HYDERABAD, TUESDAY JANUARY 19, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated January 18, 2021 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Paush & Shukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Panchami: 10:58 am

Nakshatram:Purva Bhadrapada: 09:54 am

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 03:13 pm – 04:37 pm

Yamagandam: 09:40 am – 11:03 am

Varjyam: 11:15 pm – 01:02 am

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PNS n HYDERABAD

Rajiv Gandhi InternationalAirport (RGIA) officialshave sought the help of theTelangana forest departmentafter a video claiming sight-ing of a leopard in the air-port premises went viral onsocial media. However, theforest department is yet toconfirm whether it’s a leop-ard or a jungle cat.

Speaking to The Pioneer,K Shyam Kumar, Forestrange officer, Shamshabadsaid, "After receiving infor-mation, we rushed to thespot and analysed CCTVfootage from the camerasinstalled by CISF officialswho are in charge of securi-ty of the airport."

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao willreview the progress of theKaleshwaram project worksby visiting the site onTuesday.

KCR will reachKaleshwaram by helicopter at11 am and remain there till 3pm. He will visit LakshmiBarrage at Medigadda inBhupalpally district, the start-ing point of the Kaleshwaramlift irrigation project, fromwhere water is pumped fromGodavari. KCR will reviewthe progress of Kaleshwaramproject works with irriga-tion officials after visitingKaleshwaram temple.

PM: Work underway on

1000 km metro

network

5

Modi, the unifyingfactor in the fight

against Covid

2

Sugar output up 31pcin 2020-21 till Jan 15

8

RAFALE TO FEATURE IN REPUBLIC DAY PARADE FOR THE FIRST TIME

ICE CREAM SAMPLES TEST POSITIVEFOR CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA: REPORTS

NO BEATING RETREAT CEREMONY AT ATTARIBORDER ON REPUBLIC DAY DUE TO COVID

MAN ACCIDENTALLY THROWS AWAY HARDDRIVE WITH BITCOIN WORTH $280 MILLION

The newly inducted Rafale fighter aircraftwill feature in India's Republic Day paradeon January 26 and culminate the flypast

by carrying out the 'Vertical Charlie' formation,the Indian Air Force (IAF) said on Monday. Inthe 'Vertical Charlie' formation, the aircraftflies at low altitude, pulls up vertically andconducts rolls before stabilising at higheraltitude. "The flypast will culminate with asingle Rafale aircraft carrying out a 'VerticalCharlie' formation," said Wing CommanderIndranil Nandi. A total of 38 IAF aircraft andfour planes of the Indian Army will participate in the flypast on January 26, he said.

Vaccines for the novel coronavirus mayhave given a boost in the fight against thepandemic. New discoveries linked to the

deadly virus, however, continue to surprise theexperts more than a year after China reportedthe world's first case. In north China's Tianjincity, ice cream samples have tested positive,say reports.Contact tracing is on after thesamples - produced by Tianjin DaqiaodaoFood Company - sent to the disease controllast week tested positive for COVID-19, UK-based Sky news reported.Anti-epidemicauthorities have ensured all the products by the firm are sealed. Avirologist told the news network it may be a "one-off case".

This year, there will be no joint orcoordinated parade at the Attari borderon Republic Day. Earlier, Pakistan and

India used to do a joint parade, whichspectators used to watch from both theside.This year, no public will be allowed dueto COVID-19 restrictions at the Attariborder."No joint or coordinated parade thisyear at Attari border on Republic Day. Nopublic will be allowed due to COVID-19restrictions. India will conduct flag-loweringas per daily schedule," a Border SecurityForce (BSF) senior official said. Since March 7 public was not allowed at the Attari border due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Wales A British man who threw awaya hard drive with bitcoin worth 230million pounds in it is once again

trying to convince local authorities to lethim search for the device in a landfillsite. James Howells, a 35-year-old ITengineer from Newport, Wales, beganmining the cryptocurrency in 2009,according to Metro News. He wascleaning his office in 2013 when heaccidentally threw away the hard drivewith bitcoin that is now worth a smallfortune. The price of bitcoin has soared in recent years, thoughit was practically worthless when Mr Howells began mining it.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Former Andhra Pradesh HighCourt judge Justice (retd) VEswaraiah has alleged in theSupreme Court that relatives ofa senior sitting apex courtjudge were involved in benamitransactions in the Amaravatiland scam and he was trying tocollect more evidence in thisregard.

In an affidavit filed in the topcourt, Justice (retd) Eswaraiahsaid he had sought informationfrom a suspended judicial offi-cer regarding the benami trans-actions in a phone conversa-tion, which purportedly per-

tained to corruption allegationsrelated to land deals in thestate's new capital region.

The former High Courtjudge has filed a plea in the topcourt challenging the August13 last year order of AP HighCourt, which directed investi-gation into the alleged phoneconversation between him andthe suspended judicial officersaying that the recorded con-versation placed before it con-tained information that pur-portedly disclosed a seriousconspiracy against the judicia-ry.

“I state that asking for mate-rial (if available) regarding the

conduct of a sitting judge andwhich to my knowledge wasthe subject matter of investiga-tion, cannot by any stretch ofimagination be said to be aconspiracy. I state that I didseek information and materi-al from Mr Ramakrishna (sus-pended district munsif) in that

phone conversation withregard to benami transactionsinvolving the CRDA in AndhraPradesh and the involvementof the relatives of the saidSupreme Court judge,” Justice(retd) Eswaraiah has said in hisaffidavit filed through advocatePrashant Bhushan.

“That the relatives of a seniorsitting Supreme Court judgewere involved in these transac-tions was information that Ihad received and was trying tocollect more evidence withregard to,” he said.

The affidavit was filed inpursuance to the apex court'sJanuary 11 direction askingJustice (retd) Eswaraiah toclarify his stand with regard tohis conversation with the sus-pended district munsif.

The matter came up forhearing on Monday before abench headed by Justice AshokBhushan.

‘Kin of sitting judge involved in benami deals’

VENKAT RAM REDDY LAKKADIn HYDERABAD

A huge chunk of land on thecity outskirts is stuck in non-operational SEZs (special eco-nomic zones) even as the StateGovernment scouts for land toallot to first willing to set shopin Telangana.

The land on city outskirtscommands huge real estatevalue; an acre costs severalcrores.

In this backdrop, huge tractsof land, worth several thou-sands of crores, lying idle as itis stuck with non-operationalSEZs is a cause for concern.

Telangana state has1,942.017 hectares notified asSEZ, of which 1,410.66hectares are vacant, mostly on

city outskirts.About 136 of the 283.47

hectares of land belonging toTelangana State IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation(TSIIC) is lying unused acrossin locations. The largest land

parcel is of 76.89 hectares atAdibatla village, followed by25.93 hectares in MuluguMandal and 24.78 hectares atJedcharla Mandal.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Centre on Mondayreleased Rs 1,206 crore toTelangana and Rs 1,684 croreto Andhra Pradesh towardsGST compensation.

The Ministry of Finance,Department of Expenditurereleased the 12th weeklyinstalment of Rs 6,000 crore toall the States on Monday tomeet the GST compensationshortfall.Of this, Rs 5,516.60crore has been released to 23States and Rs 483.40 crore tothe three Union Territorieswith Legislative Assembly(Delhi, Jammu & Kashmirand Puducherry) that aremembers of the GST Council.

The remaining five States –Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,Mizoram, Nagaland andSikkim do not have a gap inrevenue on account of GST

implementation.Till now, 65 percent of the

total estimated GST compen-sation shortfall has beenreleased to the States and UTswith Legislative Assembly. Ofthis, Rs 65,582.96 crore hasbeen released to the States andan amount of Rs 6,417.04crore to the three UTs withLegislative Assembly.

n Centre releases 12thInstalment of Rs. 6,000crore to all States to meetGST shortfall

n Rs. 72,000 crore released so far to all States and UTswith legislation

n This is in addition to additional borrowingpermission of Rs. 1,06,830crore granted to the States

PNS n HYDERABAD

TS School Education MinisterP Sabita Indra Reddy hasmade it clear that studentsattending classes fromFebruary 1 should invariablybring written permission fromtheir parents to the effect thatthey have no objection intheir wards attending schools.

She was speaking at a high-level meeting held here onMonday to discuss precautionsto be taken in the context ofreopening schools for stu-dents of Classes IX and X,junior and degree collegesfrom February 1.

Minister for SCDevelopment and MinorityWelfare Koppula Eswar, BCWelfare Minister GangulaKamalakar and Woman andChild Welfare MinisterSatyavati Rathod and othersalso took part in the meeting.

The Ministers made it clearthat it was also the responsi-bility of the State Governmentto protect the health of the stu-dents besides extending qual-ity education to them.

The Minister told the meet-ing that a class-wise actionplan is being prepared toimplement precautions to keepCovid-19 at bay.

They insisted on maintain-ing physical distance betweenstudents and sanitising schoolsand colleges as per theGovernment specifications.Classroom teaching as well asthe online teaching wouldcontinue, they said.

Quoting a survey by the

education department, theysaid that in all, 86 per cent ofthe students are benefitingfrom online classes.

The meeting advised stu-dents to wear masks and cometo school.

The Ministers asked officialsto pay special attention tohostels and government-runresidential schools. As thesefacilities are being reopenedafter a long gap, the Ministersdirected officials to undertakerepairs to the buildings, ifneeded. The Ministers saidthat the Government hasalready released funds for thesame.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Citing lack of jurisdiction, theSecunderabad court onMonday refused bail to for-mer AP minister Akhila Priyathe prime accused inBowenpally kidnap case.

Meanwhile, the police fileda case against her underSection 395 of the IPC(dacoity) in addition to theexisting charges.

The Secunderabad courtcited ultra vires in its jurisdic-tion the cases that attract lifeimprisonment and refusedbail to her.

Akhila Priya now plans tomove her bail plea beforeNampalli court.

It may be recalled that shewas remanded to judicialcustody in Chanchalgudaprison.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Covid-19 vaccination pro-gramme was underway on thesecond day in Telangana withthe government makingarrangements in total 324 cen-tres for the inoculation, asenior official of the State gov-ernment said on Monday. Theofficial said on the second dayalso Serum Institute'sCovishield will be adminis-tered as Bharat Biotech's

Covaxin is yet to be dispatchedto the centres. Telanganareceived 20,000 doses of theCovaxine as against 3.64 lakhof Covishied. "Today (Monday)vaccination programmewill be done in 324 ses-sion sites. Each site willadminister 50 people.Only Covishield will begiven as Covaxin is yetto reach the sites," theofficial told P T I. Theofficial further said

Covaxin has not been used asthe state received fewer quan-tities. The Covid-19 vaccinewas successfully rolled out inTelangana on Saturday with

about 4,000 healthcarepersonnel receiving thefirst dose. State Directorof Public Health GSrinivasa Rao had saidthe vaccination pro-gramme was started at140 sites out of the 1,213locations in the state.

While vaccination has beentargeted to be given to 4,296on January 16, it was admin-istered to 3,962 people, officialsources said.

Described as the world's largestinoculation drive, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdaylaunched India's Covid-19 vacci-nation programme and assertedthat the made-in- India vaccinesbeing rolled out will ensure a"decisive victory" for the countryover the coronavirus pandemic.

Telangana yet to use Covaxin

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Enforcement DirectoratePMLA court issued arrestwarrant against M.B.SJewelers, Sukesh Gupta whofailed to appear before thecourt for trail on Monday.

Sukesh Gupta was anaccused in Rs 275 croresMinerals and Metal TradingCorporation of India(MMTC) scam. The accusedSukesh Gupta failed to repayhis debt of Rs 275 crores.

During the trail the accusedfailed to appear citing somehealth issues through his advo-cate on Monday. TheEnforcement DirectoratePrevention of MoneyLaundering (PMLA) courtdidn't satisfied with the reasonand directed EnforcementDirectorate officials to producehim in the court by issuing nonbailable arrest warrant.

Prime land stuck in‘dead' SEZs in TS

Leopard scarein Airportpremises

TS gets Rs 1,206 crGST compensation

Arrest warrantagainst SukeshGupta

Farmers bitter astomato prices crashPNS n HYDERABAD

Tomato prices have nosedived inthe state, dealing a cripplingblow to farmers. Currently, 1.5kg of tomatoes is being sold forRs 10.

Tomato prices appearedencouraging for farmers tillbarely a couple of days ago. Thesteep fall in prices over the lasttwo days has left farmers shell-shocked.

Agriculture department offi-cials say that the farmer wouldbe considered ‘safe’ provided hegets the price of Rs 900 per quin-tal of tomatoes. To the utter dis-appointment of the farmers, aquintal of the vegetable nowfetches him or her less than Rs100. In the first week of January,a kg of tomato was sold at Rs 12,a far cry from the Rs 2 to 4traders are now paying them fora kg of the vegetable.

In rabi season, farmers culti-

vated tomatoes in over 40,000acres. Going by the prevailingmarket prices, the farmerslament that they would not beable to even recover the wagespaid to agricultural labourers, letalone recover their investmentsto sow the crop.

Since traders have been pur-chasing a box of tomatoesbetween Rs 40 and Rs 60,farmers now prefer leaving thecrop un-plucked in thefields.They consider this to bemore cost-effective than payingthe eight agricultural workersneeded to harvest tomatoes inone acre.

Sec’bad courtrefuses bail toAkhila again

Sabita insists parents give ‘no objection’ to kids studying

Media trialinhibits justice:HC on Sushantdeath case

Jagan to meet Amit Shahsecond time in 2 monthsSNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy will betravelling to Delhi onTuesday where hewill meet UnionHome MinisterAmit Shah.While the offi-cial word is thatJagan will pressfor resolution ofseveral longpending issuesrelated to Andhra

Pradesh, sources say that thevisit has got more to do withpolitical reasons.

Notably, it will be Jagan’ssecond meeting with Amit

Shah in less than twomonths. He had last

met Amit Shah onDecember 15.

The HomeMinister has alsobeen quite liber-al in giving

appointments toJagan.

The meeting that a

class wise action plan

is being prepared to

implement precautions

to keep the Covid-19

at bay.

The former judge filed a

plea in the top court

challenging the August 13

order of AP High Court,

directing investigation into

the alleged phone convers-

ation between him and the

suspended judicial officer

2

KCR to visitKaleshwaramproject today

2 2 2

22

PNS n MUMBAI

The Bombay High Court onMonday asked media housesto exercise restraint whenreporting on suicide cases,saying "media trial leads tointerference and obstructionto administration of justice"and amounts to contempt ofcourt. A bench of ChiefJustice Dipankar Datta andJustice G S Kulkarni said thepress must avoid discussionsand debates relating to crim-inal investigations, and itshould confine only to infor-mative reportage that is inpublic interest. The benchalso held that prima faciesome reportage by RepublicTV and Times Now in theaftermath of the death ofactor Sushant Singh Rajputwere "contemptuous".

The court said it had, how-ever, decided against initiatingany action against the two TVchannels under the Contemptof Courts Act. The bench saidmedia trials ran counter to theprogramme code framedunder the Cable TelevisionNetworks (Regulation) Act.

22

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Continued from Page 1

The pumping of water atKaleshwaram project com-menced on Sunday after a gapof a few months.

Officials had started draw-ing water from Medigadda bystarting all pumps in Links Iand II to meet the water needsof the agriculture sector. Anadditional two lakh acre aya-cut was expected to beincreased under SRSP.

Crops are expected to becultivated in 16.5 lakh acres

under SRSP as against itscapacity of 14.5 lakh acres.KCR will monitor the waterpumping at Medigadda.

Following directions of theChief Minister, authorities ofthe Kaleshwaram projectdecided to pump out 10.5 tmcft water from Godavari River.

The officials started twomotors (16 and 17) at Lakshmipump house at Kannepalli tofill Sarawathi barrage atAnnaram on Sunday. Theyalso switched on the fourthpump at Nandi pump house in

Nandi Medaram of Peddapallidistrict and two motors atGayatri pump house atLaxmipur in Karimnagar dis-trict. It was decided to pumpout 8 tmc ft of water intoLower Manair Dam (LMD)and 2.5 tmc ft into Yellampalliproject to meet the immediaterequirements of Yasangi crops.

To meet the demand andsupply water up to Suryapet,irrigation officials starteddrawing water from Godavariby starting motors in Link-Iand II of Kaleshwaram project.

Continued from Page 1

The SEZs in the vicinity ofMadhapur, Hitec City inGachibowli are full. Those atMaheshwaram, Koheda,Saroornagar, Gopanpally andVattinagulapally, Uppal,Chevella, Pocharam, Kokapet,Bachupally, Shameerpet,Adibatla, Mamidipally stillhave land available.

The state government isnow forced to look at the dis-tricts surrounding Hyderabadto find lands since most of thelands stuck in non-opera-tional SEZs are located inRanga Reddy district.

The government is nowexploring the option of landsin neighbouring undividedMedak, Nalgonda andMahbubnagar districts.

The State Government hadalready announced “LookEast” policy to allot lands onoutskirts towards Warangalhighway to decentralise ITgrowth centres and spreadthem across the city evenly asthey are now primarily con-centrated on the western partof the city. Though SEZs werede-notified as the firms failedto start operations, the land is

still in their possession due toapprovals pending from theCentral and StateGovernments.

Proposals for setting upnew SEZs are approved by theCentre's Board of Approval(BoA) on the recommenda-tion of the State Governmentsconcerned.

To de-notify SEZs and takeback lands, approvals of boththe Central and StateGovernments are mandatory.

While some de-notificationproposals are lying pendingwith the State Government,some are pending with theCentre.

About 275 acres allotted toHardware SEZ atMaheswaram on city outskirtsapplied for de-notification butthe approval is pending withthe Centre.

About 25 acres of IT/ ITESSEZ sanctioned to Emaar HillsTownship Ltd in Manikondagot stuck due to legal disputes.

About 150 acres allotted toBrahmani Infratech Pvt Ltd toset up IT/ ITES SEZ inSaroornagar was de-notified.But the No ObjectionCertificate from the StateGovernment is pending.

Continued from Page 1

The Forest officials say thatthus far, they don’t have anydirect evidence to establishwhether it’s a leopard or jun-gle cat, Shyam Kumar said. “Inthe video clip, it can be seenthat the animal is very smallwhereas a leopard is bigger insize. With only CCTV footage,we have not been able to con-clusively establish the identi-ty of the animal. We haven'tfound any pugmarks that canconfirm it as a leopard,” hesaid.

Continued from Page 1

The Government of India hadset up a special borrowingwindow in October, 2020 tomeet the estimated shortfall ofRs 1.10 lakh-crore in revenuearising on account of imple-mentation of GST.

The borrowings are beingdone through this window bythe Government of India onbehalf of the States and UTs.The 12 rounds of borrowingshave been completed so farstarting from October 23,2020. The amount released

this week was the 12th instal-ment of such funds providedto the States.

The amount has been bor-rowed this week at an interestrate of 4.43 percent. So far, anamount of Rs 72,000 crore hasbeen borrowed by the CentralGovernment through the spe-cial borrowing window at anaverage interest rate of 4.70percent.

In addition to providingfunds through the special bor-rowing window to meet theshortfall in revenue on accountof GST implementation, the

Government of India has alsogranted additional borrowingpermission equivalent to 0.50percent of Gross StatesDomestic Product (GSDP) tothe states choosing Option-I tomeet GST compensationshortfall to help them inmobilising additional financialresources.

All States have given theirpreference for Option-I.Permission for borrowing theentire additional amount of Rs1,06,830 crore (0.50 percent ofGSDP) has been granted to 28States under this provision.

Continued from Page 1

It also passed a slew ofguidelines for the press to fol-low while reporting on sensi-tive cases. The HC said suchreportage by any media organ-isation, that obstructs anongoing investigation oradministration of justice in acase, will amount to con-tempt of court."Media trialleads to interference andobstruction to administra-tion of justice and violates pro-gramme code under the CableTV Networks (Regulation)Act," it observed."Anyreportage has to be in accor-dance with the norms of jour-nalistic standards and ethics,else media houses stand toface contempt action," itsaid.The directions are a partof the verdict pronounced bythe bench on a bunch of pub-lic interest litigations (PIL)seeking that the press, partic-ularly TV news channels, berestrained in their reportageon Rajput's death. The HCsaid it had tried in its verdictto answer questions on strik-ing a balance among one'sfreedom of speech and expres-sion, a fair investigation, one'sright to a fair trial and to whatextent, if at all, should thepress and media reporting beregulated, if it interfered withor tended to obstruct theadministration of justice.

Continued from Page 1

The bench posted the matterfor hearing in the first week ofFebruary.

Justice (retd) Eswaraiah saidhis admission or denial of theprivate conversation withRamakrishna is immaterial indeciding the plea as the HighCourt order has been chal-lenged on the ground that thesame is untenable in law apartfrom being violative of his rightto privacy which is held to be aFundamental Right protectedunder Article 21 and underArticle 19 (1) (a) of theConstitution.

