· sunny deol thriller “arjun pandit” which released in 1999. taking a cue from the movie...

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T he disengagement process at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh progressed smoothly for the second consecutive day on Tuesday with the Chinese troops withdrawing more than one and a half kilometres at the all the face-of sites. The complete disengage- ment, including arriving at modalities to maintain buffer zone to ensure distance between soldiers of the two armies, is expected to take three to four more days. The military commanders of both sides are expected to review the situation after ten days. The two countries have also agreed to keep all lines of communication at the diplo- matic-level open to ensure quick de-escalation at the border. The two armies were in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation for the last eight weeks at four sites in a frontage of 25 to 30 km in Eastern Ladakh. The dis- engagement began on Monday after talks between National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday to ensure peace at the earliest. As of now, the pullback is in full swing at the Galwan val- ley, which saw a bloody clash on June 15, Hot Springs and Gogra, sources said here on Tuesday adding the complete withdrawal by both the armies is expected to be completed at the three locations in a few days. The Chinese also started dismantling temporary struc- tures, including tents and bunkers, at the Pangong Tso (lake), signaling their intent to abide by the agreement to pull back from all the face-off sites in a gradual manner. This agreement was arrived at between the two Corps Commanders in three rounds of talks at the LAC on June 6, 22 and 30. Officials said under the mutual disengagement, both sides will disengage and move back by 1-1.5 km from the fric- tion points. Thereafter, the two Corps Commanders are likely to meet again to hold further talks after the disengagement process is completed, they said. They also said with the Chinese retreating, the Indian troops too have withdrawn an equal distance in all friction zones and the area in between is a buffer zone meant to sep- arate the soldiers of both sides. A future decision on patrolling in the region will be taken after the next round of military talks, sources said. The buffer zone was now under electronic surveillance through drones and satellites. There will be no patrolling by the Armies of either side with- in the Buffer zone. On Sunday, Doval and Yi spoke on the phone for two hours. According to an official statement, the two agreed that “it was necessary to ensure at the earliest complete disengagement of the troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and de- escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquility”. “They reaffirmed that both sides should strictly respect and observe the line of actual con- trol and should not take any unilateral action to alter the sta- tus quo and work together to avoid any incident in the future that could disturb peace and tranquility in border areas,” said the Government statement. China said front-line troops are taking “effective measures” and making “progress” to disengage and ease the tensions in the Galwan Valley. “China and India have made progress coming up with effective measures for frontline troops to disengage and de- escalate the border situation at the third commander-level talks between the two militaries on June 30,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. S enior officials of the securi- ty and intelligence estab- lishment are camping in Kathmandu to ramp up sup- port for India ahead of the cru- cial meeting of the powerful Standing Committee of the ruling Nepal Communist Party on Wednesday to decide on the fate of Nepalese Prime Minister KP Oli. Chief of Research and Analysis Wing Samant Kumar Goel and Intelligence Bureau chief Arvind Kumar are involved in hectic parleys with leaders of the political spec- trum there. The Chinese ambassador in Kathmandu too is personally meeting the Nepalese leaders, top sources said here. The confabulations by Goel and Kumar with the Nepalese politicians is being undertaken as a damage-control exercise post-Constitutional amend- ment to include Indian terri- tories of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in the map of Nepal. The talks by the Intelligence chiefs are being directly monitored by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the sources said. Talks have so far been held with Nepal Comnunist Party leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Keshav Prasad Badal among others. The officials also talked to Barsaman Pun, Shankar Pokharel (considered close to Oli) and Dr Rajan Bhattarai (Oli’s advisor on foreign affairs). A day after setting the acad- emic standards of higher education for current academic session, the HRD Ministry on Tuesday directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to reduce its syllabus from Class 9 to 12 for acade- mic session 2020-2021 by up to 30 per cent in order to make up for academic loss amid novel coronavirus pandemic. While State Education boards will take their own calls in framing the syllabus of the school education within their jurisdiction, another pan- India board, ICSE, which has affiliated schools across the country, last week announced reducing its syllabus by 50 per cent for the current acad- emic year. “Looking at the extraordi- nary situation prevailing in the country and the world, CBSE was advised to revise the cur- riculum and reduce course load for the students of Class 9th to 12th,” HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal took to Twitter to announce this deci- sion, which came as a big relief for the schools, students, parents and all other stake- holders of secondary educa- tion. The academic syllabus for primary section was already announced by the Ministry early this month. The reduction in the syl- labus will be in terms of retain- ing the core concepts, the HRD Minister added. “Considering the impor- tance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent pos- sible by retaining the core concepts,” CBSE said. V ikas Dubey’s plunge into crime coincided with Sunny Deol thriller “Arjun Pandit” which released in 1999. Taking a cue from the movie Dubey also became Vikas Pandit, and has been known so in political circles and even among the police personnel, who referred to him as ‘Pandit’. Local journalist who came to know him, on condition of anonymity said that he was fond of being called Pandit. The Bollywood thriller though panned out to be much different. In the film Arjun (Sunny Deol) became a puppet in the hands of a powerful man and kept quiet about a crime he witnessed. He fell in love with Nisha only to turn into a ruthless gangster after being betrayed by her. Vikas Dubey now absconding was fond of this movie and had seen it hundreds of times says some of the local journalists, who have been familiar with his modus operandi. He even called his victims and only introduced himself as Pandit. However, after the June 3 killing of eight policemen in Kanpur’s Bikru village in his own backyard, Dubey is a pari- ah both to the ruling and the Opposition. While, the Yogi Adityanath Government has increased the bounty on his head to 2.5 lakh, and 300 teams are chasing him under the supervision of STF, the Opposition has also demanded a thorough probe. Posters of all his accom- plices are out and even his wife Richa Dubey is been chased. The family of Vikas Dubey has turned away from the gangster and some have even called for his death, including his mother. I n a move that will adversely impact hundreds of thou- sands of Indian students, the US immigration authority has announced that foreign stu- dents will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only classes in this fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a press release on Monday that for the fall 2020 semester students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the US. Meanwhile, India on Tuesday raised with the US its decision to withdraw US visas from foreign students if their universities switch to online- only classes, official sources said. The issue was raised by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla during an online meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale. The sources said the US side took note of it and said they will keep the best interests of the Indian students in mind and would try and mitigate the impact of the decision. “The US Department of State will not issue visas to stu- dents enrolled in schools and/or programmes that are fully online for the fall semes- ter nor will US Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States,” the release said referring to the September to December semester. Detailed report on P8 New Delhi: Coronavirus may have been spreading like wild- fire in India which has occu- pied the third slot among the worst-hit nations in the world, but the Government on Tuesday claimed that the coun- try has one of the lowest Covid- 19 deaths and cases per million population. Referring to the ‘WHO Situation Report-168’ dated July 6, the Union Health Ministry said India’s Covid-19 cases per million population is 505.37 as against the global average of 1,453.25. Detailed report on P4 A day after India and China announced disengage- ment and de-escalation at the Ladakh border, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked why India has not insisted on restoring status quo ante, allowed China to “justify” the Galwan Valley clashes and did not mention territorial sover- eignty over the Galwan Valley. Rahul, who has been con- stantly attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the China issue, said the Government of India was duty-bound to pro- tect national interest. “National interest is para- mount. GOI’s duty is to protect it. Then, why has Status Quo Ante not been insisted on? 2. Why is China allowed to jus- tify the murder of 20 unarmed jawans in our territory? 3. Why is there no mention of territorial sovereignty of Galwan valley?” Rahul tweeted. Sharing the Indian and the Chinese press statements, Rahul highlighted a sentence from the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affair that read, “The right and wrong of what hap- pened in the Galwan Valley on the western sector of the China-India boundary is very clear. China will continue safe- guarding our territorial sov- ereignty as well as peace and tranquility in the border areas.” Former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor too stressed on restor- ing status quo ante. “Disengagement is wel- come, but means little unless status quo ante is restored. Kathmandu: Nepal’s Oppos- ition parties on Tuesday lam- basted the KP Oli Govern- ment’s “immature” foreign pol- icy, saying it is hampering the country’s relations with its neighbours. Prime Minister Oli has been facing intense criticism ever since his Govern-ment’s move to update the country’s political map by incorporating three strategically key Indian territories — Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura — last month. PTI Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said he has tested positive for Covid- 19 after months of downplay- ing the virus’ severity. Bolsonaro confirmed the test results while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in capital Brasilia. “I’m well, nor- mal. I even want to take a walk around here, but I can’t due to medical recommendations,” Bolsonaro said. The President has often appeared in public to shake hands with supporters, at times without a mask. PTI C handigarh may soon wit- ness imposition of green tax on commercial vehicles entering the city with the cash- strapped Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh proposing imposition of green or entry tax on such vehicles to fill its empty coffers. Apart from this, imposition of municipal cess on purchase of vehicles or sale deed of properties in the city has also been proposed. These two proposals among others were discussed during a meeting of the MCC panel held on Tuesday to discuss ways of generating revenue. W itnessing another spike on Tuesday, Punjab recorded , including Ludhiana’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), taking the state’s COVID-19 to 6,749. Ludhiana district continue to register a surge for another successive day with 78 cases, followed by 43 each in Sangrur and Patiala. These three dis- tricts account for 64 percent of Tuesday’s total cases. Besides, the State has also recorded six more deaths — one each from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Sangrur, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib — pushing the COVID-19 death toll to 175. Among the fresh cases, 114 (44 per cent) have the contact history, and 11 (four percent) have the travel history, while 96 (37 percent) are the “new cases” with no travel or contact history. Among them are 27 with Influenza like Illness (ILI), five healthcare workers, four police personnel, two jail inmates, six out-patients (OPD), one with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), one frontline worker, among others. Among the districts, Ludhiana is leading with 1182 cases, followed by Amritsar with 976, Jalandhar with 941, Sangrur 588, Patiala 440, SAS Nagar 319, Gurdaspur 263, Pathankot 236, Tarn Taran 207, Hoshiarpur 187, SBS Nagar 175, Muktsar 139, Fatehgarh Sahib 131, Moga 135, Ropar 117, Faridkot 128, Kapurthala 121, Ferozepur 122, Bathinda 117, Fazilka 103, Barnala 71, and Mansa with 51. Among the districts, Amritsar has recorded the highest casualty with 49 deaths, followed by 28 in Ludhiana, 21 in Jalandhar, 16 in Sangrur, 10 in Patiala, seven in Hoshiarpur, six each in SAS Nagar, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot, five in Tarn Taran and Kapurthala, four in Moga, three in Ferozepur and Bathinda, two in Barnala, and one each Muktsar, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Ropar.

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Page 1:  · Sunny Deol thriller “Arjun Pandit” which released in 1999. Taking a cue from the movie Dubey also became Vikas Pandit, and has been known so in political circles and even

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The disengagement processat the Line of Actual

Control (LAC) in EasternLadakh progressed smoothlyfor the second consecutive dayon Tuesday with the Chinesetroops withdrawing more thanone and a half kilometres at theall the face-of sites.

The complete disengage-ment, including arriving atmodalities to maintain bufferzone to ensure distancebetween soldiers of the twoarmies, is expected to takethree to four more days.

The military commandersof both sides are expected toreview the situation after tendays. The two countries havealso agreed to keep all lines ofcommunication at the diplo-matic-level open to ensure quickde-escalation at the border.

The two armies were in aneyeball to eyeball confrontationfor the last eight weeks at foursites in a frontage of 25 to 30km in Eastern Ladakh. The dis-engagement began on Mondayafter talks between NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval and Foreign MinisterWang Yi on Sunday to ensure

peace at the earliest.As of now, the pullback is

in full swing at the Galwan val-ley, which saw a bloody clash onJune 15, Hot Springs andGogra, sources said here onTuesday adding the completewithdrawal by both the armiesis expected to be completed atthe three locations in a few days.

The Chinese also starteddismantling temporary struc-

tures, including tents andbunkers, at the Pangong Tso(lake), signaling their intent toabide by the agreement to pullback from all the face-off sitesin a gradual manner. Thisagreement was arrived atbetween the two CorpsCommanders in three roundsof talks at the LAC on June 6,22 and 30.

Officials said under the

mutual disengagement, bothsides will disengage and moveback by 1-1.5 km from the fric-tion points. Thereafter, the twoCorps Commanders are likelyto meet again to hold furthertalks after the disengagementprocess is completed, they said.

They also said with theChinese retreating, the Indiantroops too have withdrawn anequal distance in all frictionzones and the area in betweenis a buffer zone meant to sep-arate the soldiers of both sides.A future decision on patrollingin the region will be taken after

the next round of militarytalks, sources said.

The buffer zone was nowunder electronic surveillancethrough drones and satellites.There will be no patrolling bythe Armies of either side with-in the Buffer zone.

On Sunday, Doval and Yispoke on the phone for twohours. According to an officialstatement, the two agreed that “itwas necessary to ensure at theearliest complete disengagementof the troops along the Line ofActual Control (LAC) and de-escalation from India-China

border areas for full restorationof peace and tranquility”.

“They reaffirmed that bothsides should strictly respect andobserve the line of actual con-trol and should not take anyunilateral action to alter the sta-tus quo and work together toavoid any incident in the futurethat could disturb peace andtranquility in border areas,” saidthe Government statement.

China said front-linetroops are taking “effectivemeasures” and making“progress” to disengage andease the tensions in the Galwan

Valley. “China and India havemade progress coming up witheffective measures for frontlinetroops to disengage and de-escalate the border situation at

the third commander-leveltalks between the two militarieson June 30,” Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson ZhaoLijian said.

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Senior officials of the securi-ty and intelligence estab-

lishment are camping inKathmandu to ramp up sup-port for India ahead of the cru-cial meeting of the powerfulStanding Committee of theruling Nepal Communist Partyon Wednesday to decide on thefate of Nepalese Prime MinisterKP Oli.

Chief of Research andAnalysis Wing Samant KumarGoel and Intelligence Bureauchief Arvind Kumar areinvolved in hectic parleys withleaders of the political spec-trum there. The Chineseambassador in Kathmandu toois personally meeting theNepalese leaders, top sourcessaid here.

The confabulations by Goeland Kumar with the Nepalesepoliticians is being undertakenas a damage-control exercisepost-Constitutional amend-ment to include Indian terri-tories of Lipulekh, Kalapaniand Limpiyadhura in the mapof Nepal. The talks by the

Intelligence chiefs are beingdirectly monitored by NationalSecurity Adviser Ajit Doval, thesources said.

Talks have so far been heldwith Nepal Comnunist Partyleaders Pushpa Kamal DahalPrachanda, Madhav KumarNepal, Jhalanath Khanal,Narayan Kaji Shrestha andKeshav Prasad Badal amongothers.

The officials also talked toBarsaman Pun, ShankarPokharel (considered close toOli) and Dr Rajan Bhattarai(Oli’s advisor on foreign affairs).

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Aday after setting the acad-emic standards of higher

education for current academicsession, the HRD Ministry onTuesday directed the CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) to reduce its syllabusfrom Class 9 to 12 for acade-mic session 2020-2021 by up to30 per cent in order to make upfor academic loss amid novelcoronavirus pandemic.

While State Educationboards will take their owncalls in framing the syllabus of

the school education withintheir jurisdiction, another pan-India board, ICSE, which hasaffiliated schools across thecountry, last week announcedreducing its syllabus by 50per cent for the current acad-emic year.

“Looking at the extraordi-nary situation prevailing in thecountry and the world, CBSE

was advised to revise the cur-riculum and reduce courseload for the students of Class9th to 12th,” HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal took toTwitter to announce this deci-sion, which came as a bigrelief for the schools, students,parents and all other stake-holders of secondary educa-tion.

The academic syllabus forprimary section was alreadyannounced by the Ministryearly this month.

The reduction in the syl-labus will be in terms of retain-ing the core concepts, theHRD Minister added.

“Considering the impor-tance of achieving the level oflearning, the syllabus has beenrationalised to the extent pos-sible by retaining the coreconcepts,” CBSE said.

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Vikas Dubey’s plunge intocrime coincided with

Sunny Deol thriller “ArjunPandit” which released in 1999.Taking a cue from the movieDubey also became VikasPandit, and has been known soin political circles and evenamong the police personnel,who referred to him as ‘Pandit’.

Local journalist who cameto know him, on condition ofanonymity said that he wasfond of being called Pandit.

The Bollywood thrillerthough panned out to be muchdifferent. In the film Arjun(Sunny Deol) became a puppetin the hands of a powerful man and kept quiet about acrime he witnessed.

He fell in love with Nishaonly to turn into a ruthless

gangster after being betrayed by her. Vikas Dubeynow absconding was fond of

this movie and had seen ithundreds of times says some ofthe local journalists, who have

been familiar with his modusoperandi. He even called hisvictims and only introducedhimself as Pandit.

However, after the June 3killing of eight policemen inKanpur’s Bikru village in hisown backyard, Dubey is a pari-ah both to the ruling and theOpposition.

While, the Yogi AdityanathGovernment has increased thebounty on his head to �2.5 lakh,and 300 teams are chasing himunder the supervision of STF,the Opposition has alsodemanded a thorough probe.

Posters of all his accom-plices are out and even his wife Richa Dubey is beenchased. The family of VikasDubey has turned away fromthe gangster and some haveeven called for his death,including his mother.

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In a move that will adverselyimpact hundreds of thou-

sands of Indian students, theUS immigration authority hasannounced that foreign stu-dents will have to leave thecountry or risk deportation iftheir universities switch toonline-only classes in this fallsemester due to the coronaviruspandemic.

The Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE)said in a press release on

Monday that for the fall 2020semester students attendingschools operating entirelyonline may not take a fullonline course load and remainin the US.

Meanwhile, India onTuesday raised with the US itsdecision to withdraw US visasfrom foreign students if theiruniversities switch to online-

only classes, official sourcessaid. The issue was raised byForeign Secretary HarshVardhan Shringla during anonline meeting with US UnderSecretary of State for PoliticalAffairs David Hale.

The sources said the USside took note of it and saidthey will keep the best interestsof the Indian students in mindand would try and mitigate theimpact of the decision.

“The US Department ofState will not issue visas to stu-dents enrolled in schoolsand/or programmes that arefully online for the fall semes-ter nor will US Customs andBorder Protection permit thesestudents to enter the United States,” the release saidreferring to the September toDecember semester.

Detailed report on P8

New Delhi: Coronavirus mayhave been spreading like wild-fire in India which has occu-pied the third slot among theworst-hit nations in the world,but the Government onTuesday claimed that the coun-try has one of the lowest Covid-19 deaths and cases per millionpopulation. Referring to the‘WHO Situation Report-168’dated July 6, the Union HealthMinistry said India’s Covid-19cases per million population is505.37 as against the globalaverage of 1,453.25.

