breathed his last around 3.30 pm, said a medical bulletin from the Shree Narayana Hospital. Jogi was admitted to hos- pital on May 9 after a heart attack and had slipped into coma the next day. Hospital Director Dr Sunil Khemka said on May 10 that oxygen had not been reaching Jogi’s brain for some time, causing brain damage. The condition is called hypoxia. Jogi’s neurological activities were almost nil though his heartbeat was normal and blood pressure was controlled by drugs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Shri Ajit Jogi Ji was passionate about public service. This passion made him work hard as a bureaucrat and as a political leader. He strived to bring a positive change in the lives of the poor, especially tribal com- munities. Saddened by his demise. Condolences to his family. RIP.” T he coronavirus-led disrup- tion of Indian economy slowed down the GDP to 3.1 per cent in January-March and to an 11-year low of 4.2 per cent for the full fiscal 2019-20 amid a drop in consumption and investment. The slowdown is also result of overall eco- nomic deceleration even before the Government imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections from March 25, 2020. The GDP is expected to continue on the downward journey and gain speed in the next few quarters. The GDP growth stood at 5.7 per cent in the corre- sponding quarter of 2018-19, according to data released by National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday. The Indian economy grew at 4.2 per cent during 2019-20 as against 6.1 per cent in 2018-19.

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Page 1: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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First time in the country amidthe Covid-19 crisis the State

Government airlifted 60 labour-ers, who were stuck in Leh, andbrought them back home viaDelhi on Friday. Incidentally, theairlifting took place only after aday when 180 labourers weresent by a special flight fromMumbai to Ranchi with the helpof AirAsia and NLS Bangalorealumni association.

Chief Minister HemantSoren welcomed the labourersat Ranchi airport on theirarrival and had conversationwith a number of them. TheCM, later speaking to mediapersons, said that more labour-ers of Jharkhand will be broughtback to State through specialflights. Several people are stuckin Andaman, who will soon bebrought back, he added.

“In areas where the choice oftrain or other means of transportis limited, the migrant labourers

will be brought back by air. Inthis connection, the state officialsare in constant contact with theCentral Government. The StateGovernment was constantlystriving to bring the migrantlabourers by airplane. In thisregard, several letters have been

written to allow the Union HomeMinistry. I am happy that themigrant labourers in Jharkhandare back by plane,” he said.

The CM said the process ofbringing migrant labourers safe-ly will continue until all are back.“So far, about 4.5 lakh labourers

have been brought back throughspecial trains and buses in theState. Our state will bring backthe aspiring labourers as soon aspossible. Our Government is inconstant touch with those stateswhere migrant labourers arestranded,” he added.

The labourers upon arrival

were welcomed by the Stateadministration and were givenfood and water following whichthey were sent to Dumka byspecial buses arranged by theState administration.

Notably, the migrant work-ers stranded in Batalik- Kargilsector, working in a BRO pro-

ject reached out to CM onTwitter to assist them to returnon May 10. The CM urgedLadakh UT local administrationto provide assistance. JharkhandControl Room got them regis-tered on State portal and App.The BRO provided food rationsregularly to the workers.

According to sources theCM on May 26, entrusts thesmall team to work out alloperational possibilities towork out a safe return of 60Migrants from Dumka districtstuck in Gorgodoh Village,Batalik in Kargil district, Leh.With support or BRO the

workers flew from Leh by aSpiceJet flight arriving in Delhiaround 2 pm and further theyreached Ranchi by an IndiGoflight in the evening.

Sources said the costsamounting to �8 lakh (Aprox)was borne by the StateGovernment.

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Nodal officer of Coronarelated issues in State AP

Singh on Friday said 66 peo-ple have been brought backfrom abroad so far under theVande Bharat Mission, while12 more will be brought toJharkhand by June 1.

He said NOC has beengiven by the Government tobring back 170 employees ofBHEL company working in

Bangladesh. He said around one lakh

migrant labourers havereached the State through private facilities and othermeans. In addition, migrantlabourers have been broughtto Jharkhand through specialtrains and buses.

Secretary, Department ofDisaster Management,Amitabh Kaushal, said thatabout 1,01,852 people havereturned to the State

through buses. At the same time 193 trains

have come to Jharkhand fromdifferent states and 12 trains arescheduled for further. So far,2,57,411 migrant labourershave returned to the Statethrough the Shramik Expressspecial train.

Passes are also being issuedfor movement by private vehi-cles in the State. So far, a totalof 3,58,263 people have beenbrought to Jharkhand.

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The fifth coronavirus deathin State was reported from

Giridih district, officials said onFriday. State Health Secretary,Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni saidthat the man from Jamua blockof Giridih district had returnedfrom Surat on May 9.

On May 26, he had cometo Medica hospital for treat-ment. However, he left thehospital soon claiming that hewas going to RIMS for treat-ment but he went back to hishome and died of the illness.

On Friday, State recorded45 fresh cases with this thenumber of Covid 19 cases hasgone up to 521. Friday record-ed the highest jump in coronacases in State since the infectionsurfaced here.

Out of 45 fresh cases, 15are from Jamshedpur, 10 fromHazaribag, seven fromKoderma, nine from Ramgarh,three from Dhanbad and twofrom Bokaro.

The health secretary alsosaid that so far 521 people havebeen found positive withCovid-19 in State, out of which216 people have been dis-charged after they recoveredfrom infection while five per-sons (including the man fromGiridih) have died from disease.

The number of active casesin State is around 308 The State

Government to tackle the pan-demic has intensified testing.

“So far 57,876 tests havebeen done. Out of these tests,54,612 tests have been done atGovernment labs, while 3,264tests have been done at privatelabs,” said Kulkarni.

“The recovery rate is 44.5per cent. To speed up testing 10new TrueNat machines havebeen installed as well as 20TrueNat machines are reachingRanchi in a day or two, whichwill speed up the number oftests,” Kulkarni added.

The health secretary alsotalked about the strengtheningof infrastructure in fight againstthe disease. The health depart-ment has constructed 8669 bedsin 207 hospitals out of which3375 beds are ready with oxy-gen support system while 500ICUs and 215 ventilation beds.The health secretary claimedthat to check the spread of dis-ease a total of 134 containment

zones have been created inState. The increase in cases hascome up when Country is like-ly to extend the lockdown byanother two weeks after May 31and might come with some fur-ther relaxations.

The Centre is preparing forthe fifth phase of lockdown andPrime Minister Narendra Modiin this connection has held ameeting with Home MinisterAmit Shah on Friday.

Sources said the State islikely to go with Centre and willextend the lockdown for anoth-er two weeks as there has beeninflux of migrant workers inlast few weeks.

Meanwhile, in anotherdevelopment 60 migrant work-ers stranded in Leh were flownback to Ranchi, makingJharkhand the first State to useflights to help its stranded cit-izens return home during thelockdown in the wake of theSupreme Court’s order.

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Two days before lockdown4.0 ends, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah on Fridaydiscussed about the views ofChief Ministers on furtheropening up several sectors ofeconomy with strict social dis-tancing norms if the lockdownwere to be continued beyondMay 31.

For the past three days, theHome Minister was collectinginputs and suggestions from allChief Ministers. Highly placedofficials say the Centre maygive more power to the Statesto decide on opening up theeconomic activities and defin-ing containment zones.

Many Chief Ministers havereportedly preferred the con-tinuation of the lockdown, butthere is a near consensus onopening up many sectors as wellas malls and public transports,including metro services. While all ChiefMinisters urged the HomeMinister to speed up economicactivities and gradual return ofpublic life, they also expressedtheir apprehension about beingflooded with surge of patientswhen the country relaxes the

strict lockdown norms. As per sources, two special

Covid-19 panels set up by theCentre have submitted their rec-ommendations for the exit strat-egy. The panels have suggestedthat the Centre should do awaywith all lockdown curbs exceptkeeping schools, colleges, moviehalls and religious places closedtill situation improves.

The panel has also recom-mended not to reopen inter-State travel and said that theefforts should be directedtowards strengthening con-tainment measures in the

worst-hit districts.The worst-hit 13 districts

are: Municipalities of Mumbai,Chennai, Delhi/New Delhi,Ahmadabad, Thane, Pune,Hyderabad, Kolkata/Howrah,Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur,Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu)and Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu).

These 13 districts are hav-ing 70 per cent of the positivecases in India. The Centre andthe States of these 13 cities havealready decided a plan on thegeographical definition of con-tainment zones. The HomeMinister also apprised the Prime

Minister of the outcome of thetalks between the CabinetSecretary and 13 MunicipalCommissioners and DistrictMagistrates from the sensitivecities. The Central Governmentis expected to announce itsdecision on the lockdown with-in the next two days. PrimeMinister may speak up on thison May 31 scheduled “Mann KiBaat”, said officials.

At present, the currentlockdown rules prohibits open-ing up of hotels, malls, publictransports in containmentszones. There is expected to bea dilution on this and shopsinside the malls and hotelsmay be allowed to open withlimited number of entries.

Meanwhile, West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said allreligious places will be allowedto open in the State from June1 but not more than 10 peoplecan pray at a time.

“Temples, Gurudwaras,Mosques and all religiousplaces in the State are closed.They will open from June 1 butnot more than 10 people will beallowed at any given point oftime. No assembly would beallowed in religious places,”Mamata said.

Religious places haveremained shut across the coun-try ever since the nationwidelockdown was imposed onMarch 25 to curb the spread ofcoronavirus.

Karnataka Chief MinisterBS Yediyurappa has sought thepermission of the Centre toopen up places of worship,hotels, motels , lodges, andinsisted that State’s must haveauthority to check the healthstatus of the people comingfrom major containment zonesin the country.

At the same time, Goa CMPramod Sawant told mediathat he informed Centre thatthe lockdown should continuebut the hospitality sector in theState should be permitted toopen up. The Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijyan hasexpressed apprehension aboutallowing places of worship toopen. After flattening the curve,the State has seen a resurgenceof numbers as train and air trav-el restarted. Many North-Eastern states, where the coro-navirus numbers started spikingonly after the Centre opened uprail and air travel, have told theCentre for thorough checking ofpassengers from the contain-ment zones itself.

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India on Friday overtookChina in terms of corona-

related fatalities and racedtowards 5,000 death count evenas the number of fresh casessaw third straight day of spikeswith Maharashtra, Delhi, TamilNadu, Gujarat, West Bengal,Uttar Pradesh registering hugenumbers.

India has reported a total of1,73,140 coronavirus cases and4,975 deaths till Friday after itreported 7,783 infections anda massive 264 death countfrom across the country onFriday. China which hadreported the first Covid-19case in December last year hasregistered over 82,995 cases andaround 4,634 deaths.

Data shows 10,652 peoplehave been treated and dis-charged so far. The recoveryrate stands at 42.89 per cent.According to the Ministry’s

website, more than 70 per centof the deaths are due to comor-bidities. On Friday, Delhi,Haryana, Karnatakata, andUttarakhand reported biggestsingle day spike as Covid-19continued to spread viciouslyacross the country.

Maharashtra continue toremain headache for the healthauthorities, as it contributedanother day of big

spike recording 2,682 positivecases on Friday, with Mumbaialone contributing a total of35,458 cases to the States tally.Coronavirus has infected atotal 62,228 people in thefinancial capital of the country.The fatalities in the State haveshot up to 2,098.

Tamil Nadu, after slippingto the third position onThursday, again disturbingly

surged ahead on Friday toacquire second slot among theworst hit States. It witnessedhigh number of coronaviruscases at 874 taking the totalcount to 20,246 cases on Friday.At least 9 people have died dueto coronavirus infection in theState taking the death toll to157. Delhi recorded its biggestspike in Covid-19 tally in sec-ond consecutive day at 1,106

fresh cases while the number ofactive coronavirus patientsstood at 17,387. It witnessed 82deaths bringing the total fatal-ities to 357 in the State.

The national Capital hadrecorded over 1,000 cases in aday for the first time onThursday since the outbreak.

In Gujarat, in the last 24hours, 372 new cases ofCOVID-19 and 20 deaths werereported. The total tally ofpositive cases rises to 15,944including 8,609 cured/discharged, death toll is 980deaths.

In Karnataka, 248 peoplehave been tested positive forcoronavirus on Friday, takingthe total number of cases in thestate to 2,781 while death tollstands at 48.

Similarly in Uttar Pradesh,275 new Covid-19 cases andfour deaths were reported, tak-ing the total number of cases inthe state to 7445.

In States like Bihar,Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh,Madhya Pradesh, UttarPradesh and Odisha themigrant influx has startedpushing up Covid numbers.Madhya Pradesh has reported7,453 cases.

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Kolkata: West Bengal FireServices Minister Sujit Bosehas tested positive for coro-navirus, making it the firstsuch case in the MamataBanerjee-led State Cabinet, awell-placed source in theGovernment said on Friday.Bose has been advised toundergo home quarantineafter his test results came.

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Renowned astrologer BejanDaruwalla died at a private

hospital here on Fridayevening, his family said. Hewas 90. While speculationwas rife that Daruwalla wasadmitted to Apollo Hospitalhere a few days ago after he

tested positive for coronavirus,his son Nastur denied it, say-ing his father was being treat-ed only from pneumonia.

According to his website,Ganesha Speaks, he had pre-dicted that Atal BihariVajpayee, Moraji Desai,Narendra Modi will PrimeMinister.

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Chhattisgarh’s first ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi suc-

cumbed to cardiac arrest in ahospital here on Friday at the ageof 74, doctors and his familymembers said. Jogi sufferedanother cardiac arrest around1.30 pm and doctors battled forover two hours to revive him butwere unsuccessful. He breathedhis last around 3.30 pm, said amedical bulletin from the ShreeNarayana Hospital.

Jogi was admitted to hos-pital on May 9 after a heartattack and had slipped intocoma the next day.

Hospital Director Dr SunilKhemka said on May 10 thatoxygen had not been reachingJogi’s brain for some time,causing brain damage. Thecondition is called hypoxia.Jogi’s neurological activitieswere almost nil though hisheartbeat was normal andblood pressure was controlledby drugs. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi tweeted: “ShriAjit Jogi Ji was passionate aboutpublic service. This passionmade him work hard as abureaucrat and as a politicalleader. He strived to bring apositive change in the lives ofthe poor, especially tribal com-munities. Saddened by hisdemise. Condolences to hisfamily. RIP.”

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The coronavirus-led disrup-tion of Indian economy

slowed down the GDP to 3.1per cent in January-March andto an 11-year low of 4.2 per

cent for the full fiscal 2019-20amid a drop in consumptionand investment. The slowdownis also result of overall eco-nomic deceleration even beforethe Government imposed alockdown to curb the spread of

Covid-19 infections fromMarch 25, 2020. The GDP isexpected to continue on thedownward journey and gainspeed in the next few quarters.

The GDP growth stood at5.7 per cent in the corre-

sponding quarter of 2018-19,according to data released byNational Statistical Office(NSO) on Friday. The Indianeconomy grew at 4.2 per centduring 2019-20 as against 6.1per cent in 2018-19.

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Page 2: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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Flew twice (Indigo fromBombay to Delhi and then

Delhi to Ranchi) in a windowof 12 hrs. I must start withacknowledging the courage,care and commitment of airlinestaff, airport officials, securitypersonnel and all othersinvolved in managing airportand flight operations. They allshowed warrior like character.I’m grateful to everyoneinvolved in making my flyingexperience exceptional andsafe. I can’t thank them enough.

Unfortunately, a few fellowpassengers were rude andunreasonable with the crew.There were a couple of caseswhere they misbehaved withairline staff and I didn’t mindintervening and standing forthose super heroes, who got usback to the clear and calm blueskies. Some might complainabout stress and anxiety. Butisn’t that true for airport andairline staff. In fact more intheir case. And one thing thatmade me anxious was the waysome parents were handlinginfants.

My request to each travel-er is, to be polite and to beaccommodating in these diffi-cult times. And most impor-tantly respect everyone aroundwho is making life easy for ustravellers.

A few inputs, based on myexperience (And these are justsuggestions for improvement to

make the overall process saferand convenient). I’m not com-plaining, because I don’t havethe right to complain. Theeasiest thing for a traveler is tocomplain. And that’s the mostunreasonable approach. Forthose who are in a fault find-ing mode, I would requestthem to stay at home. Of all cat-egories of people at airports, thesimplest role is that of a trav-eler. The objective is just aboutmaking the process safer andless hectic for those runningthe show on ground. So herewe go: There should have beenmore drills to streamlinehygiene, before resuming oper-ations. And it’s still not late toconduct drills. It gives goodinsight of problems that occurin a live situation.

Give more authority to theground and airline staff. Inoticed a few unreasonabletravellers, who were being self-ish and grumbling for no justi-fied reason. If they are beingunreasonable beyond a point(not cooperating and beingcareless about the hygieneprocess), make them go home.This would not have any brandimpact. In fact, the reasonableflyers would appreciate suchaction.

Deploy more robust saniti-sation tools. There were auto-matic dispensers, not workingon day one (and it could hap-pen at the best of facilities andthat is why I preposed drills).But let’s try to minimise that and

maybe have backups (dual dis-pensers) at all check points. Andit is absolutely okay if thatmakes traveling by air a littlemore expensive.

Most processes were takingway more time than expected,for obvious reasons, to ensuresafety of everyone around. Sodon’t take any chances with scal-ing up operations in a hurry.And we can’t scale up the realestate and other infrastructureovernight (meaning number ofgates, kiosks, etc.). So travellershave to be patient and letauthorities move at their ownpace. After all it’s about our safe-ty and everyone’s safety. It’sgoing to take many months toresume full operations.

Procedures weren’t con-sistent across airports. Andsome of these are not worthignoring e.g. sanitisation ofluggage and providing dispos-able gloves to travellers. Someairports weren’t sanitising lug-gage and some airlines weren’tproviding gloves (but wereproviding masks, sanitiserpouches and face shields).

Airport authorities should-n’t allow personal sanitisersbeyond a point and providetheir own sanitisation kits toeach traveler, for safety reasonsbeyond health. This can beincluded in the travel cost orprovided by the local adminis-tration, per whatever works forthem. But this is essential con-sidering safety measures out-side health can’t be compro-

mised. We are talking aboutnational safety and airportshave always maintained thehighest security standards. Sothe way there used to be aprocess for handing water andother forms of liquid, thereshould be for sanitisers and Ibelieve providing kits at the air-port is a feasible solution.

Last and very important, iftraveler can’t respect and trustthe airport and airline staff,they shouldn’t travel in thesetimes. For those who are will-ing to travel, please do note thefollowing:

Make sure you get to theairport 4 hrs in advance. It’srecommended to minimiseinconvenience for you. Everyprocess is taking longer thanexpected for obvious reasons.

Once at the airport, respectall front line warriors, includ-ing on ground staff and do nottake anything personally. Theyare doing all this selflessly, andjust for us travellers. Respectthem and show them empathy.They are putting their lives onthe line for us.

Don’t rush during anyprocess. Just hold on, maintainsufficient distance (there aremarkers everywhere on air-ports), and move only whenasked by a staff. Airport author-ities have done magnificentwork to rollout all this so quick.Do not over react (consideringsome of us think we are thesmartest) to the airport staff, ifthey miss something, one oddtime, because of being exhaust-ed. They are doing some amaz-ing work.

Ask for help, whenever indoubt. Carry as little stuff aspossible. Avoid watches, jew-ellery, belts, etc. Remember, weare addressing not just healthrelated safety, but also national

safety.Be proactive with your

hygiene at airport stores. Everytime remember, you are riskingnot just your own life, but oth-ers also. And when you followthis rule, then only you canexpect others. Lead by example.

Avoid movement in theboarding area. Stay put whereyou are. Just sit and relax. It isadvisable to sanitise you seatbefore settling down; especial-ly the arm rest.

If you’re with infants, pay alittle more and block seats in thefirst couple of rows to minimisecontact while on boarding andoff boarding. It is worth theprice. Airport authorities, air-lines and all other stakeholderswould need to make a lot ofinvestment to get the quality to,where it needs to be. Flying isgoing to get expensive.Passengers need to respect thenew normal and cooperate withauthorities to make flying as safeand convenient, as it was beforethe pandemic.

And thank you once moreto Indigo Airlines, Ministry ofCivil Aviation, Government ofIndia, State governments ofMaharashtra, Delhi &Jharkhand, security personneland all airport staff for this fly-ing experience. Take pride inbeing a responsible travelerand don’t forget to thank theairport and flight warriorswhenever traveling.

(Abhishek Anand is aManagement Consultant andadvisor to early stage startups.Hehave been part of multipleindustry defining initiatives inboth emerging and developedmarkets, including South Asia,North America, Africa, MiddleEast and Europe.)

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Amid ongoing power crisisin the city, Minister of

Health and DisasterManagement, Banna Gupta onFriday promised that the powerscenario will be improved innext 72 hours. He said that dur-ing a meeting at local CircuitHouse, he has asked theauthorities to address all the

issues concerning poor powersupply.

He said that the electricitydepartment should strictly actagainst the big defaulters. Hedirected the officials ofJharkhand Urja Vikas NigamLimited (JUVNL) to prepare aproposal to increase the capac-ity of Baliguma grid and alsodirected the concerned officialsfor land identification for a sub-station in Mango region.

