New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Opposition parties on Friday, saying they are “lying” to farmers. He also claimed that the NDA Government is doing what “they” themselves prom-ised in their manifestos, refer-ring to the Congress.

The Prime Minister said the Bills were “necessary” to safe-guard the farmers from middle-men. He was speaking after inaugurating the Kosi mega bridge. “Farmers are now given new independence in agricul-ture. Now, they will have more options and opportunities to sell their produce. It was nec-essary to bring these Bills to

protect them from middlemen. These are farmers’ shields,” said the Prime Minister said in a vir-tual message after inaugurating the Kosi mega bridge.

In an apparent dig at the Con-gress party, he said that those

who ruled India for decades are now “lying” to farmers. He also said that those who are object-ing about the Bill promised to remove the contentious APMC Act in their election manifestos.

He also cited an example of

how Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had got rid of the same Act.

He promised that the gov-ernment will continue to buy farmers’ produce. Modi also as-serted that the claim that MSP benefit will no longer be given is “fiction”. “This is a blatant lie, wrong, a betrayal with our farm-ers,” remarked PM Modi.

He added, “Our govern-ment is committed to provide the right price to our farmers through MSP. We were [com-mitted] before, we are today and we will continue to remain in future,” announced an assertive Prime Minister.

This assertive clarification by the Prime Minister comes

just a day after the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the union cabinet protesting against the farm-related Bills. The Modi government brought three major Bills related to the agricultural sector while the Op-position protested their intro-duction. The first Bill is the Es-sential Commodities Act while the second one is on Farm Pro-duced and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) which allows everyone to buy and sell agri-cultural products. The third bill is on Farmer (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Ser-vices which legitimates contract based farming.

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Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

PUNJAB FARMER TRIES TO COM-MIT SUICIDE OVER

FARM BILLSP-5 P-11P-9

PAK HIGH COMMISSION IN LONDON RECEIVES WARRANTS

FOR SHARIF

IMPORTANT FOR PLAYER REPLACING MALINGA

TO NOT BE UNDER ANY PRESSURE: ROHIT

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) With a mas-sive spike of 96,424 new cases and 1,172 deaths in the last 24 hours, India’s Cov-id-19 tally on Friday crossed the 52-lakh mark. Out of the total 52,14,677 cases, 10,17,754 are active while 41,12,551 have recovered from the deadly virus and 84,372 succumbed to the disease, the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed. Maharash-

tra remains the worst hit state followed by Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. According to the data released by the MoHFW, the fatality rate has reached to 1.63 per cent while the recovery rate is at 78.64 per cent. As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 6,15,72,343 samples were tested up to September 17 of which 10,06,615 were tested in the past 24 hours.

OVER 96K COVID CASES IN 24 HOURS

Blatant lie: PM Modi tears into opposition on Farm Bills

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha on Friday passed two Bills -- the Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Homoeopathy Central Coun-cil (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Replying during the dis-cussion on the Bills, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, “The Ordinance was neces-sitated as Parliament was not in session.” The Minister said that Yoga and Naturopa-thy will also be promoted in due course, as demanded by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha. During the discus-

sion, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Prasanna Acharya supported the Bill, but questioned the need for the ordinance. He said only in extraordinary sit-uations the ordinance route should be adopted.

Speaking on the Bill, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said that new things are always opposed first, but during co-vid times homeopathy medi-cine was prescribed as an im-munity booster.

Samajwadi Party (SP) member Ram Gopal Yadav asked the government not to delay the constitution of the

commission as homoeopathy is a necessity for the poor as allopathy is costly and in co-vid times private hospitals are charging more than Rs one lakh per day. The DMK MP T. Siva said, “The government is taking away the powers of the states”, and alleged that its di-luting the federalism.

The Bill brought by the Centre amends the Homoe-opathy Central Council Act, 1973. After becoming an Act, the Central Council of Homoeopathy will regulate homeopathic education and practice.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) To accelerate the inflow of invest-ments, and employment genera-tion, the Centre has enhanced the FDI limit for the defence sector by allowing up to 74 per cent capital via automatic route. Government approval will be required for in-take of foreign capital beyond 74 per cent with a stipulation that the foreign capital “is likely to result in access to modern technology or for other reasons to be record-ed”. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the deci-sion will take effect from the date of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Man-agement Act) notification.

“FDI up to 74 per cent under

automatic route shall be permit-ted for companies seeking new industrial licenses,” DPIIT said in a press note.

“Infusion of fresh foreign in-vestment up to 49 per cent, in a company not seeking industrial license or which already has gov-ernment approval for FDI in De-fence, shall require mandatory submission of a declaration with the Ministry of Defence in case change in equity or sharehold-

ing pattern or transfer of stake by existing investor to new foreign investor for FDI up to 49 per cent within 30 days of such change.” “Proposals for raising FDI beyond 49 per cent from such companies will require government approv-al.” The development assumes significance as the Centre is try-ing to boost the domestic defence sector manufacturing. At present, India is considered to be one of the largest weapons importers in the world. In a tweet, Minis-ter of Railways and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said the move will allow for enhanced ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and con-tribute to the growth of invest-ment, income and employment.

Rajya Sabha passes Homoeopathy Bills

President accepts Harsimrat Kaur’s

resignation

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted Har-simrat Kaur Badal’s resignation as Minister of Food Processing Industries and Narendra Singh Tomar has been assigned the additional charge of her ministry, according to a press release. “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Union Council of Min-isters, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitu-tion,” said a communique issued on Friday. Badal tendered her resignation from the Union Cabinet on Thurs-day in protest of new legislation that sought to liberalise the agricultural markets. “I have resigned from Union Cabinet in protest against anti-farmer ordinances and legislation. Proud to stand with farmers as their daughter and sister,” she had tweeted.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Opposition and the Treasury benches unani-mously supported the sal-ary cut for MPs, even as the opposition MPs demanded restoration of the MPLAD funds. The House extended its proceedings for 17 min-utes for passing the Bill on Friday.Intervening in the debate Leader of Opposi-tion Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “70 per cent members rely on the salary, but I am happy that members have accepted the salary cut.”

He, however, demand-ed that the MPLAD fund should be restored to ex-ecute small development projects. Replying to the debate, Parliamentary Af-fairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said, “The MPs should be the role model and its not about the amount.” There was a heated debate when Pralhad Joshi raised the is-sue of funds given to the private foundations without naming the Rajiv Gandhi

foundation, leading to an uproar by the Congress.

All the parties, except the ruling party, demanded res-toration of the MPLAD fund and stopping of the Central Vista project in Delhi. The minister said the scrapping of the funds is a temporary measure. The Lok Sabha had on Tuesday passed a Bill which has provisions to suspend the MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds for two years and for a 30 per cent deduction in the

salaries of all lawmakers. The money, thus saved, can go to the Consolidated Fund of India to fight the Cov-id-19 pandemic. The Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed on the second day of the Monsoon Session de-spite objections by opposi-tion MPs. Parliamentary Af-fairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved the Bill to replace an ordinance issued by the government.

RS okays salary cut for MPs amid demand for MPLAD funds’ restoration

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) At a time when Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi was going all out against the opposi-tion for what he called ‘false-hood’ spread by it over their resistance to three farm bills, BJP President JP Nadda, too, staunchly defended the leg-islations. Interestingly, both deviated from their original topic - the PM was virtually inaugurating the Kosi mega bridge project and Nadda was launching a special edition

of ‘Kamal Sandesh’ maga-zine. “First, peasants were in slavery. Prime Minister Modi gave a call to liberate farm-ers. This Bill gives them the freedom to chose whether the

farmer sells his crop in mandi or sells it in any corner of the country,” said Nadda. He re-iterated that both systems of selling agricultural produce under the Agriculture pro-

duce market committee and the MSP from the Centre will continue to exist. In a strong charge, Nadda alleged that those who stand with middle-men are objecting to these bills. “Those opposing it are speaking the language of mid-dlemen and not of farmers,” he remarked. “The Congress party had said in its manifesto that we will bring the farmers out from APMC, the Essential Commodities Act has rusted, we will change it.

Nadda: Those opposing farm bills speaking middlemen’s language

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) To garner international community’s attention over the Jammu and Kashmir issue ahead of the 75th session general debate in the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Pakistan has planned an online anti-India and free Kashmir

propaganda campaign on social media platforms from Saturday, an intelligence source said. “Pakistan has conspired and executed a Twitter campaign through-out the world with the hashtag #KashmirWants-Freedom on September 19, 2020,” said the source. The

source said that the “propa-ganda seems to be targeting present Indian govern-ment” ahead of 75th session general debate of the UN General Assembly and it is based on “completely baseless and fictitious argu-ments”. The Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intel-

ligence will be executing the online anti-India campaign from Saturday. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will address the 75th session of the UN General Assembly on September 25. A day later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the session.

Army inquiry report for disciplinary action

in Shopian caseSrinagar, Sep 18 (IANS) An internal inquiry or-

dered by the Army into the encounter killing of three persons in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir in July has held that the concerned secu-rity personnel had exceeded their powers under the AFSPA and recommended disciplinary pro-ceedings. Imtiyaz Ahmad, Abrar Ahmad, and Mo-hammad Ibrar from Rajouri district were killed by security forces during an operation in Amshipora village on July 18, 2020. While the security forces claimed that the three were terrorists from whom firearms and ammunition was recovered after the encounter, their relatives said that they had come to Shopian district to work as labourers and had nothing to do with militancy. Police had lodged a complaint on behalf of the relatives and collected samples for DNA matching with the slain persons. Even as the DNA reports are yet to come, the Ar-my’s internal inquiry.

MAKE IN INDIA: CENTRE ENHANCES APPROVAL FREE LIMITS FOR FDI IN DEFENCE

96,424 NEW CASES AND 1,172 DEATHS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS

Pak starts anti-India campaign over Kashmir ahead of UNGA debate

CITY Indian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 20202

Former cops slam Julio Ribeiro for backing anti-India sentimentNew Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS)

Former police officers have slammed former top cop Julio Francis Ribeiro for supporting anti-India sentiment and com-munal narrative in

the Delhi riots case.“We, the former Police Of-

ficers, having devoted our lifetimes to serve in different capacities all over India, are surprised at the conduct of a few fellow Ex-Police Officers led by Julio Francis Ribeiro IPS (Retd) of Maharashtra Cadre,” the former officers said in a statement to the media on Fri-day.

They slammed Ribeiro, who coined the famous phrase ‘Bul-

let for a Bullet’ while working on deputation in the militancy ridden Punjab, should not have supported such kind of anti-In-dia expression and communal narrative.

“He and his associates who have come out to support peo-ple like Umar Khalid, very well

know that there is a due pro-cess of law, and there is no one above the law,” they added.

The former officers are of the view that the Delhi Police has every right and duty to inves-tigate the role of any such per-son, and custodial investiga-tion is a part of due process of law. The accused has his rights under the law to seek anticipa-tory bail or regular bail, as the case may be, and the right to a fair trial where he can prove himself innocent.

They have attacked the ten-dency of former cops to be-come presiding officers of the courts to pronounce a judge-ment.

“A section of former police officers cannot usurp for them-selves the office of Presiding Officers of the Courts to de-clare anyone innocent and try to put the police force in bad light,” the statement said.

There is also unrest over the current officers being attacked. “These officers have no right to suspect or question the in-tegrity and professionalism of their successors in the Indian Police Service, and in turn de-moralise them. Such posturing and adverse commentary by such officers may demotivate the police officers and dilute their firm resolve to act against the criminals.

Anurag regrets Nehru remarks as LS sees 4 adjournments

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) After the Lok Sabha witnessed four adjournments on Friday due to a ruckus over his remarks pertaining to the PM National Relief Fund set up by indepen-dent India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Union Min-ister of State Anurag Thakur expressed regrets in the House.

The Minister of State for Fi-nance and Corporate Affairs expressed regret over his state-ment made while speaking during the introduction of the Taxation and Other Laws (Re-laxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020.

As the opposition members led by the Congress objected to his remarks against Nehru and Congress President Sonia Gan-dhi, the House saw four back-to-back adjournments.

“During the introduction of taxation and other laws, it was not my aim to hurt any-one while putting information (before the House). If anyone got hurt, I also feel the pain on

that statement,” Thakur said when the House reassembled at 6 p.m. following the four ad-journments.

Thakur’s statement came after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla discussed the issue with the treasury benches and op-position leaders in his chamber in the wake of protests by op-position members. Birla later asked the Minister in the House to speak on his remarks so that the proceedings of the session could be regularised.

Congress leader Adhir Ran-jan Chowdhury said his party was hurt by Thakur’s statement against his party leaders and said his MPs will be happy if the treasury benches did not repeat such things in future.

“You made us feel very hurt. The government’s duty is to do work for the welfare of the country while the opposition’s duty is to help the government. Parliament is for both. We will all run this session together. It is the responsibility of both the

treasury and opposition bench-es,” Chowdhury said.

Speaking on the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provi-sions) Bill, 2020, Thakur raised questions on Nehru’s trust which he claimed is not yet registered even though it was set up in 1948 on the then PM’s orders.

“In 1948, then Prime Minister Nehru ordered the PM National Relief Fund. Since then, there has been no registration of that fund. How did that fund get the Foreign Contribution (Regula-tion) Act nod is not known? The

trust is not registered. How did you (Congress) give that trust FCRA clearance?” Thakur said earlier.His remarks came as the Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Finance Min-ister Nirmala Sitharaman, has provisions about Prime Min-ister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund on which the opposition has raised question on several occasions after it was set up to undertake and sup-port relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency during the Covid-19 pandemic.

HC refuses plea seeking clarification on extending interim orders

Doctors at KIMS Hospitals, Hyderabad, perform India’s first double lung transplant on a Covid-19+ve patient

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to entertain an application seeking clari-fication on the full bench’s earlier order extending all in-terim orders, including bails and paroles, passed by it.

A three judge Bench of the high court presided by Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh declined to hear the petition filed by a person who was released from the prison after 10 years. In the petition, he had alleged that due to some lack of clarification in the court’s order, the police was alleged-ly forcing him to surrender.

Appearing for the Delhi

Police, Delhi government senior standing counsel Ra-hul Mehra argued, “Why are they making a background, if they want to seek clarifica-tion they can come to court honestly, why are they saying that the police is asking them to surrender.”

After hearing the argu-ments of Mehra and senior Advocate Vivek Sood, ap-pearing for the petitioner, the bench asked the peti-tioner if he wished to with-draw the petition, to which the counsel agreed.

Following which the court dismissed the said applica-tion as withdrawn and said, “After canvassing some argu-ments and after hearing Mr

Rahul Mehra, Lead counsel for the Government of NCT of Delhi, the counsel for the petitioner seeks to withdraw the petition, the permission so is granted....The petition is thereby dismissed as with-drawn.”

On August 24, the three judge Bench of the high court extended all the in-terim orders passed by it and its subordinate courts till October 31 in both the criminal and civil matters pending before it. “We will extend it till end of October,” the three-judge bench of the high court headed by the Chief Justice said.

The said interim orders include the interim bail, pa-role, etc. While hearing in the matter was underway, Chief Justice D. N. Patel said, “We will be slowly starting the physical hearing with the consent of all.”

The said orders were passed keeping in view the outbreak of the deadly Co-vid-19 pandemic.

New Delhi/Beijing, Sep 18 (IANS) Justifying its intern-ment camps for Uyghur Mus-lims, the Chinese Communist Party regime has admitted that it has subjected, on an average around 1.3 million people to re-education since 2014.

The Xi Jinping government is-sued a ‘white paper’ titled ‘Em-ployment and Labour Rights in Xinjiang’ published by its State Council Information Office.

Though the paper used eu-phemisms like “vocational training centers” for concen-tration camps and “education and employment training” for coercive mind rewiring prac-tices and human rights abuse, it blamed Islamist radicalism for its policies. The CCP regime ar-gued that concentration camps

for Uyghurs were necessary because Muslim extremists in Xinjiang believe that their re-ligion is superior to the laws of the state.

“For historical and a range of natural reasons, Xinjiang has long lagged behind other parts of the country in development, and there is a large impover-ished population. The four pre-fectures in southern Xinjiang, namely, Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu and Kizilsu Kirgiz, in particular have a poor eco-environment, weak economic foundations, and a serious shortfall in em-ployment carrying capacity. They are identified as areas of extreme poverty,” the govern-ment paper said while contex-tualizing the need for concen-tration camps.

“In addition, terrorists, sepa-ratists and religious extremists have long preached that ‘the afterlife is fated’ and that ‘reli-gious teachings are superior to state laws’, inciting the public to resist learning the standard spo-ken and written Chinese lan-guage, reject modern science, and refuse to improve their vo-cational skills, economic condi-tions, and the ability to better their own lives.”

“As a result, some local peo-ple have outdated ideas; they suffer from poor education and employability, low employment rates and incomes, and have fallen into long-term poverty. Through vocational training, Xinjiang has built a large knowl-edge-based, skilled and innova-tive workforce that meets the re-

quirements of the new era,” the CCP said in its paper.

The CCP admitted that every year from 2014 to 2019 Xinjiang “provided training sessions” to an average of 1.29 million ur-ban and rural workers, of which 4,51,400 were in southern Xin-jiang. “The trainees mastered at least one skill with employ-ment potential, and the vast majority of them obtained voca-tional qualifications, skill level certificates, or specialized skill certificates, allowing them to go on to find stable employment,” the government claimed. From 2014 to 2019, the total number of people employed in Xinjiang rose from 11.35 million to 13.3 million, an increase of 17.2 per cent, the paper said adding that the average annual increase.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached three ho-tels in Delhi valued at Rs 100 crore in the PMC Bank fraud case.

An ED official said that the three hotels are Hotel Con-clave Boutique, now known as FAB HOTELS in Kailash Colony; Hotel Conclave Comfort, now known as FAB HOTELS in East of Kailash; and Hotel Conclave Execu-tive, now known as FAB HO-TELS in Kalkaji.

The hotels are owned by promoters of Libra Realtors Pvt Ltd, Deewan Realtors Pvt Ltd and Libra Hotels Pvt Ltd.

The official said that Rs 247 crore was obtained fraudu-lently by Libra Realtors Pvt Ltd and Deewan Realtors Pvt Ltd from the PMC Bank in the guise of loans. “These loans are part of the Rs 6,117 crore owed by HDIL Group of Companies to PMC Bank,” the official said.

The ED registered a case of money laundering against

Housing Development Infra-structures Ltd (HDIL), Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, his son Sarang Wadhawan, Wary-am Singh and Joy Thomas, Chairman and Managing Di-rector of PMC Bank Ltd, and others on the basis of an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police in September last year. The FIR was registered for causing wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 4,355 crore to PMC Bank and corresponding gain to themselves.

