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W ary of “poaching” bids on his MLAs, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday shifted his flocks from Jaipur to the desert town of Jaisalmer at the centre of the Thar desert. The MLAs had been camping at Fairmount Hotel in Jaipur for three weeks. In another development, Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi on Friday moved the Supreme Court against High Court order of July 24 asking the Assembly Speaker to defer disqualification proceed- ing against sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs. Reports said the Congress State unit hired three chartered flights to shift the MLAs. The MLAs were taken to hotel Suryagarh in bus and other vehicles amid tight security. Transport Minister Pratap Singh said in Jaipur the MLAs are being shifted to Jaisalmer so that they remain united with the Chief Minister’s strategy that not a single MLA is poached. “We are going to Jaisalmer for a change,” Congress MLA Prashant Bairwa said at the Jaipur airport. The remaining MLAs in the Gehlot camp are also being shifted to Jaisalmer. The decision to shift the MLAs to Jaisalmer shows that Gehlot is not ready to take any chance, knowing fully well that even if only a couple of MLAs change side, his Government would not survive. As of now, Gehlot has the support of 102 MLAs in the 200-members State Assembly. The decision to move the MLAs came a day after Gehlot indicated he will seek a confi- dence vote when the Assembly convenes on August 14 and claimed the money offered to the MLAs to switch sides had increased sharply ahead of the session. The Chief Minister said the rebels who have not accepted money should return to the party. The MLAs have been staying at the Jaipur hotel since July 13 after Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs rebelled against the government, trig- gering a political crisis. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi on Friday approached the apex court challenging the High Court order of July 24 asking the assembly speaker to defer disqualification proceed- ing against sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs. The chief whip has moved the top court two days after the Assembly Speaker CP Joshi filed the appeal against the July 24 Rajasthan High Court order. The plea filed through advocate Varun Chopra said the High Court order is “ex- facie unconstitutional, illegal and in the teeth of the law laid down by this court in 1992 ver- dict in the case of Kihoto Hollohon”. The 1992 judgement had held that the Speaker has the authority to decide the dis- qualification proceedings and judicial intervention in the process is “not permissible”. I n what could spell further trouble for actress Rhea Chakraborty, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday registered a money laundering case in connection with the death of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput and sus- pected misuse of his funds. The ED case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been lodged after taking cog- nisance of the Bihar Police FIR against actress Rhea and others for alleged abetment of suicide, theft and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The ED had on Thursday sought a copy of the Bihar Police FIR to launch a probe under PMLA. After studying the Bihar Police FIR, the ED found prima facie instance of siphoning of funds from Rajput’s bank accounts and decided to regis- ter the ECIR, officials said. An Enforcement Case Information Report (FIR in police parlance) has been filed against the accused named in the Bihar Police FIR, including Rhea, her family and six others, they said. Rhea and other co-accused in the PMLA case will be soon summoned for questioning in connection with the money laundering probe, they said. The ED has analysed the contents of the Patna police FIR in detail and also indepen- dently gathered inputs on Rajput’s income, bank accounts and the related companies, they said, adding, more details will be collated from the con- tents of Mumbai Police case which will also form part of the PMLA probe. Under the PMLA, the ED will probe the allegations of mishandling and purported diversion of Rajput’s funds and operation of his bank accounts and if money laundering was involved in this. J uly was a disastrous month in India’s struggle against Coronavirus which spread to rural clusters in an alarming way, infected more than one million persons, and snuffed out around 20, 000 lives. India began July with Coronavirus cases piled up at 5.85 lakh and just 17,000 deaths. During the month cases nearly tripled while death count more than doubled. Among the worst affected States, Maharashtra added nearly 2.5 lakh new cases, while the death tally doubled from 7,855 to 14,999. The State started the month with 1.74 lakh cases and ended at 4.22 lakh cases. On Friday, Maharashtra reported 10,320 new cases and 265 deaths, taking total cases to 4,22,118, including 2,56,158 discharges and 14,994 deaths. Active cases stand at 1,50,662. Mumbai recorded 53 deaths and 1100 fresh cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases in Mumbai to 1,14,287. The number of recovered and discharged cases is 87,074. The second worst affected State, Tamil Nadu added 1.55 lakh cases to the tally of 90,000 cases on July 1 to end the month with 2.45 lakh cases. In the case of Tamil Nadu, the death count more than tripled from 1201 to 3925. The mor- tality rate is a cause for serious concern for Tamil Nadu. On Friday, TN lost 97 per- sons to Covid-19 and added 5,881 new cases. The number of new persons diagnosed with coronavirus was higher than that of Thursday while the number of persons succumbing to the pandemic remained the same. There were 57,968 Covid- 19 patients in the State as on Friday. The total number of persons tested positive till date crossed 2.45 lakh while the State tested 58,350 persons on Friday. A total of 5,778 patients recovered from the pandemic and got discharged from the hospital in the last 24 hours. As part of aggressive testing for the pandemic, there are 120 labo- ratories operating across the State. Fourth-placed Delhi did a good job of containing the virus adding just around 50,000 new cases and 1200 deaths dur- ing the month. The national Capital started the month with 87360 cases and 2743 deaths. At the end of the month, Delhi has 135, 598 cases and 3963 deaths. Delhi recovery rate touched 90 per cent, the Delhi Health Department said on Friday that the COVID-19 mortality rate has also declined to 2.92%. A t least 38 persons have died in Punjab’s three districts allegedly after drinking spuri- ous liquor, prompting the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to order a magisterial probe into the mat- ter on Friday. The deaths took place in Punjab’s Amritsar, Batala and Tarn Taran districts since Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump- tion in Amritsar Rural, nine in Batala and 19 in Tarn Taran. The Punjab Police on Friday arrested seven bootleg- gers from Amritsar Rural, Batala, and Tarn Taran districts in over 40 raids conducted by five teams led by senior offi- cers, taking the total number of persons apprehended so far in the spurious liquor deaths case to eight, including Balwinder Kaur, who was arrested last night from Muchhal village. Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said that the first five fatalities were reported from Mucchal and Tangra villages in Amritsar’s Tarsikka on the night of July 29. “On Thursday evening, two more people died under suspicious circumstances at Amritsar’s Muchhal village. One person died at Sri Guru Ram Das Hospital in Amritsar after being shifted from Tangra. Two more deaths were later reported from Mucchal village while another two peo- ple died in Batala, also due to consumption of spurious liquor,” he added. On Friday, five people died in Batala, taking the death toll in the city to seven, said Gupta, adding that four fatalities were reported from Tarn Taran. Taking note, Capt Amarinder ordered a magis- terial enquiry by the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner to look into the facts and cir- cumstances leading to the inci- dents. The enquiry will be con- ducted by the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner along with the Punjab Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner and the SP (Investigation) in the con- cerned districts. A head of Eid-ul-Adha, the Jammu & Kashmir admin- istration on Friday extended the detention of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Mehbooba Mufti by three more months while People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone walked free, five days short of completing one year in detention. Iltija Mufti, daughter of Mehbooba, confirmed the news by posting a tweet, “I would like to confirm media reports that Mufti’s PSA has been extended until November 2020. The petition challenging her unlawful detention has been pending in SC since February 26. Where does one seek justice”? Majority of senior PDP leaders have been freed from detention in recent weeks but the Home Department on Friday decided to extend her detention order. According to an order issued by the Home Department, Mehbooba will continue to remain under detention for another three months at her official resi- dence at Fairview Bungalow.“The law enforcing agencies have recommended further extension in the peri- od of detention and on exam- ination, the same is considered to be necessary,” the detention order stated. The current detention order of the former Chief Minister was expiring on August 5 this year.Sharing the news on Twitter, Lone said, “Finally 5 days short of a year I have been officially informed that I am a free man.” “So much has changed. So have I. Jail was not a new experience. T aking exception to alleged wrong depiction of the Armed forces in films and related medium, the Defence Ministry has written to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to advise pro- duction houses to obtain No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Defence Ministry. Amaravati: At least ten alco- hol addicts, including three beggars, died after allegedly consuming sanitiser as an alternative to liquor in a village in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, police said on Friday. The victims of Kurichedu village had been drinking sani- tiser for the past few days, mixing it with water and soft drinks, Prakasam district Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal told PTI. Two people died on Thursday night and the other eight since Friday morning, the SP, who visited the village where liquor outlets are also closed for the past few days due to lockdown, he said. “We are investigating whether the sanitiser had any other toxic content. We have sent the stocks for chemical analysis,” Kaushal said. The deceased were highly addicted to alcohol and its non-availability due to extend- ed Covid-19 lockdown in Kurichedu forced them to go for sanitiser that had alcoholic content, police said. Apart from the beggars, the other deceased were poor rickshaw pullers. Two beg- gars near a temple were the first to fall victim on Thursday night. While one of them was found dead at the spot, anoth- er died in the Government hospital in nearby Darsi town, police said. A third person was also taken to the Darsi hospital late on Thursday night after he fainted, but declared brought dead. New Delhi: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide, saying only the Central agency can do justice in the matter amid “tus- sle” between Bihar and Mumbai Police. M adhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his ministers announced to donate 30% of their salaries in the fight against covid-19 pandemic. Chouhan during a review of covid19 situation on Friday urged all the MLAs and MPs to contribute to the fight against the lethal virus. Accordingly, it was decided that 30% of the District Mineral Funds will be ear- marked for amenities includ- ing hospital beds, PPE kits, ventilator and other medical equipment. These expenses will be monitored by the minister in charge of the district. Total 22 districts in the state have this mining fund. The Chief Minister said that he has donated 30% of his three months’ salary as 40,500 per month to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Chouhan during the meet- ing said that second phase of Kill Corona campaign will be run from August 1 to 14 in the state. In this period, no min- ister, MP or MLA will hold any public rally or meeting. Urging public representatives to prac- tice discipline, the Chief Minister asked them to lead by example. On leaders’ engagement in poll preparations, Chouhan said people’s lives are more important adding they won’t leave any stone unturned for upcoming by-polls. We have a recovery rate of around 70% and mortality of 2.7% and stand at 15th place in terms of covid19 spread, said Chouhan underlining the need for discipline and adher- ence to safety guidelines. He went on to say that lockdown is no permanent solution to this pandemic as the lockdown has dented the economy and keeping the economy in shape is also required. Chouhan despite being found positive for covid19 last Saturday, is reviewing covid19 situation in the state on daily basis through video confer- encing. It is important to cut down on unnecessary expens- es and focus on covid19 fight, he added, urging the public to also contribute to the covid19 fight. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1: $6! ’# 4 3 1˜D 0A˜ 0˜˜ ˜ 1˜0) 1 ˜ : 1 ˜0 )0 , 0 , , 1 001 ... · Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural,

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Wary of “poaching” bids onhis MLAs, Rajasthan

Chief Minister Ashok Gehloton Friday shifted his flocksfrom Jaipur to the desert townof Jaisalmer at the centre of theThar desert. The MLAs hadbeen camping at FairmountHotel in Jaipur for three weeks.

In another development,Rajasthan Congress chief whipMahesh Joshi on Friday movedthe Supreme Court againstHigh Court order of July 24asking the Assembly Speaker todefer disqualification proceed-ing against sacked DeputyChief Minister Sachin Pilotand 18 MLAs.

Reports said the CongressState unit hired three charteredflights to shift the MLAs. TheMLAs were taken to hotelSuryagarh in bus and othervehicles amid tight security.

Transport Minister PratapSingh said in Jaipur the MLAsare being shifted to Jaisalmer sothat they remain united withthe Chief Minister’s strategythat not a single MLA ispoached.

“We are going to Jaisalmerfor a change,” Congress MLAPrashant Bairwa said at the

Jaipur airport.The remaining MLAs in

the Gehlot camp are also beingshifted to Jaisalmer.

The decision to shift theMLAs to Jaisalmer shows thatGehlot is not ready to take anychance, knowing fully well that

even if only a couple of MLAschange side, his Governmentwould not survive. As of now,Gehlot has the support of 102MLAs in the 200-membersState Assembly.

The decision to move theMLAs came a day after Gehlot

indicated he will seek a confi-dence vote when the Assemblyconvenes on August 14 andclaimed the money offered tothe MLAs to switch sides hadincreased sharply ahead of thesession.

The Chief Minister said the

rebels who have not acceptedmoney should return to theparty. The MLAs have beenstaying at the Jaipur hotel sinceJuly 13 after Sachin Pilot and 18other Congress MLAs rebelledagainst the government, trig-gering a political crisis.

Meanwhile, RajasthanCongress chief whip MaheshJoshi on Friday approached theapex court challenging theHigh Court order of July 24asking the assembly speaker todefer disqualification proceed-ing against sacked DeputyChief Minister Sachin Pilotand 18 MLAs.

The chief whip has movedthe top court two days after theAssembly Speaker CP Joshifiled the appeal against the July24 Rajasthan High Court order.

The plea filed throughadvocate Varun Chopra saidthe High Court order is “ex-facie unconstitutional, illegaland in the teeth of the law laiddown by this court in 1992 ver-dict in the case of KihotoHollohon”.

The 1992 judgement hadheld that the Speaker has theauthority to decide the dis-qualification proceedings andjudicial intervention in theprocess is “not permissible”.

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In what could spell furthertrouble for actress Rhea

Chakraborty, the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Fridayregistered a money launderingcase in connection with thedeath of Bollywood starSushant Singh Rajput and sus-pected misuse of his funds.

The ED case underPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) hasbeen lodged after taking cog-nisance of the Bihar PoliceFIR against actress Rhea andothers for alleged abetment ofsuicide, theft and other offencesunder the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

The ED had on Thursdaysought a copy of the BiharPolice FIR to launch a probe

under PMLA.After studying the Bihar

Police FIR, the ED found primafacie instance of siphoning offunds from Rajput’s bankaccounts and decided to regis-ter the ECIR, officials said.

An Enforcement CaseInformation Report (FIR inpolice parlance) has been filedagainst the accused named inthe Bihar Police FIR, includingRhea, her family and six others,they said.

Rhea and other co-accusedin the PMLA case will be soonsummoned for questioning inconnection with the moneylaundering probe, they said.

The ED has analysed thecontents of the Patna police FIRin detail and also indepen-dently gathered inputs onRajput’s income, bank accounts

and the related companies,they said, adding, more detailswill be collated from the con-tents of Mumbai Police casewhich will also form part of thePMLA probe.

Under the PMLA, the EDwill probe the allegations ofmishandling and purporteddiversion of Rajput’s funds andoperation of his bank accountsand if money laundering wasinvolved in this.

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July was a disastrous month inIndia’s struggle against

Coronavirus which spread torural clusters in an alarmingway, infected more than onemillion persons, and snuffedout around 20, 000 lives.

India began July with

Coronavirus cases piled up at5.85 lakh and just 17,000deaths. During the month casesnearly tripled while deathcount more than doubled.

Among the worst affected

States, Maharashtra addednearly 2.5 lakh new cases,while the death tally doubledfrom 7,855 to 14,999. The Statestarted the month with 1.74lakh cases and ended at 4.22

lakh cases. On Friday, Maharashtra

reported 10,320 new cases and265 deaths, taking total cases to4,22,118, including 2,56,158discharges and 14,994 deaths.Active cases stand at 1,50,662.

Mumbai recorded 53deaths and 1100 fresh cases onFriday, taking the total numberof cases in Mumbai to 1,14,287.The number of recovered anddischarged cases is 87,074.

The second worst affectedState, Tamil Nadu added 1.55lakh cases to the tally of 90,000cases on July 1 to end themonth with 2.45 lakh cases. Inthe case of Tamil Nadu, thedeath count more than tripledfrom 1201 to 3925. The mor-tality rate is a cause for seriousconcern for Tamil Nadu.

On Friday, TN lost 97 per-sons to Covid-19 and added5,881 new cases. The numberof new persons diagnosed withcoronavirus was higher thanthat of Thursday while the

number of persons succumbingto the pandemic remained thesame.

There were 57,968 Covid-19 patients in the State as onFriday. The total number ofpersons tested positive till datecrossed 2.45 lakh while theState tested 58,350 persons onFriday.

A total of 5,778 patientsrecovered from the pandemicand got discharged from thehospital in the last 24 hours. Aspart of aggressive testing for thepandemic, there are 120 labo-ratories operating across theState.

Fourth-placed Delhi did agood job of containing thevirus adding just around 50,000new cases and 1200 deaths dur-ing the month. The nationalCapital started the month with87360 cases and 2743 deaths.

At the end of the month,Delhi has 135, 598 cases and3963 deaths. Delhi recoveryrate touched 90 per cent, theDelhi Health Department saidon Friday that the COVID-19mortality rate has also declinedto 2.92%.

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At least 38 persons have diedin Punjab’s three districts

allegedly after drinking spuri-ous liquor, prompting theChief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to order amagisterial probe into the mat-ter on Friday.

The deaths took place inPunjab’s Amritsar, Batala andTarn Taran districts sinceWednesday night. As on Fridayevening, 10 persons had diedof spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural, nine inBatala and 19 in Tarn Taran.

The Punjab Police onFriday arrested seven bootleg-gers from Amritsar Rural,Batala, and Tarn Taran districtsin over 40 raids conducted byfive teams led by senior offi-cers, taking the total number ofpersons apprehended so far inthe spurious liquor deaths caseto eight, including BalwinderKaur, who was arrested lastnight from Muchhal village.

Punjab Director General ofPolice (DGP) Dinkar Guptasaid that the first five fatalitieswere reported from Mucchaland Tangra villages inAmritsar’s Tarsikka on thenight of July 29.

“On Thursday evening,two more people died undersuspicious circumstances at

Amritsar’s Muchhal village.One person died at Sri GuruRam Das Hospital in Amritsarafter being shifted fromTangra. Two more deaths werelater reported from Mucchalvillage while another two peo-ple died in Batala, also due toconsumption of spuriousliquor,” he added.

On Friday, five people diedin Batala, taking the death tollin the city to seven, said Gupta,adding that four fatalities werereported from Tarn Taran.

Taking note, CaptAmarinder ordered a magis-terial enquiry by the JalandharDivisional Commissioner tolook into the facts and cir-cumstances leading to the inci-dents.

The enquiry will be con-ducted by the JalandharDivisional Commissioneralong with the Punjab JointExcise and TaxationCommissioner and the SP(Investigation) in the con-cerned districts.

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Ahead of Eid-ul-Adha, theJammu & Kashmir admin-

istration on Friday extendedthe detention of People’sDemocratic Party (PDP) ChiefMehbooba Mufti by three moremonths while People’sConference chairman SajjadLone walked free, five daysshort of completing one year indetention.

