ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · india will insist that the chinese remove their boats...

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T he Chinese have finally started to withdraw troops from the Pangong Tso (lake), one of four face-off sites at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. While the other three “friction points” — the Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Gogra — witnessed the pullback for the last five days, the thinning out of troops from Pangong on Saturday sig- nalled a major positive sign towards peace. Incidentally, the eight-week old stand-offs at the four places started from the Pangong lake on May 5 when the Chinese intruded into Indian territory and stopped a patrol. This led to fisticuffs between the per- sonnel of both the armies. Giving details of the latest pullback from the Pangong site which witnessed a brief brawl in 2017 also, sources said here the latest satellite images showed a clear and marked reduction of the Chinese sol- diers. This pullback was noticed in the contested “Finger 4” area along the banks of Pangong Lake. They also said while the Chinese had also removed tents and makeshift bunkers from the Indian side, scores of tents and other infrastructure was still intact close to the LAC on their side. Similarly, the Chinese have also not removed their fast interceptor boats from a jetty in the perceived Indian zone in the lake. A giant Chinese map is also put up at the jetty. Realising the sensitive nature of this face-off site, the Corps Commanders of the two armies next week will discuss the issue, officials said, adding India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese continue to dominate the spurs (referred to as ‘Fingers’) in this region with tents erected along the course of rivulets located along the contours of the spurs. There are eight noticeable spurs, or ‘Fingers’ located along the banks of the high-altitude Pangong Lake in Eastern Ladakh. India maintains that the LAC here lies at “Finger 8” while China believes it lies further to the West. The de-facto boundary presently lies at Finger 4 beyond which Chinese forces have prevented Indian soldiers from patrolling. Dozens of Indian soldiers were seriously injured in clash- es here in May. India has repeatedly stated that it has right to patrol till Finger 8, a claim contested by China. I ndia’s 2018 Tiger Census has entered the Guinness Book of World Record for being the largest camera-trap wildlife survey yet. The fourth edition of the tiger census, in 2018-19, was the “most comprehen- sive” to date, “in terms of both resource and data amassed”, Guinness World Record team has said on its website. Terming this achievement a great moment, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted, “The All India Tiger Estimation is now in the Guinness World Records for being the largest camera-trap wildlife survey, a great moment indeed and a shining example of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.” He also said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, India fulfilled its resolve to double tigers’ num- bers four years before the tar- get through “Sankalp se Sidhi”. The Guinness World Records website said, “The fourth iteration of the survey — conducted in 2018-19 — was the most comprehensive to date in terms of both resources and data amassed. Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sen- sors that start recording when an animal passes by) were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres (46,848 square miles). “In total, the camera traps captured 3,48,58,623 pho- tographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were tigers and 51,777 were leopards; the remainder were other native fauna). From these photographs, 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe- pattern-recognition software.” Apart from the unprecedented camera trap usage, the 2018 “Status of Tigers in India” assessment also conducted extensive foot surveys that covered 5,22,996 km of trails and sampled 3,17,958 habitat plots for vegetation and prey dung. It is estimated that the total area of forest studied was 3,81,200 km2 (147,181 sq mi) and cumulatively the col- lection and review of data equated to some 6,20,795 labour-days. The assessment was carried out over three phases, with the various datasets then combined to be extrapolated via statis- tical computation, which informed the final results published in the survey report. Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Saturday to probe the local police’s alleged connivance with slain gangster Vikas Dubey, a state- ment said. Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Bhoosreddy will head the SIT, which will have Additional DG Hari Ram Sharma and DIG Ravinder Goud as its members. PTI I n a meeting of party MPs chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, Rahul Gandhi renewed his criticism of the Government over the China border row, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to lie and deceive the nation. He also claimed that Chinese mil- itary firms made contribution to PM Cares fund. Rahul also attacked the Centre over its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, claiming that States and Union Territories seeking assistance were completely ignored. “The Prime Minister con- tinues to lie about China, say- ing it is not a political issue. But the Congress can’t be party of anything that weakens India and we have to be firm in our stand — national security is ensuring our position and boundaries cannot be weak- ened,” he told the MPs. Leaders flagged concerns over Chinese intrusion. During the session, Rahul also criticised the Modi Government over external affairs matter and stated “things are in such a shambles that even our friends are turn- ing against us”, in a reference to a border dispute with Nepal. He referred to the PM CARES Fund, however, it stays outside the auditing purview of the CAG. New Delhi: The BJP MP are opposed to the examination of the PM Cares Fund by Public Accounts Committee, but PAC chairman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is expect- ed to use his prerogative. On Friday’s meeting attended by 17 MPs out of total current strength of 20 MPs, BJP MPs objected to any scrutiny of the PM Cares Fund by the PAC. The BJP MPs cited that the expenditure or revenue are not related to Parliament authorisation. C h i e f Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday tele- phoned Nilagiri and Salepur MLAs, Sukanta Nayak (BJP) and Prasanta Behera (BJD), respectively, who are cur- rently undergoing treat- ment after becoming Covid-19 positive, and enquired about their health conditions. During the interac- tions, Patnaik wished their speedy recovery. The CM also spoke to the corona warriors under treat- ment at various Covid Care Centres and highly appreciat- ed their noble work. He assured them of all support in their work. Besides, Patnaik talked to patients undergoing treatment at various Covid hospitals in the State. He enquired about their health and the facilities available there. Notably, recently, the State Government included Covid management under its flagship Mo Sarkar programme and the CM has been directly speaking to corona warriors and patients. He has also asked senior officials to be in regular contacts with the patients and collect feedbacks from them as part of the programme. F ive more Covid-19 positive persons died on Saturday, increasing the State’s total death toll to 61. The dead included two from hotspot Ganjam district and one each from Puri, Cuttack and Khordha districts. This was stated by the Health and family Welfare Department. The victims included a 70- year-old man of Puri district, who was also suffering from dia- betes and hypertension; a 46- year-old man of Cuttack district, who was also suffering from dia- betes, hypertension and hypothyroidism; a 56-year-old woman of Bhubaneswar, who was also suffering from diabetes and a 55-year old man and a 72- year-old man of Ganjam. Another patient of Kendrapada district succumbed to other health complications in the State. “Regret to report the demise of a 62-year old Covid positive woman of Kendrapada district due to brain tumour. She was also suffering from diabetes, hypertension and asthma,” the department tweeted. With this, the number of deaths due to other health complications increased to 18. Meanwhile, 570 persons tested positive for the virus in the State on Friday, increasing the total cases to 12,526. While 384 cases were reported from dif- ferent quarantine centres, 186 were local contacts. With this, the number of active cases in the State rose to 4,475. The day’s highest 218 cases were reported from Ganjam district, followed by Cuttack 46, Sundargarh 44, Jajpur 40, Khordha 37, Nayagarh 37, Jharsuguda 31, Gajapati 25, Jagatsinghpur 16, Puri 15 Keonjhar 14, Angul and Koraput 11 each, Mayurbhanj 10, Kendrapada six, Baleswar and Boudh three each, Bhadrak two and Sambalpur one. However, another 388 patients recovered in the State, taking the total recoveries to 8,360. The Highest number of 187 recovered in Ganjam dis- trict, followed by 37 in Khordha, 31 in Keonjhar, 27 in Jajpur, 26 in Cuttack, 18 in Nayagarh, 16 in Puri, 14 in Sambalpur, 11 in Baleswar, eight in Angul, six in Kendrapada, two each in Gajapati and Jharsuguda and one each in Bargarh, Bhadrak and Deogarh. C ovid-19 cases in Bhubaneswar are rising due to people visiting the city from hotspot districts for healthcare and other purposes, said Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary on Saturday. Overcrowded markets on Friday before weekend shut- down every week is another major concern for the BMC, he said. “If we analyse, 317 Covid- 19 cases have been reported in the city in last 10 days, of which 61 are linked to various hospi- tals. The cases, which had trav- el history and close contacts with infected persons, out of total cases in last 10 days are 212,” Chaudhary said. “For cases where links have been established, we are now shifting the patients to Covid Hospitals, doing contact trac- ing and identifying the quar- antine of direct and secondary contacts and carrying out sani- tisation in the areas. But for cases where links could not be established, we are carrying out 14-day active surveillance, tak- ing around 50 to 100 house- holds to a nearby quarantine centre, conducting 100% test- ing of direct contacts, testing symptomatic indirect contacts and declaring containment zone if required,” he said. The BMC has formed a slum committee that is carry- ing out house-to-house sur- veillance in slum areas, shifting symptomatic to institutional quarantine centres and con- ducting test to detect coron- avirus. The Sachetak commit- tee is supervising the awareness and enforcement of social dis- tancing norms in slums. No home quarantine is allowed in slums, he said. Page 3: 38 more Covid cases in BBSR; total 640

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Page 1: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

����� ��������

The Chinese have finallystarted to withdraw troops

from the Pangong Tso (lake),one of four face-off sites at theLine of Actual Control (LAC)in Eastern Ladakh. While theother three “friction points” —the Galwan Valley, Hot Springsand Gogra — witnessed thepullback for the last five days,the thinning out of troopsfrom Pangong on Saturday sig-nalled a major positive signtowards peace.

Incidentally, the eight-weekold stand-offs at the four placesstarted from the Pangong lakeon May 5 when the Chineseintruded into Indian territoryand stopped a patrol. This ledto fisticuffs between the per-sonnel of both the armies.

Giving details of the latestpullback from the Pangongsite which witnessed a briefbrawl in 2017 also, sources saidhere the latest satellite imagesshowed a clear and markedreduction of the Chinese sol-diers. This pullback was

noticed in the contested“Finger 4” area along the banksof Pangong Lake.

They also said while theChinese had also removedtents and makeshift bunkersfrom the Indian side, scores oftents and other infrastructurewas still intact close to the LACon their side. Similarly, theChinese have also not removedtheir fast interceptor boatsfrom a jetty in the perceivedIndian zone in the lake. A giantChinese map is also put up atthe jetty.

Realising the sensitive

nature of this face-off site, theCorps Commanders of the twoarmies next week will discussthe issue, officials said, addingIndia will insist that theChinese remove their boats assoon as possible to facilitatesmooth disengagement.

As of now, the Chinesecontinue to dominate the spurs(referred to as ‘Fingers’) inthis region with tents erectedalong the course of rivuletslocated along the contours ofthe spurs.

There are eight noticeablespurs, or ‘Fingers’ located along

the banks of the high-altitudePangong Lake in EasternLadakh. India maintains thatthe LAC here lies at “Finger 8”while China believes it liesfurther to the West.

The de-facto boundarypresently lies at Finger 4beyond which Chinese forceshave prevented Indian soldiersfrom patrolling.

Dozens of Indian soldierswere seriously injured in clash-es here in May. India hasrepeatedly stated that it hasright to patrol till Finger 8, aclaim contested by China.

����� ��������

India’s 2018 Tiger Census hasentered the Guinness Book of

World Record for being thelargest camera-trap wildlifesurvey yet. The fourth editionof the tiger census, in 2018-19,was the “most comprehen-sive” to date, “in terms ofboth resource and dataamassed”, GuinnessWorld Record

team has said on its website.Terming this achievement

a great moment, UnionEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar tweeted, “The All

India Tiger Estimation isnow in the GuinnessWorld Records for beingthe largest camera-trapwildlife survey, a great

moment indeed and a shiningexample of AatmanirbharBharat.”

He also said that under theleadership of the PrimeMinister, India fulfilled itsresolve to double tigers’ num-bers four years before the tar-

get through “Sankalp se Sidhi”.The Guinness World

Records website said, “Thefourth iteration of the survey —conducted in 2018-19 — wasthe most comprehensive todate in terms of both resourcesand data amassed. Cameratraps (outdoor photographicdevices fitted with motion sen-sors that start recording whenan animal passes by) wereplaced in 26,838 locationsacross 141 different sites andsurveyed an effective area of121,337 square kilometres(46,848 square miles).

“In total, the camera traps

captured 3,48,58,623 pho-tographs of wildlife (76,651 ofwhich were tigers and 51,777were leopards; theremainder were othernative fauna). Fromthese photographs, 2,461individual tigers(excluding cubs) wereidentified using stripe-pattern-recognitionsoftware.”

Apart from theunprecedented cameratrap usage, the 2018“Status of Tigers inIndia” assessmentalso conductedextensive footsurveys thatcovered 5,22,996km of trails and

sampled 3,17,958 habitat plotsfor vegetation and prey dung.

It is estimated that the totalarea of forest studiedwas 3,81,200 km2(147,181 sq mi) andcumulatively the col-lection and reviewof data equated tosome 6,20,795labour-days.

The assessmentwas carried out overthree phases, with thevarious datasets then

combined to beextrapolated via statis-

tical computation,which informed the final

results published inthe survey report.

Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshGovernment constituted aSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) on Saturday to probe thelocal police’s alleged connivance with slain gangster Vikas Dubey, a state-ment said.

Additional Chief SecretarySanjay Bhoosreddy will headthe SIT, which will haveAdditional DG Hari RamSharma and DIG RavinderGoud as its members. PTI

����� ��������

In a meeting of party MPschaired by Congress chief

Sonia Gandhi on Saturday,Rahul Gandhi renewed hiscriticism of the Governmentover the China border row,alleging that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi continued tolie and deceive the nation. Healso claimed that Chinese mil-itary firms made contributionto PM Cares fund.

Rahul also attacked theCentre over its handling of theCovid-19 outbreak, claimingthat States and UnionTerritories seeking assistance were completelyignored.

“The Prime Minister con-tinues to lie about China, say-ing it is not a political issue. Butthe Congress can’t be party ofanything that weakens India

and we have to be firm in ourstand — national security isensuring our position andboundaries cannot be weak-ened,” he told the MPs. Leaders flagged concerns overChinese intrusion.

During the session, Rahulalso criticised the ModiGovernment over externalaffairs matter and stated“things are in such a shamblesthat even our friends are turn-ing against us”, in a referenceto a border dispute with Nepal.

He referred to the PMCARES Fund, however, it staysoutside the auditing purview ofthe CAG.

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New Delhi: The BJP MP areopposed to the examinationof the PM Cares Fund byPublic Accounts Committee,but PAC chairman AdhirRanjan Chowdhury is expect-ed to use his prerogative. OnFriday’s meeting attended by17 MPs out of total currentstrength of 20 MPs, BJP MPsobjected to any scrutiny of thePM Cares Fund by the PAC.

The BJP MPs cited thatthe expenditure or revenueare not related to Parliamentauthorisation.

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Naveen Patnaikon Saturday tele-phoned Nilagiriand SalepurMLAs, Sukanta

Nayak (BJP) andPrasanta Behera (BJD),respectively, who are cur-rently undergoing treat-ment after becomingCovid-19 positive, andenquired about theirhealth conditions.

During the interac-tions, Patnaik wishedtheir speedy recovery.

The CM also spoke to thecorona warriors under treat-ment at various Covid CareCentres and highly appreciat-ed their noble work. He assuredthem of all support in theirwork. Besides, Patnaik talked topatients undergoing treatmentat various Covid hospitals inthe State. He enquired abouttheir health and the facilitiesavailable there.

Notably, recently, the StateGovernment included Covidmanagement under its flagshipMo Sarkar programme andthe CM has been directlyspeaking to corona warriorsand patients. He has also askedsenior officials to be in regularcontacts with the patients andcollect feedbacks from them aspart of the programme.

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Five more Covid-19 positivepersons died on Saturday,

increasing the State’s total deathtoll to 61. The dead included twofrom hotspot Ganjam districtand one each from Puri, Cuttackand Khordha districts.

This was stated by theHealth and family WelfareDepartment.

The victims included a 70-year-old man of Puri district,who was also suffering from dia-betes and hypertension; a 46-year-old man of Cuttack district,who was also suffering from dia-

betes, hypertension andhypothyroidism; a 56-year-oldwoman of Bhubaneswar, whowas also suffering from diabetesand a 55-year old man and a 72-year-old man of Ganjam.

Another patient ofKendrapada district succumbedto other health complications inthe State. “Regret to report thedemise of a 62-year old Covidpositive woman of Kendrapadadistrict due to brain tumour. Shewas also suffering from diabetes,hypertension and asthma,” thedepartment tweeted. With this,the number of deaths due toother health complicationsincreased to 18.

Meanwhile, 570 personstested positive for the virus in theState on Friday, increasing thetotal cases to 12,526. While 384cases were reported from dif-ferent quarantine centres, 186were local contacts. With this,the number of active cases in the

State rose to 4,475.The day’s highest 218 cases

were reported from Ganjamdistrict, followed by Cuttack46, Sundargarh 44, Jajpur 40,Khordha 37, Nayagarh 37,Jharsuguda 31, Gajapati 25,Jagatsinghpur 16, Puri 15Keonjhar 14, Angul and Koraput11 each, Mayurbhanj 10,Kendrapada six, Baleswar andBoudh three each, Bhadrak twoand Sambalpur one.

However, another 388patients recovered in the State,taking the total recoveries to8,360. The Highest number of187 recovered in Ganjam dis-trict, followed by 37 in Khordha,31 in Keonjhar, 27 in Jajpur, 26in Cuttack, 18 in Nayagarh, 16in Puri, 14 in Sambalpur, 11 inBaleswar, eight in Angul, six inKendrapada, two each inGajapati and Jharsuguda andone each in Bargarh, Bhadrakand Deogarh.

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Covid-19 cases inBhubaneswar are rising

due to people visiting the cityfrom hotspot districts forhealthcare and other purposes,said Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC)Commissioner Prem ChandraChaudhary on Saturday.

Overcrowded markets onFriday before weekend shut-down every week is anothermajor concern for the BMC, he said.

“If we analyse, 317 Covid-19 cases have been reported inthe city in last 10 days, of which61 are linked to various hospi-tals. The cases, which had trav-el history and close contactswith infected persons, out oftotal cases in last 10 days are212,” Chaudhary said.

“For cases where links havebeen established, we are nowshifting the patients to CovidHospitals, doing contact trac-ing and identifying the quar-antine of direct and secondarycontacts and carrying out sani-tisation in the areas. But forcases where links could not beestablished, we are carrying out14-day active surveillance, tak-ing around 50 to 100 house-holds to a nearby quarantinecentre, conducting 100% test-ing of direct contacts, testingsymptomatic indirect contactsand declaring containmentzone if required,” he said.

The BMC has formed aslum committee that is carry-ing out house-to-house sur-veillance in slum areas, shiftingsymptomatic to institutionalquarantine centres and con-ducting test to detect coron-avirus. The Sachetak commit-tee is supervising the awarenessand enforcement of social dis-tancing norms in slums. Nohome quarantine is allowed inslums, he said.

Page 3: 38 more Covidcases in BBSR; total 640

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Page 2: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

It is not very often that onegets to see a show that talksabout a woman’s courage in

the face of an adversary. Most ofthe serials are the usual saas-bahu drama and after sometime, each show ends up alongthe same storyline. However,Jyoti that aired back in 2009-2010, stood out for a fewreasons. First, it showed the leadprotagonist as a very strongcharacter. Second, it sent amessage across to women thatdespite roadblocks, it is possibleto stand tall and proud.

Interestingly, the story ofJyoti is based on a real-lifeperson — unfortunately, shedied many years back. WriterPurnendu Shekhar tells youthat when the makersapproached him to write, thefirst thing he thought about wasto write a story about this braveand strong woman who tiedrakhi to him. “When the makersasked me to write a story, herstory was waiting to be told. Shewas sister's friend and colleague.So, she was a sister to me as well,”Shekhar says.

He tells you that it is sad thatTV serials have becomeregressive. But there is a reasonfor this. Back in the 90s, theshows on DD were watched bya select few because owning aTV was a luxury. Hence, thecontent also matched theintellect of the niche. “Today,while it is good that everyhousehold can afford a TV, it hasalso meant that the content thatis being shown caters to the tasteof the masses hence, the usualsaas-bahu dramas. Also, soonthe makers and channels realisedthat people were looking fordrama and twists and turns. Theend result was that though theshows started on a good note,they all went the drama way.Take Kyunki Saas Bhi KabhiBahu Thi and Kahani GharGhar Ki. Both Tusli and Parvatiare such strong characters. Yes,they were housewives but had amind of their own. It was thedrama for the sake of it and theunbelievable drama made theshow’s look regressive and gavethem the tag of saas-bahu shows.Regression became the core ofdrama,” Shekhar explains.

There is a reason for thisand he blames the viewers. “Theeducated viewers who used towatch TV earlier have switchedto OTT platforms and the targetviewership which television iscatering today is of the viewerswho still don’t have much excessto OTT platforms. For them,television is still the cheapest andthe most convenient source ofentertainment. Most of theseviewers belong to lowereconomic strata with low ratesof education too. So,broadcasters and makers aretargeting those mindsets. Hence,the stories are full of unreal,unbelievable drama. We canblame the viewers as well as thecut throat competition amongstthe broadcasters,” Shekhar says.

The advantage with Jyotiwas that since the characterwas based on a true person, itwas easier for the writers to beas true to her life as possible.Also, there were twists andturns in her life. It was easier tonot dramatise and yet not giveaway everything. “Some of thedialogues in the show haveactually taken place and werespoken by my mother and sister

to her,” Shekhar says and tellsyou that one must watch thererun of Jyoti for one simplereason.

