ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five...

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C oronavirus has infected a record 40,953 people in the last 24 hours, highest so far since November taking the total tally to 1,15,55,284 on Saturday. Eight States, includ- ing Maharashtra, are the major contributors in the total case- loads, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account- ed for 76.22 per cent of India’s total active caseload. The west- ern States contributed to 62 per cent of such cases, while the southern and northern States accounted for 8.83 per cent and 5.36 per cent of active cases respectively. The top five districts in Maharashtra recording the highest number of cases were Pune (37,384), Nagpur (25,861), Mumbai (18,850), Thane (16,735) and Nashik (11,867) while the top five dis- tricts in Kerala recording the highest number of cases were Ernakulam (2,673), Pathanamthitta (2,482), Kannur (2,263), Palakkad (2,147) and Thrissur (2,065). Similarly, the top five dis- tricts in Punjab recording the highest number of cases were Jalandhar (2,131), SAS Nagar (1,868), Patiala (1,685), Ludhiana (1,643) and Hoshiarpur (1,572). “A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight States. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana. Kerala is showing a consistently declining trend,” the Ministry said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur- ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh deaths due to the virus. Maharashtra saw the maxi- mum casualties at 70, Punjab followed with 38 daily deaths and Kerala reported 17 deaths in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, in a major relief, fifteen States and UTs did not report any Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. Continued on Page 4 I n a shocking development that further threatens the very stability of the Shiv Sena- led three party Government in Maharashtra, Mumbai’s for- mer Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Saturday alleged that State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of the NCP had asked now arrested and suspended police officer Sachin Vaze last month to “col- lect” a staggering 100 crore per month from bars, restau- rants and other sources. Three days after he was shunted and posted in a rela- tively insignificant post as the Commandant General of Home Guards, Singh dropped a bombshell on the MVA Government, in the form of an eight-page sensational letter written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in which he laid bare “misdeeds and mal- practices” indulged in by the State Home Minister. In his swift retaliation, State Home Minister Deshmukh — in a tweet put in the evening — debunked Singh’s charge and said, “The former Commissioner of Police, Parambir Singh, has made false allegations in order to save himself as the involve- ment of Sachin Waze in Mukesh Ambani & Mansukh Hiren’s case is becoming clear- er from the investigation car- ried out so far & threads are leading to Singh as well.” In his letter, Singh claimed that he had the briefing sessions with the CM, Dy CM, NCP president Sharad Pawar and other Ministers about the “sev- eral misdeeds and malpractices being indulged in by the Home Minister. “I noticed that some Ministers were already aware of some aspects mentioned by me to them,” he said. The letter by Singh not only seeks to expose Deshmukh, but also threatens to erode the credibility of the ruling MVA partner. The Shiv Sena may insist on its alliance partner NCP to ask Deshmukh to resign as a “damage control” exercise. Upping the ante, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and senior BJP leader demanded the State Home Minister’s resignation over what he dubbed as “earth- shattering letter” written by Mumbai’s former top cop. “Under the circumstances, the State Home Minister should immediately tender his resignation. The Chief Minister should immediately seek his resignation. And there should be an impartial enquiry. This enquiry must be conducted by Central agencies. If this is not acceptable to them, then it should be a court-monitored probe,” he said. Continued on Page 4 I ndia and the US on Saturday called for deepening defence and strategic ties with the US terming the partnership as a “stronghold” of a free and open India-Pacific region. This was in obvious reference to grow- ing Chinese assertiveness in the region. This takeaway came out after visiting US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held wide-ranging dis- cussion on bilateral defence relations and situation in the India-Pacific. They also report- edly reviewed the situation on the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh where stand-off was still on at some flash points. After the talks, Lloyd said elevating the India-US defence partnership is a “priority” of the Biden administration, and that India is an increasingly impor- tant partner amid rapidly shift- ing international dynamics and a “central pillar” in Washington’s approach towards the region. Describing the talks as “comprehensive and fruitful,” Rajnath said the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation between Indian military and the US India-Pacific Command, Central Command and Africa Command. Moreover, both the countries are keen to work together to realise the full potential of the India-US global strategic part- nership, he said. Referring to India-US foundational agreements on defence cooperation, Rajnath said both sides discussed steps to be taken to realise the full potential of pacts such as LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement), COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) and BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement). He also said the recent summit of leaders of India, the US, Japan and Australia under the Quad framework empha- sised the resolve to maintain a free, open and inclusive Indo- Pacific region. Continued on Page 4 T he Opposition parties — Congress, TMC, AAP, DMK, SP, PMK and NC — have supported “the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020”, one of the three farm laws against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for more than 100 days now. A Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, compris- ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj, Shafiqur Rahman Barq, Bhagwant Mann, Anbumani Ramadoss, Fauzia Khan, Shanta Chhetri and Ganesan Selvam, has asked the Government to implement in “letter and spirit” the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020. The same leaders and their political parties have been demanding the repeal of all three farm laws enacted by the Centre recently and backing the farmers’ protect against it. The report was tabled in Parliament on March 19, ask- ing the Government to “imple- ment the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 so the farmers and other stakeholders of the farm- ing sector in this country receive the benefits intended under the said Act. The panel said although the country has become sur- plus in most agri-commodities, farmers have been unable to get better prices due to lack of investment in cold storage, warehouses, processing and export as entrepreneurs get discouraged by the regulatory mechanisms in the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. “This has resulted in farm- ers suffering huge losses when there are bumper harvests, especially of perishable com- modities, much of which could have been reduced with ade- quate processing facilities,” the panel said. Also, it noted that even the High Powered Committee for Transformation of Indian Agriculture had suggested that there was a need to create an environment based on ease of doing business and for remov- ing the fear of frequent statu- tory controls under the Essential Commodities Act in order to boost immediate investment in agriculture sec- tor, increase competition and enhance farmers’ income. “The Committee hope(s) and expect(s) that the recent- ly enacted ‘Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020’, which was aimed at addressing the issue, will become a catalyst for unlock- ing vast untapped resources in the agriculture sector by creat- ing an environment for enhanced investments in agri- culture sector, fair and pro- ductive competition in agri- cultural marketing and increase farmers’ income,” the report added. Continued on Page 4 T he Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Saturday elected Dattatreya Hosabale as the next sarkaryavah (general secretary). Hosabale replaces Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, 73, who held the position since 2009 for the fourth time. Hosabale, 65, was serving as the organisation’s saha- sarkaryavah in the RSS. The important decision for the change of guards was taken at RSS’ “Akhil Bharatiya Prathinidhi Sabha”, the highest annual decision-making con- clave of the Sangh, which was held near Bengaluru this year from March 19 to March 20. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme will be implemented in the national Capital without any name and a fresh propos- al will be sent to the Centre for its approval, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. The announcement came a day after Centre red-flagged “Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna”, saying subsidised foodgrains under the “National Food Security Act” cannot be used for State specific scheme. Kejriwal said, “We will accept all conditions of the Centre but will not allow any obstruction of the scheme.” Detailed report on P3 A IIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Saturday hoped that the vaccine would be able to give good protection from the infection for eight to ten months or be even more. “The Covid-19 vaccine should be able to give good protection from the infection for eight to ten months and maybe, even more,” Guleria said at an event organised by the IPS (Central) Association. Over four crore people in the country have been vacci- nated against the virus till now. The AIIMS head also said no major side-effect of the vac- cine has been recorded. He said the biggest reason for the surge in cases is that people feel the pandemic is over and they are not follow- ing Covid-appropriate behav- iour. “There are multiple rea- sons for the surge, but the main reason is that there is a change in people’s attitude and they feel the coronavirus is over. People should still restrict non-essential travel for some more time,” he asserted. NITI Aayog member (Health) VK Paul said the chain of transmission has to be stopped and for that vaccine is one tool but another is con- tainment and surveillance strategy. “Not following Covid-19 behaviour and laxity is a major reason for the surge,” he said. Responding to a question on vaccinating more people, Paul said the issue is vaccines are limited and that is why pri- oritisation has been done. “If we had unlimited sup- ply, we would open the vacci- nation for everyone. That is the reason, not everyone is getting vaccinated. Most countries in the world are not able to go beyond priority groups because of this reason,” he said. The NITI Aayog member also said the highest mortali- ty was seen among people with co-morbidities and older age groups. “These people must not delay taking the vaccine. So the message is that they need it more than others. That is the reason they have been priori- tised for getting the Covid-19 vaccine,” he said. Talking about the effec- tiveness of the available Covid- 19 vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield, Guleria said, “If we look at the two vaccines, they produce equal antibodies and are very robust. We should take the vaccine available to us because both are equally effec- tive in terms of efficacy and long-term protection.” Nagpur: Restrictions imposed in Nagpur district will contin- ue with some relaxations from March 22 to March 31 in view of rising coronavirus cases, Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut said on Saturday. In Nagpur city, restaurants and eateries can operate till 7 pm while shops can remain open till 4 pm, said the Minister. Bhopal: A lockdown has been announced in Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur. The three cities will remain shut from 10 pm on Saturday to 6 am on Monday, and their schools and colleges will remain closed till March 31, the State Government said on Friday. New Delhi: Delhi reported over 800 Covid-19 cases for the first time this year on Saturday as the positivity rate breached the 1 per cent-mark after over two months, while two more fatalities pushed the death toll to 10,955, as per data shared by the health department. The number of active cases rose to 3,409 from 3,165 a day ago, according to the latest health bulletin. U S Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he had talked about human rights of minorities in India during his meeting with Cabinet Ministers here during his ongoing visit. It was impor- tant for partners to have “those kinds of discussions,” he said. In an interaction with media, “We have to remem- ber that India is our partner, a partner whose partnership we value. And I think partners need to be able to have those kinds of discussions. And certainly, we feel comfort- able doing that. And you can have those discussions in a very meaningful way and make progress.” he added. His response came in the backdrop of US Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee men- tioning about “the deterio- rating situation of democra- cy in India.” Continued on Page 4

Transcript of ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five...

Page 1: ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh ... ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj,

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Coronavirus has infected arecord 40,953 people in the

last 24 hours, highest so farsince November taking thetotal tally to 1,15,55,284 onSaturday. Eight States, includ-ing Maharashtra, are the majorcontributors in the total case-loads, the Union HealthMinistry said on Saturday.

Maharashtra, Kerala andPunjab cumulatively account-ed for 76.22 per cent of India’stotal active caseload. The west-ern States contributed to 62 percent of such cases, while thesouthern and northern Statesaccounted for 8.83 per cent and5.36 per cent of active casesrespectively.

The top five districts inMaharashtra recording thehighest number of cases werePune (37,384), Nagpur(25,861), Mumbai (18,850),

Thane (16,735) and Nashik(11,867) while the top five dis-tricts in Kerala recording thehighest number of cases wereErnakulam (2,673),Pathanamthitta (2,482),Kannur (2,263), Palakkad

(2,147) and Thrissur (2,065).Similarly, the top five dis-

tricts in Punjab recording thehighest number of cases wereJalandhar (2,131), SAS Nagar(1,868), Patiala (1,685),Ludhiana (1,643) and

Hoshiarpur (1,572).“A rising trajectory of daily

new cases is visible in eightStates. These are Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu, Punjab, MadhyaPradesh, Delhi, Gujarat,Karnataka and Haryana. Keralais showing a consistentlydeclining trend,” the Ministrysaid in a statement.

The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for81.38 per cent of the freshdeaths due to the virus.Maharashtra saw the maxi-mum casualties at 70, Punjabfollowed with 38 daily deathsand Kerala reported 17 deathsin the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in a majorrelief, fifteen States and UTs didnot report any Covid-19 deathsin the last 24 hours.

Continued on Page 4

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In a shocking developmentthat further threatens the

very stability of the Shiv Sena-led three party Government inMaharashtra, Mumbai’s for-mer Police CommissionerParam Bir Singh on Saturdayalleged that State HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh of theNCP had asked now arrestedand suspended police officerSachin Vaze last month to “col-lect” a staggering �100 croreper month from bars, restau-rants and other sources.

Three days after he wasshunted and posted in a rela-tively insignificant post as theCommandant General ofHome Guards, Singh droppeda bombshell on the MVAGovernment, in the form of aneight-page sensational letterwritten to Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, in which helaid bare “misdeeds and mal-practices” indulged in by theState Home Minister.

In his swift retaliation,State Home Minister

Deshmukh — in a tweet put inthe evening — debunkedSingh’s charge and said, “Theformer Commissioner ofPolice, Parambir Singh, hasmade false allegations in orderto save himself as the involve-ment of Sachin Waze inMukesh Ambani & MansukhHiren’s case is becoming clear-er from the investigation car-ried out so far & threads areleading to Singh as well.”

In his letter, Singh claimedthat he had the briefing sessionswith the CM, Dy CM, NCPpresident Sharad Pawar andother Ministers about the “sev-eral misdeeds and malpracticesbeing indulged in by the HomeMinister. “I noticed that someMinisters were already aware ofsome aspects mentioned by meto them,” he said.

The letter by Singh notonly seeks to exposeDeshmukh, but also threatens

to erode the credibility of theruling MVA partner.

The Shiv Sena may insiston its alliance partner NCP toask Deshmukh to resign as a“damage control” exercise.

Upping the ante, leader ofthe Opposition in the StateAssembly and senior BJP leaderdemanded the State HomeMinister’s resignation overwhat he dubbed as “earth-shattering letter” written byMumbai’s former top cop.

“Under the circumstances,the State Home Ministershould immediately tender hisresignation. The Chief Ministershould immediately seek hisresignation. And there shouldbe an impartial enquiry. Thisenquiry must be conducted byCentral agencies. If this is notacceptable to them, then itshould be a court-monitoredprobe,” he said.

Continued on Page 4

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India and the US on Saturdaycalled for deepening defence

and strategic ties with the USterming the partnership as a“stronghold” of a free and openIndia-Pacific region. This wasin obvious reference to grow-ing Chinese assertiveness in theregion.

This takeaway came outafter visiting US DefenceSecretary Lloyd J Austin andDefence Minister RajnathSingh held wide-ranging dis-

cussion on bilateral defencerelations and situation in theIndia-Pacific. They also report-edly reviewed the situation onthe Line of Actual Control inLadakh where stand-off was

still on at some flash points.After the talks, Lloyd said

elevating the India-US defencepartnership is a “priority” of theBiden administration, and thatIndia is an increasingly impor-

tant partner amid rapidly shift-ing international dynamics anda “central pillar” inWashington’s approach towardsthe region.

Describing the talks as“comprehensive and fruitful,”Rajnath said the two sidesagreed to enhance cooperationbetween Indian military andthe US India-PacificCommand, Central Commandand Africa Command.Moreover, both the countriesare keen to work together torealise the full potential of theIndia-US global strategic part-nership, he said.

Referring to India-USfoundational agreements ondefence cooperation, Rajnathsaid both sides discussed stepsto be taken to realise the fullpotential of pacts such asLEMOA (Logistics Exchange

Memorandum of Agreement),COMCASA (CommunicationsCompatibility and SecurityAgreement) and BECA (BasicExchange and CooperationAgreement).

He also said the recentsummit of leaders of India, theUS, Japan and Australia underthe Quad framework empha-sised the resolve to maintain afree, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.

Continued on Page 4

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The Opposition parties —Congress, TMC, AAP,

DMK, SP, PMK and NC —have supported “the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act 2020”, one of the three farmlaws against which farmers areprotesting at Delhi borders formore than 100 days now.

A Parliamentary StandingCommittee on the Ministry ofConsumer Affairs, compris-ing Farooq Abdullah, GSBasavaraj, Shafiqur RahmanBarq, Bhagwant Mann,Anbumani Ramadoss, FauziaKhan, Shanta Chhetri andGanesan Selvam, has askedthe Government to implementin “letter and spirit” theEssential Commodities(Amendment) Act 2020.

The same leaders and their

political parties have beendemanding the repeal of allthree farm laws enacted by theCentre recently and backingthe farmers’ protect against it.

The report was tabled inParliament on March 19, ask-ing the Government to “imple-ment the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act, 2020 so the farmers andother stakeholders of the farm-ing sector in this countryreceive the benefits intendedunder the said Act.

The panel said althoughthe country has become sur-plus in most agri-commodities,farmers have been unable to getbetter prices due to lack ofinvestment in cold storage,warehouses, processing andexport as entrepreneurs getdiscouraged by the regulatorymechanisms in the EssentialCommodities Act, 1955.

“This has resulted in farm-ers suffering huge losses whenthere are bumper harvests,especially of perishable com-modities, much of which couldhave been reduced with ade-quate processing facilities,” thepanel said.

Also, it noted that even theHigh Powered Committee forTransformation of IndianAgriculture had suggested thatthere was a need to create anenvironment based on ease of

doing business and for remov-ing the fear of frequent statu-tory controls under theEssential Commodities Act inorder to boost immediateinvestment in agriculture sec-tor, increase competition andenhance farmers’ income.

“The Committee hope(s)and expect(s) that the recent-ly enacted ‘EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act, 2020’, which was aimed ataddressing the issue, willbecome a catalyst for unlock-ing vast untapped resources inthe agriculture sector by creat-ing an environment forenhanced investments in agri-culture sector, fair and pro-ductive competition in agri-cultural marketing and increasefarmers’ income,” the reportadded.

Continued on Page 4

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The Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) on Saturday

elected Dattatreya Hosabale asthe next sarkaryavah (generalsecretary). Hosabale replacesSuresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, 73, whoheld the position since 2009 forthe fourth time.

Hosabale, 65, was servingas the organisation’s saha-sarkaryavah in the RSS.

The important decision forthe change of guards was takenat RSS’ “Akhil BharatiyaPrathinidhi Sabha”, the highestannual decision-making con-clave of the Sangh, which washeld near Bengaluru this yearfrom March 19 to March 20.

Continued on Page 4

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The Delhi Government’sdoorstep ration delivery

scheme will be implemented inthe national Capital withoutany name and a fresh propos-al will be sent to the Centre forits approval, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidon Saturday.

The announcement came aday after Centre red-flagged“Mukhya Mantri Ghar GharRation Yojna”, saying subsidisedfoodgrains under the “NationalFood Security Act” cannot beused for State specific scheme.

Kejriwal said, “We willaccept all conditions of theCentre but will not allow anyobstruction of the scheme.”

Detailed report on P3

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AIIMS Director RandeepGuleria on Saturday hoped

that the vaccine would be ableto give good protection fromthe infection for eight to tenmonths or be even more.

“The Covid-19 vaccineshould be able to give goodprotection from the infectionfor eight to ten months andmaybe, even more,” Guleriasaid at an event organised bythe IPS (Central) Association.

Over four crore people inthe country have been vacci-nated against the virus tillnow. The AIIMS head also saidno major side-effect of the vac-cine has been recorded.

He said the biggest reasonfor the surge in cases is thatpeople feel the pandemic isover and they are not follow-ing Covid-appropriate behav-iour.

“There are multiple rea-sons for the surge, but the mainreason is that there is a changein people’s attitude and theyfeel the coronavirus is over.People should still restrictnon-essential travel for somemore time,” he asserted.

NITI Aayog member(Health) VK Paul said thechain of transmission has to bestopped and for that vaccine isone tool but another is con-tainment and surveillancestrategy.

“Not following Covid-19behaviour and laxity is a majorreason for the surge,” he said.

Responding to a questionon vaccinating more people,Paul said the issue is vaccinesare limited and that is why pri-oritisation has been done.

“If we had unlimited sup-ply, we would open the vacci-nation for everyone. That is thereason, not everyone is gettingvaccinated. Most countries inthe world are not able to gobeyond priority groupsbecause of this reason,” hesaid.

The NITI Aayog memberalso said the highest mortali-ty was seen among peoplewith co-morbidities and olderage groups.

“These people must notdelay taking the vaccine. So themessage is that they need itmore than others. That is thereason they have been priori-tised for getting the Covid-19vaccine,” he said.

Talking about the effec-tiveness of the available Covid-19 vaccines, Covaxin andCovishield, Guleria said, “If welook at the two vaccines, theyproduce equal antibodies andare very robust. We should takethe vaccine available to usbecause both are equally effec-tive in terms of efficacy andlong-term protection.”

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Nagpur: Restrictions imposedin Nagpur district will contin-ue with some relaxations fromMarch 22 to March 31 in viewof rising coronavirus cases,Maharashtra Energy MinisterNitin Raut said on Saturday.

In Nagpur city, restaurantsand eateries can operate till 7pm while shops can remainopen till 4 pm, said theMinister.

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Bhopal: A lockdown has beenannounced in MadhyaPradesh’s capital Bhopal, Indoreand Jabalpur. The three citieswill remain shut from 10 pm onSaturday to 6 am on Monday,and their schools and collegeswill remain closed till March31, the State Government saidon Friday.

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New Delhi: Delhi reportedover 800 Covid-19 cases for thefirst time this year on Saturdayas the positivity rate breachedthe 1 per cent-mark after overtwo months, while two morefatalities pushed the death tollto 10,955, as per data shared bythe health department. Thenumber of active cases rose to3,409 from 3,165 a day ago,according to the latest healthbulletin.

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US Defence SecretaryLloyd Austin said he had

talked about human rights ofminorities in India during hismeeting with CabinetMinisters here during hisongoing visit. It was impor-tant for partners to have“those kinds of discussions,”he said.

In an interaction withmedia, “We have to remem-ber that India is our partner,a partner whose partnershipwe value. And I think partnersneed to be able to have thosekinds of discussions. Andcertainly, we feel comfort-able doing that. And you canhave those discussions in avery meaningful way andmake progress.” he added.

His response came in thebackdrop of US SenatorRobert Menendez, Chairmanof the Senate ForeignRelations Committee men-tioning about “the deterio-rating situation of democra-cy in India.”

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh ... ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj,

� How does it feel to be back onTV with Mann Kee AwaazPratigya 2 after about six years?

It feels great. I am aworkaholic and shooting everyday is something I love. Not that,I wasn’t shooting for the last sixyears. I was, but it was morerelaxed. I used to shoot for 20 dayswith a few holidays, I loved that,but I laid back. And as soon as Istarted shooting for Pratigya 2, Irealised how much I love beinggrinded up. I am excited for theSeason 2 of the show that hasmade me what I am.� Do you have more pressure forthis season or are you relativelyrelaxed since the character isalready well-established?

No, there is no pressure. Infact, as you mentioned, I feelcomfortable and relaxed becausethe character is alreadyestablished. It is a character thatI don’t have to create. As anactor, when you start a new showyou have to sit and spend timewith the character in order to getinto its skin. I didn’t have to dothis. When I gave my first shot, thecharacter was inside me. It didn’tfeel I was doing it nine years later. � Some memories that you canshare from the sets of Pratigya1?

There are tons of them. Infact, every single day, not just meand but the whole cast and crewof the show gets reminded ofsomething from the previousseason. It is a great nostalgicfeeling to look back and makemore today. I can’t choose onememory because it will be unfairsince we have spent three and ahalf years with the show.� A lesson that you took backhome from the sets.

When I started the show, 12years back and till it ended, ourshooting schedule was erratic. Wewere shooting day in and out tillthe last episode got over. It wasaired on October 27, 2012 at10:30 pm and we packed up forthat episode at 7:30 am on thesame day. And because of whichmy sleep had gone for a toss andI could do very little about it sinceit was the demand of the show.Even my eating habits werehorrible. I would eat a lot of junkor eat at wrong times or don’t eatat all. I was about 18 back then, I

didn’t realise but ittook a toll on myhealth. That was thelesson that I hadlearnt that youreating habits have tobe right. I will makesure that I don’t repeatit on this or any othershow. Apart from this, thereare a lot of lessons that I havelearnt over the years abouthow I would approach ascene. I am learning on thejob.� You are also a part ofSIT’s web series. How hardwill it be to juggle betweenworking on TV and also adigital platform?

