· 3/21/2021  · and Surpriya Sule were present at the meeting, Sanjay Raut is representing the...

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W ith the “letter bomb” dropped by Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh having tuned into the first-ever major polit- ical crisis for the 16-month-old MVA Government in Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena on Sunday appeared to be depending heavily on NCP president Sharad Pawar to resolve the explosive situa- tion arising out of Singh’s alle- gation that State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had asked arrested police officer Sachin Vaze to collect 100 crore every month from restaurants, bar and other sources in the metropolis. Terming the allegations made by the former police chief as “very serious” and indicating that the NCP would take a call on Deshmukh’s resignation in a day or two, Pawar — who is considered the architect of the MVA Government — talked with the leaders of three constituting parties at his New Delhi residence in the evening to tide over the crisis. While NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Praful Patel and Surpriya Sule were present at the meeting, Sanjay Raut is representing the Shiv Sena. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is attending the meeting on behalf of his party. Pawar will meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Monday to dis- cuss a way out of the crisis fac- ing the three-party Government in the State. Earlier in the day, talking to media persons in Delhi, Pawar said, “Singh has made serious allegations against Deshmukh. But he has not given substan- tial proof to back his allegation. I have to talk to our Home Minister to listen to his side of the story. I would like Chief Minister Thackeray to order a thorough probe into the former Police Commissioner’s allega- tions against the Home Minister. “Prior to this Press con- ference, I spoke to the Chief Minister. We will take a deci- sion on Deshmukh after con- sulting all stakeholders in the Government. The Chief Minister has all the powers to take a decision in this regard. He can take a decision after holding a proper enquiry into allegations against Deshmukh.” Alluding to Singh’s claim that he had briefed the NCP chief and other party Ministers about the “several misdeeds and malpractices” being indulged in by the Home Minister, Pawar said, “Singh had met him. He spoke about his transfer. He also spoke to me about the interference in the functioning of his depart- ment. Beyond this, he did not tell me anything else.” On the issue of reinstate- ment of Sachin Vaze back into the police force in June last year, Pawar said, “The power to reinstate Vaze was very much with the Police Commissioner (Singh) himself.” “In his letter, Singh has alleged that the Home Minister had told Vaze that he had a tar- get to accumulate Rs 100 crore a month. But he has not said as to how the money was sup- posed to be collected and who the money will be given to,” he said. Alleging that an attempt is being made to ‘destabilise’ the MVA by the BJP, Pawar sus- pected the role of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis behind the ‘letter bomb’ drama that unfolded on Saturday morning. Pawar wanted to know, “How come the letter surfaced in the media after Fadnavis reached New Delhi. The Chief Minister should appoint an officer with an unimpeach- able reputation to investigate Singh’s allegation. An attempt is being made to destabilise the MVA Government. But, the MVA Government is stable. The current developments will not have any bearing on the stability of our Government.” Later, in a series of tweets put out by his official handle, Pawar said, ‘An in depth enquiry should be conducted by an officer or an individual who enjoys utmost respect of the police administration and the public at large.’ “My suggestion to the @CMOMaharashtra is that Julio Francis Ribeiro, former Police Chief of Maharashtra and former CP of Mumbai, should be assigned this respon- sibility,” Pawar tweeted. A s Uttarakhand hosts Mahakumbh amid sharp surge in daily Covid cases in the country, the Centre has directed the State Government to strictly follow all the strin- gent measures to ensure that the largest religious congrega- tion does not turn into “super- spreader event.” The warning comes in the wake of the Uttarakhand Government’s decision to lift Covid restrictions for the gathering at a time when a surge in infections is being reported from several other States. Alluding to the high-level Central team’s concerns about the State Government’s laxity in handling the congregation, the Centre noted that numerous pilgrims are expected to arrive at the Mahakumbh from the 12 States which are witnessing increase in infections. In a letter to Uttarakhand Chief Secretary, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan “strongly” highlighted the con- cerns raised by the Central team and about the “need for stringent measures to control the spread of Covid-19 during the ongoing Kumbh”. A high-level Central team led by NCDC Director visited Uttarakhand on March 16-17 to review the medical and pub- lic health measures undertak- en by the State for the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. The State Government has been advised to follow scrupu- lously the SOPs issued by the Ministry and display signage to disseminate the main points of these SOPs; increase awareness of self-reporting, especially among local population, in case of symptoms suggestive of Covid-19; and set up system for generating early warning sig- nals in areas with susceptible population by monitoring trend of ARI/ ILI cases through Emergency Operational Centres. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with the State Chief Ministers had also pointed out that “Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are being affected. In the first phase, we could contain the spread as the infection did not spread to the villages. But now as the small cities are being infected, villages need to be protected more.” On Sunday, the country recorded 43,846 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, crossing more than 1.5 lakh cases in the last four days. “It has been noted that there is the potential of an upsurge in cases in the local population after the auspicious Shahi Snan days at the Kumbh Mela,” the letter said. The Secretary also noted that as per the report of the Central team, 10-20 pilgrims and 10-20 locals are testing positive every day. T he last Sunday before the first round of Assembly elections saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah launching a frontal attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from twin rallies of Bankura and Egra. Taking on Mamata’s “khela hobey” (game is in the offing) slogan, the Prime Minister said the Trinamool Congress’ “khela” only revolved around corruption, syndicate and tolabaji (extortion) but that khela will not be allowed to continue once the BJP comes to power in Bengal. The PM was addressing a rally at Bankura. Poking fun at the CM, he said, ‘Didi …. O … Didi we know that you are a big play- er but I can assure you that enough is enough, there will be no more khela of corrup- tion, syndicate and tolabaji as the BJP will bring in the real change in Bengal, not the one brought by you 10 years ago.’ Pointing at the large crowd he said, “The presence of so many people shows that ‘Didi jacchhee … BJP ashc- chhe (Didi is going BJP is coming). Vouching for the ‘ashol poriborton’ (real hange) he said that ‘real change will mean a Government which is poor-friendly, where devel- opment is the sole agenda and not corruption, where the corrupt and tolabaj are sent to jail.” C ontinuing to attack the national BJP leadership and the turncoat leaders like Suvendu Adhikari, who had recently left the TMC to join the saffron outfit, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the people would never support the “gaddars and they would be thrown out of Bengal along with their masters who are goons coming from outside Bengal”. Addressing a mammoth election rally at Contai in East Midnapore, Mamata said, “I was a donkey not have under- stood the real face of these gad- dars (traitors) … a straightfor- ward person that I have always been, I trusted them and allowed freedom and in return they looted the people.” In an apparent reference to Adhikari, Mamata said, “They have misappropriated thou- sands of crores… I am told a scam only in the cooperative bank where they functioned as chairman amounts to 5,000 crore … and now to save these ill-gotten money they have fled to the BJP.’ Raising once again the injury she suffered during a campaign at Nandigram, Mamata said, ‘They would injure my one leg and render me immobile so that they can get advantage in the campaign but I can play even with one leg … and can hit so many goals as you will see after the elec- tions.’ Referring to the alleged ‘tricky’ EVMs (electronic vot- ing machines), Mamata said, ‘the EVMs should be tested 30 times before the start of the polls to ensure there is no foul play. But, If any machine devel- ops faults, please remain calm until it is repaired.’ R apidly modernising its Armed forces and flexing its muscles in several regions, including the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and India- Pacific, China has emerged as the strongest force in the world. The USA, which has the largest defence budget, stands second. India is at the fourth position behind Russia. These facts have emerged in a study conducted by a UK- based defence website Military Direct. In its report released on Sunday, the study said “The USA, despite their enormous military budgets, comes in 2nd place with 74 points, followed by Russia with 69, India at 61 and then France with 58. The UK just about makes the top 10, coming in 9th place with a score of 43,” said the report. T he mystery shrouding the alleged murder of Thane- based businessman Mansukh Hiran, whose Scorpio laden with gelatin sticks was recov- ered from near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani on February 25, turned murki- er on Sunday as Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a bookie and a con- victed policeman. The ATS identified the persons arrested as convicted constable Vinayak B Shinde (51) and cricket bookie Naresh R Gor (31). The arrests of Shinde and Gor come a day after the Union Home Ministry asked the NIA to take over the investigations into the murder of Hiran, whose body was recovered from the marshy Reti-Bunder creek Mumbra in the neigh- bouring Thane district on March 5. Shinde and Gor are said to be accomplices of Sachin Vaze, who is currently in the custody of the NIA in the explosive SUV planting case. Shinde is a dismissed policeman, who has been con- victed in the case involving the fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, alias Lakhan Bhaiya. A mid a surge in Covid-19 cases, the Rajasthan Government has decided to impose night curfew in eight cities from 11 pm to 5 am and ordered closure of markets by 10 pm from Monday. The Government has also made it mandatory for people coming to Rajasthan from other States to carry a Covid-19 negative test report from March 25. If they do not have the nega- tive test report, they will have to stay in quarantine for 15 days. New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was admitted to the AIIMS Covid Centre here for observation on March 20 after testing positive for coronavirus, and he is presently stable. Kolkata: TMC MP Sisir Adhikari on Sunday joined the BJP in presence of Home Minister Amit Shah. Adhikari, a father figure in East Midnapore’s politics, is father of Suvendu Adhikari.

Transcript of  · 3/21/2021  · and Surpriya Sule were present at the meeting, Sanjay Raut is representing the...

Page 1:  · 3/21/2021  · and Surpriya Sule were present at the meeting, Sanjay Raut is representing the Shiv Sena. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is attending the meeting on behalf of

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With the “letter bomb”dropped by Mumbai’s

former Police CommissionerParam Bir Singh having tunedinto the first-ever major polit-ical crisis for the 16-month-oldMVA Government inMaharashtra, the ruling ShivSena on Sunday appeared tobe depending heavily on NCPpresident Sharad Pawar toresolve the explosive situa-tion arising out of Singh’s alle-gation that State HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh hadasked arrested police officerSachin Vaze to collect �100crore every month fromrestaurants, bar and othersources in the metropolis.

Terming the allegationsmade by the former policechief as “very serious” andindicating that the NCPwould take a cal l onDeshmukh’s resignation in aday or two, Pawar — whois considered the architect ofthe MVA Government —talked with the leaders ofthree constituting parties athis New Delhi residence inthe evening to tide over thecrisis.

While NCP leaders AjitPawar, Jayant Patil, Praful Pateland Surpriya Sule were presentat the meeting, Sanjay Raut isrepresenting the Shiv Sena.

Senior Congress leader KamalNath is attending the meetingon behalf of his party.

Pawar will meet ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayin Mumbai on Monday to dis-cuss a way out of the crisis fac-ing the three-partyGovernment in the State.

Earlier in the day, talking tomedia persons in Delhi, Pawarsaid, “Singh has made seriousallegations against Deshmukh.But he has not given substan-tial proof to back his allegation.I have to talk to our HomeMinister to listen to his side ofthe story. I would like ChiefMinister Thackeray to order athorough probe into the formerPolice Commissioner’s allega-tions against the HomeMinister.

“Prior to this Press con-ference, I spoke to the ChiefMinister. We will take a deci-sion on Deshmukh after con-sulting all stakeholders in theGovernment. The ChiefMinister has all the powers totake a decision in this regard.He can take a decision afterholding a proper enquiry intoallegations againstDeshmukh.”

Alluding to Singh’s claimthat he had briefed the NCPchief and other party Ministersabout the “several misdeedsand malpractices” beingindulged in by the Home

Minister, Pawar said, “Singhhad met him. He spoke abouthis transfer. He also spoke tome about the interference inthe functioning of his depart-ment. Beyond this, he did nottell me anything else.”

On the issue of reinstate-ment of Sachin Vaze back intothe police force in June lastyear, Pawar said, “The power toreinstate Vaze was very muchwith the Police Commissioner(Singh) himself.”

“In his letter, Singh hasalleged that the Home Ministerhad told Vaze that he had a tar-get to accumulate Rs 100 crorea month. But he has not said asto how the money was sup-posed to be collected and whothe money will be given to,” hesaid.

Alleging that an attempt isbeing made to ‘destabilise’ theMVA by the BJP, Pawar sus-pected the role of former Chief

Minister Devendra Fadnavisbehind the ‘letter bomb’ dramathat unfolded on Saturdaymorning.

Pawar wanted to know,“How come the letter surfacedin the media after Fadnavisreached New Delhi. The ChiefMinister should appoint anofficer with an unimpeach-able reputation to investigateSingh’s allegation. An attemptis being made to destabilise theMVA Government. But, theMVA Government is stable.The current developments willnot have any bearing on the

stability of ourGovernment.”

Later, in a series of tweetsput out by his official handle,Pawar said, ‘An in depthenquiry should be conductedby an officer or an individualwho enjoys utmost respect ofthe police administration andthe public at large.’

“My suggestion to the@CMOMaharashtra is thatJulio Francis Ribeiro, formerPolice Chief of Maharashtraand former CP of Mumbai,should be assigned this respon-sibility,” Pawar tweeted.

����� -./��.01,

As Uttarakhand hostsMahakumbh amid sharp

surge in daily Covid cases inthe country, the Centre hasdirected the State Governmentto strictly follow all the strin-gent measures to ensure thatthe largest religious congrega-tion does not turn into “super-spreader event.”

The warning comes inthe wake of the UttarakhandGovernment’s decision to liftCovid restrictions for thegathering at a time when asurge in infections is beingreported from several otherStates.

Alluding to the high-levelCentral team’s concerns aboutthe State Government’s laxity inhandling the congregation, theCentre noted that numerouspilgrims are expected to arriveat the Mahakumbh from the 12States which are witnessingincrease in infections.

In a letter to UttarakhandChief Secretary, Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushan“strongly” highlighted the con-cerns raised by the Centralteam and about the “need forstringent measures to controlthe spread of Covid-19 duringthe ongoing Kumbh”.

A high-level Central teamled by NCDC Director visitedUttarakhand on March 16-17to review the medical and pub-lic health measures undertak-en by the State for the KumbhMela in Haridwar.

The State Government hasbeen advised to follow scrupu-lously the SOPs issued by theMinistry and display signage todisseminate the main points ofthese SOPs; increase awarenessof self-reporting, especiallyamong local population, incase of symptoms suggestive ofCovid-19; and set up system forgenerating early warning sig-nals in areas with susceptiblepopulation by monitoringtrend of ARI/ ILI cases throughEmergency OperationalCentres.

Last week, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi during hismeeting with the State ChiefMinisters had also pointed outthat “Tier-2 and Tier-3 citiesare being affected. In the firstphase, we could contain thespread as the infection did notspread to the villages. But nowas the small cities are beinginfected, villages need to be

protected more.” On Sunday,the country recorded 43,846fresh infections in the last 24hours, crossing more than 1.5lakh cases in the last four days.

“It has been noted thatthere is the potential of anupsurge in cases in the localpopulation after the auspiciousShahi Snan days at the KumbhMela,” the letter said.

The Secretary also notedthat as per the report of theCentral team, 10-20 pilgrimsand 10-20 locals are testingpositive every day.

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The last Sunday before thefirst round of Assembly

elections saw Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah launchinga frontal attack on ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeefrom twin rallies of Bankuraand Egra.

Taking on Mamata’s “khelahobey” (game is in the offing)slogan, the Prime Ministersaid the Trinamool Congress’“khela” only revolved aroundcorruption, syndicate andtolabaji (extortion) but thatkhela will not be allowed tocontinue once the BJP comesto power in Bengal. The PMwas addressing a rally atBankura.

Poking fun at the CM, hesaid, ‘Didi …. O … Didi weknow that you are a big play-er but I can assure you thatenough is enough, there willbe no more khela of corrup-tion, syndicate and tolabaji asthe BJP will bring in the realchange in Bengal, not theone brought by you 10 yearsago.’

Pointing at the large

crowd he said, “The presenceof so many people shows that‘Didi jacchhee … BJP ashc-chhe (Didi is going BJP iscoming). Vouching for the‘ashol poriborton’ (real hange)he said that ‘real change willmean a Government which ispoor-friendly, where devel-opment is the sole agenda andnot corruption, where thecorrupt and tolabaj are sent tojail.”

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Continuing to attack thenational BJP leadership

and the turncoat leaders likeSuvendu Adhikari, who hadrecently left the TMC to jointhe saffron outfit, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onSunday said the people wouldnever support the “gaddarsand they would be thrown outof Bengal along with theirmasters who are goons comingfrom outside Bengal”.

Addressing a mammothelection rally at Contai in EastMidnapore, Mamata said, “Iwas a donkey not have under-stood the real face of these gad-dars (traitors) … a straightfor-ward person that I have alwaysbeen, I trusted them andallowed freedom and in returnthey looted the people.”

In an apparent reference toAdhikari, Mamata said, “Theyhave misappropriated thou-sands of crores… I am told ascam only in the cooperativebank where they functioned aschairman amounts to �5,000crore … and now to save theseill-gotten money they have fled

to the BJP.’ Raising once againthe injury she suffered duringa campaign at Nandigram,Mamata said, ‘They wouldinjure my one leg and renderme immobile so that they canget advantage in the campaignbut I can play even with one leg… and can hit so many goalsas you will see after the elec-tions.’

Referring to the alleged‘tricky’ EVMs (electronic vot-ing machines), Mamata said,‘the EVMs should be tested 30times before the start of thepolls to ensure there is no foulplay. But, If any machine devel-ops faults, please remain calmuntil it is repaired.’

����� -./��.01,

Rapidly modernising itsArmed forces and flexing

its muscles in several regions,including the Line of ActualControl (LAC) and India-Pacific, China has emerged asthe strongest force in the world.

The USA, which has thelargest defence budget, standssecond. India is at the fourthposition behind Russia.

These facts have emergedin a study conducted by a UK-based defence website MilitaryDirect. In its report released onSunday, the study said

“The USA, despite theirenormous military budgets,comes in 2nd place with 74points, followed by Russia with69, India at 61 and then Francewith 58. The UK just aboutmakes the top 10, coming in9th place with a score of 43,”said the report.

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The mystery shrouding thealleged murder of Thane-

based businessman MansukhHiran, whose Scorpio ladenwith gelatin sticks was recov-ered from near the residence ofindustrialist Mukesh Ambanion February 25, turned murki-er on Sunday as MaharashtraAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)arrested a bookie and a con-victed policeman.

The ATS identified thepersons arrested as convictedconstable Vinayak B Shinde(51) and cricket bookie NareshR Gor (31).

The arrests of Shinde andGor come a day after the UnionHome Ministry asked the NIAto take over the investigationsinto the murder of Hiran,whose body was recoveredfrom the marshy Reti-Bundercreek Mumbra in the neigh-bouring Thane district onMarch 5. Shinde and Gor aresaid to be accomplices of SachinVaze, who is currently in thecustody of the NIA in theexplosive SUV planting case.

Shinde is a dismissedpoliceman, who has been con-victed in the case involving thefake encounter of RamnarayanGupta, alias Lakhan Bhaiya.

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Amid a surge in Covid-19cases, the Rajasthan

Government has decided toimpose night curfew in eightcities from 11 pm to 5 am andordered closure of markets by10 pm from Monday.

The Government hasalso made it mandatory forpeople coming to Rajasthanfrom other States to carry aCovid-19 negative testreport from March 25. Ifthey do not have the nega-tive test report, they willhave to stay in quarantinefor 15 days.

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New Delhi: Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla was admitted to theAIIMS Covid Centre here forobservation on March 20 aftertesting positive for coronavirus,and he is presently stable.

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Kolkata: TMC MP SisirAdhikari on Sunday joined theBJP in presence of HomeMinister Amit Shah. Adhikari,a father figure in EastMidnapore’s politics, is father ofSuvendu Adhikari.

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Bokaro will soon get aunique iconic Olympics

Garden, like London’s famedKew Gardens or the RoyalBotanic Gardens withOlympics rings — flowers(plants) in each of the ring’s fivecolors. This might be the firstof its kind garden in the coun-try, said an official.

The Director-in-charge,Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL),Amarendu Prakash has giventhe principal approval for theOlympic Garden concept atBokaro Steel City on Saturday.

“We have identified four-five spots to develop the gar-den, which would be easily vis-ible to the passerby or visitors,”informed an official.

“Very soon, a beautifulgarden would be identified atBokaro, which will be a cyno-sure for the citizen of the townas well as the visitors. This willenhance the sporting ambianceof India’s first Global Activepartner city,” said JaideepSarkar, Lead Officer, and

Project Director of the GlobalActive City ProgrammeBokaro.

“CISF, HorticultureDepartment of SAIL, BSL andAnjani Kumar Sinha, Statehead of Amrit Krishi ofSwadeshi Jagran Manch willshoulder the puritan responsi-bilities for the purpose,” Jaideepadded.

The iconic Olympics ringsat the garden will have five col-ors of the flower rings. Types of

flower plants to be used at pro-posed Olympic Garden at parwith Kew Olympic Garden,London includes— Yellow:French marigold (Tagetes pat-ula); Blue: Garden lobelia(Lobelia erinus); Red:Pelargonium geranium; Green:Apple mint (Mentha suave-olens) and Black: Lilyturf(Ophiopogon planiscapus), heinformed.

Notably, Bokaro Steel Citywas recently honored with

‘Global Active City’ (GAC)standard; now becomes thefirst city in India and second inAsia to get this place.Karasiyaka in Turkey in Asia isthe first city, got a prestigiousstandard.

Under the ‘nucleus mission’protected and supported by theInternational OlympicCommittee (IOC), Bokaro SteelCity is connected to the GlobalActive City. This nucleus pro-ject (through the IOC) is an

attempt to give a new directionto the society by connectingBokaro city under theOlympics in action so that res-idents of Bokaro district can beprepared in different areasthrough a healthy and func-tional environment.

Bokaro Steel City is aplanned city established andmaintained by Bokaro SteelPlant (BSL) and is well knownas ‘Educational’ and ‘Steel’ hub.Now the city is turning as‘Sports Hub’; got the place inthe worldwide list of 'ActiveWell-being Initiative Network'ssponsored by the IOCCommittee.

To promote sports andevents for the well-being ofmass, around 39 sports centerswere soon to be developed inthe Bokaro Steel’s townshiparea and its periphery.

All these sports centerswould be developed for thesports activities includesVolleyball, Badminton,Handball, Cricket, Football,Hockey, Kabbidi and for theWalking Tracks, he said.

“Our vision is to build ahealthy city and healthy soci-ety through sports so that ourcitizens and the coming gen-erations can become the top-pers in every field,” said Jaideep.

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On the first day of the vac-cination at the panchayat

level Palamu did more than11,000 vaccinations, the high-est ever vaccinations done inthis district and in the Statealso so far, said sources.

Civil surgeon Palamu, whois also regional deputy directorhealth, John F Kennedy in atete-a-tete with this corre-spondent spoke of the unsaidthings. Here are the excerpts.

Why do people not rushfor vaccination?

People dread injectionsmore than the Coronavirusand we tell them every timethat injection is good for themand their families.

Is there trust deficitamong the public?

No. They trust us. It is justtheir way of putting off thingslike the most essential vacci-nation for another time.

The government hospitalshave regained its lost glory aseven the opulent prefer takingjabs at the government's hos-pitals to the private ones. Do

you see this happening? Our government hospitals

had never lost their relevance.We continue to be with ourpeople. This is true the big andthe small visit our communityhealth centres for the jabs. Butwe urge people to visit privatenursing homes as well accord-ing to their convenience.

It is said by your critics thatyou do all that catches the eyesof others like travelling bytrain with plenty of masks, vis-iting dhabas at night talking todrivers of outside the statelike Punjab Haryana DelhiMumbai , reaching out tosalons and fruit vendors, stand-ing at petrol pumps etc. Why?

