ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in...

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T he most hyped manhunt carried out by the cops of Uttar Pradesh police in last six days finally culminated in a dra- matic climax when gangster Vikas Dubey surrendered in the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain on Thursday morning. According to reports, the gangster told the police that he wanted to burn the bodies of the slain cops to destroy evidence. However, he did not have enough time to do so. His arrest in Mahakaal tem- ple premises sparked debate whether he surrendered for fear of being killed. Dubey travelled 1,500 kilo- meters from Faridabad to Ujjan within 24 hours for a tryst with the Mahakal and his des- tiny.”Main Vikas Dubey hun, Kanpur wala (I am Vikas Dubey from Kanpur),” screamed the Uttar Pradesh gangster. This reportedly alerted security guards at the Ujjain temple who informed the police. As policemen walked him towards a police car, Vikas Dubey shouted again, “Main Vikas Dubey hun, Kanpur wala”. ADG Law and Order, Prashant Kumar confirmed the develop- ment and claimed that the STF team was immediately dis- patched to Ujjain to take custody of Dubey.”Vikas Dubey was going to Ujjain Mahakal temple when he was identified by secu- rity personnel. Police were informed, he confessed his iden- tity after being pushed for it. He has been apprehended by the police and interrogation is underway,” Ashish Singh, Ujjain Collector told mediapersons. Singh said Vikas Dubey initially refused to reveal his identity. He also showed a PAN card carrying the name of one Shubham. He produced more Identity Cards, as per which he was 28 years of age. An argu- ment followed, but by then the police arrived and took him into custody. There were two more people with Dubey, who have also been arrested. Security cameras installed inside the temple premises caught Dubey making an appearance at the Mahakal temple at around 8.50 am. Dubey then went to a shop located outside the temple and asked how a ticket could be purchased and enquired about darshan at the temple. The owner of the shop identified Dubey. The man claimed that when Dubey approached him, he was not wearing a mask and was calling for a person named Bunty. The temple shop owner then informed a guard at the Mahakal temple. By then, Dubey had already purchased a darshan ticket and entered the temple. Dubey has been on the run for almost a week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal border. A photograph that has gone viral, shows Dubey sitting com- fortably on a sofa inside the tem- ple complex in Ujjain soon after his arrest. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra first confirmed the development. He told reporters that Dubey is in the State police’s custody in Ujjain. The Minister, however, did not confirm if the dreaded gangster, who was car- rying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on information leading to his arrest, was nabbed from within or outside the Mahakal temple premises. Later, Dubey was whisked away to an unidentified location for medical examina- tion and questioning. Meanwhile, two more aides of Dubey were gunned down in separate encounters in Uttar Pradesh. While Kartikeya alias Prabhat was killed in Kanpur when he tried to flee from police custody, Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey was shot dead in an encounter in Etawah, the police said. Kartikeya, who was arrested from Faridabad on Wednesday, was being brought to Kanpur on transit remand when he snatched the pistol of a policeman and tried to flee, ADG, Law and Order Prashant Kumar said. “The encounter took place in the Panki area of Kanpur when a police team was bring- ing Kartikeya alias Prabhat from Faridabad to Kanpur on transit remand. The police vehicle had a flat tyre. Taking advantage of the situation, Kartikeya tried to flee after snatching the pistol of a police- man,” he said. W ith withdrawal by both the Armies at the border in Ladakh proceeding without a hitch for the fourth day, India on Thursday reaffirmed its stand that the Line of Actual Control (LAC) must be “strict- ly respected” and neither side should take any unilateral action to alter it. It also stressed the need for continuing the dia- logue process and China also echoed similar sentiments. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said both the coun- tries will hold a new round of commander level dialogue and border issue consultation and co-ordination mechanism meetings. It also said in Beijing that the overall border situation is stable and the border ten- sions have eased, according to the Global Times, the govern- ment mouthpiece of China. As both the Armies, more or less, completed the pull back from all the four face-off sites in Eastern Ladakh which were on for the past eight weeks besides the bloody skir- mish in the Galwan valley on June15, New Delhi also said, “We remain convinced of the need for maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue, at the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India’s sovereignty and territo- rial integrity.” Enunciating the country’s position, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said here the diplo- matic and military officials of both sides will continue their meetings to take forward the process of disengagement and de-escalation as agreed to by the Special Representatives National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The next meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India- China border affairs (WMCC) is expected to take place soon. He also said, “We have also noted that there have been some inaccurate and unin- formed comments about the disengagement process and its implications. Let me remind you that in the last few weeks, we have made several state- ments spelling out categorical- ly the position of the Government on different aspects of the current situation in the Western Sector of India- China border areas.” “They include our position that recent Chinese claims to the Galwan Valley area are exaggerated and untenable; that the LAC must be strictly respected and observed as this is the basis for peace and tran- quility in the border areas; and that neither side should take any unilateral action to alter it. We remain convinced of the need for maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas and the resolution of dif- ferences through dialogue, at the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India’s sovereignty and territo- rial integrity,” he said. Giving the sequence of events in the last five days, he said the Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China had a telephone conversation on July 5. G overnment may re-impose lockdown in districts that witness a steep rise in cases of Covid-19 infection in a bid to avert community transmission and ensure wellbeing of citizens, State Ministers said on Thursday. However, the Government is not in favour of a statewide lockdown as it may have a detrimental effect on the econ- omy and livelihood of resi- dents, State Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon said. “Only the districts that have witnessed an unprece- dented rise in cases could be locked down,” Oraon said, adding that many other states have taken similar decisions in order to check the transmission of Novel Coronavirus. The decision, the Minister said, will be taken only if the trend of rapidly rising cases of Covid-19 continues for a con- siderable period of time in a particular district. “We know the adverse effects of lockdown on econo- my and livelihood, so a statewide lockdown is out of question. The wellbeing of our people is paramount and we may have to impose lockdown in some districts for the same,” Oraon said. State Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam on Thursday said that the Government was keeping an eye on all the happenings, and it may take a call on re-impo- sition of lockdown if fresh cases of Covid-19 infection keep surfacing in large num- bers. “We have kept an eye on the developments. We may take a call depending on the sit- uation,” he said. Jharkhand witnessed a sudden spike in cases of Covid- 19 infection in the past couple of days. State water resources min- ister Mithilesh Thakur and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator Mathura Mahto tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and are undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). As a fallout of legislators testing positive for Covid-19, Chief Minister Hemant Soren decided to quarantine himself at home on Wednesday, and the JMM party office was locked. Besides, several cops, including 27 from Ranchi alone, tested positive for the virus this week. Jharkhand is still recover- ing from the jolts of the nation- wide lockdown, which was imposed on March 24 in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, officials have said. The Dtate’s coffers were empty when the lockdown was imposed, and the Government was planning steps for gener- ating revenue. The lockdown added insult to injury as the Government had to shut down all businesses including liquor sale, one of the major revenue generators for the State, a highly placed source in the excise department said. T he Covid death toll in Jharkhand reached 23 on Thursday after a Deoghar res- ident died during treatment at Medanta Hospital in Ranchi, health officials said. Besides, a former legislator from Hussainabad, Shivpujan Mehta, was reportedly among the 75 people who tested pos- itive for Covid-19 on Thursday, sources said. However, there was no official confirmation on his Covid test results by the time this report was filed. One State Minister, an MLA, several policemen and journalists have tested positive for Novel Coronavirus in the State this year. In wake of the recent test results, Chief Minister Hemant Soren quar- antined himself at home on Wednesday. As many as 40 patients recovered from Covid infec- tion on Thursday, taking the number of recoveries in State to 2210, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. The total count of Covid cases in Jharkhand reached 3268 on Thursday, the bulletin further said. Out of the 75 fresh cases reported on Thursday, at least 14 were from Ranchi and 13 from Koderma, the bulletin stated. Of the 40 patients who recovered, at least 12 were from Dhanbad, it highlighted. As many as 2,168 migrants have tested positive for Covid- 19 in the State since May 5. However, the number of non- migrants testing positive for Coronavirus has been on the rise, health officials said. The Government has so far collected samples of 1.72 lakh suspects and tested 1.67 lakh of them. According to NHM, the number of active cases in Jharkhand stood at 1,035 on Thursday. The recovery rate in the State has dropped to 67.64 per cent against the national aver- age of 62.08 per cent. The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand is 0.70 per cent, which is lower than the nation- al mortality rate of 2.75 per cent, the NHM bulletin stated. Jharkhand witnessed a sudden spike in cases of Covid- 19 infection in the past couple of days. State water resources minister Mithilesh Thakur and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator Mathura Mahto tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and are undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). The first Covid-19 case of State was reported from Hindpiri on March 31. A Malaysian woman, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, became the first Covid patient here. Soon, a flurry of cases in Hindpiri haunted the Government, and the locality was sealed. However, the cases have now reduced considerably in the locality and it is not a containment zone anymore, officials said. A second wave of Covid- 19 cases hit Jharkhand with the return of migrant workers. At least five lakh migrants returned to the state since the imposition of lockdown, and more than 2000 of them test- ed positive for Covid-19, offi- cials said. T aking a serious note of the incident in Godda, where a woman gave birth to her child outside a health centre, Chief Minister Hemant Soren expressed anguish and said that the matter is not only serious but is painful for the whole State. The CM asked the Deputy Commissioner of Godda to inform him after a thorough probe in the incident. He instructed all Deputy Commissioners, “All of you must ensure that such incidents don’t take place in future. And, for this make a proper work plan and execute it,” he tweeted. The Chief Minister had received information that a woman suffering from labour pain gave birth to her child out- side the health center due to the closure of the Devadand sub- health center of Podaiahat block of Godda district. Upon calling the Sahia, her phone was found to be switched off. Meanwhile, the CM paid tributes to former minister cum ex-Tamar MLA Late Ramesh Singh Munda on his death anniversary of. The CM said that late Ramesh Singh Munda had done many works for the uplift of the poor class during his tenure. “He always gave prominence to public wel- fare. Today there is a need to be inspired by his works and work for the uplift of the poor. This will be a true tribute to him,” said the CM. Soren said the last sen- tences of Late Ramesh Singh Munda are relevant even today. He arrived as the chief guest at the Pratibha Samman ceremo- ny held at the SS High School Bundu, addressing the chil- dren, and said, “I come from a poor family and backward area. I have reached here today by reading and writing. Education is very important. Education gets respect in society. Today I am doing politics. I lost the elec- tion thrice, but did not lose courage. I was not at all dis- tracted by the failure. I never backed down from my goal and eventually won. I also became MLA and Minister. We must contemplate as to why we fail. Then the shortcomings should be overcome and one should move forward. You will get success. Students should take inspiration from their words. Study a lot, become a great man,” the CM quoted the Late leader saying his last words. W ith several States other than the worst-affected trio of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, clocking record spikes on Thursday, India reported more than 25,000 cases and 400 plus deaths for the sec- ond consecutive day. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, Kerala and Odisha in addition to Gujarat came with big numbers to push the overall tally of pos- itive cases to 7,94,180 and death count to 21,622. During the last few days, the virus has spread to the inte- rior beyond the urban clusters and this is reflected in huge number of cases from across the country and emergence of several new hotspots. Maharashtra crossed 2.30 lakh-mark on Thursday, with as many as 6,875 people testing positive for the coronavirus, while 219 more died of the pandemic in various parts of the State. With the infections going up from Wednesdays’ count of 6,603 to 6,875 on Thursday, the total number of infected cases climbed up to 2,30,599. With fresh 219 deaths, the total deaths in the State went up to 9,667. Of the total 219 deaths, Mumbai accounted for 68 deaths, taking the total number of deaths in the metropolis to 5,132 now, while the total num- ber of positive patients rose by 1,268 cases to touch 89,124. Apart from 68 deaths in Mumbai, there were 66 deaths in Thane, 27 deaths in Pune, 17 deaths in Raigad, eight deaths each in Palghar and Solapur, seven in Jalgaon, four in Nashik, three in Satara, two each in Ahmednagar, Nandurbar and Nagpur, one each in Latur, Jalna, Amravati, Nanded, and one from another State. With 54,811 infected cases with 1,483 deaths, Thane has emerged as the second worst hit district in Maharashtra.Pune, which has emerged as the third worst affected district in terms of spread of the pandemic, has recorded 33,394 infections and 989 deaths till now. Delhi recorded 2187 new cases and 47 deaths, which took its total count to 1,08,051 and death tally to 3248. Tamil Nadu’s seesaw battle with Covid-19 continued on Thursday as 4,231 persons were diagnosed with the pan- demic across the State. There was no respite in the death toll also. The day saw 65 persons succumbing to coronavirus in the State.

Transcript of ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in...

Page 1: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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The most hyped manhuntcarried out by the cops of

Uttar Pradesh police in last sixdays finally culminated in a dra-matic climax when gangsterVikas Dubey surrendered in theMahakal Temple in Ujjain onThursday morning. Accordingto reports, the gangster told thepolice that he wanted to burnthe bodies of the slain cops todestroy evidence. However, hedid not have enough time to doso. His arrest in Mahakaal tem-ple premises sparked debatewhether he surrendered forfear of being killed.

Dubey travelled 1,500 kilo-meters from Faridabad to Ujjanwithin 24 hours for a tryst withthe Mahakal and his des-tiny.”Main Vikas Dubey hun,Kanpur wala (I am Vikas Dubeyfrom Kanpur),” screamed theUttar Pradesh gangster. Thisreportedly alerted securityguards at the Ujjain temple whoinformed the police.

As policemen walked himtowards a police car, VikasDubey shouted again, “MainVikas Dubey hun, Kanpur wala”.ADG Law and Order, PrashantKumar confirmed the develop-ment and claimed that the STFteam was immediately dis-

patched to Ujjain to take custodyof Dubey.”Vikas Dubey wasgoing to Ujjain Mahakal templewhen he was identified by secu-rity personnel. Police wereinformed, he confessed his iden-tity after being pushed for it. Hehas been apprehended by thepolice and interrogation isunderway,” Ashish Singh, UjjainCollector told mediapersons.

Singh said Vikas Dubeyinitially refused to reveal hisidentity. He also showed a PANcard carrying the name of oneShubham. He produced moreIdentity Cards, as per which hewas 28 years of age. An argu-ment followed, but by then thepolice arrived and took him into

custody. There were two morepeople with Dubey, who havealso been arrested.

Security cameras installedinside the temple premisescaught Dubey making anappearance at the Mahakaltemple at around 8.50 am.Dubey then went to a shoplocated outside the temple andasked how a ticket could bepurchased and enquired aboutdarshan at the temple. Theowner of the shop identifiedDubey. The man claimed thatwhen Dubey approached him,he was not wearing a mask andwas calling for a person namedBunty. The temple shop ownerthen informed a guard at the

Mahakal temple. By then, Dubey had already

purchased a darshan ticket andentered the temple. Dubey hasbeen on the run for almost aweek, ever since the ambush andkilling of eight police personnelin Kanpur. As police searchedfor him in Haryana, Delhi, aclose watch was kept on theIndo-Nepal border.

A photograph that has goneviral, shows Dubey sitting com-fortably on a sofa inside the tem-ple complex in Ujjain soon afterhis arrest. Madhya PradeshHome Minister NarottamMishra first confirmed thedevelopment. He told reportersthat Dubey is in the State police’s

custody in Ujjain. The Minister,however, did not confirm if thedreaded gangster, who was car-rying a reward of Rs 5 lakh oninformation leading to his arrest,was nabbed from within oroutside the Mahakal templepremises. Later, Dubey waswhisked away to an unidentifiedlocation for medical examina-tion and questioning.

Meanwhile, two more aidesof Dubey were gunned down inseparate encounters in UttarPradesh. While Kartikeya aliasPrabhat was killed in Kanpurwhen he tried to flee frompolice custody, Praveen aliasBauwa Dubey was shot dead inan encounter in Etawah, thepolice said. Kartikeya, whowas arrested from Faridabad onWednesday, was being broughtto Kanpur on transit remandwhen he snatched the pistol ofa policeman and tried to flee,ADG, Law and Order PrashantKumar said.

“The encounter took placein the Panki area of Kanpurwhen a police team was bring-ing Kartikeya alias Prabhatfrom Faridabad to Kanpur ontransit remand. The policevehicle had a flat tyre. Takingadvantage of the situation,Kartikeya tried to flee aftersnatching the pistol of a police-man,” he said.

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With withdrawal by boththe Armies at the border

in Ladakh proceeding withouta hitch for the fourth day,India on Thursday reaffirmedits stand that the Line of ActualControl (LAC) must be “strict-ly respected” and neither sideshould take any unilateralaction to alter it. It also stressedthe need for continuing the dia-logue process and China alsoechoed similar sentiments.

The Chinese ForeignMinistry said both the coun-tries will hold a new round ofcommander level dialogue andborder issue consultation andco-ordination mechanismmeetings. It also said in Beijingthat the overall border situationis stable and the border ten-sions have eased, according tothe Global Times, the govern-ment mouthpiece of China.

As both the Armies, moreor less, completed the pullback from all the four face-offsites in Eastern Ladakh whichwere on for the past eightweeks besides the bloody skir-mish in the Galwan valley onJune15, New Delhi also said,“We remain convinced of theneed for maintenance of peaceand tranquility in the borderareas and the resolution ofdifferences through dialogue, atthe same time, we are alsostrongly committed to ensuringIndia’s sovereignty and territo-rial integrity.”

Enunciating the country’sposition, External AffairsMinistry spokesperson Anurag

Srivastava said here the diplo-matic and military officials ofboth sides will continue theirmeetings to take forward theprocess of disengagement andde-escalation as agreed to bythe Special RepresentativesNational Security Advisor(NSA) Ajit Doval and ForeignMinister Wang Yi. The nextmeeting of the WorkingMechanism for Consultationand Coordination on India-China border affairs (WMCC)is expected to take place soon.

