˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune —...

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T he political row between the Congress and the BJP over the audio tapes, in which Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma are alleged- ly heard plotting to topple the Ashok Gehlot Government, continued on Saturday with the BJP demanding a CBI probe into telephone tapping and the Congress claiming the BJP leaders have been caught red- handed in attempting to buy MLAs. The Centre too stepped into the row with the Home Ministry seeking report from the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan on the telephone tapping. Rajasthan Congress presi- dent Govind Singh Dotasra claimed that the Special Operation Group (SOG) team was made to wait by the BJP Government’s Haryana Police until the Sachin Pilot camp’s MLAs inside the resort (in Manesar) were moved out through a separate secret door. “This shows the complici- ty of the BJP and its Haryana Government in the crime,” Dotsra said, adding, “Will Sachin Pilot and Congress MLAs explain why they do not trust the police of their own State. These answers should be given to the Central leadership,” Dotasra said. There was a huge drama when the Rajasthan SOG reached Manesar and when they were prevented by the Haryana Police late on Friday. The SOG said the audio will be first examined by FSL and then the accused will be interrogated. The Anti-Corruption bureau of Rajasthan too regis- tered an FIR after complaint by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi with regard to the two audio clips. Turn to Page 4 I slamic State (ISIS) operative Sadia Anwar Sheikh arrested by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) was planning lone-wolf attacks in Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir. A team of NIA from Delhi brought Nabeel Siddiique Khatri and Sadia Anwar Sheikh, accused in a case relat- ed to activities of ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province), to Delhi on July 13. Both were arrested from Pune. The duo is under NIA cus- tody here and the revelation has come during sustained inter- rogation, sources said, adding Sheikh was picked up earlier in 2018 but was let off for want of substantive evidence. The sleuths are also inter- rogating her on the larger nexus and funding. The two were arrested by the NIA in an ISKP case, including a jour- nalism student, a 22-year-old girl from Maharashtra. On Sunday, NIA teams carried out searches in Pune and arrested the two accused persons — Nabeel S Khatri (27), resident of Pune, and Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec- tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn to Page 4 A day after sending a “strong” message to China from Lukung, one of the forward posts near the stand-off point at Pangong Tso in the eastern Ladakh sector, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday visited forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district to take stock of the pre- vailing security situation on ground zero. At the forward post, the Defence Minister created rip- ples in the high hills as he chanted “patriotic” slogans ‘Jo bole so nihaal.... ” in chorus with the troops. An elated Rajnath Singh even requested for a repeat per- formance from the troops and they happily obliged him. The Defence Minister min- gled with the jawans and also patted their backs while shar- ing snack. Ahead of the first anniver- sary of abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories on August 5, Pakistan Army has been des- perately trying to push heavi- ly armed groups of terrorists inside the Indian territory to keep the terror pot boiling. During Operation “All Out”, a total number of 65 ter- rorists have been neutralised by the security forces since June 1, 2020. The list included several top commanders of different terror outfits including foreign terrorists hailing from Pakistan. Turn to Page 4 A fter redrawing a contro- versial map by including Indian Territory and making objectionable comments on Bhagwan Sri Ram’s birthplace, the Nepal Government has now opposed the road link connecting the Kailash Mansarovar through Lipulekh Pass by India. In a diplomatic note to its counterpart in New Delhi, the Nepal Government has expressed displeasure over the construction of roads and dams citing that such development in India is causing flooding in Nepal. The protest by Nepal has also cast a shadow on the future of the proposed Pancheshwar multipurpose dam project that the two coun- tries are jointly planning to build on the border. According to Nepal’s news- paper Kantipur, the KP Sharma Oli Government has raised objection to road and dam building by sending diplomat- ic notes to India. The newspa- per quoted Ravindra Nath Shrestha, secretary of Nepal’s Irrigation Ministry, as saying that Nepal Foreign Ministry has raised objection on this matter by sending diplomatic notes to India. “At the identical time, an attraction has been made to set up a gathering of joint com- mittee of flood and water administration between the two international locations yearly,” he said. The road link through Lipulakh Pass at a height of 17,000 ft above sea level is sup- posed to be a shortcut to reach the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet and will make it easier for devotees to reach the pilgrim- age site nestled in the Himalayas. Till now, 76 km of the 80 km stretch, (that will cut down the travel time to two days by vehicles) is completed and the last 4 km stretch till Lipulekh Pass is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. Turn to Page 4 New Delhi: The Income Tax Department will soon sum- mon the promoters of three Rajasthan-based groups whom it had raided earlier this week for tax evasion, officials said on Saturday. The businessmen are said to be close to Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot. F ormer Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday broke her silence on Rajasthan political turmoil blaming the infighting in the Congress for the plight of the State, but a veteran MLA close to her flayed his own party for “horse-trading” to create polit- ical instability in the State. “It is unfortunate that the people of Rajasthan are paying for the discord within the Congress,” Raje said in her first reaction on the political crisis in the State. “There is no point in try- ing to drag the BJP and the BJP leaders’ names through the mud. It is the interest of our people that must remain para- mount!” the former Chief Minister said. An MLA from the Sachin Pilot camp had on Friday accused Raje of helping the Gehlot Government by alleged- ly asking her supporter MLAs to help the Congress in its fight against the rebel Congress leader. It’s well know that Raje does not share best of relation with the BJP top leadership. It is also speculated that she did- n’t want Pilot to make inroads in the BJP and emerge as pos- sible contender for the Chief Minister’s post. Turn to Page 4 Ayodhya: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya either on August 3 or 5, both auspicious dates, a spokesperson said on Saturday. Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the spokesper- son of Trust’s president Nritya Gopal Das said, “We have suggested two auspicious dates — August 3 and 5 — for the PM’s visit based on calculations of movements of stars and planets.” Detailed report on Page 6 A top officer of Manipur police department allegedly shot himself in his office Saturday afternoon, officials said. The officer, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Arvind Kumar, was taken to a hospital follow- ing the incident. The top brass of police and officials, includ- ing Chief Secretary J Suresh Babu, visited Raj Medicity where Kumar was being treated. The Chief Secretary said Kumar’s condition is serious but he is responding to the treatment and has also spoken to the doctors. Turn to Page 4 R ajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot late on Saturday met Governor Kalraj Mishra soon two MLAs of the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) announced support for his Government. Sources said Gehlot may soon go for floor test to force the disqualification of the Pilot camps MLAs. The CM could request the Governor to con- vene a one-day special session of the Assembly to prove his majority. Now that Gehlot has the support to the two BTP MLAs and assured of majority, he could catch the Pilot camp MLAs napping if he calls for a floor test. Majority of the MLAs are unlikely to risk a disquali- fication and vote against the Government. Even if they do so, they will disqualified and Gehlot could breathe easy because the strength of the Assembly will come down.

Transcript of ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune —...

Page 1: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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The political row betweenthe Congress and the BJP

over the audio tapes, in whichUnion Minister Gajendra SinghShekhawat and Congress MLABhanwarlal Sharma are alleged-ly heard plotting to topple theAshok Gehlot Government,continued on Saturday with theBJP demanding a CBI probeinto telephone tapping and theCongress claiming the BJPleaders have been caught red-handed in attempting to buyMLAs.

The Centre too steppedinto the row with the HomeMinistry seeking report fromthe Chief Secretary ofRajasthan on the telephonetapping.

Rajasthan Congress presi-dent Govind Singh Dotasraclaimed that the SpecialOperation Group (SOG) teamwas made to wait by the BJPGovernment’s Haryana Policeuntil the Sachin Pilot camp’sMLAs inside the resort (inManesar) were moved outthrough a separate secret door.

“This shows the complici-ty of the BJP and its HaryanaGovernment in the crime,”Dotsra said, adding, “WillSachin Pilot and CongressMLAs explain why they do nottrust the police of their own

State. These answers should begiven to the Central leadership,”Dotasra said.

There was a huge dramawhen the Rajasthan SOGreached Manesar and whenthey were prevented by theHaryana Police late on Friday.

The SOG said the audiowill be first examined by FSLand then the accused will beinterrogated.

The Anti-Corruptionbureau of Rajasthan too regis-tered an FIR after complaint byCongress chief whip MaheshJoshi with regard to the twoaudio clips.

Turn to Page 4

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Islamic State (ISIS) operativeSadia Anwar Sheikh arrested

by the National InvestigativeAgency (NIA) was planninglone-wolf attacks in Delhi andJammu & Kashmir.

A team of NIA from Delhibrought Nabeel SiddiiqueKhatri and Sadia AnwarSheikh, accused in a case relat-ed to activities of ISKP (IslamicState Khorasan Province), toDelhi on July 13. Both werearrested from Pune.

The duo is under NIA cus-tody here and the revelation hascome during sustained inter-rogation, sources said, addingSheikh was picked up earlier in

2018 but was let off for want ofsubstantive evidence.

The sleuths are also inter-rogating her on the largernexus and funding. The twowere arrested by the NIA in anISKP case, including a jour-nalism student, a 22-year-oldgirl from Maharashtra.

On Sunday, NIA teamscarried out searches in Puneand arrested the two accusedpersons — Nabeel S Khatri(27), resident of Pune, andSadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) whohails from Phulenagar,Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIAspokesperson had said in astatement.

Turn to Page 4

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Aday after sending a “strong”message to China from

Lukung, one of the forwardposts near the stand-off pointat Pangong Tso in the easternLadakh sector, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onSaturday visited forward areasalong the Line of Control (LoC)in North Kashmir’s Kupwaradistrict to take stock of the pre-vailing security situation onground zero.

At the forward post, theDefence Minister created rip-ples in the high hills as hechanted “patriotic” slogans ‘Jobole so nihaal....” in chorus withthe troops.

An elated Rajnath Singh

even requested for a repeat per-formance from the troops andthey happily obliged him.

The Defence Minister min-gled with the jawans and alsopatted their backs while shar-ing snack.

Ahead of the first anniver-sary of abrogation of Article

370 and reorganisation of theerstwhile State of Jammu &Kashmir into two UnionTerritories on August 5,Pakistan Army has been des-perately trying to push heavi-ly armed groups of terroristsinside the Indian territory tokeep the terror pot boiling.

During Operation “AllOut”, a total number of 65 ter-rorists have been neutralised bythe security forces since June 1,2020. The list included severaltop commanders of differentterror outfits including foreignterrorists hailing from Pakistan.

Turn to Page 4

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After redrawing a contro-versial map by including

Indian Territory and makingobjectionable comments onBhagwan Sri Ram’s birthplace,the Nepal Government hasnow opposed the road linkconnecting the KailashMansarovar through LipulekhPass by India.

In a diplomatic note to itscounterpart in New Delhi, theNepal Government hasexpressed displeasure over theconstruction of roads and damsciting that such developmentin India is causing flooding inNepal. The protest by Nepal hasalso cast a shadow on thefuture of the proposedPancheshwar multipurposedam project that the two coun-tries are jointly planning tobuild on the border.

According to Nepal’s news-paper Kantipur, the KP SharmaOli Government has raisedobjection to road and dambuilding by sending diplomat-

ic notes to India. The newspa-per quoted Ravindra NathShrestha, secretary of Nepal’sIrrigation Ministry, as sayingthat Nepal Foreign Ministryhas raised objection on thismatter by sending diplomaticnotes to India.

“At the identical time, anattraction has been made to setup a gathering of joint com-mittee of flood and wateradministration between thetwo international locationsyearly,” he said.

The road link throughLipulakh Pass at a height of17,000 ft above sea level is sup-posed to be a shortcut to reachthe Kailash Mansarovar inTibet and will make it easier fordevotees to reach the pilgrim-age site nestled in theHimalayas. Till now, 76 km ofthe 80 km stretch, (that will cutdown the travel time to twodays by vehicles) is completedand the last 4 km stretch tillLipulekh Pass is expected to becompleted by the end of 2020.

Turn to Page 4

New Delhi: The Income TaxDepartment will soon sum-mon the promoters of threeRajasthan-based groupswhom it had raided earlierthis week for tax evasion,officials said on Saturday.The businessmen are said tobe close to Rajasthan CMAshok Gehlot.

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Former Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje on

Saturday broke her silence onRajasthan political turmoilblaming the infighting in theCongress for the plight of theState, but a veteran MLA closeto her flayed his own party for“horse-trading” to create polit-ical instability in the State.

“It is unfortunate that thepeople of Rajasthan are payingfor the discord within theCongress,” Raje said in herfirst reaction on the politicalcrisis in the State.

“There is no point in try-ing to drag the BJP and the BJPleaders’ names through themud. It is the interest of ourpeople that must remain para-mount!” the former ChiefMinister said.

An MLA from the SachinPilot camp had on Friday

accused Raje of helping theGehlot Government by alleged-ly asking her supporter MLAsto help the Congress in its fightagainst the rebel Congressleader.

It’s well know that Rajedoes not share best of relationwith the BJP top leadership. Itis also speculated that she did-n’t want Pilot to make inroadsin the BJP and emerge as pos-sible contender for the ChiefMinister’s post.

Turn to Page 4

Ayodhya: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi TeerthaKshetra Trust has invited Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to lay the foundation stone ofa grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya either onAugust 3 or 5, both auspicious dates, aspokesperson said on Saturday.

Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the spokesper-son of Trust’s president Nritya Gopal Das said,“We have suggested two auspicious dates —August 3 and 5 — for the PM’s visit based oncalculations of movements of stars and planets.”

Detailed report on Page 6

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Atop officer of Manipur police departmentallegedly shot himself in his office Saturday

afternoon, officials said. The officer, AdditionalDirector General of Police (Law and Order)Arvind Kumar, was taken to a hospital follow-ing the incident.

The top brass of police and officials, includ-ing Chief Secretary J Suresh Babu, visited RajMedicity where Kumar was being treated.

The Chief Secretary said Kumar’s conditionis serious but he is responding to the treatmentand has also spoken to the doctors.

Turn to Page 4

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Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot late on

Saturday met Governor KalrajMishra soon two MLAs of theBhartiya Tribal Party (BTP)announced support for hisGovernment.

Sources said Gehlot maysoon go for floor test to forcethe disqualification of the Pilotcamps MLAs. The CM couldrequest the Governor to con-vene a one-day special sessionof the Assembly to prove hismajority.

Now that Gehlot has thesupport to the two BTP MLAsand assured of majority, hecould catch the Pilot campMLAs napping if he calls for afloor test. Majority of the MLAsare unlikely to risk a disquali-fication and vote against theGovernment. Even if they doso, they will disqualified andGehlot could breathe easybecause the strength of theAssembly will come down.

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Page 2: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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� Your fondest memory from the sets ofChandragupt Maurya.

Chandragupt Maurya was my secondshow and I must say it was one of thelandmark shows in my career. There area lot of memories associated from the showbecause it has given me friends and mostimportantly I met my wife, Archana, forthe first time because of the show. I wasshooting in Baroda at Sagar Studios forChandragupt Maurya and Archana too wasshooting for a different show in the samevicinity. So, our cottages were also nearby.I was roaming around in the Greek skirtwhen she saw me for the first time, that’swhere it all began. Later, our shoot movedto Mumbai and even she was back inMumbai. We became friends andeventually things fell in place for us andwe got married. It seemed like everythingwas destined. � Were there any apprehensions abouttaking up the role?

Not at all. On the contrary, I wantedto do it even before they offered the roleto me. My show, Gunaho Ka Devta, wason air at the time when ChandraguptMaurya was launched with youngerChandragupt Maurya. I was veryimpressed with the way it was shot,executed and researched. It was way

ahead of its time. I was aware of the wholehistory as I had read a lot on Chanakya andChandragupta and I liked the way theykept history intact. So, there were noapprehensions at all about taking up thisrole.� A role that comes close to you.

It has to be Rudra from Rangrasiya andPrithvi from Prithvi Vallabh. Both had alot of me in them.� What kind of roles attract you?

Stories attract me, roles are parts ofstories, story has to work for me on a wholeand then what am I doing in it. I alwayslook at the story first and how I will be apart of the narrative.� In all these years, what has been yourtakeaway from the industry?

My takeaway has been that, this isn’tan industry, it’s just a disintegrated field ofwork and you are on your own. So, one hasto be very strong at heart and mind if youhave to sustain here for long. Patience andpersistence is the key. I have grown notonly with my skills but also personally. Ihave become a lot calmer and more

composed over a period of time. I havebegun to see myself very objectively. Ibelieve you grow as an actor when yougrow as an individual and it is allinterconnected.� Was acting always on your cards?

Not really, I guess I just played mycards well. Today, I am absolutely happywith no regrets. I am in a position whereI can do what I want to do and choose whatI don’t want to do. Over the years I havemade some great content and have beena part of great projects.� Is there anything in the pipeline?

Right now, all the pipelines areblocked. Once this blockage is clear that’swhen any one would be able to tell what’sin there for them. I have been working onsome ideas during the lockdown. I do havesome upcoming web series, which I amhopeful will start to shoot soon. Also, I amlooking forward to portray the role of acommon man whenever I sign up forsomething. Hopefully, when the situationget back to normal, I will be able toannounce some of my projects.

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Given that Bollywood is nottknown to make good rom-coms when it involves

anything to do with the topic of sex,Virgin Bhanupriya is a welcomechange. The good part about thismovie is that is it definitely not a sexcomedy even though the entirefilm revolves around Bhanupriyaplayed Uravashi Rauleta quest tolose her virginity. Yes, Bollywood issomewhat coming of age and havestarted to realise that the audienceis mature enough to enjoy a movie

on the said subject without peoplebeing judgmental.

But this could stem from thebrilliant storytelling by writer-director Ajay Lohan. More so as theindustry is not known to make filmsthat explore a woman’s sexuality ordesires. The fact that it has done thesame, is a breath of fresh air and itdoes this with its racy humour,catchy dialogues that will keep youentertained all through 111 minutes.

Rautela, who was last seen inPagalpanti, plays the role ofBhanupriya with aplomb and givesa great performance as the girl whowants to lose her virginity. A specialmention for the support castespecially Rumana Molla who playsRukul, Bhanupriya’s bindaas friend

who is unapologetic about hersexual needs. Her mission is tointroduce her friend to potentialcandidates to lose her V-card.

More than Bhanupriya and herquest, it is the dialogues and banterbetween Rajiv Gupta who playsBhanu’s father and Archana PuranSingh who plays the mother thatneed to be applauded for theirbrilliant performance here. They arethe one’s that keep your funny onetickling with their dialogues andrelationship — love to hate eachother. Each character has been well-fleshed out and makes themrelatable and the movie a must-see.

Does Bhanurpiya manage tolose her virginity? Log on to know.

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Yes, there are way too manycharacters. Yes, there are waytoo many twists and turns. Yes,

there are way too many secrets. Yes,there are way too many who want toget their hands on the Sword of Powerand the legend associated with it —whoever wields it rules the throne.This latest Netflix offering based on anAmerican fantasy based on theillustrated novel of the same name byFrank Miller and Tom Wheelermanages to ensure that one bingewatches and curses oneself since thereis no news when the second seasonwill be out.

Despite the fact that the web series

sound and appear to be familiar —remember Game of Thrones? Whatmanages to capture one’s attention is theled character Nimue — a young heroinewith a mysterious gift destined tobecome the powerful yet tragic Lady ofthe Lake.

We know it is tragic since theopening scene gives away what willbehalf our heroine at least in thisseason. In the episodes to follow, it justconfirms the same. It is also interestingto see how the Arthurian legend comesto life with its familiar characters.

Katherine Langford as Nimuecarries the weight of her character withease. She brings out the vulnerabilityand innocence of Nimue to fore and yetgrows into her skins as the storyprogresses. Another plus are thestunning locales.

Even though the series aresomewhat familiar, one doesn’t getbored. For Season 2 — we want moreMerlin, more Arthur and definitelymore Nimue even if she is at the bottomof the lake.

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One can’t hit a high each time a new movie releases on theOTT platform. MILF comes under the category of onecan’t always win even though the film is unapologetic

about what it is all about — that is all about being raunchy withskinny dipping at night and bawdy escapades. Or the fact thatthe six characters go on about how being a cougar is bad but anMILF is good. Given that the film does nothing to stimulate thebrain or any other body part, it makes this film boring from theword go despite the subject about three 40-year-old womenwho go on a vacation with a plethora of relationship issues andthe trip is all about taking a break.

Even though one gets a glimpse of the vulnerability of eachwoman, the shenanigans — flashing while driving, the camel toejoke and the ogling by three 20-something year olds of our mainleads in bikinis is cringe-worthy even though age is just a number.It is just sad and pathetic how the dance parties and sunbathingtake one on mindless affairs that tries to be funny and ratherthan give an insight into human relationships, it takes one on aride that needs to be given a miss.

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Page 3: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia inaugu-

rated smart charging stations atPatparganj which will charge e-vehicles between 45 and 90minutes besides providinginformation on preventivemaintenance as and whenrequired.

Spraking on the occasion,Sisodia said, “Electric Vehiclesare the future of India.Expanding EV adoption willlead to a curb in pollution.” Asper the Delhi Government,the first ever EV station in EastDelhi is well equipped withmodern facilities.

“It can charge four vehiclesat the same time, for 45 to 90minutes. Heavy duty vehicleslike SUV, Mahindra, Hyundai,Kona etc can be charged at thisEV station,” an official associ-

ated with concern departmentsaid.

Elaborating further on therole of electric vehicle, Sisodiasaid, “Electric vehicles are ourfuture as we can make Delhipollution free. People who havepurchased EVs are currentlyfacing charging issues. ThisEV charging station installedhere will solve that problem.

“ As we come across petrolpumps everywhere, now wewill also see EV charging sta-tions everywhere.” This stationwill cater to the needs of thepeople of East Delhi andPatparganj area.

The charging stationsunder PlugNgo are expected tocater to the charging require-ments of 15 to 18 cars per day,a senior BSES official said,adding that the facility inau-gurated in line with the com-mitment towards building arobust electric mobility ecosys-

tem.BSES Yamuna Power

Limited (BYPL) and EVMotors India Pvt Ltd (EVM)have partnered to set-up smartcharging stations

P R Kumar, CEO - BSESYamuna Power Limited (BYPL)said, “BYPL is gearing up toplay a major role in the emerg-ing EV sector. This is a veryexciting moment for us and weare working closely with ourstrategic partners to set upmany more charging stations.This partnership with ElectricVehicle Motors India is a tes-timonial to these efforts.Through this association, we atBYPL aim to reiterate ourcommitment to energy effi-ciency and sustainable growth.We plan to install more suchsmart public Electric Vehiclecharging stations in the monthsahead.”

Vinit Bansal, Managing

Director, EV Motors India said,“We are delighted to partnerwith BYPL to launch our firstjointly managed EV charginginfrastructure. Mobility is goingthrough a global transforma-tion as we build solutions toimprove air quality, make cleanenergy more accessible andreduce fossil fuel dependence.Through this association, welook forward to transformingthe mobility landscape in thecapital, thereby acceleratingthe adoption of electric vehi-cles.”

In this endeavour, EVMotors has partnered withABB, a global leader in EV fastcharging solutions. Through itsexpertise and legacy in thisfield, ABB has established itselfto provide EV ChargingEquipments for electric vehi-cles.

These smart charging sta-tions being set-up are truly

smart and equipped with an‘analytic platform’, which willhelp Electric Vehicle (EV) own-ers get a seamless digital expe-rience, the official said, addingthat the vehicle charger at theoutlet is integrated to the inno-vative PlugNgo mobile appli-cation that enables end con-sumers to locate and operatechargers.

The official said that thetentative total cost of running an e-vehicle is betweenRs 1.25 to Rs 1.50 cost per km,depending on the maker of thevehicles, which is extremelycompetitive compared topetrol, diesel and even CNGvehicles.

Thus a user can save sub-stantially per km on an electric vehicle. Apart fromthis, e- vehicles will lead to asavings of over 30 tonnes ofCO2 for a lifespan of 10 years,he said.

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Vice Chairman of Delhi JalBoard (DJB) Raghav

Chadha on Saturday visited thePalla region and inspected thewater augmentation projectbeing carried out by the civicbody.

In accordance with DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalvision of 24*7 drinking watersupply to Delhiites, Chadhapointed out how additional25MGD water can be extract-ed in a sustainable mannerthrough this region as extract-ed groundwater gets rechargedautomatically during the floodseason.

Further, the team also vis-

ited an automation center cre-ated by DJB to control andmonitor all the working oftube wells in the Palla region.

Chadha also stressed uponthe need of water auditing andinstructed DJB to put flow

meters in the complete supplysystem of the existing 25 MGDas well as for future extractionso that water is not wasted atall.

“In order to bring aboutoverall improvement in thewater management system ofthe board, this additional 25MGD should be extracted andconnected to the main supplyto augment the distribution ofwater in North and NorthWest Delhi,” he said.

Chadha also asked the offi-cials to focus on the fact thatDJB should not leave any stoneunturned to provide 24*7 unin-terrupted water supplies to thecitizens of Delhi.

DJB is already extracting

25 MGD water from the Pallaregion. Further, it is estimatedthat the work of Installation of200 tube wells to extract 25MGD water will be complete intwo years. Water extracted willbe connected to the main sup-ply to augment water in Northand North West Delhi.

Chadha along with theofficials also visited the site ofDelhi government’s ambitiousplan of floodwater harvestingin the floodplains of Delhi.“The project is being executedby ‘Irrigation and FloodControl Department’ andinstructed DJB officials to pro-vide all kinds of assistance tomake the project a success. The25 acres of pond with a depth

of 1.75 acres was also checked,”he said.

More than 35 piezometershave been installed up to thedistance of two kms to studythe impact of recharged waterduring floods.

Chadha said, ‘Many tech-nical committees, researchersand scientists' opinions werebrought to the table, believingthe fact that this project has thepotential to increase the groundwater levels which can beextracted during lean season toaugment the water supply inthe Capital.

Currently, the pilot projectis being executed on 25 acreswhich will be extrapolated to1000 acres, he said.

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The National Capital report-ed 1,475 fresh cases of

Coronavirus on Saturday, tak-ing the total tally to 121582 tillnow.

As per the health bulletinreleased by the Delhi govern-ment, at least 101274 patientshave recovered, been dis-charged or migrated so far,while a number of active casesstood at 16711.

Rapid-antigen tests startedin the city on June 18. Sincethen a total of 798783 teststhrough the RT-PCR (reversetranscription–polymerasechain reaction) and rapid-anti-gen methods have been con-ducted in Delhi with around

6246 (RT-PCR) tests conduct-ed on Saturday.