It will be a little hardbecause I have to managetime for both of them. Butonce the show is set up andwe have a bank of telecastsfor Pratigya 2 , theproduction is going to helpme manage my time. They

will spare me for SIT too becauseit is also extremely close to myheart. It is a different world and Ienjoy it equally. I look forward tobeing on the sets of SIT. The goodthing is both the productionhouses have been kind enough tohelp me manage it all.� How did Kedarnath happen?

It was simply throughauditions. I received a call fromMukesh Chabra CastingCompany about a film that they

were casting for. At that time, I didn’t know whatthat movie was. They gave me ascene and I tested for it. Later on,I was called again for another testand then I was told that it was foran integral part of a big movie. Itwas not before my third test thatI was told it was for Kedarnath. Iwas given insights into the scripttested with Sara Ali Khan for ascene. A few days later, I got a callfrom the team that I have beenfinalised. That was it.� From Kitani Mohabbat Hai tonow Pratigya 2, how would youdescribe your journey?

The journey has beencolourful and enriching. I can saythat I am a much more refinedactor now — rich in knowledge ofthe technicalities of how to standon your mark or how to look intothe camera. I have done a lot ofvaried roles. I have been choosyin terms of the kind of work I takeup because I want to do newthings every time. I don’t want to

get typecast, which did happenafter I did Pratigya and

Savdhaan India . I wasoffered the roles of a strongwoman, which is fine, butI was looking forsomething that I haven’tdone. Thankfully, thathappened with Roshni.It is definitelychallenging to havepatience and wait forthe right project. But,utilised that time inlearning new things.I call it ‘I wasupdating mysoftware’.� In between allthis, did you haveany regrets?

Not at all. Thereason is beforemaking any decision,I sit and think aboutall the pros and consof it. And if I willhave even theslightest of doubtabout that decision, Iwill not go aheadwith that. I never takeor won’t be able totake up a projectbecause I have to. Ishould feel happygoing to the sets.

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It’s dark yes, definitely thrilling butin its very own unique kind of way.Emanating from a cop-killer youth

involved in a turf war with fellowgangsters, it moves on to a series of setpieces that enhance the story at variouslevels. However, the ambience largelyremains rainy and dark, when it is notred blue or psychedelic.

Whether these shades are goodprops is a matter of discussion,depending on what your idea of athriller is. But, over and above that thestory in itself is gripping and unfolds

slowly enough to not let you off thehook.

Add to this the almost mutedcharacter of an unapologetic matterof fact prostitute Liu Aiai who grabsthe scene from the time she asks fora light from the youth under a leakysky in the middle of the night, to thelast scene which scripts the suspenseand revelation to the last seconds,there is something really dramaticabout this understated thriller fromthe celebrated director Diao Yinan.

Aiai is crucial to the film thoughshe does well to keep the theatricsaway from her story and role in thefilm as does Zhou Zenong aroundwhose predicament the filmbeautifully revolves.

All in all a differently enabledfilm if you are not into a ferociouspace circuit.

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This movie should not be confused with the2017 film directed by Björn L Rungewhere a wife questions her life choices as

she travels to Stockholm to see her husbandreceive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

This one, written and directed by SarmadKhan, set in a metro, talks about how a witchchanges the life of a young boy forever and takeshim on a path from where there is no comingback. This is not a spoiler alert. As the openingcredits rolls, one knows how this one is goingto end. The tag: The Wife: Till Death Do Us Partis a dead give away.

There are a few let downs here. The paceand how the story is told and unfolds is ratherslow. This takes away the scare element. Theacting is stilted as well taking away from thejump moments.

Gurmeet Choudhary is not new to thisgenre; he has done Khamoshiyan (2015). Hisexpressions and disinterest in what is happeningin his house is rather strange given that he isaware of the reason of the spookiness in hishouse.

Still this makes for an interesting watch. Itis rare for Bollywood to make films that willspook you with things that go bump but TheWife does manage to give a few fright moments.But given what the story is here, the scarequotient could have been a notch more to giveone the heebie-jeebies.

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Here is some great news for the MarvelCinematic Universe fans. The Disney+, lastweek dropped the first episode based on

the Marvel Comics characters Falcon and WinterSoldier. The OTT platform will release oneepisode each week for the next six weeks. And thisis the only downer here. The wait for what is tocome next is going to leave the fans on the edge.More so, given where episode one left off. A spoileralert: Another Captain America?

However, fans can take heart from how themini-series starts — the Falcon jumping from anaircraft on a rescue mission. And what a rescueit is. The stunts are amazing; his flying even moreawesome that gives you a bird’s eye view of theground below. Mid-air rescue is definitelysomething that will have viewers talk about —until the next episode.

Unfortunately, the Winter Soldier here doesn’thave much to do except give a glimpse of his backstory and the demons that drive him. Still it is goodto see the Marvel characters come to life given howAvengers: Endgame ended — on a sad note.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is boundto keep the fans interested, at least till Black Widowor Spider-Man: No Way Home release.

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Page 3: ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh ... ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj,

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The Indian Railways inorder to prevent the inci-

dents of crime against womenin trains and its premises havetaken several steps in recentyears as part of a focusedeffort to collectively strive forsafety of women passengersand to mitigate atrocitiesagainst women in railways.

Various guidelines oraction plans issued by IndianRailways to all zonal railwaysand production units to pre-vent incidents of crime againstwomen. As estimated twenty

three (23) million passengerstravel through the IndianRailways everyday out ofwhich 20 per cent i.e. about 4.6million are women.

“The action plan should beclassified in short term andlong term plan. Short termplans should be implementedimmediately from the existingresources on priority withoutany delay. It may include keep-ing watch on suspects, regularvisit to vulnerable spots byduty officers and staff duringtheir rounds. However, longterm plan include improve-ment of basic infrastructure,CCTV, light masts, etc,” the

ministry said in a statement.Among the preventive

measures that need to beadopted including properlighting arrangements shouldbe ensured covering all vul-nerable places identified inrailway stations, circulatingarea, parking, approach roads,ends of platforms, yards andwashing lines, etc, it said.

It has been noticed thatgenerally cases of eve teasing,if remain unattended, lead toincrease in incidents ofmolestation or assault onwomen. As a measure to pre-vent such crimes, GRP/RPFofficials shall promptly take

necessary action on receivingcomplaints regarding any typeof ‘Crime against women’.

The Ministry further saidthat CCTV surveillance sys-tems should be used effective-ly. “Time to time audit of thecameras installed and the areacovered by them should bedone. It should be ensured thatall the persons visiting theRailway Platform/ Passengerarea are caught on the cam-eras,” it said.

The vulnerable placesidentified for such crimeshould mandatorily be coveredunder the CCTV surveillance,it added.

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The Delhi Government’sdoorstep ration delivery

scheme will be implemented inthe national Capital without anyname and a fresh proposal willbe sent to the Centre for itsapproval, Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said onSaturday.

The announcement came aday after Centre red-flagged‘’Mukhya Mantri Ghar GharRation Yojna’’, saying that sub-sidised foodgrains under the‘National Food Security Act’cannot be used for State specificscheme.

The Central Governmenthas objection to the word ‘ChiefMinister’. So we have decided toprovide door to door rationwithout any name of thescheme,” he said, adding thatthere will be a Cabinet meeting

on Monday and its proposalwill be sent to the Centre.

Kejriwal said “We willaccept all conditions of theCentre but will not allow anyobstruction in the implemen-tation of the scheme. We werea little disheartened with theCentral Government’s objec-tion, but we have understoodtheir issue with it; we just wantthe people to benefit and the

ration mafia to be defeated.”“We dreamed of this

scheme for 20-22 years and Iwas personally preparing for itfor the last 2-3 years, our bat-tle of 22 years will be won withthe implementation of thisscheme.

Kejriwal said, “On 25thMarch 2021 the DelhiGovernment was supposed tobegin the revolutionary flagshipproject — the MukhyamantriGhar Ghar Ration Yojana.Every State Government pro-vides ration to its poor. Peopleget ration from ration shopsand face various difficulties. Inmany cases, the ration dealersalso charge extra money fromthe poor, which is why citizensface a lot of difficulties in get-ting ration.”

Taking cognisance of thissituation, the DelhiGovernment came up with the

idea of home delivery of ration,he said, adding that under thisscheme, the Governmentdecided to prepare a pack com-prising atta, rice and otheringredients, which theGovernment would then deliv-er to individuals.

“We realised this canreduce the issues citizens face ingetting their monthly ration.This is why the DelhiGovernment came up withMukhya Mantri Ghar GharRation Yojana. We were all setto launch this scheme on 25thMarch but yesterday afternoonwe received a letter from theCentral Government, wherebythe Central Government direct-ed us not to implement thescheme,” he said.

The Chief Minister said, “Itwas a bit surprising because justfive days before the launch ofthe scheme we received such a

direction from the Centre. Wewere trying to understand thereason behind such a direction.The Central Government haswritten that we cannot keep thename Mukhya Mantri GharGhar Ration Yojana. It lookslike they have some issues in theuse of the word MukhyaMantri.”

“This scheme is not topublicise our name. We are notcoming up with this scheme topublicise our name. The Centrehas written that the name of thescheme will make it look like aState Government scheme. Iwant to make it very clear thatwe did not plan this scheme toget any credit. I am very hope-ful that after this decision, theCentral Government will nothave any more problems withthis scheme and they will allowus to implement this decision,”he said.

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The Delhi Governmentlaunched the “Education

Mentoring Programme” throughits “Youth for Education” initia-tive, which focuses on mentor-ing of girls studying in grades IXto XII in Delhi GovernmentSchools. Under the programme,students will be mentored byB.Tech, M.Tech, PhD and MBAstudents of Indira Gandhi DelhiTechnical University of Women.

On the involvement ofwomen and girls in the field ofinnovation, Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia said,“Our world is becoming aknowledge economy with ded-icated research and innovationquickly becoming the key toprogress. Although our nation isseeing some major innovationsin every field of work, theseinnovations are mostly led bymen. The participation ofwomen is abysmal when itcomes to innovation, especiallyin the field of STEM. Accordingto a study I recently came across,women form only 33 per cent ofthe total workforce in researchand innovation in STEM inSouth Asia.”

Sisodia said, “With theEducation MentoringProgramme, Delhi Governmentwants to empower students ofDelhi in the fields of Science,Technology, Engineering andMathematics. We want our stu-dents, especially our girls, to

receive the right guidance, whichwill help them build sustainableinnovations. It is our vision thatour girls equally dominate theSTEM sector.”

Addressing the mentors, hesaid, “If I have to speak about theenrolment rate of pre-primaryand primary schools, approxi-mately 21 lakh children areenrolled every year. However,only 10,000 girls take up STEMstudies in higher education.Our students and teachers arecontinuously endeavouring towork hard in this field but weneed to fill in this gap. Therefore,your participation and mentor-ing will play a crucial role.”

“Our Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal wants to bring in a rev-olution in education. When Iused to visit government schoolsearlier, I was always astonishedto see how dilapidated the build-ings were, how unsanitary theclasses were. We laid the foun-dation of basic education to helpour students take pride in

attending government schools.We built the professional capac-ity of our teachers and sent themall over the world - Harvard,Cambridge, Singapore andFinland for training. DelhiGovernment school childrenattained a 98 per cent pass per-centage in CBSE board exams.Our students are going to IITswithout any coaching,” he said.

Appreciating the efforts ofmentors in guiding students, hesaid, “Many students, especial-ly male students are going to IITswithout any guidance. Theyreceive guidance from theirteachers or fathers and brothers.I am aware that a lot of studentsare confused about their long-term goals and they require theright information at the righttime because making such deci-sions can be challenging. Thebest kind of guidance a studentcan receive is from his/hersenior and I am happy that youwill play a key role in guidingour students,” he said.

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With the arrest of fourpeople, the Delhi Police

on Saturday busted an inter-State paper leak gang operat-ing in Haryana, Rajasthan,Punjab, Uttar Pradesh andDelhi. Police said that theyhave also recovered two policeuniforms from the possessionof the accused.

The accused have beenidentified as Rohit (23), LoveKumar (26), Himanshu (23)and Vaishali (26), all residentsof Haryana.

According to Urvija Goel,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), West district,police received specific inputsthat some illegal practice wasgoing on at Om and ChanderAssociates Examination Centrein Naraina Industrial Areaduring the examination forthe post of forest guard.

“On February 4, policeconducted a raid at the centreand nabbed Rohit who wasusing a mobile phone for solv-ing his online paper.Thereafter, a case was regis-tered at Naraina police station,”said the DCP.

“During investigation,WhatsApp data of the seizedmobile phone was retrievedand analysed, following whichthree more people were arrest-ed from Delhi and Haryana,”said the DCP.

“During interrogation, itwas revealed that Vaishali is thekingpin of the gang. She, alongwith her boyfriend AnilSharma, brother Love andother associates, used to run aracket related to online exam-inations for variousGovernment jobs,” said theDCP.

“The gang operated in var-ious States, including Haryana,Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar-

Pradesh and Delhi, particularlyin rural areas. Two uniforms ofDelhi Police were also recov-ered from them. Vaishali usedto pose as an IPS officer andtwo of her associates used topose as sub-inspector and headconstable of the Delhi Police toimpress people, the DCP said.

“The accused used tocharge around �10 to 25 lakh,depending upon the nature ofthe job, from candidates inorder to pass the examination.Usually an employee of privateexamination centre helped toprovide a mobile phone totheir candidate,” said the DCP.

“The dummy candidateused to send a picture of thepaper to the kingpin. Then“solvers” solved the paper with-in a few minutes and circulat-ed the answer-key to theirexamination centres in differ-ent states,” said the DCP.

“The bank statement ofaccused persons revealedheavy cash transactions in2021. Efforts are being made tonab their associates. Links ofcandidates who have clearedthe examination by unfairmeans with the help of thegang are being investigated,”said the DCP.

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The Samyukt Kisan Morcha(SKM) on Saturday said a

fire broke out in a tent atDelhi’s Singhu border wherefarmers have been protestingthe Centre’s three agri laws.However, there was no officialword about the incident fromthe police or the fire depart-ment.

According to SKM, theincident took place around 10am near an under-constructionflyover where the tent was putup and the tent was complete-ly burnt.

“A man was also injuredwhile trying to extinguish the blaze. The tent was burnt after a cylinder caughtfire. There were around 10 to 12 people inside the tentwhen the blaze broke out. Five mobile phones, twentymattresses, 20 chairs and dryration were destroyed. A firetender from Sonipat’s Kundli

area doused the fire,” said theSKM.

Hundreds of farmers arecamping at Delhi’s borderspoints at Ghazipur, Singhu andTikri since November demand-ing that the Centre repeal thethree contentious farm lawsand make a new one thatwould ensure legal guaranteeon the MSP.

Enacted in September, thethree farm laws have been pro-jected by the Centre as majorreforms in the agriculture sec-tor that will remove middle-men and allow farmers to selltheir produce anywhere in thecountry.

The protesting farmers, on the other hand, haveexpressed apprehension thatthe new laws would pave theway for eliminating the safetycushion of the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) and doaway with the “mandi” (whole-sale market) system, leavingthem at the mercy of big cor-porates.

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The Lucknow-boundShatabdi Express caught

f ire when it reachedGhaziabad junction early onSaturday. The officials said noone was injured in the inci-dent and the fire was in par-cel boggy in which all the arti-cles kept were completelyburnt.

However, the train movedtoward its destination after theboggy was separated from thetrain.

According to Sunil KumarSingh, the Chief Fire Officer(CFO), the fire departmentreceived information fromrailway at around 7:00 amabout the incident followingwhich five fire tenders wererushed to the spot.

“The fire was in the parcelboggy of the train and it tookhalf an hour to douse theflames. The train was depart-ed for its destination aftercleansing and detaching theparcel boggy,” said the CFO.

The General ManagerNorthern Railway AshutoshGangal, who was present at thesite said an enquiry has beeninitiated and officials havebeen asked to submit its reportwithin a short period of time.

“The enquiry committeewill consist the forensic scien-tist’s team to determine theelectric and other banneditems,” said the official.

The Shatabdi Express hadleft New Delhi railway stationat around 6:38 am and reachedGhaziabad junction at 6:41 amwhere smoke coming out ofparcel van was noticed.

“The railway officers, ini-tially, tried to control the firethrough its workforce but theywere not able to control it fol-lowing which fire controldepartment was informed. Topave the way to other inboundtrains the Shatabdi was devi-

ated to other platform fromplatform number 2,” said theofficial.

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Delhi Prisons Departmenton Saturday resumed the

process of internal mulaqat ofinmates inside the jail premises.

According to a senior prisonofficial, on Saturday, the physi-cal mulaqat of female inmates ofjail no 6 Tihar and Jail no 16Mandoli was facilitated with

their male relatives who areincarcerated in other jails ofDelhi.

“In today’s mulaqat, 128male inmates met their relativefemale inmates of jail no 6.Similarly, 42 male inmates hadmulaqat in jail no 16, Mandoli.These male inmates werebrought to the female jails andallowed to meet face to face in

an open space for half an hour,”he said.

Earlier during the pre-Covidtime, this mulaqat was doneevery Saturday, except secondSaturday. Now, it will be allowedtwice a month, the first and thirdSaturday, he said, adding thatproper Covid protocols, includ-ing masks and social distancing,were ensured for all concerned.

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The Delhi Police has arrestedthree men for allegedly

molesting a 25-year-old womanand robbing a truck driver inSouth Delhi.

The accused have been iden-tified as Yogesh (26), NaveenLohmod (25) and Baljeet (30), allresidents of Aya Nagar.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),South district, on the interven-ing night of Thursday and Friday,information was received that thecaller was molested by three tofour men in their car who hadalso tried to rape her and tornher clothes.

“Police reached at the spotand met the victim where shesaid that three persons were ina car quarreled with her broth-er. When she came to save him,they sexual assault her.Thereafter, a case under relevantsections has been registered atFatehpur Beri police station,” saidthe DCP.

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Page 4: ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh ... ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj,

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Mamata Banerjee was run-ning a Pathshala of

Nirmamata (school of cruelty),Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday said launching afrontal attack on the BengalChief Minister.

Addressing a huge elec-tion rally at Kharagpur thePrime Minister said the ChiefMinister “Pathshala ofNirmamata ran on a syllabus ofcut money, syndicate andtolabaji (extortion)

Calling for “AsholPoriborton” (real change) thePrime Minister said the term,“Ashol Poriborton does notonly stand for a political changebut it also means transformingBengal into a Sonar Bangla(golden Bengal) ... this timeround Bengal has decided tobring about the AsholPoriborton.”

He said Kharagpur repre-sents mini-India. “It representsIndia’s diversity as people fromdifferent languages live here…you have the longest railway sta-tion as well as the first IIT of thecountry… (With all these assetsalready in store) I assure you of'ashol poriborton' (realchange).”

Attacking the ChiefMinister for failing to developBengal in the past one decadehe asked “how many industrieshave come up in Bengal in thepast 10 years … today Bengallags behind many states … asthe Government here excels inTolabaji (extortion), cut money,syndicate raj … in Bengal thewhole system has been crim-inlised, the administration hasbeen politicized and corruptionhas been institutionalized.”

Promising to return to the

State what it has lost in the pastseven decades of Congress,Left and TrinamoolGovernments he said “you haveseen the Congress, communistsand the Trinamool … now yougive a chance to the BJP andwitness the development takingplace in five years. If they tookyou back in the past 70 years wewill take you ahead in five yearstime.”

Attacking the ChiefMinister for unleashing adynastic politics he said in aclear reference to Banerjee’snephew and Diamond HarbourMP Abhishek Banerjee “whenthe entire country is gettingaccustomed to single windowsystem here the Government ispursuing Bhaipo (nephew) win-dow … that implies everythinghas to be channelized throughthe Bhaipo (nephew).

Attacking the ChiefMinister for raising KhelaHobey (a game is in the offing)slogan --- that many critics calla psychological ploy to terrorisethe voters --- the PrimeMinister said “they talk of khelahobey and I too know thatkhela hobey because they areexpert players having largescale involvement in corrup-tion, loot of public money andthe central grants for variousschemes including Amphanrelief fund … but I want toassure you that TMC’s khelakhatam, vikas shuru (TMC’sgame is over, and developmenthas begun)… please vote for theBJP fearlessly because Ebarbhoy noy….joy hobe (this timethere will be no fear but victo-ry).”

Refuting Banerjee’s “out-sider” slogan raised against thenational BJP leaders who havebeen coming to Bengal forcampaigning, Modi said that

“BJP is not the party of out-siders … rather it is the onlyparty of Bengal as the father ofJan Sangh Shyama PrasadMukherjee was from this State.”

Attacking the BengalGovernment for blocking theimplementation of nationaleducation policy in Bengal hesaid “enough is enough we willnot allow you to play with thefuture and shatter the dreams ofthe youth of Bengal” as afterBJP comes to power there willbe a huge change in all thefields. “We will bring industry,introduce agricultural reforms… and compensate for thelapses of the previousGovernments in the past 70years.”

Banerjee who was address-ing a rally barely 60 km away atHaldia however hit back inequal measure wondering whyher Government should only becalled a government of corruptand extortionists when the onesitting in the Centre is sellingout all the national assets cre-ated painstakingly over theyears.

“They call us tolabaj andcorrupt but what about the PMCares fund … where has themoney deposited in it gone…BJP is the biggest tolabaaz inIndia,” Banerjee said.

“Those who steal Rs 500are called thieves but whatabout those who sell out theentire basket of nationalassets… they are selling outRail, Sail, BSNL, Coal India, AirIndia … and tomorrow theywill sell out the entire country,”the Chief Minister said adding“it is a necessity that the BJP isdefeated in Bengal so that fromthis State the Biday Ghanta(swan song) can be sung forthem … after Bengal they willbe defeated in Delhi.”

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Raipur: In the virtual presence of Lok Sabha MPRahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel willtransfer one thousand 104 crore 27 lakh rupees in theaccounts of 18 lakh 43 thousand farmers of the State,as the fourth installment of Rajiv Gandhi Kisan NyayYojana and a total of Rs. 7 crore 55 lakhs as the 15thand 16th installments of the Godhan Nyay Yojana, inthe accounts of cattle rearers, on March 21. All themembers of the cabinet will be present in this programscheduled to be held in the Chief Minister's residenceoffice at 11 am.

Under the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, farm-ers have been paid 4500 crore rupees in three install-ments. Similarly, 23 crore 62 lakh rupees have beenpaid in three installments to 4777 farmers of certifiedseed producers and Rs 74 crore 24 lakh have been paidto sugarcane grower 34 thousand 292 farmers as addi-tional incentives and inputs. So far, Rs 4597 crore 86lakh has been paid to the farmers under the RajivGandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana. Chief Minister Mr. Baghelwill transfer Rs. 3 crore 75 lakh as the 15th installmentof the Godhan Nyaya Yojana and Rs. 3 crore 80 lakhas the 16th installment in the accounts of the cattlerearers, in this program to be held on March 21.

Chennai: With Tamil Naduwitnessing a sudden surge incoronavirus cases over the lastfew days, the State Governmenton Saturday ordered closure ofschools for classes 9, 10 and 11from March 22 until furtherorders.

However, they would con-tinue to function for the 12thstandard students for they haveto take the board examination.

