HYDERABAD, FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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‘2 MINUTES FOR TEST, 15 FOR RESULT’:PUNE FIRM ON COVISELF HOME TEST KIT

CoviSelf - India's first self-use Rapid AntigenTest (RAT) kit - will take two minutes tocarry out the test and results will be

available in 15 minutes, the Pune-based firmthat produced the kit said. The test kit wasapproved by the Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) - the nodal body in thefight against the virus - on Wednesday. "Ittakes two minutes to conduct test and 15minutes to get result. It will be available by endof next week in more than seven lakh pharmaciesand our online pharmacy partners across India. Our target is toreach 90 per cent pin code in India," Sujeet Jain, Director of MylabDiscovery Solutions - the firm that produced the kit.

SONIA WRITES TO PM, SEEKS FREE EDUFOR KIDS ORPHANED DURING PANDEMIC

Congress President Sonia Gandhi onThursday urged Prime Minister NarendraModi to provide free education to

children orphaned during the COVID-19pandemic. In a letter to the prime minister,she said the nation owes it to children togive them hope and provide a robust futureafter their tragedy. "I am writing to requestyou to consider providing free education at theNavodaya Vidyalayas to children who have losteither both parents or an earning parent on account ofthe COVID-19 pandemic. "I feel that as a nation, we owe it to them togive them hope for a robust future after the unimaginable tragedythat has befallen them," Gandhi told the prime minister.

‘WE WERE TO MAKE HISTORY, BUT..’:LEADER QUITS KAMAL HAASAN PARTY

Actor-politician Kamal Haasan today lostanother top leader after his party'sabysmal performance in the Tamil

Nadu election. CK Kumaravel, in hisparting shot to his star party boss, said:"No hero worship." The Makkal NeedhiMaiam (MNM) has seen a series of exitssince May 2, when election results revealedan unqualified disaster for the party. TheMNM failed to win a single seat in the 234member assembly. The nosebleed at the topsignals an existential crisis for the three-year-old MNM. CKKumaravel was among six leaders who had resigned their MNMposts taking responsibility for the poll defeat.

COVID HAS CLAIMED OVER 10 LAKHINDIANS, SAYS THE ECONOMIST

If the international weekly ‘The Economist’were to be believed, Covid-19 hasalready claimed the life of around 10

lakh people in the country. The respectedweekly has calculated the fatalities usinga modelling report to gauge the excessdeaths worldwide caused by the pan-demic. “On the basis of the model itwould appear that around one million peo-ple have died of Covid-19 in India so far,” thereport said. According to the report, India is wit-nessing between 6,000 and 31,000 excess deaths per day. This esti-mate is well above the daily official figures that are hovering aroundthe 4,000-mark.

Vijayan: The ‘captain'who scripted history

IT Dept to launch new e-filing portal for

taxpayers on June 7Work is above anything:

KeerthyP5

P8

P11

LOCKDOWNTRAFFIC

People want to makethe most of relaxation.Every minute counts.Pictured here is thenormal scene onThursday at Begumpet9-00 am -- an hourbefore the lockdownbegins

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Jugaad is intrinsic to Indian wayof life. It is OK if one thinks ofan innovative fix, something toharmlessly bend or work aroundrules in a rural setting. In theurban milieu, we know why toutsget jobs done for a price, thoughthe Road Transport Authoritytom-toms ad nauseum that it hasa fully automated system that isdesigned to eliminate middle-men.

Slot booking on CoWIN orArogya Setu is now the latest irri-tant for vaccine aspirants. Hereagain, thanks to hi-tech jugaad,techies are going to get the vac-cines first. While the Telanganagovernment sits on options for pri-oritising vaccine groups, techies inthe city have created or modifiedscripts that help them auto-booka slot for them.

They have made the wholething extremely simple. Once the

registration opens, the scriptbooks the slot and sends an OTPto the mobile number. The userwill then simply enter OTP andbingo! That's how the appoint-ment is going to be done -- in justa few seconds! So, expect the slotsto get booked quickly inHyderabad, Ranga Reddy andMedchal districts.

A techie based in Hyderabad,

speaking on condition ofanonymity, revealed: "There arelot of scripts out there and inBangalore slots got booked with-in a minute. I modified a pythonscript and it seems to be working,tested a week back for other state.It will work for Telangana andAndhra Pradesh as well".

At 0.7%, TS haslowest positivity ratein the country: ICMRPNS n HYDERABAD

At 0.7%, Telangana had the low-est positivity rate in the countryfor the week 13-19 May, as perICMR. It is the only state in thecountry with a positivity rate ofless than 5% for 13-19 May.

There are 13 States/UTs with apositivity rate ranging from 5-15%, while 22 States/UTs had apositivity rate of more than 15%for the period. Lakshadweep hadthe highest positivity rate of52.6%. Andhra Pradesh had24.9% positivity rate for the sameweek.

Unlike other states in India,Telangana is moving ahead withits 'treatment first' strategy linkedto the household fever survey. Asof 18 May, 3.54 lakh persons were

showing Covid-like symptoms.Nearly 2 lakh symptomatics wereidentified through fever survey athouseholds, while the remainingwere identified through OP serv-ices.

According to the TelanganaHealth Department, as part of thefever survey, 90 lakh householdshave been covered; and, for symp-tomatic patients, treatment isbeing provided.

TS declaresblack fungus asnotifiable diseasePNS n HYDERABAD

At the behest of the Centre, theTelangana State government toohas declared the fungal infectionmucormycosis or black fungusafflicting Covid patients as anotifiable disease under theEpidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Under the Act, all governmentand private health facilities shouldfollow guidelines for screening,diagnosis, and management ofmucormycosis issued by the UnionMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare, GoI and the IndianCouncil of Medical Research.Haryana and Rajasthan havealready declared it as a notifiabledisease. It has been made manda-tory for all government and privatehealth facilities to report all sus-pected and confirmed cases to theHealth Department.

Deadline for filing I-T returns extendedtill September 30 PNS n NEW DELHI

Amid the severity of the secondwave of the COVID-19 pandem-ic, the government extended thedue date of filing income taxreturns (ITR) for the financialyear 2020-21 by two months tillSeptember 30, to provide relief totaxpayers. The Finance Ministryalso extended the timelines for var-ious tax compliances under theIncome-Tax Act,1961, to addressdifficulties faced by taxpayers dur-ing the pandemic. The CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT), theapex body which heads the IncomeTax department, also extendedthe ITR filing deadline for compa-nies by a month till November 30.

Delimitation hopesof Telugu states fadeSNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

With each passing day, hopes ofboth the Telugu states regardingdelimitation of Assembly con-stituencies before the next stateelections as assured in the APReorganisation Act are fading.

This is not due to lack of intentor attempt — in fact both theTelugu states have brought sus-tained pressure on the Central gov-ernment to complete the processof delimitation of Assembly con-stituencies before the last Assemblyelections itself. However, theCentre had been indifferent to thepressure, brushing it off.

Soon after the 2014 Assemblyelections, Telangana Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao and his thenAndhra Pradesh counterpart NChandrababu Naidu beganrequesting the Central govern-ment and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to initiate theprocess, but to no avail.

In the last Assembly elections,the TRS retained power inTelangana while Naidu suffered ahumiliating defeat at the hands ofYS Jaganmohan Reddy.

The change of the ChiefMinister in AP did not result in anyeasing of the pressure by the Stategovernment on the Centre — bothJagan and KCR continued to per-sist with their demand that theCentral government take up thedelimitation process.

Center's allocation of drug totreat black fungus meagrePNS n HYDERABAD

The allocation of Amphotericin B,drug widely prescribed for treat-ment of black fungus/mucormy-cosis, to Telangana is yet againmeager.

As per the central government,1,050 vials of Amphotericine- Bwere allocated to TS between 10thand 31ST MAY, 2021. According todoctors at the state-run ENTHospital, 21 vials per patient havebeen set aside in the nodal hospi-tal, which has about 50 patients. Ifthis allocation is considered as thebaseline, the 1,050 vials will beenough just for the 50 patients.However, private hospitals have

been prescribing on an average sixvials per day for 10 days. At thisrate, the vials will not even beenough for 17 patients.

Amphotericin B injection isgiven based of patient's weight. Asper AIIMS guidelines, 5-10 mg ofAmphotericine B is prescribed perkg per day. The Central govern-

ment has allocated 750 vials of themedicine from M/S Bharat Serumsand 300 vials from Mylan Pharmafor Telangana. Maharashtra got thelargest allocation of 16,500 vials,while Gujarat got 15,000 vials.Andhra Pradesh has been allocat-ed 1,650 vials of the medication.

The government has only 44250vials. As per the central govern-ment, production has beenramped up 3 times over a periodof month. Currently 3.80 lakh vialsare in production. Additionally 3lakh vials are being imported. So,a total 6.80 lakh vials will be avail-able in the country.

Covid complicates life for intl students in HydANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

For a section of the internationalstudents studying in HyderabadUniversities, life has become com-plicated since the outbreak of theCovid-19 in India. Financial diffi-culties, coupled with curbs due tolockdown as well as universityrules, have pushed some of theminto depression, it is alleged.

Most of the international stu-dents, dependent on IndianCouncil for Cultural Relations(ICCR) scholarships, say thatICCR would not pay them anylonger as some of the studentscould not submit their thesis

because of the pandemic.Apart from facing financial

strain, many of the internationalstudents have been stuck in hostelsdue to the lockdown and becausemuch movement is not allowedoutside the campus.

One of the international students

from Osmania University said,"The ICCR that was sponsoring myeducation also said we can't payyou anymore although the delay inmy submission happened becauseof the pandemic. It wasn't in myhands. We used to receive scholar-ship stipends from my countrywhich stopped due to the war andthe devastating situation of thecountry. Libraries were closed inour University. Because of thelockdown we requested theUniversity administration to openthe libraries, but they refused, say-ing it is not possible to openlibraries during the lockdown".

AP govt presentsRs 2.29 lakhcrore budget PNS n AMARAVATI

The Andhra Pradesh govern-ment on Thursday presented itsannual budget for the financialyear 2021-22 with an estimatedexpenditure of Rs 2.29 lakh croreand an estimated revenue of Rs1.77 lakh crore, that leaves a rev-enue deficit of Rs 5,000 crore andfiscal deficit of Rs 37,029 crore.

Finance Minister BugganaRajendranath presented theBudget in the state LegislativeAssembly after GovernorBiswabhusan Harichandan's cus-tomary address to a joint sittingof the Council and the Assemblyduring the one-day session.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Smaller aerosol particles can becarried in the air for 10 metres, thegovernment warned today as itshared a set of "easy to follow" guide-lines on fighting Covid, whichincludes double masks, social dis-tancing and well-ventilated spaces.

Use of proper ventilation canprevent the spread of coronavirus,the Union government's principalscientific adviser K VijayRaghavan'soffice said in the new advisorywhich also warns against running airconditioners while keeping win-dows and doors shut. "RunningACs traps infected air inside theroom and increases risk of transmis-

sion from an infected carrier to oth-ers," it said. "Always Remember:People who show no symptoms can

also spread the virus," the document,titled "Stop the Transmission, Crushthe Pandemic" said, urging people to

rigorously follow Covid appropriatebehaviour. While droplets fall with-in two meters from an infected per-son, smaller aerosol particles are car-ried in the air up to 10 metres, it said.

Saliva and nasal discharged in theform of droplets and aerosols by aninfected person is the primary modeof virus transmissions, the documentsaid, adding that an infected personwithout symptoms also transmitthe virus.

"Just as smells can be diluted byventilation, the dangerous con-centration of the virus can bereduced by ensuring that outdoorair flows in," it said.

Covid aerosols can travel up to 10 mtrsSays Centre’s new advisory

49 bodies foundafter barge sinks

CYCLONE TAUKTAE

PNS n MUMBAI

At least 49 personnel onboardbarge P305 that went adrift inCyclone Tauktae fury before sink-ing in the Arabian Sea are dead,Navy officials said. So far, 186 of the261 people who were on board thebarge and two others on tugboatVaraprada have been rescued.Search operations are underway forover 35 people (26 on barge P305& 11 on tugboat) still missing.

The Navy on Thursday morn-ing launched a fresh aerial searchand rescue mission, deployinghelicopters to scour the waters offMumbai coast four days ago.Indian Navy ships workedthrough the night, using search-lights to trace any movement inthe pitch dark waters to look forsurvivors. The search operationswould continue for another threedays at least, Indian NavyCommodore Ajay Jha said.

Navy ships INS Kochi, INSKolkata, INS Beas, INS Betwa,INS Teg, P8I maritime surveil-lance aircraft, Chetak, ALH andSeaking helicopters are involvedin the SAR operations.

HI-TECH JUGAADTechies modify scripts,use bots to auto-bookslots for vaccine

Co-WIN, ArogyaSetu andUmangappsgame for theirdesigns

Rare, life-threatening Covid

complicationscause worry

P 2

In the last Assemblyelections, the TRSretained power inTelangana whileNaidu suffered ahumiliating defeat atthe hands of YSJaganmohan Reddy

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021

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PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee chief and NalgondaMP N Uttam Kumar Reddy onThursday demanded that thegovernment provide free Covidtreatment for 80 lakh BPLfamilies.

He also demanded thatambulances be provided atnominal charges for transportof the Covid patients, andnon-BPL families should beprovided treatment at privatehospitals at regulated charges.He made it clear that the gov-ernment should come to therescue of the middle class andthe poor.

MLC T Jeevan Reddy saidthat the orders issued by thegovernment regulating the feein private hospitals for theCovid treatment have gonefor a toss. He said that just sixhospitals were inspected by theTask Force to check the imple-mentation of the related GO.

Uttam Kumar Reddy wasaddressing the media throughZoom app, along with CLPleader Mallu BhattiVikramarka, MLC T JeevanReddy and AICC officialspokesperson Dasoju Sravan.

Uttam Kumar Reddy allegedthat due to the incompetenceof the State and Central gov-

ernments many people fallingprey to the Covid. He pointedout that many states have beenproviding treatment to Covidfree of cost while people in thestate have been deprived of thatfacility. He said that Rs 10 lakhsex gratia is also being given inother states, but no such reliefhas been provided inTelangana.

He lamented that Covid hasbeen casting an unbearableburden on the poor. He saidthat due to the incompetenceof the government about Rs20,000 to Rs 25,000 has beencollected for ambulances, Rs50,000 per one oxygen bed andRs 1.50 lakh has been chargedfor a ventilator bed by the hos-

pitals.He said that since the one-

and-a-half year the Congresshas been demanding that thegovernment consider Covidas a natural calamity so that theaffected could be protected.

Citing the comments of theChief Minister that peoplewere unnecessarily spendinglakhs of rupees in private hos-pitals, Uttam Kumar Reddysaid that people have beenopting for private hospitals asthere was no infrastructure ingovernment hospitals.

He said that an audio clipthat has been procured fromsocial media in which the TRSleader said that there are onlyfive to six ventilators in the

Siddipet government hospi-tal, which could be used forelderly while the middle-agedhave been deprived of them.

Speaking about the stalledvaccination drive for the pastone week in the state, he saidthat Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao have beenblaming each other for theshortage of vaccines.

He found fault with Ministerfor Finance T Harish Rao forstating that infrastructure,including medicines, have beenprovided in the governmenthospitals.

“It seems the minister con-siders himself as the HealthMinister. He should check thesituation in his own district,”Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

He called upon the partyleaders and workers to take uprelief works for the benefit ofCovid affected families at thehospitals, burial grounds onthe 30th death anniversary offormer Prime Minister RajivGandhi on Friday. He wantedthem to help the illiterate toregister their names for thevaccination drive.

CLP leader in AssemblyBhatti Vikramarka demandedthat the Governor take stepsfor the appointment ofMinister for the Health.

Fee regulation in privatehospitals goes for a toss

Uttam demands free Covid treatment for BPL families

Chargesheet filedin lawyer couplemurder casePNS n PEDDAPALLY

The Manthani police onWednesday filed achargesheet in the HighCourt advocate Vaman Raocouple murder case listingseven members as theaccused. It may be recalledthat based on a complaintlodged by Vaman Rao’s fatherKishan Rao with the police,Peddapalli Zilla Parishadchairman Putta Madhu, whowas hiding in Bheemavaramin Andhra Pradesh, waspicked up by the police onMay 8, and was taken into thepolice custody.

Madhu was questioned forfour days by theRamagundam police and hisspouse Sailaja was also ques-tioned.

The police sought to knowfrom the couple on paymentsmade by them after with-drawing Rs 2 crore from thebank.

They also questionedMadhu reasons for goingunderground. After the inter-rogation, Putta Madhuattended his office as usual.

AP govt...Continued from page 1

The state's public debt willmount to Rs 3,87,125 crore in2021-22 from Rs 3,55,874crore the previous year as thegovernment targeted to bor-row Rs 50,525 crore afresh.

The state will spend a stag-gering Rs 23,205.88 crorethis year towards debt servic-ing alone. The governmenthas earmarked a whoppingRs 48,083.92 crore for 22freebie schemes this year.

Three of these schemesthat would cost Rs 16,899crore would be implementedthrough the StateDevelopment Corporation.

The Finance Ministerincorporated a 'gender bud-get' as well as 'child budget'this year with an outlay of Rs47,283 crore and Rs 16,748crore respectively.

The gender budget hasfurther been divided intotwo components, one ofwhich has an outlay of Rs23,463 crore to fully coverschemes targeted for womenand girls.

Center'sallocation ofdrug to treat...Continued from page 1

As of Wednesday, there were55 patients in ENT hospital.Officially there are only 90cases per day, but a look atKTR's Twitter timeline showsa lot more cases. Families ofinfected patients are goingonline for accessing the drug,which even the minister can-not provide and asked theDME to help. KTR said in atweet, "To all those who'vebeen seeking medicines forblack fungus/mucormycosis,please send an email todme@telangana.Gov.in andent-mcrm@telangana.Gov.inin the format given. You canalso send the same via Twitterto @DMETELANGANAwith a copy to @KTRoffice sowe can follow up".

