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12
T he total number of coron- avirus cases shot up from 500 to 13,500 during the 24-day of countrywide lockdown so far, but the growth rate of the pandemic has declined by 40 per cent since the lockdown was imposed from March 25. The Union Health Ministry data has said that the ratio between number of patients recovered and number of deaths is 80:20 and 13.6 per cent people have recovered so far. Addressing the media, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, said the Ministry has analysed the data of cases of novel coronavirus in the country in many ways. It has been found that the rate of recovery of the patient is high- er than that of the deceased. “At least 1,749 people recovered so far which is 13.6 per cent as on today,” he said. He also said the doubling rate that means in how many days numbers of cases get dou- bled in the country has also reduced. “Our doubling rate of the number of cases is 6.2 days. The analysis is based on data of the last 7 days. It was 3 days before the lockdown. It is a product of how we are man- aging situations at field level. This is an ongoing process. We need to intensify our vigil to reduce the doubling rate even more,” said Agarwal. “The doubling rate is lower than the national level in 19 States and Union Territories. Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Puducherry, Delhi, Bihar, Odisha, TN, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Punjab, Assam, Tripura all have low doubling rates of coronavirus cases,” Aggarwal added. Agarwal explained that the data was analysed in another way also in which growth fac- tor and outcome ratio were cal- culated. “Growth factor is cal- culated by comparing today’s cases with the number of cases that came on Thursday. “We have found that the average growth factor is at 1.2 since April 1 which was 2.1 at an average between March 15 and March 31. There is 40 per cent decline in average growth factor even as we have increased the number of test- ing by testing even ILI (Influenza Like Illness) and SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) sam- ples,’’ Agarwal said. He also said that the out- come ratio which is number of recovered people against num- ber of deaths stood in the pro- portion of 80:20 in India which is higher than that in several other counties. “A total of 1,749 people have been cured, which is equal to 13.6 per cent of the total number of cases. With 1,007 fresh cases of coron- avirus reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country has reached 13,387. A total of 23 new deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours,” he added. “Although every death is a matter of concern for the coun- try, we have found that the ratio between recovered Covid-19 patients vs number of deaths, is 80:20 in India, which is higher than that in several other countries,” said Agarwal. The Health Ministry, in its daily update, said 452 deaths have been reported in India so far, with the highest -- 194 -- getting reported from Maharashtra, followed by MP, where 57 deaths have been reported so far. Maharashtra remained the worst hit State with positive cases rising to 3,205, followed by New Delhi at 1,640, Tamil Nadu at 1,267 and Rajasthan at 1,131, as per the Health Ministry data. T he deadly coronavirus has also affected the “muhurat” for the Char Dham yatra. The Yamunotri and Gangotri will initiate the annual opening rit- uals on April 26, but the open- ing of the customary “Kapaat” (doors) to invoke the Lords at Kedarnath and Badrinath is still mired in uncertainty. With all means of trans- portation suspended due to the lockdown, the Home Ministry has allowed the head priests to travel by road after the Uttarakhand Government wrote to the Centre, Kerala and Karnataka Governments, from the native places of Rawals, the priests. The Rawals, descendants of Adi Shankaracharya who established both the shrines, are in charge of the daily obeisance of the Lord Shiva at Kedarnath and Lord Vishnu at Badrinath for almost six months from April/May to October/November every year. When the snow sets in Himalayas during the winter the replica of idols are relocat- ed at Joshimath (winter abode of Badrinath) and Ukhimath (winter abode of Kedarnath) through a procession and between the nominated priests perform the daily puja while Rawals go back to their native places.The Uttarakhand Government’s request to fly the priests by a special chartered flight from down south to Uttarakhand was declined by Home Ministry. Now, the State Governments are coordinating to facilitate travel by roads for Rawals in a day or two. The manual of the COVID-19 vehicle usage will be followed accordingly so that each vehicle has only two occu- pants. V IPs and religious groups have made a mockery of lockdown measures in Karnataka. A day after thou- sands of devotees took part in the Siddalungeshwara Jatra in Kalburgi district, former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil tied the knot on Friday with Revathi, niece of former Minister M Krishnappa, in full fanfare. According to reports put out by news agencies, scores of people reportedly thronged a farmhouse in Ramanagara dis- trict near Bengaluru to get a glimpse of the wedding of for- mer Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda’s grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy. The visitors at the ceremony were seen with- out facial masks or observing the one metre distance between two individuals as part of the social distancing advised by the Government. The marriage was solem- nised at Kumaraswamy’s Kethaganahalli farmhouse at Bidadi in Ramanagara district, considered a JD(S) stronghold. “The information we have is that at least 150 to 200 vehi- cles were given permission to attend the event. This happened when the social workers who want to serve the badly affected poor people are not getting permis- sion to run their vehicles,” Ramanagar BJP district presi- dent M Rudresh was reported to have alleged. “Till now Ramanagara is safe from coronavirus. If at all the disease spreads in Ramanagara, the entire blame will be on Deve Gowda’s fam- ily,” Rudresh alleged. The local leader said he will meet the Deputy Commissioner and the SP of Ramanagara district and ask them how permission was granted for such a “large gath- ering”. Noida: Thirty-three of the 92 coronavirus patients in Gautam Buddh Nagar are cured and discharged from hospital, a number which has brought some cheer to the district which is among the worst affected in Uttar Pradesh. Ahmedabad: Researchers at the State Government-run Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) have succeeded in decod- ing the entire genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, and identified its three new mutations, officials said on Friday. Talking to reporters, the officials expressed confidence that the findings will help in developing medicines or vaccines needed to stop the spread of the deadly virus. W ith a clear message to banks to lend more to revive the corona-hit economy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday cut the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points, further eased bad-loan rules and froze dividend payment by lenders as it unveiled a sec- ond set of measures to support the economy. The move gave an impetus to stock market, especially the banking stocks. The Sensex closed 986 points up, Nifty 273 points up, and bank- ing index rose by nearly 1300 points. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the Central bank’s decision to reduced the reverse repo rate — the rate at which banks park their fund with the cen- tral bank — by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent, and went on to say the RBI will ensure ade- quate liquidity in the system to ease the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. On other measures, Das said the RBI will begin with giving an additional 50,000 crore through targeted long- term repo operation (TLTRO) to be undertaken in tranches. Das also announced a re- financing window of 50,000 crore for financial institutions like Nabard, National Housing Bank and Sidbi. He further said surplus liquidity in the banking system has increased substantially as result of RBI’s actions. Stating that the RBI is monitoring the situation developing out of Covid-19 outbreak, he noted that the contraction in exports in March at 34.6 per cent was much more severe than glob- al financial crisis of 2008-09. The RBI also debarred all commercial and cooperative banks from paying dividends to shareholders and promoter groups as the regulator fears the Covid-driven economic shocks would continue longer and may put the health of the financial system at risk. The decision will hit the finances of the Centre, which get a lion share of the dividend from the PSU banks. “It is imperative that banks conserve capital to retain their capacity to support the econ- omy and absorb losses in an environment of heightened uncertainty. “In this regard in view of the Covid-19-related eco- nomic shocks, commercial banks and cooperative banks shall not make any further div- idend payouts from the prof- it pertaining to FY20 until fur- ther instructions,” said the RBI Governor. “This restriction shall be reviewed on the basis of the financial position of banks as of the September 2020 quar- ter,” he added. T hree constables, who were on patrol to enforce the lockdown, were injured after a group of locals attacked them in Rajasthan’s Tonk district on Friday, police said. “A team of constables from Tonk police station had gone for a patrol in the area today to ensure lockdown compliance. When the team went to the butcher market area, they were attacked by a group of locals,” Additional Superintendent of Police Vipin Sharma told reporters here. According to the police, three constables were injured in the incident. “Constables Ramraj, Rajender and Baghchand were injured in the incident. They have been hospitalised and are being treated. We have brought in some people for questioning as per the report,” Sharma said. There have been several cases of attack on health work- ers and security forces during the lockdown in the country. C hina’s coronavirus death toll mounted to 4,632 on Friday after it revised the fatality figures by 50 per cent in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, as Beijing faced mounting international criti- cism of under-reporting of the Covid-19 data. Citing data discrepancies, the Wuhan municipal head- quarters on Friday revised the number of confirmed Covid- 19 cases and deaths due to the disease which originated in the central Chinese city in December last year. As of April 16, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan was raised by 325 cases to 50,333 and the num- ber of fatalities up by 1,290 to 3,869, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The revised figure raised China’s overall Covid-19 death toll to 4,632, and the total number of cases to 82,692. The Wuhan municipal headquar- ters in a notification said the revisions were made in accor- dance with related laws and regulations as well as the prin- ciple of “being responsible for history, the people and the deceased.” The latest revision of fig- ures came amid sharp criti- cism of China by the US, the UK and other countries for its alleged under-reporting of the coronavirus cases, lack of transparency and cover-up of the origin of the viral strain, which emerged in Wuhan in December last, reportedly from Huanan sea food market. The way Covid-19 cases were counted in China was changed in January and February, leading to wide- spread confusion over the extent of the health crisis in China, which on Friday denied it had covered up the extent of its Covid-19 outbreak. C hief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has created a record of being in office for 25 days without his Cabinet. Having assumed office on March 23 in a brief function amid corona scare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been spreaheading his Government alone and is yet to form his Cabinet. While doing so, Chouhan has created a sort of record of being the Chief Minister for longest term sans a Cabinet. Chouhan on Thursday com- pleted 25 days in power as CM while previously the record was held by BS Yediyurappa who had formed his Cabinet after 24 days in Karnataka. Sources claimed that the Cabinet expansion is on the cards in a couple of days. It may take place even on Saturday evening. It was Rajya Sabha member and the senior lawyer Vivek Tankha who had pointed this fact out in a tweet on Thursday. “Congratulations Shivraj ji. Amidst so much gloom in MP you managed an Indian record –as the longest serving CM without a Council of Ministers. Previous record of 24 days of was Mr Yediyurappa CM Karnataka. Both become CM fourth term and formed Governments with the aid of defection (sic),” Tankha had tweeted with a taunt about Kamal Nath Government being dislodged by ‘unfair means’. On Friday, Tankha while replying to a tweet from a senior journalist replied, “Hope they (BJP) realise how MP suffers cause of their shenanigans.” “Bhopal wrecked with 90 plus cases and Health dept. Indore with 800 plus positive cases and highest mortality in country is to less and too little to wake BJP,” added the senior lawyer. To add, Congress leaders have been attacking Chouhan for not forming cabinet and have been accusing him of usurping power with unfair means amid corona times. Chouhan apparently reply- ing to Congress jibes on Thursday tweeted, “Aap Bas Rajniti Karen, Main Bas Kaam Karta Rahunga. (You keep on indulging in politics, I would continue to serve.” Prompt came the reply from Congress media cell in charge Jitu Patwari who tweet- ed, “You achieved what you wanted to, but have mercy and please save the public.” Sources claimed that the BJP has a tough ask on its hands of accommodating its senior leaders apart from adjusting Scindia camp and other entrants into the cabinet. The half a dozen former ministers of Scindia camp –Mahednra Singh Sisodia, Imarti Devi, Pradyumn Singh Tomar, Tulsiram Silawat, Prabhuram Chaudhary and Gvoind Singh Rajput, who had lost membership for assembly are hoping for a ministerial berth and plan to contest by- polls later on to become MLAs again. Things are complicated further as others who deserted Congress and joined BJP including Aidal Singh Kansana, Rajyawardhan Singh Dattigaon, Bisahulal Singh and others too are vying for a cab- inet berth. Congress too have been demanding that at least minis- ters for crucial departments amid corona scare should be appointed to run ministries properly. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1: ˜ ˆ ˇ ./ 45456 .4 .275 !ˇˆ# ˆˇ˛# #$˜%ˆ&$’()ˆ€¦ · 0 1 2 1 1 ˜ ! ... Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil tied the knot on Friday with Revathi, niece of former Minister

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The total number of coron-avirus cases shot up from

500 to 13,500 during the 24-dayof countrywide lockdown sofar, but the growth rate of thepandemic has declined by 40per cent since the lockdownwas imposed from March 25.

The Union HealthMinistry data has said that theratio between number ofpatients recovered and numberof deaths is 80:20 and 13.6 percent people have recovered sofar.

Addressing the media, LavAgarwal, Joint Secretary, UnionHealth Ministry, said theMinistry has analysed the dataof cases of novel coronavirus inthe country in many ways. Ithas been found that the rate ofrecovery of the patient is high-er than that of the deceased. “Atleast 1,749 people recovered sofar which is 13.6 per cent as ontoday,” he said.

He also said the doublingrate that means in how manydays numbers of cases get dou-bled in the country has alsoreduced. “Our doubling rate ofthe number of cases is 6.2days. The analysis is based ondata of the last 7 days. It was 3days before the lockdown. It isa product of how we are man-aging situations at field level.This is an ongoing process. Weneed to intensify our vigil to

reduce the doubling rate evenmore,” said Agarwal.

“The doubling rate is lowerthan the national level in 19States and Union Territories.Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana,Himachal Pradesh,Chandigarh, Ladakh,Puducherry, Delhi, Bihar,Odisha, TN, Andhra Pradesh,UP, Punjab, Assam, Tripura allhave low doubling rates ofcoronavirus cases,” Aggarwaladded.

Agarwal explained that thedata was analysed in anotherway also in which growth fac-tor and outcome ratio were cal-culated. “Growth factor is cal-culated by comparing today’scases with the number of casesthat came on Thursday.

“We have found that theaverage growth factor is at 1.2since April 1 which was 2.1 atan average between March 15and March 31. There is 40 percent decline in average growthfactor even as we haveincreased the number of test-ing by testing even ILI(Influenza Like Illness) andSARI (Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome) sam-ples,’’ Agarwal said.

He also said that the out-come ratio which is number ofrecovered people against num-ber of deaths stood in the pro-portion of 80:20 in India whichis higher than that in severalother counties.

“A total of 1,749 people

have been cured, which isequal to 13.6 per cent of thetotal number of cases. With1,007 fresh cases of coron-avirus reported in the last 24hours, the total number ofconfirmed cases of Covid-19 inthe country has reached 13,387.A total of 23 new deaths havebeen recorded in the last 24hours,” he added.

“Although every death is amatter of concern for the coun-try, we have found that the ratiobetween recovered Covid-19patients vs number of deaths,is 80:20 in India, which ishigher than that in severalother countries,” said Agarwal.

The Health Ministry, in itsdaily update, said 452 deathshave been reported in India so

far, with the highest -- 194 --getting reported fromMaharashtra, followed by MP,where 57 deaths have beenreported so far. Maharashtraremained the worst hit Statewith positive cases rising to3,205, followed by New Delhiat 1,640, Tamil Nadu at 1,267and Rajasthan at 1,131, as perthe Health Ministry data.

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The deadly coronavirus hasalso affected the “muhurat”

for the Char Dham yatra. TheYamunotri and Gangotri willinitiate the annual opening rit-uals on April 26, but the open-ing of the customary “Kapaat”(doors) to invoke the Lords atKedarnath and Badrinath isstill mired in uncertainty.

With all means of trans-portation suspended due to thelockdown, the Home Ministryhas allowed the head priests totravel by road after theUttarakhand Governmentwrote to the Centre, Kerala andKarnataka Governments, fromthe native places of Rawals, thepriests.

The Rawals, descendants ofAdi Shankaracharya whoestablished both the shrines, arein charge of the daily obeisanceof the Lord Shiva at Kedarnathand Lord Vishnu at Badrinath

for almost six months fromApril/May toOctober/November every year.When the snow sets inHimalayas during the winterthe replica of idols are relocat-ed at Joshimath (winter abodeof Badrinath) and Ukhimath(winter abode of Kedarnath)through a procession andbetween the nominated priestsperform the daily puja whileRawals go back to their nativeplaces.The Uttarakhand

Government’s request to fly thepriests by a special charteredflight from down south toUttarakhand was declined byHome Ministry.

Now, the StateGovernments are coordinatingto facilitate travel by roads forRawals in a day or two.

The manual of theCOVID-19 vehicle usage willbe followed accordingly so thateach vehicle has only two occu-pants.

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VIPs and religious groupshave made a mockery of

lockdown measures inKarnataka. A day after thou-sands of devotees took part inthe Siddalungeshwara Jatra inKalburgi district, former ChiefMinister HD Kumaraswamy’sson Nikhil tied the knot onFriday with Revathi, niece offormer Minister M Krishnappa,in full fanfare.

According to reports putout by news agencies, scores ofpeople reportedly thronged afarmhouse in Ramanagara dis-trict near Bengaluru to get aglimpse of the wedding of for-mer Prime Minister and JD(S)supremo HD Deve Gowda’sgrandson NikhilKumaraswamy. The visitors atthe ceremony were seen with-out facial masks or observingthe one metre distance betweentwo individuals as part of thesocial distancing advised by theGovernment.

The marriage was solem-nised at Kumaraswamy’sKethaganahalli farmhouse atBidadi in Ramanagara district,

considered a JD(S) stronghold.“The information we have

is that at least 150 to 200 vehi-cles were given permission toattend the event.

This happened when thesocial workers who want toserve the badly affected poorpeople are not getting permis-sion to run their vehicles,”Ramanagar BJP district presi-dent M Rudresh was reportedto have alleged.

“Till now Ramanagara issafe from coronavirus. If at allthe disease spreads inRamanagara, the entire blamewill be on Deve Gowda’s fam-ily,” Rudresh alleged.

The local leader said he willmeet the DeputyCommissioner and the SP ofRamanagara district and askthem how permission wasgranted for such a “large gath-ering”.

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Noida: Thirty-three of the 92coronavirus patients in GautamBuddh Nagar are cured anddischarged from hospital, anumber which has broughtsome cheer to the districtwhich is among the worstaffected in Uttar Pradesh.

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�����������������������������������������������������������Ahmedabad: Researchers at the State Government-run GujaratBiotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) have succeeded in decod-ing the entire genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, andidentified its three new mutations, officials said on Friday. Talkingto reporters, the officials expressed confidence that the findingswill help in developing medicines or vaccines needed to stop thespread of the deadly virus.

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With a clear message tobanks to lend more to

revive the corona-hit economy,the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Friday cut the reverserepo rate by 25 basis points,further eased bad-loan rulesand froze dividend paymentby lenders as it unveiled a sec-ond set of measures to supportthe economy.

The move gave an impetusto stock market, especiallythe banking stocks. TheSensex closed 986 points up,Nifty 273 points up, and bank-ing index rose by nearly 1300points.

RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas announced that theCentral bank’s decision toreduced the reverse repo rate— the rate at which bankspark their fund with the cen-tral bank — by 25 basis pointsto 3.75 per cent, and went onto say the RBI will ensure ade-quate liquidity in the system toease the financial stress causedby the Covid-19 pandemic.

On other measures, Dassaid the RBI will begin withgiving an additional �50,000crore through targeted long-

term repo operation (TLTRO)to be undertaken in tranches.

Das also announced a re-financing window of �50,000crore for financial institutionslike Nabard, National HousingBank and Sidbi.

He further said surplusliquidity in the banking systemhas increased substantially asresult of RBI’s actions.

Stating that the RBI ismonitoring the situationdeveloping out of Covid-19outbreak, he noted that thecontraction in exports inMarch at 34.6 per cent wasmuch more severe than glob-al financial crisis of 2008-09.

The RBI also debarred allcommercial and cooperativebanks from paying dividendsto shareholders and promotergroups as the regulator fearsthe Covid-driven economicshocks would continue longer

and may put the health of thefinancial system at risk.

The decision will hit thefinances of the Centre, whichget a lion share of the dividendfrom the PSU banks.

“It is imperative that banksconserve capital to retain theircapacity to support the econ-omy and absorb losses in anenvironment of heighteneduncertainty.

“In this regard in view ofthe Covid-19-related eco-nomic shocks, commercialbanks and cooperative banksshall not make any further div-idend payouts from the prof-it pertaining to FY20 until fur-ther instructions,” said theRBI Governor.

“This restriction shall bereviewed on the basis of thefinancial position of banks asof the September 2020 quar-ter,” he added.

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Three constables, who wereon patrol to enforce the

lockdown, were injured after agroup of locals attacked themin Rajasthan’s Tonk district onFriday, police said.

“A team of constables fromTonk police station had gonefor a patrol in the area today toensure lockdown compliance.When the team went to thebutcher market area, they wereattacked by a group of locals,”Additional Superintendent ofPolice Vipin Sharma toldreporters here.

According to the police,three constables were injured inthe incident.

“Constables Ramraj,Rajender and Baghchand wereinjured in the incident. Theyhave been hospitalised and arebeing treated. We have broughtin some people for questioningas per the report,” Sharma said.

There have been severalcases of attack on health work-ers and security forces duringthe lockdown in the country.

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China’s coronavirus deathtoll mounted to 4,632 on

Friday after it revised thefatality figures by 50 per centin Wuhan, the epicentre of theoutbreak, as Beijing facedmounting international criti-cism of under-reporting ofthe Covid-19 data.

Citing data discrepancies,the Wuhan municipal head-quarters on Friday revised thenumber of confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths due to thedisease which originated in the

central Chinese city inDecember last year. As ofApril 16, the total number ofconfirmed coronavirus casesin Wuhan was raised by 325cases to 50,333 and the num-ber of fatalities up by 1,290 to3,869, the official Xinhua newsagency reported.

The revised figure raisedChina’s overall Covid-19 deathtoll to 4,632, and the totalnumber of cases to 82,692. TheWuhan municipal headquar-ters in a notification said the

revisions were made in accor-dance with related laws andregulations as well as the prin-ciple of “being responsible forhistory, the people and thedeceased.”