Deputy CommissionerRavi Shankar Shukla,Additional Deputy

Commissioner Saurav KumarSinha were present in the meet-ing.

During the meeting, theMinister discussed the powerwoes in detail and discussed

with theofficials forits execu-tion. Guptad i r e c t e dthe author-ities to pre-pare anaction planto repair

faults. He said that areas likeKadma, Sonari, Mango,Azadnagar have been hit. Thedepartment should identify thefaults and address it.

He said that AB swtiches

have not been installed inabout 225 transformers. Heasked the officers to prepare aproposal for installing theswitches. Air BreakChangeover Switch is an essen-tial unit of all overhead powertransmission line which is usedto connect or disconnect thepower system of a certain partof overhead cable and trans-former from the main powerdistribution line.

Over two lakh residents liv-ing in the Jharkhand BijliVitran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL)in

the steel city are facing frequentpower cuts for a prolongedperiod. Localities like Mango,Azadnagar, Birsanagar, Baridih,Govindpur, Parsudih remainedwithout power since 10.30 pmon a day when the city did inci-dentally reeled under a blister-ing heat .

Moreover, the power cutswere experienced during asweltering heat despite the factalmost all industrial units aswell as commercial establish-ments are closed due to ongo-ing lockdown.

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It was his family that helped24-year-old chartered accoun-

tant student from Chakulia tideover coronavirus. Receivinggreetings from State HealthMinister Banna Gupta, the sec-ond patient of corona virus inEast Singhbhum district wasreleased from Tata MainHospital after he tested negativeon Friday.

The Health Minister, whowas present on the premises,greeted the student and alsolauded the role being played byTata Main Hospital (TMH).He said that the recovery rate ofthe patient is good that meansthe State is fighting against thevirus.

The chartered accountantstudent had returned home onMay 8 evening on a private cabat Chakulia, around 80 kmfrom of Jamshedpur to becomethe second novel coronaviruspositive cases to have surfacedfrom East Singhbhum district.

“I was disheartened whenI was tested positive. Moreover,I was also disturbed when myentire family was quarantined.At TMH, I used to do a con-ference call to family and friendswho gave me confidence duringmy isolation. My family hasbeen my backbone during thetreatment. They were my pillarsof strength---they gave me theconfidence to win this battleagainst coronavirus,” he said.

Ranchi: Officials of the 2011batch of Bokaro Steel Planthave set an example for othersby celebrating the nine years oftheir joining BSL in a uniqueway. This year the 2011 batchofficials decided to help theneedy affected by the Covid19epidemic to make this specialday memorable.

These officers of the 2011batch of BSL, with their vol-

untary contribution, fed morethan 500 needy people livingnear the Hanuman temple inSector-9B.

Apart from this, the teamalso provided 100 packets offood at the Quarantine Centerlocated at Sector - 11. Duringthis period, the officials alsoensured adherence to the rulesof social distancing and lockdown. PNS

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Page 3: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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In the hour of global pan-demic Ranchi Deputy

Commissioner, Rai MahimapatRay on Friday handed over acheque of �21 lakhs to theChief Minister, Hemant Sorenfor Chief Minister's Relief Fundat the his residence.

This includes one day’ssalary, which was voluntarilydeposited by the officers andemployees of the DistrictAdministration which is �8Lakhs.

A cheque of �3 lakhsreceived from the sale of sani-tizer by the DistrictAdministration and a cheque of�10 lakhs from the CBSE

schools of the District whichthey donated to the DistrictAdministration to fight againstthe pandemic.

Speaking on the occasionSoren appreciated the workbeing done by the DistrictAdministration to deal with theCoronavirus epidemic. He saidthat many organisations andofficers are coming forward tohelp in this moment of Coronacrisis. This is definitely momentof pride for the people of theState.

Ray said on the occasionthat the official and workers ofthe District Administrationwill be ready for help in thefuture, so that they can beatCorona to spread in the

District.Meanwhile, Officials of

ICICI Bank handed over 50thousand hand gloves, 50 thou-sand three layer masks, 240

bottle sanitizers and 70 sets ofinfrared thermal scanners toChief Minister Hemant Sorenat the his residence.

Soren appreciated that all

necessary steps have been takenby the State Government forprevention of the epidemicand treatment of Corona virusinfection.

“It is getting the full sup-port of various organizationsincluding socio-economic,educational and professional.With the help of the people ofthe State, we will definitely suc-ceed in winning the war againstcorona virus.

Among the representativesof ICICI Bank meeting theChief Minister, Regional Head,Sales, Rajesh Kumar Mishra,Regional Head, Retail BranchBanking, Rakesh Kumar, ChiefManager, Madhav Chaudharyand Senior Manager, Aditi

Ghosh were present.On this occasion, the Chief

Minister was informed by rep-resentatives of ICICI Bank thatin this period of the Coronavirus epidemic, the Bank isconstantly distributing sanita-tizer, gloves, thermal scannersand PPE kits along with otherrescue materials in all the dis-tricts of the State.

It is also informed that thecost of constructing Thalisimiaward in Ranchi Sadar Hospitalhas been borne by the Bank.

It may be also mentionedhere that meanwhile severalareas of the biggest contain-ment zone of the State,Hindpiri were opened.

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All India CongressCommittee (AICC)

General Secretary cum StateCongress in-charge, RPN Singhon Friday urged the StateGovernment to address irreg-ular electricity supply problemin the State.

The people of the Stateinformed Singh throughTwitter, Facebook and PhoneCalls that power supply is inpoor condition in many citiesand rural areas of the State, dueto which a crisis has arisen andsome problems have increasedafter the opening of the indus-tries after long time small busi-nessmen are also facing diffi-culties. Singh has spoken to theState Congress ChiefRameshwar Oraon on phoneand said that the basic needs ofthe people of the State shouldbe taken care of during thehour of pandemic.

Singh said that Jharkhandis doing very well in compari-son to other states during theperiod of pandemic and despitelimited resources and the neg-ative and non-cooperative atti-tude of the CentralGovernment, the coalitionGovernment of the State hasbeen successful in handling thesituation. He has expressedthe hope that the StateGovernment will try withutmost seriousness even on thepower crisis and will be able toget rid of the problems as soonas possible.

Meanwhile, JPCC Chiefcum Finance Minister,Rameshwar Oraon launched acampaign to provide cookedfood for the Corona Warriorsas well as the needy and poorsponsored by the Ravi Travelsand Helpline.

For the next 40 days

cooked food and water will beprovided to Corona warriorslike police personnel by thevehicle and at Birsa Chowk ofthe State Capital a food distri-bution programme will be runby the travel company for theneedy and poor people.

On this occasion JPCCSpokesmen Alok KumarDubey, Lal Kishore NathShahdeo and Kamal Thakurwere especially present. Foodwas sponsored by DirectorRavi Travels and Helpline,Abhay Singh and he wasaccompanied by social workersSachchidanand Singh,Dharmendra Singh, LalanSingh, Councilor KrishnaMahato, Upendra Sahu, GeetaSingh, Priyashankar, RaviShankar, Laxman Oraon, SagarSah and Ravi Shankar Lakda.

Launching the programmeOraon said that it is a greatwork to provide food to theCorona warriors as well aspoor and needy during thepandemic and it is the moralresponsibility of all person ofthe society to take care of theinterests of the by poor extend-ing all help. He praised Singhfor this rewarding work.

JPCC Chief said that theDidi kitchen scheme will con-tinue, to provide food to thepoor on the NationalHighways. The most importantjob is to fill the stomach of thepeople, if the people remain fullof stomach then only they canthink of some other work.

Oraon further said, “ThisState is struggling with finan-cial crisis, we are repeatedlyrequesting the CentralGovernment to help us withour arrears. We have alsodemanded through our socialmedia programme 'Speak UpIndia' to the grant of �10,000 toeach poor family.”

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The Jharkhand BJP unitwill celebrate the com-

pletion of one year of Modi.2government by organizingtwo virtual rallies and 20video conferences. Due tocoronavirus lockdown andban on political meeting, theBJP is turning to technologyfor holding the events tomark the first anniversary ofPrime Minister NarendraModi government’s secondterm. On May 30 last year,Narendra Modi was sworn inas Prime Minister for secondterm.

The BJP Jharkhand Unitto make the affair a grandcelebration has decided tohold virtual rallies and videoconferences. BJP state presi-dent Deepak Prakash said,“Senior party leaders willreach out to people high-lighting the achievements of

Narendra Modi government.At the virtual rallies the partyworkers must adhere to safe-ty and health protocols whileconducting these rallies andvideo conferences.”

The BJP state presidentclaimed that apart from thesetwo technology driven pro-grammes, party workers andcadres will establish indi-vidual contact, digital contactand virtual contact, whilemaintaining social distancingnorms, to make people awareof the welfare initiatives ofthe government.

The BJP central unit hasdecided to hold virtual ralliesand video conferences tohighlights the achievementsof Modi government.

In a communication tostate units and other senioroffice-bearers, BJP generalsecretary Arun Singh said allbig state units will hold atleast two virtual rallies and

smaller units will hold one,adding that more than 750-1000 people should attendeach of these programmes.

At such virtual rallies,the senior leaders have beenasked to highlight theachievements such as nulli-fication of Article 370, whichhad given the erstwhile stateof Jammu and Kashmir spe-cial powers, law against tripletalaq among others as party’ssuccess.

The party has also decid-ed to highlight the path to the

construction of Ram templein Ayodhya which has beencleared by Modi govern-ment.

Sources said that eventsorganised by the party tomark the day will begin onMay 30 and may continue fora month.

On the completion ofone year of Modi 2, the partyleadership has also asked itsmember to resolve to uselocal and ‘swadeshi’ products.

They should reach out toall sections of society whilefollowing the social distanc-ing norms.

The party has asked itsmembers to inform themasses about Modi govern-ment's work to combatCOVID-19 and told them tocarry a letter penned by theprime minister about hisresolve to make 'AtmnirbharBharat' to 10 crore families.

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The State’s examination con-ducting body Jharkhand

Academic Council (JAC) hasfinally started evaluating theanswer sheets for the annualmatriculation and intermediateexams from May 28.

To scruitinise 6.21 lakhcopies of matriculation andintermediate exams, 67 centresacross 19 districts have beenmade. About 9,000 teachershave been appointed by thebody to check the answersheets. JAC had successfullyconducted the exams fromFebruary 11 to February 28while the papers were due to bemarked from March 20onwards.

At all the centres social dis-tancing norms will be strictlyadhered to. CCTV camerashave also been installed toensure all necessary protocolsare being followed.

“Owing to the nationwidelockdown the board has notbeen able to check the papersand declare the results.Presently evaluating the answer sheets is a priorityand if everything is normalresults will also be declaredvery soon. It normally takes 25days to mark the copies andanother 15 days are requiredfor processing. All guidelinerelated to Covid- 19 are beingstrictly followed in this process.On the first two days of theevaluation process no unto-

ward incidents have beenreported from any of the cen-tres,” said JAC Secretary MahipSingh.

At the centres thermalscreening of all the examinersis being done. They are alsobeing provided with sanitizersand face masks. To ensure fre-quent hand washing, adequateprovisions for availability ofsoap and water have also beenmade.

This year a total of 3,84,021students had appeared for theclass X exams from 940 centreswhile 2,38,363 students hadtaken the class XII exams from 470 centresacross the State. From the Statecapital about 33,070 students were registered for thematriculate exam where as32,585 students were to appearfor the intermediate exam.

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Ranchi MunicipalCorporation (RMC) in col-

laboration with MarwariSahayak Samiti (MSS) con-ducted a successful trail of theonly gas fired crematorium ofthe city opposite HarmuMuktidham on Friday. Anunclaimed body from RajedraInstitute of Medical Scienceswas cremated to test the facil-ity. The trial was done in thepresence of Mayor Asha Lakraand Deputy Mayor SanjeevVijaywargiya.

The venue will have two gasfired equipments. In this pyre,the first body will take about 30minutes to burn. Once theentire chamber is heated, thesubsequent bodies will onlytake 15 minutes to burn. In thetraditional way it generallytakes over three hours for theentire process to complete.

“A trail run to test the effi-ciency of the equipment wasdone and a meeting of RMCwith members of the MarwariSahayak Samiti is likely to takeplace next week in which alldetails including prices will befinalized. In comparison to thetraditional method of crema-

tion, this technique is bothenvironment-friendly as well asquick. It might take a little timefor people to switch to this sys-tem but in big cities it is verypopular,’ said Dr Kiran Kumari,Health Officer RMC.

The device had earlier beenused once in 2014 but due tosome technical issues the bodywas not burning completely andsince then it had been lyingdefunct.

“There are a lot of

unclaimed bodies and it is a dif-ficult task for RMC to disposethem. With the gas fired fur-nace becoming functional, itwill solve the problems to agreat extent.

It will also save a lot of treesfrom being cut as no wood isrequired in this. This facilitywill also be open to the gener-al public,” added the RMC offi-cial. “Initially when the facili-ty had been made by the gov-ernment it was electric but now

it has been switched over to gas.This gas fired furnace will alsosave the expenses required fora generator. The trial wasextremely successful and it willsoon be inaugurated. MSSPresident Pradeep Rajgarhiahas played a vital role in mak-ing this functional. Thisequipment will also solve theproblem of cremating Covid-19 patients,” said Pawan Bajaj,Chairman Gas CrematoriumCommittee.

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Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) volunteers in

State Capital are distributinghomeopathic ‘preventive med-ication’ and ‘kadha’ anAyurvedic drink to boostimmunity among people tofight against the pandemic.The RSS workers throughdoor-to-door contact and byputting up stalls and kiosks aredistributing this prophylacticmedicine for coronavirus ill-ness. The homeopathic medi-cine that RSS workers distrib-ute is Arsenic Alb 30 P havingthe potential to cure deadlyvirus.

The volunteers, who aredistributing the medicines, arealso instructed to advise peo-ple how to take pills daily, halfan hour before and half an hourafter each meal of the day. Alsoparents of the newborns too areadvised to strengthen theirimmunity.

RSS Seva Vibhag memberKanhaiya Kumar said, “Apartfrom out fight against coron-avirus, we are also reaching outto people to boost their immu-nity. As prevention is only wayto fight against the disease the

best way is to increase theimmunity.” As the AYUSH(Ayurveda, Yoga &Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha,Sowa Rigpa andHomoeopathy) department)has given the formula for kadhapreparation the RSS workersare using AYUSH’s techniquein preparing kadha. By usinghaldi, tulsi (Basil), Dalchini(Cinnamon), Kalimirch (Blackpepper), Shunthi (Dry Ginger)and Munakka (Raisin), Geloythe powder is made and it isconsumed once or twice a day.

The RSS workers are alsoinforming people that the bestway to fight against the diseaseis to build immunity. Drinkingwarm water throughout theday, practicing of Yogasana,Pranayama and meditation forat least 30 minutes are otherways to boost immunity.

RSS Seva Vibhag memberKanhaiya Kumar said, “In themonth of June the RSS work-ers will reach out to peopleinforming ways to buildimmunity and in this connec-tion we will also distributepamphlets among people.”

Prior to this the RSS sincethe implementation of lock-down has carried out various

philanthropic work reachingout to people. The RSS in thisendeavor has distributed 29,324ration kits among the benefi-ciaries. The ration kits includes4.5 kg of rice, pulses (Dal), soyachiks, potato, salts and othereatables items. Till May 20, the

RSS has fed more than 1.75lakh people through its sevakitchens which has been set upat different parts of state capi-tal. The RSS members are alsoproviding milk to needy fam-ilies and till date they havereach out to 222 families.

Also for migrant workersreaching out their home fromacross the country, the RSShave put up stalls at variousentry points of state capitalsuch as near Birsa Chowk,Durga Soren Chowk onRanchi-Tata highway, Booty

more and other parts. At these stalls, food pack-

ets, water and medicines aredistributed among the migrantworkers. The RSS volunteerssince lockdown on intervalshave donated blood among atRIMS.

Ranchi: In order toensure availabilityof masks to thecommon peoplethe Department ofPosts, JharkhandCircle signed anagreement withK a s t u r b aG r a m o d y o gSansthan, Ranchion Friday for mar-keting of KhadiMask (03 tier)through various post offices ofJharkhand. These masks made byKasturba Gramodyog Sansthan,Ranchi are not only economical butcan also be washed and reused.These masks made of Khadi will beavailable for sale from the first weekof June in all major post offices,post-shoppers.

On this occasion, the CPMG,Jharkhand CircleShashi ShaliniKujur informed that various prod-ucts made by Kasturba GramodyogSansthan, Ranchi are already beingsold by the post offices, as a sequelto the sale of Khadi masks. It will

not only boost the circulation ofKhadi but will also provide employ-ment to the people associated withSmall and Medium Industries(MSME). On the occasion,Satyakam, Director of Posts,Jharkhand, told that the e-pay-ment software for sale of masks hasa separate Biller-ID. Provision hasbeen made to facilitate the sale.

According to the officials of theSansthan Jharkhand Postal Circle isthe first Postal Circle in the coun-try with which an agreement hasbeen reached for the sale of KhadiMask. PNS

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Page 4: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Friday

issued separate ProvisionalAttachment Orders attachingassets worth USD 50.90 million(equivalent to �385.44 crore) ofaccused Rajiv Saxena underPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) inAgusta Westland chopper scamand Moser Baer Bank Fraudcase.

The attached assets includea villa in upscale Palm Jumeirah,Dubai worth 20 million AEDand balances in five Swiss bankaccounts amounting to USD45.55 million of Saxena.

Saxena was deported toIndia from UAE on January 31last year for his involvement inthe multi-crore VVIP chopperscam and was arrested underPMLA.

Investigations under PMLAwere initiated by ED on thebasis of separate FIRs registeredby CBI in connection with theAgusta Westland ChopperScam and Moser Baer BankFraud cases.

The CBI had registered theAgusta Westland chopper scamunder IPC Sections relating tocriminal conspiracy and cheat-ing besides relevant provisionsof the Prevention of CorruptionAct against former Air ChiefMarshal SP Tyagi and others.

The CBI had registered aseparate FIR against MoserBaer India Ltd. and its Directors,unknown public servants andunknown private persons underIPC Sections relating to crimi-nal conspiracy, forgery andcheatings and provisions ofPrevention of Corruption Act ina bank fraud case.

“Investigation under PMLA

revealed that accused RajivSaxena is a Hawala operator andaccommodation entry providerwho runs the accommodationentry business in Dubai throughnumerous companies known asMatrix Group companies andhas laundered proceeds of crimein the cases of Agusta WestlandChopper Scam and Moser BaerBank Fraud case,” the ED saidin a statement.

Saxena created structuresfor laundering proceeds ofcrime generated by accused ofboth cases either for the kick-backs in Agusta Westland caseor defrauding banks by mis-util-ising the loans given to MoserBaer India Ltd and its sub-sidiaries. Saxena manages theproceeds of crime and taintedfunds of many high profile andhigh net worth individuals.

In the case of Agusta Westland helicopterscam, Letter of Request to SwissConfederation was sent torestrain his Swiss bank accountsand ensure that Saxena did notshift/transfer/dispose-off thesuspected proceeds of crime.Saxena has admitted to laun-dering the proceeds of crime notonly of Agusta Westland dealbut also various other defencedeals.

The proceeds of crime havealso been transferred to the per-

sonal accounts of Rajiv Saxenaand his wife Shivani Saxena(also an accused in AgustaWestland case).

In Moser Baer Bank fraudcase, proceeds of crime belong-ing to Deepak Puri, amountingto USD 16.33 million have alsobeen attached.

The accounts of Moser BaerIndia Ltd. were classified as aNon-Performing Asset in theyear 2014. “Investigation in thecase has revealed that the pro-ceeds of crime generated byDeepak Puri out of bank fraud were received and kept by Rajiv Saxena till 2018 throughaccounts maintained forDeepak Puri and also equity hasbeen transferred from an undisclosed entity based inBahamas. From the analysis ofdigital evidences and accountsof Puri family maintained bySaxena,, it was revealed that theamount of USD 16.33 million isproceeds of crime in the hands of Saxena belonging toDeepak Puri and is parked inthe accounts of companies ofMatrix Group,” the agency said.

Likewise, proceeds of crimebelonging to Ratul Puri, nephewof Congress leader Kamal Nath,and transferred to Rajiv Saxenafrom an undisclosed foreignentity have also been attached.

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Underlying ailments arealready known to have

expedited the Covid-19 attack.However, now the researchershave found that one in tenCovid-19 patients suffering withdiabetes dies within 7 days ofhospital admission, and one infive is intubated and mechani-cally ventilated.

Age, though, is the biggestdetermining risk factor for deathamong those with either form ofdiabetes who get Covid-19, saidthe researchers as they foundthat two-thirds (65 per cent ) ofCovid-19 patients with diabetesadmitted to hospital are men,and the average age of allpatients is 70 years.

Under-40s have a very lowrisk compared with those over40, and especially comparedwith older, said the researchersin their study published inDiabetologia (the journal of theEuropean Association for theStudy of Diabetes [EASD]).

