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MONEY 87 INDIAN PHARMA PLAYERS RACETO DEVELOP COVID-19 VACCINE

ANALYSIS 7HEAL INDIA’S HEALTHCARE

SPORTS 11WINDIES KEEP POMS AT BAY

VIJAYAWADA, MONDAY JULY 20, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}DEEPIKA IS ‘BEYONDTHRILLED' TO BE A

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 258*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

Revamping theeducation sector comprehensively

2

Parl panels startedscrutinising handlingof Covid: Naidu

5

3 of 10 most valuedcompanies add Rs98,622.89 cr in mcap

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Current Weather ConditionsUpdated July 19, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Ashadha & Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Amavasya: 11:01 pmNakshatram: Punarvasu: 09:20 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:32 am – 09:08 amYamagandam: 10:45 am – 12:22 pmVarjyam: 09:30 am – 11:05 am

07:00 pm – 06:36 amGulika: 01:59 pm - 03:35 pmGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 06:58 pm – 08:33 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:56 am – 12:48 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: FogTemp: 33/26Humidity: 84%Sunrise: 05.51 amSunset: 06.53 pm

OBTUSE ANGLE

Starting today, The Pioneer will carry every Monday a cartoon series bysenior bureaucrat BP Acharya, who, through his pictorial parody, will bringa refreshing perspective to news and views published in these coloumns.

— RResident EEditor

THIS TOO SHALL PASS...

A TRIBUTE TOR.K. LAXMAN...

COVID 19HOSPITAL

Honour people’s aspirations on capital, Naidu's plea to GuvPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onSunday appealed to GovernorBiswa Bushan Harichandanto consider the interests andfuture aspirations of all sec-tions of people before takinga final decision on the CRDARepeal and three capitalsBills.

Naidu reminded theGovernor that the LegislativeCouncil has not rejected butonly referred the 'two anti-people Bills' to the SelectCommittee. When the Billswere unlawfully broughtbefore the House for the sec-ond time, the Council did notconsider the same as theywere pending before theSelect Committee.

In his letter, he recalled thatthe approval of the two Billsat this juncture wouldamount to contempt of theHigh Court as the HC was inthe process of hearing many

petitions against the govern-ment's ulterior move to shiftthe capital in the name ofdecentralised development.

Moreover, the two Billsviolated the Section 6 of APReorganisation Act- 2014under which the Central gov-ernment had appointed anExperts Committee at thattime and it eventually led tofinalisation of Amaravati asthe capital city. This Section

6 also suggested that theCentre form the ExpertsCommittee within six monthsof the Reorganisation Actcoming into effect so that thepanel can make recommen-dations for developing ‘a cap-ital' for the residual AP State.

Stating that the bifurcationAct passed by Parliamentsuggested 'only one capital'for AP, the TDP chief said thiswas one of the many points to

say that the Bills under con-sideration were brought inviolation of the country'sestablished Parliamentarypractices and traditions. TheYSRCP regime's thoughtlessactions were badly hurtingnot just the contemporary APsociety but also all futuregenerations of the State and their overall emergingaspirations and developmentneeds.

Warehouse to be converted intoCovid Centre in AnantapurPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Finding a place to providetreatment for Covid patientshas become a Herculean taskwith the rise in positive cases.

Therefore, to take care ofCovid-19 patients, a civil sup-plies warehouse is being con-verted into a 1,500-bed CovidCare Centre with 12 blocks atRaminepally near Raptaduin Anantapur district. Theworks pertaining to the con-version are going on a war-footing.

Of the 12 blocks in the cen-tre, two blocks will be allocat-ed for women. The sheds arebeing set up with all facilitiesfor the doctors, staff nurses

and sanitary staff, providingservices to Covid-19 patients.Each block consisting of 125beds is being set up in thecentre and a total of 180 freefabricated toilets are beingestablished for patients.

In the centre, two clinical

laboratories, along with ECG,X-Ray and blood sample col-lection lab, are being set up atthe centre. A total of Rs 8.50crore is being spent for theconversion of a warehouseinto a large Covid-19 centre.

Kin refuse to accept body of Covid infectedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The family members refusedto accept the body of theCorona positive person toperform funeral atSattenapalli in Guntur districton Sunday. A 60-year-old wastested positive in Sattenapalli.The ward volunteer informedthe person to be ready to getadmitted to Covid hospital fortreatment. However, with thesuggestion of his two daugh-ters, he wanted to get treat-ment in a private hospital.

The elderly person was fac-ing a severe respiratory prob-lem and came out of the

house to board an auto-rick-shaw. Sadly, he collapsed onthe road, while boarding theauto-rickshaw, and fearingover the tragic incident the

driver fled the scene. Thetwo daughters of the Coronapositive person screamed forhelp but no one came forwardand he died on the road.

Furthermore, the daughtersalso returned to house andironically other family mem-bers refused to take the bodyfor performing last rites withthe fear of Covid infection.The body remained on theroad for two hours. The localsinformed about the same tothe police and municipal offi-cials. Police led by urban cir-cle inspector S Vijayachandrarushed to the spot andrestricted activity on the road.He informed MunicipalCommissioner P SrinivasaRao about the inhuman inci-dent and requested to arrangeworkers to shift the body.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Maoists have stepped up theirefforts to regroup in TelanganaState. They made a deter-mined bid to revive their activ-ity mainly during the pastfour months, taking advantageof the fact that the police forcewas used largely to enforce thenationwide lockdown betweenMarch and June in view of theCovid-19 pandemic.

Some Maoist cadre crossedover from the neighbouringChhattisgarh and reached inte-rior villages ostensibly to takeup issues facing tribals.

Against this backdrop, ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao has stepped in with a'counter strategy', which laysstress on passing on the ben-efits of a slew of state govern-ment's welfare schemes toevery household and provideemployment in tribal areas.This is aimed at preventingfresh recruitment of tribals byMoaist outfits.

Maoists regroup in TS, KCRprepares ‘counter strategy’

Prime Minister NarendraModi said Amaravati Capital

would be developed as abetter city than Delhi at the time oflaying the foundation stone. TheCentre also recognised Amaravatias a ‘Smart City' and allocated Rs700 crore. Besides, the Centralgovernment has already providedRs 2,500 crore for developing theSecretariat, Assembly, Council,High Court and other basic facilities

— N CHANDRABABU NAIDU, Leader of the Opposition

PNS n TIRUPATI

A major disaster was averted atTirupati International Airport onSunday when a fire engine over-turned on the runway minutesbefore a flight was about to land.The IndiGo flight fromBengaluru returned withoutlanding at the airport due to theincident that took place at around9.30 am, airport officials said.

The fire engine, which wason the runway for a routineinspection to give clearancefor the flight’s landing, skidded

and tilted on one side. No onewas injured in the incident. Theairport authorities later clearedthe runway and restored theflight operations. According toAirport Director S Suresh, therunway was cleared in two-and-a-half hours.

Patient jumps todeath from hospital

Covid cases: Highest single day jump PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Covid-19 tallyskyrocketed onSunday with 5,041new cases detectedin the 24 hours end-ing 9 am, accordingto health officials.

This is the highest eversingle-day tally and comes on

the back of successiverecords set over the

preceding four days.The day also saw arecord 56 deathsdue to Coronavirusin the State.

Sunday's updatetakes the overall tally

of Covid cases in theState to 49,650. Yet again, all

the 13 districts reported Covidcases in triple figures. EastGodavari reported the highesttally of 647 positive cases,while Anantapur followed with637 cases. Srikakulam with535 cases and Chittoor with440 cases were the other districts that reported highnumbers.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Patients are not only suc-cumbing to Covid virus butalso committing suicidesunable to afford thehuge cost that wasinvolved in thetreatment.

A patientjumped off thethird floor of aprivate hospital inKakinanda as he wasworried over the billcharged towards his treat-ment for fever. Satya VenkataKrishna (37) from Tallarevumandal was admitted to ahospital due to high fever.

As per procedure, he wastested for Covid-19 but hisreports came out as negative.The treatment for fever wasalso not showing any results

and he also had heart ail-ment.

The hospital bill came outas Rs 17,500 on Friday.

Shocked by seeing theamount, Venkata and

his father enquiredwhy such a hugeamount wascharged. Thereport said thathospital authorities

told them that theycharged Rs 2,000 for

Covid-19 test and the restwas the room charge.

Without any word, he wentup the third floor and jumpedfrom there. He died on thespot. Meanwhile, thedeceased's kin protested infront of the hospital againstthe management. The bodywas shifted to KakinadaGGH for post-mortem.

Tenali YSRCPMLA testedpositive forCoronaPNS n VIJAYAWADA

One more ruling party MLAwas tested positive for Covid-19 in Guntur district. It may berecalled that earlier, YSRCPMLA of Ponnur Kilari Rosaiahwas infected in Guntur district,and now Tenali YSRCP MLAAnnabattuni Siva Kumar hasbeen tested positive for Covid-19.

Siva Kumar said that hisearlier two samples showednegative but the fresh sampletested positive, hence, he isunder home quarantine.

He asked people not to fearof Corona as the pandemiccan be prevented with pre-cautions and can be recov-ered through treatment.

Maoists, security forcesexchange fire in Vizag AgencyPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

An exchange of fire tookplace between the membersof the banned outfit CPI(Maoists) and the combingsecurity forces in VizagAgency on Sunday. The secu-rity forces intensified thecombing operations at

Ginnelakota area inPedabayalu mandal.

The exchange of fire tookplace at Landalu village areain the Ginnelakota area inVizag Agency. Maoists wereon the run after an exchangeof fire. Police recovered a fewkit bags and a 303 rifle fromthe spot.

Modi calls Jagan, KCR on Covid in AP, TSPNS n HYDERABAD

Prime Minister Narendra Modion. Sunday spoke to ChiefMinisters of Telangana andAndhra Pradesh K Chandrashekhar Rao and YS Jaganmohan Reddy on the Covid-19situation in respective States.

The Prime Minister alsospoke to the Chief Ministers ofBihar, Assam, Tamil Nadu,Himachal Pradesh and

Uttarakhand. The PM enquiredabout the spread of Coranavirusin Telugu States and the mea-sures taken by the State govern-ments to contain the virus.

The PM also asked about the

number of tests being conduct-ed per day and the number offatalities being reported inTelugu States. The PM is learntto have made certain sugges-tions to both the CMs on con-

taining the spread of virus. TheCMs informed the PM that theCorona tests were significantlyincreased in Telugu States andall the government hospitals areill equipped to provide treat-ment to more number ofpatients.

The CMs informed about the regulatory mechanismfor private hospitals involved inCorona treatment to safeguardthe interests of patients.

PNS n DUBAI

A Dubai-based Indian girlhas broken the world recordfor performing 100 yogaposes within minutes in aconfined space, according toa media report on Sunday.

This is 11-year-oldSamridhi Kalia's third worldrecord entry and the secondone in the last one month,The Khaleej Times reported.

Speaking on the 'fastesthundred yoga postures per-formed in restricted space'Golden Book World Record,Samridhi said hard work andperseverance formed thebedrock of her success.

Dubai-basedIndian girl’srecord feat

Fire engine overturns onTirupati airport runway

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GLOBAL DEATH TOLL FORPANDEMIC NOW ABOVE 600,000

DELHI SIKH BODY STARTS FREEAMBULANCE SERVICE FOR COVID-19

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) hasstarted free ambulance service for COVID-19 patients in need of

mobility support in the national capital. In the first phase, 12 ambulancesequipped with "ultra-modern medical facilities" havebeen rolled out for this purpose, the Sikh body said.DSGMC President, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, said moreambulances will be made available as and whenrequired. At present, the ambulance service isavailable in north, south, east, west and central Delhi."COVID-19 patients can avail free ambulance service bydialing 9811992175/9818676757 for West Delhi.

NEXT 10 YEARS WILL BE INDIA'SGOLDEN MOMENT IN KEY SECTORS

The next 10 years is going to be India's "golden moment" in keysectors like technology, pharmaceutical, e-commerce and

manufacturing, said a top venture capitalist from Silicon Valley, pointingat the USD 20 billion foreign direct investment in the country amidst thecoronavirus outbreak. "Coronavirus is sweeping the world, especially theUS and India. In spite of that, theamount of investment going intoIndia is mind-boggling," SiliconValley's top venture capitalist,entrepreneur and philanthropist M R Rangaswami said.

Johns Hopkins University says the global death toll from COVID-19 hassurpassed 600,000. The university's tally as of Saturday night says the

United States tops the list with 140,103 deaths. It is followed by 78,772fatalities in Brazil and 45,358 in the United Kingdom. The number ofconfirmed infections worldwide haspassed 14.2 million, out of which 3.7million are in the United States. There areover 2 million in Brazil and more than 1million in India. The World HealthOrganisation again reported a single-dayrecord of new infections with 259,848.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured all support toAssam in dealing with the flood havoc, which has claimed 81 lives

so far this year. Discussing the flood situation with ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowal over phone, Modi alsoenquired about the COVID-19 scenario and theongoing efforts to douse the raging blaze at the OilIndia's Baghjan gas well. "Hon'ble PM Shri@narendramodi ji took stock of the contemporarysituation regarding #AssamFloods2020,#COVID19 and Baghjan Oil Well fire scenarioover phone this morning," Sonowal tweeted.

PM SPEAKS TO ASSAM CM OVERFLOOD SITUATION, ASSURES HELP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi enquired aboutthe spread of Coranavirus in Telugu States andthe measures taken by the State governmentsto contain the virus

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VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 vijayawada 02

Revamping the educationsector comprehensivelyChief Minister K

Chandrashekhar Rao,while reviewing the

education sector in the state,has hinted at revamping itcomprehensively, especiallywith regard to governmenteducational institutions, inrespect of curriculum, exam-ination procedures, andadministration, among otheraspects. This presupposesradical changes in the systemto make it more relevant andresponsive to the ever-chang-ing needs of society.

India is a country with50% of its population agedbelow 25 years and morethan 65% aged under 35. It isestimated that, by this yearend (2020), the averageIndian age would be 29 years.By 2030, the literacy rate inthe country would be 75 percent. Based on the availabledata, it can be safely assumedthat the country’s growingpopulation and the prolifer-ating educational institutionshave the power to mould thesystem. In this context, thedecision of the Chief Ministerto bring about a sea-change inthe education sector becomeshighly relevant.

The present-day educationsystem, from the primarylevel in schools to the univer-sities, is preparing studentsfor examinations, but notmaking them well-equippedto face the harsh realities ofthe world. The existing sys-tem unfortunately follows thepedagogy as conceived andimplemented by the Britishfor producing just clerks fortheir administration to serveHer Majesty’s interests.

There is a dire need tochange the entire curriculum,co-curricular activities, exam-ination procedures from pri-mary to post-graduation lev-els. In the 60s, in all govern-ment schools, there used tobe weekend classes on craftsand moral science. In the Pre-University Course (as it wascalled then) and in the under-graduate course, there was asubject known as GeneralEducation covering all sub-

jects in a nutshell. In the early70s, in the Intermediatecourse, students opting forMathematics stream used tohave one class in Generalbiology, while Biology stu-dents used to have one classin General mathematics.Socially Useful ProductiveWork (SUPW) was part of thecurriculum, but mostly incentral schools.

As part of reforms at theprimary level, from nurseryto fifth standard in all thegovernment and recognisedprivate schools, the authori-ties must do away with exam-ination or test process.Instead, children should betaught basic languages,Mathematics, Science,hygiene, with the emphasisbeing on their inculcatinggood habits. The curriculumshould have more room forfun, play and team-buildingactivities. As the child stepsinto fourth and fifth class,once in a while they shouldbe taken out to a local mar-ket, shop, farm etc. besidesexposing them to fine arts,theoretically and practically.This way they will understandthe importance of caring andsharing. Homework shouldbe negligible or none.

As for secondary educa-tion, from sixth to ninthstandard, students should beexposed to different crafts,such as carpentry, weaving,tailoring, masonry work,basic electrical works etc.This will enable them to

imbibe what we call dignity oflabour. There should be oneclass every week in which thestudents should be taughtbasic values and morals.Instead of the present-day 9AM to 5 PM school hours,teaching should be restrictedto the morning session. Post-lunch session should be forpracticals. Reduction inhomework is desirable.Exposure to IT should beginhere. Every student, afterpassing out from the TenthStandard, should be amatured and evolved personwho can chart his way aheadwith a little bit of guidance.He or she should be capableof planning the future to agreater extent.

In the intermediate educa-tion, besides the regularMPC, BPC, CEC, MECstreams, there should be moreflexible combinations of stu-dents’ choice. It could beHistory and Biology orBiology and Mathematics orGeography and Chemistry.Subjects like Agriculture,Horticulture, Forestry,Artif icial Intelligence,Machine Learning could beincluded. The Intermediatecurricula should have skilldevelopment embedded intoit. Polytechnic diploma cours-es should be integrated withIntermediate education. Oneshould be able to get gainfulemployment afterIntermediate course, if needbe.

As for higher education, ithas to be revamped to makeit suitable to meet the needsof the industry, business,trades and traditional human-ities. Arts and Social Sciencesstreams should co-exist. Likethe good old experiment ofBITS Pilani, a student pursu-

ing science stream should beable to study one subject inArts, Humanities or SocialSciences. Similarly, a studentpursing higher education inArts should be able to studyone subject from the sciencestream.

Colleges and universitiesare to be linked and attachedto the industry, commerceand trade sectors to identifyareas that are to be broughtinto focus for furtherresearch. Companies, indus-trial houses, commerce andtrade giants should invest inresearch as part of their CSR.

Though we talk highly ofour largest science graduateworkforce in the world, thereis no in-depth learning orknowledge in our students.Our examination, testingand marking systems shouldbe designed to recognizestudents’ creative potential,problem-solving and innov-ative skills. The educationsystem needs to be trans-formed to produce innova-tors, able administratorswho can administer justicebased on the ground reali-ties, people who can workwith passion and compas-sion in whatever field, job orposition they are placed.Experts have suggested thatthe goal of our educationsystem should be to createentrepreneurs, innovators,artists, scientists, thinkers,and writers who can estab-lish the foundation for theemerging knowledge-basedeconomy.

All said and done, a rolemodel teacher makes all thedifference and the revampededucation system should aim at onboarding the bestteachers.

—with VJM Divakar

The present-day education system,from the primary level in schools to theuniversities, is preparing students forexaminations, but not making themwell-equipped to face the harshrealities of the world

VANAM JWALA NARASIMHA RAOCPRO to Chief Minister

YELLOW METAL REMAINS FIRMPNSn HYDERABAD

With the hope of medicine andvaccine for COVID-19 becom-ing brighter, and with debateson the US Presidency becom-ing hotter day after day as theNovember elections approach,the yellow metal remained firmduring the week endedSaturday. Consequently theNew York gold showed anupswing and finally closed atUS $ 1,810.30 (per ounce)while, silver followed suit andclosed at $ 19.32 (per ounce).Platinum and palladium alsomarched forward and closed at$ 831 (per ounce) and $1,969(per ounce) respectively.

Other economic parametersremained strong. Brent closedat US$ 43.14 (per barrel), whileCrude MCX oil was quoted atRs.3,053 (per barrel). GoldMCX stood at Rs.48,967 (per10 gms). The MCX Silver

moved up and closed atRs.52,899 (per kg), while cop-per closed at the higher level ofRs.500.30 (per kg). Sensex andNifty 50 closed at 37,020.14 and10,901.70 points respectively,following the retreat byIndo-China forces on theborders.

Leading foreigncurrencies’ exchangerates were US $:Rs.74.93, BritishPound: Rs.94.15,E u r o :R s . 8 5 . 6 3 ,Singapore $:Rs.53.91, Swiss Franc: Rs.79.82,Australian $: Rs.52.40, SaudiRiyal: Rs.19.97, New ZealandDollar: Rs.49.13, KuwaitiDinar: Rs.243.62, Omani Rial:Rs.194.65 and UAE Dirham:Rs.20.40, Japanese Yen: Rs.0.70,Hong Kong Dollar: Rs.9.66.

At home, though at presentdue to peculiar conditions pre-

vailing in the market, thedemand for jewellery has beenlow, traders have not given uphope. The reason for theiroptimism is the good rainsthroughout the country, whichmeans bumper harvest and lotsof money in the hands of farm-

ers. It is noteworthy thatabout 60% of the gold pur-

chased finds its way torural areas.

Both the preciousmetals moved with-

in narrow lim-its due to pre-vailing diver-

gent trend in the global markets.Standard gold (24 carats)declined marginally by Rs.70and closed at Rs.51,150 (per 10gms). Ornamental gold toomoved in tandem, and wasquoted in the range of Rs.46,760- 46,860 on the closing day. Onthe other hand, Silver (0.999)appreciated by Rs.350, and

closed at Rs.52,300 (per kg).

COMMODITIESThe sentiment in principal

wholesale commodity markets inthe twin cities continued toremain strong. However, rythubazars and the various commod-ity markets located in BegumBazar, Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj, Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar, Kukatpally, Bowenpally, General Bazarobserved voluntary closure, fol-lowing spike in COVID-19 cases.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal, masoordal, moong dal and urad dal andcommodities like chillies andgarlic remained at moderate lev-els, while staple food-grainsand common edible oils record-ed marginal appreciation. Withthe spike in COVID-19 cases,Asia’s biggest jeera market atUnjha (Gujarat) will remainclosed from July 19-25.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

In view of the presentdimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the life we

lived prior to March 20 hasturned topsy-turvy. Except inthe case of human beings,there has been a sea-change allover the world in all walks oflife. The meanings and contextsof everything concerning ourpresent and future havechanged radically.

The legal system, judiciary atlarge and approach to the liti-gation resolution too requiresa re-look. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered us anopportunity to re-model ourentire justice delivery system.It is a blessing in disguise.

As is well known, the bane ofour legal system is the proce-dural jungle, unpardonabledelays, rampant corruption,and indifference towards liti-gants. These elements haveshaken the confidence of the

common man in our judicialsystem.

Fortunately, the SupremeCourt and the powers-that-bein the government seem tohave taken a serious note ofthese drawbacks of our justicedelivery system and haveinitiated some positiveremedial measures.Going digital, wherebythe filing of papersonline and addressingthe court throughvideo conferenceis just a beginningtowards the much-needed reforms. Inspite of teethingtroubles such as fre-quent disruption ofinternet connection,failure of power supply andpoor quality of audio andvideo, this new beginningneeds to be welcomed by oneand all.

