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Indian HorizonRNI NO: DELENG/2013/51507

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BORROW GOLD FROM RELIGIOUS TRUSTS FOR PUBLIC

BENEFIT: MAHA EX CM

P-4

ODI RULES & SURFACES BOTH NEED TO BE LOOKED

INTO, SAYS TENDULKAR

P-11P-8

US SUPREME COURT HEARS CASES OVER TRUMP’S TAX

RETURNS

Hyderabad, May 13 (IANS)The death toll due to Covid-19 in Telangana mounted to 34 on Wednesday with two more persons succumbing to the dreaded virus.

Both the deaths were re-ported from Hyderabad, the worst affected among the 33 districts in the state.A 38-year-

old female, a resident of Ji-yaguda, and a 74-year-old male from Saroornagar were the latest fatalities. Health of-

fi cials said both were suffer-ing from comorbidities.The state capital has recorded four deaths in the last two days.The surge in number of Co-vid-19 cases also continued on Wednesday with the state reporting 41 new infections, taking the state’s tally to 1,367 cases.Like the last few days,

Greater Hyderabad accounted for the bulk of the cases. While 31 cases were reported from Greater Hyderabad, the re-maining were migrants.

With this, the number of migrants testing positive has gone up to 35.The day also saw the discharge of as many as 117 patients from the hospitals

following their recovery. This took the number of people discharged to 939. With this the number of active cases has come down to 394.

Director of public health and family welfare said the number of districts with no new cases for the last 14 days has gone up to 26. Three dis-tricts have not reported a sin-gle positive case so far.

COVID 19: TWO MORE DEATHS TAKE TELANGANA’S TOLL TO 34

15 MEASURES TO REVIVE ECONOMY, BIG TAKEAWAYS FOR MSMES, NBFCSNew Delhi, May 13 (IANS)Union Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman has come out with 15 new and some enhanced measures to revive businesses, and support work-ers via fi scal incentives and reg-ulatory easing under the mega stimulus package -- Self-Reliant India Movement -- which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.On Wednesday, Sith-araman announced a slew of fi scal and regulatory measures for MSMEs, real estate, NBFCs, power distribution and general businesses.She attempted to decrease the regulatory burden on companies, while increasing the take-home pay of employ-ees via these measures.In terms

of takeaways, the biggest were for the MSME sector which is considered to be the backbone of economic activity.As a major reform measure for the sector, the Centre has decided to give a new defi nition to MSMEs.

This will denote the type of companies that will be in-cluded in the sector.Specifi -cations wise, the investment limit for defi ning MSMEs has been revised upwards.Besides, she highlighted that additional criteria such as turnover have been considered for defi ning MSMEs.In terms of fi scal mea-sures, the minister announced that Rs 3 lakh crore “collater-al-free automatic loans” for

businesses, including MSMEs, will be provided to meet op-erational liabilities built up, buy raw material and restart business.She announced an-other scheme worth Rs 20,000

crore for “subordinate debt for stressed MSMEs”.A Rs 50,000 crore ‘Fund of Funds’ for MEMEs, which face severe shortage of equity, was also an-nounced.The Centre has also

decided not to go in for global bidding for government pro-curement for tenders up to Rs 200 crore, thereby, promoting the participation of MSMEs, she said.

Furthermore, e-market link-age for MSMEs will be provid-ed and the CPSEs will pay all receivables to MSMEs within 45 days.Besides MSMEs, a Rs 30,000 crore special liquid-ity scheme for non-banking fi nance companies (NBFCs), housing fi nance companies (HFCs) and micro-fi nance institutions (MFIs) was also announced.This scheme will provide investments in both primary and secondary mar-

ket transactions in “invest-ment grade debt paper of these institutions”.

The minister said the scheme will support the previ-ous initiatives of the govern-ment and the central bank to boost liquidity.The securities under the scheme will be fully guaranteed by the Central government.Further, the FM has also announced Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guaran-tee scheme for NBFCs.Under this measure, fi rst 20 per cent loss will be borne by the Cen-tre, and even unrated papers will be eligible for investment, enabling NBFCs to reach out even to MSMEs in far-fl ung

areas.Additionally, a Rs 90,000 crore liquidity injection plan was announced for the fi nan-cially stressed power distribu-tion companies.This plan will allow these entities to clear their dues towards power gen-eration companies.As per the plan, the liquidity window for discoms was essential as its revenue has plummeted and they are in the midst of un-precedented cash fl ow prob-lem accentuated by demand reduction during the current lockdown.The scheme will al-low power sector fi nanciers -- PFC and REC -- to infuse liquidity of Rs 90,000 crore to discoms against receivables.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS)After Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman, here on Wednesday, announced eco-nomic measures as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, the Con-gress criticised the package and said there was nothing for the migrants.

“Except for the modest MSME (micro, small & me-dium enterprises) package, we are disappointed with the announcement,” said former Finance Minister P Chidam-baram.

Addressing the media, Chidambaram said, “There is nothing in the Finance Min-ister’s announcement for the lakhs of poor, hungry and devastated migrant workers. It’s a cruel blow to those who toil for living every day.”

“There is also nothing by the way of cash transfer for the bottom half of the popu-lation (13 crore families) who have been pushed into des-

titution. Only on Tuesday, Thomas Pikketty pleaded for cash transfer to the poor,” Chidambaram said.

The Finance Minister said there would be a collateral-free loan programme for 45 lakh MSMEs, backed by a Rs 3 lakh crore credit guarantee fund, and some other mea-sures, including Rs 20,000 crore subordinate debt and Rs 10,000 crore equity fund.

Chidambaram said the measures were skewed in

favour of large MSMEs. “The bulk of the 6.3 crore MSMEs has been left high and dry. We welcome the offer of subordinate debt (Rs 20,000 crore) and equity corpus fund (Rs 10,000 crore). But we will await their terms and conditions. The devil is in the detail,” the Congress leader said.He said in case of the credit guarantee fund, not the entire fund would be spent. “The expenditure will be limited to the extent

of NPAs in the outstanding guarantee credit to MSMEs. Assuming an NPA level of 20-50 per cent, the actual ex-penditure over the loan peri-od (which may be years) will be a maximum of Rs 3,00,000 crore,” he said.

Demanding to know where is the rest of the Rs 16.4 lakh crore, Chidambaram said, “This government is a pris-oner of its own ignorance and fears. The government must borrow more and spend more, but it’s not will-ing to do so.”

The government must al-low states to borrow more and spend more, but it was not willing to do so, Chid-ambaram said.Chidambaram said he would count every ad-ditional rupee the government infuses into the economy and examine what the poor, hun-gry and devastated migrant workers get after walking hun-dreds of kilometres to their home states.

Nothing for migrants in FM’s announcement: P. Chidambaram

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS)Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and suggest-ed a slew of relief measures for the middle class, small traders, farmers and crafts-men to help them tide over the crisis created by the na-tionwide lockdown to prevent COVID-19 spread.

In the letter, she said that the interest on home loans be waived off and the EMIs on the same should be suspend-ed for six months.She also de-manded that the government give a 100 per cent guarantee of procurement of the farm

produce and loan waiver. She also raised the issue of pro-curement of the Rabi crops, which is being delayed.

“Shikshamitra, Asha work-ers, rozgar sevaks should be provided bonuses, and weav-ers, craftsmen should be giv-en Rs 12,000 each apart from waiver on electricity bills,” she wrote.

She said that due to the pan-demic everyone is affected fi-nancially, people are without jobs and work.

So they should be helped in this hour of need.

Priyanka also expressed concern for the farmers over the raised electricity bills and suggested that the tube well and domestic bills should be waived off and moratorium be put on pending dues.

The Congress General Secre-tary also demanded a fi nancial assistance to the craftsmen and handloom workers.Priyanka Gandhi in her letter also offered condolence on the demise of Yogi Adityanath’s father.

WAIVE OFF SCHOOL FEES, INTEREST ON HOUSE LOAN : PRIYANKA TO YOGI

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to aid the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which have taken a beating during the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

Modi tweeted, "Today's an-nouncements by FM @nsith-araman will go a long way in addressing issues faced by businesses, especially MSMEs. The steps announced will boost liquidity, empower the entrepreneurs and strengthen their competitive spirit.

He also used the hashtag 'At-ma-nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', which is a reference to self-reli-ant India, something which he vowed to turn the country into during his televised address to the nation on Tuesday night.

Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, Sitharaman announced to widen the defi -nition of MSMEs and raise the investment limit. Another cri-teria, turnover of the company, has also been added to the re-quired norms for classifi cation of MSMEs.

Sitharaman also announced a collateral-free automatic loan for MSMEs of up to Rs 3 lakh crore, among other liquidity measures.In a move to provide more scope for Indian companies, including MSMEs, the Centre has decided to disallow global fi rms from par-ticipating in government procure-ment tenders up to Rs 200 crore.

Finance Minister’s

announcements will boost MSMEs

MODI :

Kolkata, May 13 (IANS) Terming the economic stimu-lus package announced by the Centre as "a big zero", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said it was nothing but an "eyewash" and full of "misleading infor-mation".

"In the name of lockdown, the Centre is trying economi-cally cripple all the state gov-ernments. The announcement made by the Union Finance Minister was full of misleading information. It is nothing but

a big zero as the states have got nothing," Banerjee told a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna here.She said that the economic activi-

ties and the lives of common people have virtually come to a standstill across India, but there was nothing in the stim-ulus package.

"Democracy has also come to a halt. The Centre is mis-leading us with false fi gures. The recession has already started. And the Central gov-ernment has not mentioned anything about the special package for Covid-19 crisis, no funds for healthcare sector's revival, job creation, market development, any waiver for

the farmers and special grants to the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sec-tor," she said.

Banerjee said that, mean-while, her government has taken up a series of revolu-tionary steps for reviving the economic conditions of the rural folk. The decisions were taken to observe the 9th year of the Trinamool Congress' government.

“We don’t indulge in tall talk of being self-reliant. Rather we try to prove it. We have already readied at least 550 micro-plans, covering about 6,500 acres of land sprawled across these six districts,” she said.

‘Nothing for states’: Mamata dubs Centre’s stimulus ‘big zero’

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The Railway Ministry will remain sealed for two days (Thursday and Friday) as one of the Railway Protec-tion Force (RPF) personnel, who had visited the office a week ago, tested coronavi-rus positive on Wednesday.

According to the railway officials, intensive santi-sation will be carried out in the building."One of our RPF personnel today

(Wednesday) tested Co-vid-19 positive," RPF Di-rector General Arun Kumar told IANS.

The personnel had visited the Railway Ministry of-fice a week ago, he said and added, as per the standard protocol, his contact trac-ing had been initiated.

Kumar said 70 RPF per-sonnel had tested Covid-19 positive. Of them, 30 had been cured, he added.

RAIL BHAWAN SEALED for 2 days as RPF man

tests positive

City2

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Stress levels and uncertainty will increase for professionals post the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown it has caused due to fears of layoffs or overwork due to the heavy backlog that awaits them if an and when they return to work, says lifestyle & rela-tionship expert and prac-ticing therapist Rachna Khanna Singh, whose work over the last 20 years has touched over 10 lakh lives and over 100 organisa-tions.

Work-life balances are under threat and there is the omnipresent shadow of emotional ties at the workplace reviving, Singh, who has just published a book, "Stress Diaries - From The Eyes Of A Thera-pist" (Bloomsbury), told IANS in an email interview as she expanded on the im-pact of the lockdown on a post-pandemic world.

"Post Pandemic, stress levels are soaring high for most professionals - whether it be with respect to lay-offs due to lack of business or over work due to heavy back log. Further, we saw during the lock-down phase, most people irrespective of whether they were working from home or not, were strug-

gling with keeping a healthy lifestyle and a rou-tine." Singh said.

"Now once the lock-down lifts up, it is further going to get harder to get back to a healthy lifestyle since most of us are in our comfort zones (with gyms and parks shut)," added Singh, who has worked ex-tensively in the clinical set-up with reputed hospitals such as Fortis Escorts and Dharamshila Hospital and currently heads the

Department of Holistic Medicine and Counsel-ling at Artemis Hospital, Gurugram and is also the Founder Director of The Mind and Wellness Studio.

Post COVID-19, when the entire world experi-enced work from home conditions, "the bound-aries between work life and home life further got blurred for most people. While most people tried their best to maintain a proper work schedule, un-fortunately a large number could not owing to the un-favourable conditions at home for eg, lesser space,

poor network, having children around, respon-sibility/ expectations to pitch in to the house work etc which further made work- life balance tougher for most people". "While

some people experienced lesser productivity at home, there still was lack of me-time, due to the jumbling of the time, mak-ing people more hassled and stressed," Singh add-ed. Added to this, tough bosses will stay irrespec-tive of the pandemic or post-pandemic period "due to more squeezed deadlines", she said.

And, with temper is-sues being quite com-mon, "with the increase in stressors, anxieties and frustrations post the pan-demic, a lot more people are tend to be irritable and angrier".

Also, office politics is something which most people have faced prior and will continue to face post pandemic as well - though the levels could well increase. "Politics arises when one tries to outdo the others, in order to become more visible/gain recognition in front of superiors. Since post the pandemic the markets are very slow and people fear losing their jobs/apprais-als, they may try harder to out -do their colleagues us-ing different ways," Singh pointed out.

What will also need to be addressed is something often spoken about in

whispers or swept under the carpet. v Does this not make for a revised edition of the book, in fact, even a totally new book based on the lessons learned from the pandemic? "Absolutely it is a great idea; we could surely talk about it and may be come up with a separate issue on handling stress post-pandemic," Singh concluded.

"A major reason why people fear their partners having an affair at work-place is because of the mere fact that they spend too much time at work, now due to the lockdown most couples have spent abundant of time with each other giving each other a lot of attention and time, once the lockdown opens partners will cer-tainly not have as much time to devote to their homes and families- which could add up in increasing the insecurity," Singh ex-plained.

Does this not make for a revised edition of the book, in fact, even a totally new book based on the lessons learned from the pandem-ic? "Absolutely it is a great idea; we could surely talk about it and may be come up with a separate issue on handling stress post-pan-demic," Singh concluded.

Stress levels, uncertainty will increase post-pandemic: Rachna Singh

V-P, Speaker visit Parliament on 68th years of first sitting

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla visited the historic Cen-tral Hall of Parliament and the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cham-bers on Wednesday on the occasion of 68th year of the first sittings of Par-liament. The Vice-Pres-ident and the Lok Sabha Speaker shared memo-ries and experiences of

the first sittings of the two Houses.

They were accompa-nied by Union Minister Prahlad Joshi, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arjun Ram Meghwal and Minister of State for Ex-ternal Affairs and Parlia-mentary Affairs V. Mura-leedharan.

Earlier, Birla congratu-lated the people on the

occasion and said it was a momentous day for the Indian democracy. It was on May 13, 1952, that both Houses of Par-liament held their first sittings after Indepen-dence, he said.

Birla underlined strong roots of demo-cratic traditions in India. He said Indian Parliament had been playing a pivotal role in realising the cherished

ideals of the Consti-tution, participatory democracy, social jus-tice and ensuring that citizens got their right-ful economic, social, po-litical and cultural rights. The Speaker said during the past seven decades India had surmounted many obstacles and had safeguarded and consoli-dated the Constitution and the democratic prin-ciples of governance.

Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) In a relief for Karti Chidambaram, the Su-preme Court allowed the Congress MP to withdraw Rs 10 crore, which he had deposited with the apex court registry as a condi-tion for allowing him to travel abroad to attend a tennis tournament. In February, the apex court had allowed Karti, who is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, to trav-el to the UK and France for attending a tennis tournament subject to the Rs 10-crore deposit.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao took up the matter through video confer-

encing and allowed Karti to withdraw the deposit made with the registry.

The top court had not-ed Karti would have to appear before the agen-cies concerned during investigation in INX Me-dia case and Aircel-Maxis case. The agencies could avoid the travel dates for this purpose and he has to co-operate with agencies in every manner, added the court. The bench al-lowed Karti to withdraw the amount. Karti is fac-ing several criminal cases in connection with the Foreign Investment Pro-motion Board clearance to INX Media for receiv-ing foreign funds of Rs 305 crore when his father P. Chidambaram was the

Finance Minister. The court said after hearing the counsel appearing for both sides, the instant application for with-drawal of the amount in question is allowed. In February, the top court took into consideration previous orders which allowed Karti to travel abroad, and then al-lowed him to travel to the UK and France between February 14, and March 1, 2020.

In January, the top court had allowed Karti to withdraw Rs 20 crore, deposited in the registry of the top court as a con-dition to grant permis-sion to travel abroad. A bench headed by Justice Bobde and comprising

Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant had observed there was no objection to the withdrawal of the de-posit from the Enforce-ment Directorate, as he had already returned.

Last year in January and May, the court granted permission to Chidam-baram to travel abroad af-ter depositing Rs 10 crore on each occasion with the court's registry. The bench allowed Karti to withdraw the amount. Karti is fac-ing several criminal cases in connection with the Foreign Investment Pro-motion Board clearance to INX Media for receiv-ing foreign funds of Rs 305 crore when his father P. Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.

SC allows Karti to withdraw Rs 10 crore

THE UNION MINISTER FOR HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES, DR. HARSH VARDHAN INAUGURATING A VIRTUAL EXPOSITION OF COMPANIES WHOSE TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BY THE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT BOARD (TDB), AT THE NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DAY CELEBRATIONS, IN NEW DELHI.

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) Two days after the Indian Railways started to run the Special Rajdhani trains, the national trans-porter on Wednesday in-dicated that it might soon start mail or express trains as chair-car services in the coming days as well.

The Railway Board on Wednesday issued an or-der introducing the provi-sion of waiting list not only in its presently operation-al special trains for jour-neys starting May 22, but also for all its forthcoming services. t has, however, capped the waiting list on these trains -- up to 100 for AC 3 tier, 50 for AC 2 tier,

200 for Sleeper Class, 100 for chair-cars, and 20 each for First AC and Execu-tive Class -- truncating the queues for confirmed tick-ets significantly.

The chances will come into effect for tickets booked from May 15 for journeys beginning May 22. Special trains, ones to

be notified later, will have waiting lists from May 22 onwards, the Railways said. The order also stated that there shall be no res-ervation against cancella-tion (RAC) in the special trains. The order from the railway board to the zones indicates that the railways is planning to run mixed

services instead of the presently all air-condi-tioned trains. The fresh or-der from the railways also indicates that the national transporter might begin services to smaller towns along with the major cities that its Rajdhani specials cater to now.

Almost 48 days after suspending all passenger, mail and express train services, the railways has started 15 pairs of Spe-cial Rajdhani trains from Tuesday. The railways has also started to run Shramik Special trains to transport stranded migrant work-ers, students, pilgrims and tourists from May 1.

Railways hints at introducing more trains in service

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Jammu & Kashmir plans to provide tap water connec-tions to all rural households by December 2022 under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). During the current year, the Union Territory is planning for 100 per cent coverage of all 5,000 villages of three districts such as Gander-bal, Srinagar and Reasi, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said in a statement.

Presenting their action plan to the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation on Tuesday for achieving the goal of every household with tap water supply under the JJM, J&K officials said there are 18.17 lakh households in the re-gion, out of which 5.75 lakh are already provided with Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs).

Out of the remain-ing households, J&K has planned to provide 1.76 lakh households by 2020-21. The UT is likely to get Rs 680 crore as central share under JJM for this financial year and it is eligible for ad-ditional allocation based on physical and financial per-formance.

The J&K administration is planning 100 per cent cov-erage by December 2022 ahead of national goal by 2024-25, the Jal Shakti Min-istry said. By doing so, the ministry said, J&K will be a leading example to accom-plish the ambitious target of providing tap connection to each rural household.

