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HYDERABAD, THURSDAY APRIL 22, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

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MONEY 8ASIAN SHARES SLIDE AS VIRUS

CASTS SHADOW OVER RECOVERY

ANALYSIS 7MAHA MESS DUE TO BLOCKEDVOHRA REPORT ANNEXURES

SPORTS 12SUN RISES IN CHENNAI

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Month & Paksham:

Chaitra & Shukla Paksha

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Time to Avoid : (Bad time to start

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Rahukalam : 01:48 pm – 03:22 pm

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Page 11

PRABHAS GOES INTO

SELF-QUARANTINE

India reports morethan 2,000 Coviddeaths in single day

India reported more than2,000 deaths from COVID-

19 over the last 24 hours, thehighest single-day tally for thecountry so far, health ministrydata showed on Wednesday.Coronavirus infections alsorose by a record, increasingby 295,041 over the last 24hours, the data showed. Totaldeaths reached 182,553.India's overall case tally isnow at 15.6 million, secondonly to the United States,which has over 31 millioninfections.

TS daily Covid casessoar to new high

Telangana's dailycoronavirus cases continue

to soar and a record one-dayincrease of 6,542 freshinfections were registered inthe last 24 hours,taking thetotal positives to over 3.67lakh, while the toll rose to1876 with 20 more fatalities.Greater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC)accounted for the mostnumber of cases with 898,followed by Medchal Malkajgiri570 and Rangareddy 532, agovernment bulletin said onWednesday providing detailsas of 8 PM on April 20.

600 SBI stafferstest Covid positive

Although many banks havebeen functioning with

limited staff by adhering toCovid protocol, it appears thatthe raging virus, with all itsfuriously mutating variants,has not spared bank staffworking in a closed, 'safe' butquestionable atmosphere. Inthe current second wave ofCovid-19, at least 600 SBIemployees in Telangana havetested positive for the virus,according to a press releaseissued here on Wednesday bythe bank's chief generalmanager. According to theCGM, measures have beeninitiated to prevent the spreadof the virus among the bankemployees. Only thoseemployees who are in directcontact with the accountholders have been testingpositive for the virus.

PNS n NASHIK/MUMBAI

At least 24 Covid-19 patients onventilator support died onWednesday due to an interruptedsupply of medical oxygen at a civic-run hospital at Nashik inMaharashtra caused by the leakageof the gas from a storage plant, offi-cials said.

A senior civic official said of the150 patients admitted to the hos-pital, 24 were on ventilator supportat the time of the incident while therest were on oxygen support.

"As per the current information,24 people have died due to theinterrupted supply of oxygen at theZakir Hussain municipal hospital.The patients were on ventilators aswell as on oxygen supply, which gotinterrupted after the leakage in theoxygen supply tank," district col-lector Suraj Mandhare toldreporters.

He said the municipal corpora-tion immediately shifted duracylinders from other facilities inthe city to help the patients at theZakir Hussain Hospital.

According to local officials, the

oxygen leakage was noticed around12.30 pm, following which hospi-tal authorities were alerted.

Hospital officials in turn con-tacted municipal commissionerKailash Jadhav seeking technicalhelp to stop the leakage, they said.

Mandhare said a private compa-ny looks after the maintenance ofthe oxygen storage tank located onthe premises of the hospital.

State needs Rs 2,000 crto procure vaccinesVaccination to increase the burden on stateNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

With the new vaccine strategy plac-ing the financial burden on States,it would cost Telangana, already reel-ing under the financial stress causedby the pandemic, an additional Rs2,000 crore just to procure vaccinesto be able to inoculate people aged18 years and above.

As per UIDAI data, as of 31December 2020, there were 2.6crore people aged above 18 yearsin Telangana. This means thateven for that segment of popula-tion the state has to procure 5.2crore doses as one person has to gettwo shots (of the approved vaccinesin India) to be fully vaccinated.

As on April 20, the state hasadministered 32.68 lakh doses.The state requires to procure 4.88crore doses. If we take the pricesannounced by the Serum Instituteas baseline i.e. Rs 400 per dose forthe state government, with the cur-rent wastage of 1.36% and withoutprivate intervention, the state hasto shell out Rs 1,980 cr only forvaccines. Again, there will be sup-ply-chain costs, which will onlyincrease the financial burden.

However, if the state decides toinoculate at least 50% of the pop-ulation to be in a position to expectherd immunity; the financial outgowould still work out to Rs 1,000crore. It may be mentioned herethat Israel went mask free aftermore than half of its populationwas inoculated with the seconddose of the vaccine.

Second Covid vaccine from Hyd by AugustPNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad has risen to the occa-sion yet again and reinforced itsposition as the 'vaccine capital ofthe world'. India may get a fourthCovid-19 vaccine by August fromthe Hyderabad-based BiologicalE's indigenous Covid-19 vaccine asit is done with phase 1 and phase2 trials. Now, they are ready forphase 3 trials.

NITI Aayog member Dr VKPaul said on Wednesday, "Phase 1,

phase 2 trials of Indian vaccine ofBiological E have finished andthey'll soon go into phase 3. This

is a very significant development asthey have a capacity of 7 crore/ 70million vaccines per month".

Biological E Ltd will manufac-ture 1 billion doses of Covid-19vaccines, including the one devel-oped by Johnson & Johnson underthe Quad Vaccine Partnership.

Already Covaxin is being devel-oped by Bharat Biotech inHyderabad.

Bharat Biotech's second vac-cine, an intranasal shot; is likely tobe available by October.

‘Immune escape’ of N440K found in Kurnool manSNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

While it has been established thata new variant that causes Covid-19— the N440K — is prevalent in thesouthern states, particularly inboth the Telugu states, it’s nowemerged that the same variant cancause re-infection.

This means that N440K has‘immune escape’ capacity.

More importantly, it recentlycame to light in a study that thisvariant had a high prevalence — ofover 33 percent — in AndhraPradesh.

Genome sequencing analysisdone on the virus sample collect-ed from a re-infected patient from

Kurnool showed the presence ofN440K in the spike protein in bothepisodes of infection.

It's widely believed that immuneescape variants could contribute toan increase in re-infections as wellas potentially adversely affect theefficacy of vaccines.

The Centre had recently issuedfresh guidelines to step up the vac-cination drive from May 1 onwards.

Genome sequencing of thevirus from the re-infected patientfrom Kurnool also establishedthat while the patient was asymp-tomatic when infected the firsttime, in the re-infection episodehe had shown symptoms.

Why Centre notwaking up?: Delhi HCNEW DELHI: Delhi's desperate oxygencrisis resonated in the High Courttoday as the judges had harshquestions for the Centre, demandingwhy it was not waking up to reality."How is the government so obliviousto the reality on ground? You can'thave people die because there is nooxygen," the judges said while hearingan appeal by the Max hospitals,

Tears, anger atNashik hospital

as kin of deceaseddemand answers

Categorisation of staff soonbased on new zonal systemApproval of new zonal system achievement of TRS govt: KTRPNS n HYDERABAD

TRS working president and IT,Industry and MA&UD MinisterKTRama Rao has termed theCentre's approval of the State's newzonal system, designed for ensur-ing 95 per cent reservation tolocal candidates in governmentrecruitment, as "a significantachievement of the Telangana gov-ernment".

Taking to micro blogging plat-form Twitter, KTR said that, giventhe new zonal system, Telanganayouth could get their rightful sharein government jobs. With theapproval and notification of the

new zonal system comprising twomulti-zones and seven zones, nowthe State government will focus onsourcing employees under district,

zone and multi-zone categories. Upon reorganization, the 33

districts were recast into the abovezones with an objective to provideequitable opportunities to peopleof all districts and zones in govern-ment recruitment.

The government will also deter-mine the posts on the basis of pop-ulation in each district and zone.The Chief Secretary will soon holda meeting with the officials ofdepartments and DistrictCollectors on the categorization ofemployees and the number ofposts in each district.

Putting off polls to ULBs:Ball in govt's court nowSurging Covid cases cast shadow over SEC plans

ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

Notwithstanding appeals to theState Election Commission (SEC)by the Congress and other politi-cal parties to postpone the munic-ipal elections scheduled for April30th considering the gravity of the

Covid-19 situation, one can feel theelection fever rising. The SEC,despite having made arrangementsfor the conduct of elections, haswritten to the State governmentseeking its advice in accordancewith the Representation of thePeople Act.

Pvt Covid vax centres to procuredirectly from manufacturersPNS n NEW DELHI

From May 1, the present system ofprivate Covid vaccination centresreceiving doses from the govern-ment and charging up to Rs 250 perdose will cease to exist and they willprocure directly from vaccine man-ufacturers.

Serum prices vax atRs 400/dose for

state govts; and Rs600 for pvt hospitals

Serum Institute of India (SII), theworld's largest vaccine maker, on

Wednesday announced a price of Rs400 per dose for its COVID-19vaccine 'Covishield' for stategovernments and Rs 600 per dose forprivate hospitals. The company alsosaid for the next two months,

KCR gets CT scan donePNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister K ChandrasekharRao, who tested Covid positiveand has been quarantined at hisfarm house since Monday,

US cop found guilty ofkilling George Floyd PNS nMINNEAPOLIS, UNITED STATES

A US grand jury has found for-mer Minneapolis police officerDerek Chauvin guilty on all threecharges he faced over the custo-dial death of African-AmericanGeorge Floyd last year, a chillingincident that sparked worldwideprotests against racism and exces-sive use of force by police.

However, elation over the ver-dict, capping nearly a year ofsocial upheaval, racial tensionsand political strife stoked byFloyd’s killing, was tempered bycalls for a continued fight againstinequalities pervading the UScriminal justice system.

The 12 jurors found Chauvin,45, guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree mur-der and second-degreemanslaughter in one of the mostclosely watched cases in recentmemory in the US.

The leakage of the gasfrom a storage plant

P2

However, if the statedecides to inoculate atleast 50% of thepopulation to be in aposition to expect herdimmunity; the financialoutgo would still workout to Rs 1,000 crore.

This means thatN440K has ‘immuneescape’ capacity.More importantly, itrecently came to lightin a study that thisvariant had a high prevalence — ofover 33% — in Andhra Pradesh.

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DELHI GOVT ‘LOOTED' OXYGEN TANKERFROM PANIPAT: HARYANA MINISTER

Haryana minister Anil Vij on Wednesdayalleged that a tanker carrying medicaloxygen for COVID patients in

hospitals, which was going from Panipatto Faridabad, was ''looted'' by the Delhigovernment and said all oxygen tankerswill now move with a police escort. Vijalso said given the increased demand foroxygen due to a surge in coronavirus cases,Haryana can spare the supply for others onlyafter the state meets its own demand. ''Yesterday,one of our oxygen tankers was going from Panipat to supply tohospitals in Faridabad. When it was passing through Delhi, thetanker was looted by the Delhi government,” Vij said.

INDIA’S O2 EXPORT ROSE OVER 700%IN JAN 2021 VS 2020 AMID PANDEMIC

In the huge surge in the second wave of Covidthat has seen more cases of breathlessnessand a demand for oxygen, the oxygen

exports from India doubled, government datareveals. Between April 2020 and January2021, India exported over 9,000 metrictonnes of oxygen. In financial year 2020,only 4,500 metric tonnes of oxygen wereexported but inexplicably, it was doubled since.From January 2020, when India was exporting352 metric tonnes of oxygen, the exports increasedby a staggering 734 percent in January 2021. India exported 2,193metric tonnes of oxygen in December - a 308 percent increasecompared to 538 metric tonnes in December 2019.

TOP DELHI HOSPITALS GET OXYGENSUPPLY AFTER HC PULLS UP CENTRE

After an acute oxygen shortage in Delhihospitals was flagged in court andthrough appeals by politicians,

including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal,some of the city's biggest medicalfacilities received a late night refillyesterday. Oxygen tankers arrived late onTuesday at some of these places, includingSir Ganga Ram Hospital and Guru TegBahadur (GTB) Hospital, which were merelyhours away from running out of stock. Delhi'sbiggest COVID-19 facility, the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash NarayanHospital, received 10 tonnes of supplies last night. The hospitaladministration said these stocks would suffice for now.

PM IGNORED CRISIS TO HIDE LACKOF FORESIGHT: PRASHANT KISHOR

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor who islooking after the TrinamoolCongress' election strategy in

West Bengal on Tuesday accusedPrime Minister Narendra Modi ofignoring the COVID-19 crisis to hidehis lack of understanding and fore-sightedness. "ModiGovt handling ofcrisis: #1: ignore problem to hide lackof understanding & foresightedness #2:suddenly take control, use bluff & bluster toclaim victory #3: if problem persists, pass it on to others #4:when situation improves, return with Bhakts'' army to takecredit," Kishor tweeted.

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Irrigation and agricultureshare an intimate relation-ship and grow mutually.

However, due to the finitenature of resources like waterand land, efficiency concernsincreasingly assume a pivotalrole. In so far as efficient useof water is concerned, it washorticulture sector in Indiathat first understood theimportance and started usingwater efficiently.\

It is a matter of urgencynow to take the idea of 'wateruse efficiency' to the entireagricultural sector as it con-sumes over 80 per cent waterin the country.

The three-pronged strategynamely 'doubling farmers'income', 'water to every agri-cultural field' and 'more cropper drop' planned to resurrectIndian agriculture has a longway to go.

Barring a few frontlinestates such as Telangana,Maharashtra and MadhyaPradesh etc., several otherstates are yet to take concrete

measures. In order to consider the

question of providing waterfor agriculture, we shall, forthe time being, focus on onlytwo components ignoring thedoubling of income compo-nent.

To provide irrigation waterto every field, it is importantto go into details. This goalwill remain a mere rhetoricunless quantity of waterrequired for individual fieldsis determined.

This further needs amplifi-cation in terms of answers to'when, which source, and atwhat rate/frequency' water isto be supplied. When, whichsource, and at what rate aresupply side parameters.

On the other hand, 'howmuch water' is a demand sideparameter that depends oncrop water requirement, sea-sonal conditions, and wateruse efficiency at the farmlevel. It is obvious that thewater demand largely dependsupon the choice of the crop.

What are the factors thatlead to crop selection by thefarmers? Is this overall prof-itability, ease of cultivation,influence of social practices orall of them? In case of diver-gence of criteria, what shouldbe the inter se priority to beaccorded for crop selection?Are our agricultural scientistsand extension machinery ableto provide answers to thesequestions and preparing thefarming community? Ideally,they should be able to providea menu of options for individ-ual farmers cultivating in var-ious agro-climatic zones, aftertaking into consideration

other parameters such as soiltypes, status of micro nutri-ents etc.

This has major potential ofgrowth for services in the pri-vate sector.

The second objective 'Morecrop per drop' is trickier one.Some people may like to getit replaced by 'more valuablecrop per drop'.

This leads us to go forenhanced productivity andopting for high-value crops.This has to be worked out interms of establishing bench-marks and evaluating effortsmade by the agencies con-cerned in terms of quantita-

tive numbers. We should be in a position

to measure either monetaryvalue or production per TMCwater supplied at farm level,for determining water useefficiency.

In addition to improvingfarm-level water use efficien-cy, technical efforts shouldalso be made to step up 'waterreservoir/storage efficiency'

and 'water distribution effi-ciency' from source to thefields of farmers.

As per available studies, theoverall water use efficiency inIndia in the irrigation sectoris about 32%. It means that ifone TMC of water is releasedat the source, only 0.32 TMCwater is used by crops withdistribution efficiencybetween 50 and 70% and onfarm water efficiency of about50 to 60% in an open canalirrigation system.

In comparison to a gravity-based system, a lift irrigationsystem requires additionalcapital and operating costs.Every percentage point ofefficiency improvement leadsto saving significant powerunits in major lift irrigationsystems such as those ofTelangana.

Whether to continue withthe existing open canal systemor move over to piped irriga-tion systems, it is time to con-duct comprehensive studies to

come to a conclusion. Givenan appropriate scarcity valueof water, usage of piped irri-gation can be expedited, thusmoving towards achievinghigher water use efficiency.Improvement of irrigationefficiency is equally importantfor gravity schemes.

One can imagine theamount of savings of water ina state like Uttar Pradeshwith a canal network of about75,000 km serving 1.81 crorefarmers .

Water resources are pre-cious. Our irrigation net-works are growing in differ-ent parts of the country.Whatever decisions are takentoday will have long-termimpacts.

We need to strive for anideal situation where thefarmer should be able todemand irrigation water justas one chooses among differ-ent packages offered by tele-com companies at the speci-fied time duration and dataflow rate.

As a first step in this direc-tion, it is necessary to take aholistic approach by plug-ging leakages, seepages, andminimising evapo-transpira-tion losses. It would be pru-dent to establish a propermanagement system basedon the crop water require-ment.

Human knowledge needsto be supported by a networkof 'soil moisture sensors' and'satellite imageries' to deter-mine the precise irrigationwater requirement. It is hightime we moved towardsachieving higher water useefficiency in the irrigationsector.

The upshot is we have tokeenly look at various cost-effective techniques forenhancing water productivi-ty in agriculture/horticulturesectors.

Towards this end, we haveto follow the strategicapproach to encourage inno-vations and to carry out activ-ities in a more efficient way.

DR SHAILENDRA JOSHI, Advisor of Telangana govt and former

chief secretary of Telangana

On the other hand, 'how much water'is a demand side parameter thatdepends on crop water requirement,seasonal conditions, and water useefficiency at the farm level. It isobvious that the water demand largelydepends upon the choice of the crop

Providing water for agriculture: from rhetoric to action

PNS n NEW DELHI

Bharat Biotech on Wednesdaysaid its coronavirus vaccineCovaxin has shown efficacy of78 per cent against mild, mod-erate and severe cases ofCOVID-19, as per Phase IIIinterim analysis results.

The vaccine maker notedthat the second interim data ofthe Phase III study alsoshowed that chances of hospi-talisation due to the infectiousdisease were reduced by 100per cent after taking theCovaxin jab.

Due to the recent surge incases, 127 symptomatic caseswere recorded, resulting in a

point estimate of vaccine effi-cacy of 78 per cent againstmild, moderate, and severeCOVID-19 disease, BharatBiotech said in a statement.

The efficacy against asymp-tomatic COVID-19 infection

was 70 per cent, suggestingdecreased transmission inCovaxin recipients, it added.

"Efficacy against SARS-Cov-2 has been established.Covaxin has demonstrated anexcellent safety record inhuman clinical trials and inusage under emergency use.Covaxin is now a global inno-vator vaccine derived fromR&D in India," Bharat BiotechChairman and ManagingDirector Krishna Ella said.

The efficacy data againstsevere COVID-19 and asymp-tomatic infections is highly sig-nificant, as this helps reduce hos-pitalisations and disease trans-mission, respectively, he added.

TTD claims ‘Anjanadri’in Tirumala asHanuman’s birthplacePNS n TIRUPATI

The Tirumala TirupatiDevasthanams, which gov-erns the ancient shrine ofLord Venkateswara atTirumala here, onWednesday announced thatLord Hanuman's birthplacewas Anjanadri, a hillock atJapali Theertham locatedabout 5 km from north of thehill temple.

The announcement, on'Ram Navami' day, was madeby a TTD constituted com-mittee of scholars from dif-ferent fields led by ProfMuralidhara Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of NationalSanskrit University here, inthe presence of Tamil NaduGovernor BanwarilalPurohit. TTD ExecutiveOfficer K S Jawahar Reddyand Additional ExecutiveOfficer AV Dharma Reddywere also present.

The committee saidAnjandri is the birthplace ofLord Hanuman, popularlyknown as Sri AnjaneyaSwamy in South India,according to a TTD official.

A booklet with 'epigraph-ical, scientific and mytholog-ical evidence', projectingAnjanadri, one of the sevenhills at Tirumala, as thebirthplace of Lord Hanumanwas released by MuralidharaSharma on the occasion.

Eatala: Monitoring Covidsituation round the clockML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State govern-ment has taken concrete stepsand stepped up confidence-boosting measures to allayfears among people about theavailability of hospital beds,oxygen, medicines and otherrequirements in the wake ofthe alarming rise in Covidcaseload.

Amidst concerns stemmingfrom reports of black-mar-keting and scarcity ofRemdesivir injections - usedfor treating Covid patientswith severe symptoms -- ITand Industry Minister KTRama Rao assured people onWednesday that over four lakhRemdesivir injections/vials willbe supplied to governmenthospitals within a week.

Earlier KTR held a meetingwith manufacturers of themedicine on the instructions ofChief MinisterK.Chandrasekhar Rao.

Given the spike in Covidcases across the State, the pal-pable shortage of Remdesivir

injections has become an issue.The medicine, though not amagic bullet, is administered tothose experiencing breathless-ness, along with oxygen sup-port.

The Indian Council ofMedical Resarch has said thatthe anti-viral drug Remdesivir"is not a life-saving drug inCovid-19" and "does notreduce mortality". BasicallyRemdesivir is one of the inves-tigational drugs approved foremergency use in treating hos-pitalized Covid-19 patients

The injection has helped in

bringing down the viral load inpatients and contributing totheir recovery. As a result, theuse of injection has increasedin proportion to the number ofhospitalized Covid patients.

