...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their...

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T he BJP’s poll promise of free coronavirus vaccination to everyone in Bihar triggered a major row on Thursday. The Opposition came down heav- ily on the ruling party for making the life-saving drug a tool for political gains and charged it with linking the vaccine’s access with elections. The BJP countered the charges saying it has taken up a public health issue and the Opposition should not be upset over it. “As soon as a Covid-19 vac- cine is available for production at a mass scale, every person in Bihar will get free vaccination. This is the first promise men- tioned in our poll manifesto,” Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, announcing the BJP’s 11-point “sankalp patra” (draft of com- mitments) for the Bihar polls. Soon after, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to question: “What about non- BJP ruled States? Indians who didn’t vote BJP will not get free Covid vaccine?” The Congress as well as the RJD besides former Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the BJP. “GOI just announced India’s Covid access strategy. Kindly refer to the State-wise election schedule to know when will you get it, along with a hoard of false promises,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted. Omar termed it blatant populism and asked: “Will BJP be paying for these vaccines from the party treasury? If it’s coming from the Government treasury then how can Bihar get free vaccines while the rest of the country has to pay? There is so much wrong with this bla- tant populism that shamefully exploits Covid fears.” Akhilesh Yadav asked why such a declaration was not made for Uttar Pradesh and other States? “The people of UP and the country will respond to such opportunistic narrow pol- itics to the BJP in the upcom- ing elections,” he asserted. Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Chaubey said, “Every State will be given free coronavirus vaccine.” And the BJP came out strongly defend- ing its announcement. Bihar incharge Bhupender Yadav said, “Every political party goes into the election with a mani- festo. Someone talks about employment, someone talks about farm loan waiver, some- one talks about pucca houses. Why is the Opposition upset if we are going with a public health issue?” BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya said like all pro- grammes, the Centre will pro- vide vaccines to States at a nominal rate and since health is State subject, it is for the State Governments to decide if they want to give it free or other- wise. “Bihar BJP has decided to give it free,” he stressed. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor reacted on the issue and wondered if the Election Commission “will rap her (Sitharaman) and her shame- less Government on the knuck- les” while party spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the BJP would be the only political party in the world which thinks Covid vaccine is an election lol- lipop instead of life saving measure to be administered as matter of right and not matter of conditional political privi- lege. “BJP’s vicious mentality needs cure along with Covid,” he added. Patna: Just a few days ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, an Income Tax raid was con- ducted at the Bihar Congress office in Patna on Thursday. Congress Bihar in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil told reporters that an I-T team had come at the office and informed that few lakhs in cash had been recovered from a vehicle. Reports say that around 8 lakh cash was recovered from a vehicle inside the campus of the Congress office. “We told the team how we could know whose vehicle had come at the state party office and what was inside it. Somebody can put anything inside a vehicle and come to our party office. We are nowhere responsible for it,” the Congress Bihar incharge told mediapersons. I ndia on Thursday further eased visa and travel restric- tions imposed amid the coro- navirus pandemic. Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) card holders and all other foreign nationals intending to visit India for any purpose, except on a tourist visa, have been permitted to enter by air or water routes through authorised airports and seaport immigration check posts. This includes flights oper- ated under Vande Bharat Mission, Air Transport Bubble arrangements or by any non scheduled commercial flights as allowed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. All such travelers will, however, have to strictly adhere to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regarding quarantine and other health/Covid-19 matters, the Home Ministry said in a statement. “Under this graded relax- ation, the Government of India has also decided to restore with immediate effect all exist- ing visas (except electronic visa, tourist visa). If the valid- ity of such visas has expired, fresh visas of appropriate cat- egories can be obtained from Indian Mission/Posts con- cerned. Foreign nationals intending to visit India for medical treatment can apply for a medical visa, including for their medical attendants. “Therefore, this decision will enable foreign nationals to come to India for various pur- poses such as business, con- ferences, employment, stud- ies, research, medical purpos- es, etc,” said the statement. T he Narendra Modi Government has written a strongly-worded letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey con- veying its strong disapproval over the misrepresentation of map of India by his micro- blogging platform and making it clear that disrespecting the country’s sovereignty and integrity is totally unacceptable. In his stern letter, IT Secretary Ajay Sawhney point- ed out that such attempts not only bring disrepute to Twitter, but also raises questions about its neutrality and fairness as an intermediary. Twitter had shown the geo- location of Leh in Jammu & Kashmir as People’s Republic of China. The warning to Twitter comes days after the social media platform landed itself in controversy after users shared screenshots of its blunder. Twitter’s blunder triggered a wave of angry outbursts on social media, with most requesting the Government to take strict action against the social media platform and some seeking total ban on it in India. The IT Secretary, in his let- ter, reminded Twitter that Leh is the headquarters of Union Territory of Ladakh and both Ladakh as well as Jammu & Kashmir are integral and inalienable parts of India, Governed by the Constitution of India. The Government asked Twitter to respect the sensitiv- ities of Indian citizens, and also made it clear that any attempt by Twitter to disrespect sover- eignty and integrity of India, which is also reflected by the maps, is totally unacceptable and unlawful. The Government’s warning to Twitter comes amid the tense standoff with China along the LAC. Indian and Chinese soldiers have been locked in a standoff at the LAC, or the de- facto border between the coun- tries, in Ladakh since May. Tension peaked in June when 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty in a clash with the Chinese at Galwan Valley. This is not the first time that the Government has expressed displeasure and warned the micro blogging sites in the country. T he University of Oxford says the late-stage trial of its Covid-19 vaccine in Brazil will continue following reports of a participant’s death. The university said it can’t comment on specific incidents but an independent review found no reason to be con- cerned about the safety of the Brazilian trial. It says an “independent review, in addition to the Brazilian regulator, have rec- ommended that the trial should continue.” The Oxford vaccine is being developed in conjunction with the international phar- maceutical company AstraZeneca. Trials are under- way in the United States and the UK, as well as Brazil, to determine whether the poten- tial vaccine is safe and effective in humans. Meanwhile, independent study claimed that Oxford Covid-19 vaccine is doing “everything expected”, which means good news in the fight against the deadly virus. A team at Bristol University used recently devel- oped techniques to validate that the vaccine accurately fol- lows the genetic instructions programmed into it by the Oxford University team. The experts say that the novel analysis provides even greater clarity and detail about how the vaccine successfully provokes a strong immune response. “This is an important study as we are able to confirm that the genetic instructions under- pinning this vaccine, which is being developed as fast as safe- ly possible, are correctly fol- lowed when they get into a human cell,” said Dr David Matthews, Reader in Virology from Bristol’s School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, who led the research. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday blew the poll bugle rolling out a list of his Government’s women- centric achievements as he vir- tually inaugurated a number of BJP-backed Durga Pujas in Bengal. Modi who made part of his persuasive speech in Bengali bringing to mind the contri- bution of Bengal in freedom struggle and its cultural reawakening said that it was his honour to inaugurate Durga Puja which is essentially a wor- ship of “Nari Shakti” or women empowerment for which his Government too had taken a whole range of steps. “Bengal and Durga Puja have always enmoured me. This festival is a festival of unity and strength of all of India … inspired by the ideal of Nari Shakti our Government has taken a number of steps from opening Jan Dhan accounts for 22 crore women, giving soft loans to them under the Mudra Yojana, Ujjwala Yojna, launch- ing Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao initiative, granting permanent commission to women in the armed forces, to extending maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num- ber of steps for their empow- erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making them more stringent “by including death penalty to the culprits.” Reminding “Atmanirvar Bharat” is not far away the PM said Bengal too would play an important role in making India self-reliant as it had done in the past by taking the lead role in Independence movement and cultural reawaking of the country. B JP’s election campaign in Bihar was hit hard on Thursday with Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former Union Minister and star campaigner Shahnawaz Hussain announc- ing on their own about having tested positive. The status of State’s Health Minister Mangal Pandey and former Union Ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy has not been con- firmed but reports said the two have gone in isolation. The instances of the BJP leaders testing positive coinci- dentally came on a day when their party in its poll manifesto promised to provide free vac- cination to the State’s resi- dents. “Tested positive for corona. All parameters perfectly nor- mal. Started with mild temp. No temp for last 2 days. Admitted to AIIMS Patna for better monitoring. CT scan of lungs normal. Will be back soon for campaigning,” Sushil Modi tweeted. Shahnawaz, who had addressed rallies a couple of days ago, also took to Twitter to announce: “I had come in contact with a few people who tested positive for Covid 19. I got myself tested today & my report has come positive. Request all who came in con- tact with me in last few days, kindly get yourself tested according to Govt guidelines. I have admitted myself into AIIMS trauma centre. I am feeling fine, nothing to worry about.” The number of Covid cases in Bihar stands at 2.08 lakh, of which a little over 11,000 are active cases. The State has so far carried out over 95 lakh tests and there have been 1019 deaths due to the infection. Pudukottai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Thursday assured free immu- nisation against coronavirus for all sections of people in the state as soon as a vaccine is made available. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi Government has set aside about 500 billion ($7 billion) to vaccinate people. The Government estimates an all- in cost of about $6-$7 per per- son, sources said. A day after Madhya Pradesh high court asked political parties to refrain from physical political meetings, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday called off his two pub- lic meetings in Gwalior-Chambal region. In response to a petition on crowded political gatherings amid Covid-19 threat in Gwalior-Chambal region, Gwalior bench of MP High Court had asked political parties to focus on virtual meets and only hold physical meetings under restrictions after securing permission from the Election Commission of India. Accordingly, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called off his public meetings scheduled at Shadora in Ashoknagar and Barach in Bhander in Datia. Talking to media persons, he said in accordance with a verdict from the HC Gwalior bench, political rallies and meetings can’t take place and could be held only after a permission from the EC. He said, "We respect HC ver- dict but they are approaching the Supreme Court as one country and two laws kind of situation has emerged due to this deci- sion." He however pointed out that political rallies are being held in other parts of MP and states like Bihar but a portion of MP can’t hold such events. This is why we are moving SC and I am hopeful that we will get justice, added Chouhan. The HC had not only barred parties from holding crowded gatherings saying right to life was above the right to campaigning. In connection to previous pub- lic meetings against norms, the HC had ordered FIRs against union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and MPCC chief Kamal Nath. A Pakistani parliamentary panel has approved a Government Bill that seeks a review of the conviction of death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, complying with the directives of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to a media report on Thursday. The draft Bill titled “the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance” was discussed and approved by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday despite stiff resistance from the Opposition. Taking part in the debate, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem said the Bill has been introduced in compliance with directives of the ICJ. He warned that in case the Bill was not adopted by Parliament, Pakistan could face sanctions for not complying with the ICJ’s verdict. Fifty-year-old retired Indian Navy officer Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and ter- rorism in April 2017. In 2017, India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

Transcript of ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their...

Page 1: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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The BJP’s poll promise of freecoronavirus vaccination to

everyone in Bihar triggered amajor row on Thursday. TheOpposition came down heav-ily on the ruling party formaking the life-saving drug atool for political gains andcharged it with linking thevaccine’s access with elections.The BJP countered the chargessaying it has taken up a publichealth issue and the Oppositionshould not be upset over it.

“As soon as a Covid-19 vac-cine is available for productionat a mass scale, every person inBihar will get free vaccination.This is the first promise men-tioned in our poll manifesto,”Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said,announcing the BJP’s 11-point“sankalp patra” (draft of com-mitments) for the Bihar polls.

Soon after, AAP convenerand Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal took to Twitterto question: “What about non-BJP ruled States? Indians whodidn’t vote BJP will not get freeCovid vaccine?”

The Congress as well as theRJD besides former Jammu &Kashmir and Uttar PradeshChief Ministers OmarAbdullah and Akhilesh Yadavhit out at the BJP.

“GOI just announcedIndia’s Covid access strategy.Kindly refer to the State-wiseelection schedule to knowwhen will you get it, along witha hoard of false promises,”Congress leader Rahul Gandhitweeted.

Omar termed it blatantpopulism and asked: “Will BJP

be paying for these vaccinesfrom the party treasury? If it’scoming from the Governmenttreasury then how can Bihar getfree vaccines while the rest ofthe country has to pay? Thereis so much wrong with this bla-tant populism that shamefullyexploits Covid fears.”

Akhilesh Yadav asked whysuch a declaration was notmade for Uttar Pradesh andother States? “The people of UPand the country will respond tosuch opportunistic narrow pol-itics to the BJP in the upcom-ing elections,” he asserted.

Union Minister of State forHealth Ashwini Chaubey said,“Every State will be given freecoronavirus vaccine.” And theBJP came out strongly defend-ing its announcement. Biharincharge Bhupender Yadavsaid, “Every political party goesinto the election with a mani-festo. Someone talks aboutemployment, someone talks

about farm loan waiver, some-one talks about pucca houses.Why is the Opposition upset ifwe are going with a publichealth issue?”

BJP’s IT cell chief AmitMalviya said like all pro-grammes, the Centre will pro-vide vaccines to States at anominal rate and since healthis State subject, it is for the StateGovernments to decide if theywant to give it free or other-wise. “Bihar BJP has decided togive it free,” he stressed.

Congress MP ShashiTharoor reacted on the issue

and wondered if the ElectionCommission “will rap her(Sitharaman) and her shame-less Government on the knuck-les” while party spokespersonJaiveer Shergill said the BJPwould be the only politicalparty in the world which thinksCovid vaccine is an election lol-lipop instead of life savingmeasure to be administered asmatter of right and not matterof conditional political privi-lege.

“BJP’s vicious mentalityneeds cure along with Covid,”he added.

Patna: Just a few days ahead ofthe Bihar Assembly elections,an Income Tax raid was con-ducted at the Bihar Congressoffice in Patna on Thursday.

Congress Bihar in-chargeShaktisinh Gohil told reportersthat an I-T team had come atthe office and informed thatfew lakhs in cash had beenrecovered from a vehicle.

Reports say that around �8lakh cash was recovered froma vehicle inside the campus ofthe Congress office.

“We told the team how wecould know whose vehicle hadcome at the state party officeand what was inside it.Somebody can put anythinginside a vehicle and come toour party office. We arenowhere responsible for it,”the Congress Bihar inchargetold mediapersons.

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India on Thursday furthereased visa and travel restric-

tions imposed amid the coro-navirus pandemic.

Overseas Citizen of India(OCI) and Persons of IndianOrigin (PIO) card holders andall other foreign nationalsintending to visit India for anypurpose, except on a touristvisa, have been permitted toenter by air or water routesthrough authorised airportsand seaport immigration checkposts.

This includes flights oper-ated under Vande BharatMission, Air Transport Bubblearrangements or by any nonscheduled commercial flights

as allowed by the Ministry ofCivil Aviation.

All such travelers will,however, have to strictly adhereto the guidelines of theMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare regarding quarantineand other health/Covid-19matters, the Home Ministrysaid in a statement.

“Under this graded relax-ation, the Government of Indiahas also decided to restorewith immediate effect all exist-ing visas (except electronicvisa, tourist visa). If the valid-

ity of such visas has expired,fresh visas of appropriate cat-egories can be obtained fromIndian Mission/Posts con-cerned. Foreign nationalsintending to visit India formedical treatment can apply fora medical visa, including fortheir medical attendants.

“Therefore, this decisionwill enable foreign nationals tocome to India for various pur-poses such as business, con-ferences, employment, stud-ies, research, medical purpos-es, etc,” said the statement.

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The Narendra ModiGovernment has written a

strongly-worded letter toTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey con-veying its strong disapprovalover the misrepresentation ofmap of India by his micro-blogging platform and makingit clear that disrespecting thecountry’s sovereignty andintegrity is totally unacceptable.

In his stern letter, ITSecretary Ajay Sawhney point-ed out that such attempts notonly bring disrepute to Twitter,but also raises questions aboutits neutrality and fairness as anintermediary.

Twitter had shown the geo-location of Leh in Jammu &Kashmir as People’s Republic ofChina. The warning to Twittercomes days after the socialmedia platform landed itself in

controversy after users sharedscreenshots of its blunder.

Twitter’s blunder triggereda wave of angry outbursts onsocial media, with mostrequesting the Government totake strict action against thesocial media platform andsome seeking total ban on it inIndia.

The IT Secretary, in his let-ter, reminded Twitter that Lehis the headquarters of UnionTerritory of Ladakh and bothLadakh as well as Jammu &Kashmir are integral andinalienable parts of India,Governed by the Constitutionof India.

The Government askedTwitter to respect the sensitiv-

ities of Indian citizens, and alsomade it clear that any attemptby Twitter to disrespect sover-eignty and integrity of India,which is also reflected by themaps, is totally unacceptableand unlawful.

The Government’s warningto Twitter comes amid thetense standoff with China alongthe LAC. Indian and Chinesesoldiers have been locked in astandoff at the LAC, or the de-facto border between the coun-tries, in Ladakh since May.Tension peaked in June when20 Indian soldiers were killedin the line of duty in a clashwith the Chinese at GalwanValley.

This is not the first timethat the Government hasexpressed displeasure andwarned the micro bloggingsites in the country.

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The University of Oxfordsays the late-stage trial of its

Covid-19 vaccine in Brazil willcontinue following reports of aparticipant’s death.

The university said it can’tcomment on specific incidentsbut an independent reviewfound no reason to be con-cerned about the safety of theBrazilian trial.

It says an “independentreview, in addition to theBrazilian regulator, have rec-ommended that the trialshould continue.”

The Oxford vaccine isbeing developed in conjunctionwith the international phar-maceutical companyAstraZeneca. Trials are under-way in the United States andthe UK, as well as Brazil, to

determine whether the poten-tial vaccine is safe and effectivein humans.

Meanwhile, independentstudy claimed that OxfordCovid-19 vaccine is doing“everything expected”, whichmeans good news in the fightagainst the deadly virus.

A team at BristolUniversity used recently devel-oped techniques to validatethat the vaccine accurately fol-lows the genetic instructionsprogrammed into it by theOxford University team. Theexperts say that the novelanalysis provides even greaterclarity and detail about how thevaccine successfully provokes astrong immune response.

“This is an important studyas we are able to confirm thatthe genetic instructions under-pinning this vaccine, which isbeing developed as fast as safe-ly possible, are correctly fol-lowed when they get into ahuman cell,” said Dr DavidMatthews, Reader in Virologyfrom Bristol’s School of Cellularand Molecular Medicine, wholed the research.

��������������� ���� �

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday blew

the poll bugle rolling out a listof his Government’s women-centric achievements as he vir-tually inaugurated a number ofBJP-backed Durga Pujas inBengal.

Modi who made part of hispersuasive speech in Bengalibringing to mind the contri-bution of Bengal in freedomstruggle and its culturalreawakening said that it was hishonour to inaugurate DurgaPuja which is essentially a wor-ship of “Nari Shakti” or womenempowerment for which hisGovernment too had taken awhole range of steps.

“Bengal and Durga Pujahave always enmoured me.This festival is a festival of unityand strength of all of India …inspired by the ideal of NariShakti our Government hastaken a number of steps fromopening Jan Dhan accounts for22 crore women, giving softloans to them under the MudraYojana, Ujjwala Yojna, launch-

ing Beti Bachao-Beti Padhaoinitiative, granting permanentcommission to women in thearmed forces, to extendingmaternity leave from 12 to 26weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding hisGovernment has brough inlaws against rape making themmore stringent “by includingdeath penalty to the culprits.”

Reminding “AtmanirvarBharat” is not far away the PMsaid Bengal too would play animportant role in making Indiaself-reliant as it had done in thepast by taking the lead role inIndependence movement andcultural reawaking of the country.

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BJP’s election campaign inBihar was hit hard on

Thursday with Bihar’s DeputyChief Minister Sushil KumarModi and former UnionMinister and star campaignerShahnawaz Hussain announc-ing on their own about havingtested positive.

The status of State’s HealthMinister Mangal Pandey andformer Union Ministers RajivPratap Rudy has not been con-firmed but reports said the twohave gone in isolation.

The instances of the BJPleaders testing positive coinci-

dentally came on a day whentheir party in its poll manifestopromised to provide free vac-cination to the State’s resi-dents.

“Tested positive for corona.All parameters perfectly nor-mal. Started with mild temp.No temp for last 2 days.Admitted to AIIMS Patna forbetter monitoring. CT scan oflungs normal. Will be backsoon for campaigning,” SushilModi tweeted.