Detailed report on P4

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Aday after India and Chinaannounced disengage-

ment and de-escalation at theLadakh border, formerCongress president RahulGandhi on Tuesday asked whyIndia has not insisted onrestoring status quo ante,allowed China to “justify” theGalwan Valley clashes and didnot mention territorial sover-eignty over the Galwan Valley.

Rahul, who has been con-stantly attacking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on the Chinaissue, said the Government ofIndia was duty-bound to pro-tect national interest.

“National interest is para-mount. GOI’s duty is to protectit. Then, why has Status QuoAnte not been insisted on? 2.Why is China allowed to jus-tify the murder of 20 unarmed

jawans in our territory? 3.Why is there no mention ofterritorial sovereignty ofGalwan valley?” Rahul tweeted.

Sharing the Indian and theChinese press statements,Rahul highlighted a sentencefrom the China’s Ministry ofForeign Affair that read, “Theright and wrong of what hap-pened in the Galwan Valley onthe western sector of theChina-India boundary is veryclear.

China will continue safe-guarding our territorial sov-ereignty as well as peace andtranquility in the border areas.”

Former Minister of Statefor External Affairs ShashiTharoor too stressed on restor-ing status quo ante.

“Disengagement is wel-come, but means little unlessstatus quo ante is restored.

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Kathmandu: Nepal’s Oppos-ition parties on Tuesday lam-basted the KP Oli Govern-ment’s “immature” foreign pol-icy, saying it is hampering thecountry’s relations with itsneighbours. Prime Minister Olihas been facing intense criticismever since his Govern-ment’smove to update the country’spolitical map by incorporatingthree strategically key Indianterritories — Lipulekh, Kalapaniand Limpiyadhura — lastmonth. PTI

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Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’sPresident Jair Bolsonaro said hehas tested positive for Covid-19 after months of downplay-ing the virus’ severity.Bolsonaro confirmed the testresults while wearing a maskand speaking to reporters incapital Brasilia. “I’m well, nor-mal. I even want to take a walkaround here, but I can’t due tomedical recommendations,”Bolsonaro said. The Presidenthas often appeared in public toshake hands with supporters, attimes without a mask. PTI

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Chandigarh may soon wit-ness imposition of green

tax on commercial vehiclesentering the city with the cash-strapped MunicipalCorporation of Chandigarhproposing imposition of greenor entry tax on such vehicles tofill its empty coffers.

Apart from this, impositionof municipal cess on purchaseof vehicles or sale deed ofproperties in the city has alsobeen proposed. These twoproposals among others werediscussed during a meeting ofthe MCC panel held onTuesday to discuss ways ofgenerating revenue.

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Witnessing another spikeon Tuesday, Punjab

recorded , including Ludhiana’sAdditional DeputyCommissioner (ADC), takingthe state’s COVID-19 to 6,749.

Ludhiana district continueto register a surge for anothersuccessive day with 78 cases,followed by 43 each in Sangrurand Patiala. These three dis-tricts account for 64 percent ofTuesday’s total cases.

Besides, the State has alsorecorded six more deaths — oneeach from Amritsar, Gurdaspur,Sangrur, SAS Nagar (Mohali),Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib— pushing the COVID-19

death toll to 175. Among thefresh cases, 114 (44 per cent)have the contact history, and 11(four percent) have the travelhistory, while 96 (37 percent) arethe “new cases” with no travelor contact history.

Among them are 27 withInfluenza like Illness (ILI), fivehealthcare workers, four policepersonnel, two jail inmates, sixout-patients (OPD), one withSevere Acute RespiratoryIllness (SARI), one frontlineworker, among others.

Among the districts,Ludhiana is leading with 1182cases, followed by Amritsarwith 976, Jalandhar with 941,Sangrur 588, Patiala 440, SASNagar 319, Gurdaspur 263,

Pathankot 236, Tarn Taran207, Hoshiarpur 187, SBSNagar 175, Muktsar 139,Fatehgarh Sahib 131, Moga135, Ropar 117, Faridkot 128,Kapurthala 121, Ferozepur 122,Bathinda 117, Fazilka 103,Barnala 71, and Mansa with 51.

Among the districts,Amritsar has recorded thehighest casualty with 49 deaths,followed by 28 in Ludhiana, 21in Jalandhar, 16 in Sangrur, 10in Patiala, seven in Hoshiarpur,six each in SAS Nagar,Gurdaspur, and Pathankot, fivein Tarn Taran and Kapurthala,four in Moga, three inFerozepur and Bathinda, two inBarnala, and one each Muktsar,Fatehgarh Sahib, and Ropar.

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To promote sports andrestore old glory of the

State, Punjab Government hasdecided to engage one lakhsportspersons in sports facili-ties in next three years ascompared with present capac-ity of 20,000. “The StateGovernment has notifiedSports Policy-2019 to give

more incentives to thesportspersons. This policyenvisages that more and morenumbers of sportspersons to beengaged in sports arena so thatbroad base for selection ofquality product could be estab-lished,” said the state Sportsdirector Davinder Pal SinghKharbanda.

He said that according tothe policy, the SportsDepartment will increase thenumber of sportspersons toone lakh in next three years ascompare to 20,000 at presentby engaging them with varioussports activities.“For this pur-pose, 25,000 players would beinvolved every year by the

Department with the help of18,000 volunteers in the vil-lages and blocks such as retiredarmy officials, DPEs, PETsand sportspersons apart fromits coaches,” he said, addingthat the players will be con-tacted and they will be engagedon roll through these volun-teers.

Some sports videos willalso be displayed in the villagesand volunteers to inspire andmotivate youngsters in ruralpits of the state towards sports.

Reiterating the StateGovernment’s commitment toprobable and concerted effortsfor the expansion of sportsactivities, Kharbanda said that

the Sports Department wasalready running the coachingcentres, day-scholar wings,residential wings and acade-mies in the State to promoteand encourage players towardssports.

The establishment ofPunjab State Institute of Sports(PIS) is a milestone towardsthe upliftment of sports in theState as 1800 elite sportsper-sons have been admitted togive them scientific training inthese 12 Centres of Excellencein all over the State where freelodging and boarding,

education, training andmedical facilities are beingprovided.

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To further augment itsCOVID-19 management

and care strategy, PunjabGovernment on Tuesday con-stituted two ‘Expert AdvisoryCommittees’ under the overallguidance of state’s Health andMedical Education andResearch Advisor Dr KKTalwar.

The Committees have beenset up to ensure better man-agement and handling of var-ious COVID-19 care relatedmatters in the GovernmentMedical Colleges of Patialaand Amritsar.

Dr Talwar said that theunderlying objective of thesecommittees is to guide theadministration to adopt goodscientific practices for ensuringbetter planning and manage-ment of COVID patients, withthe aim of reducing complica-tions and mortality.Both theexpert committees have alsobeen mandated to chalk out

strategies to ensure that non-COVID patients are notignored. The committeeswould also make recommen-dations to the StateGovernment on financial andother support needed forupgradation of the requiredfacilities and equipment forCOVID care.

Spokesperson of the ChiefMinister’s Office said that theExpert Advisory Committeefor GMC, Patiala, would haveCardiologist Dr Sudhir Verma,HoD Cardiology (retired) DrManmohan Singh and HoDENT (retired) Dr BS Sohal asits members, besides PrincipalGMC, Patiala Dr HarjinderSingh as convener.

The Expert AdvisoryCommittee for GMC,Amritsar, would include ProfEmeritus and retired Directorof Dr Vidya Sagar Institute ofMental Hospital Dr BL Goyal.

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Troubles continue to brewfor the Badals with the

“expelled” rebel leaders pro-pelling on Tuesday Rajya SabhaMP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa asthe president of “ShiromaniAkali Dal”.

Launching a new partywith the same name, Akali vet-eran Dhindsa was supported byseveral SAD rebels who havebeen shown the door by Badal’sled party, including his son andformer Finance MinisterParminder Singh Dhindsa, for-mer Union Minister BalwantSingh Ramuwalia, DelhiGurdwara Management

Committee’s former presidentManjit Singh GK, PunjabAssembly’s former deputyspeaker Bir Davinder Singh,former MP Paramjit KaurGulshan, besides other leaders,including those from Haryana.

Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD), as we all know, is head-ed by Sukhbir Singh Badaland also controlled by theBadals. The development hascome as a major setback for theBadal’s led SAD, which has alsodubbed the move as “illegal andfraud”.

The decision to float thenew party and “elect” Dhindsaas the new party chief wastaken during the gathering atLudhiana’s Gurdwara

Shaheedan. The rebel leadersarbitrarily removed SAD pres-ident Sukhbir Singh Badal fromthe party’s top post andappointed Dhindsa as the newparty chief.

Having strained relation-ship with the Akali Dal’s lead-ership, led by Sukhbir, since2016, Dhindsa stayed awayfrom the party’s campaigningduring 2017 assembly polls,even as his son Parminder,elected as party MLA fromLehra Gaga.

However, as his disillu-sionment with the party grows,Dhindsa started the 'Safar-e-Akali Lehar' early this year, alsojoined by his son. The Dhindsafather-son duo was later

expelled from the SAD inFebruary this year for theiralleged anti-party activities.Later, the Dhindsas joinedhands with the party’s splintergroups, including the SAD(Taksali).

Proposing the name ofDhindsa for the post of thepresident, two-time Lok Sabhamember Parminder KaurGulshan said that the Sangrurconvention held recently underthe chairmanship of the leaderhad “removed” Sukhbir SinghBadal from the post of the partypresident.

Her proposal was second-ed by former Akali ministerJagdish Singh Garcha, JathedarSewa Singh Sekhwan, Harjeet

Kaur Talwandi, daughter oflate Shiromani Akali Dal pres-ident Jathedar Jagdev SinghTalwandi, and former SADMLA Des Raj Dhugga.

She said that Dhindsa, a“newly elected president” of theSAD, will function from theparty office in Amritsar.Former Akali MLA MantarSingh Brar said that the nameof the party will remainShiromani Akali Dal (SAD),and in case, the ElectionCommission found a technicalissue, the word ‘democratic’ willbe added.

Meanwhile, SAD’s seniorleader Daljeet Singh Cheemadescribed this move as “illegaland fraud” and accused theexpelled leader of acting at thebehest of the Congress.

Cheema said that the SADis a 100-year-old party which isregistered with the ElectionCommission of India. “Whatthey have done is 100 per centfraud. It is illegal and amountsto forgery. They are doing it at

the behest of the Congress,”alleged Cheema.The SAD hadearlier alleged that the RajyaSabha MP and his sonParminder Dhindsa were beingused as “pawns” by theCongress in a bid to weaken the“panthic” party.

However, Dhindsa on theoccasion said that the party willstrive hard to establish theeroded principles of the Sikhpolitics and liberate Sikh insti-tutions from the “clutches” ofBadals.

He asserted that they willfight to solve major issues ofPunjab and to strengthen thefederal system in the country.Dhindsa said the party will payspecial attention to the farmingcommunity and work forimproving the condition ofthe Dalits and minorities.

The party will work for theeradication of mafias involvedin “looting” sand, transport,liquor and other naturalresources of the state, saidDhindsa.

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Taking strong exception toBJP national president JP

Nadda’s attack on Congressleader Rahul Gandhi over theIndia-China standoff issue,Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Tuesdaytrashed it as a “brazen attemptto distract public attention”from the CentralGovernment’s fai lure inGalwan Valley.

Terming it a diversionarytactic, the Chief Minister saidthat having failed to respondto his persistent and relevantquestions on the GalwanValley issue, the BJP-ledCentral Government was try-ing desperately now to dis-tract the people with its per-sonal attack on Rahul.

“Not just Rahul but theentire country wants answersto those questions, whichtouch upon not just our sol-diers but every Indian whowants to know what wentwrong in Galwan Valley onJune 15,” he said.

“In fact, Rahul has beendiscussing the China issuewith him for a long time, andhad been concerned about thematter even while the CentralGovernment was vehementlydenying any stand-off inGalwan,” he added.

Pointing to the lateststatements from the PrimeMinister on no intrusion hav-ing taken place in the region,Capt Amarinder asked howthe Chinese were now back-ing off without having enteredIndian territory in the firstplace.

“These are the kind ofquestions being raised byRahul…Instead of answeringthem, the CentralGovernment, led by BJP, con-tinues to be in denial evennow,” he added.

Reacting to Nadda’s crit-icism of Rahul for not attend-ing a single meeting of theStanding Committee onDefence, Capt Amarinderquestioned the relevance ofthis to the Galwan Valleystand-off.

“The Committee doesnot take on-ground decisionsrelating to the battlefield…Itis not the StandingCommittee which decided onsending soldiers to the bor-ders with either no or inade-quate arms and ammunition.Nor does it make policy deci-

sions on conditions in whichthe soldiers should or shouldnot open fire,” he comment-ed.

Even matters that are dis-cussed in these meetings,such as those related to equip-ment shortage or procure-ment etc, just end up gettingconsigned to the archives,said Capt Amarinder, citinghis own experience as a mem-ber of the StandingCommittee on Defence dur-ing his last term as MP.

Contrar y to Nadda’scharge of Rahul demoralizingthe nation and questioningthe valour of our armedforces, the Congress MP wasactually looking after theinterests of the country andour forces, he said.

Quite apart from the factthat Rahul has the democra-tic right, like every otherIndian, to question theGovernment, the issues raisedby him are important forensuring that we are notcaught napping again and donot end up unnecessarily sac-rificing the precious lives ofour soldiers, as happened inGalwan, he added.

The Chief Minister alsoflayed Nadda’s remarks on‘dynastic tradition’, pointingout that Rahul got elected tothe Lok Sabha by popularvote, and not due to his fam-ily connections.

By questioning his credi-bility as an MP and as anintelligent Indian, the rulingpart was only exposing theCentral Government’s totalfailure in Galwan, which hadcost nation dearly in terms ofprecious human life, headded.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal and his

Congress predecessor andLeader of OppositionBhupinder Singh Hooda arelocked in a vicious war ofwords ahead of the upcomingBaroda assembly bypolls inthe state.

A day after the ChiefMinister Manohar Lal took atdig at the former CM, remind-ing him of the results of the LokSabha polls, Bhupinder SinghHooda on Tuesday retorted,talking about his performancein Garhi-Sampla Kiloi assem-bly segment and CM’s perfor-mance in Karnal.

Hooda advised the ChiefMinister to leave the past andtalk on the present and thefuture.Baroda assembly seat inSonepat district fell vacant inApril following the demise of

sitting Congress MLA KrishanHooda. No poll date has beenannounced as yet.

“I have no doubt that theCongress will win by a hugemargin in this byelection. Ihave already dared the ChiefMinister Khattar to become theBJP candidate and I am willingto contest from the Congress inBaroda,” Hooda said whiletalking to the mediapersonshere.

The Leader of Oppositionsaid that Chief Minister startstalking about the past whenthey are asked questions aboutthe present.

This is because his gov-ernment has achieved nothingin the last six years and has novision for the future.“I ask theChief Minister who was thecandidate who won with thehighest margin in the lastVidhan Sabha elections andwhich constituency had the

lowest voting and highestNOTA votes. The answer tothis question should settle theissue,” Hooda added.

He also lashed out at theState Government saying thatthe people of Haryana are suf-fering from 5Cc.

“While the whole world issuffering from Coronavirusand China, we have been hithard by crime, corruption andcasteism. Therefore, the publicwill teach a tough lesson to theBJP in the Baroda bypolls,”Hooda said.

Responding to Hooda’schallenge to contest the bypollagainst him, Chief MinisterManohar Lal had on Mondaysaid, “Hooda and his sonDeepender Hooda had lostthe Lok Sabha elections.Hooda’s son reached the RajyaSabha riding on the back of hisparty’s MLAs. Baroda is a partof the Sonepat parliamentary

seat and the BJP-JJP alliancewill win comfortably.”

Coming down heavily onthe State Government on theissue of corruption, the Leaderof opposition Hooda said thatthe governance in the state hascome down to zero with nodevelopment and only scams.

Haryana which was thenumber one state in the coun-try in growth and development,has now become infamous forits scams and rising crimegraph.

“There is a multi-crores ofrice scam in the state which fol-lows a long list of scams inpaddy procurement, liquor,mining, recruitment, paperleaks, scholarships, electricitymeters and drug purchaseswhich have come to lightbesides the Illegal mining fromYamuna to Aravali. It looks likethe BJP-JJP alliance is runninga Government of scams. The

State Government is neitherconducting any investigation toidentify culprits nor is it takingany action against anyone,” hesaid.

The former Chief Ministeralso alleged that none otherthan the criminals are happywith the BJP Governmentbecause the Government ispicking people's pockets evenin difficult times like theCoronavirus pandemic.

“The government did notprovide any relief to any sec-tion, despite its massiveincrease in taxes, Coronavirusrelief fund and taking hugeloans.

Farmers, laborers, tradersand employees were looking atthe government to give themsupport but no help came astaxes kept going up. Prices ofdiesel and petrol wereincreased,” he said. On thedecision taken by the Haryana

Cabinet to bring in an ordi-nance to provide 75 percentjobs to Haryana youth in pri-vate sector in the state, Hoodasaid, “The truth is that such aprovision has been in forcesince 2011 in Haryana and thegovernment now says thisannouncement of BJP govern-ment will only apply to newindustries.

We want to ask the gov-ernment why this has not beenput into force in the last sixyears?”The youth has sufferedbecause investments in thestate have completely collapsedand there are hardly any new

jobs that are coming up. Theyouth are also questioning ifthe law would be implement-ed at all, he added.

Replying to a question onthe issue of a freeze in DA forgovernment employees, Hoodasaid this is only a beginning.

“They have made theannouncement for the rest ofthe year and I think this isgoing to be extended to 2021and as long as this governmentis in place, allowances willkeep getting reduced.

The BJP government isanti-farmer and anti-employeeand this is why they sacked

1983 PTIs while they shouldhave fought their case withgreater effort in the Court,” hesaid.“The government shouldhave found a way to save theirjobs as we did during our gov-ernment too when 1800 police-men, hired during the INLDgovernment, were sacked dueto orders and we made themjail wardens.

Similarly, despite a scam inthe recruitment of 3,206 JBTteachers during the INLD gov-ernment, they were not sackedas we believed that the gov-ernment has to create jobs, notdestroy them,” he added.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Tuesday held a statewide

agitation against CaptAmarinder Singh Governmentdemanding a cut in the ValueAdded Tax (VAT) on petrol anddiesel to bring down the sky-rocketing prices, besidesdemanding CBI probe in thealleged central ration scam.

During the protest, all thesocial distancing norms, to bemaintained in the wake ofCOVID-19 outbreak, had gonefor a toss. Party workers andleaders were seen sitting closerand standing shoulder to shoul-der.