Notifying the closure, thegovernment said the director ofpublic health and preventivemedicine has recommendedthat it would not be advisable to

continue classes for 9, 10 and 11from the health point of view asthere has been a rise in COVID-19 cases.

With regard to 12th stan-dard, the director said the stu-dents may be permitted toattend school as their numberswould be lesser and they haveto sit for the board examinationwith strictly adherence to pre-ventive measures such as wear-ing of masks and maintainingsocial distancing.

"The government of TamilNadu hereby order that schoolsshall be closed for classes 9th,

10th and 11th with effect fromMarch 22 until further orders,"state Chief Secretary RajeevRanjan said in the order.However, online/digital mode ofeducation shall continue forclasses 9, 10 and 11, he said.

Further, hostels too wouldbe closed. Announcing relax-ations in lockdown rules, thegovernment had permitted there-opening of schools for 10 and12 classes from January 19 thisyear and for 9 and 11 fromFebruary 8 after a year, permit-ting also the re-opening of hos-tels for those students. PTI

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In a setback to the BJP, thereturning officers rejected

the nomination papers sub-mitted by the party candidatesat Thalasseri and Guruvayurwhile the papers of its ally, theAIADMK, was rejected by thereturning officer of Devikulamin the high ranges.

The nomination paper sub-mitted by N Haridas, theKannur district BJP president,as a party nominee fromThalasseri was rejected becausethe papers did not have the sig-nature of the national presidentof the party. But sources in thedistrict collectorate said thatHaridas had submitted thecopies of documents along withthe affidavit instead of the orig-inal.

“My nomination has beenrejected on technical grounds.This is against the spirit ofdemocracy. We will move courtregarding this incident,” saidHaridas. Thalasseri was allspruced up to welcome unionhome minister Amit Shah whowas scheduled to address anelection rally for the BJP can-didate.

The returning officer ofGuruvayur constituency reject-ed the nomination submitted byNivedita Subramanian, presi-dent, Kerala Mahila Morcha, onthe ground that the Form B didnot have the signature of theparty’s state president. Sheblamed the returning officer forrefusing to accept her nomina-tion and said she would go tothe court challenging the RO’s

decision. “How do you expectme to check whether all thepapers are ion order. It has tobe done by the persons entrust-ed with the responsibility,”Subramanian told ThePioneer.

This was the second timeSubramanian was fielded by theBJP from Guruvayur. Sources inBJP expressed shock over thecallous manner in which thenomination paper was submit-ted by an experienced candi-date, who herself is a lawyer byprofession.

Interestingly, the BJP hadnot fielded any dummy candi-dates at Thalasseri andGuruvayur which means thatthe constituencies will see directengagement with the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-ledUDF.

Nomination papers of RDhanalakshmi, the AIADMKcandidate at Devikulam inIdukki district too was rejectedby the returning officer as theformer had not filled the Form26 in full.

By evening it wasannounced by the NDA’s Idukkidistrict council that an inde-pendent candidate Ganseshanjoined the AIADMK, saving thealliance from a major embar-rassment. Ganeshan would bethe NDA candidate atDevikulam.

By evening the politicallandscape of Kerala was agogwith allegations and counterallegations by the CPI(M) andthe Congress accusing eachother for making secret dealswith the BJP.

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KOCHI: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala Government ison the run from the hands of law, according to AnuragThakur, Union Minister of State for Finance andCorporate affairs. He said the Kerala Government’s actionof filing a criminal case against the officials of theEnforcement Directorate for allegedly threatening andrecording a false statement of Swapna Suresh, the goldsmuggling accused, is a hitherto unheard charge from aState Government against the Central Government’sagency.

The Crime Branch of the Kerala Government had fileda FIR against the ED officials probing the gold smugglingcase that the latter forced and coerced Swapna Suresh thatChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was involved in the crime.The FIR was based on a statement by women police copswho were guarding Swapna while she was custody of theED in the latter’s office at Kochi.

But the FIR is silent about the ED officials who wereinvolved in the case.

“This kind of allegation is unheard of in the historyof India. The FIR against the ED is that they forced toextract a confession from the accused and make her namePinarayi Vijayan as an accomplice in the case,” Thakur toldThe Pioneer in the sidelines of an electiob campaign inPerumbavoor on Saturday. PNS

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The National Investigation Agency(NIA) sleuths, accompanied by arrest-

ed police officer Sachin Vaze, sought to re-create the crime scene involving the plant-ing of a SUV with 20 gelatin sticks and athreat note near Industrialist MukeshAmbani’s residence “Antilia” in the smallhours of Saturday.

The NIA sleuths took Vaze, who isunder their custody till March 25, to thespot where the gelatin sticks laden Scorpiohad been recovered on February 25, andtried to re-create the crime scene, whichis in the vicinity of Industrialist MukeshAmbani’s skyscraper mansion “Antilia” onCarmichael Road in south Mumbai.

Having cordoned off the otherwisebusy road, the NIA asked Vaze ‘walk downthe road’ near Antilia from the spot wherethe SUV was recovered, in its effort to

check his gait and timings and sought tocompare with the findings investigationsconducted and evidence collected so farin the case. Earlier, the NIA had taken tovarious other locations in Mumbai andneighbouring Thane, where now underarrest Vaze lives, to re-create the entire setof circumstances culminating in the SUVimbroglio on Feb. 25.

On its part, the NIA so far seized fivehigh-end cars --a Scorpio, Innova, Pradoand two Mercedes. The investigators sus-pect that four seized vehicles had beenused to carry out reconnaissance of the sitenear Ambani’s residence where a Scorpioladen with 20 gelatin sticks was recoveredon February 25. They also suspect that afew of them were used by Thane busi-nessman Mansukh Hiran. whose bodywas recovered from the marshy Reti-Bunder creek Mumbra in the neighbour-ing Thane district on March 5.

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From Page 1In the operative part of the let-

ter, Singh wrote, “.... Sachin Vazewho was heading the CrimeIntelligence Unit of the CrimeBranch of the Mumbai Policewas called by Anil Deshmukh tohis official residence Dyaneshwarseveral times in last few monthsand repeatedly instructed to assistin collection of funds for theHome Minister,” Singh wrote inhis letter.

“In and around mid-Februaryand thereafter, the Home Ministerhad called Vaze to his official res-idence. At that time, one or twostaff members of the HomeMinister including his PersonalSecretary, Palande, were also pre-sent,” Singh stated.

“The Home Ministerexpressed to Vaze that he had atarget to accumulate Rs 100 crorea month. For achieving the afore-said target, the Home Minister toldVaze that there are about 1,750bars, restaurants and other estab-lishments in Mumbai and if a sumof Rs 2-3 lakhs each was collect-ed from each of three them, amonthly collection of Rs 40-50crore was achievable. The HomeMinister said the rest of the col-lection could be made from othersources,” the former CP wrote.

“Vaze came to my office thesame day and informed me of theabove. I was shocked with theabove discussion and was mullingover how to deal with the situa-tion,” Singh said.

In his letter, Mumbai’s formerCP goes onto allege thatDeshmukh’s personal secretaryPalande informed AssistantCommissioner of Police SanjayPatil, ACP, Social Service Branch- who had been called to theHome Minister’s residence a fewdays later - that Deshmukh “wastargeting a collection of Rs. 40-50crore which was possible throughan approximate 1,750 bars, restau-rants and establishments operat-

ing in Mumbai”.“The aforesaid meeting at the

official residence of the HomeMinister with Patil and Bhujbaloccurred on March 4, 2021 asinformed to me by Patil. In orderto remind myself about the exactconversation that I had with ACPPatil, I messaged ACP Patil onMarch 16, 2021,” Singh wrote, ashe went on to quote the WhatsAppexchanges between him and ACPPatil.

Singh said both Vaze andPatil had approached after theinstructions from the HomeMinister and told him “abouttheir predicaments”.

In the incriminating letter,Mumbai’s former CP also accusedthe State Home Minister of inter-fering in the official duties ofpolice officers.

“The Home Minister has as aregular practice been repeatedlycalling my officers and givingthem instructions in respect of thecourse to be followed by them inperformance of their officialduties. The Home Minister hasbeen calling my officers at his offi-cial residence bypassing me andother superior officers of thepolice department to whom thoserespective police officers report to”.

“The Home Minster has beeninstructing them to carry outofficial assignments and collectionschemes including financial trans-actions as per his instructionsbased on his expectations and tar-gets to collect money. These cor-rupt malpractices have beenbrought to my notice by my offi-cers,” the former CP alleged.

Referring to instances of infer-ence indulged in by the HomeMinister in the functioning of theMumbai police force, Singh wrote,“These acts of political of inter-ference are illegal & unconstitu-tional and courts in our countryincluding the Supreme Court ofIndia have in the past come downheavily on such acts of interferencein police investigations. In theevent of my expressing reserva-tions against the interference from

the Home Minister and resistancefrom me in that regard, the HomeMinister has found my reserva-tions and resistance undesirable.”

Alluding to the suicide byseven-time Dadra Nagar HaveliMP Mohan S Delkar in a hotelalong Marine Drive on February22, the former CP said, “My pro-fessional view after seeking appro-priate legal advice was that whilethe suicide had occurred inMumbai, all the alleged acts ofabetment had taken place inDadra & Nagar Haveli. Thus, theabetment of suicide, if any, wasrequired to be investigated by thepolice at Dadra & Nagar Haveliwho would have jurisdiction inthat regard.”

Singh said while he held to hisprofessional view as advised bylegal experts, the Home Minister“kept insisting otherwise despitehaving been informed by meabout the opinion of legal expertson this issue”.

Singh said, “Despite beingfully aware of the opinion of thelegal experts, the general opinionand the reasons behind it”, theState Home Minister announcedthe setting up of a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) and reg-istration of an FIR into the allegedcase of abetment of suicide byDelkar, on the floor of theMaharashtra Assembly on March9.

Contesting the claim by theMinister that he had been trans-ferred because of serious lapses inthe investigations into the recov-ery of explosive laden SUV nearMukesh Ambani’s residence onFebruary 25, the former CP wrote,“In these circumstances, the asser-tions of the Home Minister to theeffect that my transfer is not foradministrative or routine rea-sons, I have conducted seriouslapses and the serious lapses in theinvestigation committed by me areunpardonable are all statementscontrary to the record and seemto be for extraneous and vindic-tive reasons.”

#����-#;;;From Page 1

These were Assam, Uttarakhand, Odisha,Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh,Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli andDaman and Diu, Meghalaya, Mizoram,Nagaland, Tripura, Andaman and NicobarIslands and Arunachal Pradesh.

The Ministry further said India hasscaled a significant peak in its battle againstCovid-19 pandemic with the total vaccinationcoverage surpassing four crore.

“About 4,20,63,392 vaccine doses havebeen administered through 6,86,469 sessions,as per the provisional report till 7 am today.These include 77,06,839 healthcare workers(HCWs) (first dose), 48,04,285 HCWs (sec-ond dose), 79,57,606 frontline workers (FLWs)(first dose) and 24,17,077 FLWs (seconddose), 32,23,612 beneficiaries aged morethan 45 years with specific co-morbidities(first dose) and 1,59,53,973 beneficiariesaged more than 60 years,” it said.

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There was palpable shockand anxiety in the health cir-

cles of Maharashtra on Saturday,as the daily infections shot up toa highest ever tally of 27,126,surpassing 25,000-plus dailycases recorded in the state for thetwo consecutive days.

After the state recorded25,883 and 25,681 fresh infec-tions on Thursday and Fridayrespectively --- more than theprevious single-day peak of24,886 registered on September11 last year, Maharashtra record-ed 27,126 fresh cases, while 92more people succumbed to thepandemic in various parts of thestate.With fresh cases reportedon Saturday, the total infectionsin the state climbed from24,22,021 to 2,44,147. Similarly,

with 92 new deaths the Covid-19 toll in the state went up from53,208 to 53,300.

As 13,588 patients were dis-charged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of Marchlast year went up to 22,03,553.The recovery rate in the statedropped marginally from 90.42per cent to 89.07 per cent.

With seven fresh deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbai rosefrom 11,569 to 11,576 cases,while the infected cases went upby 2982 to trigger a jump in theinfections from 3,55,914 to3,58,896. Meanwhile, the num-ber of “active cases” total casesin the state went up from1,77,560 to 1,91,006. The fatal-ity rate in the state dropped

from 2.22 per cent to 2.18 percent.There are a maximum of38,803 “active” cases in Pune, fol-lowed by Nagpur (28,423),Mumbai (20019), Thane(18,088), Nashik (13223),Aurangabad (13007), Jalgaon(5079), Amaravati (3530) andAkola (4585).

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra, sawthe total number of casesincrease from 460114 to3,65,705, while the total numberof deaths in Pune stood staticfrom 8167 to 8170.

Thane district remained inthe third spot --after Pune andMumbai – after the total num-ber of infections rose from301386 to 3,03,465 while thetotal deaths climbed from 5890to 5891.

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From Page 1Further, the panel asked the

Government to keep a close watch onprices of essential commodities andtake remedial steps because com-modities such as potato, onions andpulses are part of a common man’sdaily diet and that lakhs of peoplewho do not get the benefits of PublicDistribution System (PDS)and may suffer adversely in the after-math of the implementation of thenew Act.

Besides, the committee also askedthe Government to consider theinclusion of more consumables in thelist of essential commodities, partic-ularly those which directly affect thehealth of all consumers and are use-

ful for village and town dwellers, andsubsidise these products.

Thousands of farmers, especial-ly from Punjab, Haryana and parts ofUttar Pradesh, are camping at Delhiborders seeking repeal of the three farm laws for last 114 days.

So far, 11 rounds of talks between the Government and protest-ing farm unions have failed to yieldany result although the Governmenthas offered to suspend implementa-tion of these laws for 18 months.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed panel is examining thematter and expected to submit areport in this regard anytimesoon.

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From Page 1“Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha

of RSS elected Shri DattatreyaHosabale as its ‘Sarkaryavah’. He wasSah Sarkaryavah of RSS since 2009”,according to the RSS.

Hosabale will be taking chargeahead of the 2024 Lok SabhaElections and RSS centenary cele-brations in 2025- both being majormilestones for the BJP and the RSS.

The decision was taken after aninternal election in RSS’s AkhilBharatiya Prathinidhi Sabha, whichis an annual meeting of the top RSSfunctionaries. It was held inBengaluru and not in Nagpur becauseof the Covid-19 pandemic. It wasscheduled to last year but was post-poned on account of the pandemic.

Hosabale was active during theEmergency from 1975 to 1977, andwas arrested under the Maintenanceof Internal Security Act. He served asthe general secretary for the studentorganisation ABVP.

Popularly known as ‘Dattaji’ inRSS, he comes from a family of RSS

activists. He joined the RSS in 1968and then the student organisationABVP in 1972. He became a full-timeworker of the ABVP in 1978. He wasthe general secretary of ABVP for 15years with his headquarter beingMumbai.

The new RSS General Secretarycomes from Sorab in the Shimogadistrict of Karnataka. A staunch sup-porter of the government’s key poli-cies like NRC and NEP, he is alsovocal about his view on conversionsto other religions.

Hosabale studied English litera-ture at a university in Bengaluru. Heenjoyed proximity with almost allwriters and journalists of Karnataka,notable among them being YNKrishnamurthy and Gopal KrishnaAdiga. He played an active role in set-ting up the Youth DevelopmentCentre in Guwahati, Assam and theWorld Organization of Student andYouth.

He was the founding editor ofAseema, a Kannada monthly. Hebecame Sah-Baudhik Pramukh (sec-ond in command of the intellectualwing of RSS) in 2004. He is multi-lin-gual and fluent in Kannada, Hindi,English, Tamil and Sanskrit.

����������***

From Page 1Austin said President Jo

Biden has said human rightsand rule of law are importantto the US.

Ahead of his visit, Austinwas asked to raise concernsabout democracy in the coun-try with Indian officials by thechief of the US Senate ForeignRelations Committee.

The visiting dignitary alsosaid he did not discuss withIndia possible US sanctionsover India’s acquisition of S-400missile system from Russia.Austin said India has notacquired the missile system sofar, so the issue of sanctions wasnot discussed.

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From Page 1Underlining the growing

ties, Rajnath said, “India is com-mitted to further consolidate ourrobust defence partnership withthe US. I look forward to work-ing with you closely to make theIndia-US relationship one of thedefining partnerships of 21stcentury.”

In his media statementAustin, who arrived here on athree-day visit on Friday, saidIndia is an increasingly impor-tant partner amid rapidly shift-ing international dynamics andWashington was committed toa “forward-looking” defencepartnership with New Delhi asa central pillar of its approach tothe region.

“As the world faces a glob-al pandemic and growing chal-lenges to an open and stableinternational system, the US-India relationship is a strongholdof a free and open Indo-Pacific

region,” he said.The US Defence Secretary

said as the Indo-Pacific regionfaces challenges to a free andopen regional order, cooperationamong like-minded countries isimperative to securing theshared vision for the future.

He said the two Ministersdiscussed opportunities to ele-vate the US-India defence part-nership through regional secu-rity cooperation, military-to-military interactions and defencetrade.In addition, the two sidesare continuing to advance newareas of collaboration, includinginformation-sharing, logisticscooperation, artificial intelli-gence, and cooperation in newdomains such as spaceand cyber,the visiting Minister said.

Describing his talks withRajnath were “productive”, hesaid a number of security issueswhich are important to the twocountries were discussed.

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Page 5: ˇ ˆ ˜˜ 0˘ 12+3,...Mar 20, 2021  · said in a statement. The Health Ministry fur-ther said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh ... ing Farooq Abdullah, GS Basavaraj,

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Doctors managing Covid-19afflicted pregnant women

should be more careful andadopt effective strategies toprevent or reduce risks topatients and fetuses, researchershave cautioned stating thatsuch pregnancy is associatedwith adverse outcomes likepreeclampsia, stillbirth,preterm birth and others,

“Our findings suggest thatpregnant people with Covid-19 have an increased risk ofhigh blood pressure, stillbirthand preterm birth. Their new-borns are more likely to needintensive care. Pregnant peo-ple with severe COVID-19symptoms have a particularlyhigh risk of these complica-tions,” said Dr. Nathalie Auger,Department of Social andPreventive Medicine, School ofPublic Health, University ofMontreal, Montréal, Quebec,with coauthors.

Their study ‘The impactof Covid-19 on pregnancyoutcomes: a systematic reviewand meta-analysis’ is pub-lished in CMAJ (CanadianMedical Association Journal).

The researchers reachedthis conclusion after reviewing42 studies involving 438 548pregnant women from aroundthe world to determine theassociation between SARS-

CoV-2 infection and adversepregnancy outcomes.

They found double therisk of preterm birth and a 50per cent increased risk ofcesarean delivery in pregnantwomen with symptomaticCovid-19 than in those withasymptomatic patients. Thosewith severe virus had a 4-foldhigher risk of high blood pres-sure and preterm birth.

The reason for theincreased risk of adverse out-comes is unclear, but could be

because SARS-CoV-2 maylead to vasoconstriction andstimulate an inflammatoryresponse affecting blood ves-sels.

The findings of this sys-tematic review differ fromprior findings from casereports and case series. “Ourmeta-analysis of recent good-quality cohort studies withcomparative data does notalign with these previousreviews, and provides clearevidence that symptomatic or

severe Covid-19 is associatedwith a considerable risk ofpreeclampsia, preterm birthand low birth weight,” wrotethe authors.

This is for the first timethat the researchers havereached this conclusion. Priorto this study, though therewere apprehensive thatpatients who may get infectedwith symptoms like high fevermay increase the risk of birthdefects, there was no evi-dence.

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The Centre has handed overthe probe into the death of

Thane-based businessmanMansukh Hiran to the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA).Hiran’s body was found in acreek days after a vehicle ladenwith explosives was parkednear the Mumbai residence ofindustrialist Mukesh Ambani.

The NIA is already probingthe case related to the recoveryof a Mahindra Scorpio SUV(sports utility vehicle), parkednear Ambani’s residence‘Antilia’, with gelatin sticks andhas arrested an Assistant PoliceInspector, Sachin Waze.

The SUV was in possessionof Hiran before his death.

The Union Home Ministryhas handed over the probeinto the Mansukh Hiran case tothe NIA, an official said.

Earlier, the MaharashtraAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)was probing the case related tothe death of Hiran.

Hiran was found dead inThane, a creek near Mumbai,on March 5. His wife hasaccused Waze of involvementin her husband’s suspiciousdeath. On March 8, the UnionHome Ministry had entrustedthe investigation of case FIRNo. 35/2020 registered at PoliceStation Gamdevi, Mumbai on

February 25. This case relatesto recovery of explosives froma Mahindra Scorpio parked atCarmichael Road, Mumbai.Subsequently, the NIA had re-registered the case.

Around midnight OnMarch 13, the NIA had arrest-ed Mumbai police API SachinWaze in the case relating torecovery of explosives ladenSUV near Ambani’s residencein Mumbai.

Waze has been bookedunder Indian Penal Code

Sections relating to negligentconduct relating to explosives,punishment for forgery, mak-ing or possessing counterfeitseal, criminal intimidation andcriminal conspiracy besidesExplosive Substances Act 1908.

“Sachin Waze, APIMumbai Police Crime Branch,was arrested for his role andinvolvement in placing explo-sives-laden vehicle nearCarmichael Rood on 25thFebruary 2021,” the NIA hadsaid.

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The Supreme Court hasgiven its nod for disbursal

of �50,000 deposited in its“suitors fund” by the AirportsAuthority of India (AAI) to thewidow of a man who had diedof cardiac arrest owing to neg-ligence in shifting him to thenearest hospital in Kolkata in2012.

The AAI, under provisionsof the Consumer ProtectionAct has deposited �50,000 withthe top court while filing anappeal against the October 7,2015 order of the NationalConsumer Disputes RedressalCommission (NCDRC) whichhad held its negligence or defi-ciency in shifting the patient tothe nearby hospital and direct-ed payment of �10 lakh as com-pensation to the widow.

Under the ConsumerProtection Act, if an appeal ispreferred against an order ofthe NCDRC by a person whois required to pay any com-pensation, it would be enter-tained by the top court only ifthat person has deposited fiftyper cent of that amount or Rs50,000, whichever is less.

The amount is deposited inthe “suitors fund” of the topcourt and under the SupremeCourt Rules, 2013, if the appealis allowed by the court, then theamount deposited by the appel-lant would be refunded with-out interest but if it is dis-missed, the amount will beallowed to be withdrawn by theother party or disbursedaccording to the directions ofthe court.

A bench of Justice AjayRastogi on Friday allowed dis-bursal of �50,000 to the widowafter she moved an applicationon the ground that the appealfiled by the AAI had been dis-missed by the court onNovember 29, 2019.

Advocate DushyantParashar, appearing for thewidow, contended that sincethe top court had upheld theorder of the NCDRC that theAAI was negligent in shiftingthe man who had suffered car-diac arrest to the nearest hos-pital in Kolkata and dismissedthe appeal, the amount deposit-ed in suitors fund shall be dis-bursed to her.

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The railways is set to getcracking against those found

smoking in trains and is mullingsevere penalties, even arrest,for damaging public propertyafter an initial probe in therecent fire in a coach of theShatabdi Express, a senior offi-cial said on Saturday.

Officials in the know saidthat the initial report has foundthat cigarette or bidi butts werethrown into the dustbin of oneof the toilets which were filledwith soiled tissue paper. This ledto a fire in the S5 coach of theNew Delhi-Dehradun ShatabdiSpecial. The incident happenedon March 13 near Raiwala inUttarakhand.

