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Indian HorizonRNI NO: DELENG/2013/51507

Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

CONGRESS LEADER DEEPENDER

HOODA TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 P-5 P-11P-8

TURKEY READY FOR EVERY POSSIBILITY IN EAST MED: ERDOGAN

MS Dhoni, CSK finally start practice

in UAE

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh discussed issues of regional security, includ-ing Afghanistan, and bilat-eral cooperation during his stopover in Tehran while on his way back to India from Russia.

Singh held a meeting on Saturday with Iran’s Minis-ter of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, at the latter’s request. As per the Defence Ministry, the meet-ing between the two took place in a cordial and warm atmosphere. Both leaders emphasised the age-old cultural, linguistic, and ci-vilisational ties between In-dia and Iran.

“They discussed ways to take forward bilateral co-

operation and exchanged views on regional security issues, including peace and stability in Afghanistan.” The Minister had gone to Moscow to participate in a joint meeting of Defence Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisa-tion (SCO), Collective Se-curity Treaty Organisation

(CSTO), and Common-wealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. In Moscow, Singh met his Chi-nese counterpart, General Wei Fenghe, on September 4 on the sidelines of the SCO meeting and held discus-sions on the border issues between the two countries in eastern Ladakh.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) In-dia’s COVID tally surpassed Brazil to become the second most corona-hit country in the world. The US still retains the top position with over six mil-lion cases followed by India. Brazil has now slipped to No.3 folowed by Russia. There are 8,62,320 active cases of corona-virus infection in India account-ing for only 20.96 per cent of the total caseload.

Yet, the health ministry is only harping on the fact that the CO-

VID recovery rate has climbed to 77.32pc in the country. With a record 73,642 patients having recuperated in a day, India’s

COVID-19 recoveries surged to nearly 32 lakh, pushing the recovery rate to 77.32 per cent while the case fatality rate, one

of the lowest globally, is said to have further dropped to 1.72 per cent as on date, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. “The spike in the daily recov-ered COVID-19 patients con-tinues in the country. For the second successive day, India has clocked a record recovery of more than 70,000 patients in a single day,” the ministry said. A total of 73,642 patients have recovered and been discharged from either home or facility iso-lation or hospitals in a day.

Rajnath discusses regional security, bilateral issues, in Tehran

India overtakes Brazil to become world’s No.2 in COVID cases

PM, VP condoles death of Kerala seer

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condoled the death of seer Kesavana-nda Bharati whose legal fight against the Kerala govern-ment led to a landmark deci-sion. Modi said the seer will “inspire generations”. “We will always remember Pujya Kesavananda Bharati Ji for his contributions towards community service and em-powering the downtrodden. He was deeply attached to India’s rich culture and our great Constitution. He will continue to inspire gen-erations. Om Shanti,” Modi tweeted. In 1973, he went for a legal offensive against the Kerala government and its attempts to impose restric-tions over the property of the Mutt. In what would come to be known as a landmark case, where judges snubbed the Parliament. A 13-judge bench had pronounced that the Parliament cannot al-ter the Constitution’s basic structure. Meanwhile, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu too condoled his death. “Ke-savananda Bharati Swamiji, the seer of Edneer Mutt was a rare blend of philosopher, classical singer and a cultur-al icon,” he said.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has advised the government to increase spending in infrastructure to revive the Indian economy, as the GDP has contracted by 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal.

In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader said that some “concrete steps to stimulate demand and consumption” to revive the

economy include transfer of cash to the poorest 50 per cent of the families, food

grain to families requiring it, and increased spending on infrastructure projects. “The food grain stock should be used to pay wages in kind and massive public works started, which will re-capital-ise the banks to enable them to lend, and pay the arrears of GST compensation to the states,” the senior Congress leader added. He said that the economic revival will need money. “Borrow and don’t hesitate on this.”

The Covid-induced eco-nomic turbulence and mea-sures to curb its outbreak have heavily dented India’s economy and plunged the country’s GDP to (-) 23.9 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) ended June 2020-21 on a year-on-year basis. On Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithara-man had directed banks to roll out resolution schemes for Covid-related stress by September 15.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Keeping up his attack on the government, former Con-gress President Rahul Gan-dhi has slammed the Modi government on the GST, al-leging that it was the second big blow to the unorganised sector of the economy and that its faulty implemen-tation had destroyed the economy. In his third video of a series, Rahul Gandhi said that the GST was the UPA’s idea of easy taxation

but the NDA has made it “complex and complicat-ed”. “The GST implemented by NDA government is dif-

ferent as four slabs of taxes are there to the tune of 28 per cent, it’s very compli-cated and very difficult to understand,” said Rahul.

The small and medium businesses can’t comply with this tax procedure but the big companies can hire as many accountants as possible, he said. Rahul Gandhi asked why there are four slabs of taxation rates in the country and those who have resources can

comply but small and mar-ginal businesses are left to suffer. “Who has the means? India’s biggest 15 to 20 in-dustrialists. So whatever tax law they want to change can easily be done in this GST regime.” He said that “this GST is an absolute failure. Not only is it unsuccessful, it is an attack on the poor and on the small and me-dium businesses. GST is not a tax system, it is an attack on India’s poor.

Bhubaneswar, Sep 6 (IANS) Stepping beyond their mandated duty respon-sibilities, troops of India’s border guarding force BSF saved the life of an ailing woman in Maoist-hit Mal-kangiri district in Odisha by facilitating ambulance and other necessary services to get her hospitalised around 75 kms away at the district hospital.It was 11 a.m. on Saturday when the Border Security Force (BSF) troops

deployed at Company Op-eration Base (COB) Dyke-III dam got inputs about the ailing woman being taken out from a motorboat in un-conscious condition. Dyke-III is a construction project for creating a reservoir in Balimela-- a Power Plant and irrigation project. The personnel of 144 Battalion deputed at the COB Dyke-III observed the motorboat arriving at the ferry point of Dyke-III dam.

London, September 6 (IANS): Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who has been lodged at a prison in London since his arrest in March last year, is set to ap-pear via videolink for the sec-ond leg of his extradition trial at a UK court on Monday.

The 49-year-old jeweller is fighting extradition charges related to the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case brought by the Indian government, be-ing represented at Westmin-ster Magistrates’ Court in London by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In line with the coronavirus lockdown restrictions, Dis-trict Judge Samuel Goozee

has directed Modi’s appear-ance from a room in Wand-sworth Prison in south-west London with social distanc-ing norms in place for the part-remote setting for the five-day hearing scheduled to conclude on Friday.

Justice Goozee had pre-sided over the first leg of the extradition in May, during which the CPS sought to es-tablish a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering against Modi. The upcoming hearings are ear-marked to complete those arguments after the Indian government had submitted additional “corroboratory evidence”. It will then go on to deal with the additional extradition request.

Increase infra spending to revive economy: Chidambaram

Faulty GST destroyed informal economy, alleges Rahul

Odisha: BSF saves ailing woman’s life in Maoist belt

Mumbai, September 6 : An unidentified man allegedly called up Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s personal residence ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra here, saying that he was calling from Dubai on behalf of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, a police official said on Sunday.

The caller rang up twice around 10.30 pm on Saturday,

following which the police beefed up security at Thac-keray’s bungalow located in Kalanagar Colony, the official said. “Someone called up on ‘Matoshree’ phone number two times on Saturday night and said Dawood Ibrahim wanted to talk CM Uddhav Thackeray. However, the telephone operator did not transfer the call to the CM,”

the official said.“The caller did not reveal his identity, but only said that he was calling from Dubai on behalf of Dawood Ibrahim. Both the calls were received around 10.30 pm,” he added. The local police were later informed about the calls, following which extra security force was deployed outside the bungalow, the official said.

Conitnued On Page-4

‘DAWOOD’S MAN’ CALLS UP MAHARASHTRA CM’S HOUSE, SECURITY SCALED UP

Nirav Modi extradition trial to resume in UK

court on Sep 7

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested Mustaqeem alias Sa-meer Saifi for the murder of one Rahul Solanki in the Shiv Vihar area during the February north-east Delhi riots, an officer said on Sunday. The crime weapon, a country-made pistol, was seized at the instance of arrested ac-cused Mustaqeem alias Sameer, 25, a resident of old Mustafabad

in Delhi. Delhi Police had earlier announced a reward of Rs one lakh for his arrest.“After relent-less efforts for six months, a source in Mustafabad told us on

September 3 that Mustaqeem could have shot Solanki near Ra-jdhani Public School as his de-scription fully matched with that of a suspect in a video footage. He was apprehended from the Bhajanpura Mazaar,” said a se-nior police officer. Police investi-gation revealed that Mustaqeem was participating in the protest against CAA/NRC near Farukia Masjid from the very beginning.

Man held for Rahul Solanki’s murder during Delhi riots

Man beaten for ‘fun’, dies in

hospitalBareilly (UP), Sep 6

(IANS) A 32-year-old man was tied him to a tree and allegedly lynched by a mob on suspicion of theft in Uttar Pradesh’s Aonla town. Accord-ing to reports, some of the attackers joined the crowd for the sheer ‘fun’ of it and posed for mo-bile cameras while the victim, Basid Khan, was being thrashed in the background on Friday. Basid, it later turned out, was an alcoholic but not a thief.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on Monday morning.

The President and the Prime Minister will be addressing the topic during the inaugural ses-sion of the Governors’ Confer-ence at 10.30 a.m. through video conference, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement on Sunday.

The conference titled ‘Role of NEP-2020 in Transforming High-er Education’ is being organised by the Ministry of Education.

NEP-2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century which was announced after 34 years of the previous National Policy on Education, 1986. NEP-2020 is directed towards major reforms in both school and higher edu-cation level. The new National Education Policy strives for mak-ing India into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society.

President, PM to speak on New Education Policy on Monday

city Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 20202

IIT Delhi withdraws Dog Handler recruitment after rowNew Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS)

IIT Delhi has cancelled the current recruitment process for a “Dog Handler” after an error in which minimum qualification mentioned B Tech and got copied from another advertisement but not before it went viral.

In a press statement is-sued on Sunday, IIT Delhi said, “In reference to a job advertisement dated 26-08-2020 for a post titled “Dog Handler” (on purely contract basis), IIT Delhi would like to clarify that the minimum qualification as mentioned in the adver-tisement got inadvertently copied from another job advertisement. The qualifi-cation intended in the ad-vertisement was ‘Bachelor of Veterinary Science’.”

The minimum qualifica-tion put out in the ad was B.Tech, BA and B.Sc or any equivalent undergraduate

degree.“The institute has can-

celled the current recruit-ment process after this mistake was brought to the notice of higher authori-ties”, IIT Delhi said.

A fresh process in due course will be initiated to hire a Consultant(on purely contract basis) with suitable minimum qualification re-quired for the job profile that involves proper care of a large number of stray dogs on the campus (providing

them medical aid like vac-cination, medicine, IV drip etc. and food), handling of issues and challenges re-lating to stray dogs, liaison with campus community- students, employees, con-struction workers etc., lo-cal government bodies and NGOs, IIT Delhi said in the statement.

IIT Delhi took the action after the recruitment notice Delhi for the position of a dog handler had created a buzz on social media.

The notice for the Dog Handler, a contractual job for security office at the campus, got attention for the degrees and qualifica-tion mentioned.

According to the adver-tisement, the job is open for people between 21 and 35 years old, male or female, and the salary can go up to Rs 45,000 per month. The salary seems to be much higher than comparative positions elsewhere.

While Dog Handler po-

sitions usually have a minimum qualification is of 10+2, the notice by IIT-Delhi states “B.A/B.Sc/B.Com/B.Tech or any equiva-lent undergraduate degree” as the eligibility criteria.

The applicant also need-ed to have a four-wheeler to be able to drive the dog to a veterinarian if needed. A photo of the advertisement was widely shared on social media before the retraction by IIT Delhi.

A netizen posted on twit-ter, “What an IRONY: The foremost institute (#IITDel-hi ) that awards B-Tech De-grees itself believes.... ‘Min-imum Qualification For a ‘.......’ should be B-Tech” I am sure millions of unem-ployed engineers will be in-terested being a ‘........’.”

Another posted: “This teacher’s day, life teaches you that no degree goes to waste.”

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) In a move seen as a snub to party leader Jitin Prasada, the Con-gress has constituted commit-tees to prepare for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections but kept him out. Jitin, a for-mer Union Minister of State, was among the Congress lead-ers who wrote a letter to party interim chief Sonia Gandhi on the leadership issue.

Sonia Gandhi has consti-

tuted the ‘Manifesto Com-mittee, Outreach Commit-tee, Membership Committee, Programme Implementation Committee, Training and Cad-re Development Committee, Panchayati Raj Election Com-mittee, and Media and Com-munication Advisory Com-mittee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, said a press release from Congress leader KC Venugopal.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are likely to be held in February-March 2022.

Almost all senior leaders have been accommodated -- Salman Khurshid on the Mani-festo Committee, Pramod Tiwari on the Outreach Com-mittee, Rashid Alvi on Media Advisory Committee.

Noor Bano, Anugrah Na-rayan, and Rajesh Mishra have also got appointed to vari-

ous committees. Jitin Prasada was one of the signatories to the letter written in the recent past by Congress leaders to demand visible leadership and organisational elections.

The appointments were made after nine senior leaders, expelled from the Congress last year, sent the letter to So-nia Gandhi, urging her to “save the party before its slips into history”.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) As the country saw a new high in Covid-19 cases with over 90,000 new infections in 24 hours, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Sunday reviewed measures for containment and management of the disease in 35 districts spanning five states and a Union Territory with the

Health Secretaries concerned.These districts comprise

Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and 24 South Parganas in West Bengal; Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, Palghar,

Aurangabad, Dhule and Nanded in Maharashtra; Surat in Gujarat; Puducherry; East Singhbhum in Jharkhand; and all 11 districts in Delhi.

In the meeting, held through video conference, Bhushan underscored the need to suppress, curb and eventually break the chain of

transmission of the disease by strengthening the active case search focusing on the co-morbid and elderly population; revisiting and strengthening the containment measures in the affected areas; and scaling up the testing to lower the positivity rates below 5 per cent.

Cong announces panels for UP, keeps out Jitin Prasada

Health Secretary reviews Covid situation in 5 states, UT

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) With India continuing to see a surge in Covid-19 cases amid ‘Unlock 4’, the parliamentary standing committee on health is meeting on Monday to discuss the pandemic, and measures to deal with it.

According to the Rajya Sabha website, the agenda is: “To consider and adopt draft 121st and 122nd ATRs (action taken reports) and also to hear the views of the witnesses on the subject ‘Outbreak of Pandemic Covid-19 and related Contingent

and Mitigation Plan’.”With fresh 90,632 cases, and

1,065 fresh deaths, India’s Covid-19 tally on Sunday reached a total of 4,113,811 cases.

Out of the total, 8,62,320 are active cases, 31,80,865 patients have been cured and discharged so far while 70,626 have succumbed.

While the recovery rate was at a whopping high of 77.32 per cent, the fatality rate has come down to 1.72 per cent, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 8,83,862 cases and 26,276 deaths, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, and Bihar.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) For the second consecutive day, India has clocked recovery of more than 70,000 Covid-19 patients in a single day, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sunday.

The ministry said that 73,642 patients have recovered and they were discharged from either home/facility isolation or hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 31,80,865 as on Sunday. The recovery rate has further risen upwards to 77.32 per cent, against 77.23 per cent a day ago when 77,072 patients recovered.

However, the increase in recoveries has tagged along with the continuous surge in daily cases and fatalities reported.

On Sunday, the Covid-19 tally of India crossed 4.1 million after the country recorded the highest single-day spike in fresh cases. A total of 90,632 cases, and 1,065 deaths, were reported in the last 24 hours.

The ministry further said that

sustained efforts by the Centre, and state/UT governments have substantially resulted in a higher number of people getting identified at an early stage for the infection through very high levels of testing.

“This has enabled their timely treatment, guided by the Standard Treatment Protocol for both home/facility isolation and hospitalisation. The Centre, in collaboration with AIIMS, New Delhi, has led the process of continuous up-gradation of clinical management skills of the ICU doctors in the dedicated Covid hospitals across the country,” the ministry said.

The ministry believes that these measures have resulted in saving more lives and kept the case fatality rate (CFR) one of the lowest globally. Currently, the CRF is pegged at 1.72 per cent.

“This has also ensured that the active caseload (8,62,320) accounts for merely 20.96 per cent of the total positive cases so far,” the ministry added.

Parliamentary panel on health to discuss Covid pandemic on Monday

India sees new high of Covid-19 cures with over 70K recoveries

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Centre has proposed that a full refund should be given by the airlines within 15 days for tickets booked during the lockdown, and if any airline is in financial distress then a credit shell should be provided up to March 31, 2021 on any route of passengers choice. The full refund has been proposed for tickets booked during the lockdown on do-mestic, international and foreign airlines.

In an affidavit in the Su-preme Court, O.K. Gupta, Director, Directorate Gen-eral of Civil Aviation, said

for the domestic airlines if the tickets were booked directly with the airline or through an agent, during the first lockdown period, - March 25 - April 14 - for the journeys to be undertaken in both first and second lockdown period, March 25 - May 3 - in all such cases, full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately.

“For all other cases, the airlines shall make all en-deavours to refund the collected amount to the passenger within 15 days. If on account of financial distress, if the airlines are not able to do so they shall

provide a credit shell equal to the amount of fare col-lected. This credit shell shall be issued in the name of the passenger who has booked the ticket. The passenger shall be able to consume the credit shell up to March 31, 2021 on any route of his choice”, said the affidavit.

The Centre said there shall be an incentive mechanism to compensate the passenger if there is a delay in consuming the credit shell - from the date of cancellation up to June 30, 2020, the value of credit shell shall be enhanced by 0.5 per cent of the face value

(the amount of fare collect-ed) for every month or part thereof between the date of cancellation and 30th June, 2020.