Led by party chief SukhbirBadal, Akali Dal held astatewide agitation demand-ing a CBI probe into the centralration scam saying that the

“Congressmen who had embez-zled ration meant for the poorshould be brought to book”Also asking the Congress ledPunjab Government to reducedpetrol and diesel prices by Rs 10per liter, Sukhbir said: “Oncethe Punjab Governmentreduces fuel prices by Rs 10 perliter, we will ask the Centre alsoto do the same…I have alreadywritten a letter to the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toreduce central excise on petroland diesel.”

He also demanded that thegovernment should ensure thatno student of any private schoolin the State was victimizedsolely because his parents werenot able to afford the school feedue to reduced income duringCOVID-19 pandemic. TheState should compensate theprivate schools by submitting

six month school fee of studentsin advance to them. Leading thedharna at Zirakpur, Sukhbirsaid that lakhs of Punjabistoday came out in thousands ofvillages and ‘addas’ on theSAD’s call of “Punjab Bachao”and displayed their seethinganger against the CongressGovernment and ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhfor leaving them in the lurchduring a time of pandemic.

“People today hold theCongress government respon-sible for the hike fuel prices aswell as increase of power tariffand other taxes becauseCongressmen have looted theState treasury through a seriesof scams be it the Rs 5,600 croreliquor scam, the Rs 4,000 croreseed scam or illegal mining oreven the latest insurance scam,”he said.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Tuesday assured all supportand cooperation to the youngentrepreneurs for setting uptheir units under the MicroSmall and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) in the State.

“The State Governmenthas identified 56 clusters of var-ious categories to be set up inall 22 districts of Haryanawhich would benefit about70,000 MSMEs in the state.

The Government wouldalso ensure that the function-ing of existing MSMEs in thestate are not affected due toCOVID-19,” said Manohar Lalwhile interacting with the ben-eficiaries of Prime Minister’sEmployment GenerationProgramme (PMEGP) duringa webinar organized by thenewly created Department of

Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises, Haryana here. Hesaid that the State Governmenthas reduced the power tariff forMSMEs of upto 20 KW to Rs4.75 per unit in C and D blocksin the State.

While describing India asa country of youth, he exhort-ed the youth of the state tocome forward and set up unitsof MSMEs in the state whileassuring all necessary clear-ances in minimum possibletime.

Online clearances pertain-ing to 17 different depart-ments are provided through theHaryana EnterprisesPromotion Centre in just 45days.

Apart from this, facility ofdeemed clearances have alsobeen made for the benefit ofentrepreneurs, he said.TheChief Minister asked the youthto boost start-ups and standup

culture in the state and said thatthrough venturing into theMSME sector, they couldbecome job giver rather thanjob seeker.

Haryana has made a hugeprogress in terms of start-upsand standup registration asmore than 8000 registrationincluding 4194 start-ups and4119 standup have so far beenmade in the state which ismuch more than the registra-tion made in the neighboringstate of Punjab.

Apart from this, a loanamounting to Rs 868 crore hasbeen provided for start-ups inthe state, he said. While refer-ring to COVID-19, ManoharLal said that as now industrialoperation has resumed in theState, as many as 38.13 lakhworkers have returned to workin 56,000 industrial unitsSimilarly, the revenue genera-tion of the state has also

increased in the last fewmonths. The State Governmentreceived GST in June, 2020which is equal to the amountreceived in the correspondingperiod of last year.

The electricity consump-tion has also increased to 80per cent in June 2020 and it isexpected to be increased to 100per cent in the month of July,2020, which reflects the indus-trial sector has come to nor-malcy, he added.

The Chief Minister furthersaid that Haryana UdhyamMemorandum (HUM) portalhas been launched aimed atbringing all types of enter-prises registered in the state ona single platform.

It will provide a uniqueidentification number to allenterprises - shops, MSMEs,large and mega industries toenable permissions and ser-vices from the government to

be provided in an integratedmanner. The benefit of anycommercial or industrial pol-icy in the future would begiven on the basis of the HUMnumber, he said adding that215 industries have so far madetheir registration on this por-tal.

He also exhorted theentrepreneurs to avail the max-imum benefit of loan of Rs50,000 under the Mudra Yojna(Shishu Category). The loanwould be provided to the ben-eficiaries on nominal interest of5 per cent adding that five lakhpeople would be covered underthis scheme.

The State Government hasalso started the scheme for therevival of MSMEs under whichon the loan of Rs 20,000 perworker, interest of 8 per centwould be paid by the StateGovernment for six months, headded.

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An 80-year-old man fromSector 16 here succumbed

to COVID-19 on Tuesday inChandigarh. The octogenarianis the city's seventh COVID-19fatality.Five fresh cases werealso reported in the city takingthe total number to 492. Thecases were reported fromSector 32, 40, 42 and 51.

“An 80 years old male whowas undergoing treatment atCOVID-19 dedicated NHEbuilding in PGIMER died dueto COVID-19 on Tuesday. Hewas suffering from co-morbidconditions (chronic hyperten-

sion) and was on ventilator,”stated the Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.Five fresh cases were reportedon Tuesday in the city.

Two residents of Sector 32including a 14 years old girland 49 years old woman aretested positive. They are fam-ily members of already testedpositive patient, the bulletinstated.

A 55-year old male fromSector 51 is tested positive ofCOVID-19. He has four fam-ily members and all of themhave been sampled. Anotherpatient tested positive is a 24years old male from Sector 41.

He has three family membersand a maid. All of them areasymptomatic, it stated. A 35years old female resident ofSector 40 is also tested positive.She is a family contact of thepositive case of Sector 50.

A day before, the city hadreported 21 fresh cases of thedeadly virus.

Till Tuesday evening,there were a total of 492 posi-tive cases in the city. Thisincluded 84 active cases of thedeadly virus. The recoveryrate of COVID-19 patientsstood at 81 percent with 401patients recovering from theinfection so far.

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With the price ofRemdesivir, the only

antiviral drug that is currentlyknown for treating Covid-19,shooting as high as upto�70,00-80,000 per vial in theblack market in some cities,doctors have called upon theGovernment to step in urgent-ly to check hoarding/pilferageof the medicine and ensure itsadequate availability to save thelives. The maximum retail priceof per 100 mg vial ofRemdesivir is between �4,800and �5,400, depending on thebrand.

“There have been variousreports from across the coun-try that relatives of the Covid-infected patients have beenrunning from pillar to post toget the vial and in many caseshave to shell out as high as�80,000 per vial as well.

“Covid 19 is a humanitar-ian crisis and during these dif-ficult times hoarding and blackmarketing can be big setback aswell as demoralising for thedoctors patients and families,”said Dr Rajinder K Dhamija ,Head of Neurology,Department at Lady HardingeMedical College and SSKHospital. He hoped that theGovernment would interveneat the earliest to ensure its avail-ability in hospitals and openmarkets as well.

In the absence of any otherproven medicine it is beingused as the main drug alongwith Tociluzumab and, unfor-tunately, both are in short sup-ply, he pointed out.

While four-fifths of theCovid-19 cases in India areasymptomatic and mild, theremaining 20 percent are mod-erate, requiring oxygen sup-port. Remdesivir has been

approved by the DCGI, coun-try’s drug regulator, for treatingsuch moderate cases with oxy-

gen support. “Presently,Remedesivir is not available inthe free market and is only dis-tributed through hospitals andthat creates a gap betweendemand and supply,” said DrDhamija.

The Government hadrecently revised the dosage ofthe Remdesivir being admin-istered to hospitalized Covid-

19 patients from the earlier six-day to five-day treatmentcourse, informed Dr RahulBhargava, Director and Head,Haematology and BoneMarrow Transplant, FortisMemorial Research Institute,Gurugram.

He too stressed on increas-ing the production and checkon pilferage. He explained the

modus operandi being used bythe hospitals too. In somecases, we have got reports thatdoctors avail Remdesivir foreven those Covid patients whodo not need it and then sell itin the open market to makemoney. There should be amechanism to check this pil-ferage, he said adding thatcurrently the drug is not under

Schedule H.Prof Bejon Misra, Founder

Director, Patients Safety andAccess Initiative was of theview that there is a need toreduce the price of each vialbecause in India affordability initself an issue especially duringthe pandemic situation.

Along with Cipla, Hetero,and Mylan, Gilead has licens-

ing deals with Jubilant LifeSciences, Dr Reddy's , ZydusCadila and Syngene to manu-facture and distributeRemdesivir in India and 126other countries. The DCGI,meanwhile, has also approvedMylan's version of Remdesivirwhile Hetero has been allowedto supply the drug to hospitalpharmacies.

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From scarcity to abundance.Against the backdrop of

sufficient supply of masks andsanitisers in the country, theGovernment has now takenout the two items from thepurview of the EssentialCommodities Act, 1955. Inother words, the Governmenthopes that the huge volumewill automatically check pricesof these two items that are con-sidered important for main-taining hygiene during theCovid-19 pandemic.Consumer Affairs SecretaryLeena Nandan said on Tuesdaythat there is sufficient supplyof the two items now and the‘essentials’ tag was no longerrequired. On March 13, theUnion Consumer AffairsMinistry had declared facemasks and hand sanitisers asessential commodities for 100days to boost supply and pre-vent hoarding of these items inits fight to check the spread ofcoronavirus.

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Coronavirus may have beenspreading like wildfire in

India which has occupied thethird slot among the worst-hitnations in the world, but theGovernment on Tuesdayclaimed that the country hasone of the lowest Covid-19deaths and cases per millionpopulation.

Referring to the ‘WHOSituation Report-168’ datedJuly 6, the Union HealthMinistry said India’s COVID-19 cases per million popula-tion is 505.37 as against theglobal average of 1,453.25.The recovery rate has alsoincreased to 61.13 per cent, itsaid.

As per the WHO report,

the US , Brazil, Spain, Russia,the UK, Italy and Mexico have8,560.5, 7,419.1, 5,358.7,4,713.5, 4,204.4, 3,996.1 and1,955.8 cases per million,respectively.

Similarly, even smallcountries like Chile has wit-nessed 15,459.8 COVID-19cases per million population,while Peru has 9,070.8 casesper million people, it said.

“The WHO SituationReport also shows that Indiahas one of the lowest deaths[due to COVID-19] per mil-lion population. India’s casesof death per million popula-tion is 14.27 while the globalaverage is more than its fourtimes, at 68.29,” the Ministrysaid in a statement here.

“Early detection and time-

ly effective clinical manage-ment of COVID-19 cases haveresulted in increasing dailyrecoveries,” said the Ministry adding that India hasramped up its hospital infra-structure adequately andeffectively.

Regarding Covid—19related deaths per million,

the WHO report said that theUnited Kingdom has 651.4,while the metric for Spain,Italy, France, the U.S., Peru,Brazil and Mexico is 607.1,576.6, 456.7, 391.0, 315.8,302.3 and 235.5 deaths,respectively.

The preparednessincludes arrangement of oxy-

gen support, ICU and venti-lator facilities. As on July 7,there are 1,201 dedicatedCOVID hospitals, 2,611COVID healthcare centresand 9,909 COVID care centres to look after patients with ‘very severe’ to‘very mild’ coronavirus symp-toms, it said.

“Such level of prepared-ness has shown results incontinuously improving therecovery rate and resulting inlow case fatality rate,” theMinistry said.

“As on date, the numberof recovered cases exceededthat of the active cases by1,80,390 on Tuesday. Therecover y rate among COVID-19 patients hasincreased to 61.13%,” it said.

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In what could come as a dis-appointment to India, which

has been looking towardsachieving “herd immunity” asa way to tackle the Covid-19, aSpanish study conducted onmore than 60,000 people hasshown that just about 5 per centof them developed antibodies.

Herd immunity is achievedwhen enough people becomeinfected with a virus to stop itsspread.

“Only 5 per cent from atotal of 61,000 patients thatparticipated in the research inSpain developed antibodies tobe able to fight the Covid-19 res-piratory disease debunking theconcept of “herd immunity”,according to a population-basedseroepidemiological survey in astudy published in the LancetJournal.

Experts found that Spain

was "very far" from reaching the60 per cent rate of infectionwithin the community for theherd immunity to work, withthe challenge of one-third of itspopulation asymptomatic aftercontracting the virus.

The study found that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were notdeveloped in all of the 35,883households infected with thecoronavirus. "At present, herdimmunity is difficult to achievewithout accepting the collater-al damage of many deaths in thesusceptible population andoverburdening of health sys-tems," researchers said.

Despite the high impact ofCovid-19 in Spain, prevalenceestimates remain low and areclearly insufficient to provideherd immunity, the studyauthors said.

Additionally, theresearchers observed that for theherd immunity to develop, over

70 per cent to 90 per cent of thetotal population had to buildresistance to coronavirus, whichimplied most people in thecommunity had to be infected.With coronavirus symptomsfor each patient different, therewas a huge risk factor involved.Moreover, the study found thatCovid-19 antibodies were lessthan 3 per cent in the coastalregions, the large stretch ofareas in Spain.

The study holds impor-tance in the context of Indiawhere the Government hadbeen banking on achieving‘herd immunity’ sooner orlater to control the virus thathas infected over seven lakhspeople and killed over 20,000in the country. In this situation,social distancing measures andefforts to identify and isolatenew cases and their contactsremain imperative for futureepidemic control.

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The debate whether asth-matic patients are more

prone to Covid-19 or saferrages on.

Does inhaled corticos-teroids, which are commonlyused to protect against asthmaattacks, a saviour for asthmat-ic patients? Researchers havefound that while older age andconditions such as heart dis-ease, high blood pressure,chronic obstructive pulmonarydisease, diabetes and obesityare prone to progression ofCovid-19, the same is not truefor persons with asthma.

The study published in theJournal of Allergy and ClinicalImmunology, said that inhaledcorticosteroids, which are com-monly used to protect againstasthma attacks, may reduce thevirus' ability to establish aninfection.

However, many studieshave shown that steroids maydecrease the body's immuneresponse and worsen theinflammatory response.

Researchers from RutgersUniversity in the US found thatpeople with asthma - eventhose with diminished lungfunction who are being treat-ed to manage asthmaticinflammation - seem to be noworse affected by SARS-CoV-2 than a non-asthmatic person.

"Older age and conditionssuch as heart disease, highblood pressure, chronicobstructive pulmonary disease,diabetes and obesity are report-ed risk factors for the develop-ment and progression ofCovid-19," said Reynold A.Panettieri Jr, a pulmonary crit-ical care physician and directorof the Rutgers Institute forTranslational Medicine andScience.

But then, asthma is not yetproven as one such risk factor.

"There is limited data as towhy this is the case - if it isphysiological or a result of thetreatment to manage theinflammation," said PanettieriJr.

Children and young adultswith asthma suffer mainly from

allergic inflammation, whileolder adults who experience thesame type of airway inflam-mation can also suffer fromeosinophilic asthma -- a moresevere form.

In these cases, people expe-rience abnormally high levels ofa type of white blood cell thathelps the body fight infection,which can cause inflammationin the airways, sinuses, nasalpassages and lower respiratorytract, potentially making themmore at risk for a serious caseof Covid-19.

In addition, an enzymeattached to the cell membranesin the lungs, arteries, heart, kid-ney and intestines that hasbeen shown to be an entrypoint for SARS-CoV-2 intocells is increased in response tothe virus.

"This enzyme is alsothought to be beneficial inclearing other respiratory virus-es, especially in children. Howthis enzyme affects the abilityof Covid-19 to infect peoplewith asthma is still unclear,"said the study.

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Defence Minister RajanthSingh on Tuesday directed

the Border Roads Organsiation(BRO) that work on the strate-gic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat BegOldi (DSDBO) road in EasternLadakh be fully completed byOctober this year. This was con-veyed at a meeting to review theprogress of construction activ-ities in border areas with BRODirector General Lt GeneralHarpal Singh.

“On the 255 km Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi(DSDBO) road, the ongoingconstruction is almost done.About 45 km of black toppingwork is pending. Rajnathdirected that this has to be com-pleted by October 2020,” theysaid.

Stating that an alternateroute is also being made here,they added there is full focus onconnectivity terming it a toppriority. China has been object-ing to Indian road and infra-structure development at sev-eral points along the Line ofActual Control (LAC). A roadbranching from the DSDBO

road towards the Galwan Nalahis believed to be one of the rea-sons for Chinese objectionshere.

In May as the standoff wasunderway, the BRO stepped upefforts to fully resume con-struction work on all borderroads which was delayed due toCOVID pandemic. It is alsobuilding the 61 strategic Indo-China Border Roads (ICBRs)measuring 3323.57 Km inlength under the direction ofthe China Study Group (CSG).With COVID restrictions eas-ing and also obtaining specialpermission, construction

labour were moved in largenumbers to forward locationsby special trains.

In March this year, theParliamentary standing com-mittee on defence was informedthat the Border RoadsOrganisation (BRO) has com-pleted 75% of the constructionwork on the 61 Indo-ChinaBorder Roads (ICBRs) of length3323.57 km. Of these 12 roadsmeasuring about 1,064 km arein the Union Territories of‘Jammu and Kashmir’ andLadakh while three roads mea-suring about 62 km are inSikkim.

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The National MedicinalPlants Board (NMPB) and

ICAR-National Bureau of PlantGenetic Resources (NBPGR)have signed an agreement toconserve genetic resources ofmedicinal and aromatic plants.

According to theAgriculture Ministry, theobjective of the Memorandumof Understanding (MoU),signed on Monday, is to con-serve genetic resources ofmedicinal and aromatic plantsat designated space of ICAR-NBPGR in long-term storagemodule (as per availability) inthe National Gene Bank, andor at Regional Station formedium-term storage module.The agreement also aims toprovide hands-on training onplant germplasm conserva-

tion techniques to the workinggroup of NMPB under theAyush Ministry.

As per the MoU, NMPBand ICAR-NBPGR, on behalfof the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR),would develop detailed modal-ities for seed storage of genet-ic resources of medicinal andaromatic plants, and submitperiodic progress reports totheir respective organisations.

Both NMPB and ICAR-NBPGR are committed toserve the national intereststhrough conservation ofgermplasm on a long-termbasis, safely and cost-effec-tively for present and futuregenerations to ensure socialand economic security, it said.

Medicinal plants areregarded as rich resources oftraditional medicines and are

being used for thousands ofyears in the health care sys-tem. India has a rich diversi-ty of medicinal plantresources, the ministry said.The natural resources aregradually getting depleted dueto various developmentalactivities in its habitat. Thereis a need to conserve theseresources and make sustain-able utilisation of them, itadded.

The conservation of plantgenetic resources is an integralpart of bio-diversity conser-vation. The purpose of con-servation is to make sustain-able development by protect-ing and using naturalresources in ways that do notdiminish the variety of genesand species or destroy impor-tant habitats and ecosystems,it said.

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MPs attendingParliamentary Standing

Committee meetings will haveto sit six feet apart, and notmore than two witnesses fromthe ministry concerned canappear before the panel at atime.

This is part of the eight-point protocol set by the RajyaSabha secretariat on Tuesdaykeeping in mind the COVID-

19 pandemic, ahead of themeetings of the StandingCommittees on Science andTechnology and Home Affairson July 10 and 15 respectively.