The dip in production ofRemdesivir for various rea-sons, coupled with the unavail-ability of the medicine in manyplaces due to alleged hoardingand black-marketing (witheach injecting costing betweenRs 16,000 and Rs 25,000 in theblack market), is causing anx-iety to Covid patients andtheir family members.

So, KTR spoke to represen-tatives of pharma companiesmanufacturing the drug on thedire need to ramp up produc-tion of the medicine toimprove its availability every-where.

Meanwhile Health MinisterEatela Rajender said that thegovernment was working 24x7to contain Covid-19. Everycitizen should observe self-dis-cipline and cooperate with thegovernment in tackling thepandemic. Rajender, whoinaugurated a Covid vaccinecentre at Kandugula village inHuzurabad mandal, said thatChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao was mon-itoring the availability of injec-tions and vaccines to ensurethat there was no shortage. Hesaid that vaccine would beadministered to those aged18 years and above from May1. The night curfew would helpto some extent in controllingthe spread of the Covid-19virus. The pandemic could bebrought under control withthese and certain other efforts,he said.

n Over four lakh vials of Remdesivir to be supplied to govt hospitals in a weekn Website launched; it will give real-time picture of bed availability for Covid patients

21k tested+ve after firstdose, 5,500after second PNS n NEW DELHI

More than 21,000 peopletested positive forCOVID-19 after takingthe first dose of eitherCovishield or Covaxin,while over 5,500 con-tracted the infection aftertaking the second dose,the Centre said onWednesday.

Addressing a pressconference, ICMRDirector General BalramBhargava said 0.04 percent of 17,37,178 individ-uals, who received thesecond dose of Covaxin,were positive for COVID-19, while 0.03 per cent of1,57,32,754 people, whotook the second dose ofCovishield, contracted theinfection.

Govt releases datashowing severityin second wavesimilar to the firstPNS n NEW DELHI

Amid a staggering surgein Covid cases across thecountry, the Centre onWednesday sought toquell the panic by pre-senting a slew of statisticsto show the severity andvirulence in the ongoingsecond wave of the con-tagion are about the sameas the first one.

The government, how-ever, cautioned that there isno clear sign of any down-trend in the Covid graphyet. Also, 21,000 peoplehave tested positive forCovid after taking the firstdose of either Covishield orCovaxin vaccines, whilenearly 5,700 contractedthe infection after takingboth the doses, govern-ment data revealed.

KCR gets CT scan... Continued from page 1

Underwent further testsat Yashoda Hospital hereon Wednesday night.

KCR exhibited onlymild symptoms onMonday. According tothe team of doctorsattending on him, led byhis personal physician DrM.V.Rao, his conditionhas been stable.

A press release fromthe Chief Minister'sOffice on Wednesday saidthat the Chief Ministerunderwent CT scan andother medical tests as perthe advice of his doctors.

Following the tests,doctors said that KCR'slungs were normal andthat there was no infec-tion of any kind. Thereports of blood testswould come on Thursday.The doctors who per-formed the tests said thatthe Chief Minister's healthwas stable and he wouldbecome normal soon.

Continued from page 1

"We have given all the informa-tion to the government. As faras the oxygen supply is con-cerned, the NMC has receiveddura cylinders from placeswhere consumption is less.Oxygen will be supplied to thepatients from these cylinders,"he said.

Divisional RevenueCommissioner RadhakrishnaGame said a 13 KL (kilolitre)oxygen tank was set up on thepremises of the hospital, locat-ed in Dwarka area in the northMaharashtra city.

"Around 10 am, a socket ofthe oxygen storage tank brokeand the leakage started. When

the hospital staff came to knowabout it, they deployed jumbocylinders to supply oxygen tothe patients and started shift-ing some of the patients," hesaid. Game said the leakage hasbeen stopped, the tank repairedand the oxygen supply is being

normalised."As the incident happened,

people rushed to the hospitalwards which created hurdles inthe rescue operations. Whenthis happened, an oxygentanker reached the hospitalpremises.”

24 Covid patients die as oxygen leak...Why Centre not waking up?: Delhi HCContinued from page 1which had flagged oxygen crisis in two of its hospitals this afternoon.When the Centre said it was surprised by the petition, the judges said,"Don't get surprised by this petition. You should know the situation...Yesterday we told you about the petroleum and steel industries' oxygen.What have you done?" When the Union health ministry said files havestarted moving, the court shot back, "What is the outcome? We aren'tbothered about these files. Industry will be ready to help. You have yourown state run petroleum companies.

Tears, anger at...PNS n NASHIK (MAHA)

Family members could notcontain their tears as well asanger as they mourned thedeath of their kin followingthe disruption of oxygen sup-ply at the Zakir Husainmunicipal hospital here.

Some of the 22 COVID-19patients who died in thetragedy were recovering andabout to get discharge, theirrelatives told mediapersons.

As the news of disruptionof oxygen supply due to leak-age in storage tank spread,family members rushed tothe ward where COVID-19patients on ventilator wereundergoing treatment.

‘Immune escape’ of...Continued from page 1

Genome sequencing was doneby the researchers at VirusResearch and DiagnosticLaboratory (VRDL) atKurnool Medical College(KMC) and New Delhi basedCSIR’s Institute of Genomics &Integrative Biology (IGIB).

IGIB is a premier Institute ofCouncil of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR),engaged in research of nation-al importance in the areas ofgenomics, molecular medi-cine, bioinformatics and pro-teomics.

In the first episode of infec-tion, the 47 –year-old seniorgovernment official fromKurnool, was identified to bepositive for Covid-19 on July25, 2020, in nasopharyngealspecimens analysed as part of

routine surveillance and wasasymptomatic.

“The analysis revealed atotal of 15 and 17 genetic vari-ants in the genomes from thetwo episodes of which 14 vari-ants were common betweenthe two episodes. A close com-parison of the genetic variantswith a compendium ofimmune escape variantsrevealed a 22882T>G (Spike:N440K) variant in the genomesisolated from both episodes ofinfection,” Dr Pallavali RojaRani, specialist in microbiolo-gy at KMC’s VRDL lab whowas part of the genomesequencing study project toldThe Pioneer. The work of theKMC and IGIB was publishedin the first week of April in theinternationally acclaimedJournal of Medical Virologypublished from the US.

Genome sequencingneglected in IndiaPNS n VIJAYAWADA

While experts say detect-ing new Covid variantsand understanding theirp ot e nt i a l t o i n c re a s eseverity of infection orcause more infec t ionsn e e d s b e t t e r ge n om esequencing, fingers arebeing pointed out at theCentre that enough efforti s not be ing put intogenome sequencing inIn d i a . R e t i re d s e n i orbureaucrat and formerSecretary to Governmentof India, EAS Sarma wholives in Vizag, recentlywrote to Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman aboutinadequate allocation off u n d s f or g e n om esequencing.

State needsRs 2,000 cr...Continued from page 1

The Center has said that the50% of vaccines procured byit from manufacturers will beallocated to the states on thebasis of a set formula and thatthe vaccines shall be used forthose who are currently eli-gible for the vaccines: healthcare workers, frontline work-ers and all adults aged over 45years. However, based on the expe-rience over the past twomonths, the allocations fromCenter to the state have beenminiscule and the state can-not rely on the Center forvaccines even for HCW, FLWand adults over 45.

This unilateral decision topass the vaccine costs on tothe state is going to put addi-tional burden on theTelangana government.Already there's been a short-fall of central taxes as well anddelay in devolution of States'share of GST compensation.

Putting off polls to ULBs...Continued from page 1

This is because of the surgingCovid cases in the State overthe last one week, with increas-ing numbers of people testingpositive every day.

Amidst speculations insome quarters that the munic-ipal elections may be post-poned, the Commission onWednesday said no such deci-sion had been taken till date.

Election Commissionsources stated that the electionprocess was being followed byadhering to Covid guidelinesand hence the campaign dura-

tion was decreased and certainlimits imposed. But it was forthe State Government to give itsadvice. Wednesday being pub-lic holiday on account ofSrirama Navami, the govern-ment is expected to take a callby Thursday.

When a petition was filedin the High Court seekingpostponement of the munic-ipal elections in view of thepandemic, the Court said itwas not for the Court tointerfere in the elections andthat it was for the SEC and theState government to take adecision.

Categorisationof staff soon...Continued from page 1

After the formation of State,reorganization of districtstook place between October2016 and January 2019 withthe objective of decentralizingthe administration and takingit to the doorstep of people.Some of the existing employ-ees were accommodated inthe new districts after beingmoved from the erstwhiledistricts on the basis of 'Orderto Serve', pending formal allo-cation of employees based ontheir nativity. Although theCentre took over two and halfyears to give its approval forthe zonal system, sources saidthat remaining process ofdetermining the district, zoneand multi zonal posts shouldnot take long as some exercisehas already been done, basedon the representations fromthe gazetted and non-gazettedemployees' associations.

It was suggested that ClassIV to Junior assistant postsshould be categorized as dis-trict posts, senior assistantposts as zonal category andgazetted posts as multi-zoneposts.

Pvt Covid vax centres to procure directly from...Continued from page 1

According to theLiberalised Pricing andAccelerated National CovidVaccination Strategy, Covidvaccination will continue tobe free for eligible popula-tion groups comprisinghealth care workers, front-line workers and populationabove 45 years of age ingovernment Covid vaccina-tion centres which receive

doses from theGovernment of India.Vaccine manufacturerswould make an advancedeclaration of the price for50 per cent supply thatwould be available to stategovernments in the openmarket before May 1.

Based on this price,states, private hospitals,industrial establishmentsmay procure vaccine dosesfrom manufacturers.

Serum prices vax...Continued from page 1

It will address the issue of limitedcapacity by scaling up vaccine

production. "Going ahead, 50% ofour capacities will be served to theGovernment of India's vaccinationprogram, and the remaining 50 percent of the capacity will be for thestate governments and privatehospitals," Serum Institute of Indiasaid in a statement.

Bharat Biotech says Covaxin has shown78% efficacy against mild to severe Covid

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021hyderabad 03

Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao'sdaughter and a state

legislator K. Kavitha has openeda helpline to provide assistanceto the Covid-19 infected peopleduring the ongoing secondwave of the pandemic. Themember of TelanganaLegislative Council tweeted onWednesday that people maycontact the helplines in Hyderabad or Nizamabad. "Beencontinuously receiving calls and messages for assistance related toCovid. Kindly contact my office Hyd : 040-23599999 / 89856 99999Nzb : 08462- 250666 for any #COVID19 related request or query,"she tweeted. Kavitha, a former member of Parliament, said her teamwill be available round the clock. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) leader has been receiving requests for help from families ofCovid-19 infected people seeking beds in hospitals, medicines,better treatment facilities or financial assistance.

CITY LIGHTS

There's is no shortage of oxygenin Gandhi Hospital, clarified DrM Raja Rao, Superintendent of

Gandhi Hospital on Wednesday.According to Dr M Raja Rao,Gandhi hospital currently have 20KL tank and 6 KL Liquid oxygentanks. Dr Raja Rao said that theoxygen cylinders are refilled time totime and till now there's is no suchsituation in Gandhi Hospital. Hesays that all of us should pray thatTelangana state should not face anyoxygen shortage. Dr Raja Rao added, "As you all know, Cases fromall the corners are pouring into Gandhi hospital in a huge numbersin critically ill state. Gandhi hospital staff is working round the clockto serve the patients. We are all stretching beyond our capacities toserve and save the patients for the past one year. Please understandour efforts to serve and save the patients. Second wave is reallysevere and I request everyone to be very careful"

PNS n HYDERABAD

Roads in Hyderabad and therest of Telangana woredeserted look on Tuesdayand Wednesday night as thenight curfew came into forceto contain the spread ofCovid pandemic.

The usual hustle bustleon main thoroughfares in

Hyderabad was missingwhile police personnel set upcheck posts to restrict themovement of people.

Shops and business estab-lishments were closed downat 8 pm as p er theGovernment Order (GO)issued earlier in the daywhile movement of peoplewas stopped from 9 pm.

The night curfew willremain in force till 5 am thenext day. The governmenthas announced that the nightcurfew will continue tillApril 30.

People were seen rushingto their homes hours beforethe curfew came into force.Hotels, restaurants, pubs,bars and cinema theaters

were all shut down at 8 p.m.The usually busy roads in

Panjagutta, Khairatabad,Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills,Begumpet, Basheerbagh,Nampally, Mehdipatnam,Abids, Charminar, Koti,Dilsukhnagar and otherareas in Hyderabad and out-skirts were deserted.

Hyderabad Metro Rail also

curtailed its services in viewof the night curfew. It oper-ated the last train at 7.45 pm.

The Telangana State RoadTransp or t C or p orat ion(TSRTC) also announcedthat it will operate its lastser v ice in GreaterHyderabad Munic ipa lCorporation (GHMC) zoneat 9 pm.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The rising tide of confirmedCovid cases in city has admin-istrators focused almost entire-ly on containing the infection.

But away from the publiceye, there is a "spreader" that isworrying doctors and wastemanagement experts more.And that's the home-generat-ed biomedical waste, as morepeople with Covid or suspect-ed of infection are advised toisolate themselves at home.

Home quarantine has addeda whole new risk element towaste-management as theinfection now threatens to cas-cade across waste-collectorsand municipal workers andfrom them to their families

Medical waste and otherwaste of Corona victims, whoare in home isolation is becom-ing a public curse due to thelack of a special collection ofgarbage system by the GHMC.The victims leave their wastematerials include PPE kits,masks, gloves and other itemsused by them and sanitisationworkers, who touch themunknowingly become infectedwith the virus.

There are currently 46,488active positive cases across thestate, of which 3,487 are beingtreated in government hospitalsand 10,214 in private hospitalsand the remaining are beingtreated at home isolation only.

Most of them are inHyderabad, Rangareddy andMedchal districts. The dan-gerous waste used by theCorona victims is beingdumped between houses.Sanitation workers who sepa-

rate plastic from garbage bytouching them are exposed tothe virus.

Initially, in the first strainof Covid, if there were anysuspicious activities done bythe Covid patients, the police,medical health departmentand GHMC officials would bealerted. The police blockedthe movement of others to thevicinity of a positive caseand the medical teamrestricted the patient in home

isolation, the nursing staffwould go home by them-selves and hand out medicinekits. Inquired about healthissues and GHMC staf fimmediately set up warningboards in the house under thename Covid-19 and sprayedthe house and area withhydrochloride.

But above stated precau-tionary steps are not done bythe medical team or GHMCin this new second wave .

Even though they instructthe Coronavirus-infected per-sons not to come out of theirhomes, they are not providingany medical kits, essentialsand medicines to the patients.As result, patients have to pro-vide for themselves. Victims'consumed goods, leftovers andother waste are being dumpedat the end of the street wrappedin covers, and sanitation work-ers are unaware that they canbe infected and are gettinginfected.

As on Wednesday, while6,542 positive cases were reg-istered across Telangana, whileGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC)accounted for the most num-ber of cases with 898, fol-lowed by Medchal Malkajgiri570 and Rangareddy 532.Although a large number ofdeaths are being reported,along with positive cases, thereis no change in the attitude ofthe citizens.

Without masks, physical dis-tancing makes no sense.Moreover, because of the feastsand entertainment people aretaking part in they are gettinginfected with the virus.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The most wanted cyber crim-inals in northern India have bydefault landed in safe zone asthe top brass of police depart-ment in the state has orderedthe investigating officers not toventure out of the city forinvestigation and arrest cybercriminals in view of increasingCovid cases across the countryand lockdown being imple-mented in various parts of thecountry.

Therefore, not only the offi-cials preventing and investi-gating cyber crimes, but alsothe task force and special oper-ations team members have totread cautiously.

Majority of the cyber crimesbeing recorded in Hyderabad,Cyberabad, Rachakonda policecommissionerates pertain toOLX frauds, one time pass-word frauds and call centrefrauds. Majority of the accusedin these cases are from otherstates.

While Alwar and Bharatpurin Rajasthan are notorious forOLX fraudsters, Jamtara,Deoghar and Giridh inJharkhand are notorious forthe OTP frauds. Similarly,Delhi and Kolkata haveemerged as the centres offraud perpetrated by those

who cheat people with the helpof call centres.

The main kingpins in thesecases generally go scot-free, butthose who give their bankaccounts get arrested. Thesepeople generally reside in thenorth-eastern states besidesin MP. Cities like Bengaluru,Chittaranjan and Asansol arehome to such fraudsters.

The cyber crime police offi-cers generally camp in theseplaces at least for 15 days in amonth to effect arrests.Because of spike in Covidcases, prevailing uncertaintyover imposed restrictions andlockdowns in different areas,the top brass of the policedepartment have asked the

investigating officers not toleave the city on investigationduty. However, emergencycases have been exemptedfrom the purview.

Over 600 policemen andofficers working in all threepolice commissionerates havetested positive for the Covid-19 in the second wave. Thevirus has claimed lives of twopolice officers till date. Thosewho tested positive includedthose who had received theirvaccination doses too.

As a result of these theinvestigation officers have beentreading cautiously. However,they are ensuring that eacharrested accused wears thePPE kit following arrest.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Covid second wave isbooming the fastest in the city;even if it affects one person inthe family, it goes on to affectalmost all the members of fam-ily without any discrimination.For this, everyone should exer-cise self-restraint. No oneshould come on the road exceptin emergencies, said DrSrinivasa Rao, State PublicHealth Director recently.

The latest Air Quality Indexreport released by the PCBshowed that the people of thecity were ignoring such pre-cious words. According to theAQI report released by thePCB, the city was currentlyexperiencing high levels ofsmall dust and dirt particles.

As on the 16th of this month

in the city, the PCB had record-ed the severity of air pollutionthrough about six stations onthe factors that caused themost air pollution.

The PCB said in its reportthat all the four stations, excepttwo stations, Pasamailaramand Bollaram, were the mostpolluted due to traffic conges-tion / vehicles.

Officials said that the air pol-lution was increasing as somepeople were coming onto theroads unnecessarily, allowingthe coronavirus to enter thelungs directly through the nos-trils.

There are about six pollutionregistration centres in the city.These were set up by PCB offi-cials at HCU, Sanath Nagar,Zoopark, Pasamailaram,Bollaram and Ikrisat areas.

However, the AQI reportreleased by the PCB statedthat only one area inPasamailaram had the highestlevel of industrial pollution,while Bollaram had the high-est pollution level due to dan-gerous odours wafting in thearea. The report issued by thePCB said that air pollution was

increasing due to heavy vehi-cle/vehicle congestion withinthe centres in the remainingfour areas of HCU, SanathNagar, Zoopark and Ikrisat.

Now that the Corona secondwave has intensified, many ITand private companies in thecity have already given employ-ees the work from home assign-

ment. MNC companies, alongwith micro and middle-classindustries, have also assignedshifts to the workers. Thisshould reduce vehicular pollu-tion along with the current traf-fic congestion in the city.

However, the gradualincrease in vehicle pollutionalong with traffic congestion isa matter of concern.

According to police, moreyoung age people with bikes areplying on the roads than thoseemployed in the city.

The report states that PM10and PM2.5 pollution levels arethe highest in the city. Thehighest levels are above normal(128g / m3) in the logarithmand above normal (102 g / m3)in the zoo area.

PCB scientists claim thatsuch contaminants reach the

lungs directly through the nose.Also, there is invisible coronain the dust particles. It is like-ly to reach the lungs directly.Authorities also say there is agreater risk of dust and dirtcoming out of vehicle exhausts.

Medical experts say that airpollution beyond normal lev-els can lead to respiratory dis-eases as well as heart diseases.

At intersections on roads thepossibility of virus spreadingamong the vehicle riders andpedestrians increases as usual-ly on city roads, about 150 to250 vehicles stop at a time ateach intersection.

About 10,000 vehicles areexpected to travel througheach intersection every day.This means that about 25,000to 30,000 people travel throughthe main squares of the city.

Despite Covid curbs, air pollution continues to rise

ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

Amid spike in Covid positivecases Telangana health depart-ment launched a web portal forcitizens to check availability ofhospital beds across the state.

The state government onWednesday has started postingthe real-time availability ofhospital beds in Governmentand private hospitals acrossTelangana on the websitehttps://health.telangana.gov.in/

The availability status of the

Covid hospital beds is beingupdated on the website regu-larly, though it does not pro-vide users access to completehospital-wise breakdown ofbed availability across the state.

According to the portal, ason Wednesday, a total of 16,140Covid positive patients areundergoing treatment at gov-ernment and private hospitalsand there are 27,090 vacanthospital beds across the state.There are 9,851 vacant beds ingovernment hospitals while17,239 vacant beds are available

in private hospitals. Sai Teja, aresident said, "Its helpful tohave a web portal to check theavailability of hospital bedsfor Covid treatment, but thiswill he only helpful only if thehealth department update thereal time data on the websiteregularly."

Charan, another residentsaid, "Rather than runningaround streets and wastingvaluable time in search ofbeds, we could just make somecalls looking at this and take atimely decision."

A year passed since the restoration work of Raja Rai Rayan DevdiGadiyal located in Shalibanda began, but the clock still shows 3

O'clock. As part of restoration of clock towers in the city, the GreaterHyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took up repairs and

beautification works of Raja Rai Rayan Devdi Gadiyal (clock tower)located in Shalibanda in 2020. Due to unknown reasons the work

was suspended and is still not completed even after a year.