“I have not committed anycrime and there is no complaintby anybody with reference to thesaid private conversation,” hesaid.

He said that English transcrip-tion of the audio conversation,as contained in the pen drivefiled by Ramakrishna beforethe High Court, was incorrectand deliberately distorted togive a false and misleadingimpression with regard to theconversation.

“I state that the conversationas I recall with the suspendeddistrict munsif, MrRamakrishna, was threefold.Firstly, I have sought informationabout his suspension. Secondly,I have consoled and cajoledhim due to the harassment hehad faced,” he said.

“Lastly, I sought informationfrom him about the benamitransactions regarding the newcapital region in the state ofAndhra Pradesh, which accord-ing to my information had been

the subject matter of a CabinetSubcommittee which recom-mended the formation of an SITand subsequently the govern-ment of Andhra Pradesh wroteto the Union Ministry ofPersonnel and Grievances totransfer this investigation to theCBI since it involved interstateinvestigation and several highranking influential persons,” theaffidavit said.

He said he has come public invarious press conferences toexpose the misconduct of theSupreme Court judge especial-ly his proximity with the erst-while government of AndhraPradesh.

“I state that the allegations ofconspiracy' and a plot' are total-ly false and far from the truth. Ihave always endeavoured andcontinue to endeavour to protect

and preserve the independenceof judiciary. The allegations of aconspiracy' and plot' have beenloosely attributed to me whichapart from being white lies arederogatory and defamatory,” hesaid, while seeking quashing ofthe High Court order.

The High Court, in its order,had requested former SupremeCourt judge Justice RVRaveendran to inquire into thematter.

The phone conversation,according to the plea, purport-edly pertained to the corruptionallegations in the Amaravatiland scam.

The former judge has said theHigh Court's order was made onthe basis of an application forreopening and intervention filedby the suspended DistrictMunsif Magistrate (S

Ramakrishna) in an unrelatedPIL seeking implementation ofCovid-19 guidelines in courtbuilding and premises.

The plea has said that the for-mer High Court judge, in thealleged phone conversation, hadmerely mentioned his knowl-edge about allegations of mis-conduct and terming such a con-versation to be a kind of conspir-acy, was unwarranted.

The YS Jaganmohan Reddygovernment had constituted the10-member SIT, headed by aDeputy Inspector General ofPolice- rank IPS officer, onFebruary 21 last year, to conducta comprehensive investigationinto various alleged irregularities,particularly the land deals in theAmaravati Capital Region, dur-ing the previous ChandrababuNaidu regime.

Continued from Page 1

They told the meetingthat the government tookmeasures to ensure the stocksof essential commoditiesreach residential schools andhostels being run by the wel-fare department by January25.

A committee headed bydistrict collectors will preparea report schools wise andsubmit it to the government,they said. They asked theofficials concerned to inspectthe schools and hostels con-

cerned by January 25 andkeep them ready for the stu-dents.

The Ministers appealed tomanagements of variousschools to lend support to thegovernment’s resolution onreopening and conductingclasses efficiently.

Chief Secretary SomeshKumar, Special Chief Secr-etary Chitra Ramachandran,senior officials Naveen Mittal,Burra Venkatesam, RahulBojja, Nadeem, PravinKumar, Anil Kumar and oth-ers took part.

Continued from Page 1

The police have been look-ing for the other accused inthe case that are at large.

In a related development,her husband Bhargav Ram,who is at large, moved a pleain the Nampally court seek-ing anticipatory bail.

He has been named A3 inthe case.

The police are now prepar-ing a counter to this anticipa-tory bail plea. The court willtake up the hearing on theplea on Thursday.

Good days are on thehorizon in the NewYear with the coun-

try on the verge of gaining anupper hand in its fight againstCovid-19.

India, which experiencedshortage of masks, ventilators,oxygen cylinders, PPE kitsand hospital beds initially,overcame these hiccups in ashort span of time andbecame self-reliant.

The Centre, which shoul-dered total responsibility, gaveproper guidance to the stategovernments and the people.

Two weeks before the firstCovid case was confirmed onJanuary 30, 2020, the Centrehad constituted a high-levelcommittee.

It issued the first advisoryon January 17, becoming oneof the first countries to ther-mally screen air travellers.With the help of JanataCurfew, the Government pre-pared the people psychologi-cally. It brought back people

stranded overseas.Prime Minister Narendra

Modi provided the necessarymoral support to the Centraland State Governments, localbodies, officials, social insti-tutions etc to work in unison.He achieved greater coordina-tion among theBiotechnology, Medical andHealth departments, NitiAyog and other organisationsand gave clear directions tovarious sections of society.

Medical experts, scientistsand industrialists united toface the pandemic. Allthrough last year, Modi spentmost of his time among thepeople as and when opportu-nity presented.

In 2021, the pushbackagainst the pandemic beganaround Sankranti, the festivalof harvests. Hearts of thepeople turned glad as thevaccine is being administeredto crores. The people of Indiahave proved that together,they are able to encounter any

calamity.As per the latest statistics,

over one crore people haverecovered from Coronavirus.In fact, 96.59 per cent foughtthe virus and defeated it. Thenumber of positive cases hasbeen dwindling rapidly. Thedeath rate due to the pandem-ic is also coming down.

While Maharashtra, WestBengal, Kerala reported themost deaths due to the virus,at least 15 states did not reg-ister even one death. This is insharp contrast to large scaledeaths reported from themost advanced countries.

The drop in death rate is

attributed to the precautionsbeing observed by sensitisedpeople and success of ourmedical professionals. Theway the country defeated thevirus can be written in theannals of history in goldenwords.

It’s not necessary to specif-ically say that the success waspossible due to the spiritedleadership of Modi and soli-darity extended by almost allCMs.

It generally takes severalyears to develop vaccines foran infection like Covid-19.But the Government of Indiadid not delay in this regard.

Two vaccines out of threemanufactured in the worldwere developed in India withthe complete support of theCentre.

Biotechnology departmentsecretary Vijaya Raghavan,who has vast experience indeveloping vaccines, gave thenecessary and crucial support.

Earlier, under his leader-ship, Rotavirus vaccine wasdeveloped to prevent death of

children due to diarrhoea.The Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech whichproduced theRotavirus vac-cine has nowproduced Covaxin.

In 2015, whenModi first became the PM, hereleased Rotavirus vaccine inthe market. Therefore, theCentre permitted the Covaxinmade by Bharat Biotech,keeping in mind the vastexperience it had, for emer-gency use. The Centre alsogave permission for use of theCovishield made by SII ofPune.

If the people receive the twovaccines in two doses, there isno doubt that their immuni-ty would improve.

It is pertinent to note thatthe vaccines produced inIndia are cheaper compared tothose overseas. A single doseof the overseas vaccine costsRs 5,000, while the indige-

nously produced ones costonly Rs 200 per dose.

The vaccinationp r o g r a m m elaunched by Modion January 16 was

the biggest such drivein the country and a his-

toric event.He launched the pro-

gramme without much fan-fare in 306 vaccination centresacross the States and UTsthrough virtual mode to inoc-ulate over 3 crore people. Onthe first day, of the 2 crorepopulation that received thevaccine, only three personsshowed some side effects, butrecovered very soon. It provedthat there was no truth in themalicious campaign launchedby the Opposition against theCentre.

The Congress comparedpeople of the country toguinea pigs in laboratoriesand accused the Centre ofconducting experiments onthem.

In the country’s fightagainst Covid-19 during thepast one year, Modi did notrest. He directly took part inthe fight at every level. He vis-ited various laboratories andinteracted with scientists.

The entire country hon-oured Modi’s suggestion togive priority for the vaccine tofrontline warriors who foughtagainst Coronavirus. It’s alaudable development. TheOpposition tried to politicisethe issue. A Congress leaderasked why Modi did notreceive the first shot. Had thePM received the first shot, theOpposition would haveclaimed that he did so only tosave his life.

While launching the gold-en moment of the vaccinationprogramme, Modi read out afew lines of Gurajada’s poet-ry “Desamunu Preminchumanna..” making the people ofTelugu states proud and thewhole world know the great-ness of Gurajada.

Y SATYA KUMAR

BJP National Secretary

TRULY

SPEAKING

In 2015, when Modi first became the PM,he released Rotavirus vaccine in themarket and now the Centre permittedthe Covaxin vaccine made by BharatBiotech, keeping in mind the vastexperience it had, for emergency use.

Modi, the unifying factor in the fight against Covid

‘Kin of sitting judge involved in benami deals’

Prime land stuckin ‘dead’ SEZs...

Media trialinhibits justice...

TS gets Rs 1206 cr GST compensation

Jagan to meet Amit...Continued from Page 1

It may be recalled here thatthere were reports thatKarnataka Chief Minister andsenior BJP leader BSYediyurappa had to wait longto get an audience with AmitShah in the last few monthsand his requests for anappointment were turneddown a few times in the recentpast.

As per the schedule, Jaganwill be leaving Gannavaramairport on Tuesday afternoonand will reach Delhi in theevening. The meeting withAmit Shah comes at a timewhen the BJP has been aggres-sively trying to seize political

opportunities arising out ofattacks on Hindu temples.

The BJP central leadershipon its part has been maintain-ing friendly ties as per the fed-eral spirit with YSRCP howev-er, had given a clear roadmapto its state leaders to take onJaganmohan Reddy govern-ment.

BJP will have to fight it outwith both YSRCP and TDP tostay relevant in AP politics.Funding for Polavaram projecthas also become a bone of con-tention between the two par-ties. Jagan has also put forth alist of his submissions withpolitical reasons.

Action against the hostilejudiciary topped the list and

Jagan appears to have succeed-ed partially in that endeavourwith the abrupt transfer of APHigh Court Chief Justice JKMaheswari. Also, the ChiefJustice of India has reported-ly sought a response from thesitting Supreme Court seniorjudge Justice NV Ramana onthe allegations levelled againsthim by the Chief Minister. Thisissue is also expected to comeup during Jagan’s meeting withAmit Shah.

During his last meetingJagan had also requested Shahto initiate the process to relo-cate Andhra Pradesh HighCourt from Amaravati toKurnool by releasing a notifi-cation.

KCR to visit Kaleshwaram today

n WASHINGTON

The question of whether ornot US Vice President-electKamala Harris will wear asaree on Inauguration Day toinvoke her Indian heritage isone that is currently beinghotly debated on socialmedia.

In the US, InaugurationDay is set for January 20every four years. This year, itwill fall on Wednesday, andthe prospect of KamalaHarris - who has scripted his-

tory as the nation's first Blackand South Asian VicePresident - wearing a saree isone that has led to spirited

discussions on social media.Speculation around what

Harris could wear on herinauguration had been rifebefore the Democrats hadeven won the election. In2019, at an event hosted by

Asian American group calledOne APIA Nevada, an audi-ence member had askedHarris if she would wear atraditional Indian garment ifshe were elected president.

"Let's first win," Harrishad responded, smiling. "Mymother raised us with a verystrong appreciation for ourcultural background andpride. Celebrations that weall participate in regardless ofhow our last name is spelled.It's the beauty of who we areas a nation."

6.6% complete 100 daysof work under MGNREGADURGA PRASAD SUNKU

n HYDERABAD

Only 6.6 percent of activehouseholds have completed100 days of work as a part ofMahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment GuaranteeAct (2006) (MGNREGA)scheme in Telangana, revealeda report named 'MNREGA inTelangana'.Although it is com-pulsory to provide 100 days ofwork per rural household in ayear as per the MGNREGA,

only 6.6 per cent completed100 days of work in Telangana.

This year around three lakhnew job cards were issued and6.31 lakh workers were added tothe workforce. The percentageof households that have com-pleted 100 days of work didn'teven cross 10 per cent in manydistricts of Telangana.In thewake of the pandemic, there hasbeen a demand for raising the100-day employment limit.

The analysis has found thatthere is a decrease in women's

participation in TS. Calculatingthe impact of decline on wagesin Telangana women persondays over last three financialyears, women in fact lost out onmore than 75 crores in wagesthis year. The MGNREGAmandates workers be paid with-in 15 days of completion ofwork. However, wage paymentsoften don't reach the worker'saccount due to technical rea-sons. In Telangana, these tech-nical reasons are categorised as'rejected' or 'suspended'.

Sari or Suit? The buzz around whatKamala Harris will wear on inauguration

Sec’bad courtrefuses bail toAkhila again

Leopard scare...

Sabita insistsparents give...

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021 hyderabad 03

The International Institute ofInformation Technology haslaunched 'Project Indic Wiki'

with the aim of significantlyincreasing content in Indianlanguages and an attempt is beingmade in enhancing Telugu and HindiWikipedias. These articles are freelyavailable to the community to read, share, and enhance. http://indicwiki.iiit.ac.in/ will be available on both mobile and desktop and isequipped with a plethora of Training content, Telugu and HindiWikipedia sandboxes, a peek into our Research, and a way tocontact and join us in this activity as a writer, subject, or languageexpert. This project will help Wikipedia communities to adopt andenhance articles. Institutional efforts towards Digital Literacy mustbe taken up for the people to use technology effectively. It willbenefit the always-on, anytime, anywhere learning. IndicWiki Projectis excited to announce its online internship programme.

IIITH launches ‘Project Indic' toenhance Telugu and Hindi Wiki

HHome Minister MohammedMahmood All launched the T-20 traffic awareness test app

in the presence of City PoliceCommissioner Anjani Kumar,Additional Commissioner of Police(Traffic) Anil Kumar and otherofficials on Monday. The T-20traffic awareness test and wing aT-20 cup is an online test to createawareness on road signs, traffic rules and to ensure road safety forcitizens of age group above 18 years. They can test their ability onroad signs and traffic rules. A total of 450 questions are availableand these will be jumbled every time and make set A, B, and C .Each set will have 20 questions. Both English and Telugu languagesare available. Participants can enter their name and age and thenselect any one of the sets and play the game. Out of 20 marks, 18and above will get results as won the T-20 cup. If anyone is notsuccessful, they can play again by practicing the test through theonline link. Later, this Traffic Awareness App will be available on theSocial Media and Traffic Website, a police release here said.

With the rush at the singleCustomer Service Executive(CSE)/ Biometric Counter in

the Secunderabad RegionalPassport Office increasing, officialshave opened an additional counterwith effect from Monday to avoidcrowding and to reduce waiting time. According to officials, till now,all the complex and deficient passport applications submitted atPassport Seva Kendras (PSKs) at Begumpet, Ameerpet, Tolichowkiand Nizamabad /Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Karimnagarand various post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) werebeing escalated and attended to at the Passport Back Office at theRegional Passport Office, Secunderabad. Further, to meet increasingdemand and to reduce the waiting time in Post Office Passport SevaKendras at Khammam and Warangal, the number of appointmentslots have been increased from 60 to 80 with effect from Monday.Due to this increase in slots, the waiting time has been reducedfrom three days to the immediate next day at POPSK, Khammamand from 16 days to 3 days at POPSK, Warangal, officials said.

Additional counter opened byRegional Passport authority

CITY LIGHTS

Aerospace and Aviation Lawyers Association of India (AALAI) incollaboration with the Centre for Aerospace and Defence Laws(CADL) at NALSAR University of Law, India has announced its

Second edition of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam air and space law andpolicy essay competition. This essay competition provides anopportunity to experienced practitioners and students to explorethe challenges and opportunities in the legal and policy areasrelating to aviation and space sector. Through the Centre forAerospace and Defence Laws of NALSAR under esteemedStewardship of Prof Dr V Balakista Reddy, Registrar and Head,CADL, NALSAR University of Law, an unique industry orientedsubjects especially in the field of Aerospace and Defence sectorswas introduced, thereby providing knowledge to multi-disciplinarydomains with regard to Aerospace and Defence Laws. This will bea great opportunity for the participants to showcase their ideas inthe aviation and space sectors.

AALAI with CADL announces APJ space essay competition

IN THE MAKING Army recruitment rally under unit headquarter quota

commenced at 1 EME Centre, Secunderabadreceives good response from the youth. A total of

4,114 candidates from all over the countryreported enthusiastically participated in the

recruitment process. They would be put throughphysical fitness test and medical examination in

coming days.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Alleging the apathy of gov-ernment in investigating the Rs500 crores scam, the Forum forGood Governance (FGG)urged the Telangana GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan todirect the officials for throughinvestigation into the case.

An RTI reply from theVigilance department revealedthat they have recommendedinitiating suitable disciplinaryaction against some of thegovernment officials for theiralleged role in the scam. Theofficials were identified as AVRamana Murthy former CTO,Abids, M Rambabu, FormerDeputy Commissioner (CT),Abids Division and GVenkateswarlu, JointCommissioner, Hyderabad.

Commercial tax departmentwas the large revenue genera-tor of the state. In 2005 ValuedAdded Tax (VAT) was intro-duced. While preparing esti-mates in irrigation project andother works, 4 per cent VAT islevied which the contractor hasto remit to the commercial taxdepartment. The contractorremitted four per cent of VATto commercial tax depart-ment. However, taking advan-

tage of a court case of unrelatedissue, officials of the commer-cial tax department along withthe contractor hatched a con-spiracy and duped the gov-ernment to the tune of Rs 500crore from 2009 to 2011.

Vigilance department con-ducted a detailed inquiry andsubmitted its report in 2012. Inthe report, it was stated that Rs500 crores VAT collected fromthe contractors was returned tothem in a mala fide way.

Further, the report pointedout that it was a big scamhatched by few officials inCommercial Tax departmentand requested for major penal-ty proceedings immediately.

Subsequently, the governmenthas initiated departmentalaction against the officers fortheir gross negligence.

Challenging the same, thecharged officers haveapproached the APAdministrative Tribunal.While the same was pending,the said cases were transferredto High Court.

Lamenting at the lack ofinterest by the government intaking stringent action againstthe culprits, Secretary of FGGM Padmanabha Reddy said,"Government should haveplaced the identified officialsunder suspension and shouldhave launched criminal pros-ecution against them underIPC. For two years there wasno concrete action except forroutine correspondence."

Further Padmanabha Reddyalleged, "The Revenue depart-ment is keeping the case a closeguarded secret."

The Revenue department isintentionally not pursuing thecase, added PadmanabhaReddy. With regard to thesame, the FGG has requestedthe Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan to order forquick action on the inquiryreport.

FGG seeks action against officialsin Rs 500 cr commercial tax scam

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Industries MinisterKT Rama Rao on Monday an-nounced that the two-day 18thedition of BioAsia will be heldvirtually for the first time fromFebruary 22.

Speaking after launchingthe logo and the theme ‘Movethe Needle’ of BioAsia 2021,flanked with Principal Secr-etary of Industries and Comm-erce Jayesh Ranjan and LifeSciences Director and BioAsiaCEO Shakthi Nagappan, KTRsaid BioAsia, which is the sta-te's flagship event, has emergedas important global meeting todeliberate on the opportuni-ties, challenges and solutionsfor the life sciences sector.

As the world is walking aperilous path to fight one of themost challenging health crisisof our times, KTR said, hebelieves that the event will haverelevance more than ever. Hesaid with theme, the event willprovide a platform to deliber-ate on topics of paramount im-portance, essentially centeredaround dealing with Covid,preparing for new realities ofhealthcare and much more.

18th edition of BioAsia tobe virtual from Feb: KTR

ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

The Legal Metrology depart-ment has registered a case aga-inst KS Bakers in Chandan-agar for violating PackagedCommodities Rules 2011.

The complainant bought aplum cake made with eggs fr-om KS Bakers thinking it wasan eggless cake. The complain-ant was shocked to know thatit wasn’t an eggless cake aftereating it. The bakers didn'tmention clearly on the pack-age about the details.

Based on a complaint by anactivist Sai Teja, Legal Metro-logy Officer of Ranga Reddyinspected the trading premis-es of KS Bakers in Chandana-gar and registered a case forcontravention of Rule 6(3) ofthe TS Legal Metrology Rules.

The complainant told ThePioneer, “I was made to eat acake with an egg in it when Iusually don't prefer to eatnon-veg. Only due to the neg-ligence of the bakery, I had toeat the cake. If the bakerywould have mentioned on thepackage whether it's egg cakeor eggless I would have avoid-

ed eating the cake with egg.Thankfully I could avoid it fur-ther because of the egg smell.The said bakery is not main-taining the standards as perthe symbol which is in effectto follow the Food Safety andStandards Act of 2006, and gota mandatory status after theframing of the regulations ofthe food products which arebeing sold at the bakery. If thishas happened in famous bak-ery so we can imagine howrampant it is in other places".

An activist Umesh Kumarsaid, “Machine which is usedfor measuring the weight ofthe commodity shall be veri-fied and stamped by the legalmetrology department. Sellingcommodity using an unverifi-ed weight machine is illegal asper Legal Metrology (Packa-ged Commodities) rules.”

PNS n HYDERABAD

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Monday suggested allcorporates to encourage whis-tle-blowing mechanism andprovide adequate safeguards forthe protection of whistle-blow-ers.