The findings hold impor-tance for India which is knownas diabetes capital of the World.There are around 50 millionpeople with diabetes in Indiawhose number is likely to touchto 87 million by 2030, becauseof various reasons, sedentarylifestyle being the major one.

Professor Bertrand Cariouand Professor Samy Hadjadj,diabetologists at l'institut duthorax, University HospitalNantes, INSERM, CNRS, andUniversity of Nantes, France,and colleagues in their studysaid that blood sugar controldid not seem to impact apatient's outcome, however thepresence of diabetic complica-tions and increasing ageincrease the risk of death, andincreased BMI is associatedwith both increased risk ofneeding mechanical ventila-tion and with increased risk ofdeath.

The study analysed 1,317patients admitted to 53 Frenchhospitals (public and private)between 10 and 31 March 2020.The majority of hospitalisedsubjects had type 2 diabetes (89per cent) (caused by sedentarylifestyle) while only 3 per centhad type 1 diabetes (autoim-mune factor), with other typesof diabetes in the remainingcases. In 3% of cases, diabeteswas actually diagnosed duringhospitalisation for Covid-19.

Microvascular complica-tions (eye, kidney and nerves)were found in 47 per cent of thesubjects in the study, whilemacrovascular complications(arteries of the heart, brain,legs) were present in 41 percent. Across all patients, by day7 one in five (20.3 per cent) hadbeen intubated and placed ona ventilator in intensive care,and one in 10 (10.3 per cent)had died. A further 18 per cent

had been discharged home atthis point.

The presence of microvas-cular or macrovascular com-plications each more than dou-bled the risk of death at dayseven. Advanced age also sub-stantially increased the risk ofdeath, with the group ofpatients aged 75 years andmore than 14 times more like-ly to die than younger patientsaged under 55 years, while

patients 65-74 years old werethree times more likely to diethan those under 55 years.

The presence of the respi-ratory condition obstructivesleep apnoea almost tripledthe risk of death at 7 days, asdid the presence of dyspnoea symptoms (shortness ofbreath).

The study also confirmedthat insulin, and indeed alltreatments for modifying

blood sugar, are not a risk fac-tor for severe forms of Covid-19 and should be continued inpatients with diabetes.

Encouragingly, there wereno deaths in patients under 65years old with type 1 diabetes,but the authors highlight therewere only 39 patients with type 1 diabetes in this studyand other work is ongoing toestablish the effect of Covid-19in this specific population.

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Persons with intellectual anddevelopmental disabilities

(IDD) are more likely to diefrom Covid-19 than those with-out IDD, according toresearchers from SyracuseUniversity and SUNY UpstateMedical University. More so,because usually individuals withIDD have a higher prevalence ofcomorbid circulatory, respira-tory, and endocrine diseases.

Published inScienceDirect's Disability andHealth Journal, the study saysthat the disparity is likelyrelated to a higher prevalenceof comorbid diseases amongthose with IDD, and/or ahigher percentage of peoplewith IDD are living in con-gregate residential settings.

IDDs are disorders that

are usually present at birth andthat negatively affect the tra-jectory of the individual'sphysical, intellectual, and/oremotional development. Manyof these conditions affect mul-tiple body parts or systems..

The study, "Intellectualand Developmental Disabilityand Covid-19 Case-FatalityTrends: TriNetX Analysis,"included 30,282 people whowere identified as Covid-19positive in the TriNetX Covid-19 Research NetworkPlatform.

“More attention is neededto this vulnerable health pop-ulation in order to ensuretheir safety and well-beingduring this pandemic, includ-ing careful attention to theimpact of public policies suchas PPE prioritisation andfunding streams on the abili-

ty of residential serviceproviders to guarantee quali-ty care during this time," saidresearcher Scott Landes.

He is an associate profes-sor of sociology at SyracuseUniversity's Maxwell School ofCitizenship and Public Affairsand a research affiliate for theLerner Center for PublicHealth Promotion.

The study was conductedby Landes and threeresearchers from SUNYUpstate Medical Center inSyracuse, N.Y.: Dr. MargaretTurk, professor of physical medicine and reha-bilitation; Dr. MargaretFormica, associate professor ofpublic health and preventativemedicine and associate pro-fessor of urology ; andKatherine Goss from theDisability & Health Research

Team.Every individual in this

study had Covid-19, so ratesare case-fatality rates that gavethe researchers an idea of theseverity of the disease amongboth groups. Among ages 0-17, for every 100 individualswith Covid-19, 1.6 with IDDdied and less than one withoutIDD died. Among ages 18-74,for every 100 individuals withCovid-19, 4.5 with IDD diedcompared to 2.7 without IDD.Rates were similar for those 75and over - for every 100 indi-viduals with Covid-19, 21.1with IDD died and 20.7 with-out IDD died.

The researchers also foundthat individuals with IDD hada higher prevalence of comor-bid circulatory, respiratory,and endocrine diseases acrossall age groups.

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In just two months since thelockdown was imposed to

contain the Covid-19 infection,the pandemic has left theIndian private healthcare sec-tor gasping for survival, a sur-vey said on Friday adding thatthe healthcare facilities in thecountry have witnessed at least80 per cent fall in average rev-enue.

The survey was conductedby healthcare industry bodyNATHEALTH in 251 healthcarefacilities across 9 states and 69cities to assess the impact ofCOVID-19 on the domestichealthcare industry especiallyamong small and medium-sizedhospitals, which are now facing

existential challenges post thelockdown from March 4, 2020.

The findings showed that 90per cent of the surveyed health-care facilities are facing financialchallenges with 21 per centfacilities facing an existentialthreat.

According to the survey,hospitals in tier 1 and tier 2 citiesare experiencing a 78 per centreduction in OPD footfalls, anda drop of 79 per cent in in-patient admissions.

The study found that 90 percent of organisations requiresome form of financial assis-tance.

The findings indicated thateven after the lockdown lift, thesituation will remain difficult forthe hospitals and nursing homes

as patients will hesitate from vis-iting hospitals.

Dr Sudarshan Ballal,President NATHEALTH, saidthere is a need to address the on-going challenges faced by theIndian Healthcare industry.“Low financial performance,shutdown of OPDs, prohibitionon elective surgeries, and ban oninternational travel have led tolow footfalls from national andinternational patients in the lastthree months,” he said..

Besides this, Covid-19 out-break has significantly impact-ed cash flow in all organizations.There is a need for a stimuluspackage to revive the Indianhealthcare industry These mea-sures will be crucial to imple-ment to provide much needed

relief to the healthcare sectorwhich is the frontline defense inthis fight against Covid, sug-gested Ballal.

The survey findings indicatethat even after the lockdown lift,the situation will remain difficultfor the hospitals and nursinghomes as patients will hesitatefrom visiting hospitals. Hospitalsare working towards adapting tomodern healthcare techniquesand are providing consultationthrough telemedicine, but theproblem related to OPD footfallwill remain for some time. “Theother challenge of increase incost of operations is also a majorconcern given more stringenthygiene and containmentrequirements post Covid,” saidthe NATHEALTH President.

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Indian Army's Major SumanGawani, who served as a

peacekeeper with the UnitedNations Mission in SouthSudan (UNMISS) in 2019, hasbeen selected for the presti-gious “United Nations MilitaryGender Advocate of the yearAward.”

She will receive the awardfrom the UN Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres during anonline ceremony being organ-ised at the UN Headquarters,New York on Friday on the occa-sion of international day ofUnited Nations Peacekeepers,the Army said here on Friday.She will be receiving this awardalong with a Brazilian Naval offi-cer Commander Carla Monteirode Castro Araujo.

Major Gawani served as amilitary observer in UNMISSfrom November 2018 toDecember 2019 where she wasthe principal focal point of contact for gender issues for mil-itary observers in the mission.“The officer encouraged partic-ipation in joint military patrolsto maintain gender balance,irrespective of the hardshipsunder extreme field conditions,”the Army said adding she also strived to inte-grate gender perspective into theplanning and military activity inthe mission.

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The United Nation’s Foodand Agriculture

Organization (FAO) haswarned that several successivelocusts invasions are expecteduntil July in Rajasthan witheastward surges across north-ern India as far as Bihar andOdisha followed by westwardmovements and a return toRajasthan on the changingwinds associated with the mon-soon. In its latest update, theFAO said locust swarms havemoved into northern India butthere are less chances of migra-tory pest to reach southernparts of India, Nepal, andBangladesh.

The Directorate General ofCivil Aviation ( DGCA) alsoissued an operation circular forstakeholders like pilots andengineers saying locust pose athreat to aircraft in the criticallanding and takeoff phase of a

flight and advised that flightsshould be avoided through anyknown locust swarms.Himachal Pradesh, JammuKashmir and Goa tooissuedalert in the wake of possibleinvasions.

India is currently wit-nessing its worst locust attackin almost five decades withswarms of locusts havingarrived earlier than they usu-ally and have reached farther.In the past few days, therehave been movements of adultgroups of locusts in India,Oman, the UAE, and Uganda. Spring-bred immature adult groups andswarms that arr ived inRajasthan from the west con-tinued to move east in theeastern portion of the stateand to the central states ofMadhya Pradesh andMaharashtra.

As of 26 May, at least oneswarm had reached to the

northeast of Bhopal. Much ofthese movements were asso-ciated with strong westerlywinds from Cyclone Amphanin the Bay of Bengal.

Swarms are forming in thespring breeding areas andmigrating east to the Indo-Pakistan border ahead of themonsoon rains, it said. Thesemovements will cease asswarms begin to breed andbecome less mobile, it said.

According to the FAO,desert locusts are breeding400 times than usual due tofavourable climatic conditions.

This explosive multiplica-tion may spell disaster forlarge parts of Asia andAfrica.Favourable breedingconditions have resulted in

their multiplication that is 400times more than usual.

While the rabi crops,recently harvested, survivedthe onslaught, the locusts cantake a heavy toll on India’skharif produce if not con-trolled by the time the harvestseason arrives.

India is battling the worstdesert locust invasion in morethan 21 years.

The crop-destroyingswarms first attackedRajasthan and have now spreadto Punjab, Gujarat,Maharashtra and MadhyaPradesh.

In its guidelines, theDGCA said "Generally, locustsare found at lower levels andtherefore pose a threat to air-craft in the critical landing andtakeoff phase of the flight.Almost all air intake ports ofthe aircraft will be prone toingestion in large numbers, ifthe aircraft flies through a

swarm (areas like engine inlet,air-conditioning pack inletetc,”. DGCA said pilot are

required to share informationof locust swarm they spot inthe course of flight. "Air traf-

fic controllers when aware of locust presencein the vicinity of their

aerodrome are advised to sharethe information with all arriving and departing flights.Being a day time phenomena , the pilot is alsorequired to share informationof locust swarms.

It is strongly advised thatflight should be avoidedthrough any known locustswarm,” it said.

According to Ministry ofAgriculture, the Rajasthan gov-ernment has deployed 778tractors and 50 fire brigadevehicles, Madhya Pradesh - 72tractors and 38 fire brigadevehicles, Uttar Pradeshdeployed 6 tractors and Punjabdeployed 50 tractors and 6 firebrigade vehicles for locust con-trol. “The Centre is in closetouch with the affected states of Rajasthan,Punjab, Gujarat, MadhyaPradesh, Uttar Pradesh andMaharashtra and an advisoryhas been issued,” it said.

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Aviation regulator DGCAon Friday issued guide-

lines for stakeholders likepilots and engineers on howto deal with locust swarms,saying they pose a threat toaircraft in the critical landingand takeoff phase of a flight.

India is battling the worstdesert locust invasion in morethan 21 years. The crop-destroying swarms f irstattacked Rajasthan and have

now spread to Punjab,Gujarat, Maharashtra andMadhya Pradesh.

“Generally, locusts arefound at lower levels andtherefore pose a threat to air-craft in the critical landingand takeoff phase of the flight.Almost all air intake ports ofthe aircraft will be prone toingestion in large numbers, ifthe aircraft flies through aswarm (areas like engine inlet,air-conditioning pack inletetc.)," the regulator said in its

circular.Pitot and static sources

can also get partially or fullyblocked while flying throughlocust swarms, theDirectorate General of CivilAviation said.

“Blocked pitot and staticsources lead to erroneousinstrument indications, espe-cially unreliable air speed andaltimeter indications," it said.

A pitot tube in airplanesis used to measure the flowspeed of the wind.

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The Congress on Fridayalleged that the economy is

"sinking" but the Governmentis consistently "shrinking" thesavings and income of thecommon man by reducing thesavings bank deposit and fixeddeposit rates of public sectorbanks.

The party also questionedthe Supreme Court's silenceover the remarks made by theSolicitor General (SG) a dayearlier and alleged that theGovernment was autocratic inits functioning.

“The impact of interestrate cut decision on March 31amounts to loss of �19,000crore income per year for thedepositors,” Congress chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala said in a statement.

“Middle class and lowermiddle class is in "economicgrief ". The decision to reduceinterest rates and discontinueRBI Bonds during lockdown is

"brainless, heartless and shame-less," he said adding due to thealready existing economic cri-sis worsened by COVID-19 theincome of the people is down.

The interest rate cuts inPPF, KVP, NSC and other sav-ing instruments further hit thealready shrinking savings ofapproximately 30 crore depos-itors, who have deposited Rs 14lakh crore in various savingsschemes, he said.

The latest blow for middlesclass, farmers, pensioners andwomen is discontinuation of7.75 per cent RBI bonds andfurther reduction of interestrates by SBI, said Surjewala.

In the last two months, thetotal combined reduction inincome of 30 crore depositorsin saving schemes (PPF, NSC,KVP etc) and 44.51 croreaccount holders of State Bankof India (SBI) depositors is Rs44,670 crore annually (fromreduction in interest rates onsavings scheme and reductionin SBI savings, fixed deposit

interest rates), he claimed.�44,670 crore is 24 per cent

of actual fiscal stimulus mea-sures announced (Rs 186,650crore) by the government. Soaround one-fourth of whatev-er is announced is alreadytaken back by the governmentby reduction in interest rates.If we include other PublicSector Banks this figure willincrease by at least 3 times," hesaid.

The Congress demandedthat interest rates on all smallsaving schemes, fixed deposits(FD) and savings bank depositsmust be restored immediatelyto pre-March 12 level.

On the matter of SGTushar Mehta, who onThursday stated in the SupremeCourt that there were a hand-ful of people - "prophets ofdoom" - who were always scep-tical about everything,Surjewala, said, "Modi Govt's'New Definitions' in SC -1)'Some High Courts are run-ning a parallel Govt' 2).

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In an indication of gradualopening of ‘lockdown on

political activities’ which hadturned ‘digital’ over a period,BJP would conduct PhysicalPress Conferences in all Stateunits while observing the firstanniversary of the second runof the Modi-Government at theCentre.

BJP is expected to high-light the fulfilment of itspromised political agenda,including the scraping of arti-cle 370 and splitting of Jammuand Kashmir in union territo-ries and passing of parliamen-tary legislation making tripletalaq an illegal and a criminaloffence ,as the party would tryto impress upon its “success” incontaining Coronavirus pan-demic in the country throughmedical measures and theeconomic packages and con-cessions announced since the

lockdown on March 25.One of the main pro-

grammes which is to tick-offthe series of party activitieswould be BJP president J PNadda’s address to the partyworkers through Facebook Liveon Saturday

Nadda would detail “ser-vices” rendered by the BJP inlast three-months in fightingthe pandemic in different statesand may also counter opposi-tion charges over alleged mis-handling of stranded migrantworkers.

BJP National Spokespersonand Rajya Sabha member PVLNarsimha Rao said the partywould be organising physicalpress conferences in all stateunits from Sunday onwards.Actual face-to-face conferenceswere done away with by theBJP by the middle of theFebruary after pandemic beganto take threatening shape inthe country.

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In more trouble for TablighiJamaat, the CBI has regis-

tered a Preliminary Enquiryagainst the Islamist outfit’sorganisers and other unknownpersons on a complaint alleg-ing that the organisation's Trustindulged in dubious cash trans-action by using illegal meansand non-disclosure of receipt offoreign funds to the competentauthority under the ForeignContribution (Regulation) Act.

The PE was initiated on thebasis of a written complaintfrom the Foreigners Division ofthe Union Home Ministryalleging that the organisationhas violated FCRA provisions.

Through the PE, the CBIwill seek to unravel the largerconspiracy behind insidiousfunding of the Tablighi Jamaat’sTrust and gather evidence tosubstantiate the allegations inthe complaint, sources said.

Once prima facie eviden-tiary materials are gathered, theagency may convert the PE intoa Regular Case of FIR in policeparlance.

The latest move followsinvestigation by the CrimeBranch of the Delhi Police thathas registered over three dozencases including against TablighiJamaat chief Mohammad Saadunder the Epidemic Diseases Actand Indian Penal Code (IPC)Sections relating to culpable

homicide not amounting tomurder.

The Tablighi Jamaat is alsobeing probed by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)for alleged violations under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act.

Earlier this week, the DelhiPolice filed multiple chargesheetsagainst the Tablighi Jamaat, itschief Maulana Saad Kandhalviand members of the outfit from14 other countries.

In March, the police evacu-ated more than 3,000 peoplestaying at the Tablighi Jamaatheadquarters here at theNizamuddin for a religious con-gregation.

Scores of the Jamaat’s mem-bers were tested Covid-19 pos-itive and they had fanned outacross the country for allegedlyspreading the pandemic. In theDelhi police FIR, the outfit wasaccused of organising the eventin violation of governmentorders to avoid mass gatheringsin the wake of coronavirus out-break.

On its part, the Jamaat hasdenied the allegations.

After registering the PE, theCBI has collected all thechargesheets filed by the DelhiPolice in connection with theJamaat event as also the copy ofthe report relating to the outfit’sfinancial dealings through mul-tiple bank accounts includingcash transactions, sources added.

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Page 5: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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With 874 persons testingpositive on Friday, the

number of persons afflictedwith coronavirus in TamilNadu reached 20,246. The onlyconsolation for the authoritiesis the number of patients dis-charged from various hospitalsin the State. Friday saw 765 per-sons getting cured and dis-charged from hospitals andthis made the total number ofactive cases in the State as8,776.

Nine persons were declareddead on Friday and the fatali-ties reached 154 all over theState. The efforts by theGovernment to contain thepandemic continued without

any hold back as 71 laborato-ries were working round-the-clock to test the samples.According to the medical bul-letin issued by the Tamil NaduGovernment, 11, 334 personswere tested on Friday whichtook the total number of per-sons tested till date to 4,66, 550.

Chennai continued to bethe epicenter of covid-19 inTamil Nadu with 13,662 per-sons testing positive till date.There are 6,353 active cases inthe district which is closely fol-lowed by Chengalpattu (545).There are districts likeNamakkal, Nilgiris andPerambalur which do not haveeven a single coronaviruspatient. Dharmapuri, whichsucceeded in containing thepandemic reported three caseson Friday.

62 persons tested positive

for coronavirus in Kerala onFriday, according to ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan.Speaking to reporters atThiruvananthapuram, the chiefminister said that the hike incoronavirus cases was mainlydue to expatriates and personsfrom other States whoreturned to Kerala.

“Out of the 62 tested pos-itive today, 33 were from for-eign countries, and 23 fromother States. Number ofhotspots in the State increasedto 101,” said the Chief Minister.But he had some news of com-fort to the people of the State.“The instances of virus in every100 tests done in Kerala is 1.7per cent and this is the best inthe country,” claimed Vijayan.He also ruled out the possibil-ity of community/social trans-mission in the State.

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MP Veerendrakumar, member of Rajya Sabha andleader of Lok Tantrik Janata Dal breathed his last

late Thursday night. The most colourful politician whonever compromised on his stance against the SanghParivar and the kind of politics practiced by the BJP, wasgiven a State funeral at the sprawling Puliyarmala Estatecompound, his ancestral home in Wynadu district.

Veeran , as he was known, was 84 and is survivedby his wife and four children. He was also the chairmanand managing director of Mathrubhumi, a popularMalayalam daily and owned the satellite news channelby the same time.

The Rajya Sabha member, though shared power inthe State in company of the Congress and the CPI(M),stood for socialism, secularism and liberalism in synchwith the kind of education he received from abroad. Sonof a planter by name Padmaprabha Gowder, Veeran isdescribed as Raja by the people of Wynadu district. Hewas twice member of the Lok Sabha and a was a min-ister of state for company affairs in the government head-ed by Deve Gowda.

Author of more than a dozen books ranging frompolitics to ecology to spirituality, Veerendrakumar wasinstrumental in encouraging journalists to travel wideacross the country as his mission to make the youthunderstand the nook and corner of India. He has wona number of honours like Sahitya academy award and“Vayalar Award”, Kerala’s highest literary prize.Veerendrakumar had established through his book“Sorrow of Rama” that there ever existed any Ram tem-ple in Ayodhya. “He stood for socialism and secularismand never could get along with the BJP and Sangh Parivarbrand of politics. We will miss him very badly,” saidChioef Minister Vijayan, a long time friend of the lateparliamentarian.

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There is no respite fromdomestic returnees with

respect to Covid-19 inKarnataka. As many as 92 percent of the 178 cases in the past19 hours were returnees, most-ly from Maharashtra, raisingthe State's tally to 2,711, an offi-cial said on Friday.