She is such a strongcharacter. The message that shegives is that even in the worst-case scenario one must standtall, proud and strong,” Shekharsays.

Sneha Wagh who plays thelead in the show says that itwould be wrong to say thattelevision doesn’t do woman-centric shows. “All the showsthat are shown for the women.TV is mostly for and aboutwomen because a large portionof viewership comes fromwomen. TV is a woman-oriented platform,” Wagh says.She tells you that to play Jyotiwas not something that she hadplanned but it was a bigopportunity. “Everything washappening around me and it wasnot something that I had achoice. I said yes to whatevergood that came my way,” shesays.

“This show is off the normaltrack. Also, the character isrelatable to today’s scenario andnot the usual saas-bahu drama.

Her character, since it is basedon a real-life person, makes whathappens in the show so muchmore than the drama that onegets to see,” Wagh says.

The hitch that TV faceswhen it comes to air women-centric shows even though themajority of the audience iswomen is because TV is allabout family viewing. “Theentire family sits and watchesTV and it would be wrong tocompare the content that onegets to see on the OTT platformsand small screen,” Wagh tellsyou.

However, it doesn’t meanthat one can’t show more suchshows that portray women in astrong light that are based onreal-life women. “It is importantto send a message to even thewomen sitting at home in smalltowns and villages. We don’talways show women all deckedup. There is a need to air showswhere women are powerful. Wehave a patriarchal society andwill continue to be so unless wechange our mindset. Shows likeJyoti will go a long way tochange this thinking,” Waghsays.

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�������������� ��� ������������ �����������������$��%$��$$�&��������'%(��$�%$�)������!������!���"������������������������%������ *�'���"��������������!�!�������!����������������"���������!�������������������+,������������� What is your role in Undekhi?

I play a rich, powerful and out ofcontrol kind of man, Papaji. He is a resortowner in Manali and couldn’t care any lessabout anything on the planet. His onlysolution to everything is goli mardengey.� Were there any apprehensions beforetaking up the role?

Absolutely not. I was perfectly finewith the project and the role. I like to dodifferent things but most of the times, Ihave played similar parts and this wassomething different. I just had to say yesto it as soon as I heard the narration.� Your fondest memory from the sets.

Everything went on without a mishap,that was the best part actually. We wereshooting in Manali for 15 days and it wasfun. I was working but at the same timeI was also on a holiday. The whole unit wasfun to work with. There were new actorsand some of them were first timers so thewhole energy was different and exciting.� Was acting always on cards?

Yes, it was. I have been acting since Iwas 10. There’s nothing else I would havechosen to do but acting.� In almost 30 years of career, what hasbeen your takeaway from the industry?

To keep to yourself and deliver yourbest on time and in the way people wantyou to. Rest keep out of everything else.� Where do you find yourself mostcomfortable working in — TV, films orOTT platforms?

That is dependent on the part I amplaying. As long as, I have a part of myinterest I am fine with working in anymedium. If I have a film and TV offer atthe same time, and I like the part in TVthen I would take that.

� What is there in the pipeline?Right now there is nothing to talk

about because the things that we were intalks with has been postponed orcancelled. At this point of time, I reallydon’t know.

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Abhishek Bachchan’s debut ina second season of anestablished series Breathe

was being awaited with, well, batedbreath. He does not disappoint butone really never gets to go beyondthe Jr Bachchan’s persona much ashe tries to get into the skin of abeleaguered psychiatrist. He is stillhis father’s son, in the sense hecarries some of senior Bachchan’smannerisms into the character,messing it all up, at times.

Breathe’s Season 2 is better thanSeason 1 in the sense that thepremise of the plot is better placedon believability but it suffers fromall kinds of loopholes that stand tallthroughout the drama enfoldingaround the kidnapping of a little girlfrom an outdoor birthday party.

Before proceeding on the ifsand buts of this season, a word firston the remarkability and presenceof Amit Sadh who returns asInspector Kabir as much moremuscular, much more sensible andmuch less doused in alcoholicpersona. Sadh is a delight to be withwhen he gets into waylaid characterslike a guilt-prone father lubricatinghis liver with only daru and yethaving the keenest eye for detail ona crime scene. In this one, he doeswell as a plain and simple CrimeBranch spook handling the case ofpsychotic serial killings with acumenand incredible presence of mind.

The problem with Breathe 2 isthat it has a lot of jargon, a lot ofmumbo jumbo and even Abhishek,as Avinash the shrink, seems to beanalysing the crime with frivolousconclusions and many OTT linerson “ravan kay 10 sar, meaning dus

emotions to kill” type of analyses. Flashbacks though meant to

explain, often intrude on the storywhich itself is struggling with reasonand logic most of the time. Akidnapper picks up a girl and doesnot make a move for nine monthsand then suddenly plans the killingsof sundry people across Delhi. Themoment it is revealed who thekiller is, you lose interest in theproceedings. And that’s revealed inthe sixth-seventh episode and you

still have five more to go to theconclusion, which incidentally, ispredictable but well mounted.

In short, Breathe 2 is not tooeasy to inhale or exhale, but keepsgoing nevertheless with all kinds ofsub-plots and side stories of peoplein extraordinary circumstances, beit a lesbian relationship, a darkincident in college and germophobiato name a few. A case of flailinglimbs to stay afloat in a sea of crimedramas.

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The more the virus is forcing youto stay home, the more you aremarvelling at some stunning

content emerging from OTTplatforms, Undekhi being the latestthriller in this altered entertainmentenvironment.

Raw, aggressive, intense, intriguingand fleshed out with the minutest ofdetails of the story and its characters,this Original lives it up in style. Createdby Siddharth Sengupta, Undekhiunplugs a stinging, action-packed storyemanating from a resort wedding inManali where a dancer is shot in coldblood with no regrets in any of the gun-toting, power drunk, alcohol dousedgentry led by the ruthless adoptedowner Rinku (brilliantly played bySurya Sharma) to kick scruples in thebutt as hard as you would be taught todo the same to wrongdoing in amissionary school.

Harsh Chhaya, DibyenduBhattacharya, Ankur Rathee, AnchalSingh, Abhishek Chauhan, Ayn Zoya,Apeksha Porwal and Sayandeep Sen arenot names you would remember in ahurry but after their measuredperformances in Undekhi you wouldlike to do a quick roll call.

The 10 episodes keep you in the

grip without really playing to thegallery in an in-your-face way. Alongthe way, the faulty lifestyle, the blatantimmorality, the extreme insensitivity orshould we say the animalistic mindsetsof an upper class Punjabi businessfamily and its cohorts are laid bare withmaximum impact and precision.Abuse, assault and sex, the oiling of thesystem, an innately corrupt policeforce, the fall of grace of many citadelsof honesty — it is all there to leave youheaving in impact. Also, there is a storyto reckon with and that's quitedelightfully in-your-face, giving meatto the series.

Besides Surya Kumar, DebyenduBhattacharya as the seasoned DSPand Apekha Porwal as the tribal girlbeing hunted down lead the list ofstellar performances, not to mentionHarsh Chhaya who lives it up as adebauched, abusive motormouthpatriarch of the family which dotes onits sleazy, hazy and totally anti-socialexistence.

The depiction of our society bySengupta shows up the place of womenin our society, be it the trophy wives ofthe rich and the powerful, or a daughterof the forgotten and the powerless.Injustice, and the acceptance of it byand large not just by the perpetratorsand the victims but also by the media,churns up a scenario where you feel theneed for purge.

Well, it is such raw depiction thatthrills and kills in this gem of a seriespunctuating a space where a lot ofintrigue has been fighting for a pedestal.

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Let’s get to the issue Point Blanc. It’s a teenage James Bondand Jason Bourne mix that helms the crime, cloning,syndicated world of fast paced action, murder, British

Secret Service and a global ring of swish criminals that keepsRider and its viewers on their toes. Flitting from London to ashadowy finishing school for errant teenagers in the snow-capped French Alps, this not exceptional and yet not run-of-the-mill spy thriller is both for young adults and, well, oldadults in a season where home entertainment is the buzzword.

As a book, Alex Rider, written by Anthony Horowitz, solda staggering 20 million copies in the teenage espionagesegment and this series does not take too many artistic licencesfrom the book. Stormbreaker, its original film version, however,took quite a beating at the box office, making this homeentertainer a revelation.

The story gets going after Farrant, an otherwise normalschool-going teenager, suffers a familial setback in the murderof his uncle and is consequently blackmailed by a shadowy unithead of the British Secret Service to penetrate into a crime ringand extract information.

Unknowingly trained into secret service mores by his uncle,Farrant plays the central role with precision and perfectionturning into an errant teenager with issues that need a Point Blancintervention.

What comes out of this so called high society correctionalfacility is a truth so dirty and alarming that the Secret Serviceis stunned too even as Farrant puts up the nonchalance of anirreverent teen with the right amount of gumption to pull a fastone on the syndicate run by a fascist doctor and his WomanFriday Stellanbauch.

Rider does well to remain in top gear all through and leavea window for a second one perhaps? Tune in with your teen andhis friends for an eight-hour soiree built carefully to engage youin the proceedings without being entirely teeny or entirely adult.

Page 3: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

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As a preventive measure to con-tain further spread of coron-

avirus in Angul, the administrationon Saturday banned entry of peo-ple from two Covid-19 hotspot dis-tricts, Ganjam and Jajpur, to Anguldistrict.

Exercising power conferredunder Section 34(b) & (c) of theNational Disaster ManagementAct-2005, Angul Collector Manoj

Kumar Mohanty imposed the ban.“If anyone from Ganjam and

Jajpur districts comes to this districton some compelling ground, he/sheshall be kept in institutional quar-antine for a period of 14 days,” anorder issued by the AngulCollectorate said. The order cameinto force with immediate effect.

The order stated, “It is noticedthat people coming from Ganjamand Jajpur districts are mostlyfound Covid-19 positive and they

are spreading it to others. So, it isquite essential to take strict mea-sures to curb the spread of the dis-ease in this district.”

Any person violating the ordershall be liable to be proceededagainst as per the provisions ofSections 51 to 60 of the DisasterManagement Act-2005. Besides,legal action shall be taken againstthe violator under Section 188 ofIPC and other legal provisions asapplicable, the order added.

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Bhubaneswar on Saturdayreported 38 new Covid-19

cases, with which the totaltally in the capital city rose to640 with 317 active ones.

Of the new cases, 26 caseswere detected from quaran-tine centres and 12 were localcontacts, the BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation(BMC) said.

The quarantine cases

included a 66-year-old manof Baramunda, a 50-year-oldman of Shastri Nagar, a 40-year-old quarantined woman,three employees of aGovernment office at BJBNagar, a 29-year-old womanof Shailashree Vihar, threewomen employees of a privatehospital, a 33-year-old man ofShikarchandi Basti, a 70-year-old man of MancheswarAdimata Colony, a 19-year-old male of Kedar Gouri and

a 48-year-old man and a 62-year-old man ofChandrasekharpur BDAColony. A 27-year-oldemployee of a CentralGovernment hospital, a 35-year-old man in a quarantinecentre, a 23-year-old womanof Rasulgarh, a 23-year-oldwoman of Kalinga Vihar, anemployee of a private hospi-tal, a 17-year-old girl and a 36-year old woman of same fam-ily of Kalinga Vihar, a 53-ryear-old man of Palasuni, a27-year-old man of Nayapalliwith travel history to Delhialso tested positive.

The locals contact casesincluded a 58-year-old man ofKalinga Vihar Kolathi a 40-year-old man of PokhariputKargil Basti, a 57-year-old

man of Bhimatangi HousingBoard, a 27-year-old man anda 28-year-old man of samefamily of ChandrasekharpurHB Colony, three cases ofsame family of Ganganagar,three cases of same family ofNiladri Vihar and a 55-year-old man of Nayapalli.

However, six patientsrecovered from the disease onthe day in the city, the BMCsaid.

Meanwhile, in view ofthe surging virus cases inBhubaneswar, the civicauthorities on Saturday start-ed a serological survey in thecity to know the immunolog-ical status of the communityand high risk groups withtechnical support providedby the Regional MedicalResearch Centre (RMRC).

In Cuttack city, 10 per-sons, including a local contact,tested positive. With this, thecity’s total tally rose to 239.The new positive cases includ-ed three corona warriors.

With the new cases, thenumber active cases inCuttack rose to 205. However,32 persons have recoveredfrom the disease and twohave died.

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The Bonai Sub-DivisionalHospital authorities on

Saturday closed theOutpatient Department(OPD) for an indefiniteperiod after a staff testedCovid-19 positive.

However, patientsrequiring emergency carewould be allowed for treat-ment at the hospital. Allother services would remainsuspended, informed theSDMO.

Notably, Sundargarhdistrict has been witnessinga sudden hike in positivecases in the last couple ofdays with Bonai sub-divi-

sion reporting over 15 casesso far.

The district’s total tallynow stands at 616, including405 active cases. While 209patients have recoveredfrom the disease, one hassuccumbed to the virus.

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Ganjam on Saturday contin-ued to report the State’s

highest number of new Covid-19 cases among all districts. Theday’s count on the day was 218,accounting for 38.2 % of theState’s total cases of 570. Now,Ganjam’s total positive casesstand at to 3,634.

The district also reportedtwo deaths out of the State’s fiveon the day.

The fresh 218 cases had among them 43 corona war-

riors, including 19 police per-sonnel, a person with travel his-tory to another State and 174 inactive contacts with previouspositive cases. All new patientswere shifted to a CovidHospital.

With the new cases, thenumber of active cases in thedistrict rose to 1,708, includingabout 500 in Brahmapur.However, 1,892 persons haverecovered from the diseasewhile as many as 36 have suc-cumbed to the virus so far.

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Ajournalist has died in the State report-edly due to Covid-19. As per reports,

the scribe was undergoing treatment at theKIMS Covid Hospital in Bhubaneswar forpast few days.

Sources said the journalist was a res-ident of Hinjili in Ganjam district and wasworking with a regional Odia daily, whichrecently completed 100 years of its foun-dation.

However, the Government is yet tomake any confirmation about the jour-nalist’s death

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The Indian Red Cross Society,Police Commissionerate

Branch organised a blood dona-tion camp at the Mahila police sta-tion here on Friday.

DCP Anup Sahoo inaugurat-ed the camp. Mahila PS BanitaMoharana registered her as life-time member of the Red Crossand donated blood.

Zone-1 ACP Manas RanjanGadanayak, Red Cross Branchjoint-secretary ACP LalitenduMohanty and executive memberDillip Dashsharma coordinatedthe whole event. From this camp,a total of 30 units of blood col-lected. Besides, the PoliceCommissionerate Red Cross inassociation with the Samarpita

Social Foundation organised acamp at Palaspalli, where 20 units

of blood collected. Thus, total 50units of blood were collected by

the Police Commissionerate RedCross.

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The Odisha CrimeBranch police arrest-

ed Dara Sena chiefMukesh Jain for alleged-ly opposing a SupremeCourt order over sus-pension of Rath Yatra inPuri recently.

The 58-year-old Jainwas arrested from hisresidence in Delhi. Hewas handed over to theSahadevkhunta policein Baleswar district on Friday andthen forwarded to a local court fol-lowing interrogation. His bail appli-cation was rejected.

Jain, founder-president of DaraSingh Bachao Samiti, a fringe out-fit fighting for Dara’s release, hadmade derogatory statement againstthe Chief Justice of India after theapex court ordered to cancel hold-ing of Rath Yatra in Puri for Covid.

Notably, Dara Singh was

allegedly involved in killing ofAustralian missionary GrahamStains and his two minor sons in1999.

Jain is also accused of extort-ing people on various social mediaplatforms to raise voice against theCJI over the decision. In thisregard, three FIRs were lodged atthree police stations atSahadevkhunta, Bhadrak andCrime Branch.

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Aday after being kid-napped, business-

man Naresh Agrawal ofBareipali here was res-cued safely by policefrom the Sasan policestation area in the weehours of Saturday.

However, the abduc-tors managed give policethe slip. Further investi-gation was underway inconnection with the inci-

dent and a hunt was on tonab the culprits, saidpolice.

Agarwal had beenkidnapped at gunpoint bythree persons when hehad gone to Sasan toinspect the boundaryconstruction work on hisland. The abductors camein a car and puncturedthe wheels of the busi-nessman’s car and forcedhim to accompany themin their car.

But the reason forabducting him is yet to beascertained.

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Jhargsuguda registeredsingle-day highest

spike of 31 Covid posi-tives during the last 24hours. The infectedincluded two munici-pality employees and am e n t a l l y - r e t a r d e dwoman of MissionAshram.

While 29 are fromquarantine centres, twoare municipality staff.With this, the number ofCovid cases in the dis-

trict rose to 165.Reports said officers

directly in charge ofCovid management likeMagistrate, officers andpolice would get theirswab samples testedsoon.

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KENDRAPDA : The Sadarpolice on Friday nabbed SkSarfaraj alias Jaan from theBhubaneswar airport as he is theprime accused in a firing case ofBabuli alias BibekanandaMoharana, president ofTinimuhani Bazar Committeeand district coordinator ofDharma Jagarana Sena, on July13 night last year.

Notably, Jaan, who evaded

arrest and was hiding at SaudiArab after committing thecrime, on Thursday returned toBhubaneswar by air. While helanded in Bhubaneswar, theairfield police informed thematter to the Kendrapada SP. Asa result, the Sadar police withthe help of special police squadrushed to Bhubaneswar andtook him to the Sadar police sta-tion to conduct inquiry. PNS

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The BJP prepared a political roadmap forOdisha for next six months at its first

virtual meeting of its State functionaries heldon Saturday.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhanhighlighted the Central schemes undertakenby the Modi Government to help peopleduring the Covid pandemic. He called uponparty workers to strengthen the organisa-tion and serve people. State presidentSamir Mohanty stressed on the need of

ensuring Central schemes reach people atgrassroots level. He said the BJP aims tomake Odisha a corruption-free State andinvolve it in the country’s developmentprocess.

Various issues, including women secu-rity, Rath Yatra and Covid, were discussedat the meeting. Among other leaders,Prithviraj Harichandan, Dr LekhasriSamantsinghar, Saudan Singh, BaijayantPanda, MP Suresh Pujari, MP Jual Oram,KV Singh Deo and Leader of Opposition inState Assembly Pradipta Naik were present.

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In order to attract invest-ment in the textile and appar-

el manufacturing sectors, theState Government has claimedthat it has “world-class” infra-structure facilities, a stronglogistics base and skilled man-power for such units to flour-ish.

Addressing an ‘Invest IndiaExclusive Investment Forumfor Textiles and Apparel Sector’event here on Friday, IndustriesMinister Dibya Shankar Mishrahighlighted the State’s compet-itive advantages in the textilesand apparel sector.

“Textile and apparel man-ufacturing is one of the focussectors of the OdishaGovernment and several firmshave already set up their unitsin the State,” he said.

Exports and imports canbe facilitated through theParadip, Dhamra andGopalpur Ports, he said.

Industries SecretaryHemant Sharma said newinfrastructure facilities arebeing developed in the State,including textiles parks inBhadrak and Dhamra.

During the event, officialsfrom Andhra Pradesh,Jharkhand, Karnataka, Punjaband Tamil Nadu also high-lighted the investment oppor-tunities in their respectiveStates.

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The Government on Saturdaylaunched its maiden bus service to

Jodamba in the Swabhiman area fromMalkangiri town. Around 20,000 resi-dents of the area, who were cut off fromrest of the State until the Gurupriyabridge was constructed in 2018, wouldbe connected with the Malkangiri districtheadquarters due the bus service.

The bus every day departs fromMalkangiri to Jodamba at 9 am andreturns at 6 pm.

Chitrakonda MLA Purna ChandraBaka inaugurated the bus service in pre-sent of Malkangiri Collector ManishAgarwal.

Worth mentioning, Maoists wereactive in the Swabhiman area prior to theconstruction of the Gurupriya bridge.

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To contain the spread of coro-navirus, the Jagatsinghpur

district administration hasimposed a ban on entry of peo-ple from neighbouring districts.

In a video message, districtCollector SK Mohaptra alsoadvised people of the district tocurtail tours to districts wherecorona spreading is at peak. Heappealed to citizens to adhere toinstructions being issued to check

community spreading.”Any per-son visiting Jagatsinghpur fromits adjacent districts Cuttack,Puri, Kendrapada and Khurdawould be put on a 14-day quar-antine period,” he said, adding,“People wishing to go to work-places in these districts need toobtain permission from theadministration.”

He requested people not tovisit Government offices fre-quently and lodge their griev-ances through social media.

Out of 388 Covid positivecases detected in the district sofar, 298 have recovered. The dis-trict has not reported any Coviddeath.

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The East CoastRailway Mazdoor

Union (ECoRMazU)will observe “SarkarJagao Saptah” from July24 to 30 as called byBMS for countrywidedemonstrations.