Earlier, the ED attached the properties of Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and the Wadha-wan family trust to the tune of Rs 193 crore and seized jewellery worth Rs 63 crore. The ED has also filed a charge sheet against Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and others.

Delhi,18,Sept,: Doctors at the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), one of India’s leading healthcare providers, have successfully performed India’s first-ever double lung transplant surgery on a Covid-19+ve patient, who was dis-charged from the hospital on Friday. The procedure was per-formed at the main branch of the hospital located at Hyder-abad, and was led by Dr. Sand-eep Attawar, who is considered a pioneer in heart and lung trans-plant surgeries in India.

The patient, a Rizwan (Monu) 32-year-old man from Chandi-garh, Punjab, was suffering from sarcoidosis that affected his

lungs significantly, leading to fibrosis of the lungs. Condition of the patient deteriorated rap-idly. A double lung transplant was the only permanent option for cure. The situation worsened when the patient contracted coronavirus while awaiting for his double lung transplant. This worsened matters as it increased his oxygen requirement from 15 liters/minute to 50 liters/min for the past 8 weeks.

Commenting on the pro-cedure, Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Thoracic Organ Transplantation Surgeon, KIMS Heart & Lung Transplant Institute, KIMS Hos-pitals said, “The patient was a severe case of lung sarcoidosis,

and Covid-19 virus only com-plicated the precarious lung condition. Fortunately, amatch to his lungs was found in a per-son declared braindead in Kol-kata, and the harvested lungs were airlifted to Hyderabad to save the life of the patient. The procedure was complex and had little scope for errors; and only a timely transplant of lungs helped save the patient. What is more important is that good outcomes are difficult to achieve as these patients are extremely sick, under nourished and bed ridden befaore the transplant. Post discharge, he will need close monitoring, bio bubble environment & careful drug

control for 6 weeks at leastDr. Sandeep Attawar, is the

most experienced heart and lung transplant surgeons in the country. A veteran in the field of transplant surgeries with over 24-years’ experience, Dr.Attawar has to date performed over 12,000 heart surgeries, and has over 250 transplant surgeries for lungs, heart, and artificial heart implants (LVAD) to his credit.

The prevailing scenario around the world in general and India is compelling patients to stay indoors for a prolonged pe-riod. While people are ignoring/neglecting certain ailments and not seeking medical care at the right time.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has tested positive for COVID-19 after giving an elaborate speech on Maharashtra’s han-dling of the pandemic on Wednesday, and TMC MP Derek O Brien has raised a red flag.

“He made a 15 min speech in Parliament sitting in the Treasury benches. He would have also spent time in RS lobby & Central Hall. I ap-peal to all RS colleagues who came into contact with him or were sitting near him, Please Isolate,” O’Brien re-

marked by taking to Twitter.Sahasrabuddhe said that

after having a headache and mild fever, he got examined following which he tested positive for Covid-19. Inter-estingly, he tested negative before attending the mon-soon session of Parliament.

On September 16, Sahas-rabuddhe hit back hard at the Congress over its alle-gations of a ‘sudden lock-down’. He said that the Chief Ministers of the States were consulted many times during the decision-making process.

“None of the Chief Min-isters in about 15 meet-

ings with the PM and other Ministers ever said the lockdown shouldn’t be im-posed,” he said while speak-ing in the Upper House. He added, “This double-faced behaviour of the Opposition should be avoided.”

He also made numerous references to Mumbai and Maharashtra to corner the Uddhav Thackeray govern-ment. Maharashtra has the maximum number of CO-VID cases in the country.

However, he has now contracted the virus and sent alarm bells ringing. The TMC MP’s tweet just ampli-fied that.

ED attaches 3 hotels valued at Rs 100 cr in PMC Bank case

China blames faith of Uyghur Muslims for concentration camps in Xinjiang

Day after RS speech BJP MP tests Covid positive; TMC leader sounds alarm

Delhi Police constable commits suicide

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) A 37-year-old Delhi Police constable committed suicide in South Delhi’s PTS colony, Malviya Nagar, police said on Friday.

The incident happened on Thursday night.

“A PCR call was received at the Malviya Nagar police sta-tion at 11.26 p.m. regarding a suicide. He was rushed to the

Max hospital where consta-ble Satender, resident of the PTS colony Malviya Nagar was declared brought dead,” a senior police officer said. Satender was posted in the central district of Delhi. Ac-cording to police, on Thurs-day he came home around 10 p.m. and after some time he was found hanging.

The police said the reason for the suicide was being ascertained and the inquest proceedings have been ini-tiated.No suicide note has been found yet, the police said.

CITYIndian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 2020 3

Delhi govt to provide a free ration till November

Vagabond’s clue helps police arrest 3 in gang-rape case

Supply gadgets with net packages to EWS students: Delhi HC

Trinamool MP kicks up a row by mocking cow urine in RS Harsimrat resigns under pressure of Punjab’s local politics: BJP

Agri Bills to free farmers from middlemen’s

clutches: Shah

Short video app Chingari inks music licensing deal with T-Series

Cong MP raises Hooch tragedy in RS demands CBI probe

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Delhi Metro Rail Corpora-tion Limited (DMRC) has said that there was some decline in cumulative ridership due to protests and riots in Delhi, the Centre has informed Parlia-ment.

Responding to Unstarred Questions, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Thursday that the DMRC faced loss of an estimated rev-enue of Rs 1,609 crore due to closure of Metro services in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry said that pre-paratory work like detailed de-signing, preparation of tender schedule, and finalisation of tenders were carried out by the DMRC during the countrywide lockdown.

Asked “whether the govern-ment has devised any strategy to mitigate the effect of losses incurred by the DMRC”, the Ministry said various innova-tive means like provisioning of feeder system, property de-velopment at stations and on other land, leasing of spaces,

Transit Oriented Development and Value Capture Finance are enumerated in Metro Rail Poli-cy, 2017 to enhance revenue of DMRC”.

Ensuring financial sustain-ability during operations of the Metro rail system is the responsibility of the state gov-

ernment,” it further said.Responding to the question

as to how the DMRC is manag-ing or restructuring loan pay-ments, the Ministry said that payments towards loans have been made by it as per the schedule.

The DMRC resumed its pub-

lic services from September 7 following the Ministry of Home Affairs’ new guidelines, after more than five months.

In the wake of the coronavi-rus pandemic, the Centre sus-pended the Metro rail services in the last week of March.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has is-sued Standard Operating Pro-cedures for the functioning of Metro trains allowed under the ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines.

Communal violence had erupted on the issue of Citi-zenship (Amendment) Act. Clashes broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24 between protesters as well as support-ers of CAA, which spiralled out of control to leave at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Finding itself star-ing at a dead end while looking for culprits in a gang-rape case, Delhi Po-lice was helped in their arrest by a vagabond who revealed that one of the accused was a ‘one-eyed man’.

The 17-year-old vic-tim was gang-raped by three motorcycle-borne persons when she was returning home with her brother-in-law late Tues-day night in north-east Delhi’s Harsh Vihar.

“The duo was walking back to their house after alighting from an auto-rickshaw around one km away. The three accused

accosted them and at-tacked the man. The trio then took the girl to a secluded spot and gang-raped her before fleeing with her purse,” a senior police officer said.

A police patrol on duty in the area was alerted to the crime, following which it chased the sus-pects who abandoned the bike and the snatched purse near a railway track

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday directed private unaided as well as government schools, in-cluding Kendriya Vidya-layas, to supply gadgets of optimum configuration along with Internet pack-ages to EWS/DG students for accessing online edu-cation.

The HC clarifies that the cost of these gadgets are not part of the tu-ition fees and have to be provided free of cost to needy students by pri-vate unaided schools and government schools, sub-ject to the right of private unaided schools to claim reimbursement from the state under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

A division bench of Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula said: “... this court directs that the private unaided schools shall be entitled to claim reimbursement of reason-able cost for procurement of the said gadget(s)/digi-tal equipment as well as Internet packages from the state under Section 12(2) of the RTE Act, 2009, even though the state is

not providing the same to its students.”

The court also directed that a three-member committee comprising Secretary (Education), Ministry of Education, or its nominee, Secretary Education of GNCTD or his nominee, and a repre-sentative from the Com-mittee of Private Schools be set up within a week.

The committee will

frame the Standard Oper-ating Procedure (SOP) for identification of standard gadgets as well as the supplier(s) and Internet package(s) so that Eco-nomically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Groups (DG) students can access elementary educa-tion through digital on-line means.

“The committee shall identify gadget(s)/equip-ment, taking into account all relevant factors like their utility, ease of oper-ation, cost, maintenance charges, life, reputation of manufacturers, child-lock etc within two weeks from its constitution,” it said.

“The committee shall also decide as to whether any gadget(s)/equipment

needs to be purchased by cluster bidding or by in-dividual schools or hired by way of lease or licence agreement,” the order read.

The court was hearing a plea filed by NGO Justice For All through advocates Khagesh B Jha and Shikha Sharma Bagga.

“The private unaided schools shall file their claims for reimbursement under Section 12(2) to the GNCTD within eight weeks from the date of supply of such gadget(s)/equipment. The said claim shall be processed and reimbursed to the schools within eight weeks from the date of their submission,” the court added.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress kicked up a row inside the Rajya Sabha on Friday as it mocked cow urine. It found itself in the minority as parties from across the na-tion vouched for homoeopathy, ayurveda and other alternate sources of medicine.

Trinamool lawShantanu Sen was speaking about the “terrible condition” of homeopathy cen-tres in the upper house. “What can be expected from a govern-ment that says that drinking cow urine can cure disease or Co-vid-19?

“They are indirectly promot-ing private medical colleges and

quackery,” said Sen.Many believe in the medicinal

quality of cow urine and consid-er the animal sacred. Many have vouched for its properties to cure

cancer among other diseases. Recently film star Akshay Ku-mar too accepted that he drinks it. The house was discussing the Homoeopathy Central Council

(Amendment) Bill, 2020.The Trinamool though found

itself in minority as many parties along with the ruling BJP argued in favour of homeopathy.

“Homoeopathy is an old In-dian system of medicine and it is accessible to the poor. So we need to make it robust,” Biju Janata Dal’s Prasanna Acharya said.

Samajwadi Party MP Ram Go-pal Yadav too, advocated that there are diseases for which there is no cure in allopathy, but there is a cure in ayurveda.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said that the amount set aside for homoeopathy by the

AYUSH ministry budget is very small, while speaking on the leg-islation.

DMK on the other hand rec-ommended that there should be a provision for representation of elected members of the State Medical Councils.

BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi said: “Some say that there is no sci-entific proof for homoeopathic medicines’ effectiveness. Ho-moeopathy is a strain of medi-cine that focuses not just on the disease but also on the patient.”

He added that it was a mat-ter of regret that this particular stream of Indian medicine was not being explored.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Homegrown short video-sharing platform Chingari which shot into popularity following the TikTok ban in June said on Friday that it has signed a music licensing agreement with T-Series.

As a result of the partner-ship, all Chingari users in India, other Saarc nations, and in the Middle East will get access to the music col-lection of T-Series, the com-pany said.

“Chingari users would now be able to choose from thousands of songs from the T-Series music library

to make their creation more lively and fun,” Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder and CEO of Chingari App, said in a statement.

“From Bollywood to In-diepop and from melody to melancholy across all Indian languages, T-Series music li-

brary on Chingari has songs for every content genre and every emotion.”

Chingari allows its users to download and upload vid-eos, chat with friends, inter-act with new people, share content, browse through feed, and much more.

The platform is available in 10 vernacular languages -- Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Odia, and Telugu -- and also two international languages — English and Spanish.

Chingari, which now claims to have a 30 million-

strong user base, recently won the the Indian govern-ment’s “Aatma Nirbhar App Challenge” in the social me-dia category.

“The licensing pact be-tween T-Series and Chingari is a win-win for both sides as this mutually beneficial agreement amalgamates so-cial media and music while promoting business ethics,” said Bhushan Kumar, Man-aging Director, T-Series.

“This sets the right prec-edent for social media platforms and music rights owners to work and evolve together.”

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Cornering his own govern-ment in Punjab, Congress MP Shamsher Singh Dullo in Rajya Sabha on Friday demanded CBI inquiry into the state’s hooch trag-edy that cost more than 100 lives.

The Punjab Congress’ infighting reached the up-

per house after Dullo and Partap Singh Bajwa met the Governor over the same issue which caused a furore in the Congress party and the Punjab unit even demanded their ex-pulsion.

Dullo speaking in the House said no action has been taken and the smug-

glers are moving freely. As the matter is interstate, the MP demanded that the central agency should conduct a probe into it.

Dullo said there are many mafias active in the state.

Earlier both MPs had demanded the removal of Chief Minister Captain

Amarinder Singh.The opposition in the

state had alleged failure by the state government to take action against Con-gress legislators and dis-tilleries whose complicity with the liquor mafia led to the deaths of 135 people in Punjab’s hooch tragedy in end of July.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Reacting on the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that she re-signed under the pressure of Punjab’s local politics. However, the party still hopes that the matter will be resolved after discussion with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

BJP spokesperson on economic affairs Go-pal Kirshna Agarwal told IANS, “The three agricultural bills passed in the Parliament on Thursday will benefit the farmers.

But the way the Congress has spread lies in Punjab, I think the SAD has also come under the pressure of local politics that’s why Har-simrat Kaur resigned. The SAD is also aware about the benefits to farmers from the bills.”

Agarwal said we are continuously exposing the lies being spread about the bills.

Parties like Congress are lying that the mini-mum support price (MSP) has been scrapped while it has nothing to with all the three bills. Not only MSP but APMC is also not been scrapped.”

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) A day after the Lok Sabha passed two contentious agri-culture-related Bills, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday called the proposed leg-islations a path-break-ing move of the Modi government, saying these will free the farm-ers from the clutches of middlemen.

Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi on the passage of the Farm-ers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promo-tion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 as well as the Farmers (Empower-ment and Protection) Agreement on Price As-surance and Farm Ser-vices Bill, 2020, the Min-ister said the passage of the landmark agricul-tural reform Bills in the

Lok Sabha on Thursday is an “unprecedented” step in this direction.

In a series of tweets, Shah said these Bills will help farmers overcome obstacles as well as provide them with new avenues to sell their produce, which will in-crease their incomes.

“These historic and important agricultural reforms of the Modi government will bring a positive transformation in the lives of farmers and make them self-reliant. I convey my heartfelt gratitude to the Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister

Narendra Singh Tomar on the passage of these Bills.”

The Lok Sabha passed these Bills even though the opposition mem-bers as well as BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) termed them “anti-farmer” and some even staged a walkout.

The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facili-tation) Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for the cre-ation of an ecosystem wherein the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relat-ing to the sale and pur-chase of farm produce

which facilitates remu-nerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels to pro-mote efficient, trans-parent and barrier-free inter and intra-state trade.

The Farmers (Em-powerment and Protec-tion) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that pro-tects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesal-ers, exporters or large retailers for farm ser-vices and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remu-nerative price system in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

and escaped.The police found out

that the motorcycle was stolen earlier in the night. As the policemen launched a manhunt for the accused, they came across a vagabond who revealed that one of the fleeing accused was a one-eyed heavily built man. His description matched with the girl’s version of the incident.

The police then sifted through CCTV footage from the area and finally traced the three accused identified as Rajeev, Shahzad, and Ikram. All accused, in their twenties, are residents of north-east Delhi and Ghaziabad.

Konkan Railways delivers 2 DEMU train sets to Nepal

Railways

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The Konkan Railways on Friday said that it deliv-ered two DEMU train sets, designed and developed by Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, to Nepal Railways.

“Konkan Railway is hap-py and privileged to deliver two modern DEMU train sets to Nepal Railways to-

day,” it said in a statement.The Konkan Railway Cor-

poration Ltd had signed a contract agreement on May 10 last year with Nepal’s Department of Railways for supply of two 1600HP DEMU train sets.

These trains will operate between Jayanagar in In-dia and Kurtha in Nepal, it said.

The 34-km-long Jay-anagar-Kurtha Railway Link has been built by IR-CON with a financial grant from the Indian govern-ment under the India-Ne-pal Development Partner-ship programme.

South Indian Horizon Saturday, September 19, 20204

Another Maharashtra Minister infected by

Covid

Bengaluru police nab duo, recover LSD and

THC coated jellies

Chandy marks golden jubilee as

legislator, receives tributes

Kottayam (Kerala), Sep 18 (IANS) It was a day that all present-day politicians would dream for, but was a re-ality for one of Kerala’s most popular leaders - Congress veteran Oommen Chandy as he was on Thursday hon-oured for completing 50 years as a legislator on the trot from the same constituency - Puthupally.

In view of Covid restrictions, the event took place at a hall here where 50 leading lights from a varied cross-section of Kerala society, including top politicians, and religious leaders among others, were present.

The two-time Kerala CM began his political career as a legislator after the 1970 Assembly polls. Then 26, Chandy won his very first electoral battle and has been repeating the poll results in successive Assembly polls ever since.

Had it not been for Covid, this would have turned out to be a function that would have gone down as the most enviable one for any politician.

To mark the event, a cake decorated in the Congress tricolour was cut by his grandson and he placed a piece of it into Chandy’s mouth, to sustained applause.

The 76-year-old was paid glowing tributes for his landmark achievement and among those who congrat-ulated him include Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and former Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Maharashtra Con-gress leader and Energy Minister Nitin Raut tested Covid-19 positive here on Friday.

The minister made the announcement in a tweet and urged all those who had come in contact with him in the past few days to get themselves tested.

“I have been tested positive for Covid-19 to-day. I would like to request all those who had come in contact with me in the past few days to get themselves tested as a precautionary mea-sure. Stay safe everyone and take care,” Raut said. Raut becomes the 8th Minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to be infected in the past six months of the pandemic gripping the planet.

Earlier, other ministers like Jitendra Awhad, Ashok Chavan, Dhananjay Munde, Abdul Sat-tar, Vishwajeet Kadam, Aslam Shaikh, Sunil Kedar and Balasaheb Patil had tested positive and underwent successful treatment.

Some other ministers, legislators, parlia-mentarians and leaders went into precaution-ary self-quarantine after their associates or aides tested positive.

Goa AAP Convener re-signs, says will continue

to work for partyPanaji, Sep 18 (IANS) Goa AAP Convener El-

vis Gomes on Friday said that he was stepping down from the post, adding that he would work at the grass-roots level and try to expand the party base ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls.

“I informed the state Executive Committee on Thursday. This one-and-a-half years ahead of the polls is crucial for the Aam Aadmi Party. The opposition is virtually non- existent. I will work at the grass-roots level to expand the par-ty,” Gomes told reporters in Panaji.

