HYDERABAD, THURSDAY JULY 9, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 269*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

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MONEY 8CHINA OPENS SECURITY OFFICE IN

HONG KONG; FOREIGN FIRMS ANXIOUS

ANALYSIS 7CREATIVITY AMID

LONELINESS

SPORTS 12‘ROHIT’S BATTING STYLE IS

FILLED WITH CLASS & ELEGANCE’

5

Jewellery industry seekssupportive e-commerce policy

8

Jagan far betterthan KCR:Komatireddy

2

PM to interact with NGOs of his Lok Sabhaconstituency today

RAJAMOULI TURNS ATTENTIONTO HIS NEXT WITH

MAHESH?

7-DAY LOCKDOWN FOR NOW INBENGAL, WILL EXTEND IF NEEDED

UP COP ACCUSED OF TIPPING OFFGANGSTER DUBEY ON RAID ARRESTED

Suspended Uttar Pradesh police inspector Vinay Tiwari, accused oftipping off gangster Vikas Dubey to a raid last week that turned into a

massacre in which eight policemen were killed, was arrested today.Vinay Tiwari was in charge of the Chaubeypur police station withjurisdiction over Vikas Dubey's village in Kanpur and hadallegedly watered down charges against him in earliercases. "We have made the arrests after a lot of evidencecollection. If anyone attacks the police or prevents usfrom working or conspires to get a policemanattacked, we will take action even if it is a fellow cop,"said Dinesh Kumar P, Kanpur police chief.

BJP LEADER, FAMILY SHOT DEAD BY TERRORISTS IN J&K

Jammu and Kashmir BJP leader Sheikh Wasim, his father and brotherwere killed by terrorists late Wednesday night in the union territory's

Bandipore district. J&K Police said Mr Wasim, and his family, wereattacked while sitting outside a shop and suffered injuries.They were rushed to hospital, where they werepronounced dead. "Terrorists fired on BJP workerWasim Bari at Bandipora. During indiscriminate firingWasim Bari, his father Bashir Ahmad and brother UmerBashir got injured and shifted to hospital, but allthree succumbed to their injuries," J&K Policetweeted.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee played down the newlockdown that will come into force from 5 pm tomorrow across

containment zones of the state, saying there is no need to make amountain out of molehill. The lockdown will be in forcefor seven days and extended if necessary, she said.She also rejected the list of new containment zonesfor the South 24 Parganas district, because toomany areas were included. "You can't lock down awhole district," she said after examining the list at atelevised meeting with her officials and doctorsfrom government hospitals.

CABINET APPROVES RENTAL HOUSINGFOR URBAN MIGRANTS, POOR

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved development of AffordableRental Housing Complexes for urban migrants and poor as a sub-

scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban, the governmentsaid. As part of the scheme, existing vacant government-funded housingcomplexes will be converted into AffordableRental Housing Complex (ARHC). Anexpenditure of Rs 600 crore is estimated inthe form of "technology innovation grant", anofficial spokesperson said on Twitter after theCabinet meeting. He said three lakhbeneficiaries will be covered initially.

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated July 08, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashadha & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Chaturthi: 10:10 am

Nakshatram: Shatabhisha: 03:09 am

(Next Day)

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 01:58 pm – 03:36 pm

Yamagandam: 05:51 am – 07:29 am

Varjyam: 09:01 am – 10:45 am

Gulika: 09:06 am - 10:43 am

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 07:23 pm – 09:06 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:55 am – 12:47 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: HazeTemp: 29/23Humidity: 78%Sunrise: 05.48 amSunset: 06.54 pm

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao has ruledout a cabinet meeting in July,though on June 28 he hadindicated that a decisionwould be taken by his team"in the next three to fourdays" on reimposition oflockdown in GHMC limits inview of the mounting coron-avirus cases.

According to sources, theChief Minister, who has beenfunctioning from his farm-house in Erravelli on theoutskirts of the city for thepast one week, conveyed thisto his cabinet colleagues aswell as Chief Secretar ySomesh Kumar and top offi-cials of the GeneralAdministration Department(GAD).

This implies that there willbe no lockdown in Hyderabadfor the time being.

NO LOCKDOWNKCR does not want to derail the economy in the state

Another lockdown willendanger livelihoods: KTR KARIMNAGAR: Indicating thestate government's currentthinking, Municipal AdministrationMinister KT Rama Rao onWednesday remarked that peoplecould not confine themselves totheir home till a vaccine isinvented for Coronavirus andimposing lockdown further wouldnegatively impact livelihoods.

Speaking at Harita haramprogramme held at Choppadandiin Karimnagar district, theMinister observed, “Life andlivelihood are equally important.People should learn to co-existwith Corona and achievelivelihood and development".Rather than expecting only theGovernment to do something tocontain the virus, people shouldact with a sense of responsibility,he said. Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao

addressing a meeting at Karimnagar.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State govern-ment, hemmed in by mount-ing Covid-19 cases that haveraised questions in severalquarters about the way it hashandled the pandemic, is all setto open a "Covid war room"that will monitor the state'sfight against coronavirus 24x7.

The war room will bemanned by about 25 resourcepersons, including key minis-ters, top officials and expertsfrom the medical and healthsectors. They will report direct-ly to Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao. The warroom will monitor all aspectsof the corona crisis such aspools of beds available in gov-ernment as well as privatehospitals; availability of med-

ical staff, medical infrastruc-ture, ambulance services; con-tainment zones; and com-plaints against private hospitalsdenying admissions and fleec-ing patients for corona treat-ment.

Noticeably, the Kerala state

government has been effec-tively handling corona casesby setting up 'Covid warroom'. Kerala was the firststate in the country to comeup with such an initiative inApril itself.

Telangana Govt to set up24x7 ‘Covid War Room’

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister Y S Jagan MohanReddy on Wednesdayreleased the biography of hisfather, late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, pennedby his mother Y SVijayalakshmi.

Titled 'Naalo...Naatho (with

and within me): YSRMemoirs,' the book has "somefacts about my father that theworld did not know," Jagansaid, releasing the biographyat their family estate inIdupulapaya in Kadapa dis-trict, on the occasion of thelate leader's 71st birthanniversary.

YSRCP honorary president YS Vijayalakshmi kisses her son and Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy at the book release function on Wednesday.

Jagan releasesbook on YSR,penned by mother

Centre to scan coronavirussituation in HyderabadPNS n HYDERABAD

With TS recording nearly28,000 Covid-19 positive cases,more than half of them inGHMC limits, Union Ministerof Health and Family WelfareDr Harsh Vardhan onWednesday held a meetingwith Union Minister of State forHome Affairs Kishan Reddyover the rising cases of coron-avirus in the state.

This comes close on theheels of the Telgangana HighCourt's strictures against thestate government's handling ofcertain aspects of response tothe pandemic and Governor DrTamilisai Soundararajan's crit-ical comments after her own

personal assessment of the sit-uation. It is learnt that theUnion ministers discussed thepresent situation in Telangana

with focus on the measuresbeing initiated by the state gov-ernment to contain the virus.

Kishan Reddy meets Union Health Minister Harsha Vardhan on Wednesday

Man collapses, dies afterhospital denies admission

Man colapses and dies on the road after hospital denies admission in Hyd.

PNS n HYDERABAD

In yet another instance offatality linked to a hospitaldenying admission to a criti-cally ill person, a suspectedCovid-19 patient droppeddead on the road on

Wednesday. A bystander'svideo, which has gone viral,highlights the man's plight inan atmosphere where meresuspicion that a person hascontracted corona sounds hisor her death knell.

Army asks soldiersto delete FB,Instagram accountsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian Army wants itspersonnel to refrain fromsocial media apps for anykind of official or personalcommunication.

On Wednesday, citingsecurity reasons, the IndianArmy asked its personnel todelete their accounts from 89social media apps by July 15or face action. Some of theseapps are Facebook,Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat,songs.pk, WeChat, Hike,Likee, Shareit, True Caller,PUBG, Tinder, according tolatest reports.

"In view of the exponentialincrease in the number ofcases being targeted by hos-tile intelligence agencies andexisting vulnerabilities, theuse of Facebook accounts byArmy persons is banned.Hence, the existing accountsare required to be deleted andnot left deactivated. Any ser-vice persons found onFacebook/using banned sitespost-July 15 will be reported,"the Indian Army said today.

SC asks govt to look into illegalashrams, bogus babas in countryPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme CourtWednesday asked SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta to lookinto a plea seeking actionagainst illegal ashrams run bybogus Babas' across the coun-try and rescuing women fromjail-like conditions inAdhyatimik Vidyalaya' atRohini here.

"Look into this, what can bedone. This gives a bad nameto everyone," the top court

told Mehta.A bench of Chief Justice S

A Bobde and Justices RSubhash Reddy and A S

Bopanna asked the copy of thepetition to be served to Mehtaand posted the matter aftertwo weeks.

The plea filed by oneDumpala Ramreddy claimedin his petition that his daugh-ter, a post-doctoral scholarfrom Iowa State University,USA, has been living in a jail-like condition from July 2015in Adhyatmika Vidyalaya',founded allegedly by a rapeaccused.

TS reports1,924 cases,1,590 in GHMC PNS n HYDERABAD

In yet another biggest single-day spike, 1,924 COVID-19positive cases were reportedin Telangana on Wednesday,taking the total number ofcases to 29,536. Among thefresh cases, 1,590 are inGHMC, 99 in Rangareddyand 43 in Medchal. Amongthe samples tested onWednesday, every third per-son tested positive for thevirus.

In all 17,279 patients havebeen discharged so far uponrecovery, including 992patients on Wednesday. With11 deaths on Wednesday, sofar 324 patients have died.

Till now 1,34,801 sampleshave been tested, of which1,05,265 proved negative.

Cabinet okaysextension of PFsharing till Aug

PNS n HYDERABAD

Taking for granted securitypersonnel at Pragati Bhavan,two motorcycle-borne youthmaterialised from nowhereand pulled off a lighting portestat the exit gate of the ChiefMinister’s official residenceon Wednesday and disap-

peared as fast as they hadcome. This triggered a franticpolice hunt for the duo untillate in the night.

The youth displayed plac-ards reading “Where is KCR?He is our CM and we have theright to know about his where-abouts”.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved a pro-posal to extend the schemefor the payment of employersand employees' PF contribu-tions for three months untilAugust.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had announcedthe extension of the benefit inMay this year under thePradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Yojana (PMGKY)amid the COVID-19 pan-demic.

"Cabinet has approved theextension of the scheme

where theg o v e r n -

m e n tp a y scontri-butionso f

employ-ees and

employers tillAugust," Union MinisterPrakash Javadekar toldreporters after the Cabinetmeeting on Wednesday.

Under the Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Package, thepayment of 12 per cent ofemployer and 12 per centemployee contribution wasmade into EPF accounts.

PNS n NEW DELHI

France's Groupe ADP hasinfused Rs 4,565 crore, whichis the second tranche ofinvestment, in GMR AirportsLimited (GAL) to concludeits deal to purchase a total of49 per cent shareholding inthe company, said an officialstatement.

The GAL manages air-ports at Delhi andHyderabad. On February 21,the company had announcedthat Groupe ADP wouldacquire 49 per cent stake init for ?10,780 crore.

In its first tranche of invest-ment, Groupe ADP had paidRs 5,248 crore on February 26to the GAL to purchase 24.99per cent in it.

France’s ADP toacquire stake inGMR's airport biz

Two raise banner of protestin front of Pragati Bhavan

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HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020 hyderabad 02

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PNS n HYDERABAD

The Government of Telanganahas decided to sell cotton pro-duced in the state under 'brandTelangana' on the lines of cot-ton from Gujarat being soldunder the name Sankar-6. TheSankar-6 commands gooddemand in international mar-ket. Several cotton mills anddomestic industries informedthe Government of Telanganato create a brand for cottonproduced in Telangana to getglobal demand for the brand.

The Marketing Departmentofficials have spoken to theexperts of Tamil Nadu on cot-ton procurement policy of thespinning mills in Tamil Nadu.Moreover, the government alsoidentified the problems in sell-ing the cotton produced inTelangana.

Quality cotton comes fromthe seeds of the mainstreamcompanies used to raise thecrop. But, some traders are sell-ing substandard seeds. Thecotton comes from such seedsis of short variety. The textiletraders are not willing to buysuch short variety of cotton.Also, they are not prepared to

give suitable price to dwarfvariety of cotton.

Upon ginning, the cottonoutput from 100 kg of cotton,bought from Telangana, wouldbe around 28 kg to 32 kg, whileit ranges between 35 to 40 kgfrom Gujarat cotton. If quali-ty seeds are given to the farm-ers production of quality cot-

ton is feasible. The state gov-ernment asked the ProfJayashankar Telangana StateAgriculture Univesity to makeavailable those seeds that pro-duce tall variety of cotton.University research directorDr Jagadishwar said that theuniversity is conductingresearch on genetically modi-fied cotton seeds.

He said that the cotton cropis raised using ICMR cottonseeds.

Agriculture principal secre-tary Dr B Janardhan Reddyand Ginning Mills Associationgeneral secretary G Rameshsaid that a plan is being evolvedto sell the cotton produced inthe state under a particularbrand name. They suggestedtaking all precautions rightfrom the sowing the cottonseeds to ensure MSP to cotton.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Excise Minister V SrinivasGoud and Mahbubnagar MPM Srinivas Reddy onWednesday charged theOpposition parties with spew-ing venom on the ruing partyon building a new secretariatwith a view to obstructingstate's development. They cau-tioned the Opposition thatopposing the new secretariatwould tantamount to con-tempt of court.

Addressing media at theTRSLP office here onWednesday, they said there wasno use indulging in mindlesscriticism of the governmentsince the HC gave its nod forthe new secretariat. TheCongress and BJP leaders aretalking as though they are APleaders. If anyone were to raisethe issue of invoking section 8of the States ReorganisationAct of 2014 they would have toinvite the TRS leaders' wrath,they warned.

They made it clear that theTRS would not compromiseon the existence of Telanganaand would not tolerate othersexercising authority over

Telangana, especially the Delhipolitical parties.

TPCC president Uttam neverfought for Telangana, they saidpointing out that his truecolours were exposed on rais-ing the issue of invoking thesection 8 of the Act. Becauseof the Congress and BJP theTelangana has to forfeit sevenmandals to AP, they said. TheOpposition leaders are criticis-ing the government out of jeal-ousy and vendetta as KCRregime give them no chance toplay dirty politics, they said. Onwhereabouts of KCR, theyquipped that it does not matter

from where the Chief Ministerfunctions. The new secretariatis going to be an icon forTelangana, they said. It wouldserve administrative seat needsof the state for the next 100years, they said. They advisedUttam to clear his ignoranceabout Section 8 of the Act. Thenew secretariat would be builtas per the ecological laws.

Whey the BJP Is creating ahue and cry over new secretari-at but keeping mum on newparliament house proposed byModi, they wondered andadvised the opposition to stopresorting to cheap gimmicks.

Oppn spewing venom againstgovt, allege TRS leaders

Minister Srinivas Goud addressing the media in the city on Wednesday

PNS n HYDERABAD

Revolutionary singer, poet,dancer and member of RTCemployees union, Nissar diedof Coronavirus onWednesday morning whileundergoing treatment inGandhi Hospital. Recently, hepenned a song onCoronavirus which was sungby Vandemataram Srinivas.His death dealt a blow to theliterary world. Nissar hailsfrom Suddala village ofGundala Mandal of Yadadridistrict. He lives inJagadgirigutta and workedas controller in the RTCDepartment. Noted musicdirector VandemataramSrinivas rendered the songpenned by Nissar. The songwas released in the last weekof March and became aninstant hit.

PNS n KHAMMAM

Transport Minister P AjayKumar has directed the offi-cials to expedite the ongoingdevelopmental works inKhammam city. OnWednesday, the Minister,accompanied by DistrictCollector RV Karnan andMunicipal CommissionerAnurag Jayanthi, visited sev-eral areas in the city andreviewed the progress ofworks.

The Minister inspected themodernisation works of veg-etable and fruit market at busstand, drainage and foot pathat Rikka Bazaar, road expan-sion works and central light-ing works at Kalvoddu area,Bomma centre and otherareas. Ajay Kumar expressedhis ire at electricity depart-ment officials for the delay inrelocating electricity trans-formers and poles that wereobstructing traffic flow.Immediate steps to relocatethe transformers and poleshave to be taken, he told theofficials.

Poet Nissarsuccumbs toCovid-19

Expeditependingworks,officials toldPNS n HYDERABAD

Even as the Telangana govern-ment claims to have enoughbeds in Gandhi Hospital, theseare not enough, say doctorsworking in other hospitals. Asenior doctor on condition ofanonymity said, “Withincreasing number of cases,the number of suspects isincreasing. So the beds need tobe proportionately increasedin hospitals taking suspectslike King Koti hospital, TBChest hospital and Fever hos-pital”.

According to the data pro-vided by the Telangana gov-ernment on July 6, the num-ber of beds vacant in FeverHospital and Chest hospital isjust about 18 and 25 respec-tively. These hospitals havefewer beds compared to otherhospitals. Gandhi Hospital,which is admitting onlyCoronavirus patients has 1,890bed capacity, Fever hospitalhas only 140 beds, Chest hos-pital 121 beds and King Kotihospital has 350.

Time and again the HealthDepartment has been statingthat “Patients with moderate

to severe symptoms withCovid positive should go toGandhi Hospital where thegovernment has made elabo-rate arrangements for treat-ment and management.Patients with symptoms butnot yet confirmed and requir-ing Covid-19 testing should goto District Hospital, King Koti,Fever Hospital and ChestHospital”

State itself claims thatonly20 per cent of the caseswould be severe. While theinfrastructure catering minor-

ity has vacancies, what aboutthe majority? questioned doc-tors.

As per government data, inFever Hospital, Chest Hospital,King Koti even suspects andmoderately symptomatic caseshave been admitted.

Another doctor on condi-tion of anonymity said, “IfGandhi Hospital is only forserious patients, the govern-ment should do somethingabout the majority mildlysymptomatic patients.Government is well aware thatthe number of such cases willbe more. Sufficient beds areavailable in Gandhi Hospitaland not other hospitals takingsuspects”. Meanwhile, as onWednesday, the Governmenthospitals have established acapacity of 17,081 Covid beds,of which 11,928 are isolationsbeds, 3,537 are oxygen beds,1,616 are ICUs beds. Theasymptomatic and mildlysymptomatic patients request-ing for institutional quarantineare admitted in Nature CureHospital, Govt. NizamiaHospital, Govt. AyurvedaHospital and Govt.Homeopathy Hospital.

Having beds alone in Gandhi not enough, say doctors

Two elderly women in TS, K’taka beat Covid-19 PNS n HYDERABAD

Beating the Coronavirus infec-tion against all odds, two nona-genarian women in Telanganaand Karnataka have recoveredfrom the disease and got dis-charged from the hospitalswhere they were admitted.

Bringing cheers to the med-ical fraternity and people alike,a 94-year-old woman fromHyderabad conqueredCOVID-19 and was dischargedfrom the state-run Gandhihospital here, a hospital officialsaid on Wednesday.