Out of 98 water testing laboratories, the UT has planned for a National Ac-creditation Board for Test-ing and Calibration Labora-

tories (NABL) accreditation of 10 labs during 2021, it said. "Field Testing Kits will be provided at community level for testing of water quality for taking corrective measures. The UT Adminis-tration has planned to pro-vide drinking water to all 4 quality-affected habita-tions." Stress is being given on the constitution of Vil-lage Water and Sanitation Committees in villages to mobilize the community to inculcate the sense of own-ership.

Village action plans have been carried out for vil-lages, based on which the action plan has been final-ised.

During this testing time of Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry said such attempts to provide household tap connections in rural areas

will definitely improve the ease of living especially for women and girls, reduc-ing their drudgery, making them safe and lead a digni-fied life.

The aim of JJM is to pro-vide every rural household in the country a FHTC for drinking water in adequate quantities of prescribed quality on a regular and long-term basis at afford-able service delivery charg-es leading to improvement in their living standards. It is an endeavour of the cen-tral government to provide tap connections in rural households on priority ba-sis during the prevailing Covid-19 situation, so that rural people don't have to go through the hardship of fetching water from pub-lic standposts and stand in long queues.

Rural J&K households to get tap water connections by Dec 2022

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Even as the Indian Railways started the partial train services in the form of Special Ra-jdhani Express trains, the passengers coming to the New Delhi railway station complained that they were being over-charged by the taxis and auto rickshaws. Faheem, a doctor by profession, who is travelling back to Chennai from Delhi, told IANS, "The taxi charged us over Rs 650 for 10 km distance. Earlier we only paid around Rs 200 from Gautam Nagar area of Delhi to the New Delhi railway station." Narrating his ordeal, he said, "I used to stay in a paying guest to pre-

pare for the MCI examination, as I have completed my MBBS from abroad. But, despite the Delhi government's an-nouncement that the tenants don't need to pay the rent, we were forced to pay." "I am going to Gujarat from the train today. And I paid Rs 500 for the auto rickshaw from Raghuvir Nagar area to New Delhi," Bhelji Bhai, who is travel-ling back to Gujarat along with his wife and a small child, said. He said, the auto rickshaw charged us Rs 500. Earlier, we used to pay Rs 200 for the same distance. Another student said that as no public transport is available, finding a taxi or

auto rickshaw is a tedious task. Tanveer Ahmed, a resident of Srinagar, told IANS, "We are travelling back to Jammu from the train today. We paid Rs 700 to the private taxi to drop us till New Delhi rail-way station from Sangam Vihar area." Several others had to walk to reach to the railway station to catch the train as there was no public transport available.

At least nine trains were scheduled to depart from the New Delhi station on Wednesday. The first Special Rajdhani train departed for Thiruvananthapuram in the morning while the eight others left in the evening.

With no public transport, rail passengers fleeced by autos, taxis

3StateIndian Horizon Thursday, May 14, 2020

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) To provide more money into the taxpayers' hands, the gov-ernment, here on Wednesday, reduced the TDS (tax deduc-tion at source) rates for non-salaried specified payments made to residents, and the TCS (tax collection at source) rates by 25 per cent for the specified receipts.

Making the announcement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the move would release Rs 50,000 crore liquidity during the Covid-19 pandemic that had affected all spectrum of the economy.

"The reduction in the rate for withholding taxes and for the TCS is indeed welcome. It will provide additional liquid-ity in the hands of individuals and will, therefore, spur de-

mand," said Dinesh Kanabar, CEO, Dhruva Advisors. "While the 25 per cent reduction in the current rate is welcome, there's need to expeditiously issue lower rate certificates,

where applied for by taxpay-ers," he said. As per the an-nouncement, the reduced TDS rate will be applicable to the payment for contract, pro-fessional fees, interest, rent, dividend, commission and brokerage. It will be applicable for the remaining part of FY21 -- from May 14 to March 31, 2021. "The 25 per cent reduc-tion in TDS/TCS rates for all non-salaried payments is use-ful as it would put that much more cash in the hands of recipients of those payments and that's the whole purpose of the package," said.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) After Finance Minister Nirmala Sith-araman, here on Wednesday, an-nounced economic measures as promised by Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi on Tuesday, the Congress criticised the package and said there was nothing for the migrants.

"Except for the modest MSME (micro, small & medium enterpris-es) package, we are disappointed with the announcement," said for-mer Finance Minister P Chidam-baram. Addressing the media, Chid-ambaram said, "There is nothing in the Finance Minister's announce-ment for the lakhs of poor, hungry and devastated migrant workers. It's a cruel blow to those who toil for living every day."

"There is also nothing by the way of cash transfer for the bottom half of the population (13 crore families) who have been pushed into desti-tution. Only on Tuesday, Thomas Pikketty pleaded for cash transfer to the poor," Chidambaram said.

The Finance Minister said there would be a collateral-free loan pro-gramme for 45 lakh MSMEs, backed by a Rs 3 lakh crore credit guarantee fund, and some other measures, in-cluding Rs 20,000 crore subordinate debt and Rs 10,000 crore equity fund. Chidambaram said the mea-sures were skewed in favour of large MSMEs. "The bulk of the 6.3 crore

MSMEs has been left high and dry. We welcome the offer of subordi-nate debt (Rs 20,000 crore) and eq-uity corpus fund (Rs 10,000 crore). But we will await their terms and conditions. The devil is in the de-tail," the Congress leader said.

He said in case of the credit guar-antee fund, not the entire fund would be spent. "The expenditure will be limited to the extent of NPAs in the outstanding guarantee credit to MSMEs. Assuming an NPA level of 20-50 per cent, the actual expen-diture over the loan period (which may be years) will be a maximum of Rs 3,00,000 crore," he said.

Demanding to know where is the rest of the Rs 16.4 lakh crore, Chid-ambaram said, "This government is a prisoner of its own ignorance and fears. The government must borrow more and spend more, but it's not willing to do so." The government must allow states to borrow more and spend more, but it was not will-ing to do so, Chidambaram said.

Nothing for migrants in FM's announcement: Chidambaram

TDS/TCS rate cut by 25% to let Rs 50,000 cr in taxpayers' hands

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from Sanjeev Chawla, alleg-edly accused in a match fixing scandal in cricket involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje, on a plea by Delhi Police challenging the bail granted to him.

A bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, through video-con-ferencing, took up an appeal filed by Delhi Police challeng-ing Delhi High Court passed on May 6, which upheld a trial court's decision to grant bail to Chawla. The bench, in its order, said the notice is re-turnable in two weeks. In its plea before the High Court, the police had said: "The ac-cused Sanjeev Kumar Chawla is a British national. It took 20

years to bring him to justice in India. Investigation agency worked hard on this case to get the accused extradited from the UK and succeeded in the matter as the case is very strong on law and facts. There is a likelihood of the accused fleeing away from justice."

The High Court in its May 6 order said on the belief of flight risk, the liberty of a per-son "cannot be left in limbo". The High Court said this case highlights the need for use of technology, like the GPS track-ing system used in the US, to track under-trials.

The trial court had granted him bail on furnishing a per-sonal bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties of like amount. Chawla had been directed not to leave the country without

permission, provide his and his brother's mobile number to the police and keep their phones operational all the time. The bookie had also been directed by the court to give his voice sample and specimen handwriting after coming out on bail. The trial court had said: "...in view of COVID-19 pandemic which is not likely to end before one or two years as per WHO, and in view of the fact that no cricket match was thrown or lost pur-suant to alleged match fixing, the accused Sanjeev Kumar Chawla is ordered to be re-leased on bail." The court, while granting him bail, fur-ther observed that he was in custody for the last 76 days and a charge sheet has already been filed in the case.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) With Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi hinting at more relaxations during lockdown 4.0 and the government say-ing that India should learn to live with this changed reality post the pandemic outbreak, the Delhi Metro is slowly gearing up to restart operations.

While no clear time frame has been given by when ser-vices will restart, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said it has started cleaning sta-tions and testing signals.

"The date of the opening of the Delhi Metro has still not been finalised and will be notified to the public in due course. All systems of the metro including the signalling, electrical,rolling stock,tracks etc will have to be tested in detail be-fore services are ultimately started to ensure full safety for our commuters," said DMRC Executive Director Anuj Dayal.

The DMRC is also work-ing out the detailed cleaning and maintenance proce-dures in view of the current pandemic. The exercise is understandably an exhaus-tive one as it involves clean-ing and maintenance of 264 stations across Delhi-NCR and over 2,200 coaches. Meanwhile, over 1,100 es-calators and 1,000 lifts too

need to be cleaned to make sure passengers are not infected when services re-sume.

As and when the ser-vices resume, there will be strict adherence to so-cial distancing. But how can Delhi Metro ensure that when its coaches are thick with people par-ticularly during the peak

hours? The DMRC says, it is "being worked upon" to ensure resumption of ser-vices, as and when doesn't mean assembly of large number of passengers in trains and metro prem-ises. However, that will be quite a challenge for it given the number of daily commuters who take the metro every single day.

Back on track? Delhi Metro to start cleaning stations, testing signals

Match-fixing scandal: SC notice to Sanjeev Chawla on plea against his bail

NIA declares Rs 3 lakh cash

reward for info on Abdul

Mateen TaahaNew Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The National Investi-

gation Agency (NIA) probing the Al-Hind Islamic State (IS) Bengaluru module case on Wednesday announced a cash reward of Rs three lakh for want-ed absconder Abdul Mateen Taahaa.

An NIA spokesperson in Delhi said, "We have declared a cash reward of Rs three lakh for provid-ing any information leading to arrest of Taahaa." The spokesperson said that Taahaa, 26, a resident of Shimoga in Karnataka is wanted in Al-Hind ISIS Bengaluru module case that the agency registered this year. The NIA had taken over the probe from the Karnataka Police.

According to the NIA officials, the case relates to ISIS-linked terror group formed by arrested ac-cused Mehboob Pasha, along with accused Khaja Moideen aka Jalal and his associates involved in the murder of a Hindu leader in Tamil Nadu. The official said that Pasha conducted several meetings in 2019 at his residence in Bengaluru to hatch the conspiracy, by radicalising and recruiting other co-accused to carry out terror activities and join ISIS in Afghanistan or Syria.

The NIA has arrested 12 accused namely Pa-sha, Imran aka Imran Khan, Mohammed Haneef Khan, Mohammed Mansoor Ali Khan, Saleem Khan aka Kolar Saleem, Hussain Sharieff, Ejaz Pasha aka Azaz Pasha, Zabiulla, Syed Azmathul-la, Syed Fasiur Rehman, Mohammed Zaid and Sadiq Basha. The official said that Taahaa is a friend of arrested accused Saleem and Zaid, through whom he contacted arrested accused Pasha of Al-Hind Trust and was also associated with his online foreign handler.

5 more cases reported in Gurugram,

tally 166Gurugram, May 13

(IANS) Five more coronavi-rus cases have been detect-ed in the millennium city, taking total to 166, accord-ing to the health officials, here on Wednesday.

There are 99 active cases admitted to different hos-pitals. In the past 8 days, 79 Covid-19 cases have been reported.

J.S. Punia, Gurugram Civil Surgeon, said, "Five cases have been reported from different areas. They have been isolated in dif-ferent government and pri-vate hospitals of the district and their houses declared quarantine homes. The family members have been asked to stay at home for 21 days."

The new cases appeared in Sheetala colony, Basai and sector 28. One case is linked to a call centre and another to an export com-pany in Udyog Vihar.

The official said they had come in contact with Cov-id-19 patients. Meanwhile, 54 people are under sur-veillance of health officials at quarantine facilities. Of the 8,814 samples collected by the district administra-tion, 8,164 tested negative. Reports of 484 tests are awaited.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The Indian Coun-cil of Medical Research (ICMR) has fast-tracked the roll out of global 'Sol-idarity' trial launched by the World Health Organ-isation (WHO), to help find an effective treat-ment for Covid-19.

'Solidarity' is an inter-national clinical trial to compare four treatment options against standard of care to assess their relative effectiveness against Covid-19.

By enrolling patients in multiple countries, the solidarity trial aims to rapidly discover whether any of the drugs slow the disease's progression or improve survival. Impor-tantly, this initiative pro-vides for both speed and scale. About India's par-ticipation in this global endeavour, ICMR's Director General, Dr. Balram Bhargava, said: "ICMR is working re-lentlessly to implement scientific interventions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The decision to join the WHO solidar-ity trial is an important step in this endeavour."

"The ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute

(NARI) is the national co-ordination site for the tri-al in India. Four potential anti-viral agents, Rem-desivir, Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir-Ritonavir and L o p i n a v i r - R i t o n a v i r with Interferon (I1a) are to be evaluated in the trial." The trial has be-gun recruiting Covid-19 patients in the country. Elaborating on the prog-ress, Dr Sheela Godbole, Senior Scientist, NARI and National Coordi-nator for the Solidarity trial in India, said: "The required regulatory and ethical approvals have already been obtained

and clinical trial sites have started to recruit patients in the trial." Till now a total of 9 sites have been approved. The Solidarity trial provides simplified procedures to enable even overloaded hospitals to participate. Over 100 countries have requested participation to find effective thera-peutics as soon as pos-sible, via the trial. The participation of mul-tiple clinical trial units or hospitals in multiple countries will ensure ad-equate enrolment of par-ticipants in the shortest possible time. This will help fast-track identifica-

tion of correct treatment options for the Covid-19 disease. Welcoming In-dia's participation in the WHO global solidarity trial, WHO Representa-tive to India, Dr. Henk Bekedam, said: "We con-gratulate the Govern-ment of India, particu-larly ICMR for joining the global Solidarity trial. Through this collabora-tion, Indian research-ers and institutions will participate in a global initiative to find effective treatment options for Covid-19." India plays a critical role in both re-search as well as in man-ufacturing once trials

conclude successfully. WHO India is extending the required support to conduct the trial in India, he added.

The trial has begun recruiting Covid-19 pa-tients in the country. Elaborating on the prog-ress, Dr Sheela Godbole, Senior Scientist, NARI and National Coordi-nator for the Solidarity trial in India, said: "The required regulatory and ethical approvals have already been obtained and clinical trial sites have started to recruit patients in the trial." Till now a total of 9 sites have been approved. The Solidarity trial provides simplified procedures to enable even overloaded hospitals to participate. Over 100 countries have requested participation to find effective thera-peutics as soon as pos-sible, via the trial. The participation of multiple clinical trial units or hos-pitals in multiple coun-tries will ensure adequate enrolment of participants in the shortest possible time. This will help fast-track identification of correct treatment options for the Covid-19 disease.

ICMR fast-tracks roll out of global Covid-19 'Solidarity' trial

South4 Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

Fourth evacuation flight to Karnataka lands in B’luru

Bengaluru, May 13 (IANS) The fourth evacuation flight to Kar-nataka landed in this tech city from Singapore, with 149 return-ees, said an official on Wednes-day.

“The Airbus A320-251N of Air-India (AI 1379) landed at the city international airport at 9.51 p.m., with 149 passengers from Singa-pore,” the official told IANS here.

The foreign returnees were stranded overseas for about 50 days due to the suspension of

international air services by the government since March 23 and extended lockdown since March 25 to contain the coronavirus spread across the country.

“The passengers to the south-ern state included women, senior citizens, students, tourists and professionals, who were held up in Singapore and South East Asia during the lockdown, as no overseas and domestic commer-cial flights were operated since March 23,” said the official.

The flight was over two hours behind scheduled arrival of 7.45 p.m. due to delayed departure from Changi airport in Singa-pore.

The passengers were received by the state health department and the state-run A-I officials in the arrival terminal.

The returnees were given new masks to wear and sanitizer to wash their hands and told to maintain social distancing till they exit the airport.

“As per the standard operating procedure and protocols to be observed by all foreign returnees, the passengers were screened and tested to ensure they were asymptomatic and free from the Covid-19 virus,” a state official told IANS.

After completing the formali-ties, the passengers were ferried in state-run chartered buses in batches for the mandatory 14-day quarantine in star hotels

booked for them in the city.Passengers who did not have

an Indian mobile connection were given a new sim card by the local operators and got it activat-ed to download the mandatory quarantine app -- the Aaroygya Sethu app and Apthamitra app before leaving the airport.

As part of the government’s evacuation programme ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, two more repa-triation flights are due to land in Bengaluru from San Francisco and another from Jeddah in Sau-di Arabia by May 15.

Of the 691 returnees to the state till date, 514 landed in Bengaluru in three flights since Monday and 177 in Mangaluru port city, about 360 km away, in the fourth flight on Tuesday.

The first evacuation flight to Karnataka from London landed in Bengaluru on early Monday, with 326 returnees, including three infants.

Mumbai, May 13 (IANS) In a potentially controversial statement, senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday suggested that the gov-ernment should utilise the huge quantities of gold lying with various religious trusts in the country to finance the re-building of the economy post-Covid-19 pandemic.

He urged that the gold should be deployed to tide over the current fi-nancial crisis that has gripped the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Government must immediately appropri-ate all the gold lying with

all the religious trusts in the country, worth at least USD One Trillion, according to the World Gold Council. The gold can be borrowed through gold bonds at a low inter-est rate. This is an emer-gency,” Chavan said in a tweet, where he tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He made it clear that when he mentioned reli-gious trusts, it was cutting across religions.

“As per the WGC, the gold is worth around Rs 75 lakh crore. When the country needs it, it must be used,” said Chavan in his series of tweets.

It could be done through a gold bond scheme with a small in-

terest paid on it, and since it (the gold in re-ligious trusts) is the na-tion’s property, there’s no harm in using it for public benefit, he added.

“During wars that In-dia has seen, people have come out and given their gold to the government. We can have a scheme and even give them (the religious trusts) a small interest on it,” said Cha-van. The technocrat-turn-politician who is a former Union Minister pointed out that since the past nearly two months, he had been advocating a stimulus package of at least Rs 20 lakh crore and welcomed the PM’s an-nouncement of Tuesday evenin

Borrow gold from religious trusts for public benefit: Maha ex-CM

Financial aid to benefit 45 lakh MSMEs, says Yediurappa

COVID-19 positive cases high in TN due to more testing

TN rights panel notice to civic

official for damaging fruit carts

Bengaluru, May 13 (IANS) Welcoming the cen-tral government’s financial aid to the industrial sec-tor, Karnataka Chief Min-ister B.S. Yediyurappa on Wednesday said Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free loans would benefit 45 lakh mi-cro, small and medium en-terprises (MSMEs) across the country.

“Rs 3-lakh crore aid

will be a boon to 45-lakh MSMEs and thousands of their employees across the country. The collateral-free loans will enable them to resume operations after prolonged lockdown, en-forced in March to contain the coronavirus spread,” Yediyurappa said in a state-ment here.

Giving details of the Rs 20-lakh crore stimulus package Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday in a nation-wide address to revive the Covid-19-hit economy, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in New Delhi that the MSMEs would get collateral-free loans worth Rs 3 lakh crore

to restart and rev-up their operations.

Lauding Modi and Si-taraman for the stimulus package to the manufac-turing and services sectors, which contribute 75-80 per cent to the national GDP (gross domestic product) growth, Yediyurappa said Rs 90,000 crore one-time liquidity (funds) to elec-tricity distribution compa-nies (discoms) would help them and hundreds of their employees from losses in-curred over the years.

“Similarly, Rs 30,000 crore support to non-banking financial compa-nies (NBFCs), income-tax exemption and refund of Rs 50,000 crore to non-

salaried employees and Rs 6,750-crore contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and entrepre-neurs will benefit them and their employees,” said the chief minister.