He also said, “We havealso noted that there have beensome inaccurate and unin-formed comments about thedisengagement process and itsimplications. Let me remindyou that in the last few weeks,we have made several state-ments spelling out categorical-ly the position of theGovernment on differentaspects of the current situation

in the Western Sector of India-China border areas.”

“They include our positionthat recent Chinese claims tothe Galwan Valley area areexaggerated and untenable; thatthe LAC must be strictlyrespected and observed as thisis the basis for peace and tran-quility in the border areas; andthat neither side should takeany unilateral action to alter it.We remain convinced of theneed for maintenance of peaceand tranquility in the borderareas and the resolution of dif-ferences through dialogue, atthe same time, we are alsostrongly committed to ensuringIndia’s sovereignty and territo-rial integrity,” he said.

Giving the sequence ofevents in the last five days, hesaid the Special Representatives(SRs) of India and China had a telephone conversationon July 5.

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Government may re-imposelockdown in districts that

witness a steep rise in cases ofCovid-19 infection in a bid toavert community transmissionand ensure wellbeing of citizens, State Ministers saidon Thursday.

However, the Governmentis not in favour of a statewidelockdown as it may have adetrimental effect on the econ-omy and livelihood of resi-dents, State Finance MinisterRameshwar Oraon said.

“Only the districts thathave witnessed an unprece-dented rise in cases could belocked down,” Oraon said,adding that many other stateshave taken similar decisions inorder to check the transmissionof Novel Coronavirus.

The decision, the Ministersaid, will be taken only if thetrend of rapidly rising cases ofCovid-19 continues for a con-siderable period of time in aparticular district.

“We know the adverseeffects of lockdown on econo-my and livelihood, so astatewide lockdown is out ofquestion. The wellbeing of ourpeople is paramount and wemay have to impose lockdownin some districts for the same,”Oraon said.

State Rural DevelopmentMinister Alamgir Alam onThursday said that theGovernment was keeping aneye on all the happenings, andit may take a call on re-impo-

sition of lockdown if freshcases of Covid-19 infectionkeep surfacing in large num-bers. “We have kept an eye onthe developments. We may

take a call depending on the sit-uation,” he said.

Jharkhand witnessed asudden spike in cases of Covid-19 infection in the past couple

of days. State water resources min-

ister Mithilesh Thakur andJharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) legislator Mathura

Mahto tested positive for thevirus on Tuesday and areundergoing treatment at theRajendra Institute of MedicalSciences (RIMS).

As a fallout of legislatorstesting positive for Covid-19,Chief Minister Hemant Sorendecided to quarantine himselfat home on Wednesday, andthe JMM party office waslocked. Besides, several cops,including 27 from Ranchialone, tested positive for thevirus this week.

Jharkhand is still recover-ing from the jolts of the nation-wide lockdown, which wasimposed on March 24 in thewake of Covid-19 pandemic,officials have said.

The Dtate’s coffers wereempty when the lockdown wasimposed, and the Governmentwas planning steps for gener-ating revenue.

The lockdown added insultto injury as the Government hadto shut down all businessesincluding liquor sale, one of themajor revenue generators for theState, a highly placed source inthe excise department said.

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The Covid death toll inJharkhand reached 23 on

Thursday after a Deoghar res-ident died during treatment atMedanta Hospital in Ranchi,health officials said.

Besides, a former legislatorfrom Hussainabad, ShivpujanMehta, was reportedly amongthe 75 people who tested pos-itive for Covid-19 on Thursday,sources said. However, therewas no official confirmation onhis Covid test results by thetime this report was filed.

One State Minister, anMLA, several policemen andjournalists have tested positivefor Novel Coronavirus in theState this year. In wake of therecent test results, ChiefMinister Hemant Soren quar-antined himself at home onWednesday.

As many as 40 patientsrecovered from Covid infec-tion on Thursday, taking thenumber of recoveries in Stateto 2210, a bulletin released bythe National Health Mission(NHM) stated. The total countof Covid cases in Jharkhandreached 3268 on Thursday,the bulletin further said.

Out of the 75 fresh casesreported on Thursday, at least14 were from Ranchi and 13from Koderma, the bulletinstated. Of the 40 patients whorecovered, at least 12 werefrom Dhanbad, it highlighted.

As many as 2,168 migrantshave tested positive for Covid-19 in the State since May 5.However, the number of non-migrants testing positive forCoronavirus has been on therise, health officials said.

The Government has so

far collected samples of 1.72lakh suspects and tested 1.67lakh of them. According toNHM, the number of activecases in Jharkhand stood at1,035 on Thursday.

The recovery rate in theState has dropped to 67.64 percent against the national aver-age of 62.08 per cent. TheCovid mortality rate inJharkhand is 0.70 per cent,which is lower than the nation-al mortality rate of 2.75 percent, the NHM bulletin stated.

Jharkhand witnessed asudden spike in cases of Covid-19 infection in the past coupleof days. State water resourcesminister Mithilesh Thakur andJharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) legislator MathuraMahto tested positive for thevirus on Tuesday and areundergoing treatment at theRajendra Institute of MedicalSciences (RIMS).

The first Covid-19 case ofState was reported fromHindpiri on March 31. AMalaysian woman, who hadattended the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation in New Delhi,became the first Covid patienthere. Soon, a flurry of cases inHindpiri haunted theGovernment, and the localitywas sealed. However, the caseshave now reduced considerablyin the locality and it is not acontainment zone anymore,officials said.

A second wave of Covid-19 cases hit Jharkhand with thereturn of migrant workers. Atleast five lakh migrantsreturned to the state since theimposition of lockdown, andmore than 2000 of them test-ed positive for Covid-19, offi-cials said.

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Taking a serious note of theincident in Godda, where a

woman gave birth to her childoutside a health centre, ChiefMinister Hemant Sorenexpressed anguish and said thatthe matter is not only seriousbut is painful for the whole State.

The CM asked the DeputyCommissioner of Godda toinform him after a thoroughprobe in the incident. Heinstructed all DeputyCommissioners, “All of youmust ensure that such incidentsdon’t take place in future. And,

for this make a proper work planand execute it,” he tweeted.

The Chief Minister hadreceived information that awoman suffering from labourpain gave birth to her child out-side the health center due to theclosure of the Devadand sub-health center of Podaiahatblock of Godda district. Uponcalling the Sahia, her phonewas found to be switched off.

Meanwhile, the CM paidtributes to former ministercum ex-Tamar MLA LateRamesh Singh Munda on hisdeath anniversary of. The CMsaid that late Ramesh SinghMunda had done many worksfor the uplift of the poor classduring his tenure. “He alwaysgave prominence to public wel-

fare. Today there is a need to beinspired by his works and workfor the uplift of the poor. Thiswill be a true tribute to him,”said the CM.

Soren said the last sen-tences of Late Ramesh SinghMunda are relevant even today.He arrived as the chief guest atthe Pratibha Samman ceremo-ny held at the SS High SchoolBundu, addressing the chil-

dren, and said, “I come from apoor family and backward area.I have reached here today byreading and writing. Educationis very important. Educationgets respect in society. Today Iam doing politics. I lost the elec-tion thrice, but did not losecourage. I was not at all dis-tracted by the failure. I neverbacked down from my goal andeventually won. I also becameMLA and Minister. We mustcontemplate as to why we fail.Then the shortcomings shouldbe overcome and one shouldmove forward. You will getsuccess. Students should takeinspiration from their words.Study a lot, become a greatman,” the CM quoted the Lateleader saying his last words.

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With several States otherthan the worst-affected

trio of Maharashtra, Tamil Naduand Delhi, clocking recordspikes on Thursday, Indiareported more than 25,000 casesand 400 plus deaths for the sec-ond consecutive day.

Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Bihar,West Bengal, Haryana, Keralaand Odisha in addition toGujarat came with big numbersto push the overall tally of pos-itive cases to 7,94,180 anddeath count to 21,622.

During the last few days,the virus has spread to the inte-rior beyond the urban clustersand this is reflected in hugenumber of cases from acrossthe country and emergence ofseveral new hotspots.

Maharashtra crossed 2.30lakh-mark on Thursday, withas many as 6,875 people testingpositive for the coronavirus,while 219 more died of thepandemic in various parts ofthe State.

With the infections goingup from Wednesdays’ count of6,603 to 6,875 on Thursday, the total number ofinfected cases climbed up to2,30,599. With fresh 219 deaths,the total deaths in the State wentup to 9,667.

Of the total 219 deaths,Mumbai accounted for 68deaths, taking the total numberof deaths in the metropolis to5,132 now, while the total num-ber of positive patients rose by1,268 cases to touch 89,124.

Apart from 68 deaths inMumbai, there were 66 deathsin Thane, 27 deaths in Pune, 17deaths in Raigad, eight deathseach in Palghar and Solapur,seven in Jalgaon, four in Nashik,three in Satara, two each inAhmednagar, Nandurbar andNagpur, one each in Latur,Jalna, Amravati, Nanded, andone from another State.

With 54,811 infected caseswith 1,483 deaths, Thane has

emerged as the second worst hitdistrict in Maharashtra.Pune,which has emerged as the thirdworst affected district in termsof spread of the pandemic, hasrecorded 33,394 infections and989 deaths till now.

Delhi recorded 2187 newcases and 47 deaths, which tookits total count to 1,08,051 anddeath tally to 3248.

Tamil Nadu’s seesaw battlewith Covid-19 continued onThursday as 4,231 personswere diagnosed with the pan-demic across the State. Therewas no respite in the death tollalso. The day saw 65 personssuccumbing to coronavirus inthe State.

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Section 144 was imposed inthe whole town area of

Hazaribag after several newcases came into light recently.Five new cases came to light onThursday from different areas ofthe district. Total 18 cases report-ed in hospital during 48 hours.Over 100 policemen were quar-antined and three police stationshave been sealed in the district.

The main roads of thetown gave a deserted look onThursday and shops wereclosed. Sub Divisional OfficerMegha Bhardwaj said that allthe religious and public pro-grammes are banned.

Sadar, Korrha andKatkamdag police station havebeen sealed by the policeadministration. Barkagaonpolice station has also beensealed due to a police officer’sreport coming positive. Nowfour police stations have beensealed. As many as 46 patients

are under treatment inHazaribag Medical College andHospital and in Arogyam hos-pital. A total of 182 patientswere discharged till today byboth the hospitals.

HMCH SuperintendentSanjay Sinha said that alladmitted patients are beingattended by an expert team ofdoctors. The report of the labtechnician of the HazaribagMedical College and Hospitalcame out positive. A 50 yearsold lady of Barkatha was alsofound positive. Two persons inthe town area also reportedpositive. One is a resident ofNawab Ganj and second isBadi Bazar area. The BadiBazar resident is working asassistant in Chatra court.

A Corona positive accused,who ran away from the Covidhospital, has been arrested bypolice from Gandhi Maidan ofthe town area. As of now182patients have been released fromhospitals. The hospital man-agement has sent 6340 samplesfor testing, out of them 5618results were negative, while 569samples are still pending inboth the testing labs.

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In a breakthrough, police suc-ceeded in nabbing Piyun

Birhor, a member of the mostwanted Maoist Asim Mandalsquad on Wednesday late night.Birhor is a resident ofPunagoda in Ghatshila policestation area. He was arrested byMGM police station fromBarabanki area.

Police officials informedthat four cases of Naxal vio-lence have been registeredagainst him at different policestations.

On Thursday, AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceGulshan Tirkey presented theMaoist in front of the media. Hehas been accused of carryingNaxal activities in Galudih,Patmada and MGM police sta-tion area. The police had earli-er on Tuesday arrested MaoistSubhash Munda and on thebasis of clues provided by himpolice managed to nab Birhor.After arrest, Patmada DSP VijayMahato and other officers grilledhim at MGM police station.

According to police sources,he used to paste Maoists postersin the Naxal infested areas andwas also responsible for arrang-ing food items for fellow squadmembers.

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Rajbhasha Hindi workshopwas organised in the

Business ExcellenceDepartment of BSL, followingthe social distancing.

The workshop was inau-gurated by General Manager(Business Excellence)Anupama Tiwari lighting the lamp.

On this occasion, GeneralManager (Business Excellence)B. Banerjee, DepartmentalHindi Officer and Manager(Business Excellence) DevayaniChakraborty, Manager (Liaison& Administration) BasudevRajwar, Deputy Manager(Business Excellence) SagarikaSahu and employees of theBusiness ExcellenceDepartment were present.

At the beginning of theworkshop, Chakraborty wel-comed the guests and present-ed the departmental Hindiprogress report. Tiwariappealed to all subordinatepersonnel to use the officiallanguage Hindi more and morein their official work.

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Bokaro: In a bid to provide abetter environment and atmos-phere to the children about 500Anganwadi centers in the dis-trict would be renovated andequipped with necessary facili-ties very soon. A target has beenset up to renovate and equipabout five hundred Anganwadicenters across the district,informed Mukesh Kumar,Deputy Commissioner, Bokaro.

“On this move we have setthe goal to give a lucrative look(by colored painting) to theAnganwadi centres so that chil-dren can be attracted to spendmore and more time in thosecentres,” he said. Aganwari cen-tres were started by the Indiangovernment in 1975 as part ofthe Integrated ChildDevelopment Services programto combat child hunger andmalnutrition. PNS

� �� � ����2 �5

On the 9th day of‘Swachchhta Pakhwara’ the

drive to lift every ounce ofgarbage and filth in the townMedininagar is going on in fullswing with two DC ShantanuKumar Agrahari andMunicipal CommissionerMedininagar municipal cor-

poration Dinesh Prasad withmasks on face inspecting thesites of garbage.

On Thursday Agrahari andPrasad spent more than anhour on the bank of the riverKoyal falling in the stretchbetween a temple and a gymwith one school Jawahar NAV.

Agrahari said the ghatswhich are in dilapidated

condition would be restrengthened.

Prasad said the bouldersthat we have with us would beused to strengthen the ghatsand that would cost nothing tothe administration.

About a dozen street lightson this stretch of the Koyalwere found dysfunctional overthe months.

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Page 3: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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Panic gripped people afterpositive cases of COVID-19

are increasing in the State andit has forced various politicalparties and organisations toshut their offices or restricttheir activities as much as pos-sible so that the infection couldbe prevented.

Major political parties in theState like the party at the helmof the State, Jharkhand MuktiMorcha (JMM) closed its officeand Congress restricted its activ-ity. The opposition parties-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and AJSU Party are amongthose whose offices are beingeither closed or they restricted

activities for very essentialworks. First of all JMM GeneralSecretary Supriyo Bhattachryaon Wednesday by issuing aninstruction to the party workerssaid that the party headquarterswill remain closed till the datewhen the party will be informedto open for opening the office.

Alliance partner in theState Government, JharkhandPradesh Congress Committee(JPCC) office also closed itsmain office in the State Capital.JPCC Chief Rameshwar Oraoncame to office in the eveningand completed the works of theorganization. He said that it isnot appropriate to completelyclose the office, but all theworkers have been instructed

not to come to office withoutvery necessary work for thenext 10 days.

In the last two days theCovid-19 cases reached the100 mark and forced people to

think seriously on the issue.BJP also restricted its activ-

ities at its State headquarter andinstructed the party workersthat they should not come tooffice when it is not required.The State BJP Media In chargeSheopujan Pathak said thatkeeping increasing numbersof cases in mind the party StateChief Dipak Prakash instruct-ed that only very essentialactivities will take place at theparty office with precaution.The AJSU Party is also follow-ing the same cue and it is allow-ing any worker to enter theoffice after proper scanning.AJSU Party SpokespersonDeosharan Bhagat said thatthey have told the party officials

and workers to not come tooffice without work.

The panic also gripped onother organisations, apextraders’ body in the State-Federation of JharkhandChambers of Commerce andIndustries (FJCCI) onThursday announced that itsmain office will remain closedfor indefinite time and whenthe situation suggests then theoffice will be opened.

FJCCI president KunalAzmani said, “We have nowentered Unlock-2 while fightingagainst Covid-19. We are real-izing that since Unlock-2 hascome into force in the State,negligence in personal andsocial behavior is also increas-

ing, which is a matter of seriousconcern in the present sce-nario. Earlier we were highlycautious about facemask, socialdistancing, washing hands sev-eral times a day for 20 seconds,but now we are slowly giving upthese habits. Please note that thespread of infection in Jharkhandis happening again at a rapidpace, in such a situation, wehave to make a habit of beingvigilant. In view of the increas-ing spread of infection, all sub-sequent meetings proposed bythe FJCCI have been canceled.Activities will often be donefrom the digital platform itself.Entry of outsiders to theChamber building is also pro-hibited until further orders.”

� �� � ����

In bid to improve living stan-dards of tribal in Jharkhand

Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) Jharkhandorganised the third edition ofTribal Development Meet overvirtual platform on Thursday inassociation with TRIFED,United Nation DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) India andCitizens Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion asChief Guest Union Minister forTribal Affairs, Arjun Munda, saidthat this kind of meet can go along way in ensuring growth,development and employment ofthe youth belonging to the back-ward sections of the society.“Our Government has given aspecial focus to the uplift of trib-al population,” said Munda.

The Minister said that theGovernment of India is takingspecial initiatives towards over-all growth and development ofthe tribal community so that itcan increasingly take part in theIndia growth story. He alsogave special emphasis on therole of skill development for theoverall growth and develop-ment of the tribal and otherbackward communities.

Resident Representative,UNDP India, Shoko Noda, saidthat “For UNDP, inclusive devel-opment means ‘equal opportu-nities and choices for all’. I

request our friends from the cor-porate sector to ensure thattheir existing CSR strategies aresensitive to the diverse needs ofthe tribal communities.”