“Thereafter, the value of the credit shell shall be en-hanced by 0.75 per cent of the face value per month, up to March 2021. The credit shell shall be trans-ferable. The passenger can transfer the credit shell to any person, and the airlines shall honour such a trans-fer. The airlines shall devise a mechanism to facilitate such a transfer. By the end of March 2021, the airline shall refund cash to the

holder of the credit shell”, said the affidavit.

The Centre said this solu-tion is workable, as it bal-ances the interest of both the passengers as well as airlines, and urged the top court to pass a suitable or-der for its implementation.

Advocate Jose Abraham, representing petitioner Pravasi Legal Cell, said: “Pe-titioner happily welcomes the stand of the central government directing full refund for all tickets (do-mestic, international and foreign carriers). Govern-ment approach is very bal-anced.

Centre proposes full refund on domestic, foreign airline tickets booked during lockdown

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Sunday said that it has deployed experts to assist Punjab and Chandigarh in coronavirus management.

The high-level teams will assist the state and the Union Territory in strengthening public health measures for containment, surveillance, testing, and efficient clinical management of Covid-19

patients so as to reduce mortality rate.

They will also guide in addressing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow-up processes.

Each team consist of a Community Medicine expert from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh and an epidemiologist from the National Cooperative Development Corporation

(NCDC).“These teams shall be

stationed in Punjab and Chandigarh for 10 days to provide extended guidance in managing Covid-19,” the Ministry said in a statement.

Punjab has reported 60,013 coronavirus cases, including 15,731 active cases and 1,739 deaths. The tests per million figure for the state is 37,546 (India’s average figure is 34,593.1). At 4.97 per cent, it has lower cumulative positivity.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which was expected to start at The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh, have been delayed by at least a week.

The trials that were expected to commence in the first week of September have been delayed due to the safety approval pending from the Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the first 100 candidates

selected to undergo the trials, the institute told IANS.

In result, the further recruitment of the candidates for the trials has been put on hold.

“For the time being, the further recruitment of the candidates for the trials for the Oxford vaccine is on hold because we are waiting for the approval for safety of the first 100 participants recruited till now from the Data Safety and Monitoring Board. In this light, we would be able to update you regarding any development on this front

by next weekend only,” said Prof. Dr. Madhu Gupta, the principal investigator of the vaccine trial scheduled at the PGIMER. The premier institute said it received 400 volunteers for the trials. Of them, 253 would be administered the first dose of the undertrial vaccine.b Gupta had earlier informed that 16-member staff, including herself, would supervise the clinical trials.

The PGIMER is among the 17 sites selected for the human clinical trials of the adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. India. The institute will participate in the second and third phases of the proposed vaccine. The vaccine’s production and marketing will be looked after by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

Oxford Covid vaccine trials delayed over safety approvals

Central teams to help Punjab, Chandigarh in Covid management

Delhi riots: 2 declared POs in Head Constable’s murder caseNew Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS)

Two persons named in the case of fatal shooting of Delhi Police Head Constable Rattan Lal during the February riots here have been declared Proclaimed Offenders by a city court for intentionally avoiding trial proceedings.

Declaring Suleman alias Salman Siddiqui and Ms Ravish as Proclaimed Offenders, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Pushotaum Pathak said: “I consider that both the accused are intentionally avoiding to appear in the court despite due service of process under Section 82 of the CrPC.”

The court has also taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in the case.

“... there is sufficient material

on record to take cognisance of the offences alleged to have been committed by the accused persons,” the court said.

The court noted that though it was inclined to take cognisance of the offence under Section 153-A of the IPC, previous sanction as provided under Section 196 of the CrPC was mandatory but not filed by the prosecuting agency.

The Investigating Officer told the court that a letter dated July 13 was sent to the competent authority but it was not clear how much time it will take for the sanction.

“In this scenario when there is no time frame for obtaining sanction and that any further delay in proceedings will unnecessarily defeat the very

purpose for which the special courts for the trial of riot cases have been created. I deem it fit to take cognisance of all the offences as discussed, the court said.

The CMM issued production warrants against all the accused and directed the Tihar Central Jail officials to present them in court through videoconference on September 10.

The Delhi Police charge sheet said that Head Constable Rattan Lal was killed on February 24 in an unprovoked attack by a mob.

Eyewitnesses had said in their statements that a police team deployed at Chand Bagh protest site was suddenly attacked by the mob armed with lathis and rods etc,

leading to the killing of Rattan Lal and injuries to DCP Amit Sharma, ACP Anuj Kumar and others.

The protesters were opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens and had rallied in Chand Bagh area without permission and in blatant violation of rules and regulations.

“Speakers who addressed the gathering (of protesters) spread false information about the CAA and the NRC and deliberately conveyed to the Muslim population that they will lose their Indian citizenship, and that they would be sent to detention camps for non-production of documents for NRC,” the charge sheet claimed.

cityIndian HorizonMonday, September 7, 2020 3

Delhi CM launches anti-dengue campaignNew Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday launched the ‘10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Min-ute campaign’ - a mass aware-ness campaign against vector-borne disease dengue.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener be-gan the initiative by inspect-ing his house for any signs of stagnant clean water and draining it, which can lead to the breeding of mosquitoes and other vector-borne dis-eases such as dengue, malar-ia, and chikungunya. The 10-week campaign will continue every Sunday.

Kejriwal said two crore peo-ple of Delhi will join hands

and work together to fight against dengue like last time.

“The rainy season is here again, and it is the first week of September. We all know that at this point, the breed-ing of mosquitoes that spread dengue is at a peak. We have to save ourselves and our family from dengue,” Kejriwal said.

Last year, the Chief Minis-ter said, “we participated in a massive campaign against dengue, ‘10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute - Har Ravivar Dengue Par Vaar’ (10 week, 10 a.m. and for 10 minutes, an attack on dengue every Sunday) we will do that again this year”. Citing previous year’s 1,400-

1,500 dengue cases in Delhi, Kejriwal said this was a big achievement for the govern-ment because this number was around 14,000-15,000 a few years back.

“Like last year, today is the

first Sunday, and for the next 10 Sundays, please spend 10 minutes inspecting your homes for stagnant clean wa-ter at 10 a.m.”

Kejriwal requested people to drain the standing water

and replace it, saying “I hope and believe that the people of Delhi will again participate and save Delhi from den-gue just like they did the last time”. Along with saving our families from dengue, Kejri-wal said we have to save Delhi from dengue.

The Delhi government had launched the campaign in September 2019 as 15,867 dengue cases as well as 60 deaths were reported in Delhi in 2015.

The campaign also gar-nered the support of many celebrities as well as officials of the government and other autonomous bodies.

Under the campaign, the

citizens must inspect their homes for any possible sourc-es of stagnant clean water, which can lead to the breed-ing of Aedes mosquitoes that spread vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and chi-kungunya.

Kejriwal also appealed to the ministers, MLAs, and the citizens to begin the mega-campaign from their own homes and spend 10 minutes every Sunday to make sure there is no stagnant water in their homes and surround-ings.

Along with Kejriwal, all the ministers, MLAs, and officials of the Delhi government also participated in the anti-den-

gue campaign, by inspecting their houses for signs of accu-mulated stagnant clean water.

The campaign also seeks to engage the residents to pick up the phone and call 10 of their friends and relatives and advise them on the good prac-tices of preventing dengue.

The RWAs will be asked to come together and help in the fight against dengue and pro-mote the campaign. At vari-ous stages, children will be encouraged to take part in the campaign by assigning them with homework on behalf of the schools and asking them to call their friends to encour-age them to take part in the campaign as well.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a junior engineer of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and another person on charges of demanding and accepting Rs 50,000 bribe on the pretext of allowing construction of an additional concrete slab on the second floor of the complainant’s house.

The junior engineer identified as Anil Meena was deployed in ward-23 of Civil Lines zone in North Municipal Corporation of Delhi. He was arrested on Friday night.

The CBI had registered a case against the accused on a complaint in which it was alleged that the junior

engineer had demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 600 per square yard for allowing construction of an additional concrete slab on the second floor of the complainant’s house.

It was also alleged that the accused later negotiated the bribe to Rs 500 per square yard for 100 square yards. The CBI laid a trap on Friday night and nabbed a person while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 on behalf of the junior engineer who was arrested, too.

Searches were conducted at the office and residential premises of the accused in Delhi which led to recovery of incriminating documents.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) A day ahead of scheduled resumption of Delhi Metro services, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Sunday visited the Rajiv Chowk metro station here and reviewed the preparations.

The Delhi Metro is expected to resume its services from September 7 in a calibrated manner after remaining closed for months due to the coronavirus-tiggered crisis including lockdown.

“I am happy that Metro services will resume in Delhi from Monday. I visited the Rajiv Chowk metro station today and reviewed the preparations. I am satisfied with the preparations of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

“I am content to see Rajiv Chowk metro station, one of the busiest, has strictly adhered to the standard operating procedure (SOP). We will be deploying civil defence volunteers inside, and outside the station. They will control the crowd and ensure that social distancing norms are being followed,” the Minister said.

He also appealed to the people of Delhi to follow the social distancing normals at metro stations.

“I believe that if we follow all the protocols responsibly, we will set a benchmark in the ‘Delhi Model of Fighting Covid’,” Gahlot said.

The Metro train services will be closed at some stations for now. However, from September 12, operations are expected to be restored at all stations. Taking the Covid-19 pandemic into consideration, the Delhi Transport Department is taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of commuters at the Metro premises.

The Transport Department has deployed civil volunteers at metro stations to manage congestion and ensure social distancing.

Besides, marking has also been done inside the stations and trains to ensure social distancing. Caution stickers have been put up on the back of seats to ensure social distancing.

Only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to travel after thermal screening.

CBI arrests MCD engineer in Rs 50K bribery case

Gahlot reviews preparations ahead of Metro resumptionNew Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS)

With the Covid-19 pandemic striking hard and spread-ing rapidly in India, health experts have urged people to continue following social distancing norms even in the unlock phases and refrain from willfully exposing one-self to the virus in a bid to achieve herd immunity.

With the government’s de-cision to unlock due to sev-eral socio-economic reasons, people have started ignoring social distancing norms, the experts said.

“We can see a large number of people are moving around in markets or other crowded places without masks. Many

people believe that herd immunity is the solution,” Puneet Khanna, HOD and Consultant - Respiratory Medicine, HCMCT Manipal Hospitals in New Delhi, told IANS.

“In a densely populated country like India, herd im-munity can only be a solu-tion if we have some kind of vaccination available for the most vulnerable people,” he explained.

“So relying on herd im-munity as a solution at his stage when vaccination is not available would be a wrong clinical and policy level ap-proach,” Khanna stressed.

He added that instead of

relying on the government, people should on their own emphasise on strict social distancing, wear a mask, and use of sanitizer and stick to hand hygiene for checking the virus spread.

Herd immunity is achieved when enough people become infected with a virus to stop its spread.

According to a study pub-lished in the journal The Lancet, to achieve herd im-munity that would protect the uninfected, around 70 per cent to 90 per cent of a popu-lation needs to be immune.

Speaking to IANS, Praveen Gupta, Director and Head, Neurology, Fortis Memorial

Research Institute in Guru-gram said that the infection prevalence in Indian popu-lation continues to be very low at 300 per lakh popula-tion and we are very far away from herd immunity at this time.

“We, however, cannot re-main in lockdown for a pro-longed period of time as it is not feasible. So to open up gradually in a phased man-ner is the only option, how-ever, we should not try to ex-pose ourselves to go for herd immunity,” he said.

“Understanding the need to open up and carry on with some of the activities, the government still needs to

spread the message for nec-essary precautions to be tak-en to prevent the spread of the infection,” Gupta added.

According to Navneet Sood, a pulmonology con-sultant at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital in New Delhi, herd immunity is not something which can be attained so easily, especially when this virus is so unpredictable.

“This virus had hit our country almost six months back, now with mutation of this virus, reports of survi-vors also being at risk of get-ting infected again with the same frequency have sur-faced,” said Sood.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Lifeline of the national capital region, the Delhi Metro, is all set to ply on the tracks in a phased manner from Monday, after coming to a screeching halt almost six months due to coronavirus pandemic.

At a time when the capital city is reportedly witnessing a second wave of the viral infection, the government has allowed for the metro rail service to resume in a

bid to restart the economy, while also keeping in mind the huge loss incurred by the corporation in the last few months.

Even though the government has, time and again, asserted that both lives and livelihood are important, several epidemiologists believe that resumption of the Metro will further increase the infection in the city.

“Over a period of next five days, rest of the lines will also

be made operational with all safety measures in place to check the spread of Covid-19 in the Metro premises which requires everyone to follow a new normal of social distancing, face mask and hand sanitisation,” said Anuj Dayal, DMRC’s Executive Director of Corporate Communications on Sunday.

On Monday and Tuesday, only the yellow line, covering 49 kilometre with 37 stations consisting of 20 underground

and 17 elevated stations, will remain operational for a period of four hours each in the morning from 7 am to 11 am and evening from 4 pm to 8 pm.

People have been advised to avoid unnecessary travel as far as possible and advised to stagger travel timings for office, home, other works to the extent possible so that the carrying capacity offered with new norms can be reasonably utilized by creating a travel

pattern in which people are not rushing to the station in morning or peak hours only.

“Rather, people are coming equitably at all hours of the operational timings of the Metro services to ‘break the peak’- a requirement of the present times. Besides ‘Break the Peak’, DMRC appeals to commuters to ‘Talk Less’ during travel in the Metro to prevent the possibility of short-range aerosol transmission,” DMRC said in

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has rescued a teenage girl, a resident of Jharkhand, from New Ra-jinder Nagar area here. The girl has recounted her ordeal of rape by several men and even an attempted rape over the past few years.

“The girl, aged around 16-17, was trafficked from Jharkhand when she was nine. The Commission’s 181 helpline received a call from the girl’s father that he had been looking for his daughter taken from Jharakhand many years back and that he knew her present location,” the Commission said in a state-ment.

A DCW team contacted the complainant in Moti Nagar

area, after which he dis-closed that the teenager was living with a woman named Neelam.

After he guided the DCW team to Neelam, she revealed that she’d brought the girl from Rohini’s Sector 11 a few days ago but sent her to an NGO’s shelter. Neelam was initially hesitant in sharing the details but relented later.

The DCW team reached the said address, only to find it was the residence of a lawyer.

The team then met the lawyer and asked her about the girl’s whereabouts. The lawyer said that Neelam had brought the girl to her place, and that she had counselled her. The lawyer claimed that the teenager had informed her about rape with her as

well.She too said that the girl

was now living in a shelter run by an NGO.

“The team went to the giv-en address in New Rajinder Nagar and found that the girl was actually working as a domestic help at a private house, and was not lodged at the shelter,” a DCW state-ment read.

The girl was rescued and taken to the Rajinder Nagar police station and counselled by the DCW team.

The teenager said that a person from her village had lured her to Delhi some years ago. She was sold off to a traf-ficker named Champa, who was involved in her rape by several men. She was able to recount the names of some of

the men.The girl was later sold off

to a family in Punjabi Bagh, where she worked as a do-mestic help for several years. She said that she was raped by a man named Shubham there. After this, she was sent to a house in Rohini’s Sector 11. A placement agent named Joseph also attempted to rape her, she said.

The girl was unable to rec-ognise her father and didn’t want to accompany him. The girl was taken for a medical examination and then shifted to a shelter home.

An FIR was registered at the Rajinder Nagar police station under Sections 376, 376D, and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal

Covid-19: Have we accepted herd immunity as our fate?

DMRC urges commuters to ‘talk less’, ‘break the peak’ during travel

DCW rescues teenage girl trafficked from Jharkhand years ago

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) A Delhi court has reserved its order on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate seeking extension of custodial remand of ex-AAP councillor Tahir Hussain in a money laundering case against him in connection with the riots in northeast Delhi.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat has reserved the order on ED remand application and is likely to pronounce the same on September 7.

The economical watchdog

has sought nine days’ further custody of the politician.

The ED had produced Hussain through video conference on Saturday and had submitted that it had got his physical custody on August 31 instead of August 29 due to several formalities and his medical testing.

Meanwhile Advocate K.K. Manon, appearing for Hussain strongly opposed the ED’s remand application citing various judgments in this regard.

Advocates Amit Mahajan

and Naveen Kumar Matta appearing for ED submitted that Hussain has entered

into a criminal conspiracy by fraudulently transferring money from the accounts of

many companies.“The money so obtained are

proceeds of crime which were then used for committing various other scheduled offences. We need further remand of him to confront him with several documents etc,” the ED stated in its plea.

Earlier, ED had submitted that the accused has also been arrested earlier in connection with northeast Delhi violence case. Lawyers representing ED also submitted that scheduled offences are attracted in the present case

and it is suspected case of money laundering.

The lawyers also submitted that ED has also conducted searches at various premises and several incriminating documents and digital devices were recovered and seized from the accused’s possessions.

“Whatsapp chats, bogus invoices and other incriminating documents have been recovered,” the plea filed by the ED said.

Earlier in August, the East MCD sacked Hussain from

the post of councillor.The proposal to sack

Hussain was brought to the House as a monthly agenda and was passed unanimously. His membership was scrapped under section 33(2) of the Delhi Municipal Act.

The said sections stated that if during three successive months, a councillor is, without permission of the corporation, absent from all the meetings thereof, the corporation may declare his seat vacant.

Court reserves order on ED plea for extension of custodial remand of Tahir Hussain

South4 Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 2020

T h i r u v a n a n t h a -puram, Sep 6 (IANS) low pressure in the Arabian Sea, the In-dian Meteorological Department(IMD) has warned of heavy rains in Kerala. Southern districts of the state witnessed rainfall on Sunday. Orange alert has been declared for five districts, Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Idukki and Malappuram and yellow alert for an-other six districts has been declared. Heavy rains were reported from Southern districts on Sunday morning and on Sunday afternoon there were rains in the northern region of the

state too. In Thiruvana-nthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha districts, the rains that started in the early morning of Sun-day continued till the evening. Waterlogging was reported from a few low lying areas of these districts.