Shahnawaz, who had

addressed rallies a couple ofdays ago, also took to Twitterto announce: “I had come incontact with a few people whotested positive for Covid 19. Igot myself tested today & myreport has come positive.Request all who came in con-tact with me in last few days,kindly get yourself testedaccording to Govt guidelines.I have admitted myself intoAIIMS trauma centre. I amfeeling fine, nothing to worryabout.”

The number of Covid casesin Bihar stands at 2.08 lakh, ofwhich a little over 11,000 areactive cases. The State has so farcarried out over 95 lakh testsand there have been 1019deaths due to the infection.

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Pudukottai: Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister K Palaniswami onThursday assured free immu-nisation against coronavirusfor all sections of people in thestate as soon as a vaccine ismade available.

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New Delhi: The NarendraModi Government has set asideabout �500 billion ($7 billion)to vaccinate people. TheGovernment estimates an all-in cost of about $6-$7 per per-son, sources said.

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Aday after Madhya Pradeshhigh court asked political

parties to refrain from physicalpolitical meetings, Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan onThursday called off his two pub-lic meetings in Gwalior-Chambalregion.

In response to a petition oncrowded political gatheringsamid Covid-19 threat inGwalior-Chambal region,Gwalior bench of MP HighCourt had asked political parties

to focus on virtual meets andonly hold physical meetingsunder restrictions after securingpermission from the ElectionCommission of India.

Accordingly, Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan called offhis public meetings scheduled atShadora in Ashoknagar andBarach in Bhander in Datia.

Talking to media persons, hesaid in accordance with a verdictfrom the HC Gwalior bench,political rallies and meetingscan’t take place and could be heldonly after a permission from the

EC. He said, "We respect HC ver-dict but they are approaching theSupreme Court as one countryand two laws kind of situationhas emerged due to this deci-sion."

He however pointed outthat political rallies are being heldin other parts of MP and stateslike Bihar but a portion of MPcan’t hold such events. This iswhy we are moving SC and I amhopeful that we will get justice,added Chouhan.

The HC had not only barredparties from holding crowdedgatherings saying right to life wasabove the right to campaigning.In connection to previous pub-lic meetings against norms, theHC had ordered FIRs againstunion minister Narendra SinghTomar and MPCC chief KamalNath.

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APakistani parliamentarypanel has approved a

Government Bill that seeks areview of the conviction ofdeath-row prisonerKulbhushan Jadhav, complyingwith the directives of theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ), according to a mediareport on Thursday.

The draft Bill titled “theInternational Court of Justice(Review and Reconsideration)Ordinance” was discussed andapproved by the NationalAssembly’s StandingCommittee on Law and Justiceon Wednesday despite stiff

resistance from the Opposition.Taking part in the debate,

Federal Minister for Law andJustice Farogh Naseem saidthe Bill has been introduced incompliance with directives ofthe ICJ.

He warned that in case theBill was not adopted byParliament, Pakistan could facesanctions for not complyingwith the ICJ’s verdict.

Fifty-year-old retiredIndian Navy officer Jadhavwas sentenced to death by aPakistani military court oncharges of espionage and ter-rorism in April 2017. In 2017,India approached the ICJagainst Pakistan for denial ofconsular access to Jadhav.

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Page 2: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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Vice chancellor ofMakhanlal Chaturvedi

National University of jour-nalism and communication,Prof KG Suresh said all teach-ers should impart training tostudents to identify and exposefake content. It is a need of thehour to make identification offake content a part of curricu-lum.

Many media institutions inthe country have launchedprogrammes like 'Viral Sach'but they have their limitations.Fake content on social media isin abundance. People should bemade aware of it. Prof Sureshwas addressing the valedictoryfunction of the online'Factshala' workshop, organisedby Department of New Media

Technology of the universitytoday.

Workshop convener andHoD, Prof P Sasikala said stu-dents, teachers and other staffmembers were imparted fact-checking training in the two-day workshop. 'Factshala' is ajoint initiative of Internewsand Dataleads and supportedby Google News Initiativeacross. Participants were giventraining on identification offake content in photographs,posters and video. RegistrarProf Avinash Bajpayee pro-posed the vote of thanks.

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Vodafone Idea Foundation,the CSR arm of Vodafone

Idea Limited, in partnershipwith NASSCOM Foundation,Sayfty Trust, and UN Womentoday announced the launch of‘MyAmbar’ (meaning My Sky):A solution designed and devel-oped especially for safety andempowerment of women inIndia.

Developed under the‘Connecting for Good pro-gram’, MyAmbar App aims tohelp women understand andstand against violence.

MyAmbar app is availablein both English and Hindi. Itnot only provides women withan easy access to important

helpline numbers and serviceproviders across the countrybut also helps them through astep-by-step risk assessmenttool guiding them throughvarious ways of dealing withtheir current status. Its exten-sive service directory also helpsthem reach out to legal andcounselling services at a clickof a button.

The MyAmbar App brings

ready help and education for allwomen on gender-based vio-lence to understand the issueand avail support services. Italso helps create a safe havenfor the survivors and high-riskvictims to log in their com-plaints and seek help withoutbias or judgment.

The solution was launchedthrough a virtual event byRajashree Birla, Chairperson,

The Aditya Birla Centre forCommunity initiative andRural Development, P. Balaji,Chief Regulatory andCorporate Affairs Officer,Vodafone Idea Limited,Nishtha Satyam, DeputyCountry Representative,Rashmi Singh, Director,Department of Women andchild Development, Govt. ofNCT of Delhi, UN Women,Shruti Kapoor, Founder andPresident, Sayfty Trust alongwith Ashok Pamidi, CEO andSantosh Abraham, VicePresident from NASSCOMFoundation, who shared theirthoughts and insights onPrevention, Safety &Empowerment for womenthrough MyAmbar.

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Under the 19th series of itsonline exhibition by Indira

Gandhi Rashtriya ManavSangrahalaya (IGRMS), (onThursday ‘A myth story’ relat-ed to myths of ancestors preva-lent in Sindhudurg region ofMaharashtra was presented.IGRMS has been presentedonline with its basic informa-tion and photographs andvideos.

About this exhibition,Praveen Kumar Mishra,Director, IGRMS said that, inthis episode of online exhibi-tion series we are introducingyou to “Mythological Trailexhibition portrays the inneressence of the tribal and folk

life and their worldviewsthrough indigenous art forms.On the theme of tribal and folkmyths, so far this is the onlyexhibition of its kind in thecountry. It is believed that abasic understanding of mythsis expedient to the desire ofknowing a culture. Somehowthe myths are deeply inter-twined with life and culture ofthe tribal and folk communi-ties. Ancestral worship is preva-lent among most of the com-munities throughout India.They are worshipped for thewell-being and protection fromevil influences. One such storyof ancestor and the associatedmyth which is prevalent inSindhudurg of Maharashtra is“The myth of jeteer”.

About the myths of ances-tors prevalent in Sindhudurgregion of Maharashtra P.Anuradha, Museum Associatetold that the myth of Jeteer ispainted in the Chitrakathi styletells about the eventual wor-shiping of the ancestors asgod. When Jeteer was verysmall, his sister was marriedand sent off to a distant village.Soon after, his parents left thisworld, and he was brought upby a kind shepherd.

Though the shepherd didnot live long, by the time Jeteerwas grown up enough to takethe shepherd’s son and set outin search of his sister. In a vil-lage called Narul, they stoppedat a house for the night. Theyasked the woman of the house

to cook for dinner the rice theywere carrying.When thewoman sat down to eat, tearsstarted rolling down her eyes.And she said to herself, the ricesmells the lake water in my vil-lage, the brother recognized herlong lost sister and pleaded herto accompany him home for afew days.

The brother in law how-ever got furious with thestranger’s behaviour and cut offhis head. The shocked shep-herd ran towards his villageTudas with the severed head inthis hands. On his way theplaces where his blanket andstick fell came to be calledKamble veer andDandyacheGadwo respective-ly.

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The 108 ambulance staff hasbeen playing a vital role in

saving lives of patients and giv-ing them gift of new life.Forgetting their own worriesand problems, the EMT staffand ambulance pilots oftenrisk their lives while on duty. To express gratitude forthese warriors and to secure abright future for their children,108 ambulance service opera-tor company ZiqitzaHealthcare Limited has setforth a laudable example.

Ziqitza returns with theirannual Scholarship in MadhyaPradesh which aims to aid thehigher education of well-deserving students. The com-pany organized a felicitation

ceremony in Bhopal to awardscholarship and recognize theacademic talent of the childrenof the EMT staff and ambu-lance pilots. Ziqitza had orga-nized a scholarship programacross the 51 districts ofMadhya Pradesh for the year2020, under which 34 entrieswere received.

Top three academic per-formers from among the eligi-ble candidates were given asum of INR 50,000 and 17 stu-dents from across districts wereawarded INR10,000 each forfurther education. The felici-tation ceremony for the win-ners of the scholarship was heldat Motel Shiraz in Bhopalwhere the children were award-ed the scholarship.

From Rewa district, Swati

Singh, the daughter of ambu-lance pilot Sardar Singh, hadachieved 99% marks by secur-ing 297 marks out of 300 in

class X exam, whereas fromGuna district, Arpit SinghKushwah, son of EMT Staffmember Balendra Singh

Kushwah, had achieved 96% inclass X by securing 288 marksout of 300. From Sagar district,Kajal Bardiya, daughter of anambulance pilot DurgeshKumar Prajapati, had achieved95.75% by securing 383 marksout of 400 in her class X exam.All these three toppers wereawarded a scholarship of Rs50,000 each along with a tro-phy.

On this occasion ZiqitzaHealthcare Ltd- Project Head-Jitendra Sharma along withmany other senior companyofficials were present to felici-tate the winners.

Project head JitendraSharma said, It is a joyous occa-sion today and I would like toextend my best wishes and con-gratulations to all those chil-

dren who have made theirparents, their society and theircity proud.

The company is makingthis effort in order to encour-age and motivate the 108-ambulance staff and to securea bright future for their chil-dren. In this program childrenof ambulance staff across dis-tricts of the state are givenscholarships who have per-formed brilliantly in Class Xexaminations.

A large segment of ourwork force comes from socio-economic backgrounds whereeducation is not given primeimportance. This scholarship isaimed at helping them pursuehigher education in spite oftheir families financial con-straints.

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Madhya Pradesh Womanand Child Development

Minister Imarti Devi who hasbeen in the limelight afterMPCC chief Kamal Nath usedthe word ‘item’ in her referencefor days, seems heading fortrouble herself.

Bharatiya Janata Party hasremained offensive onCongress party in last four-fivedays over the alleged ‘insult’meted out by Nath to a ‘dalitwoman’. The BJP has com-plained to several constitu-tional bodies against the

remark including NationalCommission for Women.

Election Commission ofIndia on Wednesday also hadsought an explanation fromNath over his remark in 48hours.

Meanwhile, a video hassurfaced in social media inwhich Imarti Devi seemsengaged in an angry rantagainst Nath for his remark.Before the conclusion of thevideo, the minister herselfoffers a contentious remark forNath’s family.

The video is shared ontwitter by Acharya PramodKrishnam who in the past havecontested Lok Sabha poll on aCongress party ticket. “ImartiDevi’s Madhur Vachan (kindwords) for 10 time LS memberKamal Nath and his late moth-er,” Acharya Pramod titled his

tweet.“He (Nath) is a man from

Bengal who came to MadhyaPradesh for being ChiefMinister and has no mannershow to speak. What can be saidto such a man. He has lost men-tal composure after losing ChiefMinister’s post. He is roamingaround in whole MP in such acondition, what can we day tohim. He can anything.

His mother and sistercould be item of Bengal, weknow nothing about this,” (sic)said the Minister in the 30 sec-onds video clip shared byAcharya Pramod on twitteron Thursday.

It was not clear when andwhere Imarti Devi had said thisto the media. Surprisingly, boththe BJP and Congress were yetto react after the contentiousvideo went into social media.

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Jehangirabad police have booked an autorickshaw driver for sex-ually assaulting and exploiting a 45-year-old woman at

Jehangirabad area; accused sexually exploited the victim for the fourmonths. Police have booked Khursheed for sexually assaulting andexploiting the victim who was his neighbour.

A case was registered after complaint was lodged by the victimwith the Jehangirabad police stating that the victim came into con-tact with the accused around a year ago in the month of December.The accused used to help victim as her husband used to stay outof town for work.

The accused after raping the victim threatened her and her sonof life and continued to sexually exploit her and later when the vic-tim shifted to a new house accused continued to follow her and triedto sexually exploit but victim braved and reported incident with herhusband. The accused is still absconding and search has been inten-sified, said police. The details of the accused are yet to be found.Based on the complaint the police have registered a case under sec-tion 376 of the IPC and started further investigation.

Meanwhile, Khajuri police have booked a Guna based man forsexually assaulting a 38-year-old married woman; accused sexual-ly assaulted in the name of marriage.

The accused Vikas Sahu is a resident of Guna and became friendover facebook in the year 2018 with the victim who separated fromher husband and filed divorce.

The accused assured her of marriage and even lived for dayswhen he used to visit Bhopal to meet the accused.

Police have registered a case of sexual assault against the accusedwho went absconding after the complaint was lodged.

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An international webinarwill be organised on

October 24 from 11 am on thedeath anniversary of well-known Gandhian thinker andhistorian Dharampal. Thetheme of the webinar will be“Dharampal: Historian whorediscovered Indian Education”.

Tourism, Culture andSpirituality Minister UshaThakur will be the chief guestat the international webinar tobe organized under the jointaegis of Culture Department,Swaraj Sansthan andDharampal Shodhpeeth,Bhopal. Dean, Gandhi ResearchFoundation, Jalgaon, will speakon the topic “Life and work ofDharampal” in the webinar.Along with this, Speaker IndianHistory, Culture and

Philosophy researcher AnkurKakkar, will render a speech onthe topic “Can ‘The BeautifulTree’ by Dharampal help usimplement the new educationpolicy”.

Principal Secretary Culture,Tourism and Public Relations,Sheo Shekhar Shukla has saidthat those interested can jointhe webinar though the link“Meet.google.com/odv-nwwc-opg.” He has given an open invi-tation to all. The webinar willbe broadcast live on the socialmedia platform of mp culturedepartment, radioazadhind,mpculturebpl and mptribal-musum / page.

Dharampal (1992–2006)was a Gandhian thinker andhistorian whose pioneeringwork challenged and rejectedthe colonial narrative of Indianeducation, politics and social

structures. Dharampal beganhis study in 1964 and unveileda huge corpus of Indian society.Dharampal’s research, whichwas mainly carried out in theBritish Library and otherarchives in England and India,was published as various orig-inal publications, including‘The Beautiful Tree’.

“The Beautiful Tree”describes the education systemin India in the 18th and early19th centuries. One ofDharampal’s original contri-butions was that his work pre-sented a well-documented pic-ture of Indian society before theBritish rule. Along with thiseffort to re-evaluate our past,this conference aims to discussDharampal’s work and partic-ularly his everlasting contribu-tion to the history of Indianeducation.

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Jehangirabad police havebooked a miscreant for

attacking a 16-year-old youth atBarkhedi late in the night onWednesday; accused remainedabsconding after the attack.

According to the police thevictim Rithik alias Golu Yadavwas attacked by Brijesh KanhaiyaDaande with sharp-edgedweapons while he was on his wayhome in the night after visitingDurga pandals. The injuredvictims was rushed to a near-by hospital where his conditionis reportedly critical.

The victim in his com-plaint has stated that when hewas on his way to home hestopped near an electricity poleand while he was standingaccused came and started toabuse him and when victimopposed abusing him he wasattacked by the accused with asharp edged weapon andstabbed him in his stomach andescaped the spot.

In the initial investigationpolice found that the two werenot acquainted but the reason of

the attack remained was notclear and would be investigated.

Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under section 307of the IPC and have started fur-ther investigation.

Police said details of theaccused have been searched andfamily members and friends ofthe accused have been ques-tioned to find the whereaboutsof the absconding accused.

In the initial investigationpolice found that the accusedwas involved in molesting andteasing in the past. The victimwas walking towards his houseand as he was tired he stoppednear electricity pole.

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Mandsaur: CentralGovernment declared newopium policy 2020-21. Thenew policy will benefit poppyfarmers including Mandsaur,Neemuch.

This time, farmers whogive ratios of 4.2 to 5.4 will beable to get a lease of 6 saws.Farmers with a ratio of 5.5 to5.9 will be eligible for 10 sawsleasing, while farmers withratios of more than 5.9 can get12 saws. Simultaneously, farm-ers who are defective in the

NDPS Act will also be eligiblefor the license. This will ben-efit many farmers of the area.

At the same time, fromthe three years 2017 to 2019,the farmers who have beenentitled to the crop for somereason under the supervision ofthe Central Narcotics Bureauand have not got it in 2016-17,those farmers will also be eli-gible for opium cultivation.On the other hand, those farm-ers who have cultivated poppy

in any year from the year 1999-2000 and who were eligible forlicense in the subsequent yearand were found eligible accord-ing to the concessionsannounced after the crop year,but voluntarily for some reasonFarmers who have not obtainedlicense and have not cultivatedopium poppy for any reasonafter obtaining the license willalso be eligible for cultivationthis time. The new poppy pol-icy has made the poppy farm-ers happy.

Mandsaur MP SudhirGupta said that Union MinisterNirmala Sitharaman andMinister of State for FinanceAnurag Thakur have declaredpolicies in the interest of farm-ers.

The new poppy policy willbenefit many farmers in theregion. The new policy hasbeen formulated keeping inmind the suggestions of thefarmers. MP Gupta thankedthe Union Minister for thenew policy.

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Four miscreants including a woman were arrested by Kolar policefor molesting a 17-year-old girl and assaulting her aunt and tuition

teacher after they opposed molestation at Kolar road in the eveningon Thursday. Police have arrested Prabhanshu Soni, Pranjal Soniand their mother Chhaya Soni and Anup Gupta.

The victim, her aunt, coaching class teacher were hit by theaccused after the victim opposed molestation and lewd commentspassed by Prabhanshu Soni and when one of the locals opposedPrabhanshu informed his brother, friend and mother. After theirarrival four abused, attacked and scuffled with the victims and oth-ers who were at the spot trying to rescue the victim. Victim claimedthat she was on her way to coaching class and never spotted the mainaccused who was following her and suddenly started to move alongher, passed lewd comment and later flashed her private part.

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Page 3: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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State BJP president and par-liamentarian VD Sharma

said that the public under-stands that the BJP has madethe State a golden MadhyaPradesh in the past 15 years.The BJP Government had wonthe hearts of people with pro-poor welfare schemes and dueto which BJP is getting a lot ofsupport from the public. Theseelections are taking place in theinterests of the poor, he added.

While talking to mediapersons, he further said thatabusive language was used fora Dalit woman which hasrevealed the anti-Dalit face ofthe Congress. On this insult,even Mayawati had to say that

she should overthrow theCongress in the by-electionsand we thank them for this thatshe had supported.

The deprivedCongressmen plotting are des-perate to gain rule and reinwhich could be witnessed inbringing out the 8 year oldvideo of Bisahulal Sahu.Congressmen are tired and

frustrated and realized thatthere is nothing left for them inthe elections.

Sharma said that our leaderShivraj Singh Chauhan is goingamong the public but DigvijaySingh is just making mountainout of mole. Every BJP work-er is working tirelessly at eachbooth in all 28 assembly con-stituencies and would leadBharatiya Janata Party win all28 assembly seats by record his-toric votes.

Rahul Gandhi asked KamalNath to apologize, but he didnot apologize. The familywhose Kamal Nath becamethe Chief Minister due to thecourt, today he showed themirror to Rahul Gandhi by notobeying the same family.

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We respect the decision ofthe High Court and have

also started its implementationat our level, but we are goingagainst this decision of theHigh Court to the SupremeCourt, because the partybelieves that this decision iscreating a situation of two leg-islations in one country saidstate president and MP of theBharatiya Janata Party,"Vishnudutt Sharma on

Thursday.BJP State President Sharma

said that the High Court hasdecided not to hold gathering.According to this decision,virtual rallies can be held ormeetings can be held only withpermission from ElectionCommission.

In pursuance of this deci-sion of the High Court, theBharatiya Janata Party has can-celled its gathering in someplaces but we have decided togo to the Supreme Court

against this decision, because itis creating contradictory situ-ation.

