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VOL. 55 * NO. 173* AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

A health care worker administering a 'precautionary dose' of COVID-19vaccine to a doctor at a vaccination centre in New Delhi on Monday. UNI

Symptomatic air traveller being taken for isolation on an ambulance fromT3 at IGI Airport in New Delhi on Monday. UNI

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on arrival to attend a meetingat state BJP office in Lucknow on Monday. UNI

PM to inaugurate 11 new govt medical collegesNew Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)

Prime Minister NarendraModi will virtually inaugu-rate 11 new governmentmedical colleges acrossTamil Nadu and the newcampus of Central Instituteof Classical Tamil inChennai, on January 12.

The new medical col-leges are being establishedat an estimated cost ofabout Rs 4,000 crore, out ofwhich around Rs 2,145crore has been provided bythe Centre and rest by theTamil Nadu government.

The districts in whichthe new Medical Collegesare being established areVirudhunagar, Namakkal,The Nilgiris, Tiruppur,Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam,Dindigul, Kallakurichi,Ariyalur, Ramanathapuramand Krishnagiri.

“Establishment ofthese medical colleges is inline with the PrimeMinister ’s constant en-deavour to promote af-fordable medical educa-tion and improve healthinfrastructure in all parts ofthe country,” the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO) in astatement said.

The new medical col-leges, with cumulative ca-pacity of 1,450 seats, arebeing established underthe Centrally Sponsoredscheme of ‘Establishing ofNew Medical Colleges at-tached with existing dis-trict/referral hospital’.

Under the scheme,medical colleges are estab-lished in districts, which donot have either a govern-ment or private medicalcollege.

“The establishment ofa new campus of CentralInstitute of Classical Tamil(CICT) in Chennai is in linewith the Prime Minister’svision to protect and pre-serve Indian heritage andpromote classical lan-guages,” the PMO said.

The new campus isfully funded by the UnionGovernment and is built ata cost of Rs 24 crore. CICT,which was operating froma rented building so far,will now operate from anew three storey campus.The new campus isequipped with a spaciouslibrary, an e-library, semi-nar halls and a multimediahall.

An autonomousorganisation under theUnion Ministry of Educa-tion, CICT is contributing to

the promotion of classicalTamil by doing research ac-tivities so as to establish theancientness and unique-ness of Tamil language.

The institute library hasa rich collection of over45,000 ancient Tamil Books.To promote classical Tamiland support its students,the Institute indulges inacademic activities likeholding seminars and train-ing programmes, grantingfellowship etc. It also aimsto translate and publish‘Thirukkural’ in various In-dian as well as 100 foreignlanguages.

“The new campus willprovide an efficient work-ing environment for the in-stitute in its pursuit of pro-moting classical Tamilacross the world,” the PMOadded.

India begins precaution dose drive,over 1 Cr SMS sent to beneficiaries

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)The drive for administeringprecaution dose to thehealthcare workers, front-line workers and 60-plus in-dividuals commenced onMonday across the country.The CoWIN portal has sentover one crore remindermessages to the beneficia-ries to get the precautiondose.

Union Health MinisterMansukh Mandaviya on thisoccasion said in a tweet,“The program of giving Pre-caution Dose on the adviceof doctors to healthcare andfrontline workers andpeople of 60+ age is startingfrom today across the coun-try”.

He added in the sametweet, “Under the leadershipof PM Narendra Modi ji, thegovernment is committedto provide additional secu-rity cover to healthcare andfrontline workers on prior-ity”. Earlier, Vikas Sheel, Addi-tional Secretary and MissionDirector, National HealthMission, said that the re-minder SMSs have beenpushed to more than 1 crorebeneficiaries for the precau-tion dose. The system isready to welcome beneficia-ries at vaccination centreson Monday.

The precaution dose willbe administered to thosewho have completed ninemonths after the second

dose. The health ministryhad earlier said that theCoWin system will send re-minder SMS to those eli-gible for the precautiondose. The online booking ofappointments for precau-tion dose through CoWINportal started from Satur-day. However, the ministryhas clarified that therewould be no need for newregistration for precautiondose. The government hasalso clarified that the pre-caution dose will be of thesame jab as the first and sec-ond dose. Those who gotCovaxin will get Covaxinand those who gotCovishield will getCovishield.

Maha continues to be worst Omicronhit, Rajasthan outnumbers Delhi

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)With 410 fresh Omicron in-fections detected in the last24 hours, the national tallyof this highly transmissiblevariant of the coronavirushas climbed to 4,033. Of thetotal, 1,552 people have re-covered from the new strainnationwide so far, saidUnion Health Ministry onMonday morning.

As per the health minis-try, the Omicron infectionhas spread into 27 Statesand UTs so far. Maharashtracontinues to be worst hit at1,216 Omicron infectionswith 207 cases detected inthe last 24 hours. Of them,454 patients have been dis-charged.

However, Rajasthan hasreplaced Delhi at secondposition with total 529 Omi-cron cases, out of which 305have been discharged so far.Delhi continues with 513Omicron cases. Of them, 57have been discharged from

the hospital so far.Delhi is followed by

Karnataka with 441 cases ofthis variant. Kerala has reg-istered 333 Omicron casesso far.

Among other states,Gujarat has so far detected236 cases, while Tamil Naducontinues with 185 cases.Telangana and Haryana alsohave 123 Omicron caseseach. Poll bound UttarPradesh has 113 cases ofthis variant. The number ofcases however has risen to74 in Odisha and 28 inAndhra Pradesh. Punjab and

West Bengal have 27 caseseach and Goa has 19 Omi-cron cases, as per the healthministry data. MadhyaPradesh has reported onefresh Omicron case in 24hours, taking the tally to 10.

However, the Omicroncase count continues insingle digit for Assam at 9and Uttarakhand at 8.Meghalaya has 4 Omicroncases so far. Chandigarh,Jammu and Kashmi,Andman and Nicobar Is-lands have so far 3 caseseach and Puducherry has 2cases.

‘Taking PM’s security breach very seriously’:Supreame Court sets up panel headed by ex-SC judge

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)The Supreme Court onMonday agreed to set up apanel, headed by a formerapex court judge, to probethe Prime MinisterNarendra Modi securitybreach in Punjab last week.

After a detailed hearingin the matter, a benchheaded by Chief Justice N.V.Ramana and comprisingJustices Surya Kant andHima Kohli said the courtwill set up a committeeheaded by a retired topcourt judge to probe thePM’s security breach andasked both the Centre andPunjab government to not

move ahead with their re-spective inquires into thematter.

The bench said it willpass a detailed order in thematter. During the hearing,the bench orally proposedthat other members of thecommittee would be Direc-tor General of Police (DGP)Chandigarh, Inspector Gen-eral (IG) National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA), registrargeneral (Punjab andHaryana High Court), andAdditional DGP (security)Punjab.

The bench said: “We aretaking the PM’s securitybreach very seriously”. The

bench added that it will askthe committee to submit itsreport to it within a shortspan. Advocate General D.S.Patwalia, representing thePunjab government, com-plained against show-cause notices to its chiefsecretary and DGP. Heurged the top court to forman independent committeeto probe the matter. “Hangme if I am guilty... but don’tcondemn me unheard,”submitted Patwalia. Solici-tor General Tushar Mehta,representing the Centre,defended the show-causenotices issued by the Cen-tral government. However,

the top court expressed itsdispleasure at Centre’sstand, questioning what isthe point of asking thecourt to examine the mat-ter if the Centre wanted togo ahead on its own.

Senior advocateManinder Singh, represent-ing the Delhi-based peti-tioner Lawyer ’s Voice,emphasised on the impor-tance of protection to thePM of the country and citedprevious top court rulingthat looked at the SPGAct.The plea sought an in-dependent probe into thePM’s security breach inPunjab.

‘Deltacron’ a lab contamination,not a new variant: UK virologist

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)After a scientist in Cyprusclaimed that his team hasidentified a new Covid vari-ant being dubbed as‘Deltacron’, a UK-based vi-rologist has termed it a “labcontamination” and not anew strain.

Tom Peacock, a virolo-gist at the Imperial CollegeLondon, said that the Cyp-riot ‘Deltacron’ sequencesreported by several largemedia outlets look to bequite clearly “contaminated”.

“When new variantscome through sequencinglab contamination isn’t thatuncommon (very very tinyvolumes of liquid can causethis) - just usually these fairlyclearly contaminated se-quences are not reported bymajor media outlets,” Pea-cock said in a Twitter threadon Sunday.

According to him, Omi-cron has likely not circulatedfor long enough, in a largeenough population, to pro-duce a true recombinant.

True recombinants don’ttend to appear until a fewweeks/months after there’sbeen substantial co-circula-tion. “We’re only a couple ofweeks into Omicron - I reallydoubt there are any preva-lent recombinants yet,” hesaid. The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) has notcommented on this devel-opment yet. The genetic de-tails of ‘Deltacron’ publishedon the GISAID database alsodo not resemble a recombi-nant.

Molnupiravir best bet infight against Covid: Experts

Kazakhstan unrest can havedirect bearing on China

New Delhi, Jan 10: Thepolitical unrest in the natu-ral resource rich Kazakhstancould have a direct bearingon China, though the situa-tion has been somewhatbrought under control.China has large investmentsin Kazakhstan, which alsoserves as a vital link be-tween Beijing and the restof Europe. The multi trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initia-tive (BRI) too runs throughthe country. “The unrest hasstirred concerns about theimpact on Chinese compa-nies operating in the coun-try, which has been show-

ered with investment underPresident Xi Jinping’s Beltand Road Initiative,” SouthChina Morning Post said ina report. The Chinese em-bassy in Kazakhstan has al-ready issued an advisory,asking its companies andcitizens residing in the Cen-tral Asian country to con-tinuously monitor the situ-ation. Experts told India Nar-rative that Beijing’s con-cerns would increase fur-ther if protests continue asthe two countries share acommon border. “The Chi-nese would be worried, notonly has Beijing made huge

investments in the CentralAsian country, the two havea common border. Also pro-tests in Kazakhstan couldhave a ripple effect acrossthe other Central Asiancountries,” an analyst said.In 2019, the Kazakh govern-ment was forced to publishdetails on the Chinese in-vestments. China Dialoguerevealed, there were 55 Chi-nese projects with half of theinvestment totalling about$27.6 billion in the oil andgas sector and the rest are inmining and ore processing,machine manufacturing, en-ergy and food production.

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)With questions being raisedon the safety ofMolnupiravir - an oral anti-viral pill approved for treat-ing Covid-19, Indian healthexperts have pointed outthat the benefits of the drugoutweigh the potential risksit may have in the case ofhigh-risk patients.

Developed by US-baseddrug company Merck,Molnupiravir is approved bythe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration against Covid-19. It is approved by the UKMedicines and HealthcareProducts RegulatoryAgency (MHRA) for thetreatment of mild-to-mod-erate Covid-19 in adultswith a high risk of progres-sion to severe disease,mainly those with pre-exist-ing (comorbid) conditions.

India has also approvedthe drug amid rising casesof new Covid variant Omi-cron in India. An expert

panel of the Central DrugsStandard ControlOrganisation had recentlyapproved the antiviralMolnupiravir for restricteduse in emergency situations.The antiviral drug will bemanufactured by 13 com-panies in India.

However, Indian Councilof Medical Research (ICMR)Director General, BalramBhargava, said that theMolnupiravir is not includedin the national Covidtaskforce treatment as it hasmajor safety concerns liketeratogenicity, mutagenic-ity, muscle and bone dam-age among others.

“More importantly con-traception has to be donefor three months if this drugis given for male and femaleas the child born could beproblematic with teratoge-nic influences,” he said at apress briefing.

Medical experts, on theother hand, have pointedout that the benefits of thedrug outweigh the poten-tial risks it may have in thecase of high-risk patients.

But they say as there arevery limited options ofmedicines to treat Covidpatients, hence the new ap-proved medicines shouldbe given a try under stricttreatment regime proto-cols.

Rajnath Singhtests positivefor Covid

New Delhi, Jan (IANS)Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Monday said thathe had tested positive forCovid. In a tweet, he said, “Ihave tested positive forCorona today with mildsymptoms. I am underhome quarantine. I requesteveryone who have re-cently come in my contactto isolate themselves andget tested.” Former UnionMinister and Lok Sabhamember RajyavardhanSingh Rathore also testedpositive for Covid on Mon-day. Union Minister RajeevChandrashekhar testedpositive on Sunday. In atweet, he had said: “And af-ter succeeding in avoiding#COVID19 for last 21months,

NIA files chargesheet against 4Bangladeshi, 1Indian in UAPA case

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)The National InvestigationAgency on Monday saidthat it has filed charge sheetagainst five alleged terror-ists including 4 Bangladeshinationals in connectionwith the Unlawful ActivityPrevention Act.

The NIA said theychargesheeted Lalu Senalias Rahul Sen, NajiurRahman Pavel alias NajiurRahman, Mikail Khan aliasS.K Sabbir, Rabiul Islam aliasRabiul Isalm andMohammed Abdul MannanBachu under sections 120-B,353, 364, 449 & 450 of theIPC and Sections 120B, 204,419, 465, 468 & 471 of IPC,Sections 17, 18, 38 & 39 ofUA(P) Act, Section 14A(b) ofForeigners Act and Section12 of Passport Act.

The charge sheet wasfiled before the special NIAcourt in Kolkata. “The casewas originally registered atSTF PS, Kolkata, West Bengal.The police had mentionedin the FIR that threeBangladeshi nationals whohad illegally entered Indiaalong with their associatesof JMB/AQIS, were hatchingconspiracy to carry out ter-ror activities in India. Theywere also trying to recruit,motivate young Muslimyouths in order to establish‘Caliphate’ and for further-ance of terrorist activities inIndia and Bangladesh,” saidNIA official.

RememberingSwamiVivekananda, PM toinaugurate NationalYouth Festival

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Prime Minister NarendraModi will inaugurate the25th National Youth Festivalon January 12 via videoconferencing. The day, beingthe birth anniversary ofSwami Vivekananda, is ob-served as the National YouthDay. During the event, thePrime Minister will unveilselected essays on “MereSapno ka Bharat” and “Un-sung Heroes of Indian Free-dom Movement”. These es-says have been selectedfrom submissions by overone lakh youth on the twothemes. The festival aims toshape the minds of India’syouth and transform theminto a united force for nationbuilding. It is one of the big-gest exercises in social co-hesion and intellectual andcultural integration. It aimsto bring diverse cultures ofIndia and integrate theminto a united thread of ‘EkBharat, Shreshtha Bharat’.

Bulli Bai accusedVishal Jha testsCovid positive,quarantined

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS) Inlatest update in Bulli Baicontroversy, Vishal KumarJha, 21, an engineering stu-dent who was the first oneto be arrested by MumbaiPolice from Bengaluru, hastested positive for Covid-19.He has been sent to a quar-antine centre by the BMC.His lawyers and familymembers have been in-formed by the Police.

He was arrested onJanuary 3 by the a MumbaiPolice team from Bengalurufollowing technical inputs.

On January 4, MumbaiPolice arrested one ShwetaSingh, a resident ofUttrakhand. She was secondperson who was arrested inthe controversy. MayankRawal was the third personwho was arrested byMumbai police.

Apart from Mumbai Po-lice, the Special Cell of DelhiPolice which was doing aparallel probe has made twoarrests. The special cell ar-rested Niraj Bishnoi, themain accused of Bulli Baiand Aumkareshwar Thakurthe main accused behindSulli Deal.

Ahmedabad, Page 2

Editorial2FromEditor’sDesk

Simmeringchallenge

Recent developments on Chinafront are disquieting. Delhi hasbroken its silence, but roadahead is not easy

China and India are scheduled to meet onWednesday for another round of border talks inEastern Ladakh in the shadow of developments thatare none too reassuring. The Chinese People’s Lib-eration Army is building across a portion of thePangong Lake, which while being on China’s side ofthe LAC, has implications for India’s defence of itsterritory. Meanwhile, Beijing has also “standardised”names of several places in Arunachal Pradesh, giv-ing them Chinese names. Then, a junior diplomat inthe Chinese Embassy in Delhi ticked off Indian par-liamentarians for attending a Tibet-related event.While 13 previous rounds of talks between theground commanders of the Indian Army and PLAhave yielded disengagement at Pangong andGogra, an anticipated agreement for disengage-ment at Hot Springs could not take place. Moreover,the continuing tensions all along the LAC, particu-larly the build-up by the Chinese in the Western sec-tor of the contested line, offer no comfort. Until thetwo sides can resolve differences in the strategicDepsang Area, where Indian troops are being pre-vented from accessing traditional patrolling points,de-escalation will remain elusive. The constructionof the bridge over Pangong is an indication thatBeijing is in fact preparing for a long haul. Beijing isalso building other roads and bridges and reinforc-ing military infrastructure, all on its side of the LAC,but certainly not a sign of two countries movingtowards resolution.

Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs de-nounced the “standardisation” of names inArunachal as “ridiculous”, and rightly said this wouldnot alter the fact that Arunachal is an inalienablepart of India. It also reprimanded the Chinese Em-bassy for “hyping normal activities” by Indian par-liamentarians. Significantly, it described the newbridge as a construction in Indian territory thatChina had “illegally occupied” in the 1962 war, de-claring that India had “never accepted such illegaloccupation”. That it took days for Delhi to break itssilence on these matters, however, is puzzling. Nowthat this is done, the real question is how India isgoing to deal with China’s heightened military ac-tivity along the LAC, apart from getting it to vacateareas that Delhi says are illegally occupied.

Dealing with a powerful neighbour that hasunilaterally discarded three decades of agreementsthat laid down the path to deal with the border is-sue is not easy. Strangely, the country’s political lead-ership, usually out there projecting global clout withhashtag diplomacy, is yet to take full ownership ofthe crisis with China which is the first step towardsaddressing it more frontally.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

No progress despite NationalClean Air Programme: Analysis

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Three years since the Na-tional Clean Air Programme(NCAP) was implementedacross India to reduce par-ticulate matter levels in 132cities by 20-30 per cent, dataon Monday showed therehas been little or noprogress on ground.