“New cases reported fromThursday 5 p.m. to Fridaynoon, 178,” said a health offi-cial. Among the 164 domesticreturnees, 156 or 95 per centreturned from Maharashtra,India's largest COVID suffer-ing state.

Recently, Karnataka saw amajor spike in cases in Udupi,Yadgir, Bengaluru Urban,Kalaburagi and Raichur.

Raichur suffered 62 infec-tions and Yadgir, 60, both con-stituting 69 per cent of the casesin the past 19 hours.

A 35-year-old man fromBengaluru is suffering fromInfluenza Like Illness (ILI).

A 68-year-old woman fromDavangere is also sufferingfrom the same condition.

One more patient, a 32-year-old man fromChikkaballapura, is also suf-fering from ILI.

A 68-year-old man fromthe same place is sufferingfrom Severe Acute RespiratoryInfection (SARI).

Meanwhile, 35 patientswere discharged in the past 19hours, 30 from Hassan, threefrom Uttara Kannada and oneeach from Chikkamagaluruand Mandya.

Among the cases, 1,793 areactive, 869 discharges and 47deaths.

Lucknow: Continuing his efforts to promote indus-trialisation in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath has now issued directions to amendthe revenue code which will make it easier to acquireland in the state.

The amended code will make it possible to leaseagricultural land for industrial units and industrialparks. The Land Acquisition Act of 2013 will also beamended to simplify the procedure for acquiring landwithin a distance of 1 km on either side of an express-way. This will also provide for additional means of rev-enue generation for the industrial developmentauthorities. According to a government spokesperson,the state government will also develop an electroniccity near the Jewar International Airport for which alarge land parcel will be acquired.

“At a meeting between the Chief Minister andsenior officials, it also was decided to auction the landsof closed public sector units. A legal verification theland will have to be carried out for the purpose,” hesaid. If a revenue village comes under an industrialdevelopment authority, it has been decided that thepublic land in these gram sabhas will be vested withthe respective authority.

Under the Industrial Development Zone Act, allot-ment of a plot will be cancelled if a unit is not set upthere after a stipulated period of time.

Meanwhile, it has also been decided that land ofclosed units under the Industrial DevelopmentDepartment and plots allotted to closed units of otherdepartments, such as sugar mills and Central gov-ernment undertakings, will be acquired for the landbank. IANS

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While the Jammu &Kashmir Government is

still contemplating whether toallow pilgrimage to theAmarnath cave shrine for ashorter duration in the secondweek of July this year, the totalnumber of coronavirus casesare spiraling up without show-ing any declining trend, espe-cially in Kashmir valley.

The Government, which istied up with containmentefforts to check the furtherspread of deadly virus, isalready under pressure fromseveral quarters to allow annu-al pilgrimage to the cave shrinefor a limited period of atleasttwo weeks.

The final decision in thisregard is expected to be takenduring next week by theChairman of the ShriAmarnath Shrine Board afterholding threadbare discussionswith members of the board andtaking in to account the feed-

back from the Union HomeMinistry.

Earlier, Shri AmaranthShrine board authorities haddecided to suspend the yatrathis year but later recalled theirdecision claiming the finaldecision would be taken aftertaking a fresh review of the pre-vailing circumstances.

Due to heightened securi-ty concerns, the authorities inJammu & Kashmir cannot takea unilateral decision as it has toensure safety and security ofthe pilgrims during the yatraperiod.

Secondly, till the time lock-down guidelines are relaxedand smooth movement of pil-grims is permitted the pil-

grimage cannot take place evenfor a limited period of time. Asenior government functionarysaid, “we are waiting for thecentre to take a final call on theissue of holding annual pil-grimage to the Amarnath caveshrine”.

“Once we receive a greensignal, other yatra logistics,clearing yatra track, setting uptemporary shelter points,arranging refreshment, regis-tration of pilgrims as per theguidelines can be initiated”.

On the other hand, anoth-er famous shrine of Shri MataVaishno Devi is also awaitingfinal nod from the union govtto restart yatra for local pil-grims. Shri Mata Vaishno Deviyatra was suspended on March18, 2020 ahead of the nationwide lockdown from March 23.

Meanwhile, on Friday, onemore patient died due to toCovid-19 in Srinagar while128 new cases were detected in

Jammu and Kashmir, takingthe total tally to 2164 cases. Outof these, the total number ofactive cases are 1261, 332 inJammu division and 929 inKashmir division.

According to the mediabulletin, out of 128 new posi-tive cases, 36 were reportedfrom Jammu division and 92from Kashmir division.

All the 36 cases fromJammu were returnees. Highestnumber of 14 cases werereported from the border dis-trict of Poonch while sevencases were reported fromJammu, and six each fromKathua and Rajouri districts.

In Kashmir valley, thehighest number of 27 caseswere reported from Srinagar,followed by 19 cases fromKulgam, and 18 from Kupwara.According to media bulletin, 76percent active cases in Kashmirvalley are localised in onlyfour districts of Srinagar,Kulgam, Anantnag andKupwara.

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Amid eyebrows raising inthe medical fraternity and

the opposition circles theBengal Government has decid-ed to safeguard “Jaan” andoperationalise “Jahan” even asChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday declaredthat the State will be fullyfunctional from the first weekof June with the opening ofboth religious places and pub-lic offices.

“While temples, mosques,churches and gurudwaras willopen from June 1, the publicand private sector will becomefully functional from June 8,”she said adding not more than

10 persons will be allowedentry in religious places.

Public and private sectoroffices too will begin workwith full staff strength, she saidallowing public transport toferry passengers to their fullcapacity. Buses which wereallowed to carry only 20 peo-ple earlier will now be able toferry passengers to its full sit-ting strength, she said remind-ing, “no standing person will beallowed.”

Tea gardens and jute millstoo will start functioning withfull capacity from June 8, shesaid. When asked if suddenopening of the system willneutralize the good effects ofthe 68-day lockdown a fuming

Chief Minister said if theRailways could send in“Corona Expresses” (read trainsbringing infected migrantworkers) packed with peoplethen where was there a harm inopening the State. “We havereports that the Railways issending trains, heaving withmigrant workers. In one seat,three-four persons are travel-ling for 48 hours, 72 hours. SoI thought then what is the harmin opening up religious places.From June 1, religious sites andplaces can open up in Bengal.”

She however said that “nomass congregation or no bigfestival would be allowed to beorganized” in the State till fur-ther orders.

“Already Bengal hasreceived 5-6 lakh migrantworkers many of who alreadyhave come via road. And theRailways have sent another 75thousand of them in trains …many of these people are car-rying corona infection… somuch so that the people havestarted running away when atrain is entering the Howrahstation saying ‘look CoronaExpress is coming,’” she said.

She said that but for theirresponsible attitude of theRailways which too have a“social responsibility towardsthe citizens of the country”Bengal Government had beensuccessfully controlled the pro-liferation of the virus.

“We were successful incontrolling the spread of coro-na virus in the last two months,but now it is increasing as a lotof people are coming fromoutside. The Railways is send-ing migrants in crowded com-partments. In the name ofShramik Special trains theyare running 'corona express'trains,” she said.

The decision to open upthe State came amid risingnumber of cases and a lot offrown both from the medicaland political fraternity.

Senior doctors wonderedwhether social distancingnorms could be followed incase of a full relaxation oflockdown norms and said “the

entire good effects of the lock-down would be compromisedif we open up now.”

Another senior virologistpredicted “a massive increase inthe number of cases in thecoming weeks and Bengal willfind it difficult to burry its deadpeople if the decision is notchanged right away.” CPI(M)’sMd Sal;im said, “it seemsMamata Banjeree is competingwith the Modi Government inhaphazard implementation ofplans. While on one hand thesudden imposition of the lock-down brought great miseries tothe poor people of the countrynow its sudden lifting will fin-ish the advantages of the lock-down.”

He also asked “how thepeople will be transported totheir offices and back at a timewhen the local trains are closed.And if the local trains arestarted where is a guarantee ofsocial distancing?”

State BJP president DilipGhosh attacked Banerjee fortaking knee-jerk decisions evenas he asked “for reasons did weimplement the lockdown forthe past two months. Was itbecause we will sacrifice itsgood effects? Will the ChiefMinister be able to control therising cases if they start to mul-tiply in the coming weeks?“Who will take the responsi-bility of the families that willsuffer now?”

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The Special Task Force of Kolkata Police had amajor success on Friday when it arrested

Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terrorist Abdulalias Boro Karim. He was hiding near Suti townof Murshidabad district bordering Bangladesh, theSTF which carried out a joint operation withMurshidabad Police said.

Karim was allegedly involved in a 2018 blastat Bodh Gaya in Bihar sources said without rul-ing out his involvement in the Khagragarh blastat Burdwan district of Bengal too. The Khagragarhblast killing two JMB militants had occurred onOctober 2, 2014.

The Bodh Gaya blast had taken place near theMahabodi Temple on January 19, 2018, hours afterBuddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama had left thearea.

“He had provided shelter to JMB leaders fromBangladesh, who were directly involved in theBodh Gaya blast. He was arrested this morningfrom Suti police station area of Murshidabad dis-trict,” a senior officer said adding a number of doc-uments and other things have been recovered fromhim.

“He is among the top three JMB operativeswanted in India. We have been looking for himfor quite some time. He will be produced beforea local court today and we will seek his police cus-tody,” an official said adding, the terrorist had ear-lier given the cops a slip but this time they couldmanage to arrest him.

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Jammu: A day after Lok SabhaSpeaker Om Birla had nominated theAssociate Members of DelimitationCommission for the Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir, one of theleading mainstream political party inKashmir valley, National Conferenceon Friday rejected the entire processsaying that the party’s three membersof Parliament will not participate init.

MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singhand Members of Parliament, Dr.Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad AkbarLone, Hasnain Masoodi and JugalKishore Sharma were nominated asassociate members of Thursday bythe Lok Sabha Speaker.

In a statement, the NC,spokesman said: “With reference tothe recently announced DelimitationCommission announced by theGovernment of India, Jammu &Kashmir National Conference todayrejects this process and its threemembers of Parliament will not par-ticipate in the said commission.”

The party added: “This delimi-tation commission is a product of theJ&K Re-organisation Act 2019, whichthe JKNC is challenging in and out-side the Supreme Court. Participating

in this delimitation Commissionwill be tantamount to accepting theevents of 5th August 2019, which theNC is unwilling to do.”

“According to the Constitution ofJ&K, the constituencies of J&K wereto be delimited in 2026 with the restof the country. The constituencies inthe State were last delimited in the’90s. Thereafter, an amendment wasmade in the constitution of J&Kunanimously passed in the StateAssembly in which all the regionalparties, Congress and BJP voted forthis amendment to go with thedelimitation with rest of the countryin 2026. Therefore, the Constitutionof the delimitation commission isunwarranted,” the statement added.

The commission has been con-stituted to delimit the constituenciesof Jammu and Kashmir in accor-dance with the provisions of theJammu and Kashmir ReorganisationAct 2019.

According to section 60 ofJammu and Kashmir ReorganisationAct 2019, the number of seats in theLegislative Assembly of Union terri-tory of Jammu and Kashmir shall beincreased from 107 to 114. PNS

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Investigating teams of Jammu &Kashmir police on Friday claimed to

have identified owner of the Santro carwhich was likely to be used by the sui-cide bomber to target a security con-voy or any other vital installation inKashmir valley.

The car was believed to have beenfabricated by an IED expert, identifiedas Mohd Ismail alias Fauji Bhai ofJaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit. He isbelieved to be a close relative of Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief, MaulanaMasood Azhar. His name had also fig-ured during investigations in thePulwama terror attack. Police is cur-rently working on the vital leads totrack down the footprints of activeOver Ground workers who may haveprovided logistics support to the IEDexpert Fauji Bhai while fabricating thevehicle borne IED.

Though, no formal statement wasissued by the Jammu and Kashmirpolice but officers privy to ongoinginvestigations revealed the owner of theexplosives-laden car which was inter-cepted in Rajpora area of Pulwamaon Thursday, has been identified asHidayatullah Malik.

According to police officers, Malikis a resident of Shopian and hadjoined the Pakistan-backed terrorgroup Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in July2019. Some of the close relatives ofMalik have also been detained by thepolice to piece together the details ofthe conspiracy hatched by the top com-manders of different terror outfits inKashmir valley.

Meanwhile, DG CRPF , Dr A.PMaheshwari , Friday commended therole of CRPF in foiling a major terroristattack in Pulwama, and has alsoannounced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakhfor the CRPF team involved in theOperation. Complimenting the role ofCRPF, DG CRPF also announcedaward of Commendation Disc and cer-tificates to the deserving CRPF Officersand Men involved in the Operation.

According to CRPF spokesman,DG CRPF appreciated the synergyamongst the Forces in handling thesecurity situation in Kashmir.

Zulfiquar Hasan, Special DGJ&K Zone, CRPF met with the CRPFteam of officers and men involved inthe operations , presented the cashreward on behalf of the DG and laud-ed the exemplary efforts put in by thepersonnel.

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Having cancelled the traditionalannual “Palkhis” (palanquin pro-

cessions) from Alandi and Dehu inPune district to Pandharpur owing tothe Covid-19, the MaharashtraGovernment on Friday decided totake the holy 'Padukas” (foot prints)notably of Sant Dnyaneshwar and SantTukaram from Warkari sect directlyto the temple town in Solapur districtin western Maharashtra.

At a meeting held betweenDeputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar andthe organising committee in Pune onFriday, it was decided that therewould not be palanquin processionsfrom Alandi and Dehu Pune districtto the Vithobha-Rukhmani temple inPandharpur in view of the continuedspread of coronavirus in many partsthe state.

In the past, palanquin processionswould begin from Alandi and Dehuand go through Pune, Sangli, Satara& Solapur districts. The whole pil-grimage would take 21 days.Numerous palakhis join the mainTukaram and Dnyaneshwar palakhisalong the way.

Devotees from from all overMaharashtra and nearby areas wouldset out for Pandharpur, wearing holibasil beads and sing the glories ofVithoba and songs like “Gyanba

Tukaram”, commemorating the saints.Upon reaching Pandharpur on theauspicous Ashadhi Ekadashi day, thedevotees would take a holy dip in thesacred Chandrabhaga river or Bhimariver before offering prayers at the theVithoba-Rukobai Temple.

In consultations with the deputyChief Minister, the organisers decid-ed to discontinue the “Palkhis”(palanquin processions) which wouldin the past see more than at least fourlakh Warkaris, the people who wouldunder annual pilgrimage (wari) fromAlandi and Dehu to the temple townof Pandharpur in Solapur district.

During the meeting, Pawarassured the organisers that the StateGovernment would ensure the“palkhis” would be taken toPandharpur on the day of Dashmieither via Helicopter or via State-runMSRTC buses.

This is for the first time in thenearly 800-year-old tradition ofPalkhis,palanquin processions willnot be taken by foot from the twintemple towns of Alandi and Dehu toPandharpur.

As part of the decision taken bythe State Government, palkhis ofSant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Tukaram,Sant Nivrutinath, Sant Sopankaka,Sant Muktabai and Sant Namdeowill be taken directly by either roador air on the dashmi day.

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Maharashtra, which is the worstcoronavirus-affected State in the

country, notched another dubious featon Friday, as a record 116 people diedof pandemic and 2,682 others tested pos-itive, taking the total number deaths to2,098 and infected cases jumped to62,228 in the State.

The corornavirus displayed its fero-cious face on the fourth consecutive day,as it claimed 116 deaths and left 2,682others infected in various parts of theState.

There have been a total of 403 deathsin Maharashtra during the last four days.On May 26 (Tuesday) the state had wit-nessed 97 deaths, while there were 105deaths on Wednesday and 85 deaths onThursday. Friday’s death toll is 116.

With the latest fatalities, the deathtoll crossed 2,000 mark to reach 2,098.With the total infected cases standing at62,228 and 8,381 patients having beendischarged from various hospitals, thestate health authorities pegged the activecases at 33,124.

Of the total deaths reported onFriday, Mumbai accounted for 38, whilethere were 17 deaths in Jalgaon, 13 inPune, nine in Navi Mumbai, seven inDhule, five each in Aurangabad andMalegaon, three each in Bhiwandi,Mira-Bhayandar, Nashik, Solapur,Kolhapur, two each in Raigad andAmaravati.

Of the dead, 77 were men while 39were women. Forty eight of them wereaged over 60 years, 55 were from the agegroup 40 to 59 years and 13 were aged

below 40 years.“Seventy five out of 116 patients

(65%) had high-risk co-morbiditiessuch as diabetes hypertension, heart dis-ease, etc,” a State health bulletin said.

Out of the total deaths reportedtoday, 46 deaths occurred in the last twodays and the rest are from the periodMay 16 to May 26 2020.

With new fatalities and infections,the total number of deaths increased to1173 and infected cases rose to 36932 inMumbai.

Out of 4,33,557 laboratory samplestested, 62,228 were positive for Covid-19 until Friday.

There are 2941 active containmentzones in the State currently. Total 17,600surveillance squads worked across thestate on Friday and surveillance of67.68 lakh people.

According to the key observationsmade in the report on Fridasy, patientdoubling time for the state is now 15.7days from 11 days in the last week. Therecovery rate in the state is 43.38 percent.

The mortality rate in the state: 3.37per cent. Currently, 5,35,467 people arein home quarantine and 35,967 peopleare in institutional quarantine

Meanwhile, considering that themonsoon is around the corner, preva-lence of other epidemic diseases otherthan Covid-19 also will possiblyincrease. On this background, the healthdepartment has started its preparation.

For Malaria, insecticide spraying hasbeen planned in sensitive districts andswachhta surveillance is going on in thestate for water quality.

Considering the increasing numberof Covid-19 patients, the bed capacityis being increased as per the requirementin the three-tier system of Covid-19health facilities.

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Page 6: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

Watching the public’s andthe Union and StateGovernments’ responseto the COVID-19 pan-demic and the devastat-

ing progress of the cyclone Amphan, Iwas reminded of Charles Dickens’famous sentence in A Tale of Two Cities,“It was the best of times, it was the worstof times, it was the age of wisdom, it wasthe age of foolishness, it was the epochof belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of Light, it was the sea-son of Darkness, it was the spring ofhope, it was the winter of despair, we hadeverything before us, we had nothingbefore us, we were all going direct toHeaven, we were all going direct the otherway — in short, the period was so far likethe present period, that some of its nois-iest authorities insisted on its beingreceived, for good or for evil, in thesuperlative degree of comparison only.”

There are parts of the sentence thatare generally relevant to the times we livein India but not to the specific context weare talking about. Some parts do apply.For example, it is “the best of times” interms of the courage, compassion andgenerosity shown by a number of peopleto help migrant workers, rendered unem-ployed by the lockdown. One of them isPappan Singh Gehlot, a mushroomfarmer in Delhi’s Tigipur village, who hasbought air tickets worth �68,000 toenable his migrant workers to return totheir village in Bihar. He has also giveneach of them a cash advance of �3,000 sothat they do not face any hardship onreturn, besides getting them medical cer-tificates needed to fly. According toreports, Gehlot, who has been taking careof their food and accommodation sincethe lockdown began on March 25, did notwant them to walk home given the risks,including those of accidents, involved.Interestingly, one of the reports hasquoted him as saying that he had madeseveral attempts to send them back totheir home States by a Shramik Specialtrain but could not manage to do so.

Another shining example is that ofAkshay Kothawale, a 30-year-old autodriver in Pune, who is spending the�200,000 he had saved for his weddingto feed migrant workers and those in dis-tress in the streets. With the help of hisfriends who have chipped in, he is feed-ing 400 people every day besides ferry-ing senior citizens and pregnant womento clinics.

Another example is that of thealumni association of the Bengaluru-based National Law School raising fundsto charter an Air Asia Boeing A-320 air-craft to send 169 migrant workers andfive children home from Mumbai toRanchi in Jharkhand. According toSheyl Trehan, one of those involved in the

venture, it was carried out incooperation with Priya Sharmaof the Department ofHumanities and Social Sciencesof IIT, Mumbai.

There are many other exam-ples of individuals and NGOsgoing out of their ways to helpmigrant labourers and urbanpoor. They, however, constitutea small slice of the population.The overwhelming majoritycould not care less or are hostile.The indifference is manifesteven in the case of the havocwrought by the super-cycloneAmphan, which has devastatedhuge tracts in West Bengal andparts of Odisha. West Bengalbore the brunt of it. There werenot more than 86 deaths thanksto the State Government’s excel-lent work in evacuating people.The physical damage has beencrippling. The Sunderbans, theworld’s largest mangrove forestand a wildlife sanctuary, has vir-tually been destroyed. Hundredsand thousands of people havebeen rendered homeless. Cropsover thousands of square kilo-metres have been lost.According to the KolkataMunicipal Corporation, over5,000 trees have been uprootedin the city — the figure may havebeen as high as 10,000 if theadjacent areas are included.Hundreds of lamp posts havebeen destroyed. Yet, having sat-isfied their voyeuristic instincts

in front of television sets, theoverwhelming majority outsideWest Bengal and Odisha is nowobsessed with COVID-19 andthe threat the pandemic poses tothem.

