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Indian HorizonRNI NO:DELENG/2013/51507

Published from Hyderabad & New Delhi

RAHUL’S TRACTOR RALLY STOPPED BRIEFLY

ON HARYANA BORDER, LATER ALLOWED

P-5 P-11P-9

SHOULDN’T HAVE CALLED TRUMP A

CLOWN, SAYS BIDEN

ROHITSHARMAJUST 86SHORT OF 4,000 RUNS

FOR MI

Chennai, Oct 6 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sith-araman on Tuesday said the minimum support price (MSP) will continue and will not be withdrawn, while contend-ing that for a long time, it had brought in distortion in the cropping pattern across the country. She also said before bringing in the three new farm laws, the Central government had held extensive discussions with the farmers’ bodies across the country.

The three farm laws -- the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Fa-cilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 -- were passed by the Parliament last month and have received the President’s assent.

Addressing the media here, Sitharaman said though MSP was there for several products, the focus was more on paddy and wheat and their MSPs were revised upwards every year.

This resulted in a distortion in cropping with farmers, who were growing pulses, millets and oil seeds, shifted to paddy and wheat, resulting in edible oil having to be imported, she added. Sitharaman said it was in 2014, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the MSP for other crops. Terming the three farm

laws beneficial for the farmers, she said that they have opened up market access to the farmers, giving them more chances and choices. “When the corporates and the farmers arrive at an ac-ceptable price, then the con-sumers too would benefit,” she added. The Finance Minister also said earlier, farmers were paying about 8 to 8.5 per cent as taxes in different forms, includ-ing market charges, and now they have the option not to pay that. Criticising the Congress, Sitharaman said the opposition party had promised in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto to abolish the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and allow the farmers to sell their produce anywhere. She won-dered whether Congress cheat-ed its voters who had believed in its promise and voted for it. “Is this responsible politics,” she asked. According to her.

Market has been opened up for farmers, MSP will continue: FM

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The GST Council will meet again on October 12 to discuss and try to reach a consensus be-tween state governments and the Centre on the borrowing options for GST compensa-tion, Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman said.

The decision taken to meet again in October was sug-gested by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Sushil Modi, after the Coun-cil’s Monday meet failed to break the deadlock between the Centre and the state gov-ernments on the issue of com-pensation.

Addressing a press confer-ence after the meet, Sithara-man said that only because 20 states accepted Option 1, does not mean that it can be thrust upon others. “We need to talk further.” In a

sober tone, she said: “I was gently reminded that I can not take anybody for grant-ed... Although I don’t take anybody for granted.”

Earlier at the 41st meet-ing of the GST Council, the Centre had proposed two op-tions to state governments to cover the compensation gap and meet their expenditure requirements amidst the Co-

vid-19 disruption. The first option given by the

Centre is to provide a special borrowing window to states, in consultation with the Re-serve Bank of India, to provide Rs 97,000 crore at a “reason-able” interest rate.

The debt, along with ac-crued interest, can then be repaid to the states after five years from collection of cess.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) A Delhi court on Tuesday convicted Min-ister of State (MoS) for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Dilip Ray, and five others in a coal block allocation case, noting that they conspired together, beyond all reasonable doubt, to procure allocation of the coal block. The

case pertains to the allocation of 105.153 hectares of non-nation-alized and abandoned coal min-ing area in Jharkhand’s Giridih district to Castron Technologies Limited by the 14th Screening Committee of the Ministry of Coal in 1999. Besides Ray, two former senior officials of the Ministry of Coal -- Pradip Kumar Banerjee, the then Additional Secretary and Nitya Nand Gautam, former advisor (Projects), Castron Tech-nologies Limited and its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Limited. have also been found guilty. Special Judge Bharat Parashar of Rouse Avenue Court concluded that it is “beyond shadows of all reason-able doubts.

Tokyo, Oct 6 (IANS): U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that China’s increasingly asser-tive actions across the region make it more critical then ever for the four Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad to cooperate to protect their partners and their people from Chinese “exploitation, corruption and coercion.” Pompeo made the remark at a meeting in Tokyo with the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia, who to-gether make up the Quad. The talks were the group’s first in-person since the coro-navirus pandemic began.

Pompeo accused China of covering up the pandem-ic and worsening it, while threatening freedom, de-mocracy and diversity in the

region with its increasingly assertive actions. “It is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,” Pompeo said. “We see in the East and South China Seas. The Mekong,

the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait. These are just a few examples.”

The talks come less than a month before the U.S. presidential election and amid tensions between the Washington and Beijing over the virus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and hu-

man rights. They follow a recent flareup in tensions between China and India over their disputed Hima-layan border, while rela-tions between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months. Japan, meanwhile, is concerned about China’s claim to the

Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea. Japan also considers China’s growing military activity to be a security threat. Japan’s annual defense policy paper in July accused China of uni-laterally changing the status quo in the South China Sea, where it has built and milita-rized manmade islands and is assertively pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways. Amidst the Chinese aggres-sion, External Affairs Minis-ter S. Jaishankar at the ‘Quad’ consultations in Tokyo on Tuesday reiterated that India was committed to the shared vision of the US, Japan and Australia for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. In his opening remarks.

GST Council to meet again over compensation plan

Ex-Union Minister convicted in Jharkhand

coal scam case

INDIA, US, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN DISCUSS CHINA’S GROWING POWER

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the National Clinical Management Pro-tocol based on Ayurvada on Yoga, calling it "commend-able".

"Commendable effort, which places emphasis on building immunity, remain-ing healthy and making the fight against COVID-19 stron-ger," he tweeted. Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Ayurveda and Yoga are being tried for immunity purposes.

The National Clinical Man-agement Protocol based was released jointly by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Ayush Ministry Shripad Naik on Tuesday, virtually.

Earlier, Harsh Vardhan said that experts and other na-tional research organisations have prepared the Protocol for management of Covid-19

as per the Report & Recom-mendations of the Interdisci-plinary Committee which will further strengthen our fight against Covid-19.

Naik said AYUSH Ministry had set up an Interdisciplin-ary AYUSH Research and De-velopment Task Force with a group of senior experts to for-mulate and develop strategies for this initiative.

He said that the Ministry of AYUSH has undertaken many clinical, observational stud-ies to understand the role of AYUSH intervention in miti-gation and management of Covid-19. This brings in uni-

formity and consistency in the Ayush-based responses to the pandemic across the country. It also helps State and UT governments to plan and incorporate these solu-tions into the Covid-19 man-agement activities being de-ployed on the ground. India on Tuesday reported 61,267 fresh infections of the novel coronavirus, taking the case tally to 66,85,082, health of-ficials said. This is the lowest daily spike since August.

Though the cases are in-creasing, the recovery rate is 84.34 per cent in India which is less than Chile that has over 92 per cent cure rate, while the US that tops the Covid-19 cases in the world has around 33 per cent recovery rate. The fatality rate has come down to 1.55 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Covid: PM calls Ayurveda & Yoga-based protocol 'commendable'

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Pakistan is setting up surface-to-air missile sites with the help of Chi-na in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), officials with the knowledge of the matter said on condi-tion of anonymity.

The Chinese and Paki-stan armies are reconnoi-tering the areas along the disputed India-Pakistan border to set up additional military infrastructure. Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhad-auria, had said on Monday that Pakistan and China have increased their bilat-eral exercises in the recent past. “There is nothing to suggest collusive threat,” he said on Monday during an annual press confer-ence in Delhi and added that India is keeping a close

watch. The Indian military has for long flagged the threat of two-front war. With the disputed borders with China and Pakistan active at the same point of time, the armed forces are stretched to the maximum.

A top official said: “Chi-nese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops were also seen in joint recon-naissance in forward ar-eas at Deolian and Jura in PoK along with Pakistan’s 12 infantry brigade as well as the Minimarg-based forces under Force Com-mander Northern Areas (FCNA), the division size formation of the Pakistan Army.” The official said that construction work for installation of surface-to-air missile defence system is being carried out by the Pakistan Army.

Pak, China building new missile sites along

western border

India reports 61,267 new Covid cases

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) India on Tuesday re-ported 61,267 fresh infections of the novel Coro-navirus, taking the case tally to 66,85,082, health officials said. This is the lowest daily spike since August. Though the cases are increasing, the re-covery rate is 84.34 per cent in India which is less that Chile that has over 92 per cent cure rate, while US that tops the Covid-19 cases in the world has around 33 per cent recovery rate. The fata lity rate has come down to 1.55 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Of the 20 worst affected nations, India has the lowest mortality rate, while Mexico has the highest of 10.4 per cent and the UK next at 8.8 per cent, according to Johns Hopkins University. Out of the total cases, 9,19,023 are currently active, 56,62,490 have been discharged, while 1,03,569 lost the battle against the viral disease. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 14,53,653 cases, includ-ing 38,347 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 10,89,403 sample tests in a single day on Monday.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Temperatures at critical mountain peaks and passes in the Himalayas along the disputed India-China bor-der have dropped to minus 20 Degrees Celsius, pre-senting a fresh challenge to the thousands of troops de-ployed on both sides.

Senior military personnel from India and China are ex-pected to meet on October 12 for the seventh time to discuss de-escalation along the unmarked border in eastern Ladakh.

All previous talks, how-ever, have failed, dashing hopes of an early disengage-ment. To add to the woes, for more than a month, sol-

diers are perched on peaks rising to 17000 ft because a turn-around of all troops is yet to happen owing to the arduous terrain and tough logistics. On August 29, in a sudden stealth operation carried out mostly under the cover of darkness, India occupied critical heights

and mountain passes along the South Bank of the Pan-gong Tso - a glacial lake at 16,000 ft. "Only food and water are being reached to these points," said a senior official. The six-month-long border dispute between nu-clear-armed nations is now turning into a test of endur-

ance and logistics as both sides have dug in.

Soldiers holding on the peaks for more than a month include those from the Spe-cial Frontier Force (SFF) - a special force comprising Ti-betan refugees raised after the India-China war of 1962. China, too, has deployed troops a few metres away from Indian position on the heights. The SFF troops are holding 13 critical heights which were never held in the 1962 war and do not even have basic shelter. "No temporary structures have been built at these heights. There are no roads or infra-structure on these heights," added the official.

As consensus fails, Indian, Chinese soldiers battle minus 20 degree temperatures

CITY Indian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 20202

IPL betting module busted in Delhi, 6 nabbedNew Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) An

IPL cricket betting module has been busted by Delhi Police and six persons have been ar-rested from Maidan Garhi in south Delhi.

Laptops, mobiles phones and over Rs 1 lakh used as stake money have been recovered af-ter a police team raided Rajpur Khurd village near Shiv Gorakh Mandir in south Delhi in an enclosed premises in which a property dealer’s office was also situated.

On October 5, information was received by Delhi Police Special Staff that some people were running a betting module on an Indian Premier League match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Ben-galuru, in the area of Rajpur

Khurd. A raiding party was im-mediately constituted and a raid was organised at the prem-ises where the betting was tak-ing place at around 9:40 pm.

“In the lawn, six persons were found sitting having a laptop in which entry regarding bets

were being maintained. In one mobile phone, a live cricket match was being telecast and on other phone, rates of bets were being announced,” said Atul Thakur, DCP South Delhi.

A case under section 4/5 Public Gambling Act at Maidan

Garhi police station has been registered.

The accused have been iden-tified as Gaurav Sejwal, Sahil Luthra, Mohit Dagar, Hemant Dalal and Sanjay Rathi.

“Interrogation of accused persons is on,” the officer add-ed. Earlier in September, the Delhi Police had arrested two gamblers involved in a betting on an IPL match and a case of gambling was registered at Punjabi Bagh police station of west Delhi.

In another case, at least three persons were arrested from Indirapuram in Ghazi-abad for IPL betting after the police raided their premises in September and seized laptops, mobile phones and a car from their possession.

Anti-stubble liquid spray for Delhi farms from October 11New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The

Delhi government on Tues-day started preparing a liquid solution for spraying over the 700-hectare farm fields in the national capital to curb stubble burning. The spraying of this solution will start from Octo-ber 11.

The Delhi government will provide the mixture and the entire spraying system to the farmers free of cost.

The process of preparing the solution goes on for nearly sev-en days. The Delhi government said it has started the work and nearly 1,200 farmers who want to adopt this technique have registered. It will start spray-ing solutions on the farm lands of the registered farmers soon, the Delhi government added.

Chief Minister Arvind Ke-jriwal earlier on Tuesday vis-ited Kharkhari Nahar village to review the bio-decomposer process, under which capsules

produced by Pusa Agricultural Institute are mixed with read-ily available inputs to create a fermented liquid solution for spraying on the farm fields.

Kejriwal said the entire cost of creating the liquid solution for spraying on 700-hectare farm fields in Delhi is just Rs 20 lakh.

“I hope this will prove to be an effective alternative for the neighbouring states as well,” added the Delhi Chief Minister.

“Today (Tuesday) onwards, the Delhi government has started the process of prepar-ing this solution under the guidance of Pusa Research In-stitute and will be starting the process of spraying it on the fields across Delhi from Octo-ber 11.”

Kejriwal also met farmers and scientists to discuss the working and efficacy of the process. Addressing the media, Kejriwal said,”The harvesting

of paddy leaves behind hard stubble on the farm fields. One of the main issues faced by farmers was to get rid of the stubble on the farm fields ow-ing to the less time between the harvesting and sowing season of the crops.”

The farmers would resort to stubble burning due to which the healthy bacteria on the farm fields would be damaged. The smoke came as a health hazard for the farmers and their families and people liv-ing in those villages and would cover entire north India with haze.

“As per the statement by Delhi government, the stubble burning in the city is signifi-cantly less than in the neigh-bouring states. The stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and other states, however, contributes nearly 45 per cent to air pollution in Delhi,” it said.

Delhi man sentenced to death for 2009 murder of 11-year-old boy

CJI: Will smoke from stubble burning kill Coronavirus?

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) A Delhi court on Tuesday sen-tenced a convict to death for kidnapping and brutally murdering an 11-year-old boy in 2009, saying the crime fell under the ‘rarest of the rare’ category. The parents of the minor broke down after the order was pronounced in the open court in Rohini.

Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand said: “I am of the considered opinion that the act of the convict was cruel and gruesome while committing the murder of an innocent child, who was hardly 12 years of age. For

such an act, the convict does not deserve any leniency and the life imprisonment is highly inadequate. So, there is no alternative but to im-pose the death sentence.”

“Considering the totality of the aggravating and miti-gating circumstances, I am of the considered opinion that this case falls in the cat-egory of rarest of rare cases, which warrants death sen-tence,” the court added.

The court also ordered life imprisonment for kid-napping, seven years for disappearance of evidence and another seven years for

criminal intimidation.Jeevek Nagpal was ear-

lier held guilty under Sec-tions 364 (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (murder), 201 (disappearance of evidence), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. On March 18, 2009, the mi-nor was kidnapped by his neighbour Jeevek Nagpal, who later sent messages to the boy’s father for ransom. Nagpal also threatened that in case the ransom demand was not met, the child would be killed.

Nagpal later murdered the boy by hitting him with a car jack lever and smothering him. He later threw the body into a drain.The counsel for the complainant, Prashant Diwan, told the court that there was no remorse in the convict as even after murder-ing the child, he was sending SMSes to the boy’s father.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Pointing out that a large num-ber of cases were pending against sitting and former MPs and MLAs, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said one of the rea-sons for the situation was that police did not at times enforce laws under pressure from the lawmakers.

The observation was made by a bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, while hearing a PIL filed by BJP leader Ash-wini Kumar Upadhyay to seek speedy disposal of criminal cases pending against mem-bers of Parliament and mem-bers of the Legislative Assem-blies.

The bench also asked Solici-tor General Tushar Mehta, rep-resenting the Centre, that the

Union government should take a call on the speedy disposal of these cases.

The bench noted that the High Courts have also asked for videoconferencing facilities for the speedy disposal of pending cases. The bench asked Mehta to take instructions from au-thorities concerned on the is-sue of financing in the matter.

In response, Mehta said that the funding for videoconfer-ence facility would not be an issue and suggested that the top court issue directions to the Director General of Police in each state to ensure timely summonses.

The bench, after a brief hear-ing in the matter, adjourned it for next week and noted that in the meanwhile, the High Courts could send their recom-

mendations and action plans to the officials concerned.

A report filed by Senior Ad-vocate Vijay Hansaria in the apex court said that 4,859 cases were pending against sitting and former lawmakers, denot-ing a jump of over 400 cases since March when it was 4,442.

“Some High Courts have sought directions for the con-duct of trials through video-conferences, where the ac-cused/witnesses are in another district/state, without the re-

quirement of physical presence of the accused/witnesses,” said the report.

The report also gave a de-tailed break-up of cases pend-ing against sitting and former lawmakers in all the states. As many as 1,374 cases are pend-ing in Uttar Pradesh, followed by 557 in Bihar.

The report said that all High Courts have favoured the es-tablishment of safe and secure ‘Witness Examination Rooms’ with videoconference facility.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The BJP on Tuesday criti-cised the atrocities on Dalits “anywhere in India, regard-less of whoever is in power”.

Answering to a question put forward by a reporter, the party’s newly appointed General secretary Dushyant Gautam also slammed the opposition for their selec-tive outrage based on “vote banks”.

“If Dalits, poor, workers or

a daughter is raped or mur-dered in the country, it’s a pathetic crime, regardless of whoever is in power,” said Gautam.

He added that there have been four “incidents” after the horrific killing and al-leged gang-rape of a Dalit girl in Hathras -- in Kerala, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Gautam said he was “hurt” at the “pick and

choose” policy over the outrage based on the party in power. “When people go there thinking whether they will get the vote of one community, it is to create a divide in the country and to weave a conspiracy,” Gau-tam alleged. He also hit out at RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav for an alleged conversation in hushed voice caught by the microphone where Ya-dav could be heard talking about keeping a moment’s silence seemingly aimed at garnering Dalit votes.