Iltija Mufti, daughter ofMehbooba, confirmed thenews by posting a tweet, “Iwould like to confirm mediareports that Mufti’s PSA has

been extended until November2020. The petition challengingher unlawful detention hasbeen pending in SC sinceFebruary 26. Where does oneseek justice”?

Majority of senior PDPleaders have been freed fromdetention in recent weeks butthe Home Department onFriday decided to extend herdetention order.

According to an orderissued by the HomeDepartment, Mehbooba willcontinue to remain underdetention for another threemonths at her official resi-

dence at FairviewBungalow.“The law enforcingagencies have recommendedfurther extension in the peri-od of detention and on exam-ination, the same is consideredto be necessary,” the detentionorder stated.

The current detentionorder of the former ChiefMinister was expiring onAugust 5 this year.Sharing thenews on Twitter, Lone said,“Finally 5 days short of a yearI have been officially informedthat I am a free man.” “So muchhas changed. So have I. Jail wasnot a new experience.

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Taking exception to allegedwrong depiction of the

Armed forces in films andrelated medium, the DefenceMinistry has written to theCentral Board of FilmCertification (CBFC), Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology (MeITY) andMinistry of Information andBroadcasting to advise pro-duction houses to obtain NoObjection Certificate (NOC)from the Defence Ministry.

Amaravati: At least ten alco-hol addicts, including threebeggars, died after allegedlyconsuming sanitiser as analternative to liquor in a villagein Prakasam district of AndhraPradesh, police said on Friday.

The victims of Kuricheduvillage had been drinking sani-tiser for the past few days,mixing it with water and softdrinks, Prakasam districtSuperintendent of PoliceSiddharth Kaushal told PTI.

Two people died onThursday night and the other

eight since Friday morning,the SP, who visited the villagewhere liquor outlets are alsoclosed for the past few daysdue to lockdown, he said.

“We are investigatingwhether the sanitiser had anyother toxic content. We havesent the stocks for chemicalanalysis,” Kaushal said.

The deceased were highlyaddicted to alcohol and itsnon-availability due to extend-ed Covid-19 lockdown inKurichedu forced them to gofor sanitiser that had alcoholic

content, police said.Apart from the beggars,

the other deceased were poorrickshaw pullers. Two beg-gars near a temple were thefirst to fall victim on Thursdaynight. While one of them wasfound dead at the spot, anoth-er died in the Governmenthospital in nearby Darsi town,police said.

A third person was alsotaken to the Darsi hospital lateon Thursday night after hefainted, but declared broughtdead.

New Delhi: Union MinisterRam Vilas Paswan on Fridaydemanded a CBI probe into thecase of actor Sushant SinghRajput’s alleged suicide, sayingonly the Central agency can dojustice in the matter amid “tus-sle” between Bihar andMumbai Police.

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Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh

Chouhan and his ministersannounced to donate 30% oftheir salaries in the fightagainst covid-19 pandemic.

Chouhan during a reviewof covid19 situation on Fridayurged all the MLAs and MPsto contribute to the fightagainst the lethal virus.Accordingly, it was decidedthat 30% of the DistrictMineral Funds will be ear-marked for amenities includ-ing hospital beds, PPE kits,ventilator and other medicalequipment.

These expenses will bemonitored by the minister incharge of the district. Total 22districts in the state have thismining fund.

The Chief Minister saidthat he has donated 30% of histhree months’ salary as �40,500per month to the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund.

Chouhan during the meet-ing said that second phase ofKill Corona campaign will berun from August 1 to 14 in thestate. In this period, no min-ister, MP or MLA will hold anypublic rally or meeting. Urging

public representatives to prac-tice discipline, the ChiefMinister asked them to lead byexample.

On leaders’ engagementin poll preparations, Chouhansaid people’s lives are moreimportant adding they won’tleave any stone unturned forupcoming by-polls. We havea recovery rate of around70% and mortality of 2.7%and stand at 15th place interms of covid19 spread, saidChouhan underlining theneed for discipline and adher-ence to safety guidelines.

He went on to say that

lockdown is no permanent solution to thispandemic as the lockdownhas dented the economy andkeeping the economy in shapeis also required.

Chouhan despite beingfound positive for covid19 lastSaturday, is reviewing covid19situation in the state on dailybasis through video confer-encing.

It is important to cutdown on unnecessary expens-es and focus on covid19 fight,he added, urging the public toalso contribute to the covid19fight.

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Page 2: $6! ’# 4 3 1˜D 0A˜ 0˜˜ ˜ 1˜0) 1 ˜ : 1 ˜0 )0 , 0 , , 1 001 ... · Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural,

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that

under the Atmanirbhar BharatPackage, Madhya Pradesh hasto achieve No. 1 position inMicro, Small and MediumEntrepreneurs sector too.

The pace of this work isslow in Madhya Pradesh at pre-sent. Under the AtmanirbharPackage, an amount of �21thousand crore has alreadybeen given to the neighbouringState Uttar Pradesh for MSMEsector, whereas MadhyaPradesh has only receivedabout �2,000 crore till now. Thepace of the work should beaccelerated by regular moni-toring with the banks by thedepartments concerned, headded.

The Chief Minister wasreviewing the works being car-ried out in the State in theMSME sector under theAtmanirbhar Bharat Package

01 and 02, through video con-ferencing from ChirayuHospital today.

The Minister for MSMEOmprakash Saklecha, ChiefSecretary Iqbal Singh Bains,Additional Chief SecretaryManoj Shrivastava, PrincipalSecretary Manoj Govil andPrincipal Secretary DeepaliRastogi were present at thevideo conferencing.

Chouhan directed that theprogress of works being doneby other states in MSME sec-tor under the AtmanirbharPackage should be reviewed toundertsand why the pace isslow in our state.

Chouhan said that it hascome to the notice that unnec-essary stamp duty has beencharged in many cases. In thisregard, the department shouldensure that no unnecessarystamp duty should be chargedfrom beneficiaries.

The Chief Minister hassaid that a letter should be sent

immediately to the UnionFinance Minister in case of anydifficulty being faced in imple-mentation of plan or if thingsare not clear.

He has said that a provisionhas been made under the pack-age, announced by the Centrethat now there is no need forMSME for global tender forloan upto �200 crore. Hedirected the department con-cerned that formalities shouldbe completed within the nextone week in this regard.

Chouhan further men-tioned that a provision has beenunder the package for paymentagainst the loan sanctioned bythe banks within 45 days toMSMEs. The PrincipalSecretary informed that somecases are pending with thebanks for more than 45 daysperiod. On this, Shri Chouhaninstructed that it should beensured that payment againstloan should be made within 45days.

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Aspecial web Lecture ofAnuradha Shanker,

IPS, ADG, Training,Bhopal, on Indian Cultureand Gender Discriminationwas organised at B.RAmbedkar University ofSocial Sciences, Mhowunder the series of acade-mic activities.

Speaking on the theme,Anuradha Shankar said thatIndian culture is the mostancient and ricich ch cuulltturure ie inthe world. Its generosityand syncretic qualities haveabsorbed other cultures butpreserved its existence.Indian Vedic culture hassignificant contributions

from scholars like Romala,Ghoshal, Surya, Appala,Savitri, Gargi etc. but theywere not allowed to studyVedas. All of the core lies inthe social and culturalstructure.

In our cultural andsocial fabric, there are stilldiscrimination existingbetween son and daughter.There has never been anideal situation for women invarious periods. Describingtribal culture as a genderlessculture, he said that thereare both men and womenshares hard work and itsbenefits. Stating the rele-vance of Mahatma Gandhi'sideas in the current era ofthe epidemic, "No war can

be won without a empow-ering our women".

The discrimination pre-vailing in the society can beremoved only by educationand gender equality.

It is to be understoodthat there is more power inwisdom than strength ofbody.

The society has tochange its mindset andshould recognise the indi-viduality of the womanrather than evaluate her on

the basis of her physicalbody. She further said thatclass ceiling is not endedeven though some womenhave achieved higher postsand there is a long way toachieve gender equality

While delivering thePresidential address, ViceChancellor Prof AshaShukla said that the reasonfor the changing status ofwomen in various periodsof Indian culture is thepatriarchal society and nar-row mindset of humanbeing. There are only excep-tional cases of successfuland influential women inthe society as we are not liv-ing in a social setup and liv-ing in splitted communities.

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A35-year-old man diedwhile his friend escaped

with injuries after their bike fellinto a gorge at Imalia Bypasstrisection on Thursday underBaghsewania police stationarea.

Police said that the twoinjured men were rushed to ahospital where Jai Kumar diedduring treatment while hisfriend escaped with injuries.

After the preliminaryinvestigation, the body wassent for the post mortem. Acase was registered under sec-tion 174 of the CrPC.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-oldman died after he fell from thesecond floor of a under con-struction house while plaster-ing the outer wall at BairagarhChichli on Thursday.

Police said that thedeceased, identified asMahendra Sahu, was a residentof Kolar road and was workingat an under construction housewhen he fell and died. Furtherinvestion is on by police.

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Page 3: $6! ’# 4 3 1˜D 0A˜ 0˜˜ ˜ 1˜0) 1 ˜ : 1 ˜0 )0 , 0 , , 1 001 ... · Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural,

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COVID-19 crises haveunderlined the role tech-

nology can play in under-writing insurance policieswith telemedical emerging asa faster, safer and mostsecured way to issue insurancefor the consumers consideringthe current environment.

The threat of gettinginfected with the COVID-19or the novel coronavirus, hasreinforced the importance ofhaving adequate life insurancefor everyone who have finan-cial dependants.

In order to maintain socialdistancing and to keep cus-tomers off the medical centresfor conducting a medical testbefore issuing a life insurancepolicy a mandatory norm –insurers have even relaxednorms and have adopted alter-native evaluation methodsinstead of relying on medicaltests.

Vaidyanathan Ramani,Head - Product &Innovations, Policybazaar.comsaid typically, a representativeof the insurer visits the appli-cant to collect blood samplesfor the required medical tests.

However, during thenationwide lockdown, theinsurance companies chosean alternative method to issuepolicies to the customers byevaluating their credit scores,using tele-underwriting orrelying on health declarationsby applicants themselves.

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With a commitment to'Healthcare For All',

Lincoln PharmaceuticalsLimited, one of India's leadinghealthcare companies, haslaunched Chewable Vitamin C+ Zinc Tablet for the marketsin India. The tablet is an evi-dence-based bio-active for nat-ural immunity in combina-tion of zinc that boosts antivi-ral activity and protectionagainst COVID-19.

Market size for Vitamin Cand Zinc tablets is estimated ataround �150 crore in India andgrowing at 15% per annum.

Ashish R Patel, Whole-Time Director, LincolnPharmaceuticals Limited, saidthat during this COVID 19

Pandemic, Immunity & immu-nity boosters are the only wayto protect against the Virus.Vitamin-C & Zinc tablet havebecome necessity and impor-tant part of all human being intheir day to day life. With thislaunch, we aim to fill the gapsin serving the healthcarerequirement of the masses withour wide range of 600 plus for-mulations.

As it is in the form of

Chewable Tablet, Geriatric andpediatric patients and travellingpatients who may not haveready access to water are mostneed of easy swallowing dosageforms like chewable tabletswith pleasant flavour. Companyis committed to fight theCOVID-19 pandemic andworking closely with theGovernments and relevantstakeholders to ensure unin-terrupted supply of medicines.

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The Shahpura police hasarrested 15 persons on the

charge of gambling and recov-ered �25,000 cash and onlinetransactions worth �1.5 lakhfrom their possession in BengaliMohalla on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, morethan a dozen gamblers werecaught gambling by Shahpurapolice in the night of Thursday.

Police received informa-tion that gamblers with bigbets were gambling and on the

receipt of the information theplace was raided and arrested 15gamblers from the place.

Police said that the in theraid the gamblers were foundgambling in a room. The raidwas conducted after receivinginformation of suspicious activ-ities in the area and based on thetip off raid when the raid wasconducted gamblers werenabbed and �25,000 cash wasrecovered from their possession.

In the raid police foundonline transactions worth Rs 1.5lakh were also done. The mobile

phones of the accused wereseized which could help in fur-ther investigation.

Meanwhile, Talaiya policehave nabbed a 24-year-oldyouth for sodomising a minorboy in Talaiya area on Thursday.

Police said the victim wassodomised in the afternoonafter he was lured to visit build-ing by the accused identified asMohammad Salman.

The victim lodged a com-plaint with the Talaiya policeand in his complaint victim stat-ed that while on his way to

home the victim was lured of byaccused and took him andsodomised him. After the atroc-ity accused threatened him oflife and warned him not toreport the incident to parents orany other person.

Based on the complaintand after the preliminary inves-tigation, the police registered acase under sections 377 and 506of the IPC and sections 3 and 4of the Protection of Childrenagainst Sexual Offence Act 2012and have started further inves-tigation.

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Chancellor of RabindranathTagore University, Santosh

Chaubey, has been appointedas the member of CentralHindi Teaching Board.

The Central HindiTeaching Board has recentlybeen restructured by theDepartment of HigherEducation, New Delhi,Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment.

It is to be noted that emi-nent educationists, poets, writ-ers from across the country arethe members of the Board.Santosh Chaubey has beenappointed as a member fromMadhya Pradesh.

Choubey said that 'I amproud to be a member by theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment. There should beideological discourse betweenliterature, culture, educationand language. Hindi languageservice will continue uninter-rupted '.

Choubey is constantlyactive for the promotion ofHindi language. Last year,Tagore International Literatureand Arts Festival, based on hisvision, was the talk among

writers internationally. At thesame time, the book Yatra,taken from four states of thecountry, worked to raiseawareness about Hindi in cities,villages and towns.

He edited the vast collec-tion of Hindi stories of India'Kathadesh' and 'Katha MadhyaPradesh', a collection of storiesof the storytellers of undivid-ed Madhya Pradesh. Many ofhis fiction collections, novels,poetry collections and transla-tions have been published.Jalatarang is his popular novel.He is also the editor of, thecountry's famous magazine'Electronics for you' for lastthirty-two years on electronicsand information technology.

He wrote 'Computer: AnIntroduction', the first com-puter book in Hindi. He hasbeen decorated with manynational and international levelawards.

On this occasion, Directorof ICECT, SiddharthChaturvedi, Vice Chancellor ofRabindranath TagoreUniversity, Dr. BrahmaprakashPethia, Registrar Dr. VijaySingh, along with University,ICECT and Vanamali ShrishnaPeetha congratulated him.

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The ancient tradition ofBhand Pather, a folk per-

formance genre from Kashmir,was presented on YouTubechannel on Friday. The play'Shikargah Pather' was pre-sented under Abhinayan seriesorganised by Madhya PradeshState Tribal Museum.

The story of the kingdomof Pashupati - Lord Shiva - andits forest beings was toldthrough the play, which alsotook on a contemporary prob-lem – man-nature conflict.

The play was directed byIsmail Ahmad Bagath. Bhandin Kashmiri means 'play', whilethe pather is the performer.Theperformers use the traditionaldholak, a large wooden per-cussion instrument tuned withcoir and hide and the hornwhich resembles the Indianclassical shehnai.

Kashmir is known for itsrich culture and various artforms. Bhand Pethar (a collec-tion of folk plays) is one of thecentury-old art forms that

reveal social, cultural and envi-ronmentalism depictedthrough drama, dance, music,humor and satire.

Shikargah Pather play isabout Pashupatinath a king-dom of Shiva and his wildlife- trees, humans, animals andbirds. Pather begins with atune called "Sailah Mukam".Shikargah Pather is a purereflection of Mughal rule andilliteracy prevalent among thepeople of that period. "GuapanGoar" is one of the main char-acters of the play who is famil-iar with the jungle. GuapanGoar helps the soldiers andsheh riders to find the lionattacking the deer.

This presentation givesthe message of co-existencebetween life and culture.

This presentation hasbeen directed by ImtiazAhmed Bagath, Kashmir.

Imtiaz Ahmed Bagath hasbeen associated with the fieldof Rang Karma for manyyears. Mr. Bagath has acted aswell as directed in many folkdances.

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Aspontaneous Kathak per-formance was presented on

Friday. It was held onDepartment of Culture'sYouTube Channel.

Nivedita Pandey fromIndore gave a wondrous Kathakperformance. She performedKrishna Leela to start off herwondrous presentation. Herfootwork and wondrous expres-sions marked their beautifulperformance. She undoubtedlymaintained the purity of Kathakperformance in their presenta-tion.

An excellent blend of sen-suous movements and gracefulfootwork with absolute controlon rhythm was the performanceby the dancers enchanted theaudience a lot.

Then she performed purekathak. This performance wasvery rhythmical and filled withlot of enthralling footworks thatwas also enjoyed by the audience.It was a feast for the classicaldance lovers.

She presented the colourfulshades of Kathak with the flaw-less performance of Thumri,Tarana and baitki also. Thedancer gave a mesmerizing per-

formance. The energetic perfor-mance and early proficiency inthe mathematical aspects ofKathak mesmerized the audi-ences at the show.

Besides, tabla recital byVishal Shinde from Ujjain waspresented. This was followedwith Lok Gaayan by Pavan Aryafrom Malwa, Classical singing byAkshat Singh from Bhopal andmore. In view of the worldwidecrisis of Coronavirus, a creative

initiative is taken by the CultureDepartment Madhya PradeshGovernment by connecting theartists of the country and State,which has received an encour-aging response.

The writers, poets and artistsinvited by the Department ofCulture from time to time in itsevents, were requested to sendtheir creative act for the societyon their behalf in this hour of cri-sis.

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The rain gods seem to be dis-pleased for the past few days

as rainfall has not been wit-nessed and intense humid andhot conditions have prevailedover several parts of the State.

Prevailing weather condi-tions are reflecting summer- like conditions withday temperatures soaring andlittle relief in the nights.

The Met department hasforecast heavy rainfall andthunderstorms in the next fivedays across the State.

With very few regions wit-nessing rainfall the deficit of therainfall seems to be increasingin several parts of the State andmost affected ones would be thefarmers while the other cate-gory would be people in theregion which received scantyrainfall in the last season andwitnessed the pattern in thisseason.

Bhopal and nearby regionsRaisen, Hoshangbad are among

those witnessing day temperature over 35 degreeCelsius while Sidhi recorded 37degree Celsius on Friday whichwere among the highest daytemperatures of the state.

After the hot and humiddays, nights are also harsh astemperatures soar to 28 degreeCelsius in Gwalior while Satna and Khajurahorecorded 27 degree Celsius.