The virtual court offersjudges and lawyers tremendousscope for ease of doing work.It also facilitates the court tokeep records in digital formwhich can be called for by theappellate court in case of anydispute or clarification from

the lower court. The virtu-al court also results intodrastically cutting down the

establishment expensesand the amountso saved couldbe utilized for

improving the qualityof justice administration.

All one needs is high speedinternet connections forjudges and advocates con-cerned. There could befurther improvement in

the procedure whereby withinprescribed time limits the par-ties at dispute may be asked tofile counters, responses, writtenarguments etc.

In fact, even at present suchtime limits have been pre-scribed under certain statuteslike the Commercial Courts.Similarly, the maximum timefor advancing oral argumentsshould also be prescribed sothat the number of disposalscan increase. Training classesfor judges at all levels, para legalstaff and advocates should bearranged on a regular basis.

SC hands over temple to royal family

The much-contentious issuein the litigation before the

Supreme Court has been decid-ed in favour of the legal heirs ofthe former ruler ofT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m(Travancore) and the apex courtasked the royal family to man-age the affairs of the temple.

Sri Padmanabh SwamyTemple has become an enigmadue to its riches. It is consideredas one of the richest holy placesin the world. The present struc-ture was built in the 18th cen-tury by the then TravancoreMaharaja Marthanda Varma.The temple had been con-trolled by the royal family

from Independence to 1991,when the last ruler of theTravancore, Chithira ThirunalBalarama Varma, passed away.Subsequently, the Kerala gov-ernment allowed the manage-ment of the temple to be takenover by the younger brother,Uthradam ThirunalMarthanda Varma. In 2011, theKerela High Court ruled thatthe royal family cannot exert its‘schebait’ rights.

Now, the apex court hasoverturned the ruling of theKerala High Court. In 2017,the apex court constituted aseven-member panel headedby amicus curiae GopalSubramanian to assess thevalue of the treasure troveinside several vaults whichhad not been opened for over130 years. The vault A itselfcontained the treasure to thetune of around 1 lakh crore!!It is needless to say that this

verdict has buoyed up theenthusiasm of Hindutva forces.

Certificate U/S 65B(4)Evidence Act mandatory: SC

Answering a reference on thequestion ‘Is requirement of cer-tificate u/s 65B(4) of EvidenceAct mandatory for productionof electronic evidence?’, a benchof the Supreme Court, compris-ing Justice R.F.Nariman,S.Ravindra Bhat and V.RamaSubramaniam, replied in affir-mative, and observed that if adefective certificate is given ordespite the demand it is notgiven by the concerned person,the trial judge must summonthe person/persons and requirethat such certificate be given byhim/them. However, the Courtadded that in appropriate cases,the trial court may allow theprosecution to produce suchcertificate at a later point of time.

Ser vice by WhatsApp, e-mail, fax, etc.

The Supreme Court has per-mitted service of summons,notices, etc; through WhatsApp,e-mail, fax and other digitalmodes. A bench headed by theChief Justice S.A.Bobde observedthat in the prevailing COVID-19pandemic situation, it is not fea-sible for the legal fraternity to visitpost offices for sending notices;summons and pleadings on theother side and therefore such doc-uments can be sent throughthese digital media. The benchclarified that two blue ticks wouldconvey that the receiver has seenthe notice and that would be a suf-ficient proof of service.

Indeed, this is a very helpfuland practical step taken by theapex court which will not onlyspeed up the service of theessential documents, but alsominimise the time, money andenergy of the lawyers.

LEGALROUNDUP

The legal system, judiciary at large andapproach to the litigation resolution toorequires a re-look. In fact, the COVID-19pandemic has offered us an opportunity tore-model our entire justice delivery system

COVID 19: NEED TO RE-MODEL JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM

Mysteryshroudsyouth’s death PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A 19-year-old youth wasfound dead in a mysteriouscondition on the roadside atGamparai village inPedabayalu mandal ofVisakhapatnam district onSunday. The deceased wasidentified as V Radha Krishna(19) of Gamparai village inP e d a b a y a l umandal. According to RajaRao, sub-inspector ofPedabayulu police station,Radha Krishna was a ganjaand alcohol addict. OnSaturday night, he left homeand did not return back. Asper the complaint given by thefamily, some of the youth, who generally con-sume liquor with RadhaKrishna, are suspected to have reportedly beaten anddumped him on the road.

Police said that the youthhad head injuries apart fromscratches at various parts of hisbody, to which he might havesuccumbed. Based on thecomplaint, a case has been registered atPedabayalu police station.Investigation is on.

Fault line, a major coastal hazard PNS n HYDERABAD

A research team fromUniversity of Hyderabad(UoH), in collaboration withNational Institute ofOceanography and Oil &Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.have uncovered the presence ofonce repetitively active fractureline (geologically termed asfault line) to the east of northAndhra Pradesh.

The fracture line has a max-imum activity focussed in thevicinity of offshoreVisakhapatnam. Further, theresearchers opined that thefracture line may possiblybecome active again in futureand turn out to be a majorcoastal hazardous event associ-ated with seismicity and tsuna-mi in and aroundVisakhapatnam region, northAP. The research team consistsof Prof KS Krishna and Dr MIsmaiel from UoH, Dr KSrinivas from National Instituteof Oceanography and Dr DSaha from Oil & Natural GasCorporation Ltd. analysed seis-mic reflection data in order toaddress a cause-effect relation-ship between the sediment loadand response of underneath het-

erogeneous igneous rocks in theBay of Bengal. They found apresence of a 300-km long frac-ture line in the offshore regionof north Andhra Pradesh andabout 100 km away from thecoastline. In geological sense,the fracture line borders easternside of the offshore Bastar cra-ton between the Pranahita-Godavari graben in the southand Nagavali-Vamshadharashear zone in the north.

Researchers estimated verti-cal throws/ displacements of thefracture line and assigned agesto repetitive activities thatoccurred in the geological pastby correlating sedimentary hori-zons to bore-hole results. The

studies revealed that the fractureline along the eastern margin ofIndia recorded a cumulative dis-placement of ~900 m betweenthe igneous basement and ~16million years old sedimentaryhorizon, later the fracture wasreactivated at 6.8 million yearsago and continued the activityprogressively until 0.3 millionyears before cessation.

The study concluded thatfracture line activity in offshoreKrishna-Godavari Basin wasvariable in nature, to begin withepisodic starting at about 16million years ago and resumedagain at 6.8 million years, fromthere the activity was continu-ous until 0.3 million years.

Collector flags off Sanchara Sanjeevini busesPNSn VIJAYAWADA

Krishna District Collector MDImtiaz said that the districtadministration was taking mea-sures to preventing Covid-19from spreading and has beenconducting wide range ofCoronavirus detection tests andgiving suggestions to people.The Collector on Sunday flaggedoff Sanchara Sanjeevani Bus at theCollector’s camp office, whichconducts Covid tests.

Speaking on the occasion, theCollector said that SanjeeviniCovid tests are being done acrossKrishna district and three buses

are being operated in the district.Samples will be collected fromhigh risk, very high-risk areasbesides areas where there are

more than 10 positive cases.Imtiaz further stated that in the

wake of increasing positive casesin the State, Chief Minister YS

Jaganmohan Reddy launched 52Sanchara Sanjeevini buses acrossthe State and three buses wereallocated to Krishna district. Heinformed that through Coviddesignated hospitals and privatehospitals, the Covid patients arebeing provided the best treatmentpossible.

The Collector said that mea-sures are being taken to containthe virus through QuarantineCentres and Covid Care Centres,meanwhile, the government hasincluded Covid treatment underAarogyasri scheme and manypeople are being benefittedthrough the scheme, he said.

COVID-19 EFFECT

Patients runningfrom pillar to post C PRADEEP KUMAR n VIJAYAWADA

Cheating the common manhas reached its peak during theCovid-19 pandemic. Afterunlock 1.0 and 2.0, Corona pos-itive cases were spreading rapid-ly like a wild fire across the Statewith migrants and people fromabroad arriving in the State.

Positive cases are being report-ed in thousands every day in theState sending shock waves amongpeople as the medicine for thevirus is still under trials. While themonsoon was active across theState, viral infections increased dueto rains in the State. The mostaffected people during this peri-od are the poor and senior citizenswith health issues.

The saddest part is that peo-ple with general health issues arenot getting admission in privatehospital with various issues likeCovid certificate and other guide-lines imposed by the State gov-ernment to contain the spread ofthe virus. People suffering fromgeneral respiratory problems are

facing a problem as Covid-19pandemic symptoms are similarto that of infecting the respirato-ry system.

On the other hand, a few sam-ple collection centres (primaryhealth centres) in Vijayawada aretold by the authorities not to col-lect samples for a week as reportsfor samples already collected arepending for more than a week.

Speaking to The Pioneer, GRajeswari, a retired teacher, said,“My sister, who is 75-year-old wassuffering from chronic respirato-ry tract infection and breathingproblem. When he approacheda private hospital they referred for

chest CT scan and after gettingthe scan report they told us to getCovid-19 report. My sister is fac-ing severe breathlessness as theinfection is chronic and waskept on oxygen. To get theCovid-19 test done at the GGH,Vijayawada, we have to spend Rs10,000 for the private ambulanceservice. Instead of showingempathy on the current situation,most of the emergency servicepeople are taking the advantageof the situation to make money.Even the newly launched 104/108service could not come handy forelderly patients during the cur-rent crisis,” she said.

Heavy rainslash cityPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Heavy rain paralysed nor-mal life and low lying areasin the city were inundatedwith rain water. Heavy rainsthat lashed nearly two hoursin the city particularly inOne Town resulted in waterlogging in scores ofcolonies.

Residents suffered hard-ships due to stagnation ofwater and over flowing ofside drains. IslamP, WynchPet, Kotha Pet, KL RaoNagar, Rotar y Nagar,Urmila Nagar,Vidyadharapuram andBhavanipuram and otherareas were badly affecteddue to heavy rain.

Commuters particularlythe two wheelers had a toughtime as the rain waterentered the engines causingbreakdown of vehicles.Thousands of people suf-fered problems due to sud-den downpour. Low bridgenear K Market and PanditNehru Bus Stand road inKrishna Lanka are two majorproblematic areas in the cityduring the season.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 vijayawada 03

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

It is with malicious intent thatOpposition leader NChandrababu Naidu has writ-ten a letter to Governor BiswaBushan Harichandan to retainthe capital in Amaravati, dis-closed Minister for MunicipalAdministration BotsaSatyanarayana.

Speaking to the media hereon Sunday, he recalled thatSivaramakrishnan Committeereport vetoing the setting up ofcapital in Amaravati inbetween Krishna and Gunturdistricts was never consideredby Naidu and that he wasspeaking all lies now. The min-ister said the SivaramakrishnanCommittee was totally againstthe setting up of capital inAmaravati as fertile lands inthe region would be destroyedand has also spoke aboutdecentralised administration.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, whopromised decentralisation ofadministration and reorganisa-tion of districts, has got twoBills passed in the Assembly forthe decentralisation of admin-istration by locating the

Executive Capital inVisakhapatnam, the LegislativeCapital in Amaravati and theJudicial Capital in Kurnooland the other one to repealAPCRDA Act.

He has been fulfilling all thepromises he had made oneafter the other. However, Naidugot the Bills stopped in theLegislative Council with ulte-rior motives, he said.

The decision on decen-tralised administration waslauded by the people of northCoastal Andhra andRayalaseema. It was evenappreciated by the people of

Krishna and Guntur districts asthe Legislative Capital wasproposed to be set up inAmaravati. With a thumpingmajority of 151 seats in theAssembly, the Chief Ministerhas been fulfilling all thepromises he had made to thepeople, he said.

Cabinet posts were given tothe weaker sections, and theadministration was taken to thedoorstep of people by setting upof Village Secretatiats and byinitiating the process of reor-ganisation of districts for betteradministration, he said. Naidu,who grabbed lands from the

poor in the name of land pool-ing for the capital has beeninsisting on making Amaravatithe sole capital of the State justto help his coterie run a realestate business, he allged.

Naidu telling lies onAmaravati, says Botsa

n Minister for MunicipalAdministration BotsaSatyanarayana said theSivaramakrishnanCommittee was totallyagainst the setting up ofcapital in Amaravati asfertile lands in the regionwould be destroyed andhas also spoke aboutdecentralisedadministration

n The decision ondecentralisedadministration was laudedby the people of northCoastal Andhra andRayalaseema. It was evenappreciated by the peopleof Krishna and Gunturdistricts as the LegislativeCapital was proposed tobe set up in Amaravati,the minister reminded

Minor betrayed by friend,‘gang-raped’ by seven

l The gang members tookthe girl to a room nearthe Gokavaram bus standin Rajamahendravaramand drugged her intounconsciousness beforerepeatedly gang-rapingher. The girl mentioned inher complaint to thepolice that she was alsoseverely tortured bythese monsters. Sevenaccused have beenarrested in the case

l The Women’sCommission has soughtstringent action againstthe offenders. The victimbelonged to Madhura-pudi of Korukondamandal in the district

l According to the localpolice, a friend of thevictim deceived hersaying that she would geta job for her inRajamahendravaram andhanded her over to themiscreants on July 12.The girl did not returnhome on the same dayevening, but her frienddid.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

In another brutal gang-rapeincident, seven men allegedlysexually assaulted a minor girl forfour days in East Godavari dis-trict. The incident came to lightafter the 16-year-old victimrevealed her ordeal at the govern-ment hospital where she wasadmitted after being traced.

The Women’s Commission,on Sunday, has sought stringentaction against the offenders.The victim belonged toMadhurapudi of Korukondamandal in the district. Accordingto the local police, a friend of thevictim deceived her saying thatshe would get a job for her inRajamahendravaram and hand-ed her over to the miscreants onJuly 12. The girl did not return

home on the same day evening,but her friend did.

Sensing some foul play, hermother filed a complaint with theKorukonda police who tracedthe girl after four days. She wasfound in a very weak and uncon-scious state. Revealing her hor-ror experience, she said herfriend, Anita, betrayed herpromising a job and took her toa criminal gang in a quarry area.

The gang members took thegirl to a room near theGokavaram bus stand in Raja-mahendravaram and druggedher into unconsciousness beforerepeatedly gang-raping her. Thegirl mentioned in her complaintto the police that she was alsoseverely tortured by these mon-sters. Seven accused have beenarrested in the case.

‘OperationMuskaan’rescues 620kids in KurnoolPNS n VIJAYAWADA

As part of the police's initia-tive 'Operation Muskaan' inKurnool district, as many as620 children were rescuedfrom various parts of thedistrict. District ChildProtection Officer (DCPO) TSarada said that 60 per centof children rescued are in theschool-going age. The districtpolice, along with officials ofchild welfare, revenue andmedical departments, tookpart in the operation, whichhas begun on July 14. Thisspecial drive in the districtwill continue till July 20.

T Sarada said that in mostcases, parents have forcedthe children to take up thejobs for money. As many as 55teams were formed to rescuechildren across the district,she said. Officials concernedcounselled the parents of therescued children.

Of the total, at least 200street children and orphanswere rescued by officials andshifted to shelter homes, shesaid. Sarada further statedthat several children werefound taking shelter nearrailway stations, bus stationsand under flyovers, she said.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

If the Governor Biswa BushanHarichandan passes the threecapitals and CRDA Bills, itwould remain as a historicalmistake, opined AmaravatiJAC convener A Siva Reddy.

Addressing the media per-sons at the JAC office here onSunday, Siva Reddy recalledthat 67 farmers died in the agi-tation against the capital shift-ing from Amaravati, farmersand women of the villageshave been protesting for thepast 215 days against the gov-ernment’s decision on capitalshifting.

He said that the State wouldbe developed in all aspects

with the Amaravati as onlycapital. They stated that 24,000farmers sacrificed their liveli-hood for the new capital estab-lishment but there is norespect to them in the presentgovernment.

APSJAC leaders said thatfarmers of 29 villages ofAmaravati Capital Regioneagerly waiting for the decisionof the Governor, which wouldimpact their lives. They soughtthat the Governor should notgive approval to the Bills andshould forward them to thePresident for considerationusing his discretionary powers.APSJAC leaders warned aboutcontinuation of legal fight forthe protection of Amaravati.

Amaravati JAC urgesGovernor not toapprove capital Bills

Highest single day jump of5,041 Covid cases in State

Continued from Page 1

Other districts that report-ed high Covid cases over theprevious 24 hours includeKrishna with 397, WestGodavari with 393 cases,Nellore with 391 cases, Gunturwith 354 cases andVisakhapatnam with 266 cases.Vizianagaram with 241 cases,Kadapa with 226 cases,Prakasam with 150 cases andVizianagaram with 118 caseswere the low incidence districtsover the previous 24 hours.

Sunday's figures also includ-ed the highest death toll on asingle day. The State reported56 deaths compared to the alltime high of 52 deaths onSaturday. As per the latestupdate, deaths occurred in 11of the 13 districts in the State.

The overall death toll in theState has now shot up to 642,health officials said.

East Godavari recorded theday's high of 10 deaths, whileeight deaths were reportedfrom Srikakulam and seveneach were reported fromKurnool, Visakhapatnam andKrishna districts. Similarly,four deaths were reportedfrom Prakasam district andthree deaths each were report-ed from Anantapur, Kadapaand Vizianagaram districts. Atthe bottom of the list, Gunturand Chittoor districts report-ed two deaths each.

Over the past 24 hours,1,106 persons were dischargedfrom hospitals and Covid treat-ment centres. There are 26,118active cases while 22,890 per-sons have been declared as

cured and discharged.On the brighter side, not a

single positive case was detect-ed among returnees from otherStates to Andhra Pradesh. Tilldate, 2,461 cases have beenidentified as Covid positiveamong persons, who returnedfrom other States. The activecases tally in this categorycurrently stands at 290, while2,171 persons have beendeclared as recovered tillSunday.

Similarly, there were no newcases detected among overseasreturnees. The cumulative tallyof Covid patients in this cate-gory stands at 434, while 390persons have been dischargedafter getting cured. As ofSunday, 44 patients are receiv-ing treatment for Covid infec-tion in the State.

Dubai-basedIndian girlbreaks worldrecord...Continued from Page 1

"All our dreams cancome true if we have thecourage to pursue them.Work hard in silence, letsuccess be your noise. Ifeel that my greatest assetis not my physical abili-ty, it is my mental abili-ty," the Khaleej Timesreport quoted Samridhi.

The class 7 student'sperformance was record-ed at the iconic BurjKhalifa's viewing deckon Thursday.

On Yoga Day (June21) this year, Samridhibagged her second worldrecord — performing 40advanced yoga posturesin one minute.

Warehouse to beconverted intoCovid Centre inAnantapur

Continued from Page 1

"Construction work ofCovid Care Centre is goingon at a brisk pace. All facili-ties will be made availablesoon without any inconve-nience to the patients. We aresetting up special sheds tohouse doctors, medical staffand sanitation workers. Weare reviewing the progress ofthe works from time to time,"Joint Collector A Siri said.

Recently, the world'slargest 10,000-bed CovidCare Centre has been set upin Delhi and is named afterSardar Vallabhai Patel. TheState government is settingup the Covid Care Centrewith 1,500 beds on the linesof Delhi centre, heinformed.

Continued from Page 1

The Chief Minister hasroped in DGP M MahenderReddy to execute the counterstrategy.

Therefore, the DGP con-ducted a whirlwind tour ofMaoist-affected areas for twodays — the first such visit bya police chief.

As many as 18 members ofthe banned Communist Partyof India (Maoist), including aleader, escaped after encountersin the forests bordering neigh-bouring Chhattisgarh andMaharashtra over the past fewdays. Hundreds of securitypersonnel, including thosefrom the Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) and theelite anti-Maoist forceGreyhounds, were on a huntfor the Maoists.

During his two-day visit,the police chief discussed withsenior officials the operationalstrategies to contain therenewed attempts by Maoists togain a foothold in the tribalareas.

The police higher-ups seethe recent incidents as a proofof the serious bid by the Left-wing extremists cadre to revivetheir activity since Telanganawas carved out of Andhra

Pradesh as a new state in 2014.During the exchange of fire

in Komaram Bheem Asifabaddistrict on July 14, five Maoists,including a senior membercarrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh,managed to escape. TheMaoists' team was led byMailarapu Adellu alias Bhaskar,Telangana State Committeemember of the CPI (Maoist).Believed to have been armedwith AK-47, Bhaskar and histeam entered from neighbour-ing Maharashtra during thelockdown period under theguise of migrant workers.

The DGP said that, duringhis visit, some 500 personnel,including Greyhound com-mandos, were on the hunt forthe Maoists. He appealed topeople not to provide shelter tothe outlaws. His appeal cameafter the police arrested one vil-lager on charges of providingshelter and food to the extrem-ists. Police officials of Mulugu,Jayashankar Bhupalapally,Mahabubabad and

Bhadradri-Kothagudem dis-tricts released photos of 18Maoists and announcedrewards of Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakhto anyone providing informa-tion about them.

The police chief said that ata time when the government

has taken up a lot of develop-mental and welfare pro-grammes, Maoists are seekingto create terror and tensionamong tribals and sow seeds ofsuspicion.

The DGP also warned that ifMaoists were allowed to re-enter, development and welfareprogrammes undertaken bythe state government, particu-larly for the benefit of the trib-als, would be hampered. Hepointed out that Maoists hadrun away from the state to pro-tect their lives following pub-lic outrage in Telangana adecade ago. "Now, they aremaking attempts to come back.They would face the wrath of

people and the police will alsoinflict a major blow on them ifthey kill people branding themas police informers," heobserved.

The CPI-Maoist has alsoissued a statement, saying whileit had been observing 'self-restraint' by not indulging inattacks in the backdrop ofCOVID-19 pandemic, bothcentral and state governmentswere trying to eliminate itsmembers. It appealed to peo-ple to condemn the arrests ofpeople and attacks byGreyhounds on Maoists.

It alleged that in the recentpast police had killed 20 'rev-olutionaries' in fake encounters

in Dandakaranya. If attacks onpeople and 'dalams' did notstop, leaders of TRS and BJPwould not escape punishmentat the hands of people, thestatement said.

The police had estimated lastyear that a total of 126 under-ground cadre of CPI (Maoist)hailed from Telangana. Out of17 Central Committee mem-bers of the Maoist outfit, 10come from Telangana. All wereoperating from outsideTelangana.