The latest revision of fig-ures came amid sharp criti-cism of China by the US, theUK and other countries for itsalleged under-reporting of thecoronavirus cases,

lack of transparency andcover-up of the origin of theviral strain, which emerged inWuhan in December last,reportedly from Huanan seafood market.

The way Covid-19 caseswere counted in China waschanged in January andFebruary, leading to wide-spread confusion over theextent of the health crisis inChina, which on Friday deniedit had covered up the extent ofits Covid-19 outbreak.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has created a

record of being in office for 25days without his Cabinet.Having assumed office onMarch 23 in a brief functionamid corona scare, ShivrajSingh Chouhan has beenspreaheading his Governmentalone and is yet to form hisCabinet.

While doing so, Chouhanhas created a sort of record ofbeing the Chief Minister forlongest term sans a Cabinet.Chouhan on Thursday com-pleted 25 days in power as CMwhile previously the recordwas held by BS Yediyurappawho had formed his Cabinetafter 24 days in Karnataka.

Sources claimed that theCabinet expansion is on thecards in a couple of days. It maytake place even on Saturdayevening.

It was Rajya Sabha memberand the senior lawyer Vivek

Tankha who had pointed thisfact out in a tweet on Thursday.

“Congratulations Shivraj

ji. Amidst so much gloom inMP you managed an Indianrecord –as the longest servingCM without a Council ofMinisters. Previous record of24 days of was MrYediyurappa CM Karnataka.Both become CM fourth termand formed Governmentswith the aid of defection (sic),”Tankha had tweeted with ataunt about Kamal Nath

Government being dislodgedby ‘unfair means’.

On Friday, Tankha while

replying to a tweet from asenior journalist replied,“Hope they (BJP) realise howMP suffers cause of theirshenanigans.”

“Bhopal wrecked with 90plus cases and Health dept.Indore with 800 plus positivecases and highest mortality incountry is to less and too littleto wake BJP,” added the seniorlawyer.

To add, Congress leadershave been attacking Chouhanfor not forming cabinet and

have been accusing him ofusurping power with unfairmeans amid corona times.

Chouhan apparently reply-ing to Congress jibes onThursday tweeted, “Aap BasRajniti Karen, Main Bas KaamKarta Rahunga. (You keep onindulging in politics, I wouldcontinue to serve.”

Prompt came the replyfrom Congress media cell incharge Jitu Patwari who tweet-ed, “You achieved what youwanted to, but have mercy andplease save the public.”

Sources claimed that theBJP has a tough ask on its

hands of accommodating itssenior leaders apart fromadjusting Scindia camp andother entrants into the cabinet.

The half a dozen formerministers of Scindia camp–Mahednra Singh Sisodia,Imarti Devi, Pradyumn SinghTomar, Tulsiram Silawat,Prabhuram Chaudhary andGvoind Singh Rajput, who hadlost membership for assemblyare hoping for a ministerialberth and plan to contest by-polls later on to become MLAsagain.

Things are complicatedfurther as others who desertedCongress and joined BJPincluding Aidal Singh Kansana,Rajyawardhan SinghDattigaon, Bisahulal Singh andothers too are vying for a cab-inet berth.

Congress too have beendemanding that at least minis-ters for crucial departmentsamid corona scare should beappointed to run ministriesproperly.

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As Indore alone presentlyhas 2/3rd of total number

of covid19 positive casesreported in Madhya Pradesh,there seems no respite insight, at least for the timebeing.

The State commercial cap-ital Indore has turned out bea breeding ground for coronacases and these infected per-sons have more than tripled inlast one week.

The number of positivecases which were 249 on April10 have now reached 842 onFriday with 244 of these caseswere on Thursday. Total casesof infection in the State havereached 1274.

Thanks to rapid spreadand unhindered spread ofcorona virus in Indore,Madhya Pradesh now standsat fourth place nationally interms of maximum covid19positive cases behind

Maharashtra, Delhi and TamilNadu. Meanwhile, theCongress party and BJP arepassing the buck on eachother for this massive covid19outbreak in Madhya Pradesh.

Congress state media cellchairman Jitu Patwari in astatement has alleged thatIndore’s situation has turnedgraver in 25 days of lockdownand CM Shivraj SinghChouhan has failed miser-ably to prevent the spread ofthis virus. Patwari urged PM

Narendra Modi to assess thesituation in Indore personal-ly or else the day is far whenIndore would become Wuhancity.

Claiming that Chouhanhas been running away fromreality, the Congress leaderdemanded that the ChiefMinister should start func-tioning from Indore.

Meanwhile, the BJP hasalso blamed Congress rulefor the mess.Claiming that theinefficiency of the Kamal Nathgovernment is responsible forthe covid19 mess, BJPspokesperson RajneeshAgrawal on Friday claimedthat Centre had issued guide-lines for corona preventioneven before the first case wasreported in India but the Stategovernment did nothing.

The State is paying a pricefor the mistakes of exCMKamal Nath, alleged Agrawalclaiming that now theCongress party is shifting the

blame on Shivraj SinghChouhan. In an importantstatement, Indore collectorManish Singh said that around5000-6000 fliers who reachedIndore via air route are to beblamed for the corona mess.

“I was appointed inIndore later so I am not surewhat kind of guidelines werethere for these visitors but Iam of the view that these vis-itors were allowed withoutany screening or quarantineadvisories,” said the collector.

Several of these visitorsalso landed here to take partsin ongoing agitations, heclaimed hinting towardsantiCAA protest which ran allthe way till March at BadwaliChowki area. Several reli-gious heads and noted per-sonalities including SwaraBhaskar had attended theprotest.

First five cases of coronavirus infection were reportedfrom Indore on March 24.

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The work of collecting forestproduce is being started in

the State from April 25. TheState Government has issuedguidelines to protect the work-ers and villagers engaged in for-est produce collection, pro-cessing, transportation, storage,treatment and marketing oper-ations from Corona infection.

During these activities, ifany collector or forest workershows signs of Corona virusinfection, then he will berushed to the nearest hospitalimmediately.

Principal Secretary Forest

Ashok Varnwal has told all theDivisional Commissioners,Inspector Generals of Police,Collectors, Superintendents ofPolice and Chief ExecutiveOfficers, District Panchayat,besides Managing Director,Rajya Laghu Vanopaj Sangh,that the employees, buyers andrepresentatives involved in thecollection of minor forest pro-duce, workers and villagerswill inevitably use face masks/ face covers / towels/ hand-kerchiefs / dupattas etc.

During this time, adher-ence to the health related orderissued by the Department ofPublic Health and FamilyWelfare on 9 April 2020 will beensured.

A pre-fixed identity cardwill be issued by the DivisionalForest Officer or ManagingDirector District Union forthe tendu patta buyers and theirrepresentatives. This I-cardwill be valid only for small for-

est produce collection, trans-portation and storage. The rev-enue and police administrationwill be apprised about these I-cards by the Collector.Necessary arrangements will bemade by the Minor ForestProduce Association throughthe Forest Department for thepurchase of minor forest pro-duce at minimum supportprice.

Sanitisers and soaps will bekept at each collection and stor-age centre and godown as nec-essary. Here, it will be necessaryfor all concerned to wash theirhands for 20 seconds and san-itize their hands whenever theycome and go.

Those involved in forestproduce etc. will work by keep-ing a distance of at least 2meters between them. A circlewill be made with lime at eachcollection centre at every 2meters. These centres will haveproper lighting for night work.

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The COVID-19 crises haveunderlined the role tech-

nology can play in under-writing life and health poli-cies.

Santosh Agarwal, CBO –Life Insurance,Policybazaar.com said thatthe telemedical has emergedas a faster, safer and mostsecured way to issue insur-ance for the consumers in thecurrent environment.

It is quite obvious that if

the healthiest people or theyoung generation- who is atthe least risk of being infect-ed with the novel coronavirus- don’t show up in emer-gency rooms, more resourceswould be available to treat themost vulnerable patient -elderly and kids – who needextra care. It is advised that ifyou are looking for an afford-able, convenient health andlife insurance plan anytimesoon, consider getting oneplan that offers insuranceplan through telemedical.

Why Telemedical Is theWay Forward?

Amidst the corona out-break, online aggregator likePolicyBazaar.com has part-nered with insurance compa-nies including both, life andhealth companies to issue a

policy by way of telemedicalconsultation instead of aphysical medical test.

The onlineaggregator/channel hasworked with Insurance com-panies to ramp up theirtelemedical services with anincreased volume of physi-cians and other health pro-fessionals lined up to consultwith patients and assess theirhealth condition over a callmaking the need of visiting aphysical centre during theCOVID-19 outbreak redun-dant.

It won’t be wrong to saythat allowing people to buyhealth and life insurancethrough virtual care optionssuch as telemedical can be aneffective way while minimis-ing their exposure to otherpotentially contagious virus-es.

By of fer ing policiesthrough telemedical, onlineinsurance platforms aim tocontinue providing an essen-tial service like Term Lifeand Health Insurance to moreand more customers as pan-demic situations like these area wake up call that make usrealise the importance of hav-ing a robust insurance coverthat protects against death,disease, and disabi l ity.Notably, the coronavirus con-tinues to spread to across192 countries around theworld and infect more than4,22,000 people, hospitals andclinics are expecting a swell inthe number of visitors toemergency rooms.

The COVID-19 outbreakhas till now claimed over18,900 lives with the maxi-mum being in Italy, Chinaand the USA.

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The students pursuingBachelors of Education

(Bed) at AISECT Universityare given online classes.Besides, the students ofAISECT College ofProfessional Education B. Ed.is being provided with onlinerevision classes to the stu-dents by the teachers.

All teachers and studentsparticipated equally in thisendeavour. Even in this diffi-cult time, we are maintainingour activities and students arealso benefiting greatly fromthis effort.

Significantly, this step hasbeen taken so that students'studies are not affected due tocoronavirus infection andlockdown. Keeping this inview, AISECT College ofProfessional Education hasinitiated online classes for stu-dents so that the students arenot affected due to nationwide

lockdown and corona virus. Inthis, the faculty of the collegeis connecting with the studentsthrough digital platforms andthe course is being completedthrough video lectures. Thetime table for online classes hasbeen released for the students,according to which onlineclasses have started regularly.

Apart from providingvideo lectures to students,notes are also being madeavailable through WhatsAppand email. In this way, classesof all faculties of the collegehave started, in which studentsare also giving very good par-ticipation. Necessary traininghas also been made available tothe faculty for online classes.

Necessary training foronline classes has also beenprovided to teachers so thatthere is no problem.

Also, notes and studymaterial are being made avail-able to students through onlinemediums.

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One can only reach hisdestination, if he has the

courage to face the challengeand move on,” says AamirMehboob, motivat ionalspeaker.Aamir Mehboob hastaken an initiative to create astress free environment dur-ing the tough time of lock-down.

He has started onlinemotivational and stress man-agement lectures for those,dealing with stress at thistime of lockdown.

He told The Pioneer, “Theterror of COVID-19 has madethe environment very tenseand worrying, with increasingcases every day, it is perfect-ly understandable that peopleare feeling stressed and wor-ried about their loved ones.

During this time takingcare of your physical health,cleanliness and taking care ofhealth and hygiene is impor-tant. Besides, it is necessary topractice social distances andstay at home, as well as men-

tal health and stress manage-ment is equally important.”“So, I thought to start an ini-tiative wherein I can helpsociety by spreading positiv-ity around,” he added.

He has been counselingthe parents and their kids invarious fields, helping them toovercome the anxiety andstress. He said, “I get callsevery day of people sharingtheir problems.

After few calls, I realizedthat being closed in homespeople are facing anxiety and

hence, there are behavioralissues at home, or relationshipissues between husband andwife, or students are worriedabout their studies.”

He is giving tips abouthandling stress during lock-down, time management,how to plan your studies,how to plan for the future,how to prepare for theupcoming exams Proper TimeManagement ChangeManagement Differences andConf lict ManagementRelationship Management,Personality Development,Communication Skil ls ,Improvement of Soft Skills.Hehas been giving tips to stu-dents who are here alone andare stranded in one room ofa hostel.

“These youngsters aretroubled, tensed and are miss-ing their families. So I am giv-ing them tips how they canstay relaxed and guiding themhow to stay happy.” He signedoff saying, “Together we canovercome these tough time,just stay positive.”

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A40-year old man committedsuicide by consuming poi-

sonous substance at his Chholaarea under Chhola Mandirpolice station area on Thursday.

According to the police,Ajay alias Shyam SundarKusawaha was found in anunconscious state at his houseand was rushed to a nearby hos-pital where he was declareddead.

Police said that the deceasedused to work with a biscuit fac-tory and when he failed torespond to his house owner hepeeped inside to find deceasedin an unconscious stated andlater door was broken to enterthe room.

In the initial investigation itwas found that the deceaseddied of poison and he con-sumed poisonous substance orhe was poisoned would beinvestigated.After the prelimi-

nary investigation the body wassent for the post mortem. Thepolice have registered a caseunder section 174 of the CrPCand have started further inves-tigation.

Police said that the deceasedwas depressed over his financialconditions for long and whichis possible reason behind thesuicide and would be investi-gated.

Meanwhile a 50-year-oldman died under suspicious cir-cumstances at Ren Basera underKoh-e-Fiza station on Thursday.

The deceased, identified asChand Singh was rushed to thehospital where he was declareddead.Police were informed andafter preliminary investigationthe body was sent for the postmortem.

A case under section 174 ofthe CrPC was registered. Thedetails of the deceased are yet tobe investigated. He would test-ed for Corona, said police.

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WWF India’s EnvironmentEducation programme

is one the popular pro-grammes, making peopleaware about the environment.Many schools of the city andyoungsters are associated withthis programme.

The supporters of conser-vation of environment willhave an opportunity to workwith Chess World ChampionPadma BhushanVishwanathan Anand.

Vishwanathan Anandjoined as the ambassador ofthe WWF EnvironmentEducation Programme.During the lockdown, due toCOVID 19, it has now becomenecessary to impart theimportance of conservation ata young age will ensure ahealthy and vibrant world forthem.

It is essential that youngpeople develop a firm ecolog-ical mindset and use it toovercome today's environ-

mental challenges with aproactive attitude and a strongcommitment. WWF India’sEnvironment Education pro-gramme is as old as the organ-isation itself, starting wayback in 1976 with the NatureClubs of India (NCI) initia-tive. Currently theEnvironment Education ini-tiative undertakes five largeprogramme initiatives that

reach out to school children,youth and citizens across thecountry and aim to create ageneration of critical thinkers,problem solvers and environ-mentally conscious individu-als.

The EnvironmentEducation programme cur-rently reaches out to over5,00,000 children across 2000schools in the country.

Talking about his associ-ation with WWF India,Viswanathan Anand, said,“Our children deserve a bet-ter, greener and more sus-tainable world than the onewe are living in today and it isour responsibility as parentsand elders to show them theway.

I am very excited andhappy to join WWF India andwork together with them toenthuse more and more chil-dren and youth about theneed to protect our naturalworld. I look forward to anenriching and progressiveassociation with WWF India.”

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Talaiya police have nabbed a35-year old man who was

wanted in attempt to murdercase and recovered a country-made pistol and one live car-tridge from his possession nearSaidiya school onFriday.According to the policeacting on a tip off a wanted wasnabbed near Saidiya Schooland when he was checked acountry made pistol and car-tridge were recovered from hispossession.

The miscreant identified asAris Qureshi of Ismalpura wasinvolved in attacking policepersonnel around 10 days agoand was booked for attempt tomurder case. Two police per-sonnel were attacked with sharpedged weapons after theyrequested a group of people tostay inside home.

After the preliminary inves-tigation the police have regis-tered a case under sections 25and 27 of the Arms Act and havestarted investigation to unearththe network of supply anddemand. Notably four miscre-

ants who attacked two on-dutypolice personnel with sharpedged weapons and woodensticks were nabbed and mainaccused Shahid Kabutar hasbeen booked under NSA.

Two policemen wereattacked after they suggestedroaming people outside theirhouses to remain indoors butinstead of listening to the vic-

tim police personnel a groupheaded by Shahid alias Kabutarreplied in violent manner injur-ing the two victims.Mainaccused has been booked underNSA and all accused have beenbooked under section1s 307,

148, 149, 353,341,323,34 and188 of the IPC.

Apart from the mainaccused Shahid Qureshi aliasKabutar (31) remaining fouraccused were identified asNafees Qureshi (28), ShahrukhKhan (26), Mohammad Javed(40). The main accused is ahabitual offender and has beenbooked for 13 crimes in past.

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With soaring temperatures the weather con-ditions in few regions would witness thun-

der lightening and speedy winds in the next 24hours. Bhopal recorded day temperature at40.1 degree Celsius while the night temperaturewas recorded at 26.2 degree Celsius.

The weather conditions would remain par-tial cloudy in the next 24 hours and winds wouldbe witnessed in the range of 18 km/hr.

Met department has issued warning oflightening and speedy winds for Bhind, Morena,Gwalior, Datia, Shivpuri, Tikamgarh, Chattarpur,Sagar and Panna districts which are likely to wit-ness harsh weather in the next 24 hours.

The Met department told that fresh WD overnortheastern Afghanistan and surroundingareas.Cyclonic system over south Assam andadjoining areas and cyclonic circulation overUttar Pradesh and adjoining areas.

A trough from southeast Madhya Pradesh tosouth coastal Tamil Nadu via Vidarbha,Telangana and south interior Karnataka is pre-vailing.

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Ministry of Environment,Forest & Climate Change,

Government of India is invitingonline entries forPoster/Drawing competitionfrom 6th to 8th class studentsand Poem & Short Videos com-petition (not more than twominutes) from 9th to 12th classstudents on occasion of EarthDay on April 22, 2020.

The theme of competitionsis “Climate Action”. Participantsshould mention name, contactnumber, class and name of schoolin Poster/Drawing, Poems andShort Videos. They should sub-mit entries through email [email protected] or before April 22, 2020(Wednesday).

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Page 3: ˜ ˆ ˇ ./ 45456 .4 .275 !ˇˆ# ˆˇ˛# #$˜%ˆ&$’()ˆ€¦ · 0 1 2 1 1 ˜ ! ... Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil tied the knot on Friday with Revathi, niece of former Minister

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Himachal Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur on Friday

directed officials of the StateGovernment that persons withpermits issued by the author-ities should be tested withrapid diagnostic kits at theentry point of the borders.

Holding a video confer-ence in the wake of coron-avirus with the DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Superintendents of Police andChief Medical Officers of theState from Shimla, he said aperson found positive shouldbe shifted to quarantine centresand would not be allowed totravel inside the State andwould further be confirmedfor coronavirus with RT-PCRtest.

Thakur said that only per-sons with negative reportsshould be allowed to enter theborders and strict vigil shouldbe kept on such persons dur-ing their home quarantine.

The Chief Minister askedthe officers to increase thesampling of persons of highrisk areas for coronavirus sothat situation could be nor-malized there at the earliest. Hesaid that hot spots of coron-avirus would be sealed andthere would be no relaxation incurfew in these areas.

He said inter-district andintra-district movement mustbe restricted so that there wereminimum chances of spread ofvirus to other areas, addingthat a mechanism should beevolved under which voluntary

blood donors could come for-ward in donating their bloodso that there was no shortageof blood in the hospitals.

He said that it must beensured that proper screeningof blood donors was donebefore taking the blood of theindividuals.

Thakur said that the stategovernment was concernedabout the people the statestranded in other states and itis in constant touch with thesepeople and the respective stategovernments have beenrequested to ensure their prop-er care. He urged such peopleto remain wherever they are asthe government would ensuretheir early return as soon as thesituation normalizes.

Chief Secretary AnilKhachi, Director General ofPolice S.R. Mardi, AdditionalChief Secretaries ManojKumar and R.D. Dhiman,Principal Secretaries J.C.Sharma ,Onkar Sharma andSanjay Kundu and SecretaryRajneesh also attended themeeting.

GOVERNOR ENQUIRES

ABOUT HIMACHALI STU-DENTS STRANDED INUKRAINE

Himachal GovernorBandaru Dattatraya on Fridayenquired about the well beingof the Indian students includ-ing Himachali students whoare stranded in Ukraine due tocoronavirus pandemic. Higherauthorities of the state gov-ernment apprised theGovernor about the issue andinformed that the ChiefMinister Jai Ram

Thakur has written a letterto the union Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) in thisregard and the Ministry isconstantly monitoring theevolving situation.

The UkrainianGovernment had imposedlockdown up to 24 April andthe Foreign Minister ofUkraine has assured his per-sonal support in ensuring safe-ty of all the stranded Indiansstudents.

Besides MEA, The IndianEmbassy in Ukraine is also inconstant touch with Indianstudents.

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Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora on

Friday said it was of utmostimportance that balance ismaintained between COVID-19 and the economy in view ofthe opening of commercialactivities from April 19onwards.

Presiding over a CrisisCoordination Committeemeeting here, she said thatwith the permission of certainadditional activities to be car-ried out in the State from April20, strict monitoring has to beensured for the implementa-tion of detailed guidelinesissued by the Ministry ofHome Affairs (MHA),Government of India (GOI).

"Every district has to pre-pare its plan providing for con-tainment and non-contain-ment zones. In containmentzones no activity except essen-

tial services are allowed andeven in non-containmentzones we have to follow certainStandard OperatingProcedures (SOP) as directedby the MHA, GOI," she said inthe meeting

She directed the DeputyCommissioners of the dis-tricts to constitute districtlevel committees for theissuance of passes on firstcome first serve basis, addingthat with the opening of indus-tries, the movement of peoplewill increase making moni-toring even more importantand those providing essentialservices should be tested onpriority to contain the infec-tion.