Gautam claimed that the NDA will do well in Bihar, saying 85 per cent Indians, including opposition lead-ers, favoured Narendra Modi. He also termed the recent killing of a BJP worker in West Bengal as “murder of democracy”.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Delhi traffic police has cautioned commuters to avoid Ashram Chowk to-wards Bhogal on Mathura Road during night hours be-tween 10 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. from Tuesday to Thursday.

“Construction of under-pass is going on at Ashram Chowk.

Due to leakage of water on Mathura Road, a portion of the road is slowly sinking causing uneven potholes which hinder the smooth flow of traffic.

This problem is endemic

on Mathura Road between Ashram Chowk and Bhogal flyover,” a senior traffic po-lice officer said.

According to Delhi traffic police, in order to prevent further deterioration of the road, Delhi Jal Board will

be carrying out emergency repairs from Tuesday to Thursday.

“Due to ongoing work of Delhi Jal Board, from 10.00 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. traffic will not be allowed from Ash-ram Chowk towards Bhogal on Mathura Road. Besides, commercial vehicles and buses would be diverted from CRRI onto Modi Mill flyover.

They will take a u-turn from below Kalkaji flyover, take Capt Gaur Marg, Ring Road to cross Ashram fly-over,” the officer added.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday wanted to know whether the smoke produced from stubble burning could kill the novel Coronavirus as cases in India inched closer to 67 lakh while 1,03,569 lost the battle against the pandemic.

Chief Justice S.A. Bobde asked the question during a hearing of a PIL against the seasonal stub-ble burning exercise in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. “Will the smoke kill the Corona-virus?” Chief Justice Bobde said.

The smoke would not kill the coronavirus, but it would cer-tainly worsen the situation and contribute towards its spread, said senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing the peti-tioners citing scientific study.

The PIL has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Punjab and Haryana governments to ban stubble burning, which usually takes place between Septem-ber and December every year, in the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Singh, represented a law stu-dent Aman Banka and a Class 12 student Aditya Dubey.

Amicus Curiae senior advo-cate Aparajita Singh submitted before the court that states have failed to act as per their assur-ances to take measures to con-tain stubble burning.

The Chief Justice asked Singh to give the court the name of the experts on the stubble burning matter. “Need some impartial people,” noted the bench.

The top court also asked Singh why the court was moved when the stubble burning issue is around the corner, instead he should have moved the apex court much earlier.

Singh submitted that his cli-ents have come across NASA images, which show stubble burning fires at many places.

The PIL said it is on record that stubble burning contrib-utes almost 40 per cent of air pollution in Delhi and cited the Harvard University study that air pollution may now be an im-portant factor that aggravates a mild Covid infection into an acute one.

The petitioners also cited an-other study at Louisiana State University, which found that increased air pollution can of-

fer a direct pathway for airborne transmission of Covid-19.

“Thus, any increase in the air pollution levels of Delhi-NCR this year while the Covid-19 pandemic is spiralling out of control, will exponentially in-crease the mortality rates due to Covid-19, comprising the respiratory system of the citi-zens, more so in case of senior citizens and children,” said the plea. The petitioners argued that the consequences of allow-ing any stubble burning to take place amid the ongoing pan-demic may be catastrophic.

The plea contended that the top court has already seized the matter and issued many direc-tions earlier for taking long term measures for controlling air pol-lution in Delhi.

Oppositions outrage based on ‘vote bank’: BJP Gen Secy

Night traffic at Ashram Chowk to be affected due to repair work

Police at times doesn’t enforce laws under lawmakers’ pressure: SC

Medanta E-clinic inauguration at Star Imaging & Path Lab to help the patients for timely consultation from the

Expert Physician timely in New Delhi.

CITYIndian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020 3

Delhi HC refuses to stay Ashok Arora’s suspension as SCBA secy

IPL mania in Covid times: No office cheers, juggling meetings and matches

Delhi govt to prepare bio-decomposer for crop

stubble: All you need to know

Health Ministry guidelines: No festive events in containment zones

Civil defence volunteer stabbed to death: Delhi Cops

Two sisters harassed, their PSO beaten up by men in car, three arrested: Delhi Police

ED arrests Cox & Kings CFO, internal auditor in

Yes Bank case

Delhi past peak of 2nd COVID-19 wave: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi: No enforcement drive for high security number plates and colour-coded fuel stickers till further orders

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the suspension of Ashok Arora from the post of Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Asso-ciation (SCBA).

“No prima facie case is made out,” said a single-judge bench of the high court presided by Justice Mukta Gupta while pronouncing the order.

The court was hearing a suit filed by Arora seeking to stay the resolution passed by the Executive Committee of the SCBA.

In May this year, the Execu-tive Committee (EC) of the

Supreme Court Bar Associa-tion suspended its Secretary Arora with immediate effect in a meeting held through an online conference.

The decision to suspend

him was taken by the EC a day after Arora had called an emergent general meeting (EGM) of the lawyers’ body on May 11 to deliberate on the removal of senior advo-

cate Dushyant Dave from the post of SCBA President.

The EGM was cancelled by the EC and a three-member panel has been set up to ex-amine the allegations leveled against Arora, said a senior official of the SCBA.

The decision of the EC to suspend Arora was taken by the majority, and Dave ab-stained from voting.

The friction emerged among the top office-bearers in the SCBA over the state-ment made by Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra on February 22, prais-ing Prime Minister Narendra

Modi at the International Ju-dicial Conference 2020.

On February 25, Dave had issued a “resolution”, alleg-edly signed by several mem-bers of the SCBA expressing anguish over Justice Mishra’s statements.

Arora had claimed that no resolution was passed, as he did not sign the statement re-leased to the media.

“The SCBA believes that the independence of the judicia-ry is the basic structure under the Constitution of India and that such independence be preserved in letter and spir-it,” said the resolution.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) : The Health Ministry on Tues-day issued the standard op-erating procedures (SOP) on preventive measures to con-tain the spread of Coronavirus during ensuing festivities and urged people in containment zones, and vulnerable popula-tions to celebrate festivals at their homes.

“Festive events shall be permitted only outside the Containment Zones. Organ-isers, staff and visitors from Containment Zones shall not be permitted. People resid-ing inside Containment Zones

may be encouraged to observe all festivals inside their homes and not move out,” the minis-try added.

It said that the festivals, fairs, rallies, exhibitions, cultural functions, processions and concerts associated with the

festivities are mass events and advised the administrative re-quirement such as identifica-tion of spatial boundaries and preparation of a detailed site plan in compliance with ther-mal screening, physical dis-tancing, sanitisation etc.

“In case of events that run for days or weeks, the crowd density doesn’t remain the same throughout and usually peaks around certain hours of the day and some previ-ously known auspicious days. Planning for the event should specifically factor this so that crowds are regulated and managed to ensure physical distance and frequent saniti-sation,” the guidelines added.

In case of rallies and immer-sion processions, the number of people should not exceed the prescribed limit and prop-er physical distancing and

wearing of masks must be en-sured. In any case, the number of such rallies and the distance covered by them may be kept within manageable limits.

The Health Ministry said that the events such as rallies, and processions spread over long distances would require support of ambulance ser-vices.

Events planned to last for many days or weeks such as exhibitions, fairs, puja pan-dals, Ramlila pandals or con-certs and plays should have adequate measures to ensure a cap on physical numbers.

A 24-year-old civil defence volunteer was stabbed to death, allegedly by two persons, while trying to resist a snatching bid at Central Delhi’s GB Road on Sunday night. An FIR has been registered but no arrest has been made so far.

Police said the victim was

identified as Aman, a resident of New Ashok Nagar, who worked as a civil defence vol-unteer in East Delhi’s Dallu-pura.

“Aman, along with his friends Aniruddh, Hari Om and Raju, were in the area around 12.30 pm when an unknown man ap-

proached them and snatched Aman’s phone. Aman raised an alarm and he caught hold of the snatcher and started beating him up. In the meantime, the snatcher’s accomplice stabbed Aman in the back and when Aniruddh tried to stop him, he was stabbed on the shoulder

and arm,” a senior police offi-cer said.

Both men were taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where Aman was declared dead on arrival, while Aniruddh, who works as a water pump op-erator in Noida, is undergoing treatment. “We received infor-

mation at 1.54 am from RML hospital through our duty con-stable,” DCP (Central) Sanjay Bhatia said.

A case was registered at Ka-mla Market police station and an investigation is underway. Police have found footage of the accused from a CCTV camera.

New Delhi, Oct 6, Return-ing home to Noida in their SUV from their grandmoth-er’s house in Meerut, two young women were alleg-edly followed by three men in a car, who allegedly made obscene gestures at them, abused them, and beat up their personal security of-ficer (PSO). The incident took place on the night of October 3. A case has been registered at Sihani Gate po-lice station, and the accused — 25-year-olds Rajat, Shub-

ham and Romik — have been arrested, said SHO, Sihani Gate, Krishna Gopal Sharma. Their car, a Renault Duster, has been seized.

The complainants are sisters in their 30s and run their own businesses. They are daughters of a former bureaucrat and are also related to a BJP MLA, who said, “The matter was im-mediately reported to po-lice. They were driving back to Noida at the time.”

The FIR quotes one of

them as saying, “The men were driving rashly, they overtook our vehicle and tried to stop us. Two of them made obscene gestures, abused us…” She wrote in the complaint that the men kept chasing the car due to which she started speeding as she felt “threatened and scared”. “They started driv-ing next to us and making a video. When we realised they were taking our pho-tos, our PSO rolled down the window to tell them

not to do so… They abused him,” she alleged.

As per the FIR, they stopped near a car show-room on Meerut Road where a traffic policeman was standing. “I told the PSO to complain against the men to the traffic personnel. When he was returning, the accused abused and beat him up,” said the woman.

A case under IPC sections 279 (rash driving), 354 (as-sault to woman with intent

to outrage modesty), 354-C (voyeurism), 323 (causing hurt), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to pro-voke breach of peace) has been registered, said the

SHO. In the FIR, the woman claimed the accused said “you can’t do anything to us”, and one of them claimed his “father is a gov-ernment officer”.

New Delhi, Oct 6, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the national capital is past the peak of the second wave of coronavirus and the situation has been controlled to a large extent.

Kejriwal said the Delhi government increased the testing exponentially to de-tect the infection.

“Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported across the city. The situa-tion has been controlled to a

large extent,” he said.“I hope the second wave

will slowly pass,” Kejriwal said. Testing in Delhi hit the 60,000 a day mark in Sep-tember compared to 20,000 tests per day in August.

The chief minister also said that 10,000 beds are now unoccupied in hospi-tals. At one point, 7,200 beds were occupied.

According to Delhi gov-ernment data, 1,947 new

cases on Monday increased the cumulative count to 2,92,560 cases, while 32 fa-talities took the number of deaths to 5,542.

Forty-eight deaths were reported on September 29, the highest in a day since July 16, when the city re-ported 58 deaths.

On Monday, the case pos-itivity rate was 5.47 per cent, while the cumulative posi-tivity rate was 8.82 per cent.

The average death rate for the last 10 days stands at 1.41 per cent.

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot on Tuesday in-structed the transport de-partment to delay enforce-ment against vehicles that don’t have high security registration plates (HSRP) or colour-coded fuel stick-ers till further orders.

The department had is-

sued a public notice on September 22, saying an enforcement drive would be started very soon against vehicles that don’t have HSRP or fuel stickers.

With the number of ve-hicles that don’t have HSRP being around 40 lakh, the public notice had led to large number of vehicle

owners scurrying to book a slot online to get HSRP and fuel stickers affixed.

Initial technical glitches apart, many of those who got a booking found out that their number plates had not arrived when they visited the designated cen-tre at the allotted date and time.

Since September 23, TOI has been consistently high-lighting the problems being faced by vehicle owners.

Gahlot convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday with all the stakeholders to address the public griev-ances in relation to the af-fixing of HSRP and colour-coded fuel stickers.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has arrested the CFO and internal auditor of Cox & Kings Group in con-nection with the Yes Bank case.

The arrested accused have been identified as Anil Khandelwal, CFO of CKG and Naresh Jain, internal auditor of CKG, under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Both of them were produced before a court and sent to seven days’ ED custody.

An ED offiialc said, “During investigation in the money launder-ing case it has surfaced that Yes Bank has total outstanding of Rs 3,642 crore in respect of Cox & Kings Group of Com-

panies (CKG).”“Further investiga-

tion revealed that CKG forged its consolidated financials by manipu-lating the balance sheets of overseas sub-sidiaries. In addition some board resolutions submitted to banks for sanctioning the loans were also found to be forged,” the ED official said. He said that dur-ing investigation it was also revealed that the loan sanction from Yes Bank was driven by then CMD Rana Kapoor and was given bypass-ing the norms.

ED gathered the evi-dences regarding clear instruction of Kapoor to the concerned bank officials to get the said loan continued and not to make efforts to recover it, the official said.

“Investigation also revealed that during financial years 2015 to 2019, sales of Rs 3,908 crore were made to 15 non-existent/fictitious customers,” he said, adding that majority of collections shown in ledgers from Ezeego (another group entity of CKG) was not found in the bank statements.

The official also said that there are 15 ficti-tious high-value debt-ors reflected in the books of accounts.

“Another 147 sets of customers also ap-peared to be suspicious and non-existent. The Cox & Kings Limited (CKL) has diverted Rs 1,100 crore to another stressed company with-out any approval of the board which has no business relationship with the company,” he

said.“During the whole

process Khandelwal and Jain acquired the mortgaged property amounting to Rs 63 crore in their owned business entity -- Re-ward Business Solu-tions, without paying a penny from their pock-et.”

Investigation further revealed that Khandel-wal and Jain purchased various immovable properties from the funds diverted from CKG.

“Further investiga-tion revealed that from Ezeego, Rs 150 crore were diverted to Red-kite Capital Private Limited which was promoted by family members of Khandel-wal, CFO of CKL and Jain, internal auditor of CKL,” the official said.

Insurance claims of 176 deceased healthcare

workers pending: MoHFWNew Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS)

The Health Ministry on Tuesday said that insurance claim of Rs 50 lakh each was paid to the kin of 95 frontline healthcare workers who suc-cumbed to the coronavirus disease, while 176 claims were still under process.

Addressing a press brief-ing, Health Ministry Secre-tary Rajesh Bhushan said: “In 95 cases of death of healthcare workers across the country, insurance money of Rs 50 lakh each has been paid. There are 176 claims which are being pro-cessed by the nodal insur-ance company. Out of these, 79 claims are yet to be re-ceived from various states.”

Following the pandemic, the central government had

made a provision for insur-ance cover under the Prad-han Mantri Garib Kalyan Package for healthcare providers and community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact and take care of COVID-19 patients and thus at risk.

The scheme also covers private hospital staff, retired volunteers, staff of urban local bodies, and contract, daily wagers, ad-hoc and outsourced staff requisi-tioned by state and central hospitals as well as autono-mous hospitals etc.

The Indian Medical Asso-ciation has asserted that 515 doctors -- 492 males and 23 females -- have died in the line of duty while treating COVID-19 patients.

New Delhi, Oct 6, “I re-member I was in office last year during the Indian Pre-mier League (IPL), and ev-eryone used to be glued to the screen in the middle of work. I’m kind of glad that way that this year I’m home and don’t have to face all the screams on sixes hap-pening right on top of my head! I mean, I like cricket, but the hullabaloo in an of-fice set-up would ruin the charm of both – watching the match and working peace-fully,” says Mehendi Agar-wal, a resident of Rajendra Nagar, Delhi. Her thoughts

are potent enough to take any professional back to the pre-pandemic era when this is how cricket matches were watched at work.

Amid the Covid-19 situa-tion, IPL has moved its base abroad and cricket fans back home are terribly missing going to the stadiums. But the bigger question is: How to keep up with the game while at #WFH? Bhoomik Sharma, a Gurugrammer, who has grown up idolising cricketers, says, “I used to save money so that I could go and see my favourite players live on the ground.

Beginning Tuesday, Delhi government is set to start preparation of a biochemical solu-tion—a new technology that decomposes crop stubble so that it doesn’t need to be burnt. The technology could prove to be a solution for farmers who otherwise end up burning paddy stubble causing fumes that add to air pollution during winter.

As per government figures, at least 800 hect-ares of farmland in the rural belt of Delhi is under cultivation where crop stubble burning is practised. Here are five things you need to know about the technology and what it aims to do.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, Delhi has developed a decom-poser capsule, which could be converted into a liquid solution and sprayed on fields with crop stubble.

The solution, once sprayed on the fields, will decompose the stubble, which can be used by farmers to treat the fields.

SOUTH Indian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 20204

Kerala gold smuggling case: NIA submits case diary in court

Kochi, Oct 6 (IANS) Af-ter coming under fire from the special NIA court here in the controversial Kerala gold smuggling case, the National Investigation Agency probe team on Tuesday submitted the case diary in the court.

On Monday, the court had expressed its ire on the way the NIA had added sections of the Unlawful Activities Preven-tion Act (UAPA) in the case and asked the probe team to come clean on it.

The NIA court talked tough on the bail petitions of eight among the 30 people who have been arrested by the NIA and it was then that the court asked for the case diary.

Following this, the NIA on Tuesday submitted its affi-

davit, which reveals that two accused who were in Dubai, Faizal Fareed and Rabins are both in custody there after be-

ing arrested by the UAE police.The NIA added that they had

issued a ‘blue corner’ notice through Interpol against six

people, including the two ar-rested in Dubai.