The Telangana police remainconfident that the Maoistswould not succeed in revivingthe activity as the situation hadundergone a sea-change duringthe last 10 years. "They will notget fresh recruits now as peo-ple are fed up with their ideol-ogy," a police officer said.

Telangana, especially northTelangana, was a major strong-hold of Maoists, but the move-ment was almost eliminatedafter the police launched acrackdown in 2005 in the thenundivided Andhra Pradeshfollowing the failure of a dia-logue between the extremistleadership and the state gov-ernment.

It was during the talks inSeptember 2004 that then CPI-ML People's War Group

(PWG) had merged with theMaoist Communist Centre(MCC) to form CPI (Maoist)as the biggest and most pow-erful Maoist outfit in the coun-try.

However, CPI (Maoist) lostmany top leaders in the policecrackdown led by Greyhounds,the elite anti-Maoist force. Theremaining leaders escaped toneighbouring states. Therehave been apprehensions insome quarters that statehood toTelangana would give Maoistsan opportunity to stage a come-back.

However, the fears provedunfounded as the police forcekept the pressure to foil anyattempt by the banned outfit torevive its activities.

The police maintained atight vigil on Telangana's bor-ders with Chhattisgarh andMaharashtra to stop the Maoistcadre from crossing over.

Experts believe that it wouldnot be easy for Maoists tostage a comeback as they werenot able to draw new recruitsor get new arms over the lastdecade. They attribute this topeople losing faith in the ide-ology of violence and theirincreasing reliance on the ben-efits of government schemesreaching the masses.

Maoists regroup in TS, KCR prepares ‘counter strategy’

Honour people’scapital aspirations,Naidu's plea to Guv

Continued from Page 1

Naidu told the Governor thatonly out of political vendetta, theYSRCP regime was hell-bent ondestroying Amaravati in the nameof three capitals and decentrali-sation Bills. In fact, Amaravati waswidely known as a long-standingcultural centre and the most suit-ed and centrally located place forAP capital.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi said Amaravati capitalwould be developed as a bettercity than Delhi at the time of lay-ing the foundation stone. TheCentre also recognised Amaravatias a ‘Smart City' and allocated Rs700 crore. Besides, the Centralgovernment has already provid-ed Rs 2,500 crore for developingthe Secretariat, Assembly,Council, High Court and otherbasic facilities,” Naidu reminded.

Continued from Page 1

He said that he is not fear-ing about Covid-19 infectionand confident about recover-ing in the next few days withproper treatment.

He said that he will comeback into masses after recov-ery from Corona and appealedto public to follow Covid-19protocol to contain the spreadof the pandemic. The MLAasked people of Tenali con-stituency to avoid coming tohis home and office for vari-

ous works and appealed tocontact him over his phone fortheir works.

Meanwhile, a total lock-down was in force inNarasaraopeta in Guntur dis-trict and now total lockdownwould be implemented inVinukonda from July 20 to 26to contain the Corona.Vinukonda tahsildar AVenkateswaralu called uponpeople to cooperate with offi-cials by following lockdownrestrictions and Corona pro-tocol for a week.

Tenali YSRCP MLAtested positive... PNS n HYDERABAD

Tipplers from Andhra Pradeshare making a beeline to liquorshops in Mahbubnagar,Nalgonda and Khammam dis-tricts since the liquor prices inTelangana are low when com-pared to the liquor prices preva-lent in the neigbouring states.The guests visit the liquor shopsin these districts from Kurnool,Guntur and Krishna districtvillages lying close to the inter-state border. From 7 am onSundays, the tipplers make abeeline to the liquor shops.

The prices are high in AP,more over there are curbs on

sales in that state forcing the tip-plers to make a trip toTelangana. Liquor smuggling

across the border is increasingas some villagers, taking priceadvantage, indulging in smug-

gling of liquor through variousroutes to avoid police check post.On a tip off, excise officials tookmeasures to check smuggling,but they are not able to bring thesituation under control fully.

Liquor shops on inter-stateborder villages have been wit-

nessing hoardes of visitorsespecially during holidaysincreasing crowds near liquorshops and thereby throwingsocial distancing norms towinds. The liquor shop own-ers in border regions arelaughing all the way to banks,

thanks to the incidence ofvisitors across the border toget tipsy.

Meanwhile, with police andSpecial Enforcement Bureau(SEB) strengthening their vigilto end smuggling of liquor andother items though inter-Stateborders, bootleggers are findingdifferent ways to run their ille-gal business. Smugglers areusing vehicles transportingessential goods such as vegeta-bles, milk and food products tocontinue their illegal business.In fact, at every checkpost, SEBteams and police are conductingchecks round-the-clock in threeshifts.

AP tipplers continue to throng TS wine shopsLiquor shops on inter-state bordervillages have been witnessinghoardes of visitors especially duringholidays increasing crowds nearliquor shops and thereby throwingsocial distancing norms to winds

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chronic and bedriddenpatients receiving treatment athome have been severelyaffected as their caregivershave left the city either for theirhome states or to their nativevillages in Telangana. Elderlyand bedridden parents andcouples living alone as theirchildren are employed else-where at a distance place needhome care services.

There are a total of 220agencies supplying caregiversto such persons. Prior toCoronavirus, at least 3,000caregivers were employed withthem. Besides, another 2,000medical trained nurses workfor them. The system has beenseverely affected on account ofimposing lockdown in the city.The caregivers give medicinesto them on time and take careof them round-the-clock.

The agencies employedtrained general duty assistantsand those who are trained inhospitality services, the first-aid and medical aid work withthese agencies and give care to

the needy. Most of the care-givers belong to Uttar Pradesh,Kerala, Andhra Pradesh andother states and also those whobelong to Khammam,Nalgonda.

But recently, most of themhave left for their native placesleaving only skeletal staff withthe homecare providing agen-cies. Those who left the city arenot prepared to come back tothe city. According to RahulKrishna, who runs a home careagency in Banjara Hills, noneis coming forward to take careof the aged and other patients.

Earlier, his agency had 55women on his rolls. Now hehas to make do with only 10caregivers left behind in hisagency.

CORONA EFFECT

Disabled, elderly goingwithout homecare

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

MP: Robbers blow upATM with explosives;steal over Rs 22 lakhPANNA: Two persons stole overRs 22 lakh from an ATM afterblowing it up with explosives inMadhya Pradesh's Pannadistrict in the wee hours ofSunday, police said. They heldthe ATM's guard at gunpointwhile committing the robbery,the police said. The incidenttook place at the AutomatedTeller Machine (ATM) of anationalised bank in Simariatown, about 60 km from thedistrict headquarters. "Twounidentified motorcycle-bornepersons robbed a State Bank ofIndia (SBI) ATM at around 2am today after blowing it upusing explosives,Superintendent of PoliceMayank Awasthi told reporters.He said according to bankofficials, the ATM had Rs 22lakh to Rs 23 lakh, which therobbers took away. "We havestarted a search operation tonab the robbers and will arrestthem soon, the official said.

Man shoots self afterwife leaves home

Five-year-old girlraped by 3 boys inRajasthan's BaranKOTA (RAJASTHAN): A five-year-old girl was left bleedingafter she was allegedly rapedby three boys in a village inRajasthan's Baran district,police said on Sunday. Whilethe five-year-old girl wasplaying outside her house atTanki Mohalla in Nahargarhtown on Friday evening, thethree minor boys of theneighbourhood promised togive her a Rs 5 coin and latertook turns to rape her in anearby field, SHO at Nahargarhpolice station, Dalpat Singhsaid. The mother was cookinginside the house at the time ofthe incident, he added. Thefamily members found the girlmissing and began searchingfor her. The mother, then,spotted the girl crying andbleeding on Gogacha Roadnear their home, the policemansaid. Later that night, themother and the minor daughterreached the police station andlodged a complaint, he furthersaid. The three accused boysare absconding and a search ison for them, Singh said whileadding that further investigationinto the matter has beenforwarded to the DSP andCircle Officer of Kajodmal.

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Upset overhis wife leaving home, a 40-year-old man allegedly shothimself at his house in UttarPradesh's Shamli district,police said on Sunday. Theincident took place in Sontavillage under Babri policestation on Saturday night, theysaid. Balender Singh was upsetas his wife had gone to herparents' house with theirchildren after the couple had aheated argument a few daysago. He shot himself using acountry-made pistol, the policesaid. The body has been sentfor post-mortem, they said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Senior Congress leader AnandSharma hit out at External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar on Sunday,saying he cannot be in denial ofthe "failures" of foreign policy andshould answer them instead.

A day after Jaishankar'sdefence of India's foreign policy,the senior spokesperson of theCongress said engagements withstrategic partners demand seri-ousness and cannot be trivialisedand reduced to event manage-ment. He also hit out at theexternal affairs minister for refer-ring to the Balakote and Uristrikes, saying he should notpoliticise or monopolise thecountry's armed forces.

"Amused by Foreign MinisterS Jaishankar's defence of a direc-tionless foreign policy. Rhetoricand tweets do not change groundreality. Neighbourhood first hasbeen a priority of India's foreignpolicy but sadly derailed by a cav-alier approach," Sharma said.

Noting that India and Nepal

have historically shared a rela-tionship based on trust, friend-ship and mutual respect, the for-mer Union minister said, "Thepresent drift and tension are amatter of national concern."

"The Foreign Minister cannothave the luxury of denial butshould answer for the failures,"he said in a series of tweets.

"Foreign policy must havegravitas and depth. Engagementswith strategic partners demandseriousness and cannot be triv-ialised and reduced to event

management. You may createillusions by your optics, but his-tory will judge you by out-comes," Sharma said.

Jaishankar hit out at Congressleader Rahul Gandhi on Fridayfor his criticism of the govern-ment's foreign policy, sayingIndia's major partnerships arestronger, international standingis higher and it engages China onmore equal terms politicallyunder the Narendra Modi dis-pensation.

"Pakistan (that you skipped)

surely notes the differencebetween Balakot and Uri on theone hand, and Sharm-el-Sheikh,Havana and 26/11 on the other.Ask yourself," Jaishankar said,attacking Gandhi over his com-ments.

The external affairs minister'sno-holds-barred attack onGandhi came after the formerCongress chief, in a video mes-sage posted on Twitter, trainedhis guns on the government, say-ing over the last six years, Indiahas been "disturbed and disrupt-ed" with regard to its foreign pol-icy and economy.

COVID CRISIS:

Survey says 55.1% householdshad only two meals a dayPNS n NEW DELHI

About 55 per cent of householdsin 24 states and two union ter-ritories managed only two mealsa day during the period fromApril 1 to May 15, indicatingaffordability challenges amidthe COVID crisis, according toa survey of 5,568 families.

The 'Unmasking the Impact ofCOVID-19 on Asia's MostVulnerable Children' early recov-ery assessment report released bychild-rights NGO World VisionAsia Pacific, found that resultingeconomic, psychosocial, andphysical strain on Indian familieshas negatively affected all aspectsof child well-being includingaccess to food, nutrition, health-care, essential medicines, hygieneand sanitation facilities, as well aschild protection and safety. Thereport based on data gatheredfrom 5,668 households across119 districts from 24 states and2 union territories (Delhi andJammu and Kashmir) during the

period of April 1 to May 15 high-lighted that the livelihoods ofmore than 60 per cent of parentsor caregivers were fully or severe-ly affected by the COVID-19pandemic. Daily workers, whoare the largest segment in thesurvey, are the hardest hit and theloss of livelihoods that has result-ed from government lockdownmeasures has become the top-most concern for the rural and

urban poor, the survey found."About 67 per cent of urban par-ents/caregivers have reportedloss of jobs or income reductionin the previous weeks," it said.

The results of the reportrevealed that 55.1 per cent of theinterviewed households couldget only two meals a day, whichindicated limited access to basicfood supplies due to affordabil-ity challenges, the report said.

Hit hard by Covid-19 pandemic, transgendercommunity struggles to find its feetPNS n NEW DELHI

Sonali, a transgender woman inher early 30s, was eking out a liv-ing by begging at traffic signalsin east Delhi's Mayur Viharbefore the government orderedpeople indoors to contain thespread of COVID-19 in lateMarch.

After struggling for months tomake ends meet, she had beeneagerly waiting for June 1, whenthe easing of lockdown, Unlock1.0, would begin.

Soon after Sonali got back toher routine, she was confrontedwith a new reality. Not only wasthere less traffic on roads, peo-ple were apprehensive aboutrolling down the windows oftheir cars and giving her alms.

"No one wanted to give usmoney. People are not evenready to roll down the windowsto hear what we have to say," shesaid.

Like Sonali, many others fromthe transgender community havebeen hit hard by the pandemic.

Relegated to the sidelines ofthe society, many of India's esti-mated 4.88 lakh transgenderpeople are forced to make a liv-ing through begging, dancing atcelebrations like weddings, andsex work, according to rightsgroups.

Another transgender womanRitupari (name changed), 38,who used to dance at celebra-tions, said the new normal "hasno place for people like us".

"People are not inviting theirclose relatives to weddings andother celebrations, so why willthey call us. Even if we go some-where, we are looked downupon and shooed away," she said.

"Most professions we practisedhave been completely destroyeddue to COVID-19," she rued.

Chandni (name changed), 42,an acute diabetic, used to beg ontrains. She has slipped intodepression after losing her means

of livelihood. Her brother said hisonce-chirpy sister has stoppedtalking and almost never stepsout of the house.

"She has seen a lot in her lifebut the past few months havedealt a serious blow to her. Sheused to be so talkative and jolly.The entire house would light upwhen she would return home.Now she just keeps looking outa window," he said.

Ayesha Behra, an Odisha-

based transgender woman andrights activist, said the membersof the community also face ahigher risk of contractingCOVID-19 due to their livingconditions.

"They mostly live in slumareas where there is no conceptof social distancing. Around 10-15 of them stay together in oneroom, so social distancing is aluxury they cannot afford," shesaid.

Behra said she has been look-ing for alternative means oflivelihood for transgender peo-ple.

"We recently joined handswith a few self-help groups andtaught some of the transgendercommunity members to makesanitisers and phenyl. We are alsoplanning to train them to makeperfumes," she said.

Another transgender activistPushpa Mai, who is based inJaipur, claimed many membersof the community are facingincreased domestic violence dueto the loss of livelihood.

PNS n CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu came under anintense lockdown, the third suc-cessive Sunday of full curbswithout any relaxations to helpfight COVID-19 and roadseverywhere wore a desertedlook as people stayed indoors.

Barring milk supply andhealth care services, all otheractivities came to a halt and mar-kets were closed down. Shops,including those selling essentialcommodities, were shut.

But for cargo trucks, othervehicles went off the roads. Forsanitary workers, it was businessas usual as they continued theirclean up work, and personnel ofcivic bodies conducted door todoor surveys to detect peoplewith flu like symptoms andfever camps were also held.

State run low cost Amma

canteens also functioned.Check posts were set up at key

intersections in towns and cities,including 193 here and at districtborders as part of measures toeffectively implement the com-plete shutdown.

"No vehicle will be allowed toply on the roads except those formilk distribution, medical emer-gencies and funerals," Chennaipolice said in a statement addingany other vehicle found plyingwithout any of these valid rea-sons would be detained.

Congress slams Jaishankarover ‘foreign policy failures’

Under ‘Sunday lockdown,’all activities halt in TN

PNS n PITHORAGARH

Swirling waters of the swollenGori river following heavy rainswashed away four houses, andlarge tracts of cultivable land atChori Bagar village in Bangapanisub division of the district, an offi-cial said on Sunday. However,there was no casualty as occu-pants of the houses had beenevacuated to safety in advance,the official said. All the mainmotor roads that link the districtheadquarters to the sub divisionsof Bangapani, Munsiyari andDharchula in the border districtare closed following heavy rainson Saturday night. "Keeping inmind the imminent danger, wehad already shifted the familiesliving in those houses. They aresafe," SDM in charge ofBangapani, AK Shukla, said.

The affected families have

been provided 20 kgs of rationand other essentials besides a sumof Rs 1.19 lakh as compensation,he said. A team of officials hasalso been rushed to the spot fora first hand assessment, he said.Giving details of the roads closed,ADM in-charge of disaster man-agement, Ram Dutt Paliwal, said,"while Tawaghat to Lipulekhroad is closed at three places, theroads from Jauljibi to Munsiyariand Munsyari to Thal are closedat two places due to mounds ofdebris on the roads."

PNS n NEW DELHI

When Ruskin Bond told hismother that he wanted to be awriter, she laughed saying withhis good handwriting he couldonly be a clerk in a lawyer'soffice. This was early in 1951when Bond was waiting for hisschool board results. He knewhe would do well in English lit-erature, history and geography,but wasn't too sure about mathsand physics.

Bond's aim was to write sto-ries and become an author, butno one else seemed to think itwas a good idea.

His stepfather wanted him toattend college, his motheradvised him to join the Army,while his school headmasterwished he became a teacher.

These very thoughts wouldterrify Bond.

"A teacher! That was the lastthing I wanted to be; I'd had

enough of school rules, home-work and early morning PT.And I had no wish to inflict iton others. The Army? Morerules, more PT, heavy boots,routine marching..." he wouldthink.

So finally he told his motherthat he is going to be a writer.

She laughed and told him:"Well, you have a good hand-

writing. You could be a clerk ina lawyer's office."

After that, Bond says, hestopped talking about what hewas going to do.

Bond could not afford tobuy books, but thanks to alending library, he could borrowas many books he liked for tworupees. Thus he was able to readquite a few popular fiction writ-ers - P G Wodehouse, AgathaChristie, Dornford Yates, WSomerset Maugham, JamesHilton and others.

"Sometimes, my stepfatherwould also give me a rupee ortwo, but I was anxious to sup-plement my income on myown, and the only way I coulddo this was by putting my liter-ary talents to practical use," herecalls. So he began to use hisstepfather's old typewriter andwould send stories and skits tomagazines and newspapers allover the country.

Situation not conducive for resumptionof tourism in J-K, say stakeholdersPNS n SRINAGAR

Most of the tourism players inthe valley are not enthused overthe Jammu and Kashmir govern-ment's move to reopen theUnion Territory for touristsamid the COVID-19 pandemic,saying the ground situation is farfrom normal for any such activ-ity to take place. They said inthese extraordinary times, thesurvival of people is paramountand everything else comes later.

"Even as the financial condi-tion of the tourism players in theKashmir valley is bad, majorityof them do not want tourists tostart coming yet, more so whenthere has been a spike in theCOVID cases. Everyone is con-cerned about his safety andwell-being," Javaid Ahmad, atravel agent, said.

He said the situation in thewake of the pandemic was notconducive for resumption oftourism.

"We see cases increasing witheach passing day. The situationis far from normal. In fact, it isgetting worse," Ahmad said.

The Jammu and Kashmiradministration has decided to

open the tourism sector in aphased manner, but limiting it totourists arriving by air only.

However, it has advised thetourists above the age of 65 yearsto avoid coming to the UT andalso announced compulsory RT-PCR testing of all tourists at theairport on arrival.

"All incoming tourists musthave confirmed hotel bookingsfor the duration of their stay. Allincoming tourists must haveconfirmed return air tickets toany place outside J&K, either totheir departure point or anyother destination," the J-Kadministration had said in anorder. Ashfaq Siddiq, the presi-dent of Travel AgentsAssociation of Kashmir (TAAK),said tourism and leisure is the lastthing on the minds of people inthe times of a pandemic.

Jamia's performance for 2019-20‘outstanding', according to HRDPNS n NEW DELHI

An evaluation of central univer-sities done by the HRD Ministryfor the academic year 2019-20found the performance of JamiaMillia Islamia "outstanding", theuniversity said.

JMI secured 95.23 per cent inan overall assessment, as indicat-ed in a letter sent to the univer-sity by the Ministry of HumanResource Development.

Vice Chancellor ProfessorNajma Akhtar attributed theachievement to high qualityteaching, relevant and focusedresearch and improved percep-tion of the university. She hopedthe university would improve itsperformance in the coming years.

Akhtar said the achievementis all the more significant becauseof the challenging time the uni-versity went through in therecent past.

JMI had emerged as the epi-centre of protests against theCitizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA) after Delhi Police person-nel barged into the campus andallegedly baton-charged studentsstudying in a library on

December 15 last year.The police have said they

entered the campus to look foroutsiders involved in violencethat erupted during an anti-CAAprotest being held a few metersaway from the university.

With an objective to evaluatethe performance of central uni-versities (CUs) on select keyparameters against set targets, allof them are required to sign a tri-partite MoU with HRD Ministryand the University GrantsCommission (UGC).

JMI was the first university tosign the MoU in 2017.

Performance of universities isevaluated on parameters of stu-dent diversity and equity, facul-ty quality and strength, academ-ic outcomes, research perfor-mance, outreach, governance,finance, national and interna-tional rankings and accredita-tion, and co-curricular andextra-curricular activities.

In the ministry's NationalInstitutional RankingFramework (NIRF) rankingsannounced last month, JMI wasranked 10th. In the 'Overall' cat-egory, the university was placedat the 16th position.

Tisca Chopra to educate girls onmenstrual health in new bookPNS n NEW DELHI

Actor Tisca Chopra will edu-cate young girls on the impor-tant topics of "menstrualhealth" and "growing up"through her new book, tenta-tively titled, "Your Book ofPeriod", announced publishinghouse Westland on Sunday.

The book, to be out inDecember, is a conversationstarter and comprises honestdialogues and advice for chil-dren aged between nine andthirteen. It will be publishedunder Westland's childrenimprint, Red Panda.

"While I enjoy reading andwriting fiction, I believe childrenneed a good non-fiction book aswell, to address the need for shar-ing information in a way theydon't feel lectured by parents.

"... I wanted to create abook which would be mean-ingful for many young girls

including my daughter Tara.And so my publisher and I dis-cussed the idea of this bookthat may well become anessential read for girls on theirway to becoming youngwomen. Mothers, daughtersand their friends can bondaround the book and discuss itas friends," said Chopra, whoselast book was "Acting Smart:Your Ticket to Showbiz"

Touted to be "smart and

sassy", the book, filled withsuggestions from experts,claims to provide an in-depthunderstanding for girls onhow to deal with "physical,emotional and social changesand make the best of the grow-ing up years".

According to the publishers,the soon-to-be-released book,written from a mother's per-spective, has the potential to bethat one book that "motherswould like to gift their daugh-ters at the cusp of puberty".