The regions which recorded rainfall in cm in thepast 24 hours were Shyamgarh6, Suwasra, Sardarpur,Neemuch 4, Alot, Jobat,Prithvipur, Tarana, Anjad,Thandla 3, Shahgarh, Jawad,Badnagar, Ujjain, Bajna, Tal,Jhabua 2.

Ujjain division recordedrainfall in the past 24 hourswhile few regions in Indoredivision also recorded rainfall.

Heavy rainfall is not on thecards and warning of thunderyactivities and lightening hasbeen issued for Vidisha,Chhindwara, Balaghat, Damoh,Sagar and Tikamgarh districts.

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Cyber police, Ujjain, has start-ed investigation of fake pro-

file of SP, Ujjain, over Facebookby an imposter who asked formoney from his friends. Thecomplaint was lodged afterfriends of SP informed regardingfacebook.

A sensational case of askingfor money from friends andacquaintances by creating fakeFacebook ID of Ujjain SP sur-faced after a fraudster created fakeFacebook profile of Ujjain SPManoj Kumar Singh

The fraudster made ademand of �15,000-�20,000using Facebook messenger fromSingh’s friends and acquain-tances. He came to know onlyafter the friends informed and heimmediately delete the fakeFacebook profile. The case isbeing investigated by the cyberpolice.

In the demand made by the

fraudster, bank account numberfor transfer of money was sentthrough messenger.

A message was sent statingthat his friend’s daughter metaccident and require moneyurgently. When one of the friendasked when he would return thefraudster replied by Saturdaymorning. In this regard, SPManoj Singh says that the fakeprofile maker is being investi-gated.

Notably, fraudster made afake profile of SP Singh fromoriginal Facebook profile andtook his mobile number.

In the recent past, fraudstertried to cheat many people bycreating fake Facebook profile ofSI Vikram Singh, In-charge ofNarwar police station in Ujjainand when SI Vikram Singh cameto know about this, he immedi-ately locked the profile and mes-saged on Facebook that peopleare being demanded for moneyby creating fake ID in his name.

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Madhav Nagar police hasarrested a bank employ-

ee of IDBI Free Ganj branchwho fraudulently withdrew�89 lakh from customers’accounts. SP, Ujjain, haddeclared a reward of �5,000 forproviding details of theaccused.

Police nabbed the accusedidentified as Pankaj Pachoriwho duped customers by with-drawing money from their

bank accounts.The accused went

absconding after GajendraMali, Anil Mali, Lakhan,Kailash, Sannu Bai lodgedcomplaint with the bank afterthey found that money hasbeen withdrawn from theirbank account with IDBIFreeganj branch.

On the complaints by thevictims, bank lodged com-plaint with the Madhav Nagarpolice and against Pankaj whowent absconding.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Friday hailed

Jagatsinghpur and Nabarangpurdistricts for receiving SKOCHAward in Covid-19 manage-ment.

The two districts havebagged the prestigious award insilver category.

The CM congratulated thetwo district Collectors.

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With 89.08 per cent Covid-19 recovery rate, Delhi

has topped the list of States incombating the deaths due tothe deadly virus followed byHaryana (79.82 recovery rate.)Karnataka has the lowestrecovery rate of 39.36 per cent.Overall recovery rate for Indiais 64.54 per cent, the GoM,which held its 18th meetingunder the chairpersonship ofUnion Health Minister HarshVardhan was informed recent-ly.

However, eight States,including Maharashtra, TamilNadu, Delhi, Karnataka andTelangana, continue to be thecause of concern for theGovernment, accounting foraround 90 per cent of the activecases in the country amid surgein virus caseload which crossed16 lakh on Friday.

Also, six States —Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh andWest Bengal – account for 86 percent of the deaths caused byCovid-19 and 32 districtsaccount for 80 per cent of suchfatalities, It was informed thatthere was a special focus on theregions showing a higherCOVID-19 fatality rate, theministry said.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said,“India has achieved the mile-stone of more than 1 millionrecoveries which has taken theRecovery Rate to 64.54 per cent.This shows that the active casesunder medical supervision areonly 33.27 per cent or approxi-mately 1/3rd of total positivecases. India’s Case Fatality Rateis also progressively reducing

and currently stands at 2.18 percent, one of the lowest globally.”

The GoM was also briefedon the current COVID-19 sta-tus in India.

“A global comparisonbetween the most-affected coun-tries clearly depicted that Indiahas one of the lowest numbersof cases per million (538) and

deaths per million (15), com-pared to the global average of1,453 and 68.7 respectively,” theministry said in a statement.

As regards the COVID-19

healthcare infrastructure inIndia, the GoM was informedthat as on Thursday, there were3,914 facilities across the coun-try with 3,77,737 isolation beds(without ICU support), 39,820ICU beds and 1,42,415 oxygensupported beds, along with20,047 ventilators.

Over 21.3 crore N95masks, 1.2 crore personal pro-tective equipment (PPE) kitsand 6.12 crore hydroychloro-quine tablets have so far beendistributed, the GoM was told.

While speaking on theseverity of cases found inIndia, the Minister said, “Out

of the total Active Cases, only0.28% patients are onVentilators, 1.61% Patientsneeded ICU support and2.32% are on Oxygen sup-port”.

The GoM was alsoapprised of the ramping up ofthe domestic production capac-

ities of various sectors for man-ufacturing PPEs, masks, venti-lators and drugs such as HCQ.In terms of healthcare logistics,cumulatively 268.25 lakh N95masks, 120.40 lakh PPEs and1083.77 lakh HCQ tablets havebeen distributed to States/UTsand Central Institutions.

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Young kids can spreadCovid-19 as much as

adults, according to a newstudy. It contradicts the previ-ous findings which stressedthat children are not a majorsource of Covid-19 transmis-sion.

Research published in thejournal JAMA Pediatrics foundthat children below the age offive years with mild to mod-erate Covid-19 have a muchhigher level of genetic mater-ial in the nose for the virus, ascompared to older childrenand adults.

Lead author Taylor Heald-Sargent from the NorthwesternUniversity Feinberg School ofMedicine said: “We found thatchildren under five withCovid-19 have a higher viralload than older children andadults, which may suggestgreater transmission, as wesee with a respiratory syncytialvirus, also known as RSV”.

To establish the outcome,the research team studied 145cases of mild to moderateCovid-19 illness within thefirst week of symptom onset.

The viral load was com-

pared amongst three agegroups – children youngerthan 5 years, children 5-17years, and adults 18-65 years.

According to theresearchers, the findings ofthe study point to the possi-bility that the youngest agegroup of children transmit thevirus as much as the other agegroups.

The fact that younger chil-dren can spread Covid-19 mayhave been under-recognisedbecause of the hasty and sus-tained shutting down ofschools and daycare during thepandemic.

“This has important pub-lic health implications, espe-cially during discussions on thesafety of reopening schools

and daycare,” Heald-Sargentsaid.

“Our study was notdesigned to prove that youngerchildren spread Covid-19 asmuch as adults, but it is a pos-sibility,” Heald-Sargent added.

Recently, a study fromMcMaster University inCanada, revealed that chil-dren below the age of 10 yearsare not a major source oftransmission of Covid-19.

Yet another study pub-lished earlier this month in thejournal Pediatrics stated thatchildren rarely transmit Covid-19 to each other or to adultsand schools can and shouldreopen in the fall while adher-ing to social distancing guide-lines.

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Healthcare professionals —be it a physician or a sup-

port worker in a hospital — areat risk for mental-health prob-lems that could be devastatingif left untreated during theCovid-19 pandemic, yetanother study has asserted andcalled for immediate supportfor the sector.

The healthcare staff has ahigher risk than the generalpublic of experiencing healthproblems such as depression,said the researchers in a studypublished in the Frontiers inPsychology.

Experts found that health-care workers in the UnitedStates are struggling with asuite of mental-health chal-lenges during the COVID-19pandemic, so much so that onaverage, healthcare profes-sionals reported enough symp-toms of depression to be diag-nosed with clinical depression.

“Our goal was to betterunderstand the impact thatCOVID-19 was having on themental well-being of health-care workers,” says AnnPearman, corresponding

author of the study and asenior research scientist inthe School of Psychology atGeorgia Institute ofTechnology.

Shevaun Neupert, a pro-fessor of psychology at NorthCarolina State University andco-author of the paper, said,“These findings are alarmingand we need additional workto better capture the scope ofthis problem. What’s more, weneed to be thinking abouthow we can help our health-care workers.”

Researchers had conduct-ed an online survey of 90people who identified ashealthcare workers includingphysicians, nurses and medicaltechnicians, some held rolessuch as hospital administra-tors.

Healthcare workersreported higher levels of stress,anxiety and tiredness, as wellas lower feelings of controlover their lives.

The researchers alsofound that the healthcareworkers were less likely toengage in “proactive coping,”meaning they were doing lessto prepare themselves for

future stresses or adverseevents.

Talking about the mentalhealth status of the healthcareworkers in India, Dr RajinderK Dhamija, Head ofDepartment of Neurology,Lady Hardinge Hospital,Delhi, said the frontline work-ers involved directly in han-dling the Covid-19 patientsare at greater risk than others.

He attributed the adversepsychological outcomes toexcessive workload/workhours, inadequate personalprotective equipment (PPEs)

and feeling inadequately sup-ported.

That’s why, he pointedout that the Union HealthMinistry has prepared guidelines recommending thatall Covid-19 treatment centresmust be provided with a des-ignated mental health supportnetwork for personnel.“Ideally both psychiatric andcounselling services need tobe made available,” as per theguidelines prepared byNIMHANS, Karnataka in col-laboration with the CentralHealth Ministry.

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The Centre announced onFriday that international

commercial flights will remainsuspended till August 31. Butthe restriction shall not applyto international cargo opera-tions and flights specificallyapproved by the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA).

In a statement, the DGCAsaid: “The Government hasdecided to extend the suspen-sion on the ScheduledInternational CommercialPassenger Services to/fromIndia up to 2359 hours IST of31st August.”

“However, this restrictionshall not apply to internation-al all-cargo operations andflights specifically approved byDGCA,” it said.

Earlier this month, in thewake of a surge in Covid-19cases across the country, thecivil aviation ministry hadextended the ban on interna-tional flights till July 31. Priorto that, the earlier order hadsaid the ban would be in place

till July 15. Scheduled interna-tional passenger flights weresuspended in India on March23 due to the coronavirus pan-demic.

To allow gradual move-ment of passenger traffic dur-ing the Covid-19 health crisis,‘Transport Bubble’ agreementshave been signed with UnitedStates, France and Germany.Air France and United Airlinesof the US will operate a limit-ed number of international flights under so-called “air bubble” arrange-ments with India.

The country has also signeda travel bubble agreement with

Kuwait to evacuate strandedpassengers both to and fromIndia. Further similar arrangements are likely to beput in place to ease passengermovements from differentcountries.

A bilateral air bubble refersto a travel corridor between twocountries that wish to reopentheir borders and re-establishconnections with each other.

The aviation ministry haslong maintained that resump-tion of schedule internationalflights will be considered oncedomestic flights reach the 50%mark of the originally approvedsummer schedule.

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NDA ally Lok JanshaktiParty’s (LJP) supremo

Ram Vilas Paswan has writtento the Election Commissionagainst holding the BiharAssembly polls in October-November, when they are due,saying it will otherwise amountto deliberately “pushing peopletowards death” due to coron-avirus pandemic and consid-ering the flood situation.

The party has saidresources should now befocussed on curbing theCOVID-19 crisis and tacklingfloods in the state and not hold-ing the polls. The LJP has saidthat the coronavirus pandem-ic has already acquired dan-gerous proportions and expertsbelieve that it is likely to bemore severe by October-November, as it argued that thepriority now should be savingpeople’s lives and not holdingthe elections.

The LJP’s stand on the

elections is opposite to that ofthe JD(U), which also is a BJPally, as the Chief Minister NitishKumar-led party has spoken infavour of holding them ontime and has been holdingorganisational meetings inpreparation. The BJP has main-tained that any decision on thepoll schedule is the EC’s pre-rogative, while the main oppo-sition RJD has in past called forpostponing the elections, citingthe coronavirus threat.

The EC has sought views ofall parties on the elections.The LJP said endangering livesof a big population would beabsolutely “improper” for hold-ing the elections and noted thatover 35, 000 people in thecountry, including 280 in Bihar,have died of COVID-19 so far.“Holding the polls in such cir-cumstances will amount todeliberately pushing peopletowards death,” it told the EC.A big part of Bihar is alsoseverely affected by floods, itadded.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Friday

conducted searches at sevenpremises of a Delhi-based real-tor in connection with a moneylaundering case against himand his company over analleged bank loan fraud worth� 800 crore and irregularities inthe construction of a five-starhotel here.

Searches were conducted atthe offices of the AmanHospitality Pvt Ltd (AHPL)and other companies of theAmbience Group, and the res-idences of its directors RajSingh Gehlot, Dayanand Singh,Mohan Singh Gehlot and theirassociates, the ED said in astatement.

Cash, including foreigncurrency, worth �40 lakh was“seized from the residence ofRaj Singh Gehlot,” the agencysaid, adding several incrimi-nating documents and digitalevidence were also seized dur-ing the search.

The case under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) is

based on an FIR filed by theJammu Anti-CorruptionBureau last year against theAHPL and its directors formoney laundering in the con-struction and development ofthe Leela AmbienceConvention Hotel on MaharajSurajmal Road in Delhi, theagency said.

A probe found that a “hugepart” of an over �800-croreloan, which was sanctioned bya consortium of banks for theproject, was siphoned off by theAHPL, Raj Singh Gehlot andhis associates through a “web ofcompanies owned and con-trolled by them”, it said.

“A substantial part of theloan money was transferred byAHPL to several companiesand individuals on the pretextof payment of running bills andadvance for supply of materi-al/and work executed,” it said.

The employees ofAmbience Group and Raj SinghGehlot’’s associates were madethe directors and proprietors ofthese companies and he was the“authorized signatory” in manyof these companies, accordingto the ED statement.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Friday predicted that mon-soon is likely to be normal inthe second half of the four-month rainfall season. Therainfall during August is like-ly to be 97 per cent with amodel error of plus/minus 9percent of long period averageas was forecasted in June. Therainfall for the country as awhole during the second half ofthe season is likely to be 104%of long period average with amodel error of plus/minus 8percent.

Due to better monsoon,882.18 lakh hectare kharifcrops area has been sownagainst 774.38 lakh hectarearea compared to the corre-sponding period of last year.Thus the increase in area cov-erage is by 13.92 percent com-pared to last year in the coun-try.

With the last two weeks ofJuly ending deficit rainfall overlarge parts of North-West Indiaand Central India, the IMD ispinning its hopes on a likelylow-pressure area forming overthe North Bay of Bengal torevive the monsoon in aresounding fashion from

August 5.Of the

total 685d i s t r i c t sacross Indiaas per theIMD, 229h a v er e c e i v e dd e f i c i e n tr a i n f a l lwhile 456 received either nor-mal or excess rainfall so far.Presently 197 districts areunder either excess rainfall orlarge excess rainfall. The coun-try has received 453.3 mmrains as against the normal of452 mm so far.

According to the IMD, inits Long Range Forecast for therainfall during second half(August-September) of the2020 Southwest Monsoon andAugust is likely to receive rain-fall that is 97 percent of theLong Period Average.

“Quantitatively, the rainfallover the country as a wholeduring the second half of theseason is likely to be 104 per-cent of LPA with a model errorof plus/minus 8 percent,” theIMD said.

The Long Period Average(LPA) rainfall over the countryas a whole for the period 1961-2010 is 88 centimetres.

Monsoon in the range of96-104 percent of the LPA isconsidered normal. The officialrainfall season in the countryis from June 1 to September 30.

As per agriculture ministrydata, farmers have sown rice on266.60 lakh hectare against223.96 lakh hectare area of lastyear, an increase in area cov-erage by 19.04 percent, Pulseson 111.91 lakh hectare asagainst 93.84 lakh hectare areaof last year, an increase in areacoverage by 19.26 percent, cov-erage of Coarse Cereals report-ed on 148.34 lakh hectare areaas against 139.26 lakh hectarearea of last year an increase inarea coverage by 6.52 percent.The data further showed thatoilseeds were sown in 175.34lakh hectare area as against150.12 lakh hectare area of lastyear while Sugarcane on 51.78lakh ha area against 51.20 lakhha area of last year.

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Observing July 31 as‘Muslim Rights Day’ on

the completion of one year ofannulment of the regressivepractice of triple talaq, the rul-ing BJP and the UnionGovernment on Friday saidthat the Modi Government’spolicy was of empowerment ofMuslim women and not that ofexploitation.

Senior BJP leader andUnion Minister for minorityaffairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvisaid August first is a day whichmade Muslim women freefrom social evil of triple talaqadding that the day will remaina “golden moment of Indiandemocracy and parliamentaryhistory.”

Naqvi said the law whichhas made instant divorce as acriminal offence has strength-ened “self-reliance, self-respectand self-confidence” of Muslimwomen of the country. He saidthe Modi-government has“ensured gender equality andstrengthened constitutional,fundamental and democraticrights” of Muslim women bybringing the law against thetriple talaq.

The Minister said socialevil of triple talaq or Talaq-a-

Biddat was neither Islamic norlegal and it could have beenpassed in 1986 by the RajivGandhi Government when itinstead used the Congressmajority to make the SupremeCourt’s milestone judgment inthe famous Shah Bano caseineffective.

Naqvi said since the pass-ing of the law by the Modi-gov-ernment in last one year, thereis a decline of about 82 per centin triple talaq cases in thecountry.

He said the BJPGovernment is committed to“political empowerment” and“not political exploitation”and bold reforms are reflectiveof it.

The law, formally called theMuslim Women (Protectionof Rights on Marriage) Act,2019, was passed in last yearafter intense debates in bothRajya Sabha and Lok Sabha,with opposition parties, court-ing conservative sections ofMuslims alleging it targetedthe Muslim community even asthe Centre asserted that itwould help achieve gender jus-tice for Muslim women.

Union Ministers RaviShankar Prasad, Smriti Irani,and Naqvi took to social mediato hail their Government’s

actions and pitched the ban oninstant triple talaq as a hugestep for the empowerment ofwomen.

The BJP Minority Morchaand the Mahila Morcha haveorganised programmes in dif-ferent states to mark the occa-sion. There were many videosshared on social media ofMuslim women thanking thePrime Minister for getting theanti-Triple Talaq law passed in2019, using the hashtag‘’ThanksModiBhaiJaan’’.