The finance minister also said no-global tender for state-funded projects worth Rs 200 crore would stimulate growth and help the MSMEs to bid for them.

“None of the Covid-af-fected countries the world over announced such a huge economic revival package for the industrial sector. This is a bold step for motivating people to exit the lockdown and re-sume work,” added Yediy-urappa.

Chennai, May 13 (IANS) The higher rate of corona testing has resulted in an increased number of COVID-19 positive cases being recorded in Tamil Nadu and its capital city Chennai, said officials.

As of Wednesday, a total of over 2.79 lakh samples have been taken and sent for testing, said the state Health Department.

For the past several days, Tamil Nadu has been testing over 11,000 persons per day.

Health Minister C. Vijayabas-kar had said Tamil Nadu tests the highest number of persons per day in the country.

However, the question how the virus has spread to a large extent despite the lockdown, quarantin-ing infected suspects, and hospi-talisation of COVID-19 patients pops up. “It is not possible to pre-

vent the spread of a contagious virus. What is possible is to delay its rapid spread. If that is done diligently, hitting the peak could be further delayed or the peak may not be achieved,” K. Kolanda Swamy, who recently retired as Director of Public Health and Pre-ventive Medicine, told IANS.

On Wednesday, as many as 509 persons tested positive for coro-navirus in Tamil Nadu and the previous day it was 716 persons.

A total of 9,227 persons have tested positive in Tamil Nadu as on Wednesday and the total num-ber of COVID-19 related deaths in the state was 64.

Officials said the death rate is lower and the general population has been advised to take immu-nity enhancing healthy food and drinks like Kabasura Kudineer.

Chennai, May 13 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commis-sion on Wednesday suo moto issued notice to Vaniyambadi Municipal-ity Commissioner Cecil Thomas for throwing away fruits of street vendors and overturning a pushcart with fruits. A video of Thomas going berserk in Vaniyambadi went viral on social me-dia where he was seen throwing fruits on to the streets; throwing bananas sold by a woman on a pushcart on the road and also upturning another pushcart with fruits. The Commission has called for a report from Thomas in two weeks time on his high-handed ac-tions. According to the rights panel, the official should have taken legal action against the vendors if they had violated the rules, and held he had violated the human rights of the vendors.

Panaji, May 13 (IANS) Seven persons, including six members of a family who had travelled to Goa from Mum-bai and a truck driver from Gujarat, have preliminarily tested positive for Covid-19 in the initial round of rapid tests, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Wednesday.

He said that all the seven cases were “imported” and there was no fear of commu-nity transmission in Goa.

Sawant said that a second round of confirmatory tests of samples drawn from all seven persons was under-way.

“Today, six persons from a Goan family living in Mum-bai, who had arrived in Goa by car, tested positive in their rapid PCR tests. They were al-ready in our quarantine cen-tre. We have sent samples for confirmatory test at the Goa Medical College. If the con-firmatory tests are positive,

we will send all six of them to the Covid hospital,” Sawant said, adding the family had not contacted any person and had driven straight from the state’s road border to the quarantine centre, as per mandated norms.

“A driver from Gujarat, who came to Goa today in a vehicle, felt the symptoms to-day and he informed us. The symptoms are visible. His rapid PCR test is also con-firmed, we have sent it for confirmatory test,” Sawant said. The persons who were contacted by the truck driver have already been quaran-tined, he also said.

“We are waiting for confir-matory tests,” the Chief Min-ister said.

Goa has been declared as a green zone by the Central government after the state did not see a single active Covid-19 case since the first week of April.

2 dead, 34 corona cases raise Karnataka tally to 959

Chennai, May 13 (IANS) Three Covid-19 patients lost their lives and 509 persons tested positive for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu over the past 24 hours, said the state Health Department.

In a statement issued here, the department said three Co-vid-19 patients died taking the total death toll to 64.

As many as 509 persons tested positive for coronavirus, includ-ing five who had returned from overseas, in Tamil Nadu taking the total tally to 9,227.

A total of nine persons out of 927 persons who flew into Chennai by Air India Express between May 9 and May 12 have tested positive.

Incidentally, 21 districts have not reported any coronavirus positive case on Wednesday.

The number of Covid-19 pa-tients who were cured and dis-charged on Wednesday was 42, and the total is 2,176.

According to the government, a total of 12,789 samples were tested taking to total to 2.79 lakh till date. Testing of 482 samples is under process.

The state capital Chennai con-tinued to see the highest num-ber of infections at 380 taking its total tally to 5,262. The number of infected children in the age group 0-12 went up to 529. The total number of active cases in Tamil Nadu stands at 6,984.

Bhubaneswar, May 13 (IANS) Odisha Chief Min-ister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said economic revival package announced by Union Finance Minis-ter Nirmala Sitharaman will now largely mitigate

the distress of the work-ing class. “The package for employment and economic revival will now largely mit-igate the distress of working class who were impacted by COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown

thereafter,” tweeted the Chief Minister. He said the economic revival pack-age has given hope to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in the country.

The stimulus package will generate lakhs of jobs for workers in the vast MSME sector, he added. While Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi had on Tues-day announced an eco-nomic package of Rs 20 lakh crore to fight the coro-navirus pandemic, Sith-araman released the first tranche of the package.

Bengaluru, May 13 (IANS) Two Covid patients, a 60-year-old man from Karnataka’s Kalaburagi and a 58-year-old woman from Dakshina Kannada, succumbed to the virus, even as 34 new positive cases raised the state’s tally to 959, an official said on Wednesday.

“Positive cases: 927, a 60-year-old male resident of Kalaburagia was brought dead on Monday to a des-ignated hospital. Tested positive for Covid,” said a health official.

The deceased man came from the Kalaburagi containment zone. He is Karnataka’s 32nd Covid death.

Kalaburagi is 574 km north of Bengaluru. Similarly, a 58-year-old woman from Dakshina Kannada, suffering from tuberculosis menin-gitis also succumbed to the virus. “Positive case 536 with disseminated

tuberculosis, earlier admitted in a private hospital and later shifted to a designated hospital on confirmation of Covid, died on Wednesday,” said the official.

She is Karnataka’s 33rd Covid death. Dakshina Kannada is 300 km west of Bengaluru, near the Arabian Sea on the West Coast of India.

Meanwhile, 34 new Covid infec-tions emerged in the past 24 hours.

“As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, cumula-tively 959 Covid positive cases have been confirmed in the state, it in-cludes 33 deaths and 451 discharg-es,” said the official.

Eighteen patients got discharged in the past 24 hours, Belagavi and Man-dya, 5 each, Bengaluru Urban, 4 and Dakshina Kannada, Ballari, Bidar and Vijayapura, 1 each.

3 dead, TN Covid-19 tally at 9,227

Centre’s economic package will mitigate distress of working class: Odisha CM

Seven test positive in rapid PCR tests; being tested again: Goa CM

Nation 5Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

Unorganised labour to be priority in Centre’s relief package: Punjab CM

Migrant labourers push up corona cases in Jharkhand

Chandigarh, May 13 (IANS) Expressing disappointment at the Centre’s failure to address the humanitarian crisis resulting from the lockdown, Punjab Chief Minis-ter Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said immediate intervention in the unorgan-ised labour sector should have been a top priority in the fiscal relief package, the first tranche of which was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithara-man. “It was unfortunate that the Finance Minister had not deemed it fit to balance the needs of the MSMEs, NBFCs and the housing sector with the urgent require-ments of the lakhs of migrant labourers facing unprecedented problems due to the current crisis,” said the Chief Minister.

Citing the Prime Minister’s emphasis on securing ‘jaan’ with ‘jahan’, Amarinder

Singh said the first set of announcements from the Finance Minister showed no intent at protecting lives, without which there could, in fact, be no livelihood.

“The MSMEs, the housing sector, etc, have to first survive, and then take the leap to the revival stage. And how will they survive without their workers, who have left them in hordes and seem in no mood to return any time soon?” asked the Chief Minister, urging the Central government to take note of the woes of the labourers, especially in the unorganised sector, to address the immediate challenges for the national economy.

While the implications and impact of the relief announced by the Union Fi-nance Minister would need more analysis, the Chief Minister said on the face of it, the

MSMEs had not received the much-need-ed bailout package. Instead, they were be-ing offered loans, which will only end up plunging them into a deeper debt crisis.

Even the MSMEs working in the critical health sector have not received any spe-cial incentives to give them the impetus that they need right now to support the Covid battle, Amarinder Singh lamented the absence of any serious thought in pri-oritising the nation’s needs at this critical juncture.

Pointing out that Punjab had 2.52 lakh industries, of which only about 1,000 were large, the Chief Minister said given the magnitude of the problem, the Centre would need to come out with a massive package for the MSMEs to resume operations.

Ranchi, May 13 (IANS) The return of the migrant workers from the highly coronavirus infected states of Maharashtra and Gujarat is pushing up the number of Covid-19 patients in Jharkhand where the tally reached 174 on Wednesday.

According to the health offi-cials, of the recent 50 positive cases 38 are migrant labourers.

The highest numbers dur-ing the day were reported from Hazaribagh district where six people, who hail from Barra vil-lage of Bishnugarh block and had returned from Maharash-tra a couple of days ago, have been confirmed to be infected with coronavirus. The highest

numbers during the day were reported from Hazaribagh dis-trict where six people, who hail from Barra village of Bish-nugarh block and had returned from Maharashtra a couple of days ago, have been confirmed to be infected with coronavirus.

In the state capital Ranchi, a 20-year-old migrant woman tested positive for coronavirus while a migrant worker, who had returned from Surat, also tested positive in the Gandey block of Giridih district.

Coronavirus patients have been detected so far in 14 dis-tricts out of the 24 districts in Jharkhand.

A total of 1,061 samples were

tested out of which 1,053 turned out to be negative while eight were positive. The samples are currently being tested at four places in the state, including MGM Jamshedpur, RIMS Ran-chi, PMCH Dhanbad and Itki Arogyashala Ranchi.

District wise Ranchi has so far recorded 95 confirmed coronavirus cases which in-cluded two foreigners, Bokaro 10, Hazaribagh 10, Koderma three, Giridih six, Simdega two, Dhanbad four, Deoghar four, Garhwa 23, Palamu eight, Jam-tara two, Godda one, Dumka two and East Singhbhum two. Out of these 174 cases, three have died.

‘19 lakh migrants shall travel to and from Rajast-

han in next few days’

Army Chief visits troops on western front

Jaipur, May 13 (IANS) Ra-jasthan Health Minister Ra-ghu Sharma on Wednesday said that each person com-ing to Rajasthan from other states should get himself quarantined for 14 days add-ing that coming days shall be crucial for the state as around 19 lakh migrants shall travel to and from the state.

Quarantine period is not a penalty but a security. Carelessness on this part shall create challenges for both society and state, he said.

Sharma further said that next few days shall be very crucial for Rajasthan as around 19 lakh migrants will travel to and from from state. While 6.5 lakh people will go out of the state, the remaining have made their registrations to enter the state. The government and medical department have set priorities to provide quarantine facilities at the

district level. All those who are coming to the state from outside are welcome here however they should quarantine themselves be-fore visiting the village and colony lanes, as those who are staying under lockdown for last 50 days need to be saved from virus infection, he said further.

Sharma appealed to the public representatives to ensure that those coming from outside go for home or institutional quarantine.

He further said, “The state government has col-lected 1.85 lakh samples and 12,000 samples are be-ing collected each day for testing. We aim to take this figure to 25,000 a day soon. In Rajasthan, those turn-ing negative from positive comprise over 60 per cent and the death rate due to corona is less than the aver-age corona death rate in the country.”

Jaipur, May 13 (IANS) Chief of Army Staff Gen-eral M.M. Naravane visited forward areas of the Sapta Shakti Command in Rajast-han and Punjab on May 12-13, according to Col. Som-bit Ghosh, PRO Defence, Rajasthan, on Wednesday.

The Army Chief, accom-panied by Sapta Shakti Army Commander, Lt Gen Alok Kler, visited forma-tions in the field and re-viewed their operational preparedness, including logistics aspects.

The COAS interacted with troops and lauded them for their high morale and moti-vation.

He commended efforts of the formations in the ongo-ing fight against Covid-19

pandemic.While addressing the of-

ficers, the Army Chief de-clared that IBGs (Integrat-ed Battle Groups) will be operationalised soon. He also advised optimisation of funds allotted under the Defence Budget in view of the economic constraints due to COVID-19, and said the funds should be utilised judiciously giving high-est priority to operational needs.

During the visit, he ex-horted all ranks to continue the excellent work and to maintain highest standards of battle readiness while ensuring force preservation to meet the emerging chal-lenges efficiently and effec-tively.

Maharashtra allows 65,000 in-dustries to resume operation

Number of positive cases in TN high due to more testing

Mumbai, May 13 (IANS) Nearly two months after lockdown, the country’s biggest industrialised state has started limping back to normalcy with the government per-mitting around 65,000 industries to resume operations, according to In-dustry Minister Subhash Desai, here on Wednesday.

Of these, over 35,000 industries have already started production with over 9,00,000 employees reporting for work.

The Minister expressed the hope that Maharashtra would benefit in a big way from the Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Last week, Desai had announced resumption of the industrial sector with conditions in view of the Cov-id-19 pandemic to kick-start produc-tion and ensure jobs.

Reviewing the scenario with the Aurangabad district authorities, De-sai announced a special task force, comprising senior officials, to attract investment to the state. Reviewing the scenario with the Aurangabad district authorities, Desai announced a special task force, comprising se-nior officials, to attract investment to the state.

“They will negotiate with industry representatives and officials from the USA, Japan, the UK, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and other nations for invest-ment in Maharashtra,” Desai said. “They will negotiate with industry representatives and officials from the USA, Japan, the UK, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and other nations for invest-ment in Maharashtra,” Desai said.

In anticipation of the flood of in-vestors, the state has reserved some 40,000 hectares land to cater to their needs through the Maharashtra In-dustrial Development Corporation.

Various formalities and clearances required to set up units would also be expedited with minimum time delays to ensure that the industries become functional quickly, the Minister said. Various formalities and clearances required to set up units would also be expedited with minimum time delays to ensure that the industries become functional quickly, the Minister said.

The government is making spe-cial efforts to ensure availability of skilled, semi-skilled and other work-ers for new industries. The govern-ment is making special efforts to ensure availability of skilled, semi-skilled and other workers for new in-dustries.

Chennai, May 13 (IANS) The higher rate of corona testing has resulted in an increased number of Covid-19 positive cases being re-corded in Tamil Nadu and its capital city Chennai, said officials.

As of Tuesday, a total of over 2.66 lakh samples have been taken and sent for testing, said the state Health Department. For the past several days, Tamil Nadu has been testing over 11,000 persons per day.

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar had said Tamil Nadu tests the high-est number of persons per day in the country.

However, the question how the virus has spread to a large extent despite the lockdown, quarantining infected suspects, and hospitalisa-tion of Covid-19 patients pops up.

“It is not possible to prevent the spread of a contagious virus. What is possible is to delay its rapid spread. If that is done diligently, hitting the peak could be further delayed or the peak may not be achieved,” K. Ko-landa Swamy, who recently retired as Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, told IANS.

On Tuesday, as many as 716 per-sons tested positive for coronavirus

in Tamil Nadu and the previous day it was 798 persons. A total of 8,718 persons have tested positive in Tamil Nadu as on Tuesday and the total number of Covid-19 related deaths in the state was 61.

Officials said the death rate is lower and the general population has been advised to take immunity enhancing healthy food and drinks like Kabasura Kudineer.

Out of the state total of 8,718, Chennai as on Tuesday accounted for 4,882 cases. The total number of active cases in Chennai was 4,093 after factoring the number of people cured and those who are dead.

All the 12 zones of Greater Chen-nai Corporation have coronavirus infected persons.

Officials said the virus has spread and it is showing up in the number of coronavirus positive cases.

Health Department officials and even Chief Minister K. Palaniswamy had said the higher density of popu-lation in Chennai is the major rea-son for spread of virus in the city.

Officials also said there are other risk factors like floating population, coronavirus clusters and people’s negligence in taking precautions.

Guwahati/Shillong, May 13 (IANS) After a day’s break, 15 more fresh coronavirus cases were reported in Assam on Wednesday, taking the total COVID-19 positive cases in the state to 79, though active cases are 37, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

“15 persons are tested CO-VID-19 in Kamrup Metro. All are related to a patient from Guwahati’s Fancy Bazaar, who tested positive recently. All un-der quarantine, please don’t panic,” Sarma tweeted.

According to the minister, so far 79 Covid-19 positive cases were found in Assam, but currently only 37 of them are active, while 39 people were discharged from hospi-tals after they recovered and a patient migrated to Bihar.

According to the minister, so far 79 Covid-19 positive cases were found in Assam, but cur-rently only 37 of them are ac-tive, while 39 people were dis-charged from hospitals after they recovered and a patient migrated to Bihar.

In Assam, two people have so far died of the dreaded dis-ease. These include a 16-year-old girl in Guwahati, who was found to be infected a day after her death on May 7.

In Meghalaya, one more per-son has recovered from CO-VID-1, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 11, Chief Minister Conrad K Sang-ma has said. The mountain-ous state has so far reported 13 coronavirus cases with one death. The deceased was a vet-eran doctor.

Kolkata, May 13 (IANS) A day af-ter West Bengal Chief Minister Ma-mata Banerjee said that she had to return “empty-handed” from the meeting with Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi, her administration on Wednesday announced ad hoc bonus to government employees during the upcoming festive spells.

The decision was announced during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan that is now going on and also for the Durga puja will be cel-ebrated in October.

“Pandemics will come and go.

But we need to take care of people for festivals. We have decided to grant adhoc bonus of Rs 4,200 for 2020-21, an increase from Rs 4,000 in 2019. Also, the salary ceiling for eligibility for getting bonus is in-creased from Rs 30,000 (in 2019-20) to Rs 34,250. The festival advance is also being increased from Rs 8,000 in 2019 to Rs 10,000,” Banerjee told a press conference here.

The CM said that the salary ceil-ing for eligibility for festival ad-vance was being increased from Rs 34,250 (in 2019-20) to Rs 41,100.

The state government order said that this increase in bonus, festival advance and the eligibility will benefit over 10 lakhs govern-ment employees of panchayat and municipal bodies, university and school employees, and contractual and casual employees.

“The total financial implication will be aboutRs 400 crore,” Baner-jee said, adding that her govern-ment could only do very little for the employees this year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But we, on behalf of the state

government, at least tried to ad-dress the situation with a humane face,” she said.

Attacking the Centre for not paying out its dues to Bengal, Ba-nerjee on Tuesday had said: “We are asking for our dues from the Centre. Every time whenever we ask for that amount, we have to return empty-handed. We are not begging anything from the Central government. We are just demand-ing that Rs 52,000 crores that we are supposed to receive from the Centre.”

Thiruvananthapuram, May 13 (IANS) The Kerala cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday decided to hike the tax rates on liquor, beer and wine ranging from 10 to 35 per cent.

The office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that this has been done to tide over the difficulties faced on account of the lockdown and an ordi-nance to this effect will be issued soon.

“The tax rate on beer and wine would go up by 10 per cent, while all forms of liquor will be taxed by an additional 35 per cent,” said Vijayan.

The liquor vends and bars are all closed and in all likelihood, might open very soon.

The state exchequer has been reeling under lack of revenue and last month all what the state government could collect from various sources was a mere

Rs 250 crore. The state exchequer has been reeling under lack of revenue and last month all what the state govern-ment could collect from various sourc-es was a mere Rs 250 crore.