Tell me where is the harmto ask people to wear mask and

maintain social distancing. Forcreating awareness about thedeadly Coronavirus you needto be with the masses. Trainsare the best source of interac-tion with the public. Awarenesscan't be spread if you sit in onecorner of your office room. Youare to step out.

You even walked on thesoil of the adjoining stateChhatisgarh asking officials ofthis state not to allow peopleof this end to enter Jharkhandwith masks.

Yes I did it. I urged them toensure people enter ourJharkhand with mask. Haveyou forgotten that Palamu hadits first three active cases ofCoronavirus positive comingover to us from Chhatisgarh?

Do you believe in walkingdown the street alone?

No. We have a team. Itworks at its own level. We takecommands from our secretaryhealth department, missiondirector national health mis-sion Jharkhand DC Palamuand others all for the benefit ofthe common eligible people tocome and get vaccinated.pns

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XLRI PGDM (GM), in asso-ciation with Kautilya

Consult Club, is organising anexclusive virtual interactivesession with Dr. AswathDamodaran, corporate financeand valuation legend, on 23March. The topic for the inter-active session is “How will val-uation change in the 21stCentury?”. This will be thefirst time in a long time that Dr.Damodaran will be interactingwith an Indian B-school for anexclusive, stand-alone session.

Dr. Damodaran is theKerschner Family Chair inFinance Education, and theProfessor of Finance at NYUStern School of Business, andthe author of a few of the mostwidely used textbooks in B-

schools all over India and theworld. He has been called WallStreet's "Dean of Valuation,"and is widely respected as oneof the foremost experts oncorporate valuation.

Known as ‘the Dean ofValuation’ due to his expertisein that subject, Damodaran isbest known as author of sever-al widely used academic andpractitioner texts on Valuation,Corporate Finance andInvestment Management; he is

widely quoted on the subject ofvaluation, with "a great repu-tation as a teacher and author-ity". He has written severalbooks on equity valuation, aswell as on corporate financeand investments. He is widelypublished in leading journals offinance, including The Journalof Financial and QuantitativeAnalysis, The Journal ofFinance, The Journal ofFinancial Economics and theReview of Financial Studies.[4]He is also known as being aresource on valuation andanalysis to investment banks onWall Street.

XLRI-Xavier School ofManagement, Jamshedpur is apremier, private managementinstitute in India founded in1949 by Fr Quinn Enright, S.J.in the 'steel city' of Jamshedpur(www.xlri.ac.in).

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After the loud and super-confident LBWappeal, the bowler was stunned that his

appeal had been turned down.In a shockedstate, he asked the Umpire “Sir, don’t youthink the ball would have hit the wicket?”“ Yes, sure”, replied the Umpire. “But the legcame in between.” This of course is a muchexaggerated joke on Umpiring but the factremains that despite all the cameras, tech-nology, third Umpire and what not, thechances of human error still continue andcontroversies keep popping up like the fin-ger of the omniscient Umpire.

Umpiring has always caught the eye ofthe sport-lovers and game analysts who arekeen to decipher the fine print of the game.Especially run-outs, catches which can turnthe table in the game, and getting rid of aplayer who is tearing into the other side, a“crucial” run-out or catch can very muchmake or break the match and turn the tide.

Controversial decisions, though fewernow, thanks to the advanced technologythat has taken the game in its fold, howev-er, still reign supreme when the decision isa match changer.

To judge whether a batsman is out orwhether the catch is genuine or a faked one,whether the call is worth its shout or justan attempt to intimidate the opponent, thedecision of the umpire is always subject tocriticism and mostly pooh-poohed by theaffected party. The recent out given by ThirdUmpire declaring Surya Kumar Yadav outcaught by Dawid Malan in the 4th T-20match between India and England playedat Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on18th March 2021, is again creating muchcontroversy. Surya Kumar Yadav, who wasplaying brilliantly in his first internationalT-20, was given out at a time when he wasin full flow and the camera showed the balltouching the ground when Dawid Malanwas supposed to have caught it. Despite besttechnology deployed, the soft signals of outcaught in the deep has as many naysayers

as there are affirmations – but the contro-versy reigns supreme. After many replaysand close-ups by the camera ball lookedtouching the ground and this infuriated theIndian captain, commentators,VVS Laxmanand otherswho questioned the authentici-ty and veracity of the decision. But cricketis cricket, the game of uncertainties and likeany other game will have its share of partipris and hiccups.

I wonder what the all-time great Umpireslike Steve Bucknor, Dickie Bird, DavidShepherd, Simon Taufel, Billy Bowden, DarylHarper, Rudi Koertzen, Darell Hairwouldhave opined on such controversies. They aremostly retired now but are remembered eventoday for their contribution to the game as fair,unbiased and extremely knowledgeable caretakers of the game.

Nonetheless, while such dilemma of“out vs not out” bears heavily on the mindsof analysts, the cake is taken by the all-timecricketing greats, who if convinced theywere out, never even waited for the Out sig-nal and used to leave for the pavilion. SachinTendulkar and Adam Gilchrist were twosuch players who often did this. This notonly elevated their reputation as to their fairplay but also elevated the game to a levelfit to be emulated by the other players andteams. It is another story that with the cut-throat competition and so much at stakenowadays how much prick of consciencewould be required to move players into adifferent league.

The writer can be reached [email protected]

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On the basis of secret infor-mation, the Bagodar police

have recovered 18 cases ofenglish liquor from a Creta carhere and arrested four personsinvolved in illegal supply ofliquor to neighbouring Bihar,where manufacture, sale andconsumption of liquor is pro-hibited.

The alcohol-laden car wasbeing escorted by another car,which too was seized. Policemade the recovery on GT Roadnear Atka Jungle during achase of an alcohol-laden car.The liquor, purchased fromDhanbad, was being taken toBihar, police said.

The police arrested thedriver and owner of the car inthe case of recovering liquor.

Station in-charge Saroj SinghChaudhary said that the driverof the car, Mo Taj and busi-nessman Bhishma NarayanSingh alias Bittu Singh, both ofDhanbad have been arrested.He said that a total of 18 casesof liquor were loaded in the car,which cost more than two lakhrupees. He has also said thatthe police campaign againstillegal liquor will continue dur-ing Holi.

SDPO Naushad Alam saidthat for the last few days therewas a complaint that liquor issmuggled from Jharkhand toBihar through GT Road, whichwas constantly monitored inwhich 2 vehicles have beenseized and 4 people have pri-mary cases. He further saidthat the administration will runsimilar campaigns.

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The argument as to how would sine , cos, thetas and rest of the clan would come

to my rescue , I now knuckle under theirsupremacy considering the only form thatcircumambits the least space is a circle andthat a propensity of every energy in solidform to spread the least. So are all the celes-tials and the cipher and the water dropletsand Mandala explains all this.

If Mandala is to be elucidated , there isa shloka in Gurbani ,"ek noor te sab jag upja"...which means that all is born of one .

So, the black pattern finds its epicentreto where we all belong.

There is this iota point somewhere on mycerebral space which deciphers only ener-gies... auspicious ones and I would always itchto share that and how I got started doodlingthe zentangle around names!

Considering the tangible chattles - foodand raiments are followed by home. Homereads a plaquette in your name to which yousmile every evening from work or when yourfingers run to feed the address for the nexthome delivery. See, I clearly boast of my hon-esty about fetish for retail therapy . Anytimethat is... or all the time that might be.

So yes , home...and the nameplate. The emotions of pride , security , love ,

nostalgia... of belongingness . Little did I knowabout the romance it brings along , which obvi-ously reached for me sooner than I realized andnow that I am touched by the zentangle , Iwould only smile in all my serenity.

So, it is a handmade paper upon whichthe name is drawn , further coloured in pas-tel acrylics. And then the brushes and pensdipped in black tusche do free geometry,troughs and crests.

The journey inward and you find youruniverse there. Isn't that your home. Don'tthe walls inhale your exhales and your majorearnings are invested into making your wallsand doors.

8 - 10 hours into bringing out a singleleaf of Mandala name. While a major part isconsumed in outlining and filling it withcolour , the zen art once begun , seems selfpropelling. Floral motifs , chequered , lotusleaved and just anything in soothing sym-metry...be that. A tinge of Indianness is theMadhubani border I sometimes do and gur-mukhi , devnagri and roman... a petty me tothis big forte.

A poised effort, I wish all of us peace andprosperity. Bloom.

����� 2�-�1,

The 104th Foundation Day ofthe Yogada Satsang Society

of India (YSS) is on 22 March.On this day, ParamhansaYogananda (1893 - 1952)founded the Yogada SatsangSociety in 1917 to provide uni-versal education of Kriya Yoga,the sacred spiritual science,which originated in India manymillennia ago. These secularteachings, along with all-roundsuccess and prosperity, includea complete philosophy of themethods of meditation andknowledge of life-style for theultimate goal of life - the soul'sunion with the divine.

Paramhansa Yogananda'steachings are available throughthe "Yogada Satsang Pathmala",as was also the case during hislifetime. Taught to Swadhyayas,read by innumerable people allover the world, this wide textseries also contains informationon all the meditation tech-niques of Kriya Yoga scienceand many other aspects of bal-anced spiritual life taught byParamahansa Yogananda.Paramahamsa Yogananda isconsidered one of the best spir-itual personalities of the mod-ern period. Paramhans startedhis worldwide mission by estab-lishing a yoga school for boys ata place called Dihika in Bengal.This was the historic momentwhen the Yogada SatsangSociety of India was born.

This beloved Jagadguru,author of the best-selling spir-itual book- "Yogi Kathamrit(Autobiography of a Yogi)",has introduced the rare knowl-edge to millions of readers. Ithas been 75 years since the pub-lication of this unique bookpublished in 1946. "YogiKathamrit" has been translatedinto more than 50 languages inIndia and abroad. Even in Urduand Sanskrit. TodayParamahamsa Yogananda isknown throughout the world asthe "Father of Yoga in theWest". After the establishmentof YSS in 1917, he came to rep-resent Hinduism in 1920 at theInternational Conference ofReligious Liberals held in thecity of Boston, USA. Yoganandestablished the Self-RealizationFellowship (SRF) there, whichcontinues to carry on his spir-itual legacy around the worldeven today under the leadershipof Sri Sri Swami ChidanandGiri. After Sri Sri MrinaliniMata, Swami Chidanand isnow the chairman (fifth) ofboth these institutions.

Paramahamsa Yoganandaestablished the Yogada SatsangSociety (YSS), Self-RealizationFellowship (SRAF) with theaim of promoting his teachingsand keeping their purity andcompleteness safe for futuregenerations. The members ofthe YSS, SRAF PublicationCouncil regard these instruc-tions as a sacred faith, so thatthe worldview message of theseJagadguru remains in its corestrength and authenticity. Thenames of these institutions andtheir emblems were created byParamhansa Yogananda toidentify the institution estab-lished to carry out his world-wide spiritual and philan-thropic work.

Paramahamsa Yoganandhad taught in his classes anddiscourses on the art of medi-tation and balanced spirituallife, it was compiled as YogadaSatsang Pathmala accordingto his guidance. Yogada prac-titioners can study these print-ed lessons from home. Theyprepare themselves physically,mentally, and spiritually for thepractice of Kriya Yoga byspending some time studyingsome of the early lessons andpracticing the basic meditationtechniques taught in them. Inthis early period they learn thethree main methods of YogadaSatsang cultivation practice:strength communication exer-cises, method of concentrationand Om method.

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In view of Bengal assembly polls, EastSinghbhum district police have pressed alert.

In order to ensure security in the elections, com-mencing from March 27, inter-state check postshave been erected at three places at Baharagora.Kating and Jamshole. Police would be conduct-ing checking of vehicles round the clock.

SSP East Singhbhum M. Tamilvanan saidthat usually 72 hours before elections movementof persons increases and keeping this in viewthey would be intensifying the checking fromMarch 24 itself to stop carrying of liquor andcash into Bengal.

The administration has installed check-points along the border with neighbouringBengal to check the entry of visitors in an effortto keep a vigil. The police personnel have beendeployed at strategic points.

“Our idea is to ensure that all those enter-ing from Bengal have valid e-passes andthrough check posts the police personnel andthe magistrate on duty would be under sur-veillance to check if they are checking the pass-es strictly or not,” said the official

The SSP warned that strict action will betaken against the personnel deployed at the check-points for not checking visitors from Bengal.

The idea is also to keep an eye on Maoists.An officer said that they have posted Jharkhandpolice officers in CRPF camps in Bengal's bor-der areas because whenever the Bengal policeused to carry out operation against CPI-Maoistrebels along the Jharkhand border, the latterwould migrate into the Jharkhand, thus causingthe Bengal police and the paramilitary forces tobe confused."Our strategy is to ensure safety atour borders. With this initiative, the Jharkhandcops are posted at the CRPF camps nearBengal," said the officer. The decision has beentaken in view of the assembly elections in Bengal,but going by the response and its effectiveness.

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Page 3:  · 3/21/2021  · and Surpriya Sule were present at the meeting, Sanjay Raut is representing the Shiv Sena. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is attending the meeting on behalf of

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The State BJP unit has decid-ed to oppose the Assembly

discussion of three controver-sial farm laws to be held at thesecond half of the assembly ses-sion on Monday. The Assemblybased on the demand of rulingparty legislators has conveneda discussion on three farmlaws.

The three farm laws are—The Farmers’ Produce Tradeand Commerce (Promotionand Facilitation) Act, TheFarmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of PriceAssurance and Farm ServicesAct, and The EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act.

State BJP senior leader andBJP legislative party leader

Babulal Marandi opposing thethree farm laws said, “It isunfortunate that the JharkhandAssembly has convened a dis-cussion on three farm laws. Theparty has decided to oppose thediscussion as it is not the pre-

rogative of the state assembly todiscuss the bill which hasalready become an Act. It isunconstitutional and our partyhas decided to oppose it.”

Marandi also said that thepresent government claims to

be well-wisher of farmers, butin real sense it is workingagainst the interest of farmers.Marandi, also targeted thepresent government for sus-pending much of the farmers’welfare scheme initiated bythe previous (BJP) govern-ment. He said, “The previousBJP government of chief min-ister Raghubar Das with anaim to double the income offarmers has launchedMukhymantri KrishiAshirwad Yojana under whichfarmers were to get Rs 5000per acre with maximum uptoRs 25,000 for five acres of landon yearly basis, but the presentgovernment without doingproper homework discontin-ued the schemes.

He said, “The fund pro-vided to farmers was to meetagriculture expenses such asbuying seeds, fertilizers andothers, but the present gov-ernment has stopped all suchschemes.”

The three farms laws had

first come in the month ofJune last year as the threeOrdinances before beingapproved by Parliament dur-ing the Monsoon Session bya voice vote. Congress andother opposition partiesincluding JMM and RJD areopposing the farm laws.Farmers from Punjab andHaryana have been opposingthe three farm laws withprotest even becoming violentin Januar y this year.Meanwhile, the SupremeCourt to end the deadlock has“suspended” the "implemen-tation" of three farm laws ina bid to persuade farmers agi-tating against them to come tothe “negotiating table.”

Meanwhile, in big relief toCentre a Parliament StandingCommittee, comprising MPs ofparties that have been vehe-mently opposing the three newfarm laws, has asked for imple-mentation of EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act, 2020 — one of the three

controversial laws — in “letterand spirit”.

Meanwhile, Marandi onceagain reiterated that ‘Adivasiare Hindus’ theory. A dayahead Chief Minister HemantSoren targeting BJP leadershipincluding Marandi to readsociology and anthropologyscience rebuking Saffronparty’s claim that ‘Adivasi areHindus’. Marandi today said,“JMM is a small political partyhaving presence in a smallerpart of the country. JMM lead-ership should first read thesociology as in different part ofcountries there are severalHindus and Muslim commu-nities listed in tribal commu-nities.”

Marandi gave the exampleof Bakerwal community ofJammu and Kashmir who areMuslim by religion but arelisted in tribal community,similarly Kshatriya inHimachal Pradesh are Hindusbut are in listed in Tribal com-munity.

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The Ranchi police have decid-ed to create awareness

against mob lynching by puttingup posters in rural areas. Theposters will not only spreadawareness but also warn peopleof legal actions if they becomea part of a mob involved inassaulting people, police said.

Ranchi Rural SP, NaushadAlam said, “The primary objec-tive of Ranchi police putting upposters is to create awarenessamong people that if someonecomes across any such incidentof mob-violence, then theyshould immediately report it tothe police. Becoming a part ofmob lynching is illegal andpeople should not take law intheir hands.”

The posters with pictorialrepresentation of mob lynchingin five points states that peopleshould not believe any type ofrumour, people should not takelaw in their hand and indulgingin any type of mob violence ispunishable. The Ranchi policethrough poster have urged peo-ple to inform police on 100 or112 or call police control roomin 8987790680 if theyencounter any mob violence orlynching incident.

The Rural SP Alam startingthe initiative from Kanke policestation on Sunday. He con-

vened a meeting of public rep-resentatives, eminent peoplefrom society and officials’ frompolice and district administra-tion asking them to check suchincidents apart from creatingawareness about mob lynching.

He said, “Ranchi policefew days back had convened ameeting of all officer in charges

where direction were issued tocheck mob lunching incidentsin State.”

Police are always availableto help people in case of theftor any other crime, thereforepeople should refrain fromacting in a fit of rage, he added.

Ranchi witnessed two inci-dents of lynching within a weekwhere two youths werethrashed to death on suspicionof theft.

The first incident took placeon March 8 under KotwaliPolice Station limits where 22-year-old Sachin Kumar Vermawas thrashed brutally on suspi-cion of vehicle theft, who diedlater while being taken to thehospital. The second incidentoccurred on March 14, where a27-year-old Mubarak Khan was

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Two idols of Lord Buddha,which were found after

excavation of the archaeologi-cal department in Bahoranpurof Sadar block in Hazaribaghdistrict, have been stolen.Hazaribag district administra-tion started investigation aftergetting the information of idoltheft.

The theft incident wasreported on Sunday morning.Gurhet Panchayat Head,Mahesh Tigga informedHazaribag Superintendent ofPolice (SP) Karthik S that someof idols which were found inexcavation are missing from thespot. Hazaribag SP said thataction would be taken againstthe policemen on duty afterinvestigation.

A police force of 1-4 wasdeployed by Karthik S atBahoranpur excavation site todo day and night duty. Apartfrom this, three villagers havealso been deployed for thesecurity of the site despitethis, two idols have been

stolen. A total of 13 idols ofrare Buddhist Bhumi Sparshhave been found in the exca-vation of the archaeologicaldepartment out of which twoidols have been stolen.According to the information,the idols found in Bahoranpurare rare.

Monk Dhamma RakshitNational President Namo TasBhagwato ArhatoSammasubuddhas hasdemanded Hazaribag DeputyCommissioner Aditya KumarAnand to fence the Bahoranpurexcavation site. He said that thisplace should be protected. TheDeputy Commissioner hasassured that the administrationwill take initiative in this direc-tion.

Karthik S told that actionwould be taken against thepolicemen on duty after inves-tigation. Sadar SDO, SadarSDPO, CCR DSP, ChorchuZone Inspector, MufassilPolice Station Incharge havereached the spot and theystarted investigation to findout the idols.

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The State is contemplatingstricter restrictions on Holi

festivities in the wake of the risein cases of Covid-19 infectionin the past one month, officialsfrom the Home Prison andDisaster ManagementDepartment said on Sunday,adding that Holi Milans (gath-erings) are likely to be allowedonly for limited people thistime around.

A Government sourcesaid that concerned ministersmay soon hold a meetingwith officials and take a callon restrictions for Holi. Themeeting, he said, is likely to beheld before March 25, and thegovernment may issue guide-lines for Holi celebrations onthe same day.

State disaster managementsecretary Amitabh Kaushal,however, said that the state wasalready following the guidelines

set by the Centre as of now,adding that a prohibition onprocessions during festivalswas already enforced as per theCentre’s guidelines.

“No decision has been

taken regarding restrictionsduring Holi as of now. Therestrictions, as per the lastorder by the state government,are already in place. In case anydecision is taken, then an offi-

cial order will be issued,” saidKaushal.

The count of active cases ofCovid-19 infection inJharkhand has jumped from466 on February 17 to 577 onMarch 17, reveals data with thehealth department. Ranchi hasbeen the worst-affected districtin the state. The district alonehas witnessed contributed foralmost 70 per cent of the spikein Jharkhand, and the activecases here have jumped from247 on February 17 to 346 onMarch 17, government figureshighlight. The rising numberof active cases indicates thatfresh cases outnumberedrecoveries during the past onemonth.

Bihar recently imposed aban on ‘Holi Milan’ fearing asecond wave of Covid-19 inthe state. Several thousandJharkhand residents alsoreturn home from Punjab,Maharashtra, Haryana andNew Delhi for Holi. These

states have witnessed a spikein the cases of Covid-19 infec-tion recently, and Holi revel-ers returning home for thefestival could become carriersof the virus, of f icials said.

Holi Milans are specialgatherings organised duringHoli for people to meet eachother and celebrate the festi-val. Some Holi Milan eventsalso include cocktails andlunch. Doctors fear that Holifestivities may trigger a spikein cases as the festival ofcolours cannot be celebratedwhile maintaining social dis-tancing. “If people smearcolour on each other andcome in close contact, thenthere is obviously a fear oftransmission. We need to beextra careful during this Holi,”said the Coordinator of theCovid Task Force at RajendraInstitute of Medical Sciences(RIMS), Dr. Prabhat Kumar.

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The two chain snatchers,Imroj Ansari alias Babu

and Tauqeed Mallik aliasShekhu, who shot at SubInspector, Subhash ChandraLakda of Chutia Police Station,were sent to jail. The policequestioned both before sendingthem to jail. Both the accusedhave informed the police aboutthe goldsmith to whom theyused to sell gold chains aftersnatching.

Ranchi SeniorSuperintendent of Police, SNJha informed that on the infor-mation given by both, thepolice also raided the gold-smith’s shop and he wasabsconding. After the inci-dent, when the Police teamreached his rented house inPathalkudwa to arrest Imroz at2am on the night of March 19,he had jumped from the firstfloor seeing the Police. ThePolice team had laid siege to the

entire area. The Police keptsearching for him in the local-ity for about three hours. Hehad taken a loaded pistol anda Country made pistol withhim before jumping from hishouse. He was ready to shootanyone who came to catchhim. After dodging the Police,he went into hiding in a street.The Police were looking forhim in the dark. When thePolice found him, he tried toshoot again after seeing thePolice but the Police teamcaught him with both arms.When the police seized theweapon from him, both the

arms were cocked,” he added.Jha said, “Arrested notori-

ous criminal Imroz is quiteclever. He is a resident ofGumla. After committingmany crimes in Lohardaga andGumla, he returned from jailfour times. After this, he movedto Ranchi with his family. Thenhe started chain snatching here.The Police first arrested Tauqidfrom Hazaribag. A criminal'smobile was missing on theday of the incident. Throughthe same mobile, the Police firstcaught Tauqid fromHazaribagh. Then the Policereached Imroz's father-in-lawon Taukeed's information. Onstrictly questioning the father-in-law, told the Police that hisson-in-law, Imroz, lives in arented house in Pathalkudwa.The Police reached there toraid. After seeing the Police hetried to escape but he wascaught after some time by thePolice for three hours of searchout drive.”

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Afree health check-up campwas organised under

Corporate Social Responsibilityon Sunday under the banner ofHindalco Industries Limited inChakla Coal Mines area atBhukutola village under ChaklaPanchayat of Chandwa Block ofLohardaga. CSC Physician DrTarun Josh Lakra was presentin the programme.