There may be rallies andmeetings in one part ofMadhya Pradesh, and in otherparts it has been curbed. InBihar, meetings are being held,rallies are being held but onepart of Madhya Pradesh cannothave meetings. Sharma saidthat we are going to theSupreme Court to get justiceand we are confident that wewill get justice soon.

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Additional Chief ElectoralOfficer Arun Kumar

Tomar informed that, one lakh51,681 new voters in the 18 to19 age group will be able toexercise their franchise in theVidhan Sabha by-election 2020.

There are 7,884 new votersin Jaura assembly constituen-cy of Morena district, total5,452 in Sumavali assemblyconstituency, 4,864 in Morenaassembly constituency, 5,216 inDimni assembly constituencyand 5,310 new voters in Ambahassembly constituency.Similarly, there are 4,375 newvoters in Mehgaon assemblyconstituency of Bhind district,3,521 in Gohad assembly con-stituency, 4,673 in Gwaliorassembly constituency ofGwalior district, 5,438 inGwalior East assembly con-stituency, 5,745 in Dabraassembly constituency and4,796 new voters in Bhanderassembly constituency of Datiadistrict.

In Karera assembly con-stituency of Shivpuri districtthere are 4,969 new voters,3,756 in Pohri assembly con-stituency, 6,195 in Bamoriassembly constituency of Gunadistrict, 5,585 in Ashok Nagarassembly constituency ofAshok Nagar district, 4,969 inMungavali assembly con-stituency, 4,715 new voters inSurkhi assembly constituencyof Sagar district, 4,699 in

Malhara assembly constituen-cy in Chhatarpur district and3,720 new voters in Anuppurassembly constituency ofAnuppur district.

There are 5,408 new votersin Sanchi assembly con-stituency of Raisen district,5,829 in Biaora assembly con-stituency of Rajgarh district,5,704 in Agar assembly con-stituency of Agar Malwa dis-trict, 5,041 voters in Hatpipalyaassembly constituency ofDewas district, 4,541 new vot-ers in Mandhata assembly con-stituency of Khandwa districtand 4,775 new voters inNepanagar assembly con-stituency of Burhanpur district.

There are 5,895 new votersin Badnawar assembly con-stituency of Dhar district, 6,500in Samver assembly con-stituency of Indore district and7,565 new voters in Suvasraassembly constituency ofMandsaur district.

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Governor Anandiben Patelhas said that officers

should deal with the commonman with compassion andpatience. Win trust to enablesubordinate to talk openly.While maintaining coordina-tion with senior officers, alongwith effective implementationof their instructions, keep theminformed about practical prob-lems.

The aim of the functioningshould be to win the trust andhearts of the people. TheGovernor was addressing thetrainee IAS officers, who camefor a courtesy visit at Raj Bhavan

on Thursday. Principal SecretaryRaj Bhavan D.P. Ahuja was alsopresent on this occasion.

Patel said that it is a mat-ter of pleasure that all the offi-cers are from the highly tech-nical background. Work togive the benefit of their exper-tise to the society, by consid-ering it as an opportunity. Useexpert knowledge more andmore. Build people-orientedadministrative systems. Givepriority to tour in remote andbackward areas. The purpose ofthe visit should be to get feed-back on the ground realities ofthe schemes and plans.Understand the arrangementsby visiting aanganwadis,

schools, health centers andmake efforts in bringingimprovement in them.

She further told them totour extensively in the postingareas. Keep the senior officialsapprised of the problems. Opentalks with women and childrenof the villages will help them ingetting real information aboutthe area. Maintain live contactwith common people, the low-est link of administration.Make honest efforts for solu-tions after understanding theirproblems. Patel said that thereis a difference between trainingand ground experiences. Inpractice, problems and chal-lenges are surfaced, for which

the solution is not found in thedirectives. At such times, suc-cess can be achieved withpatience and compassion bycoordinating with subordinatestaff and senior officers.

Smt. Patel said that com-passionate and sympatheticbehaviour towards the com-mon man is essential.

They should get full oppor-tunity to talk openly. They donot have to run around frompillar to post to meet the offi-cer. Ther should be a system inthis regard. Administrative ser-vice is an opportunity to expe-rience the happiness by helpingothers and to set new dimen-sions of development. Dispose

off files by setting deadlines.Keep the information systemstrong. Give full importance toeven smallest information.Recalling the experience ofquality education system cre-ated by the officers of ForestDepartment for forest workersin forest area, she said that theyshould always strive for inno-vations. Let people derive max-imum benefit of their knowl-edge and experience. Set it asa target of the functioning.Follow neutrality strictly. Nevershield near and dear ones fortheir mistakes. This will estab-lish your neutrality and fair-ness.

The Governor presented a

set of her three books to theofficers. She told that duringher tenure as Minister andChief Minister, she has beeninspired by the people, whohave set examples of service tosociety at their own level. Theaccount of her memories isgiven in the book titled WoMujhe Hamesha YaadRahenge. The description ofthe dynamics of the Raj Bhavanhas been given in the bookPragatisheel Raj Bhavan. Thebook Pratibimb contains astudy of the works of theGovernor of Uttar Pradeshand tour of 45 districts. Shemotivated the officers to writedown their experiences.

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Three city residents suc-cumbed to the COVID-19

as 53 fresh positive cases werereported in Chandigarh onThursday.

“The death toll reached212 and the total case tallystood at 13848 in Chandigarh”,stated Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

The cumulative COVID-19 mortality rate was recordedat 1.53 while the daily mortal-ity rate stood at a high of 5.6percent.

According to the bulletin,“There were 712 active cases tillthe evening. 82 patients haverecovered in the past 24 hourstaking the total number ofrecoveries to 12924. The recov-ery rate increased to 93 percentwhile the active ratio of cases

was recorded at 5.1 percentwhich means for every 100confirmed cases, 5 are currentlyinfected in the city.

Giving details of theCOVID-19 fatalities, the bul-letin said, “An 80 years old maleresident of Sector 43, a comor-bid expired at Max Hospital,Mohali on October 21. A 65years old male resident ofSector 35, a comorbid expiredat Fortis Hospital, Mohali anda 68 years old male resident ofDhanas, a comorbid died atPGIMER on October 22.”

Among 53 fresh cases, 32were males and 21 werefemales. A maximum of fourcases each were reported inSector 45 and 20 here.

As per the health bulletin,the fresh cases were reported inSectors 5, 7, 8, 5, 20, 21, 25, 27,29, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42,

44, 45, 46, 61, Behlana, Daria,Hallomajra, Industrial areaphase I, Kaimbwala, Maloya,Manimajra, Mauli Jagran,PGIMER campus, RaipurKhurd and Ram Darbar.

98981 samples have so farbeen tested in the city. A totalof 1140 tests were conducted inthe last 24 hours and the reportof 142 was awaited, the bulletinadded.

The average growth rate ofCOVID-19 was recorded at 0.4percent. The cumulative testpositivity rate of 13.9 percentwas recorded in the city.

A day before, no COVID-19 related fatality was report-ed in the city even as 54 freshcases were recorded. Earlier,zero fatality was reported inChandigarh on October 19after a gap of almost threeweeks.

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Days after Shiromani AkaliDal (SAD) legislators sup-

ported the PunjabGovernment’s farm bills tocounter the Centre’s laws, AkaliDal core group on Thursdayrejected the same.

Announcing the decisionafter the detailed meeting of theSAD core committee, partychief Sukhbir Badal declaredthat Akali Dal would “totallyreject and block the imple-mentation Modi’s anti-farmerActs in Punjab, declare theentire state a Principal MarketArea and repeal the hostileAPMC 2017 enacted byAmarinder, when it forms aGovernment in Punjab”.

“Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh misledthe House by reading a resolu-tion that Assembly would rejectcentral farm acts. In fact, thePunjab farm Bills indirectlyaccept the Central acts and

have added amendments tothose. We supported it in theHouse as we were not givencopies of the Bills early enoughto read and understand. Wetrusted the Chief Minister buthe has betrayed the House andthe farmers,” said Sukhbir,while expressing his views forthe first time after VidhanSabha unanimously passed thethree counter bills on Tuesday.

Notably, the Akali DalMLAs even accompanied theChief Minister and other partyleaders to press on theGovernor VPS Badnore to givehis assent to the state bills at theearliest and forward it for thePresident’s nod.

“On all these issues, CaptAmarinder has played a fraudon the farmers. He first thrustthe Bill before us just minutesahead giving no time for study-ing the bills just as he had donewith the river water bill in 2004which has brought no result forPunjab,” said Sukhbir defend-

ing his party MLAs, addingthat the Bills totally contra-dicted the resolution whichwas passed in the House.

He noted that the resolu-tion had rejected Modi’s anti-farmer Acts and the also soughtdeclaration of Punjab as prin-cipal market area. “It alsosought rejection of 2017APMC. But the bills, whichAmarinder introduced, hadnone of these provisions. Thus,he defrauded the farmers andthe House,” said Sukhbir.

Sukhbir said that the farm-ers demanded that theGovernment must ensure thattheir produce is procured at theMinimum Support Price(MSP) for all the 22 crops forwhich the Centre annuallydeclares MSP. “We have beendemanding that the assuredmarketing at MSP regime mustnot only continue but must alsobe expanded to cover all the 22listed crops,” said Sukhbiradding that when the SAD

forms a government in thestate, “we will ensure that thisdemand is converted into anachievement”.

“We will do anything forthe farmers because they arethe backbone of Punjab’s econ-omy. There is no Punjab minusthe farmers,” he said.

SAD president blasted theChief Minister for tellingbrazen lies about farmers inbroad daylight, and that too onthe sacred floor of the PunjabVidhan Sabha. “Chief Ministerclaimed that he had already dis-cussed everything about theissue with the farmers’ organi-zations before bringing thosebills to the House.

But the organizations laterdismissed these Bills as “a tuttefutte” (broken and meaning-less),” he said.

Sukhbir alleged “a deeprooted and devious conspiracybetween the BJP and CaptAmarinder Singh against thefarmers”.

“What happened inChandigarh yesterday was apart of a joint and evilAmarinder-BJP game-planwhich is a part of a clever strat-egy to divert the farmers’ move-ment away from its nerve-center, Punjab. They want toweaken the intensity of thismovement by uprooting it fromits base in the country’s mostagrarian state which suits bothAmarinder and Modi…Punjabfarmers are forced to fightaway from their home ground,”said Sukhbir adding that this isreally dark and devious part ofa wider conspiracy against thefarmers.

Referring to the ChiefMinister’s references to hiswillingness to resign if theCentre did not agree to thefarmers’ demands, Sukhbirquipped, “Those who weresincere about resigning to fightfor the farmers have alreadyresigned while Captain Sahib isstill merely boasting.”

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of Delhi

Police has arrested a man whoused to cheat people on the pre-text of providing tender of theFood Corporation of India(FCI) and agency of Toyotacompany. Police said that theaccused has cheated people tothe tune of Rs 4.62 crores.

The accused has been iden-tified as Praveen Kumar Singh.Police said that he is also foundinvolved in two cases of cheat-ing.

According to Dr O PMishra, the JointCommissioner of Police, EOW,a complaint was received fromSunil Vikram, a resident of

Punjab in which he alleged thatPraveen Kumar Singh alongwith his associates had inducedthe him on the pretext ofarranging tender of FoodCorporation of India andagency of Toyota company inPunjab region and cheated thecomplainant for a sum of Rs4.62 Crores out of which Rs1.62 Crores was given throughbanking transactions and Rs 3Crores in cash.

“A First InformationReport (FIR) under relevantsections of Indian Penal Code(IPC) and investigation wastaken up,” said the Joint CP.

“During the investigation,the police team found thatPraveen had introduced him-self as well connected with

politicians and residing inMembers of Parliament (MP)Flats in North Avenue. He hadpromised the complainant thathe will make arrangements forgetting FCI tenders and agencyof Toyota for the Punjab regionin his favour,” said the Joint CP.

“The accused had taken Rs4.62 Crores for this job fromthe complainant. However, nei-ther any FCI tender was allot-

ted nor any agency was givenin the name of the complainant.Later on, it was found that theaccused was a fraud and hadcheated the complainant,” saidthe Joint CP.

“Initially, accused PraveenKumar Singh had joined theinvestigation of the case, butlater on, he stopped joininginvestigation at EOW and wasabsconding. Finally the accusedwas arrested, while he was vis-iting his lawyer’s office.

“The accused used to cheatgullible people on the pretext ofproviding vehicle agency andFCI tenders in favour of them.He used to receive huge moneyin lieu of the job, which henever intended to do,” said theJoint CP.

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Delhi Police has nabbed twowomen on Thursday for

allegedly robbing a senior cit-izen of Rs 50,000 in southDelhi.

The accused have beenidentified as Renu (36) andJyoti (34), both residents ofRajgarh district in MadhyaPradesh.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), South district, a 62-year-old man withdrew Rs50,000 from a bank in the Tigriarea on October 14 and visit-ed a nearby dispensary, wherehe realised that the moneyhad been stolen from his bag.

“He suspected two womenwho followed him from thebank to the dispensary to beinvolved in stealing the money.A case was registered and inves-tigation was taken up. Duringinvestigation, police checkedthe CCTV footage and noticedtwo women near the com-plainant with suspicious move-ments,” said the DCP.

“On Thursday, police afterreceiving specific inputs appre-hended the accused womenfrom near NBCC Plaza,Khokha Market, Pushp Vihar,at 8.35 AM,” said the DCP.

“Police recovered Rs 20,000from their possession. Duringinterrogation it was revealedthat there were three womeninvolved in the crime.

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Page 4: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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Besides free Covid-19 vacci-nation, the BJP on

Thursday released its manifestofor the Bihar Assembly polls,promising 19 lakh jobs in thenext five years, almost doublethe numbers that RJD leaderTejashwi Yadav’s promised.Interestingly, Chief MinisterNitish Kumar had wonderedabout how Tejaswi could pos-sibly raise the money to pay for“10 lakh Government jobs”.

The manifesto, titled‘Paanch sutra, ek lakshya, 11sankalp’, was released by UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in the presence ofsenior leaders BhupenderYadav, Nityanand Rai, AshwiniChoubey, and Pramod Kumarin Patna.

The manifesto envisions aself-reliant Bihar and lists outthe roadmap for the next fiveyears. The manifesto States:“Atmanirbhar Bihar KaRoadmap 2020-25. Lakshya(objective) — AtmanirbharBihar. 5 Sutra — developmentof villages, cities, industries,education and agriculture.”

Sitharaman stressed thatally Nitish Kumar will be ChiefMinister for the next five years

and appealed the people to votefor NDA and make it win.

Interestingly, job hasbecome a major poll issue inthe state after opposition leaderTejashwi promised 10 lakhgovernment jobs to lure theunemployed youth voters. BJP’sBihar chief Sanjay Jaiswal saidof the 19 lakh jobs listed in themanifesto, only four lakh -three lakh teachers and onelakh in health sector - are in thegovernment sector. The rest arelinked to promises to makeBihar an “IT hub” and to cre-ate an agriculture hub in thestate.

Among others, the BJPpromised to introduce Hindi asa medium of instruction formedical, engineering and othertechnical courses.

The BJP also promised theappointment of three lakh newteachers in one year in all typesof schools, universities andinstitutes of higher education,30 lakh pucca houses for poorby 2022 and one lakh jobs in thehealth sector.

The party proposed todevelop the state, which has sofar remained largely untouchedby the boom in informationtechnology, into an IT hubholding out the promise of five

lakh jobs in the sector. Themanifesto further said a largenumber of people will be pro-vided employment in the healthsector which is in for a majorfacelift through projects like theAIIMS at Darbhanga.

The manifesto promised todevelop supply chain of specialcrop products like maize, fruits,vegetable, chuda, makhana,paan, masala, honey, mentha,medicinal plants across thestate. It will add 1000 new farmproducer organization in Bihar.It also promised a fresh impe-tus to the dairy sector with set-ting up of 15 milk processingunits. The manifesto said thatthis will create 10 lakh employ-ment opportunities in the state.

“Bihar is a politically sensi-tive state. Here people cannot befobbed off with empty promis-es. Claims made by parties arelikely to be weighed against theirpast track record. This is wherethe BJP scores,” Sitharamansaid.

“GDP in Bihar has seen asharp rise under NDA rule, ithas grown from 3 to 11.3 percent in the State in the last 15years of NDA Government andnot during the 15 years of jun-gle raj. It was made possiblebecause our Government gavepriority to good governancefor people,” Sitharaman added.

Soon after Sitharamanreleased the party’s manifesto,Tejashwi took a jibe at the BJP,saying it doesn’t have a face inBihar and the Finance Ministerhad to come to release thevision document. “Since she’shere, Sitharaman Ji should firsttell why she never gave a specialpackage and special state statusto Bihar,” Tejashwi added.

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As good wishes poured infrom across the political

leaders for Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, whoturned 56 on Thursday, LokJanshakti Party (LJP) presidentChirag Paswan described himas an “inspiring” figure and his“guardian”, in what is per-ceived as another indirectattack on Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar against whom hehas opened a front.

Even though he haswalked out of the NDA refus-ing to accept Nitish as theNDA’s chief ministerial candi-date in Bihar, Chirag has,interestingly, continued toshow his allegiance to the BJPand Prime Minister NarendraModi who, he said, resided inhis heart.

This has been Chirag’sstrategy in Bihar poll as BJPhas cautioned him againstusing the PM’s name for hisown ends saying JDU is theparty with which it wouldform the Government. BJPhas been trying to allay JD(U)’sapprehensions that LJP is its‘B-team’ in Bihar polls.

But Chirag again usedShah’s birthday to demonstratehis loyalty to the BJP. “Bestwishes to the country’s HomeMinister, guardian Amit Shah

on his birthday. Sir you inspirelakhs of youth like me to dosomething for the country.May god always keep youhealthy,” Chirag tweeted.

The 37-year-old LJP MPalso spoke to Shah on thephone.

Shortly before the birthdaygreetings, Chirag had, in threetweets, targeted Nitish Kumarover what he alleged were “fiveyears of scams”. He assertedthat if he came to power, hewould have all those responsi-ble jailed.

Chirag’s Paswan’s strategyto underscore his continuedties with the BJP while fight-ing the JDU in the Bihar elec-tion has become a huge chal-lenge for Nitish. The BJP’smultiple pronouncements thatNitish Kumar leads the NDAin Bihar have not convinced hissupporters that the ruling partyis not secretly backing Chiragin his mission to oust the five-time Chief Minister.

As Chirag rained accusa-tions on Nitish, Shah had tostep in to mollify the upsetChief Minister and reassurehim that he remained the faceof the NDA.

The LJP leader, however,has played on Nitish’s insecu-rities by stressing that heremains devoted to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

hopes to form a government inBihar with the BJP.

The Prime Minister andseveral other political leaderswished Home Minister on hisbirthday.

The Prime Minister tookto Twitter and lauded Shah forhis contribution in nationdevelopment. “Birthday wish-es to Shri @AmitShah Ji. Ournation is witnessing the dedi-cation and excellence withwhich he is contributingtowards India’s progress. Hisefforts to make BJP strongerare also noteworthy. May Godbless him with a long andhealthy life in service of India”,Modi tweeted.

Union Minister PrakashJavadekar said. “HappyBirthday to the Home MinisterAmit Shah. You have played animportant role in making thecountry strong and secure.May God grant you a healthylife and long life.”

BJP leader Varun Gandhitook to Twitter and wished theHome Minister on his birth-day: “Shri @AmitShah Ji’s lifehas been one of great tyaag andtapasya towards making Indiaprouder, stronger & more self-reliant. He is a perfect mix oftradition & modernity. May alldivine blessings protect him &fill his path with happiness &peace. Happy birthday, Sir.”

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In the ongoing drive to honeoperational readiness, India

on Thursday successfully testfired the Nag anti-tank guidedmissile(ATGM). It was thefinal user trial of the indige-nously designed lethal weaponsystem and will shortly bedeployed at the Line of ActualControl(LAC)facing China.

The missile system will actas a major force multiplier andhelp the infantry to take outenemy tanks at range of five toseven kms. At present, Chinahas amassed its tanks in theplains of Depsang valley andsome other places in EasternLadakh since the stand-offsbegan in early May.

Moreover, the latest test bythe Defence Research andD e v e l o p m e n tOrganisation(DRDO)comes ata time when it has ramped upits efforts by conducting near-ly back to back tests of variousmissiles in the last one month.These validations on the onehand exemplified rapid self-reliance and on the other thecapabilities to meet any chal-lenge in the backdrop of ongo-ing tension at the LAC in east-ern Ladakh.