Srinivas Goud seekspeople’s cooperationto keep Covid at bayPNS n MAHBUBNAGAR

Minister for Excise V SrinivasGoud appealed to people toadhere to rules and regulationsissued by the government tokeep the Coronavirus at bay.

He went around variousplaces of the town during thelockdown relaxation period tomonitor the activity. Heinspected shops and drugstores near Clock Tower. Heinspected the provision ofsanitiser and arrangementsmade to observe physical dis-tance at the shops.

Later, the Minister visitedthe Rythu Bazaar, nearby, and

interacted with people visitingthere to purchase vegetables.He advised them to wearmasks and use sanitiser towash their hands. He askedone and all to follow the lock-down clamped to control thevirus. He asked people not toventure out after 10 am. If atall they have to come, theyshould come out only due tomedical emergencies.Furthermore, he asked peopleagainst roaming on roads dur-ing the nighttime.

If people cooperate withthe government, the govern-ment will be able to control thevirus, he said.

Minister for Excise V Srinivas Goud going around the town during the lockdownrelaxation in Mahbubnagar on Thursday

PNS n NARSAPUR

Fair price dealers threaten togo on strike from June 1 if theirdemands are not met, accord-ing to State Dealers’Association president theNaayikoti Raju.

Speaking to The Pioneeron Thursday, he said that theFP dealers were dropping deaddue to Covid like the prover-bial birds. He put the totalnumber of deaths due to Covidat 70. He said the FPS dealersdistribute PDS rice amongthree crore people. The e-POSsystem has been the cause of

spreading the virus from near-ly 80 lakh people. Many deal-ers are receiving treatmentunder home isolation, he saidreiterating that the virus hasclaimed the lives of at least 70dealers.

Unable to afford the cost oftreatment in private hospitals,many dealers are dying whilereceiving treatment in theirhomes. He demanded a guar-antee to the lives of PDS deal-ers.

The demands of the associ-ation include replacing the e-PoS system through a contact-less system, Rs 10 lakh insur-

ance cover to dealers, ad hochealth insurance cover forCovid treatment, increasingtheir commission as promisedby Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao on thefloor of the Assembly.

Therefore, the association isforced to close down the FPSshops from June 1. As there isa threat to the lives of dealers,he asked the government tounderstand the agony of thedealers and resolve their prob-lems. Association general sec-retary Sanjeeva Reddy, treasur-er Nagaraju and others werepresent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Rare, life-threatening Covid-19 complications appear to beescalating in India, creating afresh wave of critical medicalchallenges in a country thathas already seen short suppliesof oxygen and other basicneeds.

Pharmacists are warning ofa shortage of a crucial drug totreat an invasive fungal infec-tion preying on patients withweakened immune systems.An uptick in cases acrossIndia of a dangerous inflam-matory syndrome in chil-dren -- also seen in the U.S.and Europe at the height oftheir outbreaks -- is a harbin-ger of a potentially deadlyspate of the pediatric illness inthe coming weeks.

Once considered a rare"opportunistic" fungal infec-tion in Covid-19 patients,mucormycosis has emergedas a dramatic bellwether for araft of secondary ailmentssymptomatic of India's inabil-ity to contain the world'sfastest-growing coronavirusoutbreak. There are as manyas 1,500 patients with thiscondition, known locally as"black fungus," inMaharashtra alone, with thestate government expecting200 new cases every week.

‘Ayurvedic medicines help in treating black fungus'ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

Government Ayurveda doctorshave come out with Ayurvedicmedicines that they say areeffective in the treatment ofpatients with black fungus infec-tion.

Post recovery some of theCovid patients have been con-tracting black fungus diseaseand they need special care.Adding some Ayurvedic medi-cines to their treatment regimenwill help in their quick recovery

as well as in reducing the mor-bidity and mortality, said Dr.Alagu Varshini Director,Department of AYUSH. Shesaid at a media conference hereon Thursday that there was anincrease in the incidence ofblack fungus cases.

Ayurvedic medicines wouldhelp strengthen an individual'simmunity and help him or herfight the disease in two ways."One is to get prophylactic careand another is to help thepatients to reduce their hospitalstay through speedy recovery

and to reduce mortality rate",she said. A team comprisingAyurvedic experts has beenconstituted to study the possibil-ity of helping the public at largeto fight black fungus -mucormycosis- both for pro-phylactic care and adjuvantcare, she said.

Dr. P. Srikanth Babu, princi-pal of BRKR Govt AyurvedaCollege, qualified in bothAyurveda and allopathy systems,along with his team comprisingDr.Saxena, Dr.Suresh Jakhotia,Dr.Praveen Kumar and Dr

Balakrishna, have been workingon relevant protocols.

They proposed two specialmedical protocols. One is pro-phylactic Ayurvedic medicine,which will help patients who areat high risk to catch black fun-gus by strengthening theirimmunity. For this specific foodand activity also will be advisedalong with medicines. The otherone is surgical debridement,along with conventional anti-fungal medicines.

Select Ayurvedic medicineswill be added as adjuvant ther-

apy. This will help patients torespond well to total treatmentsby boosting their immunity.

After obtaining necessarypermissions, special Ayurvedicmedicines will be given atGandhi Hospital andGovernment ENT hospitalunder the supervision of twoexpert teams.

Preventive AyurvedaMedicines will be distributed atDr BRKR GovernmentAyurveda College &Government Ayurveda Hospital- Erragadda, Hyderabad.

Rare, life-threateningCovid complicationscause worry

FP dealers warn of stir from June 1

Hi-tech jugaadContinued from page 1

Despite the claims of CoWINchief RS Sharma that scriptscannot be run on the app,because of captcha and OTP,techies are still confident ofbooking the slots usingpython scripts. This corre-spondent has accessed thescripts.

Earlier, there were scriptsthat had worked on theprocess of searching for slotavailability, booking, anddownloading the appoint-ment slip. However, sinceMay 1 captcha has been atwork ostensibly to ensurethat such things do not hap-pen. So, once the slot is avail-able, the user has to log in toCoWIN website and enterthe captcha to book the slot.Techies have now found a wayto work around it too.

A techie explains, "Eventhis process of captcha can bepartially automated, slot avail-ability will be checked everyfew seconds for selected dis-tricts and if the slot is avail-able, a notification will be sentto mobile. Then user needs toenter OTP and captcha man-ually in the application tobook the slot. Here, userdoesn't need to login toCoWIN again, which saves

time"."These scripts have been

customised in a way that theuser can give particular crite-ria for search mechanism,like searching only for partic-ular vaccine availability, dose(1 or 2), date, and vaccinationcenter. As per CoWIN web-site, appointment data iscached and it might be 30minutes old", the techie adds.

However, there are somebots which have automatedthe process of slot booking bybypassing the captcha as well.The user just needs to makesure to log in every 15 min-utes so that once the slots areopened, it will be bookedautomatically.

When this correspondentchecked the slot booking usingthe bot, it was working asexpected. Now, all a personneeds to do is wait for the gov-ernment to announce the dateof starting vaccination andinform the bot to auto-bookthe vaccine once the slot opens.

For almost everything,there is a way around. Thetechie pointed that despitecaptcha in Arogya Setu andUmang apps, user can bookslots without entering anycaptcha. The techie said,"Also there is restriction ofaccess times to 100 for 5

minutes per IP, this can alsobe avoided… There are somebots which check slot avail-ability multiple times everysecond".

There is hardly anythingthe authorities can do here,but to change the way vacci-nation is done as CoWIN ishandled completely by theCenter.

And for those who are nottech-savvy, they are enablingsocial media alerts. For exam-ple, a group has been formedon Telegram mobile appnamed "U45 Hyderabad" inwhich alerts of slot openingsare given. Also the link tobook the schedule is provid-ed for beneficiaries to clickand book slot.

The Telegram channel U45Hyderabad, which givesonline alerts for vaccine avail-ability for 18-44 years, alreadyhas 10,000 subscribers.Another A45HyderabadTelegram channel has 5,500subscribers. Likewise, chan-nels are there for RangaReddy, Medchal, Medak,Sangareddy and Nalgondadistricts

In Andhra Pradesh as wellalerts are there forVishakapatnam, Krishna, EastGodavari, West Godavari andAnantapur districts.

TS declares black fungus as notifiable...Continued from page 1

A notifiable disease, uponbeing reported to governmentfrom diverse sources, will helphealth authorities collate infor-mation and monitor the dis-ease. It will create room forinterventions to control thedisease and formulate a planfor its eradication. It improvesinformation sharing about theburden and distribution of thedisease.

Meanwhile, additional blackfungus cases are being report-ed from districts like

Nizamabad, Khammam,Nirmal, Nalgonda etc.

Director of Public Health DrSrinivasa Rao, in a statement,mentioned that all govern-ment and private hospitalsshould ensure strict compli-ance with the order and sendreport on daily basis compris-ing name of the hospital, dis-trict, patient, address of thepatient, date of admission, andmobile number of the patient.

Medical and HealthDepartment officials tried toallay fears among the publicabout the black fungus disease,

which has claimed lives ofpatients who had recoveredfrom Covid. The authoritiessaid it was not a new disease.Nor was it an infectious dis-ease. It could be prevented withjudicious use of steroids to treatCovid symptoms and propermaintenance of the humidifiersused in oxygen therapy.

Patients who had recoveredfrom Covid should take pre-cautions and wear a mask evenat home as their immunitywould be low for some days.They should not expose them-selves to the spores of fungus

in the air. Diabetics and thoseusing immune-suppressantdrugs should be very careful.

In the wake of increase inblack fungus cases, the govern-ment has allocated specialwards in Gandhi Hospital andENT Hospital in Koti to treatsuch patients.

Director of Public HealthSrinivasa Rao and Director ofMedical Education RameshReddy earlier said that a lot ofhype was being created aroundblack fungus and many hospi-tals were prescribing medicinesindiscriminately.

Delimitation....Continued from page 1

The AP Reorganisation Actsays, “Subject to the provisionscontained in Article 170 of theConstitution and without prej-udice to Section 15 in this Actthe number of seats in theLegislative Assembly of thesuccessor state of AP andTelangana shall be increasedfrom 175 and 119 to 225 and153 respectively and delimita-tion of the constituencies maybe determined by the ElectionCommission…”

However, the Centre wantsto take up the delimitationprocess in the Telugu statesalong with the rest of thecountry, probably after 2026.

The Centre had amendedthe Act in 2002 not to have anydelimitation till the firstCensus after 2026.

Thus, the present con-stituencies shall continue to bein operation till the nextAssembly elections in both theTelugu states. Moreover theCentre is considering increas-ing the number of Lok Sabhaseats in the country. If a finaldecision is taken on the mat-ter by the Centre on this issue,the delimitation of Lok Sabhaconstituencies will also takeplace along with that ofAssembly segments soon after“the first Census after 2026.”

Covid complicates lifefor intl students in HydContinued from page 1

"I used to sit and work underthe sun in the cafeteria with nobathrooms or water, just to fin-ish my work. I could not usebooks because the librarieswere closed. I was sad becausemy thesis would be incomplete.Then I went to ICCR andrequested them to give exten-sion of another six months soI could complete. I told them Iwas given the scholarship forfive years and I was given onlyfor 4 years as in the first year Iself-financed. But they said noit's considered five years even ifwe paid. Now I have no moneyto feed my kids, pay rent or bills.I didn't even pay school fees andI am not able to put them inschool this year. It's really atough phase for internationalstudents like us in Hyderabadas we are living here withoutany income at all, as foreignersare not allowed to work", thestudent added.

Sanyuzzaman Pavel, anoth-er international student fromBangladesh studying inHyderabad, said, "Some inter-national students who are herethrough govt scholarship gotstuck after finishing theircourse. With their monthlystipend stopped, they are facingproblems. There are some whofinished almost one year ago,but still stuck here. In somecases, there might not besmooth exchange medium too

between countries --for exam-ple, between Bangladesh andIndia. Consider a family thatcan't send money for one yearor six months together at a time,but can send it in a monthlymanner; then, there is nosmooth and legal exchangechannel to utilise. Under suchcircumstances, if medical insur-ance is cancelled it creates adeep vulnerability for interna-tional students."

He adds, "Another thing:problems faced by internationalstudents have a university dimen-sion. Everyone is struggling indi-vidually during the pandemic.When one has friends here, sheor he is not suffering that muchunlike in the case of someonewho doesn't have any friendaround. Some students wentback, but those who couldn't andremained in distance from fam-ily and friends, they have beenstruggling much. Of course,some support systems are avail-able but may be not adequate".

Another international stu-dent studying in Hyderabadsaid, "Since the outbreak ofCOVID in India and the start oflockdown in 2020 our flightshave been suspended and wewere stuck inside campus formore than three months andinside campus just NRC canteenwas open. We prepared ourfoods from there and we wereunable to go outside. We are notallowed to cook even inside ourroom.

Covid aerosolscan travel up...Continued from page 1

Droplets emitted by an infect-ed person land on various sur-faces (where they can survive fora long time), the advisory said,calling for frequent cleaning ofhigh contact points such as doorhandles, light switches, tables,chairs and the floor with disin-fectants like bleach and phenyl.

People should wear a doublelayer mask or an N95 mask,which offers maximum protec-tion, the new guidelines said.For double masking, wear a sur-gical mask, then wear anothertight fitting cloth mask over it,the advisory said, adding thatthose who do not have a surgi-cal mask can wear two cottonmasks together.

"Ideally, surgical mask shouldbe used only once, but whenpairing, you can use it up to 5times by leaving it in a dry placefor 7 days after one use (ideallygive it some sun exposure)," itsaid. Ventilation at home, workspaces The document also high-lighted the important role well-ventilated spaces play in dilutingthe risk of transmission from oneinfected person to the other.

"Just as smells can be dilut-ed from the air through open-ing windows and doors andusing exhaust systems, ventilat-ing spaces with improved direc-tional air flow decreases theaccumulated viral land in theair, reducing the risk of trans-mission," the document, titled"Stop the Transmission, Crushthe Pandemic" says.

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021hyderabad 03

Minister of State for Home Affairs GKishan Reddy released 'ValasaJana Nestam', the biography of a

noted labour leader Pusuluri NarayanaSwamy, who always fought for therights of the migrant workers, at the OldMLA quarters here on Thursday. Thebiography penned by Dr Fazallulla Khan,a noted journalist of Hyderabad, depicted all accounts ofNarayana Swamy's life. Speaking on the occasion, the Ministerpraised the services of Narayana Swamy and said he was afirebrand leader, who launched the struggle not only for thewelfare of beedi workers in Mahbubnagar and Ammapur but alsofor the organised and unorganised sector workers. AuthorFazallulla Khan shared his experiences with the late Swamy andrecalled the days he had spent with him in Gulf to fight for therights of Gulf migrant and sex workers. He opined that as anauthor of the biography of labour leader Narayana Swamy wouldbring him a special identity in the society, adding to his identity asa journalist.

CITY LIGHTS

District Collector Sweta Mohantyhas asked the people to try foroverseas jobs only through

those agents whose names have beenregistered with the Union Ministry ofExternal affairs. She advised themagainst approaching unauthorisedagents and avoid getting cheated bythem. "To prevent Indians landing inproblems in the shores of foreign land by reaching there illegally,the Ministry of External Affairs inserted a 40-second audio-visualadvertisement to sensitise people on how to try for overseasjobs," the Collector said adding that those who want to try legallyto get overseas jobs contact the toll-free number 1800 11 3090for advice and suggestions The Collector asked people to receiveproper training in their job area before applying for the relevantjob. She asked the people against accepting any goods fromstrangers at the time of the journey to avoid landing in problems.

ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

Social activists who helpedcitizens in Hyderabad by pro-viding free last ride to the cre-matorium alleged that peoplewere doing business on deadbodies in the name of govern-ment outfits and were extort-ing money by charging hugeamount for cremations ofCovid dead bodies.

In one of the incidentsshared by Feed the Needy, aman who claimed to beappointed by GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) saidthat Rs 25,000 was the ratefixed by the municipal corpo-ration authorities for crema-tions of Covid dead bodies.

According to Feed the Needyactivists, packages for crema-tion started from Rs 35,000 toand went up to Rs 50,000 andafter bargaining those camedown to Rs 25,000 to Rs35,000. Apart from this Feedthe Needy activists were alsostruggling to find an ambu-lance or freezer to keep the

Covid dead bodies post 7pm ascrematoriums didn't acceptbodies after 7pm.

Srinivas Bellam, from Feedthe Needy said, "For each andevery cremation in ESI we payRs 15,000 per body. If citizensdirectly go they demand Rs20,000 or even more and thenare not sure about the slots.The minimum package forcremation starts from Rs35,000 and goes up to Rs50,000 and after bargainingthey come down to Rs 25,000

to Rs 35,000. The man werecently spoke to is claiming tobe appointed by GHMC,whether it is right or notGHMC should answer."

He further added, "GHMCon May 19 announced that theGHMC authorities have fixeda price of Rs 13,500 for cre-mation charges includingambulance transportation atESI Erragadda. There are nohidden charges and withoutambulance it is just Rs 8,000.And we used to pay Rs 15,000

before this but now the burdenhas been reduced by 50 percent. I request the govern-ment to make the informationof burial grounds and theircharges public to reduce theburden on people. At least ifthey can identify one crema-torium for one zone and noti-fy to public it will be reallygreat. And if it happens in allother zones then we will bereally happy."

Upender Reddy, ZonalCommissioner LB Nagar told

The Pioneer, "In our zone wehave strictly instructed con-cerned people not to collectmore than Rs 8,000 to Rs10,000 for cremations. We willconduct inquiry in this matterand will take action againstanyone who is charging morethan the rates fixed by GHMC."