As per the protocol formeetings of Rajya SabhaCommittees, members have toensure conformity with phys-ical distancing norms.

"Members of theCommittee to be seated at adistance of 6 feet and appro-priate arrangements to be made

to accommodate the maxi-mum possible participation.

Only two witnesses fromthe Ministry/Departmentappearing before theCommittee for evidence wouldbe allowed at a time and if morenumber of witnesses were to beexamined, it would be done inturns.

There is no restriction onthe number of witnesses to beexamined by the Committees,"the new protocol said.

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The bitter trading ofcharges between the BJP

and the Congress continueduninterrupted on Tuesday onthe stand-off on the India-China border with BJP’s RajyaSabha MP Shiv Pratap Shuklaseeking apology from theCongress for repeatedly crit-icising Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for his state-ment on China.

Asserting that India hasgiven a clear message toChina under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, theBJP leader said, “ I feel thatIndia has succeeded in bothdiplomatic and military leveltalks. The Prime Minister’srecent visit to Leh also boost-ed the morale of jawans”, hesaid.

Shukla slammedCongress for seeking apologyfrom the Prime Minister forhis last statement on Chinaand called for a reverse apol-ogy from the oppositionparty.

“I think Congress shouldapologise to the country foraccusing PM Modi so manytimes , who is deeply associ-ated with the public”, the RSMP was quoted by newsagency ANI as saying.

The Congress demandedan apology after the reportsthat Chinse troops were mov-ing back from their currentheld position at Galwan valley in Eastern Ladakh.Congress sought to contrastthe development with “noincursions” statement of thePrime Minister in the all-party meet, last month.

BJP and the Congresshave been verbally clashingwith each other on the dailybasis on the India-China face-of f on the Line of Actual Control with BJP por-traying the latest develop-ments on the border as vic-tor y for the Modi-Government whereas theCongress doubting govern-ment assertions and demand-ing “restoration of status quoante”.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday gave one more

month to the Centre for imple-mentation of its verdict on giv-ing all serving SSC womenofficers permanent commis-sion in the Army.

A bench headed byJustices D Y Chandrachudsaid that the Centre will haveto comply with all its direc-tions given in its verdict.

The top court's directioncame on an application filedby the Centre seeking sixmonths' time for implemen-tation of the verdict citing theCOVID-19 pandemic.

In a landmark verdict onFebruary 17, the top court

had directed that womenofficers in the Army be grant-ed permanent commissionand command postings,rejecting the Centre's stand oftheir physiological limita-tions as being based on "sexstereotypes" and "gender dis-crimination against women".

It had directed the

Centre that within threemonths, all serving ShortService Commission (SSC)women officers have to beconsidered for PermanentCommissions (PCs) irre-spective of them havingcrossed 14 years or, as thecase may be, 20 years of ser-vice.

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The Supreme CourtTuesday asked the Uttar

Pradesh government to file astatus report on news articlesthat 57 minor girls of Kanpur-based shelter home have test-ed positive for COVID-19.

The top court has takensuo motu (on its own) cog-nizance of the condition ofchildren in protection -- be itjuvenile, foster or kinshiphomes across the country --amid the coronavirus orCOVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, lawyer AparnaBhat moved a plea seekingproper “medical treatmentand facilities” to 57 minorgirls, who have tested positivefor COVID-19 in a Kanpur-based shelter home in UttarPradesh.

During the hearing, con-ducted via video conferenc-ing, the court was alsoapprised by Tamil Nadu'scounsel that 35 COVID-19positive children of a gov-ernment-run shelter home atRoyapurum in Chennai havenow recovered and are backto the facility.

A bench headed byJustice L Nageswara Raoappointed advocate GauravAggarwal as the amicus curi-ae and asked all the remain-ing states to file their respons-es with Aggarwal by Fridayand kept the case for hearingon July 13.

The court noted that UP,Punjab, Uttarakhand andTripura have not filed theirreplies to the notices issued inthe case.

On April 3, the top courthad issued directions to allthe state governments andvarious other authorities toprotect children in protection.

It had also said that as thepandemic intensifies, it isimportant that urgent mea-sures are taken on a prioritybasis to prevent the spread ofthe virus in child care insti-tutions (CCIs), children inneed of care and protection(CNCP), children in contactwith the law (CICWL) inobservation homes and chil-dren in foster and kinship.

It said the juvenile justiceboards (JJBs) should consid-er steps to release all childrenalleged to be in conflict withlaw residing in observationhomes on bail, unless thereare clear and valid reasons notto do so.

Later, after the report ofCOVID-positive 35 childrencame from Chennai, the topcourt sought a status reportfrom the Tamil Nadu gov-ernment including stepstaken to protect the remain-ing children.

The bench had sought astatus report from differentstate governments on stepstaken to protect children inshelter homes amid the pan-demic.

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The death toll in the July 1boiler explosion mishap at

Neyveli Lignite Corporation’spower station reached 12 as sixmore persons admitted to acorporate hospital in Chennaisuccumbed to the injuries dur-ing July 3 to 5, said a releaseissued by the public sectorgiant.

The dead include onedeputy chief engineer, twojunior engineers, a foremanand two contract staff. Sixcontract workers had lost theirlives in the accident site itselfon July 1.

The release said that theNLC management has declareda solatium of Rs 30 lakh to thefamilies of the deceased. Thecompensation is given by theMinistry of Coal and the NLC.

A deputy general managerand an additional deputy gen-eral manager have been sus-pended as part of the inter-departmental inquiry orderedby the company into the factorswhich led to the boiler blastand the loss of lives.

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There was some relief forTamil Nadu on Tuesday as

the State saw a small fall in thenumber of persons tested pos-itive for coronavirus. Accordingto the bulletin issued by the

Tamil Nadu Government,3,616 persons were diagnosedwith the pandemic on Tuesdaywhile the fatalities continued tobe on the higher side. The Statesaw 65 persons succumbing toCovid-19 on Tuesday.

On July 2, the total num-ber of persons tested positivefor Covid were 4,343 and sincethen there has been a fall in thenumber of cases, though small.As on Tuesday, there were 45,839 active patients in the State

while the total number ofcovid-19 cases tested till datereached 1.18 lakh.

The 96 laboratories acrossthe State tested 35, 423 personson Tuesday while the totalnumber of persons tested pos-itive till date reached 1.3 mil-lion. The day also saw 4, 545getting discharged from thehospitals across the State andthis took the number ofpatients cured of the disease to71,116.

The decrease in the num-ber of positive cases over thelast five days is in synch withthe statement by HealthMinister Dr Vijaya Baskar thatthe flattening of the infectioncurve has begun in the State.“Due to measures taken by theGovernment , the curve is notpeaking but flattening inChennai,” the minister hadtold local journalists.

Chennai tested 1,203 per-sons with Covid on Tuesday

and this is an important devel-opment. The Metropolis hadtested 1,747 persons with covidon Monday. Similarly,Chengalpet registered 87 per-sons on Tuesday against the fig-ure of 213 on Monday. Thenumber of persons tested pos-itive in Kancheepuram tooshowed a major change onTuesday. While 106 persons inthe district were found to bepositive on Tuesday, there were182 cases tested on Monday.Only Thiruvallur districtshowed an increase in thenumber of persons (217)afflicted with covid on Tuesday.

The districts of Madurai,Virudhunagar andThoothukudi continued to beproblematic for theGovernment as there has beennotable increase in the numberof cases which may necessitatelock down, according to doc-tors in these districts.

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In an apparent precursor to itsfuture plans of making the

Central Government’s “sweepingprivatisation” exercise as one ofits main electoral planks in thenext year’s Assembly electionsthe ruling Trinamool Congresson Tuesday launched campaignsthroughout Bengal against theBJP demanding immediate rollback of what its leaders called “aconspiracy to privatise the IndianRailways.”

Senior party leaders includ-ing MP Mala Roy, Firhad Hakimled hundreds of slogan shoutingdemonstrators at various placesof Kolkata includingKhidderpore, Tollygunge andBehala. The district and blockunits protested at Purulia,Hooghly, Birbhum, Malda andother parts of the State.

“This BJP Government hasa defined policy of dividingIndia along religious lines andtaking advantage of a dividedelectorate create a dictatorship ofthe capitalist forces … India willhenceforward be divided into acapitalist India and poor man’sBharat where the capitalists willrule through their puppets in theBJP,” Hakim a senior Minister in

the Mamata Cabinet said.In what looked like state-

ments taken directly out of theLeft leaders’ mouths he said“the privatization goes hand inhand and through privatizationof Railways and other profit-making institutions thisGovernment will mortgage thecountry into the hands of Indianand foreign capitalist powers.”

Demanding immediate roll-back of the decision to run 159private trains throughout IndiaRoy, the South Kolkata MP saidthe “As has been the practiceMamata always takes up a causewhile other parties follow it. Inthis case too we have launchedthis movement … we will not leta sale-out of the public wealthlike this.”

The Left and Congress toostaged a joint demonstration atdown town Park Street demand-ing a withdrawal of the decision.“India does not belong to the BJP,neither it belongs to theexploiters… it belongs to thepeople in general particularly, thetoiling mass whose sweat and toilhave gone into making of whatIndian Railways is today. So ahandful of leaders in the Centrecannot take this important deci-sion and it has to be taken

back,” said CPI(M) politburomember Biman Bose.

Congress MP PradipBhattacharya too attacked theCentre for taking “arbitrary deci-sions by-passing the people’srepresentatives and by takingadvantage of the handicap thatthe opposition suffers from dur-ing the corona period. TheCongress and the Left firmlydemands its roll back.”

The Left and the Congresshave also decided to build up ajoint movement against the deci-sion to disinvest Coal India, theleaders nsaid. “How can a PSUwhich has registered a profit ofRs 27,000 crore last year be soldat one go … there is larger con-spiracy behind what the BJP isdoing and they will have torepent for it in future,” saidForward Bloc leader Naren Dey.

SRINAGAR: The NIA hasarrested a Pulwama resident forallegedly providing logisticalsupport to terrorists involved inplanning the attack on a CRPFconvoy that left 40 jawans deadin the south Kashmir district inFebruary last year, officialssaid on Tuesday.

Bilal Ahmed Kuchey, a res-ident of Kakpora of Pulwamadistrict, is the seventh personto be arrested in connectionwith the attack.

The sawmill owner wason Monday produced before adesignated court in Jammuwhich sent him to NationalInvestigation Agency custodyfor 10 days, the officials said.

They said he had allowedthe terrorists to use his houseas a hideout and also providedthem with high-end mobilephones used for communica-tion with Pakistan-based han-dlers of the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The same mobile was usedby Adil Ahmed Dar, the suicidebomber, for recording hisvideo, they said.

On February 14 last year,the suicide bomber blew him-self up next to a CRPF bus,which was part of a 78-vehicleconvoy carrying over 2,500personnel on their way fromJammu to Srinagar. Forty CRPFpersonnel were killed. PTI

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Alarmed at the steep rise incorona cases the Bengal

Government on Tuesday decid-ed to re-impose lockdown incontainment zones which inany case went up by at least 11digits in Capital Kolkata alone.

Following recommenda-tions from 10 districts includ-

ing North 24 and South 24Parganas, Malda, NorthDinajpur the State Governmenthas decided to slap lockdownonce again in all the contain-ment zones where no businessapart from essential serviceswill be allowed to remain open.The new phase of lockdownwill begin from July 9 theGovernment circular said.

The order will be imple-mented in Kolkata too wherethe number of containmentzones went up from 17 onMonday to 28 on Tuesday.After the State Capital, North 24Parganas continued to witness

highest number of cases whichhad crossed the 4,000 marks.

“At present only the urbanareas of the district will remainunder lockdown,” sources saidadding large parts of Maldaincluding Ingrez Bazaar munic-ipality, Old Malda andKaliachak had once again beenbrought under lockdown.Dalkhola region at the junctionof NH 31 and 34 connectingrest of India to the North Easttoo have been brought underlockdown, sources said.

In Kolkata the MunicipalCorporation authorities com-plained the rise in the number

of cases was because of the“wayward attitude of the upperechelon of the society.”

“There are reports that thepeople living in high rise apart-ments and private mansions arenot following the guidelineswhich is why Kolkata is wit-nessing a steep rise in coronacases… if this is not stoppedhere and now then things cantake uglier turn,” Atin Ghosh asenior member in the KMC’sadministrative team and formerDeputy Mayor said.

Out of the 255 cases thatKolkata recorded in the past 24hours only 13 came from the

slums where as the remainingcases came from the rich andmiddle class families meaningthereby that they are not fol-lowing the norms, Ghosh said.

The total number of casesin Bengal has crossed 23,000with only one inspiring newsthat the recovery rate has goneas high as about 69 percent,sources said. As of Mondayevening, there were 6,973 activecases in the State, while the totaltally is at 22,987.

Meanwhile after suspend-ing flights linking Kolkata tohotspot cities the Centre hasnow decided to reduce the fre-

quency of trains coming toHowrah.

With Bengal seeing a spikein corona cases the IndianRailways have decided toreduce the number of specialtrains to Howrah fromMumbai, Ahmedabad andDelhi.

The special trains will nowrun weekly instead of daily,sources said adding the decisionwas taken following requestsfrom the State Government tothe Railway Ministry. StateChief Secretary had earlierwritten a letter in this regard tothe Chairman of the Railway

Board.Accordingly the Howrah-

Ahmedabad Special will runonce a week instead of daily,from July 10 and reverse fromJuly 13, while the

Howrah-Mumbai CSMTSpecial will run weekly fromJuly 15 and reverse from July 17.

The Howrah-Delhi viaPatna will run once a weekfrom July 11 and reverse fromJuly 12, whereas, Howrah-Delhivia Dhanbad will run weeklyfrom July 16 and reverse fromJuly 17. Flights to Kolkata fromhotspot zones would remainsuspended till July 16.

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Pinarayi Vijayan, ChiefMinister of Kerala, who is in

the eye of a storm over reportsabout gold smuggling throughdiplomatic channel viaThiruvananthapuram Airportwith the connivance of theChief Minister’s Office, putthe blame on the CentralGovernment for its failure tocheck such activities.

“Airports in the countryare all managed by the CentralGovernment. The Customsofficials deployed in these air-ports are Central Governmentofficials and if smuggling ofgold is happening in airports,it shows the incapability of theCentre. The KeralaGovernment has no role in itand we are always ready to helpthe investigating agencies withany help,” said the ChiefMinister when he was askedthe alleged role of his trustedofficial in the incident of goldsmuggling through diplomat-ic channel.

Vijayan pointed out thatthe parcel which arrived at theairport was addressed to theUAE Consulate and not to the

Kerala Government. “Thename of a lady (Swapna Suresh)has been roped in by some peo-ple to discredit the ChiefMinister’s Office. She has norole in the CMO and she is nota staff of the CMO,” said theChief Minister who decried theattempts by the Opposition todefame him by spreading fakenews.

The Chief Minister saidthat Swapna Suresh was hiredby a placement agency to workfor the IT Department basedon her previous experience inthe UAE Consulate and AirIndia SATS (Singapore AirportTerminal Services) . “You haveto find out who helped her toget a job in Air India SATS , aCentral Government ownedenterprise. We in KeralaGovernment do not have any-thing to do with her,” said theChief Minister.

He reiterated that SwapnaSuresh was working on con-tract basis for the ITDepartment of Kerala and shehas no direct dealings with theGovernment. Vijayan blamed asection of the media was tryingto distort his image in thebackdrop of the upcoming

election to the legislativeassembly. Kerala will go to thepolls in April-May 2021 toelect a new legislative assembly.

On Sunday, the Customsofficials had seized a consign-ment of 30 kg gold (valued atRs 15 crore in Indian market)addressed to the UAEConsulate in the capital citywhich was booked as a diplo-matic baggage. Sarith, a formerUAE Consulate staff has beenarrested in connection with theincident while Swapna Suresh,the kingpin is missing sincethen.

M Sivasankar, principalsecretary in the CMO who wasalso the IT Secretary is report-ed to have close liaison with thecontroversial woman.Sivsankar has been shunted outof the CMO and removed fromthe post of IT Secretary onTuesday.

Meanwhile RameshChennaithala, leader of oppo-sition has written to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi seek-ing CBI probe into the wholeaffair. The name of SwapnaSuresh has been linked to someof the top CPI(M) leaders inthe State.

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An unprecedented situationhas emerged in Kerala,

according to Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan. Briefingmedia persons in a virtualpress meet, the septuagenari-an Vijayan who looked visiblyupset said that Tuesday saw272 persons getting diagnosedwith Covid-19. “This is thehighest number to be testedpositive on a single day in theState. While 157 of those whodiagnosed with Covid-19 on

Tuesday were from foreigncountries and 38 are thosefrom other parts of the State,it has been noted that 68 per-sons got infected of the pan-demic through transmission,”said Vijayan.

The Chief Minister spentmost of his briefing time plead-ing with the people of the Stateto cooperate with the govern-ment in observing the rulesand regulations like social dis-tancing and wearing of facemasks to prevent the spread ofthe pandemic.

“It is time for us to observemaximum caution and safetymeasures to prevent the spreadof the disease. As on today,there is no sign of communi-ty transmission in Keralathough the number of peoplewho are afflicted throughsocial contacts is on the high-er side,” said Vijayan.

The chief minister said ason date there were 3,034 per-sons undergoing treatment inthe hospitals in Ketrala. “OnTuesday, 378 persons werehospitalised because of coron-

avirus affliction. The numberof hotspots in the State havegone up to 169 on Tuesday,” hesaid.

According to the chiefminister, the State has collect-ed 2.85 lakh samples tillTuesday for testing for Covid-29. He also said that till date4.99 lakh persons have comeback to the State since theannouncement of lock down.“Out of this, 1.85 lakh are fromabroad and the remainingfrom other parts of India,” hesaid.

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Guwahati: A door-to-door Covid-19 test-ing programme has been launched here onTuesday following a surge in Covid-19 casesin the past two weeks. Health MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma is personally moni-toring the programme in the Pandu area ofthe Guwahati Municipal Corporation(GMC), and is asking people to cooperate,not panic.

"In the state, 786 new cases were detect-ed on Monday night. Of this, 598 were fromGuwahati alone. We aim to conduct 3,000tests in the Ward No 2 (Pandu area) in twodays," he said. According to the Health andFamily Welfare Department officials, the stategovernment has procured 200,000 rapid anti-gen testing kits for quick testing.

The pilot project was launched in the

Pandu area as it turned into a hotspot of'community transmission". "Among the33,000 population, majority have no travelhistory," said an official.