‘NO TICKING CLOCK'

Now, check availability of beds online

Roads go deserted as night curfew comes into force

PNS n HYDERABAD

The City Police registered acriminal case against aYouTube channel for alleged-ly indulging in false reporting.

According to the PoliceCommissioner HyderabadAnjani Kumar, the channelhad posted fake videos imply-ing that the police used lath-is on Tuesday to enforce thenight curfew in the city.

Denying the charges madeby the channel, the commis-sioner said that the reporterof the YouTube channel willbe arrested for "creating panicand confusion in the mindsof the community and alsoattempted to create dissatis-faction among the policeforce."

The commissioner saidthat a case under relevant sec-tions of IPC and IT act hasbeen registered against thechannel.

Meanwhile, the channelhas deleted the video fromYouTube.

YouTuber heldfor fake news

PNS n HYDERABAD

Going by the governmentorder to do their bit in puttingthe brakes on the spread of thecorona virus' second strain, thecity police have been impos-ing fines on both motoristsand pedestrians, who are ven-turing onto the roads withoutmasks. For the past few daystraffic police have been impos-ing a fine of Rs 1,000 onmotorists, who are drivingdown city roads without wear-ing masks.

Police, with the help oftheir CCTV cameras installedat various crossroads in thecity are keeping a strict vigil onthe motorists driving on thecity roads. And manymotorists, who had driventheir vehicles without wearinga mask and had not beenintercepted physically by thepolice are surprised to find achallan of Rs 1,000 on theirvehicles in the online trafficchallan portal of the stategovernment. This challan hadbeen raised as they werecaught on camera while dri-ving without a mask.

The police are even seizingthe vehicles of persons, whosevehicles have got two or morechallans, during the field chal-lan examination. The vehiclesare returned once the ownersof the vehicles clear theirpending fines. This challandue to not wearing maskswhile driving is over andabove the regular challans forriding a bike without helmet,driving down the wrong sideof the road, carrying three

men on a motorbike etc., all tobe found in the challan portal.

The imposition of the fineof Rs 1,000 for not wearingmasks while driving hasappeared as painful to manymiddle class and lower middleclass people, who had beencaught driving their two-wheelers without wearingmasks. The police say that thefine for not wearing maskswhile driving is being imposedfor the good of the people andto check the spread of thecoronovirus. A rider on atwo-wheeler by not wearing amask while driving is not onlyputting his pillion rider atrisk of contracting corona,but also endangering the livesof fellow motorists as also thepedestrians. The fines arebeing imposed to make thedrivers aware of the threat ofthe disease and the precautionthat they will have to takewithout fail. In the last fewdays police have raised morethan 15,000 challans on dri-vers for not wearing maskswhile driving. They haveraised challans on 10,000 vehi-cles in the Rachakonda policecommissionerate range and on4,686 vehicles in theCyberabad police commis-sionerate range for this reason.

Even pedestrians are beingslapped with fine for not wear-ing masks. Therefore when-ever you step out of yourhome or office do not forget toput on your mask or else youmay end up paying the fineimposed by the police forventuring out onto the cityroads without masks.

Cops book 15,000driving sans mask

As corona cases rise, cyber criminals land in safe zone

There is no shortage of Oxygen: Gandhi Hospital Superintendent

Researchers at the IIIT-H havedesigned a unique chargingsolution for e-scooters. Dr Aftab

Hussain, who heads the PATRIoTdivision at IIIT-H and his team hasdesigned a complete end-to-endcharging solution from the electronic hardware components that aresturdy and safe enough for outdoor deployments to the softwarethat contains an appropriate processor to control all input andoutput devices of the system. In a paper titled, "Compact ElectricVehicle Charging Station Using Open Charge Point Protocol for E-Scooters" that has been presented at the 2021 Conference onSustainable Energy and Future Electric Transportation, Dr. Hussainand his team of researchers proposed a unique design andfabrication of charging equipment specifically for e-scooters.

IIIT-Hyderabad develops uniquecharging solution for e-scooters

PNS n HYDERABAD

The CBI has arrested formerGST superintendent BollineniSrinivas Gandhi after he"influenced" witnesses in acase against him for allegedlyamassing disproportionateassets worth over Rs 3.74crore, officials said onWednesday.

The agency has registered acase against Gandhi and hiswife for allegedly amassingillicit wealth to the tune of overRs 3.74 crore, in which noticeswere issued to him to join theprobe, they said. "The accuseddid not cooperate with the

investigation and also did notfurnish the requisite infor-mation and documents per-taining to the case. It was fur-ther alleged that the accusedhad influenced the witnessesand dissuaded them fromjoining the investigation anddisclosing the relevant facts ofthe case," CBI SpokespersonJoshi said in a statement.

Gandhi allegedly producedfabricated Covid-positivereports of his family membersto avoid investigation, theofficials said. He was present-ed before a special CBI court,which sent him to judicial cus-tody till May 7, they added.

DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETS CASE

Ex-GST official arrestedfor influencing witnesses

Chief Minister’s daughter Kavithasets up helpline for virus affected

Sanitation workers at major risk from biomedical waste

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021

Ponds in Medak have cometo life as a result of a planexecuted by Chief

Minister K Chandrasekhar Raoto restore many ponds, canalsand tributaries that almostdried up, by diverting Godavariwaters to TS plains.

Chief Minister KCR's polit-ical secretary, MLC SheriSubhash Reddy, who played akey role in the construction ofthe first check dam on theManjira River, acknowledgedthe importance of check damsas he worked hard to get a largenumber of check dams on theManjira River, Haldi Vagu sanc-tioned.

MLC Subhash Reddy spokeexclusively to The Pioneer's ACHANDRASHEKHAR RAOon the occasion of Kaleswaramwater going to Nijansagar viaManjira river.

Q: How much will theKaleswaram waters benefitfrom the check dam built onManjira?

Sheri: Four large ponds con-nected to KondapochammaSagar, 70 km wide 30 checkdams at Haldi Vagu, checkdam at Bollaram Mathadi on

Manjira is completed and thecheck dam under construc-tion is 40 km wide. Thegroundwater level will rise by 3km in 70 km stretch of Haldiand Manjira. The Kaleshwaramwaters, which start from Vargalover Haldi, flow into Nijansagarthrough the Tupran, Masaipeta,Veldurthy, Ghanpur andPapannapeta mandals.Thousands of acres are expect-ed to benefit.

Q: Did you expect thewaters of Kaleshwaram toreach Medak district duringthe summer?

Sheri: In fact, it's a matter ofspeculation. This is simply theresult of KCR's foresight to

make Telangana farmers groweconomically. As a committedactivist who has been withKCR for 22 years, I believe thatCM KCR will bring Godavariwater to Medak district withoutfail. I am proud to have com-pleted it in just three years.

Q: Is Kaleshwaram wateravailable for two crops?

Sheri: Absolutely. In all theefforts of the CM, his hope is tolive proudly in the hearts of thepeasant community. However,due to the provision of water forboth the crops, there is noshortage of water.

Q: Are there any instancesof river water mixing in thetributary?

Sheri: The tributaries arethe lifeblood of the rivers. Butdue to the negligence of the pre-vious rulers all the tributariesdried up. KCR is the CM whohas turned even the tributariesinto living beings in a way thatno one in the world couldhave imagined. Check damsbuilt on tributaries have a waterflow chain that stores water upto kilometers everywhere,allowing thousands of acres tobe cultivated.

A CHANDRASHEKHAR RAO

n SANGAREDDY

The political scenario con-cerning the Siddipet municipalelections is becoming moreintriguing each passing day asthe BJP is playing a wait-and-watch game to cash on therebel candidates in the TRS.The election will be mainlycontested between the rulingTRS party and the BJP.

Rebels have become aheadache for the TRS as largenumber of TRS men has filedtheir nomination. Now theparty leadership is busy per-suading the rebels to withdrawtheir nominations in favour ofthe official TRS candidate.There had been some opposi-tion to some of the TRS can-didates, who had won the lastelection. As a result of this TRShad distributed tickets in astrategic way. Only 20 percentof the old faces had beenretained and 80 percent of the

candidates would be new faces,it had been learnt. However,this had led to filing of nomi-nations by many TRS partymen. Though TRS hadannounced its candidatesmany hopefuls had filed theirnominations and were nowunwilling to withdraw fromthe fray. This had given theparty top bosses a trying timeas they were now busy tryingto get the rebels withdrawtheir nominations as per theinstructions issued by MinisterHarish Rao. Though the rebelsfeel that they have a goodchance in the party, yet someof the hopefuls will not final-ly withdraw nomination,observers feel.

This time the BJP is tryingto tactically manipulate theSiddipet municipal elections.The BJP has announced only21 candidates for the possible43 wards. The BJP has notgiven B-forms to anyone. Thedecision will be made follow-

ing the action taken by the TRSrebels, it has been learnt. TRShas so far officially announcedonly 29 candidates. The BJPplans to release the full listsoon after the TRS announcesits candidates. It seems thatthose, who are already hopingfor a ticket in the TRS are alsoin touch with the BJP elders.The BJP is also believed to beinviting them. The situation inthe Congress party is evenworse. It is noteworthy that theparty has not announced itscandidates till now. Only 32wards have seen nominationsbeing filed by Congressmen.The remaining 11 wards haveno party candidates. However,it is doubtful whether the can-didates, who have filed nomi-nations, despite being given aB-Form will finally stay in thecompetition. In view of this,there is propaganda that the listof Congress candidates hasbeen deliberately kept underwraps.

The celestial wedding of Lord Rama and his consort Seetha wascelebrated with religious fervour at the historical Sri Seetha

Ramachandra Swamy Temple at Bhadrachalam on WednesdayMinister for Endowments A Indrakaran Reddy offered silk clothesand mutyala talambralu to presiding deities on behalf of the stategovernment in accordance with the tradition followed since thetimes of Bhakta Ramadasu. Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay

Kumar along with his wife P Vasanthalakshmi also offered silkclothes to the presiding deities. It may be noted that this is the

second consecutive year that the celestial wedding wasconducted sans devotees as against the recent practice of

celebrating the event in the presence of devotees at Midhilastadium at the temple.

CELESTIAL WEDDING

Check-dams on Manjira rivera boon for farmers: Subhash

Politics heating upin Siddipet district

PNS n PEDDAPALLI

A 25 year-old woman killedher two children and endedher life by jumping into anagricultural well in Peddapallimandal on Wednesday.

After quarreling withmother-in-law and sister-in-law, Vijaya along with her twochildren Shivakrishna, 3, andSrikruthi, 2, left from thehome on Tuesday and wasfound dead in an agriculturewell on Wednesday morning.

According to Swamy, hus-band of the deceased Vijayainformed him about thequarrel over phone when hewas outside. He promised herto solve the issue after reach-ing home. However, she leftthe home by the time hereached the home.

He contacted Vijaya's broth-er to cross check whether shewent to her maternal home butshe did not go there. Theythought that she would comeback in the morning. But, shewas found dead in the well.

Peddaplli police rushed tothe spot retrieved bodies.Based on the complaint byhusband, police began inves-tigation.

Woman kills her 2 children, ends life in Peddapalli

PNS n KARIMNAGAR

When all state governmentshave left the people and privateemployees to their destinyduring the corona catastrophe,the welfare schemes initiatedby the Telangana ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao were going on uninter-rupted in the state.

The government has comeforward to provide Rs 2,000 incash and 25 kg fine quality riceto the staff of private educa-tional institutions on human-itarian grounds, Minister forCivil Supplies GangulaKamalakar said on Wednesday.

The Minister launched theprogramme in Karimnagaron Wednesday and distributedRs 2,000 and 25 kg rice to theprivate teachers and schoolstaff members till the schoolswere reopened. He said theKCR government was assistingthe private employees, whowere suffering starvation onhumanitarian grounds when

the corona was devastating.Despite the unsound financialposition, the government wascontinuing the welfareschemes for the poor, GangulaKamalakar said.

He recalled that the govern-ment had given 12 kg of freerice and Rs 1500 in cash toeach poor family in the firstphase of the corona. Now, itwas assisting the employees ofprivate educational institu-tions by providing fine quali-ty rice in the present secondwave corona period. Therewere around 1.45 lakhemployees across the state asper the records of the UnifiedData Information of SchoolEducation (UDISE).

Scheme takes off to aid pvt school staff

PNS n WARANGAL

Panchayat Raj MinisterErrabelli Dayakar Rao hasgreeted the people on theoccasion of Srirama Navamiand advised Covid patientsreceiving treatment in homeisolation and askedthem to take properregimen of drugs,disbursed by themgovernment phar-macies and gave acall to them saying,"Let us defeat theCorona virus." He toldthem not to be afraid of thevirus.

He asked people not to beworried about not witnessingthe celestial wedding of LordSrirama with His ConsortGoddess Sita on SriramaNavami Day and infused con-fidence in them saying that letus witness the event next year

after the pandemic is over. He was addressing the

Covid-19 affected and theirfamilies, elected people's rep-resentatives, bureaucrats, doc-tors, police and other officialsthrough the teleconference

mode on Wednesday. Sounding cautionsaying that the virus isnow in its virulentform, he advisedpatients to practiceyoga in the morn-

ing, inhale steam - apopular home remedy

- and observe self-regula-tion for the virus.

He appealed to the electedpeople's representatives toshare the problems of theCovid-19 affected. The infec-tion is fast spreading and dailythousands of cases are beingreported. Therefore, he askedthe people to observe precau-tions like wearing masks.

Do not get scared ofCovid, says Errabelli

PNS n MULUGU

A pamphlet released by Maoistsin Vajedu Venkatapuram ofMulugu district in the name ofarea secretary Sudhakar creat-ed commotion in the police cir-cles on Tuesday.

The pamphlet appears tohave thrown a challenge forpolice personnel giving a clar-ion call to defeat 'OperationPrahar' and Maoist area secre-tary Sudhakar called for'Bharat Bandh' on April 26protesting against the policeattacks.

The Maoist leader alleged inthe pamphlet that the state andcentral governments were act-ing on the directives of theimperialistic capitalists, whowanted to exploit Jal Jungleand Zameen mining wealth.

It was their bid to suppressthe Maoists who were trying tothwart their attempts.Sudhakar expressed his strongdescent as the governmenthad initiated 'Sainik Prahar'since December last in theDandakaranya forest andprompting fake encountersacross the country as the policekilled around 300 people, dalmembers and commanders.

Sudhakar said about 10Maoists were killed in the fakeencounters after the KCR-ledTRS government assumedoffice. Tens of people fell ill inthe poisoning mission by thepolice. The Modi governmentwas trying to establish aBrahminism Hindu state,Sudhakar said and adding thatthe BJP government was mov-ing forward to set up a Maoist-

free modern Indian state. Inthe name of the corona, thegovernment was making anti-people laws and suppress thepeople by joining hands withfascist sections, Sudhakar saidin the pamphlet.

The Modi government hadkilled about 300 farmers bybringing anti-farmer laws inPunjab. Sudhakar came downheavily on the Centre for sup-pressing the Adivasis in theforest areas for enabling thecorporates to exploit the forestlands.

He said the new democrat-ic revolution was the only wayto teach a lesson to the stateand central governments. Heappealed to the people to par-ticipate in the Bharat bandhcalled on April 26 and make ita success.

Cops jittery over Maoist challenge

PNS n WARANGAL/

JAYASHANKAR BHUPALPALLY

Cutting across political andreligious lines, all sections of thesociety are praying for thespeedy recovery of ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

On Wednesday, specialprayers and services were per-formed at temples, mosques,churches and other religiousplaces, praying for the goodhealth of Chief Minister.

Praying speedy recovery ofChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao fromCovid-19, Tribal WelfareMinister Satyavathi Rathodoffered special prayers atBhadrakali temple here onWednesday. Rathod also par-ticipated in the Homam organ-ised for the good health of theChief Minister.

Speaking to the media,Rathod said, "I prayed toGoddess Bhadrakali to show-er her blessings on the ChiefMinister. I wished that the

Chief Minister defeats thevirus quickly, returns to nor-mal health and continues toserve the State." TourismMinister V Srinivas Goud alsooffered prayers at Hanumantemple in Mahbubnagar onWednesday, for the speedyrecovery of the Chief Minister.

Wishing speedy recovery ofChief Minister, Jayashankar-Bhupalapally zilla parishadchairman Jakku Sriharshini

on Wednesday performed spe-cial pujas at MukteswaraSwamy temple in Kaleswaram.

She along with severe TRSelected representatives andleaders conducted MrutyunjayaHomam amidst chanting ofVedic hymns by scholars.

She sought blessings of theAlmighty and also that offour-crore people to KCR. Shesaid that the CM took the stateto dizzy heights in terms ofdevelopment and ranked num-ber one in the country.

Praying to the Almightythat the CM should live for 100years with full health, she andother TRS leaders performedspecial pujas. KaleswaramSarpanch Vasanta MohanReddy, Market CommitteeChairman Bhavani Prakash,MPP Rani Bai Rama Rao, TRSlocal unit president SrinivasaRao, Mahadevpur PACS vice-chairman Tirupati Reddy,Kaleswaram temple executiveofficer Maruti and others werepresent on the occasion.

Special prayers performed for KCR's speedy recovery

PNS n RAJANNA SIRICILLA

Traders in Vemulavada townhave offered to cooperatewith the municipal authori-ties and offered to close theirshops daily after 5 pm at anall-party meeting held atmunicipal council office hereon Wednesday with chair-man of the municipalityMadhavi in chair.

The meeting was attendedby governing body of thetown's municipality, townunit presidents of Congress,TRS, BJP and TDP besidesthe representatives of provi-sional stores and textileshops.

The meeting took stock ofthe Covid-19 situation anddeaths due to the virus in thetown. Opinion of partici-pants was taken to reduce thespurt in Covid cases anddeaths due to the virus.

Traders in Sircillato shut shops by5 pm from today

PNS n NAGARKURNOOL

TRS MLC and governmentwhip K Damodar Reddy onWednesday condemned whathe called double standardsadopted by the police in thedistrict and declared to settlethe issue by taking it up withthe Chief Minister.

Coming down heavily onthe police, Damodar Reddycriticised the police for adopt-ing unilateral style of function-ing. The conduct of somepolice personnel in police sta-tions is a blot on the entirepolice department.

In fact, the town police sta-tion is not in the hands ofsenior police officers, but oneor two police persons are call-ing the shots.

He alleged the hands of thepolice behind illegal trans-portation of sand, black soil,filtered sand and so on. Hecharged the police with resort-ing to collection of bribes toencourage the illegal activity.He alleged that the seniorpolice officers are keepingmum turning a blind eye towhat is happening in front oftheir eyes. He accused thepolice of joining hands withreal estate mafia and resorting

to settlements publicly. Sandtransportation is going onunder the watchful eyes of thepolice. He claims to haveinformation that how muchbribe the police had collectedfrom which tractor.

Responding to a call givenby KCR, he claimed to havejoined the TRS and workedhard for the electoral successof party candidates inAssembly, Sarpanch, ZPTC,cooperative polls. But, thepolice have been resorting tovictimising his close followersand party activists by foistingthe false cases. He said that hewas at a loss of comprehensionwhy the local MLA chose notto respond on the issue.

The police registered a falsecase against his own commu-nity member and formerMPTC Ramana Rao for hisfault of having resisted thecheating of farmers by the cot-ton trader with the help of CI.He alleged that the policeofficer threatened to open arowdy-sheet against the for-mer MPTC.

He said that it was a ploy tofoist false cases against hisclose aides and party workersand send them to jail in a bidto isolate him politically.

Police join hands with real estate mafia: MLC

Major parties ready for Greater Warangal polls NS RAO n WARANGAL

TRS is all set to make its markin the 30th elections thismonth. Leaders of Congressand BJP parties have beenbusy arranging for the cam-paign. TRS has announcedthat it has expanded theGreater Warangal MunicipalCorporation from 58 divi-sions in the past to 66 divisionsat present. With this, the num-ber of contesting candidateshas increased significantly.

Aspirants are especiallyinterested in contesting thismunicipal election on behalf ofthe ruling party. Apart fromthe TRS, candidates ofCongress, BJP and severalindependent candidates arein the fray. The state ministersYerrabelli Dayakar Rao and

Satyavathi Rathod want theirparty candidates to win thiselection. All TRS MLAs andsenior leaders are taking partin the election campaign.Dayakar Rao urged peoplefrom all walks of life to cometogether and make TRS partycandidates win in this election.

On the other hand, theCongress party has alsodeclared its readiness to con-test in this election. However,there are reports that somecongressmen are ready to raisethe banner of rebellion with-in their own party in this elec-tion. Almost all the major par-ties are working hard to maketheir party candidates victori-ous in all the divisions. A totalof 1,765 nominations werefiled for 66 wards in GWMCin this election.

PNS n MEDAK

“It gives me immense pleasurewhile Godavari waters areflowing in the hot summer inMedak district,” FinanceMinister T Harish Rao said.

Speaking on the occasion,Harish Rao said he was verymuch excited to see Godavariwater gushing in amid the hotsummer and thanked ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao. He said the Godavariwater would flow about 100km in Medak and reach theNizam Sagar project. It wouldbring cheers to farmers allalong the riparian regions ofthe district. The credit goes tothe TRS government to buildreservoirs like Kondapocha-mma and Mallanna Sagarwhere there were no rivers. Itwas the day when the Chief

Minister would be remem-bered in history. The erst-while Medak district would bedeveloped as the green districtwith Kaleswaram waters.