Giving details of the Nagtest, officials said here the finaluser trial of third generationNag was carried out at 0645 hrsfrom Pokhran range. The mis-sile was integrated with theactual warhead and a tank tar-get was kept at designatedrange. This was launched fromNag Missile Carrier NAMICA.The missile hit the target accu-rately defeating the armour.The missile underwent morethan ten trials before the finalclearance on Thursday.

The missile was developedby the DRDO to engage high-ly fortified enemy tanks in dayand night conditions. The mis-sile has “Fire & Forget” “TopAttack” capabilities with passivehoming guidance to defeat allMain Battle Tanks(MBT)equipped with composite andreactive armour.

The NAG missile carrierNAMICA is a BMP II basedsystem or armoured personnelcarrier with amphibious capa-bility. With this final user trial,the Nag will enter into pro-duction phase. The missilewill be produced by the pub-lic sector Bharat DynamicsLimited (BDL), whereasOrdnance Factory, Medak will

produce the NAMICA.Defence Minister Rajnath

Singh congratulated theDRDO and Indian Army forthe successful trial of NAGMissile. The DRDO chief GSatheesh Reddy appreciatedthe efforts of the DRDO,Indian Army and industry inbringing the missile up to theproduction phase.

The sophisticated missilewill be soon be inducted intothe Army and deployed at theLAC in the first phase, sourcessaid adding the missile is fit-ted with an advanced seeker tohome on to its target.

At present, the army isequipped with the second-generation Milan 2T andKonkur ATGMs and has beenlooking for about third-gen-eration missiles, which areimportant for stoppingadvancing enemy tanks. Thegovernment in 2018 had giventhe nod for procurement of300 Nag missiles and 25NAMICAs for the IndianArmy.

When the face-offs beganfive months back, the Indianarmy got the go-ahead to pro-cure more than 300 SpikeATGMS from Israel to bolsterthe firepower of the infantry.The imported missile like theNag can be fired from shoul-der and has a range of morethan five kms.

Meanwhile, the series ofsuccessful tests in the last fewweeks include Brahmos super-sonic missile fired from awarship, Nirbhay subsonicmissile and Akash air defencemissile. Incidentally, all thesemissiles are deployed at theLAC. The missiles were sta-tioned at critical locations tocounter the threat posed by theChinese long range missilesdeployed in the Tibet region.

Stepping up the momen-tum of readiness, the DRDOin the last one month also test-ed Rudram -1. Also, the laserguided anti-tank guided mis-sile and nuclear capable hyper-sonic missile ‘Shaurya,’ weretest fired. The successful testfiring of Rudram-1 was seen asa major milestone as it isIndia’s first indigenouslydeveloped anti-radiationweapon.

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Stressing the growing needfor self-reliance in defence

industry, Army Chief GeneralM M Naravane on Thursdaysaid the commissioning ofanti-submarine warfare vesselINS Kavaratti is a major stepin ensuring security of mar-itime domain of the country.

This message came in thebackdrop of China’s growingmaritime prowess and muscleflexing in the Indian Oceanbesides the South China Sea.The increased Chinese navalpresence in the Indian Oceanhas strategic implications forIndia.

Commissioning theindigenously designed andbuilt INS Kavaratti inVisakhapatnam, the Army

Chief said the “commissioningof INS Kavaratti marks yetanother significant step insecuring our country’s mar-itime goals. I congratulate andextend my best wishes to TeamKavaratti,” said Naravane.

“The ship derives thename from the beautiful cap-ital of the Lakshadweep island,Kavaratti. This indigenouslybuilt Anti-Submarine Warfare(ASW) vessel is equipped withadvanced weapons, compositesuperstructure and stealth fea-tures is a beauty by itself. It hasbeen constructed with numerous novel design fea-tures and indigenous equip-ment fit is demonstrative ofcollective abilities in realisingthe aim of making IndiaAtmanirbhar Bharat,” headded.

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Aplea was filed in theSupreme Court on

Thursday seeking transfer oftwo pleas from the high courtsof Delhi and Rajasthan to it onthe issue of ‘UniformMinimum Age of Marriage forMen and Women’ to “avoidmultiplicity of litigations andconflicting views”.

The Delhi High Court hadin August last year issuednotice to the Centre and theLaw Commission of India onBJP leader and lawyer AshwiniUpadhyay’s plea seeking uni-form marriage age for men andwomen.

On February 5 this year theRajasthan High Court soughtresponse from the Centre andothers on a similar PIL filed byone Abdul Mannan.

Seeking an authoritativepronouncement and to avoidmultiplicity of litigation, afresh plea seeking transfer ofthese cases to the top courthas been filed by Updhayaythrough his lawyer AshwaniKumar Dubey .

The transfer plea has beenfiled in order to “secure gen-der justice, gender equalityand dignity of women”, thelawyer said.

Currently various lawsstate that minimum age forgetting married should be 18

in case of women and 21 formen.

“Petitioner is compelled toapproach this Court as morePILs may be filed in otherHigh Courts seeking ‘UniformMinimum Age of Marriage forMen and Women’. Therefore,in order to avoid multiplicityof the litigations and con-flicting views on interpreta-tion of Articles 14, 15, 21 andjudgments on gender justiceand gender equality, the Courtmay be pleased to transferthese PILs and decide themcollectively,” said the transferplea filed under Article 139Aof the Constitution.

Alternatively, the plea hassought a direction to theCentre to take appropriatesteps to remove the anomaliesin the minimum age of mar-riage and make it ‘genderneutral, religion neutral anduniform for all citizens’ inspirit of the fundamentalrights of equality and right tolife and International con-ventions.

“Alternatively, being cus-todian of the Constitutionand protector of the funda-mental rights, declare thatthe discriminatory minimumage of marriage offendsArticles 14, 15, 21 and inter-national conventions. Hence,minimum age of marriageshall be 21 years for all citi-

zens,” it said.While men are permitted

to get married at the age of 21,women are married whenthey are just 18, it said.

“The distinction is basedon patriarchal stereotypes,has no scientific backing, per-petrates de jure and de factoinequality against women, andgoes completely against theglobal trends,” it said.

The differential bar dis-criminates against womenthus contravenes the funda-mental principles of genderequality, gender justice anddignity of women and offendArticles 14, 15, 21 of theConstitution and internationalconventions, it said.

The petitioner said morethan 125 countries in theworld have a uniform age ofmarriage for men and womenand the National HumanRights Commission, pursuantto the National Conference onChild Marriage held in NewDelhi in August 2018, had alsorecommended that India fol-low suit.

It also referred to relevantprovisions of the IndianChristian

Marriage Act, the ParsiMarriage and Divorce Act, theSpecial Marriage Act, the HinduMarriage Act and the Prohibitionof Child Marriage Act and saidthat they are “responsible for thisdiscriminatory bar”.

Under section 60 of theIndian Christian Marriage Act,1872, the age of the man intend-ing to be a married shall not beunder 21 years, and the age of thewoman intending to be marriedshall not be under 18 years, itsaid.

As per the Parsi Marriageand Divorce Act of 1936, the ageof male has to be 21 years and afemale has must completed 18years of age, it said.

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External Affairs Minister SJaishankar on Thursday

hosted a farewell for departingHigh Commissioners andAmbassadors of Tunisia,Ghana, Spain and Nigeria and

thanked them for their servicesand support to the relationship.

He also welcomed therecently arrived HighCommissioners andAmbassadors of Australia,Uzbekistan, New Zealand,Singapore, Rwanda,Switzerland, Malta andBotswana.

“Pleased to host a farewelllunch for departing HighCommissioners/Ambassadorsof Tunisia, Ghana, Spain andNigeria. Thank them for theirservices and support to therelationship,” Jaishankar tweet-ed.

“Welcomed the recentlyarrived HighCommissioners/Ambassadorsof Australia, Uzbekistan, NewZealand, Singapore, Rwanda,Switzerland, Malta andBotswana,” he said in anothertweet.

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The Supreme Court hassought response from the

Centre on a plea seeking for-mulation of standard operatingprocedure (SOP) for mandat-ing pre-litigation mediationacross the country to reducependency of cases.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, A S Bopanna, and VRamasubramanian issuednotices to the Ministry of Lawand Justice and various highcourts on the plea.

“Issue notice returnable infour weeks,” the bench said.

The apex court was hear-ing a petition filed by Youth BarAssociation of India and advo-cate Sanpreet Singh Ajmaniwhich suggested that alternateand pre-litigation processes bemade mandatory to reducependency of cases in variouscourts.

According to the petition,use of alternate dispute reso-lution mechanisms will help tocontrol frivolous matters com-

ing up for hearing by giving anopportunity to parties to set-tle their disputes amicablybefore any litigation can start.

The plea contended thatpre-litigation mediation is anattempt to resolve the disputeamong the parties amicablywith the help of neutral thirdparty called Mediator beforegoing to the court or evenbefore filing litigation or send-ing a notice.

“It gives a chance to boththe parties to end the disputein a win-win position. In itissues can be sorted out soon-er and this process is inex-pensive compared to theexpenditure incurred at everystage of the case/issues in liti-gation.

“To reduce the number ofpending cases, theGovernment should work on amechanism to introduce a pre-litigation mediation process, sothat avoidable cases can be pre-vented from reaching thecourts and settle the issueeffectively,” the plea said.

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The third edition of the two-plus-two dialogue between

India and the US on October27 will entail a comprehensivediscussion on cross-cuttingbilateral issues as well as delib-erations on regional and glob-al developments, the Ministry

of External Affairs (MEA) saidon Thursday.

US Secretary of StateMichael Pompeo and DefenceSecretary Mark T Esper willvisit India on October 26 and27 for the high-level dialogueaimed at further boostingdefence, security and globalstrategic ties between the two

countries.The Indian side at the talks

will be represented by ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankarand Defence Minister RajnathSingh.

The third ministerial dia-logue will entail a comprehen-sive cross-cutting bilateralissues of mutual interests.

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BJP president J P Naddasaid on Thursday that mid-

dlemen, not farmers, arebehind the agitation againstfarm laws in Punjab whileasserting that the NarendraModi government has freed peasants from the“slavery” of selling their pro-duce to predesignated marketsand traders.

Addressing a group offarmers from Delhi and near-by villages at the BJP head-quarters here, Nadda also tooka swipe at West Bengal

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee for not implementingin her state the Center’s schemeto deposit �6,000 into everyfarmer’s account under the‘Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana’.

She has been creating hur-dles in farmers’ development,but this will not go on for long,he said and stressed that theBJP will come to power in thestate next year and implementthe scheme.

The Assembly polls inWest Bengal are due in the firsthalf of the next year.

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Parliamentary panel exam-ining the Personal Data

Protection Bill on Thursdaysummoned social media giantsFacebook and Twitter. Googleand Amazon are also expect-ed to be summoned by thepanel. Representatives ofFacebook India have beenasked to appear on Fridaybefore the Joint Committee onthe Personal Data ProtectionBill, 2019, chaired by BJP MPMeenakshi Lekhi, whileTwitter officials are required toappear before the panel onOctober 28, as per the noticeissued by the Lok Sabha

Secretariat. When contacted Lekhi

said, “Whosoever is required,whether an individual or anentity, will be asked to deposebefore the panel on the issue ofprotection of data and its pri-vacy and their respective socialmedia platforms will be thor-oughly examined by the panel.

“It would be inappropriateand unfair to look at the call-ing of social media platformfrom the political prism. Thecommittee has representativesfrom across the political spec-trum and the deliberations onthe bill are being held from thenational interest perspective,”she said.

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Page 5: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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The police on Thursday tookcustody of BJP leader

Dhirendra Pratap Singh whowas arrested for allegedlyshooting dead a man inDurjanpur village of the districtduring the allotment of a rationshop.

A Ballia court had onWednesday remanded the BJPleader in police custody for twodays.

Reoti SHO Praveen Singh

took Dhirendra Singh’s custodyfrom the district jail, officialssaid without elaborating fur-ther.

He was later taken to hishouse in Durjanpur village,sources said.

Chief Judicial MagistrateRamesh Kushwaha had

remanded the BJP leader inpolice custody to enable thepolice to recover the murderweapon, a country-made pistol,from the accused and for hiscustodial interrogation as partof the ongoing probe into thecase.

The court had remandedDhirendra Singh in police cus-tody for only two days, reject-ing the prosecution demand forseven-day custody. The BJPleader was arrested fromLucknow on Sunday.

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Residents of Jammu & Kashmir on ThursdayObserved 'Black day' to mark the 73rd

anniversary of Pakistan's invasion of Kashmir in1947. The streets of Srinagar were seen dottedwith king size hoardings exhibiting images ofatrocities committed by the Pakistani invaders.

In Srinagar, small groups of residents also tookout protest rallies shouting slogans againstPakistan. A separate Symposium & Exhibition tocommemorate the memories of October 22, 1947was inaugurated by Lt-Governor of Jammu &Kashmir Manoj Sinha in the virtual presence ofMoS (IC) Culture & Tourism Pralahad Patel atSKICC, Srinagar.

Large number of events including webinars,seminars and discussions were also organised bydifferent institutions and study groups in Jammu.The main event was organised by the NationalMuseum Institute of History of Art, Conservationand Museology at SKICC, Srinagar. The

Exhibition on the ‘Memories of 22 Oct 1947’ wasalso inaugurated, comprising graphic panels andvideos showcasing a chronology of events as wellas prominent narratives of the invasion on 22 Oct1947 and the subsequent unfolding of actions.

The organisers of the event in their conceptnote informed the audience, “The consequencesof this water-shed event are still affecting the coun-try. It is necessary to portray such a historic nar-rative in order to create a dialogue among the peo-ple. The aim of such an initiative would be to bringabout awareness among the people about thisphase of our history. It will help in rememberinghow the country fought in the very first conflictfaced by (independent) India”.

Meanwhile, addressing the audience afterinaugurating the symposium the Lt Governorobserved that the two-day Symposium andExhibition is a medium to expose the atrocitiesinflicted by the Pakistani government and its armyupon innocent women, children, and men ofJammu & Kashmir on October 22, 1947.

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Aligarh: There is an outrageamong the Dalits (Valmiki) afterthe Hathras rape case and seeingthe soft corner for rapists amongthe Government and the admin-istration. Discussion among theValmiki community for conver-sion into Buddhism is going onin full swing. Valmikis are beingunder seige in Aligarh, Hathras,Bulandshahr etc. Just as theValmikis of Ghaziabad haveembraced Buddhism, in thesame way, there is also the fra-grance of conversion toBuddhism here also.

Valmikis say that due tothe extremely backward society,the high society still looks at usin a doubtful vision even after70 years. Therefore, they havemade it a decision to leave theValmiki community and adopt

Buddhism. This has started inGhaziabad. It may be recalledthat a dalit girl was raped inHathras by four upper castemen after which the victim'sfamily was being accused ofhonour killing because ofwhich they are also thinking toadopt Buddhism.

Hurt by Hathras incident,on 14th October, in the area ofKarheda village of Sahibabad,236 people of 50 Valmiki haveembraced Buddhism in a pro-gram chaired by the great-grandson of BhimraoAmbedkar Mr. Raj RatanAmbedkar.

Pawan Budh, who firstadopted Buddhism in Karheda,alleged that the victim’s family isbeing tortured in the Hathrascase. PNS

Aligarh: Iqra Shamim, MYaqoob and M Umair receivedthe first, second and third prizesrespectively in the recently con-cluded online essay writing com-petition on 'Sir Syed AhmadKhan and Modern education'.

The competition was organ-ised by the Centre for DistanceEducation (CDE), AligarhMuslim University (AMU) tomark the centenary year ofAMU. PNS

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Aligarh DM ChandraBhushan Singh's court has

declared stamp theft of �45.63crore on Ghaziabad-AligarhExpressway Private Limited, aDelhi based company operat-ing toll plaza at Gabbhana onNational Highway-91 (Aligarh-Ghaziabad). The court hasalso directed to collect 18 per-cent annual interest and fine of�45 lakh on the amount ofstamp theft by the companysince 2010. 100 crore rupees isexpected to recover from this

company.National Highway

Authority of India (NHAI)had constructed four-lane fromAligarh to Ghaziabad in 2010.In this, a Vasant Vihar (NewDelhi) based company,G h a z i a b a d - A l i g a r hExpressway Private Limited,was also got the responsibilityof construction work. NHAIsigned an agreement with thecompany that it would get theright to collect toll tax on theGabbhana toll plaza for 24years in place of the construc-tion work payment.

KOCHI: Ramesh Chennithala, Leader ofOpposition in Kerala Assembly who is also achief ministerial aspirant, lambasted formerCongress president Rahul Gandhi whose com-ments about the Covid-19 situation in the Stateis being seen as an approval of the works doneby the Pinarayi Vijayan Government.

Rahul Gandhi, who was on a three-day visitto Wayanad from where he was elected to theLok Sabha in 2019, described the commentsmade by union health minister Harsh Vardhanwas unfortunate. He also alleged that the BJPGovernment as the Centre was using the inves-tigating agencies like the NIA and ED for polit-ical vendetta. “I was also a victim of this,” he hadtold journalists at Kalpetta.

Chennithala, who has been leading a seriesof demonstrations against the CPI(M) govern-ment demanding the resignation of the minis-ters involved in the gold smuggling scam, was

taken aback when the former Congress Presidentchose to be cautious and stayed away from crit-icising the State government. Rahul Gandhi usedthe meeting with the media to criticise theNarendra Modi Government at the Centrewhich the former said “goofed up” in tacklingthe Covid-19 issue and the burning problemsfaced by the country.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday,Chennithala said it was not proper on the partof Rahul Gandhi to comment about the situa-tion in Kerala as the latter visits the State rarely.“There are competent people here in the Stateto comment about the issues faced by Kerala,”he said.

M M Mani, Kerala’s minister for power, saidthe words of Chennithala matched that of theSangh Parivar. “His comments about RahulGandhi reflect the views of Sangh Parivar as hecannot cover it up,” said Mani. PNS

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The BJP in Kerala sufferedan embarrassment on

Thursday as the Police regis-tered a case against formerMizoram GovernorKummanam Rajasekharanfor cheating and breach oftrust. The case has been reg-istered following a complaintby C R Harikrishnan ofAranmula that he was cheat-ed of Rs 28.75 lakh byRajasekharan and five othersoffering partnership in acompany manufacturingplastic-free banners with amixture of paper and cotton.

The complainant allegedthat Praveen, who was theprivate secretary toRajasekharan while the latterwas the Governor ofMizoram, took the money

from him. Harikrishnan saidin his complaint that hedecided to part with themoney at the instance ofRajasekharan who encour-aged him to invest in thecompany.

There are nine personsinclusing Rajasekharan andPraveen who have been list-ed as accused in the case.

Rajasekharan termed thecase as an act of victimisationand vendetta. “I do not knowanything about the financialdealings though I had toldthat the company was agood venture,” he toldreporters.

A section of the BJP lead-ers in Kerala are of the viewthat this police complaintwas part of a move by theother group in the partywhich is out to discreditRajasekharan.

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Atotal of 95.1 per cent ofCovid patients in Andhra

Pradesh have recovered fromthe virus, making it a state withthe highest recovery rate inIndia.

Out of 7.93 lakh peopledetected to be infected with thevirus until Wednesday, 7.54lakh have recovered and beendischarged from hospitals.

Currently, active cases inthe southern state stand at33,396.

Andhra Pradesh's mortal-ity rate is at 0.82 per cent,which is lower than the nation-al average of 1.51 per cent.

Right from the beginning

of the pandemic, Andhra hasemerged as one of the stateswhich has vigorously testedsamples for the virus.

By Wednesday, it had test-ed 72.7 lakh samples, translat-ing to 1.36 lakh tests per mil-lion people.

Katamaneni Bhaskar,health commissioner, said, “Weare testing the most in thecountry, therefore detectingmore cases. Detecting casesearly gives the doctors thechance to treat the patients andreduce mortality.”

He said the state's healthdepartment is testing more invulnerable zones and statedthat more Coronavirus testingwill continue on a war footing.

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Two youngsters, who hadrecently joined the ranks of

Al-Badr terror outfit less thana month ago, surrenderedbefore the security forces aftertheir parents made passionateappeals to them to lay downtheir arms and join the main-stream. However, no arms andammunition were recoveredfrom their custody at the timeof the surrender.