ACP Sreedhar Reddy, LBNagar, said, "Soon after theincident came to our notice weconducted inquiry and spoketo the person whose callrecording went viral and we gotto know that he is not appoint-ed by GHMC. He even toldthat he didn't charge anythingfor unclaimed dead bodiesfrom Government hospitalsand charged Rs 10,000 frompeople who could not affordmuch but only charged Rs25,000 whenever he gotrequests from private hospitalsas he had a team of three peo-ple. They needed to wear PPEkits and pack dead bodies asthese were Covid dead bodiesand even crematoriumscharged for wood and crema-tions so they were not charg-ing too much,” he claimed.

Unscrupulous individuals fleecekin of victims using funeral sops

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana health author-ities on Thursday broughtrelaxations on hospital admis-sions and said that positive testreport is no more mandatoryfor admission to a Covidhealth facility in the state.

The Director of PublicHealth and Family Welfarehas issued an order for imple-mentation of national policyfor admission to hospitals.

The hospitals will now haveto admit even those patientswho are suspected to be Covidpositive.

"Requirement of a positivetest for Covid-19 virus is notmandatory for admission intoa health facility," says the order.

A suspected Covid case hasto be admitted into a separateward and hospitals have tostart treatment without anypreconditions.

The order is significant asseveral hospitals in Hyderabadwere found be turning awaypatients for not having Covidpositive reports.

"No patient will be refusedservices on any count. Thisincludes medications such asoxygen or essential drugs even

if the patient belongs to a dif-ferent city," reads the order.

"No patient shall be refusedadmission on the ground thathe/she is not able to produceany valid identity card thatdoes not belong to the citywhere the hospital is located."

The order also makes itclear that admissions into hos-pital must be based on need.

"It should be ensured thatbeds are not occupied by per-sons who do not hospitalisa-tion. Further, the dischargeshould be strictly in accor-dance with the revised dis-charge policy," it added.

Implementation of thelockdown has been madestricter in the city from

Thursday following DGP MMahender Reddy's

instructions on Wednesday.During the lockdown

relaxation hours, senior policeofficers from all the zones

were on the groundmonitoring the situation and

ensuring there is strictadherence to Covid safety

norms like masks andphysical distancing. The policepatrolling cars and Blue Coltvehicles apart from officials

from the ranks of SHO to theZonal DCPs were on rounds

post 10 am at various parts inthe city. The city soon wore adeserted look with the stricterimplementation of lockdown.

Police have now startedfocusing more on residential

colonies and bylanes attachedto the main roads, as manypeople have been noticed

coming out in these places.

STRICTERLOCKDOWN

Now, Corona +ve report not mandatory for hospitalisation

PNS n HYDERABAD

Rachakonda Commissioner ofPolice Mahesh M Bhagawat onThursday said that they weretaking action all those whowere not following Covidnorms. He made these remarksafter unveiling 16 vehiclesmeant for the SHE teams.

Speaking on the occasion,he said that the RachakondaPolice had booked 21,000cases against the lockdownviolators so far. As many as390 vehicles were seized in thelast 24 hours, he added.

He warned that they wouldtake stern action against thosewho sell Remdesivir and oxy-gen cylinders for higher prices.

On the other hand, thepolice are strictly implement-ing the lock down as per theorders of the DGP of thestate. They had set up 330check posts in GHMC limits

and carding out their checkingoperations. They are takingaction against those who arecoming on roads without anyreason. They are also seizingvehicles which don't haveproper documents.

Meanwhile, CyberabadPolice Commissioner Sajjanarhas warned people of seizingthe vehicles and registeringcases against those who comeout onto the roads during thelockdown.

He was inspecting theenforcement of lockdownunder Ramachandrapurampolice station limits onThursday. He said that com-plete support of the people tothe lockdown is necessary forit to be successful.

He asked people to com-plete their purchases between6 am and 10 am and advisedthem against venturing outafter 10 am.

‘Lockdown violatorswill be dealt strictly’

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Saroornagar police onWednesday arrested four per-sons, who allegedly thrasheda hotel worker after he alleged-ly refused to serve them chick-en. The victim, Balaji Rathod,was attacked on May 2 anddied while undergoing treat-ment on Sunday.

The arrested persons were PMahesh, his brother P Vijayand two teenagers, all fromBidar and working at theKothapet fruit market. Rathod,23, was working at the DurgaBhavani Hotel in Kothapet.

On May 2 night, the sus-pects came to the hotel to have

food after work and orderedrice and chicken curry.

However, Rathod told themthat chicken curry was notavailable. Mahesh followedRathod into the kitchen andfound some chicken curry ina vessel. He picked up anargument and threatened him.The staff had to interveneand pacify them. The groupthen left the place, but only toreturn at night and attackRathod. They thrashed himand also hit him with a boul-der. Rathod was immediatelyshifted to a local hospital,from where he was shifted toa hospital in Bidar, where hedied on Sunday.

Four attack waiter for refusing to serve, held

PNS n HYDERABAD

Roads and Buildings MinisterVemula Prashanth Reddy onThursday said the Covid pos-itivity rate in the state hadcome down to 10 per centbecause of a house-to-househealth survey and the lock-down enforced in the state.

The positivity rate in thedistricts had come down to14 per cent from 28 per centearlier.

The decision to conduct ahealth survey was taken byTelangana Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao, and ithas become a role model forother states, he said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Blood parameters of peoplealter when they change theiraltitude, a study done onTibetans by the CSIR-Centrefor Cellular and MolecularBiology, Hyderabad, has found.

Tibetans are one of the old-est high-altitude inhabitantsin the world. There are knowngenetic and physiological fac-tors that help them endure low-oxygen conditions. However,their population has nowmoved to low-altitude regionssuch Karnataka.

Dr K Thangaraj and histeam from CSIR-CCMB stud-ied changes in physiologicalfactors of Tibetans who nowinhabit low-altitude regions.

Physiological factors of thepeople of the Tibetan ethnici-ty from various regions of thehigh altitudes of Ladakh at4,500-4,900 metres were com-pared with those inhabiting inthe Tibetan settlements inBylakuppe, Karnataka at analtitude of around 850 metres.

"The population inKarnataka had migrated fromTibet following the atrocities by

the People's Liberation Army ofChina during or after Tibetanuprising in 1959. They havebeen in Karnataka for the last50 years. The researchers find

that the blood parameters inTibetans in Karnataka, are sig-nificantly different comparedto their high-altitude counter-parts," says the study recently

published in the Journal ofBlood Medicine.

"We found that the red bloodcells, haemoglobin concentra-tion and haematocrit are sig-nificantly lower in the low-alti-tude Tibetans. Their haemo-globin levels are much closer tothose living on the plains thanthe other Tibetans who livebeyond 4,500 meters," saidNipa Basak, the first author ofthe study.

"Our study suggests that,when Tibetan people reside innon-native, low-altitude areafor long time, their body

undergoes various adaptationsto cope with the relativelyhyperoxic environment in low-altitude areas," said DrThangaraj, the lead investiga-tor of this study, and present-ly Director of the DBT-Centrefor DNA Fingerprinting andDiagnostics (CDFD),Hyderabad.

Earlier studies had shownthat among Tibetan popula-tion, those with lower haemo-globin concentration have bet-ter reproductive fitness inwomen and exercise capacityamong men.

Kishan releases ‘Valasa JanaNestam' biography of Pusuluri

‘Use services of authorisedagents to get overseas jobs’

PNS n HYDERABAD

Yet another tragedy struckthe family of slain IPS officerG Krishna Prasad in the city.Deepti, Group-I officer anddaughter of additional SP GKrishna Prasad who wasgunned in the city in 1992 byISI-sponsored terrorists, diedon May 19. According to arelease from the office of the

Minister of State for Home,earlier on May 4, KrishnaPrasad's wife died ofCoronavirus.

Kishan Reddy, spoke toKrishna Prasad's son Vivekand consoled the bereavedfamily members. It may berecalled that G Kishan Reddyhad called on the family mem-bers soon after he became theUnion Minister.

Kishan consoles family of deceased IPS officer

PNS n HYDERABAD

The District IntermediateEducation Officer, Rangareddyon Thursday has issued showcause notice to management ofNarayana Junior College inHyderabad for runningIntermediate classes duringthe Covid-induced lockdown.

Based on a complaint, DIEOconducted inspections atNarayana Junior College andnoticed that they are runningIntermediate classes physical-ly, despite the governmentorder to shut down theEducational Institutions due topandemic.

While issuing the showcasenotice to the management,DIEO has asked for explana-tion from the college manage-ment for conductingIntermediate Public Exam(IPE) classes, failing to whichaction will be initiated againstby TSBIE.

The District IntermediateEducation Officer asked themanagement asked if theyhave permission from the con-cerned government authoritiesto run a coaching centre in thepremises and asked them tosubmit all the documentaryevidence for the same. TheDIEO has also directed the

management to close theirillegal and unauthorised activ-ities immediately otherwisestrict action will be initiatedagainst the management by fil-ing criminal cases.

In view of the surge inCovid cases among studentsTelangana government hasdecided to close physical class-es for all educational institu-tions, except medical collegeson March 24, 2021. Studentsreturned to school on February1 for physical classes. However,physical classes were againclosed from March 24 in viewof surge in cases due to Covidsecond wave.

Show cause notice issued tojr college for running classes

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana's daily Covid countand fatalities continued to seea downward trend. The stateon Thursday reported 3,660new cases and 23 deaths. Thefigures on Wednesday stood at3,837 and 25 respectively.

The daily count of Covidcases had crossed 8,000 whilefatalities touched 60 in the lastweek of April. The fresh casespushed the state's cumulativetally of cases to 5,44,263.

The case fatality rate standsat 0.56 per cent which is lowerthan the national average of 1.1per cent. The state's Covidrecovery rate crossed 91 percent as more people recoveredfrom the infection than thenew cases. The state reported4,826 recoveries during the24-hour period ending 5.30pm on Thursday. According tothe daily bulletin issued by thehealth department, the state'scumulative number of recov-eries rose to 4,95,446.

The recovery rate, whichhad dropped to 80 per centearly this month from nearly99 per cent in March, has nowimproved to 91.03 per cent.This is higher than the nation-al average of 86.7 per cent.

The authorities conducted69,252 tests during the 24-hourperiod. With this the state hasso far tested 1,43,36,254 sam-ples. Samples tested per millionpopulation stand at 3,85,176.

The daily count in GreaterHyderabad dropped to 574.

Only three other districtsreported more than 200 cases.Rangareddy and Medchaladjoining Hyderabad added247 and 218 new cases respec-tively. Sixteen out of 33 dis-tricts saw new cases in doubledigits.

Khammam district report-ed 217 cases, followed by 166in Nalgonda, 147 inKarimnagar, 131 in WarangalUrban, 128 in Mahbubnagar,118 in Nagarkurnool and 116in Siddipet.

Downward trend in Covid count continues

‘Covid positivity rate down to 10 per cent in state'

Blood parameters alter with altitude change: CCMB study

[Representative image] File photo of cremation of deceased Covid patient

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY

| MAY 21, 2021

hyderabad 04

Contd page 5

PNS n HYDERABAD

Former ministerMohammed AliShabbir condemnedChief Minister KChandrasekhar Raofor not including aMuslim in the newlyc o n s t i t u t e dTelangana StatePublic ServiceC o m m i s s i o n(TSPSC).

"Muslims consti-tute nearly 14-15% ofthe total populationin Telangana. Almost90% of Muslim youthare jobless and aspireto get governmentjobs. Presently, 80%of Muslims are cov-ered under the BC-Ecategory and they areentitled to a 4% quotain all the recruit-ments. Therefore, thepresence of a Muslimin the TSPSC wasessential to ensureproper implementa-tion of the quota,introduced by the pre-vious Congress gov-ernment in 2004.However, CM appar-ently wants to stopthe ongoing 4%Muslim quota in gov-ernment jobs. As aprelude, he did notappoint any Muslimmember in theTSPSC," allegedShabbir Ali in a state-ment on Thursday.

He reminded thatKCR had promised toprovide a 12% quotain jobs and educationto Muslims ofTelangana within fourmonths after comingto power. Even afterseven-and-a-halfyears, this promiseremained unfulfilled.

"Unfortunately,KCR could not find asingle person in theentire Muslim com-munity, including TRSleaders, who qualifiesto serve as a TSPSCmember," he said.

Shabbir slamsCM KCR fornot includingMuslim in PSC

K VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

Congress hasstopped waging afight againstencroachments tem-porarily due to asurge in Coronaviruscases. The party willresume its fightagainst landencroachments onlyafter decliningCoronavirus cases.Meanwhile, theDistrict CongressCommittee (DCC)chiefs will collect thedetails of encroach-ments by TRS leadersas directed by theTPCC chief, it islearnt.

It may be recalledthat the TelanganaCongress chief NUttam Kumar Reddyhad announced thatthe Congress willapproach courts onencroachments ofTRS leaders in case,the governmentfailed to order aninquiry intoencroachments.

The TPCC work-ing president andMalkajgiri MP ARevanth Reddy, for-mer MLA SASampath Kumar,MLC T JeevanReddy, former PCCpresident VHanumantha Raoand several othersdemanded that thegovernment order aninquiry into all lande n c r o a c h m e n t sinstead of confiningits inquiries againstformer ministerEatela Rajender.

Congress leadersalso alleged that theTRS government wasconcentrating onlyon Eatela Rajender’sassigned lands issueinstead of control-ling the spread of theC o r o n a v i r u s .However, Congressleaders suddenlystopped criticisingthe governmentregarding landencroachments andstopped raising theissue.

CORONA CRISIS

CONGRESS TO PUT

ENCROACHMENTS

ISSUE ON BACK

BURNER

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021 nation 05

PNS n

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

We at he r i ng many astorm, 'captain' PinarayiVijayan steered the Leftship to safe waters in the2021 assembly electionswith a thumping winand rewrote Kerala 'spolitical history of vot-ers swinging betweent he C ong re ss andCommunists once infive years.

Breaking the four-decade old t rend ofKe r a l i te s cho o s i ngbetween the rival frontsevery five years, the 77-ye ar- o l d h a s a l s oaffirmed his grip on theparty, virtually becom-ing its face, somethingnew in the Left schemeof things.

Unshakeable politi-cian, shrewd strategist,'double-breasted' com-rade, pragmatic admin-istrator, crisis manager-Vijayan may have earneda volley of epithets butwill certainly go down inKerala's history as theman who led the Leftdominance in the statedespite facing politicals tor ms and n atu r a lcalamities.

With the historic vic-tory, leading LDF to vic-tory in 99 out of 141seats, Vijayan's suprema-cy in the party and thegovernment has become

total and he has onceagain established him-self as the most toweringand unquestionable Leftleader in the state. Notjust political observersbut even his critics nowpraise Vijayan for his'able ' leadership andtimely political strate-gies, which are consid-ered as major factorsthat have helped the Leftfront government ensurecontinuity of rule.

Though Vijayan wasnot as popular as formerCM and Left stalwart VS Achut hanand anamong commoners andgrassroot level party

workers during the ini-tial period, he, however,made use of every singleopportunity to leave hisimprint in the minds ofpeople in the last fiveyears.

Whether it was anti-CAA protests, the twod e v a s t at i ng f l o o d s ,cyclone Okhi, Nipahvirus or the latest Covid-19 pandemic , Vijayan,seen as a hard taskmas-ter and a man of fewwords, succeeded in pro-jecting himself as the'leader fighting for thestate's cause', cuttingacross party lines.

During the election

campaign, there was anattempt by his hardcorefollowers to call him bythe nickname "captain",which raised many eye-brows as even many Leftsympathisers felt thatthe Marxist party had notradition of projectingany individual as itsface. The shrewd strate-gist that he is, Vijayanturned brickbats intobouquets when somep ol i t i c a l opp one nt scalled him by his castename to evoke prideamong the politicallydominant Thiyya com-munity, to which hebelongs to.

Vijayan: The ‘captain' who scripted history Pinarayi Vijayan steered the LDF to second successive win

PNS n NEW DELHI

Khadi is not a generic name andthe Khadi and Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) is the legit-imate owner of the trade marks"Khadi" and "Khadi India", a tri-bunal has ruled.

The National Internet Exchangeof India Domain Dispute Policy(INDRP) Arbitration Tribunal inNew Delhi rejected the contentionof a private entity that "Khadi" isa generic word and said use of thepopular brand name by any otheris likely to create confusion anddeception with the goods/ser-vices of KVIC.

The order came on a complaintfiled by KVIC challenging adomain name www.khadi.in beingrun by Delhi-based Jitendra Jainand his associates, with the tribunalholding that the domain name inquestion was registered in "badfaith".

Directing that the domain namewww.khadi.in be transferred toKVIC, Pankaj Garg, sole Arbitratorin the matter, said “Khadi” was nota generic name to be used by pri-vate individuals or firms and per-manently restrained Jain and hisagents from using the brand nameKhadi.

"The impugned domain nameis identical and confusingly simi-lar to a named trademark as wellas a service mark in which theKVIC has a right," the Arbitrator

said. Further, the tribunal said, “It is

an undisputed fact that KVIC, thecomplainant, is the legitimateowner of the trademark“Khadi”/”Khadi India” and hasacquired ownership in terms of theprovisions of Section 17 of theTrade Marks Act 1999".

"In the opinion of the Tribunal,the impugned domain name(www.khadi.in) is a trademarkbacked domain name and it notonly violates the provisions of theTrade Marks Act 1999 but also vio-lates Clause 4 of the INDPR pol-icy issued by the NIXI,” theArbitrator said.

“It is directed that the domainname www.khadi.in be trans-ferred in favour of the com-plainant (KVIC)…the respondentand any person acting on itsbehalf are permanently restrainedfrom using the domain name orany other deceptively similar trade-mark which may amount toinfringement of the complainant'sregistered trademark and alsofrom doing any other thing whichis likely to create confusion anddeception with the goods/ser-vices of KVIC, the complainant,”the tribunal said in its recentorder. The Tribunal also instruct-ed the National Internet Exchangeof India (NIXI) to take incidentalor ancillary action involved in thetransfer of the domain name, asdirected.