Allot 10K more seats under India BPO promotion scheme: TN CMChennai, Sep 18 (IANS) Point-

ing out the success of the India BPO Promotion Scheme in the state, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K.Palaniswami has urged the Cen-tral government to allot 10,000 more seats under the scheme.

Palaniswami in a letter to Union Minister for Information Technol-ogy Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday congratulated the latter for launch-ing the scheme to incentivise busi-ness process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology en-abled services (ITES) units to set up their operations in tier-II and III cities.

Palaniswami expressed his hap-piness on the scheme’s success in Tamil Nadu which resulted in pro-viding 7,705 seats (STPI -- 7,605 seats in Tamil Nadu and 100 seats in Puducherry) in Software Tech-nology Parks of India, Chennai.

This has resulted in creating di-rect employment for 8,387 peo-ple and indirect employment for 16,774 people, Palaniswami said.

“The success rate of this scheme in Tamil Nadu in terms of com-mencement of operation is more than 93 per cent.

This scheme has resulted in set-ting up of 51 India Business Pro-cess Outsourcing (BPO) Promotion Scheme (IBPS) units in 13 Tier-II and Tier-III cities of Tamil Nadu,” Palaniswami said.

“In view of the tremendous suc-cess of this scheme in the state of Tamil Nadu, I request you to al-lot 10,000 seats under the ‘India BPO Promotion scheme’ to Tamil Nadu,” he added.

Bengaluru, Sep 18 (IANS) Continuing its battle against illegal drugs in Bengaluru, the Central Crime Branch’s narcotics wing seized LSD strips and Tetra Hydrocannabinol (THC) coated jelly worth Rs 4 lakhs on Friday.

The CCB has arrested two alleged drug ped-dlers, 21 year old Nicholas, a Kottanuru resi-dent and Irfan, a 29 year old resident of J. P. Nagar 2nd stage, Bengaluru.

According to the CCB, the duo was allegedly caught red-handed while they were trying to sell these drugs on M. G. Road, an upscale lo-cality. The police have recovered 27 LSD strips and 30 THC coated jellies from them, besides a car and two mobile phones.

The police claimed that the initial investiga-tion has revealed that the duo were constantly in touch with alleged drug supplier Ashwin, who is said to be absconding.

ED attachEs Rs 45 cR assEts in B’luRu Bank fRauD casE

Bengaluru, Sep 18 (IANS) The Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 45.32 crore of Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank’s former and present execu-tives in an alleged fraud case, an official said on Friday.

“Assets worth Rs 45.32 crore of the bank’s former and present executives have been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in the coop-erative bank fraud case,” said the official in a statement here.

The assets belong to the president, former vice-president, and former and present chief executives of Sri Guru Raghavendra Saha-kara Bank and its affiliate Sri Guru Sarvab-houma Credit Cooperative Ltd.

“Of the assets attached, 29 properties val-ued at Rs 38.16 crore are in the form of farm-land, flats and houses of K. Ramakrishna, late T.S. Sathyanarayana, late M.V. Maiya and A. Santosh Kumar of the tainted bank,” said the official.

The remaining Rs 7.16 crore assets are in the form of bank balances and fixed deposits of the accused executives.

Ramakrishna and Sathyanarayana were president and vice-president, respectively, of both the banks.

“Ramakrishna had set up Guru Sarvab-houma Credit Cooperative Ltd in 2015 to avoid paying the tax deduction at source (TDS) though mandatory under the Income-Tax Act, 1961,” said the official.

Preliminary investigation revealed that unspecified amounts were transferred from Sarvabhouma to the other (Raghavendra) bank.

Ramakrishna and Maiya were responsible for transferring the amounts from the soci-ety to the NPA (non-performing assets) ac-counts of the bank.

The case against the accused was regis-tered at the Banaswadi police station in the city’s northeast suburb under various sec-tions of the IPC and the Karnataka Protec-

tion of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPID) Act 2004 for allegedly embezzling over Rs 1,500 crore, collected from the depositors, mostly senior citizens, through fixed deposits by promising them 12-16 per cent interest rate per annum.

“The accused withdrew money from the bank by creating fictitious loan accounts and did not repay, committing breach of trust and cheated public,” said an statement.

The bank’s president (Ramakrishna) and his family members are absconding, while former CEO (Maiya) allegedly committed suicide in the city on July 6.

Investigation also revealed that Ramak-rishna, who is one of the directors of Mukhy-aprana Agro Farming & Research Info Ltd, his wife and son layered the crime proceeds in the company’s name and Sarvabhouma by diverting funds from Raghavendra.

Maiya also bought properties by diverting funds from the bank and society.

The bank’s employees were also involved in diverting funds by creating fictitious loan accounts and purchased properties in their names.

In January, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restricted the bank from doing business for alleged irregularities in transactions.

Actor Surya’s comments avoidable, but no contempt: Madras HCChennai, Sep 18 (IANS) The

Madras High Court on Friday said that cine actor Surya’s comments on the judiciary could have been avoided and may have been “unnecessary and unwarranted”, but ruled out initiation of contempt of court proceedings.

The issue cropped up after High Court Justice SM Subra-maniam wrote to Chief Justice AP Sahi for initiation of con-tempt of court action against the actor on the charge of criti-cising the judiciary and under-mining the integrity of Judges as well as the judicial system.

Objecting to the actor’s state-

ment, Justice Subramaniam said that in his view, Surya’s statement amounts to con-tempt of court as the judiciary has been criticised and the integrity and devotion of the Judges as well as the judicial system have been undermined.

He contended that Surya’s statement “... reveals that the Hon’ble Judges are afraid of their own life and rendering justice through videoconfer-encing. While so, they have no moral (right) to pass orders di-recting the students to appear in NEET without fear.”

“The said statement, in my considered opinion, amounts

to contempt of court as the integrity and devotion of the Hon’ble Judges as well as the judicial system of our great na-tion are not only undermined but criticised in a bad shape, wherein there is threat to pub-lic confidence in the judiciary.

“Thus, cine actor Surya has committed contempt, warrant-ing contempt proceedings to uphold the majesty of our In-dian judicial system,” Justice Subramaniam had said.

The High Court said that on pursuing the actor’s statement, it found that a language which might be perfectly proper if ut-tered in a temperate manner

can be grossly improper if ut-tered in a different manner.

“What may appear to be dis-respectful may also be short of insult, and may be touching the borders of criticism. A rea-sonable precaution has to be taken in matters of public af-fairs, particularly courts, Judges and their functioning, where fair and temperate criticism should not be contemptuous,” the court held.

The court said: “We find that the utterances by the cine ac-tor may have been absolutely unnecessary or even unwar-ranted, for being ignorant of the manner in which the en-

tire judiciary of this state has served the interest of its citi-zens during this pandemic, and any such statement could have been avoided in a much more sober way, instead of an accus-ing tone, which though trivial in nature has raised a storm in a tea cup.”

The court also pointed out that the NEET and the dispute surrounding it was not even a subject matter of the courts in Tamil Nadu.

“A self-righteous person should himself be humble enough to acknowledge the contribution of others,” the court held.

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 18 (IANS) Kerala on Thurs-day registered the highest one-day spike of 4,351 Covid cases, health officials said.

“ At present 34,314 people are Covid positive, while 87,345 people has been cured. 45,370 samples was tested in the past 24 hours,”

said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan 10 Covid patients died on Thursday taking the toll to 489.

Across the state 2,13,595 people are under observa-tion which includes 23,836 people in various hospitals.

There are 608 hot spots in the state.

Kerala records highest one-day spike of 4,351

Covid cases

Bengaluru, Sep 18 (IANS) Alleging inaction by Facebook and the City Police, a fact-finding committee formed by several Bengaluru based civil society organisations (CSOs) appealed to the Bengaluru City Police to widen the scope of investigation against the alleged Facebook post believed to have led to the same.

The Bengaluru City police are probing the incident and the violence that took place then

at the streets of East Bengaluru on August 11, in which four were killed during police firing and several were injured.

“The intelligence failure to predict and pre-vent the violence must be investigated,” the committee has strongly demanded in its re-port on the violence that ensued on the night of August 11th, 2020 titled ‘Communalising Violence in DJ Halli’.

“This report brings out several truths. This report is not the end, on its authority, we must inquire into the truth and find out who is be-hind the violence, and who all failed to act. There are people who profit from the riot as well. We must find out those who are respon-sible. We must further tolerance,” said (Retd.) Justice H.N. Nagmohan Das.

Adding to this, senior journalist Indudhara Honnapura said, “There was an opportunity to stop this, but Police failed to do so. Every-one, including the police, knew this is a sen-sitive area. There are many good officers, but I do not understand why they did not send sufficient police force to control the incident. Why didn’t the government provide informa-tion to the police?”

DJ Halli violence: CSOs appeal B’luru police to

widen probe

K’taka doctors asked to call off strike amid Covid crisis

Bengaluru, Sep 18 (IANS) As-suring the government doctors of considering their demand for wage revision, Karnataka Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Friday urged them to call off their strike and report for duty.

“Going on strike at a time when the state government and other stakeholders were fighting the pandemic, does not behold the doctors as their absence is affecting health-care, especially Covid-19 pa-tients,” Sudhakar told report-ers at an event here.

Though the Karnataka Gov-ernment Medical Officers’ As-sociation agreed to withdraw the strike at a meeting with the state health department re-cently, many of its 5,000 mem-bers have not been reporting for duty since September 15, demanding salary revision, among other things.

Asserting that the state gov-ernment was committed to ad-dress the concerns of the doc-

tors, the minister said it was inhuman for anyone to use the Covid-19 situation for one’s gain.

Admitting that the doctors had a great responsibility in the fight against the deadly disease, Sudhakar hoped they would withdraw the strike and report for duty from Saturday.

Inaugurating the molecu-lar diagnostic laboratory and the skill training centre of B. R. Ambedkar Medical College in the city’s south-east sub-urb, the minister said the chief minister (B.S. Yediyurappa) had agreed to some of the de-mands, including wage revi-sion and was waiting for the nod of the state finance de-partment.

“The salaries of doctors un-der the state health depart-ment will be based on 6-year, 13-year and 20-year promo-tion,” said Sudhakar. The doc-tors also sought pay parity with their counterparts in the state medical education de-

partment or as per the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). With 1,03,631 active cases, Karnataka ranked sec-ond after Maharashtra on the country’s Covid-19 tracker on Thursday. Though 4,94,356 patients tested positive since March 8 across the southern state, 3,83,077 were discharged till date, while 7,629 have suc-cumbed to the virus so far.

“As we are conducting about 75,000 tests per day, we are recording more positive cases and the pandemic is under control in the state compared to other southern states,” as-serted Sudhakar.

The state government is also increasing beds in the inten-sive care units (ICU) of the state-run hospitals, especially in Bengaluru where more pa-tients are being admitted.

“We are increasing ICU beds and ventilators due to rise in severe cases, while beds in general wards are adequate for new cases,” Sudhakar added.

Nation 5Indian Horizon Saturday, September 19, 2020

Ex-BJP MLA Parul Sahu joins Congress in Madhya

Pradesh Bhopal, Sep 18 (IANS) Amid the ongoing defections ahead of the

bypolls to 27 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, former BJP MLA Parul Sahu joined the Congress on Friday.

Sahu, who had become a BJP legislator in 2013 from Surkhi seat in Sagar district, joined the Congress in the presence of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath at an event organised in his Shyamla hills resi-dence.

Welcoming Sahu into the party fold, Nath said that her joining the party is like ‘returning home’.

BJP’s Govind Singh Rajput is a likely strong contender against Sahu from the Surkhi seat, according to sources.

Himachal gives green signal to reopen schools

from Sept 21Shimla, Sep 18 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Friday

gave its nod to reopen educational institutions outside the contain-ment zones in the state, from September 21 as per the standard op-erating procedure of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

It was decided that the institutes would open with 50 per cent teaching and non-teaching staff for students from class IX to XII, provided the students are willing to take guidance from the teachers.

For this, written consent of the parents or guardians of the student is mandatory.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to start BSc (Honours) in for-estry in Government College for Forestry and Horticulture in Mandi district from this session.

53-year-old German wom-an found dead in Goa

Panaji, Sep 18 (IANS) A 53-year-old German woman has been found dead in her apartment in the beach village of Canacona in South Goa district, police said Friday.

The remains of Stephanie Hesser were found only after her daughter flew in from Germany, after she failed to get through to her mother over the last few weeks despite several call.

“Victim’s daughter Himani Hessar, 20, came down to Goa as her mother was not responding to calls,” the Goa Police said in a state-ment. Hessar had to break down the door of the apartment located in Canacona, a popular beach hub for foreign tourists who stay in Goa for a longer duration.

According to a statement recorded by the daughter before the Ca-nacona police station, the deceased was suffering from asthma and depression and was under medication.

“A case of unnatural death has been registered. Inquest will be conducted soon,” the statement said.

BSP to contest Assembly bypolls for first time in UP

Lucknow, Sep 18 (IANS) The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has de-cided to put up candidates in all eight Assembly seats where bypolls are to be held. The BSP, earlier, had never contested by-elections, leaving the field clear for other remaining parties.

“The decision was taken in view of the 2022 Assembly elections. The party wants to mobilise its cadres through the by-elections and also reach out to its voters. Party leaders are shortlisting candidates for each of the eight Assembly segments and will announce them af-ter getting approval of the party president,” said a party functionary.

The BSP, two days ago, had announced the name of Kuldeep Sankhwar as the party candidate for the Ghatampur (Kanpur) As-sembly seat. “Behenji (Mayawati) is continuously monitoring the situation in each constituency and is taking feedback from party workers. She may be in Delhi but she is clued in to what is happen-ing at the ground level,” the functionary said.

Of the eight Assembly seats going to bypoll, six seats -- Naugawan, Deoria, Ghatampur, Bulandshahar, Tundla and Bangaramu -- were won by the BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls while two constituencies -- Malahani and Suar (Rampur) -- were won by the Samajwadi Party.

Gujarat reports highest single day spike of 1,379

Covid casesGandhinagar, Sep 18 (IANS) Gujarat recorded the highest

single day spike in Covid-19 with 1,379 cases, taking the tally to 1,19,088, while 14 more deaths pushed the toll to 3,273, health officials said on Thursday.

Surat reported 280 cases, Ahmedabad 171 Rajkot 145, Jamnagar 129, Vadodara 127, Bhavnagar 55, Gandhinagar 47, Mahesana 41, Banaskantha 39, Junagadh 37, Kutch 30, Panchmahals and Patan with 28 each, Amreli and Morbi with 26 each, Bharuch 25, Mahisagar 19, Dahod 17, Gir-Somnath 13, Valsad 12, Aravalli 9, Botad, Kheda and Narmada with 8 each, Anand and Sabarkantha with 7 each, Chotta Udepur and Navsari with 6 each, Dang and Porbandar with 5 each and Surendranagar and Tapi with two positive cases each.

The total number of Covid deaths in Ahmedabad reached 1,772. 711 have died in Surat, 154 in Vadodara, 118 in Rajkot, 67 in Gandhinagar, 54 in Bhavnagar, 39 in Patan, 34 in Jamnagar, 31 in Kutch, 29 each in Mahesana and Junagadh, 24 in Aravalli, 21 each in Amreli and Banaskantha, 17 in Panchmahals and Gir-Somnath, 16 each in Kheda and Anand, 15 in Morbi, 14 in Bha-ruch, 11 in Surendranagar and 10 in Valsad.

IIM Udaipur Incubation Centre starts accelerator

programme

Army inquiry report for disci-plinary action in Shopian case

Jaipur, Sep 18 (IANS) IIM Udaipur’s Incubation Center started ‘Launch-n-Zoom 3.0, programme’ a 3-month ac-celerator cohort programme, to provide startups with the

resources and support they need to grow quickly, test the market, and become viable.

Startups who have their prototype/MVP ready and are in the process of scaling/

marketing their products in the Education, Healthcare, and Fintech Sector stands eligible for this programme.

A small number of high potential startups will be

selected to take part in the 12-week program beginning from November 1. Through three-months of interac-tive and intensive learning, mentoring, and networking, startups will undergo a lot of DIY exercises to develop and refine the product/service of-ferings. At the end of these three months, selected start-ups shall be very well pre-pared and be ready to pitch their validated growth story to investors and industry par-ticipants as part of demo day.

The programme shall also provide up to Rs 1 lakh Rapid Prototyping Support to se-lected startups, and $10,000 Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud credits to all participating startups for free.

Kannan Soundararajan, CEO, IIM Udaipur Incuba-tion Centre said, “The third edition of Launch-n-Zoom will deep dive into Educa-

tion, Healthcare and Fintech Sector, building a strong and effective network with other leaders and entrepreneurs in the industry to enable mean-ingful partnerships with startups. I offer my heartiest congratulations and warmly invite young leaders to this cohort.”

Earlier this year, IIM Udai-pur’s Incubation Center hosted its second successful cohort with 27 startups, and its first cohort in 2019 where 18 startups were selected out of 275 applicants following a thorough process of selec-tion.

“Through Launch-n-Zoom 2.0, we have gained a great network of both in-dustry experts and other fantastic startups. The pro-gramme enabled a collab-orative environment and contributed to our future wins,” said Vignesh MS, Di-rector at Statlogic.

Srinagar, Sep 18 (IANS) An internal inquiry ordered by the Army into the en-counter killing of three persons in Shop-ian district of Jammu and Kashmir in July has held that the concerned security per-sonnel had exceeded their powers under the AFSPA and recommended disciplin-ary proceedings.

Imtiyaz Ahmad, Abrar Ahmad, and Mohammad Ibrar from Rajouri district were killed by security forces during an operation in Amshipora village on July 18, 2020.

While the security forces claimed that the three were terrorists from whom fire-arms and ammunition was recovered af-ter the encounter, their relatives said that they had come to Shopian district to work as labourers and had nothing to do with militancy.

Police had lodged a complaint on be-half of the relatives and collected samples for DNA matching with the slain persons.

Even as the DNA reports are yet to come, the Army’s internal inquiry, whose findings were made public on Friday, said: “The inquiry has brought out cer-tain prima facie evidence indicating that during the operation, powers vested un-der the Armed Forces Special Powers Act were exceeded and the Do’s and Don’ts of the Chief of Army Staff as approved by the Supreme Court have been contra-vened.”

The preliminary inquiry has directed the competent disciplinary authority to initiate disciplinary proceedings under the Army Act against those found prima facie answerable.

The inquiry report also held that the alleged involvement of the three persons in terrorism or related activities is under investigation by police.

The report reiterated that the Indian Army is committed to the ethical conduct of operations.