"I would like to suggest allcorporates to consciouslyencourage whistle-blowingmechanism and provide ade-quate safeguards for the pro-tection of the whistle- blowers,"he said.

Delivering the Convocationaddress at the Institute of

Company Secretaries of India(ICSI), the Vice Presidentstressed on upholding the prin-ciples of transparency, integri-ty and honesty at all times andreflecting them in every busi-ness activity.

Stressing the need to protectpublic money, Naidu said thatthe system has to be foolproofto reduce the scope for anyirregularity.

Highlighting that the actionsof a few have brought badname to Indian business, heurged the young company sec-retaries to ensure ethics andaccountability in corporate

governance through their guid-ance and handholding. "Thisprofession should be taken asa mission," Venkaiah asserted.

Expressing the hope that

the economy would rebound inthe coming months, the VicePresident urged India Inc totake the lead in making itrobust.

Stating that India has faredreasonably better than manyother nations, including thedeveloped ones, in the fightagainst the novel Coronavirusand in taking steps to revive theeconomy, Naidu referred to therecent remarks of IMF ChiefKristalina Georgieva, who hadsaid that India took very deci-sive steps to deal with thepandemic and its economicconsequences.

Calling for concerted effortsby all the stakeholders in mak-ing the economy robust again,Naidu said that institutionslike ICSI would be playing a

key role in putting the econo-my back on rails with a focuson good corporate governance.

Naidu said strong principlesof corporate governance mustbe the driving force of anycompany and added that trans-parency, integrity and honestymust be upheld at all times andmust be reflected in everybusiness activity.

Reminding the studentsabout India's glorious past, theVice President said that therewas no dearth of talent in thecountry. The need of the houris to identify and promote tal-ent.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Medical and HealthDepartment of Telangana hasadvised those who received thefirst dose of the Covid vaccineagainst smoking and consum-ing alcohol as several changeswill occur in the human bodyin the next 28 days soon afterreceiving the vaccine shot.

As antibodies will develop inthe body, the health authoritiesdirected those who received thefirst shot to have nutritiousfood and adopt proper foodhabits. They have been advisedagainst eating contaminatedfood or consuming contami-nated water. Besides these,consumption of alcohol wouldaffect the formation of anti-bodies. In this period, wearingmasks, cleaning hands, observ-ing physical distance and fol-lowing other precautions isnecessary.

In fact, 30 to 40 per cent ofthe total antibodies will beformed in 12 days of receivingthe first shot. By the 28th day,their formation would reach upto 70 per cent. After two weeksof receiving the second shot,the formation of the antibod-ies would be total.

After receiving the first shot,there would not be completeimmunity against the inci-

dence of Covid. As a result, theperson is likely to get infectedagain. That is why, the seconddose is mandatory. Those whoreceive the two doses of vaccinewill be protected fully againstthe pandemic.

The second dose can be hadtwo or three days prior or laterof the stipulated 28-day period.After receiving the two doses,even if the virus enters thebody it would not be able tocreate serious implications tothe host. But, there is every

danger of it is spreadijng toothers. Therefore, those whoreceived the vaccine and oth-ers should adopt certain pre-cautions.

Herd immunity is possibleonly after 70 per cent of thepopulation of the state havebeen vaccinated against theCovid. Therefore, till suchtime, observing precautions isvital.

The antibodies will beformed fully after 42 days ofreceiving the first shot.

Therefore, the people shouldhave nutritious food like dryfruits, fruits, fresh vegetablesand eggs.

In case the person whoreceived the vaccine first shotcomplains of fatigue, fever,head-ache and other drug sideeffects, the person should con-sult doctor.

Upon receiving the first shot,indulging in parties, takingoutside food and getting tipsyis not advisable.

The second dose can be had

after six weeks of receiving thefirst dose. The delay wouldmean delay in formation ofanti-bodies. In the meantime,there is risk of contracting thevirus.

If the receiver of the firstdose develops allergy, the sec-ond dose of the vaccine wouldnot be administered.

Karunakar, a radiographerworking in Suryapet whoreceived the first shot at 11 amon Saturday claimed to bevery happy even 48 hours afterreceiving the vaccine. Heattended his duty as usual afterreceiving the vaccine andplayed badminton. He claimsto have a good night sleep andindulged in usual work out andcycling regime. There was nochange whatsoever in hismenu. He appeals to all not toentertain any apprehensionsover the vaccine.

Gajwel-based sanitationworker D Keerthana said thatshe has been working at thegovernment hospital in Gajwelfor the past two years. Shereceived the first shot of vac-cine after being encouraged bydoctors. She was afraid initial-ly, but she did not have anycomplications in the next 24hours. She is going about herroutine usually without anyproblem.

28 days after vaccination crucial

HYDERABAD: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said the roleof Electricity department employees in the separate statehoodmovement was critical and unforgettable. “Even after the formationof state, Telangana could progress on all fronts only due to thededication and commitment of electricity employees to the state,”he said. The Minister was speaking after releasing the diary andcalendar of Telangana Electrical Engineers Association for 2021along with Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy at Pragathi Bhavanhere on Monday. TS Transco and Genco Chairman and ManagingDirector D Prabhakar Rao, TSSPDCL Chairman and ManagingDirector Raghuma Reddy, Association president Shivaji, generalsecretary Rameshwar Shetty and others were also present. KTRsaid that due to the unflinching efforts of the management and staffof power utilities in the state, Chief Minister K ChandrashekharRao’s vision of supplying uninterrupted power could be realised. Hepointed out that the Chief Minister had proved that good results canbe achieved by handing over responsibilities to those who are awareof the pros and cons.

KTR: ROLE OF ELECTRICITY EMPLOYEES INTELANGANA MOVEMENT UNFORGETTABLE

V-P suggests corporates to encourage whistle-blowing mechanism

PNS n HYDERABAD

A man in an inebriated stateset his 10-year-old son ablazeat KPHB Colony on Sunday.

The accused person iden-tified as Balu, a daily wagelabourer, was upset with hisson Charan, for his delay ingetting beedies and also fornot studying well.

According to police, thevictim's father sent him tobring beedies from a nearbyshop on Sunday night. As theboy delayed in getting beed-ies, he picked up an argumentand started thrashing himunder the pretext of not per-forming well in studies.

When the victim's mothertried to rescue him, Balu pu-shed her away and continuedassaulting him. “In the fit ofrage, the accused doused theboy with the turpentine oiland set him ablaze.The boystarted running for help dueto pain and fell into a pit, afterwhich the neighbours res-cued him and rushed him toGandhi Hospital," the policeofficials said. Police registereda case and are investigating.

SCR frontline personnelget first dose of vaccinePNS n HYDERABAD

The first doses of Covid vac-cine have been administeredto the South Central Railway(SCR) frontline medical staffat Central Railway Hospital inSecunderabad on Monday.

The vaccine was adminis-tered in the presence of SCRGeneral Manager GajananMallya. During the pandem-ic these frontline healthcare st-aff of the SCR zone have ren-

dered yeomen service, puttingtheir physical, mental andsocial well-being at risk.

Due to their dedicated ser-vice, the healthcare staff arethe first to be given Covid vac-cination doses, as part of thenationwide vaccination pro-gramme to the frontline healthcare personnel. The Zonalhospital in coordination withthe Central and state govern-ments has received 593 dosesof Covid vaccine.

Drunk man setsson ablaze overdelay in gettingbeedies

KS Bakers booked forviolating LM(PC) rules

State Home Minister launches T-20 traffic awareness test app

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021 hyderabad 04

PNSn HYDERABAD

The BJP is gearing up to replicatethe Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation(GHMC) poll victory in theensuing Khammam andWarangal MunicipalCorporation elections.

The party will take up sever-al programmes from January 24to February 15 as part of the strat-egy; party State unit presidentBandi Sanjay, along with partySangathan general secretaryMantri Srinivasji, finalised theschedule for the Khammam andWarangal MunicipalCorporation elections and MLCpolls. The party State Committeemeeting has evolved a concreteplan for these elections.

According to sources in theBJP, the Saffron party has decid-ed to finalise the election mani-festo for the municipal pollsbased on the complaints receivedfrom the people. To encouragethe people to lodge their com-plaints, it has decided to arrangea complaints box in each streetin Khammam and Warangal.

Besides, the party activistswill undertake door-to-door vis-its and study the conditions thatprevailed there. The party lead-ership is gearing up to establishmachinery for the purpose.

Depending on the feedback,the party receives it is going tofinalise its plan.

Teacher and graduates con-stituency elections for theLegislati1ve Council, an in-charge would be appointed forevery 25 voters. He is likely tomaintain cordial ties till theelections are over.

Furthermore, the party isgoing to utilise services ofdoctors, lawyers, teachersbelonging to the party and

Akhil Bharatiya VidyarthiParishad (ABVP) and the BJPYuva Morcha extensively.

To campaign for theMunicipal Corporation electionsin Khammam, the leadership hasplans to use the services of thelocals at various levels. It has plansto appoint State-level leaders asin-charges for the municipaldivisions.

To ensure electoral victory ofthe BJP in Khammam andWarangal MunicipalCorporation elections, it wants toapply the same formula is appliedfor success in the GHMC polls.It has plans to divide KhammamMunicipal Corporation into fourdivisions and appoint in-charges.

To supervise the activities ofbooth committees, constituted byFebruary 15, a large number ofparty activists would be appoint-ed. The party machinery hasbeen put in place to ensure thatthe party pamphlets and mani-festo reach every house.

Assurances given by KCR toKhammam and Warangal, fail-ures of the TRS government,increased taxation in MunicipalCorporations in the KCR regimeand pending problems would beused as main weapons to targetthe TRS in the elections. BandiSanjay has embarked on an exer-cise in this regard.

BJP gears up for Khammam,Warangal civic body polls

n Municipal polls manifestoto be shaped on the basis ofpeople’s complaints

n The party to installcomplaint boxes in streetsMarthi

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) Presidentand Nalgonda MP Capt NUttam Kumar Reddy allegedthat land grabbing has becomethe hallmark of TRS leadersacross the State.

He said that the Bowenpallykidnap case, in which formerminister of Andhra PradeshAkhila Priya has been namedas the main accused, was morecomplicated than it was pre-sented by the Hyderabadpolice. Stating that 'there wassomething else behind theland dispute', he added that theland grabbing activity of TRSleaders has also led to a seriesof other criminal activities inHyderabad and other parts ofTelangana State.

Speaking to the media afterattending the HuzurnagarMunicipal Council meetingon Monday, Uttam KumarReddy said that TRS leaderswere involved in land grabbingfrom Hyderabad toHuzurnagar and other parts ofthe State. He said that the sit-uation has turned so worse

that even TRS councillors werecomplaining of land grabbingby their own party leaders inHuzurnagar.

Uttam Kumar Reddy point-ed out several high profilecases of land grabbing, involv-ing top TRS leaders, whichhave been hitting the headlinesever since K ChandrasekharRao became the ChiefMinister. He said that KeesaraMRO Nagaraju was caughtred-handed by the officials of

the Anti-Corruption Bureauwhile accepting a bribe of Rs1.10 crore. However, theinvolvement of TRS leaders inthe case could not get exposedas two main accused, includ-ing the MRO, committed sui-cide.

He said Hyderabad wit-nessed the worst ever floodslast year primarily due to theencroachment of lakes andother water bodies by TRSleaders since 2014. He said no

area of Telangana has been leftwhere TRS leaders did notgrab, or attempted to encroachupon private and governmentlands.

He said that the hugeamounts seized by the ACB indifferent cases clearly showsthat officials have no fear oflaw as they are enjoying thebacking of TRS ministers,MLAs and other leaders. Hesaid the rising cases of landgrabbing and corruption werean indication that CM has lostgrip over administration.

More than what meets theeye, alleges TPCC president

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President and Nalgonda MP Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy adresses the media in Huzurnagar on Monday

n Hyderabad witnessed theworst ever floods last yearprimarily due to theencroachment of lakes andother water bodies by TRSleaders since 2014, said TPCCPresident and Nalgonda MPCapt N Uttam Kumar Reddy

n He said that the hugeamounts seized by the ACB indifferent cases clearly showsthat officials have no fear oflaw as they are enjoying thebacking of ministers, MLAsand other leaders

PNS n SANGAREDDY

Distr ic t Col lectorHanumantha Rao sought thecooperation of advocates inresolving land dispute cases.He opened a Special Tribunalat the Collectorate here onMonday. Speaking on theoccasion, he said that thegovernment has directed toresolve all cases related toland disputes within amonth. He said the SpecialTribunal has been set up inthe district with the Collectorand additional collector (rev-enue) as members.

The Tribunal was directedto resolve all cases in the dis-trict within the stipulatedtime frame as the term wasone month. He said all pend-

ing cases from the tahsildarto the Joint Collector need tobe resolved. In all, 700 casesare pending in the district.This Special Tribunal oper-ates every day except on

public holidays.AdditionalCollector Vira Reddy, DRORadhika Ramani, govern-ment advocate Narsingh Rao,lawyers and others were pre-sent.

Special Tribunal Courtinaugurated in Sangareddy

Collector Hanumantha Rao inaugurating the Tribunal Court in Sangareddy on Monday

PNS n HYDERABAD

BJP national general secretaryTarun Chugh called upon theparty workers to take PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's mes-sage of development and progressto every house in the State andexpose the inefficient and corruptpractices of the TRS government.

Addressing the party leaders,Chugh said the TRS governmentwas deliberately defeating theCentral schemes, which hadbeen launched by the PrimeMinister for the benefit of thepoor. In fact, he said, the TRSgovernment was creating hurdlesin the implementation of a num-ber of schemes that are meant forpeople in villages. He said KCR

had promoted nepotism in theState by projecting his familymembers as leaders of the partyand has broken all records of cor-ruption by forming the govern-ment on emotional grounds.

Chugh said the message of theModi government's governance,all that it has delivered to the peo-

ple of the country in the last sevenyears, needed to be taken to everyhouse and family in the State. Heexhorted the party workers toexpose the failures of the KCRgovernment because people inthe State are agitated and disap-pointed. "People are looking fora new hope and a new era to setin and it is the duty of the BJPworkers to fulfil their aspirations,”Chugh said.

Lauding the Modi govern-ment for historic decisions likethe abrogation of Article 370 and35A and initiating the construc-tion of Ram temple, Chugh saidthe BJP must intensify its cam-paign in the State by promisingthe people good governance andhonest administration.

PNS n HYDERABAD

For me r l e a d e r of C P IBurgula Narsing Rao passedaway at a private hospitalwhile undergoing treatmentfor C ov i d - 1 9 , h e re onMonday. He was 89.

Rao, the leader of theTelangana Armed Struggle,was tested posit ive forCoronavirus a few days agoand was undergoing treat-ment at Care Hospital inBanjara Hil ls where hebreathed his last this morn-ing. His last rites were per-formed at Jubilee Hills cre-matorium in the afternoon.

Hailing from a village inthe Mahbubnagar district,

Narsing Rao was born in apolitical family. His uncleBurugula Ramakrishna Raowas the first Chief Ministerof erstwhile HyderabadState. Rao was the President

of Nizam College StudentsUnion when HyderabadState was merged into theIndian Union.

He participated in theanti-Razakars' movementin the murky period thatfo l l owe d t he m e rge r.Meanwhile, Chief MinisterK Chandrashekar Rao hasexpressed his deep condo-lence over the demise ofTelangana Movement war-rior Burgula Narsing Rao.

In a message, the ChiefMi n i s te r s a i d t he ro l eplayed by Narsing Rao dur-ing the Telangana Armedstruggle and in the nextphase of Telangana move-ment.

Senior CPI leader BurgulaNarsing Rao passes away

PNS n BHUPALAPALLI

Singareni Chairman andManaging Director N Sridharsaid that as per the assurancegiven by Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao toemployees earlier, new quar-ters are being constructed anda part of this in the first phase1,478 quarters at a cost of Rs333 crore will be constructed.Out of these, 352 houses willbe completed by June, thebalance and allotment will becompleted by the year-end.

Earlier, Singareni workers’quarters were congested. Butnow, in line with the govern-ment’s policies, Singareni willbe providing a double bed-

room, hall, kitchen and com-mon area totalling 963 sq ft.Wide roads in between quar-ters, drainage and plantationon either side of the roads arebeing developed. Apart fromthese parks and play area forchildren is also being devel-oped.

Quarters for Singareniemployees by June

AKHILA PRIYA CASE

HANUMA VIHARI CALLS ON KTR

International cricketer Hanuma Vihari, who hogged limelight after a brilliantknock in the third test in the ongoing India-Australia series, calls on Minister for

Municipal Administration and IT K Taraka Rama Rao at Pragathi Bhavan inHyderabad on Monday

TRS creating hurdles for Modi'swelfare schemes, says Chugh

PNS n KARIMNAGAR

Former MLA and BJP leaderRevuri Prakash Reddy reiterat-ed that the BJP has emerged asa viable alternative in Telangana.

Addressing the first partyexecutive of the Karimnagardistrict unit here on Monday, heobserved that the people werevexed with the despotic rule ofthe TRS. The TRS has beencharting a unilateral coursethrowing the welfare of the peo-ple to the winds. Therefore, thepeople are ready to raise a ban-ner of revolt against the govern-ment, he said.

All development works in theState are being implementedwith Central funds, he saidadding that the State govern-ment has been doing preciouslittle.

Furthermore, he said that theTelangana government has beenusing the Central funds for itsvarious schemes, but failed to

publish a photo of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. Itstands as a testimony to thedespotic rule of the govern-ment.

The people are lookingtowards the BJP, he said addingthat the BJP emerged as analternative force in Telangana

with its people’s movements.The TRS defeat in Dubbak

bypoll is a slap on the face ofthe TRS government, he said.The BJP workers are workinglike soldiers with a mission-ary zeal and disciplined work-ers are the strength of the BJP.He appealed to the party lead-

ers and activists to strength-en the party from the boothlevel keeping in mind theforthcoming elections. Hewanted them to explain theanti-people policies of theTRS government to the peo-ple.

District president of theparty Gangadi Krishna Reddy,who presided, said that theparty is forging ahead with aplan to strengthen the party inthe district. The BJP launch-es agitations on people’s prob-lems continuously. He saidthat the party would launchmany more movements inthe future to expose the fail-ures of the TRS government.

The meeting discussed theactivities to be taken up in thefuture. District secretary ofthe party K Vasudeva Reddymoved several political reso-lutions for the approval of theexecutive. The executive bodyapproved them.

PNS n MEDAK

Chief Electoral Officer DrShashank Goel said thatthe electors’ photo identi-ty card (e-EPIC) pro-gramme will be formallylaunched on January 25 tomark the National Voters'Day.

Addressing the mediahere on Monday after ameet ing wit h re venuezonal councillors and tah-sildars at the mini-con-ference ha l l of t heCollectorate, the RDOs,who had worked to regis-ter voters as per the provi-sions of the electoral code,received objections, madechanges, additions andannounced the final list ofvoters on January 15.

e-EPIC to belaunched on Jan 25

PNSn HYDERABAD

The government continues tofail to make appropriatearrangements for the imple-mentation of hasty decisions ithas taken, alleged BJP leaderVijayashanthi. Although it hasdecided to reopen schools forcertain classes from February1, there are no conditions tocomply with the Covid rules,she pointed out.

“Hundreds of schools inTelangana are plagued by toi-let and water problems. Thiscondition becomes more andmore problematic for girlsthan for boys. The governmenthad never focused on theseissues before the Coronaspread. As a result, girls had todeal with the problem ofdropouts. In addition, there isa shortage of sanitation staff,”she lamented. There is nohope that this incompetent,corrupt government, whichhas done nothing then, willimprove the situation, she said.

‘Schoolsdeprived ofamenities’

BJP national general secretaryTarun Chugh

Revuri exhorts workers to strengthen party

Former MLA and BJP leader Revuri Prakash Reddy addressing the first partyexecutive of Karimnagar district unit on Monday

PNS n HYDERABAD

Prices of fine variety of ricehave been increased betweenRs 300 and 500 per quintalduring the past one month onaccount of the fall in produc-tion due to heavy rains anddiverting the rice to the mar-kets in other States. The traderssay that the prices of the finevariety of rice are likely toincrease further.

In kharif, a fine variety ofrice was cultivated in 39.66lakh acres out of the total areaunder the crop, 53 lakh acres.Against the government’s tar-get to procure 50 lakh tonnesof this variety of rice, the gov-ernment could procure only19.55 lakh tonnes.

This is attributed to heavyrains damaging the cropprospects leading to the dropin yield. Against the normalyield of 25 to 30 quintals peracre, the farmers could harvestonly 10-15 quintals. As a result,the market arrival of the finevariety has dropped. Moreover,empty grains, due to improp-

er procurement have forcedfarmers to dispose of rice withthem at Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 aquintal, far below the MSP.

For want of MSP at someplaces, the farmers got therice stocks with them milledand sold rice between Rs 3,200and Rs 4,000 a quintal. Theprice of BPT, which hovered atRs 3,150 a quintal increased toRs 3,500 after the farmers soldout the stocks with them.

