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News Brief

VOL. 54 * NO. 224 * AHMEDABAD TUESDAY * 2/3/2021

Ahmedabad District Collector Shri Sandeep Sagle, District DevelopmentOfficer Shri Arun Mahesh Babu and Ahmedabad City Commissioner Shri SanjaySrivastava took the second dose of Corona vaccination at the Corona Vaccina-tion Center functioning at the old Trauma Center at Ahmedabad Civil Hospi-tal.

Boy killed, 2 injuredin Bihar bomb blast

Khagaria, A child was killed and

two others were criticallyinjured in a blast in a play-ground in Bihar’s Khagariadistrict near the Gogri policestation area.

A police official on Mon-day said three children wereplaying in the BhagwanHigh School ground on Sun-day evening. While playing,all of them hid behind somebushes and started hittingan explosive with a stickmistaking it for a ball. One ofthe children picked up theexplosive following which itexploded.

Khagaria Deputy Super-intendent of Police ManojKumar said with the help ofthe local people the threeinjured children were takento the Sadar hospital fortreatment. But nine-year-oldMohammad Kurban died onthe way to the hospital.

Bhojpuri star filesFIR against rivals

Lucknow, Bhojpuri singer and ac-

tor Pawan Singh has lodgedan FIR with the Gomti Nagarpolice station here againsthis professional rivalsMahesh Pandey, SumitDwivedi and others for ma-ligning his image by up-loading fake contents onYouTube and issuing lifethreats to him.

In his complaint, Singhsaid that he had receivedseveral national and inter-national awards for his sing-ing. Singh, who is inLucknow from February 20for a shooting, said, “Myfriend Santosh Singh in-formed me that he has seensome objectionable videosof mine on YouTube. Thesevideos were uploaded byMahesh Pandey and SumitDwivedi.”

He further alleged: “Theyare also trying to malign myimage by stating that I amanti-social and anti-na-tional.” The singer said thatwhen he saw the videos, hefound the contents highlyobjectionable.

In a first,Chhattisgarh policehire 13transgenders asconstables

R aipur,In a first, the

Chhattisgarh police re-cruited 13 transgenderpeople as constables in fourdistricts of the state, a seniorpolice official said after theChhattisgarh Constable Re-cruitment examination re-sults for 2019-20 came outon Monday.Out of these 13,nine were recruited fromRaipur range and 20 peoplehad appeared for the exam.

“The results of the con-stable recruitment examina-tion are out, and I congratu-late everyone who qualifiedthe examination. We havealso recruited transgenderpeople as constable for thefirst time and I personallycongratulate them,” said Di-rector General of Police,Chhattisgarh, DM Awasthi.

Not just PUBG,other mobile games: Javadekar

New Delhi,Emphasizing the bad

impact of gaming addictionon children, Union ministerPrakash Javadekar had saidthat many mobile gamesare "violent, explicit and ad-dictive", and PUBG was justone example. He further re-iterated that the govern-ment is planning to set up acenter of excellence in gam-ing and other related areasto promote Indian culturalethos. PUBG was amongover 100 China-origin mo-bile applications banned bythe government lastyear.The Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcastingsaid his ministry has de-cided to form a gaming cen-tre to teach courses relatedto VFX, gaming.

Guwahati, Congress General Sec-

retary Priyanka GandhiVadra arrived here on Mon-day to campaign for theparty in Assam, where theCongress-led seven-partyalliance will take on the rul-ing Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-led three-party coali-tion.

Priyanka soon after herarrival offered prayers at thefamous Kamakhya DeviTemple, which was rebuilt in1565 by Koch kingNaranarayana and is one ofthe 51 holy and veneratedsites in India.

Assam Congress MediaDepartment ChairpersonBobbeeta Sharma said thatduring her Assam tour,Priyanka would hold inter-actions with party officebearers and diverse groupsof people of the poll-boundAssam and address publicmeetings in Tezpur on Tues-day. The Congress leaderwould launch a statewidecampaign for the unem-ployed youths and hold in-teraction with tea gardenwomen workers and Self-

Priyanka begins poll campaign

Help Group members.Former Congress Presi-

dent and Lok Sabha mem-ber Rahul Gandhi on Febru-ary 14 visited the state andaddressed a public gather-ing in eastern Assam’sSivasagar.

The Congress, whichwas in power in the state for15 years (2001-2016) untilthe BJP-led alliance came topower in Assam in 2016, had

formed the‘Mahagathbandhan’ (GrandAlliance) with three Left par-ties — CPI(M), CPI andCPI(ML) — as well as the AllIndia United DemocraticFront (AIUDF), the AnchalikGana Morcha, BodolandPeople’s Front (BPF), threeregional parties having apolitical base among theMuslims and indigenouspeople, respectively.

Prashant Kishor joins Amarinder SinghChandigarh,

Election strategistPrashant Kishor, who hashelped propel several poli-ticians to election victories,will now work with Punjabchief minister CaptainAmarinder Singh. On Mon-day, Singh took to Twitterto announce that Kishorhas joined him as his Prin-cipal Advisor, nearly 12months before the north-ern state goes topolls.“Happy to share that@PrashantKishor hasjoined me as my PrincipalAdvisor. Look forward toworking together for thebetterment of the peopleof Punjab!” Singh tweetedon Monday.

Happy to share that@PrashantKishor hasjoined me as my PrincipalAdvisor. Look forward toworking together for thebetterment of the peopleof Punjab!Confirming the

appointment, the Govern-ment of Punjab posted inTwitter: “Punjab Cabinetclears the appointment ofShri @PrashantKishor asPrincipal Advisor to theChief Minister@capt_amarinder Singh inthe rank and status of aCabinet Minister.”As perthe order of the Depart-ment of General Adminis-tration, Kishor,

among other ameni-ties, will get a fully fur-nished government resi-dence and camp office asadmissible to a CabinetMinister, and will be pro-vided conveyance by thestate transport commis-sioner. He will also get anExecutive Class travel intrain/by air as admissibleto a CabinetMinister.Congress came topower in Punjab in March2017 with 77 seats in the117-member state assem-

bly, displacing theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine. However,back then Singh report-edly decided to keepKishor ‘at bay’ in the state,expressing ‘open disdain’for his ways, especially forcampaigns such as ‘Coffeewith Captain.’

Also, as per reports, theCongress leader did notcare to complete severalprogrammes designed byKishor’s team to projectSingh as the ‘leader of thestate.’

This after Kishor andhis team ‘rubbed severalleaders the wrong way’ inUttar Pradesh, where theparty suffered a drubbing.

Kishor, who is currentlyworking with West Bengalchief minister MamataBanerjee ahead of the up-coming West Bengal as-sembly elections, earlierplayed a significant.

Tejashwi meets Mamata, offers full supportKolkata,

Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadavmet Bengal chief ministerMamata Banerjee Mondayafternoon and offered hisfull support to her in thecoming assembly polls inBengal.“Many people fromBihar and other states residein Bengal. I appeal to allpeople from Bihar to unit-edly support Mamata Ji. Iwill use my full strength tosupport her. This election isabout protecting Bengaland its culture, which is

unique. This is a fight to saveBengal’s values. Our leaderLalu Prasad Ji wants this,”Yadav said referring to hisfather, shortly after meetingBanerjee at Nabanna, thestate secretariat.

Former Bihar chief min-ister Lalu Prasad Yadav iscurrently serving jail sen-tence in the fodder scamcase that the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) startedprobing in mid-1990.

The RJD will contest afew seats as an ally of theruling Trinamool Congress

(TMC). Yadav arrived in Ben-gal two days ago and heldmeetings with partyworkers.“At a time when thenation’s ministers should beworking hard to save thecountry and the peoplethey are all camping in Ben-gal. The BJP is spreading lies.It is selling the assets of thenation, such as the railwaysand the Steel Authority ofIndia,” said Yadav.

Banerjee was presentwhen the young RJD leaderwas talking to reporters.

“I congratulate Tejashwi.

He is a young leader. The BJPused all kinds of tricks tostop him from winning theBihar elections. But I knowhe will lead Bihar very soon.The way Laloo Prasad Ji issuffering in jail is unfair.

The BJP should get themessage. WhereverTejashwi is fighting, I amfighting. And where I amfighting, he is fighting. You(BJP) cannot win this elec-tion no matter how hardyou control the media andhow big you talk,” saidBanerjee.

Mumbai power outage in October2020 was cyber-sabotage attempt

Mumbai, The Maharashtra Home

Minister Anil Deshmukh onMonday (March 1, 2021)stated that the Mumbaipower outage in 2020 was acyber-sabotage attempt.

"Maharashtra Cyber Cellhas submitted a preliminaryreport on this. The report find-ings state there is evidencethat suggests there mighthave been a cyber-sabotageattempt," ANI quotedDeshmukh as saying.Headded that the report hasbeen handed over toMaharashtra Energy MinisterNitin Raut. Earlier in the day,Raut said that the state gov-ernment, the MaharashtraElectricity Regulatory Com-mission (MERC) and the Cen-tral Electricity Authority hadset up separate committeesto probe the cause of thepower outage and their re-ports have been received.

"We had then com-plained to the cyber cell and

their report is awaited. But thepreliminary information Ihave, there definitely was acyber attack and it was asabotage," the Congressleader added. The probecomes after a report claimedthat the Mumbai power out-age was a likely Chinese cyberattack, which took place amidthe India-China border ten-sion at the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC).The report said thatthe Chinese government-linked group of hackers tar-geted India's critical powergrid system throughmalware. It also raised suspi-cion whether the massivepower outage in Mumbaiwas a result of the online in-trusion. "The electric gridcomputer has a pre-installedmalware, which is often in-stalled by China. Because ofthis, it gets the remote controlof the computer system,which can turn it off and canalso cause a complete black-out," said Prashant Mali, a

cyber expert.However, back then, Tata

Power had attributed thepower outage to a simulta-neous substation tripping atstate-run transmission com-pany MSETCL's two substa-tions in the suburbs of Kalwaand Kharghar. "Tata Powerregrets the inconveniencecaused to its consumers dueto this unforeseen event inpower failure due to thetransmission system failureleading to the cascading im-pact to all downstream sup-pliers of electricity includingTata Power, BEST and its con-sumers," said an official state-ment. The statement added,"Based on the preliminary as-sessment of the situation, TataPower would like to informthat today many parts ofMumbai experienced an un-foreseen electricity failurestarting at 10 am in the morn-ing due to tripping ofMSETCL’s 400 KV transmis-sion system

Laga bhi diya aurpata bhi nahin chala Modi receives his 1st Covid vaccine dose

Modi appeal to all those who are eligible to take the vaccine

New Delhi,Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Mondayjoined the elite club of glo-bal leaders who had pub-licly received the Covid-19vaccine and urged peopleto come out for vaccinationin order to fight the deadlypandemic.

The PM's move is likelyto boost people's confi-dence and overcome theirhesitation in coming out forvaccination. It may be re-called that US President JoeBiden was vaccinated whenhe was the President-elect.Similarly, Israeli PM Ben-jamin Netanyahu andIndonesia's Joko Widodohad also received theCOVID vaccine shot in thefull public view.Among oth-ers who were administeredthe COVID vaccine in theopen are - Pope Francis,Saudi King Salman, CrownPrince Mohammed binSalman, Queen Elizabethand Prince Philip of theUnited Kingdom. Mongo-

lian PM and Maldives Presi-dent are among the otherworld leaders who havebeen vaccinated earlier us-ing the India-made anti-COVID vaccines.Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi onMonday (March 1, 2021)took the first dose ofCovaxin, India’s home-grown coronavirus vaccinedeveloped by biotechnol-ogy firm Bharat Biotech andthe Indian Council of Medi-cal Research.

The PM was adminis-tered the COVID vaccineshot by two nurses - SisterP Niveda and sisterRosamma Anil - at theAIIMS, Delhi. While sisterNiveda hails fromPuducherry, sisterRosamma Anil hails fromKerala. News agency ANIshared pictures from AIIMSshowing Sister Niveda ad-ministering BharatBiotech's COVAXIN to thePrime Minister.Speaking tothe media, Sister Nivedasaid the Prime Minister

chatted with them brieflyand asked where they werefrom. “After taking the vac-cine, the Prime Minister re-marked, “Laga Bhi Di, PataHi Nahi Chala’’ (Oh it’s done,I didn't even realise it),” Sis-ter Niveda told reporters.

“It is very nice to see sir.Only today morning, we

came to know that thePrime Minister would becoming for vaccination. Itwas nice to see him, he wasvery comfortable,” SisterRosamma told the media.

PM Modi also took toTwitter to inform that hehas taken the first dose ofthe vaccine at All India In-

stitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) Delhi. "Took my firstdose of the COVID-19 vac-cine at AIIMS," PM Moditweeted with his picture ofreceiving the jab. "Remark-able how our doctors andscientists have worked inquick time to strengthenthe global fight againstCOVID-19," the Prime Min-ister added.BharatBiotech`s coronavirus vac-cine Covaxin had run into acontroversy after it gotregulatory approval foremergency use withoutphase-3 trial results. How-ever, in January, thecompany’s Chairman andManaging Director DrKrishna Ella clarified thatthe vaccine is safe andBharat Biotech conductedtrials in over 12 countriesbesides India.In the picturethat PM Modi tweeted, he isseen wearing a 'gamcha' ofAssam, which is symbolic ofthe blessings of womenfrom the eastern state. Hehas been seen wearing iton many occasions.

Jaishankar, New Zealand counterpartdiscuss peace and stability in Indo-Pacific

New Delhi,External affairs minister

S Jaishankar and his NewZealand counterpart NanaiaMahuta on Monday dis-cussed ways to strengthenbilateral cooperation and towork jointly for peace andstability in the Indo-Pacificregion.This was Jaishankar’sfirst interaction with Mahutawho took charge as NewZealand's foreign ministerlast November. The two min-isters also discussed therollout of Covid-19 vaccines,people familiar with devel-opments said on conditionof anonymity. Since her ap-pointment, Mahuta has es-tablished contact with hercounterparts from keycountries. The idea of an in-troductory phone call withJaishankar was proposed byNew Zealand, the peoplesaid.“It was a pleasure tospeak to New Zealand FM@NanaiaMahuta for the firsttime. Discussed the COVIDchallenge and our expecta-

tions of an early recovery.Our shared interests are ex-pressed bilaterally and inthe Indo-Pacific. Look for-ward to meeting her in per-son,” Jaishankar said onTwitter.The two ministersdiscussed bilateral issues, ashared vision of the Indo-Pacific and regional issues,the rollout of Covid-19 vac-cines and expectations re-lated to post-pandemic re-covery, the people said.

The ministers alsoagreed to keep in touch tofurther strengthen bilateralcooperation and to pro-mote peace, prosperity andstability in the Indo-Pacific,the people added. Mahutawas named the foreign min-ister after the landslide vic-tory of the Labour Party un-der the leadership of PrimeMinister Jacinda Ardern. Shehas over 20 years of experi-ence as a lawmaker and isthe first woman and the firstMaori to be appointed tothe post.

Amit Shah, S Jaishankar getCovid-19 vaccine after PM

New Delhi,India’s vaccination

drive entered its secondphase on March 1, 2021.The program has been ex-panded to include all citi-zens above 60 years of ageand 45+ withcomorbidities. Also, theCo-WIN digital platformhas been upgraded to itsnext version and privatehospitals included to ex-pand vaccinationcoverage.Many leaders inthe country, includingPrime Minister NarendraModi, Vice PresidentVenkaiah Naidu, Unionministers, state governorsand chief ministers, re-ceived their first dose ofthe Covid-19 vaccine onMonday.2. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi urged alleligible beneficiaries toget vaccinated as he re-

ceived his first dose of theCovaxin Covid-19 vaccineat the All India Institute ofMedical Science (AIIMS) inDelhi. “Remarkable how ourdoctors and scientists haveworked in quick time tostrengthen the global fightagainst COVID-19,” PMModi said.Union homeminister Amit Shah re-ceived his first dose of theCovid-19 vaccine from thedoctors at the MedantaHospital, news agency ANIreported. External AffairsMinister Dr S Jaishankarsaid “Felt secure, will travelsafely,” as he received hisfirst dose of the Covid-19vaccine. He was adminis-tered Covaxin, developedby Bharat Biotech. Unionminister Dr Jitendra Singhreceived his first dose ofthe Covid-19 vaccine atAIIMS, Delhi.

Don't want to impose itbut 'majboori: Uddhav

Mumbai, Amid a surge in

coronavirus cases in the pastweek, the Maharashtra gov-ernment extended thelockdown in Amravati andAchalpur till March 8.