Harish Rao said, “The devel-opment which was not possi-ble in 70 years, was madepossible only with ChiefMinister. Stating that it was aneye feast to see the water gush-ing overflowing over Bollaramwith Godavari waters, the

Minister said the TRS govern-ment has changed the fateand future of the state andfarmers could cultivate won-derful crops in the TS region.

He said the cattle used tosuffer due to lack of water todrink in the summer, but thesecattle would get plenty of wateras water into canals. With theentry of water, both the con-stituencies of Narasapur wouldbenefit.

Happy to see Godavari flowingeven in summer season: Harish

PNS n MAHBUBNAGAR

As the finalisation of candi-dates may take much moretime for Jadcherla andAchampeta municipalities inthe erstwhile Mahbubnagar, astate of confusion prevailedamong the contestants.

Significantly, four to fivecandidates filed nominationsfor each ward causing chaos inthe major political parties likeTRS, Congress and BJP.

Uncertainty prevails as thelocal MLA Jedcherla and for-mer minister Dr LakshmaReddy and Achampeta MLAGuvvala Balaraju as pressuremounting on them about thenaming the candidates. Sincethere were several contestantsfrom each ward, they were intotal ambiguity. It became a lit-mus test for the TRS leaders tofinalise the candidates for themunicipal wards.

Out of 27 wards in Jedcherlamunicipality, about 63 candi-dates filed papers. Similarly,out of 20 wards in Achampetamunicipality, as many as 62nominations were filed. TheTRS has to hand over B Formsto the candidates by Thursday.

The TRS leaders were dilly-dal-lying over giving tickets to thecontestants. Some candidateswere trying to shift loyalties toanother party if they weredenied seats at the eleventhhour. Sensing the trouble, theTRs leaders confined to the'wait and see' policy to find outwho would be the winninghorses. In a bid to appease thedissidents, the leaders were onthe tenterhooks.

The candidates who suspectthat they may not get theticket in TRS were keeping intouch with Congress or BJP.

The leaders were trying toconvince some leaders promis-ing some chances in future.The ticket aspirants were mak-ing rounds to meet the legis-lators. Some candidates evendecided to contest as indepen-dent in case the ruling TRSdenied ticket to them andthey get ready another set ofnomination papers. The par-ties were planning to issue BForms at the eleventh hour asthe withdrawal of nominationswould be closing on Thursday.Taking it as a challenge, theTRS was moving pawns strate-gically to win the game.

Parties on tenterhooks DEFECTIONS IN MAHBUBNAGAR

‘Ticketless’ rebels giving TRS leadership trying time

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

In view of the night curfew inTelangana, RachakondaCommissioner of PoliceMahesh Bhagwat visited thecheck posts set up by thepolice officials on Tuesdayand Wednesday night.

As the Covid cases in thesecond wave have reached6000-mark in Telangana, thestate government has decid-ed to impose night curfew tillMay 1.

To make it effective, thepolice officials have set up 46check posts in the Commis-sionerate limits, said MaheshBhagwat Mahesh M Bhagwatadvised the citizens to strictlyfollow the curfew rules, peo-ple who violate curfew ruleswill be punished under Section51 of Disaster ManagementAct and IPC 188.

Violators will be punished,says top cop

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021 nation 05

Senior Congress leaderJairam Ramesh onWednesday criticised the

Union government overdifferential pricing of Covishieldvaccine, saying the Centregetting it at Rs 150 per doseand states at Rs 400 is nocooperative federalism. Hedemanded the Centre and stategovernments pay the sameprice for the COVID-19 vaccine. He said overcharging state governmentsfor the anti-coronavirus shots will bleed dry their already stressedfinances. "The Central government will continue to pay Rs 150 per dosefor Covishield. State governments will now be charged Rs 400 a dose.This is not cooperative federalism. This will bleed dry the already reelingstate finances. Atrocious," he said on Twitter. "We demand One Nation,One Price for Centre and State governments," he said. Serum Institute ofIndia (SII), the world's largest vaccine-maker, on Wednesday announceda price of Rs 600 per dose for COVID vaccine supplies to privatehospitals and Rs 400 per dose to state governments. In a statementposted on its Twitter handle, SII said it will address the limited capacityby scaling up the vaccine production over the next two months.

Afire broke out ata furnituremarket in west

Delhi's Kirti Nagararea in the earlyhours of Wednesday,officials said.However, no one wasinjured in theincident, they added.According to firedepartment officials,informationregarding the blazewas received around 3 am, following which 28 fire engines were rushedto the spot. The fire was brought under control around 6 am, they said.According to police, five godowns and around 26 adjoining shantieswere damaged in the fire.

INDIA CORNER

With complaints pouring inregarding shortage andblackmarketing of oxygen

and Remdesivir, the Karnatakagovernment on Wednesdayannounced setting up a 'WarRoom'. "In order to ensuretimely & sufficient supply ofOxygen and #Remdesivir a 24x7war room has been establishedwith staff working round theclock in 3 shifts," state Health Minister K Sudhakar tweeted. Passingan order to thi s effect, the Drug Controller of Karnataka appointed 26government employees and officers to manage the war room. Thegovernment also set up a new 6 Kilo Litre capacity Medical Oxygenplant at the Chamarajanagar District Hospital. Sharing the informationon Twitter, Sudhakar said the oxygen plant will be operational verysoon. There had been an acute shortage of Remdesivir and oxygen inthe state ever since the surge in COVID cases was noticed. T

‘Atrocious': Jairam Ramesh slamsCentre over Covishield pricing

K'taka govt sets up war roomto monitor supply of oxygen

Sheena Bora murder caseaccused Indrani Mukerjeaand 39 other inmates of

the Byculla prison here havetested positive for coronavirusand shifted to a quarantinecentre, an official said onWednesday. These 40 inmateswere found positive forcoronavirus after they weresubjected to Rapid AntigenTest (RAT), he said. "Most of the 40 inmates are asymptomatic. Theywere shifted to the isolation centre of the prison at Patankar School inByculla in Central Mumbai as a precautionary measure," he said. The RAT was performed on Sunday as one of the women prisoners wasfound infected and shifted to the COVID centre at St George Hospital inSouth Mumbai, the official said. Subsequently, RAT was conducted on350 women prisoners, 225 men inmates and 60 staff of the jail, out ofwhom 40 women tested positive for coronavirus. Mukerjea has beenlodged at the Byculla prison since her arrest in the murder case inAugust 2015. The prosecution's case is that Mukerjea, along with herformer husbands Sanjeev Khanna and Peter Mukerjea, had killed SheenaBora, who was born of her previous relationship, in the year 2012.

Maha: Indrani Mukerjea, 39other inmates corona +eve

Fire breaks out at furnituremarket in west Delhi

PNS n NEW DELHI

A new experimental COVID-19 vaccine has shown promis-ing results in early animal test-ing, according to researcherswho say the preventive mayprovide protection againstexisting and future strains of thenovel coronavirus, and costabout USD 1 per dose.

The vaccine developed byresearchers, including thosefrom the University of Virginia(UVA) in the US, preventedpigs from being becoming illwith a pig model coronavirus,porcine epidemic diarrhea virus(PEDV).

PEDV infects pigs, causingdiarrhea, vomiting, and highfever, and has been a large bur-den on pig farmers around theworld. The new vaccineapproach might one day openthe door to a universal vaccinefor coronaviruses, includingcoronaviruses that previouslythreatened pandemics or per-haps even coronaviruses that

cause some cases of the com-mon cold, the researchers said.

According to theresearchers, the vaccine offersseveral advantages that couldovercome major obstacles toglobal vaccination efforts.

It would be easy to store andtransport, even in remote areasof the world, and could be pro-duced in mass quantities using

existing vaccine-manufactur-ing factories, they said.

"Our new platform offers anew route to rapidly-producevaccines at very low cost thatcan be manufactured in exist-ing facilities around the world,which should be particularlyhelpful for pandemicresponse," said Steven L.Zeichner from UVA.

Described in the journalPNAS, the vaccine-produc-tion platform involves syn-thesising DNA that directs theproduction of a piece of thevirus which can instruct theimmune system to mount aprotective immune responseagainst the virus. "Killedwhole-cell vaccines are cur-rently in widespread use to

protect against deadly diseaseslike cholera and pertussis.Factories in many low-to-mid-dle-income countries aroundthe world are making hun-dreds of millions of doses ofthose vaccines per year now,for a USD 1 per dose or less,"Zeichner said.

"It may be possible to adaptthose factories to make thisnew vaccine. Since the technol-ogy is very similar, the costshould be similar too," headded.

The vaccine takes an unusu-al approach in that it targets apart of the spike protein of thevirus, the "viral fusion peptide,"that is essentially universalamong coronaviruses.

The spike protein helps thevirus to enter the human cells.

The fusion peptide has notbeen observed to differ at all inthe many genetic sequences ofSARS-CoV-2 that have beenobtained from thousands ofpatients around the world dur-ing the pandemic.

PNS n BALURGHAT

Lashing out at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Wednesday allegedthat the second COVID-19wave in the country and itsmanagement is a "Modi-madedisaster".

Addressing an election rallyat Balurghat in DakshinDinajpur district, the TMCchief asserted that West Bengalwill be run only by a "Bengalengine government" and not by"Modi's double-engine".

"The second COVID wave ismore intense. I would say thisis a Modi-made disaster. Thereare no injections or oxygen.Vaccines and medicines arebeing shipped abroad even asthere is a scarcity of theseitems in the country," she toldthe rally.

She claimed that this electionis a fight to save West Bengaland "protect the honour of theBengali mother".

"Our state will be run by aBengal engine government andnot by Modi's double-engine

government. We will not allowGujarat to capture our state orrun it from Delhi. Bengal willrule Bengal," she said.

The term "double-enginegovernment" often used byBJP leaders denotes the govern-ment of the same party at theCentre and the state.

The TMC chief also urgedpeople not to vote for Left-Congress-ISF alliance candi-dates claiming that voting forthem will strengthen the BJP'shand.

Banerjee said that the Centrehad said seven months ago thatthe pandemic has subsided.

"Now, with elections under-

way in West Bengal, the BJP isbringing in people from otherstates and spreading the infec-tion among the people here,"she said.

She said that her administra-tion is finding it difficult to setup safe homes as many govern-ment accommodations arebeing used to house centralforces.

"We are finding it difficult toset up safe homes.

Although we have increasedthe number of beds, I wouldsuggest that patients who don'thave severe symptoms, pleaseremain in home isolation,"Banerjee said.

PNS n PUDUCHERRYPuducherry registered 619 freshCOVID-19 cases on Wednesdaypushing the total caseload to49,593 while the toll climbed to722 as five more people suc-cumbed to the infection.

Director of Health and FamilyWelfare Services S MohanKumar said there were 5,404active cases which included1,036 patients taking treatmentin hospitals while the remaining4368 patients were in home iso-lation.

He said 43,467 patients recov-ered and were discharged so farfrom hospitals.

Of the total new casesPuducherry region aloneaccounted for 470 cases fol-lowed by Karaikal 70, Yanam 41and Mahe 38.

The 619 cases were identifiedat the end of examination of 5607

samples during last twenty fourhours.

The Director also said thefatality and recovery rates were1.46 percent and 87.65 percentrespectively.

Kumar said of the 7.43 lakhsamples tested so far 6.73 lakhsamples turned out to be nega-tive.

On the vaccination drive, henoted that 30,473 health careworkers and 18,128 front lineworkers have been inoculated sofar in the Union Territory.

The second phase of vaccina-

tion meant to cover those above60 years or those above 45 yearswith co-morbidities has benefit-ted 1,09,471 people.

Meanwhile, Lt GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan inaugu-rated a vaccination festival at aprivately managed hospital PIMSnear here and said people shouldnot hesitate to receive vaccina-tion to prevent the pandemic.

She said Puducherry was per-haps the only state where the vac-cination programme was beingimplemented in a coordinatedmanner in association with pri-vate medical colleges and hospi-tals under Public Private partner-ship.

Soundararajan further said aday's delay in getting the shotwould mean delaying anti bod-ies and hence no hesitationshould be shown by the peopleto get the inoculation.

PNS n MUMBAI

Amid a surge in COVID-19cases in Maharashtra, the stategovernment has decided tocancel Class X board examina-tion, Minister for Primaryand Secondary EducationVarsha Gaikwad said onTuesday. The decision wastaken at a meeting of the statecabinet here. In a televisedmessage, she said, The (ClassX board) exam is cancelled.However, to bring parityacross various higher sec-ondary education boards,including of Maharashtra aswell as central and internation-al boards, a meeting (ofstake-holders) will be called tofinalise a roadmap."Marks willbe given to students based oninternal assessment, but aprocess for the same is yet be

decided, Gaikwad said.There is no decision as of

now on how marks will begiv-en to students who will beapplying for Class 11 admis-sion in various junior colleges.

"A decision on markingsystem will be finalised onlyafter discussing the issue withvarious stakeholders, Gaikwad

said after attending the cab-inet meeting.

Maha cancelsClass 10 exams

PNS nMUMBAI

With COVID-19 continuing itsrelentless surge and theMaharashtra government tight-ening restrictions, film and TVproducers are scouting for loca-tions outside the state in a desper-ate bid to complete long-stalledmovie projects and build upepisode banks.

The pandemic last year hadslammed the brakes on theMumbai-headquartered enter-tainment industry that providesemployment to lakhs of people.And just as shooting scheduleswere picking up pace and datesgetting finalised for films await-ing theatrical releases came thesecond Covid wave more power-ful than the first with Maharashtra

leading the tally of cases.As the state government

clamped down further on move-ment, following its announce-ment that all shootings stand sus-pended to curtail the spread of

the infection, and fears of a lock-down grew, so did uncertaintyabout what the future holds.

Producer Bhushan Kumar's“Ek Villain Returns” is one of thebiggies to be affected. The shoothas been moved to Goa butKumar said there is no decisionyet on their other films.

“The sudden surge in Covidcases is definitely something toworry about. We stand by thedecision to not shoot in the city.To meet the shoot deadlines wehave found the perfect locationin Goa to shoot ‘Ek VillainReturns'. The shoot has begunthere and we are abiding by theprotocols laid down by the gov-ernment. We will soon take a callon the other films,” Kumar toldPTI. The shoot of Prabhas-star-

rer "Adipurush", which was tak-ing place in Mumbai with min-imum cast and crew, is now onhold due to the virtual lockdownin the state.

In television, where producershave to come up with dailyepisodes, they have gone to sec-ond-tier cities after Mumbai shutdown production.

Goa, a convenient flight away,seems to be a favourite.

Star Plus shows such as "YehHai Chahatein", "Ghum HaiKisikey Pyaar Meiin" and "AapkiNazron Ne Samjha" are current-ly being shot in the coastal state.Zee TV has also shifted theshoot of its popular shows"Kundali Bhagya", "Apna TimeBhi Ayega" and "Qurbaan Hua"to Goa.

PNS n PUNE

A poultry farmer fromMaharashtra's Pune districthas approached the policeclaiming that hens at his farmhave stopped laying eggs afterconsuming the feed manufac-tured by a particular firm, anofficial said on Wednesday.

No FIR is registered as theconcerned manufacturer hasagreed to pay the compensa-tion to owners of three to fourpoultry farms who also facedthis issue.

"The complainant is a poul-try farm owner. He and atleast four other poultry farmowners in his area also faced

the same issue, followingwhich he submitted a com-plaint to us," said RajendraMokashi, senior police inspec-tor, Loni Kalbhor police sta-tion.

The complainant stated hehad purchased the poultryfeed from a company based inthe neighbouring Ahmednagar district of the state.

"He mentioned in the appli-cation that after consumingthat feed, hens at his farmhave stopped laying eggs,"Mokashi said. He said thepolice consulted the blocklevel animal husbandry officerin Ahmednagar over thisissue.

Pondy adds 619 fresh cases; Lt Guv asks people to take vax

PNS nAHMEDABAD

The Gujarat government haspermitted all private hospitals,clinics, nursing homes anddispensaries to treat coron-avirus patients till June 15, anofficial said on Wednesday.

The decision was takenduring a core-committeemeeting chaired by ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani onTuesday night in light of thesurge in coronavirus cases inthe state. "Looking at thegrowing number of novelcoronavirus cases, the Gujaratgovernment has decided topermit doctors in privatehospitals, clinics, dispensariesand nursing homaes to treatCOVID-19 patients till June15," an official release stated.

Pvt hospitals,clinics allowedCovid treatment

PNS n KOLKATA

Noted Bengali poet ShankhaGhosh, a Padma Bhushanawardee, died on Wednesdaymorning while he was in iso-lation at his residence aftertesting positive for COVID-19,his family said.

Ghosh, 89, was found to beCOVID-positive on April 14.

He was in home isolation onthe advice of doctors and wasstable, his family said.

However, his conditiondeteriorated suddenly late onTuesday night, followingwhich he was given oxygensupport, they said.

He died around 8.30 am,they added.

Ghosh, who suffered fromseveral comorbidities, washospitalised a few months agodue to deterioration of hishealth condition.

Considered to be havingauthority on RabindranathTagore, Ghosh is known for'Adim Lata - Gulmomay' and'Murkha Baro Samajik Nay',among other books.

Ghosh was awarded thePadma Bhushan in 2011 andconferred the prestigious

Jnanpith Award in 2016.He received the Sahitya

Akademi Award in 1977 forhis book 'Babarer Prarthana'.

Condoling the death, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidGhosh will be remembered forhis contributions to Bengaliand Indian literature.

"His works were widely readand admired. Saddened byhis demise. Condolences to hisfamily and friends. OmShanti," he tweeted.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee said she was shatteredafter coming to know aboutGhosh's death with whom sheshared a close rapport.

Union Home Minister Amit

Shah said he was anguishedtolearn about the death ofGhosh.

"He will always be remem-bered for his outstandingpoems, deeply rooted in thesocial context. My deepestcondolences to his family andfollowers. Om Shanti!" hetweeted.

CPI(M)'s legislative partyleader Sujan Chakraborty saidthat Bengal lost its soul withthe death of Ghosh.

Born in 1932 to grammar-ian Manindra Kumar Ghosh atChandpur in present-dayBangladesh, he graduated inBengali from PresidencyCollege and completed MAfrom Calcutta University.

He started his teaching creer at Bangabashi College in1955, and after a few stints insome other institutes, hejoined the Jadavpur University.He retired from JU in 1992.

Ghosh, whose literarycareer spanned over fivedecades, was considered oneof the most influential mod-ern-day Bengali poets.Originally Chittopriyo Ghosh,he took the pen name ofShankha Ghosh.

Bengali poet Shankha Ghoshdies battling COVID-19

PNS n NEW DELHI

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Wednesday askedbureaucrats to keep reshap-ing India's governancestructures to reflect consti-tutional values as well asexpectations of the people.In a series of tweets to markthe Civil Ser vices Day,Naidu said it is an occasionfor all civil servants to trans-form governance and con-stantly try to implementpublic policies that willmake the countr y"atmanirbhar" (self-reliant)as well as regain its rightfulplace in the comity ofnations.On this day in 1947, SardarVallabhbhai Patel had aptlydescribed civil servants asthe 'steel frame of India', herecalled."On this Civil Services Day,I express my heartfelt grat-itude, along with my fellowcitizens, to numerous civilservants who have left anindelible impress on thegovernance of our country,"he said.The vice president hailed theyeoman service civil ser-vants are rendering during

the coronavirus pandemic.The central governmentobserves April 21 every yearas 'Civil Services day' as anoccasion for civil servants torededicate themselves to thecause of citizen and renewtheir commitments to pub-lic service and excellence inwork. On this day in 1947, India'sf i rst Home ministerVal labhbhai Patel hadaddressed the probationersof Administrative ServicesOff icers at the MetcalfHouse here.

‘Try to implement public policiesto make country self-reliant’

PNS n KOLKATA

The son of Kolkatarestaurant chain owneron Tuesday surrenderedbefore a court in the cityafter the Supreme Courtjunked his plea seekingbail in a 2019 car crashcase that left twoBangladeshi nationalsdead. The trial courtremanded the accusedRaghib Parwez to judi-cial custody till May 5.On August 17, 2019, aspeeding Jaguar jumpeda traffic signal and hit aMercedes, before crash-ing into three personsstanding under a policecontrol booth inKolkata, killing twoBangladeshis.

The accused initiallytook shelter in his rela-tive'shouse on the out-skirt of Kolkata andfrom there he fled toDubai.

Son ofbusinessmansurrenders : Car crash

Film producers scramble in Maha INCREASING CORONA CASESFEED SHOCK

Farmer complains to copshens stop laying eggs

New Covid-19 vaccine may provideprotection against all strains: Study

Mamata: Second Covidwave is Modi-made disaster

thinking individual. Theprocess of growing updeserves to be dynamicallyoriented accordingly. Apartfrom the acquisition of life andproductive skills, the system-atic process of learning mustenable every individual tolead a peaceful, harmoniousand sublime life. This is bestexpressed in the essence of“Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram”(Truth, Beauty andGoodness)! And what good islife if society and its institu-tions permit growing up with-out internalisation of theseingredients. It must be accept-ed that our education systemswork under the conditions ofdeficiency of every kind. Sadlyenough, it includes financialresources and availability ofcompetent teachers in theright proportion. In a worldmoving towards knowledgeeconomy and knowledge soci-ety, no forward-looking nationcan afford dilution of qualityin education, which India issuffering from at present. Onecould get a realistic assessmentby visiting just a couple ofsarkari schools and colleges, ora State-maintained university.