In the video released by theIndian army, two terroristswere seen stepping out of theirhideout in Shalpura Tujar areaof Sopore.

Last week an over groundworker (OGW) was also cap-tured live by the security forcesafter a brief exchange of fireand later he too had surren-dered before the security forcesin Chadoora area of Budgam.So far, 29 terrorists havereturned to the mainstreamafter laying down their armssince January 1, 2020.

The surrendered terroristshave been identified as AbidMushtar War and Mehraj-ud-Din by the Jammu andKashmir police. They wereboth residents of WadooraPayen Bomai, Sopore.

Briefing media personsabout the incident, GOC KiloForce, Maj Gen H S Sahi said,“On 22 October 2020, based onintelligence inputs, an opera-tion was launched by theIndian Army and JKP in villageTujar of Sopore”.

He said as the cordon waslaid, we received inputs aboutthe presence of two local ter-rorists inside the target house.“After verifying the identity ofthe hiding terrorists, their par-ents were summoned to thespot and appeals were made tothem to surrender before thesecurity forces. He said, thesecurity personnel present atthe location also appealed tothem to surrender and theyresponded to the calls”.

Sharing further details, MajGen HS Sahi said, “these twoyoungsters had gone missingfrom their native villageWadoora Payen in Sopore onSeptember 23, 2020. He saidthe same evening a grenadeblast was reported from Soporein which they were bothinvolved”.

A week later the familymembers of these newlyrecruited youth wereapproached and their assis-tance was sought to bring themback to the mainstream.

“Since then the joint teamsof security forces were makingall out efforts to track downtheir footprints. Assuranceswere also given to the parentsto ensure safety of their sons”,he added.

Assam/Aizawl: The fortnightlong Assam-Mizoram borderissue seemed to be resolved onThursday after the movementof over 300 Mizoram boundessential goods laden vehiclesand the start of the process ofwithdrawing forces fromAssam's territory, a top officialsaid.

Southern Assam RangeDeputy Inspector General ofPolice Dilip Kumar Dey saidthat more than 300 Mizorambound goods laden vehicles,mostly trucks, started movingfor their destination in the

neighbouring state. “TheMizoram government hasassured to gradually withdrawtheir forces from the borderingareas inside Assam territory.The situation along Mizoram'sborder with southern Assam isquite normal,” Dey told IANSover phone.

Union Home Ministry'sJoint Secretary (North East),Satyendra Kumar Garg, theHome Secretaries of Assamand Mizoram along with topofficials of the two states helda series of meetings onWednesday. IANS

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The number of active casesof coronavirus infection in

the country has been recordingan average of more than55,000-56000 cases daily for thepast 10 days so far, down fromthe 80,000-85,000 daily cases inthe last two weeks ofSeptember.

The third-most-affectedcountry by active cases andfatality, and second by totalcases, India has added 4,68,412cases between October 13 and21. Daily deaths too have beendeclining in most states.

According to the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,the last 10 lakh cases have comein 15 days. The data showedthat 54,404 cases were report-ed on October 20; 45506 onOct 19; 56519 on Oct 18; 61893on Oct 17; 62304 on Oct 16;63441 on Oct 15; 67811 on Oct14 and 63717 on Oct 13. Thecount of active cases acrossIndia has seen a net reductionof over 24000 since September23.

There were 68669 casesreported on September 23.Similarly, there is a drop in thedaily fatality rate. There were

701 deaths on October 21; 714on Oct 20; 589 on Oct 19; 582on Oct 18; 1032 on Oct 17; 840on Oct 16 and 882 onOct 15.

The five most affectedstates by total cases areMaharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu andUttar Pradesh. There is also adrop in daily fatality rate from1085 on September 22 to 701on October 21.

Maharashtra has reported7,539 new cases, 198 deathsand 16,177 discharges in thelast 24 hours. The total cases inthe state is now to 16,25,197,including 42,831 deaths and14,31,856 recovered patients.The active cases are now at1,50,011. The COVID-19 tallyin Thane has reached 2,03,727after detection of 1,101 newcases.

With 7,482 new cases and23 deaths in the last 24 hourstaking the total tally to 93,291in Kerala. As compared to theWednesday tally of 8369,Kerala has reported a decline of887 on Thursday. AndhraPradesh recorded 3,620 newinfections and 16 deaths. Thereis a decline of 126 cases fromWednesday.

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Aday after the MaharashtraGovernment withdrew its “general

consent” to the CBI to investigate casesin the State, the ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) constituents — NCP andShiv Sena — on Thursday justified theconsent withdrawal move by charging thatthe Narendra Modi Government was“misusing” the Central investigatingagency in non-BJP-ruled State for polit-ical reasons.

Talking to media persons here, StateHome Minister and NCP leader AnilDeshmukh attributed his government’sdecision to withdraw its “general consent”to the CBI to investigate cases in the stateto the ruling BJP-led Union government’sfrequent “misuse” of the Delhi SpecialPolice Establishment Act to investigatecases as it happened in the Sushant SinghRajput death case.

“There is a debate among the peoplethat the BJP-led government at theCentre misuses the CBI for political rea-

sons. At the same time we are seeing thatat a time when the Mumbai police areinvestigating the TRP rating fraud case,a case gets registered in Uttar Pradesh andthe same case gets transferred to theCentre. Hence, in order to ensure that theCBI is not misused for political reasons,we have decided to withdraw consent toinvestigate cases in Maharashtra,”Deshmukh said.

Deshmukh, who had in the past madeno bones about his displeasure over theCBI taking over the investigations SushantSingh Raput death from the Mumbaipolice, said that the central agency wouldnow have to approach the state govern-ment and take prior permission from itto investigate cases in the state.

“The Mumbai police were investi-gating the Sushant Singh Rajput deathcase. But, the SSR case came to be hand-ed over to the CBI. The same thing wouldhave happened in the case of the TRP rat-ings fraud case. And the same vestedinterests would have defamed theMumbai and Maharashtra police in a sim-

ilar manner they did in the case of SushantSingh Rajput case, “ Deshmukh said.

In a related development, Shiv Senaspokesperson and MP Sanjay Rautcharged that the Narendra Modi gov-ernment “misused” its investigationmachinery in states where the BJP is notin power. “Hence, we have decided towithdraw general consent to the CBI toinvestigate cases in Maharashtra. The CBI will now have to take prior per-mission from the Maharashtra govern-ment before it investigates cases in ourState”.

“We are Maharashtra.... Be it CBI orED, the investigation agencies will havesome power to investigate cases in ourstate.... what we are witnessing is misuseby central investigation agencies in theOpposition parties-led states. If someonetries to misuse its power in Opposition-ruled states to harass and defame peoplethere, we have no alternative but we havehad to take a decision to protect the pow-ers of the state,” Raut said.

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ADahanu court on Thursdayremanded 32 out of the

newly arrested accused in thePalghar lynching case in judi-cial custody for 15 days, whileit would hear the bail pleas ofthe remaining 18 accused onFriday.

A day after the theMaharashtra CrimeInvestigation Department(CID) named 208 more asaccused and arrested 50 ofthem in connection with theApril 16 2020 Palghar lynchingcase, Dahanu’s JudicialMagistrate M. V. Jawale sent 32to judicial custody for 15 days,while he said that he wouldhear the bail pleas of the

remaining 18 arrested accusedon Friday.

In a simultaneous devel-opment, Thane’s Court SpecialSessions Judge P. P. Jadhavdeferred the hearing of the bailpleas of 62 other accused tillNovember 3.

Appearing for the state,Special Public ProsecutorSatish Maneshinde sought thepresence of the threeInvestigating Officers in thethree cases and the productionof first information reportsbefore the court. After hearingSSP’s submission, Judge Jadhavscheduled the next hearing forNovember 3.

With the naming of 208new accused in the case onWednesday, the number of

persons named in the Palgharlynching case has gone up to366, including 11 juveniles. Ofthe 208 freshly named accused,the State CID arrested 50 per-sons on Wednesday.

In all, the bail pleas of 62accused, including 50 of thosearrested on Wednesday, will beproduced before SpecialSessions Judge P. P. Jadhav atThane Sessions Court.

Of the 366 accused in thecase, 28 adults and 9 juvenileswere released on a default bailas the CID charge sheet did notspecify their exact involve-ment in the crime owing to lackof evidence.

On July 16, this year, thestate CID filed a comprehensivecharge-sheets against the

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Page 6: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

In the US, the Volstead Actwas passed in 1920 to banalcohol. This prohibitionstretched for nearly 14 yearsand established a parallel

illegal economy, which led to theemergence of the mafia and pro-mulgated a State-sponsored struc-ture that protected the rich andpowerful but came down heavilyon the poor. Media reports of thetime in the US noted that in a par-ticularly amusing incident, whenthe police raided a bar in Denver,they found the local Congressman,the mayor and the sheriff sharinga drink. Who would have thoughtthat Denver of the 1920s and theBihar of today would have somuch in common?

The interesting point is that evenif you had not read the end of thefirst paragraph of this piece, youwould have known that we are talk-ing about Nitish Kumar’s Bihar andmore specifically his prohibition.I use the two terms interchangeablybecause prohibition and the reck-less and arrogant manner in whichit has been introduced and imple-mented in Bihar is also a summa-ry of the National DemocraticAlliance’s (NDA) rule in the State.Prohibition, just like the NDA’s rulein Bihar, has been chequered withproblems of administration andgovernance, and has led to a diver-sion of resources that could havebeen used elsewhere.

Let us start with the arroganceof the move. Nitish, almost whim-sically, decided one fine day thatBihar would be a prohibition State.Any rational Government wouldhave done some research on theeffectiveness of the ban prior totaking such a huge decision orwould have at least examined theabject failure of the policy on theground and admitted that it hadmade a mistake. However, thecurrent NDA Government lacksthe foresight to make deliberateddecisions and the humility toacknowledge its mistakes.

Why do we say that Nitish’s pro-hibition is a barometer of his gov-ernance in Bihar? Let us start withthe suddenness of the move.Reminiscent of the catastrophicdecision of demonetisation takenby Prime Minister Narendra Modi,the ban was absolute. One wouldhave hoped that the Governmenthad already checked whether pro-hibition had popular support onthe ground or not. No such delib-eration was, however, done. As a

result, what this policy has ledto, is a rise in what Gary Becker,a Nobel prize-winning econo-mist, calls “rational crimes.”That is, crimes committed byrational people since they weighthe possible penalty for beingcaught against the chance ofactually being caught. In Bihar,while the penalty is severe, thechances of being caught areactually minimal. Let merephrase. In Bihar, your chancesof being caught are minimal ifyou can oil the palms of thepolice and the relevant author-ities or if you are a VIP. But ifyou are a common citizen, yourfortune rests with the Almighty.

In reality, there is no real pro-hibition in Bihar. Yes, liquor isbanned as a concept but in prac-tice, it is available when onewants to get it. As a travelagent told a reporter of a largenational daily — “What prohi-bition? Daru (liquor) is availableeverywhere…even at localpolice stations.” What Nitish’sprohibition has introduced ismob violence between competi-tors who supply liquor to theircustomers. Since you cannottake another distributor to courtfor supplying liquor, the onlyoption is to establish a localmonopoly through violence. Inthe US, this violence was large-ly perpetrated by mobsters,who profited heavily due to theban. In Bihar, it is often thepolice and Government officialswho help establish monopoliesand tend to profit heavily fromthem. The ones who suffer arenot the suppliers of liquor but

the consumers. According to thelatest records of the police head-quarters in Patna, a total of2,12,323 arrests were made withrespect to possession of illegalliquor, between April 2016 andJanuary this year. Out of thesearrests, only 19,500 were suppli-ers. Most of those arrested werepoor, who could not afford topay bribes, while the officialswho made money off themsuffered few ill consequences.The widespread proliferation ofthis corrupt system of bribingfor liquor is well-known andmany have complained about itand even more, have suffereddue to it.

Another issue with prohibi-tion is that it leads to dangerousforms of spurious liquor beingwidely available. This is becausesince possessing liquor carries acertain amount of risk, bootleg-gers tend to make the spuriousdrink more potent so that it hasthe desired effect in a smallamount. Therefore, it is no sur-prise that reports of deaths dueto consumption of hooch havebeen on the rise, especially inthe rural areas, where many can-not afford the fancy liquor thatthe rich and powerful con-sume.

Going back to the example ofthe US, if Bihar is to be com-pared with Denver during theprohibition era, in a raid, youwill probably find police officialsand senior politicians drinkingin bars but will also stumbleupon the poor dying outsidethat very same public house.

The resources and attention

allocated to this flawed schemehave come at the cost of otherinitiatives. If liquor was regulat-ed and taxed, it would haveraised the revenues of the StateGovernment and would haveallowed it to use these fundstowards education and employ-ment. Instead, what we havetoday is a disproportionate por-tion of the State’s resources, bothmonetarily and in terms ofmanpower, being divertedtowards the Chief Minister’sflagship cause. The absence ofpolice power has led to morecrimes being committed sincepolice officers would ratherhave the chance to earn easymoney from alcohol consumersthan face the prospect of check-ing crimes like rape and murder.

You may be of the view thatthe BJP would try to check thisbehaviour of Nitish and coursecorrect but the party is support-ing him. And going by theexample of Gujarat, a State thatalso follows strict prohibition, itis obvious that the ban in Biharcomes with the blessings of theCentre.

This heady cocktail (excusethe pun) of ill-planning andarrogance displayed by the NDAis ultimately only at the cost ofthe common man of Bihar. Thesituation in the State is soappalling that one can say thatthe Nitish Government in itsenthusiasm to ban liquor mayhave actually driven a fair fewtowards alcoholism.

(The writer is a former IPSofficer and a member of theCongress Party)

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&�������������

������������� ���Sir — India now ranks 94thamong 107 countries in terms ofhunger and continues to be in the“severe” category, according tothe Global Hunger Index 2020.Additionally, 14 per cent of thecountry’s population is under-nourished. On the other hand,the collective net worth of halfthe nation’s 100 richest people, onthe 2020 Forbes India Rich List,saw a rise of 14 per cent. TheSensex, an index of 30 companiesactively trading on the BombayStock Exchange, which is used toobserve “the overall growth,development of particular indus-tries, ups and downs of theIndian economy,” closed at38,673 points on March 31,2019, witnessing an increase of17.3 per cent from its closingvalue of 32,969 as on March 31,2018. One needs to consider allthese and more, along with thedata released by the NationalStatistical Office, which showsthat the economic growthslumped to an 11-year low of 4.2per cent in 2019-20. One schoolof thought holds that the rise inwealth — despite the sharpCorona-inflicted downturn ineconomic and business activities— was partly due to the cut in the

corporate tax rate last year from35 per cent to 25 per cent. Thetrickle-down theory has turnedout to be a mirage, as the growthgenerated by “those with theresources and skills to increaseproductive output” has neverrisen to the level which couldhelp eradicate poverty and fuelthe economic development of thepoor. India needs to re-evaluateits economic reform strategy

and consider course correctionto feed the hungry and createopportunities for gainful employ-ment.

Haridasan RajanKozhikode

������������Sir — India has invitedAustralia to the annual Malabarnaval exercises, which include the

US and Japan as the other twomembers, scheduled to be heldnext month. This strategic deci-sion comes against the backdropof the India-China standoff ineast Ladakh. However, there isanother dimension to this devel-opment and one can possiblyinfer that New Delhi seeks to takeits bilateral relations withCanberra forward. The CentralGovernment had selected many

cities for its Smart City Mission,launched in June 2015, but totake it further, it needs Australiafor new and innovative technol-ogy. The latter, on the other hand,seeks qualified engineers anddoctors from India to augmentits technological needs and nour-ish its healthcare system. Hence,India’s decision to includeAustralia in the naval exercisesmarks an important inflexionpoint in the bilateral relationsbetween the two countries.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

��������� �����Sir — The Calcutta High Court(HC) had earlier declared Durgapuja pandals as no-entry zones.However, easing its previousorder, the HC has now said thatentry of up to 45 people will beallowed. Now the question thatarises is who will regulate thenumber of people entering thepandals? It is imperative that peo-ple realise that we are still livingin a pandemic-hit world andhealth needs to come first.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

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The Hathras incident forced us allto relive the horrific Nirbhayagang rape. What stands out in

public memory is the burning of theDalit girl’s mortal remains like “trash”in the dead of the night, with police-men standing guard. Official figuresconfirm that on an average 87 rapecases (ten among them are of Dalitgirls/women) are reported daily inIndia. There has also been a 7.3 percent rise in all crimes against women,with Uttar Pradesh (UP) registeringthe highest number of cases, account-ing for 14 per cent of the total incidentsin the country, says a National CrimeRecords Bureau, 2019, report.

In 2018, a Thomson ReutersFoundation Survey labelled India “asthe most dangerous country forwomen…where rape, marital rape,

sexual assault, harassment, femaleinfanticide go on unabated.” Many dis-missed the report as being “perceptu-al rather than based on actual experi-ences”, while the Government declinedto comment on the findings.

Sadly, violence against women isglobally pervasive, and one in threewomen (35.6 per cent) has been a vic-tim of physical and/or sexual violenceeither by intimate partners or non-partners in their lifetime. The preva-lence of intimate partner violence wasfound to be the highest (37.7 per cent)in the South-East Asian region, says a2017 World Health Organisationstudy.

Many researchers ascribe “toxicmasculinity”, which breeds sexualaggression, as the outcome of anunequal power relationship, morecommon in cultures that foster thenotion of male superiority vis a vis thesocio-cultural inferiority of women.Kamala Bhasin, a social activist, saysthat “in deep-rooted patriarchy, a boyinherits a sense of entitlement from hisupbringing, whereas a girl becomes avictim of stereotyping as the weakersex. The existing imbalance in genderrelations has much to do with violence

against women.” Shockingly, in today’smodern, tech-savvy digital India, thecaste factor and group identity furtheraccentuate a dominant-submissivegender role culture, especially in thenorthern States.

Ravi Verma, Director,International Center for Research onWomen, Asia, says, “A strong sense ofimpunity among higher caste men,who consider dehumanising women’sbodies as an ultimate expression ofcontrol and power, is the reasonbehind continued violence againstwomen from marginalised and poorcommunities, including Dalits.” In2019, among the 3,500 Dalit womenraped in India, one third of them werefrom Rajasthan and UP.

But, beyond the socio-culturalstructures, studies have also indicateda negative correlation between the sexratio and the hike in sexual violencecases. Now, India, is a land of “miss-ing women”, contributing one in threeto the world’s missing girls due to sexselection, both pre and post-natal, saysa United Nations Population Fund,2020 report. Rape cases in India roseto 32,033 in 2019 from 2,487 in 1971,an astronomical jump of 1,188 per

cent, while the sex ratio registered anegative growth of 0.65 per cent,plummeting from 930 girls in 1971 to924 girls per 1,000 boys this year.

Moreover, the rising rate of sexu-al violence is likely to create a furtherdip in the sex ratio, especially in theHindi belt. A recent field report of theIndian Council of Social ScienceResearch in UP and Haryana corrob-orated that “there is an increasing trendfor son preference in the face ofgrowing crimes against women, as amale child is culturally viewed as a pro-tector of the family honour, thus safe-guarding the chastity of daughtersfrom the unsafe public spaces.”

Now, if public places are “unsafe”,then how safe is the home for Indianwomen? Certainly, it is not. Themajority of the violence-related casesunder the Indian Penal Code havebeen registered under cruelty by hus-band or his relatives (30.9 per cent), fol-lowed by assault on a woman with theintent to outrage her modesty (21.8 percent) and abduction of a woman(17.9 per cent). India’s criminal lawdoesn’t proscribe sexual violence by ahusband unless the wife is under 18years of age, and there is no culpabil-

ity for marital rape. Another uniquedimension of crimes against womenin India is that 85 per cent of sexualassaults go unreported as there is ahigh share of known offenders, evenif one excludes marital rape. An analy-sis of demographic and health surveysfrom 43 developing countries from2010 onwards revealed that women’sreporting of sexual violence is very lowin India.

Nonetheless, the Nirbhaya casewas a watershed moment in our crim-inal justice system. Asha Devi,Nirbhaya’s mother, while recallingher seven-year-long struggle in nail-ing the perpetrators, said, “The roadto justice is very difficult, arduous andalso hopeless. If you don’t have policesupport, even if the death penalty ishanded out, it has to move through atortuous process and is hardly imple-mented.”