Addressing the gatheringVice Chairman, CII JharkhandState Council and VicePresident (Corporate Services),Tata Steel Limited, ChanakyaChaudhary said that the plat-form of CII Jharkhand TribalDevelopment Meet is an effortto create a forum for knowl-edge sharing and awarenesscreation. It is also an initiativeto bring Government, Industryand Civil Societies together tocreate partnerships for address-ing pertinent issues of devel-opment. He said that the out-come of this meet should becreating more tribal and dalitentrepreneurs resulting ininclusive growth in the aspira-tional districts of Jharkhand.

Addressing the gathering,Chairman, CII Jharkhand StateCouncil and ManagingDirector, Metaldyne IndustriesLimited, Sanjay Sabherwal, saidthat CII and the industry ofJharkhand is committed to thedevelopment of the tribal soci-ety. He said, “We need to focuson tribal development inJharkhand, more now than everbefore. Firm plans needed forthe economic development andupliftment of our area rich inflora, fauna, mineral reservesand human capital.”

S e cre t ar y-c um-C hie fExecutive Officer, CitizensFoundation, Ganesh Reddy saidthat the focus of the CIIJharkhand Tribal DevelopmentMeet is not merely on dialogueexchange rather it is aimed atcharting concerned areas fortribal development and propos-als for future action, he added.

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A27-year-old personaccused of a petty crime

arrested by Hazaribagh policeon Monday, escaped frompolice custody from Covid-19ward of Hazaribagh Sadar hos-pital on Thursday morningwhere he was hospitalized afterhis Covid test had turned pos-itive. However, police arrestedhim later from the Town area.

Health staffs noticed himmissing from the ward around8 am when they visited theward for routine check-up andlikes. “He was under treat-ment at the hospital underpolice custody. He somehowentered inside the bathroom bysomehow removing its lock.The bathroom was not underuse. He jumped out of the win-dow of the bathroom,” said sub-divisional police officer ofHazaribagh; Kamal Kishore.

The incident had left thedistrict police panicked as therewas a high chance that theaccused can infect a large num-ber of people as a single source.

The person has alreadyforced Hazaribagh districtadministration to impose lock-down in some of the parts ofthe district besides adminis-tration had to seal two policestations Korra and Sadar policestation where the accused waskept after arrest.

As many as 75 police per-sonnel from Korra and Sadarpolice stations besides cops inPCR duty who had come in

contact with the accused dur-ing and after his arrest; havebeen placed under institution-al and home quarantine.

All of them have under-gone the Covid-19 test.

A native of Matwari local-ity he was arrested on Monday(July 6) when he was trying toescape after stealing cash fromthe cash counter of a shopunder Korra police station. Hewas caught and thrashed bylocal residents who informedpolice later on.

He was kept in the lock-uproom of Korra police station.But in the evening he wastransferred to Sadar police sta-tion for night stay since thelock-up room of Korra policestation has no proper facility

like a bathroom.Before sending him to jail;

on Tuesday the Covid-19 testwas conducted upon theaccused.

District administration andpolice were rattled when histest turned positive. Both policestations were sealed and adjoin-ing areas of police stationswere declared as containmentzones. District administrationsealed three important thor-oughfares namely Main road,Guru Gobind Singh road,Congress office road situated incontaminant zone.

However, to the relief of thedistrict administration theaccused was arrested by policefrom Gandhi Maidan area ofthe town, sources said.

Ranchi: Senior BJP leader andparty spokesperson PratulShahdeo has alleged that reli-gious conversion of tribals hasbecome rampant in Jharkhandin the coalition governmentand demanded JharkhandPolice to take strong actionsagainst people and groupsinvolved in this.

Shahdeo on Thursdayposted a comment on hisTwitter handle where hereferred to one such case of analleged attempt of conversion ofa tribal family of Kulgara villageunder Latehar police stationarea of Latehar district.

Shahdeo also shared a copyof the complaint lodged bycomplainants named ShankarBhuiyan and Kariman Bhuiyanon Wednesday.

Shankar alleged that a per-son Arsel Tirkey of Bhushurvillage is forcing his son LaluBhuiyan, daughter-in-law AnjuDevi and two of their childrento adopt Christianity.

Complainants said that theaccused had visited their houseabout five days back addingthat he is forcing three otherfamilies of the village for reli-gious conversion. PNS

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Page 4: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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The Drug Controller Generalof India (DCGI) has asked

the pharma companies sellinganti-viral injection Remdesivirto set up helpline and makeavailable their drug distributionnetwork to the people lookingout for the life saving drugsused for treatment of theCovid-19 patients.

The move followed com-plaints from various quartersthat the drug whose MRP isbetween Rs 4,800 to Rs 5,400per vial is in acute short supplyand being sold in black marketat as high as upto Rs 80,000 per

vial.Union Health Ministry

OSD Rajesh Bhsuhan said thatthey have received reports ofshortage of drug in the market.“In this connection, the topdrug regulator has asked theconcerned companies to set uphelplines and make availabletheir drug distribution net-work to help the people accessthe injection easily and at MRP,”he said at a presser here.

Doctors have been blamingincreased demand and limitedsupply of the medicine for itsshortage. On June 13, theMinistry had allowed its emer-gency use for treating Covid-19patients with moderate symp-

toms. An increase in casesaround the country has seenmore doctors prescribing thedrug , but supply hasn’tincreased proportionately.Patients prescribed the drug aretypically given five vials.

The DCGI on June 1 hadallowed Gilead Sciences, whichholds the patent for Remdesivir,to start importing the medicine.Three Indian manufacturers –Hetero, Cipla, and Mylan--have since been allowed tomanufacture the drug in India.

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Covid-19 may have beenassociated mostly with

problems like difficulty breath-ing, fever and cough, but casesof brain complications linked todeadly virus are being report-ed from across the countries.

These include confusion,stroke, inflammation of thebrain, spinal cord, and otherkinds of nerve disease, said astudy published in the journalThe Lancet Neurology.

"It is really important thatdoctors around the worldrecognise that COVID-19 cancause encephalitis and otherbrain problems, which oftenhave potentially devastating,life-changing consequences forpatients," said study co-authorAva Easton, CEO of theEncephalitis Society in the UK.

A recent Liverpool-ledstudy of Covid-19 patients hos-pitalised in the UK found arange of neurological and psy-chiatric complications that maybe linked to the disease.

To get a sense of the wider

picture, the researchers broughttogether and analysed findingsfrom Covid-19 studies acrossthe globe that reported onneurological complications.

The review, which includ-ed studies from China, Italyand the US among others,found almost 1,000 patientswith Covid-19-associatedbrain, spinal cord and nervedisease.

The study found thatstrokes, delirium and otherneurological complications arereported from most countrieswhere there have been largeoutbreaks of the disease.

"Whilst these complica-tions are relatively uncom-mon, the huge numbers ofCovid-19 cases globally meanthe overall number of patientswith neurological problems is

likely to be quite large," saidstudy researcher SuzannahLant. According to theresearchers, one of the com-plications found to be linked toCovid-19 is encephalitis, whichis inflammation and swelling ofthe brain.

"We are currently poolingdata from individual patientsall around the world, so that wecan get a more complete pic-ture. Doctors who would like tocontribute patients to thisanalysis can contact us via theGlobal Covid-Neuro Networkwebsite," the study authorswrote.

Recently another study, pub-lished this week in the journalBrain, showed that Covid-19 cancause severe neurological com-plications, including delirium,brain inflammation, stroke andnerve damage.

The research team had iden-tified one rare and sometimesfatal inflammatory condition,known as ADEM, which appearsto be increasing in prevalencedue to the pandemic.

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Even as cases are fast spread-ing like wildfire in India to

touch to 8 lakh mark, making itthe third-worst hit nation in theworld , the Centre on Thursdaysaid India has not yet reachedthe community transmissionstage of Covid and asserted thatthere have been localised out-breaks in some geographicalareas.

The Government pointedout that eight states, includingMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana,account for around 90 per cent

of the active Covid-19 cases inthe country and 80 per cent ofthe active cases have beenreported from 49 districts.

Similarly, six states —Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh andWest Bengal — account for 86per cent of the deaths caused byCOVID-19 and 32 districtsaccount for 80 per cent of suchfatalities, the Union HealthMinistry said. The death toll inIndia has climbed to 21,129.

Union Health Minister DrHarsh Vardhan said that there isno community transmission inIndia. “During our discussionstoday, experts again stated that

there is no community trans-mission in India. There may besome localised pockets wheretransmission is high but as acountry, there’s no communitytransmission,” the Minister saidwhile addressing a press con-ference after chairing a Group ofMinisters’ meeting to review,monitor and evaluate the evolv-ing situation on Covid-19 in thecountry.

Noting that though Indiahas become the third mostaffected country by the Covid-19 pandemic, he asserted it wasimportant to understand this inthe correct perspective.

“We are a country with the

second highest population in theworld. Our cases per million are538, while world average is1,453,” Vardhan said.

Later in the day at a press-er here, Health Ministry’s OSDRajesh Bhushan too asserted thatthere was no need to worry forIndia which has managed welland healthcare is not undulyburdened.

“When we talk of caseloadof Covid-19 in India, it is2,69,000 people. This tells us thatat the end of the day we've man-aged a situation where ourhealth care infrastructure is notunduly burdened and is notcreaking due to the pressure,” he

said. Today, we have 538 casesper million population, it's as perWHO situation report. Caseper million population in somecountries are at least 16-17times more than what it is inIndia. We have 15 deaths permillion population whereas wehave countries where it is 40times as much, the officialadded.

ICMR on its parts said thatthe number of tests hasincreased, on an average, we aretesting more than 2.6 Lakhs ofsamples per day. We hope to seea further rise by the use of theantigen test, said an officialfrom the ICMR.

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The Enforcement Directoratehas provisionally attached

assets worth Rs 2,203 crore ofYes Bank promoter RanaKapoor and others in connec-tion with a money launderingcase.

The present market value ofthe attached assets is morethan Rs 2,800 crore and includeimmovable properties in Indiaand abroad, bank accounts,investments and luxury vehi-cles, the ED said in a statement.

Besides Lapoor, these assetsbelong to DHFL’s KapilWadhawan and DheerajWadhawan and the entitiescontrolled by them.

The attached assets ofKapoor and related entities areworth Rs 792 crore ( presentmarket value Rs 1,400 crore)which include an independentresidential building“Khursidabad” at Cumbala Hill,three duplex flats at Napean SeaRoad, Mumbai, residential flatin NCPA, Nariman Point; eightflats in India Bulls Blue, Worli,Mumbai.

Besides a bungalow belong-ing to Kapoor at 40 AmritaShergill Marg in New Delhihaving market value of Rs 685crore has also been attached.

The attached assets belong-ing to Wadhawans and relatedentities are worth Rs 1,411.9crore which include 12 flats inKhar (West), Mumbai; one flatin New York and two flats inLondon, two land parcels inPune and Mulshi, one com-mercial property in Australia;five luxury vehicles and 344bank accounts.

The ED had initiated inves-tigations against Rana Kapoor,Kapil Wadhawan and DheerajWadhawan besides othersunder Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) on thebasis of FIR registered by CBIunder IPC Sections relating tocriminal conspiracy and cheat-ing besides provisions ofPrevention of Corruption Act.

The ED had earlierattached bank deposits to thetune of Rs 115 crore of variouscompanies of Rana Kapoorand seized jewellery worth Rs22.87 crore and seven highend luxury cars worth Rs 12.58crore belonging to theWadhawan family.

Kapoor and Wadhawanswere arrested by ED for theirrole in the money launderingcase and all of them are in judi-cial custody.

It was alleged that, duringApril to June, 2018, Yes BankLimited had invested Rs 3,700

crore in the short term deben-tures of DHFL, a companybelonging to Wadhawans forwhich kickback of Rs 600 crorewas paid to Rana Kapoor andhis family members in the garbof loan.

In addition, Yes Bank Ltd.had also sanctioned a loan of Rs750 crore to one of the RKWDevelopers Group company,beneficially owned by KapilWadhawan, DheerajWadhawan and their familymembers, for their BandraReclamation Project inMumbai. But the whole amountwas siphoned off by KapilWadhawan and DheerajWadhawan through their shellcompanies and was never usedfor the declared purpose, theED said.

Further, a separate casewas recorded against RanaKapoor, Gautam Thapar andothers under PMLA on thebasis of another FIR registeredby CBI on similar chargesunder IPC and Prevention ofCorruption Act.

This CBI FIR alleged thatRana Kapoor obtained illegalgratification in the form of aproperty in a prime location inNew Delhi at much less thanthe realizable market value,belonging to Avantha RealityLtd. (ARL).

�5 ���� �9�����������������

Days after opening up theASI monuments for gen-

eral public, the Union CultureMinistry has decided to allowthe film industry to shoot at theprotected sites.

"It would be difficult for thefilm industry to go to foreigndestinations at this time whenworld is swept withCoronavirus pandemic, so wehave suggested that they couldgo to the Northeast states,"Union Tourism and CultureMinister Prahlad Patel said ata FICCI event here.

He assured the film indus-

try that that they will get per-mission to shoot at monu-ments within 15-20 days of fil-ing their online applications.

"It would also fulfil thePrime Minister’s appeal topeople to visit various placesin the country. I told them wewill give permission in 15 to 20days. They just have to applyonline. I have appealed that itwould be great if other thanthe high footfall sites, theycould also shoot at less popu-lar monuments suggested byus to give them a boost aswell," he said.

The ASI has over 3,000monuments and sites that werereopened on July 6 after

remaining shut during thecoronavirus lockdown.

Currently, filming at ASIsites is permitted, but it involvesa lot of paperwork and is timeconsuming, officials said.

"Since now the film indus-try cannot shoot abroad, theministry will help in facilitat-ing permissions from the states.If necessary we will coordinatewith the Information andTechnology ministry as well,"the Minister said.

Presently, the request forfilming/ video shoot alongwith camera crew is to bemade by the applicant at least15 days prior to the proposeddate of shoot.

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HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank on

Thursday hit back at criticswho alleged a conspiracy inreducing the syllabus of theCentral Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) amid thecoronavirus pandemic.

The CBSE has reduced thesyllabus up to 30 per cent fornearly 190 subjects fromClasses 9 to 12 only for boardexams of the 2020-21 ses-sion. The board has said noquestion will be asked fromthe reduced syllabus in theexams.

"There has been a lot ofuninformed commentary onthe exclusion of some topicsfrom #CBSESyllabus. Theproblem with these commentsis that they resort to sensa-tionalism by connecting top-ics selectively to portray a falsenarrative," the Nishank sharedon twitter.

Key chapters l ikeDemocratic Rights, Food

Security in India, Federalism,Citizenship and Secularismhave been dropped fromschool courses. The nationaleducation board has said itseeks to reduce burden onstudents amid the pandemic.

The move led to criticismthat the centre was tweakingthe syllabus to suit a certainnarrative. West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeewas among those who criti-cised the CBSE's move toremove those chapters.

The CBSE clarified that"each of the topics that havebeen wrongly mentioned inmedia as deleted have beencovered under AlternativeAcademic Calendar ofNCERT, which is already inforce for all affiliated schoolsof the board".

Following up on theCBSE's clarification, the HRDMinister said schools havebeen asked to follow theAlternate Academic Calendarof the National Council ofEducational Research andTraining or NCERT.

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Of the over 21,000 deathsbeing reported in the

country, at least more than12,000 ie around 53 per centis of those above 60 years ofage, said the Government onThursday highlighting thatthe deadly virus is more fatalto the elderly.

In contrast, just one percent of the deaths in India areamong 14 years of age, 3 percent among people between15 to 29 years of age, while 11per cent between 30 and 44

years of age, 32 per centamong 45-59 years of agedand 39 per cent among peo-ple who are aged between 60and 74, said an officer fromthe Union Health Ministry ata press conference here.

Data also showed thatpersons with co-morbiditieslike diabetes and cardiovas-cular diseases are also proneto the virus which can dam-age organs in such patients.

When asked on Unionhealth Ministry's August 15deadline for Covid-19 vac-cine and why has it beenexpedited, Bhushan clarified,

"Please don't read somethingwhich is not there in DG-ICMR's letter. Letter's intentis only to expedite dulyapproved clinical trials with-out compromising on safetyand security concerns.”

The Ministry also saidBharat Biotech and CadilaHealthcare are developingvaccines for the virus. Bothvaccines completed animaltoxicity studies after approval.

"DCGI has permittedthese two vaccines to go infor phase one and two clini-cal trials. Trials are yet tobegin," he said.

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New Delhi: The CentralGovernment also apprised thecourt that the transfer of fundsreceived in PM-CARES toNDRF is "not maintainable" asthe former is created under sep-arate provisions.

Defending the formation ofPM-CARES fund, the CentreThursday told the SupremeCourt that the existence of thestatutory National Disaster ReliefFund (NDRF) “would not pro-hibit the creation of a differentfund”.

In an affidavit filed beforethe apex court on PM-CARESfund, the central governmentsaid, “It is submitted that thereare several funds which areeither established earlier or nowfor carrying out various reliefworks. PM Cares is one suchfund with voluntary donations.It is submitted that there exist afund stipulated under section 46of the DMA which is called NDRFund. However, mere existenceof a statutory fund would notprohibit in creation of a differ-ent fund like PM Cares Fundwhich provides for voluntarydonations.”

The Centre’s response inthe top court comes after a PILwas filed by an NGO seekingtransfer of funds from PM-CARES to NDRF.

The petition urged the courtto direct the government to pre-pare, notify and implement anational plan under the Disaster

Management Act to deal with thepandemic. It claimed that theCentre has been “refrainingfrom divulging information”about the money “contributed tothe PM CARES Fund till date”.