Sector-wise demon-strations will be held atState capitals, districtheadquarters, Tehsil /Block centers and alsoin all big industrialestates. The BMS hasidentified five majorissues for the stir,including problems ofunorganized sectorworkers particularly

migrant workers non-payment of wages, hugejob losses, suspension oflabour laws and increas-ing working hours inmany States and unbri-dled privatisation byselling PSUs and alsothrough corporatisationof Defence and Railwayproduction units.

As a part of “SarkarJagao Saptah”, theECoRMazU activistswill contact grassrootslevel workers/employ-ees of ECoR and edu-cate them about theCentral as well as StateGovernments’ latestpolicies and their severeimpact on labour.

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Page 4: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

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Ahead of the first anniver-sary of abrogation of

Article 370 and reorganisa-tion of the erstwhile State ofJammu & Kashmir on August5, the Pakistan Army has start-ed pushing small groups ofheavily armed terrorists insidethe Indian territory to scale upviolence in the region.

Foiling one such infiltra-tion bid by a group of heavilyarmed terrorists, alert jawans ofthe Indian Army on Saturdayneutralised at least two terror-ists in the Nowgam sector ofNorth Kashmir's Kupwara dis-trict.

Besides this, fresh alert hasalso been sounded all along theline of control in Bhimbergaliand Nowshera sectors follow-ing intel reports of possiblestrikes by the Border ActionTeams (BAT) of the Pakistanarmy.

Meanwhile, briefing the

media persons about infiltra-tion bid foiled near the Line ofControl (LoC) in the NowgamSector in Kupwara border dis-trict, General-officer-Commanding (GoC), 19Infantry Division, (Baramulla),Major General Virender VatsSaturday said, “two terroristswere killed in the operation inNowgam and a huge cache ofarms and ammunition, includ-ing 1.5 lakh of Indian andPakistani currency, was recov-ered from them”.

He said the cache of armsrecovered from the slain ter-rorists comprises 2xAK riflesand 1x Pistol with magazines,ammunition, and somegrenades and medical supplies.Major General Virender Vatsalso warned that Pakistan is

trying hard to push more andmore terrorists into theKashmir Valley to disrupt thepeace in Jammu & Kashmir.

Sharing his assessmentabout the possible number ofterrorists camping across dif-ferent launch pads across theline of control, the senior offi-cer said, “Inputs indicate thattheir launch pads are fullyoccupied. If we have to guess,it could be anything between250-300 terrorists presently occupying the launchpads.''

Exposing the role of thePakistan army, Major GeneralVirender Vats said, “the ter-rorists, who were trying toinfiltrate into the area by cut-ting the anti-infiltration fence,were dressed in combatfatigues. They had taken theroute through Pakistani for-ward posts in the area, whichclearly indicates that Pakistanis pushing terrorists to thisside”.

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Panrutti in Tamil Nadu’sCuddalore district is

famous for the jackfruits grownin its countryside. Those whotravel through the nationalhighway passing along thetown have made it a habit tostop their vehicles and buy thePanrutti Jackfruit which issweeter than other jackfruits.But Panrutti earned anotherdistinction, though the popu-lation of the small-time townmay not cherish it.

Panrutti made its mark inthe record book by being thefirst town in the country toopen a duplicate branch of anationalised Bank and operat-ing it for three months. Thelocal police arrested three per-sons including the brain behindthe fake branch.

One of the customers ofthe State Bank of India’sPanrutti branch was surprisedwhen he came across a newbranch of the same Bank in thesame town. He intimated aboutit to the Branch Manager wherehe has an account.

The Branch Manager tookup the matter with the ZonalOffice of the Bank which inturn informed him that SHIhas two branches in Panrutti

and there was no third branch.

The Manager, on his part,undertook a mission to thebranch mentioned by his cus-tomer and he was taken abackby the newly opened thirdbranch with all paraphernaliabefitting the branch of thecountry’s premier bank. Thebillboard in front of the newbranch had the age-old catch-word of the SBI displayedprominently: the Banker toevery Indian.

The Branch Manager gotback to the Zonal Office whichdeputed a team of officials toprobe the matter. The Bankofficials got in touch with thelocal police station. InspectorAmbedkar rushed to the dupli-cate branch and took into cus-tody three persons includingone Kamal Babu , the master-mind behind the plot.

Kamal Babu’s parents werewith the SBI for many decades.After the death of his father andthe retirement of his motherfrom service, Babu thought ofan innovative idea, to launchhis own SBI in Panrutti!.According to police officials,the fake branch was operatingfor the last three months butthe Covid-19 pandemic played‘spoilsport’ to Babu’s dream ofroping in any customers.

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There was no let up in the everincreasing number of coronavirus

cases in Kerala as the State diagnosednearly 500 persons with covid-19 onSaturday, making it the highest numberof cases to be traced in a single day.

The day saw 488 persons testing pos-itive against Friday’s 416 cases, accord-ing to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

He disclosed in a virtual mediameet on Saturday that 167 of those diag-nosed with the pandemic were expatri-ates while 76 were those who returned tothe State from other parts of the coun-try. In yet another indication that com-munity transmission has set in the State,234 persons who tested were infectedthrough social contacts. The State alsosaw two sexagenarians succumbing to thepandemic on the day.

The Chief Minister said that Keralawould enter the community transmissionphase soon. “Right now we are under-going the Super Spread stage whichmeans that the pandemic from one per-son reaches hundreds in a region. Oncemore and more places come under the

Super Spread phase, it is a matter of timebefore the community transmission setsin,” he said.

“The Opposition parties’ attempt toderail the Covid prevention programmeinitiated by the Government is the rea-son behind the surge in the number ofcases seen in Kerala. They are stagingunreasonable demonstrations across theState for flimsy reasons violating theCovid Protocol. I warn them that theiraction is as good as a criminal offence andthe Government would not hesitate totake action against those who violate theguidelines like wearing face masks andnot observing social/physical distance,”said Vijayan.

He was referring to the demonstra-tions and protest marches staged by theCongress and the BJP across the Statedemanding the resignation of the ChiefMinister in connection with the goldsmuggling activity that was busted by theCustoms Department atThiruvananthapuram last Sunday.

Vijayan disclosed that 570 personswere admitted to hospitals in the State onSaturday. There are 196 hotspots in theState while the day saw 143 persons get-ting cured of the disease, he said.

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Saturday turned out to be yet anoth-er day of anxiety and apprehension

in Tamil Nadu as 3,965 persons werediagnosed with Covid-19 on a singleday. On Friday, the number of Covid-19 cases tested were 3,680 . The dayalso saw 69 persons succumbing to thepandemic across the State taking thedeath toll to 1,898 till date. As onSaturday, there were 46, 410 covid-19patients in the State,

A medical bulletin released by theTamil Nadu Government said aggres-sive testing was on in the State with102 laboratories working round theclock to identify and isolate the per-sons afflicted with the pandemic.The day saw 36, 628 persons gettingtested and this took the number ofpersons tested till date to 1.5 millionacross Tamil Nadu.

Though the day showed smallfalls in the number of persons testedpositive in Chennai and Chengalpet,it is not convincing that the situationin the State is under control. While1,185 persons were tested positive inChennai (which had tested 1,205persons on Friday), 237 were tested inChengalpet (against 242 on Friday).

But the number of persons diag-nosed with the pandemic inKancheepuram shot up to 119 (against61 tested positive on Friday) and thatin Thiruvallur to 346 ( which had test-ed 219 on Friday).

Districts like Madurai (277),Salem (136), Kanyakumari (133)ended up on higher side which damp-ened the spirit of health experts inTamil nadu who were expecting somepositive developments after the seriesof lock downs and stringent regula-tions.

Tamil Nadu will soon have aplasma bank, the second of its kind inthe country, the first being in NewDelhi. According to Dr C VijayaBaskar, health minister, the facility isbeing set up at the Rajiv GandhiGovernment General Hospital atChennai. He has sought the cooper-ation of persons who were cured ofCovid-19 to donate plasma withoutfear as this is a life saving initiative.

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Acourt in Jammu has direct-ed suspended senior police

officer Basant Rath not to pub-lish any post or material by anymeans of communicationwhich is defamatory or deroga-tory against six persons whoclaimed to be “acquainted withthe current Director General ofPolice, Dilbagh Singh.”

The order was passed bythe judicial officer JeewanKumar Sharma, 2nd AdditionalMunsiff Jammu, on a suit filedby six persons—ParveenKumar Mittal (businessmandealing in PlywoodManufacturing), VirenderDubey (Medical practitioner),Saurabh Dang (businessman),Rahul Bansal (businessman),Davinder Verma (business-man) and Amit Kohli (busi-

nessman).They have sought a decree

of permanent prohibitoryinjunction, restraining Rathfrom posting any defamatory,derogatory, libel or slanderousposts or material on socialmedia such as twitter,Facebook, Instagram or anyother available social mediaplatform with regard to them.

They have contended Rathhas made expressions, repre-sentations and gestures againstthem which on the face of it areopposing the decency andmorality, besides being defam-atory in its nature.

The plaintiffs have statedthat they are “acquainted withthe current Director General ofPolice, Dilbagh Singh and havefamily relations with him. “Itappears that (Rath) has somepersonal grouse against

Dilbagh Singh and in thisregard, he is maligning theimage of not only the DirectorGeneral of Police, but also theplaintiffs,” they said,” adding,“(Rath) in his various postsrefers to the Director Generalof Police as “DILLOO” and hasalleged various allegations ofland grabbing besides other

allegation of connivance andstatements which are defama-tory and derogatory to theplaintiffs.”

After hearing their counsel,the court issued a notice toRath for filing a written state-ment in the main suit as well asobjections in the application forgrant of temporary injunction.

“In the meanwhile defen-dant (Rath) is directed not topublish any post or material byany means of communicationwhich is defamatory or deroga-tory against the plaintiffs whichhas an effect of injuring the rep-utation of the plaintiffs in thesociety till next date of hearing,”the court said as per an orderwith Global News Service,adding, “This order is howev-er, subject to objections fromthe other side.” The case hasbeen listed again on July 25.

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Maharashtra’s AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS)

on Saturday arrested Arvindalias Guddan Trivedi and hisdriver Sushilkumar alias SonuSuresh Tiwari, both hench-men of slain gangster VikasDubey, who were wanted inconnection with the killing ofeight policemen fromKanpur.

A day after Dubey wasshot dead by the UP police enroute from Ujjain to Kanpur, anATS team from Mumbai –ledby yesteryear encounter spe-cialist Daya Nayak –arrestedTrivedi (46) and his driverTiwari (30) after laying trap forhim at Thane’s Kolshet Road.The Mumbai ATS would handover slain Dube’s two aides tothe UP police.

Acting on tip-off receivedfrom one of the reliable sourcesthat one of the accused inconnection with the killing ofthe eight policemen that tookplace on the intervening nightof July 2 and July 3 in Kanpurwhen a police team had goneto arrest Dubey.

As per initial investiga-

tions, Guddan – along withVikas Dubey - was involved inseveral serious cases, includingthe 2001 murder of UttarPradesh Minister SantoshShukla for which the UP gov-ernment had announced areward.

It may be recalled that inthe attack on the policemen atKanpur, in which eight policeofficers and personnel werekilled, following which a casewas registered against Dubeyand his gang members.

Dubey and his gang mem-bers were absconding eversince the Kanpur incident.

The Uttar Pradesh policehad launched a country-widesearch for Dubey and others.

Dubey was shot deadFriday morning by the police,after – what the UP police haveclaimed – he was trying to fleeafter the car carrying him fromUjjain overturned on an iso-lated stretch of the highway onthe outskirts of the city.

Vikas Dubey had earlierbeen traced to his hideout inUjjain, in Madhya Pradeshwhere he surrendered and wasbeing taken to Kanpur.

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Amid constant rise in thetotal number of cases of

coronavirus especially inKashmir valley, several seniordoctors have now raised a 'redflag' warning the local residentsto strictly follow the guidelineselse Government would beforced to reimpose lockdown toprevent the situation fromgoing out of hand.

“We are inviting disasterfor ourselves. The number ofcoronavirus patients areincreasing every day. The sever-ity of the virus is increasing.Out of 90 patients admitted inthe Chest disease hospital, atleast 65 of them need high flowoxygen, around 10 patients areadmitted in the ICU and twoare on Ventilator support”,Head of the Department, ChestDisease Hospital Srinagar, DrNaveed Shah said sharing hisassessment while participat-ing in a discussion on a socialmedia platform.

According to the mediabulletin, the total number ofcoronavirus cases crossed10,000 in Jammu & Kashmirwhile 10 more deaths due toCovid 19 were reported, nine

from Kashmir division andone from Jammu on Saturday.

Out of these 10,156,Jammu division has so farrecorded 2,181 cases i.e 21.5percent cases while 7,975 casesi.e 78.5 cases were detectedacross Kashmir valley.

“Out of 4,092 active cases,2,131 cases are active acrossthree districts of Srinagar,Baramulla and Kulgam inKashmir valley only”, the mediabulletin said.

So far, 169 patients havedied due to covid 19 in Jammuand Kashmir and at present the

active positive cases are 4,092.Significantly, 58 percent ofpatients have recovered so far.

Reacting to the behaviourof common people especially indifferent parts of Srinagar, DrShah said, “majority of peopleare not taking adequate pre-cautions. Other than CD hos-pital, the profile of patientsadmitted in other hospitals ofSrinagar clearly suggest patientswith symptoms of Pneumoniaare admitted there. The situa-tion is alarming and we have toadhere to the guidelines verystrictly to contain the situation.

Deputy CommissionerSrinagar, Dr Shahid IqbalChoudhary also appealed tothe local residents to strictly fol-low the guidelines He said atthe time of taking the decisionto open the market places andallowing normal business activ-ity the stakeholders were con-sulted and taken in to confi-dence.

“Now if the need arises toreimpose the lockdown we willfirst consult them.Till then, ifwe want to prevent the reim-position, the least we can do isto follow the norms of socialdistancing and other guidelinesstrictly”, he added.

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The coronavirus situationworsened in Maharashtra

on Saturday, as the State record-ed an all-time high of 8,139infected cases and with 223more deaths, the total numberof deaths crossed 10,000-markto touch 10,116.

A day after the state record-ed the highest-ever daily tallyof 7,862 Covid-19 infestedcases, the number of positivecases went further to 8,139, tak-ing the total number of infec-tions in the state to 2,46,600.

With the fresh 223 deaths,the total number of deathsjumped to 10,116.

Of the total deaths,Mumbai accounted for 39deaths which took the totalnumber of deaths in themetropolis to 5,244 now, whilethe total number of positivepatients climbed up by 1,284

cases to touch 91,745.Apart from 39 deaths in

Mumbai, there were 62 deathsin Thane, 34 deaths in Pune, 17in Jalgaon, 13 in Nashik, 9 eachin Palghar and Aurangabad, 8in Jalna, 7 in Solapur, 6 inRaigad, 4 in Satara, 3 in Latur,2 each in Kolhapur, Nanded,Nagpur and Amravati and oneeach in Dhule, Sangli, and 2from other states. In addition,one person from another statedied of Covid-19 in the state.

Meanwhile, Dharavi hascome in for praise from theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) for the manner inwhich it tackled the Covid inAsia's largest slum.

In Mumbai, a BMCAssistant MunicipalCommissioner Ashok Khairna,57, lost to Covid-19, makinghim the 102nd civic official tohave been killed by the virus sofar.

With 59487 infected casesand 1,598 deaths, Thane con-

tinued to be the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.

Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 35,356infections and 1060 deaths tillnow.

In a related development,the total number of patientsdischarged from various hos-pitals after full recovery sincethe second week of March thisyear touched 1,36,985. Therecovery rate in the state stoodat 55.55 per cent. The mortal-ity rate in the state is 4.1 percent. The state health authori-ties pegged the number of“active cases” in the state at99,202.

Out of 12,85,991 samplessent to laboratories, 2,46,600have tested positive (19.17) forCovid-19 until Monday.Currently, 6,80,017 people arein home quarantine while47,376 people are in institu-tional quarantine.

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Guwahati/Agartala: In viewof surge in Covid-19 cases, theAssam Government is likely toextend the lockdown in theKamrup (Metro) district forone more week after the 14-dayshutdown ends on Sunday.

“The Chief Secretary as theChairman of the executive com-mittee of the disaster manage-ment in consultation with thecitizens' forum and MLAs of theKamrup (Metro) district wouldtake the decision on the exten-sion. “Though the healthdepartment has said one-weekextension will be enough, oth-ers are advocating two moreweeks in view of the rising infec-tion,” Health minister HimantaBiswa Sarma said on Saturday.

With a population of 11.20lakh, northeast's main com-mercial hub Guwahati is theheadquarters of the Kamrup(Metro) district.

With some strict restric-tions, Guwahati was likely to re-open in the fourth week of themonth, he said and added,around 10 per cent populationof the city had been tested forCovid-19. IANS

Amaravati: Andhra Pradeshreported yet another all-timehigh of 1,813 new coronaviruscases in a 24-hour cycle ending9 am on Saturday, the fourthtime this week that a recordhigh has been breached. On thepositive side, the day also wit-nessed a high of 1,168 patientscured of Covid-19 and dis-charged.

On Friday, the state hadrecorded 1,608 positive cases,1,555 on Thursday and 1,322on Monday.

The new cases include 38returnees from outside AndhraPradesh, health officials said.

Andhra Pradesh's totalcorona cases crossed the 27K-mark to touch 27,235 cases onSaturday.

The new cases were report-ed from all 13 districts in the

state. Anantapur district toppedwith 311 cases, followed byChittoor with 300, Kurnoolwith 229, Srikakulam with 204,East Godavari with 143, andKrishna with 123 cases.

Andhra Pradesh conduct-ed 20,590 more tests, as against21,020 samples tested in the 24-hour cycle ending Fridaymorning.

As many as 1,168 morepersons were discharged fromhospitals and Covid treatmentcentres in the state. The curedpatients now total 14,393.

As of Saturday, 12,533coronavirus patients are admit-ted in hospitals and designat-ed Covid treatment centres inthe state.

A total of 17 deaths werereported from the State --Kurnool four, Guntur andVizianagaram three each,Krishna and Nellore two each,and Kadapa, Anantapur andVisakhapatnam one deatheach. The total corona deathtoll in Andhra Pradesh was 309on Saturday morning.

The number of coronaviruscases among returnees fromother states rose by two.Returnees from Telangana con-tinue to dominate this catego-ry, with 22 of the 34 casesreturnees from the neighbour-ing Telugu state. There werealso four positive cases from

among Odisha returnees.Similarly, three returnees eachfrom Maharashtra and TamilNadu, and one each from Delhiand Karnataka are among coro-na positive patients.

As of Saturday, 2,385 statereturnees have so far testedpositive while there are 690active cases in this category. Asmany as 1,695 persons haverecovered till date.

On Saturday morning, fournew cases were reported fromamong foreign returnees --two returnees from Kuwait, onefrom Saudi Arabia and onefrom the USA.

The total tally in this cate-gory is 428, with 299 patientscured and discharged. As ofSaturday, 129 patients in thiscategory are under treatment inhospitals. IANS

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Page 5: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

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The lines are drawn in thePublic Accounts

Committee (PAC) over thescrutiny of the PM CARESFund. While the BJP MPs inthe panel have stronglyopposed its examination by thePAC, panel chairman AdhirRanjan Chowdhury, who isalso the leader of the Congressin the Lok Sabha, has favoureda proper scrutiny of the Fundand is expected to use his pre-rogative as the panel head togive it a go ahead. TheCongress and its presidentSonia Gandhi have been rais-ing questions over the settingup and utilisation of the PMCARES Fund and seeking anaudit of it.

In the PAC meeting onFriday, the BJP, which has 12MPs on the panel, objected toany examination of the con-troversial PM Cares Fund bythe parliamentary panel citingthat the expenditure or the rev-enue is not related toParliament authorisation.

Chowdhury invoked theinterest of the nation to appeal

to the MPs against objecting tothe examination of the PMCares Fund as it is a fund of theGovernment and the countryneeds to know how the moneycollected funds from the pub-lic is utilized.

Many BJP MPs protestedthe move of the PAC Chairmanto include the examining of thePM Cares Fund in this year’ssubjects selected by the panel.According to them, this movewas just a politically-motivat-ed one to summon the officersof PMO and Home Ministry tosettle political scores.

It is learned that eventhough a majority of the MPsreject a subject to be included,as PAC Chairman, Chowdhuryhas the right to use his pre-rogative to include the subject.

BJP MPs are expected tocomplain to the Lok SabhaSpeaker Om Birla if Adhiruses such prerogative.

But Opposition MPs point-ed out that the PAC Chairman,who is always from the mainOpposition party, has the pre-rogative to include subjectslike on earlier occasions duringthe UPA regime when BJP

leader and panel chief MurliManohar Joshi used his powerto include many subjectsopposed by the then majorityCongress MPs in PAC.

Opposition MPs alsopointed out that the PACChairman needed theSpeaker’s clearance only forsummoning Ministers. Herequires no clearance for sum-moning officials. In Friday’smeeting, Opposition MPscountered the BJP MPs sayingthat the Parliament has theright to know who are thedonors in the PM Cares Fundas well as how it was utilised.

Though the PACChairman is from theOpposition party, the majori-ty is always with the rulingparty as the members areselected on the basis of repre-sentation.

