The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum...

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A mid a surge in coronavirus cases in Delhi, a door-to- door survey for identifying and testing people sympto- matic for Covid-19 in con- tainment and densely packed areas of the city commenced on Friday with the number of containment zones going up to over 4,550 in the national Capital, with the maximum 743 in southwest district and the lowest 148 in northeast district. According to official data, six districts out of the total 11 have more than 400 Covid-19 containment zones — 743 (southwest), 705 (south), 587 (west), 543 (southeast), 490 (central Delhi) and 445 (north- west). The survey will be com- pleted within five days and will cover over 57 lakh people in containment zones, dense areas and identified clusters of virus transmission, officials said. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that the survey is aimed at identifying and testing symp- tomatic people living in con- tainment zones and densely packed areas. District officials said all the containment zones and super spreader areas are being cov- ered through teams including teachers, municipal corpora- tion staff, Asha workers and civil defence volunteers. “All protocols will be fol- lowed to test all symptomatic persons. The survey will be completed within 5 days,” said a district magistrate. Following a meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, it was decided that the survey in the city will be con- ducted by teams of AIIMS, the Delhi Government and munic- ipal corporations, and all the symptomatic people found in the survey would be tested and provided necessary treatment. Around 9,500 surveillance teams have been constituted and deployed for conducting a door-to-door survey. Each team has a target to survey 50 households every day, officials added. Continued on Page 2 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a secu- rity review meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary and top intelligence officials in the wake of the killing of four JeM terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir a day earlier. The killed terror- ists were reportedly planning “something big” on the anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. The fact that the PM him- self reviewed the security sce- nario following the Thursday’s encounter near toll plaza in Nagrota area of Kashmir, showed that this was not just yet another killing of terrorists by the security forces. Sources confirmed that the PMO came into action after intelligence inputs indicated that the terrorists were plan- ning to carry out some deadly plot on November 26. In his tweets following the meeting, Modi said, “Neutralising of 4 terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e- Mohammed and the presence of large cache of weapons and explosives with them indicate that their efforts to wreak major havoc and destruction have once again been thwarted.” Hailing the security forces, he said they have once again displayed utmost bravery and professionalism. Continued on Page 2 O ffering an olive branch to dissidents, Congress pres- ident Sonia Gandhi has con- stituted three committees, each comprising former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to accommodate four senior lead- ers who had been critical of the leadership. The move came days after senior party leader Kapil Sibal questioned the party’s decline in the wake of its poor show in Bihar. Sonia formed the commit- tee just before leaving for Goa to escape Delhi’s toxic air on medical advice. Rahul Gandhi accompanied Sonia. Sonia has approved the committees on economic affairs, foreign affairs and national security to discuss related matters and formulate the party’s position on policy matters, the most recent being India staying away from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The committees have four leaders who recently wrote a letter to Sonia demanding an organisational overhaul. They are Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Veerappa Moily. The four leaders, after flag- ging their concerns in the con- troversial letter, refrained from making critical remarks of the leadership. Anand Sharma and Tharoor have been named in the committee on foreign affairs. Sharma had recently contradicted Congress stand on India’s position vis a vis the RCEP and has argued that India should have joined the trade block. This was against the previous party line which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi articulated last year when he repeatedly made public state- ments against India joining the RCEP. Ghulam Nabi Azad and Moily have been made mem- bers of the committee on national security. Each of the three panels consists of five leaders including a convener. Continued on Page 2 D elhiites woke up to cold morning as the national Capital recorded a minimum of 7.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, the lowest in the month of November in 14 years, according to the India Meteorological Department. It is Delhi’s lowest minimum tem- perature in November since November 29, 2006, when the city recorded a minimum of 7.3 degrees Celsius, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the IMD’s regional forecasting centre. The city was also on the brink of a cold wave, the first this season. For the plains, the IMD declares a cold wave when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or below and is 4.5 notches less than normal for two consecutive days. “The criteria has been met on Friday. We will declare a cold wave in Delhi if the situation persists on Saturday,” Srivastava said. Delhi had recorded the lowest minimum tem- perature of 11.5 degrees Celsius last year, 10.5 degrees Celsius in 2018 and 7.6 degrees Celsius in 2017 in the month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat, an expert at Skymet Weather, a private forecasting agency, said cold winds blowing from snow-laden western Himalayas have led to a dip in the mer- cury and a similar situation will con- tinue till Saturday. A fresh Western Disturbance is approaching northwest India on November 23. It is likely to increase the minimum temperature by a few notch- es, he said. The minimum temperature this month, barring on November 16, has remained 2-3 degree Celsius below normal in the absence of a cloud cover, according to IMD officials. A day after a blast in a facto- ry at Sujapur in Malda district left six people dead, the ruling TMC dared the BJP to impose President’s Rule in Bengal and face the conse- quence. The two parties trad- ed intense fire after Union Minister Babul Supriyo accused the State administration of complicity in recurring inci- dents of blasts all across the State and made indirect refer- ence of Article 356. Referring to the falling law and order situation in the State, he said, “More than 130 BJP workers have been killed in Bengal in the last three years. There is a complete law and order failure in the State. BJP does not indulge in violence. Bengal is always in news due to violence. There have been sev- eral attacks on our leaders,” adding if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thought that the Centre was weak in crack- ing the whip she was wrong. “If Didi thinks, she can do anything then there are con- stitutional provisions which can be used to remove her. It would be better if Mamata maintains the essence of democracy and the Constitution ahead of the polls,” Supriyo said, reminding there were enough constitu- tional provisions to tame a brutal Government. Continued on Page 2 I n a tragic incident, at least 14 people including 7 children of a marriage party were killed in a road accident in Pratapgarh on late Thursday night. Police said here on Friday that the deceased were travelling in an SUV, which collided with a stationary truck under Kunda police station area after midnight. They were returning back from the marriage function in Nawabganj area in Kanpur when the accident occurred near Deshraj village. All the occupants of the SUV were killed. Sources said the driver of the SUV prob- ably fell asleep which led to the accident. Continued on Page 2 T he Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine “Covishield” will be priced at a maximum of 1,000 for two necessary doses for the public by April 2021 and every Indian will get vaccinated by 2024, said Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday. “The vaccine will be avail- able for healthcare workers and elderly people by around February 2021 and for the general public by April,” he said at a media event, even as he asserted that every Indian will get vaccinated, probably by 2024. “It will probably take two or three years for every Indian to get inoculated, not just because of the supply con- straints but because you need the budget, the vaccine, logis- tics, infrastructure, and then, people should be willing to take the vaccine. So these are the factors that lead up to being able to vaccinate 80-90 per cent of the population. It will be 2024 for everybody, if willing to take a two-dose vaccine, to be vaccinated,” he said. SII, the world’s largest vac- cine manufacturer by volume, and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s apex body for bio- medical research, last week had announced the completion of the enrolment of participants for phase 3 clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, Covishield, in India. Talking about its price, the SII CEO said the Central Government will be getting it at a far cheaper price (at around USD 3-4) because it will be buying in bulk. “We are still pricing it far cheaper and more affordable than other vaccines we have in the market today,” Poonawalla added. He also clarified that chil- dren would have to wait a lit- tle longer for the vaccine till the safety data is out, but the good news is that Covid-19 is not so bad and serious for them. Poonawalla said the Oxford vaccine is affordable and safe. It can be stored at a tem- perature of two to eight degrees Celsius, which is an ideal tem- perature for it to be stored in the cold storages of India. He said the SII plans to make about 10 crore doses per month from February. Continued on Page 2 A mid the increasing Covid- 19 infections and deaths in Delhi, the Maharashtra Government on Friday appeared to be pushing for sus- pension of train and air trans- port services between Mumbai and the national Capital. With the fear of Covid-19 wave gripping New Delhi where the number of infections and deaths has increased alarmingly in the recent days, informed sources in the Maharashtra Government said that the Uddhav Thackeray dispensation was considering seriously taking up the matter with the Centre to suspend train and air services between Mumbai and Delhi. Talking to media persons here, State Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar indicated that the State Government was con- sidering suspension of air and train services between Mumbai. “No decision has been taken in this regard. We are dis- cussing the issue as of now. If we are to suspend the air and train services, we will have to first take permission from the Civil Aviation and Railway Ministries. We can think of suspension of train and air ser- vices between Mumbai and Delhi only after talking to the officials of the two Ministries,” Kumar said. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Railway clarified that the Railways has not taken any decision regarding the cancel- lation of trains between Mumbai and Delhi in view of the increasing infections and deaths in the national Capital. “There have been reports in a section of the media today about cancellation of certain trains in the Delhi Mumbai sec- tor,” the Ministry of Railways said in a tweet put out in the evening. New Delhi: The Delhi Lieutenant Governor amended the Delhi Epidemic Disease Management of Covid-19 regulations 2020, which empowers any “autho- rised person” to slap a fine of 2,000 for a series of activi- ties including not wearing masks. Now spitting in public, violating social distancing and breaking quarantine rules are going to attract Rs 2,000 fine in the national Capital. Authorised persons shall be empowered to impose a fine of 2,000 for offence for violating directives/guide- lines pertaining to the fol- lowing,” says a Delhi Government notification, dated November 20. Chandigarh: Amid a rise in Covid cases, the Haryana Government on Friday ordered the closure of all schools in the State until November 30. The move came days after over 150 stu- dents tested positive for coro- navirus.

Transcript of The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum...

Page 1: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

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Amid a surge in coronaviruscases in Delhi, a door-to-

door survey for identifyingand testing people sympto-matic for Covid-19 in con-tainment and densely packedareas of the city commenced onFriday with the number ofcontainment zones going up toover 4,550 in the nationalCapital, with the maximum 743in southwest district and thelowest 148 in northeast district.

According to official data,six districts out of the total 11have more than 400 Covid-19containment zones — 743(southwest), 705 (south), 587(west), 543 (southeast), 490(central Delhi) and 445 (north-west). The survey will be com-pleted within five days and willcover over 57 lakh people incontainment zones, dense areasand identified clusters of virustransmission, officials said.

Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain told reportersthat the survey is aimed atidentifying and testing symp-tomatic people living in con-tainment zones and denselypacked areas.

District officials said all thecontainment zones and superspreader areas are being cov-ered through teams includingteachers, municipal corpora-tion staff, Asha workers andcivil defence volunteers.

“All protocols will be fol-lowed to test all symptomaticpersons. The survey will becompleted within 5 days,” saida district magistrate. Followinga meeting between UnionHome Minister Amit Shah andChief Minister Arvind

Kejriwal, it was decided that thesurvey in the city will be con-ducted by teams of AIIMS, theDelhi Government and munic-ipal corporations, and all thesymptomatic people found inthe survey would be tested andprovided necessary treatment.

Around 9,500 surveillanceteams have been constitutedand deployed for conducting adoor-to-door survey. Eachteam has a target to survey 50households every day, officialsadded.

Continued on Page 2

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday held a secu-

rity review meeting with HomeMinister Amit Shah, NSA AjitDoval, Foreign Secretary andtop intelligence officials in thewake of the killing of four JeMterrorists in Jammu & Kashmira day earlier. The killed terror-ists were reportedly planning“something big” on theanniversary of the 26/11Mumbai terror attack.

The fact that the PM him-self reviewed the security sce-nario following the Thursday’sencounter near toll plaza inNagrota area of Kashmir,showed that this was not justyet another killing of terrorists

by the security forces.Sources confirmed that the

PMO came into action afterintelligence inputs indicatedthat the terrorists were plan-ning to carry out some deadlyplot on November 26.

In his tweets following themeeting, Modi said,“Neutralising of 4 terroristsbelonging to Pakistan-basedterrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed and the presenceof large cache of weapons andexplosives with them indicatethat their efforts to wreak majorhavoc and destruction haveonce again been thwarted.”

Hailing the security forces,he said they have once againdisplayed utmost bravery andprofessionalism.

Continued on Page 2

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Offering an olive branch todissidents, Congress pres-

ident Sonia Gandhi has con-stituted three committees, eachcomprising former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh, toaccommodate four senior lead-ers who had been critical of theleadership. The move camedays after senior party leaderKapil Sibal questioned theparty’s decline in the wake of itspoor show in Bihar.

Sonia formed the commit-tee just before leaving for Goato escape Delhi’s toxic air onmedical advice. Rahul Gandhiaccompanied Sonia.

Sonia has approved thecommittees on economicaffairs, foreign affairs andnational security to discussrelated matters and formulatethe party’s position on policymatters, the most recent beingIndia staying away from theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership.

The committees have fourleaders who recently wrote a

letter to Sonia demanding anorganisational overhaul. Theyare Anand Sharma, ShashiTharoor, Ghulam Nabi Azadand Veerappa Moily.

The four leaders, after flag-ging their concerns in the con-troversial letter, refrained frommaking critical remarks of theleadership.

Anand Sharma andTharoor have been named inthe committee on foreignaffairs. Sharma had recentlycontradicted Congress stand onIndia’s position vis a vis theRCEP and has argued thatIndia should have joined thetrade block. This was againstthe previous party line whichCongress leader Rahul Gandhiarticulated last year when herepeatedly made public state-ments against India joiningthe RCEP.

Ghulam Nabi Azad andMoily have been made mem-bers of the committee onnational security. Each of thethree panels consists of fiveleaders including a convener.

Continued on Page 2

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Delhiites woke up to cold morningas the national Capital recorded

a minimum of 7.5 degrees Celsius onFriday, the lowest in the month ofNovember in 14 years, according tothe India Meteorological Department.

It is Delhi’s lowest minimum tem-perature in November since November29, 2006, when the city recorded aminimum of 7.3 degrees Celsius, saidKuldeep Srivastava, the head of theIMD’s regional forecasting centre.

The city was also on the brink ofa cold wave, the first this season. Forthe plains, the IMD declares a coldwave when the minimum temperatureis 10 degrees Celsius or below and is4.5 notches less than normal for twoconsecutive days.

“The criteria has been met onFriday. We will declare a cold wave inDelhi if the situation persists onSaturday,” Srivastava said. Delhi had

recorded the lowest minimum tem-perature of 11.5 degrees Celsius lastyear, 10.5 degrees Celsius in 2018 and7.6 degrees Celsius in 2017 in themonth of November.

The all-time record for the lowestminimum temperature in Novemberis 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded onNovember 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,an expert at Skymet Weather, a privateforecasting agency, said cold windsblowing from snow-laden westernHimalayas have led to a dip in the mer-cury and a similar situation will con-tinue till Saturday.

A fresh Western Disturbance isapproaching northwest India onNovember 23. It is likely to increase theminimum temperature by a few notch-es, he said.

The minimum temperature thismonth, barring on November 16, hasremained 2-3 degree Celsius belownormal in the absence of a cloud cover,according to IMD officials.

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Aday after a blast in a facto-ry at Sujapur in Malda

district left six people dead, theruling TMC dared the BJP toimpose President’s Rule inBengal and face the conse-quence. The two parties trad-ed intense fire after UnionMinister Babul Supriyo accusedthe State administration ofcomplicity in recurring inci-dents of blasts all across theState and made indirect refer-ence of Article 356.

Referring to the falling lawand order situation in the State,he said, “More than 130 BJPworkers have been killed inBengal in the last three years.There is a complete law and

order failure in the State. BJPdoes not indulge in violence.Bengal is always in news due toviolence. There have been sev-eral attacks on our leaders,”adding if Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee thought thatthe Centre was weak in crack-ing the whip she was wrong.

“If Didi thinks, she can doanything then there are con-stitutional provisions whichcan be used to remove her. Itwould be better if Mamatamaintains the essence ofdemocracy and theConstitution ahead of thepolls,” Supriyo said, remindingthere were enough constitu-tional provisions to tame abrutal Government.

Continued on Page 2

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In a tragic incident, at least 14 peopleincluding 7 children of a marriage

party were killed in a road accident inPratapgarh on late Thursday night.

Police said here on Friday that thedeceased were travelling in an SUV,which collided with a stationary truck

under Kunda police station area aftermidnight. They were returning backfrom the marriage function inNawabganj area in Kanpur when theaccident occurred near Deshraj village.All the occupants of the SUV were killed.Sources said the driver of the SUV prob-ably fell asleep which led to the accident.

Continued on Page 2

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The Oxford AstraZenecaCovid-19 vaccine

“Covishield” will be priced at amaximum of �1,000 for twonecessary doses for the publicby April 2021 and every Indianwill get vaccinated by 2024, saidSerum Institute of India’s CEOAdar Poonawalla on Friday.

“The vaccine will be avail-able for healthcare workersand elderly people by aroundFebruary 2021 and for thegeneral public by April,” hesaid at a media event, even ashe asserted that every Indianwill get vaccinated, probablyby 2024.

“It will probably take twoor three years for every Indianto get inoculated, not justbecause of the supply con-straints but because you needthe budget, the vaccine, logis-tics, infrastructure, and then,people should be willing to takethe vaccine. So these are thefactors that lead up to beingable to vaccinate 80-90 per centof the population. It will be2024 for everybody, if willingto take a two-dose vaccine, tobe vaccinated,” he said.

SII, the world’s largest vac-cine manufacturer by volume,and the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR), thecountry’s apex body for bio-medical research, last weekhad announced the completion

of the enrolment of participantsfor phase 3 clinical trials of theOxford-AstraZeneca vaccinecandidate, Covishield, in India.

Talking about its price, theSII CEO said the CentralGovernment will be getting itat a far cheaper price (at aroundUSD 3-4) because it will bebuying in bulk. “We are stillpricing it far cheaper and moreaffordable than other vaccineswe have in the market today,”Poonawalla added.

He also clarified that chil-dren would have to wait a lit-tle longer for the vaccine till thesafety data is out, but the goodnews is that Covid-19 is not sobad and serious for them.

Poonawalla said theOxford vaccine is affordableand safe.

It can be stored at a tem-perature of two to eight degreesCelsius, which is an ideal tem-perature for it to be stored inthe cold storages of India. Hesaid the SII plans to makeabout 10 crore doses per monthfrom February.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid the increasing Covid-19 infections and deaths in

Delhi, the MaharashtraGovernment on Fridayappeared to be pushing for sus-pension of train and air trans-port services between Mumbaiand the national Capital.

With the fear of Covid-19wave gripping New Delhiwhere the number of infectionsand deaths has increasedalarmingly in the recent days,informed sources in theMaharashtra Government saidthat the Uddhav Thackeraydispensation was consideringseriously taking up the matterwith the Centre to suspendtrain and air services betweenMumbai and Delhi.

Talking to media personshere, State Chief Secretary

Sanjay Kumar indicated thatthe State Government was con-sidering suspension of air andtrain services betweenMumbai.

“No decision has beentaken in this regard. We are dis-cussing the issue as of now. If

we are to suspend the air andtrain services, we will have tofirst take permission from theCivil Aviation and RailwayMinistries. We can think ofsuspension of train and air ser-vices between Mumbai andDelhi only after talking to theofficials of the two Ministries,”Kumar said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry ofRailway clarified that theRailways has not taken anydecision regarding the cancel-lation of trains betweenMumbai and Delhi in view ofthe increasing infections anddeaths in the national Capital.

“There have been reportsin a section of the media todayabout cancellation of certaintrains in the Delhi Mumbai sec-tor,” the Ministry of Railwayssaid in a tweet put out in theevening.

New Delhi: The DelhiLieutenant Governoramended the Delhi EpidemicDisease Management ofCovid-19 regulations 2020,which empowers any “autho-rised person” to slap a fine of�2,000 for a series of activi-ties including not wearingmasks.

Now spitting in public,violating social distancingand breaking quarantinerules are going to attract Rs2,000 fine in the nationalCapital.

Authorised persons shallbe empowered to impose afine of �2,000 for offence forviolating directives/guide-lines pertaining to the fol-lowing,” says a DelhiGovernment notification,dated November 20.

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Chandigarh: Amid a rise inCovid cases, the HaryanaGovernment on Fridayordered the closure of allschools in the State untilNovember 30. The movecame days after over 150 stu-dents tested positive for coro-navirus.