The woman was admitted tothe hospital after testing posi-

tive for the virus on June 17, hesaid. The woman, who wasasymptomatic, was dischargedfrom the hospital on July 6. Shedoes not have any comorbidconditions and was psycholog-ically strong during her stay inthe hospital, he said.“It showsthat coronavirus can be defeat-ed even at that age if one isstrong psychologically.

She was not tense,” he added.In Chitradurga district ofKarnataka, a 96-year-oldwoman recovered from thecoronavirus infection, the sec-ond such instance of a nona-genarian in the state gettingcured of the disease.According

to health department sources,96-year-old Govindammaalong with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson wasadmitted to a hospital withfever and sore throat on June25. The 27-year-old grandsontested positive for coronavirusfollowed by his 62-year-oldfather and 58-year-old moth-er.Later, the grandmother toowas found positive.

All of them were cured anddischarged on July 6, thesources said. Later,Govindamma told reportersthat there was nothing to fearabout the virus. “All that youneed is a strong will power,” she

said. Sharing her success story,Karnataka Medical EducationMinister K Sudhakar tweeted,“I congratulate Govindammaof Hiriyur in Chitradurga whodefeated COVID. She has setan example to the people ofKarnataka by her enthusiasmand courage.

"The minister said one can-not defeat coronavirus withfear and panic. “Self-confi-dence and proper treatment isthe only way to recover fromthe infection,” he added. Lastmonth, a 99-year-old womanin Bengaluru had fully recov-ered from COVID-19 andreturned home.

Continued from page 1

He said the founder of theashram has been declared asabsconding for about threeyears and a Joint Committeeformed by the Delhi HighCourt had submitted a reportgiving details of the patheticconditions prevailing in theashram run by VeerendarDev Dixit. The plea said theapex body of sages -- 'AkhilBhartiya Akhada Parishad' -- has declared a list of 17 fakebabas' in the country whichinclude the name ofVeerendar Dev Dixit.

Ramreddy, apperaring inperson, sought rescuing of hisdaughter along with about 170women inmates fromAdhyatmika Vidyalaya as itwas done in the case of inmatesof jails across the country. Takestringent action on 17 illegalAshrams in India run by bogusBabas ... , his plea said, adding,that hundreds/thousands ofdisciples are residing in 17 fakeashrams in the country andnational capital and his daugh-ter is one among such personstrapped by these fake babas'.

Continued from page 1

For the wage months ofJune, July and August, 2020,the scheme will cover all theestablishments having up to100 employees and 90 percent of such employees earn-ing less than Rs 15,000monthly wage.

The benefit was providedearlier for salary months ofMarch, April and May 2020.This support is extended byanother three months tosalary months of June, Julyand August 2020.

"The Union Cabinetchaired by the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi today hasgiven its approval for extend-ing the contribution both 12per cent employees' shareand 12 per cent employers'share under EmployeesProvident Fund, totalling 24per cent for another threemonths from June to August,2020, as part of the packageannounced by the govern-ment,” an official said.

Continued from page 1

On June 28th, senior healthofficials who met KCR atPragathi Bhavan had soughtreimposition of lockdown inHyderabad for a period of 15days to contain corona cases.KCR had then stated that theState Cabinet would take a callin "three or four days".Already 11 days have elapsedwithout any cabinet meetingbeing held. Meanwhile, fearingreimposition of lockdown,over 30 lakh people in GHMClimits have left for their nativeplaces. Serpentine queues ofvehicles were witnessed beforeall the toll plazas on highwaysleading to Andhra Pradeshand Telangana districts. Nowonder, Hyderabad roadshave been wearing a desertedlook for the past one week.Besides, most of the localmarkets, shops and establish-ments, colony/apartment asso-ciations in GHMC limits arevoluntarily following some ofthe lockdown curbs andrestricting people's activitiesand movements.In this back-drop, officials are learnt tohave conveyed to the Chief

Minister thatthere is no need to reimpose

lockdown in Hyderabad as"lockdown impact is alreadyfelt in GHMC limits with theincrease in corona cases".

Anotherlockdown...Continued from page 1

Of the 23,000 Coronaviruscases recorded in the state,only 300 cases proved to befatal, he pointed out, whilerefuting criticism of thegovernment's handling of thepandemic in some circles.Under the prevailing situation,"playing politics is notadvisable", he remarked.

On the view in some circlesthat the government is notconducting enought tests andhas been shielding data fromthe public domain, KTRcharaterised the criticism asunwarranted. If it is true, howcould the government maintainsecrecy over deaths, hecountered.

Continued from page 1

Kishan Reddy apprised theHealth Minister of variousaspects of handling the pan-demic such as testing, tracing,community surveillance, hos-pital management, identifica-tion of isolation wards, avail-ability of personal protectiveequipment and masks.

The Union Health Ministersought detailed informationon the number of tests beingconducted in Telangana. Thisfollows a NITI Aayog reportin which Telangana has beennamed as the state with thesecond-lowest Covid-19 test-ing rate in the country.

Based on the number ofCovid-19 tests the states haveconducted per million popu-lation, Telangana is just abovethe bottom-placed Bihar.According to the list, thenumber of tests

per million in Telangana is

a meagre 2,637.Harsha Vardhan’s meeting

assumes significance in thebackdrop of Telangana wit-nessing an alarming surge incoronavirus cases, with thepast few days seeing over1,800 new infections per day.Telangana is one of the sever-al states where Covid-19 caseshave spiralled as a conse-quence of the easing of thenationwide lockdown. Thepercentage of positive tests hasnearly doubled in the past fewweeks.

On Tuesday, the statereported 1,875 new cases,taking the corona tally to27,612. There were sevendeaths due to the virus onTuesday, taking the number offatalities to 313. Of the 1,875new cases, a whopping 1,422positive cases were reported inGHMC limits.

Telangana Governor DrTamilisai Soundarajan also

expressed her displeasure atthe state government’sresponse to COVID-19 aftershe visited the Nizam’sInstitute of Medical Sciences.She had also held a meetingwith Chief Secretary SomeshKumar and Principal HealthSecretary at Raj Bhavan onTuesday to assess the situationin the state.

The Telangana High Courtrecently made several criticalobservations over the stategovernment’s handling of thepandemic. Hearing a peti-tion on the lack of medicalgear for the frontline warriorsand low testing, the HighCourt had questioned the AGon how many PPE, N95masks and other equipmentwere provided to doctors andmedical health workersengaged in the combat againstCovid-19. The court had alsotaken note of the low COVID-19 testing rates in the state.

Centre to scan coronavirus...

Continued from page 1

A press release by GMRInfrastructure said onTuesday: "The contours of thedeal have however undergoneslight modifications consider-ing the unprecedented cir-cumstances arisen due to thepandemic." "As per the revisedShare Purchase Agreement,the second tranche of theinvestment for 24.01% of GALhas been structured in twoparts: 1) A firm amount,immediately paid at secondclosing, for a total of Rs. 4,565Crore, including Rs. 1,000Crore equity infusion in GAL.2) Earn-outs amounting to Rs1,060 Crore, subject to theachievement of certain perfor-mance related targets by GALupto FY2024," it added.

AP Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and others releasing the book on Wednesday

Jagan releases book on YSR, penned by...Continued from page 1

"People knew my father as agreat leader, great politician,but in this book my motherhas written some facts about

the great leader which theoutside world doesnt know.

She portrayed YS RajasekharReddy as a good father, goodhusband, and great leader,recounting her 37-year journey

with YSR," Jagan said.This book would inspire

future generations, he added.The Chief Ministers family

paid homage to YSR at hismemorial on the occasion.

Telangana Govt to set up 24x7‘Covid War Room’

Two raise banner of protest...Continued from page 1

Cops are now scrutinisingCCTV footage to apprehendthe youth. With over a dozenPragati Bhavan staffers testingCovid-19 positive, the nerve-centre of the administration

has been evacuated and thebuilding sanitised. Of late,administrative activity hasshifted to the ad hoc CMOthat has come up at ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao's farmhouse at Erravellion the outskirts of the city.

Continued from page 1

The Delhi governmentrecently announced that itwould set up a war room.

At present, there is nomechanism that permits effec-tive monitoring of all aspectsof Coronavirus at the top levelin the government. Further,there is no platform to addressgrievances of people againstthe lack of doctors as well facil-ities in government and pri-

vate hospitals. Complaintsagainst private or corporatehospitals and private laborato-ries are on the rise with peo-ple detesting their high-hand-edness and collection of exor-bitant charges for tests andtreatment in stark violation ofgovernment guidelines.Besides, there are also com-plaints of hospitals outrightyrefusing to admit patients hav-ing fever, cough or othersymptoms.

Man collapses, dies after...Continued from page 1

Prithviraj went to a privatehospital near ECIL complainingof breathlessness. According tohis family members, there wereno doctors to attend to him inthe emergency ward of the hos-pital. After a long wait, oxygen

was supplied and the family wasthen informed that the patient'scondition was critical and thathe has to be shifted to KIMShospital. When the family mem-bers were waiting on the road foran auto-rickshaw to shift him toKIMS hospital, Prithviraj col-lapsed in front of the hospital.

SC asks govtto look...

Cabinet okaysextension...

France’s ADP to ...

Plans on to put Telanganacotton on the global map

According to thedata provided bythe govt, as onJuly 6, thenumber of bedsvacant in FeverHospital andChest hospital isjust about 18and 25respectively.

No Lockdown

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIME ORNERC

Man ends life asmother refuses money for liquor

HYDERABAD: A 22-year-oldyouth committed suicide byhanging himself from a ceilingfan at his residence for beingdenied liquor money at Isnapurin Patancheru on Tuesday night.According to the police, thevictim was identified asPitchakuntla Balaraju. "He isreported to have taken theextreme step after his motherrefused to give him money tobuy liquor. His dead body wasfound hanging in his bed roomof his residence in Isnapur area,"said the Patancheru police,adding that following acomplaint, a case was bookedunder section 174 (suspiciousdeath) of the CrPC. The bodywas sent for postmortemexamination.

Dacoit gang busted,Rs 2.6 L recovered

HYDERABAD: Officials of theEast Zone Team of theCommissioner's Task force,Hyderabad along with Afzalgunjpolice apprehended a dacoitgang of five on Wednesday. Thearrested persons have beenidentified as Syed Farooq Pasha,26, Syed Fayaz Imran, 25, AmerKhan, 24, Mohd. Waseem, 25and Syed Abdul Khader Hussain,21. Another person, identified asSameer, is absconding, said thepolice. According to the police,Farooq Pasha who works at apharmacy decided to earn easymoney by committing offences.He observed a person oppositehis pharmacy, who carried acash bag every night. Pasha thendecided to form a gang and robthe man and informed the planto his friend, Imran who alsoarranged four more persons. Thegang conducted recce for 10days. On July 4, Fayaz andWaseem obstructed the victimnear u-turn in Putlibowli, stabbedhim with a screwdriver and stolehis bag containing Rs 3,30,000cash. Acting on a tip off, officialsarrested the four accused onWednesday. Rs 2,60,000 cash,two bikes, two knives, six cellphones and a screwdriver wererecovered from their possession.

Constable shoots self with revolver

HYDERABAD: The 42-year-old head constable ofGreyhounds committed suicide on the campus inNarsingi on Wednesday. The Narsingi Police said thatthe victim was identified as Chand Pasha, who wasposted with the Greyhounds, used a service revolver ofa colleague to take his own life at a checkpoint near thearmory. The incident took place at 9 am. The victimwas with the 1st Battalion. He was having personalproblems which he used to discuss with colleagues.

OGH Superintendent tested +ve for CovidPNS n HYDERABAD

Osmania General Hospital Superintendent DrB Nagender was tested positive forCoronavirus. The doctor was admitted inNIMS hospital two days back and returnedhome after all the investigations were com-pleted. The OGH superintendent is underhome isolation. The doctor allegedly gotinfected while providing treatment to anasymptomatic patient.

CP reviews sanitisation drive of police vehiclesPNS n HYDERABAD

Police Commissioner, Anjani Kumar onWednesday reviewed the sanitisation pro-gramme of police vehicles at Amberpetpolice grounds. The police vehicles includingmotorcycles and Innova cars deployed withthe police stations in the south and east zoneof the city were sanitised by a private com-pany as part of its Corporate SocialResponsibility.

Healthcare staff to be treated at NIMSPNS n HYDERABAD

With more number of health-care professionals gettinginfected with Coronavirus inTelangana, the state govern-ment on Wednesday issuedorders to get the treatment ofthe employees of Health,Medical & Family WelfareDepartment who are infectedwith Covid-19 at NIMSHospital in Hyderabad.

Nizam's Institute of MedicalSciences (NIMS) has dedicat-ed a special block to curehealthcare professionals with250 beds. This has been creat-

ed into three divisions – level1 for patients with mild symp-toms, level 2 for moderatecases and level 3 for patientswho need oxygen supply need-

ed and ventilator support.In view of the present pan-

demic situation, many medicalpersonnel who are the frontlineworkers are getting infected

with Covid-19, most of themwhile performing their officialduties.

They need proper treatmentat hospital. In this regard, theHealth Minister directedauthorities to treat all health-care staff at NIMS. This comescouple of days after Dr SultanaAsra alleged that private hos-pitals charged her Rs1.19 lakhfor one day treatment forCovid-19. Earlier, TJUDA,doctors associations made arepresentation to HealthMinister, seeking special hos-pital to cure health care profes-sionals.

TS succumbs to pressure,picks rapid antigen testsNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Despite, more than one lakhtests, with constant criticismover low testing, the state gov-ernment took a step back anddecided to go about with rapidantigen testing. The govern-ment was against the rapidantigen testing and maintainedthat they are doing gold stan-dard RT-PCR testing. Whilerapid antigen testing reported-ly began in Serilingampally pri-mary health center onWednesday, initially the sam-ples collected were low. Nearly25 samples were collected atthe urban primary health cen-ters of Hyderabad, Medchal,Rangareddy.

IPM is reportedly spear-

heading rapid antigen testingwith 50 UPH centers inGHMC limits, 20 inRangareddy and 20 in Medchalperforming the tests. These

districts have reported 90 percent of Coronavirus cases. OnWednesday, the rapid antigentesting hasn't commenced in allthe 90 centers but a selected

few centers. Sources pointedthat the focus of testing isreportedly on symptomaticand primary contacts initially.State continues to be deter-mined to avoid unnecessarytesting for asymptomaticpatients.

The Rapid antigen testing isdone by collecting a nasal swaband results will be known with-in 15 to 20 minutes. However,if the swab is kept beyond this,there will be more false posi-tives. Sources indicated thatcurrently Telangana is mullingto do only two lakh tests, but ifthe positivity rate is high, thegovernment may increase thenumber of tests. The state hasnot made any officialannouncement on the numberof tests to be conducted.

Social stigma should not get to you: Covid warrior

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

A Twitter hashtag'#SayNoToUGCGuidlines'started by Telangana studentsbecame number one Indiatrend within hours.

Many students, teachers andeducational activitists used thehashtag to voice their displea-sure regarding the new guide-lines set by University GrantsCommission (UGC), releasedon Monday.

As per the new guidelines,UGC has instructedUniversities to assess the stu-dents through an examinationconducted in either online oroffline or blended mode. Theauthorities also decided totweak its indicative alternatecalendar and advise institutionsto hold exams for them bySeptember-end.

Speaking about the situa-tion, Md Sohail Uddin,

General Secretary, NationalStudents' Union of India(NSUI), RR District, shares,"We are glad that a trend thatwe started has picked up andpeople are talking about it. Wehad earlier, before the newguidelines were released, fileda PIL in Hyderabad HighCourt, the verdict of which isdue on July 9. We will plan ournext action depending on

that."He adds, "Considering the

current Coronavirus outbreak,we do not want to stage aprotest, as that can escalate thenumber of cases in the city. Wehope that the HC rules in ourfavour. If not, we are already indiscussion to file a PIL againstthis move in Supreme Court."

Many tweets asking theauthorities to cancel the examswere posted. Including somethat pointed out that the syl-labus of student wasn't com-pleted. Pointing out that moststudents had difficulty attend-ing online classes, Syed AmerMalik, a III year Engineeringstudent of Sri Indu College ofEngineering & Technology,says, "We had online classes fora month. But online classes arenot even close to the class-room. We found it so hard tograsp the concepts, there wasnetwork disturbance too. Wearen't prepared for the exams."

NAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

The police inspector of IT andCommunication, RachakondaCommissionerate, B Sridevi, sharesher journey after she recovered fromCoronavirus. Sridevi joined the policeforce back on Monday and was wel-comed by her colleagues.

"I was tested positive onJune 3 and spent the nextday at GandhiHospital," she said,adding that since shewas an asympto-matic patient.

Sridevi was askedto home quarantineherself on June 5.

"I was very worried ini-tially during my stay at GandhiHospital. I have a 4-year-old son andmy husband is a doctor at PetlaburjHospital. He was also tested positiveweeks back. I followed the prescribedmedication and consumed protein richfood. On June 16, I was tested nega-tive," said the official.

Speaking about dealingwith infection, Sridevi said

that the social stigma aroundvirus should not get to you. "One

must be mentally strong to deal withinfection. People will treat you differ-ently. With the news showing scaryfigures worldwide, people look atpatients carrying the infection in adifferent light. It's very important forus not to be bothered by these. Yourmental weakness is your enemy."

COVID

WINNER

SPEAKS...

Students #SayNoToUGCGuidelines,demand cancellation of final exams

Doc-turned-patient exposestrue colours of AIG hospitalPNS n HYDERABAD

Exposing true colours of thefamed Asian Institute ofGastroenterology (AIG) in thecity, a doctor Vijaya Kesari onWednesday released a selfievideo on internet alleging thatthe hospital has been harass-ing her by billing her for thetreatment not provided to her.

Vijaya Kesari claimed thatshe along with her fathertook admission in the AIG asthey were indisposed. Later,they were tested positive forthe Coronavirus, according tohospital authorities.

They were not put on ven-tilator or oxygen, but the

hospital charged bill for pro-viding treatment on ventila-tor and oxygen. When ques-tioned the hospital authori-ties, they tried to dischargeVijaya Kesari and her fatherhurriedly to hush up theiromissions and commissionsin the billing. The hospital

authorities want to collecthuge sum from the patients.For the past 14 days, it was ahell for them, she said.

The condition of hospitalsin India was worse, VijayaKesari felt and charged withhospital managements forharassing the patients withexorbitant bills. Instead ofcuring the patients, the hos-pitals are harassing them withexorbitant bills. She appealedto the state government to res-cue them from the hospital.Vijaya Kesari said that shecalled up Health MinisterEatala Rajender and exhort-ed him to respond to theissue.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Soon after Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)reduced syllabus for Class IXto XII students by up to 30 percent for the 2020-21 ses-sion to make up forthe academicloss, variousorganisationsand activi-tists cameout to slamthem.

N o w ,amid theo u t r a g e ,claimed thatthe revised syl-labus announcedby it is being interpret-ed 'differently' and the move isonly a 'one-time measure' forthe 2020-21 academic sessionin view of the COVID-19 sit-uation.

"The rationalisation of syl-labus up to 30 per cent hasbeen undertaken by the Boardfor nearly 190 subjects of elmsIX to XII for the academic ses-sion 2020-21 as a one-timemeasure only," the Board clar-ified in a statement.