Tribunal bars individuals,firms from using Khadibrand name unauthorisedly

PNS n DEHRADUN

Remnants of Cyclone Tauktaecoupled with a western distur-bance led to incessant rains inUttarakhand for over 24 hourson Thursday, causing a sharpdip in temperature at mostplaces in the state.

Nainital received 132 mm ofrainfall followed by Mussooriewhich received 103 mm andMukteshwar which recorded 85

mm of rainfall over the last 24hours, Rohit Thapliyal, a scien-tist at the MeT office here, said.

Dehradun received a moder-ate 47.7 mm of rainfall,Pantnagar 43.6 mm, Tehri 56. 8mm and Pithoragarh 43.5 mmrainfall, he said. Several townsrecorded maximum tempera-tures of 8-10 degrees below nor-mal, while temperatures fellsharply in the hills where win-try conditions returned.

Tauktae impact: Incessantrains lash Uttarakhand

ciating stranglehold of thepandemic. Human ingenuitywould triumph once more, asit has in the past. At present,everyone seems to be impact-ed either directly, or indirect-ly. The loss of livelihood couldonly be called ‘rampant’. InApril-May of 2021, the healthinfrastructure stands shat-tered, patients are dying infront of hospital gates, inverandas, on stretchers and,shockingly, due to the non-availability of hospital beds. Itis a tragic situation that wouldleave permanent scars on mil-lions of families for ever.

It has challenged humansensitivity, emotionality andcompassion. So much is to berebuilt, resurrected and re-energised on every front ofhuman existence. Its magni-tude has already begun toemerge. The learned and theknowledgeable are alreadyenvisioning the shape ofthings in the post-COVIDIndia and its global context.In the post-Corona era, nonation can progress in isola-tion. Corona knows noboundaries, no nationalities,and it could be counteredonly by a strategy that is glob-al in nature, international inimplementation and humanein approach.

It would not be an over-stretched logic to assert that ifthe UN and organisations likethe Unesco and the UNSChad really achieved theirobjectives in the initialdecades of their existence,humanity would have beenmuch better equipped, unitedand ready to counter problemslike Corona. Sadly enough, theglobal urge to create a worldof peace, nonviolence andrighteous conduct that led tocreation of International plat-forms for dialogue and discus-sion has so far failed to achieveeven basic objectives.

While the Governmentspreferred to participate increating more and more lethalweapons, the health sectorresearch was mostly takenover by pharmaceutical com-panies that were interestedonly in remaining ahead oftheir competitors, get thepatents before others, andcapture the market. In India,the health infrastructure shallobviously require seriousrevamping. Rampant corrup-tion in regulatory bodiesimpeded the expansion of themedical education fordecades. Fortunately, nowthere are plans to have a med-ical college in every district,which would now materialise

with greater speed, efficiencyand resource inputs. Thereought to be a far greater say ofexperts in policy formulationat the highest levels. It is gen-erally believed that if it wereso, India would not have faceda nationwide shortage of med-ical oxygen, a deficiency thatdefinitely led to several mosttragic and avoidable deaths.

India, which was beinghailed for offering vaccines toseveral countries, found itselfin a distress situation by thesecond wave that necessitat-ed helping hands fromaround the globe. Such inad-equacies must not occur infuture.

The guiding principlesfor the post-COVID Indiacould be extracted from thebasics Swami Vivekanandahad taught us: “The faith inour own selves must bereawakened and then only allthe problems that face ourcountry will be graduallysolved.” The mantra of suc-cess would be: “We shouldgive positive ideas; negativethoughts only weaken men.”Let us trust human compas-sion and ingenuity.

(The author works in education and social cohesion.The views expressed are personal.)

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Delhi and the UnionGovernment once again find themselves at each other’s throats, their daggers drawn.The issue pertaining to the latest round of faceoff was rather innocuous. The Delhi

Government basically pointed to a new COVID strain “originating from Singapore” andshared its apprehension that it could lead to a third wave of the pandemic in India. Itappealed to the Union Government to cancel air services with the city-State which, asa Union Minister pointed out, had already been suspended in the absence of any “air

bubble” passage with that country. This aspect of theso-called “Singapore strain” was strongly refuted bythe South-East Asian country’s Government, with itsForeign Minister even saying that the allegation was“unfounded” and that the elected representatives shouldbe serious and responsible with their statements. Theyeven called in the Indian High Commissioner to con-vey strong objection to the tweet on the “Singaporevariant”. Not choosing to close the episode here,Singapore has since ordered social media platformsFacebook and Twitter to carry a correction notice tousers in the country over the “false statement” aboutthe new variant originating in the city-State.

Soon after the news came out, the Indian Government quickly sided with theSingaporean authorities, saying that the Delhi Chief Minister “doesn’t speak for India”.Meanwhile, Singapore has shut down its schools as children there are getting moreaffected than the elders, but its Government stressed that the variant did not origi-nate in Singapore. On the other hand, the country claims, it originated in India. Experts,however, are playing it safe as of now and saying that the infection is on “untrace-able origin”. The highly contagious B.1.617 variant was first detected in India andhas now spread to many countries across the world. Of course, the Delhi Governmenthas every right to protect the interests of its citizens, especially since health is a Statesubject. It has also every right to voice its concerns, or even take up the cudgelsagainst the federal dispensation on issues that it may feel wronged about. However,it doesn’t behove the Kejriwal Government, both in terms of constitutional proprietyand the morality of the issue involved, to speak on subjects that fall outside the realmof its purview, especially influencing our country’s foreign policy.

Adar Poonawala has let the proverbial cat out of the bag. In the latest statement,the Serum Institute of India (SII) made certain points which need careful read-ing. One, that “in January 2021, we had a large stockpile of vaccine doses….

At that stage, most people, including health experts, believed that India was turningthe tide on the pandemic”. Was the intention to point out that India did not placeenough vaccine orders in January itself to cover at least 70 per cent of the popula-tion? Two, “around the same time, many other countries in the world were facingan acute crisis and were in desperate need of help. Our Government extended sup-port wherever possible during this period”. Is this to reveal that the SII did not export

either commercially or through Covax without inti-mating the Government of India? Three, “the coop-eration between countries…forms the basis for usgetting access to technology and aid for health-care…..it is this reciprocity, where India has helpedother countries with the supply of HCQ and vac-cine exports, that has in turn led to support fromother countries”. Is this to defend the Governmentfrom criticism for exporting/donating vaccines whenthe second surge raged in India? Four, “as part ofour global alliances, we also had commitments toCovax, so that they could distribute the vaccinesglobally…”. The Covax commitments came before

the Indian Government placed its order? Five, “a vaccination drive for such a largepopulation (India) cannot be completed within 2-3 months…. it would take 2-3 yearsfor the entire world population to get fully vaccinated”.

It puts paid to the dreams of vaccinating 70 per cent of the Indian population byDecember. Six, “we also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by theend of this year”. It means the committed Covax and commercial deliveries stand deferredas the SII is seized with honouring the Indian order made in May. The collaborationbetween the SII, Gavi and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation firmed up an initialorder of 10 crore doses in last August and subsequently revised the figure by anoth-er 10 crore doses. Seven, Adar Poonawala earlier said the vaccine shortage wouldcontinue till July, by which time the SII would augment production figures to 10 crorea month. As on May 19, 18,70,09,792 doses were given to people. That includes firstand second doses of Covishield and Covaxin. Around 11.7 per cent (14,17,55,662)of the Indian population received the first dose, while 3.34 per cent (4,04,84,941) receivedboth doses. That leaves a population of over 100 crore without any doses so far. Forherd immunity to be achieved, at least 70 per cent of the non-vaccinated population,or over 70 crore people, need to receive both doses. If the entire ramped up doses of10 crore of the SII are given to India, it will take seven months to give at least one doseto this segment. A second dose would mean double that amount of dosage.

Vaccine hesitancy

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021

06

Much adoThe Delhi Government, rightly concerned though it isabout children, has stoked an unnecessary controversy

Human ingenuity and the sense of cooperation among all countries are needed to beat the current distressing situation

PICTALK

Animals forage for food, during the COVID-19 lockdown in Delhi PTI

JS RAJPUT

The Serum Institute of India’s statement presents a confusing mix of developments

Future dependson compassion

These are not the best oftimes. Everyone has hisown version, own expe-rience, and most of it is

common: No one has ever expe-rienced such devastating anxiety,apprehensions and uncertaintyabout the days ahead. There is adisturbing sense as one receivesa call. Every conversation centresaround the near and dear onesbeing under the grip of COVID,and it is no more an exceptionto receive the devastating newsof people suddenly passing away.I received a call from a younglady, known to me ever since shewas a kid, some five decades ago.She devotedly looks after her 97-year-old father, who is in com-paratively good health for his age.She tells me that she is extreme-ly disturbed after receiving a callfrom her close relatives, who stayin a distant city.

When she received the call,and began to ask about the wel-fare of the family members onthat side, the caller brushed itaside and came directly to thepoint: “All of us are in isolationhaving tested Corona positive.We are upset and disturbed. Wedon’t know what will happentomorrow. Whatever happens,we shall not inform you as itwould serve no purpose.Likewise, we would request younot to inform us even if any fatal-ity occurs on your side.” Thisdaughter, already under tremen-dous tension, was just dumb-struck! She always thought shecould fall back upon them. As anelderly academic and familyfriend, I did my bit. In thisinstance, the old man is fine byGod’s grace and we hope to cel-ebrate his centenary in a coupleof years; hopefully, without anyCOVID restrictions. But will thisdaughter ever forget how she wasleft to fend for herself?

The unprecedented pan-demic’s onslaught has triggerednumerous tragedies across thenation, with people being unableto attend even the last rites oftheir loved ones. An estimatesuggests that 230 million Indianfamilies became poorer duringthe first wave. Humanity, how-ever, survives on Hope. Thingswill change, and humanity wouldcertainly come out of the excru-

SOUNDBITETEACHERS ARE FRONTLINE WORKERSSir — As the country continues to grapplewith the pandemic, the teachers’ fraternityhas been hit hard. Several teachers of theAMU, Delhi University and others, have fall-en prey to the deadly virus. The faculty ofvarious Government schools, too, has beenaffected by this scourge.

In fact, the Government school teach-ers, who have been rendering their servicesnot just in routine work but also in crucialnon-academic fields, are bearing the bruntof the pandemic the most. Thousands ofteachers have succumbed to the viruswhile on duty, in the panchayat elections inUttar Pradesh and other States.

But the UP Government is in the denialmode and has recently decided to compen-sate only three teachers, although the teach-ers’ organisations have listed 1,600 COVID-related deaths among the teachers andother school staff posted on election duty.This clearly demonstrates the Government’scallousness, lack of foresight and inability toassess the magnitude of the crisis.

Global institutions like the Unescohave called for teachers to be treated as a pri-ority group in the fight against the virus.The Government must designate them asfrontline workers and ensure that they arevaccinated on priority.

Vijay Singh Adhikari | Nainital

AREN’T WE ALSO RESPONSIBLE?Sir — In the history of our nation, there has-n’t been a period like this with so many peo-ple dying and falling ill due to a pandemicwhich, in its second coming, has taken theform of a terrible killer marching ahead.

Now who’s to be blamed for this? Well,we are known for pointing the finger at oneanother and, therefore, many people havestarted criticising the Prime Minister andthe Union Government for the sorry stateof affairs. Many citizens lambasted theElection Commission for conducting pollsduring such a time. Many criticised theChief Ministers of various States. The lead-ers and the public systems, including ourhealth system, might have erred somewherein tackling the pandemic but, above all this,

are we, the citizens of this great nation, alsonot deserving of reproach for the terribleplight in the country?

The Governments at the Centre and inthe States have their limits. They can cau-tion, warn, instruct, guide and implementrules and norms regarding proper COVIDbehaviour. Why don’t we realise that, dur-ing the lull in COVID cases a few monthsago, we completely forgot all norms — weignored the masks, the sanitisers and socialdistancing. We organised celebrations, weenjoyed festivities, crowded weddings tookplace. As they say, as we sow, so do we reap.

M Pradyu | Kannur

WORKING WOMEN’S WOES

Sir — First and foremost is a woman’s senseof self-worth, which goes a long way inbuilding confidence among women. Unlikethe caged parrots of yore, the modern

women are free to go out and achievethings in various fields with their confi-dence and conviction.

Women rule the roost in offices,companies and, at the same time, make ourdreams come true in our households aswell. They are confident beings and theywork and achieve targets. But in this pan-demic situation, the position is changingand the will to work for women is slowlydiminishing. To tackle the realities ofworkplace bias, business leaders need toembrace innovative approaches — chang-ing mechanics rather than the mindsets todesign the bias out and bring the equityin. Accelerating gender equality mattersnow more than ever.

MR Jayanthy | Navi Mumbai

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

No matter what the CPI(M) says, the exclu-sion of KK Shailaja Teacher from the newCouncil of Ministers, headed by Pinarayi

Vijayan, has hung heavy on the occasion of theswearing-in of the Chief Minister and hisCabinet colleagues. It has taken some shineoff the ceremony. The claim that it was theparty’s collective decision and not Pinarayi’sis very far-fetched. We are all aware thatPinarayi wields enormous power within theparty and no one dares to voice objections towhat he wishes. The LDF could have done with-out changing the horses midstream, as theysay. One hopes that the new Health Minister,Veena George, proves equal to the challenge

of leading the fight against COVID-19 as herpredecessor did. The new faces in the Cabinetare all up-and-coming leaders; they representthe State’s rich cultural ethos; they arepromising; they are sure to do their best forthe people to fulfil their aspirations andrealise their potential. Captain Vijayan shouldnurture the young Ministers without central-ising power in the CMO.

What is politically more substantive andsignificant is that a Left Front committed to sec-ularism assumes power for one more term, andconsecutively at that. We are confident that itwill do all that it can to improve the quality oflife for the State’s people.

We have to look at the new Governmentin the wider national context. It will be a bul-wark against the Right-wing Hindutva forces.It will seek a relationship with the Centre basedon cooperative federalism. Most importantly,it will preserve the State’s famed social amity.

It is expected that the Pinarayi VijayanGovernment’s policies will be people-centricand focus on welfare and development.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

Road ahead for the new Govt

I am determined to continue thisoperation until itsobjective is achieved:To restore quiet and security to

you, citizens of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister— Benjamin Netanyahu

We must allunderstand andagree, the sharedchallenges shall onlybe overcome throughshared efforts.

Union Health Minister— Harsh Vardhan

Goa Goa Goa... I'vebeen coming here for the past maybe25-30 years. I'venever seen Goa sodeserted.

Actor— Ronit Roy

Please considerproviding freeeducation at theNavodayaVidyalayas tochildren who havelost either bothparents or an earning parent onaccount of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congress leader

—Sonia Gandhi

We have faced theNew Zealand bowlers

before and have afair idea of how they

operate, the anglesthey use and we will

be prepared

India Test batsman

— Cheteshwar Pujara

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

AT PRESENT,EVERYONE SEEMS TOBE IMPACTED EITHER

DIRECTLY, ORINDIRECTLY. THINGSWILL CHANGE, ANDHUMANITY WOULD

CERTAINLY COME OUTOF THE EXCRUCIATING

STRANGLEHOLD OFTHE PANDEMIC.

HUMAN INGENUITYWOULD TRIUMPH

ONCE MORE, AS IT HAS SO OFTEN

IN THE PAST

The Coronaviruspandemonium

THE NITISH GOVERNMENT IS NEITHER HELPING

PATIENTS, NOR ALLOWING US TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF

BIHAR. THIS CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO NEGATIVE POLITICS.

— RJD LEADER

TEJASHWI YADAV

SHUNNING POLITICS, YOU SHOULD ARRANGE FOR

DOCTORS (AT YOUR OFFICIAL RESIDENCE). ASK YOUR

PMCH TOPPER FAMILY MEMBERS TO RUN THE FACILITY.

— HAM LEADER

JITAN RAM MANJHI

Anew viral disease named Coronavirus orCOVID-19 which became a worldwidepandemic was hitherto unknown,butemerged so far believed to be acciden-

tally inlate 2019 from the laboratory of China’sWuhan University’s School of Virology. Chinacame to know of it immediately in November,2019 but India was notified by WHO in lateJanuary, 2020. India’s Lock down was announcedlate night of March 25, 2020 and came into effectmidnight the same day. Parliament was in itsBudget Session from January 28, 2020 till March13, 2020. Five MPs contracted the virus but recov-ered in due course. However, one Ministerbecome a fatal victim of the virus.

In the research conducted for long, the US mil-itary research establishment and India’s TataInstitute for Fundamental Research through itsbranch in virology located in Bengaluru partici-pated in the Wuhan research to experiment onBats in Nagaland during 2017-18. The presentPrincipal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Ministerwas a prime mover in the project. As we discov-ered in the deposition by Ministry officials madeto the Standing Committee, the Nagaland BatResearch Project was implemented without for-mal clearance of the Modi Government. Becauseof my insistence, the Government agreed to con-stitute an Inquiry into the irregular Bat researchproject, especially since Chinese money was paidfor research conducted. Such disregard of proce-dures, necessary for clearance of foreign fundedresearch should never again be allowed withimpunity by the Government.

Because the Pandemic emerged In India sud-denly, followed by a drastic nation-wide lockdownwith just four hour notice through a televisionbroadcastby the Prime Minister Narendra Modithrew the nation into completepandemonium.There were no vaccines for theentire new virus and deaths were taking inunprecedented pace. People were stunned withthe seriousness of the illness that followed.Indians particularly were vulnerable because themajority lacked social protection and easy accessto quality health care and had meager productiveassets.

Nevertheless the team led by the Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan did a commendable dayand night work, brought the incidence downsteadily so much so the world began to felicitateIndia. But this led to celebration, and complacen-cy despite scientists in India warning a secondround could come soon which be a new more ter-rible variant. This did come like a tsunami com-pletely disrupting the medical infrastructure andthe disruption feeding on the lack of contingencyplanning for another more virulent variant.Nations which were praising India earlier now sud-denly began sneering at our pathetic situation andreferred to the new virus as the “Indian variant”.These countries have been shy to call the origi-nal Covid 19 a “Chinese Virus”.