Apart from Bhukutola,people from other villages likeChakla, Sadabar, Chorjharia,Arandiandand got themselvestested at the camp. A total of 95people were given free medi-

cine after conducting healthtests in this camp.

In the camp, social distanc-ing was being observed in viewof Corona. Doctor Lakda advisedpeople to keep cleanlinessaround their house, use mos-quito nets and drink pure drink-ing water. In the camp, 95 peo-ple were got medical counselingafter health check-up. Free med-icines were also distributed to allthe people. Lopamudra Mishra,Abhay Kumar, BudheshwarChandra, Kumar Gautam,Kumar Animesh, Akash Pathakand people of the rural area werepresent in large numbers on theoccasion.

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The 37th foundation daycelebrations of Jharkhand's

renowned socio-culturalorganisation "Kunjban" washeld on Sunday at St.Columbus Public School inChutia. Apart from renownedartists from Jharkhand, tradi-tional artists from the borderStates of Chhattisgarh, Odishaand Bengal also attended thefunction showcasing their tal-ent.

On this occasion, RanchiMP Sanjay Seth said that it isthe responsibility of all to cher-ish our cultural heritage. Theculture of Jharkhand is anexcellent example of socialharmony. He said that there isa need for everyone to have col-lective participation for thepreservation of cultural her-itage and promotion of theirlanguage and culture.

Ranchi MLA CP Singh,said that the culture ofJharkhand is unique in itself. Itis the duty of all of us inJharkhand to preserveJharkhand Akhara culture andstrive towards the promotion oflocal languages. He said thatalong with linguistic prosper-ity and preservation and pro-motion of language, we canmove towards social prosperi-ty only by keeping our cultur-al heritage in mind.

As a special guest at theprogram, Ranchi Mayor AshaLakra said that it is the moral

responsibility of all Jharkhandisto preserve the Akhara culture.

At the ceremony, Kunjban'sfounding director PadmashriMukund Nayak said that for thepast 37 years, "Kunjban" is con-stantly striving towards thepreservation and promotion ofAkhara, the art, culture, lan-guage and traditional culturalcenter of Jharkhand. During thesymposium, several prominentspeakers expressed their viewsin terms of keeping the cultureand culture of Jharkhand intactand preserving Akhara.

Cultural programme wereheld in the evening and wasparticipated by PadmashriMukund Nayak, PadmashriMadhu Mansuri Hansmukh,eminent artists of folk songsand music, Mahavir Nayak,Nandlal Nayak, ManpooranNayak, Devdas Vishwakarma,Kshitij Kumar Rai and artistsfrom neighboring states ofChhattisgarh, Orissa andBengal. Displayed his talent

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The Ranchi rural police onSunday held three mem-

bers of highway robbery gangfrom Karkat More underChanno police station area ofRnachi rural. The gang used totarget truck drivers and lootcash and belongings. Thearrested criminal includesKartik Lohra, Hafizul Ansariand Manjit Nayak. The policealso seized one country madepistol and looted bike fromtheir possession.

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beaten to death by the villagerson suspicion of bike theft.

The poster has beenreleased on social media, but itwill be circulated furtheramong the people throughother means of communica-tion, he added. According tothe data collected by someCivil Society Organizations, asmany as 42 such incidentshave occurred so far inJharkhand since 2008; at least10 after the Hemant Sorengovernment came into powerin December 2019.

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Three Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) personnel

who helped reunite a stranded70-year-old man with his fam-ily in Karnataka after about

three decades have been award-ed the top commendation ofthe paramilitary for undertak-ing the humanitarian task.

The decorated troops,posted with the 36th Battalionof the border guarding Force at

Lohaghat in Uttarakhand,chanced upon KenchappaGovindappa at a roadsideeatery in nearby Chalti villageof the State when one of themstopped there for refreshmentsearly this year.

Constable Riyaz Sunkadnoticed the precarious condi-tion of the septuagenarian anddescribed the incident to histwo seniors in the battalionwho also hailed fromKarnataka- Head ConstablesPremananda Pai and SharanaBasava Ragapur.

Pai and Ragapur later wentto the eatery as they were alsoproceeding on leave. The duofound the old man was in a badphysical shape and was in anemotional shock as he waslost for years and could not getin touch with his family or rel-atives.

The man was unable tocommunicate his plight to thelocals as he was conversant onlywith Kannada and did notknow Hindi. He used to sleepat a bus stop behind the eateryeven during winters.

The two ITBP jawanssought more information fromthe eatery owner and wereinformed that Kenchappa hadcome to this location on a truckmany years back and that hewas not paid any money.

For survival, the manhelped in the daily chores of theeatery owner in lieu of food.

The two Head Constableslater made a video with theman at the eatery and uploaded

it on social media platformslike Facebook following whichthey received a call from anadvocate who knewKenchappa’s family that lived inKalghatagi village of Dharwaddistrict in Karnataka.

The two ITBP men thenembarked on an over 2,000 kmjourney to Karnataka beforetaking Kenchappa to Delhiwhere he was lodged in a hotel,got him a good bath and shave,bought new clothes for himand got into a train toKarnataka.

The two ITBP personnelhanded him over to his familywho were elated to see him.

Kenchappa had six chil-dren, four sons and two daugh-ters, and he had left his homesometime in 1991 in search ofa job.From Karnataka, he prob-ably reached Maharashtra andlater to Chalti in Uttarakhandwhere he suffered penury forthree decades.

The ITBP headquarters inrecognition of this humanitar-ian deed early this monthawarded the Director Generalcommendation role and silverdisc insignia, meant for ren-dering exceptional service, tothe three personnel who joinedthe paramilitary force around2002-2003.

According to the citation,they were awarded the top cat-egory force honour “for exem-plary humane approach and agreat sense of responsibility byreuniting an old man with hisfamily by taking him fromChalti to Dharwad”.

“The force is proud of thethree men who did a humani-tarian task beyond the call oftheir official duty and reaf-firmed the values that the forcestood for,” said ITBPspokesperson Vivek KumarPandey.

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Aadhaar is no longermandatory for pensioners

to get Jeevan Pramaan, the dig-ital life certificate that isrequired to collect their pen-sions.

According to the new rulenotified by the Government,Aadhaar verification has alsobeen made voluntary for itsinstant messaging solution‘Sandes’ and attendance man-agement at public offices underthe Aadhaar Authentication forGood Governance (SocialWelfare, Innovation,Knowledge) Rules, 2020.

“Aadhaar Authenticationin Jeevan Pramaan is on a vol-untary basis and user organi-zations shall provide alternatemeans of submission of LifeCertificate. NIC shall complywith provisions of Aadhaar Act2016, Aadhaar Regulation2016 and the O.Ms (officialmemorandum), circulars andguidelines issued by UIDAIfrom time to time,” a notifica-

tion by the Ministry ofElectronics and IT datedMarch 18 said.

Digital Life Certificate forpensioners scheme was intro-duced to address the woesthat pensioners faced as theywere required to be presentbefore pension disbursingagency or had the life certifi-cate issued by authority wherethey served earlier and deliv-ered that to the disbursingagency.

The digital life certificatehelped pensioners from phys-ically travelling to the respec-tive organisation.

However, many pensionerscomplained about problemsin getting pension due non-availability of Aadhaar cards ortheir fingerprints becomingunreadable.

While some Governmentorganisations provided analternate way of issuing pen-sion in 2018, the notification tomake Aadhaar voluntary forthe digital life certificate hasbeen issued now.

Simultaneously, theElectronics and IT Ministryhas made Aadhaar optional forusers of instant messagingsolution, Sandes app, devel-oped by the NationalInformatics Centre.

“Aadhaar Authenticationin Sandes is on a voluntarybasis and user organisationsshall provide alternate meansof verification. NIC shall com-ply with provisions of AadhaarAct 2016, Aadhaar Regulation2016 and the O.Ms, circularsand guidelines issued byUIDAI from time to time,” aseparate notification datedMarch 18 said.

Developed under projectname Government InstantMessaging System, the app isused within public depart-ments.

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All-India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) chief Dr

Randeep Guleria on Sundaywarned that there was nothingto stop the second wave ofCovid-19 in India from beingas severe as the first unless peo-ple follow appropriate behav-iour and are quickly vaccinat-ed.

“The recent spike in infec-tions is likely being caused byslip-ups in precautionary mea-sures and variants of the virus,”he said. The cases could spreadeven more rapidly if basic pro-tective steps like wearing masksand rigorous contact-tracingare not followed.

“There is a loss of Covid-appropriate behaviour. Nowpeople feel that the pandemicis over because vaccines arehere. So they fail to wear masks.We see large crowds gathering- again without masks. Many ofthese crowded events havebecome super-spreadingevents,” Dr Guleria said to anews channel.

“The other issue is that weare becoming lax in the basicprinciple of testing, tracking,and isolating than what wewere doing six months ago. Thethird point is that the virusitself is mutating and some ofthe variants are more infec-tious,” he said.

India added 43,846 newcoronavirus infections in thepast 24 hours alone, settinganother highest daily-high innearly four months, amid a

worrying surge. This rise hasprompted states like Punjab,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,and Tamil Nadu to considerrevert to school closure,restricted public gatherings,and other measures, includinglockdowns in worst-hit dis-tricts.

The daily rise in infec-tions today was the highestrecorded in 112 days, while thenumber of fatalities has risen to1,59,755 with 197 daily newfatalities, the data updated at 8am showed. Maharashtra,Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, andGujarat are the five states that

have recorded the highest sin-gle-day surge since yesterday,government data show.

The number of cases andmortality could both rise in thesecond wave, according to DrGuleria.

Referring to the vaccines,he acknowledged that somestudies show vaccine efficacyfalling 10-20% when it comesto the South African variant ofCovid-19. “As we go alongwith vaccinations, other vari-ants may appear. We will haveto be ready to tweak the vac-cines...it is not a cause of con-cern since we do not have

enough data. But we need to bevigilant,” he said.

“There may be variants inIndia. If the variants are of clin-ical significance - causing moreseverity or more number ofinfections, that is a cause ofconcern. We know that thevirus will undergo mutation,”he said.

Containment zones needto be developed, he said, addingthat aggressive testing andquarantine must be followed.Mere night curfews and week-end lockdowns may not alonestop the chain of transmission,he said.

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The Congress on Sundaysaid it would not be fair on

its part to comment on the con-troversy that erupted after ex-Mumbai police chief Param BirSingh accused MaharashtraHome Minister AnilDeshmukh of graft as the NCPand the Chief Minister arelooking into it.

Steering clear of making adirect comment on the matter,Congress spokespersonAbhishek Singhvi said the issueconcerns Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray and theNCP as the minister in ques-tion is from that party.

Attempting to deflect ques-tions concerning Maharashtra,Singhvi raised the issue of graftcharges against KarnatakaChief Minister B S Yediyurappato accuse the BJP of hypocrisyand questioned Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s silence on the mater.He asked why the prime

minister and Home MinisterAmit Shah have not uttered aword about the corruptionallegation against Yediyurappa,even when there have beenthree judgments from the highcourt in this regard.

“We want Yediyurappa toresign immediately,” theCongress spokesperson said.

On the developments inMaharashtra, he said the MahaVikas Aghadi Government isone and NCP leader SharadPawar is addressing chargesagainst Deshmukh, whobelongs to that party.

“Sharad Pawar has commented on what is essen-tially concerning a ministerfrom that part of the coalition. I think it would notbe fair for me to say anything,much of what has been said byPawar in consultation with theCM.

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Aperson cannot donateblood for the next 28 days

after taking the last dose ofCovid-19 vaccine, according toa recent order by the NationalBlood Transfusion Council(NBTC) under the UnionHealth Ministry.

As approved in the 30thmeeting of the governing bodyof the NBTC held on February17, the deferral criteria forblood donation post Covid-19vaccine was finalised as “28days post vaccination deferralafter the last dose of Covid-19vaccination irrespective of thetype of the vaccine received.”

The order implies that thedonor has to wait for 28 daysafter taking the second dose ofthe vaccine, which means thathe or she cannot donate for 56days after taking the first jab.

The order was issued byNBTC director Dr Sunil Guptaon March 5. According to theUnion Health Ministry, twodoses of the vaccine need to betaken by an individual 28 daysapart to complete the immunisation schedule.

Protective levels of anti-bodies are generally devel-oped two weeks after receivingthe second dose, it has said.

Two vaccines — Oxford’sCovishield manufactured by

Serum Institute in the countryand Bharat Biotech’s Covaxinhave been approved by theNational Drug Regulator forrestricted emergency use inIndia.

The countrywide vaccina-tion drive was rolled out onJanuary 16 with healthcareworkers (HCWs) getting inoculated and vaccination ofthe frontline workers (FLWs)started from February 2.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commencedfrom March 1 for those whoare over 60 years of age and forpeople aged 45 and above withspecific co-morbid conditions.

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On the World Water Day onMonday, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi will launchthe “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catchthe Rain” campaign. The ‘his-toric’ MoU to implement theKen Betwa Link Project, thefirst project of the national per-spective plan for interlinking ofrivers, will also be signed byUttar Pradesh and MadhyaPradesh chief ministers at theevent.

The PMO said in a state-ment that the campaign will beundertaken across the countryin both rural and urban areaswith the theme “catch the rain,where it falls, when it falls” andit will be implemented fromMarch 22 to November 30 - thepre-monsoon and monsoonperiod in the country.

It will be launched as a ‘JanAndolan’ (public movement)to take water conservation atthe grassroot level throughpeople’s participation. It isintended to nudge all stake-holders to create rainwaterharvesting structures suitableto climatic conditions and sub-soil strata, to ensure properstorage of rainwater, the PMOsaid.

After the event, gram sab-has will be held in all grampanchayats of each district(except in poll-bound states) todiscuss issues related to waterand water conservation. Gram

sabhas will also take ‘JalShapath’ (oath) for water con-servation, it added.

The Ken Betwa link pro-ject agreement heralds thebeginning of inter-state coop-eration to implement thevision of former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeeto carry water from areas thathave surplus water to droughtprone and water deficit areasthrough the interlinking ofrivers, the PMO said.

This project involves trans-fer of water from Ken to BetwaRiver through the constructionof Daudhan Dam and a canallinking the two rivers, thelower Orr project, Kotha bar-rage and Bina complex multi-purpose project.

It will provide annual irri-gation of 10.62 lakh hectare,drinking water supply to about62 lakh people and also gen-erate 103 MW of hydropower.

The PMO said the projectwill be of immense benefit tothe water starved region ofBundelkhand, especially to thedistricts of Panna, Tikamgarh,Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh,Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri andRaisen of Madhya Pradeshand Banda, Mahoba, Jhansiand Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.

It will pave the way formore interlinking of river pro-jects to ensure that scarcity ofwater does not become aninhibitor for development inthe country, the PMO said.

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Three years down the line,India has marked a key

milestone in universalising pri-mary healthcare with the tar-get of operationalising 70,000Ayushman Bharat-Health andWellness Centres (AB-HWCs)by March 31 being realisedahead of time. AyushmanBharat- Health and WellnessCentres (AB-HWC) werelaunched in April 2018.

The Union HealthMinistry on Sunday said tilldate, about 41.35 crore peoplehave accessed care in these AB-HWCs and about 54 per centof them are women, the min-istry said.

The feat of scaling up pri-mary health care facilities atthis pace despite the COVID-19 pandemic was enabled by ahigh degree of coordinationbetween the Centre and statesand union territories, foresightin planning, flexibility in adap-tation, standardisation ofprocesses, and regular interac-tions at all levels for monitor-ing and prompt redressal ofissues, it said.

This is testimony to theprocess of effective decentral-isation and cooperative feder-alism, the ministry said.

By December 2022, asmany as 1,50,000 sub-healthcentres and primary healthcentres in urban and ruralareas were targeted to be trans-formed to AB-HWCs anddeliver comprehensive prima-ry health care that includes pre-ventive and health promotionat the community level withcontinuum of care which is freeand close to community inrural and urban areas.

“This mission modeapproach also aimed at realis-ing India’s vision of universalhealth coverage,” the state-ment said.

Apart from expanding andstrengthening the existingreproductive and child healthservices and communicablediseases services, the func-tional AB-HWCs provide ser-vices related to non-commu-nicable diseases (NCDs) andare gradually adding otherprimary health care services

for mental health, ENT, oph-thalmology, oral health, geri-atric and palliative health careand trauma care, etc., it stat-ed.

“HWCs demonstrate ahigh potential for positiveoutcomes in terms of genderequity for care seeking, andpromoting wellness as a criti-cal component of primaryhealth care. To date, about41.35 crore people haveaccessed care in these AB-HWCs. About 54 per cent ofthem are women,” it said.

Preventive health care isthe essential component ofthe services delivered throughHWCs. The identified indi-viduals with the chronic con-ditions are put on treatmentwith necessary follow-up.

So far, 9.1 crore screeningsfor hypertension, 7.4 crorescreenings for diabetes, 4.7crore screenings for oral can-cer, 2.4 crore screenings forbreast cancer and 1.7 crorescreenings for cervical cancerin women have been done, theministry highlighted.

Tele-consultation servicesare another key component ofHWCs. More than 9.45 lakhtele-consultations have beendone at the HWCs, it said.

“About 75 per cent of totalNCD screenings have beenconducted during thisCOVID-19 period (between1st February 2020 to till date)itself, showing the confidencereposed by people in these AB-HWCs during the presentpublic health challenge,” theMinistry said.

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Patients with low vitamin Dlevels who are hospitalised

for Covid-19 may have alower risk of dying or requir-ing mechanical ventilation ifthey receive vitamin D sup-plementation of at least 1,000units weekly, according to astudy.

“Given how common vit-amin D deficiency is in theworld and the United States,we believe that this researchis highly relevant right now,”said co-author Sweta Chekuri,M.D., of Montefiore HealthSystem and Albert EinsteinCollege of Medicine in theBronx, New York.

Research has shown thatvitamin D supplementationcan prevent inflammation inother respiratory diseases,but there have been limitedstudies examining the role ofvitamin D supplementation inCovid-19.

The purpose of the studythat was presented virtually atENDO 2021, the EndocrineSociety’s annual meeting, wasto determine whether beingsupplemented with vitamin Dbefore being admitted to thehospital with Covid-19 result-ed in less severe Covid-19 dis-ease in patients with a low vit-amin D level.

The researchers studied124 adult patients with lowvitamin D that was measuredup to 90 days before theiradmission for Covid-19. Theycompared the patients whowere supplemented with atleast 1,000 units of vitamin Dweekly to those who had notreceived vitamin D supple-ments in terms of whetherthey were mechanically ven-tilated or died during admis-sion.

They found that patientswho were supplemented wereless likely to be mechanicallyventilated or to die following

admission, though the findingwasn’t statistically significant(37.5 percent of patients whowere not supplemented vs.33.3 percent of those whowere) They also found thatmore than half of those whoshould have been supple-mented were not.

“Though we weren’t ableto show a definitive link tosevere Covid-19, it is clearthat patients with low vitaminD should receive supplemen-tation not only for bonehealth, but also for strongerprotection against severeCovid-19,” said co-authorCorinne Levitus, D.O., ofMontefiore Health Systemand Albert Einstein College ofMedicine. “We hope thisresearch will encourage clin-icians to discuss adding thissupplement with theirpatients who have low vita-min D, as this may reduce theodds of people developingsevere Covid-19.”

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Scientists from JawaharlalNehru Centre for Advanced

Scientific Research, anautonomous institute of theDepartment of Science &Technology (DST) have founda method to mimic nature’sown process of reducing car-bon dioxide in the atmosphere,namely photosynthesis, to cap-ture excess carbon dioxide inthe atmosphere.

This artificial photosyn-thesis (AP) harnesses solarenergy and converts the cap-tured carbon dioxide to carbonmonoxide (CO), which can beused as a fuel for internal com-bustion engines.

In artificial photosynthesis(AP), scientists are essentiallyconducting the same funda-mental process in natural pho-tosynthesis but with simplernanostructures. However, thereare plenty of hurdles to over-

come as a successful catalyst tocarry out AP.

The scientist designed andfabricated an integrated cat-alytic system based on a metal-organic framework (MOF-808)comprising of a photosensitiz-er (molecules which absorblight and transfer the electronfrom the incident light intoanother nearby molecule) thatcan harness solar power and acatalytic centre that can even-tually reduce CO2.

The work described abovehas been accepted for publica-tion in the journal ‘Energy &Environmental Science’ ofRoyal Society of Chemistry,UK.

The scientists have immo-bilized a photosensitizer, whichis a chemical called rutheniumbipyridyl complex and a cat-alytic part which is anotherchemical called rhenium car-bonyl complex ([Re(CO)5Cl]),inside the nanospace of metal-

organic framework for artificialphotosynthesis. Both thesemolecular entities stay in closeproximity in the confinednano-space of a porous metal-organic framework systemresulting in excellent Co2uptake capability at room tem-perature. This synthetic strat-egy empowers efficient solarlight-driven photocatalysis.

The developed catalystexhibited excellent visible-light-driven CO2 reduction to COwith more than 99% selectivi-ty. The catalyst also oxidizeswater to produce oxygen (O2).The photocatalytic assembly,when assessed for CO2 reduc-tion under direct sunlight in awater medium without anyadditives, showed superior per-formance of CO production.Being heterogeneous, the inte-grated catalytic assembly can bereused for several catalyticcycles without losing its activ-ity.

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The threat of coronavirusinfection looms large in

Delhi Prisons as it readies forthe returning inmates whowere granted parole last yearamid the coronavirus pan-demic outbreak.

According to jail officials,it will be difficult to maintainsocial distancing with thesurge in the number ofCOVID-19 cases in the pris-ons.

They said the situationcould be more difficult tomanage when the inmates,who were granted parole dur-ing the pandemic outbreak lastyear, would return.

There are a total of 18,900inmates in the Delhi Prisonscomprising Tihar, Rohini andMandoli jails. However, theintake capacity of DelhiPrisons Department is 10,026inmates.

The number of inmateswill pass the 20,000-mark asmore will come after theiremergency parole lapse, asenior jail official said.

Meanwhile, the jai l authority asserted that all stepsare being taken to keep theCOVID-19 situation undercontrol. Last time an inmatewas tested positive for coron-avirus was on January 14.After that, three more personswere found positive, but theircondition was detected beforethey entered the jail.

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Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh): Ina tragic incident, a youngwoman was allegedly shot deadby a married man in the NaglaLalman village after she refusedto continue her relationshipwith him.

The accused has beenarrested by the police and sentto judicial custody after beingproduced in court.

Kalpana, 21, was foundshot dead in the field on Fridayevening, around 300 metersfrom her house, after she hadgone to relieve herself.

Police said that the suspect,Ajab Singh, 28, allegedly shother after heated argumentsover her recent engagementwith another person.As thewoman was not ready to con-tinue her four year old rela-tionship with him, he got furi-ous and reportedly shot herdead with a country-madeweapon.

Mainpuri Superintendent

of Police Avinash Pandey saidthat during interrogation, AjabSingh told police that he calledthe woman on the night of theincident but she disconnectedthe call and when he again triedto connect with her, her cellphone was busy.

Next morning, the womanasked him to meet her in thefields.

Ajab reportedly tried toconvince her not to marry butshe refused and even asked himto end their relationship.

After hearing this, Ajab gotaggressive and shot her deadwith a country made weapon,which he had recently bought.

Ajab even made a plan toput the blame on the girl'sbrothers by trying to give it acolour of honour killing.

Ajab initially told the policethat the woman's brother,Avadhpal, had seen him withhis sister in the fields and hadkilled her. IANS

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Tirupati:The forthcomingTirupati Lok Sabha by-electionwill be one of the most watchedelections in Andhra Pradesh aswell as beyond over the nextone month.