After withdrawal of travel restrictions,3,11,217 people returned to Assam by road,trains and air from different parts of thecountry, which raised the number of coro-navirus cases, they said. IANS

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The COVID-19 pandemic hasexposed the fault lines, vulner-abilities and infirmities thatexist in India’s labour law andpolicy framework. On the sur-

face, the country’s legal structure boastsof 200 State laws and around 45 Centralrules that govern the employer-employ-ee relationship. India is a labour surpluscountry with 47 million unemployedbelow the age of 24 years and 12-13 mil-lion youths joining the labour marketevery year. Almost 93 per cent of India’slabour force works in the unorganisedsector, the majority of whom are unskilledand poorly educated. Nearly 90 per centof India’s estimated 47 crore workforce isnot benefitting from the existing labourlaw provisions.

But the irony is that the multitude oflaws have neither uplifted the socio-eco-nomic conditions of the workers nor havethey incentivised economic develop-ment. This because they “over regulate”and create legal hurdles at every stage ofrunning an enterprise.

Last year, the Union Governmentdrafted four labour codes as part of aprocess to streamline these laws. Theywere the Code on Wages (approved byParliament), the Industrial RelationsCode, Code on Social Security andWelfare and the Code on OccupationalSafety, Health and Working Conditions.These codes will subsume within them-selves various legislations related to spe-cific areas of labour law. TheGovernment’s move guarantees trans-parency and accountability. But this isalso an opportune time to revisit theselaws in the light of the health, safety andlivelihood challenges faced by the work-ers.

Another striking feature of the Indianlabour landscape is that the proportionof informal workers in the total partici-pating labour force is a staggering 90 percent. In other words, 90 per cent of thework force does not have job security ora social safety net.

This became apparent when migrantworkers, who form part of the circulareconomy, were left in the lurch withoutany social security net to tide over theCOVID-19-induced lockdown. Left withno guarantee of shelter, their next mealor any certainty as to when the lockdownwould end, the workers started a long andperilous walk back to their home States.

It is paramount to consider the linkbetween the inadequacies in an existinglaw, its implementation and accountabil-ity vis-à-vis the State and the enterprisethat has to abide by it. Let us first exam-ine the laws and regulations that arealready in place.

For the workers’ benefit, theGovernment has created certain socialsecurity nets like the Employees’ State

Insurance Scheme (ESI) andthe Provident Fund (PF) forlabourers who work in theorganised sector. It is the dutyof the employers or the con-tractors to register theiremployees under theseschemes but in practice, theygrossly under report the num-ber of such workers to reducecompliance costs. As a result,the JAM trinity-linked directtransfer schemes are difficult toimplement because a largenumber of employees are invis-ible.

Further, schemes such asthe Building and OtherConstruction Workers(BoCW), a welfare fund set upunder the Building and OtherConstruction Workers(Regulation of Employmentand Conditions of Service)Act, 1996, meant for the largestsection of the migrant workersand informal labour also relyon registration. The LabourMinistry reported that around�31,000 crore was lyingunspent in BoCW funds.Several activists have also high-lighted that migrant workersdid not receive any benefitand that the BoCW fund hasregistered many bogus workers.

In this context, the need foran accountability and fair workombudsman has been verymuch felt. Such an institutionwould ensure that worker ben-

efit schemes are better imple-mented and utilised so thattheir true beneficiaries receivethe required social safety net,especially in times of crisis.

Uncertain times call fordrastic changes to the labourlaws in order to deliver stake-holder benefits. However, in thepast month, several States havetaken steps to suspend extantlabour laws rather thanstrengthen them.

The primary logic, ratherthe zeal, behind this move is toincentivise economic growth onthe assumption that deregula-tion through labour lawreforms will enhance econom-ic prospects. The Uttar PradeshGovernment has proposed thesuspension of all labour laws forthe next three years. Only thosethat are related to payment oftimely wages, prohibition ofbonded labour and health andsafety of workers are excluded.

The Madhya PradeshGovernment’s amendmentsfocus on new factories andestablishments which would beexempted from the provisionsof the Industrial Disputes Act,1947. These State Governmentshave also suspended the work-ing of the Act, which hampersthe rights of a worker toapproach the IndustrialTribunal in case of an industri-al dispute or seek compensa-tion in case of layoffs and

retrenchments.However, a conjoint read-

ing of Article 246, 213 and 254of the Constitution demon-strates that a Governor cannotpromulgate any ordinancewithout the assent of thePresident in relation to anordinance which suspendslabour laws. As of date, thePresident has not granted suchassent to these changes pro-posed by various States.

One cannot do away withthe labour law regulations justto ease pressure on economicgrowth. Their removal is anti-thetical to the idea of a socialnet that makes the workers feelsecure at their workplace. Mostimportantly, these labourchanges will last for only threeyears. Such a sunset clause isbound to detract rather thanattract investments due to theshort-lived nature of theseincentives. Industry requires alabour law structure that is sta-ble and secure rather than onewhich changes every few years.

The need of the hour is thatGovernments, while continu-ing the process to streamlineexisting laws, strike a balancingact and implement beneficialand investor-friendly labourreforms, which address thedeep-rooted problems for theworkers’ welfare.

(The writer is a Delhi-basedlawyer)

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Sir —This refers to the editorial,“Too long a distance” (July 4).Indeed, it is good to see reformstaking place in Indian Railways.They were long overdue. TheRailways do not generate profitand are barely able to meet theiryearly expenses due to various rea-sons. Privatisation of 109 routeswill not only improve efficiencybut also passenger experience.

Now, the bigger question iswhether private companies wouldbe able to make this a viable pro-ject. The private players are like-ly to charge more for tickets andthey will have to share their prof-its with the Railways. Also, theRailways will run on the sameroutes within an hour of the pri-vate trains. So, the Railways willhave to come out with a strategywhich should be long-term andsustainable for both the privateplayers and the public enterprise.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir —The proposal to launch anindigenous COVID-19 vaccine is

a welcome step as our country hasa huge population and the pan-demic has caused unprecedenteddamage. However, the date oflaunch proposed by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) appears to be too closeand there is an apprehension thatcertain procedures may be com-

promised to meet that deadline. India will be the single-largest

consumer of the vaccine globallyand if we have to get priority indistribution of the vaccine, weshould have our own source ofsupply. Further, going by thetrack record of the companywhich has developed the candi-

date, there is hope for success.While it is understood that elab-orate trials and documentation asfollowed in the US may not be fea-sible in this case in view of theurgency to save lives, the safetyand efficacy of the vaccine shouldnot be compromised. One hopesthat the identified investigators

will do a fair job. The nationawaits the right vaccine at the righttime.

Harshal Suresh Desale Pune

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Sir — The deaths of Irrfan Khan,Rishi Kapoor, Sushant SinghRajput and now Saroj Khan aregreat blows to the Hindi filmindustry. All of them have leftbehind memorable pieces of workthat will continue to set standardsfor Indian cinema. Khan, who hada career spanning four decades,was an iconic choreographer anda teacher who made dancing lookeasy. Credited for over 2,000 dancenumbers, she created signaturemoves for actors like MadhuriDixit in Tezaab, Aishwarya RaiBachchan in Taal and Sridevi inMr India. Khan also mentored afew aspiring choreographers whobecame successful in their ownright. Her death is an immeasur-able loss to the film industry.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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During the last three weeks of June, the oilmarketing public sector undertakings(PSUs), namely the Indian Oil

Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat PetroleumCorporation Limited (BPCL) and HindustanPetroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL),increased the retail prices of petrol and dieselcontinuously almost daily. The cumulative hikeworks out to about �9 per litre of petrol and �11per litre in case of diesel. As a result, the cur-rent price of both the fuels in Delhi is �80.5 perlitre. In April/May, petrol was selling at �71 perlitre whereas diesel was �69 per litre.

The prices of these fuels are deregulated(petrol since June 2010 and diesel since October2014). Under the subsisting arrangement, oilmarketing PSUs calculate their prices at thepump by adding four components, viz. the ex-refinery price (ERP), freight charges, dealer com-mission and taxes. The ERP in turn is linked tothe import parity price (IMPP) and export par-ity price (EPP) of respective fuels in the ratio of80:20. The price is fixed on a daily basis takinginto account the variation in IMPP/EPP. Changesin the other components, if any, are also reflect-ed as and when these happen.

The IMPP/EPP or international prices (asunderstood in common parlance) of theseproducts move in tandem with the movementin international prices of crude oil — the basicraw material that is processed in refineries to geta variety of petroleum products (POL), includ-ing petrol and diesel. The price of crude oildepends on the global supply and demand bal-ance. If the demand exceeds supply, the priceincreases; in case supply exceeds demand, theprice decreases.

In January, when the international price ofcrude was ruling at about $60 per barrel, the priceof petrol (in Delhi) was �76 per litre and that ofdiesel �68. In February/March when theCOVID-19 crisis was building up, leading to acontraction in global demand, the OPEC(Organisation of Petroleum ExportingCountries) and non-OPEC suppliers wanted toclinch a deal to reduce supplies but failed. As aresult, the crude price plunged to around $30 perbarrel in March. In that month, even as the priceof petrol was down to about �70 per litre, dieselcontinued to hover around the same level as itwas in January.

By April the devastation caused by the con-tagion reached its zenith. This resulted indestruction of global oil demand by an unprece-dented 29 million barrels per day (MBPD). Thistime around, the OPEC and others reached anagreement to cut supplies by 10 MBPD. However,the agreed cut being far short of the contractionin demand, the deal failed to stem the slide incrude prices which plummeted to a low of $17per barrel. Despite this, the price of petrol anddiesel more or less remained unchanged at �71per litre and �69 respectively.

During May/June, with calibrated unlock-ing in different parts of the world and easing ofexcess supply, the crude price firmed up to about$30 per barrel in May and further up to a littleabove $40 per barrel in June. Correspondingly,the retail price of petrol and diesel has escalat-ed to about �80.5 per litre each. The above trendspoint towards brazen violation of the underly-ing principle of pricing. Despite the price ofcrude in April being nearly one-fourth of its level

in January, the consumers in Delhi werepaying for diesel at the same ratewhereas, for petrol they paid margin-ally less by �5 per litre. By June, whencrude increased to $40 per barrel(which is two-third of the Januarylevel), they are paying more than �80per litre for both — significantly high-er than January level. The blame liessquarely with the Centre and States,which raised taxes when the interna-tional prices were moving south (up toApril) but did not lower them when theprices reversed the trajectory(May/June). On March 14, the CentralGovernment increased Central ExciseDuty (CED) on petrol and diesel by �3per litre each. In May it resorted toanother hike in CED, this being muchsteeper at �10 per litre on petrol and�13 per litre on diesel. In a short spanof less than a month, it has increasedduty on petrol by �13 per litre and ondiesel by a whopping �16. The States,too, increased Value Added Tax (VAT)substantially; e.g. Delhi by as much as�7 per litre.

Faced with a steep decline in taxrevenue during the current year (thiscould be as high as �4,00,000 crore) andballooning expenditure commitments,including health as well as livelihood-related and given the compulsions ofavoiding a major slippage in fiscaldeficit, the Centre saw a golden oppor-tunity to raise extra resources by hik-ing the CED. This could pass muster aslong as it didn’t result in higher priceto consumers. But, this wouldn’t beacceptable if it starts pricking them.And this is precisely what happened inJune. The Government could haverolled back a portion of the hike in CED

when crude prices firmed up inMay/June. But that was not done lead-ing to a steep increase in prices at thepump.

Under the scheme of sharingCentral taxes with States as per the rec-ommendation of the FinanceCommission, the Central Governmentis required to transfer 42 per cent of itscollection to them. However, the Roadand Infrastructure Cess (RaIC) — apart of CED — is kept out of the divis-ible pool. In other words, the formercan keep the whole of RaIC with itself.No wonder, out of the steep increase inCED at �10 per litre on petrol and �13on diesel in May, the Centre collected�8 per litre each in the form of RaIC.Out of the current CED on petrol at �33per litre, �18 per litre comes from thecess whereas, for diesel, out of �32 perlitre CED, RaIC is �12 per litre.

It is abundantly clear that irrespec-tive of the international price scenario(whether low or high), the NarendraModi Government appears to havetaken a conscious policy decision tokeep the CED high and that, too, most-ly in the form of RaIC, which enablesit to retain an overwhelming portion ofthe collection with itself. Not to be leftbehind, the States also extract theirpound of flesh.

We thus have an abhorrent situa-tion whereby taxes alone account forabout two-third of the price at thepump. The high fuel price contributesto high inflation and higher cost of fer-tilisers and food. Since the Governmentcontrols their prices at a low level tomake them affordable to users, a goodslice of extra revenue is given back ashigher subsidy. To that extent, the rev-

enue gain from higher CED is imagi-nary. The cost of fuel is a major com-ponent of operational cost of any firmincluding micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs). It is ironic thaton one hand, the Government is mak-ing all out efforts (moratorium on loanrepayment, additional working capital,lower interest rate and so on) to ensurethat they come out of the crisis. On theother, it increases their cost of opera-tions (courtesy, steep hike in CED).

The high taxes are also a major bot-tleneck in the way of removing the cur-rent tag of “zero rating” under theGoods and Services Tax (GST) whichis a jargon to continue petrol, diesel(besides natural gas, crude and aviationturbine fuel or ATF) under the erst-while regime of CED, VAT and otherlocal taxes. Even if these fuels were tobe put under the highest tax slab, theapplicable rate will be 28 per cent.Against this, the current incidence oftax under CED/VAT being more thandouble the cost of supply, the Centreand States will shudder at the very ideaof including these products under theGST dispensation.

The Government must not becometoo dependent on oil taxes for increas-ing its revenue and maintaining the fis-cal balance. With 2020-21 being anexcruciating year, it may continue withcurrent CED for now, but from nextyear, the hikes affected in March/Mayshould be rolled back. Thereafter, itshould gradually reduce it to reasonablerates preferably to a level less than �10per litre (in 2014, CED was �9.8 per litreon petrol and �3.8 per litre on diesel).

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

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The world is constantly beingfed news and reports focussedon COVID-19-related mat-

ters. The most exciting among themis any news about the possible dis-covery of a wonder drug or a vaccineagainst COVID-19 that would helpmankind get rid of this pandemicand solve all problems resultingfrom it.

People get excited as soon as anew drug development is announcedand TV channels grab eyeballs bybreaking news about newer vaccineshaving been developed by scientistsfrom around the world. Let mereassure you that no drug or vaccine

can be developed overnight. In factit takes years of research and clini-cal trials before any new drug or vac-cine can be made available for com-mercial use. Most people wouldwonder why. The answer lies inunderstanding how any vaccine dis-covery process works.

The first step is the exploratorystage, where the scientists identifynatural or synthetic antigens thatmight help prevent or treat a disease.These antigens could include virus-like particles, weakened viruses orbacteria, weakened bacterial toxins.This stage alone usually takes at leasttwo years but with COVID-19, sci-entists have a head start because thisisn’t the first Coronavirus they havetried to make a vaccine for. Vaccinetrials for Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome (SARS) and Middle EastRespiratory Syndrome (MERS) hadalready begun in 2003 and 2012respectively but were abandonedwhen those outbreaks receded on

their own. Then comes the pre-clin-ical stage where animal testing isundertaken using rats, rabbits ormonkeys. Scientists may vaccinatethe animals and then try to infectthem with the target pathogen, to testthe immune response of the candi-date vaccine as well as its safety. Thesestudies give an idea of the responsethey might expect in human bodiesand help arrive at a safe starting doseas well as a safe method of adminis-tering the vaccine.

Many candidate vaccines neverprogress beyond this stage becausethey fail to produce the desiredimmune response. This process takesat least a year. On successful comple-tion of animal trials, an institution,private sponsor or company puts upapplications to regulatory authoritiesfor approval of the investigationalnew drug. Human trials can onlybegin after such approvals are grant-ed.

The vaccine now enters phase I

of human trials, which may have asmall group of 20 to 50 participants.Participants are injected with the vac-cine to assess the type and extent ofimmune response in humans. Asmall minority of participants maybe injected with the pathogen afterthey have been vaccinated.

Promising results in this phaseallow the drug to enter into the PhaseII of testing. Several hundred volun-teers participate in Phase II testing.These are randomised trials andinclude a controlled group of peoplethat are given the drug and a place-bo group of people that are givensaline or water.

The objectives of Phase II test-ing are to further evaluate the vac-cine’s safety, immunogenicity, pro-posed doses, schedule of immunisa-tions and method of delivery.

Successful Phase II candidatevaccines move on to larger trials orPhase III. This phase involves thou-sands of people and the experimen-

tal vaccine is tested against a place-bo. These trials are randomised anddouble blind which means that nei-ther the volunteer nor the health offi-cials are aware of who received thevaccine and who got the placebo. Tofully assess the protective efficacy andsafety of a vaccine, this phase of test-ing usually requires hundreds ofthousands of participants. The Salkpolio vaccine was tested on over 1.3million people. On successful com-pletion of this phase the vaccine getslicenced for commercial produc-tion.

The World Health Organisation(WHO) recommends that if a vac-cine contains genetically modifiedorganisms (GMOs) anEnvironmental Risk Assessmentshould also be undertaken andapproved by the appropriate agency.

In general, non vaccine drugs aredeveloped, tested and regulated in amanner almost similar to vaccinesexcept that the number of human

subjects in vaccine trials is usuallylarger.

Scientists caution that less than10 per cent of the drugs that enterclinical trials in the US are approvedby the Food and DrugAdministration. The rest fail becausethey are not effective or have toomany side effects. Because of thishigh failure rate, we must have mul-tiple potential vaccines to test.

To put things in perspective, thehistory of vaccine developmentworldwide is not encouraging. Therecord in the US for developing anentirely new vaccine is four years.Despite all the efforts under way tofast track administrative clearances,experts in the US believe that a vac-cine against the Coronavirus couldbe developed in 12 to 18 months.

And beyond this point lie thechallenges of production and distri-bution at scale. All vaccines requiremaintenance of the cold chain to pre-serve their efficacy. Setting up scaled

production and distribution infra-structure will require collaborationbetween the public and private sec-tors which in turn will add to thetime to market.

So one must not get too excitedby the frequent breaking news on TVand our WhatsApp groups. Anyclaim of an instant breakthrough inCOVID-19 care is a sham for sure.And any Government or organisa-tion claiming that they would havea drug or vaccine ready in a matterof months should be taken to task forspreading false hope and makingirresponsible claims. The truth is thatscience cannot be rushed and thedevelopment of a reliable and safevaccine or drug by any institution, nomatter where, will need to follow thehighest standards of rigour, and thatwill take time. In the meantime,social distancing is the only protec-tion you need from the pandemic.(The writer is a neurosurgeon atApollo Hospital)

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Washington/New York: In amove that will adversely impacthundreds of thousands ofIndian students, the US immi-gration authority hasannounced that foreign stu-dents will have to leave thecountry or risk deportation iftheir universities switch toonline-only classes in this fallsemester due to the coronaviruspandemic.

The Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE)said in a press release onMonday that for the fall 2020semester students attendingschools operating entirelyonline may not take a fullonline course load and remainin the US.