And this despite the factthat COVID-19, the first case ofwhich was reported in India onJanuary 30, 2020, has beenkilling far fewer people com-pared to road accidents andother causes. Thus, according tothe latest figures, there havebeen over 166,000 cases, 71,196cures and 4,706 deaths. Thismeans, on a rough average,over 36 deaths per day sinceJanuary 30. In sharp contrast,there are on an average 1,214traffic accidents and 377 deathsfrom such mishaps, every day.There were 5.45 crore cases of,and 28 lakh cases of deaths fromcardiovascular diseases in Indiain 2016.

It is this hysteria worked upover the COVID-19 pandemicwhich is one of the main reasonsmaking this “the worst of times”in terms of the cruelty arisingtherefrom, and also thehypocrisy laid bare by the mis-match between official expres-sions of concern for migrantworkers and their inhumantreatment on the ground. It isnot just the fiasco of the effortsto take them home by specialtrains earmarked exclusivelyfor them. It is also the widely

manifested attitude of not beingsympathetic to the terrible suf-fering of migrant workers onhighways, roads, airports, rail-way stations and inter-Stateborders — and regarding themas untouchables to be con-signed to the peripheries of theirvillages or neighbourhood bylocals fearing them spreadinginfection. And this despite widedissemination through media ofthe fact that COVID-19 infectsone only through close person-al contact and home quarantineis good enough. Even singlewomen and children are notspared!

The basic reason is fear and,in its fundamental sub-stra-tum, that of death. This isunderstandable. There is neithercure nor as yet a vaccine forCOVID-19. Exaggerated fear, inthe teeth of the availability ofinformation, which shows itslack of basis, is, however, irra-tional and unwarranted. Like allfears, it should have been coun-tered by an application of will.This has not happened. Instead,the majority of people in thiscountry has been enveloped bya wild terror that has had thebetter of their humane instinctsand rationality.

This leads to two other seg-ments of Dickens’ observation,“It was the age of wisdom, it wasthe age of foolishness,” and “itwas the spring of hope, it was the

winter of despair.” It is the age ofwisdom in the sense that thepeople are beginning to realisethat what many had taken forgranted — that humans are themasters of the universe — is nottrue and that rationality is a frag-ile attribute. It is the age of fool-ishness in that the majoritycannot still apply reason in atime of crisis. The hope lies inthe shining conduct of a minor-ity and the compassion andcourage shown by even peoplefrom the most disprivilegedsections, the despair from theselfishness and worse of themajority and the attitude of theUnion and most of the StateGovernments to the plight ofmigrant workers.

It is a remarkable com-mentary on the state of affairsthat the Supreme Court, onThursday, had to forbid the rail-ways and the StateGovernments from extractingtrain or bus fares from strand-ed migrant waiting to returnhome. The railways had to pro-vide them with food and waterduring train journeys, whilethe States from which theywere boarding would have totake care of their meals andwater during bus journeys. Oneonly wishes the order came ear-lier.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and an author)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Pandemic and PDS” (May 28) bySantosh Biswal and UttamChakraborty. It needs to be clari-fied that the exercise of State-wisecoverage within the overall nation-al coverage of the National FoodSecurity Act (NFSA) was done bythe erstwhile PlanningCommission using 68th round ofNSSO Household ConsumptionExpenditure Survey (2011-12).

The estimation took intoaccount the monthly per capitaexpenditure of States and the inter-State price differentials to arrive atthe consumption cut-offs for ruraland urban areas for each State/UT.This was thereafter used to arriveat the percentage of persons fallingbelow that cut-off level of expen-diture separately for rural andurban areas. These percentageswere then applied on the 2011 pop-ulation Census to arrive at thenumber of persons in eachState/UT both in rural and urbanareas. This yielded the eligiblepopulation in the rural and urbanareas in each State/UT.

The Planning Commissionmethodology is such that the cov-erage under NFSA is higher forthose States/UTs, where the size of

the population below the cut-offlevel of expenditure is relativelylarge in proportion to their totalpopulation vis-à-vis those Stateswhere the proportion was smaller.Thus, while the all-India coverageis up to 75 per cent of the rural andup to 50 per cent of the urban pop-ulation, this percentage is muchhigher for the less developedStates/UTs. For instance, in Assam84.17 per cent of the rural popu-lation and 60.35 per cent of theurban population is covered under

NFSA. Further, as per Section 10of the Act, most States have evolvedtheir own exclusion/inclusion cri-terion under targetted PublicDistribution System (PDS).

The authors are seeminglyattempting to highlight the prob-lems in PDS but not noticing thetechnology-driven reforms andsolutions already implemented bythe Centre in collaboration with allState/UT Governments. They sur-prisingly miss out on the followingfacts regarding PDS reform:

�Coverage of 67 per cent benefi-ciaries under NFSA is not a distantdream. Around 81 crore people arealready covered under the Act toreceive subsidised food-grainsthrough PDS on a monthly basis.� Ration cards/beneficiaries datain all States/UTs have been com-pletely digitised and available onrespective State/UT portals.Foodgrains are also being distrib-uted through electronic Point ofSale devices in most of theStates/UTs.

� “One nation, one ration card” isalready enabled in 17 States/UTs.�So far, 146 LMT foodgrains havebeen delivered to NFSA beneficia-ries during April and May 2020under regular NFSA and PradhanMantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana(PM-GKAY). Further, distribu-tion is also under progress.�Also, the “Atma Nirbhar BharatAbhiyan” is being implemented toreach out to all such people whomay not have NFSA or State rationcardS, including migrants/strand-ed migrants but are in need fortemporary ration.

A proper review of the aboveinitiatives on a factual basis shouldhave been done before namingsome States as “doubly disadvan-taged.” This is a lack of properunderstanding of facts and ongo-ing reforms, which often leads tounsubstantiated criticism of thePDS of having imaginary in-builtinequity. The Government alwayswelcomes further improvementin the system and is open to anyconstructive criticism as it helps inimprovement of the system for thebenefit of the poor.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution

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As sustainability becomes mainstream, it isbecoming a well-acknowledged fact that theplanet just does not possess the resources

required for us to maintain our current consump-tion patterns and emulate the aspirational lifestylesof the West. The estimated growth in global pop-ulation to 10 billion in the not too distant futureis an added headwind. This situation has meantthat driving efficiencies in resource usage is fastcoming into public discourse to reduce the car-bon footprint. This is translating into necessaryassets that would need funding. Such examplesabound, like fuel-efficient cars, migration ofpublic transport to e-vehicles, high-speed rail inplace of airlines, urban Mass Rapid Transit trainssubstituting fuel-run vehicles, micro grids for far-flung communities instead of diesel generators andso on.

While these assets, which are typically part oflarge-scale transformational projects, are fundedeither by the Government or by concessional loansfrom development financial institutions, publiccapital is not going to fulfil the need for the tril-lions of dollars of investment the planet requiresto scale up projects that would usher in the desiredsustainability goals.

However, the biggest challenge to bringingprivate capital at scale is the fact that most pro-jects do not offer commercially-viable returns,owing to high upfront costs, long payback,remote location of some projects, nascent tech-nologies and in certain cases, political uncertain-ties, weak institutional frameworks and so on.

This is where blended finance has come upas a solution in this context. It combines publicsector and philanthropic monies as catalytic cap-ital to raise multiples of private sector monies,which help scale up the flow of funding to sus-tainable projects, while yielding substantial eco-nomic benefits to all stakeholders.

The blended finance structure addresses theprojects’ perceived risks, thereby helping increasethe size and number of funding opportunities. Itcomprises funding, which may or may not be con-cessionary, supported with one or more elementslike guarantees, political risk insurance, perfor-mance insurance, outcome-based funding, inter-est subvention, concessional or off-market localcurrency hedging, project preparation grants andso on.

This combination makes the projects’ termsviable for private sector capital and for the pro-ject developer, who otherwise may not have metthe criteria without the assistance these support-ing mechanisms bring in.

Among the emerging markets, India is lead-ing the way by developing successful blendedfinance models. These are worth emulating inother markets that have a similar development pro-file as India in order to bring blended finance toa global scale.

In India, the Government’s Viability GapFunding (VGF) model is one such success-story.Launched in 2004, it supports projects under thePublic Private Partnership (PPP) mechanism.VGF grants were made essentially for infrastruc-ture projects where private sector sponsors wereselected via competitive bidding. The grant wasdisbursed at the construction stage after the pri-vate sector developer made an equity contributiontowards the project. This grant is typically 20 percent of the project’s capital cost and is allocatedfrom the Government’s budget.

The Government then went a step ahead bydefining the norms of how VGF would apply toutility-scale renewable energy projects, specifying

the role of the Solar Energy Corporationof India in terms of evaluation, disburse-ment and monitoring.

Another example is that of cKersFinance and Rockefeller Foundation.Inked in 2018, their partnership involvesan investment by Rockefeller in theDelhi-based sustainable energy Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) tobuild a $50 million asset financing port-folio for scaling up India’s decentralisedrenewable energy segment (DRE).

The Rockefeller investment wouldhelp cKers provide funding access at rea-sonable rates and terms to build the sus-tainable energy portfolio about 10 percent of which would be in mini-grids.While the national grid has reachedalmost all places in India, the quality ofsupply remains erratic and thus DREsolutions like micro and mini-gridshold value.

Then there is the US-India CleanEnergy Finance (USICEF) programme,which supports distributed solar powerprojects through grants specifically forearly-stage project preparation support.Managed by the Climate Policy Initiative,it is a partnership between India’s renew-able energy ministry, the US’ OverseasPrivate Investment Corporation (OPIC)and others. Developers apply to theUSICEF, which maintains an empanelledlist of service providers (legal and pro-fessional services consultancies and soon) and engages them with the grant.

The project preparation supportmakes these developers investment-ready to raise funding from OPIC andother like-minded firms. The averagegrant is only about $0.1 million or so butthis is a significant challenge for thedevelopers given their small scale and thelimitations they face in resources and tal-ent acquisition.

This programme, with a total $3.5million grant committed so far, has sup-ported several rooftop solar, smallground-mounted and solar home systemprojects across more than a dozenIndian States. Last is the “pay for success”outcome funder model. Grameen ImpactInvestment, a Mumbai-based impactNBFC, launched social impact bondsaddressing women’s livelihood and

empowerment, youths’ skill-develop-ment and clean energy. Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) spending by organ-isations in India has risen exponential-ly in recent years, mostly towards healthand education. However, India’s HumanDevelopment Index score, whichincludes mostly health and educationindicators, has hardly improved.

While CSR is only one componentof India’s social sector spending, this doesgive some indication that actual achieve-ment of outcomes is perhaps found want-ing at times. The outcome funder modelattempts to close this gap. The pre-defined outcome metrics are indepen-dently verified by third-party evaluatorsfor on-ground achievement, only uponwhich the outcome funder (a philan-thropy or CSR fund) would meet theenterprise’s interest and/or principleobligations — thus “pay for success.”

This ensures that the philanthropicresources are leveraged in a manner thatwill help achieve outcomes far more thanwhat direct spending could possibly do.

Other blended models abound glob-ally, each of which can potentially bereplicated in India. The US-IndiaCatalytic Solar Finance Facility used cat-alytic, first-loss capital to create risk-mit-igation facilities. The Grid Solar Fund,which funds off-grid solar companies,raised $10 million in political risk insur-ance from OPIC to attract investmentsfrom the private sector.

Climate Investor One Fund raisedblended capital at about 1.7 times mul-tiple with a tiered-structure, whichbifurcates capital into first-loss, subor-dinated equity and debt with credit guar-antee to make lenders comfortable.Denmark’s Climate Investment Fundraised blended capital at over 1.7 timesmultiple, by using a preferential modelwhere losses are shared equally by pub-lic and private investors but the latterenjoy a preferential return and a catch-up option.

At the same time, a preferentialmodel based on share classes was lesseffective. The Global Energy Efficiencyand Renewable Energy Fund, which paidprincipal and interest in batches betweenits A and B share classes, could raise

blended capital only at about 0.8 timesmultiple.

Models apart, another merit ofblended finance is that it can cover areastraditionally unserved by conventionalfunding, like US’ Prime Coalition, whichinvests in early-stage clean energy tech-nologies, the Africa Clean EnergyFacility, which focusses on project prepa-ration and expects to raise a multiple ofabout 20 times its grants and IFC-GEF’sChina Utility Energy EfficiencyProgramme, which helped local bankslend for energy efficiency.

Blended finance can also mobilisecommercial bank participation as seenin Dutch bank FMO’s Guarantco thatgrants partial credit guarantees to localbanks, Indonesia’s Sarulla geothermalproject that used a political risk guaran-tee from Japan’s JBIC and a guarantee let-ter from the Indonesian Government tobring in commercial bank funding,German KfW and ResponsAbility’sGlobal Climate Partnership Fund thatrefinances green lending schemes of localbanks or Africa Development Bank’sFacility for Energy Inclusion that com-bines commercial capital for small-scaleenergy access projects.

In the end, compulsions like climatechange, greenhouse gas emissions, sub-stituting the import cost of fossil fuelsand driving economic growth through“green sectors” will necessitate an urgentscale-up in sustainability projects. Toachieve this, innovative mechanisms toraise dedicated green capital will hold thekey, especially as Indian banks cannotalways fund the long maturities that sus-tainability projects entail. While blend-ed finance cannot solve all the issues, itcan certainly address some of the barri-ers. The models discussed in this articlehave already shown demonstrable valuewhich makes them worth emulating.Most of them can be potentially replicat-ed and scaled up further to fund India’smultitude sustainability challenges.Emerging markets with similar chal-lenges to India should also take note.

(Aiyer is Consultant, South AsiaFast Track Sustainability Communicationsand Bhattacharya is India ProjectsManager, Climate Bonds Initiative)

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Human beings respond well toa familiar crisis, especially if itis also imminent. They don’t

do nearly as well when the threat isunfamiliar and still apparently quitedistant. Consider our response to thecurrent Coronavirus threat. Countriesin East Asia with recent experience ofsimilar viruses like SARS and so onimmediately responded with “test,track and isolate” drills, plus instantlockdowns if the virus had already

gained a foothold in the population. Other countries, just as rich and

well-educated, had the same informa-tion but they waited several monthsbefore taking emergency measuresthat upset the comfortable routine oftheir lives. So the US, UK and Franceall ended up with death rates per mil-lion more than 50 times higher thanChina, Korea and Japan.

The same applies to global heat-ing, except that in this case we are allAmericans. None of us has prior expe-rience of a genuine climate crisis andalthough we have known enoughabout what’s going to happen to jus-tify urgent action for 30 years now, wehave done nothing decisive about it.We have lots of “clean” technology buttotal demand for energy has grown sofast that we are still getting a steady80 per cent of our energy from fos-sil fuels. Realistically, this is not goingto change much. We are who we are,

shaped by millions of years of evolu-tion and our ancestors didn’t dolong-term planning; they had to con-centrate on acute short-term prob-lems. A truly serious response to theclimate threat will, therefore, comeonly when it is starting to hurt.Unfortunately, by then it will proba-bly be too late.

The Earth system — the bios-phere, atmosphere, the oceans, therocks, all the components that governthe climate — plays by its own rules.It will absorb new inputs like warm-ing for a long time while changing aslittle as possible: It is a “homeostatic”system. We are still benefiting fromthis feature now: A full degree Celsiusof warming already and not much toshow for it except hotter summers,shorter winters and bigger storms. Butwhen the pressure on the climate sys-tem gets too great — reaches a tippingpoint — it is liable to charge off in

unpredictable directions at high speed.“Non-linear change”, they call it

and we won’t like it a bit. Hundredsof millions, maybe billions, will startto die. Then we will be ready to makegreat changes to save ourselves but itwill be too late. Human systems willbe collapsing under the impact offamines, wars and endless waves ofrefugees. And besides, once the cli-mate hits non-linear change, it isalmost impossible to bring it back.We’re stuck with wherever it ends up,whether that new state will support alarge human civilisation or not.

How far ahead is this calamity?We probably have at least a decade ortwo. Will we end all our greenhousegas emissions in that time? Probablynot. Cutting our emissions isn’tenough. We have to stop all of ouremissions before we push the climatesystem over the edge and we don’teven know precisely where the edge

is. Every bit of emissions we can cutnow gives us a little more time beforewe reach the edge, but the global pop-ulation will still be going up and peo-ple in the poorer countries will still beincreasing their energy use. (It’s theirturn and you can’t deny them that.)

So, the crisis almost certainly willarrive and then we will finally be will-ing to make radical changes. What wewill desperately need at that point ismore time. That’s why we will needgeo-engineering. This is not a cure; itis a way of temporarily counteractingthe warming caused by our emissionsof greenhouse gases by reflecting asmall part of the incoming sunlight inone way or another. In fact, you couldsay that it is “positive” geo-engineer-ing, as opposed to the large-scale “neg-ative” geo-engineering we have beendoing for the last two centuries bydumping huge amounts of warminggases into the atmosphere.

When we are finally ready to actdecisively on global warming, wewill need a window of time to makethe changes that are required to pre-serve this global civilisation and thebiosphere it now dominates. Only geo-engineering can create that window.We don’t need to start geo-engineer-ing now. It would be wonderful if wenever have to do it but that would takea miracle. We cannot know how longwe would have to go on doing it,either: Long enough to get the carbondioxide in the atmosphere back downto a safe level, certainly, which wouldbe at least a matter of decades. Buteven without knowing the answers tothese questions, we clearly need tospeed up research and testing of thevarious potential techniques for geo-engineering now.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’)

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Page 8: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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Beijing: China has lodgeddiplomatic protests with theUS, the UK, Canada andAustralia for “interfering” in itsinternal matters by criticisingits new security law for HongKong and also warned Americaof countermeasures if it did notstop the “frivolous” politicalmanipulation over the issue.

China’s parliament onThursday overwhelminglyapproved a new controversialsecurity law for Hong Kong, amove that critics say threatensthe fundamental political free-doms and civil liberties in thesemi-autonomous territory,also a major global trading hub.

The security legislationbans secession, subversion ofstate power, terrorism, foreignintervention and allows main-land China’s state security agen-cies to operate in Hong Kong.

“China’s decision to imposethe new national security law onHong Kong lies in direct conflictwith its international obligationsunder the principles of thelegally binding, UN-registeredSino-British Joint Declaration,”the joint statement released bythe four countries said.

The proposed Chinese lawwould undermine the “onecountry, two systems” frame-

work, the four allies said in thestatement, referring to thearrangement under whichHong Kong, a former Britishcolony, was handed back toChina in 1997.

Reacting to the four coun-tries’ statement, China’s ForeignMinistry spokesman, ZhaoLijian told a media briefing onFriday that China has lodgeddiplomatic protests with thefour countries.

Hong Kong is part ofChina and the central govern-ment has the right to establisha national-level legal system toimplement ‘one country, twosystems’, Zhao said.

It is China’s internal affairand no foreign country has thefright to interfere, he said.

Separately, the Trumpadministration informed theUS Congress that Hong Kongwas deemed no longer suitablyautonomous from China.

The assessment by the USState Department is a crucialstep in deciding whether thecity will continue to receivepreferential economic andtrade treatment from the US asspelt out by the 1992 US-HongKong Policy Act.

About US PresidentDonald Trump’s plans to

impose sanctions on HongKong, Zhao remindedWashington about its extensivetrade and commercial interestin the city and said Chinawould retaliate with counter-measures.

Hong Kong after returningto China fully leveraged itsposition as an internationalbusiness hub.

“It is a financial trade andshipping hub. It is an importantarea for US investments,” Zhaosaid. The US has 85,000 nation-als in Hong Kong and hasover 1,300 companies in thecity. American firms have over300 regional headquarters and400 regional offices in HongKong, he said.

In the past decade, the UStrade surplus to Hong Kongreached USD 297 billion, hesaid.

“Safe, sound and stableHong Kong serves the interestof the US. We welcome USbusiness communities to con-tinue making more progressand success in Hong Kong.

“The US should see clear-ly and stop interfering in HongKong. If the US insists onintervening, China will take allnecessary countermeasures,”Zhao said. PTI

Hong Kong: Dozens of peopleprotested in a mall in HongKong on Friday following avote by China’s ceremonialparliament to approve legisla-tion that could severely restrictopposition political activityand civil society in the Asianfinancial center.

The protesters chanted slo-gans in the main atrium of themall in the high-end Centraldistrict, some draping bannersover the balconies with sloganssuch as “Independence forHong Kong.”

Police waited in vansparked prominently outsidethe mall but did not attempt tobreak up the gathering.Hundreds of people have beenarrested during recent demon-strations that seek to revive themomentum of protests thatshut down large parts of the cityduring the second half of lastyear.

China’s National People’sCongress on Thursday voted toapprove the bill that will nowbe sent to its standing com-mittee for final approval.

Details of the final versionof the law aren’t known, but

China says it will prohibit sep-aratist activities and actionsthat might threaten theCommunist Party’s monopolyon political power in mainlandChina.

Beijing and its supportersin Hong Kong are defendingthe legislative move againstcriticism from foreign coun-tries, including the U.S., whichhas threatened to revoke spe-cial trade privileges granted tothe former British colony whenit was handed over to China in1997 under a “one country, twosystems” framework in whichit was guaranteed its own polit-ical, legal, social and legal insti-tutions for 50 years.