The recent outbreak of second wave ofCOVID -19 and the oxygen shortages in Indiahave clearlypinpointed the lacunae in theGovernment administration.The Governmenthowever began devoting attention for producinganti Covid-19 vaccine. Despite India being thelargest and cheapest producer of vaccines in the

world, Modi government beganfocusing on a foreign imported vac-cine produced by a joint venture ofOxford University and SwedishAstra Zeneca. This vaccine did nothave clearance in US, EU or evennow in Sweden itself, not to men-tion Denmark and othernations.When it was announcedthat the Pune based Serum Instituteof India SII would get the exclusivecontract to produce Covishield, Iraised a public protest and alsorequested for a urgent meeting ofthe Parliament’s StandingCommittee to know why the BharatBiotech Ltd headed by a husbandDr. Krishna Ella & wife team, bothPh. Ds from the University ofWisconsin USA and settled inIndia, which could produce a whol-ly swadeshi vaccine, and muchcheaper, was denied the contract.

It was good that at first I got theUnion Health Ministry’s full sup-port and then the Prime Ministercalled an urgent meeting at latenight the same day announced theBharat Biotech would also get thecontract to produce Covaxin. Dr.Krishna Ella was one of those rarepersons who tweeted thanking mefor my efforts. Later the PrimeMinister also showed his faith bytaking the Covaxin two shots atAIIMS. Today, because of BharatBiotech we may be able to becomeself-sufficient by 2021 end. Unlikeother foreign vaccines, Covaxin hasthe best performance as far as thecollateral side effects are concerned.

Reputed scholarly magazines suchas Lancet have praised the Covaxinperformance as optimal. Accordingto the lead Editorial of EconomicTimes dated May 17, 2021, titled :“To Beat Variants, Go Big onCovaxin” and subtitled “It’s foundto neutralise all emerging variants,”it is stated that “ With a study in thepeer-reviewed journal, ClinicalInfectious Diseases, revealing thatindigenously developed Covaxin iseffective against all known variantsof COVID-19, the Governmentshould make increasing its produc-tion a chief priority.” This is the sec-ond best tribute after the interna-tional reputedLancet praisedCovaxin.

Where do we stand today inIndia in terms of ending the pan-demic and returning what weknow as regular freedom of life andliberty? The light at the end of thedark tunnel is visible but we cantrip again en route to the exit outfrom the darktunnel? Within thelatest variant of COVID-19 peak-ing around May 15 this year, if ourdiscipline does not flag as it didduring mid-March to May firstweek, as it did as exemplified bypandemonium of election rallies,Kumbh Mela, and sheer indisci-pline on the streets, we should berid of the latest variant inducedCOVID-19 pandemic.

There is no doubt that the med-ical infrastructure in India is weakbecause of the lack of requiredBudgetary allocation for Health,

years after years at less than 1.5 percent of the total budget. Even theFinance Minister displaying hertotal lack of application of mind, inher written speech which she readout in Parliament in February thisyear, that Health Ministry wouldget an increase of 137 per cent morethan last year’s revised estimate,when in fact as pointed out by theParliamentary StandingCommittee, it was barely above lastyear’s after adjusting for inflation.Such ignorant Ministers are thebane of the BJP government’s gov-ernance capability. This needs to berectified. That is why I had suggest-ed that the Prime Minister delegateby setting up a Crisis ManagementTask Force to be headed by anacclaimed efficient Minister such asNitin Gadkari.

We must also rethink thefuture of our environment andtackle climate change and environ-mental degradation with ambitionand urgency. Only then can weprotect the health, livelihoods,food security and nutrition of allpeople, and ensure that our ‘newnormal’ is a better onethan beforeever. The scenario is such that it isnow a test for those in power andauthority who have proclaiming“Vikas” and Aatmanirbhar Bharatto display accountability, respon-sibility and obligation. The govern-ing process suffered huge turbu-lence; the governed running hel-ter-skelter; and governance standstruncated.

There’s an urgent need to look at the pandemic in retrospect and, drawinglessons, to plan steps for the future. We must not let our discipline flag

KUMARDEEP BANERJEE

WHERE DO WESTAND TODAY

IN INDIA IN TERMSOF ENDING THEPANDEMIC ANDRETURNING TO

WHAT WE KNOW ASREGULAR FREEDOM

OF LIFE ANDLIBERTY? THELIGHT AT THE

END OF THE DARKTUNNEL IS VISIBLEBUT WE CAN TRIP

AGAIN EN ROUTE

TO THE EXIT. WITHTHE LATESTVARIANT OF

COVID-19 PEAKINGAROUND MAY 15

THIS YEAR, WESHOULD BE RID

OF THE PANDEMIC

One of my close friends called up a few days back to dis-cuss renovation of his office. This renovation is tailored moretowards making the small office COVID-prepared, from cre-

ating separate working spaces for individuals to having provisionfor different AC vents for as many as possible, and preferably abunch of private washrooms. This set up is to be used for not morethan 10 people using a fairly large open space called office. Hethinks the virus and its mutations won’t go away for the next cou-ple of years. There is greater anxiety in his communication, thedeep-seated fear of having experienced death of loved ones in afortnight which was frothing up. Overall, there is aloss of that ‘bounceback sentiment,’ which was almost infectious during the first waveand its aftermath in India. India’s central bank has termed “demandshock” being one of the critical factors to guide Indian economy.

Citizens of most metros, and those belonging to the affluent class(even though they form a miniscule percentage out of the total)have been devastated by a what seemed like a bomb that explod-ed in their neighborhood. This will have long term impacts.

The central government this time around carefully stayed awayfrom a nationwide lockdown learning from its experience last year(India had in 2020 imposed one of the strictest and lengthiest nation-wide lockdown). It instead widely publicized need for local/microcontainmentand strict adherence to COVID appropriate behavior.This translated to State governments (with their political polarities)deciding on the levels of lockdown and effective management ofsecond wave. The result (and we are yet to get over the secondwave) is many a times mis-managed, out of synch and mostly ajudiciary supervised handling of the pandemic. The time may notbe right to criticize any particular individual or political interest forthe entire mismanagement, however, emerging facts point out thata state government which worked like a team with the central gov-ernment, and had a sound bunch of experts including corporatecaptains and healthcare personal bin the backroom advisory panel,did control the pandemic quicker and safer. The second aspect thatmet with huge failure was in following COVID-appropriate proto-cols where we, as a nation, failed. Experts,scientists,epidemiolo-gists, doctors had all,for a year, been talking about the appropri-ate maskusage being the first vaccine against the yet to be under-stood virus. Their reason was simple that a mask worn properlyexposes the wearer to a very tiny fraction of the virus in contam-inatedenvironment, which the human body has a capacity to devel-op an immunity to (this is yet to be ascertained scientifically) andhence, a critical safety deterrent against infection and possible death.However, despite repeated warnings, since February, 2021, almost50 per cent of the population had forgotten thata virus was stillspewing across the globe. Festivals, political gatherings, in homeget togethers, outbound travels, shopping in neighborhoods or malls,there was visible alerts of impending fatalities due to the “no mask”carelessness. This aversion to masks dealt a heavy blow and evennow the nearly 98 per cent vulnerable population (as stated by healthministry) needs to be masked up before they get a vaccine.

The overall sentiment and questions on lives and livelihoodswill continue to rage, and it may be some time before India recov-ers from the second wave. We hope the democratic govern-ments and policy makers at central state or local administra-tion level don’t succumb to the lures of populist measures andthink long term for the nation.

(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.

India is profligate. Its eco-nomic policies are awayfrom realism dependent on

only one aspect of development- build, build and build more -the real estate that has virtual-ly bust with little activity any-where else at a time when thefiscal 2020-21 touched `14.1lakh crore deficit, 76 per cent ofrevised estimates of `18.5 lakhcrore, 31 per cent more than lastyear’s corresponding level of`10.4 lakh crore. It is a grim sit-uation. The government is onCharvak philosophy of borrow-ings without a thought how,who or when repaymentswould be made. It will impactmany future budgets - genera-tions - and the expectation of arecovery merely through GDPprojections is fraught with risksbecause most projections areunreal. The governmentthrough its extravaganza likethe central vista, roads, rail cor-ridors, temples and statues

wants to create an illusion ofboosting economy throughdoses of impractical expendi-tures. History abounds withmany misadventures, includingthe Alai Minar in Delhi, whichcould never be completed.

The real estate across thecountry is in deep crisis. Thecompanies have invested billionsin acquiring land but projectscould not even take off throughslowdown in 2019-20 and con-sequent lockdowns, job andwage losses and stoppages ofwork. It is hit by falling proper-ty prices except in Ayodhya,where land prices are shootingup as 40 more acres of land isbeing acquired to make an aus-picious figure of 108 acre. Theprices have been jacked up byspeculative projects around asupposed new tourist city.

The unprecedented scale ofthe impact of COVID-19 onIndian real estate can be gaugedfrom the fact that the sector has

incurred a loss of over `1 lakhcrore since the pandemic brokeout, according to a KPMGreport. The credit shortagebrought down the residentialsales from four lakh units in2019-20 to 2.8 lakh units in2020-21 across the top sevencities of India.

The work from home hasgiven a boost to Google,Amazon, Facebook, Apple andMicrosoft (GAFAM) tech com-panies turning into moneyminting machines. Amazonalone is said to generate $

80,000 revenues every minute.But it has ruined the real estateas work from home has hitdemand for workspaces ofabout 38 million square feet.These companies are siphoningoff funds from India leading toanother revenue crisis.

Amid such scenario the lat-est GDP figures are a misnomer:Industrial output rose 22 percent in March, on the back of a19 per cent decline a year ago.In reality, factory output shrunkalmost 10 per cent in 2020-21because of the lockdown, thebiggest shock to manufacturingactivity since 1982-83, accordingto Index of IndustrialProduction (IIP). The Marchspike needs to be seen in thecontext of an 18.7 per cent con-traction in March, 2020. In thefollowing months IIP numbersunderwent large contractions.

Retail inflation figures as perconsumer price index (CPI)slowed to 4.3 per cent as food

inflation comprising 39 per centweight has come down. Foodinflation “slumps” as vegetableprices came down to two percent from 4.9 per cent in March,2020. Vegetable prices fall by14.2 per cent in April, cereals andproducts contracted by three percent, biggest ever since January,2012. Crash in vegetables pos-sibly reflect fall in purchasingpower and supply disruptiondue to lockdown curbs. Thecereal and veggie price crash willhave adverse impact on farmincomes and possibly furtherconsideration for more cashdoles.

It is a reflection of the agri-culture policy that is not servingthe growers. How the threenew farm bills would impactfarm health should be a matterof concern. But retail inflation isto see additional headwinds inMay and June as fuel prices, aftera thaw during the state elections,are being spiked every day.

Another concern is the risingprices of edible oils of all sorts.Latest to be added after mustard,groundnut and soya oil is thepalm oil used by bakery andother processing units.

The rising fuel prices arealso reducing consumption lead-ing to distress for petrol pumpowners as their overall incomeslumps. But it is to increase com-modity prices, fare and freightcontinuously. A lopsided argu-ment that for revenue generationtax rises on fuel are must.

The governments forgetthat they are the largest ownersof vehicles in the country andeach rise drains large sumsfrom its coffers though itadversely affects the economy. Isthat a wise decision? Let thepolitical leaders have a rethink.

Another “achievement” isthe record $589 billion forexreserves. It is rising week by weekas imports, including petroleumslump. Crude oil import is at a

20-year-low as it falls 12 per cent.Export figures do not show anencouraging trend.

The pandemic has led to asuspension of several business-es of Tatas and other IT compa-nies. Wipro, TCS and Infosyshave deferred pay hikes. Relianceand OYO have cut wages.

The nation’s response tocorrection is not being seen. TheCongress-ruled Chattisgarh isthe only state to stop construc-tion of new governor’s house,assembly, chief minister’s house,residences of ministers andsenior officers, new circuithouse. It saves over `500 crore.

The centre also needs toconsider such wasteful expens-es on various unnecessary con-structions and pride in heritagebuildings like Parliament House.These may be symbolic butsends sharp messages of caringfor the causes of the people, par-ticularly the covid19 hit andseverely-hit economy.

The Govt is on Charvak's philosophy of borrowing without a thought as to how or when repayments would be made

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMN

MASK UP FOR AHEALTHY INDIA

To save lives and livelihoods, it is mustto give up our aversion to masks

SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The author is Memberof the Rajya Sabhaand Parliamentary

Standing Committeefor Health and Family

Welfare. The viewsexpressed are personal.

Economy already in crisis, real estate plays spoiler

SHIVAJI SARKAR

(The writer is a seniorjournalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Multiplex chain PVR Ltd onThursday said it is coveringthe cost of COVID-19

vaccination for its employees andtheir dependents numberingaround 10,000 across India aspart of measures to help itsemployees tide over the secondwave of the pandemic. Under its employee support programme,PVR said it is also providing medical assistance and supplies, fooddelivery, 24x7 Call Centre, hospitalisation and ambulance services.Commenting on the initiatives, PVR Ltd Chairman and ManagingDirector Ajay Bijli said,"...this pandemic's impact on the lives of ouremployees and their families is a personal crisis more than anything.Health and safety of our employees are of utmost priority, andtherefore, we introduced the comprehensive employee support carepackage with a free vaccine for all employees and their dependents."With the government's focus on nationwide vaccination, he saidconditions will improve certainly and being direct service providers,the company needs to ensure complete safety of customers alongwith the employees.

Education focussed non-banking lender AvanseFinancial Services on

Thursday reported nearly 73 percent jump in its profit after tax(PAT) at Rs 38 crore for thefinancial year ended March 2021.Avanse had posted a net profit ofRs 22 crore in FY20. However,the loan disbursal fell by 8.2 per cent to Rs 976 crore in FY21, asagainst Rs 1,063 crore in the year-ago period. There is a marginalimpact on the disbursement number due to the COVID-19pandemic and its subsequent impact on the education instructiondelivery module, the company said on Thursday. The year gone bywas an extremely challenging year, said Amit Gainda, CEO, AvanseFinancial Services. "The organization witnessed a significant growthin its profit after tax (PAT) as compared to FY20. PAT for FY21stands at about Rs 38 crore. Total loan disbursed during thisfinancial year is nearly Rs 976 crore contributing towards a networth of Rs 942 crore," Avanse Financial Services said.

Avanse Financial ServicesPAT jumps 73% to Rs 38 cr

The Trivandrum airport hashandled the transportation of9.76 metric tonnes COVID-19

vaccines, 300 oxygenconcentrators and 180 oxygencylinders till Wednesday, theAirports Authority of India (AAI)said on Thursday. India has beenbadly hit by a second wave ofcoronavirus infections, and hospitals in several states are reelingunder a shortage of vaccines, oxygen, drugs, equipment and beds."To overcome the oxygen crisis, a total of 300 oxygenconcentrators, 180 oxygen cylinders were transported by Indian AirForce aircraft like C-17, AN-32 till May 19 in Kerala via Trivandrum,"the AAI's statement noted. The Centre-run AAI owns and managesmore than 100 Indian airports, including the Trivandrum airport. "Atotal of 313 boxes (9.76 MT) of COVID-19 vaccines have beentransported through various airlines till May 19 through theTrivandrum airport," the AAI stated.

AAI: Trivandrum airport handlestransportation of 9.76 MT vax

Motilal Oswal Real Estate(MORE) on Thursday saidit has raised Rs 650 crore

fund for providing debt toapproved realty projects. TheMumbai-based companyannounced the first close ofIndia Realty Excellence Fund V(IREF V), its fifth real estatefund. The Fund, launched with a target corpus of Rs 800 crore, hasreceived commitments of Rs 650 crore. The amount has beenraised from high net worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices.The Fund is set up as an alternative investment fund (AIF CategoryII). IREF V will focus on providing senior secured debt in post-approval projects. It plans to deploy the capital in mid-income/affordable residential projects across the top seven cities inIndia while selectively investing in commercial projects. MOREaims to undertake 12-15 transactions through this fifth realty fund.Till date, MORE said it has funded 89 projects via 68 investmentsand made exits from 33 investments.

MORE raises Rs 650 crore for fifth realty fund

PVR provides support foremployees amid Covid

Sensex tumbles 338 pts;Nifty slips below 15,000

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled338 points on Thursday, dragged bylosses in index majors HDFC Bank,Reliance Industries and ICICI Bankamid weak global cues.

Slipping below the 50,000 mark,the 30-share BSE index ended 337.78points or 0.68 per cent lower at

49,564.86. The broader NSE Niftydeclined 124.10 points or

0.83 per cent to14,906.05.

O N G Cwas the

t o p

loser in the Sensex pack, sheddingaround 3 per cent, followed by SunPharma, PowerGrid, Axis Bank,HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel andKotak Bank.

On the other hand, M&M,IndusInd Bank, Titan, L&T and BajajFinserv were among the gainers.

Binod Modi, Head Strategy atReliance Securities, said domesticequities corrected for second consec-utive day as selling pressure in finan-cials, FMCG and metals draggedNifty below 15,000 levels.

"Further, weak global cues led byincreasing apprehensions amonginvestors post release of FOMCmeeting minutes also weighed onsentiments,”he stated.

Metal stocks witnessed heavy sell-ing pressure after China's move tocurb commodity prices in the coun-try, Modi added.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses inShanghai, Hong Kong and Seoulended on a negative note, whileNikkei was in the positive terrain.

Equities in Europe were largelytrading with gains in mid-sessiondeals.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Social media giant Facebooksaid it has received 40,300requests from the Indian gov-ernment for user data in thesecond half of 2020.

This was 13.3 per cent high-er from the January-June 2020period when India had made35,560 total requests, accord-ing to the Facebook's latestTransparency Report.