The Parliamentary con-stituency reserved for theScheduled Castes fell vacantafter the sitting YuvajanaSramika Rythu Congress Party(YSRCP) MP Balli DurgaPrasad succumbed to coron-avirus in September 2020.

It has been vacant foralmost six months and onlyrecently the ElectionCommission of India (ECI)scheduled the election on April17.

Many times in the south-ern state when a legislator diesin an untimely manner, one ofhis immediate family membersis given the ticket and it is alsocustomary for all political par-ties to make that person's vic-

tory a formality by allowing itto go uncontested and unani-mous.

However, in this case,YSRCP founder and AndhraChief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy did not chooseto take that route and accom-modated Prasad's son, BalliKalyan Chakravarthy, as anMLC under the MLA quotarecently.

It is also not sure if thepolitical rivals would haveallowed the seat to go unani-mously respecting traditioneven if he had chosen anyPrasad's family member, giventhe bitter, vitiated and religiouspolitical environment prevalentin the state now.

Considering Reddy choos-ing a completely new person,Maddila Gurumoorthy, from anon-political family, the battlefor the Lok Sabha seat just gotfiercer and the field wider with

three parties, YSRCP, BJP andTDP, vying for it.

Gurumoorthy, the 36-year-old physiotherapist has been alifelong follower of Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy's family andcomes from a Dalit backgroundfrom the Mala caste. Both hisparents are uneducated and thefamily practices the Hindufaith.

The agricultural familyhails from Mannasamudramvillage in Yerpedu mandal ofSriKalahasti constituency.

Gurumoorthy's associationwith late Rajasekhar Reddyand his family started around2006 when he met the thenchief minister requesting himto establish Andhra Pradeshstate physiotherapy council.

Following a favourable out-come to his request,Gurumoorthy became a strongsupporter and follower ofRajasekhar Reddy from then

on. He accompanied Reddy ashis personal physiotherapistall through his 3,648-km-longPraja Sankalpa Yatra padayatra(marathon walkathon).

Walking along with Reddygave him an opportunity to seethe realities of the state acrossits length and breadth, includ-ing observing the socio-eco-nomic conditions.

Gurumoorthy was a teammember of the YSRCP's 2014election campaign. In the 2019polls, he served as a teammember of Reddy's motherY.S. Vijayamma's election cam-paign.

"I never imagined that Iwould be chosen. I am a com-mon activist (of YSRCP) and aservice man to Jagan MohanReddy...Jagan has the person-ality to explore a commonactivist to the hilt. I am readyto execute any work he entrustsme with anytime without fault,

it is my responsibility as anactivist," he said after meetingthe CM following theannouncement of his candida-ture.

Taking the Tirupati bypollextremely seriously, the chiefminister on Friday told a stringof ministers and party leadersnot to become complacent andtake the government's welfareand development activities toeach and every home in theconstituency during the cam-paign.

Reddy exhorted that theTirupati bypoll result should beso impactful that the wholecountry must take note of it.

Meanwhile, the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), ruling thecountry at the Centre has alsotaken the bypoll prestigiously,pinning high hopes on it andwaiting for its president J.P.Nadda to announce the candi-date's name. IANS

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Uncertainty is staring at theApril 6 election to Kerala

Legislative Assembly as Leaderof the Opposition RameshChennithala alleged on Sundaythat he has solid proof of theinclusion of more than four lakhnew and fake voters in theState’s voters’ list.

“I have met the ChiefElection Commissioner andhanded over the relevant doc-uments to him. We have sub-mitted details of inclusion ofmore than 2.5 lakh fame votersin 60 assembly constituencies.The remaining details in 69 con-stituencies would be handedover to the ECI on Monday,”said Chennithala in a speciallyconvened media meet onSunday.

The Leader of the

Opposition said that at no pointof time in Kerala’s history theState has seen voters’ list beingmanipulated in this scale.

“Everything associated withthe CPI(M) and the LeftDemocratic Front is embroiledin corruption. Even on thisSunday morning, all Churchesin Kollam district read out pas-toral message from the Bishopalleging massive corruption inthe deep sea fishing deal signedbetween the Government ofKerala and a US based compa-ny. The deal will throw hun-dreds of thousands of fishermenin the State to deep seas,”charged Chennithala.

He also accused the mediain the State of playing as cam-paign managers of ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan andthe CPI(M). The three opinionpolls, which do not have any

credibility or reliability, held bythree different media housesclaim that the CPI(M)-led LDFwould win big majority in theupcoming election.“Interestingly, all the three opin-ion polls were held by the sameagency for the three differentmedia houses. How can oneinfer from the opinion of 10,000persons in the State the resultsof 140 assembly constituen-cies?” asked Chennithala.

The Leader of theOpposition said that the KeralaGovernment has spent Rs 200crore on advertisements in thelast one month.

“The State has made use ofRs 57 crore from KeralaInfrastructure Investment FundBoard (KIIFB), a StateGovernment owned financialinstitution, to finance this mediashow,” he said.

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It is very rare to see KawdiarPalace in

Thiruvananthapuram, fromwhere Balarama Varma, rulerof the princely State ofTravancore administered hiscountry and its people till1947, hosting a public function.The sprawling Palace with 150rooms where the members ofthe erstwhile royal familyreside, played host to a bookreleasing function on Sunday.

Gowri Lakshmi Bayi,whom old timers address asThampuratti (Malayalam forHer Highness), who is also thematriarchal head of the fami-ly, released a book “The Sunwhich gives the Word”authored by ParappanangadiUnnikrishna Panikkar, Sanskritand Vedic Scholar.

What made the eventunique was the decision ofLakshmi Bayi to play host to abook releasing function. Theprincess, herself an author ofrepute having published 12books on Kerala’s rich cultureand tradition, was charmed bythe contents of “The Sun whichGives the Word”, a collection of

articles focussing on Indiansystem of knowledge includingastrology.

“These are articles on var-ied topics like history, philos-ophy, literature, music, topicalissues and of course astrology.All these articles were writtenduring the lock-down period in2020 when I was forced torestrict myself to my house,”Panikkar told The Pioneer.

There are articles on theimportance and significance oflearning Sanskrit whichaccording to Panikkar wouldsoon emerge as a global lan-guage. He also discusses vari-

ous Ramayanas and differentkinds of temple worshippingthat include the controversialSabarimala issue. “We have tounderstand the pluralisticnature of different templeswhich are not mere prayerhalls but buildings with life,”said the author.

A learner even at the age of75, Panikkar’s passion forknowledge and information isawesome, according to lateAkkitham AchuthanNamboodiri, the JnanapeethAward winning poet of Kerala.He had referred Panikkar whotravels around like an evange-

list propagating the impor-tance of Sanskrit and Indiansystem of knowledge.

Panikkar, who is passion-ate about Kalidasa, KumaranAasan, Vallathol NarayanaMenon and UlloorParameswara Iyer is equally athome with Uroob, Thakazhi,Kesava Dev, Sanjayan andVKN . “We do not have titanslike them now because thenew generation do not showany interest in learningSanskrit. See SubramanyaBharati of Tamil Nadu. Hehad assimilated the spirit ofKumara Sambhavam andVikramorvaseeyam and that isreflected in Bharati’s words”said Panikkar.

He said he was equallymoved by books like A Historyof Hindu Chemistry by ProfPraphulla Chandra Ray ,Sciences of the Ancient Hindusby Dr Alok Kumar and RemoteViewers: The Secret History ofAmerica’s Psychic Spies by JimSchnabel. He said his friendsencouraged him to publish thepostings he had made in hissocial media as a book and thatresulted in publishing the book.

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In the world of Tamil cinema,he is known as Ulaga

Naayagan (Tamil for Leader ofthe World). But it will beknown only on May 2 whetherhe would emerge as TamilNaayagan. Yes, Kamal Haasan,the national award winningfilm actor is having baptism byfire at Coimbatore SouthAssembly constituency wherehe is engaged in a four corneredcontest.

Kamal Haasan, founder ofthe Makkal Neethi Meiam,who has been projected as thechief ministerial candidate ofthe front led by him is engagedin a battle royal at this con-stituency. A rank outsider, theactor has two powerful rivals inVanathi Srinivasan, president ofthe Mahila Morchcha who hasbeen fielded by the AIADMK-led front and Mayura SJayakumar of the IndianNational congress.

Though there are two morecontestants, R Duraisamy of theAMMK and Abdul Wahab ofthe NTK, their presence isonly of academic interest. The

fight for the cup is betweenKamal Haasan, Vanathi andJayakumar. Coimbatore is tra-ditionally a AIADMK strong-hold and that is the reason whythe DMK granted the same tothe Congress party.

Jayakumar had polled42,369 votes in the 2016 assem-bly election which was won bythe AIADMK’s K Arjunan by amargin of more than 14,700votes. While Jayakumar had thesupport of the DMK, theAIADMK and BJP had con-tested separately. WhileArjunan polled 59,788 votes,Vanathi had to contend with33,113 votes. Since theAIADMK and BJP have cometogether this time, Vanathimay walk away with morevotes and emerge as winner (atleast on paper).

Vanathi’s advantage is thatshe is from Coimbatore andbelongs to the powerfulGounder community. “Thoughwe claim that the Dravidamovement has got rid ocasteism in Tamil Nadu, thetruth is that ours is the mostcaste-ridden society in India,”said Govindarajan Satyamurti,veteran journalist and com-

mentator. He said Goundersand Naidus constitute a majorportion of the population. Bothare affluent and entrepreneurs.Most of the educational insti-tutions are owned by theGounders, the community offormer union minister andCongress leader CSubramanian,” saidSathyamurti.

Vanathi has been activelyinvolved in the constituencysince 2016, said Indumathi, adanseuse of repute. “Thoughshe was in Chennai most of thetime, we have never missed heras she rushes to Coimbatore toattend to each of our needs,”said Indumathi. Vanathi hastaken a cue from her leaderslike Smriti Irani and has estab-lished herself as part and par-cel of the Kongunadu region towhich Coimbatore belongs.

This is where KamalHaasan lags behind. “ThoughVanathi does not have the haloof a film artist, her image as thesister/ aunty in the neighbour-hood is likely to play in herfavour,” said Jayakumar, anentrepreneur in Coimbatore.He disclosed that the Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises

of which he is a part, was get-ting back to normalcy after thelock down due to Covid-19.

But Haasan draws hugecrowd wherever he goes. He isyet to establish himself as anarticulate speaker, an essentialquality for the public activist.While Vanathi and Jayakumarcan eclipse all their rivals in pub-lic speeches (an important qual-ity in Tamil Nadu), KamalHaasan may have to work over-time to overcome the handicap.‘But these are all small issues.Haasan will hands down in thiselection and he will decide thefuture chief minister of theState,” said Selvaraj, one of hisaides.

Is the crowd around Haasanhas turned up only because ofhis image as a mega star in Tamilcinemas? “We could see thesame huge crowds during thepublic rallies and election cam-paigns addressed by Vijayakanthin 2016. But when results wereannounced Vijaykanth , whowas introduced as KaruppuMGR (Black MGR) could notsave his security deposit atVirudachalam, his home con-stituency,” said KolahalaSrenivas, commentator.

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New Delhi: India's massiveevacuation programme trig-gered by the Covid-19 pan-demic has brought back over 67million from abroad.

In a tweet, Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh Purisaid: "It is not just a mission thatbrought back stranded & dis-tressed citizens from around theworld, but Vande Bharat hasbeen a Mission of hope & hap-piness; of letting people knowthat they will not be left behindeven in the most testing times.""67.5 million & continuing togrow..." India had commencedone of the world's largest evac-uation operations from May 7,2020 to bring back its strandedcitizens from abroad. The planhad originally envisaged to bringback more than 1,90,000 Indiannationals.

Initially, Air India and itssubsidiary Air India Expressplayed a key role in the opera-tions. Afterwards, other air car-riers were allowed to take partin the programme. Besides, aer-ial evacuation, even naval shipswere used to bring back Indiancitizens. IANS

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Home Minister Amit Shah onSunday released the BJP’s

election manifesto that not onlytargets women, youth and theHindu community at large butalso tends to take on ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’s‘Bengal versus outsiders’ rhetoric.

In what looked like a counterploy against TMC’s policy paper--- wooing the women with apocket money of Rs 500 to beginwith --- Shah said the women ofBengal would not only be pro-vided free travel in governmenttransport but also they would get“free education from KG to PG.”Besides, he said the newGovernment would ensure 33percent reservation for women inthe government jobs.

12 all-women battalions forwomen’s safety would also be cre-ated by the new Government, hesaid. The widow pension wouldbe increased to Rs 3,000 permonth.

Incidentally the TMCGovernment had been runningmultiple women-centric schemeslike Kanyashree, Rupashree ---some helping women with Rs25,000 after they attain the age of18.

In an apparent bid to counterBanerjee’s “Maa Canteen” schemethat aims at cheap meals for Rs

5 the BJP manifesto offers threefree meals per day from theGovernment sponsoredAnnapurna Canteens --- all forRs 5.

Besides stopping infiltrationcompletely the first Cabinetmeeting would clear AyushmanBharat and CtizenshipAmendment Act, Shah saidadding apart from this eachrefugee family will get Rs 10,000per year for 5 years.

Alleging that even the poormembers of the scheduled casteand scheduled tribes have toshell out Rs 500 for procuringcaste certificates Shah said hisparty manifesto promises toimplement a scheme wherebySC/ST certificates would be giventhrough electronic process leav-ing no room for corruption.

I an apparent bid to appeal tothe Bengali sentiment ShahBengali would be made a medi-um of instruction in technicaland medical courses besideswhich efforts would be made topromote Bengali as an officiallanguage in the United Nations.This apart a Tagore Prize --- beequivalent to the Nobel Prize --- named after Poet LaureateRabindranath Tagore. Apart fromthis Bengali to be made manda-tory in all official documents.

A super highway linkingKolkata and Siliguri would be

named after Netaji SubhasChandra Bose apart from whicha Netaji foundation would be cre-ated to spread information abouthis life and deeds world over.

The new Government willalso set up two more AIIMs andEklavya model residential schoolsin every tehsil for the tribal stu-dents. Rs 20,000 crore fundwould be created to developschool infrastructure.

A master plan worth Rs22,000 crone would be created forKolkata to launch it in the classof international cities. A worldclass Mahanayak Uttam KumarFilm City will come up atSonarpur in South 24 Parganas“which will restore the Bengalicinema to its old glory andpride,” Shah said.

Besides the banks of HooghlyRiver would be decked up forregular Ganga Aarti pro-grammes. Namami Gange pro-ject to be fast tracked inBaranagar, Bally and Howrah:Amit Shah. The Aadi Ganga bythe iconic Kalighat Temple ---that has been reduced to a sew-erage canal --- would be cleanedup and sewage disposal would bebanned in the canal. Besides Rs2,500 crore would be spent topromote Ganga Sagar as a worldclass pilgrimage destination.

Durga Puja festival inKolkata too would be given a

world-class look helping a steadyinternational tourist inflow to thecity. “After we come to powerDurga Puja will be an interna-tional affair and no one will haveto take permission from HighCourt to organize Durga Puja,”Shah said.

Apart from starting KisanSanman Nidhi the fisher folkwould be given an yearly Rs 6,000for their development. For the teaworkers in North Bengal ---where the BJP won all the sevenseats --- their daily wage wouldbe raised to Rs 350. He said “Rs18,000, which Mamata didi didnot give to farmers since 3 years,would be transferred to 75 lakhfarmers’ bank accounts withoutany cut.

New tourism policy would beframed for Bengal with 9 newtourist circuits being createdShah said adding the hospitalityindustry would be allowed tofetch loans worth Rs 50 lakh witha tax holiday. Bengal would bepromoted within top 3 states inease of doing business hesaid.

Referring to corruption hesaid the new Government wouldconduct probe the alleged mis-appropriation of Amphan, Aailaand Bulbul cyclone relief funds.Besides, a special task forcewould be created to investigatescams perpetrated by the sandand coal mafia.

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Putting up a brave front in front of a hand-ful of party leaders left behind in her camp

former J&K Chief Minister and PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) Chief MehboobaMufti on Sunday decided not to appear beforethe Enforcement Directorate in New Delhion March 22.

PDP Chief was summoned by theEnforcement Directorate investigating casesunder the provisions of the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act , 2002 (15 of 2003).

A senior party leader in Srinagar Sundaytold The Pioneer, "PDP Chief MehboobaMufti has decided not to appear before theEnforcement directorate in New Delhi onMarch 22 in connection with a money laun-dering case".

"She has duly informed the ED officialsclaiming it was not possible for her due to cer-tain prior commitments to make it to NewDelhi at such a short notice. She has alsorequested them to explore the option of ques-tioning her through video conferencing", asenior PDP leader said.

Earlier on Saturday Mehbooba herselfhad dropped clear hints when she wasasked to comment on the ED summons andwhether she would be visiting New Delhi toappear before the ED officials.

"The matter is sub judice but let me tellyou i am not afraid of anyone or anything. Iam not hiding from any one", Mehbooba toldreporters on the sidelines of a politicalmeeting in Kulgam on Saturday.

On Friday Delhi High Court had alsorefused to stay the summons issued by theEnforcement Directorate

Soon after the ED summons were servedto her in the first week of March she had chal-lenged the validity of the summons and askedthe court to quash the summons.

In her petition, Mehbooba said she hadnot been informed if she is being summonedas an accused or as a witness.

“GOI’s tactics to intimidate & browbeatpolitical opponents to make them toe theirline has become tediously predictable. Theydon’t want us to raise questions about its puni-tive actions & policies. Such short-sightedscheming won’t work,” Mehbooba had tweet-ed soon after receiving the ED notice.

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offset the long-runningChinese economic and mili-tary influence. It is a welcomedevelopment for the Stateswho have long been buriedunder the weight of China’sdebt diplomacy and militarydominance but were unable toarticulate their displeasure forfear of a punitive backlash.

While strategic commen-tators remained sceptical ofBiden’s resolve in reining inthe Chinese economic andmilitary muscle-flexing inthe region, the historic sum-mit has put at bay some ofthose scepticisms, at least fornow. The Quad’s messagehas not been lost on part ofother regional democracies,such as South Korea.

So, what does the Quadmean for Indo-Australianrelations?

India’s External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar hasexpressed “great satisfaction”in how the Australia-India tieshave deepened in the wake ofthe pandemic. Since June2020, when the inauguralModi-Morrison virtual sum-mit transpired, the compre-hensive strategic partnershiphas not only deepened but alsobecome the fulcrum of theQuad’s new avatar for ensur-ing a safe, open and secureIndo-Pacific regional architec-

ture. It is a double delight howthe Quad and Australia-Indiabilateral business and tradeties have assumed a mutuallycomplementary character.

Engagements on both thefronts will chart a parallelcourse and should not beseen in isolation. PeterVarghese, the author of IndiaEconomic Strategy report, hadobserved much before theCOVID outbreak: “…thestronger that (Australia-India)broader relationship, the bet-ter the prospect of an econom-ic strategy. India should not beseen only as a geopoliticalpartner.” Now, New Delhi alsosees Australia not only as aneconomic partner but also asa geopolitical one.

The Department ofForeign Affairs and Tradeobserves that India’s youngpopulation and diversifiedgrowth trajectory present sig-nificant opportunities in var-ious sectors. Both sides haveformalised over 20 MoUs lastJune, covering some of theseareas. Their two-way tradehas risen from $13.6 billion to$30.4 billion in 2018 but it isstill below the full potential.By 2035, both sides aim todouble the bilateral trade andAustralia seeks to bring Indiain its top five trading partners(currently eighth).

Ambassador AnilWadhwa’s Australia EconomicStrategy report, launched afew months ago, could nothave come at a more oppor-tune time. The report hasidentified 12 key sectors interalia, mining, services and star-tups, pharmaceuticals, health-care and medical technologies,education and skills, agribusi-ness, power and renewableenergy and tourism. Thereport very nicely comple-ments the recommendationsof Varghese’s India Strategyacross 10 sectors. The MutualLogistics Support Agreementand Island Support Agreementto use Andaman & Nicobarand Cocos (Keeling) Islands inthe maritime domain, andIndia’s decision to includeAustralia into the Malabarnaval exercise, assume greatersignificance in the context ofthe Quad’s emergence.

In sum, Australia andIndia are now well-positionedto play their long-due leader-ship roles in the Indo-Pacificand, broadly speaking, ininternational affairs. Thisgreat opportunity emerging ata historic high in bilateral rela-tions should not be missed.

(The author is the CEO,Institute for Australia IndiaEngagement, Brisbane. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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The inaugural virtualsummit of the Quadmembers should beseen as a watershed in

the history of the formation,since its inception in 2007. TheQuad’s evolution has beenimpeded for long by India’s andAustralia’s hesitation in formal-ising the grouping, owing to theirbilateral sensitivities towardsChina. But not anymore. In thewake of Australia’s trade tensionswith China triggered by the for-mer’s demand for an inquiry intothe origins of the COVID-19outbreak and, on the other hand,India’s military confrontation inDoklam and Ladakh with China,their strategic cooperation hasgrown manifold in recentmonths. Their newfound will-ingness to stand up to China’sirridentist claims, Hong Kongand Xinjiang crackdown andperiodic diplomatic bellicosityand bluster in bilateral dealingshas underpinned Quad’s fruitioninto a formal entity.

The Quad summit agendawas consciously kept quite wide,including the COVID-19 strat-egy, vaccine production, climatechange, supply chain disrup-tions, critical and emerging tech-nologies and maritime security.The rationale being to downplayany “anti-China” posturing thatBeijing may find disturbing anddisruptive for the Indo-Pacific.

The burgeoning quadrilater-al vision was carefully articulat-ed in the first-of-its-kind jointop-ed by US President Joe Bidenand the three Prime Ministers —Narendra Modi, Yoshihide Sugaand Scott Morrison. But for thewatchers of international politics,the op-ed is a significant docu-ment for its “between-the-linesmessage”. For instance, the ref-erence to “a group of democra-tic nations” in the second para isa veiled countervailing democ-ratic pushback to China’s author-itarian international conductunder the garb of “peaceful rise”.

In particular, the op-ed’sbroad emphasis on making ajoint effort to tackle the pandem-ic is a clever strategy to win thehearts and minds of the AseanStates, Pacific Island countriesand the Indian Ocean littorals to

SOUNDBITE������������������ �����Sir — It refers to the editorial ‘When the spir-it dies’ (March 20). What a tragedy for RitikaPhogat’s family to see their 17-year-old tal-ented wrestler ending her life like this. I con-cur with the editorial view that had she notbeen a cousin of celebrity wrestlers Geetaand Babita Phogat, her suicide might nothave made such major news.

The irony is that our society has a neg-ligent attitude towards mental health issues.Such issues are often stigmatised in India,leading to many sufferers not seeking help.More than 2 lakh people die by suicide inIndia each year and despite many celebri-ties, including leading cricketers, openlytalking about mental health issues, it stillremains a social stigma and we continue topay a heavy price. We have very few psy-chiatrists. But more than that we, as a soci-ety, need to drastically change our approachtowards mental illness and accept it for thefact that it is. The ongoing pandemic hasexposed the vulnerability of young peopleand it’s high time we started providing themall kind of support to make them feel bet-ter. The Government must open more col-leges for imparting mental health educationand encourage young students to take it upas a career.

India’s National Mental Health Survey,2016, found that close to 14 per cent ofIndia’s population requires active mentalhealth interventions. About two per cent suf-fers from severe mental disorders. Despitethe findings, a huge number of those suf-fering from mental health conditionsremains undiagnosed. Of those who go fora diagnosis, very few receive treatment.