The central government alsoapprised the court that the trans-fer of funds received in PM-CARES to NDRF is “not main-tainable” as the former is creat-ed under separate provisions.

“It is submitted that a prayerbeing made seeking a directionof this Hon’ble court underArticle 32 of the Consitution ofIndia directing the fundsreceived by PM Cares Fund to becredited to NDRF is neithermaintainable on merits nor isotherwise maintainable underArticle 32 as all funds other thanthe funds stipulated under sec-tion 46 of DM Act, 2005 are sep-arate, different and distinct cre-ated separately under separateprovisions,” the Centre told SC.

The PM’s Citizen Assistanceand Relief in EmergencySituations (PM-CARES) Fundwas set up in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund hasbeen subject to scrutiny fromOpposition parties that saydetails of the funds must bemade public.

Earlier this month, theCongress party had accused thegovernment of “wasting” lock-down by not ramping up healthinfrastructure and procuring“substandard” ventilators. PTI

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Thursday pulled up theMaharashtra Government onthe migrant workers issue andrefused to accept its claim thatthere was no problem in thestate on this front, saying it isits duty to find out the lapsesand act on them.

A bench of Justices AshokBhushan, SK Kaul and MRShah asked the state to file afresh affidavit listing the stepstaken to mitigate the problemsof migrants wanting to returnto their homes amid the Covid.

It is not an adversarial lit-igation, the bench said, postingthe matter for further hearingon July 17. During the hearingof the case taken up suo motu(on its own) by the top court onthe miseries of migrant work-ers during the COVID-19 lock-down, the bench said: What ishappening in Maharashtra?Large number of migrantworkers are still in the state.”

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for the state,said that the latest affidavit hasbeen filed on July 6 in compli-ance with the apex court’sorder. PTI

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Tamil Nadu’s seesaw battle withCovid-19 continued on

Thursday as 4,231 persons werediagnosed with the pandemicacross the State. There was norespite in the death toll also. Theday saw 65 persons succumbing tocoronavirus in the State.

With 4,231 persons gettinginfected with the disease, TamilNadu has 46, 653 active Covid-19patients as on Thursday. Till date1.26 lakh persons has tested posi-tive for the pandemic.

According to the medical bul-letin released by the State, thenumber of laboratories to test thesamples has gone up to 100, a signthat the Tamil Nadu Governmentis on an aggressive testing mode. Atotal of 41, 038 persons were test-ed on Thursday while the numberof persons tested till date across theState crossed the 1.42 million mark.

The bulletin said 3,994 personswere discharged from hospitalsacross the State on Thursday, tak-ing the number of persons dis-charged till date to 78, 161.

The news from southern dis-tricts continued to be grim whilethe northern districts showed someabatement in the number of cases.Chennai Metropolis registered1,216 coronavirus cases whileneighbouring districts ofChengalpet (169) andKancheepuram ( 67) too showedslight decrease in the number of

persons tested positive. But inThiruvallur, another neighbouringdistrict of Chennai, 364 personswere diagnosed with the pandem-ic. The district had tested only 300cases on Wednesday.

Southern districts of Madurai( 262), Kallakurichi (254),Thoothukudi ( 196) andVirudhunagar (289) continued tobe problematic spots because of theincreasing numbers. Out of the 65deaths in the State on Thursday, 58died with comorbidities.

Chennai Corporation officialsattributed the decrease in the num-ber of Covid-29 cases in themetropolis to the fever camps heldacross the wards in the capital cityand suburbs. A senior Corporationofficial said that the total positivi-ty rate (number of positive cases forevery 100 tests) in Chennai hascome down from 24.2 per cent inJune to 18.2 per cent in July. Whilethe city has been reporting close tojust 1,200 fresh cases for the pastcouple of days, the doubling rate ofpositive cases (number of days ittakes for the count to double) in thecity has risen to 25 days, from the14-15 days in mid-June, said theofficial.

�5���8� "��� � 5 66�

The miseries of thousands ofmigrant workers, farm

labourers returning from theirvillages to earn their livelihoodin Jammu & Kashmir are farfrom over.

On Thursday, hundreds ofthese workers stranded at aquarantine centre in Vijaypurarea of Samba district createdruckus after they were deniedCovid-19 testing facility.

In a free for all situation,the stranded passengersuprooted counters, stalls andother furniture kept there at amakeshift testing facility insidethe quarantine centre. Securitypersonnel deployed at the quar-antine centre, were outnum-bered by the rush of strandedworkers. According to officialsources, “around 2300 passen-gers were present in the area at

the time of the incident”. Official sources said, “for

the last five to six days an aver-age number of 500-600 pas-sengers, majority of them brickkiln workers, farm labourerswere reporting at the quaran-tine centre”.

In the absence of adequatetesting facilities, more than2000 migrant workers werestuck there. They were blamingthe local officers for not havingadequate testing facilities toclear the rush of strandedworkers from the centre.

Soon after the incident,video footage of the ruckuswent viral on various socialmedia platforms where securi-ty personnel were seen strug-gling to contain the situationfor a long time. Senior districtand police officers were rushedto the spot to prevent the situ-ation from taking any uglyturn.

Incharge nodal officer ofthe administrative quarantinecentre Kamalpreet Singh toldThe Pioneer, “ruckus startedaround 1.30 p.m on Thursdayafter the testing team exhaust-ed their daily quota of 200-250tests as per the availability oftesting kits”.

He said, “as per the guide-lines, no passenger can begranted permission to proceedfurther to their destinationwithout undergoing mandato-ry Covid 19 screening”.

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Bengal on Thursday enteredinto its second phase of lock-

down only with a stricter appli-cation while large posses policepersonnel descended on thestreets with a sense of purpose farmore intense than what was seenin the first phase.

The lockdown started in allthe containment zones fromThursday evening in large partsof the State, Home Departmentsources said.

While North 24 Parganashas largest number of contain-ment zones at 94 there are 25 suchzones in Kolkata. South 24Parganas has 54 and Howrah has56 containment zones, officialssaid.

While East and WestMidnapopre have 21 and 23 suchzones respectively Coochbehar,Jhargram and West Burdwan dis-tricts have none. However thereare 25 and 21 such zones in Nadiaand East Burdwan whereasPurulia, Bankura and Birbhumhave 13, 9 and 9 extended con-tainment zones each.

In North Bengal, Alipurduarand Kalimpong have 4 and 3 con-tainment zones respectively whilethree police stations comprisingalmost the entire Malda city havebeen put under lockdown.

Dalkhola in North Dinajpurwhich stands at the junction ofBihar and Bengal have been putunder full lockdown.Murshidabad too has 4 such con-tainmnent zones.

The decision to impose aseven-day second phase lock-down was taken by ChiefMinister following a sharp spikein the number of cases whenceshe went on record on Thursdaysaying the “the poorer people liv-ing in slums are following therules more seriously than the richand the middle class which is evi-dent from the data base” showingonly 13 out of 255 cases comingfrom the slums.

The police on Thursdayevening were seen imposing thelockdown with far more intensi-ty and purpose not only puttingup barricades in designated areasbut also pulling up and sendingcommuters back home for notwearing masks. In parts of Maldathe cops were seen resorting tomild lathi-charges to disciplinethe citizens.

All the shops, governmentoffices and other institutions saveessential services were closed inthe containment zones policesaid.

During the lockdown localauthorities will try and arrangehome delivery of essential com-

modities for the residents ofthese areas, a senior official said.

Informing that containmentzones and buffer zones have beenamalgamated into formingextended containment zones anorder issued by Additional ChiefSecretary, Home, AlapanBandyopadhyay earlier had said,“these broader containment zonesmay be subjected to strict lock-down and all offices, governmentand private, all non-essentialactivities, congregations, trans-portations and all marketing,industrial and trading activities beclosed.”

Any extension of the lock-down beyond seven days willdepend upon the progress madein the given areas, the ChiefMinister had earlier said.

The Calcutta High Court toowas shut down till Monday fol-lowing an order from the ChiefJustice. Three buildings of theCourt will be sanitized duringthese four days, sources said.

Meanwhile a second TMCMLA have been diagnosed withcorona. The MLA fromKumarganj in North Dinajpurdistrict had been sent on homequarantine, sources said. Earliera senior TMC Legislator and aclose confidante of the ChiefMinister, Tamanash Ghosh haddied of corona last month.

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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan issuedan alert to the people of Kerala that

community transmission was staring theState and anytime from now it wouldbecome a reality. The State diagnosed onThursday 339 persons with Covid-19,the highest number to be recorded inKerala since the first citing of the pan-demic in January.

While Chief Secretary Viswas Mehtaopted to stay in his house as part ofobservation following the diagnosis ofhis driver with Covid-19, Poonthura, oneof the coastal suburbs of the capital citysaw the Government deploying armedcommandos to prevent the spread of thepandemic. “We are experiencing superspread in Poonthura and the coastal areahas been cut off from the rest of the dis-trict,” said Vijayan. Super Spread is theterm used to denote unprecedentedrate of infection, a step closer to com-munity transmission, the chief ministerexplained.

Thiruvananthapuram, which hasbeen described as a volcano byKadakampalli Surendran, Minister forTourism, on Thursday tested 95 personswith the pandemic. Out of the 339 per-sons diagnosed with coronavirus onThursday, 117 were expatriates, 74 were

those who returned to the State fromother parts of the country. “What is ofconcern is that 133 persons got infect-ed through contacts and this is a warn-ing sign. It was from the fish and veg-etable market in the capital city that thepandemic spread to other parts of thedistrict which forced the administrationto declare Triple Lock Down. If we turna blind eye to this experience, we wouldbe forced to declare Triple Lock Downin more areas,” said the chief minister.

Vijayan also said that 133 personsgetting afflicted through contacts is anindication of super spread which wouldmake life difficult for others. Withoutnaming the demonstrators and protes-tors who are taking out marches and ral-lies all over the State in violation of thesocial distancing restrictions and notwearing face masks, Vijayan said thiswould boomerang as not maintainingsocial distancing and assembling with-out any purpose are sure recipes to thespread of the pandemic.

The Chief Minister also disclosedthat 471 persons were hospitalised onThursday after they were found to beafflicted with covid-19. “Till date we havetested more than three lakh people. OnThursday there were 181 hotspots in theState. Till date we have diagnosed 6,534persons with Covid,” said the CM.

8%�������&&���� �� �����

Even as Opposition parties,the Congress and the BJP

continued with their protestmarches and demonstrationsacross Kerala demanding theresignation of Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan whose officehas come under the scanner fol-lowing the seizure of 30 kgsmuggled gold atThiruvananthapuram airport,Swapna Suresh, the kingpinbehind the smugglingapproached the Kerala HighCourt seeking anticipatory bailon Thursday.

Swapna filed the bail peti-tion through her lawyer and thismay be listed for Friday.Meanwhile, an audio message,purportedly belonging toSwapna was being aired by allMalayalam news channels inwhich she has claimed that shewas innocent and was beinghunted by certain people withulterior motives. Interestingly,she said in the message that itwas because of the requestmade by the UAE Consulate,her former employers, that sherang up the Customs officialsrequesting them to release theconsignment without delay.

‘I do not have anythingwith the Chief Minister or anyother Ministers. It is true that Ihave met them as part of my jobin the UAE Consulate to invitethem for official functions heldby the Consul General. Beyondthis I have no dealings with any-body,” said Swapna who alsoclaimed that she rang up theCustoms officials at the instanceof the UAE Consulate attache toget the consignment released.

Swapna also claimed thatthe detractors of the ChiefMinister and other ministerswere making use of her name totarnish their image.

“You will not win in thisbattle as the ministers are allbeyond doubt. But what youpeople are trying to do is toforce me to take my own life,”she said in the voice recording.

Earlier in the day, Sarith,who was taken into custody onTuesday morning fromThiruvananthapuram was sentto the Customs’ custody till July15 by the Economic OffencesWing Court in response to aplea filed by the CustomsDepartment.

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Apparently spurred by the“Dharavi” coronavirus suc-

cess story, Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayon Thursday exhorted NGOsto form a link between theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) and citi-zens form ward-wise commit-tees to fight Covid-19 at theground-level.

Addressing the BMC offi-cials and representatives ofNGOs through video-confer-encing, the Chief Minister said:“The NGO should take an ini-tiative to establish a permanent

linking mechanism betweenthe BMC administration andcitizens. Together, BMC, NGOsand citizens can easily fightcoronavirus in the metropolis”.

“The BMC is currentlyimplementing the “chase thevirus” strategy in some parts ofthe city. In places where theBMC is not involved in the“chase the virus” experiment,the BMC, NGOs and citizenscan come together, undertakedoor-to-door visits and carryout tests to identify peopleshowing Covid-19 systems.The State Government willprovide the necessary help,” the

Chief Minister.Maintaining that success

was guaranteed where therewas consensus among the peo-ple about a particular issue,Uddhav said that he had issueda direction to the officialsacross the state to set up coro-navirus vigilance committees atthe village, taluka and districtlevels to fight the pandemic.

“If we are able to keep ourhouse and surrounding areasclean, we will be able to defeatCoronavirus and monsoon-related diseases. For keepingrain- related diseases at bayduring the monsoon, we have

to lay stress on cleanliness. TheNGOs should take lead cre-ateawareness of hygiene, wear-ing masks, sanitizers, etc espe-cially in slums,” Uddhav said.

The Chief Ministerappealed to NGOs to visitroad, building and bridge con-structions and take measures todisinfect water collected atthese places.

“After visiting Dharavi inMumbai, a central team hadrecommended that public toi-lets be cleaned periodically.After that, we undertook amassive drive in Dharavi andused to clear public toilets atleast six times in a day. By dis-

infecting the public toilets, wechecked the spread of coron-avirus in a big way in Dharavi,”he said.

“All by itself, the BMCcannot fight Coronavirus alone.We need the cooperation of theNGOs in disinfecting publictoilets and other places. TheNGOs should also undertakedoor-to-door survey of slumsin the city, identify people withCovid-19 symptoms and sendto Coronavirus centres. If weare able to reach the people tohospitals in that ̀ golden hour’,we will be able to save the livesof the people,” the ChiefMinister said.

�5 ���� �9��������5 66��

Aquick reaction team (QRT)of the Indian Army was

targeted by the terrorists lateThursday evening nearLethpora area of Awantipora.

One Indian Army jawanalong with a civilian womanreceived injuries in the cross-fire.

The Army jawan wasrushed to the Base hospital inSrinagar while a civilian ladywas shifted in the nearby hos-pital.

The condition of both theinjured soldier and a civilianwoman was stated to be stable.

According to Col RajeshKalia, a Srinagar based DefencePRO, “An ambulance with QRTmoving from Khrew was firedupon by terrorists from near aMosque at Laddoo Mor,Lethpora, Avantipora at 6 PMtoday”.

He said, one soldierreceived injuries in the attackand was evacuated to 92 Basehospital. His condition wasstated to be stable, DefencePRO added.

Meanwhile, one civilianlady also sustained injuries inthe crossfire and her conditionwas also stated to be stable.

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Apparently having lost allhopes of recovery, a 20-

year-old blood cancer-strickenboy committed suicide at theKing Edward Memorial (KEM)Hospital at Parel in south-cen-tral Mumbai.

Shaji Janu Kharat com-mitted suicide at the hospital at9 pm on Wednesday, by hang-ing himself to the grill of a hugehospital window. He was

declared dead at 9.45 pm.Coming at a time when the

administration is coping upwith the huge inflow of Covid-19 patients, the incident causedquite a stir at the hospital.

Shaji, who was a resident ofMahalaxmi Welfare Society atChembur’s New Bharat Nagarin north-east Mumbai, hadbeen admitted to KEM hospi-tal on June 23.

He underwent Covid-19test on July 2. He was diag-

nosed negative in the testreport which was received onWednesday.

Confirming the cause ofthe suicide, DeputyCommissioner of PoliceSaurabh Tripathi said: “Heended his life, as he was unableto reconcile to the fact that hewas suffering from blood can-cer. A case of Accidental DeathReport (ADR) has been regis-tered at Bhoiwada police sta-tion”.

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Maharashtra crossed 2.30lakh-mark in terms of

Covid-19 infections onThursday, as many as 6,875people tested positive for thecoronavirus, while 219 morepeople died of pandemic invarious parts of the State.

With the infections goingup from Wednesdays’ count of6,603 to 6,875 on Thursday, thetotal number of infected casesclimbed up to 2,30,599.

With fresh 219 deaths, thetotal deaths in the State went upto 9,667.

Of the total 219 deaths,Mumbai accounted for 68deaths, taking the total numberof deaths in the metropolis to5132 now, while the total num-ber of positive patients rose by1,268 cases to touch 89,124.

Apart from 68 deaths inMumbai, there were 66 deathsin Thane, 27 deaths in Pune, 17deaths in Raigad, eight deathseach in Palghar and Solapur,seven in Jalgaon, four inNashik, three in Satara, twoeach in Ahmednagar,Nandurbar and Nagpur, oneeach in Latur, Jalna, Amravati,Nanded, and one from anoth-er state.

With 54,811 infected caseswith 1,483 deaths, Thane hasemerged as the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.

Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 33,394infections and 989 deaths tillnow.

Meanwhile, the total num-ber of patients dischargedfrom various hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year touched1,27,259. The recovery rate inthe state stood at 55.19 per cent.The mortality rate in the stateis 4.19 per cent. The statehealth authorities pegged thenumber of “active cases” in thestate at 93,652.

Out of 12,12,487 samplessent to laboratories, 2,30,599have tested positive (18.77%)for Covid-19 until Monday.Currently, 6,49,263 people arein home quarantine while48,191 people are in institu-tional quarantine.