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Page 2: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

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New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS)The farmers' agitation thatstarted in Punjab, Haryana andRajasthan and which stillremains largely active in Punjab,against the contentious agriBills, has resulted in a revenueloss of Rs 891 crore, for theNorthern Railways, tillNovember 19, IANS has learnt.The total loss in earnings for theIndian Railways has been awhopping Rs 2220 cr.

The revenue loss has been

in fact Rs 825 cr for 55 days,with effect from September 24,which goes up due to cancella-tion of passenger trains, whichcost the Railways an addition-al Rs 67 cr as farmers weresquatting on the rail tracks toregister their protest.

The loss of the NorthernRailway originating earningswhich was computed to be Rs14.85 cr per day which wasbased on 40 rakes of loading perday.

The freights have beenmassively affected due to theagitations. For the inward traf-fic, there was an average loss of30 rakes per day and the out-ward loading affected in thePunjab area stands at 40 rakesper day. A total of 3850 freighttrains could not be loaded.

Meanwhile, there havebeen a total of 230 rakes held upoutside, loaded for Punjab. 78of them are of coal, 34 of fer-tilizer, 8 of cement. 102 are con-

tainers, steel and other com-modities.

There are 22 rakes that arestuck in different parts ofPunjab. A total of 96 locos tooare stuck in the state.

There have been a total of2352 cancellations or diver-sions of trains.

India woke up onSeptember 25 with farmers upin arms across the nationagainst the contentious agriBills passed in the monsoon

session of Parliament.While Punjab and Haryana

took the lead, no other statecould match their spirit. Infact, in Karnataka farmers'protests elicited lukewarmresponses. In Delhi and westernUttar Pradesh, police and para-military forces were ready todeal with any eventuality at theborders.

But two months down theline, it's the Punjab farmers whoare still continuing their agita-

tion demanding withdrawal ofthe agri bills. The protests arelargely against three bills thatwere passed by Parliament inthe monsoon session -- TheFarmers' Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020, TheFarmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement on PriceAssurance and Farm ServicesBill, 2020, and the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Bill.

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New Delhi: A gold smugglerwith approximately 6 kilo-grams of gold bars has beenapprehended by Delhi Police( Railways ) at New DelhiRailway station. The marketvalue of the confiscated gold isapproximately Rs 3.25 crore.The recovered yellow metalhas been confiscated underSection 111 of the Custom Act1962, the police said on Friday.

On Thursday, a patrollingteam at New Delhi RailwayStation to keep surveillanceover the passengers and main-tain law and order was onPlatform No. 16 where theHowrah Rajdhani Express hadarrived around 10 am. Theteam noticed suspicious move-ment of a passenger and

stopped him for questioning."Not able to get satisfac-

tory answers, a preliminaryenquiry found him in posses-sion of gold bars. Customsofficers were called on the spotand after a thorough search asper procedure, it revealed thathe was carrying gold bars incloth pouches specially madein the inner jacket and thecloth belt. The confiscatedgold had the marking ofIPMR, Gulf Gold Refineryand Valcambi Suisee(Switzerland)," said DCPRailways, Harendra Singh.

The accused PravinKumar Ambalal Khandelwal,37 year resident of GayatriSociety, Dhanera,Banaskantha, Gujarat has been

arrested.The accused had received

the gold from his accomplicein Kolkata and had boardedthe train from Asansol, WestBengal. He had to further goto Mumbai to deliver the goldto the jewellers. To avoiddetection at airports, trainwas used us a mode of trans-port and to avoid metal detec-tors, the Howrah Station wasavoided.

"But the accused ran out ofluck and what metal detectorscould not do the sharp vigileyes of the police personneldid. The brother of the accusedhas also been in the jewellerybusiness having area of oper-ations in Delhi and Mumbai,"the officer added. IANS

New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt Friday declined to inter-fere with a North DelhiMunicipal Corporation's(NrDMC) decision to demol-ish a Hanuman Temple inChandni Chowk here, sayingany request for interference hasto come from the AAP gov-ernment.

The high court's decisioncame on an application movedby a registered society, com-prising devotees of the temple,seeking a stay on the temple'sdemolition which accordingto them was expected to be car-ried out on Sunday.

A bench of Justices HimaKohli and SubramoniumPrasad said the high court inNovember last year had reject-ed the recommendation of areligious committee headed bythe Lt Governor, to allow thetemple to exist at its current

site.The bench further noted

that the order was challengedby the Delhi government in theSupreme Court which dis-posed it of after the govern-ment said it would move 'a suit-able application before the highcourt for further directions, asmay be warranted'.

'Once such a liberty wasgranted to the Government ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi, and so far, GNCTD hasnot approached this court forany relief, we see no reason toentertain this application forintervention which is nothingbut an attempt to reagitate thesame issue that has been con-sidered and rejected by an ear-lier order,' it said.

With the observation, thebench dismissed the applica-tion by the Shri ManokamnaSiddh Shri Hanuman Seva

Samiti, represented by advocateRushab Aggarwal, which alsosought to intervene in a plea forredevelopment of ChandniChowk.

The applicant society wasaggrieved by the NrDMC'sOctober 31 decision proposingdemolition of the HanumanTemple, at Katra Dulia, MainChandani Chowk.

The high court observedthat the demolition which wasproposed to be carried out onNovember 1 has not been donetill now.

Aggarwal, during the hear-ing, argued that the devoteeshad a right to practice theirfaith and claimed that thecommittee headed by the LGhad recommended that thetemple be amalgamated andsaved as part of theShahjahanabad RedevelopmentPlan. PTI

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The national Capital haswitnessed a surge in coron-avirus cases since October 28,when the daily rise breachedthe 5,000-mark for the firsttime, and it crossed the 8,000-mark on November 11.

On Wednesday, the infec-tion tally in Delhi rose to over5 lakh with 7,486 fresh casesreported, while 131 new fatal-ities, the highest single-daydeath count till date, took thetoll to 7,943.

In a containment zonesummary as on November 19,the revenue department saidthere were 4,560 such zones inthe city. While New Delhiand Shahdara districts have 264and 249 containment zonesrespectively, there are 202 suchzones in north Delhi.

The department said eastDelhi has 184 Covid-19 con-tainment zones, but northeastdistrict has only 148 zones.Meanwhile, a door-to-doorsurvey for identifying and test-ing people symptomatic forcoronavirus in containmentand densely packed areas of the

city commenced on Friday.The survey will be com-

pleted within five days and willcover over 57 lakh people incontainment zones, dense areasand identified clusters of virustransmission, officials said.

As many as 7,546 freshCovid-19 cases were reportedon Thursday, taking the infec-tion tally to over 5.1 lakh while98 more fatalities pushed thetoll to 8,041.

On Thursday, the AAPGovernment announcedsweeping measures including asteep Rs 2,000 fine for notwearing masks, reservation of80 per cent ICU beds in privatehospitals, doubling testing cen-tres in every district and post-ponement of non-critical surg-eries at health facilities.

The Union HealthMinistry on Thursday saidDelhi accounted for 22.39 percent of the fatalities reportedacross the country in a span of24 hours by recording 131deaths on Wednesday andbecame the largest contributorto the single-day COVID-19deaths in India.

The panel on economicaffairs features ManmohanSingh, P Chidambaram,Mallikarjun Kharge, DigvijaySingh and Jairam Ramesh(convener).

The committee on foreignaffairs has Manmohan Singh,Anand Sharma, Tharoor,Saptagiri Ulaka and SalmanKhurshid (convener).

The third panel on nation-al security has Singh, Azad,Moily, V Vaithilingam andVincent Pala (convener). Sonia

had earlier in August formed afew other committees to advicethe party leadership on criticalissues related to the gover-nance and AICC administra-tive functions from time totime. Sonia left Delhi with herson and former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi who is in line offire of party leaders amid callsfor review of the party’s Biharpoll loss.

Congress sources said shehad been advised by doctors tostay away from Delhi to avoidpollution and stay in Goa.

“Thanks to their alertness,they have defeated a nefariousplot to target grassroots leveldemocratic exercises in Jammu& Kashmir,” the Prime Ministeradded.

Four suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists werekilled and two policemeninjured in a gunbattle inNagrota on Thursday after atruck carrying newly infiltrat-ed militants was intercepted,

police had said.Inspector General of Police

(IGP), Jammu, Mukesh Singh,had said after the encounterthat the terrorists had come toexecute a “big plan” which hasnow been foiled.

Hours later the TrinamoolCongress reacted with equalvenom daring the Centre toimpose President’s Rule in theState.

“We dare them to imposeArticle 356. If they have thecourage let them go ahead withtheir plans and see the conse-quence,” Bengal Minister BratyaBasu said referring to Sujapurblast.

He said whenever therewas an accidental blast inBengal, the BJP floats a number

of theories to polarize the elec-torate but they forget that sim-ilar accidents do take place inGujarat too. In June 2019 therewas a blast in a factory inBharuch that killed 4 people, hesaid.

“ We did not question it aswe knew it was an accident…but they will always raise com-munal questions wheneverthere is an accidental blast inBengal,” he said.

A special task force is prob-ing the factory blast at Sujapurthat killed 6 people on

Thursday.Attacking the BJP for claim-

ing itself as champions of patri-otism Basu said. “The forefa-thers of these people were wash-ing the feet of the British rulerswhen our men like KshudiramBose, Benoy, Badal Dinesh,Surya Sen and others were sac-rificing their lives in freedomstruggle… today cells inAndaman and Nicobar arenamed after Vinayak DamodarSavarkar the alleged freedomfighter who gave five under-takings of good conduct to theBritish whereas nothing in thenames of the freedom fighterslike Barin Ghosh from Bengal.”

Senior TMC MP SaugatoRoy, however, would not wantto attach much importance toSupriyo’s statements saying“Babul Supriyo should not begiven much importance becauseeveryone knows why he is mak-ing such statements … He is try-ing to scare the TMC workersso as to bring down their morale… but this tactic would notwork … there are provisions forPresident’s Rule following aGovernor’s report but theSupreme Court has made itclear under what circumstancesArticle 356 can be imposed.”

Congress MP PradipBhattacharya said Bengal wasnot perfect case for 356 whileCPI(M) leader SujanChakrabarty said by makingsuch statements the BJP washelping the Trinamool.

Incidentally, Supriyo’s state-ment was soon modified byBengal BJP president DilipGhosh who said the party didnot want Article 356 to beimposed in the State but at thesame time “blasts like the onethat shook Malda should beprobed by central investigationagencies.

The police that reachedthe spot had to use gas cuttersto retrieve the bodies from thevehicle that had turned into amangled heap of iron. It tookmore than three hours to get thebodies out, reports confirmed.Superintendent of PoliceAnurag Arya who reached theaccident site said that all 14bodies had been sent for post-mortem. He said the speedingSUV dashed into the truckparked by the road in theManikpur police station area

after one of its rear tyres gotpunctured near Deshraj Inara.While five bodies could betaken out initially, a JCBmachine had to be used to pullout the SUV from under thetruck to retrieve the remainingbodies, he said, adding thebodies have been shifted toCHC Kunda and will be sent forautopsy later in the day. It tookalmost two hours to pull the carout from under the truck, theSP said. Arya, who visited thespot, said the police have spo-ken to the family members of

the victims and assured allpossible help.

The deceased were identi-fied as Bablu (22), Naan Bhaiya(45), Dinesh Yadav (40) and hissons Pawan (10) and Aman (7),Ram Samujh (40), Daya Ram(40), Abhimanyu (28),Mithilesh (17), Gaurav (10),Ansh (9), Sachin andHimanshu (both aged 12), anddriver Paras Nath Yadav (40).All of them were residents ofJirgapur village in the Kundapolice station limits and hadgone to Shekhapur village to

attend a wedding, the policesaid. Meanwhile, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath has expressedgrief over the deaths. A com-pensation of Rs 2 lakh to thefamily members of each killedwas announced as relief.Expressing grief over the inci-dent, Adityanath directedsenior officials to reach the spotand provide assistance to thevictims, his office said.

Meanwhile, Congressleader Priyanka Gandhi Vadraon Friday expressed deepanguish over the death of 14

people in a road accident inUttar Pradesh. “Deeplyanguished by the heart-wrench-ing incident in Uttar Pradesh’sPratapgarh. Fourteen people,including children, were killedin the road accident whilereturning from a marriagefunction,” Priyanka Gandhisaid in a Facebook post inHindi.”I am saddened thinkingabout the plight of the familiesof the deceased. I pray for all ofthem. May God give them thestrength to bear the loss,” shesaid.

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In an article posted in TheLancet, researchers at the uni-versity and pharmaceuticalcompany said their vaccinehad been tested on 560 partic-ipants; 240 of them were above

the age of 70. The vaccine is inPhase II/III of production,meaning the phase that a vac-cine candidate enters after ithas been found safe and poten-tially effective among a small-er group of participants andcan be expanded to a compar-atively larger group.

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In a marginal increase in thenumber of infections and

fatalities, Maharashtra onFriday recorded 155 moredeaths and 5640 fresh infec-tions, even as State HealthMinister Rajesh Tope expressedapprehension that the statemight also witness a secondwave of Covid-19 along thelines of New Delhi.

A day after the Covid-19deaths shot up to 154 andinfections went up marginallyto 5,535 in Maharashtra, thestate logged 155 deaths and5640 new infections.

With 155 new deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Maharashtrarose from 46,356 to 46,511.Similarly, with 5640 fresh infec-tions, the total infected casesjumped from 17,63,055 to17,68,695.

Maharashtra recorded amilestone of sorts as the num-ber of the Covid-19 tests con-ducted in the state crossed 1crore figure to touch a figure ofstaggering 1,00,35,665. Of the1,00,35,665 samples sent tolaboratories, 17,68,695 havetested positive (17.62 per cent)for COVID-19 until Friday.

Talking to media persons atRatnagiri in coastal Konkanregion, Tope said: “In view ofthe worsening situation inDelhi, we have begun to takenecessary precautions to pre-vent a possible second Covid-19 wave in the state. If there isa second Covid-19 wave in thestate, it will prove to be detri-mental to the interests of thestate. We do not want a secondCovid-19 wave in the state. But,there is fear in my mind”.

“In Mumbai, the numberof cases is increasing. We needto learn lessons from Keralaand Delhi, where infections areincreasing. The increase in theinfections has happened intwo states because of a lot ofpeople not wearing masks andadhering to social distancing

norms,” the State HealthMinister said.

Meanwhile, as 6945 morepeople were discharged fromvarious hospitals the number ofpeople discharged from thehospitals on Friday after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year went up to16,42,916 The recovery rate inthe state rose marginally from92.79 per cent to 92.89 per cent.

Of the 155 deaths onFriday, Pune accounted for amaximum of 60 deaths, fol-lowed by 15 deaths in Satara, 13each in Thane and Nagpur and12 deaths in Mumbai.

In the lower range, therewere 8 deaths in Nashik, 7 inAurangabad, 3 each inParbhani, Nanded, Yavatmal, 2each in Raigad, Jalgaon, Sangli,Osmanabad, Beed and Wardha,one death each in Kolhapur,Sindhudurg, Bhandara, Gondiaand Chandrapur. In addition,one person from outside thestate died in Maharashtra.

With 12 new deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbai wentup from from 10,627 to 10,639,while the infections rose by1,031, triggering a jump in thetotal infections in the metrop-olis from 2,72,455 to 273,486.

Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total casesdropped from 79,738 to 78,272.The fatality rate in the statestood at 2.63 per cent.

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,44,002 to3,44,750 while the total num-ber of deaths in Pune increasedfrom 7206 to 7266.

Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections rose from2,33,169 to 2,33,866, while thepandemic toll climbed from5423 to 5436. Currently,5,58,090 people are in homequarantine while 4883 peopleare in institutional quarantine.

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To make the officersaccountable and people-

friendly, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has directed districtmagistrates and district policechiefs to personally attend allcalls on their CUG numbers.

“It is mandatory for DMsand SPs/SSPs to attend to callson their CUG numbers per-sonally. This way they will beable to connect to the massesbetter,” the CM said in hisdirectives issued in Lucknowon Friday.

A government spokesmansaid that surprise calls would bemade from the CM Office onthe CUG numbers of the offi-cers to cross-check theirresponse and availability.

“Non-compliance with theChief Minister’s direction willinvite action from theGovernment. In case they missthe calls, they should call back,”he warned.

For years now, there havebeen regular complaints ofDMs and SPs/SSPs either notreceiving calls on their CUGnumbers or the calls beingattended by their followers orsupport staff.

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Allahabad/Lucknow: Spurious liquor claimed the lives of fourpeople in the trans-Ganga area of Phulpur on Friday while thecondition of three was stated to be critical.

According to reports, the victims had consumed the spu-rious liquor at a country liquor shop in Amilahvan village.

Officials have rushed to the spot and liquor contractorRambabu Jaiswal has been taken into custody. PNS

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Page 3: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

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The Delhi Police has regis-tered a First Information

Report (FIR) against City Parkhotel in Pitampura area forallegedly violating the pan-demic norms during an event.

According to police, therewas a function going on in CityPark Hotel at KP Block,Pitampura on Thursday.

According to a senior policeofficial, more than 150 peoplewere found there and they werenot following the pandemicnorms. “Thereafter, a case undersection 188 (disobedience toorder duly promulgated by pub-lic servant) has been registeredat Maurya Enclave police sta-tion,” a senior police official said,adding that investigation isunderway.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Friday met the

representatives of market asso-ciations seeking cooperation incontrolling the rising cases ofcorona. The Chief Ministeralso made it clear that hisGovernment wasn't going toshut down the marketplaces .

During the meeting, rep-resentatives assured him that allmeasured to contain the virus spread would be encour-aged and followed in marketplaces.

It may be recalled that fewdays earlier, Kejriwal hadannounced Delhi governmentmay shut markets howeverduring the interaction withthe associations,he clarifiedthat the Delhi Governmentdoes not want to shut down anymarket.

Chief Minister Kejriwalappealed the market associa-tions to provide masks to theshoppers who come to themarkets without masks.

He also urged all the polit-ical parties of Delhi to sendtheir volunteers out on the

streets to distribute masks tothose who are seen moving outwithout masks.

Kejriwal called upon hisparty members’ of parliamentand Members of LegislativeAssembly (MLAs) to distributemasks free of cost to the people.

Meanwhile, market associ-ations assured the governmentof all possible help and supporton their part to prevent thespread of Corona.

After meeting the marketassociations, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal tweeted, "Met

representatives of market asso-ciations. I removed their anx-ieties, government does notwish to shut any market. Theyassured anyone not wearing amask in the market will be pro-vided free by market associa-tions. All shops will also beasked to keep spare masks andhand sanitizers."

"Our Aam Aadmi PartyMLAs, MPs, councilors andvolunteers, all of you also go topublic places and distribute freemasks to those who are notwearing masks. This is thegreatest patriotic and human

service. I also want to requestall political parties to tell theirvolunteers to go out on theroad and distribute free masks.Let us stop the spread of coro-na by joint effort", he said inanother tweet.

“Despite the rapid spreadof Corona in Delhi, our doc-tors, nurses, and medical staffhave done commendable work.They are constantly treatingCOVID patients without get-ting tired. For this, all the doc-tors, nurses, and medical staffdeserve to be appreciated,”Kejriwal added.

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As many as 89,562 peoplehave been challaned in

Gurugram for not wearing facemasks since March when thelockdown was imposed, thepolice said on Friday.

The police also informedthat fines amounting to morethan Rs 4.47 crore were col-lected from the violators sinceMarch.

Reportedly in the previousmonth the city cops had alsoissued 22,817 challans againstmask offenders across the dis-trict. Face masks were madecompulsory for everyone in thecity since lockdown and notwearing one was made a pun-ishable offence.

So far the police have actedagainst people in markets andcrowded places, shopkeepers,cabs, bike riders and auto rick-shaws for carrying people,

police said.“To curb the number of

corona cases in Gurugram, Ihave already issued strict direc-tions to the force to implementcorona norms effectively.During the festive session theseveral police teams were ontheir task to not only issue chal-lan against offenders but toaware them about the serious-ness of the deadly virus,” said

K K Rao, commissioner ofGurugram police.