The helpline numbers canbe contacted on 1031, 1800-111-747, 22391014, 22301028,22302441, 22307133,22304568, 22307745,22307135, 22307145, 22300012and 22300036.

According to healthauthorities, rapid-antigen test-ing is an easy and cheapermethod as compared to the RT-PCR test. Each testing kit costsRs 450 and can provide resultswithin 30 minutes as comparedto RT-PCR test that takes threeto four hours.

The kits, called Standard QCOVID-19 Ag detection, havebeen developed by SouthKorean company S D

Biosensor. The testing methodinvolves looking for antibodieswhich are produced when thebody is exposed to a pathogen.

If a person has antibodiesassociated with novel coron-avirus, it means the person iseither COVID-19 positive orhas recovered.

According to the IndianCouncil of Medical Research,suspected individuals who testnegative for COVID-19 inrapid-antigen test shouldundergo RT-PCR to rule outthe infection.

Rapid-antigen testingrequires a prescription and anICMR form filled by a regis-tered doctor, and a governmentidentity proof, same as that forRT-PCR test.

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Delhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee

(DSGMC) has started roundthe clock free medical trans-portation to Coronaviruspatients in need of mobilitysupport in the national Capital.

In this first phase, 12ambulances equipped withultra-modern medical facilitieshave been rolled from variousparts of Delhi, Manjinder SinghSirsa, president of DSGMCsaid, adding that all theseambulances have been sta-tioned at Gurdwara NanakPiao, Guru Hargobind Instituteof Management andInformation TechnologyHargobind Enclave, GurdwaraMoti Bagh, Guru HarkrishanPublic School premises so asit can reach their destinationsat the earliest .

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An on duty Delhi Police Constable was assaulted by a groupof men in Delhi’s Shahdara area on Friday. Police said

that they have arrested three men while one accused man-aged to flee from the spot.

The accused have been identified as Raghuvir, Arun andRampal. Police said that the trio is a driver by profession.

According to a senior police official, on Friday, consta-ble Pradeep was on patrolling duty along with head constableAkash.

“When at about 9 PM, they reached near the Rahmanbuilding in the area, the constable noticed that many per-sons were standing there without any reason. The consta-ble Pradeep asked these men reason for standing there whileHead Constable Akash was some distance from him,” saidthe senior police official.

“On this, the accused opposed and abused the consta-ble and all manhandled him. Seeing Pradeep being man-handled, the head constable Akash rushed to the spot andthey both apprehended Raghuvir, Arun and Rampal whileone person ran away from the spot,” he said.

“The uniform of police personnel was torn by theaccused. The constable Pradeep was medically examined andon his statement a case under section 186/353/332/34 of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) was registered and the accused wereplaced under arrest,” the senior police official added.

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A32 year old woman, who was absconding and was wantedin an armed robbery case, was arrested by Delhi Police after

eight years in National Capital’s Mandir marg area. Police saidthat the woman was also declared ‘Proclaimed Offender’ (PO)by the local court.

The accused has been identified as Aarti, a vagabond. Policesaid that she used to reside at Platform No 1 of New Delhi RailwayStation (NDLS) at the time of commission of crime in 2012.

According to Dr Eish Singhal, the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), New Delhi district, Aarti was apprehended onSaturday from Nabi Karim by the PO team of Mandir Marg policestation.

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Delhi Congress accused Delhi Chief Minister of shed-ding “crocodile tears” and making a “mockery” of the

plight of over 100 families whose houses have been demol-ished at Laxmi Market by East Delhi MunicipalCorporation.

Congress Delhi unit president Anil Kumar said thatCongress has been demanding rehabilitation and com-pensation of all the affected people ever since the demo-lition of these houses was carried out.

Kumar said that people have been living in East LaxmiMarket since 1982 though the cluster had come up as farback as 1962 and they have all the valid documents to provetheir residential status.

The Congress president had also written to theLieutenant Governor on 15th July, requesting his inter-vention in the rehabilitation of the uprooted people underthe Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.

Meanwhile party vice-president Jaikishan also visitedthe area and sought compensation from the governmentof Rs 25 for each of the affected family.

“The party will take the street against the ruling AAPgovernment and the East Corporation if the residents arenot rehabilitated,” he said.

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The Delhi PoliceCommissioner, SN

Shrivastava, on Saturday inter-acted with around 950 Trafficpolice personnel through VideoConferencing.

The CP during the meetingstressed upon importance to belaid on the visibility of TrafficPolicemen and officers on Delhiroads for ensuring proper regu-lation and management of traf-fic. “Personal conduct of trafficpolicemen and officers should becourteous but firm, emphasis tobe laid on discipline, punctual-ity and integrity. Professionalposturing while on duty is verycritical and the staff should bealert and ready to respond in agiven situation. Supervisoryofficers should ensure that thetraffic staffs remain visible,” theCP directed.

“There should be constantinteraction with general public,RWAs, Market Associations,Transport Associations,Taxi/TSR Associations etc forsuggestions and improvement oftraffic management in the localareas. Extensive and optimaluse of all resources, modernequipments like E-ChallansMachine/Body WornCameras/Speed RadarGuns/App based Challans pro-vided by the Department andensuring their safe upkeep,” theCP said.

“The main objective of

deploying traffic police person-nel on roads is to ensure roadsafety and smoothen traffic flow.All our efforts should be gearedtowards this,” said the CP.

“The traffic police staffshould be extra cautious abouttheir health and use masks,hand sanitizers while on duty.Social Distancing be ensuredamongst themselves and with thepublic. Concerned officers toensure regular supply of masksand hand sanitizers for use offield staff. Traffic staff should alsocontinue to do physical exercis-es ,” CP said.

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Dairy operators attacked themunicipal team, which

arrived in Mirzapur underVijay Nagar police station areato remove illegal dairies onSaturday. In which many suf-fered minor injuries. In thisregard, FIR has been lodged inMunicipal Corporation Vijay

Nagar police station. In which2 people running dairy havebeen nominated.

Municipal CorporationHealth Officer MK Singh saidthat this afternoon, the enforce-ment team of the MunicipalCorporation went to removethe illegal dairy from the healthdepartment, while some peopleattacked the team, although no

one suffered serious injuriesduring this time. He said thatpolice reached the spot. He saidthat the dairy operators whoattacked had lodged a reportagainst obstructing govern-ment work.

At the same time, the vil-lagers say they did not give anynotice and started removingtheir ladies, after which therewas a dispute.

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Delhi Police has arrested a 36-year-old man in South Delhi for alleged-

ly duping people on the pretext of sell-ing mobile phones. Police said that theman used to show original mobiles butlater used to swap it with dummymobiles.

The accused has been identified asUmar Zahid, a resident of UttarPradesh’s Meerut area. Police said thatUmar along with his associate used tocome into the city from Meerut to com-mit crime and after that they used toreturn back.

According to Atul Kumar Thakur,the Deputy Commissioner of Police(DCP), South district, on July 17, at 7:30PM, a police team near BRT road sig-naled a biker to stop but the rider triedto flee away.

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Page 4: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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New Delhi/Muzaffarabad:The Imran Khan Government'smove to strengthen its holdover Pakistan Occupied Jammu& Kashmir (PoJK), through acouncil which had been abol-ished by former premier NawazSharif 's party two years ago,was thwarted.

Islamabad had set up thePoJK Council under PoJK'sInterim Constitution Act 1974,"to serve as a bridge" betweenthe federal and the provincialgovernments, Pakistani news-paper Dawn reported.

The council, headed bythe Prime Minister of Pakistanas chairperson, was de factogovernment of the PoJK.

The federal governmenthad ensured that the council'sfinancial and administrativepowers were above scrutiny.

The council was reported-ly, "a hub of unchecked cor-ruption and political wheelingand dealing ahead of everyelection in PoJK".

Acting on behalf of the fed-eral government, the council"enjoyed administrative con-trol" of crucial departments likeInland Revenue, AccountantGeneral's Office and the

Directorate General of Audit.It would retain 20 per cent

of the income tax generatedfrom PoJK as well as someother funds to meet the admin-istrative expenditures of itsinflated secretariat inIslamabad and some other mis-cellaneous heads, and also tocarry out development activi-ties in Pakistan and PoJK,Dawn reported.

However in June 2018, thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) through the13th amendment of the PoJKconstitution abolished thecouncil's "administrative andfinancial powers in accordancewith its election manifesto andpopular public demands".

PML-N at the time domi-nated both the PoJK LegislativeAssembly and the Council.

"Interestingly, accordingto a recent statement, revenuecollection had substantiallyincreased in the wake of the13th amendment, eventhough the COVID-19 pan-demic and an earthquake inthe southern districts hadaffected business activities," inPoJK last year.

Quoting its sources, theDawn reported that "some ele-ments in the federal govern-ment were hell-bent uponrevival of the council's fiscaland administrative powersthrough the proposed 14thamendment".

On Thursday, in a pressrelease issued by RajaMuhammad Wasim, press sec-retary to PoK Prime MinisterRaja Farooq Haider, said acabinet meeting was held in

Muzaffarabad on Wednesdayunder the chairmanship ofPrime Minister Haider wherea threadbare discussion washeld on the draft of amend-ments, received from the fed-eral ministries of law andKashmir affairs on June 22,among other things.

Describing it as an "extra-ordinary meeting", the state-ment said the PoJK cabinet hasunanimously agreed to notagree with the draft of consti-tutional amendments, formu-lated jointly by the federalministries of law and Kashmiraffairs.

The press release did notspecify the draft proposalsreceived from Islamabad.

"It's the unanimous opin-ion of the (PoJK) cabinet thatthe ideological relationship of

the state of Jammu andKashmir with Pakistan is areflection of the eternal wish-es of the Kashmiri people. Thisdoes not belong to any indi-vidual, political party or gov-ernment but is a mutual pos-session of the people living onboth sides of the state. And thisaffiliation is completely inaccord with the vision of thefounder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,"the press release said.

In view of Indian govern-ment's reorganization of theJammu and Kashmir state,"steps should be taken (byIslamabad) with mutual con-sultation (with the PoJK gov-ernment) to further empowerthe government to represent thewishes of the Kashmiris on bothsides", the statement said. IANS

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Online social media plat-form Facebook has

claimed in the Delhi HighCourt that it has put in placemeasures like community stan-dards, third party fact checkers,reporting tools and artificialintelligence to detect and pre-vent the spread of inappropri-ate or objectionable contentlike hate speech and fake news.

Facebook, however, hassubmitted before the high courtthat it cannot remove any

allegedly illegal group, like thebois locker room, from its plat-form as removal of suchaccounts or blocking access tothem came under the purviewof the discretionary powers ofthe government according tothe Information Technology(IT) Act.

It has contended that any"blanket" direction to socialmedia platforms to removesuch allegedly illegal groupswould amount to interferingwith the discretionary powersof the Government.

Guwahati: Flood-related inci-dents claimed three more livesin Assam, where the deluge hashit 27.64 lakh people in 26 ofthe 33 districts and destroyedhouses, crops, roads andbridges at several places.

Two persons died inBarpeta and one person inSouth Salmara district, takingthe death toll to 105, including26 in landslides, the AssamState Disaster ManagementAuthority said in its dailyflood report.

Ninety animals have diedin Kaziranga National Park thismonsoon season, it said.

Chief Secretary KumarSanjay Krishna said there is noproblem in flood managementas separate teams of govern-ment employees have beendeployed for f lood andCOVID-19 currently affectingthe state.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Krishna also said,"There is also no problemregarding funds as enoughfunds have been released to thedistricts. Doctors are regularlyvisiting relief camps to monitorthe health of the inmates there."

The ASDMA said the dis-tricts affected by floods areDhemaji, Lakhimpur,Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang,Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta,Chirang, Bongaigaon,Kokrajhar, Dhubri, SouthSalmara, Goalpara, Kamrup,Kamrup Metropolitan,Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat,Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar,Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, KarbiAnglong and Cachar districts.

The number of peopleaffected by floods on Fridaywas 35.76 lakh and districtaffected was 28 but the floodsituation improved in Hojaiand West Karbi Anglong dis-tricts.

Dhubri was the worst hitwith over 4.69 lakh peopleaffected, followed by Goalparawith 4.49 lakh persons,Morigaon and Barpeta withmore than 3.5 lakh people.

SDRF, district administra-tions and local people have res-cued 511 people during the last24 hours.

At least 2,678 villages areunder water, the bulletin said,adding that 1,16,404 hectaresof crop areas have been dam-aged by the deluge across thestate.

The ASDMA said author-ities have set up 649 reliefcamps and distribution centresacross 21 districts, where47,465 displaced people aretaking shelter currently.

The authorities have dis-tributed rice, dal, salt and mus-tard oil along with other reliefmaterials such as tarpaulin,baby food, candle, match box,mosquito net, biscuit, soap,drinking water, cattle feed,mask and wheat bran.

The Goalpara DeputyCommissioner Varnali Dekavisited the flood affected areasunder Kharmuza GaonPanchayat, Ramharirchar,Nakaliyapara char, Katlamarichar, Barvita, Sonahara andvarious relief camps in the dis-trict on Saturday and inspect-ed all the arrangements in thecamps. PTI

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Raipur: The ChhattisgarhGovernment will organiseemployment camps in all 28districts for migrants who havereturned to the state amid thecoronavirus outbreak, an offi-cial said on Saturday.

These 'rozgar camps' will beheld based on the data of vacan-cies collected by the Industryand Labour departments inthe state, a public relationsdepartment official said.

"Information on vacanciesof skilled and unskilled man-power in industries, firms andinstitutions is being collectedfollowing which these campswill be held. The deputy CEOof Chhattisgarh State SkillDevelopment Authority andState Project Livelihood CollegeSociety has issued detailedguidelines," he added.

The camps will be organ-ised with all social distancingnorms in place, including pres-ence of not more than 20 per-sons at one time, and masks,sanitisers, thermal scanners etcwill be in place, he said. PTI

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From Page 1“He will be sent to Delhi,

once his condition improves,:Babu added.

Doctors have operated onhim, hospital sources said.Kumar, a 1992-batch IPS offi-cer of the Manipur cadre, shothimself with his servicerevolver in his office inManipur Rifles Compoundaround 1 pm, said a seniorpolice officer.

He shot himself in his chinand the bullet pierced throughhis skull, he said. It is beingprobed why he took the step, headded.

Kumar was sent back to hishome cadre earlier this yearafter serving in the IntelligenceBureau as its joint director inNew Delhi, the officer added.

He was in charge of thearmed police and was given theresponsibility of law and orderon July 5.

Ahmedabad: A racket whichsold spurious tocilizumab injec-tions which are used in the treat-ment of COVID-19 was bustedfollowed raids in Surat andAhmedabad in Gujarat, officialssaid on Saturday.

Three men have beenarrested in the case so far, saida state Food and Drug ControlAssociation (FDCA) release.

Over the last few days,FDCA officials seized filling,sealing and coding machines,spurious drugs and packagingmaterials worth Rs 8 lakh fol-lowing a raid at the house ofmain accused Sohel Ismail Tai inSurat, said the release.

Devang Shah, anAhmedabad-based doctor, fileda complaint when he realizedthat tocilizumab injections pur-chased by a relative of a COVID-19 patient were spurious. PTI

From Page 1In a related development,

Nepal’s Irrigation MinisterBarshaman Pun has directedthe officials concerned to pre-pare for talks with India overthe floods and inundation inNepal’s Tarai region. The min-ister has directed the officials tocall a meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Committee onInundation and FloodManagement (JCIFM) to solvethe inundation problem in the

border areas.Nepal Home Minister Ram

Bahadur Thapa has alsoblamed India for constructingstructures along the border. Asa result of this, Nepal has beengoing through a disaster rightthrough the monsoon for avery long time. He stated, ‘Theunilateral building of roadsand different buildings hasdoubled the issue of blockad-ing the waters of rivers throughdams.

Because of this, there maybe steady inundation within thesouthern area of Nepal.

Nepal has earlier sent adiplomatic note to India,expressing displeasure over“some objectionable content”about Nepal and PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli by theIndian media. The Embassy ofNepal in New Delhi submitteda note verbale to India’sMinistry of External Affairsearly this week.

From Page 1Nabeel S Khatri runs a

gym in Pune while SadiyaSheikh is a 2nd-year student ofMass Communications andJournalism at Baramati.

This case was initially reg-istered by Delhi Police SpecialCell on March 8 this year afterthe arrest of a Kashmiri couple— Jahanzaib Sami Wani andhis wife Hina Bashir Beighfrom Jamia Nagar, Okhla Vihar,Delhi.

“The couple was havingaffiliations with ISKP, which isa banned terrorist organisationand is a part of ISIS, and wasfound to be involved in sub-versive and anti-national activ-ities. They were also found tobe in touch with AbdullahBasith, who is already lodged inTihar jail in another NIA case

(ISIS Abu Dabhi module),” thespokesperson said.

The investigation hasrevealed that accused SadiyaSheikh was continuously intouch with Jahanzaib Sami,Hina Bashir Beigh andAbdullah Basith on varioussecure messaging applicationsand deliberating on ways topropagate the ideology of ISISand further its activities inIndia. They were trying tobuild up a cadre of ISIS in Indiaby recruiting gullible youthfor terrorist activities, theagency further said.

It has also come to lightthat along with Jahanzeb Samiand Abdullah Basith, accusedNabeel Khatri was also active-ly involved in the planning tocarry out violent terroristattacks in India by arranging

logistic support such as pro-curement of weapons, fakeSIM cards and assembling ofImprovised Explosive Devices(IEDs) to further the activitiesof ISIS in India. He was con-tinuously in contact withJahanzeb on various securemessaging platforms, the offi-cial said.

It has also been revealedthat Sadiya Sheikh was in con-tact with ISIS recruitersthrough social media since2015. She was planning to exe-cute a terrorist attack in Jammu& Kashmir and was detainedby J&K Police in 2018.

The two arrested accusedwill be produced before NIASpecial Court, New Delhi.Further investigation in thecase is continuing, agencyadded.

From Page 1

Meanwhile, veteranRajasthan BJP leader and

former Assembly SpeakerKailash Chandra Meghwalexpressed his displeasure atalleged attempts to topple theCongress Government whenthe State faces many challenges.

“Rajasthan politics has beenderailed. It is unfortunate thatattempts are being made todestabilise the Governmentwhen the State faces the dangerof Covid-19 pandemic and alsounemployment among its poor.This is not appropriate. This isdue to internal feud within theCongress,” he told PTI.

Meghwal, an MLA con-sidered close to former ChiefMinister Vasundhara Raje,said it was “condemnable” thatpeople had resorted to“immoral tactics, ugly politicsand horse-trading” to desta-bilise the Government.

Only a stable Governmentcan deal with the challengeslike coronavirus and unem-ployment, he said.

He also said that leadershave no right to topple aGovernment, be it of any polit-

ical party.The Congress has accused

the BJP of “conspiring” totopple the State Government,and the State police have reg-istered a case.

Meghwal, however, assert-ed that the crisis was an out-come of the internal feudwithin the Congress and thatthe BJP had nothing to do withit.

The BJP believes in value-based politics, he said, addingthat the Congress’’ allegationagainst his party was untrueand was an attempt to deflectattention from its failures.

“The BJP can never beinvolved in horse-trading,” heclaimed.

He also lashed out at Pilotfor his claim of an “under-standing” between Raje andGehlot, saying the Congressrebel’s charge was a reflectionof his “petty politics” and alsohailed her role in the State pol-itics.

Asked if the BJP shouldjoin hands with Pilot or not,he said, “The BJP shoulddecide its actions based onmoral values.”

From Page 1

Pakistan army is also resort-ing to ‘unprovoked’ firing andheavy shelling in the area to tar-get the civilian populationtowards the Indian side. Aninfiltration bid was foiled by thealert troops on Thursday whileeliminating one of the infiltratorsalong the LoC in Kupwara sec-tor.

Chief of Defence Staff GenBipin Rawat and Army ChiefGen MM Naravane, along withother senior officers of theNorthern command accompa-nied him to the forward areatour, aimed at boosting themorale of the troops standingguard along the LoC.

Senior Army officers at theforward post separately briefedRajnath about the prevailingsecurity situation and signifi-cance of the multi-layeredcounter infiltration grid.

After the meeting, Rajnathposted a tweet which read,“Visited a forward post near LoCin Kupwara district of Jammu-Kashmir todayand interacted with the soldiersdeployed there. We are extreme-ly proud of these brave andcourageous soldiers who aredefending our country in everysituation”.

Rajnath also tweeted sever-al photographs and a videointeracting with Indian Armysoldiers.

The Defence Minister’sday started with a brief trip tothe holy cave shrine ofAmarnath. He spent about anhour at the cave shrine andoffered special prayers alongwith the top brass of theIndian Army.

“Feeling extremely blessedafter praying at ShriAmarnathji holy cave inJammu & Kashmir,” Rajnath

tweeted later along with a videowhich showed him praying withseveral Army officials.

Though Rajnath visited thecave shrine, speculation is rifeover the formal date of start ofyatra this year. Shri AmarnathShrine Board authorities are yetto announce the schedule of reg-istration. On the other hand, touroperators are a worried lot.

A tour operator, who regu-larly conduct pilgrim tours to thecave shrine during the yatraperiod told The Pioneer, “The icestalagmite inside the cave shrineis melting due to relatively warmweather conditions compared toprevious years” He said, if ShriAmarnath Shrine Board author-ities would further delay the announcement of yatra the pil-grims will find it difficult toundertake the yatra in theabsence of the ice stalagmiteinside the cave shrine.

Meanwhile, on his arrivalfrom Leh on Friday evening, theDefence Minister had formallyattended a high-level security review meeting with thesenior officers. The DefenceMinister had also asked the offi-cials of the armed forces at ahigh-level meeting to maintaina strict vigil along the LoC withPakistan. He asked the armedforces to give a fitting reply to any“misadventure” by Pakistan.

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A Jaipur court on Saturday send oneaccused, Sanjay Jain to four-day remand of SOG team ofRajasthan Police.

The other people namedby the Congress in both theFIRs are Union MinisterGajendra Shekhawat and twoCongress MLAs who havebeen suspended from theparty a day earlier.

Sources said that MLAscamping at Gurugram resortscan now be moved toBengaluru city where the dis-sidents Madhya PradeshMLAs of Congress led byJyotiraditya Scindia were keptuntil the Kamal NathGoverment was toppled inMarch this year. Meanwhile,"the BJP demanded CBI probeinto the alleged phone tappingby the Congress leaders andsought to know whether theCongress Government inRajasthan resorted to "uncon-stitutional" methods to tapphones of politicians.

BJP national spokespersonSambit Patra hit back at theCongress a day after it citedsome audio clips to accusesome saffron party leaders,including Union MinisterGajendra Singh Shekhawat, ofconspiring to topple theAshok Gehlot Governmentin the State and indulging inhorse-trading.

Patra said senior Congressleaders, including ChiefMinister Gehlot, have beenclaiming that these audio clipsare authentic even though theFIR registered by police doesnot say so.

"These are serious ques-tions that we want to ask theCongress high command and

Ashok Gehlot. Was phone tapping done?Assuming that you've tapped phones, was theSOP followed? Did the Congress Governmentin Rajasthan use unconstitutional ways to savethemselves when they found themselves cor-nered?" Patra asked at a press conference.

People of Rajasthan want to know whethertheir privacy has been compromised, he said,asking if phones of people related to politicsin the State are being tapped?

Patra demanded an immediate reactionfrom the State Government and called for aCBI investigation into this "saga of illegalitiesand concocted lies".

The Congress on Friday demanded thearrest of Union Minister Shekhawat and rebelCongress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma after twoaudio clips surfaced pertaining to an allegedconspiracy to topple the Gehlot Government.

Shekhawat has denied the charge, sayinghis voice is not in these clips. He said he wasready to face any probe.

Leader of Opposition in RajasthanAssembly Gulab Chand Kataria, said that theHome Secretary as well as the Chief Secretaryof the State have so far denied having givenpermission to tap the phones of Opposition'spoliticians. "Isn't it a violation of our civil rightsto tap phone without authorisation? We don'tdemand a floor test, but if Ashok Gehlot thinkshe has a majority, he should prove it inAssembly," said Kataria at a Press conference.

Congress responded to the above claims bysaying that the saffron party has finally admit-ted to its role in the "murder of democracy"."The BJP has now admitted to its role in themurder of democracy in Rajasthan. Their onlygrievance was that when we were murdering,why were we getting recorded and if we weregetting recorded was it legal," party spokesper-son Pawan Khera said.

Khera, speaking to media after SambitPatra's allegations on phone tapping, said it wasan admission of crime by the saffron partyinstead. Patra sought to know whether thephone conversation recorded was done throughphone-tapping.

"While murdering democracy, the crimi-nal is concerned about whether he was record-ed and if yes, then recorded legally," hequipped, while also raising questions onSachin Pilot's actions.

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Page 5: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Gitanjali Gems, KingfisherAirlines, Ruchi Soya,

Rotomac, Winsome Diamonds,KS Oils, Surya Pharmaceutical,ABG Shipyard and SterlingOil Resources are among thetop 33 wilful defaulters owingmore than �32,737 crore topublic sector banks. The topdefaulters have outstanding of�500 crore and above.

The names of these firmsfigure in the list of 2426 default-ers having dues of more than �1,47,350 crore collectively.The list has been made publicby the largest bank staffers’union, the All India BankEmployee’s Association(AIBEA), on Saturday.

AIBEA general secretaryVenkatachalam in a statementsaid that the purpose of thisrelease of wilful defaulters inpublic domain is in the inter-est of the country even as hedemanded that the owners ofthese defaulting companiesshould not be allowed to con-test elections and hold publicoffices.

The AIBEA demanded thatthe Banks must publish thenames of all defaulters andstringent measures must be

taken to recover the corporateloans and willful default mustbe made a criminal offence.

“Today public sector bankshave grown in a very big wayproliferating with their branches in every nook andcorner. Today the total depositsof all commercial banks aremore than �138 lakh crores.Thus, savings of the commonman is safe in the Banks,” saidAIBEA, demanding strength-ening of public sector banksand provide adequate capital inall banks.

As per the list released byAIBEA, as on September 30,2019, the public sector banksare facing 2,426 cases withwillful defaulters of �1,47,350crore.

The list is of those havingdefault from Rs.five crore facing cases in courts and fallunder the category of ‘wilfuldefaulters’.

The widely known NPA(Non-Performing Assets) cat-egory is not part of this list.Many large Corporates’ duescome under NPA, which is notmade in public domain bybanks.