Maharashtra Chief Minis-ter on Sunday (February 28)expressed his disinterest inimposing another lockdownin the state. CM UddhavThackeray said, "I do notwant to impose it but'majboori' (helplessness) isalso something," while ad-dressing the press.The CMassured the people that he iscontinuously monitoring theCOVID-19 situation in thestate and urged everyone toproperly follow the guide-lines. Several cities inMaharashtra have been wit-nessing a surge in COVID-19cases for the last few days. Aweek-long lockdown wasimposed in Amravati, certainrestrictions were also put inplace in four other districts of

Amravati division, Akola,Washim, Buldhana andYavatmal, with a view to curbthe spread of the disease.The announcement oflockdown comes a week af-ter CM and other politicalleaders warned the citizensof repercussions if COVID-19guidelines are not properlyfollowed. On Sunday,Maharashtra had reported8,293 new coronavirus cases,3,753 recoveries, and 62deaths in the last 24 hours asper the State Health Depart-ment. A total of 52,154people have died owing toCOVID-19 in the state so far.The Pune administration hasalso extended the restric-tions. On Sunday, the districtmayor Murlidhar Mohol an-nounced that all schools, col-leges and private coachingclasses will remain shut inthe district until 14 Marchand no public movementwill also be allowed between11 pm to 6 am.

JDU workers markCM Nitish Kumar’sbirthday as VikasDiwas

Patna,Prime Minister Narendra

Modi on Monday (March 1)wished Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar on his birthdaythrough a post on Twitter.The Prime Minister alsopraised him for undertakingnumerous measures for thedevelopment of the state.

"Best wishes to Bihar CM@NitishKumar Ji on his birth-day. Under his leadership,the NDA Government inBihar is undertaking numer-ous measures for develop-ing the state. Praying for hislong and healthy life," PMModi tweeted.

Janata Dal (United)workers are celebratingBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar’s 70th birthday as‘Vikas Diwas’ across thestate. Reports suggest NitishKumar may take the firstdose of the COVID-19 vac-cine on his birthday at 1 pm.

The party workers dis-tributed laddus (sweets),notebooks, pencils and milkamong the poor.

Ahmedabad, Page 2

Editorial2FromEditor’sDesk

The missing centreBy opening its doors to those likeChourasia in MP, Congress shows itis losing touch with what it was, whatit wants to be

In a week when election dates for five assemblypolls were announced, and when the G-23 within theCongress went a step further in making the internalfaultlines public, Babulal Chourasia joined the Con-gress ahead of civic polls in Madhya Pradesh (MP). Itwas a telling event. Chourasia’s main claim to infameis for lending a hand to set up a temple to honourMahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse.Chourasia’s induction, and the defence of it, byformer Union minister and MP chief minister KamalNath, is symptomatic of the deeper malaise that af-flicts India’s Grand Old Party: The Congress, in thename of accommodation or other compulsions ofplaying the political game, seems to have lost its cen-tre. Finding it will be a formidable challenge, espe-cially in times when its main opponent, and the newpolity’s central pole, is a party that defines itself byits ideological commitment and clarity.

In its best version, the Congress showed a spiritof accommodation and openness it learnt from Ma-hatma Gandhi. It was Gandhi who helped it growfrom a relatively elite concern in British India to amass party. In that time, the party was able to drawwithin its fold the entire spectrum of political beliefand opinion, while remaining clear about its ends —Swaraj and a constructive programme to build amore equal country. After Independence, theCongress’s commitments and convictions waxed andwaned, but its USP remained that it was an “umbrellaparty”, which could reconcile seemingly contradic-tory views within itself, a coalition of interests morethan a party. This fuzziness and lack of ideologicalrigidity served the party, helping it to move to theleft, and then swing to the right, when the politicalclimate changed. Underlying the shifts, however, wasa centre of gravity which connected the new Con-gress to the old.

Now by taking on board someone who once cel-ebrated the assassin of its tallest leader, the Congressshows that it is losing touch with itself — what it wasand what it wants to be. The party seems desperateto open its doors to anyone who knocks on them. Itsattempt at reforms, even by the so-called group of23, hark back to the time of letter writing and peti-tioning, before Gandhi made politics a mass move-ment. Instead of owning its crisis, the party seemsdetermined to cast itself in the role of a lesser playerin someone else’s script.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Los Angeles, “Borat Subsequent

Moviefilm” and“Nomadland” were the bigwinners of the 78th GoldenGlobe Awards. “The Crown”and late star ChadwickBoseman were among win-ners, too, while veteran JaneFonda was feted with thelifetime achievement award.

The ceremony was heldvirtually and the live audi-ence consisted of frontlineworkers and first respondersof the Covid-19 pandemic.

Actresses Tina Fey andAmy Poehler returned tohosting duties this year, butthey were in New York andLos Angeles respectively,marking the first time theGolden Globes have beenbicoastal.

The best drama filmwent to “Nomadland ” star-ring Frances McDormand asa homeless woman travel-

Golden Globes 2021: ‘Nomadland’, ‘Borat’ ‘The Crown’ win top honoursling through the AmericanWest.

“Schitt’s Creek” wasnamed Best Comedy series. Actress Catherine O’Hara,who plays the role of MoiraRose in the show, was fetedwith best comedy actresshonour.

The best director awardwent to Chloe Zhao, whobecame the second femalewinner of the category inGlobes history, after BarbaraStreisand in 1983, reportsbbc.com.

Zhao said: “Thank youeveryone who made it pos-sible to do what I love. I fellin love with making moviesand telling stories becauseit gave us a chance to laughand cry together, to learnfrom each other, and to havemore compassion for eachother.”

The Sacha Baron Cohen-starrer “Borat Subsequent

Moviefilm”, the sequel to2006’s hugely successful“Borat”, was named bestmusical or comedy film.

“Thank you to the all-white Hollywood ForeignPress,” said Sacha BaronCohen as he accepted theprize, referring to the recentrevelation that theorganisation behind theGlobes currently has noblack members.

The actor joked aboutthe awards body as he wasnamed best actor in a com-edy or musical for the samefilm. “Wait, Donald Trump iscontesting the result. He’sclaiming that a lot of deadpeople voted, which is avery rude thing to say aboutthe HFPA (Hollywood For-eign Press Association),” hequipped. Other winners in-cluded Rosamund Pike, whowas named best actress in amusical or comedy film for

“I Care A Lot”. The best sup-porting actor went to DanielKaluuya for his performancein “Judas And the Black Mes-siah”.

The film cast Kaluuya es-sayed the role of US activistFred Hampton, chairman ofthe Black Panther Party whowas assassinated at the ageof 21 in 1969.

The actor said that hehopes generations after thiswould see how Hamptonfought.

“I hope generations af-ter this can see how bril-liantly he fought, he spoke,and he loved. He taught meabout myself, made megrow as a man, and I appre-ciate that with all my heart,”Kaluuya said as he acceptedhis prize.

A “shocked” JohnBoyega was named bestsupporting actor in a limitedseries for his role in “Small

Axe”.“I’m so shocked. I’ve got

trackie bottoms on and I’mcomfortable but this is excit-ing,” Boyega quipped.

“The Crown” won fourhonours including bestdrama series.

Josh O’Connor andEmma Corrin both won fortheir performances asPrince Charles and PrincessDiana respectively.

Corrin said: “Most of all,thank you so much to (Prin-cess) Diana, you have taughtme compassion and empa-thy beyond any measure Icould ever imagine.”

O’Connor added: “I’mvery lucky to be able to workin this period, and there areso many people who areunable to work, who arealone and isolated, and Ihope we can all collectivelyput mental health at theforefront our minds.”

Actress Gillian Andersonwas named in the best sup-porting category in the se-ries for her portrayal offormer prime minister Mar-garet Thatcher.

Late star ChadwickBoseman was posthu-mously named best actor ina drama film for his perfor-mance in “Ma Rainy’s BlackBottom”.

His wife, Taylor SimoneLedward, accepted theaward on his behalf.Boseman passed away lastsummer after quietly bat-tling colon cancer for years.

Actress-singer AndraDay won in the best actressin a motion picture (drama)category for her perfor-mance in the OTT film “TheUnited States vs. Billie Holi-day”. Day is only the secondBlack woman to win at theGlobes after WhoopiGoldberg, who won 35 years

ago for ‘The Color Purple”,according to Variety.

“The Queen’s Gambit”was named best limited se-ries and its star Anya Taylor-Joy, was named best actressin a limited series.

Other winners includedMark Ruffalo for best actorin a limited series, and Pixar’s“Soul”, which won best ani-mated film.

Aaron Sorkin paid trib-ute to the three women whowere nominated for best di-rector as he accepted bestscreenplay for “The Trial ofthe Chicago 7”.

“You are the reason mycollege-age daughter wantsto be a filmmaker, and I’mnever going to forgive youfor that” he said.

The nominees and win-ners were voted for by the87 members of the Holly-wood Foreign Press Associa-tion (HFPA), a group of inter-

national journalists based inCalifornia.

According to an investi-gation, the HFPA had noblack members, representa-tives from the organisationsaid during the ceremony,adding that they planned toaddress the issue.

Veteran actress and ac-tivist Jane Fonda was fetedwith the Cecil B DeMilleAward for lifetime achieve-ment and used her accep-tance speech to call forgreater diversity in the in-dustry.

She talked about theimportance of storytelling,saying powerful stories can“change our hearts and ourminds”.

Fonda said: “Let’s all of usmake an effort to expandthat tent so that everyonerises and everyone’s storyhas a chance to be seen andheard. Let’s be leaders.”

New Delhi, Amid ongoing farmers’

protest against three farmslaws, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondayasserted that the Centralgovernment’s vision is toempower small farmersand expand the options forthem to sell their produce.

Modi also emphasizedthe need to explore ways toleverage ‘One District, OneProduct’ scheme to take In-dian products to the globalmarkets.

Outlining the Centralgovernment’s vision forsmall farmers, the PrimeMinister said the “empow-erment of these small farm-ers will greatly help in rid-ding Indian agriculturefrom many problems”.

Modi’s message comesat a time when thousandsof farmers are sitting on in-definite agitation at Delhiborders seeking with-drawal of three laws. Theprotest that started on No-vember 26 last year, en-tered 96th day on Monday.

Addressing a webinaron effective implementa-tion of Budget provisionsregarding Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare throughvideo conference, Modihighlighted some of theprovisions for Agriculture inthe Union Budget like in-creasing the AgricultureCredit target to Rs16,50,000 crore with prior-ity to Animal husbandry,

Govt focussing on empowermentof small farmers: PM

Dairy and Fisheries sectorand increasing Rural Infra-structure Fund to Rs 40,000crore.

He said that the budgethas provisions of doublingthe allocation for micro ir-rigation, expanding thescope of Operation GreenScheme to 22 perishableproducts and linking 1,000more mandis with e-NAM— an online trading plat-form for agricultural com-modities in India which fa-cilitates farmers, tradersand buyers with onlinetrading in commodities.

The Prime Ministerstressed India’s need forPost-Harvest Revolution orFood Processing Revolu-tion and Value Addition inthe 21st century, amidstever-increasing agriculturalproduction.

“It would have beenvery good for the country ifthis work would have beendone two-three decadesago,” the Prime Ministercommented.

The Prime Ministerstrongly emphasized ondeveloping processing inevery agriculture relatedsector such as food grains,vegetables, fruits, fisheries.

He said, for this, it is criti-cal that farmers shouldhave the storage facilitiesnear their villages andcalled for the improvementof the system of taking theproduce from the fields toprocessing units and em-

phasized that hand holdingof these units be done bythe Farmer Producer Orga-nizations (FPOs).

He stressed on the needfor expanding the optionsfor the country’s farmers tosell their produce.

“We have to expand ourcountry’s agriculture sectorinto the global market forprocessed food. We mustincrease the number ofAgro-Industries Clustersnear the village so that thepeople of the village canget employment related tofarming in the village it-self,” said the Prime Minis-ter.

Giving example of Or-ganic Clusters and Exportclusters, the seniorBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader said that such kindof clusters will play a majorrole in providing employ-ment to people in villages.

He envisioned that “wehave to move towards ascenario where agro basedproducts move from the vil-lage to the cities and indus-trial products reach villagesfrom cities”.

Experts from Agricul-ture, Dairy, Fisheries sector;stakeholders from Public,Private and Cooperativesector and Representativesfrom Banks funding the ru-ral economy participated inthe event. Union Ministerfor Agriculture was presentin the webinar.

—IANS

New Delhi, The concluding day of

the 14th Jaipur LiteratureFestival witnessed NobelPrize recipient, author, andPakistani activist MalalaYousafzai talking about arange of subjects includingeducation, human rights,and her hopes for India-Pa-kistan relationship.

Malala engaged in al-most an hour-long conver-sation with journalist PragyaTiwari, around her new book“We are Displaced: My Jour-ney and Stories from Refu-gee Girls Around the World”.

The session kicked offwith the 23-year-old givingaudiences a glimpse of herinspirations, journey androots. She spoke of what in-spired her to come forwardand share her story in thefirst place. Stressing that itwas important for her to notjust tell her own story butalso remind people that hertale is not unique, Malalaspoke of how her story ech-oes that of millions of girlswho do not have access toeducation, because of amyriad of reasons includingearly child marriages, pov-erty, cultural norms, warsand conflicts.

Speaking about Indo-Pak relationship, the 23-year-old said, “You are Indianand I am Pakistani, and weare completely fine, thenwhy is this hatred createdbetween us? The philoso-

I dream of India-Pakistanbecoming good friends:

Malala Yousafzaiphy of borders, divisions, di-vide and conquer just doesnot work anymore...as hu-mans we all want to live inpeace.”

The peace activist saidthat it was her dream to seethe two countries (India andPakistan) on friendly termsand that people from eitherside are able to visit eachother. “You can continue towatch Pakistani dramasmovies, and we —Bollywood movies.”

Stressing on the need toprotect minorities in bothcountries, she also talkedabout the Internet shut-down in some parts of Indiaand arrests of activists.

Malala also spoke aboutbeing displaced in her owncountry Pakistan , owing tothe conflict between thegovernment forces and theTaliban insurgents, her lifeduring this time in a refugeecamp and the uncertaintyshe faced at not knowingwhen she will be homeagain.

She said that she de-cided to write the book ‘WeAre Displaced’ to tell the sto-ries of these young girls wholose their homes and whodecide to become refugeesonly for the sake of a safefuture as they usually do nothave an option. “They arepushed by the situationthey’re living in to lose theirhomes and to find safetyelsewhere.”

Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh oppo-

sition leader and TeluguDesam Party (TDP) nationalpresident NaraChandrababu Naidu onMonday accused the stategovernment of trying to si-lence him after he was de-tained and not allowed toproceed for a protest.

“We will not be stopped,we will not be silenced,” saidNaidu after being detainedby the police, who cited thecoronavirus protocol, modelcode of conduct and trafficconcerns for letting himcarry out his protest plans.

“Your fear driven, statesponsored vendetta won’tstop me from reaching outto my people,” claimedNaidu, advising Chief Minis-ter Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddyto ‘grow up’. Dramatic sceneswere witnessed at theRenigunta airport nearTirupati on Monday morn-ing when police blockedNaidu. Naidu was seen argu-ing with senior police offic-ers and even staging a sit-infor not allowing him to pro-ceed. A senior police officersat beside Naidu andpleaded with folded handsto convince the former ChiefMinister to refrain from hisplans. “What is the need?There is Covid but all themeetings are happening,even elections. As many as55,000 to 60,000 people arevisiting VenkateswaraSwamy’s temple. Why me?You need permission for theprotest,” said Naidu, tryingto reason out with thepolice.He demanded that

Will not be stopped & silenced: Naiduhe wanted to meet Chittoordistrict Collector and Super-intendent of Police to whichthe policemen said theywould inform them.

However, when Naidusaid he wanted to addressthe media, police did not al-low him, sparking a furiousreaction from the TDPsupremo. Naidu argued withthe policemen that heshould be allowed to speakto the media as to why hecame there.

“Otherwise arrest meand take me away. What isthis? What is ‘dourjanyam’(blatant injustice)? Is it notblatant injustice? Don’t Ihave the fundamental rightto meet the collector? Whatis this? What happened inthis country? Am I going tomurder somebody? Iworked as a CM for 14 years.I am the opposition leader.Is this a joke? Tell me whydid you detain me?” saidNaidu at a posse of police-men inside the airport.

The airport high dramafollowed the police denyingpermission to Chittoor dis-trict TDP chief PulivarthiVenakatamani Prasad toorganise a protest whichwas supposed to be at-tended by Naidu.

The protest was plannedon Monday from 11 a.m. to2 p.m. at the MahatmaGandhi statue in Chittoor.

“Under Covid-19 regula-tions, huge gatherings arenot allowed. Model code ofconduct for urban localbody elections is in effect.This is an agitationalprogramme and not in the

nature of an election cam-paign and thus not permis-sible under MCC,” said a po-lice official denying consent.

In reply, a police officeroffered to call the SP to theairport but Naidu ques-tioned him as to who he wasto call the SP for him and saton the floor.

“Why do I need your per-mission to go to the SP? Ifyou want you can follow me.I have to go to the collectorand Tirupati SP, I will go.Don’t call them here, I amnot that great a person. Idon’t want any honour, savethe democracy,” said Naidusitting on the floor.

As police pleaded Naiduto sit inside, he rejected theirpleas and said that he wouldcontinue to sit on the floor.

TDP planned to rope in5,000 cadres for the protestbut the police also cited traf-fic issues on the nationaland state highways for thedenial. “Any violation of thisorder will be strictly dealtwith in accordance with thelaw,” police warned.