Naqvi also shared videoson his Twitter, Facebook andInstagram accounts in whichMuslim women from variousparts of the country thankedthe prime minister. In thevideos, Sahabiya fromHyderabad, Shahida Abbasfrom Maharashtra, ShabanaRehman and Tabassum fromDelhi thanked the prime min-ister for the bill, asserting thatMuslim women are feelingsecure now.

The Modi Governmentmade the law against tripletalaq following the SupremeCourt’s judgement of 2017 thatdeclared as unconstitutionalthe instantaneous practice, fol-lowed by Muslim men, ofdivorcing a wife by uttering theword ‘’talaq’’ thrice.

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To promote agri firms, theCentre will fund 112 start-

ups in the first phase with asum of �11.85 crore in the cur-rent financial year. Accordingto Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar , thefunds will be given to thestart-ups selected by differentknowledge partners andagribusiness incubators in the

area of agro-processing, foodtechnology and value addi-tion.

The agriculture ministersaid that the funds will beprovided under the Innovationand Agri-entrepreneurshipDevelopment Programmelaunched under the revampedRashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY).

“In the first phase, 112start-ups in the area of agro

processing, food technologyand value addition will befunded for a sum of �11.85crore,” Tomar said on Friday.

The funds will be releasedin instalments and the select-ed start-ups have been trainedfor two months at 29 agribusi-ness incubation centres spreadacross India, he said.

These start-ups will lead toemployment opportunities forthe youth.

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Page 5: $6! ’# 4 3 1˜D 0A˜ 0˜˜ ˜ 1˜0) 1 ˜ : 1 ˜0 )0 , 0 , , 1 001 ... · Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural,

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Tamil Nadu students may notget the benefits, if any, of the

new National Education Policydeclared by the Centre onThursday. Barring the BJP, allmajor political parties havedeclared their opposition tothe NEP in its present form. Theruling AIADMK is expected toannounce its stance on August3 after a meeting of the councilof ministers to be presided byChief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami, according to K ASengottaiyan, minister forschool education.

The opposition DMK hasmade it known that it would notallow any reforms which scut-tle the two-language policyenunciated by late ChiefMinister C N Annadurai. “Asformer chief minister of TamilNadu C N Annadurai saidTamil Nadu must follow only a

two-language policy system,there is no space for the three-language policy in Tamil Nadu,”said a unanimous resolutionadopted at the end of a day-longvideo conference of the party’shigh power committee presidedover by president M K Stalin.

Stalin in his speech declaredthat there was no space forHindi or Sanskrit in TamilNadu as both the languages rep-resented Hindu religion and saf-fronisation. It may be remem-bered that Tamil Nadu is theonly State in India which doesnot have Jawahar NavodayaVidyalayas, a concept boardingschool introduced by RajivGandhi as part of the New edu-cation Policy 1987. Hindi andSanskrit are taught in NavodayaVidyalayas as optional subjects,which are anathema to theDravidian parties.

Anbumani Ramadoss MPand leader of PMK, a con-

stituent of the NDA, said he toowas against the imposition ofHindi or Sanskrit. “We are alsoopposed to the public examina-tions planned for students ofclasses Three, Five and Eightwhich would result in stressamong students,” said Ramadoss.

But Prof YR Johnson, for-mer principal, NavodayaVidyalaya and a respected edu-cationist expressed his shockover the attitude of the politicalparties in the State to the NEP.“They are denying the studentsthe right to learn the language oftheir choice. I had requested thehuman resources minister tohave a One Nation and OneEducation system for the entireIndia. But these Dravidian par-ties are bent upon destroying thefuture of Tamil Nadu,” said ProfJohnson who had waged a bat-tle with the State Government toget Navodaya Vidyalayas openedin the State.

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Tamil Nadu lost 97 personsto Covid-19 during the last

24 hours ending Fridayevening. The State also saw5,881 persons testing positivefor Covid-19 during the sameperiod. The number of newpersons diagnosed with coro-navirus was higher than that ofThursday while the number ofpersons succumbing to thepandemic remained the same.

There were 57,968 Covid-19 patients in the State as onFriday. The total number ofpersons tested positive till datecrossed 2.45 lakh while the Statetested 58,350 persons on Friday.

A total of 5,778 patientsrecovered from the pandemicand got discharged from thehospital in the last 24 hours. Aspart of aggressive testing for thepandemic, there are 120 labora-tories operating across the State.

Chennai, once the epicen-tre of Covid-19, showed a fall

in the number of persons test-ed positive. Friday saw thenumber of new positive casescoming down to 1, 013. Butthere was no let up in the threeneighbouring districts of

Chengalpet (334),Kancheepuram (485) andThiruvallur (373).

The decision of some of theeducational institutions askingthe teaching and non-teachingstaff to be present from August3 has sent shock waves acrossthe teaching community. “BothChennai and Chengalpet dis-tricts are facing severe situationbecause of the pandemic. Thenhow they expect us to be phys-ically present in the University,”some of the Staff members ofSRM University asked thisnewspaper. They said the on-line system was functioningeffectively and it would notmake any difference if theteachers are forced to physicallypresent in the institution.

Situation in the southerndistrict of Virudhunagar, hometo Sivakasi, the hub of fire-cracker industries and printingpresses, continued to be graveas 357 patients were diagnosedwith the pandemic on Friday.

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Actress Rhea Chakraborty,who has been accused by

Sushant Singh Rajput’s father ofabetting his son’s suicide, saidhere on Friday that “the truthshall prevail”, even asMaharashtra’s former ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisdemanded EnforcementDirectorate (ED) register anEnforcement Case InformationReport (ECIR) in the Sushantsuicide case.

Breaking her silence for thefirst time ever since Sushant’sfather Krishna Kumar Singhlodged a FIR against her and herfamily members in Patna, Rheasaid in a video statementreleased to the media: “I haveimmense faith in god and thejudiciary. I believe that I will getjustice. Even though a lot of hor-rible things are being said aboutme on the electronic media, Irefrain from commenting on theadvice of my lawyers as the mat-ter is sub-judice”

“Satyameva jayate, thetruth shall prevail,” Rhea added,with her hands folded.

Rhea’s statement came aday after the Supreme Courtrefused to entertain a plea toorder a CBI probe into thedeath of actor Sushant SinghRajput. A SC bench Bench ledChief Justice of India (CJI)Sharad A. Bobde said the“police should be allowed to dotheir job”.

The court said the petition-er could Alka Priya approach theBombay High Court in case shegot hold of anything concrete tohelp the police investigation.

Sushant (34), who had actedin films like “MS Dhoni: TheUntold Story”, “Shuddh DesiRomance”, PK, “Raabta”,“Kedarnath”, “Detective

Byomkesh” and Chhichore,committed suicide at his rentedduplex flat in Bandra on June 14.

On her part, Rhea hadmoved the Supreme Court seek-ing transfer of investigation intothe FIR filed against her and herfamily members in the SushantSingh Rajput’s alleged suicide,from Mumbai to Patna.

In her plea before theSupreme court, Rhea revealedthat she was in a live-in rela-tionship with Sushant and thatthe actor was suffering fromdepression. Rhea said that she “isherself in a state of traumafrom the incident”.

Seeking the transfer of theinvestigations into the FIR filedby Sushant’s father, Rhea told theapex court that the deceasedactor’s father “has substantialinfluence”in Patna as he is ableto mobilise investigation in acase without jurisdiction. She

told the court that she feared thatshe would not be able “to get afair and just trial in as much asthe local authorities are hand-in-glove with the complainant andhe possesses the capacity togreatly influence the investiga-tion and the trial in the cases”

Meanwhile, Bollywoodactor Shekhar Suman on Fridaymet Maharashtra GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyari at RajBhavan, Mumbai and presentedto him a memorandumdemanding CBI investigation inthe Sushant Singh Rajput case.

The Opposition BJP inMaharashtra slammed the ShivSena-led MVA Government forits reluctance to hand over theSushant suicide case to the CBIand asked the ED to file an ECIRin the sensational case in whichthere appeared to be “misap-propriation and money laun-dering angle” in it.

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The total number of coron-avirus positive cases Friday

crossed 20,000 mark while asenior Kashmir AdministrativeServices Officer (KAS) alongwith 12 others died taking thetotal death toll to 377 in Jammu & Kashmir.

Sharing the news on histwitter handle, DeputyCommissioner Srinagar ShahidIqbal Choudhary wrote, “I findit difficult to share, our col-league Tasaduq Jeelani has lostthe battle against Covid. He hadresponded well, tested negativetoo but couldn’t overcome postCovid complications. May hissoul Rest In Peace”.

Jeelani was said to be recu-perating from the disease after a policeman donated plas-ma to him.

Meanwhile, 8 personnel ofthe Special Security Force (SSF)deployed in Raj Bhawan,Srinagar also tested positive on Friday.

Several staff members andsenior officers, posted in RajBhawan Jammu were advisedto go into home quarantineafter two media professionalsfrom Delhi, working on theCoffee table book of achieve-ments of J&K government test-ed positive.

According to officialsources, around 40 guests andstaff members were expected toundergo mandatory screeningto confirm whether they havecontracted the virus whileattending meetings and pre-sentations with these mediaprofessionals.

According to the mediabulletin, out of 490 new posi-tive cases, 143 were reproted from Jammudivision and 347 from Kashmirdivision, taking the total num-ber of positive cases in Jammu& Kashmir to 20,359. Also 12Covid-19 deaths have beenreported; 02 from Jammu divi-sion and 10 from KashmirDivision.

Moreover, 375 moreCovid-19 patients have recov-ered and discharged from var-ious hospitals, 78 from JammuDivision and 297 fromKashmir Division.

According to the dailyMedia Bulletin, out of 20,359positive cases, 7,765 are ActivePositive, 12,217 have recoveredand 377 have died; 28 inJammu division and 349 inKashmir division.

The bulletin further saidout of 6,37,515 test resultsavailable, 617156 samples havebeen tested as negative till July31, 2020.

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With the number of coro-na cases going up by the

hour the Bengal Governmenthas decided to conduct rapidantigen tests in Kolkata andnearby districts, HealthDepartment sources said.

Initially tests will be con-ducted in Kolkata and North 24Parganas which have witnessedmassive upswing in the num-ber of cases. “In fact we havealready started antigen tests inKolkata and have found posi-tive results,” said State MinisterFirhad Hakim.

A senior HealthDepartment official said theGovernment had already sentabout 8,000 kits to Barasat thedistrict head quarters of North24 Parganas. “If need be theGovernment will send morekits,” he said adding more kitswill be sent to Bongaon,Basirhat, and other places in

the district.North 24 Parganas is the

second most affected district inBengal followed by Howrah,Malda, Hooghly, South 24Parganas and East Burdwann.

Apart from antigen teststhe Government has alsodirected the agencies to con-duct other clinical tests includ-ing oxymeter and temperaturetests sources said adding that alarge portion of the populationwas being tested in the Behalaarea of South Kolkata where thehealth staff were conductinghouse-to-house tests.

The decision to conductrapid antigen tests would helpthe Government to ascertainwhether the State was in themidst of community infection.Home Secretary AlapanBandopadhyay had earlier goneon record saying that parts ofBengal was experiencing com-munity infection which ledthe Government to announce

bi-weekly lockdowns.The officials also reported

that, “out of initial 50 persons 10people were found positive inChetla and Alipore areas ofSouth Kolkata which may indi-cate that a large number of peo-ple have already been affectedwith asymptomatic conditions.”

Though it would be pre-mature to come to any conclu-sion the number could indicateabout 20 percent infection inthe population, sources in theHealth Department surmised.The State had seen about 200deaths in the past five days, hemaintained.

Meanwhile, a senior doctorand a subaltern police officersuccumbed to corona infec-tions on Friday sources said. DrTapan Bandopadhyay died at aprivate health facility at SaltLake. The death of the policeofficer took the total number offatalities in police circles to 7sources said.

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The Covid-19 infectionscrossed 10,000 mark for the

third time in nine days inMaharashtra on Friday, as thestate recorded 10,320 infectedcases, while 265 more peopledied of pandemic.

A day after it recorded thehighest-ever daily tally of11,147 Covid-19 infections, asmany as 10,320 people testedpositive for Covid-19 in vari-ous parts of the State. The Statehad earlier witnessed 10576cases on July 22.

The State witnessed 9,895,9,615, 9,251 and 9,431 cases onJuly 23, 24, 25 and 26 respec-tively, 7,924, 7,717 and 9,211cases on July 27, 28 and 29respectively, while it logged astaggering 11,147 on Thursday.

With 10,320 fresh infec-tions, the total number of pos-itive cases in the State mount-ed to 4,22,118.

With 265 fresh deaths, thetotal number of deaths in theState inched closer to 15,000 totouch 14,994.

Of the total 265 deaths,Pune accounted 71 deaths,

while Thane recorded 60 deaths.Mumbai accounted for 53

deaths for the second consec-utive day, taking the total num-ber of deaths from 6,300 to6,353 while the infected casesjumped by 1,085 cases — totouch 1,14,284.

Apart from 71 deaths inPune, 60 deaths in Thane and

53 deaths in Mumbai, therewere 10 deaths each in Raigadand Kolhapur, 8 in Solapur, 7in Nanded, 6 each in Nashikand Buldhana, 5 each inPalghar and Sangli, 4 inAurangabad, 3 each in Jalgaon,Latur and Nagpur, 2 each inParbhani and Osmanabad andone each in Ahmednagar,

Dhule, Ratnagiri, Jalna, Beed,Akola, and Amravati.

Meanwhile, as many as7,543 patients were dischargedfrom hospitals in the State afterfull recovery, taking the totalnumber of patients dischargedfrom various hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year to 2,56,158.The recovery rate rose to 60.68per cent. The mortality rate inthe state is 3.55 per cent. Thestate health authorities peggedthe number of “active cases” inthe state at 1,50,662.

With 93342 infected casesand 2,585 deaths, Thane con-tinued to be the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.

Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 89,231infections and 2169 deaths tillnow. Out of 21,30,098 samples sent to laboratories,4,22,118 have tested positive(19.89 per cent) for Covid-19until Thursday.

Currently, 8,99,557 peo-ple are in home quarantinewhile 39,535 people are ininstitutional quarantine.

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The virulent spread of coro-navirus continued unabat-

ed in Andhra Pradesh with thestate registering over 10,000cases for three consecutivedays, taking the aggregate to1,40,933 on Friday.

In the last 24 hours ending9 am on Friday, the statereported 10,376 Covid-19cases, the highest daily count sofar, from tests of 61,699 sam-ples, a positivity rate of 16.8 percent. Of the total tests, 35,024were for rapid antigens.

The overall infection pos-itivity rate shot up to 7.22 percent due to the abnormal spurtin number of cases, particularlyin the last three days.

The State recorded 10,167cases on Thursday and 10,093on Wednesday, becoming the only State afterMaharashtra to cross the fivedigit mark in daily cases.

The State reported anoth-er 68 deaths, resulting in therise in overall toll to 1,349, thelatest bulletin said.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday told theJharkhand Government to con-sider reopening of historicBaba Baidyanath JyotirlingaTemple at Deoghar and BabaBasukinath Temple atBasukinath for devotees, asentries were restricted due toCovid-19 pandemic.

The top court said virtual‘darshan’ of prayers is nothinglike actual ‘darshan’ and devo-tees could be allowed to par-ticipate on limited basis.

The apex court was of theview that since the country wasreopening now, at least onimportant occasions Temples,Mosques, Churches and otherreligious places should also beopened. It refused to interferewith the Jharkhand High Courtorder of July 3 passed on a pleaof BJP MP Nishikant Dubey bywhich it has rejected the prayerfor allowing reopening of boththe historic temples and hold-ing of annual ‘Shravani Mela’ inDeoghar and instead allowingvirtual ‘darshan’.

A bench of Justices ArunMishra, BR Gavai and KrishnaMurari disposed of the plea butasked the Jharkhand HighCourt to consider reopening ofthe temples as the country isnow reopening. ‘Virtual dar-shan is no darshan’.

Devotees could be allowedto participate on limited basiswhile ensuring social distanc-ing norms.

“The country is nowreopening then why the reli-gious places should remainshut. At least on importantoccasions Temples, Mosques,Churches and other religiousplaces should be opened,” thebench observed. PTI

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Kerala reported 1,310 Covid-19 cases on Friday, includ-

ing 20 health workers, taking theinfection tally to 23,607, whilethree deaths took the toll to 73.

A total of 864 people haverecovered. The positive casesinclude 885 on Friday and 425on Thursday. (Yesterday due tosome technical issues, the Covidlist released by the Governmentwas not complete).

The district wise break upof cases includeThiruvananthapuram 320,Ernakulam 132,Pathanamthitta130, Wayanad124, Kottayam 89, Kozhikode84, Palakkad 83, Malappuram75, Thrissur 60, Idukki 59,Kollam 53, Kasaragod 52,Alappuzha 35, Kannur 14.

Three deaths were reported

on Friday, taking the toll to 73. Presently 10,495 people

are under treatment, while13,027 have recovered, includ-ing 864 discharged on Friday.

Of the positive cases, 48 hadcome from abroad, 54 fromother States and 1,162 wereinfected through contact, HealthMinister KK Shailaja said in aPress release here.

The source of infection of 36is not yet known. InThiruvananthapuram 311 peo-ple, 127 in Pathanamthitta, 124

in Wayanad and 109 inErnakulam were infectedthrough contact, the release said.

At least 1,43,323 people areunder observation with 1.33lakh in home/institutionalquarantine and 10,172 in hos-pitals, including 1,292 admittedon Friday.

In the last 24 hours, 22,279samples have been tested. So far7,76,268 samples have been test-ed and 6,445 results are await-ed, the release said. The total hotspots on Friday were 498.

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Page 6: $6! ’# 4 3 1˜D 0A˜ 0˜˜ ˜ 1˜0) 1 ˜ : 1 ˜0 )0 , 0 , , 1 001 ... · Wednesday night. As on Friday evening, 10 persons had died of spurious liquor consump-tion in Amritsar Rural,

There is a famous parable that isbelieved to have originated in theIndian sub-continent and finds amention in ancient Buddhist,Hindu and Jain texts. The story

is of a group of blind men, who encounteran elephant for the first time when the ani-mal is brought to their village. Having noidea about its shape or size, the blind mendecided that they must inspect the animalby touching it in order to paint a picture intheir minds. One blind man put his handon the trunk of the elephant and said thatthe animal was a thick snake. Anothertouched the elephant’s ear and said that itseemed like a type of fan. A third blind man,who touched the leg of the elephant, saidthat it resembled a tree trunk while anoth-er felt its tusk and thought the animal waslike a spear. The parable deals with how oursubjective experiences, while they may betrue and honest, have an inherent limitation.They fail to account for the truths and expe-riences of other people. The parable is anappropriate metaphor for the law-makingprocess adopted by the BJP Government atthe helm.