As warned by IMD, the rains will continue for five more days. Un-til September 17 there will be rains at isolated places. Fishermen have been warned not to venture into the sea for fishing until further no-tice as there is a chance for a wind storm at 45 to 55 kilometers speed in the coast of Kerala and Lakshadweep.

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 6 (IANS) State en-forcement squad under the Excise Department on Sunday arrested two per-sons and allegedly seized 500 kilograms of ganja from their possession near Attingal in Thiruva-nanthapuram. According to excise officer Anil Ku-mar, the vehicle has been registered in the name of a Punjab native.

The two arrested in the case were the resident of Jharkhand and Punjab. Kumar told ANI that the ganja was hidden in a se-cret compartment above

the driver’s cabin in a goods truck.

“It was brought to be handed over to a person in the Chirayinkeezhu area of Thiruvanantha-puram. Based on the in-puts, the Excise depart-ment checked the vehicle and found 500 kilograms of ganja. The ganja was being transported to Kerala after raids were conducted in Karnataka,” Kumar said.

The department has found a connection to the Mysore-based drug ma-fia in the procurement of ganja.

Pathanamthitta, Sep 6 (IANS) A 19-year-old woman CO-VID-19 patient was allegedly raped by an ambulance driver while shifting her to a first line treatment centre near here, po-lice said on Sunday.

Taking note of it, the State Women’s Commission regis-tered a case on its own into the incident, which drew wide condemnation from the oppo-sition Congress and BJP, even as health minister K K Shai-laja said strict instructions had been given to take strong action against the culprit.

“This is an unfortunate inci-dent. We have given strict di-rections to take strong action against the culprit,” she said in Thiruvananthapuram.

The ambulance driver Noufal (29) was taken into custody on Sunday based on a complaint by the victim’s mother to the hospital authorities and the po-lice.

He was dismissed from ser-vice, the Kanivu 108 Ambulance Services said in a release.

According to police, the inci-dent occurred at Aranmula on Saturday.

“We were informed by the hospital authorities after the victim told them about the inci-

dent and we took him into cus-tody. We will take the statement of the girl later as she is not a position to explain her ordeal,” the Investigating Officer told PTI.

The girl was admitted to a hospital at Adoor on Saturday after she and her mother tested positive for coronavirus.

While she was being shifted to the First Line Treatment Centre (CFLTC) later, the driver took her to an empty plot and raped her.

The Commission Chairper-son M C Josephine they have offered all help to the woman.

“This issueshows that women patients need separate security measures. Besides taking strict action against the culprit, his driving license must also be cancelled.

Strict background checks should be done before appoint-ing drivers for ambulances,” she said in a press release.

Pathanamthitta Superin-tendent of Police P K G Simon told reporters that they nabbed the culprit soon after being in-formed about the incident.

“He is from Kayamkulam and is an accused in an earlier mur-der case. We are looking into the details. The incident was

very unfortunate,” Simon said.He said the driver raped the

woman at an empty plot at Aranmula near Pathanamthitta.

Meanwhile, Opposition Con-gress and the BJP lashed out at the state government over the incident and demanded a high levelprobe into the matter.

Speaking to reporters in the state capital, Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the incident, which has shocked Kerala, was due to the ‘lapses’ of the state government.

“The woman was sent alone in an ambulance with the cul-prit… Now police are saying that the culprit has a criminal background.

Why was this not considered before he was appointed? We demand a high-level probe into it,” he said.

BJP state chief K Surendran, who also sought similar action, said the incident showed that the Kerala government was a ‘failure.”

“This shows that the Kerala government is a failure and we demand the resignation of the health minister. The patient was sent with the driver with-out following any protocol,” Surendran later told reporters.

Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) The caller, whose identity is not clear, reportedly called up at least twice on the landlines of “Matoshri” - the CM’s private residence in Bandra east - on Saturday and said he wanted to speak to Thackeray, said Trans-port Minister Anil Parab.

“We have immediately in-formed the Mumbai Police to do whatever is necessary in the matter. The police will verify the antecedents of the caller and take whatever measures neces-sary for the safety and security of the CM,” he told media per-sons this evening.

However, Parab categorically refuted reports in some sections that the caller allegedly issued threats to blow up the CM’s resi-dence, saying that there was no such thing.

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that the government has taken strong note of the devel-opment and the CID has been directed to look into the matter

which has come up on the eve of the Monsoon Session of Maha-rashtra Legislature starting here on Monday.

Meanwhile, leaders of the rul-ing coalition - the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress - including Eknath Shinde, Parab, Balasa-heb Thorat and Ashok Chavan, besides Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar and others have react-ed strongly to the incident and said the government will not be

cowed down by any such threats to the CM.

All leaders have expressed full support to Thackeray while Ped-nekar said Shiv Sainiks will be ready to deploy their own ring of security around “Matoshri” if needed.

Taking serious note of the in-cident, the Mumbai Police have beefed up security around the Thackeray home as well as the Vidhan Bhavan complex at Nari-man Point as a precaution.

Bengaluru, Sep 6 (IANS) Kan-nada actor Samyuktha Hegde has said that she and her friends were abused and attacked for working out in a Bengaluru public park wearing a sports bra by a group of people led by Congress leader Kavitha Reddy. Denying the charge, Ms Reddy said they got into an argument because the women were play-ing loud music and abused the security guard when asked to stop.

Ms Hegde went live on Ins-tagram and posted on Twitter, accusing Ms Reddy of shaming

them for their choice of clothes and shouting at them for public indecency. In a video that she shared, the Congress leader can be seen lunging at one of the women.

Samyuktha Hegde blamed the incident on Congress’s Ka-vitha Reddy, who firmly denied her claims and said the argu-ment took place over the actor playing music in the park and abusing the guard.

She also accused the police of doing nothing to stop the ha-rassment at a park next to the Agara Lake in HSR Layout in

Bengaluru on Friday evening. They spoke to Ms Reddy and asked the actor and her friends to leave, she said.

“When we were waiting for the police to arrive some people in the park who knew her started supporting her and playing moral police and asking us if it is our culture to wear sportswear. About 10 men with her arrived right be-fore the police did and started threatening us. They threat-ened to destroy our careers and the police stood there and just watched,” she said.

Kavitha Reddy, however, firmly denied the accusations of moral policing. “The women were playing loud music in the park and dancing. When the guard asked them to stop, they abused him. I only wanted them to apologise,” she told NDTV.

Ms Reddy accused the actor of a publicity stunt and said why would other park-goers support her if she was wrong.

Bengaluru, Sep 6 (IANS) Health of-ficials in Karnataka strongly feel that opening up of the economy while si-multaneously increasing the number of tests in recent weeks has resulted in a substantial rise in COVID-19 cases in the state.

Speaking to IANS, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commis-sioner Manjunath Prasad concurred that the opening up of lockdown in June-July onwards has resulted in cases increasing in Bengaluru.

“We did planning for lockdown, but it is also true that many people who came from outside towns, states, and countries did not follow the quaran-tine procedures, thus it spread to a large extent. Besides this, post-lock-down, many did not show up for tests at the early stage, which is now result-ing in rise in COVID-related deaths as well.”

He asserted that the infrastructure in government-owned hospitals is ad-equate enough at the present rate of

cases. He also regretted that people in Bengaluru were not following pre-cautionary measures such as wearing masks.

“Though many wear masks, they do not wear it properly like covering their nose as well as mouth. Although the BBMP is keeping strict vigil on those who flout mask rules, it is equally true that the authorities cannot keep an eye on each and every individual in a city like Bengaluru,” the Commis-sioner added.

Bengaluru, Sep 6 (IANS) In what could be the first case of a coro-navirus re-infection in Karnataka, a 27-year-old woman has again been found positive for the disease after her treat-ment and discharge, a private hospital in Ben-galuru said on Sunday.

“Fortis Hospital, Ban-neghatta Road, has re-ported the first case of Covid re-infection,” said a hospital spokesperson.

However, the govern-ment did not yet con-firm if this was the first case of re-infection in the state.

Om Prakash Patil, Di-rector, Health and Fam-ily Welfare Services, told IANS that they will seek information from the districts. “So far, nobody has reported,” he said.

The woman, who does not have any comorbidi-ties, fell victim to the virus for the first time in July with mild symp-toms of cough and fever.

Following treatment, she recovered and was discharged.

“However, in a span of one month, she has de-veloped mild symptoms and has been confirmed to have a Covid infection again,” said the official.

According to Pratik Patil, consultant for in-fectious diseases in the hospital, Covid immu-noglobulin G antibodies test positive after two to three weeks of infection in normal cases.

“However, in this patient, the antibody tested negative which means she did not de-velop immunity after infection. Other possi-bility is that the IgG an-tibodies disappeared in nearly one month leav-ing her susceptible for reinfection,” he said.

According to the doc-tor, some reinfection cases may not produce antibodies and even if they develop, they may not last longer, allowing the virus to renter the body for a newer infec-tion. Karnataka has been consistently registering daily Covid infections in the range of 7,000 to 9,000 plus cases.

On Saturday, the state registered 9,746 more Covid cases, rais-ing its tally to 3.89 lakh. Majority of the cases in the southern state are concentrated in Ben-galuru Urban district, which has 1.44 lakh cases, out of which 41,479 are active.

Low pressure in Arabian sea: Heavy rains to continue in Kerala

2 held, 500 kg ganja seized in

Thiruvanathapuram

Woman COVID-19 patient raped by ambulance driver in Kerala

‘Dawood aide’ calls ‘Matoshri’, seeks to speak with Uddhav

Abused, Assaulted For Wearing Sports Bra In Bengaluru Park, Says Actor

Lifting lockdown, more tests led to rise in Karnataka Woman found re-infected with Covid, reports

Bengaluru hospital

Nation 5Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 2020

Lucknow reports highest 1,006 Covid cases in 1 day

Police officials lift spirits of Covid-infected colleagues in Punjab

Assam couple absconding after scalding minor help arrested

Bihar minister says opposition experts in lies, RJD leader hits back

Congress leader Deep-ender Hooda tests positive for Covid

Landslide blocks stretch of Chandigarh-Manali highway

Wife of co-pilot killed in Kozhikode air crash

gives birth to boy

UP school WhatsApp group filled with

porn, probe ordered

Lucknow, Sep 6 (IANS) Lucknow witnessed its highest one-day surge of

Covid-19 cases with 1,006 cases reported from the Uttar Pradesh capital. Luc-

know also saw 18 deaths on Saturday. Uttar Pradesh also recorded the high-est single-day surge in the number of fresh cases with 6,692 people testing posi-tive for Covid-19.

The previous single-day highest spike in Covid cas-es was registered on August 30 with 6,233 persons test-ing positive. Seven deaths were reported from Kanpur while Gorakhpur and Har-doi reported 5 deaths each. Varanasi reported 4 deaths

and Ghaziabad three. Deaths in single figures were reported from each of the 75 districts of the state, barring a few.

Allahabad ranked second and reported 413 fresh Co-vid cases, followed by 362 from Kanpur.

Cases were also report-ed from Gautam Buddha Nagar (213), Gorakhpur (206), Saharanpur (198), Varanasi (190), Shahjah-anpur (184), Ghaziabad (167), Meerut (156), Prata-

pgarh (148), Bareilly (133), Rampur (132), Moradabad (128), Ayodhya (124), Bara-banki (120), Aligarh (116) and Jhansi (104).

According to the state medical health bulletin, so far, as many as 1,95,959 Co-vid patients have recovered from the viral disease.

The count of active Covid cases in the state stands at 59,963, the bulletin said, adding that the count of total Covid-19 cases in the state is 2,59,765.

Chandigarh, Sep 6 (IANS) To motivate frontline police forces battling coronavirus in Punjab, police officials have telephonically con-tacted more than 500 Covid-19 positive police-men who are undergoing treatment in hospitals or are home quarantined, officials said on Sunday.

All ADGP and IGP rank officers made the calls as part of the mass con-tact programme in line

with similar efforts un-dertaken in recent weeks personally by Chief Min-ister Amarinder Singh and DGP Dinkar Gupta with the aim of keeping the infected personnel in high spirits, an official told IANS.

The officers involved in the exercise not only enquired about the health and well-being of the personnel but also assured them of every possible support.

Some senior officers with medical back-ground even gave them therapeutic guidance and advice.

Police officials under-going treatment have ex-pressed satisfaction over the efforts and support giv-en by the government and police department from time-to-time, he said.

As many as 3,803 po-lice personnel have test-ed Covid positive till now in the state and of them 2,186 (nearly 57 per cent) have fully recovered.

At present, 1,597 of them were positive, in-cluding 38 gazetted offi-cers and 21 station head officers.

Nearly 32 family mem-bers of police personnel were also Covid posi-tive. Another 50 police personnel who were close contacts of positive cases were under self-quarantine. As many as

20 officials, including a DSP, have died in the re-cent past while fighting coronavirus as frontline warriors.

More than 20 police officials who have re-covered from the disease have willingly donated blood plasma and more than 100 others have also offered to do so.

As a welfare measure, all Covid-19 positive police personnel were being provided health kits free of cost which in-clude digital thermom-eter, pulse oximeter, sanitisers, medicines, vitamins, etc. A kit costs Rs 1,700.

The DGP said every po-lice official was his per-sonal responsibility and this contact programme will continue in the fu-ture also till every Cov-id-19 positive policeman in the state is nursed back to health.

Guwahati, Sep 6 (IANS) A government doctor and his academician wife on the run after scalding their minor do-mestic help with hot water have been arrested from cen-tral Assam’s Nagaon, police said on Sunday.

Dibrugarh district police officials said that Siddhi Prasad Deuri, a doctor at the Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, and his wife Mitali Konwar, Prin-cipal of Moran College, were arrested on Saturday night while travelling by a car from New Jalpaiguri in West Ben-gal.

The couple was on the run since the incident came to light on August 29.

“Deuri poured piping hot water on the 12-year-old boy when he was asleep in their house in Dibrugarh on Au-gust 27. Deuri’s wife looked on and did not take the seri-ously injured boy to a doctor or hospital for treatment,” the police officials said.

The Dibrugarh district po-lice tweeted: “Based on an FIR received on August 31 about the inhuman treat-ment of a child employed as a domestic help, accused Dr Siddhi Prasad Deuri and Mit-ali Konwar have been arrest-ed. The couple was abscond-ing but was arrested with the help of Nagaon police.”

The incident came to light when District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC) rescued the boy on August 29 af-ter getting a video clip from an anonymous source. The DCWC reported to the police and took the boy in its care.

Police registered a case un-der the Child and Adolescent Labour Prohibition Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and launched a probe. Po-lice registered a case under the Child and Adolescent La-bour Prohibition Act and Ju-venile Justice (Care and Pro-tection of Children) Act and launched a probe.

The accused, however, ab-sconded when the police had asked them to report at the area police station.

Social activist and Dibru-garh CWC member Arpana Borah, who lodged the FIR, said : “The boy should be giv-en justice. The arrests are the first step towards this end.”

Earlier, various organisa-tions had protested and de-manded action against the couple. On Sunday, a group of women staged a protest at the Dibrugarh police station to demand exemplary pun-ishment for the accused.

According to a media re-port, Deori was suspended in 2006 as store incharge of AMCH on the charge of run-ning a private nursing home in violation of government rules. According to a media report, Deori was suspended in 2006 as store incharge of AMCH on the charge of run-ning a private nursing home in violation of government rules.

Patna, Sep 6 (IANS) Bi-har Health Minister Man-gal Pandey on Sunday alleged that opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress are ex-perts in telling lies and creating confusion and stressed that countering their lies was very impor-tant in the coming Assem-bly elections.

The RJD hit back by say-ing that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on record for dubbing the BJP as ‘Badaka Jhuthe Party’ in the past. “The RJD and Congress leaders are used to lying to create confusion in society. They will frequently use this policy in the next two months in the

run-up to the Assembly elections. They are past masters in this game. Hence, we have to counter their lies by telling voters about genuine work we have done over the years,” Pan-dey said while addressing members of the state BJP’s SC/ST committee.

Pandey has been appointed election management com-mittee chief by the BJP central leader-ship.

“We have ex-ecuted so many public welfare works during the last 13 years in Bihar and if we put all these poli-

cies and works in the right manner before the voters, it would answer the lies and confusion of the op-position,” Pandey said. “We will succeed only if the BJP increases its support among all sections of society, including the Scheduled

Castes and Tribes,” the minister said. Reacting to Pandey’s remarks, RJD state spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said: “Whether we are liars or the BJP can be established from the statement of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has in the past dubbed BJP as ‘Badaka Jhuthe Par-ty’ on record.”

“The BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014 with the poll prom-ise to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of every Indian. They also talked about ‘Achhe Din’, and cre-ation of two crore jobs every year. What happened to these promises? Now, the people can decide who is a liar. They have not fulfilled any of their promises, neither at the Cen-tre nor in Bihar,” Tiwari sai

Chandigarh, Sep 6 (IANS) Con-gress leader and Rajya Sabha member Deepender Singh Hoo-da on Sunday tested positive for coronavirus. Hooda announced this through a message on his Twitter account. He informed that he is getting admitted to a hospital on the advice of doctors.

Taking to Twitter, Hooda re-quested those who had come in contact with him over the last few days to isolate themselves and get tested. “I have tested positive for coronavirus. The doctors are conducting more tests. With your blessings, I will recover soon,” he tweeted in Hindi. Hooda was ad-mitted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram at around 2.50 pm on

Sunday. The entry to the hospi-tal has reportedly been barred for now. The hospital authorities have also confirmed the development.

The 42-year-old Congress lead-er, who is the son of former Hary-ana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is the lone opposi-tion MP from Haryana.