Section 167 of the RailwaysAct specifies that anyone foundsmoking in a compartmentdespite prohibition or objectionfrom a co-passenger is liable fora fine of up to Rs 100.

Union Railway MinisterPiyush Goyal in a meeting withRailway Board members andgeneral managers of zones askedthem to take proactive stepstowards sensitising passengersagainst smoking in trains andalso urged that erring passengersneed to be deterred from caus-ing risks to others by smokingin trains.

“The railways will crack-down on smoking in trains. Thefire most likely started in one ofthe toilets and initial investiga-tions revealed that the fire wasin all probability caused by sim-mering cigarettes/ beedi thrownin the dustbin. The continuousair flow in a fast moving trainwould have fanned it. “We arecontemplating severe penalties.In some cases, even arrests canbe made for causing damage topublic railway property andrisking the lives of others to deterirresponsible and errant per-sons,” a senior officer said.

The official refused to comeon record as the investigationinto the incident is still under-way.

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The Election Commission(EC) has expressed hope

the concept of remote votingwill see “the light of day” by the2024 Lok Sabha elections, andsaid that a pilot project couldbegin in the next two-threemonths. According to the EC,after the Assembly polls infive States, the ElectionCommission will hold consul-tations with all stakeholders toallow non-resident Indians(NRIs) to vote remotelythrough electronically-trans-mitted postal ballot system(ETPBS) from their country ofresidence.

Addressing at the SansadRatna awards function onSaturday, Chief ElectionCommissioner Sunil Arora saidthe EC had early this yearstarted a research project forenabling remote voting, in con-sultation with IIT Madras andeminent technologists fromIITs and other leading institu-tions. He also expressed hope

the concept of remote votingwill see “the light of day” by the2024 Lok Sabha elections, andsaid that a pilot project couldbegin in the next two-threemonths. Over the last fewmonths, a dedicated team hasbeen working hard for givingshape to this project, he said,adding the concept wouldhopefully “see the light of day”by 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The first pilot project could berolled out in the next “two to

three months”, the CEC said.It needs to be underscored

that the project is neither aimedat internet-based voting nordoes it imply voting fromhome, he observed. For theCommission, transparency andconfidentiality of voting hasalways been a guiding consid-eration in ensuring free, fairand credible elections, he said,adding the Commission willsoon be giving shape to thefinal model of such voting, after

due deliberation on variousoptions. This will entail someprocess changes as well, he said,adding there will be widerconsultations with politicalparties and other stakeholders.

Explaining the“blockchain” technologyinvolved in the project, formerSenior Deputy ElectionCommissioner Sandeep Saxenahad earlier said the concept isa “two-way electronic votingsystem in a controlled envi-ronment on white-listed IPdevices on dedicated Internetlines enabled with biometricdevices and a web camera”.

Saxena, however, had madeit clear that voters will have toreach a designated venue dur-ing a pre-decided period oftime to be able to use this facil-ity. It does not mean votingfrom home, Saxena had said.

On the issue of theCommission’s proposal to alloweligible overseas Indian votersuse one-way electronicallytransferred postal ballots to castvote, Arora said after the elec-

tions to five assemblies areover, the poll panel would holda seminar with all stakeholdersas suggested by the govern-ment. He expressed hope thatthe concept would materialisein the next six months or a year.At present, non-residentIndians can vote in the con-stituency in which their placeof residence, as mentioned inthe passport, is located. Sometime ago, the Commissionbegan to look for options toenable NRIs to vote from over-seas after it received severalrequests for expanding theirvoting options.

At the event, BhartruhariMahtab (BJD), Supriya Sule(NCP) and Shrirang AppaBarne (Shiv Sena) were giventhe ‘Sansad Maha Ratna Award’for their sustained qualitativeoverall performance in the16th Lok Sabha. TwelveParliamentarians including theChairman of a ParliamentaryStanding Committee onAgriculture were given theSansad Ratna Awards.

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Taking note of politicalappointments in munici-

pal bodies, the ElectionCommission has asked theWest Bengal Chief Secretaryto temporarily restrain suchpolitical appointees, who areholding the off ice ofAdministrators/ Head ofBoard of Administrators inthe Municipal Corporationsand appoint Government offi-cials to discharge the func-tions during the period ofmodel code of conduct(MCC).

In its order on Saturday,the EC said that a committeeheaded by Chief Secretary,and Principal Secretary UrbanDevelopment, and PrincipalSecretary Personnel as mem-bers shall appoint the gov-ernment officials, keeping in

view ECI’s instructions to dis-charge the functions of theAdministrators/ Head ofBoard of Administrator, as thecase may be, during the peri-od of MCC.

The BJP has urged the ECto remove ‘polit icalappointees’ from variousboards of administrators incivic bodies appointed by theWest Bengal Government,saying it appointed the samerepresentatives who had com-pleted their term of five yearsin blatant violation of consti-tutional and legal provisions.“Since the tenure of formerelected representatives hasexpired, they cannot be con-ferred powers to manageaffairs of the municipalityunder any pretense, the BJPdelegation told the EC andcited a Supreme Court rulingto back its demand.

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Khadi’s “Mujib Jackets’, isall set to catch eyeballs

during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s visit toBangladesh on March 26thand 27th as the garment willbe the key attire of dignitaries.The Khadi and Vil lageIndustr ies Commission(KVIC) have supplied 100such custom-designed ‘Mujibjackets’ to the Indian HighCommission in Dhaka.

“As Bangladesh celebrates‘Mujib Borsho’, the birth cen-tenary of Sheikh MujiburRahman, Cultural Centre ofthe Indian High Commissionin Dhaka, had placed an orderfor 100 Mujeeb Jackets, aheadof the Prime Minister’s visit,”KVIC Chairman, VinaiKumar Saxena said.

The “Mujeeb jacket” is animmensely popular outfit inBangladesh. For the oldergeneration, it is symbolic ofthe ideology of their greatleader, while it has increas-ingly become a fashion state-ment for the youth ofBangladesh. Modi has alwaysbeen particular about Khadiand its heritage and culturalvalue to strengthen diplo-matic ties with foreign coun-tries.

In 2016, the BRICS lead-ers, which also includes Modi,had attended the summit inKhadi jackets in Goa.”ThePrime Minister a lwaysaccorded top priority toKhadi during his diplomaticvisits. This is to carry forwardthe legacy of MahatmaGandhi who always carriedKhadi products specially aKhadi handkerchief with him

and presented it to digni-taries during his foreign vis-its,” Saxena said.

The specially designed“Mujeeb Jackets” have beenmade of high-quality hand-crafted Khadi fabric. Theblack Mujeeb Jackets havebeen designed with six but-tons, two pockets on thelower half and a front pock-et on the left, as worn byRahman.

In keeping with the eco-friendly nature of the fabric,the zip-covers for these jack-ets too have been made ofblack cotton fabric with“Khadi India” logo embroi-dered over it. These jacketswill be carried in speciallydesigned white colouredwaste plastic-mixed carrybags made at KVIC’sKumarappa NationalHandmade Paper Institute(KNHPI) in Jaipur.

“Mujeeb Jacket” is histor-ical ly s ignif icant inBangladesh and it is a matterof great pride that these jack-ets made of Khadi fabric beadorned during theBangladesh visit of PrimeMinister Modi who is thebiggest brand ambassador ofKhadi, Saxena said.

“Mujeeb jackets made ofKhadi will add significantly tothe historical and cultural val-ues of the celebrations,” he said,adding, this will also promoteKhadi on the global and diplo-matic platform in a big way.

Since the jackets weremeant for diplomatic purpos-es, KVIC accorded top prior-ity to it and delivered the con-signment before time. EarlierKVIC sent its high-qualitycotton and silk masks to var-ious countries.

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Researchers from inStem,Bangalore in collaboration

with Curie Institute, Orsay,France, have developed thefirst tubulin nanobody - or sen-sor to study the dynamics ofmicrotubule modifications inliving cells and use this foridentification of new cancertherapeutic drugs.

Microtubules are part ofthe cytoskeleton, a structuralnetwork within the cell’s cyto-plasm, and they alter inresponse to several chemicals.

This work publishedrecently in the Journal of CellBiology has been funded byIndo-French Centre for thePromotion of AdvancedResearch (IFCPAR/CEFIPRA),a bilateral organization sup-ported by Department ofScience & Technology (DST)and Government of France

Understanding tubulinmodifications has remained achallenge till date because ofunavailability of tools that canmark them in living cells.

The researchers fromBangalore and Orsay devised amethod to design syntheticproteins, known as nanobod-ies, which can bind specifical-ly to modified microtubules.

These nanobodies are sim-ilar to antibodies made in ourbody as a defense mechanismagainst pathogens. However,unlike antibodies, thenanobodies are smaller in sizeand easily amenable for proteinengineering, said MinhajSirajuddin (inStem) Bangalore,India

The nanobody was thencoupled with a fluorescentmolecule to serve as a detec-tion tool, called sensor. Theydeveloped and validated a livecell sensor against a unique

microtubule modificationcalled tyrosinated form ofmicrotubules that is alreadyknown to be important for celldivision and intracellular orga-nization, added researcherCarsten Janke (Institut Curie)Orsay, France

The tyrosination sensor isthe first tubulin nanobody - orsensor - that can be used tostudy the dynamics of micro-tubule modifications in livingcells. CEFIPRA researchershave shown the application ofthis sensor in studying theeffect of small-molecule com-pounds that target micro-tubules.

These chemicals are fre-quently used as anti-cancerdrugs. Thus, the tyrosinationsensor will facilitate studyingmicrotubule functions for manyresearchers and will aid identi-fying new drugs of therapeuticvalue, as per the study.

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Union Health Minister, Dr.Harsh Vardhan on

Saturday inaugurated a NucleicAcid Amplification Test (NAT)lab at the headquarters ofIndian Red Cross Society here.

The lab has been set up bythe Thalassemia PatientsAdvocacy Group (TPAG), thepatient wing of ThalassemicsIndia as part of their SafeBlood Campaign to preventtransmission of infectious dis-eases such as hepatitis B, C orHIV through blood transfu-sions.

The event also involved thelaunch of Thalassemics Indiathree blood collection vehicles– 2 vans funded by DXC and 1tempo travelers funded by LIC.This was Thalassemics’ India’scontribution for voluntaryblood donation.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan saidthat while, the government istaking relevant steps towardsprevention and better man-agement of Thalassemia in thecountry, these steps to initiateblood collection vans andadvanced blood-screeningtechnology are just in the rightdirection to support safe-bloodavailability for the patients.

He also appealed for blooddonation to save lives ofpatients during any medicalemergencies or chronic healthconditions like Thalassemiaand Blood Cancer.

Anubha Taneja Mukherjee,Member Secretary,Thalassemia Patients AdvocacyGroup, said, NAT is a worldclass blood screening method-ology believed to be extreme-ly effective in screening trans-fusion transmitted infections (TTIs) due to its reduced win-dow period. “The technology iseven more relevant for patients

of thalassemia, who depend onfrequent transfusion and aremore susceptible to infectionsas compared to others.”

Later Mukherjee sharedthat they have been stressing oninclusion of patients in policymaking as decision makersmay not be experts in everysubject or issue. “It wouldtherefore be pertinent toinclude a patient representativewho understands the trials andtribulations involving the rele-vant condition. For instance,the decision makers couldinvite thalassemia patients to bea part of the policy makingwhile devising a new policy onthalassemia as patients are theones who undergo the hardshipof a particular disease.”

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On International Day ofHappiness, Vice President

M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturdayasked people to shun negativeemotions and said policymak-ers should accord importanceto the psychology of happiness.

March 20 is celebrated asInternational Day ofHappiness. It is a UN desig-nated day dedicated to theimportance of happiness inpeople’s life.

“On this day, I call uponthe policymakers to accord

importance to the psychologyof happiness, and schools toinculcate ‘happiness curricu-lum’, as it plays an importantrole in boosting self-confi-

dence and mindfulness in achild and helps instil a positiveoutlook from a young age,” theVice President Secretariattweeted quoting Naidu.

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Residents of Myanmar’s sec-ond-biggest city helped

striking railway workers moveout of their state-suppliedhousing on Saturday after theauthorities said they wouldhave to leave if they kept sup-porting the protest movementagainst last month’s militarycoup.

Mandalay residents car-ried the workers’ furniture andother household items totrucks, van and pickup trucks.

The state railway workerslast month went on strike askey and early supporters of thecivil disobedience movementagainst the Feb. 1 coup that top-pled the elected government ofAung San Suu Kyi.

The military regime hassought to force them back towork through intimidation,which included a nighttime,gun-firing patrol last monththrough their housing area inMandalay and a raid in the rail-way workers’ housing area inYangon.

Protests against the coupcontinued Saturday in citiesand town across the country,including in Mandalay andYangon.

The coup reversed years ofslow progress toward democ-racy in Myanmar after fivedecades of military rule. In the

face of persistent strikes andprotests against the takeover,the junta has responded withan increasingly violent crack-down and efforts to severelylimit the information reachingthe outside world.

Internet access has beenseverely restricted, privatenewspapers have been barredfrom publishing, and protest-ers, journalists and politicianshave been arrested in largenumbers.

The independentAssistance Association forPolitical Prisoners has veri-fied 235 deaths and has said theactual total — including oneswhere verification has beendifficult —”is likely much high-er.” It said it has confirmed that2,330 people have been arrest-ed or charged since the coup,with 1,980 still detained orremaining charged.

In addition to using lethalforce to try to break up demon-

strations, the security forceshave been carrying out a cam-paign of harassment, stealingfrom homes they raid, said thegroup, which also charged thatsecurity forces have used peo-ple they arrested as humanshields as they sought to breakup demonstrations.

Numerous reports onsocial media, including videos,have shown security forcesvandalizing cars parked on thestreet.

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United Nations: The people ofMyanmar have huge expecta-tions from the United Nationsand the international commu-nity following the February 1coup, with many calling forsanctions and some urging theUN to send peacekeepers tostop the killings of peacefulprotesters seeking a return todemocracy, the top UN officialin the country said Friday.

Acting resident andhumanitarian coordinatorAndrew Kirkwood said in avideo briefing to UN reportersfrom Myanmar’s largest cityYangon that Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres and otherUN officials have been veryconsistent about what’s reallyneeded: “collective memberstate actions in the SecurityCouncil.”

Guterres echoed that messageagain on Friday, saying “a firm,unified international response isurgently needed” to stop the vio-lence by security forces and returnMyanmar to the path of democ-racy, UN spokesman StephaneDujarric said.

“Many people will haveseen people carrying placardssaying, how many more bod-ies?’” Kirkwood said. “Peopleare really looking for concert-ed international action in termsof sanctions. Frankly, somepeople here want to see peace-keepers.”

“There’s a huge expectationon the United Nations, with theentire international communi-ty,” he said. “We are doingeverything we can in the cur-rent situation, and there is stillfrustration among the peoplethat the international commu-nity hasn’t done more to date.”

The coup reversed years ofslow progress toward democ-racy in Myanmar, which forfive decades had languishedunder strict military rule thatled to international isolationand sanctions. As the generalsloosened their grip, culminat-ing in Aung San Suu Kyi’s riseto power after 2015 elections,the international communityresponded by lifting most sanc-tions and pouring investmentinto the country. AP

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The European Union’s exec-utive arm is increasing its

pressure on pharmaceuticalcompanies to speed up theirvaccine delivery to the conti-nent as virus numbers are ris-ing again in many membercountries. The EuropeanCommission said Saturday thatAstraZeneca in particularcould face export bans to coun-tries outside the EU if it didn’tquickly deliver the promisedamount of vaccines to the 27-nation bloc.

“We have the possibility toban planned exports,”European CommissionPresident Ursula von der Leyensaid Saturday.

“This is a message toAstraZeneca: You fulfill yourpart of the deal toward Europebefore you start to deliver toother countries,” von der Leyensaid in an interview withGerman media group Funke.

Von der Leyen said thecontract between the EU andAstraZeneca clearly regulateshow much vaccines the EU getsfrom AstraZeneca’s plantsinside the EU and in Britain.

However, von der Leyen

added, “we didn’t get anythingfrom the Brits while we aredelivering vaccines to them.”

She said the commissionhad sent a “formal reminder”to AstraZeneca regarding thisissue. AstraZeneca’s coron-avirus vaccine is one of threevaccines that’s approved in theEU.

However, its usage hasbeen overshadowed by severalproblems, including a slowstart, recurring delivery prob-lems and a temporary ban forseveral days earlier this week inmany of the bloc’s membercountries after reports of bloodclots in some recipients of thevaccine.

Most countries in the EUresumed giving shots ofAstraZeneca again Friday asinfection numbers were spikingagain across the continent andAstraZeneca’s vaccine, too, isseen as critical to ending thecoronavirus pandemic.

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Somehow, they didn’t see itcoming. Within weeks of

Inauguration Day on January20, the Biden administrationhad reversed many of the mostmaligned Trump-era immi-gration policies, includingdeporting children seeking asy-lum who arrived alone at theUS-Mexico border and forcingmigrants to wait in Mexico asthey made their case to stay inthe US.

While the administrationwas working on immigrationlegislation to address long-term problems, it didn’t have anon-the-ground plan to managea surge of migrants. Careerimmigration officials hadwarned there could be a surgeafter the presidential electionand the news that the Trumppolicies, widely viewed as cruel,were being reversed.

Now officials are scram-bling to build up capacity tocare for some 14,000 migrantsnow in federal custody — andmore likely on the way — andthe administration finds itselfon its heels in the face of crit-icism that it should have beenbetter prepared to deal with apredictable predicament.

“They should have fore-

casted for space (for youngmigrants) more quickly,” saidRonald Vitiello, a former act-ing director of Immigrationand Customs Enforcement andchief of Border Patrol who hasserved in Republican andDemocratic administrations.

“And I think in hindsight,maybe they should have wait-ed until they had additionalshelter space before theychanged the policies.” The sit-uation at the southern borderis complex.

Since Biden’s inauguration,the US has seen a dramaticspike in the number of peopleencountered by border officials.There were 18,945 familymembers and 9,297 unaccom-panied children encountered in

February — an increase of168% and 63%, respectively,from the month before, accord-ing to the Pew Research Centre.

That creates an enormouslogistical challenge becausechildren, in particular, requirehigher standards of care andcoordination across agencies.

Still, the encounters of bothunaccompanied minors andfamilies are lower than theywere at various points duringthe Trump administration,including in spring 2019. ThatMay, authorities encounteredmore than 55,000 migrant chil-dren, including 11,500 unac-companied minors, and about84,500 migrants traveling infamily units.

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Islamabad: Prime MinisterImran Khan and his wifeBushra Bibi were tested positiveon Saturday for the Covid-19,his top aides announced, twodays after the Pakistani premiergot the first shot of a vaccine.

Special Assistant to thePrime Minister on NationalHealth Services, Regulationsand Coordination Dr FaisalSultan took to Twitter to con-firm that Khan, 68, has con-tracted the coronavirus on a daywhen the country registered the

highest number of Covid-19cases since July last year.

Later, Special Assistant toPrime Minister on OverseasPakistanis, Syed Zulfi Bukhariin a tweet confirmed that theFirst Lady was also coronapositive. “Wishing our FirstLady & PM @ImranKhanPTIa speedy recovery,” he tweeted.

Senator Faisal Javed, who isconsidered very close to Khan,also expressed similar senti-ments in a tweet.

“First Lady Bushra Bibi

has also been tested positive forCovid-19. Lots of prayers for allwho have been tested positiveincluding PM Imran Khan andhis wife Bushra Bibi!!!” he said.

Khan was vaccinated onThursday as part of the nation-wide anti-coronavirus vacci-nation campaign which isunderway in its first phase.

Khan is reported to havereceived the first shot of theChinese-produced Sinopharmvaccine, the only anti-Covid jabavailable in Pakistan. PTI

Karachi: A 31-year-old Hindujournalist in Pakistan has beenshot dead by some unidentifiedassailants while getting a hair-cut at a barber shop in thecountry’s Sindh province, thepolice said on Saturday.

Ajay Lalvani, a reporterwith a private Royal News TVchannel and an Urdu languagenewspaper Daily Puchano, diedon Thursday after he sustainedbullet injuries in stomach, armand knee. He was sitting in thebarber shop in Sukkur citywhen assailants on two bikes anda car drove by and opened fire.

Lalvani was rushed to anearby hospital where he died.

His father Dileep Kumarsaid that the family did nothave any enmity, dismissing thepolice’s claim of the murderbeing the result of a personalenmity, according to The NewsInternational. Condemning thekilling, Hindu member ofPakistan’s National Assembly(MNA) Lal Chand Malhi saidthat it is a “matter of great con-cern”.

“Strongly condemn Dkilling of yet another journal-ist Ajay Kumar at Saleh Pat,Sindh. It is a matter of greatconcern that media persons areincreasingly feeling unsafe inSindh,” he said on Twitter.

Washington: US President JoeBiden is doing “100% fine” afterhe tripped multiple times whilejogging up the stairs to boardAir Force One on Friday,according to a senior WhiteHouse official.

Biden, 78, stumbled as heclimbed the plane’s steps, ini-tially appearing to trip, get up,

then trip a second time. Hestruggled to get up the secondtime for a brief moment, beforemaking it up, turning to give a

salute before entering the cabin.“So, as you know, it’s pret-

ty windy outside, it’s verywindy. I almost fell coming upthe steps myself,” White Houseprincipal deputy press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierre said whilebriefings reporters on the pres-idential plane on the way toAtlanta, Georgia where Bidenwas to meet members of theAsian-American communitywhich has been shocked by aseries of shootings in massageparlours. AP

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Turkey withdrew earlySaturday from a landmark

European treaty protectingwomen from violence that itwas the first country to sign 10years ago and that bears thename of its largest city.

President Recep TayyipErdogan’s overnight decreeannulling Turkey’s ratificationof the Istanbul Convention is ablow to women’s rights advo-

cates, who say the agreement iscrucial to combating domesticviolence. Hundreds of womengathered in Istanbul to protestsagainst the move on Saturday.

The Council of Europe’sSecretary General, MarijaPejcinovic Buric, called thedecision “devastating.”

“This move is a huge set-back to these efforts and all themore deplorable because itcompromises the protectionof women in Turkey, across

Europe and beyond,” she said. The Istanbul Convention

states that men and womenhave equal rights and obligesstate authorities to take steps toprevent gender-based violenceagainst women, protect victimsand prosecute perpetrators.

Some officials fromErdogan’s Islam-oriented partyhad advocated for a review of theagreement, arguing it is incon-sistent with Turkey’s conservativevalues by encouraging divorce

and undermining the tradition-al family unit. Critics also claimthe treaty promotes homosexu-ality through the use of categorieslike gender, sexual orientationand gender identity.

They see that as a threat toTurkish families. Hate speechhas been on the rise in Turkey,including the interior ministerwho described LGBT people as“perverts” in a tweet. Erdoganhas rejected their existencealtogether.

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President Joe Biden and VicePresident Kamala Harris

offered solace to AsianAmericans and denounced thescourge of racism at times hid-den “in plain sight” as they vis-ited Atlanta, just days after awhite gunman killed eight peo-ple, most of them AsianAmerican women.

Addressing the nation aftera roughly 80-minute meetingwith Asian American state leg-islators and other leadersFriday, Biden said it was “heart-wrenching” to listen to theirstories of the fear among AsianAmericans and PacificIslanders amid what he calleda “skyrocketing spike” ofharassment and violenceagainst them.