Arora directed the officersconcerned to ensure that whenthe labourers are moving fromone place to the other for workthey should undergo medicalscreening to prevent thespread of COVID-19 and that

the concerned authoritiesshould maintain data of suchlabourers so that sub-campscan be set up in case they needto stay on-site.

The Chief Secretary said agrievance redressal helplinewill be set up by the IndustriesDepartment where industrycan call and get informationabout the passes and otherarrangements. She directedthe Deputy Commissionersto appoint a Nodal officer tooversee the processes,

adding that the opening ofestablishments will be donecompletely at the discretion ofthe Deputy Commissionersas they have to ensure that theinfection doesn't spread. Shesaid that at the headquartersan oversight committee underthe supervision of theIndustries Secretary will bemonitoring the process of dis-tricts very minutely.

Haryana Additional Chief

Secretary, Finance andPlanning Department, TVSNPrasad said that there are twokinds of passes which will beissued wherein a triangularspecial pass will be issued forindustries of essential goods incontainment zones and a rec-tangular ordinary pass whichcan be used in non-contain-ment zones.

He said banks will beoperational strictly adhering tosocial distancing norms andother guidelines issued by theCentral Government. Prasadsaid industries will be openedin a phased manner wherein ithas to be ensured that themandatory conditions of san-itization, use of masks andsocial distancing are fulfilled.

Haryana Additional ChiefSecretary Medical Educationand Research Department,Alok Nigam informed thatten COVID-19 patients inNalhad Medical College have

recovered and were dis-charged. Additional ChiefSecretary, Health and FamilyWelfare Department-cum-Nodal Officer for COVID-19(Corona), Rajeev Arora saidthat District SurveillanceOfficers have been given loginIDs to ensure that the COVID-19 data of the district can beuploaded where the DeputyCommissioners and the CivilSurgeons too can view theinformation.

He said they are expect-ing 10,000 rapid testing kitswhich will be used in hotspotsof Gurugram, Faridabad,Palwal, Nuh, and Panchkula.Random sampling of thoseworkers who will start going towork in the industries will bedone.

PROCUREMENT OFMUSTARD AND PADDY

Reviewing the status of

procurement of Mustard, theChief Secretary appreciatedthe work done by the DeputyCommissioners and officersincharge of the districts. Shedirected that all the officersshould start preparedness forWheat procurement as well.

Haryana Additional ChiefSecretary, Agriculture andFarmers' Welfare Department,Sanjeev Kaushal while givinginformation on the prepara-tion of procurement of Wheatcrop starting from April 20,said that the employees fromother departments who will bedeployed at the procurementcentres will be given trainingso that they are well acquaint-ed with the procurementprocess.

He said that one daybefore the procurement datethe concerned officers willvisit their respective centresand take stock of the avail-ability of sanitisers, masks,

etc. He said that mapping of

the centres has been started sothat those visiting the centres,whether they are the Arthiyas,or farmers, or labourers do notface any trouble and there isno overcrowding.

One supervisory officerwill be stationed at every pro-curement centre who will giveupdates on the amount ofwheat procured, he added.Kaushal said that procure-ment in containment zoneswill be carried out a littlelater.

8882 FARMERS REPORTAT PROCUREMENT CEN-TRES FOR MUSTARD

Additional ChiefSecretary, Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare andCooperation Department,Sanjeev Kaushal on Fridaysaid that 8882 farmers report-

ed at the 163 ProcurementCentres for procurement ofmustard in the State on Friday.

In a statement, he said atotal of about 23222.38 MetricTonnes of mustard was pur-chased by the procurementagencies, i.e., HAFED andState WarehousingCorporation from these farm-ers.

He informed that a totalof 56781.68 Metric Tonneshas been procured in the Statein the first three days of pro-curement. He said 91 farmershave voluntarily contributed asum of Rs.1,02,670.62 to theHaryana Corona Relief Fund.

Kaushal said that thefarmers now in containmentzones should not worry aboutthe procurement of the pro-duce. He assured that theGovernment will procure theirproduce as per their registra-tion details in ‘Meri FasalMera Byora’ portal.

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As performing the last ritesof coronavirus patient had

become a tricky issue and newchallenge for district adminis-tration, the Ranchi adminis-tration has given the option ofthree to four cemeteries toAnjuman Islamia where thecorpse of corona positivepatient can be buried.

The Anjuman Islamia afterconsultation with members ofcommunity and residents near-by the cemetery is to give thename of graveyard where thedead bodies of corona patientcan be buried.

The decision in this con-nection was taken after lastSunday incident where locals oftwo areas prevented the districtadministration from disposingthe body of Covid-19 patient attheir burial grounds.

Residents of Ratu Roadand Joda Talab area protestedafter they came to know thatRanchi district administrationwas to bury the dead body ofan elderly corona positive manfrom Hindpiri area.

State parliamentary affairsminister, Alamgir Alam said,“The State Government afterthe incident had a meeting withreligious leaders of both thecommunities and the admin-istration has given the three/four options for burying andcremating the dead bodies.

The religious leaders haveidentified the burial ground.”

Echoing the views of min-ister, Ranchi SDM LokeshMishra said that religious lead-ers have to indentify burialground.

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Chief Minister HemantSoren today flagged off

vehicles laden with relieffoodgrains for 8,000 familiesof coronavirus hotspot of theState Capital- Hindpiri. TheCM, on the occasion askedpeople to stay at home, followgovernment instructions andcooperate in COVID-19 test-ing process so that relief couldbe given in the area.

“Hindpiri is under com-plete lockdown. People do notleave their houses. In this sit-uation, keeping in mind that

there is no shortage of foodgrains for any person andfamily, arrangements havebeen made for the distribu-tion of emergency relief food-grains to about 8,000 house-holds in Hindpiri.

Similar arrangementshave also been started for

Corona affected Saram andother areas of Bokaro. Thegovernment will distributefood grains in all such areas,”said the CM.

The Chief Minister saidthat foodgrains and mealsare being made available tothe needy through commu-

nity kitchens, Didi kitchens,distribution of special foodgrains, voluntary organiza-t ions and other means.Migrant laborers are beingprovided funds through DBT.

Distribution of milk pow-der will also start soon. Peopleare getting support.A chequeof 10 lakh was given by thedistrict administration to theChief Minister's Relief Fund,two lakh biscuit packets werereceived from Parle G.

Biscuit and 10 thousandsoaps from Lifebuoy Soap.“We have to fight togetheragainst Corona,” he said,thanking the Sikh communi-ty, who al lowed theGurunanak school campusto be converted into a controlroom.

On this occasion, the CMalso inspected the controlrooms set up in GurunanakSchool and the food itemsbeing packed for distribu-

tion. The emergency reliefpacket contains 15 days ofrice, pulses, potatoes, onions,mustard oil, tea leaves, sugar,soap , salt and other ingredi-ents.

Ranchi DC RM Rayappealed to the people thatthe Hindpiri area is a Coronainfection affected area. “Insuch a situation, Milk andVegetable delivery is beingdone among the people, peo-ple should take advantage ofthis by following social dis-tancing, in any case, do notviolate the guidelines issuedby the Distr ictAdministration.

Every person should takecare of social distancing,” headded.

Principal Secretary toChief Minister Rajeev ArunEkka, Press Advisor to CMAbhishek Prasad, DC andSSP Ranchi were present onthe occasion.

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Bajaria police have arrestedtwo miscreants who

attacked a 26-year-old scoutguide involved in distributing offood packets after he refused toshed money for liquor at NehruNagar while distributing of foodpackets late in the evening onThursday.

Police said that a youthidentified as Giriraj Mishrawho is scout guide and used towork as volunteer for distribut-ing of food packets prepared atsecond number stop was

attacked by two accused iden-tified as Anil Anda and KaranThakur.The injured was rushedto hospital after he was attackedby miscreant.In his complaint,the victim told the police that hewas on after he finished dis-tributing foods packets and wason his way to home in Semratwo miscreants stopped himand asked him to shed moneyfor liquor as he has not obtainedtheir permission to distributefood packets in their area whichhe refused and after which thetwo started to beat him andescaped the spot. Based on the

complaint after the prelimi-nary investigation, the policehave registered a case under sec-tion 323, 34 and 506of theIPC.The victim was providedtreatment at hospital and laterdischarged.Police said that thetwo are habitual offenders andhave been booked for exortingmoney and assault cases by thepolice earlier for several cases.

They have extorted moneyfor liquor in past and complaintshave been received regardingthe same. They are addict toliquor and find ways to getmoney for having liquor.

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Union Minister ofAgriculture & Farmers’

Welfare, Narendra SinghTomar launched a farmerfriendly mobile application inKrishi Bhavan on Friday devel-oped by the NationalInformatics Centre (NIC) tofacilitate farmers & traders insearching transport vehiclesfor Primary and Secondarytransportation for movementof Agriculture & Horticultureproduce.

Primary transportationwould include movement fromFarm to Mandis, FPOCollection Centre andWarehouses etc. SecondaryTransportation would includemovement from Mandis toIntra-state & Inter-state man-dis, Processing units, Railwaystation, Warehouses andWholesalers etc.

Speaking on the occasionAgriculture Minister Tomarsaid that agricultural activitieshave to go on amidst the lock-down. He said concessionshave been given to theAgriculture sector on direc-tions of the Prime Minister ShriNarendra Modi.

While harvesting and sow-ing is going on, transportationwill become easier with theKisan Rath app as it will helpfarmers and traders for trans-porting produce from farmgate to mandi and mandi tomandi all over the country.

At this juncture while thecountry is passing through theCOVID-19 situation, this‘Kisan Rath’ App will greatlyfacilitate farmers, FPOs andCooperatives in the country tohave the choice to find a suit-able transport facility to trans-fer their agriculture producefrom farm gate to markets.

The Mobile Applicationnamed “Kisan Rath” facilitatesFarmers and Traders in iden-tifying right mode of trans-portation for movement offarm produce ranging fromfoodgrain (cereal, coarse cere-al, pulses etc), Fruits &Vegetables, oil seeds, spices,fiber crops, flowers, bamboo,log & minor forest produce,coconuts etc. This App alsofacilitates traders in trans-portation of perishable com-modities by Reefer(Refrigerated) vehicles.

Transportation of agri pro-duce is critical and indispens-able component of supplychain. Under the extraordinarysituation prevailing in thecountry currently due to lock-down, “Kisan Rath” will ensuresmooth and seamless supplylinkages between farmers,warehouses,

FPOs, APMC mandis andintra-State & inter-State buyersand help in reduction of foodwastage by providing timelyservices. All these will con-tribute in better prices for per-ishable commodities.

The Consignors (farmer,FPOs, buyer/ trader) places arequirement for transporta-tion on this app which is dis-seminated to transport aggre-gators in the market, who inturn interface with varioustruckers and fleet owners forobtaining a competitive quoteagainst the requirement andpasses back the quote andtrucker details to theConsignor.

Thereafter, the Consignordirectly negotiates off line withthe trucker and finalizes thedeal. Once the trip is complet-ed, the user can provide a rat-ing/ feedback for the trucker inthe App which, over a periodof time, becomes feedbackmechanism for the transporterto improve their services. Thiswould also help the Consignorsin the selection process ofLogistics Service Providers infuture.

Tomar, speaking on theoccasion, further said that‘Kisan Rath’ mobile App. willalso help in giving boost toInter-mandi and Inter-Statetrade of agriculture and horti-culture produce in the country.The Minister said that thisapp, with the tagline “Kisan kaapna Vahan”, is an importantmilestone in agri-producetransportation.

The Ministers of State forAgriculture and FarmersWelfare, Parshottam Rupalaand Kailash Choudhary,Secretary (AC&FW), SanjayAgarwal, Ajay PrakashSawhney, Secretary(Electronics and IT), NeetaVerma, Director General, NICand senior officers of theMinistry participated in theKisan Rath mobile app launchceremony through video con-ference.

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Raising the issue of “irre-sponsible behaviour” of

Congress legislators andMinisters who were rushing tomandis and throwing all socialdistancing norms to the wind,the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)president Sukhbir Badal on

Friday asked Punjab ChiefMinister to immediately givedirections to them not to endan-ger the health of farmers bycrowding mandis only for thesake of a public relation oppor-tunity.“Due action should also betaken against everyone violatingsocial distancing norms,” said theSAD chief.

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To energise the plantationsector and rural economy,

Union Home Ministry onFriday exempted activities inplantation, forest produce col-lection works besides ruralcooperatives and non-bank-ing finance companies fromlockdown restriction guide-lines.

Works related the livelyhood of forest dwellers andSC/ST communities, coconut,areca nut, spices and its pack-aging, marketing and sale arenow allowed as per this circu-lar issued by Home Ministry toStates. Construction activitiesin the rural sector alsoallowed.

“Collection, harvesting

and processing of MinorForest Produce (MFP)/ Non-timber Forest Produce (NTFP)by Scheduled Tribes and otherforest dwellers in forest areas.Bamboo, coconut, areca nut,cocoa, spices plantations andtheir harvesting, processing,packaging, sale and market-ing,” said the circular allowingexemptions from lockdownrestrictions.

The circular saidthat there should beminimal staff andsocial distancingnorms must beadhered in ruralbanking sector andco-operative societiesworking. “Non-bank-ing financial institu-tions (NBFCs)

including Housing FinanceCompanies (HFCs) and MicroFinance Companies (NBFC-MFIs), with bare minimumstaff. Construction activities inrural areas to include watersupply and sanitation, lay-ing/erection of power trans-mission lines and laying oftelecom optical fiber and cablealong with related activities,”said the circular.

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Congress on Friday urgedthe Uttar Pradesh and

Delhi Governments to makeimmediate elaborate arrange-ments for the migrants andlabour class people and theirfamilies who are now strug-gling for their daily rationsevery day.

While party GeneralSecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra wrote a letter to the UPChief Minister Yogi Adityanathseeking immediate help tofarmers and labourers whohave been hit due to the lock-down necessitated by the coro-navirus outbreak, formerUnion Minister Ajay Makenput forth 10-point charterdemand to Delhi CM ArvindKejriwal to help those in dis-tress in the national Capital dueto COVID-19 lockdown.

Priyanka sought the settingup of a task force for econom-ic revival in the State.

She said that theGovernment should takeimmediate measures to providerelief to farmers and labourerswho are suffering due to sus-pension of economic activities.Free ration like wheat, pulses,oil and spices should be givento all those labourers andworkers not registered in theState, she said in her letter.

Stating that an economicrejuvenation task force ofexperts be set up to handle the

crisis, she said in her letter,“The pandemic has severelybreached the economy, everysection of the society is affect-ed due to this, there are manysocial and economic issueswhich should be looked at. Iurge you to set up an econom-ic revival task force in UttarPradesh with noted experts toput in place an economicrevival plan. The task of thisforce would be to prepare aroadmap for the economicrevival in the State,” theCongress general secretary saidin her letter.

Priyanka also demandedsmooth harvest and procure-ment of Rabi crops. She saidthat the Government shouldrelax conditions for the use ofcombined harvesters, agricul-tural machines that reap,thresh, and clean cereal crops.

Stating that the coron-avirus pandemic has brought

an economic destruction andcast its shadow on small scaleindustries, she said it is the timeto focus on helping the peopleand providing them relief toreduce their sufferings.

The Congress leader fur-ther demanded payment ofdues to the sugarcane farmersand relief for those farmerswho have suffered due to thehailstorm and unseasonal rain.She said the Governmentshould announce a relief pack-age for artisans including thoseworking in the brass, dairy,glass industries and other sec-tors.

She also thanked the stategovernment for giving freeration to the MGNREGAworkers.

“People should be givenration without card and non-registered labourers should begiven financial help,” Priyankasaid.

Maken demanded thatfixed power charges be waivedoff and school fees should notbe charged from students,besides payment of salaries ofschool teachers in aidedschools and workers in MSMEsby the government.

He also sought StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs),

to be notified as regulations, fordelivery boys in the nationalcapital to help stop the spreadof the novel coronavirusthrough them.

Adressing a AICC Pressconference through video-con-ferencing, Maken said testingshould be ramped up in thenational Capital and asked

whether Delhi had entered thecommunity transmission stage-3 of the virus as 135 peoplehave been kept "under investi-gation".

The former Delhi Congresschief said migrants should beincentivised in Delhi and inother towns as they are thebackbone of any city and

demanded that they be given ��7,500 per month immediatelyto help them cope with the cri-sis.

"Migrants are the back-bone of any city and hence theyshould be incentivised to makethem feel safe in Delhi andother towns," Ajay Maken said.

He also demanded pay-

ment of ration for two monthsto the poor and vulnerable,besides advance payment ofpension to senior citizens andwidows and risk allowance tosanitation and frontline healthworkers. Makenlso asked for anunemployment allowance of�5,000 to all unemployed in thenational Capital.

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The Road and TransportMinistry (MoRTH) has

come forward to take care ofthe journey requirements interms of shelter and food of themigrants who took to roadsafter the unfortunate Mumbairailway station chaos early thisweek.

The Centre's road-makingagency NHAI and its conces-sionaires have tied up withNGOs to cater to the needs ofmigrants who are on foot onthe roads and highways withtheir families. Lakhs ofmigrants had gathered atBandra Railway Station afterthe rumour that a specialtrain will be run to help peo-ple to reach their destinations.

The large gathering wasdispersed by police lath-icharge and then people fromMumbai took to roads andmost of them are still ontheir way to far flung areas ofBihar, UP, West Bengal andNE States.

In Maharashtra, when alarge number of people start-ed to move to their nativeplaces in Rajasthan, UttarPradesh & other states thisweekend, and were movingahead with kids and familymembers under scorchingsun, they were offered foodand water by the Thane unitof NHAI.

A local NGO ‘SamataVichar Prasarak Sansthwasalso roped in to help in dis-tribution of food packets"

said a senior Road TransportMinistry official.

Similarly, in Prayagrajdistrict of UP, many labourersand truck drivers got stuck onHighways due to lock-down.

"They were without foodand water. In such a condi-tion, the Project Directorateundertook on itself theresponsibility of feeding them.The benevolent work is con-tinuing due to owning up ofresponsibility by all officersand staff members of thedirectorate," added the official.

Similar stories have comein from the Fatehpur districtof UP, where a large numberof people and truck driverswere stranded, and had nofood due to closing of road-side eateries. Local Field office

came forward and providedfood and water to mitigatingpublic.

In Trichi district of TamilNadu, NHAI patrolling teamfound five people at Palur onthe NH 45 who were imme-diately given food and water,and were provided face masksfor their safety.

The NHAI concession-aire at Wardha in Maharashtrais sheltering about 50 peoplesince the beginning of thelock-down. Due to closure ofroadside restaurants, driversand commuters on essentialduties were facing difficulty ingetting food and water.

"MoRTH has taken upthe social responsibility ofhelping people on the roadsduring the nationwide lock-

down due to COVID-19.Soon after the announcementby the Prime Minister, thefield units of the Ministryacross the length and breadthof the country were urged toextend necessary help to theirworkers/ labours and thecommon people," said aMoRTH official.

All the field units andoffices of the Ministry, aswell as the associated organi-zations NHAI and NHIDCLare coordinating to help mit-igate the difficulties of thepeople.

"Food, water, hand washfacilities are being provided tothese people on regular basiswhile taking care of social dis-tancing and sanitation," addedthe official.

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Even as the Army is main-taining operational readi-

ness at the borders with a spe-cial train leaving for the north-ern front in Jammu fromBengaluru on Friday, ArmyChief General M M Naravanesaid his force is committed tohelp the Government in fight-ing the coronavirus pandemicwith the working mantra being“Say no to panic, Say yes to pre-caution”.

Enunciating the measurestaken by the 13-lakh-strongArmy in the last few weeks tomeet the challenge of the dis-ease, he said the force is com-mitted to guard the nationalborders from external threats,tackling threats in hinterlandand assisting the government intackling the COVID-19 pan-demic.

It is the responsibility of theArmy to keep the borders safewhile the country is preparingand fighting COVID-19, hesaid while stressing, “We aresensitive to the risk of COVID-19 & specific protocols have

been instituted for the troopsdeployed along the Line ofControl (LOC) and those onthe counter infiltration grid.”

Sources said the army hasset up medical check up cen-tres and isolation wards nearthe LOC and also Line ofActual Control(LAC) to pro-vide medical succour if needbe,

Besides this, Naravane saidpan India, “we have catered forexclusive quarantine facilitiesand have earmarked dedicat-ed hospitals and beds to takeon any COVID-19 patient”.The army medical teams havealready been deployed to pro-vide advice in COVID-19management at the request ofgovernments of Maldives andKuwait.

“Also, as per PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’svideo conference with SAARCheads of states, we have keptmedical teams on stand-by for

deployment to our friendlyneighbours if requested,” hesaid.

Highlighting that the focuson “Force Preservation” inview of the COVID-19 out-break, he said within theArmy, various guidelines andinstructions have been pro-mulgated with respect torestricting the movement ofpersonnel, cancellation of con-ferences, seminars and post-ings.

As of now, the priority ison combating COVID-19aggressively by taking pre-cautions, and preparing ownresources for future scenarios.

Underlining some of thesteps, the Army Chief said hehas issued detailed instruc-tions on actions to be taken forgetting personnel back fromvarious courses and leavewhile adhering to all precau-tions.

Personnel will report to

the nearest military stationwhere they will be screened forsymptoms. All asymptomaticcases will be quarantined for14 days post which they will betransported on special trains/aircraft to their unit locations.Symptomatic cases will betested and then quarantinedseparately before they under-take the journey. Personnel onquarantine will be treated as

on duty.On the COVID-19 cases

in Army, Naravane said so far,there have been only eightpositive cases in the entireArmy, out of whom two aredoctors and one nursing assis-tant. “Four others are respond-ing well to treatment and wehad one case in Ladakh, he isnow Coronavirus free and hasrejoined duty,” he added.