For fund-starved Kerala, revenue from liquor and beer is one of the biggest cash cows and in the last fis-cal, garnered it a total of Rs 14,504.67 crore and hence the devolution of IT into Bevco, would be a big relief for the state’s finances.

The profile of liquor users in the state, in a study conducted earlier, reveal that around 32.9 lakh people - 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women - out of the state’s 3.34 crore population consume liquor.

Around five lakh people consume liquor on a daily basis. Of this, 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are ad-dicted to alcohol.

Spike in COVID-19 cases in Assam, 15 more test positive

‘Empty-handed’ Didi announces festival advance, ad hoc bonus for employees

Covid-19 impact leads to liquor prices hiked up to 35% in Kerala

EDIT6

Use low oil prices to strategic advantage

Mega stimulus packageSelf-reliance pitch timely,

now for delivery

Let’s not lower our guard against Covid

By Sushma RamachandranPROSPECTS for the Indian econ-

omy look bleak in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, but there re-mains one bright spot that could conceivably bring significant relief. And that is the crash in global oil prices. This has been precipitated by a battle between the big play-ers and worsened by the pandemic engulfing the world. Global oil markets had already begun soften-ing before the coronavirus spread its deadly mantle owing to the rift between the Organisation of Petro-leum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. The three-year-old bonhomie be-tween OPEC and Russia dissipated about two months ago as the latter felt the push to keep prices higher than $50 per barrel was actually a shot in the arm for US shale oil pro-ducers. The net result of firmer oil prices was that the US emerged for

the first time as the world’s largest oil-producing country.

The spat between the Saudi-led OPEC and Russia coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of global demand. Following the dis-solution of the agreement, both Saudi Arabia and Russia began producing more oil, leading to a sudden collapse in world prices in early March. US President Donald Trump’s interven-tion in March brought the Saudi-led OPEC and Russia back together, but by then the situation had spiralled out of control, owing to the pandem-ic. With global demand growth virtu-ally nil, inventories have been rising exponentially.

It was on April 21, however, that prices actually went into negative territory for the May futures con-tracts for the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude. In other words, US oil companies would have to pay to have their oil lifted. It

was a scary phenomenon but short-lived for the oil industry. Prices have rebounded back to about $17/bar-rel for WTI crude and $25 for Brent crude, used as a benchmark for the rest of the world. At the same time, there is every likelihood that this cri-sis can recur again.

In this dire backdrop of rising in-ventories and falling prices, India will have to take a pragmatic ap-proach to ensure that its interests are taken care of, not just now, but also for the long run. It must be kept in mind that India is the third largest importer of oil in the world, after China and Japan. In fact, it has even in the past sought to join hands with China to bargain for better terms and conditions from OPEC producers. It also needs to buy over 80 per cent of its crude oil consumption from abroad. Oil im-ports are thus critical for maintain-ing energy self-sufficiency.

With prices ruling at such low lev-els, the first step needed is to build up its strategic oil reserves, keeping in mind long-term requirements. Fortunately, it has been reported that moves are already being tak-en in this direction. The country’s imports during March this year have been stepped up to 20 million tonnes, the highest for the previous five months. Similarly, purchases are going on rapidly during April, despite a staggering 60 per cent fall in actual consumption since the lockdown began on March 25.

India has strategic reserves ca-pacity in caverns at three locations of 5.3 million tonnes, of which only 50 per cent is being utilised cur-rently. The drive to purchase cheap oil from the market will ensure that this capacity is fully used, giving the country an extra nine days’ stocks in case of emergencies.

IANS

Anew slogan, ‘Be vocal about local’,

has been added by the Prime Minister

to his long list of aspirational-inspira-

tional repertoire. How far it goes in in-

fusing the much-required dynamism

in the Covid-hit business and indus-

try is the big question. For long, the

low share of manufacturing in India’s

GDP as compared to China has been

seen as a huge weakness. So, while the

country witnessed high growth num-

bers over the years, the job opportu-

nities created as a result fell far short.

The pandemic has only accentuated

the serious problem. Hence, PM Mo-

di’s strong pitch for use of products

manufactured in the country and self-

reliance could not be more timely.

In a mega stimulus package, the Fi-

nance Minister has announced mea-

sures to restart the economy, includ-

ing Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free

automatic loans for MSMEs, revising

upwards the investment limit, intro-

ducing an additional criteria of turn-

over and no global tender for govern-

ment procurement up to Rs 200 crore.

Clearance of all pending payments is

another big takeaway. The statutory

PF contribution has been slashed by 2

per cent to increase the take-home sal-

ary. The 25 per cent cut in tax deduct-

ed at source for non-salary payments

is also a huge relief. A six-month ex-

tension has been given to government

contractors to finish projects.

It is an undeniable fact that the drive

to push manufacturing has met with

limited success. The much-touted

‘Make in India’ has not lived up to

potential. Aware of the ground real-

ity, PM Modi has made clear his com-

mitment to remove all domestic hur-

dles before manufacturing units and

attract from China the global value

chain. The vigour and hope reflected

in the speech have to be translated

into recognisable action. The first

tranche of the package would soothe

frayed nerves, but the road ahead is

long. Forget about adding, will it bring

back jobs? Is it a booster shot or a sur-

vival kit for the industry?

Ashok BhanIn the midst of a world-wide alarm over the infection and deaths caused by the pandemic, a brochure titled ‘Covid-19 — Be care-ful, not fearful’, issued by the New Delhi-based AIIMS, is very reassuring and conveys a clear and strong mes-sage. There is no substitute to taking precautions for own safety but there is no cause to be fearful. We must not, therefore, panic because Covid-19 may not be the same venomous monster in every part of the globe.

The virulence of Covid-19 in dif-ferent geographical regions and its impact on different societies has varied. Therefore, predictions based on mathematical models and trajec-tories of infections and deaths in one part of the world do not necessarily hold good everywhere. For predict-ing the impact of Covid-19 in India, it is necessary to factor in its younger population; lesser lifestyle-related susceptibilities restricted to a small population in metros and big cities; immunity, weather, latitude, muta-tions in the virus etc. So far, all these factors seem to be going India’s way.

The countrywide lockdown, de-spite its serious repercussions on the economy, was inevitable. It has in-deed provided us the much-needed headstart to bring the situation under control. Lockdown has slowed the spread of the infection. It provided

time to increase the healthcare in-frastructure countrywide. It has pre-vented a sudden spike in cases that would have overwhelmed our fragile healthcare infrastructure causing panic and helplessness. It has also provided a window for a massive safety awareness drive to prevent in-fections.

We did falter seriously in not factor-ing in the migration of workers who were left in the lurch to save their lives after their livelihoods had been snatched. The lockdown could have been better timed in consultation with the states, allowing and facili-tating migrant workers to travel back to their homes in safety and without hassles. The heart-rending sight of hordes of men, women and little chil-dren walking long distances in hot sun should haunt our collective con-science for neglecting these voiceless citizens. Curiously, these migrating workers, ill-equipped to follow social distancing norms or take precau-tions, have neither been identified as carriers nor found responsible for creating any hotspots at their desti-nations. The rural India, largely be-reft of healthcare infrastructure, has also not reported any major hotspot. The lockdown did slow the spread but could not have locked the virus. These developments give credence to the suggestion of reduced virulence

of Covid-19 in Indian conditions or a better immune system that has disallowed serious manifestations of the infections or both? There can be many more reasons in complex bio-logical processes but that should not worry us too much at this stage.

This argument is empirically sup-ported by a much lower number of Covid-positive cases detected per 100 tests in India as compared to the rest of the world. As on May 11, the num-ber of Covid-positive cases detected in India stood at 67,724 from a tested population of 1.67 million. The pro-portion of those testing positive in In-dia thus stands at 4 per cent of tested cases as against 14.5 per cent in the US, 12 per cent in the UK, 10.7 per cent in Spain and 8.5 per cent in Italy. India is placed better on this param-eter than even Japan (7.3 per cent) where there have been fewer cases and fatalities. This brings to India a big advantage in the fight against Co-vid-19.

There is no need to unduly panic at the current spike in cases. With one lakh tests, we should expect 4,000 new cases per day (4 per cent) till we inch towards herd immunity in ur-ban centres. The Covid-19 graph for India will start flattening only when the number of new cases is less than the cured cases in a day. India must also not read too much in the per-

centage of recovered cases which stand currently at 31 per cent. With 5-7 per cent mortality the world over, we have to ultimately reach a recov-ery of 93-95 per cent. It is a matter of time.

So far, in India, 1.67 million Co-vid-19 tests have been carried out as against 9.44 million in the US. At the current capacity, it will take 3-4 months to cover a mere one per cent of the population, mostly in metros and large urban conglomerates with access to healthcare facilities. Let there be no illusion that our testing capacity and health infrastructure can match the size of our population. Covid-19 will, meanwhile, spread through the length and breadth of the country. The immune system of the populace and the virulence of Covid-19 will come into play. There will be infections, mild or severe, cur-ing without hospitalisation and occa-sional mortality of the aged or those with health pre-conditions. We have to take these damages in our stride with sensitivity, compassion and pre-paredness by hugely empowering the district administration throughout the country. The district administra-tion should now play a pivotal role with the state and Union govern-ments defining a broad outline for the lockdown exit.

IANS

G ParthasarathyIndian cricket teams have

traditionally been sponsored by leading Indian business houses. And cricket has never been played in China. One was, therefore, surprised to learn that the sponsor for the Indian team this year was to be OPPO, a Chinese smart-phone maker. OPPO had just won a five-year sponsorship worth over Rs 1,000 crore for the Indian cricket team, for 34 matches at home and abroad. The Indian smartphone mar-ket is rapidly expanding at 7% annually, at a time when smartphone sales elsewhere in the world have fallen by 6%. But it is not OPPO alone that sells Chinese cellphones in India. India’s smartphone industry is dominated by three other Chinese brands — Xiaomi, Vivo and Huawei, with some competition from South Korea’s Samsung. The combined sale of Chinese smartphones in India is esti-mated to exceed Rs 50,0000 crore. Chinese telecom com-panies openly and aggres-sively operate and compete in India. India’s concerns, however, arise from moves led by Huawei, for domina-tion of its entire communica-

tions infrastructure. Huawei is Beijing’s principal instru-ment to increasingly domi-nate global communications by promoting its 5G telecom-munications networks. Hua-wei has over 3,000 employees in its Research and Develop-ment Centre in Bengaluru. The higher management and planning structures of Hua-wei, in India and elsewhere, are exclusively Chinese. As an Indian scientist remarked, Huawei, like other Chinese companies, uses Indians as ‘cyber coolies’ doing the rou-tine legwork, while Chinese management personnel con-trol, work out and implement policies. This is not surprising. It is an exploitative practice the Chinese use worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Their policy is one of ‘zero transfer of technolo-gy’. Cheap Indian labour will be used for high-priced Chi-nese 5G smartphones, while China makes ‘smart’ money! Huawei also has an agenda of promoting its expertise in AI in India, doubtless in a simi-lar manner.

The Chinese are now in a no-holds-barred struggle with the US and some of its European allies for promot-

ing their 5G networks and appliances worldwide. India is caught in the crossfire. It is time India understood and acknowledged that all its as-pirations of being a signifi-cant high-tech player globally will remain a pipedream, un-less it develops a self-reliant electronics industry, spear-headed with indigenous re-search and manufacture of semi-conductors and com-puter chips. We are unduly worried about Chinese ex-pressions of concern at our cooperating with Taiwan in such areas. Moreover, it is time to see that we do not close any options, while se-riously building a high-tech industrial base. We surely do not need a setup, where Chi-nese companies use India as a base for their assembling components and devices, and producing goods with Chinese brand names, while marketing them as ‘Made in India’. Lauding the concept of international ‘supply chains’ does not mean we become cyber coolies. It remains to be seen how we handle the introduction of 5G.

China’s economic interests in India are not confined to electronics and communica-

tions. It has also taken a keen interest in entering other key spheres like construction, transportation and energy. There has been substantial involvement in the power sector, too. Chinese compa-nies appear set to provide an additional 20,000 MW across India. Chinese companies are now moving significantly into the solar energy sector in Andhra Pradesh. These com-panies have pledged invest-ments of $3 billion in wind and solar energy develop-ment. While there is present-ly no reason to deny China a legitimate share in projects, when the bids are competi-tive, India should insist on giving preference to equip-ment designed and manu-factured by its engineers and entrepreneurs.

China will inevitably remain mercantilist, while increasing its economic influence by us-ing its surplus construction capacities for infrastructure projects abroad. Mercifully, our eastern neighbours like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia appear to under-stand larger Chinese objec-tives, and do take preemptive action to guard against Chi-nese ambitions. While Russia,

weakened by falling oil prices and a growing Covind-19 challenge, appears reconciled to being a Chinese partner, the Russians are far-thinking. They will keep open their links with countries like In-dia, Vietnam, and even Japan.

In these circumstances, one can expect significant changes in the present ap-proach of the US and its Eu-ropean allies towards China’s assertive quest for dominat-ing world markets. India must devise incentives to get these countries and their partners to view it as a good location for investment. We should also secure major in-vestments in petrochemical industries from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. We are already a major exporter of petroleum and petrochemi-cal products. China has been threatening its maritime neighbours on their maritime frontiers. India would, how-ever, be well advised to avoid confrontational posturing. The Covid challenge has led to widespread anger across the world, at what is now per-ceived as China’s quest for hegemony. These sentiments need to be exploited.

IANS

Countering Chinese moves

Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

Thursday, March 26 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Indian Horizon

In a historic order upholding the right

of women to equal opportunity in the

Indian Army, the Supreme Court has

paved the way for all serving Short

Service Commission (SSC) women

officers to be eligible for permanent

commission (PC) on a par with their

male colleagues. The verdict opens

the avenue for meritorious women of-

ficers to get command postings, pro-

motions, rank and pension. Reeking

of gender discrimination and violative

of Article 14 that guarantees equality,

these benefits were till now denied

to them as the women were allowed

a tenure of up to only 14 years. Sig-

nificantly, this restriction not only pre-

vented them from reaching the pinna-

cle in their career, but also disqualified

them from pension, which starts only

after 20 years of service.

History is witness to a number of awe-

inspiring and brave women leading

thousands of men in battles, includ-

ing the famous Joan of Arc and our

very own Rani of Jhansi. Recognising

the valour and capability of women

in military matters in the past couple

of decades, countries such as the US,

Israel, North Korea, France, Germany,

Netherlands, Australia and Canada

have allowed women in groundbreak-

ing combat positions. While stopping

short of granting this role to the Indian

women, the Supreme Court judgment

notably rubbished the patriarchal con-

cept that portrays women as weak by

pointing out the fact that 30 per cent

of our women officers are deployed in

conflict zones. This effectively expos-

es the government stance that wom-

en are physiologically unfit for higher

Army ranks as farcical and hollow.

In the light of the forward-looking

order that bestows dignity on able

women, it is now a question of time

before women officers in the Indian

Army acquire positions of command.

In the meanwhile, the rank and file of

the military would do well to throw

outdated perceptions of male superi-

ority out of the window that are gen-

erally proffered to keep them down

and be prepared to take orders from

them. The mission is of utmost impor-

tance and women are equally capable

of helming it.

Lady in command post

Landmark SC order on perma-nent commission to women

6 EDIT Indian HorizonThursday, March 26 2020

By Jayshree SenguptaNo one expected that Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitaraman would go out of her way to opt for generous gender budgeting. She was busy pointing out that the economy has sound macro-eco-nomic fundamentals and there is little fear of a severe slowdown or recession. Micro sectors did get their due attention and the allo-cation of Rs 28,600 crore for wom-en and child development may sound great, but is it enough for the 500 million women of India? It is not adequate gender budgeting which involves the government to allocate funds to women-spe-cific schemes so that the benefits of growth are enjoyed fully by women. It is also not the alloca-tion that is important but how the money is spent that is crucial. There are so much unspent funds and women are not able to ben-efit from the allocation.

There are a number of prob-lems which need to be focused upon for gender budgeting. One is the age of marriage: 27 per cent girls are married off by the age of 18 which makes them vulner-able to patriarchy and torture by mothers-in-law and leads to early childbirth. India has the highest number of child marriages. Em-powering women would require that girls are given higher educa-tion and training in some skills to enhance their earning power. There has to be a policy to incen-tivise parents to let their daugh-ters study further or learn some skills before marriage. The com-mittee set up for determining the

right age of marriage is a welcome move.

Women work very hard in rural households which is unpaid work. Making women earn from doing work other than housework is im-portant. The government should start light industries like food processing which can give jobs to rural women. This should be a priority of the government but it seems not to be the case in Bud-get 2020. Women making home-made products and snacks in ru-ral areas can sell in nearby towns, but because of lack of mobility, they are restricted from doing so. Making transportation easy and safe ought to be a priority.

Unequal wages is another im-portant source of low earnings for women. Very skilled embroider-ers near Kolkata are paid a pit-tance while big designers make a killing making garments out of those fabrics. Women painters from Madhubani and Raghura-jpur, Orissa, can be trained to make products that can fit into contemporary interiors. They have skills but lack innovation. All this requires detailed atten-tion.

While the government doesn’t seem to think that our unemploy-ment problem is serious enough, it is also paying scant attention to the fact that our women’s par-ticipation in the workforce at 34 per cent is one of the worst in the world. The world average is 50 per cent. Women drop out of the workforce for various reasons. Urban women fear for their safe-ty and sexual harassment at the

workplace. Rural women find it difficult to work outside home for lack of help at home. Creche facil-ities for construction workers will enable more women to join the work- force. Also, equal wages in farm work is important for wom-en to draw them into agricultural activities. Garment factory work-ers are paid low wages in order to let owners remain competitive. Instead, their productivity should be enhanced through better equipment and working condi-tions. Many more working wom-en’s hostels are needed from the increase in allocation for it. Safety for women is the most important thing, especially in cities. In rural areas, too, women are vulnerable to rape and molestation.

The maternal mortality rate is high in India. Women’s health is not of importance, specially in rural areas. Rural women die dur-ing childbirth because of com-plications. If primary health cen-tres were better equipped with medicines and doctors, many lives could have been saved. Also, inadequate pre-natal care is re-sponsible for women developing complications. Unfortunately, the allocation on health remains a meagre two per cent of the GDP. Some state governments are re-furbishing primary health cen-tres, but it is not universal. India also has a large number of female suicides. Women’s mental health is increasingly a problem and has to be tackled.

Small-scale women entrepre-neurs are growing. They need ac-cess to easy credit. The Budget

2020 has allocated larger funds to self-help groups and it provides for easier access to bank finance, yet more needs to be done be-cause women are afraid of han-dling the bank paper work by themselves. It’s a good thing that the Finance Minister has thought of promoting beekeeping. Simi-larly, poultry and silkworm be-sides agriculture and organic farming should be promoted.

Some rural women make beau-tiful products from bamboo and grass, but have no proper out-let to sell them. Middlemen take huge cuts and exploit them. Mar-keting outlets are needed in vil-lages known for their crafts.

If India wants to be a $5 tril-lion economy, the contribution by women to the GDP is of ut-most importance. India cannot call itself a developed country if the women remain shackled by archaic traditions and patriarchy. Gender budgeting should aim at empowering women and making them stand on their own feet and make their own choices and deci-sions.

Also, to give a bigger market to products made by women, han-dloom and handicrafts that are mostly made of natural material by women should be promoted by people who matter in the world of style, interior decoration and fashion like Bollywood stars and top designers. Aiming at all these problems and resolving them call for careful gender budgeting which addresses all the problems that women are facing in 2020.