Mentoring can be of helpto everyone at every stage oflife. It contributes most promi-nently in the initial stages, andit has a lasting impact. It mustcome from someone wiser,

experienced, empathetic,understanding and ready to bea partner in the process of dis-covery. Everyone learns fromsomeone else: Mostly it wouldbe from parents, friends, anacquaintance or an icon.Formal education/schoolingcan cater only to a part ofgrowing up, that too if the sys-tem is working with full effi-cacy. Think of Eklavya! He hada virtual mentor, who was hisicon. In the current times,every school could identifypersons from the communitywith experience, skills andreadiness to support the youngones in their learning needs.This would also require decen-tralisation of authority. Thehead teacher must be autho-rised to seek such supportbased on her/his judgment andthe availability of right persons.

In the 1960s-1970s, teach-ing in universities never suf-fered due to academic vacan-cies as the department headswere authorised to fill up evenshort vacancies from amongstthe research scholars availablewithin the department, orfrom outside. The senior fac-ulty would help them in everypossible manner; an exampleof perfect mentoring could beseen in practically every uni-versity department. On appro-priate occasions, help was alsosought from the retired facul-

ty. It was always readily forth-coming as they were not busywith coaching or teaching inprivate institutes, which isnow the order of the day. Anexample: The head of a univer-sity department once asked abrilliant young lecturer how heliked the teaching experience.The young man replied: “I amworried. Shall I be repeatingthe stuff for the next three-fourdecades?” The senioranswered: “Oh! You are teach-ing only physics? I help my stu-dents grow up. In that, there isno repetition!”

Life is getting more com-plex and competitive by theday. The generations aheadshall endure a much fasterpace of change; the education-al institutions therefore mustseek support from suitablyequipped persons with a visionfor future generations. Thementoring force needs to beconfined to retired and willingteachers only as the processrequires comprehension ofthe issues of the young on amuch larger span. One expectsthat the importance accordedto mentoring in the NEP-2020 shall bring about a realpositive change in the learningenvironment at every stage.

(The writer works in education and social cohesion.The views expressed are personal.)

The entire country is in the stranglehold of the COVID-19 virus and several of its peskystrains and double and triple mutant variants. The citizenry is unsure of how thefuture would unravel on various counts — longevity, health, loved ones, business

and employment opportunities, economy, curtailed movement, et al. Suddenly, thousandsof real and self-proclaimed “doctors” and “experts” havedescended upon us to enlighten us with their profoundknowledge and wisdom. Then there are crores of oth-ers who, without the necessary insight but still resoluteto serve humanity in their own humble fashion, feel con-tented playing the mailman especially with regard tothe effusive outflows from the know-all “University ofWhatsApp and Twitter”. What’s a little unsettling to someof us armchair ‘look-tterati’, however, is the calm withwhich the sultans of the netherworld of social mediaplatforms have greeted the pernicious virus or exhort-ed their billions of followers to stay composed, followCOVID-appropriate behaviour with sincerity and get vac-cinated as soon as their turn comes.

What makes their current conduct especially surprising is that most of these celebri-ties stay on social media as fish in water. You can expect them to write on any subjectunder the sun, even outside their field of speciality, and one doesn’t think that morethan a handful of their followers would ever have been disappointed. But in the currentall-hands-on-deck situation, where even a miniscule effort makes a huge difference insaving innocent lives, these super stars are ostensibly numb to the life-and-death issueat hand. Since around April 1, from among social media’s regular despatchers, the namesof only industrialist Anand Mahindra (April 14, April 19) and Priyanka Chopra (April 20)come to mind off the cuff, advising people to follow the health norms. Actors AmitabhBachchan (April 1) and Salman Khan (March 24) simply informed the world that theyhave taken their anti-COVID vaccine while cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar confirmed (March27) that he had tested positive for the virus. Certain other online gladiators, such asKaran Johar, were so busy promoting their web series or other filmography that a neg-ligible development like Corona assuming more virulent strains escaped their attention.A question for you: Are they really worth loving or emulating?

The humankind is facing an unprecedented crisis as the enemy is mightier than us— it frequently changes form and gets increasingly virulent — and arguably canrender all our defences, including medicines and vaccines, ineffective. The Coronavirus

is an RNA virus and all viruses have an inherent capacity to mutate. Basically, they mutateto stay on; but not all mutations are worrying for humans, save for the lethal ones. Themain concern of the scientific community right now is the efficacy of the extant vac-cines against the mutants and possible future variants. There is no way to stop the virusfrom mutating but the spectrum of vaccine effectiveness can be broadened keeping thepossible mutations in mind. But as these changes in genes or protein sequencing can-

not be predicted accurately, it’s next to impossibleto gauge the future form of a current strain and there-fore to develop an effective vaccine. Even as Indiastruggles with a double mutant Coronavirus, thereare reports that a new strain — a triple mutant vari-ant — has been detected and is circulating predom-inately in West Bengal, the State where three morephases of Assembly elections are due and which hadfor long become the favourite hunting ground of politi-cians of all hues, none of whom cared for COVID-appropriate behaviour either for themselves or theelectorate. Is there any end to these mutations, orwill these keep haunting us forever?

There are worrying reports that even fully inoculated people have contracted thevirus. Probably, they either didn’t adhere to COVID-appropriate norms during the inter-val between the doses, their bodies failed to produce antibodies despite getting vac-cinated or the vaccine turned out to be ineffective (improper storage might be a cause).But if it is actually due to a new strain against which the existing vaccines are notworking, the scientists and pharmaceutical giants need to put their heads togetherand find a solution. But scientific studies are data-based and not merely assump-tive, while India has a huge sample size with a lot of variations. The onus is on theGovernment to encourage and adequately fund such studies that will help the sci-entific community in developing new vaccines. Another problem scientists acrossthe world, and particularly in India, might face is if a person infected with a mutantstrain shows symptoms similar to those of the precursor variant. In such a scenario,the existing vaccines will be futile and the variant will not be easily detected as only“genome sequencing” can give exact information about the strain afflicting a per-son. In a poor country like India, genome sequencing — which costs tens of thou-sands of rupees — is not an option for the majority. With a clutch of life-and-deathquestions hovering all around us, these future possibilities are needed to be workedupon in a “vision and mission” mode. Till we hit upon the correct answers, there isno option to wearing masks, sanitising hands and waiting in a queue for the jab whileobserving physical distancing.

More trouble

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

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021

06

Influencers go blankIn spite of holding sway over millions of followers,many stars ain’t promoting anti-virus precautions

The National Education Policy-2020 rightly accords importance tomentoring as it can offer wide-ranging support to learners

PICTALK

Alitalia workers in Rome to discuss with the Government the relaunch of the Italian carrier PTI

THE TIMES AHEADWOULD DEMAND

MULTIDISCIPLINARYAND HOLISTIC

EDUCATION THATWOULD PREPARE

THE LEARNERS FOR MAKING AN

EFFECTIVECONTRIBUTION IN

CREATING A WORLDOF PEACE. JRD TATA

ONCE TOLDYOUNGSTERS: ‘AIM

FOR PERFECTION;YOU WILL ACHIEVE

EXCELLENCE.’

JS RAJPUT

As the number of COVID-19 infections soars, a triple mutant variant has emerged in Bengal

Training to growlearning horizons

Iread with considerable inter-est the Delhi Government’sdecision to launch “mentor-ing” of 1,000 girl students by

250 select senior-level students tohelp them move towards careersin STEM — science, technology,engineering and maths.Obviously, the move is linked tothe importance that mentoringfinds in the National EducationPolicy (NEP-2020): “A NationalMission shall be established, witha large pool of outstanding/retiredfaculty — including those withthe ability to teach in the Indianlanguages — that would be will-ing to provide short-term men-toring/professional support to theuniversity/college teachers.” Thepolicy proposal should have far-reaching and much wider impli-cations than those indicated inthe initiative mentioned above.Mentoring, articulated compre-hensively, can offer tremendoussupport to institutional function-ing, quality enhancement, stressreduction in the learning envi-ronment and critical thinking.

At present, the inadequacyof professionally equipped man-power is a major bottleneckpractically at every stage ofeducation. It is the initial stageof teaching and learning thatalone prepares a solid founda-tion for quality research, inno-vations and entrepreneurship. Ifchildren get necessary person-al-level guidance and help at thisstage, it would be a huge help infuture. Learning is no more con-fined to classrooms, textbooksand the hallowed premises ofschools and institutes of high-er learning. In times of swiftlyincreasing availability of digitallearning support systems, edu-cational institutions mustbroaden their horizons and beprepared to take help from out-side the formal systems. Thetimes ahead would demandmultidisciplinary and holisticeducation that would preparethe learners for making effectivecontribution in creating a worldof peace. JRD Tata once toldyoungsters: “Aim for perfection;you will achieve excellence.”

This is what education andlearning are all about. The pur-suit of excellence ought to be thegoal of every informed and

SOUNDBITECENTRE, STATES SHOULD WORK TOGETHERSir — This refers to the editorial ‘Bitterhomecoming’ (April 21). The unorganisedsector workers have been hit the worst bythe pandemic. Insecurity, anxiety, the fearof losing their loved ones have created con-fusion and fear in the minds of migrantworkers. However, the exodus from theCapital and other cities is not on such alarge scale as last year and may be termednegligible compared to when the lockdownwas first enforced last year. This time, thecurbs are imposed locally by certainStates whereas in 2020, the entire nationwas put under lockdown by the Centre.

This time, everyone including thelabourers have an idea on how to deal withCOVID-19, unlike last year when nobodywas aware of the perils or the precautions.That said, the respective Governmentshaven’t done anything substantial to con-trol this migration. It simply means thatno lessons have been learnt since last yearand that the Centre and the States still lackcoordination.

In 2020, the Centre and the Stateswoke up late; hopefully, they will do bet-ter this time. The key is perfect coordina-tion without animosity and bitterness.Things are likely to turn worse in the com-ing days and the interests of the migrantsmust be taken care of. The situation won’timprove without coordinated efforts.

Ganapathi Bhat | Akola

WELCOME DECISION BY THE SCSir — The Supreme Court has rightlystayed the Allahabad High Court’s direc-tive to impose a week-long lockdown infive districts of UP following what itdeemed a failure of the system to deal withthe spike in COVID-19 cases. The situa-tion in UP, no doubt, is grave and all sys-tems have been strained. But a lockdownis a call best left to the political executivesince its economic and social implicationsare far-reaching. Moreover, managing alockdown is based on district-level inputsand the health infrastructure available.

The High Court’s anguish is under-

standable but a fiat from the Bench is hard-ly the best way to go about tackling a pan-demic. The Government correctly heldthat a lockdown could cause destructionof livelihoods and accentuate economicdistress. However, there are glaring gapsin the State’s health infrastructure. Fixingthat is a long haul and will require sus-tained investment and political focus onpublic health. That’s why the StateGovernment may have got relief from theapex court but it will do well to carefullyremember the HC’s concerns.

N Sadhasiva Reddy | Bengaluru

GOVT FAILED TO CONTROL PANDEMICSir — It seems that the Prime Minister hasprioritised politics over people’s lives.When the virus reared its ugly headagain, both the political leadership and thehealth administration were caught woeful-

ly unprepared to meet the challenge. TheGovernment failed to control mass gath-erings, as seen in the Haridwar MahaKumbh. Its intervention came too late asthe damage had already been inflicted.The BJP restricted the audience strengthat its public meetings in West Bengal onlyafter the Left, Congress and the TMC hadannounced such steps. Congress leaderRahul Gandhi needs to be commended forhis vision and determination as he can-celled his campaign midway. Besides,had the Centre allowed vaccination for alladults earlier, many more lives could havebeen saved. It is a pity that the ruling BJPrefuses to learn lessons from history.That’s why India is currently in a mess.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage,Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealedto the States to focus on micro-containment

strategy and resort to lockdown only as the lastmeasure. Lowering the age bracket to 18 yearsfor the jab is a welcome step that will help getmaximum people inoculated and in developingherd immunity. However, the decision to allowthe manufacturers to set the vaccine price them-selves for use by the States and in the open mar-ket will introduce the element of profit-makingat such a crucial time.

Even as the vaccination is going on, othermeasures are needed to bring the pandemicunder control. Wearing masks and maintainingphysical distancing are necessary to contain the

pandemic. Existing healthcare facilities areunable to cope with the surge in hospitalisationof the infected patients. What makes headlinesis their inadequacy to provide the needed careto those struggling for life.

A pandemic is characterised by peaks andtroughs. During the trough period, theGovernment didn’t take steps to scale up thehealthcare facilities in anticipation of a possibleresurgence of the virus. The avoidable loss oflives for want of hospital beds, medical oxygenand drugs is really tragic. How sad the situationhas become can be gauged from the visuals ofnon-stop cremations and burials.

As many as 22 patients on ventilator sup-port at a Nashik hospital have lost their lives dueto the interruption in oxygen supply caused bya leakage in the oxygen tanker. Coronavirus isnot going away anytime soon. It is spreadingfaster in India than anywhere else in the world.We are left to combat it by following COVID-appropriate behaviour, ramping up testing andtracing, increasing the pace of vaccination andimproving healthcare facilities.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

The raging pandemicThe Tamil NaduGovernment shouldtake steps on warfooting to procurenecessary drugs andoxygen and prevent COVID-19 vaccine wastage.

DMK president — MK Stalin

The success of ourvaccinationprogramme hasdemonstrated whatthe UK can achievewhen we bring

together our brightest minds.

British Prime Minister — Boris Johnson

All that exists isnature. Nature lovesall equally. Wearrogantly call Earth‘Our Planet'. It doesnot belong to us.

Filmmaker— Shekhar Kapur

The country, frombeing a vaccine leader,has been reduced to avaccine beggar. Ratherthan testing patients,the Government istesting people's patience.

Congress leader

— Ajay Maken

The Argentina tourwas an importantexperience for all ofus. We were yearningfor proper matchpractice while building

up towards the Olympics.

Indian hockey player— Nilakanta Sharma

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

Maha mess due to blockedVohra report annexures

EVEN TODAY THEY’RE BUSY CAMPAIGNING. PEOPLE

ARE CRYING FOR HELP, SEEKING OXYGEN, BEDS, AND

YOU’RE GOING TO RALLIES AND LAUGHING!

—CONGRESS LEADER

PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA

PRIME MINISTER MODI ADDRESSED THE NATION...BUT

SADLY WHEN THERE OUGHT TO BE NO POLITICS, THE

CONGRESS PARTY IS INDULGING IN POLITICS.

—BJP SPOKESPERSON

SAMBIT PATRA

Many influential leaders in Maharashtraand Gujarat during the 1990s had alleged-ly developed ties with underworld don

Dawood Ibrahim and his henchman Iqbal Mirchi.This assertion was officially put down on paperwhen the NN Vohra Committee submitted its 100-page report to the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) on October 5, 1993, soon after it wasestablished in the aftermath of the Mumbai bombblasts. The report that was made public inAugust 1995 in Parliament, was limited to just 11pages. The rest of the pages that were never madepublic are as relevant today as they were on theday they were brought into existence.

The report had stated that there was a “defi-nite” nexus between Dawood and a very bigCongress leader of Maharashtra and had nameda former Chief Minister (CM). Another input thatis a part of the annexures of the report, showedhow two tranches of `5 crore each were given byDawood in 1992 to a relative of a CM who laterbecame a politician, too. A former top IntelligenceBureau (IB) officer said: “Gujarat-based leaderswere prominently mentioned in the annexures. Ifthe Home Minister decides to summon theseannexures — if he has not seen them till now —he will find familiar names in them. Every leadercomes and makes statements on Dawood andMirchi. The real test of intent is whether they havethe guts to take action on the basis of the find-ings of the Vohra Committee report that areencompassed in the annexures.”

The recent events in Maharashtra have estab-lished the fact that the country has learnt noth-ing from criminalisation of the system even whenthe report warned of the consequences of polit-ical, bureaucratic, criminal syndication so long ago.All the subsequent Governments have convenient-ly ignored the decay and left the citizens helpless.The recent happenings in Maharashtra, where theHome Minister, Police Commissioner and copsare accused of extortion and daring to threatenIndia’s most famous industrialist, is an eye-opener for all. This leads to the big question ofwhat is left for the common man on the street tosafeguard from such people?

The Vohra Committee report and after: Thereport highlighted the manifold dimensions of themalaise of criminalisation of politics. The demandfor money for party funds to contest electionspaved the way for political corruption and thescourge of black money. Political corruption actsas the foster mother of administrative corruptionas graft has the tendency to percolate andbecome ubiquitous. When an outcry was raisedby some public men about the menace of corrup-tion and its immensity, they were sought to besilenced on the ground that corruption prevailsin all countries. The fact that the extent of cor-ruption in our country was much larger was sim-ply brushed under the carpet. As things standtoday, corruption has befouled the entire politi-cal and administrative apparatus of the country.

The committee’s report on the criminalisationof politics in India has been variously describedas “a damp squib”, because it did not reveal anyspecific names of politicians but only stated in ageneral manner what was already widely knownand talked about for several years. At the sametime, it let the “cat out of the bag” because it was

for the first time that an officialreport clearly brought out thatcrime syndicates had developed sig-nificant muscle and money powerand they were virtually running aparallel Government and pushingthe State apparatus into irrele-vance. This is a frightening admis-sion to make for an official commit-tee. But it does not state how the sit-uation has to be dealt with and howcriminalisation of politics andGovernment can be overcome andeliminated. All that it suggests is thesetting up of a nodal agency whichwill provide one place where theIntelligence relating to the activitiesof crime syndicates can be gatheredby different agencies.

Sadly, the MaharashtraGovernment is run and controlledby the mafia. Even the VohraCommittee report tabled inParliament focused on the Memonbrothers and Dawood Ibrahim’spowerful network and their syner-gies with then ruling establish-ments. This could not have hap-pened without these elements hav-ing been protected by the func-tionaries of the Government depart-ments concerned, especiallyCustoms, the Income-TaxDepartment, the police force andothers.

Accordingly, R&AW monitorsthe activities of certain organisa-tions abroad only insofar as theyrelate to their involvement withnarco-terrorist elements and smug-gling of arms, ammunition andexplosives into the country. It doesnot monitor the activities of crim-inal elements abroad which are

mainly confined to “normal smug-gling without any links to terroristelements.” The current strength ofthe agency’s offices abroad wouldnot permit to enlarge its field ofactivities. If, however, there is evi-dence to suggest that these organ-isations have links with Intelligenceagencies of other countries, partic-ularly Pakistan, and that they arebeing used or are likely to be usedby such countries for destabilisingour economy, it would become theR&AWs responsibility to monitortheir activities.

‘Crime Syndicate’, a report onthe nexus between the Mumbaipolice and the Mumbai under-world was prepared by the CBI in1986. It would be useful to institutea fresh study by the CBI, on thebasis of what has happened inMaharashtra recently.

The CBI has reported that allover India, crimes syndicates havebecome a law unto themselves.Even in the smaller towns and ruralareas, musclemen have become theorder of the day. Hired assassinshave become a part of these organ-isations. The nexus between thecriminal gangs, police, bureaucra-cy and politicians has come outclearly in various parts of the coun-try.

The Yogi AdityanathGovernment in Uttar Pradesh (UP)and the Nitish Kumar Governmentin Bihar have used the might of theState to control the mess left behindby the Mulayam-Mayawati combi-nation in UP and Lalu in Bihar. Ithas been suggested that the menacehas first to be tackled at the local

level where the agencies of the Stateand the Central enforcement agen-cies like Customs and excise and theIncome-Tax Department would berequired to take effective action.

In case where a crime syndicatehas graduated to big business, itwould be necessary to conductdetailed investigations into its assets,both movable and immovable.

Law and order being a Statesubject, the central agencies havetheir task cut out. On the basis ofthe extensive experience gained byour Intelligence, investigative andenforcement agencies, it is apparentthat mafia organisations have estab-lished themselves in various partsof the country and developed sig-nificant muscle and money power.They have established linkages withGovernment functionaries, politi-cal leaders and others to be able tooperate with impunity. And variousState Governments tend to takeadvantage of the constitutional pro-prietary to patronise the syndicat-ed corruption.

It is a shame for a maturedemocracy to have political leadersand police officers who resort toextortion and State Governmentsthat shield the culprits in courts tomeet their political objectives.Unless the high and mighty areexposed and shamed, this menaceis unlikely to vanish from the sys-tem. The Modi Government has theadvantage of being a majorityGovernment, so the compulsion ofcoalition politics is not there to pre-vent it from taking harsh and deci-sive action on syndicated crime. Itis time for it to do so.