Kabul: Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani has made twokey Cabinet changes, a movecondemned on Saturday as“unacceptable” by his powerfulgoverning partner, AbdullahAbdullah, at a time when theUS is ratcheting up the pressureto reach a peace agreementwith the Taliban.

In May 2020, Ghani andpolitical rival Abdullah signeda power-sharing agreement,two months after both declaredthemselves the winner of theSeptember 2019 presidentialelection.

Under the deal, Ghaniremained president of the war-torn nation while Abdullahwas named head of the coun-try’s National ReconciliationCouncil, which has the author-ity to handle and approve allaffairs related to Afghanistan’speace process. AP

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The eruption of a long-dor-mant volcano that sent

streams of lava flowing acrossa small valley in southwesternIceland is easing and shouldn’tinterfere with air travel, theIcelandic Meteorological Officesaid Saturday.

The fissure eruption beganat around 8:45 p.M. Friday inthe Geldinga Valley, about 32kilometers (20 miles) southwestof the capital, Reykjavik, theMet Office said. The eruptionis “minor” and there were nosigns of ash or dust that coulddisrupt aviation, the agencysaid.

“The more we see, thesmaller this eruption gets,”geophysicist Pall Einarsson toldThe Associated Press onSaturday after monitoring thevolcano throughout the night.

This southwestern cornerof Iceland is the most heavilypopulated part of the country.The Department of EmergencyManagement said it doesn’tanticipate evacuations, unlesslevels of volcanic gases rise sig-nificantly.

Bergamo (Italy): One year ago,Bergamo’s state-of-the-art PopeJohn XXIII Hospital verged oncollapse as doctors struggled totreat 600 patients, with 100 ofthem in intensive care. The pic-ture is much improved now: Thehospital is treating fewer than 200virus patients, just one quarter ofwhom require intensive care.

But still unchanged asItaly’s death rate pushes upwardonce again is that the victimsremain predominantly elderly,with inoculation drives stum-bling in the country and else-where in Europe.

“No, this thing, alas, I wasnot able to protect the elderly,to make clear how important itwould be to protect the elder-ly,” said Dr Luca Lorini, head ofintensive care at the hospitalnamed for the mid-20th cen-tury pope born in Bergamo. AP

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As many as 20 States havesuccessfully completed

ease of doing business reforms,the Finance Ministry said onSaturday.

States completing thereforms are eligible for addi-tional borrowing of 0.25 percent of Gross State DomesticProduct (GSDP).

“The number of Stateswho have successfully com-pleted the ‘Ease of DoingBusiness’ reforms has reachedto 20.

Five more states namely,Arunachal Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Goa, Meghalayaand Tripura have completedthe ‘Ease of Doing Business”reforms stipulated by theDepartment of Expenditure,”the Ministry said in a state-ment.

The Department of

Expenditure has granted per-mission to these 20 States toraise additional financialresources of Rs 39,521 crorethrough Open MarketBorrowings.

The ease of doing businessis an important indicator of theinvestment friendly businessclimate in the country.Improvements in the ease of

doing business will enablefaster future growth of thestate economy.

Therefore, the govern-ment of India had in May2020, decided to link grant ofadditional borrowing permis-sions to States who undertakethe reforms to facilitate ease ofdoing business, the Ministryadded.

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Public sector oil marketingcompanies IndianOil,

Hindustan Petroleum and pri-vation bound Bharat Petroleumremained active in the coun-try’s oil market in 2020 eventhough the pandemic and lock-down severely dented demandfor petroleum products.

Even with petrol and dieselsales remaining below the pre-Covid levels in the last part of2020, the PSU oil companiescontinued to invest in expand-ing their retail outlets with thethree adding 5482 retail outletsin the 10-month period ofFY21 up to January end 2021.

The private sector on theother hand remained mute ontheir marketing initiativesadding a mere 376 fuel outlets.

Among the PSUs, IOCadded 2147, BPCL - 1,792 andHPCL - 1543 retail outlets inthe April-January period of

FY21. According to a report byEmkay Global FinancialServices, retail outlets’ marketshare increase has been thehighest for BPCL followed byHPCL, though IOCL and oth-ers saw a decline yoy. RILadded only 12 new outlets,while Nayara added 298 duringthe April to January period.

BPCL also maintained thelead in retail outlet petrolthroughput: the company’spetrol throughput per retailoutlet (RO), a key efficiencyindicator, was 56.2kl/monthin Q3FY21 vs 52.4 for HPCLand 49.5/48.3 for IOCL/others.

For diesel, the brokeragesaid, it cannot be properlyascertained due to the lack ofproper bulk-direct sales datacompany wise. Players like RILhave reported much higheroverall throughput/RO, thoughdiesel has a B2B character,which can be utilized to pushhigher volumes.

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The reforms in the miningsector will play a funda-

mental role in enhancing thesector’s contribution to theemployment and GDP of thecountry, and contributeimmensely to the vision of anAtmanirbhar Bharat, industrybody Ficci said on Saturday.

The Lok Sabha on Fridaypassed a bill to amend theMines and Mineral(Development and Regulation)(MMDR) Act, that aimed tocreate employment opportuni-ties by allowing the entry of pri-vate enterprise and enhancedtechnology in mining activities.

The bill is yet to be tabledin the Rajya Sabha.

The industry body saidthat it has always been advo-cating for increasing the con-tribution of Indian Miningindustry to national GDP;focusing upon increasing min-

eral exploration, productionand domestic supplies, reducing financial stress for theminers, attracting investmentsinto the sector and enhancingEase of Doing BusinessQuotient.

Tuhin Mukherjee, Chair,Ficci Mining Committee andManaging Director, EsselMining and Industries Ltd.,termed the amendments as astep forward for enabling min-ing sector’s contribution to thenation’s economic growth.

“With these reforms in theIndian mining and mineralsector, the Government hasembarked on increasing thesectoral contribution to theIndian GDP and also toincrease the competitiveness,ease of doing business andcreating a favourable invest-ment environment for the sec-tor,” he added.

Rahul Sharma, Co-Chair,Ficci Mining Committee and

CEO, Aluminium and Power,Vedanta Ltd, said:“Amendments in the MMDRare reflective of the fact that thegovernment considers miningsector as a key contributor tothe vision of AtmanirbharBharat.

These amendments shallresult in enhancement of min-eral production across the spec-trum, creating more jobs andwill be a major boost to criti-cal industries like cement, alu-minium and steel, which areprimarily dependent upon keyraw materials provided by themining sector.

A renewed focus on explo-ration will attract huge invest-ments.”

He also applauded theGovernment’s move for pro-moting ease of transfer fornon-auctioned captive mines toincrease mineral productionfrom such mines in the coun-try.

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This is one reform initiative that is set to bea big positive change in the use of fossil fuel

to run countrys transportation sector.The central government has proposed to

advance the deadline for blending 20 per centethanol in petrol from the earlier announced2030 to 2024.

The use of 20 per cent doped petrol or E20decreases the carbon monoxide and hydrocar-bons emissions significantly, compared to nor-mal gasoline in two-wheelers and four-wheel-ers. The increased blending will also reduce useof polluting fossil fuel in the country.

The Ministry of Road Transport andHighways has already notified the use of E20 andissued mass emission standards for the same.

Now it is up to the oil companies and auto-mobile companies to build capacities for bothproduction and use of E20. The next two yearswould also give sugar mills time to convert excesssugarcane or sugar for producing higher quan-tity of ethanol required for blending withpetrol.The government had earlier fixed a tar-get of 10 per cent ethanol blending by 2022 and20 per cent by 2030. But the plan now is todirectly migrate to 20 per cent as the level ofblending is successively being used in a fewcountries such as Brazil.This is akin to takingthe emission standards vehicles directly from BS-IV stage to BS-VI skipping one stage to ensurethat vehicles turn less polluting sources.

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Fuel prices in the countryhave remained steady for

three weeks now as softeningcrude and upcoming assemblyelections in a few states havekept Oil companies from revis-ing the retail prices.

Accordingly, petrol con-tinues to be priced at Rs 91.17a litre and diesel Rs 81.47 a litrein the capital on Saturday. Fuelprices have not been revisednow for 21 days.

Across the country as well,the petrol and diesel pricesremain unchanged. But the

pause has not helped in bring-ing down petrol prices thathave crossed Rs 100 per litre-mark in several parts of thecountry.Minister of State forFinance Anurag Thakur said inParliament on Tuesday thatstates and Centre should lookat taxes on petroleum products

to see if relief could be provid-ed to consumers. Since thebeginning of February, crudehas gained more than $7 perbarrel that has pushed OMCsto increase fuel prices on 14occasions raising the prices by�4.22 per litre for petrol and by�4.34 a litre for diesel in Delhi.

The success story of DDABiodiversity Parks is now

available in the e-book “Biodiversity Parks: NatureReserves of Delhi” which wasunveiled today on 19th March2021 by Hon’ble LieutenantGovernor of Delhi, Shri AnilBaijal. The book depicts thejourney of country’s first ini-tiative in bringing back the lostecosystems of the city and pic-torial guide for kinds of plantsand animals and diverseecosystems found in theBiodiversity Parks and alsoillustrates how scientists, engi-neers and landscape architects’transformed barren landscapesof Delhi into lush green forest,grassland and wetland ecosys-tems. This book is useful forall policy makers and planners,particularly urban plannersand architects, nature lovers.

Gurugram:Power GridCorporation of India Limited(POWERGRID) has signed aSharePurchase Agreement withJaiprakash Power VenturesLimited (JPVL) to acquire74%stake in Jaypee PowergridLimited-JV (JPL) in whichPOWERGRID holds26% equi-ty.JPL will become a whollyowned subsidiary ofPOWERGRIDfollowing thisacquisition.JPL-JV has devel-oped a 214 Km long EHVpower transmission projecttoevacuate power from

Karcham-Wangtoo project inthe state of HimachalPradesh. The power transmitted ismeant for distribution and

consumption instates ofHimachal Pradesh.

Haryana, Punjab, UttarPradesh and Rajasthan.POW-

ERGRID is a Maharatna PSEunder Ministry of Power,Government ofIndia.

Kattankulathur:SRM Instituteof Science and Technology(SRMIST), Kattankulathur haslaunched new online degreeprograms approved by UGC inresponse to high demand foronline education to boost GERand Employability. This is donethrough the Directorate ofOnline Education.

The launch of onlinedegree programs approved byUGC are MBA specialization inFinance/ HR/ Marketing/Business Analytics, MCA, BBAspecialization in DigitalMarketing, BCA specializationin Data Science. SRMIST hasdeveloped an online deliveryrobust cloud based technologystack, called SRM OnlineLearning Platform. It providesthe flexibility to learn from any-where, anytime supported bylive interactive sessions andpowerful online assessmentsystem.

Master of business admin-istration (MBA) is a two yearinternationally accepted expe-riential master degree programdesigned specifically for pro-fessionals who want to devel-op leadership skills, strategiccapabilities and competenciesthat enables them to contributehigher order value in Industry.The core courses in an MBAprogram cover various areas ofbusiness such as accounting,finance, marketing, humanresources, operations, and sta-tistics and many.

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Net new enrolments withretirement fund body

EPFO grew 27.79 per cent to13.36 lakh in January comparedto the same month in 2020,according to the payroll datareleased on Saturday, providinga perspective on formal sectoremployment amid the pan-demic.

“The provisional payrolldata of EPFO published on20th March, 2021 highlights agrowing trend of subscriberbase with the addition of 13.36lakh net subscribers duringJanuary 2021,” a labour min-istry statement said.

It stated that the datareflects growth of 24 per centfor January 2021 overDecember last year.

“Year-on-year comparisonof payroll data indicates anincrease of 27.79 per cent in net

subscribers as compared tothe corresponding period lastyear (January 2020), indicatingreturn to the pre-COVID lev-els of subscriber growth forEPFO,” it said.

Despite the pandemic,EPFO added around 62.49lakh subscribers during thefirst tens month of the ongoingfiscal year, the data showed.

During 2019-20, the num-ber of net new subscribersrose to 78.58 lakh as comparedto 61.12 lakh in the precedingfiscal.

The number of net enrol-ments with the body wasrevised downwards to 10.81lakh for December 2020 fromearlier provisional estimatesof 12.53 lakh for the monthreleased in February 2021.

Since April 2018, EPFO hasbeen releasing payroll datacovering the period September2017 onwards.

According to the latest

data, net new enrolments inApril were in the negative zoneat (-) 2,55,559 against the fig-ure of (-) 2,35,911 released inFebruary.

This means that the num-ber of members who exited theEPFO subscription was morethan those who joined orrejoined the scheme.

In July, provisional showedthat net new enrolments forApril stood at 1 lakh, whichwas revised down to 20,164 inAugust and further lowered to(-) 61,807 in September, (-)1,04,608 in October, (-)1,49,248in November, (-) 1,79,685 inDecember 2020 and (-)2,11,073 released in January2021.The number of net newenrolments in May was alsorevised downwards to (-)2,47,991 from (-) 2,19,810 esti-mated last month and from (-) 1,86,659 estimated in January2021 and from (-)1,43,540 esti-mated in December 2020.

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New Delhi: Seeking to boostPrime Minister NarendraModi’s plan to eliminate single-use plastics waste by 2022,over 45 academicians, scien-tists, and NGOs have cometogether to appeal to the FSSAIand the Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change “not considerany non-recycled, non-biodegradable materials (Tetra pack, plastic/glass bot-tles, aluminum cans) for newfood/beverage packaging, tillthe time packaging waste pro-ducers do not deploy theirresource under the EPR frame-work to collect and recyclewaste generated by their prod-ucts.” The group has proposed 61%-71% recycling rate as a bench-mark to allow any non-biodegradable packaging mate-rial for new product/beveragecategories.

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Soon after the All India Councilfor Technical Education’s(AICTE) decision of tweaking theguidelines for engineeringentrance examinations and

removing Maths and Physics as manda-tory subjects, the Internet got floodedwith memes that left people in splits.

A tweet read: #AICTE: Maths andPhysics not mandatory for Engineering.Pakistani Cricket Fan: Ek dum se waqtbadal diye, jazbaat badal diye, zindagibadal di. Another read: Engineering stu-dents to AICTE: Aapne to humse humaradimension hi cheen liya (with a picture ofPriyanka Chopra from Bajirao Mastani).

Here is some more, but only come-dian Akash Gupta’s fans will get this.Maths and Physics not must forEngineering, says AICTE. Meanwhilethose Numerical of Engineering. (On apic of Akash Gupta) Excuse me, broth-er... brother, eedhar.

While all this is on a lighter vein, thedecision is a serious topic of debate whichhas left academic experts divided. Somesay it is a welcome move, while others saythat the decision will change the essenceof engineering.

“AICTE’s decision to remove Mathsand Physics is certainly a decision nottaken in the spirit of engineering. The rea-son being, it will adversely affect theresearch and development activities invarious fields of engineering, especiallyAeronautics, Automotive, and Computer.Evidently, engineers with unsubstantialknowledge about the fundamentals ofPhysics and Mathematics will constant-ly face challenges while measuring theproblems precisely and developing cut-ting-edge solutions. Interpretation andanalytical skills which are known as thecore strengths of any successful engineercannot be honed to perfection withoutmastering oneself in Maths and Physics,”Nitin Vijay, MD — Motion Education PvtLtd, VP — Byju’s JEE NEET Divisionsays.

He adds that otherwise, buddingengineers will always lack certain quali-ties that are quintessential in shaping acalculative mindset. “Maths and Physicsare not just very important subjects ofScience, but their knowledge also enablesa student to observe and contemplate thesurroundings rather scientifically and log-ically. When one understands the thingsand the processes that govern them, thenonly one can identify the problems andfind solutions for them. Thence, Mathsand Physics of secondary school levelshould be reincorporated to producequality engineers in the future,” he says.

Not that this move will encourage stu-dents from diverse fields to take up engi-neering or make the admission processto top colleges easy.

“There are a good number of engi-neering colleges already existing in India

where a lot of seats remain vacant everysession. Entry to the top colleges is notgoing to be easier even after thesechanges to maintain their reputation; theywill never compromise to strict selectionprocedures. A good score in Physics andMaths will always be a deciding factor foradmission to the top engineering collegesof India. Those who have completed theengineering programmes from top insti-tutes or about to complete them can bet-ter understand the importance of Physicsand Maths in the curriculum. In fact,these two subjects help form the struc-ture of all types of engineering and theycannot be separated. Just removing thesesubjects is not going to push people withintentions to pursue something else ordrop their idea and run behind engineer-ing. A slight increase might happen, butanyway that’s already happening withevery year, seeing an increase in the totalnumber of students appearing for JEE andNEET,” Vijay opines.

Dr Meenakshi M, Head ofMathematics, CMR Institute ofTechnology Bangalore, says that this is nota good move and the basic Sciencesshould stay mandatory for Class XII.

“In fact, the AICTE should think ofreconsidering the decision since thisdoesn’t seems to benefit students,” sheadds.

Dr KH Raveesha, Head of BasicScience and Humanities, CMR Instituteof Technology Bangalore, agrees with hiscolleague Meenakshi and says that thenew decision can prove to be detrimen-tal to engineering students who are will-ing to become innovators. Students needto have good hold on both the subjects,it is a must. “The decision seems to bebenefitting the private universities whichwant to make admissions with other sub-jects like Biotechnology. Here these uni-versities are given an option to offer abridge course for about three months forstudents from non-engineering back-grounds. These bridge courses don’thold any credits and will not be in anyway equivalent to the PCM knowledgethat a Science stream students otherwisewould have. Without any credits, studentswill not be interested in learning all these

things and will end up missing the twoyears of rigorous Maths and Phyisicstraining which otherwise they would havegot. If this happens, who will come upwith digital innovations, who will makethe next generation rockets which haveless weight with more power and who willmake driver-less cars? Not to mention,who will give them critical thinking andproblem solving skills that come withhandling these subjects,” Raveesha, whohas been into the profession for 25 years,asks.

What would have helped, he says, isa one-year mandatory bridge coursewith full credits for students from non-engineering backgrounds. This way thestudents can seriously learn the skills ofthese subjects and continue do innova-tions.

“This vague decision is given by theAICTE to just increase the number ofengineers in the country. I doubt if theyhave even evaluated the number of engi-neering jobs in the country and whetherhave thought of increasing them. If theydon’t think of re-considering their deci-sion, 10 years down the line someone willquestion this decision and realise that itdidn’t produce good quality engineers,”he says.

Such decisions, he says, should onlybe made by taking into considerationteachers, stakeholders and serious stu-dents who are enthusiastic of making acareer into these fields.

Ravi Kaushik an IITB alumnus, andCEO AiRTH, who has been a close wit-ness of the importance that Maths andPhysics holds in the life of an engineersays that the recent tweaks are more hol-low than helpful. “Although the regula-tory body mentioned certain specificcourses such as textile, agriculture engi-neering, and biotechnology only, theyhave certainly overlooked the prerequi-sites of engineering. The governmentintends to include students from diversebackgrounds which is great but I can verywell imagine the struggle they will haveto face,” Kaushik says.

Kaushik supports his views by givingan example. “Picture this. A biotechnol-ogy student is working on a drug for acertain disease. He/she has to do a lot ofexperiments followed by compilationand analysis. The analysis of that dataneeds a clear understanding of the fun-damentals of mathematics. This compris-es mostly what the students study insenior high school. Hence, it is impossi-ble to disintegrate such crucial subjectsfrom the rest of the course or call it non-compulsory. Instead, to make our educa-tion system more inclusive and produc-tive, the Government can focus onarranging additional lectures onMathematics or Physics for such stu-dents,” he says.

While teachers and students believethat this is a decision without logic, somestakeholders are in favour of the

announcement and see it as a welcomechange. “With the AICTE announcementof making Math & Physics not manda-tory for some technical courses likeTextile, Biotechnology, Agriculture engi-neering etc, this move will help theTextile and the Biotechnology sector asthese courses had several vacant seatsevery year. There are thousands of jobsin the Textile sector, but there is a lack ofworkforce due to the unavailability ofundergraduates in some specific sectors.This move will give opportunities to stu-dents from diverse fields to opt for anengineering degree. This, in return, willcontribute to Nation building,” AbhishekGupta, CEO and Co-founder, Hex N Bit,opines.

In addition, statistics say in the year2,000 there were around 7,000 foreign stu-dents pursuing various courses in Indiawhich have crossed to 50,000 just beforepandemic so with the ease declared byAICTE there will be an opportunity forforeign students to opt various courses inIndia and that will internally going toimpact GDP in a positive way.

The education system, therefore,needs to incorporate something thatexposes the young minds to the realitiesof the technicalities in the existing world.That should make them more responsi-ble, mature, good decision-makers, andhighly focused. These things certainlyhappen, but at a later stage in the learn-ing process.

“Facilitation and fostering of entre-preneurial learning at schools can be a biggame-changer. And this introductionshould happen at an early stage.Entrepreneurship teaches many things,like being practical in thought andapproach, being efficient in managingtime, money and relations, being good inproblem identification and finding theright solution and many more practicalskills. Entrepreneurial skills must beinfused in the young generation thateventually paves the leadership path forthem. By giving the young people anentrepreneurial mindset right from thestart, we can certainly have more dynamic leaders emerging in the future,”Vijay says.

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Dishing out a dominatingall-round show, Indiatoppled England in the

high-scoring fifth Twenty20 tonot only claim the series 3-2 butalso prove that their prepara-tions for the T20 World Cup aremoving in the right direction.

Rohit Sharma's sensational64 off 34 balls and skipperVirat Kohli’s unbeaten 80 off 52balls powered India to a massive224 for two, their best ever totalagainst England, after the visi-tors won the toss for the fourthtime in the series and opted tofield on Saturday.

In the run chase, Jos Buttler(52 off 34) and Dawid Malan(68 off 46) kept India on theedge with a threatening 130-runstand but England's challengedfizzled with the fall of the wick-etkeeper-batsman in the 13thover bowled by BhuvneshwarKumar.

England’s innings eventual-ly ended at 188 for eight as theylost match by 36 runs.

The dew was a factor in thesecond innings but the Indianbowlers overcame that to defendthe target on a batting beauty.

Bhuvneshwar was impres-sive in his comeback series andsaved his best for the decider toend with two wickets for 15 runsin four overs.

Apart from Bhuvneshwar’ssuccessful return from injury,the big plus for India was theemergence of SuryakumarYadav and Ishan Kishan. HardikPandya was back to bowling

regularly, marking another pos-itive for Kohli’s team whichproved in the series that it canwin while chasing as well as bat-ting first.

England were dealt a bigblow at the start of the daunt-ing chase with Bhuvneshwarcastling Jason Roy’s stumpswith an inswinger.

However, incoming bats-man Malan ensured the

required big hits kept comingand in the company of thedangerous Buttler, took Englandto 104 for one in 10 overs.

Malan, the world numberone batsman, who did not fireearlier in the series, was in hiselements. His off side play wasthe highlight of his inningswhich comprised nine foursand two sixes.

The momentum shifted

decisively in India’s favour whenButtler holed out at long offwith Bhuvneshwar concedingonly three runs in that over.Buttler’s dismissal also firedup Kohli, who was involved inan exchange with the opposi-tion players, something thatneeded umpire’s intervention.

Three more wickets,including Malan’s, in quick suc-cession effectively sealed the

game for India. Earlier, prepar-ing themselves for success in allconditions ahead of the WorldCup, India thrived under thepressure of a series-decider toproduce their batting perfor-mance of the series.

Jofra Archer and MarkWood had troubled the Indianswith their extra pace in earliergames but Rohit and Kohlisent them to the cleaners onway to their 94-run stand off 54balls.