In the AIBEA released wil-ful defaulters list highest isfrom State Bank of India (SBI)with �43,887 crores, followed byPunjab National Bank and Bankof Baroda with �22,370 croresand �14,661 crore dues. Out ofthe total 2426 cases, these threebank are having 1,365 cases ofwilful defaulters.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Saturday took

on Prime Minister NarendraModi accusing him of passive-ly allowing Chinese occupationof Indian land. He equated theGovernment of India to formerUnited Kingdom PM NevilleChamberlain who let Nazi dic-tator Adolph Hitler have hisway in the run-up to WorldWar II. Chamberlain is per-ceived by many to be a weakpolitical leader.

Rahul continued his relent-less criticism of the Centre overthe violence in Ladakh lastmonth and the subsequentIndia-China border face-offand said India will pay a “hugeprice because of theGovernment’s cowardlyactions”.

Rahul, who has repeatedlyaccused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of “surrender-ing” to Chinese aggressionalong the border, said: “Chinahas taken our land and theGovernment of India is behav-ing like Chamberlain. This willfurther embolden China”.

The Congress leader alsoattached a short video ofDefence Minister RajnathSingh speaking to soldiers inLadakh on Friday. In the clip,Singh says that while there is noguarantee talks can resolve

tensions, “not an inch of ourland can be taken by any powerin the world”.

The Prime Minister madesimilar statements during hisvisit last month.

However, the Congress hasremained unconvinced by thegovernment’s statements andhandling of this matter, pointing repeatedly to a com-ment by the Prime Minister atJune’s all-party meeting.

Rahul Gandhi’s“Chamberlain” reference was tothe late former British PrimeMinister Neville Chamberlain,who followed a policy ofappeasement towards Hitlerand Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

The policy, seen by manysince as an ill-advised move,allowed Hitler to expand histerritory under agreements thatsaw Britain concedeSudetenland, the German-speaking part ofCzechoslovakia.

Meant to buy Britain timeto recover from World War I,the policy broke down afterHitler violated the deal to occu-py the rest of Czechoslovakia.Six months on, Germany invad-ed Poland and World War IIbegan.

New Delhi: In a developmentto the Vikas Dubey encountercase, a counter-affidavit was onSaturday filed in the SupremeCourt by one of the petitioners.This counter-affidavit was inreply to the Uttar PradeshGovernment’s affidavit whichwas filed yesterday.

The petitioner, AnoopPrakash Awasthi, in hiscounter-affidavit, stated thatthere is an illegality in the con-stitution of the Judicial InquiryCommission for the matter.Further, the petitioner alsoalleged institutional bias in theappointment of SIT.

Yesterday, the UttarPradesh Police had informedthe Supreme Court that gang-ster Vikas Dubey did not sur-render after the Ujjain policeverified his identity and tookhim into custody. Later, thisinformation was shared withthe UP police

Clarifying on the change ofvehicles in the incident, the UPpolice said Dubey was taken inthe STF vehicle from Ujjain toGuna (253 kms). “From Guna,he was handed over to theinvestigating officer RamakantPachuri who took him in hisSUV…. accused was sittingbetween constable PradeepKumara and Pachuri in themiddle seat when the accidenttook place. Accused Dubeywas being transferred fromvehicle to vehicle to ensuresecurity and alertness”, saidthe UP police affidavit in the

apex court, answering morethan dozen questions associat-ed with the alleged encounterof Dubey.

How did police accuratelyfire four bullets? The policesaid, “This claim is incorrect.Actually six bullets were firedby police. Only three hit theaccused. It was a close and faceto face exchange of fire in self-defence by police.”

Why was he not hand-cuffed? The UP police replied,“There were 15 policemen and3 vehicles to escort the accused

directly to the court at Kanpur.He had to be produced atKanpur within 24 hours beforethe court which was expiring at10 am on July 10.

The police also informedthe apex court that there wasno decision at any stage tobring back Dubey on a char-tered plane, as a team of STFhad left from Lucknow by roadto join the existing raidingteams at Guna, and one STFteam was already stationed atGwalior for intelligence col-lection and arrest.

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Hand hygiene (sanitiser dis-penser) at entry points

and in work areas, thermalscreening of visitors/staff andallowing only asymptomaticindividuals to enter the premis-es are some of the directivesissued by the Union HealthMinistry for the gated resi-dential complexes across thecountry on Saturday.

Not only this, vendors,household help, car cleaners,delivery personnel, etc. willalso undergo such screeningdaily. Physical distancing of atleast six feet to be followed asfar as feasible at all locations atall times in all common areas,including parks, corridors, liftlobbies, gyms and clubs, saysthe guidelines.

Also, the RWAs/residentialsocieties desirous of setting upCovid Care Facility can plan forthe same as per the guidelinesissued by the Ministry. Thisshall only be made operationalif the required guidelines andstandards are met and shall becontinued as per the directionissued by the local healthauthorities.

The advisory notes that allpersons above 65 years of age,persons with comorbidities,pregnant women and childrenbelow the age of 10 should beencouraged to stay only at

home and keep contact withvisitors/guests to a minimum.

If the gated complex isdeclared as a containmentzone, the resident welfare asso-ciations (RWAs) will cooperatewith the local health authoritiesin carrying out various activi-ties as stipulated in the con-tainment plan, noted theMinistry.

Measures that need to beobserved at all time includephysical distancing of at leastsix feet to be followed as far asfeasible, use of facecovers/masks to be mademandatory and frequent handwashing with soap (for at least40-60 seconds) even when

hands are not visibly dirty.Use of alcohol-based handsanitisers (for at least 20 sec-onds) can be made whereverfeasible.

“Self-monitoring of healthby all and reporting any illnessat the earliest to state and dis-trict helpline. Spitting shall bestrictly prohibited,” said theadvisory.

The Ministry also addedthat simple preventive mea-sures need to be followed,encourage early reporting andinform the community aboutmyths and stigma oftenencountered by patients,healthcare or other front lineworkers.

The RWAs have beenadvised to encourage residentsto self-report symptoms andfacilitate their testing, isolationand quarantine of contacts,provide counselling, guidanceand support to COVID-19-affected individuals and fami-lies. Special attention isrequired in such householdswhich have no family memberto take care of the dependants.

If a decision is taken by thepublic health authority forhome quarantine of contacts/home isolation of patient, theRWA shall facilitate thoseunder home quarantine/homeisolation to remain within theirhomes, as per the advisory.

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Ringing the alarm bells, theUnion Health Ministry has

warned the AssamGovernment that the cases inthe State might cross 64,000marks by the end of the nextmonth and hence it should bewell equipped with oxygen,oxygen-supported beds, ICUsetc on a priority basis.

On behalf of the Ministry,OSD Rajesh Bhushan wrote aletter to Dispur on the would-be situation of the corona pan-demic in the State.

The letter said that thenumber of COVID-19 positivecases in Guwahati alone byAugust would be over 32,000.

The estimation of thewould-be corona cases in theState sent by the Ministry isbased on the study of cases up

to July 9 when the State had aCOVID-19 tally of 10,140.

The warning letter says “AsCovid pandemic continues toevolve a periodic assessment ofpresent and future prepared-ness is imperative…It isrequested that step may betaken on priority to augmentthe bed capacity wherevernecessary and availability of

sufficient oxygen-supportedbeds, oxygen supply and ICUbeds must be ensured byAugust 15”.

According to the estima-tion given by the UnionMinistry, the total number ofCovid-19 cases in the State willbe 64,389 by August witharound 32,933 cases inKamrup (Metro) district

alone.The estimation given for

some of the other districts ofthe State are – 2,931 in Hojai,2,883 in Nagaon, 2,398 inDhubri, 1,873 in Golaghat,1,495 in Barpeta, 1,310 inMorigaon, 1,214 in Darrang,814 in Dibrugarh, 941 inJorhat etc. The lowest, as perthe estimation, is 21 in Majuli.

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From Sunday, Delhi and itsadjoining States Punjab and

Haryana are likely to experi-ence continuous rainfall typi-cal of the rainy season as themonsoon trough is likely toshift to its normal position,weather forecasting agenciessaid.

Since the beginning of July,the northern plains havereceived only patchy rains asthe axis of the monsoon troughhad been oscillating north andsouth frequently (towards andaway from the Himalayanfoothills), Skymet Weather said.

The trough will movenorth and stabilize for the next3-4 days, it said, adding a sig-nificant increase in rainfall inDelhi, Haryana and Punjabcan be expected from July 19-21. For the same period, theIMD has issued a red warningfor heavy rainfall in WestBengal, Assam, Meghalaya andArunachal Pradesh.

The prediction in increasein intensity of rainfall is alsoaided by a convergence ofmoist southerly, south-wester-ly winds from Bay of Bengal ineastern India and from theArabian Sea over northwestIndia at lower troposphericlevels.

Though the expecteddownpour is likely to offer

some relief to people in northIndia from the sultry weather,it almost certainly will “accen-tuate” the existing flood situa-tion in Assam and other north-eastern states and may triggerlandslides, the IMD said.

The floods in Assam havesubmerged vast tracts ofhuman habitation and farm-land in 26 districts, affecting27.64 lakh people. Three morepeople died on Saturday due tothe flooding, raising the deathtoll in the state to 79. Another26 have died in landslides.

Dhubri remains the worst-hit district in Assam with over4.69 lakh people suffering. According to Assam StateDisaster ManagementAuthority, 2,678 villages areunder water and about 1.16lakh hectares of crop areashave been damaged.Authorities have set up 649relief camps and distributioncentres in 21 districts, wheremore than 47,000 displacedpeople are taking shelter.

In Bihar, which has record-ed 41 per cent more precipita-tion than normal between July1 and 17, the intensity of rain-fall is likely to increase fromSunday and all districts areexpected to receive rainfall foranother week. In Uttar Pradeshtoo, forecasts have said that rainand thundershowers are likelyat most places from July 19-21.

On Saturday, the maxi-mum temperature in Delhiwas 36.4 degrees Celsius, threenotches above the normal.Humidity levels shot up to 89per cent. And in Punjab andHaryana, it stayed around nor-mal levels.

“The monsoon trough hasstarted shifting north. Light-to-moderate rainfall is expected inDelhi over the next two days,”Kuldeep Srivastava of the IndiaMeteorology Department, said.He, however, said “good” rainis unlikely in the capital for aweek.

According to IMD, Delhihas recorded 47.9 mm rainfallso far in July, which is 56 percent less than the normal of109.4 mm.

Light-to-moderate rainfalloccurred in parts of Rajasthan,where the monsoon activity hasremained subdued like Delhi,bringing relief to people fromsultry weather.

The Shimla MeteorologicalCentre in Himachal Pradeshhas issued a weather warningfor very heavy rainfall for July19 and July 20, an official said.The ‘orange’ warning is forweather conditions that havethe capacity to impact signifi-cantly.

Meanwhile, the offshoretrough extending from Goa toKerala has weakened, resultingin reduced rainfall in Mumbai.

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Elected representativesshould be barred from

holding public office for fiveyears and from contesting thenext election if they defect,senior advocate and Congressleader Kapil Sibal said onSaturday.

Sibal, who was addressinga webinar, said that the“endemic” of defection is dueto human greed and hunger forpower.

His remarks come at atime when the ruling Congressin Rajasthan is facing a rebel-lion by Sachin Pilot and his loy-alist MLAs. Just months earli-er party legislators led byJyotiraditya Scindia had defect-ed to the BJP in MadhyaPradesh leading to the collapseof the Congress governmentthere.

“No law can prevent it(defection). The only solutionis that if anyone defects theyshall not hold public office forfive years and cannot contest inthe next election. These are thetwo elements that need tochange,” Sibal said in responseto a question on the politicalcrisis in Rajasthan.

Speaking on the Collegiumsystem of appointments, Sibalsaid even the judges are humanbeings and are swayed by per-sonal likes and dislikes.

“See, even if you give thepower to the government, theywill misuse it,” he said.

When a person becomes ajudge in the Supreme Court, heshould give away his personallikes and dislikes. “But over theyears, this is not happening,” hesaid.

The Congress leader alsospoke about issues relating tomatters of faith and said per-sonally he felt that the apexcourt should not have dealtwith the Sabarimala templecase.”I don’t think the courtshould even enter the areabecause it has an enormousimpact on society. The changein society comes with educa-tion, transformation and socialmovement. You can lay downany law but unless there is achange in societal mindset,there will be no change,” hesaid.

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COVID-19 cases may peakin India as early as mid-

September provided strongpublic health measures are inplace and people behave in aresponsible manner to containthe virus, President of PublicHealth Foundation of India,Prof. K Srinath Reddy, said on

Saturday.Speaking to PTI, he

expressed concern over themicrobe spreading withrenewed vigour, as confirmedinfections and deaths crossedone million and 25,000 respec-tively in India earlier thisweek.

“Ideally we could haveand should have prevented it

reaching this level, but evennow we should try our bestand contain it as quickly aspossible”, the public healthexpert said.

“Different places (States)would peak at different times”,Reddy said on the risingCOVID-19 cases.

He, however, added thatIndia may see COVID-19

cases peaking as early as intwo months if there are strongpublic health measures andpeople take all precautions likewearing face masks and main-taining physical distance.

“If everybody does whatneeds to be done”, he saidwhen asked if he is confidentthat the cases would peakwithin two months. “It

depends on public and gov-ernment action”.

Reddy, who formerlyheaded the Department ofCardiology at the

All India Institute ofMedical Sciences, said up tothe second phase of lock-down, control measures werevery strict as India tried tocontain the spread.

But subsequently afterMay 3, when relaxation start-ed — resumption of econom-ic activities were important —very strong levels of publichealth activities like house-hold survey for any cases withsymptoms, quick testing andisolation and vigorous contacttracing, among others, shouldhave been maintained, he said.

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Page 6: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Gold Smuggling throughDiplomatic Channel that

was busted by the Customsofficials inThiruvananthapuram Airportis turning out to be a major bloton the Chief Minister’s Officeand the incumbent PinarayiVijayan.

Sarith, the first accused inthe case is reported to have toldthe sleuths of the NationalInvestigating Agency (NIA)probing the case that MSivsankar, the then principalsecretary to Chief MinisterVijayan was fully aware of thegold smuggling making use ofthe diplomatic route.

Sources in NIA disclosedthat Sarith conceded about hisclose ties with Sivsankar.Records of the telephonic con-versations between Sivsankarand Sarith substantiates thecontention of the latter.Sivsankar was suspended ear-lier this week based on aninquiry report submitted by the

two-member panel headed byChief Secretary Viswas Mehtafor violation of Government ofIndia Service Rules.

Based on the disclosuresmade by Sarith, the NIA is like-ly to summon Sivsankar (57),an officer who was conferredIAS, for further questioning.On Saturday, Swapna Sureshand Sandeep Nair, the othertwo accused in the case werebrought toThiruvananthapuram by theNIA team as part of collectingevidence. The NIA sleuths tookthe two accused to the apart-ments where Swpna Sureshwas staying in the capital city.They also visited the businesspremises of Sandeep at a citysuburb.

The Customs officials wereon their way to Muvattupuzhain Ernakulam district to probethe link between the threeaccused and businessmen basedin the town.

Meanwhile Jayaghosh, thegunman of the UAE attachéwho fled the capital city and

India to his country of origin, isbelieved to have told the KeralaPolice that he tried to commitsuicide because of threats andwarnings issued by certain peo-ple. “He has been warned bythem that they would finish himoff if he reveals anything aboutthe gold smuggling to the inves-tigators,” said a policeman whois associated with rescuingJayaghosh who was found withhis wrist slit on Friday.

Janam TV, a news channel,which was pursuing the goldsmuggling and the terroristactivities has been warned bythe Islamic State unit in Kerala.In an Instagram message theextremist organization haswarned that it would kill allemployees of the channel anddestroy the offices for “anti-Islamic news being aired by thechannel”.

G K Suresh Babu, chief edi-tor, told The Pioneer that StatePolice Chief had called him upand assured of all help. Securityhas been beefed up around thechannel’s office and studios.

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In a second back to back oper-ation in the last 24 hours, the

joint teams of security forces onSaturday gunned down threemore 'unidentified' terrorists inthe Amshipora area of Shopian.

Since July 1, 17 terroristshave been eliminated in dif-ferent encounters.

According to a policespokesman, the operation inthe area was launched in thewee hours of Saturday. The ter-rorists, according to police,were hiding behind a tempo-rary structure in an orchardfrom where they opened fire onthe security forces.

During the gunfight, allthree terrorists hiding in thearea were neutralised by thesecurity forces.

Till the time of filing thereport the identity of the slainultras could not be ascertainedby the police.

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Late Friday evening whenPakistan army initiated

'unprovoked' ceasefire violationalong the Line of Control inGulpur sector of Poonch, 58-year-old Mohd Rafiq, residentof village Sial in Khari Karmaraarea, was waiting for his wife,Rafia Bi, to serve dinner to him.

He was sitting on a chairoutside his kitchen and his wifewas preparing chapatis. One ofhis three sons, Mohd Irfan, wasalso sitting by his side.

After a brief spell of smallarms firing from the Pakistaniside soon after Indian Armystarted retaliating the firing, amortar shell landed right in themiddle of their courtyard, closeto Mohd Rafiq's chair. All threefamily members, hit by splin-ters, died on the spot.

10 years ago, Mohd Rafiqhad lost his first wife during

intense shelling from across theline of control and had remar-ried to take care of his threesons.

This time, he himself ranout of luck and died along withhis second wife and oneson,leaving behind two others.

His cousin Mohd Sadiqtold reporters in Poonch, “allthree family members werekilled before eating dinner”.

He said, “my sister-in law(bhabi) was cooking chapatis(rotis) and my brother was sit-ting on a chair outside hiskitchen when a shell landed inthe middle of their courtyardaround 9.30 p.m”. Theyreceived serious injuries due toimpact of the blast and died onthe spot.He blamed the author-ities for not providing bunkersto poor families in the forwardvillages.

The last rites of all threefamily members were per-

formed in their native villageon Saturday.

Ignoring guidelines andsocial distancing norms, hun-dreds of villagers and close rel-atives attended the funeral pro-cession and paid tributes totheir loved ones.

Sharing his anger, a localvillager Mohd Raseed, blamedPakistan for resorting to'unprovoked' firing in the areaat regular intervals. He said,“It's a war like situation forthose people who lose theirloved ones in such incidents offiring”.

Another local residentMohd Abdul said, “Pakistanarmy is deliberately targetingcivilian areas to trigger unrestin the area”. He said, “we havebeen requesting district author-ities to construct bunkers in theforward areas at the earliest sothat precious human lives canbe saved”.

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In a significant global initia-tive, the IIT Alumni Council

on Saturday announced world’sfirst and largest EngineeredBiomolecule Mega Incubator(EBMI) —involving 2.5 millionsquare feet area—to align start-ups, other incubators and accel-erators in India's offensiveagainst Covid-19.

The ambitious projectinvolves setting up of BiosafetyLevel-3 (BSL3) laboratory inthe National Center forNanoscience andNanotechnology at KalinaCampus of University ofMumbai, a captive 100,000 sq.ft pilot plant facility for bio-molecule manufacturing in theNational Capital Region(NCR), a mega Incubator tosupport MegaLab and MegaTx(to be part funded byMegaFund ), �500 crore directinvestment envisaged in Phase1 and �10,000 crore-plusecosystem investment.

As part of the EBMI pro-ject, NCR will be developed asa global hub for Biologics man-ufacturing.

The proposed EBMI will

have direct access to over30,000 PhDs through TopInstitutes of Excellence”Network (TieNet) and a virtu-al presence in every smart-phone. Engineered biomole-cules is expected to play a keyrole in molecular diagnostics,genetic testing as well as bio-therapeutics, besides a host ofapplications in sectors varyingfrom water treatment and agri-culture to advanced genetics.

Announcing the EBMI ini-tiative, IIT Alumni CouncilPresident Ravi Sharma saidthat his organisation was play-ing a lead role in strengtheningthe entire Covid ecosystem -from diagnostic testing to bio-therapeutic treatment.

“Given that over 70% of aReverse transcription poly-merase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or Next-GenerationSequencing (NGS) test kit invalue terms are biomolecules,we understand the need andurgency of focusing on thisdomain. Most advanced bio-therapeutic drugs from insulinto interferon to plasma anti-bodies are biomolecules. Webelieve that we can influence avery substantial cost and price

reduction in bio-therapeutics,”Sharma said.

“The ultimate goal of theIIT Alumni Council is to makesure that every person in Indiais able to afford genetic testslike Covid19 and biotherapeu-tic treatment. This is the onlyway to make India healthy andsafe in the face of feared antibi-otic resistance and future pan-demics” IIT Alumni Councilchief said.

The IIT Alumni Council isan autonomous and indepen-dent global body of alumni ofall the twenty-three IITs andpartnering TieNet. TieNetfounder members includeMumbai University and ICT

Mumbai.“The MegaIncubator will

be global and aspires to reachout to any technocrat startuppromoter anywhere in theworld that is pursuing deeptechnology in the Biomoleculedomain. Using a mobile app, itwould be possible to onboardan incubatee virtually at thespeed of thought,” Mr HemantGupta, an IIT alumnus MD ofZone Startups India – an insti-tutional partner of EBMI, said.

“The MegaIncubator isarchitected smartly, stitchingtogether existing cutting edgeinfrastructure to create an end-to-end phygital support systemfor aspiring Biomolecule start-ups, thereby accelerating thetime to market manifold.”Gupta said.

“A dedicated global teamhas been working 24/7 on theEBMI since March end. Wewould like to thank HydeConsulting, Grant Thorntonand the tens of volunteers whohave helped to take EBMIfrom thought to Project in lessthan 100 days. EBMI hassigned MoUs with several part-ner organisations in May 2020including Mumbai University.

Detailed blueprints have beendrawn up and the laboratoriesare in various phases of execu-tion,” Dr Samir Kulkarni,Director of Innovation andNational Centre forNanoscience andNanotechnology, University ofMumbai, said.

“We have also receivedover twenty incubatee propos-als to deliver products such asviral lysis solution, viral trans-port medium, Lyophilizedroom temperature stable, RT-PCR kits, plasma derivedimmunoglobulins (IVIG),antibody libraries to developand manufacture recombinanttherapeutic antibodies etc. Weare also looking at geneticcloning of nature derived pep-tides and have studied majorglobal training centers for bio-logics development and man-ufacturing,” Dr Kulkarni said.

According to Dr Kulkarni,it is the EBMI team thatworked round the clock tohelp deliver initiatives likeMegaLab and MegaTx. EBMIteam has also played a key rolein the elimination of Chinesesystems and software fromboth MegaLab and MegaTx”.

Jammu: With 441 new cases, the totalnumber of coronavirus cases in theUnion Territory of Jammu & Kashmiron Saturday crossed 13,000 mark whilethe death toll reached 236 as fivemore patients died in Kashmir valley.

To contain the spread of coron-avirus in the worst hit Srinagar district,a total number of 130 containmentzones have been established. Till lateSaturday evening, a total number of1,982 active positive cases of coron-avirus were admitted in different hos-pitals.

In Jammu division, the districtMagistrate Samba, Rohit KhajuriaSaturday declared complete lockdownacross Vijaypur tehsil between July 19-24 while all the road travellers fromoutside Jammu division have beendirected to undergo mandatory screen-ing for Covid-19. One of the famoustourist resort of Patnitop was alsodeclared red zone by the DeputyCommissioner ,Ramban.

According to the media bulletin,out of 13,198 cases, 5,797 are activepositive while 7,165 patients haverecovered. PNS

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88 persons succumbed toCovid-19 in Tamil Nadu dur-

ing the last 24 hours while arecord number of 4,807 newpersons were diagnosed withcoronavirus infection onSaturday, said a media release by the StateGovernment.

As on Saturday, there were 49, 452 activeCovid-19 cases in the State. The 111 labo-ratories across the State tested 47, 179 per-sons and the total number of persons test-ed till date crossed the 1.8 million mark.

Tamil Nadu has 1.65 lakh coronaviruspatients as on Saturday. Out of the 88 whodied on Saturday, 82 has co-morbid issues.Till date the State has recorded 2,403 deathsdue to Covid-19.

The day also 3,409 persons walking outof the hospital fully cured. Till date the Statehas seen 1.13 lakh patients getting cured ofthe pandemic.

Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswami saidthat Tamil Nadu has thehighest recovery rate in thecountry. He said 67 per centof the patients have beenrecovered fully from Covid-19. Speaking to reporters at

Erode, the choef minister said ‘right actionand intense testing’ helped the State in bring-ing down the death rate and the State wouldsee the pandemic cases coming down soon.

While Chennai continued to show a fallin the number of cases on Saturday (1,219),districts like Kancheepuram (97), Chengalpet(323), Thiruvallur (370) continued to showincreased number of patients.

Sixteen districts out of the 37 districts inthe State has more than hundred Covid-19patients each. Tamil Nadu’s first Plasma Bankwould become operational on Monday, saidDr C Vijay Baskar, health minister. He saidthat plasma therapy succeeded in saving thelives of many Covid-19 patients.

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Kerala heaved a sigh of reliefwhen Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan announcedthat 593 persons were diag-nosed with Covid-19 onSaturday.

It was a relief for the Statewhich saw nearly 800 personstesting positive for the pan-demic for the last two succes-sive days as the numbers camedown, though not sharply. Twopersons succumbed to Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, saidthe Chief Minister.

Vijayan said that therewere 11,659 active Covid-19cases in Kerala. The number ofpersons infected with coron-avirus through contact stoodat 364. The day also saw 1,053persons getting hospitalizedbecause of the pandemic. Thescenic coastal line of

Thiruvananthapuram has beenshut down for the next ten daysbecause of community trans-mission. The Government hasdeclared stringent conditionsall over theThiruvananthapuram coastline, one of the enchantingattractions in the capital city. Ithas been designated as a No Goarea, said the Chief Minister.

Vijayan said communitytransmission has become areality in Thiruvananthapuram.He reminded the people thatthe entire State has been underthe grip of Covid-19 for the lastsix months and this has causeda sense of complacency allover Kerala. “I am repeatedlyreminding you about thisbecause of the seriousness ofthe situation. We have changedthe war cry of Breaking TheChain to “Caution As PreciousAs Life,” said Vijayan.

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Ayodhya: The Shri RamJanmabhoomi Teertha KshetraTrust has invited PrimeMinister Narendra Modi tolay the foundation stone of agrand Ram Temple in Ayodhyaeither on August 3 or 5, bothauspicious dates, a spokesper-son said on Saturday.

The Prime Minister hadannounced the formation ofthe Shri Ram JanmabhoomiTeertha Kshetra Trust onFebruary 5.