"We're very excited aboutpublishing Tisca Chopra'sforthcoming children's book.Tisca has made a mark withunusual and powerful roles invarious mediums, and her pas-sion and commitment arereflected in her writing aswell," said Vidhi Bhargava,Publisher, Red Panda, animprint of WestlandPublications.

‘Mom laughed when I saidI wanted to be a writer’

Gori river washes awayfour houses in U’khand

Man behindburning oftyres in TNidentifiedPNS n COIMBATORE

The man, who burnt tyres infront of three temples in the cityleading to tension, has been ide-ntified and 6 special teams havebeen formed to nab him, policesaid. Based on the CCTV foot-age, police identified the personas Gajendran of Salem and aninquiry with the family revealedthat he had left home on Fridaynight after an argument withthem and did not return. Hisphotographs have been circulat-ed to police in Erode and Salemand also at toll plazas to nab him.The tyres and junk were foundburnt outside Makaliammantemple, Vinayagar temple, andSelva Vinayagar temple onSaturday, resulting in large scaleprotests by workers of the BJP,Hindu Munnani, VHP andother pro-Hindu outfits.

Jaishankar cannotbe in denial of the‘failures’ of foreignpolicy and shouldanswer theminstead, saidCongress leaderAnand Sharma

"People are notinviting their closerelatives toweddings andother celebrations,so why will theycall us. Even if wego somewhere, weare looked downupon and shooedaway," she said

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

O P Dhankarappointed president ofBJP's Haryana unitNEW DELHI: O P Dhankar, whowas a cabinet minister in theBJP government in Haryana,was on Sunday appointed thepresident of the party's stateunit. By appointing Dhankar, theBJP has continued with a Jatface, the most dominant castein the state. The BJP, in astatement, said party chief J PNadda appointed Dhankar theHaryana unit head. The appoint-ment is also seen as an attemptto balance the caste equationsin the state, where politicsrevolves around Jats and non-Jats. Haryana CM Manohar LalKhattar is also a non-Jat.Dhankar will replace incumbentSubhash Barala, who was alsoa Jat. Both Dhankar and Baralahad lost the Harayana Assemblyelections held in October lastyear. Dhankar was a cabinetminister in the BJP governmentin Haryana.

Four arrested inmother-daughter self-immolation bid case

Liquor worth Rs 70 lakhseized in ‘dry' BiharARARIA: Liquor worth Rs 70lakh was seized in Bihar'sAraria district and sevenpersons were arrested in a jointoperation by the excisedepartment and the police,officials said on Sunday. Actingon a tip off, police and exciseofficials intercepted two trucksat the toll plaza in Town policestation area on Saturday nightand seized 648 cartons ofliquor, Araria Sub-DivisionalPolice Officer (SDPO) PushkarKumar said. The value of theseized liquor is estimated to bearound Rs 70 lakh in themarket, he said, adding thattwo drivers and a cleaner of thetrucks were arrested. Fourpersons, who later arrived atthe spot in an SUV, were alsoarrested in connection withseizure, Kumar said.

LUCKNOW/AMETHI: Fourpeople have been arrested inAmethi after a woman and herdaughter set themselves on fireoutside the chief minister'soffice in Lucknow alleging policeinaction in a case of disputeover a drain, police said onSunday. However, the conditionof the woman and her daughtercontinues to be critical, a seniordoctor said. Circle officer ofGauriganj Arpit Kapoor said,"Four persons have beenarrested in the Jamo policestation area of the district. Thefour persons were arrestedyesterday. They are Arjun, Sunil,Rajkaran and Ram Milan. Thesefour persons were involved in adispute with Safia and Gudiaover the usage of a drain." Acase was registered againstthem under various sections ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC) atthe Jamo police station on May9, Kapoor said. He also said thatAIMIM district president KadeerKhan was arrested by police lateon Saturday night, and has beentaken to Lucknow in connectionwith this case.

India’s Covid tally climbs to10.77L with nerarly 39k casesPNS n NEW DELHI

India saw a record single- dayjump of 38,902 COVID-19cases pushing its tally to10,77,618 on Sunday, while thetotal number of recoveriesincreased to 6,77,422, accordingto the Union Health Ministrydata.

The death toll due to the dis-ease rose to 26,816 with new543 fatalities even as 23,672patients have recuperated in thepast 24 hours, the highest so farin a day, the data updated at 8am showed.

The Ministry of Health saidthe 11 most COVID-19 affectedcountries in the world --the US,Brazil, Russia, Peru, Chile,Mexico, South Africa, the UK,Iran, Pakistan, Spain --togetherreported 8 times more cases and14 times more deaths than India.

There are 3,73,379 activecases presently in the country.The total number of confirmedcases includes foreigners.

This is the fourth consecutiveday that COVID-19 cases haveincreased by more than 30,000.

According to the ICMR, acumulative total of 1,37,91,869samples have been tested up to

July 18 with 3,58,127 samplesbeing tested on Saturday.

Of the 543 deaths reported inthe last 24 hours, 144 are fromMaharashtra, 93 from Karnataka,88 from Tamil Nadu, 52 fromAndhra Pradesh, 27 from WestBengal, 26 from Delhi, 24 fromUttar Pradesh, 17 from Haryana,16 from Gujarat and nine fromMadhya Pradesh.

Bihar, Punjab and Rajasthanhave reported seven fatalitieseach followed by Telangana withsix deaths, Jammu and Kashmirfive, Odisha and Puducherrythree each, Assam, Tripura andKerala two each, while

Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh andUttarakhand have registered afatality each.

Of the total 26,816 deathsreported so far, Maharashtraaccounted for the highest 11,596fatalities followed by Delhi with3,597 deaths, Tamil Nadu 2,403,Gujarat 2,122, Karnataka 1,240,Uttar Pradesh 1,108, West Bengal1,076, Madhya Pradesh 706 andAndhra Pradesh 586.

So far, 553 people have died ofCOVID-19 in Rajasthan, 409 inTelangana, 344 in Haryana, 246in Punjab, 236 in Jammu andKashmir, 208 in Bihar, 86 inOdisha, 53 in Assam, 52 in

Uttarakhand, 46 in Jharkhandand 40 in Kerala.

Puducherry has registered 28deaths, Chhattisgarh 24, Goa 21,Chandigarh 12, HimachalPradesh 11, Tripura 5, ArunachalPradesh 3, Meghalaya and Dadraand Nagar Haveli and Damanand Diu two each, while Ladakhhas reported one fatality.

The Health Ministry stressedthat more than 70 per cent of thedeaths occurred due to comor-bidities. Maharashtra has report-ed the highest number of casesat 3,00,937 followed by TamilNadu at 1,65,714, Delhi at1,21,582, Karnataka at 59,652,Gujarat at 47,390, Uttar Pradeshat 47,036, Andhra Pradesh at44,609 and Telangana at 43,780.

Parl panels started scrutinisinghandling of Covid, says NaiduPNS n NEW DELHI

Parliamentary panels have start-ed scrutinising the handling ofthe COVID-19 pandemic inthe country a little over threemonths after Parliament wasadjourned ahead of its scheduledue to the virus and a shortertimeframe to hold the standingcommittee meetings would nothave been possible given the pre-sent situation, Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidusaid on Sunday.

In a Facebook post hailing themedia's role during the pandem-ic, the vice president also saidParliament is "on course" forholding the Monsoon session.

The Rajya Sabha chairmansaid he has held several roundsof discussions with Lok SabhaSpeaker Om Birla on enablingthe meetings of the parliamen-tary committees and theMonsoon session of Parliament.

"Given the corona-inducedsocial distancing norm, the logis-tics of seating of MPs requireddetailed deliberation and plan-ning. The government alsorecently reached out to both thepresiding officers (Naidu andBirla) on holding the Monsoonsession.

"We are on course," Naidusaid.

With the easing of restrictionson domestic air travel in Mayand to a lesser degree on rail trav-el, the department-related stand-ing committees of both Housesof Parliament have resumedtheir meetings this month, hepointed out. They have under-taken an examination of variousaspects of the management of thepandemic and its fallout, Naidusaid.

"This, in effect, means therequired parliamentary scrutinyof the handling of the pandem-ic started in about three and halfmonths of the last sitting of theapex legislature of the country.Any other shorter timeframemay have not been possible

given the situation prevailing inthe country," he asserted.

Some members of Parliamenthad suggested holding the stand-ing committee meetings onlinedue to the pandemic and theresultant lockdown.

But the committees met phys-ically. At least four parliamentarypanels have met in the last fewdays and the ones relating tohome affairs and science andtechnology have discussed var-ious aspects of the pandemic.

Naidu pointed out that theBudget session had to be cutshort a few days ahead of theschedule as the MPs wanted tobe with the people in this hourof crisis.

Coronavirus is not transmittedby mosquitoes, study showsPNS n WASHINGTON

Scientists have confirmed for thefirst time that the novel coron-avirus behind the COVID-19pandemic cannot be transmittedto people by mosquitoes, a find-ing that adds evidence to WHO'sclaim that the disease is not mos-quito-borne. The research, pub-lished in the journal ScientificReports, provided the first exper-imental evidence on the capac-ity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus thatcauses COVID-19 disease, toinfect and be transmitted bymosquitoes.

"Here we provide the firstexperimental data to investigatethe capacity of SARS-CoV-2 toinfect and be transmitted bymosquitoes," the study noted.

"While the World HealthOrganization (WHO) has defin-itively stated that mosquitoescannot transmit the virus, ourstudy is the first to provide con-clusive data supporting the the-ory," said Stephen Higgs, a co-author of the research from

Kansas State University in theUS.

According to the study, con-ducted at the university'sBiosecurity Research Institute,the virus is unable to replicate inthree common and widely dis-tributed species of mosquitoes -- Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopic-tus and Culex quinquefasciatus,and hence cannot be transmittedto humans. Samples collected bythe scientists within two hours ofinoculation in mosquitoes con-firmed efficient delivery of infec-tious viruses to these insects.

However, based on the lack of

detectable infectious virus inany of the 277 samples collectedat all time points beyond 24hours post-inoculation, the sci-entists said SARS-CoV-2 cannotreplicate in mosquitoes.

"Even if a mosquito fed on aperson with virus in the blood,the mosquito would not be a vec-tor if feeding on a naive host,"they concluded.

"We demonstrate that evenunder extreme conditions,SARS-CoV-2 virus is unable toreplicate in these mosquitoes andtherefore cannot be transmittedto people even in the unlikely

event that a mosquito fed upona viremic host," the scientistswrote in the study.

PNS n BHOPAL

Blaming the BJP for the politi-cal drama in Rajasthan, seniorCongress leader Digvijaya Singhon Sunday asked Sachin Pilot notto leave the grand old party.

In an interview to PTI, the for-mer Madhya Pradesh chief min-ister said Pilot should not followJyotiraditya Scindia into the BJP,as he has bright future inCongress. His remarks followPilots open rebellion against theAshok Gehlot government,which has been on shaky groundwith at least 18 legislators back-ing the rebel leader.

Pilot was sacked as Rajasthandeputy chief minister and thestate Congress chief recentlyand the Congress has accused

the BJP of making efforts to top-ple the Gehlot-led governmentby indulging in horse-trading.

"The BJP is behind the crisisin Rajasthan," Singh said.

The Congress veteran said hetried to call Pilot but his calls andtext messages went unanswered.

"Age is on your side. Ashok(Gehlot) may have offendedyou, but all such issues are bestresolved amicably. Dont makethe mistake that Scindia made.BJP is unreliable. Nobody whojoined it from any other party hassucceeded there," Singh said.

He said this is the first timethat Pilot hasnt responded tohim. "Sachin is like my son. Herespects me and I also like him.I called him three-four times andalso texted him. He didnt revert.He used to respond immediate-ly earlier," he said. "It is good tobe ambitious. How can onemove forward without havingambitions, but along with ambi-tion, one must also have commit-ment to your organisation, ide-ology and the nation," Singh said.

Pilot shouldn't go Scindia way,has future in Cong: Digvijaya

PNS n NEW DELHI

The followers of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on microblog-ging site Twitter have risen to sixcrore. Modi is known for reach-ing out to the masses throughsocial media. He uses Twitterextensively to share importantinformation with the people.

Most of his addresses arebeamed live on his personalTwitter handle. Modi, who joinedTwitter in January 2009, is follow-ing 2,354 accounts, according tohis handle @narendramodi. InSeptember 2019, Prime MinisterModi had five crore followers.The Twitter handle of the PrimeMinister's Office has 3.7 crore fol-lowers. Congress leader RahulGandhi, who joined Twitter in

April 2015, has over 1.5 crore fol-lowers. Gandhi follows 267accounts on Twitter, according tohis handle. PM has over 4.5crore followers on Instagram. USPresident Donald Trump hasover 8.3 crore followers onTwitter and he follows 46accounts.

Modi now has 6 crorefollowers on Twitter

Special Raj police teamformed to probe audiotapes' conspiracyPNS n JAIPUR

A special team of Rajasthanpolice officers has been formedto investigate and arrestthe accused in thecase registered withthe special opera-tions group in con-nection with audiotapes that revealeda conspiracy to top-ple the AshokGehlot-led state gov-ernment.

The eight-member teamheaded by SP CID (Crimebranch) Vikas Sharma wasformed Friday after two FIRswere registered on a complaint

by Congress chief whip in thestate Assembly Mahesh Joshi.

Other members of the teamare Dharmendra Yadav

(Additional SP-ATS),Jagdish Vyas

(Additional SP-CIDCB), Kamal Singh(assistant policecommissioner-Jodhpur), Manish

Sharma (DeputySP- ATS), Kailash

Jindal (inspector- CIDCB), Suman Kaviya

(Inspector- ATS) and RameshPareek (inspector-ATS). Theteam was formed by AdditionalDirector General (ATS andSOG) Ashok Rathore.

Defectors should be banned from holdingpublic office for 5 yrs, fighting next poll: SibalPNS n NEW DELHI

Amid the political firestorm inRajasthan following SachinPilot's rebellion, seniorCongress leader Kapil Sibal onSunday called for amending theanti-defection law to ban alldefectors from holding publicoffice for five years and fight-ing the next election.

Sibal also said that the"antibodies" against the "virusof corrupt means" to toppleelected governments lie inamending the Tenth Scheduleof the Constitution (anti-defection law).

His attack comes in the wakeof Pilot's open rebellion againstthe Ashok Gehlot government,which has been on shaky groundsince, with at least 18 legislatorsbacking the rebel leader.

Pilot was sacked as deputychief minister and the stateCongress chief earlier this week.

The Congress has accused theBJP of making efforts to topplethe Gehlot government byindulging in horse-trading.

"Need for Vaccine: Virus of'corrupt means' to topple elect-

ed governments has spreadthrough a 'Wuhan like facility' inDelhi," Sibal tweeted, in anapparent swipe at the BJP.

"Its 'antibodies' lie in amend-ing the Tenth Schedule. Ban alldefectors from: Holding publicoffice for five years, fighting thenext election," he said.

Taking a swipe at Pilot overhis claim that he is not joiningthe BJP, Sibal on Thursday hadasked what happens to his "gharwapsi" and whether Rajasthan'sdissident legislators are vaca-tioning in Haryana under the"watchful eye" of the saffronparty. In the house of 200, theCongress has 107 MLAs,including the 19 dissidents whohave been issued notices ofdisqualification by the speakerand they have challenged themin the high court.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court has direct-ed US-based Google LLC,Facebook and Twitter to takedown or disable certain objec-tionable posts and tweets on theirplatforms, which level allegationsagainst a suspended civil servantby a woman. The court has alsorestrained the woman from pub-lishing or disseminating anynews relating to the man in anymanner on any website/ newspa-per/ TV channels includingYouTube/ Facebook/ Instagramtill further orders. “Consideringthe averments made in the plaint(by the man) and the applicationas also the documents filedtherewith, this court finds that theplaintiff (man) has made out aprima facie case in his favour andin case no ad-interim ex parteinjunction is granted, the plain-tiff would suffer an irreparableloss. The balance of conveniencealso lies in favour of the plaintiff,”Justice Mukta Gupta said in anorder passed on July 15.

The court also issued sum-

mons to the woman, socialmedia giants Google, Facebookand Twitter Plaint in the suit andlisted the matter for furtherhearing on August 31.

"Issue summons in the suitand notice in the application tothe defendants," the order said.

The suspended IAS officer, inhis plaint, has sought damagesfrom the woman for defaminghim, besides permanent andmandatory injunction.

According to the man, hecame in contact with the woman,who was already married,through Facebook in 2017 when

he was in Mexico as a part of theIndian Government's delega-tion and thereafter, she senthim a number of friend requestswhich he finally accepted. Theman claimed that he informedthe woman that he was married,however, at her instance, he mether at a hospital where he wasstaying and alleged that sinceFebruary 2018, she started ask-ing money from him.

The plaint claimed that theman gave her the money withthe sole intention of bailing outa friend in trouble. However, thewoman used verbal abuse, phys-ical assault and threatened tocommit suicide, the plaintclaimed. It alleged that thewoman also demanded Rs 20crore, asked him to buy a flat inDelhi for her and transfer hishome in Ahmedabad in hername. The man said the womanhas filed a complaint with theCrime against Women Cell andNational Human RightsCommission which were allinvestigated into and nothingwas found against him.

Google, FB, Twitter told to take downposts defaming suspended IAS officer

PNS n NEW DELHI

Union Minister Jitendra Singhon Saturday said he has taken upwith his ministerial colleagueand Road and TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari the issueof high charges at Jammu's Bantoll plaza. He said this during theDistrict Development Co-ordi-nation and Monitoring Commi-ttee (DISHA) meeting forUdhampur and Reasi districts.

During the meeting, Singhinformed that he had taken upwith Union Minister for RoadTransport & Highways NitinGadkari the issue of Ban tollplaza payable by the commuterstravelling to Jammu, accordingto an official statement issued onSaturday. He asked the DeputyCommissioner to prepare adetailed document and holddiscussion with the Jammu-

based project director ofNational Highway Authority ofIndia (NHAI) to work out var-ious options.

Singh, Minister of State forPersonnel, also directed for theissue of 'Baridars' to be taken upwith the Chief Executive Officerof Shri Mata Vaishno Devi

Shrine Board. Baridars are thegroup of traditional local resi-dents who were care takers of theshrine before the trust wasformed, officials said.

They have demanded someprivileges, the officials said.

In the DISHA meeting of dis-trict Udhampur, a detailed pre-sentation was made by DeputyCommissioner Piyush Singla, inaddition to an update on variousdevelopment works includingPradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana and Central Road Fund(CRF) project. Singh is a LokSabha member from Jammuand Kashmir's Udhampur con-stituency. The minister was alsogiven a detailed update on theprogress of the first of its kind“river Devika rejuvenation” pro-ject. On the occasion, Singh alsolaid the foundation stone ofnew Devika Park online.

Rajat Mukherjee,director of ‘Road'and ‘Pyaar TuneKya Kiya, deadPNS n NEW DELHI

Filmmaker Rajat Mukherjee,best known for directing ManojBajpayee-starrer "Road" andromantic thriller "Pyaar TuneKya Kiya", passed away due tokidney ailments in the weehours of Sunday.

He was in his late 50s.Producer Anish Ranjan, a closefriend of Mukherjee's, said thedirector breathed his last inJaipur, where he had gone to bewith his family for Holi but gotstuck when the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdownwas announced.

Ranjan said the director haddeveloped breathing issues overa month ago and had gone toget a COVID-19 test done,when the doctors realised thathis "sodium potassium levels"were imbalanced. He had kid-ney and heart issues as well.About 12-15 days ago, one kid-ney was removed. He was ondialysis and had come back tohis house.

Over 64-kgheroin seizedfrom Ravi river PNS n NEW DELHI/GURDASPUR

The BSF seized over 64 kg ofheroin from the Ravi river thatflows along the India-Pakistaninternational border in Punjab'sGurdaspur on Sunday, officialssaid. The contraband, weighing64.33 kg, was found in 60 pack-ets concealed in long fabric clothtubes and tied to a bunch ofwater hyacinth floating in theriver, they said. The consign-ment was "pushed" into the riverfrom Pakistan to the Indian sideand BSF troops deployed at theborder outpost in Nangli, nearDera Baba Nanak, spotted it inthe wee hours, the officials said.A 1,500-metre-long nylon ropewas tied to the consignment ofdrugs in order to enable some-one to pull it towards the bank,they added.

"Even if amosquito fed ona person withvirus in the blood,the mosquitowould not be avector if feedingon a naive host,"they concluded

Have taken up issue of Jammu toll plazawith Transport Minister: Jitendra Singh

The death toll dueto the diseaserose to 26,816with new 543fatalities even as23,672 patientshave recuperatedin the past 24 hours

So there it was out again last week, thesubject of linguistic apartheid. Thistime it took Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot to stoke the perenni-al conflict between the genuine earth-

iness, rooted realism and honest communi-cation of the Hindi-speaking northerner andthe assumed glibness, skimming concern anda feudalistic empathy of the English-educat-ed elite for the countryside. There is no doubtthat as a loyalist chieftain of the Congress courtand an artful politician who knows to con-vert every situation in his favour, he has stay-ing power. But to dismiss the comparativeweightlessness of his challenger, Sachin Pilot,to the latter’s good looks and English-speak-ing ability was all too uncalled for and a faciledismissal of home truths. “Speaking goodEnglish, giving good quotes and being hand-some isn’t everything. What is in your heartfor the country, your ideology, policies andcommitment, everything is important,”Gehlot said of Pilot’s attempt to dethrone him.

Many could argue that Gehlot survivedpurely by dint of his hold on the organisation-al matrix of the Congress in the State andencashed the high command’s indulgence toparcel away fiefdoms to regional stalwarts solong as they kept the party going. In fact, itis to Gehlot’s embarrassment that theCongress lost the Assembly elections in 2013and was routed in the Lok Sabha elections of2019 under his stewardship. Yet he continuesto be Chief Minister, a post made possible byPilot’s working the ground and ensuring theparty’s victory in the 2018 Assembly polls.Many would also argue that Pilot became tooover-ambitious with one success and whileGehlot had provoked him in many ways toisolate him, he could have avoided falling intothe wily senior’s trap and persisted a bit morethan now filing a case against his own party,the spirit of which flows in his DNA. But torun down Pilot’s work on the ground simplybecause he is feted by the English media orto question his education is just as immature.