The other major contribu-tions came from SuryakumarYadav (32 off 17 balls) andHardik Pandya (39 not out off17 balls).

The hosts hammered 67runs in the last five overs to givethe innings a perfect finish.

Barring Ben Stokes andAdil Rashid, all Englandbowlers leaked more than 10runs per over with Chris Jordan(0/57) being the most expen-sive.

India decided to dropopener K L Rahul to accommo-date an extra bowling option inleft-arm pacer T Natarajan forthe all important game.

With no Rahul at the top,Virat Kohli moved himself upthe order to open with Rohit, amove that worked wonders.

Rohit did the bulk of thescoring in their partnership asKohli was more than happy toenjoy a sensational display ofstroke-making from the otherend.

Rohit, who was rested forthe first two games and did notget much in the next two,enhanced his reputation of a bigmatch player on Saturday.

Most of his five sixes werehis trademark shot, the seem-ingly effortless pull over deepsquare leg. Also a treat to theeye were his rasping straightdrives off a seriously quickMark Wood in his first over.

Kohli too pulled Woodinto the stands, a shot that gothim fully pumped up. As Kohli paced his inningsbeautifully at the other end, hehad the company of a supreme-ly confident Suryakumar, whocarried on from where he left inhis debut game.

Kohli then partnered withHardik to get India past 200.

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An erratic P V Sindhu suf-fered yet another semifinal

defeat at the prestigious AllEngland Championships as shewent down tamely in straightgames to sixth seed PornpaweeChochuwong of Thailand inthe women’s singles here onSaturday.

Sindhu, the reigning worldchampion, couldn’t match thepace, power and precision of heryounger world number 11 rivalChochuwong and lost 17-21, 9-21 in a match that lasted 43 min-utes.

“I think it was her day,everything she was hitting wason the line, I just couldn’t doanything about it. Overall, Ishould’ve controlled myunforced errors, maybe thingscould’ve been different,” Sindhusaid. “I knew it was going to be

a good match, she’s not an easyplayer. Her strokes are reallygood and she’s going to be a real-ly good player.”

The world No 7 Indian hadalso lost at the semifinal at the2018 edition of the tournament.

“Everybody aims to be inthe final, it’s over for now so Ihave to learn from my mistakesand take the positives. I don’thave a tournament for anothermonth so I have time to prepareand come back stronger,”Sindhu, the Olympic Silvermedallist, said.

Sindhu, seeded fifth, cameinto the semifinal contest witha 4-1 head-to-head lead over the23-year-old Chochuwong,whom she had beaten at theWorld Tour Finals in January.

But all that statistics didn’tmatter as Chochuwong showedimmaculate defence and agilityto outclass the Indian.

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India got its best shot at a maidentable tennis medal at the Olympics

on Saturday when Sharath Kamal andManika Batra became the first Indianpairing to qualify for the mega eventin Tokyo, beating world No 8 duo ofSang-Su Lee and Jihee Jeon 4-2 in thefinal of the Asian QualificationTournament here.

The 2018 Asian Games Bronzemedallists staged a remarkable come-back after being two sets down to out-wit the top seeded Korean pair 8-11,6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8 in athrilling final to seal their Tokyo qual-ification in mixed doubles. Only thewinner of the event qualified for theGames.

The Indian pairing had beaten theKoreans en route to a historic medalin Asian Games before losing to themon the pro tour the following year.

“Manika was unstoppable today. It

is very important for her to play withflow so that I am able to play my powergame. That is the only way we compli-ment each other. She was outstanding.

“I never thought we could win thetournament. Now we are three gamesfrom winning an Olympic medal. Itwill be tough but it is our best shot,”Sharath said referring to the 16-pair-ing draw at the Tokyo Games.

Sharath, who has also qualified forthe singles event alongside G Sathiyan,has now set sights at reaching at leastthe mixed doubles quarterfinals at theGames.

“I think if we can reach the quar-ters, it would be a fantastic result forus at the Games. Anything else fromthere is a bonus,” said the world num-ber 32.

The unprecedented result in mixeddoubles means India will now have fiveentries in Tokyo (two each in men andwomen singles besides mixed).

“I was really happy with myself to

be able to withstand the attack and ser-vices of a player like lee Sang Su andJion Jihee. Sharath bhaiya capitalisedwell with his attack to keep the pres-sure on them .

“I am very happy that along withsingles we could even make by beatingthe Korean and Singapore pairing inthe mix,” said Manika.

Following the incredible results,Sharath said the two now need to playmore often to hit a good rhythm aheadof the Games.

“We will have to sit down andchalk out our plans. We cannot tourEurope or elsewhere because of theCovid situation. Probably, the WTTChina hub could be the best option forthe moment,” said Sharath.

While Sathiyan and Sutirthaemerged winners in their respectivecategories of the South Asian Group toqualify, Sharath and Manika sealedTokyo berths by virtue of being thehighest-ranked second-placed players.

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New Zealand captain TomLatham called it “awesome”

as star performers Trent Boultand Martin Guptill powered theBlack Caps to an emphaticeight wicket win overBangladesh in the opening ODIin Dunedin on Saturday.

With swing king Boultmoving the ball both ways,New Zealand dismissedBangladesh for a mediocre 131and a blistering cameo with thebat by Guptill saw them cutdown the target with morethan 28 overs to spare.

In New Zealand’s first ODIin 12 months, Boult took fourfor 27 while Guptill blazedaway for 38 off 19 deliveries.

“We haven’t played for awhile and it was about settingthe tone, winning the toss andbowling and I thought Trentand Matt Henry did that great,and for us to chase 130 in 20-odd overs was awesome,” cap-

tain Tom Latham said.“And we know how

destructive he (Guptill) can bewhen he plays like that, and tobreak the back of the chase wasawesome and for the guys to fin-ish it off then was a pretty clin-ical performance all round.”

All but two of Guptill’s 38runs came from boundarieswith four sixes and three foursbefore Taskin Ahmed found afaint edge and wicketkeeperMushfiqur Rahim completedthe dismissal.

Devon Conway in hismaiden ODI was the otherwicket to fall for 27 while open-er Henry Nicholls was left 49not out. Nicholls was denied his12th half century when anoth-er debutant Will Young (11 notout) brought up the winningruns with a boundary.

Earlier in addition to Boult’sfour-wicket haul, JimmyNeesham took two for 27 andMitchell Santner finished withtwo for 23.

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All-rounder Anneke Boschfirst pegged the Indian

women with a couple of wick-ets and them smashed anunbeaten 66 off 48 balls toensure an easy eight wicket vic-tory for South Africa in the firstT20 International here onSaturday.

Harleen Deol’s (52) confi-dent maiden international fiftywas the only silver lining for anotherwise lacklustre display bythe Indians who posted a mod-est 130 for 6 after being invitedto bat.

The South Africans chaseddown the target easily with fiveballs to spare with opener Bosch(66 not out) and captain SuneLuus (43 off 49 balls) sharing 90runs for the second wicket. SAreached to 133 for 2 in 19.1overs.

India scored just 26 runsfrom the last five overs and that’swhere they again lost the matchwith distinct lack of power hit-ters.

The Indian bowlers neverput any sort of pressure on theBosch-Luus duo for a longstretch in the match.

Bosch hit nine fours and asix in her 48-ball unbeateninnings after she took 2 for 11during Indian innings.

Poor fielding also cost Indiadear as they conceded runs onthe field.

India got rid of dangerousSouth African opener Lizelle Lee(8) who had topped the battingcharts in the preceding ODIseries with pacewomanArundhati Reddy (1/20) remov-ing her in the third over as shemiscued her shot.

But Bosch and Luus deniedthe Indians any further successtill the 16th over with a solid andflawless batting dsiplay.

Lee’s early dismissal put theSouth Africans on the backfoot

but Luus and Bosch negated theearly Indian advantage. Luss hitReddy for a six and a four inconsecutive deliveries in thefifth over as South Africa got to36 for 1 from powerplay overs.

The duo gained in confi-dence gradually as the Indianbowlers could not find a way tobreak the partnership.

South Africa needed 68from the last 10 overs and theykept up the tempo without tak-ing too much risks, needing 33from the last five overs.

Rajeshwari Gayakwaddropped Luus, failing to hold onan easy catch in the 16th overbut the next ball, the SouthAfrica captain was dismissed byDeol (1/21).

But by the time Luus wasout, the match had already tilt-ed in South Africa's favour. SAneeded 14 from the final twoovers but the equation wasdown to two from the final overand Bosch hit a four to win thematch in style.

Earlier, rookie batterHarleen Deol top-scored with aconfident 52 in India's 130 forsix.

The 22-year-old Deol hit sixfours in her 47-ball innings toscore the bulk of India's runsafter being invited to bat.

She shared 60 runs for thethird wicket with JemimahRodrigues (30) to help India

recover from 11 for one after thefall of stand-in-captain SmritiMandhana (11) in the secondover.

Young talent Shafali Verma,who was not in the squad for thepreceding ODI series whichIndia lost 1-4, made 23 from 22balls with the help of two foursad a six.

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The rules have changed andwrestling has become faster

from the time when GeetaPhogat was active on the mat butthe path-breaking Dangal girl isgearing up for a comeback,confident that the sport that runsin her blood will help her adaptand get battle-ready for stiff chal-lenges ahead.

Geeta, who made thePhogat clan famous with herremarkable journey from localdangals to International fame,has not competed much sinceshe attempted to qualify for the2016 Rio Olympic Gamesunsuccessfully.

She competed in only twotournaments in two years afterthat, got married to fellowwrestler Pawan Saroha in 2016and gave birth to their first childin 2019.

When she was active, thebout consisted of three roundsof two-minutes each, wrestlerscould hold their opponents fora longer time and keeping longhairs was not allowed. A lot haschanged now.

The 32-year-old, whobecame the first Indian womanwrestler to win a Gold at the

Commonwealth Games in 2010,is now eyeing a berth in theIndian team for the AsianOlympic Qualifiers.

With a special permissionfrom the national federation,Geeta joined the national campa month back and is putting inhard yards, dreaming of moresuccess at the international level.

“I never thought of quittingwrestling. I still dread the daywhen I would have to actuallyleave it. That thought scares me.It’s not just me, but it is samewith most athletes that it

becomes difficult to quit, it’s inblood,” Geeta said.

“I started training about sixmonths back. I was working outat home, lost 20-25 kgs postdelivery but I needed to train onmat, needed training partners soI joined national camp. I need-ed to assess myself, so Iapproached WFI and theyallowed me, thanks to the fed-eration, I am preparing for acomeback.

“Rules have changed. Tworounds of three-minute each isgood for Indian wrestlersbecause we are better in stami-na. We have to be in action con-tinuously now but it’s not some-thing that worries me.”

All eyes will be on herwhen she competes in the 62kgcategory on Monday during tri-als for the Asian OlympicQualifiers. It’s a category whichfast-rising Sonam Malik is mak-ing her own while Rio OlympicsBronze medallist Sakshi Malik isstruggling.

The 2012 WorldChampionship Bronze medallistis realistic that she will not getinstant success since wrestling asa sport has grown a lot in Indiawith talented youngsters puttingseniors under pressure.

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Boult too hot to handle

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The cricketers, who are partof the ongoing T20 series

between India and England,will not have to undergomandatory seven-day hardquarantine ahead of the IPL asthey will be transported fromone bubble to another as per theStandard Operating Procedure(SOP) released on Saturday.

The BCCI has made itclear that no individual associ-ated with the IPL will be vac-cinated as of now as the govern-ment of India has put a systemin place which is currentlybeing adhered to.

According to the SOP,“Players who are coming frombubble created for India vsEngland series may directlyjoin the franchise squad with-

out serving mandatory quaran-tine period provided.

“After the conclusion ofseries, they directly move toteam hotel either by bus orchartered flight...If travelarrangements are to the satis-faction of CMO, such playerscan directly enter team bubblewithout need to serve quaran-tine or undergo RT PCR tests,”the SOP stated.

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Star India opener SmritiMandhana was on

Saturday rendered a doubtfulstarter for the secondTwenty20 against SouthAfrica after suffering an injuryduring the series-openingmatch, here on Saturday.

Mandhana fell down withtwisted legs while backingup a Shafali Verma throw afterSA captain Sune Luus hadscampered for a run in thesixth over. Mandhana was inpain and she limped off thefield with the help of the sup-ports staff. She returned in theSouth African run chase butit was apparent that she wasnot comfortable while fielding.

Similarly, for all franchiseswho are having prior camps inbio-secure bubbles, if theirtravel arrangements are satisfac-tory they will be entitled bub-ble-to-bubble transfers.

However, if the CMO is notsatisfied, then all those playerswill need to undergo seven daysof hard quarantine and returnwith three negative tests.

The SOP stated that at thispoint, the government has notspecified anything on vaccina-tion of elite athletes.

“In India, the first group toget vaccinated is healthcareand frontline workers. The sec-ond group is persons above 60years of age as of January 1,2022 and person between 45 to59 years with comorbid condi-tions.

The government is yet toannounce the schedule of vac-cination of other groups ofpeople including elite athletes.”

Some of the other keypoints are as follows:

Concept of Bubble IntegrityManager

BCCI will appoint up to 4security staff with each fran-chise team who will be the des-

ignated Bubble integrity man-agers. They will be part of therespective team Bubbles andtravel with the teams for theentire duration of IPL 2021.Their job will be to report anyBio-secure Environment proto-col breaches by members offranchises to Chief MedicalOfficer.

��� Preferably, smaller hotel

properties will be chosen whichmay be fully booked for theexclusive use by the participantswithin the Bio-SecureEnvironments. This will avoidteams coming in contact withother guests in the hotel.

If a larger hotel is chosen,then the participants will beaccommodated in a separatewing of the hotel. No otherhotel guests will be allowed inthe team zones/floors.

Dedicated floors/zones willbe allotted to each franchiseteam, Match Officials andMatch Management Teams toavoid mixing of the variousgroups within the hotel premis-es.

o Dedicated check-in coun-

ters will be arranged for the dif-ferent groups.

o A separate entry and exitgate will be available for theteam members.

o A dedicated lift will beavailable for the exclusive use ofteam members.

o Exclusive access to a gymand swimming pool will beavailable for use of team mem-bers. If exclusive access cannotbe given then each team will begiven specific time slots.

o Each hotel will have adesignated hotel manager whowill be responsible to ensurethat the guidelines for hotels asmentioned in these Health &Safety protocols for IPL 2021are followed by all hotel staff.

o Within their zones, play-ers and team support staff willbe provided safe corridors formovement within the hotel.

������� � ����The general public and

media persons will not haveaccess to the Bubble facilities aswell as stadiums for any activ-ities. Media were also notallowed during last edition ofIndian Premier League.

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Yashaswini Singh Deswalstole the limelight fromher more celebrated

compatriots with a Gold medalas India’s pistol shooters calledthe shots in the ISSF WorldCup here on Saturday, the startof which was rocked by threeCovid-19 positive cases.

Saurabh Chaudhary andAbhishek Verma settled for theSilver and Bronze medalsrespectively in the men’s 10mair pistol final on the secondcompetition day of the tourna-ment.

Those medals were wonafter world number oneDivyansh Singh Panwaropened India’s tally with aBronze in the men’s 10m airrifle event.

However, world numberfour in women’s 10m air rifle,Anjum Moudgil, settled for afifth-place finish after shooting187.8 in the final.

Yashaswini, 23, was confi-dence personified as sheclaimed the Gold medal in thewomen’s 10m air pistol eventwith a score of 238.8, far aheadof second-placed ManuBhaker’s 236.7, at the Dr KarniSingh Range.

Viktoria Chaika of Belarusbagged the Bronze medal with215.9.

The other Indian in theevent, Shri Nivetha, startedwell but finished fourth with193.5.

Deswal also topped thequalifications with 579, hersequence of scores reading 99,96, 97, 97, 98, 92.

Bhaker, 19, shot a total of577 for second place (94, 95, 97,95, 98, 98), while Nivetha shot574 to be placed fourth (97, 96,94, 94, 97, 97) in the qualifica-tions.

Both Deswal and Bhakerare Tokyo Olympics quotaholders.

In a strong start to the 24-shot final for India, Bhakertopped the first series withDeswal and Nivetha followingher in second and third place,

respectively.However, Deswal pipped

her compatriot Bhaker at thetop position before the finalentered the elimination stage.

There was no looking backfor Deswal from thereon as the2019 Rio de Janeiro WorldCup Gold medallist led thefield from start to finish.

Such was India’s domi-nance in the event that aftertheir three shooters finished inthe top four in the qualifying,they held the top three positiontill the end of the fourth serieswhen Nivetha was pipped byMexican, Alejandra ZavalaVazquez, who finished fifth.

The fancied world numberfour Chaudhary was humbledin the final shot by Iran’s JavedForoughi, currently ranked107th in the ISSF rankings.

Foroughi, who had only 14seconds on the clock to fire hisfinal shot, scored a winning10.5 after the 18-year-old

Chaudhary managed 9.8 inhis last attempt of the Goldmedal round.

Foroughi shot a total of243.6 to claim the top prize andChaudhary fired 243.2 to win

silver while Verma aggregated221.8 to bag the Bronze at theDr Karni Singh Shooting

Range. Former world numberone Indian Shahzar Rizvibowed out in fifth place with ascore of 177.1.

Three successive 9.6 by theIranian opened a window ofopportunity for Chaudhary,but the 41-year-old Foroughisealed the issue in his favourwith his last shot in an excitingfinal.

Youth Olympic and AsianGames Gold medallistChaudhary topped the qualifi-cations with 587 after asequence of series that read 96,98, 97, 98, 99, 99.

Verma was second with583 after a series of 96, 98, 99,97, 97, 96 while Rizvi wasfourth with 580 (98, 97, 97, 97,95, 96).

Before the women’s 10m airrifle event, the 18-year-oldDivyansh shot 228.1 to finishthird on the podium.

The other Indian partici-pant his event, Arjun Babuta,finished in fifth place.

American LucasKozeniesky claimed the Goldmedal with 249.8, while IstvanPeni of Hungaria bagged Silverwith 249.7.

A 10.6 and 10.3 in the sev-enth series saw Divyansh sur-vive elimination as SergeyRichter of Israel fell behind.

Divyansh, a TokyoOlympic quota holder, shot10.6 before bowing out with theBronze medal. He was placedsixth in the 60-shot qualifica-tion with a total of 629.1, whileBabuta was third with 631.8.

Earlier in the day, threeshooters, including two fromthe Indian pistol men’s team,tested positive for Covid-19.The shooters are currently self-isolating in their team hotel.

In all, four shooters havealready been afflicted by thedreaded virus since the teamsstarted arriving for the tourna-ment, prompting the SportsAuthority of India (SAI) to askNational Rifle Association ofIndia (NRAI) to take stock ofthe situation and submit areport on a bio-bubble breachby some International shooters.

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International spectators willnot be allowed to enter Japan

for this summer’s OlympicGames amid public concernsover coronavirus, organiserssaid on Saturday, setting thestage for a drastically scaled-back event.

Some 600,000 Olympictickets purchased by overseasresidents will be refunded, aswill another 300,000Paralympic tickets, ToshiroMuto, the chief executive of theTokyo 2020 organising com-mittee told a news conference.

He declined to say howmuch the refunds would cost.

The Olympic Games werepostponed last year due to theCovid-19 pandemic. While theoutbreak has chilled publicopinion toward the event, bothorganisers and Prime MinisterYoshihide Suga have vowed topress ahead with the Games.

The decision onInternational spectators will“ensure safe and secure Games

for all participants and theJapanese public,” Tokyo 2020organisers said in a statementfollowing five-way talks thatincluded the head of the

International OlympicCommittee, Thomas Bach, andthe Tokyo governor.

“People who are involvedin the Olympics in some waymay be allowed to enter thecountry, whereas regular visi-tors will not be able to,” Tokyo2020’s Muto said.

He said costs for hotel can-cellations would not be cov-ered. Organisers may also con-sider cutting the number ofstaff members who will partic-ipate in the Games.

The Games are scheduledfor July 23 to August 8, and theParalympics from August 24 toSeptember 5.

Media polls have shownthat a majority of the Japanesepublic are wary about letting inInternational spectators towatch the Games as the coun-try grapples with the tail-end ofa third wave of the pandemic.

STRIPPED-DOWN GAMESA stripped-down Games

means the Government willnot get the tourism boom it

had long counted on. Japan hasgrown increasingly reliant onforeign tourists, particularlyfrom Asia, to bolster its weakdomestic economy.

Saturday’s decision did notcover local spectators. Mutosaid organisers will decide nextmonth on caps for spectators invenues.

“It’s very unfortunate,”Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koikesaid of the decision on interna-tional spectators, speaking toreporters after the meeting.

But she added that theconclusion was “unavoidable”given that the main priority forholding a successful Gameswould be the health of the ath-letes and the Japanese public.

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� What made you do Season 2 of DevDD?

The place where Season 1 left, ithad scope for more and it organicallyled to Season 2. The conflict of char-acters just about begins. For me, it wasa natural progression from one to two.In the prequel my character, Anurag,

is in love with his daughter’s best friend,in Season 2, it takes off from wherethings were left.� What is the story here?

Certain stories, the central ones,Season 2 builds on them. But now,more characters have been introducedhere — thriller elements have beenadded — Paritosh and Aditi. Anurag

and Devika’s story is conflicted, shetries to resolve it, one will have

to see whether it happens ornot. Then there is his

daughter’s love story thatmoves ahead.� How tough was it toshoot for this season?

Definitely notterms of the craft. Butin terms of logistics.Initially, when westarted shooting forthis season, it was

sometime in October,things were just opening

up and one had to take alot of precautions. This

slowed down the pace of theshoot. Also, one has to get test-

ed regularly since all the actors in

front of the camera are without a mask.There were other issues as well. Takean example — costumes. The storiesdidn’t allow trials due to the COVID-19. This was a challenge for the stylist.So, the whole functioning changed.First two-three days, there were over ahundred people on the set. It was a bitdaunting and then it became normalwith the precautions of course.� Two new characters have beenintroduced in Season 2. Did it affectthe bonding that you had with yourco-stars?

Not at all. It was exciting to havetwo new characters; they are both won-derful people. While it is true that onedevelops a bond and camaraderie,Nauheed Cyrusi and Aman Uppalblended so beautifully into the teamand actually took it ahead especiallyAman who would greet and wisheverybody after coming to the sets. Wehad that kind of courtesy. It was gra-cious of him to do so. Season 2 was shotpre-lockdown and post-lockdown interms of time one was part of a largerjourney. Time spent together virtual-ly or otherwise was longer and we wereable to bond well.

� Has OTT changed the dynamicsfor actors?

It has definitely, sort of, democra-tised the whole star system. The webseries is a much longer format. Thestory and the character graph havemore time than what you get in films.The writers too it gives them a definitearc to develop the character so oneremains in that role for a much longertime and explore more. This is a bigboost for new actors who don’t need abig launch or have the burden of a 100-crore film. There is a good amount ofwork for actors and even technicians.Once the lockdown opened there wasa sudden rush to fill the gap of six-sevenmonths. Unfinished projects had to becompleted. New projects took off to fillthe lack of entertainment. When I gotcalls, before talking about the role, theyasked if I had dates. The OTT has beengood for actors, directors, producersand the crew. � Do you think that OTT has betteroptions for actors?

I wouldn’t say it is better or worsesince I don’t want to weigh it in thismanner. Both can co-exist. Web seriesin some way are structured in a format.