Incidentally, this was the first time that the NIA has gone on record to state that the two ac-cused are under arrest in UAE.

A team of NIA officials was in the UAE in August and had dis-cussions with officials there.

On Tuesday, the NIA counsel said that they wish to get some more time as their leading counsel was indisposed follow-ing Covid protocols, but it was disallowed and the case has been posted for Wednesday.

In a related development, one of the accused Sandip Nair, who was arrested along with prime accused Swapna Suresh, by the NIA from Bengaluru in July, had earlier expressed his desire to turn approver and the NIA court while agreeing to al-low him to make his statement, however pointed out that this does not guarantee that his re-quest would be granted.

K’taka Congress MP DK Suresh tests Covid positive

Bengaluru, Oct 6 (IANS) Congress’ Lok Sabha MP from Bangalore Rural, D.K. Suresh, said on Tuesday that he has tested positive for coronavirus and is in isolation though he is as-ymptomatic.

“I have tested positive for Covid-19 and in isolation. I request all, including fam-ily members and friends who have been in con-tact with me to test them-selves,” Suresh tweeted.

He also requested me-diapersons and officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who were with him on Monday during a search operation in his house, to get them-selves tested.

Suresh, 53, is the only op-position Congress member

who won from the Banga-lore Rural parliamentary constituency in the May 2019 general elections, while the party’s other can-didates lost in the 20 Lok Sabha seats they contested from the southern state.

Suresh is the younger brother of the party’s state unit president D.K. Shiva-kumar, who is a legislator from the Kanakapura as-sembly segment in Raman-agara district.

The CBI had on Monday raided the houses of both the brothers in the upscale Sadashivanagar area in the city centre for alleg-edly amassing assets and wealth disproportionate to their known sources of in-come.

Shivakumar, 58, was also

infected by the virus on Au-gust 25 and recovered after undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city.

State Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar also test-ed Covid positive on Mon-day and is presently under home isolation.

“As I have tested posi-tive for Covid-19, I will be home quarantined for a few days on the advice of doctors. No need to panic as there are no symptoms,” Suresh Kumar tweeted.

Kumar, 64, is the ruling BJP’s legislator for the fifth term from the Rajajinagar assembly segment in the city’s northwest suburb.

Kumar is among the doz-en state cabinet ministers who have been infected by the virus. Among the Cov-

id-hit ministers were Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Deputy Chief Ministers Govid Karjol and C.N. Ash-wath Narayan, J.C. Mad-huswamy, Basavaraj Bom-mai, K. Gopalaiah, Byrathi Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, Shivaram Hebbar, K.S. Es-hwarappa and B. Sriramu-lu.

According to state as-sembly Speaker Vishwa-nath Hegde Kageri, about 70 legislators of the BJP, opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) contracted the virus ahead of the six-day monsoon session in September.

In the Congress, its leader Siddaramaiah and lawmakers H.K. Patil and Dinesh Gundu Rao had tested positive.

Drugs case: CCB raids properties linked to son of

late underworld don

B’luru power plant fire: Engineer succumbs to

burn injuries

Kerala Secretariat fire: Forensic report rules out short circuit

Bengaluru, Oct 6 (IANS) The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru Police on Tuesday con-ducted raids at the resi-dence of Ricky Rai, son of late underworld don Muttappa Rai, in connec-tion with the drugs case involving Sandalwood ce-lebrities.

Ricky Rai is the son of late underworld don Mut-tappa Rai, who died in May this year due to can-cer.

The case pertains to drug abuse among big-wigs including Kannada film actors Ragini Dwive-

di, Sanjjanaa Galrani, rave party organiser Viren Khanna and realtor Rahul Thonse.

The CCB is searching for clues to find out the whereabouts of Bolly-wood star Vivek Oberoi’s brother-in-law, Aditya Alva and other accused who are absconding from Day 1 in the alleged San-dalwood drugs case that came to light last month.

A statement released by Bengaluru Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Sandeep Patil said that the CCB has obtained a search warrant to conduct raids

on Ricky Rai’s properties allegedly for his support to a few key accused persons still at large.

Speaking to reporters, a senior official pointed out that the raids were con-ducted at Rai’s sprawling farmhouse in Bidadi in Ramanagara district and a flat in Sadashivanagar here. The CCB is inves-tigating the drugs abuse case after the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested three people hailing from Kerala in Bengaluru, who were allegedly supplying drugs to Kannada film ac-tors and singers.

Visakhapatnam, Oct 6 (IANS) Online workshops on wildlife, exhibition, competitions, quiz and other activities have marked the celebration of the National Wildlife Week from October 2-8 by the Visakhapatnam zoo amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The ultimate aim is to have a connection between the public and wildlife,” Nandani Salaria, curator at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park here told IANS.

She said it was also about changing the public percep-tion and encouraging them to protect wildlife. As part of the celebrations, the zoo has lined up one event a day during the ongoing Wildlife Week.

Starting with a cleanliness and plantation drive in the zoo on Friday, prize were distrib-

uted to the winners of online elocution competition.

On Saturday, a workshop on urban wildlife was held, fol-lowed by felicitation of online essay competition winners.

Salaria said the workshop on urban wildlife focused on the fauna that lives around us in the cities. Sunday was International

Zookeeper Day, to celebrate which the zoo organised an on-line session for zookeepers in collaboration with the Central Zoo Authority. N Prateep Ku-mar, head of Andhra Pradesh forest force, said the zookeepers have been doing a tremendous job amid the pandemic. “Wish all my zookeepers a very happy

Zookeeper Day. Wish them a happy and healthy life. They have been doing a tremendous job, especially in these trying times of corona pandemic,” said Kumar.

On Monday, a workshop was held on the zoo’s wildlife. It was followed by prize distribu-tion to the winners of online poster competition. An online photography competition and exhibition was held on Tuesday while a workshop on birds and their identification has been lined up for Wednesday. The Wildlife Week will culminate on Thursday with the launch of zoo volunteers programme and a closing ceremony. As the pan-demic has restricted physical gatherings, most of the activities happened online.

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 6 (IANS) An ex-pert committee formed to plan the upcoming Sabarimala temple festival season has recom-mended online ‘darshan’ amid the pandemic, which the Kerala government would discuss with the temple ‘tantri’ or head priest, Deva-som Minister Kadakampally Surendran said on Tuesday.

The committee, which was asked to look into the modalities of holding the temple fes-tival, recommended that only pilgrims in the age group of 10 to 60 should be allowed.

The Minister said all the recommendations of the panel would be put up before Chief Min-ister Pinarayi Vijayan, after which the matter would go to the state Cabinet for the final call.

On September 28, Vijayan had chaired a special Cabinet meeting and announced that the annual two month-long festival will be or-ganised but with very strict COVID protocols, including restrictions on the number of pil-grims.

The temple’s festival season begins on No-vember 15, with the most important Makar-vilaku Day fixed for January 14, 2021.

It was recommended that up to a maximum of 1,000 devotees would be allowed during weekdays, and 2,000 on Saturdays and Sun-

days. On special festival days, the maximum limit would be 5,000.

All pilgrims would have to register in the vir-tual queue system. Those from neighbouring states would have to bring COVID-negative certificates. Once in Kerala, they would have to undergo antigen tests. At no cost would the pilgrims be allowed to stay back in the temple and would have to return soon after offering prayers.

The popular holy dip in Pamba river wound not be allowed. Instead, showers would be installed where all pilgrims can bathe before they begin their climb to the temple.

Situated on the Western Ghats at an alti-tude of 914 metres above sea level, Sabarimala temple is a 4-km uphill journey from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district, around 100 km from the state capital.

The temple, which bars the entry of women who have attained puberty, is accessible only on foot from Pamba.

Every pilgrim carries with him/her a kit (which contains coconuts which are broken just before climbing the 18 steps) on their head during the pilgrimage. Without it, no one is allowed to go up the holy 18 steps at the Sannidhanam.

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 6 (IANS) The Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala on Tues-day suffered a setback when a forensic report submitted in a local court here ruled out short circuit as the cause of a fire at the General Administration De-partment in the state Secretariat on August 25 evening.

The Kerala government had ordered two probes -- one by a special committee and another

by police. Both had blamed a short circuit in a ceiling fan in GAD’s Political Section room for the fire and ruled out foul play.

But the forensic probe report revealed that after examining 24 items in the room where the fire broke out, it was concluded that the blaze broke out not due to short circuit.

The report submitted in the court pointed out that a sani-tiser bottle kept in the room was

not damaged in the fire, adding that forensic probe would con-tinue.

The fire broke out in the GAD, a stone’s throw from the CMO, where secret files were kept. All files pertaining to foreign travel and political clearances are kept in this department.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala had alleged that the fire was a part of a larger conspiracy hatched at Vijayan’s

behest to destroy crucial evi-dence related to the gold smug-gling case. The Leader of the Opposition had even met Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and sought a detailed probe.

State BJP President K Suren-dran, the media, and Congress legislators had arrived at the Secretariat after hearing of the fire but were not allowed to enter. They were eventually al-lowed in after an outcry.

Bengaluru, Oct 6 (IANS) One of the two engineers, who was critically injured in a heat blast incident that occurred at the 370 MW Gas based Combined Cycle power plant in Yelah-anka, has succumbed to burn injuries.

According to the police, the deceased had been identified as Balaji Murugan from Gen-eral Electric. The deceased was admitted to the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital in the city and passed away on Monday night.

At least 15 of the staff work-ing in the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited’s 370 MW Gas Power Plant were injured in the early hours of October 2.

The KPCL had claimed that during the preliminary inves-tigation, it was suspected that the oil leakage from a bearing might have caused fire and the flame came from the chamber resulting in the incident. “Root cause is being analyzed to find

out the exact reason for the in-cident. The Combined Cycle Gas Power Plant at Yelahanka which is under construction and commissioning phase. The construction is being done by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL),” the state-ment had added.

While Karnataka state fire and emergency services director, K. Shiva Kumar had stated that a heat blast occurred in the KPCL’s Combined Cycle Power Plant (370 MW) in Yelahanka while en-gineers were carrying out tests in a gas turbine chamber.

“The plant was supposed to commission its operations in December. All day they had tested. But when they were testing, variations in pressure were observed. The natural gas is supplied to this plant by GAIL India Limited. This inci-dent occurred when KPCL en-gineers were conducting sev-eral checks to test the turbine,” he had explaine

Kerala govt to consult Sabarimala ‘tantri’ on online darshan Online events mark Vizag

Zoo’s ongoing Wildlife Week

NationIndian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020 5

Gurugram: Two arrested for betting on IPL match

Gurugram, Oct 6 (IANS) The Gurugram police have ar-

rested two people on charges of betting on an Indian Pre-mier League (IPL) match between RCB and Delhi Capitals. The duo were arrested from EWS flat in Vatika City at Sec-tor-50 here, police said on Tuesday, adding that incriminat-ing materials were also seized from their possessions.

The accused were identified as Rakesh and Nitin, both residents of Basai village in Gurugram.

“Based on specific inputs, the police raided the spot and nabbed the duo when they were placing bets on an IPL match being played between RCB and Delhi Capi-tals,” said Subhash Boken, spokesperson of the Guru-gram Police. “The police have registered a case under the Prevention of Gambling Act and further investigation is on,” he added.

Odisha reports 2,673 more corona cases, 16 deaths

Bhubaneswar, Oct 6 (IANS) Odisha reported 2,673 more coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s total tally to 2,38,003 and active cases to 30,610, a health official said on Tuesday.

As many as 206,400 patients have recovered from the disease so far in Odisha, which also reported another 16 fatalities during the period. Odisha’s COVID-19 death toll now is 940.

Khordha recorded the highest 448 new cases, followed by Cuttack (214), Nuapada (159), and Kendrapara (151).

Four deaths were reported from Balasore district, three from Khordha district, two from Cuttack district, and one each from Angul, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Subarnapur, Puri, and Boudh districts.

Of the new cases, 1,554 were from among quarantined persons and 1,119 local contact cases.

Raj Cong MLA succumbs to Covid in Gurugram hospital

Gurugram, Oct 6 (IANS) Sitting Congress MLA from

Rajasthan, Kailash Trivedi, succumbed to Covid-19 at a Gurugram hospital in Haryana, family sources said on Tuesday. He was 65.

Trivedi was the MLA from Bhilwara’s Sahada Assembly area. He was shifted to Medanta Hospital here five days back when his health deteriorated after he tested posi-tive.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, PCC chief Go-vind Singh Dotasara and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot condoled his death.

Trivedi was a three-time MLA from Sahada. He tested positive around a month back and was admitted in Bhil-wara and Jaipur earlier.

Assam’s ex-DIG arrested over police recruitment scam

Rahul’s tractor rally stopped briefly on Haryana border, later allowed

R’sthan rape case: Life term for four, 5-year RI for fifth

No back door alliance with LJP, says BJP Bihar unit

Give me free Press, key institutions:

Rahul Gandhi

Why Balrampur rape case is being

ignored?

Policemen play matchmaker, pacify estranged lovers to tie knotAgra records 88.37% Covid

recovery rate

Guwahati, Oct 6 (IANS) Former Assam Police DIG Prasanta Kumar Dutta, one of the prime accused in the Assam police recruitment scam, was detained along the In-dia-Nepal border on Tuesday, po-lice said.

“Dutta has been detained on the strength of the Look Out Circular issued by CID Assam. Now, he has been handed over to the West Ben-gal Police. Assam Police would take him in custody in due course and bring him to Guwahati,” a police spokesperson said.

Dutta, along with former BJP leader Diban Deka, was abscond-ing since the police recruitment scam came to light on September 20.

Assam Police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh each for pro-viding any information that could lead to their arrest.

Deka was arrested soon after he surrendered to the police at Pathacharkuchi in Barpeta district on September 30 night. The state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ex-pelled him from the organisation.

So far, 33 people including a few women have been arrested in con-nection with the paper leak scam.

The Chairman of Assam State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB), Pradeep Kumar, quit the post last month citing moral responsibility for the recruitment test paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the written exam

on September 20. Following the directions of Chief Minister Sar-bananda Sonowal, the CID and the Crime Branch of Assam Po-lice have been probing the exam paper leak issue.

The investigating team has raid-ed various locations, including that of former DIG Dutta. The arrested people include a woman employee of the state irrigation department and one from the Special Task Force of Assam Police.

The investigation is being per-sonally supervised by Assam Di-rector General of Police (DGP) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta.

On September 20, the SLPRB had cancelled the written test a few minutes after it had started af-

ter the question paper was leaked on the social media. Over 66,000 candidates had appeared in 154 centres in all the 33 districts of the state for the written test for 597 posts of sub-inspectors in Assam Police.

The main opposition Congress is agitating on the issue and de-manded the resignation of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal after alleging that his office was involved in the police recruitment question paper leak scam.

Assam’s Pradesh Congress Presi-dent Ripun Bora and opposition leader Debabrata Saikia said that the party has been holding pro-tests in all the 33 districts across the state.

Pehowa (Haryana), Oct 6 (IANS) In the wake of assertions by the Haryana gov-ernment to not allow Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to enter the state after his tractor rally in neighbouring Punjab, he was briefly stopped on the Punjab-Haryana border but was later allowed to

enter after heated arguments between the party workers and the police.

“They have stopped us on a bridge on the Haryana border. I’m not moving and am happy to wait here. 1 hour, 5 hours, 24 hours, 100 hours, 1,000 hours or 5,000 hours,” Rahul tweeted.

Jaipur, Oct 6 (IANS) A special court for SC/ST cases sentenced four ac-cused in the Thanagaazi gang rape case to life im-prisonment on Tuesday while the fifth accused, who made the rape video viral, was awarded 5 years rigorous imprisonment.

Judge Brijesh Kumar while announcing the ver-dict held all five accused guilty of the crime and said that this gang rape case was more like cheer-haran of Draupadi.

The sentences were pronounced by a special court for hearing cases un-der the Scheduled Castes

and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Thanagaazi rape case in Rajasthan was re-ported on April 26, 2019 and grabbed nationwide attention as the men raped the woman in front of her husband, filmed the act and made the video viral.

A case was registered af-ter the video went viral on May 2, six days after the crime. When the couple had earlier gone to lodge an FIR, they were report-edly sent back citing the busy schedule of the po-lice due to the Lok Sabha polls.

The Rajasthan gov-ernment drew flak from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati dur-ing the Lok Sabha election campaign over the delay in lodging an FIR in the case. Congress leader Ra-hul Gandhi visited Thana-gaazi and met the family of the rape victim.

The four men sentenced to life are Indraj, Ashok, Chhotalal and Hansraj. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on them.

The fifth convicted man is Mukesh, who made the video viral, and has been sentenced to 5 years RI.

Patna, Oct 6 (IANS) After the Lok Janshakti Party walked out of an alliance in Bihar but preferred to continue with its ties with the NDA at the Centre, the BJP state unit on Tuesday asserted that there was no back door alliance with the party led by Chirag Pas-wan.

The BJP state unit clarified that it was fighting the Bihar Assembly elections in October-November under the leadership of Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United President Nitish Kumar, who was the “undisputed leader of the Na-tional Democratic Alliance” in the state.

“Our party is contesting the elections under Nitish’s leader-ship. Whosoever goes against him

or challenges him will not be a part of the NDA,” said BJP Bihar unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal.

Jaiswal’s statement comes after LJP leader Chirag Paswan report-edly said that his party was with the BJP but had differences with the JD-U and Nitish.

With October 8 being the last date for filing of nominations for the 71 Assembly seats going to polls in the first phase on October 28, the picture about NDA seat-sharing is still not clear.