Nobody can doubt Pilot’s commitment.He gave up his comfort zone in Delhi, wentback to his father Rajesh Pilot’s karmabhoo-mi, lived down his dynastic entitlements andurbane manners, became a safa-wearing localand had no problem in his outreach speak-ing both Hindi and dialects with equal ease.He couldn’t have consolidated the Gujjar vote-bank if he wasn’t sincerely invested. And forfive years, he wasn’t currying favours in Delhior within the Congress — he could very wellhave assumed a Central role — but was work-ing with dedication among his people. Intent,political or otherwise, has no language. Andambition, positive or negative, cannot soarwithout digging your heels in the ground.Even within the Congress, the younger lead-ers, conscious of their liberalised and upward-ly mobile grooming, have mastered proficien-cy in Hindi to get through to voters. Hindi-speaking States have the most Lok Sabha seatsin the end. Rajiv Gandhi himself was not asfluent in Hindi as daughter Priyanka is.

Besides, there is a latent hypocrisy aboutHindi chauvinism when almost all grassroots-

based politicians have ensuredtheir progeny not only attendedEnglish medium schools butgraduated from foreign univer-sities. The second generation ofalmost every federal party iswhat Gehlot calls “media-friend-ly” and heard during TV debates.Despite all their valiant rusticism,all socialist leaders have wantedtheir children to have culturalequivalence in a globalised worldwhere English has emerged as atransactional language. Whypoliticians, society at large hasmade peace with English as aconnective tissue. And if the pop-ularity of English-speaking class-es is any indication even in thesmallest of towns, it has becomea key qualifier of aspiration.

Then there is the other issueof linguistic plurality, which theruling BJP, driven by its ownmajoritarian agenda in the voter-heavy heartland, has sought toundermine by calling for Hindias a language for national unity.This orthodoxy immediatelyerodes the worth of federal lead-ers for a national role, simplybecause they are proficient intheir mother tongues, which aremuch older languages than Hindiitself. It is one of the reasons whya HD Deve Gowda or MamataBanerjee are mostly derided fortheir limited Hindi articulationskills and, therefore, seen asincapable of leading the nation.PV Narasimha Rao, the firstnon-Hindi-speaking PrimeMinister, found acceptabilitybecause of his proficiency in

Hindi. But apart from his moth-er tongue Telugu, he was just asexpert in speaking Oriya, Bengali,Gujarati, Kannada, Sanskrit,Tamil and Urdu. Yes and he kneweight foreign languages, includ-ing English. Did that make himany less of a modern Chanakyain politics?

Besides, Hindi has failed toemerge as a bridge languageexcept in its soft power avatarcourtesy our Hindi films. Mostcontiguous States, particularly inthe South and East, tend tounderstand each other on com-mon derivatives than requiringHindi to connect. It is true thatmany Indians have a workingknowledge of Hindi but thatdoesn’t mean they are comfort-able expressing themselves in it.And imposing it as a qualifier lan-guage in two-thirds of the coun-try where it is not the mothertongue would be the most anti-national move there is. One thatGehlot is guilty of endorsing likeHome Minister Amit Shah whomooted the idea of Hindi as ourlingua franca.

One can cite two examples ofIndian politicians who scoredhigh on the acceptability andpopularity index despite their lan-guage proficiencies or deficien-cies. One is Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik, who isholding on to his fortress, over-coming the Modi wave in 2019,and still not fluent in Odia. Andthe other is Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) chief and former BiharChief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav,

who gave political legitimacy tothe backward classes and is stilldate feted by the English media,not merely for his buffoonery thathe indulged in for effect, but forhis penetrative understandingof the subaltern and ability to takeon the ruling establishment fear-lessly, be it on beef bans or iden-tity politics.

It is said that Naveen Patnaikcould not pass in Odia grammar.He still cannot sustain a longspeech in Odia extempore unlessit is written out in English.Groomed by an English nannyand a Punjabi mother, he hadnever conversed in Odia at homewhile growing up. With classes,he understands it now perfectlybut is not eloquent. This has lefthim vulnerable to criticism. EvenShah ridiculed the ChiefMinister’s native language-speak-ing deficiency as a reason todethrone him during his cam-paign pitches. But Odisha wasstill happy to elect him as ChiefMinister for a record term. Forthe writer and voracious readerhe is, his acquired knowledge hasinformed his work on theground. He has pulled up theState’s development indices,steered it through painfullydestructive natural disasters, cho-sen to stay at home, travelledacross the State, connected withvillages at the block level,strengthened panchayati raj insti-tutions and unfurled people-friendly schemes. In short, he fol-lowed model State principlesand gave hope to the Odias

when they were seemingly adrift.And his lifestyle is so simple thatpeople loved the essence of theman than the language he spoke.The media chases him still but heis comfortable not over-exposinghimself and blending with peo-ple’s sensibilities. This hasendeared him to the masses, whoat one time saw Odia as a unifi-er of the State — that being afoundational principle in fact —considering they are more depen-dent on local dialects in commu-nicating between themselves.Now Patnaik has himselfreplaced language as the vehicleof people’s emotions.

Lalu, by contrast,weaponised his verbal prowessfor political gains, becoming abrand and an attitude in theprocess. And he used his bucol-ic charms to convert the Englishmedia into his constituency andjustify his ways and means ofrunning the State, even throughwife Rabri Devi, when he wasimplicated in the fodder scam. Heis the most media-savvy politi-cian even today; just visit hisTwitter handle, drawing eyeballsthrough his daily criticism of cur-rent Chief Minister NitishKumar’s mishandling of theCorona crisis. Yes, his integrityhas been suspect, even now serv-ing jail terms for accumulatingdisproportionate assets andencouraging criminalisation ofpolitics, but he did give politicalstake to the backward classes andunderstood the tidal current ofcoalition politics. His machina-tions to stay in power were rele-vant till the time the voter becamedemanding and decided theleader he wanted through his/herability to deliver.

Still, every journalist wants tointerview him, be it for his raw-ness or his old fox aura. He usedthe backward card to wrestpower and delivered promises insmall doses so that his con-stituents would keep voting himback to power. Not that he could-n’t be a performer if his stint asRailway Minister is any indica-tion. For his failure as a doerChief Minister, he turned aroundthe Railways dramatically enoughfor his tenure to be included asa case study in the curriculum ofIIM Ahmedabad. World institu-tions feted him and sought hisbytes. For he achieved a turn-around without hiking eitherpassenger or freight rates. Be it e-ticketing or model stations, hewas forward-looking, too. Hecould control his destiny. And henever antagonised the media,coopting it in his agenda. Henever abhorred English, spoke iteven when needed. He is still themost vocal secularist-socialistout there. Language be damned.Gehlot needs to learn from hisparty’s ally.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

Each year, as regular as clockwork, thefloods hit Assam. This year is no differ-ent and all control and management

efforts seem to have failed as 28 out of the33 districts in the State are inundated in thesixth worst flood since 1988. As per the AssamState Disaster Management Authority, 77 peo-ple have died, more than 39.8 lakh people havebeen affected and 51,000 have been renderedhomeless. A whopping 34 lakh animals havebeen hit, too, and Assam’s famed wildlife sanc-tuaries, including the renowned KazirangaNational Park, are under water. Altogether 86

wild animals have died but thankfully 121 others have been rescued. With over3,000 villages currently washed out, 1.3 lakh hectares worth of crops are esti-mated to have been damaged. The bad news is that while we are yet to get ouract together, things will get worse in the near future due to climate change aserratic and extreme weather events are expected to increase. India anyway ranksfifth on the climate change risk index. So, in all likelihood, extreme and suddenrainfall will result in increasing incidents of freak floods and landslides, worsen-ing matters all around. As it is, Assam is flood-prone with the Brahmaputra andBarak rivers and their more than 50 tributaries criss-crossing the State.Embankments don’t work where the Brahmaputra is concerned as it changescourse very often. Besides, many of these are hardly fortified to tolerate stress.Unplanned urban development has led to severe encroachments of wetlands,low lying areas, hills and forest cover, which could have handled the overflow.Guwahati, which sprawls on the banks of the Brahmaputra, is shaped like a bowland hence prone to flooding. Matters are made worse by the rainwater run-offsfrom the neighbouring States of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and the surround-ing hills, which often cause flash floods. Then there is rapid land erosion. In thelast six decades, more than 4.27 lakh hectares were eroded by the Brahmaputraand its tributaries with the river becoming wider every year.

If we are to do a better job of flood control and management, we need strongerwater laws. The existing ones primarily focus on pollution control and have lit-tle to say about prevention/management of floods which result from misman-agement of dams, embankments, environmental degradation and excess unplannedurban development. We need to move from a flood protection to flood gover-nance approach if we do not want to be washed out.

Although the nation has entered the“unlock” phase of the pandemic-induced curfew to promote economic

revival, the fact is continuing localised lock-downs in States are hampering productionlines, supplies, delivery schedules and oper-ational flows. Not that one can blame theStates, considering the disease spiral that’stormenting them in waves and peaks as wellas creating new hotspots almost everywhere.So though the jury is still out on how muchthe lockdown capped the caseload, it is stillbeing seen as the most effective way of

staving off human interactions and large-scale community transmission. So,keeping economic imperatives in mind, State Governments are grading theirlockdowns as partial, progressive or full-time. The problem is while business-es aren’t completely dysfunctional, allowed as they are to operate in non-restrict-ed areas, they are inter-connected to supply and distribution chains acrossStates. Stalling of operations in one State is bound to affect others as the cas-cading effect slows down the sector a particular business is into, and there-by grunts the overall economy. With attendance and production capacity affect-ed by restrictions, some sectors cannot even take off optimally. Bengaluru isa prime example. With most IT workers having left the city, fresh curbs meanthat they cannot return and the tech sector cannot acquire the desired momen-tum for recovery. All such micro-blocks are threatening to disrupt the little gainsmade in reviving the economy. A slew of economic relief measures, too, hasfailed to inspire confidence among businesses as corporate finances remainsqueezed, sales have not regained momentum and demand remains low. Eventhe amount allocated for bailing out MSMEs remains largely undistributed.

Several economic hubs are currently under a resurgent wave of the virus.Bengaluru, which had initially contained the virus, has become a new hotspot.While it began experimenting with a limited lockdown during the weekends, itwas compelled to go for complete shutdown once Karnataka became the Statewith the fifth-highest case load in the country. Pune, too, has been forced tobecome vigilant following a sharp spike. And with signs of community trans-mission now evident in two coastal hamlets of Kerala, this State, too, is in fulllockdown mode. Uttar Pradesh has decided to enforce stringent restrictionsduring weekends. Punjab, on the other hand, has barred gatherings of peo-ple. Such has been the spike in infection that easing the lockdown processhas inspired more fear than relief among the people. Such localised forms oflockdown though are not new. In the US, for example, which is witnessing avirulent second wave in the midlands, each State is imposing its own kind ofcurbs. Leicester City in UK was the first one to announce a local lockdown.Essentially, the challenge for the Government is three-pronged: One, combatthe disease. Two, protect the economy and three, keep social behaviour in check.On all these counts, lessons have hardly been learnt from the earlier phasesof the lockdown, which essentially slowed the trajectory of the virus but didnot affect its infectivity. Till a vaccine/cure is found, we cannot be lax aboutsafety protocols like mandatory wearing of masks, frequent use of sanitisersand maintaining social distancing norms in public spaces. The motto of per-sonal safety for public good needs to be ingrained in us. Also, national andState level coordination is needed to keep economic activities going in sus-tainable formats wherever possible like housing labourers on-site or demar-cating zones for greater community monitoring and excluding production hubs.There could also be a mapping of sectors, prioritising those that have a greatermultiplier effect. Health being a State subject, the Centre’s hands seem tied indevising a mutually acceptable formula. But if no mechanism is evolved, thenwe are looking at a bad plunge in the economy. As it is ratings agency ICRArevised its FY21 GDP assessment on Thursday, forecasting a 9.5 per cent con-traction from an earlier assessment of five per cent because of a “spate oflocalised lockdowns in some States and cities, arresting the nascent recov-ery that had set in during May-June 2020.”

Spoke in the wheel

Strengthen the economy

Sir — A new study in Lancet pro-jects India’s population peakingmuch earlier than expected, at 1.6billion in 2048 before declining to1.09 billion in 2100. This pointsto a narrowing window for demo-graphic dividend. Sharp falls inthe working age population willrequire many countries to pursueliberal immigration policies oralternatively improve workforceparticipation rate among elderlyand women. Countries unable tostabilise their working age pop-ulation are priming themselvesfor economic stagnation. Thebiggest challenge will be to sus-tain large public social securitynets without overburdening asmaller workforce with highertaxes. Powered by a young work-force, India must utilise the nar-rowing window to lay a strongeconomic foundation and robustinfrastructure.

B AhsanullahDelhi

Air India must rethink

Sir — It is a matter of concern thatAir India has approved a Leave

Without Pay (LWP) scheme forits employees for a period of sixmonths but extendable up tofive years. The airline manage-ment can also compulsorily sendemployees for LWP, dependingon their suitability, competenceand health. Both the regionaldirectors and headquarters’

departmental heads have beenasked to forward a list of employ-ees for compulsory LWP byAugust 15. However, reducingemployees and sending them onleave without pay is not a solution.Lakhs and lakhs of people arealready suffering from unemploy-ment in India and across the

world. This step will worsen mat-ters. Salaries to employees can begiven from the Prime Minister’sFund. The Government shouldtake a concerted decision ratherthan make the most vulnerablepay for the unfortunate downturn.

NR Salam Jammu

Another battle

Sir — COVID patients are facinga two-pronged battle. One fromthe illness itself and the otherfrom society in the form of dis-crimination. People should sup-port them and treat them withcare, assuring them that there ishope. We have to stick togetherto fight this crisis.

ShikhaVia email

Nurture the young

Sir — Sachin Pilot’s rebellion hassent a strong signal to the grandold party. High time, theCongress starts giving moreopportunities to younger leaders.Other young leaders like MilindDeora are now speaking againstthe Congress. All of this showsthat the party leadership has lostall contact with its younger lead-ers, who deserve to be treatedwith respect and dignity.

RashmiVia email

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/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020

06

Linguistic barriers

RINKU GHOSH

It was immature of Gehlot to run down Pilot’s work on the ground simply because he isfeted by the English media. Intent, political or otherwise, has no language

People must preserve andpromote the Indian tradi-tion of living and workingtogether. People must fol-low the philosophy of sharing and caring.

Vice President—M Venkaiah Naidu

My problem is for this issue(nepotism) to come up, dowe actually need somebodyto sacrifice his/her life? Thisis been prevailing for a long time now.

Actor—Radhika Madan

China isn’t seeking to confrontor replace the US as theworld’s top technologicalpower but it will fight backagainst malicious slander andattacks from Washington.

Chinese official—Hua Chunying

S O U N D B I T E

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

A difficult road to recovery

Data collated so far indicate that patients recoveredfrom COVID-19 suffer from its after-effects.Though it is too early to say how severe the reper-

cussions are and how long they last. Testing negativeafter the infection does not mean full healing and a returnto normalcy. In fact, the quality of life becomes worsethan before. The likely contribution of residual symp-toms to long-term or chronic disabilities is one area epi-demiologists are exploring to gain a better understand-ing. The correlation between morbidities and medicalcomplications before and after COVID-19, too, meritsdetailed study. Fatigue, muscle pain, difficult or labouredbreathing, fogginess and lack of concentration are foundto persist in some recovered patients. Many feel discom-fort when they perform physical activities; some evenfind it hard to chew and swallow food and speak abovewhispers, probably due to medical interventions includ-ing intubation.

The multi-organ effect of COVID-19 is now clinical-ly proven. Impairment of the functions of the lungs, liver,kidneys, heart and brain — all vital internal organs thatwork like instruments in an orchestra — has been detect-

ed to varying degrees in recovered patients. No less seri-ous or significant are mental health issues. The flash-backs of lonely hospital days; negative self-image andthe prospect of difficult days ahead could make a recov-ered patient anxious and depressed. The after-effects,which are now being established, stress the need for con-tinued care and treatment of COVID-19 survivors.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Flood fury in AssamYou can tell that he (ViratKohli) pushes the otherguys in the team to sort ofstep up when he’s battingwith them. He can change a game like that.

Australia pacer—Jhye Richardson

Lockdowns at the micro-level are slowing economic revival.Centre-State coordination is needed to monitor growth

We need to move from a flood protection to a floodgovernance approach if we do not want to be washed out

Heal India’s healthcare

RELATIVES OF THE MLAS TOLD US THAT THEY WEREINITIALLY WITH PILOT BUT VASUNDHARA RAJE ASKED

THEM TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM HIM.—RASHTRIYA LOKTANTRIK PARTY LEADER

HANUMAN BENIWAL

I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THERE IS NO BASISFOR THIS ALLEGATION. I AM IN TOUCH WITH VASUNDHARA RAJE. —BJP LEADER GULAB CHAND KATARIA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The Union Health Minister, Dr HarshVardhan, is reported to have asked the 15thFinance Commission for more resources to

be allocated to States so that they can achieve theNational Health Policy 2017 (NHP 2017) targets.While underscoring the need for increasing pub-lic health spending, the Minister highlighted theGovernment’s aim to gradually raise the share ofpublic health spending to 2.5 per cent of the GDPby 2025 and spending two-thirds of the health bud-get on primary healthcare.

The Narendra Modi Government was acute-ly aware of the fault lines in India’s health sector:Low public health spending (and consequently ahigh share of household out-of-pocket expendi-ture on health), shortage of healthcare personnel,lack of prioritisation between primary care and hos-pital care, a weak healthcare delivery system cou-pled with the lack of integration of public and pri-vate care providers and so forth. Even as theGovernment was trying to address these issues, thefault lines got fully exposed under the pressure ofthe COVID-19 crisis. The sector is now under thespotlight. The need for a stronger healthcare sys-tem has never been felt so acutely.

Revise health policy targets: Now returningto the Ministry’s recent meeting with the FinanceCommission, the NHP 2017 was drawn up in thepre-Coronavirus times. However, the reality ofCOVID-19 necessitates a relook at the health pol-icy’s targets, including the public health spendingtarget and its trajectory. This is particularly so whenthere has been a huge slippage in the achievementof the intermediate target of States spending at leasteight per cent of their budget on health by 2020.The States are nowhere close to it. On average, theyspent only five per cent of their budget on healthwith a significant variation across the country.Chhattisgarh spent 5.9 per cent, Kerala 5.5 per cent,whereas Punjab and Haryana spent 3.8 per centand 3.7 per cent respectively in 2017-18. Whilethese targets need to be revised to make them morerealistic and State-specific, some States do need tai-lor-made guidance on a continuous basis in achiev-ing those targets.

Achieving the eight per cent target hasbecome more difficult for States as the pandem-ic is not just a healthcare crisis but has also led toan economic crisis which will adversely impactGovernment revenues. The Government may haveunlocked the economy to a large extent but eco-nomic activities, especially in some labour-inten-sive sectors such as travel, tourism and hospitali-ty, will take a long time to get normalised.Therefore, the capacity of States to generate andallocate higher funding for healthcare will remainadversely affected for some time. In this context,the Health Ministry’s meeting with the FinanceCommission assumes special significance. Thecommission may come to the rescue of States bymaking a special provision to enable them to allo-cate higher budgetary spending to healthcare. Butthere are limits to what it can do.

The 15th Finance Commission has a usefulbut limited role: In the short-term, some addition-al Government funding for health will only havea beneficial effect in restoring non-emergencyhealth services that got displaced due to COVID-

19 and in strengthening the publichealth system in general. But achievingthe health spending target of 2.5 per centof the GDP by 2025 calls for a significantstep-up in public health spending. Atsuch level of spending, the issue is not justabout funding but also about easing allother constraints — the manpower con-straint, solving the care delivery puzzle,governance challenges especially at thedistrict and sub-district level and so forth— facing the healthcare sector today.Solving these problems is a complex exer-cise requiring State engagement, steward-ship and continuous learning to progres-sively deal with these complex con-straints. A Finance Commission, givenits role, mandate and a fixed term has itslimitations in engaging in technically-complex dialogues requiring domainknowledge.

A couple of times in the past,Finance Commissions have providedhealth-specific grants to States.Specifically, the 12th FinanceCommission recommended equalisa-tion grants for health to seven “lagging”States while the 13th FinanceCommission suggested performance-based health grants to all States.

It is important to note that thesecommissions gave limited health sectorgrants (only around `5,900 crore and`5,000 crore were allocated by the 12thand 13th Finance Commissions respec-tively) which had some effect but not ahuge one in the larger scheme of things.The 15th Finance Commission, too, hasa useful role to play. But its role is ratherlimited in fostering systemic changes inIndia’s healthcare system, includingachieving the public healthcare spendingtarget of 2.5 per cent of the GDP by 2025.If two-thirds of the health budget are to

be allocated to primary care, as reiterat-ed by the Minister, there ought to be afull-fledged discussion and rigorousimplementation of interventions. Inother words, there has to be some othermodality for the Centre and States to havea deeper engagement on the health sec-tor.

Centre-State health compact: TheCOVID-19 crisis offers a unique oppor-tunity to form a health sector compactbetween the Centre and States which haseluded our federal structure, wherehealthcare delivery is a State subject.States indeed play a dominant role bothin the funding and delivery of the pub-lic healthcare system. And they will con-tinue to play a pivotal role both on thefinancing and delivery side in future, too.Given this reality, it is only appropriatethat States are part of any health sectordialogue on India at any level, which canhappen only when the Centre-Statecompact exists. The basic idea behind thisis to create an apex member committeewhere States make binding health sys-tems-related commitments and are suit-ably rewarded for honouring them. Thishealth compact needs to be an effectivebody. The Government needs to do what-ever it takes — legislative backing or oth-erwise, to make this body effective.

In times of COVID, health hasbecome a political priority in everyState. It’s a perfect time to form such acompact. Some agency — be it the NITIAayog or the Health Ministry — has totake this initiative. As no such agreementcurrently exists — for example, there was-n’t any State buy-in on the intermediatetarget of spending eight per cent of bud-gets on health — there’s little wonder whythe target never got achieved.

The purpose of having a health com-

pact is to see States buy in on certain tar-gets and ensure that those are met ontime. States that refuse to join such a com-pact will do so at their own peril.