Naidu and TDP statechief KinjarapuAtchannaidu demandedthe ruling Yuvajana SramikaRythu Congress Party(YSRCP) leaders to explain ifhe had no right to hold toursand meetings in the state.

“YSRCP leaders had noright to create obstacles forthe visits of such a seniorleader. The common peoplewere having doubts nowwhether they were broughtunder a jungle raj after theYSRCP came to power,”claimed Atchannaidu.

France reports nearly 20,000 newcoronavirus cases, 122 deaths

Paris, France registered 19,952 new coronavirus infec-

tion cases and 122 related deaths in the past 24 hours,according to figures released by the Public HealthAgency on Sunday.

The cumulative number of coronavirus cases inFrance now stands at 3,755,968, and the total num-ber of fatalities at 86,454 since the outbreak of thepandemic in the country, the Xinhua news reported.

Over the past seven days, 9,613 Covid-19 patientswere in the hospital, of whom 1,871 were put on ven-tilators, the agency added. In an interview with LeJournal de Dimanche (JDD) on Sunday, JeromeSalomon, director-general of public health, said thevirus variant first detected in Britain now becamedominant in France, with 53 percent of positive casesattributable to this more infectious strain.

The first case of this virus in France was spottedon Dec. 26, 2020, prompting the country to imposetravel restrictions. “The situation is obviously verytense but the government has taken strong brakingmeasures, notably the curfew, which is working verywell,” Salomon said. “We can still avoid confinementif everyone is mobilized.” As of Feb. 27, 2,967,937people in France have received at least one dose ofthe Covid-19 vaccine. France aims to inoculate all thecitizens aged over 65 by the end of May and all adultsbefore September.

New York,Former US President Donald Trump has roared back into

the political arena with a hint that he may run for office in2024 and a jet of vitriol against members of his RepublicanParty not loyal to him, as well as Democrats. Speaking inpublic on Sunday for the first time since leaving office,Trump did not admit defeat in the November 3, 2020, elec-tion and instead said “I may even decide to defeat them athird time”.

He tamped down speculation that he may start a thirdparty calling it fake news seeking to divide the Republicanvote “so that you can never win”.

“We have the Republican Party it’s going to unite andbe stronger than ever before,” he said even as he an-nounced an enemy’s list of several members of his partywho voted for this impeachment or to convict him. Heflexed his political muscle at the annual conference of theConservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) where aninformal poll showed that 68 per cent of the participantswanted him to run again and 95 per cent supported hispolicies.

The group represents the more conservative wing ofthe Republican Party reflecting his base and the crowd,many of them unmasked and not socially distanced, repeat-edly chanted, “We love you”.

Trump’s hold on a broad base of the party presents adilemma for the party. He is a divisive figure who causedmany unaffiliated voters and those in the middle to voteagainst him. Yet the party cannot win without his support-ers.

Trump said: “The only division is between a handful of

Trump hints at 2024 run, attacks RepublicansWashington, D.C. establishment political hacks and every-body else all over the country.” He named the Republicanslike Senator Mitt Romney and Representative Liz Cheney,who have criticised him and also voted against him duringthe impeachment, and said: “Get rid of them.”

Trump criticised the Supreme Court, which rejected hiscase against the election of hi successor Joe Biden. Thecourt has a conservative majority bolstered by his threenominees none of whom came to his rescue.

“They should be ashamed of themselves for whatthey’ve done to our country. They didn’t have the guts orthe courage to make the right decision.” He said “our elec-tion process is worse than that in many cases of a thirdworld country,” and called on the party to work for elec-tion reforms.

Among the flaws he listed is some US states not requir-ing IDs for voters, which would not pass muster in mostcountries. Trump attacked Biden, who has been in officefor just 39 days, asserting that “in just one short month, wehave gone from ‘America First’ to ‘America Last’”.

“We all knew that the Biden administration was goingto be bad, but none of us even imagined just how bad theywould be and how far left they would go,” he said.

His main criticism was on Biden’s decision to undo hisimmigration measures, but he also made a distinction be-tween legal immigrants who contribute to the US and ille-gal and criminal immigrants, who he said were allowed togo free. He wanted the US to welcome “people coming intoour country based on a system of merit”. He said, “So theycome in and they can help us”.

Trump appeared as his usual ebullient self — a rabble-

rousing superpatriot.Criticising Beijing, he blamed it for the economic set-

backs caused by the “horrible thing from China”. Also slam-ming Biden’s decision to return to the Paris Climate ChangeAgreement, he bracketed India with China and Russia aspolluters “pouring fumes”.

His speech had the ring of an election campaign as heset out his record in office. He claimed credit for the Covid-19 vaccines, which he said were made available within ayear contradicting the longer timeline set by experts, be-cause of the calculated risks he took.

Biden had made a muddled claim that there were novaccines when he took office, but Trump pointed out thathe had been vaccinated in December 2020 and ridiculedhim saying that he was not being malicious, but one un-aware of it. He also took credit for the economic gains andthe low unemployment before the pandemic as well as therebound since.

Trump crticised the tech giants for what he said wastheir limiting free speech and said the states ruled by hisparty should impose taxes on them. Twitter and Facebookhave banned him.

Trump faces the likelihood of criminal cases against him.They may relate to his finances and his taxes, or even hisrole in the January 6 Capitol riot. However, there is no ex-plicit legal ban on a convicted criminal running for Presi-dent.

A conviction by the Senate on the impeachment chargeof instigating an insurrection through the January 6 riotcould have prevented him from running for office, but hewas acquitted. —IANS

A man sells Black Horse Shoe at Ranchi University Campus in Ranchi on Monday. Black Horse Shoe is in greatdemand to make ring which removes malefic effects of 'Sadhesati' caused due to planet Saturn, eradicates ill-ef-fects of evil spirits and brings immense good luck and wealth and success to the wearer.

Ahmedabad, Page 3

A H M E D A B A D * M A R K E T * G U I D E

In the news 3AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

New Delhi,Hyundai Motor India Ltd,

India’s first smart mobilitysolutions provider and larg-est exporter since inceptionwon the most coveted &prestigious Indian Car ofthe Year 2021 (ICOTY) awardfor the all-new i20.

As the most loved andtrusted car manufacturer inIndia, Hyundai Motor Indiahas won 7 ICOTY Awards forits products: all-new i20,VENUE, VERNA, CRETA, ELITEi20, GRAND i10 and i10 forthe year 2021, 2020, 2018,2016, 2015, 2014 and 2008respectively.

Commenting on the oc-casion, Mr. S.S. Kim, MD &CEO, Hyundai Motor IndiaLimited said, “It is a momentof great pride for all of us atHyundai. We are honouredto win this most prestigiousautomotive award – ‘IndianCar of the Year 2021’ for theall-new i20. The all-new i20,has once again redefinedstandards in the premiumhatchback segment and to-day depicts strong expres-sion of progressive spirit of

India’s Choice – Hyundai “The all-new i20”Wins Prestigious ‘ICOTY 2021’ Award

the new age Indian custom-ers.” Congratulating thewinners, Dr. RaghupatiSinghania, Chairman &Managing Director, JK Tyre& Industries Limited said, “It’sa matter of pride for us to beassociated with the IndianCar of the Year & Indian Mo-torcycle of the Year awardssince its inception. While ev-ery year has been special,this one is truly exceptional,where we are not just cel-ebrating the technological-

excellence and innovationbrought in by the manufac-turers, but the zeal and resil-ience of the entire automo-tive industry, as it emergedstronger from the unchar-tered waters.

Mr. Yogendra Pratap,Chairman of the Jury, IndianCar of the Year 2021, said,“The key criteria for anICOTY winner is its power toredefine the segment, andthat’s exactly what Hyundaii20 brings to its category.

Mumbai,Study Group, a global

education provider that pre-pares international studentsfor university degreeprogrammes and offers En-glish language courses, con-ducted a broad range of glo-bal and local market re-search, insight and dataanalysis initiatives duringthe pandemic on Interna-tional student recruitmenttrends in global Higher Edu-cation.

By understanding thestudents’ and parents’ mainconcerns about studyingoverseas and the impact ofCOVID-19 on their studychoices through the re-search, the education pro-vider aims to stay preparedfor the post-pandemicworld.

To get the latest insights,Study Group surveyed 3000

Study Group shares insights from its latest whitepaper on International student recruitment trends

students. In terms ofanalysing their preferenceson the on-campus andonline form of education,43% of the respondentsshowed their inclination to-wards a traditional, face-to-face study experience, on auniversity campus abroad.Meanwhile, 31% choseonline learning and 26%were up for blended learn-ing.

Despite the pandemicrestricting internationalmobility, many studentsstarted the new academicyear on-campus and onlineat their chosen university.According to Study Group’ssurvey, the students wereoverall positive about theiroverseas learning experi-ences so far. 86% of studentssaid that they were able tostay engaged, 85% enjoyedtheir course induction

programme and 88% weresatisfied with the coursecontent. However, there islingering doubt around theonline learning being deliv-ered in place of face-to-faceteaching.

Sharing his views on theinsights generated from thesurvey, Manoj Shetty, ChiefRevenue Officer, StudyGroup said, “Everyone hasbeen trying to overcomethe challenge presented bythe pandemic to supportcurrent and potential inter-national students to achievetheir education goals. Fromrecruiters running virtualstudy-abroad fairs to gov-ernments providing addi-tional funding and countriesre-opening to students,we’re all working hard toensure that students areable to access the educationthey deserve.

Mumbai,Hosted by Zhejiang De-

partment of Commerce andundertaken by ZhejiangSamexpo Exhibition & Con-vention Holdings Co.,Ltd,the 2021 ZHEJIANG EXPORTONLINE FAIR (INDIA-LIGHT-ING PRODUCTS) opened onthe online zoom platformon 1st March, 2021. Theproject is strongly sup-ported by CREAT.

Last year, the COVID-19came suddenly, and the glo-bal economic and Trade Ex-hibition pressed the "pausebutton". In this special pe-riod, the Zhejiang Depart-ment of Commerce, hasbuilt Zhejiang digital tradecloud exhibition platform,promoted the digital tradeindustry to move forward,helped Zhejiang manufac-turing enterprises goabroad, and promoted the

Zhejiang Export Online fair (India LightingProducts) opened on the online zoom platform

new growth of Zhejiang ex-port trade.

In this online exhibition,there are nearly 100 enter-prises engaged in the pro-duction and export of LED &Products, such as HangZhouTuya Information Technol-ogy, Hangzhou Yongdian Il-lumination, Ningbo COS-MOS Import & Export,Zhejiang Jingling LightingAnd Electrical Appliance.

Zhejiang enterprises'products include: LED bulb/Tube, spotlight, panel lamp,driving power, point lightsource, ine lamp, wall wash-ing lamp, control system,etc., which are demandedby buyers, covering thewhole range of home/com-mercial/urban/ architecturallighting and accessories,and the products are basi-cally all Relevant qualifica-tion and certification are

provided. In the five-day pe-riod, these Zhejiang enter-prises will conduct precisiontrade negotiations with pur-chasers through online livebroadcast/ promotion/ re-mote negotiation on thebasis of offline pairing in theearly stage, so as to realizethe interaction between ex-hibitors and buyers, fully dis-play the brand and advan-tages of Zhejiang lightingproducts, improve the at-tention of Indian market tothe brand of Zhejiang light-ing enterprises, and let sup-pliers know Both sides needto be able to accurately con-nect lighting products with-out leaving home. It is esti-mated that there will bemore than 180 rounds oftrade negotiations in thisIndia Online Fair,and theturnover is expected to ex-ceed US $5 million.

Soma Rathod: No matter how mymood is, I need to make viewers laugh

Mumbai, Television actress Soma Rathod, who is part of the

sitcom Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Haii, says she has always been abig fan of comedy. The actor, who has been a part of com-edy projects including Pyar Mein Thoda Twist, Jijaji ChhatPar Hai and Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai, feels that people havealways found her funny.

“I have never found comedy challenging. I have noticedthat wherever I go, I have been able to make people laugh.I have always been fond of making people smile. This is whycomedy has always come very naturally to me,” she says.

One might feel it’s tough to make people laugh whenone is low, but not Soma. The actor says that no matter howshe is feeling personally, she has never made that as anexcuse to not shoot her shows.

“I have always believed that the show must go on. Nomatter how my mood is, I know that I need to make myaudience laugh. I have shot in 102-103 degree fever andmy sugar was like 500. I have still shot my show even at atime when I thought that I cannot even stand. There wasthis one time when I broke my foot but I continued to shootand after a few days I went to the doctor and he wasamazed,” she says.

Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Haii airs on SAB TV and also starsHiba Nawab and Shubhashish Jha.

New Delhi,Apollo Hospitals an-

nounced its increased reachwith a nationwide rollout ofits omni-channel healthcareplatform, Apollo 24|7, whichleverages the power ofMicrosoft Azure to trans-form last-mile delivery ofhealth services in India. Withthe vision of providing

Apollo 24|7 uses Microsoft Azure to bringhealthcare services closer to Indians

world-class healthcare solu-tions using innovative tech-nology, the platform canreachconsumers across thecountry through an easy-to-use interface available onweb and mobile.

Shobana Kamineni, Ex-ecutive Vice Chairperson,Apollo Hospitals, said,“Weare happy to have Microsoft

working with us in our en-deavor towards transform-ing healthcare in India andbe an important support forthe Apollo 24|7 platform.Weare able to offer seamlesscustomer experiencewithno compromise on the pri-vacy and security of theuser.”

Reimagining healthcarein the new normal com-bined with changing expec-tations of patient care andwellness has driven a rapidsurge in tele-health pro-cesses. Apollo 24|7connectsdifferent informationsources to deliver a com-plete personalized experi-ence for every customer.

Sashikumar Sreedharan,Managing Director,Microsoft India, said, “In anever-changing healthcareenvironment, Microsoft ison a mission to help organi-zations set the course forresiliency and reimaginingtomorrow. With the trustedcloud, Apollo 24|7 can en-hance patient engagementsignificantly and provide in-telligent health insights forbetter patient outcomes.”

Bangalore,TalentSprint, a leading

EdTech platform and NSEgroup company, today an-nounced the launch of thethird cohort of the pioneer-ing Women Engineers Pro-gram ( WE) with supportfrom Google.

TalentSprint WE wasconceived in 2019 to ad-dress the gender disparityseen in the tech industry.Given the highly encourag-ing industry acceptance forprevious cohort partici-pants, the third cohort isbeing scaled up to accom-

Talent Sprint NSE group company significantlyexpands Women Engineers Program

modate 500 participants.The cohort is aimed at firstyear women engineeringstudents across India andwill commence from May2021.

Shiv Venkataraman, VicePresident, Search Ads, atGoogle, said: "For tech totruly fulfil the promise of lev-elling the playing field andcreating universally relevantsolutions, the representa-tion of women in tech orga-nizations is key.

Dr. Santanu Paul, Co-founder and CEO atTalentSprint, said: “Since our

inception, TalentSprint hasrun several path-breakinginitiatives to close the gen-der gap in the hi-tech sector.The TalentSprint WE pro-gram was conceived in col-laboration with Google in2019.

The program has beengrowing from strength tostrength in the last twoyears, and received over-whelming interest from in-dustry, academia, andyoung women studentsboth for its unique designand exceptional studentoutcomes.

Bangalore:Toyota Kirloskar Motor

announced that the com-pany sold a total of 14,075units in the month of Febru-ary 2021, thereby clocking agrowth of 36% in domesticsales, when compared to itswholesales in the month ofFebruary 2020. For refer-ence, TKM had sold a total of10,352 units in the domes-tic market in February 2020and 11,126 units in themonth of January 2021.

Commenting on themonth’s performance, Mr.Naveen Soni, Sr. Vice Presi-dent at TKM said, “Westarted the year on a posi-tive note and the trend con-tinues as we close the sec-ond month of the year,clocking a growth of 36%.Wholesales have been veryencouraging and we arewitnessing a high influx ofcustomer orders month onmonth, thereby both signifi-cantly contributing to thegrowth story. In fact, sales inFebruary have been betterthan sales in January, thushelping us register a 27%growth in wholesales. More-over, new launches like the

TKM registers 36% growth indomestic sales in February 2021

new Fortuner & Legender in-troduced in January and thenew Innova Crysta launchedin November 2020, have re-ceived a phenomenal re-sponse and have also beencontributing to significant in-crease in both customer en-quiries as well as customerorders. Here, we would like tothank our customers for theirrelentless trust & faith in thebrand”, he concluded.

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Ahmedabad, Page 4

City-State4 AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Swami Sanchidanadji Maharaj promoted vaccination of people above 60years of age by taking corona vaccine at Petlad. He also requested everyone toget vaccinated.

G Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs had delicious traditional dinner at a road side restau-rant on Villupuram to Chennai Highway along with Home Minister Amit Shah and other dignitaries.

Gujarat CM's wife Anjali Rupani took the 1stdose of Covishield Vaccine at Apollo Hospital inGandhinagar on Monday.

Vadodara,A man’s greed to double

his money through tantricrituals left him only with acoconut in the end and los-ing Rs 5.5 lakh cash!