Unfortunately, the post-Nirbhayachanges in criminal law failed to makemuch of a dent in the justice dispen-sation system. The conviction rate ofoffenders remains as low as 27.2 percent and is only five per cent in caseof the death penalty, though rape con-stitutes 11.5 per cent of the total crime

statistics. Many activists lament that thecases get weakened by easy grant of bailto the rape accused. “Even though itis a non-bailable offence, evidence getstampered and extraneous influencesdilute the process of investigation,while the police remain hand in glove… as happened in the Hathras case,when it more or less acted like anaccomplice and not as the upholder ofrule of law,” they point out.

Meanwhile, the much-awaitedpolice reforms get frozen in politicalcold storage. Even the Supreme Court’sdirectives in 2006, which included sep-aration of investigation and law orderfunctions to make the police more“people-centric rather than ruler-cen-tric” are yet to hit the ground. A com-mittee to review the existing criminaljustice system also ran into roughweather when a group of womenlawyers protested over the non-rep-resentation of women on it “when itsremit is largely to reform sexualoffences.”

So, how does one fight it out?Mohini Giri, former Chairperson,National Women Commission, opinesthat the issue has no tailor-madesolutions. “The law cannot be the only

instrument. What is needed is astrong and supportive family, an awak-ened civil society and coordinatedaction among the various serviceproviders in society to nurture a girlchild. We also need a complete over-hauling of our educational inputs todetoxify the overdose of stereotypingfor bringing in attitudinal changes,both in the oppressed and the oppres-sors,” she says. While Bhasin empha-sises that “it is high time that we focuson men and talk in the active voice, likewhy a man commits a rape, rather thanpushing the victimisation theory ofwhy and how a woman has beenraped.”

Well, women across the worldraised their voices against sexual vio-lence under several banners like#MeToo, #TimesUp, #NotOneMore etal. In today’s pandemic-ravaged world,the alarming spike in gender violencehas generated a global movement#orangetheworld and #genera-tionequality to wage an all-out waragainst rape. Like before, India cannotremain untouched by it.

(The writer is a retired IndianInformation Service Officer and amedia educator)

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After being diagnosed with tuberculosis(TB), Niyam Mohammed was asked to fol-low the standard Directly Observed

Treatment Short Course (DOTS). In the beginning,he abided by the procedure, which meant takingthe TB medication in front of a DOTS provider(usually a healthcare worker or volunteer). This wasdone to ensure compliance and completion of thetreatment and also to prevent the development ofdrug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB). But for him,visiting the healthcare centre for medicines and reg-istration of compliance daily meant missing manyhours of work. As a construction worker,Mohammed’s survival depended on his daily earn-ings and unable to afford this loss of income, heslowly became irregular, not just in his visits to thehealthcare centre but also in treatment adherence.So, it wasn’t surprising when he was detected ashaving DRTB during a door-to-door TB screen-ing programme in March. Realising that coun-selling and behaviour change was needed to gethim back on track, ZMQ Global, a social enter-prise using technology for development, whichconducted the screening drive, took him under itswing.

Once the team understood that Mohammedwas more likely to adhere to the regime if he did-n’t have to miss work, he was given an innovativePatient’s Active Compliance and Treatment (PACT)tool kit, a patient-centric mobile solution designedespecially for people with DRTB. By using PACT,the construction worker didn’t have to miss workto access treatment because he no longer had topresent himself in front of a healthcare worker daily.Instead, he could show that he was following theregime by clicking a video while having his med-icines and use the app to send the video to the TBunit located in his primary healthcare centre.

Just as Mohammed began his treatment usingVideo Observed Therapy (VOT), a countrywidelockdown due to the COVID pandemic wasannounced. But the worker knew that he didn’thave to worry about access to treatment and carebecause he had been given medication to last fortwo months. More importantly, the patient knewthat he could use the app to consult the doctor viatele-conferencing if he had any problems.

At a time when 51 per cent TB patients inIndia, who were surveyed by the Global Coalitionof TB Activists, said that they were less likely toseek care during the outbreak because they fearedcontracting the Coronavirus, ensuring continuedaccess to DRTB care and management is critical.By leveraging tele-medicine and patient-centricmobile tools to put treatment and care directly intothe hands of patients, PACT has been able toenhance adherence support.

It was after extensive research and trials thatZMQ Global hit upon a three-pronged strategy toaddress the issue. Using its expertise in develop-ing technology solutions, it first created a patienttool kit. This comprises a component whichreminds DRTB patients of the need for taking theirmedication daily and adherence reporting throughthe VOT technology. It has customised data of thepatient with personalised details like the historyof previous illnesses, the treatment regimen, testreports and so on.

This ensures that all information is accessedseamlessly by the healthcare providers and thepatients, too, have access to their treatment histo-

ry and follow-up schedules. Second, theapp allows patients to remotely connectwith the TB Unit (TBU) or SeniorTreatment Supervisor (STS) for consul-tation or emergency care using the videoconnect tool. This means that visits tothe TBU can be substantially reducedand with the pandemic showing no signsof slowing down in India, this can be alife-saving feature for immunity-deficientTB patients.

The third strategy to boost treatmentcompliance was to incorporate digitalbehaviour change communication andmotivational content for DRTB patients.Interesting digital stories, learning toolsand messages have been developed in thelocal language and attractively packagedin the form of audio-visuals to connect,engage, inspire and motivate patients. Inthis way, even those with low literacy lev-els can use the app with ease.

At present, PACT is being rolled outin Nuh (Mewat), Haryana, which is just100 kilometres from the national capi-tal Delhi and considered the most back-ward district in India. In 2018, it wasincluded in the Niti Aayog’s list of “aspi-rational districts” or backward districtsdemanding special attention for its poorhealthcare and development indicators.This happened after a study by SehgalFoundation, a not-for-profit, found thatthe district lagged behind other areas inHaryana.

Nuh has a TB load of over 2,800patients every year. With the treatmentinitiation of DRTB patients being 24 percent and the success rate of treatmentbeing only 35 per cent, it was decided toimplement PACT in Nuh first. Plannersbelieve that anything which works in thisdistrict has the potential to be scaled upto 114 other aspirational districts of

India.It has just been seven months since

the initiative was launched but there arealready signs that the PACT is boostingadherence and compliance. Mohammed,one of the 120 DRTB patients in Nuh,has recorded 85 per cent treatmentadherence using the VOT technology. Hereturned to work after the lockdown waseased and hasn’t let that come in the wayof completing his treatment. He sendsvideos to his designated healthcare cen-tre to show his intake of medicine fromthe construction site even now.

Although Mohammed is considereda successful case because he changed hisbehaviour and adhered to his treatment,the team continues to monitor him.Since he has DRTB, he will have toundergo a longer and more arduous peri-od of treatment. The team wants toensure that the worker remains vigilanttill the end, so it will continue to mon-itor him over the next six months as allpatients under PACT are monitored forat least a year.

PACT, in fact, was specially designedto ensure continuum of care for thosediagnosed and undergoing treatment forDRTB in the wake of the contagion. Itrecently won the Drug Resistant-TBLifeline QuickFire Challenge institutedby pharmaceutical major Johnson &Johnson’s Global Public Health andJohnson & Johnson Innovation.According to Hilmi Qurashi, co-founderof the not-for-profit, they focussed onmaking the solution patient-centric.Since they have been engaged in pro-viding mobile technology solutions forTB and other health issues in other partsof India and Africa, they adapted fromtheir existing bottom-up technology-linked model to provide appropriate

tools in the hands of the patients.This could not have come at a bet-

ter time as recently the World HealthOrganisation in its global report sound-ed a warning that the pandemic wouldcause an excess of 1.8 million TB deathsin 2020. India is among the countriesexpected to bear the maximum burdenof these casualties.

The need for innovation has alsobeen flagged by the ongoing 51st UnionWorld Conference on Lung Health con-vened virtually by the InternationalUnion Against Tuberculosis and LungDisease (The Union), the world’s firstglobal health NGO. Failure to invest inthe health of citizens and defeat pre-ventable, treatable and curable diseasessuch as TB would enhance exposure tothe Novel Coronavirus and future pan-demics, said José Luis Castro, ExecutiveDirector, The Union.

With 75 per cent of TB researcherssaying that they do not have the neces-sary resources, the need to protectexisting ones becomes vital. The concernthat TB medicine, tests, vaccines, evensputum cups may not be available hasbeen expressed by Dr Madhukar Pai,director, McGill University TB Centre.This makes the new tools for TB preven-tion and care, like PACT, even more nec-essary. Never has this innovative tool kitbeen needed more, considering thenecessity to reduce visits to healthcarecentres and contact with healthcareworkers in the Corona era.

If Universal Health Coverage has tobe achieved, there needs to be a reduceddependence on DOT and greater accep-tance of VOT and other forms of inno-vative patient-centric treatment modesfor TB.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Colombo: Sri Lanka hasappealed against a judgementfrom Britain’s ProscribedOrganisations AppealCommission, which has delist-ed the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) as a pro-scribed terrorist organisation.

A foreign ministry state-ment issued here said that SriLanka has been made aware ofthe Open Judgement by theCommission on Wednesday.

It said the decision of theCommission arises from anappeal filed in May 2019 by anLTTE front organisation chal-

lenging the decision of BritishSecretary of State for HomeAffairs dated March 8, 2019,which refused the applicationby the group to de-proscribethe LTTE from the list ofProscribed Organizationsunder the UK Terrorism Act of2000.

While Sri Lanka was not aparty to these proceedings atthe Commission and couldnot make direct representa-tions, the Lankan Governmentassisted the British govern-ment by providing relevantinformation with regard to

continued terrorist activities.“The Open Judgement of

the POAC while allowing theAppeal, provides for furtherhearings, and the Governmentof Sri Lanka will continue toclosely monitor the progress ofthe case in the UK,” the state-ment said.

Sri Lanka maintains that ithas sufficient evidence to provethat the remnants of the LTTEand groups aligned with its ter-rorist ideology are active in for-eign countries, working toincite violence and destabilizethe country. PTI

Beirut: Lebanon’s presidenttasked former Prime MinisterSaad Hariri with forming a newgovernment Thursday, bring-ing back the veteran politiciana year after he was toppledamid nationwide protestsagainst widespread corruptionand a flunking economy.

President Michel Aoundesignated Hariri to form thenext government after a slightmajority of votes from law-makers, securing the return ofan old name to lead the coun-try desperate for change. Haririnow faces a more impoverishedLebanon, devastated by a mas-

sive August explosion thatdefaced Beirut, but also a moredetermined opposition.

The 50-year-old politiciantakes the helm with a sense ofurgency and more involve-ment by international leaderswho have warned Lebanon ison the verge of collapse.

Hariri pledged to quicklyform a new government — hisfourth in the last decade — tohalt the economic collapse,calling it the “last and only”opportunity.

The task is enormous, amidan unprecedented economiccrisis and stiff opposition,including from former politi-cal allies and protesters whohad been demanding change.

“Saad, don’t dream of it,”read posters raised by pro-testers, who see him as asymbol of an entrenchedpolitical class they blame forthe country’s woes. AP

Washington: The US has hadenough of 19 years inAfghanistan, President DonaldTrump has said, reiteratingthat American troops, who arethe greatest soldiers in theworld but acting as a “police

force” in the strife-torncountry, are returning.

Trump has repeatedly saidthat he would bring home allthe US troops from “endlesswars”. It was also one of thepromises he made during his2016 Presidential campaign.

Last month, he said thatthe United States will reducethe number of its troops inAfghanistan to 4,000 in a veryshort period of time.

“We never had anythinglike it — and sacrificingAmerican blood and treasurein endless foreign wars incountries that you’ve nevereven heard of. And they’re allcoming back. You know that,right? I hope nobody objects,”Trump told his supporters onWednesday at an election rallyin Gastonia, in the battle-

ground state of North Carolina.“I think 19 years in

Afghanistan is enough, would-n’t you say? We’re like a policeforce over there. We have thegreatest soldiers in the world,but over there we’re like apolice force. 19 years isenough,” he said.

“You think it’s easy gettingout with all the military-indus-trial complex, right? The mil-itary — beware the military-industrial complex.

They are right but we areall coming home, they are allcoming home,” Trump said.

Early this month, Trumpannounced that he will bring alltroops back from Afghanistanby year end. The Pentagonhad expressed surprise over it,while the Taliban had wel-comed the move.

The US and the Talibansigned a landmark deal inDoha on February 29 to bringlasting peace in war-tornAfghanistan and allow UStroops to return home fromAmerica’s longest war. PTI

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The United Nations has onTuesday said that there is an

urgent need to adopt proven bio-medical waste managementpractices to halt the spread ofCovid 19.

Dr René Van Berkel, UnitedNations Industrial DevelopmentOrganisation Representative,UNIDO Regional Office inIndia on Tuesday said that weneed to halt the spread of Covid19 through all possible infection

channels, including from contactwith or mismanagement ofinfectious waste. He also addedthat this is possible with provenbiomedical waste managementpractices and techniques, andnever before has it been sourgent to adopt these.

He was speaking at a webi-nar on “Managing bio-medicalwaste to ensure near-zero infec-tions spread among waste man-agement workers” organised byCommuneeti, a non-profitorganisation working on com-munity-centric policy making,in partnership with RamaiahMedical College and supportedby UNIDO-India.

Nashville: President DonaldTrump and his Democraticrival, Joe Biden, meet on thedebate stage for the second andfinal time Thursday night inTennessee. The 90-minuteprime-time meeting comes just12 days before Election Day.

Some key questions headinginto the debate:

CAN TRUMP CHANGETHE TRAJECTORY OF THERACE?

Trump cannot afford a sta-tus quo debate. National pollsshow him losing to Biden, andwhile some battleground statepolls are tighter, even some ofTrump’s own allies are worry-ing aloud about the prospect ofa serious defeat. This debaterepresents his best, and perhapslast, opportunity to change thecontours of the race while tensof millions of Americans arewatching.

The president fumbled hischance in the opening debate lastmonth, when his attack-all-the-time approach backfired. Trumpmissed another opportunitywhen he refused to participatein the second debate after orga-nizers decided the candidateswould face each other virtuallybecause of concerns about thepresident’s coronavirus infection.

Trump needs to find a wayto focus the debate — and theelection more broadly — onBiden and his liabilities. But todo that, he needs to avoid mak-ing himself the center of atten-tion, something that doesn’tcome naturally to the president.

WILL THE MUTE BUT-TON KEEP THINGS CIVIL?

The mute button has got-ten a lot of attention leading upto the debate, but its impactmay be overstated.

Given Trump’s unrelentinginterruptions in the first debate,the Commission on PresidentialDebates added a new rule forThursday’s affair that will keepeach candidate muted while theother delivers his two-minuteremarks at the outset of each ofthe six debate topics. Theremainder of each 15-minute

block will be open discussion,without any muting, the com-mission says.

The change will ensure thecandidates have at least sometime to answer questions with-out interference. Ultimately,however, the mute button canonly be used for a combinedtotal of 24 minutes of the 90-minute debate. That’s plenty oftime for the candidates to mixit up.

DOES TRUMP HAVE ABETTER ANSWER FOR THEPANDEMIC?

Whether he wants to ornot, the president will have totalk about the coronavirus atlength. And he has to come upwith a better answer than hedid during the first debate toconvince persuadable votersthat he has the situation undercontrol. It won’t be easy.

Coronavirus infections aresurging to their highest levelsin months. More than 220,000Americans are dead. Andrather than working on a com-prehensive plan to stop thespread based on science,Trump has spent recent daysattacking the nation’s mostrespected infectious-diseaseexpert, Dr. Anthony Fauci,while undermining his ownadministration’s recommenda-tion to wear masks.

HOW WILL BIDENHANDLE ATTACKSAGAINST HIS SON?

Trump and his allies in theconservative media haveramped up their focus onalleged maleficence by Biden’sson Hunter in recent days.Biden’s team expects Trump tomake those allegations a cen-terpiece of his debate strategy.

The president tried tomake an issue in the firstdebate of Hunter

Biden and his drug use,which the younger Biden haspublicly acknowledged.

But Trump’s attack mayhave backfired when Bidendeclared that he was proud of hisson, who, like many Americans,had fought to overcome an

addiction.Trump believes he has more

ammunition this time around,however, following the publica-tion of a tabloid report offeringa bizarre twist to familiar con-cerns about Hunter Biden’s workoverseas. The report centers ondata allegedly recovered fromHunter Biden’s laptop, thoughthe data has not been verifiedand, if it is legitimate, does nottie candidate Biden to any cor-ruption.

Biden’s team considers theissue a distraction from muchmore pressing concerns —namely, the pandemic — butBiden will certainly have todefend himself and his familyagain on Thursday night.

CAN BIDEN AVOIDPLAYING INTO GOP NAR-RATIVE?

Biden’s greatest foeThursday night may be himself.

Trump has struggled to findan effective line of attack againstthe 77-year-old Democrat, butthe lifetime politician has awell-established history of gaffesthat has made him the butt ofRepublican jokes for years.

To that end, the 74-year-old Trump and his allies spentmuch of the year questioningBiden’s mental and physicalhealth. While Biden quietedthose questions with a solidperformance in the first debate,they have not gone away. Heneeds to avoid any embarrass-ing missteps on stage thatwould play into the broaderRepublican narrative that he’sill-equipped to lead the freeworld.

Biden will certainly be pre-pared. He spent four of the lastfive days with no public eventsso he could focus almost exclu-sively on debate prep.

Still, Biden’s history of self-imposed stumbles raises thedistinct possibility that he couldhurt his campaign, with orwithout Trump’s help. It does-n’t help Biden that expectationswill be higher after Trump’sweak performance in the firstdebate. AP

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Islamabad: Pakistan hasrequested the UK for a thirdtime to deport former primeminister Nawaz Sharif fromLondon to serve his prisonterm in the country after beingsentenced in corruption cases,according to a media report onThursday.

Sharif, the 70-year-oldsupremo of the Pakistan MuslimLeague (Nawaz) who was oust-ed from power in 2017 by theSupreme Court on corruptioncharges, is in London for med-ical treatment.

A letter for the deportationof the three-time prime minis-ter was handed over personal-ly to the British HighCommissioner here some threeweeks ago, Dawn newspaper

reported. Through the letter, thePakistani government askedthe British authorities to con-sider cancelling Sharif ’s visitvisa, which has allowed him tolive in London on medicalgrounds since November.

The letter has cited Britain’sown immigration laws of 1974under which any person sen-tenced to imprisonment ofmore than four years had to bedeported to the country ofhis/her origin. When contacted,Shahzad Akbar, Adviser toPrime Minister Imran Khan onAccountability and Interior con-firmed that the governmenthas made three requests to theUK authorities to deport Sharif,with the last being on October5. PTI

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Bengaluru: Lendingsupport to the ‘SwachhBharat Mission’ in thecity, GAIL (India)Limited today handedover 18 four-wheel CNG“Dry Waste CollectionVehicles” worth Rupeesone crore to BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP).

The vehicles were flaggedoff by Shri Gaurav Gupta,Hon’ble Administrator ofBBMP and Shri Manjunath

Prasad, Commissioner, BBMPin the presence of Shri PMurugesan, Executive Director(Southern Region), GAIL(India) Limited and Shri VivekWathodkar, Chief General

Manager (CGD), GAILGas Limited.

The vehicles, pro-vided under GAIL’sCorporate SocialResponsibility initiative,are going to be used fordry waste collection.They run on dual fuel,

i.e., compressed natural gas(CNG) and petrol. CNG is anenvironment-friendly fuelwhich is cheaper than conven-tional fuels and reduces main-tenance cost too.

New Delhi: Rajiv Chaudhry,General Manager Northern &North Central Railwaysinformed that Railway hasbeen regularly striving toenhance the railway revenuethrough innovative ideas.

Working in the same direc-tion; Delhi division has recent-ly achieved a milestone byawarding a new innovativecontract under New Innovative Non Fare RevenueIdeas Scheme (NINFRIS) forApp-Based Bags-on-Wheelsservices.

It would be the first of itskind service available for therailway passengers in India.

Using BOW APP (will beavailable for Android & iPhoneusers), passengers will raisetheir demand for carrying theirluggage to railway station or totheir home.

Luggage will be picked upby the contractor in a securedmanner and will be delivered to the coach/homeas per booking preference ofpassenger.