A meeting of BJP leaders like former Maharashtra CM Deven-dra Fadanvis, Jaiswal, Prem Ku-mar, and Mangal Pandey was un-derway at the residence of Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi to reach a decision on seat-sharing.

Patiala (Punjab), Oct 6 (IANS) Rejecting the suggestion that the Central government was able to take unilateral decisions because of a weak opposition, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said, “Give me free Press and other key institutions and this (Naren-dra Modi) government will not last long”. Pointing out that the op-position in any country functions within a framework, including the media, the judicial system and in-stitutions that protect the voice of the people.

“In India, that entire framework has been controlled and captured by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the entire architec-ture designed for giving voice to the people has been captured,” he added. “Give me free Press and free institutions and this govern-ment won’t last long,” declared

Rahul. The Modi government has taken control of all the key institu-tions, and it has done so not demo-cratically but forcibly, Rahul told a press conference here on the third and final day of his Kheti Bachao Yatra in Punjab against the ‘black’ farm laws.

“The BJP government has cap-tured the soul of the country, which is what the Congress is fighting,” he said, adding that this fight will become more and more aggressive, going forward.

Terming the control of institu-tions by the government a big problem, Rahul noted that no other country in the world today is faced with a situation where even the media does not question the government when its land has been seized by another nation. Modi, he said, is not interested in India’s people but is only con-

cerned about protecting and pro-moting his image, which would have got dented had he admitted to China’s incursion. The media, by helping promote his image, is also to blame, said Rahul, adding that Modi was comfortable in the knowledge that the Press would project his one-sided statements. “Why don’t you question him at press conferences,” he asked the media.

Rahul, however, said while the government may have captured the institutions but the fact is they cannot control the farmers, the youth and the small traders, whose interests they are destroying.

“I work among these people, who are the hardest hit by Modi’s policies. I am a patient person, and will wait till the people of India see the truth,” he added.

Rahul was flanked by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who informed the media that his government will soon bring a special session to scuttle these legislations of the Centre, which were crafted to destroy not just the farmers but the entire agricultural system, and the state.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) When one talks of policemen, the gen-eral impression is of tough-talking men ever busy looking for ways to outsmart the smartest of crimi-nals. However, for a young woman and her boyfriend in Delhi, who were estranged for some reason, the policemen played the perfect matchmakers to get them hitched for life after pacifying them.

South-East DCP RP Meena said that the 24-year-old woman had approached Govindpuri police station to lodge a complaint about injuries she had suffered. How-ever, police officials soon realised that the injuries were self-inflict-ed. The police staff’s conversa-

tion with the woman soon re-vealed it was a case of a love affair gone sour: She was in love with a 28-year-old man who refused to marry her after a relationship of three years due to some misun-derstanding.

Govindpuri police was obvi-ously on the horns of a dilemma: Whether to register the woman’s complaint and let the law follow its course, or try for a rapproch-ment between the estranged couple and let them take a second shot at their relationship. They chose the second option.

“We invited the families of both to the police station for media-tion. After a long counselling ses-

sion, both sides agreed to solem-nise their marriage,” DCP Meena said.

Finally, the couple tied the knot at an Arya Samaj Mandir in Delhi on Monday. And in the fitness of things, the newly-weds did not forget to thank the men in uni-form who had played the perfect matchmakers.

The couple visited the police station to seek their blessings. And the staff at the police station was happy to see their efforts had not gone waste as they met the happy couple. Both were showered with gifts, not to mention the conduct of the ‘kanyadaan’ ritual by good Samaritan policemen.

Agra, Oct 6 (IANS) Even though Agra has been re-porting new cases every day, the recovery rate is above 88 per cent, the state health data has revealed.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath in a meeting on Monday eve-ning expressed relief with the state achieving an 87 per cent recovery rate in its battle to combat Covid-19. Speaking at the meeting in Lucknow, Yogi said the state’s recovery rate was three per cent more than the

national recovery rate of 84 per cent.

Agra recorded 88.37 per cent recovery rate on Mon-day.

The total number of active cases was 570 now. The city reported 59 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. The num-ber of samples collected now exceeds two lakh (2,01,945). Of the total 6,002 cases, the number of discharged pa-tients is 5,304, while the death toll stands at 128, the health department data has revealed.

Balrampur (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 6 (IANS) Two strikingly similar incidents took place at a distance of about 540 kilometres and within a matter of 24 hours last week.

A Dalit girl died after being assaulted in Ha-thras and another Dalit woman was raped and killed in Balrampur district.

In both the cases, the accused were promptly arrested and the police forced the families to cremate their daughters in the dead of the night. Hathras has gone on to become a story of national shame while Balrampur remains largely uncovered by the media.

Political parties in the opposition have also chosen to ignore the Balrampur incident where the 22-year-old B.Com student was raped, drugged/poisoned and sent home in a rick-shaw with her back and legs broken.

The reason why the opposition has steered clear of the Balrampur incident is more than apparent.

The two accused who have been arrested are Muslims -- Shahid and Sahil -- and non-BJP parties do not wish to “disturb” their base among Muslims by raising the Balram-pur incident.

Congress leaders have made a customary visit to the victim’s family on Monday but their leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did not find time to do the same.

A SP delegation also visited the family but did not make much noise about the incident.

The BJP, however, wanted to shift the focus from Hathras to Balrampur and the reasons were obvious.

The accused are Muslims and the narrative of “love jihad” could have been perfectly wo-ven in to the story. A brouhaha over the inci-dent would have given the Yogi Adityanath government a much-needed excuse to bring in a law against “love jihad” that is already being planned.

Two senior officials, including Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi, and ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar vis-ited Balrampur on Sunday to meet the victim’s family but the visit did not create ripples in the media and neither did the family make an issue out of it.

6 Edit indian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

indian Horizon

The decision of the Lok Janshakti

Party (LJP) to contest the Bihar As-

sembly elections independently

marks the beginning of a transition

in state politics. While the JD(U) un-

der Nitish Kumar has been in power

for long, it does not have a strong

second line of leadership. With Ram

Vilas Paswan indisposed and Lalu

Prasad Yadav in jail, the RJD and LJP

have seen leadership thrust upon the

new generation of leaders who have

had to step in to fill the political vac-

uum and keep their support base in-

tact. Chirag Paswan is an actor, and

like Nitish Kumar, also an engineer

by profession. Under him, the LJP

aims to enhance its appeal, though it

has decided to contest mostly against

the JD(U) and thus keep its vote base

clearly outlined. But it remains to be

seen how the RJD-Congress combine

fields its candidates in these con-

stituencies which may determine the

outcome.

On its own, the LJP has never been a

key player in state politics, preferring

to lend support to governments. The

decision to break free from the NDA

in Bihar is a show of assertiveness

and indication of a trend where re-

gional parties are leaving or distanc-

ing themselves from the government

because of the popular disapproval

over farm laws, exodus of migrants

and the Hathras outrage. The LJP has

hinted at support for the BJP in case

it forms the government in Bihar un-

der its own CM. The latter has not

specified its possible chief ministe-

rial candidates, though it has leaders

like Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shahnawaz

Husain and present Deputy CM Su-

shil Modi. Their projection and ac-

ceptability will be crucial for political

consensus.

The entry of Chirag Paswan has

implications for Chief Minister Nit-

ish Kumar. The possibility of alterna-

tives that it throws up should force

a rethink on his part. The BJP-JD(U)

alliance has mostly endured, but as

a rupture on a previous occasion

shows, politics is the art of the possi-

ble. The Bihar CM will be under pres-

sure to prove that he is a still a wily

practitioner of it.

By Suresh KumarCovid-19 has unleashed an unprec-

edented health crisis across nations and highlighted the global governance deficit. Global value chains (GVCs) have occupied nearly 70 per cent of international trade (OECD, 2013) and contribute 22 per cent of the output. The GVCs involved the dispersal of production, leveraged economies of scale and international division of la-bour encouraged hyper-specialisation and built upon market power to spur growth, improved job markets, and reduced poverty. These have brought many countries closer to their Sustain-able Development Goals.

The GVCs are devastated in almost all countries. GVC trade is dampened, inter-firm relationships are threat-ened, and trade nationalism and pro-tectionism have resurfaced on the economic landscape. Globalisation, which had slowed down since 2008, is in an apparent suspended animation with the punctuation of world trade negotiations.

The pandemic has hampered the supply of raw materials, intermediate inputs and final goods. World GDP is expected to fall by 8-10 per cent. In India, as per the National Statistical Office, the GDP has declined by 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, the worst ever in 40 years. Developing countries with weaker health systems and small open economies are most severely affected.

The impact of the pandemic is re-alised in four episodes:

1. Direct onslaught of the pandemic: Many firms had stopped operating to prevent their employees from falling

sick. Factories in China and Bangla-desh were also closed to check the spread of the disease. 2. Supply chain impact: There was a disruption in the supply chain due to closure or suspen-sion of international transportation systems because of restrictions on the movement of people and material. As a result, supply and production at many locations that were part of the global value chain had to be stopped. A large number of workers lost their livelihoods. In Bangladesh, garment-exporting firms had to cut production as they could not import textiles from China.

3. Demand impact: The demand for essential commodities (e.g. food and medical supplies) had increased sud-denly while supplies were strained due to production constraints and con-tainment measures. The demand for masks, PPE kits, ventilators and test-ing equipment increased. Many firms were forced to shift to productions as per the market demand. On the other hand, the demand for many commod-ities contracted due to economic dis-tress, loss of jobs, fall in incomes, and changes in consumer behaviour. In Bangladesh, nearly 1.2 million workers were retrenched. (WRC Report, March 2020). The loss of jobs was higher in in-formal and unorganised sectors as also travel and hospitality. The demand volatility affected the domestic supply chains as well, and the GVCs exacer-bated it through the transmission of economic shocks.

4. Trade and investment policy-related risks: These have increased manifold. The ban on export of food and medical goods, along with domes-

tic pressures to re-nationalise produc-tions to protect supplies, has caused uncertainties for free and transparent trade and investments. Covid-19 is ex-pected to reduce foreign direct invest-ments by 30-40 per cent this year.

The pandemic has forced most of the affected countries to rethink poli-cies on GVCs. There is a need to im-prove the resilience of GVCs to combat the catastrophe. Different stages of the pandemic will need to be catered to differently: 1. The crisis: In this stage, the focus should be to maintain essen-tial supplies and healthcare services in the face of emergency containment measures to minimise the spread of the virus and resultant challenges.

2. The recovery: It is imperative to begin the recovery by enabling the GVCs to reach earlier production and trade levels. It requires swift decision-making and even a shift in policies, both at the firm and government lev-els.

3. The new normal: The new normal, which does not mean that there will be no virus. Rather, the co-evolution of the virus and economic activities will have to be managed through govern-ment interventions and policies. It may even necessitate the reformula-tion of policies and amendment of reg-ulations governing tax systems, trade, and labour.

However, there cannot be uniform policy prescriptions for all econo-mies. The pandemic has exposed the growth paradigm across nations, without any distinction between the developed and developing. It did not allow enough time for governments to gather knowledge, and expertise from

diverse disciplines, including public health, epidemiology, economics, law, politics, sociology, psychology, and, of course, ethics to achieve effective poli-cymaking. As a result, collective global action through cohesive economic policies fully reflecting upon the pan-demic economy is still to emerge. A new growth paradigm has, of course, emerged, with health and environ-ment as its two key constituents.

For the re-energisation of the GVCs, there are some key prerequisites. These include risk mitigation through a non-discriminatory selection of firms by the governments, a conducive regulatory environment which is not a source of policy-related risk, trans-parency in the value chain, agility, re-activity of the businesses to respond to changes and capabilities, allowing suppliers’ redundancy.

Protectionism or renewed trade nationalism is not a solution. Even re-structuring of GVCs and re-shoring of some firms in the chain may involve additional economic and social risks. It is a costly affair. It may outweigh perceived gains in terms of security of supplies and jobs. It is also likely to reduce economic activity. Even lo-cal trade may suffer from reduced economic activities. The solution lies in allowing the firms to recover from shocks with transparent and non-discriminatory financial incentives, encouraging intense use of technology and allowing e-commerce firms more space even in the essential commodi-ties market. At the firm level, markups should be reduced to check the rise in consumer prices.

IANS

A road map for reviving global value chains

By Jayadeva RanadeThe Tibet Autonomous Region

(TAR) has witnessed considerable high-level activity this year, culmi-nating in the Seventh Tibet Work Fo-rum held in Beijing on August 28-29, 2020. This forum heralds a new and tougher period for Tibetans, with emphasis on ‘patriotic education’, adapting Tibetan Buddhism to ‘so-cialism with Chinese characteristics’ and countering ‘separatism’ and the ‘Dalai clique’. The Chinese Com-munist Party’s (CCP) penetration into each village and hamlet in the TAR will be accelerated. The effort to strengthen national unity will see pri-macy being given to Mandarin over Tibetan in schools. This has already commenced in Tibetan areas sur-rounding the TAR, sparking resent-ment among the local populace.

Convened after a five-year interval, almost 300 senior CCP cadres, in-cluding the entire Politburo Standing Committee attended the forum. The Tibet Work Forums are important as they decide the long-term security and economic strategy for the TAR and Tibetan areas inside China.

Interestingly, the China-appointed XIth Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, did not attend the forum and was away in TAR’s Medog county from August 29 to 31. China’s official TV and print media published few pic-

tures of the forum. The state-owned CCTV’s telecast showed no Tibetan Buddhist religious personages pres-ent at the forum. As was anticipated, CCP General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech, which outlined Beijing’s plans for Tibet, was hailed as ‘important’. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang described it as “a guiding document on Tibet-related work in a new era.”

In his speech outlining Beijing’s plans for Tibet, Xi Jinping gave pri-ority to safeguarding national unity and strengthening ethnic solidarity. He called for an enhanced focus on educating and guiding the public to mobilise them in combating sepa-ratist activities and forge an ‘iron-clad shield’ to safeguard stability. Xi Jinping stressed that ‘patriotism’ should be incorporated in all schools and at all levels of education. This, he emphasised, must call for “con-tinuous efforts to enhance recogni-tion of the great motherland, the Chinese nation, the Chinese culture, the CCP and socialism with Chinese characteristics by people of all ethnic groups.”

With monks and nuns regarded as ‘troublemakers’ by the CCP cadres, there was particular focus on religion. ‘Re-education’ and ‘patriotism’ cam-paigns targeting them have been un-derway in Tibet for a few years now.

Pointing to the need to rapidly dilute the Dalai Lama’s continuing influ-ence on Tibetan Buddhism and reli-gious personages, Xi Jinping stressed, “Tibetan Buddhism should be guided in adapting to the socialist society and should be developed in the Chi-nese context.”

Xi Jinping explained the party’s strategy for “governing Tibet in the new era” with 10 ‘musts’: (i) Must uphold the leadership of the Com-munist Party of China, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy; (ii) Must adhere to the strategic thinking of governing the country and governing the border, and stabilising Tibet first; (iii) Main-taining unification of the motherland and strengthening national unity must be the focus and focus of Tibet’s work; (iv) Must adhere to the impor-tant principles of governing Tibet ac-cording to law, enriching the people and rejuvenating Tibet, building Ti-bet for a long time, uniting people’s hearts, and laying a solid foundation; (v) The overall domestic and interna-tional situation must be coordinated; (vi) Improving people’s livelihood and uniting people’s hearts must be taken as the starting point and goal of economic and social development; (vii) Must promote the exchanges and integration of all ethnic groups;

(viii) Must adhere to the direction of the sinicisation of religion in China and manage religious affairs in accor-dance with the law; (ix) Must insist on ecological protection first; and (x) Must strengthen party building, es-pecially political building.

Within days of the conclusion of the Tibet Work Forum, CPPCC Chairman and Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang travelled to the Qinghai province while China’s Min-ister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi visited Gansu and Qinghai. Zhao Kezhi stressed that “It is necessary to fully understand the severity and complexity of the struggle against separatism,” make preparations “to deal with acute and complex strug-gles, and resolutely guard against and resolve major risks and challenges.” He directed security cadres to pay close attention to fighting against separatism and maintaining stabil-ity, strengthen intelligence analysis, strengthen the management of reli-gious affairs and “grasp the initiative in the fight against separatism.” The message was bluntly reinforced in a People’s Daily article on September 28 by Zhang Yijiong, Executive Vice Minister of the Party’s United Front Work Department, which frames pol-icy and regulations for China’s non-CCP entities and ethnic minorities.

IANS

Harder times for tibet as China ups the ante

AVIJIT PATHAKIT is not a nice feeling to experience

the wound of this violent society, and live with shame. What else can we do when we see the way all great ideals fall apart, and eventually society loses its conscience as it allows itself to be brutalised by casteist and patriarchal violence, triumphant majoritarianism and arrogance of power? Indeed, at a time when everything is turned into its opposite — vice into virtue, hatred into religion, and narcissism into leader-ship, how do we say with a reasonable degree of self-confidence that we are civilised, and we value human dignity? Amid the recurrence of demonic mas-culinity, brute sexuality, stigmatisation of the Dalits and the minorities, and above all, the criminalisation of dis-sent, is it possible to say that what hap-pened at Hathras was just a minor ab-erration in an otherwise good society? The fact is that ours is a decadent soci-ety without moral foundations, and the ‘supreme leader’, despite his avatar-like image, can’t hide it anymore. We are decaying from inside.

It is no longer impossible to have a democratically elected authoritarian government.