An open discussion on the NN Vohra Committee report in Parliamentwill reveal the kingpins of the corruption syndicate

HIMA BINDU KOTA

THE MODIGOVERNMENT

HAS THEADVANTAGEOF BEING AMAJORITY

GOVERNMENT,SO THE

COMPULSION OF COALITION

POLITICS IS NOTTHERE TO PREVENT IT FROM TAKING HARSH

AND DECISIVEACTION ON

SYNDICATEDCRIME

Many individuals do not give adequate attention to prop-er retirement planning, which leaves them with either nofunds post-retirement or with a very less amount that

is insufficient to meet their daily needs and give them a respectablelife in their sunset years. On the contrary, some people plan care-fully and start saving in a retirement fund on a regular basis. Also,there are people who save, though not enough and their sav-ings are eroded due to various conditions. Due to improvementsin the healthcare system, an individual can live upto 15-20 yearsafter retirement. Nevertheless, several studies show that peo-ple nearing their retirement are not suitably prepared for it.

It is a general belief that the quality of life post-retirementdepends on the decisions taken by an individual pre-retirement.Gone are the days when a Government job meant security inthe form of a lifelong pension after one’s retirement. Now, pen-sion for Government employees is directly proportional to theircontributions to the Provident Fund (PF) account. It is general-ly considered that a decent retirement income is between 70-110 per cent of the current income.

However, this is an area where most people fall short. Onlya small proportion of individuals are able to amass assets twicethe value of their current income. And this is the cause of con-cern as the inflationary burden and rising healthcare costs eatinto retirement savings. More often than not, the human tenden-cy of procrastination translates into savings that are too little,too late. Researches have shown that factors like income andgender have an impact on retirement planning. The higher anindividual’s income more is the likelihood of saving for retire-ment. Similarly, men have been known to actively engage in sav-ing and investment planning as compared to women.

Financial planning is a determinant of financial literacy —having a wide knowledge about financial instruments and relat-ed issues and clarity about the retirement goals. These findingscan be applied to customise retirement investment plans to suitindividual needs based on age, gender, financial literacy and theexpectations about post-retirement life. As it is evident, “one-size-fits-all” type of programmes will be failures as they do notprovide any tailored solutions based on personality traits, finan-cial and investment knowledge and unique retirement goals.Retirement investment plans would be quite different for younginvestors with a long-term future perspective as compared tomiddle-aged investors with a shorter investment horizon.

Retirement planning is much more than just ensuring finan-cial security. It also promotes a sense of satisfaction and helpsa person adjust with retired life in a positive way. It also reducesanxiety levels and encourages people to retire early. Even thoughthe benefits of retirement planning are numerous, there is still alack of precise motivation to secure financial and non-financialwell-being by the people. The factors that predict human behav-iour skewing towards retirement planning can help organisationsidentify people who are at risk and develop effective and cus-tomised methods to motivate them to start retirement planning.After all, retirement is the biggest coffee-break.

(The writer is Associate Professor at Amity University, Noida.The views expressed are personal.)

Infrastructure is intrinsic toevery aspect of our lives.However, we tend to consid-

er it only as discrete assets suchas roads and buildings, asopposed to collective sets of sys-tems and services that mustfunction in continuous syn-chrony to provide us with food,water, accommodation, energy,transportation, telecommunica-tions, governance, and security.Disruptions to these infrastruc-tural systems can have devastat-ing consequences. A recent glac-ier burst took dozens of lives anddamaged two hydropower pro-jects in Uttarakhand, while a rarePolar vortex in Texas took largeswathes of the energy gridsoffline for days, stranding citizenswithout electricity, water andheat.

Not only our banks, airportsand transport infrastructure arenetworked but increasingly ener-gy, education, security, health andprotective assets are also inter-

twined through the cyberdomain. Climate-proofing crit-ical and expensive infrastructur-al assets needs two urgentactions. First, countries mustinvest in innovation driven byemerging technologies to lowercost, increase resilience, andimprove infrastructure manage-ment. Second, they must stan-dardise innovations so that theycan be deployed at scale acrossgeographies with minimal cus-tomisation and cost differences.

System, technological, andfinancing innovations for disas-ter-resilient infrastructure (DRI),including climate-resilient infra-structure (CRI) are gaining trac-tion. Several countries haveongoing programmes in tradi-tional R&D centres as well as instart-ups owned by digital-savvy“infra-preneurs” leveraging cut-ting-edge technologies.

System innovations can helpbetter predict and prepare foradverse climate events. Missing,

weak or redundant policies andnon-scientific assumptions areamong the biggest challenges tobuilding DRI/CRI. This is espe-cially the case in developingnations, which are also the mostvulnerable to climate risk.Integrating progressive adminis-trative frameworks that caterspecifically to resilient infra-structural systems with nation-al economic and infrastructurepolicies, and improving Statecapacity to predict and respondto adverse climate events, willlead to concerted responses byGovernments and communi-ties. System innovations couldenhance the monitoring andevaluation of global, national andsub-national policies and actions.The Council on Energy,Environment and Water(CEEW) and its partners aredeveloping a Climate Risk Atlasfor India at a 25-km granular res-olution to better identify, assessand project chronic and acute

risks such as extreme climateevents, heat and water stresses,crop loss, vector-borne diseasesand biodiversity collapse.

High-tech DRI/CRI innova-tions are leveraging rapidly-evolving new technologies suchas big data, augmented-reality,remote imaging, drones andunmanned aerial vehicles, nan-otechnology, Internet of Things(IoT) and Industry 4.0. Theyshould be standardised to glob-al norms to allow efficient inte-grations with existing and forth-coming infrastructural systems

across the world, with need-based adaptations for local vari-ables such as geographic features,national priorities, and econom-ic and operational capacities.

The Coalition for DisasterResilient Infrastructure (CDRI)should partner with its financingcounterparts like the Coalition ofClimate Resilient Investment(CCRI) and the World Bank toinstitute a Unified InnovationCRI Index (UI-CRI Index) com-prising a uniform set of parame-ters to transparently measureinnovations on a standardisedscale. With the support of theSendai Framework for DisasterRisk Reduction 2015-2030, suchan index could rapidly democra-tise DRI/CRI innovations andencourage private sector partic-ipation and financing.

Developing innovative riskfinancing instruments forDRI/CRI is another pressingneed. Current options such ascatastrophe bonds used for

infrastructure financing by devel-oping economies like Peru, Chile,Columbia and Mexico, arefocused on risk transfer andrisk retention for high frequen-cy/high impact events. Thesebonds are expensive-sometimescosting twice the pay-outs and donot cater to low frequency/lowimpact events, which needaffordable, accessible andlocalised financing.

Financial innovations thatintegrate physical climate risks(PCRs) into investment decision-making will help reduce the costof financing and increase thedeployment of such instruments.Tailor-made Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) models tofinance DRI/CRI projects couldoffer effective risk transfer mech-anisms through sovereign guar-antees while providing access toa global investment pool.

On the global stage, Indiahas proactively embraced multi-lateral co-innovation as a

Founder-Member of MissionInnovation and launched theCDRI at the 2019 UN ClimateAction Summit. At home, thelandmark Science, Technology,and Innovation Policy andnational missions like Start-upIndia aim to develop scientifictemperament and creativity, andfoster a spirit of “infra-preneur-ship.”

This renewed focus on inno-vation provides the perfect back-drop for greater research andinvestment in disaster and cli-mate resilience in India, which isestimated to have suffered loss-es of almost $80 billion due toextreme climate events in the lasttwo decades. Investing inDRI/CRI and related servicesand building capacity by leverag-ing system, technological andfinancing innovations can betterprotect not just the public, butalso the economic assets criticalto national growth and develop-ment.

Building capacity by leveraging system, technological and financing innovations can better protect the public and critical economic assets

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021

07

www.dailypioneer.com facebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

FIRSTCOLUMN

PLAN FOR GOLDENSUNSET YEARS

The quality of post-retirement life depends on the pre-retirement decisions taken by an individual

PRASHANT TEWARI

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The writer is Editor,Opinion Express. The

views expressed are personal.

Innovation is key to climate-proofing infrastructure

ABINASHMOHANTY

Mohanty is programmelead and Raha, head,

New Initiatives,the Council on Energy,

Environment and Water.The views expressed

are personal.

SHUVARAHA

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

DCB Bank Limitedannounced on

Wednesday that it hasacquired a minorityequity stakeofapproximately nineper cent in Bengaluru-based non-banking

financial companyTechfino Capital

Private Limited (TCPL).Techfino provides

customised consumer loans in educationand healthcare sectors, andis present in key metros and tier II cities across India, the privatesector bank said in a statement. Financial details of thetransaction were not disclosed. "The funds raised will be used inenhancement of currenttech stack apart from on-lending tocustomers," the statementadded.

DCB bank acquires equity stakein Techfino Capital Private Ltd

Tata Steel onWednesday said

it has received a"blockchain-enabledtransaction", aglobal first for thesteel industry, froma UAE-based firmfor a steel exportorder. However,the steel maker didnot disclose the

size of the transaction. "Tata Steel and HSBC successfullyexecuted a blockchain enabled transaction, a global first for thesteel industry. This transaction was executed on Contour'sblockchain platform," a statement said. The live trade financetransaction involved the export of steel by Tata Steel, India toUniversal Tube & Plastic Industries, UAE, the statement added.

Tata Steel receives blockchain-enabled transaction from UAE

India witnessed 22 initialpublic offers worth over

USD 2.5 billion in the firstthree months of 2021 amid"high momentum" in thecountry's capital markets andthe trend is likely to stay bull-ish in the current quarteralso, according to a report.Leading consultancy EYIndia's IPO (Initial Public

Offer) report released on Wednesday showed that consumer prod-ucts and retail, diversified industrial products, automotive and trans-portation were the most active sectors in terms of the number ofIPOs in the 2021 first quarter. The IPOs include both in the main aswell as SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) markets. "With a robustQ1, IPO market likely to stay bullish in Q2 2021," it said, adding thatIndia ranks ninth globally in terms of the number of IPOs Year-To-Date (YTD) 2021.

India records 22 IPOs worthover $2.5 bn in Jan-March

Listed firms mopped up Rs 7.72 lakh crore through issuance ofbonds on private placement basis in 2020-21, an increase of 14

per cent from the preceding fiscal, supported by low interest rate andsurplus liquidity in the system. This also marks the highest level offund raising through such a route in a financial year. Going forward,sustainability of growth trend mainly depends upon trajectory of costof funds and incremental liquidity in the system, Binod Modi, head -strategy at Reliance Securities said. Companies listed on BSE andNSE garnered a total of Rs 7.72 lakh crore through issuance ofbonds in the just concluded financial year, much higher than Rs 6.75lakh crore raised in 2019-20. In 2018-19, listed entities raised Rs6.1 lakh crore, Rs 5.99 lakh crore in 2017-18 and Rs 6.4 lakh crorein 2016-17. However, debt raised through such a route stood as lowas Rs 1.18 lakh crore in 2007-08. Harsh Jain Co-founder and COOGroww said that one reason behind companies choosing this routeis that the interest cost on bond issuance is relatively low. In addi-tion, banks and NBFCs have also been hesitant to issue large loansto corporates on account of rising NPAs, he added.

Fundraising via bonds climbs14% to Rs 7.72 lakh cr in ’21

PNS n BANGKOK

Shares skidded in Asia onWednesday after Wall Streetclosed lower for a secondstraight day, led by drops intechnology companies andbanks.

Worsening coronavirus out-breaks in Asia have cast ashadow over prospects for arebound from the pandemic.Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell morethan 2% and other bench-marks also declined.

On Tuesday, the S&P500 gave back 0.7%, pulling theindex further below the recordhigh it set on Friday. Small-company stocks, which havebeen beating the rest of themarket in recent months, fellmore than other sectors.

Asian governments arescrambling to secure suppliesof COVID-19 vaccines afterseeing infection numbers surgein recent weeks. The risingcaseloads are straining medicalsystems from Japan to Indiaand leading to a restoration ofpandemic precautions such as

travel restrictions, quarantinerequirements and a dimmingof nightlife.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyogave up just over 2.0% to28,508.55 while Hong Kong'sHang Seng declined 1.7% to28,655.76. In Seoul, the Kospilost 1.5% to 3,171.66, whileSydney's S&P/ASX 200shed 0.3% to 6,997.50. The

Shanghai Composite indexended flat at 3,472.93.

“Global stocks are stillplumbing the lows afterrenewed virus concernsspooked markets overnight,"Stephen Innes of Axi said in acommentary.

Worsening outbreaks inIndia and Thailand have alsocast a pall on a recovery in trav-

el, which in turn is clouding theoutlook for oil and fuel prices,he said.

On Wednesday theS&P 500 closed at4,134.94. The Dow JonesIndustrial Average lost 0.8% to33,821.30. After shedding anearly gain, the technology-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.9%, to13,786.27.

Apple fell 1.3% as part of abroad slide in technologycompanies. Banks alsoaccounted for a big share ofthe selling, which came asbond yields fell, reversingcourse after moving higher onMonday.

Investors have turneddefensive, favoring utilities,real estate stocks and a mix ofcompanies that make con-sumer staples like food andhousehold products. GeneralMills rose 1.6% and Cloroxadded 3%. The market hasbeen swaying between gainsand record highs to pullbacksas investors weigh solid eco-nomic growth against the risksstill posed by the pandemic.That push and pull will likelycontinue as vaccine distribu-tion rolls on and variousindustries reopen. “Overall,we're going to have somevolatility in the market thisyear, but everything to melooks fairly rosy for the nextsix months or so,” said SylviaJablonski, chief investmentofficer at Defiance ETFs.

PNS n MUMBAI

Reallocating oxygen for med-ical purposes to take care of therising COVID cases will havean adverse impact on smallbusinesses in some sectors,domestic rating agency Crisilsaid on Wednesday.

It said the "hiccup" seemstemporary for now, and it isunlikely to impact the creditquality of the affected business-es.

The impact will be greaterfor companies in Maharashtra,New Delhi, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and Gujarat, wheremedical oxygen demand hasincreased multiple times due tohigh COVID-19 caseloads, theagency added.

The central government hasbarred industrial use of oxygenexcept in nine designated sec-tors from Thursday onwards todivert the available stocks forlife-saving medicinal use.

Demand for medical oxygenis estimated to have rocketedfive-fold in the second week ofApril versus pre-pandemic lev-els as COVID-19 infectionstook off, Crisil Ratings said.

"The disruption in the sup-ply of oxygen for industrial usewould temporarily impact the

revenues of small and mid-sized companies into metalfabrication, automotive com-ponents, shipbreaking, paper,and engineering," its directorGautam Shahi said.

These sectors typically donot have captive oxygen plantsand source their requirementthrough merchant suppliersfor operations such as welding,cutting, cleaning and chemicalprocesses, he added.

Setting up an air-separa-tion plant or importing oxygenis not a viable option becauseit requires significant lead timeand involves relatively prohib-itive costs, the agency said.

Oxygen is consumed byindustry in two ways – on-site

and merchant sales. On-site isthrough captive plants forprocess-driven industries(including the nine sectorsexempted by the government),which account for 75-80 percent of oxygen manufacturedin India, the rating agency said.

The balance 20-25 per centis supplied through merchantsales (called liquid oxygen)through cryogenic tanks andcylinders, it said, adding thehealthcare sector consumesonly 10 per cent of merchantsales.

Its associate director SushantSarode said the disruption inoxygen supplies for industrialuse will last for six to eightweeks as of now.

Oxygen reallocation to impactsmall business in some sectors

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government's decision towaive off customs duty onantiviral drug Remdesivirwould help in augmentingthe supply of the medicine inthe wake of soaring COVID-19 cases in the country,Chemicals and FertilisersMinister Sadanand Gowdasaid on Wednesday.

The government onTuesday waived off all customsduty on imported Remdesivirinjections and the drug's activepharmaceutical ingredients(API) in order to boost sup-plies.

There is already a ban onthe export of the Remdesivirinjection from the country.

"Considering the immediaterequirement on the recom-mendation of the Departmentof Pharmaceuticals, theDepartment of Revenue hasreduced customs duty on#Remdesivir and its API/KSM.This step will further augment

domestic availability ofRemdesivir injection," Gowdasaid in a tweet.

The minister had earlierasked the state governments totake strict action against any-one found indulged in blackmarketing or hoarding ofRemdesivir.

Black marketing, hoardingof Remdesivir is being strict-ly monitored and state govern-ments have been advised totake strict action against thoseindulging in such malprac-tices, he had tweeted.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The outstanding overdues ofpower distribution utilities fellby over Rs 15,118 crore to Rs74,510 crore in March this year,as compared to the precedingmonth, mainly due to therelease of the second tranche ofliquidity infusion package,according to PFC ConsultingLtd data.

The overdue amount stoodat Rs 89,628 crore in February.

The power producers give45 days to power distributionutilities (discoms) to pay billsfor electricity supply. Afterthat, the outstanding duesbecome overdue and genera-tors charge penal interest onthat in most cases.

In May 2020, the govern-ment announced Rs 90,000crore liquidity infusion fordiscoms under which these

utilities would get loans ateconomical rates from PowerFinance Corporation (PFC)and REC Ltd.

This was a government ini-tiative to help generation com-panies (gencos) to remainafloat. Later, the liquidity infu-

sion package was increased toRs 1.2 lakh crore and furtherto Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Underthe liquidity package, the PFCand REC together have dis-bursed Rs 78,855 crore so far.

Overdues of discomsreduced significantly in March

2021, after PFC and RECbegan releasing second trancheof disbursements under DIS-COM liquidity package inFebruary end this year, showedthe data available on PRAAP-TI portal.

PFC Consulting Ltd is anarm of State-run PowerFinance Corporation (PFC),which maintains the PRAAP-TI portal (Payment RatificationAnd Analysis in Power pro-curement for bringingTransparency in Invoicing ofgenerators).

The PRAAPTI portal waslaunched in May 2018, to bringin transparency in power pur-chase transactions betweengenerators and discoms. It cap-tures monthly invoicing datafrom power generators, whichis uploaded from time to timeon it by the power generatorsthemselves.

Discoms’ overdues fall to Rs 74K cr in Mar

Gowda: Waiver of duty on Remdesivir will help

PNS n NEW DELHI

Oil and gas producer ONGCspent about one-fifth less thanits budget Capex in 2020-21fiscal after COVID-19 relatedrestrictions delayed projectsbut fuel marketers such asIOC exceeded targeted capitalspending, a government reportshowed.

Oil and Natural GasCorporation (ONGC) hadbudgeted Rs 32,502 crore ofcapital spending in the fiscalfrom April 2020 to March2021 but ended up spendingonly Rs 26,441 crore, accord-ing to the report of the oil min-istry's Petroleum Planning andAnalysis Cell (PPAC).

A company official said thelower than targeted Capex wasbecause of project implemen-tations getting delayed follow-ing the disruption caused tothe supply chain and labourmovement by COVID restric-tions.

Oil and gas exploration andproduction projects typicallyinvolve the supply of equip-ment from overseas suppliers.Also, some facilities like rigsare operated by foreign crews.

Lockdowns in several partsof the world, including India,restricted the movement oflabour as well as disrupted sup-

ply chains.ONGC's overseas arm OVL

too had a lower capital spend-ing of Rs 5,351 crore in 2020-21 fiscal as compared to thetargeted Rs 7,235 crore.

But, other downstreamcompanies exceeded their cap-ital spending targets by a widemargin.

Covid shaves off one-fifthCapex of ONGC in FY21

Ratan Tatainvests inMailitPNS n NEW DELHI

Veteran industrialistRatan Tata has investedin Mailit, a technology-driven mailroom man-agement and logisticscompany.

While the financialdetails of the investmentwere not disclosed,Mailit said it plans tolaunch 500 mailroomsacross India in additionto establishing fullymechanised warehouseand distribution centresin the next five years.

His strategy focuseson building India's firstdigitally IL&MS plat-form bringing much-needed consolidation,enhanced efficiency andvisibility to a fragment-ed market place, a state-ment said onWednesday.

PNS n MUMBAI

Contrary to expectations, pri-vate sector life insurers loggedin a stellar 40 per cent new pre-mium growth in the fourthquarter of FY21, driven by astill higher 90 per cent growthin March, according to anindustry analysis.

The better-than-expectedQ4 growth has helped theindustry, except LIC, log in an8 per cent annual growth in thejust concluded financial year,according to an analysis byKotak Securities. It attributedlow base effect for the better-than-expected show in theMarch quarter and also for themonth.

The brokerage also expectsthe low base effect to helpcompanies log in better num-bers for the next few months.

Life insurers reported stellar

individual annual premiumequivalent (APE) growth of 90per cent in March due to lowbase, translating into a 40 percent growth in Q4 and a full 8per cent for FY21, said thereport. It, however, added thatthe two-year individual APEgrowth was a modest 6 percent for the year.

The overall good numberswere driven by SBI Life, HDFCLife, Bajaj Allianz Life and TataAIA Life, which delivered 13per cent, 12 per cent, 11 percent and 17 per cent two-yearindividual APE growth,respectively, while ICICIPrudential Life and Max Lifewere flat.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Den Networks on Wednesdaysaid it has decided not to pro-ceed with the compositescheme of arrangement inwhich TV18 Broadcast,Hathway Cable & Datacomand Den Networks were tomerge into Network18 Media& Investments.

"Considering that morethan a year has passed fromthe time the board consideredthe scheme, the board of thecompany has decided not toproceed with the arrangementenvisaged in the scheme," DenNetworks said in a regulatoryfiling.

Den Networks said theshareholders are aware that thescheme was filed with bothBSE and National Stock

Exchange of India Limited(NSE) for their no-objectionletter.