“The US Department ofState will not issue visas to stu-

dents enrolled in schoolsand/or programmes that arefully online for the fall semes-ter nor will US Customs andBorder Protection permit thesestudents to enter the UnitedStates,” the release said referringto the September to Decembersemester.

The agency suggested thatstudents currently enrolled inthe US consider other measures,like transferring to schools within-person instruction.

International studentsenrolled in academic pro-grammes at US universities andcolleges study on an F-1 visa andthose enrolled in technical pro-grammes at vocational or otherrecognised non-academic insti-tutions, other than a languagetraining programme come to

the US on an M-1 visa.India sent the largest num-

ber of students (251,290) to theUS after China (478,732) in2017 and 2018, according to thelatest Student and ExchangeVisitor Program (SEVP) ‘SEVISby the Numbers Report’ 2018.

The number of studentsfrom India increased from 2017to 2018 by 4,157.

The immigration agencysaid that the active students cur-rently in the US enrolled in suchprogrammes “must depart thecountry or take other mea-sures, such as transferring to aschool with in-person instruc-tion to remain in lawful statusor potentially face immigrationconsequences including, butnot limited to, the initiation ofremoval proceedings.”

Spelling out the criteria forinternational students to stay inthe US, the ICE said that stu-

dents attending schools operat-ing under normal in-personclasses are bound by existing

federal regulations.“Eligible F students may

take a maximum of one class or

three credit hours online,” it said.

Nonimmigrant F-1 students

attending schools adopting ahybrid model—that is, a mix-ture of online and in-personclasses— will be allowed totake more than one class orthree credit hours online, it said.

These schools must certifyto the Student and ExchangeVisitor Programme that thecourse is not entirely online, thatthe student is not taking anentirely online course load forthe fall 2020 semester, and thatthe student is taking the mini-mum number of online classesrequired to make normalprogress in their degree pro-gramme.

The above exemptions donot apply to F-1 students inEnglish language training pro-grams or M-1 students pursu-ing vocational degrees, who arenot permitted to enrol in anyonline courses, the ICE said.

The guidance is certain to

cause severe anxiety and uncer-tainty for the hundreds of thou-sands of international studentswho are studying in the coun-try and for those who werepreparing to arrive in the US tobegin their education when thenew academic session begins inSeptember.

The US is the worst-hitcountry by the COVID-19 pan-demic. The virus has infectedmore than 2.9 million people inthe country and killed over130,000, according to JohnsHopkins University data.

International travel restric-tions in place due to the pan-demic have made it increasing-ly difficult for foreign studentsin the US to return to theirhome countries, while thoseoutside America are uncertainif they will be able to travel tojoin their courses in Americancolleges and universities. PTI

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Washington: ProminentAmerican academicians andlawmakers have reacted sharplyto the new US guideline to kickout foreign students pursuingdegrees in the country if theiruniversities switch to online-only classes, calling it as “hor-rifying” and “cruel.”

The Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE)on Monday announced thatforeign students pursuingdegrees in America will have toleave the country or risk depor-tation if their universities switch

to online-only classes in this fallreferring to the September toDecember semester.

The decision will adverse-ly impact hundreds of thou-sands of Indian students in theUS. It said that for the fall 2020semester students attendingschools operating entirely onlinemay not take a full onlinecourse load and remain in theUS. The new regulation drewwidespread backlash with manytaking to social media to venttheir anger.

The American Council on

Education (ACE), which repre-sents university presidents, saidthe guidelines are “horrifying”and will result in confusion as schools look for ways toreopen safely.

“On its face, the guidancereleased by the ICE is horrifying.While we would welcome moreclarity about international stu-dents studying in the UnitedStates, this guidance raises morequestions than it answers andunfortunately does more harmthan good,” ACE President TedMitchell said in a statement. PTI

Washington: Secretary of StateMike Pompeo has said the USis “certainly looking” at banningChinese social media apps,including TikTok, days afterIndia blocked the popularvideo-sharing platform.

India banned 59 apps withChinese links, including TikTokand UC Browser, on June 29,saying they were prejudicial tosovereignty, integrity and secu-rity of the country.

During an interview onMonday with Fox News’ LauraIngraham, Pompeo said that heand President Donald Trumpare taking the reports seriouslyafter he was told by the host thatIndia had already banned theapp and Australia is consideringdoing so.

“We are taking this veryseriously and we are certainlylooking at it. We have workedon this very issue for a longtime, whether it’s the problem ofhaving Huawei technology inyour infrastructure -- we’vegone all over the world and weare making real progress gettingthat out -- we had declared ZTEa danger to American national

security,” Pompeo said. “With respect to Chinese

apps on people’s cell phones, Ican assure you the United Stateswill get this one right too,” hesaid, adding that he did notwant to dive into specifics andpotentially “get ahead” of anypresidential announcement.

“But, it is something we arelooking at,” he said, going on towarn Americans that theyshould be cautious in usingTikTok, lest they want their pri-vate information “in the handsof the Chinese CommunistParty.” Pompeo’s remarks on theChinese social media apps cameamid growing tensions in bilat-eral ties with Beijing on a rangeof issues, including on the coro-navirus outbreak and the con-troversial national security lawimposed in Hong Kong.

The US has banned Huaweifrom their 5G networks over

concerns of security andWashington has been pressur-ing other countries to restrictthe operations of the Chinesetelecom firm.

The recent ban by India onChinese apps has been widelynoted in the US and someprominent lawmakers haveurged the American govern-ment to follow suit as it isbelieved that the short video-sharing app is a major securityrisk to the country.

Republican CongressmanRick Crawford tweeted that“TikTok must go and it shouldhave been gone yesterday.”

US National SecurityAdvisor, Robert O’Brien hadalleged that the ChineseGovernment is using TikTok forits own purposes.

“On TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platformwith over 40 million American

users, probably a lot of yourkids, and younger colleagues,accounts criticising the CCP(Chinese Communist Party)and Beijing’s policies are rou-tinely removed or deleted,”O’Brien said in his publicremarks.

At least two bills are pend-ing in the US Congress to banfederal government officialsfrom using TikTok on their cellphones., reflecting such a sen-timent can gain momentum inthe US after India’s decision.

“Would that be the sameChinese TikTok that was usedto tank attendance at the TulsaRally?” tweeted Peter Navarro,Assistant to the US President forTrade and ManufacturingPolicy, as he tagged a newsreport from The New YorkTimes on India’s decision to banthese Chinese social mediaapps.

Earlier, Fox News anchorIngraham urged the US to dothe same. “LEADING THEWAY, WHERE’S THE US?India bans dozens of Chineseapps including TikTok” she saidin a tweet on June 29. PTI

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Moscow will apply counter-sanctions against Britain,

the Kremlin said on Tuesday,after London blacklistedRussian officials for theiralleged involvement in thedeath of lawyer SergeiMagnitsky.

“We can only regret suchunfriendly measures,”

Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov told reporters.

“Obviously the principle ofreciprocity will be applied,” headded, without elaborating.

The 25 Russians includedon the sanctions list drawn upby Britain’s Foreign Office wereincluded for their allegedinvolvement in the death ofMagnitsky.

Magnitsky, a tax consultantfor British financier WilliamBrowder, died in prison ofuntreated illness in 2009 afteraccusing Russian officials of taxfraud of $230 million.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong’sleader Carrie Lam offered scantreassurance on Tuesday over anew national security law thatcritics say undermines libertiesand legal protections promisedwhen China took control of theformer British colony.

A year ago, Hong Kong res-idents felt secure enough in theirfreedoms under the territory’s“one-country, two-systems”regime to bring their children tomass protests.

Now, after the June 30implementation of the securitylaw, some are worrying theymight be punished for what theypost in their Facebook orTwitter accounts.

The legal system left inplace when the British left HongKong on July 1, 1997, allowedthe city’s 7 million residents afree press and other freedomsforbidden in the communist-ruled mainland, for at least 50years. Many of Hong Kong’solder generations fled politicalupheaval on the Chinese main-land. Younger Hong Kongersgrew up expecting to achievemore democracy in their life-times.

All are struggling to under-stand the implications of thenew law, which prohibits whatBeijing views as secessionist,subversive or terrorist activitiesor as foreign intervention in thecity’s internal affairs.

“I didn’t have a strong viewagainst formalizing a nationalsecurity law but the way it wasimplemented is intrusive anddisrespectful,” said Jen Au, whoworks in the banking industry.“It’s basically just bullying. HongKong has come a long way in

the last 20 years to warm up toChina and this really just back-fired.” Lam, the city’s Beijing-backed chief executive, saidTuesday the work of theCommittee for SafeguardingNational Security she chairs,which oversees enforcement ofthe law, will not be made pub-lic. So implementation rules giv-ing police sweeping powers toenforce it won’t be subject tojudicial review.

Asked if she could guaran-tee that media can still reportfreely in Hong Kong withoutfacing censorship, Lam said, “Ifthe Foreign CorrespondentsClub or all reporters in HongKong can give me a 100 per centguarantee that they will notcommit any offences under thisnational legislation, then I cando the same.”

Hong Kong was convulsedwith massive, sometimes violentanti-government demonstra-tions for much of last year.

Initially, the protests wereagainst extradition legislation,since withdrawn, that mighthave led to some suspects fac-ing trial in mainland Chinesecourts. But they expanded toencompass calls for greaterdemocracy and more policeaccountability. Critics see thesecurity law as Beijing’s boldestmove yet to erase the dividebetween Hong Kong’s western-style system and the mainland’sauthoritarian way of governing.

The new law criminalisessome pro-democracy sloganslike the widely used “LiberateHong Kong, revolution of ourtime,” which the Hong Konggovernment says has separatistconnotations. AP

Kathmandu: A Nepalese law-maker was sacked by her partyon Tuesday for defying its decision to unanimouslyendorse the constitutionalamendment to revise the coun-try’s map to include three strate-gically key Indian territories,according to media reports.

The Opposition JanataSamajbadi Party (JSP) decidedto sack Sarita Giri for breachingthe party whip to withdraw heramendment registered at theParliament Secretariat againstthe Nepal government’s secondamendment to the Constitution.

A three-member panel ledby party general secretary RamSahay Prasad Yadav recom-

mended that the party sack Girifrom both as a lawmaker andthe party member, and themeeting of the officer bearers ofthe party took the decision onTuesday, the Kathmandu Postsaid.

The Constitution amend-ment, which was aimed atupdating the new administrativeand political map of the coun-try on the national emblem, wasunanimously endorsed by theHouse of Representatives onJune 18.

The SJP and the mainOpposition Nepali Congresshad backed the move by thegovernment of Prime MinisterK P Sharma Oli. PTI

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Hong Kong:TikTok said onTuesday it will stop opera-tions in Hong Kong, joiningother social media companies in warily eyeingramifications of a sweepingnational security law that tookeffect last week.

The short-form video app’splanned departure from HongKong comes as various socialmedia platforms and messag-ing apps including Facebook,WhatsApp, Telegram, Googleand Twitter balk at the possi-bility of providing user data toHong Kong authorities.

The social media compa-nies say they are assessingimplications of the securitylaw, which prohibits whatBeijing views as secessionist,subversive or terrorist activitiesor as foreign intervention in thecity’s internal affairs.

In the communist-ruledmainland, the foreign socialmedia platforms are blocked byChina’s “Great Firewall.” Criticssee the law as Beijing’s boldest

step yet to erase the legaldivide between the formerBritish colony and the main-land’s authoritarianCommunist Party system.TikTok said in a statement thatit had decided to halt opera-tions “in light of recent events.”

Facebook and its messag-ing app WhatsApp said in sep-arate statements Monday thatthey would freeze the review ofgovernment requests for userdata in Hong Kong, “pendingfurther assessment of theNational Security Law, includ-ing formal human rights duediligence and consultationswith international humanrights experts.”

Hong Kong was convulsedwith massive, sometimes vio-lent anti-government protestsfor much of last year as the for-mer British colony’s residentsreacted to proposed extraditionlegislation, since withdrawn,that might have led to somesuspects facing trial in main-land Chinese courts. AP

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The Indian Government andthe World Bank on Tuesday

signed a loan agreement toenhance support for theNamami Gange programmethat seeks to rejuvenate theGanga.

The Second NationalGanga River Basin Project willhelp stem pollution in theiconic river and strengthen themanagement of the river basinwhich is home to more than500 million people.

The $400 million operationcomprises a loan of $381 mil-lion and a proposed guaranteeof up to $19 million.

The agreement for the $381million loan was signed bySameer Kumar Khare,Additional Secretary, EconomicAffairs, Ministry of Finance on

behalf of the government, andQaiser Khan, Acting CountryDirector (India), on behalf ofthe World Bank. The guaranteeinstrument will be processedseparately.

Khare said that the Gangais India’s most important cul-tural, economic and environ-mental resource, and the gov-ernment’s Namami Gange pro-gramme seeks to ensure thatthe river returns to a pollution-free, ecologically healthy state.

The new project willextend the government’s andWorld Bank’s engagement inthis critical national pro-gramme to make the Ganga aclean, healthy river.

The World Bank has beensupporting the government’sefforts since 2011 through theongoing National Ganga RiverBasin Project, which helped set

up the National Mission forClean Ganga (NMCG) as thenodal agency to manage theriver, and financed sewagetreatment infrastructure in sev-eral riverside towns and cities.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra,Director General of theNational Mission for CleanGanga, said that the continuityprovided by the SecondNational Ganga River BasinProject will consolidate themomentum achieved underthe first World Bank project,and help NMCG introducefurther innovations, andbenchmark its initiativesagainst global best practices inriver rejuvenation.

“The government’sNamami Gange Programmehas revitalized India’s efforts torejuvenating the Ganga,” JunaidAhmad, World Bank Country

Director in India, said. “Thefirst World Bank project helpedbuild critical sewage infra-structure in 20 pollutionhotspots along the river, andthis Project will help scale thisup to the tributaries. It will alsohelp government strengthenthe institutions needed to man-age a river basin as large andcomplex as the Ganga Basin.”

The sprawling Ganga Basinprovides over one-third ofIndia’s surface water, includesthe country’s largest irrigatedarea, and is key to India’s waterand food security. Over 40% ofIndia’s GDP is generated in thedensely populated basin. Butthe Ganga river is today is fac-ing pressures from human andeconomic activity that impactits water quality and flows.

Over 80 per cent of the pol-lution load in the Ganga comes

from untreated domesticwastewater from towns andcities along the river and itstributaries. For this, sewagenetworks and treatment plantsin select urban areas would bebuilt to help control pollutiondischarges. These infrastruc-ture investments and the jobsthey will generate will alsohelp India’s economic recoveryfrom the Covid-19(Coronavirus) crisis.

To ensure that these infra-structure assets function effec-tively and are well maintained,the project will build on theinnovative Hybrid AnnuityModel of public private partnership introduced underthe ongoing NGRBP, andwhich has become the solution of choice for sewagetreatment investments in theGanga Basin.

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Property prices across topeight cities in the country

declined 1-5 per cent in April-June quarter amid the coron-avirus pandemic, according tothe Magicbricks PropindexReport Q2.

The report said that inApril prices slumped by 2-9 percent, but later recovered.

It said that as India’s econ-omy has started getting back toa ‘new normal’ following theCOVID-19 outbreak and thenational lockdown, the realestate sector has also started towitness some green shoots ashomebuyers are back in themarket, though in lower num-bers across tier-I cities.

It suggests that the prop-erty buyer market sentimentsare on the path to recovery withthe buyer searches on the prop-erty portal set to surpass thepre-COVID levels, indicatingrobust underlying fundamen-tals on the demand side.

Commenting on thePropIndex, Sudhir Pai, CEO,Magicbricks, said: “India’s realestate sector is on road torecovery. Prices have shown amarginal decline whereasdemand has been steadily com-ing back.

Actions have been takenby the Government on therecovery package and the RBIhas also reduced repo rates bymore than 100 basis pointssince the lockdown.

This augurs well for theindustry.

“Our data suggests thatsearch activity is almost back at

pre-COVID levels and this istherefore the right time fordevelopers to grab the attentionof the homebuyers throughattractive deals and offers,” headded.

The markets ofHyderabad, Chennai andBengaluru - India’s best-per-forming markets in the pre-COVID-19 phase - witnessedmaximum price decline butleast drop in consumerdemand, indicating that home-buyers are now active in thesemarkets and are looking forexciting deals.

Gurugram and Noida inthe National Capital Region(NCR), which were alreadyfacing headwinds for quitesome time, resisted downwardpressure on price.

Mumbai MetropolitanRegion (MMR) fared slightlybetter compared with otherregions, despite being worst-hitby COVID-19.

The average price declinewas in the range of 0.4 and 0.8per cent.

The Chennai residentialmarket clocked a 2.3 per centyear-on-year growth, but therecent pandemic brought a 3.1per cent decline in prices in Q22020.

Around 87 per cent of thecity’s demand falls under the 2-and 3-BHK configuration,showing domination of mid-segment consumers.

In Delhi, prices droppedacross most budget categories,with the highest price declinewitnessed in the premiumproperties costing more than�15,000 per square feet.

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The Finance Ministry onTuesday said banks have

sanctioned loans of about �1,14,502 crore under the �3-lakh crore Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme forMSME sector reeling under theeconomic slowdown causedby the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, disbursementsagainst this stood at � 56,091.18lakh crore till July 4 under the100 per cent ECLGS for micro,small and medium enterprises. The scheme is the biggest fis-cal component of the �20-lakhcrore ‘Aatmanirbhar BharatAbhiyan’ package announcedby Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in May. The latestnumbers on ECLGS, asreleased by the FinanceMinistry, comprise disburse-ments by all 12 public sectorbanks , 20 private sector banksand 10 non-banking financialcompanies .

“As of 4 July 2020, thetotal amount sanctioned underthe 100% Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme by#PSBs and private banks standsat �1,14,502.58 crore, of which�56,091.18 crore has alreadybeen disbursed,” the financeminister said in a tweet.

Under the ECLGS, the loanamounts sanctioned by PSBsincreased to �65,863.63 crore,of which �35,575.48 crore hasbeen disbursed as of July 4, shesaid.At the same time, private

sector banks have sanctioned�48,638.96 crore and disbursed�20,515.70 crore.”Compared to1 July 2020, there is an increaseof �4,158.51 crore in the cumu-lative amount of loans sanc-tioned and an increase of�3,835.65 crore in the cumula-tive amount of loans disbursed,by both #PSBs and private sec-tor banks combined as on 4 July2020,” Sitharaman said. Marketleader SBI has sanctioned�20,628 crore of loans and dis-bursed �13,405 crore. It is fol-lowed by Punjab National Bank,which has sanctioned �8,689crore. However, its disburse-ments stood at �2,595 crore asof July 4. The business units ofMaharashtra have got the high-est cumulative sanction of�6,856 crore from banks, whiledisbursement was to the tune of�3,605 crore as of July 4. It is fol-lowed by Tamil Nadu, withsanction of �6,616 crore loansand disbursements of �3,871crore.On May 21, the Cabinetapproved additional funding ofup to �3 lakh crore at a con-cessional rate of 9.25 per centthrough ECLGS for MSMEsector.Under the scheme, 100per cent guarantee coverage willbe provided by the NationalCredit Guarantee TrusteeCompany for additional fund-ing of up to �3 lakh crore to eli-gible MSMEs and interestedMicro Units Development andRefinance Agency borrowers inthe form of a guaranteed emer-gency credit line facility.