In Beijing, foreign ministryspokesperson Zhao Lijian saidChina would not tolerate anyinterference in what it consid-ers a strictly internal matter.

“We advise the U.S. Side tohave a correct understanding ofthe situation and stop interfer-ing in Hong Kong affairs andChina’s internal affairs. If theU.S. Insists on jeopardizingChina’s interests, China willdefinitely take all necessarymeasures to fight back.” AP

Washington: President DonaldTrump on Friday threatened totake action to bring the city ofMinneapolis “under control,”calling violent protesters out-raged by the death of a blackman in police custody “thugs”and saying that “when the loot-ing starts, the shooting starts.”

Trump tweeted after pro-testers torched a Minneapolispolice station, capping threedays of violent protests US overthe death of George Floyd, whopleaded for air as a white policeofficer knelt on his neck.

He said he spoke to thestate’s Democratic governor,Tim Walz, and “told him thatthe Military is with him all theway. Any difficulty and we willassume control but, when thelooting starts, the shootingstarts. Thank you!”

Trump didn’t clarify what hemeant — Walz has already acti-vated the National Guard — butthe tweet drew another warningfrom Twitter for his rhetoric,with the social media giant say-ing he had “violated the TwitterRules about glorifying violence.”

The move came a day afterTrump signed an executive

order challenging the site’s lia-bility protections.

Trump, who has oftenremained silent in the aftermathof police-involved killings andhas a long history of defendingpolice, has been uncharacteris-

tically vocal this time, sayingearlier Thursday that he felt“very, very badly” about Floyd’sdeath and calling video captur-ing his struggle “a very shock-ing sight.”

But his language grew more

aggressive as violence boiledover in Minneapolis onThursday night. “TheseTHUGS are dishonoring thememory of George Floyd, andI won’t let that happen,” he wroteshortly before 1 am. AP

Peshawar: Minority commu-nities like Hindus and Sikhs inPakistan’s KhyberPakhtunkhwa province wereallowed on Friday to holdprayers and worship at theirreligious sites by followingsocial distancing and othermeasures enforced to curb thespread of the coronavirus.

Several provincial govern-ments banned gathering ofmore than five people for wor-ship in religious places to stopthe spread of the coronavirus,which has infected over 64,000people and killed 1,346 in thecountry so far.

Succumbing to pressurefrom the hardline clerics, theImran Khan government lastmonth allowed conditionalcongregational prayers inmosques during the month ofRamzan.

The government on Fridayallowed minority communitieslike Sikhs, Hindus andChristians to worship and holdprayers under standard operat-ing procedures (SOPs) notfiedby the Provincial Government ofKPK against COVID-19. PTI

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South Africa says it has abacklog of nearly 100,000

unprocessed tests for the coro-navirus, a striking example ofthe painful shortage of testingkits and reagents across Africaas cases steadily rise.

“This challenge is causedby the limited availability of testkits globally,” the health min-istry said in a statementovernight putting the backlogat 96,480 as of Monday.

Priority is given to pro-cessing tests from patientsadmitted to hospitals andhealth workers, it said.

South Africa has conduct-ed more tests for the virus thanany other country in Africa —more than 655,000 — and hasthe most confirmed cases with27,403.

One of the latest people todie in South Africa was anemployee with the NationalHealth Laboratory Services.

“We understand thistragedy will certainly test you,”the ministry said in a messageto her colleagues, adding thatthe government is committedto providing proper protectivegear.

That, too, faces shortagesacross Africa. More than 3,400health workers on the conti-nent had been infected as of aweek ago, according to theWorld Health Organisation.

The widespread shortages,especially in testing materials,have jolted African authoritiesinto facing uncomfortabletruths: Richer countries areelbowing them out in the raceto obtain crucial supplies, andthe continent relies almostentirely on imports for drugsand other medical items.

“We have to have Made inAfrica products,” the director ofthe Africa Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, JohnNkengasong, told reportersThursday.

Washington: A debate inCongress over whether toextend $600 a week in federal-ly provided benefits to theunemployed looks sure to inten-sify with the number of peoplereceiving the aid now topping30 mn — one in five workers.

The money, included in agovernment relief packageenacted in March, is set toexpire July 31. Yet with theunemployment rate widelyexpected to still be in the mid-teens by then, members of bothparties will face pressure tocompromise on some form ofrenewed benefits for the jobless.

Democrats have proposedkeeping the $600-a-week pay-ments through January in a $3trillion relief package that theHouse approved this monthalong party lines. SenateRepublicans oppose that mea-sure. They have expressed con-cern that the federal paymentswould discourage laid-off peo-ple from returning to jobs thatpay less than their combinedstate and federal unemploy-ment aid now does. AP

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s for-mer Prime Minister MahathirMohamad has been oustedfrom his ethnic Malay politicalparty in the latest twist of apower struggle with his succes-sor, but he has vowed to chal-lenge the move.

The 94-year-old Mahathir,along with his son and threeother senior members, wereexpelled from the Bersatu partyon Thursday.

The party has has beensplit into two camps sinceintense political wrangling ledMahathir to resign the pre-miership in February and theking to appoint fellow partymember Muhyiddin Yassin ashis replacement despiteMahathir’s objections.

Mahathir’s son MukhrizMahathir had since challengedMuhyiddin as party president ina vote that’s been postponed bythe coronavirus pandemic.

“The unilateral action byBersatu’s president to sack uswithout valid reason is due tohis own fears in facing partyelections as well as his unsafeposition as the most unstableprime minister in the history ofthe country’s administration,” ajoint statement by Mahathirand the four others read.

Mahathir co-foundedBersatu with Muhyiddin in2016, and the party joined analliance that won a stunning vic-tory in 2018 polls, leading to thefirst change of governmentsince independence.

The ruling alliance col-lapsed after Muhyiddin pulledBersatu out to work with theformer government, which has

been accused of massive cor-ruption.

Mahathir, a two-time primeminister, resigned in protest.Mahathir has said he still has themajority support of lawmakersand has called for a no-confi-dence vote against Muhyiddin.

The vote has been delayedamid the pandemic but could beheld at the next sitting ofParliament in July.

In their statement,Mahathir and the other expelledmembers said the move was ille-gal and they may take legalaction to challenge their termi-nation and ensure Bersatu isn’tused as a vehicle for those crazyfor power.

Party letters sent to the fivesaid their membership hadceased as they sat with theopposition bloc during a half-day Parliament sitting on May18.

But the letter was signed bya lower official who Mahathir’sgroup and others said had nopower to remove them.

“All eyes are on Mahathir’snext move,” said Oh Ei Sun, asenior fellow at the SingaporeInstitute of International Affairs.

“Muyhiddin would begravely mistaken if he thinksthis will slow down Mahathir’srelentless onslaught to not somuch unseat him, but topple thepresent ruling coalition.”Muhyiddin had earlier tried toreconcile with Mahathir, butfailed.

The current governmentincludes the party of ex-PrimeMinister Najib Razak, who is ontrial on charges related to a mas-sive financial scandal. AP

London: The UK governmenthas said that it is open toextending the visa rights ofBritish National Overseas(BNO) passport holders inHong Kong to offer them apath to the country’s citizenshipunless China “steps back” froma new security law in the for-mer British territory.

China’s parliament onThursday approved the newlaw which would make it acrime to undermine Beijing’sauthority in Hong Kong.

An estimated 300,000 BNOpassport holders in Hong Kongcurrently have the right to visitthe UK for up to six monthswithout a visa. These passportswere issued by the UK to peo-ple in the region before thetransfer of Hong Kong toChinese sovereignty in 1997.

“In relation to BNO pass-port holders, currently theyonly have the right to come tothe UK for 6 months,” said UKForeign Secretary DominicRaab. “If China continues

down this path and imple-ments this national securitylegislation, we will change thatstatus. And we will remove thatsix-month limit and allowthose BNO passport holders tocome to the UK and to apply towork and study for extendableperiods of 12 months and thatwill itself provide a pathway tofuture citizenship,” he said.

According to reports, theproposal has the backing ofIndian-origin Home SecretaryPriti Patel, with details yet tobe fleshed out.

Some British MPs wantthe UK government to go fur-ther and offer automatic citi-zenship to BNO holders inHong Kong. Conservative PartyMP Tom Tugendhat, chairmanof the House of CommonsForeign Affairs SelectCommittee, said BNO holdersshould have an automatic rightto live and work in the UK.

“We must move faster inrecognising the rights of themost entrepreneurial people in

Asia, and speak out for thosewho we know so well back in theregion. We should also buildpartnerships that can defend therule of law worldwide,” he said.

Raab’s intervention followeda strongly-worded joint state-ment by the UK, US, Australiaand Canada condemningBeijing’s proposed new law.

“China’s decision to imposethe new national security law onHong Kong lies in direct conflictwith its international obligationsunder the principles of thelegally-binding, UN-registeredSino-British Joint Declaration,”the joint statement said.

“As Hong Kong’s stabilityand prosperity are jeopardisedby the new imposition, we callon the government of China towork with the Hong Kong SARGovernment and the people ofHong Kong to find a mutuallyacceptable accommodation thatwill honour China’s interna-tional obligations under theUN-filed Sino-British JointDeclaration,” it said. PTI

Washington: A defiant Twitteron Friday flagged a fresh tweetfrom Donald Trump for vio-lating its rules about “glorify-ing violence”, hours after the USpresident signed an executiveorder aimed at stripping socialmedia giants like Twitter andFacebook of legal immunity forthe content posted by third-party users.

The move came afterTrump tweeted that “when the

looting starts, the shootingstarts” in reference to the ongo-ing unrest in Minneapolis fol-lowing the death of GeorgeFloyd, a handcuffed AfricanAmerican man who pleadedfor air as a white police officerkneeled on his neck.

Twitter had earlier addedfact-check links to two ofTrump’s tweets, enragingTrump.

“These thugs are dishon-

ouring the memory of GeorgeFloyd, and I won’t let that hap-pen. Just spoke to GovernorTim Walz and told him that theMilitary is with him all the way.Any difficulty and we willassume control but, when thelooting starts, the shootingstarts. Thank you!” Trumptweeted.

Twitter flagged the tweet,which is now only visible if oneclicks on Twitter’s flag. PTI

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US President DonaldTrump is feeling

“absolutely great” after takinga two-week dose of antimalar-ial drug hydroxychloroquineand will take it again if hethinks he is exposed to thecoronavirus, a top WhiteHouse official has said.

Hydroxychloroquine sul-fate was first synthesised in1946 and is in a class of med-ications historically used to

treat and prevent malaria. It isapproved by the US Food andDrug Administration to treatmalaria, rheumatoid arthritis,lupus, childhood arthritis, andother autoimmune diseases.

The drug is not FDA-approved for the treatment ofCOVID-19 but it has beenidentified as a possible treat-ment for the infection and theUS government has requestedits immediate availability.

Trump has called hydrox-ychloroquine a “game-chang-

er” drug in the fight against thecoronavirus.

“I went to him just beforecoming out here and I askedhim that. And he said, ‘he’sfeeling perfect’, he is ‘feelingabsolutely great’ after takingthis regimen. And, he wouldtake it again if he thought thathe was exposed,” White HousePress Secretary KayleighMcEnaney said on Thursdaywhen asked how the US pres-ident was feeling after takingthe antimalarial drug.

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Cheering protesters torcheda Minneapolis police sta-

tion that the department aban-doned as three days of violentprotests spread to nearby StPaul and angry demonstra-tions flared across the USover the death of GeorgeFloyd, a handcuffed black manwho pleaded for air as a whitepolice officer kneeled on hisneck.

A police spokesman con-firmed late Thursday that staffhad evacuated the 3rdPrecinct station, the focus ofmany of the protests, “in theinterest of the safety of ourpersonnel” shortly after 10 pmLivestream video showed theprotesters entering the build-ing, where fire alarms blaredand sprinklers ran as blazeswere set.

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Louisville (US): At least sevenpeople were shot in Louisvilleas protesters turned out todemand justice for BreonnaTaylor, a black woman fatallyshot by police in her home inMarch.

Louisville Metro Policeconfirmed in a statement earlyFriday that there were at leastseven shooting victims, at leastone of whom is in critical con-dition. The statement said therewere “some arrests,” but policedidn’t provide a number.

“No officers dischargedtheir service weapons,” policespokesman Sgt. LamontWashington wrote in an emailto The Associated Press.Washington said that all sevenwere civilians.

Around 500 to 600 demon-strators marched through theKentucky city’s downtownstreets on Thursday night, theCourier Journal reported. AP

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United Nations: The U.N.Humanitarian chief urgentlyappealed for $2.4 billion tohelp millions of people inYemen cope with the conflictand COVID-19, saying pro-grams are already being cut andthe situation is “alarming.”

Mark Lowcock told a UNbriefing on Thursday that theUnited Nations received $3.2billion last year for Yemenbecause countries in the region— including Saudi Arabia andthe United Arab Emirates whoare involved in the conflict —stepped up.

This year, the U.N. Hasappealed for about $3.4 billionbut as of Wednesday it had onlyreceived $516.6 million, justover 15%. The Saudis pledged$525 million in early April andLowcock said he hopes it willquickly be turned into cash.

The United Nations andSaudi Arabia are co-hosting avideo pledging conference forYemen on Tuesday andLowcock said he has been onthe phone with Persian Gulfleaders in recent days but does-

n’t know what they’re going todo. The collapse in oil pricesbecause of the pandemic may bespurring internal discussions, hesaid.

Lowcock said he expectshigh-level representation at theconference, and asked: “Is theworld ready simply to watchYemen fall off the cliff?” Yemen’sconflict started with HouthiShiite rebels backed by Iran cap-turing the capital, Sanaa, in2014.

The following year, a Saudi-led coalition backing the gov-ernment intervened to battle therebels and curb Iran’s influencein what has turned into a stale-mated regional proxy war. Sincethen, more than 100,000 people— fighters and civilians — havebeen killed.

Lowcock and the heads of10 other U.N. Agencies and sev-eral U.N. Officials and human-itarian organizations issued ajoint statement Thursday saying“COVID-19 is spreading rapid-ly across the country alreadyexperiencing the world’s largesthumanitarian crisis.” AP

0*�����8�3�������� ������'�9�"� ���'���������� ��!�� Paris: France has reported

more than 3,000 new dailyvirus infections in the biggestsuch one-day rise in more thanthree weeks - and the firstmajor increase since Francestarted gradually reopeningMay 11.

The new figure was notincluded in the government’sdaily virus press releaseThursday night, but was put ona government virus trackingwebsite.

The national public healthagency and Health Ministrydidn’t provide a reason for therise Friday.

It comes as testing hasbecome more easily available inFrance, though it is unclearwhether that is part of the rea-son.

The French governmenthas gradually increased the number of tests it is con-ducting after widespread crit-icism early in the pandemicthat it was not testing widelyenough. Scattered virus out-breaks have been reportedsince France’s reopeningbegan, notably in some schoolsthat were subsequently shutdown. AP

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Page 9: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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New Delhi: Indian Railwayshas been running Shramikspecial Trains on a daily basisthroughout the country toensure that migrants can trav-el back to their homes.

It has been observed thatsome people who are availingthis service have pre-existingmedical conditions whichaggravates the risk they faceduring the COVID-19 pan-demic.

A few unfortunate cases ofdeaths related to pre-existingmedical conditions while trav-elling have happened.

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The Finance Ministry onFriday said there is no deci-

sion taken on the proposal ofsetting up of a Government-sponsored bad bank to helpease pressure on lenders withregard to non-performingassets which are likely to wit-ness a surge due to theCOVID-19 crisis. Even theEconomic Survey 2017 hadproposed this idea, suggestingthe creation of a bad bankcalled Public Sector AssetRehabilitation Agency to helptide over the problem ofstressed assets.

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Equity benchmarks finishedin the green for the third

session on the trot on Friday asinvestors scooped up FMCG,finance and banking stocksdespite negative overseas cuesand rising COVID-19 cases.

Investors wagered onIndia further relaxing lock-down norms next week, thoughthey were also cautious aheadof release of Q4 GDP data, ana-lysts said.

After a gap-down opening,the 30-share BSE Sensex pickedup pace in late-afternoon trad-ing to finish at 32,424.10, up223.51 points or 0.69 per cent.

On similar lines, the NSENifty advanced 90.20 points or0.95 per cent to close at9,580.30. During the holiday-shortened week, the Sensexrallied 1,751.51 points or 5.71per cent, while the Nifty spurt-ed 541.05 points or 5.98 percent.

ONGC was the top gainerin the Sensex pack on Friday,jumping 5.52 per cent, fol-lowed by Bajaj Auto, ITC, SunPharma, Nestle India, L&T,Hero MotoCorp and Maruti.On the other hand, Infosys,Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCSand Titan were among the lag-gards, shedding up to 2.25 percent. Besides stock-specificaction, heavy foreign fundinflows lent buying confidenceto domestic investors, analystssaid. On a net basis, foreignportfolio investors bought equi-ties worth �2,354.14 crore onThursday, provisional exchangedata showed.

“Indian markets onceagain performed contrary tothe other global markets whichwere weak. In the process itplayed catch up with themafter under-performing overthe last few weeks.

“Oil & gas, materials andengineering stocks did well.Large volume trade happenedin stocks that saw little move-ment suggesting shifting ofholdings between two institu-tions,” said Deepak Jasani,Head - Retail Research, HDFCSecurities.

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Retail inflation for industri-al workers eased to 5.45 per

cent in April 2020 from 8.33per cent in the same month ayear ago, mainly due to lowerprices of certain food items andpetrol, official data showed.

“Year-on-year inflationbased on all items stood at 5.45per cent for April 2020 ascompared to 5.50 per cent forthe previous month and 8.33per cent during the corre-

sponding month of the previ-ous year,” a Labour Ministrystatement said. Food inflationstood at 6.56 per cent in April2020 against 6.67 per cent ofthe previous month (March2020) and 4.92 per cent duringthe corresponding month(April 2019) a year ago, it said.

Lauding the efforts of theLabour Bureau which collectsand released Consumer PriceIndex-Industrial Workers(CPI-IW), Labour MinisterSantosh Gangwar said the ‘cost

of living index’ data collectionand release by the bureau inthese difficult times duringthe lockdown is commend-able and would go a long wayto help in policy making in thecountry.

The CPI-IW is used towork out hike in dearnessallowance and dearness relieffor over 1 crore centralGovernment employees andpensioners.

The All-India CPI-IW forApril 2020 increased by 3

points and stood at 329. On 1-month percentage change, itincreased by (+) 0.92 per centbetween March and April 2020,compared to (+) 0.97 per centrise between correspondingmonths of previous year.

The maximum upwardpressure in current index camefrom food group contributing(+) 2.43 percentage points tothe total change.

At item level, rice, wheat,wheat atta, arhar dal, moongdal, mustard oil, fish fresh, goat

meat, poultry (chicken), brin-jal, cabbage, cauliflower, frenchbean, green coriander leaves,lady’s finger, palak, potato,radish, tomato, banana, lemon,mango (ripe), sugar, cookinggas, etc are responsible for theincrease in index. However, itsaid that this increase waschecked by garlic, onion, par-val, petrol, flowers/flower gar-lands, etc, putting downwardpressure on the index.

At centre level, Doom-Dooma Tinsukia recorded the

maximum increase of 14 pointsfollowed by Salem (12 points)and Surat (10 points). On thecontrary, Chhindwara,Vadodara, Bhilai, Yamunanagarand Jamshedpur recorded adecrease of 1 point each. Restof 12 centres’ indices remainedstationary. The indices of 33centres are above all-Indiaindex and 44 centres’ indicesare below national average.The index of Rourkela centreremained at par with all-Indiaindex.

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The output of eight coreinfrastructure industries

plunged by a record 38.1 percent in April as the nationwidelockdown to contain coron-avirus pandemic caused a sub-stantial loss of productionacross sectors.

The production of coal,natural gas, refinery products,steel, cement and electricitycontracted in double digits inthe month, according to officialdata released on Friday. Theeight core sectors had expand-ed by 5.2 per cent in April 2019while in March 2020 the sectorshad contracted by 9 per cent.“In view of nationwide lock-down during April 2020 due toCOVID-19 pandemic, variousindustries - coal, cement, steel,natural gas, refinery, crude oiletc experienced substantial lossof production,” the Commerceand Industry Ministry said ina statement.

Production of coal, crudeoil, natural gas, refinery prod-ucts, fertiliser, steel, cement andelectricity contracted by 15.5

per cent, 6.4 per cent, 19.9 percent, 24.2 per cent, 4.5 per cent,83.9 per cent, 86 per cent, 22.8per cent, respectively. During2019-20, core industriesrecorded 0.6 per cent growthagainst 4.4 per cent in 2018-19.The record contraction in thegrowth rate of eight core sec-tors will affect the Index ofIndustrial Production (IIP).These sectors account for about40.27 per cent of the IIP.

Commenting on the num-bers, Icra Vice-President AditiNayar said while the lockdowncontributed to a broad-basedcontraction across eight coresectors, it had a differentialimpact on the extent to whichactivity was curtailed in thevarious constituents.