The HMT rice is being soldbetween Rs 3,300 and Rs 3,700.Similarly, the Jai Sriram varietywas sold between Rs 3,850 andRs 4,100 per quintal. TelanganaSona's price increased to Rs

3,450 and Rs 3,800 dependingon the variety. Old rice wasbought at Rs 400 more than themarket price per quintal.

The traders from otherStates have evinced interest tolift stocks of fine variety fromTelangana. This has also jackedup the prices of fine variety ofrice, according to traders. Thefailure of the crop inKarnataka, Andhra Pradeshand Maharashtra lifted stocksof fine variety of rice fromTelangana.

According to unofficialsources, the fine variety ofrice diverted to other States wasput at 20 lakh tonnes, which is

more than one lakh tonnes,more than the rice procured bythe State government.

As a result, there was ashortage of fine varieties of rice.The prices will increase up toSeptember. The prices willdrop only when the fine vari-ety of rice harvested in rabienters the market. Moreover,the increase in the prices ofpetrol and diesel has beencontributing to increasing costsof fine variety of rice.

Rise in fine variety rice price in marketn This is attributed to heavyrains damaging the cropprospects leading to the dropin yield. Against the normalyield of 25 to 30 quintals peracre, the farmers couldharvest only 10 to 15 quintals

n As a result, the marketarrival of the fine variety hasdropped. Moreover, emptygrains, due to improperprocurement have forcedfarmers to dispose of rice withthem at Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 aquintal, far below the MSP

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021 nation 05

Twenty-one 'bikeambulances'developed by the

DRDO were on Mondayinducted into the CentralReserve Police Force(CRPF) for casualtyevacuation tasks in remoteNaxal violence andinsurgency-affected areas.The customised 'Rakshita'ambulances have been created on 350cc Royal Enfield Classic bikesby the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), ascientific research body under the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO). CRPF chief A P Maheshwarisaid the bikes will be used in operational areas like the Left WingExtremism-affected states and insurgency-hit areas for evacuatingsick or injured troops of the paramilitary force.

INDIA CORNER

CRPF gets 21 DRDO-developedbike ambulances for remote area

Expelled BJP functionaryRam Bihari Rathore,arrested last week on

charges of child sex abuse,had been involved in variouscriminal and anti-socialactivities for the past six-seven years, a senior policeofficial said on Monday.According to the police,Rathore also operated abetting racket from his housein Konch police area of Jalaundistrict in Uttar Pradesh. Investigators are collecting evidenceagainst him and may summon police personnel who had beenposted in the area in the past few years to gather more information.Konch police station SHO Imran Khan said all aspects are beinglooked into and necessary evidence are being collected so as toinvoke the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against Rathore.

Police say ex-BJP leader heldon charges of child sex abuse

Union minister Thawar ChandGehlot on Monday met hiscabinet colleague Shripad Naik,

who is undergoing treatment at aGoa hospital following anaccident last week, and enquiredabout his health. The minister forsocial justice and empowerment,who is on a visit to Goa toparticipate in various programmesscheduled by his department, visited Naik at the Goa MedicalCollege and Hospital (GMCH) located near here. "Naik's condition isgood. He spoke to me. I wished him a speedy recovery," Gehlot said.The minister also said that during his short visit, Naik and he sharedmemories of their private visit to the US some years back. GMCH'sDean Dr Shivanand Bandekar in a medical bulletin issued on Sundaysaid Naik is doing well and his general condition is much better. "Allhis vital parameters, including blood pressure, pulse rate andoxygen levels are within normal limits," he said.

Two bogies of a passengertrain on its way fromAmritsar to Jaynagar in

Bihar derailed in Lucknow onMonday morning, a railwayofficial said. No casualties werereported. The 4674 ShahidExpress left for its onwardjourney shortly after the incident, Senior Divisional CommercialManager Jagtosh Shukla said. The incident took place around 8 amwhen the train left platform no. 1 at the Charbagh railway stationand two of its bogies derailed, DRM Northern Railway, SanjayTripathi said. Among the derailed bogies, one was an AC three tierand another sleeper, and a total of 130 passengers were travelling inthem, the DRM said. The passengers of the derailed bogies wereshifted to other compartments and the train left for onwards journeyaround 10.25 am, DRM said.

Two bogies of passenger train derail in Lucknow

PNS n AHMEDABAD

Work is in progress on over1,000 km long metro rail net-work in 27 cities in India,Prime Minister NarendraModi said on Monday.

He was speaking after per-forming the ground breakingceremony of the AhmedabadMetro Rail Project Phase-IIand Surat Metro Rail Projectvia video conferencing.

"There was a time whenthere was no modern thinking

and policy on metro in ourcountry. The result was thatthere was a different (type of)metro in each city," Modi said.

There was no uniformitythen on the metro trains whichstarted in different cities. Therewas no integration of metrowith other modes of transportback then," he said.

Now, an integrated approachhas been brought in so thatvarious modes of transport,such bus and trains, comple-ment each other rather thanrunning independently, headded.

Both the metro projects inGujarat would come up at anestimated cost of around Rs17,000 crore, Modi said.

The metro network inAhmedabad and Surat will

further strengthen the connec-tivity in the two major businesscentres of the country, Modisaid, adding the government isdeveloping an integrated urbantransport system.

The difference between theapproach of his governmentand the previous governmentsis the (pace of) expansion ofthe metro rail network acrossthe country, he said.

"Before 2014, only 225 km ofmetro line became operationalin 10-12 yrs. In the last sixyears, over 450 km of metronetwork became operational,"Modi said.

The Ahmedabad and Surat

metro projects are expected toprovide an environmentfriendly Mass Rapid TransitSystem to these cities.

Modi said the metro pro-jects are designed keeping inmind both present as well asfuture needs.

The Ahmedabad Metro RailProject Phase-II is 28.25 kmlong with two corridors. Whilecorridor-1 is 22.8 km long andis from Motera Stadium toMahatma Mandir, corridor-2 is5.4 km long and is from GNLUto GIFT-City. The total com-pletion cost of the Phase-IIproject is Rs 5,384 crore, anofficial said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court told theCentre on Monday that theproposed tractor rally on theRepublic Day by farmersprotesting against the newfarm laws is a “law and order”matter and Delhi Police is thefirst authority to decide whoshould be allowed to enter thenational capital.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice S A Bobde, while hear-ing the Centre's applicationseeking an injunction againstthe proposed tractor or trolleymarch or any other kind ofprotest which seeks to disruptthe gathering and celebrationson January 26, said that policehas all the authority to dealwith the matter.

“Does the Supreme Courtsay as to what are the powersof police and how they willexercise them? We are notgoing to tell you what to do,”said the bench, also compris-ing Justices L N Rao and VineetSaran.

The apex court told AttorneyGeneral K K Venugopal that itwill take up the matter for hear-ing on Wednesday, January20. “The question of entering

into Delhi is a law and ordermatter and will be determinedby the police,” the bench said,adding, “Mr Attorney General,we are adjourning the matterand you have all the authorityto deal with this matter.”

The Centre, in an applica-tion filed through Delhi Police,has said that any proposedmarch or protest which seeksto disrupt and disturb theRepublic Day celebrations willcause an “embarrassment to thenation”.

During the hearing con-ducted through video-confer-encing, the bench said whoshould be allowed to enterDelhi and who should not beallowed has to be dealt with bythe police as the court is not the

“first authority”. The bench told Venugopal

that the apex court is seized ofthe issue of farm laws and “wehave not said anything onpolice powers”. The apex courtthen asked, “Are farmersunions appearing today?”.

Senior advocate DushyantDave said he was representingsome farmer unions in thematter. Advocate A P Singh,representing one of the farm-ers' body, told the bench aboutthe affidavit filed by themrequesting the top court toremove the remaining threemembers of the court-appoint-ed committee to resolve theissue of farm laws and selectpeople who can do the job "onthe basis of mutual harmony".

Proposed rally on Jan 26: It's law and order matter, says SC

PNS n NEW DELHI

Protesting union leaders onMonday said that farmershave a constitutional right totake out their tractor rallypeacefully and asserted thatthousands of people will par-ticipate in the proposed eventon January 26.

The Supreme Court saidon Monday that the DelhiPolice is the first authority todecide the entry of protestingfarmers into the national cap-ital.

Bhartiya Kisan Union(Lakhowal) Punjab generalsecretary Paramjit Singh saidthat farmers are not going tohold their rally on Rajpathand in other high-securityareas, adding that they wouldonly take out it on the OuterRing Road in Delhi and thatthere will be no disruption inthe official Republic Dayparade.

"We are stuck at the Delhiborders. We have not decid-ed to sit at these borders our-

selves, we have been stoppedfrom entering Delhi. We willtake out the rally peacefullywithout disrupting any lawand order. We will exerciseour constitutional right andwe will definitely enter Delhi,"Singh told PTI.

Another farmer leaderLakhbir Singh, who is vicepresident (Punjab) of AllIndia Kisan Sabha, said thatfarmers will return to protestsites after taking out the trac-tor rally on the Outer RingRoad on January 26.

"We will not go to anyplace where there might be agovernment gathering, andall our tractors will have anational flag and the flags ofour farmer unions," Lakhbirsaid. Asked about their standin case the Delhi Police doesnot give them permission forthe tractor parade, BKU(Ekta Ugrahan) presidentJoginder Singh Ugrahan saidthat farmers have constitu-tional rights to hold the trac-tor rally peacefully.

Farmers have right to take out tractor rally: Unions

PNS n CHENNAI

The Rajini Makkal Mandram(RMM) on Monday said mem-bers, if they so desire, may joinany political party after resign-ing from the Mandram.

The statement comes in thewake of three district secre-taries of RMM joining theDMK on Sunday.

The resignation of theMandram office-bearers comesfollowing actor Rajinikanth'srecent abandonment of hisplan to enter politics and facethe Tamil Nadu Assembly elec-tions, due during April-Maythis year.

Members, if they desire tojoin and work with any polit-ical party, may do so afterresigning from the Mandram,RMM said in a statement.

Though they join other par-ties, members of Rajini MakkalMandram should not 'forget'

that they are fans of the actor,the statement added.

District secretaries ofTuticorin, Ramanathapuramand Theni joined the DMK onSunday. Apart from them,three other functionaries alsojoined the DMK. The RajiniMakkal Mandram, (RajiniPeople's Forum) was previous-

ly considered the politicallaunch vehicle of the top actor.

On December 29 last year,Rajinikanth, citing his healthcondition vis-a-vis the coron-avirus pandemic announcedthat he would not join politics.

He had undergone renaltransplant in 2016 and is onimmuno-suppressants.

RMM says its members arefree to join any political party

PNS n NEW DELHI

Balloons, flowers, sanitisersand smiling faces welcomedclass 10 and 12 students inschools in the national capitalon Monday as they returned tocampuses after over 10 months.

The students who were elat-ed to be able to attend the firstoffline class of the academicsession wore masks andqueued up outside schoolsmaintaining social distance.

Schools reopened onMonday after over 10 monthsof being closed in view ofcoronavirus pandemic. DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid it was an emotionalmoment to see children back inschool.

"Seeing kids back in schoolafter a long time, is an emo-tional moment for me. Schoolshave reopened today after leav-ing behind a very difficulttime. We are hopeful that soon,everything will be normal andall students will be able to cometo schools and meet theirteachers and friends," he tweet-ed.

Pragati Diwan, an excitedclass 12 student said, "it wasoptional to come but I was sureI have to. It is the last year ofmy school life and I haven'tcome to school even one day,"said Pragati Diwan, an excitedclass 12 student.

For another student at GeetaBal Bharti School, the feelingwas similar to that of attendingfirst day at school.

"It does not feel like I amcoming to school after tenmonths, it feels like I havecome to school for the firsttime. I am looking forward to

the preparations for boardexams here," she said.

Prince, a student at Delhigovernment school, said, "Theonline classes were a greathelp for theoretical subjects butthe practical subjects were achallenge. I am glad to beback at school so the practicalconcepts will be easily brushedup before the board exams".

The school put up posters of"welcome back" in corridorswhere teachers stood with sani-tisers and checked the temper-ature of each student before let-ting them in.

Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalayain Mandawali decorated thepremises with balloons and theteachers showered flower petalson students, welcoming them.

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia also visited aschool in Chirag Enclave onMonday to assess the readinessof schools to welcome class 10and 12 students.

"Felt really good to meetchildren in schools after a longtime. They are still adjusting tobeing back in school with safe-ty norms but are extremelyhappy to meet their friends.The teachers are also overjoyedto meet students, saying it hasfilled an empty space in theirlife," Sisodia said

Calling students in differentslots, shorter school hours,frequent sanitisation and stag-gered entry and exit are amongthe plans of various schools inthe national capital as they gearto welcome class 10 and 12 stu-dents on Monday for the firsttime in the academic session.

The schools are reopening inDelhi after 10 months, afterbeing shut last year to prevent

the spread of the novel coron-avirus, and they have beeninstructed by the Directorate ofEducation (DoE) to follow allCOVID-19 guidelines whenclassroom studies resume.

The Delhi government hasallowed all schools outsideCOVID-19 containment zoneshere to reopen for classes 10and 12 from January 18 in viewof board exams. However, itmade clear that physical atten-dance is not compulsory andstudents will attend schoolsonly with the consent of par-ents.

Allowing 15 students at atime in a classroom, placinghandwashing consoles andsanitisers in corridors, volun-teers to ensure social distanc-ing is maintained, temperaturechecks and medical facilities onstandby if any student is notfeeling well, are among variousother initiatives planned byschools.

Schools are also workingout plans to ensure that stu-dents who choose not to cometo campus, do not miss outanything.

Smiles, sanitizers welcome students as schools reopen

PNS n AURANGABAD

The women's wing of BJP'sMaharashtra unit on Mondaystaged a protest outside theoffice of Aurangabad districtcollector and demanded res-ignation of state ministerDhananjay Munde, who hasbeen accused of rape by aMumbai-based woman.

The protesters said it wasunfortunate that the presentMaha Vikas Aghadi govern-ment had not provided justiceto the woman. Munde (45),who is the NCP MLA andstate's social justice minister,has denied the chargesagainst him and termed themas a blackmail attempt.

NCP chief Sharad Pawarlast week said the party willcontemplate action againstthe MLA only after the truthcomes out in a police probeinto the matter.

BJP women'swing seeksresignation ofDhananjay

PNS n NAVSARI

Three children and twoadults have drowned aftertheir boat capsized in a lakein Gujarat's Navsari districtwhen a large number oftourists tried to get on to thevessel while some others weredisembarking, police said onMonday.

Nearly 15 others wereinjured in the melee causedby tourists getting in and outof the boat in a rush onSunday evening, and officialfrom Chikhli police stationsaid. The incident took placein a lake at Soldhara EcoPoint, a tourist spot inChikhli taluka of Navsari, hesaid. "Due to the rush oftourists, the boat capsizedwhen people tried to get onto it at the same time whenothers were disembarking,"he said.

5 tourists drownas boat capsizesin Navsari lake

PNS n DANTEWADA

Eight Naxals surrendered inChhattisgarh's Dantewada onMonday, with district policeofficials claiming that its 'LonVarratu' campaign asking theMaoist ultras to return to themainstream was showingresults.

With this, 248 Naxals,including 67 with bounties ontheir heads, have so far laiddown arms in the district sincethe campaign, which means"return to your home/village"in the local Gondi dialect,started in June last year, an offi-cial said.

The eight ultras, including awoman, have said they surren-dered due to their disappoint-ment with the hollow Maoistideology, and because theywere encouraged by their for-mer colleagues who laid downarms as part of the Lon Varratu

appeal, informed DantewadaSuperintendent of PoliceAbhishek Pallava said.

"Of the eight, Suresh Oyami(20) was active as a member ofplatoon number 13 underBhairamgarh area committeeof the Maoist and was carryinga reward of Rs 2 lakh on hishead.

"Three others, Jogi Madvi(19), member of Pedaras LOS(local organisation squad),Pradip alias Pandru Kovasi(20), Mirtoor LOS memberand Sule Kawasi (35), militiaplatoon deputy commander,were carrying rewards of Rs 1lakh each," he said.

Eight Naxals surrender, copscredit Lon Varratu campaign

PNS nMORADABAD/LUCKNOW

A 46-year-old health workerdied a day after receiving thecoronavirus vaccination, withthe autopsy report attributingthe death to "cardio-pul-monary disease", officials saidon Monday.

Mahipal's family said hewas not suffering from any ail-ment other than fever andcough, and blamed the deathon vaccination.

A high-level inquiry wasbeing ordered, MoradabadDistrict Magistrate RakeshSingh said.

Mahipal, working as wardboy in the surgical ward of thestate-run Deendayal Upadhyahospital in Moradabad, diedon Sunday night.

Chief Medical Officer DrMilind Chandra Garg, howev-er, said that the cause of deathwas a cardiac problem.

"Deceased Mahipal's heartwas found enlarged and ithad blood clots according topostmortem report," he said.

"It appears that Mahipalwas suffering from a cardiacdisease," he said.

The the report of the post-mortem, conducted by threedoctors, said the death wascaused by "cardio-pulmonarydisease" and there is "no rela-tion with corona vaccine".

The CMO trashed sugges-tions of any type of side effectof the vaccination, though headmitted that some employeeswere suffering from fever aftertaking the shots.

PNS n BARMER(RAJASTHAN)

A 16-year-old girl was founddead with her throat slit inRajasthan's Barmer districton Monday with police sus-pecting that she was rapedbefore being murdered.

The body was recoveredfrom a field behind her housein Suwala village.

Her throat was slit and it,prima facie, seems the girlwas murdered after rape,Barmer SP Anand Sharmasaid, adding that sexualassault can be confirmedonly after the post-mortemreport is received.

16-year-old girlfound dead, rapesuspected

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court onMonday said accepting thenew privacy policy of socialmessaging app WhatsApp wasa "voluntary" thing and onecan choose not to use or jointhat platform if one did notagree with its terms and con-ditions.

"It is a private app. Don'tjoin it. It is a voluntary thing,don't accept it. Use some otherapp," Justice Sanjeev Sachdevasaid to the petitioner, a lawyer,who has challengedWhatsApp's new privacy pol-icy which was slated to comeinto effect in February but has

been deferred till May.The court also said that if

the terms and conditions ofmost mobile apps are read,"you would be surprised as towhat all you are consentingto". "Even Google maps cap-tures all your data and storesit," the court said.

The court further said itcould not understand whatdata would be leaked accord-ing to the petitioner and sincethe issue requires considera-tion, it will be listed on January25 due to paucity of time onMonday. The central govern-ment also agreed with thecourt that the issue needs to beanalysed.

Don't join WhatsApp if notaccepting new policy: HC

Health worker dies dayafter receiving vax shot

PM: Work underway on1000 km metro network

Union minister Gehlot visitsShripad Naik in Goa hospital

After decades of intransi-gence, the UnionGovernment and policy-makers in the education

sector have come up with aNational Education Policy (NEP)which is more in tune with nation-al priorities and contemporaryrealities. This is so because the newpolicy pays special attention to threevery important areas that have beenneglected for long — holistic andmultidisciplinary education, voca-tional education and impartation ofskills and equalisation of opportu-nity for digital education.

The Centre has drafted educa-tion policies in the past. However,like many things which werethought of earlier, these plans havefallen by the wayside for the lack offoresight, funds and commitment.Eventually they just ended up as astring of shibboleths — high sound-ing but vacuous prose — justmeant for the printer contracted bythe Government to make a killing!

But, this time it is differentbecause it seeks to diagnose andconfront the real problems that weface in the field of education, be itearly childhood care and learning,curriculum and pedagogy inschools, language education, holis-tic and integrated learning, voca-tional education and promotion ofIndian languages, art and culture.It is difficult in a single column tocover all aspects of this policy, sobetter limit the attention to just afew aspects like holistic, multidis-ciplinary and vocational education.

The NEP talks about the mul-tidisciplinary approach of univer-sities like Takshashila and Nalandawhere good education meant goodknowledge of 64 “kalaas” or artswhich included singing, painting,chemistry, mathematics, medi-cine, engineering and vocationalsubjects such as carpentry, cloth-making and soft skills such as com-munication and debating. In otherwords, it was holistic knowledge —complete, comprehensive educa-tion that gave an individual morethan rudimentary understandingof various disciplines of learningand equipped him/her for life’schallenges. The NEP says: “Thevery idea that all branches of cre-ative human endeavour, includingmathematics, science, vocationalsubjects, professional subjects andsoft skills should be considered artshas distinctly Indian origins.”Therefore, this ancient under-standing of education “must bebrought back to Indian education,as it is exactly the kind of educa-tion that will be required for the21st century.”

This statement of intent inthe NEP, if implemented withutmost commitment, will revo-lutionise higher education in thecountry, which fell into the rutof clearly separating the arts andthe sciences for decades as ifthese disciplines were enemies ofone another. This policy was pur-sued with such ferocity thateven students who acquiredMasters’ and Ph.D degrees felt asense of incompleteness to theireducation and understandingof the world, and consequentlylost out to their peers in the west-ern world who were blessedwith holistic education.