The police chief alsoinformed that the force hadencouraged people to usemasks in markets and crowd-ed places via loudspeakers.“The police patrolling vehiclesacross the district are alsokeeping an eye on offenders,the police will also distributeface masks among the people

and urge them to maintainsocial distancing," Rao said.

Apart from police person-nel, the district administrationalso authorised magistrates,tehsildars, naib tehsildars,BDPOs and executive officersof Municipal Committees tochallan residents for violationof the guidelines issued underthe Epidemic Disease Act.

"We appealed to the resi-dents to stay indoors and notcome outside unnecessarily.The police will also takeprompt action against thosewho break Covid-19 norms,"he said.

Meanwhile, on Friday, thedistrict health departmentdetected 793 fresh Covid-19cases, taking the total to 42,618.Of this, 36,877 people haverecovered.

The Covid-19 death tollhas reached 256 in the districtincluding three who died onFriday.

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The Gurugram police havearrested five robbers for

allegedly robbing a jewelleryshop in Gururam’s RoshanPura area on September 9 infull public view.

The arrested accused hasbeen identified as Mintu (24),Harsh alias Sagar (19) andTonny (24), all residents ofGurugram.

The others are Varun aliasSonu (32) of Kaithal and Sunil,a resident of Kapashera inDelhi.

According to the police,Mintu and Sonu were arrestedfrom Delhi on Tuesday withthe help of technical supportand specific inputs provided bythe informants.

The duo was on policeremand on their informationHarsh, Tonny and Sunil werearrested on Wednesday fromBadshahpur area in Gurugram.

“During questioning theculprits have confessed theirinvolvement in the crime andaccept that they had decampedwith 150 gram gold jewelleryworth Rs 13 lakh from the jew-ellery on September 9. Theentire accused are on policeremand during this period theinvestigation will gather moreinformation about the inci-

dent and will also try to recov-er looted items from their pos-session,” said Subhash Boken,spokesperson of the Gurugrampolice.

The incident took place onSeptember 9 when five uniden-tified armed miscreants robbeda jewellery shop at gunpoint inbroad daylight and decampedwith Jewellery worth Rs 13 lakhin Gurugram.

The jeweller was alonewhen the robbers barged intohis shop. The Police said thatthe entire incident was record-ed by a camera installed at theshop.

During the crime theaccused had entered the shopand asked the jeweller to showthem gold rings for an engage-ment.

When the jeweller movedto take out the desired items,the fourth accused who wasalready present in the shop,whipped out a pistol while theothers tied him up andthrashed him and looted thejewellery items in the store.

The accused then escapedfrom the spot in their swiftdzire car.

A case of robbery had beenregistered against unidentifiedpersons at the city police stationunder various sections of theIPC.

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Delhi Police has arresteddirectors of a company for

allegedly obtaining loan of Rs17.5 crores on forged docu-ments.

The accused have been iden-tified as Waseem Ahmad Khanand Narender Kumar Arora,who were arrested by theEconomic Offences Wing(EOW) of Delhi Police.

According to Dr O PMishra, the Joint Commissionerof Police, EOW, a complaint wasreceived in which the com-plainant Kamal Arora allegedthat the properties of KhoobsuratResorts Private Limited has beenmisappropriated by WaseemAhmed Khan, Director ofMultiwal Pulp & Board Mills Pvt.Ltd. and also of KhoobsuratResorts Pvt. Ltd. in connivancewith others.

“She was having 35 per centshares in Khoobsurat ResortsLtd. whereas Waseem AhmedKhan holds 50 per cent shares inthe company. Khan availed aloan of Rs 17.5 crores in thename of Multiwal Pulp & BoardMills Pvt. Ltd by pledging theonly property land worth Rs. 25crores of Khoobsurat Resorts.Pvt. Ltd by forging documents,”said the Joint CP.

“A case was registered ondirection from the local Courtand during investigation it wasrevealed that Waseem AhmedKhan in connivance withNarendra Kumar Arora pre-pared forged Share PledgeAgreement of the company andobtained loan of Rs. 17.5 croresfrom SREI InfrastructureFinance Ltd,” said the Joint CP.

�������������� �01��023

Arickshaw puller was alleged-ly killed by a 40 year-old

man and his two associates whoalso tried to turn the killing in asuicide in order to falsely impli-cate another man whom theaccused suspected his wife'sparamour.

The accused have been iden-tified as Ajimuddin, a resident ofBihar, Nandan Kumar (22), andHabib (48), both residents ofLoni, Ghaziabad.

According to VijayantaArya, the Deputy Commissionerof Police (DCP), Northwest dis-trict, police received informationon Tuesday that a person has fall-en from the rooftop of a house.

“The injured was admittedin BJRM hospital where he diedduring the treatment. Thedeceased was later identified asAalam, a resident of GeetaColony. He was a rickshaw pullerin Geeta Colony,” said the DCPadding that the post-mortemwas conducted.

“Police also recovered a sui-cide note from the spot. Duringinvestigation, the incident wasfound suspicious. On the basis ofnames written in the letter,police investigate the matter and

found that the incident was notof suicide, following which a caseunder section 302 (murder) wasregistered at Mahendra Parkpolice station,” said the DCP.

“Later, Ajimuddin andNandan Kumar were arrested onThursday and Habib was arrest-ed on Friday. The motive behindthe murder was revealed asenmity of Ajimuddin with oneFarman, whose name andmobile number was mentionedin the suicide note along withthree other persons who work ina utensil polish factory in AshokVihar with Farman,” said theDCP.

“The wife of accusedAjimhddin was also working inthe same factory with Farman.Ajimuddin was suspecting illic-it relation of his wife withFarman. They used to fight onthe issue. Earlier, during a fight,Ajimuddin assaulted his wifewith a stick on her head,” said theDCP.

“His wife had filed a case of308 (attempt to commit culpa-ble homicide) against him and hesuspected that due to Farman,his wife had approached police.After coming out of jail,Ajimuddin approached hiscousin Habib and sought his help

to kill Farman,” said the DCP.“Habib asked him to revise

his plan and he advised him tokill any other person and to pre-pare platform of suicide case withsuicide note mentioning name ofFarman and others so thatFarman could be falsely impli-cated in an instigation of suicidecase,” said the DCP.

“While working on theirplan, Habib targeted Aalam.Habib also added his associateNandan in this case. They iden-tified the building and found iteasy to reach at the terrace.They called Aalam on pretext oftransporting goods on his rick-shaw and brought him to theplace of incident at the rooftopof a house,” said the DCP.

“They killed him by hittingwith a stone on his head andfled from the spot by leavingsuicide note written by Habibmentioning names of Farmanand three others. Rickshaw ofthe deceased has been recoveredfrom a street near the spot. Themobile phone of deceased wasin possession of Habib and hewas using the SIM card regis-tered in the name of Nandan.Both Ajimuddin and Habibhave criminal antecedents,” saidthe DCP.

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The positivity rate andreducing number of

Coronavirus cases is a “clearindicator” that the spread of thevirus is decreasing in thenational capital, Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain hassaid on Friday.

Jain announced that gov-ernment rates would apply forthe normal, non-ICU bedsreserved in private hospitals bythe Delhi government forCOVID-19 patients.

“The positivity rate was15.26 per cent on November 7.It is less than 11 per cent now.The maximum number ofcases (8,593) were reportedon November 10,” he said.

“The positivity rate hascome down and the number ofcases is also reducing gradual-ly. It is a clear indicator that thespread of the virus is decreas-ing in Delhi,” he told reporters.

The average death rateacross the country is 1.48 percent, and in Delhi, it is 1.57 percent, Jain said, adding that itwas around 3.50 per cent inJune.

There was no harm inwearing a face mask inside acar, the Minister said, appeal-ing to the people of the city to

ensure that they don’t stepoutside without wearing one.

Jain said 2,644 normal bedsand 260 ICU beds “extra”would be made available forCOVID-19 patients in privatehospitals after the governmentissued directions in this regardon Thursday.

The national capital report-ed 7,456 coronavirus cases onThursday and the positivity ratewas at 12.09 per cent. The AAPgovernment on Thursdayannounced sweeping measures,including a steep Rs 2,000 finefor not wearing masks, reser-

vation of 80 per cent ICU bedsin private hospitals, doublingtesting centres in every districtand postponement of non-critical surgeries at health facil-ities. Private hospitals havealso been directed to increasethe percentage of non-ICUCOVID-19 beds from 50 percent to 60 per cent.

The government also saidit will increase the number ofRT-PCR test to 27,000 a day inthe national capital and MBBSstudents and interns would beengaged to tackle the COVID-19 situation.

�������������� �01��023

Delhi Police Commissioner,SN Shrivastava on Friday,

encouraged the youth to givetheir best in their future life andalso asked that they shouldcontinue to keep going on thepath they have chosen andadvised that they should neverlook back at the mistakes theyhad done in the past.

Delhi Police chief wasspeaking at a function orga-nized by Shahdara district dis-trict police about “Saksham” ascheme meant for bringingjuveniles into the mainstream.

“Juveniles and youth whohave been reformed after thepersistent efforts of DelhiPolice, participated in theprogramme. Associate part-ners including “BrahamKumari” and'AashayeinEkUmeed' and busi-ness community representa-tives also participated in theprogram,” said Amit Sharma,the DCP, Shahdara district.

The CP along with othersenior police officers distrib-uted certificates to 11CCLs/YUVA who have beenreformed through this moti-vational and reformatory pro-gramme.

“One participant of MS

Park area thanked Delhi policeinitiative and said that how hislife has changed and he is gain-ing recognition in the societythrough the initiative takenby Shahdara District Police,”said the DCP.

The CP during the eventstressed that the main motto ofDelhi Police is that the societyshould be crime free and thegeneral public should really feelthat they are safe and secure.

He also stressed upon thededication of Delhi Police andother business communitiesto engage with CCLs/Youthina constructive manner at alllevels. He desired to continuethis initiative with full vigour.

CP Delhi also motivatedthe participants by quoting theexamples of Constable ThanSingh posted in North Districtwho is taking keen interest toengage the children of weakersociety in constructive activi-ties.

He also cited the exampleof HC Seema Dhaka, whoreunited 76 missing childrenwith their families within 75days in which 15 childrenbelow the age of 14 years and16 children below the age of 08years were reunited. She hasbeen given out of turn promo-tion for this initiative.

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The Central road makingagency NHAI has received

“overwhelming response” frommany reputed institutes includ-ing all the IITs for the purposeof adopting road and highwaystretches to be used as a fieldof study for faculty, researchersand familiarise the students ofthe institute with the latesttrends in industry and suggestthe relevant performance para-meters and innovations.

In line with its vision toprovide world-class NationalHighway (NH) network and tocreate a bridge between tech-nical Institutions and Industry,the National HighwaysAuthority of India had intro-duced a unique initiative toassociate with these reputedTechnical Institutes andEngineering colleges to adoptnearby stretches of NationalHighways, on voluntary basisunder Institution Social

Responsibility. All the Indian institute of

Technology IITs (includingIIT Roorkee, IIT Bombay, IITVaranasi, IIT Guwahati, IITKanpur, IIT Kharagpur), 26NITs and 190 other reputedengineering colleges haveagreed to collaborate. Out ofwhich, about 200 instituteshave already signed theMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU). Over300 institutes are expected tocollaborate to adopt NHstretches.

Under this initiative, thepartner institutes will have tostudy improvement prospectsin Road Safety, maintenance,riding comfort, removal ofchoke points, black spots andusage of new technologies onthe adopted stretches and givesuitable suggestions to NHAI.

The institutes are alsoencouraged to associate withthe Consultants/NHAI duringconceptualisation, design and

project preparation of newprojects and suggest the rele-vant performance parametersand innovations based onexperience specific to the localclimate, topography andresource potential for bettersocio economic outcome.

The areas of collabora-tion for improving the effi-ciency of existing highways areimprovements in safety pro-visions by removing existingdeficiencies and offeringpotential solutions to oldrecurring problems based onlocal experience; improve-ments in continual mainte-nance of the stretches andimproving the riding comfortthrough cost effective mea-sures based on innovativetechnologies.

Other areas of study arelocalised solutions for removalof congestion points andthereby increasing the aver-age traffic speed; viability ofnew wayside amenities forroad users based on the exist-ing traffic pattern and userexpectations etc.

“NHAI envisions to pro-vide a world class NH networkto meet the Nation’s require-ments by building large num-ber of mega highway projectsin a cost-effective manner.Adoption of NH stretch by anInstitute would facilitate stake-holder engagement and help tomitigate the routine localproblems such as traffic hin-drance, congestion, and imme-diate identification of acci-dent-prone sites and causesthereof,” said a NHAI officialstatement.

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The NIA on Friday con-ducted searches at five loca-

tions in Mallapuram andKozhikode districts of Kerala inthe Kerala Gold SmugglingCase relating to seizure of 30 kggold worth �14.82 crore onJuly 5, 2020 at TrivandrumInternational Airport from thebaggage addressed to the UAEConsulate atThiruvananthapuram.

The searches were con-ducted at the residence of fiveaccused persons MohamedAslam, Abdul Latheef,Nazarudheen Sha, Ramzan P.and Muhammed Mansoor.These accused persons con-spired with the already arrest-ed accused and facilitatedsmuggling of gold throughimport cargo addressed to theUAE Consulate General, and itsdisposal, the NIA said.

During searches, severalelectronic items and docu-ments have been seized, theagency said.

So far, 21 accused personshave been arrested in the caseand further investigation in thecase is continuing, it added.

Meanwhile, the CBI onFriday then ExecutiveEngineer(Now Retired),Lucknow Division ShardaCanal, Lucknow (also holdingthe additional charge of then

Superintending Engineer, XIICircle, Irrigation Departmentduring the alleged period)Roop Singh Yadav and aSenior Assistant, IrrigationDepartment, Lucknow, RajKumar Yadav in an on-goinginvestigation of a case.

The CBI had registered acase on November 30, 2017on the request of UttarPradesh Government and fur-ther notif icat ion fromGovernment of India, andtaken over the investigation ofthe case, earlier registeredvide FIR No.831/2017 atPolice Station, Gomti Nagar,Lucknow.

It was alleged that irreg-ularities were committed inimplementation of “GomtiRiver Channelisation Project”’and “Gomti River FrontDevelopment” by IrrigationDepartment, Government ofUP. The alleged irregularitiesincluding non publication ofNITs, diversion of funds andpooling of tenders in fourmajor works of Gomti RiverFront Development projectnamely Construct ion ofDiaphragm wall ,Construction of InterceptingTrunk Drain, Construction ofRubber Dam and preparationof Vision Documents are alsobeing investigated in the case.

It was further alleged thatthe accused favoured somecontractors and executed theagreements with them on thebasis of forged documentswithout the publication ofNIT in the newspapers.

Both the arrested accusedwere produced before theCourt of Special Judge, CBICases, Lucknow and remand-ed to four days PoliceCustody.

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In a bid to promote ‘per dropmore crop’(PDMC) under

the Prime Minister KrishiSinchayee Yojna (PMKSY) toencourage farmers to installmicro irrigation systems-sprinkler and drip irrigation,the Ministry of Agriculturehas given nod for subsidisedloans worth �3,971.31 crore forimplementing the projects. Themaximum loan has beenapproved for Tamil Nadu, fol-lowed by Haryana and Gujarat.

In a statement, the ministrysaid the steering committee ofMIF has approved projects forloan worth �3,971.31 crore.The interest subvented loansare being offered under MicroIrrigation Fund (MIF) createdwith National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) forimplementing micro-irrigationprojects.

Out of this, maximum loanof �1,357.93 crore has beenapproved for Tamil Nadu, fol-lowed by �790.94 crore for

Haryana, �764.13 crore forGujarat, �616.13 crore forAndhra Pradesh, �276.55 crorefor West Bengal, �150 crore forPunjab and �15.63 crore forUttarakhand, it said.

However, NABARD hasso far released a total loanamount of �1,754.60 crore tothe States. Of this, about �659.70 crore has been releasedto Haryana, Tamil Nadu andGujarat. About �616.13 croreloan has been released toAndhra Pradesh, � 937.47 croreto Tamil Nadu, �21.57 crore toHaryana and �179.43 crore toGujarat so far, it added.

This fund with a corpus of�5,000 crore was opera-

tionalised in the 2019-20 fiscalyear with an objective to facil-itate States in availing sub-sidised loans for expandingcoverage of micro irrigation.

Under the MIF, subsidisedloans are provided for not onlytaking up special and innova-tive projects but also for incen-tivising micro irrigationbeyond the provisions availableunder Pradhan Mantri KrishiSinchayee Yojana (PDMC) toencourage farmers to installmicro irrigation systems.

During the last five years(2015-16 to 2019-20), an areaof 46.96 lakh ha has been cov-ered under Micro Irrigationthrough PMKSY-PDMC.

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Comptroller & AuditorGeneral of India (CAG)

Girish Chandra Murmu, hasbeen elected as external auditorof the Inter ParliamentaryUnion (IPU), Geneva for athree-year term.

Murmu, the 14th CAG,will assume the charge fromSupreme Audit Institution ofSwitzerland.The election tookplace at the virtual meeting of284th session of the IPU whichis a 179 countriesParliamentarians body, alsohaving 13 Associate Members.The IPU has permanentobserver status at the UnitedNations General Assembly. Theresult of the Election has beenconveyed by Martin Chungong,Secretary-General of the IPU.

Murmu, while accepting theappointment as ExternalAuditor of IPU, has expressedhis thanks to the ExecutiveCommittee and wished for astrong partnership in fulfillingthe strategic objectives of theIPU.

The CAG of India has beenthe external auditor of variousinternational organizations.

He has earlier also been onthe UN Board of Auditors from1993 to 1999 and 2014 to 2020.Presently, he is the externalauditor of the World HealthOrganization, Geneva andFood & AgricultureOrganization, Rome. In therecent past, he has been theExternal Auditor of World FoodProgramme, World IntellectualProperty Organization,International Atomic EnergyAgency, UN World TourismOrganization, InternationalOrganization for Migration,International MaritimeOrganization and Organizationfor Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons.

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India’s Covid-19 caseloadbreached the 90-lakh mark

on Friday with 45,882 newcases, while the recoveriessurged to 84.28 lakh pushingthe national recovery rate to93.6 per cent, according to theUnion Health Ministry data.With 45,882 new cases, thecountry has witnessed a rise inactive cases after 48 days.

The total coronavirus casesmounted to 90,04,365 and thedeath toll climbed to 1,32,162with the novel coronavirusvirus claiming 584 lives in aspan of 24 hours in the coun-try, the data updated at 8 amshowed.

The Covid-19 case fatalityrate has further declined to 1.46per cent. There are 4,43,794active cases of coronavirus

infection in the country whichcomprises 4.92 per cent of thetotal caseload, the data stated.

Among most-infectedStates, Delhi continues toreport highest daily new casesin India (7,500) followed byKerala (5,700) andMaharashtra (5,500) whileother NCR cities have report-ed 1,600 new cases.

Cases per million popula-tion in India is now 6,500,while the world average is7,341.

According to the ICMR, acumulative total of 12,95,91,786samples have been tested up toNovember 20 with 10,83,397samples being tested onThursday. India’s Covid-19 tallyhad crossed the 20-lakh markon August 7, 30 lakh on August23 and 40 lakh on September5.

It went past 50 lakh onSeptember 16, 60 lakh on

September 28, 70 lakh onOctober 11 and crossed 80 lakh

on October 29, said theMinistry.

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Infectiousness peaks early inCovid-19 patients and antivi-

ral drug remdesivir is not sug-gested for patients admitted tohospital with Covid-19,researchers have said in twoseparate studies.

The study published inthe journal The LancetMicrobe, said that peopleinfected with coronavirus aremost likely to be highly infec-tious in the first week aftersymptom onset and there is aneed to quickly identify andisolate cases before the virusspreads.

The researchers usedmeta-analysis to assess 98 stud-ies on Covid-19, SARS andMERS wherein the researchersstudied all three diseases was todetermine why Covid-19 hasspread more rapidly than theearlier diseases.