The US-based companyrestricted access to 878 itemsin India during the second halfof 2020 in response to direc-tions from the IT Ministry forviolating Section 69A of theInformation Technology Act,2000, including content againstsecurity of the state and pub-lic order.

According to the report,India made 40,300 totalrequests in the July-December2020 period, of which 37,865were legal process requestsand 2,435 were emergencydisclosure requests.

The number of totalrequests made by India rankedsecond to the US, which hadmade 61,262 requests during

the July-December 2020 peri-od.

Globally, governmentrequests for user data increasedby about 10 per cent to 191,013in the second half of 2020 from173,592 in the first half of 2020.

Information related to62,754 users/accounts wererequested in India, and somedata was produced for 52 percent of the requests.

“Facebook responds to gov-ernment requests for data inaccordance with applicablelaw and our terms of service.Each and every request wereceive is carefully reviewed forlegal sufficiency and we mayreject or require greater speci-ficity on requests that appearoverly broad or vague,” thereport said.

Facebook said that duringthe July - December 2020 peri-od, it had “restricted access inIndia to 878 items in responseto directions from the Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology for violatingSection 69A of the InformationTechnology Act, 2000, includ-ing content against security ofthe state and public order”. Ofthese, 10 were restricted tem-porarily, it added. “We alsorestricted access to 54 items incompliance with court orders.In response to an order fromJustice Alexandre de Moraes ofBrazil's Supreme Court relatedto 12 profiles and Pages of sup-porters of Brazilian PresidentBolsonaro, we restricted accessglobally to this content, includ-ing in India,” it added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian rupeeopened on a flat noteand inched higher by 3paise to 73.15 againstthe US dollar in earlytrade on Thursday amida muted trend in thedomestic equities.

At the interbank for-eign exchange, thedomestic unit opened at73.16 against the dollar,then inched higher to73.15, registering a gainof 3 paise over its previ-ous close. The rupee hadsettled at 73.18 againstthe US dollar. Choppylocal equities, weak Asiancurrencies and a strongerdollar will weigh on thelocal unit. At the sametime, anticipated dollarinflows and improvingsituation could capdepreciation bias,Reliance Securities said.

PNS n MUMBAI

The housing loan market in thecountry witnessed a reboundand registered a year-on-yeargrowth of 9.6 per cent in termsof portfolio outstanding (PoS)in the third quarter of FY2021,despite the COVID-19 pan-demic, says a report.

The portfolio outstanding ofthe sector stood at Rs 22.26lakh crore as of December2020, as compared to Rs 20.31lakh crore as of December2019, according to a quarterlyreport released by credit infor-mation bureau CRIF HighMark.

The industry had witnessed10.4 per cent growth in PoS inDecember 2019 quarter overDecember 2018 quarter.

The report said the growthwas flat in quarters endingMarch 2020, June 2020 and

September 2020 due toCOVID-19 pandemic, theresulting nationwide lockdownand suspension of most of thebusiness and lending activitiesin large parts of the country.

"However, there has been arebound in housing loan orig-inations in the quarter endingDecember 2020, leading to4.52 per cent growth in port-

folio outstanding," the reportnoted.

Affordable housing segment(ticket size up to Rs 35 lakh)constituted 90 per cent of themarket by volume and nearly60 per cent by value as ofDecember 2020. Within theaffordable segment, loansunder ticket size of Rs 15 lakhcomprised 70 per cent by vol-

ume and 38 per cent by value.According to the report,

young borrowers and millen-nials (less than 36 years), withhigh aspirations and commen-surate disposable incomes areincreasingly being seen as anattractive audience for housingloans, with a share of 27 percent in the annual originationsin FY20-21 (till December2020).

Public sector banks haveretained the largest marketshare in housing loans by valueand volume, with a near 45 percent share over the last threeyears. As of December 2020,the top five public sector banksconstituted nearly 30 per centof the housing loan industrybook by value, the report said.

As of December 2020, topfive private banks constituted15 per cent of the industrybook by value, the report said.

Housing loan market grows by 9.6 pc in Dec

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Income Tax Departmentis expected to launch a new e-filing web portal for taxpayers,which they use to file routineITRs and perform other tax-related works, early nextmonth, officials said onThursday.

The existing webportal will be shutfor six daysbetween June 1-6.

Officials saidthe new portal willbe made more user-friend-ly.

An order issued by thesystems wing of the depart-ment on Wednesday said the"transition" from the old portal- -www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in -- to the new --www.incometaxgov.in -- willbe completed and made oper-ational from June 7.

"In preparation of this launch

and for migration activities,the existing portal of the depart-ment at www.incometaxindiae-filing.gov.in would not be avail-able for a brief period of six daysfrom June 1 to 6," the order said.

T h eexiting

portalwill "not be available" to both thetaxpayers as well as Income TaxDepartment officers during thisperiod, it said.

"All officers may be directed

to fix any hearing or compli-ances only from June 10onwards to give taxpayers timeto respond to the new system,"it said.

Any work scheduled betweenthe taxpayer and the assessingofficer of the department maybe preponed or adjourned, the

order said.The e-filing portal isused by the taxpay-

ers to file theirindividual orbusiness catego-ry income taxreturns (ITRs)and also to raise

complaints seek-ing refunds and

other works with thetax department. The

taxman uses it to issuenotices, get responses from

the taxpayer and respond totheir queries and to communi-cate final orders like assess-ments, appeals, exemption andpenalties, among others.

IT Dept to launch new e-filingportal for taxpayers on June 7

PNS n HYDERABAD

Skyroot Aerospace, whichisinto building privatespacelaunch vehicles,on Thursdaysaid it raised USD 11 millionSeries A funding from investorsled by Greenko Groupfounders Anil Chalamalasettyand Mahesh Kolli.

According to a press releaseissued by the city-based start-up, the funding also saw par-ticipation from public listedentity Solar Group, a majorSpace and Defence supplier,Former-Whatsapp CBONeeraj Arora, existing investorMukesh Bansal (founder ofMyntra and CureFit),

Worldquant Ventures, GraphVentures, Sutton Capital,Vedanshu Investments, andfew angels.

Naga Bharath Daka, Co-Founder and COO of Skyroot,said the firm started bookingsfor launches starting frommid next year and is activelyengaging global customers.

"We intend to raise USD 40million more to fund ouraggressive growth plans overthe next few years," Daka said.

This is so far the largestinvestment in the Indian SpaceStartup Scene after the Indiancabinet approved private sec-tor participation in Spaceactivities, the release said.

Hyd start-up Skyroot raises $11 million Series A funding

PNS n NEW DELHI

A joint forum of ten cen-tral trade unions onThursday gave a call toobserve 'Black Day forIndian Democracy' onMay 26 by weaning blackbadges and putting upblack flags to press thegovernment for theirdemands on May 26.

Their demands includefree vaccination for all,free ration and Rs 7,500per month for the poor,repealing three farm lawsand minimum supportprice for crops and with-drawal of four labourcodes passed by Parlia-ment last year.

"It is time to call aspade a spade. We beginby observing 26th May asthe Black Day for IndianDemocracy, wearingblack badges, putting upblack flags.”

PNS n NEW DELHI

Inadequate advance notice andmiscalculations of cycloneTauktae's ferocity and its pathmay have contributed to afalse belief that oilfield opera-tions in the Arabian Sea neednot be paused, said top sourcesclose to ONGC whose vesselswith 700 onboard were struckby the storm.

A drillship of Oil andNatural Gas Corporation(ONGC) and three barges ofprivate contractor Afconsworking on the state-ownedfirm's oilfield went adrift aftertheir anchors gave away in thestorm on Monday night.

A massive day-night opera-tion by the Indian Navy, CoastGuards and ONGC vesselshelped save those on the drill-ship and two barges, but only186 out of 261 onboard accom-modation barge Pappa 305could be rescued. 37 personsare confirmed dead so far,while the remaining 38 are stillmissing.

"Installations used to findand produce oil and gas fromunder seabed are built to workin difficult weather conditions.In Mumbai, these installationsstand in water depth of between75 meters and 200 meters," saida source with direct knowledgeof the matter. World over off-shore oil and gas operations areneither shut nor personnelevacuated in every adverseweather event. "It is done onlyit is assessed that an eventwould be hard to handle," hesaid. "Such assessment primar-ily depends on the weatherinput received by the operator."

In the case of Tauktae, the

most severe storm to hit thewest coast in more than twodecades, the predictions onspeed, atmospheric pressureand route all went wrong, thesource said.

"More importantly, it takesabout a week or so to shutoperations, move vessels andshift people out as per the laiddown protocol for a mishap-free operation," he said. "In thecase of Tauktae, there wasn'tenough time to do so. Also, theforecast of path and ferocityalso were not accurate. Thetime that vessels had to shift tosurvival mode and not go forevacuation."

‘Little time, miscalculations have endedONGC vessels in cyclone, whirlwind’

PNS n BENGALURU

To serve customers in thenew normal times, State Bankof India launches a full powerYONO Savings Account thatcan be opened instantly withVideo KYC in 4 simple steps.Keeping in mind the need ofthe hour, the product propo-sition is built in a way that thisnew service will offer completepaperless and instant digitalsavings account opening expe-rience with just PAN andAadhaar card.

Amidst this backdrop,HyperVerge announced itspartnership with India's largestbank, SBI, with one of itsflagship products, the Video

KYC solution which aims toachieve a whopping 10ximprovement over the regularvideo KYC checks performedper day per agent.

RBI's Jan 2020 mandate onallowing Aadhaar-based V-CIP proved to be prophetic interms of its application espe-cially now that Banks, NBFCsand Fintechs face the her-culean task of delivering unin-terrupted services to their cus-tomers and maintaining busi-ness continuity.

Though the effects of theAtmanirbhar Bharat packageare slowly being seen in themarket, REs have been quickto adopt and drive pure digi-tal practices.

SBI and Hyperverge ramp up technology

PNS n MUMBAI

Citing the impact of the sec-ond wave of the pandemicover the economy and con-sumer sentiment, Swiss bro-kerage Credit Suisse has low-ered its nominal GDP growthforecast by 150-300 bps to 13-14 per cent, but expects astronger recovery in the sec-ond half as it sees the lock-downs having limited impacton tax collections.

Last month, NeelkanthMishra, the co-head of equitystrategy for Credit Suisse AsiaPacific, and India equity strate-gist, had told PTI that heexpected the real GDP to fall

to 8.5-9 per cent in FY22 dueto the more severe pandemicattack. The virus case load hascrossed the 25-million mark,death toll from the same isnearing 2.9 lakh mark, whichis one of the highest in theworld as the test positivity ratehas been around 15 per centfor long. "Our macro strategyteam expects the overallimpact on the pandemicrestrictions on GDP to beabout 150 bps in base case sce-nario. Even if we assume a 300bps impact if statewide restric-tions prolonged, nominalGDP growth in FY22 can stillbe around 13-14 per cent,"Jitendra Gohil said.

Covid: Credit Suisse cutsnominal growth forecast

PNS n NEW DELHI

Relaxo Footwears Ltdon Wednesday reporteda 97.2 per cent jump inprofit at Rs 102.17 crorein the fourth quarterended March 31, 2021,helped by higher rev-enue from operations.

The company hadposted a profit of Rs51.80 crore in theJanuary-March quarterof the last financialyear.

Its revenue f romoperations went up by38.3 per cent at Rs747.68 crore during theperiod under review asagainst Rs 540.58 crorein the same quarter ofthe previous financialyear, Relaxo Footwearssaid in a regulatory fil-ing.

Relaxo Q4profit jumps97.2 pc to Rs 102.17 cr

Rupee opens onflat note, rises 3paise to 73.15

Trade unionscall for BlackDay on May 26

Facebook received 40,300 govtrequests for user data from India

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FridayMay 21, 2021

SHIKHA DUGGAL

olours and art haveimpressed us somuch in these try-ing times!Coronavirus-themed street art

has sprung everywhere acrossthe world covering walls,roads, windows of many busi-nesses in different cities tem-porarily under lockdown dueto the pandemic. From pre-historic cave drawings toancient instruments, it isobvious that art has alwaysbeen and will continue to bean interwoven part of ourexistence, regardless of race,political leanings, or culturalbackground. Akshita Gandhi,the international artist, andphilanthropist is also creatingart as a way of expressingherself amid staying sociallyconnected while keepingphysical distance!

The renowned artist is allset to exhibit her artworktitled ‘The Lockdown seris’ atan online exhibition doingthe rounds as ‘Architecture ofThe Elsewhere’ at the reputedGallery Perchée. Coronavirusmay have unintended harm-ful effects but it couldn’tthreaten the place of art inour society! Lockdowns havehalted in-person museumvisits for sure, but now thatwe have online exhibitions, itis somehow catering to simi-lar. The rise of Covid-19 hasforced cultural institutions toexplore alternative digitalspaces with online exhibitionsand that’s the rise in virtualreality! Forx sector thatthrives on ixn-person con-nection, the loss of an audi-ence is disastrous, yetresilient galleries and evenentire art fairs, the pandemic,incredibly, is ushering in agolden age of virtual mediamaking good on the initialpromise of digital while offer-ing unprecedented access tosome of the best culturaltouchstones, that was previ-ously financially or physicallyinaccessible. While the worldhas never felt more physicallyisolated, digital media hasoffered a bridge, as well as anexciting range of experiences— “Lockdowns have indeedput a pause on the experiencego through when visiting amuseum or gallery in person!However, with the advance-ment of technology, it hasmade the world a more acces-sible and smaller place to livein. An online exhibition canbe viewed at any time, mak-ing it convenient for peoplearound the world to view asopposed to a physical show inanother country which is notaccessible to everyone. Withthe 360 degrees viewing apps,

it feels as though you are pre-sent in person making theexperience as real as possible.Of course, the physical expe-rience of viewing artworks isextremely special because youcan touch and feel pieces andeven post the lockdown, vir-tual shows cannot replace aphysical show but it is indeeda great extension of what canbe continued to reach morepeople internationally.”

‘Lockdown series’ is a col-lection of photographs takenin Mumbai and Zurich,before she even knew of apandemic! Both citiesbustling and untouched haveundergone alteration of sortsand by using them as a base,the multi-media artist usedvibrant colours and effects tocreate these digital pieces thatwork as a reminder that wecan transport ourselves intoany realm we like and evenduring the darkest timebecause art has the power toheal and teleport! Accordingto Pablo Picasso, ‘Art is a liethat makes us realise the

truth’ and by merging social,historical, and mythologicalconcepts, the master in artconcentrates more on break-ing out of stereotypical gen-der roles, grappling with thehistory of colonialism, andself-empowerment.

“Ever since I began explor-ing art, I have used paintsand photographs as my medi-um. Over the years, aroundthe globe, there has been adebate whether digital art iseven considered to be ‘art’because it has not beentouched by hand and is anunconventional art form. Ifinally took a leap of faith anddecided to experiment when Iran out of art supplies lastyear and found it pertinent tocreate art, because the lock-down brought out such var-ied emotions within me!Conventional artists think ofmediums in a particularmanner and I think that it isstarting to increasinglychange. Time spent on creat-ing work and complex pat-terns and traditional medi-ums are no longer used todecide whether a piece can besuccessful or not,” she adds.So, it does meet the necessarycriteria to be classified as‘real’ art.

Some say that the availabil-

ity of digital tools makes iteasy, that it’s cheating or theapp does everything for thecreators but isn’t that theworth of innovation and evo-lution? Just like the rest of theworld evolved, so did the artmarket — from auction hous-es, fairs, and galleries ramp-ing up their online offeringsto collectors getting a lotmore comfortable buyingworks based on high-resolu-tion photos and videos. Aworld without art wouldbe a devastatingly deso-late, meaningless, anddull one — devoid ofthe creativity andimagination we ashumans, possess. “Thephysical viewing of artculture has definitelybeen affected amidthese unprece-dented times. Artshows bring peo-ple not onlyfrom the art fra-ternity togetherbut also the peo-ple of a commu-

nity together! Being ableto see the nuances of theartworks closely is aunique experience, con-necting with the artist andseeing the magnanimityof sculptures, especiallybody immersive workswhich require the viewerto be physically presentat the show — have alltaken a hit. Technologystill has its limitationsbut it is definitely thenext best option wehave which is enablingartists from aroundthe world to cometogether. My upcom-ing online art exhibi-tion, for instance,introduces differentartists to each otherand I am sureartists are excitedto represent theircountry while atthe same timecreating pieces that hope tospread the message of merri-ment and hope during thesedifficult times.

Art has the power to healand spread awareness ofimportant social issues andexpress rebellion againstpatriarchy or injustice. Itimpacts communities toshape the world, aesthetics of

our homes and cities — allfor our future generations,”the fine artist who uses art asher only creative expression,shares. Even mundane lock-down routines of our livescan transcend into blissfuland sunny days through suchart. Akshita’s artworks cap-ture the realisation that thepetrichor and earthy winds of

the recent cyclone will keepthe city going even during thedownpour and traffic snarls.One can feel the magnifi-cence of the cities reverberat-ing through Akshita’s visionand eloquent expression, whoalso happens to be the spouseof famous actor TaherShabbir of Naam Shabanafame.

TECHNOLOGY

Ces we needoxygen butwe also needour fightingspirit back.WARRIORS is

our fighting spirit, sayssinger Shayan Italia, whowas born and bred inapna Secunderabad!WARRIORS was bornout of Covid-led down-time and Italia scoredthis song to fuel couragewithin his friends andfamily which has caughtinternational attentiontoo!

Released in 200 coun-tries including territo-ries, Shayan Italia’sWARRIORS is proving tobe a balm to the sorehearts of people all overthe world, and especiallyin India. From millionsof views, inspirationalcover versions frominstrumentals, tomemes, to heartfeltchoral depictions ofcourage and hope acrossa short video on socialmedia — WARRIORS’lyrics and upliftingmelody make it hard notto be inspired by thesong at the very first lis-ten. It’s a song that theworld needs today, asong for every man,woman, and child; forevery one of our heroes(doctors, policeman,nurses, firefighters, vol-untary workers, andmore) through these try-ing times and every indi-vidual that has sacrificedor was lost in this globalbattle that we stand unit-ed against.