An analysis of thegovernment’s air qualitydata showed that not onlyhave most non-attainmentcities reduced PM 2.5 andPM 10 levels marginally,some have also recorded anincrease.

The Union governmentlaunched the NCAP onJanuary 10, 2019 to addressair pollution in 102 cities, towhich 20 more cities wereadded later in the year and10 more subsequently.

These 132 cities arecalled non-attainment citiesas they did not meet thenational ambient air qualitystandards (NAAQS) for theperiod of 2011-15 under theNational Air Quality Moni-toring Program (NAMP).

The country’s current

annual safe limits for PM 2.5and PM 10 are 40 and 60 mi-crograms/per cubic metre(ug/m3).

The NCAP has set a tar-get of reducing key air pol-lutants PM10 and PM2.5 (ul-tra-fine particulatematter) by 20-30 percent in 2024 takingthe pollution levels in2017 as the base yearto improve upon.

The Ministry of En-vironment, Forestsand Climate Changeand Central PollutionControl Board areleading theprogramme at the na-tional level. At the state level,state pollution controlboards are mandated to de-velop the city action plansand monitor their imple-mentation by identified de-partments and agencies.

An analysis of air qualitymonitoring data from theContinuous Ambient AirQuality Monitoring System(CAAQMS) shows thatamong the cities where PM2.5 and PM 10 levels for

2019 and 2021 were avail-able and monitors had anuptime of at least 50 percent, Varanasi in UttarPradesh recorded the high-est reduction.

Only 36 out of the 132

cities met the criteria.Varanasi’s annual PM 2.5

levels reduced 52 per centfrom 91 ug/m3 in 2019 to 44ug/m3 in 2021 and its PM 10levels reduced 54 per centfrom 202 ug/m3 in 2019 to93 ug/m3 last year.

In 2019, Varanasi hadjust one CAAQMS monitorwhich increased to four by2021. The other cities thathave already met its reduc-tion target of at least 20 per

cent were Hubli in West Ben-gal where PM 2.5 and PM 10reduced by 42 and 40 percent respectively andTalcher in Odisha which sawa PM 2.5 reduction of 20 percent and PM 10 reduction of

53 per cent.Ahmedabad re-

corded a 26 per cent de-crease in PM 10 levels.On the other hand, NaviMumbai’s PM 2.5 levelsincreased from 39 ug/m3 to 53 ug/m3 and PM10 levels increased from96 ug/m3 to 122 ug/m3from 2019 to 2021.

Three years later,none of the analysed

non-attainment cities havemet the Central PollutionControl Board’s PM 10 safestandard of 60 ug/m3.

The NCAP Trackerranked the 10 most andleast polluted cities in 2019and tracked the perfor-mance of these based onPM 10 and PM 2.5 data avail-able from CAAQMS.

Considering only thosecities where monitors re-corded a minimum uptime

of 50 per cent, a total of 38,46 and 58 cities wereanalysed and ranked in2019, 2020 and 2021 respec-tively. Similarly, the trackeralso ranked non-attainmentcities (which recorded atleast 52 days of data eachyear) based on NAMP datafor the years 2017 to 2020.However, the number ofmonitored days for 2020was not available and henceall cities have been consid-ered. While in the same city,CAAQMS and NAMP moni-tors are placed at differentlocations and hence, citieshave been ranked sepa-rately. Ghaziabad in UttarPradesh with annual PM 2.5levels above 100 remainedat the top of the table in themost polluted cities except2020 when Lucknow rankedfirst with an annual PM 2.5level of 116. Most other cit-ies like Noida, Delhi,Moradabad and Jodhpursaw only a marginal dip inPM 2.5 levels and remainedin the top 10 polluted non-attainment cities through-out the year.

India-UAE trade booms—volume to touch USD 100 billion in 5-8 yearsBy Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

New Delhi, Jan 10: Thevolume of the bilateraltrade between India andthe United Arab Emirates(UAE) is tipped to increasefrom $60 billion to $100billion in the next 5-8years in tune with thegrowing partnership be-tween the two countries.

Elaborating on thepotential of collaborationbetween India and theUAE, Dr. Ahmed AbdulRahman Al Banna, theUAE ambassador in India,said at one of the Lieuten-ant Gover Manoj Sinha’sKashmir promotionevents in Dubai on Friday:“India is the second larg-est trading partner for theUnited Arab Emirates andUAE is the third largest

trading partner for India af-ter the United States ofAmerica and China. Our to-tal Foreign Trade figuresreached about USD 60 bil-lion in 2019-2020. The Com-prehensive Economic Part-nership Agreement (CEPA)between the United ArabEmirates and India will becrucial in deepening the tiesbetween India and UAE. Weare hoping that CEPA willincrease our bilateral tradefrom USD 60 billion to USD100 billion in the coming 5to 8 years”.

“Ever since the Govern-ment of India announcedthe historic administrativechanges in 2019, the UnionTerritory of Jammu andKashmir has become the lat-est success story among In-dian states as a model ofeconomic and social devel-

opment. India and UAE areeach other’s largest tradingpartners. And soon, CEPAwill be signed, which cer-tainly has the potential tocatapult our economic en-gagement to a very differ-ent trajectory altogether,”the Indian ambassador inthe UAE, Sunjay Sudhir, said.

“Jammu & Kashmir hasmoved from a sleeping busi-ness destination to the landof opportunities and in-vestment. The Union Terri-tory received investmentproposals worth Rs 45,000crore and additional Rs18,300 crore in the real es-tate sector and showcasedthe emous opportunitiesand business potential inthe region”, LG Sinha ob-served.

Jammu & Kashmir hassigned 5 MoUs with Al

Maya Group, MATU Invest-ments LLC, GL EmploymentBrokerage LLC, Century Fi-nancial and Noon E-com-merce and one Letter of In-terest between MagnaWaves Pvt. Ltd along withEmaar Group and Lulu In-ternational.

Talking about the up-coming opportunities withleading investors, Sinhasaid: “Jammu & Kashmir isworking relentlessly to pro-vide an investment friendlyenvironment to the globalinvestors. From the busi-ness point of view, J&K hasthe capability to provideopportunities to the indus-tries to compete, correctand collaborate withreadily available abundantresources. Archaic lawshave been removed andmore than 890 Central laws,

which are the key drivers ofsocio-economic growthand have been made appli-cable”.

Among the six majorMemorandums of Under-standing (MoUs) signedduring Sinha’s four-day visitto the Gulf country was oneabout $100 million invest-ment with the company ofa non-resident Indian fromJammu & Kashmir.

Sinha’s entourage onFriday signed the MoU forestablishment of threeluxury hotels and one com-mercial-cum-residentialcomplex, with estimatedinvestment of $100 millionwith Century Financialwhich is owned by Mr BalKrishen, a resident of Dodadistrict settled in the Gulf.

The MoU was signed byPrincipal Secretary, Indus-

tries, J&K, Ranjan PrakashThakur and Mr Bal Krishenin presence of Consul Gen-eral of India in Dubai AmanPuri and several distin-guished UAE-based busi-ness owners, investors, andentrepreneurs.

Speaking at the event atthe Oberoi Dubai BusinessBay, Bal Krishen said: “I havealways believed thatJammu & Kashmir has tre-mendous investment po-tential and there cannot bea better time than now.Making a significant contri-bution to my home regionhas always been my dreamand today as I see thisdream getting realised, it’simmensely gratifying”.

In his address at Friday’ssignature ceremony, Sinhasaid that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was com-

mitted to J&K’s develop-ment. “We are happy to seethe interest shown by UAE’sbig business houses andleaders in supporting thisvision of our honourablePrime Minister. Global busi-ness and industry are wak-ing up to the vistas of op-portunity in J&K”, Sinha as-serted.

“Despite challenges ofglobal pandemic, neitherthe pace of economic andpolicy reforms the imple-mentation of key infrastruc-ture projects has slowed inany way in UT and us, as re-sponsive administrationwill continue to respond tobusiness’s concerns”, Sinhaadded. Principal Secretary,Industries and Commerce,Ranjan Thakur said thatJammu & Kashmir was oneof the safest places in India

to do business, offeringthe most attractive in-centive schemes for in-vestments in the unionterritory compared to allother states and UTs.Even as one son of thesoil from Jammu’s Dodahas offered an invest-ment worth Rs 700 crore($100 million) forstrengthening of thehospitality and tourisminfrastructure in Jammuand Kashmir, most of theKashmir-based tycoons,who have grabbed mas-sive loans from theJammu and KashmirBank and surreptitiouslyshifted their businessesto the UAE, have beenconspicuously absent atthe Lieutenant GoverManoj Sinha’s promotionevents in Dubai.

Battle for UP: First phase in UPis challenge for BJP, hope for SP

By Amita Verma

Lucknow, Jan 10 (IANS) There is a battle for theBJP in western Uttar Pradesh, hope for theSamajwadi Party and revival for the Rashtriya LokDal in the region that goes to polls in the first phaseon February 10.

The region, considered one of the most politi-cally sensitive, surcharged and highly polarised ar-eas, especially after the farmers’ agitation, will setthe tone for elections in the remaining six phasesin Uttar Pradesh.

Elections will be held in the 94 Assembly seg-ments in 11 districts of west Uttar Pradesh namely,Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat,Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra, GautamBuddha Nagar and Mathura, on February 10.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP had re-ceived a decisive mandate in the region and car-ried that momentum further to other parts of thestate.

The BJP, in 2017, had won 66 of the 76 seats inthis region. The Samajwadi Party (SP) won four, theBahujan Samaj Party won three, the Congress wontwo and the Rashtriya Lok Dal could win only one.

The scenario has changed almost completelyin the past five years.

The wounds of Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013have healed to a large extent and the Jat-Muslimhostility has diluted. The communal lines haveblurred and farmer unity is now a bigger factor inthe region. Religious polarization is unlikely in the

region in the present scenario.The BJP has been trying to placate the farmers by re-

pealing farm laws but its own leaders are queering the pitchby announcing that farm laws will be brought back afterthe elections.

It has been a tough going so far for the BJP whose lead-ers have been facing hostile voters in the rural interiors ofthe region. The failure of the government to announce MSPguarantee, payment of cane dues, shortage of fertilizer andthe menace of stray cattle are factors that remain majorirritants for the ruling BJP. The government’s apathy towardsfamilies of farmers who died during agitation, is anothermajor factor.

The biggest political beneficiary of the farmers’ agita-tion that lasted for one year, however, is the Rashtriya LokDal.

The RLD president Jayant Chaudhary has managed toregain lost ground among the Jat community to a largeextent by extending active support to farmers during theiragitation. Jayant has been visiting villages, attending Khapmeetings and interacting closely with Jat leaders.

The demise of Chaudhary Ajit Singh in May last year,has also brought ample sympathy for Jayant and his partyis poised to make a political comeback in west UP.

The Samajwadi Party, this time, is contesting the elec-tions in alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal. It had allied withthe Congress in 2017 but could not make much headwayas Jats, then, had opted for BJP because the wounds ofMuzaffarnagar riots were still fresh.

The SP, this time, is confident of riding piggyback onRLD’s growing popularity graph.

The partnership could give a tough fight to the BJP in

many parts of western Uttar Pradesh.Besides, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal

Yadav will be contesting in alliance with theSamajwadi Party and this will help avoid a split inhis key vote bank.

One factor that could upset Samajwadi Partycalculations in the first phase is the entry ofAsaddudin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM).

The party could play an important role in manyconstituencies as the Muslim population in this re-gion amounts to around 26 per cent.

If the AIMIM succeeds in weaning away Muslimvotes — or even a section of votes — the SP-RLDalliance may not perform as well as expected.

The first phase in western UP is also crucial forthe Bahujan Samaj Party since the region was onceconsidered as a party stronghold.

This time, the emergence of Bhim Army whichwill be contesting as Azad Samaj Party is bound todamage the BSP which, in any case, is being ques-tioned for Mayawati’s absence in its campaign.

Mayawati, has, so far, restricted herself to tweetsand press releases but has not stepped out of herhome to campaign.

The Congress, on the other hand, is losing lead-ers with an alarming frequency. Congress nationalsecretary and one of its more popular leaders in theareas, Imran Masood, is all set to join the SamajwadiParty. Masood, a former MLA, has been repeatedlyurging the party leadership to join hands with theSP to defeat BJP.

Hasina pays tributes on 50th anniversaryof Bangabandhu’s Homecoming Day

By Sumi Khan

Dhaka, Jan 10 (IANS)Bangladesh Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina on Mondaypaid tributes on the 50thanniversary of Homecom-ing Day, which marksBangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman’s return tothe country in 1972 afterspending months in a Paki-stan jail.

She paid homage byplacing wreaths at the por-trait of her father at theBangabandhu MemorialMuseum in Dhaka, afterwhich she stood in silencefor a while. The Prime Minis-ter was accompanied by heryounger sister SheikhRehana. Following his returnto Bangladesh, Rahman’sfirst statement to the mediawas: “Gentlemen, as you cansee, I am alive and well.” He

was abducted by the Paki-stan Army in the early hoursof March 26, 1971 at the on-set of Operation Searchlight,in an attempt to defeatBangladesh’s struggle for in-dependence. But Rahman’sforesight in delegating re-sponsibilities to his trusteddeputies and faith in thepeople ensured they wouldnot only wage one of thefiercest wars for indepen-dence, but also ensure vic-tory. After Bangabandhuwas released on January 8,1972, he wished to return toDhaka immediately. But asPakistani aircraft werebanned in Indian airspace,Pakistan’s new PresidentZulfikar Ali Bhutto, who hadtaken over from a disgracedGeneral Yahya Khan, or-dered that Rahman fly toTehran or another ‘neutral’location, not India.

Mumbai, Since 2006,World Hindi Day has beencelebrated annually on Janu-ary 10 to promote the lan-guage on the global stage.Hindi cinema has howeversince time immemorial incul-cated the love for Hindiacross the world. From Rus-sian fans singing 'Mera JootaHai Japani' and 'I am a DiscoDancer' to Shahrukh Khan'sGerman fans mouthing thedialogues from 'DilwaleDulhaniya Le Jayenge' toTanzanian siblings andTikTok creators Kili Paul andhis sister Neema wowing theworld by lip-syncing Hindifilm songs, the power of cin-ema has helped Hindi tran-scend all boundaries.

Veteran producer AnandPandit agrees and says,"Hindi cinema has immensesoft power and its reach con-tinues to increase with time.When I travel abroad, somany people I meet sharetheir favourite dialogues orone-liners from theirfavourite films and recallsongs they have grown upwith. Cinema also has a greatliterary heritage. Some of thebest writers in the subconti-nent have contributed to ourfilms."

Here are some of his

Hindi cinema has a great literaryheritage," says Anand Pandit

favourite literary adaptationsin cinema:

Chehre: This film is ofcourse Pandit's personalfavourite and he says, "I pro-duced this film as I wasdrawn not just to its themebut its writing. Director RumiJaffrey adapted the story byRanjit Kapoor so well for thebig screen and the dialogueshad so much power. Whendelivered in Bachchan Saab'sbaritone, the dialogues re-minded me of the goldenera of film writing when eachline was cheered in theatresby the audience!"

Devdas: The 1955 ver-sion, says Pandit is hisfavourite adaptation of theSharat Chandra classic. Hesays, "The dialogues in thefilm were written by RajinderSingh Bedi who was truly aliterary icon. There is suchdepth and meaning in thesimplest of lines. The lan-guage reflects such diversityof influences just like Indiaand has such pathos. Thiswas one of the most perfectadaptations of a very well-loved book. Bimal Roy's di-rection and the performanceof Dilip Saab, Suchitra Senand Vyjayanthimala turnedthis film into an instant clas-sic."

Shatranj Ke Khiladi: ThisSatyajit Ray film was basedon Munshi Premchand'sshort story of the samename and had a formidablecast. Pandit recalls, "The filmwas perfectly adapted intoa great film by Ray himselfalong with writers ShamaZaidi and Javed Siddiqi. Addto that the performances ofAmjad Khan, RichardAttenborough, SanjeevKumar, Saeed Jaffrey,Shabana Azmi, andFarooque Shaikh and thevoice of the one and onlyAmitabh Bachchan as thenarrator and history wasmade!"

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam:Pandit believes among thegreatest director and writercollaborations was the oneshared by Guru Dutt andAbrar Alvi. He says, "Suchwas their synergy thatpeople could not believethat Alvi Saab and not GuruDutt had directed this film!What a masterpiece thisturned out to be anywayand how well it adaptedBimal Mitra's Bengali novel'Saheb Bibi Golam' into cin-ematic perfection. The per-formance of Meena Kumariwas of course beyond bril-liant!"

The region, considered one of the most politically sensitive

Students aged 15 to18 years take selfie after received their first dose of vaccine for Covid-19 at a school,in Prayagraj on Monday. UNI

Ahmedabad, Page 3

In the news 3

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

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

After witnessing someamazing moments in its glo-rious run, the first season ofCOLORS’ ‘The Big Picture’has now reached its grandpenultimate episode! Su-perstar Ranveer Singh hashosted many big names onthis show and now to bringthis season to a spectacularend, our suave host will bewelcoming none other thanBollywood guru Karan Joharand the ever-glowing Kajolfor this grand finale!

To begin this specialnight, Ranveer will be givinga shandaar welcome toKajol by greeting her with alovely rose. As they get thenight going, Karan Johar willsurprise everyone by mak-ing the most hatke entry onstage by arriving in a rick-shaw! Taking a page out ofthe filmmaker’s notebook,Ranveer will be seen wel-coming him with a ‘Pooja

Karan and Kajol recreate the golden ‘KuchKuch Hota Hai’ moments with Ranveer

Thaali’. Karan and Kajol thentake on this vibrant visual-based quiz with our hostguiding their way around it.