“This is the first systemat-ic review and meta-analysisthat has comprehensivelyexamined and compared viral

load and shedding for thesethree human coronaviruses,”said study lead author MugeCevik from the University of St.Andrews in the UK. “It pro-vides a clear explanation forwhy SARS-CoV-2 spreadsmore efficiently than SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV and is somuch more difficult to con-tain,” Cevik added.

In another study, WHOGuideline Development Group(GDG) panel of internationalexperts pointed out in TheBMJ that remdesivir hasreceived worldwide attention asa potentially effective treatmentfor severe covid-19 and isincreasingly used to treatpatients in hospital. But its rolein clinical practice hasremained uncertain, they saidciting data from four interna-

tional randomised trials involv-ing over 7,000 patients hospi-talised for covid-19.

After thoroughly reviewingthis evidence, the WHO GDGexpert panel, which includesexperts from around the worldincluding four patients whohave had covid-19, concludedthat remdesivir has no mean-ingful effect on mortality or onother important outcomes forpatients, such as the need formechanical ventilation or timeto clinical improvement.

The panel acknowledgedthat the certainty of evidenceis low and said the evidence didnot prove that remdesivir hasno benefit; rather, there is noevidence based on currentlyavailable data that it doesimprove important patient out-comes.

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Sowing of winter crops hasstarted in the country, with

farmers planting wheat inabout 97.27 lakh hectare so farin this rabi season. Total areasown to all rabi crops hasincreased to 265.43 lakhhectare so far this season, from241.66 lakh hectare area duringthe corresponding period oflast year.

According to the agricul-ture ministry, wheat has beensown in 97.27 lakh hectare sofar in the rabi season of 2020-21 as against 96.77 lakh hectarein the year-ago period. Wheatis the main winter or rabicrop. Rice and pulses, such asgram, urad, moong as well asoilseeds like groundnut andsunflower, are other rabi cropsgrown in this season.

As per the sowing datareleased by the ministry, therehas been no impact of COVID-19 on progress of area coverageunder rabi crops as on date.Among other rabi crops, paddyhas been sown in more area at7.26 lakh hectare when com-

pared with 6.98 lakh hectare,while pulses has been plantedin 82.59 lakh hectare as against64.57 lakh hectare area in thesaid period.

Coarse creals have beensown in slightly more area at22.78 lakh hectare so far in thecurrent season, against 21.26lakh hectare in the year-agoperiod.

According to the ministry’sdata, farmers have sownoilseeds in 55.53 lakh hectarearea so far this season, against

52.08 lakh hectare area a yearago. Much of the coverage isunder mustard at 52.25 lakhhectare so far.

The ministry said thecountry received 4 per cent lessrains during the winter periodbetween October 1 andNovember 19. However, theCentral Water Commissionhas informed that water stor-age level in 123 reservoirsstands at 93 per cent as com-pared with the year-ago period,it added.

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To boost ethanol productionas part of its efforts to

achieve 20 per cent blendingwith petrol, the Governmenthas given in-principle approvalto 185 sugar mills and stand-alone distilleries to avail�12,500 crore of loans forcapacity addition of about 468crore litre of ethanol perannum. Apart from promotingethanol production from sug-arcane, the food ministry ismaking efforts to manufac-ture ethanol using surplus ricewith state-owned FCI as well asmaize. The move is aimed atboosting ethanol blending withpetrol, which currently standsat nearly 5 per cent. In the lasttwo years, 70 ethanol projectswere sanctioned loans of �3,600crore.

In the normal sugar season,about 320 Lakh Metric Tons(LMT) of sugar is producedagainst domestic consumptionof 260 LMT. This 60 LMT ofsurplus sugar which remainsunsold, blocks funds of sugarmills to the tune of about Rs.19,000 crore every year there-by affecting liquidity positions

of sugar mills resulting in accu-mulation of cane price arrearsof farmers.

“Under the ethanol interestsubvention scheme formolasses-based distilleries, thegovernment in September 2020has opened a window for 30days to invite more applicationsfrom sugar mills/ distilleries,which were examined byDFPD... “about 185 applicants(85 sugar mills and 100molasses-based standalone dis-tilleries) are being granted in-principle approval for availingloan amount of �12,500 crorefor capacity addition of about468 crore litres per annum,” theFood Ministry said in a state-ment. These projects would becompleted in another 3-4 years,thus help in achieving thedesired blending target, itadded.

In the past two years, loansof about Rs. 3600 crores havebeen sanctioned for 70 suchethanol projects (molassesbased distilleries) which involvecapacity enhancement of 195crore litres; out of these 70 pro-jects, 31 projects have beencompleted adding a capacity of102 crore litres so far. With the

efforts made by Government,the existing installed capacity ofmolasses based distilleries hasreached to 426 cr ltrs.

In the current EthanolSupply Year 2019-20 only 168crore litres of ethanol is likelyto be supplied to OMCs forblending with petrol therebyachieving 4.8% blending levels.However, in the ensuingEthanol Supply Year 2020-21,efforts are being made to sup-ply 325 crore ltrs of ethanol toOMCs thereby achieving 8.5%blending; and in the ethanolsupply year 2021-22 ending inNovember, 2022 efforts arebeing made to achieve 10%blending target which is quitepossible in view of the con-certed efforts made by theGovernment.

For Year 2020-21, bids of322 crore litres (289 crore frommolasses and 34 crore litrefrom grains) have already beenreceived in first tender floatedby OMCs and in subsequenttenders more quantity frommolasses and grain based dis-tilleries will come, thusGovernment will be able toachieve 325 crore litre and8.5% blending target.

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At a time when many stu-dents are facing fund

crunch amid Covid-19 pan-demic, Delhi-basedSasakawa- India LeprosyFoundation(S-ILF) gave a rayof hope to 40 meritoriousstudents hailing from familiesafflicted with leprosy. OnFriday, at an event heldonline, it bestowed upon them scholarships forhigher professional educa-tion.

NK Singh, Chairman,15th Finance Commission,who was chief guest at theevent which was organised aspart of the S-ILF’s 14thFoundation Day, hoped thatthese scholarships will helpthe students break free stigma and discriminationand enable them to lead a lifeof dignity.

On the occasion, TarunDas, Chairman, S-ILF saidthat the scholars symbolized

courage and success while DrVivek Lal, CEO, S-ILF saidsteps will be taken to furtherincrease the opportunities foreducation and livelihood sup-port for the persons affectedby leprosy and their families.In keeping with this, thenumber of Scholarships pro-vided this year has beenincreased, he said.

Tehseen Zaidi, ProgramManager, Communications &Advocacy from S-ILf sharedthat Nursing Scholarship(Batch X) and HolinesstheDalai Lama- Sasakawa schol-arship (Batch V) were givenrespectively to 15 and 25meritorious students fromacross the country for 2020.Till date, the organisationworking for the empower-ment of the sector has provided 115 Nursing schol-arships and 124 His Holinessthe Dalai Lama-Sasakawascholarship for higher pro-fessional education, sheadded.

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Attorney General KKVenugopal Friday gave con-

sent for initiating contempt pro-ceedings against stand-up comicartist Kunal Kamra for hisNovember 18 tweet, saying it was“grossly vulgar and obnoxious”and tended to lower the author-ity of the Supreme Court.

The top law officer had lastweek granted consent for initia-tion of contempt proceedingsagainst Kamra for his earliertweets which allegedly criticisedthe apex court, saying they werein “bad taste” and it was timepeople understood that attackingit brazenly will attract punish-ment.

The consent of either theAttorney General or the SolicitorGeneral is necessary, under sec-tion 15 of the Contempt ofCourts Act, 1971, for initiatingcontempt proceedings against aperson.

Venugopal granted the freshconsent on a request made in thisregard by Prayagraj-based advo-cate Anuj Singh. Kamra, in hisNovember 18 tweet, had made anobjectionable gesture while mak-ing a comment against the ChiefJustice of India.

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Aligarh: Cash was stolen from the home of agazetted police officer posted in the district. Thisnews was kept highly confidential but came outlike a fire in the forest. After this, the authori-ties are tight-lipped about it. The follower is sus-pected who is under interrogation by the police.

The incident occurred at the civil lines basedofficial residence of a gazetted police officer post-ed in the city. On Wednesday late evening, theofficer was packing bags for going to Allahabadfor government work. PNS

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With less than 10 days to go for thefirst phase of polling of the

District Development Council (DDC)polls beginning November 28, thesound and fury of the electioneering ismissing on ground zero, especially inKashmir valley.

Absence of a level playing field ispreventing candidates belonging to theopposition parties from freely contest-ing maiden elections after theAbrogation of Article 370 and 35-A.

Allegations have already surfacedfrom different quarters where candi-dates, accommodated in secured zonesto ensure their safety and security, havebeen barred from campaigning freely.

The contesting candidates, who arefacing these security restrictions, havealready apprised their party high com-mand to take up the issue with the con-cerned authorities in the administrationand seek redressal for the same from the office of state election com-missioner.

Speaking to The Pioneer over tele-phone from Srinagar, NationalConference Provincial President NasirAslam Wani said, “ the candidates havenot been treated at par for a variety ofreasons”. “On one hand the BJP candi-dates and their junior-level workers areprovided individual personal securityand bulletproof vehicles, while all oth-ers are accommodated in governmentaccommodations”. He further said thecandidates have been permitted toorganise their campaign meetings

between 12.00 to 3.00 p.m. Electioncampaigns are not organised like this,he added.

He said, if the government machin-ery was not prepared to hold free andfair polls, why penalise candidates.Wanitold The Pioneer,at many places can-didates have not been allowed to ven-ture out before noon. In some of thecases they are told to wind up their cam-paign meetings before 4 p.m.

Inspector General of Police,Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar said pro-viding security to each candidate con-testing the polls is difficult. “We are pro-viding them collective security and theyare being put up in secure areas,” hesaid.Rayees Mattoo, a NC candidate ofthe PAGD from Khag area of centralKashmir’s Budgam district, said he hasbeen put up at a hotel here and candi-dates of the alliance are not allowed tocampaign even while their competitorsare freely working in the field.

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Partycandidate from Sangrama Shoaib Lonetold The Pioneer, “the government isproviding security to only those can-didates who already figure in the list ofprotectees”. He said it is not possible forthe security establishment to extendexclusive cover to each and every can-didate. Referring to the peoples partic-ipation in the DDC polls Lone said, sofar people are supporting and attend-ing campaign meetings. “I am prayingno untoward incident should happen todampen the voter's spirit in the run upto the polling day”.

A senior PDP leader said, having a

level playing field is the essence ofdemocracy but every effort is beingmade to stop the contesting candidatesof Peoples Alliance for GupkarDeclaration from campaigning byhounding and caging them in thename of security. Is this how democracyis redefined in naya Kashmir.

In contrast to this the election sceneis hotting up in Jammu region ahead ofthe first phase of polling.The BJP is run-ning an aggressive campaign to ensurevictory for the majority of its candi-dates.The party leadership supervisingthe poll preparations are relying on thecharisma of the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to woo the voters.

Congress party is the enemy num-ber 1 of BJP and the entire campaignis designed to corner the grand old partyand question its double standards overjoining hands with the Kashmir basedPeoples Alliance for GupkarDeclaration.On its part, the local con-gress leaders are leaving no stoneunturned to expose the divisive politicsof the BJP.

Lashing out at the BJP Govt, JKPCCPresident said people have realized asto what BJP has done since it assumedpower at Centre and erstwhile J&K Stateand how it pushed people of J&K to wallfor electoral gains.

Addressing a gathering of partyworkers in Verinag, G.A.Mir assuredthat Congress Party will continue towork for the wellbeing of the people,despite the concocted and false propa-ganda unleashed by the BJP against theParty (Congress).

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Responding to the allega-tions of not allowing level

playing field to the contestingcandidates belonging to theOpposition parties Jammu andKashmir Lt Governor ManojSinha on Friday assured polit-ical parties of smooth cam-paign for the upcoming localbody elections and said thepolls would go a long way instrengthening panchayati rajinstitutions in the UnionTerritory.

Responding to a letter byCPI(M) leader MohammedYusuf Tarigami who had raisedthe issue of candidates beingkept away fromtheir constituencies and not

being allowed to campaign, Sinha said he has taken note ofthe concerns and conveyed “necessary instruc-tions”.

Tarigami, a former MLAfrom the militancy-hit Kulgamdistrict of south Kashmir, hadinformed the Lt Governor thatafter filing their nominationpapers, the candidates were not allowed to campaign

due to “perceived threat totheir lives” and had been bun-dled in “cluster accommoda-

tion”. “Confining candidates

against their wishes has severe-ly restricted their movementand ability to campaign. Evenin some cases, they are notallowed to attend party meet-ings,” the letter said.

Tarigami said that therehad been instances that rivalcandidates were sent in thesame vehicle and asked tocampaign together. “Severalcandidates from far-off placeswere sent to hotels in Srinagarsoon after they filed the nom-ination forms last week. Notjust the voters, but the familiesof the candidates are also con-cerned,” hesaid.

In his response, the LtGovernor said, “I am surethat the coming elections willgo a long way in strengthen-ing the Panchayati RajInstitutions.” Tarigami releasedthe Lt Governor's letter. Theformer MLA said sucharrangements were a big con-cern and there was a lot of dis-satisfaction on ground over it.“Who wins and who loses, thedecision must lie on the elec-torate. Democracy must final-ly win. For that the processmust be made secure andcredible, Tarigami added.

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Apprehending a second waveof Covid-19 sweeping the

country and Maharashtra, theauthorities on Friday announcedthat all schools and junior col-leges in Mumbai and neigh-bouring Thane would remainclosed December 31 as a pre-caution against the spread ofCovid-19.

While the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)ordered the closure of all schoolsand junior colleges the country’snational capital till December 31,Thane’s district guardian minis-ter Eknath Shinde directedCollector Rajesh Narvekar toclose down all schools and juniorcolleges in Thane, Navi Mumbai,Kalyan and Dombivli till the endof December 2020.

The Maharashtra govern-ment had earlier permittedschools and junior colleges toreopen in phases beginning fromNovember 23 for Class 9 to Class12, and later for other lowerclasses. However, the authoritieson Friday postponed the re-opening of schools and juniorcolleges till December 31.

“As per the earlier orders ofthe Maharashtra government, we

were prepared to re-open class-es for students from 9th and 12standards from November 23.Though the Covid-19 situationis very much under control inMumbai, one cannot rule out thepossibility of the second wave ofCovid-19 sweeping the countryand also Maharashtra. Hence, weneed to take extra precautions tocheck the spread of deadly virusduring the next four to sixweeks,” the BMC stated, whileannouncing the postponementof reopening of schools

and junior colleges tillDecember 31. However, theBMC announced that the SSC(10th standard) and 12th stan-dard (12th standard) examina-tions will be held as per the nor-mal schedule.

Welcoming the BMC’sannouncement deferring thereopening of schools and juniorcolleges till December 31,Mumbai Principals Association(MPA) Secretary Prashant Redijsaid: “We had suggested to thegovernment to first open schoolsin green zone, study the impactbefore allowing other zones. Wedid not expect more than 15-20percent students to attend theclassrooms starting fromMonday”.

Srinagar:The BJP on Friday assertedthat Article 370, which was revokedby the Centre last year, would neverbe restored in Jammu and Kashmir,and alleged that parties of 'Gupkaralliance' were befooling people bymaking promises over its restoration.

Addressing a press conferencehere, BJP national spokespersonShahnawaz also said the upcomingDistrict Development Council (DDC)polls were being fought over localdevelopmental issues and its resultswould not be a referendum on theCentre's last year's decision of revo-cation of the special status of the erst-while state.

“We believe that when someonedies, he cannot return from the grave.Article 370 has also been buried andit will never return. It can never berestored and no world power can helpin its restoration,” he said.

The BJP leader, who is the party'sincharge for Kashmir for the polls, saidNC president Farooq Abdullah andPDP chief Mehbooba Mufti werebefooling people by showing themdreams, but asserted their dreamswould never come true.

“They are showing the peopledreams and befooling them. There isno big a lie than that. These are thesame leaders who were claimingArticle 370 cannot be scrapped andeven stated that nobody in J-K willraise tricolour if it is scrapped.However, the people are now raisingtricolour without any objection,” hesaid.

Hussain said the leaders of thePeople's Alliance for GupkarDeclaration (PGAD) - an amalgam ofseveral parties, including the NCand the PDP, seeking the restorationof the special status of the erstwhilestate - had accepted the Centre's deci-sion of revocation of Article 370.

“They have accepted this decisionand are now participating in the elec-tions. They have ganged up. They havebefooled the people of J-K. They haveindulged in politics over the bodies ofthe youth of J-K to save their chair.They are sinners and no one will for-give them. They have committed bigsins and are worse than gangsters andthey live only for power and to ben-efit their families and relatives,” hesaid. PTI

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Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh HomeDepartment has sent a proposal to the State'sLaw Ministry for a stringent law to deal withthe alleged religious conversion of women inthe name of marriage, which BJP leaders referto as “love jehad”.

The development follows an announce-ment by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath dur-ing recent election rallies that his governmentwould come out with a law to deal with the“love jihad”. A proposal for strict lawagainst “love jihad” has been sent to the LawDepartment, a government spokesman con-firmed on Friday.

Stressing on the need for a strict law todeal with “love jihad”, UP Law MinisterBrijesh Pathak on Friday told PTI, “There hasbeen a rise in such cases in the state whichhave caused social disharmony and enmity.These incidents are also bringing a bad nameto the state and therefore a strict law is theneed of the hour.”

'We will do whatever is required as soonas we receive a proposal from the Home

Department as we have already made all nec-essary preparations,” Pathak said.

Addressing by-elections rallies in Jaunpurand Deoria on October 31, Chief MinisterAdityanath had said his government wouldcome out with a law to deal with 'love jihad'and had used the Hindu funeral chant 'RamNaam Satya Hai' to threaten those who don'trespect their daughters and sisters.

Welcoming the Allahabad High Courtruling which had declared that conversionfor the sole purpose of marriage is not valid,the chief minister had also said posters would be put up of those involved in'love jihad', a derogatory coinage referring tothe alleged campaign of Muslims forcingHindu girls to convert in the guiseof love.

“We will bring an effective law. It is mywarning to those who play with the honourand dignity of sisters and daughters by hid-ing their real names and identities. If they donot mend their ways, their 'Ram Naam Satya'journey will start,” Adityanath had said. PTI

Bengaluru:A ban on 'Love jehad' andcow slaughter would be a reality inKarnataka very soon, BJP nationalgeneral secretary C T Ravi said onFriday.

The former Karnataka Minister,who is in-charge of party affairs inMaharashtra, Goa and poll-boundTamil Nadu, said a law banning bothpractices would be passed in the com-ing Assembly session. He said thereare serious deliberations going on ingovernment circles as BJP state pres-ident Nalin Kumar Kateel has alsourged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappato take steps in this regard.

“Love Jihad and cow slaughterban has been approved by the BJPcore committee.

The clamour to bring in a lawbanning cow slaughter has grownlouder. We intend to do so,” theChikkamagaluru MLA told a pressconference.

He pointed out that the Karnatakagovernment has already constituted

a committee to ban cow slaughter.Based on its recommendation, the

law will be passed shortly, he said.Ravi said he had already spoken

to Animal Husbandry MinisterPrabhu Chauhan to get “TheKarnataka Prevention of Slaughterand Preservation of Cattle Bill” passedin the cabinet and present it in thecoming assembly session.

The law was to have been passedin the previous assembly session, butit did not happen “ due to politicalreasons,” he said.

Claiming that there was a ban oncow slaughter during the reign ofMughal emperor Akbar, Ravi point-ed out that the existing law was inad-equate to check the practice.

“Collecting fines from offenderswill not discourage this practice. Wewill review the provisions in the anti-cow slaughter laws in Uttar Pradeshand other states,” Ravi said.

In 2010, the then BJP govern-ment led by B S Yediyurappa had got

the 'Prevention of Slaughter andPreservation of Cattle Bill', which pro-posed to replace the 'KarnatakaPrevention of Cow Slaughter andCattle Preservation Act, 1964', passed.