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Bengaluru: Alarmed over surgingCovid-19 cases, the Karnataka govern-ment has decided to divide this tech cityinto containment zones to curb thespread of the pandemic, a state minis-ter said on Thursday.

“The city will be divided into red,orange and yellow zones in commen-surate with the number of Covid casesin them for containing the virus spreadon war footing,” Law and ParliamentaryAffairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy toldreporters here.

Cabinet ministers representingassembly segments in the city will be in-charge of the zones to ensure the casesare curbed with strict enforcement oflockdown guidelines, especially wearingmask and maintaining social distancingby the people in the confinement areas.

“Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa hasconvened a meeting of ministers, MLAs,MPs and corporators of all the 198 civicwards across the city on Friday to dis-cuss and draw an action plan to containthe pandemic,” said Madhuswamy.

With 1,148 positive cases, the city'sCovid tally rose to 12,509 and active to10,103, while 2,228 were discharged,including 418 on Wednesday, while 177succumbed to the infection since March9, with 23 in the last 24 hours.

“The Chief Minister ordered deploy-ing more ambulances in the containment

areas where cases have been spiking dailyto rush Covid patients to the nearest hos-pital for immediate treatment,” saidMadhuswamy.

The city civic corporation -- BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)--has increased the containment zonesto 3,181 due to more cases spiking, withsouthern and western suburbs account-ing for most infections.

“The containment zones are con-centrated more in the city's southern andwestern suburbs. Active cases doubledover the last 8 days and shot up to awhopping 12,509 from 4,555 on June 30,”an official said.

Refuting graft charges by oppositionCongress leader Siddaramaiah in thepurchase of medical equipment fortreatment of Covid patients,Madhuswamy said the state governmenthad not spent more than Rs 600 croreso far.

“We are running a government. Nota private office. We will give account. He(Siddaramaiah) is welcome to check theaccounts and verify the documents,”asserted the minister.

In a related development, the cabi-net also approved an ordinance toincrease the state contingency fund toRs 500 crore from Rs 80 crore for theCovid-19 induced economic relief mea-sures announced by the chief ministerin June. IANS

� �� ��2 ����

Karnataka and Maharashtra would set up ajoint committee to manage floods in the

Krishna river basin during the monsoon whenheavy rains lash both states, an official said onThursday.

“The joint committee will monitor and con-trol floods if heavy rain water overflows in theKrishna river basin across the twin states to pro-tect lives and property,” the official told IANSafter State water resources minister RameshJarkiholi met his Maharashtra counterpartJayant Patil in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The committee will have the state-runNeeravari Nigam chief engineer and its super-intendent as members from Karnataka and theircounterparts from Maharashtra.

Heavy and widespread monsoon rains inAugust 2019 resulted in Krishna and Bheemarivers overflowing from Maharashtra andflooding Bagalkot, Vijapura and Belagavi dis-tricts, resulting in death and damage in the state'snorthwest region.

“The committee will also ensure coordina-tion between the two states to avoid floodingif the rivers and their tributaries turn spate dueto heavy rains in their catchment areas,” said theofficial.

The two ministers also discussed the shar-ing of the Krishna water during summer andnotifications of the Krishna Tribunal award forboth the states.

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Page 6: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

The first response we shouldalways make to the banning ofauthors by an authoritariansystem is to read their works.As it happened, I was reading

the latest book by the young Hong Kongactivist Joshua Wong titled, UnfreeSpeech: The Threat to Global Democracyand Why We Must Act, Now, when newsemerged that his previous works werebeing seized from booksellers under thenew security law imposed by Beijing.

If we want to understand the world-wide collision of ideas, which seemsincreasingly inevitable, events in HongKong are a good place to start. It is herethat Western values of free speech,openness to ideas and belief in the ruleof law have come into direct conflict witha fundamentally opposing idea: Thatunity and success of a major civilisationis incompatible with such dangerousnotions. If that conflict requires theChinese security officials to rummagearound in bookshops, gathering up allthe books by writers such as HoraceChin, Tanya Chan, Wong and Jason YNg, it is not a bad idea to start readingthem. We will find the world’s future bat-tlegrounds illuminated in their pages.

What do we learn from Wong’s newbook that helps us understand why animmensely powerful State wants to sup-press the thoughts of a 23-year-oldactivist and has previously held him inprison? Why is he such a threat that hisevery word has to be hunted down,pulped or burned? The answer is part-ly that we gain inspiration from the deter-mination with which Wong has pursuedideals we know and hold dear, with anintegrity that would shame many peo-ple in the West, unwilling to make hissacrifices.

Also, we can find in his pages a clar-ity of perception that explains what hashappened in Hong Kong and cutsthrough the baffling confusion of worldaffairs. He recounts the warming feelingstowards China among his generation atthe time of the 2008 Olympics, accom-panied by the hope that “one country,two systems” might actually work. Butthen he explains how this went sour asthe commitment to universal suffrage inHong Kong was abandoned and XiJinping, “a wolf in panda’s clothing”, cameto power. A new political identity of“unbelonging towards the motherland”was thus forged.

My main reflection on Wong’s book,however, is that the central weaknessesof both Western democracy and Chinesetotalitarianism are exposed. In the caseof the West, that weakness is our com-placency, our indifference to growingdangers and our easy assumption that weare too smart to be undermined fromoutside. It takes a young activist from the

other side of the world to pointout to European and Americanreaders that autocratic regimes,including Russia, are mountinga serious threat to free societies.

There has been extensivereporting of the huge and sys-tematic effort by the RussianState under Russian PresidentVladimir Putin to sow discord inWestern countries and corrodetheir unity. That effort appears tohave included the financing ofnationalistic political parties, theuse of media outlets to spreadfalse information and, in partic-ular, the exploitation of socialmedia to foster distrust. InBritain, for instance, CardiffUniversity researchers found in2017 that fake social mediaaccounts linked to Russia set outto exacerbate hatred after terror-ist attacks.

China’s undermining ofdemocracy is more subtle andalmost a by-product of becom-ing the world’s first or secondeconomy with centralised con-trol of huge enterprises and cut-ting-edge technology. As China’sstake in Western economiesincreases, their political leadersbecome less willing to confrontan aggressive foreign policy orhuman rights abuses. As Chinabecomes an indispensable mar-ket for Western corporations,they feel ever more bound torefrain from criticism. And now,if a student from Hong Kongwishes to speak freely at a British

university, he/she will be underthe watchful eye of China andwill be liable to arrest when backhome. Slowly, inexorably, thefreedom to think or speak differ-ently globally is being eroded.

Democracies are slow toperceive when they are threat-ened as the 20th century showed.Now some of them are stirring.In the UK, the Government isrightly working on a new legis-lation to block foreign takeoversaffecting key technologies andnational security. It promises aconsultation on closing loop-holes on foreign spending inelections and the establishmentof a new CounterDisinformation Cell.

It has taken the commend-able decision to open bordersto many residents of HongKong. Far more will need to bedone — by many more coun-tries and in coordination witheach other — for these effortsto be successful. Americanleadership, paralysed by theWhite House’s refusal to acceptthe scale of Russian involve-ment in the last presidentialelection, will be vital. The ideaof a G7 working with Asiandemocracies such as Japan,South Korea and India is a rightstep. But at the moment, mostpeople in advanced democra-cies do not realise what is hap-pening and those hurling abuseat each other on social mediaare oblivious as to how they are

manipulated from afar.Wong says he is “sending

out a distress signal to theworld so that counter-measurescan be taken before it is too late.”We should listen to him, for infocussing on our tardiness inprotecting ourselves, he is spoton. Yet his diagnosis of the ulti-mate flaw in autocratic regimesis also correct: That they contin-ually have to double down onrepression at home and show-ing strength abroad. He arguesthat such a two-front strategy isthe only way to retain power,“however invincible and invul-nerable they appear to the out-side world.” This is indeedChina’s problem. The price ofpushing forward the borderwith India on land, clashingwith Vietnam at sea, bullyingAustralia on trade and suppress-ing dissent in Hong Kong witharbitrary law is mounting alarmaround the world.

So from even one book ofa banned author, much can belearned. A Chinese diplomatonce tried to persuade me thatChinese people were not suit-ed to democracy as the Westknows it — “they would electa peasant as President anddeclare war on Japan.” But inthe books that have emergedfrom Hong Kong, we can seethey are just as suited to it as therest of us and can teach us whatwe urgently need to know.

(Courtesy: Daily Telegraph)

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)��������������������������������������������(����������������������� (������������ ����������=�������>2-?������������ �������������������������������� �������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����)���������������������������(������F���������������� ���������������������$���/���������(�������>���/���������������������������F����������������������� ��������=���������� -���%������������������>���&�����(��������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������A��������������������������������������������������������2B$�����������������(����������������������#�2B$&��������������������!--����������(������������������������������ &�������������� �������� ����������������)���/��� ���������������������������������� >?!#������������?�������*������������������������������!�����������#����������������������/;5�����&������������� �����������/����������������(����������2B$���85����9���� �)������������������� ���������� ������(����������� ������������������������������������ �:��������������� �������������2B$&������������������������������� ������������������������#�������������� �������������� ���������� ������������������������������&��������������)���������������������(������������������������������

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Truce for now” (July 7). There isno denying the fact that it hasbeen the Government’s resolve,determination and commitmentto hold status quo which haveforced the Chinese troops toretreat from the positions it hadoccupied at Galwan Valley.

However, we must be cau-tious about celebrating prema-turely. The Chinese are not to betrusted and the disengagementand pull-backs need to be veri-fied. The stalemate betweenIndia and China along the Lineof Actual Control (LAC) hasconsiderable regional and inter-national implications.

The China-Pakistan nexus isalive but it has not become a mil-itary threat. The prevailing glob-al mood about Chinese aggres-sion is in India’s favour thoughonly the US, Japan and Australiahave condemned Chinese unilat-eralism in Ladakh. India’s formerbest friend Russia is neutral, sell-ing weapons to both China andIndia. India needs to tread cau-tiously.

Venu GSKollam

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Truce for now” (July 7). As aresult of smart and under-the-radar diplomacy on the part ofIndia, China has withdrawn itstroops from the Galwan valley fornow and a bigger crisis has beenaverted. However, there should be

no room for complacency asChina can never be trusted. Itwouldn’t be surprising if Chinaintrudes again into Indian terri-tory. In fact, China’s latest trans-gression must teach us a lesson toremain vigilant about any Chinesemanoeuvres along the border.

Moreover, this is just the firstphase of de-escalation and Indiamust keep a watch on each and

every move of the process. Indiamust also be ready for furthernegotiations since China has notyet spoken of withdrawal oftroops from Pangong Tso. Chinais hell-bent on teaching India alesson for its decision to side withthe US. India must foreverremain on guard.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

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Sir — The University GrantsCommission (UGC)’s decision tonot cancel the final semesterexamination for graduatingbatches and instead conductthem by the end of Septemberraises many questions. One, isthere any surety that theCOVID-19 pandemic will endby September? It must not beforgotten that students fromvarious States apply to the uni-versities and every State has itsown set of admission rules withregard to outsiders. Two, whatwas the Home Ministry doingwhen States were cancelling theexaminations? Third, is there anyguarantee about job creation?

Autonomous universities,including the IITs, have alreadydecided to pass final year stu-dents on the basis of their per-formance from previous semes-ters. This means students ofthese institutions can start theirjobs/new courses while thoseunder the UGC will have to wait.

AyushVia email

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Page 7: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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For many years now, Indian Railways has beenfacing flak for low efficiency, poor operatingratio and massive inertia. None would deny that

despite lakhs of crores having been invested, the sys-tem is stressed and shaky and the market share standseroded. Yet, a severe capacity crunch exists on themain routes and high outlays have driven up over-all logistic costs. There is no denying that there arepositives and strengths on the quantitative side.Globally in network size, it is the fourth-largest sys-tem. In freight turnover, too, it is the fourth and inpassenger output it ranks first. The daily system sus-tains a run of 23,000 trains, 9,000 freights and 13,000passenger trains, including 5,000 suburban ones.Daily transport of 3.20 metric tonnes (MT) of cargoand 23 million passengers across a network of 64,000route km and 7,300 stations is no mean feat. So isa modern passenger reservation system, freight oper-ation system, unit train operation, proliferation ofelectric traction system, transition from mechani-cal to electronic/solid state signalling systems,transition to higher axle loads, higher capacity rollingstock, heavier trains, longer trains and so on. Anotherdistinction has been human capital formation toequip the mammoth cutting-edge workforce withrequisite skill sets to adopt and operate the new tech-nology and systems.

But a major disconcerting dimension has beenthe lopsided development, which has been erodingproductivity of investment and operational efficien-cy, thus making it a regressive, expensive system,telling on the overall logistic costs of the economy.The network is saddled with serious infrastructuredeficiencies. The bulk of the routes, about 75 per cent,are fit only for a maximum speed of 110 kmph.Barely about five per cent routes can sustain the speedof 130 kmph. The Golden Quadrilateral andDiagonal (GQD), six routes which with 15 per centroute share bear 60 per cent of the traffic, are no bet-ter. Of the total 10,000 km route on the GQD, only2,740 kms is fit for the speed of 130 kmph. The mostprestigious Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrahroutes still have 35 per cent length below 130 kmph.Shockingly, three important GQD routes viz.Howrah-Chennai, Howrah- Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai are entirely unfit for 130 kmph.

Mismatch in the top speed potential of the mod-ern rolling stock and the network speed is anotherdrag. Due to modern technology, new rolling stockviz. Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB), Tejas, the recententrant Vande Bharat T18 generation coaches andWAP5 generation electric locomotives are all 160kmph fit. We find a bizarre scenario of a VandeBharat train operating at a speed of 130/100 kmphin the Allahabad-Varanasi sector. Similar is the storyof all Tejas and LHB stock trains.

It is ironical that there is a solitary 160 kmphtrain, Gatimaan Express on the Nizamuddin-Agraroute. All Rajdhanis and LHB stock trains inDelhi/Agra are fit stock-wise for 160 kmph, the sig-nalling system is compliant, the operating protocolis in position but the available traction power capac-ity can sustain only one 160 kmph train on thatstretch. The Indian Railways’ progress is replete withsuch classic cases where the full potential of theinvestment is not reaped because assets/inputs arenot aligned to a common performance level.

Likewise the freight ecosystem also has a self-defeating feature. Progressively, higher axle load wag-ons are being inducted to increase payload per wagonand load per train. It’s an initiative to check the needfor additional line capacity for meeting higher traf-fic demand and also contain the per unit transporta-tion cost. But due to speed sustainability of tracks,

these wagons are pegged at speeds of 45kmph and 60 kmph for 25 ton and 22.9ton axle loads. This is a drag as comparedto the 75/100 kmph speed for lower axleload generation of wagons. Surely the aver-age speeds will get depressed, nullifying thegains intended from higher axle load wag-ons. The economics of higher axle loadwagons will turn unfavourable. Again, itis a classic case of absence of alignment inperformance features of inputs/assets.

Another disquieting feature is thatover several decades, the average speedsof passenger and freight trains are hover-ing at the pathetically low levels of around45 kmph and 24 kmph. Transit durationcritically influences choice of the mode oftravel due to its cost and time implications.Both passenger and freight transportmarkets have progressively become moretime and cost-sensitive.

A lot is amiss. Huge capital outlays ondoubling/tripling, new lines, tracks, signal,traction, rolling-stock and technologyupgrades have failed to catalyse railways.The problem lies in severe flaws in the pat-tern of investment planning and imple-mentation. The maximum speed on theroute is conditioned by the most limitinginput. Technical stipulations exist fortracks, signals, traction, level crossings,fencing and so on, for different speeds. Adhoc inputs given over a period of time haveled to gross inconsistencies. It has been asuccess for a part but not the whole.

Unfortunately, a comprehensive viewhas been lacking. Departmental goal- seek-ing has led to suboptimal input spread ininfrastructure, assets and technology,causing lopsided outcomes. Failures andinordinate delays occur due to multipleagencies working from sanction to imple-mentation in an uncoordinated manner.

The Railways took a big step forwardto fix these pitfalls through MissionRaftaar. A strategy was evolved for route-wise investment with a modular inputpackage and upgrading important routes

to a top speed of 160 kmph. It was markedas a vision to set up express railroads akinto expressways with a balanced dosage ofinputs to upgrade tracks, signals, traction,train protection and warning systems,modern diagnostics for assets, fencing,elimination of level crossings, all directedat an ideal approach to make the routeseamlessly speedier and safe, hence viable.

Based on this new approach, 160kmph upgradation projects were approvedfor Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrahroutes that carry 29 per cent of passengerand 20 per cent of freight traffic. This is aharbinger of an era to commission all GQDroutes as express railroads having speedsof 160 kmph.

For reaping the full-scale benefit,concurrent, fast-paced action is requiredfor induction of speedier rolling stock andresolution of trade-off between axle loadand permissive speeds, all through acoherent thought process.

The need is for methodical investmentplanning and synchronised implementa-tion, harnessing economies of scale, state-of-the-art technology, skill sets and syn-ergy to keep the train block time minimal.The only way to do these projects withinmeaningful timelines is a paradigm engi-neered by the collaborative inventivenessof a team of multi-disciplinary specialistsof the Mobility Directorate. A nodal unitmust be set up to carve out a roadmap andachieve the Mission Raftaar goal of dou-bling the average freight trains speeds anda 25 kmph increase in average speeds ofpassenger trains over a five-year period.

A drastic cut in travel time holds thekey to reducing the cost of operations, con-serving asset demand and restoring com-petitiveness. It is reckoned that premiumtrains like the Rajdhani will take 10-12hours between Delhi- Mumbai-Howrah.The journey time of all coach trains willbe slashed up to half and freight trains willregister up to two-fold jump in averagespeeds. A one kmph increment in average

speed of all freight/passenger trains has thepotential to save about 3,000 wagons, about70 locomotives, unleashing a latent revenueof about �1,400 crore and �900 crore fromfreight and passenger traffic.