Why is it so? A possible reason is that we have forgotten the agenda of psy-chic, cultural and social transforma-tion. Well, great social reformers, revo-lutionaries and social activists — Kabir

and Guru Nanak, Ram Mohan Roy and Syed Ahmed Khan, Savitribai Phule and Pandita Ramabai, or Ambedkar and Gandhi — sought to awaken our sensibilities, eradicate the seeds of vio-lence sanctified in the name of casteist/patriarchal ‘tradition’, and create a humane, egalitarian, gender-sensitive and spiritually enriched social order. Even our freedom struggle was insepa-rable from this agenda. In other words, for both Gandhi and Ambedkar, poli-tics was inseparable from the educative programme of socio-cultural trans-formation. Ambedkar’s invocation of Buddhism or Gandhi’s cross-religious conversations attempted at some sort of inner revolution. They realised that democracy would fail if we remain hierarchical, exclusivist, divisive and brutal. Despite differences, politics, for both of them, was essentially a kind of liberating pedagogy.

The tragedy is that in post-Indepen-dence India — especially after the end of the Nehruvian era — we began to lose this vision. Politics lost its agenda of so-cial reconstruction; it became crudely instrumental, election-oriented and manipulative. See its consequences. With this sort of politics, we refused to eradicate the caste system; instead, we played with it, stimulated it for imme-diate gains, and kept it alive. Likewise, even ‘secular’ politicians became dip-lomatic as far as their orientation to

the orthodox clergy or priestcraft was concerned; and we failed to resist what we have been witnessing these days: the politics that stimulates one’s caste/religious identity, the politics that is in-herently violent. Furthermore, as poli-tics began to lose its grand visions and ideals, the quality of our ‘leaders’ (bar-ring some remarkable Gandhians and Marxists) began to deteriorate fast. In fact, some of our films like Govind Ni-halani’s Ardh Satya have captured the trajectory of this decadent politics with all its toxic stimulations and hyper-masculine gestures.

Likewise, we witnessed the increas-ing deterioration of the moral fabric of our society. Despite the external sym-bols of modernity and global capital-ism (feel the smell of the urban/aspir-ing middle class — the mix of French perfume and Starbucks Coffee — in a fancy mall), we became more regres-sive. Religion became gorgeous and loud; Nathuram Godse, as the recent Twitter war indicates, became our hero; soap operas became our epics; celebrity babas became the new cham-pions of salvation; and the likes of Hon-ey Singh shaped our cultural choices.

Politics too became an act of con-sumption. Possibly, we loved to con-sume the package of smart cities, bullet trains and techno-savvy hy-per masculine ‘saviours’. And for the downtrodden-alienated, exhausted

and crippled, it was not easy to see the hollowness in the promise of achhe din; furthermore, the magic of stimu-lant nationalism made them believe that the root of every problem lies in the conspiracy launched by the ‘en-emies’ of the nation — Muslims and Kashmiri terrorists. Under these cir-cumstances, it was not difficult to use democracy to destroy its own spirit. Hence, it is no longer impossible to have a democratically elected authori-tarian government.

Yes, the consequences are obvi-ous. Yogi Adityanath symbolises the new normal; police officers and senior civil servants begin to behave terri-bly rudely without the slightest trace of decency; or for that matter, young, idealist students are sent to the prison because they critique the ‘chronology’ of the CAA and NRC. The message is clear. Spread the psychology of fear, and destroy the backbone of the civil society. Not solely that. We are led to believe that the Dalit girl at Hathras was not raped; nobody demolished the disputed structure at Ayodhya; and university professors conducted riots in Delhi. Nothing shocks us anymore; the retired Chief Justice becomes the Rajya Sabha member so quickly; and immediately after the voluntary retire-ment, the top police officer in Bihar joins Nitish Kumar’s JD (U).

IANS

Tales of decadence

LJP out of NDA in BiharShow of assertiveness by

regional party

7OP-EDIndian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020

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

By Linda S. HeardPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan is

no peacemaker. He looks for regional vulnerabilities in the form of feud-ing entities and instead of behaving like a statesman offering mediation he escalates the violence by picking a side.

Turkey on Erdogan’s watch has emerged as a regional predator that punches way above its weight due to its usefulness to Nato and its weap-onization of up to four million refu-gees that the President threatens to unleash on EU states should they at-tempt to interfere in his dealings.

Libya, which he flooded with many thousands of Syrian mercenaries in return for the establishment of bases to train militias and a potentially lu-crative maritime demarcation deal, is a case in point.

The deal has not been ratified by the Libyan Parliament as mandated by the constitution and is considered to have violated international laws and norms. It may be that the sur-prise decision taken by the head of the UN-backed Islamist-dominated Libyan Government of National Ac-cord Fayez al-Sarraj to resign could render agreements with Ankara null and void.

Clearly Erdogan isn’t a man who allows international law or the clamour of condemnation from Tur-key’s neighbours to prevent him getting what he wants — and he is determined to grab a piece of the Mediterranean energy pie currently shared by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel, all members of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum.

He has ridden roughshod over warnings from Greece, Cyprus and the EU that his provocative gunboat diplomacy in the oil-and-gas Aegean Sea that encroaches upon the terri-torial integrity of Greece will be met with sanctions.

An unnamed Turkish official said “If the EU applies sanctions this will not deter us. On the contrary this would increase our resolve”. In the meantime, Erdogan has expressed his wish for dialogue and Athens has agreed to resume exploratory talks that ceased in 2016.

But the Turkish would-be neo-Sultan isn’t content with slaughter-ing and displacing Kurds in northern Syria, many of whom stood shoulder-to-shoulder with US troops battling Daesh. His fighters have commit-ted war crimes away from the media spotlight that is firmly fixed on the

US elections and Covid-19.Yet he gets away with hiring ter-

rorists to occupy Syrian territory because he appears to be President Trump’s favourite world leader plus he has reached some kind of accom-modation with President Putin based on mutual interests such as trade and the Turkstream gas pipeline set to deliver Russian gas to Europe via Turkey.

Leaping into the Azerbaijani-Arme-nian fray

Now the Turkish President has leapt into the Azerbaijani-Armenian fray — a conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Naturally he has taken the side of Baku given that Turkish-Armenian relations have always been fraught.

Fierce fighting and drone attacks have led to the deaths of over 200 in-cluding civilians and could escalate into an all-out war. Once again Tur-key has tipped the balance, this time in Azerbaijan’s favour. One can only speculate what favours Ankara ex-pects to receive in return.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has revealed that Turk-ish military personnel are stationed at command posts and are directing Azerbaijan’s military operations.

Without doubt Turkey has blotted its copybook when it comes to its once coveted EU membership. Presi-dent Emmanuel Macron is one of Er-dogan’s most fierce critics and would certainly block any such suggestion.

But Nato has taken a different tack. Instead of taking the moral high ground, Nato’s Chief Marshall and Chairman of the Nato Military Committee Sir Stuart Peach recently praised Turkey’s role within Nato and “its essential contributions to Nato operations and activities. He went on to bless Turkey’s operations

in Syria, saying no other ally has suf-fered more from terrorist attacks”.

So, in effect, as long as Donald Trump is in the White House and Nato places the importance of re-taining the second largest military as well as the Incirlik Air Base where US tactical nuclear weapons are stored above the principles upon which the organisation was founded, President Erdogan will listen to volleys of con-demnations but without meaningful repercussions will always have the last laugh.

Gulf News

Why Turkey stirs the pot in troubled zones

PIB The unprecedented onset of the CO-VID-19 pandemic brought up many questions on the waysin which live-lihoods, food and nutrition security of rural communities need to be ad-dressed. During the lockdowns, the earlier investments in nutri-based livelihoods such as nutri- gardens and backyard poultry had proved to be a boon, by enabling families to ac-cess eggs and nutritious vegetables locally when supply chains, trans-port and access to markets had been severely affected. Deendayal Antyo-daya Yojana- National Rural Liveli-hoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) under the Ministry of Rural Development has leveraged from this experience. Over 50 per cent of Indian women of reproductive age are anaemic and almost 23 per cent have low BMI, show data from NFHS-4 (2015-16). Women’s access to entitled health and nutrition services too remains a challenge. Data shows that only 51.2percent women had four or more Antenatal Care Visits and 30.3 per cent women took IFA for at least 100 ays (NFHS-4). Reports have shown how the nationwide lockdown dis-rupted provision of essential ser-vices for women and adolescent girls, raising concerns on setbacks to earlier gains towards improving women’s nutrition and health dur-ing the first 1000 days. With its net-work of over 63.3 lakh SHGs and 6.98 crore women members, DAY- NRLM is taking steps to work towards pov-erty alleviation and social develop-ment of poor households, including

improving their nutrition and health status. The mission has been rein-forcing activities with a focus on strengthening the resilience of com-munity-based institutions to tackle shocks to food and nutrition secu-rity brought on by emergencies. This includes a multi-faceted strategy of promoting awareness generation, sustainable behaviour change for improved dietary diversity as well as nutri-based livelihoods amongst its SHG networks to support nutri-tion requirements in poorest pock-ets faced with malnutrition. The strength of SHGs and their federa-tions lies in their outreach, networks and social capital. Capacity build-ing, strengthening of community-based SHG institutions and training of resource persons in the commu-nity on nutrition and nutri-sensitive agricultural models has been a key part of strategy and played a key role in the success of these projects. hese earlier investments have also

provided the required institutional architecture for a community-led scale-up of these activities even as states grapple with rising cases of COVID-19 infection. Based on evidence that enhancing women’s decision making and economic in-dependence improves allocation of income to food budgets and dietary diversity at the community and household levels, the Mission had initiated Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) in 2010-11. Since the last five years, MKSP has been universalized in DAY-NRLM with farm livelihoods promotion being added to annual action plans of all State Rural Livelihoods Mission. As of now more than40.22 Lakh house-holds have been supported to set up nutri- gardens. A national advisory based on best practices around the country was also brought out

to support state missions. These activities are accompanied by build-ing awareness on the nutrition con-

tent of vegetables grown, and the need for multiple food groups on the plate. The Chhattisgarh Rural Livelihoods Mission (CG-SRLM), has initiated a state-wide strategy under its livelihoods initiatives to promote nutri-gardens. These back-yard kitchen gardens or nutri-gar-dens involve cultivation of different types of nutritious vegetables in the backyard to ensure the nutritional security of families throughout the year. These also specifically aim to provide continuous nutrition sup-port to SHG households including pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children. These gardens are less input intensive and can be managed by using waste wa-ter from the household. The state’s behaviour change communication strategy has laid a special focus on maternal and adolescent health, tar-geting groups of reproductive age within the 1000 days window. Poshan Sakhis also known as ‘Mangun Mits’ in Chhattisgarh, have been trained to use participatory learning and as-sessment techniques for behaviour change amongst pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls. This is part of an ongoing pilot programme called ‘Swabhimaan’, implemented in Chhattisgarh’s Ba-star district. The programme s tech-nically supported by UNICEF India. Along with awareness generation ac-tivities amongst these target groups, they also push demand for nutrition services and entitlements, such as those provided in the monthly Vil-lage health Sanitation and Nutrition

Days. For this they work in tandem with ANMs, ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers to ensure entitlements like the Take Home Ration and con-sumption of IFA tablets are availed by these target groups. Poshan Sakhis also work closely with Kri-shi Sakhis to set up kitchen gardens and backyard poultry in the homes of these nutritionally at-risk wom-en. These activities are in addition to the existing emphasis on breast-feeding, complementary feeding and nutrition of children. Learnings fromthe programme in Chhattisgarh have been scaled up in six districts in the state and will be taken further. DAY-NRLM has partnered with Civil Society Organisations like PRADAN to promote nutri- sensitive agri-cultural practices and livelihoods in various districts. Chhattisgarh -State Mission has also converged with departments of agriculture to provide saplings and seeds for de-velopment of nutri-gardens. Similar efforts have been underway across the state missions.The mission is also committed towards making its food nutrition health and WASH strategies gender transformative to ensure women are empowered to address gendered issues that affect access to these services. Women’s health must be foregrounded with strengthening women- led liveli-hoods and enterprises. These mea-sures are necessary for sustained change to enhance women’s health and achieving nutrition goals set out in the DAY-NRLM as well as in the Poshan Abhiyaan.

DAY-NRLM Promoting Nutri-gardens and Backyard Poultry to Improve Livelihoods

By Syed Talat HussainGeneral Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiani,

Pakistan’s two-term army chief (2007-2013) and a leading defence and strategic thinker used to often justify his institution’s support to Imran Khan and his party, the Paki-stan Tehreek e Insaf, on the grounds that as a politician Khan was central to blunting the country’s swing to the extreme right and limiting the expanding clout of religio-political parties, or, more precisely, their problematic Taliban versions.

There is sweet irony in the fact that it is on Imran Khan’s watch that the head of Jamaiat-ulema-Islam (JUI for short) that com-mands one of the largest madrasa (religious) schools networks in Pakistan has now become the con-sensus head of the newly formed antigovernment Pakistan Demo-cratic Movement, which repre-sents more than 60 per cent of the national voters.

To be sure, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is not a new entrant to politics. He is an old hand at the game, who has successfully fought elections many times, and whose father, a leading politician, was signatory to the 1973 Constitution. His party represents a tradition of the 19th-century religion-based politics known as the Deobandi Tehreek. Named after the place

where it was founded in undivid-ed India, the powerful Deoband movement started during the British rule of the subcontinent as a Sunni revivalist effort against “perversion of pure Islam by the foreign rulers and their local sup-porters”. It soon grew into a resil-ient and potent threat to the colo-nialists.

Also, a regional religious leader heading a coalition comprising much-bigger national parties is not new either. What is exceptional is how quickly Imran Khan’s party has lost its appeal to the religious conservatives, who only three years ago were abandoning their traditional platforms and joining the PTI in droves enamoured by its anti-western and publicised Islamist leanings. While Fazulr Rehman’s party cadres remained steadfast in their opposition to Khan, his ideological brothers like the Jamat-e-Islami and a few oth-ers were politically pauperised by the exodus from their ranks.

Scandalously incorrect pontifi-cation

For a while it looked as if the General Kiani formula of backing Khan as a dyke against the spread of hardline religious parties was working as his party on the eve of the 2018 elections took great pride in making the “beard coexist with

the blondes” — a slang reference to PTI’s vote-bank across the con-servative and liberal sections of so-ciety. Khan’s extravagant displays of public religiosity (prayer beads, prayer-mat pictures) and his out-of-turn, cliched and at times scan-dalously incorrect pontifications about religious morality also came in handy as a propaganda tool in this regard.

But the idea of a muscular cen-trist-nationalist steeped in tradi-tional values leading the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to be coming unstuck. The Opposi-tion coalition that Maulana Fazl now heads wants to see the back of Khan for many reasons includ-ing their stand that he has ruined national economy. Casting the Maulana in the lead role is there-fore smart tactics. His base is in the rural areas of the country’s poverty-stricken provinces or deprived con-stituencies in Balochistan and the KP. He commands considerable in-fluence in the small towns and ur-ban pockets of the more developed cities. His party’s ideological links spread beyond class and clan lines. Over the past one year or so its spokespersons have tried to con-nect with rising public anger over economic and governance deterio-ration through their acerbic attacks against the Imran government.

National government and fresh elections

The party even launched a size-able march on the capital last year but abandoned it after members of the ‘Establishment’ reportedly convinced them through interloc-utors that some of their demands would be addressed including perhaps formation of a national government and fresh elections. The Opposition now thinks that the Maulana’s party can be instru-mental in mobilising the far-flung areas because life has become particularly hard for ordinary

Pakistanis. A survey released two days ago captured the depressed spirits of the times: 4 in every 5 Pakistanis interviewed said the country was headed in the wrong direction; 3 out of 4 said the eco-nomic situation was bad.

But the real reason the JUI now leads PDM is the fact that at pres-ent it is the only party that can summon numbers on the streets and talk straight to the military brass backing the Imran gov-ernment. In one of the tough-est messages to the formidable Establishment — now largely in

control of the reigns of actual power as prime minister Imran dwindles in relevance — Mau-lana used the provocative imag-ery of the Americans situation in Afghanistan to warn of violence and conflict in Pakistan if the present political persecution in the name of accountability con-tinued. With him in charge of the anti-alliance, it is likely that he would translate some of his hard words into actions and would steer his colleagues in the same direction.

Gulf News

Can Maulana Fazlur Rehman bring down Imran Khan’s government?

International8 Indian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020

Ghani, Khalilzad, US General discuss Afghan peace

Doha/Kabul, Oct 6 (IANS) Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, US peace envoy Zal-may Khalilzad and American Commander Gen. Scott Mill-er held a meeting in Doha to discuss the peace process in the war-torn country.The

meeting took place on Mon-day as Ghani embarked on a two-nation trip earlier in the day to Qatar and Kuwait, re-ports TOLO News.In a series of tweets after the meeting, Khalilzad said:

“I told the President that Afghans should not let the opportunity for peace to slip away.He said he supports the Islamic Republic nego-tiators doing their work as long as it takes. I said I’m encouraged by what I heard from all sides, including the two teams’ commitment to peace.“We call on all na-

tions, especially the neigh-bours and other key players, to do the same.“A significant reduction in violence will save lives; increase trust; broaden support for peace; and help the negotiating teams make progress at a

faster pace. This is what the Afghan people want. And the US stands with them.

“Violence is too high, and too many Afghans are dy-ing... We are pressing for a significant reduction in vio-lence that will lead to a per-manent and comprehensive ceasefire.

“General Miller and I af-firmed ongoing US sup-port to Afghanistan, our partnership, and a peace process meant to pro-duce a political settlement and an end to decades of war.”Also on Monday,

Taliban spokesman Mo-hammad Naeem said that Khalilzad and Gen. Miller met the militant group’s deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed

the implementation of the Doha agreement, calling it “significant for the resolu-tion of Afghanistan issue”.

The opening ceremony for the intra-Afghan talks was held on September 12, but the two sides were yet to begin direct negotiations, TOLO News reported.