Calcutta HC takes suo motu cog-nizance of Visva Bharati dispute

Centre forcing farm laws on nation: Punjab CM

Village heads of Bikru, Bheeti removed on Kanpur DM’s orders

Punjab farmer tries to com-mit suicide over Farm Bills

Kolkata, Sep 18 (IANS) The Cal-cutta High Court on Friday took suo motu cognizance of a recent incident at the Visva Bharati and constituted a four-member committee to find a solution to the ongoing dispute over the central university’s campus.

The panel to be spearheaded by Justice Sanjib Bandopadhyay, will have three other members -- Jus-tice Arijit Bandopadhyay, Advocate General Kishor Dutta and Addi-tional Solicitor General Y.J. Dastur.

Sources said the committee will look into the issue to arrive at an amicable solution between both the parties.

The incident took place last month when a large number of lo-cal people, backed by the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress lead-ers, went on the rampage pro-testing against the construction of a boundary wall at the Pous Mela ground that belongs to Visva Bharati in West Bengal’s Birbhum

district. Tensions had heightened as the authorities decided to fence off the Mela ground by erecting a boundary wall and started the con-struction work. Hundreds of irate locals, under the banner of Save Pous Mela Committee, had barged into the fair ground, damaged uni-versity property and vandalised temporary shelters.

Enraged people were seen break-ing plastic chairs and other tem-porary structures. They had also dismantled one of the varsity gates using a JCB pay-loader machine.

According to varsity sources, the Visva Bharati authorities de-cided to scrap the Pous Mela for its ‘bitter experience’ with the local traders in the last two years while organising the fair. There were tus-sles between the authorities and local traders and artisans in the past for making the latter comply with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines

Chandigarh, Sep 18 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday slammed the Centre for what he called “forcing the farm legislations on the na-tion as part of a conspiracy to destroy farmers and Punjab, of which the Akalis were a part”. “I don’t know what enmity the BJP and the Akalis have with Punjab and why they are out to destroy us,” said the Chief Minister while virtually launch-ing the Kisan Mela at the Punjab Agricul-ture University in Ludhiana.

The launch was held through virtual connectivity at 100 locations in which farmers, farmer representatives and other stakeholders, including Ministers, MLAs and state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, participated. Warning again that the leg-

islations will lead to growing angst among the people in the border state, thus giving Pakistan the opportunity to stoke fire, Am-arinder Singh said the anti-farmer move will spoil the ‘abo hawa’ (environment) of Punjab.

Delhi has to rethink on this issue, he stressed, adding that the legislations would undo the sacrifices made by Pun-jab and its farmers over 65 years to make India self-sufficient in food.

Accusing the Akalis of playing their own political games in this entire affair, Amarinder Singh asked the Badals why the SAD had failed to stand with the Punjab government on these Bills and even on the critical water issue. “Did you not think even once what will happen to

Punjab without agriculture and water?” he asked the Akalis, pointing out that with the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal issue hanging over the state, the situation was perilous and the SAD had only contrib-uted to the crisis by supporting the farm ordinances.

The Chief Minister said that notwith-standing the Centre’s denials, these new laws will eventually pave the way for the elimination of the MSP regime and end of the Food Corporation of India, leav-ing the farmers at the mercy of big cor-porates, as recommended by the Shanta Kumar committee.

Strongly opposing the legislations, the Chief Minister also trashed the Centre’s contention that the MSP regime will not

be tampered with, saying it was a consti-tutional guarantee given by Parliament which, in fact, the NDA government was trying to destroy with their brute majority.

Even the Minimum Support Price (MSP) already announced on items like maize has not been given to the farmers, he noted, questioning the sincerity of the government of India.

Categorically rejecting the BJP and SAD claims that Punjab was on board with the farm ordinances, Amarinder Singh made it clear that the issue of any such ordi-nances or new laws on agriculture was never discussed at any of the meetings in which his government was represented at the high-powered committee set up by the Centre on agricultural reforms.

Kanpur (UP), Sep 18 (IANS) Bikru village head Anjali Dubey and her Bheeti counterpart Vishnupal Singh have been re-moved from their posts follow-ing orders from Kanpur District Magistrate Alok Tewari, an offi-cer said on Friday.

Both had allegedly not been discharging their official duties after the killing of eight police personnel by gangster Vikas Dubey and his men in Bikru on July 3.

While Anjali was a sister-in-law of Vikas Dubey, Vishnupal is one of the accused in the killing of the policemen in Bikru. He was on the run after the massa-cre, but surrendered before an anti-dacoity court in Maati in Kanpur Dehat district on August 19.

District Panchayati Raj Officer Kamal Kishore said: “The two neither contacted the Panchaya-ti Raj Department nor replied to our notices issued soon after the Bikru incident. They have not

carried out any developmental work or projects in both villages situated in Chaubeypur block. Therefore, they were removed on the instructions of the DM.”

“On District Magistrate’s or-ders, panchayat member Ram Kumar has been appointed Bi-kru village head, and panchayat member Radhey Shyam as the headman of Bheeti.”

Both have been directed to continue with developmental projects in their respective vil-lages.

Anjali Dubey is the wife of Deep Prakash Dubey, a brother of slain gangster Vikas Dubey. Deep has been absconding since July 3, with police announcing a reward of Rs 20,000 on him.

Deep and his wife Anjali, ac-cording to police sources, were aware of Vikas’s illegal activities and were partners in crime.

Deep has several cases of forg-ery registered against him at the Krishna Nagar police station in Lucknow.

Chandigarh, Sep 18 (IANS) A day after the Lok Sabha passed two contentious agriculture Bills, despite the opposition by BJP’s oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal terming it as an “anti-farmer” move, a protesting farmer in Pun-jab on Friday tried to commit suicide by consuming poisonous substance.

The farmer tried to commit sui-cide at a protest site in Badal vil-lage, the hometown of the Badals, in Muktsar district.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) state secretary Shingara Singh Mann said farmer Pritam Singh, 60, was disturbed over the passing of the agriculture Bills in the Lok Sabha.

The farmer feared that the Bills

would be against the farmers.The condition of the farmer is

stated to be serious.The farmers have been staging

a protest at the Badal village just outside the residence of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal against the Bills brought by the Central government.

Akali Dal’s lone minister in the Narendra Modi government, Har-simrat Kaur Badal, resigned from the Union Cabinet on Thursday to protest the Farm bills.

While announcing the decision to withdraw the minister from the Union Cabinet, SAD Presi-dent Sukhbir Badal said the party would continue to support the government and the BJP, but will oppose the anti-farmer policies.

6 Edit indian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 2020

Saturday, September 19, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

indian Horizon

The mixed reaction in Himachal

Pradesh to the decision to do away

with restrictions on entry to the hill

state, in place since the pandemic-

induced nationwide lockdown in

March-end, would not have come

as a surprise for the Thakur gov-

ernment. No pass or registration

is now required. Tourists can enter

freely without the need of carrying

a negative Covid report, or having

five days’ hotel booking. The se-

vere blow to the tourism-dependent

economy demanded action, even if

seen as unpopular in some quarters.

An isolationist approach had run its

course. Keeping the borders closed

in perpetuity, along with strict curbs

on movement, was not a viable or

feasible option.

The Chief Minister’s announce-

ment that the decision is in line with

the Centre’s appeal for unlocking,

even though the number of Covid

cases has crossed 10,000, is a can-

did admission that Himachal can no

longer sustain itself with a closed-

door policy. The economy has to get

back on track and livelihoods have

to be created. While reassuring the

people about the arrangements and

preparedness to deal with the virus

cases, he also brought attention to

the state’s low fatality rate of 0.8 per

cent, as compared to the national

figure of 1.64 per cent, and even

higher in neighbouring Punjab.

Opening or keeping shutters down

on hotels, resorts, eateries and

tourist sites is best left to individual

choice — or, if a panchayat or a civ-

ic body so wishes, that of a village

or a town — but applying brakes on

trade and business cannot be the

state policy. That distinction has

been made clear, and rightly so.

However, the government should

remain mindful of the apprehen-

sions about a huge surge in corona-

virus cases and tread carefully. Un-

restricted entry is fine, but Himachal

has to guard against any softening

of the stand on taking precautions.

Standard safety guidelines for tour-

ists and those coming home would

be in their interest, and those of the

hosts.

M RajivlochanThere are a few things about China that

India needs to remember as it stares down the greatest power in Asia. China does not believe in any boundaries or maps cre-ated by the imperialist West which simply means that it will not agree to any map that came into being because of the im-perial British, though the map may have been researched and drawn by an Indian working for the Geological Survey of India.

Throwing maps at China on the negoti-ating table has gained nothing in the past and will gain nothing in the future. Guided by historian Sarvepalli Gopal, the foreign policy makers used maps for over a decade to convince China to keep out of Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh. It did not work. Gopal was one of the most accomplished Indian historians, brought back to head the his-torical division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Incidentally, he was also the son of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and one of my teachers. His young colleague in this failed enterprise to convince China, Parshotam Mehra, would later head the department of History at Panjab University, where he could not persuade anyone to become either a China specialist or a specialist in Central Asia. One of their key tasks was to collect evidence about India’s border with China and help demarcate it. China refused to acknowledge such knowledge of colonial provenance, walked into the plains of Aksai Chin in eastern Ladakh and into the mountain valleys in the eastern reaches of the Himalayas.

The second thing to remember about China is that, like the now dead-and-gone Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that was headed by Russia, it claims that it does

not believe in or practise imperialism. Im-perialism is a product of the capitalist West and abhorred by the Soviets and the com-munists. In reality, in the name of spread-ing the Soviet form of government, Russia managed to occupy and colonised some 30 nationalities in the early 1920s. Millions were killed. Some regions, like the moun-tainous Chechnya, lost almost 90% of their population. Thousands kept getting killed for the next seven decades before the USSR was wound up. China’s expansion of influ-ence beyond the river valleys of its south is much akin to the creation of the USSR but with a significant difference — these ter-ritories, speaking diverse languages, eco-nomically interdependent, were connect-ed through a broad Buddhist-Confucian thought, much like the historical nation of India, connected with what broadly can be called Buddhist-Hindu ideas.

Which brings us to the most important third point: that having shunned West-ern imperialism and capitalism, China firmly believes in and practises the age-old principle that has been followed on a small-scale before the British colonised us. That principle continues to live with us in many forms. In north India, it is sum-marised as ‘might is right’ or jiski lathi uski bhains. Of course, the Chinese do not believe any more in the Maoist doctrine that power grows out of the barrel of the gun. That was too crude a formulation, fit only to mobilise an illiterate peasantry. Some power also comes through talking to someone else who is powerful enough. Which means that India needs to convince China that it is powerful enough to create problems, were China to persist with what India considers is bad behaviour. Some

power for the Chinese also comes from occupying the Himalayas and the 2.5 mil-lion square km of the cold desert plateau of Tibet, south-west of the Chinese river valleys. Today, the Chinese are industrially strong, have invested in research, contin-ue to invest in translational research, and hope to become world leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2025, which is what makes them physically capable of holding on to the Tibetan plateau, irrespective of the wishes of India or the Dalai Lama.

India’s problem with China starts only when China moves south of the Tibetan plateau, into the territory of the south-flowing rivers, as it has been doing since 1951. For, this land, south of Mount Kai-lash, has been part of the historical nation of India which speaks hundreds of lan-guages, follows different social customs and cultural practices, but is still consid-ered one nation.

Strategists have still not pointed out that the compulsions of democracy, the constant needling by the Congress and the press, have ensured that the govern-ment in India does not have the option any more to allow China to occupy any portion of the south-flowing rivers.

In a sense, by pushing southwards, first at Burtse in September 2015, then at Doklam in 2017, China signalled its plan for enhanced military control of the Tibet-an plateau. The Burtse stand-off in north-ern Ladakh lasted all of five days. The face-off at Doklam lasted almost three months after which the Chinese backed off only to return a year later. Few in India, other than the specialists, talked of these devel-opments. The occupation of the banks of the Pangong lake this year has caught the

public imagination. The stone-age clash in the Galwan valley only firmed up public interest. Such public interest and the logic of winning the next election were some-thing which the Chinese had not factored into their strategic calculations.

They also made a serious miscalculation about the industrial and military strength of India. India does not have the strength to win any large-scale war with any coun-try. But it has always had the capacity to give a befitting riposte. In this face-off, it took India just a few weeks to amass over 50,000 troops, fully operational, against the Chinese. Moreover, India sent clear signals that it would not hesitate to esca-late matters and was willing to challenge the Chinese in the air and the sea.

This was a very different India from the one adept at getting conquered, so long as it was allowed to survive. ‘Be like grass, bend before the wind’, was a popular say-ing in Punjab till recently.

This India is willing to invest time, mon-ey and mental energy in defending itself and ensuring dignity for its people. What also goes in its favour are two little appre-ciated facts. First, India has a young popu-lation, is rebooting itself to overthrow the tentacles of mediocrity that have held it back. Second, economic forecasts project that China’s growth will slow down during the next 10 years, from 6.1% in 2019 to 3% in 2030. It means that the costs to China for a sustained face-off with India become so much more. If India were to keep work-ing for getting the Chinese out of Aksai Chin and also push for the independence of Tibet, the costs begin to escalate in ways that are favourable to India.

IANS

india should firmly make China see reason

Radhika RamaseshanThe Delhi violence of February and

the events that followed make for a looking glass to view the profound changes that have shaped the Indian polity after 2014. A day before Par-liament met, the Opposition — dis-arranged by a Congress shaken by internal convulsions, the apathy of the otherwise vibrant regional par-ties and an enfeebled Left — woke up and declared it would protest the Delhi Police’s move to implicate the BJP’s ideological adversaries for their alleged role in instigating the commu-nal bloodshed that claimed over 50 lives, largely those of Muslims.

Among the arraigned were Sita-ram Yechury, the CPI(M)’s general secretary, Swaraj Abhiyan founder Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor Apoorvanand and filmmaker Rahul Roy. The depth of their involvement is uncertain, although if the ‘official’ version is to be believed, they were part of a ‘larger conspiracy’ to stoke the violence that coincided with Pres-ident Trump’s visit. The American press naturally questioned the Indian State’s commitment to upholding re-ligious amity.

Although the police later ‘clarified’ that Yechury and the others were ‘only mentioned’ in the disclosure state-ments made by those arrested, it was apparent that they were on its radar at a juncture where the investigations

could conclude. These individuals ar-ticulated their opposition against the CAA-NRC-NPR. The dissent erupted in a spate of largely non-violent con-frontations between the agitators and the police the country over until the Centre and the UP Government turned the screws and gave the police carte blanche to act.

The character of the anti-CAA agita-tion was different from the well-coor-dinated ‘crusade’ against corruption initiated by the India Against Corrup-tion (IAC) outfit during UPA’s second stint. The IAC was backed by the RSS. The anti-CAA protests lacked institu-tional, political endorsement because like every other issue dominating the political discourse post 2014, the citizenship package was polarising. Those who spoke against the CAA were Muslims and a class labelled as ‘liberal’ and ‘secular’. Both were out-numbered by pro-CAA votaries. Even the Congress toned down its respons-es, knowing that the repercussions of leaning on the anti-CAA side could be electorally damaging.

When Delhi flared up, the police minimised its role to begin with and allowed the clashes to pan out be-tween the pro- and-anti CAA groups into fierce, but unevenly fought street fights. The police’s prejudices were indubitably chronicled. Anurag Thakur, a BJP minister, and Parvesh Verma, West Delhi MP, and Kapil Mishra, a former AAP legislator, were

filmed, exhorting the crowds to take up arms against anti-CAA demonstra-tors. No action has been taken against them. On the other hand, Delhi’s Spe-cial Commissioner of Police (Crime) wrote to police officers heading the probe that the arrest of ‘some Hindu youths’ in riot-hit areas had caused ‘a degree of resentment among the Hindu community’.

A dog whistle? No, the establish-ment’s message did not stay coded or subliminal for long. It was a directive to throw the book at one commu-nity and excuse the other. The ‘azadi’ chant, a spillover from the 2015 JNU sit-ins against the BJP’s project to alter academia’s ideological and po-litical thrust, became the anti-CAA slogan. ‘Azadi’ was akin to waging a war against the state although various protests against the CAA adopted the Tricolour, the Constitution and Gan-dhi and Ambedkar as totems.

When Parliament convened on September 14, there was not a mur-mur from the Opposition on the Delhi probe. By then, Umar Khalid, a former JNU student activist who, along with Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhat-tacharya, was charged with sedition for commemorating the second an-niversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, convicted in the attack on Parliament, was arrested under the Unlawful Ac-tivities (Prevention) Act or UAPA. Khalid was the eighth student ar-rested since last February. Outside of

the House, the reactions were muted. While one Congress leader said invok-ing the UAPA to quell protests would have a ‘chilling effect’ on democratic rights, another legal luminary asked for a fair application of the law. There were no takers for the Left’s notice, demand-ing the suspension of business to dis-cuss the Delhi violence investigations.

It appears that the battle to ensure a modicum of justice in the inquiry will be fought outside the political arena by a dwindling segment of civil soci-ety. Dwindling because some of those who had identified themselves with the rights at stake distanced them-selves. Not long ago, Kanhaiya Kumar and protests were synonymous. He fought the 2019 elections from Begu-sarai and lost to BJP’s Giriraj Singh. On September 16, Kanhaiya, who is with the CPI, was slated to address a press conference with five other activ-ists, academics and lawyers, who in-cluded Prashant Bhushan and Syeda Hameed, a former Planning Com-mission member, in Delhi, on the police’s ‘fact-finding’. He had report-edly agreed the day before but did not show up. A former Kanhaiya associate called his absence ‘heartbreaking’ and wondered if it had to do with his electoral ambitions. Kanhaiya, who seems keen to live down the image of an ‘urban Naxal’, has not said a word on Umar’s detention. He has Begusa-rai’s Hindu votes to think about.

IANS

Anything but fair

Sushma RamachandranThe stark reality of joblessness faces

urban dwellers every day. It is when the household staff or peripheral workers in the neighbourhood ask us for jobs for their chil-dren or relatives that the gravity of the situ-ation strikes us. Often, these young persons are educated, some even holding college degrees that prepare them for nothing in the real world. But that was before the pan-demic and the lockdown. Now, the stories are of family members losing jobs in hotels or restaurants and wage cuts for workers in all kinds of occupations, whether informal, domestic or regular salaried ones.

It is now clear that if the biggest chal-lenge facing the Modi government before the pandemic was unemployment, it has assumed tsunami-like dimensions in the wake of the lockdown. The rise in utilisa-tion of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme is witness to the number of work-ers who migrated to the rural areas during the lockdown and are now in search of jobs. The data shows 1.3 crore more persons have registered under the rural job scheme from April to August this year.