Bal Govind | Noida

����������������������� ���������Sir — This refers to the editorial‘Judgemental hai kya? (March 20). I concurwith the editorial view that the commentmade by Uttarakhand Chief Minister TirathSingh Rawat is shameful, to say the least. Itis an attempt to deride women wearingunconventional clothes. Nobody has theright to decide what a woman should wear.Rawat’s comments reek of a patriarchal

mindset and male chauvinism. We must not target women wearing

ripped jeans or any other choice of cloth-ing. Violence against women remains oneof the most widespread and persistinghuman rights abuses in the world, stemmingfrom deep-rooted notions of women’sunequal status. Women in India continueto be oppressed and ill-treated. They are seenas dependent, weak, exploited and face gen-der discrimination in every sphere of life.The violence that threatens the well-being,dignity and rights of women, extendsacross social, cultural, economic and region-al boundaries. Politicians must refrainfrom making such misogynistic remarks.

Yashi Bairagi | Ujjain

������������� �� ����������� ���Sir — A drone attacked a refinery inRiyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. This is

a new type of hi-tech terrorism. The UNand world leaders must find a way to stopsuch attacks immediately by having aninternational-level meeting with world’s topscientists. According to a UN SecurityCouncil report prepared and presented bya panel of experts in January 2019 onYemen, Houthi rebels have been using smalland medium-sized UAVs for reconnais-sance, surveillance and suicide attack.

The Indian Government must remainalert as terrorists can use drones to attackour security and other installations. Theycan also target the DRDO and other labs.It seems that in future, militants andjihadis will use drones to attack theGovernment installations and buildings.

PN Sreelekha | Secunderabad

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American author, screenwriter, and oceanactivist Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel‘Jaws’ was published in 1974. In 1975, it

was turned into a film. For years various cul-tural critics, most famously the Slovenianphilosopher Slavoj Zizek, have deconstructed‘Jaws’ to mean more than just a story about afictional tourist spot, Amity Island, being tor-mented by a shark.

Peter Biskind in his 1999 book ‘Easy Riders,Raging Bulls’ writes that, since the novel and itsfilm adaptation arrived during a particularlysevere economic and political crisis in the US,‘Jaws’ immediately struck a chord with an audi-ence disoriented by the apparently indefinablenature of the crisis.

In 2012, Zizek saw the shark as a combina-tion of prejudices and fears that are encapsu-lated into a single definable entity, so that abemused polity is able to clearly perceive it asthe cause of society’s dread. To Zizek, the sharkof Amity Island can thus be understood as ametaphor of any community seen to be exist-ing outside the homogeneity of the majoritycommunity and is thus suspect. These can beimmigrants such as Muslims in Western coun-tries (and now in India), non-Muslims inMuslim countries, non-Whites in White-major-ity societies and so on.

For Zizek, the fictional shark was like theJewish community in Nazi Germany. An exis-tentialist enemy created to explain the humili-ation that Germany had to face after its defeatduring World War-I. With the formation of theJew as an entity that was diseasing the nation-al body, an enemy was created and then“unmasked” to give the disoriented polity a faceto channel its anger at. Maybe this is exactly whatthe minority Ahmadiyya community faced inPakistan as well when the country lost its east-ern wing in 1971 after a devastating civil war.

Others have delved deeper still to catch themetaphors in the seas of Amity Island. A recentvideo-essay on the academic website Then &Now sees the shark just as Zizek had understoodit. Despite the shark attacks, the character ofLarry Vaughn in ‘Jaws’ refuses to close downAmity Island’s beaches because it would be badfor the economy. So the essay sees MayorVaughn as a metaphor for unrestrained andamoral capitalism.

The island’s chief of police, Martin Brody,who insists that the beaches must be closed, isseen as symbolising the rational State, where-as marine biologist Dr Hooper represents sci-ence. But since science in this context can onlyhelp explain the malaise, and can’t eradicate it,enter Quint, a veteran shark hunter. Quint isuncouth and a loner.

He symbolises the excesses of behaviour thatare often understood to exist outside the normsof “civilised” societies. But it isn’t Quint who killsthe shark. He is an outsider. In fact, he gets killedby the dreaded predator. It is Brody (the State)who kills the shark.

‘Jaws’ surfaced in the 1970s, when the Statewas still seen as having control over political,economic and social outcomes. But the 1970swere also a decade when, because of certainunprecedented global events and economic

stresses, the State began to strug-gle to control these outcomes. So‘Jaws’ reinforced the trust in a fal-tering State by making the policechief kill the shark.

The Indian film ‘Deewar’(1975) makes a similar reinforce-ment. Released during intensepolitical turmoil in India, thefilm’s three main charactersinclude a downtrodden motherand her two sons. One son growsup to become a police officer whilethe other, still vexed by the man-ner in which society had treatedhis mother, becomes an amoral“angry young man.” He climbs hisway to the top of the criminalunderworld just so he can build agrand house for the mother. Themother disapproves, and decidesto stay with her other son, thehonest police officer. The angryson is eventually shot dead by hisbrother.

In her 1996 book ‘Ire In TheSoul’, Indian film critic NikhatKazmi describes the mother in‘Deewar’ as a metaphor of BharatMaata (Mother India) or thenational personification of Indiaas mother goddess. The goddesssides with the police officer whosymbolises the State. The angryson is the culmination of thewayward and amoral impulsesthat can ruin societies. He is thuseliminated by the State.

The British documentary film-maker Adam Curtis, in his 2016film ‘HyperNormalisation’, is of theview that, as the State failed tocontrol the outcomes of increas-ing economic upheavals, it beganto outsource its responsibilities tothe private sector. This led to glob-alisation. John Hardy, in a 2008essay for ‘E-InternationalRelations’, writes that globalisationcast aside the homogenising ten-dency of modern economics witha more heterogeneous processthat interlinks internationaleconomies, further shrinking therole of the State in an increasing-ly interdependent world.

The receding State and ascentof the private sector is satirised inthe 1988 film ‘They Live’, in whicha man stumbles upon a pair ofglasses with which he can seethrough the illusions of capitalism.For example, when, after he wearsthe glasses, he sees a harmless bill-board of a brand and can only seethe word ‘obey.’

Years later, in the TV series‘Breaking Bad’ (2008-2012), theState is entirely cast aside. In theseries, a “normal” middle-classman who has cancer, decides tomake and peddle crystal meth.The State cannot fully pay for hismedical expenses. He starts to sellmeth so that he can save enoughmoney for his family. Much of the

series is him battling other (butdarker) forces of cynicism, where-as his brother-in-law, a policeman,is brutally assassinated by thosewho are also peddling meth. TheState thus dies in the crossfirebetween two tendencies of amoralprivate enterprise gone wrong.

In Pakistan, between 2007and 2014, when Islamic militantswere running wild, explodingbombs and assassinating oppo-nents at will, one often heard com-mentators warning that the Statewas failing. The 2013 Urdu film‘Waar’ tries to reinforce the mes-sage that the State was still strong.Interestingly though, the sameyear, another film ‘Chambaili’does not see militants as the ene-mies of the State, but “corruptpoliticians.”

‘Chambaili’ is a middle-classpolitical fantasy in which a patri-otic/pro-State movement emergesagainst corrupt politicians andfeudal lords. This is based on thenarrative formed in 2011 by ImranKhan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI). If seen in the context of thesymbology of ‘Jaws’, one can con-clude that Brody, in this case, is theamalgamation of pro-PTI urban-ites and the State (mainly the mil-itary-establishment) retaliatingagainst “corrupt” intruders (theshark) disturbing the calm seas ofmiddle-class righteousness.

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The Syrian civil war fin-ished 10 years lastweek, and it’s time to

stop it. At least half a millionSyrians are dead, a quarter ofthe pre-war population is liv-ing like refugees abroad andanother quarter has been dis-placed inside Syria. Over 30per cent of the country’shousing stock is destroyed orbadly damaged — and wehave known who won the warfor at least four years now.

More fighting cannotchange anything. All the bigcities are back under theregime’s control, as is at least80 per cent of the territoryand of the population that’sstill within the borders.

The Russian militaryintervention in 2015 turnedthe tide, the remaining rebelsare all crammed into oneprovince, Idlib, and localceasefires have silenced theguns in most places.

Yet there is no peace,because neither the rebels inIdlib nor their foreign back-ers are willing to recognisethe victory of long-rulingdictator Bashar al-Assad andhis Baath Party. You can seewhy, because this is a regimethat pitilessly tortures andmurders those who defy it,and in a world where divinejustice prevailed it wouldsurely have been destroyed.

Unfortunately, this is notthat world. Assad came downwith Coronavirus a few daysago, but he’s very unlikely todie from it (he’s only 55), andit’s hard to think of anythingelse that might change theoutcome.

Indeed, even Assad’sdeath might not do the trick.It’s a whole regime with deeproots, not just one man, andit has survived lost wars,attempted coups and rebel-lions for almost 60 years.

Moreover, the only plausiblesuccessor to the ruling BaathParty at this point is themurderous Islamist fanaticsof the al-Qaeda affiliates whocontrol Idlib.

The real reason Assadhas won the war is thatenough people in Syriabelieve the Islamist jihadiswould kill them if they cameto power. All the religiousminorities, Shia Muslim,Christian and Druze, believethat, plus anybody secularand anybody who works forthe Government, includingteachers. They think of thejihadis as an Islamic versionof the Khmer Rouge, andthey’re not far wrong.

The jihadis didn’t domi-nate the original uprising in2011, but Assad is not stupid.He immediately freed around6,000 Islamists from his jails,in the hope that they wereruthless enough to win con-

trol of the opposition andfrighten people into backinghim instead. It worked.

Foreign countries, someignorant, some naive andsome “soft” Islamists them-selves (Turkey, Saudi Arabia,Qatar), poured in guns andmoney, and the Syrian

Islamists did take over therevolt. That drove a lot ofSyrians to Assad’s side — andthen Russia sent its air forcein to save him in 2015. By2017, the war was effectivelysettled — but it did not stop.

It slowed down almost toa stop after Assad hadregained control of every-thing except Idlib province(occupied by Turkey) andthe sparsely populated east ofthe country (partly held byKurdish and Americantroops). But the anti-Assadforeigners won’t acknowledgehis victory.

The US actually strength-ened its already savage sanc-tions against Syria last year, soAssad’s key supporters are stillscraping by but everybodyelse is on the brink of starva-tion. The Syrian pound isworth less than a fifth of itsvalue a year ago, and 80 percent of the population is liv-

ing below the poverty line.The US sanctions can go

on forever at no cost to theUS, while American politi-cians feel virtuous and Syrianssuffer, but there is a way toend this. It has to start withaccepting that Assad will stayin power, because that’s theonly way that other countriesget any leverage.

What price would Assadpay for an end to sanctionsand renewed internationalrecognition as Syria’s leader?Quite a lot, because it wouldenable him to start rebuildingthe country, however slowly,and free him from the isola-tion he has endured for thepast decade.

He could be told that theprice includes an amnesty forall Syrians, including thosewho fought against him,except for those who actual-ly committed war crimes.Many of the refugees would-

n’t go home anyway becausethey don’t trust him, butinternational supervision andguarantees for those whotake up the offer could prob-ably be negotiated.

Turkey would try to blockthe deal, but Russia would goalong with it and put pressureon the Turks. Syria would stillbe a police State, but mostpeople would be back in theirhomes (some measuresrequired to ensure that thosewho fled recover their prop-erty), and all the childrenwould be back in school(most haven’t been inside aneducation institution, for thepast five years).

It would be somethinglike the aftermath of theSpanish Civil War, in otherwords, except with moreinternational involvementand less vengeance against thelosers. No promises, but it’scertainly worth a try.

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Mandalay: A peaceful march at dawn onSunday by medical professionals inMyanmar's second biggest city kicked offanother day of protests around the coun-try against last month's coup. Security forcesshot dead at least one person at a rally elsewhere.

With public protests getting ever moredangerous, anti-coup demonstrators inMandalay acted early to minimize the riskof confrontation with security forces.

The independent AssistanceAssociation for Political Prisoners hadverified 247 deaths nationwide linked to thepost-coup crackdown. The actual total,including cases where verification hasbeen difficult, is probably much higher, itsaid.

It also has confirmed that 2,345 peo-ple have been arrested or charged, with1,994 still detained or sought for arrest.

About 100 doctors, nurses, medical stu-dents and pharmacists, wearing the longwhite coats, lined up on a main road inMandalay to chant slogans and proclaimtheir opposition to the Feb. 1 coup that top-pled the elected civilian government ofAung San Suu Kyi.

The army takeover reversed the slowprogress towards democracy that beganwhen Suu Kyi's National League forDemocracy party won a 2015 election after

five decades of military rule.Mandalay has been a major center of

opposition to the takeover. But in recentweeks, the numbers of protesters has fall-en off in the face of lethal use of force bypolice and soldiers firing live ammunitioninto crowds.

Engineers in Mandalay on Sundayheld what has been dubbed a “no-humanstrike,” an increasingly popular tactic thatinvolves lining up signboards in streets orother public areas as proxies for human pro-testers.

While Mandalay's early morning marchwas unmolested by security forces, at leastone protester was shot dead in Monywa,another central Myanmar city, according tothe online news site Myanmar Now andnumerous social media posts.

Myanmar Now, citing a doctor inMonywa, identified the victim as Min MinZaw, who was shot in the head as he washelping assemble barricades for Sunday'sprotest.

Virtually all the dead since the couphave been shooting victims, and in manycases, have been shot in the head.

The resistance cause over the weekendreceived support from demonstrations inseveral places abroad, including Tokyo,Taipei in Taiwan and on Times Square inNew York City. AP

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Manila (Philippines): The Philippine defense chiefon Sunday demanded more than 200 Chinese ves-sels he said were manned by militias leave a SouthChina Sea reef claimed by Manila, saying their pres-ence was a “provocative action of militarising thearea.”

“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursionand immediately recall these boats violating our mar-itime rights and encroaching into our sovereign ter-ritory,” Lorenzana said in a statement, adding with-out elaborating that the Philippines would uphold itssovereign rights.

A government watchdog overseeing the disput-ed region said about 220 Chinese vessels were seenmoored at Whitsun Reef, which Beijing also claims,on March 7.

It released pictures of the vessels side by side inone of the most hotly contested areas of the strate-gic waterway.

The reef, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is aboomerang-shaped and shallow coral region about175 nautical miles (324 kilometers) west of Batarazatown in the western Philippine province of Palawan.

It's well within the country's exclusive economiczone, over which the Philippines “enjoys the exclu-sive right to exploit or conserve any resources,” thegovernment watchdog said.

The large numbers of Chinese boats are “a con-cern due to the possible overfishing and destructionof the marine environment, as well as risks to safe-ty of navigation,” it said, although it added that thevessels were not fishing when sighted.

Philippine military chief Lt. Gen. CirilitoSobejana said the military's “utmost priority remainsto be the protection of our citizens in the area, par-ticularly our fishermen, through increased maritimepatrols.”

When asked if the Philippines would file aprotest, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. Tweeted,

“only if the generals tell me.” AP

Manila: The Philippine Government expressedconcern after spotting more than 200 Chinese fish-ing vessels it believed were crewed by militias at areef claimed by both countries in the South ChinaSea, but it did not immediately lodge a protest.

A government body overseeing the disputedregion said late Saturday that about 220 Chinese ves-sels were seen moored at Whitsun Reef on March7. It released pictures of the vessels lying side by sidein one of the most hotly contested areas of the strate-gic waterway.

The reef, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is aboomerang-shaped and shallow coral region about175 nautical miles (324 kilometres) west of Batarazatown in the western Philippine province of Palawan.It's well within the country's exclusive economic zone,over which the Philippines “enjoys the exclusive rightto exploit or conserve any resources,” the agency saidin a statement.

The large numbers of Chinese boats are “a con-cern due to the possible overfishing and destructionof the marine environment, as well as risks to safe-ty of navigation,” it said, although it added that thevessels were not fishing when sighted.

When asked if the Philippines would file aprotest, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.Tweeted, “only if the generals tell me.” C h i n e s eEmbassy officials did not immediately issue any com-ment. China, the Philippines and four other gov-ernments have been locked in a tense territorialstandoff over the resource-rich and busy waterwayfor decades. AP

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Bangladesh has ruled outany security threat to Prime

Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to the country laterthis week and said “few” leftwing and hardline Islamistgroups are against his trip butthere is “nothing to worry”about them.

Prime Minister Modi willvisit Bangladesh from March26 to 27 to attend the celebra-tions of the golden jubilee ofthe country's independenceand the birth centenary of itsfounder ‘Bangabandhu' SheikhMujibur Rahman.

This would be his first tripto a foreign country since theoutbreak of the coronaviruspandemic.

“We are proud to invitehim (Modi) to Bangladesh…people are with us (the gov-ernment),” Bangladesh ForeignMinister Dr AK Abdul Momentold reporters on Saturdaynight.

Momen said “only a fewcan oppose this visit and letthem do it”. “There is nothingto worry about (theirprotests),” he added.

“Bangladesh is a democra-tic country where people havethe right to express their opin-ion and the government is not

worried about it,” he said,adding that the protesters are“few in number” and just tak-ing the advantage of the “free-dom of expression”.

Prime Minister Modi andheads of state and governmentfrom Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutanand the Maldives will be amongthe distinguished foreign gueststo join the celebrations underseparate schedules.

Momen said authoritieshave taken every required stepto ensure security of all visitingforeign dignitaries.

Some hardline Islamists,left leaning groups and civilsociety members recentlystaged demonstrations againstModi's visit, referring to India'snew citizenship law.

Meanwhile, Junior ForeignMinister Shahriar Alam urged“those who are giving differentopinions to show respect forthe invited guests if they haverespect for the Bangabandhu asFather of the Nation and lovefor the country”.

He specifically asked thegroups and figures associatedwith the OppositionBangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) to refrain from “exhibit-ing double-standards by oppos-ing Modi's visit since they triedto appease him during his firstterm of the government”.

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Pope Francis on Sunday urged more efforts toensure all people have access to drinking

water. Francis lamented that far “too many people

have access to (only) a little water and that (which)is possibly polluted.” He encouraged all to“reflect on the value of this marvelous and non-substitutive gift of God,” adding that water “isn'tsome good of commerce but “fount of life andof health.” “It is necessary to assure the everyonehas potable water and to hygienic services,''Francis said in his traditional Sunday noonremarks to the faithful.

“I thank and encourage all who, from vari-ous professions and responsibilities, work for suchan important aim,'' the pope added. In particu-lar, he cited those in his homeland, Argentina,who are working on such water projects.

The World Health Organization says some2 billion people use a source of drinking waterthat is contaminated with feces.

Vatican City: Pope Francis on Sundaydenounced racism, likening it to a virus thatlurks in waiting and only to emerge and showthat “our supposed social progress is not as realor definitive” as people think.

Francis tweeted on racism on the date thatthe United Nations marks as International Dayfor the Elimination of RacialDiscrimination.

The pope likened racism to a “a virus thatquickly mutates and, instead of disappearing,goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.” “Instances of racism continue to shame us, forthey show that our supposed social progress isnot as real or definitive as we think,” Francistweeted, adding the hashtags #FightRacism#FratelliTutti. “Fratelli Tutti'' is the title of theencyclical, or special teaching document,which the pope issued last year in the midst ofthe COVID-19 pandemic to press for solidar-ity, brotherhood and care for the environmentworldwide.

In his tweet, Francis cited no particularinstance of racism or place.

Throughout his papacy, he has championedthe rights of people who are marginalised insocieties, including migrants. AP

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Beijing: India, Pakistan, Chinaand other members of theShanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) will hold ajoint anti-terrorism exercisethis year, the eight-memberbloc said.

The decision to hold thejoint exercise “Pabbi-Antiterror-2021” was announced duringthe 36th meeting of the Councilof the Regional Anti-TerroristStructure (RATS) held inTashkent, Uzbekistan on March18.

At the meeting, representa-tives of the SCO member statesalso approved the draft programof cooperation for 2022-2024 tocounter-terrorism, separatismand extremism.

“Decisions have been madeto improve cooperation betweenthe competent authorities of the

SCO member states in identi-fying and suppressing channelsthat finance terrorist activities,”China's state-run Xinhua newsagency reported, quoting aRATS statement.

Delegations of the compe-tent authorities of India,Kazakhstan, China, the KyrgyzRepublic, Pakistan, Russia,Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and theRATS Executive Committeeattended the meeting, Xinhuareported. RATS, headquar-tered in Tashkent, is a perma-nent organ of the SCO whichserves to promote cooperationof member states against ter-rorism, separatism and extrem-ism. The SCO is an economicand security bloc in whichIndia and Pakistan were admitted as full members in2017. PTI

Kabul: State media reportedthat US Defence SecretaryLloyd Austin arrived on Sundayin Kabul on his first trip toAfghanistan as Pentagon chief,amid swirling questions abouthow long American troops willremain in the country.

State-owned Radio andTelevision Afghanistan andpopular TOLO Televisionreported Austin's arrival inKabul from India. He wasexpected to meet with seniorAfghan government officials,including President AshrafGhani.

President Joe Biden saidlast week in an ABC Newsinterview that it will be “tough”for the US to meet a May 1deadline to withdraw troopsfrom Afghanistan. But he saidthat if the deadline, which is laidout in an agreement between

former President DonaldTrump's administration andthe Taliban, is extended, itwouldn't be by a “lot longer.”

In response, the Taliban onFriday warned of consequencesif the US doesn't meet thedeadline.

Suhail Shaheen, a memberof the Taliban negotiation team,told reporters that if US troopsstay beyond May 1, “it will bea kind of violation of the agree-ment. That violation wouldnot be from our side. ... Theirviolation will have a reaction.”

Austin was expected tomeet with Ghani and the newlyappointed defence chief ArmyChief of Staff Gen. Yasin Zia,who was appointed actingdefence minister this week.Washington is reviewing theagreement the Trump admin-

istration signed with the Talibanlast year.

In a sharply worded letterto Ghani earlier this month, USSecretary of State AntonyBlinken said it is urgent to makepeace in Afghanistan and alloptions remain on the table. Healso warned that it is likely theTaliban would make swift ter-ritorial gains if US and NATOtroops withdrew. United Statesspends USD 4 billion a year tosustain Afghanistan's NationalSecurity Forces.

The Taliban warnedAmerica against defying theMay 1 deadline at a press con-ference in Moscow, the day aftermeeting with senior Afghangovernment negotiators andinternational observers to try tojumpstart a stalled peaceprocess to end Afghanistan'sdecades of war. AP

Kuala Lumpur: North Koreandiplomats vacated their embassyin Malaysia and were expelledon Sunday, after the two nationscut diplomatic relations in a spatover the extradition of a NorthKorean criminal suspect to theUnited States.

The North Korean flag andembassy signage were removedfrom the premise in a KualaLumpur suburb. Two buses fer-ried the diplomats and theirfamilies to the airport, wherethey were seen checking in fora flight to Shanghai.

Malaysian Foreign MinisterHishammuddin Hussein saidthe expulsion was in response toPyongyang's “unilateral andutterly irresponsible decision”on Friday to sever diplomaticties.

“This action is a reminderthat Malaysia shall never toler-ate any attempt to meddle in ourinternal affairs and judiciary,disrespect our governance sys-

tem and constantly createunnecessary tensions in defi-ance of the rules-based inter-national order,” he said in astatement.

Ties between North Koreaand Malaysia have been virtu-ally frozen since the 2017 assas-sination of the estranged halfbrother of North Korean leaderKim Jong Un at Kuala LumpurInternational Airport.