Their contact group have so far held seven meetings to discuss procedural rules for the talks.The two sides have yet to agree on two matters: the religious basis for the talks and the relevance of the US-Taliban deal.

Seoul, Oct 6 (IANS) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a politburo meeting of the country’s ruling Work-ers’ Party, during which he launched an “80-day cam-paign” for the development of the economy, state-media reported on Tuesday.

In a report, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said: “The meeting discussed, as its fi rst agenda item, the issue of successfully greeting the Eighth Congress of the Party by waging a dynamic

80-day campaign of the entire party, the whole country and all the people.“The remaining days is the period of year-end struggle and also the last phase of carrying out the fi ve-year

strategy for national economic development put forth at the Seventh Congress of the party.”

In August, Kim admitted that his fi ve-year economic development plan ending this year failed to achieve intended goals due to unexpected inter-nal and external challenges, and pledged to unveil a new scheme, reports Yonhap News Agency.The current fi ve-year economic development plan was adopted when the North held a previous party congress in May 2016.

Kim Jong-un holds politburo meeting of N.Korean ruling party

Dhaka, Oct 6 (IANS) Bangla-desh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned of prompt action against child repression, saying that she was immensely moved by the unnatural death of children across the globe.

“We are taking measures to ensure their (security. We are giving special attention on taking immediate action once repression on children in any

form takes place. We want our children to be safe and be good human beings,” The Daily Star newspaper quoted the premier as saying on Mon-day while virtually inaugurat-ing the World Children’s Day and Child Rights Week-2020.Recalling the assassination of her 10-year-old brother Sheikh Russell, along with other chil-dren and and most of her

family members on August 15, 1975, Hasina said: “I am seriously shocked whenever I witness unnatural death of any child, no matter if it takes place at home or abroad or on the Bay of Bengal or beside the Mediterranean Sea.“We have said that today’s children are the future of the nation. Yes, they are indeed, but we have to build the future generation as

good human beings by creat-ing scopes to utilise their tal-ent, knowledge and intellect.”

The Prime Minister also un-veiled covers of a number of 25 children’s books written on the life and works of her fatherm Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of the ‘Mujib Year’.Referring to Bang-abandhu’s advice to the chil-dren to read attentively and be

worthy citizens of the country, she said: “Children have to pay attention to their studies as no contribution could be made for the country with-out education.”Hasina added that the ‘Father of the Nation’ made primary education free for all and established a 10-bed hospital at every union to en-sure education and healthcare services for all.

Houston, Oct 6 (IANS) At least three people were killed and one other person was injured when a building under construction partially collapsed in the US city of Houston, according to fi re offi cials.

In a statement, the Hous-ton Fire Department said the incident took place on Monday in the area of Town & Country Boulevard, the city-based KTRK-TV station reported.

Assistant Fire Chief Ruy Lozano said the collapse appeared to involve newly constructed stairs, starting at the 13th or 14th fl oor of the 15-storey building.

He said that 240 construction workers were at the site during the accident and all of them have been accounted for.The build-ing is being constructed for the Houston-based Marathon Oil's new headquarters, according to the company's website.

A company spokesperson said in a statement: "We are sad-dened to learn that an accident occurred at the construction site for the future Houston head-quarters of Marathon Oil. We ex-tend our deepest sympathies to the families of those contractors who were affected and thank the fi rst responders.

3 killed in Houston partial building

collapse

Peshawar, Oct 6 (IANS) A pro-fessor was shot dead in Pesha-war by unidentifi ed armed men when he was returning home from his institute, the media reported on Tuesday.

An offi cial said that Professor Naeemuddin of the Government Superior Science College was on his way back when armed men opened fi re on him, reports Geo news.The professor was immediately taken to a hospital for emergency assistance but he succumbed to injuries.The offi cial further said the case was being investigated.Condemning the murder in broad daylight, social media users demanded an early arrest of the murderers.

Professor shot dead in Peshawar

Washington, Oct 6 (IANS) Democratic presi-dential nominee Joe Biden has said that he shouldn't have called US President Donald Trump a clown during the first debate between the two rivals on September 29.

"I should have said this was a clownish undertak-ing instead of calling him a clown," The Hill news website quoted Biden as saying in an NBC News town hall on Monday.

The former Vice Presi-dent said it was hard to engage respectfully with Trump during the 90-min-ute debate, which took a chaotic turn with insults

such as "liar", "just shush for a minute" and "keep yapping"."It was just very difficult. I didn't want to further demean the pro-cess of the debate by get-ting in a shouting match with him.

"I'll be very honest with you. I think it was embar-rassing for the nation to see the president hector-ing like he did," Biden added.

During the debate, in-sults and interruptions took centre-stage as the two rivals tore into each other in the presence Fox News anchor and mod-erator Chris Wallace.The President frequently inter-

rupted and heckled Biden, ignoring repeated pleas from Wallace, for Trump to stick to his allotted time, CNN reported.

Following the heckling, at one point, told the Pres-ident: "Will you shut up, man?"

Even after Trump's Oc-tober 2 announcement that he had tested positive for Covid-19, Biden has continued with his cam-paign, which has halted negative ads against the President due to the de-velopment.The rivals are slated to appear in two more debates, one on Oc-tober 15 and another on October 22.

Shouldn’t have called Trump a clown, says Biden

London, Oct 6 (IANS) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was facing yet another Conser-vative Party rebellion against the 'rule of six' and the 10 p.m. pub curfew, which were im-posed in the country as part of the government's efforts to curb Covid-19 spread, the me-dia reported on Tuesday.

MPs will vote on Tuesday, the day the Prime Minister ad-dresses the virtual Conserva-tive Party conference, on the regulations which enforce the

rule of six in England in order to allow them to continue, the Metro newspaper reported.One of the key rebels, Steve

Baker, said: "Consensus among Conservative MPs seems to be around two points – that chil-dren should be excluded from the rule of six and that the 10 p.m. curfew is not justifi ed by evidence."I wouldn't expect to win a vote on either issue.

The reality is we need to persuade the government on all these matters."Baker fur-ther claimed that hard nego-tiations were happening in order to "keep the Conserva-tive Party together".

UK PM facing ruling party rebellion over Covid-19 curbs

HASINA WARNS OF PROMPT ACTION AGAINST CHILD REPRESSION

Dublin, Oct 6 (IANS) In a tele-vised address to the nation, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin urged citizens to "act now" in order to prevent an "immedi-ate comprehensive lockdown", as the country was readying for level three Covid-19 restrictions which will come into force from Wednesday.

"If we all act now we can stop the need to go further, with in-troducing level four and fi ve restrictions," the BBC quoted Martin as saying in his address on Monday night.

The Prime Minister said mov-ing to level fi ve could have "se-vere implications", including the risk of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The challenge for his govern-ment "at this stage" was to be as "effective and proportionate as possible" in how it deals with

the pandemic, he added.Under the level three restriction, tight-er limitations will be enforced on gatherings and people will be advised to work from home unless absolutely necessary.

It will also require sporting fi xtures to take place behind closed doors, with only profes-sional or elite sporting activities permitted.Martin added that the restrictions will be reviewed in three weeks' time.

Meanwhile, the Donegal and Dublin counties were already placed under level three restric-tions in recent weeks, the BBC reported.

On Monday, Ireland reported were 518 new coronavirus cas-es, with no deaths.The coun-try's overall caseload currently stands at 38,549 with a total of 1,810 fatalities.

Act now to prevent lockdown: Irish PM

Tel Aviv, Oct 6 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu said that although the country has witnessed a drop in Covid-19 infections, it was still "too early" to ease the on-going three-week anti-corona-virus lockdown.

His remarks came after the coronavirus cabinet con-vened a meeting on Mon-day to discuss the pandemic situation in the country, The Times of Israel reported.In a video posted on Twitter, the Prime Minister said that "it's

too early to say if it will hold", as experts have recommend-ed about a week's wait to see if the trend continued.

He added that while Israel was the fi rst to impose a sec-ond complete lockdown, many European countries were pre-paring to follow suit.

In the meeting, the Cabinet did not make any changes to the ongoing curbs and is slated to meet on October 12 to re-view the state of the pandemic.

Also on Monday, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said:

"If the morbidity rate contin-ues to decrease, we will work to reduce the restrictions, open businesses that do not receive customers, and open early childhood education."

On Monday, Israel reported less than 3,000 single-day cases registered the previous day, ac-cording to the Health Ministry.

Too early to ease anti-coronavirus lockdown:

NetanyahuWasington, Oct 6 (IANS)

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 35.3 million, while the deaths have increased to more than 1,042,600, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Tuesday, the total number of cases stood at 35,396,981 and the fatalities rose to 1,042,679, the Univer-sity's Center for Systems Sci-ence and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 7,455,184 and 210,155, respectively, accord-ing to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 6,623,815, while the country's death toll soared to 102,685.

The other top 15 countries with the maximum amount of cases are Brazil (4,915,289), Russia (1,219,796), Colombia (862,158), Peru (828,169), Spain (813,412), Argentina (809,728), Mexico (789,780), South Africa (682,215), France (664,289), the UK (518,222), Iran (475,674), Chile (471,746), Iraq (382,949), Bangladesh (370,132), and Saudi Arabia (336,766), the CSSE fi gures showed.Brazil currently

accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 146,352.

The countries with a death toll above 10,000 are Mexico (81,877), the UK (42,459), Italy (36,002), Peru (32,742), France (32,317), Spain (32,225), Iran (27,192), Colombia (26,844), Argentina (21,468), Russia (21,375), South Africa (17,016), Chile (13,037), Ecuador (11,681), Indonesia (11,253) and Bel-gium (10,064).

GLOBAL COVID 19 CASES TOP 35.3MN

Business 9Indian Horizon Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Banking, finance stocks lift Sensex 600 points

India lifts restrictions on export of N95 masks

Energy transition poses varying degrees of credit risk

to NOCs : Moody’s

JSPL reports 30% steel sales growth in Q2 FY21

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) has beaten the trend again reporting healthy growth in production and sales volume during Ju-ly-September quarter in the midst of an economic crisis triggered by the corona-virus pandemic.

The company continued its onward march with a record 30 per cent (Y-o-Y) growth in consolidated steel sales of 2.41 million tonnes in Q2FY21 as compared to 1.85 million tonnes in Q2 FY 20.

The company also reported a 18 per cent (Y-o-Y) growth in consolidated steel production with 2.35 million tonnes in the second quarter as compared to 1.99 million tonnes in Q2FY20.

With the revival of domestic steel de-mand, JSPL also recorded 29 per cent (Y-o-Y) growth in standalone steel sales with

1.93 million tonnes in the July-Septem-ber quarter of FY21 as compared to 1.49 million tonnes in the same period of the previous quarter.

The company also reported a 16 per cent rise in (Y-o-Y) standalone steel production with 1.84 million tonnes in Q2FY21 as compared to 1.58 million tonnes in Q2FY20.

Steel exports contributed to 38 per cent of the total sales volumes of the company with 0.74 million tonnes. The JSPL’s Bar-bil Pellet plant recorded the highest ever quarterly pellet production of 2.01 mil-lion tonnes in Q2FY21.

“We are ramping up sales & produc-tion, as India comes out of the lockdown effect and ramps up its economic ac-tivities towards a renewed growth path,” said V.R. Sharma, Managing Director, JSPL in a statement.

JSPL is an industrial conglomerate with a dominant presence in steel, power, mining and infrastructure sectors. Hav-ing an investment of $ 12 billion across the globe, the company is continuously scaling its capacity utilisation and ef-ficiencies to capture opportunities for building a self-reliant India.

Amazon announces its Great Indian Festival from Oct 17

‘Airport service providers need to reassess their business model’

Foreign firms flouting MSME tendering norms: CEAI to Gadkari

Data, trust and skills to drive AI adoption in India: IBM CEO

Petrol, diesel prices unchanged, crude firms after fall

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Amazon India on Tuesday announced its Great Indian Festival (GIF) from October 17, a day af-ter Flipkart will kick off its ‘Big Billion Days’ sale. Amazon Prime members will get early access starting October 16.

More than 6.5 lakh sellers will offer crores of products on Amazon.in and customers can shop from over 4 crore products from small and medium busi-nesses (SMBs) and products from over 20,000 local shops across 100 cities, Ama-zon.in said in a statement.

The customers can save more with 10 per cent instant discount with HDFC Bank debit and credit cards, no-Cost EMI on credit and debit cards, exchange

offers, and win daily shopping rewards worth Rs 10,000 on Amazon Pay.

“This year’s Great Indian Festival is an opportunity for our sellers and partners to reach millions of customers across the country. Our sellers are excited and expect this to help them in accelerating their business,” said Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India said.

The customers can look forward to over 900 new product launches from top brands. “For our customers, our aim is to help them find everything they need dur-ing the festive season and deliver it safely to them”. Over one lakh local shops and kiranas have been enabled by Amazon to serve customers during the festive season.

The customers can now use voice to quickly narrow their search for prod-ucts, top deals, including Alexa-exclusive deals, Amazon.in said.

Indians can shop in one of the six lan-guages -- English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) As the pandemic has severely impacted the aviation sector, a report by Kearney has sug-gested that there is a need for airport service providers to reassess their business mod-els to become more resilient to external shocks.

The report noted that Co-vid-19 has brought the avia-tion sector to a grinding halt. External disruptions and ca-tastrophes in the past indicate that the sector is particularly prone to being severely hit by such events.

Demand has taken a signifi-cant downturn, which inevi-tably impacts the supply-side

ecosystem and erodes value for service providers, includ-ing airlines and airport devel-opers and operators.

“As a result, there is an ur-gent need for these service providers to reassess their business models and explore business diversification strat-egies to make themselves more resilient to external shocks,” said the report titled

aBuilding future-ready air-port business models’.

Manish Mathur, partner and head of Kearney’s Asia Pacific, Transportation and Infrastructure Practice noted that the aviation sector is particularly susceptible to disruptions like Covid, and such shocks can significantly reduce passenger traffic, es-pecially in the short term.

For airports, where passen-ger-driven revenue streams drive more than 60 per cent of revenues even for best-in-class airports in the world, these disruptions canlead to acute financial pressures, he said. “Hence, it is critical for airport owners and opera-tors to reassess their business models and improve their re-silience in dealing with exter-nal shocks” he said.

Pablo Escutia, Kearney partner from Spain and Glob-al lead for Kearney’s airports vertical, said: “While most airports across the globe are moving towards non-aero-nautical revenue streams,

only a few leading ones such as Frankfurt, Changi are di-versifying their operations to generate meaningful returns from passenger-independent revenue streams such as by utilising real estate assets. It is the need of the hour for airport operators to start con-sidering diversification strat-egies to make their business models more robust”

The report suggests three diversification strategies, sweating real estate assetsto extract the most value, initi-ating capex-light service of-ferings with quick speed to market and geographic diver-sification of core business.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) An engineering profession-als body has written to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari alleg-ing that foreign companies are flouting the MSME ten-dering norms.

The Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI), in a letter to Gadkari, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Ministry of Road Trans-port and Highways (MoRTH) has drawn the attention of the government towards flout-ing of the MSME tendering norms by “the powerful for-eign companies”.

“The Union Government had recently changed the tendering system to benefit the small and medium en-terprises in the country by

limiting tenders below Rs 200 crore for Indian companies only. But the provisions are being flouted by powerful for-eign companies wherein they set up business operations in India by incorporating a com-pany under Companies Act 2013 either as Joint Ventures or Wholly owned subsidiaries or a Liaison/Representative Office.

“These entities operate as an Indian Company, duly complying with the provi-sions of the Indian Company Law and Indian tax laws.

The current definition al-lows such companies to en-joy all benefits provided to Indian companies, especially the MSME’s,” said Amitabha Ghosal,President, Consulting Engineers Association of In-

dia (CEAI).“At present for all practical

purposes, these foreign com-panies become Indian com-pany under the ACT, do their business and after paying due taxes, accrue the profits after tax to their parent company abroad, there by depleting the country of precious Forex reserves.

The parent company in turn assists them with low in-terest funds in comparison to a home-grown Indian Com-pany which borrows from banks for their operations at relatively higher rates of in-terest.

This is clearly not a case of providing equitable and fair opportunities to the Indian Companies whose contribu-tion, besides to the country’s

economy is also towards de-veloping skilled workforce, and providing employment” said K.K. Kapila, Chairman, Infrastructure Committee, CEAI.

“Therefore, in line with the philosophy of growth of the rightful stakeholders, the evolving global scenario during Covid-19 when every country is focused on pro-moting their own business community and economic growth, there is an urgent need to address the country of origin to be eligible to bid for the government Tenders.

Taking a leaf out of prac-tices in the West and Middle-East, the definition of the In-dian company must take into account the Nationality of the stakeholder,” said Kapila.

Mumbai, Oct 6 (IANS) The Indian stock market surged on Tuesday, with the BSE Sensex jumping 600 points backed by healthy buying in banking and finance stocks.

The BSE Finance index rose 3.04 per cent while the Banking index was up 2.06 per cent. The BSE Auto index also increased 1.25 per cent due to healthy sales numbers reported by auto companies for September. The Sensex closed at 39,574.57, higher by 600.87 points, or 1.54 per cent, from the previous close of 38,973.70.

It had opened at 39,336.34 and touched an intra-day high of 39,623.76 and a low of 39,191.10 points.

The Nifty50 on the Nation-al Stock Exchange closed at 11,662.40, higher by 159.05 points, or 1.38 per cent, from its previous close.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC (8.35 per cent), IndusInd Bank (3.44 per cent) and Mahindra & Mahin-dra (3.33 per cent). The major losers were Tata Steel (down 1.26 per cent), Nestle India (1.03 per cent) and Larsen & Toubro (0.46 per cent).