The company said it hadalso disclosed in its quarterlyfinancial results for the quar-ters ended June 30, 2020 andSeptember 30, 2020, that thestock exchanges had returnedthe scheme stating that thecompany may apply to thestock exchanges once thescheme is in compliance withSEBI circulars/ SEBIRegulations.

Private life insurers’ newpremium income grows 8 pc

PNS n NEW DELHI

GE Renewable Energy onWednesday said it willsupply 42 units of onshorewind turbines for windhybrid projects totaling acapacity of 110 MW toCleanMax, a renewableenergy company.

"These wind farms willcontribute significantly toIndia's commitment toharness the majority of itselectricity from renewablesources meeting its targetof 175 GW of renewableenergy by 2022," a state-ment said.

According to the state-ment the GE's 2.7-132wind turbine is well suit-ed to meet the needs ofcustomers due to its effi-ciency in capitalizing onIndia's low wind speeds.

GE to supply 42wind turbines toCleanMax

PNS n MUMBAI

Energy efficiency companySmart Joules has raised USD4.9 million (about Rs 36.75crore) in funding from a clutchof investors, includingRaintree Family Office.

Other investors who partic-ipated in the round includedADB Ventures (the AsianDevelopment Bank's venturearm), Sangam Ventures, MaxI Limited, cKineticsAccelerator, Saket Burmanfrom Dabur family and sixother marquee angels fromIndia and the US, an officialstatement said.

The money raised will beutilised to strengthen the ener-gy management team,enhance digital technologyplatform, expand presenceacross hospitals and scale itscooling-as-a-service offeringfor commercial buildings, thestatement added.

Founded by Arjun P Gupta,Ujjal Majumdar and SidharthaGupta, Smart Joules elimi-nates energy waste in powerintensive industries throughproprietary technology and aunique business model thatallows it to guarantee between10-30 per cent energy savingsto its clients.

Raintree, ADB arm,others invest $ 4.9mn in Smart Joules

Asian shares slide as virus casts shadow over recovery

Den Networks not toproceed with compositescheme of arrangement

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facebook.com/dailypioneer

ThursdayApril 22, 2021

TOUCHING LIVESTHROUGH MUSIC

16-year-old Indian ori-gin, living inSingapore, was alwaysaware of the ‘privi-leges’ he grew up with— having food on his

table, having a bed to sleep on,and a roof over his head. RonitAlmeida knew he always wantedto give back to the country hisparents came from, and waslooking for ways to help society.That’s when he decided inDecember 2020 that he wouldteach young children in Indiasomething that he loves and ispassionate about.

“I have been playing the pianosince I was 4, and that’s some-thing I have been passionateabout since then. When I felt theneed to give back to the less priv-ileged, I began thinking of waysto help people and make a differ-ence. Finally, my mom, throughher contacts, got in touch with aschool in India so I could teachstudents who do not have a very

strong music program and thosewho wouldn’t have had an oppor-tunity to learn otherwise,” Ronittells us.

The 10th grader, since then,has been collecting money to beable to afford keyboards for thesechildren, so he could begin teach-ing them. Ronit will soon com-plete his grade 8 in piano andgrade 5 in music theory, whichwill equip him to be a licensedtrainer. You’re mistaken if youthink it’s Ronit or his parentsalone who had to tread this beau-tiful path. A total of 17 peoplecame together until now, to sup-port Ronit’s lovely cause. Whilesome chose to donate anony-mously, most others like Ronit’sfriends and family members andother strangers like Kiran, arerooting for the cause.

Talking about the students inIndia, Ronit shares, “I got tospeak to the students about theinitiative via zoom call. I identi-fied 12 music enthusiasts, all ofwhom come from underprivi-leged backgrounds and do nothave any avenues to learn musicon their own but are extremely

keen to learn music asthey have a passion for it. Isaw their keen interest inmusic and its ability totransform their lives for abetter future. They were all soenthusiastic and are eager for thecourse to start soonest, I can’twait for the classes to start.” Ronitawaits a few more donations,which he hopes to get withinanother 2-3 weeks, before hecould teach these kids. “Once

these keyboards have been pro-cured, I will personally mentorand tutor these kids in classicalpiano, and I aim to invest onehour per week for the next 2years to prepare them until theyreach at least grade 2 piano levelproficiency. The keyboards willbe purchased in May and the

lessons willbegin

inearly June. I

will also help them conduct aseries of concerts where they willbe performing to raise funds for

their school,” he says of his plan.“Ideally, I’d have loved to comedown to India to teach them, butthe Covid scare has made that afar dream,” says he.

Ronit is like any other kid, withhis chores, tests, and assignmentsevery day. He will be giving his10th boards in the coming week,and they will last two months.How does he manage his exams,music, and this cause? Pat comeshis reply, “I manage well. I con-sider myself a diligent studentand I’m always prepared inadvance, I can say I’m good attime management. I maketime for studies, home, music,and all other things I’m pas-sionate about.”

He attributes the success ofhis campaign to social media

for the 17 supporters he’s wonfor the cause and is all praise andgrateful for others who have beensupporting him morally andencouraging him through it all. “Ihope that using my expertise inmusic, I will be able to help thesechildren follow their passion formusic and develop through play-ing the piano,” he concludes.

At times, kids inIndia have tochoose betweeneducation andart. Since mostparents canafford only theformer, somestudents give upon exploring art.A 10th-grader,along with 17others, has beenworking towardshelping kids inIndia learnmusic. RonitAlmeida talks toThe Pioneer'sRACHELDAMMALAabout his cause,how he managesto do it, andmore.

A

n this digital era,when advanced tech-nology like ArtificialIntelligence andMachine Learninghas been transform-

ing each and every industry inour country, how can HumanResource Management (HRM)be left behind? Even HR is goingthrough a new wave, which iscalled HR 3.0. Through HRtechnology, the complex HRprocesses like recruitment, per-formance management, employ-ee engagement, payroll amongothers have been simplified andcan be performed in just a click.Emerging technologies havecompletely revolutionised theHR goals from merely gettingprocesses in place to a morebroad-based goal — drivingvalue from talent.

With the current technologyin the place, popular Americanworldwide management con-sulting firm McKinsey andCompany has suggested thatnearly 56 percent of their hiringto retiring tasks have been auto-mated using the technologiesavailable including the HR soft-ware. The HR’s role has alsobeen expanded and moreemphasis has been put on pro-ductivity and employee engage-ment. Gone are the days whenHR was a person, now it hasbecome a portal. Shifting toSAAS based HRM softwares hasprovided the firms to have uni-versal access to HR serviceseven when you're remote work-ing, dramatically changing thepractice of human resource

management.The need for cost-cutting or

expansion or providing betterservices has propelled thesechanges. Recent research showsorganisations that successfullyadopt sophisticated HR technol-ogy tools outperform those thatdo not. Since many companieshave automated their basic HRadministration, these organisa-tions have actually determinedthe use of technology to trans-form their HR practices andmarket their HR brand.

Key challenges of talentacquisition

Finding the right talent whenyou have a huge skilling gap inthe country is one of the biggestchallenges in these unprecedent-ed times. It is pivotal that HRteam is using the right technolo-gy in order to streamline thewhole process of managing thevarious job vacancies andspreading out the right messag-ing.

An advanced HRMS helps tomanage all the vacancies at oneplatform. It has been observedthat mastering the art of balanc-ing efficiency and quick deci-sion making from HR is canbeing a big change in theprocess of talent hunting andacquisitions. Decision-makingneeds data but managing andusing this data needs to be effi-cient to be effective.

Role of HR during the cur-rent crisis scenario

HR is now adopting new waysto operate and support everynew decision the company istaking to reduce the effect of thepandemic. The new role of HRis to become more agile, adapt-able, and augmenting. HRMmust aim at achieving competi-tiveness in the field of HR byproviding constant educationand training programs for thepersonal and professional devel-opment of the employees of theorganisation. It has been seenthat the companies have under-stood the importance of effec-tive recruiting and realised thatwithout technological support, itcannot be done.

The HR people are now mak-ing use of the various job portalsthat are available online to lookfor the best candidates for theposition. The complete recruit-ing process has become easy andeffective with the use of technol-ogy. as many people come toknow of the offer and henceincreases the probability of hir-ing efficient employees.Employers can present all neces-sary information related to thejob, careers, and personal devel-opment of each employee onportals online. This is a greatpromotional tool for the organi-sation.

(The writer, Vicky Jain, is theFounder of uKnowva, MobileEnabled HR Software)

Back tochildhood

K RAMYA SREE

I Club and theCircus, a tale of agroup of curiousfriends who willleave no stoneunturned to solve

their first case, is all set toentertain you! AkshayChowdhry, a seasoned profes-sional, in his maiden novelgives us amazing insights intothe lives of a few curious chil-dren who are seeking cama-raderie and then find a pur-pose. In this case, the purposeis to solve a mystery. The storyfollows the journey of a boywho has recently moved to anew town. There he makes newfriends, and they visit a circusin the town. Events then take astrange turn and they findthemselves tangled in a seriesof robberies. Extremely deter-mined to find the culprits, theyform the PI (PrivateInvestigators) Club to investi-gate the robberies.

Nikhil and his family havejust moved to Dehradun, asmall valley town in India. InDehradun, Nikhil meets agroup of children, roughly of

his own age – Ishaan, Neha,Shreya, and Arjun. There’s acircus in town, but when thegroup visits the circus, eventstake a strange turn. They gettangled up in a series of rob-beries and begin to suspect thatsomeone from the circus isresponsible. The children forma Private Investigators (PI)Club to investigate the rob-beries, and are determined tosolve their first case. Will theybe able to uncover the perpe-trators? Will their efforts provesuccessful? The book takes thereaders on a fast-paced mysterytrack that keeps the youngreaders engaged with severaltwists and turns.

Akshay, who was born inCalcutta and studied inHyderabad, sharing with us onwhat inspired him to pen thisbook, says, “I am an avid readerand have been fond of writingsince my childhood days. I usedto participate in various cre-ative writing competitions andcontribute to our school maga-zine. Once I moved out ofschool, like happens to so manyof us, you get occupied withhigher studies, work, and fami-ly life and lose touch withsomething you are passionate

about. During the lockdownslast year, spending so muchtime at home, I ran out ofthings to do. I thought I wouldgive writing a try once again. Iwas a huge fan of Enid Blyton’sbooks as a child, especially theFive Find-Outers series. Ithought of writing a mysterystory with five children, alongthe lines of Enid Blyton’s series,but set in an Indian context. Iwould write a chapter at a timeand get my wife and parents toread it. They felt that it wascoming out well, and I wasencouraged to keep writing. InOctober last year, I completedthe book and then began theprocess of critical review, edit-ing and publishing. The bookreleased in February this year,and I have been getting fantas-tic feedback from kids and theirparents who have read the bookso far!”

Akshay says he spent most ofhis childhood in Hyderabad,where there were so were somany children around to playwith, unlike the current genera-tion kids who are all into theirmobile phones. He hopes hisbook inspires children to spendmore time playing with friendsoutdoors and get out of the set

routines a bit. “As a child, weplayed everything — cricket,football, tennis, hopscotch, fourcorners, hide and seek, withgreat gusto! My book drawsinspiration from those days,and the sheer amount of timewe spent with each other dur-ing the summer vacations. Wewould be loitering about thewhole day either playing orlooking for something to do. Iam struck by what appears to

be the fact that many childrennowadays are missing out onthis camaraderie with theirfriends. They are so involved invarious routines and classesthat they do not get time toreally enjoy the outdoors. Andthen, they have their smart-phones! I hope this bookinspires children to spend moretime playing with friends out-doors and get out of the setroutines a bit.”

Emergingtechnologieshave broughtabout achange in HRgoals frommerelygettingprocesses inplace to amore broad-based goal —driving valuefrom talent

GET SET

for HR 3.0

I

P

Students of the school Ronit Almeida would be teaching music to.

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

FUN

10

Hyderabad Thursday April 22, 2021what’s brewing?

As prep, chill yourglass, the tonicandthe gin far aheadof time. In your

chilled glass, pourin 60ml of Gordon’s

London Dry Gin.Top up with ice, until

ice peaks through theglass like a mini iceberg.Start to pour in 180ml ofcold tonic water, you will

notice the ice starts to

melt.Top with more ice to

keep the carbonationstrong, avoid over dilut-ing your drink withmixer and to reduce themelt. Finish pouring inyour tonic water asdesired.

Dress with2-3 dashesof bitters, and garnishwith a mosambi wheeland sage leaves.

s the country goes back intolockdown, beat the blues andthe summer heat by sippingon some delicious home-made cocktails. One would

think, summer is all about sunshine, tanlines, tall drinks, and if you’re lucky, avacation or two, but as we stay home tostay safe, keep the spirits high byexperimenting at your home bar.

Diageo India’s DIY cocktail recipes,by Brand Ambassador Meghana Balaji,help you pick from your favourite tipple,whether its Gin, Vodka, Scotch or aBaileys! A perfect way to enjoy a sun-downer is with a classic cocktail byyour side.

WHAT YOU NEED:

GORDON’S’ G&T

HOW TO MAKE:

¬Tanqueray London Dry — 45ml ¬Chamomile Honey — 20ml ¬Fresh Orange Juice — 20ml ¬Lime Juice — 15ml ¬Soda to Top Up¬Orange Wheel¬Glassware: Copa De Balon, Wine

Glass

¬Ketel One Vodka — 45 ml ¬Ginger Ale —100 ml ¬Lime Wedges¬Mint¬Julienned Ginger¬Glassware: Mule Mug

Lightly muddle a couple of gingerjuliennes in your mule mug,

Juice half a lime,Add 45 ml Ketel One, top with ice

until ice peaks through the mugTop with crisp, fresh, superbly cold

ginger aleAgitate a sprig of mint on the back

of your hand. Garnish with more limewedges, said mint and ginger juli-ennes.

¬Baileys — 60ml ¬Crushed Ice

¬Coffee Dusting

¬Dark Roast Espresso (optional) — 30ml

¬Glassware: An old-fashioned glass

ANDALUSIAN SUMMER WITH

TANQUERAY LONDON DRY

WHAT YOU NEED:

Take highball, add 60ml TanquerayLondon Dry, and all other ingredientsuntil lime juice.

Top up with ice, until ice peaksthrough the glass, stir and cool yourdrink down.

Place your orange wedge against theglass for a clean garnish look.

Add more ice and then top up everso slightly with crisp soda.

Dress with2-3 dashes of bitters if youlike!

HOW TO MAKE:

KETEL MULE

BAILEY’S ON ICE

WHAT YOU NEED:

Fill to the top of the glasswith crushed ice.

Allow the glass to cooland pour in the 60ml ofBailey’s on top.

Fill further with morecrushed ice to keep it from

melting too quickly.Espresso fans could also

pour in 30ml dark roastespresso for that bitternote.

Dust with instant coffee.Enjoy.

HOW TO MAKE:

WHAT YOU NEED:

HOW TO MAKE:

aapsee Pannu tookto Twitter to appre-ciate Twitterati asher timeline is filledwith people extend-ing support as Indiafights the second

wave of Covid-19 pandemic.Taapsee tweeted that shedoesn’t regret being onTwitter even after it being“one of the most toxic plat-forms of social media”.

“There was something inme that made me stay hereinspite of being one of themost toxic platforms of socialmedia.

Seeing the timeline filledwith support being asked andselfless/agenda free helpbeing offered makes mebelieve in the power of intu-ition once again. Beautiful(sic),” Taapee wrote.

As many states includingMaharashtra, Gujarat, UttarPradesh and Delhi are report-ing a surge in coronavirusand shortage of oxygen andmedicines, many Twitterusers have been sharing col-lated resource banks of deal-ers, NGO’s, hospitals in theirregion.

Many users have also beenoffering food for the needy

and helping one another findbeds as many hospitals in thecountry have run out of bedfor infected patients in thesecond wave of the pandemic.

Just as the actor tweetedabout the ongoing situationand how people have comeforward to support the needy,some Twitter users appealed

to her and other celebrities toextend help to people whoneed it.

Last year when the pan-demic had hit India for thefist time, many celebrities haddonated generously for PMCARES fund andMaharashtra Chief Minister’sRelief Fund.

ans are awaiting theofficial announce-ment on EmiliaClarke joining SecretInvasion cast.

A lot is happeningon the pre-production tables of

Marvel Studios’ upcomingoriginal series Secret Invasionfor Disney Plus. According toVariety, Game of Thrones starEmilia Clarke is in the finalrounds of negotiations to joinits ensemble cast.

If things work out withEmilia, this would be her forayinto the Marvel CinematicUniverse (MCU). Emilia isknown for playing DaenerysTargaryen, one of the headlin-ers of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

The news about Emilia join-ing Secret Invasion comes daysafter it was reported thatOscar-winning British starOlivia Colman has also beenapproached for the Marvelseries. Other speculated castmembers include Samuel L.Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn andKingsley Ben-Adir.

Secret Invasion is touted tofollow the events of CaptainMarvel movie bringing focuson Samuel L Jackson’s secretagent Nick Fury and a shape-shifting alien race known asthe Skrulls. Actor BenMendelsohn will reprise hisrole of the Skrull Talos fromCaptain Marvel.

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke toenter Marvel universe with Secret Invasion?

TA

F

Taapsee glad she stayedon Twitter, despite toxicity

¬Gordon’s London Dry -60ml¬Fever-Tree Tonic —150-180ml ¬Bitters — 2 dashes ¬Mosambi Wheel, Sage leaves

garnish Ice: Cubed Ice¬Glassware: Copa style glass-

ware

BEAT THE HEAT WITH THESE

REFRESHING COCKTAILS

11

Hyderabad Thursday April 22, 2021 tollywood

he second wave ofCovid has struck andthe business of filmthe exhibition hasbeen once againaffected all over

India, just when it looked like itwas opening up.

The situation is disappointing,particularly down South. Morethan Bollywood, which got backto releasing films cautiously, thesuperstars of the South hadalready dived headlong into thegame. Vijay’s Master and RaviTeja’s Krack opened even beforethe pandemic had died downand done big business. PawanKalyan’s Vakeel Saab opened togood numbers, too. On cue, sev-eral top stars were enthused tolining up big projects over thenext months.

However, after the TeluguFilm Chamber of Commerceannounced strict curbs onshooting on Tuesday evening,apprehension is already onamong people in the Telugu filmtrade about the immediate fateof big-screen business.

“No big film is releasing now,anyway, since producers are wor-ried about footfall. Even VakeelSaab footfall reduced fromMonday,” Abhishek Nama of theTelugu Film Chamber ofCommerce had said.

The theatres association onTuesday decided to shut downtheatres for some time until thesituation settles down.

Indeed, with the threat oflockdown looming large, manyupcoming big-ticket films areeither officially being postponed,or makers are contemplating theidea to do so.

While many films have startedgoing back and forth with theirrelease date owing to the presentuncertainty, here is a list of someof the most-awaited Telugu filmsthat have been postponed:

ACHARYA

Although there is no officialconfirmation, according toreports the Chiranjeevi-starrermight not release on May 13.

Instead, the makers are lookingat a June release. The film alsofeatures Ram Charan and PoojaHegde.

PUSHPA

The film’s first look of the AlluArjun already broke recordsonline upon being launchedrecently. The film was slated torelease on August 13 but as percertain reports, the film couldalso see a December release. Noofficial confirmation has beengiven so far.

TUCK JAGADISH

The Nani-starrer, directed byShiva Nirvana, was scheduled tohit theatres on April 23.However, the makers announcedthe delay without giving any newdate.

VIRATA PARVAM

This Rana Daggubati and SaiPallavi film was scheduled to hitthe theatres on April 30.However, the makers announcedthat due to Covid, the release hasbeen postponed. The perioddrama is directed by VenuUdugala.

LOVE STORY

Starring Naga Chaitanya andSai Pallavi, the much-anticipatedfilm was expected to hit theatreson April 16. However, theSekhar Kammula directorial hasnow been postponed and a newdate hasn’t been announced yet.

REPUBLIC

Sai Dharam Tej andAishwarya Rajesh are currentlyworking together for an upcom-ing social drama Republic. Themakers of the film have alreadyannounced that Republic will hitscreens on June 4. But nowaccording to the latest report,the Sai Dharam Tej starrer maybe postponed due to increasingCovid-19 cases.

NARAPPA:

The movie was supposed tohit the screens on May 14.Starring Venkatesh andPriyamani, Narappa is theremake of the Tamil movieAsuran. A revenge drama, themovie is directed by SrikanthAddala and bankrolled by SureshProductions.

However, it is being heard

that this film too will be post-poned as it is being made on ahigh budget.

AKHANDA:

This Balakrishna movie is setfor release on May 28. Directedby Boyapati Srinu, this is thethird movie in this director-herocombination, after Simha andLegend, both of which were box-office hits. The movie, whichalso stars Sayyeshaa and PragyaJaiswal, is bankrolled byDwaraka Creations. Recently,Balayya was spotted shooting theclimax in Vikarabad forest.Insiders say, this film too mightbe delayed.