The firm will provide door-to-door service to railway pas-sengers on a nominal fee forhassle-free and smooth han-dling & transportation of lug-gage from the passenger’s hometo passenger’s Coach in Trainand vice-versa.

It would be very helpful forpassengers, especially SeniorCitizens, Divyangjan and Lady Passengers travellingalone.

New Delhi: Capital marketsregulator Sebi on Thursdaysaid the measures to deal withmarket volatility will remain inplace till November 26.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the watchdog, inMarch, came out with variousmeasures, including revision ofmarket wide position limit, toensure orderly trading and set-tlement to contain high marketvolatility.

Besides ensuring orderlytrading and settlement, thesteps were aimed at effectiverisk management, price dis-

covery and maintenance ofmarket integrity.

“On review of the Covid-19 pandemic related situation,it has been decided that the reg-ulatory measures introducedvide Sebi press release datedMarch 20, 2020, shall contin-ue to be in force till November26, 2020,” the regulator said ina release on Thursday.

The stock exchanges andclearing corporations will beissuing necessary instructionsto market participants in thisregard, it added.

PTI

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Gold prices fell �95 to�51,405 per 10 gram in the

national capital on Thursdayamid a weak global trend andrupee appreciation, accordingto HDFC Securities.

The precious metal hadclosed at �51,500 per 10 gramin the previous trade.

Silver prices also declined�504 to �63,425 per kilogramfrom �63,929 per kilogram inthe previous trade. “Spot goldprices for 24 carat in Delhideclined by �95 on weak glob-al prices and rupee apprecia-tion,” HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities) TapanPatel said.

New Delhi: Labour MinisterSantosh Gangwar on Thursdayreleased a new series of retailinflation for industrial workers (CPI-IW) with arevised base year of 2016against 2001 earlier.

The Consumer PriceIndex-Industrial workers (CPI-IW) is the single most impor-tant price statistics with finan-cial implications.

The CPI-IW is primarilyused to regulate the dearnessallowance of governmentemployees and the workers inthe industrial sectors. It is alsoused in the fixation and revi-sion of minimum wages inscheduled employmentsbesides measuring the inflationin retail prices.

In future, the base revisionwill be done every five years,Gangwar said in a statement.

“Santosh Kumar Gangwar,Minister of State (IndependentCharge) for Labour &Employment, released the newseries of Consumer Price Indexfor Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) with the base year 2016,being compiled and main-tained by Labour Bureau, anattached office of Ministry ofLabour & Employment,” theministry said in the statement.

The new series of CPI(IW)with the base year 2016 willreplace the existing 2001 series,it added. PTI

New Delhi: Foreign institu-tional investors (FIIs) haveraised stake in billionaireMukesh Ambani-led RelianceIndustries to a record 25.2 percent in the quarter endedSeptember 30, according tothe company’s regulatory filing.

Reliance Industries (RIL)on Thursday filed a statementshowing the shareholding pat-tern for the quarter endedSeptember 30.

The statement showed FIIholding 165.8 crore shares or25.2 per cent of the total share-holding.

In the previous quarterended June 30, foreigninvestors held 163.07 croreshares of 24.72 per cent.

In an investor note, JP

Morgan said FII holding in RILhas hit a new high.

“As has been the case nowfor two years, FII’s stake in RILhit new highs. Surprisingly,mutual funds’ (MF) stakedeclined by 25 basis pointsquarter-on-quarter and wasthe second straight quarter ofstake decline,” it said.

The last time domesticMFs reduced their holding inRIL over two straight quarterswas back in 2016, it said addingdomestic mutual funds held5.12 per cent of RIL as of September 30, down from5.37 per cent in the previousquarter.

Promoters have also uppedtheir stake to 50.49 per centfrom 50.37 per cent. PTI

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Domestic equity indicessnapped four sessions of

gains on Thursday as investorstrimmed their exposure to IT,banking and energy stocksamid a negative trend at glob-al markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensextumbled 148.82 points or 0.37per cent to finish at 40,558.49.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty slipped 41.20 points or0.35 per cent to close at11,896.45.

IndusInd Bank was thetop laggard in the Sensex pack,declining 3.10 per cent, fol-lowed by ICICI Bank, Infosys, Titan, HDFC Bank,Nestle India, Maruti and TechMahindra.

On the other hand, NTPC,Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance,Axis Bank and Tata Steel wereamong the major gainers,jumping up to 3.10 per cent.

Global equities stayed onthe backfoot as the risingCOVID-19 cases and pro-tracted US stimulus negotia-tions hit investor sentiment.

“Domestic equities fin-ished lower after four consec-utive days of gains amid mixedglobal cues. Barring metals,FMCG and realty, most of sec-

toral indices ended in red.Among stocks, Tata Motors,Bharti Airtel and NTPC wereamong top gainers, while HeroMotoCorp, IndusInd Bank andInfosys were top losers.

“Market is expected to con-solidate for sometime at theselevels. While 2Q earnings haveso far been decent enough,investors might be keenlywatching heavyweights resultsin coming days and manage-ment commentaries.Additionally, progress on ongo-ing talks for fiscal stimulus inthe US will be crucial a factorfor global markets, including India,” said ArjunYash Mahajan, Head —Institutional Business atReliance Securities.

Jaipur: HousingCommissioner PawanArora informed that keep-ing in view the needs anddemands of the comingtime, the multi-storeybuildings to be construct-ed in future by theRajasthan Housing Boardwill be constructed on thegreen building concept.He said that it will belaunched under the ChiefMinister Jan Awas Yojana inJaipur on the green buildingconcept of buildings in PratapNagar and Indira Gandhi NagarYojana and the Chief Minister’s

state employees housing schemeand All India ServicesResidency, Pratap Nagar.

It may be mentioned thatin the board room at Divisional

headquarter on Wednesday, apresentation was made on thegreen building concept byJammani Oberoi, chairman,CII-IGBC (Indian Green

Building Council), Jaipur.He explained the benefitsof green building thatbuilding construction onthis concept will help incurbing climate changeand enable consumers toget affordable housing ata lower price.

At the same time,energy and water conser-vation will also reduce theexpenditure on water and

electricity in future. After thepresentation, Jammani Oberoipresented a copy of the GreenBuilding Manual to theCommissioner.

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The State Department hasproposed not to issue tem-

porary business visas for H-1Bspeciality occupations whichallowed several companies tosend their technology profes-sionals for a short stay to com-plete jobs on site in the US, amove which could affect hun-dreds of Indians.

The proposal, if finalised,will eliminate any misconcep-tion that the “B-1 in lieu of Hpolicy” provides an alternativeavenue for foreign profession-als to enter the US to performskilled labour that allows, andpotentially even encouragesthem and their employers tocircumvent the restrictions and

requirements relating to the Hnon-immigrant classificationestablished by Congress to pro-tect the US workers, the StateDepartment said.

The move, made public onWednesday, less than twoweeks ahead of the November3 presidential election, is like-ly to impact several Indiancompanies which send theirtechnology professionals onB-1 visas for a short stay tocomplete jobs on site in the US.

On December 17, 2019, theAttorney General of Californiaannounced a USD 800,000 set-tlement against Infosys Limitedto resolve allegations thatapproximately 500 Infosysemployees worked in the stateon Infosys-sponsored B-1 visas

rather than H-1B visas, theState Department said.

“The proposed changesand the resulting transparencywould reduce the impact of for-eign labour on the US work-force of aliens performingactivities in a specialty occu-pation without the proceduralprotections attendant to the H-1B classification,” it said.

In its federal notificationissued on Wednesday, the StateDepartment said the US archi-tecture firm seeking protectionfrom rising labour costs in thecountry might believe it couldlay off its US architects andcontract for the same profes-sional architectural services tobe provided by a foreign archi-tecture firm.

If the foreign firm soughtH-1B visas for its architects, itwould be required to pay theprevailing wage for architects inthe area of intended employ-ment in the United States, pre-sumably the same wage the USarchitects had been paid, andmeet the other requirementsenacted by the Congress to pro-tect US workers.

But under the B-1 in lieu ofH policy, the foreign architectscould ostensibly seek B-1 visasand travel to the US to fill atemporary need for architec-ture services, as long as theyretained a residence in the for-eign country and continued toreceive a salary, perhaps sig-nificantly lower than what iscustomary for US architects,

dispersed abroad by the foreignfirm (or under the auspices ofa foreign parent or subsidiary),the State Department said.

Under the Department’sguidance, visas could be issuedfor multiple architects planningtemporary work in the US incertain situations. However, aforeign employer may succeedin undermining the US immi-gration law and policy by rotat-ing architects between the USand the foreign country toeffectively fill the position ofone US architect at a signifi-cantly lower cost, the notifica-tion said.

“If the architects whointended to perform skilledlabour were “of distinguishedmerit and ability... seeking to

perform (temporary architec-tural services) of an exceptionalnature requiring such meritand ability, one might argue thecurrent regulatory languagesuggests this type of labour isa permissible basis for B-1non-immigrant visa issuance,”the State Department said.

This potential outcome isharmful to the US workers andcontrary to the policies of theTrump administration, it said.

The State Department saidthe application process for a B-1 visa does not include similarprocedural requirements toprotect the US workers like thatof H-1B visas.

Also, the fees for the B-1visas are far less than that of H-1B visas.

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Mumbai: The rupee snappedits three-session losing streak,edging 4 paise higher at 73.54against the US dollar onThursday, aided by dollar sell-ing by exporters.

Starting off the session atalmost the day’s lowest level of73.77, the domestic currencyclawed back its lost territory astrade progressed. Intra-day, it

touched a high of 73.53 and lowof 73.78. Ending its three-daydowntrend, the rupee ended at73.54, a gain of 4 paise over itsprevious close.

Forex dealers said that astrong dollar against majorcurrencies overseas restrictedthe rupee’s gain to some extent.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strength

against a basket of six curren-cies, surged 0.13 per cent to92.73. “The rupee appreciatedfor the first time in four sessionsagainst the greenback, as thedollar selling by exporters andspeculators outweighed theimpact of weak risk appetite inthe region,” Sriram Iyer, SeniorResearch Analyst at RelianceSecurities, said. PTI

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New Delhi: Festival season isexpected to give a temporaryboost to India’s economicprospect, brokerage majorMotilal Oswal FinancialServices said.

Accordingly, the brokeragefirm’s EcoScope report saidfavourable base effect, pent-updemand and strong inventoryre-building in the hope of agrand festive season have led tothe better-than-expected eco-nomic growth in Aug-Sep’20. “Itis likely that these factors willpush the growth even higher inOct’20, which is also expected tomark the peak,” the report said.

However, the report makesa revelation that recent improve-ments are more likely to be fleet-ing than sustainable in nature.

“Higher growth can be sus-tained only if households’income grows faster, govern-ment receipts or payments forhouseholds are exceptionallyhigh or low to offset low income,and credit growth is much high-er-than-usual.” “On close inspec-tion, none of the above seem tobe formulating in the Indianeconomy,” the report added.

According to the report, thereal GDP, could contract by 7.1per cent YoY in 2QFY21 and 6.5per cent for the full-year FY21.“However, with better-than-expected incoming data sinceAug’20, it is almost certain that2QFY21 will be a positive sur-prise, leading to upward revisionsfor full-year FY21,” the reportsaid. IANS

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Time and again, traditionaldécor themes have carvedan evergreen niche for

themselves. And when it comesto festivities, which mark thebeginning of prosperity, goodhealth and celebrations, whatcould be better than going tradi-tional? If we are to encapsulatethe essence of festivities, all wecan think of is delicious food, rit-uals, get-togethers and housemakeovers. However, in the timesof Coronavirus, when thevibrance of the festive seasonmight have dulled a tad bit, whynot create it at home through alittle tweaking and mix ‘n’ matchof modern trends? Certainly,since the current situationdemands for us to stay at home,your ambience and décor holdsutmost importance.

Here are a few ways as to howyou can add vibrancy and enthu-siasm to your home in no timethis Dussehra!

Illuminate your momentsAfter the tedious job of clean-

ing the house comes the mosthappening part — uplifting theface of your interiors. ThisDussehra, give a royal touch toyour festivities by opting fordark tones and shimmery ele-ments.

For instance, you can couldchoose to revamp your other-wise-plain walls with a glamorousgrained pattern of Vavona Burl.To provide an edge to the brown-red shade of your veneer, go forgolden metallic antiques thatmakes up for a vintage-perfect

look. We also suggest to pairbeige or cream net curtains thatwill allow the fairy lights and can-dles to illuminate your preciousmoments.

Farmhouse styleWhen you blend a warm

colour like brown with a décortheme that is full of charm andsimplicity, the outcome is a lookbeyond beautiful. Very simple toreplicate, one can start with hav-ing a colour palette of varioushues of brown with a pop of clas-sic white. Go for Buen Walnut,Arizona Oak and Oak Fissure asthese rich brown shades and ele-gant textures will give a visualtreat to your walls.

As the current times call fora fusion of safety and style, it ismore important to opt for lami-nates that can keep your surfaceshygienic and germ-free. Theselaminates also provide healthand hygiene features — antivirus,antibacterial, antifungal and bac-teria, which come in contactwith the surface.

Further, embrace the natur-al look of your space by optingfor engineered wooden floors likea Noce Imperial to add a pinch

of drama in the festive moodwhile they are easy to maintainas well. Take out your fruit bas-kets and storage boxes madewith jute to enliven the comfortand coziness. Lastly, a wovenchair and stool in white colourwill provide more definition tothe entire look.

Create a timeless panacheA calm and refreshing ambi-

ence is every season’s favourite.

How about we bring in someexcitement to a neutral colourpalette that enlightens up yourspirit of festivals? Start with pair-ing your classic white furniturewith natural-looking engineeredwooden floors like the OakStockholm. The light brownshade of your floors will seam-lessly accentuate your little popsof colour in your accents.

Alternatively, you can reuseyour old lanterns to bring in atimeless panache. Since, these arecomposed of three stability pro-viding layers — real hard wood,a stabilising core and a balancinglayer — you don’t have to worryabout the climate change. Lastly,for your in-house parties, go forthe very trending wooden crock-ery to serve your guests whichwill also complement your décortheme.

Perfect refuge of ‘Classic Blue’You can drive away all your

‘not going out this festive season’blues by incorporating the shadesmartly in your bedroom. Thebest part about the pantonecolour of the year is that it is eas-ily accessible and looking at thewide usage of it, you don’t have

to worry about extra purchasing.To design a subtle look, layer yourbedding with blue sheets, toppedwith velvet pillows. One can alsoadd some pop of colour to theblanket but remember to go fora neutral or pastel shade of pinkor yellow. The combination willkeep the elegance intact.

To experiment with the look,marry the charismatic charm ofwood with blue shades. Amplifyyour interiors with a metallic-rimmed bedside table and placeglassware to complete it.

The exciting little cornersAll the little things and spe-

cial corners hold equal impor-tance while giving a festivemakeover to your home. Startwith placing a glass bowl withfloating candles and flowers inthe corner of your room. It willstand out yet blend with yourexquisite woodgrain texture of aChiaro Laminate by GreenlamIndustries Ltd, which also offersa safeguard plus technology withhealth & hygiene features.

Notch-up the entire look withtwo mini-planters in rose-goldmatte finish and your breathtak-ing corner is simply festive-ready.

The black beautyThe dramatic and timeless

essence of the black colour iseveryone’s favourite. It effortlesslyadds depth and panache to an oth-erwise plain room. Without goingoverboard with this intense shade,balance out your palette with othercontrasting hues. For your furnitureand walls, opt for a grain-texturedHDBX Smoked Knotty Pine thatwill balance well with your livingroom’s black sofa and grey stools.

Since, veneers have a naturalwooden look, go for Jaipur rugs orhandcrafted stools to create afusion of modern and traditionaldécor. With matte finish toppingthe preference chart, go for blackand silver metal when it comes toceiling lamps. The sparkle of metaland the glamour of matte will standout against your white ceiling andblend with the wooden veneers andadd to the festive Dussehra vibe. Wesuggest keeping the space unclut-tered and go less on accents as it willsurely leave everyone talking aboutthe graceful aesthetics of yourroom.

Well, these traditional themeswill also get your imagination run-ning and help you unfold your cre-ative side!

For those of you who might not know, I havea little human who has just entered my life

and as a responsible, sort of, car reviewer, Ibought a child seat to ferry around. For thoseof you who care about such things, I actuallyhave two child seats but the seat in questionright now is the Britax B-35. Britax is one ofthe top-rated child seat manufacturers and Iwas fortunate enough to have found a slight-ly used seat even in the midst of the lockdown.One reason I bought this particular seat isbecause it has ISOFIX connectors. Again, forthose of you who don’t know and have won-dered what those ISOFIX signs on your rearseats are, well, those are metal loops that con-nect into the seat (sometimes even the body)structure of the car. In case of the unlikelychance of an accident, prevent the seat frommoving around too much and keeping itsecure.

Today, even in a country like India wherechild seats are not mandatory, ISOFIX loopsare standard fitment in most 10-lakh rupeeplus cars, even many cheap and cheerful hatch-backs have ISOFIX loops. So when I got theFord Endeavour Sport for a test drive I tooklittle human’s seat to the car to fit it as the fam-ily had planned an outing to Sundar Nursery.You will get my sense of surprise when aftersearching high and low on the rear seat whereI could not find the loops, usually ISOFIX har-ness points are clearly marked with an‘ISOFIX’ logo or just an image (as in theGloster) but it was not there. That should nothave really surprised me given that my wife’s2018 Ford EcoSport Trend+ Automatic did-n’t have ISOFIX, but that was a mid-spec carfrom a couple of years ago. A �35 lakh car nothaving these harnesses today is a horrible neg-ative.

Thankfully for little human, most car seatsalso have a secondary seat-belt attachmentmechanism and that was used to attach hisseat. But that is built so that you can use theseat in older-generation cars, not on a brand-

new special edition. While truth be told, Iwould not have cared about the lack of ISOFIXharnesses six months ago, today I do. Here isthe thing, it is neither an expensive or a majorfix and one would have assumed Ford, a glob-al car company would do a bit better. I was real-ly, really disappointed.

As for the car? Well, it is blacked out every-where. I’m not a huge fan of blacked-out vehi-cles, since we do live in North India whichtends to be very hot. If you remember yourmiddle-school physics black paint absorbs heatmore effectively than any other colour, whichis why most aircraft are white since they geta lot of solar radiation. But then blacked-outcars portray a self-important image very effec-tively. So yeah, if you don’t have child seats andare extremely image conscious, you could con-sider this, because it is just a special editionand similar to the 2020 Ford Endeavour.

On another note, this was the first time Idrove Ford’s ten-speed gearbox on theEndeavour. While I cribbed and cried aboutthe four-speed automatic on the 2020 Maruti-Suzuki S-Cross, this felt like overkill since incity traffic, I never got past fifth, well there wasthis small stretch on the Delhi-Noida Flywaywhere I hit seventh. I like the Endeavour. I likethe fact that it has a proper low-range gear-box and can do proper off-roading. But thisgearbox, while it claims to make the car more

efficient just didn’t do it for me. Thenagain, it did get my mind off the

other major thing I’ve beenrattling on about on top.

Let me be very honest at the outset,the MG Gloster for what it offers

with regards to technology features,comfort, space and size is tremendous-ly good value. Everything may not geltogether all that well at times but thecar is a beast that gets the job of trans-porting its passengers in luxury donevery comfortably. It is easily larger thanthe competition, the Toyota Fortunerand Ford Endeavour. And while I didhave some issues with the body roll andthe lethargic get up and go, these arenot uncommon traits in vehicles of thissize unless you fit them with expensivesuspension get-ups and big engines.

Sure, there were some technologyissues after I had enabled most of theAdvanced Driver Assistance Systems(ADAS), those acronyms you hear ofin the MG advertising. I have drivencars with many of those features in thepast but it is noteworthy that MG hasbrought many of them to a price-pointthat was unheard of. Stuff like Lane-Keeping Assist (LKA) is useful, partic-ularly on highways but of course, as I’venoticed on other cars, these featurestend to be let down by poor roadmarkings. If you have been on theentry to the Barapullah Elevated Roadfrom the Kidwai Nagar end in Delhi,you will know what I mean. The otherthing is features like CollisionWarnings and Automatic Braking; Ihave had some interesting experienceswith the latter in particular in India ona Mercedes-Benz S-Class and a VolvoXC60.