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As reported earlier thattwo special trains on

Friday and Saturday willferry troops to the northernand eastern fronts facingPakistan and China respec-tively, the first train carrying950 personnel left Bengaluruat 10.00 am for Jammu onFriday.

The same trains onreturn trip will carry per-sonnel waiting to proceed on

leave from operational areas.Moreover, all the personnelonboard the Jammu bound-train underwent mandatoryquarantine period and aremedically fit.

The special trains arebeing run to meet therequirements of operationalformations deployed on bor-ders and decongest trainingestablishments.

The second train onSaturday will leave fromBengaluru for Guwahati.

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Stepping up efforts to assistthe civil administration in

the fight against COVID-19,the Armed Forces MedicalServices (AFMS) has noti-fied 50 of its hospitals as ded-icated and mixed COVIDhospitals for isolation andtreatment.

Updating about thesemeasures to Defence MinisterRajnath Singh here on Friday,AFMS chief Lt General AnupBanjerjee also said special[powers granted to seniorofficials has enabled in fasterprocurement of essentialhealth equipment includingface masks, sanitisers, per-sonal protective equip-ment(PPE) and ventilators.

As regards the hospitals,officials said the hospitalshave a combined bed capaci-ty of 9,038 patients. CivilianCOVID-19 cases would alsobe admitted in these hospitalsas a surge capacity to augmentthe state healthcare facilities,they said.

In addition, training activ-ities have been suspended atArmy Medical Corps (AMC)Centre and College, Lucknowand Armed Forces MedicalCollege (AFMC) Pune andapproximately 650 medical

officers undergoing post grad-uate training at AFMC will berevert to units for providingmedical cover depending onthe situation. “In addition,100 medical officers fromrecruiting organisations arebeing detailed to work in hos-pitals where COVID wardsare being established,” officialssaid.

The Ministry said a list ofretired AMC officers andparamedical staff has alsobeen readied who may berequested to volunteer forworking in AFMS hospitalsat their current home stationsif the need arises. Forty-three officers and 990 para-medics have volunteered tilldate, it stated. Six viral test-ing labs have already beenestablished by AFMS withthe help of Indian Council of

M e d i c a lR e s e a r c h(ICMR) whichare functional atvarious AFMShospitals.

The AMC iscurrently alsoproviding med-ical cover to thequarantine campat Narela, NewDelhi where ateam of six med-

ical officers and 18 para-medical staff have beendeployed.

In a related development,the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) introduced two newproducts to aid in the fightagainst COVID-19. Theseinclude an automatic mistbased sanitiser dispensingunit developed by the Centrefor Fire Explosive andEnvironment Safety(CFEES), Delhi and anUltraviolet-C Light basedsanitisation box and handheld UV-C device designedand developed by DefenceInstitute of Physiology andAllied Sciences (DIPAS) andInstitute of Nuclear Medicine& Allied Sciences (INMAS),both based in Delhi, theDRDO said in a statement.

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The Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR)

on Friday said that it wouldconduct a study soon to findout whether the vaccine fortuberculosis — bacillusCalmette-Guérin (BCG) —could be effective for the man-agement of the Coronaviruspatients.

While clinicians in at leastsix countries including US andItaly are running trials thatinvolve giving frontline healthworkers and elderly people theBCG vaccine to see whether itcan provide some level of pro-tection against the Covid-19, theICMR is looking to generate“more concrete evidence”.

“We won't recommend theBCG vaccine even to the health-care workers till we have anydefinitive results,” said Dr RamanR Gangakhedkar, senior scientistfrom the ICMR, a health

research wing of the UnionHealth Ministry.

Replying to a question onthe use of the BCG vaccine tofight COVID-19 during dailymedia briefing, DrGangakhedkar said: "ICMR willbegin a study next week. Till wedon't have definitive results fromthis, we won't recommend theBCG vaccine even for healthworkers."

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin(BCG) is a vaccine primarilyused against tuberculosis. In thecountries where tuberculosis orleprosy is common, one dose isrecommended in healthy babiesas close to the time of birth aspossible.

"We don't have enough evi-dence to take an official positionon the BCG vaccine in COVID-19. It can't even stop TB but it canonly protect from severity. It isan immunomodulator, effectivefor 15 years," he added.

Dr Gangakhedkar said that

coronavirus has been in India forthree months. "The mutationdoesn't happen too quickly.Whatever vaccine comes outnow will work in the future aswell if the virus mutates," headded.

According to the ICMR, ofthe 28,340 tests COVID-19 doneon Thursday, 23,932 were con-ducted at 183 labs under the pub-lic lab and rest were done in theprivate labs.

Lav Aggarwal, JointSecretary, Union Health Ministrywho was also at the press brief-ing, shared that Indian scientistsand researchers are working onvaccine development and that bynext month, 10 lakh indige-nously developed RT-PCR kitswould be manufactured.

He said the government isworking with global partners onthe vaccine development frontand introducing it for the gen-eral public. Although it is atime-consuming process, "we

are accelerating the processesinvolved."

He said the RT-PCR kitmanufacturing work is inprogress. By May, we can pro-duce around 10 lakh kits. "We arealso working on manufacturing10 lakh rapid antibody detectionkits", he said. The real timereverse transcription polymerasechain reaction (real time RT-PCR) test is considered one ofthe most accurate lab methodsto detect, track and study coro-navirus.” Agarwal said that topgovernment organizations – theCouncil for Scientific andIndustrial Search, Department ofBiotechnology and Science andTechnology, and Department ofAtomic Energy -- have also con-tributed in the fight againstcoronavirus by providing 30labs to enhance the overall test-ing for the viral infection.

The Ministry said it has pri-oritised the indigenous manu-facturing of new rapid and accu-

rate diagnostic kits, which canprovide results in 30 minutes.

"Innovative pooling strate-gies, limited tested to increaselarge numbers of people; we arefocusing our efforts to increaseindigenous synthesis of criticalcomponents for domestic kitproduction. We are also workingviral sequencing, to epidemio-logically identify mutation, andvaccine development and workis in progress to develop RNA-based vaccines", said Agarwal.

"Under a multi-prongedstrategy we are working, takinginto account India''s indigenousknowledge to boost the immunesystem. We have partnered withWHO to determine differentdrug therapies. A scientific taskforce is working to re-evaluatethe existing drugs, and ifrequired, these drugs could be re-purposed for COVID-19 use.We are working on the indige-nous synthesis of anti-viraldrugs", said Agarwal.

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With complaints andrequests from parents

from across the country overthe arbitrary hike of school fees,HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank on Fridayappealed to private schools tonot to hike fees or demandquarterly payments as the

world was going through theCOVID-19 pandemic crisis.

The HRD Minister said hehad been receiving complaintsfrom various parts of the coun-try that schools were not onlyhiking fees but also askingparents of students to submitthe amount for three months inone go.

Pokhriyal requested all

states to come up with a solu-tion that protects the interestsof both parents and schools interms of quarterly tution feesand salary of the staff.

Pokhriyal’s statementcomes amid various complaintsraised by parents of children inprivate schools alleging thatschools were asking for thequarter and annual and new

admission fees even as lock-down persists due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Almostall the private and publicschools charge new admissionfees and certain additionalcharges in the beginning of thenew session in April.

In a statement sharedthrough his official twitter han-dle, Pokhriyal said: “It has

been brought to my notice bymany parents from across thecountry that even in times ofcrisis, many schools areincreasing their annual fees andtaking the current fees of threemonths together.”

“I hope that the educationdepartments of the states willbe working in a satisfactorymanner towards better protec-

tion of the interests of parentsand schools,” he said

Pokhriyal also requestedprivate schools to not raise theirannual fees or collect fees inbulk during the lockdown

“At the time of this globaldisaster, I request all the schoolsto consider not increasing theannual school fees and not tak-ing the fee for three months

together,” he added.Due to the lockdown,

many parents saw their incomesources dry up which made itdifficult for them to pay the fullamount upfront. Pokhriyalalso requested the schools to“provide timely salary to teach-ers and staff.”

He appreciated states thathave taken “positive steps”

towards solving the issue andhoped that all states will con-sider his request.

On the same day, the DelhiGovernment had directed pri-vate schools to only collecttuition fees from parents andto refrain from raising theirannual fees without takingpermission from theGovernment.

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Page 5: ˜ ˆ ˇ ./ 45456 .4 .275 !ˇˆ# ˆˇ˛# #$˜%ˆ&$’()ˆ€¦ · 0 1 2 1 1 ˜ ! ... Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil tied the knot on Friday with Revathi, niece of former Minister

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Pandemic too has its ownlighter sides. Though most

of the reports are focussed onthe number of persons testedpositive for coronavirus, thecasualties and the number ofpatients who have been curedof the disease, the struggles ofthe law enforcing agencies toensure fool proof lockdownordered by the Central andState Governments brings inhumorous instances.

The Salem district policehad this to tell on Friday morn-ing. Salem is a VIP district inTamil Nadu as the assemblyconstituency of Edappadi fallsin this district.

The Police who were ontheir guards since Thursday fol-lowing news that ChiefMinister was on his way to thedistrict wanted to ensure every-thing was in place.

A bunch of youth, buoyedby the total lockdown andempty landscape, chose to havea game of cricket in the openspace in a Salem suburb onFriday morning. They thoughtthat they could cock a snook at

the policemen by hiding intothe thick bush adjoining the‘maidan’. But the youngsterswere unaware of the techno-logical advancement incorpo-rated by the law enforcers tomonitor that everything was inorder. The Salem Police hadintroduced a drone to scan theentire city in their “radar’.

While the cricket matchreached feverish pitch, the copscame with their sirens blaringand the ‘Tendulkars’ and‘Dhonioes’ ran helter-skelterinto the woods. But the cam-eras installed on the dronesbeamed live pictures of theStars and their exact hide outs.Some had covered themselveswith bed sheets and lungies tohoodwink the eyes of thedrones but without success.The police nabbed all the law-breakers and made them per-form sit ins as an act of atone-ment. The inspector on dutygave them a sermon at the endof the “mild punishment’ andtold them not to violate theprohibitory orders.

The game of cricket playedin the scorching Sun of Salem,the attempt to escape from

police dragnet and the exhaus-tion resulting from the sit-insmade the cricket stars promisethe cops that they would neverventure out of their houses solong as the lockdown was inplace.

It was the turn of a TamilNadu minister on Friday toperform pada pooja for sani-tary workers in Madurai dis-trict. The sanitary workers,hitherto uncared for andunnoticed by the local popu-lation and political masters,have become the most soughtafter persons in the State forpaada pooja and aartis.Minister for revenue R TUdhayakumar chose Friday toperform aarti and pada poojaon the less fortunate ones of thesociety. Azhaku, who was madeto sit on a plastic chair as theminister with his face coveredwith a mask fell at the feet ofthe sanitary worker and praisedhim for the kind of great worktheir fraternity was performing.“What is this, Sir? Is electionround the corner,” asked aperplexed Azhaku.

Even sanitary workers havetheir day.

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Four terrorists were killed bythe joint teams of security

forces in two separate encoun-ters in Shopian and Kishtwardistricts of Jammu andKashmir on Friday.

Meanwhile, the situationremained tense along the lineof control in Poonch asPakistan army resorted toheavy mortar shelling and tar-geted civilian areas in Qasbaand Kirni sectors of Poonch. Inresponse, Indian army retali-ated befittingly.

According to policespokesman, two HizbulMujahideen terrorists werekilled in a gunfight with thesecurity forces in southKashmir’s Shopian district onFriday.

"Security forces launched acordon and search operation inthe Dairoo area of Shopian insouth Kashmir on Friday fol-lowing specific informationabout the presence of terroriststhere, a police official said.

In the ensuing gunfight,the security forces eliminatedboth the terrorists. The house,where these terrorists werehiding also suffered huge dam-ages as it caught fire during theheavy exchange of firing.

On the other hand, jointteams successfully chased two

terrorists involved in a recentattack on SPO's of Jammu andKashmir police in Dacchanarea of Kishtwar and eliminat-ed them.

SPO Pashid Iqbal waskilled in the attack while anoth-er SPO, Vishal Singh wasundergoing treatment here ingovernment medical collegehospital, Jammu

Inspector General ofPolice, Jammu range, MukeshSingh in a statement said, anoperation was launched inTander area by the police , thearmy and the CRPF to nab theattackers identified as BasharatHussain S/O Gh. Qadir Gainoo

Ashiq Hussain S/O BashirAhmed both residents of vil-lage Tander, Dachhan..

Singh said, "after meticu-lous search and painstakingefforts for three continuousdays, the search party zeroed inbehind village Saunder in a nal-lah on Friday morning".

"On observing the move-ment of forces, the hiding ter-rorists fired at the search partyand in the retaliatory action ,both the terrorists were elimi-nated".

Security forces have recov-ered, One AK 74 rifle and oneINSAS rifle from the killed ter-rorists, Singh added

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Tamil Nadu’s joy over thereduction in the number of

coronavirus patients tested pos-itive for the last two days turnedout to be short-lived as the Staterecorded 56 new cases of thepandemic on Friday.

As on Friday evening, thenumber of persons undergoingtreatment for COVID-19 stoodat 1,323 and 18 persons suc-cumbing to the dreaded diseasetill date.

The redeeming feature of theday’s data, released by the depart-ment of health and family wel-fare was the increase in thenumber of persons who werecured and discharged from var-ious hospitals on a single day.The day saw 103 cured personsgetting discharged from thehospitals.

The reduction in the num-ber of persons tested positive forTuesday and Wednesday hadmade chief minister EdappadiPalaniswami to claim onThursday that the intensity ofCOVID-19 in the State has

come down due to the incessantsteps taken by his government.“We hope to achieve zero casesin the next few days,” the chiefminister had told reporters onThursday.

With the number of personstesting positive for coronavirusshowing an increase on Friday,the chief minister’s statement onThursday that the governmentwould withdraw the restrictionson a phased manner from April20 has come under a cloud.

There was no Press briefingon Friday and the Governmentchose to issue a medical bulletininstead of the health secretaryherself addressing the journalists.

But the war of wordsbetween the Chief Minister andthe Leader of Opposition MKStalin continued unabated onFriday with the latter asking theGovernment not to play with thelives of common men.

The Opposition leader hasbeen alleging that the TamilNadu Government has failed intesting the number of personssuspected of having the coron-avirus.

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Issuing a stern warning toPakistan Army, Chief of

Army Staff (COAS) GeneralMM Naravane on Friday saidoptions short of war are avail-able to us to provide befittingresponse to our adversaries.

Without mincing anywords, General Naravane alsosaid, "In keeping with ournational strategy, the IndianArmy remains prepared toundertake operations acrossthe full spectrum of conflictand is prepared for every contingency.

Standing in the backdropof North Kashmir's mountainrange in Kupwara sector,General Naravane alsoexposed the role of PakistanArmy in fomenting trouble inthe region. He said, It is veryunfortunate that at a timewhen the whole world andIndia is fighting the menaceof this pandemic, our neigh-bour continues to fomenttrouble for us.

“While we are busy notonly helping our own citizensbut the rest of the world bysending medical teams andexporting medicines, on theother hand, Pakistan is onlyexporting terror. This doesn’taugur well,” he added.

Gen Naravane was shar-ing his assessment about theprevailing security situationafter winding up his two daylong visit toJammu&Kashmir.

Speaking to ANI, GeneralNaravane said, "We haveevolved a strategy of resolutepunitive response againstsponsored terrorism. Acts ofterror will not be toleratedand perpetrators will be pun-ished. The onus remains withPakistan to bring peace in theregion. Unless Pakistan givesup its policy of state spon-sored terrorism, we will con-tinue to respond withimpunity and precision.

Referring to recent spikein ceasefire violations alongthe line of control, he said, the

five commandos, as well asfive terrorists, were killed onApril 5 when the troops pre-vented the group from sneak-ing into the Kashmir Valleyfrom Keran sector.

He said, Inf i ltrationattempts in areas where thesnow levels are still very highindicate Pakistan Army com-plicity & nefarious designs.Intelligence reports suggestthat all launch pads across theLC are active.

Reaching out to peopleof Jammu&Kashmir, GeneralNaravane said, Pakistanclaims to be a friend ofKashmiris and I want to askwhat sort of friend resort tokilling and spread terror. "Ihave come over to meet ourAwam and reassure them ofour commitment and supportin ensuring peace, prosperi-ty and stability to the region".

According to officialsources, " between Januaryand March 2020, Pakistanarmy has resorted to over1100 ceasefire violations.

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Hyderabad: Handshake andtouching mouth, nose andeyes are considered to becommon body languagehabits which could infect aperson with coronavirus, andit is very difficult to give upthese habits.

Keeping this in view, anengineering student fromTelangana has come out witha device which warns a personindulging in these activities.

The device developed byBudhavarapu Sneha beepswhenever the person wearingit involuntarily indulges inany of these habits.

The device, wearable likea wrist watch, alerts a personwhenever he or she reachesout for a handshake or touch-es any part of the face.

When the person offers ashake hand, the device willbuzz to warn that it must beavoided.

"Whenever you moveyour hand to touch any partof your face, the device beepsto warn you. If your hands aresanitised, you can ignore the

beep. Otherwise, you willrealise that you need to washyour hands," said Sneha, afirst year B.Sc (Electronics)student from Karimnagartown.

The device comprises athree voltage battery, a sensor,a buzzer and a rubber band.It can be sold for Rs 350apiece.

"As we don't have a vac-cine or drug for Covid-19 yet,prevention is the only optionavailable to us. Since avoidinga handshake and touchingthe face are identified com-mon habits which could leadto infection, I have made thisdevice," said the young stu-dent who worked under thesupervision of her father B.Mallesh, a researcher in electronics.

Sneha said she also plansto make a device to ensuresocial distancing in publicplaces for better protection.The proposed device will alerta person moving close toanother, thus violating socialdistancing norm. IANS

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The IAF’s latest brand new acquisition,an Apache attack helicopter, made a

precautionary landing on Friday in a fieldin Hoshiarpur, Punjab after taking offfrom its operational base Pathankot. Thecrew and helicopter are safe and amandatory court of inquiry is on to ascer-tain the cause leading to the landing.

Incidentally, the IAF saw two suchlandings in successive days involving thelatest and one of the oldest helicopters.A Cheetah helicopter made an emer-gency landing on a highway in westernUttar Pradesh after taking off from theHindon airbase and bound forChandigarh. While this helicopter ismore than 40 years old, Apaches wereinducted into service in September lastyear.

Giving details about the latest inci-dent, the IAF said in a statement here“the helicopter, after approximately 1hour of flying had indications of a crit-ical failure and carried out a safe land-ing West of Indora, Punjab. The captainof the aircraft took correct and promptactions to recover the helicopter safely.The statement said all crew onboard thehelicopter are safe and there has been nodamage to any property. “The aircraftwill be recovered after necessary recti-fication,” IAF added.

India contracted 22 Apaches fromBoeing of the US under a?13,951.57croresin September 2015.The first batch of Apaches was formal-ly inducted in September 2019 andbased at Pathankot Air Force station. Sofar, 17 helicopters have been inductedand all 22 are scheduled to be deliveredby end 2020. Apache is a heavy attackhelicopter and the most advanced cur-rently in service globally. These arereplacing the ageing Russian Mi-35attack helicopters in service. TheApaches will be based at Pathankot andJorhat, Assam.

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has

ordered rigorous implementa-tion of lockdown in designat-ed hotspots like Howrah, North24 Parganas and parts ofKolkata saying the situation wasso sensitive that if strict actionswere not taken immediatelythen things could spin out ofcontrol leading to communitycontamination in places likeHowrah.

Four areas of Bengalincluding Howrah, Kolkata,North 24 Parganas and EastMidnapore have been identifiedas corona hotspots. Out ofthem East Midnapore reportedno new cases in the past 14 daysshifting the region from ‘Red”zone to “Orange” zone, she said.

The Chief Minister whoearlier shunted senior IAS offi-cer and State Food SecretaryManoj Agarwal and twoDistrict Magistrates for allegeddeficiency in services on Fridaysaid “the situation in Howrah isvery sensitive —particularly inareas like Sankrail, Bankra andurban Howrah… So much so,that if it is not handled aggres-sively now then things may spinout of conrol leading to com-munity contamination.”

Bengal reported a total of162 active corona cases with 22people getting infected in thepast 24 hours.

Four persons were curedduring this period, govern-ment sources said.

The Chief Minister direct-ed the officials to work towardsreverting the “red zones intoorange zones and orange zonesinto green zones in 14 daystime,” citing how “touchwood10 districts of the State haveremained unaffected by coro-na,” and cautioning “there maybe attempts to cross the S

tate and international bor-ders to enter Bengal and spreadthe disease and we will have tostop that at any cost.”

She directed the policeadministration to deploy armedpolice personnel in pin-point-ed areas to prevent movementof the people. “Let he givenareas be sealed and let thepolicemen reach food and otheressential items … but stopentry and exit from theseareas… post armed police menif needed,” she said dismissinghowever, the suggestions ofBengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar to deploy para-mil-itary personnel.

Apparently hitting out atthe Governor she said “somepeople who do nothing but dishout unnecessary sermons ask-ing deployment of paramilitaryforces should first understandthat the police is doing excellentjob… These people wantdeployment of paramilitary buthere we see the paramilitarypersonnel are busy protectingthe BJP MPs who are touringthe regions with CRPF withoutconsidering the gravity of thesituation,” Banerjee said.