"The schools have beendirected to follow theAlternative AcademicCalendar prepared by NCERTfor transacting the curriculum.Therefore, each of the topic

that has been wrongly men-tioned in media as deletedhave been covered underAlternative AcademicCalendar of NCERT, which isalready on force for all the

affiliated schools of Board,"CBSE added.

It seems, how-ever, that many

e du c at i on a lorganisationsare stillagainst thechanges.

TelanganaState United

T e a c h e r s 'F e d e r a t i o n

( T S U T F ) ,General Secretary,

Chava Ravi said, "Thechapters removed from thesyllabus, with Coronaviruspandemic as an excuse, iscontrary to the constitutionalmandate. They have removedsome very important chapterson democracy, nationality andsecularism of the nation. Itseems like an attempt to bringthe students into the dictator-ship without the knowledge ofdemocracy."

Some of the chaptersremoved from the syllabusinclude secularism, national-ism, federalism, demonetisa-tion, GST, India's foreign rela-tions with neighbouring coun-tries and citizenship.

REVISED SYLLABUS

Move interpreted differently: CBSE

Human trafficking racket bustedPNS n HYDERABAD

Officials of the Special OperationsTeam (SOT) raided a brothel house atRegistration colony in Yapral andapprehended two interstate traffickerswith two customers and rescued twovictims.

The arrested persons have beenidentified as Rajanish Ranjan, 24,from Bihar, Sukhesh Ravan Kamble,32, from Karnataka. The arrested cus-tomers have been identified as PSaikiran, 29, a resident of Amberpetand Md Siraj, 27, from Balanagar. Themain organiser, Mithilesh Sharma isabsconding. The brothel house atRegistration Colony was being run inan independent house. Mithilesh and

Rajinesh have contacts with other statetraffickers who are supplying youngunemployed girls, who were lured onthe pretext of providing jobs andwere forced to indulge in sexual activ-ities. Mithilesh and Rajinesh employedKamble Sukhesh, a resident ofSuchithra to prepare food, to arrangecustomers and cater to their needs.

As per usual business, on Monday,Sharma arranged two customersSaikiran and Siraj and sent them to hishouse. Ranjanish and Sukhesharranged two girls for their sexualactivities. However, the SOT officialsalong with police offiials conducted araid on the brothel house and appre-hended all of them and rescued thetwo victims.

Traffic diverted as officials pull down SecretariatPNS n HYDERABAD

Traffic restrictions are put in placeon Wednesday too on the secondday of demolition of old Secretariatbuildings.

The police are not allowingvehicular traffic in the vicinity ofthe Secretariat. As such, all roadsleading to Secretariat have beenclosed. Stringent security has beenprovided in and around Secretariatto rule out possibility of Oppositionparties holding protests.

It may be recalled that thepulling down of secretariat build-ings commenced on Tuesday

deploying proclaims. Stringentsecurity has been provided in thearea as buildings are being pulleddown. According to a preliminary

estimation, it would require atleast 12 to 15 days to ready 25.5acres of land ready to build newSecretariat complex.

To comply with the Vastu and tomake the site into a perfect square,the authorities have taken posses-sion of vacant site near MintCompound and the Nizam periodstone structure near Secretariatmain gate that housed electricitydepartment office.

The police officials arenot allowing vehiculartraffic in the vicinity of the Secretariat due todemolition works

Cops warn public about TikTok ProPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana police requested the public tobeware of the application TikTok Pro andasked them not to download the app.

Messages are flooding on WhatsApp withlinks by asking people to download TikTokPro. The cops and cyber experts have warnedthat this could be spyware or malware.

The WhatsApp message claims that TikTokis now only available in TikTok Pro and askspeople to download the app by clicking on alink. The app link is not available on the PlayStore or Apple Store. "If it's a malware and auser has given it permission to access thephone, then the user may be giving access tobank account details and personal informa-tion," warned a cyber security expert. Thepolice officials have told as of now there areno cases reported, but police officials havewarned public not to download such apps.

Malkajgiri MP Revanth Reddy calls on Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committeepresident DK ShivaKumar on Wednesday

COURTESY CCALL

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020 hyderabad 04

Homebuyers irked overdelay in projects in TSPNS n HYDERABAD

The Covid-19 has been delaying con-struction of flats, villas and other realestate ventures putting additionalfinancial burden on those who areabout to take possession of their flatsor houses by April this year. Theprospective house owners on onehand are paying rent and also EMIsas house-warming ceremonies arebeing delayed.

Moreover, their monthly incomehas come down making it difficult tocope up with the additional financialpressure. Sridhar of old city boughta flat in Rajendranagar. He is sup-posed to take delivery by April. Atthe same time, the Coronavirus has

affected all sectors of economyincluding the construction sector.The construction activity has cometo a grinding halt. The constructionis not yet completed and its comple-tion is ruled out till October.

In a gated community in Bollarum,construction of villas has completed

by 70 per cent and a civil engineerwho bought a village is supposed totake possession by August orSeptember. The project manage-ment said that it would not be ableto handover the villa beforeDecember. In the back drop ofCoronavirus pandemic, the RBIimposed a moratorium on housingloans for about six months. Butsome of the persons who availedhousing loan complain that the EMIsare being deducted from their bankaccounts. However, the banks say thatthey are not deducting EMI if a rep-resentation has been made to itthem in this regard. If EMIs aredeferred, the interest will go up andwould impose more financial burden.

Jagan far better thanKCR: KomatireddyPNS n BHONGIR

YSRC party president andAndhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jagan Mohan Reddy is far bet-ter than his Telangana counter-part and TRS president KChandrasekhar Rao in manyways, opined Congress leaderand Bhongir MP KomatireddyVenkat Reddy.

"Jagan might be a junior inpolitics and inexperienced inadministration than KCR. But interms of gaining the confidenceof the people, Jagan is 100 stepsahead of the Telangana ChiefMinister," Komatireddy said,addressing the gathering on theoccasion of YSR birth anniver-sary. He said he was not makingthese comments just for the sakeof criticism of KCR, but based onthe ground realities.

"Whether it is in the implemen-tation of welfare schemes or in thesteps being taken to control theCoronavirus pandemic, Jaganhas been receiving tremendousappreciation from the people.He has got a very good name ina short time," the MP said.

Recalling his association withlate Y S Rajasekhar Reddy,Komatireddy said he had been aclose friend of YSR for nearly 25years. "Even after becoming theChief Minister of the state, YSRhad given due to respect to allpolitical leaders, irrespective oftheir party affiliations," he said.

Meanwhile, the MP paid trib-utes to Telangana son of the soilSrinivas, an army soldier killed infighting extremists in J and K, andurged the state government to payan ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh to hisbereaved family members and agovernment job to his spouse.

PNS n JAGITYAL

Dealing with a PIL filed seekingthe installation of live dash-boards in all Covid-19 designat-ed hospitals in the state, a divi-sion bench of Telangana HighCourt suggested the state govern-ment to explore the system ofhaving live dashboards on a parwith those being used in Delhi forthe benefit of the Covid-19patients.

The bench wondered as towhy can't the Telangana govern-ment ask the Delhi governmentto share the software being usedby it to get first hand informationregarding the availability of the

beds, ventilators and related infor-mation to the needy patients?.The Court asked the advocategeneral to submit a report on theissue and posted the matter to July14 for furnishing updated infor-mation to the court. Clears the airThe registrar General ofTelangana High Court clarifiedthat there was no truth in the'breaking news' being telecast insome Telugu news channels thatthe apex court of the state wouldremain closed for two weeks. Hemade it clear that the High Courtwould continue to work in its cur-rent form and would accept peti-tions through e-filing mode.

HC asks TS to takecue from Delhi

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Court onWednesday declined to take upthe hearing of a PIL moved in theform of a lunch motion againstthe ongoing demolition worksof existing Secretariat buildingsby the state government. Thebench suggested the petitioner's

counsel to have an affidavit filed onthe issue and get it numbered for thehearing for thecase. The petition wasfiled by the founder Vice Presidentof TJS Professor PL VisweswarRao. In his petition, he said that thedemolition was causing a lot of airpollution and added that the the itwas also being done in violation ofsolid waste management rules.

High Court declines PIL

LIVE DASHBOARDS

SECRETARIAT DEMOLITION

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Convalescent plasmatherapy in Goa fromnext week: MinisterPANAJI: Goa Health MinisterVishwajit Rane on Wednesdaysaid the state will start using theconvalescent plasma therapy fortreating COVID-19 patients fromnext week. The stategovernment has alreadysanctioned funds required toprocure the necessarymachinery for the plasmatherapy, Rane told reportershere. "The plasma therapytreatment will start in Goa fromnext week onwards," he said.The state-run Goa MedicalCollege and Hospital (GMCH)has been given the responsibilityof collecting blood plasma fromthose who have recovered fromthe coronavirus infection, theminister said. "I have beenfollowing the issue ofintroducing plasma therapy inthe state since the last onemonth. We have all theinfrastructure required to storeplasma, he said.

Lady cop helpsdestitute womandeliver baby

SDRF, police teamsrescue woman fromdrowning in JammuJAMMU: A 45-year-old womanwas rescued from drowning ina three-hour-long jointoperation by the teams of theState Disaster ManagementForce (SDRF) and the policehere on Wednesday, police said.Bagu Begum was caught in themiddle of Tawi river in theBillicharana area due to asudden increase in the waterlevel following heavy rains in itscatchment area, Sub-InspectorRanjit Singh said. Singh, whois in-charge of police postBillicharana, said the womanwas crossing the river alongwith her cattle from Nikki Tawito Billicharana side around 9am. He said police teamsimmediately rushed to thescene after getting theinformation and launched arescue operation but theirefforts could not bore fruit dueto increased water level.Accordingly, an SDRF team wascalled in and the woman wassuccessfully rescued around12.15 pm and handed over toher family, the officer said.

MUMBAI: At a time when thepolice and medical services aregrappling with the COVID-19pandemic, a woman policeofficer and her staff helped a 35-year-old destitute woman deliverher baby on the road side insouth Mumbai, police said onWednesday. As heavy rainslashed the city in the early hoursof Sunday, sub-inspector PriyaGarud was on check post dutywhen she got a call about adestitute woman crying out forhelp near Metro cinema, anofficial said. Garud, who isattached to the Azad Maidanpolice station, rushed to thespot with her staff and foundthat the woman, who is mentallychallenged, was experiencingacute labour pains, he said.When the personnel saw thatthe woman didn't even haveproper clothes, they went to anearby house to borrow someclothes and bedsheets, theofficial said.

PM to interact with NGOsof his LS constituency todayPNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Thursday inter-act with representatives ofVaranasi-based NGOs to dis-cuss their efforts towards fooddistribution and other assis-tance rendered during thecoronavirus-induced lock-down, the Prime Minister'sOffice has said.

Modi represents Varanasi inLok Sabha.

During the nationwide lock-down, the residents of Varanasiand members of social organ-isations, through their ownefforts as well as by providingassistance to the districtadministration, ensured thatfood was timely available foreveryone in need, a PMOstatement said.

The prime minister willinteract with representatives ofsuch organisations onThursday via video conferenceto discuss their experienceand showcase their efforts.

During the lockdown, morethan a hundred organisationsin Varanasi distributed almost20 lakh food packets and twolakh dry ration kits throughthe food cell of the districtadministration, as well asthrough individual efforts, thestatement noted.

Apart from food distribu-tion, these organisations were

instrumental in distribution ofmasks, sanitisers and otheritems. They have been hon-oured as 'corona warriors' bythe district administration.

These organisations serve indiverse fields including educa-tion, social, religious, health,hotels and social clubs, andother professional sectors, thestatement said.

Global cooperation need ofthe hour to tackle Covid: PrezPNS n NEW DELHI

Asserting that India was at theforefront of the ongoing inter-national efforts to defeat thecoronavirus, President RamNath Kovind on Wednesdaysaid enhancing global cooper-ation to effectively tackle thepandemic was the need of thehour.

At a ceremony during whichKovind accepted credentialsfrom heads of mission fromNew Zealand, the UnitedKingdom and Uzbekistan, hesaid that India has deep-rootedties with all the three countriesand was privileged to share withthem a common outlook on keyglobal issues.

The president noted thatenhancing global cooperationwas the need of the hour toeffectively tackle the COVID-19pandemic, according to aRashtrapati Bhavan statement.

"In this context, he stated that

India was in the forefront ofongoing international efforts todefeat the pandemic," it stated.

Expressing happiness overthe vibrant state of relationswith the three countries,President Kovind emphasisedthat as a member of the UNSecurity Council for the term2021-22, India looked forwardto working with the internation-al community to strengthen

global peace and prosperity."This was the second time

that credentials presentationin Rashtrapati Bhavan hap-pened through video-confer-ence in the wake of COVID-19pandemic," the statement said.

The president had in Maythis year received the credentialsfrom the envoys of seven coun-tries through video-conference.

David Pine, the High

Commissioner of New Zealand,Sir Philip Barton, the HighCommissioner of the UnitedKingdom, and AkhatovDilshod Khamidovich, theAmbassador of the Republic ofUzbekistan presented their cre-dentials to the president duringWednesday's ceremony.

Kovind conveyed his warmwishes to the envoys on theirappointment.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Modi government isaddressing various economicchallenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in a "360 degree"manner, the BJP asserted onWednesday as it shared detailsabout the implementation of var-ious schemes as part of the'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliantIndia) programme.

Party general secretary PMuralidhar Rao told reportersthat within two months of theannouncement of the'Atmanirbhar Bharat' pro-gramme by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on May 12, thegovernment has brought theidea of a self-reliant India to theground by speedily implement-ing many of its measures.

ao also hit out at Congressleader Rahul Gandhi over his fre-quent criticism of the govern-ment's handling of the economy,

saying instead of reading aboutthe history of service by his ownparty, he keeps asking irrespon-sible questions. While PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is lead-ing from the front in dealing withCOVID-19 pandemic and the"China crisis", the Congress hascome to symbolise an "irre-sponsible opposition", he alleged.

The government has alreadyexecuted all its schemes for the

Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSME) sector withcredit of over Rs 3 lakh croreguaranteed and Rs 1.10 lakhcrore of it distributed by July 1,Rao said. The MSME sector is themost important aspect of theeconomy after agriculture, hesaid, adding that the governmentis working towards realising itsobjective of making India a USD5 trillion economy by 2024-25.

Delhi CM seeks report fromhealth secy on Covid deathsPNS n NEW DELHI

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has sought a detailedreport from the health secre-tary with an analysis of the fac-tors behind the COVID-19deaths in the national capitalin the last fortnight, officialssaid on Wednesday.

According to officials, Delhireported over 800 COVID-19deaths in the last two weeks,with 397 people succumbingto the disease in the first weekof July.

Officials said the objectiveof seeking the report is to takeall possible measures to reducethe number of coronavirusdeaths in the national capital.A total of 3,165 COVID-19deaths have been reported inDelhi so far.

The first such fatality wasreported in the national cap-ital on March 14 and within amonth, the death toll zoomed

to 1,000. The next 1,000 deathswere reported in eight daysand the toll stood at 2,035 onJune 19.

On July 4, the COVID-19death toll climbed to 3,004 inDelhi. Among other measuresto check the loss of lives dueto the coronavirus, the AamAadmi Party (AAP) govern-ment in the national capitalhas set up a plasma bank andis encouraging the patientswho have recovered fromCOVID-19 to donate the life-saving blood constituent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Specialist doctors from theAIIMS here have been roped inby the Union Health Ministry toprovide expert guidance andknowledge support on COVID-19 to doctors manning ICUs instate hospitals, in an effort toreduce the fatality rate. The firstsuch session through tele-consul-tation or video conference will beheld today.

The doctors will provide guid-ance on effective clinical man-agement of coronavirus infectedpatients in the ICUs of differentstate hospitals through tele/videoconsultation, the Health Ministrysaid on Wednesday.

Tele-consultation is a criticalcomponent of the clinical inter-vention protocol for COVID-19.

"They will handhold the statesin clinical management ofCOVID-19 patients to reducethe case fatality rate. These tele-consultation sessions for provid-ing timely and expert guidanceto the doctors in the states shallbe conducted twice every week,

on Tuesdays and Fridays," theministry said in its statement.

Ten hospitals with more than1000 beds, including nine fromMumbai (Maharashtra) and onefrom Goa will participate in thefirst session.

These are NESCO JumboFacility, P South (Phase II),CIDCO Mulund Jumbo Facility– T (Phase II), Malad InfinitiMall Jumbo Facility, PN (PhaseIII); Jio Convention CentreJumbo Facility, HE (Phase III);Nair Hospital; MCGM Seven

Hills; MMRDA BKC JumboFacility, HE (Phase II); MMRDABKC Jumbo Facility, HE (PhaseI); Mumbai Metro DahisarJumbo Facility, T (Phase II); andGovt Medical College andHospital, Panaji, Goa.

"As part of its holistic responseand management strategy forCOVID-19, the Centre remainscommitted to reducing casefatality rate by ensuring effectiveclinical management of allCOVID-19 positive patients," theministry said.

Customs seizes4.5 lakhcigarettes fromCOVID spl trainPNS n NEW DELHI

Customs preventive officialshave seized 4.5 lakh cigarettesticks illegally brought in aCOVID special train at oldDelhi Railway Station, offi-cials said on Wednesday.

The cigarette sticks of‘Paris' brand, valued at Rs 40lakh, were packed in 15 car-tons. It is suspected that theyhave been smuggled into thecountry from neighbouringBangladesh, they said.

These cartons were recov-ered from a goods compart-ment of a train - that runsfrom Howrah to Amritsar viaDelhi to ferry passengersduring coronavirus-inducednational lockdown -from theold Delhi Railway Station onTuesday, the officials said.

The cigarettes ofBangladesh-origin are sus-pected to have been smug-gled into the country throughthe porous India-Bangladeshborder in Howrah, they said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Wednesdayextended protection to TV newsanchor Amish Devgan againstany coercive action in caseslodged over his alleged defam-atory remark against Sufi saintKhwaja Moinuddin Chisti dur-ing a show telecast on June 15.

A bench comprising justicesA M Khanwilkar and SanjivKhanna asked Devgan's coun-sel to complete the pleadings inthe case by serving copies of thepetition to those who had filedcomplaints against the journal-ist in various states.

Senior advocate SidhharthLuthra and lawyer MrinalBharti appeared for Devgan inthe hearing conducted throughvideo link by the court, whichextended the relief granted onJune 26 to Devgan till furtherorders.

Five FIRs have been lodgedagainst Devgan in Rajasthan,Maharashtra and Telangana forusing a derogatory term for theSufi saint in the news debate

show called ‘Aar Paar' on hischannel on June 15.

However, he later tweeted anapology saying that he wasactually referring to Muslimruler Alauddin Khilji and inad-vertently ended up namingChisti. Devgan moved the topcourt seeking stay on the probein criminal cases besides seek-ing their quashing.

The court had stayed thepending or future probes in thecase against the journalist bypolice agencies till Wednesday.

“As regards the interim relief,

till the next date of hearing, wedeem it appropriate to pass ad-interim relief in terms of prayerclause (A) and (B) (which seekstay of investigation in pendingand future FIRs and the protec-tion from possible coerciveaction),” the top court had saidin the order.