A recent example of this myopicapproach to law-making is the constitutionof a five-member Committee for Reformsin Criminal Law, which has been set up bythe Union Ministry of Home Affairs at theNational Law University, Delhi. The panelincludes the Vice Chancellor and Registrarof the university as well as the ViceChancellor of Dharmashastra National LawUniversity, Jabalpur, renowned criminallawyer Mahesh Jethmalani and a formerdistrict and sessions judge from NewDelhi. The committee’s primary role is torecommend changes and reforms to thecriminal laws of the country by examiningthe procedural, evidentiary and substan-tive rules.

Let me be clear, no one can deny thefact that there’s an urgent need to reformour criminal laws. However, the manner inwhich the committee has been formed, theway it is expected to operate and the lim-ited perspective that it will offer leave a lotto be desired. With regard to the forma-tion of the committee, it has been estab-lished under the directions of the UnionHome Ministry, which essentially hasunder its purview the very organs that haveviolated a number of criminal laws whilecarrying out their functions.

This is especially surprising becauselaw reform is typically the domain of theMinistry of Law and Justice. This Ministryforms commissions, which consist oflawyers, bureaucrats and other relevantstakeholders. In fact, in the past, several lawcommissions have recommended changesto the criminal laws in their reports. So, itis not clear why this role was suddenlyusurped by the Union Home Ministry.

The second issue relates to the man-ner in which this newly-formed panel was

constituted. While the need toreform criminal laws has beenfelt time and again, it is unclearwhy such a necessity arose atthe time of a global pandemic,when every fifth case ofCOVID-19 is reportedly anIndian. The committee hascommenced online consulta-tions barring a few people whomay not be able to participatethrough this mode. Thereby, ithas automatically excluded thevery people who are mostaffected by the abuse of crim-inal laws and the due process.Not only is the commencementof the consultation suspectiblebut the time given to the com-mittee to prepare its report —six months — is reflective of acruel sense of humour whereunfortunately, the joke will beon everyday citizens, who aresubjected to outdated criminallaws on a regular basis.

The third matter relates tothe constitution of the com-mittee itself. It is shockinghow north India-centric andmore specifically Delhi-centricthe committee is. What is evenmore appalling is that the com-mittee lacks diversity as thereis no woman or any memberfrom the minority or the mar-ginalised sections of society onthe panel. These are the very

people who disproportionate-ly are the victims of criminallaws.

For example, it is stagger-ing that the committee will bedebating on things like whethermarital rape should be exclud-ed from the domain of rapelaws. However, women practi-tioners of criminal law have notbeen included in its panel. It isprecisely for this reason that anumber of retired judges,senior advocates and womenlawyers from all across thecountry have written to thecommittee, expressing concernabout its blinkered nature.

Unfortunately, the com-mittee is a reflection of the BJP’sapproach to governance whereit is assumed that India is nota diverse, vivid populace but ahomogenous block; where dis-cussion and debate are anunnecessary time lag. It is pre-cisely this approach that wasvisible when a monumentaldisaster called demonetisationwas inflicted upon us. Whilethe well-to-do and the uppermiddle class managed just finewith easy access to funds, it wasthe poor and the unorganisedsector that bore the brunt (andis still bearing) of perhaps themost ignorant policy decisionin recent memory.

The fact that cash in theeconomy today is higher thanit was even during pre-demon-etisation levels is an embarrass-ing reminder of theGovernment’s high-handed,rushed and negligent approach.

However, the Governmentdoes not appear to have learntfrom its mistakes and looks tobe sticking to its doggedapproach. In some cases, how-ever, there are institutions likethe High Court of Karnataka,which, while examining a chal-lenge to the draft EnvironmentImpact Assessment notifica-tion, expressed displeasure onthe Central Government’sstand that it will not publish thedraft EIA notification inregional languages and willconsider staying the notifica-tion.

Ultimately, we can onlyhope and pray that theGovernment pays heed to theseconcerns raised by civil societyand institutions, who wish toensure representative law-mak-ing. If the Government fails todo so, you and I will be leftholding the tail of the elephantwhile the Government calls ita rope.

(The writer is a former IPSofficer, a former MP and cur-rently a member of the AAP)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “New curriculum” (July 31).The National Education Policy(NEP), 2020, proposes manystructural changes and is aimedat fixing the mess in India’s edu-cation system. However, it fails toaddress some of the ills plaguingthis sector.

One of the main drawbacksof our present education systemis that students, who pass out ofeducational institutions, do notpossess the skills required to beemployable. Second, the contentof the subject remains irrelevantand is not in sync with presenttimes. Third, our education sys-tem is too exam-centric. Four,students get typecast for lifebased on the subjects they study.The NEP 2020 does attempt toaddress this issue by allowing thestudents to choose from the sub-jects they like. Five, commercial-isation and corruption still plaguethe education system. The NEP,2020, does promise to treat edu-cation as a “not for profit”entity. However, this will lead tomore corruption because institu-tions are not meant for charity.

Merits of the NEP must,

however, not be forgotten. It pro-vides for the extension of theRight to Education to cover allchildren between three and 18years of age. The plan to intro-

duce three-year and four-yearundergraduate programmes, too,is welcome.

Venu GSKollam

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“New curriculum” (July 31).

Laying stress on scientific temperand mathematical abilities, thenew NEP will help develop theobjective and analytical faculties ofthe students. Taking three-year-oldchildren under the EarlyChildhood Care and Educationscheme, too, is a laudable aspectof the NEP. But it is imperative thatthe necessary staff, who have thevision to implement the policymandate, be made available.

AyushVia email

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Sir — The arrival of the Rafale jetsand the exuberance it generatedare understandable. Known for itsgreater offensive capabilities andadvanced weaponry system, theRafales will significantly enhanceIndia’s strategic capabilities.

But while taking concretesteps to augment our defencecapabilities, we cannot be oblivi-ous to the need of boosting ourdomestic defence manufacturingcapacities.

ShrutikaVia email

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The race for the vaccine for COVID-19 is infull swing across the world as more andmore people fall victim to the pandemic and

the number of cases globally reaches 17,505,564and casualties touch the 6,77,465 mark. India, too,is one of the contenders in the race for the vac-cine and desperately needs it to come out as soonas possible, given the fact that the communityspread has begun in the country and the numberof cases has touched 16,43,543 and that of casu-alties is 35,817. In fact, India reported a new recordsurge on July 31 with more than 55,000 fresh infec-tions registered in 24 hours.

In the midst of the outbreak, the one big ques-tion uppermost on everyone’s mind is, whoeverwins the vaccine race, will the benefits permeateglobally to the neediest or will they be restrictednationally? It is widely predicted that restrictingthe precious vaccine nationally is going to devas-tate public health and the world economy in equalmeasure.

Vaccine nationalism occurs when a countrymanages to secure doses of vaccine for its own peo-ple before they are made available to other nations.This is done through pre-purchase agreementsbetween a Government and the vaccine manufac-turer. The US has been attempting to secure pri-ority access to doses of the Coronavirus vaccine.Other countries, including India and Russia, havetaken similar stances recently.

A nationalist view for a vaccine may not justbe for confining it to one’s own people. There maybe multiple angles to it. The concept exists since2009, when, during the early stages of the H1N1flu pandemic, some of the wealthiest countriesentered into pre-purchase agreements with sev-eral pharmaceutical companies working on thevaccines. As a result, the distribution of the doseswas based on high-income countries’ purchasingpower and lacked an epidemiological basis.However, the distribution dynamics took a differ-ent turn when the initial production was slow andthe supply was inadequate for the target groupsfor whom the US Health Agency had recommend-ed vaccination.

Moreover, the Live-Attenuated InfluenzaVaccine (LAIV) for H1N1 was contraindicated forthe very young, for those with asthma and for preg-nant women — among the target groups consid-ered to be the highest priority. Further, manyhealthcare workers were reluctant to receiveLAIV because of unfounded concerns about trans-mission to patients in healthcare settings and vac-cine efficacy. On the other side, paediatricians andother healthcare providers were inundated by callsfrom large numbers of patients and anxious par-ents demanding the vaccine or asking where togo for a shot.

As dose supply started to increase, the inci-dence of 2009 H1N1 disease declined and themedia frenzy quietened. By January 2010, patientdemand for the vaccine had decreased to the pointwhere many providers were left with the vaccineon the shelf. It is, therefore, evident from the H1N1experience that vaccine nationalism hardly servedany purpose and the approach resulted in surplusdoses of vaccines on one side and deprived a largepopulation that needed the vaccine on the otherside.

The case for the COVID-19 vaccine is yet tounfold. How emerging vaccines will be distributedto those who need them is as yet unclear.Moreover, each vaccine candidate is likely to havea different safety and efficacy profile and it wouldbe premature to say that the vaccine candidate forwhich a nation would have secured supply

through a pre-purchase order would bethe most optimum vaccine for its pop-ulation.

Most vaccine development projectsinvolve several parties from multiplecountries and there are very fewinstances in which a single country canclaim to be the sole developer of a vac-cine. Moreover, in a global economy,infection does not respect internation-al borders and inequitable access to vac-cines during a pandemic is likely todefeat the purpose of vaccination alto-gether.

Vaccine nationalism is not only pos-ing a challenge to vulnerable populationswith inequitable access but is also result-ing in scientists opting for riskierapproaches to the vaccine developmentprocess. The urgency for the develop-ment of a preventive has given rise to aglobal tendency to take risks and cut cor-ners. It has led to disparate efforts likea Chinese vaccine company engaging thePeople’s Liberation Army (PLA) epi-demiologist, Major-General Chen Wei,to oversee its vaccine hunt. Chen Weiherself took one of the first shots of theexperimental vaccine to display nation-alistic fervour.

Similarly, the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR), along withthe National Institute of Virology (NIV),is trying for an early COVID-19 vaccinerelease in the market with BharatBiotech International Ltd (BBIL). Thereare instances wherein the countries aremoving away from a collective and equi-table global strategy for combatting thepandemic. European nations, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation and theWellcome Trust committed over $8 bil-lion to finance the Access to COVID-19Tools (ACT), dedicated to rapid deploy-ment of new Coronavirus-related healthtechnologies.

Yet the US, Russia and India havechosen not to participate in this initia-

tive. The Serum Institute of India, theworld’s largest producer of vaccinedoses, declared that most of its doses“would have to go to our countrymenbefore they go abroad.”

AstraZeneca reported that due to theUK’s $79 million investment, the first 30million doses of the vaccine it is devel-oping with the University of Oxford,would be allocated to the UK. Then, onMay 21, the US pledged $1.2 billion tothe company in order to obtain at least300 million doses, with the first to bedelivered as early as October.

It would be prudent for nations tolearn from the experience of past pan-demics where vaccine nationalism hashardly delivered any advantage and hasrather resulted in surplus stocks that latergo waste. A more efficient vaccine sup-ply chain is required rather than secur-ing first doses of the vaccine. During theH1N1 pandemic, out of the 162 milliondoses of the vaccine produced for thegeneral public, only 90 million doseswere used. This is a clear indicator ofpoor supply and distribution planningand could have been better addressedwith a supply chain management-basedapproach rather than a hoarding-basedone that is termed as vaccine national-ism.

Having a vaccine scarcity in the ini-tial phases was a result of overly-opti-mistic projections of supply. And later,the situation of having surplus stocksresulted due to certain groups being hes-itant to take vaccines due to the fear ofadverse reactions. This was not takeninto account during the distributionplanning.

It is, therefore, clear that securing thefirst supply of vaccines created by devel-oped nations and the bargaining powermay result in surplus stocks that candeprive vulnerable populations. This willdefeat the purpose of developing the vac-cine in a globally-mobile world.

There are better ways in whichnational interests can be safeguardedwithout compromising on equitableglobal access to vaccines. One such ini-tiative is the 70:30 approach at the timeof launch, wherein 70 per cent of the pro-duced vaccine doses are reserved for cap-tive consumption of a producing/spon-soring nation and 30 per cent of thedoses can be allocated to global healthorganisations like the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) for equitableaccess to vulnerable populations of theworld.

Customised strategies for using theavailable vaccine may be deployed in dif-ferent countries when the vaccine firstbecomes available in limited quantities.These strategies may depend on theprevalence of the virus, the degree towhich testing can identify all infectedpeople and how the infected patients aregeographically distributed. Public healthleaders can integrate key lessons on allo-cation and distribution from previousexperiences with H1N1 flu, polio andsmallpox vaccination efforts.

For such strategies to be implement-ed, a global coordination mechanismmay be devised with global health gov-ernance bodies like the WHO, Coalitionfor Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI), Global Fund, Gavi, representa-tives of the respective health ministriesand the private sector. This will not onlyresult in effective and equitable distrib-ution of vaccines globally but will alsoresult in optimising the return oninvestments on vaccine development,which till now, remains uncertain.

The strategy may also rest on wherethe dire need is. This will keep thehumane angle alive with the trust of aglobal approach while satisfying localneeds.

(Bhaskar is Registrar and Suri isCEO-Office of Connectivity, RegionalCentre for Biotechnology)

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singhrecently spoke to his Israelicounterpart over telephone

and strengthening bilateral defence tieswas the focus of the conversation. BothMinisters expressed satisfaction atthe progress of strategic cooperationbetween the two countries and dis-cussed possibilities of further strength-ening defence engagements.

Narendra Modi had visited Israelin July 2017 and was the first-everIndian Prime Minister to do so. Indo-Israeli relations have witnessed asharp upswing since the present

Government came to power andthere has been an unprecedentedlevel of bilateral visits by seniorMinisters from India to Israel and vice-versa. India is now the largest purchas-er of Israeli military equipment.

The Israel–Palestine conflict is anunresolved one, dating from the endof World War-I. Palestine was a partof the Ottoman Empire and duringWorld War-I, the Ottoman Empiresided with Germany and was defeat-ed. It was then dissolved. Its succes-sor, the Republic of Turkey, transferredPalestine to the British Empire. In1917, British Foreign Minister ArthurBalfour issued what is known as theBalfour Declaration for the establish-ment in Palestine of a national homefor the Jewish people. In 1947, theUnited Nations General Assembly(UNGA) approved a plan to partitionPalestinian land and proposed aJewish State and an Arab State on it.The Arab State of Palestine includedthe West Bank, East Jerusalem, the

Gaza Strip and some other territories.The Jewish State of Israel was estab-lished in 1948 and several warsbetween the Israelis and the Arabs fol-lowed.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote then,“The cry for a national home for theJews does not make much appeal tome. Why should they not, like otherpeoples on Earth, make that countrytheir home where they are born andwhere they earn their livelihood?Palestine belongs to the Arabs in thesame sense that England belongs to theEnglish or France to the French. It iswrong and inhuman to impose theJews on the Arabs. What is going onin Palestine today cannot be justifiedby any moral code of conduct. Surelyit would be a crime against humani-ty to reduce the proud Arabs so thatPalestine can be delivered to the Jewspartly or wholly as their nationalhome. The nobler course would be toinsist on a just treatment of the Jewswherever they are born and bred. The

Jews born in France are French in pre-cisely the same sense that Christiansand Hindus born in France areFrench.”

It has been more than 50 yearssince Israel annexed the Palestinianterritories of West Bank, EastJerusalem and Gaza Strip following thesix-day Arab–Israel war of June 1967.Thereafter, Israel tightened its holdover these territories, crushedPalestinian resistance and createdhundreds of thousands of refugees.

The United Nations SecurityCouncil (UNSC) has condemnedrepeatedly Israeli depredations in theoccupied territories. Last year, a UNSCresolution directed Israel to immedi-ately and completely cease all settle-ments in the occupied territories,including East Jerusalem. AmnestyInternational has held Israel guilty ofwar crimes and demolition of homes.

India was the first non-Arabcountry to recognise the PalestinianLiberation Organisation (PLO) as the

sole legitimate representative of thePalestinian people. A PLO office wasset up in New Delhi in 1975 and fulldiplomatic relations were establishedin 1980. In 1991, during my tenure inthe Ministry of External Affairs, I wasasked by Prime Minister NarasimhaRao to ensure the establishment ofdiplomatic relations with Israel so thatIndia could assist the Palestiniancause in a more efficient manner.

I met with the PLO ChairmanYasser Arafat at his headquarters inTunis. Arafat told me that he was con-fident that India would not vacillate onits commitment to the legitimatedemand for an independent Palestineand that he had no objection if weestablished diplomatic relations withIsrael. I then held a meeting with theIsraeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peresat the UN in New York and diplomat-ic relations with Israel followed. Indiacontinued its unstinted support to thePalestinian people in their quest for astrong and viable State and provided

material as well as technical supportto the Palestinian Government in theirefforts at nation-building.

At present, most countries of theworld recognise the State of Palestinewith the exception of the US and someof its Western allies. Even in the West,support for the Palestinian cause isincreasing. It is ironical that while theWest, the architect of the Palestinianplight, is finally trying to reach out tothe Palestinians, India, the old sup-porter, has almost vanished from thescene.

The international community hasbeen closely observing the growingdefence and strategic cooperationbetween India and Israel, since the pre-sent Government assumed office.Israel has in the last couple of yearsprovided the Indian armed forces withradar and border monitoring systems.Israeli companies have been makingmillions of dollars upgrading MiG-21sand other Soviet-era aircraft. Theyhave recently bagged a contract to pro-

vide the avionics for the Indian AirForce MiG-27s.

For the first time, in 2015, Indiaabstained on a United Nations HumanRights Council resolution calling fora probe by the International CriminalCourt into war crimes by Israel. It con-tinued to abstain on this resolution in2016 and thereafter. Israel ought tocomply with international law and theUN resolutions and vacate the occu-pied Palestinian territories. All futureagreements between India and Israelshould explicitly exclude Jewish settle-ments in the occupied territories.

The relationship between Indiaand Israel should be sustained but notat the expense of our traditional loy-alty to the Palestinian cause. Indiashould not dither on its long-standingand unequivocal support to the strug-gle of the Palestinian people fornational liberation and for an indepen-dent State.

(The writer is a former UnionMinister)

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London: The UK governmenton Friday won permission toappeal against a court rulingallowing London-born ISISbride Shamima Begum to returnto Britain to challenge strippingof her British citizenship.

Bangladeshi-origin Begum,now 20, was one of threeschoolgirls who fled London tojoin ISIS in Syria in 2015.