“While data on automobileproduction has not been explic-itly released for April 2020, theoutput is likely to have beenclose to zero as most plantswere shut for a large part of themonth during the lockdown,”Nayar said.”Based on the avail-able trends, we anticipate a con-traction of 75-80 per cent inindustrial output in April 2020.

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Seeking a stable policy foroperations of units amid

COVID-19, a representativebody of special economic zoneson Friday flagged that suddensealing of borders in theNational Capital Region ismaking it difficult for busi-nesses to operate factories.

“We request that eithera nationwide stable policy maybe issued, applicable in all thestates for the running of busi-nesses or don’t put any opera-tive guidelines and compli-ances for trade and industryand not to press upon paymentof salaries to workers withoutany business,” ExportPromotion Council for SpecialEconomic Zones and ExportOriented Units (EPCES) said.

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The Finance Ministry is notin favour of increasing

goods and services tax rates onnon-essential items in the nextmonth’s meeting of the GSTCouncil, despite depressed rev-enue collections due to thenationwide lockdown to con-tain the spread of COVID-19.

If goods and services taxrates are increased on non-essential items, sources said itwill further bring down theirdemand and impede the over-all economic recovery. Post thelockdown, demand has to beinduced and economic activi-ty has to improve on all fronts.

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The British Government hasapproached the US with the

prospect of creating a 5G clubof 10 democracies, includingIndia, amid growing securityconcerns related to Chinesetelecom giant Huawei, accord-ing to a UK media report.

A so-called “D10” club ofdemocratic partners, includingG7 countries – UK, US, Italy,Germany, France, Japan andCanada – plus Australia, SouthKorea and India will aim to cre-ate alternative suppliers of 5Gequipment and other tech-nologies to avoid relying onChina, ‘The Times’ reported.

The move to speed upsuch a club comes as the UKlaunched an inquiry intoHuawei’s involvement in thecountry’s mobile networkupgrade in the wake of USsanctions against the company.

“We need new entrants to themarket. That was the reason weended up having to go alongwith Huawei at the time,” thenewspaper quoted a UKGovernment source as saying.

Nokia and Ericsson arethe only European suppliers of5G infrastructure and expertssay that they cannot provide 5Gkit as quickly or as cheaply asHuawei.

Britain has labelledHuawei a “high-risk” vendorand therefore its involvement inthe UK’s 5G upgrade comeswith a 35 per cent market cap,including a ban on its partici-pation in the sensitive “core” ofthe network.

The review into Huawei,launched last week by the UK”sNational Cyber SecurityCentre, followed the announce-ment of US sanctions to blockthe sale of American chips tothe company.

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The rupee appreciated 14paise to provisionally close at 75.62 against the

US dollar on Friday as foreignfund inflows and weakAmerican currency boostedinvestor confidence.

Forex traders saidinvestors are awaiting thecountry’s gross domesticproduct data for the January-March quarter, due later inthe day, for further cues.

The rupee opened at75.71 at the interbank forexmarket, gained furtherground, and finally settled at75.62, up 14 paise over its lastclose.

It had settled at 75.76against the US dollar onThursday.

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�How different was it to shootthe song, Toxic, at home dur-ing the lockdown as com-pared to the usual outdoorshoots?

Of course, it was really dif-ferent to shoot at home. Usuallyduring shoots, people are doingeverything for you, you justhave to focus on one thing thatis acting. Here, I had to makesure my house is clean andeverything is in its originalplace. Ravi (Dubey) and I werethe art directors and the light-men for each other. We werethe ones styling ourselves,doing hair and makeup.Everything was upto us. Wewere figuring out what contentto shoot, how to go about it,what would look nice. And ifwe were to do it the usual way,there would be a unit of 75 to100 people managing every-thing for us. Here, we weredown to three people — Ravi,my friend, who was helping uswith the camera and I.

�What appealed you the mostabout your role in the song?

Frankly, when I heard thesong, I instantly fell in love withit. I thought it was one of a kind.It’s dark and simultaneously

filled with love. It’s about a rela-tionship that has gone bad butwe still wanted to give it a happyending. We were like no matterwhat, your relationship doesdeserve a second chance orany amount of chances that youthink are right. Ravi and I weregoing to share screen spaceafter almost 10 years. It’s notthat we didn’t get any offers butthere was nothing worth it.This song just felt right.

�It deals with the downfalls ofa relationship and itsupheavals. Did you relate to it?

I did relate to the song butnot from the perspective of therelationship that Ravi and Ishare. This is not exactly whatwe are as a couple, which is whywe were undecided initially.We wanted to discuss if we wantto show this side of our rela-tionship or not. At times dur-

ing the shoot, Ravi got angrythat this is not us. We tried tocut away from it emotionally asmuch as possible because wedidn’t want to get too absorbedin the story. But every relation-ship goes through this. It can gobad, you get possessive or therecan be more distance or prox-imity between two people.

There are zillion reasons thatpeople can feel there is notenough love in a relationship.But if both of you want to fixthe problem and want to betogether, you will find a way.

�How was it shooting withyour partner with whom yourjourney has been smooth?

Yes, the journey has beenvery smooth. I think this wasthe first time I didn’t see Ravionly as an actor or as a co-actor,I saw him as a director too. Onthe first day, I had my take oneverything or tried to figure outwhat we wanted to do. But later,I realised that too many peoplespoil the broth. So he tookcharge. Everything was in hishead, he directed all of it. I did-n’t want to mess with it so Icompletely surrendered to himas an actor. I thought this is theright way to do it. I saw him asa director for the very first timeand I absolutely loved him. Ihave always said that he’s a greatactor but I didn’t know he wassuch a great director too.

�From small screen toPunjabi films and now albumsongs, how challenging wasthis switch?

I don’t know if it was chal-lenging. I remember there wasa time when I had an offer tomove to another medium but Ifelt that I wasn’t ready for it.When I saw my first Punjabifilm, I decided that this is whatI wanted to do. Like this ishome and I would be able tomake my place here. It just felt

like it was a calling. When youjust sit down and think aboutwhat you really want in life,mysteriously the universe real-ly works to get that for you.Whatever I demanded — thekind of projects I wanted to do,how I wanted to make mydebut or with which actor —everything just fell into place. Idon’t think that I literally lift-ed a finger for all this to cometogether. I have seen a numberof rejections as well. Therewere so many people telling methat I won’t be able to make it.But I had faith in myself and theuniverse.

�Do you think the Punjabifilm industry competes withother new age regional cine-ma?

It definitely does. Not onlydoes it compete, I think in a lotof places it’s even better. We arean evolving industry and whenyou are growing, you try tomake a space for yourself. Youtry to make really good contentand you are okay with doing alot of experiments. That’s wherePunjabi cinema is, it’s experi-menting with content. I reallythink we are making somegreat films.

�The film is trending on Netflix. Did youbelieve something like this was possible?

Not at all. The response has beenamazing and the film has it’s own fan clubsand all that now. (Laughs, which even overthe phone line sounds overwhelmed). ButI don’t belong to this world, so it is verynew and exciting for me.

�Were you planning an OTT release ora theatrical one and shifted because ofthe pandemic?

I am the writer and director and theproducer had not masked the fact from methat it would not be the most comfortabletheatrical release. I was told that I wouldhave to make peace with big theatrerelease in Taipei, China, Taiwan, LosAngles film festivals. It was important toget a worldwide release and Netflix has anoutreach of 180-190 countries.

�OTTs have given a platform for differ-ent kinds of stories being told...

Of course, a culture of serious audiencehas come about because of these platforms.For example, a series like Wire or Mad Menhappened because these platforms wereavailable. It really nurtures your tastes asan audience. It makes them creative(pauses) and opinionated. The reaction isimmediate, personal and relies on word ofmouth. It isn’t a rehearsed audience whichsays “see this” or “do that”. It is very pas-sionate and creates its own bright guys.That’s the relevance of OTT, as of now.Earlier, we had to rely on the review of acritic and wonder if “we should we buy aticket?” But now it is as simple as turningon the TV.

�Are we making an impact globallythrough films as we see younger direc-tors doing the rounds of internationalfestivals now?

Of course, there are younger directorslike Rima Das. There is this burst of cre-ativity. We aren’t making films just with aThird World narrative based in villages toget to the festivals. There is Rhythm Jahnve,Kabir Mehta and Kabir Singh Choudhurywho are just killing it with their original-ity. They are ground breakers. I love theiredgy content. It is no longer that onlySatyajit Ray can go to Venice.

Moreover, while earlier we heavilyrelied on bigger festivals but now smallerones are also picking up in terms of audi-ence. Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

(IFFLA) is such great festival where theprogrammers are championing SouthAsian and Indian cinema.

�So what you are saying is that we’ve bro-ken stereotypes...

There are no stereotypes that areworking. It is a rude term. We do not havethe smugness or the right to call anythingstereotype. All types of writing is based onpeople’s experiences and as a culture weshould be respectful towards that. Itmight be a stereotype for us but may benot for them. We need to be harsh on theseterms in this changing world. This is a 90sterms but it doesn’t matter any more.

�Most coming of age films about ado-lescents talk about falling in love but thisfilm is different.

The protagonist has this great sense ofdiscomfort and, at the same time, compen-sating confidence. And it is possible to beboth at the same time. That is the trueinnocence of childhood. When you are 14-15, you are hormonally and mentally scat-tered. We tried to say through the charac-ter of Vivek (played by Yashasvini, last seenin Delhi Crime) that young women can bethis too. They don’t have to walk in a cer-tain way or wear spectacles. Anti-social

people can wear a yellowcoat and strut about likeshe does as she wants tobe noticed. The kidswatching this filmare relating to this.This narrative isallowing thecharacter tohave a gamutof emotions.

�Did the ideaof the filmcome fromyour own grow-ing up years?

It did. I feltvery alienated as akid. I didn’t knowhow to behave in acertain way. I am a singlechild and I am socially awk-ward. I try to overcompensate bysaying something... (gives a nervouslaugh) absolutely stupid. This mademe a bit extra. I always wondered whythere were no films about children likeus. In films, 14-15-year-olds werefalling in love and having romances.Romance kuch nahi hota when you are

14-15. It was like a series of embarrassingincidents one after the other where I wasfalling in one gutter hole after another. Ifelt that this teenage angst, rebellion stu-pidity and inventiveness had to be hon-oured. The beauty of the character is thatshe can be clumsy, feisty, vulnerable, a greatcompanion, sensible and volatile — at thesame time. All that makes her what she is.It is not a typical girl meets boy story... Ididn’t want to make that film. This startsoff as a regular girl meets boy story andall that trope and we built on it. We’veembraced the absurd and that’s the beau-ty of it all. People finally understand thatit is okay to be absurd. There is so muchspace for imagination and the worldneeds it to keep sane, little hopeful and

happy.

�The film employs magic realism.How does that help the story-telling?

It is not just this film. I’ve doneit in other films too. Just that thisone has been seen by a wider audi-ence. I’ve made hybrid documen-taries that still follow the rules ofmagic realism. On a bigger scale,I will always be doing this.There was everything — filmsabout ghouls, crime — but notabout young women. They areundermined and treated disre-spectfully. It is almost like let’sgive them something dumb andpopulist. With What Are TheOdds, we’ve proved them wrong.

�How did you select the cast?Very organically. I follow a lot

of independent musicians. I sawYashasvini playing a guitar, ukelele it

is called, at some point. She was singingand the rest of the crew too agreed thatwe had our lead. She had done a side role.What is the technical term for it? I don’tknow the word. Supporting role, it iscalled. I don’t know since I don’t comefrom this world. I feel girls like

Yashaasvini should be leading filmsbecause the youth needs relat-

able women. They don’tneed only girls who

look as if they’vejust stepped out

of the salon.She is relat-able, clum-sy, angry,wears herheart andbrain on hersleeve. She isalso viva-cious andjust fits therole.

Karanvirbrings the calm

to the storm tillthe time he also becomes like her in

the film. He does a very non head boything even though he comes across as an

uptight guy. But the duo get each other. Itis their little rebellion. It is strangely pre-dictive of the times too. (Chuckles) Theyare freeing animals in the pet market. Andif you remember, the virus began with awet market.

�Did children being stuck at home dur-ing the lockdown power its success?

That’s a very ruthlessly exploitativething to say about a ruthless time in the

world and I would rather keep away fromthe question because I don’t want peopleto think that it is working for us. Whatabout those kids who do not have a TVand can’t watch the film? If I am talkingabout children being happy about thebreak, then I am talking about a particu-lar kind of children. But what about kidsbeing beaten up at home?

�How did Abhay Deol come on board?We were introduced by a friend as he

was looking to produce something. Andwe had this character, Val. The more weinteracted with him, the more we thoughthe should be our Val. When he agreed toproduce it, we asked if he would also actin the film. He said, “That’s not neces-sary. Cast who you want.” And wechimed, “We want to cast you.” It is sogracious of him as he is there for 15 min-utes. The ensemble cast also had genius-es like Sulbha Arya, a legend, who gaveus so much love, understanding andblessings.

�Your banner is called Missfit films...It is M-I-S-S-F-I-T. Miss fit. It is to

honour young women who feel mis-placed and we would like to hold spacefor them as they navigate though films.And we love to deal with narrativesaround younger people in particular. Wehear all of them. Straight, queer, gay —everyone.

�OTT changed the way films are beingviewed...

It has domesticated entertainment. It nolonger entails a trip to multiplex. There aretheatrical films and OTT films and thereis room for both. A cinema watching cul-ture needs to thrive with both. Roma wasreleased directly on Netflix by one of thegreatest directors in the world. Some of thebest directors are doing shows for OTT. Itis not the smaller platform any more.

�What were your learning experiencesfrom your past films, Newborns, Bunnyand The Last Music Store?

I was living in a very small world whereI was very content but the gates have openedto write and direct series with the successof What Are The Odds? It gives me the priv-ilege of affording enough support to otherpeople in this system. So, now I can run mycompany and hire young writers. Beingindependent means doing everything your-self.

�The absence of censorship on OTT hasbeen criticised due to explicit content. Doyou agree?

There shouldn’t be censorship. Allkinds of content make a culture. For exam-ple, films by Carlos Reygadas have a lot ofnudity but what would arthouse cinema bewithout his contribution? Censoring any-thing shows that there is something whichis not right in country.

�What is Cause Effect?It is a little outfit under Missfit. We try

and do pro bono, campaign driven workwith NGOs and raise funds. It is a commu-nity driven initiative where we ask peoplefor money. I’ve done a campaign with DrKailash Satyarthi for it too.

�Future plans?Up next is Reshma Aur Shera, few series

and a book adaptation. I am working withJeetu Mohandas about which I am veryexcited.

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Page 11: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

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As the pandemicunfolds, people around

the world have foundthemselves in isolation tohelp contain the outbreak.While women continue tohold up more than half ofthe sky, the increase inworkload and the surge indomestic violence hasmade women more vulner-able even inside theirhomes. It is high time webreak the stigma aroundreporting abuse.

Against this back-ground, UNESCO,UNFPA, UNICEF, UNWomen and the South AsiaFoundation (MadanjeetSingh Foundation) havejoined hands to supportdirector and actor NanditaDas in the production andlaunch of a short film —Listen to Her.

The film focuses ontwo important issues thatmany women are grapplingwith — an unprecedentedincrease in their workloadand at times, being lockeddown with their abusers. Itaims to inspire women tospeak up and for us to addour voice to end the silencearound these issues. Thefilm also creates publicawareness of helpline num-bers so survivors can seekimmediate assistance.

In India, the NationalCommission for Womenhas recorded more than atwo-fold increase in thenumber of cases of gender-based violence during thelockdown period. As wefind ways to help themigrant population, dailywagers, health workers onthe frontline, we also needto find ways to supportwomen who are battlingwithin their homes. Societysimply cannot thrive if halfthe population lives in fearof being abused, physical-ly as well as mentally.

“The film was a spon-taneous response to theirony of “stay home, staysafe’ for millions of womenin India and around theworld. This pandemic hastaught us that our lives areso deeply intertwined, andso it is imperative werespond to the issuesaround us. I wanted to tella simple story of a womanoverburdened and awoman abused, both,

impacting each other. Thefilm is adding its voice toencourage women to speakand for us to l isten.Creatively speaking, it wasa challenge to shoot duringthe lockdown. But wasworth the experiment,” saysNandita.

“There will be a beforeand after COVID-19, and

this should apply to genderequality too. There must bea redefinition of masculin-ities, where men shareresponsibil it ies withwomen in dignity, respectand non-violence.UNESCO, together withits sister UN Agencies,UNFPA, UNICEF, and UNWomen, felt it was impor-

tant to support Nandita inmaking this film possible,”shares Eric Falt, directorand representative,UNESCO, New Delhi.

Argentina Matavel,representative, UNFPAIndia says, “COVID-19 hasforced us to re-visit somevery important conversa-tions about gender, be itviolence, equal participa-tion at home or simplypre-defined roles for menand women. Today it is thepandemic, tomorrow itmay be something else.Gender equality is nolonger a contested matter,it is both complex and sim-ple. It is a societal transfor-mation that will be a real-ity when each individuallooks at the other withfresh eyes, as if looking intoa mirror, and then, treatsthem with dignity andrespect, recognising thattheir own humanity is onlycomplete with the full exis-tence of the other.”

The film poignantlydepicts the ironic realities ofwhat it means for women to‘stay home, stay safe’ amidthe pandemic. “On onehand, women and girls arecompelled to heavy lift theincreased caregivingresponsibilities, jugglingwith many different piecesof life and work. On the

other, many of themencounter a surge in domes-tic violence reported notonly in India but across theworld. The complex inter-play of gender within thelarger socio-economicimpact of the crisis must befactored into the responseand recovery of theCOVID-19 pandemic,” saysDr Yasmin Ali Haque, rep-resentative, UNICEF India.

Nishtha Satyam, deputyrepresentative, UN WomenIndia, shares, “The pan-demic has challenged all weknew about the dynamics ofeconomics and power, bothinside the home and out-side. While many of us havehad the privilege of home,a safe space, many womenhave long dreaded the fourwalls of home, a privatechamber that reminds themof the horror and terror ofphysical, emotional andpsychological abuse. Acrossthe world, the dread nowlies exposed, along with theinescapability of it.

The pandemic hasupended several assump-tions about contemporaryworld order and equality.UN Women is proud tosupport this initiative whichcontributes to bring to lighton the importance of end-ing violence against womenand girls.”

�Tell us something about yournext film PonMagal Vandhal.

It is a thriller with a difference.You can also call it a contemporarycourtroom drama. I am very closeto the subject which has been tack-led in the film by director, J JFrederick, who has also written it.The film has a very pertinent socialmessage with which each one of uscan relate to instantly. It is a filmwhich will make every womanproud.

�You have shared screen with fivedifferent actors who are also direc-tors. How was the experience?

I have been lucky that I got anopportunity to work with five actorswho are also goods directors, includ-ing K Parthiepan, Thiagarajan,Pandiarajan, Pratap Pothan and KBhagyaraj. It was Frederick’s visionand idea to cast five different actorswho are also directors. It was a learn-ing experience for me, I learnt howthey prepared their dialogues anddelivered them clearly with precisionand clarity.

�You play a lawyer in the film. Toput it in a context, at home, are youa lawyer or a judge?

At home, I am never a lawyerbecause I am always a judge. If youcompare me with my earlier films,you will realise that I have reallycome out of my shell. I am nowunder the blue sky. Today, I can doany kind of role. I am blessed that Iam being approached by manydirectors with subjects that are dar-ingly different.

�How difficult was it to act withdirectors like Parthiepan and KBhagyaraj?

It was a big challenge to deliv-er my dialogues in front ofParthiepan because they werelengthy and the film is basically acourtroom drama. But thankfully, Iwas prepared as I was given thescript three months ago. It is to thecredit of director Frederick that hefilmed four single shots each of fiveminutes. You would not believe thathe, who is in his 20’s, has not onlywritten the subject well but alsomade his debut with this film. In thefirst narration itself, I was hooked tothe subject and said yes to it. It has

a lot of layers, thrills, twists and asmashing climax.

�What are the factors that influ-ence your decision while choosinga role?

I always see what the screenplayof a film offers and want charactersthat are not only intelligent but alsodignified to the core. I want to playreal life characters, which the audi-ence can easily identify with. I willagree to do a film only if I am surethat people will talk about my roleand the film even after 20 years. Ifyou play a cop’s role, you can easilypad up your scene with action butwhen you set out to play a lawyer,you cannot resort to action and haveto deliver your lines with perfection.Considering the fact that I havenever ever gone to a court till date,I should thank the director for hav-ing done all his home work with per-fection.

�The film is being released on anOTT platform, Amazon PrimeVideo. What do you think are thepros and cons of this platform?

I’d say, there are only pros andno cons. Especially, in the last fewmonths after the Coronavirus scare,the number of people watchingfilms and series on OTT platformhas shot up considerably. Though,all said and done, I will not deny that

had the situation been different, itwould have been a joy to see itsrelease in theatres and the reactionof the audience. OTT release is a bigcelebration as filmmakers will beable to reach as many as 200 coun-tries. However, it is not a permanentsolution, it will only help for thetime being. If we wait to releasePonMagal Vandhal in theatres,there is a long queue. It will take atleast a year for the hero-orientedfilms to release, the heroine-orient-ed ones will get their chance onlyafter two years.