Two days after KualaLumpur extradited a NorthKorean man to the U.S. To facemoney laundering charges, afurious North Korea on Fridayannounced it was terminatingties with Malaysia. Malaysiadenounced the decision and ina tit-for-tat response, gave NorthKorean diplomats 48 hours toleave.

Kim Yu Song, the chargéd'affaires and councilor in KualaLumpur, said Malaysia had“committed an unpardonablecrime.” Echoing Pyongyang's

earlier statement, he accusedMalaysia of being subservient tothe U.S. And being part of a U.S.Conspiracy aimed at “isolatingand suffocating” his country.

“The Malaysian authoritydelivered our citizen to the U.S.In the end, thus destroying thefoundations of the bilateral rela-tions based on respect of sov-ereignty,” he said in a short state-ment outside the embassy,before heading to theairport.

North Korea has called themoney laundering charges an“absurd fabrication and (a)sheer plot” orchestrated by theU.S. And warned Washingtonwill “pay a due price.” Some experts say cutting tieswith Malaysia was NorthKorea's way of showing angerwith President Joe Biden'sadministration, without jeop-ardizing an eventual return tonuclear negotiations withWashington. AP

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Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged onSunday to do his utmost to prevent a resurgence of the

coronavirus ahead of the Olympic torch relay and hisupcoming visit to Washington.

Suga was addressing his ruling Liberal DemocraticParty's annual convention, just hours ahead of the plannedlifting of a virus state of emergency in the the Tokyoregion.

Suga said after the state of emergency is lifted is “anextremely important time” for virus prevention.

“We must not put our guards down ... To prevent theinfections from rebounding,” he said.

Suga on Thursday announced that the monthslongemergency measures for Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba andSaitama would end at midnight Sunday, a move under-scoring his government's eagerness to minimize burdenson businesses and keep the economy going, despite con-cerns raised by experts about the potential for an upsurge.

The lifting of the measure comes just days before theOlympic torch relay starts from Fukushima, northeast ofTokyo and the site of the 2011 nuclear crisis, as a sym-bol of reconstruction.

Suga renewed his pledge to achieve the Olympics inJuly as “a proof of the victory against the coronavirus,”after its one-year postponement due to the pandemic.Olympic officials decided Saturday to bar spectators fromabroad. “We will deliver courage and hope from Japanto the world,” Suga said.

Brazzaville (Republic of Congo):Republic of Congo pressed aheadSunday with an election in whichPresident Denis Sassou N'Guessois widely expected to extend his 36years in power, while the leadingopposition candidate remainedhospitalized with Covid-19.

The watchdog groupNetBlocks reported an internetblackout that began in the CentralAfrican country around midnighton election day, and the govern-ment issued no statement on GuyBrice Parfait Kolelas' illness.

While the constitution allowsfor an election to be delayed if acandidate is unable to participatein the vote, polling stations inBrazzaville opened at 8 a.M. Asscheduled, observers said.

Kolelas, 61, had skipped hisfinal campaign event on Fridayafter telling some reporters a dayearlier that he feared he had malar-ia.

A video circulating on socialmedia Saturday showed Kolelaswearing an oxygen mask and witha blood pressure cuff on his arm as

he lay in a hospital bed.“My dear compatriots, I am in

trouble. I am fighting death,” thecandidate says in a weak-soundingvoice after removing his oxygenmask. “However, I ask you tostand up and vote for change. Iwould not have fought for nothing.”

Campaign spokesman CyrMayanda told The Associated Presson Sunday that Kolelas' conditionwas stable, but that plans wereunderway for a medical evacuationto France for furthertreatment.

Kolelas placed second toSassou N'Guesso in the country's2016 presidential election withabout 15 per cent of the vote.

The opposition figure has beenparticularly critical of the incum-bent leader in recent days, declar-ing that Republic of Congo hadbecome “a police state.” Sassou N'Guesso is the third-longest serving president in Africa,ruling from 1979-1992 and thenagain since 1997 in this nationoften overshadowed by its vastneighbor Congo. AP

Istanbul: Turkey's weeklyregional Covid-19 figures keepincreasing as the country keepsrelaxed restrictions in place fornow.

Health ministry statisticsreleased late Saturday showedthe rate of infection as morethan 251 cases per 100,000 inIstanbul, the country's largestcity — up 41% since last week.That means about 40,000 newinfections in Istanbul alone,which has quadrupled fromnumbers first released six weeksago.

The government has divid-ed its 81 provinces into four riskcategories and said it wouldevaluate restrictions at a locallevel every two weeks. The lat-est figures show many citiesturning “very high-risk” or“high risk.”

Turkey's presidentannounced this week thatrelaxed restrictions, like in-restaurant dining and reducedcurfews, would continue “forsome more time” despite risinginfections, but said toughermeasures could be broughtback.

According to measuresannounced in early March,weekend curfews remained inplace in “very high-risk” citiesand Sunday lockdowns contin-ued in “high risk” cities.Restaurants are open for indoorand outdoor dining in all the cat-egories other than “very high-risk,” and nighttime curfews areapplied across the country.

The seven-day average ofinfections across the country hasclimbed over 18,000, hittingdaily rates last seen in December.The number of patients in crit-ical care and deaths are also ris-ing. The total reported death tollin Turkey is 29,959.

Facing an economic down-turn, the government has beenunder pressure from businessowners to resume operationsduring the pandemic. AP

Beirut: Artillery shells fired from gov-ernment areas hit a hospital in a rebel-controlled town in northwestern Syria onSunday, killing at least five civilians andwounding medical staff, rescuers andactivists reported.

The shells landed at the entrance andin the courtyard of the hospital inAtareb, a town in rural western Aleppo,according to the Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rights. Thehospital is located underground, a tac-tic used by the opposition to avoid tar-geting in the conflict-prone area.

The explosion killed at least fivecivilians, including a child and a woman,and injured medical staff, according tothe Syrian Civil Defense volunteers,known as the White Helmets. A videoposted on the local health directorate'sFacebook page showed debris and bloodstains at the entrance of the hospital.

Fadi Hakim, a spokesman for theSyrian American Medical Society, whichsupports the hospital, said the structur-

al damage includes destruction of theorthopedic clinic and the emergencyroom.

“The hospital has been evacuated forthe moment,” he said. Hakim said hecould confirm only four killed, includ-ing a child, and 15 injured, five of themmedical staff.

Attacks on hospitals are common inthe Syria conflict, and are mostly blamedon government and allied forces. Thehealth directorate in the rebel-con-trolled northwest said the attack Sundaywas the first on a medical facility in theregion since February 2020.

The U.S.-based Physicians forHuman Rights has documented 598attacks on at least 350 separate healthcare facilities in Syria since March 2011,the vast majority of them allegedlycommitted by the Syrian governmentand allied forces, including Russia. In thesame 10-year period, at least 930 med-ical personnel were killed, the rightsgroup said. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan imposeda complete ban on travel from12 countries, including SouthAfrica, Rwanda and Tanzania,in a bid to curb the spike ofcoronavirus cases as the coun-try on Sunday recorded 3,667new cases, taking the nationaltally to 626,802.

The Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) notified afresh list of countries cate-gorised into A, B and C afteremergence of South Africanand Brazilian strain of thevirus and imposed a completeban on travel from 12 coun-tries, categorised as C.

The travel restrictions anda ban on inbound passengersfrom 12 countries will remaineffective from March 23 toApril 5.

Botswana, Brazil,

Columbia, Comoros, Ghana,Kenya, Mozambique, Peru,Rwanda, South Africa,Tanzania and Zambia havebeen placed in category C.

The CAA in its notifica-tion said there will be a com-plete travel ban on inboundtravel to Pakistan from categoryC countries, including with-drawal of exemptions earlierprovided to certain categoriesof travellers like Pakistani pass-port holders.

The temporary measure isbeing introduced in continua-tion to the steps being taken tocurb the spread of COVID-19in Pakistan, it said.

The CAA also updated itscategory C, for inbound trav-ellers and shifted the UnitedKingdom from category C tocategory B.

The CAA said the inter-national travellers from cate-gory A countries do not requireCOVID-19 PCR (polymerasechain reaction) test beforeentry into Pakistan.

Australia, Bhutan, China,Fiji, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos,Mongolia, Mauritania,Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal,New Zealand, Saudi Arabia,Singapore, South Korea, SriLanka, Tajikistan, Trinidad andTobago and Vietnam have beenplaced in category A.

The international travellersfrom countries not specified incategory A require COVID-19test before commencement oftravel to Pakistan.

The notification said allcountries which are not spec-ified in A and C fall in catego-ry B. PTI

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Turkish police on Sunday detained a promi-nent pro-Kurdish party politician who was

staging a days-long protest in parliament. Hewas released after questioning several hourslater.

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, from thePeoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, refused toleave parliament after he was stripped of hisstatus and immunity as lawmaker onWednesday.

The party said around 100 police officersentered parliament to detain him. Video of hisdetention showed police officers dragging himaway.

The party, which is in the throes of a gov-ernment crackdown, said Gergerlioglu wasdetained as he was performing his ablutionsfor morning prayers.

“The police insisted on detaining him, andtook him away in his pajamas and slippers,”the HDP said in a statement.

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Over 750 global buyers fromabout 52 countries, includ-

ing the UK and Europe, areparticipating in a two-day foodand beverage show -IndusFood 2021, TradePromotion Council of India(TPCI) said on Sunday.

The show, which startedfrom March 20, aimed at show-casing huge potential exists inthe sector for global anddomestic players.

TPCI said the fair attractedmaximum buyers from GCC(Gulf Cooperation Council)region from where more than150 buyers attended the show.It was followed by over 100 play-ers from CIS (Commonwealthof Independent States) coun-tries, Europe (80) and Africa(80) and over 40 from the USand Latin America.”The expect-ed business negotiation worth800 million to 1 billion USD isexpected to have been negoti-ated so far during the show,” itsaid.

Vivek Agarwal, Chairman

- Food and BeverageCommittee, TPCI said therecent rise in trade of value-added food and beverageproducts has generated unfore-seen opportunities for foodand beverage companies.

“This has increased therelevance of both global valuechain frameworks and pro-duction networks in the foodprocessing sector. This editionis being conducted with strictsafety protocols and we arehappy to have taken this step toset up the fair in physical for-mat despite lingering chal-lenges,” he said.

IndusFood 2021 also wit-nessed participation from dif-ferent states, including Odisha,Haryana and Tamil Nadu, TPCIsaid.A memorandum of under-standing was inked between theJammu Kashmir Trade pro-motion Organisation (JKTPO)and the council. It was signedby JKTPO Managing DirectorAnkita Kar and TPCI Founderand Chairman Mohit Singla toincrease cooperation in thesector.

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Ahangover from Trump-eratariff disputes could

become even more painful forAmerican whiskey distillersunless their entanglement in atrans-Atlantic trade fight isresolved soon.

Bourbon, Tennesseewhiskey and rye whiskey wereleft out of recent breakthroughsto start rebuilding U.S. Traderelations with the EuropeanUnion and the UnitedKingdom in the wake ofDonald Trump’s presidency.

Tariffs were suspended onsome spirits, but the 25% tar-iffs slapped on Americanwhiskey by the EU and UKremain in place.

And the EU’s tariff rate isset to double to 50% in June inthe key export market for U.S.Whiskey makers.A leadingspirits advocate is imploringtop U.S. Trade envoy KatherineTai to not leave whiskey pro-ducers behind.

����� -./��.01,

Aadhaar is no longermandatory for pensioners

to get digital life certificate,Jeevan Pramaan, that isrequired to collect their pen-sions, according to the new rulenotified by the government.

The government has alsomade Aadhaar verification vol-untary for its instant messagingsolution ‘Sandes’ and atten-dance management at publicoffices under the AadhaarAuthentication for GoodGovernance (Social Welfare,Innovation, Knowledge) Rules,2020.

“Aadhaar Authenticationin Jeevan Pramaan is on a vol-untary basis and user organi-zations shall provide\ alter-nate means of submission ofLife Certificate. NIC shall com-ply with provisions of AadhaarAct 2016, Aadhaar Regulation2016 and the O.Ms (officialmemorandum), circulars andguidelines issued by UIDAIfrom time to time,” a notifica-tion by the Ministry of

Electronics and IT dated March18 said.

Digital Life Certificate forpensioners scheme was intro-duced to address the woes thatpensioners faced as they wererequired to be present beforepension disbursing agency orhad the life certificate issued byauthority where they servedearlier and delivered that to thedisbursing agency.

The digital life certificatehelped pensioners from phys-ically travelling to the respec-tive organisation.

However, many pension-ers complained about problemsin getting pension due non-availability of Aadhaar cards ortheir fingerprints becomingunreadable.

While some governmentorganisations provided an alter-nate way of issuing pension in2018, the notification to makeAadhaar voluntary for the dig-ital life certificate has beenissued now.

Simultaneously, theElectronics and IT Ministry hasmade Aadhaar optional for

users of instant messaging solu-tion, Sandes app, developed bythe National InformaticsCentre.

“Aadhaar Authenticationin Sandes is on a voluntarybasis and user organisationsshall provide alternate means ofverification. NIC shall complywith provisions of AadhaarAct 2016, Aadhaar Regulation2016 and the O.Ms, circularsand guidelines issued byUIDAI from time to time,” aseparate notification datedMarch 18 said.

Developed under projectname Government InstantMessaging System, the app isused within public depart-ments.

Proof of concept for theapp is done by more than 150organizations including NitiAayog, MeitY, CBI, MEA,Indian Railways, Indian Navy,Indian Army, National SecurityCouncil Secretariat (NSCS),Intelligence Bureau, BorderSecurity Force, Central ReservePolice Force, Department ofTelecom, Home Ministry, etc.

����� -./��.01,

Gold imports, which have abearing on the country’s

current account deficit (CAD),fell 3.3 per cent to USD 26.11billion during April-February2020-21, according to thecommerce ministry data.

Imports of the yellowmetal stood at USD 27 billionin April-February 2019-20.

The decline in goldimports has helped in narrow-ing the country’s

trade deficit to USD 84.62

billion during the 11-month ofthe current fiscal, as againstUSD 151.37 billion a year ago.

India is the largest importerof gold, which mainly caters tothe demand of the jewelleryindustry.

In volume terms, the coun-try imports 800-900 tonnes ofgold annually.

To promote the export sec-tor, the government hasreduced the import duty in thisBudget on the metal to 7.5 percent.

However, it also attracts

agriculture infrastructure anddevelopment cess at the rate of2.5 per cent.

Gems and jewelleryexports declined 33.86 per centto USD 22.40 billion in April-February 2020-21.

The imports of goldjumped to USD 5.3 billion inFebruary as compared to USD2.36 billion in the same monthlast year, the data showed.

Silver imports during the11 months have dipped by70.3 per cent to USD 780.75million.

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Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oilgiant Aramco announced

Sunday that its profits nearlyhalved in 2020 to USD 49 bil-lion, a big drop that came as thecoronavirus pandemic roiledglobal energy markets.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co.Released its annual financialresults a year after the pan-demic sent the price of oilcrashing to all-time lows aspeople stopped moving aroundthe world to stem the spread ofthe virus.

In recent weeks, however,the price has edged up asmovement restrictions ease,commerce increases and morepeople get vaccinated againstCOVID-19. Still, analysts cau-tion that a peak in demand maystill be far off.

Despite the 44 per centdrop in net income, Aramcosaid it would stick to itspromise of paying quarterlydividends of USD 18.75 billion— USD 75 billion a year — dueto commitments the company

made to shareholders in therun-up to its initial publicoffering. Nearly all of the div-idend money goes to the Saudigovernment, which owns morethan 98 per cent of the com-pany.

Aramco’s policy to pay div-idends significantly higher thanits 2020 free cash flow of USD49 billion stands in sharp con-trast to other oil giants thathave cut payouts.

Seeking a cash infusion topay the billions of dollars in theface of declining revenue,Aramco recently has issuedinternational bonds.

The public figures, obliga-tory ever since the mostlystate-owned company listed asliver of its worth on Riyadh’sTadawul stock exchange in2019, offers valuable insightinto the health of the region’slargest economy. Despite SaudiCrown Prince Mohammed binSalman’s efforts to diversifythe economy away from oil, thekingdom remains heavilydependent on oil exports to fuelgovernment spending.

������ *+�,

Surge in the Covid cases aswell as global bond yields

might dampen the key equityindices next week, analystscontended.

Accordingly, marketwatchers, said that the upswingseen late on last Friday onaccount of rejig in internationalindex weights might not sus-tain in the coming week.

“Nifty has showed remark-able bounce from the intradaylows on March 19. One willhave to watch as to whether thisuppishness continues early nextweek even after the FTSE rebal-ancing is done with,”

“US Bond yield moves willbe one of the important factorsto track. 14,919 remains astrong resistance for the Niftywhile 14,529 could be a sup-port.”

Last week, the key domes-tic indices posted losses amidhigh volatility as markets closedin the red on 4 out of 5 trad-ing sessions.

Factors such as resurgenceof Covid-19 cases in various

part of the country madeinvestors jittery.

“The Federal Reserve couldremain a source of angst formarkets in the week ahead,with chairman Jerome Powellscheduled to testify twicebefore Congress and more thana dozen other Fed speechesexpected,”

Besides, a contraction inIIP data for January and spikein India’s inflation had also trig-gered selling.

A sharp increase in the UStreasury yields and firm crudeoil prices did not help investors’sentiment.

“The market may remainvolatile in the near term givenconcerns over rising bondyields, increasing commodityprices and risk of increase ininflation,” said SiddharthaKhemka, Head - RetailResearch, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

“In addition, resurgenceof Covid cases continues toworry the market and hence itmay continue with its rollercoaster ride.”

Furthermore, the issues

surrounding higher US yieldswill continue to be material tothe markets in the comingweeks, said Joseph Thomas,Head of Research, EmkayWealth Management.

Higher US bond yieldsdrive away foreign capital fromemerging markets’ asset class-es to the more lucrative trea-sury bills.

“The Fed sees growth andinflation, so the yields will gohigher -- this is somethingthat is heard on the streetagain and again,” Thomas said.

“This may have conse-quences for equities, though ina limited way, in the comingdays. The trajectory of the USmarkets will be closely fol-lowed.”

According to Rohit Singre,Senior Technical Analyst atLKP Securities: “Once niftycross above 14,800 zone bull-ish piercing pattern will getactive and we may see a goodmove towards immediate hur-dle zone of 14,900-15,000, sup-ports still at 14,650-14,580zone holding above said levelsstructure can be positive.”

������ -./��.01,

Budget airline GoAir onSunday announced its

‘Summer Sale’ with bookingperiod starting from March 22-26.The travel period for theoffer commences from March22 - June 30 and comes withspecial features.

According to the airline,these features have been craft-ed after analysis of customers’needs.”The first and foremostfeature is 5 kg extra baggageallowance without any extracost. It has been noticed thatcustomers are facing the quin-tessential challenge of optimalbaggage and extra baggage thisseason is the ideal option forthem,” the airline said.“Customers will also have thebenefit of any number of datemodifications to their ticket,free of cost. This feature willenable our esteemed customersto plan and re-plan their sum-mer travel with complete peaceof mind.”

������ -./��.01,

Despite price hikes, the pas-senger vehicle and two

wheeler segments are experi-encing sustainable demandrecovery, India Ratings andResearch (Ind-Ra) said in areport.

Notably, the domestic auto-mobile industry’s sales vol-umes (excluding CVs) grew 10per cent YoY in February 2021,recording positive growth forthe seventh consecutive month.

Segment wise, PV and 2Wsales volumes were up 18 percent and 10 per cent YoY,respectively, in February 2021.

However, segments such as3Ws and CVs are still catchingup.

“Ind-Ra opines steadygrowth of PVs and 2Ws overDecember 2020 to February2021 -- after the festive seasonended in November 2020 --despite the price hikes taken byoriginal equipment manufac-turers (OEMs) suggests a sus-tainable demand recovery forthe sector amid improvingmacroeconomic fundamen-tals,” the report said.

“Exports volumes also con-tinued the growth trend inFebruary 2021, up 9 per centYoY, mainly led by 17 per cent

YoY growth in 2W exports.”According to the report,

PVs continue to lead thedomestic revival, benefittingfrom the increased consumerpreference for personal mobil-ity.0Besides, the domestic PVmarket continues to see anincreasing shift towards utilityvehicles (UVs).

“A sustained high demandfor UVs, sales volume up 45 percent YoY in February 2021,translated into 2 per cent YoYgrowth in UV sales volumeduring 11MFY21.”

Furthermore, passengercars also continued to see pos-itive growth in February 2021,

led by 8 per cent YoY growthin the sales volume of compactcars.“2Ws, albeit growing 10per cent YoY in February 2021,are impacted more by theincreased cost of ownershipamid price hikes by OEMscoupled with historically highfuel prices in India.”

“This is apparent in the 3per cent YoY decline in salesvolume of the more price --sen-sitive entry -- level motorcyclesunder 110cc. Overall, motor-cycles and scooters sales grew11 per cent and 10 per centYoY, respectively in February2021.”

In addition, the report said

that retail sales in February2021 were a mixed bag -- PVsgrew 11 per cent YoY but 2Wsand CVs declined 16 per centand 30 per cent YoY.

“Although retail sales have,for the most part, laggedbehind wholesale dispatches in11MFY21, a sustained uptick indemand across most segmentsover December 2020-February2021 suggests that consumersentiments are improving.”

“While concerns over thenear-term supply-side con-straints remain, barring a majorglobal crisis, the domestic autoindustry’s demand revival islikely to continue into FY22.”

������ -./��.01,

The chemical sector isexpected to grow at 1.2x-

1.3x of the GDP multiplier inFY22, India Ratings andResearch (Ind-Ra) said.

Accordingly, the ratingsagency has assigned the sectoran improving outlook for FY22.It expects favourable marketconditions across the broadchemical subsectors, along witha healthy rebound in end-userindustries, following the Covid-19 led business disruptions in1HFY21. “Ind-Ra expects GDPgrowth to rebound to 10.4 percent in FY22, and the chemi-cal sector to grow at 1.2x-1.3xof the GDP multiplier.Chemical sector participantsare impacted by a varyingdegree of end-market demandpressure,” the agency said in areport.

According to the report,issuers catering to the auto, tex-tiles and construction sectorsand in the certain bulk com-modities space are expected towitness an extended recovery

cycle throughout FY22, where-as those catering to pharma,agrochemicals and personalcare are already witnessing ademand surge.

“Most companies benefitedfrom stable and lower feedstockprices, even as the prices of finalproducts increased during2HFY21, supporting margins.India’s push for self-sufficiencycoupled with efforts towardssupply chain diversificationaway from China is enablinglarge capex, which remains amonitorable,” the report said. Inaddition, the agency expectschemical producers to generatestrong cash flows from opera-tions, given the volume uptickacross end-user industries, high-er realisations and stable feed-stock prices. “This would helplimit the use of external debt forlarge capital budgets, as cashflows will be directed towardsbusiness expansions, leading toonly moderate deterioration incredit metrics during the expan-sion phase, largely within therating headroom available formost issuers,” it said.

������ -./��.01,

Rise in input costs haveexerted pressure on the

profitability of cement manu-facturers, which is bound toadversely reflect in its Q4FY2021 performance, ICRAsaid in a note.

Input costs have risen overthe last few months as theprices of major input materials- coal, pet coke and diesel - areon an upward trend, resultingin higher power, fuel andfreight expenses.

“The rise in these costs,which account for 50-55 percent of total costs, has beenexerting pressure on the prof-itability of the industry players,”the note said.

On the input costs front,the note cited that the increasein coal prices in recent monthsis majorly driven by higherdemand from China and otherAsian countries.