Earlier following reportsof irregularities in the public

distribution system with about10 per cent people not gettingtheir share of free food grainsBanerjee replaced state FoodSecretary Manoj Agarwal a1990 batch IAS officer withParvej Ahmed Siddiqui. Theformer has been sent in “com-pulsory waiting,” sources said.

She also transferredDarjeeling District Magistratesof Priya P and one’s WestBardhhaman counterpartShahshank Shethi even as theopposition cried foul overbungling in distribution of foodgrains to the people stuck inlockdown.

Notwithstanding the quickaction taken by the ChiefMinister senior BJP leaderRahul Sinha wondered whyonly the officials and not theTrinamool Congress workersinvolved in the bungling werenot punished.

“We had brought to thenotice of the Food MinisterJyotpriya Mullick as to how theTMC men were lifting hugeamount of grains but no actionwas taken against these TMCmen. Only the officers weremade the scapegoat,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BengalGovernment on Fridayannounced a scheme “SneherParosh” (touch of affection)under which it would transfer �1,000 each to thestranded migrant workers inother States.

Arrangements were beingmade to transfer the amountonline to stranded workers inMaharashtra, Delhi, Kerala andother places after verification,State Chief Secretary RajivaSinha said.

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Mumbai’s Dharavi slumbegan to feel the heat of

coronavirus on Friday, as onemore person succumbed toCovid-19 taking the total num-ber of cases to ten and with 15fresh positive cases the totalnumber of infected casescrossed 100-mark in Asia’slargest slum.

A day after 26 persons test-ed positive for the pandemic, a62-year-old person fromDharavi’s Matunga LabourCamp died of Coronavirus atthe Lokmanya Tilak MunicipalGeneral Hospital andLokmanya Tilak MunicipalMedical College at Sion innorth-central Mumbai.

With 15 fresh infectedcases, the total number of infect-ed cases in this densely popu-lated slum mounted to 101.

For the first time, fourinfected cases were reportedfrom Matunga Labour Camp.

Of the four infected per-sons, one person died, causingconsiderable anxiety amongpeople in this area.

Apart from the four cases,the other new infected cases

were reported from MuslimNagar (three), Indira Nagar(three), Social Nagar (two),Lakshmi chawl, Janata Societyand Suryadaya society (oneeach).

With the death that tookplace on Friday, the total num-ber of deaths in Dharavi roseto 10. Of the remaining fatal-ities in Dharavi, two eachdeaths have been reportedfrom Dr Baliga Nagar andKalyanwadi, while one deathhas been reported fromMusilim Nagar, Social Nagarand Nehru Chawl.

That the Coronavirus hasinvaded steadily into Dharavican be evidenced from the factthat the pandemic cases havebeen reported from a majori-ty of pockets of this vast slum.

For, the infected cases thathave been reported so far arefrom: Muslim Nagar-21,Mukund Nagar-18, SocialNagar-10, Janata Society –9,Baliganagar –5, Kalyanwadi,Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, ShastryNagar, Matunga Labour Campand Indira Chawl – four each,Vaibhav Apartments,Murungan Chawl, SuryodaySociety, Lakshmi chawl, Madina

Nagar – two each, Dhavadachawl, PMGP Colony, NehruChawl, Gulmohar Chawl, SairajNagar,Transit Camp, RamajiChawl and Shivshakti Nagar

After the first few positivecases of Covid-19 were report-ed in Dharavi in the first weekof this month, an anxious citycivic health machinery hasheld several fever clinics in thisslum.

Since early last week, healthworkers have been conductingdoor-to-door screening of allthe Dharavi residents.Simultaneously, a team of localprivate doctors of Dharavi andcivic medical staff have beenchecking temperature andenquiring the residents abouttheir travel history.

The BirhanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)has been constantly monitoringthe situation in this slum.

The city police, who areassisting the BMC in its effortsto check the spread of theCoronavirus, has been usingdrones to monitor the move-ment of people, if any, in thecongested lanes of Dharavi,where the authorities have beenenforcing a total lockdown.

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In disturbing incident that took placeamid the coronavirus situation, three

persons were lynched by a 200-strongmob of villagers near Kasa town inMaharashtra’s Palghar district late onThursday night, on suspicion that theywere thieves.

In the second incident of its kindhappening in the last three days, the vil-lagers saw a Maruti Ecco van, carryingthree persons near their village. Theysuspected the occupants of the van to bethieves.

The villagers first hurled stones atthe van, prompting the driver to stop thevehicle. Later, they pulled three personsout of the vehicle and beat them to deathin Gadhchinchale village on Dabhadi-Khanwel road, with sticks and rods.

The deceased ---identified asChikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70),Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and driverNilesh Telgade (30) were travelling toNashik. Of them one was the diver,while two are residents of Kandivli in

north Mumbai. The place where theincident took place is approximately 120km from Mumbai.

When the incident was happening,the driver of the car quietly called thelocal police. Before long, a police teamarrived on the scene. However, the vil-lagers were in such a violent mood thatthey also attacked the police vehicle.

“We tried to rescue the three personsfrom being beaten up by the mob. Themob was violent. They attacked us withstones. Meanwhile, they beat the threepersons very badly. We rushed to near-by government hospital where they weredeclared dead before admission. We areawaiting the post-mortem report,”Assistant Police Inspector attached toKasa police station Anandrao Kale said.

On Friday, the police detained 30persons in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, the Kasa police haveregistered cases under section 188 (dis-obedience), section 302 (murder) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) and DisasterManagement Act, 2005, and EpidemicDiseases Act,1897 against unidentified

villagers whom they expect to arrest ina day or two.

This is the second such incident dur-ing the last three days. Earlier, four policemen Kasa Police station, including APIKale, were injured and a SUV of a skinspecialist Dr Vishwas Walwi of Thanewas badly damaged by a mob at Saamivillage Police said that some 250 peo-ple had attacked them Dr Walwi’s SUVwhen he was returning home after adoor-to-door thermal screening of trib-als and distributing food grains to them.

In a related development, Palghardistrict collector Kailas Shinde describedthe lynching incident as “most unfor-tunate”. Talking to media, Dr Shindesaid: “It is very unfortunate that the vil-lagers took law into their hands...Theincident took place in a village on theborder of Maharashtra and Dadra NagarHaveli. In the earlier as well as the cur-rent incident, it appears that the villagershad apprehensions that the people werecoming to their villages to take away kid-neys, kidnap children and that thesepeople were thieves and docoits".

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At a time when the country’s high andmighty are sprinkling crores in lav-

ish weddings mustering hundreds ofguests in contemptuous defiance of thecorona regulations, an inconsequentialcouple in comparatively lesser knownpart of Bengal on Thursday entered intoa proverbial “no-frills” wedlock sansguests.

Neither Swati Nath nor SouravKarmakar’s grandfathers are formerPrime Ministers (like HD Deve Gowda).Nor their parents are ex-Chief Ministers(like HD Kumaraswami). Yet the cou-ple had the humble discernment that

tying the wedding knot amid a largecrowd could be a suicidal propositionwhen the country is under a lock downto ward off the dreaded corona virus.

The Kharagpur couple’s marriageceremony was not only sparsely attend-ed by a group of 10-15 “very close rel-atives and friends” but also everyone wasconscious enough to mask their faces tokeep the virus at bay.

Kharagpur is barely an hour’s drivefrom Bengal’s one of the four hotspotsof Egra in East Midnapore district. Theicing on the cake came when Karmakarthe humble owner of a fast-food kioskdecided along with his wife to donate apaltry amountRs 31,000 — that he had

saved to host the wedding party --- tofeed the 500 poor souls who had beencaught stranded nearby amidst thecomplete shutdown for two days.

“I had saved the money to spend atmy wedding. But in the changed cir-cumstances I asked myself: why notspend it to feed the poor! … When I toldmy family about it, they all readilyagreed,” Karmakar said with his newlymarried bride saying how happy she wasat the decision taken by her husband. “Itis a great thing to feed the poor peopleat our wedding. They will bless us.”

One wonders whether the blessingwill land the couple one day on PrimeMinisterial or Chief Ministerial chairs.

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Page 6: ˜ ˆ ˇ ./ 45456 .4 .275 !ˇˆ# ˆˇ˛# #$˜%ˆ&$’()ˆ€¦ · 0 1 2 1 1 ˜ ! ... Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil tied the knot on Friday with Revathi, niece of former Minister

Peering through the window, Icould see the iconic Manhattanlandscape with its tall towerssoaring into the sky. I was on anAmerican Airlines flight from

Washington DC that was set to land atwhat was then Idlewild Airport and is nowJohn F Kennedy International Airport.That was my first view of New York City(NYC) and the date, if memory serves, wasMarch 2, 1960.

Over the years, New York has becomemy second-most favourite city, the firstbeing Kolkata, where I was born andwhere I grew up, and which remains homedespite my decades in Delhi. I, therefore,deeply mourn the tragedy that has struckboth NYC and New York state in the formof a massive COVID-19 attack, sendingthousands to the hereafter and paralysinga throbbing megacity with its vibrantdiversity of peoples and cultures, waxingalong its wide avenues and in the shad-ows of its concrete canyons, epitomisedby the Wall Street.

I am not the proverbial New Yorkerwho has lived in the city for years and feelsthe richness of its life in his/her viscera. Iam an outsider whose many visits, nonemore than a month long at a time, have leftbehind a string of warm memories of excit-ing encounters with people, visits to gal-leries and museums, of the buzz of manyvoices in bars, varied fares in restaurantsand hours of bookshop browsing (alas mostof them have now closed down). The vari-ety of people one sees is stunning — rang-ing from White Anglo-Saxon Protestants(WASPS) to African Americans, fromthose of European origin to those ofChinese, Latin American, Sri Lankan,Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian stock,from those in dark suits scurrying aroundin the financial district in lower Manhattan,to residual hippies lounging around in theVillage’s Washington Square Park.

My memories, too, are diverse. Iremember the West End Bar on theBroadway opposite Columbia University.Later closed down, it was frequented by theuniversity’s faculty members and studentsand, often, by celebrities and writers. It washere that Jack Kerouac (On the Road, TheDharma Bums, The Subterraneans et al),William S Burroughs (of Naked Lunch andJunkie and much else) and Allen Ginsberg(Howl and Other Poems and Kaddish andOther Poems) held court, gave identity toBeat writing and shaped its emerging con-tours, with the word “Beat” being first usedby Hubert Edwin Huncke (Guilty ofEverything: The Autobiography of HerbertEdwin Huncke and The Evening SunTurned Crimson among others).

Prior to gentrification in the last cou-ple of decades or so, the area aroundColumbia University and the West EndBar was marked by poverty and a highcrime rate. Now the Beats and kindred

souls have left along withjunkies, hustlers and muggers;the Yuppies (young, upwardly-mobile professionals) and theuniversity authorities have takenover much of it. A sigh for that.But then NYC has seen manytransient bursts of literary andartistic excellence under thecanopy of its fervid creativity.The area around the ColumbiaUniversity and the West End Baris a part of West Harlem which,in turn, is included in the widersprawl of Harlem, envelopingthe central and eastern part ofthe latter, in the northern reach-es of NYC.

In the 1920s and early1930s, the entire area was thevenue of what has come to beknown as the HarlemRenaissance, which saw a flow-ering of African American cul-ture in the spheres of literature,music, theatre, visual art andsculpture. There was an explo-sion of music, particularly jazz.Paul Robeson was a toweringpresence. Many others, whobecame tall eminences later, cuttheir teeth at the Cotton Club,for a long time a Whites-onlynightclub at the heart of Harlem,which featured promisingAfrican American performers.Duke Ellington, composer,pianist and jazz orchestra leader,made his mark here. LouisArmstrong, trumpeter, who pro-foundly influenced the evolutionof jazz, played here. Lena Horne,

singer, dancer, actress and civilrights activist, made her markhere, as did Ethel Waters, cele-brated for her mellifluous ren-dering of the blues and AdelaideHall, the noted jazz singer wholater migrated to Britain.

The visual and plastic artsflourished. Aaron Douglas’spaintings and Augusta Savageand Meta Warrick’s sculptureswere widely and criticallyapplauded. It was equally a timefor intellectual ferment, whichowed much to the collection ofessays, The Soul of Black Folk(1903) by WEB Du Bois, sociol-ogist, historian, civil rightsactivist, author and editor. Heplayed a major, if not defining,role in shaping the HarlemRenaissance, as did MarcusGarvey, founder of the UniversalNegro Improvement Association(UNIA) and the AfricanCommunities league. The wide-ly-circulated weekly newspaper,Negro World, which he foundedand ran on behalf of the UNIA,and The Crisis, the quarterlymouthpiece of the NAACPwhich Du Bois founded in 1910and edited until 1934, played acritically important role in pub-lishing African American writersand giving them much-neededvisibility.

Langston Hughes was, per-haps, the most important literaryfigure of the Harlem Renaissance.Countee Collen left behind hismark as a poet. Arna Bontemps

and Jean Toomer were importantwriters whom The Crisis gavesalience. While the Renaissance’srole in enabling individual writ-ers to be recognised and success-ful is important, much more soits contribution to laying thegroundwork for the evolution ofAfrican-American conscious-ness and literature and definingits ethos. Du Bois wanted AfricanAmerican artists to remembertheir moral responsibility project-ing the issue of racial equality intheir work. James Baldwin, thenovelist and essayist whose writ-ings shook the United States inthe 1960s, did this in all his works,and, particularly tellingly, inNobody Knows My Name andThe Fire Next Time.

Unfortunately, the GreatDepression delivered a cripplingblow; other factors like internalsquabbling worsened matters.The Harlem Renaissance hob-bled to an end in the early 1930s.As they say, sic transit Gloriamundi (Thus goes worldly glory).Before waning, however, it pro-jected the ethos and culture ofAfrican Americans on theirterms and not in terms of thestereotypes many Whites hadimposed on them. With its cre-ative reverberations spreading farand wide, it made the world situp and take note. It aroused thelatent pride of African Americansin their own accomplishments,culture and capabilities and madethem progressively unwilling to

suffer the discrimination that hadcontinued to be heaped on themdespite the abolition of slavery.The road was prepared for themovement for equality, an issuethat was gaining increasingmomentum, to swell into thetidal wave of the civil rightsmovement of the 1960s whenmany barriers collapsed.

The 1960s were a turbulentperiod. Besides the peaking of thecivil rights movement, the oneagainst the United States’ partic-ipation in the Vietnamese War (asDavid Elliott calls it in his defin-itive book the by the same name),convulsed the campuses andstreets. NYC was no exceptionand the highest point in the mul-tiplicity of protest meetings,marches and sit-ins was clearlythe April 15 Spring Mobilisationmarch against the war inVietnam, which attracted sever-al hundreds of thousands of par-ticipants.

In NYC, the civil rights,anti-war and the Beat move-ments, which often overlapped,flowed parallelly in the 1960s.The three subsided in theearly1970s. The reasons were sev-eral. The civil rights legislation ofthe 1960s seemed to have takensome of the edge of the AfricanAmerican drive for equality. TheVietnamese war limped to aclose in 1972. Internal feudssplit the Left-leaning Students fora Democratic Society, which wasactive in both the anti-war andcivil rights movements. Allinvolved were tired of the pro-longed campus unrest.

The Beat movement hadalso lost steam. The East VillageOther, the shrill voice of counter-culture and protest, died in1972. The Village Voice, a soberplatform of creative dissentfounded in 1955, ceased publi-cation in 2017, surviving onlinetill 2018. The Bohemiansmoved out of the village. YetNew York was not bereft ofexcitement. The village had itsjazz and restaurants. Until theCOVID-19 horror struck, per-formances and exhibitions drewthousands to the Lincoln Centrefor the Performing Arts, whichnow houses the New YorkPhilharmonic, the MetropolitanOpera, the New York City Balletand the Julliard School of Music.The Museum of Modern Artand the American Museum ofNatural History drew streams ofvisitors.

Over the whole city nowhangs the sinister shadow of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Will itever recover? It did from thetrauma of 9/11. Will there nowbe a second coming? Thosefamiliar with NYC’s resilienceknow there will be.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

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Sir — At a time when the IndianGovernment as well as manycountries across the world havebeen scrambling to procure per-sonal protective equipment (PPE)kits for their healthcare workersin the fight against coronavirus,Assam has become the first Stateto receive the kits directly fromChina. Last Wednesday, a cargoflight operated by Blue Darttouched down in Guwahati fromChina’s Guangzhou, carrying50,000 PPE kits. Without a doubt,Assam’s promptness made theState better prepared to handle thenovel coronavirus. Other Statesmust take note.

MM Islam QasmiVia email

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Sir — The outbreak of theCOVID-19 pandemic, whichcalled upon nations across theworld to impose strict lockdownto stop its spread, has led to peo-ple adopting novel practices.Digital transactions have soared,door-step delivery of groceryand other essential items has now

become the norm and onlinehigher education has got a sec-ond chance to prove its worth aschildren are now being educat-ed through video classes.

It is amazing that manyschools have even set up a dailytime schedule and classes arebeing taken by faculty members

in an organised manner. Online classes are also help-

ing teachers as well as the stu-dents maintain good rapportwith one another. However, suchtutorials must not be too lengthy.Course content should be inter-esting, informative, withoutcliches or stereotypical ideas and

include conventional type narra-tives. It should not turn out to bea platform where the faculty’sonly intention is to finish the syl-labus. They must also not dumpassignments on students.

Post-Coronavirus, academicinstitutions must make it manda-tory for their faculty members to

undergo online teaching practice.They must impart the uses, meth-ods and advantages of this kind oflearning to the parents, too.

M PradyuKannur

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Sir — This refers to editorial,“WHO vs Trump” (April 17). Ata time when the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) is seekingadditional revenue to fight theCOVID pandemic, US PresidentDonald Trump has done theunthinkable by suspending aid tothe body. But has Trump takenthe right decision? Becausepublic officials have warned thatthis move could exacerbate thepandemic. Since the US is thebiggest funder of the WHO, itwill be difficult for it to serve theworld efficiently. The body playsa crucial role in advising devel-oping countries on medical issuesand way out to pull out of crises.Cutting its fund could push theworld into a dreadful situation.

Adish BohraUjjain

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Does it make sense to be politically correctwhen faced with an existentialist crisis? Ifa person is fighting for his/her life and finds

that survival depends not just on his/her ownactions but also on the actions of theneighbours/community, how should one respond?

The choices are pretty stark and binary, thereis no time or place for grey areas and that is howit should be. Simply put, good deeds must berewarded while bad deeds must be punished. Andpolitical correctness be damned.

During the present pandemic, as the numberof confirmed Coronavirus cases and casualtiescontinue to spiral not just globally but also in thecountry, there are millions of anonymous doctors,nurses and other healthcare professionals, mediapersonnel, soldiers, policemen, grocers and shop-keepers, delivery staff, sanitation workers andmany others, who keep our essential services func-tional. They are on the frontline, battling theCOVID-19 monster, keeping us safe without a carefor their personal safety and for the future of theirfamilies.

Many healthcare workers have even beeninfected and died due to the pandemic. These“Corona warriors” must be thanked and applaud-ed for their dedication and resilience, whereverin the world they may be. In fact, more than justgestures, we must reciprocate and do our best tokeep them safe, albeit by ensuring that weremain disciplined and follow rules regardingsocial and physical distancing; contribute what wecan to make their lives easier and, most impor-tantly, treat them with the respect they deserve.

The other side of the coin pertains to how wedeal with those who violate social and physical dis-tancing norms, knowingly or unknowingly,“Covidiots” as they have commonly come to beknown. Ignorance after over two months of fac-ing this pandemic is no longer a viable excuse andthose who violate norms must be treated as delib-erate defaulters, regardless of how illiterate or igno-rant they may actually be. The motivation for theiractions obviously stems from the belief that eitherit is not in their hands or that they are unlikelyto be effected by the virus, even if they catch it.

The problem of disciplining or getting thesepeople to adhere to the law is that our legal sys-tem is such that summary punishments do notexist. So, actually punishing a wrongdoer takesmonths, if not years. Moreover, given the poorquality of recruits to our police forces, leaving thedisciplining of wrongdoers in their hands will leadto sadistic and uncalled for abuse. None of this islikely to deter individuals from indulging in activ-ities that may not amount to being seen as crim-inal in nature but are certainly not socially accept-able behaviour either.

For those indulging in such behaviour do notsee that their actions could be responsible forputting others in harm’s way and even if they do,for some it is of no concern.

In fact, some who feel that they have beentreated unfairly by society at large, or even by thecountry, see this as an ideal opportunity to geteven. Among the latter there are also those work-ing at the behest of forces that are inimical towardsthe country and wish it harm. They should obvi-ously be categorised separately and their actionsmust be treated as deliberate acts of bio-terror-

ism and treated as such with no quar-ter being given. There is no differenti-ation here between Over GroundWorkers (OGW) and terrorists and allof them are no different from thosewielding guns or explosives.

Even among the scores of otherswho disobey societal norms, there aresome who do so deliberately becausethey believe they are above the law. Theseare those who belong to religious groupsor political parties or are seen as influ-encers who consider that their wealth,social status or position protects them.

The examples that best illustrate thiskind of horrendous behaviour are fromKarnataka, where the unwillingness ofthe State administration to act is con-doned by the Central Government, justbecause it happens to be a BJP one.

In one case, a chariot-pulling ritu-al that was a part of the SiddalingeshwaraFair, held in Chittapur village, inKalaburagi District of Karnataka, saw theparticipation of thousands of devotees,who violated the nationwide lockdownand social distancing norms withimpunity.

The police and DistrictAdministration remained mere specta-tors even though they were aware of theplanned event well in advance. Theywere finally forced to act and lodge anFirst Information Report (FIR) againstthe temple trust a day later, after a mael-strom erupted on social media. The like-lihood of any substantive action beingtaken against those responsible seemsunlikely.