The bill had widened the defin-ition of 'cattle' and imposed a blan-ket ban on cattle slaughter, coupledwith stringent penalty clauses for vio-lations.

However, the Congress govern-ment headed by Siddaramaiah thatcame to power in 2013 withdrew thebill that was before the President forhis assent. On 'Love Jihad', Ravi hadsaid earlier this month that on thelines of the Allahabad High Court'sorder, Karnataka would enact a lawbanning religious conversions forthe sake of marriage.

“We will not remain silent whenJihadis strip the dignity of our sisters,”he had said, adding that anyoneinvolved in any act of conversionwould face severe and swift punish-ment. PTI

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot onFriday gave a strong statement on 'love-jehad' andsaid that it is a term manufactured by the BJP todivide the nation.

“Marriage is a matter of personal liberty andbringing a law to curb it is completely unconstitu-tional,” he tweeted on Friday.

Gehlot took to Twitter and unleashed a seriesof tweets to express his thoughts on 'love-jihad' tosay, “Love Jihad is a word manufactured by BJP todivide the Nation & disturb communal harmony.Marriage is a matter of personal liberty, bringing alaw to curb it is completely unconstitutional & it willnot stand in any court of law. Jihad has no place inLove.”

In the second tweet, he said, “They are creat-ing an environment in the nation where consent-ing adults would be at the mercy of state power.Marriage is a personal decision & they are puttingcurbs on it, which is like snatching away personalliberty.” In the third tweet on 'love-jihad', he said,“It seems a ploy to disrupt communal harmony, fuelsocial conflict & disregard constitutional provisionslike the state not discriminating against citizens onany ground. IANS

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Chitrakoot (UP):A 21-year-oldwoman, who had accused a youthlast week of raping her on thepromise of marriage, tried to hangherself to death at her home inMarkundi police station area, anofficial said on Friday.

Following the suicide bid by thewoman, police arrested the accusedyouth.In a note found in the

woman's house after her suicideattempt, she said she was taking theextreme step because none of theaccused has so far been arrested, hesaid. She said she was also fed upof insults heaped on her by villagers,he added. The woman had lodgeda criminal case on November 13against one Surendra Dubey of hervillage, alleging that he raped her on

the promise of marriage, the policesaid. The woman attempted sui-cide on Wednesday by hanging fromthe ceiling but a Dial 112 team,which rushed to her home oninformation by family members,saved her by breaking open the door,a senior police official said.

Markundi police station SHORamesh Chandra said the woman

was admitted to a CommunityHealth Centre in an unconsciousstate, but she is now out of danger.

In the FIR, the woman had alsoalleged that about eight months ago,she was forcibly given pills to aborther pregnancy by four members ofDubey's family when she was calledover to their house for talks aboutthe marriage. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: Keralarecorded 6,028 Covid-19 caseson Friday, pushing the caseloadto 5,49,541, as the death toll isinching towards the 2000 mark,Health minister K K Shailajasaid.

With 6,398 people gettingcured of the disease, the totalrecoveries mounted to 4,81,718while 67,831 people are undergoing treatment, the min-ister said in a pressrelease.

According to the release,60,365 samples have been sentfor testing in the last 24hours,and the test positivity ratehas touched 9.98 per cent.So far,57,49,016 samples have beensent for testing.

The toll has climbed to 1,997with 28 more deaths.

Of the positive cases, 56 arehealth workers, while 105 peo-ple had come from outside thestate and 5,213 infected throughcontact. PTI

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Page 6: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

The Indian seed industry hasmade rapid progress overthe past 50 years, maturing

because of the ceaseless efforts ofthousands of men and women,who have created a strong R&Dbase and given us a competitiveadvantage in ensuring quality.India is endowed with diverseagro-climatic conditions, highlevel of technology expertise,trained and skilled manpower,suitable land and abundant sun-shine for agriculture. The country,therefore, has immense potentialto emerge as the leading providerof seeds to the world. We canexport varietals for all kinds offield crops, vegetables, foragecrops and flowers.

However, considering thedevelopments in terms of the newand emerging disruptive businessoperating models and processesaligned with innovative technolo-gy interventions, there is a need toinvest in concrete initiatives forfurther strengthening the Indianseed industry as part of“Atmanirbar Krishi.”

The Indian seed industry, as asub-sector of the agri-inputsindustry, has been the most vibrantin terms of innovation and growthover the past four decades, con-tributing to a significant increasein productivity and profitability offarmers in India. The well-bal-anced seed quality legislativeframework, set up by the Seed Act,the New Seed policy, 1988 andNational Seed Policy in 2002,boosted private sector participa-tion in a sector that had its foun-dations laid by public sector seedsystems. However, much needs tobe done in terms of furtherreforms and policy interventions.

The role of new technologies,like molecular-marker based selec-tion approaches to fast-trackbreeding programmes for develop-ment of new/superior plant vari-eties, needs to be further strength-ened as an integral part of the seedindustry. Also biotechnologicaland molecular approaches canimprove the quality assurancesystems. An emerging area, whichutilises biotechnology and nano-technologies and can contributesignificantly to productivity andprofitability of farmers, is seedtreatment with biological inocu-lants. This can also be promotedon a large scale as part of seed-applied technologies.

The Indian seed industry can

become a globally competi-tive, export-oriented and self-reliant industry, especially forseveral Asian, African, EastEuropean and South Americancountries, which share similaragro-climatic conditions likeIndia as, with respect to inter-national trade, most countriesallow seed imports subject tothe following: (a) Import per-mit based on sanitary and phy-tosanitary certificates and (b)Variety evaluation in theimporting country to ascertainits suitability to the agro climat-ic conditions.

Currently, there are no sig-nificant export incentives avail-able to the seed sector thoughthe export potential is esti-mated at more than $ 5 billionper year based on variousindustry estimates. India canoffer seeds for export to manycountries with suitable sub-tropical and tropical agro-cli-matic regions in Asia, Africa,Eastern Europe and so on ataffordable prices similar to ourpharma and agro-chemical sectors. The following incen-tives can help.

Incentive to the extent of 20per cent of the seed value thatis exported must be consideredbecause in sectors like pharmaand garments, similar incen-tives have been available for along time to encourage exportsin the initial stages. Theseincentives can be graduallybrought down to 10 per centafter five years. A provision of�100 crore may be adequate forthe next five years and �100crore for the next six to 10 years.

Reimbursement of the costof variety evaluation in any for-

eign country is a progressivepolicy. It may be consideredhere, too, as the seed companieshave to incur heavy expensesfor variety evaluation, which isa pre-condition for obtainingexport orders. This expenseneeds to be reimbursed at leastto the extent of 75 per cent bythe Government. A provision ofabout �100 crore may be ade-quate for the next 10 years formeeting plant variety evalua-tion expenses for export pur-poses. Seed manufacturers addto economies of the importingcountries and help get more for-eign reserves into the country.Hence they should be reward-ed with up to 30 per cent sub-sidy.

India has lacked a seedexport promotion council for along time. The Government,under the trade and export pro-motion council, should instituteone with industry representa-tives and ensure that seedexports amount to 10 per centof total agriculture exports.

India has three major seedhubs in the country. But givenour vast agro-climate, we cancater to demands from Africato ASEAN countries. TheGovernment needs to allowIndian and foreign seed com-panies to breed seeds for exportpurposes in special agro-zones.These zones may function likeSEZs. They need to be equippedwith dry docks, good trans-portation, seed testing facilitiesand so on to facilitate swiftexports. A single window clear-ance counter can be estab-lished for fast tracking permis-sions.

An “Atmanirbhar Krishi” or

self-reliant seed sector needs theSAARC markets and good eco-nomic relations betweenSAARC countries. TheGovernment and industry needto step forward and create aSAARC seed forum, which willhelp ease-of-doing-business inthe sub-continent and also pro-vide avenues for internationaltrading without restrictions.This body should strictly be aneconomic one for policy andregulatory advocacy among theSAARC countries. The Indianseed sector will grow immense-ly if we can spearhead this drive.

Finally, climate change iscausing a rapid shift in thedemands of seeds globally. Verysoon, many nations won’t havethe financial resources to evadethis crisis. But we can be a hubfor seed research for the world.Our versatile climate allows usto research and co-evolve newvarieties that may be suited formany countries. For even oneor two varieties at the right timecan change the fate of thenation and bring millions ofdollars into India. Hence theGovernment needs to providedevelopment grants to IndianR&D companies so that theycan track future challenges,assess demand and create a seedbank for Africa, Latin Americaand ASEAN countries. TheGovernment may also partnerwith African nations to out-source their seed R&D to us.This would boost innovationhere while providing lesserdeveloped nations an access tocheaper research and seeds.

(The author is Director,Policy and Outreach, NationalSeed Association of India)

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������������ ���Sir — It should ease our mindsthat the Supreme Court is seizedof the blatant misuse of mediafreedom by some TV news chan-nels and is keen on nudging theGovernment to take steps to rec-tify the situation. Indeed, itrequires urgent attention sincedrawing a false equivalencebetween “free speech” and “hatespeech” and between “virulentnationalism” and “civic national-ism,” certain channels continue topeddle rabidly communal stuff.This is devoured with relish bymany viewers. But then, massviewership or popular consump-tion is not a good enough reasonto allow them to present news sto-ries in adversarial terms andspread the poison of religioushatred. There is a fine line betweeninforming the public and polar-ising society. One of the media’sroles is to edify and unite peopleand not to divide them or cater totheir baser instincts.

On-air bigotry is just as bad.Loosely describing participants inthe Tablighi Jamaat conference as“intentional superspreaders”, theinduction of Muslim youth intocivil services as “UPSC jihad” andinter-faith marriages as “lovejihad” brings the media into dis-

repute. Masquerading of vicioushate-mongers as TV anchors is acurse on Indian journalism.Dissemination of falsehoods andpost-truths cannot go on withoutdebilitating the country andwrecking its foundational values.It is in this context that “regula-tion” assumes relevance andbecomes an urgent need. Ideally,a democracy should do with the

voluntary regulation of the Press.But the way some channels goabout playing their roles justifiesthe need for some sort of regula-tory oversight by, say, a judicialbody or a parliamentary panel.The ruling party’s double standardmanifests itself in describing jour-nalists who act as their mouth-piece as “nationalists” and inde-pendent journalists as “anti-

nationals.” The country now needsmore of good and ethical journal-ism for us to be a vibrant democ-racy.

David Milton Maruthancode

����� ������������Sir — Three months ago, theCongress “letter writers” shocked

the nation by asking party chiefSonia Gandhi to revitalise theparty and restore its organisation-al democracy, indecisive leader-ship being their top concern.Sonia Gandhi did a cosmeticrejig of the party, leaving nodoubt who was the boss. Now,Kapil Sibal has fired a fresh salvo.In a newspaper interview, he hasquestioned the “nomination cul-ture” of the party. The CongressWorking Committee (CWC) ispacked with Gandhi loyalists.Independent-minded leaders haveno place in it. So an election to theCWC looks far-fetched. Till menand women with their own mindfind a place in the highest deci-sion-making body, the party willcontinue to find itself in a hole.

Sibal wants more “dialogue”within the party, a tough ask. InCongress, there are no discus-sions, only orders. After the Biharelection results, it is clear theCongress is satisfied to be an “alsoran.” How can a national partyhope to capture power at theCentre without some of the Statesin its kitty? This is something theCongress needs to think about.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

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The multiple gun attacks in Vienna are the nefar-ious outcome of a deliberate misinterpretationof religious identity. This kind of narrative has

led to the beheading of a history teacher in Franceand stabbing of three innocents in Nice and so on.All these incidents are clear indicators that post-mod-ern terrorism is likely to haunt the world in gener-al and Europe in particular. These attacks are also areminder of an array of socio-political and globalissues which Europe has to come to terms with.Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has already hint-ed towards Huntington’s Clashes of Civilisations the-ory coming true. He called the recent gun attack byan Islamist terrorist “an attack of terror driven byhatred of our way of life, our democracy.” Thisupsurge in religiously-motivated hitback attacks hasmarked the beginning of the pernicious era of ter-rorism. The rising tide of immigration and humansmuggling across the borders in Europe has posedserious logistical and security challenges to France,Germany and Britain. Undoubtedly these are defin-ing moments for the leaders of Europe. It is high timecountries developed sophisticated mechanisms tohandle the problem head on as it has already causedsevere tension between various nations and com-pounded the problem of human trafficking andrefugees across the globe. In certain pockets, the prob-lems of migration and refugees have resulted in aquagmire. The influx of refugees, who have fled dueto disturbances in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, hasadded a new dimension to the existing problem ofviolence and crime in Central Asian Republics. Inan era of globalisation, the world is becoming smalland integrated but due to its inner paradoxes, it isgetting fragmented and turning out to be a highlysectarian place.

The recent incidents cannot be viewed in iso-lation. History bears testimony to various such trag-ic events. A few years ago, the bombing of civiliansin Oklahoma City (which left more than 200 peo-ple dead) sent shockwaves around the world. A mys-terious gas attack at the main train station in a Tokyosubway, that killed 12 people and left nearly 5,000hospitalised, also sent dangerous signals. All such actswere a violent culmination of plans that were care-fully executed by terrorists. Similarly, most countriesof the world, including India, Russia , Spain, the UK,US, Italy, Israel, and China, are suffering due to ter-rorist activities in one way or another. Although vio-lence in itself is condemnable, very rarely is a ter-rorist attack a nihilistic act bereft of any deeper under-currents. And the structure of violence is more oftenthan not located in society and social conditions,which not only create them but also nourish and rein-force them. Recurrence of violence is symptomaticof a society’s body politic, torn asunder by variedthreats and tensions.

Very often, the social conditions that generateconflict and violence have external coordinates. Tomany experts dealing with the terror driven by reli-giously-motivated thinking, it is on account of newchallenges the post-modern world is experiencingbecause of the past mistakes of not calling a spadea spade till the spectre started creating havoc in theirown backyard. To many social scientists dealing withterrorism in a globalised world, the matrix of powerrests on the highly-visible, unequal structure of theinternational economy. Such inter-relations betweensocio-economic conditions in different parts of theworld are becoming more and more obvious daily.At another level, the post-Cold War internationalpolitical-economic order is still a victim of the power

game that was thrust on the world by thethen “Big Powers.” The power networkwoven by the US and its allies in the entireWest Asian region has provoked the ire ofthe opposition forces in almost every Statewhere the US has had an interest-basedrelationship. Thus, as societies globaliseand the curtains of opacity are raisedthrough increased inter-societal interac-tion at the international level, people in theunderdeveloped countries are holdingthe “Big Powers” responsible for their infe-rior socio-economic positions. There hasalways been a smooth international net-work of collaboration among the variousterrorist groups supported by a few coun-tries throughout the world. For example,take Pakistan’s involvement in orchestrat-ing terrorism in Kashmir and the JapaneseRed Army’s collaboration with Italy’s RedBrigade. It is sometimes the wide cover-age by the media which provides the ratio-nale for terrorism and increases the prob-lem by stimulating it. This is a classic exam-ple of how astute media management canreduce the level of moral opposition tocounter-terrorism. The latest has been theobnoxious nexus between the Al Qaeda,the ISIS and LeT. Their deadly combina-tion has laid siege to peace and security.

European nations alone have wit-nessed more than 8,500 terrorist incidentssince 1990, representing about 29 per centof the total global incidents. The situationhas become vulnerable since 2016 and withthe increasing rise in the cases of illegalmigration across the European coun-tries. The rise of modern terrorism withfrightening ramifications has resulted ina demand for strengthening the nationallaw and order machinery. Of late, the pres-sure on the police and security agencies hasbeen mounting. But the existing laws stillpose many problems. The use of police andparamilitary forces for combating terror-ism has created an apprehension that it

might lead to the oppression of the gen-eral populace. Surprisingly, a proper legaldefinition of terrorism is yet to be found.The widening gap between the variousgovernments regarding evolving a com-mon strategy for suppression of terrorismneeds to be viewed in the context of thepotential for threat that it holds. Even theEuropean convention on suppression ofterrorism is restricted by Article 5 andArticle 13, which refuse the extradition ofa terrorist on many grounds. In an envi-ronment where terrorist violence is endem-ic and the world stands hopelessly divid-ed on various laws, all countries shouldshun their national prerogatives for deal-ing with terrorism.

Many efforts have been made by anumber of nations to control State-spon-sored terrorism, such as through econom-ic sanctions, but so far they have notreached a consensus either at the nation-al or global level. During the last twodecades, increasing drug smuggling andthe unholy nexus between drug smugglersand terrorists have posed a serious prob-lem to the internal State-security networksand compelled various nations to organ-ise themselves and wage a relentless waragainst such a nexus. But mere implemen-tation of vigorous drug laws cannotbecome effective unless the judicial pro-cedure is modified for ensuring speedy tri-als. The continuing uncertainties withregard to terrorism have encouraged var-ious countries to launch psychological war-fare against terrorism.

The London Economic SummitConference, organised by NATO Statesand Japan a few years ago, proved to beanother landmark for the eradication ofterrorism, which decided that unless weattack the roots of terrorism, only super-ficial relief could be seen but violencewould increase in the total quantum of itsimpact. Creation of general awareness and

organisation of public support against ter-rorist acts could be of immense use.

While it is desirable to allow police andthe armed forces to employ betterinformed judgment about local problems,there is, of course, a danger that thisattempt of the Government could dilutethe benefits to those deemed deservingand, thus, any possibility of peace andnegotiation. Rapid international trans-portation and use of sophisticated weaponshave helped the expansion of terrorist net-works globally. Besides, the new suicidesquads have left the entire security appa-ratus shocked.

As religiously-motivated attacksincrease globally, the concept that oneman’s terrorist can be another man’s free-dom fighter must be done away with. Thelocal populace should cooperate with thelaw enforcement machinery even at thecost of personal misery while prompt andstrict decisions should be undertaken byvarious nations for controlling terroristspsychologically. In a changing environ-ment, the security apparatus and policeneed to diversify activities by bringingtogether technical and professional exper-tise based on many decades of experiencein maintaining internal security. In thisregard, the most crucial aspect is to devel-op the capability to anticipate securityneeds.

This is possible by conducting spe-cialised courses for monitoring security sit-uations.Unless we attack the roots of ter-rorism, we would have only superficialrelief and terrorism would magnify in thetotal quantum of its impact. The need ofthe hour is international cooperation totackle the menace and forming an integrat-ed team after minutely comprehending theinner dynamics of the problem.

(The writer is a professor of political sci-ence, Visiting Professor, University ofLeuven, Belgium)

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Keeping China out is the newtrade policy of India. Its prima-ry approach is that anything

that opens the door to Chinese prod-ucts is a “strict no-no.” So it’s no sur-prise that India is keeping out of theRegional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) free trade agree-ment (FTA), an initiative New Delhiwas engaged in since its inception.Theoretically, it comes at a minimumcost as India already has FTAs withall but three RCEP members.

Home Minister Amit Shah hadlast month told RCEP member coun-tries that they would have to comearound to accepting New Delhi’sterms. “Considering India’s growingstature, RCEP members can’t affordto ignore it for long and will come

around to agreeing to theGovernment of India’s terms.Meanwhile, the country has main-tained successful economic relationswith ASEAN by the means of FTAs,”he said. The RCEP, too, has kept thedoors open for India officially, if at allit wants to join the grouping withouthaving to wait for 18 months, as stip-ulated for new members. As per theRCEP’s decision, India can still par-ticipate as an observer.

India had taken the decision inNovember 2019 to keep out of theRCEP, with the partnership being seenas China-centric and due to the per-ception that it would boost sales ofcheap Chinese products and harm thecountry’s industries.

India’s approach on the deal is theresult of unfavourable trade balancesthat it has with several RCEP mem-bers, with some of which it already hasFTAs. The Commerce Ministry saysthat the Compound Annual GrowthRate (CAGR) in trade with suchcountries was a mere 7.1 per cent.India has trade deficits with 11 of the15 RCEP nations. This means thatwhile the partners have access to ourmarket, India has not penetrated

theirs. Hence, it cannot further openup its market for the advantage of oth-ers. Still India has agreements with theASEAN, South Korea and Japan. It isnegotiating deals with Australia, NewZealand and Singapore and there aretreaties with Nepal and Bhutan.However, there are apprehensions thatRCEP could impact the Australia-India-Japan network in the Indo-Pacific region. India and like-mind-ed nations, particularly the Quadcountries — Australia, the US andJapan — are keen to have resilientsupply chains. Along with NewZealand, South Korea and Vietnam,they are negotiating with each other.