“The prices of diesel andpet coke increase in line withcrude oil prices. The recent

surge in oil prices led to anincrease in pet coke prices by73 per ceny YoY and 29 percent QoQ in Q4 FY2021 anddiesel prices by 20 per centYoY and 10 per cent QoQ,” itsaid.

Consequently, cementcompanies have undertakenprice hikes by around 7 percent YoY in March 2021 to passon the increase in the power,fuel and freight expenses.

According to the note, therecent increase in cementprices are likely to sustain in thenear term supported by signif-icant uptick in constructionactivity driven by healthy ruralhousing demand and infra-structure led demand.

Besides, in an attempt topreserve liquidity during theCovid-19 pandemic, playershave deferred capacity addi-tions in FY2021 as against theearlier estimates of around 20million MT, and actual addi-tion is estimated to be in therange of 14-16 million MTPA,the note said.

������ -./��.01,

Global rollout of Covid-19vaccines along with the

Centre’s initiatives is expectedto boost exports in the comingmonths, EEPC India said.

“Given the initiativesannounced by the governmentand the speedy rollout of vac-cination, we expect the growthto return in the comingmonths. There is also a grad-ual recovery in global tradewhich will have a positiveimpact on the export sector inIndia,” said the Chairman ofEngineering Export PromotionCouncil of India (EEPC),Mahesh Desai.

Last month, India’s mer-chandise exports rose margin-ally to $27.93 billion from$27.74 billion recorded inFebruary 2020. Accordingly,the share of engineering itemsin total merchandise exportswas 23.49 per cent during thisperiod.

“Lower exports duringFebruary 2021 could be partlyattributed to the base effect asshipments had seen a suddensurge in the correspondingperiod last financial year.However, drop in shipments iscertainly a cause of concern forexporters,” Desai said.

Besides, the EEPC Indiacited that China, Singapore,Germany, Thailand and Italywere among the nine countriesthat saw high double-digitgrowth in demand for Indianengineering goods in February2021.

Exports to China, India’ssecond largest export destina-tion, recorded a positive growthin both monthly as well ascumulative terms.

“While shipments to Chinajumped 68 per cent to $235.58million in February, exportsduring April-February of FY21saw a stellar year-on-yeargrowth of 114 per cent to$4276.49 million,” the EEPCanalysis report said.

������ -./��.01,

Positive annualised growth inexports and imports for

three straight months has takenIndia’s trade deficit figures topre-Covid levels, AcuiteRatings & Research said.

In its report on theFebruary Trade Balance, theratings agency said that bulk ofnormalisation is likely to havebeen driven by the sharpincrease in global commodityprices, especially in the last 4-5 months.

“Going forward, as activi-ty levels pick up further, thewidening of India’s trade deficitwould get reinforced,” it said.

India’s merchandise tradedeficit has eased to $12.6 billionin February 2021 from $14.5billion in January but printedhigher than $10.2 billion post-ed during the correspondingperiod of last year.

“The sequential modera-tion in merchandise tradedeficit in Feb-21 was accom-panied by a marginal increasein exports along with a mar-

ginal decline in imports vis-a-vis the previous month,”.

“This appears to be in linewith the usual seasonal trend.”

Earlier, official data showeda rise in India’s February mer-chandise exports to $27.93 bil-lion from $27.45 billion inJanuary and $27.74 billionreported for the correspondingperiod of 2020.

“This happens to be a 21-month high print on outboundshipments.”In terms of imports,India’s inbound shipments inFebruary 2021 increased by6.96 per cent to $40.54 billionfrom $37.90 billion during thecorresponding period of 2020.

On a sequential basis, theystood lower than January’simport bill of $41.99 billion.

“The relatively highergrowth in imports in the last 3-months also signals that incre-mentally India’s domesticdemand is on the path ofrecovery, with support fromfavorable statistical base effectand accommodative monetaryand fiscal policies.”

In the near term, the report

cited some minor disruption toexternal trade can be expectedon account of the fresh wave inCovid infections, globally aswell as in India.

On a sequential basis, theystood lower than January’simport bill of $41.99 billion.

“The relatively highergrowth in imports in the last 3-months also signals that incre-mentally India’s domesticdemand is on the path ofrecovery, with support fromfavourable statistical base effectand accommodative monetaryand fiscal policies.”

In the near term, the reportcited some minor disruption toexternal trade can be expectedon account of the fresh wave inCovid infections, globally aswell as in India.

“However, the impact islikely to be limited as the samecould get offset with ongoingrapid progress in vaccination inseveral countries -- in justabout 3 months, nearly 2.8 percent of the world populationhas received at least one doseof Covid vaccine.”

������ *+�,

Sustained foreign inflowsalong with a slew of upcom-

ing IPOs are expected tostrengthen the Indian rupeeduring the week ahead.

Accordingly, these factorsare expected to push the rupeebeyond its current 52 weekhigh mark.

This might lead RBI toabsorb dollars to keep therupee in check.

“Rupee hasn’t shown anysigns of weakness. Largeinflows on the back of numer-ous bunched up IPOs in Marchhave helped the local currency.Rupee has now emerged as thebest performing currency inthe last 1 month. Rising yieldsand inflation remain the keyrisk for the currencies,” SajalGupta, Head, Forex and Ratesat Edelweiss Securities toldIANS.

“Next week’s range isexpected from 72.40 to 72.80.”

Last week, the rupee closedflat at 72.57 to a USD.

“Huge line up of IPOs,robust FPI inflows on account

of rejig in international indexweights, international debtfund raising by corporate issupporting the rupee,” saidDevarsh Vakil - Deputy Headof Retail Research at HDFCSecurities.

“We expect the rupee tostrengthen and attempt to sur-pass 52 week highs of 72.26 thisweek.

At that point of time, RBIwill intervene and absorb dol-lars near 72 levels and will stopit from appreciating further. Onthe downside, 73.6 will remaina strong barrier for a fewweeks.”

India’s central bank isknown to enter the markets viaintermediaries to either sell orbuy US dollars to keep therupee in a stable orbit.

“There are still speculationsover an early US Fed rate hike,which are keeping the dollarbulls active.

At the same time, coron-avirus spreading rapidly hasgiven rise to fears of regional orpartial lockdowns and this willput upside pressure towards72.95,” said Rahul Gupta, HeadOf Research-Currency, EmkayGlobal Financial Services.

“However, the increase inthe covid vaccination drivemay keep the risk appetiteintact.”

According to GaurangSomaiya, Forex & BullionAnalyst, Motilal OswalFinancial Services: “US 10-year yield has been on the riseand will continue to be infocus as further gains couldstrengthen the dollar.

For the week, the USD-INR(Spot) to trade with a pos-itive bias and quote in therange of 72.20 and 73.20.”

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The last one year of the pan-demic brought a major changein the way we live, eat and trav-

el. Going further, one of the prima-ry changes expected in the post-COVID world will be focussedmainly on food safety. While theworld will vouch for healthier foodoptions, there will be precautionarysteps to ensure that it is safe to con-sume. In the Indian context, one hasto be careful about food and waterbeing safe in most of the cities.

One of the most sure-shot meth-ods to ensure the availability ofdrinkable water is sustainable usageof the same. In a general situation,some of the widely-preferred con-cepts are desalination, storm-waterharvesting and ensuring optimumuse and reuse of water. However, itis different in a corporate kitchensetup. The premium food servicecompanies follow a zero-compro-mise rule on quality, and hence,invest in water-treatment plants forprocessing vegetables and salads tobe served raw as well as for otherusage in food production. However,small-time caterers don’t usuallyhave the capital to invest in some-thing of a similar format, ultimate-ly resulting into risking the health ofthe employees to germs and infec-tions.

Here are a few ways in which

corporate kitchens can ensure a sus-tainable use:�Dish washers are installed inmajority of corporate kitchens, andconsumption of water in the samemachine is the highest among allother operations. Using economysetting and washing fully loadeddishwashers and full utilisation ofdishwasher racks will make it moreefficient with the water it is alreadyusing.

�Washing dishes or cutlery underrunning tap needs to be avoided.Rather, use sink filled with soapywater method to soak dirty platesand then rinse in another sink ofclear water.

�In bulk pot wash areas, the use ofrinse faucets with shower headwould save unnecessary wastage ofwater. Avoid drying of dirty pots in

pot wash, which uses more waterthan required to clean.�Using solar heater to use hotwater to clean pots, pans and dish-es would help in saving water asthese equipment are greasy andrequire hot water for removal ofstains.

�Using recyclable and compostabledisposable plates and cutlery isanother effective way to save waterin corporate cafeterias.

�Strictly avoid thawing frozen foodunder running tap as it’s a criminalwaste of water; rather, follow wellplanned thawing procedure. Usingrefrigerators would solve the pur-pose.

�Reducing water wastage by time-ly maintenance of kitchen taps andpipeline would help.

�In bulk cooking, some practices aretraditionally used where water con-sumption is high. For example, boil-ing of rice or vegetables in largequantity of water and then drainingthe leftover. However, rice can becooked through absorption methodas well where no water is wasted inany form. Stock balance post boilingof vegetables can be used in cookingpreparations as base stock which willadd flavour.

�Use combi-ovens having steamfunction. They would be helpful tocook vegetables or meat with mini-mum usage of water.

�Creating ‘water efficiency champi-ons’ among the staff and rewardingthem for their achievements in sav-ing its consumption would be high-ly beneficial.

�Large corporates can also installrecycled water treatment plants androute kitchen waste water throughthese system to use it for restrooms,gardens, irrigation, etc.

Ensuring sustainable usage ofwater is a must and of growing con-cern. The corporate kitchens mustadhere to all possible means.

(The writer is the Director ofCulinary Innovation, Elior India.)

Gone are the days when themost popular as well as the

only way of dating someone was‘meeting in person’ over a cup ofcoffee or a lunch/dinner date ata restaurant, watching a movietogether, sitting by the beach orgoing for a long drive. Today, dat-ing is much easier with theadvent of dating apps. The mil-lennials are spending more timein finding partner with a similarvibe and getting to know eachother by forming emotional con-nections over deeper conversa-

tions.Over time, with evolving

behaviour of people and theincreasing popularity of onlinedating, there are many trends thatare playing a significant role ininfluencing the dating ecosystem.A dating platform, QuackQuack,shares some key insights into thedating behaviour of men andwomen today. Here are the high-lights of the report:

�While dating, the majority ofthe users are looking for emo-

tional attachment than physicalconnection, which means peopleare gradually moving beyondcasual dating approach and arelooking for an emotional connec-tion. However, emotional attach-ment is more important towomen compared to men.Around 73 per cent of women incomparison to 55 per cent of menprioritise emotional attachment.

�Meeting in person is the pre-ferred choice for most of the peo-ple as they seek to make real con-

nections. On the contrary, 46 percent of youngsters (<20) prefervirtual dating.�People want to keep their optionsopen as a majority of them wouldcontinue using the dating app evenafter finding a partner. Additionally,men are most likely to do so (73 percent) as compared to women (54per cent).

�The majority of people don’tthink a virtual date is enough todecide their partner. They want tomeet their date in person.

Speaking about the survey,Ravi Mittal, founder of the datingplatform, says, “The dating behav-iour of millennials and Gen Z hasevolved, more so with the adventof online dating and also becauseof the pandemic. Longer chat con-versations, meeting over a movieor Netflix and chill are some of thecommon trends.”

“Talking about the report,from mixed reactions regardingwho is more committed to theirpartner — men or women — to themajority of people finding foodtaste as a sign of compatibility, ithas some interesting insights,”adds he.

Further, the survey also high-lights what people find most irri-tating while talking to someone ona dating app and the majority ofpeople agree to “not getting aresponse from the person youexpected” as the most irritatingpart. Also, among online daters, 76per cent of men as compared to 57per cent of women feel meetingnew people is the best way to getover toxic relationships as theyhave more choices to choose fromand find compatible partners.

Buying or renting a property is anever-ending altercation,

although it always depends on thebudget. According to a study, 79.4per cent of Indians prefer living inrented accommodations. So if youare also planning to rent a house andcannot travel to check the locationor its condition, here are five apps tohelp you from the comfort of yourspace.

����� ���It is a premium property consul-

tant firm founded by millennialswho are shaping the real estate sec-tor by using technological solu-tions. OwnersTown is trying to cre-ate a seamless ecosystem for prop-erties and requirements for theowners. Through the app, one canbuy, rent or sell the property.Whether you own one property ormultiple properties, this app takesthe hassle out of managing themwith its unique property manage-ment solution. It’s fast, simple andeffortless. It is available in sevencities: Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata,NCR, Delhi, Chennai, Ahemdabad.

;;�����The app is free for android

users. It allows you to browse prop-erties for rent, along with high-qual-ity pictures, videos and maps. It isbest known for numerous options itprovides, with listings across thecountry. It also promises instant con-tact between landlords and interest-ed tenants through phone calls,

texts or e-mail.

������This app helps you to find an

apartment, an independent house, aresidential plot or a farmhouse onthere real estate listing app. You canconnect with millions of buyers.Makaan.com is a platform speciallydesigned for people who want to buyor rent the property.

����������Another app version of a prop-

erty portal, MagicBricks uses GPS tozero in on your preferred locationand helps you search for propertiesacross all major Indian cities.Though it caters primarily to prop-erty buyers and sellers, renters can

also use this app to their advantage.You can set alerts for when proper-ties that match your preferencebecome available, and let the app dothe rest.

������This app stands for what every-

one looking to rent wishes to do: Cutthe broker out of the equation. It letsyou find and rent a house withoutpaying any brokerage. Most of us feelthat having to pay a hefty brokeragefee is unfair. The NoBroker appresolves this by letting home-own-ers list their properties easily andthen putting them in touch withpotential tenants. You can contact thehome-owner directly through theapp after shortlisting a property.

���������Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to

document the harm that humans do to marine species —and uncovers alarming global corruption. It releases onMarch 24 on Netflix.

����� ��� When a student from India leaves home to pursue the

American Dream, the unforeseen struggle of working tosurvive while inside a system set up for his failure challengeshim to find inner strength, overcome obstacles, and nevergive up. It releases on March 23 on Amazon Prime Video.

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��������������������In 1990, two men dressed as cops con their way into

a Boston museum and steal a fortune in art. Take a deepdive into this daring and notorious crime. It releases onApril 7 on Netflix.

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Nowadays, it has become a trend to talk aboutmorality and values. Some people talk about

it because they want to wear it as a mask so thattheir real identity cannot be visible to the people.This works as long as people do not realise thatthere is a mask behind, a hidden personality thatis completely opposite of what can be called ‘moral’.On the other side of the line are some people whohave been able to transform themselves to someextent and are desirous of further change becausethey know that life without moral principles is justexistence. They understand that life withoutmorals is accompanied by pricks and twitches ofthe conscience and is not only devoid of real hap-piness but it is a life of increasing burdens andinner damnation. Then, there are others, who haveattained considerable height on the upward pathof moral uprightness and they do not relish evena vague remembrance of their nasty or filthy past.They aspire to fly high as a free bird into the vastsky, up and above the morally polluted world. Itis these enlightened and uplifted souls that are thehope of the world. They give guidance and sus-tenance to those who yearn for a life of purity andpeace.

However, the main problem that we are fac-ing today is thatthere is a class ofintellectuals whogive more impor-tance to materialprogress, scientif-ic development,new devices andmany other thingsthan to moral val-ues. This does notmean that thereshould not be anyeffort for materialprogress. But whatneeds to beemphasised is thatmoral test must beapplied in theareas of research, development and progress aswell. For example, invention of nuclear weaponswas once considered as the latest development inthe field of scientific weapons. Much industrialprogress has been achieved all over the world inlast few decades, but it was achieved at the costof environment, without applying moral tests.Hence, as a consequence of all this, humankindis today faced with a grave threat to its environ-ment and also to its survival.

Just as all periodicals and films enjoy the free-dom of expression but these have to pass the testrelating to obscenity and vulgarity, similarly, allpolicies, plans and developmental projects shouldbe subjected to the test of morality. If they leadto depravity of human character, if they promoteviolence, increase strife and tension, provoke peo-ple, then they should be rejected. If a film violatesthe sense of dignity towards women and is offen-sive against their modesty or if it is liable to dis-turb communal harmony or create enmitybetween castes, then it is not certified as fit.Similarly, if certain laws, acts, pronouncements,policies or plans violate universal moral, human,social or environmental values, then they alsoshould be struck down.

Truth is always a moral entity. Hence, any idea,tenet or belief that violates universal moral val-ues and leads to anger, greed, exploitation, injus-tice or cut-throat competition, is not true eventhough it appears to be so. We should, therefore,examine whether our world-view, our belief-sys-tem and our concepts lead to a moral order or tomoral anarchy, turmoil and struggle for survival.Do they give rise to noble sentiments or to utter-ly selfish, egoistic and vicious tendencies. Weshould discard these if they are prone to lead toour moral downfall and should try to rediscoverour real identity. The ultimate goal of our lifeshould be to live a life of harmony and peace. Weshould not fully and finally accept anything unlessit passes this acid test.

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One of the biggest chal-lenges being faced byIndia today is the issue of

early child marriages. As perUNICEF, approximately one infour young women in the coun-try are married or are in unionbefore they turn 18. While mar-riage is often considered a happyunion, for thousands of adoles-cent girls, it is a nightmare thatdawns on them against theirwishes. Before they start under-standing their existence, they areforced to adopt an identity thatrequires them to transform asper our rigid patriarchal set-up.The practice is more prevalentin India’s rural, remote areasthan its urban counterparts.

Poonch, the border district,located approximately 250 kmfrom the Jammu city in J&K, hascurrently seen an increase in thecases of early child marriages.Afsana, a resident of Manjiarivillage in Mendhar tehsil,Poonch, was forcefully marriedat the age of 16. “All my dreamswere shattered the day my par-ents fixed my marriage. Irequested them to let me appearfor my Class 10th exams, butthey assured me that I can con-tinue studying after my weddingand that I will have full supportof my in-laws. Nothing of thatsort happened as my weddinghit the rock bottom soonerthan expected,” said Afsana.

Soon after her marriage,she was faced with physicaland mental torture. Her hus-band remarried, leaving Afsanato return to her parent’s house.With meagre resources, theyhave been trying to sustaintheir daughter who stays unwellfor most of the time. “My very

existence has been shattered bythis unfortunate nuptial. Mycase is pending in the court forthe last six years. I am consid-ered neither a bachelor nor amarried woman now,” sharedshe.

Under the Prohibition ofChild Marriage Act (PCMA),2006 of the Indian law, themarriage of a girl under the ageof 18 and a boy under the age of21 is considered a legal offense.But even so, most children areforcefully married at an earlyage. According to 2011 Census,about 102 million girls weremarried before the age of 18, ofwhom 46 per cent were marriedeven before the age of 15.

As per the statistics, howev-er, the newly formed UnionTerritory of J&K has shownmassive improvement in con-trolling the menace of earlymarriages. A comparisonbetween National Family HealthSurvey (NFHS)- 3 with NFHS 4shows that the percentage ofchild marriage among 15-19years old girls has considerablydeclined from 5.6 to 2.6. Theground reality, however, paintsa picture different from whatdata claims as lives of many girlsare being ruined by early mar-riages.

Cross border firing is thebiggest concern for parents. Asthe district is located near theline of control, the strategiclocation plays a major role inprevalence of this evil practice.Tension on the border directlyimpacts the future of the adoles-cent girls here. Seeing manyyoung girls become victims ofcross-border violence, manyparents fear that this violence

might impact lives of theirdaughters as well. It might makethem disabled for life. They con-sider getting their adolescentdaughters married to be thesafest option. If only!

As per Kirpal Singh, a mem-ber of the Child WelfareCommittee, Poonch, “Whileunderage marriages are nowrare in the rest of J&K, Poonchhas seen an increase in thenumber of cases in the last oneyear. In 2020, 35 cases of childmarriage were reported ofwhich 30 were stopped by thecommittee. Five marriages werealready solemnized. Similarly,we have received 10 cases in thelast two months. As per the

observed pattern, such cases aremore common in border areasbecause of cross border bomb-ing and fear of insecurity.”

Bringing focus on the igno-rance and lack of knowledgeregarding consequences of childmarriages among villagers,Kirpal informed the writerabout the awareness campsorganised in the area. Accordingto him, divorce cases are risingbecause girls are married tooearly, which makes them unableto perform the roles and respon-sibilities expected by their in-laws and husband.

On the other hand, parentshave their own concerns otherthan cross-border firing. They

are not comfortable sendingtheir daughters to senior sec-ondary schools or degree col-leges which are quite far fromtheir place of residence. Theyare also worried about financialresources and the increasingcases of sexual harassment.“The incidences of rape haveincreased all over the country.After watching such horrificnews, we cannot sleep at night.To save our daughters andhonor of our families, we feelgetting them married on time isthe only option,” shared manyparents.

According to another mem-ber of the Child WelfareCommunity, Nimarata Lodhra,

Poonch, has the highest numberof early age marriages comparedto other areas. Most of thesecases are from Tehsil Mendharand Haveli, where in most of thegirls get married at an early ageof 15. Along with physical dam-age, young girls often get sub-jected to psychological abuse,leading to negative impact ontheir overall health.”

Nafisa Kausar of Ari villageof Mendhar Tehsil, welled upwith tears while recalling herexperience of child marriage.Despite requesting her parentsto wait till her graduation, shewas forced into a marriage in2017. “My family began to pres-surise me. I was tortured bothmentally and physically. Theywould hide my books andwould beat me for persistenceefforts to educate myself. Thepressure was so intense that mylittle rebellion died quite soon,and I gave up. The entire inci-dent has left a scar on my soul,”she shared.

Dr Rubina Shafiq, a gyne-cologist in the district believesthat early marriage pushes sev-eral girls into depression. Thencomes the health implications asearly age pregnancy is one of themain reasons for high maternalmortality rate. Many girls diewhile giving birth to the child.Postpartum psychosis is anoth-er serious issue that affects theyoung girls due to early moth-erhood.

Zuber Ali, a volunteer withJammu and Kashmir VoluntaryHealth and DevelopmentAssociation, said, “Until a fewyears ago, marriage of girlsbetween the age of 15 and 16was quite common in severalareas of this erstwhile state.Today, the number of cases hascertainly decreased.”

The government initiativesand work of the non-govern-ment organisations have creat-ed a certain level of awarenessamong girls and their parents.They are now taking a stand forthemselves and prefer to studybefore marriage. But there is stilla long way to go to ensure nogirl has to face what Afsana andNafisa had to go through.

(The article has been writtenunder Sanjoy Ghose MediaAward 2020.)

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Compared to the rest of the world,today, India is still a ‘young’ coun-

try. However, recently, India has beenclassified as an ‘ageing country’ by theUnited Nations with 8.6 per cent of thetotal population over 60 years of age.By 2050, the number of senior citizensin the country is expected to be around30 crores, which will be approximate-ly one-fifth of the total population(Source CII). To put it in perspective,the elderly population in 2050 wouldhave increased three times, comparedto the same in 2011 (when it was 10.4crores). Hence, there is an urgentneed to plan for eldercare, both froma government and private sector per-spective.

For many decades, eldercare homesmeant institutional care for the poorand destitute, typically not well-run andill-maintained. But a lot has changedin the last decade. The concept ofsenior living homes has undergonetransformational changes. In most ofthe Western countries, seniors prefermoving into professionally-run homespost retirement because residentialcare offerings over there are far evolvedand holistic. Various formats of seniorcare exist and elders can choose tomove into a certain set up dependingon their current age, health conditionand social needs.