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Commerce Ministry has lifted the restriction on export of N95 masks. Post the decision, masks of all categories can be exported from India.

“The export policy of N-95/FFP-2 masks or its equivalent is amended from ‘restricted’ to ‘free’ category making all types of masks freely export-able,” a notification by the Di-rectorate General of Foreign Trade said.

In August, the government had allowed the export of N95 masks, up to a limit of 50 lakh units per month.

Earlier, exports were totally barred to cater to the domes-tic demand amid the corona-virus pandemic. The domestic production of masks and PPE overalls have significantly in-creased in the past six months, and sector players have been asking the government to lift the curb on exports.

Singapore, Oct 6 (IANS) Energy transition poses vary-ing degrees of credit risk to the world’s largest national oil companies (NOCs), with many of the risks and oppor-tunities ahead defined by the countries they operate in and sovereign strategies, Moody’s Investors Service has said in a new report.

“NOCs play a critical role in the world’s energy markets, dwarfing their counterparts in the private sector - the in-ternational oil companies - in terms of global oil and gas production and reserves,” said Hui Ting Sim, a Moody’s Analyst.

“Against the backdrop of slowing oil and gas consump-tion over the next few de-cades, with the potential for a more abrupt disruption to demand, the NOCs’ sovereign sponsors will increasingly im-pact credit profiles by either

providing support or acting as a drag,” added Sim.

NOCs in oil importing countries where consump-tion will keep growing are less exposed to carbon transition risk than those in oil export-ing countries. Characteristics such as low production costs, a high proportion of natural gas or liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets, low leverage and social obligations also simply lower risk.

The impact of sovereign support on NOCs’ credit pro-files depends on its ability and willingness to provide support even when oil consumption is declining, the degree of its re-liance on the NOC for its rev-enue, and whether it is rated above or below the NOC’s rat-ing. And while some NOCs are changing for business reasons or to align with government climate change policies, the ability of others.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Stress-ing that artificial intelligence (AI) is a driver of economic growth, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has said that a greater AI adoption is driven by three imperatives -- data, trust and skills -- and this is where India should focus its efforts.

Speaking at the Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE 2020) global summit, Krishna said that getting AI done right is diffi-cult and we’re only at about four per cent into the journey globally.

“The basic premise is this -- to run, AI needs good data. Like other sources of capital, the value comes from how you refine and apply it,” he told the audience during the vir-tual event.

“The second imperative is trust. This is paramount. Especially when you are applying AI in high-ly-regulated and safety-critical do-mains like healthcare, for instance. Instilling trust in AI means avoid-ing bias, being explainable and being able to reproduce results,” Krishna elaborated.

The five-day ‘RAISE 2020’, a vir-tual summit on AI, was inaugu-rated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

According to Krishna, the third and final imperative for success in AI is skills.

“Building AI models can be a daunting and labor-intensive task. And there’s a massive skills short-age. I’m proud of the investments IBM is making in the future of In-dian skills,” he said.

AI is slated to unlock $15.7 tril-lion in productivity by 2030.

“That is a big number. But AI has the potential to not only boost economic growth but improve the livelihoods of millions around the world,’ said Krishna.

Krishna called Hybrid Cloud and AI “the two dominant forces driv-ing digital transformation.”

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Diesel and petrol prices remained un-changed on Tuesday with oil mar-keting extending the pause after reducing fuel prices, particularly diesel, for the past several days.

This is the fourth consecutive day when both petrol and diesel prices have remained unchanged. In fact, petrol prices have remained steady for the last 14 days.

The development is in line with the movement of global oil prices. Crude prices remained soft for

most the previous week and fell al-most 10 per cent to close to $ 49 a barrel. In the last couple of days, it has risen and is now around $ 41.5 a barrel.

Continuing coronavirus pan-demic has impacted oil demand and pushed down prices in the ab-sence of any other trigger to lift the markets.

In the national capital, diesel continues to be priced at Rs 70.46 per litre. Similarly, prices of the fuel in Mumbai, Chennai and Kol-kata, is also stable at Rs 76.86, Rs 75.95 and Rs 73.99 respectively.

The price of petrol in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata remains at Rs 81.06, Rs 87.74, Rs 84.14 and Rs 82.59 per litre respec-tively.

Business indian Horizon Wednesday, October 7, 202010

LNG imports set to pick up as India unlocks

sensex up 350 points; finance, auto stocks rise

Mumbai, Oct 6 (IANS) The key Indian equity indi-ces opened on a positive note on Tuesday, with the BSE Sensex gaining over 350 points.

Healthy buying was witnessed in finance and auto stocks. A largely positive trend in the Asian markets also supported the Indian indices.

Around 10.15 a.m., Sensex was trading at 39,332.45, higher by 358.75 points or 0.92 per cent from the previous close of 38,973.70.

It opened at 39,336.34 and has so far touched an intra-day high of 39,374.57 and a low of 39,191.10.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 11,602.35, higher by 99.00 points or 0.86 per cent from the previous close.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC, Ma-hindra & Mahindra and Asian Paints, while the ma-jor losers were TCS, Infosys and NTPC.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) As gas demand picks up in the country in the unlock phase, imports are set to pick up in coming months with increased shipments at ports to receive liquefied natural gas (LNG). The LNG imports are also expected to pick up as gas transportation utility GAIL has reopened its five million tonne Ratnagiri LNG terminal on the West coast after monsoon related forced a shut-down in May.

A GAIL official said that imports at Ratnagiri have resumed and would soon reach normal levels.

The PSU receives around 5 LNG cargoes a month at Ratnagiri but since lockdown one in March, im-ports have remained hit and cargo unloading has only started in late September.

Gas imports form an important component of meeting India’s overtake energy Demand. But with Covid induced demand suppression, imports were badly hit. Now with demand returning back to pre covid levels, there is an expectation that LNG car-goes would start hitting the Indian shores at much more regular intervals.

India meets about half of its daily 160-170 million standard cubic meters (mmscm) of gas demand through imports. But imports had slipped sharply in April. The unlock phase has started bringing back demand . The unlock has again put demand back in the CGD segment where more households are get-ting connected to piped gas.

RBi’s MPC meet on Oct 7-9 as Centre appoints

external membersMumbai, Oct 6 (IANS) The Reserve

Bank of India will announce the mone-tary policy on October 9 as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet dur-ing October 7-9.The announcement by the Central bank comes after the govern-ment filled the vacancies of three exter-nal members in the committee.

“The next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled during October 7 to October 9, 2020,” RBI said in a statement on Tuesday.

The government on Monday appoint-ed Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R. Varma and Shashanka Bhide as members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI.

Ashima Goyal is a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic ad-visory council.

Jayanth Varma is a finance and ac-counting professor at the Indian Insti-tute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Koovs.com pips Flipkart, Amazon in customer experience in IndiaNew Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS)

As Indians look for seam-less, safe and personalised online shopping experi-ences in the social dis-tancing times, online fash-ion site Koovs.com has topped the digital retailer rankings for customer ex-perience this year, beating out Flipkart, Myntra, Am-azon and Snapdeal, a new report said on Tuesday.

According to Forrester’s ‘India 2020 CX Index’, Koovs.com also scored at least 3 percentage points more than the next digital retailer (which was Flip-kart at 72.3 on a scale of 100).

Koovs.com scored 75.6

on a scale of 100 while Amazon scored 69.6 while Myntra did better with 70.4. The industry average was 70.6.

In addition, the digital retail industry had the lowest industry average score, behind the auto manufacturers, credit card issuers and banks.

In general, seven in 10 customers had good ex-

periences with Indian brands -- with 10 per cent even reporting having excellent experiences de-spite Covid-19.

“Lack of differentiated experiences is a problem that Indian brands must solve,” said Amit Bhatia, senior analyst at Forrester.

The first step to creating differentiated CX is under-standing the customers’

goals and what they need to achieve them.

“CX Index data shows that even a minor im-provement to a brand’s customer experience quality can increase rev-enue by reducing cus-tomer churn and increas-ing share of wallet,” Bhatia said. The findings are an eye-opener as the country is nearing the festive sea-son which is expected to fetch record sales this year despite the pandemic.

Even though the pan-demic has led to a dip in consumer spending and overall sentiment, three brands -- Toyota Kirlos-kar, Mahindra & Mahin-

dra, and American Express -- provided consistently excellent experiences to their customers.

“When we examined how customers rated how effectively brands meet their needs, standouts like Toyota Kirloskar and American Express have a 12-point and 8-point ad-vantage, respectively, over the average in their indus-tries,” Bhatia said.

Based on a survey of more than 7,000 custom-ers, Forrester’s CX Index benchmarked the CX quality of 28 brands across four industries, including automakers, banks, credit card issuers, and digital

retailers.In all four industries, the

survey revealed that the ranked brands are unable to differentiate from the competition.

As a result, the brands are unable to realise the full benefits of consumer experience, which include growing revenue faster, charging more for prod-ucts, and forgiveness for any missteps.

“In the digital retail industry, for example, among customers who felt disappointed, just 32 per cent plan to remain with the brand, 30 per cent plan to spend more with the brand.

Over 100 brands, 200 special edition products at Flipkart BBD sale

Pandemic-hit fashion retailers to see revenue dip 35-42%: iCRA

Bengaluru, Oct 6 (IANS) Flip-kart on Tuesday said it will un-veil over 200 special edition products in partnership with more than 100 leading brands during its ‘Big Billion Days’ sale that begins from October 16 till October 21.

The products will be across categories including fashion, electronics, mobile phones, large appliances, personal care, handicrafts and others.

“The phenomenal response we received from the entire eco-system for the Big Billion Days

Specials in 2019 encouraged us to partner with an even larger

number of brands and celeb-rities to make it extra special

for consumers this year,” said Nandita Sinha, Vice President-Events, Engagement & Mer-chandising at Flipkart.

The number of partnerships for this year’s ‘Big Billion Days Specials’ has more than dou-bled.

Some of the Big Billion Days Specials that customers will get access to this year include Mo-torola (India’s first 3-in-1 smart wireless device), an ethnic range curated by actress Kareena Ka-poor for Imara; exclusive Virat Kohli Line of One8 products;

Denver which is Shahrukh Khan’s new autograph range; Bluestar virus deactivator AC; Nokia smart TVs and more.

Some of the Big Billion Days Specials products will give cus-tomers a chance to meet favou-rite celebrities, including Virat Kohli, Salman Khan and Ananya Pandey, said the company.

“We are confident our part-nerships and special edition products will help onboard new customers and chart a sharper growth trajectory for our partner brands,” Sinha said.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The coronavirus outbreak has adversely impacted the credit profile of the Indian retail in-dustry as consumers deferred their discretionary spends, amid the shutdown of malls across the country as well as closure of non-essential stores across most states in the country.

According to rating agency ICRA, value and lifestyle fash-ion retailers are expected to

witness 35-42 per cent decline in revenues in FY21, with an expected decline in their op-erating profit margin (OPM) by 300-500 bps. Accordingly, it has assigned a ‘Negative’ credit outlook on the value and lifestyle fashion retailers.

According to the agency, given the pronounced rev-enue decline, the fashion re-tailers will witness a material weakening in their credit pro-file in FY2021, though some

of the retailers have strong liquidity and/or financial sup-port from a strong parentage.

The F&G retailers are ex-pected to report 3-7 per cent revenue growth in FY2021, with increased proportion of food and staple products (vis-a-vis general merchandise) in their revenue mix, it said.

While this would weaken their gross margins on a Y-o-Y basis, no material weakening in the credit metrics of F&G

retailers is expected, ICRA said.

Sakshi Suneja, Assistant Vice President, ICRA, said: “Value and lifestyle fashion retailers reported a whopping 81 per cent Y-o-Y revenue de-cline in Q1 FY2021, adversely impacted by the lockdown during the first 1.5 months of Q1 FY2021.

“Revenues in Q2 FY2021, though improved sequen-tially, are substantially lower

on a Y-o-Y basis, in the back-drop of local lockdowns and restrictions. Meaningful ramp up in sales is expected from Q3 FY2021 onwards, led by increased demand during the festive season and substantial easing of restrictions under the new unlock guidelines with effect from September 1, 2020.”

Given the high operating leverage of the retail business and against the backdrop of

sharp revenue decline, most of the fashion retailers invoked the force majeure clauses in their rental agreements to save on the rental costs during the period of lockdown. These entities are also negotiating their rental agreements with the landlords to convert their fixed rental charges into vari-able upon commercialisation of operations for FY2021.

To conserve cash and op-timise working capital, most

retailers have restricted fresh inventory purchase during April to October as they are looking to carry forward their spring-summer inventory till the autumn season.

Nonetheless, given the ex-pected pronounced revenue decline and changing con-sumption patterns (with in-creased demand for casual wear), the OPM of retailers like Aditya Birla Fashion, Fu-ture Lifestyle Fashions.

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Reopening of business units amid relaxed lockdown rules has led to a broadly stable output across India’s service sector in September.

Accordingly, the season-ally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index rose for the fifth straight month in September, from 41.8 (index reading) in August to 49.8.

“The latest reading was indicative of broadly stable output across the sector. Monitored companies that observed growth commented on the reopening of business units amid the loosening of lockdown rules,” the IHS

Markit said in the PMI report.“Firms that reported a con-

traction mentioned the dam-aging impact of the pandemic on demand.”

Consequently, following contractions in each of the previous five months, private sector activity in India ex-panded during September.

The upturn was supported by the sharpest increase in manufacturing production in close to 13 years and a stabili-sation of services activity.

Resultantly, the Composite PMI Output Index signalled a marked rate of activity growth across the private sector economy.

september services output stable, overall pvt sector activity up: PMi

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) As part of the plan to develop a gas-based economy in the country by making natural gas available across the upcoun-try regions, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dhar-mendra Pradhan on Tuesday dedicated 42 CNG stations and 3 City Gate Stations (CGS) of Torrent Gas to the service of the community.

The CNG stations are lo-cated across various states, including 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 8 in Maharashtra, 6 in Guja-rat, 4 in Punjab and 5 each in Telangana and Rajasthan. The City Gate Stations include one each in Uttar Pradesh, Maha-rashtra and Punjab.

“Making natural gas avail-

able in upcountry regions will encourage consumers to adopt this cleaner and cheaper fuel, thereby having a positive impact on the en-vironment and benefiting the citizens at large.

“The government intends to increase the number of CNG

stations in the country from approximately 3,000 currently to 10,000 within the next 4 to 5 years. The CGD industry has a key role to play in creating the next generation gas infra-structure,” Pradhan said while launching the new stations in a virtual conference.

The minister also called on CGD companies to become comprehensive energy retail-ers and digitise their services as well as payment systems so that energy can be delivered at citizen’s door steps in the coming days. He also empha-sised on how digitisation in the energy sector can create employment, reduce import dependency and make way for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

With the completion of these 42 CNG stations, Tor-rent Gas has now commis-sioned 100 CNG stations. The company has the au-thorisation to lay City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in 32 districts across 7 States and 1 Union Territory. Very soon Torrent Gas will make CNG and PNG available in Chennai, the only metro city where CNG and PNG are not available.

Pradhan launches 42 CnG stations, 3 City Gate stations of Torrent Gas

Rolls-Royce to deliver 29 MW gas power plant for Dhamra LnG terminalNew Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS)

Rolls-Royce has signed a con-tract with Dhamra LNG Ter-minal Pvt. Ltd. (DLTPL) for the complete engineering, procurement and construc-tion (EPC) delivery of a 29 MW gas-based power plant for the LNG terminal.

DLTPL is a joint venture be-tween Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Group and French energy major To-tal S.A, located on the eastern coast of Odisha in India.

The LNG terminal will func-tion as a reception facility for import of LNG, where LNG tankers can directly unload cargo and converting the LNG gas from liquid state to gas-

eous state.The highly efficient power

plant will meet the baseload capacity of the LNG terminal and will offer high reliability and availability of more than 98 per cent. The core equip-ment for the new gas-based power plant will include three 9.6 MW gensets, based on the

20-cylinder Rolls-Royce Ber-gen B35:40 gas engines. These medium-speed gas engines are characterized by high availability and low operating costs. The engine’s efficient combustion technology, in addition to being fuelled by a clean LNG fuel, also ensures low environmental impact

coupled with improved per-formance.

Dhamra LNG CEO, S.P.Singh, said: “We are de-lighted to have a Rolls-Royce company supplying us with the critical power system for our upcoming terminal in Odisha. Rolls-Royce’s selec-tion followed a thoroughly competitive tendering process and we are reassured by their extensive experience in the area of power systems both globally and for Indian LNG terminals.”

When commissioned in the end of 2021, the Dhamra LNG Terminal will be the second LNG plant in India that is pow-ered by Rolls-Royce Bergen

medium speed engines. Rolls-Royce has earlier supplied and commissioned a 28 MW power plant in 2018, running on LNG fuel to the Indian Oil Corpora-tion LNG Terminal at Ennore, Tamil Nadu.

Designed for an initial ca-pacity of 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), expandable up to 10 MTPA, the proposed Dhamra LNG import and re-gasification terminal will ini-tially have two full contain-ment type tanks of 180,000 m3 capacity each.

Rolls-Royce will be manag-ing the engineering, procure-ment, and construction of the new gas power plant for the LNG terminal.

Sports Indian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 202011

Rohit Sharma just 86 short of

4,000 runs for MI

Abu Dhabi, Oct 6 (IANS/GloFans) As Mumbai Indians (MI) get ready to take on an off-colour Rajasthan Royals (RR) here on Tuesday, MI captain Rohit Sharma will particularly look forward to scoring 86 more runs that will take him to 4,000 runs while representing his home city in the IPL.