Issuing notices toMaharashtra, Telangana andRajasthan, the bench had askedBharti to make the com-plainants, who have lodgedFIRs, as parties to his petitionand had listed the case forhearing on today.

Two FIRs for the allegedoffence have been registered atAjmer and Kota in Rajasthanand one has been lodged atBahadurpura in Hyderabad,the plea said, adding that twosuch FIRs have been lodged atNanded and Pydhonie inMaharashtra.

Devgan said he has alreadyissued a clarification through atweet and moreover, errors can-not be construed as criminaloffences.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India may record about 2.87 lakhprojected cases of the novelcoronavirus per day by the endof winter 2021 in the absence ofa COVID-19 vaccine or druginterventions, according to amodelling study by theresearchers from MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT).

Using data for 84 countrieswith reliable testing data —spanning 4.75 billion people —the researchers developed adynamic epidemiological model.

In a preprint paper, MIT pro-fessors Hazhir Rahmandad andJohn Sterman, and PhD candi-date Tse Yang Lim, noted that thetop ten countries by projecteddaily infection rates at the end ofwinter 2021 are India with 2.87lakh infections per day, followedby the US, South Africa, Iran,Indonesia, the UK, Nigeria,

Turkey, France, and Germany.However, they noted that the

projections are highly sensitive toassumed testing, behavioural,and policy responses, and as suchthey should be interpreted asindicators of potential risk andnot precise predictions of futurecases. The researchers addedthat more rigorous testing andreductions in contacts in

response to risk perception willsignificantly reduce future caseswhile laxer response and normal-isation of risks can lead to over-whelming breakouts.

By making additional assump-tions on future testing andresponses, the researchers saidthe model can inform future tra-jectories. "We explore a few pro-jections out to spring 2021 that

exclude vaccine and treatmentavailability," said the researchers.

The researchers consideredprojections under three scenar-ios: 1. Using the current country-specific testing rates and responsefunctions moving forward, 2. Ifenhanced testing -- of 0.1 percent a day -- is adopted on July1, and 3. If sensitivity of contactrate to perceived risk is set to 8,leaving testing at current levels.

India may see 2.87 lakh COVID-19cases a day by winter 2021: MIT study

SC notice to TN speaker, others ondisqualification of 11 AIADMK MLAsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onWednesday sought responsesfrom the Tamil Nadu assemblyspeaker P Dhanapal and others,including assembly secretary,on a plea of DMK seeking adirection to the speaker to "forth-with" decide its pending plea fordisqualification of 11 AIADMKlawmakers who had votedagainst Chief Minister KPalaniswami during the 2017confidence vote.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice S A Bobde and justices RSubhash Reddy and A S tooknote of the submission of themain opposition party of thestate that speaker has not beentaking any decision on the MLAsfor last three years and issuednotices to him, assembly secre-tary and 11 lawmakers includingO Paneerselvam. Senior advo-

cate Kapil Sibal and lawyer AmitAnand Tiwari appeared for theDMK and said that the assem-bly term will be getting over soonand hence, the matter be fixed foran early hearing.

Senior advocate MukulRohatgi, who appeared on behalfof an AIADMK MLA, opposedthe issuance of the notice.

The apex court has now fixedthe DMK's plea for hearing after

four weeks. DMK, in its freshplea filed through advocate AmitAnand Tiwari, has sought adirection to the Assembly speak-er to decide its plea, pendingsince March 20, 2017, seekingdisqualification of the 11 law-makers including Deputy ChiefMinister O Panneerselvamunder anti-defection law forvoting against the Palaniswamigovernment.

Lucknow's HajHouse to beCovid care centrePNS n LUCKNOW

The Haj House located inUttar Pradesh's capitalLucknow is all set to becomea COVID care centre,instructions for which wereissued by District MagstrateAbhishek Prakash onWednesday. The Haj House islocated in the Sarojini Nagararea of Lucknow. Haj pilgrimsstay here before embarkingon their journey.

After inspecting the facil-ity on Wednesday, the districtmagistrate instructed offi-cials to develop it as a coro-navirus care centre. The DMsaid in a tweet that 1,000 bedswill be set up there whilemaintaining all coronavirus-related protocols. The DMinstructed the zonal officer ofthe Lucknow MunicipalCorporation to ensure clean-liness at the centre.

ED insists on details ofassets in Narada scamPNS n KOLKATA

The Enforcement Directorate(ED), which is investigating themoney laundering angle in theNarada tapes scandal, has sentreminders to the accused TMCleaders and BJP's Mukul Roy toprovide details of their bankaccounts and other assets,agency officials said onWednesday.

The notices were sent tothem before the commence-ment of the lockdown in Marchbut the information sought hasnot been received yet, they said.

"We have now sent remindersto them and all of them haveassured that they will replyshortly," the ED sources said.

The anti-money launderingprobe agency has asked theaccused politicians to furnish thedetails for the last seven years.

Apart from the ED, theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) has also been probing the

scandal. Some of the topTrinamool Congress leadersaccused in the case are WestBengal ministers Firhad Hakimand Suvendu Adhikari, formerminister Madan Mitra, LokSabha MPs Saugata Roy andKakoli Ghosh Dastidar, SubrataMukherjee and AparupaPoddar. They have been inter-rogated by both the agencies.

Sultan Ahmed, the formerparty MP and an accused in thecase, died in September 2017.

SC extends protection to TV anchor fromcoercive action in defamation cases

The presidentnoted thatenhancing globalcooperation wasthe need of thehour to effectivelytackle the COVID-19 pandemic,according to aRashtrapatiBhavan statement

Congress symbolises‘irresponsible' oppn: BJP

Specialist from AIIMS to provide guidanceto docs in 17 states on Covid management

Using data for 84countries withreliable testingdata — spanning4.75 billion people— the researchersdeveloped adynamic epidemio-logical model

Wanton Chinese aggressionand the cowardly, premed-itated attack on the IndianArmy that led to the killingof 20 of our brave soldiers

are episodes India can never forget. The timehas come for the citizens to unite and for theGovernment to ensure that a single-mindedresolve is visible to the world. China has a his-tory of betrayal. It tends to covet the land ofother countries and grab it under some pre-text or the other. While it has grown its econ-omy in the last 30 years, it has also shrunk inits status as a nation that can be consideredas a responsible member of the global com-mittee of nations. Sadly, for an economy anda country of its size, China has behaved likea bully with almost every neighbour. It hasshown willful disregard for established normsof conduct.

China has shown disrespect to India’s sus-tained and mature outreach to settle pend-ing issues with respect to border issuesbetween both nations. It has not evenexchanged maps with respect to the disput-ed boundary in many areas and has used thatto try and intrude into the Indian territory.It has also supported and financed Pakistanto act as a terror proxy against India. Chinesearms have been utilised by Left-wing extrem-ists through Nepal. Beijing has also createda red corridor from Pashupati to Tirupati.Mineral-rich areas, which lie in this corridor,have been disturbed for decades, leading tothe misutilisation of India’s natural resources.The current pandemic is an example. Amajority of the migrant labourers are from thiscorridor, proving that disturbance has led tohigh unemployment and economic degrada-tion of the area.

In short, China has played double games.On the one hand, it has gained tremendousaccess to the Indian market and consumerssince we opened up our trade and economyin the early 90s. On the other, it has tried tounsettle our nation through direct and indi-rect provocations. Prime Minister NarendraModi has invested the highest amount of timein maintaining relations with China. He hasvisited that country several times and hasrepeatedly asserted the need to maintain“friendly” and “good relations.” Indian citizens,too, want to establish good economic anddiplomatic relations with China. The twonations share a long history of cultural andreligious relations and affiliations.

However, the Chinese State apparatus isafraid of India’s long-term economic rise, ourdemocratic tradition and the use of “softpower” across the world. This myopic viewhas mistakenly led the Chinese authorities toconclude that India can be contained andrestrained. But they forget the lessons in his-tory. India has always been a beacon of renais-sance, a messiah of peace and accommoda-tion for the entire world. China needs tobehave responsibly. It is a sad fact that fivemajor global pandemics since 2002, includ-ing the severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS) infection, avian flu, swine flu andCOVID-19 have originated from China.

At a time when the entireworld is suffering from the dis-astrous economic consequencesof a virus, the People’s LiberationArmy (PLA) is triggering hostil-ities with the Indian Army. Giventhe Chinese strategy and intent,it is time India acts to safeguardits interests. While several mea-sures are currently under way, Isupport the call to reduce Indiandependence on Chinese productsand reduce Chinese FDI. At thebehest of the Communist Partyof China (CPC) and the PLA,Chinese firms have outmanoeu-vred FDI laws to take control ofIndian companies.

Attempts to reduce ChineseFDI have not been successful sofar. This because Chinese firmsare creating SPVs in Hong Kong,Mauritius, Singapore and othertax havens to generate investmentin India. Bilateral trade betweenIndia and China is around $100billion. Trade is supposed tobenefit both nations. However,the same is not the case withIndo-China trade. At themoment, India has a trade deficitof $67 billion with China. Thismeans we are exporting consid-erably fewer goods in compari-son to China. This is belittling oureconomy.

Coupled with the Chinesetakeover of major Indian export-ing and production houses, tradebetween the two nations is oneas between two Chinese compa-nies. Anti-dumping duty andminimum import price havebeen placed on 99 Chinese prod-ucts. Despite this, India is heav-ily dependent on Chinese prod-

ucts. Around 73 per cent of thetelecommunication equipment,82 per cent semiconductor, 87per cent antibiotic and 83 per centactive pharma ingredients areimported from China.Unknowingly, India has beenpromoting Chinese productsthrough the facade of “Make inIndia” where major Chinesecompanies have set up theirshops in India and have becomea hindrance in the developmentof Indian companies.

Chinese companies such asXinxiang, Shanghai Electric, SicsMotocorp Huawei and Alibabaare controlled by the PLA. Theyhave all set up bases under theshelter of Make in India to con-trol the Indian economy. Chinesefirms have surpassed others inbecoming leading players inmobile phones and other itemsin the Indian market.

The Atmanirbhar BharatAbhiyan (self-reliant India) isvery significant. India became amember of the WTO in 1995,much earlier than China, whichjoined the trade body in 2001.Since then, China has growninto a massive economy thatrules global exports. It is time forIndia to undertake a new jour-ney in a post-Corona world.Unless we develop strong man-ufacturing capacities, under-take higher exports of goods aswell as services, we will not beable to take care of the welfareneeds of our population. Indianeeds to promote local manufac-turing of imported items. Toencourage the manufacturing ofcomponents, customs duty

should be gradually increased —starting from 10 per cent fromthe base year to 40 per cent bythe fourth year. For fully import-ed products, basic customs dutyshould be hiked to 75 per centin the base year and furtherincreased by the fourth year to100 per cent to ensure that allsuch importers utilise the threeyears to set up manufacturingunits in India. The machineryfor the production of itemsshould be kept at 10 per cent inthe base year and then subse-quently increased every year toencourage domestic manufac-turing of the machinery.

Further, it is also importantto clarify the definition of“importer”, “assembler” and“manufacturer.” The lack of a def-inition allows all importers andsystem integrators to falsely sellimported products as “Made inIndia.” The ICT and the defencesectors are areas where despite ahuge domestic potential, mostgoods are imported. One of thereasons why India does not havea clear definition of who is a“manufacturer” is becauseimporters/assemblers declare theimported equipment (hi-tech) byjust changing the sticker and thendeclare it as “manufactured” inIndia.

Similarly, assemblers importthe goods in semi-knocked down(SKD) condition and after assem-bling it locally, declare it as“manufactured in India.” Suchimporters, system integratorsand assemblers promote foreignproducts and have no interest toinvest in R&D within the coun-

try. Such firms enjoy a hugeadvantage over those few Indianfirms who have tried to keep theflag of manufacturing alive allthese years. These few, despiteinvesting money in R&D andproduct development, lose outdue to policy and bureaucraticapproach that promotes tradersover true manufacturers.

In the domestic front, for thesake of stability of the market, theIndian Government requireshigher sovereign rating, which isneeded to maintain or decreaseinterest rates and debts. Thus, thisenables more borrowing by theGovernment and industries.Rating agencies are meant to pro-vide investors with reliable infor-mation on the riskiness of vari-ous kinds of debts. However,these agencies have been addingto financial difficulties. After the2008 financial crisis, the USrevoked the first amendmentrights of credit rating agencies. IfIndia can create a similar policyand advance local credit ratingagencies, similar to China andRussia, it can compete withChina financially. Since the rat-ings on debts provided toinvestors will be fair, the econo-my will be boosted.

The Prime Minister’s call tomake India aatmanribhar, a pol-icy which looks to increase localmanufacturing and consump-tion, can do just that. China, thelargest source of FDI in India, isthe largest hindrance to the suc-cessful implementation of thisproject. Due to numerous inter-national regulations and India’slack of mass manufacturing abil-ity in proportion to its popula-tion’s consumption demands, itis heavily dependent on China foralmost all consumer products.

In its attempt to make theAatmanirbhar Bharat initiativesuccessful, India needs to reduceits dependence on Chineseimports and FDI through bothChinese companies in the main-land and their SPVs in taxhavens. Identifying Chinese con-trolled SPVs and prohibitingthem from investing or partic-ipating in trade, we need to findthe source of their revenues.

I presume the PrimeMinister’s call for aatmanirbharbharat is heading in the rightdirection to ensure employ-ment, save hundreds of billionsof dollars in foreign exchangeand boost reserve capital accu-mulation in the Indian bankingsystem. Transparent and demo-cratic investment under “Makein India” will give a massive blowto the Chinese market. This ini-tiative will also create an influxof Indian products in the South-East Asian market, thus increas-ing our export market andreducing Chinese influence overthe South-East Asian region.

(The writer is a BJP MP in the Lok Sabha)

Of course, the summer of cricket had tostart with a typically English rain and badlight delay but international cricket

added itself to the list of professional top-flightsports that have restarted after the Chinesevirus ravaged the global sporting system. Overthe past weekend, Formula 1 took the wrapsoff the 2020 season with an exhilarating racein Austria. To see the return of cricket as welldoes make us feel that the world is returningto some sense of normalcy. It has been overa hundred days without international cricket

after the India versus South Africa series was called off as the pandemic tookroot in the country. The IPL was another series to suffer, just like the end of theAustralian T20 Big Bash League. The T20 World Cup, which was to be held inthe antipodes, is likely to be another victim of the pandemic just like the TokyoOlympics and the Euro 2020 football championships. That said, the fact that sportsare coming back is a great thing, particularly for fans who have been starvedof exciting content over the past 100 plus days, one that will be in full swingduring the northern hemisphere summer.

It will be a bit weird to watch cricket without the loud, boisterous crowdsthat accompany it, albeit a bit quieter during Test matches. However, the crackof willow hitting the red leather outer of a cork ball as a drive is played will soundlike music to the ears even of fans in India, arguably the world’s most cricketcrazy nation. Fans are subscribing to the streaming service that is broadcast-ing these matches just to be able to watch players they would never have givena second glance to. The match began on the day that the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) boss and Indian cricket legend Saurav Ganguly celebrat-ed his birthday. One hopes that Ganguly watched the match and is figuring outa way for cricket to restart in India. Because one is having a bit too much ofVirat Kohli’s fitness videos. Kohli is an amazing athlete with an incredible fitnessregimen but most Indian fans can’t wait to see him wielding a willow instead ofdoing fancy push-ups.

US President Donald Trump has done itagain, played up a nativist pitch in anelection year under the pretext of miti-

gating COVID-19 by asking foreign studentsto leave the country or risk deportation if theiruniversities switch to online-only courses. Ofcourse, students at those institutions offeringhybrid courses, online and offline, are savedsomewhat. Apart from creating uncertainty andconfusion among foreign students, whohave paid up their course fees and are nowdesperately wondering if they can switch to

institutions offering in-person courses to justify their stay, it has also affectedthose on the threshold of internships, job placements and training programmes.In fact, many observers feel that this decision could be politically motivated toreduce the immigrant pie in the job market. Or it could be Trump’s manner offorcing institutions to consider the proposition of opening up. Universities acrossthe US have by and large shifted to online classes as a post-pandemic coursecorrection. Harvard, for example, has decided to hold all classes online, includ-ing for students living on the campus. So why should a meritorious student hereeven have to consider migrating to an institution that pursues the hybrid modeljust because it would allow him/her to stay? This means the US won’t issuevisas to students enrolled in schools, exchange programmes and vocational cours-es that are fully online for the fall semester. Student visas for the US have alwaysbeen complex and any mid-term cancellation would mean that a reissue or arenewal when the public health situation improves would be another hassle andresult in a time lag. With so much of a potential workforce in disarray, clearlythere is the larger idea of “American jobs going to Americans” at play here. Buthow can Trump justify the hit to the US education economy, though he may notparticularly be fond of higher centres of learning because its products turn outto be some of his harshest critics? Indians make up over 18 per cent of inter-national students and are the second highest immigrant student population inthe US. Universities, caught completely offguard, don’t want to lose revenue overand above the course fees. Students additionally pay for housing, amenities, food,transport and tuition. So imagine the costs involved as 1.2 million students, whocould be affected by the visa scrap, had signed up at over 8,700 schools. Littlewonder then that MIT and Harvard have appealed to federal courts to stall theorder. Can the US afford to risk its credibility as a higher education destinationand force a diversion to other countries? Can it afford to lose the Indian talentpool at a time when it is forging deeper strategic ties with us? Does it think thatIndia will agree to bear the collateral damage of a move that’s primarily intend-ed to weed out Chinese students, the biggest chunk of foreign students?

If the American Council on Education is to be believed, then the US admin-istration caught it completely by surprise at a time when it was expecting appre-ciation for keeping the classes going. Besides, even if universities do decide tooffer some real time classes by rotation and plan out a hybrid format, what wouldhappen if the public health situation deteriorates in the fall, the expected time ofa second wave, and universities have no option but to stick to only online cours-es? How would students be repatriated to their home countries given a slew ofrestrictions on international travel? Clearly, this ill-thought policy, intended to bea blanket ban on foreign students, some of whom may never return, has col-leges and universities worried. Their administrative heads are scrambling to workon varying hybrid models to retain their students. Regardless of meritocracy orthe fact that the US thrives on a higher degree of talent among immigrants, someof whom head giant corporations, Trump is just trying to pander to his homecrowd and restore supremacist privileges of the White race. Otherisation, evenif it enriches academia, as immigrants have done, makes for a good scapegoatat a time when even midland US is under the grip of the pandemic and the hope-lessness of a grunting economy. By making changes to all kinds of immigra-tion laws and preventing foreigners, Trump wants to project a vacuum whereAmericans could rebuild a future on their terms as their past was wrongfully over-run by settlers. Never mind the simplistic assessment but ordinary Americanswill still buy this new hope despite their nation being a glaring example of COVID-19 mismanagement. The White House has even curtailed legal migration by sus-pending employment-based visas. Trump then has used the pandemic to hisadvantage, using it to push for an “Americans first” dream that he never intendsto materialise. But sell it will in these dark times when we look for any excuseto absolve ourselves of any wrong-doing. For in reality, it doesn’t matter if youphysically attend one class or ten, the virus is still lurking around.