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar, while delivering theRamnath Goenka Lecture in 2019,had said that India’s stance was a“clear-eyed calculation” of the gainsand costs of entering a new arrange-ment. He also said that India wouldcontinue with its “act East” policy. Itshould also be remembered that theRCEP decision is linked to China’saggressive postures in the SouthChina Sea and on the Line of ActualControl, including the June 15 Galwanincident in which 20 Indian and many

Chinese soldiers lost their lives. It maybe recalled that Jaishankar even inJanuary had said that New Delhi’sdoors to RCEP were not closed. Butin September, he said, “You cannot bea rising power without being a risingeconomy, and to do that you have tobuild your domestic capacities.” Hisviews are not very different from thatof the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch,which had been opposing most FTAsand stressing on improving thedomestic economy.

It certainly has not been an easydecision. India would have to weighthe gains of a bulk agreement andindividual treaties. A similar concernwas expressed when New Delhi choseto opt out of the Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) in 2017. It was saidthat India might be isolating itself.Now after three years, like-mindeddemocracies appreciate New Delhi forits prudent decision, which many nowsee as an exploitative Chinese diplo-macy. Significantly, many membersare not enjoying their stay in the BRI.There is the contrary view as well. Itsays that India’s economic declineoccurred even as China’s economical-ly and strategically important BRI

went on to cover two-thirds of theworld’s population.

Beijing dominates the psyche ofpolicymakers. India is highly depen-dent on China for imports of lithiumion batteries, antibiotics, personalcomputers, colour TVs, solar cells,toys and so on. Despite the recent ini-tiatives by the Centre to improvedomestic production in many ofthese goods, concerns remain. WhatChina has done is to consolidate itseconomy since 1979. Thus, produc-tion cost is minimum and it has apricing mechanism that happens to bethe lowest in any country in the localcurrency.

India has to learn the techniqueof creating a vibrant domestic systemwith a market across the world.Chinese merchandise today decidesinternational prices. While India suc-cessfully blocked imports of idols ofGanesh, Lakshmi and other deities, itcould not succeed in lowering theprices of “Made in India” products.This cannot be considered goodeconomy. Possibly for this reason,China looms large in reports submit-ted by eight Groups of Ministers(GoMs) formed during the ongoing

pandemic. These GoMs have calledfor a balance between supporting eco-nomic performance and geopoliticsand most have focussed on ways tocounter China. They call for contex-tualising issues like Chinese aggres-sion on communication tools, needfor specialised spokespersons onissues like China and the environmentand many other dependencies onBeijing.

The obsession with China is tooapparent. Of late, despite all efforts,New Delhi’s policy approaches areChina-centric. India may have torevive the planning process it gave upin 2014 as the NITI Aayog has notbeen a proper replacement. Thecountry needs to evolve a long-termpolicy prescription. India has to con-sider moving out of the growth-cen-tric approach and replace it withprogress. So RCEP or not, India hasto have a holistic approach towardsthe economy. It needs a wider visionand approach for progress and has toimbibe policies that could give it anedge. India needs to reorient policiesfor a long-term approach withoutignoring short-term needs.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Washington: US President-electJoe Biden has said that he wantsto make sure that China plays bythe rules and announced that hisadministration will rejoin theWorld Health Organisation.

Biden was responding to aquestion on Thursday about hisremarks during the presidentialdebates that he wanted to pun-ish China over the way Beijinghas been behaving. He was askedif that could include economicsanctions or tariffs on China, theworld's second largest economy.

In April, President DonaldTrump announced that the USwould withdraw from the WHO,accusing the UN organisation forfailing to oversee the onset of thecoronavirus as it began to spreadin China.

“It's not so much about pun-ishing China, it's about makingsure China understands they'vegot to play by the rules. It's a sim-ple proposition,” Biden said dur-ing a meeting with a bipartisangroup of governors in his home-town in Wilmington, Delaware.

He said that is one of thereasons why his administrationis going to rejoin the World

Health Organisation.“We're going to rejoin on

day one as well and it needsreform, acknowledge, and rejointhe Paris Climate Accord. Andwe have to make sure that the restof the world and we get togeth-er and make sure there are cer-tain right lines the Chineseunderstand,” Biden, a Democrat,said.

President Trump's four yearsin power were the worst phase inChina-US relations as the rulingCommunist Party of Chinaheaded by President Xi Jinpingstruggled to deal with whatChinese officials say is the mostelusive and unpredictableAmerican leader ever since for-mer US president Richard Nixonin 1972 established ties with theCommunist nation.

During his tenure, Trump,a Republican, pushed aggres-sively on all aspects of US-Chinaties, including with his relentlesstrade war, challenging China'smilitary hold on the disputedSouth China Sea, its constantthreats to Taiwan and brandingcoronavirus as “China virus”after it emerged from Wuhan in

December last year.Chinese strategic experts

said Biden entering the WhiteHouse is expected to provide anopportunity for breakthroughs inresuming high-level communi-cation and rebuilding mutualstrategic trust between the twomajor countries.

A day earlier, Senator JimRisch, chairman of the SenateForeign Relations Committee,published a majority report enti-tled “The United States andEurope: A Concrete Agenda forTransatlantic Cooperation onChina,” to advance greater col-laboration between the US andEurope on the challenges posedby China.

“We must be prepared towork with our trusted allies andpartners to counter an increas-ingly confrontational China thatattempts to undermine prosper-ity, security and good governancein every region of the globe,”Risch said.

According to the report, theUS and Europe increasinglyagree that China poses signifi-cant political, economic, andeven security challenges. PTI

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Washington: US President DonaldTrump is sending an incredibly damag-ing message to the international com-munity by not conceding the electionresults, President-elect Joe Biden said onThursday.

Major news networks have declaredBiden as the winner of the November 3presidential elections, weeks ahead oftheir formal certification by the respec-tive State legislatures.

Trump, however, has refused to con-cede. He has filed multiple lawsuits inseveral states challenging the electionresults alleging that there has been mas-sive voters' fraud and electoral malprac-tice, a charge denied by state officials andnews outlets.

“I think they were witnessing incred-ible irresponsibility; incredibly damagingmessages being sent to the rest of theworld about how democracy functions.I do not know his motive, but I just thinkit is totally irresponsible,” Biden, 77, saidduring a meeting with a bipartisangroup of governors in Wilmington.

“What the president is doing now isgoing to be another incident where hewill go down in history as being one ofthe most irresponsible presidents ofAmerica,” he said in response to a ques-tion.

“We are going to end up making itclear that we won, and but it is hard tofathom how this man thinks. I am con-fident he knows he has not won and isnot going to be able to win, and we aregoing to be sworn in on January 20...,” hesaid. Responding to another question,Biden said he is “not concerned” thatpeople may question the legitimacy of hisadministration.

“The vast majority of the Americanpeople, they have already--all the pollingdata has indicated all the Republicanswho worry about it is higher, but youknow, over 78 per cent of the Americanpeople believe it is without question, itis legitimate,” he said.

“I think most of the Republicans Ihave spoken to, including some gover-nors, think this is debilitating. It sends ahorrible message about who we are as acountry,” he added.

The President-elect in response toanother question did not rule out takingaction against the General ServicesAdministration (GSA), the governmen-tal department which has refused to helphim in the transition.

Biden also said that he has alreadydecided on the name of the next TreasurySecretary and will make the announce-ment around Thanksgiving. PTI

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Barack Obama has voiced con-cern over the Republican lead-

ers' attempts to overturn the resultsof the 2020 presidential election andsaid that they are defendingPresident Donald Trump's “bogusclaims” of voter fraud because theyare “intimidated” by it.

Democrat Joe Biden wasdeclared the winner of theNovember 3 presidential election,but President Trump, a Republican,has refused to concede defeat andhas filed multiple lawsuits, chal-lenging poll results in several states.

“I have been troubled, like Ithink every American, whetheryou're a Democrat, a Republican oran independent, should be trou-bled, when you start havingattempts to block, negate, overturnthe people's vote when there's noactual evidence that there was any-thing illegal or fraudulent takingplace,” former president Obamatold MSNBC.

He also criticised the conser-vative-leaning news outlets for giv-ing a platform to Trump's unsub-stantiated claims.

“And the degree to whichyou've seen some news outlets thatcater to the right and the conserv-ative viewpoint, somehow try toprop up these, you know, bogusclaims,” Obama, the first BlackAmerican president said.

In the last phase of the cam-paign, Obama had campaignedfor former vice president Biden andKamala Harris Harris in some ofthe key battleground States ofPennsylvania, Michigan, Floridaand Georgia.

The embattled Trump cam-paign has challenged vote count inPennsylvania, Michigan andGeorgia, among other states. Anumber of their lawsuits have beendismissed.

“They've been repeatedlyrejected by the courts. I'm less sur-prised by Trump doing this; he hasshown only a flimsy relationship tothe truth. I'm more troubled thatyou're seeing a lot of Republicanofficials go along with it, notbecause they actually believe it butbecause they're intimidated by it,”Obama said.

Obama said that there is a dif-ference between 2008 and now in2020.

Washington: US President-elect JoeBiden on Thursday ruled out anationwide shutdown to fight Covid-19, but insisted on a nationalmask mandate as part of the effortsto prevent the spread of the deadlyvirus which has so far taken the livesof 2,50,000 Americans.

“No national shutdown becauseevery region, area and communitycan be different. And so there is nocircumstance which I can see thatwould require a total national shut-down. I think that would be coun-terproductive, but there are con-straints in which the degree to whichbusinesses can be open,” he toldreporters in Wilmington, Delaware,after a meeting with a bipartisangroup of governors. Biden said hewould follow the science.

“I am not going to shut down theeconomy period. I am going to shutdown the virus,” he asserted.

“For example, it is one thing tosay that you can have in a state that--where the infection rate is not ashigh, you can have a gymnasiumopen. It is another thing to say it canbe only open four hours a day withX number of people.

“The church I go to, my CatholicChurch they do not allow morethan 40 per cent of people to comeinto the church. Those are rationaldecisions. It is not shutting downeverything; it is calibrating based onwhat the threat is,” he explained.

Biden said he discussed theimplementation of a national maskmandate in the meeting with the gov-ernors. “Ten governors, Democratand Republican, have imposed mask-ing requirements and recognisedthe need for universal masking.North, South, East and West. It is nota political statement. It is a patrioticduty,” he said. PTI

Washington: A federal judgehas granted class certificationin a lawsuit challenging thealleged pattern and practice ofthe US Citizenship andImmigration Services arbi-trarily denying H-1B non-immigrant employment-based petitions for marketresearch analyst positions filedby businesses in this country.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows UScompanies to employ foreignworkers in specialty occupa-tions that require theoreticalor technical expertise. Thetechnology companiesdepend on it to hire tens ofthousands of employees each

year from countries like Indiaand China.

The lawsuit — filed infederal court in the NorthernDistrict of California by theAmerican ImmigrationCouncil, the AmericanImmigration LawyersAssociation, along with lawfirms Van Der Hout LLP,Joseph & Hall PC, and KuckBaxter Immigration LLC —seeks to rein in the unlawfuladjudication practice

the US Citizenship andImmigration

Services (USCIS) uses indetermining whether a mar-ket research analyst job qual-ifies as a “specialty occupa-tion.” PTI

London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday backedhis Cabinet Minister Priti Patel, despite a Cabinet Officeinquiry into allegations of bullying concluding that she hadbreached the Ministerial Code, albeit “unintentionally”.

While ministers are usually expected to resign if theybreach the code, it ultimately rests with the prime ministeron whether to take any action on the independent MinisterialCode adviser's findings.

Johnson, who has consistently supported Patel ever sincethe allegations first emerged earlier this year, declared thathe still has “full confidence” in the 48-year-old Indian-ori-gin minister, who holds one of the UK's highest political officesas Home Secretary.It has, however, led to the resignation ofAlex Allan, the independent adviser on the Ministerial Code,as the decision seems to go against the findings of his report.

“My advice is that the Home Secretary has not consis-tently met the high standards required by the Ministerial Codeof treating her civil servants with consideration and respect.Her approach on occasions has amounted to behaviour thatcan be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt byindividuals,” his report notes. PTI

Beijing: A leading Chinese vaccine maker said it has com-menced phase-3 clinical trials for its Covid-19 vaccine andis planning to recruit 29,000 volunteers across the world.

This is China's first phase-3 efficacy study for aRecombinant subunit Covid-19 vaccine candidate, AnhuiZhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical, said in a statement onThursday.

Jointly developed by the company and the Institute ofMicrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, thevaccine was issued a clinical research permit from the NationalMedical Products Administration on June 19.

The company said the research, which plans to enroll upto 29,000 adults aged 18 and up, was launched on Wednesdayin Xiangtan County, central China's Hunan Province.

Global trials are expected to begin in Uzbekistan late thismonth, followed by trials in Indonesia, Pakistan and Ecuador.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told amedia briefing on Wednesday that five Chinese vaccine can-didates are under clinical trials in countries, including the UAE,Brazil, Pakistan and Peru, and phase one and phase two clin-ical trials of some other vaccines are accelerated.

Researchers started phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials onJune 23, which were randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled. PTI

Cairo: The global pandemicand ensuing lockdown havetaken their toll on the mentaland physical well-being of mil-lions of kids in the Middle Eastand North Africa, the UN chil-dren's agency said Friday.

In a survey of more than7,000 households in seven coun-tries in the region covering13,000 children, UNICEF foundthat more than 90 per cent ofrespondents believe the coron-avirus pandemic has affectedtheir children negatively.

“Restrictions on movementand closure of schools had asevere impact on children'sdaily routines, their social inter-actions, and ultimately on theirmental well-being,” TedChaiban, UNICEF regionaldirector in the Middle East andNorth Africa, said in the report.Its release coincided with WorldChildren's Day.

The agency's survey showsthat more than 50 per cent ofrespondents believe their chil-dren have been struggling men-tally and emotionally.

Anxiety and stress havebeen on the rise among con-fined families, the report said,raising the likelihood of domes-tic violence, of which womenand children are usually theprime victims. AP

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The European Union issued on Friday one of its mostupbeat assessments of the state of post-Brexit trade

negotiations.EU Commission President Ursula von der

Leyen said “we've seen in the last days, betterprogress, more movement on important files.”

“This is good,” von der Leyen told reporters, incomments that contrast sharply with previous state-ments over the talks that have dragged on with littleprogress for months, despite the tight Jan. 1 deadline.

Her comment came a day after a member of theEU negotiating team tested positive for the coronavirus,which led to the talks being suspended.

She said that because legal texts had made suchprogress, further discussions by video over the nextdays could progress too “since there is now substancewhere you can go through line by line.”

Madrid:The Spanish govern-ment is ratcheting up itsresponse to the steady build-upof migrant arrivals to the CanaryIslands from Africa, including afresh diplomatic offensive.

The ministers in charge ofmigration and transportation,José Luis Escrivá and José LuisÁbalos respectively, were onFriday visiting the archipelago,whose nearest island is around70 miles (110 kms) west ofMorocco.

They are set to detail along-awaited plan of action onhow to ensure the islands don'tbecome Europe's next migranthot spot.

Nearly 17,000 people fleeingpoverty, violence or other cir-cumstances at home havearrived in the archipelago thisyear, half of them in the past 30days. The surge has strained res-cue services, police resources,and emergency workers.Meanwhile, migrants and poten-tial asylum seekers remainstranded in a dock for days andunder unfit conditions.

Some 6,000 migrants arebeing temporarily housed inhotels and tourist apartmentsthat are lying empty because ofa lack of visitors as a result of thecoronavirus pandemic.Normally at this time of year,the islands are one of the mostpopular holiday destinations inEurope. AP

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Nearly four years after a PakistanInternational Airlines' flight

crashed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwaprovince, killing 47 people, a probereport has said that the aircraft hadthree “technical anomalies” for which the airline's engineers wereresponsible, according to a mediareport.

The plane crashed near Havelianin Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinceon December 7, 2016, killing all 47passengers and crew on board theATR42 aircraft of the national car-rier.

Junaid Jamshed, a singer-turned-preacher, was among the

people killed in one of the most dis-astrous air crashes in the country'saviation history.

The Aircraft Accident andInvestigation Board (AAIB) com-pleted its investigation into thecrash and revealed that the aircrafthad three “technical anomalies” forwhich the airline's engineers wereresponsible, the Dawn News report-ed.

Head of the AAIB AirCommodore Usman Ghani sub-mitted the report on Thursday to abench of the Sindh High Court(SHC) after repeated directives bythe bench in a petition filed aboutvarious incidents involving ATRplanes.

Peshawar: A Hindu temple,believed to have been con-structed 1,300 years ago, hasbeen discovered by Pakistaniand Italian archaeologicalexperts at a mountain in north-west Pakistan's Swat district.

The discovery was madeduring an excavation at BarikotGhundai. Announcing the dis-covery on Thursday, FazleKhaliq of KhyberPakhtunkhwa Department ofArchaeology said that the tem-ple discovered is of LordVishnu.

It was built by the Hindus1,300 years ago during the

Hindu Shahi period, he said.The Hindu Shahis or Kabul

Shahis (850–1026 CE) was aHindu dynasty that ruled theKabul Valley (easternAfghanistan), Gandhara (mod-ern-day Pakistan), and pre-sent-day northwestern India.

During their excavation,the archaeologists also foundtraces of cantonment andwatchtowers near the templesite.

The experts also found awater tank near the temple sitewhich they believe was used bythe Hindus for bathing beforeworship. Khaliq said that Swatdistrict is home to a thousand-

year-old archaeological sitesand the traces of the HinduShahi period have been foundfor the first time in the area.

Dr Luka, the head of theItalian archaeological mission,said this was the first temple ofthe Ghandhara civilisation dis-covered in Swat district.

Swat district is among thetop 20 sites in Pakistan whichis home to every kind oftourism like natural beauty,religious tourism, culturaltourism and archaeologicalsites.

Several places of worship ofBuddhism are also situated inSwat district. PTI

Nairobi: The United Nations refugee agency saysabout 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia's embat-tled Tigray region into neighbouring Sudan, andit is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in thenext six months if necessary.

Axel Bisschop, the agency's representativein Sudan, told reporters that “nobody at thisstage can say exactly how many will come,” butUN officials said fighting continues betweenEthiopian government and Tigray regionalgovernment forces.

Some of the refugees are arriving withaccounts of shelling or airplanes flying overhead,but Bisschop said for now authorities are ask-

ing mainly “humanitarian questions” as theyurgently seek to provide services.

The refugees are arriving in a veryremote area, and humanitarians must create a

crisis response virtually from zero even as up to 5,000 refugees continue to arrive every day.

No one knows when the flow might ease.“We have not heard specifics from the fight-

ing, but what definitely is clear is that fightingis ongoing and it is sporadic, you never knowwhere it's going to happen,” said HameedNuru, the Sudan country representative for theWorld Food Program. AP

Mexico City: Mexico passedthe 100,000 mark in COVID-19 deaths, becoming only thefourth country to do so amidconcerns about the lingeringphysical and psychologicalscars on survivors.

José Luis Alomía Zegarra,Mexico's director of epidemi-ology, announced lateThursday that Mexico had100,104 confirmed COVID-19deaths, behind only the UnitedStates, Brazil and India.

The milestone comes lessthan a week after Mexicotopped 1 million registeredcoronavirus cases, though offi-cials agree the number is prob-ably much higher because oflow levels of testing.

The coverage of the back-to-back milestones has raisedthe hackles of some govern-ment officials.