It is indeed sad that ourpoliticians, bureaucrats and edu-cationists persisted with such apolicy that segmented knowl-edge, put students into a straitjacket and virtually prohibitedthem from venturing into areasoutside their syllabus.

All those responsible forthis short-sighted policy must beidentified and asked why theysubjected millions of Indian stu-dents to such mindless compart-mentalisation.

The second issue is voca-tional training. SinceIndependence, Indians were toldthat blue-collar jobs like runninga lathe machine or being a fitteror turner in a factory; operatinga bulldozer or heavy earth-mov-ing equipment; carpentry,plumbing, basic electrical workand so on were meant for the lesseducated or those who passedout of Industrial TrainingInstitutes (ITIs). Good middle

class boys would go to college,acquire their degrees (with verylittle skills) and become “boxwal-lahs” or private sector executivesor teachers. The less fortunateamong them would becomeGovernment clerks, whereas thesmarter ones would take civil ser-vice exams and become babus.Further, “safe” Government jobsbecame the ultimate dream forthe youth. The system did notignite the entrepreneurialinstincts of students or challenge

them to explore new avenues.Thus, persons with passable lan-guage skills and a smattering ofEnglish were the smart guys withgood incomes, whereas the oneswith real skills — the lathe oper-ators, the electricians and so on,who ran our industries and themanufacturing sector, who keptthe country’s Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) rising —belonged to a lower grade, theworking class.

This anomaly persisted fordecades because the Indianmiddle class declared that adegree certificate was a must toenter its precincts and to be inits marriage market. This couldhave been easily set right byawarding degrees after three-year training at an ITI to thosepassing out. Finally, the newNEP recognises this lacuna andseeks to remedy it.

It is indeed a shame that thisconvoluted middle class habit ofhonouring skill-less educationwas allowed to persist for over 70years after Independence.

This has cost us dearly,because the 12th Five-Year Planestimated that only five per centof the Indian workforce in theage group of 19-24 yearsreceived formal vocational edu-cation, whereas it was 52 percent in the US, 75 per cent inGermany and 96 per cent inSouth Korea. That means themost advanced nations have ahigh percentage of youth withvocational education, some-thing that the Indian middleclass and policymakers scoffed

at. This happened because voca-tional education was focusedlargely on grade eighth dropoutsor students in class 11 and 12who opted for vocational train-ing.

As a result “vocational edu-cation is perceived to be inferi-or to mainstream education andis meant largely for students whoare unable to cope with the lat-ter”, says the NEP. It also seeks toovercome the social status hier-archy associated with vocation-al education.

So, now, the plan is that 50per cent of students throughschool and higher educationshould have vocational educationby 2025. It will also be possiblefor students with vocationalskills to get Bachelor’s degrees.Alternately, students in under-graduate courses can join four-year multidisciplinary pro-grammes and walk out withworthwhile skills apart fromtheir degrees. In short, theapartheid created by the educa-tion system separating the skilledand qualified certificate holdersfrom the unskilled but “packageddegreewallahs” will come to anend. The day we see the skilledworkers getting their due, Indiawill take a big leap forward.

We must now keep the pres-sure on the Government andpolicymakers to see that the NEPis implemented with utmosthonesty and diligence.

(The writer is an author specialising in democracy

studies. The views expressed arepersonal).

The ongoing controversy over Amazon Prime’snew web series ‘Tandav’ is not something newto the country and similar contentious debates

took place at the time of the release of movies likethe Deepika Padukone-starrer Padmaavat and AamirKhan’s PK. The political drama, in which Saif Ali Khan,Dimple Kapadia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub haveplayed lead roles was released on the Over-the-Top(OTT) media platform on January 15. The BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) leaders have taken umbrage ata scene in which Ayyub performs a play as LordShiva. With Maharashtra BJP MLA Ram Kadam fil-ing a police complaint at Mumbai’s Ghatkopar PoliceStation and seeking the boycott of the series, it

becomes amply clear that the row is politically-motivated and the saffron brigadewill leave no stone unturned to derive maximum mileage out of the issue. Particularlyin view of the forthcoming West Bengal elections, as the saffron party portray’s itselfas the “protector” of the faith. That Kadam is refusing to budge from his demand ofa boycott of the series despite the cast and crew issuing an “unconditional” apolo-gy on Monday evening, clarifying that they did not intend to offend religious beliefsor sentiments, is a clear indication of this. They also referred to parts of a disclaimerthat is an industry standard and said ‘Tandav’ was a “work of fiction” and that “anyresemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental.” Kadam has nowgone one step ahead and asked all Hindus to shun Amazon’s shopping site and con-tent platform. So obviously he is spoiling for a fight. Fortunately, an online seriesrules out the possibility of aggressive Hindu fringe elements threatening the audi-ence and burning movie theatres.

Another BJP leader Manoj Kotak, the MP from Mumbai North-East, wrote to theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) expressing strong objections to theweb series. He too, demanded an immediate ban on the streaming of the show. Withthe BJP being in power at the Centre, the I&B Ministry has reportedly sought a responsefrom Amazon Prime officials. The Government recently brought OTT platforms suchas Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, besides other online newsand current affairs content, under the ambit of the I&B Ministry, giving it powers toregulate policies and rules for the digital space. The advocates of free speech havealways underscored that the right to freedom of speech and expression cannot becurtailed and the Indian Constitution guarantees it. Though one agrees with this sen-time, and the fact that the right to expression is sacrosanct, it doesn’t give anyonea licence to hurt the religious sentiments of any community by insulting their godsand goddess or by potraying them in a bad light. But that said, one cannot but helpwonder how is it that “Hindu sentiments” were never as fragile as they are today.Has not India always been a country that has been proud of its tolerant nature andthe fact that we follow the Gandhians principles of “ahimsa.” Are we now a nationthat is deeply divided and intolerance towards even an imagined slight is the newnormal? How then, are we any different from those who waged a war against CharlieHebdo? Needless to say, the controversy surrounding ‘Tandav’ and the slight, realor imagined, has provided more fodder to fringe elements who thrive on disturbingcommunal harmony and targeting minorities. As a result of this, two FIRs have beenregistered against the makers of the show, one in Mumbai and the other in Lucknow.Reportedly, the charges include promoting enmity between different religious groups,race, destruction, damage or defilement of a place of worship or an object held sacred.Things are definitely going to be tough for the makers of ‘Tandav’. But one wonderswhy the upholders of Indian culture and values don’t raise a hue and cry over thekind of content that we see on the OTT platform, which is saturated with violence,nudity, abuses, derogatory gestures and remarks. It would be wonderful to clean upthe content overall, instead of just focusing on religion.

Diaspora power

It is said about the Indian diaspora in the Westernworld, whether they are first-generation immigrantsor third or even fourth-generation immigrants, that

they have a humongous amount of influence com-pared to the size of the ‘Indian’ community in thosecountries. In Kamala Harris, a half-Jamaican, half-Tamilian woman, a person of partial Indian ethnici-ty (Harris identifies as ‘Black’ despite being raisedby her Tamilian mother) is rising to one of the mostpowerful offices in the United States (US) and manyopenly predict that this role is an audition for a poten-tial run as President very soon. Harris also speaksfluent Sanskrit and Tamil and is believed to be a dis-tant cousin of India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

Along with Harris, we are now informed that over 20 Indian-origin members of theBiden-Harris Administration will start their jobs on January 20, and in doing so thisadministration has come a long way from the lily-White Trump Administration andeven the Obama Administration where actor Kalpen Modi (stage name ‘Kal Penn’)was the most notable American of Indian origin. Harris however, is not the first Indianin a major office of state in a western nation, that would be the Indian-origin minis-ters in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary PritiPatel. While we in India should feel proud of the achievements of our brethren onforeign shores, many of whom have overcome institutional racism to rise to the top,we must not forget a couple of things. While many of these people might be proudof their Indian heritage, none of them owe anything to the country of their origin.Indeed, if any of them come from lower down the social ladder in India, they mighteven have an antithetical view and might be hostile towards India.

In fact, it is very likely that Indian-origin politicians and bureaucrats in power inthe West, might use that power to put a squeeze on Indian policymaking, indeed somelike US Representative Pramila Jayapal have tried doing just that. That said, globalrealpolitik and the western world’s need to position India as a bulwark against Chinamight make all this posturing a moot point. The Quad alliance between Australia, Japan,the US and India is a reality that will not go away. But, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’smiscalculation in supporting US President Donald Trump during his 2019 visit toHouston and Trump’s visit to India last year, might have potential after-effects forIndian policymakers going forward. And while celebrating the success of Indians inthe US we must not forget a few realities that we tend to ignore. Many Indians tendto “ghettoise” when they go to the West, something clearly visible in cities like SanJose, California and Edison, New Jersey, it would be remiss of us in India to ignorethis fact. It is also true that a vast majority of Indians in the western world are notjust upper caste immigrants but also extremely insular. Indeed social caste mobili-ty in India is easier than in communities who have immigrated to the West as theirsocial outlook is stuck in the past while India has progressed.

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021

06

OTT Tandav

First the United Kingdom, now in the United States.Members of the Indian diaspora are rising to power

Though the saffron brigade might be trying to derivemileage, but OTT content does need to be cleaned up

Good to focus on skill

A SURYA PRAKASH

SC leaves Govt in a tizzySir — It is sad that the SupremeCourt on Monday refused to passany order on the farmers’ pro-posed tractor rally which seeksto disrupt Republic Day (R-Day) celebrations on January 26in the Capital. The apex courtBench headed by the ChiefJustice of India (CJI) said that theproposed tractor rally by thefarmers protesting on the borderscomes under the category of “lawand order” and Delhi Police is thefirst authority to decide whoshould be allowed to enter theCapital and it was not the job ofthe Supreme Court. CJI Bobde’sorder came as a great setback tothe Centre. Now, the chances ofviolence on R-Day haveincreased manifold as the policemight deal with the farmers in ahigh-handed manner which willin turn instigate the cultivators toretaliate with force.

Further, if any rally or protestby the farmers disrupts the R-Day parade, it will be an embar-rassment to the country as it isassociated with the nation’s pride.With this the Centre and theDelhi Police are in fix as theyhave no clue what to do now.

Bhagwan Thadani Mumbai

Mamata’s tactical move Sir — With Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee announcingthat she will contest the BengalAssembly election fromNandigram, politics in the Statehas taken an interesting turn.Now, the fight for the BJP is def-initely not a cakewalk and theparty will have to devise its strat-

egy accordingly. The announce-ment is significant as Nandigramis the constituency of her formerright hand man SuvenduAdhikari, who crossed over to theBJP last month. Only the futurewill tell whether the announce-ment will help “Didi” and stop thedefections from her party to theBJP. She has also supported theongoing farmers’ agitation which

has been continuing for over 50days in Delhi-NCR. In 2007, asmany as 14 people were killed inclashes in Nandigram betweenprotesting farmers and the police.In the subsequent election, theTMC crafted the “Ma, Maati,Manush” campaign and registereda landslide victory.

Yash Pal Ralhan Jalandhar

Why hurt feelings? Sir — Taking cognisance ofcomplaints that Hindu gods andgoddesses have been ridiculed inthe web series ‘Tandav’, theMinistry of Information andBroadcasting sought an explana-tion from the online streamingplatform Amazon Prime Video. Inthe end the series has proved tobe one more case of controver-sial cinema.

It is quite clear that suchshows are produced only to cre-ate controversies and get the eye-balls. It seems that the makers ofthe web series have deliberatelymocked Hindu gods and disre-spected Hindu religious senti-ments for their own selfish gains.The show clearly reveals a lack-adaisical attempt at portrayingIndia’s diverse polity.

India is the land of peace,harmony and tolerance. Nobodyhas the right to hurt the senti-ments of a religious communityjust for the sake of entertainment.So, it is in the interest of every-one that such films should beoutrightly banned.

Krishnan RamaniCoimbatore

Inoculation is a turning point in the COVID war

The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive launchedon January 16 has put the country in immunisationmode and marked a turning point in the fight against

the pandemic. It was, literally and figuratively, a shot inthe arm. In this pandemic time the vaccines are the bestthing to happen to us. Vaccines are lifesavers and con-stitute an effective pharmacological intervention for pro-viding immunity against the Coronavirus that has causeda global health emergency. They will result in great gainsin public health as time goes by.

It is true that vaccination is yet to pick up pace inmany parts of the country. While the plan is to inocu-late 100 people in each centre daily it may not alwaysbe possible to reach the set target. With time, the pic-ture will become less hazy. People should have confi-dence in the vaccines. They must shed their inhibitionsand turn up at the vaccination sessions. Apart from logis-tics and practicalities, people need to have trust in thesafety and effectiveness of vaccines and realise theimportance of immunisation to make the drive a suc-cess. It is important to allay fears and uncertainties. Inthis context, dissemination of information assumes

added importance.The country’s top political executives should con-

sider taking the jab to inspire confidence, as was doneby Joe Biden and many other world leaders. TheGovernment must also consider leaving the choice ofthe vaccine to the recipients. It should give the coun-try’s impoverished citizens the vaccine for free.

G David Milton Tamil Nadu

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Apart from nepotism andthe movie mafia, the mostawful thing about being an actor is night shifts.When the Sun rises you go to sleep.

ActorKangana Ranaut

Today, India is taking major decisionswith confidence. It is not only doing things bigger but also better.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

To protect the lives and health of the people I will getthe situation back to normalas soon as possible. What isimportant is to provide necessary medical services.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga

S O U N D B I T E

The NEP is more in tune with national priorities and contemporaryrealities. It pays attention to areas that had been neglected for long

The boy has become a man on this tour. Siraj, leader of the attack in his first Test series and he has led from the front.

Former cricketer

Virender Sehwag

THE CENTRE HASDRAFTED EDUCATION

POLICIES IN THEPAST. HOWEVER,

LIKE MANY THINGSWHICH WERETHOUGHT OF

EARLIER, THESEPLANS HAVE FALLEN

BY THE WAYSIDEFOR THE LACK OF

FORESIGHT, FUNDSAND COMMITMENT

India must stand its ground

BRINGING KARNATAKA’S MARATHI-SPEAKING AND

CULTURAL REGION INTO MAHARASHTRA WILL BE A

TRIBUTE TO SOLDIERS MARTYRED IN THE BORDER WAR.

—MAHARASHTRA CHIEF MINISTER

UDDHAV THACKERAY

REGIONALISM AND TALK OF LINGUISTICS ARE

DETRIMENTAL TO THE UNITY OF THE COUNTRY.

I CONDEMN THIS.

—KARNATAKA CHIEF MINISTER

BS YEDIYURAPPA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

In its findings on the Section 301 probe conduct-ed under the US Trade Act, 1974, the US TradeRepresentative (USTR) has inter alia conclud-

ed that India’s digital services taxes (DST) or theso-called equalisation levy (EL) at the rate of twoper cent, unfairly targets US companies. The USTRraised three aspects that, it alleges, are inconsistentwith global tax principles: First, the levy on UScompanies has extra-territorial application; second,DST is a tax on the firm’s revenue, not its income;and third, it subjects US companies to double tax-ation.

The above findings could lead to the US impos-ing duties on Indian goods; restrictions on importof goods and services; restrictions/denial onissuance of service sector authorisations; askingIndia for compensatory trade benefits and takingbinding commitments from New Delhi to phaseout the levy.

The stance taken by the US Administration isuntenable and totally unjustified. At the outset, letus take a close look at the DST and the reason whyIndia had to introduce it.

The operations of multinational corporations(MNCs) are transnational, with entities located inseveral countries involving a high-level of inter-dependence and cross-border flow of goods andservices between them, as also direct supplies toretailers and consumers. For firms such as Google,Facebook and Amazon, who do business in digi-tal mode, physical boundaries get blurred. Theystructure their investment arms through a mazeof subsidiaries held outside India in low-tax juris-dictions such as Singapore, Mauritius and Irelandamong others.

These technology giants invoice Indian cus-tomers through these offshore entities despite hav-ing significant revenue, users or paying customersin the country, even as their Indian entity is craft-ed more like a service company or commissionagent to the parent company located abroad. Thishelps them in booking an overwhelming share ofrevenues in the parent company (registered in atax haven) while a very small portion ofservice/commission revenue and income is report-ed in the entity registered in India.

In short, these firms make money from theiroperations in India but don’t pay taxes to theGovernment. On the other hand, India-based e-commerce operators are subject to taxes in thecountry for revenue generated from the Indianmarket.

To address this anomaly, in 2016, the NarendraModi Government introduced EL with an intentto tax Business to Business (B2B) and e-com-merce/digital transactions. This tax is levied at sixper cent on the payment made by a resident firmto foreign e-commerce companies for online adver-tisements run on the latter’s platform. While mak-ing a payment, the resident firm has to deduct taxfrom the consideration payable and deposit it tothe department.

Through an amendment to the Finance Act,2020, the scope of EL was extended to all sales, grossreceipts or turnover of non-residents not havinga Permanent Establishment (PE is a fixed place ofbusiness normally located in the territory of thesource country), who is providing the online saleof goods or provision of services or both to a per-son residing in India or a non-resident in specif-ic circumstances, such as the sale of advertisementtargeted to the Indian market or sale of data col-lected from it. This levy is at two per cent on thesum received or receivable by an e-commerce oper-

ator and is payable directly to theCentral Government on a quarterlybasis.

Though the USTR has objected tothe two per cent DST, it is silent on thesix per cent EL on online advertising rev-enue. All the aforementioned objectionsraised by it are untenable. At the outset,the levy does not discriminate against anyUS company as it applies equally to allnon-resident e-commerce operators,irrespective of their country of residence.Just because out of the 119 companieslikely to be taxed, 72 per cent happen tobe American, does not mean that the lat-ter alone have been targeted.

Second, contrary to what is claimedby the USTR, the levy is applied only onsales occurring in the territory of Indiathrough digital means. Consequently, thecharge that it has extra-territorial appli-cation is baseless.

It is ironical that the digital giants firstuse a disingenuous architecture to showrevenue generated from Indian opera-tions as happening in foreign jurisdic-tions and then, claim that the IndianGovernment has no right to tax theirprofits. But, they and the US administra-tion can’t get away from the fact that theyare making profit from their operationson Indian soil. Hence, they are liable totax here. In the normal course, for a for-eign firm having a PE from where it con-ducts transactions — including salesmade in India — and maintainsaccounts, receipts, expenditure, profit andso on for local operations, the taxdepartment has a smooth sail. But tech-nological giants don’t have a PE on Indiansoil. To overcome this hurdle, in 2018, acommittee set up by the Central Boardof Direct Taxes (CBDT) had mooted theconcept of digital permanent establish-ment (DPE). The Income-Tax Act pro-

vides for levy of tax on the profit attrib-uted to the Indian operations of such off-shore enterprises in the country. Thecommittee proposed tax at the rate of 30-40 per cent, depending on the user baseand revenues (only firms with a user baseover 2,00,000 would be considered).

As a follow up, in the Finance Act2018, the Government proposed that“such offshore firms should be taxed inIndia if they have a market presenceabove a threshold to be defined interms of their customer base and rev-enue.” But this needs an amendment toIndia’s tax treaties with all its trade andinvestment partners. Till that is done (atime-consuming process) theGovernment has levied tax on theamount received or receivable by an e-commerce operator.

This brings us to the third charge lev-eled by the USTR: “The DST taxes acompany’s revenue, not its income.”Ideally, the profits (or income) made bythe foreign entity from its operations inIndia should be taxed. However, inview of the digital giants not having a PEhere and the concept of DPE yet to getincorporated in tax treaties with India’strade and investment partners or till suchtime an agreement at the internationallevel which is acceptable to all is reached,a levy on the revenue is the only logicalway forward. However, efforts are alreadybeing made under the aegis of theOrganisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) to arrive ata so-called base erosion profit shifting(BEPS) framework agreement. TheOECD had released a draft report on“taxing digital companies” on October 9,2019, however, progress got stalled dueto the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for the accusation of US compa-nies being subject to double taxation, it

is for them to sort out with the countrywhere it is incorporated (or country ofresidence). Merely because they pay taxin the country of residence resulting indouble taxation, it can’t be a valid basisfor denying tax to a jurisdiction whereit is legitimately due (India). Even so, sev-eral countries of residence happen to below or nil tax jurisdictions or they pro-vide set-off for taxes paid by MNCs inthe country of operation, effectivelyensuring nil tax.

India’s right to collect tax is also insync with the stance taken by the OECDunder the BEPS framework agreement.It states: “Profits of MNCs should beavailable for taxation in the countrywhere their customers are, irrespectiveof any physical presence in that market,and that a formula should be evolved forsuch taxation.”

To conclude, all objections raised bythe USTR on the two per cent DST leviedby the Indian Government on foreigntechnology companies are baseless andunsubstantiated. India must not yield tothe pressure tactics of the US adminis-tration by withdrawing the tax.