Seize the opportunity: Dealing withthe Corona crisis is also giving a lot ofgood ideas on how India’s healthcare sys-tem could be redesigned and strength-ened in future. For example, it is givingus insights into the appropriate mix ofpublic and private care providers and howthe two could be connected in strength-ening primary care with the right infu-sion of technology and frontline work-ers. The partnership can work in healthadministration at the district level andbelow, in making healthcare affordable,in formulating healthcare regulations andin pursuing medical research. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has repeatedlymentioned that we must convert the cur-rent crisis into an opportunity. It is truethat fighting the contagion is taking awaythe bandwidth of healthcare policy-makers/planners both at the Centre andState levels. Undoubtedly, dealing withthe pandemic is an urgent matter at hand.But there are many important health sec-tor design issues that need to beaddressed both from the shorter-termand longer-term perspective.

The COVID crisis is showing us theway into designing India’s future health-care system as well as creating conditionsfor making health policy choices and buy-ing political commitments into imple-menting those choices. The policy-mak-ers shouldn’t let the urgent and immedi-ate crowd out what’s important.

(Ahuja is a development economist,formerly with the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation and the World Bank andPradhan is advisor and adjunct professor,Chitkara University, Punjab.)

The reality of the COVID-19 emergency necessitates a relook at our health

policy targets, including public health spending and its trajectory

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

VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

THE NARENDRAMODI GOVERNMENT

WAS ACUTELYAWARE OF THEFAULT LINES ININDIA’S HEALTH

SECTOR: LOWPUBLIC HEALTHSPENDING (AND

CONSEQUENTLY AHIGH SHARE OF

HOUSEHOLD OUT-OF-POCKET

EXPENDITURE ONHEALTH), SHORTAGE

OF HEALTHCAREPERSONNEL, LACK

OF PRIORITISATIONBETWEEN PRIMARY

CARE AND HOSPITALCARE, A WEAK

HEALTHCAREDELIVERY SYSTEM

COUPLED WITH THELACK OF

INTEGRATION OFPUBLIC AND

PRIVATE CAREPROVIDERS AND SO

FORTH.THE FAULT LINES

GOT FULLY EXPOSEDUNDER THE

PRESSURE OF THECOVID-19 CRISIS

The world of education is huge. It is one of those few areaswhere one can enter almost without credentials and claim tobe an expert. People still listen to such individuals not because

they have any great credentials but because they hold positions ofinfluence and patronage. With these qualifications, it is easy to findadmirers. There are always hopes of pay-offs by ingratiating thepowerful. It is also equally true that the route adopted by people togain the attention of icons is sometimes quite the opposite and thatis one of denigration. By throwing stones at the powerful one canalso gain prominence. In essence, the choice of the route to gain-ing attention of the powerful is a personal one.

For the sake of a feasible, focussed discussion on the learn-ing-teaching process, which is the foundation of education, it maybe useful to focus on one segment. The choice of higher educa-tion as the segment of attention may be useful. It is also attractivebecause that is where the so-called intellectuals are. Plus, in thefield of higher education, there is a great parade of credentials andsometimes standards. These two dimensions are fit enough top-ics of discussion in their own right. For the present, suffice it to saythat the track record of Indian higher education institutions (HEIs)is at best, modest, be it in the track records of people who havemade the grade in Indian academia or of acclaimed students whocame out of these institutions that have had a huge resonance ofacceptability abroad.

In one of the most widely-acclaimed institutions of the IIT chain,about ten years ago, a back-of-the envelope analysis of success-ful alumni award winners showed that more than 70 per cent werethose who had obtained residency in the US, Canada, UK or otherEnglish-speaking communities. The yardsticks of excellence wereclear. The only recognition worth flaunting was recognition in a post-industrial English-speaking country. If these are the role models whoare projected to the impressionable teenagers in such institutionsof national importance, the results can easily be imagined and seen.But it didn’t seem to bother anyone too much.

Another analysis of the results of campus placements in IITs,IIMs and similar institutions would establish that the most sought-after placements are in multinational organisations, private com-panies and other institutions of the ilk. Public sector undertakingsare a lower-ranked choice, if at all.

A legitimate question can be asked: Why should the taxpayersubsidise these institutions when there is no ostensible correlationbetween his investment and the efforts of the outcome of his invest-ments in terms of the welfare of the average Indian?

These are hard questions, frequently asked, but never honest-ly or for that matter meaningfully tackled. Such lack of correlationis unique to India. And it is not as if there is shortage of moneywith those aspiring for the portals of premier HEIs. Consider thefancy sums of money people pay to go abroad and get a degree.Like many contradictions, these are common characteristics of high-er education in India. It is truly remarkable that in the spate of webi-nars that mark the COVID-19 era, not one has been organised toaddress these themes. There almost seems to be a collective con-sent to let things continue the way they are. There is nothing wrongwith that. These defining characteristics — so far as public infor-mation is concerned — have not even been debated with adequatesincerity in the several fora which determine the nature of highereducation in India.

A common loss seems to be nobody’s loss. There are alsoso-called autonomous pan-Indian bodies of these institutions wherepeople struggle, jostle and manoeuvre to become secretaries andpresidents. It gives them influence, range and visibility. There is noth-ing wrong with that, yet, alas, a question on the purpose of suchassociations cannot be endlessly evaded. There are associationsof heads of management institutions, societies of technical insti-tutions, education fora in chambers of industry, whether in a con-federation mode or in an associated mode. Most of them are hugedraws to those seeking a “space under the sun.”

However, an Indian citizen is entitled to ask what these asso-ciations achieve? A radical departure from some of these unusu-al patterns of collective behaviour is long overdue. When a few artic-ulate ones do point it out, they are asked to keep quiet in the nameof being positive. They are exhorted not to “rock the boat” and atleast appreciate what has been achieved. These are unexception-able arguments.

However, ask an Indian mother from which Indian education-al institution as compared to a western one, would she like her son-in-law or daughter-in-law to come from. The answer is the answerto the relative ranking of Indian HEIs in an international frame.

(The writer is a well-known management consultant)

On May 16, the Minister ofScience and Technology, FawadChaudhry, declared that this

year’s Eid-ul-Fitr would be celebratedon May 24. By doing this, he was sig-nalling the futility of having a commit-tee of clerics dedicated to the sightingof the Eid moon, when some basicastronomy and mathematics can accu-rately predict its emergence.

The move did not go down wellwith members of the Ruet-i-HilalCommittee. A heated debate ensued.Sightings of the Eid moon in Pakistanhave had a jagged history. Before thecreation of Pakistan in 1947, it was atradition among the Muslims of SouthAsia to see the moon and report thesightings to the clerics.

In fact, this ritual was quite com-mon among most Muslims in other

regions as well. However, the need toutilise more “scientifically-sound”methods to sight the moon began toemerge during the decolonisationperiod.

But it was a gradual transforma-tion. It was part and parcel of policiesin various Muslim countries where theState was experimenting with ideasderived from fusing together moder-nity, nationalism and faith.

Turkey and various Arab countriesin the Middle East began to introducetelescopes, and ultimately astronom-ical calculations, to predict the arrivalof Ramzan and the two Eids.Committees were formed in which sci-entists sat with clerics. Over the nextfew decades, Turkey and most Arabcountries had come to almost entire-ly rely upon astronomical data to deter-mine various important lunar Muslimmonths and dates.

It is still rare for the Muslim worldto celebrate Eid on the same day,though. Apart from the naturaldynamics of moon cycles and differ-ent weather conditions that may makethe moon visible in one area and notin the other, politics, too, plays a rolein, let’s say, the disunity of Eid.

For example, a bulk of Muslimcountries follow the astronomicallunar calendar prepared by Saudi sci-entists, while many others follow theone prepared by Turkish astronomers.Then there are countries such asPakistan, Malaysia, Egypt, Iran,Indonesia and Tunisia that haveformed their own committees for thispurpose.

The issue has as much to do withsectarian and sub-sectarian divides asit has with geopolitical rivalriesbetween major Muslim countries. Butwhereas most Muslim countries nowapply the latest scientific methods todetermine the start of the Islamic lunarmonths, some countries such asPakistan seem to have gotten stuck.

According to Dr Fazal Ahmed’s1973 book, The Science of Sighting ofthe Moon, the first Government ofPakistan formed a committee of reli-gious scholars who were to coordinatewith members of the meteorologicaldepartment to authenticate moonsightings.

A decade later in 1958, the com-mittee’s announced date for Eid-ul-Fitrwas challenged by a group of clerics inPeshawar, where Eid was celebrated a

day before the rest of the country. In1959, Field Marshal (self-appointed)Ayub Khan, who had come to powerin 1958, lamented that the clerics wereusing Islam as a means to hinderprogress. SA Ansari, in his essay for theJournal of Political Studies, quotedAyub as saying that the clerics weredoing “a great disservice to Islam.”

In his book, Dr Fazal doesn’t sayexactly what modern methods wereintroduced by the committee to sightthe moon. But in March 1961, afterbeing convinced by a body of scien-tists about the accurate date of thatyear’s Eid-ul-Fitr, the Ayub regimebypassed the committee and directlyannounced the date.

The popular Islamic scholar fromKarachi, Ehteshamul Haq Thanvi,was the head of the committee at thetime. Peshawar had already celebrat-ed Eid a day before after clerics in thecity insisted that Pakistan follow SaudiArabia’s lead. The majority of peoplein Karachi, on the other hand, followedThanvi’s lead and observed Eid one dayafter the date given by theGovernment. So, in 1961, Eid-ul-Fitrwas celebrated on three different daysin the country.

Almost the same happened in1967. Dr Fazal writes that the episodewas politicised by the religious partiesafter the regime discarded the dateannounced by the committee andchanged it. The regime claimed thecommittee’s date was scientificallyinaccurate. Ayub’s opponents decriedthat this was part of the regime’s“oppressive policies against the clerics”,while some Urdu dailies suggested itall boiled down to superstition“because the regime believed celebrat-ing Eid on a Friday was a bad omen.”This was sensationalist gibberish, ofcourse.

In 1974, when the issue of multi-ple Eids failed to get resolved, theGovernment of Zulfikar Ali Bhuttogave the committee legislative cover.Thanvi was reinstated as the commit-tee’s head and eight more members,including a woman, were inducted.The legislation did not require anycompulsory coordination betweenthe committee and the meteorologicaldepartment. However, committeemembers were given better telescopes.

The October 1973 issue of thePakistan Economist ran a feature on thedebate a year before the legislation. The

feature quoted various ulema (a bodyof Muslim scholars who are recognisedas having specialist knowledge ofIslamic law and theology) who sug-gested that Pakistan should take SaudiArabia’s lead. However, clerics belong-ing to the Sunni Barelvi sub-sectinsisted that the country must followthe sightings of its own ulema.

This idea was supported by scien-tists such as Dr Fazal who claimed thatthe nature of lunar cycles is such thatevery country must take its own path.

The legislation seemed to havesomewhat resolved the issue, eventhough the committee never carriedwith it anything more than a telescope.No scientists were ever involved in theprocedure. The call to employ morescientific methods returned decadeslater, when clerics associated with theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa branch of thecommittee began to follow SaudiArabia’s lead.

The dichotomy in Eid moonsightings between clerics in thatprovince and the rest of the countryintensified from the 1990s until one ofthe main figures in the controversy, thePeshawar-based ShahabuddinPopalzai, was arrested in 2017 and

forced to fly out to Dubai.Perhaps noticing that a majority

of Pakistanis were never comfortablewith the dichotomy, Fawad Chaudhrydecided to adopt astronomical meth-ods used in most Muslim countries todetermine moon sightings. Committeemembers were livid.

In a country where, ever since themid-1970s, the State and govern-ments have continued to appease thepoint of views of clerics to evade reli-gious controversies, Chaudhry threwdown the gauntlet. And won. Theirony is that he is a Minister in aGovernment that is mostly headed byurban conservatives. However, it wasnot his Government he was bankingon but rather a powerful State institu-tion.

Some dailies reported that mem-bers of the committee, who werechallenging him, suddenly withdrewtheir opposition after receiving a callfrom persons associated with that Stateinstitution. The institution has increas-ingly seen the dichotomy as an expres-sion of national disunity. Chaudhryseemed to have based his move exact-ly on this observation.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Moonstruck over the sighting of Eid ka chaandThe discord between the State and clerics has been present since the 1960s. So what prompted Minister Fawad Chaudhry to jump into the fray?

NADEEM PARACHA

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

RAJEEVAHUJA

KEERTIPRADHAN

Some pertinentquestions

Why should a taxpayer subsidise IITs when there is no correlation between the outcome of his

investment and the welfare of the average Indian?

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Madame expects 40 pc fall inrevenue this fiscal NEW DELHI: Apparel retailerMadame is expecting a 40 percent decline in revenue in thecurrent financial year due todisruptions caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic. Thecompany may also end upgiving up to 20 per cent ofretail space (shut stores) if thesituation does not improve inthe current September quarter."There is a slow rise inbusiness number postlockdown. With uncertaintyand ad-hoc restrictions beingimposed every day acrossmajor cities, the impact is fairlyvisible with the consumerpreferring to stay inside... Weexpect a 40 per cent reductionin business numbers seeinghow the market has behaved inthe first quarter and 2 weeksof the second quarter,"Madame Executive DirectorAkhil Jain told PTI.

FPIs remain netsellers in Indianmarkets in JulNEW DELHI: Foreign portfolioinvestors (FPI) remained netsellers in Indian markets inJuly so far as they pulled outRs 9,015 crore from equitiesand debt securities with thesurging markets providingprofit booking opportunityamid concerns over risingcases of COVID-19. Accordingto depositories data, FPIswithdrew Rs 6,058 crore fromequities and Rs 2,957 crorefrom the debt segment on anet basis during July 1-17.

Policybazaar toraise USD 150millionNEW DELHI: Insuranceaggregator Policybazaar plansto raise USD 150 million(about Rs 1,100 crore) asbuffer capital during the thirdquarter of current fiscal.Although the company doesn'trequire capital for businessexpansion, it may raise somefunds as a buffer forunforeseen events,Policybazaar.com Group CEOand co-founder YashishDahiyasaid. "We might raisesome capital as a buffer. In thefuture you never know whatwill happen. This year COVIDhappened. What if somethingelse happens in the future.

PNS n NEW DELHI

At least seven Indian pharmacompanies are working todevelop a vaccine against coro-navirus as they join globalefforts to find a preventive tocheck the spread of the dead-ly virus that has already infect-ed more than 14 million glob-ally.

Bharat Biotech, SerumInstitute, Zydus Cadila,Panacea Biotec, IndianImmunologicals, Mynvax andBiological E are among thedomestic pharma firms work-ing on the coronavirus vaccinesin India. Vaccines normallyrequire years of testing andadditional time to produce atscale, but scientists are hopingto develop a coronavirus vac-cine within months because ofthe pandemic. Bharat Biotechhas received approval to con-duct phase I and II clinical trialfor its vaccine candidateCovaxin, that has been devel-

oped and manufactured in thecompany's facility inHyderabad. It last week start-ed human clinical trials.

Leading vaccine major SerumInstitute of India has said that itis hoping to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by the year-end. "Atpresent, we are working on theAstraZeneca Oxford vaccinewhich is undergoing phase IIIclinical trials. In addition to this,

we will also start human trialsin India in August 2020. Basedon the current situation andmost recent updates on theclinical trials, we are hoping thatthe AstraZeneca Oxford vaccinewill be available towards the endof this year," Serum Institute ofIndia CEO Adar Poonawallatold PTI.

The company is also develop-ing a live attenuated vaccine with

US-based biotech firmCodagenix, which is undergoingpre-clinical trials, he added.

"Apart from AstraZenecaOxford vaccine andCodagenix, we have associatedwith multiple institutionsworldwide as manufacturingpartners for vaccine candi-dates that are being devel-oped. These include Austria'sThemis along with two others,"Poonawalla said.

On the partnership withAstraZeneca, Poonawalla said:"Serum Institute of India has

entered a manufacturing part-nership with AstraZeneca toproduce and supply 1 billiondoses of the COVID-19 vac-cine being developed byOxford University."

These vaccines will be forIndia and middle and lowincome countries across theworld (GAVI countries), headded. Pharma major ZydusCadila has said that it is look-ing to complete clinical trials ofits COVID-19 vaccine candi-date ZyCoV-D in sevenmonths.The company had lastweek started clinical trials of itsCOVID-19 vaccine candidatewith the first human dosing.

Depending on the studyoutcomes and if the data isencouraging and the vaccine isfound to be effective during thetrials, it could take a total ofseven months for the trials tobe completed and for the vac-cine to be launched, ZydusCadila Chairman Pankaj RPatel said in a statement.

Seven Indian pharma players raceto develop COVID-19 vaccine PNS n NEW DELHI

As many as 401 infrastructureprojects, each worth Rs 150crore or more, have been hit bycost overruns of over Rs 4.02lakh crore owing to delays andother reasons, according to areport.

The Ministry of Statisticsand ProgrammeImplementation monitorsinfrastructure projects worthRs 150 crore and above.

Of the 1,692 such projects,401 projects reported costoverruns and 552 projectstime escalation.

"Total original cost of imple-mentation of the 1,692 projectswas Rs 20,75,212.70 crore andtheir anticipated completioncost is likely to be Rs24,78,016.45 crore, whichreflects overall cost overrunsof Rs 4,02,803.75 crore (19.41per cent of original cost)," theministry's latest report forJanuary 2020 said.

The expenditure incurredon these projects till January

2020 is Rs 10,97,604.64 crore,which is 44.29 per cent of theanticipated cost of the projects.

However, it said the numberof delayed projects decreasesto 451 if delay is calculated onthe basis of the latest scheduleof completion.

Out of 552 delayed projects,168 have overall delay in therange of 1 to 12 months, 125with delay in the range of 13to 24 months, 145 projectsreflect delay in the range of 25to 60 months and 114 projectsshow delay of 61 months andabove.

The average time overrunin these 552 delayed projectsis 39.71 months.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Income Tax departmenthas disposed of 7,116 casesunder the first phase of facelessassessment system, an officialsource said.

Since its launch on October7, 2019 and implementation offirst phase, faceless scrutinyassessment scheme has provid-ed for assessment of income taxin electronic mode, where tax-payers need not see face-to-faceany tax officer or visit an I-Toffice and can e-file reply onthe income tax portal.

The source said in the firstphase of faceless assessment, atotal of 58,319 cases wereassigned in an automated way

randomly and these were keptaway from the geographicaljurisdiction of the case, basedon computer algorithms.

Out of this, 7,116 cases ason date have been disposed ofwith assessment orders issued

without any additions, and291 cases, wherein additionsare proposed to be made, havebeen submitted to RiskManagement unit, sources said.

He said that in all the cases,the grievances of over-pitched

assessment or harassment oftaxpayers/tax professional havebeen almost eliminated.

The taxpayers have beenadvised to check their regis-tered e-filing accounts/emailids for notices or updates.

Now, all the communica-

tions with taxpayers is madeelectronically by a central cellin Delhi and identity of allassessing officers remainsunknown to taxpayers at alltimes, the source added.

Separately, a FinanceMinistry official said that nowalmost 99 per cent returns aree-filed. Out of more than 6crore returns filed annually,only about 3 lakh returns comeunder scrutiny on the basis ofselect risk parameters.

"Cases are centrally selectedfor scrutiny using computeraided selection for scrutiny.Some scrutiny cases are alsoselected manually on the basisof specified criteria,” said andofficial.

7k assessments disposed under faceless scrutiny

PNS n NEW DELHI

FMCG companies, which sawsales recovering to pre-COVID-19 levels in June, areuncertain if the same momen-tum could be maintained inJuly due to intermittent andlocalised lockdowns in sever-al parts of the country whichhave impacted manufacturingand supply chains.

As the industry oscillatebetween lockdown andreopening in various states,

companies such as GodrejConsumer Products Ltd(GCPL) and ITC are bankingon inventories stocked up tomaintain supplies to the mar-ket. They expect an impact ontheir July production, with

some of their local productionunits due to restriction of labourmovements apart from their

warehouses as well as vendorscoming into the intermittentlockdown zones, which arebeing declared by states to curbthe spread of COVID-19 cases.

"This is a very tricky situa-tion and there is no debate inthat this intermittent lock-down, which is happening, iscreating a disturbance in somekind of rhythm which we havegot into the supply chain,"GCPL chief executive - Indiaand SAARC Sunil Kataria toldPTI.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Three of the 10 most valuedcompanies added a total of Rs98,622.89 crore to their mar-ket valuation last week, led bystellar gains in IT majorInfosys.

Seven companies from thecoveted list witnessed a declinein their market valuation lastweek, but their cumulativeloss of Rs 37,701.1 crore wasless than the total gain made bythree firms -- RelianceIndustries Limited, HindustanUnilever Limited and Infosys.

The market capitalisationof Infosys zoomed Rs52,046.87 crore to Rs3,85,027.58 crore. Shares ofInfosys had rallied over 9 per

cent on Thursday after thecompany posted a stronger-than-expected 12.4 per centrise in the first quarter consol-idated net profit.

Hindustan Unilever Limitedadded Rs 25,751.07 crore in itsmarket valuation which stoodat Rs 5,48,232.26 crore at closeon Friday. Reliance Industries'm-cap jumped Rs 20,824.95crore to Rs 12,11,682.08 crore.

In contrast, HDFC's valua-tion plunged Rs 13,920.21

crore to Rs 3,13,269.70 croreand that of TCS declined Rs7,617.34 crore to Rs8,26,031.21 crore. The valua-tion of ICICI Bank tumbled Rs4,205.71 crore to Rs2,29,156.24 crore and that ofKotak Mahindra Bank by Rs4,175.28 crore to Rs2,62,864.37 crore.

PNS n CHENNAI

Unveiling a slew of modelsacross the kids, standard andMTB segments, TI Cycles hasembarked on an aggressivemarket penetration and brand-ing strategy to drive growth,tap overseas markets andexplore the fitness, spares andaccessories markets, a topcompany official said.

This was part of the restruc-turing exercise after the com-pany made a strategic exitfrom institutional business,which led to a drop in salesvolumes and revenue at Rs 781

crore (FY20) as compared toRs 1,238 crore in the 2018-19fiscal, company ManagingDirector Vellayan Subbiah said.

The new business model hasseen a 17 per cent improvementin Return on Capital Employed

(ROCE) in FY20 against six percent for the last year, predom-inantly driven by reduction inworking capital and overallcapital employed, he said.