Mexico's pointman on thepandemic, Assistant HealthSecretary Hugo López-Gatell,bristled when asked aboutMexico reaching the 100,000deaths point, criticizing themedia for “being alarmist,” inthe same way he has criticizedthose who suggest the govern-ment is undercountingCOVID-19 deaths or providingcontradictory and weak adviceon using face masks. AP

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Jaipur:The 111th meeting ofthe Board of Directors ofRajasthan Renewable EnergyCorporation was held at thecorporation headquartersunder the chairmanship of Dr.Subodh Agarwal, Chairmanand Managing Director.

In the meeting, Dr.Aggarwal informed that thecorporation has earned a netprofit of Rs 23.36 crore in thefinancial year 2019-20. TheBoard of Directors has recom-mended a total of 10 per centof the paid-up capital of thecorporation as a dividend of Rs1.29 crore to the StateGovernment.

He said that in the series ofimplementation of RajasthanSolar Energy Policy-2019 andBudget Announcement 2020-

21 released by the state gov-ernment, such rural areas of thestate where there is no avail-ability of electricity or lack ofcontinuous supply of electric-ity or local The bodies areunable to pay electricity bills,where 200 small drinking watersupply sources will be selectedand solarized as a pilot projectby Rajasthan RenewableEnergy Corporation.

Dr Aggarwal said 2 HPsare required at every smalldrinking water supply source.From 12.5 hp Solar pumps ofcapacity will be installed. Withthis scheme it will be possibleto ensure the availability ofdrinking water in rural areassmoothly. He said this schemewill be implemented by thecorporation in coordinationwith Public Health EngineeringDepartment and it is likely tocost about Rs 8 crores, whichis allowed to be borne byRajasthan Renewable EnergyCorporation in the 111th meet-ing of the board of directors ofthe corporation has been.

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An internal RBI panel hasproposed that large cor-

porates may be permitted topromote banks after necessaryamendments to the BankingRegulations Act, as well asraising the cap on promoters’stake in private sector banks to26 per cent.The panel alsosuggested the conversion of bignon-banking finance compa-nies (NBFCs) into banks.

The Reserve Bank of Indiahad constituted an InternalWorking Group (IWG) on June12, 2020, to review extant own-ership guidelines and corporatestructure for Indian privatesector banks. The central bankmade the report public onFriday and has sought com-

ments by January 15, 2021“before taking a view in thematter”.The group has recom-mended that “large corpo-rate/industrial houses may bepermitted to promote banksonly after necessary amend-ments to the BankingRegulations Act, 1949 to dealwith connected lending andexposures between the banksand other financial and non-financial group entities”.

It also made a case for thestrengthening of the supervi-sory mechanism for large con-glomerates, including consoli-dated supervision.

The approach of the RBIregarding ownership of banksby large corporate /industrialhouses has, by and large, beena cautious one in view of seri-

ous risks, governance concernsand conflicts of interest thatcould arise when banks areowned and controlled by them.

For the first time in 2013the RBI, in its Guidelines forLicensing of New Banks in thePrivate Sector had prescribedseveral structural requirementsof promoting a bank under aNon-operative FinancialHolding Company .Further,well run large NBFCs with anasset size of Rs 50,000 crore andabove, including those ownedby a corporate house, may beconsidered for conversion intobanks - subject to completionof 10 years of operations andmeeting due diligence criteriaand compliance with addi-tional conditions specified inthis regard, it suggested.

Mumbai:The recently con-cluded IPL, played in UAEamid the coronavirus pan-demic, witnessed a 23 per centjump in television viewershipat 400 billion minutes.TheBARC, which collates data ontelevision viewing, said 405million viewers watched thetournament for 400 billionminutes as against the 326 bil-lion viewing minutes in theyear-ago’s edition. The crickettournament, which is general-ly played during the summersand had to be staged in theUAE because of social dis-tancing restrictions domesti-cally, was seen as a big succourfor the sports, which had beenstruggling with a lack of actionsince the onset of the pandemicin March. PTI

���� �01��023

India will see an investment of�2 lakh crore in setting up

5,000 plants that will producegas from bio and crop wastes by2023-24, Oil MinisterDharmendra Pradhan said onFriday.

To boost the availability ofaffordable and clean transport

fuel, an agreement was signedfor setting up 900 compressedbio-gas or CBG plants by com-panies such as Adani Gas andTorrent Gas.

Under the SustainableAlternative Towards AffordableTransportation (SATAT) ini-tiative, the government is look-ing at setting up of 5,000 CBGplants by 2023-24 with a pro-duction target of 15 milliontonnes, an official statementsaid.Speaking on the occasion,Pradhan said, “We have devel-oped a clear-cut roadmap forSATAT.

Letter of intent for 600

CBG plants have already beengiven and with today’s signingof MoUs for 900 plants, a totalof 1500 CBG plants are at var-ious stages of execution.”

As much as �30,000 croreinvestment is envisaged inthese 900 plants, he said.

“A total of 5000 CBG plantswith an approximate invest-ment of �2 lakh crores areenvisaged.”

The gas produced at CBGplants can be used as fuel topower automobiles.

Biofuels have the potentialto reduce fuel import bill by Rs1 lakh crore, he said withoutelaborating.

Pradhan said SATAT pro-vides for generating gas frommunicipal waste as well as for-est and agri waste. Animalhusbandry and marine wastesare also included. The policyprovides for guaranteed offtakeof the gas produced at the CBGplants by the state-ownedfirms.

���� �01��023

India added just 438megawatt (MW) solar capac-

ity in September quarter 2020,down 80 per cent from thesame period a year ago, accord-ing to a report.

The country’s total solarinstalled capacity was at 37.4gigawatt (GW) as of September30, 2020, MercomCommunications India said inits report on Friday. Indiaadded 438 MW solar capacityin September quarter, down 80per cent from 2,177 MW addedin the year-ago period, it said.In June quarter, 205 MW solarcapacity was added.“The solar industry in India isglad to see the back of 2020,which will end up as one of theworst years for solar in India as

COVID-19 took a heavy toll onthe industry. However, themarket is almost back on itsfeet, and the mood is upbeat asthe industry heads to 2021 -one of the best years forecast-ed for the sector,” said RajPrabhu, CEO of MercomCapital Group.

The lockdown situationhas eased in most parts of thecountry, and economic activi-ty has resumed steadily, thereport said.

It further said the coun-

try’s solar industry is showingsigns of recovery withincreased activity comparedto the previous quarter.However, the industry still hasa long way to go. Several pro-ject deadlines have moved tolast quarter of 2020, and thecommissioning dates for a largenumber of projects have beenpostponed to the first half of2021. According to thereport, India still has a robustlarge-scale solar project devel-opment pipeline of 44.7 GW,with another 34.6 GW of pro-jects tendered and pendingauction at the end of thirdquarter of 2020.

Mercom CommunicationsIndia is a subsidiary of globalclean energy communicationsand consulting firm MercomCapital Group.

Mumbai:The rupee appreciat-ed by 11 paise to settle at overone-week high of 74.16 againstthe US dollar on Friday, sup-ported by positive domesticequities and sustained foreignfund inflows.At the interbankforex market, the domesticunit opened at 74.15 against theUS dollar and touched a highof 74.09 and a low of 74.21 inthe day trade. It finally settledat 74.16 against the greenback,registering an increase of 11paise over its previous close.The rupee had settled at 74.27against US dollar on Thursday.

“The rupee is currentlydrawing a lot of support fromequity inflows and the factthat the dollar globally is on thebackfoot,” said SugandhaSachdeva, VP-Metals, Energy& Currency Research, ReligareBroking. PTI

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Equity indices resumed theirupward trajectory on Friday

after a day’s pause as banking,finance and telecom counterssaw robust demand amidmixed global cues.

A recovering rupee andunabated foreign fund inflowsadded to the momentum,traders said.

After a choppy session, the30-share BSE Sensex ended282.29 points or 0.65 per centhigher at 43,882.25.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose 87.35 points or 0.68per cent to close at 12,859.05.

Bajaj Finserv was the topgainer in the Sensex pack, ral-lying 9.13 per cent, followed byTitan, Bajaj Finance, KotakBank, Bharti Airtel, NestleIndia, NTPC and HDFC Bank.

Bharti Airtel finished 3.18per cent higher after Bharti

Infratel and Indus Towersannounced the completion oftheir merger deal to create amega tower company.

On the other hand,Reliance Industries, IndusIndBank, Sun Pharma, ONGC,Axis Bank, HUL and L&Twere the losers, skidding up to3.72 per cent. During the hol-iday-shortened week, Sensexrose 439.25 points or 1.01 percent, while Nifty advanced139.10 points or 1.09 per cent.

“Domestic equities gainedamid mixed global cues. Asharp rebound in heavyweightfinancials on news pertainingto government may be consid-ering corporate and foreignbank participation in privati-zation of select PSBs led mar-ket to move higher.

“Additionally, buyingmomentum in mid-cap andsmall-caps remained visible inthe backdrop of improved

prospects of earnings improve-ment. We continue to maintainour cautiously optimisticapproach about the market asunderlying strength of marketsremains intact,” said BinodModi, Head Strategy atReliance Securities.

BSE telecom, consumerdurables, power, finance, teck,utilities, bankex and FMCGindices rallied as much as 4.73per cent, while BSE energy wasthe sole sectoral laggard.

Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap indices soared up to1.22 per cent. Elsewhere inAsia, bourses in Shanghai,Hong Kong and Seoul endedon a positive note, while Tokyowas in the red.

Stock exchanges in Europewere trading higher in earlydeals. Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, rose 0.41per cent to USD 44.38 per bar-rel.

New Delhi:Despite being oneof the cleanest and most easi-ly accessible alternative fuels,Auto LPG remains heavilyunder-utilised in India becauseof “almost penalising” policiestowards clean fuels and lack ofa positive messaging by thegovernment, Indian Auto LPGCoalition said on Friday.

As poor air quality takescentrestage in the capital again,the Auto LPG sector is urgingthe government to provide alevel playing field in the inter-est of the environment, it saidin a statement.

Suyash Gupta, DirectorGeneral of Indian Auto LPGCoalition, underscored theneed to widen the policy focus

beyond electric vehicles andgive all available alternativefuels a level playing field in themarket.“Every year at the onsetof winter, we witness a resur-gence of this air quality debate.Unfortunately, nothing changesand people are left to breathehazardous air year after year.

“What is more frustratingis the fact that we have readilyavailable and clean alternativefuels that can help us achievea significant gain in air quali-ty in a short span of time. AutoLPG is a readily available fuelwith negligible emissions ofnitrogen dioxides and PM 2.5,but indifferent messaging andpenalising policies have kept itunder-utilised,” he said.

����� �01��023

Solicitor General TusharMehta on Friday assured the

Supreme Court that no coer-cive action will be taken againstformer ICICI Bank ChiefExecutive Officer ChandaKochhar in the ICICI-Videocon loan case.

Mehta, representing theEnforcement Directorate (ED),made the submission before abench headed by Justice SanjayKishan Kaul and also com-prising Justices DineshMaheshwari and HrishikeshRoy, during the hearing of apetition by Kochhar on behalfof her husband, DeepakKochhar, challenging his arrest.

Chanda Kochhar moved

two pleas -- one connected toher husband and the other onher behalf under Article 32.Former Attorney GeneralMukul Rohatgi, appearing forKochhar, said her husband’spending bail petition in the topcourt may affect the bail plealisted in the trial court.

The top court noted thatthe regular bail petition ofDeepak Kochhar is listed in thetrial court for Monday, and thependency of the case here willhave no effect on the trialcourt proceedings.

During the hearing, JusticeKaul told Rohatgi: “You have asword hanging on your head.But at least you have protec-tion...” The pleas are likely tolisted next week for further

hearing.Earlier this month, the ED

had filed its first chargesheet inthe ICICI-Videocon loan case,naming former ChandaKochhar, her husband DeepakKochhar, Videocon group chiefVenugopal Dhoot and sevenfirms in a money launderingcase.

According to ED sources,the financial probe agency hasnamed Chanda Kochhar,Deepak Kochhar andVenugopal Dhoot along withseven firms, includingVideocon InternationalElectronic Limited (VIEL),Videocon Industries Ltd,NuPower Renewables Ltd andSupreme Energy Pvt Ltd,among others.

����� �01��023

The Association of PowerProducers (APP) has given

a representation to FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanregarding funding issues inpower sector.The letter byAshok Khurana, Director,Association of PowerProducers (APP) has soughtkey financial support requiredfor revival of the infrastructureindustry.

“Unfortunately, the powersector, which would have a piv-otal role in achieving the tar-get of a $ 5 trillion economy by2024, is presently sufferingfrom stress due to systemicissues and is facing challengeswith financing, thereby result-ing in waning of investmentappetite,” Khurana said in theletter.APP has listed key ini-tiatives on the financing sidewhich, when coupled with pol-icy and regulatory changescurrently under consideration,can remove stress and re-ener-gize the sector.

����� �01��023

The Sahara India Parivar onFriday refuted the

Securities and Exchange Boardof India’s (SEBI) claim on it andsaid that that the market regu-lator has committed contemptof court.

“There is a clear order ofHon’ble Supreme Court whichsays that Sahara should depositonly the principal amountwhich is around �24,700 croreout of which Sahara has alreadydeposited �22,500 crore(including interest).

This is absolutely wrongdemand by SEBI and it hasmischievously added 15 percent interest on the principalamount so they are verywrongfully mentioning �62,600crore,” Sahara said in a state-ment.

Sahara said the reason isclear that the SEBI, despite giv-ing four rounds of advertise-ments in 154 newspapers in last8 years across the country, hasrepaid only �107 crore to the

investors. In its last advertise-ment that was publishedaround a year ago, SEBI madeit clear that it would not enter-tain any further claim there-after.

“It means that for SEBIthere is no more claimant at all.How can there be claimantssince Sahara has already paidback, long time back. SEBI isacting biased. It is a typical caseof double payment. As per thedirectives of the Hon’bleSupreme Court, this amount of�22,500 crore will eventuallycome back to Sahara after dueverification,” Sahara said inthe statement.

The SEBI has petitionedthe Supreme Court to directSahara Group chief SubrataRoy to pay �62,600 croreimmediately, or cancel hisparole if he doesn’t yield.

The markets regulator saidthe outstanding liability of theSahara India Parivar group’stwo companies and the group’schief Roy stand at �62,600crore, including interest.

����� �01��023

Oil marketing companies(OMCs) on Friday raised

the retail price of petrol anddiesel after a break of almosttwo months when auto fuelprices remained static on Covidaffected global oil market.

The price of petrol hasincreased by 17 paisa per litrein the national Capital to Rs81.23 from Rs 81.06 a litre onthe previous day. Similarly,retail price of diesel has beenincreased by 22 paisa per litreto Rs 70.68 a litre.

While India has broughtboth petrol and diesel out froman earlier administrative priceregime and their retail pricesare revised daily based onglobal movement productprices, holding the retail pricerevision for almost two months

was surprising. At a time whenglobally prices change by thehour, in India it could be keptstatic for such a long period.

Every dollar increase inprice of crude results in retailprice of petrol and diesel to beincreased by upto 40 paisa perlitre.

This would mean that thefuel prices should be up by atleast Rs 1.20 per litre by now.

However, oil companieshave kept fuel prices staticeven when there was a need torevise it downwards last month.That saving prevented OMCsfrom increasing petrol anddiesel prices by a higher mar-gin. Now that option isexhausted and regular pricerevision could restart.

With the price revision, theretail price of the two auto fuelhas also increased across the

country but the level of increaseis different in different citiesdue to variable taxation struc-ture pursued by the states.

The increase in petrol anddiesel prices was expected asglobal oil market had shownsigns of firming up after posi-tive news on successful intro-duction of a coronavirus vac-cine soon. Moreover, thedemand for oil and fallinginventory levels in major con-suming markets has alsofirmed up crude price.

The benchmark Brentcrude price is hovering over$44 a barrel for some time nowwhile the US WTI crude is alsoclose to $42 a barrel. The twohave remained firm since thebeginning of the month afterremaining soft in most parts ofOctober at close to $40 a bar-rel or less.

����� �01��023

The Congress on Fridayflayed the Centre over the

decision to freeze the additionalDearness Allowance of Centralpublic sector undertakings’employees and said it is “yetanother sign of a sinking econ-omy”.

“Food inflation rises to11.1 per cent. But the Modigovernment is freezing DAinstead of increasing it forcentral PSU employees. Whilethe condition of governmentemployees is poor, the capital-ist ‘friends’ are happy,”Congress leader Rahul Gandhitweeted.

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Page 10: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

How did you land up in Hollywood?Was that always on the agenda?

I was in the USA and did a randomaudition for the film Life Of Pi and that tookme on a track. Later, I studied film and nowI am just trying to work here in the US.Acting was never on the agenda. I feel thatit’s been on the agenda for the past eight tonine years. When I was a kid nobody usedto think that being an actor is a real thingone could pursue. So I never thought I want-ed to act and go ahead in this field. Luckily,life gave me this chance and I realised thatI really enjoy this.

Your first film Life Of Pi became a hugesuccess? What was your reaction?

In terms of expectations, I didn’t knowanything. I didn’t think of expectations orwhat this is supposed to be. They put mein this environment, and I believed it somuch. They gave me so much guidance thatI didn’t think about the outcome. It was justtoo great to be there and be doing the thingsI was doing. Afterwards, I knew that thisfilm is going to achieve something and itdid! Then I realised that I have been giventhis chance... so I started acting.

You have worked in Hollywood as well asBollywood, how is the work culture dif-ferent?

If we talk about similarity, they are alikein the sense that if they need to get some-thing done then they get it done no matterwhat. They try to tell stories which repre-sent a life that people wish to believe.Hollywood as well as Bollywood havebegun to rise because of all the new waysto watch content. New voices are coming tothe forefront, new visions are being pro-posed and it is happening in India as muchas it is happening in the US. It is really excit-ing to see. It says that something is chang-ing. It is great to watch this change happen-ing. I would also say that they are differenttoo. In the US, things are far more sched-

uled, chances of things going wrongare far less but in India, things

are more ‘go with the flow’kind.

Are you doing thekind of roles you

want to do? If

not, then what kind of work are you look-ing for?

I think I am very lucky with what I amtrying to do. Of course, I want to do muchmore. I have certain things in my mind thatI need to get up on my list such as dark com-edy. However, I feel that gradually, I am get-ting closer to the things I really desire. I havealso started writing scripts myself so that Ican make something good. It’s somethingthat I always wanted to do. I feel super luckythat I get what I want but I wish to achievemore in life. I need to get better as an actor,learn more about this industry and touch

new heights.

You mentioned dark comedy as a bench-mark. Films that you really love in thatspace?

I do have a couple... The thing is thatthey aren’t really popular films. There’s thisfilm called Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos, InBruges and Death at a Funeral. Bheja Fry isa good one too.

Your films have received a lot of criticalacclaim. Do you think box office hit ismore important than that?

Well, it is neither. For me, it is my timespent working with the people and the expe-rience that I gain. That’s the most impor-tant thing to me. From my first filmonwards till now, I feel really blessed to have

worked with some amazing bunch of peo-ple. Not only as professionals but as indi-viduals. So it’ll always be about the peoplewith whom I am being creative with.

Who do you look up to for inspiration inBollywood or Hollywood?

In Bollywood, I’d say Adil Hussain,Naseeruddin Shah and Manoj Bajpayee. Ifeel they can do so many different unimag-inable type of roles. Fortunately, I got towork with two of them — Adil Sir andNaseer Sir. In the US, it would be Al Pacinoor Robert Ni Ro. I look up to people whohave weight in their words as they have thepower to both destroy and heal.

You mentioned that you have worked withAdil Hussain and Naseeruddin Shah. Isthere something you took away fromthem?

Adil sir is like my mentor. I can’t evenexplain how many things I have learnt fromhim. Me, my brother and him would go toHampi, wake up around 5 am and do someslow-motion acting workshops. Thoseexperiences taught me a lot about how tobe aware, how to live in the present and howto capture the moment. From Naseer sir(Naseeruddin Shah), I have definitely learnthow to stay true to the character. No onedoes a scene like he does. He has this habitof doing everything with perfection. Iadmire that. The weight of his performanceis just commendable. I was in a scene withhim, I just kept on listening to him becausethe way he uses his voice is beyond com-parison.