During the quiz, KaranJohar will be seen reminisc-

ing special moments withKajol and SRK from the timethey were filming

Bollywood’s cult classic ‘KuchKuch Hota Hai’. The directorreveals how Kajol was madeto wear a headband in thefilm due to some issues in herwig, and how this look went

on to becomestaunchly popu-lar at the time.Karan sums thisup with a punsaying, “Kuchkuch galtiyaaniconic bann jaatihai!” He also talksabout the famousbasketball scenein the movie andrecalls how thesport had gainedp o p u l a r i t yamong womenafter the film’s re-lease. Ranveerthen decides to

recreate the memorablescene by playing a game ofhoops with Kajol!

After starting the newyear with new zeal, &TV’sshows Baal Shiv, Ghar EkMandir-Kripa Agrasen Ma-haraja ki, Aur Bhai Kya ChalRaha Hai?, Happu ki UltanPaltan and Bhabiji Ghar ParHai are all set to entertainthe viewers with zabardasttwists and lots of drama.

Parvati ki bhakti yaAnusuya ki mamta aakhirkisse tootega Baal Shiv kadhyan?

In&TV’s Baal Shiv, DeviParvati (Shivya Pathania)plans on getting Baal Shiv(Aan Tiwari) back from hismeditation with her devo-tion and starts telling himthe story of Sati and LordShiva. She is reminding himof how even after her father,Daksh (Tej Sapru) have se-vere hatred towardsMahadev (Siddharth Arora),she is attracted to him intheir first meet itself.

Varun ka purana pyaarlayega Genda ki zindagimein toofan!

In&TV’s Ghar Ek Mandir-Kripa Agrasen Maharaja kiviewerswill see Ishita

&TV ke shows mein zabardast twists aur dhamakedaar dramaGanguly’s entry as SandhyaGupta, a young free-spiritedgirl who belongs to a tradi-tional conservative family.She and Varun (AkshayMhatre) have had an intenselove affair five years ago, but

they broke off the relation-ship as she was not ready tosettle.

Shanti Huyi Shant!In &TV’s Aur Bhai Kya

Chal Raha Hai?, Shanti(Farhana Fatema) will over-hear her husband Mishra(Ambrish Bobby) complain-ing about her constant an-ger and bak-bak. So, Shanti

decides to take a MaunVrat.Shanti (FarhanaFatema) says, “Your AshaantShanti will go shaant in theupcoming track and take aMaun Vrat to teach a lessonto her husband Mishra and

other family members whoare irritated because of hertalkative nature. So, howthey react to her going quietwill be an interesting watchfor the viewers.”

Amma ko chodh, KyaHappu basayega nayaGhar ?

In &TV’sHappu ki UltanPaltan, Rajesh (Kamna

Pathak) and Bimlesh (SapnaSikarwar) attend a house-warming party and cannotstop praising the expensiveflat. They cannot get over itand decide to book a houseand shift there as soon aspossible.

Vibhuti ban gayeAngoori ke bhaiya

In &TV’s Bhabiji Ghar ParHai, Angoori (ShubhangiAtre) will inform Tiwari(Rohitashv Gaur) about herpregnancy, making him ec-static. At the same time,Tiwari also tells Angoori thathe wished he had a brother-in-law who could managethe business to spend moretime with her. As the newsabout Angoori's pregnancyspreads, her father, BhooreyLal (Rakesh Bedi), comes tocelebrate with her. As theychit-chat, he mentions thatAngoori had a brothernamed Juttan, who wentmissing right after birth.Meanwhile, in the Mishrahouse, a daayi maa tells Helen(Pratima Kazmi) that Vibhutiis not her son, and unfortu-nately, Vibhuti hears it.

Pankaj Tripathi has startedshooting for ‘Criminal Justice 3’

Mumbai, Jan 10(IANS) Acclaimed actorPankaj Tripathi is all set tobring one of his mostloved roles as MadhavMishra with the third in-stalment of courtroomdrama web show ‘Crimi-nal Justice’.

According to reports,the third instalment isgoing to be shot on amuch bigger scale with amix of new as well as oldcharacters from the fran-chise coming together ina new story line.

Pankaj commencedthe shoot for ‘CriminalJustice 3’ from the firstweek of January inMumbai.

A source said: “‘CriminalJustice’ has always been afranchise very close toPankaj. The journey whichstarted off from the first sea-son in 2019 got such anoverwhelming responsethat we’re already starting to

shoot the third seasonin the start of 2022.”

The source added:“Madhav Mishra’s char-acter is somewhat likePankaj - he stands forwhat is right, no matterwhat; he believes in up-lifting and supportingthe weaker sections ofour society; and he relieson just two traits - hon-esty and pure talent.”

‘Criminal Justice 3’ isdirected by RohanSippy, produced by Ap-plause Entertainmentstarring Pankaj Tripathiin the lead role and willstream on Disney+Hotstar towards the endof 2022.

‘Bigg Boss 15’: Salman Khan announcesextension of show for two weeks

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS)The latest promo of ‘BiggBoss 15’ has made a con-firmed announcement thatthe show is going to be ex-tended for two weeks.

In the promo, hostSalman Khaninforms theh o u s e m a t e sthat Ticket ToFinale will con-tinue and theshow is goingto be extendedfor two weeks.Therefore, ‘BiggBoss 15’ wilhave its grand finale byJanuary-end. Earlier it wasexpected to have the finaleon January 16. But, now themakers have made an offi-cial announcement to ex-tend the show for twoweeks, so it will continue tillJanuary-end. Meanwhile, afew wild card contestantsmay enter the house. Vishal

Kotian and Rajiv Adatia weresupposed to enter as wildcard contestants but afterVishal tested positive forCovid-19, his entry has beendelayed. Rajiv will also enterafter a while. As per the

sources, SimbaNagpal was alsoapproached buthe was not keento enter theshow again aswild card contes-tant. During the‘Weekend KaVaar’, Umar Riazwas evicted. Sev-

eral celebrities entered theshow to support thehousemates, such as DivyaAgarwal, Kashmera Shah,Rahul Mahajan, Geeta Kapur,Debina Bonnerjee andVishal Singh.

Hrithik Roshan goes fierce, intensein first look of ‘Vikram Vedha’

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS)On his 48th birthday onMonday, Bollywood starHrithik Roshan treated hisfans with his first look asVedha from the upcomingfilm ‘Vikram Vedha’.

Hrithik took toInstagram, wherehe unveiled hislook. Coveredin blood, theactor is seensporting arugged yetintense lookas he sports aheavy beardand mustache.The star com-pleted his lookwith sunglassesand staring at thecamera lens.

“ V E D H A .#vikramvedha,” he wrote asthe caption for the image,which currently has 882Klikes on the photo-sharingwebsite.

The film stars Hrithik andSaif Ali Khan in lead roles,with Radhika Apte in a cru-cial role. Pushkar andGayatri, the original writersand directors, are donning

the directora¿s hats for theHindi remake as well.

A cult film in its ownright ‘Vikram Vedha’ is a neo-noir action crime thrillerfilm. Based on the Indian

meta-folktale ‘Vikramaur Betaal’, the film

tells the story of atough police of-

ficer who setsout to trackdown and killan equallytough gang-ster.

This origi-nal Tamilb lock busterstarred R.

Madhavan andVijay Sethupathi.

‘Vikram Vedha’is presented by

Gulshan Kumar, T-SeriesFilms and Reliance Enter-tainment in association withFriday Filmworks and YNOTStudios Production.

The film is directed byPushkar & Gayatri and pro-duced by S. Sashikanth andproduced by BhushanKumar. ‘Vikram Vedha’ willhit the big screens globallyon September 30.

Lengendary singerYesudas turns 82

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10 (IANS) For the secondstraight year, veteran singer K.J.Yesudas, who turned 82 onMonday, will be unable to offers prayers at the famedKollur Mookambika temple in Karnataka. Since the out-break of Covid pandemic, the noted singer has been inDallas and hence not been able to take part in his musi-cal tribute at the temple, a practice for close to four de-cades. On his birthday every year, his family sings ‘bhajans’at the temple. The temple is considered a very revered

place among performers inmusic and art. However, hisgood old friendK.Ramachandran hasreached the temple and of-fered prayers for the wellbeing of the legendarysinger. Meanwhile, to markhis 82nd birthday, 82 sing-ers will assemble at thetemple and render 82 songsof him to complete the cel-ebrations. In a music careerspanning over six decades,

Yesudas has recorded more than 80,000 songs in over 14languages, including Arabic, Latin and Russian. Yesudas,over the years, has won a record eight national awards, and25 state awards . The singer has also been conferred withthe Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.Apart from his songs, the singer is known for his trade markattire — a white kurta and a white dhoti and in the recentyears, he has been sporting a white beard. On November14, 2021, the singing legend was greeted by many for com-pleting 60 years as a playback singer.

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Ahmedabad, Page 4

City-State4 AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

Covid Curbs Will DampenSpirit Of Kite Shopping

Ahmedabad, For thesecond year in a row,Uttarayan will be a low keyaffair for Amdavadis due toCovid-19 restrictions. Thenight curfew especially,which begins at 10 pm willbe a dampener as kite en-thusiasts like to shop till lateat night in the traditionalkite markets at Tankshal Polin Kalupur, Raipur, DelhiDarwaza and Jamalpur. Thecharm of buying kites andmanja on the penultimatenight of Uttarayan will belost as police are expectedto strictly abide by the 10pmcurfew deadline this time.

City police chief SanjaySrivastava has in a notifica-tion on Saturday mentionedthat kite lovers will have toabide by the Covid-19guidelines issued by theUnion and state govern-ments.

A senior police officialsaid that curfew will beimplemented strictly. “Gath-ering of people in kite mar-kets could potentially be asuper spreader and hence

no kite bazaar or even ashop will be allowed to re-main open after 10 pm.”

Jamalpur residentMustaq Shaikh who makeskites for a living said thatproduction and selling ofkites have gone down dras-tically due to the pandemic.“The traders are hesitant tobuy kites as they fear thatCovid restrictions would im-pact retail sales,” Shaikhsaid.

Meanwhile, use and saleof synthetic and non-biode-gradable Chinese threadhas also been banned as itcan cause serious injuries or

even death. Flying of tukkalsat night has also not beenallowed as it can trigger fireincidents.

To ensure that law andorder prevails, playing loudspeakers or shouting slo-gans in a way that it hurtssentiments will also not beallowed.

The notification alsobans flying of kites frompublic places or from streets.The notification mentionsthat even running on roadsto catch kites, or feedingcattle in a way that it ham-pers traffic movement,would not be allowed.

Students’ Provide HealingTouch To Ailing Classmate

Ahmedabad, In a touch-ing gesture, batch-mates ofa girl student who suffersfrom a rare disease have gottogether to chip in towardsher monthly treatment ex-penses. The students havepooled some money andhave also started acrowdfunding drive on so-cial media to help with themonthly treatment cost ofRs 25,000.

Drashti Parmar wants tobecome a radio jockey andis now doing a three-year-course in journalism andmass communication de-spite her delicate healthcondition. She belongs toKukarvada village inMehsana district and staysat a PG accommodation inthe city. Her father’s busi-ness got affected by theCovid pandemic. She suffersfrom lupus -- an inflamma-

tory disease caused whenthe immune system attacksits own tissues and starts af-fecting joints, skin, kidneys,blood cells, brain, heart andlungs. There is no cure forthe disease but can be im-proved with regular dosesof anti-inflammatory medi-cation and steroids. “I wasdiagnosed with lupus sixyears ago and have re-mained hospitalised at in-tervals for two years. Jointpain and fever are persis-tent, causing damage to myorgans including kidney. Myown immune system at-tacks me, for which the doc-tors have to lower my immu-nity. I take steroids andTocilizumab injections ev-ery month,” 20-year-oldDrashti told.

She completed her HSCin 2019 and took a break instudy due to her condition.

She then resumed and tookadmission in the city-basedmass communication insti-tute. “I have to stay awayfrom eating outside to avoidmore infections and mostlystay confined to the hostel.My fellow students androommates are helping me,”she said. Her batch mateshave already collected Rs18,000.

Her father spent close toRs 20 lakh on her treatmentbut is now finding it increas-ingly difficult after exhaust-ing his savings. Drashti’sclassmate Umang Rana said,“She is a good student andwe want to see her becomean RJ. We took her permis-sion and started raisingfunds also on social media.We are optimistic thatpeople will come forward tohelp, and she will keep goodhealth,” he said.

SUV Rams Truck On SG Road,Narrow Escape For Driver

Ahmedabad, An SUVrammed a truck from be-hind on Sola-Bhagwatflyover on SG highway onSaturday, resulting in a nar-row escape for theyouth driving the ve-hicle. The tyre of thetruck burst on impact,while the youth gotstuck inside his SUVfor more than an hourtill fire officials rescuedhim by cutting openthe vehicle doors andchassis. Police were inthe process of regis-tering an FIR againstthe truck driver.

Tilak Lakhani, a residentof Shyam Vihar bungalowsin Thaltej, was passing onthe overbridge towardsGandhinagar when herammed his vehicle into atruck from the rear. The truckgot shoved into the divideron impact. A rescue opera-

tion was started after policeand fire officials werealerted. Lakhani’s familymembers also reached theaccident spot. Firemen

found it quite difficult to getLakhani out of the car as hislegs had got stuck in twistedmetal. Five emergency re-sponse vehicles reached thespot and more than 20 per-sonnel were involved in therescue operation.

The car was pulled out

from the rear of the truckusing a crane, while thedoors and frame of the carwere cut with metal-cut-ters. Lakhani was pulled

out of the car andtaken to hospital.In-charge chieffire officer RajeshBhatt said, “ Theoperation lastedfor about anhour.”

Later, copswere in the pro-cess of filing an of-fence against thetruck driver,B a b u s i n g h

Kushwaha based on a com-plaint filed by Lakhani’s fa-ther. According to a policeofficial, Kushwaha shouldhave taken his vehicle tothe side of the road afterhis truck tyre burst, insteadhe let it remain in the firstlane.

Chemical Leak Case: 2 CopsSuspended

Ahmedabad, Surat police commissioner AjayTomar suspended two cops including the SachinGIDC PI and transferred 14 police personnel in theSachin GIDC chemical leak mishap that led to thedeath of six workers and injuries to 23 workers.

The action came after a spot visit by Minister ofState for Home Harsh Sanghavi. Sachin GIDC PI J PJadeja and one constable were suspended.Sanghavi after his visit had asked the police com-missioner to investigate and take strict actionagainst those responsible for the leak and illegaldisposal of toxic chemicals in the Sachin GIDC.

The Surat police questioned four officials of NaviMumbai-based chemical company Hikal at Taloja.

Cops Party Poopers At Pet Dog’sBirthday

Ahmedabad, Owners of Pomeranian dog Abbythrew a lavish party spending lakhs of rupees onhis birthday on Friday. They booked a party plot andgot an orchestra to play live music, invited 100people for dinner and cut a cake for their pet Abby.But the family hadn’t taken permission to hold theevent, and so cops came knocking and filed a com-plaint against them.

A Nikol police team on patrolling duty got a tip-off that a lavish party was being hosted by oneChirag Patel at Madhuvan party plot in Nikol to cel-ebrate his pet dog as he turned two. The police teamreached the spot and found that Covid guidelineswere being brazenly violated – there was no socialdistancing and few had worn masks.

A video of the party also surfaced which showedpeople gathered around an orchestra group play-ing garba tunes while money was being showeredon the singer.

Police book Chirag Patel (24), his brother Urvish(19) and another person Divyesh Maheriya (35)under IPC and the epidemic disease Act. They werearrested and later released on bail. Nikol PI VD Zalasaid more than a 100 people had gathered withoutpermission for the event.

Show Cancelled, Now Flowers ToAdorn Parks

Ahmedabad, Amdavadis were disappointed af-ter the flower show at Sabarmati Riverfront was can-celled due to the surge in Covid cases. Now, theycan take heart as these beautiful flowers and plantswill adorn the different gardens of the city and pub-lic spaces.

AMC had set up more than 5 lakh saplings andflowering plants at a cost of Rs 50 lakh for the flowershow at Sabarmati Riverfront. More than one lakhflowering plants will be planted at the Sabarmatiriverfront garden, while the rest will be planted indifferent gardens across the city.

The flower show which was to begin on Janu-ary 8 was cancelled due to increasing number ofCovid-19 cases in the city.

AMC had passed a budget of Rs 4 crore for theFlower Show-2022 and seven lakh flowering plantswere readied. Now, the AMC has started installingthese plants at Law Garden, Parimal Garden, TilakBaug and Sardar Baug. People can see the colourfulflowers across the city. Jignesh Patel, director ofParks and Gardens said, “We had procured 7 lakhflowering plants for the show.

These we have started planting it in the differ-ent gardens in the city.”

Fate of Catholic bishop Franco inrape case to be known on Friday

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10 (IANS) The trialcourt hearing the nun rape case in which the ac-cused is Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal on Mon-day said the verdict will be delivered on Friday.

The Kottayam additional district court judge G.Gopakumar will pronounce the verdict on Friday.

It was while serving as Bishop of the JalandharDiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, he was ac-cused of raping a nun, who belonged to the Mis-sionaries of Jesus congregation.

During his visits between 2014 and 2016 toKerala, he was accused of raping the 43-year old nunon 13 occasions. Later, he was removed from thecharge of the Jalandhar diocese.

The complaint was filed against him in June2018 in Kerala and Mulakkal was arrested on Sep-tember 21, 2018 on rape charges.

He secured bail on October 16, 2018.The charge sheet names 83 witnesses, includ-

ing the Cardinal of the Syro-Malabar CatholicChurch, Mar George Alencherry, three bishops, 11priests and 22 nuns. Of the 83 witnesses, 39 werecalled and they were heard. Incidentally, Franco hadapproached the Kerala High Court and also theSupreme Court to quash the FIR against him, butboth the courts refused to do so and the trial be-gan and has now concluded.

TN Police arrests 5 accomplices,detains wife of abscondingmurder accused

Chennai, Jan 10 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Police havearrested five accomplices of history-sheeter Guna,who is absconding after jumping bail for the pastsix months.