While 15 MPs are selectedfrom Lok Sabha including theChairman, seven MPs areselected from Rajya the Sabha.

The total strength of thePAC is 22 MPs including theChairman. At present, twoseats from Rajya Sabha quotaare vacant.

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Migration of labour post-lockdown from cities to

vulnerable forest-fringe vil-lages particularly in CentralIndia will flare up the infectedcases as well as fatalities giventhe crumbling and negligibleinfrastructure in these regions,according to a study publishedin the Current Science.

To curb the cases,researchers from John Hopkinsand Azim Premji Universityamong a few others have sug-gested lenient restrictions forpeople within a village as wellas between villages to reducethe exposure of the locals.

“Such a ‘village bubble’strategy could reduce the riskof spread among vulnerable

populations and requires thatessential goods reach villages,”they said. Interestingly, NewZealand has successfullyimplemented a bubble strategy,with initial bubbles restricted tothe household level and broad-ened to larger social groups asrestrictions ease

The researchers from theinstitutes such as School ofInternational and Public Affairsfrom New York, AshokaUniversity from Sonepat,International Institute of HealthManagement Research, AzimPremji University also partic-ipated in the study.

Based on a previously col-lected household survey of5,000 villages across 500 forest-fringe villages in 32 districts ofcentral India, the researchers

identified migration patternsover the last 5 years.

Villages with seasonalworkers are widely dispersed(75 percent of surveyed vil-lages) and 81 per cent of des-tination cities had reportedCovid-19 cases at the begin-ning of the lockdown.

There have already beenreports how the cases are grad-ually moving from urban tosemi-urban and now to ruralareas in the hitherto untouchedregions.

India has already reportedover 8 lakh cases and 22,000deaths till date.

Using a disease spreadmodel to assess distancingstrategies if returning migrantscarry the virus to villages, theresearchers said that they foundthat lenient restrictions forpeople within a village com-bined with maximal restric-tions between villages could

reduce the number of peopleexposed compared with mod-erate restrictions both withinand between villages.

“Such a ‘village bubble’strategy could reduce the riskof spread among vulnerablepopulations and requires thatessential goods reach villages,”they added.

With the outbreak ofCovid-19, the potential forseasonal migrants to carry thevirus from cities to their homevillages generates grave con-cern both for local people andauthorities managing the crisis.The poorest households inthese villages use seasonalmigration to supplement theirincomes, raising the potentialfor exposure to Covid-19 asmigrants return.

As restrictions eased,chances of exposure andspread to adjacent villagesfrom migrants who have

already returned persist.Alternatives to severe physicaldistancing are needed toreduce the chances of exposurewhile allowing people to obtainessential supplies, plant cropsand carry out other necessitiesof daily life, said the study.

The populations includemany tribal communities liv-ing in and around forests, withGonds and Baigas as the maintribes. Moreover, “availabilityof health facilities is morethan five times less than thenational average. Eighty-sevenper cent of rural householdsrely on wood as a primarycooking fuel, although recent-ly, the availability of LPG haspenetrated into remote areas.”

A primary concern is tocontain the spread of the virusacross villages in the case ofexposure in one village.

To reduce chances of expo-sure in the population in arural setting such as CentralIndia, the model results suggestthat a prudent post-lockdownstrategy might focus on easingphysical distancing restrictionswithin villages but maintainingmovement restrictionsbetween villages, while quick-ly imposing strict lockdownboth within and between vil-lages if a case emerges.

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The All Jammu and KashmirPanchayat Conference

(AJKPC) Friday requested theCentre to order a comprehen-sive security audit of Panchayatmembers in all vulnerable areas.

“The killing of politicalworkers and elected Panchayatmembers is a matter of concernfor all. Family members of ourSarpanches and Panches are liv-ing under constant fear in such

a hostile atmosphere. We appealto the Prime Minister and theUnion Home Minister to directthe UT administration for earlyconduct of a security audit sothat all Panchayat members invulnerable areas are providedadequate security,” AnilSharma, UT president ofAJKPC told a press conference.

The AJKPC leader, whowas on a week-long visit to dif-ferent Panchayats and Blocks inKashmir Valley, said every

Panchayat member wants tocontribute more for the devel-opment of his village andPanchayat, but their movementand activities are confined dueto security reasons.

Blasting the PakistaniArmy, the ISI and their nur-tured terrorists' organisation,Sharma said they are unable toface the brave armed forces ofIndia, so they target innocentcivilians and PRI members.

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India made the right choicesin its response to the Covid-

19 pandemic and is as realisti-cally well placed as any coun-try could be under the pre-vailing circumstances, ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankarsaid on Saturday.

Jaishankar, who is part ofthe Group of Ministers (GoM)on Covid-19, said that whenthe pandemic started assumingglobal proportions, choice thatevery country faced was how torespond while playing to theirown strengths.

Some countries had bettertesting capabilities like SouthKorea, while others likeGermany had a strong ICU sys-tem, he said while speaking atthe India Global Week 2020 viaa video link.

What is interesting is thatwhile India is at number threein the world in terms of case-load, in terms of fatalities, it isat number eight, Jaishankarsaid.

“We still have our chal-lenges ahead, we are very con-scious of it,” he said.

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Appreciating the efforts ofthe Centre, State and local

authorities in containing theCOVID-19 situation in Delhi,Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday called forthe replication of a similarapproach in the entire NCRarea to check the contagion.

Reviewing a meeting totake stock of the COVID-19situation in various parts of thecountry and the preparednessof various states, the PrimeMinister also directed thatreal-time national level mon-itoring and guidance should beprovided to all affected statesand places with high test pos-itivity rate.

The Prime Minister reit-erated the need to observe per-sonal hygiene and social dis-cipline in public places, a state-ment from the PrimeMinister's Office said.

Modi said the awarenessabout the pandemic should bedisseminated widely and acontinuous emphasis on pre-venting the spread of the infec-tion should be laid

He said there is no roomfor any complacency in this

regard, according to the state-ment

"The Prime Ministerappreciated the concertedefforts of the Centre, state andlocal authorities in containingthe pandemic situation inDelhi," the statement said.

"He further directed that asimilar approach should beadopted with other StateGovernments in containingthe COVID-19 pandemic inthe entire NCR area," it said

The review meeting wasattended by Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan andthe cabinet secretary amongothers

The Union Home Ministerhad stepped in last month to

handle the coronavirus situa-tion in the national capitalamid rising cases and criticismin different quarters of theDelhi Government's handlingof the COVID-19 situation, with complaints ofnon-availability of beds in hos-pitals for patients and difficultyin getting the tests done in lab-oratories

Shah had discussed waysto check the spread of the virusin the NCR with chief minis-ters of Delhi, Haryana andUttar Pradesh

The NCR comprises dis-tricts belonging to Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.The prominent ones beingGautam Buddha Nagar(Noida), Ghaziabad, Gurgaon

and FaridabadDuring Saturday's meet,

the "successful example" ofsurveillance and home-basedcare through 'DhanvantriRath' in Ahmedabad washighlighted and it was direct-ed that it may be emulated inother places, the statementsaid

India's COVID-19 tallyzoomed past the eight-lakhmark with the death tollclimbed standing at 22,123even as 519 people died thedisease in 24 hours

Of the 519 new deathsreported, 226 are fromMaharashtra, 64 from TamilNadu, 57 from Karnataka, 42from Delhi, 27 from UttarPradesh and 26 from WestBengal

Andhra Pradesh reported15 fatalities, Gujarat 14,Telangana eight and Rajasthansix. Assam, and Jammu andKashmir reported five deaths,followed by Bihar, MadhyaPradesh, Odisha and Punjabwith four deaths each from,Haryana and Puducherrythree fatalities each while twopersons have succumbed tothe infection in Chhattisgarh.

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The CPI(M) politburo onSaturday objected to the

UGC’s proposal to conductonline exams citing that inter-net connectivity is accessible toonly 36 per cent of the popu-lation and thus, it is unfair tothe students from rural areasand marginalised sections ofthe society.

The CPI(M) said thatunder the pandemic situation,it is best to give the degreesbased on previous perfor-

mances. The party also blamedthe CBSE for excluding crucialchapters from classes X-XIIcourses on citizenship, nation-alism, secularism and federal-ism.

“The Polit Bureau of theCPI(M) rejects the unilateralproposal made by theUniversity Grants Commissionthrough a circular issued onJuly 6. This imposes a homoge-nous national pattern ofonline/open book examina-tions where physical mode ofexaminations may not be pos-

sible under the conditions ofthe pandemic and lockdown.

“Internet connectivity inthe country is still around 36%only. Access to online classes orexaminations does not exist fora vast majority of our students,particularly the marginalisedand those living in remotedigitally unconnected parts inour country. This UGC direc-tion is highly discriminatoryand hence cannot be accepted,”said the CPI(M) polit bureau ina statement.

The party said that educa-

tion is in the concurrent list ofour Constitution and the UGCcannot issue such a uniformdiktat without consultationswith the State Governmentsand state universities.

Criticising the CBSE’smove to exclude crucial chap-ters from classes X-XII cours-es, the CPI (M) said: “Using thepretext of the current pan-demic and lockdown restric-tions, in the name of reducingthe syllabus for students, theCBSE has unilaterally takerecourse to this measure.”

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The Directorate ofEnforcement (ED) has con-

ducted searches under ForeignExchange Management Act(FEMA) at eight different loca-tions in the national Capitaland neighbouring Ghaziabadon the premises of a number oftour and travel operators andassociated chartered accoun-tants and seized unaccountedcash amounting to �3.57 crore.

The searches at the resi-dences and offices of Directorsof the tour and travel compa-nies besides the CharteredAccountants were conductedon Thursday that continued tillnext day. The searches yieldedseveral incriminating docu-ments and digital recordsbesides the unaccounted cash,the agency said here onSaturday.

Investigations underFEMA, 1999 were initiatedagainst various entities includ-ing tour and travel companieson the basis of specific inputsthat these entities were involved

in unauthorized receipt of for-eign remittances through pay-ment gateways in the name of

providing e-visa services tothe foreigners, the ED said.

“ I n v e s t i g a t i o n s

conducted in the matter so farhave revealed that two suchentities received foreign remit-tance of more than � 200 croresf o rprocessing Indian e-visa appli-cations of foreigners without anyauthorisation from theGovernment of India,” agencysaid in a statement.

These entities were alsoinvolved in high value suspi-cious transactions.Investigations also revealed thatcertain Chartered Accountantsplayed a key role in managingthe affairs of these entities andwere behind the suspicioustransactions carried out bythem.

The seizure of unaccount-ed cash of �3.57 Crores duringthe search operations has raisedfurther suspicion about theoperations of such entities andtheir blatant violation of thestatutory requirements, it said.

Further investigation in thecase is under progress to unrav-el the larger nexus of the syn-dicate and the intended purposebehind the suspicious transac-tions, officials added.

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Hardik Patel was appointedworking president of

Gujarat Congress—a positioncurrently being held by AmitChavda- on Saturday.

Congress President SoniaGandhi approved the appoint-ment of 26-year-old Patel, whohad joined the Congress inMarch last year ahead of theLok Sabha polls.

A press release from AICCAll general secretary KCVenugopal said: "CongressPresident has approved theproposal of the appointment ofHardik Patel as the WorkingPresident of Gujarat PradeshCongress Committee withimmediate effect”.

The founder of the PatidarAnamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS), Patel rose to promi-nence as the face of the Patidaragitation in 2015 that eventu-ally turned violent. He still facessedition cases in connectionwith the protests.

Before he joined theCongress, he had claimed nei-ther he nor any member of hisSamiti would ever join politicsor form a party and had arguedfor citizen activism.

BJP had accused him ofbeing the Congress party's B-team during the 2017 assemblypolls.

Patel’s appointment isbeing seen as Congress party'sattempt at wooing the resource-ful Patidar community inPrime Minister NarendraModi’s home State. The partyalso changed the district unitpresidents of Anand, Surat andDwarka.

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Itolizumab, a drug used tocure skin ailment psoriasis

for the last many years, hasbeen approved for "restrictedemergency use" to treatCovid-19 patients with mod-erate to severe acute respira-tory distress.

Written informed consentof each patient is requiredbefore the use of this drug,said the drug regulator DrugController General of Indiawhile approving the drug forthe treatment of the viralinfection.

A senior official from theDCGI said that DrugController, Dr V G Somani,approved monoclonal anti-body injection Itolizumab, analready approved drug ofBiocon for several years, forrestricted emergency use. It isfor the treatment of ‘cytokine’release syndrome in moderateto severe acute respiratorydistress syndrome patientsdue to COVID-19, he added.

“The approval was given

after its clinical trials onCOVID-19 patients in Indiawas found satisfactory by theexpert committee compris-ing pulmonologists, pharma-cologists and medical expertsfrom AIIMS, among others,for treatment of cytokinerelease syndrome,” said theofficial.

"It is already an approveddrug of Biocon for treatingpsoriasis forthe last manyyears," the official said.

The company has receivedthe DCGI approval to marketItolizumab injection25mg/5mL solution for emer-gency use in India for thetreatment of cytokine releasesyndrome in moderate tosevere acute respiratory dis-tress syndrome (ARDS)patients due to COVID-19,Biocon said in a BSE filing.

The company, however,did not disclose the price atwhich it will be selling thedrug.

The firm has repurposedthe drug, an anti-CD6 IgG1monoclonal antibody

launched in India in 2013 asAlzumab for treating chronicplaque psoriasis, Biocon said.

The drug will be manu-factured and formulated as anintravenous injection at thecompany's bio-manufactur-ing facility at Biocon Park,Bengaluru.

"As an innovation-led bio-pharmaceuticals company, Iam proud of the successfuloutcome of the pivotal studywe conducted with our novelimmuno-modulating anti-CD6 monoclonal antibody,Itolizumab, which has provento be an efficacious interven-tion in treating the serioushyper immune response seenwith COVID-19," BioconExecutive Chairperson KiranMazumdar-Shaw said.

“This positions Indiaamong the leading globalinnovators in their effort toovercome the COVID-19 pan-demic, she added.

"We plan to take this ther-apy to other parts of the worldimpacted by the pandemic,"Mazumdar-Shaw said.

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Covid-19 patients who arenot diabetic but have

abnormally high blood sugarlevel are on the higher side ofthe risk of death as well assevere complications due to theinfection, according to a study.

The study conducted by DrYang Jin and his team from theUnion Hospital and TongjiMedical College, HuazhongUniversity of Science andTechnology, Wuhan, Hubei,China, has been published inthe recent edition ofDiabetologia (the journal of theEuropean Association for theStudy of Diabetes [EASD]).

A number of studies haveshown links between diabetesand poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients.

However, Dr Jin and histeam showed direct correlationbetween fasting blood glucose(FBG) level at admission tohospital and clinical outcomes

of Covid-19 patients withoutdiagnosed diabetes.

The retrospective studyassessed all consecutive Covid-19 patients with a known out-come at 28-days and FBG mea-surement at admission from 24January 2020 to 10 February2020 in two hospitals based inWuhan, China.

Demographic and clinicaldata, 28-day outcomes, in-hospital complications andCRB-65 scores of COVID-19patients in the two hospitalswere analysed. The CRB-65score is an effective measurefor assessing the severity ofpneumonia and is based onfour indicators: level of confu-sion, respiratory rate (over 30breaths per min), systolicblood pressure (90 mmHg orless) or diastolic blood pressure(60 mmHg or less), and age (65years or over), as per the study.

A total of 605 Covid-19patients were enrolled, includ-ing 114 who died in hospital.

Of which 208 (34 per cent) hadone or more underlying con-ditions (but not diagnoseddiabetes), of which high bloodpressure was the most com-mon. Almost one third (29 percent) of patients fell into thehighest category of FBG onadmission which if found con-sistently would result in adiagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

The results showed thatpatients in the highest FBGgroup were 2.3 times morelikely to die than those in thelowest, a statistically significantresult.

The data also showed thatmen were 75 per cent morelikely to die than women.

The authors suggested thatduring a pandemic of Covid-19, measuring fasting bloodglucose can facilitate theassessment of prognosis andearly intervention of hyper-glycaemia to help improve theoverall outcomes in treatmentof the infection.

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Page 6: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

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After the lockdown, thebusiness has slowed down,

there is a slowdown all around,but then the GhaziabadDevelopment Authority (GDA)is trying to speed up the devel-opment work. GDA VC

MrsKanchan Verma said thatthe Government is also seriouswith the GDA to directly con-nect Noida and Ghaziabad tothe metro. Proposals to bringthe metro up to Sector-62 inNoida to Mohan Nagar viaIndirapuram and also connectVaishali Metro to this route, theGovernment has given time tothe DMRC once again.

GDA VC said that throughvideo conferencing on Monday,Principal Secretary of Housingand Urban Planning DeepakKumar will see the presentationof DMRC. GDA VC said thatfunding pattern will also be dis-cussed in this online meeting.

GDA VC Kanchan Vermasaid that the DPR has alreadybeen prepared for extendingboth the corridors from NoidaSector 62 to Mohan Nagar viaIndirapuram and Sahibabadand from Vaishali toSahibabad.

According to the DPR, theproject will cost �3325.22 crore.In the funding pattern pro-posed by GDA for this project,a contribution of �1662.62crore has been demanded fromthe State Government. Theproject requires a contributionof �462.93 crore from the cen-tral government and �387.71crore from DMRC for rolling

stock. GDA has proposed a con-

tribution of �381.63 crore,Municipal Corporation’s 138.03crore, Housing DevelopmentCouncil’s 243.60 crore andUPSIDC’s 48.72 crore.However, DMRC is not willingto contribute for rolling stock.On his behalf, citing a changein policy to the GDA, said thatin a new project, he cannotfund rolling stock outsideDelhi.

At the same time, the GDAargues that it is an extension ofthe old lines, not a new project.So there should be funding forrolling stock.

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The Indian economy hasstarted showing signs of

returning to normalcy inresponse to the staggered eas-ing of lockdown restrictions,RBI Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid on Saturday.

He further said the need ofthe hour is to restore confi-dence, preserve financial sta-bility, revive growth and recov-er stronger. “The Indian econ-omy has started showing signsof getting back to normalcy inresponse to the staggered eas-ing of restrictions,” Das said atthe 7th SBI Banking andEconomics Conclave.

Indian companiesand industries respond betterin a crisis, he noted. Das,however, said it is still uncer-tain when supply chains will berestored fully, how long it willtake for demand conditions tonormalise, and what kind ofdurable effects the pandemicwill leave behind on potentialgrowth.

According to him, target-ed and comprehensive reform

measures already announcedby the government should helpin supporting growth.Possibly in a vastly differentpost-COVID global environ-ment, reallocation of factors ofproduction within the econo-my and innovative ways ofexpanding economic activitycould lead to some rebalancingand emergence of new growthdrivers, Das added.

The central bank, he said,strives to maintain the balancebetween preserving financialstability, maintaining bankingsystem soundness and sus-taining economic activity.

“Post containment ofCOVID-19, a very careful tra-jectory has to be followed inorderly unwinding of counter-cyclical regulatory measures,”he said.

The financial sectorshould return to normal func-tioning without relying on theregulatory relaxations as thenew norm, he added.

He said the MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC) hasreduced policy rates by 250basis points since February

2019 to support growth. The conventional and

unconventional monetary pol-icy and liquidity measures byRBI have been aimed at restor-ing market confidence, allevi-ating liquidity stress, easingfinancial conditions, unfreezingcredit markets and augmentingthe flow of financial resourcesto those in need for productivepurposes, he said.“The broader objective was tomitigate risks to the growthoutlook while preserving finan-cial stability,” he added.

Das said despite the sub-stantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’sfinancial system, includingall the payment systems andfinancial markets, are func-tioning without any hin-drance.

“RBI is making continuousassessment of the changingtrajectory of financial stabilityrisks and upgrading its ownsupervisory framework toensure that financial stability ispreserved,” he said.

Banks and financial inter-mediaries have to be ever vig-

ilant and substantially upgradetheir capabilities with respect togovernance, assurance func-tions and risk culture, Dasnoted.

The Governor also saidbanks will have to improvetheir governance, sharpen theirrisk management and raisecapital in an anticipatory basisinstead of waiting for a situa-

tion to arise. He said as the lockdown

has obstructed RBI’s on-sitesupervision to an extent, thecentral bank is further enhanc-ing its off-site surveillancemechanism. The objective ofthe off-site surveillance systemwould be to ‘smell the distress’,if any, and be able to initiatepre-emptive actions, he added.

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Senior economist Rathin Royon Saturday said the

assumption that rate cut help-ing deliver growth is not work-ing in simplistic way as trans-mission is not happening.

Rathin Roy, director ofNational Institute of PublicFinance and Policy (NIPFP) -a think tank backed by theFinance Ministry, said theassumptions on linear rela-tionships between rate cutsresulting in growth by loweringthe cost of capital is not work-ing for some time now.