Earlier, Haryana Chief Minis-ter Manohar Lal Khattar had also tested positive for the disease and is still undergoing treatment at the Medanta hospital. The dis-trict health department had de-tected 137 fresh Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking the total tally to 13,321. Of these, 11,498 people have recovered. The Covid-19 toll has reached 137 in the district.

Shimla, Sep 6 (IANS) Traffic on the Chandigarh-Manali National High-way was affected following a massive landslide on a stretch along the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh, police said on Sunday.

There were no reports of any ca-sualty. An official said they hoped to restore normal traffic flow by late Sun-day evening.

Nearly 100 metres of the National Highway was badly damaged in the landslide near Dwa-da in Mandi district on Friday night.

Hundreds of vehicles, largely trucks laden with apples, remained strand-ed in the area.

District authorities claimed that traffic was partially restored for

small vehicles through diversions on alternate roads.

“We are trying to clear the debris and normal traffic on the highway is likely to be restored by late Sunday,” said a district official.

The National Highway Authority of India and district authorities have deployed equipment to remove the debris.

Mathura (UP), Sep 6 (IANS) There is finally something to smile about in the family of late Cap-tain Akhilesh Kumar, the co-pilot of the Air India Ex-press flight which crashed at Kozhikode International airport last month. The pi-lot’s wife Megha Shukla has given birth to a baby boy at Nayati Medicity, Mathura.

Dr Preeti Bhadauria, who led the team that was taking care of Megha dur-ing her pregnancy, said: “The baby boy weigh-ing 2.75 kilos was born to Megha Shukla at at our

hospital on September 5. Both the baby and moth-er are doing fine and are likely to be discharged in the next two days. It is a full-term delivery. She has been under our care throughout.”

The doctor said that the past month had been ex-tremely difficult for Megha and also her family. In a statement the family said: “For us, the baby’s birth rekindles the happiness and joy that Akhilesh ra-diated in our lives. We are extremely happy and we know that he is overjoyed wherever he is today.”

Baghpat (UP), Sep 6 (IANS) A Biology class WhatsApp group for class 10 students of a private school in Baghpat has been found filled with porno-graphic material.

The police said that the per-son who created the chat group used an international number to evade detection. “But it ap-pears to be the work of some in-sider as he had the photograph of the school’s Biology teacher, which he used in its DP, as well as all the phone numbers,” a police officer said

The probe has been handed over to UP Police’s cyber cell, he said.

Alok Singh, circle officer of Badaut area, said, “Some vul-gar pictures and videos were

posted on WhatsApp group named ‘Biology group Class 10’. The group had the display picture of the Biology teacher, who did not know about it. A probe has been ordered and it is being handled by the cyber-crime team.”

The principal of the school said, “We had received a com-plaint. The WhatsApp account was fake, and was created with a foreign number. We have in-formed the police.”

The chat screenshots shared by a few parents purportedly showed that the person us-ing the number even asked for some pictures from the children. However, it was not clear what kind of pictures he was asking for.

EDIT6

Immeasurable pleasure of small things

Fighting for her phone

Jalandhar girl shows grit, determination

Educational disaster looms if no solutions

By Ira Pande‘Fun,’ says author Bill Bryson recall-

ing his childhood, ‘was a different kind of thing in the 1950s, mostly because there wasn’t so much of it… You learnt to wait for your pleasures, and to appreci-ate them when they came.’ If Bryson can say this of his childhood in the America of the Fifties, surely the most prosperous and hedonistic country of those times, then where does one even begin to de-scribe the kind of waiting that we did here in India when we were growing up in the Fifties in small towns and in middle class homes? Lucknow in the Fifties or Allahabad in the Sixties seem so far away in time, yet the life we had there often comes back to me now in black and white dreams. I am constantly taken aback by how much I remember from that time and how a stray taste, smell or melody can set off a train of thoughts, always accompanied by an unheard-by-others-but clearly-by-my-ears Raga Piloo played by Pannalal Ghosh. Perhaps it is because it was the signature tune that always ac-companied the Films’ Division newsreel screened before the Sunday morning show of the children’s film at Lucknow’s Mayfair Theatre. The sonorous voice of

Melville de Mellow or Romesh Thapar that accompanied the film footage of a drought or villages marooned by flood waters in Assam rings clearly in my ears even now after almost half a century.

We suffered these delaying tactics because they made the whole experience of watching a film on a Sunday a treat that would last us for the next month. Seeing films at reduced rates, as at special children’s shows, were the only indulgence allowed by our frugal par-ents. We were also allowed either a packet of chips or a small bar of chocolate, not both together. So my brother and I shared our packet of chips, down to the last one broken in two neat halves, and a small bar of Cad-bury’s measured and carefully cut into two. To date, I feel guilty about eating a packet of potato chips or a whole bar of chocolate all by myself.

And how we waited for those inter-minable train journeys with masses of messy luggage: holdalls, a word that will probably send youngsters to Hobson-Jobson for reference, tin trunks (suit-cases were an unheard-of luxury in my family) that required determined hag-gling over coolie rates on platforms that were always reeking of stale pee and phenyl. The wars fought over window

seats and the lurching rattle of the steam engines as they were finally flagged off. We bought comics (only allowed to be bought on railway platforms) and re-read them for months. Superman, Phantom, Illustrated Classics were the stuff we’d sell our souls for. I cannot now remember whether I read Lorna Doone in the original or as an Illustrated Clas-sic. For this reason, perhaps, the new graphic novels, hailed as an exciting new genre, move me not: how can something that gives you secret pleasure be liked and encouraged by grown-ups?

How times have changed and how indulgent today’s parents seem when compared with ours. Among the many lessons that were instilled into us as children, I think the most valuable was patience. I considered myself quite im-patient but when I see the world around me, I realise that it is not just patience that was inculcated at a subliminal level into us but forbearance, the quality that gave us the courage to take things in our stride and not complain about those things we cannot change. It seems to me — and no doubt to many of my genera-tion — that we have adjusted very well to the lockdown. It has been months

since we have stepped out except for our walks and the occasional visit to a bank. I would be lying if I said it has not become tedious to spend day after day inside the same house, with just each other. Yet we know that we cannot do anything but wait and hold ourselves together.

Of course, one must admit that there is much cause for the young to feel anx-ious, what with the dismal economic situation and shrinking salaries. Life no longer seems as secure as it was just a few months ago and many young people, after spending huge amounts of money and time on earning their de-grees, are no longer sure whether they can earn enough to pay back the loans they have taken. For those who have jobs, the worry is how to pay their EMIs and the school fees for their children af-ter their salaries have been cut. Despite this, few are willing to give up certain lux-uries that are now no longer affordable. They had become accustomed to instant gratification of their desires and were easily seduced into buying whatever was dangled in front of their eyes — a larger flat, a bigger car, a more expensive vaca-tion or whatever.

IANS

The sheer desperation was reflected in

the courage shown by 15-year-old Ku-

sum who fended off the snatchers who

tried to take away her smartphone in

Jalandhar. The daughter of a daily wa-

ger, the braveheart, who aspires to be

a police officer and is taking lessons in

taekwondo, realised that she could not

afford to lose the phone, for it had not

come easy and that her father had toiled

hard for it. Besides, it stored all her notes

sent by teachers. Attacked with sharp

weapons, she managed to catch hold

of a snatcher before passersby came to

her rescue. The incident also illustrates

how smartphones have now become a

necessity with virtual teaching replacing

the classrooms of schools and colleges

as the coronavirus pandemic brings

about a technological shift in the field of

education.

But it is not without its share of prob-

lems. Not all students possess their

own phone. Lack of proper connectivity

and buying data reinforces the fact that

those from weaker sections must not be

left out for lack of resources as the reali-

sation dawns that online education will

be co-opted along with offline teaching

after the pandemic is over. It may not be

possible to teach all the subjects online

but this mode is turning out to be the

mainstay of teaching in the crisis.

In Punjab, the state government has

launched a scheme to provide free smart-

phones for government school students.

Ensuring that it reaches the real benefi-

ciaries is important. The Internet infra-

structure is also inadequate and needs

strengthening. The government should

also assess if the normal law and order

situation has been affected on account

of police personnel being deployed for

Covid-related duties. Snatching is in-

dulged in mostly by drug addicts who

take away phones, earrings and chains

to pay for their daily fix and women have

been a prime target. Whether Kusum

makes it to the list of bravery awards or

not is immaterial, but her feat has high-

lighted the shift in the field of education,

ensuring access to which remains as ar-

duous now, as it has always been.

By Rahul SinghThe Covid-19 pandemic has been

with us since almost the beginning of the year. And it is likely to continue till at least the end of this year, and per-haps beyond. It has had the most pro-found effect on the lives of virtually every person on the planet. One can only think of the two World Wars of the 20th century that have had a com-parable impact. Most of us have been confined to our homes, having to ad-just our existence as best as we can. Tens of millions of jobs have been lost and the economy of every country has suffered in varying degrees. The hospitality, travel, tourism, entertain-ment and sports sectors have been the most calamitously hit. In India, the plight of millions of migrants, forced to get back to their homes one way or the other, has perhaps been the most pitiable sight of all.

However, not enough attention has been paid to school and college-going children, who are the foundation of our future. From March, when an official lockdown started, schools and colleges all across the country have been closed. And the closure will remain in effect till at least the end of this month, perhaps even longer. In most other countries, the lockdown was announced earlier than March, but has now been lifted for many educational institutions, with re-

strictions, of course, like the compulso-ry wearing of masks, social distancing and sanitising of classrooms. In the UK, for instance, schools have reopened, despite continuing coronavirus infec-tions. It has taken into account the risks involved, arguing that there is no real substitute yet for providing children with physical classrooms and face-to-face interaction with their teachers, even though the number of children in the classroom will be restricted. In-dia has not taken that step yet but may have to do so in the near future. Earlier, a staggering 1.3 billion of the world’s children — the entire population of In-dia — were out of school in 186 coun-tries for at least six months. Hence, this has been a global challenge, for which global solutions need to be found ur-gently. If not, we face the prospect of a generation of educationally-stunted children who will find it difficult to cope as adults.

Here, I intend to only deal with the challenge faced by our country. Being a member of the Delhi Public School Society, which either directly runs or has franchised out over 200 private schools all over India, I have been exposed to the problems that schools are now grappling with, con-sequent to the pandemic. With the sudden physical closure of schools, online teaching has become abso-

lutely essential for 240 million chil-dren and nine million teachers. The wide-ranging implications of this are slowly dawning on us — children, parents and teachers.

Four years ago, there were only 1.6 million Indian users for the online education market. By next year, that number is expected to skyrocket to 10 million, giving an indication of the phenomenal growth and importance of online learning. Enormous adjust-ments are going to be needed for teach-ers and their students alike. Eye-to-eye contact between teacher and students in a physical classroom, even with 30-40 students, is essential to gauge how much, or how little, attention the stu-dent is paying. Teachers also gain the respect of students with their physical presence before them. This is clearly not possible with online teaching and studying. Hence, teachers need to de-velop different skills, while students need to get used to being taught via a smartphone or computer.

However, even before coming to that, let’s look at the digital infra-structure at hand. And there the situ-ation is truly bleak. Yes, we have an estimated 450 million Internet users, the second largest of any nation ex-cept China, but the proportion be-tween urban and rural users is badly skewed: 40 per cent of those living

in cities and towns, just 15 per cent in villages (where over 50 per cent of Indians reside and work). In fact, 55,000 villages have no mobile net-work coverage at all. In other words, only a minuscule percentage of stu-dents in the countryside have access to online teaching. That is a tragic statistic, especially now.

But the reality on the ground is even worse. Internet coverage is not the only requirement for online teach-ing and studying. The students, or parents, must have one of three digi-tal devices: a smartphone, tablet or computer. Most Indian families have ordinary, inexpensive cell phones, and a non-smart TV set. A reveal-ing survey by the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training, along with UNICEF, shows that two-thirds of households in the state don’t have access to smart-phones, and that less than 1 per cent have desktop computers or laptops. So, no online teaching is possible for them. The position in other states could not be any better. In sum, only a small percentage of our population has the basic infrastructure for online teaching and studying. And, needless to say, the government-run “free” schools are even worse off in this re-spect than private fee-paying ones.

IANS

By \\Nehchal SandhuOppressive temperatures in

the sultry plains of northern Gujarat ceded ground to a cool environment as we lumbered up the winding road towards Mount Abu, a verdant oasis on the trailing edge of the Araval-lis in Rajasthan, in April 2018. An enthusiastic mix of 40-odd septuagenarians and sexage-narians, travelling in two buses, craned their necks in anticipa-tion of a view of the brainery that they had joined four-and-a-half decades earlier. Not sharing the enthusiasm of their spouses, the accompany-ing wives and widows of three fallen colleagues remained unmoved by the wondrous portal of the hallowed institu-tion that had transformed their husbands from naïve lads into strapping police officers.

This six-hour transit to Mount Abu was nothing like our 36-hour peregrination from Nagpur to Abu Road in the winter of 1973. From the fecund Vidarbha, known for oranges and sugarcane, our unrushed train took us to famine-stricken Nandurbar; parched fields bore testimony

to the misery confronting the majority Bhil tribal population. Having traversed that tragedy-hit stretch, we coursed into a prosperous Gujarat culminat-ing in Ahmedabad, seat then of the broad gauge-metre gauge conflux.

The connecting steam loco-motive-powered train pulled out on schedule but its slow speed and stops at obscure railway stations made for halt-ing progress. A dash to the head of the train at one of such halts revealed a delight — Bill Brady, the engine driver in his mid-fifties. An Anglo-Indian settled in Gujarat, he looked every bit an Irishman like his forefather. Bearded and dressed in impec-cable white with a peak cap to match, he was an impressive figure. Invited into the engine driver’s open cabin, two of us were spared the smoke and coal particles being blown backwards onto the passen-ger compartments. And so we rode with the unabashed Bill, who would occasionally break out into an old English number mindless of the company and the evident inability of the fire-man to comprehend what was

being intoned. Dedicated to the point of being reverent, Bill’s alertness did not flag; he would dutifully lean out at intermedi-ate stations with the train at full clip to throw the ball-shaped ‘signalling token’ onto the plat-form and to collect the next one with his forearm from the Station Master holding a hoop aloft. A bundle of energy, Bill outdid his fireman in shovel-ling coal from the tender into the firebox. The sight of men in white clothes and brightly-co-loured turbans proceeding for work in the fields and women in a smorgasbord of bright and swirling dresses with brass pots on their heads made a memo-rable impression, which is yet to lose its original intensity and vibrancy.

Determined we were to savour every moment of our short stay and to show our wives what we had endured over a period of 12 months. Home to the Central Police Training College (CPTC) since 1950, two years after Sardar Patel had fostered the formation of the All India Services, the Abu Lawrence School, built in 1849, had not

changed. Nor had the parade ground. Only the gymnasium had been turned into an in-door chamber, which we used for an event to pay homage to our fallen colleagues.

Our digs in the Rajputana Hotel Estate, not too far away, had sadly deteriorated. It had been run as a hotel for Rajas-than royals and well-heeled Europeans quite profitably for 45 years by the Merwanjis since 1905. Peeved at the govern-ment decision (1950) to requi-sition the premises for housing IPS officer trainees, at a rent not even approximating the hotel’s revenue potential, the Mer-wanjis allowed it to degener-ate. Cash-strapped, the CPTC, rechristened as the National Police Academy in 1967, could not put up adequate money for satisfactory maintenance. And so it decayed, until the Acad-emy moved to Hyderabad in 1975, leaving the campus to the CRPF for its Internal Security Academy.

Barracks that CPTC trainees had originally occupied (1948-1950) had reverted to the Army. The Sirmoor Rifles, the first Gurkha unit raised by the East

India Company in 1824, which became 5/8 Gorkha Rifles after Independence, was the incum-bent in our time. The then CO, Lt Col Jasbir Pal Singh Rand-hawa’s commanding presence, commitment to high standards and ability to do better than most of his younger colleagues was a source of inspiration. No wonder, reporting on the Chhamb battle in 1971, veteran broadcaster Melville de Mellow had portrayed him as “an offi-cer with enough ‘josh’ to set the (river) Tawi on fire”.

Visits to Guru Shikhar, Dil-wara temples, Nakki lake and Sunset Point, for acquainting the wives with the sights, were disappointing with tourists in significant numbers thronging every venue. Fortunately, the game sanctuary built by Col GH Trevor, an engineer who wrote “Rhymes of Rajputana” about the chieftains and lead-ing families in Rajputana at the turn of the 20th century, appeared unscarred by visi-tors. The significant crocodile population in the lake central to this wildlife habitat might have been the deterrent.

IANS

Bill Brady and the riding ‘ustad’ at Mount Abu

Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Monday, September 7, 2020

OPED7Jeddah remains the soul of Saudi Arabia

By Tariq A. Al MaeenaDrive anywhere towards the

west in Jeddah and you will eventually reach the corniche. Beyond the winding corniche to the west lies the eastern fringe of the Red Sea whose blue waters gently lap the rocky shores.

If you do reach the corniche and turn on either side of the road, you will revel in the natu-ral and the remarkable beauty of our coastline. In fact, a lot of the local citizenry did that is until recent times. There is also an area just south of the coast guard station that displayed miniature houses depicting old Jeddah.

Families would settle down on the concrete shores taking in the soothing sights, while children of all ages played un-concerned. Health-conscious adults and teens could be seen burning calories as they under-took brisk walks. Street ven-dors offering an array of goods from chickpeas to Wall’s ice cream would be busy hawking their goods.

Fishing off the rusted piers scattered along this area of-fered sportsmen of all na-tionalities a fighting chance. Groups of male adults may indulge in a game of cards, while others would prepare a sumptuous barbecue for their companions. This was after all a gathering for all people of all tastes.

A few short years ago, one could not fail to notice a barri-cade of plywood and fibreglass curtains obstructing the sea view. Signs in Arabic indicated that the area was undergoing a slow transformation under the patronage of the municipality. The outcome has led to some conveniences for the public and a lot of food and entertainment venues that dot the coastline.