New immigration curbs

A ray of hope

Sir — Indian cricket buffs andmillions of fans of MS Dhoni havebegun singing the new anthem, abeautiful foot-tapping number,“MS Dhoni number seven...”,sung energetically by West Indiesall-rounder Dwayne Bravo on hisbirthday. Bravo’s song has alreadygone viral. His song beautifullydepicts the life story of a small-town boy who braved all odds tobecome one of the greatest crick-et captains India has seen. Thepunch lines and the video withfoot-tapping music are really atreat to hear and watch.

Dhoni, as the song depicts, istruly the most successful Indianskipper, who has won every majorICC trophy in all formats and theonly captain to do so. The song,as Bravo says, is for a man whoredefined the modern cricket, beit captaincy, wicket keeping, bat-ting and field arrangement.Besides, the support that Dhonigave to his playmates is also wellknown. The song also showshow sports can connect humanbeings, especially during tryingtimes like these.

M PradyuKannur

Be cautious

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Truce for now” (July 7).After escalatory rhetoric andmore importantly aggressiveactions, a process to defuse ten-sions along the Line of ActualControl (LAC) has commenced.

There are structural reasons whydisengagement makes sense forboth countries. China was solelyresponsible for transgressingacross the border. Even the finestscholars who study China havenot been able to offer a satisfac-tory explanation as to why Beijinghas behaved the way it did. Butthe fact is, even for a rising

power, its actions defied rationalcalculation. It has alienated Indiaand public opinion, throwingthe entire relationship — of whichChina too has been a beneficia-ry — off gear.

On the other hand, NewDelhi doesn’t want conflict. It wasleft with no choice but to respondaggressively to Chinese incursions

and defend its integral territory.Given the economic weakness,the COVID-19 challenge, thegaps in military preparation andthe costs of any conflict, peace isof course, the most desirableoption. The Indian establish-ment rightly made it clear thatevery step of the disengagementprocess will be carefully moni-tored and verified. India mustensure complete restoration ofstatus quo ante.

N Sadhasiva Reddy Bengaluru

Chinese gameplan

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Truce for now” (July 7). Chinamay have mutually agreed to dis-engage at the LAC but this maywell be a well-calculated move toconfuse India as it has been doingfor ages. It is naïve to expect thatthe China imbroglio shall beresolved soon. China wants Indiato join the league of nations likePakistan and Nepal that are play-ing second fiddle to it.

SrishtiVia email

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020

06

Economic statecraft

NISHIKANT DUBEY

The customs duty for Chinese machinery should be kept at 10 per cent in the base year and

then subsequently increased every year to encourage domestic manufacturing

He (Jason Holder) is an underrated player but he contributes on a regular basis. He is a terrific player to have in |your team.

Cricket legend—Sachin Tendulkar

As someone who hails from afamily that has launched morenew talent actors than theentire film industry combined,I can only laugh. Facts don’tfind takers. Fiction does.

Actor—Pooja Bhatt

We urge the US to immedi-ately stop interfering inChina’s internal affairsthrough Tibet-related issuesand not to go further andfurther on the wrong path.

Chinese official—Zhao Lijian

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Pandemic needs a fair investigation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has long heldthat the novel Coronavirus is spread primarily throughsmall droplets from nose or mouth when a person

infected with COVID-19 coughs, sneezes or speaks. Butaccording to The New York Times, in an open letter tothe WHO, more than 239 scientists from 32 countrieshave warned that airborne transmission of the virusindoors should be taken more seriously. They have calledon the WHO to revise its recommendations, which theysay, underestimate the dangers of transmission indoors.

Though the WHO did not immediately respond, PaulHunter, a member of its infection-prevention committee,said they had struck the right balance in their advice.“Aerosol transmission can occur but it probably isn’t thatimportant in the grand scheme of things. It’s all aboutdroplets,” he said. The NYT has quoted experts as say-ing that whether carried aloft by large droplets that zoomthrough the air after a sneeze or by much smaller exhaleddroplets that may glide the length of a room, theCoronavirus is borne through the air and can infect peo-ple when inhaled. If airborne transmission is shown to

be a major factor, experts have suggested it could be help-ful to wear masks indoors, even in settings where socialdistancing is being enforced. Tighter regulations may beneeded for ventilation and air conditioning to minimiserecirculating air; and that it may even be appropriate toinstall UV lights in some buildings to guard against poten-tially infectious particles. This pandemic has many dimen-sions and needs a fair amount of investigation.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Cricket is backI welcome the disengagementand pullback by Chinese troops.Will some one tell us the placefrom which the Chinese troopsdisengaged and the place inwhich they are now?

Congress leader—P Chidambaram

With Trump intending to deport foreign students whoseclasses have moved online, Indians are badly affected

As England hosts the West Indies for a Test series, fans across the world are raising a cheer as the sport returns

op nion

Creativity amid loneliness

WE MUST NOW REALISE THE PROMISE OF AMERICA BY

TRUSTING GOD, UNIFYING OUR VISION AND BUILDING

OUR FUTURE. I AM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.

—MUSIC AND FASHION MOGUL

KANYE WEST

IT’S INTERESTING. BUT IT MAY BE TOO LATE FOR WEST

TO REGISTER IN SOME STATES. HE LACKS THE

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A PRESIDENTIAL BID.

—US PRESIDENT

DONALD TRUMP

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Ihave never found a companion that was so com-panionable as solitude,” says Henry DavidThoreau. Nothing can make us feel better — calmer,

happier and clearer — than being immersed in abook, a piece of music or in the plaintive woods,away from the madding crowd. This is a sentimentexpressed by most people when they talk abouttheir privacy and the pleasure they derive from it.It is actually something deeper than just a feelingof ecstasy. It’s only when one loses oneself in thestillness by stepping briefly away from family andfriends that one experiences creativity.

COVID-19 has forced millions of people intointernal exile, many of whom have been overcomeby a deep sense of loneliness. The pandemic hasmade our understanding of solitude more acutethan ever. While the outbreak has opened up ourminds to the benignity of loneliness, it has alsogiven us an idea of the fears and nightmares thataccompany it. For instance, researchers at theUniversity of Essex, UK conducted a study andfound out that women are more vulnerable tomental health problems during the Coronaviruspandemic than men. The study revealed that thenumber of women suffering from stress and lone-liness during the outbreak has risen from 11 percent in normal times to 27 per cent. On the otherhand, the number of men suffering from at leastone mental condition during the pandemic hasreached 18 per cent from seven per cent earlier.

Loneliness, uncertainty, desolation and theeconomic despair triggered by the contagion haveled to a spurt in distress calls to the nation’s sui-cide prevention helplines.

In India, the Mumbai-based VandrevalaFoundation, an NGO that aims to provide aid tothose suffering from mental health issues in thecountry, says it used to receive 90 calls a day beforethe lockdown. Since the lockdown began, thesecalls have gone up to 150 a day as people find itdifficult to deal with isolation and loneliness. Also,the emails received by the foundation have goneup from 80 to 120.

Part of the reason that the current crisis is sofrightening is that it sets off a fear of not just beingin quarantine but also of being abandoned alto-gether. This fear is profoundly affecting individ-ual psyche and world views. No visitors. No sharedmeals. No one to hold our hands. We’re all cut offfrom each other, trapped inside the walls of ourown domestic space, the 21st-century version ofbeing marooned.

Social distancing and sometimes self-quaran-tining is the most important protective gear forthe Coronavirus but that doesn’t make it easy whenwe have to do it. One of the inevitable costs willbe social isolation and an increase in our loneli-ness. More people live alone now than at any othertime in history. The weird gift of loneliness is thatit grounds us in our common humanity. The wholeworld is in the same boat.

However frightened we may feel, we havenever been less alone. It has also heightened theconsciousness about belonging to one family. It hasshown that only by taking care of one another —as well as the planet on which we all depend —can any of us hope for a better future. It has shownhow helpless we as individuals are despite beingblessed with the best of this world.

Loneliness is a unique condition in which anindividual perceives himself or herself to be social-ly isolated even when among other people. Thedeleterious effects of loneliness are, however, not

due to some peculiarity of individualswho are lonely; instead they are due tothe effects of loneliness on ordinary peo-ple. It gives a feeling of being unable toconnect despite being surrounded bymillions of others. Being alone and beinglonely are not the same thing, of course,and many people who live by themselvesspend little time alone.

Being single can feel lonely but itdoesn’t always have to. Likewise, beingin a relationship doesn’t make youimmune to loneliness. Just as you can feellonely in the company of others, you canfeel perfectly content in your own com-pany. It’s just that many of us don’t knowhow to be alone.

However, one should not let beingalone during the pandemic get us down.There’s a positive side to it as well. It isin isolation that we are able to do mostof our sharpest thinking and yield a har-vest of our best ideas. It is only when youview the world from a distance that youare able see it whole and understand itbetter. We are able to achieve an ambi-ence that is great for creativity. Lonelinessisn’t the same thing as solitude, nor is itsolitude’s inevitable consequence. It canarise just as easily in situations of prox-imity. You can be lonely in a crowd, lone-ly at a birthday party — at occasions ofintimacy, closeness, connection.

There is difference between loneli-ness and solitude. Solitude purges thedestructive capacity of loneliness andallows us to tap the protective potentialof sequestration. The words “solitude”and “loneliness” ought to have similarmeanings: “Solo” and “alone” do after all.But faced with courage and determina-tion they do not. Loneliness is a nega-tive, sad feeling. On the other hand, soli-tude is elevating, blissful.

Loneliness is the nightmare of thesocial animal. It is a taboo state in oursocial world. It may not be fully true

under ordinary circumstances, or evenunder quarantine. But there are otherways in which loneliness causes pain, too.It has real, tangible effects on our brainsand bodies. The need for connection isso central to our being that to experienceits lack plunges the body into a state ofminor emergency.

But loneliness isn’t just a negativestate, to be vanquished or suppressed.There’s an intensifying of perception thatled Virginia Woolf to write in her diaryof 1929: “If I could catch the feeling, Iwould. The feeling of the singing of thereal world, as one is driven by lonelinessand silence from the habitable world.”Woolf was no stranger to quarantine. Shewas confined to a sick bed for long peri-ods but found that even these painfulperiods yielded harvests of creativity justbecause she used them not as periods ofsolitary confinement or detention but asperiods of meditations and self-reflection.

This commitment to spendingtime alone has been particularly impor-tant in a hyper-connected world whereour inner sentiments and thoughts aredrowned out by the constant chatter orupdates of other people.

Many of us confuse alone timewith “doing nothing” or equate it to phys-ical isolation. But solitude is a state or asituation — not a place or final destina-tion. After all, mastering the art of soli-tude isn’t about being antisocial butrather knowing and understanding our-selves better in order to connect to oth-ers. Solitude is an opportunity to renewourselves and deepen self-knowledge. Itgives us time to explore and know our-selves. It is the necessary counterpoint tointimacy and allows us to polish the selfto make it relevant to the outer world.

Solitude gives us a chance to regainour perspective and connect to others ina far richer way. Pearl Buck sums it upbeautifully, “I love people. I love my fam-

ily, my children…but inside myself is aplace where I live all alone and that’swhere you renew your springs thatnever dry up.” It allows us to get back intothe position of driving our own lives,rather than having them run by sched-ules and demands that are out of our con-trol. Thoreau spent a long time in soli-tude in the woods of Walden and he con-sidered it as constructive and purpose-ful solitude because he was insulatedfrom the ego-driven clamour of humandiscourse. Silence is a necessary precon-dition to contemplation and meditation— religious or otherwise. The effortneeded to achieve quiet, let alone silence,usually makes it more rewarding than theambient noise. It’s why we go to thewoods, or the sea, or up on hillsides torenew ourselves. It is also why we takeup meditation, or spend time in quietplaces of worship.

We all need silence and also stillnessto become our true selves and to discov-er the divine spark in ourselves even aswe remain surrounded by the endlessrush and agitation of modern life. Quietintrospection sharpens the mind andimproves our understanding of an issue,an event, or even the emotions swirlingaround. This requires not just time, spaceand solitude but enough silence to allowthe clear tones to steer through the noise.

For Thoreau, revolution began athome, one person at a time. “We mustfirst succeed alone, that we may enjoy oursuccess together”, he wrote.

Buddha pointed out that there wasan “island of calmness” within each oneof us and we should take refuge in thatisland and not allow people and eventsaround us to upset our inner poise. Thispandemic has given us solitude and still-ness. We can either waste this rare giftor we can unleash our creativity.

(The writer is a well known develop-ment professional)

In isolation, we are able to do our sharpest thinking and yield a harvest of our best ideas. It is only whenyou view the world from a distance that you are able see it whole and understand it better

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

SWAPNIL GADHAVE

BUDDHA POINTED

OUT THATTHERE WAS AN ‘ISLAND

OF CALMNESS’WITHIN EACH ONE

OF US AND WESHOULD TAKE

REFUGE IN THAT ISLAND

AND NOT ALLOWPEOPLE AND

EVENTS AROUND

US TO UPSET OUR INNER

POISE. THIS

PANDEMICHAS GIVEN USSOLITUDE AND

STILLNESS. WE CAN EITHER

WASTE THIS RAREGIFT OR WE CAN

UNLEASH OURCREATIVITY

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many shortcomings in ourhealthcare and food security and if corrective action is not takenat the right time, it could pull India back significantly from its path

of achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the coun-try in a phased unlocking mode, the challenges of bringing back effi-ciencies in health service deliveries and outreach efforts must also berevisited and re-evaluated. There is sufficient evidence suggesting thatmoderate levels of food insecurity can increase the risk of all forms ofmalnutrition in the community and the nutritional status has a signifi-cant impact on the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). It is closely linked withfood availability, supply/distribution chain and a number of inter-relat-ed factors. With the already struggling economy of the country madeworse by the pandemic, the demand for nutritious food supply will grad-ually decline as the poor, vulnerable and unemployed families will beforced to compromise on their diets, resulting in compromised immu-nities and an increased vulnerability to deadly infections and co-mor-bidities. Many Government programmes and initiatives have aimed atboosting agricultural produce and combatting nutritional challenges thatexisted before the COVID-19 era. These include the National Food SecurityMission, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the Integrated Schemes onOilseeds, Pulses, Palm oil and Maize, the National Nutritional Mission,Mid-Day Meals, Anganwadi systems, Nutritional Rehabilitation Centresand subsidised grain for the poor through the Public Distribution System,to name a few. The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, also aimsto ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable as wellas make access to food a legal right.

The ready-to-eat Energy-Dense-Nutrient Food, a paste made ofpeanuts, oil, sugar, milk powder, nuts and other nutrition-rich ingredi-ents, used as a medical intervention for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)affected children along with other meals in Anganwadis, is already beingimplemented in many States. The need now is to make it a part of anational guideline for SAM. Additionally, besides a poor diet, mothersand children face other risks related to health. Many international donoragencies are concerned about disruptions in imports of crucial nutri-tional products, including micronutrient supplements and micronutri-ent-fortified products useful in preventing SAM, as this will pose a seri-ous problem in handling the dual threat of COVID-19 and malnutrition.

The disruption of resources for maternal and child health servicesis another crisis. Some direct risks include irregular supply of antena-tal iron folic acid or multiple micronutrients; child vitamin A supplements;distribution of oral rehydration salts and zinc for diarrhoea; therapeu-tic food for home treatment of SAM and safe in-person consultations.

The Integrated Child Development Services provide 100 million chil-dren under six years of age and pregnant and lactating mothers cookedmeals and take-home rations. The programme has been allocated 2.19million tonnes of rice and wheat, plus `21,933 crore. It further seeksto improve the nutritional intake and health of children aged zero to sixyears. With the additional allocation of rice/wheat and pulses in responseto COVID-19, the fund and food allocation for these programmes hasbeen increased to `2.3 lakh crore with 75 million tonnes of cereals.

Highly subsidised, cooked food made available to the urban poorthrough the Amma canteens in Tamil Nadu, the Mukhyamantri Dal BhatYojana in Jharkhand, the Annapurna Rasoi in Rajasthan, the Aam Aadmicanteen in Delhi and so on, proved to be strong pillars of food secu-rity during COVID-19. Many women’s Self-Help Groups in rural areastook care of the immediate food needs of millions of hungry peopleand stranded labourers. These efforts display a remarkable role playedby women and volunteers in sustaining the food system.

Innovative ways to stimulate demand for nutritional food supplymust be part of political will. Use of mobile technology to stimulatedemand for nutrient-rich foods and to encourage appropriate infant feed-ing practices, including optimal breastfeeding and healthy diet prac-tices, must be seriously considered. Food transfers should be focussedon staples and easily available fortified crops. Cash transfers or vouch-er schemes linked to innovative food delivery systems should also beconsidered to keep the economy going and stimulate demand for fruitsand vegetables, dairy and other nutrient-rich foods. School feeding pro-grammes must adopt new methods to safely distribute food during schoolclosures and post-COVID-19 when schools reopen, complying withthe new hygiene and physical distancing guidelines.

According to the Global Nutrition Report, 2020, SAM cases in thecountry continue to rise. At 20.8 per cent, they are way higher thanAsia’s average of 9.4 per cent. The last two rounds of the National FamilyHealth Survey (NFHS) show that the percentage of Wasted and SeverelyWasted has increased from 6.4 per cent to 7.5 per cent in the last twodecades. Hence, it will be crucial to boost community-level manage-ment of children with SAM with adequate supply of medicines alongwith protective equipment for frontline workers. Regular monitoring andsurveillance will be necessary to assess the emergence of SAM amongnewly-migrated vulnerable populations. Use of technological tools formonitoring, surveillance and improving food distribution can help Indiaachieve better health outcomes and win the battle against SAM.

(The writer is a public health expert)

Following Chinese aggression andthe border clashes at the Line ofActual Control (LAC) the rela-

tionship between India and China isnow at a nadir. As a result, the war cryto “boycott Chinese goods” is rever-berating across India. Though theshout is emanating mostly from thecommon citizens, the Government,too, has given clear indications in oneor two cases that Chinese investmentsand firms are not welcome.

Indian industries, on the otherhand, have given a measured responsethat disengagement with China is notpossible in a short span of time andsupply chain disruption will be detri-

mental to the country.The search for alternative suppli-

ers may begin if the Government wish-es but it would take some time for re-orienting production with them. IfAtmanirbhar Bharat is to succeed,there is no alternative but to restrictimport of cheap Chinese products, alarge part of which is a result of theChinese exchange rate policy anddumping of goods with underwrittenGovernment subsidy to theirexporters. Furthermore, India needs toadopt a balanced approach so that thepolicy passes the World TradeOrganisation’s (WTO’s) dispute settle-ment mechanism and New Delhidoes not lose face there.

The Department for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade of Indiarecently revised its policies on ForeignDirect Investment (FDI), restrictingfunds coming from five countries thatshare a border with India. Sinceinvestment is neither covered underthe General Agreement on Tariffs andTrade (GATT), the agreement on

Trade-Related Investment Measures(TRIMs) or the General Agreement onTrade in Services (GATS), whichIndia has committed to, the move isnot a violation of any WTO commit-ments.