The arrests were made on Sunday. Guna is ahabitual offender and is an accused in 24 criminalcases, including murder, attempt to murder, extor-tion, kidnapping, and landgrab in various police sta-tions in the districts of KancheepuramChengalpattu and Tiruvallur.

The police had on Thursday met the industrialgroups at Sriperumbudur and asked them to informthe police of any rowdy elements trying to extractmoney as a monthly fee. Guna, who is also a scrapdealer in Kancheepuram, was controlling his busi-ness through his accomplices, the police said. Hiswife Elammal is a ward councilor at SriperumbudurPanchayat Union and was picked up by the policefor questioning on Sunday morning from her resi-dence at Maduramangalam in Kancheepuram dis-trict.

TMC leader G.K. Vasan comesout against K’taka Congressyatra for Mekedatu dam

Chennai, Jan 10 (IANS) Tamil Manila Congress(TMC) President and former Union Minister G.K.Vasan on Monday condemned the ‘padayatra’ takenout by the Karnataka unit of the Congress for theconstruction of a dam across the Cauvery river atMekedatu. In a statement, Vasan — son of Congressleader late G.K.Moopanar — said that the DMK andCongress that are in an alliance in Tamil Nadu,should intervene and persuade the Karnataka unitto put an end to this ‘Padayatra’ for constructing adam across Mekedatu. He said that the Cauvery riverwas the lifeline of Tamil Nadu and constructing adam across it would adversely affect the life of thefarmers of the delta districts of the state. He saidthat the act of the Karnataka Congress was totallyagainst the interests of the farmers of Tamil Nadu.He demanded that the yatra be called off in the bestinterests of the people of the two states.

Women Feel Safer In Public PlacesThan At Home, Office Or CollegeAhmedabad, Facing flak

for little or no use ofNirbhaya Funds for women’ssafety, Ahmedabad Policehas instituted an onlinepublic survey aboutwomen’s safety, to knowabout security concernsthey face in their lives.

Sources said the surveyof 6,000 women so far hasrevealed that they feel saferin public places than athome, workplace, college orsome educational institute.The survey continues tillJanuary 12.

Meena (name changedto protect identity) is amiddle-class housewife. Inthe survey form she filled up,she wrote that her father-in-law eyes her with lust butsocietal constraints preventher from sharing it with herhusband or other familymembers.

Farzana (namechanged) has different is-sues. She works in a schooland is sometimes subjectedto unwanted and deroga-tory comments by her col-leagues.

The survey has thrownup interesting revelations:Another woman hasclaimed in the form that herhusband deprives her ofmoney to spend on house-hold things which fre-

quently results in heated ar-guments between themand sometimes physical tor-ture.

Consumption of liquorby the husband or familymembers also troubleswomen. Sunita (namechanged) has mentionedthat her husband whoworks with a private com-pany consumes liquor regu-larly and then physically as-saults her.

What about sexual ha-rassment? However, copsare patting their backs asvery few women have com-mented on sexual harass-ment or eve-teasing at pub-lic places. “This is because ofstrict policing and quick ac-tion taken by police againstsuch elements,” claimed asenior official.

Harassment at workplace is another commonissue which has come tolight during the survey. Itusually affects women at thehighest or lowest positionsin private or governmentoffices, including corporateoffices. Even women copsare unable to defend them-selves against harassmentat the work place. A seniorwoman police official hadsubmitted an application tothe then DGP regarding ha-rassment by a senior IPS of-

ficial, who has now retiredfrom the service. The com-plaint was probed by an-other IPS officer, who was anextension of the tormentor.

He had to relinquish hispost following a PIL filed inthe HC. The woman policeofficer could not gathercourage to get her state-ment recorded.

Another example is of aserving IPS officer. Hismisbehaviour in Hyderabadwith a senior woman IPS of-ficer of a different cadrecame to the notice of otherIPS officers. Some of themsubmitted a written com-plaint to the then DGP ofGujarat.

The DGP reprimandedthe IPS officer but put noth-ing in black and white. TheIPS officer was asked to of-fer an unconditional apol-ogy to the woman IPS of-ficer, known for her integrityand upright attitude in herown state.

Police sources said thesurvey is ongoing and morefacts regarding women’ssafety are expected to comeout. “We will form a dedi-cated team of women policeofficials to address the is-sues and ensure women’ssafety remains a top priorityof the city police,’’ a seniorofficial said.

Don’t become ‘Corona agents’, Thackeray warns reckless people

Mumbai, Jan. Jan 10(IANS) In an unusually toughstatement, MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray on Mondaywarned reckless people “notto become Corona agents”by flouting ms and riskingthe lives of others as thethird wave of the pandemichas set in the state mas-sively.

Thackeray said that inthe ongoing wave, “the rateof infection is very high”, andit is critical to arrest it on pri-ority without discussinghow dangerous it is or not,otherwise it could lead to ahuge strain on the state’shealth infrastructure.

This is the reason whythe state government hasimposed some more restric-tions after discussions withthe state Covid-19 TaskForce, Centre and views ofall concerned in the medicalfield, he said.

“We don’t want to shuteverything down with an-other lockdown. Laws and

restrictions alone cannothelp tackle such challenges.Each citizen, no matter theirstatus in society, must followthe health department rulesstrictly to ensure that we candeal a fatal final blow to theCoronavirus,” Thackeraysaid.

The Chief Ministeradded that instead of at-tempting to halt life andlivelihood it is imperative toget rid of the virus by adher-ing to the restrictions, whichthe government enforcesthrough initiatives like‘Break the Chain’ and Mis-sion Begin Again.

While lauding a majorityof the citizens who dili-gently follow directives, hepulled up “the handful” ofthose irresponsible personswho flout them.

“This won’t be toleratedanymore. The rules must bescrupulously followed. Forthe violators, all agencieshave been ordered to takestrict action. Remember, itsfor your own good so we all

can come out of this as earlyas possible,” Thackerayurged.

He pointed out that thehealthcare system is alreadyunder duress, and if thenumber of symptomatic orunvaxxed patients shoot upthen even the demands foroxygen will go up as theywill need hospitalisation.

Thackeray said in manyplaces doctors, nurses andother frontline medicalworkers are also being in-fected and “this is a warningfor all”.

“We have augmented allthe medical facilities in thepast two years, but if doctorsalso get ill, from where shallwe get the manpower?” heasked, as hundreds ofmedicos, paramedics, policepersonnel and others arebeing afflicted in the state.

Schools and collegeshave again shifted online toensure that education doesnot stop and the Chief Min-ister urged the “youngfriends” not to loiter around

unnecessarily believing itsholiday time.

He also appealed thatthose who have not beenvaccinated should immedi-ately get their jabs and cau-tioned that in areas whereinoculation is low, the stategovernment would furthertighten restrictions.

From Monday onwards,the Maharashtra govern-ment has imposed a nightcurfew from 11 p.m.-5 a.m.across the state, besides ahost of other daytime prohi-bitions of five or morepeople together, and ex-tended school-college clo-sure till February 15, barringthe Class 10-12 studentswho will write their boardexams. The government hasslashed crowd limits for res-taurants, cinemas, malls,gyms, salons, beautyparlours, gatherings, events,weddings, funerals, shutdown swimming pools,curbed visits to beaches,gardens, parks, playgroundfrom 5 p.m.-5 a.m.

Believers can becomecomrades: CPI-M

Thiruvananthapuram,Jan 10 (IANS) At times itblows hot and cold in theKerala unit of the CPI-M.State party secretaryKodiyeri Balakrishnan onMonday made it amply clearthat the CPI-M does nothave any problem if its partymembers are believers.

Speaking at the inaugu-ral meeting of theKozhikode district partymeeting, Balakrishnan saidthe CPI-M will give member-ship to believers.

“The CPI-M is notagainst any religion andeven Comrade Lenin hadsaid that Christian priests

can join the party,” saidBalakrishnan.

The open call given byBalakrishnan is meant to in-vite the EK faction in theSamastha Kerala Jamiat-ul-Ulema who have of lateshown a pro-PinarayiVijayan attitude, especiallyafter he held discussionswith the Samastha KeralaJamiat-ul-Ulema leadersand decided to put on holdthe earlier decision that wastaken to hand over all theappointments in the KeralaWaqf Board to the PublicService Commission.

Incidentally, the IndianUnion Muslim League is the

second biggest party in theCongress led Oppositionand the relation betweenthem and the EK faction isalso blowing hot and coldand it’s here that the CPI-Mis trying to extend the olivebranch by making it veryclear that CPI-M does nothave any bar on believers.

Going back into historywhat happened in the 80s,was when party ideologue,E.M.S. Namboodiripad, hadthen asked Kerala Congress(Joseph) leader P.J. Joseph,to disown the bishops inpublic before letting himjoin the Left DemocraticFront.

Three Corona deathsin Bihar in past 24 hrs

Patna, Jan 10 (IANS)Three persons, including aprominent doctor, suc-cumbed to Covid-19 in thelast 24 hours in Bihar Patna,the state health departmentsaid on Monday.

The deceased doctor DrPramila Gupta was theformer head of departmentof gynecology of PMCH. Herreport came positive onSunday.

The other two deceasedwere identified as SP Singh,a native of Hathidah inMokama, and Manoj KumarSingh, a resident of PhulwariSharif in Patna district.

Infection rate in Biharhas witnessed a huge spikein the last 24 hours with thehealth department register-ing 21.94 per cent surgecompared to the previousday.

The infection is rapidlyspreading among medicalstaff of Bihar with 7 doctorson PMCH, 13 medical staffincluding three doctors ofNMCH, 30 medical staff in-cluding 17 doctors inMahaveer cancer hospitaland 20 medical staff ofPatna AIIMS testing Coronapositive on Sunday.

Omicron cases are alsobeing reported from Patnaafter genome sequencingtests started in IndiraGandhi Institute of MedicalSciences (IGIMS).

The test reports of 27persons came positive onSunday. The doctors havealso confirmed delta vari-ants in 4 persons.

Dr Manish Mandal, themedical superintendent ofIGIMS said: “A total of 31samples were brought tothe lab of IGIMS, of which 27tested positive for the Omi-cron variant Of the total, 20patients belong to Patna

while one each belong toMadhubani, Gaya,Seikhpura, Vaishali, EastChamparan and Purnea. An-other came from anotherstate. The Delta variant ap-peared in patients of Buxar,Vaishali and Madhubani dis-trict.” “The third wave of Co-rona could severely affectpersons having high bloodpressure, diabetes and otherdiseases. People should alsosave themselves from exces-sive cold weather,” he said.

The health departmenthas detected 5,022 cases inBihar, including 2018 inPatna district.

Protests across TN againstdesecration of Periyar statue

Chennai, Jan 10 (IANS)The Dravidar Kazhagam(DK) and the TPDK are con-ducting protests acrossTamil Nadu against the des-ecration of a statue ofPeriyar, the father of theDravidian movement, atVellalore in Coimbatore.

The desecration tookplace on Saturday night af-ter 10 p.m., police said.

Dravidar Kazhagampresident, K. Veeramani hassaid that the party is con-ducting protest marchesacross the state and addedthat the Covid protocol isbeing followed.

He said that people inbatches of three to fivepeople were protesting,holding placards and get-ting arrested adheringstrictly to the Covid protocol

announced by the stategovernment.

While speaking to IANS,the DK leader said, “We areconducting protests in asymbolic manner againstthe regular desecration ofthe statues of ThanthaiPeriyar. If we don’t respondthis will continue and thegovernment of the daymust act strongly againstthe perpetrators of thiscrime.” On Sunday morningit was found that a statue ofPeriyar or E.V. Ramsamy wasfound sprinkled with saffronpowder and garlanded witha chain of chappals. With thelockdown on Sunday andnight curfew after 10 p.m.,there were not many peoplearound who could haveseen the desecration of thestatue.

Air quality in Delhi improvesto ‘good’ after rains

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Continuous rains since Fri-day night have broughtDelhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI)to a “good” category of 77, Sys-tem of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting AndResearch’s (SAFAR) showedMonday morning. The level ofboth PM 2.5 and PM 10 pol-lutants at 10 a. m. stood in the“good” category of 46 and 63,respectively. An AQI betweenzero and 50 is considered“good”, 51 and 100 “satisfac-tory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”,201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and400 “very poor”, then 401 andbetween 500 is considered“severe.” According to theair quality and weather bul-

letin, the air quality overDelhi-NCT is likely to deterio-rate marginally but remain inthe “moderate to poor cat-egory” on January 11. Thewinds are likely to be rela-tively slow and thereby lowventilation causing the airquality to deteriorate. The airquality is likely to remain inthe “poor” category on Janu-ary 12. “The predominantsurface wind is likely to re-main calm during morning/day time but likely to becoming from the thwest di-rection of Delhi with windspeed upto 04 kmph duringevening/night, mainly clearsky and moderate fog in themorning on January 11.

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International 5AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

20 N.Korean defectors migratedoverseas in over 5 yrs

Seoul, Jan 10 (IANS) A total of 20 th Koreans whodefected to the South have migrated to other coun-tries over the past five years, the Unification Minis-try said on Monday.

The living conditions of th Korean defectors herehave drawn keen attention, especially since a defec-tor who fled the th in late 2020 reportedly crossedthe heavily-fortified inter-Korean border again ear-lier this month to return home, reports Yonhap NewsAgency. “The number of th Korean defectors whohave emigrated over the recent five years (from2016-20) totals 20, “ the Ministry’s spokesperson LeeJong-joo told reporters. As of September last year,some 33,800 th Korean defectors had entered theSouth, according to the Ministry.

Covid hospitalisation in Turkeyup by 6.2%

Ankara, Jan 10 (IANS) Covid-19 hospitaliations inTurkey have increased by 6.2 per cent in the lastthree weeks, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.“There is no significant increase in intensive care andintubation. The majority of our casualties are thoseover the age of 60 and those with chronic diseases,”he tweeted. Istanbul, Turkey’s largest metropolis, isat the epicentre of the rise in Omicron variant cases,he said. Turkey on Sunday reported 61,727 new Covid-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 9,978,452, ac-cording to the Health Ministry. The death toll rose by173 to 83,702, while 35,163 more people recoveredin the last 24 hours. A total of 384,049 tests were con-ducted over the past day, it said.

Taiwan airport Covid clustercases climb to 25

Taipei, Jan 10 (IANS) Taiwan reported 11 new lo-cally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringingthe total confirmed cases related to the Taoyuan In-ternational Airport cluster infections to 25, healthauthorities announced. The island’s disease monitor-ing agency said the new confirmed cases include air-port cleaners and staffers handling luggage carts, aswell as a taxi driver tasked with taking passengers toand from quarantine facilities, and relatives of peoplewho have contracted the disease. Given the risingnumber of cases originating at the airport, over 8,000airport workers are being tested to identify potentialcases that have spread to communities, Xinhua newsagency quoted the authorities as saying. The currentLevel-2 Covid-19 alert, which was due to expire onMonday, will be extended for another two weeks toJanuary 24, the monitoring agency noted.

Global Covid caseloadtops 306.9 mn

Washington, Jan 10 (IANS) Amid an ongoing re-surgence across the world, the global coronaviruscaseload has topped 306.9 million, while the deathshave surged to more than 5.48 million and vaccina-tions to over 9.41 billion, according to Johns HopkinsUniversity.In its latest update on Monday morning,the University’s Center for Systems Science and En-gineering (CSSE) revealed that the current globalcaseload and the death toll stood at 306,911,004 and5,488,373, respectively, while the total number ofvaccine doses administered has increased to9,410,829,625.The US continues to be the worst-hitcountry with the world’s highest number of casesand deaths at 60,072,321 and 837,594, according tothe CSSE.

Djokovic had been detained in a notorious Melbourne immigration detention facility since his unsuc-cessful bid to enter Australia last Wednesday, where he was denied entry on the basis he was unvaccinatedand did not have a valid exemption. The Serb's legal team had appeared to have the judge on side the in thelegal hearing from Melbourne's Federal Court, with Judge Anthony Kelly questioning what more the tennisstar could have done to satisfy border officials that he was medically except from the Covid vaccine. JudgeAnthony Kelly has quashed the visa cancellation, and ordered the Australian Government to pay legal costsand release Djokovic from detention within half an hour. Djokovic, 34, will now be free to leave the ParkHotel in Carlton - where he has spent the last four nights alongside refugees and detainees - by 7pm Austra-lian time. Government counsel Christopher Tran notified the court that the Minister for Immigration, Citi-zenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs - not the minister who made the original visa cancella-tion - will now consider whether to exercise a personal power of cancellation of Djokovic's visa. Djokovic hadargued that a recent positive Covid-19 test qualified him for the medical exception from the country's re-quirement for all visitors to be double vaccinated.

New York in Bronx apartment building fire that killed 19 people - includingnine children - likely was caused by SPACE HEATER being used to keep bedroomwarm: Survivors tell of 'horrific' ordeal escaping burning building as terrifiedresidents screamed for help

Jacob Whaley, 34, was found roughly 200 yards from where his familythought his body would be on Greene's Corner Road in Louisa County, Virginia,on Friday. Whaley's car had broken down after sliding into a ditch due to icyroad conditions around 8.30pm on Monday. He decided to walk nearly six mileshome to get back to his two-year-old son and was trekking through the woodsto do so. Unfortunately, the temperatures dropped to a freezing 17 degrees andhis phone - which was only at 14 per cent when he started - died on the journeyhome. The family is always now accusing the police of not doing enough to findWhaley and protested outside the sheriff's office on Saturday.

Nepal govt body suggests curbs onlarge gatherings, school closures

Kathmandu, Jan 10(IANS) A government bodyin Nepal has recommendedrestrictive measures againstlarge gatherings and closingof schools as the latest mea-sures against the latestCovid-19 resurgence.

The Covid-19 CrisisManagement Coordina-tion Centre (CCMCC) sug-gested banning gatheringof more than 25 peopleand closing primary andsecondary schools tillJanuary 29, reports Xinhuanews agency.

Within this period, theMinistry of Health andPopulation will have to sup-ply vaccines to inoculatestudents aged 12-17 andfully vaccinate teachers andother staff members.