Not only that, surveys are showing the lockdown has had a disastrous impact on family incomes with women being hit even harder than men. An Action Aid sur-vey conducted during May-June this year in 20 states, according to media reports, found that 79 per cent of women were out of work after the lockdown, compared to

75 per cent of men. It also found that 85 per cent of workers lost their livelihood post-lockdown. Even with the caveat that this is a relatively small sample survey and also that the situation improved from July, it gives an inkling of the scenario.

The fact is that job losses occurred both in the informal sector as was dramatically evident in the migration of workers from cities to villages, and in the formal sector where innumerable established businesses and enterprises had to shut shop. Salaried and contract jobs alike have been hit with similar ferocity by the lockdown.

Unemployment data from the beginning of 2020 shows that January had brought a glimmer of improvement. Reports of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed the unemployment rate had dipped slightly to around 7.16 per cent in January 2020 as against nearly 8 per cent in some months of 2019. To put the data in perspective, the unemployment rate has in the past been in the region of 3 to 3.5 per cent. It was even 2.2 per cent in 2011-12. It then went on to increase to as much as 6.1 per cent in 2016-17, according to official data. Jobs, or rather the lack of them, had thus already become a looming crisis.

The latest CMIE surveys show that the overall unemployment rate in India is 7.7 per cent as of mid September with urban joblessness at 9 per cent and rural at 7 per cent. This is slightly lower than the 8.35 per cent recorded in August. Even for this month, urban unemployment was higher

than in rural areas. In addition, it seems salaried jobs have taken the biggest hit dur-ing the lockdown due to the pandemic. While informal jobs have returned to the economy, formal or salaried jobs have not come back. Total informal jobs, according to these studies, rose by 2.9 per cent in July 2020 as compared to 2019-20. On the other hand, formal or salaried jobs declined by a huge 22 per cent over the same period.

Clearly, this is a situation that needs to be dealt with on an emergency basis by the government even as it may be finalising its next stimulus package for the economy. To a large extent, the availability of jobs is linked to an economic revival. Any plans for a stimulus thus need to focus on labour-in-tensive sectors. In this scenario, it is signifi-cant that agriculture is the biggest employer with as much as 55 per cent of total employ-ment engaged in this sector. Its share of GDP, in contrast, has dipped to about 16 per cent. Even so, the wide-ranging reforms announced for the agriculture sector could end up providing support to job growth in industries linked to agriculture, including dairy processing, animal husbandry and pisciculture.

The need to revive employment in ur-ban areas and in the manufacturing sec-tor, however, is imperative right now. For the time being, it has to be accepted that the travel, tourism and hospitality sec-tors, which were big employers, will not revive anytime soon. It is thus apparent that the greatest attention must be paid

to the manufacturing sector as it provides sustainable employment in the long run. The aim should be first, to ensure that the existing manufacturing units are able to restart production so that wage payments can be resumed to workers who are facing hardship. State governments need to give greater leeway to industrial units to revive operations instead of imposing temporary lockdowns that do not make much sense even to epidemiologists.

Second, medium and small enterprises that are major employers need to be given much more support. Although a credit package was unveiled for the MSME sec-tor, small businesses felt the net had not been spread wide enough. Plus, there are difficulties for the MSMEs in navigating the ecosystem for credit as well as product marketing.

And finally, far more incentives need to be given for investment in greenfield man-ufacturing units. The ease of doing busi-ness needs to be improved dramatically as despite all the claims, multiple approvals by numerous agencies are still needed be-fore a production unit can be set up and start operations. Cutting red tape both at the Central and state levels needs to be a priority to achieve the goal of luring foreign investment and raising domestic invest-ment. The hopes of investors that the Modi government would bring a magic wand and carry out sweeping reforms to curtail bureaucratic rules have not been fulfilled.

IANS

Economic revival must focus on creating jobs

Himachal opens bordersDecision in line with Centre’s

unlocking policy

7OP-EDIndian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 2020

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

Nicholas KristofIt is killing children through malnutrition. It

is leading more people to die from tuberculo-sis, malaria and AIDS. It is forcing girls out of school and into child marriages. It is causing women to die in childbirth. It is setting back efforts to eradicate polio, fight malaria and re-duce female genital mutilation. It is leading to lapses in vitamin A distribution that will cause more children to suffer blindness and die.

The UN Population Fund warns that CO-VID-19 may lead to an additional 13 million child marriages around the world and to some 47 million women being unable to get access to modern contraception.

In short, a pandemic of disease, illiteracy and extreme poverty is following on the heels of this coronavirus pandemic — and it is hit-ting children hardest.

The greatest impact of COVID-19 may be not on those whom the virus directly infects, but on those shattered by the collapse of econ-omies and health and education systems in developing countries. Many schools and clin-ics are closed, medicines for AIDS and other ailments are sometimes unavailable, and campaigns against malaria and genital mutila-tion are often suspended.

“The indirect impact of COVID-19 in the Global South will be even greater than the di-rect impact,” Dr. Muhammad Musa, executive director of BRAC International, an outstanding Bangladesh-based non-profit, told me. “The direct impact, as tragic as it is, affects those in-

fected and their families. The indirect impact has economic and social consequences for vastly more people — with jobs lost, families hungry, domestic violence up, more children leaving school, and costs over generations.”

Stealth operatorIn this sense, many of those whom CO-

VID-19 kills never actually get the disease. In-stead, they are children who die of measles be-cause they couldn’t get vaccinated in a time of plague — up to 80 million children may miss vaccinations. Or they die of malnutrition be-cause their fathers lost jobs as rickshaw drivers or their mothers couldn’t sell vegetables in the market.

As is often the case in economic crises, the burden falls particularly on girls. More are be-ing married off as children so that the new hus-band’s family will feed them, or they are sent off to the city to work as maids in exchange for food and negligible incomes — while facing an end to education and significant risk of abuse.

“The major challenge being faced by stu-dents is hunger,” said Angeline Murimirwa, executive director for Africa of Camfed Inter-national, which supports girls’ education in developing countries. More than 60% of Cam-fed’s students in Malawi report suffering a lack of food.

Before this crisis, 4% of girls in Zimbabwe married by 14. That figure may now worsen.

Years ago I heard of a wrenching query from a bright and ambitious Kenyan girl: Should she drop out of school and give up her dreams,

or should she accept a sexual relationship with a man who would then pay for her education — but who she feared had HIV? More girls will now face such impossible choices.

The crisis is driven by lockdowns and eco-nomic collapse, coupled with plummeting remittances from overseas. BRAC found that more than two-thirds of the people it works with in Liberia, Nepal, the Philippines and Si-erra Leone said that incomes had been greatly reduced or had disappeared.

“If you’re a day labourer and you’re told you can’t leave your shack one day, the next day you’ve got no income to buy food,” noted Mark Lowcock, the United Nations’ humani-tarian chief. “I would bet my house that there’s going to be an increase in poverty head count, an increase in child mortality, an increase in maternal mortality.”

Lack of funds, concernBill Gates and others are calling on Congress

to include $4 billion in the next American stimulus package to help ensure that everyone worldwide can get vaccinated for the corona-virus. Don’t think of that as charity, but as an investment in global health security — and we also need emergency investments for educa-tion, polio and nutrition.

But, so far, rich countries have mostly been self-absorbed and small-minded, not consid-ering that a distant outbreak can again cross their own borders. A UN appeal for $10 billion for COVID-19 response has raised only about a quarter of that. One of humanity’s triumphs in

modern times has been a historic trend since about 1990 in which extreme poverty (defined as someone living on less than $2 a day, ad-justed for inflation) has tumbled by about two thirds. Tragically, that is now reversed.

The number of people worldwide living in extreme poverty has risen by 37 million since COVID-19 hit, and it will rise another 25 mil-lion next year, according to estimates by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.

At the turn of each year recently, I’ve written a column arguing that the previous year was

the best in human history, based on such met-rics as the risk that a child will die or remain il-literate. I won’t be able to write such a column this winter, or perhaps for years to come.

I asked Lowcock if COVID-19 is a setback for that era of progress, or a bookend.

“At a minimum this is going to be a signifi-cant blip,” he said. “If we’re not careful, it’s go-ing to be worse than a blip. It could knock back for decades some of the progress that has been made.”

Gulf News

Coronavirus is wrecking havoc in poor nations

When cities and towns in the US erupted in protests this summer after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the neck of a Black man until he stopped breathing, President Donald Trump seized on a familiar Republican theme to boost his re-election campaign.

“I am your law-and-order president,” he declared. Trump blamed the spread-ing disorder on “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters (and) low-lifes.” He sent federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops into city streets, and claimed that if Joe Biden wins the

presidency, “no city, town or suburb will be safe.”

Shortly before she resigned last month, one of the president’s advisers, Kelly-anne Conway, even observed - perhaps too candidly - that street violence was good for the president’s campaign.

At first, it looked as if Trump had found a potent message. Voters told pollsters they were increasingly worried about the urban clashes. Biden, thrown on the defensive, protested that he’s against violence too, but Trump derided his re-sponse as weak.

No magic bulletBut nothing happened: The two candi-

dates’ standing with voters didn’t budge.Before George Floyd’s death in Min-

neapolis on May 25, Biden stood at 49% in national polls against 43% for Trump, according to the average calculated by the website FiveThirtyEight. This week, the numbers were 51% for Biden and 44% for Trump - virtually unchanged.

“Law and order,” it turned out, was no magic bullet.

On Monday, a Trump adviser told Re-uters that the president’s campaign will focus on the economy for the final weeks of the campaign - a tacit admission that his earlier message wasn’t working.

Trump appears to have miscalculated in several ways.

First, campaign strategists and poll-sters say, law and order never rose to become the top issue on most voters’ minds - not even when violent protests erupted in Portland, Ore., and Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Pandemic questionIn most polls, Trump’s bungling of the

pandemic, which has killed more than 195,000 Americans, and widespread un-employment still ranked above fears of the mostly peaceful protests against po-lice brutality and systemic racism.

“People want to know what you’re go-ing to do to defeat the virus, and then how you’re going to get America work-ing,” Republican pollster David Winston told me.

If a candidate hasn’t answered those questions clearly, he said, undecided voters aren’t going to focus on anything

less important to their lives.Second, Trump misunderstood what

the public wanted a president to do when widespread protests against police misconduct spawned sporadic violence.

The president was correct in his view that most voters in both parties reject disorder and want to see it end.

No constructive solutionsBut in the eyes of most Americans,

Trump wasn’t offering constructive so-lutions, as a survey released last week by the polling firm YouGov showed.

When voters were asked whether Trump “made things better” when he talked about race, 52% of voters said he had made the situation worse.

That’s not only Democrats talking; about 1 in 7 people who voted for Trump in 2016 said they think the president has made race relations worse.

Asked whether they believe a second Trump term will produce more violence or less, 53% said more. Only 30% said they believed a Biden presidency would result in more violence.

In short, most voters think the presi-dent has become part of the problem, not part of the solution.

His law-and-order pitch did appeal to one group of voters: those who already back him.

As my colleague Noah Bierman found on a visit to one of the Pennsylvania counties that delivered the state to Trump four years ago, many of the presi-dent’s supporters like what he was say-ing.

“There’s always gonna be racism, but it’s not him that’s doing it,” Wendy Wil-

liams, a white, 53-year-old stay-at-home mom, told him. “And if the riots don’t get taken care of, it’s just making it worse.”

But Trump’s law-and-order pitch doesn’t appear to have won back many of the suburban women who voted for him in 2016 but have since drifted away.

Harsh scrutinyIn the YouGov poll, produced for

Yahoo, women and suburban voters judged Trump more harshly than voters in general.

One last number from the YouGov poll: 51% of Americans say they believe Trump is “a racist.” That’s not a good sign for him.

“If Trump appeals to prejudice, he risks losing at least as many voters as he stands to gain,” Dan Hopkins, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylva-nia, told me.

When Trump embarked on his “law and order” campaign, it sounded like a knowing echo of Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign, when the coun-try was wracked by anti-war protests and urban riots.

But Nixon coupled his tough crack-down message with a promise of na-tional reconciliation. His campaign’s final slogan, borrowed from a teenage girl’s hand-lettered placard, was “Bring Us Together.”

Trump hasn’t offered that kind of uni-fying appeal. There’s not much “bring us together” in his campaign.

That, as much as any other factor, is why so many voters appear to have de-cided that it’s time for a change.

Gulf News

Trump has no unifying appeal for Americans

By Mick O’ReillyYoshihide Suga stifled a smile,

stood up from his seat and bowed five times — a formal ac-knowledgement to a thunder-ing ovation in Japan’s Diet on Wednesday that he had become the nation’s 99th Prime Minister. With that act of public humil-ity, the longest administration in modern Japanese history came to an end. Suga, long the quiet, ef-fective and functionary second-in-charge now leads Japan as it faces daunting political, eco-nomic and societal changes.

With support in the Lower House secured, Suga’s position was confirmed in the Upper House and he then named a cabi-net that was simply surprising if only for its lack of surprises.

During a 30-minute news con-ference following his appoint-ment, Suga remained on script, repeating that he would continue with Abenomics — revitalising Japan’s economy, promoting digitalisation and pledging to tackle burdensome bureaucracy, cut taxes and overcome the mal-aise brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

If there was a hint of emotion in his speech, it came with a prom-ise to repatriate Japanese citizens

kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s — also a high priority in the Abe administra-tion.

Simply put, Suga was quite happy to be publicly seen as Abe’s right-hand man — and seems comfortable with that sup-porting moniker now.

Of 20 ministers in Suga’s new cabinet, there are just five new faces — including Abe’s young-er brother as defence minister — while Taro Aso stays on as fi-nance minister, Toshimitsu Mo-tegi remains foreign minister and Yasutoshi Nishimura stays on as minister in charge of economic revitalisation and the govern-ment’s coronavirus response.

Perhaps the biggest challenge now facing this 71-year-old whose favourite snack is pan-cakes and sugar syrup is convinc-ing Japanese voters that he’s the right man for the top job now.

But over the past month, when it became clear that a worsening ulcerative stomach condition would curtail Abe’s near decade-long rule, Japanese are warming to the farmer’s son.

Over the past eight years, Suga remained in the spotlight with twice-daily media briefings and a reputation for managing Japan’s

complex bureaucracy.As the administration’s public

face, he had the task of unveiling the name of the new imperial era in 2019, when it was confirmed that Emperor Akihito was stand-ing down. The new era under Emperor Naruhito, suga an-nounced, was to be called Reiwa — meaning “beautiful harmony”.

When he appeared in a festival hosted by online video-sharing giant Niconico, he was greeted by a burst of applause from the mostly young audience, with some even waving and scream-ing at him as if he were a rock star. Suga said he was flattered by the attention, smiling shyly at the mention of his new nickname, “Reiwa ojisan” — “Uncle Reiwa.”

Path to premiershipSuga was born in 1948 into a

family of farmers in Akita Prefec-ture. Upon graduating from high school, he left for Tokyo in search of a leg up and wound up work-ing for a cardboard factory in the capital’s Itabashi Ward.

He then worked his way up to become a politician in 1987 when he successfully ran as an assem-blyman in Yokohama, before debuting as a Lower House law-maker in 1996. As he has recalled in his past interviews with the

media, it wasn’t until 2001 when he fully took notice of Abe, who was then deputy chief Cabinet secretary. The two men imme-diately hit it off over North Ko-rean issues at a time when Tokyo had a sense of urgency regarding Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests, and as the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Ko-rea in the 1970s and 80s became a hot topic in 2002.

He later served as internal af-fairs minister under Abe’s first, scandal-laden administration, which lasted only a year until 2007. Unfazed by Abe’s poor performance, Suga in 2012 con-vinced him to run again for the Liberal Democratic Party presi-dential election — helping cata-pult him back into power.

Since then, the two have been close allies — making Suga’s rise to the top position a natural progression. For a man comfort-able with the minutiae of ruling and party politics, Suga comes to the helm at a time when Japan is struggling with challenges in a traditional and ageing society, an economy that ticks over and a neighbour in China who has ambitions in the South China Sea. Added to that, the existential threat posed by Pyongyang’s nu-

clear programme and by height-ened tensions across the Strait of Taiwan mean Suga will need to raise his profile quickly and effec-tively on the regional and global stage.

Role modelSuga often cites as his role

model samurai warrior Toyotomi Hidenaga, who is widely credited with helping Toyotomi Hideyo-

shi, his elder brother and a leg-endary warlord from the 1500s, cement his rule. Similarly, his strength within the LDP stems from the fact that he’s not seen as being any faction’s camp — other than being a loyal and effective second-in-charge to Abe. But will that be enough for the party now that he’s in the top job?

Gulf News

Yoshihide Suga — The right-hand man is now centre stage

International8 Indian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 2020

ELECTION POLL SHOWS BIDEN LEADS TRUMP % IN ARIZONAWashington, Sep 18 (IANS) An infl uential election pro-jection agency shifted the US presidential race in the state of Arizona toward Democratic nominee Joe Biden, as its lat-est poll found the former vice president led President Don-ald Trump by 5 percentage points in the state.A poll from the Kaiser Family Founda-tion (KFF) and Cook Political Report released on Thursday

showed Biden led Trump 45-40 per cent, larger than the Democrat’s lead over the Re-publican incumbent in other battleground states like Flori-da and North Carolina, in both of which the edges were within the margins of error, Xinhua news agency reported.An-other troubling sign for Trump in Arizona, which he won by

a narrow 3.5-point advantage over Hillary Clinton in 2016, is that only about 73 per cent of Republicans said they will def-initely vote for the president in November, with another 9 per cent saying they are probably or defi nitely casting their bal-lot for Biden, the KFF-Cook poll showed.Furthermore, support for Trump from Ari-

zona’s Latino community was also lagging - 17 per cent com-pared to Biden’s 55 per cent among the group.

“The new data in this poll, combined with other recent polling in the state, all fi nd Arizona slipping away from Trump,” Cook’s elections ana-lyst Amy Walter said. “We are moving it from Toss Up to Lean

Democrat.”The KFF-Cook poll surveyed 1,298 registered vot-ers in Arizona between August 29 and September 13. It has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.US media projected an easier path for Biden toward winning the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim victory in the election if he carries Arizona.

Syrian forces target two Turkish armoured

vehicles in Idlib

Islamabad, Sep 18 (IANS) The Pakistan High Commis-sion in London has received arrest warrants sent by the Imran Khan-led government for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it was reported on Friday.The Mission was yet to make an offi cial com-

ment on the development but sources confi rmed that it had received the paperwork regarding the arrest warrants, Dawn news reported.