At the same time, India should workfor early finalisation of the BEPS frame-work agreement at the OECD. It shouldevolve a consensus on acceptance of theDPE concept and also get ready with acriteria for treating a foreign company asa DPE. The criteria should give appro-priate weight to three crucial parametersi.e. the number of users, paying cus-tomers or annual revenue. The tax rateon such companies — treated as DPE —should be equal to the rate applicable todomestic companies to ensure fair playand non-discrimination.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)

All objections raised by the USTR on the DST levied by India on foreign tech firms are baseless.The Govt must not yield to the pressure tactics of the US administration by withdrawing the tax

07F I R S T C O L U M N

Leading from the front

RAM ACHARYA

During the Coronavirus pandemic the SCRshowed the country how to turn an

adversity into an opportunity

UTTAM GUPTA

IT IS IRONICAL THAT DIGITALGIANTS FIRST

USE ADISINGENUOUSARCHITECTURE

TO SHOW REVENUEGENERATED FROM

INDIAN OPERATIONSAS HAPPENING

IN FOREIGNJURISDICTIONS

AND THEN, CLAIMTHAT THE

INDIANGOVERNMENT HAS NO RIGHT TO TAX THEIRPROFITS. BUT,

THEY AND THE USADMINISTRATIONCAN’T GET AWAYFROM THE FACTTHAT THEY AREMAKING PROFIT

FROM THEIROPERATIONS ON

INDIAN SOIL.HENCE, THEY

ARE LIABLE TO TAX HERE

The COVID-19 pandemic may have severely impacted the Indianeconomy but the South Central Railway (SCR) rose to the occa-sion by running scores of Shramik Special trains for ferrying thou-

sands of migrant labourers out of Hyderabad to cities and towns inBihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Odisha. Sensing the growing and urgentnationwide clamour for immigrant labourers to be allowed to head homeby train — as opposed to them being forced to trek kilometres (km)on foot, with many of the workers dying in the process — the SCRwas first off the mark. It took the initiative of helping out the hungry,impoverished and tired workers who had reached a breaking point. TheSCR began an immigrant labour special train from Lingampally nearHyderabad to Hatia in Jharkhand as early as May 1, 2020, followedby 242 special trains from its stations located in Telangana,Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to various stations in North and North-West India. During the next two months, the SCR transported over3,13,500 passengers and reportedly at the peak of the operations, 43Shramik Specials were rolled out in a short span of 12 hours.

In the midst of the raging Coronavirus pandemic, the SCR creat-ed a safe environment for the labourers who were heading back to theirhometowns and villages. The SCR ensured social distancing, repeat-ed sanitising of all trains, use of hand sanitisers by all, contactless ther-mal scanning and ticket checking through cameras by the ticket check-ing staff. Plus, the employees deputed at stations wore Personal ProtectiveEquipment (PPE) suits, gloves and facial shields, in order to ensurethat they and the passengers remained safe from the virus. They alsomade sure that the passengers wore masks and followed other COVIDprotocols. If they had not done so, the consequences for the peoplereturning home and the towns and villages would have been disas-trous. Special arrangements for food at specified intervals were madefor originating trains as well as those that were passing through, withthe support of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) and several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). As thoughthe COVID-19 contagion was not enough of a crisis for the nation todeal with, disaster struck on May 5 when a major gas leak was report-ed at Vizag. Consequently, the movement of all trains, including theShramik Specials had to be halted through the city, and they had tobe diverted on alternative routes after a short delay.

However, the shutting down of passenger trains was an oppor-tunity for the SCR to run more of freight and special parcel trains, allow-ing it to earn revenue when general economic activity was on the decline,nationwide. Weekly special parcel trains were run from the NewKacheguda goods shed near Hyderabad to New Guwahati, carryingfish, dry fish, eggs, lemon, oil, ghee and so on. The COVID-19 out-break offered the Railways an opportunity to capture new freight, tooand it began loading industrial salt from the Kakinada Sea Ports Limited;rice from Nagireddipalli; pulses from Kadapa; onions from Nagarsol;dry chillies from Reddypalem and last but not the least turmeric fromNizamabad, all destined for Bangladesh.

The all-India rail traffic having been reduced to less than half ofits peak levels enabled the SCR to carry out a major overhaul of theiconic bridge over the mighty Godavari River. Built in 1977, the bridgewas in need of repair and a major overhaul, but it was almost impos-sible to shut it down for extended periods on such a busy route. Dueto the pandemic, the repair work was undertaken after a gap of almost43 years, including track renewal over the entire length of the three-km-long bridge, by ensuring a 36-hour complete shutdown of traffic.Track replacement work was carried out with the aid of Plasser QuickRelaying System (PQRS) machines after carrying out deep screeningwork over all the six spans, while the road traffic continued on the lowerdeck. Similarly, scissors crossovers that had been laid way back in1970 in Kazipet with wooden sleepers, could now be replaced withPre-Stressed Concrete (PSC) sleepers, thanks to the possibility of shut-ting down traffic for 72 hours, which was unthinkable before the pan-demic hit the country. Similarly, the Vijayawada yard, a major facilityfor the North-South and East Coast freight movement had wooden sleep-ers on its north and south end turnouts. These were replaced with PSCones during the lockdown period. In all, 8,257 km of track was patrolledon foot and the sidings were completed. Thanks to the steep declinein passenger traffic, 44 km of track between Akola and Akot of the vitalNorth-South link of Akola-Khandwa was converted from metre to broadgauge and 149 km of existing single-line track was doubled.

With five major hospitals and 44 health units spread over its net-work, the SCR could play a key role in providing critically needed facil-ities such as quarantine centres, in which 1,017 beds were set up ina short span of three weeks. The SCR’s premier and oldest workshopbelonging to the era of the Nizam State Railways also rose to the occa-sion by building automatic hand sanitiser dispensers, foot-operated tapsand water coolers. These were located at public places such as can-teens and main gates, keeping the SCR staff and the passengers safeand earning the SCR tonnes of goodwill. During the pandemic the SCRshowed the country how to turn any adversity into an opportunity.

(The writer is former member, Railway Board. The views expressedare personal.)

US President-elect Joe Biden isthrice-blessed. Not only didhe win the Democratic nom-

ination and then the presidentialelection but as a result of the eventsof January 6 — when supporters ofoutgoing President Donald Trumpattacked Capitol Hill — he takesoffice when the RepublicanOpposition is in utter disarray andlikely to stay that way for a longtime. None of that was foreor-dained, or even very likely.

“Just days ago the media and thepundits had declared this candida-cy dead,” Biden marvelled almostexactly a year ago after winning the

South Carolina primary election bya landslide. It had been dead, too,until African-American voters inSouth Carolina gave him their over-whelming support.

It was the first primary he hadwon, and it put him back in the race.Two days later Biden won 10 out of14 States on “Super Tuesday” andpractically wrapped the nominationup. But if South Carolina had sched-uled its primary even a few dayslater, he would have gone into“Super Tuesday” as a loser and prob-ably been written off.

So he got lucky once but it wasa bad year for a Democrat to be run-ning for the presidency. DonaldTrump was mocked and loathed bythe rest of the world and by almostexactly half the US population butTrump’s “base” didn’t care and theUS economy was in excellent shape.

The US media were doing theirbest to make the presidential racelook exciting, because that’s whatthey were going to have to talk andwrite about through most of 2020.But the fact is that incumbent US

presidents running for re-electionwhen the economy is good almostalways win.

Biden’s second stroke of luckcame just 10 days before he won theSouth Carolina primary, when thefirst case of COVID-19 showed upin America. By March it was run-ning wild, but Trump, aware that hisre-election depended on a boomingeconomy, avoiding taking any pub-lic health measures that would slowit down. Other populist leaders didthe same. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson has been a week ortwo late on every pandemic-relateddecision and Britain’s per capitaCOVID death toll is even worsethan America’s. President JairBolsonaro in Brazil downplayedthe COVID threat, as did PrimeMinister Viktor Orban in Hungaryand their people paid a high price,too. But none of them were runningfor re-election in 2020.

Trump’s refusal to back anti-COVID measures like using masks,social distancing and a countrywidelockdown were driven more by

electoral concerns than ideology:Stall the economy and he could losethe election. But of course massdeath will also stall the economy inthe end, so he couldn’t win. Heended up with a crashed economy,4,00,000 COVID deaths and a lostelection, too.

And then, incredibly, he gaveBiden another gift: The assault onthe Capitol Hill by his followers twoweeks ago. In fact, Trump hadwanted to join the thousands ofhardcore followers who assembled

at Capitol Hill and had told aides inthe days leading up to the rally thathe planned to accompany them todemonstrate his ire at Congress asit moved to certify Biden’sNovember election victory. But theSecret Service kept warning him thatagents could not guarantee his safe-ty if he went ahead. Trump relent-ed and instead hunkered down atthe White House to watch televisionimages of the mob rioting he isaccused of triggering.

Before that attack on Capitol

Hill, Biden was facing a grim timein office, with at least 70 per cent ofRepublican voters and a majority ofRepublicans in the House ofRepresentatives seduced by Trump’s“big lie” that he really won the elec-tion by a landslide and that theDemocrats had somehow “stolen” it.It was Adolf Hitler, not JosephGoebbels, who gave the techniquethat name, but it still works.

“In the big lie there is always acertain force of credibility,” Hitlerwrote in ‘Mein Kampf (My Struggle)’:“Because...in the primitive simplic-ity of their minds (the great mass-es) more readily fall victim to the biglie than the small lie, since theythemselves often tell small lies in lit-tle matters but would be ashamed toresort to large-scale falsehoods.

“It would never come into theirheads to fabricate colossal untruths,and they would not believe that oth-ers could have the impudence to dis-tort the truth so infamously. Eventhough the facts which prove this tobe so may be brought clearly to theirminds, they will still doubt and

waver and will continue to think thatthere may be some other explana-tion.”

That is what Biden faced onlytwo weeks ago: A nightmare time inoffice with the “big lie” rampant andTrump its proud purveyor. And thensuddenly Trump, in his manicdetermination to hold onto power,sent his mob off to try a foredoomedcoup in the “Temple of Democracy”,as American commentators call it.End of game. Trump is discreditedeven with a modest but significantproportion of his own base and agrowing number of Republicanoffice-holders are in rebellionagainst the party’s subservience tothe “Tangerine Tyrant.” Biden’s yearsin office will be enlivened by avicious Republican civil war, quitelikely ending in a permanent split ofthe American Right. This will giveLucky Joe time to do some usefulwork.

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

Lady Luck has been very kind to BidenJoe’s years in office will be enlivened by a Republican civil war, quite likely ending in a permanent split of the American Right

GWYNNE DYER

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021

www.dailypioneer.com analysis

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter IndiaPvt Ltd (HMSI) on Monday launchedsports edition of its scooter model

Grazia priced at Rs 82,564 (ex-showroomGurugram).The Grazia Sports Edition ispowered by a BSVI-compliant 125ccengine with features such as idling stopsystem and side stand indicator withengine cut-off. The scooter comes withan overall re-crafted look with sporty colour and graphics along withracing stripes and red-black coloured rear suspension, HMSI said ina statement. HMSI Managing Director, President and CEO AtsushiOgata said Honda re-invented the scooter market in the past 20years and the launch of the new sports edition of Grazia adds moreexcitement to the premium scooter segment.

Tata Capital on Monday announcedit has raised Rs 1,250 crore for aprivate equity fund which will be

investing in areas includingurbanisation and manufacturing.Itannounced the final closure of the Rs1,250 crore Tata Capital Growth Fund

II, which is a successor to a similar fund. The fund has both newerand existing investors, which include global and European fund offunds, Japanese institutions and a leading Asian development financeinstitution, a statement said. The investment strategy for the newfund will be the same as in the first fund, it said, adding that theinvestments will be made in three identified themes.These includestrategic services, urbanization and iscrete manufacturing incontinuation of the earlier strategy, it said.

GST officers have arrested oneperson for operating 46 fakefirms and passing on fake

input tax credit (ITC) worth Rs82.23 crore, the Finance Ministrysaid on Monday. The officers ofCentral Goods and Services Tax(CGST) Commissionerate, Delhi

East unearthed a multi-layered network of fictitious firms being usedto generate and pass on fake ITC.The network of fake firms wasoperated by Arvind Kumar, who used to pass fake ITC for acommission of 4 to 4.5 per cent of the invoice amount.Theinvestigation conducted so far has revealed 46 firms to be fictitious,which were being controlled by Kumar and his associates.

HMSI launches sports edition ofscooter model Grazia at Rs 82K

The Competition Commissionof India (CCI) has dismisseda case of alleged

cartelisation by RomsonsScientific & Surgical IndustrialPvt Ltd and BSN Medical Pvt Ltdand some of their officials.Theregulator had directed thedirector general (DG) to carryout an investigation after thematter originated from a complaint alleging cartelisation by the firmsin respect of a tender invited by AIIMS in 2016. The DG after takinginto consideration the submissions of the parties, concluded thatdifferent parties, at different geographical locations with different costof production and profit margins quoting identical rates,independently, would be too much of coincidence, which is difficultto believe. Accordingly, the DG concluded that the firms colluded andacted in contravention of provisions of the Competition Act.However, the CCI said that there is no evidence of anycommunications or meetings having taken place between theopposite parties (OPs) or any other arrangement indicating a tacitcollusion in respect of fixing the prices for the bids.Apart from the present instance of identical pricing during the periodunder consideration, the investigation report falls short of providingclarity as to how such pricing was an outcome of collusion.

Tata Capital's private equityfund raises Rs 1,250 crore

CCI dismisses case ofcartelisation in AIIMS tender

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmarks wiltedunder selling pressure for thesecond consecutive session onMonday as investors stayed onthe back foot amid lacklustreglobal cues.

A sharp drop in the rupeefurther sapped risk appetite,though gains in market heavy-weights RIL and HDFC Bankcushioned the fall.

After a choppy session, the30-share BSE Sensex ended470.40 points or 0.96 per centlower at 48,564.27.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty tumbled 152.40 points or1.06 per cent to 14,281.30.

ONGC was the top loser inthe Sensex pack, slumping4.59 per cent, followed by SunPharma, IndusInd Bank,PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance, BajajFinserv, SBI and NTPC.

Only four index stocksclosed in the green -- RelianceIndustries, Titan, HDFC Bankand ITC, climbing up to 2.37per cent.

HDFC Bank spurted 1.15per cent after the country'slargest private sector lender onSaturday reported a 14.36 percent jump in consolidated netprofit to Rs 8,760 crore for theDecember quarter, driven by asurge in core income.

Global markets retreated asrising COVID-19 cases cloud-ed optimism over economic

recovery, even as Chineseshares rose after positive GDPdata.

"Domestic equities wit-nessed pullback for secondconsecutive day as weak glob-al cues continued to weigh oninvestors' sentiments...Whileunderlying strength of marketsremains intact consideringrebound in key economic data,sustained growth in corporateearnings in 3Q FY21 withupbeat managements' com-mentaries and commencementof vaccination process.

"Additionally, favourablemonetary policies of globalcentral bankers, weak dollarand large fiscal stimulus in theUS are expected to ensure sus-tain FPIs flow in domesticequities. However, for the weekmarket is expected to bevolatile ahead of some crucial

global events. Further, asUnion Budget is just two weeksaway, rotational trading mightbe visible in the market," saidBinod Modi, Head - Strategy atReliance Securities.

BSE metal, utilities, tele-com, healthcare, basic materi-als, auto and power indices lostup to 4.14 per cent, while ener-gy and consumer durablesended higher.

Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap plummeted up to2.01 per cent.Elsewhere inAsia, bourses in Shanghai andHong Kong ended in the pos-itive zone after China posted6.5 per cent GDP growth inthe fourth quarter. TheChinese economy expanded2.3 per cent in the pandemic-ravaged 2020, while almost allother major economies areexpected to contract.

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmark Sensexplunged 470 points on Monday,tracking losses in index majorsInfosys, HDFC and ICICI Bankamid a weak trend in globalmarkets. After a choppy ses-sion, the 30-share BSE indexended 470.40 points or 0.96per cent lower at 48,564.27.Similarly, the broader NSE Niftytumbled 152.40 points or 1.06per cent to 14,281.30. ONGCwas the top loser in the Sensexpack, shedding around 5 percent, followed by Sun Pharma,PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance,IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy's andMaruti. On the other hand,Reliance Industries, Titan,HDFC Bank and ITC were thegainers. Domestic equities wit-nessed pullback for the secondday as weak global cues contin-ued to weigh on investors' sen-timents, said Binod Modi.Barring FMCG, most of thekey sectoral indices wit-nessed sharp correction andvolatility index soared over 5per cent today before recov-ering from top.

Sensex tanks470 points; Nifty drops below 14,300

PNS n TOKYO

Markets got off to a slow startfor the week despite news thatthe Chinese economy grew2.3% in 2020 after a sharp con-traction early in the year.

Shares fell in Paris, Londonand Tokyo but advanced inHong Kong and Shanghai.Most U.S. markets are closedMonday for a national holiday.

Investors appear to havegrown increasingly wary overthe deepening economic dev-astation from the pandemicdespite hopes that COVID-19vaccines and fresh aid for theU.S. economy might hasten aglobal recovery.

Germany's DAX edged 0.1%lower to 13,769.97 and theCAC 40 in Paris shed 0.4% to5,588.28. In Britain, the FTSE100 lost less than 0.1% to6,731.23. The futures for the

S&P 500 and the Dowindustrials both were down0.3%.

China was the first countryto suffer outbreaks of the newcoronavirus and the first majoreconomy to begin recoveringas meanwhile the U.S., Europe

and Japan are struggling withoutbreaks.

The National Bureau ofStatistics said growth in thethree months ending inDecember rose to 6.5% over ayear earlier, up from the previ-ous quarters 4.9%. The econ-

omy contracted at a 6.8% pacein the first quarter of 2020 asthe country fought the pan-demic with shutdowns andother restrictions.

Some measures showed aslowing of activity inDecember, but “The big pictureis still that activity remainsstrong, which is helping to sup-port the labor market,” StephenInnes of Axi said in a commen-tary. The Hang Seng in HongKong gained 1% to 28,862.77,while the Shanghai Compositeindex climbed 0.8% to3,596.22.

But gloom prevailed in othermajor regional markets.Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dropped1% to 28,242.21 and the Kospiin South Korea lost 2.3% to3,013.93. Australia'sS&P/ASX 200 declined0.8% to 6,663.00. Shares fell inSoutheast Asia and Taiwan.

On Friday, the S&P500 fell 0.7% to 3,768.25, withstocks of companies that mostneed a healthier economy tak-ing some of the sharpest loss-es. It lost 1.5% for the week.

The Dow Jones IndustrialAverage lost 0.6% to 30,814.26,and the Nasdaq compositedropped 0.9% to 12,998.50.The Russell 2000 index ofsmall-cap stocks lost 1.5% to2,123.20.

Treasury yields have beenclimbing on expectations theU.S. government will borrowmuch more to pay for theadditional stimulus proposedby President-elect Joe Biden, inaddition to improved econom-ic growth and higher inflation.The yield on the 10-yearTreasury zoomed above 1% lastweek for the first time since lastspring and briefly topped1.18% this week.

World shares retreat despite strong growth data from China

PNS n BEIJING

China's economy, which wasthe first to be hit by the coro-navirus pandemic and early torecover from its impact, grew2.3 per cent in 2020, register-ing the lowest annual growthrate in 45 years, but buckingthe trend of slowdowns beingexperienced by major worldeconomies.

The Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) of the world'ssecond-largest economy grewby 2.3 per cent, expanding toUSD 15.42 trillion in dollarterms in 2020, according to thedata released by China'sNational Bureau of Statistics(NBS) on Monday.

In the local currency, theGDP exceeded 100-trillion-yuan threshold to 101.5986trillion yuan, it said.

The Chinese economywhich suffered a 6.8 per centslump in the first quarter in2020 after it went into lock-down following the emer-gence of the deadly coron-avirus in Wuhan staged a

steady recovery after quicklycontaining the COVID-19,while the virus turned into aglobal pandemic, hitting allmajor economies around theworld, including India.

Aided by strict virus con-tainment measures and emer-gency relief for businesses,the Chinese economy staged asteady recovery.

In the fourth quarter of2020, China's GDP expanded6.5 per cent year on year,faster than the 4.9-per centgrowth in the third quarter, theNBS said.

The country's economicoperation has recoveredsteadily with employment andpeople's well-being effective-ly guaranteed, the NBS said,adding that the major tasks ofeconomic and social develop-ment have been completedbetter than expected.

Partly, China's globalexports of medical supplies,specially relating to coron-avirus, has also contributed togrowth in manufacturing andexports.

China's economy growsby 2.3 per cent in 2020

PNS n NEW DELHI

The country's sugar outputrose by 31 per cent to 142.70lakh tonnes in the first three-and-a-half months of the 2020-21 marketing year that startedin October 2020, industry bodyISMA said on Monday.