A senior CCMCC officialtold Xinhua that the deci-sion was taken over sugges-tions by Health Ministry of-ficials.

“There is a projectionthat the Covid-19 situationmay worsen in the thirdweek of January, so we de-cided to recommend restric-tive measures to prevent thespread of Covid-19,” said theofficial.

As suggested by theCCMCC, people need topresent their vaccinationcards for entering publicplaces like offices, hotels,restaurants, cinema halls,stadiums, airports andparks.

The Centre also recom-mended the Ministry of Cul-ture, Tourism and Civil Avia-tion to arrange domesticflights so that there are nocrowds in airports and makeit mandatory for passengersto produce vaccinationcards starting from January17.

The restrictive measureswill go into force once gov-ernment ministries decideto implement them.

Schools in theKathmandu Valley re-opened in late Septemberlast year after being shutdown for some five monthsto curb a second wave of thepandemic.

Nepal has so far con-firmed 24 new cases of theOmicron variant.

On Sunday, the SouthAsian country reported 841new Covid-19 cases, a sharprise from 213 logged onJanuary 2.

Fiji braces for tropical cycloneSuva, Jan 10 (IANS) One

person was swept away bystrong currents while cross-ing a river in Fiji as the SouthPacific island nation is brac-ing for a tropical cyclone.

According to NationalDisaster Management Of-fice (NDMO) Director VasitiSoko, the incident occurredin Tavua, about 91 km fromFiji’s third largest city of Nadi,reports Xinhua newsagency.

Meanwhile, Fiji Meteo-rological Services DirectorTerry Atalifo said that tropi-cal depression, which isslow moving to the west ofthe country, should be-come a cyclone, warningthat the weather systemwould bring excessive rain-falls.

“Since it’s going to re-main to the west of us, theconvergence zone and therain bands will continue tobring rain across the wholecountry in the next few days.Therefore, we have a heavy

rain warning for the wholeof Fiji,” he said.

He warned of a flood inall low lying areas or areasthat are prone to floodingacross the whole country.

Because of the badweather, 50 roads across Fijiare currently closed due toflooding, while 18 others arerestricted.

Currently, 200 peopleare taking shelter at threeevacuation centres and theNDMO expects this numberto increase as more rain is inthe forecast.

The NDMO is urgingFijians to avoid unnecessarytravels, limit movementsand not to cross floodedroads, rivers and streams asa tropical cyclone warninghas been issued.

In Suva, capital of Fiji,police have issued a restric-tion on movement into thecapital city.

The police will set upexit and entry points to thecity and movements will be

restricted unless for essen-tial services and for businessowners only.

Police officers will alsobe patrolling the towns inother areas to ensure thereare no unnecessary move-ments.

The Education Ministrysaid on Sunday that due tothe bad weather, all schoolsacross the country will beclosed from Monday untilfurther notice.

The Maritime Safety Au-thority also directed on Sun-day all ships to cease travelimmediately until furthernotice.

Prime Minister VoreqeBainimarama on Sundaycalled on Fijians to take thecurrent weather warningsseriously, saying that thegovernment will continueto ensure every person issafe during this cyclone sea-son.

The Pacific cyclone sea-son is from November toApril every year.

Gaza population increases amidhigh poverty, unemploymentGaza, Jan 10 (IANS) The

coastal enclave of Gaza haswitnessed a huge hike inpopulation, which might bea bane rather than a boonfor the overcrowded andbesieged area, according toofficials and analysts.

“As of the end of 2021,the population hasreached 2,313,747,” theHamas-run General Ad-ministration of Civil Statusat the Ministry of Interiorsaid in a statement.

Some observers saidthe situation is alarming asresidents of the coastalStrip are facing dire eco-nomic conditions that areexpected to deteriorate ifthe population continues togrow.

Amjad al-Shawa, direc-tor of the Palestinian Non-governmental Network inGaza, told Xinhua newsagency that the Gaza Stripis living its “worst humani-tarian crisis” as a result of the15-year long Israeli siegeand the internal Palestiniandivision.

“The large shortfall ininternational financing hasalso greatly affected the re-ality,” al-Shawa said.

“Since the start of thenew year, the situation is be-coming more difficult and

does not spell any good foran immediate improvementin light of figures indicatinghigh rates of unemploy-ment, poverty, and deterio-rating economic condi-tions,” he added.

Hamed Gad, a Gaza-based economist, told

Xinhua that the Strip needsto create more than 60,000jobs as thousands joinedthe unemployed annually.

He said the ongoing Is-raeli blockade on the Striphas left numerous “scars” onthe lives of the residents,who hope that the situationwould change for the better.

“Unfortunately, theyoung generation is themost affected group, as theunemployment rate amongthem is about 70 per cent,”he said, calling on the gov-ernment to take measuresto support those in need.

Maher al-Taba’a, director

of the Chamber of Com-merce in Gaza, told Xinhuathat the Israeli military ac-tions on the Strip “deepenedthe economic crisis as a re-sult of the massive destruc-tion they left in the infra-structure and various sec-tors”. Al-Taba’a cited that the

recent round of tensionscost the Strip$500,000,000 in losses, ata time when the recon-struction process has notyet begun.

The business leaderstressed that this coin-cided with an unprec-edented trade stagnationdue to the continuationof the blockade and the

restrictions on import andexport, which led to a slumpin imports for 2021 com-pared to previous years. This,in turn, has caused other so-cial problems, such as morebeggary in public places, theincrease in divorce cases,the financial failure of mer-chants and businessmen,and bankruptcy, he added.

Officials and observersin Palestine are calling for ef-fective international inter-vention to lift the blockadeand introduce comprehen-sive measures to ensure agreat improvement inpeople’s lives.

Seoul monitoring possiblechange in N.Korea’s Covid policy

Seoul, Jan 10 (IANS)South Korea’s UnificationMinistry said on Mondaythat it was closely watchinga possible change in thKorea’s anti-Covid-19 policy,such as the lifting of its strictborder closure, afterPyongyang’s main newspa-per said the country willshift to more “advanced”measures from the currentcontrol-focused approach.

“We need to move to abetter advanced, people-oriented epidemic workfrom one that focused oncontrol measures,” YonhapNews Agency quoted theth’s Rodong Sinmun news-paper as saying.

It did not however,elaborate on the new mea-sures. Lee Jong-joo, thespokesperson for the Unifi-cation Ministry, said the gov-

ernment will keep a tab onthe th’s border situations fol-lowing the suggested policychange. “The governmentwill continue monitoringhow the th’s newly pro-posed advanced, people-oriented anti-virus mea-sures will materialize, espe-cially if they will lead to achange in its current con-trol-focused policy, includ-ing a border lockdown,” Leetold a regular press briefing.

Pyongyang has im-posed a strict border closuresince the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and claims tobe coronavirus-free.

During a major partygathering last month, the thsaid fighting the pandemicwill be the “top priority” forthe new year and vowed toput its “epidemic preventionon a scientific foundation”.

US-Russia security talks tobegin in Geneva amid tensions

Crisis-hit SL asks China torestructure debt repayments

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Sri Lankan PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa hasasked China to restructurethe crisis-hit island nation’sdebt repayments as part ofefforts to help the SouthAsian country navigate itsworsening financial situa-tion, the BBC reported.

Rajapaksa made the re-quest during a meeting withChinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi on Sunday.

In the last decade, Chinahas lent Sri Lanka over $5billion for projects includingroads, an airport and ports,the BBC report said.

China is Sri Lanka’sfourth biggest lender, be-hind international financialmarkets, the Asian Develop-ment Bank and Japan.

But critics say the moneywas used for unnecessaryschemes with low returns.

“The President pointedout that it would be a greatrelief to the country if atten-tion could be paid on re-structuring the debt repay-ments as a solution to theeconomic crisis that hasarisen in the face of theCovid-19 pandemic,”Rajapksa’s office said in astatement.

The statement also saidChina was asked to provide“concessional” terms for itsexports to Sri Lanka, whichamounted to around $3.5billion last year, without pro-viding further details, thereport added.

Rajapaksa also offeredto allow Chinese tourists toreturn to Sri Lanka providedthey adhere to strictcoronavirus regulations.

Before the pandemic,China was Sri Lanka’s mainsource of tourists and it im-

ports goods from the Asiangiant more than from anyother country.

In recent months, SriLanka has been experienc-ing a severe debt and for-eign exchange crisis, whichhas been made worse bythe loss of tourist incomeduring the pandemic, theBBC report said.

The country has re-ceived billions of dollars ofsoft loans from China butthe island-nation has beenengulfed in a foreign ex-change crisis which someanalysts have said haspushed it to the verge ofdefault, as per the BBC re-port.

Sri Lanka has to repayabout $4.5 billion in debtthis year starting with a$500 million internationalsovereign bond, which ma-tures on January 18.

Washington, Jan 10(IANS) Security talks be-tween the US and Russia inGeneva scheduled for Mon-day have drawn attentionfrom the international com-munity.

The talks are expectedto focus on the th AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO)and the rising tensions inUkraine, as well as arms con-trol, cybersecurity and cli-mate change, Xinhua newsagency reported.

While calling the dia-logue a positive signal toimprove frayed US-Russiarelations, experts are cau-tious about its outcomes.

“We have to manage ex-pectations,” ThomasGreminger, director of theGeneva Centre for SecurityPolicy who previouslyserved as secretary generalof the Organization for Se-curity and Cooperation inEurope from 2017 to 2020,told Xinhua in a virtual inter-view.

“It’s obviously great thatwe will see another round ofthis Strategic Stability Dia-logue on Monday here inGeneva. I think it’s good thatthey meet and talk, butclearly for the issues on theagenda there are no quickfixes,” he said.

“I would expect themeeting on Monday to bean opportunity to spell outmutual concerns, to spellout mutual expectations,”said Greminger.

Keith Krause, a professorat the Graduate Institute ofInternational and Develop-ment Studies in Geneva,told Xinhua: “I’m not veryoptimistic. I think that it’smore the beginning of alonger-term conversation.

“I know that certainly(US President Joe) Biden at-tempted to reset the rela-tionship with the Russianslast year, and I believe that’sa long and slow process be-cause there are many, manyvery clear differences be-tween the two. Ukraine be-ing one of them, but thereare a number of other issuesthat are quite conflictual atthis point.

“On the nuclear dia-logue, perhaps I would be abit more optimistic that theywill begin to have some con-versations.”

In a year-end telephonecall between Biden and Rus-sian President VladimirPutin last month, the twoleaders discussed the deci-sion to launch the negotia-tions under which Russia’ssecurity would be ensured

in a bid to prevent a furtherescalation of tensions.

Biden emphasized thatRussia and the US bear aspecial responsibility for en-suring stability in Europeand the world.

The two permanentmembers of the UN SecurityCouncil have vowed to de-escalate the standoff overUkraine. Amidst heighten-ing tensions, the Biden ad-ministration had previouslythreatened Russia withfresh, sweeping sanctions.

Russia responded thatfurther large-scale eco-nomic sanctions would leadto a severing of relationsbetween Moscow and theWest.

On Friday, the ForeignMinisters of NATO memberstates held an extraordinaryvirtual meeting to discuss“Russia’s continued militarybuild-up in and aroundUkraine” and broader Euro-pean security issues.

For Ukraine, seekingNATO membership has be-come one of its foreignpolicy priorities.

In February 2019, theUkrainian Parliamentadopted amendments tothe constitution, securingthe country’s aspiration tojoin the alliance.

US Covid caseloadtops 60 million

Washington, Jan 10 (IANS) As the world is battling an-other wave of the Covid-19 pandemic fuelled by the newOmicron variant, the US, currently the worst-hit country, hasregistered more than 60 million cases as of Monday, mak-ing up for about 20 per cent of the global infection tally,according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University’sCenter for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) re-vealed that the country’s overall caseload and the deathtoll stood at 60,072,321 and 837,594, respectively, while thetotal number of vaccine doses administered has increasedto 516,880,436.

Fresh protests demandingcivilian rule erupt in Sudan

Khartoum, Jan 10 (IANS)A fresh round of demonstra-tions took place in Sudan’scapital Khartoum and othercities to demand civilian rulein the th African country.

Groups of protesters setout from Bashdar bus sta-tion in the capital city andmarched towards the Re-publican Palace in centralKhartoum, reports Xinhuanews agency.

In a bid to contain thedemonstrations, authoritieshave closed most of thestate’s bridges linking thethree major cities ofKhartoum, Omdurman, andBahri, leaving only Al-Halfaya and Suba bridges

open to traffic.The security bodies have

also closed most of theroads around the army’sgeneral command head-quarters and those leadingto the presidential palace.

On Saturday, the UNlaunched an intra-Sudanesepolitical process to end thecrisis.

Volker Perthes, the UNenvoy for Sudan, said in astatement that the politicalprocess would seek a “sus-tainable path forward to-wards democracy andpeace” in the country. It wasnot immediately clearwhen discussions mightbegin.

tuted the award in his nameto recognize the outstand-ing contribution of IVF ex-perts in the country.

Speaking about DrAdiga’s win Dr H.S Ballal, ProChancellor, Manipal Acad-emy of Higher Educationsaid “This is an extremely

Ahmedabad Page 6

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Business &Technology

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

Manipal,Dr Satish Adiga, Profes-

sor in Clinical Embryology atKasturba Medical College(KMC), Manipal Academy ofHigher Education (MAHE),Manipal, is selected by theIndian Council of MedicalResearch for its NationalAward for the year 2020. DrAdiga also heads the fertil-ity program at KMC Manipal.

According to a releaseissued by ICMR on itswebsite, Prof Adiga will re-ceive Dr Subhas MukherjeeAward from ICMR in recog-nition for his outstandingcontribution to the field ofIn vitro fertilization (IVF). DrSubhas Mukherjee is thecreator of India’s first IVFbaby and ICMR has insti-

Dr Satish Adiga, Professor at Kasturba MedicalCollege, Manipal receives ICMR National Award

proud moment for us. DrAdiga’s contribution to thefield of IVF has been trulyoutstanding. He has contrib-uted significantly to bothclinical IVF and fertility re-search thereby enhancedcountry’s visibility in thisspecialised area. The recog-nition given by ICMR to DrAdiga is truly well deserved”

Dr Sharath Rao, Dean,KMC Manipal, also spokeabout Dr Adiga’s recognitionsaying “Dr Adiga has playeda key role in the field of fer-tility and IVF. Through hiswork in IVF, he has helpednumerous people fulfil theirdream of parenthood. We atKMC are extremely delightedby his selection for the na-tional award by ICMR”

Porsche India is adding two distinctly sporty and high specification modelsto its mid-engine sports car range: the 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and the 718 BoxsterGTS 4.0 further strengthening its sports cars portfolio. These new two-seaterswill now be available to order in India. They offer a unique combination of thor-oughbred sportiness and persuasive suitability for everyday use. With theiremotional 4.0-Litre naturally aspirated sixcylinder flat engine, the GTS 4.0 mod-els are at the evolutionary peak of the 718 models which are designed for ev-eryday use.

Trains passengers will get thefacility of ceremonial foodwith the help of Rail Restro

trains again from February 1,2021.

“When we opened inFebruary this year, we werebooking close to 4,000meals a day, now that hasincreased to close to 10,000-12,000 meals a day. We arecurrently present across 220stations, down from close to250 stations during pre-Covid. However, the kind oftraction we are seeing weplan to scale up our pres-ence to 300 odd stations inthe next one-to-twomonths and further in-crease to 450 by the end of2022,” Chandra toldBusinessLine.

The company is hopefulof booking close to 25000meals a day by March 2022.RailRestro is an online fooddelivery service, whichserves meals on trains. Theapp is available on play-store which can be used bypassengers to order food ontrain. The company has awide network of vendor tie-ups with restaurants acrossthe country. Customers canbook food as per theirchoice, online, on thewebsite, or via the app, withtheir PNR number.

Ahmedabad:RailRestro,which is food tech startuphas been witnessing asteady traction in number ofmeals ordered by passen-gers travelling by train, islooking to expand its ser-vices to 300 stations in thenext one-to-two months. Itcurrently offers its servicesacross 220 stations acrossthe country. Plans are afootto expand its presence fur-ther to around 450 stationsin 2022.

According to ManishChandra, co-founder and di-rector of RailRestro, the pan-demic has brought a hugedifference in the lifestyle ofpeople and they have gotmore cautious about whatthey consume. This has ledto increased traction in mealbookings on its app. Thetrend is only likely tostrengthen further movingforward.

The Covid-19 pandemichad not only disrupted trainservices but had brought toa complete halt the e-cater-ing services in trains. SoRailRestro’s operation wasalso stopped temporarily.However, the Indian Rail-ways allowed e-catering on

IAN LADYMAN: England's top clubs don't care much for the domestic cups. We know that from the teamsthey field and the things they say. But it's not smaller cup competitions English football needs but a smallerPremier League. The top tier of English football is supposed to be elite. That's the sell. But it's misleading. Thequality at the top is terrific but at the bottom end the Premier League is rotten. The football is rubbish andhas been for a decade. Standards near the foot of the table don't justify a 20-team league. The only motivat-ing factor for the status quo is money.

Moto G71 5G with Snapdragon695 Soc launched in India

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Lenovo-owned Motorola onMonday launched a newsmartphone — Moto G715G — for the In-dian users at Rs18,999. Thesmartphone willbe available with6GB RAM as wellas 128GB storagein two colour vari-ants neptunegreen and arcticblue. The handsetwill go on sale ex-clusively on Flipkart startingJanuary 19, 12 p.m. In termsof specifications, thesmartphone features a 6.4-inch AMOLED FHD+ displaywith 409 PPI and brightnessup to 700 nits which aims todeliver clear images and

darker blacks for outstand-ing brightness. The phone ispowered by a QualcommSnapdragon 695 processor

paired with 8GB ofRAM and 128GB in-ternal storage. Inthe camera depart-ment, thesmartphone offersa triple rear camerathat houses a50MP primary sen-sor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens,and a macro lens.