The victim, JaideepsinhParmar, who lives in Bavla,lodged a complaint atBodeli police station as theunidentified tantric and histwo accomplices, Shankarand Abdul, fled with Rs 5.5lakh which Parmar and hiscousin Dhanrajsinh hadgiven.

Dhanrajsinh had learntfrom his two friends, Sahil

Assured double cash? Youmay get just one coconut!

and Manish, that a tantricwho has an ashram inChhota Udepur doublesmoney by performing somerituals. The four went to theashram on February 17along with Abdul andShankar and initially gave Rs2.5 lakh cash. The tantrickept the cash in a steel caseand after the rituals gave thecase to Parmar with instruc-tions to not open it untiltold. After the rituals gotover late in the night on Feb-ruary 17, the tantric askedthem to return home.

On February 20, the

tantric called Dhanrajsinh toinformed that the moneywill be doubled only after 11days, but if he wanted im-mediate results, then heshould give Rs 3 lakh cashmore. When Dhanrajsinhinformed Parmar about itthey went to a temple inBodeli on February 22where they gave the cashfor rituals. The tantricabruptly stopped the ritualswhen a PCR van stoppedoutside the temple and heand Abdul fled with thecash.

Parmar said that he ini-tially did not realize whathad transpired, but when heopened the steel case whichthe tantric had given, hecould not find the cash butonly a coconut in it. Parmarrealized that the tantric hadconned him. On Tuesday helodged a complaint ofcheating against the tantric,Shankar and Abdul.

“The PCR van was coin-cidentally passing by thetemple but the tantric gotscared and fled. We arequestioning thecomplainant’s friends aboutthe tantric’s two accom-plices,” said sub-inspector AS Sarvaiya of Bodeli policestation.

Railway hospital chiefbooked for molestation

Vadodara,The chief medical super-

intendent (CMS) of Divi-sional Railway Hospital wasbooked by Makarpura po-lice for allegedly molestingan employee working underhim.

The woman lodged acomplaint on Tuesday evenas an inquiry is being con-ducted by the railwayagainst the superintendentDr Brahm Prakash.

The woman alleged thatfrom December , 2018 tillTuesday, the CMS had madelewd comments at her and

had made obscene de-mands. She said thatPrakash used to pass com-ments whenever she usedto war sleeveless dresses.

In her complaint, shealso alleged that he hadgrabbed her hand on hisbirthday in August 2019.

On September 22 lastyear, the woman had evengiven a formal complaint tothe railways.

She also alleged that theday she made the com-plaint, an unidentified bikerfollowed her and knockedher down before threaten-

ing to kill her.“We lodged the offence

immediately after thewoman gave the complaint.An investigation has beeninitiated and we are collect-ing evidence and question-ing people,” said inspector RA Patel of Makarpura policestation.Vadodara divisionalrailway manager AmitGupta said, “We had re-ceived the complaint and asper the Vishakha guidelines,a committee had conducteda probe and submitted itsreport to the competent au-thority.

Rajkot,Deendayal Port Trust

(DPT ) port has signedmemorandums of under-standings (MoUs) worth Rs65,000 crore in past oneweek for various projects atthe port. It is set to linkagreements to the tune ofRs 12,000 crore in a coupleof days.

DPT authorities madethis details public at a pressmeet organized ahead ofthe virtual Maritime IndiaSummit-2021 to be orga-nized from Marc 2 to 4 bythe union ministry of ports,

Rs 77K-cr investment expected in Kandlashipping and waterways.

Forty MoUs that willbring investment to thetune of Rs 77,000 will beinked during the meet. Outof these MoUs, a majorchunk will come from twoprojects.

Essar Group is develop-ing crude oil to chemicalcomplex in Tuna port and anintegrated steel complex atthe cost of Rs 15,000 crore.

Another major projectincludes Adani Group’s Ro-Ro service between DPT,Vadinar and Mundra port toprovide ‘a cost and time ef-

fective’ option to truck op-erators. The project is ex-pected to save 600 km tripfor every truck.

Emami Agrotech Ltdalso signed an MoU of Rs500 crore for expansion ofproject at SIPC (Smart Indus-trial Port City).

Chairman of DPT S KMehta said, “For the firsttime investment of thismagnitude will be made atDPT. It’s a big opportunityfor economic upliftmentand will bring a majorchange in Kutch’s economy.

Surat,Patidar Anamat Andolan

Samiti was considered re-dundant after Hardik Patel’sfailure in garnering supportfor the Congress in otherparts of Gujarat. But PAAS’sSurat city unit seems to havemaintained their rapportwith the Patidars.

As soon as elections forthe Surat Municipal Corpo-ration were announced,

AAP win has roots in PAAS’s differences with CongressPAAS leaders had lined up inCongress’ support like theirstate leader Hardik, who isthe party’s working presi-dent. However, the denialtickets on a few seats to can-didates of their choice upsetSurat PAAS leaders.

This triggered an anti-Congress movement andPAAS started working forAAP candidates who werealready in close association

with the group since thequota stir.

As campaigning pro-gressed, PAAS pressuredPatidar candidates fromCongress to withdraw nomi-nations. However, not manyfollowed the diktat and onlytwo Patidar Congress candi-dates withdrew their forms.Many of the Congresscanmunity who had wonthe civic elections in 2015due to PAAS’s support failedto repeat their victory onTuesday.

“Most AAP candidateswho won were associatedwith PAAS during quotamovement. Some wereworking with Congress ex-pecting change, but joined

AAP after being disap-pointed,” said DharmikMalaviya, PAAS convener.Congress leaders claim thatdue to disgruntled Patidarcandidates, the results wentagainst them.

“Most of the winningAAP candidates had de-manded ticket from Con-gress. They were denied sothey joined AAP and filednominations,” saidNaishadh Desai, a seniorCongress leader. RajeshMoradiya, who won on AAPticket from Amroli-MotaVarachha said, “I had sup-ported the Congress. Ijoined AAP when I felt thatCongress was failing inmake any difference.”

Maha assures thorough probe

Surat,The special court under

the Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offence(POCSO) Act granted bail toa 25-year-old man after aDNA report confirmed thathe was not responsible forimpregnating a minor girl.The accused GaneshBavishkar, a resident ofLimbayat in Surat, is accusedof raping a 17-year-old girlwho got pregnant.

The court had earlier al-lowed the minor to termi-nate the pregnancy and or-dered that samples of thefetus be preserved for lateruse during the trial in thecase. Based on the DNA re-

Man accused of raping teen girl gets bail after DNA testport submitted, the courtgranted bail to Bavishkar onTuesday.

According to case de-tails, Bavishkar a driver byprofession had applied forbail after the girl’s motheralso accused one AijazShaikh of raping her daugh-ter.

Bavishkar’s lawyer ar-gued that his client was inlove with the girl who hadtold him that she was 20-year-old. He had further

stated that Bavishkar wasready to marry the girl, butwas falsely implicated in therape case after it was re-vealed that she was preg-nant.

On December 15, 2020,the girl complained of painin the abdomen and wasrushed to a governmenthospital where treating doc-tors informed her motherthat she was two-monthspregnant. When her motherasked her who was the fa-

ther of the child, she namedBavishkar. Fallowing this, thegirl’s mother lodged a com-plaint against Bavishkarwho was arrested. However,later the girl told her motherthat the child was Shaikh’s,so her mother also filed acase against him. The courtafter allowing terminationof pregnancy had orderedDNA test of the fetus whichconfirmed on Tuesday thatShaikh had impregnatedthe minor.

Ahmedabad,Dwindling gold

jewellery exports havedented the business of sev-eral small-scale jewellerymanufacturing units inGujarat, as their order vol-umes declined. Accordingto gems and jewellery ex-port promotion council(GJEPC), gold jewellery ex-

Dip in gold jewellery exports hits small-scale unitsport stood at $3,553 millionfor the period between April2020 and January 2021, 64%down against the same pe-riod in the previous financialyear.

“Majority of jewelleryexports take place fromMumbai, Chennai andKolkata. However, severalexporters outsource manu-

facturing to units in Gujarat.With declining export or-ders, the business of smallmanufacturing units will beimpacted,” said Ashish,GJEPC president.

Estimates suggest thatGujarat also accounts forupto 10% of jewellery ex-ports in India. Ahmedabadis home to at least 30-40wholesale jewellery manu-facturing units, majority ofwhich are dependent onboth domestic as well as ex-port orders, according toManek Chowk ChoksiMahajan (MCCM). Rajkot isyet another cluster whereseveral such jewellerymanufacturing units are lo-cated.

MCCM presidentChinubhai Choksi said, “Sev-eral small and medium scalemanufacturing units areoutsourced jewellery-mak-ing work. At a time whendomestic demands hasfailed to revive, such unitsare facing serious concernsin attracting revenues.”

Liquor seized from carof ‘executive magistrate’

Aged man killed by his son-in-law

Rajkot to get maidendirect flight to Goa

EMIs not paid, bank agentsthreaten Satellite woman

Nabard sanctions Rs 2,989 cr forrural development projects

Ahmedabad,National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Develop-

ment (Nabard) on Tuesday announced the sanctionof Rs 2,989.7 crore to the Gujarat government underthe Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) forthe year 2020-21. Some six projects for irrigation andone each for education and drinking water supplywere executed during the financial year.

These projects include Tapi-Karjan Lift IrrigationScheme (Ukai reservoir based, Rs 656.58 crore),Tharad-Sipu Pipeline Project (Rs.462.33 crore), andUkai reservoir based Singadh, Ucchal and Nizar LiftIrrigation Scheme Rs 905.15 crore). They also includethe construction of a barrage in Hirpura village (Rs138.53 crore), the construction of a barrage inBalasana village (Rs.124.41 crore), and three irriga-tion projects in Mahisagar district (Rs. 115.54 crore).On the completion of these projects, irrigation po-tential of 65,882 hectares will be developed.

For drinking water supply, Rs 502.04 crore hasbeen sanctioned for Navda to Chavnad bulk pipe-line project. That apart, Rs 85.18 crore has been sanc-tioned for the construction of 13 Kasturba GandhiBalika Vidyalayas (KGBV).

With the above sanctions, the cumulative loan as-sistance given under the RIDF to the Government ofGujarat aggregates to Rs 32,218 crore.

Most sought-after snake rescuer diesRajkot,

A 54-year-old wildlife activist, who was knownto rescue poisonous snakes in Madhavpur Ghed inPorbandar, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday.Arun Devani, who is survived by two sons and a wife,had suffered a heart attack on Monday. He wasrushed to a hospital in Junagadh where he got an-other stroke on Tuesday. His death came as a shockto the wildlife activist who remember him as a manwho didn’t just save humans but also ensured thatthe reptiles survive.

“His instincts were so strong that he could smellsnakes from a distance and identify their gender byjust touching them,” said Govind Vekariya, a wildlifeactivist from Porbandar.

Whenever villagers in and around MadhavpurGhed used to spot a snake, they used to call Devanifor help and he obliged immediately.

Devani began rescuing snakes in 1994 when herealized that people used to kill the reptiles that ven-tured into residential areas. He also attended to snakebites complaints and ensured that all the victims sur-vive by providing help quickly.

Devani, who was also dubbed as Arun Cobra,used to travel across the state and train people inrescuing snakes safely. “Earlier, people used to killsnakes out of fear. But since Devani began the res-cue efforts, locals began calling him for help. It’s aterrible loss for all of us,” Vekariya added.

After 31 days, Gujarat’s daily Covidtally crosses 400-mark

Ahmedabad,Gujarat in 24 hours ending 5pm on Thursday

added 424 new positive cases, taking the total to 2.68lakh. It was after 31 days that the state witnessed thedaily tally of new cases shoot above 400.

All five new micro-containment areas announcedon Thursday by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corpora-tion were in the western parts of Ahmedabad. A to-tal of 19 societies in Jodhpur, Navrangpura,Naranpura, Thaltej and Gota have been put undermicro-containment based on the cases reported.“House-to-house surveillance and screening of thepopulation in these areas will be conducted fromFriday,” said a senior official.

The city recorded 12% dip in daily cases from 81on Wednesday to 71 on Thursday. Surat andVadodara recorded 79 new positive cases each, sur-passing Ahmedabad city after over two months.Ahmedabad however recorded two deaths in twodays -- the only deaths recorded in Gujarat in pasttwo days.

In all, 67% or two-thirds of the new positive caseswere recorded from four major cities -- Ahmedabad,Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.

Ahmedabad,Major General Arvind

Kapoor took over as Addi-tional Director General, Na-tional Cadet Corps (NCC),Gujarat, Dadra and NagarHaveli, Daman and Diu on01 March 2021 from MajorGeneral Roy Joseph whoproceeded on superannua-tion after completing thirtyeight years of distinguishedservice.

Maj Gen Kapoor anArmoured Corps Officer, isan alumni of the NationalDefence Academy,Khadakvasla and the IndianMilitary Academy,Dehradun. He is a PostGraduate in Defence Studiesfrom Madras University.

The General Officer hasrich and varied experiencein serving in different ter-rains. He has also done ten-ure in NCC as Group Com-mander, Ahmedabad. TheGeneral Officer was postedas Chief of Staff in High Alti-tude Terrain in a CorpsHeadquarters, prior to being

Surat,Maharashtra home minis-

ter Anil Deshmukh onWednesday assured a thor-ough probe into the allegedsuicide of Mohan Delkar, theseven-time Lok Sabha MPfrom the union territory (UT)Dadra and Nagar Haveli(DNH), who was found hang-ing in a Mumbai hotel onMonday. Addressing Con-gress leaders via videoconferencing, Deshmukhsaid, Delkar has named someofficials of the DNH union ter-ritory administration in hissuicide note. “The name of UTadministrator Praful Patel hasalso cropped up and manypeople have urged me to in-vestigate this aspect,”Deshmukh said, adding thatthe MP has stated in the notethat he had come to Mumbaito end his life.

Delkar, 58, was found hav-ing from the ceiling fan of hisroom at a hotel in the MarineDrive area. “He has named

some of the officials of UT inhis suicide note, but I don’tbelieve that due to non-coop-eration from the administra-tion, an MP would end his life,”Deshmukh said.

The Maharashtra PradeshCongress Committee onWednesday also wrote toDeshmukh demanding thedetailed investigation intothe role of BJP in the case.

“After he won the 2019Lok Sabha election as an in-dependent, Delkar had pub-licly claimed that he was atthe receiving end of the pow-ers that be in the UT and NewDelhi. All his efforts to get jus-tice for the people of his con-stituency were stonewalledby these people. He had alsotalked about attempts beingmade to frame him in falsecases. His supporters and or-ganizations that I run or workfor are targeted and thepeople in it are hounded,”MPCC said in a representationto Deshmukh.

Rajkot,A senior citizen from

Kalavad in Jamnagar waskilled by his son-in-law asthe elderly man insisted thathis daughter come for afamily function atAhmedabad.

Vijay Bhatt (65) hadgone to meet his daughterFalguni in Jamnagar onTuesday to invite her to thehouse warming ceremonyof her brother Sachin. SinceFalguni’s husband ManishJani and her family have nothad a healthy relationshipfor the last eight years, Janirefused permission. Bhatt’sinsistenme and later gave acomplaint against Jani.Sanjay had gonce led to aheated argument that con-tinued in the parking andescalated. Jani picked up abrick lying in the parking

area and hit Bhatt multipletimes on his head.Neighbours rushed thereafter Falguni screamed forhelp.

Bhatt’s nephew Sanjay,who had come to Jamnagarwith him,, reached Falguni’shome and later gave a com-plaint against Jani. Sanjayhad gone to purchase medi-cine for his wife when Bhattwent to meet his daughter.A murder case was regis-tered against Jani at City Adivision police station onTuesday midnight and onWednesday, he was de-tained. Police said that hewill be arrested after Covid-19 test. Jani works at a brassfactory, and due to thesoured relations with his in-laws, he never allowedFalguni and their son to anyfunctions there.

Vadodara,Around 108 liquor

bottles worth Rs 56,160were found in car which hada sticker of ‘deputymamlatdar and executivemagistrate’ pasted on it inChhota Udepur district onTuesday.

Police said that they no-ticed a car suspiciouslyparked on Chhota Udepur-Bodeli road near Devaliyavillage on Tuesday. Alongwith the liquor bottles, a

mobile phone was alsofound under the driver’sseat.

“The car has been seisedand we are trying to ascer-tain the owner’s detail. Thephone and sim card are alsobeing investigated, for thecall details,” said a police of-ficial. Whether the car wasowned by a government of-ficial or not will be knownonly after the owner’s de-tails are obtained from theRTO.

Major General Arvind Kapoortook over as ADG, NCC, Gujarat

posted as ADG of Gujarat,Dadra and Nagar Haveli,Daman and Diu.

The General Officer hasalso attended all importantcourses of instructions, thenotable amongst them in-clude the Defence ServicesStaff College in Wellington,the Higher Defence Orienta-tion Course at Mhow andthe Senior Defence Man-agement Course atSecunderabad.

and another flight toMumbai from March 7. Ac-cording to sources, the air-port authority has also gotin principle confirmation onSpiceJet starting a directflight to Goa from March.The private airliner hassought permission fromRajkot airport. The flight islikely to operate four days aweek. Meanwhile, the firstdirect flight from Bengaluruarrived at Rajkot airport onWednesday. It was wel-comed with the traditionalwater salute.