The UK Court of Appealruled that the case must goahead to the Supreme Courtbefore she is allowed back intothe country because the caseraised a point of law of publicimportance that only the high-est court can resolve.

Sir James Eadie, represent-ing the Home Office, told thecourt there was a “big issue atstake” in the case, to decidewhat should happen whensomeone cannot have a fair

appeal over being stripped oftheir citizenship as a “result ofgoing abroad and aligning withterrorist groups”.

He said it was “an issue ofreal pressing public impor-tance” which was “perhaps thecentral democratic issue of ourtimes”. Lady Justice King, thehead of the panel of threejudges at the UK Court ofAppeal, which includes Indian-origin Lord Justice RabinderSingh, allowed the permissionto appeal and also said that theyare separately referring ‘TheSun’ newspaper to the AttorneyGeneral because of a potentialcontempt of court in publishinga story about the previous HighCourt judgment in the case ear-lier this month, allowingBegum re-entry for her legalfight in the UK, before it wasannounced in court. PTI

Tehran: Iran’s Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei saidFriday his country will notnegotiate with the United Statesbecause America would onlyuse talks for propaganda pur-poses.

The Trump administra-tion has said it is willing to talkwith Iran “with no precondi-tions,” but that the U.S. Willcontinue its campaign of pres-sure against the IslamicRepublic.

In a televised speech mark-ing the Eid al-Adha holiday,Khamenei said PresidentDonald Trump would benefitfrom talks, saying Trump wantsto “use negotiations with us forpropaganda like negotiationswith North Korea.” Khameneiwas referring to talks betweenTrump and North Koreanleader Kim Jong un.

Trump unilaterally with-drew America from the nuclearaccord between Iran andWestern powers in May 2018.Iran later responded by slowly

abandoning nearly every aspectof the agreement, though it stillallows UN inspectors access toits nuclear sites.

Trump has maintained thatthe deal needs to be renegoti-ated because it didn’t addressIran’s ballistic missile pro-gramme or its involvement inregional conflicts. The othersignatories to the nuclear deal— Germany, France, Britain,China and Russia — have beenstruggling to keep it alive.

Khamenei said the USwants Iran to give up its nuclearprogramme, defence facilitiesand regional authority at the

negotiating table.He said economic sanc-

tions imposed on Iran by theUS are a crime against Iran.“The sanctions are apparentlyagainst Iran’s ruling system, but(in fact) they are against theIranian people inside.”

He said Iranians sufferingunder the sanctions affectingthe economy inevitably wouldstand up against the ruling sys-tem.

A sharp rise in subsidisedgasoline prices led to four daysof unrest in cities and townsacross Iran in November, inwhich Amnesty Internationalsaid more than 300 peoplewere killed in clashes withpolice and security forces.

Tehran has yet to releaseany official statistics about thescale of the unrest, though inJune the government acknowl-edged that security forces shotand killed protesters. A law-maker said 230 people werekilled in the anti-governmentprotests. AP

Kathmandu: Nepal PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli hascommitted three “mistakes”with his recent “undiplomatic”and “irritating” anti-India state-ments, a senior leader of theruling communist party hassaid, amidst mounting pressureon the embattled premier whois facing calls for resignation.

Last month, prime ministerOli alleged that India was con-spiring with his political rivalsto throw him out of power. Hisremark came over a week afterNepal approved a bill to redrawthe country’s map demarcatingthe Lipulekh mountain pass,Kalapani and Limpiyadhura –the area at the centre of the dis-pute between India and Nepal– under its territory.

The embattled prime min-ister stoked another contro-versy this month by claimingthat the “real” Ayodhya lies notin India but in Nepal and that

Lord Ram was born in Thori insouthern Nepal.

Reacting to Oli’s remarks,Spokesperson of CommunistParty of Nepal (CPN) andmember of the powerfulCentral Secretariat NarayankajiShrestha described the primeminister’s statements as“undiplomatic.

“Prime Minister KPSharma Oli has committed ablunder by making irritatingremarks against India, at atime when there is a need forresolving the border issuethrough dialogue(with thesouthern neighbour,” he said.

“It was a mistake on the part of Prime Minister Oli to make irritating remarks by mentioning India’snational symbol while claimingthe disputed lands of Kalapaniand Lipulekh,” the spokesper-son told Himalayan TV in aninterview. PTI

Washington: Donald Trumphas quickly taken back his sug-gestion to delay November’spresidential election overalleged fraud concerns afterhe failed to garner supportfrom top Republicans.

Seeking a second consecu-tive term, Trump is facing a for-midable challenge fromDemocratic nominee and for-mer vice president Joe Biden,who, according to majornational opinion polls, has dou-ble digit lead over theRepublican president.

The presidential electiondate in the US statutorily is setas “the Tuesday next after thefirst Monday in the month ofNovember” equalling “the firstTuesday after November 1”.

Trump on Thursday for thefirst time openly floated theidea of postponing the presi-dential elections on November3, citing irregularities in themail-in vote. The suggestionwas immediately criticised byleaders of the oppositionDemocratic Party. He also failedto garner support from hisown Republican Party.

Later in the day, Trumpwalked back on his suggestion.

“I don’t want to delay. Iwant to have the election. ButI also don’t want to have to waitfor three months and then findout that the ballots are all miss-ing and the election doesn’t

mean anything,” Trump toldreporters at a news conferencewhen asked about his tweetsuggesting election be delayed.

“With Universal Mail-InVoting (not Absentee Voting,which is good), 2020 will be themost INACCURATE &FRAUDULENT Election inhistory.

It will be a great embar-rassment to the USA. Delay theElection until people can prop-erly, securely and safelyvote???” he tweeted onThursday morning. Reactingto Trump’s suggestion, SenateJudiciary Chairman LindseyGraham, a South CarolinaRepublican and Trump ally,told CNN when asked aboutthe President’s call to delay theelection: “I don’t think that’s aparticularly good idea.”

Graham said he believedTrump’s “concerns about mail-

in voting are valid, but delayingthe election is not the rightanswer.” Majority Whip SenatorJohn Thune, a member ofRepublican leadership, said thatthere will be an election inNovember despite thePresident’s tweet.

“I think that’s probably astatement that gets some pressattention, but I doubt it gets anyserious traction,” he said.

“I think we’ve had electionsevery November since about1788, and I expect that will bethe case again this year,” he said.

“We’ve had elections dur-ing wars. We’ve had electionsduring depressions. We’ve hadelections during civil unrest,”Republican Senator LamarAlexander of Tennessee toldreporters. “We should haveour election when it’s sched-uled in November, and I’msure we will.” PTI

Hong Kong: Hong Kong leaderCarrie Lam announced onFriday that the governmentwill postpone highly anticipat-ed legislative elections by oneyear, citing a worsening coro-navirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The Hong Kong govern-ment is invoking an emer-gency ordinance in delaying theelections. Lam said the gov-ernment has the support of theChinese government in makingthe decision.

“The announcement I haveto make today is the most dif-ficult decision I’ve had to make

in the past seven months,”Lam said at a news conference.

“We want to ensure fair-ness and public safety andhealth, and need to make surethe election is held in an open,fair and impartial manner. Thisdecision is therefore essential,”she said.

The postponement is a set-back for the pro-democracyopposition, which was hopingto capitalize on disenchantmentwith the current pro-Beijingmajority to make gains.

A group of 22 lawmakersissued a statement ahead of theannouncement accusing the

government of using the out-break as an excuse to delay thevote.

“Incumbent pro-democra-cy legislators, who represent60% of the public’s opinion, col-lectively oppose the postpone-ment and emphasize theresponsibility of the SAR gov-ernment to make every effortto arrange adequate anti-epi-demic measures to hold elec-tions in September as sched-uled,” the statement said, refer-ring to the territory’s officialname, the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region.

“Otherwise, it is tanta-

mount to uprooting the foun-dation of the establishment ofthe SAR.” The city of 7.5 mil-lion people has had a surge incoronavirus infections sincethe beginning of July. HongKong has recorded 3,273 infec-tions as of Friday, more thandouble the tally on July 1.

The government has tight-ened social distancing restric-tions, limiting public gatheringsto two people, and banned din-ing-in at restaurants after 6 pm.

The lead-up to the elec-tions has been closely watched,after a national security law thattook effect in late June stipu-

lated that candidates who vio-lated the law would be barredfrom running.

The new law is seen asBeijing’s attempt to curb dissentin the city, after months of pro-democracy and anti-govern-ment protests in Hong Konglast year.

On Thursday, 12 pro-democracy candidates includ-ing prominent pro-democracyactivist Joshua Wong were dis-qualified from running for notcomplying with the city’s mini-constitution or pledging alle-giance to the local and nation-al governments. AP

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Kabul: Afghan President AshrafGhani dashed hopes on Fridayfor a start to negotiations withTaliban insurgents, announcingthe final 400 Taliban prisonerswhose release is a prerequisiteto start talks, will remain jailed. The announcement frustrates US efforts to find anend to Afghanistan’s years ofrelentless war.

Addressing the nation onthe Muslim holy day of Eid ulAdha, Ghani said the 400Taliban are convicted of crimeshe has no authority to forgive.Instead, he will call a loya jirga— or traditional grand councilof elders — to decide whetherthey should go free.

He said the council wouldmeet “shortly.” Ghani’sannouncement was certain todelay the start of negotiationsbetween the warring sides andfrustrate Washington’s efforts tobring an early end to hostilities,even as they scale down theirpresence in Afghanistan. It alsocomes at the start of a three-daycease-fire announced by theTaliban for the Eid holidays.

The prisoner releases werepart of a deal the US signed inFebruary with the Talibanaimed at ending Afghanistan’sendless wars and sending UStroops home after nearly 20years in Afghanistan, endingAmerica’s longest war. AP

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Quetta (Pakistan): Pakistanfired a barrage of rockets acrossits southwestern border killingnine people and wounding 50 inan Afghan border town, Afghanofficials said Friday.

The exchange of fire that ledto casualties in the town ofSpinboldak was instigated byAfghan border guards, Pakistansecurity officials said.

It was the latest cross-bor-der exchange between the twocountries. Earlier this month,Pakistan fired rockets intoAfghanistan’s northeastern

Kunar province killing threepeople. Cross-border exchangeshave increased since Pakistanbegan raising a fence along its2,500-kilometer (1,500-mile)border with Afghanistan knownas the Durand Line. Pakistanconsiders the colonial-era divi-sion created in 1893 as an inter-national border, whileAfghanistan flatly rejects it.

Pakistan began buildingthe fence in 2017 and since thenthe two sides have routinelyexchanged fire.

Pakistan says it needs the

fence to block militants fromcrossing. Both Pakistan andAfghanistan accuse the other ofharboring their enemies.

Pakistan has been widelyaccused by Kabul and the US ofproviding safe haven to Talibaninsurgents, while Islamabadsays insurgents have found asanctuary in Afghanistan’ssouthern Kandahar.

Those include theBaluchistan Liberation Army,who attacked the StockExchange building in southernKarachi on June 29. AP

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Washington: Dr Anthony Faucisays 250,000 people have reg-istered on a National Institutesof Heath website to take part inexperimental vaccine trials.

The study of the first vac-cine involving 30,000 peoplebegan this week. The US gov-ernment plans to launch stud-ies of additional vaccines everymonth through the fall.

Trials are pivotal for estab-lishing the safety and effective-ness of the vaccines. Not allpatients who volunteer for clin-

ical trials are eligible to partic-ipate.

Fauci is testifying beforeHouse lawmakers on the federalresponse to the pandemic,alongside the head of theCenters for Disease Control andPrevention and the govern-ment’s testing czar.

With hospitalisations anddeaths on the rise, Fauci saysAmericans most again embracepublic health basics such associal distancing and maskwearing. AP

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The European Union hasimposed its first-ever sanc-

tions over cyberattacks, slap-ping them on alleged Russianmilitary agents, Chinese cyberspies and organisations includ-ing a North Korean firm.

The six people and threegroups hit with sanctionsinclude Russia’s GRU militaryintelligence agency. EU head-quarters blamed them in astatement for the 2017“WannaCry” ransomware and“NotPetya” malware attacksand the “Cloud Hopper”cyberespionage campaign.

EU foreign policy chief

Josep Borrell said on Thursdaythe sanctions “are a travel banand asset freeze to natural per-sons and an asset freeze to enti-ties or bodies. It is also pro-hibited to directly or indirect-ly make funds available to list-ed individuals and entities orbodies.”

Four Russians identifiedas GRU members were accusedof trying to hack the Wi-Fi net-work of the Netherlands-basedOrganisation for theProhibition of ChemicalWeapons, or OPCW, whichhas probed the use of chemicalweapons in Syria. The 2018attack was foiled by Dutchauthorities.

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Chhattisgarh:Union Ministerof Coal and Mines Shri PralhadJoshi on Friday said that CoalMinistry has accepted the sug-gestion of Chhattisgarh gov-ernment to replace 05 minesout 09 mines put under com-mercial coal auctions in thestate. In addition, 03 new mineswill be added for commercialauction on the suggestion ofChhattisgarh government.Now, total number of minesput on auction in the state forcommercial mining shall be 07while the overall reserve of thecoal of all auctioned mines shallremain almost same. Shri Joshiwas interacting with mediaafter meeting with the stateChief Minister (CM) ShriBhupesh Baghel in Raipur dur-

ing his visit to Chhattisgarh.“The meeting was very

positive, progressive and openminded. We have discussedvarious issues related to coalmining in the state. Hon’bleChief Minister has also givensome good suggestions onDMF and NMET on which wewill consider positively.” Shri

Joshi Said after meeting withthe CM. During the meetingwith CM, it was also decided toget a proposal by a committeecomprising of CIL,Chhattisgarh government andMAHAGENCO officials in 15days for shifting of a railwayline of Chhattisgarh EastRailway Limited (CERL).

Mumbai: Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC),India’s largest life insurer, hasannounced its audited figuresfor the year ended March 2020.

New Business performanceby the Corporation for theyear ending March 2020 hasshown a growth of 25.17 % inits first year premium by post-ing a highest ever figure of �1,77,977.07 cr. Pension &Group SuperannuationBusiness created history, cross-ing one lac crore and collected�1,26,696.21 cr as NewBusiness Premium Income asagainst �90848.86 cr in theprevious year correspondingperiod showing a growth of39.46%. The Corporation as atMarch end 2020 collected�3,79,062.56 cr of TotalPremium Income as compared

to �3,37,185.40 cr collectedduring the corresponding peri-od last year showing a veryrobust growth of 12.42%.Totalpolicy payouts amounted to�2,54,222.27 cr for the periodending 31.3.2020 as comparedto �2,50,936.23 cr for the cor-responding period last year,showing an increase of 1.31%.The Corporations Gross TotalIncome grew to �6, 15,882.94cr for the period ending31.3.2020 from �5, 60,784.39 cras at the last correspondingperiod, showing a handsomegrowth of over 9.83 %.TotalAssets of the Corporation stoodat Rs 31,96,214.81 cr as com-pared to �31,11,847.28 cr forthe corresponding period lastyear thus posting a growth ofover 2.71%. IANS

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The country’s largest lenderState Bank of India report-

ed 81 per cent jump in its prof-it after tax to �4,189 crore forthe first quarter ended June 30,as against �2,312 crore in theyear-ago period.

The rise in profit was onaccount of one-off gains of �1,539.73 crore on sale of certainportion of investment in thelender’s life insurance sub-sidiary - SBI Life.

With this, the bank nowholds 55.50 per cent in its lifeinsurance arm, down from57.60 per cent earlier.

“In the third successivequarter, SBI has delivered astrong performance. The netprofit as compared to the cor-

responding period of last yearhas gone up by 81 per cent.

“It is safe to presume thatwe are asymptomatic and thatis not a guarantee of what willhappen in the future like anyother individual,” its chairmanRajnish Kumar told reporterson Friday.

The profit was also helpedby a healthy 16.14 per centgrowth in its net interestincome at �26,642 crore duringthe quarter.

Domestic net interest mar-gin (NIM) improved to 3.24per cent, registering an increaseof 23 bps year-on-year.

Gross non-performingassets (NPAs) stood at 5.44 percent as against 7.53 per cent.Net NPAs were at 1.86 per centcompared to 3.07 per cent.

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The RBI has told theSupreme Court it has not

granted permission toWhatsApp to go live for fullscale operations on the UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI) pay-ment system.

The central bank, in itscounter-affidavit, said: “ReserveBank had examined the saidreports and the responses of theNPCI (National PaymentsCorporation of India) and wasconcerned that WhatsApp wasstoring some payment dataelements outside India beyondthe permitted timelines indi-cated in the circular and theFrequently Asked Questions on‘Storage of Payment System

Data’ issued by RBI on June 26,2019.””It is specifically deniedthat the RBI has granted per-mission to WhatsApp to go livefor full scale operations on theUnified Payments Interfacepayment system.”

The RBI also denied that itscircular on April 6, 2018 on“Storage of Payment SystemData” has been toned down byFAQs issued on June 26, 2019.“It is submitted that PaymentSystem Operators (PSOs) hadsought clarification on certainimplementation issues, fromtime to time, from ReserveBank and the FAQs are intend-ed to provide clarity on thoseissues to facilitate and ensureexpeditious compliance by allPSOs,” said the affidavit.

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Retail inflation for industri-al workers eased to 5.06 per

cent in June this year from 8.59per cent in the same month of2019, mainly due to lowerprices of certain food items andkerosene oil.

It was recorded at 5.10 percent in May 2020,” a labourMinistry statement said.

Food inflation stood at5.49 per cent in June 2020 asagainst 5.88 per cent in the pre-vious month and 5.47 per centduring the correspondingmonth a year ago. Retail infla-tion for industrial workersmeasured in terms ofConsumer Price Index forIndustrial Workers (CPI-IW)for June 2020 increased by 2points and stood at 332.

Labour Minister SantoshGangwar said, “The All-IndiaIndex for June 2020 stood at332 with a rise of two pointscompared to previous month.However, rate of annual infla-tion moderated to 5.06 per centfrom 5.10 percent in the pre-vious month and 8.59 per centin the month a year before.”

This index is utilised pri-marily for measuring DearnessAllowance (DA) payable toworkers in the organised sec-tor including PSUs, banks andinsurance companies besidesGovernment employees, theMinister added stressing uponthe importance of the CPI-IW.

The maximum upwardpressure in current index camefrom food group contributing(+) 1.65 percentage points tothe total change.

At item level, rice, ground-nut oil, fish fresh, goat meat,poultry (chicken), milk (buf-falo), brinjal, cauliflower, greencoriander leaves, potato, toma-to, refined liquor, cooking gas,petrol, etc, are responsible forthe increase in index.