Moto G71 5G is equippedwith a 5,000mAh battery thatsupports 33W Turbo Power fastcharging solution. In terms ofconnectivity, the smartphonewill come with support for WiFiac, Bluetooth v5.0, and a USB-Cport.

ONE Only The Brave: Malykhinto fight Grishenko on Jan 28Singapore, Jan 10 (IANS)

Top contenders Anatoly‘Spartak’ Malykhin and KirilGrishenko will battle it outfor the interim ONE Heavy-weight World title whenthey face off in the mainevent of ‘ONE: Only TheBrave’ on January 28 here.

ONE Chairman and CEOChatri Sityodtong explainedthe need in setting up aninterim World Title for theheavyweights, as The HomeOf Martial Arts need tomove forward with the in-flux of talented big guyscoming in.

CEO Chatri also said thatArjan Bhullar and his man-agement team have been

declining multiple offers todefend the ONE heavy-weight world championshipunder his current contract.“While this plays out, theshow must go on in ourheavyweight division, so wewill be crowning an interimworld champion betweentop contenders AnatolyMalykhin and KirillGrishenko,” said CEO ChatriSityodtong to ONE Champi-onship. The two definitely de-serve to be the frontrunnersto the World Title withMalykhin riding high on anine-fight win streak, with vic-tories over AlexandreMachado and Amir Aliakbariin the first round.

Serie A: Determined Juventusbeat Roma in seven-goal thriller

Rome, Jan 10 (IANS) De-spite Matthijs De Ligt’s redcard, Juventus fought backfrom 3-1 down to overturnRoma in a topsy-turvy 4-3thriller, with WojciechSzczesny making a result-saving save to deny a pen-alty.

Juventus opened thenew year with a 1-1 tie withNapoli, and it had GiorgioChiellini back to the squadin Sunday’s game after herecovered from Covid-19.Roma had to play withoutinjured LeonardoSpinazzola and Stephan ElShaarawy, while RickKarsdorp and GianlucaMancini were suspended.

Roma went ahead in the11th minute when JordanVeretout’s corner foundTammy Abraham for a twist-ing header. It sparked a con-troversy in the 13th minuteas Lorenzo Pellegrini’s at-tempt in the box struck DeLigt’s hand, but the refereewaved play on, reportsXinhua.

The away side got backon level terms minutes later,as Paulo Dybala collectedthe ball on the edge of thebox, before finishing with atrademark left-footed curler.

Juventus was forced tomake a change in the 30thminute when FedericoChiesa limped off with an

injury after a collision withChris Smalling, making wayfor Dejan Kulusevski.

The Giallorossi restoredthe lead straight after thebreak, as HenrikhMkhitaryan’s rocket took ahuge deflection off MattiaDe Sciglio to loop overSzczesny before Pellegriniadded another with a stun-ning free-kick.

However, Juventusturned around the gamejust in a matter of minutes,as Manuel Locatelli’s headerand Kulusevski’s deflected

strike helped the Bianconerito equalize before De Sciglioatoned for his error bysweeping it in.

It was not finished yet,De Ligt was sent off in the81st minute after his secondyellow card for a handball inthe box, but Szczesnyplayed heroics to parryPellegrini’s spot-kick.

With the win, Juventusstill ranks fifth with 38points, three points behindAtalanta who destroyedUdinese 6-2 on Sunday andhas a game in hand.

300 Test wickets means a lot: Boult onjoining an exclusive club of NZ bowlers

Christchurch, Jan 10 (IANS) New Zealand left-armpacer Trent Boult said taking 300 wickets in Test cricketmeant a lot to him. Boult achieved the milestone whilepicking 5/43 in 13.2 overs on day two of the secondTest against Bangladesh at the Hagley Oval on Mon-day. Boult is the fourth cricketer and just the third NewZealand pacer to enter the 300 Test wickets club whichincludes Sir Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori, and currentteam-mate Tim Southee. Taking out Mehidy HasanMiraz meant Boult scalped his 300th wicket in Testcricket. Apart from Mehidy, Boult took out ShadmanIslam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Liton Das and ShorifulIslam to complete his ninth five-wicket haul in Testcricket as Bangladesh were bowled out for 126 andconceded a lead of 395 runs to the hosts at stumps onday two. “300 Test wickets means a lot. Milestones don’treally matter, there are some big names in this list.Tough to get a membership there,” said Boult to broad-casters after reaching the milestone.

Ashes: Character and fight shown by England indrawing the fourth Test was phenomenal, says Hussain

Sydney, Jan 10 (IANS)Former England captainNasser Hussain applaudedJoe Root and co. for show-ing ‘phenomenal’ characterand fight in drawing thefourth Ashes Test at theSydney Cricket Ground. Healso lauded England fortheir defiant display despiteinjuries to players and miss-ing majority of coach-ing staff due to Covid-19. England batted for102 overs on the finalday to force a drawagainst Australia andavoided a 4-0 scorelinein the series.

“After everythingthat has gone on in Aus-tralia and, in the contextof the last two years, thecharacter and fightshown by England indrawing the fourth Test wasphenomenal. They havebeen through a lot and havebeen getting hammeredbecause of their perfor-mances in this Ashes. So tohave the strength to put onthat performance at 3-0down, without half theircoaching staff and with in-juries to key players, is com-mendable,” wrote Hussainin his column for Daily Mail.

Hussain pointed out En-gland had done the job ofdrawing the match despitebeing 36/4 in the first in-nings. “It did look like thewhitewash was inevitable

when England were 36 forfour in their first innings, thetrue low point of this tour,and England had to dig verydeep to pull that escape off.Yes, it’s only a draw and, yes,England were nine down atthe close but it was verypleasing for all England fansto finally have something tobe happy about.”

Hussain picked openerZak Crawley, who scored animpressive 77 in the secondinnings, to be the highlightof day five in the fourthAshes Test. “For me the high-light on Sunday was the per-formance of Zak Crawley.Seeing him start his inningson the fourth eveningagainst high quality bowlerson a pitch that had deterio-rated - but maybe not asmuch as expected, hencePat Cummins late declara-tion - and then come backand put the pressure backon Australia was very en-couraging.”

“Crawley was puttingaway anything loose withgrace, style and timing in his77 and that fluency wasgreat to see after allEngland’s, and his own,problems at the top of theorder. And it showed youcannot have a top three thatare purely looking to sur-vive. It’s odd to say someone

who averaged 10 lastyear in Test cricket isworth investing inbut Crawley deservesa good run in the sideagain now.” The 53-year-old signed off bysaying England’s nail-biting draw at Sydneyhas made things easyfor them ahead of thefifth Test, a day-nightaffair, at Hobart. “En-gland will also know

that the journey to Hobartfor the final Test has just gotthat little bit easier. Whenthey turn up to Sydney Air-port they will be getting justthat little less abuse than ifit had been 4-0 and theywould have been draggingtheir chins on the floor.”“With all the injuries andwith Jos Buttler going homewith that fractured finger,the week ahead would havebeen so much worse hadEngland failed to hang on atthe SCG. Now they can try tobuild on this in the final Testand keep that momentumgoing.”

Immigration detention: Djokovicwins court case

Sydney, Jan 10 (IANS) World No. one tennisplayer Novak Djokovic on Monday won the legalbattle in his bid to remain in Australia, with a courtordering his immediate release from immigrationdetention. “Novak Djokovic be released from immi-gration detention, finding the government’s deci-sion to revoke the tennis star’s visa to enter thecountry was unreasonable,” Judge Anthony Kellysaid. Judge Kelly ordered Djokovic be releasedwithin 30 minutes and his passport and other traveldocuments returned to him, rekindling the worldnumber one’s chance to win a record 21st GrandSlam title at the upcoming Australian Open. How-ever, lawyers for the federal government told thecourt the country’s immigration minister was re-serving the right to exercise his personal power toagain revoke Djokovic’s visa. With the Australiangovernment facing a humiliating and high profiledefeat, lawyer Christopher Tran informed the judgethat immigration minister Alex Hawke may step inwith executive powers and could still cancel his visaon new grounds. “I’m instructed (the minister) willconsider whether to exercise a personal power ofcancellation,” he said.

2010 CWG gold medallistwrestler Narsingh Yadav eyes arepeat in Birmingham

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) 2010 CommonwealthGames gold medallist and 2014 Asiad bronze win-ner Narsingh Yadav lives in Mumbai, which has beenseeing the worst of the ongoing Covid surge, so he’sleft grappling with the reality of training facilitiesbeing shut down and the fear of a lockdown dis-rupting his preparations for this year’s BirminghamGames. “All facilities were open till recently” said thethree-time Maharashtra Kesri title winner, soundinga tad apprehensive about his training routine for theupcoming Commonwealth Games, which are sched-uled to take place in Birmingham in another Covidhotspot, Britain. Yadav said he is looking forward toreprising his gold medal-winning performance at the2010 Commonwealth Games. But he is up againstthe fallout of the pandemic’s third wave.

SA v IND: I think South Africahas worked him out, says Faniede Villiers on Bumrah

Cape Town, Jan 10 (IANS) Former South Africapacer Fanie de Villiers feels the hosts’ have workedout on how to bat against India pacer JaspritBumrah. He added that Bumrah wasn’t able to makethe batters play enough.

Bumrah had a forgettable outing against SouthAfrica in the second Test at the Wanderers. In thefirst innings, he took the wicket of Keshav Maharajwhile conceding 49 runs in 21 overs while in thesecond essay, he conceded 70 runs for no wicketsin 17 overs.

“I don’t think it is a question of him lacking abil-ity or he bowled badly. I think South Africa hasworked him out. Since he has been India’s mostimportant bowler, lots of team discussion has goneon how to tackle and survive Bumrah. I think SouthAfrica has learned their lessons from the first Test,”de Villiers was quoted as saying by The Indian Ex-press.

Mumbai, L&T Finance,one of the leading two-wheeler financiers in Indiatoday announced the “Wel-come 2022” loan for custom-ers aspiring to buy RoyalEnfield motorcycles. Thescheme comes with no hy-pothecation and will offerhassle-free, quick loan ap-provals in under 3 minutes, atattractive interest rates (from7.99% onwards) to custom-ers who are looking to buytheir favorite Royal Enfieldmotorcycles. The scheme willoffer up to 90 percent financ-ing of the total cost of thevehicle on a 4-year repay-ment which will serve as anadded benefit for the cus-tomers.

B Govindarajan, Execu-tive Director, Royal Enfieldsaid “We’re happy to partnerwith L&T Finance to providefinance solutions that areflexible, easy and meet theneeds of our different cus-tomer segments. This col-laboration will make RoyalEnfield motorcycles moreaccessible to enthusiasts byensuring a convenient andseamless process with maxi-mum savings."

To avail the scheme, cus-

L&T Finance offers attractive financingschemes on Royal Enfield motor cycles

tomers can reach out to theirnearest Royal Enfield dealeror the L&T Finance Branch orvisit www.ltfs.com.

Analytics-based creditdecisioning, digital on-boarding and best-in indus-try Turnaround Time (TAT)have been key differentiatorsof the two-wheeler finance

business of the company.This tie-up will help custom-ers in Tier I, Tier II and Tier IIIcities and towns to own theirpreferred Royal Enfield mo-torcycle in an easy andhassle-free manner.

Royal Enfield has beenthe oldest motorcycle brandin continuous production.

Ahmedabad, Oriflame’siconic brand Giordani Goldexudes luxury, and EssenzaParfum is the real essenceand heart of Giordani Gold.Loved for its opulent bottledesign, sheer sophisticationand exclusive OrangeFlower Luxury Essenza heartnote, this is Oriflame’s best-selling female fragrance.

Behold the new treasure scent: Oriflame unveilsthe Giordani Gold Essenza Blossom Parfum

Building on this luxury,Oriflame now launches theGiordani Gold Essenza Blos-som Parfum, the new trea-sure scent.

Celebrating the 45thAnniversary of the iconicGiordani Gold brand, theEssenza Blossom is de-signed as a Parfum jewel.Crafted with the highest at-

tention to detail by two re-nowned Perfumers FabricePellegrin and DaphneBugey, Giordani GoldEssenza Blossom Parfum iscreated with a very high fra-grance concentration forhigh impact and ultimatelong-lasting quality. Luxuri-ously interwoven with Ca-mellia and Jasmine to createthe precious Rose Gold Ac-cord, the fragrance is en-cased in the iconic bottleadorned with real 18 caratrose gold details on the cap.Now that’s opulence andluxury! The treasure scentopens with the sweetness ofpear and mandarin, alongwith a luminous bouquet ofwhite flowers. The delicatelysoft Camellia CelebratissimaAccord entwines with sen-sual orange blossom andrich jasmine is furtherwarmed with alluring notesof vanilla and musk. Speak-ing on the launch, Spokes-person – Oriflame, said, “En-joy the classy, rich life withGiordani Gold’s latest, rosegold rendition of the classicEssenza Parfum. The high-quality fragrance concentra-tion offers the ultimate long-lasting scent that will mes-merize everyone around you.

Audi India posts 101% growth in 2021; thelegendary Audi Q7 to return in February

Mumbai, Audi India hasscripted a remarkable turn-around with a 101% growthin sales in 2021 – with vol-umes doubling to 3293 unitsdespite the semi-conductorchallenges and the brutalsecond wave of the pan-demic. 2021 was an action-packed year for Audi Indiawith nine product launches.The brand with the four ringsalso entered the EV spacewith not one, not two, butfive models – making it theonly brand in India to havefive electric cars on offer.(Audi e-tron 50, Audi e-tron55, Audi e-tron Sportback 55,Audi e-tron GT, Audi RS e-tron GT.) Products like the

Audi Q8, Audi A4, Audi A6,and Audi’s RS models contin-ued their strong perfor-mance and the brand has agood order bank for 2022.On the retail front – not onlydid Audi India open new carsshowrooms and workshops,but also doubled its pre-owned car facilities fromseven to fourteen in 2021.

The company attributedits strong performance tohigher disposable incomesin the hands of the consum-ers and the youth from thestartup brigade. In 2021, thebrand witnessed a 150 percent growth in sales of Per-formance and Lifestyle Cars(PLC), which are priced Rs 1

crore upwards. In addition,Audi India sold over 200units of its entry-level SUVAudi Q2 in December ’21.

The company is lookingto build on the solid perfor-mance of the past year.

Audi India will kick start2022 with the launch its leg-endary Audi Q7 in the firstweek of February followedby a strategic mix of volumeand top-end models.

The brand has steppedcloser to its goal to emergeas a sustainable and profit-able business. With custom-ers at the heart of every ma-neuver, Audi India will con-tinue its strong focus onStrategy 2025.

Samsung shuts downTizen app store fornew, existing users

Seoul, Jan 10 (IANS)Samsung has shut down itsTizen app store for both itsnew and existing users.

According to GSMArena,the company closed regis-trations and made the storeavailable only to existingusers and they could onlyget previously downloadedapps. After December 31,2021, the Tizen app storewas permanently closedand Samsung Z seriessmartphone users weresuggests to switch over toAndroid or iOS Despitecompletely switching toAndroid for its phones andWear OS for itssmartwatches.

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Equity market rises in earlytrade; Maruti Suzuki top gainer

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) The 30-scrip SensitiveIndex (Sensex) and broader 50-scrip Nifty on Na-tional Stock Exchange (NSE) rose in early trade onMonday. At 10.12 a.m., Sensex traded at 60,249points, up 0.84 per cent from its previous close of59,744 points. It opened at 60,070 points.

Similarly, Nifty traded at 17,962 points, up 0.84per cent from its previous close of 17,812 points. Itopened at 17,913 points.

Among the stocks, Maruti Suzuki India, UPL,Hero Motocorp, ITC, and Infosys were some of thetop gainers during the early trade, NSE data showed.

On the other hand, Wipro, Asian Paints, ShreeCement, Divi’s Labs, Nestle India were some of thetop losers. “The Q3 results starting this week fromthe IT majors and HDFC Bank are likely to set thetrend for the crucial IT and banking segments,” saidV.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist atGeojit Financial Services.

Equities settle positive on firmearning prospects, return ofFPIs in January (Roundup)

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) Expecting a healthyQ3FY22 earnings for companies, Indian equitiestraded in the green and settled positive on Mon-day.

Accordingly, the Sensex and Nifty settled at60,395 points and 18,003 points, up 1.09 per centand 1.07 per cent from their previous close, respec-tively.

“Amid weak global markets and rising Covidcases, the domestic market displayed strong mo-mentum on expectations of a healthy start to theearnings season. PSU Banks led the sectorial rallyas reports suggested an increase in FPI limits whilethe realty sector followed the trend on robust salesnumbers and expectations of support measures inthe upcoming budget,” said Vinod Nair, Head OfResearch at Geojit Financial Services. Latest datashows FPIs have infused Rs 3,695 crore in equitysegment so far in January 2022.

All sectoral indices rallied during Monday’s ses-sion, NSE data showed. Amongst the stocks, UPL,Hero Motocorp, Titan, SBI, and Maruti Suzuki Indiajumped the most, rising 4.6 per cent, 3.3 per cent,3.1 per cent, 2.8 per cent, and 2.7 per cent, respec-tively. On the other hand, Wipro, Nestle India, Divi’sLabs, Asian Paint, Power Grid Corporation stockstanked the most.

FPIs back in Indian equitysegment, infused Rs 3,695 croreso far in Jan

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) After a continuous sell-off in the past three months or so, foreign portfolioinvestors have turned net buyers in the first weekof January in the Indian equity segment, datashowed. So far in 2022, FPIs have infused Rs 3,695crore in the Indian equity. The recent correction indomestic equity markets provided them a goodbuying opportunity, analysts opined.

“This (buying by FPIs) comes at a time when themarket has recovered after a fall of almost 12 percent from the high of 18,604 to a low of 16,410. FIIsseem to be more comfortable buying now with thestart of the new rally post the correction ahead ofthe Q3 earnings,” said Jayesh Bhanushali, AVP, Re-search at IIFL Securities.

“Also, with the run-up to the budget, we expectthe FII buying trend to continue and the market tohave a positive bias in the short term.”