The sources further said that all legal formalities and procedures would be followed in this regard.Meanwhile, the

assistant registrar of the Is-lamabad High Court (IHC) di-rected the Foreign Secretary to ensure that the former leader appears before it on Septem-ber 22.In 2017, the High Com-mission had received bailable arrest warrants for Hasan, Hussain, Maryam Nawaz and

Captain Mohammad Safdar in National Accountability Bu-reau (NAB) cases.

The IHC earlier this week had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former Prime Minister, while dismissing his application seeking exemp-tion from personal appear-

ance in the hearing of appeals against his conviction in the Al-Azizia and Avenfi eld prop-erties corruption cases.

Sharif has been in the UK since November 2019, after getting bail from the court on medical grounds and se-curing permission from the

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf gov-ernment.Earlier this month, he was declared a proclaimed offender over his continuous absence from proceedings and an Accountability Court issued a perpetual warrant for his arrest over his contin-ued no-show.

Damascus, Sep 18 (IANS) Syr-ian forces targeted two Turkish armoured vehicles in the north-western province of Idlib on Fri-day, a war monitor reported.

The targeting took place near a village in the Zawiya Mountain in the southern countryside of Idlib, said the Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the vehicles were set ablaze with no reports on casu-alties yet, Xinhua news agency reported.

This comes as the Syrian forces renewed shelling on rebel positions in the southern coun-tryside of Idlib after midnight, said the Observatory.In another report, the Observatory said the

Turkish forces brought in a new batch of military gears and logis-tic support to Turkish observa-tion points in Idlib.

It said Turkey has brought in 6,330 military vehicles and thou-sands of troops into Syria since the ceasefi re went into force in March.The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the presence of Turkish forces in Syria, branding them as “forces of occupation.”

NATO membership is Ukraine’s strategic course: President

Kiev, Sep 18 (IANS) Ukrai-nian President Volodymyr Zel-ensky has said that becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is Ukraine’s strategic course, the presidency’s offi cial website re-ported on Thursday.Speaking at the opening ceremony of the “Rapid Trident-2020” multina-tional military exercise, Zelen-sky noted that the armed con-

fl ict in Donbas poses a threat to the security of not only Ukraine, but also all European countries and the world as a whole, Xin-hua news agency reported on Thursday.

Ukraine is uniting with its partners, through integration into the NATO for example, to address that threat, he said.

Zelensky added that he has approved the National Security Strategy of Ukraine earlier this week, in which NATO member-ship is referred to as the coun-try’s strategic course.

Last year, Ukraine’s parlia-ment backed amendments to the Constitution, confirming Ukraine’s path toward the NATO. In June this year, the NATO recognized Ukraine as its Enhanced Opportunities Partner.

PAK HIGH COMMISSION IN LONDON RECEIVES WARRANTS FOR SHARIF

Doha talks will be difficult, tough decisions needed : Abdullah

KOREAS TO MARK PYONGYANG SUMMIT ANNIVERSARY

Tropical storm Noul

makes landfall in Thailand

UN PEACEKEEPING MEMBER STATES URGED TO PAY ASSESSED CONTRIBUTIONS

Kabul, Sep 18 (IANS) Abdul-lah Abdullah, Chairman of Af-ghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, has said that the talks between gov-ernment and the Taliban will be diffi cult, stating that the Af-ghan team will face issues that will require hard decisions to be made.

“I don’t say that these talks will be very simple, these talks will be very hard. We will face issues that will need hard deci-sions to be made,” TOLO News quoted Abdullah as saying in a statement on Thursday.

“But the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghani-stan has gone to Qatar with the support of the government and politicians,” he added.Abdullah also pledged that all

the achievements of the last 20 years will be preserved during the negotiations.

“Citizens’ rights, women’s rights, human rights, victims’ and minorities’ rights, jus-tice and freedoms that were achieved through many sac-rifi ces, will be preserved in these talks,” he said.Mean-while, Acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar

has said that Kabul consid-ers reaching a ceasefi re a “key step” in the negotiations, re-ports TOLO News.

“To achieve a lasting peace, we consider the ceasefire a fundamental step, and peace can be secure when it guar-antees the preservation of the country’s independence and territorial integrity,” said Atmar.

This comes as contact groups of Afghan government and the Taliban continue their discus-sions about the procedural structure of the talks in Doha.

A member of the Afghan delegation told TOLO News on Thursday that there was a possibility the two sides will fi -nalize their discussions on the procedures by Saturday.

Tehran, Sep 18 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed fresh US attempt at extending a UN arms em-bargo on Tehran."Nothing new happens" in the com-ing days as "the US is not a participant" in the Iranian

nuclear deal, international-ly known as the Joint Com-prehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Zarif tweeted on Thursday.Zarif's remarks came a day after US Secre-tary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington "will re-turn to the United Nations

to reimpose sanctions so that the arms embargo will become permanent next week", Xinhua news agency reported.

The administration US President Donald Trump has sought to invoke the snapback mechanism to restore all pre-2015 UN sanctions against Iran af-ter its failed attempt in the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo against Iran.Under UN Se-curity Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA in 2015, the arms embargo against Iran will expire on Oct 18.

Iran Foreign Minister dismisses fresh US attempt at extending UN arms embargo

United Nations, Sep 18 (IANS) The UN peacekeep-ing chief said that it was critical for member states to pay their assessed contribu-tions in full and in due time.

"We are going through pressures on the peacekeep-ing budget," Jean-Pierre La-croix, under-secretary-gen-eral for Peace Operations, said during a virtual news briefing on Thursday.

"A certain degree of pres-sure is a healthy thing for peacekeeping, because that, of course, incentiv-izes us to spend cautiously and imprudently," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.However, Lac-roix said that it is "critical" for UN peacekeeping that

member states pay in full and in due time their contri-butions to both UN peace-keeping budget and regular budget".

"Otherwise, it will hurt the interests of troops and police of contributing countries. When peace-keeping incurs delays in the payment of contribution, those who are affected pri-marily are troop and police contributing countries be-

cause the UN has to delay reimbursement and we think it's unfair.

"They should be reim-bursed in due time and that requires a full payment of assessed contributions and payment in due time," said the UN peacekeeping chief.

Speaking about major challenges, Lacroix said that the biggest one was division in the international com-munity.

Noting that the ultimate objective of peacekeeping is to support political efforts, he said "we cannot be alone in doing this".

"We need more unity of purpose, and we need a stronger political support from stakeholders," he said.

Bangkok, Sep 18 (IANS) The Thai Meteorological Depart-ment (TMD) on Friday issued a warning to 24 provinces to brace for fl ooding as tropi-cal storm Noul made landfall in the country's north and north-east regions.

Noul is as devastating as tropical storm Podul, which caused widespread fl ooding in the Nakhon Phanom prov-ince last August, Xinhua news agency quoted the TMD as saying.

Noul is currently increasing in strength as it approaches Vietnam and is likely to de-velop into a typhoon, said the TMD, adding that it was closely monitoring whether it weakens into a tropical storm as it sweeps through upper Thailand.

The northeast, the TMD said, is forecast to be show-ered with more than 90 mm of rainfall and may cause fl ood-ing in the region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior has also warned river-side residents in the 24 prov-incesto brace for fl ash fl oods or runoffs as tropical storm Noul, currently a Category 3 storm, will likely turn into Category 5 or a typhoon.

Seoul, Sep 18 (IANS) South and North Korea will on Saturday commemorate the second anniversary of their Pyongyang summit deal, amid a stalemate in bilateral ties and denuclear-ization talks.

Also due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no ma-jor offi cial ceremony planned to mark the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration, reports Yonhap news Agency.

Under the agreement, signed by South Korean Presi-dent Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the two sides were supposed to resume operations of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mount Kumgang tour program, "as conditions mature", and also to explore "substantial measures" to fur-

ther advance exchanges and cooperation.

There has been little prog-ress, however, with the Korea peace process stalled since Kim's no-deal Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump last year.The Moon

administration is struggling to revive the momentum of dia-logue.Speaking at a meeting at the Presidential Palace here on Friday, Moon said:"If (we) don't give up hope for meet-ings and dialogue, we will surely move on to the path of

peace and unifi cation."The President pointed out

that he and Kim had declared their commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula in front of 80 million Koreans and the world, Yonhap News Agency reported.

He is expected to use his video speech at the virtual session of the UN General As-sembly next week in the hope of playing a "facilitator or me-diator" role once again to help break the deadlock.

Moon is expected to use his forthcoming U.N. speech in the hope of playing a “facili-tator or mediator” role once again to help break the dead-lock. He will likely make peace overtures toward the North in next week’s video speech at the virtual session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Islamabad, Sep 18 (IANS) Paki-stan will set up three markets along the borders with Afghanistan and Iran by February 2021 to promote business activities and help the people in the border areas, Prime Minister Imran Khan's Offi ce said.

Khan, who presided over a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Thursday, approved the establish-ment of the markets as a pilot proj-ect, Xinhua news agency quoted the Offi ce as saying in a statement.

Under the pilot project, the three markets, two in Balochistan and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will be completed and opera-tional by February in 2021.A total of 12 markets are expected to be established along the border with Afghanistan while six markets

along the border with Iran, ac-cording to the statement.Speak-ing on the occasion, Khan that these markets will provide better business and trade opportuni-ties to the people living along the border areas.

He added that fencing of the borders will help in organizing the cross-border movement and curb-ing smuggling.

The premier directed the con-cerned departments to complete training of the staff to be deployed at the border markets and offi cial border crossings, according to the statement.The meeting also de-cided to take effective steps to stop cross-border smuggling, which ac-cording to offi cials, badly affect the locals in the areas.

Pakistan to set up markets along

Afghanistan, Iran borders

Business 9Indian Horizon Saturday, September 19, 2020

Despite crude on rebound, sharp cuts in fuel prices in India

Google Play store removes Paytm app citing gambling

policy

SMBs can account for 30% of India’s Public Cloud market: Nasscom

US stocks drop amid tech struggleNew York, Sep 18 (IANS) US stocks fin-

ished lower as shares of big tech names struggled, weighing on the market.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 130.40 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 27,901.98. The S&P 500 fell 28.48 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 3,357.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 140.19 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 10,910.28, Xinhua news agency reported.

Shares of major US tech giants such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all closed low-er. Of the S&P 500 sector level, commu-nication services and technology dipped 1.84 per cent and 0.84 per cent, respec-tively, among the worst performers.

US-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower, with six of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P US Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

The moves came after data showed jobless claims in the United States de-

clined only slightly last week.US initial jobless claims, a rough way

to measure layoffs, came in at 860,000 in the week ending September 12, fol-lowing an upwardly revised level of 893,000 in the prior week, the Depart-ment of Labor reported Thursday. The reading slightly exceeded the median economist estimate of 850,000 com-piled by Bloomberg.

Continuing claims, or the number of people already receiving benefits, stood at 12.63 million for the week end-ing September 5, showed the report. Wall Street also digested the Federal Reserve’s latest decision on monetary policy.

The US central bank on Wednesday held its benchmark interest rate steady at the record-low level of near zero and promised to maintain this target range until labour market conditions have improved to reach maximum employ-ment and inflation has picked up to its desirable level.

Venezuela hails record level of compliance’ with OPEC+ deal

Boeing appoints new chief strategy officer

Fin Min directs customs for strict scrutiny of imports to prevent FTA misuse

NBFC delinquencies could see up to 250 bps spike this fiscal

Kia Motors india launches its compact suV sonet

Caracas, Sep 18 (IANS) The OPEC+ co-operation agreement saw “a record level of compliance” in August, Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said.

“We applaud the excellent results of the cooperative work of OPEC+,” El Ais-sami said on Twitter on Thursday, adding the level of compliance with production quotas in August was 101 per cent.

El Aissami’s remarks came on the side-lines of the 22nd meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, a body made up of the member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Export-ing Countries and other producing na-tions, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The projections for the recovery of the world economy for 2021 are encouraging. However, OPEC+ countries must con-tinue to be alert to the negative effects of Covid-19, which continue to impact the world’s economies and the global energy industry,” he warned.

Venezuela attended the meeting in the spirit of “dialogue and cooperation as the way to overcome today’s difficulties”, the Minister added.

The Committee holds monthly online

meetings to assess the performance of the oil market and compliance with pro-duction quotas by member countries of the OPEC+ cooperation agreement.

Meanwhile, oil prices advanced on Thursday as the Organization of the Pe-troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies stressed importance of compli-ance with output cuts quotas.

The West Texas Intermediate for Oc-tober delivery rose 81 cents to settle at $40.97 a barrel on the New York Mercan-tile Exchange, while Brent crude for No-vember delivery climbed $1.08 to $43.30 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Ex-change.

“In the current environment, the JMMC emphasised the importance of be-ing pro-active and pre-emptive and rec-ommended that participating countries should be willing to take further neces-sary measures when needed,” the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee said in a statement.

Thursday’s market movement fol-lowed a massive rally in the prior session that saw both crude benchmarks surge more than 4 per cent.

Washington, Sep 18 (IANS) American airplane giant Boe-ing has named B. Marc Allen as its new chief strategy offi-cer and senior vice president for strategy and corporate development. On Thursday, the company also announced Christopher Raymond as the company’s chief sustainabil-ity officer, a newly created position reporting to Execu-tive Vice President of Enter-prise Operations and Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith, reports Xinhua news agency.

Allen, first appointed to the company’s Executive Council

in 2014 as president of Boeing International, will now take on responsibility for the enter-prise’s overarching strategy, including long-term planning, global business and corporate

development, and strategic investments, acquisitions and divestitures, Boeing said.

Before joining the Execu-tive Council, Allen served in leadership positions across

the enterprise as president of Boeing Capital Corporation, president of Boeing China, vice president for Global Law Affairs and general counsel to Boeing International.

“Marc is a creative, inclusive and forward-thinking leader whose strategic vision will help Boeing navigate the chal-lenges facing the global aero-space market and position us for long-term success in the future,” Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun said.

As Boeing’s first chief sus-tainability officer, Raymond will be responsible for fur-

ther advancing Boeing’s ap-proach to sustainability that is focused on environmental, social and governance priori-ties, stakeholder-oriented re-porting and company perfor-mance, according to Boeing.

Raymond first gained re-sponsibility for Boeing’s sus-tainability strategy in April when his role leading strat-egy was expanded to integrate corporate development and deepen the company’s focus on environmental and social considerations.

The appointments are ef-fective October 1.

New Delhi, Sept. Sep 18 (IANS) Government has di-rected customs formations across the country for strict scrutiny of all imports from free trade agreement (FTA) countries to prevent entry of goods at concessional duty misusing the country of ori-gin rules.

The idea is to plug third country imports from coun-tries such as China reach ing India using the concessional duty or zero-duty benefit available under FT As.

While India has signed FTAs with several key coun-tries, such as Japan, South Ko-rea, ASEAN members (which include Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam), it do es not have a similar arrangement with China.

Finance ministry sources said that from September 21, when new rules of orig in under FTAs comes into force, customs officials would strict-ly verify all major import con-signments to check for any misuse of the trade agreement and would also need proper verification documents to be provided by importers.

The FTA imports, particu-

larly of electronic items, re-frigerators, air-conditioner, camera, mobiles and tele-com equipment, set-top box, parts like head phones, cam-era modules, aggarbatti, and other items in which rampant misuse is likely, would be un-der the lens and Importers claiming benefits will face s trict scrutiny by customs.

From September 21 the

new rules - Customs (Admin-istration of Rules of Origin un-der Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 or CAROTAR comes into effect that casts a greater onus on the importer to satisfy cus-toms officials that the goods being imported and claim-ing FTA benefits meet the 35 percent value addition in the country of export.

Preferential duty would be denied if sufficient dec-laration is not given by the importer. Also, if it is found that benefit has been wrongly availed in respect of a con-signment, the FTA benefit would be denied in subse-quent consignments of iden-tical goods.

The customs department is explaining the new Rules and necessary precautions that

importers require to take to comply with these Rules so as to avoid hassles later, said the Finance Ministry Sources adding that stricter provisions on rules of origin have been introduced as the domestic industry was claiming serious damage on accounts of these imports and had been urging the Government to take strict action to curb such irregular imports done by flouting FTA provisions.

A look at trade with FTA countries makes this point clearer. While India’s exports to FTA partner countries has remained flat, imports have risen rapidly with the trade deficit widening from $5 bil-lion in 2000 when ASEAN FTA was implemented to more than $22 billion now.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Petrol and diesel prices in the country have fallen sharply again even though global oil prices rebounded and rose over $43 a barrel, marking its fifth consecutive day of rise.

On Friday, the pump prices of petrol and diesel fell by 26 and 35 paisa per litre, respec-tively in the national capital making it one of the sharpest daily fall in last five months.

Accordingly, petrol is now at Rs 81.14 a litre and diesel Rs 72.02 a litre in Delhi.

In the last two days of price cuts, petrol has become cheaper by 41 paisa per litre while diesel 54 paisa per litre.

This is fourth fall in petrol prices and eighth reduction in diesel prices this month. Prior to this month while petrol prices had risen, diesel prices remained steady or fell on few days. According to Indian Oil

Corporation website, petrol prices have now reduced to Rs 81.14, Rs 82.67, Rs 87.82 and Rs 84.21 a litre in Delhi, Kolk-ata, Mumbai and Chennai, re-spectively. Similarly the price of diesel in these metros in the same order stands at Rs 72.02, Rs 75.52, Rs 78.48 and Rs 77.40 per litre, respectively.

Friday’s price cuts has been in the range of 23-26 paisa in the case of petrol and 33-37 paisa in the case of diesel.

The latest changes in retail prices of auto fuel is in line with global price movement of the product in preceding weeks when prices had soft-ened. But crude prices have risen in the last five days with benchmark Brent crude hov-ering over $43 a barrel for November delivery on Inter Continental Exchange. Even US crude WTI has shot over $41 barrel mark.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Google has removed digital payments major Paytm’s app from its Play Store for alleg-edly violating its gambling policies.

“Paytm Android app is temporarily unavailable on Google’s Play Store for new downloads or updates. It will be back very soon,” the com-pany said in a tweet on Friday.

“All your money is com-pletely safe, and you can con-tinue to enjoy your Paytm app as normal,” it added.

Google said that it does not allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting.

“When an app violates these policies, we notify the developer of the violation and

remove the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance, Su-zanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy, wrote in a blog post.

One of India’s most valu-able startups, Paytm, which competes with Google Pay, earlier this month said that that revenue for the fiscal year ended on March 31 increased to Rs 3,629 crore with a 40 per cent decline in losses.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) With Cloud adoption among India’s small and medium-sized businesses growing, they can account for 28-30 per cent of the country’s Public Cloud market by 2025, a Nass-com report said on Friday.