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Reliance Industries’ unlimit-ed free video conferencing

app JioMeet on Tuesday addedadditional security features toprevent Zoom-like attackswhere hackers posted obsceneimages on screens.

JioMeet, which allows up to24 hours of free video confer-encing that are encrypted andpassword-protected, has addeda safety feature that gives theconference host to disallowguests from joining a meetingwithout sign-in and disclosingtheir identity.

The feature, company

sources said, was added par-ticularly in light of reports of obscene imagesappearing on screens during an online class beingconducted on video-confer-encing tool Zoom.

JioMeet, in the very firstweek of going live, unveiled sixfeatures and enhancementsincluding new functionalitiesfor enterprise customers,sources said adding the newfeatures prevent hackers fromentering a conference.

The enhanced feature appis available on Google’s PlayStore and will be shortly avail-able on iOS, they said.

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Diesel price in the nationalcapital on Tuesday

touched an all-time high fol-lowing a rate hike after a week-long hiatus.Diesel price onTuesday was increased by 25paise per litre, according to aprice notification of state-owned oil marketing compa-nies.

This took the retail sellingprice of diesel to �80.78 per litrein the national capital - thehighest ever.There was nochange in petrol price for the8th straight day, and it contin-

ues to be priced at �80.43 perlitre. Rates vary from state tostate depending on the inci-dence of local sales tax orVAT.Petrol and diesel pricewere last revised on June 29.

In the last one month, dieselprice has been increased on

23 occasions while petrol rateshave risen 21 times.

The cumulative increase sincethe oil companies started the

cycle on June 7, totals to �9.17for petrol and �11.39 in diesel.In Mumbai, petrol is priced at�87.19 - unchanged since June29, while diesel was hiked to�79.05 a litre from �78.83.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has reg-

istered a money launderingcase against the GVK group,the Mumbai InternationalAirport Limited (MIAL) andothers to probe violationsunder the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) tothe tune of Rs705 crore in theMumbai airport operations.

The ED has filed anEnforcement Case InformationReport (FIR in police parlance)under the PMLA after takingcognisance of a recent CBI FIR

that booked these entities toprobe criminality in terms ofcriminal conspiracy and graft.

The agency will probe ifgenuine funds were launderedto amass personal assets by ille-gal routing of funds or pro-ceeds of crime, sources said.

The CBI case in this con-nection relates to the allegedsiphoning off Rs 705 crorefrom the funds of the MumbaiInternational Airport Limited(MIAL), a joint venture underpublic-private partnership(PPP) between the GVKAirport Holdings Limited andthe Airports Authority of India

(AAI) besides other investors,by showing inflated expendi-ture, under-reporting of rev-enues, fudging of recordsamong others

The CBI has bookedGunupati, a director in MIAL,his son GV Sanjay Reddy,Managing Director in MIAL,the companies MIAL, GVKAirport Holdings Limited (aGVK group company) andnine other private companiesallegedly used to camouflagethe inflated figures of expen-diture through sham deals andunidentified AAI officials, thesources further said.

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Niti Aayog CEO AmitabhKant on Tuesday said

green shoots are visible and theeconomy, which has been hithard by the COVID-19 pan-demic, will bounce back soon.

The pandemic has impact-ed economic activities severe-ly as the country had to gothrough a nationwide lock-down to check the spread ofcoronavirus. The Governmenthad to announce a slew of mea-sures, including fiscal package,to boost the economy. “I am agreat believer that India willbounce back. We are alreadyseeing green shoots in theeconomy.

We are seeing that key sec-tors like FMCG (fast-moving

consumer goods) have alreadycome back. “I am hopeful thatwe will bounce back and bounceback with a vengeance,” he saidwhile speaking at ‘FICCIFRAMES 2020’ .The slowdownin economic activities led to adecline in the Government’s rev-enue collection.

However, with the gradu-ally unlocking, economic activ-ities are reviving. The GST rev-enue collection in June rose to�90,917 crore from � 62,009crore mopped up in May and�32,294 crore in April.

Kant further said the pan-demic is a massive challengenot merely for India but for thewhole world, including the USand European countries.

“Every crisis is also anopportunity. Therefore, this

crisis is also going to have hugelosers and winners. India candecide whether it wants tolose or whether it wants to win,”he said.

Kant stressed that Indiamust pick up 12-13 areas ofgrowth that are going toemerge as winners for tomor-row and listed out areas likedata, artificial intelligence,genomics, mobility, and cre-ative industry.

“We must identify 12-13sectors where India mustbecome a global championand really drive vigorouslywith full energy,” he said addingthat those sectors will takeIndia to sustain high growth over the next 10-12 years and create a vastnumber of jobs.

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Market gauges Sensex andNifty extended gains for

the fifth straight session onTuesday, helped by intensebuying in financial stocks asinvestors brushed aside surgingdomestic COVID-19 cases tofocus on monsoon progress.

After swinging betweengains and losses during the ses-sion, the BSE Sensex finallyended 187.24 points or 0.51 percent higher at 36,674.52; whilethe NSE Nifty settled with 36points or 0.33 per cent gains at10,799.65 - the longest winningstreak for both gauges in amonth.

On the Sensex chart, BajajFinance was the top gainer, ral-lying around 8 per cent, fol-lowed by IndusInd Bank, BajajFinserv, Infosys, ICICI Bank,Axis Bank and HCL Tech.

On the other hand, NTPC,ITC, PowerGrid, Tata Steel

and ONGC were among thelaggards.

Sectorally, BSE IT, bankex,finance, teck and auto indicesended up to 2.10 per centhigher; while oil and gas, util-ities, metal, energy and telecomindices fell up to 2.42 per cent.Broader midcap and smallcapindices rose up to 0.58 per cent.

“Bulls were in completecontrol as evident in thebreadth of the market withfinancials leading the charge. Agood monsoon also cheered ahost of companies in auto partsand farm equipment as a feelgood factor returned with moreparticipation seen fromInvestors,” S Ranganathan,Head of Research at LKPSecurities, said.

Analysts also attributedthe Indian equities perfor-mance to easing tensionsbetween India and China at

Ladakh border.The Chinese military on

Monday began a limited pull-back from a number of frictionpoints in eastern Ladakh, a dayafter NSA Ajit Doval andChinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi agreed on completing the ongoing disen-gagement process along theLAC “expeditiously”,Government sources and offi-cials said. Investor sentimentwas further boosted by otherpositive factors like sustainedforeign fund inflows.

Foreign institutionalinvestors were net buyers in thecapital market on Monday,purchasing equities worth �348.35 crore, provisionalexchange data showed.Though, experts cautioned thatrising COVID-19 cases willcontinue to weigh on investors’risk appetite going ahead.

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The rupee declined by 25paise to end at 74.93

against the US currency onTuesday due to dollar buyingby foreign banks and gains inthe greenback in overseasmarkets.

Forex traders said foreignfund inflows and easing crudeoil prices supported the rupeewhile factors like strong dollar and rising COVID-19cases dragged down the local unit.

The rupee opened weakat 74.74 at the interbankforex market and fell further to touch an intra-daylow of 74.97.

The unit settled at 74.93against the US dollar, downby 25 paise over its previousclose of 74.68, marking itssecond straight day of losses

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’sstrength against a basket of sixcurrencies, rose 0.26 per centto 96.97.

On the domestic equitymarket front, the 30-shareBSE benchmark Sensexended 187.24 points, or 0.51 per cent, higher at36,674.52.

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As the COVID-19 pandemicspreads across the globe, a major-

ity of countries, including India, haveannounced temporary closure ofschools, impacting the education ofchildren worldwide. With a mission toimprove the learning experience andoutcomes for children in these diffi-cult times, Navneet has launchedMom I Know, a learning programmeto help parents at home.

The programme caters to chil-dren in the age group three to fiveplus, and has customised boxes foreach age group. Each box containsseven books of literacy skills, three-

books of numeracy skills, two booksof general awareness and reward ormotivational stickers.

With schools starting late forchildren or getting disrupted duelocal lockdowns, the programmeserves as a perfect support to schoolprogram, reinforcing learning athome. The MIK kit includes child-friendly pictorial activities aligningto the school curriculum, a com-prehensive and methodical pro-gramme for independent learners,and easy-to-use school readinesskits which are designed for familiesto help children build essential foun-dation skills. The programme spandsover a year.

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Overcoming theuncertainties and

disruptions caused bythe on-goingCOVID-19 pandem-ic, Ansal University,Gurugram gears up toconclude its admis-sion process forundergraduate andpostgraduate pro-grammes.

The registrationsare on-going and thelast day of the appli-cation submission isAugust 14, 2020. The

university is all set toimplement educationthe right way by digi-tising the curriculum.

Encouraging dis-tance learning forthose who cannotmake it to the univer-sity, the institutionstake one step forwardto make sure onlineeducation reaches outto every inquisitivemind. Following theguidelines by UGC,the university has digi-tised the curriculumso that it doesn’t affectthe regular studies.

With this current situation fullof uncertainties and sur-

rounded by the pandemic crisis,students after Class XII are defi-nitely seeking for a stable career.And with all the odds in the favour,the five-year integrated manage-ment programme at IIM is worththe bet. The IIM IPM is one of themost sought-after courses for anymanagement aspiring student.

The Indian Institute ofManagement (IIM) conducts itsnational aptitude test once everyyear and over 20,000 studentsappear annually. The aptitude testfacilitates admission to their five-year integrated programme in man-agement. The admission processconsists of the IPM Aptitude test,on clearing the cut-off for whichstudents proceed for the nextround, Written Ability Test (WAT)and Personal Interview (PI).

IPM is a unique course struc-ture that provides a holistic devel-opment rather than just the man-agerial skills. This is a uniquecombination that no other gradu-ate programme can match.

Preparing for the entranceexam IPMAT: IIM is no rocket sci-ence and to understand how, it isalways better to start the prepara-tion a year before, than to have last-

minute stress. Once you are clearabout the career you want to getinto, the syllabus looks humongousbut when segregated and plannedperfectly it becomes much easier.

IPM selection is a rigorousprocess of selecting students withdiversified portfolios. They choosecrème de la crème from the appli-cations received. This potpourri initself provides a unique fragrancethat is a priori. Yes, it requires hardwork to sustain in the program butat the end it is reflected in your per-sonality, once you are ready to facethe world with challenges.

Five-year integrated pro-gramme for management

A multi-dimensional per-

spective: The entire five-year courseis divided into two parts — threeyears and two years. The first threeyears are the intensive foundationstones/pillars that are laid withutmost precision. This wouldinclude understanding of human-ities subjects as philosophy, psy-chology, mathematics, statisticsand economics. Next two years arein sync with the CAT selected stu-dents. The IIM IPM believes inshaping managers who are social-ly conscious and relevant in today’sscenario. The five-year duration isso meticulously designed that itprovides high analytical rigourthrough mathematics & economicsand socially responsible managers

by understanding of humanities.This opens a multi-dimensionalperspective.

Social internships: As most ofthe students in India, after ClassXII, do not have exposure to work-ing, IPM provides a unique oppor-tunity to understand the workingculture & ethics with the help ofsocial internship after the end offirst year. To sync, after the end ofeach year, a student goes for dif-ferent internship programmes.Students of IPM also have theopportunity to go for sabbatical fora maximum of two years. These twoyears may be used to acquire expe-rience, earn or anything else thatwould help a student grow.

Foreign exchange pro-grammes: Foreign exchange pro-gram is another feather in the hat.Not many programmes, apart fromIPM, have such articulatedexchange programs. These uni-versities are in part of Europe,Taiwan and Brazil. This programmeranges from three to five monthsand the student derives a newdimension to his understandingprocess. Mind it, a student has toearn this programme and it doesnot come as a suo-motu function.

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The Ministry of InformationTechnology recently disclosedthat number of internet users are

more in rural India as compared tourban. In terms of consumption of data,rural India has surpassed the urbanhubs. It’s very indicative and has a lotof impact in every sector. The lock-down has affected each and every sec-tor and education sector is also not anexception. There is no doubt that stu-dents are getting badly affected due tothis unwarranted crisis.

However, the alternate side of thecoin merits to be scrutinised. There isa bright side too. Institutional edu-cation, that is confined within the fourwalls of classrooms, have transformedinto virtual classrooms aided by dig-ital environments and this change inthe education structure will bring pos-itive changes in the system.

Education includes research,study and evaluation. Classes arebeing conducted through differentvideo conferencing applications likeSkype, Zoom, Google Team, GoogleHangout, Google Classroom, Cisco-WebEx and the list will increase. Manyuniversities are tying up with ITcompanies to develop digital platformfor the students. IT companies are alsocompeting with each other in the fieldof developing user friendly and inter-active platform for the educationsector.

Students and teachers will beconnected through such platforms forinteracting and learning. This form ofeducation will continue to gain mus-cles as educational institutes wouldaim to reap the most out of the invest-ments they make. Therefore, an exten-

sive database of video lectures isbeing developed which would cater tothe needs of students and prove to bea valuable asset in the near future. InIndia majority of the students are fromrural areas and they are joining in thevirtual classroom through smart-phones. This is the reason the num-ber of internet users is now more inrural India than urban. The day is notfar away when internet will be con-sidered as an intrinsic part of every-day life, i.e right to life. As right to edu-cation is a fundamental right in Indiaand when that will be dependent oninternet then it will obviate the Stateto declare as fundamental right, as isthe case in numerous Scandinaviancountries.

This pandemic is helping to devel-op the online infrastructure which willbring about a revolution in the edu-cation system. Innovative methods arebeing implemented to conduct class-es virtually which will help the stu-dents to come out of the boringmonotonous classroom lectures.There will be a shift from knowledge-based education system to skill-based

education system. Needless to say, stu-dents will be benefitted out of that andthey would have enough time at theirdisposal to multitasking. They canearn and continue education simul-taneously. Also, the attendance of stu-dents in virtual classrooms is morethan classrooms in colleges whichexudes the technologically dependantnature of the present generation in

schools and colleges. In the postCOVID-19 era, teachers would becompelled to have a fragment of thesyllabus to be covered online.

The online evaluation patternwill also witness substantial reforma-tion. Teachers have to frame applica-tion based question intelligently sothat answers will not be availabledirectly either from book or online.Naturally, students will be more ana-lytical in answering those questionsand will be more innovative.Education wouldn’t be only degreecentric. Skill and value-based educa-tion would gain muscles in the after-math of the lockdown. It is observedthat many famous universities areoffering online courses. In futurealso students will like to have knowl-edge through webinar or some othermeans. Distance education wouldthrive once again. Information isalready available in the digital plat-form so students will not come in theclass for the same information againand would rather dedicate that timeelsewhere. Rather they will prefer skillas well as value based education.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), wouldfurther consolidate the use of virtualclassrooms and promote online edu-cation. AI will substitute those admin-istrative posts where archetypaladministrative work is done byhumans. It will open the floodgates ofresearch in interdisciplinary fields.Teachers spend a lot of time inadministrative work and evaluatingcopies. AI can perform all thosework and teachers will get more timeto devote in research. Collecting datafrom in-app or following onlinemovement of a teachers AI can easi-ly figure out what method of learningwill be best for a teacher. In such waythe efficiency of the teacher will beincreased and the same will be output-oriented.

If the academicians are thinkingthat this is temporary, they are livingin fool’s paradise. This change willmake a great impact on the educationsystem even when the world willbreathe fresh air bereft of any virus-es.

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COVID-19, the dreaded pandem-ic of the century has torn asun-

der the fabric of the world economy.It has affected every industry and thefood industry is no exception.

Despite being one of the largestagricultural producers in the world,India is facing low levels of produc-tion and also in its other related facetslike packaging, processing, storage,cold chain and transportation. This ismainly due to lack of skilled manpower and due to this food safety andquality of the food has sufferedimmensely.

Adverse effects are being noted onthe growth of the industry which isvital in delivering its true potential tostrengthen the agricultural economyof India. The importance of thisindustry has been highlighted duringthe lockdown phase.

However, one must rememberthat new opportunities spring out ofevery dire situation. COVID-19 toohas given birth to new ideas forgrowth of business and industriesadopting and adapting new tech-nologies and measures for the safetyof their employees as well as their con-sumers by limiting the spread of thevirus.

Automation will help face thesechallenges faced by the sector and isgaining traction, particularly in pack-aging, warehousing and distribution

operations. Rapidly advancing artifi-cial intelligence technologies andautomation process brings in moreefficiency and helps removes humanerror. As demand for fresh foodsincreases, distribution and ware-housing facilities will need to be incloser proximity to consumer markets.

Further, demographic and eco-nomic resources of India has to bebacked by a highly skilled workforceto achieve its true potential. This isimperative in this age of globalisationwhere competition is the hallmark.This will also ensure quality on a glob-al scale and the success of this will leadto a better working environment,health and a brighter future for theworkforce.

Skill Development to act as thedriving force

The Government is focusing ondeveloping the requisite skills in thefood processing sector. In fact, theMinistry of food processing has col-laborated with several skill develop-ment organisations such as the FoodIndustry Capacity and Skill Initiative

(FICSI) to bridge the skill gap in thefood processing industry. The coun-cil introduced some special coursesrelated to safe hygiene practices to befollowed during COVID-19, to spreadawareness in the industry and amongstakeholders associated in the foodchain on how to prevent the spreadof the virus.

It is indispensable for the foodindustry to reinforce personalhygiene measures and provide newtraining on food hygiene principlesto wipe out or reduce the risk offood surfaces and food packagingmaterials becoming contaminatedwith the virus from food workers.

Globalisation and increasedcompetition in the market hasintensified the need for a highlyskilled workforce in the economyto meet global standards of quali-ty and such industry bodies are tire-lessly working to create a betterfuture by providing a skilled work-force.�����������=8%>�������������� ���

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The Jindal School of Environment andSustainability (JSES), the newly estab-

lished ninth school of OP Jindal GlobalUniversity has forged substantive collabo-rations with 20 international and Indianorganisations working on environmental andsustainability issues for its undergraduatestudents. These collaborations will enable thestudents to get a practical understanding ofecological and conservation issues throughwork experience and will result in intern-ship and placement opportunities.

JSES has confirmed collaborations with20 leading organisations, which will provideresearch and internship opportunities to thestudents enrolled in the BA (Hons) in envi-

ronmental studies. The world is headedtowards a climate crisis and students musthave hands-on experience in workingtowards a greener future.