Sugar production in India,the world's second-largestsugar-producing country, stoodat 108.94 lakh tonnes tillJanuary 15 of the 2019-20 mar-keting year.

Indian Sugar Mills Assoc-iation (ISMA) has projected thesugar output to increase by 13per cent to 310 lakh tonnes inthe 2020-21 marketing yearon likely higher availability ofsugarcane as against 274.2 lakhtonnes last year.

Releasing the latest produc-tion update, ISMA said thecountry's sugar output is high-

er by 33.76 lakh tonne so farthis year as compared to lastyear's production for the corre-sponding period.

As many as 487 sugar milllswere in operation as against 440in the said period, it said.

Sugar production in UttarPradesh, the country's leadingsugar producing state,remained slightly lower at 42.99lakh tonnes till January 15 of

this marketing year, as against43.78 lakh tonne in the year-ago period because of report-edly lower cane yield and lowersugar recoveries in the state.

The output in Maharashtra,the country's second-largestsugar-producing state, rose to51.55 lakh tonne from 25.51lakh tonne in the said period.

Similarly, the production inKarnataka, the country's third-

largest sugar-producing state,increased to 29.80 lakh tonnetill January 15 of this year from21.90 lakh tonne in the year-ago period. Productionreached 4.40 lakh tonne inGujarat, 1.15 lakh tonne inTamil Nadu, while remainingstates of Andhra Pradesh &Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand,Punjab, Haryana and MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh,Rajasthan, Odisha have collec-tively produced 12.81 lakhtonne of sugar till January 15of this year, ISMA said in astatement.

On ethanol, ISMA said oilmarketing companies (OMCs)have allocated about 309.81crore litres for 2020-21 market-ing year, including about 39.36crore litres from damaged foodgrains and surplus rice. Thiswould enable ethanol-petrolblending of 7-8 per cent,

depending on the total fueldemand.

However, some states likeUttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab,Haryana and Uttarakhand havealready achieved blending per-centage of 9-10 per cent onJanuary 11. The industry bodysaid that the allocated quanti-ty of ethanol indicates about 20lakh tonne of estimated netlower sugar production during2020-21 due to diversion of B-heavy molasses and sugarcanejuice to ethanol.

As per market reports, about3 lakh tonne of sugar wasexported during October-December 2020 as per theMaximum Admissible ExportQuota (MAEQ) allotted tosugar mills during the 2019-20marketing year, which was wasextended up to December 2020,it added .

Sugar output up 31pc in 2020-21 till Jan 15

PNS n NEW DELHI

Smart devices maker OppoIndia is in the process of fil-ing 80 patents and willenhance focus on the devel-opment of 5G device ecosys-tem in 2021, a senior compa-ny official said on Monday.

OPPO India vice-presidentand research and develop-ment head Tasleem Arif saidthat setting up of a 5G lab inthe country has reduced the

company's dependency onheadquarters and other cen-tres of the smart devicesfirm.

"At India research anddevelopment centre, we notonly want to be the firstmover on 5G but we are alsocontributing a lot in IPR. Wehave filed over 200 IPs (intel-lectual properties). In that 60per cent, approximately 120,has already been filed and 40per cent, around 80, is under

process. All this has hap-pened majorly in the lastone-and-a-half years," Arifsaid on the sidelines oflaunching Reno5 Pro 5G andEnco X wireless earphones.

The Reno5 Pro 5G andEnco X wireless earphoneswill start selling in India fromJanuary 22 across mainlineretailers of the company ande-commerce platformFlipkart for Rs 35,990 and Rs9,990 respectively.

Oppo India in process to file 80patents, enhance focus on 5G

PNS n NEW DELHI

IT firm Mindtree on Mondayreported a 65.7 per cent risein consolidated net profit to Rs326.5 crore for the December2020 quarter.

The company had posted anet profit of Rs 197 crore inthe corresponding period lastyear, Mindtree said in a reg-ulatory filing. The companysaw its revenue grow 3 percent to Rs 2,023.7 crore in thequarter under review from Rs1,965.3 crore in the year-agoperiod, it added. In dollarterms, its net profit rose 59.3per cent to USD 44.2 million,while revenue declined mar-ginally to USD 274.1 millionin the December 2020 quar-ter over the year-ago period.

At the end of the December,the company's active clientbase stood at 276, and eightnew clients were added dur-ing the quarter, the filing said.

Mindtree netprofit rises toRs 326.5 crorein Dec quarter

PNS n MUMBAI

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) is likely to spend atleast USD 20 billion more tosupport the rupee and increasethe forex kitty through thereminder of the financial year,taking its overall forex inter-vention to USD 93 billion,according to a report.

The report by the Wall Streetbrokerage Bank of AmericaSecurities also expects the cen-tral bank to raise banks' HTM

(held-to-maturity) limits ofexcess government securitiesby 2 per cent of their books tofund the fiscal deficit if high

forex intervention limits itsopen market operations(OMOs).

So far this fiscal, the centralbank's forex intervention hastouched USD 73.7 billion,according to the assessment byBank of America SecuritiesIndia economists Indranil SenGupta and Aastha Gudwani.

They also feel the RBI tointervene with USD 45 billionin 2021-22 if the CAD remains0.5 per cent of gross domesticproduct (GDP).

Forex intervention by RBIto touch $93 bn by March PNS n NEW DELHI

A man has been arrested forallegedly running a multi-layered network of fictitiousfirms for generating fake inputtax credit (ITC) worth croresof rupees to help businessesevade GST, according to anofficial statement on Monday.

The Central Goods andServices Tax (CGST)Commissionerate in eastDelhi arrested the man andsaid the total fake ITC quan-tified so far is Rs 82.23 croregenerated out of fake billing to

the tune of Rs 541.13 crore,which is expected to increaseas the investigation progress-es.

"The network of fake firmswas being operated by oneArvind Kumar who used topass fake ITC for a commis-sion of 4 to 4.5% of the invoiceamount," said the statementissued by the CGST Delhi EastCommissionerate.

Investigation conducted sofar has revealed 46 firms to befictitious which were beingcontrolled by Kumar and hisassociates, it said.

Man arrested for running network offictitious firms to help biz evade GST

PNS n NEW DELHI

Power sector engineers wouldgo for token work boycottacross the country onFebruary 3 to protest againstthe move to privatise distri-bution companies by the cen-tral government, the All IndiaPower Engineers' Federation(AIPEF) said on Monday.

"Power engineers acrossthe country shall resort totoken work boycott and holdprotest meetings on 3rdFebruary against privatiza-tion policies of theGovernment of India," AllIndia Power Engineers'Federation (AIPEF)spokesperson V K Guptasaid in a statement.

Powerengineers toprotest onFebruary 3 PNS n NEW DELHI

Business-to-business (B2B)e-commerce platform Udaanon Monday said it has signeda pan-India distribution part-nership with Danish sport-style brand, hummel.

As part of this partnership,hummel will leverageUdaan's vast distribution net-work to offer its range ofproducts across the lengthand breadth of the country, astatement said.

Founded in 1923, hummelis one of the oldest sports-wear brands in the businesswith roots in football andhandball, and has previous-ly been worn by iconic foot-ball teams such as RealMadrid, Tottenham Hotspur,Aston Villa, Benfica and the

Denmark national team.hummel continues to spon-

sor clubs and players withinhandball and football, Evertonbeing one of them.

In India, hummel is retail-ing a wide array of productsbeyond sports shoes such asT-shirts, sneakers, jackets,track pants, training jackets,sweatshirts, bags, accessoriesamongst others, the state-ment said.

"We are excited to sign anagreement with hummel to betheir exclusive pan-India dis-tribution partner. We will useour extensive reach, tech-enabled platform and experi-enced team, to cater to hum-mel's existing and prospectivecustomers across the country,"Udaan Head-LifestyleBusiness Kumar Saurabh said.

Udaan inks distributionpartnership with hummel

GST officers arrest one foroperating 46 fake firms

Sensex slumps for secondday as bears tighten grip

n the year 2020,the world hasseen people shift-ing from offlineto online formany life require-

ments. The year somewhatbecame the watershedmoment for various digitalplatforms like Video OTT,Edutech, Pharma, Fintechetc., which saw an unexpect-ed surge in numbers. As acountry, we are brilliant atadapting to change, look athow we embraced Fintechand Edu-tech both so impor-tant for our survival. Theadaptation which was slowlyhappening in 2019 got expe-dited due to the spread ofpandemic and the followedlockdown.

The most significant needfor the bottom of our socialpyramid has always been‘roti, kapda aur makaan’ orsuccinctly put, education(read knowledge) and finan-cial stability, even more sowhen pandemic was reapinghavoc.

Today, learning is thefastest-changing landscapewith a virtual race amongvarious organisations todeliver knowledge and up-skilling content through lat-est and complex technolo-gies. However, this approachmay only work well for themetros of India withupwardly mobile TG. If weconsider the TG living intier two, three and fourtowns and villages, therequirement might be verydifferent. Bharat makes upthe most significant part ofIndian digital users access-ing the internet on mobiledevices. The real issue is notthe availability of high-quali-ty content and implementa-tion of complex/fancy techto deliver it to TG but theease with which the TG canconsume the content ondevices.

To summarise, the keychallenges would be :

Increased screen time onlow-end devices with bat-tery challenges. Patchy internet to be ableto watch videos seamless-ly.Not truly vernacular.

Cost of content and hencethe high subscription.

Need of the hour

What is more relevant andneed to be made available toyoung India is aplatform/medium which willmake it spontaneous forpeople to access decent qual-ity content (even if it is non-exclusive) effortlessly withminimal tech and underly-ing infrastructural require-ments. It is only then, wewill be able to see the nextbillion users using digitallearning platforms to learnand get empowered toachieve their learning goals.

Audio is the answer

Audio is the only way toprovide all of the abovewithout compromising thequality of learning except fora few specific subjectsrequiring live/visual session

for better understanding.Audio will democratise thelearning ecosystem fromevery aspect. It will allow themasses to acquire knowledgeand learn the subjects oftheir interest without payingbeyond their financialcapacities or compulsivebuying of high-enddevices/data packs.

Not shooting in thedark

Looking at the globaltrend from the biggest audiomarkets — US and China,audio will take over as mostpreferred media by massesacross India.

For instance, in the US,Spotify has spent $400mn toacquire Gimlet, Anchor andParcast to acquire podcast-ing capabilities. Appleacquired Scout FM in Sep2020. Simultaneously, inChina audio platforms like

Ximalaya FM, Lizhi FM (USIPO), DeDao is serving morethan 500mn users. De Dao,another Chinese audio con-tent platform, contractshigh-profile experts torecord podcasts teachingtopics in their field. Listenersnavigate a marketplace ofaudio courses and subscribeto the ones they believe willget them (or their children)an “edge.”

There are various courseslike workplace communica-tion, investing, accent reduc-tion, Chinese history andmany more.

Last year the companyhad served seven millioncustomers, and none of thecontent was free. Audiocourses drive more than 50per cent revenue forXimalaya FM andQingTingFM.

Screen-based learningcompetes with distractions

like Facebook and Netflix forusers’ attention. By makingaudio their primary learningconsumption mode, peoplecan fit courses into busylives and easily allow for ahabit.

Future trends in knowl-edge and audio:

India is the youngestcountry with 850mn peoplebelow the age of 35 years.For this young population,the most significant need iseducation and financialsecurity. To get better eco-nomic opportunities, peopleneed to up-skill, but beingengaged in the daily job theyhave limited time to learnand up-skill themselves.

For example, Uber driversor Swiggy delivery personswork eight to 10 hours a dayand have no time to learnand upgrade themselves.While their hands and eyes

areengaged, theycan leverage their ears toboost their skills by convert-ing their non-learning timeinto learning time.

Audio has its meritover other mediumswithout imbibing thenegatives of respectivemediums like videoand print. It providesvarious benefits to theuser, some importantones are as follows:

Reduces screen time with-out reducing learning. Passive listening providesfor more extended contentconsumption throughoutthe day.Creation and consump-tion of content are bothmuch easier in audio for-mat.Minimal hardware andconnectivity required.

Year 2021 will be ayear of audio providingfor:

Reduction in screen time:Students would not sit infront of screen for longhours to gain knowledge.Parents & teachers both havebeen concerned with excessscreen time for their kids.

Easy access to knowledgein local languages: Usersacross India will be able toget easy access to the best ofeducators, that too in theirlocal language.

Offline to online classes:Local and small-time educa-tors will reach millions andteach them in their local lan-guage. Thanks to the ease ofcontent creation with audio.

Up-skill with one click:Small courses targeted tounlocking better financialopportunity will become atrend.

User convenience andease: People will not migrateto larger cities to gain orshare knowledge, creation ofcontent and consumption asboth are much easier inaudio format.

We shall soon see audiotaking over traditional andvideo learning and will havea much larger mass appealand usage to educate youngIndia users this year.

(The writer Pulkit Sharmais CEO and co-founder ofKhabri.)

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TuesdayJanuary 19, 2021

In the fast-changinglandscape of education,we shall soon see audio

taking over traditionaland video learning to

educate youngIndiaknowledge

Future of

SHIKHA DUGGAL

n an endeavour todelight readers with theevents that led to thosedepicted in the block-buster Baahubali filmdirected by S.S.

Rajamouli, bestselling authorand screenwriter AnandNeelakantan released Queen ofMahishmathi — the third andfinal book in the Baahubali:Before the Beginning series.Hitting stands around theworld today, Queen ofMahishmathi is a riveting tale,depicting the political andemotional games played inMahishmathi that will lead toSivagami’s ascension to thethrone. Published by WestlandPublications, the book is apage-turner. Revealing theevents in the film, AnandNeelakantan sketches the jour-ney of Sivagami, Kattappa,Bijjala and many others in amagnificent manner. Queen ofMahishmathi sees the culmina-tion of Sivagami’s story, whereshe becomes queen, but theprice that she has to pay for her

success is what makes her jour-ney so very bitter-cum-sweet.

Speaking about the book, thelegendary author AnandNeelakantan says, “It had beena very stressful year for all of uswith this pandemic. However, Iam glad that even in thesetouchy times, I could finish mythird novel at a faster pace andbring it to my readers. Post myfirst and second book in thisseries — The Rise of Sivagamiand Chaturanga, I started pen-ning down my third novel.Sivagami and Kattappa areestablished characters in theminds of all Baahubali fans. So,I thought of going back in timeand unfolding the journeys ofboth these strong-willed per-sonalities whose power echoedall across the huge kingdom ofMahishmathi and far beyond.While writing the character ofSivagami, I based her on manyhistorical characters right fromancient times to the modernera.” He further added,“Baahubali is such a big cultbecause of the larger-than-lifevision of the filmmaker and theproducers, and I am happy thatI am a part of it too. I hope and

believe this book will make foran engaging read.”

Sivagami, a woman of sub-stance, integrity and wisdom,wields power that is over-whelming and unmatchable.She remains one of the mosticonic and powerful female fic-tional characters in the historyof Indian cinema.Mahishmathi, an empire of

abundance with fiercely loyalsubjects and slaves is where thestory of Anand’s first book inthe series, The Rise of Sivagamiunfolds. In Anand’s secondbook, Chaturanga, the femaleprotagonist Sivagami has a fireseething within her, a fire thatmotivates her to move ahead inher mission despite facing vari-ous odds. Anand Neelakantan

has always focused on nuanced,geographically-sensitive narra-tives and prefers his reader totake their time to process thestory that he pens downthrough his masterpieces. He isone of the leading writers in thecountry and has a host of rivet-ing historical drama andmythological fictions in hisgamut.

ife hi toh hai’(she’s yourwife after all),‘Mera moodhai toh uskabhi ban

jayegi’'(If I’m in themood, she will be too),‘Inki naa main haanhoti hai’(Their nomeans yes) — actorPankaj Tripathi is hereto shatter the miscon-ceptions in our societyaround consent. This influentialBollywood actor ismaking ‘poochnazaroori hai (consent isnecessary) the newnorm, and puttingthese fallacies aroundconsent to bed througha powerful social mediavideo: whether or notyou are married, con-sent is a must!

The latest showCriminal Justice dis-plays how AnuChandra, portrayed byactor Kirti Kulhari is avictim of marital sexualabuse — a reality ofmany married womenin India.

This show gives a fic-tional glimpse into thedistressing issue ofmarital sexual abusethat women across thecountry continue to

face behind the closeddoors of their homes.

Speaking about howwomen struggle in reallife with their problems,actor Pankaj Tripathisays, “It was unknownto me as well, on whywomen kept quietwhen they wentthrough such trauma intheir personal life, theywere tight-lipped whenasked to share theirproblems. I, as a man,didn’t know how todecode it. This issueexists in our society,whether we stay in lib-eral urban cities orplaces outside the city,so thought why notspeak up. But afterplaying the character ofMadhav Mishra andunderstanding thestory, I understood whymost women, like her,are not vocal abouttheir problems.Especially with issuesrelated to their marriedlives, because clearly,the society demandsthem to be locked inthe closed doors oftheir homes. Throughthis show, we hope thatmore and more womenshare their problemsand take the right stepfor themselves.”

Queen of Mahishmathi, lastbook in Baahubali trilogy out!

Pankaj Tripathi onmisconceptionsaround ‘consent'

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10

Hyderabad Tuesday January 19, 2021what’s brewing?

2021 SORTED

My South Diva 2021 calendar witnessed agrand unveiling at Rama Naidu Studioson Sunday. Photographer and curator of

the calendar Manoj Kumar Katokar thankedeveryone who was part of its making. The

calendar features 12 beauties of south cinemaand Q9 calendar features 12 young, fresh

faces. Spotted at the event were Vishwak Sen,Palasa director Karuna Kumar, Malvika

Sharma, Ruhani Sharma, Sanchita Shetty,Simrat Kaur, and Gehna Sippy, among others.

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ctress KajalAggarwal treatedfans to a candidquestion-answersession on socialmedia. The

actress who got marriedrecently was asked if shewould continue acting.Kajal replied saying it istime to break such notionsof patriarchy.

“Will you continue to dofilms? Please don’t stopdoing films,” a user asked onher question-answer sessionon Instagram Stories on

Sunday night.“Of course I will #firstlove

Let’s break patriarchy, hightime?” said the actress, whogot married to Gautam Kitchlulast year.

A fan asked her about her

resolution for 2021.“Balance between home and work.

Advancement in every aspect of life,”she said.

What’s her “most satisfying thingto do”?

“Witnessing a shot go as envis-aged. Being in front of the camera ismy meditation,” Kajal replied.

“What’s the one diff u observedbefore and after marriage?” wrote auser.

Kajal said: “Heightened sense ofresponsibility for not just myself,anymore. Prioritizing my partnerover everyone and everything andvice versa.”

The actress also shared that“hypocrisy and lies” used to makeher angry “but now I just feel sorryfor the person.”

Kajal shared that her childhooddream was to become an astronautand hopes she plays one soon.

11

Hyderabad Tuesday January 19, 2021tollywood

Deverakonda roars inthe first look of Liger

he first lookand title ofVijayDeverakonda’snext with PuriJagannadh

was unveiled by the mak-ers on Monday. TitledLiger, the first look showsa bare-chestedDeverakonda wearingboxing gloves and roaring,with a tiger and lion in thebackground. The titlerefers to a cross breedbetween a lion and a tiger,while the tagline of thefilm is ‘Saala Crossbreed.’

Producer Karan Joharposted the first look with acaption stating, “Proud topresent LIGER, starringthe ruler of big screensand many hearts — VijayDeverakonda & the fieryAnanya Panday. Directedby the exceptionallyskilled Puri Jagannadh, wecan’t wait to let the worldwitness this story in 5 lan-guages — Hindi, Telugu,Tamil, Kannada &Malayalam. See you at thebig screens!”

Deverakonda, sharing

the poster on Instagram,wrote: “Humbly announc-ing our arrival Pan India!Someone with my back-ground shouldn’t havereached anywhere nearhere according to the con-ventions and set norms.But with sheer madness,passion, hardwork, Herewe are! Nationwide mad-ness guaranteed (sic).” Theproject marks the actor’sHindi debut.

An emotional action-drama, close to 40 percentof Liger's shoot waswrapped up last yearbefore the pandemicforced the unit to take abreak, which has nowextended to 10 months.There is no word on whenit will resume. The likesof Ramya Krishna, RonitRoy, Ali, Vishu Reddy andGetup Sreenu are playingsupporting roles in thefilm. Being shot in Teluguand Hindi, it will simulta-neously release in Tamil,Malayalam and Kannada.Karan Johar, ApoorvaMehta, Puri Jagannadhand Charmee Kaur arejointly producing it.