IANS

Gender budgeting fails to address all problems

By P StobdanUS officials rarely visit Central Asia,

but amidst the coronavirus outbreak in China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a stealthy visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with a bag full of intersecting agendas, primarily to convey that the re-gion remains independent of the malign influence of ‘external actors’, an obvious tug to China and Russia. The visit came ahead of the State Department’s unveil-ing of the ‘US strategy for Central Asia 2019-25: Advancing sovereignty and economic prosperity’.

Americans are not known for under-standing Central Asia well as compared to Europeans who coined the Eurasia and Silk Route phrases and traversed along its various paths. During the So-viet period, only a few American tourists travelled to Tashkent from Moscow. The US struggled to make a workable foot-print in the geopolitically crucial Cen-tral Asia that prompted the Congress to adopt the Freedom Support Act in 1992. In 1991, Secretary of State James Baker flew to Kazakhstan to denuclearise the Muslim majority state.

Washington’s desire to forge a part-nership was constrained by the dilem-ma confronted by the Soviet-trained residual leaders for defining their des-tinies. The regional context changed

once Moscow signed a special strategic partnership with China. The US then took a pause, waiting for the situation to evolve, while maintaining the posture of supporting the independence and terri-torial integrity of Central Asian nations. In the 90s, Zbigniew Brzezinski sug-gested the need to wait for the next gen-eration Central Asians overcoming their inherited, unsure self-ambivalence and orienting themselves towards America.

After 30 years since, Central Asia has changed and Washington seems set to reap the fruit of its investments. The new policy lists $9 billion funding support for democracy programmes, security cooperation, economic governance and private sector-led economic growth. Be-sides, the US has supported $50 billion in credit and loans to the region. The US private sector invested over $31 bil-lion in commercial ventures and funded over 40,000 student and professional ex-changes, among others.

Clearly then, Washington still treats Central Asia as an open book and the last chapter is not yet written. The fresh stra-tegic opportunity assessment defines the region important in its own right, lays out new milestones for strengthen-ing sovereignty, fighting terrorism and helping to make economies attractive to US businesses.

Uzbek leader Islam Karimov’s death in 2016 and Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan stepping down in 2019 opened a win-dow of opportunity that prompted Mike Pompeo to visit Nursultan in Tashkent. New Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev is now a reformer and potential partner for the US, who it believes, has taken steps to initiate reforms. Mirziyoyev’s busi-ness offers could spin off opportunities for the US firms.

Pompeo also visited Nursultan to cul-tivate new Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to profit from his recent political reforms. Pompeo lauded ‘real improvements’, urged Kazakhs to resist excessive engagement with China and instead consider America as a reliable business partner.

Conversely, Kazakhs now see the US as a source of investment, new technol-ogies, education and global standards. After Chevron and ExxonMobil, Ameri-can Tyson Foods is preparing to enter Kazakhstan’s agriculture sector.

In the C5+1 format, Pompeo pointed to enlarging American influence, by snaring Uzbekistan into its Afghan pol-icy and by exploring ways to counter Chinese influence. Tashkent’s regional plans for improving relationship with its neighbours and efforts to nix the peace process in Afghanistan, impress the US.

The critical point is that Uzbekistan en-dorses the Taliban movement and sup-ports direct talks between the US and militia. It hedges a bet on Washington than on Moscow’s ability to end the Af-ghan stalemate, crucial for Uzbekistan’s security.

Uzbekistan is becoming a linchpin state in the US success to get the Afghan war to an end. We don’t know the details for the post-Afghan settlement, but the aim would be to avoid the mistake of hastily withdrawing US troops from Syr-ia resulting in Turkey’s military assault against the Kurds. The bigger picture is how the US may be subtly using the Afghan factor as a means to nudge Cen-tral Asia into accepting a certain option or use cues to direct them away from overly depending on Russia and China. The US has offered a $100-million aid to increase cross-border trade and connec-tivity between Uzbekistan and Afghani-stan. For the first time, the US told the regional states to push China and Russia out of the region, be wary of predatory Chinese lending, and avoid falling into the debt trap under the pretence of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. The debt finance impacting sovereignty is acute in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that are unable to repay.

IANS

US wants Central Asia to oust China, Russia

By Saba NaqviThere were always good reasons for

the BJP to be defeated in the Delhi As-sembly elections. First, the party is in power in the three municipal corpora-tions in the Capital that have a shabby record. Indeed, one could say that they are a blot on the Swachh Bharat campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Second, the BJP could offer no local leadership or face to take on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose approval ratings always remained high. Third, the BJP had no youth alternative to AAP whose core team is packed with young faces. Fourth, large sections of the youth were, in any case, alienated from the BJP at the spectacle of violence on two universities in Delhi, Jamia Mil-lia and JNU, in the weeks preceding the elections (after voting day, came reports of sexual assault on girl students of Gargi College in South Delhi by goons shout-ing Jai Shri Ram).

In the end, the AAP moved far more deftly and creatively than the older party. It was light on its feet in evading the BJP’s attempt to make this election about Hindu versus Muslim as opposed to issues of local governance. Partly be-cause the BJP had nothing positive to of-fer at the local level, it decided to make the election about its ideological na-tional issues. In the process, in full view of the national and international media in the Capital, the BJP dropped all pre-

tence at civility in public life and ramped up the hate speech. The desperation to also stick to its CAA agenda in the face of spreading protests in the Capital and across the country also drove the BJP to the point where we can state that in January 2020, the BJP completely aban-doned its mukhauta (mask) model that has a place in the party’s history.

Mukhauta was the phrase that gained currency after a high-ranking RSS-BJP functionary described former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the mask/plausible pleasant face who gave cover to an ideo-logical agenda. Vajpayee helmed a suc-cessful coalition in an age where num-bers demanded moderation.

The BJP has a majority on its own at the national level but is losing power in states at a time when the economy is in crisis. There is now a palpable sense of economic despair in the air. In the week preceding Delhi’s February 8 voting day, a diplomat from a country with large investments in India revealed that their internal political assessments show a cycle of endemic social unrest leading up to 2024; they do not see the country as a safe destination to invest in infra-structure and do not expect the Indian economy to grow at a healthy rate. They were even factoring in a simulated war with Pakistan! This shockingly bad eco-nomic projection means that the BJP cannot use traditional means to engage the young in a future that has hope. The

current BJP and its ideological family have, therefore, made the shift to invok-ing enemies here, there, everywhere. In doing so, the BJP gives some youth the pretext to abuse, blame others for their misfortune and feel a sense of belong-ing to an ideology, some even picked up guns as was witnessed in three cases of shooting that took place in Delhi. In the past, polarisation was part of the strat-egy; in the future, it seems likely to be the main plank of the strategy along with the continued cult of the Great Leader.

The language of urban warfare and civil war was spoken in Delhi and hate speeches made by lawmakers without any real apology from the nation’s pre-eminent party. This is because they do not see themselves as replacing any middle ground — as the BJP of the Va-jpayee era did — but in creating an en-tirely new ground and reality in India.

Besides, there is no one left in the na-tional BJP who can pull off the kind of deft positioning that is required when a party pushes a hard ideological agenda and then tries to pass it off as reason-able. In the past year, the more plausible pleasant faces of the BJP passed away. Sushma Swaraj would have watched her Ps and Qs while talking about other women, be they protesters or leaders; she even maintained excellent rela-tions with Sonia Gandhi although the two had contested an election against each other. Manohar Parrikar who man-

aged to peacefully rule Goa with a large Christian population without any social upheaval is gone too. The most signifi-cant is the passing away of Arun Jaitley who determined the media spin given to events and was brought out as a trouble-shooter when the script went haywire.

Half the second rung of the BJP has passed away while the other half has been rendered powerless. This includes Union minister Nitin Gadkari, former chief ministers Shivraj Chouhan and Raman Singh, who have all been cut to a size, smaller than their potential. What are left are the Big Two and yes-men and women, none of whom can muster the courage to speak up even if they thought errors were being made (and some do). And there are new entrants who are ab-solutely committed to this goli maaro tone and tenor without any pretense of being part of polite politics.

There is no turning back from the hard ideological line for the BJP. It’s also important to understand why Shaheen Bagh, the anti-CAA protest site in Delhi, that became a template for similar pro-tests across the country, was made the main election issue by the BJP. It upset the believer for a multiplicity of reasons that lie beyond the Delhi poll. Shaheen Bagh marks the resurrection of the power of the nation’s largest minority supported by the large percentage of In-dians who did not vote for the BJP.

IANS

BJP had nothing positive to offer at local level

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Thursday, May 14, 2020

OPED7A big constitutional crisis has hit the EU

By Andreas KluthYou might have been under the im-

pression that the European Union has quite enough problems to manage. For one thing, there’s a pandemic go-ing on, causing a recession and a debt crisis that might blow up the currency union.

For another, two member states, Po-land and Hungary, are undermining democracy and the rule of law and in-creasingly seeking conflict with Brus-sels. I’m not the only one who’s been wondering whether the EU has a future at all.

And now some red-robed judges in Karlsruhe, a city that most people have to google-map, have inadvertently made all these problems much more intractable by questioning the Europe-an Central Bank’s power to buy bonds for quantitative easing.

One effect of the shock verdict by Germany’s constitutional court last week is to hugely complicate the Bank’s efforts to keep the euro area’s economy alive.

Can a national court do that? And if so, what would stop other national courts from doing the same when-ever they don’t like what the EU says or does? These questions strike at the EU’s core dilemma: Where, ultimately, does sovereignty reside?

Reactions to the verdictHence two opposing reactions to the

verdict: The continent’s Europhiles are somewhere between aghast and dejected. Among them is Wolfgang Schaeuble, the eminence grise of Ger-man politics.

Currently president of parliament and thus Germany’s second-highest ranking official, he was formerly fi-nance minister and helped steer the euro region through its previous debt crisis. Now he worries that the Karl-sruhe verdict could threaten the euro area’s survival as a currency bloc and rob the whole EU of its legal authority.

The continent’s Eurosceptics, mean-while, are celebrating. Among them are the governments of Poland and Hungary. For years, they’ve been whit-tling away at the institutions of free and open societies as defined in the EU’s charters.

This month, Freedom House, an American think tank, said they no lon-ger even classify as full democracies because Poland “has been waging a war against the judiciary” and Hungary has “dropped any pretence of respect-ing democratic institutions.”

Case of Poland and HungaryWhat’s been slowing this Polish and

Hungarian descent, however, is the European Court of Justice, which has

been berating Poland in particular. So it’s hardly surprising that Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, wrote an enthusiastic letter to a Ger-man newspaper, praising the Karl-sruhe verdict as “one of the most im-portant judgements in the history” of the EU because it was a reminder that it’s member states which decide what the EU’s institutions may do, not the other way around.

Obviously, he feels that Poland now has carte blanche to ignore Luxem-bourg’s rulings too.

This is the height of cynicism, of course. The judges in Karlsruhe opined on whether or not an EU institution (the ECB) strayed beyond functions given to it in the EU’s treaties, and in the process disagreed with the inter-pretation of judges in Luxembourg. That’s awkward, but legitimate.

By contrast, the people in power in Warsaw are undermining the rule of law in their own country, in defiance of Luxembourg’s censure. These are completely different situations.

And yet, the cynics will be able to conflate the ECB case with the Pol-ish and Hungarian tangles enough to gum up the EU’s entire legal frame-work, in effect freezing reform plans while the uncertainty lasts. That’s why the European Commission, the

EU’s executive, cannot stand by idly. Its president, Ursula von der Leyen, who happens to be German, has now threatened to sue Germany over the verdict of its court.

“The final word on EU laws is always spoken in Luxembourg. Nowhere else,” she said this weekend, trying to sound tough and strict. And yet, she must know that an “infringement proceed-ing” by the EU against its largest and most powerful member state would drag on forever and stand little chance of success anyway.

The verdict of the German constitu-tional court thus spells terrible news for the EU. That’s not because it was legally unreasonable. Instead, it’s be-cause it shines a harsh spotlight on all the EU’s institutional and political shortcomings at the worst possible time, a global medical and economic emergency.

The EU’s long-term outlook was al-ready bad before the German judges began reading out their verdict. It’s even worse now.

Gulf News

By Francis WilkinsonJoe Biden is getting a lot of unsolic-

ited advice about a running mate. Here’s mine: Find yourself another Joe Biden.

When Barack Obama was cruising to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomina-tion in 2008, he chose someone who but-tressed his political weakness. Obama’s overriding political weakness wasn’t hard to pinpoint: He was a mixed-race intellec-tual whose father was from Kenya.

In the midst of economic collapse pre-sided over by a Republican incumbent,

any generic Democrat was poised to win in 2008. But there was nothing generic about Obama. Enter Regular Joe. Obama aides have said that the final veep choice came down to Indiana Senator Evan Bayh or Biden. Bayh was white, Midwestern, cautious, reserved, moderate. Regular Joe was better.

Comfort with BidenObama’s evident comfort with Biden,

and Biden’s with Obama, helped white voters find their own comfort with an un-precedented nominee. Bayh, a senator’s

son, lacked the middle-class emoting gene, and hard-times sheen, that Biden has in abundance.

Biden’s more hazily defined weakness-es will come into better focus after Re-publicans work through their arsenal and find a few attacks that stick, more or less. He starts out with not-so-great favour-able/unfavourable ratings — typically net negative by a couple points.

Meantime, Republicans are already at-tacking his age, 77, and in the primaries young Democratic voters invariably pre-ferred other candidates.

Despite Biden’s support among older black voters, Republicans are likely to re-peat their 2016 efforts to suppress black voter turnout; a black vote surge is far from guaranteed.

Finally, Biden has a wobbly left flank, the residue of rekindled left-wing ambi-tion and Senator Bernie Sanders’ persis-tent campaign against the party whose nomination he sought.

Which women — Biden has committed to pick a woman — help here?

Senator Elizabeth Warren might help close the enthusiasm gap on the left, and would make a vice president for the ages. But she soon turns 71, and would thus el-evate the age issue and raise uncomfort-able questions about the future.

A double-septuagenarian ticket might

be pushing its luck. (President Donald Trump turns 74 next month, while Vice President Mike Pence turns 61.)

Younger white contenders, such as 60-year-old Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or 48-year-old Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, are often pitched as regional firepower to win the upper Midwest. Maybe. Each is popular in her home state. But neither provides the kind of cultural outreach that Biden provided for Obama.

They reinforce his strength with white moderates rather than buttressing his vulnerabilities. And in the upper US Mid-west, victory may well come down to black turnout in such places as Milwau-kee and Detroit.

Senator Kamala Harris of California and former Georgia legislator Stacey Abrams are more appealing in that vein. But Abrams, who was minority leader in the state House of Representatives, doesn’t meet the credential test.

On a strictly comparative basis, of course, that statement is absurd. The in-cumbent president shows no interest in the workings of government or issues of public policy, and never will.

But Biden’s age makes the credentials of his No. 2 more salient, and women typically need more credentials than men to meet a given (manufactured) political

threshold. Abrams, who has never held statewide office, falls short.

The No. 2 slotThat leaves Harris, who was California’s

attorney general before her current posi-tion. Harris’s presidential campaign was hugely disappointing. She seemed ideally suited to the Democratic electorate, but never won it over. The No. 2 slot entails different opportunities and demands, however.

The daughter of immigrants, a Jamai-can father and an Indian mother, Harris is a youthful and energetic 55 (if not quite as youthful and energetic as Warren’s 70). Some progressives don’t like her record as a prosecutor.

Another former state attorney general turned senator, Catherine Cortez Mas-to of Nevada, is also reportedly under consideration. But if Trump’s non-stop scapegoating of Mexican and Central American immigrants is not sufficient to turn out Hispanic voters, it’s hard to be-lieve a vice presidential candidate can do much more.

Meanwhile, Harris would elevate black women from the foundation of the party to one step short of its pinnacle. She’s also a sharp inquisitor who will likely be an effective attacker on the (presumably digital) campaign trail.

Gulf News

By Megan Craig My youngest daughter has told me

that Annabelle, her baby doll, might have the coronavirus. We talk about it as we take a daily walk up the road. She’s not sure yet whether it is diabe-tes or the virus. Annabelle’s symptoms vary, but she has not left the small cra-dle by the side of my daughter’s bed in days.

I have been told I can babysit for An-nabelle, but only if I promise to hold her gently and not give her candy. My daughter holds my hand as we walk. She wants to talk about her doll’s sick-ness every day. Not surprisingly, she’s not sure when or if Annabelle will get a test.

I ask whether she’s anxious about An-nabelle. She says not really. She thinks she will recover and maybe just need a shot. We walk on in the sloppy spring snow. The days are getting longer and the walks are getting longer, our con-versation looping like piles of old gar-den hose.

I have told her that her grandpa has cancer, a surprise to her. It’s not seri-ous, I say, and that sounds insane. I clarify that it’s the best form of cancer

one could possibly hope for — a highly inactive form of leukaemia. She is now nodding at me in the same way I nod-ded at her before.

We are walking along a path made of wood chips. It cuts through the forest along lines created by fallen oaks in a tornado that ripped through Connecti-cut in May of 2018. That spring I came to this same place and sat among the shattered trees.

Many of the trunks exploded eight or 10 feet up from the ground in the shape of splattered palms. Others lay prone in piles. Several split in the middle, leaving gaping shapes that framed the disaster like keyholes into a broken world. Now the area is clear and open and flooded with sun.

While we walk, I have to remind my daughter to keep moving. The faster she talks, the slower she goes. I am try-ing to listen to her, but half of my mind is thinking about other things.

Vying for attentionIf I am quiet for too long, she tugs at

my hand, pulling me back into conver-sation. It is hard to keep in focus the re-ality of her mittened fingers and the re-ality of the world at once, both of them

vying for my attention.Suddenly I am reminded of William

James’s essay “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings,” in which he writes about the difficulty of being present to another person’s life. James uses a Rob-ert Louis Stevenson story of young boys who form a secret club of “lantern bear-ers,” hiding small tin lanterns under their heavy coats as a secret emblem of participation.

From the outside they look just like anyone else hurrying by in the cold night. But when they meet one another, they lift the edge of their coats to reveal a hot burning light hanging from a belt loop. I have always loved the image of these kids hiding fire, their faces mo-mentarily illuminated to one another in lamplight, triumphant in their alle-giance to the game.

James was writing about how hard it is to see someone else’s inner light — the thing that keeps them illuminated in dark times — especially when we are fixated on our own lives. We pass one another, intent on ourselves and our own problems, never imagining the burning fire under the dark coat.

All is quiet in the woods except for

the clatter of a woodpecker somewhere nearby. As if answering the rhythm, bits of songs begin replaying in my head, linking together the inner life and the weak lights: the duo September 67: “you once called me a lantern “; Nick Drake: “The sun went down and the crowd went home, I was left by the roadside all alone, I turned to speak as they went by, but this was the time of no reply”; Leonard Cohen: “Hold on, hold on my brother, my sister hold on tight.

I’ve finally got my orders, and I’ll be marching through the morning, march-ing through the night, moving through the borders of my secret life.” I am in-advertently humming the tune when I hear her say, “Mom, stop it.”

Walking againWe are walking again, a little stiff and

grumpy, ready to be home. I am listen-ing to something about another baby doll. This one is named Zoe. She is hav-ing a birthday party later and I am in-vited. Annabelle is too sick to attend. We talk about the decorations and the cake.

Now we are picking up speed, dis-cussing the guest list and games, com-ing down the hill in the sharp wind.

To simply reply as if this is what mat-ters is the best I can do. It is her world and these are her tiny lights, her ba-bies tucked in their beds, the rocks and crystals in her fists, all of it fiercely real and important as the world seems to fall apart around us. Now we are pick-ing up speed, discussing the guest list and games, coming down the hill in the sharp wind. To simply reply as if this is what matters is the best I can do. It is her world and these are her tiny lights, her babies tucked in their beds, the rocks and crystals in her fists, all of it fiercely real and important as the world seems to fall apart around us.