The 20 organisations in collaborationwith JSES are: The World Wildlife Fund,Pacific Environment, World ResourceInstitute, MC Mehta Foundation,Environment Support Group, Global PolicyInsights, Toxics links, Tagore Society forRural Development, Navdanya Foundation,Indian Council for Enviro — Legal Action,Delhi Greens, Envipol, Green Munia,Dhiway — Research, Uneako, Centre forScience & Environment, Rajputana Societyof Natural History, Future group — CSR,Hyundai Electric and the Directorate ofEnvironment & Climate Change.

These collaborations will enable JSESstudents to undertake internships at theseorganisations, thereby adding to their under-standing of environmental and sustainabil-ity issues. Consequently, graduates of JSESwill have multifarious career opportunitiesat international, national, regional, state andlocal government institutions and agencies,NGOs and the private sector, where corpo-rations and industry also need expertise indeveloping projects that require environ-mental impact assessments.

The curriculum incorporates sevenaspects of environmental studies: ecologyand biology; demography and science;human and environment interaction; climatechange; renewable energy; environmentallaws; and forests and wildlife.

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The Sarthak EducationalTrust and National

Abilympics Association of Indiain collaboration with flaggedoff- Dhristikone: Level upStrategy 2020 for DisabilityEmpowerment to initiate a dia-logue with national and inter-national leaders to give animpetus on required initiativesto empower the disability sec-tor.

The advocacy campaignfocusses on combating theeffects of COVID-19 on varioussegments of disability namelyhealthcare, Inclusive Education,vocational skilling andEmployment. The panel of keyspeakers from NITI Aayog,NSDC and representative fromGOI came together to address12 years journey of inclusion &empowerment which high-lighted the journey of SarthakEducational Trust and thedevelopments in the disabilitysector in the verticals of health-care, inclusive education, voca-tional skilling, sustainable

employment, advocacy andAbilympics.

This three month longseries of virtual symposiumsorganised by SarthakEducational Trust will give themuch needed impetus to theproblems faced by PwDs dur-ing COVID-19.

The campaign will high-light CSR support for strength-ening disability sector andGlobal Prospective of COVID-19 on disabled community eraof online intervention servicesfor children with special needsand road map to strengthenInclusive Education and endingwith topics like Dharma for per-sons with disability, parentalrole in shaping future of a per-son with disability and RDSM:Collaborative Action towardsempowered nation.

“People with disabilitiescan positively contribute to thenational economy if they areprovided with resources andadequate opportunities to buildthemselves”, shared Dr JitenderAggarwal, Founder CEO,Sarthak Educational Trust.

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The Bhartiya Skill Development University, Jaipur (BSDU)adopts contactless admission process and invites applica-

tions for Bachelor of Vocational programmes in multiple sis-ciplines.

The BVoc degree is a UGC approved degree, equivalent toany other graduate degrees, and is based on the National SkillQualification Framework (NSQF) to address the critical require-ments of skill sets in the country.

The duration of the programme is three years.Eligibility: Canditates must have passed Class XII or

equivalent. They should have two years of ITI after Class X.Polytechnic Diploma holders will be considered for lateral entryinto the second year of BVoc.

Program specifications: The programme is modular innature and offers multiple entry and exit points at certificate,advanced diploma and BVoc. It has six semesters with 30 cred-its each resulting in a total of 180 credits to earn a BVoc degree.

The last date for submission of applications is July 31, 2020.0#3�#'��&�?'�'�<0�&<�A������������� ������.�������������� ������������������������������.������������ ��������������������� � �#�� ������������������� ����� ���������������#������������������������������.�������(����*&����

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It was a night to rememberfor Sevilla forward LucasOcampos in the Spanish leagueon Monday.

The Argentine led his teamto a crucial victory by scoring thewinning goal early in the secondhalf and making the winningsave deep in stoppage timewhile replacing his team’s injuredgoalkeeper.

The 1-0 victory over Eibarstrengthened Sevilla’s grip onfourth place and kept the teamon track to secure the finalChampions League berth. Withfour rounds to go, Sevilla openeda six-point gap to fifth-placedVillarreal, which lost toBarcelona on Sunday. Sevilla waswithin two points of third-placed Atlético Madrid.

Ocampos scored in the 56thminute, then had to put on thegoalkeeper’s gloves and jerseyafter Tomás Vaclik hurt his leftleg while colliding with an oppo-nent in the final minute of stop-page time. Vaclik could notcontinue and Sevilla had alreadymade all five substitutions. Eibarhad a throw-in for the last play

of the match and Ocamposended up having to make a bigsave - from a shot by the oppo-nent’s goalkeeper - to secure histeam the home win. Eibar goal-keeper Marko Dmitrovic hadgone toward the area for the final

play and received an openshot from close range afterpicking up a loose ballinside the box. But hisattempt went towardOcampos, who battered the

ball away just before the finalwhistle.Ocampos scored with aright-footed touch from closerange after Jesús Navas cleareda couple of defenders and madea well-placed cross toward thefar post.Eibar nearly equalizedwhen Kike Garcías’s shot hit thepost in the play in which he col-lided with Vaclik as the goal-keeper charged from his net.

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International sport finallyreturns to Britain onWednesday when England

plays the West Indies in theworld’s first cricket test matchsince the start of March becauseof the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s clear the match beingstaged at the Ageas Bowl inSouthampton is about muchmore than just cricket.

A smoothly run test series,played in a strict isolated envi-ronment featuring repeatedCOVID-19 testing and socialdistancing, can lay the blueprintfor future matches and tours incricket but also events in othersports targeting a resumption.

“If you get one thing wrong,it might blow this whole ‘gettingsport back onto the radar' fur-ther back,” England stand-incaptain Ben Stokes said onTuesday in his eve-of-gamenews conference.

Stokes also spoke about the“responsibility on our shoul-ders” to deliver a “massive occa-sion” for TV viewers who havebeen without internationalcricket for four months.

A BLM logo will be on thecollar of the test shirts worn byplayers from both teams andthere is set to be a “gesture”made by the teams before thegame. West Indies players havesaid the movement is a sourceof motivation on this tour.

“Not only has this been a

period for us getting ready fora test match,” Stokes said, “it hasalso been great for us to haveeducational chats as a teamaround this and it has been real-ly beneficial for a lot of ourmembers.

“I feel as a team we have anopportunity to send a real pow-erful message and I am reallyexcited as an individual, and theteam is really excited, that we areable to be a part of that.”

Cricket’s oldest format kicks

off a very new era for the sport.One where there are no specta-tors at matches, one-way sys-tems inside venues to maintaindistancing, twice-weekly testingfor coronavirus,and players notallowed out oftheir hotels.

Players fromthe two teams will come intovaguely close contact with eachother only on the field of play.

TV viewers will have thechoice of adding a so-called“Lord’s hum” during coverage,but there will be no artificialcrowd noise in the ground or

music between overs, ensuringan eerie silence once the matchbegins except for selectiveannouncements over the pub-lic address system about things

such as milestonesor bowling changes.

The big screensaround the venuewill show key high-

lights, DRS and sponsor mes-sages.

The West Indies squad hasbeen here since June 9 in orderthat the players could first quar-antine at Manchester's OldTrafford ground and then prac-tise there in lockdown condi-

tions. They had two intra-squadmatches - England has hadonly one - before the squad trav-elled to Southampton for thematch.

“We’re about to show thatother places can start puttingthings together,” West Indiescoach Phil Simmons said.

“The England and WalesCricket Board have to be com-mended for all the work theyhave done to get the series onthe road and let's see whatother countries take from it.”Simmons has had to self-isolatein his hotel room for a periodafter leaving camp to attend his

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West Indies coach PhilSimmons believes the

opening Test will be a battlebetween two all-rounder cap-tains in which he expects hisskipper Jason Holder to “get ontop” of his England counterpartBen Stokes.

Holder and Stokes, bothtop all-rounders, will lead theirrespective sides with the latterstanding in for regular captainJoe Root who will miss theopening ‘bio-secure’ Test forthe birth of his second child.

The three-Test series beginswith the opening match at AgeasBowl here on Wednesday.

“I think that it’s going to bea toss-up between these two all-rounders and hopefully Jasoncan do what's necessary to get ontop of Ben in this first Test,”Simmons told reporters on theeve of the opening Test.

“Ben is one of them wholeads from the front. That’sbeen shown by all his exploitsbefore in cricket, (so) we willhave to make sure that we get onto him very early, because helikes to do what is necessary forhis team.”

The 57-year-old also does-n't necessarily see Root's absence

as an advantage.“You have to be careful

how you use an advantagebecause, with Root not beingthere, you have some youngsterwho wants to make a name forhimself.

“And sometimes that's evenharder than the players youknow, so you have to be verycareful about saying that it’s anadvantage,” he said.

Simmons said Stokes lack ofexperience as a captain wont bean issue as veterans like Jimmy(Anderson) and (Stuart) Broadto turn to for suggestions.

“Ben has not had that time(as captain) but they’ve had asuccessful team for a while, andthat helps,” he added.

“With the experience thathe has behind him - Jimmy(Anderson) and Broad and peo-ple like that, there’s a lot of expe-rience to help him on the fieldif he comes a cropper. But it’shard to really say if that’s a bigadvantage.”

Simmons also said he is notworried about his batting unit asthey will have to produce thegoods in all three facets of thegame to outwit England athome.

Batting is often consideredto be the weakling of the WestIndies team, which had lost theopening Test against England inBirmingham by an innings and209 runs during their last tourin 2017 due to the failure of thebatsmen.

Simmons said the battershave prepared well and it is allabout mindset now.

“I’m not concerned aboutthe batting. The batsmen haveworked very hard on getting towhere they are now, and all thatit takes now is for their mind-set to be right for the Testmatch,” Simmons said.

“We keep talking about thebatting, and the bowling hasbeen strong, but we must fieldwell and catch well also to giveourselves that chance. Our frameof mind is that we have to playwell in all three facets of thegame in order to beat England.”

���� *20*���

Mahendra Singh Dhoni went onto become one of the best fin-

ishers in the game but on his 39thbirthday, former India captainSourav Ganguly said the World Cupwinning skipper would have beeneven more lethal if he batted higherin the order.

Ganguly, the current BCCI pres-ident, led a barrage of birthdaywishes for ‘captain cool’.

“He’s one of the great players ofthe world cricket, not just a finish-er. Everyone talks about the way he

finishes lower down the order. Ialways believed that he should bat upthe order because he was so destruc-tive,” Ganguly said in a chat showhosted by young India openerMayank Agarwal on BCCI’s Twitterhandle.

Most of Dhoni’s India and IPLteammates, including Virat Kohli,too paid glowing tributes to him onhis birthday.

A BCCI source confirmed thatPandya brothers, Hardik and Krunal,are on a charter flight from Barodato Ranchi to wish Dhoni in person.

“Hardik has always looked up to

Dhoni and they share a specialbond. Flight connectivity is limiteddue to the COVID-19 situation, sothey have taken a charter flight andshould be landing in Ranchi soon,”the source told PTI.

Ganguly, who had handed Dhonihis international debut againstBangladesh on December 23, 2004,recalled how he rose to fame with his148 against Pakistan batting atNumber three.

“It was fantastic. If you look overa period of time in the history ofone-day cricket, the best players canfind the fence under pressure con-

sistently. MS Dhoni was one ofthem and that’s why he was special,”said Ganguly in his chat withAgarwal.

Asked whether it was him whopicked Dhoni in the team, Gangulysaid: “Ya that’s true, but that’s my jobisn’t it? That’s every captain's job topick the best and make the best teampossible.

“You go by your instincts, you goby the faith on that player that he’lldeliver for you. And, you know, I’mhappy that Indian cricket got aMahendra Singh Dhoni, becausehe’s unbelievable,” Ganguly said.

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Werder Bremen hung on to sealBundesliga survival on away

goals by drawing at second-divisionHeidenheim 2-2 in the second legof their relegation-promotion play-off. An own goal forced byAmerican forward Josh Sargent inthe third minute and Ludwig

Augustinsson’s strike in the fourthminute of injury time were enoughfor Bremen to keep its place inGermany’s top 18-team division.

Tim Kleindienst equalized inthe 85th minute to give the homeside some hope of an upset beforeFin Bartels set up Augustinsson ona counterattack to keep Bremensafe.

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When Tottenham captainHugo Lloris confront-

ed Son Heung-min on thefield at halftime, JoseMourinho was far fromannoyed.

The manager renownedfor his own flashpoints andvolatility was delighted to seetensions between teammateserupting in public view.

“It was beautiful,” he said.“Probably it’s a consequenceof our meetings."

Angered by the timidityof a 3-1 loss at SheffieldUnited in the previousEnglish Premier Leagueround, Mourinho saw thepassion he wanted asTottenham this time secureda 1-0 victory over Everton onMonday.

Just before the break,

with Tottenham leading, Sonlost the ball which led toRicharlison having a chanceto equalize but striking wideof Lloris’ post.

“I think to concede achance a few seconds beforehalftime because we don’tmake the pressing properly,”

Lloris said, “that annoys mebut it's part of football. Moveon.”

Only, Lloris didn’t whenthe whistle blew for halftime,shouting as he raced over toSon. Giovani Lo Celso andHarry Winks intervened tosplit the clashing teammates

before they headed into thedressing room.

Son had created the goalin the 24th minute. TheSouth Korea forward

knocked the ball for-ward to Harry Kanewho squared for LoCelso to strike on theturn and Evertondefender MichaelKeane deflected the ball

into his own net.“An amazing kid that

everyone loves like Sonny, ateam boy,” Mourinho said.

"But in that situation thecaptain thought the lastminute of the first half youhave to do more for theteam. You have to give a dif-ferent effort than you give. Acouple of bad words but Ithink it’s something veryimportant for the team togrow up."

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The Badminton WorldFederation (BWF) on

Tuesday cancelled two moreinternational tournaments —China Masters and Dutch Open-- from its revamped 2020 cal-ender because of the COVID-19pandemic.

“Two BWF Tour Super 100tournaments have been can-celled from the revamped BWFTournament Calendar for theyear - the Lingshui ChinaMasters 2020 and YONEXDutch Open 2020,” the govern-ing body said in a release. TheLingshui China Masters was ear-lier scheduled to be held fromFebruary 25 to March 1 but was

postponed twice due to theCOVID-19 outbreak. “It wasinitially postponed until Mayand then moved again to 25-30August 2020,” the BWF said.

The Dutch Open was due totake place from October 6 to 11in Almere, Netherlands.

“Badminton Netherlandsannounced the cancellation oftheir flagship tournament citingcontinued risks associated withthe COVID-19 pandemic,” theinternational body said.

In May, the BWF hadunveiled a revised internation-al calendar to salvage theremainder of the season, dis-rupted by the global health cri-sis which is showing no signs ofabating.

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Batting legend Brian Larabelieves West Indies will

need to adopt a proactiveapproach in the upcomingthree-Test series againstEngland and consider thematches as four-day games asthe visitors doesn’t have thefirepower to last five days.

The 51-year-old formerskipper said while West Indies’boast of a formidable bowlingattack, their batting depart-ment is a concern, which isprecisely the reason behind hisstatement.

The three-Test seriesbetween England and theWest Indies starts onWednesday at Southamptonin a “bio-secure” environ-ment, marking the resumptionof international cricket whichwas shutdown in March dueto the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They (West Indies) haveto be able to pounce immedi-ately. England are not beatenvery easily at home and areoverwhelming favourites,”Lara was quoted as saying byBBC Sport.

“They have to hit the

road running and stamp theirauthority on England. I don’tthink they can last five days,so they have to take thesegames in four days. Theyhave to establish a lead andkeep it.”

Lara, who has scored arecord 11,953 runs for theWest Indies in 131 Tests, saidadaptability to the Englishconditions would be key forWest Indies, who are the hold-ers of the Wisden Trophyafter winning 2-1 in theCaribbean last year.

The former left-handedbatsman said it would be agreat achievement for WestIndies if they can win theseries as they have not won aseries in England since 1988.

“It’s going to be a seriesthat's watched all around theworld and everybody is hop-ing to see a competitive series,”said Lara, who scored 34 Testcenturies.

“It would mean a lot to allWest Indians if they could win.If they play good cricket on thefirst day of the Test series,show they have the mettle toperform against England,that's the key."

father-in-law’s funeral last week.England’s buildup has been

interrupted, too, by captain JoeRoot having to leave camp to beat the birth of his second child.He will not feature in the firstof three tests, meaning Stokeshas the captaincy for the firsttime.

“I haven’t had much advicebut there has been a lot of opin-ions flying around,” Stokes said.“The best message that I havereceived was when I got myphotos done yesterday in theblazer. Rooty just left a messageon the hanger which said: 'Doit your way.’”

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West Indies fast bowlerKemar Roach is a “gen-

uine great” and can “easily”achieve the milestone of 300Test wickets with proper "work-load management”, says leg-endary pacer Courtney Walsh.

Roach will be a key bowlerfor West Indies when theybegin the three-Test seriesagainst England at Ageas Bowlin Southampton on Wednesday.

“Workload management issomething that they can look atit. I don’t think he has played alot of shorter versions of thegame. But it’s up to him as anindividual as well to set the stan-

dards, set the goals he wants toachieve,” Walsh e told‘ESPNcricinfo’.

“He will get 300 quite eas-ily once the workload manage-ment is good and he is playingconsistent cricket. What youdon’t want to happen to him is

that every time he comes backhe starts all over again.”

The 57-year-old Walsh isimpressed by the work ethicand patience shown by Roachin his bowling over the years.

“... His patience shows hewill stick around, and he knowswhat to do and how to go aboutachieving that. To me that iswhat has got him to be as con-sistent as he is now. His workethic has gone up as well andhe’s doing all he can do to beone of the greats.“He’s a genuinegreat. His achievement showsthat. What I like about him ishis mannerism: he’s always cooland collected and he’s preparedto work.”

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About 12 years ago, a youngboxer from Haryana wrote his

name in the history books ofIndian sport after winning thecountry’s maiden Olympic medalin boxing. Vijender Singh's bronzemedal at the 2008 BeijingOlympics changed the face ofIndian boxing and inspired manyto take up the sport.

However, while talking duringIndia’s rising table tennis playerMudit Dani’s online lockdownlive chat show 'In The Sportlight’,Vijender revealed how watchinghis fellow countrymanRajyavardhan Singh Rathore fin-ishing on the podium at the 2004Olympic Games inspired him andmade him hungry for the metal.Shooter Rathore clinched India'sfirst-ever Olympic medal in anindividual category when he wonsilver in Athens where Vijenderhad appeared in his first Olympicsat the age of 18.

“It’s an amazing feeling torepresent your country at theOlympics and for me 2004 was alot like that as I was happy and sat-isfied being present there, witness-