Fading dreamSome local residents are not

overly amused. Aisha, a suc-cessful businesswoman, was protesting about the buildings and the commercial outlets that have obstructed the views from this area of the corniche.

She saw it as indeed a nui-sance, especially as she drove by this area daily on her way to work. The serenity of the coast-line that she had come to trea-sure was now but a faded dream. She wondered why the beauty of the natural coastline was blocked by concrete structures.

Another Saudi volunteered that to enjoy some of the ser-vices, residents better get used to paying for them.

That just didn’t sit well with Aisha. “Pay for it?” she retorted very forcefully.

“And why should I pay for something so natural, so beau-tiful, that I get to enjoy every day for free. Does a Nepali pay to view the Himalayas? Or a Ca-nadian the Niagara Falls? Or an Englishman the white cliffs of Dover? And besides, don’t we already have an excess of run-down amusement centres in the area.

“We do not need any more restaurants or fast food out-lets in that area. The corniche would end up being littered

with trash and a sanctuary for rats. And besides, what about those families who could not afford to pay for the privilege of taking in the scenery or pay-ing for over-priced food? Must they be forced to shell out the last few remaining riyals out of their pockets just to pad the pockets of the privileged few? The uninhibited greed of these businessmen must not be al-lowed to remain unchecked.”

Disappearing coastlineIt is unfortunate that there is

very little of the coastline that is available to a city fast ap-proaching the millions in dou-ble figures. And with a tighten-ing economy, a trip to the sea and fresh air suits most family budgets.

Granted there are billion-dollar projects in the offing, all set to transform the Red Sea city into a tourist extravaganza. But to enjoy such leisure and facilities would come at a price, something most families today would have to skilfully grapple with among other expenses.

The city of Jeddah is blessed with milder weather during the hot months than in many cit-ies on the Arabian Peninsula. Planned right, it could see itself as a competitor to Dubai. With a few minor changes to the way we do things, and with little extra investment in the right

places, it can be made a more fun place for even budget-con-scious tourist to visit.

The municipality should ex-ercise more wisdom and better judgement in the interest of its inhabitants. All it’s folks. Give the city back to its people.

Gulf News

By Mohammed AlmezelExactly a 100 years ago, a French general,

Henry Gouraud, known for his racism and extreme religious zealous arrived in Leba-non with a mandate to rule over the Levant. One hundred years later, another French-man, President Emmanuel Macron, arrived in an independent Lebanon with a plan to bring the Arab country back in line because, he thinks, it has since deviated far away from the original plan.

The arrival of General Gouraud in the summer of 1920 ushered in the French mandate in Syria and Lebanon, as per the secret pacts of Versailles and Sanremo be-tween France and Great Britain to divide the Arab region between them following the

fall of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in the First World War. In July 1920, he is-sued his famous ultimatum to Prince Faisal Bin Sharif Hussein, who had declared him-self king of Syria, which then included all of Lebanon, to step down or France would attack Damascus. The Syrians rejected the ultimatum and fought bravely in the battle of Maisaloun but were outnumbered and outgunned by the modern French army. Eventually, Damascus fell to the French and Faisal was forced into exile in Palestine.

As the French stormed the gates of Damas-cus, Gouraud, reportedly, went straight to the tomb of Salahuddin, the great Muslim leader who defeated the crusades in Jerusalem in 1187. Gouraud reportedly kicked the grave

and said: “Awake, Salahuddin. We have re-turned.” He was referring obviously to the de-feat of his ancestors at the wall of Jerusalem.

The battle of Maisaloun is considered the beginning of the European colonial rule in the Middle East, which led to the division of the Levant and other Arab lands into smaller states such as “the State of Greater Lebanon.” Macron celebrated the centenary of “Greater Lebanon,” during his visit to Beirut last week.

Gouraud came to this region with crude power, the full force of France. Macron, on the other hand, has come waving his country’s soft power. This probably explains Gouraud’s discourteous call on Salahuddin’s tomb and Macron’s late dinner at the house of the icon-ic singer Fairuz on Monday. Nevertheless, the outcome might not differ much.

France was given Lebanon and Syria as per the Versailles agreement 100 years ago. Appar-ently, Paris has been entrusted by the Europe-ans today with the ‘Lebanese dossier’, which is the only logical explanation to his overly hands-on intervention in the latest Lebanon crises, including the task of naming a new premier as well as members of the upcoming cabinet. The trigger was the catastrophic ex-plosion in the Beirut port that left nearly 200 people dead, and the reluctance of key Arab states to help Lebanon come out of its financial and political misery. Without a doubt, there is a strategic shift in our region. Most of us are fully aware of the wider manifestations, as we learn daily from the news headlines, but many are indeed oblivious to the ‘big picture’. This shift may very well take us back about 100 years.

Waning US interest in the Middle East

In not so much subtle a threat, the French president warned Lebanese politicians last week that they should enact serious structural reforms and “sort things out” before the end of the year. He stressed, the new United States administration, regardless of who is going to be a president, “will not be as diplomatic as France.” He issued an ultimatum to Lebanese leaders: substantial reforms in three months or face possible sanctions.

The US administration is currently try-ing desperately to secure the reelection of President Donald Trump, who is trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls.

The Trump administration has decided early on to disengage from the Middle East and gradually withdraw its forces from the region’s hotspots. This will, of course, con-tinue if Trump wins in November. The Eu-ropeans have mixed feelings about that as they are somewhat sceptical of a complete American exit, which could leave them with a huge vacuum to fill, a task for which they might not be fully prepared. At the same time, they don’t have much faith in Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

On the other hand, if Biden wins, he might choose to restore the US engagement in the region, albeit in the wrong direction — Iran, as Barack Obama did. Fortunately for us, Trump stopped that bizarre move. The US became heavily involved in the Middle East after the exit of Great Britain at the end of the 1960s. France exited the region 20 years earlier as it became busy re-building its cities and international image follow-ing its destructive and humiliating occupation by the Germans during the Second World War.

Today, it looks like it is time for a change of guard. Europe is preparing to fill the void left by the American disengagement in the region. One can easily see that the hotspots in which Europe-ans appear to be moving quickly today are stark-ly similar to those chosen by the same powers 100 years ago. The Italian foreign minister was in Libya a few days ago to oversee the progress of the recently announced ceasefire. The British ambassador in Yemen is shuttling between Aden and Sana’a to secure a truce that could pave the way for a political solution to the war. And Ma-cron had to be in Lebanon — where else?

The Europeans are backEurope, which claims to have borne the

brunt of the recent conflicts in the region, especially the influx of refugees and several terror attacks related to those conflicts, may feel compelled to help re-engineer a new re-ality in the region through direct non-military intervention. Much has been written about Macron’s meeting with Fairuz. Most of us were mesmerised by the photos of them smil-ing and conversing. The pictures went viral on social media. We live in the time of virals anyway. But few paid attention to what the man said at his press conference hours later, especially his explicit reference to the French plan to restructure the Lebanese system. Leb-anon has no say in this apparently as Macron waved high the stick of international sanc-tions as the only other alternative. He even told his Lebanese hosts that the Iran-backed, heavily armed Hezbollah was good for them. What is clear from the Macron’s Lebanon trip is that the Europeans are back.

Gulf News

By Kate MurphyAs the school year begins amid a global

pandemic, many are concerned about the negative impact that virtual or social-ly distanced learning may have on chil-dren’s developing social skills.

But what about grown-ups? It seems adults deprived of consistent and varied peer contact can get just as clumsy at so-cial interactions as inexperienced kids.

Research on prisoners, hermits, sol-diers, astronauts, polar explorers and others who have spent extended periods in isolation indicates social skills are like muscles that atrophy from lack of use. People separated from society — by cir-cumstance or by choice — report feeling more socially anxious, impulsive, awk-ward and intolerant when they return to normal life.

Psychologists and neuroscientists say something similar is happening to all of us now, thanks to the pandemic. We are subtly but inexorably losing our facility and agility in social situations — whether we are aware of it or not. The signs are ev-erywhere: people oversharing on Zoom, overreacting or misconstruing one an-

other’s behaviour, longing for but then not really enjoying contact with others.

It’s an odd social malaise that can eas-ily become entrenched if we don’t recog-nise why it’s happening and take steps to minimise its effects.

“The first thing to understand is that there are biological reasons for this,” said Stephanie Cacioppo, the director of the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at the Uni-versity of Chicago. “It’s not a pathology or mental disorder.”

Even the most introverted among us, she said, are wired to crave company. It’s an evolutionary imperative because there’s historically been safety in num-bers. Loners had a tough time slaying woolly mammoths and fending off en-emy attacks.

So when we are cut off from others, our brains interpret it as a mortal threat. Feeling lonely or isolated is as much a biological signal as hunger or thirst. And just like not eating when you’re starved or not drinking when you’re dehydrated, failing to interact with others when you are lonely leads to negative cognitive, emotional and physiological effects,

which Dr. Cacioppo said many of us are likely experiencing now. Even if you are ensconced in a pandemic pod with a ro-mantic partner or family members, you can still feel lonely — often camouflaged as sadness, irritability, anger and leth-argy — because you’re not getting the full range of human interactions that you need, almost like not eating a balanced diet. We underestimate how much we benefit from casual camaraderie at the office, gym, choir practice or art class, not to mention spontaneous exchanges with strangers.

Why our brains go into survival modeMany of us have not met anyone new

in months.“This daily interacting with individu-

als out in the world gives you a sense of belonging and security that comes from feeling you are part of, or have access to, a wider community and network,” said Stefan Hofmann, a professor of psychol-ogy at Boston University. “Social isola-tion slashes that network.”

The privation sends our brains into survival mode, which dampens our abil-ity to recognise and appropriately re-

spond to the subtleties and complexities inherent in social situations. Instead, we become hypervigilant and oversensitive. Layer on top of that a seemingly capri-cious virus and we’re all tightly coiled for fight or flight.

You get a sidelong glance and immedi-ately think the other person dislikes you. A confusing comment is interpreted as an insult. At the same time you feel more self-conscious, fearing any missteps will put you further at risk. As a result, social situations, even a friendly phone call, be-come something to avoid. People start to withdraw, rationalising they are too tired, didn’t like the person much to begin with or there’s something they’d rather watch on Netflix.

It’s a phenomenon that the British phy-sician Beth Healey knows all too well. She spent a year at a remote outpost in Ant-arctica as part of a team doing research for the European Space Agency.

“We had quite a lot of training before we went about how returning home can be difficult,” she said. “You kind of laugh it off, thinking it won’t happen to you.”

But sure enough, when Dr. Healey re-

entered civilisation in early 2016, she said she felt uneasy. “One of my good friends met me in New Zealand and I could feel myself hiding behind her a little bit when checking in at the hotel,” she said. “Nor-mally I’d have been happy to take the lead but I was hoping they would speak to her.”

For months, she was nervous getting on a bus and overwhelmed going to the su-permarket. “It was really strange and feels similar to what we’re seeing now after the isolation” because of the coronavirus, she said. “But, in a way, it was easier coming out of Antarctica into the world because nobody else felt the same way and now everyone is being a bit weird.”

Some of her fellow crew members had such a hard time readjusting that they immediately signed up to go back to Antarctica. The same thing often hap-pens to soldiers returning from long de-ployments and also prisoners released after years in solitary confinement. Even if they come home to supportive families, within days or weeks, they want to go back.

Gulf News

Macron at Fairuz: Is the stage set for a new French mandate in the Middle East?

COVID-19 side-effect: We’re all socially awkward now

Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 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

International8 Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 2020

DONALD TRUMP REFUSES TO CONDEMN RUSSIA OVER NAVALNYWashington, Sep 6 (IANS) President Donald Trump has refused to condemn Russia over the poisoning of oppo-sition fi gure Alexei Navalny, saying he has not seen proof.

He said the case was “trag-ic” but urged reporters to fo-cus instead on China, which he said was a bigger threat to the world than Russia, the BBC reported on Saturday.Nato and Germany say there is “proof beyond doubt” that

Navalny was attacked with a Novichok nerve agent.His team said he was poisoned on the Kremlin’s orders. Russia denies this.

On Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry suggested that if a Novichok-type nerve agent had indeed been used, it did not necessarily origi-nate in Russia.Navalny - an anti-corruption cam-

paigner who has long been the most prominent face of opposition to President Vladi-mir Putin in Russia - is in a coma in a Berlin hospital hav-ing been airlifted there from

Siberia, where he fell ill.Speaking at a press event on Friday, he said he had yet to see evidence of

poisoning in the

case.“So I don’t know exactly what happened. I think it’s tragic, it’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet but I will take a look,” he said.

He also stopped short of criticising Mr Putin and said Beijing posed a greater threat.“It is interesting that everybody’s always mention-ing Russia and I don’t mind

you mentioning Russia but I think probably China at this point is a nation that you should be talking about much more so,” he said.

Tests at a military laborato-ry in Germany show “beyond doubt” the presence of a Novi-chok nerve agent, the German government and Nato say.On Friday Nato called for Russia to disclose its Novichok nerve

agent programme to inter-national monitors. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members were united in con-demning the “horrifi c” attack on Mr Navalny.

Stoltenberg said it required an international response, but gave no further details.

The US National Security Council has pledged to “work with allies and the interna-tional community to hold those in Russia accountable”.

IRAN, RUSSIA TO JOINTLY PRODUCE COVID 19 VACCINE

Turkey ready for every possibility in East Med: Erdogan

Egypt FM urges int’l seriousness to reach political settlement in Libya

Cairo, Sep 6 (IANS) Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called on the international com-munity to “show seriousness and exert more efforts for pushing the peace process in Libya.”

In a press conference with the visiting European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, Shoukry on Thursday said that “consultations continue with European partners to maintain the sovereignty of the war-torn country and to boost the rights of the Libyan people in facing

terrorism, military and foreign interventions.”He highlighted the

fi xed Egyptian vision that sup-ports reaching a consensus po-litical solution among the Libyan confl icted parties, and stressed Egypt’s keenness to continue co-ordination with the EU partners to fi nalise a political solution, Xin-hua news agency reported.

Shoukry said that Egypt backs reaching such a solution that preserves the unity and territori-al integrity of Libya and restores the role of state institutions, hailing the efforts at the eco-nomic level that aim to better manage and distribute wealth

in a fair manner.Borrell’s visit to Cairo came one day after he concluded a visit to Libya, where he reiterated the EU’s unwaver-ing support for the resolution of the confl ict and the need for concrete actions to follow the recently announced cease-fi re.On August 21, UN-backed Prime Minister of Libya Fayez al-Serraj and Speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives Aguila Saleh called for cease-fi re in the country, presidential and parliamentary elections, and re-sumption of oil exports.

Cairo, Sep 6 (IANS) Iran and Russia will cooperate to produce a COVID-19 vaccine in the Islamic republic as CO-VID-19 cases in Iran surged to 384,666 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi health offi cial warned that the citi-zens should not play down the seriousness of the coronavirus as 4,644 daily new infections were reported.

Iran, the hardest-hit coun-try in the Middle East region, reported 1,894 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 384,666, Xin-hua news agency reported on Saturday.The pandemic has so far claimed 22,154 lives in Iran, up by 110 in the past 24 hours. A total of 332,131 coro-

navirus patients have recov-ered, with 3,708 still in critical condition.The announcement of Iran-Russia cooperation on producing a coronavirus vac-cine was made on Friday at the online meeting between Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambas-

sador to Moscow and Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund, Ira-nian semi-offi cial FARS news agency reported on Saturday.Jalali called for further health and medical cooperation be-tween the two countries.In

Iraq, 4,644 COVID-19 cases were reported during the day, bringing the total nationwide infections to 256,719.

The death toll rose to 7,422 with the addition of 63 new fatalities, while 3,891 more patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 195,259.

“The lack of compliance of the citizens will increase the number of infections and make the ministry to stop at a certain stage because our health institutions have a lim-ited capacity and this will also lead to an increase in deaths,” Ryadh Abdul-Amir, head of Iraqi Public Health Depart-ment in the Health Ministry, said in a press release.

Rome, Sep 6 (IANS) Pan-demic deniers held a protest in the Italian capital, drawing a few thousand people near the Circus Maximus in the historic center.

Organisers included the far-right Forza Nuova (FN) party, the anti-vax move-ment, and virus-denying civ-ic groups, which complained about all precautionary mea-sures to fight the spread of the COVID-19 in the coun-try, Xinhua news agency re-ported on Saturday.None of the protesters at the demon-stration was seen wearing a

face mask.The rally sparked condemnation by authori-ties. “Today we have people gathering in Rome, who think the pandemic does not ex-ist,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said during an annual event in Rome broadcast live online.

“We answered them with figures: more than 274,000 people infected, and over 35,000 dead. Period.”

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Rome mayor Vir-ginia Raggi were among the other political leaders con-demning the protest.The

event came amid concerns for a limited but constant rise in coronavirus infections reg-istered in the last five weeks, as official data and the latest monitoring report by Italy’s National Health Institute (ISS) showed.

In the daily statistical up-date late on Saturday, the Health Ministry confirmed 276,338 coronavirus cases in the country overall, with an increase of 1,695 cases over the last 24 hours, and 35,534 fatalities.Meanwhile, doctors at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan said 83-year-old

former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was admit-ted to the hospital late on Thursday after being tested positive for the coronavirus, was in stable condition.

“His clinical conditions remain stable,” Alberto Zan-grillo, head of the general and cardiovascular intensive care unit, said in a bulletin.

KHALEDA ZIA TO STAY OUT OF JAIL FOR 6 MORE MONTHS

Istanbul, Sep 6 (IANS) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is prepared for every pos-sibility and consequence regarding the Eastern Medi-terranean issue.

"We are ready for every possibility and every con-sequence," Erdogan said on Saturday at the opening cer-emony of a hospital in Istan-bul, noting Turkey "has the political, economic, and mil-itary power to tear away im-moral maps and documents

imposed by others."Turkey and its NATO ally Greece have long been at odds over the energy resources in the region as Ankara has been opposing the drilling efforts of several countries with-

out its involvement, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Greece rejected a NATO initiative, which aimed to ease the tension in the disputed waters despite Turkey's approval.