Someday, if she finds herself in isola-tion and I am not there, she will have her own songs and some courage based in these walks and this circuitous make-believe (as good as any philosophy), a rhythm of talking and walking etched in her memory to repeat on her own, an inner life rich with voices and creatures and the remembered pressure of our hands. I hope so.

Her grip suddenly drops mine as she begins to run toward home. We are learning together how to be alone.

Gulf News

This woman can be Joe Biden’s Vice President

Our courage to be alone

Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 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

8internationalindian Horizonthursday, May 14, 2020

New York, May 13 (IANS) America's top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned on Tuesday that it would be a "bridge too far" to think that COVID19 treatment or vaccines would be ready in time for the Fall 2020 reopening of schools, urged everyone to be extremely careful with children and warned of "really serious" consequences if states lift stay-at-home orders too quickly, even as President Donald Trump pushes them to act against the backdrop of a free-falling economy.

Fauci, who is self-quarantining after a White House staffer tested positive for the virus, is one among four health experts who testified remotely to a Senate panel.

Besides Fauci, the other experts included FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- both in self-quarantine -- and Adm. Brett Giroir, from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The idea of having treatments available or a

vaccine to facilitate the reentry of students into the full term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far," Fauci said.

He explained that the drugs that have shown efficacy so far have been used on hospitalised patients and are not even close to being used as prophylaxis or treatment

for students."Even at the top speed

we're going, we don't see a vaccine, playing to the ability of individuals to get back to school, this term," Fauci said, putting an official stamp on the likely medical state of play this September.

Fauci urged Americans to "better be very careful particularly when it comes to children" because this cohort is now presenting with inflammatory symptoms very similar to Kawasaki Syndrome.

At this time, a total of 52 children in New York City have been diagnosed with an inflammatory syndrome possibly linked to COVID-19 and another 10 cases are pending, according to the latest official data. Of those 62 confirmed or

possible cases, 25 have tested positive for the coronavirus and another 22 had antibodies for the virus. Under attack from a Senator who said Fauci isn't the "end all" and that the US should go the Sweden way and open up schools, Fauci's response hinged on the theme that the world's best doctors still don't know enough about the virus. That, he said, should make us all even more careful with young populations.

Fauci's comments riffed on his own most repeated lines from White House briefings over the last two months. "There is no doubt", he said, "even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear."

CoViD: Fauci warns of 'really serious' consequences if US states rush to reopen Jerusalem, May 13

(IANS) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel on Wednesday to discuss the countrys plans to annex large segments of Palestinian territories, which is set to begin in July. The visit comes amid the coronavirus pandemic and will also see discussion on political tensions with Iran. Pompeo arrived with a small entourage and stepped off the plane sporting a face mask with the American flag, Efe news reported.

He travelled to Jerusalem to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz, both of whom are set to form a unity government

after three inconclusive elections.

Israel's state department said the visit was to discuss US and Israeli efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as regional security issues related to Iran's malign influence. "We will get the chance to talk about the Vision of Peace, we are now some months from the day that you came to Washington when President Trump announced that Vision of Peace when you were there," Pompeo said at a joint presser with Netanyahu shortly after landing.

"There remains work yet to do and we need to make progress on that, I am looking forward to it," he added.

The so-called Vision

of Peace is a roadmap for the region designed by the White House which accounts for Israel's primary requests, including US-backed plans to annex areas of the West Bank, but is rejected by the Palestinians.

"There is something else plaguing our region, which is unremitting Iranian aggression and terror and I want to express my appreciation of the strong position that the president and you and your administration put forward against Iran first by withdrawing from the dangerous Iran deal, second by taking head-on the masters of Iranian terror," Netanyahu said.

Mexico City, May 13 (IANS) Mexico has been in talks with the US and Canada to address common challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foreign Ministry has said.

"The dialogue has allowed the three countries to identify shared challenges and best practices to deal with the pandemic," said the Ministry in a

statement on Tuesday.According to

the statement, the weekly calls between Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs Julian Ventura and his US and Canadian counterparts, Stephen Biegun and Marta Morgan, have enabled the three countries to strengthen coordination for the repatriation of nationals from other

parts of the world, monitor channels for the delivery of essential medical supplies, and supervise border management, Xinhua news agency reported.

The trilateral exchange is part of the ongoing dialogue on issues such as economic and health cooperation, and transportation of people and essential goods, it said, adding that Mexico will continue to promote regional cooperation through institutional mechanisms. Mexico declared a national health emergency at the end of March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country has, to date, registered 36,327 cases and 3,573 deaths.

Pompeo visits israel to discuss West Bank annexation, iran

Mexico in talks with US, Canada to coordinate response to CoViD-19

Washington, May 13 (IANS) Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has said that it's "very, very unlikely" that he will run for US President again.

"I think the likelihood is very, very slim at that," Sanders said during a Washington Post Live event on Monday.

"I think next time around you'll see another progressive carrying the banner,"

he added. "I think it's very, very unlikely that I'll ever be running for President again."

The 78-year-old progressive made the comments several weeks after he ended his second presidential campaign, making former Vice President Joe Biden, a 77-year-old moderate political veteran, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Xinhua new

agency reported.Sanders expressed

hope that Biden, if elected, will look to the progressive wings of the Democratic Party for some cabinet picks.

"I hope very much that Joe will take a hard look at some of the leading progressives in this country ... what you need to bring into the Cabinet is not only people who have the progressive ideology, but people who have the experience of interacting with working class people who understand that now is the time to tell the billionaire class and 1 percent that this economy is going to change," the Senator said. Sanders first ran for President in the 2016 race but was defeated by Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nominating process.

Bernie Sanders says unlikely to run for US President again

Wuhan, May 13 (IANS) No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in central China's Hubei Province on Tuesday, the provincial health commission said on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the province had 598 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after six such cases were added and 14 released from quarantine Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

Six patients remained in

hospital in the province, with one in severe and one in critical condition.

A total of 283,260 close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the province had been tracked by Tuesday, 932 of whom were still under medical observation. By Tuesday, death toll from the virus in the province stood at 4,512, including 3,869 in Wuhan. Hubei had so far reported 68,134 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,339 in Wuhan.

China's Hubei reports no increase in CoViD-19 cases

Washington, May 13 (IANS) The US Supreme Court has heard arguments on whether President Donald Trump should be allowed to keep his financial records secret, in a major showdown over presidential powers.

Trump has refused to share documents that could shed light on his fortune and the work of his family company, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Two congressional committees and New York prosecutors demand the release of his tax returns and other information.

Trump's private lawyers argue he enjoys total immunity while in office.

A ruling is expected within weeks. Unlike other recent presidents, Trump has refused to release his tax returns and a decision

against him could result in his personal financial information becoming public in the campaign season.

Experts say the ruling will have far-reaching implications for the ability of Congress to scrutinise the activities of sitting presidents and of prosecutors to investigate them.

The judges heard the cases remotely because

of the coronavirus pandemic. The Supreme Court has a 5-4 conservative majority and includes two Trump appointees - Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

In the three cases, Trump's lawyers tried to block the subpoenas - orders to hand over evidence. Lower courts in Washington and New York ruled against the president in all cases, but

those decisions have been put on hold pending a final court ruling.

Two committees at the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives demanded financial records from two banks that did deals with Trump - Deutsche Bank and Capital One - as well as from Mazars, the president's accountants.

Deutsche Bank was one of the few banks willing to lend to Mr Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies in the 1990s, and the documents sought to include records related to the president, the Trump Organization and his family.

Trump's lawyers argued that Congress had no authority to issue the subpoenas, and no valid justification to seek the records.

US Supreme Court hears cases over trump's tax returnsSeoul, May 13 (IANS)

South Korea registered the largest year-on-year drop in the number of employed people in the country since 1999 due to the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, according to government data published Wednesday.

The number of people in employment in April stood at 26.56 million, which is 476,000 fewer than in the same month the previous year and the biggest drop since February 1999, when the country was absorbing the effects of the so-called Asian financial crisis, Efe

news reported.The unemployment

rate in the country rose 0.2 per cent compared to April 2019, to stand at 4.2 per cent, according to data published today by Statistics Korea.

In turn, the coronavirus has also hit the number of people with temporary contracts, for which 800,000 fewer were registered in April compared to last year.

By sector, wholesalers and retailers registered a year-on-year drop of 123,000 jobs, while in hospitality the cut was 212,000 jobs.

In contrast, the

number of hires in the agricultural and fisheries sector grew by 73,000, and in the health and social welfare sector by 77,000.

Also in April, the number of economically inactive people rose by 5.1 per cent to 16.99 million - the biggest hike since June 2000.

The workforce participation rate - the percentage of those aged 15 or older who are either employed or actively looking for work - also fell 1.6 percentage points to 62 per cent, the data

Beijing, May 13 (IANS) Chinese health authority said on Wednesday that it received reports of seven new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday, of which one was imported case reported in Shanghai.

The other six cases were domestically transmitted in Jilin Province, the National Health Commission said in its daily report, Xinhua news agency reported. One new suspected case which was domestically transmitted in Jilin was also reported. No deaths related to the disease were reported Tuesday on the mainland,

according to the commission.

On Tuesday, 18 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

As of Tuesday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 82,926, including 104 patients who were still being treated with 10 in severe conditions, and 78,189 people who had been discharged after recovery. Altogether 4,633 people had died of the disease, the commission said.

By Tuesday, the mainland had reported a total of 1,692 imported cases. Of the cases, 1,628 had been discharged

from hospitals after recovery, and 64 remained hospitalized with three in severe conditions. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported.

The commission said four people, including three from abroad, were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

According to the commission, 5,317 close contacts were still under medical observation after 455 people were discharged from medical observation Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, eight new asymptomatic cases including one from abroad were reported on the mainland.

South Korea registers largest drop in employment since 1999

Chinese mainland reports 7 new confirmed CoViD-19 cases

showed.Although there has

been no strict lockdown in South Korea, in April the authorities urged residents to maintain social distancing, which has affected consumption and corporate capital investment.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki called the April data "grave" and said that the number of layoffs could continue to increase in the coming months, reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

"Given grim outlooks on the global economy and uncertainties in virus containment situations, it is difficult to predict how long the dark tunnel of job markets will last," Hong

Kathmandu, May 13 (IANS) COVID-19 cases in Nepal crossed 200 mark after the Ministry of Health and Population has reported 83 new cases, in the largest single day spike in cases.

The Himalayan country reported 57 cases in the afternoon and additional 26 cases at night on Tuesday, increasing the total count of the COVID-19 to 217, Xinhua news agency reported.

With the rising number of cases in recent days, the COVID-19 cases in Nepal more than doubled in less than a week, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Population. Last Thursday, the COVID-19

cases in Nepal had reached 101, crossing the mark of 100. According to the ministry, among the new cases, 57 persons reside in southern Parsa district, nine live in south-western Rupandehi district and eight in the neighbouring Kapilvastu district. "Most of persons who are newly infected with novel coronavirus are those who were in quarantine after visiting India. Some are infected due to frequent movement within the country," Sameer Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population told Xinhua on Wednesday morning.

"Contact tracing of those who had contact

nepal's CoViD-19 cases cross 200 mark with largest

single day spikewith the newly infected people has begun."

According to the ministry, a health worker stationed at Taulihawa hospital in Kapilvastu has contracted with the novel coronavirus, which is the first case of a health worker being infected.

As the number of cases is rising sharply in recent days, Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday announced more stringent measures to discourage movement of people from one district to another by making it harder for people to get vehicle passes.

The Himalayan country has been enforcing a nationwide lockdown since March 24, suspending ground and air travels, closing borders for cross border movement of people, sitting down most businesses and industries.

United Nations, May 13 (IANS) United Nations S e c r e t a r y - G e n e r a l Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack on a hospital in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, which killed and wounded dozens of people.

"He reiterates that attacks against civilians are unacceptable and that hospitals, medical facilities and personnel have special protection under international humanitarian law. Those who carry out such crimes must be held accountable," according to a statement issued by

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres.

It added that the s e c r e t a r y - g e n e r a l is also following with concern the escalation of violence in the country, including the attacks that have claimed scores of lives in Balkh, Khost, and Nangarhar provinces, Xinhua news agency reported. "The United Nations stands in solidarity with the people and government of Afghanistan and remains committed to supporting an Afghan-led peace process that will end the conflict," it said.

Un chief condemns attack on hospital in afghanistan capital

9businessindian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

india's $45 billion Pe/VC deals in 2019 highest in 10 yearsMumbai, May 13 (IANS)

With more than 1,000 pri-vate equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) deals valued at $45 billion, the highest in the last decade, India continued to be the second largest deal market in Asia-Pacific in 2019, said a Bain & Company report on Wednesday.

In 2019, India saw an in-crease in the number of large deals greater than $100 mil-lion, a rise in their average deal size and a surge in VC investments, said the "India Private Equity Report 2020".

India's share of the Asia Pacific deal market increased to nearly 25 per cent in 2019 and investment value was

about 70 percent higher than 2018 and nearly 110 percent higher than the previous five-year average. The top 15 deals in India, which constituted more than 35 per cent of to-tal investment value in 2019,

five were in real estate; three in IT and IT-enabled services (ITES); and the rest across banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), tele-communications, energy and consumer technology.

However, exit value in 2019 decreased, finishing at nearly $13 billion, compared to $17 billion in 2018 (excluding Flipkart's exit), but was still the third-highest for the last decade, said the report. The dip over last year was driven by a decrease in the number of exits from 265 to 200.

With an unpredictable pub-lic market, strategic sales be-came the preferred mode of exit, accounting for about 50 per cent of exit volume.

According to Bain's analy-sis, India-focused dry pow-der will remain healthy, but a potential reduction in invest-ments could occur in the first half of of 2020, accompanied

by a price correction across the board due to COVID-19 disruptions. "From an invest-ment perspective, we will likely see a short-term dip in investment activity with Co-vid-19, as already evidenced globally," Arpan Sheth, Part-ner, Bain & Company and one of the lead authors of the re-port, said in a statement.

"However, this imminent price correction across the board will present an invest-ment opportunity. Investors need to triage their portfolio and take actions to adapt to the changes in the economy which includes taking imme-diate actions to ensure busi-ness continuity and plan.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Almost half of Indian consumers are more concerned about digital payments fraud now than when COVID-19 first emerged, said a survey on Wednesday.

Nearly one third have been recent victims of card or digital payments fraud or know someone among their immediate family or friends who has, said the study conducted by YouGov and US-based electronic payments company ACI Worldwide.

Vulnerability to fraud remains the biggest consumer concern when it comes to digital transactions (54 per cent), followed by risk of failed transactions (42 per cent).

Insufficient internet connectivity and concerns about data privacy were also cited as significant

concerns, by 38 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

When asked about digital payment fraud risks, fake apps and websites are the biggest, according to 52 per cent of respondents, followed by compromised p a s s w o r d / c r e d e n t i a l information (43 per cent) and spyware/malware (39 per cent).

Card cloning is the most common concern when

it comes to debit or credit card fraud, with 1 in 3 seeing this as the biggest risk.

Approximately 1 in 5 cited stolen/lost cards or eCommerce/mobile channel fraud as their top card fraud threat.

When using digital payment methods, 28 percent of respondents are also now exercising greater caution.

If impacted by fraud,

about 60 per cent of respondents would first call their bank to block their account, indicating that -- during this time of heightened awareness -- consumers consider their bank the first line of defence.

"The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic provides another opportunity for fraudsters to dupe unsuspecting consumers," Kaushik Roy, Vice President & Country Leader - South Asia, ACI Worldwide, said in a statement.

"However, it is encouraging that consumers are showing heightened awareness of digital payments fraud and a willingness to adapt behaviours," he added.

The online survey carried out between April 21-27 involved over 1,000 adults.

Digital payments fraud concerns up in india amid COViD-19 new Deal: in all 15 new, enhanced measures to revive economy, big takeaways for MsMes

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced 15 new and some enhanced measures to revive and support businesses, and workers under the mega stimulus package -- Self-Reliant India Movement -- which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last evening.

Sitharaman announced a slew of fiscal and regulatory measures for MSMEs, real estate, NBFCs, power distribution and general businesses. Attempts have also been made via these measures to decrease the regulatory burden on companies, while increasing the take-home pay of employees.

But the big takeaways were for the MSME sector which is considered to be the backbone of economic activity.

In terms of measures, the Centre has decided to give a new definition to MSMEs. This will denote the type of companies that will be

included in the sector.Accordingly, the investment

limit for defining MSMEs has been revised upwards.

Besides, she highlighted that additional criteria such as turnover has been considered for defining MSMEs. In terms of fiscal measures, the Minister announced that Rs 3 lakh crore "Collateral-free Automatic Loans" for businesses, including MSMEs, will be provided to meet operational liabilities built up, buy raw material and restart business.

She further announced another scheme worth Rs 20,000 crore for "Subordinate Debt for Stressed MSMEs".

A Rs 50,000 crore "Fund of Funds" for MEMEs which face severe shortage of equity was also announced. The Centre has also decided not to go in for global bidding for government procurement for tenders up to Rs 200 crore, thereby, promoting the participation of MSMEs, she said.

Furthermore, e-market linkage for MSMEs will be

provided and that the CPSEs will pay all receivables to MSMEs within 45 days. Besides, a Rs 30,000 crore special liquidity scheme for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), housing finance companies (HFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) was announced.

This scheme will provide investments in both primary and secondary market transactions in "investment grade debt paper of these institutions". The minister said that the scheme will support the previous initiatives of the government and the central bank to boost liquidity.

The securities under the scheme will be fully guaranteed by the Central government. Further, the FM has also announced Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guarantee scheme for NBFCs. Under the scheme, first 20 per cent loss will be borne by the Centre, and even unrated papers will be eligible for investment, enabling NBFCs.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic package, Essar Capital Director, Prashant Ruia has said that a big and befitting package also unleash new growth impulse across sectors.

In a tweet, the industrialist also congratulated the Prime Minister for turning the crisis situation into an opportunity for change in the approach and the impetus on economic activity. "Big & befitting package announced will not only be mega stimulus, it will unleash new growth impulse across all sectors. Congratulations

PM @narendramodi to look beyond covid crisis & turn calamity into an opportunity for reset & change. Now for all of us to respond & do our bit," Ruia tweeted. The government has received accolades for the the mega

stimulus package after the Prime Minister announced it on Tuesday evening.

Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday announced a massive financial package to revive, reform and make the country self-reliant,

while at the same time welcoming foreign capital and strengthening of supply chains. In a televised address to the nation, Modi talked about new infrastructure and rational tax systems for a quantum leap of growth.

Besides, the Prime Minister announced stimulus measures which will take the total amount announced by the Ministry of Finance and the RBI to a total of Rs 20 lakh crore or 10 per cent of the GDP.

According to the Prime Minister, it is now the time to make India self-sufficient in every way and every Indian should buy and promote local goods.

big, befitting package to unleash new growth impulse: Prashant Ruia

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced a Rs 30,000 crore special liquidity scheme for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), housing finance companies (HFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs). Speaking to the media here, Sitharaman noted that these finance institutions are finding it difficult to raise money in debt markets and many institutions have not been able to take advantage of the recent relaxations given by the government and the

Reserve Bank of India.Under the scheme,

investments will be made in both primary and secondary market transactions in investment grade debt paper of these institutions.

She said that the scheme will support the previous initiatives of the government and the central bank to boost liquidity.