Rajkot,If all goes as scheduled

people of Rajkot will be ableto fly directly to Goa fromMarch. This will be the firsttime that Saurashtra’s finan-cial capital will get air con-nectivity to the state of pris-tine beaches.

Rajkot is also set to getan additional flight toMumbai from March. Air-port officials said they havegot confirmation that pri-vate airline SpiceJet willstart a daily flight toHyderabad from March 1

was home with my two kidsaround 12.30 pm onWednesday when bank re-covery agents Ashish Desaiand Varva Rabari bargedinto my house near Shyamalcrossroads. They told me tokeep quiet, grabbed myhands and forced me to sit.They made me call up myhusband. They told him thatI was in their custody andthey would not free me tillhe came home. Then theybegan abusing him loudly.”She told police, “Hearingtheir voices, two of myneighbours rushed to myhouse and asked them toleave. However, they beganabusing my neighbourswhile demanding moneyfrom me.”

Ahmedabad,A 36-year-old woman

from Satellite accused tworecovery agents of a privatebank of grabbing her handsand forcefully confining herand her two kids in thehouse after she and her hus-band failed to repay fiveEMIs on their business loan.

In her FIR, the womansaid that she and her hus-band had taken a loan of Rs12 lakh from KotakMahindra Bank. She toldpolice that they had repaid27 EMIs. However, due to fi-nancial crisis brought on bythe coronavirus-inducedlockdown, they were unableto pay five EMIs totalling Rs5 lakh.

In her FIR, she states, “I

Ahmedabad, Page 5

International 5AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Meghan Markle (left and right with Prince Harry) donned a floor-length black dress which featured patternedembroidery on one shoulder as she cradled her baby bump and sat in front of Oprah Winfrey(inset) for the 90-minute CBS interview. The Duchess of Sussex gently placed her left hand on her bump and gazed into the host'seyes as Oprah asked her: 'Were you silent or were you silenced?' The trailer comes just weeks after the Duke andDuchess of Sussex, who are currently residing in California, confirmed they are preparing to welcome a brother orsister for their son Archie, who will be two in May, later this year.

Three cases have been found in North East Scotland after flying into Aberdeenfrom Brazil via Paris and London, the Scottish Government said - while two caseswere confirmed in South Gloucestershire. However, the sixth case has not been lo-cated and could be anywhere in the nation as the person did not complete their testregistration card - meaning that their contact details are unavailable. TheGloucestershire cluster was said to originate from one individual who travelled backfrom Brazil and arrived in London on February 10 - five days before the Government'squarantine hotel regime came into force. Officials believe that person is unlikely tohave taken their test at one of the regional test sites, where staff can check contactdetails, but it could have been a home test or from local surge testing. Health offi-cials have now issued an appeal asking anyone who took a test on either February12 or 13 and who has not received a result or has an incomplete test registrationcard to come forward immediately. They are also tracking down hundreds of pas-sengers on Swiss Air flight, LX318 travelling from Sao Paulo, through Zurich, and land-ing in Heathrow on February 10, and will deploy 'surge testing' in five areas of thecounty to hunt down any more cases.

The new virus certificate, introduced on February 21, is changing Israel. Anyoneabove the age of 16, the minimum age at which you can be given the vaccine, candownload the government-issued certificate to their phone if they have been inocu-lated against Covid or have recovered from the virus. The certificate features a QRcode that, once scanned, checks Israeli health records to confirm that the holder hasreceived both doses of the Covid vaccine. Pictured: A holder of the 'green pass' trainsat a gym in Tel Aviv (left); A man with a green pass gets ready to swim in a pool in TelAviv (inset); A couple show proof of vaccination before entering a concert (right).

United Nations, The Unicef has urged all

countries to repatriate andsafely reintegrate theiryoung nationals being heldat Syria’s largest camp forrefugees and internally-dis-placed, following a deadlyfire which claimed the livesof at least three children andinjured 15 others.

In and around the noto-rious al-Hol camp which hashoused many families of al-leged terrorists since thedefeat of the Islamic State inSyria and neighbouring Iraq,“there are more than 22,000foreign children of at least60 nationalities who lan-guish in camps and prisons,in addition to many thou-sands of Syrian children”,Xinhua news agencyquoted Unicef’s regional di-rector for the Middle Eastand North Africa, TedChaiban, as saying on Sun-day.

According to the UN, afire broke out on Saturdayevening during a familygathering among displacedSyrian camp residents.

One woman reportedlydied along with the three

‘Kids need to be repatriated from Syrian camp’children, and at least 11adults were injured.

At least 20 people over-all remain in hospital, withsix reported to be in criticalcondition.

“Children in al-Hol arefaced not only with thestigma they are living with,but also with very difficultliving conditions where ba-sic service is scarce or insome cases unavailable,”said Chaiban.

“The detention of chil-dren is a measure of last re-sort and should be for theshortest time

possible. Childrenshould not be detainedbased solely on suspectedfamily ties with armedgroups or the membershipof family members in armedgroups.”

Last month, indepen-dent UN human rights ex-perts noted that an “un-known number” of foreignnationals had died in thesqualid camp of al-Hol andRoj, in northeast Syria, urg-ing their home countries torepatriate their citizens assoon as possible, dismissingclaims that it was too diffi-

cult to deal with the non-State groups controlling thelocal area.

Chaiban said memberstates should do everythingpossible to reintegrate thechildren into their own so-cieties and repatriate themin a “safe and dignified way”.

“We call on all memberstates to provide children —who are their citizens orborn to their nationals —with civil documentation toprevent statelessness. This isin line with the best inter-ests of the child and in com-pliance with internationalstandards,” he added.

With almost 62,000 resi-dents, al-Hol is the largestcamp for displaced peoplein Syria.

More than 80 per cent ofthe population are womenand children.

Accidental fires are notuncommon in the camp,with families often resortingto using cooking stoves in-side their tents for warmth,particularly during winterwhen temperatures regu-larly drop below freezing,according to UN sources.

—IANS

New York, Covid-19

hospitalisations in New Yorkstate has dropped to itslowest since December 9,2020, Governor AndrewCuomo said in an officialstatement.

In the statement re-leased on Sunday, Cuomosaid that there were 5,259hospitalisations on Satur-day, compared with 5,445 aday earlier, reports Xinhuanews agency.

Meanwhile, the seven-day average positivity ratereached 3.14 per cent onSaturday, down from 3.18the previous day, or the low-

NY Covid-19 hospitalisations drop to lowest levelest since November 25,2020, he said.

The single-day positiv-ity reached 2.77 per cent onSaturday, down from 2.85per cent one day earlier, orthe lowest since November21, 2020.

“New Yorkers haveshown dedication and de-termination throughoutthis crisis and it shows inthe numbers,” the Governorwas quoted as saying in thestatement.

“The footrace betweenthe infection,hospitalisation and vacci-nation rates is at full speedand with the promise of the

new Johnson & Johnsonvaccine coming online,there is no doubt we aregetting closer to reachingthe light at the end of thetunnel.

“While this is all positivenews, now is not the time toget complacent. Iencouragn and determina-tion throe everyone to staysmart, stay tough and con-tinue the practices weknow are effective againstthis virus,” he added.

The state of New Yorkhas so far reported a totalof 1,680,688 coronaviruscases and 47,827 deaths.

—IANS

London, Families across England

with school-going childrenwill be eligible for two rapidcoronavirus tests a weekwhen students return toclassrooms, according to UKhealth authorities.

The new measures ap-ply to anyone in a house-hold or support bubble witha child or young person whowill return to college, pri-mary or secondary school inEngland on March 8, Xinhuanews agency quoted theDepartment of Health andSocial Care as saying in astatement on Sunday.

“Testing family mem-bers will provide yet anotherlayer of reassurance to par-ents and education staffthat schools are as safe aspossible, building on the

English families with school-going kids to get tested

massive increase in testingfor secondary school andcollege students, andstrengthened requirementsaround face coverings in ar-eas where social distancingcannot be maintained,” Edu-cation Secretary GavinWilliamson was quoted assaying. Meanwhile, MedicalDirector and Director ofHealth Protection for PublicHealth England YvonneDoyle also urged people toget tested.

“I would encourage alleligible households to takeup the offer of twice weeklyrapid testing — it’s quickand painless and could helpsave lives,” Doyle said.

According to the UKgovernment, secondaryschool and college studentswill now be tested twice a

week, receiving three initialtests at school or collegebefore transitioning to twiceweekly home testing.

Primary school childrenwill not be regularlyasymptomatically testeddue to low levels of trans-mission between youngeraged children but will con-tinue to need to come for-ward for tests if they havesymptoms, the UK govern-ment in a statement.

England is currently un-der the third nationallockdown since the out-break of the pandemic inthe country.

Similar restriction mea-sures are also in place inScotland, Wales and North-ern Ireland. The UK has so farreported a total of 4,188,827coronavirus cases and123,083 deaths.

Washington, The US Centers for Dis-

ease Control and Prevention(CDC) has recommendedJohnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for Americanswho are 18 years of age andolder, a final clearance forthe jab after it wasauthorised by the Food andDrug Administration (FDA)for emergency use.

On Sunday, the CDC’sAdvisory Committee on Im-munization Practices votedto recommend the vaccineto be administered topeople 18 and older, reportsXinhua news agency.

CDC Director RochelleWalensky signed the recom-mendation that endorsedthe safety and effectivenessof Johnson & Johnson’sCovid-19 vaccine and its useacross the country.

“This official CDC recom-mendation — which followsSaturday’s FDA decision toauthorise emergency use ofthe vaccine — is anothermilestone toward an end tothe pandemic,” Walenskysaid in a statement.

This third safe, effectiveCovid-19 vaccine comes at apotentially “pivotal time”, shesaid.

As a one-dose vaccine,

US CDC recommends J&J’s Covid vaccinepeople do not have to re-turn for a second dose to beprotected.

In addition, this vaccinedoes not need to be kept ina freezer and can be storedat refrigerated tempera-tures — so it is easy to trans-

port and store and allows forexpanded availability inmost community settingsand mobile sites, as supplyscales up, Walensky said.

The CDC recommenda-tion came a day after theFDA’s authoriseation.

“The authorisation ofthis vaccine expands theavailability of vaccines, thebest medical preventionmethod for Covid-19, tohelp us in the fight againstthis pandemic, which hasclaimed over half a millionlives in the US,” said JanetWoodcock, acting FDAcommissioner.

It is the third Covid-19vaccine that has receivedthe FDA’s emergency useauthorisation in the coun-try, following the first onedeveloped by Americandrugmaker Pfizer in part-nership with German com-pany BioNTech, and thesecond one developed byAmerican drugmakerModerna.

Some 4 million doses ofthe Johnson & Johnsonvaccine would be expectedto start shipping as early asMonday, with some800,000 of that expected togo directly to pharmacies,according to the company.

Russia launches1st Arctic-monitoring satellite

Moscow, Russia has successfully

launched its first satellite tomonitor the Arctic’s climateand environment, thecountry’s space corporationRoscosmos said in a state-ment.

A Soyuz-2.1b carrierrocket with the “Arktika-M”satellite on board blasted offfrom the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstanat 9.55 a.m. on Sunday,Roscosmos said.

The Arktika-M space-craft was delivered to theorbit at 12.14 p.m., Xinhuanews agency quoted thespace corporation as furthersaying in the statement.

The creation of a satellitesystem in highly elliptical or-bits is necessary.

Air fares from Heathrowto rise in April

London, An additional tax will be

added to outbound flightsfrom London’s HeathrowAirport from April, addingpressure on many familieswho want to travel abroadafter a year of Covid-19 re-strictions, a local media re-port said.

The airport will chargean extra 8.90 pounds ($12),also known as the ‘UK Ex-ceptional RegulatoryCharge’, to all outgoingflights from April, increasingthe fees it already levieswhich include baggagehandling, water, electricityand other services, Xinhuanews agency quoted theLondon-based EveningStandard newspaper as say-ing in the report on Sunday.

This means a family offive booking a summer holi-day with flag carrier BritishAirways will now pay an ex-tra 44.50 pounds for usingthe airport, said the newspa-per.

The stealth tax, whichmust be passed by airlinesto Heathrow, is an attemptto recover from the airport’sfinancial loss last year whena decrease in travel and pas-senger numbers left the air-port with losses of 2 billionpounds last year due to thepandemic, according to theEvening Standard report.

“Heathrow makes abso-lutely zero profit from theseservices. The price is calcu-lated purely to cover thecost of operating and main-

taining the infrastructurethat supports them,” an air-port spokesperson told thenewspaper.

Heathrow reported anannual loss of 2 billionpounds in 2020 as the pan-demic closed borders andthe government restrictedmost international travel.

Iran to install newgenerations ofcentrifuges

Tehran, The Atomic Energy

Organization of Iran(AEOI) will install newgenerations of IR2M andIR6 centrifuges at theFordow and Natanznuclear facilities, officialmedia reported.

Within the time limitspecified in the lawpassed by the IranianParliament, the installa-tion of these centrifugeswill be completed andgas will be injected,Abolfazl Amoui, thespokesman of the Na-tional Security and For-eign Policy Committeeof the Iranian parliament,was quoted as saying onSunday. Amoui said that,based on the law, theAEOI should also pro-duce 120 kg of 20 percent enriched uraniumwithin a year. In Decem-ber 2020, Parliamentpassed the law.

China-donated COVID-19vaccines arrive in Philippines

47 HK activists charged with‘subversion’

Hong Kong, Police in Hong Kong have charged 47 activists,

who were arrested in January, for “conspiring to sub-vert state power”.

The defendants aged between 23 and 64 willstand trial in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts onMonday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The police arrested 53 people last month on sus-picion of “subverting state power” under the na-tional security law imposed by China on Hong Kongfor organising and participating in the so-called “pri-mary election” last year. China enforced the lawcriminalising “subversive” acts, saying it was neededto bring stability, the BBC said in a report.

Israel lifts night curfewTel Aviv,

Israel has lifted a Covid-19 night curfew, whichwas imposed over the past three days to preventthe traditional mass gatherings during the Jewishholiday of Purim. The curfew was imposed as a pre-caution after traditional mass Purim fiestas in 2020were identified as a key source of coronavirusspread, Xinhua news agency.

Despite a repeated ban on large gatherings bythe Health Ministry, large Purim parties took placein Tel Aviv during the three days.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein wrote on Twitterthat over three million people have already receivedboth vaccine shots, “but this is not enough for a re-ality of violations, gatherings and parties. We mustrestrain ourselves”.

Brazil reports 34,027 new Covidcases

Brasilia, Amid the raging second wave of the Covid-19

pandemic, Brazil reported 34,027 new cases and 721additional deaths in the last 24 hours, the Ministryof Health said.

The new additions increased taking the overallcase tally to 10,551,259 and the death toll to 254,942,reports Xinhua news agency citing the Ministry assaying.

Brazil currently accounts for the country with thesecond highest number of Covid-19 deaths after theUS and third in terms of the number of confirmedcases, after the US and India.

The country currently registers an average of 121deaths and 5,021 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, ac-cording to the ministry.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in thecountry, has been the most affected, with 2,041,628confirmed Covid-19 cases and 59,493 related deaths,followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 583,044 cases and33,080 deaths.

China’s political advisory body tobegin new session

Beijing, The fourth session of the 13th National Com-

mittee of the Chinese People’s Political ConsultativeConference (CPPCC), the country’s top political ad-visory body, will open in Beijing on Thursday.

The decision was made at a meeting of theStanding Committee of the CPPCC National Com-mittee on Monday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The proposed agenda for the session includeshearing and deliberating a work report of the Stand-ing Committee of the CPPCC National Committeeand a report on how the proposals from politicaladvisors have been handled since the previous ses-sion.

Romania’s Covid-19 cases top800,000

Bucharest, Romania reported 2,830 new cases of Covid-19

in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to801,994, the official data showed on Sunday.

The death toll rose by 63 in the 24-hour span to20,350 since the start of the pandemic, accordingto the Strategic Communication Group (GCS),Romania’s official Covid-19 communication taskforce. The GCS reported that 8,064 people withCovid-19 are hospitalised on Sunday in specialisedhealth units, of whom 1,006 are in intensive care, theXinhua news reported.

Argentina extends social distancingmeasures

Buenos Aires, The Argentine government has ordered the ex-

tension of the Social, Preventive and Mandatory Dis-tancing measures, in place to control the spread ofthe Covid-19 pandemic, until March 12.

The measures were adopted through a govern-ment decree signed by President Alberto Fernandez,and the Cabinet of Ministers on Sunday, Xinhuanews agency reported.

The measures state that “people must maintaina minimum distance of two meters, use face masksin shared spaces, and assiduously sanitize theirhands”.

The measures also state that face-to-face classesand face-to-face non-school educational activitiesmay resume according to the situation in each dis-trict. However, “cultural, social, recreational, religious,or family events and activities in general of morethan 20 people in closed spaces and in private out-door spaces” as well as “cultural, social, recreational,or religious events in public spaces in the open airwith the attendance of more than 100 people” re-main prohibited. To date, Argentina has registered2,107,365 coronavirus cases and 51,965 deaths.

the friendship between thetwo countries and peoplesbut also signifies the intentof both militaries in jointlyfighting against Covid-19and deepening defence co-operation.