Mahant Kamal Nayan Das,the spokesperson of Trust''spresident Nritya Gopal Dassaid, “We have suggested twoauspicious dates — August 3and 5 — for the PrimeMinister''s visit based on cal-culations of movements of starsand planets.”

After a protracted legaltussle, the Supreme Court had

on November 9 last year pavedthe way for the construction ofa Ram Temple by a Trust at thedisputed site in Ayodhya, anddirected the Centre to allot analternative 5-acre plot to theSunni Waqf Board for build-ing a new mosque at a “promi-nent” place in the holy town inUttar Pradesh.

The decision about thetentative date for laying thefoundation stone of the templewas taken at a meeting of theTrust members held inAyodhya on Saturday. Senioradvocate K Parasaran,Vasudevanand Saraswati andSwami Vishwa Prasanjeetattended the meeting via videolinks.

General Secretary of theTrust Champat Rai said soonafter the monsoon, the Ramtemple trust will contact 10

crore families across the coun-try for financial help and it willtake three to three-and-halfyears after the finalisation ofthe temple''s design to completeits construction.

At the meeting, the issue ofthe height of the Ram Mandirwas discussed. The temple''sheight would be 161 feet andhave five domes, saidKameshwar Chaupal, a mem-ber of the Shri RamJanmabhoomi Teertha KshetraTrust.

The meeting of the Trustwas also attended by NripendraMishra, the former principalsecretary to Prime MinisterModi and the chairman of theconstruction committee ofRam Mandir, and AvaneeshAwasthi, the principal secretaryto Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Aadityanath. Agencies

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The total number of Covid-19 infections breached 3

lakh mark in Maharashtra onSaturday, as the infected casesin the state crossed 8,000 markfor the third consecutive day totouch 8,348, while the deathsdropped from 258 to 144 dur-ing the last 24 hours.

In another milestone, thetotal number of infected casescrossed 1 lakh in Mumbaiwhere as many as 1,199 posi-tive cases were reported onSaturday, to touch the final tallyof 1,00,350.

After recording 8641 and8,308 Covid-19 infections onThursday and Friday respec-tively, Maharashtra witnessed8,348 infected cases, takingthe total number of positivecases in the State to a stagger-ing 3,00,937.

With 144 fresh fatalities,the total number of deaths invarious parts of the statemounted to 11,596 on Saturdayevening.

Of the 144 total deaths,Mumbai accounted for 65deaths, which took the totalnumber of deaths in the

metropolis from 5,585 to5,650.

In addition to 65 deaths inMumbai, there were 32 deathsin Pune, 12 in Thane, 8 inPalghar, 5 each in Solapur andRatnagiri, 4 each in Nashik andAurangabad, 2 each inAmravati and Buldhana, 1 eachin Raigad, Dhule, Jalgaon,Latur and Osmanabad.

With 73,289 infected casesand 1,976 deaths, Thane con-tinued to be the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.

Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 51,575infections and 1,314 deaths

till now.In a related development,

the total number of patientsdischarged from various hos-

pitals after full recovery sincethe second week of March thisyear touched 1,65,663. Therecovery rate in the state stoodat 55.05 per cent. The mortal-ity rate in the state is 3.85 percent. The state health authori-ties pegged the number of“active cases” in the State at1,23,377.

Out of 15,22,884 samplessent to laboratories, 3,00,937have tested positive (19.76 percent) for Covid-19 untilSaturday.

Currently, 7,40,884 peo-ple are in home quarantinewhile 45,552 people are ininstitutional quarantine.

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The WesternRailway has

refunded �397.13crore as ticket moneyto passengers fromMarch 1, 2020 to July17, following cancella-tion of various trains.

“Of the �397.13 crore theWestern Railway’s Mumbaidivision refunded as much as�189.70 crore. “Till now, 61.01lakh passengers have cancelledtheir tickets across the WesternRailway. They have receivedtheir refund amount accord-ingly,” a WR spokespersonsaid.

Following the cancellationof trains, the Western Railwayhas suffered a total loss ofearnings amounting to�1770.18 crore. The lossincludes �260.69 crore suf-fered by way of non-operationof trains on suburban sectionsand �1509.49 crore on non-suburban sections. “Despitethe huge losses faced by therailways, the passengers are

being given a full refund,” thespokesperson said.

Following the pandemicand consequent lockdown, allpassenger trains were cancelledfrom March 22 2020, Shramikspecial trains were introducedto carry the migrant labourersand their families to theirhometowns.

Later, for the convenienceof passengers, Indian Railwaysdecided to restore passengerservices in a phased mannerwith 15 pairs of Rajdhani typespecial trains from May 12,and 100 pairs of special trainsfrom June 1.

Tickets booked throughIRCTC website for the regulartrains were cancelled onlineand amount credited accord-

ingly. Whereas, for passengerswho had booked their ticketsthrough PRS counters, select-ed nominated stations wererestarted for cancellations witheffect from May 27.

“Passengers can avail therefund within 180 days fromthe date of journey. The pas-sengers are being given fullrefund without deduction ofany cancellation charges,” thespokesperson said.

“Also this 180 days leewayis being given so as passengersdo not rush for refund againstthe cancelled trains and toavoid overcrowding by follow-ing social distancing norms andhealth protocols consideringthe present scenario,” thespokesperson added.

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Gujarat's Covid-19 tally roseto 47,476 on Saturday after

it reported a record single-dayspike of 960 cases, while thedeath toll jumped to 2,127with 19 more deaths, healthofficials said.

As many as 1,061 patientswere discharged in the state onSaturday, taking the total num-ber of recoveries to 34,005.

Gujarat has witnessednearly 15,000 coronavirus pos-itive cases within eighteen daysof July, almost each day with anew record.

With an average of almost824 cases daily, the state hasregistered 14,833 positive casesin eighteen days of the month.

Surat, the new Covidhotspot has also been witness-ing each day with a highercount than the previous day.Registering nearly 28 per centof Saturday's positive cases,Surat recorded 268 cases, while,Ahmedabad saw 201 casescoming up.

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As many as 203 more armedpolice personnel have test-

ed positive for Covid-19 invarious parts of Maharashtra.

Official sources said that87 Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) personnel and72 State Reserve Police Force

(SRPF) troopers were amongthe 203 infected personnel.

The others who have beendiagnosed positive forCoronavirus include 42 policepersonnel and two fromBorder Security Force (BSF).“All the infected security per-sonnel have been sent to quar-antine,” a senior state policeofficial said.

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Page 7: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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.Beijing: China rushed a teamof medical specialists toUrumqi, the provincial capitalof Xinjiang, after it reported 40new coronavirus cases, includ-ing 23 asymptomatic infec-tions, prompting the localadministration to declare a“wartime mode”, official mediareports here said on Saturday.

This is the second out-break in Xinjiang, the MuslimUyghur majority provincewhich has been in the limelightin recent months over allega-tions of the internment of thou-

sands of Uyghurs in specialcamps. China defends thecamps as education camps.

Urumqi reported 17 con-firmed COVID-19 patients,and 23 asymptomatic cases inthe last four days, the state-runGlobal Times reported.

The current outbreak isrelated to a group gatheringwhich is developing rapidly, andlocal health authorities haveadvised people not to panic asall the confirmed cases havemild to moderate symptoms,who are also under centralised

medical observation, the reportsaid.

The local government inUrumqi, has declared a “wartimemode” as all local residentialcommunities have been putunder “sealed-off management”in its fight against the resurgenceof COVID-19, it said.

China’s National HealthCommission (NHC) dis-patched a medical expert teamon Saturday to Xinjiang toinvestigate the epidemic amida spike of domestic COVID-19cases. PTI

Washington: President DonaldTrump has said he would notorder Americans to wear masksto contain the spread of thecoronavirus, saying peopleshould have a “certain free-dom.”

His comments came afterDr Anthony Fauci, the top USinfectious diseases expert,appealed to state and localleaders to be “as forceful as pos-sible” in getting people to wearmasks in public places.

In a ‘Fox News Sunday’interview, Trump said, “I don’tagree with the statement that ifeverybody wear a mask, every-thing disappears.”

Commenting on the initialcomments from top healthofficials, Trump said: “Hey, DrFauci said don’t wear a mask.Our Surgeon General – terrif-ic guy – said don’t wear a mask.Everybody who is saying don’twear a mask – all of suddeneverybody’s got to wear a mask,and as you know masks causeproblems, too.”

Trump, who has been seenwearing a face mask only once,said, I’m a believer in masks. Ithink masks are good.”

But Fauci, the director ofthe National Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases, saidsocial distancing, an important

factor in blunting the spread ofthe coronavirus, can be difficultwith more people going out.

“When you’re living yourlife and trying to open up thecountry, you are going to comeinto contact with people. Andfor that reason, we know thatmasks are really important,and we should be using themeverywhere,” he said during aUS Chamber of Commercevirtual event.

Americans are actuallyslowing down the re-openingthe country by not wearing amask, CNN quoted Fauci assaying during a US Chamber ofCommerce event.

“If we could get more peo-ple to understand that, hope-fully we’ll get more peoplewho’d be willing to wear

masks,” he said.He said he would “urge the

leaders — the local politicaland other leaders — in statesand cities and towns to be asforceful as possible in gettingyour citizenry to wear masks.”

The country needs to con-centrate on the problems athand and not worry about asecond wave, he said.

“When you’re having up to70,000 new infections ... That’ssomething you need to focuson right now, as opposed tolooking at what’s going to hap-pen in September or October,”he said.

There were 77,255 newcases reported on Thursday,crossing a previous record settwo days ago, according toJohns Hopkins University. PTI

Beijing: At least 14 peoplehave died in the latest round ofseasonal rains and flooding insouthern China, as soldiersand workers built makeshiftbarriers with sandbags androcks on Saturday to keep theYangtze River and its tributariesat bay.

Three floodgates of theThree Gorges Dam that spansthe Yangtze were opened as thewater level behind the massivedam rose more than 15 meters(50 feet) above flood level, theofficial Xinhua News Agencyreported. AP

-��#�����!������� �4����� � �+���� Seoul: North Korea has said

that it was developing a vaccinefor the novel coronavirus on itsown, the country’s scienceresearch council claimed onSaturday.

According to a report post-ed on Mirae, the website runby the North’s StateCommission of Science andTechnology, its scientists arecurrently conducting clinicaltrials to develop a vaccine forCOVID-19, reports YonhapNews Agency reported.

The report said the vaccinedevelopment is led by a med-ical biology institute underthe North’s Academy ofMedical Science usinga n g i o t e n s i n - c o nv e r t i n genzyme 2 (ACE2).

North Korea claimed ithas confirmed the immuno-genicity and safety of its can-didate vaccine through animaltests and that clinical trialshave started from this month.

The country, which is yetto report a single COVID-19case, added that scientists arein discussions on conductingthe third phase of clinicalstudy.

North Korea said the bio-engineering branch of the StateAcademy of Sciences is alsoconducting research for thedevelopment of the novel coro-navirus vaccine. IANS

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Washington: The US hasreported an increase of over70,000 COVID-19 cases in 24hours for a second consecutiveday, after shattering the recordfor the highest number of sin-gle-day infections, according tothe Johns Hopkins University.

Cases rose by more than70,000 on Friday after going upby over 77,000 on Thursday, arecord increase since the pan-demic hit the country, Xinhuanews agency reported citing theUniversity as saying.

As of Saturday morning,the US accounted for theworld’s highest number ofinfections and fatalities at

3,641,417 and 139,175, respec-tively, the University’s Centerfor Systems Science andEngineering (CSSE) revealed in

its latest update.In the last 24 hours, 975

new deaths were recorded,which was the highest spike

since June 10.New York state remains the

hardest-hit with 405,551 cases.Other national COVID-

19 hotspots include California,Florida and Texas, reporting364,835, 327,234 and 308,611cases, respectively, the CSSEdata revealed.

States with over 100,000cases also include New Jersey,Illinois, Arizona, Georgia,Massachusetts, andPennsylvania, it added.

Experts have warned thatcases could soon top 100,000 aday if the country fails to takesteps necessary to stem thespread of the virus.

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Riyadh: Starting from Sunday,Saudi authorities will impose aban on entering holy siteswithout a permit as theKingdom is bracing for a lim-ited Haj season in an effort tostem the spread of COVID-19,a local media report said onSaturday.

Security control centres inthe holy city of Mecca willbegin as of Sunday morning tostop entry into the holy sites ofMina, Muzdalifah and Arafatwithout a permit, Gulf Newsquoted the Al Riyadh newspa-per as saying in the report.

Violations are punishableby a fine of 10,000 Saudi riyalsthat will be doubled in case ofrepetition.

The measure is part ofstrict regulations to prevent thespread of the coronavirus dur-ing the Haj set to begin later inJuly, said the newspaper report.

The Kingdom hadannounced that 70 of this year’spilgrims will be expat resi-dents while the remaining 30per cent will be Saudis.

The maximum number ofparticipating pilgrims has beenset at 10,000.

The Saudi Ministry of theHajj and Umrah has said thatthe health criteria will mainlydetermine the selection ofthose permitted to attend thisyear’s Haj.

More than 2 millionMuslims usually perform theHaj every year. IANS

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Nantes: A fire broke outSaturday in the Gothic cathe-dral of the western French cityof Nantes, shattering stainedglass windows and sendingblack smoke spewing frombetween its towers as firefight-

ers fight the blaze.Residents and tourists

watched aghast, and emer-gency workers cordoned off thearea around the St Peter and StPaul Cathedral, in the histori-cal centre of this city on the

Loire River. A City Hall officialsaid the fire broke out Saturdaymorning inside the cathedral,and the cause is unclear. Theofficial is not authorized to bepublicly named. No injurieshave been reported. AP

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Islamabad: Pakistan’s aviationauthority has suspended 15more pilots for possessingdubious licenses, taking thenumber of those taken off dutyfor flying with fake credentialsin the country to 93, accordingto a media report on Saturday.

They were suspended bythe Aviation Division onFriday.

These are among the 262pilots, who were grounded andput under investigation by theaviation ministry last month,for possessing suspiciouslicences, according to the Dawnnewspaper.

The licences of 28 otherpilots have already been can-celled.

Abdul Sattar Khokhar,Spokesman for the AviationDivision, said a total of 262pilots were identified as pos-

sessing fake licences by theBoard of Inquiry and ground-ed immediately after identifi-cation on the instructions ofthe government.

He said out of these 262pilots, the federal Cabinet hadapproved cancellation of thelicences of 28.

These 28 pilots will not beable to undertake any flyingduty and their licences havebeen cancelled after properlegal procedures under whichthe pilots were given an oppor-tunity of hearing.

The matter was twice delib-erated by the Cabinet before thedecision.

The process of verifica-tion of licences of 93 pilots hasbeen initiated, while the inves-tigation of the remaining 141cases is expected to be com-pleted within one week. PTI

&���!���������� �����������,/����������� �!���������������Tehran: Iran has sent the black

box of the Ukrainian passengerjet that its armed forces mis-takenly shot down in Januaryto France for reading, anIranian semi-official newsagency said Saturday.

Iran accidentally shotdown the Boeing 737-800,killing all 176 people aboard,after mistaking it for an incom-ing missile.

Iranian armed forces hadbeen bracing for a counterat-tack after launching missiles atUS bases in Iraq in response tothe killing of its top comman-der, Gen. Qassim Soleimani, ina US strike earlier in January.

ILNA’s report quotesMohsen Baharvand, an aide toIran’s foreign minister, as say-ing the downed jet’s black boxwas transported to Paris onFriday, accompanied byIranian civil aviation and judi-cial officials. AP

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Jakarta: Sixty-seven people havebeen reported missing, whilemore than 14,000 others weredisplaced due to flash floods inIndonesia’s Sulawesi province,authorities said on Saturday,adding that search and rescueoperations were underway.

So far, rescue teams haveretrieved a total of 36 bodies,reports Xinhua news agency.

The rescuers focused theirefforts in the villages of Sabbang,Baebunta, Pontaden, Meli, andMasamba city, the hardest-hitareas in Luwu Utara district,said a provincial official.

“The mud has submergedthe villages by up to two metres.Most of the bodies were recov-ered from the mud. Logs werealso found on roads and manyother spots, slowing the res-cuers’ efforts,” he told Xinhua.

Heavy machinery equip-

ment has also been deployed inthe area.

Head of the IndonesianNational Disaster ManagementAgency Doni Monardo addedthat 51 people were also injured.

As many as 14,388 residentshave been taking shelter insafer grounds, he said in astatement on Saturday.

“As we are still in the situ-ation of COVID-19 pandemic,the health protocols have to beimposed in Luwu Utara,” he saidwhen visiting the disaster-hitareas in the district.

Compensation would beprovided to those whose hous-es are destroyed by the flooding.

The flash floods also hit aroad, nine bridges, 13 religiousbuildings, nine school buildings,eight office buildings, two pub-lic facilities and a market place,according to the agency. IANS

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Kathmandu: Nepal’s rulingcommunist party’s top deci-sion-making body on Saturdayfailed to achieve a breakthroughto end the tussle for powerbetween Prime Minister K PSharma Oli and former premierPushpa Kamal Dahal‘Prachanda’ despite four hours ofmarathon discussions.

No conclusion was reachedduring the meeting of the NepalCommunist Party’s (NCP) nine-member Central Secretariatthough the party leaders dis-cussed the agenda to be pre-sented during Sunday’s crucialStanding Committee meeting,according to senior party leaderGanesh Shah.

During their discussions,senior leaders agreed to resolvethe issues through consensus,party spokesperson Narayankaji

Shrestha told media personsafter the 9-member CentralSecretariat meeting.

The NCP called a secretari-at meeting after the two top lead-ers agreed to call a conclave ofthe highest body of the partyahead of the 45-memberStanding Committee meeting onSunday in a bid to strike a newpower-sharing deal by sortingout their differences.

The Standing Committeemeeting of the party is scheduledto take place at 3 pm on Sunday.

The Standing Committeemeeting was postponed untilSunday to give more time to Oliand the rival faction led byPrachanda, the executive chair-man of the NCP to have moretalks to end the intra-partyinfighting. During previousmeetings, Oli has refused to

resign or give up his position aschairman of the NCP asdemanded by the faction led byPrachanda. Sunday’s StandingCommittee meeting is expectedto fix the date for the CWCmeeting, which will ultimatelydecide the future of PrimeMinister Oli, Shah, a StandingCommittee member, said earli-er. Oli and Prachanda have heldat least eight meetings in recentweeks to sort out their differ-ences. But, as the Prime Ministerdid not accept the condition ofa one-man-one-post, the talksfailed, party sources said.

Top NCP leaders, including‘Prachanda’, have been demand-ing Prime Minister Oli’s resig-nation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were “neitherpolitically correct nor diplo-matically appropriate.” PTI

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Bangkok: Several thousandanti-government protesters ral-lied in Thailand’s capital onSaturday to call for a newconstitution, new elections andan end to repressive laws.

Chanting and waving plac-ards, the demonstrators, com-prising mainly younger Thais,converged on Bangkok’s icon-ic Democracy Monument inthe old part of the city, a pop-ular venue for dissent.

The gathering, organisedby a group calling itselfLiberation Youth, was thebiggest of its kind since thegovernment called a state ofemergency in March to dealwith the coronavirus.

Protests against the gov-ernment of former army chiefPrayuth Chan-ocha had beendrawing increasingly large

crowds at the time, but taperedoff quickly when several coro-navirus clusters were con-firmed and the emergency lawwas invoked.

Lockdown measures andsocial distancing have sincehelped the government containthe spread of the virus, but ithas retained emergency pow-ers, which critics say it wieldsas a political weapon.

The earlier protests werefuelled by a February courtruling dissolving a popularopposition political partywhose democracy-promotingpolicies had attracted sub-stantial support amongyounger Thais. The supporters

of the Future Forward partybelieved the group was tar-geted for its popularity and forbeing critical of the govern-ment and the military.

The political atmosphereheated up again in June, whena prominent self-exiled Thaipolitical activist was snatchedoff the street by unknownmen in neighbouringCambodia’s capital, PhnomPenh. He has not been heardfrom since. Several other Thaidissidents in Laos, anotherneighbouring country, werealso mysteriously kidnapped inrecent years, with the bodies ofthree later found floating in theMekong River. AP

Atlanta: John Lewis, a lion ofthe civil rights movementwhose bloody beating byAlabama state troopers in 1965helped galvanize opposition toracial segregation, and whowent on to a long and cele-brated career in Congress, died.He was 80.

House Speaker NancyPelosi confirmed Lewis’ passinglate Friday night, calling him“one of the greatest heroes ofAmerican history.”

“All of us were humbled tocall Congressman Lewis a col-league, and are heartbroken byhis passing,” Pelosi said.

“May his memory be aninspiration that moves us all to,in the face of injustice, make‘good trouble, necessary trou-ble.’”

The condolences for Lewiswere bipartisan. Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell saidLewis was “a pioneering civil

rights leader who put his life onthe line to fight racism, promoteequal rights, and bring ournation into greater alignmentwith its founding principles. “

Lewis’s announcement inlate December 2019 that hehad been diagnosed withadvanced pancreatic cancer— “I have never faced a fightquite like the one I have now,”he said — inspired tributesfrom both sides of the aisle,and an unstated accord that thelikely passing of this Atlanta

Democrat would represent theend of an era.

The announcement of hisdeath came just hours after thepassing of the Rev. C.T. Vivian,another civil rights leader whodied early Friday at 95.

Lewis was the youngestand last survivor of the Big Sixcivil rights activists, a group ledby the Rev. Martin Luther KingJr. That had the greatest impacton the movement. He was bestknown for leading some 600protesters in the Bloody Sundaymarch across the EdmundPettus Bridge in Selma.

At age 25 — walking at thehead of the march with hishands tucked in the pockets ofhis tan overcoat — Lewis wasknocked to the ground andbeaten by police.

His skull was fractured,and nationally televised imagesof the brutality forced the coun-try’s attention on racial oppres-

sion in the South. Within days,King led more marches in thestate, and President LyndonJohnson soon was pressingCongress to pass the VotingRights Act.

The bill became law laterthat year, removing barriersthat had barred Blacks fromvoting.

“He loved this country somuch that he risked his life andits blood so that it might live upto its promise,” President BarackObama said after Lewis’ death.

“Early on, he embraced theprinciples of nonviolent resis-tance and civil disobedience asthe means to bring about realchange in this country.” Lewisjoined King and four othercivil rights leaders in organiz-ing the 1963 March onWashington. He spoke to thevast crowd just before Kingdelivered his epochal “I Have aDream” speech.

A 23-year-old firebrand,Lewis toned down his intend-ed remarks at the insistence ofothers, dropping a reference toa “scorched earth” marchthrough the South and scalingback criticisms of PresidentJohn Kennedy.

It was a potent speechnonetheless, in which he vowed:“By the forces of our demands,our determination and ournumbers, we shall splinter thesegregated South into a thou-sand pieces and put themtogether in an image of Godand democracy.”

It was almost immediately,and forever, overshadowed bythe words of King, the man whohad inspired him to activism.

Lewis was born on Feb. 21,1940, outside the town of Troy,in Pike County, Alabama. Hegrew up on his family’s farmand attended segregated publicschools.

As a boy, he wanted to bea minister, and practiced hisoratory on the family chickens.

Denied a library cardbecause of the color of hisskin, he became an avid read-er, and could cite obscure his-torical dates and details even inhis later years. He was a teenag-er when he first heard Kingpreaching on the radio. They met when Lewis wasseeking support to become thefirst Black student at Alabama’ssegregated Troy StateUniversity.

He ultimately attended theAmerican Baptist TheologicalSeminary and Fisk University inNashville, Tennessee. He beganorganizing sit-in demonstra-tions at whites-only lunchcounters and volunteering as aFreedom Rider, enduring beat-ings and arrests while travelingaround the South to challengesegregation. AP

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Page 8: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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New Delhi: Telecom operatorVodafone Idea on Saturdaysaid it has paid an additional �1,000 crore to the Governmenttowards the statutory dues, tak-ing its total payment to anaggregate �7,854 crore.

The fresh payment comesat a time when the SupremeCourt is slated to hear theAdjusted Gross Revenue (AGR)matter on July 20.

The company had earlierdeposited �6,854 crore in threetranches, Vodafone Idea said ina regulatory filing.

“...The company has yes-terday (July 17, 2020) paid afurther sum of �1,000 crore tothe DoT (Department ofTelecom) towards the AGRdues. The company had earli-er deposited �6,854 crore in 3tranches,” the filing said.

With this, the companyhas paid an aggregate amountof �7,854 crore towards theAGR dues, it added.

In the last hearing on theAGR matter on June 18, the

Supreme Court had said thatprivate telecom operators,including Vodafone Idea andBharti Airtel, must come outwith a “reasonable paymentplan”, make some payment to“show their bonafide” and filetheir books of accounts for thelast 10 years.

The statutory dues aroseafter the Supreme Court, inOctober last year, upheld thegovernment’s position onincluding revenue from non-core businesses in calculatingthe annual AGR of telecomcompanies, a share of which ispaid as licence and spectrum feeto the exchequer.

Telecom firms have to payAGR related dues along withinterest and penalty — esti-mated to be around �1.6 lakhcrore. The telcos have beenkeen on an extended timeline topay up their statutory dues, ina staggered manner.

Vodafone Idea was facing awhopping �58,000 croredemand in overall statutorydues, after the apex court lastyear ordered the non-telecomrevenues to be included in cal-culating statutory liabilities.

Vodafone Idea had recent-ly reported a staggering � 73,878 crore of net loss in fis-cal ended March 2020, after itprovisioned for Supreme Courtmandated statutory dues.

The country’s third largesttelecom operator had then saidthe liability has “cast significantdoubt on the company’s abilityto continue as a going concern”.

The DoT estimates hadpegged the company’s AGRdues at �58,254 crore for peri-od up to FY 2016-17, but thecompany put the dues at �46,000crore “after adjustment of certaincomputational errors and pay-ments made in the past not con-sidered in the DoT demand”, thecompany had stated earlier dur-ing its fourth quarter resultsannouncement. PTI

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HDFC Bank on Saturdayreported nearly 20 per

cent rise in standalone netprofit at �6,658.62 crore forJune quarter, 2020-21 on theback of healthy interest incomedriven by growth in advances.

The country’s largest pri-vate sector lender clocked a netprofit of �5,568.16 crore in theApril-June period of 2019-20.

Income of the bank rose to�34,453.28 crore in June quar-ter from �32,361.84 crore in theyear-ago same period, HDFCBank said in a regulatory filing.