Now Indian Railways is venturing intoprivate operation of coaching trains toinduct the much-needed new technologyrolling stock with a target speed potentialof 160 kmph. Underneath reverberates theimplied commitment and urgency for 160kmph. Indian Railways has miles to go asat present only about 190 route km of thetotal network are 160 kmph-compliant.

The railway leadership, which is pas-sionate to reform, must also recalibratedecisions about how much to invest byreorienting strategy on how to invest andon what. Endeavour ought to be for opti-misation, accelerated outcomes and to ridthe railway of the woes of disproportion-ate and dispersed investments.

A crystal clear goal and a strategy tostrike will ensure that every penny spentis well-directed, has the right mix ofinvolved assets, infrastructure and technol-ogy required for fructification of theintended result. Given the intertwinedinterplay of departmental inputs in the rail-ways, outcomes such as a turnaround arepossible only if a unified, empowered,multi-specialist body steers investment andis held accountable from conception tocommission. Accomplishing the Raftaarvision by sticking to the charted course inmission mode deserves to be the focalpoint. Higher top speeds, scaled-up aver-age speeds, besides spurring mobilityand market, through a multitude of asso-ciated positives will render the system sys-tematically safe and state-of-the-art. Thiswould surely launch railways on a trajec-tory of viability, vitality, vibrancy and fastgrowth to become an engine of the Indianeconomy’s progress.

(The writer is former PrincipalExecutive Director, Mobility, Ministry ofRailways)

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In the recent talks between theIndian National Security AdviserAjit Doval and Chinese Foreign

Minister Wang Yi, the two sides agreedon disengagement and de-escalation,but this can only be temporary. TheChinese are bound to intrude againinto further areas in Ladakh in thefuture in their insatiable lust for morepower, land and raw materials for theirindustries. In fact that is why they havealways refused to delineate the Line ofActual Control (LAC) on a map.

The truth is that this “disengage-ment” agreed upon by the two sides isin essence an agreement that theIndian Army shall not patrol or occu-

py areas that China had accepted asIndian all these years, as explained ingreat detail by Rahul Bedi in his arti-cle titled Chinese pullback at Galwancomes at a cost; Indian retreat shifts LACto its disadvantage.

Consequent upon the new align-ments agreed upon, some three kilo-metres of territory regarded for yearsto be under Indian control becomes defacto “no man’s land.” So what this real-ly means is that the Chinese hadintruded two steps into Indian terri-tory but have agreed to withdraw onlyone step. And one can be sure that theywill keep applying such “salami tactics”in the future too.

In an article, China and India aresuper-populations — They have to besuper responsible, Victor Gao, Professorof Soochow University, and VicePresident of Centre for China andGlobalisation, writes, “The two coun-tries need to be more keenly aware oftheir responsibilities to the world, andstand firmly together in opposing con-flicts and promoting peace and devel-

opment.” Professor Gao further writesthat both China and India are ancientcivilisations and for millennia were therichest in the world but were laterimpoverished by colonialism. He statesthat China and India are the only twocountries in the world having a pop-ulation of over one billion each, andwith super populations come superresponsibilities.

He states, “Ideally, super-popula-tions should be known not only fortheir size, but also for the quality of lifeof their people, the contribution theymake to the world, and the sense ofresponsibility they exhibit towards it.This means that China and India needto be more keenly aware of theirresponsibilities to the world; their needto stand firmly together in opposingwars and conflicts and promotingpeace and development in the worldand between themselves in particular.In sum, super-populations should notbe super in numbers alone, but alsoworthy of the special status to whichtheir size entitles them.”

With all due respect to ProfessorGao, this is either an utter lack ofunderstanding of realities or deliber-ate obfuscation. In order to understandpolitics one must see the economicforces behind it, because politics is con-centrated economics.

China may have been socialist atone time but today it is not. It is impe-rialist and with its huge industrial baseand $3.2 trillion foreign exchangereserve is hungrily seeking markets,raw materials and avenues for prof-itable investment, like an imperialistpower.

There are two kinds of imperi-alisms, expanding imperialism anddefensive imperialism. The former,being aggressive, is much more dan-gerous than the latter. For example, inthe 1930s and early 1940s, Hitler’simperialism was expanding imperial-ism, whereas British and French impe-rialism were defensive imperialism.

While the latter only wanted tohold on to their colonies, the formerwanted to conquer and enslave other

countries. So Hitler’s imperialism wasthe real danger to world peace.

Today Chinese imperialism isexpanding imperialism, and is, there-fore, the greatest danger to world peace.It has penetrated the economies ofAsia, Africa and Latin America, apartfrom the developed countries.Mountainous areas like Tibet andLadakh may appear barren but are fullof valuable minerals and other natur-al wealth, which the Chinese greedilycovet as raw materials for their grow-ing industry. This is the real reason forthe recent Chinese intrusion across theLAC in Ladakh into Galwan Valley,Pangong Tso, Demchok, Five Fingersand so on.

One must understand that politicsis concentrated economics and thereare certain iron laws of economicswhich operate independent of anyindividual’s will. It is in the nature ofcapital that it seeks avenues for prof-itable investment. The Chinese havebuilt a massive industrial base andamassed about $3.2 trillion foreign

exchange reserves, which is a hugeamount of hot money hungrily seek-ing avenues for investment, marketsand raw materials. In other words,China is a huge aggressive expandingimperialism and independent of thewill of its leaders like President Xi orForeign Minister Wang it must aggres-sively keep expanding.

So all the talk of peace is emptyrhetoric. Hitler, too, often spoke ofpeace while pursuing his path of con-quest. Like Nazi Germany, China willkeep expanding, as it is doing econom-ically all over the world by capturingmarkets and raw materials and mili-tarily in the South China Sea, Ladakh,and so on.

The only way for India to stop thisis by creating a united front along withother powers like the US to confrontChinese imperialist expansionism,like the united front of Great Britain,US and the Soviet Union created inWorld War-II against Hitler.

(The writer is a former judge of theSupreme Court of India.)

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Page 8: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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Melbourne: Prime MinisterScott Morrison on Thursdayannounced the suspension ofAustralia’s extradition treatywith Hong Kong over the con-troversial Chinese nationalsecurity law imposed thereand offered visas to 10,000students and temporary skilledworkers from the formerBritish territory to start a newlife in this country.

The move came afterChinese President Xi Jinpinglast month signed a contro-versial legislation to impose anational security law in HongKong that allowed Beijing tocrackdown against dissent,criminalising sedition and cur-tailing protests with punish-ments up to life in prison.

Morrison said the newnational security laws imposedby China in Hong Kong rep-resented a “fundamentalchange of circumstances” formany governments around theworld.

“Our decision to suspendthe extradition agreement withHong Kong represents anacknowledgement of the fun-damental change of circum-stances in relation to HongKong because of the new secu-rity law, which in our viewundermines the ‘one country,two systems’ framework, andHong Kong’s own basic law andthe high degree of autonomyguaranteed in the Sino-BritishJoint Declaration that was setout there,” Morrison said inCanberra.

Hong Kong is governedunder the principle of “onecountry, two systems”, underwhich China has agreed to givethe region a high degree ofautonomy and to preserve itseconomic and social systemsfor 50 years from the date of thehandover.

The former British colonybecame a special administrativeregion of China on July 1,1997, when Britain’s 99-yearlease of the New Territories,north of Hong Kong island,expired.

The new national securi-ty law imposed last week fol-lowing violent anti-govern-ment protests in Hong Kong in2019 makes secessionist, sub-versive, or terrorist activitiesillegal, as well as foreign inter-vention in the city’s internalaffairs.

Morrison said immigra-tion has been a pillar of thestrength of Australia and it hasbeen a very welcoming coun-try to such people from allaround the world.

He said the Australian gov-ernment will also extend HongKong-based businesses to relo-cate to the country and priori-tise highly skilled applicantsthrough existing streams fromthe Chinese territory.

‘’As a result of the changesthat have occurred in HongKong, that there will be citizensof Hong Kong who may belooking to move elsewhere, tostart a new life somewhereelse, to take their skills, theirbusinesses and things that theyhave been running under theprevious set of rules andarrangements in Hong Kong,and seek that opportunity else-where,” he said.

“It has the best controls, ithas the best targeting, it has thebest focus, and immigration asa result has been a pillar of thestrength of our nation, notjust our economy but our soci-ety as well,” he said.

Morrison, who last weeksaid he was disturbed by thecrackdowns on protesters inHong Kong, highlightedAustralia’s long history ofattracting Hong Kong’s bestand brightest who have con-tributed to the economicgrowth and job creation.

‘’We are committed toensuring this is furtherstrengthened. That’s whyAustralia will introduce newmeasures for students, tempo-rary graduates and skilledworkers from Hong Kong whowant to live, work and study inAustralia,’’ he said.

Morrison said the new visaarrangements will provide fur-ther opportunities for HongKong passport holders toremain in Australia, with path-ways to permanent residency.

There are approximately10,000 citizens of Hong Kongin Australia, according tomedia reports. PTI

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Sydney, Australia: Australiaoffered pathways to permanentresidency for thousands ofpeople from Hong Kong onThursday in response toChina’s crackdown on dissent,drawing a furious reply fromBeijing.

Beijing shot back, con-demning the Australianannouncements as violations of“fundamental principles ofinternational relations”.

“China... reserves the rightto take further reactions, allconsequences will be borne byAustralia,” warned Chinese for-eign ministry spokesman ZhaoLijian.

“Any attempts to suppressChina will never succeed.”

Australian Foreign MinisterMarise Payne said China’smoves in Hong Kong were dis-cussed earlier Thursday withAustralia’s so-called “Five Eyes”security partners — NewZealand, the United States,

Britain, and Canada.The new law, which fol-

lowed sometimes-violent pro-democracy protests, is the mostradical change in Hong Kong’sfreedoms since Britain handedthe city back to China in 1997under an agreement designedto preserve its way of life for 50years.

China has bristled at wide-spread global criticism of thelaw.

Beijing in recent monthshas imposed tariffs on someAustralian imports and imped-ed trade in other key com-modities in response toAustralian steps to counterChinese interference in thecountry.

China, Australia’s biggesttrade partner and a competitorfor influence in the Pacific, wasnotably infuriated whenCanberra led calls for a probeinto the origins of the coron-avirus pandemic. AFP

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Agroup of 14 US lawmak-ers have introduced a bill

in the Congress whichdemands the government toidentify, analyse and combatalleged efforts made by theChinese government toexploit the COVID-19 pan-demic for nationalistic gains.

Introduced byCongressman Jared Goldenand co-sponsored by 13 othercongressmen, the ‘PreventingChina from ExploitingCOVID-19 Act’ would man-date the Director of NationalIntelligence (DNI) to investi-gate the ways in which theChinese government intendsto seize on the COVID-19pandemic to promote itsinterests on the national stageand evaluate the risks to theUnited States.

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BELGRADE, Serbia: TheEuropean nation of Serbiamulled how to curb acceleratingcoronavirus infections followingtwo nights of clashes involvinganti-lockdown demonstrators,while the virus showed no signof slowing Thursday in thecountries with the highest case-loads — the United States, Indiaand Brazil.

The three nations on sepa-rate continents are accountingfor more than 60% of new con-firmed cases, according to recenttallies from Johns HopkinsUniversity. India on Thursdayreported 25,000 new cases; theUnited States on Wednesdayreported just short of the record60,000 cases set a day earlier, and

Brazil reported nearly 45,000.Much of Europe appeared

to have put the worst of the cri-sis behind it, at least for now. ButSerbia has emerged as a newfocus of concern — and ofunrest. The country’s crisis teamwas expected to reimpose a bangatherings in the capital,Belgrade and to limit the cafeand night club operations fol-lowing a spike in infections thatofficials say threatens the Serbianhealth system.

It wasn’t clear whether offi-cials would reintroduce a week-end curfew, the initial announce-ment of which triggered violentprotests in Belgrade and othercities. Critics accuse PresidentAleksandar Vucic of letting thecrisis spin out of control by lift-ing an earlier lockdown toallow for an election that tight-

ened his grip on power.Rock-throwing demonstra-

tors this week fought hours-longrunning battles with specialpolice forces who used tear gasto disperse them. Vucic said inan Instagram post on Thursdaythat the government would con-trol the unrest.

Flare-ups of new virus casesare causing concern in severalparts of the world, and in somecases leading to the reintroduc-tion of restrictions on publicactivity.

In France and Greece, offi-cials warned that residents weretoo frequently ignoring safetyguidance. The French govern-ment’s leading coronavirusadviser, Jean-Francois Delfraissy,lamented that “the French ingeneral have abandoned pro-tective measures.” AP

Tokyo: Flooding and mudslideshave stranded hundreds of peo-ple in scenic hot springs andhiking areas in central Japan,while rescue workers searchedThursday for more people miss-ing in rain-related disasters thathave already killed more than 60people. Parts of Nagano andGifu, including areas known forscenic mountain trails and hotsprings, have been flooded bymassive downpours that havelasted for nearly a week. Morethan 300 people, including hotelemployees and visitors, weretrapped in Kamikochi, as floodsand mudslides hit a main roadconnecting the town toMatsumoto, another tourist des-tination in Nagano. AP

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$�������������� ��� ���A� ���������������.$#�/��3� Geneva: The head of the World

Health Organisation saidThursday that former LiberianPresident Ellen Johnson Sirleafand former New ZealandPrime Minister Helen Clarkwill head a new panel taskedwith giving “an honest assess-ment” of the global response tothe coronavirus pandemic.

WHO Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,whose agency is facing a USpullout following Trumpadministration complaintsabout its early handling of thevirus emergency, announcedthe appointments to the newlycreated Independent Panel forPandemic Preparedness andResponse.

“I cannot imagine twomore strong-minded, inde-pendent leaders to help guide usthrough this critical learningprocess to help us understand

what happened — an honestassessment — and to help usunderstand also what we shoulddo to prevent such a tragedy inthe future,” Tedros said.

The WHO chief reiteratedhis calls for global unity anddecried a general lack of lead-ership, but he made no refer-ence to the Trump adminis-tration giving formal 1-yearnotice this week of its intent towithdraw the United Statesfrom the UN health agency.

The United States is theWHO’s biggest donor, con-tributing $400-$500 annually inrecent years.

“My friends, make no mis-take: The greatest threat we facenow is not the virus itself.Rather, it’s the lack of leadershipand solidarity at the global andnational levels,” Tedros said ata weekly meeting of memberstates. AP

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Washington: The SupremeCourt on Thursday kept a holdon President Donald Trump’sfinancial records that Congresshas been seeking for more thana year.

The ruling returns the caseto lower

courts, with no clearprospect for when the casemight ultimately be resolved.

The 7-2 outcome is at leasta short-term victory for Trump,who has strenuously sought tokeep his financial records pri-vate.

The decision came after thecourt upheld a prosecutor’sdemand for Trump’s tax returnsas part of a criminal investiga-tion that includes hush-moneypayments to women who claimthey had affairs with Trump.

The court ruled 7-2 in acase in which it heard argu-

ments by telephone in Maybecause of the coronavirus pan-demic.

The records are held byTrump’s longtime accountingfirm, Mazars USA, which hassaid it would comply with acourt order.

It probably will be at leastseveral weeks before the courtissues a formal judgment thatwould trigger the turnover ofthe records.

The court rejected argu-ments by Trump’s lawyers andthe Justice Department thatthe president is immune frominvestigation while he holdsoffice or that a prosecutor mustshow a greater need than nor-mal to obtain the records.

Trump’s two high courtappointees, Justices NeilGorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh,joined the majority. AP

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Seoul: Police say the body ofthe missing mayor of SouthKorea's capital, Seoul, has beenfound.

They say Park Won-soon'sbody was located in hills innorthern Seoul early Friday,more than seven hours afterthey launched a massive searchfor him.

Park's daughter had calledpolice on Thursday afternoonto report him missing, sayinghe had given her a “will-like”message before leaving home.

News reports say one ofPark's secretaries had lodged acomplaint with police onWednesday night over allegedsexual harassment. AP

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London: British finance min-ister Rishi Sunak on Thursdayreiterated his previous warn-ings that he would not be ableto save every job and that theUK was headed towards a“significant recession” hit bythe COVID-19 pandemiclockdown.

A day after he tabled amini-budget in Parliament,the Indian-origin Chancellorof the Exchequer admittedthat despite his 30 billionpounds package of measureshe won’t be able to “protectevery single job” as business-es reopen following a three-month shutdown.

“I am absolutely anxiousabout the state of the econo-my,” he told ‘Sky News’.

“We are, as I’ve said before,entering into a very significantrecession. We know that thatis happening,” he said.

He said the forecasts ofmass unemployment “weighvery heavily on me”.

But on a note of optimism,he added: “We don’t wantpeople to be left without hopeor opportunity.”

He urged Britons to “havethe confidence” to return toeating out “because of the

measures restaurants havetaken” as he plugged the newEat Out to Help Out discountscheme to help out the hospi-tality industries with govern-ment backed discounts ondining out.

He, however, admittedthat some of the 1,000 poundsbonuses being offered to takeback furloughed staff would goto firms that were alreadykeeping workers on.

In his summer statementto the House of Commons onWednesday, Sunak said the“jobs retention bonus” couldcost as much as 9 billionpounds if every worker cur-rently furloughed, on forcedleave, is kept on.

Sunak repeated aConservative Party manifestopledge to extend free hospitalparking for the disabled, fre-quent outpatient attendees,and parents of sick childrenwho are staying overnight andnight-shift workers.