China has provided sup-port to the Philippines’s ef-forts to curb the spread ofCovid-19 since the outbreakof the pandemic early lastyear. Presidential spokesper-son Harry Roque said thearrival of the Chinese vac-cines is a sign of continuedfriendship between the Phil-ippines and China.

“We are celebrating thearrival of the Sinovac vac-cines,” Roque said duringthe live coverage of the vac-cine arrival. The landing ofthe aircraft that brought thevaccines to the Philippines“symbolizes hope,” headded.

Manila, A batch of Sinovac vac-

cine CoronaVac donated byChina arrived in the Philip-pines on Sunday, the firstCovid-19 vaccine to reachthe Southeast Asian coun-try. Philippine PresidentRodrigo Duterte witnessedthe unloading of the vac-cines at a Philippine AirForce base located in thecapital, the Xinhua news re-ported. “I convey my sinceregratitude to the Chinesepeople and the governmentof China for this gesture offriendship and solidarity,”Duterte said in a televisedaddress. Duterte said receiv-ing the CoronaVac vaccinesfrom China makes anotherstep forward in the Philip-pines’ fight against Covid-19. Chinese Ambassador tothe Philippines Huang Xiliansaid that it not only shows

Ahmedabad Page 6

6 SportAHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Goals defined Peter Crouch's career but how does Sportsmail's columnist rate goalscoring defenders? It was one of many queries waiting for him in a mailbox that wasbrimming with correspondence this week. And many of those questions were relating to the meeting between West Bromwich Albion and Brighton, where referee Lee Masondisallowed a Brighton goal, then awarded it, then disallowed it in bizarre scenes (main). Plus, Peter explains why Arsenal (top right) might well do well to miss out of Europeanfootball next season despite a great win at Leicester, and why Newcastle (bottom right) are his tip to go down. There's also a debate on the greatest goalscoring defender... sodoes Sergio Ramos (inset) get the nod?

MARTIN SAMUEL - CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: For the second time in a week, thenumbers did not add up for an England team. In India, the cricketers could not ex-cuse 112 and 81; for the rugby players in Cardiff the vital statistics were 40, 14 and24-24. The most points conceded by England against Wales; the number of penal-ties England served up in the match; and the score at 62 minutes before England'steam discipline fell apart again.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Chelsea's websiteattempted to influence referees. United drew 0-0 with the Blues on Sunday and weredenied a penalty when the ball hit Callum Hudson-Odoi's hand in the box. Manyviewers were shocked when the VAR did not give it, as was United's boss.

Madrid, Atletico Madrid opened

up a five-point lead overBarcelona at the top of LaLiga after a 2-0 win away toVillarreal.

Recent results impliedthe game could be anotherpotential banana skin forAtletico, who have seentheir lead at the top of thetable cut from 10 to threepoints over the past threeweeks, but Diego Simeone’sside got through their visitto the east coast with threevital points, Xinhua newsagency reported.

They had a touch of for-tune in their opening goalwhen Stefan Savic’s 24th-minute header was saved bySergio Asenjo only tobounce back over the lineoff Antonio Pedraza, but anassured second-half displaysaw Joao Felix double theirlead in the 69th minute af-ter a poor clearance fromPau Torres.

The result puts pressureon Real Madrid, who enter-

Atletico extend lead with2-0 win against Villareal

tains Real Sociedad on Mon-day night.

On Saturday, FCBarcelona produced one oftheir best displays of theseason to win 2-0 away toSevilla.

Ousmane Dembele andLionel Messi scored as Barcagave their rivals very few op-tions in attack less thanthree weeks after losing 2-0on the same ground in theCopa del Rey.

Dembele put Barcaahead after a pass fromMessi in the 29th minuteand Messi doubled the leadwith five minutes remain-ing.

Barca will worry aboutlosing key players after Pedriwent off injured and RonaldAraujo lasted just minutes inhis return from an ankle in-jury.

Kike Barja’s 77th-minutegoal gave Osasuna a 1-0 winin their local derby away toAlaves, who have lost sixgames from eight sinceAbelardo Fernandez re-

turned as first-team coachand now slip back into therelegation zone.

Getafe will breatheeasier after ending a run offive defeats from six gameswhich had put the future ofcoach Jose Bordalas indoubt.

Mauro Arambarriopened the scoring in the39th minute with a 35-yardthunderbolt, Juan Matadoubled Getafe’s leadshortly after Valencia de-fender Mouctar Diakhabywas sent off for a profes-sional foul, and on-loanmidfielder Carles Alenacompleted the rout fiveminutes from time.

Huesca continued theirimproved form with a 1-1draw away to Eibar withSandro Ramiro opening thescoring for Huesca in the81st minute, before PapeDiop’s header two minuteslater drew Eibar level.

Valladolid climbs out ofthe bottom three despiteconceding.

New Delhi, Former West Indies cap-

tain and batting legendVivian Richards threw hissupport behind the spin-friendly conditions thatwere on offer during thesecond and third Test be-tween India and England inChennai and Ahmedabad,respectively.

The match, which wasthe only day-night Test inthe series, got over in lessthan two days with only twoout of the 30 wickets that fellduring the match going tofast bowlers.

Earlier, England lost thesecond Test in Chennai by317 runs. A number offormer players said thatpitches that were dished outfor both matches were notsuitable for Test cricket.

“I’ve been asked ques-tions recently about the Testmatch that was played inIndia the second and thirdTest match against England.And I am a little confusedabout the question reallybecause there seems to bea lot of moaning and groan-ing about the wicket that

Confused by moaning &groaning: Viv on pitch debate

they were playing on,” saidRichards in a video postedon his Facebook page.

Richards said that play-ing on spin-friendly condi-tions is only the “other side”of Test cricket.

“I just felt that the oneswho are moaning, in myopinion, should realise thatthere are times that you’regoing to get a seamingtrack, a ball that is basicallyjumping off a good lengthand everyone thinks that’sa problem for batters. Thereare times batters some-times cope with that,”Richards said.

“But now you’ve seenthe other side, and this iswhy I think it was given thename Test match cricket,because of the test of themind and will and every-thing else that goes with itwhen you’re competing.

“And the complaintshave been that the wicketis spinning too much andall that sorts of stuff. This isanother side of the coinguys. “People seem to for-get that if you’re going toIndia, you should expect

that. You are going to spinland. You should basicallyprepare yourself to knowwhat you’re going to en-counter,” he further said.

England wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes onSunday said that the visi-tors were expecting moreof the same in the fourthand final Test that would beplayed at the same venuefrom March 4.

Richards said that En-gland should utilise thetime they have got be-tween the third and fourthTests to prepare for theconditions.

“Rather than the moan-ing and groaning, espe-cially just recently howquickly that Test match wasover. It gives England an op-portunity and a chance toassess things, to believethat for some reason thewicket that they’re going toencounter in the fourth Testis going to be the same. If Iwas India or I had anythingto do with the preparationsof the wicket, I would bringin very much the same(sic),” Richards added.

Berlin, Freiburg scored twice

after the break to snatch allthree points on the roadagainst wasteful BayerLeverkusen in the closer ofthe 23rd round matches inBundesliga.

Freiburg’s ErmedinDemirovic and Lucas Holerscored against the run of theplay and stunnedLeverkusen, who sufferedtheir sixth loss from the lastnine matches on Sunday,Xinhua news agency re-ported.

The hosts took controlfrom the kick-off and domi-nated the opening stages tomake amends for Thursday’ssurprising Europa Leagueexit to Young Boys Bern inthe round of the last 32.

Leverkusen producedtheir first clear-cut chancewith 11 minutes playedwhen Freiburg goalkeeperFlorian Muller had to defuseLeon Bailey’s dangerous at-tempt.

Muller was called intoaction again with the subse-quent corner after LucasAlario’s header from closerange almost found its tar-get.

Freiburg weren’t able totake the heat off its goal asDemarai Gray tested Mullerwith a long-range effort inthe 22nd minute.

The visitors eventuallyshowed signs of life in thedying seconds of the firsthalf as Leverkusen goal-keeper Lennart Grill had toneutralize Demirovic’s

Freiburg stun Leverkusen in Bundesligaheader following a corner.

After the restart,Freiburg caught a fairytalestart with the opener in the50th minute. Holer danceduntouched throughLeverkusen’s defence andteed up for Demirovic, whomade no mistake from 11meters.

Leverkusen pressed forthe equalizer, but it wasonce again clinical Freiburgwho doubled their lead 11minutes later whenVincenzo Grifo’s square passallowed Holer to poke homeinto the open goal.

The Werkself turned upand were able to halve thedeficit in the 71st minute af-

ter Bailey shrugged off de-fender Lukas Kubler beforedrilling the ball past haplessMuller. Leverkusen threwevery man up front, butFreiburg’s defence stoodfirm and protected the nar-row lead to the final whistle.

With the result, Freiburgclimb to eighth whileLeverkusen slump to thesixth position of theBundesliga standings. Else-where, Andre Hahn benefit-ted from a moment of mad-ness from Mainz goalkeeperRobin Zentner to secureAugsburg a 1-0 victorywhile Union Berlin andHoffenheim played out a 1-1 stalemate.

Mumbai Indians announcepartnership with DHL

Rome, Inter Milan took a four-

point lead at the top of theSerie A table with a 3-0 winover Genoa at the San Siro,with striker Romelu Lukakutaking the center-stage.

Inter entered Sunday’sgame with four consecutiveSerie A wins. With AchrafHakimi sitting out, MatteoDarmian stepped in as theright-winger, while ChristianEriksen was preferred overArturo Vidal, Xinhua newsreports.

It was the perfect startfor the hosts, going aheadthrough a counterattackjust 32 seconds into thegame. Lukaku surged for-ward after a give-and-gowith Lautaro Martinez anddrilled home with hisweaker right foot.

Inter then dominatedthe game and made it 2-0 inthe 69th minute as Lukakudrew the defenders by fak-ing a shot, and then assistedunmarked Darmian to findthe net.

The home side sealedthe win eight minutes later,Lukaku was involved againas the Belgian’s attempt wasblocked, but Alexis Sanchezwho just came off the benchnodded in the rebound. Thegoal was initially ruledoffside, but the referee cor-rected it after checking theVAR.

The Nerazzurri contin-ued their lead on the tablewith 56 points, four ahead ofsecond-placed AC Milanwho won 2-1 away to Roma.

Inter fly high in Serie A with 3-0 win over GenoaIn the high-profile fix-

ture against Roma, Milansaw two goals in the open-ing minutes canceled due tooffside, but the Rossoneri fi-nally broke the deadlock inthe 42nd minute withFranck Kessie’s penalty.

Roma got back on levelterms at the start of the sec-ond half, as JordanVeretout’s curler went be-yond an out-stretchedGianluigi Donnarumma.

Milan restored the lead

in the 57th minute as AnteRebic scored the winnerwith a left-footed finish.

Also on Sunday, a pair ofstrikes by Dries Mertens andMatteo Politano helpedNapoli beat Benevento 2-0,while Atalanta registered athird successive win after a2-0 away win to Sampdoria.

In Sunday’s other fix-tures, Udinese narrowedpast Fiorentina 1-0, whileCagliari conquered Crotone2-0. —IANS

CSA congratulates Lionson T20 Challenge triumph

Johannesburg, Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Sunday congratulated the

Imperial Lions for winning the T20 Challenge title at theHollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in Durban.

Wandile Gwavu’s team beat hosts Hollywoodbets Dol-phins by four wickets in the competition decider, withKagiso Rabada (3/12) and Reeza Hendricks (39) playing keyroles. The entire tournament was played within a bio-se-cure environment (BSE) in the coastal city from February19-28. A total of 17 matches were played with the Dolphinstopping the table with five wins from five matches, auto-matically qualifying for the final while the Lions ended sec-ond and beat the third-placed Dafabet Warriors in the play-off on Saturday. “Cricket South Africa would like to con-gratulate the Lions on winning the Betway T20 Challenge,”said Pholetsi Moseki, the acting CEO of Cricket South Af-rica. “They overcame a Dolphins team that was previouslyunbeaten in the competition and showed good mentalstrength to do that after losing to the KwaZulu-Natal sideearlier in the week. Their performances throughout thecompetition have also been very consistent and they fullydeserve their success,” he added.

Moseki said that Lions had a quality squad which wasled extremely well by captain Temba Bavuma. The top run-scorer in the competition, Reeza.

I’d rather miss Olympics than takevaccine: Blake

Kingston, Jamaica’s two-time Olympic gold medallist

sprinter Yohan Blake said that he would rather notparticipate in the Tokyo Olympics than take a vac-cine for Covid-19. The International Olympic Com-mittee (IOC) has “encouraged” all athletes travellingfor the Games to take a vaccine but it is not compul-sory. “My mind still stays strong, I don’t want any vac-cine, I’d rather miss the Olympics than take the vac-cine, I am not taking it,” Blake, 31, was quoted as say-ing in Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner.

“I don’t really want to get into it now, but I havemy reasons,” he said.

The Tokyo Olympics is expected to be Blake’s fi-nal Games. A series of eight athletics meets wereorganised in Jamaica on Saturday, marking the re-turn of sports events in the Caribbean island nationafter they were paused due to the pandemic. Blakehimself was speaking after participating in one of themeets. The Olympics is set to be held from July 23 toAugust 8. It was originally set to be held from July 24to August 9 in 2020 but had to be postponed due tothe pandemic.

Hackers hit SBI users with textphishing scam

New Delhi, Several users of the State Bank of India (SBI) have

been targeted with a phishing scam where hackershave flooded them with suspicious text messages,requesting them to redeem their SBI credit pointsworth Rs 9,870.

The link associated with the text messages redi-rects the user to a fake website and on the landingpage, the user is asked to submit personal informa-tion along with sensitive financial details like cardnumber, expiry date, CVV and Mpin in a ‘State Bankof India Fill Your Details’ form.

According to the investigation by New Delhi-based think tank CyberPeace Foundation along withAutobot Infosec Private Ltd, the website collects datadirectly without any verification and is registered bya third party instead of having the registrantorganisation name of State Bank of India, making itall the more suspicious.

“Moreover, according to SBI, they never commu-nicate with their customers via SMS or emails con-taining links with regard to the user’s account. Anyreputed banking entity also does not use Wordpresslike CMS technologies on their official website forsecurity reasons,” the foundation said.

The personal information sought on the mali-cious website is name, registered mobile number,email, email password and date of birth.

After the form is submitted, the user is directedto a “thank you” page.

US watchdog urges improvements torelief bill

Washington, A non-partisan US watchdog group said that the

House of Representatives-approved $1.9 trillionCovid-19 relief bill includes measures not directlyrelated to the pandemic, urging the Senate to pass abetter targeted one.

Commenting on the giant relief bill that clearedthe House on February 27, Maya MacGuineas, presi-dent of the Committee for a Responsible FederalBudget, said in a statement that while some of thefunds would go to key priorities, it is clear that thetargeting of this bill could be improved, reportsXinhua news agency.

“It directs significant resources to those who havenot been harmed by the pandemic or recession.Those policies may be popular or sensible, but theydo not belong in this emergency bill,” MacGuineassaid.

“Specifically, state and local government budgetsaren’t in anywhere near as dire a situation as initiallyprojected.”

The $1.9 trillion package includes $350 billiondollars to help pandemic-hit state and local govern-ments balance their budgets.

MacGuineas argued that the third round of re-bate checks will go to many households that “don’tneed them”, right as US incomes continue to “showstrong growth”.

According to data released last week by the Bu-reau of Economic Analysis, personal income soared10 per cent in January, and personal consumptionexpenditures increased 2.4 per cent.

Fatah agrees to ally with other 5factions

Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah

party has agreed to ally with other five factions tocontest in the upcoming general elections, accord-ing to a senior official.

“Five factions have officially informed us that theyare ready to ally with Fatah to contest in the elec-tions in a unified list,” Azzam al-Ahmad, a member ofthe Fatah Central Committee, told reporters here onSunday.

Al-Ahmad said the five factions are the Palestin-ian Democratic Union, the Palestinian LiberationFront, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, theArab Liberation Front and The Palestinian Arab Front,reports Xinhua news agency.

Yemen govt, Houthis swap 36prisoners

Sanaa, The Yemen government and the Houthi militia

group swapped 36 prisoners in the country’s con-flict-ridden northeastern province of Marib, a mili-tary official has confirmed.

The official told Xinhua news agency on Sundaythat the Houthis released 18 prisoners linked to thegovernment forces following a tribal mediation.

Meanwhile, the government forces released 18fighters of the Houthi group caught during previousbattles, the source added.

The exchange of prisoners took place in Maribunder the auspices of local tribal chiefs, he noted.

Intense fighting erupted early in February as theHouthis tried to advance toward Marib, where doz-ens were killed or injured from both sides in the non-stop armed confrontations amid heavy airstrikes car-ried out by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

England, Wales train fares to riseabove inflation

London, Millions of train passengers in England and

Wales will be hit by higher fares from Monday on-wards as fares are expected to rise above inflationfor the first time in eight years.