In a survey of over 1,000 SMBs in India, 60 per cent said they are already using Cloud, though almost half are at early stages of adoption, said the re-port titled “SMB Cloud Adop-tion in India: Towards a Cloud First nation.”

India’s Public Cloud market stands at Rs 170 billion in fis-cal 2020 and is growing at ap-proximately 30 per cent com-pound annual growth rate till FY2025 to reach Rs 630 billion, Nasscom said.

“As India aims to become a Cloud-first nation and with the government’s push for Cloud adoption by MSMEs, it will be crucial for SMBs in India to think of themselves

as digital enterprises and lead the E-revolution for India,” Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom, said in a statement.

The research showed that best in class SMBs that ad-opted Cloud have been able to drive 25-30 per cent produc-tivity improvement and 15-20 per cent reduction in opera-tional costs.

More than 50 per cent of the respondents cited lack of management support, talent and capital as key constraints for Cloud adoption.

The report said that pro-gressive policies and aware-ness programmes can accel-erate cloud adoption at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has already fast-tracked digi-tal transformation of compa-nies across all verticals.

SMBs are the backbone of India’s economy. In fis-cal 2019, they accounted for $952 billion in revenue which translates to 34 per cent share in GDP and employed 110 million people, second only to agriculture, Nasscom said.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The rapid increase in Covid-19 afflic-tions and intermittent lockdowns will increase asset quality chal-lenges of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), already grap-pling with the economic slowdown since last fiscal, Crisil Ratings said on Friday.

According to Crisil, the trend in monthly collection efficiency till August 31, 2020 (unadjusted for moratorium) shows there is still some way to go before reaching pre-pandemic levels. While the re-cent restructuring scheme afford-ed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be a leash on reported non-performing assets (NPAs), underlying challenges continue.

Loan delinquencies of NBFCs could dart up 50-250 basis points (bps) this fiscal, depending on the segment of operation, because of vulnerability in borrower cash flows. This is a base-case estimate without factoring in loan restruc-

turing and the Covid-19 affliction curve, the report of the agency said. Assets under management (AUM) of NBFCs are also expected to de-grow this fiscal. Managing collections, after the end of mora-torium, is crucial.

Moratorium uptake was higher in April and May, while collections were slack with a stringent lock-down in place. Though collections have improved since June as the economy began opening up, the pace of improvement and extent of ultimate credit losses will be the key monitorables going forward.

According to Krishnan Sitaram-an, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings : “While there has been an im-provement across segments over the past four months, collections in the wholesale, MSME, and un-secured segments are still much lower than before the pandemic. Now that the moratorium has ended, self-employed borrowers are likely to be impacted more be-cause of slow resumption of eco-nomic activity and continued local restrictions. On the other hand, the salaried borrower segment will be more resilient despite pay cuts and job losses.”

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Au-tomobile manufacturer Kia Mo-tors India on Friday launched its first-ever compact SUV “Sonet” in India. According to the company, the Sonet’s entry-level ‘HTE smart-stream G1.2 5MT’ variant debuts at Rs 671,000 (ex-showroom, pan-India).

The Sonet is being offered across 17 variants, including two petrol engines, two diesel engines, five transmissions and two trim lev-els - Tech Line and GT-Line. The company announced that it has re-ceived over 25,000 bookings for its new compact SUV so far.

“Offered first to Indian custom-ers, the Sonet is being produced

at the company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing unit at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units, which will allow Kia to smoothly cater to the increasing demand for Sonet by Indian as well as international consumers,” the company said in a statement.

Business indian Horizon saturday, september 19, 202010

Sensex sheds gains in last hour sell-off, finance stocks fall

Angel Broking’s iPO opens on sep 22, price band set at Rs 305-306

seBi tells MFs to put in place policy for trade execution, allocation

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) The Securities and Ex-change Board of India (SEBI) has made it manda-tory for mutual fund houses to put in place a policy specifying the specific roles and responsibilities of various teams engaged in activities dealing with or-der placement, execution of order, trade allocation amongst various schemes.

In a circular, the market regulator said that the policy shall ensure that all the schemes and its in-vestors are treated in a fair and equitable manner.

“It has been decided that AMCs shall put in place a written down policy which inter-alia detail the specific activities, role and responsibilities of vari-ous teams engaged in fund management, dealing, compliance, risk management, back-office, etc., with regard to order placement, execution of order, trade allocation amongst various schemes and oth-er related matters,” it said.

As per the circular, for orders pertaining to equity and equity related instruments, asset management companies (AMC) shall use an automated Order Management System (OMS), wherein the orders for equity and equity related instruments of each scheme shall be placed by the fund manager of the respective schemes.

In case a fund manager is managing multiple schemes, the fund manager shall necessarily place scheme wise order, it said. “All regulatory limits and allocation limits as specified in SID shall be in-built in the OMS to ensure that orders in breach of such limits are not accepted by the OMS.”

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) The Indian stock market reversed all its gains made during the day in the last hour of trade to end in the red on Friday, with the BSE Sensex settling 134 points lower.

Analysts said that the sudden sell-off was trig-gered as funds started rebalancing the portfolio to realign with FTSE rebalancing.

Rahul Sharma, Market Strategist & Research Head, Equity99 Advisors, said: “We witnessed a sudden sell-off in the mid-trading session as funds started rebalancing the portfolio to realign with FTSE rebalancing.”

He noted that, going forward developments on the US elections front will continue to dominate trading sentiments globally. “Already, big traders are reducing their position in equity markets and shifting into currency trade where there is less risk than equity ahead of the US elections,” he said.

The sell-off in the Indian market was led by the banking and finance stocks - the BSE Finance index closed 1.16 per cent lower and the BSE Banking in-dex 1.13 per cent. The BSE Sensex, which opened at the day’s high of 39,200.42, closed at 38,845.82, lower by 134.03 points, or 0.34 per cent, from the previous close of 38,979.85.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at trading at 11,504.95, lower by 11.15 points, or 0.1 per cent, from its previous close of 11,516.10 points. Manish Hathiramani, technical analyst with Deen Dayal Investments, said: “The markets con-tinue to respect the 11,500 level which is heartening for the bulls. The key level to be respected is 11,300-11,350 and if we can manage that, we should be able to achieve 11,800 by the expiry next week.”

equity indices trim major initial gains,

sensex up 65 points

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) The Indian stock market gave up major gains on Fri-day morning with the BSE Sensex trading just 65 points higher.

During the initial trade it surged as much as 220 points to touch an intra-day high of 39,200.42 points.

A mixed trend in the Asian markets re-flected on the Indian indices.

Around 10.26 a.m., it was trading at 39,044.88, higher by 65.03 points or 0.17 per cent from the previous close of 38,979.85.

It opened at 39,200.42 and has record-ed an intra-day low of 39,017.88 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Ex-change was trading at 11,552.30, higher by 36.20 points or 0.31 per cent from its previous close.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Retail broking house Angel Broking Limited will open its initial public offering (IPO) of equity shares on September 22, 2020.

The offer will close on September 24, 2020. The price band of the offer has been fixed at Rs 305 to Rs 306 per equity share. The company plans to raise Rs 600 crore through the offering of equity shares.

“The initial public offering consists of the equity shares of the company aggregating up to Rs 6,000 million (600 crore) comprises of a fresh issue com-pany aggregating up to Rs 3,000 (300 crore) and an offer for sale aggregating up to Rs 3,000 million (300 crore),” a company statement said.

The offer for sale would consist of Rs 18.33 crore and up to Rs 4.5 crore worth of shares by the promot-ers Ashok D. Thakkar and Sunita A. Magnani, and up to Rs 120 crore worth of shares by the investor IFC and up to Rs 157.16 crore of shares by the individual shareholders respectively. Bids can be made for a minimum of 49 Equity Shares and in multiples of 49 Equity Shares thereafter.

The Equity Shares offered in the offer are proposed to be listed at both BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited.

Apple says happy Diwali with 1st India online store on Sep 23New Delhi, Sep 18

(IANS) Ending months of speculation, Apple is launching its first exclu-sive branded online store in India on September 23 just ahead of the fes-tive season, offering a full range of products, support and premium experience to consumers and the large aspirational fan base across the country.

For logistics support, Apple has partnered with Blue Dart to be its on-ground fulfillment part-ner. Given the current pandemic situation, cus-tomers can expect safe, contactless deliveries in 24-72 hours from the date

of purchase of all pre-mium and new products, including the ones (Apple Watch Series 6 and new iPad Air) launched earlier this week.

“We are super excited to bring Apple Store Online to India. We love the pas-sion Indians have for our products and supporting them has been our pas-sion too. The Online Store will ensure seamless, safe and contactless delivery of our products in these Covid times as safety of staff and customers is our topmost priority.” Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail + People, told IANS.

The Apple India store, the 38th online store worldwide, would have specialists to lend expert advice and support to the Indian customers.

From learning more about product features to setting up new devices, customers can receive guidance directly from Apple, including online

support in English and phone support in Hindi and English.

Those who buy Apple products will be eligible for a 30-minute, one-on-one online session with a trained executive to ex-plore more about the de-vice, set it up and or solve any other query.

The online store also

provides the ability to cus-tom-configure any Mac with just a few clicks.

With financing options and available trade-in programme, the Apple Store Online offers a range of affordability options.

Students can shop for a Mac or iPad with special pricing, and receive dis-counts on accessories and Apple Care+ that extends warranty with up to two years of technical support and accidental damage cover.

Apple currently has third-party reseller outlets and online channels to sell its devices in the coun-try and its own branded

online store will certainly help the company in giv-ing a controlled experi-ence of its devices and services.

Welcoming the Naren-dra Modi cabinet’s deci-sion to ease the 30 per cent local sourcing norm in single-brand retail (SBRT) in August last year, Apple said it looks forward to welcoming customers at its first retail store in India soon.

“We love our customers in India and we’re eager to serve them online and in-store with the same expe-rience and care that Apple customers around the world enjoy,” Apple said.

Covid fallout: Fiscal deficit may rise to Rs 14.6L cr in FY21New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The

gap between government’s total income and expenditure is ex-pected to balloon to Rs 14.6 lakh crore or 7.6 per cent of GDP in FY21 as economic disruptions are set for a long haul due to Covid-19 pandemic, brokerages analysing the deficit numbers said.

The Controller General of Ac-counts early this month said that the country’s fiscal deficit has expanded to 103.1 per cent of Budget Estimate in the April-July period primarily due to lower tax collection and higher expenditure for Covid-19 relief. The signals are clear indica-tors that the fiscal deficit would break all previous records to

jump to over double the budget targets in FY21.

According to an EcoScope re-port by Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the higher 7.6 per cent fiscal deficit this year would be on account of an 18 per cent YoY contraction in total receipts and eight per cent growth in total spending.

During an emergency eco-nomic situation, it is always the increased government spending that helps to prop up the invest-ment climate and boost demand in the economy. But worrisome aspect this year during the pan-demic is that the government spending is expected to be highly skewed towards revenue (or current) spending this year

with economic boosters capital expenditure on a decline.

The brokerage report showed that while revenue spending (largely to pay salary and pen-sion bills) of the government could grow at 10 per cent in FY21, capital spending could decline by 2-3 per cent. If this trend continues, capital spend-ing could suffer further and decline five per cent YoY in the remaining eight months of

FY21 (v/s 3.9 per cent growth over April-July’20). On the other hand, revenue spending would grow eight per cent over the August’20-March’21 period (v/s 12.2 per cent growth over April-July’20).

The brokerage expects real GDP to contract seven per cent YoY in 2QFY21, worse than the earlier forecast of (-) 4.7 per cent, but certainly better than the growing consensus of an-other double-digit decline in real GDP. Consequently, the real GDP could decline to (-) 6.5 per cent YoY for the full-year FY21, marking the worst fall in the past seven decades. Also, India’s nominal GDP is likely to con-tract to (-) 5.3 per cent this year,

marking its first contraction in 65 years, following the slowest growth seen in 48 years (7.2 per cent in FY20).

Motilal Oswal had projected that India’s headline inflation would remain at six per cent up to July’20, before easing to four per cent by December’20. Due to Covid-19, the expecta-tion was that that headline in-flation would ease to three per cent by December’20. How-ever, with headline inflation at 6.7 per cent YoY each in July’20 and August’20, the brokerage has revised its forecasts upward. Consequently, fresh calcula-tions suggest headline inflation is unlikely to fall below 4.5 per cent in FY21.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) In-dia Ratings and Research on Friday opined that the overall ‘EBITDA’ margin of print me-dia players are likely to shrink 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis in FY21.

The ratings agency cited a substantial revenue con-traction, led by a plunge in advertisement income as the reason for the likely fall in ‘EBITDA’ margin of print me-dia companies.

“Print media players de-rive more than two-thirds of their revenue from advertise-ment income which is directly linked to economic activities and growth,” Ind-Ra said in an analysis note.

“Ind-Ra expects a sig-nificant GDP contraction in FY21, which could lead to a substantial drop in advertise-ment revenue for the print

media; however, much of this contraction is likely to be re-stored with the bounce back in the GDP in FY22.”

The analysis was based on the assessment of major companies by circulation, accounting for about 58 per cent of the overall print me-dia sector. As per the note, the print media sector had al-ready been reeling under the weight of structural changes including demonetisation, implementation of GST, Real Estate Regulations Act, along with proliferation and adop-tion of digital media over the past few years.

“Subdued advertisement spending by key advertisers had restricted the growth rate in the advertisement revenue. Even the increase in govern-ment advertisement rates by 25 per cent as directed by the ‘Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity’ ahead of the general elections in 2019 could not augment sector revenues as ad volumes re-mained lower,” the note said.

EBITDA margin of Print Media to shrink by 10% in FY21: Ind-Ra

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) India Ratings and Research has revised its outlook on the banking sector to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ for 2HFY21.

The ratings agency Ind-Ra said this revision was done in view of an expected spike in stressed assets, higher credit costs, weaker earnings on account of interest reversals and lower fee income, and muted growth prospects.

Even the capital buffers for most public sector banks (PSBs) remain modest, it said.

As per Ind-Ra’s bear case, the spike in stressed assets due to the pandemic is ex-pected to double the credit costs for banking system than estimated pre-Covid-19 lev-els for FY21.

Consequently, Ind-Ra re-vised the rating outlook on PSBs to ‘negative’ for 2HFY21.

“PSBs’ modest capital buf-fers are expected to deplete further in FY21, due to pro-visioning requirements. Also, pre-Covid profitability expec-tations for FY21 would be be-lied and most banks are likely to report net losses,” the agency said in a statement.

“They may also need to continue to build-up their provision cover in FY22 for restructured assets as some of the restructured assets could turn NPA in FY23. PSBs’ could require INR350 billion-550 billion in 2HFY 21 for Tier-1 ratio of 10 per cent. Covid-19 or contingent pro-visions are much lower than that for private banks.”

According to the state-ment, Ind-Ra has maintained a ‘stable’ outlook for private banks, as they are better placed to withstand the chal-lenges presented by the pan-demic.

“Most large banks have strengthened their capital buffers, built contingent pro-visions, and have been pro-active in managing the loan portfolio. While the system’s credit growth could remain anaemic, and short-term fi-nancial performance could deteriorate modestly, large banks may benefit from cred-it migration,” the statement said.

“As opportunities arise, these banks are in a position to gain substantial franchise growth in the medium term, given that they have also added to their capital buffers over the past few months.”

india Ratings gives ‘negative’ outlook for banking sector in 2HFY21

Online retail sales to hit $2.5 trillion in Asia by 2024

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Riding on the surge in grocery demand in the Covid-19 times, online retail sales in Asia will grow from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to $2.5 trillion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.3 per cent, a new Forrester report said on Friday.

Due to the pandemic, adop-tion of online grocery is getting a boost, with an expected CAGR growth of 30 per cent during the forecast period and online pene-tration doubling from 5.1 per cent in 2020 to 10.6 per cent in 2024.

“Grocery is the largest retail

category, accounting for 35 per cent of total retail sales in 2019 but just 6 per cent of online retail sales. This makes it an important category for retailers and one that is going to drive future growth of online retail sales,” said Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst with the global market research firm Forrester.

“Driven by the uptick in online grocery adoption due to COV-ID-19, online retail sales will grow at a CAGR of 30 per cent from 2019 to 2024 and reach $359 billion,” Meena added.

India is witnessing a surge in

demand for online grocery.The latest Reliance takeover of

Future Group’s retail business is a major consolidation of organised grocery retail. In terms of grocery retail, the revenue of Reliance Retail in FY20 was Rs 346 billion and that of Future Retail’s annu-alised revenue of FY20 was Rs 100 billion. Earlier reports said that Reliance’s partnership with Face-book could result in the company becoming a market leader in the online grocery space.

According to Meena, grocery will also be the category where most marketplaces’ investment will be made in the next five years. Online retail sales in Asia Pacific will get a boost from new buyers due to Covid-19, but at the same time, consumer spending will take a hit due to the slowdown of economies. China will remain the largest market, reaching $2 trillion by 2024 and accounting for 50 per cent of global online retail sales in 2020. In contrast to Europe and the US, the smartphone is the pre-ferred device for online buyers in Asia Pacific countries.

Sports Indian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 202011

Tour de France : Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski wins Stage 18Paris, Sep 18 (IANS) An

emotional finish to Stage 18 in the Alps saw Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard Carapaz finish arm-in-arm to lead home an Ineos Grenadiers one-two with the Ecuadorian also securing the polka dot jersey on a day to remember for the British-based team at the ongoing Tour de France.After days of

trying to bounce back from the shock withdrawal of defending champion Egan Bernal, Ineos finally got their win as Kwiatkowski was gifted a maiden Grand Tour scalp by teammate Carapaz in La Roche-sur-Foron after the pair had put on a masterclass during a gruelling third and final day in the Alps.Kwiatkowski and Carapaz

were the last riders standing from a large breakaway which formed early on in the 175km stage from Meribel, with Tour debutant Carapaz on the front of the race for the third day running.

Two days after missing out at Villard-de-Lans, Carapaz gave up his opportunity of a stage win and instead settled for the polka dot jersey, which

he snatched from Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar after a thrilling tussle with Switzerland’s Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) over the day’s five categorised climbs.

When Hirschi crashed on the descent of the Col des Saisies with 80km remaining, the pendulum swung in the favour of Carapaz, who led the race over the Col des Aravis

and the Plateau des Glieres with teammate Kwiatkowski by his side.

The pair dropped Spain’s Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) on the decisive climb with 35km remaining before making light work of a testing two-kilometre gravel section while holding off the chase from a group of race favourites behind.