The securities under the scheme will be fully guaranteed by the Central government.

As per the government, the scheme would provide liquidity support to mutual funds along with NBFCs,

HFCs and MFIs and create confidence in the market. Further, the government has also announced Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guarantee scheme for NBFCs.

Under the scheme, first 20 per cent loss will be borne by Cenre, and even unrated papers will be eligible for investment, enabling NBFCs to reach out even to MSMEs in far-flung areas.

The step has been taken as NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs with low credit rating require liquidity to do fresh lending to MSMEs and individuals.

Rs 30,000 cr special liquidity scheme for nbFCs, HFCs and MFis

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Enqui-ry-to-delivery trade enablement platform Tradologie, on Wednes-day, announced the launch of eight new product segments in the agri-culture and industrial goods trade to support the MSME sector. The platform, which facilitates bulk global trade of commodities by act-ing as a direct interface between actual buyers and sellers, will now offer raw cotton, meat, vegetables, in the agri-commodities segment along with launching its services for the industrial commodities seg-ment by introducing the bearing, hand tools, fasteners and power transmission product segments.

"With the addition of the new agri-based commodities, Tradolo-

gie expects to clock a year on year (YoY) growth in excess of 400 per cent, despite a COVID-impacted fi-nancial year," the company said in a statement. The company has also ventured in the industrial category with five new industrial product segments.

Highlighting the company's de-cision to venture into industrial goods, J.K. Arora, Founder and CEO of Tradologie, said: "MSMEs contribute 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of the exports of our country, making them the backbone of our economy. The sector produces quality products, which are valued higher than the Chinese alterna-tives currently available in the

global market. On the challenges posed by COVID-19, he said that there are challenges for interna-tional businesses wherein the ev-er-changing situation in countries is impacting the ability of buyers to effectively procure products from existing suppliers.

"The ban on travel in the fore-seeable future has created de-mand for digital platforms which are able to help buyers find in-ternational suppliers, as well as provide a safe and secure way to establish trade with such suppli-ers. Tradologie goes beyond tra-ditional B2B platforms and helps both buyers and sellers every step of the way to execute their trade," Arora said.

Visakhapatnam, May 13 (IANS) South Korean petrochemicals major LG Chem has sent an eight-member technical team from its Seoul headquarters to Visakhapatnam to investigate gas leak from LG Polymers India plant, which killed 12 and affected hundreds of others last week.

"An eight-member technical team from Seoul, led by the president of our petrochemicals company, has been dispatched to LG Polymers India. This team will work closely on-ground along with the authorities to resolve the situation and assist with real-time remedial and rehabilitation

measures," LG Polymers India, a unit of LG Chem, said in a statement here on Wednesday.

The team, comprising experts from production, environment, and safety areas, aims to investigate the cause of the incident and support responsible rehabilitation, the main objective of the task force, it said. The president, along with the dispatched team, would meet the victims and affected families to explain support measures and also hold meetings with the local government officials, it added.

LG Polymers India had earlier said it was working with the authorities to contain the damage

Tradologie launches new product segments to help MsMes

Bengaluru, May 13 (IANS) Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in combating the coronavirus battle, industry captains in the manufacturing and services sectors on Wednesday termed his Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package visionary.

"The prime minister's economic stimulus package is visionary, as it will bring relief to several stressed sectors and industries," said leading motorbike maker TVS Motor Company chairman Venu Srinivasan, in a statement here.

Welcoming the initiative, Srinivasan, however, said the federal government must prioritise micro, small and medium industries (MSMEs) and facilitate a direct benefit transfer to employees in unorganised and small scale sectors.

"The government should ensure credit backstop for the MSMEs so that they do not go into cash crunch when

the stimulus propels demand, which is key to drive the market as much as it is essential to infuse confidence in the economy for the people to come out and buy," asserted Srinivasan.

Echoing Srinivasan, leading diversified engineering firm Greaves Cotton's chief executive Nagesh Basavanhalli said the special package would revive the Covid battered economy as it focuses on 'Make in India' for achieving self-reliance and hard-selling products in domestic and overseas markets.

"The quantum of package has potential to jump start the manufacturing sector. Self reliance will insulate

the country from the impact of the Covid like situation. We are waiting for details in the print," said Basavanahalli in a statement here.

On Modi's new mantra 'Vocal for Local', the regional social media platform ShareChat's public policy director Berges Malu said there was no place better than India to be vocal about local, as this century would be India's, with dominance in the global digital economy.

"PM's call to make # A t m a n i r b h a r B h a r a t will play a major role in achieving self-reliance in all spheres of life, including the economy in the post-Covid times," said Malu in a

statement here. Pledging to contribute to Modi's call for promoting local brands, the director said the company would strive to realize the prime minister's dream of making India the global hub of supply chain.

Leading realtor Sobha vice-chairman J.C. Sharma said the mantra of self-reliance and make India 'atma nirbhar Bharat' would empower different sectors of the economy.

"The special package will focus on land, labour, liquidity and laws besides helping small businesses, migrant labour and farmers. The drive to make the country self-reliant by supporting local manufacturing and becoming vocal for local is commendable," said Sharma.

On the 5 pillars of India, Sharma said economy, infrastructure, t e c h n o l o g y - d r i v e n system, vibrant demography and demand would support the nation's mission in playing a major role in the global supply chain.

industry leaders term PM's stimulus package visionary

LG Chem sends team to probe Vizag gas leakand ensure the safety and health of local residents and employees. Venkatapuram and four other villages near the plant on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam were evacuated following the gas leak in the early hours of May 7.

District officials said styrene gas leaked from the plant a day after it revived operations after a 40-day gap due to the lockdown. Experts from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other agencies brought the situation under control by plugging the leak with special chemical PTBC, an anti-dote for styrene specially flown in from Gujarat.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) As coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown have brought a near standstill to economic activities, a TRA survey shows that people in the top management of businesses in India think that the Indian economy would take around 16.5 months to achieve economic normalcy.

N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, said: "The biggest concerns of corporate India are of global recession which is 66 per cent on the 'Worry Index', followed by India's inability to overcome the health crisis at 59 per cent."

He noted that three important factors -- business survival, India's bleak economic outlook and social unrest, all had a 'worry index' of 57 per cent, showing the many associated challenges that corporate India was grappling with at the moment.

"Considering the Covid impact, the highest was on revenues for the year at 75 per cent Impact Index, followed by advertising at 64 per cent impact, showing that the first cuts were in immediately controllable expenses, especially in the light of the negligible demand.

Corporates expect economic normalcy in nearly 17 months

10businessindian HorizonThursday, May 14, 2020

Gilead inks pact with 3 indian drugmakers to produce, sell RemdesivirNew Delhi, May 13

(IANS) US drug-maker Gilead Sciences has signed non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with three Indian pharmaceutical companies -- Mumbai-headquartered Cipla, Hyderabad-based Hetero Labs and Noida-based Jubilant Life Sciences -- who will manufacture and sell the anti-viral drug to treat severe COVID-19 patients.

Gilead's Remdesivir has received emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Two other drug manufacturers -- US-based Mylan which has a strong base in India and a Pakistan-based Ferozsons Laboratories --

have also signed licensing agreements with Gilead, which negotiated long-term voluntary licenses with several generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan to produce Remdesivir for developing countries.

Gilead would provide technology transfers to the five drug manufacturers to facilitate the production.

Hetero which has been working with the ICMR for necessary approvals, said Remdesivir would be manufactured at its

formulation facility in Hyderabad.

As part of the agreement, Cipla will be permitted to manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and finished product, and market it in 127 countries, including India and South Africa under Cipla's own brand name.

"At Cipla, it is our continuous endeavour to ensure that no patient is denied access to life-saving treatments. Our partnership with Gilead represents this

unwavering commitment and is a significant step towards saving millions of lives impacted by the pandemic," Umang Vohra, MD and Global CEO, Cipla Limited, said in a statement.

"As the world is faced with the COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative that we collaborate and fight this virus together. We are pleased to partner with Gilead for this cause and take this treatment to patients across countries after the required regulatory approvals," Vohra added.

Cipla will receive the manufacturing know-how from Gilead Sciences to manufacture the drug at a commercial scale.

The Health Ministry recently said that it is examining Remdesivir, which was used during the Ebola outbreak, as one

protocol in the treatment for Covid-19 in the country.

In a statement, Jubilant whose subsidiary Jubilant Generics Ltd inked a pact with Gilead Sciences, said they are very happy to strengthen its partnership with the US giant to license remdesivir, "which, based on initial data, shows promise to be a potential therapy for COVID-19, a pandemic creating unprecedented health and economic crisis globally".

"We will be monitoring the clinical trials and regulatory approvals very closely and would be ready to launch the drug shortly after the required regulatory approvals. We also plan to produce the drug's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) in-house helping its cost effectiveness and consistent availability.

Airtel Africa's Jan-Mar net profit down 12% at $77 mn

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Airtel Africa on Wednesday reported a 12.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) fall in its net profit for the January-March quarter of the financial year 2020-21 at $77 million. During the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the Bharti Airtel's subsidiary had reported a net profit of $88 million.

In a statement, the company said that it recorded a total revenue of $899 million during the period under review, 15.1 per cent higher than $781 million earned during the fourth quarter

of FY 2019-20.It said that by the end of the FY

2019-20, its customer base stood at 110.6 million, higher by 11.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Airtel Africa's revenue in FY 2019-20 increased by 11.2 per cent to $3,422 million, said the statement.

Its net debt was $3,247 million compared to $4,005 million in March 2019. The $758 million reduction in net debt is due to an increase in cash of $680 million from the IPO proceeds and a $122 million proceeds from cancellation of derivatives.

United Nations, May 13 (IANS) The UN on Tuesday slashed India's economic growth projection for the current fiscal year to 1.2 per cent, which would still be the second-highest growth rate among major economies, trailing only China.

The mid-year World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) update expects India's rate of gross domestic growth to increase to 5.5 per cent in the next fiscal year.

The growth rate for the world ravaged by Covid-19 is projected to shrink by 3.2 per cent this year, with the developed countries bearing the brunt with their economic growth

dropping by 5 per cent, according to the update.

The 1.2 per cent estimate for India for the current year is a drastic Covid-19-fuelled cut from the 6.6 per cent made in January made by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

China is expected to grow by 1.7 per cent this year and increase its rate to 7.6 per cent next year.

The WESP update reduced India's growth rate for the last fiscal year to 4.1 per cent from the 5.7 per cent estimated in January.

The UN projection for the current fiscal year is less than the 1.9 per cent made by the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) last month.

The UN expects South Asia's economies overall to shrink by 0.6 per cent during the current year.

The UN update said, "The global economy is expected to lose nearly $8.5 trillion in output over the next two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, wiping out nearly all gains of the previous four years.

The sharp economic contraction, which marks the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression in the 1930s, comes on top of anaemic economic forecasts of only 2.1 per cent at the start of the year."

un slashes india's growth rate to 1.2% for 2020-21

Thiruvananthapuram, May 13 (IANS) Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac has termed the economic package announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday as disappointing.

"With the world trade going haywire, it appears the Centre is trying to create a 'self-reliant India'. I do not think that this package will help the

country. Moreover, things are not clear on what the states can look forward to," said the economist Kerala Finance Minister. "It's disappointing as nothing is there for the workers. Moreover, details have to come in," added Issac.

C.P. John, a former State Planning Board member and a key think tank of the Congress-led UDF, however welcomed the measures announced by the Union Finance Minister.

"It's heartening to note that a detailed analysis has been done while coming to the aid of the MSME sector and it's a very good move. What appears to have been missed out is some sort of sops to the employees as many have lost on salaries and rent," said John.

Centre's financial package is disappointing: Kerala FM

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) A day after announcing the mega Rs 20 lakh crore economic package, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday is busy with another important assignment. Modi will be holding a meeting of a high-powered group of secretaries on COVID-19 to discuss modalities ahead of Lockdown4.0 which will begin on May 18.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday, PM Modi said that for Lockdown4.0 entirely new norms would be set up.

He said that before May 18, the norms would be made public. Sources said that the government is focussing primarily on restarting the industries especially the small and medium enterprises.

The empowered committee would soon redefine a new set of rules for the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown. Inputs from various Chief Ministers would also be considered before releasing the new norms.

The Modi government has set up 11 empowered groups for ensuring a comprehensive and integrated response to the Covid-19 pandemic. These groups have been set up under Disaster Management Act.

According to officials in the know, each group has a senior representative from the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat to ensure seamless coordination. The groups have been empowered to formulate plans and to take all steps for their time-bound implementation.

Lockdown4.0: PM to hold meeting to discuss modalities

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has come out with 15 new and some enhanced measures to revive businesses, and support workers via fiscal incentives and regulatory easing under the mega stimulus package -- Self-Reliant India Movement -- which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, Sitharaman announced a slew of fiscal and regulatory measures for MSMEs, real estate, NBFCs, power distribution and general businesses. She attempted to decrease the regulatory burden on companies, while increasing the take-home pay of employees via these measures. In terms of takeaways, the biggest were for the MSME sector which is considered to be the backbone of economic activity. As a major reform measure for the sector, the Centre has decided to give a new definition to MSMEs.

This will denote the type of companies that will be included in the sector. Specifications wise, the investment limit for

defining MSMEs has been revised upwards.

Besides, she highlighted that additional criteria such as turnover have been considered for defining MSMEs. In terms of fiscal measures, the minister announced that Rs 3 lakh crore "collateral-free automatic loans" for businesses, including MSMEs, will be provided to meet operational liabilities built up, buy raw material and restart business.

She announced another scheme worth Rs 20,000 crore for "subordinate debt for stressed MSMEs". A Rs 50,000 crore ‘Fund of Funds'

for MEMEs, which face severe shortage of equity, was also announced. The Centre has also decided not to go in for global bidding for government procurement for tenders up to Rs 200 crore, thereby, promoting the participation of MSMEs, she said.

Furthermore, e-market linkage for MSMEs will be provided and the CPSEs will pay all receivables to MSMEs within 45 days. Besides MSMEs, a Rs 30,000 crore special liquidity scheme for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), housing finance companies (HFCs) and micro-

finance institutions (MFIs) was also announced.

This scheme will provide investments in both primary and secondary market transactions in "investment grade debt paper of these institutions".The minister said the scheme will support the previous initiatives of the government and the central bank to boost liquidity.

The securities under the scheme will be fully guaranteed by the Central government. Further, the FM has also announced Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guarantee scheme for NBFCs. Under this measure, first 20 per cent loss will be borne by the Centre, and even unrated papers will be eligible for investment, enabling NBFCs to reach out even to MSMEs in far-flung areas. Additionally, a Rs 90,000 crore liquidity injection plan was announced for the financially stressed power distribution companies.

This plan will allow these entities to clear their dues towards power generation companies.

15 measures to revive economy, big takeaways for MsMes, nbFCsChandigarh, May 13 (IANS) Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Wednesday expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing a financial package of Rs 20 lakh crore for giving impetus to industrial growth, especially small, micro and medium enterprises (MSMEs), closed due to the nationwide lockdown.

The announcement is sure to rejuvenate the GDP after the second quarter of fiscal year 2020-21, he said in a statement.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the charge of the Department of Industry and Commerce, said MSMEs are the backbone of a country or a state's economy and the package announced by the Prime Minister would serve as a booster dose for industrial growth.

He said following the guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry to revive these industries in a phased manner during

the lockdown, most of the industries in the state had become operational.

He said in the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown which is expected to start from May 17 the government's priority would be that small, micro and medium enterprises start their operations and production as before.

He said it is mandatory for workers to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones and to follow the social distancing norms, including the use of masks, sanitization, etc.

Chautala said the MSME entrepreneurs should pay their workers salaries for the lockdown period, for which Haryana has taken

an important decision according to which the interest benefit will be granted to MSMEs for six months on working capital loan for paying salaries to their workers up to Rs 20,000 per worker.

Haryana is the first state in the country to do so, he added.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that the state has set up a bank grievance information centre in the Finance Department for quick resolution of all the issues related to MSMEs and the decision to give state guarantee for bank loans to MSMEs has already been taken.

Chautala said state's new Enterprises Promotion Policy - 2020 is proposed to be prepared by August, for which suggestions will be taken from all stakeholders so that Haryana can formulate the country's most industry and business friendly policy. The lockdown period will also be taken into consideration in the new industrial policy, he added.

Centre's package gives impetus to MsMes: Haryana Deputy CM

San Francisco, May 13 (IANS) Ride-hailing app Uber has laid off nearly 3,700 employees or about 14 per cent of its workforce via multiple Zoom calls and each call lasted less than three-minutes, with a common message: "Today will be your last working day with Uber".

Last week, Uber Technologies announced to lay off some 3,700 full-time employees, in a move to reduce operating expenses in response to the economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the company's business.

In video footage obtained by Daily Mail, a company manager said: "Today will be your last working day with Uber," as he informed some of the axed customer-support employees.

"Right now, the rides business is down by more than half due to COVID-19. The difficult and unfortunate reality is there is not enough work for many front-line customer-support employees," Ruffin Chaveleau, head of Uber's Phoenix Center of Excellence, told the employees.

In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission

(SEC), Uber said due to lower trip volumes in its rides segment and the company's current hiring freeze, it is reducing its customer support and recruiting teams by approximately 3,700 full-time employee roles.

"With the reality of our rides trips volumes being down significantly, our need for communication operations as well as in-person support is down substantially. And with our hiring freeze, there simply isn't enough work for recruiters," the company's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a letter to staff.

Khosrowshahi also reached an agreement

with Uber's Board of Directors, effective May 2, to waive his base salary for the remainder of the year ending December 31, 2020.

An Uber spokesperson told FOX Business this week: "It's never easy or uncomplicated to let employees go, and that's only been more true during this unprecedented period, where we are all working from home across dozens of cities and countries".

"We've focused on providing the clearest, most empathetic experience, possible and have put together a strong severance package and other benefits."

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) India is making a pitch for attracting Japanese companies in the post Covid-19 scenario after the Japanese government announced incentives for its companies to move out of China.

Invest India has prepared a paper on "Why is India the best place for Japanese investments in the post Covid-19 world" authored by Devika Chawla, Strategic Investment Research Unit, and Seerat Kohli, Japan Plus, Invest India.

The paper has also been put up on the Twitter handle and Facebook page of the

Indian embassy in Japan.Invest India is a non-

profit venture under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India and acts as the first point of reference for investors in India.

The paper argues that there is widespread uncertainty about China's future global role and trade practices.

It examines the recent announcements by the Japanese government offering massive incentives to their

companies to move out of China and argues why Japan should look towards India as the foremost destination for diversifying its supply chains away from China.

The implications of this package will be wide and far-reaching, both in terms of geopolitics as well as economics. Specifically, the decision to promote relocation of Japanese companies away from China, its largest trading partner, indicates a growing consensus in Japan to move its supply chains back to the country, or to other preferable countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and

India.It points out that China

has been rapidly losing its attractiveness among Japanese countries for a while now, an example of which can be seen from the fact that about 159 Japanese companies operating in China have relocated to comparable countries like Vietnam and Thailand.

"Such diversification and shifting of Japanese firms away from China is estimated to create a $730 billion economic opportunity for developing geographies like ASEAN and India. "The ongoing COVID-19 crisis presents a golden opportunity for India.

uber lays off 3,700 workers over 3-minute long Zoom calls

india pitches for Japanese companies as they move out of China

Sports Indian HorizonThursday, May 14, 202011

Mumbai, May 13 (IANS) Tennis sensation Sania Mirza is not a morning person, and she has let that fact come out in the open with a funny video that has left her fans in splits.