Written, arranged,produced, and per-formed by Shayan whowas discovered by thelegendary interviewerDavid Frost, WARRIORSis recorded in next-gen-eration 3D audio, featur-ing an anthemic drumthat cuts through andspearheaded by an edgydynamic grand pianoperformance. Theensemble of vocals addsto Shayan Italia’s smoothdreamy vocals as icingon the cake making thissong perfect to listen toon loop.

A four-octave rangevocalist, Shayan Italia is

a global award-winningentrepreneur, philan-thropist, and musician,who started writingsongs after losing hismum to Cancer at ayoung age.

He hit gold in 2018with his heartfelt rendi-tion of the IndianNational Anthem thatwent on to become themost viewed nationalanthem of any countryworldwide ever. He wasnamed ‘Global Indian OfThe Year’ for this contri-bution to his country,India!

“I did not composeWARRIORS with anyparticular intention andmotive. It just came tome naturally. Locked upin my apartment andscrolling to the news,looking at zillions of

people struggling to sur-vive, we entered the sec-ond wave of Covidwhere this struggle hasexpanded ten times over,there is death anddestruction all over. Ibelieve we need tomuster up our strengthand courage is the needof the hour! It is asimportant as oxygen.Yes, we need Oxygenbutt we also need ourfighting spirit. We can’tback down. India is atthe centre of the world’sattention now, and weare going through a lotand I’m sure we willcome out of this crisistoo. In my own littleway, I’m trying toencourage people. WAR-RIORS, perhaps, can beour anthem or war cry”,says Shayan Italia.

oard games withfriends and fami-ly when we youwere younger,used to be somuch fun and

hours would go by in a jiffy,without you even realising.How times have changed...

Now that most of us arecooped up indoors, virtualgames such as Ludo,Monopoly or UNO are a

welcome distraction andhave taken up the roleplayed by traditional boardgames of bringing peopletogether.

In order to break themonotony while sustainingsanity in these times, hereare a few games that youcould play on your smart-phones along with friendsand family even if they arenot around.

Monopoly

Monopolyis a classicgame thatneeds nointroductionand has nowbeen updatedfor smart-phones. It isone of themost populargames forfamily andfriends today.One couldeven call it aneducationalgame since it provides knowledge about investments tothe players. By rolling dice and moving pointers, every-one gets to earn some Monopoly money and have fun. Itis currently available for Android devices.

Ludo Emperor

Play Ludo like neverbefore with LudoEmperor. It’s theworld’s fastest ludogame with unique andengaging gameplay.You can play withfriends or play onlineto clash against youropponents, defendyour fort, attack ene-mies with dragons,goblins and cannons.Reach the victorysquare to become anemperor. This game isavailable for free inGoogle Play Store andApp Store.

Virtual gamestake front seat

Draw Something

Draw Something brings to lifePictionary (if you are old enough toknow what that is, congratulations!).This is a simple game which allowsfamily members to challenge each otheron drawing items based on descriptions,and unsuspecting participants have toguess the word. You can also play thisgame with people around the world.This game is available for android andcan be downloaded for free.

UNO

This is another interac-tive and entertaininggame based on a tradi-tional card game. Playerscan earn points by mak-

ing strategic moves onyour smartphones. Thegame has been designedto get everyone involvedand is available forAndroid users.

Among Us

It is one of the most populargames across the globe, cur-rently. You can play this gameover local servers or onlinewith four-ten players at a time.Here you need to prep yourspaceship for departure but

have to be aware as one will bean impostor hell-bent onkilling everyone. Crewmatescan win the game by complet-ing their tasks or voting out theimposter off the ship. You candownload the game for free onGoogle Play Store.

B

Y

Waging and winningthe war against Covid

‘I took to digital art when I ranout of supplies. Conventionalartists think of it in a certainway and that has beenchanging. Traditional mediumsare no longer used to decidewhether a piece can be

FACILITATING ART

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

10

Hyderabad Friday May 21, 2021what’s brewing?

FUN

etween theAmaltas, themango andartist OliviaFraser’s pris-matic flower

and bee series, the suiteof works offers succourto the soul in troubledtimes of sorrow andtragedy. GrosvenorGallery London presentsher exhibition — IndianSummer — which fea-tures a selection ofOlivia’s latest body ofworks, all executed inthe past year during hertime spent betweenIndia and the UK.

Being in and out oflockdown, Olivia turnedto and found solace innature. Whether it wasamong the blossoms ofthe Amaltas trees or thebounty of sweet Indianmangoes, the spiritualconnections associatedwith nature provided aboon to the soul and apleasure to the sensessignalling a hope for thefuture.

“I painted these worksduring the first lock-down in India, just asthe summer heat wasnotching up into theearly forties (degrees).As a Northern Scot,even after all these yearsin Delhi, I find extremeheat challenging, butwhen the Amaltas trees(the Indian laburnum)burst into bloom in May,their golden boughslight up and lift thestreets of Delhi out oftheir hot torpor,” saysOlivia.

She also adds that sheis fascinated by the idea

of harnessing the sensesduring meditation. Shestates that when she cre-ates a Bloom with bothbee and flower petals,she is drawing on theidea that the bee andflower become one as inBhramari, which is ayogic asana involvingthe sound of the bee.Look closely and thework is more like aninsignia of surreal splen-dour. The petals of thebloom and the wings ofthe bees have aboutthem a fulsome lush-ness. Anatomical perfec-tion and precision is asimportant as botanicalmeticulousness. At onceyou know that Oliviahas a deepened sense ofboth the garden ofearthly delights as wellas yogic symbolisms andevocations.

In Bloom, the blue

Lotus flower is sur-rounded by two goldenbees. The lotus flowerhas ancient sacred asso-ciations within the art ofIndia. As a flower thatblooms out of the mud,it is associated withpurity, perfection, resur-rection and spiritualgrowth. The lotus alongwith the colour blue areboth used to depict LordKrishna in Hindumythology.

She quotes theGheranda Samhita C1700 and says, “Slowlydraw in air and performBhramari Kumbaka,exhale it very slowly andthen the sound of the

bee will arise. On hear-ing the sound of the beefrom within, lead themind there. Samadhiwill occur, together withthe bliss arising fromthe realisation ‘I amthat’.”

The Amaltas trees andmangoes depicted inIndian Summer I and IIare a reminder of thesummer season in Indiaand the joy the seasoncan bring. “I watchedthe Amaltas tree outsidemy studio window comeinto its sunshine bloomover the course of theweeks that I was paint-ing this.” Olivia’s contin-ued interest in yoga, the

different visualisationsused in meditation andnature itself (an innerand outer vision) havealso influenced thesenew works.

She first came to Indiain 1989 and had her firstshow in Delhi in 1991.Following in the foot-steps of her ancestor,James Baillie Fraser whopainted India, its monu-ments and landscape inthe early 1800s, Oliviaset out to continuewhere her ancestor hadleft off, painting thearchitecture of India andits people. James BaillieFraser also commis-sioned local artists topaint what has becomethe famous ‘FraserAlbum’ — the greatestmasterpiece of CompanySchool Painting portray-ing the different types ofpeople and their jobs,crafts or castes againststark white back-grounds. This hybridform of painting whereIndian artists createdsomething that mixedtechniques and ideasfrom the East and Westhas greatly influencedOlivia’s work during the1990s.

Since then, she hasstudied the traditionalIndian miniature paint-ing technique underJaipuri and Delhi mas-ters, and now uses thisin her work with itsgem-like stone colours,its unique miniaturebrush work, and itselaborate decorative andburnished surfaces.Having been, especiallyinfluenced byNathdwara pichwaipainting in recent years,Olivia has been explor-ing its visual language,honing it down to createone of her own thatseeks to convey the veryessence of theRajasthani tradition.

(The exhibition openedon May 17 at the presti-gious Cromwell Place inLondon.)

SOLACE IN NATURE

Artist OLIVIA FRASER’slatest exhibition — IndianSummer — features aselection of her latest bodyof works, all executed inthe past year during hertime spent between Indiaand the UK.

B

ood grains areingrained in ourculture, but thereare better alterna-tives. Did youknow, humans

require more than 20 miner-al elements for the body tofunction properly?

Calcium (Ca), one of theessential macro minerals, isneeded in relatively largequantities in the diet tomaintain good overallhealth. There is one ingredi-ent which is not only simpleto prepare, but also entailsmany health benefits —Millets.

Prabhu Gandhikumar Co-Founder TABP Snacks andBeverages shares simpleways prepare and use mil-lets: Boosts Immunity Level

Millets are high source ofantioxidants and thereforeare considered as an immu-nity booster to flush outharmful radicals from thebody. It aids your body’sdetoxification by supplyingantioxidants such asquercetin, curcumin, ellagicacid, and other useful cate-chins, which aid in the elim-ination of toxins and theneutralization of enzymes inyour organs. Thus, prevent-ing variety of health issues.

Aids and manages weightloss in humans

Millets help you loseweight since they are low incalories and gluten-free.They’re high in complexcarbohydrates and can help

health-conscious peoplereach their fitness goals eas-ily. Millets also help to loweryour cholesterol levels andkeep your weight in check.

Helps in digestion

Millets have a high fibercontent, which helps withdigestion and prevents con-stipation, bloating, and acid-ity. Good digestion avoidsdigestive complaints whichhumans generally makes,like gastrointestinal cancerand kidney/liver complaints.

Reduces cardiovascu-lar risks

Millets are high in essen-tial fats, which provide ourbodies with their own natur-al fats.

It also prevents us fromstoring excess fat in ourbodies, lowering our risk ofhigh cholesterol, paralysis,and other heart problems.These ‘magic’ grains, asmany call them, containpotassium, which helps tocontrol blood pressure andincrease circulation.

Millets fight back type-2 diabetes

Millets, as you might havenoticed, are high in magne-sium, a mineral that is criti-cal for starch digestion.Magnesium is needed forthe production of many car-bohydrate-digestingenzymes, including thosethat regulate insulin action.Magnesium-rich wholegrains can help reduce therisk of type 2 diabetes. Inaddition, it can help to pre-vent osteoporosis and bonedamage.

When embarking on ajourney of healthy living orattempting to lose weight,you do not deprive yourselfby refusing to eat; rather,you substitute those foodsthat do not help in weightloss with healthier foodsthat promote good health.Millets will keep you fit andstrong for the rest of yourlife. It provides a significantamount of nutrients for ourhuman diet. Millets shouldbe a part of your diet forsolid, healthy bones!

FROM WEIGHT LOSS TOSTRONG BONES, HEALTH

BENEFITS OF MILLETS

F

11

tollywoodHyderabad Friday May 21, 2021

he second season oftheir popular webseries The FamilyMan sure marks afirst for the film-maker duo of Raj

and DK.“We have not been the

‘sequel kind of people’ untilnow. The Family Man season 2is literally the first time that weare continuing something fromwhere we stopped. We willhave to get around to doingmore sequels soon, I suppose,”says Krishna DK, who prefersgoing by the name DK in theprofessional circuit, about co-helming the extension of astory on screen for the firsttime.

The second season of their

2019 espionage action thrillerseries premieres on June 4.Manoj Bajpayee returns in thestarring role of NIA agentSrikant Tiwari, along withPriyamani, Sharib Hashmi,Sharad Kelkar, Sunny Hinduja,and Shreya Dhanwanthary inpivotal roles.

The casting that particularlyseems to excite Raj and DK isof South actress Samantha star,who makes her digital debut asthe antagonist in the new sea-son. She plays a terroristnamed Raji.

“Samantha brings a wholenew flavour to The Family Manbecause she is playing some-thing she has never playedbefore, a completely 180-degree contrast to what she hasdone earlier. She brings in avery power-packed femalecharacter that is way strongerthan people would think. Shebrings in a really strong punchto the story,” says RajNidimoru about the season’shighlight casting.

He adds that there wasn't

much scope to monitor seasonone's reception in order tochange the new season. “Wehad started shooting and writ-ing (season two) even beforeseason one came out. So, wedidn’t have to worry aboutwriting it based on theresponse. We were fine, exceptmaybe like a five per centtweak,” Raj reveals.

While not much is beingrevealed about the story of thesecond season, Raj and DK,who hail from Chittoor,Andhra Pradesh, tell you thesetting is a region they are“kind of familiar with.”

“Season two is more per-sonal and a lot moreintense. It is also kind ofcloser to the heart because thefocus shifts to a region we arekind of familiar with,” Raj says.

The setting and the storylinewill usher in novelty but thedirector duo has ensured thetone of the show remains thesame. “The tone and intentionof season one are true to sea-son two — essentially, that is

the spirit ofthe show. It'sjust thatbecause thestory moves to adifferentregionof

India, therealities of thatregion come tolight. The various ele-ments including thepolitics of the region,

come to light,” DK says of theshow, which returns onAmazon Prime.

Will there be more seasonsof the series after the second?“We have lots of stories (formore seasons) but it is up tothe platform, up to Amazon, tofigure when and what to do,”Raj grins.

For now, their immediatefocus after the launch of seasontwo of the series is their pend-ing projects. There is a seriescoming up with ShahidKapoor, plus a couple of filmassignments.

“We have a coupleof films we were

planning to dobefore thepandemichit, so nowwe’re tryingto pick upthe piecesand figureout how,

when, andall of thatstuff,” Raj

Nidimorusums up.

The secondseason of their2019 espionageaction thrillerseries premiereson June 4. Theshow will seeSamanthabringing in awhole newflavour becauseshe playssomething shehas never playedbefore, acompletely 180-degree contrastto what she hasdone earlier

T

r NTR turned a yearolder on Thursday,and social media hasbeen flooded withmessages and wishespouring from every

corner of the country with fansand celebrities sending love andheartfelt birthday wishes to theYoung Tiger. On his birthday, themakers of the most awaited filmRRR released the look of Jr NTRfrom the film.

Jr NTR also took to Twitterand revealed, “It’s been a plea-sure to play this intense role and

I am happy to introduce to youall, one of my biggest challengesso far. Komaram Bheem fromRRR Movie. (sic)”

The actor sports a muscularbody in the poster.

Recently during a media inter-action, about his preparation forRRR, Jr NTR had said, “I was puton a hectic training program forabout 18 months. I had toachieve the right physicalappearance. I was 71 kilos beforethat for another movie, and I hadto gain about 9 kilos of musclemass.”

NTR sports a jaw-dropping look

Manchu Manojto help 25,000 Covid-hit families

n these unprecedentedtimes, businessmen,celebrities, and thecommon public havebeen coming out tohelp each other to their

capacities to beat the pandemictogether.

Manoj Manchu is one of thefirst actors from Tollywood tocome forward and help theneedy when the first wave of -19hit the country. It is known newsthat he distributed food, gro-ceries, and other essentials then.On his birthday on Thursday, theactor announced that he wouldbe donating household essentialsto 25,000 families in both Telugustates — Telangana and AndhraPradesh that were badly hit dur-

ing the second wave of Covid-19.Kits were prepared with the

essential items which will easethe burden of the families suffer-ing due to the Covid-19 andlockdown.

Manchu Manoj released astatement that reads, “On theoccasion of my birthday I wouldlike to send out a lot of happi-ness and great health to everyonewho has been affected by thisCoronavirus. Would like to takethis opportunity to thank allfront-hand life saviours who arerisking theirs and their familylives for protecting the world.”

On the work front, ManchuManoj will be seen playing thelead role in Aham Brahmasmi,for which he shed 15 kilos.

umours have been rife for a longtime now that National award-winning actress Keerthy Sureshwill marry a businessman soon, analliance chosen by her parentsMenaka and Suresh Kumar.

However, the actress refuted the rumourssaying, “My wedding news has come as a

sur-

prise to me as well. I don’t know how thisstarted to circulate in the film industry. Letme make it very clear to everyone that I donot have any such wedding plans right now.I am not going to tie the knot any timesoon.”

I will let everyone know if there is anymajor occurrence in my life. Presently, I amfully committed to my career in the filmindustry. Work is above anything,” sheadded.

On the work front, Keerthy Suresh is cur-rently working with Telugu superstarMahesh Babu in the much-hyped big-budgetmovie Sarkaru Vaari Paata, under the direc-tion of Parasuram. In this film, MaheshBabu is playing the role of a bank employee,and Keerthy as his junior colleague.

ctor Dhanush’sback-to-back hitsare making him themost sought-afteractor in both Tamiland Telugu indus-

tries. His recently releasedmovie Karnan, which wasdirected by Mari Selvaraj,reportedly grossed good num-bers at the box office.

It is already learnt thatKarnan will be remade inTelugu and the producerBellamkonda Suresh hasbagged the Telugu remakerights of Karnan in which hisson Bellamkonda Sai Srinivaswill play the lead role. Nowwe have reports coming inthat Bellamkonda Suresh isplanning to rope SrikanthAddala to helm Karnanremake for his son.

Srikanth Addala is current-ly working for Narappa, star-ring Venkatesh Daggubati andPriyamani which is a remakeof Tamil film Asuran that alsohad Dhanush play the leadrole.

It is to be seen whetherSrikanth Addala agrees tohelm the Karnan remake forBellamkonda Sai Srinivas ornot.

In Karnan, Dhanush playedthe role of a social fighter,who battles for his village.Now, it will be interesting tosee how Karnan Teluguremake will be made —whether any changes will bemade from the original to suitTelugu audiences’ tastes.Karnan will be Dhanush’seighth movie to be remade inTelugu.

llu Arjun isknown for hiscool, demurand helpingnature.According to

the latest Bunny decidedto help his entire teamget vaccinated. Sourcesreveal that Allu Arjunmade special arrange-ments and ensured thatall his employees andtheir family membersget the vaccine.