“Net interest income (inter-est earned less interest expend-ed) for the quarter ended June30, 2020 grew by 17.8 per centto �15,665.4 crore from Rs13,294.3 crore for the quarterended June 30, 2019, driven bygrowth in advances of 20.9 percent, and a growth in depositsof 24.6 per cent,” the Mumbai-based lender said.

The net interest margin forthe quarter was at 4.3 per cent.

“The continued slowdown

in economic activity has led toa decrease in retail loan origi-nation, sale of third party prod-ucts, use of credit and debitcards by customers, efficiency incollection efforts and waivers ofcertain fees. As a result,fees/other income were lower byapproximately �2,000 crore,”the bank said further.

On the asset quality front,there was improvement as grossnon-performing assets (NPAs)fell to 1.36 per cent of the grossadvances as on June 30, 2020from 1.40 per cent by the end ofJune 2019.

In value terms, gross NPAs or bad loans were at�13,773.46 crore as against�11,768.95 crore.

Likewise, net NPAs fell to0.33 per cent (�3,279.96 crore) from 0.43 per cent(�3,567.18 crore), the bank saidin the filing.

However, the bank’s provi-sions for bad loans and contin-gencies for April-June 2020-21were raised to �3,891.52 crore asagainst �2,613.66 crore in theyear-ago same period.

The bank said the enhancedprovisions for the quarter con-sisted of specific loan loss pro-visions of �2,739.8 crore andgeneral and other provisions of�1,151.7 crore. Compared tothis, the specific loan loss pro-visions were �2,248 crore andgeneral and other provisionswere at �365.7 crore for the year-ago same quarter.

“Total provisions for thecurrent quarter included con-tingent provisions of approxi-mately �1,000 crore,” HDFCBank said.

Among others, the totaldeposits of the bank as of June30, 2020 grew by 24.6 per centto �11.89 lakh crore.

CASA (current accountsavings account) deposits grewby 26 per cent with savingsaccount deposits at �3.27 lakhcrore and current accountdeposits at �1.50 lakh crore.

The bank’s continued focuson deposits helped in the main-tenance of a healthy liquiditycoverage ratio at 140 per cent,well above the regulatoryrequirement, it added.

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The Income Tax Departmentwill start an e-campaign

from July 20 on voluntarycompliance for the convenienceof taxpayers.

The Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) said thatdata analysis has identifiedcertain taxpayers with highvalue transactions who havenot filed returns for AY2019-20(relevant to FY2018-19).

In addition to non-filers,another set of return filers hasalso been identified whereinhigh-value transactions do notappear to be in line with theirIncome Tax Returns.

The CBDT in a statementsaid that the last date for filingas well as revising the Income Tax Return for Assessment Year 2019-20(relevant to FY 2018-19) is July 31, 2020.

The 11-day campaign end-ing on July 31, 2020, focuses onthe assessees/taxpayers whoare either non-filers or havediscrepancies/deficiency intheir returns for the Fiscal year

2018-19.The CBDT in a statement

said the objective of the e-cam-paign is to facilitate taxpayersto online validate theirtax/financial transaction infor-mation available with the I-Tdepartment and promote vol-untary compliance, especiallyfor the assessees for theFY2018-19 so that they do notneed to get into notice andscrutiny process.

“Under this e-campaignthe Income Tax Departmentwill send email/SMS to identi-fied taxpayers to verify theirfinancial transactions relatedinformation received by the I-T department from varioussources such as Statement ofFinancial Transactions (SFT),Tax Deduction at Source (TDS), Tax Collectionat Source TCS), ForeignRemittances (Form 15CC) etc,”it said.

The Department, also, hascollected information related toGST, exports, imports andtransactions in securities,derivatives, commodities,mutual funds, etc.

New Delhi: The Income TaxDepartment on Saturday saidthe new Form 26AS wouldhave additional details of tax-payers’ high-value financialtransactions undertaken duringa financial year and wouldfacilitate voluntary complianceand ease of e-filing of I-Treturns.

Form 26AS is an annualconsolidated tax statement thatcan be accessed from theincome-tax website by taxpay-ers using their PermanentAccount Number (PAN).

The earlier Form 26ASused to give informationregarding tax deducted atsource and tax collected atsource relating to a PAN,besides certain additional infor-mation including details ofother taxes paid, refunds andTDS defaults.

But now, the new form willhave Statement of FinancialTransactions (SFTs) in variouscategories to help taxpayersrecall all their major financialtransactions so that they havea ready reckoner while filing theITR, the Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) said in astatement.

In May, CBDT had noti-fied the revised Form 26AS,

containing details of tax col-lected or deducted at sourcewhich will now include infor-mation pertaining to propertyand share transactions.

With this, Form 26AS hasbeen revamped to an ‘’AnnualInformation Statement’’ whichapart from the TDS/ TCSdetails, shall now contain com-prehensive information relatingto specified financial transac-tions, payment of taxes,demand/ refund and pend-ing/completed proceedingsundertaken by a taxpayer in aparticular financial year that hasto be mentioned in the incometax returns.

In a statement, CBDT saidthe Department used to receiveinformation like cashdeposit/withdrawal from savingbank accounts, sale/purchase ofimmovable property, credit cardpayments, purchase of shares,debentures, foreign currency,mutual funds, cash payment forgoods and services, etc. From“specified persons” like banks,mutual funds, institutions issu-ing bonds and registrars sinceFinancial Year 2016 onwards.

Now, all such informationunder different SFTs will beshown in the new Form 26AS,it added. PTI

New Delhi: Despite economic turbulence due toCovid-19, India’s overall foodexports since March haveincreased 27 per cent.

According to the TradePromotion Council of India(TPCI), the average growth of 27per cent during the lockdownand the unlock period came onthe back of high demand forfood-based items.

“The food sector has shown27 per cent growth. The majormarkets that have respondedwell are the US and Canada,”TPCI Chairman Mohit Singlasaid at the Indo-Canadian vir-tual “buyer-seller meet (BSM)on food & beverages.”

He said exports in Juneagainst year-ago month haddeclined by only 4 per cent.

“We exported almost Rs166,000 crore merchandise. Itshows the Indian market hasbounced back and the interna-tional market is responding wellto Indian exports,” he said.Recently, official data showedIndia emerged as a net exporterin June. The country recorded$0.79 billion trade surplus inJune against $15.28 billion deficitduring the same period of 2019.

On the Indo-Canadian foodtrade, Singla said, “Canada canbe an important market for theIndian F&B industry as it has alarge population (approx 2.4million) of Indian diaspora.Outreach to the mainstreammarket is the biggest challengefor the Indian F&B industry.”

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Amidst the growing chorusof ‘Vocal for Local’ and

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, toy indus-try players have thrown light atthe grim reality of Indian man-ufacturing in the segment.

The All India ToysFederation (AITF) in a state-ment said that the sectorrequires substantialGovernment support to rampup production to cater to thedomestic demand in case theGovernment thinks of importsubstitution in the sector.

“While we fully endorseand support Indian goods, weare not ready to handle India’stoy demand. India right nowmanufactures only 15 per centof its total demand. It imports the rest from othercountries,” said RehanDhorajiwala, the spokesper-son of the All India ToysFederation (AITF).

“If we don’t augment ourproduction capabilities andbuild a toy arsenal right now,we may face anarchy, wherechildren would have nothingexcept board games,” he said.

AITF is the apex body oftoy manufacturers, traders andsellers in India.

Dhorajiwala said that amidthe current crisis domesticproducers cannot provide analternative to imports.

New Delhi: Diesel has furtherextended its gain over petrolprices in the national capitalwith oil marketing companiesraising its price by 17 paise alitre on Saturday while keepingretail gasoline pricesunchanged.

Unexpected rise in dieselprices for the past couple ofweeks despite slower demandhas made the transport fuel take

the numero uno position inDelhi while substantially reduc-ing the gap with petrol in othermetros. Last month, dieselprices overtook that of petrol inthe national capital, in anunprecedented development.

Diesel was priced at � 81.52per litre on Saturday in the cap-ital, higher than the previouslevel of �81.35 a litre. Petrolprices, however, remain

unchanged at �80.43 a litre, thesame level as June 29 when it’spump price rose marginally by5 paise over previous daysprice.

Along with the Capital,diesel prices marginallyincreased in other metro citiesas well but there the price oftransportation fuel is stillbetween �6-8 per litre lowerthan petrol. IANS

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India’s cybersecurity nodalagency CERT-In has issued a

notice to Twitter asking themicro-blogging platform forfull details of the recent glob-al hack targeting high-profileusers, as it sought completeinformation on number ofIndian users affected as well asimpact on data, a source said.

The source privy to thedevelopment told PTI thatCERT-In has also asked Twitterfor information on number ofusers from India who have vis-ited the malicious tweets and

links, and whether the affect-ed users have been informed bythe platform about unautho-rised access to their Twitteraccounts.

The Government has alsodemanded information of vul-nerability exploited by attack-ers and modus operandi of theattack and sought details ofremedial actions taken byTwitter to mitigate the impactof the hacking incident.Twitter was not immediatelyavailable for comments.

Indian ComputerEmergency Response Team(CERT-In) swung into action

after reports that hackers gainedaccess to Twitter’s systems tohack accounts of many globalcorporate leaders, politicians,celebrities and businesses.

Cyber attackers had hackedinto the Twitter accounts ofglobal high profile users -including former US PresidentBarack Obama, Democraticpresidential front-runner JoeBiden as well as many corpo-rate leaders including AmazonCEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and TeslaCEO Elon Musk - onWednesday in a purportedBitcoin scam.

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The Civil Aviation Ministryhas set up a single-window

clearance mechanism to expe-dite various investment pro-posals in the domestic aviationindustry.

“MoCA (Ministry of CivilAviation) has an InvestmentClearance Cell (ICC) forprompt assistance and clear-ance,” the Ministry said in atweet on Saturday.

The setting up of the ICCwas announced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin 2020-2021 Union Budget inFebruary this year, as perMoCA. According to aMinistry order of July 16, thelink of which has been attachedwith the tweet, the cell was alsoset up following an order fromthe Department of Promotionof Industry and Trade (DPIT)on July 1 in this regard.

The 10-member ICC willbe headed by Amber Dubey,joint secretary in the AviationMinistry, according to theMoCA order.

The ICC has been man-dated to serve as a single-win-dow system for attractinginvestment and its terms of ref-erence include acceleratinginvestments, bringing projectsto the Empowered Group ofSecretaries (EGoS) whichrequire special incentive, pol-icy interventions, expeditiousclearances and systematic ref-erences, among others, theMoCA order said.

The ICC will also identify

projects and report to EGoSand maintain active contactswith investors and work withthe States, duly adopting waysof on-boarding the States tomake them a part of the insti-tutional set-up, it said.

Besides, the ICC will alsoidentify policy and regulatoryissues that come in the way ofinvestments and engage withpotential investors to bring theproposal for consideration ofEGoS, the order stated.

Of the rest nine memberson board, five are from the avi-ation ministry, one each fromAirports Authority of Indiaand its cargo and logistics busi-ness subsidiary AIACLS, onefrom the Directorate General ofCivil Aviation and one to be co-opted by the chairman as perthe requirements, it added.

The Indian aviation sectoris hit severely by the coron-avirus pandemic and econom-ic downturn.

Ratings agency Icra expectsIndia’s GDP to contract by 9.5per cent this fiscal on accountof the localised lockdowns putin place by various state gov-ernments and rising cases ofcoronavirus infection.

India’s Covid-19 casessurged to 10,38,716, while thedeath toll from the diseaserose to 26,273 on Saturday,according to Government data.

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In a follow up toAatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-

Reliant India), the DedicatedFreight Corridor CorporationIndia Ltd will give the work ofthe signalling on 417 km routeof the Eastern DedicatedFreight Corridor to Indiancompanies after it terminatedthe contract with the Chinesefirm, officials said on Saturday.

The DFCCIL also plans tofloat the fresh tender for theremaining part of the projectby the end of July or in Augustthis year. The move by theDFCCIL promotes the ambi-tious project of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s ‘Make inIndia’. The remarks came a dayafter the DFCCIL terminatedthe tender worth Rs 471 crorewith the Beijing NationalRailway Research and DesignInstitute of Signal andCommunication GroupCompany Limited (BNR-RDISC) due to non perfor-mance for signalling on 417km route of the EDFC.

Anurag Sachan, MD ofthe DFCCIL told IANS, “Thispart of our project was fund-ed by the World Bank and thisproject was given to a Chinesecompany by following theWorld Bank’s procedure.

“Now, as we have termi-nated this contract and we

have decided to complete itwith our own railway party,” hesaid. Sachan further said, “Asthe tender has been terminat-ed now, we don’t need to go tothe World Bank and we haveput the terms and conditionsin such a way that we will beable to give this contract tosome Indian players.”

The project was awardedto the Chinese firm in 2016 forthe signalling and telecom-munication work in 417 kmlong Kanpur-Deen DayalUpadhyay section of theEastern Dedicated FreightCorridor (EDFC). The con-tract was awarded to theBeijing National RailwayResearch and Design Institutein June 2016.

According to the DFCCILofficials, even after four years,the progress in the projectwas only 20 per cent. DFCCILsources said that the issues thatled to the termination of theproject were reluctance by thecompany to furnish technicaldocuments, as per the contractagreement, such as logic designof electronic interlocking, non-availability of their engineersand authorised personnel at thesite was a serious constraint.

The source also said thateven physical work could notmake any progress as theyhad no tie up with local agen-cies.

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New Delhi: With an aim tosafely ferry doctors and otherhealth workers to their hospi-tals and back home in vehiclespiloted by ex-servicemen,MotherPod Innovations PrivateLimited launched the ‘Sainikfor Doctors’ initiative at theBangalore Medical College andResearch Institute on Saturday.

The safe, secure and sani-tised mobility service will beextended in Mumbai, Delhiand Hyderabad, said Capt.Sanjay Kumar Singh, Head ofPartnerships, MotherPod. “Ex-Defence personnel are ideal forthis challenge, since they aredisciplined and trained to fol-low the highest standards ofsafety protocols,” he added.

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Page 9: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Prolonged fever, chills, nausea anddiarrhea, the symptoms which oncewere considered normal are now suf-

ficient to give someone a miny heartattack.Come fever, and one is horrified by thethoughts of having suffering from the dan-gerous flu — COVID-19. The merethought of catching the infection is enoughto make you feel sick.

However, these symptoms are com-mon in the Monsoon season, when otherkiller diseases, though not as lethal as theCoronavirus, still capable of claimingmany lives like dengue, malaria, jaundiceand typhoid are a part and parcel of theheavy showers.

Given that the healthcare facilities arealready struggling with the pandemic,these diseases are going to add furtherpressure on the hospital staff. While someof the big players in the healthcare sectorare well-equipped to battle this doublefight, the pressure will be the most on theGovernment hospitals.

More so, because people these dayshave turned a blind eye towards these dis-eases.

“With the onset of monsoon, dengueand malaria cases are going to rise in themonths of August, September and October.On the sidelines of coronavirus pandem-ic, dengue and malaria are going to be themost difficult diseases to treat. All thesediseases are going to put a lot of pressureon our healthcare ecosystem,” says Dr PVenkata Krishnan, Internal Medicine,Paras Hospital, Gurugram.

The healthcare system, he says, is goingto crumble if too many cases of dengue andmalaria are going to come.

“Other than these two, some othercommon diseases are chikungunya andleptospirosis, which also arises during thistime. These diseases are caused by mos-quito bite and contaminated water respec-tively. Even the cases of jaundice andhepatitis rise in the monsoon, they all canbe equally dangerous like malaria, dengueand chikungunya. Management of thesediseases needs holistic views and especial-ly if the patient is COVID-19 and acquiresone of these. Co-managing these infec-tions is going to be very painful and isgoing to put a lot of pressure on thehealthcare system to take care of thesepatients and give them best care possible,”Krishnan says.

He adds that in order to eliminate anyrisks involved mosquito bite prevention isimportant. “One needs to wear suchclothes that cover the body in the maxi-mum way and use mosquito repellentcreams. Keep your environment clean,don’t let the water stagnate in any place beit in the cooler, flower pot or any vessel.Moist places are the best breeding groundfor mosquitoes. Not only the house, oneneeds to keep the society and nearby loca-tions clean too,” he tells you.

Dr Manjeetha Nath Das, InternalMedicine, Columbia Asia hospital, tells youthat the hospital hasn’t reported anydengue or malaria case till date.

“There is no reported case of dengueor malaria in our hospital so far. However,these are common diseases in monsoonuntil October due to water accumulation.We must be careful because in case of anyco-infection of dengue or malaria andCOVID, managing the patient will becomefar more challenging now,” Das tells you

She says that in certain diseases wherethe symptoms are similar to COVID-19,

the hospital has a fever protocol to distin-guish the disease. “Also the COVID andnon-COVID areas are separate and staffare dedicated to one unit at a stretch — allmembers of the staff working in COVIDward are tested and quarantined for thestipulated period as per the protocol,” Dassays.

Dr Suranjeet Chatterjee, SeniorConsultant, Internal Medicine,Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals tells youthat dengue and malaria patients need tovisit hospitals and there’s no escaping fromthat.

“From day one, even when COVID-19 was at its peak in Delhi, we have main-tained that non-COVID conditions shouldnot be ignored. A lot of people are dyingof non-COVID issues because of delayedor no treatment. In such a case, if a patienthas dengue or malaria there is no way hecan be treated at home. It is there but thatdoesn’t mean one wouldn’t seek medicalhelp. So my first advice for a person whois sick is to consult a doctor and seek pro-fessional help. Because most of the times,people do teleconsultations and things aresuperficial in there. A physical examina-tion is a must when it comes to such healthissues. We would have saved a lot of non-COVID patients if they would have cometo us on time,” he tells you.

Though last year Delhi saw less num-ber of Dengue cases because a lot was doneto curb the disease that is at times just askiller as COVID-19, if not more. However,keeping in mind the current scenario peo-ple have to be more careful because all theattention these days is towards fighting thepandemic.

Dr Chatterjee denies the fact that therising cases of dengue and malaria couldpose a challenge on the health infrastruc-ture of the country, especially for the bighospitals.

“All big hospitals are built in a way totackle the surge in patients. However, whatneeds to be done is that a patient shouldfirst consult his local physician and whenhe advises the patient to get hospitalisedthen the patient should turn to the big hos-pitals. Having said that, all big hospitalshave their COVID and non-COVIDwards. At Apollo, we have 300 beds forCorona patients, out of which some arevacant. The credit goes to the people whohave understood the disease and thosewith mild symptoms are treating them-selves at home. But yes, if you talk about20 days back, we had 70 patients waitingfor beds. Also, the 400 non-COVID wardsare all empty these days, the reason beingpeople not wanting to visit any healthcarefacility because they have a fear of catch-ing infection. As compared to last year,during this time we had all 700 beds fullof patients with several diseases. You takeany big hospital for that matter, they havequite a few beds vacant for patients. Butthis doesn’t mean, all the patients shouldrush to hospitals, that would be an unnec-essary stress for the hospital staff, theirlocal physician stays relevant in this case,”he tells you.

People learning about Corona, hesays, is a good thing but he fears that peo-ple would become complacent about thedisease.

He agrees that there might be risksinvolved with people suffering fromdengue and malaria visiting the hospitals,given the Corona situation. “But thisdoesn’t mean that dengue is any less of adisease. We have seen three years back howpeople died of it. Therefore, it is impor-tant to get proper treatment. As far asCorona risks are concerned, we haveseen that the fatality rate is very low, henceit is advisable that, if needed, people shouldvisit the hospital,” Chatterjee says.

Apart from dengue and malaria, thereare gastroenteritis viruses too which causesimilar havoc and can be a matter of con-fusion. “Diarrhea, vomiting and in somecases mild fever are some of the symptomsof the gastroenteritis virus, which isprevalent during the Monsoon. This couldcreate a bit of confusion because thesesymtoms overlap with Coronavirus.Unfortunately, the patients have to be test-ed for COVID-19 as well,” he tells you.

To curb these diseases, he says, oneneeds to keep an eye on the kind of waterhe drinks. “Gastroenteritis diseases occurmainly because of drinking contaminat-ed water, therefore, it is important to keepa check on the kind of water you are drink-ing, especially in the monsoons — July toSeptember. Go for packaged bottled water.Stopping for a chilled glass of water at theroadside vendor is a big no. Stayinghydrated is of utmost importance,” he tellsyou.

Dr KK Aggarwal, , President CMAAO,President HCFI, and Editor in chief —Medtalks.Cmaao — Confederation ofMedical Associations of Asia andOceaniaHCFI- Heart Care Foundation ofIndia, however, denies the fact that therecan be a surge in dengue or malaria cases,given the pandemic situation. “There is anunwritten law: Ek mayaan mein do tal-warein nahin rehti. It is very unlikely thatwe can see a dengue or malaria outbreak.Two epidemics can’t happen together.Therefore, I don’t anticipate any rise inmalaria or dengue cases,” he explains.

Moreover, about 30 per cent popula-tion of Delhi has already been affected byCOVID-19, the antibodies in these peo-ple won’t allow any new infection to enterthe body for the next three months.

“We don’t expect these patients to suf-fer from dengue or malaria. For those whohaven’t suffered from Corona, can only get

one disease — dengue, malaria orCoronavirus itself. Therefore, there will beadded pressure either on the Governmentor the hospitals. If malaria or dengue out-break is there, then Coronavirus will dis-appear,” he says.

The reason behind this, he says, is theinnate immunity that is developed by a dis-ease and is like plasma therapy. “This is anatural plasma therapy. If someone getsdengue, the antibodies will then act as ashield against Coronavirus too, for aboutthree months,” Aggarwal tells you.

He tells you that there is no possibil-ity of a dengue or malaria patient catch-ing Coronavirus during his hospital visit.“Dengue or malaria is a mosquito-bornedisease. There is no relation of immunityin such a case. It’s all about mosquito bites.Therefore, it is out of question that adengue or malaria patient can catch infec-tion from a hospital. Even if he gets in con-tact with the virus, like I said before, hisantibodies will prevent him catchinginfection,” he tells you.

He goes on to explain that an area canonly see either a dengue outbreak or amalaria one. “It is like mosquitoes too havetheir designated areas. The one whichcauses dengue breeds in a different areathan the one which is responsible forspreading malaria. Such is the case withviruses. But yes, those parts of India, whichare now don’t have as many cases ofCoronavirus or are free from it, might seea dengue or malaria outbreak,” he tells you.

But this doesn’t mean that one can livein oblivion and become complacent aboutthe two diseases. Precautions are a must.“We have been telling people since eter-nity about the preventive measures. To beon the safer side, all the safety measuresshould be followed with utmost care.Surroundings should be kept clean andhygienic at all times,” he tells you.

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Page 10: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Ben Stokes said he is nowmore than just a purely

instinctive cricketer after the all-rounder’s latest superb centuryleft England strongly-placed inthe second Test against the WestIndies.

Stokes top-scored with 176in England’s first innings 469-9declared, before the West Indiesreached 32-1 at the close ofFriday’s second day at OldTrafford.

This was the second-high-est of Stokes’s 10 Test hun-dreds, behind his blister-ing 258 against SouthAfrica at Cape Townin 2016.

But, more sig-nificantly, it wasalso his fourth Testcentury since thestart of 2019,during whichtime the left-hander hasaveraged over52 — the signof a world-class batsman.

As was thecase with his stun-ning 135 not out duringa remarkable one-wicketwin in the third Ashes Testagainst Australia atHeadingley last year, Stokeshad the discipline to playhimself in against accuratebowling before picking theright moment to up thetempo.

He found a fine ally onFriday in Dom Sibley, theopener’s 120 his first Test cen-tury in England.

But with Sibley batting

sedately — his hun-dred took the bestpart of eight hours— there was adanger ofEngland gettingbogged down ina match theyneed to win tolevel the three-Test series at 1-1.

Stokes, how-ever, ensured that

did not happen.Having gone to

a hundred in, by hisstandards, arestrained 255 balls,

Stokes needed a mere46 more for the third fifty

of his innings as he punisheda new ball being deployed bya tiring West Indies paceattack.

It was a sublime mixtureof both skill and match aware-ness, the latest Stokes has dis-played since being acquitted ofan affray charge in 2018 after an

incident outside a nightclubthat saw him miss an Ashes tourand threatened to end hisEngland career completely.

Stokes, who last weekdeputised as captain for JoeRoot after England’s regularskipper missed a four-wicket lossto the West Indies following thebirth of his second child, wasonce more proving himself to bea leader even if he was now backamong the ranks.

‘UNDERSTAND MY GAME’“Numbers, figures...I don’t

really care,” said Stokes, whoshared a fourth-wicket stand of260 with Sibley that rescuedEngland from a top-order col-lapse. “The main number for meis how many wins,” he said.

“I was more buzzing that Ifaced 300 balls than I was whenI got to my hundred, that’ssomething I never thought I’d becapable of doing.”

The 29-year-old Stokes, nowin his 65th Test, added: “Being

an instinctive player is great butthere’s time in the past where I’velet how I’m playing at the timeaffect me, thinking I can playsome big shots and I’d be alright.

“I feel at an age and an expe-rience level where I really under-stand my game pretty much allthe time and I try not to get car-ried away.”

Meanwhile, Stokes alsodemonstrated a degree of empa-thy for the plight of Jofra Archer.

Archer is currently self-iso-lating in his hotel room at OldTrafford but Stokes said: “Wereally need to be there to supportJofra right now.

“The worst thing we coulddo right now as a team is justleave him and see him in five orsix days time.”

He added: “It’s all goodbeing there for people whenthings are going well andsmoothly but what really comesthrough is how you operatewith someone when they needyou the most.”

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Even as the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI)

waits for the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) to makean official decision on the fate ofthe T20 World Cup before mak-ing an announcement on the13th edition of the IndianPremier League, franchises havealready been sounded out andthey are busy preparing to playthe league in UAE this year.

A franchise official toldIANS that they have alreadystarted preparing for the logis-tics and have zeroed in on thehotel they wish to stay at in AbuDhabi and how exactly they willtrain and prepare for the 13thedition of the league.

“You need to be smart andplan early. We have been giventhe required inputs and areplanning accordingly. We haveactually decided on the hotel wewish to stay at in Abu Dhabi andhow exactly we will go throughthe process of flying in and goingthrough the necessary quaran-tine period once in UAE. We willobviously need to brush upwith the then health guidelinesof the country,” the official said.

Another official of a formerchampion franchise said thatthey are looking to get an isola-tion period done in India beforeheading off to UAE. “We arelooking at having the boys cometogether in India. Go through aperiod of spending time in a bio-secure environment and then getour tests done & head to UAE.