India can also impose uniformrule across private firms and PSUs:In the aftermath of the People’sLiberation Army’s (PLA’s) attack on theIndian Army, the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) askedBharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL) and Mahanagar TelephoneNigam Limited (MTNL) to reworktheir tenders for the forthcoming 4Gbusiness to exclude Chinese equip-ment. In the end, the two PSUs can-celled the tenders and will now issuefresh ones.

A fiat for a PSU and not impos-ing the same set of rules for privateplayers (except for imploring privatesector mobile operators to reduce theirdependence on Chinese equipment)sets a bad precedent. This discrimina-tion will kill PSUs in the telecom sec-

tor and in other sectors, too, if the samepractice is replicated.

Set the right perspective forpublic procurement: Annually, theGovernment of India spends nearly 13per cent of the Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) to acquire supplies,services and capital assets. The largesize of Government procurement out-lays empowers it to implement selectnational policies using the same asleverage. Government entities canrequire contractors to maintain fairemployment practices, promote pur-chase from Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSMEs), promote stan-dards and innovation. All countriesworldwide have used public procedureas a tool to set their own agenda. Thisneeds to be a decisive tool ifAtmanirbhar Bharat is to succeed.

However, here India needs torefine her public procurement system.By and large, the Indian Governmenthas adopted the two-bid system,where vendors are requested to sub-mit both technical and financial bids

in sealed envelopes while submittingtenders for any project/service. First thetechnical bids of various vendors areevaluated as per standard criteria andthen the financial bid of the qualifiedvendors are subsequently opened tofind the lowest bid. The contract isgiven to the lowest bidder among thetechnically qualified vendors.

In this two-bid system, the pro-curement agency has a very little roleto ensure quality/standard. Of course,one can argue that technical bid eval-uation criteria may be stringent toensure quality. However, one invariablyfinds that the selection criteria of tech-nical bids are more of a check list ratherthan for identifying standard/qualityof the bid or to fulfil the desired objec-tive. This may not be the way to pro-mote Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Use anti-dumping duty judi-ciously: Given that India and Chinaare both members of the WTO andhave extended most-favoured-nation(MFN) status to each other, India is notin a position to impose additional

import duty selectively on Chineseimports. However, India is in a posi-tion to impose anti-dumping duties onChinese goods keeping within therule-book of the WTO. It is a knownfact that China follows aggressivepricing policy to export goods, manya time with tacit financial support fromthe Government. Among the WTOmember countries, India is an activeplayer in respect of imposition of anti-dumping duty. However, most pleasare usually negated by the WTO dis-pute settlement body after examina-tion of evidence submitted by theIndian Government. India really needsto build its technical capacity in thisrespect. A close interaction betweenthe Government, industry bodies andeconomists is must for filing evidenceto the WTO panel which may have achance to stand.

Discourage import of finishedChinese goods though Nepal: IfIndia becomes vigilant regardingimport of Chinese goods, one canexpect the Chinese consumer goods to

be routed through Nepal via theinformal channel. These productsdirectly compete with Indian goods inthe heartland of northern India, espe-cially in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.Strong action is required on thisfront.

Play with the trade facilitationmeasures: Since the rules for the sameare not well laid out in the WTO, Indiahas a lot of leverage to use this chan-nel to discourage Chinese imports. Forinstance, imposing tighter standardsmay simply discourage Chineseimports. Frequent scrutiny of Chineseimports for complying with varioustrading procedures, sending moresamples of agricultural products forchecking for sanitary and phytosani-tary standards would give the messageto the traders/industrialists thatChinese imports are not wanted.Once they get the signal, they will sure-ly establish alternative supply lines fortheir required imports.

(The writer is Professor, NCAER.Views expressed are personal)

Many ways to ease China out of the Indian economyIndia needs to adopt a balanced approach so that its policy passes the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism and New Delhi does not lose face there

SANJIB POHIT

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

MOIN QAZI

Can’t let Covidnix food security

Use of technological tools for monitoring andimproving food distribution can help India

achieve better health outcomes

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Tata Motors bringsin six-month EMIholiday schemeNEW DELHI:Tata Motors onWednesday said it hasintroduced financing schemefor Tiago, Nexon, and Altrozunder which customers canavail six-month EMI holiday.Under the scheme, customerscan now make zero downpayment, avail a six-monthEMI holiday (only interestneeds to be serviced monthly)and access up to 100 per centon-road funding for a loantenure of five years, TataMotors said in a statement."This offer is being madeavailable through a partnershipwith Karur Vysya Bank (KVB)to eligible salaried and self-employed persons," it added.The automaker said it is alsooffering affordable, step-upEMIs on long-tenure loans ofup to eight years through itsassociation with multiplefinancing partners.

Bank of Mahasanctions Rs 2,779crore since MarMUMBAI: State-owned Bankof Maharashtra on Wednesdaysaid it has sanctioned Rs2,779 crore to its micro, smalland medium enterprises(MSMEs) under variousschemes since March. Of this,the lender has sanctioned Rs2,327 crore to MSME players,according to a release. Theloans to MSMEs were offeredmajorly under thegovernment's Rs 3-lakh croreEmergency Credit LineGuarantee Scheme (ECLGS)and the lender's emergencycredit line for COVID-19. Sincethe declaration of lockdown,the bank has sanctionedadditional loans to itscustomers, including MSMEs,agriculture and personalborrowers, over their regularlimits, to overcome theirliquidity mismatches. Underits emergency line for COVID-19, the bank sanctioned Rs1,653.16 crore to 1,08,419borrowers.

Thomas Cook Indiato tap demand forvacations in EuropeNEW DELHI: Travel servicesfirm Thomas Cook India onWednesday said it haslaunched an initiative -- 'CityEscapes'-- to tap the growingdemand for very shortvacations. Despite thepandemic, international travelremains high on the Indianconsumer's bucket list, andEurope is a clear favourite,Thomas Cook India said in afiling to BSE. The 'CityEscapes' was conceptualisedto offer Indians bite-sizedbreaks in and around Europe,it added. "Indian consumersare displaying a growingappetite for mini-cations thatare convenient and flexible.Therefore, our City Escapeshave been thoughtfullydesigned to include centrallylocated hotels for easy access.

PNS n MUMBAI

The gems and jewellery indus-try, which is going through achallenging time due toCOVID-19 pandemic, hasurged the government for asupportive e-commerce policyand a 'priority sector status' sothat it can bring in operationalbenefits.

The Gem and JewelleryExport Promotion Council(GJEPC) in a video meetingwith Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday madea presentation on the criticalissues concerning the gem andjewellery industry, according toa statement.

Some of the concerns pre-sented by GJEPC include, e-commerce policy for the gemand jewellery sector, makingMyKYCBank platform manda-tory for all gem and jewelleryentities, sale of rough dia-monds by miners in SpecialNotified Zones (SNZs), reduc-tion in import duty on polisheddiamonds and 'GoldMonetisation' scheme among

others.GJEPC also requested for a

clarification on 'OnlineEqualisation' Levy for B2Binternational diamond auc-tions.

"COVID-19 has led to aparadigm shift in consumerbehaviour across geographies.With e-commerce gainingmomentum, a massive rise isseen in online purchases, andintroduction of a supportive e-commerce policy for the sec-tor will drive online jewellerypurchases," GJEPC ChairmanColin Shah said.

Shah further said that "there

is a need for a dedicated sys-tem-driven 'Fast TrackCustoms Clearance' of ship-ments for the gems and jew-ellery goods valued below USD800".

Shah said, GJEPC has alsourged to reduce polished dia-mond import duty to 2.5 percent from 7.5 per cent to helpIndia to strengthen its status asa polished diamond hub, as alldistribution would then beout of India, leading to increasein duty collection due togreater volumes.

The Council also proposeddirect sale of rough diamonds

by miners in SNZs. Currently,rough diamonds are sent toSNZs by miners for viewingand are shipped back to Dubaior Antwerp (Belgium).

"Sales aren't permitted, andif they do, it comes under thePermanent Entities as per theIT Act, and attracts income taxon the sale. The same goods arethen shipped back to India viaoffices in Dubai or Antwerp,thus increasing costs for theimporter," he said adding asmuch as 60 per cent of therough diamond is routedthrough Antwerp or Dubai.

Jewellery industry seekssupportive e-commerce policy

PNS n BEIJING/HONG KONG

China on Wednesday openedits first office in Hong Kong toimplement the controversialnational security law, a movewhich is expected to impactthe hundreds of foreign firmswhich are concerned over thevague language used in the leg-islation and its implications.

The office for SafeguardingNational Security of theCentral People's Governmentin the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region(HKSAR) was inauguratedon Wednesday, establishingfor the first time the presenceof China's security establish-ment in the former Britishcolony after it came under thecontrol of Beijing in 1997.

The new national securityoff ice places mainlandChinese agents in the heart ofthe territory for the first time.

The office is one element ofa sweeping new law whichoutlaws criticism of China'sgovernment, the BBC report-ed.

Hong Kong was, until thelaw was passed, only the partof China and not subject tosuch policies.

The law has caused alarmin Hong Kong, a global busi-ness hub, but officials said it

will restore stability after theviolent pro-democracyprotests.

Opening the office -- alongwith Hong Kong's pro-ChinaChief Executive Carrie Lam -- Luo Huining, China's newly

appointed deputy director forthe city said that the head-quarters for safeguarding thenational security is "the envoyof Hong Kong's security" and"the gatekeeper of nationalsecurity."

The office will analyse andappraise the national securi-ty situation in the HKSARand provide comments andsuggestions for major strate-gies and policies, as per thelaw.

It shall also collect andanalyse intelligence informa-tion concerning nationalsecurity and deal with crim-inal cases concerning nation-al security in accordance withthe law, state-run CGTN TVreported.

China opens security office inHong Kong; foreign firms anxious

PNS n NEW DELHI

Instagram on Wednesday saidit will start testing a new for-mat ‘Reels' in India that willallow users to create and shareshort videos.

This move by the Facebook-owned company comes with-in weeks of the Indian govern-ment banning 59 mobile appswith Chinese links, includingthe popular short video plat-form TikTok terming theseapps as prejudicial to sover-eignty of the country.

A number of homegrownshort-video apps have seendownloads and usage zoomingmanifold since then.

Facebook India VicePresident and Managing

Director Ajit Mohan said overthe last four-five years, millionsof people have access to afford-able mobile broadband, whichhas triggered growth in con-sumption of video.

"It's long and short form

video... videos make up over athird of posts on Instagram inIndia... we really have theopportunity to shape the futureof entertainment on Instagramwith videos playing a big rolein it," he added.

India is the fourth country,after Brazil, Germany andFrance, where this new formatis being tested.

"India was always on theradar... the fact that we areexpanding testing of Reels intoIndia, so soon after Brazil,France and Germany... we arecognizant of the interest invideo, the cultural vibrancy ofthe country, we are looking atIndia as an important countryfor us in the company," he said.

Homegrown apps likeRoposo, Chingari andGoSocial have seen a signifi-cant increase in downloadsand user signups on their plat-forms after the government'sdecision to ban 59 Chineseapps on June 29.

Interestingly, players likeShareChat and Gaana havealso introduced short videoplatforms to cash in on theopportunity. Gaana haslaunched a 'HotShots' featurewithin its app, offering tools tocreate and share short videosand stories to share with morethan 150 million of its users.ShareChat has launched a sim-ilar app 'Moj' which has alreadyseen over 10 million down-loads.Talking about Reels,Facebook VP of Product VishalShah said the latest offering willallow users in India to createand share short videos onInstagram. The platform,which has over a billion usersglobally, also offers Feed,Stories, IGTV and Live.

Instagram brings short-video format Reels to India

PNS n NEW DELHI

Markets regulator Sebi hasdirected five individuals tomake an open offer for acquir-ing shares of Sungold CapitalLtd as they failed to make suchoffers after their shareholdingscrossed a certain thresholdback in 2007.

Under Sebi norms, entitiesare required to make an openoffer to the shareholders of acompany in case their stakes gobeyond a certain threshold.

"In view of the exceptionalcircumstances emerging due tothe outbreak of COVID-19and consequential lock downimposed, this order shall comeinto force on July 31, or at theend of the lockdown period, ifthe lockdown is furtherextended beyond July 31," theregulator said in an order

dated July 7.The individuals have been

asked to make the open offerwithin a period of 45 days fromthe date when the order comesinto force. The five persons areRajiv R Kotia and his relatives-- Shilpa Amit Kotia, ShwetaDhaval Kotia, Dhaval RameshKotia and Ravi Rajiv Kotia.

During an investigation,Sebi found that Rajiv R Kotia'sshareholding in the companyrose to 15.23 per cent from11.96 per cent in April 2007.However, Kotia did not make

the requisite disclosures.It was also found that Shilpa

Amit Kotia, Shweta DhavalKotia, Dhaval Ramesh Kotiaand Ravi Rajiv Kotia collective-ly acquired 22.39 per centshares in September 2007 inSungold Capital but an openoffer was not made.

According to the regulator,the entities, who were 'PersonsActing in Concert,' (PAC)failed to make publicannouncement for open offeron several occasions withrespect to their acquisition ofshares in Sungold Capital dur-ing 2007-08. By doing so, theyhave violated the provisions oftakeover regulations, it noted.

Rajiv R Koita as well as otherindividuals were jointly andseverally liable to make anopen offer but failed to do so,the regulator said.

Karur Bank, Bajaj LifeInsurance join handsPNS n COIMBATORE

Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) onWednesday entered into a cor-porate agency partnershipwith Bajaj Allianz Life, one ofIndia's leading life insurancecompanies, to offer life insur-ance solutions to the bank'scustomers.

Through this partner-ship, the bank will provideBajaj Allianz Life's value-packed life insurance solu-tions to its customers andenable them to achievetheir life goals in a plannedmanner.

B aj aj A l l i an z L i fethrough its affordable andnew-age life insurance solu-tions will empower thebank's new and existingcustomers to avail the liv-ing benefits of life insur-ance.The insurer's prod-ucts will be available at thebank's 780 branch officesspread across India.

"KVB has been alignedwith Bajaj Allianz to mar-ket their non-life productssince the past 17 years.When KVB wanted to pro-

vide additional options tocustomers for their lifeinsurance needs , B ajajAllianz Life emerged as anatural choice," the Bank'sPre s i d e nt and C h i e fO p e r at i ng O f f i c e r JNatarajan said in a state-ment.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Sebi on Wednesday extend-ed the deadline till July 31 forsubmitting applications for aone-year internship pro-gramme in its economic andpolicy analysis department.

The interns wil l berecruited for a period of 12months depending uponSebi's requirement and astipend of Rs 35,000 will beprovided, according to Sebi.In a notice on Wednesday,the watchdog said the lastdate for receiving the appli-cation will be July 31.Candidates should havecompleted at least two yearsin their full time PhD pro-gramme from a recognisedinstitute or university andtheir PhD thesis of appli-cants should be related tofinancial economics.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Cargo handled by the country'smajor ports declined by 19.68per cent to 141.92 milliontonnes (MT) in the first quar-ter of this fiscal amid thecoronavirus outbreak, as perindustry body IPA.

These 12 ports had togeth-er handled 176.69 MT of cargoduring April-June period of2018-19, the Indian PortsAssociation (IPA) said.

Cargo volumes declined forthe third straight month inJune 2020.

Ports like Chennai andKamrajar saw their cargo vol-umes nosedive about 40 per

cent during April-June, whileKolkata and JNPT suffered adrop of over 30 per cent.

While Chennai port saw39.91 per cent decline in cargo

handling to 7.28 MT,Kamarajar (Ennore) port suf-fered a drop of 39.41 per centto 5.16 MT in April-June, asper IPA data.

PNS n TOKYO

Global shares were mixedWednesday as uncertainty overthe coronavirus pandemicsapped the buying enthusiasmthat has been driving priceshigher.

France's CAC 40 slipped0.6% in early trading to5,015.65, while Germany'sDAX was down 0.3% at12,581.38.

Britain's FTSE 100 edged upnearly 0.2% to 6,200.27. U.S.shares were set to drift higherwith Dow futures up 0.3% at25,856.0. The S&P 500 future

contract gained 0.3% to3,146.12.

Given the current murkyoutlook, investors are likely tocash in on recent gains, ana-lysts said.

“Investors are trying their

best to look through the knot-ty COVID-19 economicentanglement. Still, you can seewhy they might be more proneto booking some profits onupticks,” Stephen Innes, chiefglobal market strategist atAxiCorp, said in a report.

But the recent bullish moodremains on shaky ground, andcould easily sour, he said.

“It is impossible for investorsnot to grow weary and even-tually, at some point, fall preyto the endless drip of negativeCOVID-19 stories and howthe second wave virus willcrush the market,” he added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Specialty chemicals manufac-turer Rossari Biotech will comeout with its initial share-sale onJuly 13, which will end fourmonths of lull in the IPO mar-ket. The company has fixed aprice band of Rs 423-425 perequity share for its initial public

offering (IPO) that will be openfor public subscription duringJuly 13-15, Rossari Biotech saidin a statement.

This would be the first com-pany to brave the current volatilemarkets.

There has been a lull in theIPO market since the last initialshare-sale of SBI Cards &

Payment Services, which openedon March 2 and closed onMarch 5. In fact, many compa-nies that received Sebi's go-ahead deferred their issue to alater date. Rossari Biotech's IPOcomprises issuance of freshshares worth Rs 50 crore and anda sale of 10,500,000 equityshares by the company's promot-

ers through the offer-for-saleroute. It has raised Rs 100 crorein a private placement of2,352,920 equity shares to vari-ous investors, including MalabarIndia Fund Limited, Axis MutualFund, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund,Sundaram Mutual Fund, andICICI Lombard GeneralInsurance Company Limited.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Coca-Cola India onWednesday said it has part-nered with Common ServicesCenters (CSCs) programmeunder Ministry of Electronicsand Information Technology,to list its products on the lat-ter's Grameen e-Store plat-form. CSC and Coca-Cola'spartnership serves the dualpurpose of providing last mileconnectivity of essential andaffordable hydration to citi-zens' doorsteps, as well as pro-moting rural entrepreneur-ship and building livelihoodsby mapping supply points to

Village Level Entrepreneurs(VLEs), the company said in astatement. In the pilot phase,Coca-Cola's portfolio of prod-ucts will be listed on Grameen

eStore, a hyper-local rural e-commerce platform, across thestates of Andhra Pradesh,Telangana, Tamil Nadu, UttarPradesh and Haryana, it added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The National SkillDevelopment Corporation(NSDC) and Microsoft onWednesday announced astrategic partnership aimed atproviding digital skills toover 1 lakh youth in thecountry over the next oneyear. "Microsoft will collabo-rate with NSDC's eSkill Indiaportal to provide free accessto learning resources andconduct digital skillingawareness drives, equippingthe next generation of learn-ers with the skills they needto thrive in a digital econo-my," a release said.

Sebi extendsdeadline forinternship

PNS n MUMBAI

The rupee depreciated 9 paiseto settle at 75.02 (provision-al) against the US dollar onWednesday tracking volatiledomestic equities, risingcrude oil prices and strength-ening American currency.

While foreign fund inflowssupported the rupee, factorslike strong dollar, volatiledomestic equities and risingCOVID-19 cases dragged thelocal unit down, Forex traderssaid.

The rupee opened on apositive note at 74.88 at theinterbank forex market, butlost ground and settled forthe day at 75.02 against USdollar, down 9 paise over itslast close.