Addressing businesseswho still have to stay closedunder lockdown rules, such asthe beauty industry, Sunaksaid an announcement willcome “very soon” on whichfirms can reopen next. PTI

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Johannesburg: With painfulmemories of many dying inAfrica while waiting for acces-sible HIV drugs years ago, theAfrica Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention haslaunched a consortium aimedat securing more than 10 late-stage COVID-19 vaccine clin-ical trials on the continent asearly as possible.

“We want to be sure wedon’t find ourselves in the 1996scenario where HIV drugswere available but it tookalmost seven years for thosedrugs to be accessible on thecontinent,” Africa CDC direc-tor John Nkengasong toldreporters.

With any COVID-19 vac-cine, a “delay in Africa of evenone year would be catastroph-ic,” he said.

He said the consortium ofAfrican institutions will engagewith the GAVI vaccine allianceand others outside the conti-nent amid efforts to ensure thata vaccine is distributed equi-tably from the start.

And with misinformationaround vaccine trials spread-ing in Africa, the trials wouldhelp build community trust,he said. AP

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Page 9: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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MUMBAI/NEW DELHI:Bharti AXA Life Insurance, ajoint venture between BhartiEnterprises, one of India’s lead-ing business groups, and AXA,one of the world’s largest insur-ance companies, todayannounced the launch of itsfirst-of-its-kind Health andLife Secure, an inclusive pro-tection solution with triplebenefits of life cover, hospital-isation and critical illness amidCovid-19.

Health and Life Secure isan all-in-one protection solu-tion that offers financial secu-rity and comprehensive healthand critical illness coverage as

a key differentiator in thedomestic insurance market.

‘’In view of the unprece-dented environment and thefear arising out of the Coronavirus infection and disease,Health and Life Secure is theneed of the hour that address-es customers’ requirements oflife protection, hospitalisationand critical illness benefits. Theunique proposition of this all-embracing solution is that itoffers financial security andsupport for managing healthand critical illness expenses aswell. This is in line with ourvision and strategy to offerbest-in-class insurance solu-

tions to the customers,’’ saidParag Raja, Managing Directorand CEO, Bharti AXA LifeInsurance.

Health and Life Secure,available through Bharti AXALife Flexi Term Plan with

Critical Illness option andBharti AXA LifeHospi CashBenefit Rider & Bharti AXALife Accidental Death BenefitRider, is a combination thatkeeps finances of peoplesecured against any healthemergencies that might arise inthe future.Under this overar-ching solution, the max lifecoverage up to the age of 75years is offered with the entryage of 18-65 years. It providestwo convenient sum assuredoptions — �15 Lakh and � 20Lakh — with flexible premiumpayment term options of 5, 10,15, 20 years till the age of 75years.

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Resuming their upmove aftera day’s breather, equity

benchmarks posted smart gainson Thursday as buyers flockedto finance and banking counters amid buoyancy inglobal markets.

After touching a peak of36,806.30 during the day, the30-share BSE Sensex settled408.68 points, or 1.12 per cent,higher at 36,737.69. Similarly,the NSE Nifty jumped 107.70points, or 1.01 per cent, to fin-ish at 10,813.45.

Both the indices closed atfour-month highs. BajajFinance was the top gainer inthe Sensex pack, spurting 3.93per cent, followed by SBI, TataSteel, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv,HCL Tech and Axis Bank. Invalue terms, HDFC, RelianceIndustries and HDFC Bankcontributed to most of thegains on the Sensex.

On the other hand,ONGC, Tech Mahindra,

Maruti, TCS, HUL and ITCwere among the laggards, skid-ding up to 1.66 per cent.

Meanwhile, wooing glob-al companies, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursdaysaid Asia’s third-largest econo-my is one of the most open inthe world and offers investmentfriendly, competitive businessenvironment and immenseopportunities.

Speaking at the IndiaGlobal Week 2020, he saidgreen shoots of economicrevival are already visible inIndia that is coming out ofcoronavirus lockdown.

Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices at Geojit FinancialServices, said, “In spite of ris-ing concerns regarding thespread of the virus infections,markets continued to focus onthe path to recovery in theeconomy. With liquidity givingadequate support, investors arelooking towards the start of theearnings season.”

“With the lockdown andthe economic activity comingto a standstill in the last quar-ter, investors will be looking

forward to the earnings com-mentary, to understand theoutlook,” he added.

BSE metal, f inance,bankex, basic materials, ener-gy and telecom indices surgedup to 2.13 per cent, whileFMCG, power and capitalgoods ended with losses.

Broader BSE mid-cap andsmall-cap indices rose up to0.49 per cent. On the globalfront, Chinese equities led

other Asian markets higher.Bourses in Shanghai, HongKong, Tokyo and Seoul endedwith significant gains.

Stock exchanges in Europetoo opened on a positive note.

International oil bench-mark Brent crude futuresinched up 0.05 per cent to USD43.31 per barrel.

In the forex market, therupee settled 3 paise higher at74.99 against the US dollar.

India saw a record single-day surge of 24,879 COVID-19cases taking the caseload to7,67,296 on Thursday, while thedeath toll climbed to 21,129,according to the Union HealthMinistry data.

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Consumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan on

Thursday said state govern-ments have been directed tostrictly enforce the provisionthat requires companies and e-commerce players to displaythe ‘country of origin’ on allproducts. The provisionof declaration of ‘country of ori-gin’ has been in place sinceJanuary 2018 for all manufac-turers, importers, packers ande-commerce players.

The commerce Ministryhas now been asked to ensurethat e-commerce players toocomply with this rule strictly,he said.

“We have reiterated thatwe have such a provision inplace. We have directed stategovernments to strictly enforcethe provision and take actionagainst violators,” Paswan toldreporters. Whether a productis sold through offline or onlineplatform, it is mandatory to dis-play ‘country of origin’ besidesother details like maximumretail price (MRP), day ofexpiry, net quantity and con-sumer care details, he said.In January 2018, theGovernment amended theLegal Metrology (PackagedCommodities) Rules, 2011 toadd a new provision mandat-ing declaration of ‘country oforigin’ for manufacturers,importers, packers and e-com-merce entities.

Consumer AffairsSecretary Leena Nandan saidmost of the companies arecomplying with the provisionon product labelling sold inoffline markets. But, e-com-merce platforms are not show-ing it prominently on theirwebsites. If this provision isstrictly complied with, con-sumers can make an informeddecision.

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The Finance Ministry hasrequested states and union

territories to ensure safety andsecurity of bank officials as wellas take stern action againstthose who indulge in unrulybehaviour with the officials.

The development comesagainst the backdrop of inci-dences of bank staff comingunder attack in some parts ofthe country in recent weeks. Ina letter written to the chief sec-retaries of states and union ter-ritories (UTs), the Departmentof Financial Services (DFS)has said that incidences ofunruly behaviour of anti-socialelements against bankers needto be responded with sternaction taken against such ele-ments, according to sources.

Last month, a femaleemployee with Canara Bankwas attacked by a police con-stable at the bank’s Sarolibranch in Surat, Gujarat. Fewincidents, including attack onBank of India staff inMaharashtra, were also report-ed after the Surat attack.

Citing recent news reports,the department said those havehighlighted instances of anti-social elements behaving in anunruly manner with bankerswithin bank premises.

“You would agree thatsuch incidents need to beresponded to proactively andwith a firm hand, stern actiontaken against such elementswith full force of law so thatbankers are protected and thepublic assured of secured accessto banking services,” thedepartment said in a lettersaid dated July 7. Securing theavailability of banking servicesto the public at all times isessential for households to

meet their expenses. It is alsorequired for traders, farmersand industries to carry on reg-ular economic activities.Delivery of essentials services,including banking, is all themore important in the presentcontext of the COVID-19 pan-demic, the letter said.

The DFS has requestedstates to appropriately sensitiseand instruct district magis-trates and the state police totake all necessary measuresfor prevention of timely andeffective response and deterrentactions. “Public communica-tion of the state’s resolve andactions to deal firmly withmiscreants would also help indeterring and instilling confi-dence in the public and thebanking community,” it said.About the letter, All India BankEmployees Association GeneralSecretary CH Venkatachalamsaid the matter has finallyreceived the attention of theGovernment.

Pointing out that bankingservices are very importantfor the economy in these diffi-cult times, he stressed on theneed to take measures to dealfirmly with miscreants whoindulge in such attacks.Following the Surat incident,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had assured thatthe safety of all members ofstaff in banks is of importance.

“Amid challenges, banksare extending all services to ourpeople. Nothing should threat-en their safety and dignity,” shehad said.

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Wooing global companies,Prime Minister Narendra

Modi on Thursday said hisGovernment’s self-reliant Indiacampaign is not about beingclosed to the world and Asia’sthird-largest economy contin-ues to be one of the most openin the world that offers invest-ment-friendly and competi-tive business environment.

Speaking at the IndiaGlobal Week 2020, he saidAatmanirbhar Bharat, or self-reliant India, is “not aboutbeing self-contained or beingclosed to the world.”

“It is about being self-sus-taining and self-generating.We will pursue policies thatpromote efficiency, equity andresilience,” he said.

In response to the biggesteconomic crisis since 1979triggered by the COVID-19pandemic and the subsequentlockdown – one of the harsh-est in the world, theGovernment announced a�20.97 lakh crore fiscal reliefpackage that encompassed free

ration and cash to poor andstructural reforms with a call toboost domestic capabilities soas to cut imports.

“India remains one of themost open economies in theworld. We are laying a red car-pet for all global companies tocome and establish their pres-ence in India. Very few coun-tries will offer the kind ofopportunities India does today,”Modi said in his addressthrough video link. Sectorssuch as agriculture, defence,and space have been opened upfor investments.

“We are making the econ-omy more productive, invest-ment-friendly and competi-tive,” he said citing deep struc-tural reforms undertaken dur-ing the pandemic.

With reforms and cali-brated opening of the economy,green shoots of revival arealready visible. “In India, we arealready seeing green-shootswhen it comes to economicrecovery,” he said.

While the COVID reliefpackage used technology todeliver benefits directly to

needy, the governmentlaunched one of the world’slargest public works pro-grammes to provide employ-ment to millions of workers assoon as lockdown restrictionswere eased. “This will not onlyre-energise the rural economybut also help in creation of adurable infrastructure in therural areas,” he said. He citedreforms in micro, small andmedium enterprises as well asrelaxation of foreign invest-ment norms in the defence sec-tor and opening up of com-mercial space technology forprivate investment.

“There are investmentopportunities in the defencesector. With relaxed FDInorms, one of the world’sbiggest militaries invites you tocome and make products for it,”he said. “Now, there are moreopportunities for private invest-ment in the space sector.”

Also, reforms in agricultureprovide a very attractive invest-ment opportunity to invest instorage and logistics.

“We are opening the doorsto investors to come and invest

directly in the hard work of ourfarmers,” he said. “There aremany possibilities and oppor-tunities in various sunrise sec-tors in India.”

Modi said it was natural tolink global economic revivalwith India, as “there is faith thatthe story of global revival willhave India playing a leading

role.” The combination of tal-ent and the country’s ability toreform and rejuvenate are fac-tors for this thought.

“Indians are naturalreformers! History has shownthat India has overcome everychallenge, be it social or eco-nomical. India has done so witha spirit of reform and rejuve-nation. The same spirit con-tinues now,” he said adding thecountry talks of revival that iscaring, compassionate, andsustainable.

The Prime Minister citedreforms of the past six yearsincluding the rollout of GST tostate that the gains from them

have set the foundations forthe next round of developmentinitiatives.

The pandemic, he said, hasonce again shown that India’spharma industry is an asset notjust for India but for the entireworld.

“It has played a leadingrole in reducing the cost ofmedicines, especially for devel-oping countries.

Vaccines made in Indiaare responsible for two-thirdsof the vaccination needs of theworld’s children,” he saidadding Indian companies areactive in the internationalefforts for development and

production of the COVID-19vaccine.

“I am certain that Indiawill have an important role indeveloping and in scaling-upproduction of the vaccine onceit is discovered,” he said. India,he said, is ready to do whatev-er it can to further global goodand prosperity.

“This is an India that isreforming, performing, andtransforming.

This is an India that offersnew economic opportunities.This is an India that is adopt-ing a human-centric and inclu-sive approach to development,”he said. “India awaits you all.”s

New Delhi: Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited (BHEL) hassuccessfully commissioned a1.7 MW Solar PV Plant at Binain Madhya Pradesh for theIndian Railways. The plant willdirectly feed power to tractionsystems of Indian Railways.

The project is a landmarkachievement in the history ofsolar power, as this is the firsttime that solar power is beingdirectly used for traction appli-cations. Notably, with this,BHEL has achieved directinjection of single-phase 25 kVpower to traction substation ofIndian Railways.The projecthas been jointly conceptualisedand developed by BHEL andIndian Railways. BHEL’s scopein the project envisaged design,engineering, manufacture, sup-ply, construction, erection, test-ing, commissioning and O&Mbased on the inputs providedby Indian Railways. The projecthas been installed and com-missioned by BHEL in just 4.5months from the date of jointland survey with IndianRailways for the Bina location(excluding time lost due to

Covid disturbances).This is a pilot project by the

company developed on turnkeybasis on vacant land of IndianRailways. The concept todesign and engineering wascarried out in less than 1.5months. The R&D, develop-ment and manufacturing wascompleted entirely in-house atBHEL facilities at Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Jhansi and Bhopal.

Significantly, for the firsttime development of single-phase 850 kW solar invertersand 400 V/25 kV dry typetransformers for outdoor dutyhas been done. Other solarplant equipment such as PVmodules, SCADA system andHT switchgear have also beensupplied by BHEL’s manufac-turing units located at Bengaluruand Bhopal respectively.

The project is a uniqueexample of joint working ofIndian Railways and BHEL inthe field of rail transportation.This development marks amajor step of merging theadvantages of renewable ener-gy in the railway sector in anunprecedented way.

New Delhi: The import policyin case of Paper needs to beimmediately changed from‘Free’ to ‘Restricted’ and paperimports need be allowed onlyon the basis of Actual UserLicense to halt the continuedand indiscriminate import ofpaper from China and ASEAN,Indian Paper ManufacturersAssociation (IPMA) has statedin a communication to theMinistry of Commerce &Industry.

According to the latest datareleased by DGCIS, Govt ofIndia, total import of paper inIndia increased by 11% to 1.6million tonnes in FY 2019-20.During the same period,imports from China went up by14% to 289 thousand tonnes.Imports from ASEAN andSouth Korea under India-ASEAN FTA and India-KoreaCEPA respectively, at nilimport duty, went up by 18%and 9% respectively duringthe year. Chinese exports toIndia enjoy a margin of pref-erence of 30% on most papergrades under APTA.

“Paper is one of the leadingmanufacturing sectors that

have borne the brunt ofimports the maximum. Severalsmaller paper mills, and evena few large ones, in India havebeen forced to shut down theiroperations due to commercialunviability, jeopardising theemployment of thousands.There is adequate productioncapacity in the country whichis currently under-utilised. Thecompound annual growth rate(CAGR) in paper import in thecountry in the last nine years(between FY11 to FY20) is over13%, which is perhaps the oneof the highest amongst all thesectors that have been affectedby surge in imports”, said Mr AS Mehta, President IPMA.

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The � pared some of itsearly gains to settle mar-

ginally up by 3 paise at 74.99against the US $ on Thursdaytracking weakness in thegreenback and gains in thedomestic equity market.

Forex traders said pos-itive domestic equities andweak US currency supportedthe local unit, while foreignfund outflows and concernsover rising COVID-19 casesweighed on investor senti-ment.The � opened at 74.94against the US $ and toucheda high of 74.91 to the dollarin day trade.

The local unit finally set-tled at 74.99 against the US $,up 3 paise over its previousclose of 75.02. Indian bench-mark stock indices rose tofour-month highs on smartgains in finance and bankingcounters amid buoyancy inglobal markets. The 30-shareBSE Sensex settled 408.68points, or 1.12 per cent, high-er at 36,737.69 while NSENifty jumped 107.70 points,or 1.01 per cent, to 10,813.45.Meanwhile, the dollar index,which gauges the greenback’sstrength against a basket ofsix currencies, fell 0.02 percent to 96.40.

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Page 10: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

One has to give creditwhere it is due. Hyundai-

Kia has in the past year dra-matically changed the imageas well as the demand for tur-bocharged petrol engines inIndia. The Hyundai Venuewas the first vehicle to featurethe three-pot one litre and theKia Seltos hadthe four-cylin-der 1.4 litreengine. TheHyundai Verna,i10 Nios alsohave the smaller engine,which will also undoubtedlysee service on the newHyundai i20 and the forth-coming Kia Sonet. And the 1.4does service on the newHyundai Creta and I amexpecting it to do service onsome other cars as well soon.

But I hear you say thatHyundai-Kia wasn’t the firstgroup to fit a small terrier ofan engine under the hood.And you’d be right, Ford’sEcoboost on the Ecosport atlaunch and Volkswagengroup’s one litre TSi on thePolo, Vento and Rapid werethere earlier. Heck, so wasMaruti’s Boosterjet on theBaleno RS. But Hyundai-Kiahas to be given credit for notonly putting turbos acrosstheir range but also makingthem in India. And they havebeen helped immensely bythe government’s bat-tle against cheapdiesel, which none

of the earlier contenders hadto deal with. The success ofthese new engines alongsidethe slow death of dieseldemand is encouraging othermanufacturers to look at tur-bocharged petrols in a post-COVID setup.