“I am not persuaded by theRBI’s monetary policy state-

ments, including that of thegovernor, regarding the rushdown for these rate cuts. Iheard him (Governor) justbefore this session and I con-tinue to not being convinced,”Roy said at Annual EconomicsConference organised by StateBank of India. Roy wasalso a member of the EconomicAdvisory Council to the PrimeMinister.RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das, who hadaddressed the gathering beforethe economists’ panel, reducedrates by a cumulative 1.15 percent in two moves since theonset of the COVID-19 pan-demic, on the top of over onepercentage point cuts before

that with an eye on the sagginggrowth, which slipped to 4.2per cent in FY20. “It is veryclear that this assumption (ofrate cuts delivering growth) isnot working in a simplistic wayfor some time now.Transmission is not happen-ing,” Roy said. He also saidthere is an “additional danger”posed by the lack of any knownanalysis done by the RBI onwhether we are getting intowhat he termed as a J-part ofthe interest rate curve”. Roy alsoexpressed concerns on the col-lateral free lending scheme asnot making the cut from a reg-ulations perspective.

“That’s actually breaking

your own regulations, hope-fully for a noble purpose. Iwould like to know what thatnoble purpose is.”The noblepurpose I can discern can onlycome from one place: the lackof action in terms of directincome support by the gov-ernment,” he said.

It can be noted that as partof the Centre’s stimulus pack-age, a �3 lakh crore collateral-free lending scheme has beenannounced for a limited peri-od for helping small business-es come out of the crisis. Onlyexisting borrowers will be givenmoney under the scheme,which has government guar-antee.

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The Government can turnCOVID-19 crisis into an

opportunity by investing inhealthcare, and it should alsopursue making all the citiesslum-free by 2023, according toeconomists.

At the seventh economicconclave - organised by StateBank of India on Saturday,there was an unanimity amongthe economists on layinggreater thrust on decentralisa-tion in policy-making in thefuture, as a one size fits allapproach may not work always.

India at present has thethird highest number ofCOVID-19 cases after the USand Brazil, and has already lostover 22,000 people.

“Its very concerning that alot of this discussion of theAatmanirbhar (Bharat) pack-age or other packages are nottalking at all about what invest-ments are taking place in thehealth sector. How much arewe spending on testing, basicinformation campaigns.

“This is a health inducedcrisis, you got to respond tothat in order to respond to theeconomy,” Rohini Pande, whois associated with YaleUniversity, said.India has his-torically under-invested inhealth and the increase is notvery much right now as well,she said, stressing that we needto recognise that for econom-ic recovery, humanitarian and

health crisis are all interlinked.“To change this crisis to an

opportunity, let us invest in thehealth sector,” SBI’s chief econ-omist SK Ghosh said, suggest-ing a plan to build a 500-bedhospital in 250 districts at a costof �60,000 crore over the nexttwo years. Pande said frontlinehealth workers are not paid,and we can immediately startpaying them and expand theirbase, which will lead to bettercase spotting and also contacttracing.

Arjun Jayadev with AzimPremji University said con-cerns on the health infrastruc-ture affect the broader econo-my as well and pointed out thatthe animal spirits can only berekindled once the fear ofhealth shock goes away.

“Many migrant labourersmay not want to return to thecities not just because they arenot getting a good conduciveenvironment to live, but theyare bothered about their healthcondition as well,” he said.

The Indian economy runson two gears – one which haveaccess to expensive privatehealthcare and the others whodon’t, Jayadev said, adding thatuniversalisation of servicesshould be a key theme whileinvesting the money.

“You’ve this horrific situa-tion where 5 lakh die of TB, 1.5lakh children die and we don’tbat an eyelid, except when thesituation comes to us asCOVID,” he added.

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After Facebook Inc, RelianceIndustries has closed deals

to sell a minority stake in itsdigital arm to four otherinvestors, receiving a total ofover �30,062 crore.

In a regulatory filing,Reliance said it has closed saleof 6.13 per cent stake in JioPlatforms with L Catterton,The Public Investment Fund,Silver Lake and GeneralAtlantic.

Reliance had sold a total of25.09 per cent stake in the sub-sidiary which houses India’syoungest but largest telecomfirm, Jio, to 11 investors for�1,17,588.45 crore.

It had earlier this weekclosed the deal with the biggestinvestor Facebook when itreceived �43,574 crore fromJaadhu Holdings, LLC (a whol-ly owned subsidiary ofFacebook Inc).

“Jio Platforms Ltd hasallotted equity shares to JaadhuHoldings following whichJaadhu Holdings holds 9.99 percent of the fully diluted equityshare capital of Jio PlatformsLtd,” the company had said onJuly 7.

Now, Interstellar PlatformHoldings Pte Lte of L Cattertonhas paid �1,894.50 crore for a0.39 per cent stake in JioPlatforms.

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Apple is deploying a newline of Nokia data centre

switching products at itsDenmark facility to improve itsefficiency, the Finnish equip-ment maker has said.Accordingto Nokia, it has redefined datacentre fabrics with the launchof a new and modern NetworkOperating System and a declar-ative, intent-based automationand operations toolkit.This willallow Cloud and data centrebuilders to scale and adaptoperations in the face of expo-nential traffic growth and con-stant change brought on fromtechnology shifts like 5G andIndustry 4.0.

The new Nokia Service

Router Linux (SR Linux) NOSand Nokia Fabric ServicePlatform were co-developedwith leading global compa-nies, including Apple.”We reg-ularly upgrade our data centerequipment with technology toincrease efficiency and reduceenergy consumption. UsingNokia’s new system will enablebetter networking and routingcapabilities in our Viborg,Denmark facility,” AdamBechtel, Vice President andNetworking lead at Apple, saidin a statement.

Facing massive growth indemand for cloud-based appli-cations and use of new tech-nologies like ArtificialIntelligence, Machine Learningand Augmented Reality.

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Market regulator Securitiesand Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) may soon allowfutures trading in auto fuelspetrol and fiscal giving anopportunity to bulk consumersof these petroleum products tohedge their risks from a volatilemarket where there is a suddenspurt in prices.

Sources said that petrole-um ministry has approved theplan to allow trading of petro-leum products in the derivativemarket and the commodityexchanges would be able tolaunch petrol and diesel futuressoon after SEBI releases its finalregulations in this regard.

Futures are financial con-tracts which help the buyer topurchase a commodity, or theseller to sell the commodity, ata predetermined future date

and at a predetermined price.In the case of petrol and diesel,the derivative product wouldinvolve buying a specifiedquantity of the at a specifiedprice with delivery set at a spec-ified time in the future. In a ris-ing market where prices of fuelis going up, the futures prod-uct would protect the partici-pant from losing out as thefinancial product would hedgethe risk and ensure uniformpricing of the commodity.

“It is a good developmentas it will allow industrial andbulk consumers of the twopetroleum products to hedgetheir risks. But in current mar-ket conditions, in the absenceof a big pick up in demand oilprices are either stable orfalling, hedging would workagainst the interest of partici-pant as it would add up to thecost of hedging,” said an oil sec-

tor analyst asking not to benamed.Currently futures trad-ing is allowed in crude oil giv-ing opportunity to refiners tohedge their risks against fre-quent price fluctuations. Theaddition of petrol and dieselwith give them another instru-ment to hedge their refiningmargins.

Sources said that as currentmarket conditions may not beconductive for a futures mar-ket in petroleum products, itmay wait before intruding thenew product in the market.

Petrol and diesel futures inany case will not benefit retailcustomers as the quantum offuel used by them would below. SEBI may allow derivativeproducts with a floor of say 100litre of petrol and diesel. Thiswill be too high a level for retailcustomers to participate in thefutures market.

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The Indian rupee has beencaught in a flux of higher

FDI inflows and swelling for-eign exchange reserves, there-by restricting its future move-ment around the �75 per USdollar mark. Analysts opinedthat the rupee is caughtbetween higher foreign inflowsand the Reserve Bank of India’sefforts to shore up reserves.

Even a lower import billand stable exports do not seem

enough for the rupee to breakfree from its current range.

“With the RBI continuallyincreasing its forex reserves andinvestment in dollar via for-ward contracts, a floor seems tobe place below �75 levels onspot,” Anindya Banerjee, DVP,Currency and Rates, KotakSecurities, told IANS.

“The upside is also cappeddue to improving sentiments inthe equity and bond markets.All in all, we are looking at arange of Rs 74.80 to Rs 75.80

over the next few weeks, withvolatility remaining at a low.”

According to Sajal Gupta,Head, Forex and Rates,Edelweiss Securities: “Therupee appreciated swiftly to �74.52 per dollar due to largeFDI flows and rising equitymarkets and then weakened to�75.20 on the back of the RBI’sefforts to mop up dollars toshore up reserves which standat a record high of $513 billiondollars.”

“India is expected to see a

Balance of Payment surplus of$60 billion this year due tolower crude price and fallingimports. It is a big surprise thatamid such strong FDI inflows,the rupee is still not strength-ening as the RBI is mopping upall dollars to the reserves.”

Besides, he pointed outthat imports have slowed downat a faster pace as domesticeconomy looks weaker com-pared with global markets.

Presently, India’s foreignexchange reserves increased

by $6.416 billion during theweek ended July 3.

The reserves grew to$513.254 billion from $506.838billion reported for the weekended June 26.Last month,official data showed India post-ed a marginal current accountsurplus in Q4FY20 on the backof a lower trade deficit, alongwith higher remittances, and anincrease in investment flows.The current account is the netdifference between inflows andoutflows of foreign currencies.

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Reserve Bank GovernorShaktikanta Das on

Saturday advocated the cre-ation of a ‘resolution corpora-tion’ with legislative backingfor resolution and revival ofstressed financial firms.

The Government inAugust 2017 had introducedthe Financial Resolution andDeposit Insurance (FRDI) Billin Parliament which, amongother things, proposed settingup of a resolution corporation.

However, after a year, thegovernment decided to with-draw the bill as there wereconcerns raised about the pro-tection of depositors’ money ifit was passed with the contro-versial “bail-in” clause, underwhich a bank’s liabilities couldbe cancelled/modified to shoreup its finances. “Going for-

ward, we need the legislativebacking to have some kind ofa resolution corporation,which has to deal with reso-lution and revival of stressedfinancial firms,” Governor Dassaid at the 7th SBI Bankingand Economics Conclave. Hesaid the regulator can issueearly warning signals and flagthe emerging risks.

“The regulator will con-tinue to take necessary mea-sures, continue to engage withthe management of the bankor NBFCs to identify the vul-nerabilities, but there has to bea legally-backed arrangement,”he noted.

The governor said settingup a resolution corporationwas earlier part of the FRDIBill which the governmentwithdrew because there werecertain issues which neededcloser examination.

He further said the noti-fication issued under Section227 of the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) hasgiven additional powers tothe RBI to deal with non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) and housing financecompanies (HFCs).

By using those powers,the RBI had appointed anadministrator for DewanHousing Finance (DHFL) andthat has been referred to theNational Company LawTribunal (NCLT), he said.

DHFL, the third-largestpure-play mortgage player, isthe first NBFC/HFC to facethe corporate insolvency res-olution process. Das said theresolution of DHFL is onstream now. “That is going onfairly well. We review it, we domonitor it from time to time,”he added.

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Banks need to raise capitalon anticipatory basis to

build up adequate capitalbuffers to mitigate risks aris-ing out of coronavirus out-break, RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das said onSaturday.

He said building buffersand raising capital will be cru-cial not only to ensure creditflow but also to build resiliencein the financial system.”Insuch a situation, it has becomea lot more important that thebanks have to improve theirgovernance, sharpen their riskmanagement skills and bankshave to raise capital on ananticipatory basis instead ofwaiting for a situation to arise.

“Proactively, it is necessaryfor both public and private sec-tor banks to build up adequatecapital buffers,” Das said atSBI’s banking and economicconclave.

The economic impact ofthe pandemic - due to lock-down and anticipated postlock-down compression ineconomic growth - may resultin higher non-performingassets and capital erosion ofbanks, he said.A recapitalisa-tion plan for public sectorand private banks has, there-fore, become necessary, headded.For the five years -between 2015-16 and 2019-20- the Government had infuseda total of �3.08 lakh crore inpublic sector banks.

However, the Government

refrained from committingany capital in the Budget 2020-21 for the PSBs, hoping thatthe lenders will raise fundsfrom the market depending onthe requirement.

Many private and publicsectors such as State Bank ofIndia, PNB, HDFC Bank,ICICI Bank, and Canara Bankare looking to raise capitalthrough various means this fis-cal.

The governor also askedbanks and non-bankingfinance companies (NBFCs) toconduct stress test to analysethe impact of COVID-19 ontheir balance sheets and pre-pare a plan for any possiblerisk.

The RBI has recently (June19 and July 1, 2020) advised all

banks, non-deposit takingNBFCs (with an asset size of�5,000 crore) and all deposit-taking NBFCs to assess theimpact of COVID-19 on theirbalance sheet, asset quality, liq-uidity, profitability and capitaladequacy for the financialyear 2020-21, Das said.

‘Based on the outcome ofsuch stress testing, banks andnon-banking financial com-panies have been advised towork out possible mitigatingmeasures, including capitalplanning, capital raising, andcontingency liquidity plan-ning, among others,” headded.The idea is to ensurecontinued credit supply todifferent sectors of the econ-omy and maintain financialstability, the governor noted.

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Page 7: ˇ ˇ ˇ˘˘ ˜ ˇ ˛ - dailypioneer.com · India will insist that the Chinese remove their boats as soon as possible to facilitate smooth disengagement. As of now, the Chinese

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Bejing: After several reports ofthe Chinese government tor-turing its ethnic minority com-munity surfaced, the authoritiesare now considering to sue theresearcher and think tank whoare behind these revelations.

The Global Times hasreported that Germanresearcher Adrian Zenz and athink tank — AustralianStrategic Policy Institute —will be sued for spreading “ dis-information about China.”

Recently, Mr Zenz hadrevealed in his research that thesudden decline in the birth rateamong the ethnic minoritycommunities in Xinjiang mightbe an indication of the fact thatthe targeted birth preventionstrategy is being conducted.

US Secretary of State MikePompeo condemned the coer-cive family planning againstUighurs and said that contin-uous repression of minorities inXinjiang reflects that theChinese Communist Party(CCP) has no respect for

human life and basic humanrights.

“ The United States con-demns the use of forced pop-ulation controls against Uyghurand other minority womenand calls on the CCP to ceaseits campaign of repression.

History will judge how we acttoday,” he tweeted.

“ German researcherAdrian Zenz’s shocking reve-lations are sadly consistentwith decades of the CCP prac-tices that demonstrate an utterdisregard for the sanctity of

human life and basic humandignity,” he said while adding“ We call on the CCP to imme-diately end these horrific prac-tices and ask all nations to jointhe United States in demand-ing an end to these dehuman-ising abuses.” AGENCY

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has for thetime being ruled out a secondphase trade deal with China,saying the relationship betweenthe two countries has beenseverely damaged with Beijing’shandling of the coronavirusoutbreak.

“ The relationship withChina has been severely dam-aged. I don’t think about itnow,” Trump told reporters onFriday from Air Force Onewhen asked about the tradedeal.

Earlier in the year, theTrump administration hadsigned a mega phase one dealwith China, after intense nego-tiations between the two coun-tries.

Relations betweenWashington and Beijing havespiralled downward since theoutbreak of the novel coron-avirus. US President DonaldTrump has questioned the

Asian powerhouse’’s handlingof the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two countries havealso sparred over China impos-ing a new national security lawin Hong Kong, restrictions onAmerican journalists, treat-ment of Uyghurs Muslims, andsecurity measures in Tibet.

“ Relationship with Chinahas been severely damaged.They could have stopped theplague, they could havestopped it, (but) they didn’tstop it. They stopped it fromgoing into the remaining por-tions of China from Wuhanprovince. They could havestopped the plague, they didn’t,”Trump said.

The coronavirus, whichfirst emerged in China’s Wuhancity, has claimed over 1,30,000lives in the US with 3.1 millionconfirmed cases. The virus tollin China stands at 4,641 withnearly 85,000 confirmed infec-tions. PTI

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Washington: In his push to getschools and colleges to reopenthis fall, President DonaldTrump is again taking aim attheir finances, this time threat-ening their tax-exempt status.

Trump said on Twitter onFriday he was ordering theTreasury Department to re-examine the tax-exempt statusof schools that he says provide“ radical indoctrination”instead of education.

“ Too many Universitiesand School Systems are aboutRadical Left Indoctrination,not Education,” he tweeted.

“ Therefore, I am telling theTreasury Department to re-examine their Tax-ExemptStatus and/or Funding, whichwill be taken away if thisPropaganda or Act AgainstPublic Policy continues.

Our children must beEducated, not Indoctrinated!”The Republican president didnot explain what promptedthe remark or which schoolswould be reviewed.

But the threat is just onemore that Trump has issuedagainst schools as he ratchetsup pressure to get them to openthis fall. Twice this week Trumpthreatened to cut federal fund-ing for schools that don’treopen, including in an earliertweet on Friday.

It’s unclear, however, onwhat grounds Trump couldhave a school’s tax-exempt sta-tus terminated. It was also not

clear what Trump meant by “radical indoctrination” or whowould decide what type ofactivity that includes.

The White House andTreasury Department did notimmediately comment on thepresident’s message.

Previous guidance fromthe Internal Revenue Servicelays out six types of activitiesthat can jeopardize a nonprof-it organisation’s tax-exemptstatus, including political activ-ity, lobbying and straying fromthe organization’s stated pur-pose.

But ideology is not on theIRS’s list, said Terry Hartle,senior vice president of theAmerican Council onEducation, which representsuniversity presidents. Anyreview of a school’s statuswould have to follow previouslyestablished guidelines, he said.

“ It’s always deeply trou-bling to have the presidentsingle out schools, colleges oruniversities in a tweet,” Hartlesaid. “ Having said that, I don’tthink anything will come of thisquickly.”

In his latest threat, Trumprevived his oft-repeated claimthat universities are bastions ofliberalism that stifle conserva-tive ideas. He used the sameargument last year when heissued an executive ordertelling colleges to ensure freespeech on campuses or losefederal research funding. AP

Singapore: Singapore PrimeMinister Lee Hsien Loong’sPeople’s Action Party hasretained power with a “ clearmandate” in the general elec-tion held amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but the opposi-tion staged its best perfor-mance ever by securing arecord 10 seats in Parliament.

The People’s Action Party(PAP), in power since 1965,won 83 of 93 parliamentaryseats or 61.2 per cent of the vote- down from nearly 70 per centit had in the 2015 general elec-tion. In 2015, the PAP secured83 seats out of 89 seats in 29constituencies.

The surprise this time wasthat the opposition Workers’Party secured 10 seats - its bestresult.

Friday’s election was wide-ly seen as a referendum on thePrime Minister Lee’s handlingof the coronavirus outbreak.Singapore is currently facingthe city state’s worst recessionwith economy projected toshrink between 7 and 4 percent.

Singapore is only a hand-ful of countries to have held anelection during the pandemic.

This was not a “ feel-good”

election, said Lee. But he notedthat the ruling PAP received a “clear mandate” from the people.

“ We have a clear mandate,but the percentage of the pop-ular vote is not as high as I hadhoped for,” 68-year old Lee tolda PAP’s post-results press con-ference on Saturday morning.

“ Nevertheless, the resultsreflect broad-based supportfor the PAP,” Lee said at apress conference marking theend of the election. “Singaporeans understand whatis at stake and why we mustcome together to uphold ournational interests.”

“ I will use this mandateresponsibly to deal with

COVID-19 and the economicdownturn to take us throughthe crisis safely and beyond,”he added.

Prime Minister Lee con-gratulated the Workers’ Partyfor what he called a “ strongperformance.”

The opposition Workers’Party secured 10 seats anddefeated a team in the GroupRepresentation Constituencyof Sengkang led by formerMinister in the PrimeMinister’s Office Ng CheeMeng who is also the Secretary-General of the power NationalTrades Union Congress(NTUC).

“ I congratulate the

Workers’ Party for their strongperformance,” Lee, who leadsthe PAP as secretary-general,wrote in a Facebook post. “ Ilook forward to them partici-pating in and contributing tothe debate in Parliament, andto the national debate, as wedeal with the urgent issuesbefore us.”

Lee assured it is “ onlyright” that Workers’ Party’sIndian-origin secretary-gen-eral Pritam Singh be “ formal-ly designated” as the Leader ofthe Opposition, and that he willbe provided with “ appropriatestaff support and resources toperform his duties” .

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday congratu-lated his Singaporean counter-part for winning the generalelections.

“ Congratulations to PrimeMinister Lee Hsien Loong forsuccess in the GeneralElections. Best wishes to thepeople of Singapore for apeaceful and prosperousfuture,” Modi wrote on Twitter.

The son of country’sfounding father and long-timeruler Lee Kuan Yew, Lee hasbeen in office since 2004.

For the second time in

Singapore’s history, all seatswere contested, with two con-stituencies seeing three-cor-nered fights. Altogether, therewere 10 opposition parties andone independent candidatewho vied for a spot inParliament.

A total of 2,535,565 votes,including rejected votes, werecast in what was the country’s13th election since indepen-dence. This made up 95.63 percent of the 2,651,435 registeredelectors, the largest turnoutsince 1997.

Prime Minister Lee said, “Singaporeans understandwhat’s at stake and why wemust come together to upholdour national interests.”