Sania posted a video on popular social media platform TikTok where the 33-year old is seen enacting a part where she has to ask a person why he is running at 7 AM in the morning, and if he is being chased. On reply that he is running on purpose, Sania looks at the camera and says “7 in the morning!”

Sania captioned her post: “Nope .. not a morning person.”Sania became the first Indian to win the Fed Cup Heart Award earlier this week. Sania was the nominee for the award from the Asia/Oceania Zone alongwith Indonesia’s Priska Madelyn Nugroho.

Along with the award, she also received a cheque for $2,000 to be donated to a charity and she opted to help with relief during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

After giving birth to her son Izhaan in October 2018, Sania returned to the court in January this year. She clinched the women’s doubles title at Hobart International, pairing up with Nadiia Kichenok, in her comeback competition.

Sania had earlier also posted a picture with Izhaan. Sania has been at home since the beginning of the ongoing lockdown in the country.

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee on Wednesday decided to implement the 3+1 foreigners’ rule in the starting XI of teams playing in the I-League from 2020-21 season itself.

As far as the Indian Super League (ISL) is concerned, a statement from AIFF said “FSDL will work with the AIFF and will present a plan to the Executive Committee on the way forward for foreign players in the next couple of months. This plan would come into effect after the 2020-21 season.”The AIFF also said that as per requests from various I-League clubs,

the committee decided to implement the foreigners rule like it is in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) guidelines which are followed in their club competitions.The AIFF’s technical committee had recommended the reduction of foreigners from both the leagues last week.“Adhering to requests from the various I-League clubs, the committee unanimously decided to implement the 3 (foreigners) + 1 (Asian) recruit rule for Hero I-League matches from 2020-21 season itself.,” the statement read.The executive committee also felt that as per the AFC regulation of clubs needing to play minimum 27 matches for them to gain eligibility to play in the AFC Champions League, clubs playing in the ISL need to play more matches not just to adhere to the guidelines, but also for the holistic development of players, and Indian football.

Lahore, May 13 (IANS) Azhar Ali has been retained as Pakistan Test skipper while Babar Azam has been appointed to lead the national team in both ODIs and T20 internationals in the 2020-21 season.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) made the announcement while disclosing the list of centrally contracted players on Wednesday.

Babar replaces wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed at the helm which was expected after the latter was axed from the team across formats following his poor form with the bat.

Azhar so far has witnessed a mixed bag of results in his short captaincy career, which includes a 0-2 loss in Australia, followed by a 1-0 win over Sri Lanka at home and a comprehensive victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test at Rawalpindi before the series was called off because of the coronavirus

pandemic.“I want to congratulate Azhar Ali and Babar Azam for getting captaincy extensions.

This is absolutely the right decision as they also require certainty and clarity on their future roles,” chief selector and Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said as per a PCB media release.

“I am sure they will now start looking to the future and start planning so that they can build sides that can perform at the expected levels,” he added.

Pakistan are scheduled to play two T20Is in Ireland in July and after that they are slated to travel to England to play three Tests and as many T20Is.

However, a decision on the England tour will be made by mid-June amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, PCB chief executive Wasim Khan has said.The officials of both the PCB and England and Wales Cricket Board will be having an online meeting on Friday.

NOT A MORNING PERSON: SANIA SHARES FUNNY

VIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Azhar to lead Pak in Tests, Babar named captain for

ODIs & T20Is

Sydney, May 13 (IANS) Former India coach Greg Chappell said that MS Dhoni is the most powerful batsman he has ever seen.

Chappell was coach of the Indian team for two controversy-riddled years between 2005 and 2007 in which he clashed with several senior members of the team, especially then-captain and current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly.

His time, however, was also known for the rise of several younger players in the squad including Dhoni and Suresh

Raina.“I vividly remember that I was left awestruck when I saw him batting for the first time. He was definitely the most exciting cricketer in India at that time.

He used to hit the ball from the most unusual positions. He is the most powerful batsman I have ever seen,” said Chappell during a chat session on the Facebook handle of the Playwrite Foundation.

“I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary’. We were

chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting innings to the one he had played just a couple of days before.

“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six,” he said.In latter years, Dhoni would become one of the most successful captains of all time, leading India to the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup titles. He would also become known for the efficiency

with which he managed to successfully finish run-chases with his innings structured in the manner Chappell spoke about.

“I always used to challenge him if he could finish the game. There used to be a booming smile on his face, whenever he used to score the winning runs. He is definitely the best finisher the game has ever seen,” said Chappell.Dhoni last played for India during the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. He was slated to lead Chennai Super Kings in the 13th IPL edition which currently stands indefinitely suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic.

MS DHONI MOST POWERFUL BATSMAN I HAVE EVER SEEN : GREG CHAPPELL

ODI RULES & SURFACES BOTH NEED TO BE LOOKED INTO, SAYS TENDULKARNew Delhi, May 13 (IANS)

Legendary India batsman Sachin Tendulkar has once again said that the current ODI rules need to be looked into as many believe it is more titled towards the batters.

In contemporary times, an ODI inning is played with two new white-balls from each end. When it comes to field restrictions, each inning is divided into three powerplays.

In the first powerplay from overs 1-10, only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle. In the next 30 overs, i.e. from 11-40, four fielders are allowed and in the last 10 overs, five fielders are allowed outside

the 30-yard circle.On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had reminded the fans about the great Indian duo of Tendulkar and Sourav

Ganguly with a fact that they both stitched together 176 ODI partnerships throughout the course of their careers and scored 8227 runs at an average

of 47.55.The ‘Master Blaster’ had taken note of the stats and said they would have probably scored more runs had the current rules applied during their playing days.

“This brings back wonderful memories Dadi. How many more do you think we would’ve been able to score with the restriction of four fielders outside the ring and two new balls?” tweeted Tendulkar.Ganguly was quick to respond to Tendulkar and said: “Another 4000 or so...2 new balls...wow...sounds like a cover drive flying to the boundary in the first over of the game...for the remaining 50

overs.”Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh suggested that ICC should amend the laws.

“At least few more thousands runs easily...such a bad rule this is...need few bowlers in ICC to keep the balance right between bat and ball...and games become more competitive when team scores 260/270 now days everyone scoring 320/30 plus and getting chased as well often,” Harbhajan wrote while replying on Tendulkar’s tweet.

Replying to this, Tendulkar on Wednesday said: “Couldn’t agree with you more Bhajji! Even I feel the rules and surfaces both need to be looked into.”

London, May 13 (IANS) Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber has called for Championship sides to be not promoted to the Premier League if the football season is not completed in both divisions.

“In my opinion, it needs to be settled on the pitch, not off the pitch,” he told Sky Sports on The Football Show.

“A big question we have around restarting is, it’s fine if we restart and three teams get relegated. We look at it as though we’re only six points off 16th rather than being adrift. But if we do (go down), that’s fine, because that’s where football should

be played. Football should be played on a pitch and not in the boardroom.“But the Championship has to restart

and play all their games also. What we could not accept is a situation where we play out all our games, get relegated

but then the Championship can’t play -- because we don’t even know if the government are going to let them play -- and then they automatically promote some teams who haven’t finished the season.

“It’s a bit like saying, we can’t complete the FA Cup, but we’re in the quarter-finals, we’ve beaten a Championship top-six team away, we’ve beaten two Premier League teams away, so does that mean we win the FA Cup then and qualify for Europe and we all get a medal, because the level of games we played were harder than the other teams left in the quarter-finals?

No promotion for Championship teams if season not finished, says Norwich

RONALDO IS PERFECT BUT I PICK MESSI, SAYS KLOPP

Liverpool, May 13 (IANS) Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp recently had his say on the age-old debate as to which footballer is better between Argentina maestro Lionel Messi and Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

Over the years, the two have broken multiple scoring records and set new ones and have set unbelievable standards for others to follow.

Klopp, who has come up against these two many-a-times with Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, stated he finds Messi a notch higher than Ronaldo.

“For me Messi, but I couldn’t admire Ronaldo more than I do already. The explanation is the following. We’ve played against both already and both are almost impossible to defend. But Messi has much lower physical requirements from birth on,” Klopp told freekickerz in a video uploaded on their YouTube channel.“If

you could paint yourself a perfect player, it would have Ronaldo’s height, he could jump and run as high or quick as Ronaldo can do.

“And what is then even added to that is his total attitude, it is absolutely perfect and professional, it couldn’t be any better,” the 2019-20 Champions League winning coach added.

“And on the other side there is the small Messi who makes everything look so simple. And therefore I like him maybe a little bit more as a player on the pitch,” he added.Messi currently holds the record for most number of Ballon d’Or titles with six to his name while Ronaldo has won the crown five times.

NEW FOREIGNERS’ RULE IN I LEAGUE FROM

SEASON

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The road ahead for India men’s and women’s hockey teams were discussed among other topics in the special congress held via video conference on Wednesday, Hockey India (HI) said in a statement.HI engaged it’s executive board members and state member units in discussions to pave the way forward and re-start the sport at state and national level following the COVID-19 pandemic.The Congress was also joined by special invitee Narinder Batra, President, Indian Olympic Association (IOA).While Hockey India high performance director David John highlighted

the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on preparations for the Tokyo Olympics Games and expressed that a detailed SOP has been submitted to SAI in April for all national athletes, a calendar of matches and tournaments has been planned for all four teams (senior and junior) for 2021.Currently, the senior men’s team have 10 FIH Hockey Pro League matches to be played to fulfill their commitments from the 2020 season. Apart from two matches versus New Zealand in India, the remaining 8 matches are scheduled to be played in Germany, Great Britain, Argentina and Spain.

INDIAN TEAMS’ PREPARATIONS FOR OLY DISCUSSED IN HI MEETING

Thursday - May 14, 2020

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Email: indianhorizon2010@gmail.com feedbackhorizon@gmail.com

Actor Vidyut Jammwal couldn't stop praising his "great friend" and "Com-

mando 3" co-star Adah Sharma on her birthday on Monday.

"Happy birthday @adah_sharma To the girl who is kind,Grounded,Endearing,Super talented,Beautiful ,Truly a great friend And also the girl who can Throat-Punch if she needs to #Ka-laripayattu," Vidyut tweeted.

Meanwhile, Adah Sharma has posted a "Corona Birthday special on my offi cial YouTube channel".

Vidyut has been quite vo-cal about their friendship.Last month, a Twitter user had asked Vidyut: "Are you and Adah are

'just friends'?"Vidyut had re-sponded saying: "'Just friends' not at all ..we are courageous, kind,intuitive, focused, great-ful, open minded, unassuming, considerate, sharing, Educated, happy, calm, quite and BEST FRIENDS.. I wish upon you some-one like u @adah_sharma."

She Replaied : Thank u @Vidyut-Jammwal!! I'm lucky my best friend also happens to be the best martial artist in the world.

IANS

VIDYUT HAS SWEET BIRTHDAY WISH FOR 'GREAT FRIEND' ADAH

VARUN DHAWAN IS IN A 'LOVE LOCKDOWN'

KAREENA KAPOOR KHAN FINDS EYESHADOW 'TOO MAINSTREAM'

Varun Dhawan is in a "love lockdown"!The young actor took to In-

stagram on Monday to share a black-and-white photo of him, which he captioned: "Love lockdown".

Varun's post left netizens wondering whether the ac-tor is loving the lockdown or whether he is spending his lockdown days with someone he loves!

Commenting on his post, a fan expressed: "And we love you!"Another fan com-mented: "This pic is such a lockdown mood!"

Another fan asked: "What has lockdown taught you on a personal front?"

Actress Akansha Ranjan Kapoor tried to clear ev-erybody's confusion. The "Guilty" actress shared that Varun Dhawan is perhaps "Trying to make everyone's lockdown a love lockdown"!

Meanwhile, singer-actress Sophie Choudry invited Va-run Dhawan to participate in her show. Sophie wrote: "Oi! That's the name of my show! Now you have to come on it."

IANS

SUNNY LEONE GETS A GUSHING BIRTHDAY MESSAGE FROM HUBBY

Sunny Leone fl ew away to the US with her family a while back, because she felt she and

her children would be safer there than in India amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The family must have settled down in the lap of safety, what with Sunny celebrating her 39th birth-day on Wednesday.

Her husband Daniel Weber took to social media to wish Sunny. He shared a photograph of her on In-stagram and gushed in the accom-panying note:

"Happy birthday baby! You are so much in life and I wish everyday I can tell you everything that comes to my mind! You are the greatest wife, mother and lover! An inspira-tion to millions and a role model! Iconic!"

Referring to her past as a porn star, before she came to India to take a shot at Bollywood, Daniel wrote: "You have never cared what

anyone has ever thought and took your own path in life even when the

road was less traveled! Be proud of yourself and all you have achieved

all while staying so humble! I love you so much!! Xoxo! Love you baby love!"Sunny was born Karenjit Kaur Vohra to Sikh parents of Indian ori-gin on May 13, 1981.

She shot to limelight when she participated in the fi fth season of the reality show "Bigg Boss" in 2011-12, which paved the way for her Bollywood journey.

The actress took to Instagram to share a video thanking fans and wellwishers for their birthday wish-es. "Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes everyone!! I am so lucky you are all a part of my life," she expressed.

Sunny along with Daniel and their children Nisha, Noah and Asher fl ew off to Los Angeles amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The actress took to Instagram to state that she feels her kids would be safer there against the "invisible killer" coronavirus.

IANS

SHAHID KAPOOR 'NERVOUS' ABOUT

WORKING WITH DAD PANKAJ KAPUR IN

'JERSEY'

It's never been easy for actor Shahid Kapoor to work

with his father, the veteran actor Pankaj Kapur. While conduct-ing an interactive session on Twitter, Shahid revealed that he "still gets nervous sharing the frame with him".

The father-son duo will be seen in the sports drama "Jersey", after having earlier worked together in "Mausam" (2011) and "Shaandaar" (2015).

"Jersey" is a Hindi remake of the 2019 Telugu hit of the same name. The story is about a talented but failed cricketer named Arjun, who decides to make a comeback in his late thirties and play for India, in order to fulfi l his son's wish.

Shahid also spoke about "Jersey" on a Twitter chat with his fans. He said: "Just trying our best to make a good fi lm. But I am very happy with whatever we have done so far. Really enjoying the journey and the team."

Apart from talking about his projects, Shahid shared how he is sharing the work-

load of household chores amid lock-down.

When a user asked him if he is doing "bartan", "khana" and "kapde" (utensils, cooking and washing) during the lockdown, Shahid responded: "Mera department bartan ka hai (the utensils are my de-partment)."

IANS

THE LOCKDOWN MOVIEMAKERS: SHOOT AT HOME IS THE NEW FAD

The COVID-19 lock-down has forced clo-sure of fi lm studios as

well as outdoor shooting, but that has not stopped an enthusiastic bunch of fi lm-makers from making fi lms! Shooting at home amid lockdown is the latest trend in B-Town!The format could be anything -- short or feature-length fi lm, a lim-ited series, or a music video -- but the key to fi lmmaking

has to be the fact that every-thing is done within a single house, from pre-production to post-production.It's not just budding or struggling fi lmmakers who are at it. When Salman Khan shot an entire music video with Jacqueline Fernandez at his Panvel farmhouse -- where he quarantined himself -- the signal was loud and clear. In the time of social distancing, Bollywood loves

the idea, too!The song, titled "Tere bina", was shot over four days, and it is his "cheapest production" till date, revealed Salman. The actor has shared that he has learnt a lot while shooting during the lockdown. "It's a learning experience that three people can very eas-ily shoot a song. We didn't need any make-up artist, hair stylist," he said.Actor Vatsal Sheth turned direc-

tor with a short fi lm, which he has entirely shot at home during the ongoing lock-down. The fi lm, "Kahaa Toh Tha", running over six min-utes, stars the actor with his wife Ishita Dutta, and explores love in the times of quarantine."I was having a chat with a friend of mine and I was telling him how much I miss shooting and the regular schedule.

IANS

Actress and fashion diva Kareena Kapoor Khan says she fi nds eyeshadow

too mainstream.Kareena took to Instagram, where she shared a no-makeup look of herself sit-ting in the sun.

"Because eye-shadow is too mainstream!" she captioned the image, which currently has 534K likes on the photo-sharing website.Kareena's best friend Amrita Arora commented on the picture: "Hahahahhahahah.

"Designer Manish Mal-hotra wrote: "You are just very beautiful."On Mother's Day, Kareena shared an adorable image with her son Taimur Ali Khan on the website.She had captioned the image: "This pretty much sums up mother's day and well... every other day with Tim."On the acting front,

Kareena, who was last seen on screen in "Angrezi Medium" starring actor Irrfan Khan, will next be seen in the Aamir Khan-starrer in "Laal Singh Chad-dha", which is an offi cial Hindi remake of the Hollywood fi lm "Forrest Gump".

Kareena spoke about her social media activity in an interview. She said, “I can’t be dressed in couture all the time. And, I do have days when my hair is out of place. The thing is, I want to be as real as possible and be dressed in what makes me comfortable. I can’t sit dressed up all day. It gets to me that people are look-ing at what I’m wearing all the time and scrutinising it. There are times when I just want to chill in a simple set of clothes and feel like myself, keep my hair tied or loose and just let things be.”

Anushka Sharma has delivered a message to people who have

been abandoning their pets in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.On Instagram Stories, the Bollywood actress shared a forwarded message that has a picture which shows a couple of men walking down the road under the scorching, with one of them carrying a puppy and a duck."These migrant workers are walk-ing on the Mumbai Nasik Highway along with their belongings. So next time when you think to give up your pet who you 'loved like your own child' just remember this picture,"

goes the caption.Anushka Sharma is known to be an animal lover. Her pet dog Bruno died earlier this month. Lockdown giving

you a tough time? Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli's quarantine diaries might inspire you to add some fun in your routine.

ANUSHKA SHARMA'S MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE ABANDONING PETS AMID COVID PANDEMIC

TOM CRUISE DETERMINED TO SHOOT IN ITALY ONCE NORMALCY RETURNS

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is looking for-ward to getting back

to Venice to finish shooting of "Mission: Impossible 7" as soon as the restrictions im-posed due to the coronavirus pandemic eases.

According to a source to The Sun, the 57-year-old will not change the location, and is determined to com-plete shoot in Venice, re-ports dailymail.co.uk."Tom is refusing to film anywhere

else as he wants to pump his millions back into one of the worst-hit areas of COVID-19 to help it recover," said the source.

"Film bosses had attempt-ed to find an alternative location but he was hav-ing none of it. It's a really thoughtful gesture and no doubt it will be welcomed by the people of Venice…Parks, factories and building sites are reopening so the chiefs at 'Mission: Impossible' and

Tom reckon it won't be long for them to restart filming," added the source.Back in February, Cruise had to stay in a luxury hotel in Venice when the film shot got in a limbo with lockdown orders amid the spread of the con-tagious disease.

After the disruption, people were assuming that Cruise would relocate the shoot to Buckinghamshire's Pinewood Studios.Earlier this year, in an interview to

BBC Radio 6, his co-star Si-mon Pegg said: "(We're) not in Venice, that's where I'm supposed to be. Paramount were very cautious and sen-sible I think and pulled the production out of Venice.

It's a big group of people, we were shooting carnival sequences and it was just un-wise to remain so we bugged out. I think it would be in-delicate to complain about anything other than the fact that there was a lot of disrup-

tion for everyone.""Mission: Impossible 7", which is be-ing helmed by filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie, was slated to release on July 23, 2021. The release has been impacted due to the pan-demic. Now, it will open on November 19, 2021.

TOP GUN 2 star Val Kilmer has teased a "moving" re-union between his Iceman and Tom Cruise's Maverick in the upcoming sequel.

IANS