However, this increasewas checked by wheat atta,arhar dal, garlic, onion, arum,coconut, lady finger, lemon,mango, kerosene oil, etc,putting downward pressure onthe index. At centre level, Jhariarecorded the maximumincrease of 9 points. Amongothers, 8 points increase wasobserved in 3 centres, 7 pointsin 2 centres, 6 points in 3 cen-tres, 5 points in 7 centres, 4points in 12 centres, 3 points in7 centres, 2 points in 10 centresand 1 point in 12 centres.

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Equity benchmarks nursedlosses for the third session

on the trot on Friday, weighedby profit-booking in marketheavyweight RelianceIndustries amid weak globalcues.

The BSE Sensex ended129.18 points or 0.34 per centlower at 37,606.89 after a chop-py session. Similarly, the NSENifty fell 28.70 points or 0.26per cent to finish at 11,073.45.

During the week, theSensex fell 522.01 points or 1.36per cent, while the Niftydeclined 120.70 points or 1.07per cent. Reliance Industrieswas the top loser on the Sensexchart in Friday’s session, shed-ding 1.98 per cent, as investorsbegan booking profits at high-er levels.

The company onThursday reported a record net

profit of �13,248 crore for theJune quarter after a one-timegain from stake sale as well asbumper telecom revenuescushioned Covid-19 hit earn-ings from refining, petchemand retail segments.

HDFC Bank, HDFC, AsianPaints, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Autoand UltraTech Cement wereamong the other laggards.

On the other hand, SunPharma, SBI, HCL Tech, M&Mand Axis Bank finished amongthe gainers, spurting up to4.27 per cent. Shares of SBIsurged 2.63 per cent after thelender posted an 81 per centspike in standalone net profit atRs 4,189.34 crore for the firstquarter of the current fiscal.

According to traders,domestic equities traded on avolatile note, tracking weakglobal cues after data showedthat the US GDP plunged by arecord-shattering 32.9 per cent

annual rate last quarter due tothe Covid-19 crisis. Bourses inHong Kong, Tokyo and Seoulsettled in the red, whileShanghai finished with gains.

Stock exchanges in Europewere trading with marginalgains in early deals.

“Following one of theworst quarterly US GDP data,Asian shares closed in the neg-ative while European marketswere also trading flat.

In India, the uncertaintywas visible as profit bookingand post-earnings results per-formance of index heavy-weights, impacted the bench-mark indices.

“On a weekly basis, theindices closed with slight loss-es following a results-heavyweek and stock specific actionin the benchmark indices whileat the same time virus infec-tions continued to increase,”said

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Indian Oil Corporation Ltd(IOC), the nation’s biggest oil

firm, on Friday reported a 47per cent drop in its June quar-ter net profit as coronaviruspandemic pummelled fueldemand and shrank refinerymargins.

Standalone net profit inApril-June at �1,910.84 crore,or �2.08 per share, was 46.8 percent lower than �3,596.

11 crore, or �3.92 a share,net profit in the same periodof the last financial year,IOC Chairman ShrikantMadhav Vaidya toldreporters here.

“The variation in net prof-it is primarily due to invento-ry losses,” he said.

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Contracting for the fourthconsecutive month, the

output of eight core infra-structure industries shrank by15 per cent in June due to fallin the production of coal, crudeoil, natural gas, steel, cementand electricity.

The eight core sectors hadexpanded by 1.2% in June2019, data released by theCommerce and IndustryMinistry on Friday showed.

Barring fertiliser, all sevensectors - coal, crude oil, natur-al gas, refinery products, steel,cement, and electricity - hadrecorded negative growth inMay.The output of coal, crudeoil, natural gas, refinery prod-ucts, steel, cement and elec-tricity declined by 15.5%, 6%,12 %, 8.9%, 33.8 per cent, 6.9%, and 11%, respectively.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday said

the Government is workingwith the RBI on need forrestructuring of loans to helpindustry tide over the impact ofCovid-19. “The focus is onrestructuring. Finance min-istry is actively engaged withRBI on this. In principle, theidea that there may be arestructuring required, is welltaken,” Sitharaman said whileaddressing Ficci’s NationalExecutive Committee Meeting.

The Finance minister alsosaid that the decision on reduc-ing GST rates on the healthcareand other products will betaken by the GST Council.

Sitharaman said theFinance Ministry is workingwith RBI on the demand of thehospitality sector for extensionof moratorium, or restructur-ing.

“I fully understand therequirements of the hospitali-ty sector on extension of themoratorium, or restructuring.We are working with RBI onthis,” she said.

To help borrowers dealwith liquidity crunch duringthe pandemic, the ReserveBank had announced a three-month loan moratorium inMarch, which was later extend-ed by another three months tillAugust 31. Borrowers optingfor loan moratorium can deferpayment of the interest andprincipal component of theloan during this period.

Sitharaman said every stepwhich the government took,has been done after exhaustiveconsultations with the stake-holders and within the gov-ernment.

“We have taken these stepsto ensure that the impact is felton the ground,” she said.

Addressing the concerns overthe difficulties faced by theMSMEs in taking loans underthe Emergency CreditGuarantee Scheme announcedby the government, she said:“Banks cannot refuse credit toMSMEs covered under emer-gency credit facility. If refused,such instances must be report-ed. I will look into it”.

As of July 23, 2020, thetotal amount sanctioned underthe 100 per cent EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Schemeby public sector banks and pri-vate banks stands at�1,30,491.79 crore, of which�82,065.01 crore has alreadybeen disbursed.

As part of theAatmanirbhar Bharat Package,the Government hadannounced �3 lakh croreCollateral-free AutomaticLoans for businesses, includingMSMEs.

On the suggestion for cre-ation of a DevelopmentFinance Institution to handlethe emerging credit require-ments of the industry, shesaid, “The work is going on theDevelopment FinanceInstitution. What shape it willtake, we will know shortly”.The minister also said thatIndia is asking for reciprocalarrangements are being askedwith the countries with whichwe have opened up our mar-kets.

“Reciprocity is a very crit-ical point in our trade negoti-ations,” she added.

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We have seen Bollywoodpairing up opposites,who, despite different

life struggles and aspirations, endup falling for each other.However, how often have thosebeen united by music? DirectorAnand Tiwari’s forthcoming webseries, Bandish Bandits, is onesuch example. Through twoyoungsters, Radhe (played byRitwik Bhowmik), an aspiringHindustani classical singer fromthe Rathod gharana of Jodhpur,and Tamanna (played by ShreyaChaudhry), a pop sensationfrom Mumbai, he aims to createa fusion of two music genres andbring people from two differentcities who find their way intolove.

Excerpts:

� Opposites attract. This hasbeen a common leitmotif forlove stories in films. BandishBandits brings musical oppo-sites together to form a fusion.How did you conceptualisethis?

The best stories happenwhen opposites attract even inreal life. We wanted to have twoyoung Indians from two com-pletely different backgroundsinteract with each other and fallin love because those parts willeventually lead to a great story.That is why we chose a classicalmusic background for Radhe inRajasthan and made Tamanna asinging sensation from the urbangeneration on YouTube. We didhave to do serious research onmusic though.

� Music has been used as abackdrop to bring two peoplecloser in many films. How doyou think this one is different?

Well, this is different becauseit involves generation Z, which

has never been represented likethis. We generally see love storiesinterwoven with internal con-flicts, not external ones. In thisseries, they are actually goingahead with their ambitions,which, in turn, are going toclash. We have 10 parts to theseries and each will map the tra-jectory of each character in farmore detail than any film.

� What does the title BandishBandits signify? Is there any

underlying theme of robberyyou want to highlight?

The title signifies the bandthat Tamanna and Radhe — thetwo protagonists — create.Bandish, which comes from thetraditional musical gharanas, isa fixed, melodic composition inHindustani vocal or instrumen-tal music. Bandish in Urdu alsomeans shackles (rukawat) orchains and restrictions. Andbandits are dacoits, the outlaws— the people who don’t follow

the norms. Hence, as per the title,these two kinds of people aregoing to make their band, differ-ent from anything else that isaround them.

� How challenging was it tocreate 10 episodes solely aroundmusic and combine it withdrama in order to sustain thestoryline?

It was very challenging forthe writers. They had to take a lotof time to make sure that theyfound their balance. At no stage,could the music overpower thedrama and at no stage, could thedrama forget about the music.The world that we were creatingand representing had to haveboth the elements at an equallevel.

We had amazing peoplefrom the music industry helpingus, namely Shankar-Ehsaan-Loyand Akshat Parikh, the latter apractitioner of the Pandit Jasrajschool. All of them helped usgetting the music right while wewere making sure that the dramawas on point.

� Was this an attempt toemphasise the importance oftwo completely different musicgenres, especially among themillennials?

Well, these are actually GenZ, who are younger than the mil-lennials. I think India has alwaysbeen a country of different valuesystems. It develops in differentstages and at different places.These two people, too, representtwo parts of India with theirunique value systems, aspira-tions and ambitions. Radhe andTamanna are hence going to bevery standalone characters andalso relatable at the same timefor the young generation.

� Rock music is popularamong millennials. However,the classical music genre hasfewer followers...

We are not representingrock at all. Tamanna’s music ispop and Radhe’s music isHindustani classical. It’s a mis-nomer to think that Hindustaniclassical is traditional. It is time-less and that's the point wewanted to put across. Youngsterscan own Hindustani classicalmusic as much. It's Indian musicand once you start understand-ing it, you will start realising thatit’s very contemporary andyoung.

In the series, we have show-cased it in a traditional gharanaform. And Radhe will show youhow it can be so liberating foryoung singers and music loversas it would have been for some-body who would have beenborn in the 60s or the 70s oreven the 1800s. The reason whyclassical music has lasted forover 400-500 years or maybemore than that is because it hasalways remained contemporary.

� Looking at the currentchaotic times, when everythinghas been transitioning, includ-ing the music industry, do youthink the audience misses liveconcerts and gigs which mightnot find place in the nearfuture?

Well, who are we to predictthat first of all? Nobody can pre-dict anything. I think somethingwithout restrictions can only beimagined in a fictional worldnow because of what we aregoing through. I am sure in ourminds, we would like to live ina time in 2020 where there is noCoronavirus or a lockdown. SoI think, at least in fiction, we canpretend that and I think theaudience would like to pretendtoo. They also want it — toescape. Well, we hope BandishBandits gives them their kind ofescape to the world that we alllove and want to go back tosoon.

(The series can be streamedon Amazon Prime Video fromAugust 4.)

� How was your experience working onthe series How to Get Away With Murder?

I think it was a huge turning point inmy life to work for the show. Sometimespeople have to give you permission to seeyourself as better or more than what youare or what you think you are. This job gaveme permission to see all of my woman-hood. One needs to realise that my culturehas hugely dictated who I am — a dark-skinned, Black woman with dark lips anda nose and a deep voice. So what I’ve beentold all my life is what it means to be awoman.

So all of a sudden, Annalise Keating(her character) comes in like a whirlingdervish and she is all of it! She is messy,almost sociopathic, sexual, mysterious, andhighly intelligent. She’s a big personalityand she’s all of those adjectives that are notassociated to me in real life but I’ve got toplay her.

� Was the title How To Get Away withMurder since the beginning or did thatcome up later?

No, that came up later. Well, you knowwhat, my ego, I said that the title is goingto be the name of my character. And at thattime, my name was Annalise Dewitt (in theinitial Pilot script). I said I don’t seem likean Annalise Dewitt.

� This is going to be the final season.What are you going to miss? How doesit feel to reach the end of something beau-tiful?

I will miss Annalise Keating and I’llmiss the people I’ve worked with. I thinkthat the best part of what we do are therelationships. You remember thosebonds more than your work.

I’ll miss Annalise Keating becauseI don’t know if I’m going to meet some-one like her again. I think that being adark-skinned woman on a networkTV in a lead role is the one thatShonda Rhimes had redefinedand Annalise was exactly likethat — the leading lady. I willmiss that about her the most.

Nobody really understandsTV scheduling unless you’re init, especially being numberone. There’s a part of me thatsays, ‘Oh, great, I am done! Ihave time for getting my lifeback. I can spend time withmy daughter, my husbandand sleep more.’ And then theother part inside me just saysgoodbye to a show that has real-ly changed my career and alsoshifted the face of television. Ithink what I am the mostproud of is that my characterhas redefined womanhoodand how we see it onscreen. It has usually beenvery thin, white womenthat we see leading onscreen, of a certain age,but they had neverbeen in a body likemine. And why not?Sometimes culturecan inform the artand sometimes,art can informthe culture.

It hasbeen sixseasonsso youget achanceto say goodbye asopposed to it being just a

brook. And that’s always a great gift. Andnow that it has come, it sorts of creeps upon you. I thought I was ready for it. I don’tthink we’re ever ready for a goodbye, espe-cially when something has transformedyour life in such a beautiful way.

� What was the transition from stage tofilms like?

I always say that all you have to do ina film is to sustain a performance for 30seconds. When you’re on stage, you canhave a 12-page scene and there are no editbuttons. So it was much different. You ini-tially like, ‘But I am Viola Davis’, ‘I’m good.’But when you’re acting opposite to some-one like Meryl Streep (in the film Doubt),well it;s like you’re thinking, ‘Oh my god,it’s Meryl Streep!’ And then it goes like, ‘cut,cut!’

� Your Broadway debut was The SevenGuitars. How was your first experienceat Broadway?

When I think about everything Ibelieved an actor was — that was it. TheSeven Guitars. My mom and dad in theaudience and my dad crying. And I was like‘This is it, I have arrived!’

� What was your childhood like?Well, it was like everyone’s childhood

— filled with happy memories, playingwith my sister, bicycling around. But it wasalso filled with some darkness. When youare poor, you have bad housing. We livedin condemned buildings in Rohde Island.

And these were certainly the apart-ments infested with rats. The

stigma of poverty, the feelingof being invisible and thelack of access — all of thiscomes with it. Which is whyI talk about it all the time but

it gets uncomfortable forme, it really is. I start-

ed acting when Iwas eight. We

would writescripts and then

rewrite. Wewould evenh a v ew a r d r o b ebudgets.

� Do youh a v e

m o m e n t swhen you stop in

your life and lookback at the little girlfrom Rhode Islandand then look at yourpresent life and says,‘I don’t know how Igot here’?

(Laughs) Everysingle day! You knowwhen do I thinkabout that little girlthe most? I think ofher when I open myrefrigerator, flushmy toilet, put a robeon, lie in a tub ofhot running water.She is with meevery day tounderstand thatevery little thing inmy life is to be cel-ebrated.

(The sixth andfinal season of the

series will air inIndia on August 1 and 2, 7

pm onwards, on Star World.)

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If anything the pandemic hastaught us, it is how much weneed the outdoors. So why not

give unique species, animals andnature a chance because we existonly when these thrive? That’s anawareness that award-winningwildlife photographer and film-maker Amoghavarsha JS wants todevelop as he documents the world’sbiodiversity.

� What made you focus onwildlife and environment conser-vation?

Essentially, I have always lovedthe wildlife. And now more thanever, the kind of scenario we are in,it is very important to show the storythat we are lucky enough to witness.That hopefully would make usresponsible. I have always main-tained that wildlife conservation isnot about saving animals or the for-est, it is more about making surethat we as a species can survive andcreate a world which makes you feellike living.

� Which project has been yourfavourite over the years?

It’s hard to pick. But yes, myfocus is local. I chase stories basedon our own backyard, for which wehave some context, rather than theexotic with which it is difficult toestablish a connection. The audi-ence goes far away with these sto-ries in Africa and then comes backto reality, thinking it’s happeningin some other part of the world andnot here. Hence, all my projectsfocus more on local and relatablecontent. Some of the noteworthyprojects are the Indian WildlifeNational Anthem, then theaward-winning film called Kaliwhich follows the river and thejourney of a 100-year-old grand-mother to the source of the river.

� Could you share some steps forconservation?

Given the situation we arein, and this is what I keep say-

ing, India has a lot of biodi-versity. If we go as rampantas China, we will have apandemic every month.We need to protect theseforests to a certain extent.

There needs to be a com-bined responsibility of

humans towards nature andour planet. So more thanever, the argument of whywild animals need to be pro-tected and saved, the onlyexample I can give right nowis, in this situation, we have

almost everything we candream of. Everyone want-ed to not go out, not face

the traffic and weare all sitting at

home. Butgiven that

everyoneis getting

food, shelter, internet, televisionand not having to go out, we are nowcraving to go outdoors. And thisbrings the most essential point,that we as human species have aworld outdoors. And the betteroutdoor environment we have, itwill be good for us and for our plan-et. Another thing I want to add isthat we need to wake up and see thereality before things go bad.

� Considering that the Indianaudience has a completely differ-ent mindset, do you think docu-mentaries and topics like wildlifeconservation and environmentwork well with them?

It is a complex question. Somedocumentaries work, some don’t.Most often, we filmmakers are to beblamed because we try to make filmsso accurate and perfect that some-times the messaging doesn’t reach

the audience and that’s a failure onour part. So, we need to change theprofiles of films so that the audiencecan get the message and feels invest-ed in the story.

� What is of graver concern, lackof understanding or responsibili-ty?

I would say the first step isawareness. Without it, you cannottake any action. The best example isthat of plastic. Till it affected us andchoked our rivers and seas, theGovernment didn’t even think itwould have to ban it. And everyoneis conforming, too. I feel this is total-ly due to media awareness. So, themedia plays a very powerful role inbringing in awareness and respon-sibility.

� Who do you look up to in thefield of wildlife and conservation?

There is only one answer, thewildlife god — Sir DavidAttenborough. His voice is unbeliev-able and also the kind of person he is.I have met him and spent a couple ofhours with him. And I think he is anamazing human being, humble anddown to earth.

� What are your forthcoming pro-jects and plans?

I will make a short film on themonsoon in the Western Ghats ofKarnataka. I am also doing a bunchof things around Mumbai andBangalore. Hopefully, once the lock-down is eased, we can have a clear pic-ture.

� What would be your concerns forthe future?

In this situation, we have allunderstood that kids, or the next gen-eration, definitely have access to foodand occupation. But fresh air andwater are going to be a big crisis. AndI think it’s every individual’s respon-sibility to leave behind a planet for thenext generation in a condition wherepeople are still able to live and haveaccess to water and fresh air. AndCOVID has been an example topause and prioritise.

(The wildlife photographer andfilmmaker went live on Sony BBCEarth’s Instagram page along with actorRandeep Hooda on WorldConservation Day to discuss his views.)

� You have raised the bar inthe monster genre. Tell usabout it.