“The reason behind that iswe are all staying at home. So, ifone of us is asymptomatic, wehave the risk of infecting others.That is why it is better to gothrough a couple of weeks of iso-lation and testing here in thecountry before heading out,” theofficial explained.

Asked about the travel plan,

an official of another franchisesaid that chartered planes are themost viable options as normalflight schedules may or may notstart and each team will havearound 35-40 people travellingas a unit.

“I think most teams, if notall, are already looking at hiringchartered planes. You neverknow if we will have regularflights operating by the end ofAugust and most teams wouldwish to be in the UAE by the lastweek of August or at max thefirst week of September. So, insuch a scenario, the best way isto hire chartered planes as wewill all have around 35-40 peo-ple flying to UAE. The numberof members obviously increas-es a bit when you are headedoutside and have restrictions inmovement in times like these,”the official pointed.

Another franchise officialthough begged to differ and saidthat they are still looking at first-class travel if flights start oper-ating as the franchise isn’t look-ing at any grouping in India andwant the assembling to happendirectly in the UAE.

“We as a franchise are look-ing at first-class travel for ourplayers as that means better dis-tancing. The sole reason is thatwe might not be assembling inIndia and be directly heading toUAE from each of our homesafter doing necessary Covid-19tests. So, in such a scenario, youcannot expect the owners to payfor 8-10 chartered trips. But yes,if normal flights don’t startoperating then it is a differentscenario,” the official said.

But all franchises are on thesame plane when it comes tohaving foreign players headstraight to UAE rather thanfirst assemble in India, undergoquarantine formalities in thiscountry and then follow thesame in UAE.

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Lewis Hamilton broke the cir-cuit lap record and drew level

with Michael Schumacher foranother feat on Saturday as heclaimed a record-increasing 90thpole position for Sunday’sHungarian GrandPrix.

The six-time worldchampion clocked astunning time of one

minute and 13.447 seconds on hissecond run in final qualifying tofinish just ahead of team-mateValtteri Bottas as Mercedes reeledoff their 65th front-row lockout.

It was Hamilton’s second suc-cessive pole of the Covid-19delayed season and aSchumacher-equalling seventhpole at the Hungaroring, where heseeks his eighth victory to draw

level with another Schumacherachievement for wins on thesame track.

Schumacher won eight timesat the French Grand Prix.

“I have to pinch myself,” saidHamilton. “It doesn’t register. It’squite humbling because I work

with an incrediblebunch of peoplewho do an amazingjob here andback home.

“And Valtteri doesn’tmake it easy for me. Ittakes perfection to do lapslike that so this is one of thethings I enjoy most.”

Bottas said heexpected it to beclose. “We seemto be on anoth-er level, prettyfar ahead of the

others. My laps were ok, but Icouldn’t go faster really.”

Behind the two “blackarrows”, the controversial “pinkMercedes” of Racing Point werethird and fourth with Lance Strolland Sergio Perez ahead of amuch-improved showing by four-time champion Sebastian Vetteland Charles Leclerc for Ferrari.

“I am very happy at themoment,” said Stroll. “Was strong

all the way through qualifying,the whole weekend, really.”

Max Verstappen was adisappointed seventh forRed Bull, Lando Norris

eighth ahead of hisMcLaren team-mateCarlos Sainz withPierre Gasly, in his50th Grand Prix,10th for AlphaTauri.

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Batting great Rahul Dravidsays legendary all-rounder

Kapil Dev’s advice helped himto explore options after hisretirement before eventuallytaking up the coaching job ofIndia A and Under-19 sides.

Dravid said he was also “alittle fortunate” that at theback end of his career, he wasalready in a captain-cum-coach role of IPL sideRajasthan Royals.

“After I finished (playing),there were quite a few optionsand I was not sure what to do.It was Kapil Dev who gave methis advice actually when I wascoming to the end of mycareer,” Dravid told Indiawomen’s team coach WVRaman on his Youtube channelInside Out.

“I bumped into him some-where and he said ‘Rahul,don’t commit to doing any-thing straightaway, go out andspend a few years just explor-ing and doing different thingsand see what you really like’. Ithought it was good advice.”

The former captain said

initially he liked doing com-mentary, but later found “a lit-tle disconnect” from the game.

“...The thing that gave methe most satisfaction was real-ly being involved in the gameand being connected with theboys. I really liked the coach-ing side of things and I got sort

of involved in that when theopportunity came up to dosome coaching with India Aand Under-19,” Dravid said.

“I thought it was a goodplace to start and and took itup and I’ve really enjoyed itsince. I just feel a lot more sat-isfying to be involved in thecoaching side of things,” saidthe legendary batsman, whopiled up 13288 runs from 164Tests between 1996 and 2012.

“Especially the develop-mental side of coaching,whether India A, Under-19 orthe NCA. It’s really given methe opportunity to work witha lot of the players without hav-ing to worry about the imme-diate results which I think is areally nice space for me towork in.” He backed the BCCI’sdecision to restrict U-19 play-ers to one World Cup only.

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AB de Villiers once againshowed why is regarded as

one of the most destructivebatsmen ever to play the gameas his quickfire innings helpedhis team Eagles win the 3TCSolidarity Cup Gold medal inCenturion on Saturday.

After Reeza Hendricks wonthe toss and elected to bat first,Kingfishers started bright-ly with their skipper andJanneman Malanputting on a 30-runpartnership in thefirst three overs.

Malan’s 31 off16 ensuredKingfishers endedtheir first part of theinnings at 56/2 in 6 overs.

AB de Villiers’ Eagleswere the next to bat withKingfishers coming out tobowl. Aiden Markram andRassie van der Dussenopened the innings andthey got the team off to acautious start.

AB de Villiers came out

to bat at three after GlentonStuurman’s dismissal. But it wasMarkam who did the maximumdamage for Eagles.

Markram smashed 43 off 21deliveries while ABD couldmuster only 7 off 11 deliveries.Eagles finished their first part ofthe innings with 66/1 in 6 overs.

For Kites, Jon-Jon Smutsand Ryan Rickleton opened theinnings against Eagles. Rickletonwas dismissed LBW by AndilePhehlukwayo, however, Smuts

kept going on the otherend and helped Kitesfinish at 58/1 in sixovers.

In the second half,Eagles were sup-posed to bat first,followed by Kitesand thenKingfishers. Theteam with mostnumber ofruns (com-bined firstand second)would winGold fol-lowed by

Silver and finally Bronze medal.De Villiers simply went

berserk in the second half as hesmashed a half-century off just21 deliveries. He was finally dis-missed by Kites’ Anrich Nortjefor 61 (24 balls) but the damagewas already done as ABD’sheroics ensured Eagles finishedwith 160/4 in their 12 overs overtwo halves.

Kites came out to bat,resuming their innings at 58/1.Bavuma and Smuts departed inquick succession as Kingfishersleft them reeling at 76/3.

Dwaine Pretorius thensmashed Tabraiz Shamsi forthree sixes and two fours as Kites

needed 44 off last two overs tobe in Gold position.

But they could only manage138/3 despite Pretorius slam-ming the fastest half-century ofthe match (17 balls).

Kingfishers came out to batthe last and they needed to score139 for the Silver medal and 161to win the Gold. du Plessis andCoetzee resumed the innings forthem in the second half againstthe Eagles.

Du Plessis tore apart Ngidiin the eighth over as he smashedthree sixes and a four to put histeam on the right track in thechase.

Fortuin, however, ended duPlessis’ stay in the middle as hecastled him for 28 (13 balls).Phehlukwayo then got rid ofKlassen in the next over, and cel-ebrated by showing the BlackLives Matter engraved on hisinner t-shirt.

Ngidi bowled an economi-cal last two over as Kingfishersended their 12 overs at 113/5.This meant they had to settle forBronze, Kites won Silver whileEagles took home the Gold.

� * �Nine Bangladesh players,including former captainMushfiqur Rahim, will resumeindividual training across fourvenues from Sunday.

The Bangladesh CricketBoard (BCB) has prepared fourvenues — Sher-e-BanglaNational Stadium in Dhaka,Zahur Ahmed ChowdhuryStadium in Chittagong, SylhetInt’l Cricket Stadium in Sylhetand Sheikh Abu Naser Stadiumin Khulna for the first phase ofpractice session by following allthe necessary safety protocols,according to a BCB statement.

“Players will take part inrunning and gym sessions at theacademy, batting at Indoor cen-tre. Other three venues will beavailable for Running and GYMonly,” the statement read.

Mushfiqur, Imrul Kayes,Mohammad Mithun, ShafiulIslam will train in Dhaka whileSyed Khaled Ahmed andNasum Ahmed will practice inSylhet.

Mehedi Hasan and NurulHasan will avail training facil-ities in Khulna while NayeemHasan will be the only onepracticing in Chattogram. PTI

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Indian women’s hockey goalkeeper Savita says theIndian team was inexperienced at the 2016 Rio

Olympics but has since then transformed into a com-petitive side in the last four years and it stands a goodchance of making history in next year’s TokyoGames.

The Indian women’s created history when theyqualified for Rio Olympics after a gap of 36 years.But that joy was shortlived as they crashed out inthe group stages.

“I feel our team was raw at that time and wemade a few mistakes. Now, we have a much strongerside and I am sure we will be able to put the night-mare in Rio behind us. The experience at theOlympic Games will certainly hold us in good steadfor the next one in Tokyo,” Savita said in a HockeyIndia release.

“I think we have a great chance to make histo-ry at the Tokyo Olympics. We have a good mix ofexperience and youngsters in our side and all ourbases are covered. We have competed against topteams in the recent past and we havea strong belief in our abilities. If weplay to our potential, we will surelywin a medal for India at theOlympics next year.”

The 30-year-old custodianfrom Haryana, who was partof the Rio squad, believes theteam is much improved now,evident from its recent per-formances against top sides.

“We have certainlychanged the way we operateon and off the field since the2016 Olympics. We haverecorded great victories in thelast four years which includesAsia Cup 2017 and FIHWomen’s Series FinalsHiroshima 2019,” saidSavita.

“It was absolutelyamazing to book a berth atthe Tokyo Olympicsthrough the FIH OlympicQualifiers 2019 in front ofour home crowd,” she added.

� ���� Pakistan cricketer KamranAkmal lavished praise on India’s white-ball vice-captain Rohit Sharma and stat-ed that his power-hitting is second tonone in world cricket.

While speaking to Sawera Pasha onher YouTube channel, Kamran wasasked by a fan about his views regard-ing Rohit and he said: “Amazing...unbelievable batsman. It is so much funto watch him bat. His batting...his tem-perament...his commitment level is

unbelievable. He is the only batsmanwho has scored two double centuries(three). He scored five centuries at theWorld Cup (2019 in England & Wales).

“The best thing about his batting ishis power-hitting. I urge all the young-sters to watch and learn from the likesof Rohit, Babar Azam and Virat Kohli,”he added.

Another fan put up a question aboutMS Dhoni and Akmal referred to himas India’s best ever.

“India’s best ever wicket-keeperbatsman, who has achieved so much forthe country...unbelievable. The way hehas performed consistently, to keep anaverage above 50 in ODIs and play somany match-winning innings,” Akmalsaid. “Much credit should be given toDhoni... 50-over World Cup, T20 WorldCup, IPL, Champions Trophy — Ithink he has won all as captain. He isan unbelievable performer.” IANS

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NO OF WINS ONLY MATTER FOR STOKES%� ���������/�������� ����������� ��������� The Englandand Wales Cricket Board(ECB) has officially warnedspeedster Jofra Archer andfined him an “undisclosedamount” for breaching thebio-security protocols ahead ofthe second Test.

Last Monday, Archer brokethe bio-bubble and left for hishome in Brighton, the unautho-rised visit leading to him beingdropped from the ongoing sec-ond Test at the Old Trafford.

“Following a disciplinaryhearing held on Friday evening,17 July, England cricketer JofraArcher has been fined an undis-closed amount and received anofficial written warning afteradmitting to breaching theteam’s bio-secure protocols onMonday 13 July when he madean unauthorised visit to hishome in Hove,” ECB said in astatement.

It means he will be availablefor selection in the final Test ofthe series, which the WestIndies lead 1-0 after their winin Southampton.

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PLAYERS TAKE A KNEE BEFORE STARTEagles players took a knee to support the Black LivesMatter movement before the start of the 3T CricketSolidarity Cup match at the SuperSport Park inCenturion on Saturday .

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Page 11: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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David Moyes urged WestHam to finish the job

after they effectively sealedtheir Premier League survivalwith a first half goal-blitz inFriday’s 3-1 win over relega-tion rivals Watford.

Moyes’ side ran riotbefore the break at theLondon Stadium thanksto goals from MichailAntonio, Tomas Soucekand Declan Rice.

Troy Deeney got one backfor Watford after the interval,but the visitors couldn’t musteran unlikely escape act.

West Ham climbed to 15thplace and sit six points clear ofthe relegation zone with just

two games left.Holding a vastly superior

goal difference to third bottomBournemouth and second bot-tom Aston Villa, the Hammersshould be safe from the drop.

After their second suc-cessive win, West Hamneed one more point toguarantee their survival.

If other results makethem do it themselves,Moyes is confident hisplayers will be up to the

task against ManchesterUnited and Aston Villa.

“We are in a good position.Teams still have that chanceand we have to do the job,”Moyes said.

“Even scoring the goalshas helped, I wanted us to keep

our goal difference as good asit could be.

“We have 37 points with acouple of games to go. If we get40 points we’ll have done it offour own back.”

Fourth bottom Watfordare just three points above therelegation zone and face anerve-wracking finish to theseason.

Nigel Pearson’s men, beat-en for the first time in threematches, will face ManchesterCity and Arsenal in their finaltwo games.

Bournemouth, whose goaldifference is only two worsethan Watford’s, would go abovethe Hornets if they beatSouthampton by a three-goalmargin on Sunday.

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Leeds United were promot-ed to the Premier Leagueon Friday after West

Bromwich Albion’s 2-1 defeat atHuddersfield ensured theChampionship leaders will endtheir 16-year exile from the top-flight.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side wereable to celebrate promotionwithout kicking a ball as second-placed Albion’s failure to takethree points guaranteed Leedswill finish in the top two. Andon Saturday after Brentford lost1-0 to Stoke they officiallybecome Championship win-ners.

“We are back. Leeds Unitedare Premier League,” the clubsaid on their Twitter accountmoments after the final whistle.

A tense 1-0 win overBarnsley at Elland Road,secured by Michael Sollbauer’sown goal, had moved Leeds tothe brink of promotion onThursday.

Now they can look forwardto renewing old rivalries withManchester United and Chelseanext season.

“It’s unbelievable and it’s stillnot sunk in,” Leeds captainLiam Cooper said.

“Our club, our fans and ourplayers have sacrificed so much.We’ve been in the doldrums for16 years.

“To lead this team to pro-motion back to where we knowwe’ve always belonged is unbe-lievable. We deserve it. We’vebeen the best team all season.”

Bielsa has earned iconicstatus in west Yorkshire after theLeeds boss finally put his clubback on the football map.

Midfielder Kalvin Phillipssaluted Bielsa’s contribution,saying: “When the managerfirst came in I never thought Iwould be in this position twoyears down the line.

“He’s the best in the world.There’s no manager I wouldrather be under than MarceloBielsa.

“The Premier League is thebest in the world and after 16years we’re back in there.”

Despite warnings fromLeeds owner Andrea Radrizzanito stay at home amid the coro-navirus pandemic, Leeds fansgathered outside Elland Road tocelebrate, but their emotionwas understandable.

Leeds are one of England’sbiggest clubs, with their legionof fanatical fans following themaround the country and regular-ly attracting home crowds ofover 30,000 despite years ofunderachievement.

RICH HISTORYTheir long-awaited return

to the top tier completes a tur-bulent journey that saw thembecome a laughing stock whenthey languished in third-tierobscurity.

Leeds have been away fromthe Premier League for so longthat Twitter and Instagram did-n’t exist the last time theyplayed in the top-flight.

So it was fitting that Leedsgoalkeeper Kiko Casilla took toTwitter to celebrate, writing:“We are BACK! We are in thePremier League! Yessssssssssss!

“Many days dreaming ofthis Day. We deserve it. Proudof this TEAM, proud of oursupporters.”

Liverpool midfielder JamesMilner, who started his careerat Leeds, tweeted:“Congratulations LUFC. Backwhere you belong."

Leeds went through 14 dif-ferent managers following their2004 relegation from thePremier League, until the sleep-ing giant was awoken by formerLazio and Marseille boss Bielsa.

Bielsa has turned the tide ata tortured club infamouslylabelled the Damned United bynovelist David Peace and forev-er remembered as Dirty Leedsin the minds of fans who sawtheir no-holds-barred style inthe Don Revie era.

The 64-year-oldArgentine led Leeds withintouching distance of promo-tion in his first season, butthey crumbled in the finalweeks and were beaten in theplay-of semi-finals by Derby.

Notorious for working hisplayers so hard in trainingthat they often burn out bythe end of the season, Bielsahas benefitted from the coro-navirus hiatus allowing hisplayers to come backrefreshed for the final furlongof the promotion race.

Champions of England in

1969 and 1974 under Revie,then in 1992 when HowardWilkinson called the shots,Leeds have a rich history.

But since being relegatedfrom the top tier, Leeds havestumbled from financial disas-ter off the pitch to despair on it.

Describing the club’s ascentto the heady heights of theChampions League in the early2000s, former chairman PeterRidsdale claimed he had “livedthe dream”.

Their subsequent fall was anever-ending nightmare that hitits lowest ebb in 2007 whenLeeds went into administrationand were relegated to the thirdtier for the first time.

No wonder the much-trav-elled Bielsa, nicknamed El Locofor his intense personality, is sobeloved after just two years incharge.

������ For a man nicknamed El Loco (mad man)and with little silverware in his long managerialcareer, Marcelo Bielsa is an unlikely hero to ayounger generation of coaches including PepGuardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.

However, hordes of Leeds fans will now treathim with similar reverence after he guided oneof English football’s sleeping giants back to thePremier League after a 16-year wait.

The Leeds bust that followed a boom time ofbig spending and a Champions League semi-finalat the turn of the century lasted far longer thanmany people anticipated.

Leeds last played in the English top-flight inMay 2004. A further relegation and three yearsin the third tier followed before a decade stuckin the mud of the gruelling 46-game a seasonChampionship.

There was plenty of heartbreak along the waybut perhaps none more so than in Bielsa’s event-ful first season at Elland Road.

After being caught sending a spy to Derby’straining last year, Bielsa revealed the exhaustivescouting he does of every opponent he has everfaced amid accusations of underhand tactics.

“I think he is the best-prepared manager I’veever seen in my life,” said Guardiola, who wentto visit Bielsa in Argentina before setting out asa coach at Barcelona.

A Fifa fair play award also came El Loco’s waylast season for allowing Aston Villa to equaliseafter Leeds had scored with a Villa player downinjured. However, that was the only tro-phy Leeds won as, in keeping withBielsa’s sides of the past, they faltereddown the home straight, withmany pointing to the physicaldemands he puts on his players.

Bielsa made his name win-ning three league titles inArgentina with Newell’s OldBoys and Velez Sarsfield,where the season was divid-ed into two leagues of 19games.

“If they had been 38-game seasons I don’t know if theplayers physically and mental-ly could stand another 19games,” Ricardo Lunari, anotherformer Bielsa player to laterbecome a coach, told Sky Sports.

Bielsa’s stints in Bilbaowith Athletic Club,where he reached theEuropa League andCopa del Rey finalsin 2011-12, and

Marseille, where he led Ligue 1 at the halfway stagein 2014-15, were also admired but ended upempty-handed as their energy ran out.

Last season, Derby and their manager FrankLampard had the last laugh, beating Leeds 4-3 onaggregate in the play-off semis, prolonging theiragonising wait to return to the Premier League.

Many expected Bielsa to walk. But in his sec-ond season he has managed to leave a legacy sim-ilar to that he left at Newell’s — where the club’sstadium now bears his name — and with theChilean national team, whom he led to a firstWorld Cup in 12 years.

Coronavirus may have delayed Leeds’ titleparty, but it may also have played its part in get-ting them over the line.

The three-month break meant there was noburnout down the stretch this time as Leeds havelost just one of their seven matches since therestart.

‘HE’S A GENIUS’Born into a bourgeois family in Argentina,

there are few airs and graces with Bielsa — despitea reported £3 million-a-year salary ($3.75 million).He lives in a one-bedroom flat in the market townof Wetherby so he can walk to the club’s ThorpeArch training base and is regularly photographedwith locals in coffee shops and supermarkets.

“For me, he’s a person I will always admire,”said former Tottenham boss Pochettino, whomBielsa recruited for Newell’s as a 13-year-old. “He’s

a genius. A person with charisma and a per-sonality very different from us normal

coaches, and that’s what makes himspecial.”

Guardiola will get the chanceto go head-to-head with the manhe calls “the best coach in theworld” next season despite theManchester City boss being theone with a stunning array oftitles to his name.

“To be loved is this biggesttitle, bigger than the ChampionsLeague or Premier League or

whatever. To be loved is the mostimportant thing and I think

Marcelo has that more than anyother manager in the world,”

said Guardiola.“I know how he is

still loved in Bilbao, Iknow he’s an icon in

Chile.”Now Bielsa is

also a legend inLeeds. AFP

Manchester: Chelsea’s defence will have to be on theirtoes when they are up against Manchester United’sin-form attacking trio which is the most potent in thecountry in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, managerFrank Lampard said onFriday.

United forwardsMarcus Rashford andAnthony Martial havescored 22 goals each inall competitions this season while 18-year-old Mason Greenwood has also hada breakthrough season with 16 goals sofar.

Lampard also said the mid-seasonaddition of midfielder Bruno Fernandeshas vastly improved United’s attack as OleGunnar Solskjaer’s side look to extend their unbeat-en run in all competitions to 20 games.

“We know they are playing well, they’ve got a verypotent front three, the most potent in the country onpure numbers,” Lampard told reporters in a virtualnews conference.

“Fernandes has made a huge difference after com-ing in in January. You see the strength he’s broughtto the team and their individual qualities. We haveto be confident and deal with these threats.”

Solskjaer had previously said that Chelsea had anunfair advantage having played last played onTuesday, giving the London side more time torecover, while United played on Thursday butLampard disagreed with that assessment.

“No, I don’t think we do (have an unfair advan-tage)," Lampard said. “We have played Saturday,Tuesday. They played Monday, Thursday.

“We both played two games this week, it’s a busyperiod, you play and recover.” Agencies

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Head coach Misbah-ul-haqand former skipper Wasim

Akram may have to give up oneof their multiple roles inPakistan cricket with the PCBexpanding the scope of itsethics code, which addressesthe issue of conflict of interest.The 27-page code wasapproved at the last meeting ofthe PCB’s Board of Governorsand aims to cover every indi-vidual working with the Boardand the Pakistan Super League(PSL).

“Pakistan Cricket BoardChairman Ehsan Mani wanted

a new ethics code as in recentyears there have been numer-ous complaints and issues ofmultiple roles by its officials,employees or members leadingto a conflict of interest situationin their respective roles,” saidthe source.

Misbah is presently headcoach and chief selector but thePCB apparently has reserva-tions over his signing on ashead coach of the IslamabadUnited franchise in the PSL.

The ethics code will nowcover business activities orinterests of PCB officials,employees or members work-ing in any capacity in the

Board or PSL either directly orthrough even family members.

Akram is a member of theBoard’s cricket committee and

also works with the KarachiKings franchise. He is alsosaid to have shares in a compa-ny which has been given digi-tal rights by the board.

Former women’s team cap-tain, Bismah Maroof will alsocome under the radar as she isa member of the cricket com-mittee besides heading thePCB women’s wing and beingthe chief selector of women’scricket.

Besides these three bignames they are othersemployed by the board ascoaches who also have paidpositions with PSL franchises.

“All such people who are

doing dual jobs/roles and thereis an element of conflict ofinterest in their roles will haveto now give up one or two oftheir roles,” the official said.

In the past the PCB hasfaced criticism for giving a freehand to individuals whose dualrole has led to questions of con-flict of interest. Former headcoach, Mickey Arthur was alsothe head coach for KarachiKings.

Former PCB ChairmanNajam Sethi used to host apolitical talk show on the GeoNews channel which had bid anumber of times for rightsfrom the PCB.

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Matteo Pessina grabbed theequaliser for Hellas Verona

to hold his high-flying parent clubAtalanta 1-1 in Serie A onSaturday.

Atalanta move level on pointswith second-placed Inter Milan,but are six points adrift of Serie Aleaders Juventus.

On-loan Pessina headed injust before the hour mark inVerona minutes after Colombianstriker Duvan Zapata had put thevisitors ahead.

Atalanta are equal on 71points with Inter Milan, whotravel to fifth-placed Roma onSunday, with eight-time reigningchampions Juventus, hostingfourth-placed Lazio, who are eightpoints adrift of top spot, onMonday.

Atalanta have scored in a club

record 22 games in a row, butZapata’s second-half goal was notenough to bring home the threepoints.

Gasperini’s side are the onlyteam to remain unbeaten on the

road this season, but theirhopes of a first Scudetto inthe team’s 112-year historyare all but over with fourgames left to play.

“Talking about theScudetto is too much. We

lack a point to get to theChampions League,” saidGasperini.

“Ours was a good matchagainst a team that is doing welland wanted to recoup after acontroversial defeat againstRoma.”

Verona, in ninth, are coachedby ex-Croatia midfielder IvanJuric, who played under Gasperiniin Genoa and was his assistant atInter Milan and then Palermo.

Atalanta threatened early withMario Pasalic, scorer of a hat-trickagainst Brescia this week, forcinga save from Marco Silvestri afterquarter of an hour.

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the break, before getting hischance five minutes into thesecond half pouncing on aKoray Gunter defending blun-der to blast past Silvestri.

Zapata pulled Atalantaahead after the break with his18th goal in all competitionsthis season.

But four minutes latermidfielder Pessina drewVerona level, sending in arebound for his seventh leaguegoal this season, after Gollinidenied Amir Rrahmani.

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Page 12: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

We have heard of same daydelivery of important doc-uments via couriers. Butwhat if you wanted a

handyman for home repairs but didn’tknow how to go about it or wanted ahome chef or a home baker or wantedfumigation or pest control service or getyour shoe laundered or needed help ingetting a bank draft made? Well, aMumbai-based start-up — Ease YourLife (EYL) — does all this and more.In fact, they even had a caterpillar deliv-ered which was someone’s pet fromAndheri to Grant Road in Mumbai,changed curtains in a client’s home,changed a flat tyre and provided a ser-vice to a client who didn’t want to gowalk across the street to get a printout.