Turkey earlier dispatched its seismic survey ves-sel Oruc Reis, escorted by Turkish warships, to the re-gion after Greece and Egypt signed a maritime border agreement.

Tehran, Sep 6 (IANS) The Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offi cially announced the opening of new school year, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Rouhani on Saturday said "strict" measures will be ad-opted by the educational au-thorities to protect students' health, Xinhua news agency reported.He also advised teachers to include instructing health principles in the educa-

tion to help students stay safe.On Tuesday, Iran's Education Ministry announced plans

for reopening of schools in low-risk regions and said that classes of high-risk regions would be held online.

Iranian schools were closed for nearly four months during the last academic year as the novel coronavirus broke out across the country in February.

Iran on Friday reported a to-tal of 382,772 cases with novel coronavirus in the country, of whom 22,044 have died.

Jerusalem, Sep 6 (IANS) Israel’s Corona Cabinet has decided to impose closures on 30 cities and towns start-ing next Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu and the state’s COV-ID-19 project manager Ronni Gamzu said.These are places

with the highest morbid-ity rates, which were recently declared as “red” as part of a new program, which classi-fi es all places into four colours according to morbidity level, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.The lockdowns include night curfews, traf-

fi c restrictions, limitations on shops and other businesses, and the closure of all schools and kindergartens.The daily number of new COVID-19 patients in Israel jumped to almost 3,000 on Wednesday, while the total number of cas-es currently stands at 122,799.

Iran’s president opens schools urging observance of “strict”

health measures

Israel to impose lockdowns due to high COVID-19 morbidity

Pandemic deniers rally in Rome without wearing face masks

United States equities post weekly losses amid tech sell-off, economic data

Dhaka, Sep 6 (IANS) Ban-gladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supremo Khaleda Zia can stay out of prison for six more months, but in this period she cannot leave the country and has to receive treatment at her residence, the Law Ministry said.

In consideration of an ap-plication filed by her fam-ily, the Ministry has recom-mended extending the stay on the former Prime Min-ister's jail term for six more months.

"We are of the opinion that her release term can be ex-tended on the old conditions that she will be staying in Bangladesh and avail treat-ment at home," Law Minister Anisul Huq told Dhaka Tri-bune on Thursday.

"On these two conditions, the earlier order of suspend-ing her sentence and releas-ing her has been extended for another six months, starting from the date of the expiry of the earlier six months," he added.Zia was released from prison for six months on March 25 as the

Covid-19 outbreak started to unfold in the country. That release order will expire on September 24.

"We have sent back the file to the Home Ministry. The Prime Minister (Sheikh Ha-sina) is the chief executive of the state. The Ministry will send it to her office for ap-proval," Huq added.

On August 25 in the ap-plication to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the BNP supre-mo's younger brother Sha-mim Eskander had sought an extension of the stay on her jail term, mentioning no time frame.

AKM Ehsanur Rahman, one of Khaleda's lawyers, had earlier said that Zia was not getting proper treat-ment due to the pandemic and therefore her family was seeking the extension.

The Home Ministry then forwarded the application to the Law Ministry for its con-sideration.

The government had sus-pended her jail sentence un-der Sub-Section 1 of Section 401 of the Code of Criminal

Procedure of Bangladesh, which says: "When any per-son has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the Government may at any time without conditions or upon any conditions which the person sentenced ac-cepts, suspend the execu-tion of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced."

On July 3, 2008, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the Zia Orphan-age Trust graft case against the former Prime Minister, her son and BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and four others accusing them of misappropriating Tk2.1 crore of donations meant for a trust to be formed in her husband's name.

On February 8, 2018, a spe-cial court convicted Zia and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the case.

New York, Sep 6 (IANS) US equities decreased in the past week as investors rotated about of the tech sector while digesting a slew of key eco-nomic data.

For the week ending Friday, the Dow slid 1.8 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 2.3 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 3.3 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The S&P US Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese com-panies listed on US exchanges by total market cap, logged a weekly decline of 3.2 per cent.Wall Street experienced a wild week. After reaching record

highs on Wednesday, major equity indexes fell sharply on Thursday in their worst ses-sion since June and extended losses on Friday amid a steep sell-off in tech-related shares.

The S&P 500 tech sector slumped 5.83 per cent on Thursday, notching its biggest one-day loss since March, and the group sank 1.34 per cent further on Friday.

"We view the latest sell-off as a bout of profi t-taking af-ter a strong run," UBS Global Wealth Management's Chief Investment Offi cer Mark Hae-fele said in a note.The S&P 500 enjoyed its strongest August in more than 30 years, gaining 7 per cent, and added a further

2.3 per cent in the fi rst two days of September, to reach a fresh record high.

Noting "stocks are still well-supported by a combination of Fed liquidity, attractive eq-uity risk premiums, and an on-going recovery as economies reopen from the lockdowns," analysts at UBS said that "vol-atile markets can leave some investors stuck on the side-lines, waiting for greater clar-ity or cheaper equity prices."

Investors also pored through a batch of economic data.US employers added 1.4 million jobs in August, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 per cent, as the nation's pandemic-ravaged labor

market continues to slowly recover, the US Bureau of La-bor Statistics reported Friday.Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting growth of 1.32 million and the jobless rate to decline to 9.8 per cent from 10.2 per cent in July.

The US unemployment rate previously soared to a record 14.7 per cent in April. Payrolls are still about 11 million below pre-pandemic levels.

On Thursday, the Depart-ment of Labor said US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, fell to 881,000 in the week ending August 29, following an upwardly revised 1.01 million in the prior week.

9businessindian HorizonMonday, september 7, 2020

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL), a state government agency, has said that there seem to be an "in-congruency" in the results, as the state recorded a dismal performance in the Centre's Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) rankings with its per-formance worsening as per the data.

In a statement, IPICOL has said that it will seek further details and clarification on the evaluation methodology from the Department for Pro-motion of Industry and In-ternal Trade (DPIIT)."There seems to be an incongruency in the results as states/UTs which have implemented

/much lower number of reforms have been ranked higher than states which have implemented signifi-

cant reforms. Further details and clarifications on the eval-uation methodology will be sought from DPIIT, Govern-ment of India, on the results announced," it said.

As per the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) rankings for 2019 released on Satur-day, Odisha dropped 15 posi-tions to the 29th spot.

The statement also said that these are dated rankings for reforms implemented by various states in 2018 and

over the past two years, a sig-nificant number of reforms has been implemented by various government depart-ments of Odisha.

"The conducive business environment in the state is also reflected in the invest-ments received by the state during the past two years. During the period of April-September 2019, Odisha became the top investment destination in the country by attracting the highest

amount of investment (18 per cent of total investment in India)," it said.

The state had implement-ed 180 out of 187 reform ac-tion points recommended by DPIIT, it said, adding that the evidence of implementation was submitted by the state and the evidence for all 180 reforms was also approved by DPIIT.

The statement contended that the survey agency ap-pointed by DPIIT could not complete the feedback survey with the industries and MSMEs in the state and therefore, the reforms imple-mented by the state could not be accounted for.

As per IPICOL, even during the ongoing pandemic, the state received more than 200 investment proposals.

"Thus, these rankings do not reflect the current busi-

ness environment in the state and do not incorporate the recent reform initiatives implemented by the state," it said.

The Centre on Saturday conferred Andhra Pradesh the title of the best perform-ing state in terms of imple-menting business reforms.

The 'State Business Reform Action Plan 2019' is aimed at improving the business environment by streamlin-ing regulatory structures and simplifying procedures, digitisation of information and easing the compliance burden. It aspires to create an investor-friendly business climate by cutting down red tape.

As per the latest ranking, Uttar Pradesh stood second and Telangana was the third-best state in implementing business reforms in 2019.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) As the coronavirus pandemic and the eventual lockdowns have brought the multiplex industry to a grinding halt, PVR has deferred a signifi-cant portion of its capital ex-penditure (capex) plans and it will reassess them once the shutdown is over and its op-erations resume.

Nitin Sood, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of PVR has said that owing to the company's cost control measures, its fixed costs for the future will be lower than it had before. Even after reopening, the company does not expect

these to return to their previ-ous levels soon.

His message to the share-holders in PVR's Annual Re-port said that the company is already in discussions with its developers for renegotiat-ing the rental arrangements. Sood added that PVR's other

costs too will undergo reduc-tions until some normalcy is restored. "We have also tem-porarily deferred a substan-tial portion of our planned capital expenditures that we were undertaking, prior to the shutdown. All major capital expenditures will now

be re-assessed once the shut-down is over," the CFO said.

Throughout this crisis, ac-cording to him, the company has focused on business con-tinuity and has undertaken measures to mitigate the risk.

"Our strategy has been two pronged. First, we have brought down our fixed costs drastically during this period of lockdown, and second, we have raised debt to pre-serve liquidity on the balance sheet," he said.

Among the fixed costs, PVR has invoked the force majeure clause for rental payment and Common Area Mainte-

nance (CAM) charges, under its contractual arrangements and has suspended rental payments, while it continues to be in discussions with mall developers.

"In order to manage our li-quidity during the period the cinemas are shut, the man-agement has voluntarily tak-en a cut of 50 per cent in their compensation, while the rest of our employees have for-saken 20-50 per cent of their salaries. Owing to these ac-tions, we have been success-ful in bringing a significant reduction in our monthly fixed costs," Sood said.

DUBAI: Emirates airline will start paying its employees’ full salaries from October, over six months after slashing pay when the Dubai carrier had to suspend flights as the coronavirus pan-demic prompted a closure of in-ternational borders.

At least two Emirates employ-ees told UAE national daily Gulf News that on Sept. 3 they re-ceived a letter from the company explaining that their wages would be restored to pre-COVID levels.

But the allowances of staff and managers in certain catego-ries will be cut according to the memo, the employees added.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways meanwhile extended the period of reduced pay for their staff until the end of the year, a spokeswom-an for the carrier said on Sunday.

Employees will have their sala-

ries reduced by 10 percent from September until the end of De-cember, she said, compared to an earlier cut of between 25 percent and 50 percent which ended last month.

An Emirates spokesperson told Arab News the airline still had fewer staff, but declined to con-

firm how many had been laid off during since the start of the pan-demic.

Emirates president Tim Clark earlier told BBC that the Dubai airline would increase the job cuts to as much as 15 percent of its workforce, having already released 10 percent. The carrier

employed more than 60,000 staff before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Arab News understands there are no plans to recruit, despite Emirates’ plans to return to a full schedule by next year, the spokesperson told Arab News.

Etihad and Emirates have asked employees to take months of voluntary unpaid leave.

The Dubai carrier is now flying to 84 destinations after reopening services to Nigerian cities of La-gos and Abuja this week. Emirates earlier resumed flights to Jordan’s capital city, Amman, widening its Middle East reach to eight cities.

Emirates on May 21 resumed regular passenger flights to nine destinations – London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne – after earlier running mostly re-patriation flights.

TEL AVIV: The heads of Israel’s two biggest banks will travel to the United Arab Emirates this month, the first such visits since the two countries agreed to nor-malize relations.

One delegation led by Bank Hapoalim will leave on Sept. 8 and visit Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where it will meet with govern-ment and trade officials as well as the heads of the largest banks in the UAE.

Hapoalim CEO Dov Kotler on

Sunday called it “a unique oppor-tunity to establish economic rela-tions and cooperation between our countries and their financial systems, which will yield eco-nomic growth for both parties.”

He added there was an “imme-diate bilateral desire” to establish strong economic ties.

The chairman and CEO of Bank Leumi will head a second del-egation on Sept. 14. Leumi said it hoped to build on the diplomatic accord by kick-starting coop-

eration in finance, technology, health, tourism, agriculture and

industry.Israel and the UAE announced

in August they would normalize diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship in a US-bro-kered deal. Last week, they agreed to set up a joint committee to cooperate on financial services, aiming to promote investment between the two countries.

First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest lender, said last week it would open discussions with Hapoalim and Leumi.

LONDON: Britain will not blink first in Brexit trade negotiations with the European Union and is not scared of a no-deal exit, the country’s top Brexit negotiator warned the bloc on Sunday.

Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but talks have so far made little headway on agreeing a new trade deal with the bloc by the time a status-quo transition arrange-ment ends in December.

“We came in after a govern-ment and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously,” negotiator David Frost told the Mail on Sunday.

“So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realize that we mean what we say

and they should take our posi-tion seriously,” he was quoted as saying. Talks are due to resume in London on Tuesday but they have stalled over Britain’s insis-tence that it have full autonomy over state aid and its demands

over fishing.Britain says the EU is dragging

its feet in talks and has failed to fully accept that it is now an inde-pendent country.

“We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to com-

promise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws,” Frost told the Mail. “We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things.”

“That’s what being an inde-pendent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year, come what may,” Frost said.

He said a lot of preparation had been done for a possible exit without a trade deal.

“I don’t think that we are scared of this at all,” Frost said. “If we can reach an agreement that regu-lates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that.”

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) With digital trans-formation gaining mo-mentum across indus-tries, HCL Technologies' CEO C Vijayakumar has said that the company is well positioned to cap-ture the upcoming op-portunities.

In his message to the shareholders in the company's Annual Re-port, he said that fu-ture prospects for the broad-based technology companies like HCL are stable and bright.

Noting that a number of opportunities are play-ing out in the market, Vijayakumar said that digital transformation is being significantly accel-erated across industries and digital programmes planned for completion in two to three years are now expected to close in a matter of months.

"While momentum

sectors such as Life Sci-ences and Healthcare, Online Grocery Distribu-tion, Telecom and Tech continue to create strong demand, we are also see-ing impacted sectors like Retail,

Auto, Travel, Hospi-tality etc starting work on redefining customer engagement to 'zero-touch' interactions by leveraging conversa-tional AI, analytics, and digital innovations. We believe we are well-posi-tioned to capture these opportunities," Vijaya-kumar said.

He said that the com-pany is well-positioned to grasp the opportuni-ties not only because it is a technology company with a very strong port-folio of relevant capa-bilities, but also because "more importantly we have in our driving seat our employees, our 'ide-

apreneurs', as we call them, who always think ahead of the curve, who are not afraid to place future bets, and who are boldly reimagining the enterprise of tomorrow, today".

The CEO said that as the HCL Technologies closed the books for FY20, it emerged as the fastest- growing large technology company for the fourth consecutive year with revenue and net income growth of 17.0 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.

This momentum was led by the compa-ny's "superior organic growth" and accelera-tion of its Mode 2 and Mode 3 revenue, that is, revenue involving next-generation technolo-gies such as digital and analytics, IoT, cloud na-tive and cybersecurity, as well as new IPs and products which helped deliver strong double-digit growth across all segments, geographies and verticals.

Odisha govt arm claims inconsistencies in Centre's 'business reform' rankings

PVR defers major capex plans amid Covid pandemic

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) FMCG-to-hospitality major ITC has appointed Supratim Dutta as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

The appointment comes into effect from September 5, the company said in a regula-tory filing.

"Supratim Dutta has been

appointed as the Chief Finan-cial Officer of the Company with effect from 5th Septem-ber, 2020, in place of R. Tan-don," the filing said on Satur-day evening.

Dutta, joined ITC on No-vember 1, 1990, soon after qualifying as a Chartered Ac-countant and Cost Accoun-tant.

As per the filing, he has wide ranging experience in the company for nearly 30 years, covering various aspects of finance including planning, treasury, M&A, accounting, taxation, IT, investor relations and business strategy.

He has also held important positions in various industry bodies including Chairperson -- Finance and Banking Com-mittee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Die-sel prices remained unchanged across the four metros on Sun-day with the fuel being priced at Rs 73.27 per litre in the national capital.

In Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata too, diesel prices were the same as on Saturday, at Rs 79.81, Rs 78.58 and Rs 76.77 a litre, respectively.

On Saturday, its price fell 13 paise in all the four major cities.

While diesel prices have somewhat declined in the past one week, OMCs have kept the petrol prices steady.

Petrol prices were unchanged for the fifth consecutive day at Rs 82.08, Rs 88.73, Rs 85.04 and Rs 83.57 a litre in Delhi, Mum-bai, Chennai and Kolkata re-spectively.

The price of transportation fuel may remain steady or fall in coming days as global crude prices have shown some indi-cation of softening over expec-tation of a prolonged demand squeeze over Covid-19 disrup-tions.

New Delhi, Sep 6(IANS) Civil Aviation regulator DGCA has in-structed airlines to re-commence the pre-flight breath-analyzer test to detect alcohol consump-tion on air crew mem-bers.

However, in an order dated September 4, the regulator instructed the airlines and other com-panies operating aircraft to conduct the BA tests on a limited number of air crew members oper-ating domestic flights.

The DGCA had ear-lier suspended the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) mandating the requirement for BA tests due to Covid-19 pan-demic.

"For all domestic oper-

ations - 10 per cent ran-dom pre-flight breath- analyzer examination shall be carried out per day for their entire op-erations," the order read.

"For all international operations - 100 per cent pre-flight breath-analyz-er examination shall be carried out per day."

Besides, the order said the restoration of provi-sions of respective CAR on the subject will be reviewed from time to time," the order read.

As per the order, other provisions contained in an earlier DGCA order shall continue to apply accordingly "every avia-tion personnel, who is reporting for duty is re-quired to submit an un-dertaking in respect of

the fact that he or she is not under the influence of alcohol and that he or she has not consumed alcohol or psychoac-tive substance in last 12 hours from the time of reporting for duty."