He pledged to use thismandate “ responsibly” todeal with the COVID-19 situ-ation and economic down-turn, to take Singapore “ safe-ly through the crisis andbeyond” .

“ The results reflect thepain and uncertainty thatSingaporeans feel in this crisis,the loss of income, the anxietyabout jobs, the disruptioncaused by the circuit breakerand the safe distancing restric-tions,” he said. PTI

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Washington: President DonaldTrump is working on an exec-utive order to establish a merit-based immigration system in theUS, the White House has said.

The White House state-ment came soon after Trump, inan interview with Spanish-lan-guage Telemundo News chan-nel, said he is working on anexecutive order on immigrationthat will include a “ road to cit-izenship” for recipients of theDeferred Action for ChildhoodArrivals (DACA) programme.

The DACA programmeprovides for work permits andother protections for peoplebrought to the US as children byundocumented parents. It affectsan estimated 700,000 youngpeople, many of whom areIndian or South Asian descent.

Responding to a questionduring the interview, Trump saidhis action on the DACA isgoing to be part of a much big-ger bill on immigration.

“ It’s going to be a very bigbill, a very good bill, and a merit-based bill and it will includeDACA, and I think people aregoing to be very happy,” said thepresident.

“ One of the aspects of thebill is going to be DACA. We’regoing to have a road to citizen-ship,” Trump said.

President Trump had triedto cancel the Obama-era pro-gramme, but the SupremeCourt last month said it couldstay in place.

Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, has longsought to overhaul the USimmigration system to bebased on merit rather thanfamily ties. Immigrationremains one of Trump’s signa-ture campaign issues.

“ As the presidentannounced today, he is working

on an executive order to estab-lish a merit-based immigrationsystem to further protect USworkers,” the White Housesaid in a statement.

“ Furthermore, the presidenthas long said he is willing towork with the Congress on anegotiated legislative solution toDACA, one that could includecitizenship, along with strongborder security and permanentmerit-based reforms. This doesnot include amnesty,” the WhiteHouse said.

“ This does not includeamnesty. Unfortunately,Democrats have continuallyrefused these offers as they areopposed to anything other thantotally open borders,” said theWhite House in a statement.

During the interview,Trump alleged the OppositionDemocrats broke the deal withhim on the DACA.

“ I had a deal with theDemocrats and they broke thedeal. The DACA could havebeen taken care of two years ago,but the Democrats broke thedeal. All of a sudden they justbroke it for no reason. Actually,they had a court case that slight-ly went their way, and they said,‘Oh, let’s not talk about the dealanymore,’” he said.

Trump said the recentSupreme Court ruling gave thepresident tremendous powerswhen they said that he couldtake in, in this case, 700,000 orso people.

“ Based on the powers thatthey (SC) gave, I’m going to bedoing an immigration bill. Oneof the aspects of the bill that youwill be very happy with, and thata lot of people will be, includingme and a lot of Republicans, bythe way, will be the DACA. It willgive them a road to citizenship,”Trump said. PTI

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Kathmandu: Fifteen peoplewere killed in a landslide causedby incessant rains in westernNepal on Saturday, taking thetotal number of fatalities due tothe landslips in the last 48hours in the country to 37, thehome ministry said.

All the 15 deaths werereported from Myagdi district,it said. Fifteen people, whowere buried in the landslide inthe district, are still missing, itsaid. On Friday, 22 peoplewere killed in different inci-dents of landslides acrossNepal.

The total number of deathsdue to landslips in the countryin the past 48 hours hasreached 37.

Meanwhile, the govern-ment has mobilised the Armyand police personnel to carryout rescue operations.

Narayani and other major rivers in the countryhave swollen due to the con-tinuous downpour.Meteorological Department onFriday had forcast that themonsoon rains will last foranother three days. PTI

Tokyo: Dozens of US Marinesat two bases on the southernJapanese island of Okinawahave been infected with thecoronavirus in what is feared tobe a massive outbreak,Okinawa’s governor said onSaturday, demanding an ade-quate explanation from the USmilitary.

Gov. Denny Tamaki said hecould say only that a “ fewdozen” cases had been foundrecently because the US mili-tary asked that the exact figurenot be released. The outbreaksoccurred at Marine Corps AirStation Futenma, which is atthe center of a relocation dis-pute, and Camp Hansen,Tamaki said.

Local media, citingunnamed sources, said about60 people had been infected.

“ Okinawans are shockedby what we were told (by theU.S. Military),” Tamaki told a

news conference. “ We nowhave strong doubts that the USmilitary has taken adequatedisease prevention measures.”

Tamaki demanded trans-parency in the latest develop-ment and said he planned torequest talks between the USmilitary and Okinawan offi-cials. He said Okinawan offi-cials also asked the Japanesegovernment to demand that theUS provide details includingthe number of cases, seal offFutenma and Camp Hansen,and step up preventive mea-sures on base.

Okinawan officials madesimilar requests to the US mil-itary on Friday in order toaddress local residents’ con-cerns, Tamaki said.

The Marines said in a state-ment on Friday that the troopswere taking additional protec-tive measures to limit thespread of the coronavirus and

were restricting off-base activ-ities. The statement said mea-sures are “ to protect our forces,our families, and the localcommunity,” without provid-ing details on the infections.

The Marines did notimmediately respond onSaturday to an Associated Pressinquiry about the latest out-break.

Okinawa is home to morethan half of about 50,000American troops based inJapan under a bilateral securi-ty pact, and the residents aresensitive to US base-relatedproblems. Many Okinawanshave long complained aboutpollution, noise and crimerelated to US bases. Okinawansalso oppose a planned reloca-tion of the Futenma air basefrom the current site in adensely populated area in thesouth to a less populated areaon the east coast. AP

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Under mounting pressureto resign, Nepal’s belea-

guered Prime Minister K PSharma Oli has downplayedthe intra-party rift and saidsuch disputes are “ regularphenomena” that can beresolved through dialogue, asa crucial meeting of the rulingparty was postponed by aweek to give more time to thewarring factions to reach apower-sharing deal.

Prime Minister Oli alsovowed to protect Nepal’s sov-ereignty and territorial integri-ty, amidst a border row withIndia.

In a previously unan-nounced address to the nationon Friday night, hours after thecrucial Standing Committeemeeting of the NepalCommunist Party (NCP) was

postponed for the fourth time,Oli said that it is the duty of apolitical party and its leaders toresolve the internal mattersand disputes.

The meeting of the NCP’s45-member powerful StandingCommittee was scheduled tobe held on Friday. But it waspostponed for a week at the lastmoment, citing floods andlandslides that killed at least 22people.

Top NCP leaders, includ-ing former prime ministerPushpa Kamal Dahal‘Prachanda’, have demandedPrime Minister Oli’s resigna-tion, saying his recent anti-India remarks were “ neitherpolitically correct nor diplo-matically appropriate.” But inhis prime-time address, Olitried to downplay the intra-party rift and growing demandfor his resignation. PTI

Moscow: Thousands ofdemonstrators in the RussianFar East city of Khabarovskhave held a protest against thearrest of the region’s governoron charges of involvement inmultiple murders.

The Saturday demonstra-tion in the city 6100 kilometers(3800 miles) east of Moscowwas unsanctioned but noarrests were reported. Localnews media gave estimates ofthe crowd ranging from 5,000to 35,000.

Sergei Furgal, theKhabarovsk region governor,was arrested Thursday andflown to Moscow where he wasinterrogated and ordered heldin jail for two months.

Russia’s main criminalinvestigation body says he issuspected of involvement inseveral murders of business-men in 2004 and 2005, beforehis political career began. AP

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United Nations: The UN’scultural agency has voiceddeep regret over Turkey’s deci-sion, “ made without prior dis-cussion” , to convert Istanbul’siconic sixth-century HagiaSophia into a mosque, sayingits status as a museum reflectsthe universal nature of its her-itage and makes it a powerfulsymbol for dialogue.

The ancient Hagia Sophiawas founded around 1,500years ago as a cathedral and iswidely regarded as the fore-most example of ByzantineChristian architecture in theworld.

Following the rise of theOttoman Empire, it became amosque, but in 1934, was des-ignated a secular museum,

shared by Christians, Muslimsand those of all faiths or none,alike.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan signed adecree following years of cam-paigning by a cultural associ-ation, and the decision earlierin the day by a Turkish court,handing control of the build-ing over to the nation’s reli-gious directorate, allowing it toreopen for worship as amosque, the UN said in astatement.

“ Hagia Sophia is an archi-tectural masterpiece and aunique testimony to interac-tions between Europe and Asiaover the centuries. Its status asa museum reflects the univer-sal nature of its heritage, and

makes it a powerful symbol fordialogue,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay saidin a statement on Friday.

Azoulay said that theUnited Nations Educational,Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO) “deeply regrets” the decision ofthe Turkish authorities, “ madewithout prior discussion, tochange the status of HagiaSophia” and shared her seri-ous concern with theAmbassador of Turkey to theUN cultural agency.

Responding to questionson the issue, UN spokespersonStéphane Dujarric said at hisdaily press briefing that the UNSecretary-General fully backsUNESCO. PTI

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Johannesburg: A top healthofficial in South Africa has saidthat about 50 to 66 per cent ofall the adults infected with theCOVID-19 disease in the coun-try are asymptomatic, withmany infections going unde-tected.

The deadly contagion,which first emerged in China’sWuhan city in December lastyear, has claimed 3,860 lives andinfected over 2,50,000 people inSouth Africa.

“ The majority of COVID-19 infections are going unno-ticed,” according to Dr ShabirMadhi, the leader of the SouthAfrican leg of an internationalvaccine trial headed by theUniversity of Oxford.

In an interview with CNBCon Friday, Madhi said that the

high number of asymptomaticcases was causing difficulties invaccine trials.

The enrolment process hasshown that far more people areasymptomatic than what waspreviously believed, he said.

He estimated that onlyabout 10 per cent of all COVID-19 cases are being officiallyreported.

Madhi said around 80 percent of all children who areinfected are asymptomatic.

The clinical trials requirepeople who have not beeninfected by the virus. Part of the

enrolment process for theCOVID-19 vaccine trial involvesthe screening of individuals.

Qualifying participants arerandomly allocated into one oftwo groups — vaccine group orplacebo group.

Madhi said the results onwhether the vaccine works asprotection against COVID-19would be available by the end ofNovember this year, but the tri-als may be extended into the sec-ond quarter of next year.

He warned against the undue optimism, remindingthat only 10 per cent of vaccinesthat go into clinical trials areeventually licensed for use. Rightnow there are approximately 200vaccines that are being devel-oped (around the world) for theCOVID-19. PTI

Johannesburg: Five peoplewere shot dead and over 40 sus-pects arrested after a heavily-armed group stormed a promi-nent South African churchnear here and held severalpeople hostage reportedly fol-lowing a battle between twofactions over its leadership.

Police reportedly freedabout 200 people who hadtaken refuge insideInternational PentecostalHoliness Church inZuurbekom, west of here afterattackers arrived in severalvehicles in the early hours ofSaturday and began shootingrandomly inside and outsidethe church.

National police spokesper-son Brigadier Vish Naidoo saidthat four men were shot and

burnt in a vehicle just outsidethe church and a fifth man,believed to be a security guardwho had responded to a call,was shot in another car.

Six other people wereinjured.

He said swift reaction bythe police had averted whatcould have become “ a blood-bath.”

“ We have arrested over 41suspects, including six whowere injured and were taken tohospital. We also seized over 40firearms, including rifles, shot-guns and handguns,” Naidoosaid.

The attack by a group ofarmed people “ may have beenmotivated by a feud” betweenchurch members, the policestatement said. PTI

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SINGLES

��+��� � India Test vice-cap-tain Ajinkya Rahane is trustinghis instincts to make an ODIcomeback, a format he lastplayed in February 2018.

The 32-year-old said he ismentally preparing himself toplay all three formats.

“I am ready to bat at anyposition in ODI cricket, whetheropening or No 4 or whatever, Iam ready. My instinct answersyes, I want to make a comebackin ODI cricket,” Rahane toldESPNcricinfo Cricketbaazi.

“But when the opportunitywill come, we don’t know.Mentally I am preparing toplay all the formats. It is all aboutbeing positive yourself andabout your abilities.”

To make an ODI comebackwill be tougher than ever con-sidering the stiff competition.He will be comfortable battingat four but fellow MumbaikarShreyas Iyer has secured thatspot for now. The team also hasa settled opening pair in RohitSharma and Shikhar Dhawan.

“I have enjoyed opening theinnings, but I don’t mind battingat number 4 if I am asked to. Ihave enjoyed both roles,” he saidwhen asked which position hewould prefer in ODI cricket.

“It is very hard to sudden-ly open the innings and adjustto it after you have been battingat No 4 for a while, which I haddone. It is hard to say whichposition I prefer. I can do wellin both,” said Rahane who hasplayed 90 ODIs.

Rahane has also played in65 Tests, the last being inFebruary this year. He has alsonot been been a part of theIndian T20 team for nearlyfour years.

Asked about his approachin T20s, he said, “I don’t try andcopy anyone in T20 cricket. Mycricketing shots are inside out,behind the bowler, and othershots I have developed.

“I think if you are sure ofyour shots, you should backthem. If I am playing 18 overs,I aim to see how I can get mystrike rate to 150-160.”

Rahane said it’s importantto break down innings in T20cricket. “For example. If I ambatting after sixth over, I have toplan accordingly.”

He said he got advice fromthe great Rahul Dravid that itdoes not matter whether a shotlooks good or not as long as theruns are coming.

“Sometimes the shots youplay in T20s don’t look good.But Rahul bhai told me not tobother about what the shotslook like, whether it's bad orlooks bad from outside. Hesaid it does not matter. He saidin T20 cricket, one needs towatch the ball and hit it,” headded. PTI

��+� �� � Former India cricketerAakash Chopra feels Pakistan’s white-ball skipper Babar Azam has the abil-ity to reach the level of India captainVirat Kohli.

The two modern-day greats aretime and again pitted against eachother, by fans and critics alike, for theirimpeccable playing styles and incred-ible consistency.

Chopra stated that Azam is anincredible talent but it will take timefor him to reach that level where Kohlihas been operating for a long time now.

“Babar Azam is an exciting talent.There is no doubt about that. It is alsotrue that Virat Kohli is very far aheadin this race. He is older and startedcricket before Azam. Virat’s name isalready included in the conversation ofall-time greats,” Chopra told formerPakistan cricketer Tanvir Ahmed onthe latter’s YouTube channel.

“Azam has the necessary skills toreach that level. But the real questionis whether he will be able to reach those

heights as it depends on many thingssuch as discipline, injuries, form andseveral other factors which will comealong as time moves on.

“Talent can only take you to a placebut you ought to have incredible pas-sion that drives you forward. Virat did-n’t have that from the start but gainedit along the way,” he added. IANS

����2���� �� The entire CaribbeanPremier League 2020 will be played inTrinidad and Tobago from August 18to September 10 as the organisers gotthe approval from the localGovernment.

Though international cricket hasalready begun, CPL will be the first T20league to take place after the Covid-19-forced break.

Strict safety procedures will be inplace for the tournament to minimisethe risk of virus transmission to thelocal population and among those whowill be travelling to Trinidad andTobago from overseas.

All teams and officials will behoused in one hotel and everyone willbe subject to strict quarantine protocolsfor the first two weeks they are in thecountry.

Teams and officials will be put into“households” where social distancingwill need to be in place.

There will be smaller clusters with-in each household where these mea-sures can be relaxed.

“However, if any member of thiscluster display signs of Covid-19 at anytime during the tournament all mem-bers of that cluster will be expected toself-isolate for a period of 14 days fromthe time that a member of that cohortfirst shows symptoms,” the statementread.

“All members of the CPL party willbe subject to regular temperature checksand will be re-tested for the virusthroughout their stay in Trinidad andagain before departure,” it added.

The CPL will feature overseas andCaribbean players including RashidKhan, Chris Lynn, Carlos Brathwaite,Dwayne Bravo, Alex Hales and KieronPollard. PTI

����� ��������

Former India captain MSDhoni was lucky in the

way that he inherited teamsconsisting of great playerswhen he took over the Indiancaptaincy in all formats of thegame, according to formerbatsman Gautam Gambhir.

As Test captain, Dhoni iscredited with being the first tolead India to the top of theTest rankings and Gambhirsaid that it is because of fastbowler Zaheer Khan that theteam managed to be so suc-cessful.

“The reason Dhonibecame such a successful cap-tain in Test cricket is becauseof Zaheer Khan. He was a bigblessing that Dhoni got, forwhich credit goes to Sourav

Ganguly. According to me,Zaheer has been India’s bestworld-class bowler,” Gambhirsaid on the Star Sports showCricket Connected.

The 38-year-old wasinvolved in two of India’sgreatest achievements dur-ing Dhoni’s captaincy — the2007 T20 World Cup and2011 World Cup wins.

“Dhoni has been a verylucky captain because he gotan amazing team in every for-mat. Captaining 2011 WorldCup team was very easy forDhoni because we had play-ers like Sachin, Sehwag,Myself, Yuvraj, Yusuf, Virat,so he had got the best teams,while Ganguly had to workvery hard for it, and as aresult, Dhoni won so manytrophies,” said Gambhir.

�2� � <�0�"�

Jamaican sprint king UsainBolt has hinted he could be

tempted out of retirement ifformer coach Glen Mills askedhim. The world 100m and200m record holder and eight-time Olympic champion toldVariety magazine he had noplans to resurrect his sprintingcareer.

However the 33-year-oldtold Variety magazine in avideo interview he would atleast consider a comeback ifveteran coach Mills asked him.

“If my coach came back andtold me, let’s do this, I will,because I believe so much inmy coach,” Bolt said. “So Iknow if he says we’re going todo this, I know it’s possible.Give Glen Mills a call, and I’llbe back.”

Bolt, who last competedinternationally at the WorldChampionships in London in2017 where he won Bronze inthe 100m, said he does notvisit the track any more. “Mycoach gets too excited when Icome to the track, so I stayaway,” he said.

����� ����B?/;

Tennis great Chris Evert feelsSerena Williams can make

the most of this Covid-19induced lockdown and aim toclinch a 24th Grand Slam title.

“Maybe she will be calmerout there,” she was quoted assaying by BBC.

“I think she will have afresh perspective and approach.”

At 38, Serena lost her lastfour major finals.

“She looks really fit and ingreat shape and she seems to bereally eager to get back,” the 18-

time Grand Slam singles cham-pion told BBC Two’s Wimbledon:The Best of the Championships.

“So that’s the danger zonefor a lot of the other playersbecause if anyone can getthrough these difficult timesand these challenges it’s SerenaWilliams, with what she’s had togo through in her life. This willbe a like piece of cake for her, sowatch out for her.”

Twenty three-time GrandSlam champion Serena recentlycommitted herself for the 2020US Open which will be playedat the Flushing Meadows fromAugust 31 to September 13behind closed doors in NewYork.

�� �� ��������

Indian men’s hockey team skip-per Manpreet Singh is delight-

ed with the revised schedule forFIH Pro League, saying back-to-back matches next year will helpthem gain the “right kind ofmomentum” ahead of the TokyoOlympics.

The Indian team will resumeits Pro League campaign in Aprilwith an away tie againstArgentina, according to a revisedfixtures announced by theInternational Hockey Federationon Thursday.

“I feel after the four-week gapbetween our matches againstArgentina and Great Britain, wewill play back-to-back matchesalmost every weekend right untilthe end of May and that’s the kindof momentum we are looking forahead of the Olympic Games,”Manpreet said.

“We will test our body andmind during this time to see howwe can cope up with the pressureof playing back-to-back high-

intensity games and manage theload. This will be an ideal test forus before the Olympics,” he said.

To start with, India will playArgentina on April 10 and 11.

India will then face GreatBritain away from home on May8 and 9 before travelling to Spainto play matches on May 12 and 13.The team will take on Germany in

away matches on May 18 and 19before finally playing a home tieon May 29 and 30 against NewZealand.

Chief coach Graham Reidtoo said tough competition againsttop nations will help his team pre-pare well for the Olympics.

“It’s very encouraging to haveinternational competition restart-

ing and the Hockey Pro Leaguewill give us that tough top levelcompetition in the lead-up to theOlympic Games next year,” hesaid.

“We are also working at themoment to ensure that we haveenough competition throughoutthe latter part of 2020 and the earlypart of 2021.

“We have the AsianChampions Trophy still plannedfor November 2020 and a trip toMalaysia to play the Netherlandsand a 4 Nations Tournament inNew Zealand in February 2021which are all in the planning stageat the moment as part of ourACTC.”

The Indian team had made anemphatic start to its maidenHockey Pro League campaignearlier this year with a 5-2 and 3-3 (3-1) win against theNetherlands followed by a 2-1 vic-tory and 3-4 loss against worldchampions Belgium and a 3-4 lossand 2-2 (3-1) win against Australiabefore the Covid-19 pandemichalted all sporting events.

��+� �� A The BadmintonWorld Federation on Saturdaysaid it was waiting for “more clar-ity” from China before it takes acall on the World Tour Finalsscheduled in December.