Dwayne Johnson: Yes, thiswas one of the goals. There havebeen some great monster filmsin the past but we tried todefined ourselves through thisgenre. In this sense, raising a baris just a narrow thing.

� How was it working withBrad Peyton?

Dwayne: We have a rela-tionship of buddies, friends,collaborators, business partnersand also children. We are twokids living their lives who don’ttake anything for granted.Whenever we get together, we’vebeen able to do pretty intenseand big action scenes. This iswhat fans can count of us as apair. We are also trying to dothings that push a level up theenvelope.

Naomi Harris: He has suchinfectious energy, passion andenthusiasm that it made me fallin love with the film more andmore. I was overwhelmed to bea part it.

� Tell us a little more aboutthe practical sets?

Dwayne: We built practicalsets everywhere we could pos-sibly and added a little bit ofgreen screen to help as a per-former. It wasn’t valuablebecause there is destruction,debris, twisted metal and con-crete everywhere. There weresmug machines. You are in thatfilm with this setting. I appreci-

ate that Brad and I have thisshorthand and we make surethat everything is just practicaland real as it could be, and weare not putting anybody in dan-ger.

Naomi: There were somany sets which blew my mind.I’ve never been in somethinglike a helicopter or a plane thathas been recreated, which can goup with hydraulics and tilt tosome angles. Then you arestrung up to the ceiling and fly-ing around that very plane.There were so many ‘pinchmyself ’ and ‘wow’ moments inthe film.

� Tell us about the script.Naomi: I absolutely loved it.

During the process, I just fell inlove with George, and howintelligent, rounded and strongKate is. You don’t get a lot offemale characters like that. So Iloved her and the whole journeythat they went on. Also, I thinkI got emotionally involved too.This was rare to have an actionfilm with so much heart. (Watch the film on Sony PIX onAugust 2 at 1 pm and 9 pm.)

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David Willey celebrated his returnto the England team with a maid-

en one-day international five-wickethaul as the world champions drew firstblood in the Royal London seriesagainst Ireland at the Ageas Bowl.

Willey was dropped fromEngland's World Cup squad last yearto make room for Jofra Archer, butwith several regulars absent due to theirtest commitments the left-armer tookcentre stage on his international return.

In England’s first home ODI sincewinning their first 50-over WorldCup, Willey’s 5-30 restricted Ireland to172 all out in 44.4 overs, a total thehosts overhauled with six wickets tospare.

England had lurched to 78-4 butSam Billings, included after Joe Denly’s

withdrawal due to a back injury, set-tled the team's nerves with a 67 not outoff 54 deliveries in an unbroken 96-run

stand with Eoin Morgan.England got over the line with 22.1

overs still remaining at the start of athree-ODI series that marks the startof the ICC Cricket World Cup SuperLeague, forming part of the qualifica-tion process for India 2023.

But, on a surface where timingproved troublesome for a number ofbatsmen, the day belonged to Willey,who was chiefly responsible for Irelandteetering on 28-5 after being invited tobat first under sunny skies.

After the players took a knee tosupport Black Lives Matter, Irelandwere saved from free fall by interna-tional debutant Curtis Campher, aSouth African-born all-rounder whoqualifies through his mother's passport.

The 21-year-old showed no lack ofpatience and fortitude in his 59 not outfrom 118 balls in front of the vastswathes of empty seats, before Willeyreturned to the attack and ended theinnings.

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David Willey had “fallenout of love for the game”

following his last-minute ousterfrom England's World Cupsquad but after announcing hiscomeback with a maiden five-wicket haul against Ireland, hesaid his best is still to come.

The 30-year-old pacer, whohas taken 57 wickets in 47ODIs, was ignored for theWorld Cup last year withEngland preferring JofraArcher over him. He was alsoleft out of the limited-overstours of New Zealand andSouth Africa last winter.

Willey said he was at hislowest during his stint at AbuDhabi T10.

“I just didn’t want to bethere. I didn't want to go to theground. When I was at the

ground, I didn't want to bethere, and I wanted to get backto the hotel. I'd fallen out oflove with the game, I think,” hewas quoted as saying byESPNcricinfo.

Willey said the coron-avirus-forced break actuallyhelped him as he made a suc-cessful return to guide Englandto a six-wicket win over Irelandin the first ODI on Thursday.

“It was just special to be outthere playing for Englandagain. I’ve gone away andworked quite hard to get backnear my best. It's been a roller-coaster, but I was just out thereenjoying my cricket today. I’mmoving in the right directionand I feel like my best cricketis still to come,” he said.

“Circumstances have givenme this opportunity. I didn’t geta look in over the winter, Imissed out there. The extend-ed break has been really goodfor me. The timing for all ofthis has worked out perfectlyfor me and it was the icing onthe cake.”

Willey said he tasted suc-cess for pitching the ball up.

"My success has comewhen I've pitched the ball uppreviously and really that waswhat I tried to do today. I keptthe ball full which kept me inthe game and I reaped therewards of that.”

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Ben Stokes’ intent of wanti-ng to be in the midst oftough situations makes

him a player that every captainwants in his team, said RajasthanRoyals skipper Steve Smith abouthis team’s premier all-rounder.

While Smith is sincerelyhoping that Stokes doesn't bringin his A game during Australia’swhite ball series in England, hewouldn’t mind one bit if Stokessaves his best in the Royals jer-sey during upcoming IPL in theUAE.

“It will be great to be able toplay some competitive cricketagainst a quality England sidewhich has few of my Royalsteammates (Jofra Archer, BenStokes and Jos Buttler).

“Hope they don’t score toomany runs or take too manywickets and can save that for theIPL,” Smith told PTI during thescreening three-part docu-series,Inside Story: A Season withRajasthan Royals.

The series has been pro-duced by Red Bull Media Houseand would be aired on Jio TVand Jio Cinemas.

Smith was all praise forStokes who has been in dreamform across formats in the pastyear.

“I have seen Stokes go fromstrength to strength. He had anincredible World Cup andrecently played in Test matches.He bowled beautifully and gotsome wickets as well,” Smith said.

“He is a player who wants tobe involved whether he is batting,bowling or fielding. He wants tobe in hotspots. You want theseplayers in team as they want todeliver in tough situations.”Australia will resume their inter-national calendar with a white-

ball series against England andSmith said that nothing betterthan getting to play some qual-ity cricket after nearly sevenmonths.

“It will be great being backto playing some cricket. Wehaven’t played a game sinceFebruary and like most of theworld, our country was alsoshutdown, had to find way to getthrough this Covid experiencewhich has been incredibly differ-

ent for everyone.”On a different note, Smith

admitted that staying in a bio-secure environment away from“loved ones” for extended peri-ods is difficult but people try tomake relationships work as it'sthe way of life for elite cricketers.

The IPL is expected to startfrom September 19 in the UAEand all teams will have to followthe protocols of a bio-secureenvironment which might force

cricketers to be away from wivesand partners for more than twomonths.

“It will be difficult for any-one to be away from their lovedones for extended periods oftime but you kind of get used toit playing international cricket,quite often staying apart for longtimes and trying to make itwork,” said Smith.

The biggest challenge forSmith is to get things in order

but on the other side, most ofthe players will be starting fromzero.

“People haven’t played anycricket or for that matter littlecricket so from that perspective,it will be an even contest.Everyone going in with samesort of preparation,” the formerAustralian skipper said.

Adapting to conditions inthe UAE will be key but Smithbelieves that it will be pretty sim-ilar to India.

“I think part of being a pro-fessional cricket player is beingable to adapt to conditions.Conditions in Dubai can be sim-ilar to India (in terms of heatand humidity).

“Couple of players haveexperienced playing before as theIPL was held (partially) in UAE(in 2014). Guys are going to bejumping out of skin to get backto playing some quality cricket.”

He sounded disappointedthat IPL is not happening inIndia but lauded the BCCI forbeing able to arrange a tourna-ment of this magnitude in anoverseas country.

“Obviously we would haveloved to have playing in India.Amazing what's going behindthe scenes to give everyone achance to play,” said the 31-year-old with nearly 12,000 interna-tional runs.

On the Red Bull produceddocu-series, Smith said it was adifferent experience with cam-eras following the players every-where.

“First time I have been indocumentary and being in twoat the same time was different.People following us left right andcentre with cameras which youare not used to. Meetings, film-ing every little step on the way.It’s done brilliantly,” he said.

��� )������

Skipper Azhar Ali said he is luckyto have young pacers like Shaheen

Afridi and Naseem Shah at his dis-posal and the right balance of expe-rience and youth in their pace unitwill hold Pakistan in good stead inthe Test series against England.

The three-Test series begins in abio-secure environment atManchester with the opening Test onAugust 5.

“The way Naseem and Shaheenhave bowled in recent Test series, Ias captain feel very lucky to havethem in my squad,” he said during apodcast organised by the PakistanCricket Board (PCB).

The 35-year-old said that theyoung pace bowlers in the extendedsquad are benefitting immenselyfrom the presence of experiencedpros like Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan,Muhammad Abbas and Imran Khan

in the squad.Experienced left-arm pacer

Muhammad Aamir has also nowjoined the squad in Derbyshire withanother young pacer Haris Rauf setto join the team after finally clearinghis COVID-19 tests.

“I am happy we have experiencedand young blood in our pace attackand then there is Yasir Shah a provenperformer in tests,” he said.

“The good thing is that playerslike Muhammad Abbas, Sohail Khan,Wahab are also on this tour and theyare also sharing their experience withthe youngsters. I think our bowlerswill get a lot of advantage.”

Azhar said Yasir’s presence wasa source of comfort for him as theexperienced leg-spinner has donewell in English conditions on his pasttours.

The senior batsman said theplayers were a bit rusty at the start oftheir training but have been makingsteady strides towards regaining theirform after coming out of quarantinein the first week of July.

“Because of coronavirus we havebeen in lockdown for quite some timeand it was a challenging experiencefor all of us but it helped us get ridof our rustiness and now the bowlersare also doing well and are in rhythm.The workload for the fast-bowlers hasbeen good,” he said.

“Our players seem to be in goodtouch. The balance of the side is alsovery good and the good thing is inthe past we have done well in Englandin Tests.”

��� ����1�������

Setting aside initial concernsover travelling amid the

COVID-19 pandemic, NewZealand spinner MitchellSantner says he will take shelterin a corner of the airport loungeas he flies out into the Caribbeanvia mainland America.

He is excited at the prospectof playing in the upcomingCaribbean Premier League andIPL after the long coronavirus-enforced break.

The 28-year-old, who lastplayed in an ODI series againstAustralia in March before thepandemic brought all sportingactivities to a grinding halt, willturn up for Barbados Tridentswhen the CPL begins on August18.

“It’s an interesting one. I’mgoing through America and I’llpark up in the (airport) loungein the corner somewhere. It'sone of the risks we've got tothink about,” Santner, who wasscheduled to fly out on Thursdaynight, told stuff.Co.Nz.

“They’ve put an extensivebooklet together about whathappens in each circumstancewhich has been good, and a bitof clarity around where we’restaying. It seems like they’ve gotit under control.

“At this stage, we'll just flystraight across (from theCaribbean). I'm not sure whatquarantine looks like yet, butthere are some other big dogslike Dwayne Bravo and Brendon

McCullum I can tag along with.”Santner, who has taken 52

wickets in 44 T20Is, will join hisNew Zealand colleagues KaneWilliamson, Trent Boult, LockieFerguson and Jimmy Neeshamin UAE for the IPL, which getsunderway on September 19,nine days after the end of CPL.

Santner is looking forwardto some competition after along hiatus due to the pandem-ic.

“I’m used to bowling in thenets to them and they’ve beenrunning down at every ball soit’d be nice to play some of theseguys on some spinning wicketsand see if they want to try thatagain,” said the left-handed spin-ner, who was bought by ChennaiSuper Kings in the 2018 IPL auc-tion.

“It’ll be exciting to playsome cricket again. It’s been aslow winter but good to be athome for a bit and train and doall the fitness work. Chris put usthrough the wringer the last sixweeks so it's nice to go away andnot see him for a few months.”

��� ��� ��

The Emirates Cricket Board is eager to fillup 30-50 per cent of the stadiums with spec-

tators when the IPL is held in the UAE provid-ed the government there approves, its secretaryMubashshir Usmani told PTI on Friday.

While announcing the dates of the IPL, itschairman Brijesh Patel had told PTI that thedecision on letting in fans during the September19-November 8 event will be taken by the UAEgovernment.

Having announced the dates, the BCCI toois awaiting the final approval from the Indiangovernment to host the IPL in the UAE.

“Once we get the confirmation from theBCCI (on Indian government’s approval), wewill go to our government with the completeproposal and SOPs which will be prepared byus and the BCCI,” said Usmani over phone.

“We will definitely want our people to expe-rience this prestigious event but it is totally thegovernment’s decision. For most events here,the number ranges from thirty to 50 percentcapacity, we are looking at a similar number.

“We are hopeful of getting our govern-ment’s approval on that,” he added.

The UAE has little over 6000 active casesof COVID-19 and the overall situation aroundthe pandemic is under control.

However, the 2020 Dubai Rugby Sevensevent, scheduled in November, has been can-celled for the first time sine 1970 due to thecoronavirus threat.

Usmani allayed concerns over the safety ofthe IPL.

"The UAE government has been very effi-cient in bringing down the case numbers. Weare almost living a normal life with certain rulesand protocols to be followed.

“And with the IPL still some time way, wewill be in an even better place than what it isright now.”

The IPL Governing Council will meet onSunday to finalise the logistics and SOP for theworld's biggest T20 league.

Usmani said the UAE is ready to host theevent and is only awaiting the Indian govern-ment's approval, "which should come through

soon”, going by what Patel said at the time ofannouncing the tournament dates.

“We are still waiting to hear from the BCCIon the Indian government's approval. Havingsaid that, we are ready,” Usmani said.

“We have plug and play facilities here andhave informed them (officials at Dubai, AbuDhabi and Sharjah stadiums) to be ready andthey are fully aware of it.”

Teams will be arriving in the UAE three-four weeks in advance for training.

Most players have not had proper trainingin India since the lockdown was enforced inMarch.

Asked if managing the training schedulesof eight teams will be a challenge, Usmani said:“UAE is blessed with the support of privateinfrastructure. We are able to deliver such eventsand have delivered before. Last year, we host-ed the T20 World Cup qualifier which had 14teams.”

The UAE had partially hosted the IPL in2014 due to the general elections in India.

“Last time also, it contributed significant-ly to the UAE economy. With the full tourna-ment taking place this time, it will be a muchbigger boost,” added Usmani.

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The national shooting federation has postponedthe compulsory training camp for its Olympic

core group planned here from Saturday after tak-ing into the account the situation arising out of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, a shooting coach at the camp'svenue -- Dr. Karni Singh Range -- tested positivefor COVID-19 but the development will not forcea closure of the facility. Delhi's COVID-19 casecount is over 1 lakh.

“The camp stands postponed at the moment.We are trying to work out a few things and by nextweek we hope to have a clearer picture,” NationalRifles Association of India (NRAI) secretaryRajiv Bhatia told PTI.

A handful of shooters, part of the core group,have been training at the facility since it wasreopened for use on July 8 and they are likely tocontinue with their daily practice by adhering tothe health and safety protocols.

But the latest development has come as a set-back to the NRAI’s quest to arrange the camp fromSaturday.

“Maybe we can start in the second week ofAugust depending on the situation,” Bhatia said.

Shooters such as World Cup medallist SanjeevRajput, Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala havebeen training at the facility for the last few daysalongside shotgun marksmen like Sheeraz Sheikhand Mairaj Ahmad Khan.

��� ��� ��

Former football captainBhaichung Bhutia once again

stressed on the need to focus ongrassroots development in order tomake a India a force to reckon withat the Asian level.

Bhutia explained that byfocussing on the long term goal ofstrengthening the grass roots,Indian football will be able reap itsbenefits at the Asian level and theworld stage.

“We need to produce goodquality players. That's very impor-tant, when I say that I don't meanwe don't have good players now. Butin order to compete in Asia and atthe world level we need to producebigger better players from the grass-roots,” Bhutia said during anInstagram live session with the AllIndian Football Federation (AIFF).

Hosting U-17 World Cup forboys was a step in right direction.

“Hosting the under-17 WordCup was a starting point for us. Itis important for our age group play-ers to participate in competitions,have good training facilities andcoaches,” he added.

“These are things that will helpin the long run. We still need to bestrong in the grass root for the

national team to make progress. Weshould be qualifying for the AsiaCup in under-17 and under-15quite regularly,” he added.

Women's football in India hasgathered momentum in recenttimes with the country set to hostthe FIFA U-17 World Cup next yearand Bhutia feels it will help unearthtalent.

“The under-17 World Cup isgreat step taken by government andAIFF. For us, it”s important to hostunder 17s,19s, 21s because that is

where we focus more on the grass-roots.”

In fact Bhutia feels that women’steam is faring better than men's atleast at the junior level.

“In Asia, a lot of countriesdon't have women’s teams like in thegulf countries don't have a girl'steam playing under 17. Chances ofwomen qualifying for Asian cham-pionship as compared to men ismuch better.”

The 43-year-old 'SikkimeseSniper' said a lot has changed interms of the facilities and infrastruc-ture available in Indian footballsince he retired in 2011

“The kind of support, plat-form competitions they are play-ing, the coaching staff the playersare getting right now is much muchbetter than what we got. The num-ber of matches the national teamplays is three-four times more thanwe played in our initial stages.

“In 2008, ‘09 and ‘10, we playedquite a few but when I started play-ing in 1995, I still remember fewyears we had just two or threematches the entire year- just onequalifying for WC or pre Olympics.

“We were not lucky to get goodteams we got big countries and wewere out of the tournament,” hesaid.

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England batsman Joe Denly hasbeen ruled out of the Royal London

Series against Ireland after sufferingback spasms in training on Wednesday,a statement on England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) website said.

The Kent batsman has beenreplaced in the 14-man England ODIsquad by Lancashire’s LiamLivingstone.

Livingstone has representedEngland in two IT20s and would

make his ODI debut if selected in oneof the final two matches against Ireland.

In the first match, David Willey’smaiden five-for, followed by an unbeat-en half-century from Sam Billingshelped England beat Ireland by sixwickets.

Earlier, Morgan won the toss andchose to bowl first in what wasEngland's first ODI match since theirdramatic tied match against NewZealand in the World Cup final on July14, 2019 which led to them winning thetitle for the first time in their history.

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PLAYER LIKE STOKES IS EVERY CAPTAIN'S DREAM: SMITH