It had settled at 74.93against the US dollar onTuesday. During the four-hour trading session, thedomestic unit witnessed anintra-day high of 74.87 and alow of 75.05 against the USdollar. Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges thegreenback's strength againsta basket of six currencies, rose0.01 per cent to 96.89.

Rupee slips 9paise againstUS dollar

Global shares mixed as pandemicuncertainty squelches buying

NSDC,Microsoft joinhands

Rossari Biotech IPO to open on Jul 13

Coca-Cola India partners CSCto list products on Grameen

Through thispartnership, thebank will provideBajaj Allianz Life'svalue-packed lifeinsurancesolutions to itscustomers andenable them toachieve their goals

The law hascaused alarm inHong Kong, aglobal businesshub, but officialssaid it will restorestability after theviolent pro-democracyprotests

The Gem andJewellery ExportPromotion Councilin a video meetingwith FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman onMonday made apresentation onthe critical issues

Cargo volume at major ports dips20 pc to 142 MT in Apr-June

Make open offer to shareholdersof Sungold Capital: Sebi

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

ThursdayJuly 9, 2020

One of manythings that's on

everyone's mind,but is nearly

impossible tofulfil right now isthe wish to go ona vacation. Apart

from varioussectors, Tourism

too, has beenbadly hit by thelockdown called

due to theCoronavirus

pandemic, butthere's no

stopping thecommunity oftravel junkies,

reports ThePioneer's

RACHELDAMMALA

hile it’s going to belong and patientwait for us com-moners to go backto touring, how isthe community of

travel junkies surviving? Howare they able to stay put athome, for close to four monthsnow? What’s keeping themgoing? It’s the virtual walks!

Yes, you heard it right, sincealmost everything has turneddigital for the time being, whynot travel to a new place virtu-ally too! The brainchild of thesevirtual heritage walks, GopalaKrishna AB asked himself thisvery question and what cameout of it, is for all to see.

The idea is as simple as itsounds: travel lovers cometogether on one platform,where videos of a certain placeare shown and a tourist-likeexperience is met. “We beganour first virtual heritage walkback in March and it becamean instant hit. The response hasbeen great until now. We haveclose to two thousand membersjoining us for these virtualtours,” informs Gopal, who alsofounded the group ‘HyderabadTrails’, which is home to severalsuch travel lovers.”

A digital nomad himself,Gopal was stuck in Rajasthanwhen the lockdown was called

in March. Although he doesn’tconsider calling it “stuck”, thetravel-lover enjoyed every bit ofhis stay there. Once travelrestrictions were eased, hemoved to the hills inUttarakhand’s Mussoorie. “The hills naturally have ahealthy lifestyle and the virusisn’t that bad here. There isn’tmuch crowd as it is, so I foundthis to be a better place to quar-antine myself in,” shares Gopal.

He and many such peoplefrom the community need justa laptop (for their jobs to earntheir bread and butter), goodinternet and they’re good to go.They’ve all called places likeHampi, Auroville, Pushkar,Goa, etc., their home. Yes,home, because they take theproverb, ‘When in Rome, do asthe Romans do,’ quite literally.Their stay, food, and everythinghave to be like that of a local!

So how do the virtual her-itage walks work? “Videofootages of a particular placeare put together and shownwith real-time comentary, giv-ing viewers the feel that they’revirtually traveling every week-end. The process, by trial anderror method, has gotten betterin the past few months,”explains Ranjith Kumar Gokul, an IT professional and another active member

of the community.The group hopes to continue

these virtual walks even afterthe lockdown is lifted, givenhow travelling is not the firstthing people will want to do,given the virus’ scare. “Soon,we hope to have more peopleand more places to travel virtu-ally. This also is a great idea forpeople who stayelsewhere, andcan’t have a her-itage walk inHyderabad. So wedon’t have to limit our-selves to a smaller num-ber, early hours andother such issues.While we’re doingthis now free ofcost, we probablymight want tomonetise this in thenear future,” Ranjit adds.

Gopal, who currently stays inthe lap of nature amid the for-est, hills, with the freedom togo around to get oxygen when-ever and for however long hewants to and experiences therich culture of Mussoorie andother remote villages aroundthe place, says, “It’s not a goodtime to travel, but you canalways visit another part of thecountry through a Facebooklive or Zoom call now, in thecomfort of your homes.”

If you’re a travelling nomadtoo, check this group out totemporarily quench your desireto tour various places like Goa,Hampi, Rishikesh, Auroville,

etc., across thecountry.Hyderabad

Trails, whichotherwise

organises heritage walks andlonger tours, is looking to keepthings as real as possible,through their virtual tours.

The community has anactive social media presence onFacebook and Twitter, wherethey keep posting informationabout various cities, their histo-ry that is centuries old, changes

they’ve gone through, etc.Once the lockdown ends,they hope to crawl back totheir regular tours and do

more to promote the rich cul-tural heritage of the city viamuseums, galleries with pho-tographs, articles, souvenirs,etc.

We began our firstvirtual heritage walkback in March and it becamean instant hit. The responsehas been great until now. Wehave close to two thousandmembers joining us for thesevirtual tours. Video footages ofa particular place are puttogether and shown with real-time comentary, giving viewersthe feel that they’re virtuallytraveling every weekend.

GOPAL

W

VIRTUAL TOURS TOSATIATE TRAVEL JUNKIES

Dry Fog C-Gateaking inspirationfrom PrimeMinisterNarendra Modi’sclarion call to‘Vocal for Local,’

Hyderabad’s firm VenEnergy Processors Pvt Ltd,a Power ElectronicEquipment manufacturingcompany, developed“Disinfectant Dry Fog C-Gate.

C-Gate disinfectionchamber allows people todisinfect themselves fromhead to toe. The mixed oxi-dant solution as a disinfec-tant is atomized into dryfog made up of tinydroplets, as a diluted disin-fectant mixed solutionbecomes dry fog. “Thewater in the droplet evapo-rates quickly, gets in contactwith the virus and disinfectseffectively,” explains PrasadMyneni, CEO of VenEnergy Pvt Ltd.

The first product hasbeen installed and pressedinto the service in the cityat Hotel Daspalla, JubileeHills, Hyderabad.

“C-Gate germ-fightingdry fog system may notoffer a magic cure but offersan additional layer of pro-tection for over four hoursas we fight CoronavirusPandemic" informs Prasad

The product which is afirst-of-its-kind in our stateis an improvised versionover existing disinfectanttechnologies in our country.Initially, it was developedfor self-usage and captiveconsumption. After seeingits effective results andoverwhelming response, thecompany decided to go forcommercial production.The product, according toDr. Bidhan Das, a PublicHealth Care expert, has ahuge potential in the globalmarket. Hence, a patent hadbeen filed.

One of the main compo-nents of the mixed oxidantsolution is HypochlorousAcid (HOCI). As per theCDC, USA, it fits the bill asthe most ideal disinfectant.The main component isoutsourced from the USfrom a patented and reliable

source.It is non-alcoholic and

has no harmful effects. It iseasy to be installed bothindoors and outdoors. Itdoesn’t leave scar, stains,and residues on the bodyand highly economicalworks with the least mainte-nance cost. It fogs for about20 to 30 seconds with a gapof another 25 seconds, forthe next person to walk in.

T

C-Gate disinfectionchamber allowspeople to disinfectthemselves fromhead to toe. Themixed oxidantsolution as adisinfectant isatomized into dryfog made up of tinydroplets, as adiluted disinfectantmixed solution

harlies Angelsstar Lucy Liusays she faced alot of difficultiesinitially in hercareer due to

racism in Hollywood.In an interview with

Sydney Morning Herald, Liusaid that she struggled toget auditions when she wasjust starting out as an actorin Los Angeles, reports vari-ety.com.

“I think I was just toonaive and didn’t know whatwas ahead of me or what Iwas going to be up against,”she said, adding: “I had

some idea when I got toL.A., because a friend ofmine would have 10 audi-tions in a day or a week andI would have maybe two orthree in a month, so I knewit was going to be muchmore limited for me.”

“But then I got reallylucky with a few jobs, whichput me in rooms for audi-tions where I looked like noother woman in the room. Ithought, ‘I don’t evenunderstand why I’m here,but I’m going to give it myall’,” Liu added.

“I think when you aresomewhat the black sheep,

you don’t really have any-thing to lose, because theyare not necessarily lookingfor you. So you may as wellgo for it,” she noted.

Liu, 51, recentlywrapped up a seven-sea-son run as Dr JoanWatson in the modernSherlock Holmes versionElementary. She is nowseen in Why WomenKill series, which isabout three womenacross three differenttime periods and howthey deal with theirrespective husbands’infidelity.

10

Hyderabad Thursday July 9 2020

C

what’s brewing?

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ANUSHKA SHARMA:

PANDEMIC TAUGHT

ME WE ARE ALL

CO-DEPENDENT

ctress-producerAnushkaSharma saysthe Covid-19pandemic hastaught her that

all are co-dependent onone another even if it isclearly not seen.

“I think what this pan-demic has taught me isthat we are all co-depen-dent on one another evenif we don’t see it veryclearly. The connectionthat all of us have — rightfrom a farmer to a personworking at the topmostlevel in a corporate(organisation) — everyoneis connected in some way,and the work that one per-son does affects the life ofanother. So it’s somethinglike a Butterfly Effect,”Anushka told IANS.

Everyone is connectedto one another, stressedAnushka.

“I think this is some-thing that we are some-times ignorant of, and wethink our life isautonomous, but it actual-ly isn’t. We are all connect-ed with one another andthis pandemic has taughtus to appreciate oneanother so much more,and to appreciate the workthat everybody does. I’mnot only talking about thefrontline workers — theircontribution has beenextremely brave and we allfeel extremely grateful forit,” she said.

Anushka said that everyjob that anyone does isequally important, andthey are all linked in a way.

“It is the realisation I’vehad through this pandem-ic and it has really mademe feel way more hum-bled, and it has made mefeel way more connectedto everybody and everyjob that people do rightnow,” she said.

“Because when every-thing moves alongsmoothly you don’t realisethe work that you arelooking out for, somethingthat you want to get done.You don’t realise that somany people have to cometogether for it to happen.So many people’s contribu-tion and their expertise inthat field helps you attainwhat you want to attain inlife. This is the realisation Ihad during this pandem-ic,” she told IANS.

A

Boman Irani, Jim Sarbh in interactiveshow to raise funds for Covid-affected

LUCY LIU ON BEINGHOLLYWOOD'S ‘BLACK SHEEP'

fter TaapseePannu, actressVidya Balanshared that shehas resumedshooting amid

the ongoing Covid pan-demic.

OnWednesday,Vidya took toInstagramStoriesand post-ed a pic-turethat

shows her sitting in avanity van. She sits withher crew while gettingher make-up done.

The crew membershave taken proper safetyprecautions, wearing PPEsuits and masks.

“backtowork”, Vidyacaptioned the image,

adding a prayingemoji.

On the film front,Vidya will be nextseen in ShakuntalaDevi. The film castsher in the title role of

mathematics geniusShakuntala Devi and willpremiere digitally on July31.

Actors Sanya Malhotraand Amit Sadh are also apart of the project.

Recently, Vidya turnedproducer when she co-produced the self-starringshort film, Nathkat,which addresses patri-archy and toxic masculin-ity. The film had its worldpremiere at the We AreOne: A Global FilmFestival on June 2.

ctor VirafPatell has ini-tiated an inter-active projectto raise fundsfor people

affected by the Covid-19pandemic, and he hasroped in industry friendsincluding Boman Irani,Jim Sarbh and NaakulMehta to participate.

“I am so glad thatsome of us, who are in aposition to help, will beable to actually impactlives from the safety and

the comfort of ourhomes. I am really look-ing forward to making ita fun, memorable and apaisa vasool chat for allthose kind souls who aredonating their hard-earned money to Covidrelief,” said Boman, aboutPatell’s initiative, calledChat For Good, which isa platform that lets com-mon people have a videointeraction with celebri-ties.

The contribution fromthe participants will go

towards helping migrantlabourers, children, sexworkers and wildlife viasix credible NGOs.

“I read somewhere thatthe suffering is endless.With our initiative, Ihope that we can provethat human kindnessknows no limit either.Some of us have enoughwhile some of us arestruggling in unseenways. ‘Chat For Good’aims to bridge betweenthose who can help andthose who need help.”

A

A

Vidya Balan resumes workamid Covid-19 pandemic

ith his multipleattempts at takingRRR to floors lastmonth failing after asurge in coronavirus

positive cases in GHMC lim-its, it looks like filmmakerSS Rajamouli has switchedattention to other things.According to reportsdoing the rounds, thedirector, who not longmentioned that he hasa script idea for hisnext with superstar

Mahesh Babu, is devoting the availabletime to flesh it out further. With resump-tion of shootings staring at an indefinitedelay, he was left with no option but tofocus on the script side of Mahesh’s film, itis said. He wants to wrap up Mahesh’s filmat the earliest as and when he takes itfloors unlike his recent norm of investingmore than a year on a single project, it isbelieved.

Rajamouli- Mahesh project will be pro-duced by Sri Durga Arts chief KLNarayana who is known for backing con-tent-rich cinema. His last production wasJr NTR-starrer 2006 release Raakhi.

n an industrywhere successdetermines a tal-ent’s next opportu-nity, director KVAnudeep, who has

directed Jaathi Ratnalu, fea-turing Naveen Polishetty,Priyadarshi and RahulRamakrishna, considers him-self to be lucky. After a not-so impressive debut withPittagoda more than threeyears ago, the director, in hisown terms, “landed his sec-ond project easily”.“Generally to bag your maid-en film is difficult in theindustry and when it doesn’tdo well, it becomes 10 timestrickier to get your second. Inmy case, the scenario wasopposite. Not only did I getmy second project easily butthe shoot too progressedwithout hurdles. My sincerethanks go to Nag Ashwin,Swapna Dutt and PriyankaDutt in this regard,” he tellsus in an interview.

It was Nag Ashwin, thedirector of much-lovedMahanati, who was instru-mental in signing Anudeepfor Swapna Cinema, whichproduced Jaathi Ratnalu. “He

liked my short film MissedCall, which I made before myfirst film. It was low on quali-ty but high on comedy andone-liners. He told me hehad a good laugh watching it.During the post-productionof Pittagoda, he texted me if Icould meet him. I met himsooner and he wanted toknow if I have a story. Ipolitely said I’ll revert aftercracking ‘one’. My film wasreleased later and it was aflop. So I wasn’t expectingAshwin to get back to me buthe did, a week later. He toldme, ‘I’m offering you a pro-ject because of Missed Call.He asked me to pen a filmlike Missed Call,” the directorrecalls fondly.

Anudeep’s mind oscillated

between rom-com and abuddy comedy, choosing thelatter finally. After sixmonths, he narrated a plot-line to Ashwin, whoendorsed it instantly. “I saton the story along withAshwin and Samar, who is ascript associate at VyjayanthiMovies, and developed itover a year as an out-and-outcomedy entertainer. Post therelease of Mahanti, Ashwindevoted more time to thewriting. It’s a crime comedybut the crime element formsa tiny fraction of the narra-tive, while humour and wittake centre-stage. Generally,crime-comedies are dark butJaathi Ratnalu is a light-hearted affair. It’s made in away that family audiences too

enjoy it. What happens whenthree good for nothing guys(played by Naveen,Priyadarshi and Rahul) aretrapped in a serious crime isthe film’s storyline. It’s set inJogipet, Telangana.”

Admittedly, he is in awe ofAshwin, saying that he hasn’tmet an egoless person likeAshwin in his entire life.“Even when he doles out aninput, he would check withme if I’m cool with it, as I’mthe director at the end of theday. He would operate like awriter, not a producer.Comfort apart, he gave methe confidence to carry outthe project we envisioned onpaper. My interactions withhim over time helped mywriting and making skills,” he

raves.The initial idea was to

make Jaathi Ratnalu withnewcomers in Rs 1 crore. Itwas Ashwin who wantedNaveen Polishetty to be theleading face. By then, theactor’s super hit flick AgentSai Srinivasa Athreya didn’topen. “When Ashwin rangNaveen for the role, he washesitant, as the film had twoother actors in the lead roles.Ashwin wanted him to listento the story before he decideson it. When I narrated himthe story afterward, he wasin. The thing with him is thatwhen he likes a particularscene or a dialogue, he wouldreel it at the spot with therequired emotion. Heenjoyed the narration. Later,Rahul Ramakrishna andPriyadarshi came on board,making the scale bigger tothe tune of four times,”Anudeep explains.

However, the director hadto encounter a minor obsta-cle to take the project in frontof the cameras almost imme-diately as all his three leadswere busy actors, occupiedwith other projects. “Theirdates turned out to be anissue, but after three monthswe could get five-to six daysfrom every month of theircalendar for our film. Exceptfor two days, the entire shoothas been wrapped up,” hestates, adding, “The greatquality about three of them isthat if you interact with themfor five minutes, you’ll get afeeling that you've knownthem for years. So it tookonly half a day for them to bethick friends exactly like thecharacters.”

Next up, Anudeep wouldwant to associate withSwapna Cinema again. He ispresently writing martial artsbackdrop film and a roman-tic drama, with both pep-pered with comedy, which ishis strong suit.

11

Hyderabad Thursday July 9 2020tollywood

PLAYING TO HIS

STRENGTHS

After a not-soimpressivedebut with

Pittagoda morethan three yearsago, director KVAnudeep, in his

own terms,“landed his

second projecteasily”. The

director thanksNag Ashwin,Swapna Duttand Priyanka

Dutt in thisregard, findsNAGARAJ

GOUD

KKVV AAnnuuddeeeepp

I

W

n what is a big relief forPrabhas fans, the much-vaunted first look and title ofthe actor’s 20th with Jil fameRadha Krishna will beunveiled on Friday morning,

production house UV Creations, whichis jointly producing the film along withGopi Krishna Movies and T-Series,announced on Wednesday.

Along with an intriguing sneak-peak,the day also saw UV announcing othercast details of the romantic musicaldrama set in Europe. Besides the alreadyconfirmed names of Bhagyashree andPriyadarshi, prominent actors Sachin

Khedekar, Murli Sharma, Kunal RoyKapur, Sathyan (Tamil) and SashaChettri will be seen in supporting rolesin the film, which is being shot by YeMaya Chesava and Race Gurram cam-eraman Manoj Paramahamsa.

The film had to be put on pausemode after shooting a short schedule inGeorgia earlier this March. There is nodate on when the production willresume. Close to 45 per cent of thefilm's shoot has been wrapped up, with90 days of filming still left. After wrap-ping up this film, Prabhas will move toNag Ashwin’s sci-fi drama.

I

ctorHarsh-vard-hanRane

has decided toditch China-made goods. Herelates with the

condition ofIndian soldiersat the Indo-

China border.“I relate to the

condition of our sol-diers at the Indo-Chinaborder currently,because I was part of a

film, Paltan, two yearsago, which was about the

same issue that our countryis facing currently. I’m gladthat JP Dutta had such far-

sightedness, as he made a filmaround something that the

country is facing today,”Harshvardhan said.