You end every episode with a hook. Afilm can be open-ended. It doesn’t haveto have it. Like there is a differencebetween a full-length film and a shortfilm. A film is far more organic and notdata driven. In an OTT, the pacing isstructured since one is dealing with adiverse audience which will slip veryquickly. It is not like a date with cine-ma. � Does it bother that people still talkabout My Brother… Nikhil?

It doesn’t bother me at all thatdespite it not being a 100-crore, peo-ple still remember me. It is wonderful.It is great that somewhere when 100-crore became the benchmark, I hadmovies that people remember likeChauranga, My Brother… Nikhil,Jhankaar Beats and I Am, that I can takethem to my grave. Each film has a longshelf life. I am fortunate and gratefulthat I have done these projects.� What next?

I am shooting for a series and afilm. There is another series and theshoot has to start. I also produce filmsand have a few feature film scripts.Time and opportunity permitting, I willtake them up as well.

�For those who haven’t seen Roohi, what is your role?It is my first time working in a horror-comedy. It is pretty

awesome. It has been a while since I was part of a comedy film.I started off with this genre and did Joker (Akshay Kumar andSonakshi Sinha starrer). It was a great way to start my careerhere. I play Tim in Roohi, a documentary filmmaker whoencounters Rajkummar (Rao) and Varun’s (Sharma) characters.What plays out forms the outcome of this movie. My charac-ter is the personification of the audience in the film.�How did you come on board for the project?

We started working on this project sometime back and I real-ly don’t remember how things moved forward and how I cameon board for this film. I was shooting for something else at thattime when this project came along. I studied journalism but havenever played one on-screen. What I loved about this movie wasthat it has a different perspective. My name got tossed aroundin a room and someone got in touch with me and that was it.�How was it to work with Janhvi Kapoor and RajkummarRao?

This is my third project with Rajkummar Rao, the first onewas Chittagong. The two of us come together to work once everycouple of years. In both the previous movies I want to kill him.Roohi is a pleasant change. He is a great person and not becausehe is a good actor. We would have a few chats in between shots.Varun (Sharma) is a wonderful person. It was great to work withthis team, especially Hardik Mehta.�You released two singles as well. What are they about?

The first, released last year, was Still On My Mind. Most ofmy music is in English but people here still listen to them; it isamazing. The statistics show that most of the viewers were inIndia even though the song is in English. Just after completingworking on Aarya, I released Bhagwad Gita song. The reasonwhy I did this was because I had memorised Sanskrit shlokasfor Aarya and they were dancing around in my head. I sat downwith a guitar and did this song and released it. It is in Sanskritso very specific to the audience but whoever has heard it hasloved it. My musical journey has just begun.�Have you managed to move past the image of the waiter whocouldn’t pronounce the dish in Cheeni Kum?

I can recite the name in my sleep — keema bharey salaanmurg ka pulao. People say that I started my career where I wasunable to pronounce the dish to now reciting, from memory,shlokas in Sanskrit from The Bhagwad; it has been an interest-ing journey. Language is not my strong point but I work real-ly hard on it. There is a project that I am working on, I don’tspeak a word in English, only Hindi. I loved being part of CheeniKum and being face-to-face with the great Amitabh Bachchan.When people remind me of the movie, I smile.�What made you come to India?

I was working with a marketing company and it was open-ing up offices in India, South Africa and Philippines. But I wasan actor on stage in the US and a model. While I was here, mod-eling led to my first ad and that led to my first film. Then I gotsuper lucky and did Nach Baliye. I am a horrible dancer but itgave me the exposure countrywide and opened doors to filmsand series. I am grateful to the Indian audience for acceptingme on-screen and also listening to my music.�You have been in the industry for over a decade now. Wasthere a character that you loved playing?

There are so many. In Urumi (Malayalam), I play a doublerole. Main Aur Charles, with Randeep Hooda was yet anotherfilm that I loved being a part of. I loved the movie as well. I eventracked down the inspector who had tracked down CharlesShobraj. I love history and wanted to know more so that I couldstep into the shoes of the character that I played. �What are you working on now?

I can talk about projects that are for public knowledge. Thereis The Battle of Bhima Koregaon with Arjun Rampal. It is a peri-od war drama. I play a positive role here. Golondaaj is anoth-er one, a Bengali film on football, I am excited about this film.Chehre, I have a cameo. For Bhoot_Police we are still shooting,again a cameo. There are a few others as well.

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4������� �������The usual perceived notion

of an acharya — drapedin saffron dhoti, flaunting

a long unkempt beard and ateeka on the forehead — hasnow been changing because ofthe likes of those of Guru GaurGopal Das, Sadhguru andmany others. One of them isAcharya Prashant aka PrashantTripathi. However, the fact thatsets him apart from all his com-patriots is that he teaches 17forms of Gita.

Surprising enough? Whatis even more interesting is thefact that the Acharya is an IIT-IIM alumnus and also an ex-civil services officer who decid-ed to leave his job behind inorder to attend to the spiritu-al call.

“There was no magicalinstance as such. It was a nat-ural process and spiritualitywas always in the back ofmind. I was always looking forthe right things that I wantedto do in life. Initially, I thoughtthat it can be done throughbureaucracy. Later on, I dis-covered that it was to the wayout. In 2000, I cleared IIM-Ahmedabad and UPSC at thesame time, then took a sabbat-ical for three years, completedMBA and after that I left theIRPS Services. In 2006, Ifounded Adwait Life-EducationFoundation where we wereteaching spirituality to engi-neering students. Moving on,in 2015, I foundedPrashantAdwait Foundation.This is how it happened,” hetells you.

Not that his decision ofleaving the Civil Services did-n’t meet resistance. It was hispersonality and his choice ofpeople that helped him in thelong run. “I have always beenan off-beat person, which givesme the advantage that I didn’thave people around me whowould counter my decisions. Ihad people around me who res-onated with the kind of personI am and the things that I havewanted in life. I faced someresistance when I became amissionary,” he says.

While many say, criticismis the best motivation, onemay wonder what madeAcharya surround himself withpeople who only resonated

with his thoughts. “Criticism doesn’t always

come from people. The bestform of criticism can comefrom honest self-reflection. Ifyour worry is that by not hav-ing critical people around you,one may become myopic, forthat I had wise people andimmense literature to supportme. Also, to add to this, all thechallenging decisions that Ihave taken in life were appre-ciated by critics. I only had peo-ple around me who doesn’tunnecessarily threw resistanceand not the ones who doesn’thave a similar vision like meand thought I didn’t have muchpotential,” he says.

However, teaching spiritu-ality didn’t come without itsshare of challenges. It was a taskto attract students towards thesubject. “In order to tacklethis challenge, we developed acurriculum where we promised

jobs to students. On this pre-text, we taught them spiritual-ity and it became a major suc-cess. Apart from that, we alsomade sure that we are talkingto students in a language andway that they are comfortablein,” he says. He has recentlylaunched Upanishad andWisdom, an online course onUpanishads and Gitas in orderto expand the learning experi-ence.

What helped Acharya toexplore different forms of Gitais that he decided to dig deepinto the subject. It wasn’t a dif-ficult thing to do, he says.“The word Gita means songs.A song that is coming fromdeep meditation and devotion.All the ancient teachings weretransformed into songs. Andthat there are 17 differentforms of Gita, it is not a veryobscure fact. Anybody who hassome understanding of the

Indian spiritual tradition wouldcome to know that there areactually hundreds of Gitas.

“In fact, after Sri Krishantold Srimad Bhagwad Gita toArjun, there is another Gitacalled Uttar Gita after the wargot over. Here Arjun told SriKrishan that he has forgottenwhatever that was told to himand asks if Sri Krishan can tellhim the Gita all over again. SriKrishan scolds and retellsArjun the entire Gita again,hence it is called Uttar Gita.Even the Mahabharat has 18Gitas, out of which SrimadBhagwad Gita is just one,” heexplains. The retreats, he says,were started in 2012 when hewould sit besides the ranges inRishikesh and Puri and wouldread the scriptures for entirenights. It went on for about fiveyears. However, it was not as if,during these years, he got someenlightenment. The only thing

which changed was his per-spective towards life. It becameclear.

“When one reads thesescriptures, the usual perceptionis that his perception towardsthings will change. However, itis not true. You will continue tosee the same things, but withmore clarity. I won’t say I start-ed looking at different things,instead I looked at the samethings but with more clarity. So,this is what I learnt during thisspiritual journey,” he explains.

One of the things that hisorganisations stands against issuperstition. Before reachingthe stage of clarity, what onefaces is confusion. It is not asif one sits and within five min-utes he knows it all. It is aprocess which can be certain-ly frustration at times. “Youread something that is intend-ed to give you clarity, but youend up more confused. Youimplement it, live with this con-fusion for months or evenyears and then somethingopens up and you realise thatthis is what it was. There havebeen a lot of struggle with con-fusion, but during this Iensured one thing that I keptmoving forward,” he says.

Ask Acharya what kepthim going in the period ofstruggle and he is quick toanswer — my love to gainingclarity.

“I know if I am confused,this confusion will not go awayby lying down and watchingNetflix for 10 hours. I have todo something about it. It wasclarity itself that kept me going,”he adds.

Not only teaching spiritu-ality, Acharya also helps peopleacross the world by motivatingthem to lead a better life. On adaily basis, he gets about 400queries on depression andother things. However, thenumber was doubled duringthe lockdown. “We wereshocked to see so many queriespouring in. It was then whenpeople realised death isunevitable. It depressed them.The only solution we gavethem is to do good and pro-ductive things. It will give youpositivity because you willrealise the value of life andtime,” he tells you

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The actor who left a mark in movieslike Jhankaar Beats, I Am and My

Brother... Nikhil is back with Season 2of Dev DD. Shalini Saksena chats

him up about what this season isabout, how OTT platforms have

changed the dynamics foractors and upcoming

projects

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Can Cinema be called as ‘Natya’? Letus take a step back and understandwhat ‘Natya’ signifies? Natya is notthe same as drama or play, rather it isthe subject-matter or the essence of a

play (Nataka). The ancient Indian dramaturgy,as illustrated in the Natyashastra (composedbetween 200 BC to 200 AD, by generations ofscholars and the authorship is attributed to sageBharata Muni), explains many concepts whichclaims to cover all kinds of arts subservient toNatya.

Natyashastra meant to serve as a practicalguide for poets and artists for the successfulcreation and performance of ‘Natya’. It beginswith the mythological anecdote about howNatya was created. In one of the key dialogues,Indra, the king of Gods, requests Lord Brahmato create a playful medium which is both auraland visual. He asked that the new playful medi-um should be the summum bonum of allknowledge i.e. liberation or freedom, availablefor everyone.

���������������������Let us have a relook on some key words

such as Nritt, Nritya and Natya. A normal cate-gory of dance devoid of any conveyable mean-ing is classically called Nritt. When the mean-ing is conveyed through dance movements it iscalled Nritya. In Natya, there is the element ofRasa, which is the object of relishment as wellas the relishment itself. The idea of Rasa isremarkably interesting for thinkers, art-theoristas well as common people as per our culturalheritage.

We commonly associate and equate ‘Natya’with the theatrical performance. When wethink of theatre, we tend to attribute certainhistrionics or some exaggeration in speech ormovements. Based on this limited outlook, wetend to overlook certain basic principles. Thecommonly understood exaggeration is coveredin one of the ten parts of Natya — dharmi,which does not prescribe exaggeration always.

���������� ���� ����������Our understanding of Natyashastra would

have been very superficial had we not discov-ered the lost commentary on it by the greatKashmiri Shaivite philosopher of the tenth cen-tury, Abhinavagupta. The Abhinavabharati, wasfound in the 1910s in Kerala. With this discov-ery, Indian philosophical discourse found afresh grandeur in Kashmir Shaivism, whichclaims to be the fruit of great classical Indianphilosophical debates on Metaphysics,Epistemology, Ontology, Grammar and Bhaktitraditions after the debates of Buddhism vsSanatana, Dualistic vs Non-Dualistic traditions,assimilating the impacts of Grammarian onvarious schools of thoughts. Abhinavagupta’simpact can be seen in the Sangita-Ratnakara ofSharangdeva in the 13th century.

����������������������������������To understand the implication of philosoph-

ical discourse in aesthetics, we end up discussingattributes of consciousness and its functions.That is why, an idea of enjoyment of the arts islinked with the metaphysical and epistemologi-cal thoughts to be discussed within a coherentframework of ideas. For example, we can say ourconsciousness has three major functions: toknow, to act and to feel. These functions are notmutually exclusive but are dominant facets tocomprehend consciousness. Now the rule ofknowing (involving knowledge, knower andknown) and the rule of acting (involving action,agent, and object) are different from the rule offeeling (involving relishment, aesthete and anaesthetic performance).

The famous rasa formula illustrates thatwhile watching a dramatic performance, thefusion of determinant, consequent and transito-ry emotion express rasa (commonly translatedas ‘sentiment’). The rasa expressed is of eighttypes: Love (Shringara), Comic (Hasya), Heroic(Veera), Marvelous (Adbhuta), Fury (Raudra),Tragic (Karuna), Odious (Vibhatsa), and Terrible(Bhayanaka). The key characteristic of the Rasatheory is the identification of a chief rasa in theentire performance while the other rasasexpressed in the same drama becomes sub-servient to it.

������������������Over a period of time, many scholars have

tried to add a few more rasas to the above list.Great debates have filled up literary discoursesover centuries, while Cinema, the new art formhaving a history of only 125 years, unfolds tomodern audiences and has reinvented itselfthrough various stages. The early era of silentand black & white movies was more universal.As technology progressed, sound was added tomoving images and the talkies of the 30sreplaced the idea of silent movies. When colourmovies become affordable to all directors, the60s witnessed the B&W movies moving out. Thecurrent change is adoption of the 3D and thebusiness aspect is also undergoing a transforma-tion through OTT media services.

It is interesting to note that almost all themasterpieces of world cinema can be explainedwithin the Indian classical framework of theRasa Theory. Bharata Muni notes three kinds offear while discussing the Terrible sentiment andwe find that Alfred Hitchcock obsessed withmaking films related to pseudo-fear or fear ofwrong doing. It is our ignorance if we equateand limit the ‘Terrible Sentiment’ to monstersand the horror-genre, which is another kind ofBhayanaka Rasa. Similarly, our vocabulary limitsour notion of heroism to fighting the bad. In away the westerns of John Ford or the greatsamurai movies of Akira Kurosawa are indeedheroic and subscribe to the Veera Rasa, but thereare other aspects of heroism such as the sacrific-

ing and the righteous hero. Thus, the onus is onus to perceive Charlie Chaplin as a hero in hiscelebrated film, City Lights (1931) than to thinkof him as a mere comedian. Substantial works ofQuentin Tarantino and Martin Scoresese arelimited to the Fury Sentiment (Raudra Rasa). Itcan be noticed that the protagonist in the moviessuch as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980),Good Fellas (1990) and The Irishman (2019) arenot noble individuals but criminals or what canbe classically called as having a demonic nature.

�����������������������The modern art medium such as Cinema

has pushed the boundaries of what was notpossible earlier or even what was prohibitedto be demonstrated. Much credit goes to thecamera which transforms the determinantsand consequents effectively, which along withediting enhance the effects. Determinants in adrama are defined as the inherent reasons forthe manifestation of rasa, they could beobjects, situations, or even beautifully dressedcharacters. Consequents are word play, bodilyactions, physio-psychological gestures thathelp in developing the transitory feelings andsupport the persistent feelings (that help inidentifying the rasa).

Major directors have experimented andmade even the ‘Odious’ (Vibhatsa Rasa) as thechief rasa, many works of David Lynch and thelast work of Italian director Piero PaoloPasolini bear testimony to this. Traditionallythe comic (Hasya Rasa) was limited to the per-formance of jesters in a play. And thus, it wasnot given much importance and was thoughtto be entertaining only to women, children,and persons with lesser maturity. Cinema, inits artform, exhibited that Hasya Rasa can beachieved without the help of a jester and alsothat a jester can turn it into a chief rasa. It isindeed a wonder that the 1920s had great stal-warts such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton,and Max Linder busy in making people laughand how we lack such individual talent in ourtimes.

The tragic sentiment is expressed in threemodes — loss of wealth, failure to act right-eously and gloom born out of death. Usually,tragedy is understood as irreparable loss,whereas Natyashastra informs, educates, andwarns us that tragedy can strike by financialloss and failure to act morally as well. The cele-brated movie of Vittorio De Sica — BicycleThieves (1948) is a fine example of sorrowwhere despite no death being shown, the view-ers witness a sense of great loss. The usualquestion asked about the tragic sentiment is —how can a sad performance be enjoyed?

We know that there is nothing called aes-thetic sorrow. In order to explain and under-stand the phenomena, Abhinavagupta discuss-es the idea of obstacles encountered in the rasaapperception.

� ��������������� ���������The idea of obstacles in Rasa guides us as to

how the delight in our consciousness isexpressed when we are devoid of obstacles suchas personal sorrow, or over-identification withthe depicted sorrow. When a clear conscious-ness, devoid of any impurities, watches such aperformance, which is an enactment and is ofthe nature of transcendental reality, the self-repose after the sorrow is joyous. Therefore, weare able to enjoy and celebrate the works ofAndrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, RobertBresson, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak.

������������������������ ���� ���������������

In many big-budgeted Hollywood moviesand Indian movies with lavish sets, the audi-ence are exposed to the idea of wondermentand thus the Marvelous Sentiment. Works ofSteven Spielberg, James Cameron, andChristopher Nolan examine the conceptsunheard of or having the qualities of magnifi-cence. Just like the ancient Indian dramas,world over, cinemas having Veera Rasa,Adbhuta Rasa and Shringara Rasa as the chiefrasa are very popular.

Shringara Rasa or the Love sentiment isconsidered the king of all sentiments. TheShringaraprakash of Bhojadeva, 11th centurytext, is among many other texts which upholdsShringara as the supreme rasa. Interestingly theword Shringara is derived from the exoticdressing of mankind and the desire for ren-dezvous. Usually, it is associated with the ideaof eroticism. This Rasa creates the space formulti-faced discussion as well as philosophicalenquiries. It is very strange to note that inNatyashastra, Kama Shringara (Eros Sentiment)illustrates the eroticism with a consort.

To conclude, Natyashastra has often beencriticised for imposing strict rules for creationand performance, whereas the rules ofNatyashastra are illustrative, meticulous,accommodative, and exhaustive. It is our inabil-ity to comprehend the principles in the correctlight as well as a lack of courage to add up onthe new vistas. There are ten variants of dramalisted (technically called as Rupak in Sanskrit)viz. Nataka, Prakarana, Ank, Dim, Prahasana,Veethi etc. If the great tradition of Indian schol-arship would have continued, genres of Cinemaand web-series might have added to this list ofRupak.

Understanding Cinema as Natya, there is ahope that we would rediscover the intellectualheritage and be benefitted with cross culturaldebates. Unknowingly we all are students ofphilosophy and connoisseurs of beauty.

The writer is the author of Cinema throughRasa: A Tryst with Masterpieces in the Light of

Rasa Siddhanta. The book has been translatedfrom Hindi by by Geeta Mirji Narayan

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IS CINEMA SAME AS ‘NATYA’?

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Corona is back. As state after state once again are resort-ing to night curfews and lock downs, a big issue is dowe still have any concrete idea of the pandemic, its ori-

gin and nature and the solutions. Apparently not, as we con-tinue to grope in the dark. What about the measures we took,the medicines that were prescribed and the claims of exact-ly 99.99 percent prevention from the virus through the useof certain products. People were blindly believing those tele-vision commercials and advertisements that were makinga lot of noise. It is against this backdrop that we need to exam-ine scientifically whether we actually have an answer to thepandemic. While businesses that claim to provide protec-tion from Corona flourished, authentic answers were notfound. In fact, it was an information driven fear psychosisthat created havoc more than the virus itself. To capitaliseon this there was a very powerful Pharma marketing cam-paign that made people go for all kinds of medical options.So in a nutshell then, the pandemic catastrophe can besummed up rather neatly in just two words: infodemic andpharmageddon. Sundries like masks and hand sanitisers alsoadded to the effect and cornered huge benefits. However, thepoint to ponder is where do we stand after centuries ofencounters with pandemics. Human beings have been fac-ing the onslaught of these viral attacks ever since their exis-tence. Looking back at some 2,000 years of experience sug-gest that our efforts did not have much to contribute andthe pandemics subsided on their own in around one and halfto two years. How to explain this phenomenon, when ouradvances in science, technology, medicines and biology seemso helpless. It is a natural and cyclic event that keeps on vis-iting the earth at periodic intervals. Or is it an auto correc-tion initiated by the big machine that nature is. Or is it a warn-ing to humanity from mother nature to mend ways. Nothingcan be said. This is not to negate the contribution of science,technology and medicine. But it certainly suggests that nature’ssuperiority is undoubtedly established and human beingsmust acknowledge this with folded hands. It is this that naturehas been trying to prove time and again. The inevitabilityof the devastating impact of natural phenomena hold lessonsfor humanity. To show where human beings stand in the larg-er scheme of things, not as the pivotal factor but as a smallpart of the comprehensive whole. But in this process whatwas evident was confusion, concentration of state power andchaos leading to rise of mental disequilibrium resulting ina psychodemic. As the corona juggernaut fails to halt, let usworkout ways and means of coping with its ill effects. Noton the economic front but on the psychological front. Manypeople may try to convince that the two are intricately linked.But the fact is that they are not. It was the psychological intim-idation that led to the economic downturn. It may be pru-dent to understand that the number of billionaires rose asthe poor were committing suicide. The correlation may notbe obvious but relationship between the rising Sensex andfalling economies are intriguing. Matter is not created ordestroyed. It only changes hands.

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As I have begun reaping manyrewards due to my faith in Godgetting stronger gradually, I have

wondered why more people do not pur-sue the spiritual path. I got the answerfrom the Bhagavad Gita. In the verse#17.3, Lord Krishna states that faith ofall is according to their natures only. Hestates that in the human species, what-ever faith one has he is that only. (17.3)

We know that the human specieshas faith and that is what makes themdifferent from other species. A lady,though highly educated, chooses toengage herself in household activities;she is known as a housewife. Similarly,a person pursuing an acting career isknown as a filmstar; a person playingcricket as a profession is known as acricketer, etc. They do so because theyhave faith that these activities are thebest for them, and are known as such.

Fate has two parts. One, which iscommonly known, is connected withevents such as someone landing ahighly lucrative job. The other, whichis not so well known, is the personalnature. People are born with certainnatures due to their past acts. And weknow that personal natures are productsof the three modes. Lord Krishna hasstated that faith of human beings are ofthree kinds, i.e. in goodness, in passionand in darkness. (17.2) An IAS officerretired from serve chose to live in a trib-al area to sever them. His faith is ingoodness. A boy born in a family ofbusinessman is in passion, because hepursues a business career later in his life.Some unfortunate souls are born in themode of darkness and turn out to becriminals, etc. Their faith is in suchactivities.