Incidentally, Kalaburagi has beendeemed a COVID-19 hotspot and isunder complete lockdown. It also has thedubious distinction of having reported

India’s first death from the Coronavirus.Clearly, the Central Government’s writseems to run only within the NationalCapital Region (NCR), even if there!

The second incident is even moreappalling because those involved are thevery ones who are expected to setexamples for the rest of us to follow. Itpertains to the marriage of NikhilKumaraswamy, the grandson of formerPrime Minister Deve Gowda, to Revathi,the grand-niece of former CongressMinister M Krishnappa. Hence, a VIPwedding.

While only family members wereinvited and the event was moved out ofBengaluru to a farmhouse some distanceaway, the adherence to social distancingnorms or the wearing of masks, as ismandated, were completely disregard-ed by those attending. Photographs avail-able in the public domain show this utterdisregard for the nation”s fight againstthe virus. But this was only to beexpected as the Karnataka ChiefMinister, BS Yediyurappa, had earlier seta precedent of sorts, when he along withsome of his Cabinet colleagues attend-ed a wedding in Belgavi, at which therewere over 5,000 guests present. This, justdays after he had himself passed direc-tions that not more than 100 guestscould be invited to weddings.

Finally, there are also those whoeither unwittingly or carelessly breakthese norms just because they lack self-discipline or believe they can get awaywith it, much like those who jump traf-fic lights when there are no policemenabout.

The fact of the matter is that all“Covidiots” belonging to any of thesegroups are breaking the law and putting

the lives of other people at risk, for whichthey must be held accountable.

This clearly suggests that given theinfirmities in our criminal justice system,there is an urgent and pressing necessi-ty to introduce summary punishments.These must be handed out without fearor favour and be applied on all whobreak the rules. Obviously, the scale ofpunishment meted out should be basedon the severity of the misdemeanour.

This will be similar to the legalprocess of summary disposal that existswithin the military justice system, wherepunishments are awarded and carriedout on the spot.

If the offence is seen to be of a seri-ous nature, or the individual is a repeatoffender, s/he could then have an FIRregistered against him/her as per ourcriminal justice procedure. However, forsuch behaviour, the charges preferredagainst the individual must be non-bail-able and instead of being kept in a prisons/he must be kept locked in specially ear-marked “internment camps” where s/hewill be ineligible to receive anythingother than prophylactic medical care forCOVID-19 till his/her case is brought totrial. There is little doubt that extraor-dinary situations demand extraordinarymeasures. Those who follow the law can-not be held hostage by the few who donot follow rules, using our democraticprocess as their excuse. The notificationof such a measure will act as a strongdeterrent against willful misbehaviourand should be put in place for the dura-tion of this pandemic.

(The writer, a military veteran is aconsultant with the Observer ResearchFoundation and a Senior Visiting Fellowwith The Peninsula Foundation Chennai)

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Any crisis brings with it greatinvestment opportunities but itis not easy to decipher what to

bet on. At present the sentiment instock markets across the world isgloomy and financial markets inIndia, too, are witnessing sharp volatil-ity as a result of this. The fall is in linewith the global benchmark indices asthe domestic market usually tracksthem. The stock market is likely to con-tinue to be highly volatile in the nearfuture. Further, with Foreign PortfolioInvestment (FPI) flying to the safetyof dollar-backed assets, this has led toa sharp plunge in the Indian stock mar-ket. The S&P BSE Sensex, which was42,273 points on January 20, dippedto 29,894 points on April 8. The Priceto Earning Ratio of the Sensex is less

than 18, which is far less than its his-torical range of 20-24. Markets acrosslarge, mid and small caps have correct-ed sharply from their peaks. In theFinancial Year (FY) 2019-20, the mid-cap index fell by 26 per cent while theSensex fell by 22 per cent. But that doesnot mean that it is the end of the stockmarket. Volatility tests the patience ofinvestors and traders. While the trad-er ends up losing money the investorgrabs multi-baggers.

COVID-19 is a black swan event:Throughout history, there have beenhighly improbable events that catchalmost everyone by surprise and canpotentially have a large impact on sta-tus quo by disrupting human activi-ties and/or creating havoc. These arecalled “black swan” events. The namestems from the fact that up until 1697,mankind believed that all swans werewhite. Then Dutch explorers sightedblack swans for the first time inWestern Australia, completely nullify-ing the belief that swans can only bewhite. Thus, the term “black swan” isused to describe an improbable eventwhich also has an extreme impact.

The field of finance regularlyattempts to capture outlier events and

fails with equal regularity. The impactof the Coronavirus on the stock mar-ket has all the characteristics of a “blackswan” event.

Crash and recovery: Worldwidestock markets have a history of crashand recovery and the Indian boursesare no different. The Sensex plunged53 per cent in one year during the“Harshad Mehta scam” in 1992 butrecovered 127 per cent in 17 months.During the “tech bubble burst” in 2000,the Sensex crashed 56 per cent in 17months but recovered 138 per cent intwo-and-a-half years. When the USfaced the “Lehman crisis” in 2008, theSensex crashed 61 per cent in a yearbut recovered 157 per cent in 17months. The current market hascrashed around 30 per cent in less thanthree months. Due to the COVID-19,no one knows when the economy willcome back on track. Some expertseven compare this meltdown of glob-al economies to the “Great Depression”that started in 1929 and lasted until thelate 1930s. Between 1929 and 1932, theworldwide Gross Domestic Product(GDP) fell by an estimated 15 per cent.By comparison, the global GDP fell byless than one per cent from 2008 to

2009 during the “Great recession.”Given the economic slowdown inIndia, the Yes Bank imbroglio, theCAA-NRC protests, Delhi riots, panicamid the Coronavirus, the sentimentis extremely negative. And this led tothe March-April meltdown on theIndian bourses.

Fear and greed: Investing in thestock market is not all about techni-cal and fundamental analysis but alsoabout analysing the behaviour ofinvestors at large. Investors discuss andagree to take rational decisions but attimes they are influenced by events andbehave irrationally. Sometimes theiractions are influenced more by emo-tions rather than the fundamentals ofthe stock market. Historically it hasbeen proven that in a bullish market,investor decisions are based on poten-tial gains rather than losses and theymake risky investments. However,stock markets reward patient long-term investors. There is no better wayof making money other than owninga great bunch of Indian companies andignoring the inevitable ups and downsof the market.

The future of other sectors: Thebanking sector may see more pain but

the insurance sector may see gains. The automobile sector, which

was suffering due to the 2019 econom-ic meltdown, may benefit from theCoronavirus outbreak. Recently,Maruti Suzuki India said that theyexpect to see a boom once the lock-down is lifted and as social distancingbecomes a common practice, forcingpeople to buy more cars. Similarviews were shared by other automo-bile makers. The Nifty 50 Index — adiversified 50 stock index accountingfor more than 13 sectors of the econ-omy — has rallied by over 20 per centsince its March lows.

The Nifty Pharma Index, on theother hand, has skyrocketed to over 37per cent, outperforming the broadermarkets quite remarkably. This hap-pened because with the world grap-pling with the Coronavirus pandem-ic, the spotlight is clearly on healthcare.In the same way, the agriculture sec-tor might not be affected much.

However, despite numerousattempts by the Reserve Bank of Indiato stem the freefall in the Indian cur-rency against the US dollar, there is noend to the pain. This may benefit thesoftware export sector and TCS,

Wipro, Infosys and so on could be thebeneficiaries. But real estate, hospital-ity and the entertainment sector mightbe the real losers in the stock market.The oil and natural gas sector mightalso suffer but as crude oil prices arelow, their losses are under control fornow. Due to the lockdown, inflationhas reduced but so have the volumes.Various sectors have felt the positiveimpact of the pandemic whereas oth-ers have borne its negative impact.Thus, their share prices will moveaccordingly.

What of recovery? It would befoolish to expect a quick economicrebound from the current crisis. Butconsidering the all-out efforts byCentral banks and fiscal authorities tosoften the blow, a deep economicslump might be avoided. The problemin the current scenario is that until weknow how quickly and thoroughly thepublic-health challenge will be met, itis virtually impossible for economiststo predict the endgame.

Global trade is expected to fallacross all sectors this year but couldrebound later depending on when thepandemic is brought under controland the policy choices governments

took to support their economies.Once business and economic normal-cy returns, the stock market will startmoving in a positive direction.Recovery would be faster than expect-ed. But if people only do discretionaryspending then economic revival wouldtake longer.

Whether it is correction or growth,both phases are worth taking anexposure in the stock market. But don’ttry to catch the falling knife.

What should investors do? Mostof us would want to wait till there issome clarity or evidence on how theCoronavirus will be contained, beforedeciding to invest. But practicallywaiting for the bottom to invest isextremely difficult. Therefore, insteadof waiting for the market to hit the bot-tom, experts recommend taking agradual and incremental approachwhere you start investing a small por-tion of your cash on a regular basis. Ifthere are sharp further corrections, theamount deployed can be increasedaggressively. The current crisis can bea great opportunity for stock marketinvestors.

(The writer is an author and GSTand tax expert)

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China acknowledged onFriday that the coronavirus

death toll in the one-time epi-center city of Wuhan was near-ly 50 per cent higher thanreported, underscoring justhow seriously the official num-bers of infections and deathsaround the world may beunderstating the dimensions ofthe disaster.

Such figures can have ahuge influence on govern-ments’ actions, as medical staffsstruggle to figure out how tocope with surges of sick peopleand officials make crucial deci-sions about where to devoteresources and how to begineasing lockdowns to resuscitate

their economies.As virus deaths mounted

— with the U.S. reporting itshighest one-day death toll yetat nearly 4,600 — the economicdevastation from the restric-tions is becoming even moreshocking.

The number of peopleapplying for unemploymentbenefits in the U.S. rose by 5.2million, bringing the four-week total to a staggering 22million. China’s economyshrank 6.8% in the quarter end-ing in March compared withthe same period a year ago, itsworst contraction since mar-ket-style economic reformsbegan in 1979. And in Europe,car sales tanked 55% lastmonth.

Authorities say infectionsand deaths have been under-reported almost everywhere.Thousands have died withCOVID-19 symptoms — manyin nursing homes, which havebeen ravaged by a disease thathits the elderly the hardest —without being tested. Fourmonths into the outbreak,nations are still struggling toincrease their testing capacity,and many are still far from theirgoal. Spain on Friday ordered thecountry’s 17 autonomous regionsto adopt uniform criteria oncounting the dead. The countryhas recorded more than 19,000deaths, but the system leaves outpatients who had symptoms butwere not tested before they died.

“We are probably only see-

ing the tip of the iceberg,” saidBarcelona University epidemi-ologist Antoni Trilla, whoheads the Spanish govern-ment’s expert panel on theepidemic. Italian officials haveacknowledged that the coun-try’s official COVID-19 deathtoll of more than 22,000 — sec-ond only to that of the UnitedStates — understates the truenumber, primarily because itdoesn’t include the hundreds ofdead in nursing homes whowere not tested.

Britain’s official death toll,which is approaching 14,000,has come under increasingscrutiny because it does notinclude any deaths at home orin nursing homes. The coun-try’s statistics agency has indi-

cated the actual number ofdead could be around 15%higher. Other experts think itwill end up being a lot morethan that. Anthony Costello, aprofessor at the Institute forGlobal Health at UniversityCollege London, said Britaincould see 40,000 deaths by thetime the first wave of the out-break is over.

In Russia, authoritiesreported relatively low numbersof cases until late March. Thatraised suspicions, given thecountry’s history of concealingembarrassing truths. Doctorstreating coronavirus patientsin Moscow said last week thatthe vast majority of all pneu-monia cases in Russia are prob-ably caused by the new virus.

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Africa could see 3,00,000deaths from the coron-

avirus this year even under thebest-case scenario, according toa new report released Fridaythat cites modeling fromImperial College London.

Under the worst-case sce-nario with no interventionsagainst the virus, Africa couldsee 3.3 million deaths and 1.2billion infections, the report bythe UN EconomicCommission for Africa said.

Even with “intense socialdistancing.” under the best-casescenario the continent couldsee more than 122 millioninfections, the report said.

Any of the scenarios wouldoverwhelm Africa’s largely frag-ile and underfunded healthsystems, experts have warned.Under the best-case scenario,$44 billion would be needed fortesting, personal protectiveequipment and treatment, thereport said, citing UNECAestimates. The worst-case sce-nario would cost $446 billion.

The continent as of Fridayhad more than 18,000 con-firmed virus cases, but expertshave said Africa is weeks

behind Europe in the pan-demic and the rate of increasehas looked alarmingly similar.

The new report is the mostdetailed public projection yetfor coronavirus infections anddeaths in Africa, where morethan 1.3 billion people arebracing for the pandemic.

Poverty, crowded urbanconditions and widespreadhealth problems make Africa“particularly susceptible” to thevirus, the U.N. report said. “Ofall the continents Africa has thehighest prevalence of certain

underlying conditions, liketuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.”

On Thursday, a WorldHealth Organization officialsaid one projection over thenext six months shows morethan 10 million severe cases ofthe virus.

“But these are still to befine-tuned,” said Michel Yao,the WHO’s emergency opera-tions manager in Africa, addingthat public health measurescould have an impact in limit-ing cases. He did not give thesource of the projection.

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The coronavirus is poised toreshape the political map,

pummeling battleground statesand alarming Republicans whosee early signs of an electionthat could be a referendum onPresident Donald Trump’smanagement of the crisis.

The pandemic, which haskilled more than 30,000Americans and left millions outof work, has evisceratedTrump’s hope to run for reelec-tion on a strong economy. Aseries of states he won in 2016could tilt toward Democrats.

In Florida, Republican gov-ernor closely aligned with Trumphas come under scrutiny forbeing slow to close the state. InWisconsin, Democratic victor inlast week’s Supreme Court racecaptured 28 counties, up from 12that Hillary Clinton won fouryears ago. In Michigan,Democratic governor has seenher approval rating rise againstthe backdrop of fight withTrump. In Arizona, low marksfor Trump could be enough toturn formerly Republican strong-hold into tossup. “It makes mewonder if there’s somethingbrewing in the weaker elementsof the Trump base,” said PaulMaslin, a Wisconsin-basedDemocratic pollster.

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China on Friday denied cov-ering up the extent of its

coronavirus outbreak andaccused the US of attempting todivert the public attention byinsinuating that the virus orig-inated from a virology labora-tory in Wuhan. Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman, ZhaoLijian’s comments came asChina’s coronavirus death tollmounted to 4,632 after it revisedthe fatality figures by 50 per centin Wuhan.

“I want to emphasise thatthe revision of the data regard-ing infectious disease is an inter-nationally accepted practice,”Zhao told a media briefing,defending the sharply upwardrevision of figures amid allega-tions of under-reporting of casu-alties of coronavirus cases andcasualties by China in Wuhan.

He said in the early stage of

the outbreak there were somelate reports, omissions, andinaccurate information.

He said this can be explainedby the insufficient capacity ofadmissions and treatment ofpatients in hospitals, failure ofsome medical institutions toconnect with disease preventionand control information sys-tems in a timely manner, over-load of hospitals and pre-occu-pation of medical staff with thetreatment of patients.

“But there has never beenany concealment, and we’ll neverallow any concealment,” Zhaosaid. The revision of figurescame amid sharp criticism ofChina by the US and othernations for its alleged under-reporting of the coronaviruscases and cover-up of the originof the viral strain, which emergedin Wuhan in December last,reportedly from the localHuanan seafood market.

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The global coronavirus deathtoll passed 1,50,000, with

nearly two thirds of all fatali-ties in Europe.

In total, 1,50,623 peoplehave died of the virus, includ-ing 92,900 in Europe, the hard-est hit continent in the world.There are now more than2,227,622 recorded infectionsglobally, nearly half of whichare in Europe. Of this 563,771have been recovered so far.

US: The confirmed coron-avirus death toll in the UnitedStates reached 35,500 onFriday, according to a tally byJohns Hopkins University.

The despair wrought onnursing homes by the coron-avirus was laid bare on Fridayin a state survey identifyingnumerous New York facilitieswhere multiple patients diedover the past few weeks.Nineteen of the state’s nursinghomes have each had 20 deathsor more linked to the pan-

demic, the report said. OneBrooklyn home reported hav-ing 55 deaths. Four homes, inthe Bronx, Queens and StatenIsland, were listed as havingmore than 40.

UK: The UK has recordedanother 847 coronavirus deathsin hospitals, raising the overalltotal to 14,576. The increase isslightly down on the 861released on Thursday. Lastweek, a daily high reached 980deaths.

The figure, which isreleased daily by the govern-ment, has come under increas-ing scrutiny. It likely underes-timates the true toll because itonly includes deaths in hospi-tals and not in nursing homesor other settings within thecommunity.

Britain’s Office for NationalStatistics has indicated the fig-ure could be around 15 per centhigher, though others think itwill be more amid growingreports of a sharp increase incoronavirus outbreaks in nurs-ing homes.

Spain: Spain’s death tollspiralled towards 19,500 onFriday as the governmentrevised its data collectionmethodology despite contro-versy over a system that countsonly deaths among those whotested positive. The countryreported 585 new fatalities in thepast 24 hours, but it was difficultto compare with previous tolls

after the government amendedits counting mechanism.

The total number of deathsin Spain now stands at 19,478,the third-highest in the worldafter the United States andItaly.

Russia: Russia on Fridaysaid it had recorded 32,008coronavirus cases, including a

record 4,070 in the last 24hours, as President VladimirPutin warned of “very high”risks, particularly in the ill-equipped provinces.

Official figures showedmore than half of the new caseswere registered in Moscow andthe surrounding region. So far273 deaths have been recordedin Russia, including 41 in thelast 24 hours. Speaking duringa televised video-conferencewith regional governors, Putinsaid that “the risks surround-ing the epidemic’s spread arestill very high, not just inMoscow but in many otherRussian regions.”

Moscow’s mayor SergeiSobyanin on Friday reportedthe completion of a 500-bedhospital built within weeks,which will start admittingpatients Monday.

Italy: For doctors in north-ern Italy, fighting what is stillEurope’s worst outbreak ofCovid-19, the frontlines havemoved beyond hospitals asspecial teams try to keep

patients alive at home, awayfrom the saturated wards wherethousands have died. For staffon the so-called USCA (SpecialContinuity Assistance Units)teams, it has been a drainingstruggle, initially hampered bya shortage of vital protectivegear, that mixes emergencymedicine with the shock of los-ing unprecedented numbersof patients.

“It was and still is a toughexperience that will leave itsmark on everybody,” saidGiulia Villa, a 33-year-old doc-tor in the northern town ofBergamo, where hundreds havedied since the coronavirus out-break emerged in a nearbytown on Feb 21. “We gaveeverything we had and we arestill trying to help people. Weespecially want to relieve thestrain from hospitals by beingable to treat patients at home,”Ms Villa said.

Accounting for half of themore than 22,000 people whohave died from the coronavirusin Italy, Bergamo’s home regionof Lombardy on the border with

Switzerland remains one of theworst affected zones in theworld and its doctors have beenunder strain for weeks.

“We saw so many peoplewho needed to be hospitalisedvery quickly but the problemwas, the ambulance servicejust couldn’t keep up,” she said.

Since March 19, when theywent into operation, the unitshave carried out more than1,000 home visits after initialproblems getting enough masksand protective equipment forthe medical staff and vital oxy-gen bottles for patients withsevere respiratory problems.

Oxygen has also becomeeasier to provide now that sup-pliers have begun shipping liq-uid oxygen. But the personaltoll has been enormous as theteams deal with sick and fright-ened people struggling for lifeor preparing to watch a fami-ly member die.

Iran: Iran said 89 more peo-ple have died from the novelcoronavirus, as the country’sofficial fatalities remained in

double figures for a fourth day.Health ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour told anews conference that the latestdeaths brought the overall tollto 4,958.

It was the sixth day that theofficial fatality rate has droppedin the Middle East’s worst-hitcountry. Jahanpour added that1,499 new infections had beenconfirmed in the past 24 hours,taking the total to 79,494 from319,879 tests.

Belgium: The novel coro-navirus has claimed the lives ofmore than 5,000 people inBelgium, officials said onFriday, confirming its highper-capita mortality ratio com-pared to most other Europeancountries. A further 313 deathsrecorded in the past 24 hourshave pushed the overall toll to5,163, health authorities said ina daily news conference. Half ofthe fatalities were reportedfrom old-age care homes, andthe other half from hospitals inthe country of 11.5 millioninhabitants.

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Lahore: The Faisalabad chief ofTablighi Jamaat has died ofcoronavirus even as the num-ber of its infected memberscrossed the 1,100 mark inPakistan’s Punjab province onFriday.

Maulana Suhaib Rumi, 69,Faisalabad chapter head of

Tablighi Jamaat died of Covid-19 on Thursday.

“The elderly preacher hadattended the Tablighi gatheringin Lahore’s Raiwaind lastmonth. Five members of hisfamily, including two grand-children, are also infected withcoronavirus,” DeputyCommissioner of FaisalabadMuhammad Ali said.

His family members havebeen kept in an isolation cen-

tre in Faislabad, some 150 kmsfrom here. According to thePunjab health department, over1,100 Tablighi Jamaat membershave been tested positive forcoronavirus in the province.

A large number of preach-ers who had attended a majorcongregation in early March inits headquarters in Lahore werelater tracked down across thecountry and placed in quaran-tine centres. PTI

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To ensure that the repay-ment moratorium to help

individuals and businesses totide over the coronavirus-trig-gered disruptions does notland banks in a liquidity crisis,the RBI on Friday lowered theliquidity coverage ratio (LCR)to 80 per cent from 100 percent with immediate effect.