During October-December period, foreign in-vestors made a net outflow of Rs 38,521 crore fromthe Indian markets.

“Anecdotally, FIIs remain sellers in the last monthof the calendar year and they start to buy again fromthe 2nd or 3rd week of January. Union budget andState elections along with Central banks’ policieswill also play an important role in the directions ofFIIs’ flows however I am optimistic about the mar-ket outlook and their stance,” said Parth Nyati,Founder of Tradingo.

Court approves $240 mnacquisition of Mahindra’sSsangYong Motor

Seoul/New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) A Seoul courton Monday approved a local consortium’s acquisi-tion of Mahindra & Mahindra-owned SsangYongMotor by Edison Motors for $254 million, paving theway for the financially-troubled carmaker to getback on track.

The consortium led by electric carmaker EdisonMotors signed a final deal with SsangYong to takeover the SUV-focused carmaker, according to thetwo companies. SsangYong was placed under courtreceivership in April last year for the second timeafter undergoing the same process a decade ear-lier. Its Indian parent Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.failed to attract an investor due to the Covid-19pandemic and its worsening financial status.

Under the final agreement, Edison has agreedto acquire SsangYong for 304.8 billion won ($254million), and the acquisition money will all be spentto repay some of the carmaker’s debt to financialinstitutions, the two companies said in separatestatements. Edison said it has paid 10 percent of theacquisition money and secured the remaining 274.3billion won, reports Yonhap news agency. The elec-tric bus and truck maker is required to submit itsrehabilitation plans for SsangYong to the court byMarch 1. China-based SAIC Motor Corp acquired a51 per cent stake in SsangYong in 2004 but relin-quished its control of the carmaker in 2009 in thewake of the global financial crisis. In 2011, Mahindraacquired a 70 per cent stake in SsangYong for 523billion won and now holds a 74.65 per cent stake inthe carmaker.

Demand for office space torise 15-20% YoY in 2022: Colliers

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Demand for office spacesegment is expected to rise15-20 per cent year-on-yearin 2022 as there is a greatappetite in this segment,global real-estateconsultancy firm Collierssaid on Monday.

With more than 25 yearspresence, Colliers, a Nasdaq-listed company, is a profes-sional consultancy firmwhich provides advice toreal estate occupiers, own-ers and investors with op-erations in 67 countries. .

“Demand continues tobe led by technology com-panies. However, we are see-ing greater appetite for of-fice space by startups. Theyear 2022 will be even bet-ter, even if the concerns ofCovid-19 persist,” said

Ramesh Nair, CEO, India andManaging Director, MarketDevelopment, Asia, Colliers.

In 2021, total leasing ofoffice spaces in top cities ofIndia rose 10 per cent higheryear-on-year to about 33million sq feet, theconsultancy firm said.

“Pan-India absorptionduring the year (2021) sur-passed the annual gross ab-sorption during 2016-2018by 7 per cent, signalling astrong revival in occupierconfidence. Occupancy lev-els rose in prominent officemicro markets across thetop three cities at the end of2021 from Q32021, led by agradual revival in demandand fewer occupier exits,” itsaid.

The year 2021 hasemerged to be better than

expected for the officespace segment.

On a city level, all cities,except Bengaluru andDelhi-NCR have surpassedthe annual average absorp-tion of 2016-2018 in the year2021, the globalconsultancy firm said.“Hyderabad had seen strongrecovery gains in 2020 andmaintained its streak in 2021as well. It was followed byChennai and Mumbai whichgained significant scale dur-ing the year. This is attribut-able to a strong fourth quar-ter, building on the momen-tum witnessed during theprevious quarter of the year,”it added Submarkets such asNCR’s MG Road, Mumbai’sBKC and Bengaluru’s SBDand Whitefield saw higheroccupancy.

Victims of $200 mn BitMart cryptohack still waiting for refunds

San Francisco, Jan 10(IANS) Victims of a $200million hack of popularcryptocurrency ex-change BitMart are stillwaiting for their moneyeven after over a monthsince the exchange washacked.

According to reports,BitMart had promised afull reimbursement to thevictims of the platform-wide $200 million hack.

Hackers stole variouscrypto tokens on Decem-ber 4, after using a stolenprivacy key to gain accessto one of BitMart’s hotwallets, reports CNBC.

Shortly after thehacking, BitMart an-nounced that it woulduse its own funding “tocover the incident and

compensate affected users”.BitMart said in a statementthat it would use its ownmoney to reimburse victimsof the large-scale securitybreach, which the exchange

blamed on a stolen privatekey. “Many BitMart custom-ers say they haven’t receivedany form of reimburse-ment,” the report said onSunday. It remains unclearhow BitMart plans on reim-bursing all affected users.

BitMart said it was talkingto multiple project teamsto confirm the most rea-sonable solutions such astoken swaps. “No user as-sets will be harmed. Weare now doing our bestto retrieve security set-ups and our operation.We need time to makeproper arrangementsand your kind under-standing during this pe-riod will be highly appre-ciated,” the platform hadsaid. Of all the tokens sto-len in the BitMart hack,data from blockchain se-curity company,PeckShield, showed thatSafeMoon token was hithardest. SafeMoon hold-ers have taken their fightto Twitter with the#WenBitMart hashtag,

SK hynix to diversify chip biz, collaborate with QualcommSeoul, Jan 10 (IANS) SK

hynix, a South Koreanmemory chip maker, hassaid it will invest in the jointestablishment of a chip firmin the US with two othersubsidiaries of South Koreanconglomerate SK Group todiversify its product portfo-lio and expand its globalbusiness.

The world’s second-larg-est memory chip maker saidthe new company, SAPEONIto be established with SKTelecom, South Korea’s larg-est mobile carrier by sub-scriptions, and SK Squarethe investment spinoff of SK

Telecom, will introduce theartificial intelligence chipSAPEON, developed by SKTelecom in 2020, in the glo-bal AI semiconductor mar-ket, reports Yonhap newsagency.

The investment decisionwas the result of the SK ICTAlliance formed by the threecompanies “to jointly de-velop and invest in informa-tion and communicationtechnologies and createglobal market opportuni-ties”, the company said.

“The alliance comes asSK hynix celebrates the 10thyear since joining the SK

Group and SK Square suc-cessfully spun off from SKTelecom, marking the be-ginning of a new era of syn-ergies between semicon-ductor, telecommunicationand investment,” it ex-plained.

The three companiesalso plan to create and runa 1 trillion won ($830 mil-lion) fund this year to investin the fields of AI, metaverse,chips and block chain, thecompany said, in order to“stay ahead of the conver-gence trend within the ICTindustry and discover uni-corns that can change the

industrial landscape, whichwill lead to valuable busi-ness synergies”.

As part of its global ex-pansion plan, SK hynix saidit was seeking to collaboratewith other global players,including Qualcomm.

Park Jung-ho, vice chair-man and CEO of SK hynixand SK Square, said he metwith Qualcomm CEOCristiano Amon on January6 to discuss a potential part-nership in the fields of datacenter applications, high-speed memory for PCs, 5Gbusiness, metaverse andsmart factories.

GitHub developer corrupts popularopen source libraries, suspended

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)A developer has corrupteda pair of popular open-source libraries onMicrosoft-owned platformGitHub, leaving thousandsof users stunned. The devel-oper has since been sus-pended from the open-source platform.

The open source librar-ies — ‘faker’ and ‘colors’ —that thousands of users de-pend on, started producinggibberish data and breakingafter the developer of theselibraries intentionally, intro-duced an infinite loop thatbricked thousands ofprojects that depend on ‘col-ors’ and ‘faker’, reportsBleepingComputer.

While it looks like color.jshas been updated to a work-ing version, faker.js still ap-pears to be affected.

“The ‘colors’ library re-ceives over 20 millionweekly downloads on soft-ware npm alone, and has al-most 19,000 projects de-pending on it. Whereas,‘faker’ receives over 2.8 mil-lion weekly downloads onnpm, and has over 2,500 de-pendents,” the report said

on Sunday.The developer, Marak

Squires, introduced a malig-nant commit (a file revisionon GitHub) to colors.js thatadds “a new American flagmodule,” as well as rolledout version 6.6.6 of faker.js,triggering thesame destruc-tive turn ofevents.

It left sev-eral users ofp o p u l a ropen-sourceprojects, suchas Amazon’sCloud Devel-opment Kit,left in shockafter they sawtheir applications print gib-berish messages on theirconsole.

These messages in-cluded the text ‘LIBERTY LIB-ERTY LIBERTY’ followed by asequence of non-ASCII char-acters, according to the re-port.

Squires later posted anupdate on GitHub to ad-dress the bug, which refersto the glitchy text that thecorrupt files produce.

“Please know we areworking right now to fix thesituation and will have aresolution shortly,” hewrote.

Squires later posted atweet, saying he has beensuspended from GitHub.

GitHub was yet to makean official statement on thedevelopment.

The open-source plat-form is currently makingheadlines in India as the twocontroversial and deroga-tory ‘Sulli Deals’ and ‘Bulli Bai’apps were created onGitHub.

The access of GitHubwas with all the members ofthe groups behind thoseapps.

Samsung launches flagship GalaxyS21 FE 5G in India for Rs 49,999

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Samsung on Mondaylaunched its first flagship ofthis year — Galaxy S21 FE5G — in India at an intro-ductory offer of Rs49,999 (8GB+128GBvariant).

Galaxy S21 FE 5G(8GB+256GB variant)will come for Rs53,999.

S21 FE 5G in fourfinishes — Olive, Lav-ender, White andGraphite — will beavailable on leadingonline portals andselect retail stores,starting January 11.

The introductoryoffer (along with Rs5,000 cashback onHDFC Bank cards)will be valid betweenJanuary 11-17, saidthe company.

“After witnessing phe-nomenal love for Galaxy S20FE, we carry forward thelegacy with Galaxy S21 FE5G which is tailor-made todeliver epic experience,”said Aditya Babbar, SeniorDirector and Head, ProductMarketing, Samsung India.

With the best-in-classtriple camera, 6.4-inch FHD+Dynamic AMOLED display,120Hz refresh rate, and pow-erful processor, “Galaxy S21

FE 5G will make every dayepic for young consumers,”he added.

On the rear, it has theflagship grade12MP+12MP+8MP cameraand the ultra-wide lens addsadditional perspective tophotos to fit all the details in

one frame.The device has 32MP

front camera. The pro-grade camera system offersDual Recording, Portrait

Mode, EnhancedNight Mode and 30XSpace Zoom.

The 6.4-inch Gal-axy S21 FE 5G sportsa FHD+ DynamicAMOLED 2X Displaywith 120Hz refreshrate, 240Hz TouchSampling Rate andAI-based blue lightcontrol.

Powered by 5nmExynos 2100 Proces-sor and 4500mAhbattery, Galaxy S21FE 5G ensures highspeed and unstop-pable performance.

It comes withwireless powershare and wireless

fast charging 2.0 and sup-ports 25W super-fast charg-ing.

The IP68 rating makesthe smartphone dust andwater resistant, said thecompany.

Galaxy S21 FE 5G comesWi-Fi 6 connectivity.

Apple silicon head Jeff Wilcox joinsIntel

San Francisco, Jan 10 (IANS) Apple’s director of MacSystem Architecture Jeff Wilcox is departing from thecompany to join Intel. Wilcox originally joined Applefrom Intel in 2013 and at Intel, Wilcox will now becomean “Intel Fellow” and serve as the chief technology of-ficer of the design engineering group. In a post on hisLinkedin account, Wilcox stated, “After an amazing eightyears I have decided to leave Apple and pursue anotheropportunity.” “It has been an incredible ride and I couldnot be prouder of all we accomplished during my timethere, culminating in the Apple Silicon transition withthe M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs and systems,” he added.For the last eight of those years, Wilcox led that systemarchitecture team in multiple roles, most recently as thecompany’s director of Mac system architecture. Wilcoxbegan his career in 1994 with Ortho Clinical Diagnos-tics as a Design Engineer. In 1997, he became PrincipalComponent Architect for Intel Corp.

Invites online tender ID No. 500253, 500254, 500256,500259, 500260, 500262 for the work of various WaterSupply Scheme Di.Dangs under Public Health WorksDivision, G.W.S.S.B. Ahwa. for further detail of tenderNotes scope of works & specification etc. please visitwebsite www.gwssb.org, www.gwssb.nprocure.comwww.statetender.com last date for submission of on linetender is 25/01/2021 up to 1800 hrs.

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The people are requested to contact theGWSSB helpline number “1916” aboutdrinking water problem in rural areas.

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old namefrom RASIKLAL KALIDASPRAJAPATI to new name

RASIKBHAI KALIDASPRAJAPATI

Add.: A-303, Shyam Villa-3,Nikol, Ahmedabad

3373

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from NILAMBENJITENDRABHAI PRAJAPATI

to new name NILAMJITENDRA PRAJAPATI

Add.: A-303, Shyam Villa-3,Nikol, Ahmedabad

3373A

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old namefrom BABITABEN RASIKLAL

PRAJAPATI to new nameBABITABEN RASIKBHAI

PRAJAPATIAdd.: A-303, Shyam Villa-3,

Nikol, Ahmedabad3373A

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my

daughter’s old name fromANABIA ARAFAT SHAIKH

to new name ANABIAMOHAMMED ARAFAT

SHAIKH Add.: 314, BaitulIbrahim Kagdiwad,

Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad3377A

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from FIROJBHAISADRUDDIN NARASIDANIto new name FIROZBHAISADRUDDIN NARSIDANIAdd.: A-8, Silver Process,

Juhapura, Ahmedabad3376

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from NEELAMKUMARIVAGATARAM LOHAR to new

name NEELAMNANDKISHORE LOHARAdd.: A-102, Ishan Resi-dency, New C.G.Road,

Chandkheda, Ahmedabad-24

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from NAZNIN MOHMEDTOSHIF VOHRA to newname NAZNEENBANU

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Add.: 35, Faize MohamadiPark Soc, Juhapura,

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CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old namefrom NAGNDRA PUNJABI to

new name NAGENDRAPUNJABI

Add.: B/2, KrishnakunjAppartment, Opp.

Gurudwara, ManinagarAhmedabad

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from HANSADEVIKIMATRAY MOTIRAMANI to

new name DIVYANAGENDRA PUNJABIAdd.: B/2, Krishnakunj

Appartment, Opp.Gurudwara, Maninagar

Ahmedabad3372A

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old name

from SHAIKH TANZIMARAFAT to new name

SHAIKH TANZIMMOHAMMED ARAFAT

Add.: 314, Baitul IbrahimKagdiwad, Ellisbridge,

Ahmedabad3377B

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old name

from SHAIKH ARAFATMOHAMMEDARIF to new

name SHAIKH MOHAMMEDARAFAT MOHAMMEDARIF

Add.: 314, Baitul IbrahimKagdiwad, Ellisbridge,

Ahmedabad3377

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my name

from RAJUBHAI DAMJIBHAIDARJI to PANKAJKUMAR

DAMJIBHAI PATANI.Add. 69, Surya Narayan

Society, Ghatlodia,Ahmedabad.

3378

Big data, AI/ML to be most in-demand skills in India in 2022

Bengaluru, Jan 10 (IANS)The need for skilling andupskilling reached a newhigh amid the pandemicand in 2022, big dataanalytics, along with AI/ML,are forecast to be most in-demand skills in India, a newreport showed on Monday.

With rapid tech adop-tion across industries andentirely tech-enabled sec-tors such as IT and BFSI, therole of AI and Machinelearning will only continueto grow in 2022, with a sig-nificant increase in the de-mand for related roles, ac-cording to online recruitingplatform Monster.

Industry reports suggestthat AI/machine learninginvestments in India willcontinue to grow at a CAGRof 33.49 per cent till 2023.

To enhance customerengagement, more andmore organisations areadopting chat bots whichare forecast to empowerapproximately 45 per centof organisations’ customersupport services by 2022.

“The future of work is lo-cation-agnostic and hybrid,with increased skilling initia-tives being undertaken byboth employers and em-ployees,” said Sekhar Garisa,CEO, Monster.com, a Quesscompany.

Leading tech-enabled

industries such as IT,FinTech, BFSI, and crypto willcontinue to flourish with tal-ent demand spikes.

“It is also interesting tonote that employee flexibil-ity would be critical towardsretaining talent in the future,and the Great Shuffle is a re-inforcement of how thehuge demand in the jobsmarket is opening the doorfor employees to select acareer of their choice,”Garisa added.

The Indian fintech mar-ket is expanding rapidly, andis estimated to become thethird largest market in theworld by 2025.

According to the annualtrends report, Indian IT hascontinued to hire throughthe course of the pandemic,and will exhibit similartrends in 2022.

“It is encouraging tonote that the IT industry isforecast to grow 7 per centin the current year, and likelyto see a gross employee ad-dition of around 450,000 inthe second half of FY22,”said the report.

The top skillsorganisations are on thelookout for are data science,cloud computing, artificialintelligence, Blockchain andmachine learning.

“The demand for salesprofessionals is estimated to

increase especially in indus-tries such as fintech, retail, e-commerce and social com-merce,” the findingsshowed. With a number ofemployees preferring re-mote working and stayingin their hometowns, moreand more organisations areconsidering setting upsmaller offices in tier 2 citiesor utilising co-workingspaces to provide employ-ees with better resourcesand access to technology.

This would, in turn, leadto an increased demand tohire across tier 2 cities in thecoming months.

ASUS Chromebook CX1101 offersgood experience on a budget

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)Taiwanese tech major ASUShas brought an affordable11.6-inch ChromebookCX1101 to India, designedto boost everyday produc-tivity with military-graderugged reliability.

The ASUS ChromebookCX1 is an ultra-compact andultraportable that weighs1.24kg and measures 291.6x 200.9 x 1.95mm.

It has a plastic body andcomes with metal rein-forced hinges.

The laptop has a hugebezel around the displaywith ASUS branding below

the display and the HDwebcam.

The machine comeswith MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability, and thecompany says that it hasbeen torture-tested to passstringent, industry-leadingASUS quality tests that ex-ceed even the military stan-dards.