Being in front ofthe camera is mymeditation: Kajal

roducer and formerFilm ChamberPresident VDoraswamy Raju diedof cardiac arrest at aprivate hospital in

Hyderabad on Monday.Starting his productioncareer in 1978 with the bless-ings of legendary NTR wholaunched VMC banner, Rajuwent on to produce films like

Kirayi Dada, SeetharamayyaGari Manavaralu, PresidentGaari Pellam,Madhavayyagari Manavadu,Bhale Pellam, Annamayya,Simhadri and Vengamambaamong other films in a careermore than 40 years. He dis-tributed over 1000 films inTelugu states-particularly inRayalaseema region.

Movies aside, he also left

his imprint on politics as herepresented Nagari as anMLA. He also dischargedduties as a TTD board mem-ber, Distributors AssociationPresident and ExhibitorsAssociation President. Healso forayed into TV produc-tion as a producer.

Prominent personalities ofthe industry like KRaghavendra Rao, AM

Ratnam, Jr NTR, SSRajamouli, and SuryadevaraNaga Vamsi expressed theirgrief on the death of Raju. Ina couple of posts on Twitter,Rajamouli said that he wasfortunate to be associatedwith Raju for his career-changing Simhadri beforeoffering his heartfelt condo-lences to the deceased’s fami-ly. “As a distributor

Doraswami Raju garureleased an incredible 1000+movies. He also producedsome of the great telugumovies ever. Seetha Ramayyagari Manavaraalu,Annamayya are few of thegems from his VMC banner..(Sic),” the director wrote.

NTR wrote, “As a producerand distributor, he services tothe industry have been enor-

mous. He played a key role inthe success of Simhadri. Mayhis soul rest in peace and Ioffer my heartfelt condo-lences to his family (sic).”

Raju’s mortal remains willbe kept at Film Chamber,Hyderabad today morningfor the public to pay their lastrespects. His last rites will beperformed at ahaprasthanamafter 11 am.

he dense forest ofMaredumilli which ishosting the shoot of AlluArjun-starrer Pushpa rightnow will soon have a cou-ple of other top tier visi-

tors-megastar Chiranjeevi andRam Charan. According to asource, director Koratala Siva isplanning to shoot some portionsof the film in Maredumilli after hegot positive feedback from MythriMovie Makers and Sukumarabout shooting in the region.While most Telugu filmmakersprefer to go to Kerala to shootepisodes involving a forest back-drop, coronavirus scare meantthat they’ve decided to shootwithin the Telugu states as ofnow.

The source adds, “Portionswhich see Chiru as a naxalite willbe shot in Maredumilli. Besidessome sequences, Koratala alsoconceived an action block to befilmed during this short schedulewhich will kick off shortly. Charantoo has some combination sceneswith Chiru. The shoot will com-mence once Sukumar gives abreak to Pushpa.”

In the film, a socio-politicalentertainer, Chiru will be seen assomeone who fights to protectnature’s natural resources, whileKajal Aggarwal has been castopposite him. A joint productionventure between KonidelaProductions and MatineeEntertainment, the film is likely torelease in May.ctor Jagapathi Babu’s next as a solo lead,

Father-Chitti-Uma-Karthik (FCUK), a roman-tic-comedy, will be opening in cinema hallson February 12, producer Damodar Prasad ofSri Ranjith Movies announced on Monday.Remembering V Doraswamy Raju who

passed away on Monday, Damu, as the producer isfondly addressed as in the industry circles, said that

his father Ranjith Kumar travelled with Raju forsome time back then. “He was a dear friend of dad.

His passing away was sad news waking up. As thesecretary of the Chamber, I offer my deep

condolences to his family,” Damu said.Speaking about FCUK, he said he

planned to release it last April but thepandemic thwarted his plans. Heinformed that there shouldn’t be

any apprehensions about the titleas his production house believes

in making good cinema. Heextended his thanks to themakers and actors of SoloBrathuke So Better, Krack,Red and Alludu Adhurs forpaving a way for the indus-try after theaters wereshuttered for almost nine

months. “It’s heartening tosee the audience too coming

back to cinemas and enjoying films. Theproducers are now confident of releasingtheir films,” the producer noted.

Stating that it’s a burden to accept aleading role, Jagapathi Babu said ifFCUK does well, it will be a big boostto him.

Directed by Vidyasagar Raju, thefilm also features Ram Karthik, Tamilactress Ammu Abhirami (Asuranfame) and baby Sahasritha in centralroles.

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Annamayya and Simhadri producer V Doraswamy Raju passes away

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It's a burden to be a leading man: Jagapathi

After Bunny, Maredumilli to host megastar now

A

sport 12HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2021

PTI n BRISBANE

Indian pacers MohammedSiraj and Shardul Thakurproduced another inspira-

tional effort in adverse circum-stances but India were set a achallenging target of 328 byAustralia as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy headed

towards an exhilarating finalein the fourth Test here.

The target is a tricky oneand the Indian batsmen wouldget a fair idea whether to go forit by lunch on the final day,which is Tuesday. This wasafter Siraj and Thakur com-bined to share nine wicketswhile dismissing Australia for

294 in their second innings.Siraj (19.5-5-73-5)

punched way above his weightwith his maiden five-wickethaul but couldn’t preventAustralia from posting animposing target for his team inonly 75.5 overs of the secondinnings batting.

At stumps, India were 4

for no loss with Rohit Sharmaand Shubman Gill at thecrease.

The highest target chasedat Brisbane is 236 and that wasseven decades ago which is anindicator why this Australianground can be equated withFort Knox. The home teamhasn’t lost a game here since1988.

Thakur’s dream Test matchalso got better with figures of4/61 and a match haul of sevenwickets. The most poignantmoment was his apparent joywhen he took the catch to helpSiraj pip him to the covetedfive-for landmark.

As Siraj showed thatscuffed red kookaburraacknowledging the 957 peoplein the stands on the first work-ing day of the week, the mostgenerous applause came fromhis partner in crime, whowalked a foot behind himclapping with gusto.

It was the kind of day thatTest aficionados wait eagerly —ebbs and flows keeping every-one on the edge of their seats.

The possibility of rain addsto the excitement and thechanging weather did affect thecontours of Australia skipperTim Paine’s facial expressionswhich exhibited relief anddespair in equal measures.

Among the two captains,Paine is supposed to be theenforcer but this Indian teamhasn’t stopped surprising itsdetractors with a spirit, whichhas made this series one of the

finest played in recent times.If Weather Gods don’t

decide to play the boss, therewill be an official winner butcertainly not a “loser”.

This is the first Indian teamwhich has earned well-wishersin exponential numbers for sol-diering on manfully without anycomplaints.

A bowling attack with lessthan four-Test experience (ifThakur’s debut is discounted)

got 20 wickets without beingover-expensive.

Yes, a Mohammed Shami orJasprit Bumrah’s experiencewould have been invaluablebut their absence showed that interms of temperament, India’snext batch of pacers are game-ready.

Yes, they would make mis-takes but their predecessorsalso made plenty on their wayto glory.

PTI n BRISBANE

An emotional MohammedSiraj struggled to describe

his maiden five-wicket haul inwords but sounded a word ofcaution about the cracks on theGabba surface creating confu-sion in the Indian batsmen’sminds on the final day offourth Test.

Playing in his maiden Testseries, Siraj grabbed 5 for 73 inthe Australian second inningson Monday.

He believed that there area few spots on the surface,from where the ball mightrear up awkwardly when histeam sets out to chase a recordtarget of 328 on Tuesday to winthe four-match series againstAustralia.

“When they bowl, obvi-ously there will be some con-fusion, it will play in the mindof the batsmen that there arecracks on the pitch but ourbatsmen are prepared for this.We will come to know onlytomorrow,” Siraj said at a vir-tual press conference.

When he was asked if hewould be required in pursuit ofthe total, he replied: “If I getopportunity, then I will bat.”

“... But naturally our aim isto win this series, especiallyafter so many injuries, despitewhich our team fought hard inthe first innings,” he said.

The short ball to get rid ofSteve Smith was his favouriteamong the 13 wickets in theseries, along with the dismissalof Marnus Labuschagne.

“In the whole series, I feel

it would be Steve Smith’s wick-et, there was extra bouncefrom the area where I thoughtI will get it. He is the best bats-men in the world and it gaveme a lot of confidence, also thewicket of Labuschagne, itboosted my confidence.”

The 26-year-oldHyderabad pacer thankedskipper Ajinkya Rahane for hisconstant support and encour-agement.

“Also the kind of opportu-nities that the youngsters got,whether it is Natarajan orWashington, all have grabbedthem, every one has perfor-mance.

“I will especially thankAjinkya Rahane for trustingthe youngsters and showingconfidence in me, he was talk-ing me all the time and it gaveme a lot of confidence.”

Having lost his father dur-ing the ongoing tour and beingunable to go back for his lastrites, Siraj had a difficult lasttwo months but in the end, thehard work has reaped divi-dends.

“My dad had wished thathis son would play and theentire world would watch him.I hope he could have beenthere to watch this day. This isbecause of his blessings that Ihave got a five wicket haul inTests. I am speechless andcan’t express my feelings inwords.”

“It was a tough situation,dad’s demise. I got strengthafter talking to mom and myfocus was to realise dad’sdream,” he said.

PTI n BRISBANE

Australian batsman SteveSmith reckons that with

the Gabba track starting to playa few tricks, staying patientwould be imperative for histeam’s bowlers when theydefend an imposing 328 againsta determined India on the lastday of the fourth and final Testhere.

India were 4/0 before thefinal session of the play wassuspended early due to rain onthe fourth day.

“I think the game is in anice place for us. I think thewicket has started to play a fewtricks today, couple of balls shotup,” Smith said at the virtualpost-day press conference.

“So, tomorrow it is justgoing to be about bowling (in)good areas and letting the nat-ural variation of the day fivewicket sort of do its work andhopefully we can hold on to allthe chances,” he added.

The rain factor is alsogoing to be a crucial one on thefinal day but Smith wouldrather focus on controllables.

“Who knows? That is atough question.”

He said the Australianbowlers should remain patientand not go searching for toomuch. “The Indian playershave obviously batted well.Obviously in Sydney, it was 130(overs) or something, obvi-ously it is a different wicket tothat. But for us it is just beingpatient, not searching toomuch, bowling good areas andjust letting it happen,” the pro-lific batsman stressed.

“I think the more you sortof go searching for on thesekind of tracks, then you prob-

ably don’t get the reward. So, itis just about hitting good areasconsistently and letting thenatural variation of the wickettake its course,” he reiterated.

AP nMANCHESTER

John Stones scored his firstPremier League goals for

Manchester City in a 4-0 victo-ry over Crystal Palace to help histeam leap up to second in thePremier League.

The defender netted twiceand Ilkay Gundogan andRaheem Sterling also scoredfine goals as City claimed a fifthsuccessive win by overpoweringa Palace side missing WilfriedZaha at the Etihad Stadium.

City moved above Liverpoolafter the champions drew 0-0with Manchester United, whichhas played a game more than its

neighbor.The opening goal came

after some De Bruyne brilliancein the 26th minute. The Belgianbrilliantly controlled a cross-fieldpass from Sterling on the left andinstinctively curled a cross intothe area with the outside of hisright boot.

Stones, in his fifth season atCity, read it perfectly and rose tohead home his first of the night.He temporarily forgot the newprotocols regarding goal celebra-tions as he ran off toward thecorner flag and accepted a hugfrom Ruben Dias and GabrielJesus.

De Bruyne showed more

restraint as he fist-bumped KyleWalker in recognition of whatwas his 100th assist for City.

The second goal arrived 11minutes into second half. It wasall Gundogan’s own work as hewon the ball from AndrosTownsend and then curled ashot into the top corner from theedge of the area.

This time there was a comicelement to the celebrations asGundogan accepted congratu-latory hugs from his team-mates only for Fernandinho tocome along and remind of theneed to keep their distance.After that, fist-bumps seemedto suffice.

De Bruyne fired anothershot narrowly wide before Citygot its third in the 68th. Guaitadid well to keep out a firmheader from Dias but the ballrebounded to Stones, wholashed it back into the netalmost instinctively.

Sterling, making up for thefrustration of a missed penaltyin midweek, wrapped up a finenight’s work for City when hecurled home a free kick fromthe edge of the area in the 88th.

Palace is 13th in the 20-team standings.

AP n TOKYO

Japanese Prime MinisterYoshihide Suga vowed on

Monday to get the pandemicunder control and hold thealready postponed Olympicsthis summer with ample coro-navirus protection.

In a speech opening a newParliament session, Suga said hisGovernment would revise lawsto make anti-virus measuresenforceable with penalties andcompensation.

Early in the pandemic,Japan was able to keep its viruscaseload manageable with non-binding requests for businesses

to close or operate with socialdistancing and for people to stayhome.

But recent weeks have seenseveral highs in new cases perday, in part blamed on eased atti-tudes toward the anti-virus mea-sures, and doubts are growing asmore contagious variants spreadwhile people wait for vaccinesand the Olympics draw closer.

Suga said his Governmentaimed to start vaccinations asearly as late February.

“In order to restore sense ofsafety, I will get the coronaviruspandemic, which has ragedworldwide and is now severelyaffecting Japan, under control as

soon as possible,” Suga said.“I will stand at the frontline

of the battle while I get the peo-ple’s cooperation.”

Suga pledged to achievethe Olympics as “a proof ofhuman victory against the coro-navirus.”

“We will have full anti-infection measures in place andproceed with preparation witha determination to achieve theGames that can deliver hopeand courage throughout theworld,” he said.

Recent media polls showabout 80% of the Japanese pub-lic think the Olympics will notor should not happen.

AFP n MILAN

Inter Milan defeated champi-ons Juventus 2-0 to move

level on points with Serie Aleaders AC Milan on Sunday,boosting their hopes of a firstleague title since 2010.

Arturo Vidal got his head toa Nicolo Barella cross in the12th minute for his first leaguegoal for Inter Milan against hisformer club.

Barella added the secondseven minutes after the break as

Inter claimed a first victory overJuventus since September 2016,ending a series of seven match-es without a win.

“It was a bad defeat, we did-n’t expect it, we couldn’t haveput in a worse performancethan this,” said Juventus coachAndrea Pirlo after his secondleague defeat this season.

“Our attitude was wrong,right from the start. We weretoo passive, fearful, we onlythought about the defensivephase.”

Inter are equal on 40 pointswith local rivals Milan, whotravel to Cagliari, with Juventusseven points behind the top twoin fifth.

“To win against a teamlike Juve you have to touch per-fection,” said Inter coachAntonio Conte after his firstwin in four meetings against theclub he led to the first three oftheir current run of nine con-secutive league titles.

“I’m happy for the ladsbecause these are games thatgive you self-esteem and makeyou understand that we’re onthe right path.

AFP n SEVILLE

Lionel Messi was sent off forthe first time playing for

Barcelona as Athletic Bilbaostunned the Catalans to win theSpanish Super Cup on Sunday,a dramatic final finishing 3-2after extra-time.

Moments beforeBilbao’s momentous tri-umph was confirmed,Messi threw an arm atAsier Villalibre, who hadearlier scored a 90th-minute equaliser innormal time todeny Barca victo-ry.

AntoineGriezmann’sd o u b l elooked tohave sealed thetrophy butVillalibre inter-vened before InakiWilliams’ fabulous strikethree minutes into extratime proved decisive.

Messi shook off athigh problem to start inSeville and was requiredto play all 120 minutes asBarcelona attempted totake the game to penalties.

Instead, the 33-year-old lost his temper at theend of a combative contest,reacting to a late challengefrom Villalibre by swipinghis hands across the back ofhis opponent.

It meant a first ever red

card for Messi in 753 appear-ances for Barcelona, to go withhis two reds for Argentina in2005 and 2019.

“After so many years infootball, Leo knows perfectlywell when he is fit to play,” saidBarca coach Ronald Koeman.

“We talked and he said hewas in a good place to start. Hehas survived the game, giventhe maximum, nothing more.”

Messi’s anger will takesome of the limelight away

from Bilbao, who hadalready denied the

competition aClasico final by

beating RealMadrid in thesemi onThursday andnow have com-pleted the set.

It means atitle and the per-

fect start forMarcelino Garcia

Toral, who only tookover as coach less thantwo weeks ago.

But there waspraise too for his pre-decessor GaizkaGaritano, who over-

saw this team reachingthe Copa del Rey final

last season, which earnedqualification in the first

place.“This is for Gaizka

Garitano and his coachingstaff as well who brought us

here,” said Williams.

AP n GALLE

Jonny Bairstow and DanLawrence held their nerve in

a 62-run unbroken stand toguide England to a seven-wick-et win over Sri Lanka onMonday on the fifth and finalmorning of the series-openingTest. England ensured it didn’thave any more hiccups in eras-ing the remaining 36 requiredon the last day after Sri Lankahad set up a tricky 74-run tar-get on a turning wicket.

England had slumped to 14-3 late on the fourth evening,included a crucial run-out of itscaptain Joe Root for just 1,before Bairstow and Lawrencecombined to usher the touriststo 76-3.

Bairstow remained unbeat-en on 35 off 65 balls andLawrence, who hit a gritty halfcentury in the first innings ofdebut, finished 21 not out.

Sri Lanka had the chance ofa breakthrough after Englandresumed on 38-3. Bairstow mayhave been out lbw off DilruwarnPerera’s off-spin in the third over,but stand-in captain Dinesh

Chandimal didn’t go for the tele-vision referral.

Bairstow eventually sealedthe victory with a boundarywhen he swept Perera to squareleg.

“To come with little prepand play in the manner we have,has been really impressive,” Rootsaid after receiving his man-of-the-match award.

The England captainpraised the effort of his two spin-ners — Dom Bess and Jack

Leach — who snared 14 wick-ets between them, each bagginga five-wicket haul.

“Brilliant effort, particular-ly with the little cricket they’veplayed recently,” Root said.

“Series like these are alwaystough but without the prep it’stestament to their characters.”

The second Test of the two-match series will also be playedat Galle, starting Friday. Englandswept the series 3-0 when it lasttoured Sri Lanka in 2018.

Cracking series finale in store

Mohammed Siraj celebrates with teammate Mayank Agarwal after taking his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket AP

Score Team Opponent Season

236-7 Australia West Indies1951-52

219-2 Australia West Indies1975-76

190-3 Australia England 1982-83

Faisel FFeatures

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4th Test. Day 5Live from 5:00am IST

S0NY TEN 1, 3 & SIX

Drawn series will be worsethan 2018-19 loss: Ponting

India need 324 more runs on final day to secure historic win at Gabba

PTI n BRISBANE

Former Australian captainRicky Ponting feels a drawn

Test series against a severelydepleted India will be a worseresult for the hosts than the lossthey suffered at home in theBorder Gavaskar Trophy twoyears ago.

The injury-ravaged Indianteam has shown great resilienceand grit throughout the currenttour of Australia. In the ongo-ing fourth and final Test, thetourists are without their pre-mier fast bowlers, skipper ViratKohli and a few specialist bats-men. “I think a drawn series willbe worse than the loss a coupleof years ago,” Ponting told crick-

et.Com.Au.“That’s the way I look at it,

considering how hard Indiahave found it going through 20players in a series, (Australia)having (David) Warner back forthe last couple of games, (Steve)Smith back for all them thatthey didn’t have last timearound.

“A draw would not only feellike a loss to them but be aworse result than last series,” headded.

The series is locked 1-1 atthe moment. India need 324runs with all 10 wickets in handon the final day to pull off a his-toric win at the Gabba, while adraw will also see them retainthe trophy.

Cracks on Gabba strip will

play on batsman’s mind: Siraj

Rain, thunderstorm in weather forecast for Day 5AFP n BRISBANE

All eyes will be on the weath-er forecast for Brisbane as

the fourth and final Testbetween India and Australiaconcludes at the Gabba onTuesday.

It’s been a hard-foughtseries with the score tied at 1-1 for now. And with Australiagetting bowled-out in their sec-

ond innings late in the third ses-sion on Monday, we’re left withpromises to be an exciting fin-

ish to this India tour.A win or draw will help

India retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, while a win isimperative for Australia.

Rain has already had a bigsay in the fourth Test, with theentire third session of day twobeing washed out and playbeing called off early on dayfour as well.

As per The Weather

Channel, there is a possibly ofheavy rain in Brisbane onTuesday. There could be scat-tered thunderstorms, with a50% chance of rain.

There are more worryingsigns for Australia, who wouldbe keen to get a full day’s play,as AccuWeather has also pre-dicted the possibility of thun-derstorms in Brisbane onTuesday.

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‘Starc will begood to go’Brisbane: Leading pacerMitchell Starc on Mondaygave Australia an injury scareafter he grabbed his ham-string but batting mainstaySteve Smith remained hopefulthat he would pull through adecisive final day in the fourthTest against India here.

Starc looked uncomfort-able during his only over ofIndia’s second innings, butSmith expressed optimismthat the 30-year-old would begood to go on Tuesday.

“I’m sure he’ll get assessedby the medical staff and onething I know about Mitchell ishe’s tough and he’s playedthrough some injuries beforeand got the job done, so hewill be hopefully good to gotomorrow,” said Smith. PTI