What made you say yes to the film HappyDeath Day 2U? How was that experience?

The experience was lovely. It was anamazing place to be in. The people were fan-tastic to work with. What made me inter-ested was the concept of film, which was —would you change something if you wereto live the same day over and over again?What can you learn from it? And how doyou make yourself better at it? What can youtake from what you have done in the past?That idea really inspired me. Of course, Ihave watched the first part. The film wasreally endearing. I spoke to the directorChris Landon and did the film.(The film premieres on November 22 at 9 pmon Sony PIX.)

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Our secondary school syl-labus carried an abridged

version of Homer’s Iliad repletewith chapters dedicated toAchilles (notably, his heel),Odysseus (and a bit about histen year odyssey), and a twopager on Helen of Troy (tech-nically of Sparta). As I grew up,I learnt more about these Greek“heroes”, and the Trojan ones,notably Hector, adeptly playedby the handsome Eric Bana inthe film Troy.

A thousand ships isn’t aboutthese people and men. Not somuch about Helen either, overwhom a ten year war wasfought on earth, leading to thedestruction of an entire city andthe deaths of countless people.This book is about Hector’smother Hecabe and Odysseus’wife Penelope, it is aboutAchilles’ slave Briseis and herslave-time friend Chryseis. It isabout Oenone, Paris’ wife, whois abandoned for Helen. It is

about Cassandra with hercursed tongue, Andromachewith her life on the edge andIphigenia, the forever bride. It’sabout wives who die for theirhusbands, wives who diebecause of their husbands andwives who kill their husbands.It’s about the women left

behind, waiting behind thewalls of Troy, waiting in farawayIthaca, captured as slaves,beheaded as offerings to thegods, the list goes on.

Penelope gets the most airtime in the book, possiblybecause she suffers the longest,through the ten year war andOdysseus’ ten year drive home.The man stops at many places,battling monsters and giants,sleeping with nymphs and god-desses. Penelope’s life throughthose years, written as letters toher husband, is the wittiest andfunniest segment of the book,tragicomic though it is. The restof the book is, well, just tragic.

If mythology is your cup oftea, pick this book. If feminismis your cup of tea, pick thisbook. Either way, you will be leftdeeply satisfied but with moreaching questions than yourealised could exist at the begin-ning of the book. For, this is theIliad on the women.

Actor Mohammed ZeeshanAyyub says the forthcom-

ing dark comedy web series, ASimple Murder, gave him achance to explore new emo-tions, and he enjoyed theprocess.

“Playing the character ofManish was definitely newand exciting for me. He issomeone who is low on self-confidence and constantlystriving to find a sense of dig-nity and respect throughouthis journey,” Zeeshan said.

“This character gave me achance to be someone new, dif-ferent from the characters Ihave played earlier. I had a lotof fun playing him. We areextremely excited to see howthis turns out and we are hop-ing for the best,” he added.

The web series shows howgreed becomes instrumental indriving the characters toentangle in a chain of crazyevents.

Talking about the webshow, actor Sushant Singhsaid, “I have always believed in

playing characters which addvalue to the story, break themold, and enable me toexplore a finer nuance in me asan actor. Upon narration, ASimple Murder struck a chordwith me at one go for its fast-paced script that offered theright mix of character-buildingand humour. The show gaveme an opportunity to workwith some seasoned actorsand I definitely had an enrich-ing experience.”

For director SachinPathak, the series “dwells in aspace, not much explored onthe web and thus is novel in itsapproach.”

“I am thankful to my cast,a fine mix of age and experi-ence, for delivering such stu-pendous performances andmaking filming look so easy.Shooting amid lockdown wasanother rivetting experienceand I hope the efforts comealive on screen,” he added.

(The show can be streamedon SonyLIV.) A,(/+

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Page 11: The Pioneer...2020/11/21  · month of November. The all-time record for the lowest minimum temperature in November is 3.9 degrees Celsius recorded on November 28, 1938. Mahesh Palawat,

day, then it could probably meanthat their underlying sleep qualityis not good enough. For an adult,about six to eight hours sleep ismostly recommended.

��What are some of the sleep-related issues and how can theyaffect our health?

The most common thingswhich are associated with sleep dis-orders are snoring and sleep apnea.They are the most common but it’svery important for people to under-stand the difference between them.Snoring is a kind of noise/soundthat comes from the upper airwayat the back of the throat. It is gen-erally managed by a set of muscles.For some people, the airway isslightly narrow and when they goto sleep, their body rests, their brainrelaxes and shuts off and so do theirmuscles. Everything becomes slop-py as they sleep. And for certainpeople, when the back of the throatmuscles relax, it may not be enoughfor them to keep the airway openfor the air to pass through and that’swhen we hear their snoring sound.

So the best analogy I can giveyou on is that if you if you’re on the

expressway or on a highway, andyou roll down the glasses by aninch, you get a certain noise. Andthat is because the air is passingthrough a small passage. It’s thesame with snoring. The air passesthrough resistance because theupper part of your airway is notopen enough.

��What are the top reasons thatlead to lack of sleep?

The biggest problem why peo-ple don’t get enough sleep at themoment is, unfortunately, theirlifestyle. With everyday advance-

ments and evolution, we are just sit-ting at one place and hooked on toa screen. A lot of work, whichinvolved physical movement earli-er, has now shifted to staying athome. For instance, things likegoing to the office or shopping cen-tre; these chores can very much bedone at home, online and withoutmovement. Our screen time hasexponentially increased. The bluelight that radiates from the screenis the one that highly disrupts oursleep because it stimulates thebrain to keep one awake. Thesedays, people usually switch to

watching TV or social media con-tent at night after their work. Well,that is the worst thing to do!

��Would you like to share anytips for having a sound sleepingschedule?

Here are some points to main-tain a good sleep cycle:● Sleep as much as you need to

feel fresh and healthy during theday. Don’t oversleep as it willlead you to another continuouscycle of not getting enough sleepand feeling tired. One shouldsleep as per body requirements.Try and stick to a regular sleep-ing and waking up time.

● Fixed amount of exercise every-day can help you get better deepsleep. Not necessarily at night,you should always try and exer-cise during the early part of theday.

● The ambience in your room isvery important. Avoid loudnoises. Some people are lightsleepers who can get disturbedwith even the slightest ofsounds. If you have the capac-ity, then try and soundproofyour room.

● Another important aspect is theroom temperature. It makes iteasier to have a sound sleep. Yousleep better when you are in acooler environment. Heat isknown to fragment your sleep.

● Hunger and overeating both cancause sleep problems. Makesure that you’ve had adequateamount of meal so that youdon’t feel hungry or stuffed upat night.

● Sleeping pills are not a good forthe long run. After a point oftime, your dependency on themcan increase, which can ultimateincrement your doses, too.

● Avoid consuming caffeine after4 pm.

● Avoid excessive alcohol. It mightmake you sleep very easily andearly but at the same time, it cancompletely destroy your sleeparchitecture.

● Consuming tobacco can disturbsleep as the effect of cigaretteslast for close to 40 minutes. Tryand avoid smoking or oraltobacco use in the evening orprior to bed time.

(The show premieres on November23 at 8 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)

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Actor Vaani Kapoor, whowill next be seen in

Bellbottom alongside AkshayKumar, has praised her co-actor for his work.

Vaani said, “For me,Akshay sir is a superstar inevery possible way. He is suchan enthralling actor and I amreally grateful to be sharingscreen space with him. He isso fascinating. He can pull offaction, comedy, romance,thriller and be the best ineverything. Really, AkshayKumar can ace any genre. Heis so talented and experi-enced and one can onlyobserve and learn from himall the time.”

She added, “For me, it’sthe sheer joy of sharing screenspace with him and getting towork at least once in my lifewith him that’s making it spe-cial. The experience has beenlovely! He couldn’t have been

kinder and wonderful than hewas. He is somebody who isvery friendly on set. I am

someone who would other-wise go back to my hotelroom and not interact too

much because I like being inmy own space but he is some-one who ensured that we all

sit together and have lunch-es/dinners, get to know eachother and be very involvedlike a close-knit family. I cher-ish this a lot because we actu-ally felt like a family on thesets of Bellbottom.”

On the work front, Vaaniis currently in Chandigarhshooting her next withAyushmann Khurrana titledChandigarh Kare Aashiqui.

��How can one measure the quality of sleep,whether it is good or bad?

A good quality of sleep is very important.However, people often mistake quantity for qual-ity. Many complain that even after getting a sleepfor eight to 10 hours a day, they don’t feel freshand energetic enough. Well, the actual way totrack your sleep — the gold standard — is bydoing a ‘polysomnography’ or in layman’sterms, a sleep study where you attach a few wiresonto the head. It actually tracks your brain activ-ity and also monitors your eye movements, etc.We can actually see what stage of sleep you’reat and whether you’re getting deep or REM(rapid eye movement) sleep again, which is veryimportant.

Usually, the first question I ask my patientis, “Are you getting enough sleep?” Some peo-ple underestimate themselves saying that theyjust need three to four hours of sleep, post whichthey function very well. But then, you know, overa period of time, that takes a toll on your body.And, obviously, that clearly tells that you’re notgetting sufficient sleep. The other question thatwe generally tend to ask is, “Do you wake upat night for any reason?” There are multiple sleepdisorders because of which people tend to getup in the middle of the night. So, if a person hasfrequent awakenings at night during a sleep peri-od that tells us that their quality of sleep is quitepoor. Certain people tend to sleep through thenight without any problems. But if they are stillsleepy or drowsy, lethargic, tired throughout the

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Former left-arm pacer ZaheerKhan believes bowlers will

decide the fate of this summer’sIndia-Australia contest as boththe teams boast of some of theworld’s finest bowlers in theirsquads.

With the likes of JaspritBumrah, Mohammad Shami,Mitchell Starc and PatCummins, to name a few, uptheir ranks, both India andAustralia have formidable bowl-ing attacks.

“The Australian pitcheshave always had good bounceand pace, so I think the areawhich will decide the ODIs,T20Is and Tests will be thebowlers and how well theteam bowls as a unit torestrict the opponent to alower total on the score-board,” said Zaheer,who was part of the2011 World Cupwinning Indianteam.

“ W h e nsomeone talksabout the topline bowlers inthe world rightnow, the namesof the players thatcome to our mindwill all be on the pitchin this series,” headded.

Zaheer also saidthat India are set toface a stern test inAustralia this summerdue to the presence ofSteve Smith and DavidWarner.

India had defeatedAustralia 2-1 in their lastTest series Down Under in2018-19 in the absence ofWarner and Smith, as boththe players were serving anyear-long ban.

“Now with the return of

Steve Smith and David Warnerto the Australian side, the Indianteam is definitely going to facea stiffer competition than theirprevious tour Down Under,”the former India fast bowler said.

“There are no favouritesgoing into the series as both thesides have quality batting andbowling line-up in their squadand that is what will make theupcoming tour interesting andexciting to watch.”

Zaheer’s thoughts wereechoed by Australian pace leg-end Glenn McGrath, who alsofeels that the Virat Kohli-led sidewill face a tough competitionthis time around.

“The Indian cricket teamwill face a much tougher

Australian team now thatSmith and Warner are backbut the Indian team isequally strong and have anaggressive mentality and

determination to winthe series,” saidMcGrath, who hasstaggering 563 Testwickets.

“The currentIndian team hasgot the confi-dence of playing

in Australian con-ditions now and theyknow how to do it asthey’ve been successfulhere in the last tour.”

Former India bats-man Sanjay Manjrekartoo feels the same.

“Australia’s Testteam will be strongerthan it was on India’s pre-

vious tour. The experi-ence of Smith andWarner will add muscleto the Aussie side but I

believe India’s bowlingattack is ready to have their

names carved in the histo-ry of Indian cricket by win-ning a consecutive seriesDown Under,” he said.

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Rohit Sharma’s absence from theupcoming white ball series is a big

“positive” for Australia but KL Rahulis as good a player to fill in the void,feels dashing batsman Glenn Maxwell.

Rahul will be Virat Kohli’s deputyin the white-ball leg since regular vice-captain Rohit is recuperating from ahamstring injury sustained duringIPL.

“He (Rohit) is a class performer,so consistent as an opening batsmanwith a couple of (three) double hun-dreds. So anytime he is not in the line-up against you, it is a positive,”Maxwell said.

The three-match ODI seriesbegins on November 27 followed bya T20I series.

For Maxwell, KL Rahul is asgood a back-up as any team can wishfor.

“But in saying that, India have stillgot back-ups, more than capable ofplaying that role. We saw KL Rahul,the performance that he put on dur-ing the last IPL was extraordinary.Whether he opens the batting or not,I am sure he will be just as good a play-er,” Maxwell added.

In Rohit’s absence, it is expectedthat Mayank Agarwal will open theinnings along with Shikhar Dhawanas Rahul, who will keep wickets isexpected to bat middle-order.

However Maxwell is a big fan ofAgarwal-Rahul opening pair that didreally well during the first phase ofIPL.

“Well, I would say they (Mayank-Rahul) are the two lovely guys, I have

ever met. It was a pleasure to spendthe change room (with them), twovery good players, they score all-roundthe wicket and have got very limitedweaknesses,” Maxwell was all praise

for them.But Maxwell sounded out a warn-

ing for his IPL teammates thatAustralia’s bowing attack will certain-ly put them under pressure.

“I suppose ODI cricket might bea bit different (compared T20).Hopefully, with our bowling attack, wecan put some pressure on them andwith bounce in the pitches and bigger

grounds as well, they play into ourhands. They are good performers, andgood players,” a confident Maxwellasserted.

For India, key in the upcomingseries will be Mohammed Shami’sskills as both a “new ball and old ball”bowler.

“A guy like Mohammed Shami,whom I have played with in the recentIPL and played with him in Delhi, aswell. (I) saw the skill that he has.

“He has got good skills at the end(death overs) as well as with the newball. His ability to get moving on pitch-es will be key to them,” said Maxwell.

According to Maxwell, he alongwith another in-form player MarcusStoinis, would be the two all-roundersas well as designated finishers in thebatting line-up.

“...The way we are probably goingto set our team up is myself and MarcusStoinis or potentially another all-rounder making up for the other 10overs (for fifth bowler), the one with-out our four front-line bowlers.

“I suppose I can contribute wher-ever I can with the ball. With the bat,as it was against England, I will be try-ing to finish off games and do as wellas I can down the order,” he said.

Steve Smith didn’t play the awayODI series against England due to con-cussion suffered during a net sessionand his presence is sure to increaseIndian team’s headache, said theVictorian all-rounder.

“To have someone like Steve Smithcoming back to our side, it is going tobe a big plus for us, a big headache forIndia. Smith has always scored runsagainst them,” he said.

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Australia speedster PatCummins expectedly con-

siders Virat Kohli the “big”wicket he would target in theupcoming series against Indiaand said that keeping the visit-ing captain quiet would be cru-cial to the home team’s chances.

“I think every side has thatone or two batters and they arethe big wickets. Most teamshave their captain — Joe Rootfor England, Kane Williamsonfor New Zealand. You feel likeif you get their wickets that goesa long way in winning thegame,” Cummins told FoxCricket.

“He (Kohli) is always a bigone. You commentators talkabout him non-stop, so hope-fully, we can keep himquiet,” he added.

C u m m i n s ,who has beennamed in boththe whiteand red-ball squadsas vice-captain, isone of the 11Australian playerscurrently quaranti-ning in Sydney afterreturning from theUAE where heplayed for KolkataKnight Riders inthe IPL.

Their quaran-tine period will end

on the eve of the opening ODIagainst India at the SydneyCricket Ground.

Cummins said Australia iswell prepared to give India atough fight in the series.

“It’s going to be huge.Obviously, we’re back here onhome soil. Other than spendinga lot of times in hotels and bub-bles I feel like our preparationhas actually been really good.

“We went over to the UKand had a good tour there. Mostof the boys here have been play-ing 14 T20 matches in the lastfew weeks and the other guyscoming in will be playingshrewd cricket. So, it feels likewe are all firing up and got a lotof stuff behind us,” he said.

The imposing pacer saidthat over the last couple of years,he has developed as a bowler.

“I was probably abit quicker a few yearsago but I feel like in thelast couple of years Igot better, learning dif-ferent tempos within

the game and alsowhen I am bowl-ing. I feel I got abit more controlon swing andseam,” Cummins

said.“Whatever

conditions wecome up with,I have got a

couple oftools I cango to.”

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Novak Djokovic out-bat-tled Alexander Zverev to

qualify for the last four at theATP Finals on Friday, stayingon track to match RogerFederer’s record of six titles atthe end-of-season event.

The Serbian top seed, whowas beaten comprehensivelyby Daniil Medvedev in hissecond round-robin match,was again below his best atLondon’s O2 Arena but didenough to win 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).

The five-time winner fin-ishes second in Group Tokyo2020 behind Medvedev andwill play third-seed DominicThiem in the semi-finals onSaturday.

Second-seed Rafael Nadal,seeking his first win at the eliteeight-man event, will faceMedvedev in the other semi-final after finishing second inGroup London 2020.

Djokovic broke

Germany’s Zverev at the firsttime of asking in the emptystadium and raced into a 3-0lead, threatening to run awaywith the match — a repeat ofthe 2018 final, whichZverev won in straightsets.

The 33-year-oldlooked focused after hisuncharacteristic maul-ing by Medvedev, serv-ing himself out of trou-ble when he found himselftrailing 15-40 in the seventh

game.That proved to be the last

chance for Zverev in the setand 17-time Grand Slam win-ner Djokovic hammered abackhand winner down theline to take it 6-3.

Djokovic handed Zverev abreak point in the fourthgame of the second set afterdouble-faulting but theGerman could not capitalise.

The 23-year-old fifth seedsaved two break points on hisserve in the following game,letting out a roar as he kept hisnose in front.

The set went to a tie-break. Zverev earned an early

mini-break but Djokoviclevelled and the pressurewas back on the German,who faltered to hand theSerbian victory.

The O2 Arena ishosting the event for the12th and final season

before the championshipsmove to Turin.

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“An MNC cannot have twoCEOs”, said former

India skipper Kapil Dev onFriday, making his stance clearon the raging debate overwhether the national cricketteam should go for split cap-taincy.

Ever since Rohit Sharmaguided Mumbai Indians to afifth IPL title, a debate on splitcaptaincy has gatheredmomentum with several for-mer players suggesting that theopener be handed the leader-ship of at least the T20 side.

“In our culture it is notgoing to happen that way. Inone company you make twoCEOs? No. If Kohli is going toplay T20s and he is goodenough. Let him be there.Even though I would like tosee other people coming out.But it’s difficult,” said Kapil.

“Our 80 per cent, 70 percent of the team across for-mats is same team. They don’tlike captains having differenttheory. It may bring moredifferences between the play-ers who look up to the captain.

“If you have two captains,players might think he isgoing to be my captain inTests. I will not annoy him.”

Talking about the art offast bowling, the 1983 WorldCup-winning former skippersaid fast bowlers opting for toomany variations saddens him.

“I am not happy with fastbowlers (these days). The firstball cannot be cross seam.Players in IPL realised thatswing is more important thanpace. Sandeep (Sharma), whobowled 120 kph, was tougherbecause he was moving theball,” he explained.

“Bowlers have to under-stand it’s not the pace, it’s theswing. They should learn butare running away from art. TNatarajan was my hero ofIPL. Young boy was fearless

and bowling so many yorkers,”the legendary all-rounder saidreferring to the two SunrisersHyderabad pacers.

Kapil feels variations are a

waste if one doesn’t know howto swing the ball.

However, the battery ofpacers that India possesses nowpleases Kapil immensely.

“I read somewhere thatLara said he (would) rather pre-fer face Kapil Dev but not Lara.Our fast bowlers are brilliant.

“Look at Shami, Bumrah.

As a cricketer, it gives me a lotof happiness to say that todaywe depend on our fastbowlers. Our bowlers arecapable of taking 20 wickets in

a match. We’ve had spinners— Kumble, Harbhajan, buttoday no country would liketo say ‘give them bouncy wick-ets’.”