There are Continuing CareRetirement Communities (CCRCs), aresidential option for elders, that pro-vide flexible housing options, variousend to end services as well as 24*7health and wellness care. Independentliving facilities are where the seniorslive independently and also get accessto a range of services. Assisted livingfacilities provide elders with round-the-clock help with activities of daily liv-ing (ADLs), such as eating, bathing,brushing, dressing etc, along with awell-defined emergency response sys-

tem. And there are also nursing carehomes for skilled nursing needs.Dementia care homes specifically caterto all stages of dementia and memorycare requirements and are typicallysmaller with specialised staff. Palliativeand hospice care can be offered in allformats.

As part of Indian culture, we havebeen wired to believe that taking careof the elderly is only an individual fam-ilies’ responsibility, not the govern-ments’ or the communities’ at large.When it comes to deciding on elder-

care homes for one’s parents, it is neveran easy choice but one makes as a lastresort, which is often accompanied byguilt and judgement. In our country,socio-economic patterns are changing,and we will continue to see that in thefuture. Life expectancy will be on therise, mobility and migration (withinIndia and going abroad) will lead tomore elders living in empty nests andparticipation of women in the work-force will continue to increase. On theother hand, neurological conditionssuch as dementia are on the rise and

we will increasingly not have resourcesto look after the elderly at home. Thepandemic has also shown us that lifeis unpredictable.

Well established social norms ofelder care are already beginning to bealtered in the country. The childrenwho have moved away from theirhomes are constantly looking foroptions to provide a safe and secureenvironment for their parents andmake their lives more comfortable intheir absence. Home care servicescontinue to be the top choice for chil-

dren staying in the same city but forthose in different locations, a reliableresidential care facility is becoming thenorm. The stigmatisation of seekingprofessional care for elderly parents isbeginning to be questioned. Eldercarehomes will increasingly become anactive choice by the elders for them-selves, since parents don’t want to bea burden on their children.

The next few years will be animportant period for this sector. As theindustry evolves, there will be varioustypes of eldercare homes available interms of care offerings, size, location,ownership, management and facilities.In addition, the availability of trainedcaregivers and professionals will becomecritical. The staff at such eldercarehomes will need to be trained in geri-atric and memory care. There will be aneed for more nursing institutes, andspecial courses and certification for geri-atric care.

A study shows that taking intoaccount the drivers of future demand,the need for senior living facilities maywitness an 8-10 fold increase over thecurrent base. There is a need for the pub-lic and private sector to work together,and the CII Taskforce on Senior Careand ASLI (Association of Senior Living)is already a step in that direction. Thepolicies also need to be in place to clear-ly define standard regulations to qual-ify to be called as an eldercare home.There is also a need to lay down indus-try protocols for health, personal care,complaints and protection, environ-ment, staffing, management and admin-istration of the eldercare homes. Thegovernment, private sector and thesociety should join hands to ensure thatthe elders are able to lead dignified,happy and independent lives.

(The writer is a Dementia Specialistand the CEO and co-founder of EpochElder Care.)

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To inflict maximum damageto the rival teams during theT20 World Cup, aggressive

India skipper Virat Kohli is plan-ning to open with flamboyantRohit Sharma in the ICC tourna-ment, scheduled to be held incountry later this year.

Kohli expressed his desireafter he opened with Rohit in thefinal T20 against England onSaturday. They added 94-run forthe first wicket in quick time.

“I am going to open in IPL aswell. I have batted in differentpositions in the past. But I feel wehave a solid middle order now. So,I will definitely like to partnerRohit at the top going into the T20World Cup,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.

“Two best batsmen in theteam, one can play second fiddleif the other gets going. That caninflict a lot of damage to the oppo-sition team. Other guys also feel alot more confident when one of usis still in and is set.”

Talking about the partnershipwith Rohit which set laid thefoundation of a big total, Kohlisaid, “Today Rohit and me wereboth positive in our intent. Weknew we could trust each otherand one of us can play second fid-

dle if one takes off.”“Today it was classic Rohit

Sharma. And then Surya comingin at three and taking the game

even further away. Then Hardikfinishing it. Augurs well for theteam,” said Kohli who remainednot out on 80 from 52 balls.

Kohli, who was named playerof the series for scoring 231 to topthe run chart at an average of115.50, said it was a completegame for the team.

“It was a complete game for us.Totally outplayed the opposition.Even with so much dew coming in,like last game we've defended thetotal again. Despite Rishabh andIyer not getting a chance (to bat)we put on 225,” said the captain.

“It’s a testimony to our battingdepth.”

Talking about other players, hesaid, “Also how Shreyas batted inthe last game and the responsibil-ity he showed in the first game.Ishan (Kishan) was brilliant. Iwas particularly pleased withSurya.”

“Bhuvi coming back and bowl-ing like that. Still have Jassi (JaspritBumrah) to come back. Don’thave much in terms of negatives.Pant showed a lot of maturitythrough the series as well.

“Confidence level of (Shardul)Thakur after that series inAustralia is sky high. With the ball,his strength is his belief. Propercricketer. Giving us runs with thebat as well.”

He said the T20 World Cupsquad is more or less sorted out.

“Just found out we might havesome more (T20Is).”

����� �1.��+��

An injured Jofra Archer was onSunday omitted from a 14-mem-

ber England squad for the three-match ODI series against India start-ing in Pune on Tuesday.

England captain Eoin Morgan onSaturday had revealed that Archer waslikely to pull out of the ODI series andthe ensuing IPL as the star pacer'selbow injury has worsened.

A statement from the Englandand Wales Cricket Board said that“Archer is returning to the UK for fur-ther management and investigation ofhis right elbow injury.

“He has been deemed unfit forselection for the ODI series that fea-tures matches on 23, 26 and 28March," the ECB said.

Three additional players — JakeBall, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan— who were a part of the just-con-cluded T20I series, which India won3-2, will travel with the squad as cover.

England ODI Squad: EoinMorgan (captain), Moeen Ali,Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, JosButtler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran,Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson,Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes,Reece Topley, Mark Wood.

����� �1.��+��

Star England pacer JofraArcher will miss the begin-

ning part of this year’s IndianPremier League, the Englandand Wales Cricket Board(ECB) said on Sunday.

Archer, a Rajasthan Royalsplayer, was on Sunday omit-ted from a 14-memberEngland squad for the three-match ODI series againstIndia starting in Pune onTuesday due to a worseningelbow injury.

"The ECB medical teamwill assess the player and,together with Jofra, develop atreatment plan and a return-

to-play schedule in duecourse. As a consequence,Jofra will miss the start of thisyear’s Indian Premier League,”it said in a statement.

“Archer’s elbow issue hasdeteriorated over the course ofthe T20 International seriesand made it increasingly chal-lenging for him to maintainperformance levels.”

England captain EoinMorgan on Saturday revealedthat Archer was likely to pullout of the upcoming IPLstarting on April 9 as the starpacer’s elbow injury has wors-ened.

Having missed the finalTest because of his trouble-some elbow, Archer returnedin the T20I series, claimingseven wickets, which includ-ed a career-best 4/33 in thefourth game.

����� �1���

Star all-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan has claimed that the

Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) has “misrepresented”his decision to play in the IPLat the expense of representingthe national team in a Testseries against Sri Lanka.

With Bangladesh not incontention in the World TestChampionship, Shakib said itwas more meaningful to com-pete in the IPL, as that wouldhelp him prepare better for thenext T20 World Cup, whichwill be held in India later thisyear.

“These two Tests are ourlast matches in the WorldTest Championship so it is notas if we are going to play thefinal,” Shakib told Cricfrenzy.

“We are at the very bot-

tom of the points table. Idon’t think it makes much ofa difference.

“The other major reasonis that the World Cup T20 isin India later this year. It is a

very important tournamentwhere we have much toachieve. There isn’t much toachieve in these two Tests. Ithink it is a better option thatI prepare myself for some-thing bigger.”

Shakib said in his letter tothe BCB, that he mentionedabout his plans to preparehimself better for the T20World Cup.

“People are continuouslytalking about this (skippingthe Test series against SriLanka). Those who are sayingthat I will no longer play Testcricket haven’t read my letterproperly.

“I did not mention any-where in my letter that I donot want to play Tests. I men-tioned in my letter that Iwant to play in the IPL to pre-pare myself properly for

World Cup but despite thatAkram Bhai (BCB cricketoperation chairman) hasrepeatedly said that I do notwant to play Tests,” he said.

With the T20 World Cupslated for October, Shakibsaid there are many advan-tages of playing in the IPL thistime.

“The ground where I willplay IPL now will be theground where I will play theWorld Cup match after fourmonths. The players withwhom I will play the IPL willbe the players against whomI will play in the World Cup.

“For this reason, I will getmore advantages than anyoneelse from Bangladesh, and itwill also help me to share myexperiences with the teamthat I will gain by playing inthe IPL,” he said.

��� � �1.��+��

Captain Eoin Morgan wants England'sIPL-bound players to make the most

of the opportunities in the upcoming T20league as they prepare themselves for theICC T20 World Cup to be held in Indialater this year.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled tobe hosted by India in October-Novemberthis year and Morgan expects Englishcricketers to take full advantage of theIPL, starting April 10.

“Taking advantage of the upcomingIPL is going to be huge,” Morgan saidafter their 36-run defeat to India here lastnight to concede the five-match series 2-3.

“As a team and individuals we don’twant to stand still, we want to continueto move forward. Any opportunity guysget at the IPL, you want to try to makethe most of it,” said Morgan, who is theskipper of IPL side Kolkata KnightRiders.

England will be at home all summer,taking on New Zealand (two) and India(five) in seven Tests between June andSeptember before they get to play whiteball cricket in Bangladesh and Pakistanin the build up to the T20 World Cup inIndia later this year.

“We’re going to be playing at homeall summer and then we got toBangladesh and Pakistan. You know,there’s limited opportunity to get our bestXI in those games.

“So I think the experience over thenext couple of months is probably themost valuable, and then having the timeto work on your game after that,” saidMorgan, England's ODI World Cup-win-

ning skipper.England have fielded full-strength

squads in their recent T20 series againstSouth Africa and India but Morgan hasrevealed that he expects to be without theservices of multi-format players through-out their home T20I series against SriLanka and Pakistan next summer.

“I would imagine all of the multi-for-mat guys (will miss those series),” Morgansaid.

“It’s just too much to ask, given thewinter guys have had as well, aroundbeing in a bubble. A lot of it will bedependent on how flexible it is to comein and out of the biosecure environmentthat we’ll have during our summer, andwhether they can see their families or not.

“We’ve been lucky with injuries so far

but we can't always have our fast bowlersas fit as we would like them. What we willhave throughout the summer is oppor-tunities for guys to stake their claim.”

England made just one change in thejust-concluded five-match T20I serieswith Tom Curran replacing Mark Wooddue to injury in the second match.

But Morgan insists England are yetto finalise its T20 World Cup squad.

“I think we're too far away from theWorld Cup to see who could be in andout of the squad, what we will havethroughout the summer is opportunitiesfor those guys to stake their claim,” hesaid.

“Nobody's nailed on. If any playerincluding myself looks that far ahead andthink that their position is nailed down,they're mistaken because we want toimprove as the rest of the world progress-es. T20 as a game is progressing fasterthan any other of the formats, so we needto be quite flexible in how we want toimprove. We can’t be rigid.”

“We looked at it last summer withguys like Tom Banton, Sam Billings, andMoeen Ali taken on great responsibilitywhen he’s had the opportunity.

The duo of Jos Buttler and DawidMalan gave a fantastic start to England’smammoth chase of 225 last night as theywere 130 for 1 after 13 overs but threequick wickets derailed the visitors.

“Our middle-order probably haven'tfired as well as we would have liked. Butthere were some big lessons and hugeamount of positives. Four out of fivegames, we’ve produced some of our bestpowerplay bowling that we have in thelast couple of years,” he said, hailing AdilRashid.

����� -./��.01,

Skeet shooter GanematSekhon won her maiden

senior ISSF World Cup medalafter a dominant India claimedboth the Gold on offer by somedistance in the men’s andwomen’s 10m air pistol teamevents respectively here onSunday.

Sekhon bagged thewomen’s skeet bronze on thethird competition day of thetournament.

Before that, the terrifictrio of Yashaswini SinghDeswal, Manu Bhaker andShri Nivetha won the top prizein the women’s team 10m airpistol event.

Then, the team of YouthOlympics and Asian GamesGold medallist SaurabhChaudhary, Abhishek Vermaand Shahzar Rizvi bagged theyellow metal in the men’sevent, comfortably beatingVietnam 17-11 in the final.

The Indian women shot 16in the Gold medal round tofinish way ahead of Poland’sJulita Borek, Joanna IwonaWawrzonowska and AgnieszkaKorejwo, who managed 8 atthe Dr Karni Singh ShootingRange.

The home team topped thesecond qualification with atotal score of 576 while thePolish women shot 567.

In the first qualification,the Indians aggregated 1731,

following scores of 290, 287,288, 287, 293 and 287 over sixseries.

Poland’ sequence of scoresread 286, 283, 286, 286, 286and 287 for a total of 1701.

In the men’s final, Vietnamwere represented by DinhThanh Nguyen, Quoc CuongTran and Xuan Chuyen Phan.

Chaudhary and Co. Ledthe qualification part two witha total score of 579 while theVietnamese managed 565.

The Indian men aggregat-ed 1750 in the first qualifica-tion while Vietnam scored1708.

Later in the day, the 20-year-old Sekhon, ranked 82 inthe world, shot 40 to clinch thebronze medal on the shotgunrange.

The other Indian in the

six-women final, Karttiki SinghShaktawat, settled for thefourth position after animpressive start, shooting 32.

Occupying the secondposition for a long time,Sekhon missed three birdssuccessively to bow out, leav-ing Great Britain's Amber Hilland Zoya Kravchenko ofKazakhstan to fight for thegold medal in an exciting finalwhere nobody was willing togive an inch.

Hill held her nerves toeventually run away with thegold medal after a shoot-offwith Kravchenko.

However, in the men’sskeet final, Gurjoat Khangurafinished sixth with a score of17. Khangura also qualified insixth place for the final.

Denmark’s Jesper Hansen

(58) won the Gold medal inmen’s skeet ahead of UAE’s BinFutais Saif (51) and Qatar’smultiple Dakar Rally champi-on Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah(44).

Ganemat was third in thequalification with 117, whileShaktawat was fourth with116.

India’s Parinaaz Dhaliwalwas ninth with 108.

In 2018, Sekhon hadbecome the first Indian femaleskeet shooter to win a medal atthe ISSF World Championship,as she claimed the Bronzemedal in the junior event inSydney, Australia.

Having started shooting onthe insistence of her fatherAmrinder Singh Sekhon in2015, the youngster complet-ed her hat-trick of silvermedals in the senior NationalShooting Championship whenshe won the Silver medal in the2018 championship in Jaipur.

In the selection trials heldat KSSR in January, Sekhonhad topped qualifying with ascore of 120, which was ahuge six points ahead of sec-ond place finisher.

In the finals of that trials,the Chandigarh-based womanshot 55, which was a clear fourpoints ahead of second-placedZahra Deesawala.

Sekhon also competed inthe 2018 Asian Games inIndonesia, where she finished10th.

����� 0*��-=/

Opener Shafali Verma setthe platform while Richa

Ghosh provided the finishingtouch as India Women posteda competitive 158 for 4 againstSouth Africa Women in thesecond T20 International ofthe three-match series here onSunday.

Shafali (47) blasted sixfours and two sixes in her 31-ball innings and forged a 79-run partnership with HarleenDeol (31) to set the foundationfor a good score in their must-win game.

Ghosh then provided thelate charge with a 26-ball 44not out to take India past 150-run mark.

For South Africa, ShabnimIsmail (1/31), NonkululekoMlaba (1/27), Nadine de Klerk(1/28) and Anne Bosch (1/26)

were among the wickets.Invited to bat, skipper

Smriti Mandhana (7) onceagain fell early as she chasedan outside delivery fromIsmail only to edge it to thekeeper in the second over.

Shafali, who lookedwatchful initially, smashedthree fours in the fourth overto put the bowlers under pres-sure.

New batter Harleen Doel,who scored a fifty in the firstT20I, sent Khaka across thebackward point for her firstboundary as India scored 31for one in the first five overs.

Shafali then welcomedNadine de Klerk with astraight hit across the fencebefore unleashing a massiveheave for a six as India endedthe powerplay at 41 for one.

Shafali got a life when shewas dropped by Anne Bosch

in the seventh over. Harleenthen took Anne to the clean-ers with back-to-back bound-aries.

In the 10th over, bothShafali and Harleen scored aboundary each as Nadine deKlerk condeded 14 runs.

The India opener then sentN Mlaba for a six with a slogsweep but the bowler cameback to clean her up in the lastball with Shafali looking foranother slog in the leg-side.

Harleen too departed aftershe was caught by Ismail offAnne in the next over.

Ghosh smashed threefours, while JemimahRodrigues (16) hit one as Indiaamassed 18 runs off the 14thover bowled by Sune Luus.

After Rodrigues departed,Ghosh slammed four moreboundaries to take India to acompetitive score.

����� -./��.01,

DelhiJapanese player Nozomi Okuharadefeats Thailand's Pornpawee

Chochuwong, 21-12, 21-16 in the women'sfinal of the All England Open inBirmingham on Sunday.

Okuhara, who is playing her third Thaiplayer in three days, looked in completecontrol throughout the match and need-ed only two games to clinch victory.

With all three doubles matches beingan all-Japanese affair, the win means thatJapan wins four of the five titles on offeron Sunday.

It is the second All England Open titlefor the 26-year-old, who last won it in 2016.

It is also the second title for the Rio

2016 Bronze medallist in the two WorldTour tournaments she has participated insince the resumption of play following theglobal pandemic. It certainly bodes well forher Olympic aspirations.

In the men's final, Lee Zii Jia ofMalaysia defeats defending championViktor Axelsen in a grueling match toclinch the men's championship 30-29, 20-22, 21-9.

The 22-year-old is the first Malaysianto win the All England Open since LeeChong Wei in 2017. It was a huge win forhim, reflected in his winning cheer afterclinching the match winning point.

The victory is only his second WorldTour title after winning the 2018 ChineseTaipei Open.

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KOHLI WANTS TO PARTNER ROHIT IN T20 WC����� �1.��+��

India vice-captain Rohit Sharmafeels it is still too early to

finalise the team’s batting line-upfor the upcoming T20 World Cupand skipper Virat Kohli openingalongside him in the seriesdecider against England was onlya tactical move.

Before Rohit’s media interac-tion, Kohli said that he will openin the upcoming IPL and wouldalso like to bat at the top of theorder in the T20 World Cup athome later this year.

“It is still long time to go forthe (T20) World Cup, so earlydays to talk about how our bat-ting will look like. We have to sitand analyse what suits the teamthe most,” said Rohit after theseries win on Saturday.

“Today was a tactical movebecause we wanted to play anextra bowler and wanted to leaveone batsman out. Unfortunatelyit was KL (Rahul) which was verytough.”

India replaced an out-of-form Rahul with pacer TNatarajan to have an extra bowl-

ing option for the crucial game.“KL has been one our key

players in limited overs, especial-ly in this format. Looking at cur-rent form, the team managementdecided to go with the best 11.Having said that, it doesn’t sendany signal that KL will not beconsidered or anything like that.

“"This was just for one par-ticular game. Things mightchange as we go closer to WorldCup.”

Before the series, Kohli hadsaid that Rohit and Rahul wereIndia’s first-choice opening pair.

“We do understand his(Rahul’s) ability and his contribu-tion at the top, what he’s done forus. So, yeah, I'm not going to ruleout anything or neither will I saythat this is the preferred battinglineup for a World Cup.

“There is still a good amountof time left with IPL in between.And then, I’m hearing, therewill be a few T20s as well beforethe World Cup. So, you know,good enough time for us, at thatpoint in time to judge what willbe the best possible eleven for us,”added Rohit.

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3 Nights Meeting Programme - Ovation DMCStrategicCountry PartnerName Day 2 o Morning - Yangon Business meeting follow with lunch at hotel. o Afternoon Visit Sule Pagoda (landmark of

3 Nights Meeting Programme - Ovation DMCStrategicCountry PartnerName Day 2 o Morning - Yangon Business meeting follow with lunch at hotel. o Afternoon Visit Sule Pagoda (landmark of

Power Point Sachin Raut

Power Point Sachin Raut

Goa University Taleigao Plateau, Sub Post Goa …admissionportal.unigoa.ac.in/goaftp/admissionSupportDou...105 3051 RAUT NEHAL RAUT General/Unreserved 105 106 2664 AFFRIM RIYAZ DESSAI

Goa University Taleigao Plateau, Sub Post Goa …admissionportal.unigoa.ac.in/goaftp/admissionSupportDou...105 3051 RAUT NEHAL RAUT General/Unreserved 105 106 2664 AFFRIM RIYAZ DESSAI

plshroffcollege.com · pagade sanam harish hemangi patil prajwal dinesh darshana / patil rutuja kishor kavita / patil sayali ankush jyotsna raut ajinkya sunil sayali raut vishal devram

plshroffcollege.com · pagade sanam harish hemangi patil prajwal dinesh darshana / patil rutuja kishor kavita / patil sayali ankush jyotsna raut ajinkya sunil sayali raut vishal devram

WorldConnect 2012 Day 2 Gold Session - Dassault Systèmes Mickael RAUT

WorldConnect 2012 Day 2 Gold Session - Dassault Systèmes Mickael RAUT

Sule CITCI Master Thesis Cerenkov Radiation MIT Bates BLAST

Sule CITCI Master Thesis Cerenkov Radiation MIT Bates BLAST

CV of Prof. (Dr.) Prakash D. Raut - Shivaji University

CV of Prof. (Dr.) Prakash D. Raut - Shivaji University

GENERAL EL ECT I ONS TO V I L L AGE PANCHAYAT S I N GOA ... · 4 vasudev shiva parab 1 salem wardii (general) 7 krishna fati raut 2 mandar arun raut 3 meghanath namdev raut 4 prakash

GENERAL EL ECT I ONS TO V I L L AGE PANCHAYAT S I N GOA ... · 4 vasudev shiva parab 1 salem wardii (general) 7 krishna fati raut 2 mandar arun raut 3 meghanath namdev raut 4 prakash

DR. SUSHIL Y. RAUT - pharmacy.dypvp.edu.in

DR. SUSHIL Y. RAUT - pharmacy.dypvp.edu.in

SULE: Its use and status into the New Millennium · SULE: Its use and status into the New Millennium TreeAZ/03/2001. ... Explanation of each step in a SULE assessment As summarised

SULE: Its use and status into the New Millennium · SULE: Its use and status into the New Millennium TreeAZ/03/2001. ... Explanation of each step in a SULE assessment As summarised

Shortlist Library Assistant - MECL · JAIMALA DNYANESHWAR RAUT Father's Name (S/Shri) HIRABHAI DAYALBHAI VANKAR ROHIDAS YASHWANT LONDHE PRAKASH NAMDEO DNYANESHWAR SANTOSH RAUT Date

Shortlist Library Assistant - MECL · JAIMALA DNYANESHWAR RAUT Father's Name (S/Shri) HIRABHAI DAYALBHAI VANKAR ROHIDAS YASHWANT LONDHE PRAKASH NAMDEO DNYANESHWAR SANTOSH RAUT Date

Sule Area - WordPress.com

Sule Area - WordPress.com

Ramesh K Raut

Ramesh K Raut

Sudarshan Bahukudumbi Sule Ozev Krishnendu Chakrabarty Vikram Iyengar

Sudarshan Bahukudumbi Sule Ozev Krishnendu Chakrabarty Vikram Iyengar