"The undertaking must also contain a warning that in case of violation of the under-taking, the license or ap-proval will be suspended for a period of three years. The process of submitting undertaking is to be done in presence of medical representa-tive in accordance with CAR Section 5 Series F Part III' and the same shall be captured on CCTV."

iTC appoints supratim Dutta as CFO

Diesel prices steady across metros on sunday

Limited breath-analyzer tests on air crew to resume

HCL well-positioned to capture digital opportunities: CeO

emirates to restore full employee salaries from October, etihad extends reduced pay for staff

israeli business delegation to visit uAe

uK warns eu on brexit: We won’t blink first

business indian HorizonMonday, september 7, 2020

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Larsen & Toubro (L&T), India's leading engineering, technol-ogy, construction and finan-cial services conglomerate re-cently announced the closure of the strategic divestment of its Electrical & Automation (L&T E&A) business to Schnei-der Electric, a global player in energy management and auto-mation for Rs 14,000 crore.

The divestment is in line with L&T's stated goal of unlocking value for future growth. In an interview with IANS, S.N. Sub-rahmanyan, CEO & MD, Lars-en & Toubro talked about the transaction. He said the sale proceeds will be utilised partly for de-levering the consolidat-ed debt levels in L&T's balance sheet and also to strengthen the liquidity buffer warranted by the current economic envi-ronment.

"We are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic

which has caused consider-able uncertainty to business during the past 5 months. In such times, it is necessary to strengthen the balance sheet and stay adequately liquid", he added. On distribution to shareholders, L&T CEO & MD said that once clarity emerges about the duration and the im-pact of the pandemic, assess-ment of surplus cash and its potential distribution to share-holders will be made.

"Once the economic envi-ronment returns to normalcy and the core businesses of L&T start generating cash on a consistent basis, we will have a favourable view of reward-ing shareholders in the most tax efficient manner", Subrah-manyan said. On which other non-core assets will be on the block, Subrahmanyan said, "We keep conducting a stra-tegic review of our business portfolio from time to time

and take a call on the basis of consistent long-term planning process. As per this review, we may divest or dilute certain concession businesses of L&T such as L&T Metro (Hyder-abad) and Nabha Power Ltd as and when the economic situa-tion normalizes", he added.

Q) What will you do with the proceeds of the deal?

A) We are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic which has caused consider-able uncertainty to business during the past 5 months. In such times, it is necessary to strengthen the balance sheet and stay adequately liquid. Ac-cordingly, the sale proceeds will be utilised partly for de-levering the consolidated debt levels in L&T's balance sheet and also to strengthen the li-quidity buffer warranted by the current economic environ-ment. As business conditions improve post Covid, some of the equity unlocked by the di-vestment will also be invested for growing the business at the group level. Once clarity emerges about the duration and the impact of the pandem-ic, assessment of surplus cash and its potential distribution to shareholders will be made.

Q) Will you revive your buyback offer to reward L&T

shareholders or will you con-sider a special dividend?

A) As explained earlier, it will be prudent to have a sizeable cash buffer during such peri-ods of Black Swan uncertainty. Once the economic environ-ment returns to normalcy and the core businesses of L&T start generating cash on a con-sistent basis, we will have a favourable view of rewarding shareholders in the most tax efficient manner.

Q) Which is the next set of non-core assets on the block?

A) We keep conducting a strategic review of our busi-ness portfolio from time to time and take a call on the ba-sis of a consistent long-term planning process. As per this review, we may divest or dilute certain concession businesses of L&T such as L&T Metro (Hy-derabad) and Nabha Power Ltd as and when the economic situation normalises.

'Once economic normalcy returns, will have favourable view of rewarding shareholders'

10

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) GMR Group-led consor-tium DIAL, which operates the IGI Airport here, is ex-ploring alternative solu-tions for generating green energy, the company's CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said on Saturday.

According to Jaipuriar: "We have set up a new benchmark for our partners and stakeholders to follow." He was speaking at the CII-GBC during a virtual event of Energy Award 2020.

DIAL was conferred with

the 'Excellent Energy Effi-cient Unit' award at the Na-tional Award for Excellence in Energy Management by CII-GBC.

was also presented with the 'National Energy Lead-er' award for the year 2020, based on its consistent per-formance at highest level in the last three years.

"Going forward, we are focusing on energy conser-vation and exploring alter-native solution for generat-ing green energy," Jaipuriar said.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Union Minis-ter of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said on Saturday that properly developed 'Af-termarket' business can open up opportunities for auto component manufacturers.

Goyal was speaking at the 60th ACMA annual session which was held virtually.

According to the min-ister, this can happen if the industry starts look-ing at more affordability and attractive ways.

He urged the auto component sector to improve productivity, reduce cost and offer smart solutions so as to become preferred glob-al suppliers.

Besides, Goyal point-ed out that with perse-verance towards qual-ity, the industry will certainly become more export competitive.

He said that the en-tire country is adopting Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi's clarion call of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' to engage with the rest of the world from a po-sition of strength.

He said that there is a huge demand for trust-ed partners in resilient global supply chains.

"We will expand our global engagement. We see huge opportunities to expand businesses and provide truly high-quality products at competitive prices and become that trusted

partner," the minister said.

On the positive trends in the Indian economy, the minis-ter said: "In the rail-ways, last month we have been able to grow our freight traffic by 4 per cent over the cor-responding period of last year. In the current month, the trend is even better than that."

"Tractor sales have already been revived, two-wheelers and three-wheelers are also showing very good traction. It is a day to bring in positivity into our crystal gazing of the future, move out of pessimism and look forward with hope and faith."

New Delhi: GCMMF, which markets dairy products under the Amul brand, will invest around Rs 1,000 crore over the next two years to set up milk processing plants, and another Rs 500 crore on facilities for new prod-ucts like edible oil, its MD R S Sodhi said.

Sodhi said the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Market-ing Federation Ltd (GC-MMF) expects 12-15 per cent growth in revenue in current fiscal year from Rs 38,550 crore during the last fiscal year despite COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for branded food products has increased.

"We will invest around Rs 1,000 crore in the next two years on setting up dairy plants across various states," Sodhi said.

He said the processing capacity would increase to 420 lakh litres per day from the current 380 lakh litres per day.

On new businesses, So-dhi said the cooperative has started manufacturing sweets as well as bakery items using dairy fats.

Besides, he said, GC-MMF has forayed into edi-

ble oil and potato process-ing segments as part of its objective to boost income of farmers from Gujarat and other states.

The edible oils will be marketed under the new brand 'Janmay'. It will produce groundnut oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, mustard oil and soy-bean oil.

"We already have few plants for edible oil, bak-ery and potato processing. We will invest Rs 400-500 crore on setting up more plants in these new busi-ness areas over the next two years," Sodhi said.

Asked about sales dur-ing the pandemic, he said sales of its dairy products like milk, butter milk, pan-

eer and ghee were 15 per cent higher during April-August as compared with the year-ago period, driv-en by rising household consumption of branded food products.

However, he said, ice cream sales declined by 30-40 per cent due to clo-sure of hotels, restaurants and canteens because of lockdown.

"Marriage ceremonies contribute a lot to ice cream sales. This has been affected badly this year," he said.

Sodhi noted that house-hold consumption of milk and other dairy products has risen, compensating loss of sales caused by clo-sure of hotels, restaurants and cafeterias (HoReCA segment) during the lock-down period.

Amul forays into edible oil segment, to invest Rs 1,500 crore for processing plants

iGi Airport exploring alternative solutions for

green energy

Aftermarket biz can boostauto component manufacturers:

Minister

New Delhi: To revive the Indian shipbuilding industry, the government has asked all major ports to procure or charter tug boats that are made in India, the Ministry of Shipping said on Friday.

Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya termed it as a step towards 'Aatmanirbhar Ship-ping' under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' drive.

"The Ministry of Shipping has directed all major ports to procure or charter tug boats which are only made in India. The all procurement being done by major ports would now need to be carried out as per the revised 'Make in India' order," the ministry said in a statement.

A tug boat is a boat which helps in mooring or berthing

operation of a ship by either towing or pushing a vessel to-wards the port.

It said the move is aimed at promoting Indian shipbuild-ing industry and talks are also on with some countries for "Make in India shipbuilding".

Mandaviya said the govern-ment is taking 360 degree ac-tions to revive old shipyards and promote shipbuilding in India.

"It is a step towards bolster-ing the revival of Indian ship-building and a big move to-wards Aatmanirbhar Shipping in Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The government will try to create an ecosystem for shipbuild-ing, ship repair, ship recycling and flagging in India," Manda-viya said.

The statement said it is pro-

posed to set up a Standing Specifications Committee un-der Managing Director, Indian Ports Association, and com-prising representatives from Cochin Ship Yard Limited (CSL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) and Direc-tor General of Shipping in this regard.

Standing Specifications Committee would shortlist around five variants/ types of tugs and prepare a 'Approved Standardized Tug Design and Specifications (ASTDS)', it said.

This ASTDS would outline specifications, general ar-rangements, basic calcula-tions, basic structural draw-ings, key system drawings and other construction standards,

etc.These standards would be

vetted by the Standing Specifi-cations Committee and, there-after, certified in-principle by IRS and published by the In-dian Ports Association on its website, it added.

The ministry will also pro-vide some window to major ports so that construction time would be availed.

Recently, the government owned Cochin Shipyard Lim-ited has also been successful in grabbing the order for two automated vessels from the Norwegian Government.

These will be the first of its kind unmanned vessels.

The ministry said various decisions taken by it will turn around the shipbuilding sec-tor in the near future.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Bharti Airtel on Sunday launched a new Airtel Xstream Bundle plans start-ing at Rs 499. The Xstream Bundle plans come with Airtel Xstream Fiber with speeds up to 1 Gbps, unlim-ited data, 'Airtel Xstream An-droid 4K TV Box' and access to all OTT content.

The Airtel Xstream bundle offers complimentary access to premier video streaming apps such as Disney+ Hot-star, Amazon Prime Video and ZEE5, all accessible

through the Airtel Xstream Box. The Airtel Xstream bun-dle will be available to cus-tomers from September 7.

"Airtel Xstream is India's premier entertainment platform that brings the best of entertainment along with unlimited high-speed broadband connectivity into a single solution," Sunil Taldar, Director -- Homes, Bharti Airtel, said in a state-ment.

"To drive the penetration of this exciting innovation we are today making our

plans even more accessible for customers," Taldar add-ed.

According to the compa-ny, all Airtel Xstream Fiber plans now come with unlim-ited data allowances and in-clude the Airtel Xstream Box worth Rs 3,999.

Customers get access to all live TV channels plus the best of video streaming apps effectively eliminating the need for multiple entertain-ment devices at home.

This Android 9.0 powered smart box comes with an in-telligent remote supported by Google Assistant voice search, access to thousands of apps on Playstore and also offers online gaming.

Airtel Xstream Android 4K TV Box offers 550 TV chan-nels and OTT content from the Airtel Xstream app that includes over 10,000 movies and shows aggregated across seven OTT apps and five stu-dios into one seamless expe-rience.

Aatmanirbhar shipping: Centre asks major ports to use only indian made tug boats

Airtel offers new 'Xstream' broadband plans starting at Rs 499

Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) HDFC Ltd. has disbursed home loans to over 2 lakh home buyers under the Prad-han Mantri Awas Yojana's (PMAY) credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS).

In a regulatory filing on Sunday, the lender said that it approved over Rs 47,000 crore of home loans under CLSS to homebuyers belonging to the economically weaker sec-tion (EWS), low income group (LIG) and middle income groups (MIG).

"Subsidy under PMAY amounting to over Rs 4,700 crore has been passed on to these 2,00,000 homebuyers, becoming the only financial institution in the country to achieve this feat," it said.

HDFC added that it has been partnering and support-ing the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and the Na-

tional Housing Bank to work towards the government's goal of 'Affordable Housing for All'.

Renu Sud Karnad, Manag-ing Director, HDFC said: "The government's PMAY scheme has been successfully assist-ing homebuyers belonging to

different income groups since 2015. The scheme is in line with our overall philosophy that every Indian must have a home of their own."

"Due to the Covid-19 crisis, a number of sectors includ-ing the real estate sector have been affected. Having said

that we feel that the demand for housing will pick up grad-ually as the economy emerges out of this difficult period and confidence in the economy is restored," she said.

The MD noted that struc-tural demand for housing for India will always be strong due to factors such as im-proved affordability, govern-ment's thrust on affordable housing, favourable demo-graphics, increasing urban-isation and rising aspirations.

Affordability was never bet-ter given the huge conces-sions under PMAY, tax ben-efits on Home loans, lowest ever interest rates and prop-erty prices having seen both price and time correction, Karnad said, adding that with the increase in the trend for working from home, the de-mand for homes will only rise going forward.

HDFC disburses CLss loans to over 2 lakh home buyers

Bengaluru, Sep 6 (IANS) Bengaluru Metro rail has made it compulsory for passengers to use their re-charged smart cards loaded with money at least one in the initial seven days or the amount will relapse, an offi-cial said on Sunday.

"At least once it has to be used in seven days, other-wise the money will lapse. That is because of the tech-nical requirement," a Banga-lore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) official told IANS.

However, after meeting the requirement of using at least once in the first seven days, the recharged money will be saved for a period of 10 years to be used anytime.

"We are coming with a new mobile app and this is the technical rule which has come out. After using, you can leave the money in the card and it stays there for 10 years," he said.

In the old system, pas-sengers were allowed to use their smart cards within a span of 60 days after topping

it up online. "Consequent to introduction of mobile app, this is now revised to seven days," he said in the standard operating procedures on re-starting the metro.

Bengaluru Metro is geared up to resume its service in phases from Monday under the new guidelines to con-tain the pandemic.

b'luru Metro cards to be used once within 7 days to avoid lapse

Sports Indian HorizonMonday, September 7, 202011

Indonesia speeds up construction of MotoGP supporting facilities

US Open: Williams overcome Stephens in clash of champions

US Open: Dominic Thiem sees off Cilic fightback to seal last 16 spot

Contracts of foreign athletics coaches extended beyond 2021

CPL 2020: Pollard charges TKR to 9th win on the trot

Wrestler Deepak now stable, advised home quarantine, says SAI

Washington, Sep 6 (IANS) Austrian second seed Dominic Thiem saw a fightback from 2014 champion Marin Cilic to go through to the round of 16 of the US Open on Sunday.

Thiem was dominant in the first two sets before Cilic finally found his bearings at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Thiem hit 18 winners, committed just four unforced errors and broke serve four times on seven opportunities in the first two sets.

Cilic redoubled his efforts in the third set and managed to put a dent in Thiem’s armour. He broke for 4-2 and later

saved two break points while serving at 5-3 to force a fourth set.The Croatian threatened to build his momentum in the fourth but Thiem saved three

break points to hold for 3-2 before breaking critically for 4-2 in the next game.

“He came out a little bit slow and I took all my chances, basically,” Thiem said after the match. “I was returning well”.

The Austrian said he “felt a bit flat” in the third set. “Normally the crowd helps you with these moments.

I was two break points down and played a little bit all-or-nothing and it paid off, luckily. Somehow I got my energy back and broke in the next game,” he said.Thiem now faces 20-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime in his last 16 match.

Jakarta, Sep 6 (IANS) The Indonesian government has been speeding up the construction of infrastructures and facilities to pave way for forthcoming world-class MotoGP Motorcycle racing event in West Nusa Tenggara province, a Minister said.

Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said that the construction of the facilities has been carried out under an integrated scheme which was also expected to improve the facilities in tourism destinations,

according to Xinhua news agency.A 17.4km long bypass has been constructed to

pave the way for

connection to the Lombok international airport, he noted.Other roads and

facilities for clean water, waste management, and sanitation are among the focus of the construction and the improvement, Minister Hadimuljono remarked.

The target of the measures was to make the tourist destinations in the province become world class destinations so that visitors to the province during the MotoGP event, scheduled to kick off in 2021, would return.

“If the facilities are not ready, the visitors would not come back again,” Hadimuljono said.

Bell to retire from professional cricket after 2020 season

Italian GP: Hamilton breaks Monza track record for

94th pole position

Washington, Sep 6 (IANS) Serena Williams rallied to defeat the 2017 winner Sloane Stephens in the third round of the US Open and move into the women’s singles last 16 on Saturday.Third seed Williams essayed a signature comeback and served 12 aces to edge past

her American compatriot Stephens 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 43 minutes.

“It was intense I have to say. We always have some really incredible matches and it brings out the best of my fitness when I play Sloane. I tried to stay calm and be more serene after the loss

of the first set. I knew it was important for me just to keep trying, just to keep going,” Xinhua news agency quoted Williams as saying.“Right now I’m really focused on the US Open, and nothing else I can think about right now,” said Williams, who has won six of her 23 Grand

Slam singles’ titles at the US Open.Stephens went up a double break to carve out a 5-2 lead and served out the opening set in just 38 minutes. But Williams began to raise her game and served much better in the second set, lifting her first-serve percentage from 50 to 76

per cent. By breaking twice, Williams won the second set to level the match.Then in the third set, Williams was rarely troubled by her rival enroute to victory.

She will take on the 15th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece in the last 16, who stunned Williams at the

Western and Southern Open last month.“Serena is Serena,” Sakkari said after advancing earlier on Saturday by beating 19-year-old American Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-1. “You have to come up with some great tennis. Otherwise there is no chance against her.”

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Olympic-bound wrestler Deepak Punia, who had tested positive for coronavirus upon his arrival at a national camp in Sonepat, has been advised home isolation by doctors, the Sports Authority of India (SAI)

said on Sunday.“Wrestler Deepak Punia tested Covid positive during the test given by SAI upon arrival at the National Camp in Sonepat, and was in hospital. Now he’s been advised home quarantine by doctors as he’s

stable & asymptomatic. His home stay is approved by the District Covid Nodal Officer,” SAI tweeted.