The actor had played an Indiansoldier in the JP Dutta film, whichwas based on the 1967 Nathu Laand Cho La clashes along theSikkim border between the Indianand Chinese armies, in the after-math of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

“Hence, I understand their painand strictly condemn China’sactions. When we were shootingfor the film, we spent days chattingwith the army officers at the bor-der and listening to their heart-touching stories. I have practicallylived that life, hence I relate totheir pain,” he added.

The actor was recently lookingout for a ring for his racing wheel,which is mostly made in China

“When I was looking to pur-chase one, I realised that all theavailable options were made inChina. Hence, I decided to makeone myself. I went to a hardwarestore and purchased a few alumini-um bars and screws and cus-tomised the rig at home. It took

me about half a day to make it.After it was ready, I painted itmatte black for a good finish. I wasreally happy with the outcome andrealised that it is possible to doaway with our dependency onChinese products.”

He feels that it is possible tobecome self reliant and help oureconomy grow, if we show a littlesensitivity.

“As a responsible Indian and asensible human being, ditchingChinese products is the least I cando. I want to tell my fans that theyshould look for Indian alternativesof Chinese products, and if possi-ble, they should either make itthemselves or get things made.”

Harshvardhan added, “This isthe time to show solidarity asIndian citizens, and by that, I don’tmean we should throw away theChinese products that we have athome. But the transition to Indianproducts should be made, slowly,but surely.”

RAJAMOULIturns attention to

his next withMahesh?

A

Harshvardhan: Ditching Chineseproducts is the least I can do

SachinKhedekar, MurliSharma,Kunal RoyKapur andSathyanjoinPrabhas'next

he Pioneer has previouslyreported that megastarChiranjeevi’s daughter,who has also been his cos-tume designer on his filmslike Sye Raa Narasimha

Reddy, Khaidi No 150 among others,will be producing web content. Tothis end, the latest we hear is thather production house has been titledGold Box Entertainment. AnandRanga, who made his directorialdebut with Siddharth-starrer dampsquib Oye! last decade, has beentapped to direct her maiden seriesExchange of Fire, an action-thriller.It was launched on Tuesday inHyderabad in a hush-hush manner.The casting details are awaited.

T

Oye! directorstages a comeback

12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JULY 9, 2020

AFP n CELTA

At l e t i c oMadrid will

have to wait toclinch a placein next sea-s o n ’ sC h a m p i o n sLeague after beingheld to a 1-1 draw atCelta Vigo on Tuesday.

Alvaro Moratascored in the openingminute before FranciscoBeltran equalised forthe hosts the other sideof the break.

The result leavesAtleti four pointsaway from qualifyingfor the top tier ofEuropean footballwith three games

remaining and Celta areseven points clear of the rel-egation zone.

“It’s a difficult groundto visit, Celta play goodfootball, wherethey are in the

table isn’t justi-fied by

t h e i rfootball,”Moratat o l dM o v i s t a r .“We’re readynow to finishour objectiveof third place.What we haveto do isachieve our

objective as quick aswe can.”

Victory could

have seen Atletico seal atop-four spot this week ifother results had gone theirway.

Earlier, South Koreanteenager LeeKang-in scoredwith two min-utes to play tomove Valencia towithin a point ofthe EuropaLeague places in

a 2-1 win over RealValladolid.

Lee, 19, clinched hisside’s first victory sinceAlbert Celades was sackedearlier this month and senthis outfit up to eighth, justbehind Real Sociedad inthe spot for the qualifyingrounds for next season’scontinental competition.

AFP n LONDON

Chelsea moved up to third inthe Premier League table

after holding out to win a 3-2thriller at Crystal Palace, whileLeicester could only manage adraw at 10-man Arsenal onTuesday.

Frank Lampard’smen edged closer to seal-ing a place in next season’sChampions League as aseventh win in eightgames takes them onepoint ahead of Leicesterand opened up a five-point leadon fifth-placed ManchesterUnited.

The Blues were fortunatewhen opening the scoring atSelhurst Park as former Chelseacaptain Gary Cahill fell to theground clutching his hamstringto allow Willian to tee up OlivierGiroud for his fourth goal in sixgames.

Christian Pulisic’s formsince the Premier League’srestart has led to comparisonswith Eden Hazard, the man hereplaced at Stamford Bridge, andthe Belgian would have beenproud of Chelsea’s second as the21-year-old American skippedpast Joel Ward and hammered

in off the inside of thenear post.

As so often this sea-son, Lampard’s menfailed to capitalise ontheir dominance andwere suddenly on the

back foot when Wilfried Zahathundered a shot high pastKepa Arrizabalaga from longrange for Palace’s first goal infour games. Chelsea looked tohave sealed the three pointsagain when substitutes RubenLoftus-Cheek and TammyAbraham combined for the lat-ter to restore a two-goal cushion19 minutes from time.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Hosting the IPL in Indiaremains BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly’s “first

priority” and he is hoping thatthe cricket world will not haveto endure a 2020 sans the glitzyevent, despite his concernsaround the rising Covid-19cases.

The T20 league, which wasscheduled to start on March 29,stands suspended due to theCovid-19 pandemic.

While the former India cap-tain said it is important for crick-et to return to normalcy, anydecision on the IPL can betaken only after the ICC decideson the fate of the T20 WorldCup, scheduled to be played inAustralia in October-November.

“We don’t want the year2020 to finish without an IPL.Our first priority is India andeven if we get 35 to 40 days, wewill host it. But we don’t knowwhere...” Ganguly said on IndiaToday show Inspiration.

New Zealand, Sri Lankaand the UAE have offered tohost the event in case there arelogistical issues in India with therapid rise in coronavirus cases.

Organising the league over-seas is an option but that wouldresult in increased costs.

“I will put it in this order.Firstly, whether we can (have anIPL) within the time frame asIPL has limited window.

“Secondly India. If it’s notpossible then we are thinking ofgoing out (abroad). But goingout where...Because if you go out

it becomes expensive for every-one — franchises and board.

“Because of conversion rate

and currency exchange rate itbecomes expensive. So we aremonitoring but as I said we are

very keen to host it and got ourfingers crossed.”

The delay in taking a final

call on the fate of the T20World Cup is also keeping theBCCI bosses and other IPLstakeholders waiting.

“We don’t know yet as wedon’t have a decision from ICCregarding the T20 World Cup.We keep hearing different thingsfrom the media but unless it isofficially told to Board members,you don’t know what’s happen-ing,” he said.

Ganguly is aware of thegrim situation in Indian citieswith IPL franchises.

“If it doesn’t happen inIndia because of Covid-19 thenplaces like Mumbai, Delhi,Kolkata and Chennai, thesehave big teams in IPL but at thispoint, you can’t put hand to yourheart and say cricket will happenin these places.

“Ahmedabad we were keento go there. It’s an amazing sta-dium. I don’t know whether wecan go there or not. It’s not easyat the moment to say we aregoing to host it in India.”

Only once in the 12-yearhistory of the IPL has the entiretournament been shifted out ofIndia.

AFP n SOUTHAMPTON

England and West Indiesplayers took a knee in sup-

port of the Black Lives Mattermovement before the start ofplay in the first Test atSouthampton as internationalcricket returned after a four-month absence.

Moments before the firstball was bowled at an emptyRose Bowl, West Indies’ fieldingplayers knelt in the outfieldwhile their England counter-parts did the same around thefield.

A Black Lives Matter logoalso was on the collar of the testshirts worn by players fromboth teams for the match playedin a strict isolated environmentand following repeated testingof players and staff members.

The West Indies squad hassaid the movement, which hasgrown since the killing ofGeorge Floyd in the UnitedStates in May, has been a sourceof motivation on this tour.

The kneeling gesture hasbeen made before PremierLeague matches since theresumption of football inEngland last month.

There was a minute’s silencein honor of those who died inthe coronavirus pandemic andalso West Indies great EvertonWeekes, who died last week.

Play was starting after athree-hour delay because oflight rain and a wet outfield.There can be a maximum of 70

overs on the rain-affected firstday.

It meant cricket fans had towait a while longer for thereturn of international cricketsince the last action in earlyMarch.

E n g l a n d ’sstand-in captain,Ben Stokes, wonthe toss and opted to bat underovercast skies.

Filling in for Joe Root, whowas absent because of the birthof his second child, Stokes wascaptain for the first time andmade a big call in leaving outfast bowler Stuart Broad — along-time regular in the team.

Jofra Archer, Mark Woodand James Anderson made upEngland’s pace attack alongwith Stokes.

West Indies captain JasonHolder, who left out Rahkeem

Cornwall, said he was “not toodisappointed to be bowlingfirst.”

After the toss was made,Stokes briefly forget about socialdistancing when he went to

shake the hand ofHolder. Holdermove his handaway and both all-

rounders laughed.

LINEUPSEngland: Rory Burns, DomSibley, Joe Denly, Zak Crawley,Ben Stokes (c), Ollie Pope, JosButtler, Dom Bess, Jofra Archer,Mark Wood, James Anderson.Windies: Kraigg Brathwaite,John Campbell, Shai Hope,Shamarh Brooks, Roston Chase,Jermaine Blackwood, JasonHolder (c), Shane Dowrich,Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach,Shannon Gabriel.

IANS n NEW DELHI

Australian fast bowler JoshHazlewood believes star

Indian opener Rohit Sharma hasa phenomenal record when itcomes to white-ball cricket andhis batting style is filled withpure class and elegance.

“He’s got many. I think it’sjust with how the ease that heplays, specially anything back ofa length, anything short, just putsit away with such ease. It’s just anarea in which he gets better, Ithink,” Hazlewood said — whilespeaking about Rohit’s greateststrength — on Star Sports CricketConnected show.

“He never looks to bludgeonthe ball, just pure class and ele-

gance. His records, especially inwhite-ball cricket, is phenome-nal,” he added.

When asked if a bowler getsannoyed by seeing a player batwith such ease, the right-armAustralian pacer said: “Yeah,absolutely. I mean the battersthrough our time, obviously arethe frustrating ones to bowl to.”

“Even when someone whocame quicker like Mitchell Starcor Pat Cummins’ bowling tothose guys, it doesn’t seem fastand that’s probably the onething that sticks out when youare bowling to these types ofplayers,” he added.

Rohit has so far scored 29tons, including three doublehundreds, in 224 ODIs he hasplayed for the Men in Blue. Healso has four T20I and six Testhundreds to his name.

BELGRADE: Novak Djokovic hasaccused critics of subjectinghim to a “witch-hunt” after hisregional Adria Tour tennis eventended in a novel coronavirusfiasco and said he was stilluncertain whether he wouldplay at the August 31-September13 US Open.

Djokovic, who tested posi-tive for Covid-19 after the AdriaTour’s second leg in Croatia,pulled no punches in slamminghis peers and pundits who saidhe was irresponsible to stage theevent amid the pandemic.

“I can only see criticism late-ly and much of it is malicious,”Djokovic told Wednesday’s issueof Serbia’s daily Sportski Zurnal.

“It’s obviously more thanjust criticism, it’s like an agendaand a witch-hunt are on.Someone has to take the fall, a

big name.“I still haven’t decided

whether I will play in the USOpen, the upsurge in regis-tered Covid-19 cases in the

United States and New York inparticular are not playing intothe event’s hands,” addedDjokovic who was back in train-ing on Tuesday with Troicki.

Djokovic tested negativeafter the second test he took lastweek and, having concededafter the failed tournament thatit came to soon, he reiteratedthat he had acted in good faith.

“My intention was pure, Iwas whole-heartedly committedto organising a humanitarianevent to help players and tennisfederations in the (Balkan)region,” he said.

“We complied with all thelaws and regulations. But we’velearned our lessons and somethings could have probably beendone in a different way.”

The first leg in Belgrade heldon June 13-14 with no social dis-tancing rules in place drew a sell-out 4,000 crowd and as manyfans turned up in Zadar’s Visnjiktennis complex with a capacityof 9,000 a week later. Agencies

WASHINGTON: The Ryder Cupwas postponed until 2021 inWisconsin because of the Covid-19 pandemic that raised toomuch uncertainty whether theloudest event in golf could beplayed before spectators.

The announcement onWednesday was inevitable andhad been in the works for weeksas the PGA of America, theEuropean Tour and the PGATour tried to adjust with somany moving parts.

The Ryder Cup was sched-uled for September 25-27 atWhistling Straits, but will moveto September 24-26 in 2021. It’sthe second time in the last twodecades the Ryder Cup waspostponed. It was moved off theodd-numbered years in 2001because of the September 11 ter-rorist attacks. AP

1st Test, Day 2Live from 3:30pm IST

SONY SIX NETWORK

Hope we don’t have IPL-less 2020: Ganguly

NEW DELHI: BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly on Wednesdayannounced cancellation of theAsia Cup T20, scheduled to beheld in September, due to theCovid-19 pandemic.

Pakistan originally had thehosting rights of the six-teamcontinental event but consider-

ing the alarming situation, thePCB board had decided to swapit with Sri Lanka.

“Asia Cup cancel ho chukahai, jo September me tha (AsiaCup, which was to be held inSeptember, has been cancelled),”Ganguly told Sports Tak in anInstagram Live session.

The Pakistan Cricket Bardconfirmed that they have agreedto host the event in 2022 and SriLanka is now expected to hostit next year following the can-celation of this year’s edition.

PCB chief Ehsan Mani saidthe decision was made due tothe worsening pandemic.

“The Asian Cricket Councilis looking at organising it nextyear. It is too dangerous to hostit this year We had swapped theevent with Sri Lanka this yearbecause it is one of the leastaffected (in South Asia) fromthe virus,” the veteran adminis-trator said. PTI

‘Rohit’s batting style is filledwith class & elegance’

Djokovic accuses critics of ‘witch-hunt'

Novak Djokovic attends training session with his coach Goran Ivanisevic AP

Ryder Cup postponeduntil next year

Atletico wait to seal CLberth continues

Chelsea climb to 3rd place

Sourav announces Asia Cup cancellation, PCB chief confirms

Poms, Windies take aknee ahead of 1st Test

England opener Rory Burns along with Windies players take a knee before the startof the first day of the 1st Test at Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Wednesday AP

Asteroids fly past our planet Earth fairly regularly andscientists are usually not only aware but even predict thedates and timings about when a particular asteroid will

swing by Earth. However, an asteroid flew by Earth andastronomers didn't realise it till a couple of days later! Dubbed2020 LD and measuring nearly 100 metres in diameter , theasteroid, travelling at a speed of 60,826 miles per hour - camecloser to Earth than even the Moon on June 5. According toEuropean Space Agency (ESA), the space rock was just 0.8 lunardistances away from Earth. So, if the moon is 384, 317 km awayfrom Earth, asteroid 2020 LD 307,454 km away when it flew by.It was not only the biggest asteroid to pass between Earth andthe Moon this year, but the biggest to come this close to earthsince 2011, and also ranked as one of the biggest ever to fly thisclose to Earth without being previously detected, according towebsite Earth Sky.

Woman demands salary,owner releases dog

Woman sues Starbucksfor writing ISIS on her cup

Muslim woman was in for a shock after she ordered a coffeefor herself at a Starbucks barista in St. Paul, Minnesota inthe United States on July 1 and received her cup with 'ISIS'

written on it instead of her name. After the incident, Aishah hasfiled a discrimination charge against Target, which runs andoperates the particular store. ISIS, the acronym for the IslamicState of Iraq and Syria, is a terrorist group, known for itsfundamental beliefs which has carried out several terrorist attacks.On the day of the incident, Aishah, who was wearing a face maskowing to the novelcoronavirus pandemic,said that she hadmentioned her namewhile placing her order."When she asked formy name, I slowlyrepeated it multipletimes. There isabsolutely no way shecould have heard it as ISIS. Aishah is not an unknown name and Irepeated it multiple times," Aishah said. She was "overwhelmed"with emotions after seeing the cup and felt humiliated and a deepsense of indignity. "The moment I saw it, I was overwhelmed witha lot of emotions. I felt belittled and so humiliated. This is a wordthat shatters the Muslim reputation all over the world. I cannotbelieve that in this day and age, something like this can beconsidered acceptable. It isn't okay," she added.

The Delhi Police arrested the owner of a spa for allegedlyreleasing a dog to attack her employee who asked forpending salary in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar area,

officials said. "The incident took place on June 11. The victim,Sapna (39), got injured and received at least 15 stitches on herface and neck," police said. She said she had worked in thespa for a one-and-half months before the coronaviruslockdown and left the job on March 22. In her complaint, thevictim alleged that when she asked her employer about herdues on June 11, Rajni, the owner, called Sapna to her house.The victim went to Rajani's house in Khirki Extension for herdues where Rajni asked her to do work, following which shewould get money. However, when the victim refused to do so,Rajni threatened her and let her dog loose on Sapna,according to the First Information Report (FIR). When she wasscreaming, Rajni asked her not to shout as the people wouldgather after hearing her cry.

Drones light up sky with Corona messages

Asteroid flew closer toEarth than the moon

NEW

S

MostRead H

undreds of drones have lit up the night sky in the SouthKorean capital, Seoul, for a spectacular showcase ofmotivational and awareness messages as the fight against the

coronavirus pandemic continues. Three hundred unmanned aerialvehicles were programmed to form images above the Han Riveron Saturday night, displaying messages of key precautionarymeasures including wearing masks, washing hands and keepingphysical distances. The 10-minute show shifted to messages ofgratitude for medical personnel in the front lines of the pandemicas well as all South Koreans for their collective efforts. "Thanks toyou," thedrones wrote inthe sky next toa heart shape,before forminga silhouette ofthe KoreanPeninsula withthe message:"Cheer up,Republic ofKorea." Earlier,a similar drone show was organised in Madrid to honour COVID-19 victims and frontline workers with messages including "Hope"and "Heroes" painted on night sky. In Japan, a fireworks displaywas organised to spread cheer after many of the country'ssummer fireworks festivals were called off.

Zlatan-inspired Rossonericomeback floors JuveAFP n MILAN

Juventus wasted the chance tomove 10 points clear at the top of

Serie A as the defending championsblew a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 ata Zlatan Ibrahimovic-inspired ACMilan on Tuesday, after second-placed Lazio’s shock 1-2 defeat atLecce.

Maurizio Sarri’s men ledthrough goals from Adrien Rabiotand Cristiano Ronaldo early in thesecond half, but were then blownaway by a brilliant Milan display asIbrahimovic scored and had anassist.

Milan coach Stefano Pioli, whocould reportedly be sacked at theend of the season, saw his side boosttheir hopes of European qualifica-

tion by moving above Roma andNapoli into fifth.

“I am not remotely thinkingabout August 3 or the future. I amthinking of the next game,” Pioli toldDAZN. “There have been sometough moments, but I love what Ido.”

Juve remain on track for a

ninth straight title, sitting sevenpoints clear of Lazio with sevenmatches remaining, but could haverendered the race all but over witha victory.

The loss snapped the Turingiants’ seven-game winning run inthe league.

The reigning champions burstinto life after the interval, whenFrench international Adrien Rabiotdrove forward and fired a fine left-footed shot from the edge of the areainto the top corner to score his firstSerie A goal.

Ronaldo doubled the advantageless than eight minutes into the sec-ond half, netting for the fifth con-secutive game and for the 26th timein Serie A this term with a cool fin-ish.