A brainchild of Shashwat Bhatt andJaymin Trivedi, EYL provides servicesacross Mumbai, Gurugram, Delhi andNoida. The latest city added to theirportfolio — during the lockdown — isGwalior. While their company providesall kinds of service, it is broadly cate-gorised under a few headings like pick-up and drop that can be food items,parcels and or even documents.However, there are parameters to theweight and size of the package.

Trivedi recalls how their journeybegan four years back. “Our first taskwas over four years back, where we paida phone bill for a customer who was

busy. Since then there has been no look-ing back,” he tells you.

It is not just bills that EYL helps youwith. You name it and they do it. “Whilethere are many service providers whomay step in to help the customer interms of courier service or providing ahandyman or delivering grocery andfood but there is no other serviceprovider that does all this and muchmore. Take an example. If you want acake picked up from a vendor and haveit delivered to a friend who lives 20 kmaway, we can do that. If you want helpwith pest control, we can do that. If youwant a document delivered, we will dothat. If you don’t know how to get abank draft made. Worry not. Our manwill meet you at the bank and sort outyour problem,” Bhatt says.

Trivedi tells you that the idea to theduo came when they realised that peo-ple kept putting off some work becausethey just didn’t have the time or theywished someone would come in to dothe more menial work. But they need-ed to build a business module for thisso that people could get time to do whatthey loved doing. Since the day webegan our service we have realised thatthere are so many people who want oth-ers to do the more mundane work forthem because they want to spend timewith family or friends,” Trivedi tells you.

Bhatt tells you that their USP lies

in the fact that the customer doesn’thave to go to five different apps to bookservices for different needs. “All theyhave to do is come to our app andbook the service they want. We want

people to know that they don’t have togo to multiple apps, we want people tolook at us as a super app. Even thoughthere are some competitors, we arehere to provide a service in a holisticmanner. If you want a painter you callus, if you want a cleaner you call us,if you want a package delivered you callus,” Bhatt says. All one has to do isdownload the app and request in a ser-vice. Charges depend on the distancetravelled by the service provider witha base price of �40.

Rakesh Sharma, Sales andMarketing manager at Task Mitra,another Mumbai-based app compa-ny, tells you that they deliver groceries,medicine, letters or even pick up sparekeys because a client was locked out.As of now, they serve Mumbaikars butplans are afoot to expand and even gointernational — Singapore andAustralia,” Sharma says.

Given the present pandemic andthe scare of catching the virus, the ser-vice provided is totally cash-free.“The customer doesn’t have to paytask mitra any cash; everything is doneonline since he is empowered with thenecessary modes by which he canmake the payment to the merchant.When a customer wants something tobe procured, they put down the nec-essary information so that it can beunderstood by the delivery profes-

sionals who are well-versed in a widerange of tasks and how things work,”Sharma explains.

Since the time they began theiroperations around four years back,they have grown from strength tostrength and today they provide ser-vice 24X7 and have over 500-1000delivery professionals, who work full-time or part-time, placed at almostevery corner of Mumbai. This makesit possible for them to provide deliv-ery in the shortest possible time.

“Our delivery charges rangebetween �250-�650. The pricing iscomplex and depends on the workdone and the distance traveled. Peoplewho know us and the conveniencethat comes with being with us, forthem we provide a range of serviceslike invitation deliveries, delivery ofdocuments that need multiple signa-tures, help the elderly to get their med-icines and deliver food from a restau-rant that is more than 20 km away,”Sharma says.

He tells you that over the years,more and more people are demand-ing a customised service since theydon’t have the time to do it themselves.Also, there are people who wantthings to be done immediately andlooking for a service provider who cando the same and are willing to pay aprice for it,” Sharma says.

for my performance in Indian People’sTheatre Association Golden JubileeCeremony. Eventually, when you get toknow that you are good at something,so why not pursue it. It gave me con-fidence to dig deep into the craft andI enroled myself in NSD. I went a longway. It was not like ki main bag uthakar nikal gaya aur Mumabai ja kar bolaki mujhey actor banna hai. Main bohotlambey raastey se seekhta hua aaya auraage badha. �How hard or easy was it to be a partof the industry?

I have never seen it that way. I aman actor and bound to act. Eventually,I will work. I never thought how hardis it to be in the industry. When youare into a profession, you can’t think ofthese things. All you need to do is towork. If you are good, then you will getwork. Mujhey apney kaam se hi kaammila hai. I am quite happy with whatI have. It’s fun.�Was there a moment when quittingwas an option?

Never. Why quit? I won’t quit any-thing. I know what I want to do. I amhere only. (smiles)�Your worst and best memory in theindustry.

There are many a lot of good andworst memories. I don’t want to spec-ify things. However, there are a lot of

my films that got shelved. They neversaw the light of the day. There are a lotof films that I thought will release likeJungle Mein Mor Naacha Kisne Dekhawas one of them, which never gotreleased in India.

It has happened with me manytimes. Moreover, I have gone forshooting for a project for about 18 daysbut when it got released I was not thereeven in a single scene. I won’t name anyfilm or person because I don’t like con-troversies. Sometimes, I was promiseda role in a film and was told that if youare not there in it, the film will not bemade, but then the film got releasedand I was not there. I have seen all ofthis. Having said that, there are a lot ofbest moment as well. Being in theindustry in one of them. Also, in myfirst commercial project, Aetbaar, I gotto work with Amitabh Bachchan.When I came to Mumbai, I always saidthat ‘ki main Amitabh ji ka bangladekhne nahin unke saath kaam karneke liye Mumbai aaya tha because I aman actor’. That was a very happymoment for me.�Upcoming projects.

There were a lot of upcoming pro-jects that are now postponed due toCOVID-19. Insha allah, once every-thing get back to normal, everythingwill be lined up again.

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�What has been keeping you busy?Fortunately, just before the lockdown was announced I had

come up with my app — Riya Sen official app. I have been busysix days a week I go live and interview ordinary people, my fansand my friends. They interview me as well. There are rapid firerounds too. I do live cooking, so people can see me.�What made you say to the mini-series — Pati Patni Aur Woh?

When I got the offer, I asked for synopsis and when I read it,I saw no reason to not do it. I have a lovely role in it, the wholestory is cute and there was nothing to think about it — it is a pleas-ant romantic comedy when you watch it. The dialogues are funny.Anybody with a sense of humour would understand that. One cannever say no to good humour. Even before I got my script, I hadmade up my mind to do it.�How much fun did you have doing this show?I had such a good time, the one month we were in Mathura whileshooting. Anant (Vidhaat), Vinny (Arora) we drove our directorsnuts because we would chat all the time and pour our hearts out.Vinny and I are such chatter boxes and so is Anant. We were talk-ing all the time. Before the take and after the take, we would talkand they would want us to take a break from all the chatter. By theend of it, it was New Year’s and I didn’t want to come back and myfamily said, the series is over and you come back home. I had madea home for myself there by placing little things.�How much does it help if you have this instant rapport withco-stars?

It helps a lot. When I went to the workshop, Anant and all werequiet but Vinny was nice and friendly. From day one we met inMathura we became best friends. Vinny plays the ghost so one hasto totally ignore her during the shoot. It is not easy since the per-son is such a chatterbox. It was tough but a lot of fun.�You come from a family of actors. Was it tough to make spacefor yourself?

I was already Riya Sen from the start. When I came to Mumbai,I told a journalist I am Riya Dev Verma but I was labelled RiyaSen since I was Moon Moon Sen’s daughter. For me to hear RiyaSen I was shocked. When I am shooting or go out and people askif I am Riya Sen, I tell them no.�You began your career in the industry as a child artist. Howhas the learning curve been?

My journey has been great fun. I have made the full advan-tage of what my life has been. Yes, I started young, doing ads, musicvideos and Tamil and Hindi movies. While doing movies, I tooka break and then came back to do web series. But when I took thebreak, I spaced myself and traveled the world. As an actress I havehad many perks and ups and down but never let that do bring medown. There are a lot more things in being a human than just onefactor. When I was partying, it was a taboo and looked down upon,but today everyone parties. I have enjoyed my journey and my par-ents are very nice and international in their way of thinking. Theylet me be myself and gave me the confidence about who I am.�How did you end up doing Tamil and Bengali films?

I wish I knew. I didn’t even know how I ended up in this indus-try. I was five when I did my first Hindi film. I was in Class VIIIgoing into Class IX when I got an offer from P Bharathiraja (direc-tors Tamil films). I never planned anything. It started off as a hobbybefore it became a profession. There was nobody to guide me and

tell me what genre to take up or roles to do, I just wentwith the flow and did what I do. I never had a busi-

ness plan nor do I have one today.�After doing films, why work for web series?

I knew that the OTT platform would boomin the country seven years back. I started say-ing no to offers to bad roles in Hindi moviesand took a break. A lot of actors were get-ting impatient for lack of good work but Iwent back to Kolkata and did some amaz-ing work. I realised that OTT platformswould take off and would be a perfect fit forit. I get a lot of good offers that are chal-lenging. �A lot of actors are doing work for the

OTT platforms. What is the rea-son?

It is not just because thework is different but alsobecause they are not gettingtheir due and work due togroupism and lobbying thatexists in the industry. A lot ofactors are taking this routebecause it offers them anopportunity.

�Do you have any regrets?Maybe that I started young and

made mistakes back then. But then I feelthat if I had not made mistakes then, Iwould be making them now and rightnow is not the time to mess up things.

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Atall of lassi is a must havewhen one travels to Punjab.

A trip to this State is incompleteif one has not had the mitthi lassi.But did you know that this drinkfor all seasons is not just restrict-ed to Punjab and in fact, can befound in different variants notjust in India but in countries likeTurkey where is a called Kefirand made from cultured fer-mented milk, in Mongolia whereit is known as Kumis and madefrom fermented mare’s milkand Amasi from South Africa.

Radha Bhatia, chairpersonof Bird Group travel conglom-erate, tells you that the idea of acoffee table book — Lassis OfIndia: Smoothies With A Twist —on the good old lassi came upwhile having a conversationwith her granddaughter whowhile was enthused with the ideaof a smoothie was not so enam-oured with the lassi. That got herthinking and led her on a jour-ney that lasted three years. “Ittook me three year to get all theresearch work and finally get

down to writing the book. Notbecause the research itself waschallenging but because I onlyhad time on Saturdays to sitdown to trace the history of thisversatile drunk that one can haveany time of the year and withany meal or make a meal out ofit. During my travels, I cameacross many recipes. I also metpeople who would talk abouttheir culture and how a partic-ular food was popular. Backhome, a lot of my friends helpedme in my research,” Bhatia says.

She tells you that there is adifference between lassi andsmoothie. A smoothie, one istold, primarily has fruits andveggies unlike the lassi. “A lassithat is churned in a mixie jar is

very different from the taste ofthe lassi that is made in a handiand madhani. I want people toexperience the real taste andhence are in the process of sell-

ing the handi and the madhanionline. There is a whole processof using the madhani is anexercise for the hands as well.when you use the wooden mad-

hani one has to use the moundson the hands for the circularmotion. This is a great exercise,”She says.

People around Bhatia werenot very convinced when theycame to know that she was in theprocess of writing a book on las-sis. “They wanted to know whyI had chosen this particulardrink and not something else.‘Why not something more exot-ic,’ they had wanted to know.Also, I had wanted a person ofrepute who knew the foodindustry to write the Forward. Itwas a Saturday. I called up VirSanghvi and told him about mybook. At first, he was not enthu-siastic but when I gave him thedetails, he was totally onboard,”Bhatia says whose favourite lassiis from Kashmir that hasalmonds, saffron, cashews, pis-tachios, walnuts, honey, sugar,gulkand, rose water, rose petals,cardamoms and of course dahi,All the ingredients are whisked.Poured in a glass, garnished withrose petals and cardamoms and

served chilled.Another favourite of hers

Talicha More — tempered but-termilk from Tamil Nadu thathas mustard seeds, dry redchilli, hing, curry leaves, salt andbuttermilk. All the ingredientsare fried in mustard oil andthen buttermilk is added,simmered for a fewminutes and seasonedwith salt. This can behad with rice or justenjoyed as a drink.The book that hasover 74 lassi recipes— some traditionaland others a mod-ern-day variationlike the spinach lassior aloe vera lassi ordate lassi or evencrème brulee lassi— give you a littlehistory of thedrink, the regionfrom where it isand the tradi-tion surround-ing it.

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�What is your role in Sony Liv’s Undekhi?I play Varun Ghosh, a DSP. He loves

Bollywood films. He has lost his service andhe has to prove something in life. He is justlike the people we see in our daily lives. Heis a multidimensional character and hasmany layers.�What made you say yes?

There are many aspects. First, when Iwas called for the look test by Kabir Sinha,that time I didn’t know much about thescript. Once everything was sorted, I askedfor the script and it was so engaging that Ifinished reading it in one go. It is very rarelythat I get to read such impressive, beauti-

ful and powerful scripts. I amthankful to Siddharth Sen

Gupta and VarunBadola, who wrote

such amazing scriptand of courseA p p l a u s eEntertainmentfor producingsuch content.This was themain reason ofsaying yes to the

project.Second, this

story is based onreal-life events, this

again was somethingthat was gripping. Third,

it is a show that keeps you on the edge ofthe seat. One cannot predict the twists andturns in the episodes. This is the beauty ofthe show. Fourth, my character ofcourse leftno reason to turn down the project.�You debuted with Monsoon Wedding.How did that happen?

That’s a long story. To cut it short, aftercompleting my course at National Schoolof Drama (NSD) in 1997, I worked with theNSD Repertory Company as a senior actortill 200. After this, I was planning to shiftto Mumbai. But due to certain reasons, Iwent back to Kolkata. After few years, whenI went back to Delhi, people told me thatthere is a role for me in Monsoon Weddingand the team is searching for me. I got intouch with the team, auditioned and wasselected to play Lottery. Then I shifted toMumbai and today I am here. That’s howit happened.�How did acting happen to you?

This is again a long story actually. As atypical Bengali child, I was into everything.I have learnt playing tabla, done painting,tried my hands at singing, gymanastics andwhat not. I have done almost everything. Iam the jack of all trades but master of none.When I grew up, I indulged in theatre. In1988, after my Board exams I joined a the-atre group full time. That was when Irealised that I was in demand, because Iknew a lot of things apart from acting.

I went on getting the Best Actor’s Award

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Having marked his presence in Hindi cinemawith his captivating role of a DSP in SonyLiv's

well received series Undekhi, Bhattacharyaspeaks with Musba Hashmi about hislure for the role, among other things

like his place in the industry

Page 13: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Today’s woman is unafraid andunabashed to seek out for what shefeels she deserves. Whether it is acareer choice, business idea or edu-cation option, women are finding

themselves more and more at the top of theirgame. But what is lacking, however, is theneed for women to take charge of theirfinances too.

While women earn and save, mostwomen do not foray into non traditionalinvestment avenues. Could this be lack ofknowledge or lack of trust? Or both?

But even finances need to be brokendown and tackled according to a certain pat-tern. This just makes it much easier to deci-pher what’s good for you and how you shouldbe going ahead investing.

The first part of this process is to educateyourself. You need to know how strategicallyyou can save up and how this strategy cangrow your money better. A Standard & PoorSurvey conducted in 2015 showed that over80% of women in India are financially illiter-ate. This could be due to various factors, butgeneral lack of knowledge is one amongstthem. Less than 1% of Indian women investin the equities market. Based on our primaryresearch at Basis covering 500 urban womenages 24-45, 70% of women have financial sav-ings to invest, however, 60% of the totalcohort is still searching for better investmentavenues.

Despite the growing awareness of finan-cial independence among women, only 33%take their own investment decisions, com-pared with 64% men.

Women tend to save in more traditionalavenues like gold and fixed deposits, but thegrowing need to invest smartly with increas-ing inflation rates is moving women towardswanting to invest in new avenues.

������������ �Taking charge of your finances cannot be

an overnight exercise. There is always alearning curve involved. Become financiallyliterate so that you are capable of handlingyour finances. Read regularly to understandvarious investment avenues — follow a fewfinancial blogs, perhaps even take a financialmanagement course. A good place to start isthe learning modules on the Basis app.

������������������You know how much you make but do

you know how much you are saving? Getinvolved in your expense management — dis-cuss these with your spouse or parent. Take ahard look at your expenses. You may findunnecessary and avoidable costs, which youmight realise by paying closer attention. Onceyou know how much you have every month

to invest, you can allocate investmentsaccordingly.

���������������������� ��To know where you have to reach the first

step is to understand where you currentlystand.

Access: From net banking IDs to DematIDs and passwords, list down all the placesyour money is currently invested. It can beacross banks, across Demat accounts, andeven across Asset Management Companies(AMCs). Vault all your IDs and passwordssecurely, tools for this very purpose are alsoavailable now.

Assess: If your parents or spouse havethis organised, it’s a plus. But if not, then getdown to assessing your portfolio. Call in forbank statements for account balances anddeposit balances.

Analyse: Analyse your current portfolio.Categorise your investments and ask yourselfthese questions — do you have diversifiedinvestments? Or do you have several overlap-ping investments in similar instruments?

�� ��������Identify your financial goals. If you are

married, discuss common goals with yourspouse — buying a car, a house, funding forchildren’s education, and retirement, to namea few. But also make sure to incorporate yourpersonal goals — travel, further education, ormaybe even planning for a sabbatical or otherpersonal aspirations. Map these with yourexisting investments.

��������������� �Goal mapping is the crucial step to chalk

out a financial roadmap, which may involverebalancing your portfolio. Do not hesitate toconsult a financial planner if you find your-self getting overwhelmed. Once you have afinancial roadmap in place, set up yourinvestments, including any standing instruc-tions to your bank or mutual fund house.

�������Investments, especially long-term ones,

are something we should keep track of with aknowledge-based approach rather than senti-ment-driven actions, but you must not losesight of your finances. Be current with yourknowledge of the market scenario to takeadvantage of any lucrative investment oppor-tunities. Any change in income, significantexpenses, or goals should also be incorporat-ed in your financial roadmap.

Earning money is one part, but managingyour earned money is what can make youtruly financially empowered and indepen-dent. So, ladies, roll up your sleeves and gearup to take charge of your finances!

� �������������������Once you know about how to go about

savings, you need to know about the laws thataffect you. This means staying on top of poli-cies and regulation around taxation andinvesting.

Tax Regime: One way your money couldbe affected was through the government’sproposal to introduce a new optional taxregime without exemptions and deductions.This will adversely affect the savings in India.In the 2020-21 Budget, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman provided an option topersonal income tax payers to remain ineither the existing tax scheme with exemp-tions and deductions or opt for a new simpli-fied tax regime with lower tax rates but with-out exemptions and deductions.

What this means is that, you could eitherchoose to save and invest as you had beendoing before, or move to a flat structure thatdoesn’t entail your �15 lakh deduction under80C, but in turn, you get to pay a lower taxbracket.

Under the new tax proposal, people withan annual income of up to �2.5 lakh will nothave to pay any tax. For income bracketsbetween �2.5 lakh to �5 lakh, the tax rate is 5per cent.

Further, those with an income of �5 lakhto �7.5 lakh will have to pay a reduced taxrate of 10 per cent; between �7.5 lakh and�10 lakh 15 per cent; between �10 lakh and�12.5 lakh 20 per cent; between �12.5 lakhand �15 lakh 25 per cent; and above �15 lakh30 per cent.

�������������We all know that the current situation has

been difficult for all of us. With this, alsocame a few financial changes and the govern-ment. SoPs that affect your money. Knowingabout the latest government facilities avail-able, can help you plan and execute your sav-ings better.

The Income tax filing deadline: Theincome tax filing deadline which was earlierJuly 31st, 2020 had been postponed toNovember 30th, 2020 .

FDs and PPF: PPF rates have been cutfrom 7.9% to 7.1%. FD rates have fallen to5.5% too. The interest gained on these is like-ly to be negligible with rates expected to fallfurther. This is most likely to affect seniorcitizens who depend on these schemes. Werecommend taking another look at your port-folio and investing in mutual funds.

EMI Moratorium: All term loans —home loans, personal loans, education loansetc, including credit card payees, can avail athree month deferment starting March 2020.For those under financial duress, this canhelp relieve some pressure. However, if you

can afford to continue paying them, please doso to avoid the interest piling up cumulative-ly. Remember that the moratorium does notapply to the interest on your loans.

EPF Contribution: According to theAatmanirbhar Bharat Package, the EPF con-tribution requirement has been reduced to10% of your basic and dearness allowance asopposed to 12% — for three months startingMay. It simply means an increase in your in-hand salary. Do note that this increase is nowtaxable. If you want to continue contributingyour 12%, you could do so but your employerwill be contributing as per the new directive.

TCS & TDS Reduction: There has been a25% reduction in both TDS and TCS applica-ble till March 31st March 2021. For a lot ofnon salaried individuals, this move helpsincrease spending power substantially. If youwant to avail this service, you will be asked tofurnish your Aadhar and PAN card detailswhen you raise an invoice.

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Several financial institutions have intro-duced schemes to power the woman entre-preneur. I’ve highlighted a couple of themhere:

Stree Shakti Package For WomenEntrepreneurs: This scheme, run by SBI, is forwomen who own the majority of a small busi-ness (>50%), and whose business is registeredwith the Entrepreneurship DevelopmentProgrammes (EDP). The scheme allows a con-cession of 0.05 per cent on the interest onloans that are greater than �2 lakh.

Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme: If you’re awoman looking to set up a small venture, thisscheme offered by Punjab National Bank andSmall Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI) can give you a loan of �10 lakh for10 years, with a 5 year moratorium. Interestrates depend on market rates.

������ ����Historically, men have been the owners of

wealth, and by extension, the financial deci-sion-makers. However, gender roles arebecoming outdated, including roles related tomoney.

As women, we live longer than men, facethe gender pay gap at work and have higherhealthcare costs — and hence need to pru-dently plan and understand our finances. Thegood news is that the desire to become finan-cially independent is strong.

The real question is whether this finan-cially independent woman has the resourcesto manage her money wisely. Let’s roll up oursleeves, unite and take charge of our financialdestinies.

The writer is CEO and founder, Basis

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Page 14: ˘ ˇ ˆ · 5 hours ago · Sadiya Anwar Sheikh (22) who hails from Phulenagar, Yerwada, Pune — in connec-tion with the ISKP case, NIA spokesperson had said in a statement. Turn

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Human beings are strange creatures. Strange becausethey are driven by a formless entity called ego. It wasthis ego that was the undoing of many a mighty kings

in the past. The legend goes that when Lord Ram reachedAyodhya after killing Ravana, many residents asked in dis-may how could Ram slay mighty Ravana. Ram’s cryptic replywas that he did not kill Ravana. It was the ‘I’ that killed Ravana.It is because of this ego that human beings have acquired aunique trait that can be expressed in many forms of behav-ior. From rationalisation to ideological excuses to justifica-tions there are many ways in which these ego defense mech-anisms unfold. It is the ego that gives the human beings theillusion of invulnerable status leading to primacy of self-aggrandisement. The author historian Barbara Tuchman hastried to bring out this basic aspect of human character inthe classic literary work The March of Folly written over threedecades ago. Human beings have hardly learnt a lesson fromtheir follies all the way from Troy to Vietnam and perhapseven in the present Corona pandemic. This is the one weak-ness that leads to most problems of humanity. It explains whyhuman beings jostle with one another to take out their cabinbaggage from the overhead bin, even as the plane is aboutto crash. Where do they want to carry their cabin baggageis intriguing. Let go is the mantra that every one chants butletting go is the difficulty that most fail to overcome. Contextskeep on changing but human character remains fairly sta-ble. Why humans acquire a myopic vision is a question ofattitude hard to view but how this attitude influences behav-ior is a common sight. Unless human beings open their eyesand shut that capital l, no great learning is possible. Comingto the question of the Corona pandemic, several assertionsand assumptions are doing the rounds these days suggest-ing that human character is going to change this time. Letus wait and see for one more time. Chances, however, seembleak. Pandemics have been attacking humanity since ages.The Biblical mention of plague or the plague of Athens wereearly references. Many more have appeared periodicallykilling millions. The earlier schools of opinion attributed thesecatastrophic incidents to God’s curse for humanity goingastray. A correction for moral pollution. Even today theremay be a few similar views. But who cares. It is naive to believethat humans are going to buy the proposition and mend ways.If we closely observe how things have been shaping up fromthe initial phases of the pandemic to the present times weshould have no pretensions. Many see the pandemic as anopportunity. Opportunity to flaunt their egos. To play theMessiah, the grand saviour even as misery comes to the shareof many. The poor, the meek and the vulnerable were reel-ing under the crisis but the affluent and the powerful foundbetter things to do. Many thought it was time to change theworld, failing to realise it already has. And not because ofthem. But that is human nature. Difficult to say if it is a cursefor sinning or an opportunity for winning. Nevertheless, com-merce continues to drive and thrive. Human nature does-n’t change that easily. Even God knows this. But He contin-ues trying. After all, it is His creation.

#�������������������������������/�������/��������� ���������� �������!�G�� ��������� ��������������!��H����! ��

Are we not living in denial of therightful owner of the creation? Iam not going into the controver-

sy of what one is, that is faithful, athe-ist, agnostic, ignorant, etc. Whatever onemaybe, it is time that we woke up to thereality of God being very much in thepicture. How can we not do that whenwe are aware of Him being omnipotent,omnipresent and omniscient? These arenot some loose adjectives like we use forsomeone we love very much. I am alsonot referring to some landlord, who hasrented his property to us, because thatlandlord’s ownership is limited by time,either by change of ownership in his life-time or his death. This ownership ofGod of the creation is permanent.

And He has entrusted the mankindto exploit it in a proper way for the ben-efit of all its inhabitants, which includeanimals, birds, etc. And what have wedone? We are indiscriminately cuttingforests. Why? We need more land togrow grains. Don’t we have enough tofeed the humanity? We do but we pre-fer to eat meat! All excuses about nutri-tional advantages of eating meat arehighly exaggerated.