Besides Punia (86kg), the two other wrestlers who have tested positive for the virus are Navin (65kg) and

Krishan (125kg).Speaking to IANS, World Championship silver-medallist Deepak said he would now leave for his home in Jhajjar, Haryana. “My second report is yet to come but doctors say that I could go home. Till date, I don’t

have any symptoms. I am all right,” he said.After returning positive for the virus, all three wrestlers were sent to a SAI empanelled hospital as a precautionary measure for further monitoring.As per the Covid-19 protocol, all wrestlers

along with the coaches and support staff underwent the mandatory RT-PCR test, upon arrival at the camp. So far, eight wrestlers have assembled for the camp, scheduled to begin from September 14 at SAI centre in Sonepat.

DHONI, CSK FINALLY START

PRACTICE IN UAE

Chennai, Sep 6 (IANS) MS Dhoni and the rest of the Chennai Super Kings took to the nets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the three-time champions finally started their training after all their members barring the 13 positive cases tested negative for Covid-19.

In videos posted on their Instagram handle, Dhoni could be seen facing Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla under the lights at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

Dhoni could be seen hitting big sixes as he looks to get back into the groove after an absence from the sport that has lasted more than a year. He had on August 15 announced his retirement from international cricket.

Veteran Australian all rounder Shane Watson was also seen facing leg-spinner Karn Sharma while fast bowler Shardul Thakur practiced his deliveries.

London, Sep 6 (IANS) Veteran England batsman Ian Bell on Saturday announced that he will be retiring from professional cricket at the end of the 2020 season.

The 38-year-old last played for England in 2015 but he has been a regular in the County circuit playing for Warwickshire.

Bell, however, missed the entire 2019 season with injury and has struggled for runs this year. "It's with enormous sadness, but with equal pride, that I am announcing my retirement from professional cricket.

Tomorrow will be my final red ball game and next week I'll play my final T20 match," Bell said in a statement that he released on his social media handles and was carried on the England and

Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) website."While my hunger

and enthusiasm for the sport I love remain as strong as ever, my body simply can't keep up with the demands of the game to the standard of which I expect from myself," he said.

"It's been an absolute privilege and honour to fulfil my boyhood dream of playing for both England and Warwickshire.

As a child, to play just once for either would have been enough for me, but to do so for the past 22 years is more than I could have ever wished for.

"To have been part of an England Test team to reach number one in the world, to win five Ashes Series, one of which as Player of the Series, and an away Series in India is some return for a young lad who simply dreamt of batting at Edgbaston.

Monza (Italy), Sep 6 (IANS) Lewis Hamilton took his 94th pole position on Saturday as both the Mercedes drivers broke the track record in the qualification here ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton went around the historic track with a fastest time of 1:18.887 while his teammate Valtteri Bottas managed a time of 1:18.956.

Both were faster than the 1:19.119 that Kimi Raikkonen had managed while racing for

Ferrari in 2018.Ferrari's poor run continued this year with both Sebastian Vettel and Charles LeClerc not being able to break into the top 10.

It is the first time since 1984 that both Ferrari cars are starting outside the top 10 at Monza.Vettel was caught out in Q1 which forced him out in the first segment, meaning he will start from P17.

Charles Leclerc didn't fair much better and will start from P13.McLaren's Carlos Sanz came out on top in his battle against Racing Point's Sergio Perez to take the third position.

This is the first time since 2012 that a McLaren driver will be starting in the top three of the grid.Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start from the fifth position while his teammate Alex Albon will take up P9.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Sports Ministry on Saturday announced that it has extended the contracts of nine foreign athletics coaches, including that of high performance director Volker Hermann, with an eye on the 2022 Asian Games, 2022 Commonwealth Games, and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

While the contracts of Hermann and three other coaches have been extended till September 30, 2024, the ministry has handed three coaches contracts till September 30, 2022. The two remaining contracts have been extended till September 30, 2021.

"There is a well-defined roadmap ahead for our athletes as we eye the best of preparations for 2024 and 2028," said Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju. "This decision to extend the

contract of the coaches will benefit our athletes as there will be continuation of their training with the same coach. Coaches play the most vital part in moulding our athletes to reach the elite level and this also improves India's chances

in various major international events going ahead."

In July, the ministry had announced that contracts of all foreign coaches across sports will be extended till September 30, 2021. The contracts of a majority of the coaches were originally due to end on August 31, 2020, in alignment with the original dates for the Tokyo Olympics which were to be held from July 24 to August 9.

However, the circumstances created by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic led to the Olympics being postponed to next year.

It is now scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8 next year.Additionally, the ministry had given four-year contracts to new foreign coaches in accordance with the Olympic cycle.

Brief scores: TKR 175/5 (Bravo 50, Pollard 42; Scott Kuggeleijn 2/35) vs Zouks 152/7 (Fletcher 42, Deyal 40; Pollard 3/35)

Tarouba (Trinidad and Tobago), Sep 6 (IANS) A late cameo in the first innings from captain Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo turned out to be the difference between the two sides as the Trinbago Knight Riders continued their unbeaten start to Carribean Premier League 2020 with a 23-run win over St.Lucia Zouks.

Chasing a target of 176, Zouks openers Kimani Melius and Mark Deyal found the going difficult, adding just eight runs off the first three overs. The maiden boundary of the innings came in the fourth over, courtesy of a switch hit from

Deyal. The Zouks, however, struggled to get a move on in the powerplay, ending it with a meagre score of 26/1, with Melius back in the hut.

Andre Fletcher joined Deyal in the middle, and the two began upping the ante post the powerplay, with a four and a six off Fawad Ahmed's first over. The duo added 37 in the 3.4 overs post the powerplay, before rain interrupted play.

The chasing team came out all guns blazing after the showers passed, getting a four and a six. Deyal however couldn't keep the charge going, as his attempted heave towards the longer boundary

fell kindly to the fielder in the deep.New man Nabi added further impetus to the chase, getting a massive six on the leg side off Dwayne Bravo's bowling.

Fletcher ably supported him with a big six of his own soon after, but tried replicating the shot yet again, only to find the fielder at deep mid-wicket. Despite the loss of wickets, the Zouks were still in the contest as the game meandered on, with them needing 65 off the last five overs.Nabi started off the 16th over with a big six straight down the ground, but like his predecessors, could not build on that

momentum, miscuing his shot later in the over to walk back to the pavilion. Najibullah Zadran too was dismissed shortly after, dragging a slower one from Bravo back onto his stumps, putting the three-time champions in pole position of the game.

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ENTERTAINMENTIndian HorizonIndian Horizon

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

ARJUN KAPOOR TESTS COVID POSITIVE

Actor Ravi Dubey travelled all the way to Punjab to celebrate the birthday of his wife and actress Sargun Mehta.Taking

to his verified Twitter account, Ravi posted a heartwarming wish for Sargun, calling her "the queen"."There are so many times I have tears of gratitude just thinking about you,and

RAVI DUBEY CALLS WIFE SARGUN 'THE QUEEN'

Actor Arjun Kapoor on Sunday revealed he has tested positive for Co-

vid-19, and is currently under home quarantine.

"It is my duty to inform all of you that I have tested positive for coronavirus. I am feeling ok and I am as-ymptomatic. I have isolated myself at home under the ad-vice of doctors and authori-ties and will be under home quarantine," Arjun wrote on Instagram.

He thanked everyone in advance for wishes and support."I thank you all in advance for your support and I will keep you updated about my health in the days to come. These are extraor-dinary and unprecedented times and I have faith that all of humanity will overcome this virus," Arjun added.

Reacting to the post, Ar-jun's cousin, actor Harsh-varrdhan Kapoor, com-mented: "Feel better brother, warrior."Lisa Haydon wished him good health: "Unprec-edented. Health to you bro."

"Speediest recovery and super responsible and cool that you have put this out there. Be well soon," Nimrat Kaur conveyed her best wish-es to Arjun.

IANS

KANGANA RANAUT TO SANJAY RAUT: I HAVE COMPLETE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

ISHAAN KHATTER: MY ASPIRATION WITH EVERY CHARACTER IS TO GIVE MYSELF TO IT COMPLETELY

RHEA CHAKRABORTY IS READY FOR ARREST: LAWYER SATISH MANESHINDEActress Rhea Chakraborty

is ready for arrest, her law-yer Satish Maneshinde said in a statement issued on Sunday."Rhea Chakraborty is ready for arrest as this is a Witch Hunt and if lov-ing someone is a crime

she will face the conse-quences of her love," Satish Maneshinde said in his statement."Being innocent, she has not approached any court for Anticipatory Bail in all the cases foisted by Bihar Police now with CBI,

ED and NCB," he added.Meanwhile, Rhea left her residence for the NCB of-fice on Sunday morning. She was summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to join the investiga-tion of actor Sushant Singh

Rajput death case.Over the last two days, the NCB has arrested her younger broth-er Showik Chakraborty, Ra-jput's house manager Sam-uel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant, a member of the actor's personal staff.Su-

shant was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14. His father KK Singh had filed a case with the Bihar Police against Rhea, her father Indrajit, mother Sandhya, brother Showik, Shruti Modi, house manag-

er Samuel Miranda, friend Siddharth Pithani and un-known others. The case is currently being handled by the CBI, with Enforcement Directorate (ED) and NCB also joining the probe.

IANS

that child like smile of yours is why I am living,happy birthday gungun,I love you meri choti,this year the world will know you are not just amy queen' you are 'THE QUEEN'.#happybirthday," Ravi wrote.Along with it, he posted several pictures and vid-eos from the last night low-key birthday affair.

Actor Ammy Virk, who shared screen space with Sargun in "Qismat", too, posted a birth-day wish for the actress on social media."Happy birthday Sarguniy-ee. Waheguru ji bless you.

Yaari zindabad," Ammy posted on Instagram.On the work front, Sargun and Ammy will be soon seen in the sequel of "Qismat", which is scheduled to release in April, 2021.

IANS

Actress Kangana Ranaut has condemned Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut for his

abusive remarks on her, and said that it showed his mentality.

The actress posted a video message on her verifi ed Twitter account. In the over minute-long video, Kangana stressed upon the freedom of expression.

"Sanjay Raut ji, you have called me H****khor Ladki, you have abused me. You are a govern-ment offi cial, you would know that, in this country, how many girls are getting raped, how many girls are getting abused, they

are getting insulted, domestic violence, not every day but every hour. You know who is respon-

sible for all this? It is a mentality like yours," she began.

"Daughters of this country won't forgive you. When Aamir Khan ji spoke about intolerance, no one abused him. When Nas-eeruddin Shah opened up about it, no one abused him.

I have praised Mumbai Police in my past interviews," she said, adding that she has criticised the Mumbai Police after past few incidents, including the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput."That is my freedom of expression. Sanjay ji, I con-demn you and your thoughts.

You are not Maharashtra. You can't say that I am insulting Maharashtra. Your people are threatening me, still I'll come to Mumbai on September 9. Will see you. Jai Hind. Jai Maharash-tra," she added.

The war of words between Sanjay Raut and the Bollywood actor erupted over Kangana's "Mumbai feeling like PoK" com-ment.Sanjay Raut had asked the actress to apologise for her com-ments, but she shared the video to assert that she has complete freedom of expression.

IANS

Ishaan Khatter is constantly trying to evolve as an actor and says that his aspiration

with every character is to be able to give himself completely to it.

Ishaan made his acting debut with Iranian fi lm director Ma-jidi Majid's fi lm "Beyond The Clouds".

His Bollywood debut was "Dhadak", the Hindi remake of the popular Marathi fi lm "Sairat". Recently, he shared screen space with Tabu in Mira Nair's BBC miniseries "A Suit-able Boy", based on Vikram Seth's acclaimed novel of the same name.

"I don't know how I see myself evolve, I just try to evolve. My aspiration with every character is to be able to give myself over to it completely, so that I can immerse myself in that world, to be able to do justice to that

character," Ishaan told IANS.He has three fi lms in his bag right now - the romantic action fl ick "Khaali Peeli", the horror com-edy "Phone Bhoot" and the war drama titled "Pippa".

The actor says so far every-thing that he has done has been different from each other and that he has constantly had to "rediscover" his process, and that he constantly has had to be

in a place outside his "comfort zone"."Every experience has been different.

Every character, every movie has been different.

So, yes I really enjoy that way of working. I really enjoy that variety and diversity in my work. That's something I would like to continue with.

For me there was a long break after doing my fi rst two fi lms, which happened soon after each other, I had shot them both within a year," he said."

After that, I was not on a fi lm set for a year and a half.

It took a long time for me to fi nd the fi lms that excited me and gave me an opportunity to do something different from what I have already done," Ishaan added."Eventually when it happened, it happened closely cluttered together. I had to man-

age my way through the shoot of both of these (projects). I actual-ly started a schedule for ‘Khaali Peeli' and in two days I had to do a complete changeover to be-come Mann Kapoor for ‘A Suit-able Boy'," he recalled.

Ishaan said he was able to fi nish "A Suitable Boy" in one schedule and come back to "Khaali Peeli".

"It was six months of back-to-back shooting for me and that in itself was a challenge, because the characters were so different from each other.

I had to make sure to be well prepared for both of them, before I started with ‘Khaali Peeli'."Ishaan says it has been a great experience, "like a new phase for me as an actor", which is why he is "very excited for people to see my work".

IANS

Acclaimed actor Pankaj Tripathi says, be it son or daughter, parents should

allow their children to be inde-pendent.

"Centuries of conditioning and gender blocks can be de-feated only if we consciously create a neutral environment at home. Be it for your son or daughter, I often tell parents to allow their children to be inde-pendent," said Tripathi.

He added that if parents in-still confi dence in children to be their own decision makers, they will be responsible.

"They should take charge of their lives and even as we are available to guide them at every step, we shouldn't overshadow their life with the baggage of our lived experiences and opinions.

If we instill the confi dence in children to be their own deci-sion makers, they'll be far more responsible," she said.

The actor is winning applause for his role in the recently re-leased "Gunjan Saxena: The Kar-gil Girl". He played Anuj Saxena, father of the protagonist."

IANS

PANKAJ TRIPATHI : NEED TO CREATE GENDER NEUTRAL

ENVIRONMENT AT HOME

FREIDA PINTO'S NEXT IS A MILITARY DRAMA

Actress Freida Pinto will soon be seen in the military drama

"Unbecoming", which is based on a memoir by for-mer US Marine Anuradha Bhagwati.

The "Slumdog Million-aire" star will also produce the TV drama project, for which she has partnered with Entertainment One, reports hollywoodreport-er.com.The indie studio has acquired rights to Bhagwati's memoir "Un-becoming: A Story of Dis-obedience" and will adapt it as a limited series.

"Unbecoming" tells the story of Bhagwati's jour-ney from being raised as the dutiful daughter of im-migrants through her ser-vice in the Marine Corps to becoming an activist effecting historic policy

reform.It's her journey as a bisexual woman of co-lour in the military, she ran up against misogyny, sexual violence and rac-ism while pushing herself through the Corps' Officer Candidates School.

Following the end of her service, Bhagwati found-ed the Service Women's Action Network, which has brought attention to sexual violence in the military and pushed to re-peal the ban on women in combat.

Pinto will produce the limited series with Emily Verellen Strom via their Freebird Films. Entertain-ment One will serve as the studio. A writer and outlet for the project is yet to be announced.

IANS

Angela Krislinzki loves the desi

Bollywood twist!

She is pretty, she is vivacious, she is the heartthrob of millions.

Actor Angela Krislinzki, of the fi lm 1921 fame, is on cloud nine.For the mes-merizing hazel-eyed beauty is now the face of the Udit Narayan-Neeti Mohan video. Currently shooting at Bhubaneshwar for the song, Angela is excited that this 90s feel Bollywood number from the King of Romance Udit Narayan has her grooving in a wedding sequence. I love the song and the steps,` she says. `And Bollywood numbers hold a special place in my heart. I am so excited.`It is not just that.

RHEA GRILLED HOURS BY NCB, QUESTIONING MAY CONTINUE MONDAY

Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty, who was steeling herself for pos-

sible arrest by the NCB on Sunday, was allowed to leave the anti-narcotics agency's offi ce here after a gruel-ling six-hour-long session of questioning.She is likely to be summoned again on Mon-day as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which has ar-rested her brother Showik on Friday, continues its inves-

tigations in the drugs angle emerging in the Sushant Singh Rajput case.As per pre-liminary information, Rhea was mostly questioned by the NCB sleuths on the narcot-ics angle now shrouding Su-shant's death.

Rhea, who did not appear to be fl ustered as she stepped out, underwent interroga-tion by several teams of NCB sleuths at the agency's Zonal Offi ce on the third fl oor of the

Exchange Building in Ballard Estate, before they fi nally per-mitted her to go home after 6

p.m. in her own vehicle.Ear-lier on Sunday, a NCB team including Sameer Wankhede, who is heading the investi-gation, and a woman offi cial had gone to pick up Rhea at her home in PrimRose Apart-ments in Santacruz but she opted to go in her own car along with a Mumbai Police escort, amid speculation that she would be arrested.The 28-year old actress, who has al-ready been questioned by the

Central Bureau of Investiga-tion and Enforcement Direc-torate, reached the NCB offi ce for questioning, a day after her brother was sent to NCB custody till September 9.Be-sides Showik, Sushant's house manager Samuel Miranda, domestic help Dipesh Sawant, and drug peddlers Abdel Basit Parihar and Zaid Vilatra are also in NCB cuctody.In a state-ment, released through her lawyer Satish Maneshinde,

Rhea said she was "innocent" and would fully cooperate with the investigations."Rhea Chakraborty is ready for arrest as this is a witch-hunt and if loving someone is a crime, she will face the consequences of her love," Maneshinde said.

He added that being inno-cent, she has not approached any court seeking anticipa-tory bail in all the cases foisted by Bihar Police, now with the CBI, the ED and the NCB.In

a statement late on Saturday, Rhea and Showik's father, Lt Col Indrajit Chakraborty (retd) condemned his son's arrest by the NCB."Congratulations In-dia, you have arrested my son, I'm sure next on the line is my daughter (Rhea) and I don't know who is next thereafter," he said."You have effectively de-molished a middle-class family. But of course, for the sake of jus-tice, everything is justifi ed.

IANS