Ticket prices will increase by around 2.6 per cent,leading to accusations that the UK government is“pricing the railways out of existence”, Xinhua newsagency quoted the Evening Standard newspaper assaying in a report.

The price hike represents the Retail Prices Index(RPI) measure of inflation from July 2020, plus 1 per-centage point, according to the newspaper.

Increases in around half of fares, including sea-son tickets on most commuter routes,

Mumbai, Indian Premier League

(IPL) champions Mumbai In-dians (MI) on Monday an-nounced its partnershipwith DHL Express. The inter-national express serviceprovider has joined MI as aprincipal sponsor and offi-cial logistics partner aheadof the 2021 season of theIPL.

This is DHL Express’s firstcricket sponsorship. It haspreviously been involvedwith Rugby Sevens Series,ESL One, MotoGP and For-mula 1 along with being in-volved with Premier League

giants Manchester United.“We are delighted to

partner with global brandDHL Express. The combina-tion of DHL Express’ interna-tional market network, andMumbai Indians’ global fanfollowing, brings in a uniquedimension to our partnerassociation programme, al-lowing both brands to lever-age its vast consumer inter-face,” said an MI spokesper-son. “Globally, DHL supportssome of the world’s largestand most popular sportsformats — from football torugby, Formula One andeven e-sports.

Ahmedabad, Page 7

Business Brief

Business 7

Statement about Ownership and other particulars ofWestern Times, (Ahmedabad English edition) as requiredunder rules of the registration of newspaper (central) rules,1956.

FORM-IV(SEE RULE 8)

1. Place of : Western Times-Ahmedabad (Eng.)Publication Western Times, Pub. Pvt. Ltd.,

Survey No. 1315P,Opp. Ramapir Temple,Palodia Tekra, Shilaj,Ahmedabad.

2. Periodicity of its : Morning DailyPublication

3. Printer’s :Publishers’ Name :NIKUNJ RAMUBHAI PATELNationality : IndianAddress : Western Times, Pub. Pvt. Ltd.,

Survey No. 1315P,Opp. Ramapir Temple,Palodia Tekra, Shilaj,Ahmedabad-380058

4. Editor’s Name : NIKUNJ R. PATELNationality : Indian

Western Times, Pub. Pvt. Ltd.,301, 3rd Floor, Gala Argos,B/h. Harikrupa Tower,Gujarat College Road,Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad-380006.

5. Name and address of individuals who own thenewspaper and partner of share-holders holding morethan one per cent of total capital.

a. Nikunj R. Patel, 37, Sector-F2, Sterling city, Bopal,Ta. Daskroi, Ahmedabad.

b. Smita N. Patel, 37, Sector-F2, Ster l ing city,Bopal, Ta. Daskroi, Ahmedabad.

c. Aditya N. Patel, 37, Sector-F2, Sterling city,Bopal, Ta. Daskroi, Ahmedabad.

I Nikunj Ramubhai Patel hereby declare that theparticulars given above are true to the best of my knowledgeand belief.

Sd/- Nikunj R. PatelDated: 2nd March, 2021 Publisher

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Mumbai,In its 50 years of exist-

ence, TAPARIA TOOLS LIM-ITED (TTL), a Mumbai basedhand tools manufacturingcompany has deployed ev-ery known right method tomarket its products acrossthe country. This was neces-sary, as it initially had formi-dable competition, mainlyfrom tool manufactures inthe unorganized sector&other Indian companies.TTL today commands al-most 70-75 % market sharein the organized sector. “Marketing a high qualityhand tool is quite a task, saysShri. Harnarayan Tapariaji,the CMD of the Rs. 500 CroreTTL, ina market.

Taparia believes thatHand Tool is an extension ofa human hand. Whereas hu-man hand performs manyremarkable activities butthere comes a limitation e.g.where some nut or a screwhas to be tightened, the hu-

TAPARIA : A PIONEER IN HAND TOOLSman hand alone will not beable to do it and therecomes the role of a HandTool, - Which Means An Ex-tension of a Human Hand.

Quality of “TAPARIA'

Brand tools everywhere iswell received and appreci-ated by all. The companypresently has large numberof distributors, distributingits products all over India.Besides the sale in India‘TAPARIA' Tools have beenexported toa number of

countries since inception toU.K., Germany, Denmark,Sweden, Norway, Finland,U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Bra-zil, Panama, Argentina, Para-guay, Uruguay, Ethiopia,

Kenya, Dubai,Hong Kong, Thai-land, Egypt, Austra-lia etc.

Seeing the re-cent trend of qual-ity conscious con-sumers opting forsophisticated butreasonably priced‘d o - i t - yo u r s e l f ’tools. The companyhas launched a va-riety of home toolkits for housewives

and kids and utility sets forvehicles. “We see a hugemarket for these products inan evolving market. “ Thecompany has alreadystarted showcasing theseproducts in shopping mallsand utility home productstore that are multiplying.

New Delhi, The rise in the petrol

and diesel price haspaused for the last coupleof days as oil marketingcompanies have decidedto wait and watch the de-velopments on the globaloil market before finalisingtheir India retail strategy.

Accordingly, oil market-ing companies kept thepump price of petrol anddiesel unchanged on Mon-day. With this, petrol con-tinues to be priced at Rs91.17 a litre and diesel Rs81.47 a litre in the nationalcapital.

Across the country aswell the petrol and dieselprices remain unchanged.

Sources in OMCs saidthat price pause on Mon-day followed subdued

Petrol, diesel prices remainunchanged on Monday

movement in productprice in global markets. Thecrude oil, which has beenon fire for the last coupleof weeks has also shownsome downward move-ment lately but stayingabove $65 a barrel now.

Petrol and diesel priceshave been rising continu-ously since February 9. Inthe 14 increases since then,prices have gone up by Rs4.22 per litre for petrolwhile diesel rate has risenby Rs 4.34 a litre in Delhi.

The increase in the pre-vious weeks has takenpetrol to cross historic highlevels of Rs 100 a litre inseveral cities across thecountry.

In Mumbai, petrol priceis just Rs 2.4 per litre short(Rs 97.57 a litre) of touch-

ing the three digit mark ofRs 100 per litre for the veryfirst time ever. Diesel pricein the city is closing on Rs90 a litre (Rs 88.60 a litre).

In all other metros,petrol is over Rs 90 a litre-mark while diesel is wellover Rsper litre for petrolwhile diesel rate has risenby Rs 4.3 80 a litre. Pre-mium petrol has crossedRs 100 per litre-mark inseveral cities of Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh andMaharashtra a few daysback. Since fuel prices arebenchmarked to a 15-dayrefined products’ pricesand dollar exchange rate,pump prices can be ex-pected to remain north-bound over the next fewdays even if crude pricestabilises.

This is why Bill Gates prefersAndroid over iPhone

iOS 14 installed on86% iPhones: Apple

San Francisco, Apple has revealed

that the iOS 14 installationhas increased to 86 percent of iPhones intro-duced in the last fouryears.

Published on Apple’sDeveloper webpage, thedata shows that in total, 80per cent of all devices useiOS 14, with en older iOSversions, as of February 24.

Nearly 14 per c12 percent still using iOS 13 andthe remaining 8 per centstill running iOS 12 or ear-lier. For the iPad, 70 percent of all devices useiPadOS 14.

Twelve per cent of allactive iPhones are sti l lrunning iOS 13, and 2 percent are running evenolder iOS versions, as ofFebruary 24.

Nearly 14 per cent ofall active iPads are stillrunning iPadOS 13, while16 per cent remain on aneven older software ver-sion.

According to the techgiant, the figures are takenfrom the App Store as ofFebruary 24, 2021.

With iOS 14 Appleintroduceen older iOS ver-sions, as of February 24.

Nearly 14 per cd newimprovements to theiPhone including Widgets,picture-in-picture video,improvements to Maps,Safari, Privacy, Siri, a newTranslate app, options forthird-party apps, and a lotmore.

Meanwhile, the up-coming Apple iOS updatewill let users select a third-party default music ser-vice like Spotify when theyask to play a sonen olderiOS versions, as of Febru-ary 24.

Nearly 14 per cg usingSiri. When you ask Siri toplay a song on the upcom-ing iOS 14.5, you would beprompted to select whichapp you want to use toplay it.

Apple last month re-leased beta versions ofupcoming iOS 14.5 andiPadOS 14.5 updates todevelopers and publicbeta testers.

Harman acquires5G, V2X firm Savari

Sensex up 800 points; auto, bankingstocks rise

Mumbai, The Indian equity indices opened on a positive

note on Monday with the BSE Sensex surging over800 points. Healthy buying was witnessed in auto,banking, finance and IT stocks. Around 9.50 a.m.,Sensex was trading at 49,886.82, higher by 786.83points or 1.60 per cent from its previous close of49,099.99. After a gap-up opening at 49,747.71, itsurged as high as 819 points to touch an intra-dayhigh of 49,919.34. The Nifty50 on the National StockExchange was trading at 14,756.05, higher by 226.90points or 1.56 per cent from its previous close. Thetop gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra &Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and Power Grid, while theonly loser was Bharti Airtel.

Feb manufacturing growth remainsflat: PMI

New Delhi, India’s manufacturing sector growth remained

flat-to-positive in February, as improving businessenvironment pushed order flow.

Accordingly, the headline seasonally adjusted IHSMarkit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’Index (PMI) inched up to 57.5 (index reading) in Feb-ruary same as 57.7 in January. However, the index re-mained above its long-run average of 53.6. The PMIranges between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50indicating an overall increase compared to the pre-vious month. “Better demand conditions and suc-cessful marketing campaigns reportedly under-pinned a further increase in new orders during Feb-ruary,” said IHS Markit in the February PMI report.“Although easing from January, the pace of growthremained sharp in the context of historical data.”

Manappuram Finance board mullsdebt securities

Mumbai, Manappuram Finance on Monday said that its

Board of Directors is likely to consider and approvedthe issuances of debt securities this month.

In a regulatory filing, the company said that it isconsidering various options for raising fundsthrough borrowings including by the way of issuanceof various debt securities in onshore or offshore se-curities market by public issue, on private placementbasis or through issuing commercial papers.

“Based on the prevailing market conditions, theBoard of Directors and / or Financial Resources andManagement Committee / Debenture Committee ofthe Board of Directors of the company may considerand approve issuances of debt securities during themonth of March, 2021, subject to such terms andconditions including the issue price of debt securi-ties, as the Board / respective Committee may deemfit,” it said. Around 1.15 p.m., its shares on the BSEwere trading at Rs 173.50, lower by Rs 2.70 or 1.53per cent from its previous close.

Galaxy Buds Live boosts sound,auto-switching

Seoul, Samsung has started updating its Galaxy Buds

Live with features to enhance sound and auto-switching. The new firmware at 2.2MB in size is cur-rently seeding in South Korea but users in other re-gions will get it in the coming days as well, reportsGSMArena.

The new update will now allow users to adjustthe sound balance for each earbud based on theirpreference. The bean-shaped earbuds can now au-tomatically switch between Galaxy phones and tab-lets running the latest One UI 3.1 software.

For example, if you are watching a movie whileconnected to a tablet and get a call on your phone,the audio output will automatically switch to yourphone to let you attend it and once the call is over,media playback via the tablet will resume. In addi-tion, users now get the hearing aid feature whichamplifies outside sounds for those suffering fromhearing loss. Another new addition is the Buds con-trol menu inside the Bluetooth settings.

Turn off 5G to save phone’s batterylife: Verizon

San Francisco, As the world goes gaga over 5G, US telecom ser-

vice provider Verizon has advised people to turn offthe 5G access on their smartphones to save batterylife. In a tweet on Sunday, Verizon support said that“one way to help conserve battery life is to turn onLTE” if users found their batteries were “draining fasterthan normal.” However, the fact is that one does notneed to turn on 4G (or LTE) as LTE is always enabledas a fallback for the 5G network. But Verizon is obvi-ously being cautious so as not to actually tell its cus-tomers to “turn off 5G”, reports The Verge.

Verizon has spent more than $45 billion on bid-ding for a new faster spectrum while its rival AT&Thas spent $23.4 billion. Verizon’s 5G network uses atechnology called DSS, which in many instances isactually slower than the LTE network it’s trying toreplace.

Hyundai Motor India’s overall Febsales over 26%

New Delhi, Hyundai Motor India on Monday reported a

growth of 26.4 per cent in its overall sales includingexports during February. The company’s overall salesgrew to 61,800 units from 48,910 units sold duringFebruary 2020. Similarly, the company’s domesticsales rose during the month under review.

It edged higher by 29 per cent to 51,600 unitsfrom 40,010 units sold during the correspondingmonth of the previous year. Similarly, exports in-creased and it rose by 14.6 per cent to 10,200 unitsfrom 8,900 units shipped out during February 2020.

gration of connected cars,cities and devices is onlypossible through a compre-hensive software and hard-ware stack including sen-sors, 5G connectivity, edgecomputing and more,”Christian Sobottka, Presi-dent, Automotive Division,HARMAN, said in a state-ment. Savari deploys V2Xsensor solutions and edge-based analytics for auto-motive and smart infra-structure, including Ve-hicle-to-Infrastructure, Ve-hicle-to-Phone for pedes-trians and bicyclists, Ve-hicle-to-Vehicle and Infra-structure-to-Phone. “I lookforward to joiningHARMAN, and workingwith their ecosystem ofcustomers and partners, toadvance the future of ourconnected infrastructureand realize safer, more ef-ficient transportation,”Ravi Puvvala, Founder andCEO, Savari, added.

New Delhi, Audio equipment

maker HARMAN, owned bySouth Korean majorSamsung on Monday an-nounced the acquisition ofsubstantially all the assets ofSavari, a Silicon Valley-basedautomotive technologycompany developing ve-hicle-to-everything com-munications (V2X) technol-ogy in 5G Edge and automo-tive devices.

Savari’s software andhardware technology willenhance HARMAN’s com-prehensive automotivetelematics and advanceddriving assistance systems(ADAS) capabilities, and ex-pand the company’sstrengths in 5G Edge, multi-access edge computing(MEC) and smart infrastruc-ture solutions. “Sensor tech-nology is a core buildingblock to propel the future ofadvanced mobility and au-tomated driving. The inte-

flexible about how the soft-ware connects up with theoperating system. So that’swhat I ended up gettingused to. You know, a lot ofmy friends have ?iPhone?, sothere’s no purity,” he noted.Clubhouse is currently avail-able on Apple App Storeand has been downloadedmore than eight milliontimes. Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison toldGates during the interviewthat an Android version of theapp is the “top feature” thatthey’re currently working on,reports MacRumors. In 2019,Gates said that Microsoft los-ing to Android as the stan-dard non-Apple phone plat-form was “one of one of thegreatest mistakes of all time”for the company. Clubhouseis currently available on theiOS platform. However, it is ap-parently available on GooglePlay Store for download toobut strangely, you can’t signup yet.

New Delhi, Microsoft co-founder

and billionaire philanthro-pist Bill Gates prefers an An-droid smartphone over anApple iPhone owing to thepre-install Microsoft soft-ware in the Android ecosys-tem that makes things easyfor him. In an interview onthe invite-only audio chatapp Clubhouse, Gates saidthat he often plays aroundwith iPhones, “but the one Icarry around happens to beAndroid”. “I actually use anAndroid phone. Because Iwant to keep track of every-thing,” Gates told journalistAndrew Ross Sorkin in theinterview. Gates is currentlyholding on to the third po-sition on the world’s richestpeople’s list, at $135 billion.“Some of the Androidmanufacturers pre-installMicrosoft software in a waythat makes it easy for me,”Gates said. “They’re more

NOTICE is hereby given that the Certificate(s) no.15084 for80 Equity Shares bearing distinctive Nos. 436022055-436022134 of M/s UPL Limited standing in the name(s) of BijanKumar Das jointly with Manorama Das. has/have been lost ormislaid and undersigned has/have applied to the Company toissue duplicate certificate(s) for the said shares. Any person(s)who has/have claim in respect of the aforesaid shares shouldlodge such claim with the Company at its Registered office: 3-11, GIDC, Vapi-396195 within 15 days from this date else theCompany will proceed to issue duplicate certificate(s).

Name(s) of Shareholder(s)Bijan Kumar Das, Manorama Das

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Date : 26-02-2021Place : Ahmedabad

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website www.iite.ac.in

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION, GUJARAT(A State Public University established by Government of Gujarat)

¼khíkeÞ rþûkf «rþûký MktMÚkkLkIITE invites application on-line as well as in the prescribed form forits regular-permanent Teaching position to be filled.Sr.No. Post Name and Subject No.of Post Category1 Associate Professor 1 ST

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News in a Nutshell

Ahmedabad Page 8 CMYK

CMYK

8 NationalAHMEDABAD TUESDAY 2/3/2021

Guwahati, A day after snapping

ties with the ruling BJP, theBodoland People’s Front(BPF) on Sunday joined theCongress-led grand alli-ance to fight the Assemblypolls against the saffronparty with the‘Mahagathbandhan’ lead-ers urging the other localparties to join it.

The leaders of theMahagathbandhan said onSunday that its chief min-isterial candidate would bedecided in consultationwith the other constitu-ents of the alliance afterthe Assembly elections areover.