The new range of 70 cyclesand 53 refreshed models wasin line with the company'sambitious road map for growthand resurgence, he said.

Subbiah said the businesshas been restructured in threephases -- with focused costmanagement and efficiencyinitiatives, lean and flexiblemanufacturing schedules andrevamping entire logisticsinfrastructure across locations.

PNS n MUMBAI

Bank unions have raised con-cerns over lack of regularsanitisation and adherence tosocial distancing norms atvarious bank branches in thestate, putting lives of employ-ees at risk from COVID-19.

Unions have written a let-ter to state Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray seekinghis intervention in issuingdirectives to banks and localauthorities for safety of bankemployees.

In the letter, United Forumof Bank Unions (UFBU) said,"Despite standard operatingprocedure (SOP) prescribedby the central government asalso state government andlocal administration, banksare not complying with reg-ular sanitisation of branches."

Banks are not deployingsecurity guards at theentrance of bank branches tomanage the crowd, it furtherstated."This is resulting inviolation of basic norms ofdistancing and cleanlinessand thus banks have becomea cause to spread the pan-demic, in view of which weseek your indulgence to arrestthe spread," the letter said.

PNS n MUMBAI

In a drastic business overhaul,the Edelweiss Group will becompletely exiting the whole-sale credit business by 2022,shifting its focus solely to retailcredit along with asset andwealth management verticals.

Since the IL&FS bankruptcy-induced liquidity crisis in theshadow banking sector inSeptember 2018, the group hasbeen reducing its wholesaleloan book and it is down 43 percent from peak in FY18. Thegroup will be selling down Rs3,000 crore more of wholesale

loans by March and complete-ly exiting by 2022, says groupchairman and chief executiveRashesh Shah. Wholesale lend-ing has been the mainstay for the25-year-old group for long, bustsince IL&FS pulled down thewhole industry, quantum of stickyloans, mostly extended to com-mercial realty, ballooned forcingit to re-align the focus now.

PNS n MUMBAI

Mahindra and MahindraFinancial Services has report-ed more than two-fold jump instandalone net profit to Rs 156crore in the quarter endingJune helped by cost rationali-sation measures and lowerfunding cost.

It had reported a profitafter tax of Rs 68 crore in thesame quarter of last year.

On a consolidated basis,the lender reported a profitafter tax of Rs 432 crore dur-ing the quarter as against Rs108 crore last year.

"The increase in profit wasdue to cost rationalisation,reduction in overall cost ofborrowing and also rise in

NPAs was not high,"Mahindra Finance vice-chair-man and managing directorRamesh Iyer said.

He said April and May wereno-activity months and theentire disbursements hap-pened in June.

The total value of assetsfinanced for the quarter endedJune stood at Rs 3,489 crore asagainst Rs 10,598.3 crore lastyear in the same period.

PNS n NEW DELHI

British FMCG major RB Plc,which owns popular con-sumer health and hygienebrand Dettol, is "looking atevery opportunity" in India toprovide its full range of prod-ucts and the firm is "absolute-ly committed" to the country,according to the company'sglobal CEO LaxmanNarasimhan. With consumersand retailers across India fac-ing shortage of Dettol range ofproducts when coronavirusoutbreak happened in India,RB has taken steps to ensurethat people get access to thedisinfectant.

On a broader perspective,he said, "We will continue tolook at opportunities to pro-

vide a full range of products toour consumers and the teamis looking at every opportuni-ty there, which is out there toensure that people get theproducts that they can in themarket there."

PNS n NEW DELHI

The financial condition ofHindustan Copper is in "direstraits" primarily due to thedismal performance of thePSU in 2019-20, a top compa-ny official said while asking theemployees to brace up fortough times ahead.

The Chairman andManaging Director of the PSU,Arun Kumar Shukla, in anarticle published in the housejournal of Hindustan Copper,exhorted company employeesto focus on making up for theproduction shortfall in 2020-21 for the survival of the PSU.

"As you are aware, the finan-cial condition of the companyis in dire straits primarily due

to the dismal performanceduring the fiscal year 2019-20.The COVID-19 pandemic hasonly worsened the situation.Under such compelling cir-

cumstances, we need to braceourselves for tough timesahead," Shukla said.

The company has to focuson making up for the produc-tion shortfall in FY 2020-21,come what may, for the sur-vival of the PSU, he said.

"We need to put our mindstogether and think outside thebox to explore all possibilitiesfor production movement andalternative revenue genera-tion. Optimisation and reduc-tion of costs on all fronts, bothoperational and non-opera-tional, is crucial to stay afloat,"he said in the article.

Quality assurance is essen-tial to boost the company'sbrand credibility and customersatisfaction, he said.

Chairman and Managing Director ofthe PSU, Arun Kumar Shukla

CEO Laxman Narasimhan

Financial condition of HindustanCopper in 'dire straits', says CMD

Mahindra Financeposts Rs 156 cr profit

TI Cycles on aggressive marketpenetration& branding strategy

Lockdowns disrupt FMCG firms' outputFirms such asGodrej ConsumerProducts Ltd andITC are banking oninventoriesstocked up tomaintain suppliesto the market

Hindustan UnileverLimited added Rs25,751.07 crore inits marketvaluation whichstood at Rs5,48,232.26 croreat close on Friday

3 of 10 most valued companiesadd Rs 98,622.89 cr in mcap

Bank unionswrite to Maha CM

Platform for food safety and fair trade for agriPNS n COIMBATORE

City-based SourceTrace, inassociation with AgNext, hascreated a platform for foodsafety and fair trade for agricul-ture and food business.

Considering the global con-cern over food safety amid theCOVID-19 lockdown and thepandemic, AgNext andSourceTrace combined theirsolutions and signed a MoUand created the platform,TraceNext.The new platformcan provide a complete valuechain traceability with anassurance of quality from the

farm to the consumer.TraceNext provides seamless

solution to agriculture andfood businesses ensuring com-plete control over quality andguarantee safe food to theirconsumers. In the comingyears, traceability is going to be

the most critical technology toensure food safety," CEO ofSourceTrade Venkat Marojusaid in a press release onSunday. The new platform isthe only solution that can pro-

vide food businesses, regulato-ry bodies and consumers theinformation they need toensure food safety.

It would also change howfood businesses and consumersinteract and what informa-tion is exchanged.

"We are looking at a com-plete transformation of thefood eco system," Maroju said.

The platform fills the gapwhich is needed for providinga one-stop seamless solutionfor food origin and quality foreffective trade, procurement,production and consumptionof food.

Edelweiss turns focuson retail lending

‘Looking at everyopportunity in India’

Leading vaccinemajor SerumInstitute of Indiahas said that it ishoping to developa COVID-19vaccine by theyear-end

TraceNextprovides seamlesssolution to agriand foodbusinessesensuring completecontrol overquality

The taxpayershave been advisedto check theirregistered e-filingaccounts/email idsfor notices orupdates

401 infra projects show cost overruns

izzle app, a free-thinking shortvideo sharing plat-form is taking onits counterparts!Creators can col-

laborate here, have an inter-active session, express theirvoices, and whatnot. LikeTikTok, the app allows theusers to create one-minuteclips, listens to, speaks,argues, debates, and supportsa global community. You canstart a mini-series or host astand-up comedy, a podcast,or even a talk show toexplore your hidden talents.

In an effort to allow usersto post their video reactionsinstead of comments, thefounders of the app Vidyaand Lakshminath launchedRizzle! In the fight for equali-ty across the world, this appkicked off with its firstbuzzing trend #ThisIsMeMillions Voice Project with acommitment of bringinglakhs of voices to talk abouttheir struggles from therespective countries. Rizzle,which is available directly onGoogle play store, allows youto be yourself and share yourstories with the world.

Currently, the app is top-ping charts with the#IndiaFirst movement toencourage netizens to placetheir motherland before any-thing else. With headquartersin Hyderabad and San Jose, itconstitutes of a world-classteam of techies, graphicdesigners, content manage-ment, and marketing person-nel. “With our new-foundtechnology through the app,

we aim to put India on theworld map as the first Indo-US company bringing abouta social change. You can stayin touch with each otherthrough a vibrant feed andour team has put in a lot ofeffort to produce this home-grown app. This app is beingseen as a massive boost toIndian patriotism with amajor push of prioritisingour country,” says one of the

founders Vidya Narayanan. The co-founder of the new

video feature e]speciallydesigned for a short form ofcreative content,Lakshminath Dondeti is veryexcited to bring Rizzle acrossmany countries including theU.S. “Video technology is thefuture. Thousands of topicsare discussed every day onRizzle amplifying all sorts ofvoices regardless of race, gen-

der, caste, etc. Rizzle wasdesigned to directly challengethe growing dominance incountries. It also offers acces-sible tools that make it easierto record content,” adds theco-founder.

With additional features ofmonetisation for creators inthe form of contests andsponsorships, it’s an aspiringplatform for social mediainfluencers.

Video ttechnology iis tthefuture. TThousands ooftopics aare ddiscussedevery dday oon RRizzleamplifying aalll ssorts oofvoices rregardless oofrace, ggender, ccaste, eetc.Rizzle wwas ddesigned ttodirectly cchallenge tthegrowing ddominance iincountries.

LAKSHMINATH DDONDETI

Video-sharing app toThe ban on the video-sharing appTiktok had left millions of Indian

users disappointed, but it gavemore space for other such video-

sharing platforms to flourish. Onesuch video-sharing app that is

making its way into the market isthe ‘Rizzle' app. The Pioneer's

SHIKHA DUGGAL talks to thefounders of the app on how it's

different from other such apps inthe market and more.

R

SUPPORT INDIAN CREATORS

With oour nnew-ffound ttechnology tthrough tthe aapp, wwe aaim ttoput IIndia oon tthe wworld mmap aas tthe ffirst IInddo-UUS ccompany

bringing aabout aa ssocial cchange. YYou ccan sstay iin ttouch wwitheach oother tthrough aa vvibrantt ffeed aand oour tteam hhas pput iin aa llot

of eeffort tto pproduce tthis hhome-ggrown aapp. TThis aapp iis bbeingseenn aas aa mmassive bboost tto IIndian ppatriotism wwith aa mmajor

push oof pprioritising oour ccountryVIDYA NNARAYANAN.

‘JOKER' is UK'smost complainedabout film in 2019

oaquin Phoenixs Oscar-winning star-rer Joker is the most complainedabout film of 2019 in the UnitedKingdom.

This was revealed by BritishBoard of Film Classification

(BBFC). The BBFC report states thatthe DC origin movie received 20 com-plaints relating to the film’s age classi-fication, which is 15, reports digital-spy.com.

Complaints said that the BBFCshould have classified the film assuitable for an 18-rating owing toits “violence and tone”, while somepeople felt it should have beenbanned altogether.

The BBFC feel that the moviedoesn’t “dwell on the infliction ofpain or injury in a manner thatrequires an 18”, despite scenes ofstrong violence, including stabbings,shootings and blood.

While Joker received the most com-plaints in 2019, its total number is farless than the amount of complaints RedSparrow received in 2018.

The Jennifer Lawrence-starrer was BBFC’smost complained-about movie in 2018 with64 complaints. The total number of com-plaints filed to the BBFC dropped by nearlyhalf from 2018 to 2019. There were only 149total complaints filed in 2019.

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight hadreceived a total of 364 complaints back in2008.

Todd Phillips’ Joker tells the story of thepopular DC supervillain of the samename. The film traces the protagonist’searly life as Arthur Fleck (essayed byPhoenix), who is an aspiring stand-upcomedian struggling to make ends meetand constantly derided by society. The filmnarrates how circumstances push Fleck intothe path of crime after he fails to find his wayin Gotham’s fractured society.

Apart from winning Oscars for Best Actor(Phoenix) and Best Original Score (HildurGuonadottir), Joker was a global box-office success. The film’s impact sparkedconversations around mentalhealth. A follow-up to thefilm is also in theworks.

JThe ‘Silver' lining tofighting the pandemic

ilver is a well-documentedanti-microbialthat is known tokill bacteria,germs and virus-

es. It has consistently beenused to restrict the spread ofdisease by incorporating itinto articles used in dailylife and silver utensils.

It is often used for severalmedicinal purposes. A smallamount of silver is used tocoat hospital surfaces andmedical equipment to pre-vent the spread ofpathogens. Silver in surgicalequipment, wound dress-ings and ointments is usedto protect wounds frominfection. Silver sulfadiazineis useful for burn victimsbecause it kills bacteriawhile also allowing the skinto regrow.

Silver ion treatments canheal bone infections andallows for regeneration ofdamaged tissue. Silver ionscan enter into the bacterialcell, both inhibiting cellularrespiration and disruptingmetabolic pathways alongwith the DNA and stopping

its replication cycle.Interestingly, silver ion

particles have the ability todisrupt the cell regenerationprocess which can help usin our fight against coron-avirus, points out RushangShah, Director of GermiGo,a brand which produceshygiene-essential products.The company specialises inthe technology of extractionof micro silver particles todevelop sanitization solu-tions.

Shah says that it is impor-tant to consciously choose asilver-based formulationcombined with alcohol whilebuying sanitization products;this can be 20 times moreeffective than other sanitiz-ers and disinfectants.

S How silver worksas disinfectant?o Silver interrupts bacterial cell

membraneo It inhibits enzymes needed by bacteria

for metabolismo It interrupts DNA strands prevent cell

duplicationo Silver blocks the respiratory system of

the cell and thus kills 99.99 percent ofbacteria and germs.

With the vaccination of Covid-19 still inprogress, there isn't a considerableamount of information for the number ofprecautions once can take. While we haverelied on the age-old methods of buildingimmunity like hot water and 'kadha', wecan also rely on the age-old ingredient,silver, which is backed by scientificresearch for its use to fight viruses andhuman diseases.

Silver ion particleshave the ability todisrupt the cellregenerationprocess which canhelp us in our fightagainst coronavirus

MondayJuly 20, 2020

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

10

Vijayawada Monday July 20 2020

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

what’s brewing?

Stepping out again?Here's some usefulskincare advice

rolonged pandemic andlockdown gave us enoughtime to take care of our skinand stay away from a regu-lar exposure of sun, dustand pollution. Now that

people are beginning to step out,there are chances that our skinbecame more sensitive to theseenvironmental factors.

“Have you noticed more break-outs or dull skin or fine lines orpigmented spots on the skin? Ifso, you most likely have ‘lock-down skin’. The prolonged lock-down and associated stress haveresulted in significant skin dam-age. Now that the unlock phasehas started, UV exposure andexposure to hot winds and envi-ronmental pollutants are going tocause further skin damage. It'slikely that more people will havethe damaging effects of this dou-ble whammy in the form of finelines, wrinkles, pigmentation, dullskin, open pores, and just a verydull-looking skin,” dermatologistDr Sirisha Singh explained toIANSlife in an email.

Adding, Plabita Sharma, TheBody Shop Expert says it’s betterto take extra precautions once westep out of our homes again.

Protect yourself from the UVrays: After spending maximum

time indoors for the last fewmonths, now that we are gradual-ly getting ready to step out to sunexposure again post lockdown, itis important to use full spectrumsunscreen to protect our skinfrom the direct UV rays whichcause sunburn, dark spots anddiscolorations. It would be idealto use a sunscreen of SPF 30 ormore every 2 hours starting from8 am.

Cover Up: Staying indoor madeour skin more sensitive towardsdirect sunlight that too duringsummers. It is claimed that therays are more intense from 10 amto 4 pm. During these hours, tryto avoid going outside. Or, if it’srequired, cover yourself properly.Wear a scarf to cover your faceand neck, glasses to cover youreyes.

Stay Hydrated: Drink at leasttwo liters of water to keep your-self hydrated throughout the day.Drinking enough water can helpyou combat a variety of skinissues and prevents from dehydra-tion; it also helps your digestivesystem to flush out toxins fromthe body. This in turn giveshealthy and glowing skin andhelps you to maintain this gloweven after the lockdown. Usemoisturizer or skincare products

with hyaluronic acid as one of theingredients, use them lavishly. Aspritz of cooling face mist alsohelps

Eat Healthy: Diet is an often -overlooked part of how we adaptto our external environmentsthroughout the seasons. Tryincorporating these skin lovingfoods like Blueberry, Watermelon,Nuts and Seeds, Carrots and Leafygreens, Cauliflower, Green tea toadd a little extra sun protectioninto your diet and protect yourhealthy summer glow.

Exfoliate and Moisturise: Use amild exfoliant regularly tocounter the damage due to pol-lutants (unclog pores blocked bythe pollutants). Ground oat milkcan be easily made at home andworks as a fantastic yet mildexfoliant that can be used 2-3times a week. Moisturize theskin regularly using a replenish-ing and light moisturizer. Oliveoil also works as a great moistur-izer. You can add a few drops ofvitamin C serum to the oil foradded benefit.

If you are into home-basedremedies, use a face pack. You canmake one at home using sandal-wood powder, fullers earth, androse water. This may be used 2-3times a week.

P

hat you eat and whatyou do not eat has asignificant effect onyour overall health.An unhealthy dietcan increase the risk

of diseases by manifolds.Healthy dietary modifica-tions are important toboost immunity and con-trol degenerative diseases.

Sandhya Pandey, ChiefClinical Nutritionist, FortisMemorial ResearchInstitute, Gurugram sharesthe following to ensureadequate nutrition:

Follow a rainbow diet -Make sure that you have 7-8 servings of brightlycoloured fruit and vegeta-bles. These are rich in phy-tochemicals (plant nutri-ents), a potent disease-fighting and immune-boosting nutrient. Themore the different or vari-ety of colors you include inyour diet, the more it willbenefit your health as dif-ferent colours are rich indifferent phytochemicals.Vegetables and fruits arethe best sources of antioxi-dants such as vitamin C,vitamin E, beta-caroteneand selenium.

Flavourful immunity -Boosting spices and foods

like garlic, ginger, turmericnot only add flavour, butalso add a cancer-fightingpunch of valuable nutri-ents. Other good choicesinclude basil, rosemary,and coriander. Use them insoups, salads, casseroles, orany other dish.

Pump up your protein

intake - by having pulses,beans and legumes, leanmeat, eggs, low fat milkand milk products.

Have healthy carbohy-drates - from whole grains,cereals and millets likeoats, barley, ragi etc whichis loaded with fiber andessential nutrients rather

than refined flour andsugar.

Focus on plant foods -Plants have less fat, morefiber, and more cancer-fighting nutrients. These 3elements work together inbest ways to support yourimmune system and ithelps your body to fightcancer.

Increase fiber in diet -Evidence consistently sug-gests that eating plenty offiber can reduce the risk ofdiabetes, heart disease andcancers. Increase fibre indiet by incorporatingwhole grains, pulses andlegumes, fruits and vegeta-bles. Add probiotics likeyogurt and fermented foodin diet - This will boostyour immunity and guthealth.

Cut down on red andprocessed - meat, tinned,canned and preserved foodwhich is loaded with sodi-um and preservatives.These are also low in fibreand high on calories, satu-rated fats and trans fats.

Cut down on saturated -fats and trans fats whileincrease the intake of w-3fatty acid from fatty fish,flax seeds, almonds, wal-nuts etc.

W

Ensure the adequate intake of nutrition

FOLLOW HEALTHYCOOKING PRACTICES:o Do not cook oils on high heat.o Go easy on the barbecue.o Be careful what you put in the microwave.o When cooking vegetables, steam until just

tender using a small amount of water.o Wash all fruits and vegetables

Reduce the intake of alcohol and quit smoking -Consuming alcohol increases the risk ofcancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx,oesophagus, breast and liver. The risk is evenmore for those who smoke. Alcohol has alsobeen associated with colon and rectal cancers.To minimise the risk, men should take less thantwo standard drinks a day, whereas for womenthis limit should be one standard drink a day.

11VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020

DIEDHIOU SSUBJECTED TTO RRACIAL AABUSEBristol: Bristol City striker Famara Diedhiou wassubjected to racial abuse online after missing a penaltyin his side's 1-0 defeat by Swansea City. After the game,the he posted a screenshot of a message with threebanana emojis, which he received from someone onTwitter. Diedhiou commented, “Why??”

LEEDS TTARGETTING CCL RRETURN: KKINNEARLeeds: Leeds United have only reached ‘base camp'after securing promotion to the Premier League and theirvision is to return to the Champions League in thecoming seasons, chief executive Angus Kinnear hassaid. Leeds played European football for five consecutiveseasons between 1998 and 2003 and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2001.

BCCI GGM SSABA KKARIM AASKED TTO LLEAVENew Delhi: Former India wicket-keeper Saba Karim hasbeen asked to resign from the post of BCCI GeneralManager Cricket Operations. The 52-year-old Karim,who played one Test and 34 ODIs for India, wasappointed in Dec 2017. The Board has not issued aformal statement on the matter but it is learnt that it wasnot satisfied with Karim's planning for domestic cricket.

DJOKOVIC RRETURNS TTO TTRAININGBelgrade: World No 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic hasreturned to training after recovering from coronavirus.Boris Bosnjakovic, the head coach at the Novak TennisCentre in Belgrade posted pictures on his Instagramhandle of the Serbian going through the motions,alongwith compatriot Filip Krajinovic.

SINGLES

AFP n LONDON

Mikel Arteta hailedArsenal’s “great chem-istry” as the secret to

their shock 2-0 win overManchester City as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired hisclub to a record 21st FA Cupfinal.

Gunners boss Arteta outwit-ted City manager Pep Guardiolawith an astute counter-attackingscheme and Aubameyang struckin each half as Arsenal executedthe plan to perfection.

Arsenal will face nowChelsea or Manchester United,who meet in the other semi-final,in the final at Wembley onAugust 1.

Arteta captained Arsenal toFA Cup triumph six years agoand, in his first season in chargeof the north London club,the Spaniard has ledthem back to the finalof a competition theylast won in 2017.

“We have greatchemistry, they reallybelieve in what we aretrying to do and you can sensethat. They deserve it,” Arteta said.

“To beat the best you need totake your opportunities andwhen you have to defend youhave to put everybody on theline. I’m extremely happy andproud of our players, but it’s verysad we cannot enjoy thismoment with our fans.”

Just days after beatingPremier League championsLiverpool, Arsenal offered furtherevidence that Arteta could be theman to restore them to the glorydays of the Arsene Wenger era.