Cutting/burning forests has harmedthe ecosystem in a very serious way.Wild animals, who live there, have beendisplaced. We did not stop there, webegan eating them as if the meats avail-able to us were not enough. So whathappened? Dangerous viruses, wholive in these animals, came into humanbeings. God could have prevented theirspread like He did with SARS-COV, buthumans just considered themselveslucky; they did not learn any lessons.God had enough by now. Therefore, Heallowed the spread of Coronavirus, andthe whole world is struggling now. Whocan we blame for it? This insatiabledesire for luxurious living, which does

not respect any limits is an affront to theMaster of the universe. We have defi-nitely harmed our cause vis-à-vis God.Just imagine a tenant, who does not takecare of the rented properly, rathercauses damage to it. How will the ownerof the property feel? I am sure he willbe quite mad. God is not like ushuman beings given to extreme emo-tions, but our large scale mistreating ani-mals, birds etc., who are souls just likeus, has definitely displeased the Lord.These lower species have also right overthe land, which is given to us.

It is not wise to venture an opinionwhere God is involved, but whatever Ican see there is a solution on the per-sonal level not world-wise just now. Thissolution entails many changes in theway we live, think, etc. These changesare on three levels. The first is about ourbehaviour. As human beings, we areexpected to behave well generally andwe know what that means. We must bemore relaxed too; being super-active isnot human-like behaviour. This hasenormous health benefits, as we haveexperienced recently. We should turn

vegetarian as much as possible. Thereshould be better civic sense. Not onlyshould we protect ourselves but ensurethat we don’t pass on our infections toothers. Better social distancing willensure that. Obviously, we must prac-tice better hygiene to avoid infections;all necessary precautions must be taken.

The next two levels relate to person-al immunity and getting protectionfrom God. Personal immunity willcome from improvement in generalhealth both physical and mental, thelater with help from God. And protec-tion from God is ensured when we takeHis shelter. All these are not too diffi-cult to practice, if we set our minds onthem. Not only will we be able to facethe immediate threat but we will be bet-ter prepared for future challenges aswell, which will definitely come. Finally,I am not going to second-guess God,that is, what He is likely to do next, butI have a lot of hope of securing myself,my family and those around me, if I fol-low what has been suggested.

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One of the greatest thingsa human being can do isto serve others. Thetruest form of selflessservice is when we give

without wanting anything in return.That is the spirit in which we shouldgive. This means that we do notbroadcast to others what we do toreceive adulation, praise, power, orname and fame. Rather, we servefrom our heart and soul in the spir-it of helping others because it is theright thing to do as children of the all-giving Creator. This attitude has thepower to heal.

Selfless service is not only a jobor task to be done; it is an act of heal-ing, of opening hearts and of radiat-ing love. It is an immeasurable giftthat spreads love and healing wher-ever we go. The heart of the giver issoothed, healed and filled with love.The giving also heals the hearts of therecipients, opening their eyes to thehumanity of others.

We never lose when we give.Many times in life, we may have expe-rienced an opportunity to give some-thing to someone in need, making a

sacrifice, only to find that it was eitherreturned to us or circumstanceschanged, and we did not need to giveit away. Yet, we were rewarded withthe feeling of satisfaction of havingsacrificed for others. We feel God’sblessings showering down upon us.We thank God that we choose to giverather than to be selfish.

If we are selfish, we often findourselves filled with remorse andregret. We always feel sorry that wedid not give. However, one neverregrets or feels sorry for giving.There is no greater joy that can fill ourheart than giving. All those who haveever given selflessly would have expe-rienced that one never loses when onegives. They find more and more bless-ings raining down upon themunasked for, and their heart is filledwith godly love.

��������������� How many times do we only do

acts of goodness when we want toimpress others? Do we find that inour offices we speak humbly andkindly to our boss, but sorely abuseour co-workers or subordinates?

How many of us give only when weare on display for others to see howgenerous we are, yet in the lonelinessof a street we walk cold-heartedly pasta beggar?

Let us give from our soul. Ourmind gives for selfish reasons. Itwants praise from others. It wantsrespect from others. It wants tomake a grand show of how kind andloving it is, when, in reality, it is self-serving. Soul gives for the sake of giv-ing. Soul gives out of a sincere desireto help others and wants nothing inreturn. It does not even wish to beknown for what it has done. Whenthe soul gives, it is the God within usgiving. Just as God does not wantanything in return for all its won-drous gifts of creation bestowed onall forms of life, so does the soul giveselflessly.

When we want to be in tune withGod, then let us give from the soul,selflessly, lovingly, without any show,and without any thought of return.We only want to serve and relieve thesuffering of others. That is givingfrom the soul and has the power toheal others.

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Spiritual development meansinculcating higher values of life.This means watching our thoughts,words and deeds so that we think,speak and act ethically. Leading aspiritual life is a combination of med-itating to find God within while lead-ing an ethical life without. It is saidthat an ethical life is a stepping-stoneto spirituality. Ethical living entailsdeveloping qualities among whichinclude: non-violence, humility, lovefor all, and selfless service.

When we lead a life of servingwith a kind and patient attitude, wenot only inspire those with whom wework, but those who are not leadinga spiritual life will notice our patientand kind qualities. Others who arecurious or strongly interested inspirituality will notice somethingabout us. They will see that we arecalm and collected. They will noticethat we face life’s challenges with non-violence, love and humility. They willalso observe that we give freely ofourselves selflessly.

These qualities will attract oth-ers who wish also to lead such a life.Thus, it is important that we beexamples and model spiritual valuesin our everyday lives.

Selfless service strengthens ourspiritual development. Our wordsand actions arise from our thoughts.If we have thoughts in which we wantto help others, then that will causeour words and actions to reflect that.If we are going to talk of the need forselfless service, we must be practic-ing it ourselves. Let us serve selfless-ly and be an example, rather than telleveryone else how to serve or criti-cise how he or she serves. Let usinculcate the truest type of selflessservice in our lives.

Meditation can also help usbecause as we sit in silence and gowithin, we see the same Light of Godthat is in us is in all other people. Werealise that we are all part of one fam-ily of God. We realise all souls arepart of one team — God’s team. Weare all connected. Thus, if any one ofus is in trouble, we are all in trouble.If any one of us is hurting, we are allhurting. If any one of us is losing, weare all losing. Rather than losing, weall should be winning. If we have thegifts to be a winner, then by helpingothers become winners, all of us win,and we become the true winners.

We also realise that no matterhow different our backgrounds are,we are all one family of God. Thisattitude of loving and accepting peo-ple who are different from us is oneof the fundamental keys to selflessservice.

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In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna refers to manyideologies and concepts which were pre-vailing in his days and practiced by the

people at large. These also formed part andparcel of their social structure. Krishna’s Gitastands as a testimony of the fact as to howfar he views those age-old ideals of theIndian society.

To save people from the ill effects of ageold notions like sacrifice [Yajna], Krishnathrough his teachings not only re-set thoserituals in new forms but also assigned newmeanings and format to those ideals andnotions. Sacrifice or Yajna is such an ancientideology and rituals of the vedic age whichwas being persistently taken by the people inthe same traditional sense of the Vedas andsince then being treated as a rite or ritual inwhich oblations [ahutis] of material thingslike grains, butter etc, are poured in thesacred fire. To bring this notion of sacrificeto the level of his era, he firstly treated theterm sacrifice in different perspective.

For instance, first of all by treating it assynonymous with some valuable social act,he treated each persons life itself as a strataof Yajna or sacrifice on earth. Next, hereworked the same ideal on new levelswhich were relevant to the social strata ofhis times. For, in Gita, Krishna teaches that“Know you life itself as a sacred Yajna orsacrifice your activities in life which bringabout social upliftment and harmony in thesociety also serve as a sort of sacrifice andYajna on your part”. Such a type of implica-tion of Yajna in Gita be compared with themeaning of its English equivalent term sacri-fice which means a sacred act. Even thevedic statement “Purusho vai Yajnah” seemsto be in agreement with Krishna’s aforesaidview on Yajna, when he says “that man him-self is a Yajna, and maintains that everyactivity in man’s life is a libation (oblation)or ahuti offered to the eternal world circle orsacrifice of the God in the form of world

process. It is found that in the 17th Chapterof Gita while referring to the threefold dayto day’s sacred acts of man such as “daan,tapa and Yajna”, Krishna seems to teach themankind the true perspective of the termYajna when he states that performance ofevery act in life in the sense of true worshipto god is sacrifice. In other words, his viewon sacrifice be expressed that ‘all acts donein the spirit of worship to god are infact thesacrifice offered to the god.’

Krishna’s other perspective on Yajna beunderstood as he says “act of sharing withothers whatever one has in excess” on thepart of a man is also a Yajna, which is alsonamed as Daana” in the Gita. The sameaccording to Krishna, also constitutes theessence of social service by way of servingthe society. In this manner such a kind ofYajna be termed as one of the daily routine-activities. Krishna’s other perspective on thenotion of sacrifice be traced from his state-ment in the Gita when he asserts that everyactivity of mankind if performed as worshipto God, itself amounts to a Yajna or sacri-fice, provided such acts also turn out to bebeneficial for the society and not be harmful

to anyone. Such acts are further applaudedby Krishna acclaiming that the same actsnever bind the doer with the effects/results.While, on the other hand the acts other thanwhich are done with the spirit of sacrifice orworship, but are obligatory to the doer bindhim to their results.

Hence, it may be ascertained that whileweaving new ideologies around the age oldnotions as the vedic notion Yajna, ShriKrishna through Gita however retains thetraditional meanings of the term. Forinstance when Krishna very clearly main-tains “That the Yajna is Kamadhenu or wishyielding Act in the world, and furtherexplaining this parable of Yajna as the wish-yielding cow Kamadhenu, he says that”Yajna or sacrifice as ritualistic act yields rain,which yields food and through food all thecreatures in this world retain their lives orPranas”. In such manner, Krishna rediscov-ers for the coming generations, the newessentials of the age-old ideologies as well asthe old religious practices in India by ren-dering new dimensions to them.

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Beijing’s belligerence is onthe rise all around, whether

it is unleashing a new terrorregime in the name of “nation-al security” in Hong Kong, theattempts to encroach on Indianland along the border or the bidto usurp the sea lines of com-munication in the South ChinaSea. However, the Xi Jinpingregime listens to stiff chal-lenges to its hegemony, as seenin the steady disengagement atthe Line of Actual Control(LAC) with India after NewDelhi stuck to its guns tosecure its sovereign right on itsland. Nevertheless, the brutal-ity of the People’s LiberationArmy (PLA) in Gulwan, incontravention of the bilateralagreement, has weakened theIndia-China ties revived in1988.

The South China Sea haswitnessed the latest round ofaggression from mainlandChina. Its plan to encircle theisland chain with a new net-work of security has hogged thelimelight.

What does all this signify?Xi’s authoritarian streak isreassertion of his power andauthority. The SCS is a con-tested territory. Recent devel-opments indicate that China isplanning to develop an AirDefence Identification Zone(ADIZ) around the Spratly,Paracel and Pratas islands inthe SCS. An ADIZ is a zone ofairspace over land or sea inwhich the identification, loca-tion and control of aircraft areperformed by a country in theinterest of its national interest.Records in the past indicatethat China had unilaterallydeclared an ADZ over the con-tested East China Sea in 2003when Hu Jintao was in power.Hu, who preached the doctrineof “Peaceful Rise” of his coun-try, had even walked on thesame path as pursued by hispredecessors.

When Xi took over fromhim in 2012, he wanted Chinato materialise “China Dream”with national rejuvenation,Belt and Road Initiative, andexpanding China’s debt trap allaround the world. Indeed, hehas clearly delineated China’simperial designs by displayingthe country’s total disregard fora rule-based international sys-tem. The SCS, which coverscritical sea lines of communi-cation, is today gradually mov-ing under China’s red regime.This international territorialdispute involves mainly six

claimants: Brunei, China,Malaysia, the Philippines,Taiwan and Vietnam. ButBeijing says it has full claimover all the islands chain.

Why the internationalcommunity is seriously dis-turbed at present with the pre-vailing situation in the SCS?The main problem is that ofChina’s hidden designs to turnthe whole set of islands into apart of its sovereign territory.In the recent months, Beijinghas intensified its activities inthe region. In the beginning ofApril, a Vietnamese fishingboat was rammed and sunk bya Chinese coast guard ship inand around the Paracel Islands.Interestingly this incident tookplace only after Hanoi sent adiplomatic note to the UNprotesting China’s historic“Nine Dash Line” claim overthe SCS at the end of March. Infact, Vietnam has been themost vocal critic of China inregard to its activities andclaims over the SCS. It has beenin the news that Hanoi mightconsider pursuing an interna-

tional legal course againstBeijing the way it was done byManila in 2016. That year thePermanent Court ofArbitration at the InternationalCourt of Justice at the Haguein the Netherlands had ruledthat China had no historicclaim over the waters of theSCS. As per the ruling of thetribunal, China’s claim to rightsof the water bodies of the SCSis contrary to the UNConvention of the Law of theSea (UNCLOS). It must bementioned here that only theUNCLOS can determine whichcountries can claim economicexploitation rights, basedentirely on geographic fea-tures. Therefore, the interna-tional tribunal rejected China’smaritime claims in the light ofits “Nine Dash Line” over theseareas. And the court said thatChina’s claim has no basis ininternational law.

But in complete disregardfor the international laws,China rejected this ruling, bycalling it “ill-founded”. AndBeijing advocated that the tri-

bunal had no right to decide onthe matter. Thus China, despitebeing a member of the ICJ,even refused to accept the SCSArbitration Award issued bythe Court at the Hague.

China’s actions in the SCSare contributed to weakeningof the international laws in thesea. It’s for the first time in the1990s, a Code of Conduct(COC) in the SCS was raisedby the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN).But only in 2002, at a gather-ing of the Foreign Ministersfrom the ASEAN and China inPhnom Penh, Cambodia, aCOC in the SCS was mandat-ed by a declaration amidheightened tensions in thearea. Therefore, the COC isbased on a Declaration on theConduct of Parties in the SCSsigned by China and 10ASEAN nations in the sameyear. This area has one of theworld’s most crucial shippinglanes which are supposed to berich in both marine and min-eral resources. Therefore, thearea attracts strong contestation

from the nations in and aroundit. But the problem in evolvingsuch a code is mainly due todifferences between theASEAN and Beijing. It hasbeen argued that the COC cannever be an instrument to set-tle territorial disputes. Itsframework is more symbolicthan substantive.

Moreover, as the Covid-19disrupts the normal life, theASEAN nations are looking formore time to finally shape theCOC. In fact, in 2019, a three-year timeline was drawn at the22nd ASEAN and China sum-mit held in Manila in 2019.This time frame was proposedby China only. But then howdoes this COC can reduce thecurrent tensions betweenChina and the rest of theclaimant nations. Precisely, theCOC is a legally binding doc-ument that will be able tomanage how countries actwithin the SCS despite disput-ing territorial claims. Even ear-lier, China was softening itsstand on certain provisions ofthe COC. These included pro-

visions on the Western militarypresence and continued oiland gas exploration activities inthe entire zone. But todayworking on a deadline toimplement the COC seemsdifficult even by 2022 becauseof China’s belligerence and thecurrent pandemic.

What has taken place onJuly 13 has again brought tolight the entire debate of theSCS to the forefront. The US onthis day officially dismissedChina’s claims to offshoreresources across the SCS ascompletely unlawful. USSecretary of State MichaelPompeo issued a statementclarifying America’s position onmaritime claims on the SCSsaying that China has no legalground to impose its will on theregion. Besides, Washingtonhas currently aligned its posi-tion on the ruling declared bythe International Court in2016. Pompeo said, “The worldwill not allow Beijing to treatthe SCS as its maritime empire.America stands with ourSoutheast Asian allies and part-

ners in protecting their sover-eign rights to offshoreresources, consistent with theirrights and obligations underinternational law.” Beijing mustunderstand how an America-led coalition can act against itsarrogance in the SCS.

The core issue at the cen-tre is the international pressureon China that has been incon-sistent so far. It’s not onlyAmerica and Japan’s interest,the rest of the powerful nationssuch as India, Australia,Singapore, etc, in the Asia-Pacific must chalk out jointstrategies to counter anyChinese expansionist movesacross the international sealines of communication.Taking full advantage of theperiods of neglect from theinternational community,China has quietly built up itsstructures in the SCS.

The best possible way is toremind and pressurise China toobey international laws in thesea. And for the US, and therest of the nations concerned,it is clear that China has takenthe entire SCS in its control.Hence, countries such asIndonesia, Malaysia,Philippines, Thailand, Vietnamand Japan need to assert theirmaritime rights time and againin all the contested zones.

If China is to rise peace-fully, it is bound to respectinternational law. Crafting anAsian order with a Chineseleadership has thus all its pit-falls. Its opaque, authoritarianand aggressive posture willdisturb peace and tranquility inthe Asian continent. TrustingChina will be a serious mistake.Its constant incursions, includ-ing salami-slice strategy, havebecome a serious threat forneighbouring nations likeIndia. Despite having robustdiplomatic understanding andagreed code of conduct tomaintain stability on the LAC,the recent Chinese brutalitytowards Indian security forcesin the Galwan Valley onceagain offers the internationalcommunity to build up ademocratic will to force thisnation to respect territorialintegrity of other nations.Henceforth, in the light ofChina’s muscle flexing, a US-led coalition must work relent-lessly to maintain freedom ofnavigation and peace in thetroubled waters of the SCS.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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Global rankings of univer-sities/academic institutes

are a relatively new phenome-non. Government authoritiesand academia have been con-cerned regarding the fact thatno academic institute in Indiais ranked high. Accordingly, theGovernment of India in generaland the HRD Ministry in par-ticular are making efforts toprovide additional funds andautonomy to select Indian aca-demic institutes in the hopethat these will enable them torise in the global rankings.While this is not an undesirablegoal, there is need for caution.Chasing global rankings can domore harm than good as theparameters used to determinethe position of academic insti-tutes in the global rankings caninduce perverse incentives.

For instance, an importantparameter used by the globalrankings is the number of for-eign faculty an academic insti-tute has on its rolls. This crite-rion makes several assump-tions which may be false. Itassumes that if an academicinstitute is able to attract fac-ulty from abroad then the aca-demic institute must be goodand must be making academ-ic appointments on merit. Italso errs in assuming that allforeign faculty members are atleast of a certain minimum cal-ibre. In fact, the parameter usedfor the global rankings takesinto account only the numberof foreign faculty with completedisregard for their caliber. So a

university can score well on thisparameter by simply hiring alarge number of foreign facul-ty members of low caliber. Infact, a university may be aca-demically so weak that it can-not attract any foreign facultyof high caliber. But to score wellon this parameter, the univer-sity may hire whatever foreignfaculty is available and ignorebetter faculty available nation-ally. This is not merely a theo-retical possibility, it is actuallyhappening at some Indian uni-versities that are aiming for ahigh global rank.

Another important para-meter is research publications.A high global ranking requiresfaculty members of an acade-mic institute to publish at least150 papers a year in Scopusjournals. However, the Scopusjournals include a wide varietyof journals, ranging from verylow to very high quality. Tomeet this criterion, the vice-chancellor of a university isalleged to have advised hisfaculty members to aim atpublishing in the low-qualityScopus journals as it is easy topublish in them whereas pub-lishing in the high-qualityScopus journals is difficult andmay take longer. Thus, the cri-terion, however well intended,may actually induce incentivesto produce low-quality researchpapers in large numbers whichdo not really raise the academicstature of a university.

A simple example, that isnot concerning academic insti-

tutes however, may help under-stand the issue better. It is saidthat there was a Government-owned glass factory nearMoscow that had the capacityto produce 80 per cent of theglass sheets needed in theeconomy. In the heydays ofcentral planning, performanceof this factory was measured interms of tons of glass sheetsproduced by the factory. Toscore well on this parameter,the factory produced only thickglass sheets and no thin glasssheets as the latter took longerto produce and contributed lessto the tonnage. This led toshortages of thin glass sheets inthe economy. To address theproblem the central plannerchanged the criterion. The per-formance of the factory, fromthen on, was to be measured bythe square feet of glass sheetsproduced. But the factory then

stopped producing thick glasssheets and instead started toproduce only thin glass sheetsas they contributed more to thesquare feet and used lessmolten glass. Soon there wereshortages of thick glass sheets;more square feet but fewertonnes of glass sheets wereproduced. Thus, instead ofmaking efforts to meet needs ofthe economy for various typesof glass sheets, gaming theparameters became the maingoal of the factory.

Besides, some parametersused for global rankings evenif not gamed could be simplymisleading. One such parame-ter is the student-faculty ratio.A low student-faculty ratio isassumed to indicate a healthyteaching environment. Thisassumption too can be false asthe ratio is determined simplyby the total number of students

divided by the total number offaculty members with completedisregard for the quality ofeither the students or the fac-ulty. Thus, a university mayscore well on this criterion evenif most of its faculty has littleor no teaching experience butis large in numbers. Moreover,the student-faculty ratio in auniversity can be low even if itis very high for its undergrad-uate programmes and, bydefault, very low for its gradu-ate programmes, because theuniversity is unable to attractmany students for its graduateprogrammes. As we know,averages can hide extremes.

In sum, asking academicinstitutes to chase global rank-ings is not very different fromcentral planning: A model thathas repeatedly failed world-wide. In fact, it is worse thancentral planning because the

ranking parameters and theirvalues are not determined bythe national planner but areoutsourced to an internation-al agency that is seeking prof-its. In any case, all but a cou-ple of parameters used forglobal rankings can be gamedand have similar flaws as thosediscussed above. Seven leadingIITs have rightly questioned theparameters used for the glob-al rankings.

The global rankings alsodo not take into account thequality of governance in acad-emic institutes and therebymiss the wood for trees. Mostreputed academic institutesare least hierarchical andbelieve in transparent and par-ticipatory decision-makingprocesses. In contrast, the vice-chancellor of a university mayconcentrate all decision-mak-ing powers in his/her handssuch that no faculty memberwould dare to question deci-sions taken by him unilateral-ly. Such universities mayencourage blatant cronyism.This is especially true in thecase of some private universi-ties in India which practise easyhiring and firing policies. Yet,both because the quality of gov-ernance is not taken intoaccount and flawed parametersare used for the global rank-ings, such badly governed uni-versities can also aspire for ahigh global rank.

In sum, asking Indian aca-demic institutes generally tochase global rankings as a pri-

mary target is not the right wayto incentivise them to raisetheir global profile, becausethat, as noted above, may leadto perverse incentives. Due tolack of appropriate incentivesand good governance, the roleof many Indian universities hasdiminished to conductingexaminations and awardingdegrees. This certainly needs tochange. But in order to bringmeaningful change, instead ofchasing global rankings, theemphasis should be on culti-vating a culture and traditionof innovation and high-quali-ty research and teaching, assome internationally reputedIndian and foreign academicinstitutes actually do withoutbothering about their globalrankings. Indeed, many acad-emic institutes became inter-nationally reputed much beforeglobal rankings of universitieswere invented and practised.Even now most of the top-ranking universities actually donot participate in the process ofglobal rankings, but they arestill assigned ranks to givecredibility to the global rank-ings and make them appearuniversal. It is only the lessreputed universities that arewilling to pay heavy fees forparticipating in the process ofglobal rankings, as they see itas an easy and quick path tofame that can be monetised.

(The writer is an AdjunctProfessor of Economics at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, the US)

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Society is subject to continuedchurning, which impels change inour thought process, priorities, and

societal dynamics. The pace of changemay sometimes be normal, which passesoff without much of flutter. At times itbecomes rapid, which for many unpre-pared, becomes difficult to digest. For,the usual human tendency is to resistchange, carrying the fear of its uncertainfuture ramifications. Yet, with time welearn to manage. But there comes somesuch historical moments when we aretaken for a ride by some unprecedentedsituations. That forces us for an immedi-ate rethink. We are passing through onesuch moment when the whole world hassuddenly come to a grounding halt,which calls for an immediate rethink —what went wrong in our approach to lifethat has proved so heavy?

The present pandemic has come toremind us about some basic tenets oflife, which people engaged in the rigourof life seem to have forgotten. It is, as ifthey would have moved beyond theirlimits . First, the world is a unifiedorganism, where no individual has areality independent of the whole.Second, all field players of the world are

set into an interdependent framework,where the efforts of all put together,meets our existential needs and carriesforward the life cycle. In such a frame-work, irresponsible conduct of a few canprove heavy for the whole mankind. See,how coronavirus that erupted in Wuhanstate of China, has overtaken the wholeworld. It is difficult to ascertain whetherit was because of particular eating habitsof the people there or the negligence ofthe scientists, or whether it was aplanned conspiracy. Time may uncoverthe truth. But there is no denying thefact that unbecoming conduct of a fewhas resulted in such a catastrophe. Mostother nations did not take the impend-ing threat in all its seriousness in time.We, thus, have a shared destiny, andtherefore, while attending to our aspira-tional urges, we need to remain con-scious about our collective obligations aswell.

See how beautifully the above con-cept is portrayed in the imagery of LordShiva and his marriage party. I believe,our learned masters were great artists, ishow they could explain such vital truthsof life through easily understandableimageries. And to ensure that the con-

cept remains live in our mind, they dedi-cated the whole month of Shravana toLord Shiva in our annular calendar. Ifpeople reflect on the concept in prayermode at regular periodic interval theinlaid message may get absorbed in theinner realms of mind. Following which,it may spontaneously find reflection inour day to day conduct. It’s a differentmatter that over a period of time, it hasacquired a ritualistic dimension — peo-ple carrying water drawn from Ganga,marching long distance on foot and offerit Shivalinga in a temple.

Now look at the educative import ofthe imagery. Lord Shiva seated on a bullhas multitude of existences forming Hismarriage party — Godly bodies (markedwith cosmic functionalities vital tosmooth run of the life cycle), evils (thelow born guided by their animalisticinstincts), human beings, animals, birds,plants, and even invisible creatures suchas ghosts and goblins. Lord Shiva, in anunattached way remains in accord withall of them, as He doesn’t discriminate.Not that He is not aware of their indi-vidualistic and collective limitations. Hishalf eyes closed and half open meansthat knowingly He ignores their limita-tions. For, He is aware that if they are

subject to some limitation, they aresimultaneously armed with such virtuesas would be necessary for sustenance ofthe collective existence, so framed as butfor one, the very existence would be atstake. He purposely does that so as tomake full use of their virtues in order toensure smooth run of the life cycle as awhole, as signified by bull’s nature.Remember, the bull, while pulling a bul-lock cart, keeps moving unprovoked atan even pace. The presence of ghostsand goblins need a special reference.They symbolise our formless presence inbetween two successive lives, indicatingcontinuum in life cycle.

To sum up, the world is framed onthe concept of Unity in Diversity. With asense of unity consciousness live inmind, we may accord due honour to all,which may ensure living in peace andharmony. It is the absence of the sense ofunity consciousness that holds the key togrowing level of our impatience andintolerance.

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