In terms of ports, theright side has a USB-C 3.2Gen 1 Type-C port with acharging indicator next to it,a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A portand a Kensington lock slot.

On the left side, there isa USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 Type-Cport, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-Aport, microSD slot that ac-cepts cards up to 2TB and a

3.5mm combo audio jack.Both the USB-C ports

support fast charging.The Chromebook is

equipped with an HD(1,336x786 pixels) anti-glareLCD display which covers 45percent of NTSC colourgamut. With the HD resolu-tion display, the laptop of-fers superior detail and clearcolour, plus an Anti-glaredisplay for day-long com-puting. It is powered by thedual-core Intel CeleronN4020 processor, along with4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and64GB of eMMC storage. AsusChromebook CX1101 runson Google’s ChromeOS. Thelaptop handles multi-task-ing smoothly.

Newsin a Nutshell

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8 NationalAHMEDABAD TUESDAY 11/1/2022

Over 300 Delhi Policepersonnel test Covid positive

New Delhi, Jan 10(IANS) More than 300 po-lice personnel, includingStation House Officers(SHOs), the Public Rela-tions Officer (PRO) andAdditional CommissionerChinmoy Biswal havetested positive for Covid,said the Delhi Police onMonday.

The law enforcementagency, which helped thepeople during the firstand second wave, is nowfacing a difficult situation.

All the officials havequarantined themselves.

This has sent a panicwave in the whole policedepartment. The nationalcapital is daily reportingaround 20,000 cases and

there are possibilities thatthe number can go up. TheDelhi Police personnel areplaying an important role byassisting the other agenciessuch as doctors and Delhigovernment in fightingCovid situation.

The Delhi Police hassaid that they are followingappropriate Covidbehaviour and all the offi-cials are undergoing treat-ment. The police depart-ment hasn’t released anydata regarding the numberof personnel sufferingfrom the Omicron variant.

The Delhi Police offi-cials were the first to takeCovid injection as thefrontline workers. The totalstrength of the Delhi Police

which is around 90,000have been given boththe doses of Covid in-jection.

Not only Delhi, theMumbai Police Depart-ment is also facing a dif-ficult time in the thirdwave of Corona.

More than 523 ac-tive cases of coronavirushave been found in theMumbai Police Depart-ment. In the last 48 hours,114 Mumbai Police offi-cials tested positive forcoronavirus. The 18 IPSofficers who testedpositive for coronavirus,includes 1 joint Com-missioner of Police, 4additional CPs and 13DCPs.

Genetic mutations responsiblefor Covid susceptibility in India

Varanasi, Jan 10 (IANS) Ateam of researchers at theBanaras Hindu University(BHU) have discovered thatmultiple genetic mutationscould be responsible for theCovid-19 susceptibility inIndia.

The team led by Profes-sor Gyaneshwer Chaubeyanalysed the TMPRSS2 geneamong global populationsand found out that it ac-counted for the Covid-19severity in the Indian popu-lation. The study has beenpublished in the interna-tional journal “Infection, Ge-netics, and Evolution”. Pro-fessor Chaubey said that thecoronavirus (SARS-CoV2),the causative agent forCovid-19, employs the ACE2

receptor to enter the hostcell through S protein, prim-ing by a serine protease,TMPRSS2. Mutation in theACE2 and TMPRSS2 genesaccounts for the disparity indisease susceptibility be-tween populations. Theteam also included Profes-sor Chaubey’s lab scientistsRudra Kumar Pandey,Anshika Srivastava, andPrajjval Pratap Singh. He saidthat the team analysednext-generation sequenc-ing (NGS) data of 393 globalsamples. “Our analysis ofphylogenetic relatednessshowed a closer affinity ofSouth Asians with the WestEurasian populations; there-fore, host disease suscepti-bility and severity, particu-

larly in the context ofTMPRSS2, will be closer toWest Eurasian instead ofEast Eurasians,” said RudraKumar Pandey, the first au-thor of the study. The studyhas also reported a muta-tion rs2070788 which sig-nificantly increasesTMPRSS2 expression inlungs and is associated withthe high case fatality rateamong Indian populations.

Monkeys snatch baby & throw inwater tank

Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 10 (IANS) In a shockingincident, a group of monkeys grabbed a two-month-oldinfant from the terrace of his house and flung the babyin a water tank. The incident took place on Sunday andthe baby died. According to reports, the baby KeshavKumar, was sleeping next to his grandmother in a roomon the terrace and the door was left open. The monkeysentered the room and dragged out the baby. When thegrandmother found the baby missing, she raised analarm and the family began searching for the toddler.He was later found floating in the water tank. The baby’sparents said that the monkeys had tried to take awaytheir baby on an earlier occasion too but alert relativeshad thwarted the attempt. O.P. Singh, Station House of-ficer (SHO) Chandinagar, said, “The monkey menace is amajor issue and we are informing forest officials to takenecessary action.”

Parliamentary standing committee meetingscancelled after 400 staffers test Covid positive

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)After over 400 Parliamentstaffers tested positive forCovid-19 during randomtesting and with the rise inthe cases in the nationalcapital, the meetings of sev-eral parliamentary commit-tees have been cancelled.

Sources said that themeeting of parliamentarystanding committees onPersonnel, Public Griev-

ances, Law and JusticeChairperson, Urban Devel-opment, and Ministry of En-vironment, Science andTechnology have decided tocancel their meetings onMonday. Decision to call offthe meeting of the standingcommittee of External Af-fairs, scheduled later thisweek is likely to be takenlater in the day. Earlier, alsoduring the peak of Covid in

the first and second wave,meetings of the standingcommittees had been calledoff. Several members havedemanded to call a virtualmeeting of the standingcommittee. Over 400 Parlia-ment staffers tested positivefor Covid-19 during randomtesting. Of these, 65 are fromthe Rajya Sabha, 200 fromthe Lok Sabha and 133 be-long to the allied services. It

is learnt that random testingwas conducted after a sud-den spike in cases in the na-tional capital and most ofthe staff found positive didnot show any symptoms.“More random testing willbe conducted for thosecoming to Parliament tocontrol the infection,”sources said. The RajyaSabha Secretariat has nowrestricted staff attendance.

As per new guidelines, 50per cent of the staff or offi-cials below the rank of un-der-secretary or executiveofficer are required to ‘workfrom home’. Earlier, both theRajya Sabha chairman M.Venkaiah Naidu and LokSabha speaker Om Birla hadrequested and ensured thatall staff workers were vacci-nated with two doses of theCovid-19 vaccine.

ED likely to use Iqbal Mirchi’s seizedproperty to run it’s zonal office

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS)The Enforcement Director-ate (ED) is likely to move it’sMumbai zonal office to thetwo floors (third and fourthfloor) of Worli-based CeejayHouse, which belongs to thelate drug dealer Iqbal Mirchi.

Ceejay House is a primebuilding in Mumbai and anumber of politicians arerunning their offices fromthere. Millennium Devel-oper Private Ltd, the com-pany of former Union CivilAviation Minister PrafulPatel, had constructed thisbuilding. The top floor of thebuilding is the residence ofPatel.

The ED had lodged acase of Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act against

Iqbal Mirchi, his familymembers and others whichincludes DHFL and it’s pro-moters. The probe agencyhad detected a few suspi-cious transactions related toreal estate dealings follow-ing which the case waslodged.

The ED had recentlymoved before the con-cerned Mumbai court seek-ing its permission to confis-cate Iqbal Mirchi’s proper-ties worth Rs 100 crore. Thetwo floors of Ceejay Houseare part of the total proper-ties that had to be confis-cated.

In February 2021, theconcerned PMLA court haddeclared Mirchi’s wife Hajraand his two sons, Asif and

Junaid, as fugitive economicoffenders. The order waspassed by the court to seizetheir property. Now EDwants to shift its zonal officeto the third and fourth floorof Ceejay House, which be-longs to Mirchi and his fam-ily. Sources have claimedthat the ED officials havebeen visiting the CeejayBuilding to make necessaryarrangements so that theirzonal office could be shifted.As of now ED is running it’soffice from the Ballard Es-tate situated in the Kaiser-e-Hind Building. Patel’s com-pany, Millennium DeveloperPrivate Ltd, bought therights of Mirchi’s Disco-theque and FishermenWharf Pub in 2004.

School, colleges in Rajasthanto remain shut till Jan 30

Jaipur, Jan 10 (IANS) Inthe wake of the risingCovid-19 cases, theRajasthan government hasthe announced closure ofall schools and colleges tillJanuary 30.

Besides, the state gov-ernment has also imposeda weekend curfew and haslimited the number ofguests at a wedding to 50from the earlier 100.

Marriage halls floutingthe ms will be sealed forseven days.

The guidelines for edu-cational institutes will beimplemented immediatelyand weekend curfew willcome into effect from Sat-urday 11 p.m. to January 175 a.m.

Meanwhile, night cur-

few will continue everydayfrom 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Religious places will beopen from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.and only 20 people will beallowed to attend crema-tions.

Restaurants and clubswill be allowed to operatewith 50 per cent capacity till10 p.m., while lso cinemahalls, theatres multiplexescan remain open till 8 p.m.with 50 per cent capacityalso.

Meanwhile, all eligiblepersons will have to getvaccinated against Covid-19 by January 31 and thosewho do not by the man-dated deadline will not beallowed in offices.

One killed, 2 hurt in Mumbaifactory gas leak

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS) One person was killedand at least two injured in a gas leak incident froman industrial area in suburban Ghatkopar here onMonday morning, BMC Disaster Control said. Theincident occurred around 8 a.m. when methanoland cyanuric chloride gas leaked, in the premisesof a factory in Kurla Industrial Estate, th-eastMumbai. According to the Mumbai Fire Brigadewhich rushed there, one person Ramnivas Sarod, 36,died due to inhaling the toxic gas. Two others - RubinSolkar, 36, Sarvansh Sonavane, 25, have been admit-ted to BMC’s Rajawadi Hospital where their condi-tion is described as stable.The cause of the gas leak,how many persons were present in the factory pre-mises at that time and other aspects are being in-vestigated, said an official.

Weather to generally remain drytill Jan 16 in J&K, Ladakh

Srinagar, Jan 10 (IANS) Weather remained gen-erally cloudy with rain at isolated places in Jammuand Kashmir on Monday as the India Meteorologi-cal Department (IMD) forecast dry weather till Janu-ary 16. “Weather is likely to improve further and weare expecting dry weather till January 16. Weatherwas generally cloudy during the last 24 hours in J&Kand Ladakh with rain at isolated places”, an official ofthe local IMD office said. Srinagar had 0.2, Pahalgamminus 2.6 and Gulmarg minus 10.0 degrees Celsiusas the minimum temperature. Drass town of Ladakhhad minus 8.8, Leh minus 7.3 and Kargil minus 7.0 asthe minimum. Jammu city had 9.7, Katra 7.6, Batoteminus 0.8, Banihal minus 1.8 and Bhaderwah minus0.1 as the night’s lowest temperature.

SC agrees to examine pleaagainst hate speeches made atDharam Sansad

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) The Supreme Courton Monday agreed to examine a plea seekingcriminal action in connection with hatespeeches made at Dharam Sansad in Haridwaragainst the Muslim community.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned thematter before a bench headed by Chief JusticeN.V. Ramana for urgent listing.

Sibal submitted, “We’re living in differenttimes where slogans in the country havechanged from Satyamev Jayate”. The bench toldSibal, “We’ll look into it”. The bench also askedSibal whether some inquiry is going on? Sibalreplied that FIRs have been filed, but no arresthas been made so far and added that withoutcourt’s intervention no action will be taken. Af-ter a brief hearing, the bench agreed to take upthe matter.

India logs 1,79,723 new Covid cases, 12.5% higherNew Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)

Amid the unprecedentedCovid-19 resurgence, Indiareported 1,79,723 newcases in the last 24 hours,which is 12.5 per cent higherthan the previous day’s fig-ure, the Union Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfaresaid on Monday.

The nationwide deathtoll has increased to4,83,936 after an additional

146 fatalities were also reg-istered in the same period,the Ministry said.

The active caseload hasjumped to 7,23,619, ac-counting for 1.66 per cent ofthe country’s total positivecases.

Meanwhile, the Omicroncase tally has climbed to4,033, of which 1,552 havebeen discharged from hos-pitals.

So far total 27 stateshave reported the new vari-ant, according to the Minis-try. The recovery of 46,569patients in the last 24 hourshas increased the cumula-tive tally to 3,45,00,172. Con-sequently, India’s recoveryrate stands at 96.62 per cent.Also in the same period, atotal of 13,52,717 tests wereconducted across the coun-try, bringing the total to over

69.15 crore. Meanwhile,the weekly positivity ratehas climbed to 7.92 percent amid the suddenspike of new cases. Thedaily positivity rate standsat 13.29 per cent. With theadministration of over 29lakh vaccine doses in thelast 24 hours, India’s Covidinoculation coveragereached 151.94 crore onMonday morning.

Covid surge: SC accepts plea torevive limitation extension orders

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS)The Supreme Court onMonday agreed to extendthe limitation period of fil-ing cases across judicial andquasi-judicial fora in thecountry.

A bench headed byChief Justice N.V. Ramanawill issue a detailed orderlater in the day. The bench,also comprising Justices L.Nageswara Rao and SuryaKant said, “we are acceptingthe prayer.”.

The Supreme Court Ad-vocates-on-Record Asso-ciation (SCAORA) hadmoved the top court seek-ing restoration of a March

2020 order through whichthe court had directed thesuspension of the limita-tion period in the backdropof difficulties faced by thelitigants amid the Covid-19pandemic.

Advocate ShivajiJadhav, President SCAORA,submitted that Covid caseshave been increasingacross the country over thepast few days and urgedthe court to restore thelimitation extension orders.Attorney General K.K.Venugopal supported theSCAORA plea.

The SCAORA filed theapplication in the suo motu

case “In Re Cognizance forExtension of Limitation”,seeking restoration of theorder dated March 23, 2020and April 27, 2021, throughwhich limitation period forfiling of cases was ex-tended. The SCAORA’s ap-plication contended thatthere has been a drasticchange in the Covid pan-demic situation, in the viewof a new variant, more par-ticularly Omicron. The pleaadded that considering thealarming rise in the Covidcases, it becomes necessaryto restore the relaxationwith regard to the period oflimitation.

Omicron: Germany to studyreliability of rapid antigen-test

London, Jan 10 (IANS)German researchers are setto study how far rapid anti-gen tests are able to detectthe highly transmissibleOmicron variant of Covid-19, media reports said.

“We do not know ex-actly how well these testswork for Omicron,” healthminister Karl Lauterbachwas quoted as saying onpublic broadcasting chan-nel ARD on Sunday.

Lauterbach added thatthe results of the assess-ment would become avail-

able within the next fewweeks.

It was clear, however,that “the alternative not totest at all ... would be far toodangerous,” saidLauterbach, who is also ascientist and physician.

According to the RobertKoch Institute (RKI) for infec-tious disease, Omicron nowaccounts for 44 per cent ofcoronavirus infections inGermany, the Guardian re-ported.

On Sunday, RKI regis-tered 36,552 newly reported

Covid infections within 24hours, three times the num-ber a week earlier. Late lastmonth, the US Food andDrug Administration (FDA)also released a statementsaying rapid antigen testsappear less sensitive to Omi-cron than previous variants.“Early data suggests thatantigen tests do detect theOmicron variant but mayhave reduced sensitivity,”the FDA said at the time.Omicron was first discov-ered in South Africa andBotswana in late November.Since then the fast spread-ing strain has been found inmore than 100 countries.Goa Minister resigns, says party

sidelining small workersPanaji, Jan 10 (IANS) Ports Minister in the Bharatiya

Janata Party-led coalition government in Goa, MichaelLobo, resigned from the cabinet and as a legislator onMonday, with the Assembly polls just about a monthahead. Lobo said that the BJP in Goa had grown so big,that “small party” workers were being sidelined. “It hasbeen quite a good, long journey with BJP. BJP workersare unhappy with the party. Maybe I am wrong also. I haveseen with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears,” Lobosaid after resigning as a Minister. “Party workers fromother constituencies have told me that the party hasbecome so big that it does not look at small workers. Itbrings new leaders and hoists them on us... We aregrassroots level workers. We feel neglected, sidelined,”Lobo also said. Soon after his resignation as Minister, Loboalso tendered his resignation as an MLA.

Covid-19: West Bengal secondhighest in active cases

Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS)With nearly 25,000 freshcases on Sunday, the high-est single-day spike sincethe outbreak of Covid-19,West Bengal registered thesecond highest number ofactive cases afterMaharashtra, accounting formore than 13 per cent of thenational tally.

According to the datareleased by the state healthdepartment, the state re-corded 24,287 fresh caseson Sunday taking the totalnumber of active cases to78,111 - the second highestin the country afterMaharashtra that recorded2,05,973 active cases. Inci-dentally, this is the highestnumber of cases recordedon a single day since theoutbreak of the disease in

February 2020. The previoushighest number of dailycases was 20,846 recordedon may 14 during the sec-ond Covid wave in the coun-try. What can provide a littlerelief to the administrationand the health departmentis that the death rate ismuch lower this time thanthat was during the secondwave. When in West Bengalthere were 132 deaths onMay 14 this time it is just 14.Not only in West Bengal butthe death rate has been sur-prisingly low throughoutthe country. Kerala with36,601 active cases re-corded 44 deaths on Sunday- the highest in the country.Even Maharashtra withmore than 2 lakh activecases has recorded only 12deaths.

Farmers in traditional attire participating at the 'Farmers Week Festivities at NTR Stadium, in Hyderabadon Monday. UNI

Congress Punjab president Navjot Singh Sidhu meets bollywood actor SonuSood and his sister Malvika Sood at his residence in Moga on Monday.

Bangladesh Baton Manager Brig Gen Haider Fakhruddin (C) handing overthe 2022 Commonwealth Games Birmingham Queen's Baton to officials of In-dian Olympic Association, at IGI Airport in New Delhi on Monday. UNI