With the joining of theBPF led by vteran triballeader Hagrama Mohilary,the number of parties inthe grand alliance rose toseven.

AICC Secretary AnirudhSingh told the media thatwith the joining of the BPFin the Congress-led grandalliance, the aspirations ofthe people of Assam areabout to find a voice.

Assam Congress Presi-dent Ripun Bora claimedthat it is certain that theCongress-led alliance will

BJP’s estranged ally BPF joins Congress-led Mahagathbandhan in Assam

come to power on May 2after the polls in March-April.

“RJD leader TejashwiYadav during his two-dayvisit to Assam on Fridayand Saturday held meet-ings with us and assured tocampaign for the ‘Mahajot’in the elections,” Bora toldthe media.

Anchalik Gana Morcha(AGM) leader and RajyaSabha MP Ajit KumarBhuyan said that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,Home Minister Amit Shahand other party leaders arefrequently visiting Assamwhich proves that the BJPis going to lose the elec-tions.

CPI (ML) leader PankajDas said that with the join-ing of the BPF in theMahagathbandhan, thevictory of the grand alli-ance in the ensuing As-sembly elections is 200 percent ensured.

The All India UnitedDemocratic Front (AIUDF)organisational general sec-retary Aminul Islam, CPI-Mstate secretary DebenBhattacharjee, CPI statesecretary Munin Mahantaalso expressed confidence

to form the government inAssam, ousting the BJP.

The Congress, whichwas in power in the statefor 15 years (2001-2016)until the BJP led alliancecame to power in Assam in2016, had earlier formedthe Mahagathbandhanwith three Left parties —CPI-M, CPI and CPI-ML —as well as the AIUDF andthe Anchalik Gana Morcha,two regional parties hav-ing a political base amongthe Muslims and indig-enous people, respectively.

The Congress and theAIUDF had fought sepa-rately in 2016, managing towin 26 and 13 seats, re-spectively.

In a significant politicaldevelopment on Saturday,BJP ally BPF had an-nounced to snap ties withthe saffron party.

The ruling BJP in Assamsince 2016 had an alliancewith the BPF, which still hasthree ministers in the ChiefMinister SarbanandaSonowal-led government.

The BJP, after theBodoland Territorial Coun-cil polls in early Decemberlast year, had forged an al-liance with new ally United

People’s Party Liberal(UPPL) after discarding in-cumbent partner BPF.

The BJP has decided tofight the polls in westernAssam’s tribal dominatedBodoland area in alliancewith new ally UPPL besidesAsom Gana Parishad.

In 2006 and 2011, theBPF was part of the Con-gress-led government inAssam, but before the LokSabha polls in 2014, theparty broke ties with theCongress.

BPF leaders claim thatits support ensured thatthe BJP won as many as 27Assembly seats in the 2016polls. The BPF won all the12 seats of Bodoland areasin 2016.

Another regional alli-ance comprising AssamJatiya Parishad (AJP), RaijorDal and few other localparties formed a third frontto take on both the BJPand the Congress led alli-ance.

The elections to the126-member Assam As-sembly will be held inthree phases on March 27,April 1 and April 6. The re-sults will be declared onMay 2.

UP man kills friendover Rs 50 loan

Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh), A 30-year-old man was killed by his friend for not re-

turning Rs 50 borrowed by him earlier, police said on Mon-day. The accused was arrested and sent to jail on Sunday.

Vijaypal, resident of the Baroli village was murdered onFebruary 22 by his friend Brahmanand.

According to the police, Vijaypal and Brahmanand wereneighbours and friends. Both of them used to work as con-struction labourers.

The incident took place on February 22 evening whenthe two were consuming alcohol and an argument beganbetween them over Rs 50 that Vijaypal had borrowed fromBhramanand.

In a fit of rage, Brahmanand confessed to have strangledhis friend.

Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar said,“A police team was searching for Brahmanand for Vijaypal’smurder. Following a tip-off, he was arrested from Pratappuracrossing. During initial interrogation, Brahmanand admit-ted that he had a fight over Rs 50 with Vijaypal. We suspectthat someone else was also involved in the murder. Thematter is being investigated in detail.”

Prayagraj (UP), The Congress will em-

bark on its ‘Nadi AdhikarYatra’ on Monday, fromBanswar in Prayagraj toManjighat in Ballia in UttarPradesh.

State Congress chiefAjay Kumar Lallu saidPriyanka Gandhi wouldlaunch the yatra in supportof the Nishad community(OBC) in eastern UttarPradesh. “The yatra will be-gin from Prayagraj and willconclude in Ballia coveringMirzapur, Bhadohi, Varanasi,Chandausi and Ghazipur,”he added.

The yatra will continuetill March 20 and CongressGeneral Secretary, PriyankaGandhi Vadra, who an-nounced it last week, willlikely join the 340-km-longyatra inbetween, as she isbusy canvassing throughother states.

Nishads are a riverinecommunity having a sizablepopulation in Kaushambhi,Mirzapur, Chandauli,Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, SantKabir Nagar andMaharajganj. They belong tothe OBC category and theirsupport for the 2022 assem-bly elections is being seenas crucial by political parties.

The Congress is hopefulthat the twin moves willhelp it garner the support offarming communities andbuild its base among theOBCs in Uttar Pradesh.

Virender Chaudhary,vice president of the stateCongress Committee told

Cong’s ‘Nadi Adhikar Yatra’ set to startreporters here, “During thisriver rights march, we willinteract with the Nishadcommunity in around 1,200villages along the river andtheir demand to preservethe unbroken relationshipbetween the river, boat andsailor.” Congress leadersfrom Chhattisgarh andother states are also likely toparticipate in the 20-day-long yatra. The ‘Nadi AdhikarYatra’ comes close on theheels of Priyanka Gandhi’sslew of Kisan MahaPanchayats in western UP,where she said the Congresswould continue to fight forthe cause of farmers till the

‘anti-farmer’ laws were re-pealed.

Last week, Priyanka hadvisited Prayagraj to supportthe boatmen who were al-legedly harassed by the lo-cal police. During an earliervisit to Prayagraj, she took aholy dip at the Sangam andeven rowed a boat for sometime on her way back.

In a series of tweets, shesaid the fishermen commu-nity had a primary right overriver resources and de-manded that the YogiAdityanath government in-vestigate the illegal sandmining being done by bigcompanies. —IANS

New Delhi, Hit hard by the pan-

demic last year, the mobilitysector in India has recovered63 per cent with overall 71million rides (by January),and autos and bike taxishave shown the highest re-covery, a new report said onMonday.

The ride-hailing plat-forms, however, are yet toreach the pre-covid levelswhen they registered 113million rides, according toBengaluru-based consult-ing firm RedSeer.

“With 71 million rides,the sector has recovered 63per cent but is still lessercompared to 113 millionrides in the pre-Covid days.

Mobility recovers 63% with 71mn rides in IndiaAll the segments haveshown gradual recoverywith normalcy and unlockresuming,” said SanjayKothari, engagement man-ager, RedSeer.

With the impact ofCovid-19, the sector saw asignificant drop in usage lastyear as offices began re-mote work culture and mostof the educational and otherplaces closed for months.

The pandemic forcedride-hailing platforms likeUber and Ola put a suddenbrake on their plans, includ-ing significantly reducingtheir workforce.

“However, with thingsstarting up, mobility hasbeen on the recovery phase

for the last few monthsnow,” Kothari added.

Among all the segments,autos and bike taxis haverecovered the highest,clocking 23 million rides and12 million rides, respectively.

“However, it has still notrecovered completely ascompared to the pre-Coviddays. The trend is inevitableas autos and bike taxis lowerthe risk of contracting thevirus as per the medical re-search,” Kothari added.

Metros continue to re-cover faster than non-metros.

Kolkata has witnessed

the highest recovery so farwith more than 80 per cent,while Mumbai and Delhi aresecond with over 50 percent.

Pune has seen high(month-on-month) growthdue to the low base of num-ber of bookings.

Mobility operations aregradually resuming in therest of the country.

“As cities return to nor-malcy, the sector will see agradual recovery as themain segment that is theworking professionals con-tinue remote work,” the re-port mentioned.

Public gets another shotof price hike: Cong

New Delhi, Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first shot

of Covid vaccine on Monday, opposition Congress took ajab at him saying with the LPG price hike, the public toogot another injection of rising prices on everyday commod-ity. “Janta gets another ‘injection dose’ of Price Rise fromBJP,” Jaiveer Shergill said in a tweet as cylinder price onceagain rises by Rs 25 making it the sixth consecutive rise in2 months (cooking gas cylinder price rose by Rs 225 overpast two months).

Rising GDP (Gas Diesel Petrol) Prices can now easily beclassified as “The Great Robbery”, he said.

The price of a domestic cooking gas LPG cylinder hasbeen hiked by Rs 25 a price from Monday. After the pricerevision, the 14.2 kilogram LPG cylinder would cost Rs 819a refill in New Delhi. The price of commercial LPG cylindersof 19 kg was hiked by Rs 95 a piece to Rs 1,614 per cylin-der.

Shah enjoys meal at TN roadsideeatery

Chennai, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s unplanned

stop at a roadside eatery in Maduranthakam in poll-bound Tamil Nadu for dinner took everyone by sur-prise.

Shah, who was on a day-long tour acrossPuducherry and Tamil Nadu stopped at the ‘Only Cof-fee’ restaurant and enjoyed a meal with BJP NationalGeneral Secretary (Organization), B.L. Santosh, UnionMinister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy,and party’s Tamil Nadu in-charge and National Gen-eral Secretary C.T. Ravi.

People were pleasantly surprised to find theUnion Home Minister in their mid at the insignificanteatery.

The dinner break came after day-long politicalprogrammes in the southern state and UT. He hadfirst addressed an election public rally at Karaikal inPuducherry at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday. AfterPuducherry, he visited Tamil Nadu, where he tookpart in the ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ at Viluppuramandaddressed a public rally targeting the Congress andthe DMK.

Person representing Tamils, culturewill become CM: Rahul

Chennai, Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Tamil Nadu

will be ruled by a person who truly represents theTamil culture and its people.

He was speaking at a road show in Kanyakumarias part of the election campaign. The Gandhi scionis on a three-day visit to the state.

Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi andthe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), RahulGandhi called upon the people not to allow Modiand the Sangh Parivar to insult the people of TamilNadu and the culture and traditions of the state. Healso said that it was his duty to protect the Tamil cul-ture and language, just like other languages and cul-ture of the people across the country.

Missing girl’s body found in Aligarhfield

Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), The body of a 16-year-old girl, who had been re-

ported missing, was found in a field in Aligarh dis-trict, police said on Monday.

The body was found on Sunday evening.Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP),

Muniraj said, “The victim had gone out to get grassfor fodder. Her family and villagers began looking forher when she did not return home till late in theevening. Later they found her body in a field and in-formed the police.”

He said that prima facie, it appears that the girlwas strangled. The body has been sent for postmortem and five teams have been formed to inves-tigate the case. Meanwhile, angered over the inci-dent, villagers pelted stones at a police party tryingto take the body for autopsy. Inspector PranendraKumar was injured in the attack, the police said.

4 held for teen’srape in Gurugram

Gurugram, A 16-year-old girl wvisit a hotel in Gurugram.“On Friday, when theas allegedly held captive and

gang raped after she was taken to a hotel by anotherminor, who was a new acquaintance, the police saidon Monday. The incident came to the fore on Satur-day after the Class 9 student of a Delhi school alongwith her family reported the incident tvisit a hotel inGurugram.

“On Friday, when theo a women’s police stationin Gurugram. The victim is in hospital.

The police filed a case and has since nabbed fourpersons, including the other Class 9 girl student whoaccompanied the victim.

According to the police, one of the accused study-ing in Class 12, is an adult. While the other accusedand the girl — are minors and study in Class 9 at pri-vate schools.

According to the complainant, she met the girl afew days ago at the house of another classmate, afterwhich they had planned to visit a hotel in Gurugram.

“On Friday, when the girl and the victim were onway to a hotel, she called the three other accused boy.

“When the victivisit a hotel in Gurugram.“On Friday, when them reached the hotel. One of

the boys had a room booked, where he allegedlyraped the victim. The victim fled the hotel andreached home in the evening and disclosed the mat-ter to her patients. The victim alleged that the othergirl was behind the incident,” the victim told the po-lice. “The Class 12 boy was produced before a localcourt, which sentvisit a hotel in Gurugram.

“On Friday, when the him to judicial custody. Whilethe girl and the other culprits were produced beforethe Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) which sent them to aJuvenile home in Faridabad,” the police said. —IANS

Jaipur, The “power play” by a

“fragmented” BJP appearedto be gaining steam withformer Rajasthan Chief Min-ister Vasundhara Raje look-ing all set to kick off hermuch talked-about religiousyatra from March 8, which isco-incidentally her birthdayand as well as the Interna-tional Women’s Day.

The yatra shall passthrough Krishna Temples inthe state.

Raje’s ‘Power Play’ for Raj beginsOn Sunday, Raje visited

Govind Dev Temple andKale Hanuman Temple inthe city and offered prayers.Her followers, who were ac-companying her, chantedslogans like “Kesariya menHara Bhara, Rajasthan meanVasundhara”.

If the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) sources are to bebelieved, the proposed yatrais expected to be the big-gest-ever gathering Rajehas ever organised.

She is likely to start heryatra from Aadi Badritemple and shall go to ShriNath temple and otherKrishna temples ofRajasthan.

According to sources,the yatra is going to witnessa really huge gathering. Itwould include a convoy of800-900 vehicles.

Rajasthan in-chargeArun Singh, however, duringhis visit to the state recently,expressed his ignoranceabout any religious yatraplanned by Raje.

“Religious yatras are be-ing taken by saints andsanyasis as far as I know,” hequipped.

BJP state presidentSatish Poonia was in Delhion Saturday where he dis-cussed state issues at length.The party’s preparations re-lated to bypolls in four dis-tricts were also discussed inthis meeting.

Further, as BJP nationalpresident JP Nadda is ex-pected to visit the state onMarch 2 (Tuesday), an actionplan during his visit was alsodiscussed in the meeting.

BJP sources said “this ispressure politics being fol-lowed by Raje to ensure sheis announced as BJP’s ChiefMinisterial face for forth-coming polls”.

However, Arun Singh,talking to the media herequestioned what is the needof announcing CM face. “BJPhas won many elections inthe country without an-nouncing CM face,”

Tirupati, Dramatic scenes played

out at the Renigunta airportnear Tirupati on Mondaywhen police blocked TeluguDesam Party (TDP) supremoN. Chandrababu Naidu fromproceeding to carry out hisprogrammes.

Naidu was seen arguingwith senior police officersand even staging a sit-in fornot been allowed to proceedfurther.

A senior police officer satbeside Naidu and pleadedwith folded hands to con-vince the former chief min-ister to refrain from his plans.

The high drama followsthe police’s denying permis-sion to Chittoor district TDPpresident PulivarthiVenakatamani Prasad toorganise a protest which wassupposed to be attended byNaidu.

The protest was plannedon Monday from 11 a.m. to 2

High drama at Tirupati airport as Naidu stages sit-inp.m. at Mahatma Gandhistatue in Chittoor.

“Under Covid-19 regula-tions, huge gathering are notallowed. Model code of con-duct for urban local bodyelection is in effect. This is anagitational programme and

not in the nature of an elec-tion campaign and thus notpermissible under MCC,” saida police official denying con-sent.

TDP planned to rope in5,000 cadres for the protestbut the police also cited traf-

fic issues on national andstate highways for their de-nial. “Any violation of this or-der will be strictly dealt within accordance with the law,”police warned.

Naidu and TDP statepresident KinjarapuAtchannaidu demanded rul-ing Yuvajana Sramika RythuCongress Party (YSRCP) lead-ers to explain why the oppo-sition has no right to holdtours and meetings in thestate. “YSRCP leaders have nothe visits of such a seniorleader. The common peoplewere having doubts nowwhether they were broughtunder a jungleraj after theYSRCP came to power,”claimed Atchannaidu.

He reminded that Naiduwas a Chief Minister for 14years with 40 years of politi-cal experience and con-demned the alleged housearrests of Chittoor party lead-ers.

Tejpal rape trial hearing adjournedPanaji,

The scheduled final argument in the rape trial againstformer Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal could not beconducted on Monday, because of a death in the judge’sfamily, special public prosecutor Francisco Tavora said.

Tavora also said that a fresh date for the completion offinal arguments would be announced soon.

“The final argument of the prosecution was to take placetoday. For the whole day, the prosecution was supposed toargue, followed by the defence lawyers.

“After the final argument, the case was to be kept forfinal judgement, but it could not be held today because thejudge’s mother passed away last night. The judge is onleave,” Tavora said. “The case has been adjourned for a fu-ture date,” he also said. In 2013, Tejpal was accused of alleg-edly raping a colleague at a five star resort in North Goa.

BJP National President J P Nadda offering prayers at Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inspected Narhi Primary School inLucknow on Monday. The schools re-opened for 1-5 standard, since its closure in March2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being administered Covid -19 vaccine at the IndiraGandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), in Patna.