China’s GeneralAdministration of Sport on Fridaysaid the country will not host anyof its planned international eventsthis year except the trials for the2022 Winter Olympics in Beijingto stop the spread of coronavirus.

The decision has put in doubtevents including the World TourFinals in Guangzhou, which waspushed back by a week toDecember 16 to 20 in therevamped 2020 calender.

“The BWF is aware of thedirective announced by theGeneral Administration of Sportof China regarding the restrictionof international sports for the restof 2020,” the badminton govern-ing body said in a statement.

“BWF is in close contactwith its relevant partners includ-ing the Chinese BadmintonAssociation (CBA) to get more

clarity on the situation and howthis affects the BWF TournamentCalendar 2020.”

Among other events to beheld in the country, ChinaMasters which was scheduled inAugust has already been called off,while the China Open WorldTour Super 1000 event(September 15-20, Changzhou)and the Fuzhou China OpenWorld Tour Super 750(November 3-8) are still sched-uled later in the year in therevised calender. PTI

�2��� ?����0��?�

Roston Chase proved athorn in England’s side

once again as West Indiesstrengthened their grip onthe first Test at Southamptonon Saturday.

England were 168-3 intheir second innings at tea onthe fourth day, just 54 runsahead of West Indies’ firstinnings 318.

Chase had taken 2-45 in19 overs, although both RoryBurns and Joe Denly donatedtheir wickets to the off-spin-ner.

And in between theirexits, Dom Sibley — bowledoff a no-ball immediately aftercompleting his half century —fell for exactly fifty when hewas caught down the legsideoff Shannon Gabriel.

Zak Crawley was 38 notout, with England stand-incaptain Ben Stokes yet to getoff the mark.

All-rounder Stokes, lead-ing the side in the absence ofJoe Root, had top-scored with43 in England’s lowly first-innings 204.

The paceman, second toWest Indies captain JasonHolder in the ICC’s Test all-rounder rankings, then ledfrom the front with the ball aswell by taking 4-49.

England resumedSaturday on 15-0 in idealsunny batting conditions on aplacid pitch.

West Indies were withouta frontline spinner after omit-ting Rahkeem Cornwall.

But they could call uponChase, who although a batting

all-rounder took a Test-best 8-60 when West Indies beatEngland at his Barbados homeground last year en route to a2-1 series win.

And having already made47 in this match, he removedwell-set opener Burns for 42when the left-hander saw acareless cut caught at back-ward point to end a first-wicket stand of 72.

Sibley pressed on to apainstaking fifty off 161 balls.

The very next deliverysaw Sibley play on to Gabrielonly for third umpire MichaelGough to rule the fast bowlerhad over-stepped.

It was a desperately closeno-ball call but, two ballslater, Sibley glanced fastbowler Gabriel to diving wick-etkeeper Shane Dowrich andwas out for exactly 50.

This was not the first timein his seven Tests Sibley hadbeen caught down the legside,with England fast bowler JofraArcher also dismissing him insimilar fashion during anintra-squad warm-up match.

Denly, averaging under 30in Test cricket and needing abig score to cement his place inthe side, then undid all his hardwork by tamely chipping Chaseto Holder at short midwicket.

West Indies had domi-nated the first three days of amatch that marks interna-tional cricket’s return fromlockdown.

Holder took a Test-best 6-42 after losing the toss in theopening match of a behindclosed doors series.

Kraigg Brathwaite thenmade 65, the opener’s first Testfifty in 22 innings, andDowrich a valuable 61 as thetourists built a sizeable first-innings lead of 114.

33����� Kolkata’s iconic EdenGardens stadium is to be used as aquarantine centre for police who havethe coronavirus, officials said onSaturday. With the city’s hospitalsunder growing pressure, hundreds ofbeds are to be set up in the 80,000capacity stadium.

Nearly 550 Kolkata police havetested positive for the coronavirus andtwo have died. “It is our duty to helpand support the administration in thishour of crisis. The quarantine facilitywill be used for police personnel whoare Covid-19 warriors,” said CricketAssociation of Bengal presidentAvishek Dalmiya

The beds will be put in galleriesaround the seating and not on the pitchthat was last used by India for theirfirst-ever day-night Test, which wasagainst Bangladesh last November.“Such areas would be thoroughly seg-regated as a safety measure,” addedDalmiya. Agencies

�*� �1���� FormerEngland pacer Dominic Corkhas backed Stuart Broad, say-ing the ace pacer has every rea-son to be angry as he should beplaying every Test match.

Veteran pacer JamesAnderson was given the nodalongside Mark Wood andJofra Archer as Broad had to becontent with following theaction from the bench.

“Absolutely I agree withhim,” Cork was quoted as say-ing by Sky Sports. “It’s a bigdecision to leave someone outof his quality.

“Look at what he’s done,not just over the last two years,and how well he has bowled,but throughout his career.

“He always seems to haveto prove himself to peoplewhat a superb bowler he’sbeen. He and Jimmy Andersonare up there with the bestpairings in world cricket.

“Of course he should befrustrated, of course he shouldbe angry.

“He should be playingevery Test match so, fairenough, come out and put thepeople who’ve made this deci-sion under pressure and say ‘Iwant to be in this side, Ideserve to be in this side, this

is my shirt’.“Let’s see what happens,

whether he plays in the nextTest match,” he added.

Earlier, former Englandcaptain Nasser Hussain said thehosts missed a trick by leavingBroad out.

“I agreed with every wordBroad said, and his right to sayit, which he has built up over138 Tests for his country. And,if I’d been captain, I’d haveenjoyed the fact that the deci-sion annoyed him. I’d haveliked how he sought out thenational selector Ed Smith andasked for an explanation,”Hussain wrote in his columnfor Daily Mail. IANS

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The world has come to a standstilland the global economy has takenthe worst hit in history. Right fromthe negative pricing of crude oils tothe worldwide lockdown, it has

brought the global economy to its knees, look-ing for the road to recovery. With the globalcases mounting up to 8 million, the impact ofthe grave pandemic can be witnessed acrossgeographies. This has resulted in a major shiftof leading lives and the whole world is comingto terms with the new normal. As the famoussaying goes, ‘Every crisis brings an opportuni-ty’ and this pandemic has provided an oppor-tunity for businesses to be creative and adaptan innovative approach to sustaining the tide.Most of the countries — whether developed ordeveloping — are actively pursuing opportuni-ties to become completely self-reliant to battlethe situation and also prepare for any futuredisruptions.

��������������� �The labour-intensive manufacturing sector

has been one of the hardest-hit due to thecoronavirus. According to a business publica-tion, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit IndiaManufacturing Purchasing Managers Index(PMI), a reflection of the health of the manu-facturing economy, fell to 27.4 in April, from51.8 in March this year.

Like the rest of the world, India, too, isexperiencing a major outbreak of the Covid-19virus and has slowly reached the second phaseof the pandemic. According to the WorldBank, India was the world’s sixth-largest man-ufacturer at the end of 2018. However, havinga labour-intensive manufacturing sector hasresulted in the sharpest deterioration in busi-ness conditions in the last 15 years, with theseasonally adjusted IHS Markit IndiaManufacturing Purchasing Managers Index(PMI) — a reflection of the health of the man-ufacturing economy — falling from 51.8 inMarch 2020 to just 27.4 in April.

As the current unlocking phase across thenation takes place, social distancing, stringenthygiene measures, and remote working haveall become a part of the new normal. Themanufacturing sector, however, is one of thefew places where online meetings can only doso much. After all, the majority of the natureof the work is on-site, physical, and time-sen-sitive, so work-from-home is not always anoption.

�� ��������� ������The ground reality is that Covid-19 is not

expected to abate anytime soon, so our dailylives must instead incorporate the right mea-sures to prevent the risk of contagion.According to Forrester analytics, we are step-ping in the second stage of the pandemic,which steers us to ‘Adapt and Overcome’ thesituation. To stay afloat, the industry needs toadjust to the new normal and strategise how to

accelerate recovery from the losses incurred sofar, optimising efficiency and encouragingself-dependency.

����������� ����� ��� ������ � ��� ���� � ����

While the government’s Aatma NirbharBharat Abhiyaan initiative is a significant steptowards restart the operations and encourag-ing various sectors to stabilise themselves, it isvital that manufacturers recognise the need tojoin hands with technology and embraceautomation. In fact, a study by EY found that41% of employers across the world are fast-tracking automation plans in an endeavour tomake up for lost productivity and also preparefor the post-crisis world. Normalising the alle-giance of employees and technology will pavea path that will lead the sector to growth, sta-bilising Indian business and enabling self-suf-ficiency.

Rewiring an industry and making it tech-friendly comes with its own challenges. Someof the obstacles faced by the manufacturingindustry include an abundance of unskilledlabour, a lack of space on the shop floor, andthe lack of technical expertise to operate com-plex new technology. Collaborative robots, or“cobots,’’ are a niche robot technology thatpresent the perfect solution by addressing allthese challenges, offering an easy automationsolution for Indian manufacturers.

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While industrial robots have been aroundfor years, collaborative robots are a muchnewer technology. Cobots are an advancedrobotic arm that — unlike their industrialrobot predecessors — were created to sharethe same workspace as humans, without theneed for any cumbersome caging or fencing

(subjectto application

risk assessment). Thisis thanks to their advanced

safety features, backed up by 65patents, including a protective stop that isenabled when an obstacle blocks a cobot’s pathof motion, ensuring that a person that maycome in contact with a cobot is not harmed.By simply changing the end-of-arm-tooling ona cobot, it can be used for a variety of tasks,ranging from the tending of CNC and othermachines, dispensing, quality inspection, pickand place, screwdriving, and much more. Thismakes them versatile to use in a multitude ofapplications across virtually every industry.

Cobots can handle tasks that require highrepeatability, precision, and quality, as well asjobs that pose ergonomic risks. Humans arethen free to cater to tasks that require mentalefforts and human ingenuity, often leading tothe upskilling of labor. In a crucial time likethis, it has become a priority for industry lead-ers to not just utilise their workforce wisely tohandle tasks that need human intervention,while cobot can handle work that could causephysical and mental stress to people.

Human Robot Collaboration is one of thekey drivers of Industry 4.0 and, in fact, a studyon a BMW assembly plant, conducted andpublished in MIT Technology Review foundthat there is a whopping 85% reduction in theidle time of workers when they collaboratewith robots. Cobots, thus, can empowerdomestic production and facilitating the Makein India mission. In the Covid-19 era, whenmanufacturers are facing issues of labor uncer-tainty and recognising the need to automatebut unsure how to start, cobots are one of thequickest solutions on the market, addressingmany common barriers to automation facedby Indian manufacturers.

� ��� � ��� �������������Social Distancing: By allowing humans

and cobots to work side-by-side, cobots reducethe need for contact between human workers,ensuring that they maintain safe social dis-tancing standards. This is especially vital incrowded assembly lines and worker-dense fac-tory floors, which will have to take measuresto ensure that distance is maintained betweenindividuals but no efficiency is lost. In essence,this enables businesses to optimise productivi-ty while also helping flatten the curve ofCovid-19 contagion.

Partial Automation: Complex automationwith heavy machinery is expensive, space-con-suming, and difficult for most manufacturersto carry out. Cobots, however, enable theautomation of specific applications instead ofan entire plant, thereby reducing capitalexpenditure significantly. This partial automa-tion means that manufacturers can start smalland identify applications that involve high pre-cision, monotony, or potential ergonomic risk

for humans, and usecobots to handle these

instead. For example, atBaxter Lab, one can see that

the cobots are placing bottles inboxes, while the man is manually

holding the boxes open for the cobot todo so. Both are thus, working together and

the process is only partially automated to opti-mise efficiency.

Quick Deployment and FlexibleRedeployment: Their ease of use and setupmeans that cobots are one of the fastestautomation solutions currently in the mar-ket. While traditional automation solutionscan take months to deploy, a cobot can be setup for a simple application within a singleday, even by first-time robot users. Plus, acobot can be programmed time and again fordifferent tasks, functioning like a lightweight“tool’’ with many uses. In this uncertainenvironment, many manufacturers need torepurpose their assembly lines to focus ondifferent products based on the urgency ofrequirements and changing consumerdemands. Cobots are flexible and easy to re-station as needed, enabling high mix/lowvolume production.

��� ��������� ��� �As you can see from the USPs highlighted

above, collaborative robots are easy and quickto set up, have a low footprint, and enable flex-ible redeployment. This, combined with theHuman Robot Collaboration facilitated bycobot, make it possible for manufacturers ofall sizes to deploy this Industry 4.0 technologywith ease. Cobots lower the barriers forautomation faced by Indian manufacturers,allowing them to use robotic technology with-out having to make drastic changes to theirexisting shop floors. As SMEs are the buildingblocks of the Indian economy, it is vital thatthey are able to automate to meet global stan-dards of quality to achieve their Make in Indiadreams.

To sum it up, the Covid-19 virus hascaught the world unprepared, taking business-es by storm and showing no sign of abatinganytime soon. If anything, the pandemic hasshown us all the unpredictability of life andthe need to invest in smart decisions to pre-pare for the possibility of any future disrup-tions.

With the spotlight on India as the newdestination for global manufacturing, indus-tries need to prepare for a prolonged recoveryperiod where it has become of paramountimportance to learn how to manage humancapital and production capabilities. Cobotsallow manufacturers of all sizes to automateareas previously considered too small or tooexpensive to automate, lowering the barriers toautomation through USPs that traditionalrobots and automation solutions simply can-not provide. They enable manufacturers toincrease agility to cater to rapidly changingdemands.

The writer General Manager,South Asia, Universal Robots

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Atense mood had surrounded our household,as our family braced up for a monumentalchange in their lives. My husband had just

got his transfer order, which would entail us tomove back to Delhi from Dubai in one of therepatriation flights, since we were diplomats.Undertaking such a massive transfer process alongwith the four hour journey in the midst of theCovid-19 pandemic got me anxious for quite a fewdays. However I maintained my calm, and feltstronger by reassuring myself that this time wouldsoon pass.

Finally, when all the boxes were packed andthe rooms rendered empty, it was time for us toleave. As I started packing my final bags, I realisedthat it was time to say goodbye to Dubai, the placewhere I had spent 5 and a half golden years of mylife. We were finally done with our final shoppingin the region, and were getting braced up to travelduring these trying times. Obviously, our maintravel essentials were going to be Sanitisers, PPE,Masks, Face Shields, Disinfectant Sprays, and thelike: as opposed to the usual earphones and a goodbook to read.

As advised by various acquaintances, wewrapped our entire check-in luggage in cello-phane wraps. This would allow us to just open anddiscard them as soon as we reached our destina-tion, allowing the main baggage to not be contam-inated, and eliminating the need to disinfect thesame. We reached the DXB airport at 10.00 hours(UAE time), and saw quite a meticulous arrange-ment of people waiting for their health checkupbefore moving on to the usual airport protocol. Avivid depiction of responsibility and unity wasportrayed before our eyes as we saw every singleperson wear masks, gloves, maintain social dis-tance, and follow all the new rules and regulationsduring the pandemic throughout the airport.

We passed our Covid health screening at theairport, and moved on to the usual airport proce-dure. We got our boarding passes, gave our check-in baggage, took care of some over-sized baggagesince we were moving on a transfer basis, andmoved on through the X-Ray area to the gates,where we would wait until boarding started. AirIndia also gave us Face Shields, Sanitisers, andextra Face Masks for use during the journey. Theywere also giving out PPE kits to everyone sitting inthe middle seat. However, upon seeing two kids

traveling with me, they decided to give PPE kits toall of us. Even the security at the airport allowedall kinds of sanitisers and sprays to be taken onflights during this pandemic, which was strictlyforbidden in the past.

Finally, our flight’s announcement was calledout and it was time for us to suit up in our PPEkits, Face Shields, Masks, and Gloves. We allresembled astronauts on a field mission in our facemasks and shield combo. We boarded a bus andentered our airplane as usual, but were informedsoon that there would be no food or drinks servedin this flight. Contrasted with the old times, airhostesses were giving out hand sanitisers instead ofrefreshments. On top of all the security measurestaken by the airport and the airline, we also madeit a rule of thumb to spray disinfectant everywherewe went and everything we came in contact with.

A small box of food and a water bottle werealready kept on everyone’s seats, but we chose tokeep it on the ground and ignore it. Owing to ourfear and alertness, we did not eat or drink any-thing throughout the journey, and realised later onthat it was everybody on the flight who did thesame. It was pretty uncomfortable for all of us towear masks and shields, and to add on to theinconveniences, the flight was already running anhour late. Living such a surreal moment, I wasreminded of John Milton’s poem, “On HisBlindness”, where he thought that god was testinghim during every single moment of his life.

The 3 hour journey seemed much longer thanit actually was, but we soon made it to the IndiraGandhi Airport in New Delhi. However, asopposed to what everyone believed, this wasnowhere close to the end. We were told to remain

seated inside the plane until further notice, and toalso download the Aarogya Setu app on oursmartphones, which was a contact tracing app cre-ated by the Government of India in order for citi-zens to protect themselves from the Coronavirus.The plane was being sanitised from the outside,and soon the air hostess started calling out seatnumbers on the PA system, upon which therespective passengers stood up and left the plane.

Upon entering the New Delhi airport, we wereinformed that a flight from Melbourne had justlanded and the airport authorities were conductingtheir due procedures with passengers of theMelbourne flight first. Once all the passengersfrom that flight were cleared out, we proceeded toour checkups, and kept all our documents ready.Firstly, our temperatures were taken and our self-declaration health forms were checked, and

stamped. This allowed us to carry on to the nextprocess, which was the standard immigrationprocess, upon which our health forms werechecked once again. Notably, they also kept a copyof the same for their own records. We followed thestandard airport process since and moved to theconveyer belts, where the luggage was kept by theside of the belts instead of on the belt, owing to thevery few amount of flights operating. We lookedfor our luggage and gathered it, all while maintain-ing social distancing and using disinfectant spraythroughout.

After all standard procedures were over; wemet yet another medical official at the airport whochecked our Blood Pressure, temperature, andoxygen levels. Then, we went outside of the mainairport building to a small makeshift office madeby the airport authorities. The purpose of thisoffice was to rule out if we had the Coronavirus ornot, and would suggest the necessary means ofprecaution tailored to each person’s health situa-tion. We cleared all formalities, and were declaredCovid negative. There was an SDM to check ourquarantine documents, and we availed due per-mission to use our personal vehicle to get to ourhotel, which was our designated quarantine center.It was now 21.30 hours (IST): almost 12 hourssince we had started our journey from Dubai.

As soon as we reached, the hotel staff disin-fected our luggage. We were taken to our roomquickly, where we removed our masks, took abath, and felt like we were in paradise. It wasalmost after 13 hours now, when we had the sec-ond meal of our day. It truly was pure bliss tofinally see this journey come to an end successful-ly, and we were grateful that we made it safe.

To conclude, I would like to preface by sayingthat travelling anywhere during this pandemic isobviously not an easy thing to do. Ranging fromthe various documents needed to be kept in orderprior to the journey, to all the procedures and pos-sible mishaps that could occur at the airport, trav-elling feels like a daunting mission nowadays.However, throughout this experience, I would liketo mention that the airports were well equippedand very cooperative, and all essential measureswere taken to ensure that all passengers travel safe-ly with the least amount of hassle possible.

The writer is a lawyer by profession and philan-thropist by heart

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You step out in Mumbai andhumanity is at your feet,almost all revealed. There ismuch squalour with someglitz. There is chaos and also

the calm of the sea. You either move orget pushed down by the crowds. Peopleand constructed spaces in this city flowlike opium, filling up your senses. I havefound maximum city Mumbai to be asoverwhelming as life can get. It is thesecrowds and deeply socialised nature ofthe city that eventually played a strongrole in augmenting the reproductiveratio of Covid-19 here leading to winningthe race in India that no one wants to win— of having the most number of activeCovid-19 cases until recently.

Mumbai could have been more pre-pared. In a note authored by ProfessorDhaval Monani and myself, that wesubmitted to the Prime Minister’s Officeon April 2, 2020, we had proposed thesetting up of temporary hospitals with-in vacant community halls, marriagehalls, office spaces. But it was not untilend of April that BMC decided to takeover vacant spaces to create temporaryhospitals for Covid-19 patients and forquarantining those at risk. BMC’s searchalso included the wrong spaces — maid-aans, warehouses — which are not onlyexpensive to convert in to Covid-19recovery facilities, but also dusty andtherefore detrimental to the condition ofthe patients. For setting up facilities atscale, we needed to keep the per-bed costas low as possible. Instead, most of thefacilities used expensive steel beds andequipment that was not needed.

Never waste a good crisis — I wasdismayed to see this as the motto of sev-eral government officials to make aquick buck in procurement, of politicianswho would be more interested in presscoverage rather than getting any workdone, and people in the private sectorwho overnight became dealers of testingkits at huge margins. I also watched (furi-ously) how CSR was at times used as agarb for profiteering off the crisis. Myteam’s efforts come free of cost. However,for-profit ventures for social good are alsoexcellent as this builds in incentives to dogood so that it is sustainable — but whendoing so the model needs to be transpar-ent. Mumbai, a city where dreams arerealised as fast as they are crushed, waseven during a pandemic using its elbowsto get ahead in the crowd.