Rohit, though, has also represented the erstwhile Deccan Chargers.Team wise, however, there is little to differentiate between RR MI in the IPL. Both teams have won 10 games each in head to head contests. But on current form, MI look favourites.

The Rohit Sharma-led MI will aim for a hat-trick of wins after winning their previous two games against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) comprehensively.

Four-time champions MI have been clinical in all the departments of the game. Batsmen Rohit and Ishan Kishan have been in sublime form while Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya and Keiron Pollard have also equally supported the top-order with their cameos down the order.

Their major concern, Quinton de Kock, has finally regained touch after his blistering 67 against SRH.Meanwhile, MI bowlers -- Jasprit Bumrah, James Pattinson and Trent Boult -- have also performed decently enough as they have succeeded in giving some tough time to the opposition.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ADVANCE TO FRENCH OPEN QUARTERSParis, Oct 6 (IANS) World

number one Novak Djokovic has entered the quarterfinals of the French Open, defeating 15th seed Karen Khachanov of Russia in his fourth-round contest.

On Monday, Djokovic defeated 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 over the Russian 15th seed in a match that lasted for two hours and 23 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier. He will now face No.17 seed Carreno Busta in his last eight encounter.

Meanwhile, Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek player in history to reach the quarter-finals at the Roland Garros, defeating Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6(9),

6-2. He will next lock horns with Andrey Rublev, who had the upper hand against him in their Hamburg final just eight days ago.

"It is very important for me to take this opportunity and fight harder this time, maybe do something better," said Tsitsipas, who also fell to the Russian No.13 seed at the US Open last year.

"He's going to be difficult to play against. He has a very complete, solid game from all the departments. He has improved a lot his serve. He relies a lot on his power.He has very powerful shots. I think he for sure brings the best out of me when I step out on the court to play against him," he added.

Novak Djokovic said that he had a "very awkward deja vu" when he accidentally hit a ball at the head of a line judge at during his 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win in the fourth round of the French Open over Russia's Karen Khachanov.“My gosh, it was very awkward deja vu.

BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR RULED

OUT OF IPL

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabads (SRH) bowling mainstay Bhuvneshwar Kumar has succumbed to injury once again, the latest injury ruling him out of this years IPL.The India fast bowler, who has

been Sunrisers’ trump card in the death overs and has rarely missed a game for his IPL franchise, had to limp off the field in the last match against Chennai Super Kings after pulling up while bowling his last over.“Bhuvneshwar Kumar

is ruled out of #Dream11IPL 2020 due to injury. Prithvi Raj Yarra will replace Bhuvi for the remainder of the season,” tweeted SRH from their official handle.Bhuvi, as he is fondly known among teammates and fans, has suffered a spate

of injuries recently and that has put a question mark on the future of his career.One of the best exponents with a new ball, the right-arm bowler has added skills in death bowling at Sunrisers Hyderabad which has made him valuable in

limited overs cricket.During the 2018 IPL, he had to sit out of five matches because of back trouble and then missed a few games on the limited-overs tour of England before being forced to return home midway through the Test series.

Kuwait City, Oct 6 (IANS) The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has received the official bids from the cities of Doha, Qatar and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia offering to host the 21st Asian Games

slated to be held in 2030.The OCA Evaluation Committee, chaired by Wei Jizhong, Life Vice President OCA, will be visiting both the candidate cities in the third week of October to assess the bids,

the organisation stated in a media release on Monday.The host city of the 21st Asian Games 2030 will be decided at the 39th OCA General Assembly, due to be held in Muscat, Oman,

on December 16.The 19th Asian Games will be held in the city of Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25, 2022 and the 20th Asian Games will be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in 2026.

OCA receives bid documents from Asian Games candidate cities

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Captain Rani Rampal and goal-keeper Savita Punia can guide the Indian women's hockey team to a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics next year, according to legendary former India captain Dhanraj Pillay.

"We have one of the best captains in Rani. I think Rani and goal-keeper Savita can take the team to a podium finish.

The team is working really hard, preparing for the Olympics, and am confident of a good show," Pillay said on Indian table tennis player Mudit Dani's online chat show 'In The Sportlight'.Both players have been crucial in the women's team's recent

endeavours in international hockey. Both were part of the teams that achieved podium finishes at the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games and played a central role in India's campaign at the Olympic qualifiers last year.

Rani, 25, impressed greatly as she led India to the podium at the 2018 Asian Games and also guided the team to a spot at the Olympics for the second successive time.

And goal-keeper Punia, who is one of the most experienced players in the team, has also played a crucial role in the qualifiers.Pillay feels the sport in India has come a long way. "What hockey I played and what these players have been

playing for the last 10-15 years, there is no match," said the 52-year-old former India captain who made 339 appearances in his illustrious 15-year long career.

"The current players are playing based on their fitness abilities. Fitness has changed Indian hockey and also the players are very serious about their physique and endurance abilities.

Today, the Indian team can be compared with Australia or the Netherlands or Germany. They can give a tough fight to any team in the world."

Rani, who is the first Indian to be named as the World Games Athlete of The Year, has also been the recipient of the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri.

Rani, Savita can lead India to podium finish in Olympics: Pillay

Enna (Italy), Oct 6 (IANS) Geraint Thomas is out of Giro d'Italia contention while Simon Yates lost four minutes and 22 seconds on a disastrous day for British riders in Stage 3 of the ongoing Italian Grand Tour. Thomas finished 11 minutes behind the group of GC leaders, who crossed a minute down on the stage winner.

It was a brilliant stage for EF Pro Cycling, who took the headlines for something other than their sublime kit as Jonathan Caicedo broke away to win at the summit of Mount Etna.

He made a huge effort to get into the initial breakaway when it went up the road and was helped along the flatter part of the stage by teammate Lawson

Craddock.When Craddock finally packed it in, Caicedo forged on with Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu) and was strong enough to drop the Italian rider about halfway up the climb.

Caicedo finished 10 seconds ahead of the chasing Visconti, with Lotto Soudal's Harm Vanhoucke in third. Wilco Kelderman secured fourth, the best placed of the pre-race GC hopefuls.

Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) assumes the race lead, on the exact same time as Caicedo.With the win, Caicedo takes the lead of the climbers' classification after his haul of points for winning the mountain top finish, with Diego Ulissi retaining the ciclamino points jersey.

GIRO D’ITALIA: Thomas out of

contention as Caicedo wins Stage 3

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The launch of the AIFF motto 'Indian Football Forward Together' also saw the AIFF Masters classroom sessions kicking-off at the Football House in the national capital.

25 students are part of the inaugural course which is the first-ever sports management course to have been organised by any sports federation in the country, as per an AIFF media release.

"It's significant that all of you are at Football House on the same day as the AIFF motto is being launched," AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said. "No pandemic has ever won against human nature. We have adhered to the medical parameters which cater to the safety of all involved with this course," he added.

The first batch of the masters program will be providing the students with complete hands-on experimental training in every aspect in football in India and abroad through live tournament exposure, match staging, clubs and team management, data management, leadership and project management skills, contractual and legal obligations, sponsorship marketing and business communication as well.

Enlightening the students about the governing structure of AIFF, AFC and FIFA along with AIFF's strategic plan, Das stated: "Football managers are the key in the overall ecosystem of football, and therein lies the significance of this specially designed course."

Classroom sessions for AIFF Masters kick-off

FC Goa commence training for / season

Panaji, Oct 6 (IANS) FC Goa have started preparations for the upcoming football season in which the team will defend its ISL League Winners' Shield in addition to representing India in the AFC Champions League.

The team, under assistant coach Clifford Miranda, have begun pre-season with the majority of the Indian contingent. Only Ishan Pandita and Len Doungel, who are currently undergoing their quarantine period as per the League protocols are yet to join.The club said that the players went through their paces in the

first few days, with the focus being on regaining their fitness after a long off-season owing to the current pandemic. Since Saturday, the team has been doing double sessions both at the training ground and the gym to work on their physical attributes, core and sharpness along with on the ball drills.

"This has been a long and unusual off-season for us all. It's been tough for us all. Now to get back on to the ground and start doing the things that we love, I am thrilled," said midfielder Lenny Rodrigues."This pre-season will be crucial

like every other. But the circumstances through which we have gone through and to come this far, this feels like an achievement. It's unusual this season because we are used to seeing fans throng the ground for our first practice session of the season. For now, I would like to tell them that we know that you have us in your hearts and we yearn as much as you to do this together."The initial days of the camp will see the Gaurs practice at the Ella Ground in Old Goa before switching to the club's practice facility in Salvador do Mundo.

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ENTERTAINMENTIndian HorizonIndian HorizonWednesday, October 7, 2020

KAJAL AGGARWAL TO TIE THE

KNOT ON OCTOBER 30

GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI: ALIA BHATT RESUMES SHOOT WITH NIGHT SHIFT FOR THE SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI FILM

Gangubai Kathiawadi is adapted from one of the chapters from Hussain Zaidi's book, Mafi a Queens of Mumbai. It tells the story of the madam of a brothel owner who had gangsters as her clients.

Alia Bhatt plays the titular role in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali fi lm.

To be really honest, we are loving the fact that the shoots of fi lms and

TV shows have resumed. It's heartening to people slowly returning to their jobs which they love so much.

Quite a few fi lms have re-sumed the shooting and the recent on to join the league of shooting amidst pandemic is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Gan-gubai Kathiawadi.

Over the last few weeks, Alia Bhatt who is leading this bio-graphical crime drama made frequent visits to the fi lmmak-er's offi ce.

And now as per reports, the actress has resumed shooting for Gangubai Kathiawadi and is currently on a night shift. Yes, you read that right.

The shooting is taking place at Film City and the studio has come up with stricter guide-lines on shooting amidst pan-

demic. A source close to the development of the same told Mid-Day, "To maintain conti-nuity, Sanjay sir picked up the shoot exactly from where he had left it.

Since October 1, Alia and the team have been reporting to the set by 7 pm, and the stint goes on till the wee hours of the morning.

Although a part of the grand set had been pulled down ahead of the monsoons, the portion resembling Kamathi-pura had been left untouched. So, the director has been able to shoot without any hiccup."

The source added that a song sequence was shot ear-lier and there's more to come. "A 50-member team, includ-ing the cast, has been hand-picked for this schedule that will see Sanjay sir wrap up Alia's scenes. While television actor Shantanu Maheshwari

had fi lmed his song before the lockdown, the shoot of two more tracks is on the cards," the source added.

Gangubai Kathiawadi is adapted from one of the chap-ters from Hussain Zaidi's book, Mafi a Queens of Mumbai. It tells the story of the madam of a brothel owner who had gangsters as her clients.

So, how excited are you to see Alia Bhatt in the fi lm? Let us know by tweeting to us @bollywood_life .

Courtesy : Bollywoodlife

NAAGIN : DHEERAJ DHOOPAR TO TEMPORARILY REPLACE SHARAD MALHOTRA AS CHEEL IN SURBHI CHANDNA'S SUPERNATURAL SHOW?

MORE SINGING OFFERS COMING TIGER’S WAY POST UNBELIEVABLE'S SUCCESS

After around 7 months of hiatus on ac-

count of the CO-VID-19 breakout, Shilpa Shetty is all set to recommence shooting for Priya-darshan's comedy "Hungama 2".

Earlier she took to Instagram to share the news by post-ing a picture of the team posing outside a chartered plane.Currently, she's with her team in Manali for the shoot and shared a boomerang clip during the makeup session.In that clip, one crew mem-ber is giving her sanitizer,

and the other ones are on her make-up. Her expres-sions will surely make you

giggle and she captioned this post with "First

day #hungama on set before we roll. Sanitisation drill

cause safety c o m e s

fi rst. The new normal has taken over and how?!

#shootready #safe-tyfi rst #outdoorshoots #teamgoals #manali #ac-tormode #workmode #hungama2actormode #workmode #hungama2".

Shilpa has been gone from the B-town scene for more than 10 years, but now she's all set to make her acting comeback.

Apart from Hungama 2, she will feature Sabbir Khan's rom-com "Nikam-ma", which likewise stars Abhimanyu Dassani and marks the big-screen de-but of Shirley Setia in the lead roles. Shilpa will fol-low it up with Hungama 2.

Courtesy : SantaBanta

Popular actress of southern fi lms, Kajal Aggarwal, is all set to

marry entrepreneur Gau-tam Kitchlu on October 30 in Mumbai.

The actress took to Ins-tagram to share the news with fans in a long note she posted on Tuesday.

"I said yes", she head-lined her note, which read: "It gives me immense joy to share that I am getting mar-ried to Gautam Kitchlu, on October 30, 2020 in Mum-bai, in a small, private cer-emony surrounded by our immediate families.

This pandemic has cer-tainly shed a sobering light on our joy, but we are thrilled to start our lives to-gether and know that all of you will be cheering us on in spirit.

I thank you for all the love you have showered upon me over the years and we seek your blessings as we embark upon this incred-ible new journey.

I will still continue doing what I cherish the most - entertaining my audience - now, with a whole new pur-pose and meaning.Thank you for your unending support."Congratulations have poured in on social media from friends, col-leagues and fans.

IANS

Sharad Malhotra, Surbhi Chandna and Mohit Se-hgal's Naagin 5 is garner-

ing love from the audience as the supernatural show is getting good numbers in the TRP list.While audience is loving the sizzling chemistry between Sharad and Surbhi aka Veer and Bani, the latest reports suggest that Dheeraj Dhoopar will tempoararily replace Sharad and comeback as Cheel since the Banoo Mein Teri Dulhann star has tested positive for COVID-19 and is under home quarantine.Reportedly Dheeraj will start the shooting and we are sure that just like his great chem-istry with Hina Khan aka Adi Naagin as Adi Cheel, he will impress audience with his

Sharad Malhotra garnered audience's appreciation for his villainous character

in Naagin 5.

equation with Surbhi Chand-na.On the other hand, Sharad recently spoke about testing positive for COVID-19 and said in a statement, “They say if you stay positive good things and people will be drawn to you.

Damn! Took this line too seriously.Unfortunately I have tested positive for Co-vid-19, with mild symptoms and thankfully my wife has tested negative and contin-ues to follow all precaution-ary measures.

I am in home quarantine, under strict medical super-vision, so please keep me in your prayers and I promise to bounce back sooner and stronger.”Talking about his character Veer and Naagin

5, Sharad earlier told PinkVilla, "Initially when I was offered Naagin 5, I had this perception that I was going to be the hero.

But then I was corrected saying that no, Ekta Ma'am wants you as the antagonist, as the villain and that completely took me by sur-prise. It was something which I never expected.

Considering that I was doing TV for the last 14-15 years, nobody had the guts to offer me the nega-tive lead. By guts, I mean that no-body visualised me like this.

Courtesy : Bollywoodlife

RHEA AND SHOWIK GET ANOTHER 14 DAYS

JUDICIAL CUSTODY

A Mumbai Special Court on Tuesday extended the judicial

custody of Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik till October 20 in a drug related case that came up while investigating the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, of-fi cials said here.

The siblings were pre-sented before the Special NDPS Court as their judicial custody of 14 days ended.

They had applied for bail in the Bombay High Court, on which the fi nal argu-ments were heard by Justice S.V. Kotwal on September

29, who has reserved the fi nal order on it.

Rhea was arrested on September 9 by the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) which is probing the drugs angle in the death of Bol-lywood actor Sushant, who was Rhea's live-in partner.

Besides her, 19 others in-cluding her brother Showik Chakraborty, drug ped-dlers, suppliers and persons linked with the fi lm industry have also been arrested so far, and several top actress-es have been questioned.Sushant was found dead on June 14 in his Bandra fl at.

IANS

SHILPA SHETTY SHARES THE FIRST-DAY EXCITEMENT OF SHOOTING 'HUNGAMA 2'!

Tiger Shroff has left ev-eryone awestruck with his remarkable singing

in his debut song 'Unbeliev-able'. Produced by Gaurav Wadhwa and Big Bang Mu-sic, the song has been top-ping charts and is the cur-rent favourite amongst the fans.Owing to its growing popularity and incredible voice of Tiger, we hear that other music labels have

started approaching Tiger to work on another song with them. In fact the fi lmmak-ers with whom he is working with are also toying with the idea to include a song by Ti-ger in their fi lms.

A source close to the in-dustry shared, `Tiger's song was a pleasant surprise not just for his fans but also for people in the industry. There is an increased de-

mand for him to not just act but sing as well. As of now, it is just talks but nothing has been fi nalised.`

There will be something inherently gleeful about see-ing Tiger Shroff on the big screen impressing us with his vocal chops - adding new shades to his long-de-veloped personality. We are sure the magic of his voice and his performance will

defi nitely create something spectacular, but we will have to wait and watch on this de-velopment.

'Unbelievable' recently was trending at the 6th number on the billboard global charts, which is a big deal. The actor defi nitely wears hats of many talents and each of his talent has left us impressed.

Courtesy : SantaBanta

NITI TAYLOR SHARES GLIMPSES OF HER 'COVID WEDDING'

TV star Niti Taylor had a quiet and intimate wed-ding amidst the pandemic.

Niti tied the knot with armyman Parikshit Bawa on August 13, and shared a glimpse of their cel-ebrations in a vuideo she posted on Instagram on Tuesday.

"My journey from Miss to Mrs is complete. I'd like to share with all my well wishers that I tied the knot with Parikshit on 13 August 2020.

We had a very small, quiet and intimate wedding with just our parents, aka, Covid wedding," Niti captioned the video.

"I can finally say out loud 'Hello Husband'. Making my own happiness in 2020!! Also, I'm announcing this late be-cause we were hoping that the Covid-19 pandemic would die

down sooner and we could cel-ebrate in a big way -- but hoping

for a better 2021," she added.IANS