KHILADI:

This Ravi Teja starrer wasscheduled to release on May 28,clashing with Akhanda. Alsostarring Meenakshi Chaudharyand Dimple Hayathi in the leadroles, the movie is directed byRamesh Varma and bankrolledby Pen Studios. However, withRamesh Varma testing positivefor Covid, it is to be seen if thefilm will hit screens on the saiddate or will it postpone.

ctor Prabhas hadto undergo self-isolation as thepersonal makeupartist of the actor

has tested Covid positive. As a precautionary mea-

sure, Prabhas has goneunder home quarantine, saysources.

The actor is currentlydoing three projects —Radhe Shyam, Adipurush,and Salaar.

Radhe Shyam’s last sched-ule was about to start. Asong and few scenes weresupposed to be shot in thisschedule.

We’ve also learned that the

entire Radhe Shyam teamhas undergone self-isolationas well. With the suddenspike in Covid cases,several films’shootings havecomeunder abig haltfor now.

PRABHAS GOES into self-quarantine

Sudheer Babuis a film director

udheer Babu is currentlyshooting for his upcom-ing film Aa AmmayiGurinchi Meeku Cheppali(AAGMC) helmed byMohan Krishna

Indraganti, which is progressing ata brisk pace.

This is the third time the actor iscollaborating with Mohan Krishnaafter Sammohanam and investiga-tive thriller drama V. The film hasUppena girl Krithi Shetty as theleading lady.

According to sources, SudheerBabu, for the first time will be play-ing the role of a film director in Aa

Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali,a romantic drama.

The Sudheer Babu and KrithiShetty-starrer is jointly backed by BMahendra Babu and KiranBallapalli under the banner ofGajulapalle Sudheer Babu presenta-tion whereas the film has the musicby Vivek Sagar.

While PG Vinda has been ropedin to handle the cinematography,Marthand K Venkatesh is takingcare of the editing department.

Apart from this, Sudheer Babuhas wrapped up the talkie part ofthe upcoming drama Sridevi SodaCenter.

T

S

A

COVID IMPACT: T-TOWNBIGGIES DEFER DATES

egastarChiranjeevi,one of thefounders ofCorona CrisisCharity (CCC),

an organisation estab-lished to help Telugu cineworkers during theCoronavirus pandemicannounced free Covid-19vaccination drive for thecinema workers in associ-ation with Apollo 24/7.Last year, Megastar-ledcharitable organisationCorona Crisis Charitylent a helping hand byproviding monthly essen-tials to the cine workers.

And now due to the

Covid second wave, theCorona Crisis Charity isback to helping cineworkers. Eligible cineworkers including filmjournalists and crewmembers aged over 45can get themselves vacci-nated for free of cost.

Chiranjeevi took to hisTwitter and shared avideo, in which he is seensaying that the CoronaCrisis Charity, in collabo-ration with ApolloHospitals, is going tocarry out Covid-19 freevaccination drive. Herequested everyone to getvaccinated against thedeadly virus.

M

Chiru announces

free vaccination

for cine workers

ollywood producer anddistributor ChittiNageswara Rao alia CN

Rao has passed away afterbattling with fatal novelCoronavirus. The news has

come as a shocker to indus-try bigwigs and others, whoconveyed their condolencesto the bereaved family.

CN Rao has distributednoted films like MaaSirimalle,Ammanannalekunte,Brahmanandam DramaCompany in Telugu. Not onlyin Telugu, but even in Tamilhe has distributed films likeUraga.

CN Rao has also beenactively involved in othercinema activities and hasserved as a member of theWorking Committee of theTelugu Film Chamber ofCommerce and was also amember of the ExecutiveCommittee of the X FilmFederation of India.

CN Rao was also the JointSecretary of the Telugu FilmProducers Council.Tollywood industry ismourning the loss of veteranactor.

Amid rising covid cases,many film shoots have cometo a halt and big flicks toohave been postponed. T

Producer CN Raosuccumbs to Covid

PTI nMUMBAI

Off to the best possible start with three winson the trot, a confident Royal Challengers

Bangalore will hope to keep the juggernaut rollingwhen they take on Rajasthan Royals at WankhedeStadium on Thursday.

Both sides have endured contrasting cam-paigns so far. While RCB head in to the game afterthree morale-boosting victories. Royals havemanaged to win only one of their three fixturesand Sanju Samson & his men will be eyeing a sec-ond win.

The Royals have struggled to perform as acohesive batting unit. While Samson led the teamto within touching distance of victory with his sen-sational century against Punjab Kings, it was theSouth African duo of David Miller and ChrisMorris that pulled off a win against the DelhiCapitals.

Against CSK, Jos Buttler looked dangerous butthe other batsmen failed to provide any valuablecontributions. For the former champions to dowell, the side must click as a batting unit withSamson and the Englishman playing key roles.

The Royals bowling unit has been under-whelming to say the least, apart from the gameagainst Delhi Capitals, the bowlers have leakedruns.

In the absence of Jofra Archer, more will beexpected out of the likes of Chris Morris andBangladesh speedster Mustafizur Rahman.

For RCB, Ab de Villiers and new-recruit Glenn Maxwell have been thestandout players with the willow. Whilethe South African continues to deliv-er season after season, the Australianall-rounder is proving to be avaluable addition to the mid-

dle order.Kohli has got decent starts in a cou-

ple of games but the talismanic skipperwill be itching to play a big innings.Young Devdutt Padikkal, whoimpressed everyone last season, hasalso looked rusty and is yet to performto his full potential. The RCB bowling

department has been impressivewith pacers

PTI n CHENNAI

Pacer Khaleel Ahmed led an impres-sive bowling effort before JonnyBairstow smashed an unbeaten

fifty as Sunrisers Hyderabad snappedtheir three-match losing streak with aconvincing nine-wicket win over PunjabKings at MA Chidambaram Stadium onWednesday.

Asked to bowl first, SunrisersHyderabad’s pace-spin duo of Khaleel(3/21) and Abhishek Sharma (2/24) didbulk of the damage to bundle out PunjabKings for a below-par 120 in 19.4 overs.

Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar(1/16), star Afghanistan spinner RashidKhan (1/17) and Siddarth Kaul (1/27) alsopicked up a wicket each as Punjab nevergained momentum.

Chasing the total, SRH openersJonny Bairstow (63) and David Warner(37) pummelled Punjab into submission,adding 73 runs off 60 balls to set the foun-dation.

Bairstow and Kane Williamson (16)then knocked off the remaining runs asSRH romped home with 8 balls to spare.

Bairstow and Warner smashed fiveboundaries and two sixes during their 50-run stand in the powerplay, while Punjabhad managed nine fours and two maxi-mums in their entire innings.

After Warner’s exit, Bairstow foundan able ally in Williamson, who was play-ing his first match of the season, as theyadded an unbeaten 48 runs to help SRHlog their first win of the season.

Earlier, Shahrukh Khan (22) andMayank Agarawal (22) were the top scor-ers for Punjab Kings, who came into thematch after two losses.

In an innings when clearing theboundary seemed to be a tall task, Khanmanaged two sixes, while Agarwal, whowas dropped on 0 in the very first overby Rashid, hit two fours.

12THE GAME PLAN OF HAVING WILLIAMSON THERE

IS TO ANCHOR THE GAME AND HE ROTATESSTRIKE SO WELL. HE JUST KNOWS HIS ROLE

AND GAME PLAN— DAVID WARNER

CAPTAIN’S CALLHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021

PLAYER RUNS

1. Shikhar Dhawan (DC) 231

2. Glenn Maxwell (RCB) 176

3. Jonny Bairstow (SRH) 173

PLAYER WKTS

1. Harshal Patel (RCB) 9

2. Avesh Khan (DC) 8

3. Rahul Chahar (MI) 8

MOST SIXES

1. Jonny Bairstow (SRH) 10

2. Glenn Maxwell (RCB) 8

3. Deepak Hooda (PBKS) 8

SUMMER SLAM

MOTION PICTURE

MORE FIT TO JOIN MI'S BIO BUBBLE Former India wicket-keeper and Mumbai Indians' talentscout Kiran More has recovered from Covid-19 and isfit to join team's bio-bubble, MI said on Wednesday.The 58-year-old More is also the wicket-keepingconsultant for the five-time champions.

ROHIT FINED `12 LAKH Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma was fined `12lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during the IPLgame against Delhi Capitals in Chennai on Tuesday.

SUNDAR LOOK TO CARRY MOMENTUM India and RCB off-spinner Washington Sundar said hewill carry forward the confidence and self-belief hegained while playing Test cricket into the ongoing IPL.“We played against two top quality sides — Australiaand England. Performing against them and winninggames against them gave me a lot of confidence andself belief. So that confidence I will definitely take itforward and also the momentum throughout the IPLand the games to come,” he said.

‘ENJOYED RO & POLLARD’S WICKET’ Delhi Capitals spinner Amit Mishra, who picked up amatch-winning four-wicket haul against MumbaiIndians, said he particularly enjoyed dismissingopposition skipper Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard.“The wickets of Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard werespecial for me because they have been game changersfor MI for many years. I always go for wickets in everymatch that I play,” said the 38-year-old.

POINTS TABLEP W L NRR PTS

1 RCB 3 3 0 +0.750 6

2 DC 4 3 1 +0.426 6

3 CSK 3 2 1 +1.194 4

4 MI 4 2 2 +0.187 4

5 SRH 4 1 3 -0.228 2

6 KKR 3 1 2 -0.633 2

7 RR 3 1 2 -0.719 2

8 PBKS 4 1 3 -0.824 2

4s 412

6s 176

boundarymeter

PAK WIN 1ST T20 HARARE: Pakistan held on to win the first T20against Zimbabwe by managing to defend amodest total of 149-7. Zimbabwe only got138-7 in reply after Usman Qadir's 3-29thwarted the home team.

8 INDIAN BOXERS IN FINALNEW DELHI: Eight Indian boxers, includingseven women, stormed into the finals of theyouth world championships in Kielce. Apartfrom the eight finalists, three others settledfor Bronze medals.

INDIA-GBR MATCHES POSTPONEDLAUSANNE: The FIH Hockey Pro Leaguematches between India and Great Britain,scheduled for May 8-9 in London, werepostponed following the UK Government'sdecision to add India to the travel ‘red list'.

SCHALKE RELEGATED BERLIN: Bottom side Schalke 04 wasrelegated after 30 consecutive years in theBundesliga and almost exactly ten years sincereaching the Champions League's semi-finals.A 1-0 loss at Arminia Bielefeld confirmed afourth relegation in Schalke's history.

ENG REMOVE NAT’L SELECTOR LONDON: Chris Silverwood, head coach of theEngland cricket men's team, is to have overallresponsibility for squad selection with nationalselector Ed Smith's role abolished, the Englandand Wales Cricket Board announced onTuesday night. Agencies

shortpasses

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TODAYTODAY VSLIVE FROM

7:30PM IST

STAR SSPORTS 11 NNETWORK

Delhi Capitals pacer Avesh Khan gets an autograph on hisjersey from MI skipper Rohit Sharma @DelhiCapitals

SCOREBOARDPUNJAB KINGS (120-10)

KL Rahul c Jadhav b Bhuvneshwar 4Mayank AAgarwal c Rashid b Khaleel 22Chris GGayle lbw b Rashid 15Nicholas PPooran run out (Warner) 0 Deepak HHooda lbw b Abhishek 13Moises HHenriques st Bairstow b Abhishek 14Shahrukh KKhan c Abhishek b Khaleel 22Fabian AAllen c Warner b Khaleel 6Murugan AAshwin c Bairstow b Kaul 9Mohammed SShami run out (V Shankar/Bairstow) 3Arshdeep SSingh not out 1Extras (b 9, lb 0, w 1, nb 1, p 0) 11Total (10 wkts, 19.4 Overs) 120Fall oof WWickets: 15-1 (Rahul, 3.1), 39-2 (MayankAgarwal, 6.6), 39-3 (Pooran, 7.1), 47-4 (Gayle, 8.4),63-5 (Deepak Hooda, 11.3), 82-6 (Henriques, 13.4),101-7 (Fabian Allen, 16.4), 110-8 (Shahrukh, 18.1),114-9 (M Ashwin, 19.1), 120-10 (Shami, 19.4)BowlingAbhishek SSharma 4-0-24-2Bhuvneshwar KKumar 3-0-16-1Khaleel AAhmed 4-0-21-3S KKaul 3.4-0-27-1Vijay SShankar 1-0-6-0Rashid KKhan 4-0-17-1

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (121-1)

David WWarner c Mayank b Allen 37Jonny BBairstow not out 63Kane WWilliamson not out 16Extras (b 0, lb 1, w 4, nb 0, p 0) 5Total (1 wkts, 18.4 Overs) 121Did nnot bbat: Virat Singh, Vijay Shankar, AbhishekSharma, Kedar Jadhav, Rashid Khan, BhuvneshwarKumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth KaulFall oof WWickets: 73-1 (David Warner, 10.1)BowlingMohammed SShami 2-0-16-0Fabian AAllen 4-0-22-1Arshdeep SSingh 3.4-0-31-0Moises HHenriques 1-0-7-0Murugan AAshwin 4-0-22-0Deepak HHooda 4-0-22-0

Matches 23Royal CChallengers BBangalore 10Rajasthan RRoyals 10No rresult 03

LAST YEAR’S MATCHES

Royal Challengers Bangalore

defeated Rajasthan Royals by 8

wickets in Abu Dhabi

Royal Challengers Bangalore

beat Rajasthan Royals by 7

wickets in Dubai

VENUE: WANKHEDE STADIUM, MUMBAI

Virat Kohli who scored 5949 runs

at an average of 37.89 in 187

innings of 195 matches, needs

51 runs to become the first

batsman to complete 6000 runs

in the history of IPL

Sanju Samson who made 119 off

63 balls with 12 fours and seven

sixes against Punjab Kings in

Mumbai is the only centurion in

this IPLFaisel FFeatures

51

HEAD TO HEADKEY PLAYERS

GLENN MAXWELL

Man in form Maxi has shown what

he can do when is on song and he

will look to carry on that good run

JOS BUTTLER

In absence of Archer and Stokes,

Buttler’s role as a senior pro is more

important now than it was before

1

SCOREBOARDCHENNAI SUPER KINGS (220-3)

Ruturaj GGaikwad c Cummins b Chakravarthy 64Faf ddu PPlessis not out 95Moeen AAli st Karthik b Narine 25MS Dhoni c Morgan b Russell 17 Ravindra JJadeja not out 6Extras (b 0, lb 0, w 10, nb 3, p 0) 13Total (3 wkts, 20 Overs) 220Did nnot bbat: Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, SamCurran, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak ChaharFall oof WWickets: 115-1 (Ruturaj Gaikwad, 12.2), 165-2 (Moeen Ali, 16.3), 201-3 (MS Dhoni, 18.6)BowlingVarun CChakravarthy 4-0-27-1Pat CCummins 4-0-58-0Sunil NNarine 4-0-34-1Prasidh KKrishna 4-0-49-0Andre RRussell 2-0-27-1Kamlesh NNagarkoti 2-0-25-0

PTI n CHENNAI

Sunrisers Hyderabad cap-tain David Warner on

Wednesday termed theChepauk pitch as “shock-ing” after his side finallyscripted a successful runchase in four matches fortheir first win of the IPLseason.

Sunrisers have lostthree matches on the trot atthe MA ChidambaramStadium track, which hasthe reputation of aidingthe spinners. The venue haswitnessed many battingcollapses this season.

On Wednesday, SRH,however, had the last laugh

as they chased down asmall target of 120 to snaptheir three-match losingstreak.

Warner criticised thewicket but shied away fromblaming the curators.

“To be honest, it’sshocking,” Warner said in avirtual press conferenceafter his team’s win.

“It looks horrible onTV but you have to givecredit to the curators. Theyhave had a lot of crickethere so it’s very very diffi-cult for them to get thiswicket up and about. SinceI’ve started playing inChennai it’s always beenthere but it’s very difficult

for them.”The Chepauk track has

hosted a lot of cricket inrecent months with Indiataking on England in twoTest matches in February,followed by the initial leg ofthe ongoing IPL.

“It’s not their (cura-tors) fault that the wicket islike this. You had theIndian Test series againstEngland and the samething in Australia we had alot of games on the samepitches, so the curatorshave got a very difficultjob,” Warner said.

“As players, we knowwhat we have to do, thereare no excuses. It’s not ideal

but at the end of the day, weare grateful to go out thereand play on these wicketsbecause it's very challeng-ing for them, they don’thave any rest. We have to beprofessionals and adapt.”

The Australian alsorevealed that seamer TNatarajan has not playedthe last two games for SRHdue to a knee injury.

“He obviously has asore knee. Given the cir-cumstances in these bub-bles, if he goes and gets ascan, he obviously has to sitout for seven days and getback into quarantine, so weare just monitoring at themoment,” Warner said.

Chepauk wicket is shocking: Warner

AFP nMADRID

Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and ACMilan became the latest clubs to pull

out of the European Super League onWednesday, with the project on the brinkof collapse.

Only Real Madrid and Barcelona offi-cially remain, after England’s ‘Big Six’teams were the first to withdraw from thehugely controversial competition.

“The Atletico Madrid Board ofDirectors, meeting this Wednesday morn-ing, has decided to formally communicateto the Super League and the rest of thefounding clubs its decision not to finallyformalize its adherence to the project,” theSpanish side said in a statement.

“Atletico Madrid made the decisionlast Monday to join this project inresponse to circumstances that no longerexist today.

“For the club, harmony is essentialbetween all the groups that make up therojiblanco family, especially our fans.

Atletico are one of three La Liga out-fits involved in the breakaway tournament,with Real Madrid and their presidentFlorentino Perez at the heart of the pro-ject. But the new league looks dead in thewater after Manchester City, Chelsea,

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal,Tottenham as well as Inter all pulled out.

Italy’s AC Milan, Inter Milan andJuventus on Wednesday followed all sixEnglish clubs as well as Atletico Madridin giving up on the European SuperLeague project while continuing to pushfor a change in world football.

Italian champions Juventus, whosepresident Andrea Agnelli was one of thedriving forces behind the project, said thewithdrawal of most of the 12 foundingteams made the project unworkable.

“(Juventus) believes that at presentthere are limited chances that the projectbe completed in the form originally con-ceived,” the Turin club said.

They added that they “convinced ofthe soundness of the project’s sport, com-mercial and legal premises (and) remainscommitted to pursuing the creation oflong-term value for the Company andthe entire football industry.”

Like Juventus, AC Milan didnot formally withdraw but saidthey were bowing to a backlashfrom fans around the world.

While Chinese-ownedInter Milan confirmed theywere “no longer part of theSuper League project”.

Atletico, Italian, PL clubswithdraw from Super League

Munich: Bayern Munich can becrowned Bundesliga championsthis weekend after taking a 10point lead at the top of the tablewith a 2-0 win at home toBayer Leverkusen on Tuesdaynight.

Bayern seized control at theAllianz Arena with early goals byEric Maxim Choupo-Motingand Joshua Kimmich after sec-ond-placed RB Leipzig had ear-lier suffered a shock defeat at rel-egation-threatened Cologne.

With just four games to go,club world champions Bayernwill be guaranteed a ninthGerman league title in a row

with a win at Mainz onSaturday.

“I told the teambefore the game, thatwe could take a hugestep towards the title,which we have done.

We want tonow alsowin inM a i n z ,”s a i dB a y e r nc o a c hHa n s i

Flick.AFP

Bayern on brinkof 9th straight title

PTI nMUMBAI

Faf du Plessis blazed his way toa masterclass 95 not out after

his opening partner RuturajGaikwad’s impressive 64 asChennai Super Kings posted abig total of 220 for 3 againstKolkata Knight Riders here atWankhede stadium onWednesday.

First, it was Gaikwad whoreturned to form after a string ofpoor outings in his first threematches with a composed 42-ballknock that set it up for CSK afterKKR opted to field.

Gaikwad played the role ofaggressor, smashing four sixesand four boundaries, while hissenior South African partner duPlessis gave the youngster thebackup as the duo producedCSK’s best start of the seasonwith an opening stand of 115.

Du Plessis came on his ownafter Gaikwad’s departure in the13th over as he added 50 runswith Moeen Ali (25 off 12 balls)

off just 26 balls.CSK scored 76 runs in the

final five overs with the SouthAfrican at his attacking best inthe final five overs.

He smashed Andre Russellfor three successive boundariesand raced to 90s with a six off PatCummins in the final over in his60-ball knock which was studdedwith four sixes and nine fours.

CSK finished it off in style withRavindra Jadeja hitting Cummins for asix as Nitish Rana palmed it over the mid-wicket boundary that summed up theplight of KKR.

MS Dhoni promoted himself to No4 and finally broke his jinx against SunilNarine, hitting his first boundary after 64balls against the mystery spinner en routeto a eight-ball 17.

Faf takes CSK to 220

Faf du Plessis attempts to hit a six @@IIPPLL

Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul shake hands with Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Kane Williamson at the end of IPL match @IPL

SUN RISESSUN RISESIN CHENNAI

Khaleel, Bairstow guideOrange Army to maiden

win of 2021 season

ABSOLUTELY OVER THE MOON

TO GET SRH OVER THE LINE.

BEEN REALLY CLOSE IN MOST

OF THE GAMES, AND HAVEN'T

GOT THROUGH. PROBABLY

THROUGH CARELESSNESS TO

BE HONEST.

Jonny Bairstow, SRH batsman

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BATTLE ROYALRCB hope to maintain winning run against crisis-hit Rajasthan