�Why do you prefer to work onlyin your home productions?

After 36 Vayathinile, I havemostly acted in my home produc-tions because it allows me to be inmy comfort zone. It is importantnow as I have to strike a balancebetween my career, home and kids.Also, when you do not know howthe audience is going to respond toyour film, it is better to invest inyour own film.

�You seem to opt to act under newdirectors...

Working with newcomers isgood as they do not follow the typ-ical pattern. They belong to a newgenre and their working process isvery different from mine. If I workonly with the same directors, I mayend up becoming stagnant as anactor. The character of Venba thatI play in PonMagal Vandhal is themost challenging that I have everplayed in my career, perhapsbecause of the direction.

�Are you open to act in webseries in the near future?

I am not sure. Nothing in mylife, including acting in films, hadbeen planned till today. I feel goodcinema should live. If I don’t getgood offers in films, who knows, Imay take up acting in web series too.

�How keen are you on enteringpolitics?

Like my sister Nagma, I don’twant to take up politics because Ibelieve that you can do far greaterwork for the masses even if you arenot in politics. Every actor has asocial responsibility and shouldnot just depend on the government.

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The iconic Delhi locale is choc-a-bloc with shoppers, diners and peo-ple who come in to savour the beau-ty of its columned colonial architec-ture. On any given day chaat-walas,handicraft vendors and ice-creamcarts jostle for space. But a sweep ofthe camera and we witness thesilence of the centre of India’s capi-tal.

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The station, a getaway to EastIndia, contains the largest railwaymarshaling yard in Asia. However, wesee one of the busiest stations in thecountry without a soul in sight.

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On any given day, the mostfamous monument of the commer-cial capital is a place where neither thephotographer nor the tourist gets amoment to enjoy the view in peace.But now, it stands silent just like thedocks around it.

When the lockdown wasannounced on March 24, documen-tary filmmaker Bharat Bala realisedthat it was an important time in thehistory of the country and felt that itwas his responsibility to capture it. “Iknew that it is the most unprecedent-ed thing unfolding in front of oureyes. It is in one way historical andin another, disturbing.” People in theWest, both America and Europehave filmed the time extensively. Balasays, “In the next five years, we wouldbe flush with interesting documen-taries from those places while Indiawould have nothing.”

He felt that the content from TVnews was transitory in nature andthere was “nothing emotional, deepor like a canvas which tells the storyof what a lockdown is like. Where arethese 1.3 million people?” he asks.

So the creator of some of thereally iconic works like AR Rahman’sVande Mataram got down to work.Over a period of 55 days, a team of117 people filmed extensively for 100hours across 16 states to preserve thetime for posterity.

Even under normal circum-stances when permissions are hard tocome by, during lockdown this musthave been some feat. Anticipating thequestion, Bala himself pipes up andsays, “How did we do it? It was a

nightmare, almost impossible.”Getting permissions from the Policewas difficult but essential as filmingon the streets is not allowed withoutit. “Somehow when the intent is there,things do happen and they did hap-pen,” chimes in Bala, upbeat at thethought of what he has accom-plished.

A central core team sat inMumbai while crews spread acrossthe country. Footage started pouringin from early morning to late in thenight as the core team was sitting ata studio in Mumbai and givingdirections to the crews in UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu,Kerala Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi,Kashmir, Assam and more. “It was amammoth exercise. A camerapersonin Assam would send a WhatsAppvideo and then I would set the frameand check the lens. Doing it remote-ly was bizarre. Sometimes they wouldsend footage and I would say, ‘Thisis great but what about this?’ And theywould go there and shoot again.”

Bala credit his robust researchteam which knew exactly what wasrequired for the film. “They were con-stantly updating what we were gettingand, at the same time, specifying whatwe wanted from each place. In thatsense we had to be instinctive in plan-ning. It was crazy,” says the filmmak-er over the phone.

Bala wanted to get a large picturefrom a variety of places. So the teamspanned out to places like theMumbai’s CST Station, which is likethe Grand Central of New York, andcould not even spot pigeons. Some ofthe busiest airports were stark, withnot a soul in sight. “Highways, air-ports, schools, colleges, streets andbazaars everything has been docu-

mented for posterity so that weshould not forget this time. We alsosaw the Ganges clean and pristine inHaridwar and Rishikesh which wascaptured in a cinematic way,” he says.

Bala believes that it would be arecord for all of us of what the nationand its people went through.“Otherwise you just look down yourwindow and see apna gali mohalla

khali hai (our streets and locality areempty) but then you see the entirecountry from Kashmir toKanyakumari and realise that every-thing has stopped. Even Tsunamis,cyclones or other disasters couldn’t dothat. Not even wars, as only the bor-der areas were severely affected.Given the size of our country, withour federal structure, it was not easy

to bring everything to a standstill.” The idea behind the four-minute

film, called Uthenge Hum, is to con-vey that no matter what happens wewill rebound. “That is the resilienceof the poorest mother of India. Shemight have lost her husband at nightbut the next day she would get up andfeed her children,” says he about thefilm which he feels is an honest effort.

The voice over by actor and the-atre person, Seema Biswas, in the filmrepresents the migrant woman.“When she says Uthenge Hum itseems like a mother, who has her feeton the ground, is saying the words.”

And we all hope so too... that webounce back resilient, more compas-sionate and better versions of our-selves from these difficult times.

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Page 12: ˘ ˇ ˘ ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚˜˝ ! ˙ ˜˙ˇ · 2 days ago  · Government labs, while 3,264 tests have been done at private labs,” said Kulkarni. “The recovery rate is 44.5 per cent

�9��� �;��;�

British Police want at least sixPremier League matches and

any Liverpool title clincher to beplayed at neutral venues whenthe season resumes in a bid toavoid supporters gathering out-side stadiums.

Premier League chiefs haveset June 17 as the date for the topflight to restart following thecoronavirus delay.

They hope to play themajority of the matches behindclosed doors on a home andaway basis at clubs’ usual stadi-ums.

However, police are con-cerned about the issue of hard-core fans potentially floutingsocial distancing rules by con-gregating wherever their teamplay.

With Liverpool two winsaway from clinching their firstEnglish title for 30 years andother relegation and Europeanqualification issues to be decid-ed in the remaining 92 fixtures,there is potential for policeresources to be stretched ifmatches draw crowds outsidegrounds.

Police bosses have spoken tothe Premier League about games

they consider especially trickyand the matches they requestedto take place at neutral groundsare Manchester City vsLiverpool, Manchester City vsNewcastle, Manchester Unitedvs Sheffield United, Newcastle vsLiverpool and Everton vsLiverpool.

“Our discussions with thePremier League throughout thisprocess have been positive, with

a shared focus on the priority ofpublic health,” said Deputy ChiefConstable Mark Roberts ofSouth Yorkshire Police.

“As such we have reached aconsensus that balances theneeds of football, while also min-imising the demand on policing.

“The majority ofremaining matches willbe played, at home andaway as scheduled, witha small number of fix-tures taking place atneutral venues, which,contrary to somereports, have yet to be agreed.”

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�9��� �;

Italy’s Serie A was given thegreen light on Thursday to

resume on June 20 after athree-month absence as oneof the countries hardest hit bythe coronavirus pandemicbegins to ease restrictions.

Sports MinisterVincenzo Spadafora said thatthe Government’s Technicaland Scientific Committee(CTS) had agreed to thehealth protocol proposed byItalian football chiefs.

“Italy has started toreturn to normal life again, itis only right that footballshould do the same,” saidSpadafora.

“The federation assuredme that it had a Plan B anda Plan C.

“In light of these consid-erations, the championshipcan resume on June 20.”

Italian football federation(FIGC) president GabrieleGravina told the ministerduring the video conferencethere would be a play-off sys-tem if the champi-onship were againinterrupted, whilethe existing stand-ings would be used ifit were stopped.

“We had a veryuseful meeting,” saidSpadafora. “From the start, Isaid that football could restartonce all the security condi-tions had been met.”

No top-flight matchesin Italy have been playedsince Sassuolo beat Brescia 3-

0 on March 9.Italian football now faces

a scheduling nightmare, formatches which will take place

behind closed doors.“I’m happy and

satisfied,” saidGravina.

“The restart offootball represents amessage of hope forthe whole country.”

Lega Serie A will nowmeet to examine the differ-ent calendar hypotheses forthe remaining Serie A andItalian Cup matches,amounting to 127 in total.

Most teams have 12

league games left to play, butthere were four postponedfixtures.

Spadafora suggested thatthe Italian Cup could beconcluded the week beforethe return to Serie A action.

The semi-final returnleg matches between InterMilan and Napoli and ACMilan and Juventus, could beplayed on June 13-14 with thefinal on June 17.

“I also hope to be able tosend a positive signal to thewhole country by takingadvantage of the week fromJune 13 to 20 to conclude theItalian Cup,” he added.

��%�� �+;*��

Cricket Australia has notruled out the possibilityof the Covid-19 pan-

demic forcing a change in theschedule for India’s tour of thecountry with the board stillkeeping the door open for host-ing four Tests in “as little as onevenue”.

Cricket Australia (CA) onThursday announced that Indiawill play the Tests at Brisbane(December 3-7), Adelaide(December 11-15), Melbourne(December 26-30) and Sydney

(January 3-7) respectively.However, CA chief execu-

tive Kevin Roberts said theschedule could change depend-ing on the travel restrictionsdue to the health crisis.

“That (schedule) assumesthat state borders are open todomestic travel. It may be thatcircumstances dictate that whenthe time comes maybe we canonly use one or two venues, wereally don’t know any of thatyet,” he told reporters on Friday.

“There is a lot of variablesbased on whether we have fourvenues in four states or as lit-

tle as one venue in one state.There’s endless scenarios andpossibilities...”

Soon after the scheduleannouncement, WesternAustralia Cricket Association(WACA) chief ChristinaMatthews had lashed out at CAfor choosing Brisbane overPerth as one of the venues forthe high-profile Test series.

Roberts said that the Gabbadidn’t get a Test during India’stour of Australia two years agoand to strike a balance, Perthwas overlooked this timearound.

“If Perth received the IndiaTest (this year) it would meanthat Perth would have hostedtwo England Tests (for Ashes)and two India Tests over theeight-year cycle for a total offour ... Whereas Brisbane wouldhave only hosted two. So thatwould have created an imbal-ance over the cycle of theFuture Tours Programme,” hesaid.

“And in the national inter-est and ensuring we take high-profile Test matches to cricket

fans in Queensland, it was amore well-balanced solution.Assuming, of course, that wecould get full crowds in play,that’s when this schedule wasdetermined.

“The more balanced solu-tion was to play the India Testin Brisbane, meaning over theeight-year cycle it would seePerth hosting three Testsagainst India and England andBrisbane also hosting threeTests against India andEngland.”

�9��� +�*77�7

Vincent Kompany hasturned down an offer from

Manchester City to becomePep Guardiola’s assistant coach,according to various Belgianmedia reports on Friday.

The former City captain isunder contract as player-man-ager of Anderlecht until 2022,having left the Etihad Stadiumlast year following a trophy-laden 11-year spell in England.

Kompany, who has neverconcealed his desire to one daybe City manager, said he want-ed to stay at Anderlecht.

City boss Guardiola hasbeen looking for a new assistantsince Mikel Arteta leftManchester to become Arsenalmanager last December.

�9��� )���7

French Prime Minister EdouardPhilippe reiterated his Government’s

opposition to resuming professional sportseasons in the country.

“I don’t think the time has come,”Philippe said.

“I hope it will come soon, and that thestart of next season can take place undernormal conditions.

“It is not for me to pronounce on deci-sions of leagues and federations.”

Philippe made the announcement ashe outlined relaxations to coronaviruslockdown rules in France. These did notinclude allowing sports leagues to restart.

Ligue 1 clubs hope to be back on thepitch in June and start the 2020-21 sea-son in August.

While their league season seems tohave been ended, Top 14 rugby hopes stillto complete its playoffs at some point.

“The championships were interrupt-ed for two and a half months for excellentreasons,” said Philippe who did, howev-er, raise the possibility of professionalteams resuming training on 2 June undera “strict” medical protocol.

The decision to halt the footballleague is being challenged in France’sadministrative supreme court by at leastthree clubs, led by Lyon.

�9��� �����

La Liga president Javier Tebas said onFriday that the league is hoping the

2020/21 season can start on September 12.The current campaign is still suspend-

ed due to the coronavirus pandemic,although La Liga is targeting a return on June

11 with the Seville derby between Real Betisand Sevilla.

There are still 11 rounds of matches inthe Spanish top flight to be played this term.

“The important thing will be toknow the end date of the 2019-20 sea-son,” Tebas told Marca. “The next onewill start on September 12.

“God willing, we will restart on June11. We are waiting for Madrid and

Barcelona to move onto phase two (of eas-ing of lockdown rules).”

The Spanish Government last weekgave La Liga the green light to resume fromJune 8. Tebas also said that television view-ers would be able to choose whether to watchmatches, which will all be played behindclosed doors, with virtual sound effectsadded.

#'�-'�) World Cup-winningskipper Eoin Morgan, and thepace duo of James Anderson andJofra Archer are among 55England players who have beenasked to resume outdoor train-ing to prepare for cricket behindclose doors.

The England and WalesCricket Board has added 37names to the list after 18 bowlersresumed individual training lastweek, focussing on Test cricket.

Alex Hales, Liam Plunkettand Joe Clarke are some bignames who do not feature in the55-man list for the time being.

The ECB confirmed that the

players have been asked toreturn to training, “as EnglandMen prepare for the prospect ofbehind-closed-doors cricket,subject to UK Governmentclearance.”

The Board said it continuesto work closely with its countypartners to provide a safe andefficient return to practice forplayers. Other big names whohave been asked to resumetraining include Moeen Ali,Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, JosButtler, Adil Rashid, TomCurran, David Willey, and SamBillings among others.

The ECB said squads for

specific formats will beannounced in due course.

“The pool of players willgive selectors strong optionswhen it comes to selectingsquads across formats furtherdown the line, as we move clos-er to our aim of playing interna-tional cricket this summer,” ECBPerformance Director Mo Bobatsaid in a statement.

“We will need to continue towork closely with our medicalteam and government to ensurethat our return to training andplay activities are in line withbest-practice guidelines,” headded. PTI

��%�� �������

Indian batting great VVSLaxman says the ability to

remain calm under pressure isthe reason behind RohitSharma’s success as a captain inthe Indian Premier League.

The 33-year-old ledMumbai Indians to four titlewins, one ahead of ChennaiSuper Kings’ Mahendra SinghDhoni, making him currentlythe most successful skipper inthe history of IPL.

The 45-year-old Laxmanrecalled how Rohit evolved bothas a batsman and skipper sinceplaying his first IPL with DeccanChargers. “He became a leaderin the Deccan Chargers team.

When he came in the first year,he was a youngster who justplayed the T20 World Cup,made his International debut forIndia,” Laxman told Star Sportsshow Cricket Connected.

“I think the way he was bat-ting in the middle order, underpressure because the team did-n’t do well in the inaugural IPLedition in 2008 ... Rohit was astandout performer for us.”

Rohit is placed third in thelist of most run-getters in IPLhistory, having scored 4898 runsin 188 matches at an average of31.60 with a highest score of 109not out.

“In each and every match,with each and every success, hisconfidence level was just grow-ing, he was getting into the coregroup, helping the youngsters,voicing his opinion and thosewere early signs,” Laxman said.

“But for me, most impor-tantly was handling the pressurebecause not once in those toughsituations when he was battingdid it show, and he has evolvedand blossomed. That’s why he’sone of the most successful cap-tains in IPL history.”

-'��$�-) Borussia Dortmund midfielderMahmoud Dahoud has been ruled out for therest of the season with a knee injury, theBundesliga club announced on Friday.

The 24-year-old was replaced by AxelWitsel in the 85th minute of Dortmund’s 1-0defeat by title rivals and league leaders BayernMunich on Tuesday.

Dahoud has made 14 appearances forLucien Favre’s men in all competitions this sea-son.

The Syrian-born player joins Erling BrautHaaland, captain Marco Reus, Nico Schulz andDan-Axel Zagadou on the sidelines ahead ofSunday’s trip to bottom club Paderborn. AFP

�9� � �<;�

UEFA is studying “allthe options” for the

format of this sea-son’s interruptedChampions League,amid reports onFriday thatEuropean football’sgoverning body isconsidering movingthe final from its scheduledvenue in Istanbul.

The Turkish city wasdue to host the final thisSaturday at the AtaturkOlympic Stadium, but thetournament was suspend-ed in mid-March at thelast-16 stage because ofthe coronavirus pandemic.

UEFA still hopes toconclude the competitionby the end of August, but

with major changes to theformat likely and games setto be played behind closeddoors.

“We are looking at all

the options regarding thecalendar and the format ofthe competition in theworking group involvingthe clubs, leagues and

national associations,” aUEFA spokesman said.

“No decision has beentaken yet but there shouldbe at the ExecutiveCommittee meeting onJune 17.”

According to a UEFAdocument, August 29could be chosen as the newdate for the final.

The New York Timesreported on Friday that thefinal would be moved fromTurkey but that Istanbulcould be chosen as host ofa future final, when it issafe for fans to travel fromabroad in large numbers.

Changes could also bemade to the format of theEuropa League, the final ofwhich was due to be playedin the Polish city of Gdanskthis week.

��%�� ������

The Badminton WorldJunior Championships

to be held in Auckland inSeptember was on Fridayrescheduled to January nextyear because of a disruption-hit international calendarowing to the Covid-19 pan-demic.

The Badminton WorldFederation (BWF) con-firmed that the World JuniorChampionships will nowbe held from January 18 to24 next year.

The prestigious eventwill be preceded by theWorld Junior Mixed TeamChampionships with theBWF scheduling it fromJanuary 11 to 16.

“There are new dates forthe BARFOOT & THOMP-SON BWF World JuniorChampionships 2020, whichwere scheduled to be held inAuckland, New Zealand inSeptember this year,” theBWF said in a release.

“The rescheduled datesfor the world events are 11-24 January 2021.

Only those athletes eli-gible for the originallyscheduled championshipsare allowed to enter.

“The new time framegives the BWF, BadmintonNew Zealand and tourna-ment organisers the bestchance to stage a successfulevent for the large volume ofjunior players expected totravel to Auckland.”

India series venue depend on circumstances: CA6>�����������,����&�7?%���� ��'���'� ����%�� �+;*���

Cricket Australia on Fridayconceded that there is “very

high risk” of this year’s T20World Cup being postponedand the body is bracing up forhuge revenue loss because ofthat.

Speaking to reporters, CAchief executive Kevin Robertsadmitted that the fate of T20World Cup, to be hosted byAustralia in October-November this year, is uncer-tain because of the global trav-el restrictions in place due tothe Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have been hopeful allalong that it could be staged inOctober-November but youwould have to say there’s a veryhigh risk about the prospect of

that happening,” Roberts said.He said CA is staring at a

revenue loss of around A$ 80million.

Even if the tournamentgoes ahead as per plan, it is like-ly to be held in empty stadiumsbecause of the social distancingnorms and CA is well aware ofit.

“The likelihood of signifi-cant crowds is very slim —ordinarily that would deliverwell over A$ 50m revenue toCA.

The T20 World Cup is a bigquestion and that’s a factor ofperhaps A$ 20m.

“And it’s likely that ourbio-security measures that weneed to put in place to deliverthe season will cost in theorder of A$ 10m,” he said.

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#'�-'�) The FA Cup final isset to take place onAugust 1 after theEnglish FootballAssociation announcedprovisional dates to fin-ish the competition onFriday.

After the Premier Leaguerevealed they plan to resumethe season on June 17, the FACup has now returned to anEnglish fixture list.

The FA Cup was haltedbefore the quarter-finalsbecause of the pandemic,but tournament organisershope to complete it along-side the Premier League.

The four matches inthe last eight will be played

over the weekend of June 27and 28, with no decisionreached yet on whether thesewill be played on a home-and-away basis as normal or at neu-

tral venues. Leicester take onChelsea, Newcastle face hold-ers Manchester City, SheffieldUnited play Arsenal andNorwich meet ManchesterUnited.

The semi-finals will beplayed on July 11 and 12, withthe intention being for thosematches and the final to beplayed at Wembley as usual.

All the ties will be behindclosed doors. AFP

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@�����������������6+569����,#'�-'�)Premier League chiefexecutive Richard Masterssaid on Friday that fans couldbe allowed to attend top-flight matches in the 2020-21

season on a “phased basis”.“No one knows when

matches will move awayfrom the behind-closed-doors model and it is rightto have contingency plans inplace, but there is optimismat the Premier League and at

clubs that we will see fans back

in the stadiums next seasonand it may happen on aphased basis,” Masters told SkySports News. “Hopefully itwill be a huge morale boostand that is what we’ve beenworking towards.

“We’ve got some incredi-ble fans in this country and weall know the Premier Leagueas we know and love it won’tbe fully back until we havefans back through the turn-stiles.” AFP

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