The LCR requires banks tohold enough high-quality liq-uid assets such as short-termGovernment bonds that can besold to fund a stress scenario.Banks are required to holdLCR which is 100 per centequivalent of projected cashoutflows during the 30-daystress scenario.

Addressing the media viavideo on Friday, RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das said “to easethe liquidity position at thelevel of individual institutions,the LCR requirement for com-mercial banks is being brought

down from 100 to 80 percentwith immediate effect.”

The Governor said theLCR requirement will be grad-ually restored back in twophases — 90 per cent byOctober 1, 2020 and 100 percent by April 1, 2021.

He said the Reserve Bankhas been proactively takingmeasures to address the sys-temic liquidity issues througha slew of monetary and marketoperations.

The LCR was introducedas part of the Basel-III reformsfollowing the 2008 globalfinancial crisis and wasfinalised by the BaselCommittee on BankingSupervision in January 2013.The RBI made LCR binding onbanks from January 1, 2015with a transition time wherethey reached 100 per cent LCRby January 1, 2019.

The LCR is calculated bydividing a bank’s high-qualityliquid assets by its total net cash

flows, over a 30-day stressperiod. Here, high-quality liq-uid assets include only thosewhich can be converted easilyand quickly into cash.

Commenting on the LCRreduction, ratings agency Icrasaid the relaxation will enablebanks meet the regulatory LCRrequirements in case theirreliance on bulk deposits orinterbank lines increases.

This will help small privatebanks all the more as they havebeen witnessing deposit out-flows, increasing their relianceon interbank funding. Suchinterbank funding is includedin high run-off while calculat-ing the LCR ratio for banks, theagency added.

RK Gurumurthy, treasuryhead at Lakshmi Vilas Bank,said the relaxation in the LCRrequirement to 80 per centreleases the pressure on banksto divert a larger part of theirinvestments in high qualityliquid assets.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Friday said

that “bold and forward looking” policy interventionsby the RBI shall provide amuch-needed boost to theeconomy.

Other Cabinet MinistersPiyush Goyal and Smriti Iranitoo hailed the measures, sayingthese steps would ensure ade-quate liquidity, ease financialstress and steer India’s emer-gence as a world leader in thepost COVID-19 scenario.

The Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) cut the reverse repo rateand announced a slew of mea-sures including re-finance win-dow of �50,000 crore and tar-getted long term repo auctionof similar amount to deal withthe impact of the Covid-19pandemic.

Besides, it has been decid-ed that the NPA classificationnorms will exclude the 3-month moratorium windowthat banks are allowed to giveon loan repayments, to ease theworries of micro, small andmedium enterprises (MSMEs)that are in danger of becomingbad loan accounts.

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The Reserve Bank haspumped �1.2 lakh crore of

fresh currency into the systemin last 45 days since the Covid-19 outbreak in the coun-try, Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid on Friday.

Automated teller machinesand business correspondents,who take banking services tofar flung areas, are also work-ing at high capacity levels toensure financial services reacheverybody, he said.

The comments on curren-cy come amid media reports ofa �86,000 crore jump in cur-rency circulation in March andalso a greater tendency amongpeople to withdraw to hoardcash amid the lockdown.

“Regional offices of theRBI have supplied fresh cur-rency of �1.2 lakh crore fromMarch 1 till April 14 to cur-rency chests across the countryto meet increased demand forcurrency in the wake of theCovid-19 pandemic,” Das saidin his video message over socialmedia.

He lauded banks for risingto the occasion and ensuringthat ATMs are refilled regular-ly despite the logistical chal-lenges during the lockdown.

Additionally, there has notbeen any downtime in internetor mobile banking as well, hesaid. The governor said bankshave been required to put inplace business continuity plansto operate from their disasterrecovery (DR) sites or identifyalternate locations for criticaloperations so that there is no dis-ruption in customer services.

New Delhi: The RBI’s move toslash reverse repo rate and pro-vide a re-finance window of �50,000 crore will infuse liquid-ity into the system and nudgebanks to lend more, enablingbusinesses to overcome thefinancial stress caused by thecoronavirus pandemic, IndiaInc said on Friday.

CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said theRBI’s continued resolve toensure that the availability of liq-

uidity, especially for the stressedsectors, remains adequate iscommendable.

FICCI President SangitaReddy said relaxation in regu-latory requirements further willhelp banks in dealing with theCOVID impact. Ficci wouldrequest RBI that additionalworking capital should be man-dated rather than depending onthe discretion of the banks. Thomas Muthoot, Founder-Director, Muthoot Pappachan

Group said:”Specific measuresannounced in terms of direct-ing banks to invest 50 per centof funds under TLTRO 2.0 inmid-sized NBFCs throughNCDs, etc., refinancing of all-India financial institutions likeSIDBI and NHB and alsoreduction in reverse repo rate,would help substantially in liq-uidity for us to lend a lot moreto the common man, who areterribly impacted by the currentcrises.” PTI

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank ofIndia sees retail inflation fallingbelow its targeted 4 per cent bythe second half of the currentfiscal year as the spread of coro-navirus pandemic followed bycontinued lockdown in thecountry has posed serious chal-lenges to the demand in theeconomy.

RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas said inflation is on a declin-ing trajectory, as it has fallen by170 basis points from its January2020 peak. “In the period ahead,inflation could recede even fur-ther, barring supply disruptionshocks and may even settlewell below the target of 4 percent by the second half of 2020-21,” Das said. PTI

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The BSE Sensex soared over986 points on Friday after

RBI’s second batch of stimulusmeasures lifted sentiment amidthe coronavirus gloom.

Announcing a slew of liq-uidity-boosting measures forNBFCs and other segments, theRBI further eased bad-loanrules, froze dividend paymentby lenders and pushed banks tolend more by cutting thereverse repo rate by 25 basis

points.After starting over 1,116

points higher, the 30-shareBSE Sensex pared some earlygains to end 986.11 points or3.22 per cent higher at31,588.72.

Similarly, the NSE Niftyzoomed 273.95 points, or 3.03per cent, to finish at 9,266.75.

Axis Bank was the topgainer in the Sensex pack,surging 13.45 per cent, followedby ICICI Bank (9.89 per cent),IndusInd Bank (9.13 per cent),

Maruti (7.36 per cent), TCS(5.32 per cent), Kotak Bank(4.96 per cent)and RelianceIndustries (4.86 per cent).

On the other hand, NestleIndia, HUL, Tech Mahindraand Sun Pharma ended in thered, shedding up to 3.15 percent. Interest rate-sensitivebanking, financial, auto andrealty indices on the BSE settled up to 6.83 per centhigher.

In his second televisedaddress since the nationwidelockdown began on March 25,Reserve Bank of India (RBI)Governor Shaktikanta Daspledged to boost liquidity andexpand bank credit.

He announced measuresincluding a cut in the reverserepo rate, �50,000-crore tar-geted long-term repo

operations (TLTRO) and refi-nancing facilities for Nabard,Sidbi and NHB.

The rupee rebounded 48paise to provisionally settle at76.39 against the US dollar, buoyed by RBIannouncements.

During the holiday-short-ened week, the Sensex rose429.10 points or 1.37 per cent,while Nifty advanced 154.85points or 1.69 per cent.

Market ended on a firmnote tracking positive globalcues and announcement ofstimulus package by the RBI,said Sanjeev Zarbade, VP PCGResearch, Kotak Securities.

Further, reports from theUS that a drug from Gilead isshowing great results in treat-ing Covid-19 cases also led topositive sentiments, he added.

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New Delhi: Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said the RBIhas taken a slew of steps to main-tain adequate liquidity in the sys-tem, incentivise bank creditflows, ease financial stress andenable normal functioning ofmarkets, following difficultiesbeing faced due to Covid-19.

Announcing a second stim-ulus in less than a month, theRBI eased bad-loan rules, frozedividend payment by lendersand pushed banks to lend more

by cutting the reverse repo rateby 25 basis points to help miti-gate risk to the economy posedby the pandemic. “In view of thedifficulties being faced due to#COVID19, the @RBI has takena slew of steps aimed at main-taining adequate liquidity in thesystem, incentivising bank cred-it flows, easing financial stress,and enabling the normal func-tioning of markets,” Sitharamansaid in a tweet. In order toincrease credit to farmers,

MSMEs and housing sector, RBIannounced a special refinancefacility totalling �50,000 crore forNABARD, SIDBI and NationalHousing Bank, she said. Of this,�25,000 crore goes to NABARD,�15,000 crore to SIDBI, and �10,000 crore to NHB forimproving long-term fundingrequirements of agriculture andthe rural sector, small industries,housing finance companies,NBFCs and MFIs, the Ministersaid. PTI

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The second set of measuresannounced by RBI for

Covid-19 pandemic-strickeneconomy got a thumbs-upfrom bankers who welcomedthe steps taken as per theevolving market conditions.

SBI Chairman RajnishKumar, who also heads indus-try lobby grouping IBA, calledthe measures, which includedboth regulatory as well as liq-uidity interventions, as “right-ful recognition to the evolvingmarket conditions” by RBI.

“Overall, the second set ofpackage by RBI is an excellentreflection of combining thepolicy response and regulato-ry responses in the most opti-

mal manner,” he said in a state-ment.

Kumar said the second setof targeted long term repooperations will help non-banklenders and micro lenders.

He also welcomed the refi-nancing support for Sidbi,NHB and Nabard, sayingdeserving sectors will get help.

British lender StandardChartered Bank’s country chiefexecutive Zarin Daruwala calledthe announced measures sec-ond booster shot to the econo-my from RBI within a month,and added that steps like reduc-ing liquidity coverage ratiorequirements and NPA reliefduring moratorium willimprove credit delivery appetite.

Padmaja Chunduru, the

managing director and chiefexecutive of the state-runIndian Bank, said RBI’s tone isfull of empathy and support tothe needy sectors of the econ-omy. Small businesses andretail borrowers will benefitthrough the 90-day extensionin NPA recognition for stressedstandard assets, while the 90-day extension given for NCLTfiling in cases of bad loans willsave banks 20 per cent in pro-visions, she said.

SBI chairman Kumar alsosaid that allowing 90-day assetclassification standstill foraccounts covered under mora-torium will “imbibe banks withthe desired operational flexi-bility to lend a helping hand tostressed accounts”.

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The Indian rupee onFriday settled 48 paise

higher at 76.39 against theUS dollar, rebounding froman all-time low hit a day ear-lier, buoyed by RBI measuresto prop up the economyreeling under the Covid-19impact.

A strong rally in domes-tic equities also helped inimproving forex market sen-timent. At the interbank for-eign exchange, the rupeeopened at 76.59 and thengained further ground totouch a high of 76.35 againstthe US dollar. The domesticunit finally settled for the dayat 76.39 against the US dol-lar, registering a rise of 48paise over its previous close.

On weekly basis, theIndian unit lost 12 paise or0.15 per cent against theUSD. On Thursday, therupee had settled at an all-time low of 76.87 against theUS dollar.

In a much anticipatedmove, the RBI announced aslew of measures to infuseliquidity in the financial sys-tem including a cut in thereverse repo rate, �50,000-crore targeted long-termrepo operations (TLTRO)and refinancing facilities forNabard, Sidbi and NHB.

Forex traders said thesemeasures announced byReserve Bank GovernorShaktikanta Das would pro-vide the much needed liq-uidity and ease the financialstress caused by the pan-demic.

New Delhi: Banking andfinancial stocks were in highdemand on Friday, advancingup to 21 per cent after theReserve Bank announced ahost of liquidity-boosting mea-sures to support the economyamid the coronavirus crisis.

Axis Bank zoomed 13.45per cent, ICICI Bank rose by9.89 per cent, IndusInd Bank9.13 per cent, Federal Bank 9per cent, City Union Bank 5.39per cent and Kotak MahindraBank 4.96 per cent on the BSE.

Axis Bank was the topgainer in the Sensex pack.Also, HDFC Bank jumped3.33 per cent, RBL Bank 3.22per cent and SBI 2.49 percent. Led by the rally in thesescrips, the BSE Bank indexrose by 6.83 per cent.

Likewise, from the financepack, Equitas Holdingszoomed 21.15 per cent,Shriram Transport FinanceCompany 20 per cent, J&KBank 19.95 per cent, IndiabullsHousing Finance 17.61 percent, Dhanlaxmi Bank 17.51per cent, DCB Bank 16.54 percent, Ujjivan Financial Services14.54 per cent andCholamandalam Investmentand Finance Company 11.33per cent. The BSE Financeindex gained 5.44 per cent.“Given the unprecedentedtimes we are in, it is hearten-ing that RBI is addressing allthese challenges at a war foot-ing,” according to MotilalOswal, MD and CEO ofMotilal Oswal FinancialServices. PTI

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The reduction in reverserepo rate by 25 basis points

to 3.75 per cent by the ReserveBank is a significant step but itis important that banks shouldincrease their risk appetite, sayeconomists and analysts.

“The reduction of reverserepo is significant but it needsto be seen if the flow to the pri-vate sector actually increases,”Care Ratings Chief EconomistMadan Sabnavis said.

DBS Bank India EconomistRadhika Rao said the reductionin the reverse repo rate ismeant to prod banks to con-sider lending activity ratherthan park funds with the cen-tral bank.

“Given the still sizeablefunds that is being parked withthe central bank under thereverse repo operations evenafter the 90 basis points cut inMarch, points to the limitedcredit and risk appetite offinancial institutions,” Rao said.

New Delhi: The announcements made by the RBI on Friday willhelp in infusing liquidity and facilitating bank credit flows fortraders as well as industry at a time when both are battling thelockdown due to coronavirus outbreak, according to exporters.

Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) Chairman MohitSingla said steps like 90-day NPA (non-performing assets) normnot to apply on to the moratorium granted on the existing loansby banks, and lowering the reverse repo rate to 3.75 per cent willsurely ease pressure on the banking system.

PTI

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When you look at the paperdyed works of poet, painter

and Tantric yogi, Sohan Qadri, itis like stepping into the world ofa seer, who launched an odysseyof abstraction that none couldenvisage. Sundaram TagoreGallery’s show of Sohan Qadricomes at a time when abstractionin India has been reduced strokesof geometry and colour.

(� ����(�(����Transcendence and tran-

quility both flirt with each otherin these presentation. CriticDonald Kuspit was accurate inhis assessment of Qadri as “thepre-eminent aesthetic mystic ofmodernism.”

Sohan Qadri was born inChachoki, Punjab, in 1932 anddied in 2011, Toronto, Canada.He is perhaps best-known for hisluminous, dye-infused works,which explore the notion ofemptiness or voids. Relying ona language of orifices and elon-gated paths, Qadri abandonedrepresentation in search of tran-scendence. He was particularlyinspired by Vajrayana or TantricBuddhism, which emphasisesthe notion of shunyata or empti-ness. Qadri’s minimalist compo-sitions on paper are symbolic ofthis void from which seedsarise. The seeds are primordialsymbols representing the self inthe universe, the notion of cre-ation and a sexual union.

�����������������Painting for Qadri was part

of a meditative sojourn. Deeplyinfluenced by tantric practices,abstraction for him was focussedon the embodiment of his philo-sophical and spiritual state ofbeing.

“When I start on a painting,I, first, empty my mind of allimages. They dissolve into pri-mordial space. Only emptiness,I feel, should communicate with

emptiness of the canvas,” Qadrihad said once. Though he start-ed painting in the impasto styleusing oil and acrylic on canvas,he discovered his spiritual medi-um in inks and dyes. He usedthe heavy Van Guelder paper —used for intaglio printing — andtreated it to create a consisten-cy ideal for ink and dye disper-sion.

������� ������(�Qadri would bathe paper in

acid-free water. Once it wasswollen with liquid, he wouldrhythmically score the surfacewith various gouging and cut-ting tools, and then apply inksand dyes. Using the thickintaglio paper and carving it instages achieved a sculpturaleffect. Imbued with vibranthues, the serrated surfaces pos-sess a strong sense of energy andrhythm. In Qadri’s hands, thevery nature of paper was trans-formed from a flat, two-dimen-

sional surface into a three-dimensional medium.

��������I���Born into a Hindu and Sikh

family, Qadri’s art is deeply influ-enced by a spiritual journey,which began at a young age. Asa teenager, he ran away to aTibetan Buddhist monastery insearch of higher truth. He spentdays in remote temples in theHimalayas and Tibet. The isola-tion he experienced at that time

influenced him to paint. Later inlife, he became fascinated withSufism and Vajrayana Buddhism,which became potent sources ofinspiration for later works.

Qadri pushed the languageof art beyond its boundaries todevelop his work. This paved theway for truly contemporary inkdyes that spoke of mystic moor-ings with a suggestive source ofa third-dimension.

He owed as much to Westernexperimentation as to Eastern

tradition. His work was uniquebecause it was a quest for histrue self through Tantric yogaand silent meditation.Throughout the course of hiscareer, he interacted with anarray of intellectual figuresincluding the architect LeCorbusier, the surrealist painterRené Margritte and the Nobellaureate Heinrich Böil. Thevisual dynamics of his colourfields bring home the deepertruths of his practise.

While superheroes have always been trendingamongst the audience, new age female super-

heroes have earned much appraise from viewers inrecent times creating a humongous fan base and anever-increasing demand to see more of them inaction. Be it Captain Marvel, The Wasp, WonderWoman, Black Window or Batwoman, each of thesecrusaders personify a glorious suit bringing outimminent traits oftheir characters.

G a t h e r i n gmomentum onIndian televisionthe premiere sea-son of Batwomanhas excel ledamongst viewersbecoming a fanfavourite.

Speaking onwearing themajestic Batsuitfor the first time,Ruby Rose said, “Ist i l l rememberputting it on forthe first time withColleen, who ismagnif icent atwhat she does,and it’s just a mag-ical feeling. It’s not like when you dress up forHalloween and sort of put something on. This thinghas been like, within an inch of its life, it just fitsme like a glove.”

Further speaking about filming with theBatwoman attire, Ruby adds, “Every single part ofit has been designed for my body. So I feel it moveswith me and I move with it and it feels like a sec-ond skin for the most part, and, yes, it’s an incred-ible feeling. You feel the transformation unlike anycostume I’ve ever put on in any role in my life. It’sjust very difficult to pee in, that’s all.”

With the responsibility that comes with portray-ing a phenomenon like Batwoman on the silverscreen, Ruby breathes life into the magnificent char-acter of this prominent superhero as the story ofBatwoman continues to unfold.

(The series will premiere on Colors Infinity).

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Sushant Divgikar, popularlyknown as Rani Ko-HE-Nur, is oncloud nine as he is India’s first

drag queen to be featured in theForbes 30 Under 30 Asia List — Class2020. He has been listed under ‘TheArts’ honorees as well as in‘Celebrities’ category. He is countedamong the 300 bright and innovativeyoung leaders from the Asia-Pacificregion as well. Currently, Sushant isfocusing on his singing career and isworking on releasing an originalnumber in the coming month. He isknown for singing in a male as wellas a female voice.

Excerpts of the interview:

�You have earlier been featured in300 bright and innovative youngleaders and now in the Forbes 30Under 30 Asia List — Class 2020.You are the first drag artiste to beon the list. What do you think is thefuture for LGBTQ+ community?

Yes, I have made it to a couple ofpower lists in the past two years butI must remind everyone that it tookme 14 years to establish myself.Moreover, it took me time to find andaccept my true authentic identity.People like me are the future of theLGBTQ+ community in India.

�Section 377 has been repealed buthow long will it take before we seesome actual change?

There are a lot of people who aremaking great efforts but we stillhave a long way to go. I am an opti-mist but at the same time, I am wellversed with the real situation.According to FRA LGBT+ Survey(2013), more than one in four (26 percent) LGBTQ+ people had beenattacked or threatened with violencein the five years preceding theresearch. The decriminalisation wasa victory for sure, however, it does notnecessarily mean that LGBTQ+ peo-ple are fully free or perceived as equalsamong their fellow citizens. Society

has discriminated in the past and thisseems to be continuing. It’s my sin-cere plea to not discriminate orspread hate on the basis of gender,religion, sexual orientation, nation-ality or caste. Maybe only then we canhope for a better tomorrow.

�Judicial reform is one thing, butsocial realities don’t shift in aninstant. How do you think peopleare ready to take this change ahead?

Education is the key. People areusually scared or phobic about thingsand people that they have no infor-mation about. We need to tell peo-ple that LGBTQ+ people are ashuman as anyone else. We don’tcome from Mars. We drink thesame water, breathe the same air andeat the same food as our heterosex-ual counterparts. We are as humanas you. We have families too. And atthe end of the day, gay, straight, blackor white, we all bleed red.

�How would you describe yourjourney from the time you startedto your name appearing in theForbes list?

All I can say is that it has beena roller coaster ride. I have absolute-ly enjoyed the ups and downs. I takeit all in my stride. I am screamingwith excitement right now becauseit was a childhood dream to be onthis list and it has been finallyaccomplished.

�Since you are focussing on yoursinging career, how do you plan tomake a place for yourself in themusic industry?

I feel I have already created animpact. Now all I have to concentrateon doing is to win my audience’sheart through good music. Nounnecessary controversies are need-ed to grab eyeballs when an artisteis true to his/her art. That’s what Iaim to do and I am sure the audiencewill appreciate that.

�You have done short films too,many on the LGBTQ+ community?Do you think they have had animpact?

I really hope they have made animpression. I may not be the bestjudge of that. We should address thatquestion to the audience. But I’m sureit has at least initiated a dialogue. Justlike how it has made you ask me thisquestion in particular. We need morepeople like you asking these questionsso that there is more visibility for thecause and for the community.

�There are a lot of podcasts, filmsand books around the LGBTQ+community. How do you thinkthey would help people to under-stand the community better?