Large private sector companies havenot stepped up. While elsewhere incities like Pune, companies like Wipro setup temporary hospitals within their

office buildings or the Serum Institute ofIndia who is collaborating with univer-sities to create a vaccine, where are thecorporate giants of Mumbai? CSR is notenough, but even that has been inade-quately spent to help Mumbai cope withthe virus.

The city has woken up to ran-domised testing far too late. This weekthe BMC has removed the earlier orderfor the need of prescription to get aCovid-19 test and has introduced a newrule that does not require a prescription.People can now get a test done at any hos-pital. Right from the start of the spreadof the pandemic, there should havebeen no need to make it so darned dif-ficult to get tested! After the initial hic-

cups, Covid-19 tests were available inabundance. Numerous experts criedhoarse advising the government to maketesting easier, but it was to no avail. Panicearly, Mumbai.

Communications from the govern-ment has been confusing and damaging.At first, there was fear induced amongstpeople against Covid-19 which led tosevere stigmatisation against patients.And then economic interests took overthe concern for health, which suddenlymade it alright for certain sectors to openup. Ironically, now as numbers of activecases of the Coronavirus soar, it has neverbeen easier during this pandemic to beout and about in the city. There has beenextreme short-sightedness on the part of

the government, in at first believing thatsocial distancing would work in a coun-try where 1 of 6 urban dwellers live inslum zones. In most cases — and moreso in a health disaster — we can not copy-paste solutions that have worked for othercountries on to the unique context inIndia. Economy and health needs to bebalanced, but it should have been bal-anced very differently than done. Mumbaicould have adopted different policies indifferent districts depending on the localconditions. The epidemic could have beencontained in some areas where it wasrampant, and certain unaffected dis-tricts could have been opened up.

There is hope. We have role modelswho have led the fight against the pan-

demic in India. These leaders haveemerged because of their genuine inter-est in helping people out, their intellect,and by being proactive.

For example, I was introduced toAmin Patel when we were making ourfirst Covid-19 quarantine centre inMumbai in early May 2020. Those werethe days when my team at my companySustain Labs and at the Anant Centre forSustainability a think-teach-do tank thatI established two years ago, was manu-facturing equipment and moving trucksacross India amidst a complete nationwide lockdown. Amin is a three termMLA from the Mumbadevi constituen-cy in Mumbai, but his concern was forall of Mumbai. He set up a 200 oxygencylinder bank for everyone to use inMumbai — this is refreshing as often thechallenge for democracy is populism, andthat too combined with a narrow visionof pleasing the constituency for votes.

When Covid struck, Amin’s firstreaction was to send ration to theKamthipura area where overnight sexworkers saw their incomes disappear dueto social distancing rules in place. Heonce told me, “Even if one family any-where in Mumbai needs ration I send atempo with food.” His sleep routine ishighly unrecommended — he sleeps at1 am; is awake from 3.30 am to 6 amanswering distress calls that he wouldhave received while asleep and takingaction on them; then he goes back tosleep from 6 am until 8 am.

While setting up the Covid-19 recov-ery facility with the help of Amin, one ofthe partners in the project had a demandfor 10% of project cost as managementfee to which Amin’s reaction is one thatI will never forget. He was appalled at thedemand and said, “10% of project costcan make 20 beds and save 20 lives everyfortnight! We will refuse to pay that!” Itis only too common for government offi-cials and politicians to be in a hurry toget things done just to look good to thehigher ups and the voters.

Why is it so difficult to help the gov-ernment in India? This could well be thetitle of my next book as there is so muchto reflect upon and write about this. Inthe meantime, all power to those govern-ment representatives on the frontline whoare genuinely and effectively fighting forthe rest of us.

The writer is CEO of Sustain Labsand Adjunct Professor at SciencesPo

Paris. She is also a columnist andauthor of the 2019 bestseller IndianInstincts — essays on freedom and

equality in India

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In the wake of Covid-19 pandem-ic, online education has become a

buzzword as some are eulogising itsendless potential and others arecasting aspersions, and predictingdoom for the education sector inIndia. Of course, online education isnot a substitute for face-to-faceclassroom interaction between stu-dents and teachers. However, weneed to understand the apprehensionof people about the “online educa-tion”, which is fast emerging as the“new mode of education”.

There is a widespread recogni-tion that online education canbecome an additional tool, tech-nique, opportunity, and avenue forfurther exploration of and experi-mentation with new ideas by bothteachers and students. Online edu-cation should not be equated withthe supply of more and more infor-mation, rather it is a process ofretrieving relevant information, syn-thesising and critically analysing, andpresenting them to students coher-ently and effectively. Online deliveryof education requires re-learning notonly on part of students but also onthe part of teachers. In the “newmode of education”, the role ofteachers is going to become moreimportant because they have todecide what is relevant informationand how to critically analyse anddeliver them; and it is challengingalso because the students will havethe opportunity to evaluate andscrutinise the teachers as all thesources of information are availableat the click of the mouse.

Effective communication is oneof the most essential characteristicsof a teacher; how a teacher was teach-ing inside a classroom was very lit-tle known beyond the circle of thestudents who attended his or herclasses. Online teaching, which maybe recorded and put on a website,could be seen and compared withother teachers’ methods. Onlineeducation is not passive broadcast-ing of news reports or entertainmentchannels, they also adopt differentstrategies and styles to connect withtheir audiences. This is the reasonsome channels and movies becomevery effective in communicatingtheir messages and transformingpeople’s ideas and thinking.

Teaching is an art, and teachershave to become an actor and per-former; teachers need to learn newways of performing on a digital plat-form, to connect with their students,to create curiosity among them, to

understand their requirements andhelp overcome anxiety and ambigu-ities perplexing their minds.

Resistance to technology iscoming from two factors: Fear ofmediating reality and psychologicalfear of surveillance. Opposition toonline education emanates frompeople’s apprehension about thesafety of their data and the fear ofbeing watched. The moment weenter online education, we leavebehind digital footprints captured bysmart digital devices and the Internetof Things. In a study, it was foundthat most of the people have limit-ed knowledge about what types ofpersonal data are collected and howthey are used. Some scholars areapprehensive that “authoritarianadministrators are attracted by onlineeducation as it offers centralised con-trol and scaling at will”. Contrary totheir belief, internet-based onlineeducation is not centralised controland administered by an authoritar-ian regime, rather it provides anopportunity for the democratisationof education, both for teachers as wellas for learners.

Another fear is that contrary “toface-to-face interaction where ateacher creates a communion withstudents and critically shapes theirthinking and learning experience”,

technology-mediated interactiondistorts the form of communication.The fear of distorted reality emanatesfrom the assumption that technolo-gy-mediated reality may not presentthe intended meanings or may evendistort the meanings of reality.However, we know that we graspreality only through the mediation ofeither our sensory perceptions orthrough technology. Even our sen-sory perceptions are shaped by themental frame of our mind that weacquire through our upbringing andsocial experience. We do not haveaccess to naked reality. All reality ismediated through technology andtheoretical framework. Take theexample of coronavirus, we cannotsee it with naked eyes, we have to usean electron microscope to visualiseit; technology-mediated image (real-ity) is presented to people throughmedia and people construct theirimagination about coronavirus.People who are sufficiently exposedto news, talks, discussion, and pre-sentations on the coronavirus doacquire the level of understandingthat scientists and doctors wantthem to acquire. Similar is the con-cept of online teaching: how effec-tively we are presenting our ideas.

Many studies have shown that itis little or no difference in students’

performance between television edu-cation and face-to-face education orbetween video instruction and face-to-face instruction. In a study con-ducted by Allen & Seaman in collab-oration with Pearson and the SloanConsortium, it was found that mostof the academic managers (75 percent) recognise that learning outcomesin online courses are equal to or bet-ter than classroom courses. Althoughthe findings of these studies could becontested, they indicate the heraldingof “new mode of education”.

It will not replace the traditionalmode of education rather it willreinforce the “traditional mode” andexist in tandem with it. The educa-tional institutions which are notgoing to get the reinforcement byadopting the online learning man-agement system will face their exis-tential crises. The new mode of edu-cation is not infringing upon the tra-ditional mode of education, it israther entirely a new way of makingthe education available to people any-where, any time, at their own pace andconvenience. Technology is not goingto replace the need for a teacher butthey do require to embrace the newparadigm of education.

It is the teaching style of theteacher and his ability to engage thestudents that makes a physical class

an interactive learning class. Thesame is true with the online deliveryof education. The effectiveness oftechnology-mediated learningdepends on three factors: easy andconvenient access to technology,the willingness of the teachers, andthe motivation of the students. Theinternet services are fast expandingin the country and the digital plat-form for delivery of education isbecoming user-friendly day by dayas they provide both synchronousand asynchronous communicationand support the exchange of a vari-ety of didactical elements such astexts, graphics, audio and videomaterials in real-time. Attitudes of ateacher, his/her teaching style, andhis/her dexterity in dealing withinformation communication tech-nology are important to make onlineeducation effective. It has beenfound that students attending a classof a teacher who has a positive atti-tude towards online teaching andlearning and who encourages the useof technology are more likely toexperience more positive learningoutcomes. It is true that in onlineteaching students feel isolated asthere is no classroom environmentfor interaction. This could be over-come, to a large extent, by adoptingan interactive teaching style andencouraging students for more inter-action among the class by engagingthem in individual as well as groupactivities. Technology mediatedinteraction may pose, sometimes,technical problem, an effectiveteacher must be able to do some basictroubleshooting task, or be backedup by a technical team to supportonline delivery of education. Socio-economic and demographic charac-teristics of students do influence theirlearning outcomes. But this is true inboth cases, online as well as in thetraditional mode of education. Theonline mode rather provides betteropportunities to design differentlevels of learning materials andallowing them to proceed with theirown pace of learning.

Online education has beenadopted globally to expand access tohigher education and training needsof people as a supplement to the brickand mortar capabilities of their high-er educational institutions. As theinternet facility is expanding in Indiaand the technology for online deliv-ery of education is becoming user-friendly, it is the right time forIndian universities to embrace onlineeducation as an additional pro-

gramme lest they lose the opportu-nity to Western universities.

Many renowned universitieshave already started the online pro-gramme and many more are in theprocess of launching their graduateand postgraduate degree progammesto cater to the growing need of thestudents across the world. India isgetting ready for the digital revolu-tion. There are more than 600 mil-lion internet users, more than half ofthem are in rural areas and 90 percent of users have 4G connection.The majority of internet users (70 percent) are in the age group of 12-29years, the main cohort engaged ineducation and learning programmes.Globally, India has the cheapestaverage 4G tariff at $0.26 per GB.The Government of India haslaunched the National BroadbandMission intending to provide broad-band access to all villages by 2022.

Online higher education is notonly intended for the traditionalcohort of (18-24 years of age group)people, rather it is open to any agegroup of people in the society. As thevalue of lifelong learning is greatlyrecognised, the need for online edu-cation will increase tremendously inthe society. Many studies have shownthat online availability of educationaland training programmes havehelped the working class in Ghanain improving their skills and careeradvancement and prospects ofchanging their career. There is indeeda digital inequality in terms of accessto digital technology and the abilityto use them.

There is also a substantive digi-tal divide along with gender as thereare only 35 per cent of women inter-net users in the country. However, thesolution to these problems is not toreject the technology but to work forbridging both types of digital inequal-ity and to capitalise on the opportu-nities thrown up by a new wave of thetechnological revolution. The recentstep of the Government to allow 100universities to start online educationand separate TV channels for deliv-ering education from Class 1 to XIIis in the right direction. TV is acces-sible to more than 90 per cent of thepopulation in the country and it willcertainly help delivering the educa-tion to most deprived and marginalsection of the society.

(The writer is a Professor andChairperson of the Centre for Studiesin Science Policy, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi)

:��!���������������5������!������������CThe unbridled power of Russian President

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has grownover the last two decades. He enjoys enor-mous popularity. At its highest, his poll rat-ing was close to 90 per cent.

Sensing the global public pandemic andhome quarantining of millions in Russia,Putin affected amendments to the RussianConstitution. And the parliament of thecountry, Russian State Duma, has approveda slew of amendments, including the exten-sion of his presidential terms (if he wants) uptill 2036. This allows him to enjoy anothertwo six-year terms starting from 2024, whenhis current term comes to an end. Withoutany iota of doubt, the Russian Legislaturevoted 383 to 0 to amend the Constitution.And Putin now holds the office of thePresident till he turns 83 years and that wouldbe his 36th year in that office. This unusualparliamentary move was made by 83-year oldformer cosmonaut and now member ofDuma Valentina Tereshkova, who said,“Putin knows much more than all of us. Whydo we need to create some artificial consti-tutions? We should be honest, open, considerpublicly and cancel all limitations on thenumber of presidential terms in theConstitution. Or, if the situation demands andpeople want that, let the current President runagain for this position.” This was more thansufficient to launch Putin to the orbit of poweragain by Tereshkova and thereby she hasbecome a part of a deal that is gradually push-ing Russia deep into the hands of Putin. Infact, the abolition of presidential term lim-its will make him the country’s longest serv-ing ruler since Joseph Stalin.

Meanwhile, the helpless RussianOpposition is furious. A former MP andOpposition leader Dmitry Gudkov aired hisanger: “That was a Brezhnev era, poorlydirected performance. Putin must be feelingalmighty, and hopes to live forever.” But howdoes it make any difference to Putin. His ruleis passing on to a new era, wherein he is agingand his former KGB aides are fast prolifer-ating to each sphere of administrationaround Russia.

When Duma has already approved theamendments, why Putin wanted the same to

be passed in a public referendum at Covid-19 times? As it is too dangerous to gather inpublic, he should not have demanded anapproval from the people of Russia. Precisely,it is a traditional tactic used by the author-itarian rulers to marshal a stamp of legiti-macy from the commoners. The aim is to bein the “Democracy Club”. And Putin and hisadministration are successful in performingthis act so far since he has come to powerin 1999.

What disturbs the international com-munity is that Putin is a fighter and he is asurvivalist. Therefore, he needs to be con-sidered seriously. If he says he will do some-thing, then it is understood that he is pre-pared to do it. Further, he has the practiceof finding a way to sort out difficult thingsby using every means available to him.Interestingly, he and his core team atKremlin wanted the world to view him as a

street fighter, a low profile and possibly anunderdog. But he is not. The way he hasmeddled with the US politics, he has madehis mark. Over the decades, he has carefullycrafted a system, wherein he has to deal onlywith a selected number of people, he has literally abstained himself from dealingwith ordinary actors in politics and admin-istration. This indeed allows him to strate-gise for every possible hurdle that mightcome on his way.

With Putin, Russia will be definitelyheading for a stable political system. But theregime is only favouring a few, some allege.The desire for freedom and political mobil-ity is completely bleak under Putin, theyclaim. If he stays till 2036, the answer to thequestion “who comes after Putin” is elusive.The reason is too simple: neither Putin hasallowed an Opposition to thrive or even asuccessor to be groomed for a distant

future. This and a total control on allaspects of the Russian State have enabled himto virtually keep all probable political rivalsat bay till date.

The big mystery is how he has risen tothis stature? Looking at his roots, one caneasily observe that he comes from a veryhumble family. His father worked in theSoviet Navy and mother was a factoryworker. The family lived together in a lowerincome group community housing project.But somehow, he was sent to the college andfinally to the law school. After graduatingfrom the law school, he served as a KGBagent for about 16 years. In fact, KGB wasthe primary security agency for the USSRfrom 1954 until the historic collapse of theunion in 1991. Basically, the KGB worked asa multi-faceted organ of the state, both with-in and outside the USSR. Clearly, the organ-isation was known for delivering its extra-

ordinary service for intelligence and as a wingof the “secret police”. In 1988, the officialWhite House photographer inadvertentlyspotted Putin spying on then US PresidentRonald Reagan in the guise of an ordinaryRussian tourist in Moscow. After retiringfrom the KGB in 1991, Putin managed to geta job in the office of the mayor of StPetersburg and by 1994, he became thedeputy head of city administration. In 1997,Putin was running a political party called“Our Home-Russia i.e. Nash dom-Russiya”,originally founded on May 12, 1995 by PrimeMinister Viktor Chernomyrdin of thenPresident Boris Yeltsin. Initially a liberal andcentrist political movement, the main objec-tive of this party was to rally behind moretechnocratic and reformist supporters for theGovernment. Though the party was dis-banded on 2006, Putin, the ever clever KGBguy had climbed the echelons of power fromthis unknown political platform. From herewhen he moved to Moscow, he was soonmade the chief of the presidential staff ofYeltsin in 1997. Breaking all the politicalnorms, an ailing and ageing Yeltsin, suddenlyappointed Putin as the Prime Minister andnamed him as his successor. When heresigned unexpectedly on December 31,1999, Putin became the acting President ofthe Russian Federation. Today, he hasamassed more than $70 billion worth ofproperty. Probably his assets would also rep-resent one of the largest personal fortunesever accumulated by a sitting head of a state.This makes him much more powerful andhelps him to sideline his rivals to make hisway forward.

Russia has no longer the normal tools ofdemocracy i.e. a free media, free election andan independent judiciary. A few independentmagazines and papers that reach the outsideworld surely can’t match what the state-owned Russian TV sends out to the world.A pure “manufacturing of consent” is prac-tised. Another malaise of Russia today is thatits people are hardly capable of electing thelocal governors and their parliamentarians.

(The writer is an expert on internation-al affairs)

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Lockdown is being gradually easedout. People are trying to resumenormal activities, but the problems

confronting us are not yet over. It willtake some time before things settle down.As nature goes through unforeseen twistsand turns, we are faced with unprece-dented situations. We can’t changenature’s course. But how we respond isdefinitely in our hands. If we negotiatewith the challenges coming our way withfortitude and intelligence, we may be ableto contain the damage. We faced similarpandemic during 1918-1920 in whichmore than 50 million people lost theirlives, which included 2.25 millionIndians. This time, however, the recoveryrate is higher and death toll so far hasbeen much lesser. It is not that world’sdestiny has taken a different turn. Itneeds to be appreciated that it is theresult of human endeavour that medicalscience has grown substantially and weare better equipped today.

In life too, we are often confrontedwith challenging situations, many ofthem beyond our control. Many of usbecome a victim of our own making alsobecause of our flawed perceptions. Buthere again, what matters the most is how

we respond to the situation. Someamongst us are able to face the situationbravely, intelligently negotiate the chal-lenges and keep marching ahead instrength. But many, particularly the weak,come under great pressure, that is diffi-cult to withstand, often at times callingfor medical intervention. The questionnow is: Why given a similar situation, dif-ferent people respond varied ways?

The answer lies in the unique charac-ter of each being, coming as it may asone’s karmic carryover from the past. Inone’s life time, we would have learnt andunlearned many a things, acquired skillsets, developed habits and attitudes,acquired virtues and attributes, and alsohave unfulfilled desires left. Theirimprints get carried over in the form ofthought seeds to our successive incarnatebody-mind organism. As and when thethought-seeds get a congenial ground,they come into play involuntarily. Thatmay be to our advantage or detriment,depending on the character and contentof the thought-seeds. To sum up, we areall invariably born with a preconditionedmind, which sets the premise of one’sthought process — the basic fabric ofindividual mind-frame — on which our

future life takes off. Accordingly, eachmind involuntarily develops its individualspecific defining principles that guide allactions on our part — the desires nursedand pursued, the initiatives we take, orhow we respond or react to a particularsituation. That, of course, is subject tofurther modification as we go throughlearning lessons during ongoing life. Withsuch a preconditioned mind, our scope ofvision comes under restriction. Thatdoesn’t let us look at the issues in handwith an open mind, and so often fail toperceive things in the right perspectivedue, and evidently to our detriment.

The beauty of human mind, however,is that it can self-reflect upon its owntrends and could respond to fresh educa-tive inputs also. That empowers us towatch our thought-trends and make nec-essary amends through conscious efforts.The paradox, however, is that seldom dowe remain conscious about using theabove exclusive privilege. Often, our egoalso plays spoil sport, as it doesn’t let usidentify and acknowledge our fault lines.Here comes the role of Astrology, whichcan dispassionately read your personalitytrends. For, it reads your individual ener-gy signature with a fair amount of preci-sion. And energy knows no bias.

Here is the case of a person whocame seeking guidance on how to comeout of acute stress he is undergoing. Lookat his astrological pointers. The Sun con-junct Saturn in the lagna, a fixed sign,both opposed to Jupiter conjunct mis-chievous Neptune. That speaks of a hard-ened negative mindset. Second, he isstuck to his self-defined delusionarybeliefs and perceptions . Third, has aswaggering ego, who wishes to live exclu-sively on his own terms. All the morebecause mind signifying Moon occupiesa dual sign Gemini and afflicted by boththe sign lord Mercury and lagna lordVenus. That clouds his vision and inter-personal relationship skill. If all thatwould not be enough, fiery Mars con-junct erratic Rahu, lock horns with bothMercury and Venus. He, thus, has arestive and a cynic mind, who habituallyfinds fault with others for all the wronghappening. I wish, he unlocks his precon-ditioned mind, and things will definitelyturn better.

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