IMPORTANT FOR PLAYER REPLACING MALINGA TO NOT BE UNDER ANY PRESSURE: ROHITAbu Dhabi, Sep 18 (IANS)

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has admitted that the defending champions will miss veteran Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which begins Saturday.

Mumbai Indians had earlier said that Malinga wants to be with his family back home in Sri Lanka and thus won’t play this year for the four-time champions.“It’s hard for anyone to fill his (Malinga) boots we all know that. What he has done for Mumbai

Indians and for Sri Lanka is remarkable. He has been a match winner for Mumbai.

I have said it many times, whenever we found ourselves in difficult circumstances, Malinga was the one to bail us out from there,” said Rohit in a virtual press conference on

Thursday.With 170 wickets in 122 matches, Malinga is the leading wicket taker in the IPL. “His experience will be missed. We have got guys like Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan; these are the names that we are looking

at to replace Malinga. But obviously what he has done for Mumbai is not comparable,” said Rohit.

“We just have to leave someone like him aside and look for a replacement. It’s important that the guy taking his position in the playing XI

comes without any pressure. They just need to come, settle in the team and start doing what the team is expecting them to. Here in Mumbai we make it very clear for the players what their roles are and what we expect from them.”

IPL 13: Bumrah can fill Malinga’s shoes for MI, feels Lee

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Former Australia speedster Brett Lee feels Jasprit Bumrah can fill the shoes of Sri Lanka veteran Lasith Malinga for the Mumbai Indians in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting Saturday.

Malinga wanted to be with his family back

home in Sri Lanka and thus opted out for this year’s IPL. According

to Lee, Bumrah is good with both old and the new ball

and thus can ball at the death overs.“I have always been a Bumrah fan ever since he burst into the scenes some years ago.

He has got a different bowling action, he pushes the ball in and can swing the ball both ways,” Lee said while speaking on Star Sports show Game Plan.

“He is good with the new ball but I like him with the old ball and that’s why he can fill the shoes of Malinga and can bowl at death overs.He can bowl at 140kmph and zoom the ball

in at the batsman’s feet. He is bowling yorkers consistently and there are very less bowlers like that, so he can fill those shoes,” he added.

The former Australia pacer further said that MS Dhoni-led side have a good chance to win the title considering they have a good spin attack which can come in handy across the three venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

Armand Duplantis sets world outdoor record in Rome

Abu Dhabi set to host Return to UFC Fight Island from Sep 26-Oct 25

FIVB confirms cancellation of Volleyball Club World C’ships 2020

Paris, Sep 18 (IANS) Recently crowned US Open champion Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the upcoming French Open slated to begin from September 27.Osaka, who last week claimed her third grand slam title in New York, is struggling with a hamstring injury.

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to play the French Open this year," the 22-year-old on Friday said in a statement on social media.

The world number three, who wore tape on her left hamstring as she came from a set down to beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6,

6-3, 6-3 in the summit clash at the Flushing Meadows, said the turnaround between tournaments was too tight for her to recover fully."My hamstring is still sore so I won't have time to prepare for the clay

- these two tournaments came too close to each other for me this time. I wish the organisers and players all the best."

Osaka joins world number one and reigning champion Ashleigh Barty in pulling out of competition at the Roland Garros.

Barty had confirmed that she will not participate at the clay court Grand Slam due to health concerns and a lack of preparation.

The French Open was originally scheduled to start in May but had to be moved back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

NAOMI OSAKA PULLS OUT OF FRENCH OPEN

Rome, Sep 18 (IANS) World record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden produced the highest-ever pole vault mark in an outdoor event as he cleared 6.15-meters to take the win at the Diamond League meeting in Rome.The 20-year-old, who had set the world record of 6.18m on the World Indoor Tour in February, on

Thursday secured his victory after clearing 5.85m with his second attempt.

He went on to clear 6.00m and finally conquered 6.15m with his second effort of the day, reports Xinhua news agency.The previous best outdoor pole vault performance of 6.14m was set by Ukrainian legend Sergey Bubka in 1994, which

had stayed untouched for 26 years."I just wanted to be on top of the leaderboard," Duplantis said. "The 6.15m was really important to me, so I'm happy to get over that."

"There was kind of this confusion between the indoor and outdoor record - it's kind of merged.

I already had the world record but I wanted to clear everything up and be the best outdoor," said the Swede, who had taken 13 attempts at 6.15m in the season before the night.

Belgium's Ben Broeders finish second with a personal best of 5.80m and Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines also cleared 5.80m but had to finish third after a count-back.

Lausanne, Sep 18 (IANS) World volleyball governing body FIVB has cancelled the FIVB Volleyball Club World Championships 2020 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

"The FIVB has announced the cancellation of the FIVB Volleyball Club World Championships 2020 following the decision of the FIVB Board of Administration," FIVB said in a statement.

"In light of the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent uncertainty regarding travel and fan attendance, the FIVB has decided not to organise the 2020 edition of the event."The FIVB is

committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of the global volleyball family and aims to launch an invitation to bid for the 2021 edition by the end of October 2020," it added.The 2019 edition

of the FIVB men's and women's Volleyball Club World Championships were hosted by Brazil and China respectively, with Italian clubs Lube Civitanova and Imoco Volley claiming gold.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has been mesmerising fans with his breathtaking shots on the tennis courts ever since he turned professional in 1998.

Now the Swiss legend has left his fans speechless with a rendition of a Beatles' classic.

Federer sang The Beatles classic "With A Little Help From My Friends" as part of a commercial for Sunrise, a Swiss telecommunications provider based in Zurich.

This is was not the first time the 39-year-old had recorded a song. According to the ATP Tour website, in 2017, he had joined Grigor Dimitrov and Tommy Haas to create the Backhand Boys supergroup during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

The trio recorded a version of the 1982 Chicago hit 'Hard To Say I'm Sorry' with Haas' father-in-law, the world-renowned record producer and musician David Foster, on piano.

After this year's Australian Open, Federer decided to give the 2020 season a miss following a setback in his rehabilitation from a knee surgery that he underwent in February.

ROGER FEDERER SINGS

BEATLES CLASSIC FOR COMMERCIAL

New Delhi/Abu Dhabi, Sep 18 (IANS) Indian sports fans can look forward to exciting times ahead. The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to commence in Abu Dhabi and hot on its heels is the second edition of the popular UFC Fight Island as the UAE capital city emerges as front runner in the revival of the global tourism and sports

industry amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and UFC, the world's premier mixed martial arts organisation, on Friday announced that Return to UFC Fight Island will be held on Yas Island from September 26 to October 25.Following the success of July's inaugural series, which saw the state-of-the-art

UFC Fight Island Safe Zone implemented across all event-related areas of Yas Island, the

series' epic return less than three months later marks another historic first for Abu Dhabi and

the sport.Return to UFC Fight Island will feature UFC 253, UFC 254 and three Fight Nights in the UAE capital's premier leisure and entertainment destination. The five-event mega schedule will be held behind closed doors and marks the first time that two consecutive UFC numbered pay-per-view events have been held in the same city outside of Las Vegas."UFC Fight Island

proved to be a tremendous success and its rapid return is testament to the strength of our partnership with UFC, and the global confidence in Abu Dhabi's ability and preparedness to host major international events with the highest standards of health and safety," said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) Country's top gaming stars will be seen showcasing their skills at the 2020 National Esports Championship set to take place from September 25 to 27.

In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, the three-day event will be held completely online and the Esports athletes from all over the country will compete on video games like DOTA2, Tekken7 and PES 2020.

Defending champion Delhi's Abhinav Tejan (Tekken7) and Mumbai's Moinuddin Amdani (PES), alongside other popular Esports gaming names across the country including Loveneet Dogra, Malay, Akshay Jagtap and Navaneetha, will be among the main attractions as the winner of each game will get chance to represent India at the International Esports Federation (IESF) organised 12th Esports World

Championship which will take place in Eilat, Israel at the end of the year.

The National Championship will be played in a double elimination format with the last date of registrations will be September 24 (PES) and September 25 (Tekken7 and DOTA2). The championship will be streamed live on Esports Federation of India (ESFI)'s Youtube and Facebook page.

National Esports Championship to begin from September 25

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The ITF has announced that Fed Cup, the women's world cup of tennis, has been renamed the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas, a statement said.

It is the first time a major global team competition has been named after a woman, ushering in a new era for the historic tournament and representing a landmark moment for sport.A champion

on the court and a pioneer off it, Billie Jean King is a global campaigner for equality who has dedicated her life to fighting discrimination in all its forms, the statement said, adding that the values she represents epitomise the ethos of a tournament that has evolved to become the largest annual international team competition in women's sport, with 116 nations participating in 2020.The

renaming also follows the introduction of a new finals format that will bring the 12 best nations together over one week in Budapest to compete to become world champions.

From 2021, under its new name, the Billie Jean King Cup Finals will award the biggest annual prize fund in women's team sports - equivalent to that offered to the men playing Davis Cup finals, the statement said.

ITF renames Fed Cup as Billie Jean King Cup

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ENTERTAINMENTIndian HorizonIndian HorizonSaturday, September 19, 2020

Socialite Paris Hilton, counted as the original infl uencer by many,

says she feels responsible for teenagers obsessed with social media today, and feels like she helped create a mon-ster.The 39-year-old, who has 12.7 million Instagram followers, made the confes-

sion in her new YouTube documentary, "This Is Paris", reports dailymail.co.uk.She was asked by an interviewer: "Do you feel responsible for it? I mean many have said you are the architect of that."Paris replied: "I do feel respon-sible for it."Talking about how she feels "responsible"

for the rise in social media, Paris said in her documen-tary that she was shocked by how much of her life she dedicates to it."When you add up all those hours, it's literally like years of your life spent just looking at a phone. It's just so beyond,' she said.Talking about her guilt, she

said: "Now I see the little girls who are nine years old, 10 years old -- they're trying to get the perfect selfi e, they're putting the fi lters on, they can't even look at themselves in the phone without putting a fi lter.""I can't even imag-ine being a 13-year-old girl today," she explained before

admitting she feels respon-sible for it."Everyone says I'm the original infl uencer but sometimes I feel like I helped create a monster."Paris ad-mitted she spends around 16 hours a day on social me-dia to connect with fans.In November, 2017, Paris had shared photos of herself with

singer Britney Spears, which had been clicked in 2006."11 years ago today, Me & Britney invented the selfi e!" she had captioned the pictures.When some people questioned her claim to the title, Paris tweet-ed: "Jealousy is a disease get well soon."

IANS

PARIS HILTON FEELS 'RESPONSIBLE' FOR KIDS BEING OBSESSED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Recently, Ranbir Ka-poor finished the final schedules of

his upcoming period-drama film,' Shamshera' along with Sanjay Dutt. Now according to the media sources, the actor is ready to kick-off the shooting for a new film after three years.

The film will be helmed by 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' director Luv Ranjan who is known for directing ro-mantic-comedy films and in the film, Ranbir will be seen for the first time pairing opposite Shrad-dha Kapoor.Luv Ranjan's untitled romantic film with Ranbir & Shraddha will be shot over a period of six months starting

November and is expect-ed to wrap up by April. According to a leading media portal, `Come this November, Ranbir Ka-

poor will team up with Shraddha Kapoor to kick off Luv Ranjan's much-awaited romantic film in Mumbai.It will be a brief

schedule to start with, more of a test shoot to get hang of the guidelines, rules, and regulations, and safety protocols to

be followed for shoot-ing amid the pandemic. Following the Mumbai schedule, the team will fly off abroad for a mara-thon shoot."

The final narration of the film has happened at Luv's office, where Ran-bir and Shraddha were spotted.

It has been speculated that Shraddha will play the character of a wait-ress in the film, while Ranbir will be seen por-traying the lover boy.

Still, Luv Ranjan hasn't announced the film offi-cially but it is speculated that he will declare the film details with the me-dia soon.COURTESY : SANTA BANTA

RANBIR KAPOOR & SHRADDHA KAPOOR'S NEXT WITH LUV RANJAN WILL GO ON FLOORS IN NOVEMBER!

Ranveer Singh's efforts to make Indian Sign Language an official language is on

Sanjay Dutt reunites with kids in Dubai after months

KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI: AMITABH BACHCHAN'S PICTURE IN A SHIELD FROM THE SETS IS QUITE STYLISH

PULKIT SAMRAT AND KRITI KHARBANDA IN HIGH SPIRITS ON A POOLSIDE DATE

Actor Sanjay Dutt, upon reaching the emirate, is spending time with wife

Maanayata and their children Shahraan and Iqra.In an Insta-gram picture Maanayata posted

on Friday, the couple and the kids come together for a family portrait."Today...I want to thank God for the gift of family. No complaints...No requests... just to be together, forever," she cap-tioned the post.

She tagged the post with Amen#blessedbeyondmeasure, #love, #grace, #positivity, #dutts, #beautifullife, and #thankyou-god.Maanayata and the kids were in Dubai during lockdown but she fl ew down to Mumbai alone a while back after Sanjay's illness.

The couple recently returned to Dubai to be with their children. Sanjay reunited with his children after months.

On August 11, Sanjay, who was hospitalised a few days before that owing to breathing problem and chest discomfort, shared that he was taking a break for medical treatment.

Although the 61-year-old actor or his family members did not reveal anything offi cially, trade analyst and fi lm industry insider Komal Nahta subsequently con-fi rmed that Dutt has been diag-nosed with lung cancer.

Amitabh Bachchan is quite active on social media. The actor who is shooting for his TV show, Kaun Banega Crorepati recently shared a picture from the sets that is going viral as you read this.

JACQUELINE FERNANDEZ IS MISSING SOMEONE OR SOMETHING SPECIAL

Actress Jacqueline Fernandez is one of the most

followed Bollywood celebrities on social me-dia. She is quite active on the photo-sharing application - Instagram, and every now and then, she keeps updating her 45.5 million Insta family with pictures and videos of daily life.

Jacqueline has re-cently posted a beautiful picture of nature on Instagram. The snippet shows a wide shot of a picturesque view of a beach with two people enjoying the view on its shore. The actress knows that the beauty of this capture cannot be put in words, hence she captioned it with a mermaid emoji." This

hitting Instagram post has garnered more than 4 lakh likes in just a few hours of being posted.

On the professional front, Jacqueline Fer-nandez is excited for her upcoming action thriller fi lm "Attack", which is written and directed by Lakshay Raj Anand.

This fi lm also stars John Abraham and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles. Attack was scheduled for theatrical release on August 14, but due to the CO-VID-19 pandemic, its production was halted.

COURTESY : SANTA BANTA

India's deaf community has lauded the efforts of actor Ranveer Singh to

make Indian Sign Language an offi cial language.

Ranveer has been urging authorities to consider and declare Indian Sign Lan-guage (ISL) as the 23rd of-fi cial language of India. He recently signed a petition aimed at furthering aware-ness for the cause.

His independent re-cord label, IncInk, which he has formed with Nav-zar Eranee, also released sign language music vid-eos. Twenty-fi ve members from the deaf community in India appreciated him by putting out a thank-you video for him."We were very happy to hear the

good news about Ranveer Singh, who is a famous Bollywood actor, to sup-port ISL to be recognised as the 23rd offi cial language

of India. We are so glad that he supports this," the members stated."Indian sign language is a beauti-ful language. We want to

thank Ranveer for showing support to the deaf com-munity," they added.

An overwhelmed Ran-veer said that his indepen-dent music label was creat-ed to encourage inclusivity.

Ranveer said: "IncInk was created as a platform to en-courage inclusivity through art and we are deeply com-mitted towards making In-dian Sign Language (ISL) become the 23rd offi cial language of India."

He added: "This progres-sive step will create a ripple effect in providing equal access across all areas, from education to employ-ment to entertainment to more than 10 million deaf people in India."

IANS

The most charming couple of B-town Pulkit Samrat and Kriti Kharbanda are

spreading loads of happiness by giving them a lot to gush over, with every passing post that they share on social me-dia. The Fukrey actor shared an adorable awe-striking picture of himself and his beau, Kriti Kharbanda on Instagram whilst on a date.

Pulkit and his lady love Kriti can be seen looking love-struck as they sit by the pool facing each other, the couple can be seen falling into a gut bursting laughter while enjoying each other's company by the pool. Pulkit can be seen sporting a

casual grey tee with black shorts while Kriti looks char-ismatic in a red, round bikini and silver hoops. Pulkit cap-tioned the picture` Aaj Blue Hai Paani Paani Paani Paani Paani Paani...`.

Pulkit Samrat is gearing up for his next upcoming project Suswagatam Khushamadeed.

The film will be directed by Dhiraj Kumar and is written by Manish Kishore.

He will be also seen in Bul-bul Marriage Hall with beau Kriti while She is pairing up with Vikrant Massey for her upcoming rom-com project 14 Phere.

IANS

The show must go on for the sake of boost-ing the economy. A lot

of TV shows and films have resumed shooting though with proper precautions in place. Recently, the shoot-ing of the quiz-based game show Kaun Banega Crore-pati began as well.

Amitabh Bachchan re-ported to the sets too. The actor had been at home throughout the pandem-ic and now has resumed shooting. Big B has been posting a lot of pictures from the sets giving a glimpse of his new normal life. He recently shared a picture on his Instagram handle in a shield. It's ac-tually a protective gear but looks quite stylish. "... be safe .. and be in protec-tion ..," Amitabh Bachchan captioned the post. Mean-while, in July, the Pink ac-tor had been detected with COVID-19. He along with

Abhishek Bachchan, Aish-warya Rai Bachchan and granddaughter Aaradhya. The actor had been flood-ed by prayer messages and wishes.

However, there were also some people who claimed that the actor had been doing this to promote the hospital who had been sur-rounded by some contro-versies in the recent past.

Recently, a lot of people had slammed the actor for not speaking up for Su-shant Singh Rajput.

On the work front, Am-itabh Bachchan has Chehre co-starring Emraan Hash-mi, Rhea Chakraborty, Annu Kapoor to name a few.He also has Sairat helmer Nagraj Manjule's Jhund in the pipeline. His sci-fi fantasy film, Brash-

mastra co-starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt is scheduled to release on 4th December 2020. He is also said to star in Nastik and Aankhen 2. Meanwhile, recently, the actor became the first Indian actor to voice Alexa.

The Amazon Alexa team will work closely with Bach-chan to capture his voice and deliver a new voice experience to customers. It will include popular of-ferings like jokes, weather, shayaris, motivational quotes, advice and more.

Amitabh Bachchan wrote in his blog about various contestants he has come across on his quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati. He also observed how many of them count the number of zeros on the cheque. He also talked about the contestants who join the show in the Karmveer special episodes.

IANS