There is a vaccineshortage in the countryand many have not gotthe second dose. Thespecial drive hasreceived appreciationfrom all quarters. Bunnyrecently recovered fromCovid after undergoing

quarantine and treat-ment. Allu Arjun is cur-rently busy with hisupcoming entertainersPushpa under the direc-tion of Sukumar and hasprojects with VenuSriram, Prashant Neeland is in talks withGautam Tinnanuri andBoyapati Srinu for hisnext. Pushpa is releasingin two parts across Indiain many languages.

Allu Arjun's specialvaccination drive

J

I R

A A

Work is above anything, says Keerthy

Srikanth Addala to

helm Karnan remake?

BEFORE THE FAMILY MAN 2,WE NEVER WERE THE

SEQUEL KIND: RAJ AND DK

sport 12HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | MAY 21, 2021

SHAKIB RETURNS TO ODI SQUAD DHAKA: All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has beenincluded in Bangladesh's 15-member ODIsquad for the first two of their three-matchseries against Sri Lanka in Dhaka on May 23 &25. He had missed Bangladesh's previousseries against NZ due to a thigh injury.

RUDISHA WILL MISS TOKYO 2020 GENEVA: Two-time Olympic 800-meterchampion David Rudisha will not defend histitle at the Tokyo Games. Rudisha's agent,Michel Boeting, told AP on Thursday thatTokyo was “out of the question” for Rudishabecause of a persistent hamstring problem.

2 ROWERS INCLUDED IN TOPSNEW DELHI: Olympic-bound rowers Arjun LalJat and Arvind Singh and wrestlers SeemaBisla and Sumit Malik were on Thursdayincluded in the core group of the TOPS of theSports Ministry. The ministry also announcedthat Vinesh Phogat will continue trainingoverseas till the Tokyo Games as her proposalwas cleared by the Mission Olympic Cell.

DIAS WINS FWA AWARDLONDON: Manchester City defender RubenDias has been voted the Football Writers'Association's footballer of the year, it wasannounced on Thursday. The Portugalinternational was a comfortable winner aheadof Tottenham forward Harry Kane and Cityteammate Kevin De Bruyne.

SREEJESH IN ATHLETES’ COMMITTEENEW DELHI: Star India hockey teamgoalkeeper P R Sreejesh was on Thursdayappointed as a member of the FIH Athletes'Committee during the virtual meeting of theworld body's Executive Board. He was one ofthe four new members appointed by the EB.

SHAMMI RETURNS AS SLC PREZCOLOMBO: Shammi Silva was electeduncontested for a second term as presidentof Sri Lanka Cricket in the polls held onThursday. He will be at the helm till 2023.

PSL MATCHES IN ABU DHABI KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board is setto stage the remaining matches of the sixthedition of the Pakistan Super League in AbuDhabi after receiving all outstandingapprovals & exemptions from the UAE Govt.

WI TEST PLAYERS RECEIVE VAXST LUCIA: 13 members of the West Indiesred-ball squad, including players and supportstaff, have received Covid-19 vaccinations,CWI said. While 11 players and support staffreceived their first dose of the vaccine, twosquad members got their second jab in StLucia, where they are preparing for theupcoming South Africa Tests. Agencies

shortpasses

AFP n REGGIO EMILIA

Andrea Pirlo insisted hewanted to continue as

Juventus coach after lifting hissecond trophy this season in theCoppa Italia final.

The dethroned leaguechampions beat Atalanta 2-1 towin the Italian Cup for the 14thtime after winning the SuperCup in January.

Federico Chiesa scored thewinner with quarter of an hourto go after Dejan Kulusevskistruck after half an hour, in agame played in front of fans forthe first time in over a year.

“It was a great match,between two beautiful teamswho fought to the end, a finalworthy of this name, also a bigcelebration for the public, witheverything that has happenedthis season,” said Pirlo, whoturned 42 on Wednesday.

“I would really like to sit onthe Juventus bench again nextyear,” he continued. “I think I didmy job well day by day, trying towin finals. I would like to con-

tinue, I love this club.”Atalanta coach Gian Piero

Gasperini, 63, was denied afirst trophy of his coachingcareer, and his club’s second tro-phy after the 1963 Coppa Italia.

“It’s a disappointment,” saidGasperini. “We are happy to beat this level, to be able to play thistype of game and to qualify forthe Champions League for thethird consecutive season.”

Gianluigi Buffon was in theJuventus goal for the final timein his career and the veteran

keeper was solid on the nightwinning his sixth Coppa Italia 22years after his first with Parma,where he played alongsideChiesa’s father Enrico.

It was Juventus’s first CoppaItalia since 2018, having finishedrunners-up last year to Napoli.Atalanta also lost the 2019 finalto Lazio.

Ronaldo failed to score onthe night but has now won everytrophy in three of Europe’s fivemajor leagues — England, Spainand now Italy.

Juve win Coppa Italia title

AFP n PARIS

Paris Saint-Germain have adomestic double in their

sights after they won theFrench Cup by beatingMonaco 2-0 in Wednesday’sfinal at the Stade de France.

Goals from Mauro Icardiand Kylian Mbappe won alargely uninspiring final forPSG who now go into theweekend’s final round of Ligue1 fixtures with a record-equalling 10th league titlestill a possibility.

The French champi-ons have now won theFrench Cup six times inthe last seven sea-sons havingreached the finalevery year since2015.

It was alsothe second tro-phy of coachM a u r i c i oPochettino’s man-agerial career afterhe won theChampions Trophyfor PSG in January,

although this will for manycount as his first major honour.

“We work every day toexperience this kind of feeling,reward and recognition,” saidMbappe.

“It’s the work of a wholegroup, staff, all the peoplewho work every day for us, theclub and of course the support-ers who couldn’t be there. Wethink a lot about the fans andthis title is for them as well.”

Monaco meanwhilecontinue their wait to winthe French Cup for the firsttime since 1991, in their firstfinal since 2010 when they

were also beaten byPSG.

Niko Kovac’sside have how-ever had a pos-itive seasonand can finishit on a happi-er note at the

weekend byqualifying for theC h a m p i o n sLeague for thefirst time since2018.

Sixer of FrenchCups for PSG

AFP n BURNLEY

Liverpool set up a dramaticfinal-day battle to qualify for

the Champions League with avital 3-0 win at Burnley, whileTottenham’s bid to reach theEuropa League suffered a blowin a 2-1 defeat against AstonVilla on Wednesday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side movedinto fourth place in the PremierLeague thanks to goals fromRoberto Firmino, NathanielPhillips and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Liverpool are above fifth-placed Leicester on goal differ-ence, with the Reds on +24 andthe Foxes on +20.

If Liverpool win their finalgame at home to Crystal Palaceon Sunday, they should finish inthe top four and salvage a diffi-cult campaign that saw themtamely surrender the title toManchester City.

Leicester host Tottenham onSunday, while third-placed

Chelsea, one point aboveLiverpool, travel to Aston Villa.

Firmino put Liverpool oncourse for their fourth consec-utive victory with a clinical fin-ish from Andy Robertson’s 43rdminute cross.

Phillips got the second goalin the 52nd minute with a head-er from Sadio Mane’s cross forhis first goal for the club.

Oxlade-Chamberlain lashedin Liverpool’s third in the 88thminute.

“We had to win the ‘semi-final’ and we did. Nothing isdecided yet but we improved ourposition and we have the final,”Klopp said.

“That’s what we needed. It’swhat we deserve because thiswas a top performance.”

Fifth and sixth place finish-es secure a spot in next season’sEuropa League, while seventhplace brings entry into a play-offfor the new Europa ConferenceLeague.

Tottenham will have to waituntil their last game of the sea-son to discover their Europeandestiny.

A second defeat in their lastthree games left them in seventhplace, level on points witheighth-placed Everton and threepoints behind sixth-placed WestHam.

They will have to beatLeicester and hope West Hamlose to Southampton to piptheir London rivals on goal dif-ference.

Liverpool move into top 4

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Indian women’s cricketteam will compete in its

maiden Day-Night Test fromSeptember 30 to October 3when it tours Australia this year.

The match will be played inPerth, which hasn’t hosted aDay-Night game as yet, CricketAustralia said after BCCI sec-retary Jay Shah Shah made theinitial announcement.

“Taking forward our com-mitment towards women’scricket, I am extremely pleasedto announce that Team India@BCCIwomen will play in theirfirst-ever pink ball day-nightTest later this year in Australia,”Shah tweeted.

The Indian women’s team,which will play its first Test inseven years from June 16 inEngland, will compete inanother one during the tour ofAustralia.

The team will also playthree ODIs (from September19 to 24) and as many T20Imatches (from October 7 to 11)Down Under.

India last played a Testagainst Australia in 2006.

The pink ball Test betweenIndia and Australia will be

only the second such match tobe held in the history ofwomen’s cricket.

The only Day-Night

women’s game played so farwas between Australia andEngland at Sydney inNovember 2017 which ended

in a draw.Preparing for both the

England and Australia Testwill be a challenge since thewomen don’t play with red balleven on the domestic circuit.

“It will be a challenge forsure but the good thing is thatwomen are getting to play Tests,”a former India player said.

“The pink ball game inAustralia will be a tougherchallenge as the girls havenever played with that ball butI am sure they will get to pre-pare well for it. A few practicegames will also be needed,” sheadded.

India W to play 1st D/N Test in Aus

PTI n SYDNEY

Former Australia batsmanMike Hussey, who tested

positive for Covid-19 in IPL’sbio-bubble, has advocated mov-ing this year’s T20 World Cupfrom India to the UAE as he feelsteams will be “nervous” to trav-el there because of the ragingpandemic.

Batting coach Hussey wasamong three members of theChennai Super Kings contingentwho contracted the virus duringthe IPL, which had to be sus-pended after cases were detect-ed in four teams.

“I think it’s going to be verydifficult in my view to play thattournament in India,” Husseytold Fox Cricket upon his returnto Sydney, where he is undergo-ing a 14-day quarantine.

Hussey had also spent twoweeks isolating in India aftertesting positive for the virus inDelhi from where he was trans-ported to Chennai in an airambulance.

“We’re talking about eightteams in the IPL. I think thereare probably similar number,

maybe more teams coming infrom overseas (for the T20World Cup), there’d be morevenues. As I said earlier, ifthey’re playing in different cities,that is when the risk goes up.

“I think they’ll have to looksome pretty big contingencyplans, perhaps looking at theUAE or somewhere like that thatcould host the World T20. Ithink there will be a lot ofcricket boards around the worldthat’d be pretty nervous aboutgoing back to India for a crick-et tournament," said Hussey.

UAE has already emerged asthe back up venue and the ICCis likely to take a call on thetournament on June 1.

Melbourne: Australia all-rounder Ellyse Perry reckonsthe presence of skilful battersin the Indian women’s teamwill make the pink ball Test awell-contested affair despitethe conditions at Perth beingmore suited to the hosts.

“It’s an absolutely wonder-ful venue for a women’s Test.The pitch provides that little bitof extra pace and bounce, theball carries through really well,

there’s a little bit of sidewaysmovement,” Perry was quotedas saying by cricket.com.au.

“That’s certainly in (our)favour … our conditions andthe Australian style of cricketbut having said that, looking atthe Indian team, some of theskills of their players, particu-larly their batters, it’s going tobe a really well-contested Testmatch and a great opportuni-ty for both sides.”

The Indian team is armedwith some quality batswomanin the form of T20 skipperHarmanpreet Kaur, swash-buckling opener SmritiMandhana and ODI skipperMithali Raj.

While the WACA isknown to aid pacers, the 30-year-old said the key will be topick a balanced side, somethingwhich has led to the team’s suc-cess in the recent years. PTI

Pink ball Test going to be well-contested: Perry

Difficult to play T20WC in India: Hussey

London: Tottenham strikerHarry Kane has given thebiggest indication yet that heis ready to leave the PremierLeague club and says he willcontrol his own future.

Kane is reported to havetold Spurs he wants to be soldat the end of the season afterbecoming frustrated at thelack of progress at the club.

The England captain,who is 28 in July, says he needsa conversation with chair-man about his future.

“I think it’s definitely aconversation to be had withthe club,” Kane told GaryNeville’s YouTube channelThe Overlap. “I want to beplaying in the biggest games,the biggest moments.” “I’msure that (Daniel Levy, Spurschairman) will want to set outthe plan of where he sees it butultimately it’s going to bedown to me and how I feeland what’s going to be the bestfor me and my career thismoment in time.” AFP

Kane says transferis ‘down to me’

Nathaniel Phillips, left, celebrates after scoring Liverpool's second goal AP

Playing India in neutral venue is exciting: KaneAFP n LONDON

New Zealand skipperKane Williamson hassaid that the prospect of

squaring off against India at aneutral venue is pretty exciting.

The Black Caps havearrived in England to play atwo-match Test series againstthe hosts before they face ViratKohli’s Team India in the finalof the World TestChampionship which is slatedto start on June 18 inSouthampton.

While addressing a virtu-al press conference onThursday, the New Zealandskipper stated that his team isexcited about facing India inthe World Test Championshipfinal.

“I know the boys are real-ly excited for the challenge andthen the Test Championshipfinal. The focus will be on onegame at a time. I suppose hav-ing a different opposition,playing in a neutral country isan exciting prospect,”Williamson said during thevirtual presser.

“It’s great, and like I men-tioned, it’s nice always to getinto the side after a break.There is a lot of excitement inthe camp, and we know the

challenge, like coming overhere and playing againstEngland in their own back-yard,” he added.

The New Zealand playersare currently serving themandatory quarantine upontheir arrival in England.Williamson said that team iskeen to step out and start train-ing.

“Most of the team is herenow. We are all pretty much onthe same side (of the hotel), sowe’re able to catch up a little bitwith one another on our dif-ferent balconies. For a numberof guys, it’s their first time inthe bubble, while others havedone it a few times, so that canbe quite helpful,” said the NewZealand captain.

“The first step is gettingout of the bubble, and afterthat, we’re looking forward tostarting our preparation, interms of adjustment to condi-tions and catching up with theguys. It’s always exciting whenthere has been a period of timeaway from the team, and I lookforward to that,” he added.

The first England vs NewZealand Test gets underway onJune 2 at Lord’s while the sec-ond Test is scheduled to beplayed in Birmingham on June10.

PTI n NEW DELHI

National Cricket Academychief and former India cap-

tain Rahul Dravid is set to be thehead coach of the Indian white-ball squad that will tour SriLanka in July.

Dravid, who stopped trav-elling with the India A and U-19 teams after taking over asNCA head in Bengaluru, will bethe head coach of the second-string side in the absence of RaviShastri, who will be busy withthe Test side in England at thesame time.

“He will travel with the

team to Sri Lanka in all likeli-hood,” a BCCI source said.

Other NCA staff membersare likely to be split into two par-ties of which one will tour SriLanka with Dravid and theother will travel to England

with the women’s cricket teamnext month.

Paras Mhambrey, who hasalso coached the men’s A sidesand Under-19 teams, is likely tobe the bowling coach, the reportadded.

India are expected to playthree ODIs and as many T20s inSri Lanka in July though theschedule has not beenannounced yet.

The squad will have plentyof fringe players and some estab-lished white-ball specialists.Hardik Pandya, ShikharDhawan and Shreyas Iyer are inthe running for captaincy.

PTI n SOUTHAMPTON

The World TestChampionship final

between India and NewZealand in Southamptonwill be held in the presenceof 4000 spectators,Hampshire County Clubhead Rod Bransgrove hassaid.

The Covid-19 situa-tion has improved in theUK and around 1500 peo-ple were allowed to watchthe county game betweenLeicestershire andHampshire at the AgeasBowl, which hosts the

WTC final from June 18.Bransgrove told

Cricbuzz that the ECB andthe ICC are permitting acrowd of “4000 people” inthe eagerly-awaited clash.“I understand 50 per centof the permitted crowdswill be taken by the ICCfor its sponsors and otherstake holders and we willbe selling the rest 2000tickets. We have alreadyreceived more than doubleapplications from the fans,”Bransgrove said.

“It is a high interestgame and there is a gooddemand for it.”

4K fans allowedfor WTC final

New Zealand players kit up to take part in team’s indoor nets practice session onThursday. The Kane Williamson led side which arrived England in two batcheswill face hosts in 2 Tests before facing India in WTC final @BLACKCAPS

Southampton: New Zealandpace bowler Kyle Jamiesonsays he and the entire bowl-ing unit won’t get carriedaway with the extra swing thatthe Dukes cricket ball offersduring their tour of England.

The Kiwis, used to play-ing with the Kookaburra athome, will be playing inEngland with the Dukes ballwhich offers more swing.

“You don’t want to starttrying to move the ball twosets of stumps and then getcaught on the bounce,” he saidwhile speaking to the media.

The right-arm pacebowler, who made his Testdebut in February, 2020,against India, has picked 36

wickets in his first six Testmatches.

He said that experienceof bowling in seam-friendly

conditions in his homecountry will come in handy.

“We’ve found favourableconditions in New Zealandat times, albeit not with theDukes ball, and we’re mind-ful of the fact that if you startsearching too much, youcan get hurt a little bit,” headded.

“I think that’s somethingthat we’ve hopefully takencare of, but I guess we’lladdress that when the timecomes, and the next 10 daysor so, leading into that firstTest, is vital for us.” IANS

Dravid likely to coach India on SL tour

Archer toundergo elbowsurgery todayLondon: England pacer JofraArcher will undergo a surgeryon his right elbow on Friday,which could effectively rulehim out of the first part of thefive-match Test series againstvisiting India beginning onAugust 4.

Archer is already out of theupcoming two-match Testseries against New Zealandand this will be his secondsurgery after being operatedupon on his right hand.

“Jofra has been reviewedby a medical consultant inrespect of his right elbow sore-ness. He will now proceed tosurgery tomorrow,” the ECBsaid in a tweet. The 26-year-old,who recently made a comebackin the County Championshipfor Sussex, consulted a special-ist after feeling discomfort inhis elbow and was advised to gofor a surgery.

“Further updates will bereleased in due course,” theECB stated without specifyinghow long it will take for Archerto make a comeback. PTI

Jamieson wary of wanting a lot from Dukes