Your brakes might be excellent butmany drivers in India follow the carahead, without leaving, forget ade-quate, any space whatsoever.Emergency braking is intense and itcannot account for the idiot behindyou. So with traffic weaving in and outin front of you, pedestrians dashingacross roads, and while I’m aware thatseveral of the MG Gloster’s features willnot work above certain speeds, auto-matic emergency braking could leadto some rear-end accidents. Don’t getme wrong, I am not advocating for thefeatures to be removed but possibly inIndian urban conditions outside cen-tral Delhi, it makes sense to run suchfeatures at lower sensitivity. I wouldlove other manufacturers in India totake this lead from MG and bring moresuch safety features in India.

For the geopolitical side, if you arenot aware by now because of theintense “Brit-washing” by MG India,the inescapable fact is that MG is aChinese-owned brand. The cars yousee on Indian roads might have Britishactors endorsing them but aredesigned, tested and manufactured inChina. MG is a brand owned byShanghai Automotive IndustrialCorporation (SAIC), which is China’slargest carmaker and is owned by theChinese-state through the ShanghaiAdministration. It means that it is runby the Chinese Communist Partywhich means it is an organ of Chineseforeign influence. MG has immensescale in China and is the country’slargest automotive manufacturerthanks to its joint-ventures withGeneral Motors and Volkswagen.They bought the rights to the MG andRover brands from NanjingAutomotive in 2009, which itself hadbought out the British brands in 2005.While there is an MG assembly plantat the old Longbridge site in the UK,it is not a manufacturing unit. I haveactually visited the SAIC R&D andDesign centre outside Shanghai as wellas their test facilities four to fivehours outside the city.

Yes, I believe that MG Gloster is agood vehicle to buy but, and this is seri-

ous, I do not presently believe that MGIndia’s business will not suffer majormaterial changes thanks to the currentstandoff in Ladakh. It is apparent toevery Indian, no matter what theirposition on cars is, that China viewsIndia as a rival and would go as far asa military conflict to resolve anyissues. If you have been following thenews, this has led to several things suchas the ban on Chinese applications andstricter controls on how money fromChina is routed into India. And it is thelatter that creates problems for MG. Itis known that further investments fromSAIC into India are being delayed bythe Indian Government, stalling anyplans that MG had to invest in theirplant in Halol. Unconfirmed reports ofthe government delaying imports ofcrucial parts using the CustomsDepartment. News items haveemerged where MG India is apparent-ly in talks with Volkswagen to use theGerman company’s group manufactur-ing facilities in Chakan outside Punebut there is little guarantee that permis-sions will be given.

Basically, I have severe doubts atthe present moment whether MGIndia will survive in its present shapeor form. These are matters far beyondthe control of the company’s manage-ment. If things hot up on the EasternLadakh border, buying any MG prod-uct would be stupid, not just forpatriotic reasons but for reasons ofmaintenance. A car is, unfortunately,not a smartphone. It is not somethingyou can easily write-off. Yes, it is a goodproduct and the top-spec car at �35.38lakh is very good value, let alone theentry-level specifications. But can I ingood faith recommend this car know-ing what the current situation at theborder is? Sadly, I cannot.

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Food has always been an integral partof each and every celebration in India.And as the festive season kicks off, one

problem that concerns people is the addedpounds or unwanted weight gain during thistime. The festive delicacies, especiallysweets, are so tempting that resisting these‘once-a-year desserts’ seem being unfaith-ful with our traditions. And that might bethe mere reason why most of us tend to puton extra a few kilos between Dusshera andNew Year every year. However, don’t let thisguilt spoil the festival for you. Instead, striveto find the right balance, where you man-age to enjoy while keeping the guilt mini-mal. Here are some basic tips and tricks fortaming the festive food devils.

����%���Sweets are the most difficult to resist.

After all, it’s easy to pop a few in the mouthevery time you see the mithai ka dabba. Theidea should be to eat the meetha, not gorge.Eat mindfully, not mindlessly. Portion con-trol is the only key as saying no doesn’t work.It’s a good idea to make your own mithai athome such as besan ladoos. This age oldsweet holds multiple health benefits as it ishigh in folic acid, which is essential for ironproduction and rapid growth of red andwhite blood cells in our body. It is a good-old desi sweet that one can keep handy tosatiate the cravings in a healthy way. Justsource good quality packaged besan madefrom 100 per cent pure chana dal and youare good to go. Another smart idea is tomake jaggery-haldi-ghee-flaxseeds balls

and pop one whenever you are craving forsomething sweet.

;��%�����/���/Festive season is a great time to explore

a bit by trying some interesting delicaciesfrom regions other than those in which welive or are native. Indian local ingredientsbest suit and nourish our bodies. This some-how goes with the spirit and it also bringsvariety to the regular fare that you get sickof consuming. Instead of eating the regularfood why not try Pongal from Tamil Nadu.This rice and moong dal delivers a balancedmix of carbohydrates and proteins and thegood fat in cashews, adds satiety andcrunch. Try it, it’s easy to make: Dry roast50 gm of rice and 30 gm of moong dal (greengram). Add 400 ml of water, cover and cookuntil done. In the meantime, make a tadka(tempering) of cumin seeds, black pepper-corns, curry leaves, ginger and garlic, witha few cashew nuts in a teaspoon of ghee.Pour over the rice and dal. Season to tasteand stir in fresh curry leaves. Enjoy thisquintessential Indian dish that is sampannin all (health, taste, convenience) ways.

Also, if you have a heavy dinnerplanned, then try eating something that islight on the stomach for lunch (or viceversa), like red rice poha. While people oftenreach out to white poha, many don’t knowthat there is red poha too that exists. Thisis widely consumed in South India. This isan acquired taste but once you get used toit, you will appreciate its goodness and gainfrom it. Make sure to opt for packaged poha

over loose from a trusted source as it assures100 per cent quality. It has no residual pow-der at the bottom of the pack. It is also highon dietary fibre. Experiment your red ricepoha in pilaf-style with raisins, nuts, blackpepper, salt, green chillies and sugar to taste.Or, give it a continental twist by making redrice poha with peppers, mushrooms andcheese. Soak your poha in water, sieve it, addcurd and a pinch of table salt in it. Then rel-ish it with mango or lime pickle. This is aperfect way of experimenting with Indianway of nutrition!

� ��!�����������!Somehow, the craving for food has

increased considerably during this season.One, because there’s just so much around,and the other, because the changing seasonwhets the appetite a little. One big mistakewe make is to think that we can leave thebalancing out until later-after the festivitiesare over. So learn how to eat smart. If heavydinner is planned then through the day eathealthier options like besan cheela. You canmake it healthy with 50:50 ratio of veggiesand besan or ready to cook cheela mix. Addlots of spinach, garlic and mint. Pair it witha glass of buttermilk. And if the lunch was

festive and way too indulgent, then optfor a balanced, easy-to-digest food likemulti-grain khichdi from a trusted brand.Khichdi, the best comfort food for all timeis also rich in dietary fibre and is conve-nient to cook. You can maintain a con-scious equilibrium on a daily basis andkeep your splurges down to a minimal.

Also, if you’re going to a big party inthe evening, it’s a bad idea to depriveyourself all day in. Instead, eat a low-fat,nutritious snack before you head out, saya bowl of yoghurt with some nuts or evenbetter — a sprout chart made withunpolished dals. This will prevent youfrom attacking food and eating too muchat the party.

End the day with drinking haldi milkwith a pinch of pepper every night. Thecurcumin in haldi will hold your immu-nity up and help to soothe your body’sinflammation after all who wants to fallsick during the festive season. Just makesure you source turmeric that has 3 percent curcumin guaranteed and has its nat-ural oils intact to score sampann sehat allthrough the festive season.

(The author is the nutrition expert atTata Sampann.)

9 : 2 � � : �

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ADD SPICE TO YOUR LIFE

Page 12: ...2 days ago  · maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, we have taken a num-ber of steps for their empow-erment,” he said, adding his Government has brough in laws against rape making

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Their campaign turning from badto worse, Chennai Super Kings are

expected to try out a few of theiryounger players when they take ondefending champions MumbaiIndians here on Friday.

Though skipper M S Dhoni con-ceded after the loss against RajasthanRoyals that the season might bealready over them, CSK can still getto 14 points if they win their remain-ing four games, giving them an out-side chance of making the play-offs.

As head coach Stephen Flemingpointed out, the ageing squad mayhave finally “run out of juice” afterdoing well over the past two seasonswhen they won in 2018 and reachedthe final the following year.

Things have gone pear-shaped forCSK since their win over MI in thetournament opener on November19.

The team received a hammeringat the hands of Rajasthan Royals andwould be without the services of theinjured Dwayne Bravo, who is out of

the tournament.The Super Kings batsmen strug-

gled against Rajasthan Royals and itremains to be seen if the untestedplayers in the side get their chance asindicated by Dhoni after the drubbingon Monday.

Dhoni himself has not been at hisbest along with the others barring Fafdu Plessis. The team’s persistence witha struggling Kedar Jadhav has comein for a lot of flak and it needs to beseen if he makes way for either NJagadeesan or Ruturaj Gaikwad.

However, they would be upagainst a formidable MI side whichwon five games in a row before KingsXI Punjab halted the juggernaut,turning the tables in a double SuperOver on Sunday.

The four-time IPL championshave been in ominous form and thevaried bowling attack could prove achallenge for the CSK batters, who arelow on confidence.

At Sharjah, which was atough venue for bowlers to startwith, things seem to havechanged with thewicket slowing downand sort of evenedout things.

Also, the MIbatting line-up has beenin good nick withQuinton de Kock insplendid form whileRohit Sharma,Suryakumar Yadav andIshan Kishan have had theirmoments.

That’s not all, thepower-hitting abili-ties of Kieron Pollard

and Hardik Pandya have rescued MIwhen the big guns have not fired.

Krunal Pandya has under-lined his utility with somecrucial cameos and tight

spells in tandem with leggieRahul Chahar.

The Mumbai bowlingunit has been doing well butthe think-tank may consid-

er bringing in JamesPattinson for NathanCoulter-Nile, who has

proved expensive.A well-rounded and consistent

Mumbai Indians unit could providea huge challenge for an under-fireCSK battling to salvage some pride.

Two points on Friday matchwould take Rohit Sharma’s men clos-er to sealing a play-offs berth while

the Super Kings, who are theoret-ically still in with a chance, wouldaim to finish strongly in what has

been a nightmare of a season so far.

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MATCHES 29CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 12MUMBAI INDIANS 17

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Bayern Munich began theirdefence of the Champions

League title in ominous fashion bycrushing Atletico Madrid 4-0 onWednesday, while Liverpool andManchester City also won but RealMadrid suffered a shock defeat.

Madrid, the record 13-timeEuropean champions, went down toa 3-2 home loss against ShakhtarDonetsk, showing how far ZinedineZidane’s side are just now from thestandards being set by Bayern.

Two months after scoring thewinner in the final against ParisSaint-Germain in Lisbon, KingsleyComan put Bayern ahead againstAtletico in Group A and laterscored a stunning individual effort

to wrap up the victory at an emptyAllianz Arena.

In between Leon Goretzka andCorentin Tolisso were also on tar-get for the German champions, withthe latter’s strike a stunner fromlong-range.

“The winning goal in last sea-son’s final is a good motivator, butit’s in the past now and we have freshgoals this season,” Coman told SkySports.

It was Bayern’s 12th consecutiveChampions League win while theresult for Atletico equalled their

worst defeat under Diego Simeone.Bayern next go to Russia to play

Lokomotiv Moscow, who battledback to draw 2-2 at Red BullSalzburg on Wednesday.

DISASTROUS NIGHT FOR REALReal were 3-0 down at half-time

against Shakhtar at the Alfredo diStefano stadium and fell short witha second-half fightback to get theirEuropean campaign off to a disas-trous start.

A depleted Shakhtar were with-out 10 first-team players and nine

members of staff due to coronavirusinfections and had seven startersaged 21 or under.

Strikes from Tete and ManorSolomon, either side of a RaphaelVarane own-goal, gave theUkrainian champions a three-goalhalf-time lead.

Luka Modric and ViniciusJunior pulled goals back and FedeValverde thought he had grabbed aninjury-time equaliser but his deflect-ed shot was ruled out for an offside.

Missing the injured SergioRamos, Real have now won just one

of their last seven ChampionsLeague home games. This was alsoa second defeat in five days asthey prepare to go to Barcelonafor the Clasico on Saturday.

LUKAKU DOUBLEReal are already up against

it in Group B, even if rivals InterMilan and BorussiaMoenchengladbach cancelled eachother out in a 2-2 draw at San Siro.

Romelu Lukaku scored twicefor Inter, opening the scoring earlyin the second half and then turningin a late equaliser.

In between Ramy Bensebaininetted a penalty for Gladbach andJonas Hofmann scored what hethought was a late win-ner.

LIVERPOOL WINWITHOUUT VVD

L ive r p o o lshook off theabsence ofVirgil van Dijkto edge Ajax 1-0behind closed doors inAmsterdam in Group D.

Van Dijk is set to miss therest of the season with a kneeinjury but Jurgen Klopp’s sidekept a clean sheet and took allthree points after NicolasTagliafico turned a wayward

Sadio Mane shot into his own neton 35 minutes.

“It was not sunshinefootball but we wantedthree points and we got it,”said Klopp.

The 2019 Europeanchampions will hope tobuild on this result when

they host Midtjylland next week.The Danes were outclassed at

home by Atalanta on Wednesday,losing 4-0 with Duvan Zapata,

Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gomezand Luis Muriel scoringin the first half anddebutant AlekseiMiranchuk adding alate fourth.

Pep Guardiola’s Citymade it three wins

for English clubsthis midweek asthey camefrom behind athome to beatPorto 3-1.

Also inGroup C,

Egyptian sub-stitute Ahmed

Hassan headed ina stoppage-timewinner asO l y m p i a k o s

downed Marseille1-0.

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England will travel to South Africa nextmonth to play six limited-overs games

against the Proteas after the South AfricanGovernment agreed to exempt the touringteam from its coronavirus travel restrictions.

South Africa currently doesn’t allowanyone to travel in from what it terms “high-risk” countries, with Britain on the list of 22nations.

But South Africa eased the rules for theEngland squad, which will be based in CapeTown throughout the three-week tour. Theteams will play three T20 games and threeOne-Day Internationals.

Four games will be at Newlands in CapeTown with the other two in the nearby cityof Paarl, meaning England can stay in a bio-bubble at the same hotel for the entire tour.South Africa has more than 700,000 con-firmed cases of the virus.

England will travel on a chartered flightand depart for South Africa on November 16.The T20s are on November 27, 29 andDecember 1. The ODIs will be playedDecember 4, 6 and 9. No fans will attend thegames.

The England players and staff are expect-ed to be in quarantine for at least a week afterarriving but will be allowed to attend train-ing during that time.

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�'!�'D Sydney and Canberra are set to host thewhite-ball leg of India’s tour of Australia after theNew South Wales Government allowed the vis-iting team to train during its mandatory quar-antine upon arrival.

ESPNcricinfo on Thursday reported that NewSouth Wales Government and Cricket Australiahave struck a deal to allow Indian and Australianplayers returning from IPL to train in Sydneywhile quarantining.

The Indian team was initially supposed toland in Brisbane but the Queensland state healthauthorities did not relax their 14-day quarantinerule to allow Virat Kohli and Co to train duringthat period.

India are scheduled to play three T20s, threeODIs and four Tests in Australia.

The first two ODIs are set to be held onNovember 27 and 29 at the Sydney CricketGround before final game of the series inCanberra’s Manuka Oval.

The first T20 will also be played in Canberrabefore the action returns to Sydney for the finaltwo games. PTI

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Royal Challengers Bangalorepacer Mohammed Siraj, who

ripped through Kolkata KnightRiders’ top-order with a “magicalperformance”, said skipper ViratKohli’s surprise decision to hand himthe new ball lifted his confidence inthe IPL match.

Siraj’s first three wickets camewithout conceding a run as hebecame the first bowler in IPL his-tory to bowl two maidens in a sin-gle game.

Once Chris Morris generatedswing early on, Siraj was asked tobowl the second over following a dis-cussion with wicketkeeper AB deVilliers.

“We hadn’t planned that I wouldopen but when we went out, Viratbhai said ‘Miyan, ready ho jao (Sir,get ready!), you will have to bowl...’It boosted my confidence,” theHyderabadi pacer, who returnedwith figures of 4-2-8-3, said after theeight-wicket win on Wednesday.

“Morris beat the batsmen (in thefirst over) and then Virat bhai spoketo AB de Villiers (behind thestumps) and gave me the bowl,” headded.

“Initially, I didn’t think it wouldswing so much after seeing the wick-et. I just backed my strength andreally enjoyed a lot.”

Brought in the second over,Siraj struck in his third ballwith a good lengthball that wentaway ofR a h u lTripathi.

In hisnext delivery, hecleaned up Nitish Rana, with aball that sharply cut back in andbreached the left-hander’sdefence. In the next over, heaccounted for Tom Bantonwith another outswing deliv-ery.

His bowling figuresbecame the most econom-ical this season.

A natural in-swingbowler, Siraj has been prac-

tising with the new ball and gener-ating outswing in the practice ses-sions.

“I’ve been a natural inswingbowler but while practising I havestarted bowling outswing a lot bet-ter.

“In our practise sessions, wehave Devdutt Padikkal and ParthivPatel. I bowl the same length to themwhich I bowled to Nitish Rana. I didthe same thing in the game and wasable to execute it well,” he said.

Having endured a tough outingagainst the same side in 2019, it’snow a story of going from being zeroto hero for Siraj.

Siraj was hammered for 36 runsin 2.2 overs before being removedfrom the attack for bowling twobeamers as KKR chased down 206with five balls to spare in their IPL2019 match.

In the same game, Siraj had alsodropped a sitter from Chris Lynnand faced a lot a criticism.

Often sidelined in presence ofChris Morris, Navdeep Saini and thespin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal andWashington Sundar, Siraj got hisfourth match on Wednesday whenhe was included in place of ShahbazAhmed.

“I’ve always had a lot of supportfrom the RCB setup.

All I wanted to dothis year was give amagical perfor-mance. I wanted todo something dif-

ferent this year,” Siraj,who played his

fourth matchof the season,said.

“WheneverI used to thinkabout my perfor-

mance in the IPL,I had made up mymind that I woulddeliver a perfor-mance to remem-ber. It’s about doingsomething differ-

ent, somethingmagical,” he con-

cluded.

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Bonkers night for

Madrid clubsMadrid clubs

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Jason Holder led a disci-plined bowling display bySunrisers Hyderbad to

restrict Rajasthan Royals to154 for six in an IndianPremier League match here onThursday.

Sunrisers, who are strug-gling at the penultimate spotin the points table with onlythree wins from nine outings,opted to bowl after winningthe toss at the DubaiInternational Stadium.

Playing his first match ofthe tournament, Holder (3/33)came up with an impressivebowling effort while alsoaffecting a run out to desta-bilise the RR innings. RashidKhan (1/20) and VijayShankar (1/15) picked a wick-et each.

For RR, Sanju Samson (36off 26 balls) was the top scorer.

Put in to bat, RobinUthappa looked in rampagingform, hitting the first four and

six of the innings. He quick-ly raced to 19 off 13 balls.

However, his time in themiddle was short lived. AfterBen Stokes (32) hit Holder forback-to-back boundaries inthe fourth over, the WestIndies skipper ef fected

Uthappa’s run out as theIndian was late to turn back atthe non-striker’s end.

The powerplay oversyielded 47 runs, including sixfours and a maximum, for theloss of one wicket.

The big-hitting Stokes was

dropped on 17 in the eighthover by Shankar off a Rashiddelivery. Alongside Samson, hekept the scoreboard ticking.

A 56-run stand betweenthe two was broken in the12th over by Holder. Samson,who had reached his highestscore since the 85 againstKings XI Punjab in RR’s sec-ond match of the tourna-ment, was bowled by a slowoff-cutter, after pulling theprevious delivery over mid-wicket for a huge six.

Stokes’ stay came to anend when the World Cupwinning all-rounder wasbowled by Rashid in thebeginning of the 13th over,with the Sunrisers bowlersmaking a strong comeback inthe middle overs.

RR went lost wickets atregular intervals.

Jos Buttler, too, fell quick-ly as he was sent back byShankar in the 16th over withskipper Steve Smith (19) alsofailing to make an impact.

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HOLDER RESTRICTS ROYALS TO 154/6