One of India’s first podcast forand about the LGBTQ+ people aswell as our heterosexual allies washosted by me and former MTV VJ,actress and author Maria Goretti.There are plenty of podcasts that Ihave been associated with. I also hadthe longest-running LGBTQ+ friend-ly column in the DNA newspaperand have written extensively foronline media houses. There’s a lot ofmaterial out there to educate oneselfabout ground realities of the commu-nity.

�How do you feel empoweringand reflecting a change towardsyour community?

I feel like a queen. Therefore, Ialso make sure that I slay everythingI do and spread positivity whereverI go. I feel like a mother figure (eventhough I am still in my 20s) for theLGBTQ+ people of my countrybecause I believe in the communitysentiments more than anything. Ihope that my journey and body ofwork inspires every young and ambi-tious person out there to spread theirwings and fly high. Rani Ko-HE-Nurdoesn’t come to play she alwayscomes to slay.

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It’s a sad reality that childrentoday are being innocent victimsof the anger and frustration ofother kids their age. The

Internet, and new smartphones apps,have become new platforms for bul-lies to abuse and harass others, andit’s no surprise, due to the anonymi-ty of many applications, that manybullies are never identified.

Cyberbullying is a form of bul-lying that is almost invisible to par-ents, as no form of physical abuse isdisplayed. Regardless, the effects itcan have on a child’s mental healthcan be devastating.

In most cases, children who arenot prepared to confront such behav-ior feel threatened and helpless by abully’s malicious behavior, especial-ly when they protect themselveswith the anonymity of the Internet.Help your children combat cyberbul-lying and its dramatic effects byteaching them easy safety measuresand tactics.

As in any healthy relationship, it’scrucial to have open, honest commu-nication with your kids. So set asidea few minutes to talk about cyberbul-lying. Let them know you’re aware ofit, you want to know if they’re expe-riencing it, and, if they are, you def-initely want to help put a stop to it.Most importantly, tell them youwon’t judge, even if there are photos,bad language, or other potentiallyembarrassing elements involved.

At the same time, make sureyour kids know that it’s not okay to

harass others — and that meansexplaining exactly what constitutescyberbullying. The legal definition:“threats or other offensive behaviorsent online to a victim or sent orposted online about the victim forothers to see.” The kid-speak defin-ition: “sending mean or hurtful textmessages, instant messages, email,tweets, photos, and so on.”

In other words, just as you wantto protect your kids from cyberbul-lying, you want to keep them frombecoming cyberbullies, too.

Keep in mind that tech-savvykids might know how to adjusttheir networks’ privacy settings tokeep you from seeing their posts—even if you’re a friend or “follower.”For a more effective monitoringsolution, install parental-control soft-ware on the computers your kids use.

And for younger kids, insist onknowing their passwords for any sitesthey use. That way you can conductthe occasional spot-check to makesure their communications staytame.

If your child has a smartphoneor tablet, consider installing an appthat can remotely lock, wipe, andretreive data if the device is lost orstolen.Many schools teach kids aboutreal-world bullies, but fewer focus oncyberbullying. Tell teachers andadministrators that you’re concernedabout it, and ask them to include thetopic in their discussions and schoolpolicies. The more parents whospeak up about cyberbullying, the

more schools will make studentsaware that it’s just as unacceptable as“regular” bullying.

There is one type of cyberbully-ing that involves stealing your child’saccount passwords and postingembarrassing content with theiridentity. You can fight this togetherwith your child by periodicallychanging the passwords of theiraccounts, deleting any offendingcontent, and posting in the hackedaccount an explanation of what hap-pened in case that others were

offended.Please note that a bully mayhave altered the contact informationin the account, including the emailaddress where a new password canbe reset. Be very careful when help-ing your child protect their person-al information to avoid repeatedhackings.

When the bully has alreadychanged the password and you haveno way of recovering access to theaccount, you can report the incidentdirectly to the website and they willdisable it or restore your child’s

access. Many social sites are puttingup a fight against cyberbullying andhave easy tools and links to help youdo this. You are responsible for yourchild’s safety. Being as informed aspossible of your child’s online activ-ity can prevent many unfortunateevents. If you are ‘friends’ with theiraccounts, you can follow their postsand see what others post to their site.If you see something unpleasant,contain your impulse to address thebully, as this can make the situationworse for your kid. Talk to your childabout the situation privately and ina calm matter.

Never blame your child forother’s behavior, regardless of howthe situation originated. It is vital thatyour child feels safe at home fromthese attacks. Make it clear to yourchild that everything that is happen-ing has to do with the bully’s issues,not with theirs. Try to make thisattacks a positive experience foryour relationship with your children.

Communication is key. Create asystem, or structure, for how to han-dle an uncomfortable bullying situ-ation. Every child handles problemsdifferently, be aware of how yourchild may react to different situationsand know when they will ask for helpand when you should offer it. Beaware of changes in behavior andincreased anxiety. With cases ofcyberbullying and internet usageincreasing, it is important that youknow the signs of cyberbullying, soyou can be prepared to step in and

protect your child, should the needever arise.

Sometimes a reaction is exactlywhat aggressors are looking forbecause they think it gives thempower over you, and you don’t wantto empower a bully. As for retaliat-ing, getting back at a bully turns youinto one – and can turn one mean actinto a chain reaction. If you can,remove yourself from the situation.If you can’t, sometimes humor dis-arms or distracts a person from bul-lying.

Most social media apps andservices allow you to block the per-son. Whether the harassment’s in anapp, texting, comments or taggedphotos, do yourself a favor andblock the person.

You can also report the problemto the service. That probably won’tend it, but you don’t need the harass-ment in your face, and you’ll be lesstempted to respond. If you’re gettingthreats of physical harm, you shouldcall your local police (with a parentor guardian’s help) and considerreporting it to school authorities.

The ultimate goal is restored self-respect and greater resilience inyour child. This, not getting some-one punished, is the best focus forresolving the problem and helpingyour child heal. What your childneeds most is to regain a sense of dig-nity. Sometimes that means standingup to the bully, sometimes not.Together, you and your child can fig-ure out how to get there.

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��8������ US Open organizerson Thursday said they are plan-ning for the Grand Slam event togo ahead as scheduled and that anevent without spectators is “high-ly unlikely”.

United States TennisAssociation chief executive MikeDowse said nothing “is off thetable” and a final decision on thefate of the event would come inJune but having fans attend theevent is still their goal.

“Playing without spectators,we are not taking anything off thetable. But right now that’s a high-ly unlikely scenario,” said Dowse.

“That’s not in the spirit of cel-ebration of tennis.”

Dowse’s comments come as

the National Tennis center’sindoor courts in New York werebeing used as a makeshift hospi-tal facility to treat those affectedby the coronavirus pandemic.

While the indoor tenniscourts have been turned into ahospital zone, the LouisArmstrong Stadium has beentransformed into a meal assemblyarea for patients, volunteers andarea schoolkids.

Dowse said they are in con-tact with a half dozen doctors andare going to be seeking theiradvice in making the next moves.

“We’re very fortunate thatwe’re the fourth Grand Slam to go,so time is on our side at thispoint,” Dowse said. “Obviouslyour ambition is to run the tour-nament.

“Having said that, it won’t bethe driving factor. The driving fac-tor will be the health and well

being of the players, the fans andour staff.”

Dowse said they have sometime to seek the advice of medicalexperts before they make theirfinal decision.

“We are looking at time frameof June to make that decision. Wewill approach it through a med-ical advisory group. Based on thatinformation we will make thedecision if it is safe to play thetournament or not,” he said.

The US Open is now the nextmajor tournament on the sched-ule from August 31-September 13,with Wimbledon having beencancelled and the French Openpostponed to a September 20 starton the red clay in Paris. AFP

������� Four-time worldchampion SebastianVettel on Friday cau-tioned against the temp-tation to shoehorn toomany Formula One races

into a revised calen-dar, describing the

move as “not realistic”.The 22-event F1 sea-

son has been decimatedby the coronavirus withnine races either can-celled or postponed.

The French GrandPrix scheduled for June28 is also in doubt as isthe Belgian Grand Prix,set for August 30.

F1 chiefs have float-ed the idea of mak-ing up for lost time

by staging raceson successiveweekends oreven having

two races on

the same weekend.However, Ferrari starVettel fears such a movecould lead to burnout forteam staff.

“We drivers are a lit-tle privileged,” Vetteltold reporters by tele-conference from hishome in Switzerland.

“Of course, theraces are tiring butthere have to belimits for thestaff. They mustrest.

“We must alsosee if it is easy toreschedule races, ifthe circuits are notalready taken. Manyquestions remain. Ithink the schedulewill be busier, but 10consecutive week-ends is not realistic.”

Vettel sug-

gested that he wouldfavour staging races with-out fans if it allowed aquick resumption as longas it did not become acommon feature.

“It’s complicated,”admitted Vettel.

“On the one hand,there is the health of

the sport, on theother, that of thepeople who workin the paddockand especially thefans.

“There areseveral options.

No one likes torun in front ofempty stands,but we will

have to see if itwill not allow us toresume much soon-er.

“The first races

will probably be a littledifferent, but not toomuch, I hope, because wewant to run in front ofthe fans.”

Vettel insists that forhim even a 10-race sea-son is just as valuable asa 22-race campaign.

There have beentalks over an extension.However, those conversa-tions took a twist afterVettel finished the 2019c’ship behind new team-mate Charles Leclerc.

“At the beginning (ofthe coronavirus crisis),the priority was to man-age the situation in thebest way and thereforethe negotiations were puton hold,” said Vettel.

“I think we are goingto move forward but wedo not have a specificdeadline.” AFP

���� -:;�7:3<2�

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) iskeen to host the currently-

suspended IPL but the influ-ential voices within the BCCIfeel that there is no point indiscussing such a proposal ina “closed world” battling theCOVID-19 pandemic rightnow.

The IPL, scheduled fromMarch 29-May 24, has beenpostponed indefinitely by theBCCI and the Board will onlyconduct the tournament whennormalcy returns.

SLC president ShammiSilva on Thursday said that Srilanka is ready to host themega event as the country,which has fewer positive cases,is expected to return to nor-malcy earlier compared toIndia.

“The BCCI will not bein a position to say any-thing when the world isclosed,” a senior Boardofficial said.

Sri Lanka has justover 200 cases casesright now as againstIndia’s tally of morethan 13,000. Thedeath toll in Indiahas crossed the400-mark.

The officialconfirmed thatcurrently, thereis no proposalfrom the SLCand there is no

guarantee when a meaningfuldiscussion can take place onthe subject even if it comesalong.

“There is no proposalfrom SLC yet and obviouslyno discussion,” the officialsaid when asked what will bethe BCCI’s stand when theoffer is on table.

The SLC can have thematches on three grounds —Galle, Kandy and PremadasaStadium — with logisticsreduced to less than half asthere are no inland flights.

Having an IPL could helpthe SLC gain significant finan-cial stability, more than whata short white-ball seriesagainst India (three T20Is andthree ODIs) can guarantee inJuly.

As of now, the BCCI willbe more keen on having it in

India in either of thetwo slots betweenSeptember-October

and October-November.

����� -:;�7:3<2

Team India boasts of a fast-bowling attack that skip-per Virat Kohli says he is

proud to lead. And the manwho has been an integral partof the transformation of ayoung attack into world beatersis Mohammed Shami. Havingstarted off under former skip-per Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Shami is now the leader of thepack under Kohli.

While bowlers tend to getslower as a Test match progress-es, Shami is someone who getsbetter with each passing sessionand has time and again shownthat he can be a match-winnerin the second innings for TeamIndia. So what is his area offocus when he has that ball inhand?

“I try to ensure that mypace doesn’t fall below the140kph mark. But my focus ison the seam and swing. I havealways tried to make sure thatthese two things remain perfect.I can bring pace with my phys-ical strength and you can alwayswork on it by doing strengthtraining. But I have alwaysgiven priority to swing andseam and never for a minute letthem take a backseat,” he smiles.

And the reverse swing?Did Shami have it from theword go? Or did it take time tomaster the art? The pacer saysthat it is something that has

come to him with time andafter a lot of training.

“As you keep playing, youlearn a lot of things. It is allabout following one processafter the other. So, when youhave learnt one trick and mas-tered it, you then move to thenext one and work on that. Inthe beginning, I didn’t havemuch idea about reverse swing.

“But slowly I came tounderstand what the process ofreverse swing is all about andhow it can be an integral partof a pace bowler’s armoury.Then I started working on itand I had to work hard,” heexplained.

It is often said that a bowleris only as good as his captainallows him to be because at theend of the day it is the skipperwho has to trust his bowler todeliver. And Shami says therelation between Kohli andhim is there for all to see on thefield.

“Do I need to say this? Ithink the results bear testimo-ny to the fact that Virat backsus to the core. He has alwaysgiven us that freedom to dowhat we feel confident about.Also, it is very important at theinternational level to have a cap-tain who knows your strengthsand weaknesses and also backsyou. This in turn helps you raiseyour game.

“Also, Virat has a lot of trustin our abilities and he gets the

result because as a bowler, allyou need is for the captain toback you and believe in you andyour vision,” he insists.

Critics had started sayingthat Shami had become a red-ball specialist till he showed theworld he can be a force to reck-on with even in white-ballcricket. Now that he plays all thethree formats, how different isthe preparation going into a for-

mat? Shami says it is all in themind.

“Mindset obviously doeschange as per the format. Interms of skills also you doneed to change and adapt as perthe format because what willwork for you in Tests might notwork for you in the shorter for-mats of the game. It is all aboutthe mindset and how you adaptto the situation,” he said.

�� �� +*�:��>;-

Former Test skipper Graeme Smith was onFriday confirmed as South Africa’s director of

cricket — and revealed that Quinton de Kockwould not be elevated to the Test captaincy.

Jacques Faul, acting chief executive of CricketSouth Africa, said Smith had been appointed fora two-year term, expiring at the end of March2022. Smith was appointed in an acting capaci-ty last December.

The 39-year old captained South Africa in aworld record 108 Test matches and in 149 one-day internationals.

He told a tele-conference that the debate overthe Test captaincy was one of the challenges hefaced during a period when no cricket can beplayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s not going to be Quinton,” he said, citingDe Kock’s responsibility as the country’s limited-overs captain as well as being wicketkeeper anda key batsman.

“Quinton will be our white-ball captain butfrom a workload and mental capacity aspect wewant to keep him fresh. From personal experi-ence I know that captaining all three formats ischallenging and we don’t want to overburdenhim.”

Smith gave no indication of the likelyreplacement following the decision of Faf duPlessis in February to step down from the job.

“There’s no one person you can pinpoint,” hesaid. “There are a lot of players on a similar level.”

South Africa’s next scheduled Test series is inthe West Indies in July but Smith said that it hadnot been finalised due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

South Africa are also due to go to Sri Lankafor a limited-overs tour in June but Smith saidboth tours could be postponed.

“We are in discussion with the boards of thosecountries and decisions willhave to be made prettysoon,” he said.

Smith said his imme-diate priority was the T20World Cup in Australia inOctober andNovember, assum-ing it happened asplanned.

He said SouthAfrica hoped tohost a Twenty20series againstIndia in August aspart of the build-upto the world event.

“There is a lot ofdoubt about whatthe situation will beby then but we are indiscussions with theBoard of Control forCricket in India,” hesaid.

��� ��� Premier League clubsremain committed to finishing thetop-flight season, but did not seta June 30 deadline to complete thefixture list at their latest meeting.

With the Premier League post-poned since March 13, it had beensuggested a firm closing date forthe season needed to be imposed.

But the 20 clubs did not dis-cuss wrapping up the remaining 92Premier League fixtures by June 30when they met on a conference callwith league chiefs.

With fears that failure to fin-ish the season could cost the

Premier League more than £1 bil-lion ($1.2 billion), clubs looked atvarious models for a potentialreturn to action.

However, Britain is on lock-down until May 7 at the earliest,leaving English football to play awaiting game in the hope of animprovement in the health crisis.

A Premier League spokesmansaid a number of complex scenar-ios were being worked through.

“We are actively engaging withstakeholders, including broadcastpartners, and our aim is to ensurewe are in a position to resume play-

ing when it is safe to do so andwith the full support of the govern-ment,” added the spokesman.

“The health and wellbeing ofplayers, coaches, managers, clubstaff and supporters are our prior-ity and the league will only restartwhen medical guidance allows.

“Today’s shareholders’ meet-ing provided an opportunity todiscuss possible scheduling mod-els. It remains our objective tocomplete the 2019/20 season butat this stage all dates are tentativewhile the impact of COVID-19develops.” AFP

�� �� ,*7'27

The Spanish FootballFederation (RFEF)

proposed on Thursdaythat La Liga’s currentstandings decide whichteams qualify forEuropean competitions ifthe season has to be can-celled due to the coron-avirus pandemic.

La Liga and UEFAhave not given theirapproval to the plan, withboth governing bodiesinsisting they are stillfocused on finding a wayto ensure domestic sea-sons are completed.

Javier Tebas, La Liga’spresident, said earlier thismonth the league hadidentified the end of May,start of June and end ofJune as possible times forfixtures to restart.

But the RFEF, whichregularly clashes with LaLiga over political issuesin Spanish football, hasput forward a back-upplan that would see thecurrent top four —Barcelona, Real Madrid,Sevilla and Real Sociedad— qualify for theChampions League.

Getafe and AtleticoMadrid, in fifth and sixthrespectively, would go intothe Europa League, alongwith Athletic Bilbao, asthe Copa del Rey’s high-

est-placed finalist outsidethe top six.

“The decision will bemade, when requested byUEFA, according to thepositions on the last dayof the First Division whenan equal number of gamesare played by the 20teams,” said the statementfrom the RFEF.

“The top four at thattime would go into theUEFA Champions Leagueand the fifth and sixthranked, plus one of thetwo finalists of the Copadel Rey, to the UEFAEuropa League, accordingto different circumstancesthat may occur.”

If the Copa del Reyfinal was played and RealSociedad beat Bilbao,Valencia would take theadditional Europa Leaguespot as the seventh-placedteam in La Liga, said theRFEF.

����� 4:-#*3"'"

Indian hockey striker MandeepSingh believes the team has

moved on from the initial disap-pointment which they had to dealwith following the postponementof Tokyo Olympic Games and arenow working on improving theirskills and fitness during the lock-down in place due to COVID-19pandemic.

“At first, it was disappointing(Olympic postponement) butwith the entire world battling thiscrisis, we understand this decisionwas made keeping the players’safety in mind,” Mandeep said.

“We have moved on from theinitial disappointment and arenow working on maintaining ourfitness levels during this lockdownperiod.”

The hockey team, both menand women, are currently at theSports Authority of India (SAI)Centre in Bengaluru where theyare carrying out their fitnessdrills and keeping in touch withthe game.

“We are lucky the entire coregroup is together here in SAI,Bengaluru and our coaching staffis also here. Though we are not

doing hockey training we havebeen given a specific programschedule to follow which includesindependent training schedulefor all players,” said the Indianstriker.

“This is something every ath-lete will have to deal with fromacross the globe and we are no dif-ferent.

“At least, I would like tothink we are in a better positionthan others with the team stilltogether going about other aspectsof training like analysing ouropponents matches, making indi-vidual presentation to our coach-es via video meetings and so on.

“We are in a better position tobegin training once the lock-down is lifted,” he added.

India last won a Gold inHockey in 1980 in MoscowOlympics. Since then, they haveparticipated in eight Olympiceditions but have failed to makea podium finish. And after qual-ifying for the Tokyo Games, theteam was in high spirits andwere looking forward to end themedal drought.

“This lockdown has notaffected our goal of winning amedal at the Olympics,” Mandeepinsisted while stressing on the goalof the team.

������ The fourth edition of theLaver Cup has been postponedfrom September 2020 to 2021because of scheduling conflicts withother tennis events in a year disrupt-ed by COVID-19, organizers said onFriday.

The Europe vs World men’steam tournament had been sched-uled for Boston from September 25-27, but those dates clash with thenew dates selected by the FrenchTennis Federation for the post-poned French Open, now scheduledfor September 20-October 4.

The tournament will now beheld September 24-26, 2021, also inBoston.

“It’s unfortunate that the LaverCup has to be pushed back a year,but at this stage it’s the right thing

to do for everyone concerned,”Roger Federer, a key backer of theLaver Cup, said in a statementreleased by organizers.

“Although disappointing, thegood news is that TD Garden willstill be able to host the event nextyear and I really look forward tofinally playing in Boston for the firsttime at Laver Cup 2021.” AFP

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The International CricketCouncil (ICC) is not in a

hurry to take a decisionwhether the T20 World Cupshould be postponed in thewake of COVID-19 or staged asscheduled, saying it is “explor-ing all options” as part of itscomprehensive contingencyplanning for all its events.

With Australia sealing itsborders and putting restrictionson travel to contain the dread-ed disease, there have beenspeculations that the T20 WorldCup scheduled to be held fromOctober 18 to November 15could be postponed to next yearor held inside closed doors.

“We are continuing withour planning for ICC events asthey are, but given the rapidlyevolving situation as a prudentand responsible measure we are

also undertaking a comprehen-sive contingency planning exer-cise,” an ICC spokesperson toldSkySport.

“This includes exploring alloptions available to us based ona range of scenarios connectedto the pandemic.”

The T20 World Cup is stillsix months away and ICC saidit will take a decision after con-sulting all stakeholders, includ-ing the Australian government.

“We will continue to takeadvice from experts andauthorities, including theAustralian government andwill take decisions at the appro-priate time,” the spokespersonsaid.

“We will utilise all the dataand information available to usto ensure we can take well-informed, responsible deci-sions that are in the best inter-ests of our sport.”

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