Fortunately, our natures are notfixed, they can be changed, but it will

take enormous efforts to be able to suc-cessfully do so. I was not entirelyhappy with my life. I looked for reasonsand found that my nature was defectivein many respects. Therefore, I set aboutto change it. This is how I began. Weconstanly desire something. Most ofthem are not serious, and we know it.For change of nature, we require deepdesire, i.e. from deep inside of us; wemust really want it. Then and then onlywe will be able to do the required‘tapasya’ for achieving it. Those, who getstarted in the childhood, are the fortu-nate ones; their parents set examples forthem to emulate. My father was a “bhak-ta’ of Hanumanji and my mother wasa devotee of Ramji. They tried to livevery exemplary lives, which left deepimpression on me. I knew from theirexamples what was really desirable butcouldn’t apply myself till much later inmy life. I took help from God throughthe Gita. This book of eternal wisdombecame my guide. God became my

teacher and I got started. Subtle changesbegan to take place in my nature, butthe price was not small, because we arewhat our natures are, as stated earlier.And to reject the self is not very pleas-ant. But I persevered. What reallyhelped was change in the proportion ofthe mode of goodness in my nature. Theother two modes began to get subduedsomewhat. Don’t we know that the threemodes are forever trying to becomedominant by overpowering the othertwo. (14.10) My spiritual acts, which Ihad started doing seriously by nowhelped. Purification of the body, themind and the intelligence was takingplace. All these began contributingtowards reinforcement of faith in God.

I can honestly state that it has beentough going and it is not easy even now,but I have progressed. My nature is bet-ter or let me say somewhat more toler-able and my faith in growing stronger.+�����������������!������������� ��������� ���

���������!��C�.��������B �

In recent times, we all havebecome extremely consciousabout cleansing. Nowadays thereis much emphasis to keep ourhands and surroundings clean so

that we can save ourselves from differ-ent viruses. There are so many detoxmethods, which are becoming popu-lar to keep us healthy. Fasting, high-fibre and raw-food diets, enemas andhigh colonics, saltwater baths, pan-chakarma, mud bath are some of thepopular ones. There is so muchemphasis on keeping our physicalimmunity strong by exercise, yoga anddifferent ayurvedic herbs.

To keep our body clean external-ly, every day we brush our teeth, show-er and wear fresh clean clothes. Duringthe day we wash our hands manytimes. We are using antibacterialproducts to cleanse kitchen surfaces,disinfectants in laundry detergents, air-filtering in a car, purified water insteadof tap water. And a lots of people carry“hand sanitisers” to cleanse theirhands of germs after coming our ofstore or restaurant and also time totime after touching any surface out-side.

This awareness of external clean-liness is very important. We also needto feel the real need to cleanse ourminds from suppressed emotions likeworthless anxieties, stale outlooks,anger, guilt, frustration, dull resent-ments, jealousy, betrayals and an end-less array of shabby self-images. Ourmind keeps on storing this unwanteddirty matter which causes many blocksin our personality and we are unableto move further in our life.

Most of us keep on ignoring thebad smell coming out of this and con-tinue to push ourselves with normaldaily life. Our minds become likestuffed refrigerators that emit peculiarodours. Pick any shelf and you will seeitems in the back so old we don’t evenremember storing them there. Manythings are hiding in some corners.Some of these things are now so thickwith mould and mildew that they havetaken on lives of their own. Indeed, theback recesses of our refrigerator mindare in revolt and have set up sour andstinky kingdoms of their own. It’s soscary a sight that our impulse is toshove all the front-line items quicklyback in place so that now sunny orangejuice, freshly picked mangoes, andorganic celery once again appear to beall that’s in there.

It’s not a small task to clean out ouroverstuffed minds. It takes a little time,courage, patience and we have to braceourselves for some unpleasant discov-eries. If a house has been closed formany many years and when we openit and start cleaning it, we will have toface lots and lots of dirt during the

process of cleaning. But we if contin-ue the process of cleaning withoutbecoming fearful and discouraged bythe amount of dirt, we can feel thefresh aromas coming out of it. Andthen we will realise, we have made avery small sacrifice for such a reward.

If you want to know what it feelslike to stock your refrigerator with theitems you choose rather than thosechosen for you by culture and familydynamics, just look at little childrenplaying — which they do most of thetime. The average preschool childlaughs over 350 times a day. The aver-age adult laughs about ten. Why?Because children come into the worldwith clean refrigerators.

Most people are very busy accu-mulating more and more things in life,professional status, physical attractive-ness, social acceptance etc. They hard-ly have time to clean their mental envi-ronment because they are too busy justdecorating the outer layer of their per-sonality. These people hardly realisethat having inner ease and peace is nota luxury rather the most importantneed which can not be neglected andcan be achieved along with our otherduties and aspirations of life. We justneed to start becoming aware of it and

begin the process of learning variousmindfulness techniques to keep ourmental hygiene.

We need to start with observingour state of mind and start takingresponsibility for our thoughts andemotions instead of finding other peo-ple or situation to blame. We need tomake a resolve. Do I sincerely want tolook at my life in peace? Do I sincere-ly want a mind that knows stillness,wholeness, and a deep bond with mypartner, children, parents, siblings, andfriends? Or do I just want to contin-ue in a miserable position of judge-ment, control and be right?

Releasing destructive emotionsand darker impulses don’t require tightcontrol of our thoughts and feelings.We don’t have to be at war with cir-cumstances, our behaviour, otherpeople’s behaviour, our feelings, otherpeople’s feelings, our thoughts, orother people’s thoughts. We simply arenot at war. It is just reverse. The emo-tional release process is freedom. Andwhen we will start realising that wehave been fighting a useless battle withour stuffed up useless thoughts andemotions, we merely walk off the bat-tlefield.

We will start investing in learning

and practising more and more emo-tional release processes. With thehelp of many breathing exercises, wecan release stuffed up emotions fromwithin. Sharing our emotions withsome trustworthy and mature personis another very powerful way to keepour mental hygiene. Writing down onpaper and then just burn it is anoth-er technique. Chanting differentmantras can help to burn the negativ-ity in the mind and also create posi-tive energy and vibes around us. It’slike immersing our mind in the bestof the perfumes along with detoxify-ing it.

If we want to keep our mental san-ity and work from the whole mind ofpeace and happiness and not from ourconflicted mind, we need to start usingsome of these mindfulness and emo-tional release techniques. By investingin mind sanitisers, not only we will behealthy mentally but also physicallybecause most of the diseases in thebody are just manifestation of differ-ent kinds of suppressed emotions,stress and tension. So start the processof emotional release immediately, it’snot a luxury rather the most impor-tant basic necessity to be happy.

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Medical science explainsstress to be our naturalphysical and mental

reaction to life’s experiences.Our body reacts to stress byflooding our systems with hor-mones, resulting in rapidbreathing, sweating, elevatedpulse rate, and a myriad ofother immediate symptoms.Prolonged exposure to stress,much like the situation we arefacing today, can push ustowards headaches, heartburn,depression, insomnia, hearttrouble, fertility problems, aweakened immune symptomand a whole host of other well-documented adverse effects.

Fear not. Changing ourlives and steering it towardsprolonged peace and health canbe as simple as adopting fivedaily habits to conquer stress:

�����������������������Whether it’s the first thing

in the morning, last thing atnight, or even a few stolenmoments between errands, it isimportant to remove a littletime solely for ourselves. Putaside your daily chores andfind a quiet place to escapedemanding family members.Use this time to indulge in anyactivity that gives you joy andpeace. It can be anything fromreading the newspaper whilesavouring a flavourful cup ofcoffee; flipping though thepages of an exciting book; tak-ing an online class; or evensoaking in a warm bath withscented candles and salts.

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Nothing that can bring usmore joy than the knowledgethat we made another personhappy. Make it a personal goalto do at least one good deedper day, no matter how small.Give a helping hand to family.Call your friend and check inwith what’s happening in theirlives. Compliment your col-league. Send your spouse flow-ers. Donate some clothes orsupplies to those in need. Asmall act of charity on our endcan truly brighten up someoneelse’s life.

��������� ��������Physical activity in any

form is a tried and tested stress

buster. Health professionalsrecommend getting in at least20 minutes of exercise three tofour times a week. Walk to thestores instead of driving shortdistances. Take the stairs. Runaround the local park. Breathein as much fresh air as you can.Sign up for online yoga/fitnessclasses. Just keep your bodymoving. Regular movementtriggers the release of powerfulendorphins in our bodies,heightening happiness andreducing stress.

��������������Music has always been a

well-known mood changer. Sohit play on your favouriteplaylist and hum along whenperforming mundane tasks.

Keep your radio on while dri-ving or cooking. Sing in theshower, however off-key youmay be! Research proves thatmusic reduces anxiety, bloodpressure and pain; andimproves focus, sleep qualityand memory.

������� ����������������Get adequate sleep every

night and keep your bedtimesfixed. Upon awakening, breathedeeply, practise Pranayama,and meditate for a short whilebefore hitting breakfast andtackling your daily to-do lists.Starting your morning rightsets the tone for a peaceful dayto follow.

The writer is the author ofbook, Meeting Yama

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The Assembly elections inAssam, the most populous

North-East State, are pregnantwith possibilities because ofvarious issues, according topolitical pundits. However,given the prevailing socio-eco-nomic situation in the State andlack of a strong anti-incum-bency factor coupled with cleanand strong Central leadershipby Prime Minister NarendraModi even during the Covid-19 pandemic, it will not be adaunting task for theSarbananda Sonowal-led BJPGovernment to retain power.

In the run-up to theAssembly elections, what mat-ters most for the people ofAssam is the handling of theCovid-19 pandemic, concernsover the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA), theNational Register of Citizens(NRC), but most importantlythe job scenario in the State.

Despite vociferous protestsagainst the implementation ofthe CAA in Assam, the voters’attention is not fixated on theCAA sentiments. The rulingBJP and its alliance partner, themost prominent regional party,the Asom Gana Parishad(AGP), are in favour of imple-menting the CAA in Assam.However, some prominent stu-dent bodies of the State, suchas the All Assam StudentsUnion (AASU), AsomJatiyatabadi Yuba ChatraParishad (AJYCP), and partieslike the All India UnitedDemocratic Front (AIUDF)and the Congress have clung tothe emotional issue. For them,the CAA is unconstitutional.Many view the CAA as animmediate threat to the sur-vival of the indigenous peopleof Assam and the violation ofthe historic Assam Accordsigned between the leadership of AASU and theRajiv Gandhi-led CongressGovernment at the Centre in 1985.

The polls in Assam are atwo-way contest. On one side,it is the BJP and its allies,including the AGP, the UnitedPeople’s Party Liberal (UPPL)of the current Bodo Territorial

Council (BTC), and the RabhaJoutha Mancha (RJM). On theother side, it is the Congress-led Mahajot with AIDUF andthe Bodo People’s Front (BPF)of Hagrama Mahilary, the for-mer BTAD chief. However,there are two newly formedregional parties in the fray, theAsom Jatiya Parishad (AJP),born out of the AASU and theAJYCP, and Raijor Dol, fromthe Krisak Mukti SangramSamiti of jailed activist AkhilGogoi. And a few poll punditsconsider the Assam elections asa triangular fight, with thecoalition of the AJP and theRaijor Dol (RD) as third for-midable force.

However, considering theAJP and the RD alliance as apolitical force to be reckonedwith stretches the ground real-ity. It would be a Herculeantask for the new entity to makea mark on the anti-CAA sen-timents, prime its past. It is truethat the AASU, the parentorganisation of the AJP, has amass following in the State asit has retained the status as oneof the strongest students’ bod-ies in the State. It must be notedhere that this is the same stu-dents’ body that in 1985 gavebirth to the AGP, one of themost successful regional polit-ical party in Assam. And theAGP under the leadership of itsveteran AASU presidentPrafulla Kumar Mahanta ruledthe State for 10 years, oncefrom 1985 to 1990 and thenagain from 1996 to 2001.However, during the TarunGogoi-led CongressGovernment’s three consecu-tive terms from 2001 till 2016,the AGP, once termed as thevoice of the “sons of the soil”,was relegated to a mere region-al force. And over the years, bit-ter rivalry, defection and non-injection of young blood intothe party hierarchy has led toits massive loss of politicalspace in the State.

This time, when the BJP-AGP alliance has released thelist of 70 candidates for the firstphase of the poll, the party hasdropped Mahanta’s name fromBarhampur, the constituency

he represented for seven con-secutive terms since 1991.Though there are rumoursthat he may join the Congress,reliable sources say that thetwo-time former ChiefMinister may not contest thispoll because of his poor health.Despite all these hiccups, theAGP may be able to retainsome seats. But there is highprobability that the AJP maymake inroads into the AGP’straditional base. Also, the vot-ers may get confused and theAGO loyalties may shift to thetwo regional parties, born outof the AASU. The RD mayspoil the vote banks of both theAGP and the BJP to an extent.

However, what has beenremarkable in the last four

Assembly elections in Assam isthe gradual and quite big riseof the BJP. Considering thistrend, the prevailing situation,and the tendency of the Assamelectorate to vote the sameparties or alliances to power,the writing on the wall is clear:incumbent Sonowal regimehas high chance to retainpower. There has been a recordof repeating the existingGovernments in the past inAssam. Late Congress veteranGogoi, though entangled inmyriad problems and corrup-tion scandals, won three con-secutive terms. Of course, dur-ing his one and a half decadeof rule, both the BJP and theAGP had not much stake in theState politics. And other small-

er parties such as the AIUDFof perfume baron Ajmal andBPF could hardly play the roleof a kingmaker, except exploit-ing their respective tradition-al vote banks.

What could catapultSonowal back to power is hiscogent reassurance to the vot-ers that his Government willsuccessfully address the con-cerns of high unemployment,flood problem and all about thepositive impact of both theNRC and the CAA. Modi’s per-sona and performance at theCentre will certainly influencevoters’ choice. However, in aAssembly election, only theState leadership’s performanceon the ground can help themwin back the trust of the peo-

ple. Assam being an ethnical-ly sensitive State, with an ever-emerging problem ofBangladeshi migrants since thestarting of the historic AssamMovement, political partiesmust take into account the con-fidence of the large indigenousMuslim population. Instead oftreating the immigration issueon the lines of religion, it mustbe addressed on the basis of itslegality. It is the duty of the BJP-led Government to allay thefears from the minds of thelocal Muslims. And if it is notaddressed properly, and intime, parties such as theAIDUF, the Congress, andother left-leaning platformscould misguide voters of theState to cash in on the confu-

sion. Therefore, despite possi-

bilities stacked in favour of theSonowal Government, thisAssembly election will still bea test for the BJP. If it rompshome, the much-needed longmarch of the saffron party inthis remote part of the countrywill continue. Certainly, thiswill reassert Prime MinisterModi’s leadership and popu-larity across the region. Further,the party and its allies would beable to continue its develop-mental projects and win thetrust of the electorate of Assam.

(The writer belongs toAssam and has a deep under-standing of the social-politicalsituations there)

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The global media has placed theagenda upright and has aptly

covered the slew of executive orderssigned by US President Joe Biden onthe first day of his Presidency.

The “Make America Great”again agenda of former PresidentDonald Trump could not prop himup as a successful candidate as hismishandling of the Covid-19 crisisseemingly did him in if one adheresto the casus belli of a section ofAmerican observers.

Still, what seemed akin to beinga diplomatic tour de force for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi vis-a-vis hisAmerican counterpart might turninto a stringent and stern tight rope-walk during the Presidency of Biden.President Trump emphaticallydeclared Modi to be the “true friend”of his during his various negotiationsand summitries ranging from therazzmatazz of Howdy Modi inHouston, Texas, to the summitry atthe Motera stadium in Ahmedabad.

The blitz of the Trump-Moditango might have been cut short bythe mathematics of plain-Jane elec-toralism in the American homelandbut the show must go on, as theycontend!

New Delhi is also much relievedwith the immigration related exec-utive orders promulgated byPresident Biden which improve thenumerical health of the Indiannationals to reach the shores of theUnited States as legal immigrants.

Seemingly, it might seem like anearly bird call but, still, the IndiaAmerica camaraderie along withthe insistence on Malabar navalexercises might be good and piousindicators of the larger feel of theIndia-America relations which haveoften been referred to as “a specialrelationship,” since the recent past.

President Biden and the quin-tessential pet peeve of the tradition-al Democrats have always been cen-tered on to the narrative of humanrights. The American and the

Democrat standpoint on Kashmir,the abrogation of Article 370 and thefarmers’ agitation in India, haveraised disgruntled voices and refer-ee calls from the US.

This American standpoint willappear as a grave challenge for theNew Delhi denomination where-inIndia will have to up the ante againstits adversarial nation states and sev-eral other international actors byattaining the supporting voice of theAmericans.

Still, the talk of the “demos”,which has been promptly put down

and relegated to the backburner bya few IR observers, has made a come-back with the “value commonality”between New Delhi and Washington.A White House release significant-ly briefs us about the Biden tangowith India in next four years, tounfold before our eyes. The releasecontends, “The President under-scored his desire to defend democ-ratic institutions and norms aroundthe world and noted that a sharedcommitment to democratic values isthe bedrock of the US-India rela-tionship.”

What needs to be ebullientlyunderscored, is, the fact that theshared value argument is welcome inthe India-US narrative with the tra-ditionalists in the Democrats seatedin the Capitol Hill making a grandcomeback and delivering a blow tothe neutrally aligned nay sayers in theestablishment in the United States.

President Biden, formerly as theVice President of the United Statesand being the chairman of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee,has, always stood by the Indian dias-pora. President Biden’s releases

inform us that diversity and com-munities’ empowerment will be thenew motto of the new White Housedispensation.

The Biden release contends,“Biden will work in partnershipwith these communities; celebratetheir extraordinary contributions toAmerica’s success, prosperity, andsafety; listen to Indian Americans’needs; and put in place policies thataddress their priorities. IndianAmericans, like all Americans, aredeeply invested in the core elementsof our future — education, access tohigh-quality, affordable health care,addressing the climate crisis, andreforming and modernising ourimmigration system in a way thataligns with our values.”

One “elemental” is there for thereckoning that former PresidentTrump’s role play with China rangedfrom getting his daughter sing for XiXingpin to announcing a full-fledgedand lethal trade contest with China.Such an approach often enraged andconfused both the liberal andrightwing observers of US foreignpolicy in the context of Beijing.

Still, New Delhi depended on theAmerican succour on the borderstandoff and stealthy aggressions ofChina at conflict hot spots rangingfrom Doklam to Pangong lake. TheAmerican beneficence in the light ofthe hegemonic and interventionisttirade of the People’s LiberationArmy has been a crucial win-wincomponent of India’s foreign policywhich makes us anticipate dearlyabout President Biden’s policy onIndia and China.

The American intransigence forBeijing is the need of the hour in apost-Trump era of ruminations andforeign policy making. It is this standof the future pertaining to the US for-eign policy, which, needs to beunderstood and deciphered by animmediate response by New Delhiand other affected nation state actorsin the Asia Pacific.

Still, the immediate Americanreticence on curtailing the 25 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports,along with the stress on rebuildingalliances and coalitions with a new,“Let’s Re-engage” policy, needs to bewelcomed by India.

What is being feared is that thispolicy statement arising from theWhite House pulpit need not turninto unwelcome interventionism byformer Presidents in the nineties.

Quite significantly, Joseph NyeJunior in his recent work, “DoMorals Matter: Presidents andForeign Policy from FDR to Trump,”has noted the change in strummingbetween the various Democrat andRepublican Presidencies in the polit-ical firmament in the United Statesof America.

Joseph Nye Jr stresses, “Wilsonwas a liberal idealist but he did notpractice universal human rights. Asa southerner, he shared the racialprejudices and as well as the pre-vailing Anglo-Saxon chauvinism ofhis times as American liberalism hadlong accommodated first slaveryand segregation.”

Can we earnestly hope andanticipate that President Biden willadhere to the moralism of US foreignpolicy which can be deftly utilised tostrengthen and deepen the bonds ofthe India-US partnership? Such anoptimistic talk intended to drum upa furtherance of India-US conver-gence needs to be the order of the dayas straightjacket stipulations of lib-eralism, idealism and realism are nolonger what the global IR doctor pre-scribes. We are bound to experiencean era, where in the United States ledby President Biden has surfacedwith the global engagement strata-gem for the entire international sys-tem thus bearing positive ramifica-tions for New Delhi.

(The writer teaches atInternational Relations andInternational Organisations, IIPA)

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The driving spirit of mind-detoxifi-cation process is to root out allsuch thought-seeds that disorient

our thought process. Remember, as theseed gets a congenial ground, it willbreed out into a plant. If, however, theseed is fried, it loses its productive abili-ty. Similarly, the thought seeds parked atdeeper layers of mind are invoked andthen resolved through fresh educativeinputs, where after they won’t chase youanymore. It is, however, difficult toremain oblivious to the thoughts visitingyour mind space again and again. Toremain disengaged, give a self suggestionto the mind — say ‘neti-neti’. The wordneti means ‘not this’. It’s a way to pushaway thoughts that are no longer rele-vant. It is important to note that mind-detoxification process does not call fordeveloping concentration. In fact, dis-traction is a necessary part of theprocess. More you distract, faster themind becomes unburdened.

A case in point is that of two med-ical graduates, who earned their medicaldegree from a foreign university. Theyhad earlier failed to clear off qualifyingexamination to find entry into a medicalcollege in India. But they were bent

upon becoming a doctor. So, they paidcapitation fee to join a medical schoolabroad. Having earned their medicaldegree, they had to clear a qualifyingexamination to earn license to serve as adoctor here in India. They made threeattempts, but in vain. Now, the onlychoice left before them was to either tomove to the country where from theyhad graduated or shift to other vocationfor their living.

In a state of desperation, they cameseeking guidance. Going through theirhistory, I realised that having failed tojoin a medical school in India, they car-ried an anticipated sense of failure andinsecurity. Consequently, they could notabsorb what they read, or recall whathad had learnt during examination. Toget over their sense of insecurity, as aremedial measure, they were advised topursue Mind-Detoxification processbefore they sat for studies every day. Theintent was to drive away all distractingthoughts from their consciousness.Consequently, they could focus on theirstudies for much longer than before.

In the process, their sense of fear,insecurity, and frustration, too, wascleared out of their consciousness. So,

they could absorb the study materialbetter. No wonder, a month and halfthereafter, they did not only qualify butscored high marks. The stage is now setto move on to the next course —Contextual Meditation.

Contextual Meditation: ContextualMeditation is primarily intended toredefine the thought process throughself-reflection on fresh educative inputsand give it a meaningful turn. In fact, itis time tested tool to empower oneselfbetter. The process is named as suchbecause the seeker is supposed to focusattention either on some concept oriconic figure carrying valued educativeimport. The iconic figure has to be indi-vidual-specific depending on what par-ticular virtue would be wanting, callingfor its augmentation. It is pursued inself-reflective mode. Purposely so as toabsorb and imbibe the specific virtueidentified with the iconic figure throughcontinued self-reflection. Over a periodof time, as the concept gets absorbed inthe inner realms of mind, it eventuallybegins to spontaneously reflect in one’susual conduct.

Some of the iconic figures suggestedmay apparently look like religious sym-

bols. The intent, however, is not to pro-mote any religious belief. It rather servesa twofold purpose. First, it serves as afocal point for mind to dwell upon.Second, it helps induce particular valuesystem through repeated self-reflectionon the educative import that the symbolcarries. Those averse to the idea couldimprovise a symbol suited to their beliefor perception.

The fact that the imageries in usecarry valuable educative import, in theIndian tradition, each one of them hasbeen accorded the status of a deity tomake it worth reverence. The purpose isto draw people’s attention to the inlaidimport, bring it into one’s cognitivedomain, reflect upon repeatedly, andabsorb it in the inner realms of mind.Following which, it may spontaneouslyfind reflection in one’s usual conduct.Remember, in prayer mode, you mayprogress faster as you get emotionallyinvolved with the iconic figure, follow-ing which you pursue the process with asense of love and belongingness.

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