Arsenal had lost their previ-ous seven meetings with City,including a 3-0 drubbing in their

first game after the coronavirushiatus. But, thanks to Arteta’smasterstroke, Arsenal handedGuardiola’s side a first Wembley

defeat in their last 10 visits.“We’ve had an incredible

week to beat the best two teamsin Europe. It doesn’t happen

every day,” Arteta said. “I don’tcare who plays, I can trust them.We made changes and everyonewas ready.”

City, unbeaten in their pre-vious 22 domestic cup ties, werewell short of their best andGuardiola had no excuses.

“We didn’t play good. Theonly regret is not to lose the game,that can happen, but it is that wedid not play the first half like weplay the second,” Guardiola saidafter City mustered just one shoton target, their fewest since 2018against Liverpool in theChampions League.

ROPE-AA-DDOPE PPLANArteta knows City well after

his time as Guardiola’s assistantand he set out to exploit theirweakness against counter attacks,using Aubameyang and NicolasPepe to get behind City’s attack-ing full-backs Kyle Walker andBenjamin Mendy.

Aubameyang made thempay in the 19th minute. At the cli-max of an 18-pass move, Pepe’sdeep cross caught Walker dozingand Aubameyang eluded him toslide a fine finish off the far postfrom a tight angle.

It was the kind of incisive,imaginative attack that City usu-ally torment Arsenal with, but foronce it was the men in red cele-brating. The Gabon striker’s24th goal of the season was areminder why Arsenal are sodesperate to get him to sign acontract extension.

Defending deep, Arsenalwere putting their bodies in theway of everything to keep City atbay. Arteta’s rope-a-dope planbrought a rich reward in the 71stminute. City left themselvesopen at the back andAubameyang beat the offsidetrap as he accelerated ontoKieran Tierney’s sublime passbefore slotting under Ederson.

AFP n MILAN

AC Milan continued theirfine form since the return

from lockdown extending theirunbeaten run to eight games,including six wins, with a 5-1success over Bologna to movesixth and into the EuropaLeague places.

Alexis Saelemaekers scoredhis first Milan goal after tenminutes with HakanCalhanoglu adding a secondafter 24 minutes. Japanesedefender TakehiroTomiyasu gave Bolognahope, firing in for justoutside the box for hisfirst Serie A goal justbefore the break.

But Calhanoglu setup Ismael Bennacer for thethird just after the break with

Ante Rebic grabbed thefourth, three minutes beforethe hour mark with DavideCalabria adding a fifth ininjury time. Milan move

three points ahead of Napoliwho host Udinese and within apoint of Roma.

AFP n LONDON

Tottenham put a serious dent in LeicesterCity's Champions League hopes as their

late-season resurgence under Jose Mourinhocontinued, Harry Kane scoring twice in a 3-0 win on Sunday.

Spurs climbed above Wolves into sixthplace in the table as they coasted to a fourthsuccessive home triumph in the PremierLeague, their best run since moving into theTottenham Hotspur Stadium.

After a brace away at Newcastle Unitedon Wednesday, Kane’s clinical finishingepitomised a ruthless performance fromMourinho’s side, who exposed opponents leftshorthanded at the back due to injuries andsuspension.

While the hosts are peaking towards thedelayed conclusion of the 2019-20 campaign,Leicester are in danger of dropping out of thetop four at the wrong time.

The Foxes remain fourth for now ongoal difference but have played a gamemore than nearest rivals ManchesterUnited — their opponents in the finalround of fixtures.

Brendan Rodgers’ depleted teamfell behind in unfortunate circum-stances; Son Heung-min’s right-foot-ed shot was heading wide of the target beforetaking a deflection off James Justin towrong-foot Kasper Schmeichel.

The visitors responded well to the earlysetback but only had themselves to blame forconceding again in the 37th minute, careless-ly caught short of numbers as Spurs coun-tered quickly after dealing with a corner.

Lucas Moura’s throughball allowed Kaneto steer a left-footed shot across the advanc-ing Schmeichel and into the net.

The England striker used his right to addanother before the half-time interval, sub-

limely curling home as Leicester failed toclose down the space once he cut inside toopen up a shooting opportunity.

An offside flag denied Kane a potentialhat-trick but Spurs were able to coastthrough the second half with few con-cerns. In contrast, Rodgers and Leicesterhave plenty to ponder after this chas-tening defeat in the capital.

FOXES FFADING DDOWN TTHE SSTRETCHAn eighth successive away game

without a win leaves Leicester waitingto see where they sit by kick-off timeagainst United, who can climb above themif they avoid defeat to West Ham at OldTrafford in midweek.

Rodgers has been hampered badly by keyabsences down the stretch, while a creakingdefence minus full-back duo Ricardo Pereiraand Ben Chilwell has now conceded sevengoals in their last two road trips. Home com-forts will be most welcome next weekend, butit could well be win or bust at the King PowerStadium.

PTI n NEW DELHI

He has played just one Testagainst India but Australian

swift-riser Marnus Labuschagne isquite confident of “staying a stepahead” of the world-class attackcome December even thoughJasprit Bumrah is “hard to get past”.

A rookie Labuschagne hadplayed one Test against India inSydney during the 2018-19 seriesand the eagerly-awaited four-matchseries in December will be an acidtest for the fast-rising batsman afterhis stellar initiation to longest for-mat of the game. “They are all goodbowlers but it is hard to get pastJasprit Bumrah,” the 26-year-oldsaid from Brisbane.

“He has the ability to consis-tently bowl around 140 kmph andswing the ball when conditions aresuitable. He is also able to angle the

ball back in at the stumps.“You always want to test your-

self against the best. Jasprit isprobably the leader of that attack,”said Labuschagne, who averagesover 63 after 14 Tests with fourhundreds and seven half centuries.

Labuschagne also feels thatIshant Sharma, in the past twoyears, has been phenomenal.

“Ishant has been very goodduring the last couple of years.Coming over here and angling theball back into right handers, thatwould be a good challenge for usalso,” said one of the most talkedabout young players in worldcricket right now.

The second season is alwaystough for any player as the oppo-sition tends to have a better graspof a player’s game and Labuschagneunderstands that.

“In terms of a great first year,

it was an amazing summer andhopefully, I can better that this time.Hopefully, against a side like India,testing yourself against one of thebest bowling attacks in world crick-et at the moment,” he said.

Having played a few ODIsagainst India and a Test match dur-ing the last series, the right-handerfeels he won’t be short of confidenceduring the December-Januaryseries.

“I have played one Test againstIndia in Sydney. I have a bit of expe-rience of facing their attack in thatTest and later when I came to Indiafor white-ball series,” he said.

“Naturally, when you do well,then people start picking yourgame, working on how you play. So,I have to make sure that I under-stand my game well, so whenIndian bowlers come at me, I haveto ensure that I am one step ahead.”

AP n MANCHESTER

Half-centuries by Kraigg Brathwaiteand Shamarh Brooks kept

England at bay in the second cricketTest on Sunday as West Indies went totea on Day 4 on 227-4, still well behindbut on course for the draw that wouldmaintain its series lead.

The tourists were approachingtheir first target of 270 to avoid the fol-low on after England’s first innings of469-9 declared. England, seeking quickwickets to revive its hopes of victoryafter the entire third day was washedout by rain, broke through just threetimes in the day’s first two sessions.

Opener Brathwaite made 75 andplayed a part in half-century standswith Alzarri Joseph, Shai Hope andBrooks before falling caught andbowled to Ben Stokes. But Brooks keptWest Indies’ fight going at Old Traffordwith his 60 not out.

Sam Curran had 2-35 for Englandand his off-cutter to dismiss Hope for25 soon after lunch gave England aglimmer of hope it could take controlof the second session.

It didn’t happen because of theapplication of Brathwaite and Brooks.

England is left needing another 16wickets in less than two days — four

sessions — to win, and will likely alsohave to bat again.

The home team’s only break-through of the morning came whenspinner Dom Bess had success with hissecond ball to remove Joseph for 32.

West Indies, which resumed on 32-1 in its first innings, moved steadilycloser to 270 though, and England’shopes of leveling the three-matchseries were slipping away.

West Indies was still 242 runs

behind but its focus was snuffing outEngland’s chances of winning.

England made 469-9 after 120from opener Dom Sibley and 176from Stokes, and had control of thetest. England also struck early in theWest Indies reply when Curran dis-missed opener John Campbell to havethe West Indians under pressure lateon Friday.

But the weather on Saturday setEngland back and the West Indies bat-ting was solid on Sunday.

Joseph was caught one-handed atshort leg by Ollie Pope off Bess for thatfirst wicket before lunch. Currantempted Hope outside off-stump andproduced an edge behind to wicket-keeper Jos Buttler.

England tried the short-ball tacticafter lunch and Stokes finally had somereward when Brathwaite went to flickone away to the legside and sent a lead-ing edge back to the bowler.

Brooks hit 10 fours and wentquickly to his half-century, making sureWest Indies responded to the pressurebeing applied by the England bowlers.

Alava: Lionel Messi ran the show as dethronedLa Liga champions Barcelona took out their frus-trations on Deportivo Alaves, winning 5-0 at theMendizorroza.

Title winners in Spain for each of the past twoyears, Barcelona surrendered their crown to RealMadrid this season and there might be falloutfrom that setback still to come.

At Alaves, however, it was a case of Barcelonashowing they remain the most watchable team inSpain when they find their rhythm, a double fromMessi and further goals from Ansu Fati, LuisSuarez and Nelson Semedo doing the damage.

Barcelona had already hit the Alaves goalframe three times, through Riqui Puig, Arturo

Vidal and Messi, before they took a24th-minute lead through Fati.

Messi was the creator, with hiscross from the right having the stingslightly taken out of it by a minordeflection before dropping perfect-

ly for Fati to crack into the bottom-right corner.

The second goal in the 34thminute came when Barcelona burst atpace and located their talisman in the

centre of the penalty area.Puig dutifully laid the

ball into Messi’s path fromthe left, and after shim-

mying delightfully todeceive goalkeeperRoberto Jimenez, theArgentinian stroked

the ball home fromclose range.

Vidal had a headerwell saved by Roberto

from Messi’s terrific cross,before Suarez made it 3-0 inthe 44th minute, noddinghome after great link-upplay from Messi and JordiAlba.

Semedo replaced theinjured Clement Lengletearly in the second half andleft his defensive station tosurge into the Alaves boxand smash home a fourthgoal in the 57th minute.

Messi — who else? —guided home a cross fromAlba in the 75th minute,

and suddenly Barca wereall smiles. Agencies

FA CUPSETAubameyang stars with brace as Arteta’s Arsenaloutwits holders Man City to reach 21st final

Leicester slip up again in race forChampions League place

Arsenal players celebrate after captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opens scoring against Manchester City Arsenal/Twitter

Zlatan Ibrahimovic in action for Milan AP

West Indies' Roston Chase, second left, takes a run after playing a shot on Day 4 of 2nd Test AP

Tottenham's Harry Kane celebrates with Son Heung-minafter scoring his side's second goal against Leicester AP

Kane on

Bumrah is hard to get past: Labuschagne Milan hit 5 past Bologna Messi breaks LaLiga assist record

Windies keep Poms at bayMarnus Labuschagne in nets session AP

The average person will typically have more than 6,000thoughts in a single day, new research into the human brain

suggests. The statistic comes from a team of psychology expertsat Queen's University in Canada, who say they have developed anever-before-seen way to detect when one thought ends andanother begins, as described in a paper published in NatureCommunications. The academic project-which was led by JordanPoppenk, from the Department of Psychology, and Mastersstudent Julie Tseng-outlines a method ofisolating specificmoments when ahuman is focused on asingle idea, aphenomenon theresearchers describedas a "thought worm."The researchers said thestudy shows howmeasuring thoughts can predict a person's personality,estimating the average human will have about 6,200 thoughtsper day. "Thought worms are adjacent points in a simplifiedrepresentation of activity patterns in the brain," Poppenk, who isan expert in the field of cognitive neuroscience, said in astatement.The findings build on existing cognitive neuroscienceresearch that dates back over a decade, providing new insightsinto the flow of thoughts.

Swarm of flying antsmistaken for rain cloud!

Moon is about 85 mn yrsyounger than thoughtAnew study now suggests that Earth's satellite is about 85

million years younger than earlier. According to a report inScience Alert, researchers say lunar rock samples collected on theApollo missions are not old enough to verify the normallyaccepted thought that the Moon is 4.51 billion years old. As perthe report, the commonly accepted hypothesis is that the Moonwas formed from the debris of a collision between the Earth and asmaller planet called Theia. The collision led to the spewing out ofmolten rock thateventually cooled downand solidified into onewhole body that beganorbiting the Earth. Thismeans that the rock thatmakes up the Mooncame from Earth andcan be used to date it.Now study nowsuggests that the Moonwas created when the Earth was almost fully formed. Space.Comreported that researchers at the German Aerospace Center foundout that, not only did the moon once have a massive, fierymagma ocean, but our rocky satellite also formed later thanscientists previously expected. According to new research, themoon's birth has been pegged at only 4.425 billion years ago. Theresearch team used mathematical models to calculate thecomposition of the moon over time.

Satellite imagery of a 50-mile (80 km) wide swarm of flyingants, hovering over parts of England, was briefly mistaken

for rain clouds by the UK Met Office's weather radar on Friday.Taking to Twitter, the weather department shared a video inwhich a giant cloud of ants appears to be entering thesoutheast part of the country. Alarmed by the suddenappearance of rain clouds despite otherwise dry and sunnyweather, the forecasters inspected the particles in the satelliteimages andfound that theycloselyresembled bugsas they werelonger and widerthan raindrops,CNN reported.Many UKresidents soonbegan postingabout the sudden appearance of thousands of flying antsacross parts of London, Kent and Sussex as well as theeastern part of the country. "It's not raining in London, Kent orSussex, but our radar says otherwise," the UK's Met officetweeted. A spokesperson for the national weather agency toldthe Guardian, "It's not unusual for larger swarms to be pickedup." During the summer months thousands of flying ants areknown to take to the skies in the UK.

Rhino sleeps on road,people pass by quietly

Average person has 6Kthoughts per dayNEW

S

MostRead In a heart-warming gesture, forest officials were seen rescuing a

troubled rhinoceros who apparently ventured out of the jungle inAssam's flood-hit Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. Asseen in a video, the forest officials are guarding the rhino who wasfound sleeping on the road. The passerbies too, didn't disturb himand drive off their vehicles slowly. "A rhino have strayed out nearBandar Dhubi area at Bagori Range yesterday and taking rest nearNH37. The DRIVE OUT operation is being carried out to guide therhino to park. Our staffsalong with@nagaonpolice areguarding the area. DriveSlow," KazirangaNational park tweetedfrom its official twitterhandle with a video.Many heart-warmingstories of peoplerescuing animals haveemerged from the flood-hit Kaziranga region. On Wednesday,Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve tweeted a video thatshowed a female one-horned baby rhino being brought in a boatto a rescue centre as villagers cheer and pat it. It was reported thatbaby rhinoceros that was separated from its mother due to thefloods. Large swathes of land have been submerged in 25 ofAssam's 33 districts, with the flood affecting 34 lakh people.Seventy-nine people have died in the floods.

12

Vijayawada Monday July 20 2020tollywood

he team of Oh MyKadavule Telugu remakecouldn’t have got a betterwelcome to the Teluguindustry, as Mahesh Babutook to Twitter to reveal

the fun he had watching it.“#OhMyKadavule... Enjoyed every bitof it... Superb performances, brilliant-ly written and directed@Dir_Ashwath @AshokSelvan you’rea natural (sic),” posted the superstar

on Sunday.Producer PVP is remaking the

Tamil hit in Telugu, with Vishwak Senattached to reprise the role played byAshok Selvan. Original Tamil directorAshwath Marimuthu, who sometimeback confirmed that he is writing theTelugu version, is more or less con-firmed to direct it as well, markinghis Telugu debut.

Replying to Mahesh’s tweet,Ashwath wrote, “Sirrr !!!!! Oh my god

!! U made my day :) from being yourfan to get such words from you is like... mind blocked sir (sic).”

A fantasy comedy, Oh MyKadavule, which starred AshokSelvan, Ritika Singh, Vani Bhojan,Sha Ra, and Vijay Sethupathi, in anextended cameo, centered on thestory of a young man who marries hisbest friend. When his life gets com-plicated, he receives a ‘golden ticket’that facilitates him to rewrite his fate.

TOh My Kadavule floors Mahesh

or the past coupleof days speculationswere rife thatprominent film-maker VikramKumar is planning

a horror web series with NagaChaitanya, thus marking hisOTT plunge. Sharrath Marar’sname was attached as the pro-ducer. While not ruling out thepossibility of doing a web seriescompletely, Vikram tells usexclusively, “I’m not doing aseries right now, as my firstpreference is my feature filmwith Chay (Naga Chaitanya).COVID-19 outbreak is reallyan unfortunate thing that hap-pened and I just want it to dis-appear so that all of us can geton with our lives.”

Vikram is excited about thefeature with Chay, tentativelytitled Thank You. “It’s a storythat needs to be told now. Itwould resonate with the audi-ence at various levels. That saidit’s not a message-oriented filmbut has an undercurrent ofsomething which is wonderful.It got me connected to thestory in the first place. It hasgot all mainstream elements —humour, drama, romance anda little bit of action,” he pointsout.

It’s also the first time in hisnear 20-year career thatVikram will be directing astory, which he hasn’t written.Writer-director BVS Ravi haspenned the story of Thank You.“It boiled down to the connec-tion I had with the story. I’mco-writing it with Ravi now, toturn it into a full-fledged script.We will initiate the casting afterthe script is locked,” heinforms, adding that he isthrilled to team up with Chayafter Manam. “We’ve beentalking about a project for awhile and I’m glad that we’vefinally found a narrative eagerto tell.”

Known for his fresh ideaswithin the commercial ambit,Vikram believes OTT will co-exist with cinema. “OTT is thefuture. It just so happened thatthe pandemic has enhanced itsvalue. With people cooped upat home due to lockdowns,OTT provided the neededentertainment for them. It gotbigger in the last three monthsand will only get bigger in thecoming years and I have nodoubts over it. There will becontent that is OTT-friendly,so will be the content that istheatre-friendly. Each narrativewill find its space. The narra-

tives that will flourish in theOTT will be written more.OTT and cinema halls co-existfor sure but the former is goingto be the future,” he predicts.

It is the reason why Vikramis “very much interested inOTT platforms”. “I will try toget my foothold in it as soonpossible. Being a writer-direc-tor, these are exciting timespurely because of the creativefreedom the OTT space offers,”he asserts.

So, what would be the genrehe would like to make hisdebut with, we ask. “Primarily,content on OTT seems to be oftwo extremes — either it is thethriller and horror which a lotof people are watching or theother extreme which is feel-good drama. Because of thepandemic, everybody wants towatch something light. I’vedabbled in all these genres as afeature filmmaker and it will beeither one of these extremes,”he signs off.

IT'S A STORY THATNEEDS TO BE TOLD NOW:VIKRAM ON THANK YOU

Thank you isnot a message-oriented film

but has anundercurrentof something

which iswonderful. It

has got allmainstreamelements -

humour,drama,

romance and a little bit ofaction, findsNAGARAJ

GOUDF

he Pioneer was thefirst to inform youthat leadingBollywood actressDeepika Padukone(on June 1) was

considering doingPrabhas’ next with NagAshwin after she sharedan Instagram storywhere she asked herfans to watch the direc-tor’s acclaimed titleMahanati. On Sunday,production houseVyjayanthi Movies,which is celebrating 50years of being in theshowbiz, confirmed hercasting in the film, send-ing the fans of bothDeepika and Prabhas intoa state of euphoria. Thestill-untitled film, to bemade on a mammothbudget, will mark herTelugu debut.

Ashwin said, “I'm veryexcited to see Deepikaplay this character. It issomething no main-stream lead has donebefore and will be quite asurprise for everyone.The pairing of Deepika

and Prabhas

willbe oneof the mainhighlights of thefilm and the storybetween them; I believewill be something audi-ences will carry in theirhearts for years to come.”

Tagging the principalteam of Vyjayanthiincluding Prabhas whoisn’t on Twitter, Deepikaposted, “Beyond Thrilled!

Cannot wait for whatwe believe is

going tobe anincred-ible

journeyahead.”

Later in theevening, she expressedher displeasure when aninternational website,Variety referred to thefilm as Prabhas21. “Hey@Variety... Thank you forreporting.However, a)Thefilm is not titled#Prabhas21.It only hap-pens to be Prabhas’s 21stfilm. b)It is a trilingualfilm:Hindi,Tamil &Telugu Kindly make note.Thank You... (Sic),” shewrote.

Aswini Dutt, producerand founder ofVyjayanthi Movies said,"This film is a goldenopportunity for us to

cement our place inthe annals of Indiancinema history. It isalso an incredibleopportunity to enthrallthe Indian audienceslike never before,

through the comingtogether of suchextraordinary cin-ematic talents.”A sci-fi drama,

which is a first ofsorts for bothAshwin and

Prabhas, the filmwill roll nextyear. MMKeeravani istipped to be themusic director.

T

Deepika is ‘beyond

thrilled' to be a part

of Nag Ashwin's next

ilmmakerGopiGanesh isdelightedwith megas-tar

Chiranjeevi laudinghis film Bluff Master. A ‘viral’ scene from thefilm drove the latter towatch it at his hometheatre, Hyderabad.Impressed by it bigtime, he immediatelyasked his team toreach out to Gopi tocongratulate him face-to-face. “I was inKakinada to registermy farm land when Igot a call from theMegastar’s team. The

next day I drove toRajahmundry, parkedmy car at the airportand took a flight toHyderabad. Duringthe lockdown, manyscenes from the filmhave gone viral andsome people took theeffort to reach out tome and congratulateme personally butnever did I imaginethe Megastar watchingit. Thanks to corona,the boss watched myfilm,” Gopi tells us ani-matedly.

The conversationbetween the directorand the screen legendlasted for an hour.

"When he reeled outsome dialogues of thefilm in front of me, Ifelt, ‘this is enough forme in this life’. Helauded that I preferredsituational dialogues topunch-filled ones. Hecomplimented, sayingthat I’ve made a usefulfilm for the society.For someone to appre-ciate the film morethan 18 months afterits release speaks abouthis big heart and hisconcern to encouragenew talent. I was liter-ally walking in the airlast Friday,” Gopismiles.

— NG

Gopi Ganesh on cloudnine with Chiru's praise

F