So a quick primer on tur-bochargers — they work byusing some of the

exhaust gases to drive a pro-peller to draw in more freshair into the engine, thusincreasing the power outlet ofthe vehicle. Of course, this isa simplistic explanationbecause the size and shape ofturbos can lead to dramaticdifferences in performance.There is something calledturbo-lag, which is the

a m o u nt

of time it takes for the turboto spool-up from the exhaustof the engine. On some cars,particularly older ones, this“lag” could be noticeable. Intoday’s era of computer-con-trolled engines, this lag hasreduced considerably yetmodern turbo engines canmanage the lean fuel economyof a small, naturally aspiratedengine. Basically a turboengine provides more bang forthe buck and a modern turbomanages to do that withoutthe fuel penalty of the past.

But is it worth it? I recent-ly drove the facelifted HyundaiVerna with the 120PS one-litreGDi Turbo, just a few daysafter driving the naturallyaspirated Honda City. Boththe cars were automatics andhad similar power outputs.Long story short — the Vernawas much more fun to drive.The City was definitely themore practical car but some-times you want to have fun inyour car even if you’re a bitgrown up and older. And theVerna Turbo? Well, I’d say itisn’t as economical as the Citybut so much more fun.

And today, I believe, hav-ing fun is getting out of fash-ion. That is kind of silly,because life demands thatwe have some joy, a joied’verve to life. And these

turbo engines allow you todo that!

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Kashmiri folk-fusion artiste AabhaHanjura has unveiled Nundbane,

the fifth single of her awaited album,Sound of Kashmir. The singer’s latestrelease is a festive song centered onKashmiri traditions and history. Thegroovy folk-pop track borrows lyricsfrom the works of Mahmud Gami, arenowned poet of Kashmir’s goldenage, conveying the abstract effects oflove and romance.

Hanjura, a Qyuki creator, presentsher signature ‘valley sound’ throughNundbane, melding the traditional,exultant rhythm of the track withevocative vocals. The accompanyingcontemporary instrumentals lend aunique folk-meets-pop vibe to thesong. It perfectly captures the earthy,breezy and pleasant scenery of beau-tiful valley and Hanjura renders a tran-scendent image of “Heaven on earth:Kashmir.”

Excited about the release ofNundbane, Aabha said, “I am excitedabout bringing out yet another singlefrom my album Sound Of Kashmir.This album is a love letter to Kashmir,every song in it explores my belovedland, through a musical soundscape.

It is rich with strings of love andromance that’s authentic to Kashmirifolklore. Yesteryear poet MahmudGami’s words build beautiful visualmetaphors that transport one to thebygone era, where the idea of romancewas pure and simple.”

Shot in Jaipur, the music video cre-ates a powerful atmosphere of tender-ness and warmth. It unfolds throughthe eyes of a travelling musician, whois singing the song of her native land,in a glorious, faraway city. The visu-als ring euphoric as the diverse culturesof Kashmir and Jaipur are united forNundbane. The music video’s pictor-ial storytelling is only elevated by itsvivid cinematography. Nundbaneforms the perfect confluence of rusticIndian folk music and modern-dayrealities.

Hanjura added, “I wanted to makea song of my own and render it the waywe play it live. We have been perform-ing this version with my band for sometime now, and everywhere we’veplayed the song, the crowd seems tolove it. I’m excited about its release, andfor the fact that it is now going to belive for the world to enjoy it!”

Losing a job is one of the most stress-ful experiences. Whether you’vebeen laid off, downsized or forced

to take an early retirement, not only doesit affect your pocket and other financesbut it may also take a toll on your men-tal and emotional health.

We don’t do a job merely to make aliving. For many, it is so much more. It’snot only a medium to complete ourcareer goals but it also shapes our per-spective towards people, changes how wesee and interpret the world and influ-ences our decisions to a great extent. Ithelps us explore ourselves, our interestsand potential. Suddenly, finding oneselfout of work can be hurtful or depress-ing. One might even start questioningone’s own identity and potential, evenlosing self-belief and confidence attimes.

Given such testing times like todaywith a pandemic at hand, when the mar-ket is starved of funds and adequateresources, it has become even harder formillennials to plan their way ahead. Anddue to so much uncertainty, while manyare facing pay cuts, many have alreadylost their jobs.

Talking about my personal experi-ence, I really miss the feeling of seeingmy account getting credited at a partic-

ular time each month. I understand thepain and distress people are feeling uponlosing jobs at the moment. The prospectof not knowing when your next pay-check will come is a daunting one.

Well, it’s never the best feeling if youlose a job. However, that doesn’t meanyou give up. In fact, it means that nowis the time to work harder than ever andlook for that silver lining. Here are someways to effectively stay motivated whenyou’re unable to find a new job.

"5 A��*���%�It’s time to dust yourself off, get your

act together and get back in the game.Give yourself some recovery time to getover the shock, but then, get serious.Give yourself some love and reaffirmwhat you already know. Think about it:is this your opportunity to change yourcareer (and life)?

!5�%�5 �#5%��!%�%��Experts suggest that creating a plan

for your future is a good way to start.Think of the things you can do andhow you’re going to get your next job.Focussing on the future will help youget a new job much faster thanconcentrating on the past and anymistakes you may have made.

�8�!5��%��5���!�5��#5%!�� "�� "�!��&#

Unemployment doesn’t just affectsyou, it affects your entire family as well.Instead of keeping the problem to your-self, ask for support from your friends andfamily members. Your support group willhelp you get through this awful part ofyour career and propel you forward.

��#����&��#Mental and physical health areinterlinked. It is highly recommendednot to host a pity party for yourself,daytime TV and junk food. Beingphysically fit as well as mentallystrong will help you remain focussedon the challenge at hand. Now is agood time to indulge in some onlineworkouts or healthy cookingexperiments. Doing something otherthan job-hunting will serve you well.

��#��5���I know it is not easy but it is possi-

ble. Getting into a negative cycle willprobably be the most counter-intuitivething to do at the moment. Instead ofallowing yourself to feel negativelyabout your job loss, you can list every-thing you did well at your recent job anduse it to keep yourself positive while

looking for a new job or opportunity.

&558�!5��5��5��% ��Every challenge brings its own set of

opportunities. You might not be able tosee them at the moment but keep look-ing irrespective. Some of the world’sbiggest businesses started during somesort of crisis, The Great Depression,Subprime and others.

�C�&5������500#While you are at home, finding

work, dig in what you really like anddevelop the hobby as you have the timeto do it, which you never had or had lim-itations for. This will help you explorea new reason to keep yourself occupiedand happy. Hobbies related to art alsohelp you be at peace and have a stablemind.

��8�����5������Well, during a lockdown it is sug-

gested to take a trip only if safe, other-wise it’s good to space out between twojobs, as it gives an individual a clarity ofthought and helps to be more produc-tive at the same time. The job you willbe applying for might come your waywhen you are not waiting for it butapproaching it.

���"��5��While I know, it sounds cliche,

reading e-books, blogs and books def-initely help your mind to declutter andcreate space for you to perform. Readmotivational stories and books like TheSecret, F@ckKnows, and other such.

��8��� �����%"�����When on a break, or no job mode,

it’s better to go back and explore the rea-son why you ended up where you are.Aptitude tests are available online andare super effective, as it helps you tobelieve in yourself again and guide youto what are the different avenues youcan do/ be at rather sulking over thesame.

% &��� �� "�&��� �Unlearn the negative aspects of

yourself and learn a new course on writ-ing, digital management, website mak-ing, profile building. There are over1000s of different digital courses avail-able on Google. Get certified while youare looking for a new job. As you havesomething to look forward to your daywhich is time bound!

(The author is Devashree SharmaTiwari, co-founder, The Glutton and TheOwl.)

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It’s early in the morning. You have justwoken up from a not so good dream.You open the curtains, look outside the

window and it is raining heavily. The weath-er is gloomy and dark. It seems like the dayis going to be a dull and somber one. Justthen, your house help enters the room withyour morning cup of tea. The aroma of thathot, thick-milked beverage excites all yoursenses and instantly, your morning, oppo-site to how you were imagining it to be afew minutes ago, turns out perfect. For a tealover, happiness is certainly a cup of tea!

The beverage is known to have origi-nated somewhere around 2700 BC inChina and was initially used for medicinalpurposes. Slowly but steadily, it started gain-ing popularity as it served medical require-ments, had great taste, and also quenchedone’s thirst. As higher sections of the soci-ety got to know about this tasteful potion,it began to become a means to socialise.Over a period, it started spreading to thelower sections as well because consumingit has never been a very costly affair. Sincethen till now, tea has seen itself passthrough ages. Today, it helps create mem-ories. A few sips of hot tea after gettingdrenched in the rains with one’s compan-ions is a story that many can relate to andponder upon. Now that the pandemic ishere, everybody is looking at ways to incor-porate healthy ingredients in their diet. Didyou know tea is also one of the healthy bev-erages that can aid immunity? Read on toknow more.

The immunity booster: Tea comes ina lot of varieties but one common thingamong them is antioxidants. They not onlybattle free radicals which may cause heartproblems but also help in repairing dam-aged cells in the body. A study finds thatthe beverage boosts the body’s defensemechanism against infections and containsa substance that might turn into a drug toprotect against various diseases. Coffee doesnot have the same effect, researchers tell.Other studies have linked tea to helpingcombat osteoporosis, the brittle bone dis-ease and to relieving some allergy symp-toms. It’s a very common fact that our bod-ies cannot concentrate for long durationsand hence, to get going, it is always advis-able to keep taking breaks after concentrat-ed sessions. In the late afternoon, aroundthree and four, we are the most vulnerable.There is a dip in energy levels and the body

feels more worn out than earlier in the day.The best way to recharge yourself is ofcourse a nap but that is a luxury, whichmany cannot afford. The four o’clock teatime is therefore a popular and very com-mon practice to regain the energy you needto power through another few hours ofwork. Tea contains caffeine which helps inkeeping the mind alert and can keep onegoing for longer periods.

Both caffeinated and herbal teas mayprovide minerals such as potassium, phos-

phorus, magnesium, sodium, copper andzinc. Our very own masala chai also addsto the list of healthy drinks as it containsmany Indian spices such as cloves, car-damom, cinnamon and star anise — all ofwhich are known to benefit our overallhealth.

Honey, lemon and ginger are all knownto be brimming with a plethora of health-promoting properties and together theyform the ultimate remedy. Honey is full ofantioxidants and antibacterial properties

that help boost our digestive system andimmunity. It also helps soothe a sorethroat. Lemon, on the other hand, is a goodsource of Vitamin C, which is known as anexcellent immunity booster. And gingerhelps slay germs and alleviate the symptomsof an upset stomach. Honey lemon and gin-ger tea helps in relieving menstrual crampsas well.

Herbal tea has been used for millenniabecause of its medicinal qualities but thereis a dire need to sip on the beverage now

more than ever. It doesn’t contain caffeine,which is why it is known for its calmingproperties. The ultra-properties of herbaltea is also known to relieve stress and inmany cases, work as an anti-depressant.There are numerous types of herbal teas, allwith their unique benefits such aschamomile, hibiscus, peppermint andmany more. Herbal tea like fennel helps inrelieving stomach ache, flatulence, colic andconstipation. It also promotes better diges-tion of food and reduces gastric problems.

While picking any one of it, just make sureyou go for a well-sourced product withhigh-quality ingredients.

Everybody is usually aware of the ben-efits of green tea and its extracts. But hereare a few more. It is exceptionally high inflavonoids that can help boost your hearthealth by lowering bad cholesterol andreducing blood clotting. Many studies showthat green tea extracts, that are processedfrom the plant, can promote weight loss,blood sugar regulation, disease preventionand exercise recovery. It can also help keepyour skin and liver healthy, reduce blood fatlevels, regulate blood pressure and improvebrain health, all together. Imagine what won-ders it can do to your body. It caters most-ly to people who cannot give up their dailydose of tea filled with milk and sugar butstill need to opt for a healthier option. Thebeverage certainly has mood-altering magicthat surprisingly starts working after a cou-ple of sips, to say the least.

Tea is India’s go-to drink. The countryconsumes approximately 10 lakh tones of itevery year. Yes, you read that right. It canbe touching 40 degrees with a glaring sunover one’s head but still spotting a tea stallon the roadside would give people the hap-piness which most things in this world cannot.

(The author, Dheer Shah, is the CEO ofSamaara Tea.)

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Page 12: ˇˇ ˘...2020/07/10  · week, ever since the ambush and killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur. As police searched for him in Haryana, Delhi, a close watch was kept on the Indo-Nepal

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Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shahbelieves the googly will be his “most

important weapon” in England andsaid he is also eyeing a century with thebat against the hosts during the upcom-ing Test series beginning next month.

The three-Test series begins with theopening match on August 5 inManchester, followed by the second andthird Tests at Southampton.

The 34-year-old has been workingon his googlies with Mushtaq Ahmed,who was appointed as the spin bowlingcoach ahead of the England tour by thePakistan Cricket Board.

“My googly is coming out well,” saidYasir, who has so far captured 213 wick-ets in 39 Tests for Pakistan.

“In the two-day match, all thegooglies I bowled landed well and spunwell. I think it will be my most impor-tant weapon,” he added.

Yasir, the fastest bowler to pick up200 Test scalps, is expecting dried wick-ets during the series to help the spinners.

“Counties usually sign spinners forJuly to September because in these threemonths, spinners get help on dry wick-

ets,” Yasir said, adding that he is “hope-ful that the wickets will assist the spin-ners.”

He has scored just 707 runs in 39Tests for Pakistan but that includes a113-run innings against Australia inAdelaide last year and Yasir said he islooking to notch up another ton inEngland.

“I am working on my batting in thenets. When the team needs you, youneed to step up. So I do have a target,of scoring a century in England. If I canhit a hundred at Adelaide, I can do ithere as well.”

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West Indies captain Jason Holdertook a career-best 6-42 as

England was bowled out for 204 onthe second overcast day of the firstTest at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday.

Shannon Gabrielnabbed the first threewickets, Holder the nextsix including Englandcounterpart Ben Stokes fora team-best 43, and Gabriel grabbedthe last wicket to finish with 4-62.

England, at 174-9, didn’t looklike reaching 200 but Dom Bess hit31 not out and shared 30 with fastbowler James Anderson, the last manout.

An early tea was taken withEngland set to repay the West Indies’batting lineup in ideal bowling con-ditions.

Gabriel and Holder reducedEngland to 106-5 at lunch.

But the break enlivened Stokesand Jos Buttler, who came outpunchy and riding some luck.

Stokes, dropped on 14 by KemarRoach on the run, was dropped

again on 32 off Roach toa simpler chance byShamarh Brooks at extracover.

Stokes and Buttlercombined for 67 and 13 boundariesin the empty arena until Holder drewStokes forward on 43 and earned anedge behind.

Buttler, on 35, was out to anoth-er seaming ball by Holder and a low,one-handed catch behind by wick-etkeeper Shane Dowrich.

When Jofra Archer was out fora duck after a West Indies reviewshowed his front pad blocked his leg

stump, Holder had his fifth wicketand taken 3-1 in 14 balls.

The five-wicket haul wasHolder’s seventh, and sixth in his last10 Tests. Mark Wood on 5 slashedat Holder straight to Shai Hope atgully, and Holder would finish theinnings with career-best figures of20-6-42-6.

Bess and Anderson gaveEngland a little lift to get past 200,but Anderson lost his off stump try-ing to defend Gabriel, who removedopener Rory Burns (30) and JoeDenly (18) in the morning.

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Mohamed Salah kept Liverpoolon track to set a new PremierLeague points record as the

champions won 3-1 at Brighton,while Manchester City bounced backto form with a five-goal rout ofNewcastle on Wednesday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are hoping tobreak the 100-point record establishedby Manchester City in 2018 and theyremain on course after securing theirfirst away win since February.

Liverpool have 92 points andneed nine more from their remainingfour games against Burnley, Arsenal,Chelsea and Newcastle to clinch thenew record.

Asked about the record chase,Klopp said: “It’s not important for me.I’m not interested in any of this but Iwant to win football games.

“For sports people in general itmight be important. We are champi-ons and it could be softening but it isnot. The boys go with everything.”

Liverpool have reached 30 wins ina season faster than any other inEnglish league history and Kloppadded: “We now have 92 points andlast season we had 97! That’s unbeliev-able, I have no idea how we did that.”

Salah punished poordefending in the sixthminute, grabbing his 22ndgoal of the season andLiverpool’s first away fromhome since February.

Jordan Hendersonincreased Liverpool’s advan-tage with a curling finish from theedge of the area three minutes later.Leandro Trossard got one back witha powerful strike in first-half stop-page-time.

But Salah’s 76th-minute headerfrom Andrew Robertson’s cornerensured Liverpool’s five-match win-less run on their travels came to anend.

CITY BACK ON SONGSecond-placed City lost for the

ninth time in the league this season atSouthampton on Sunday.

But Pep Guardiola’s men havenow won all four games at theEtihad since the restart by a com-bined score of 17-0 after thumpingNewcastle 5-0.

Gabriel Jesus was one of themain culprits when it came tomissed chances at St Mary’s, but

the Brazilian needed just 10 minutesto score against Newcastle as hesteered David Silva’s cross into the farcorner.

De Bruyne then picked out RiyadMahrez for a simple finish. There wasmore than a hint of fortune to City’sthird as Matt Ritchie’s attemptedclearance ricocheted off FedericoFernandez into his own net.

Silva’s appearances at the Etihadare running out, with the Spaniardending his 10-year stay in Manchesterwhen City’s season finishes in August.

He left another reminder of why hewill be so missed with a sumptuousfree-kick to make it four. And Silvaturned provider again in stoppage timefor Raheem Sterling to round off thescoring.

“His performance today and in thelast games, the level he is having is thebest of the season,” Guardiola said ofSilva.City will find out next week if theclub’s appeal against a two-season banfrom European competition to theCourt of Arbitration for Sport has beensuccessful.

But they have almost done the jobon the field to qualify for theChampions League for a 10th consec-utive season with a 14-point lead overfifth-placed Manchester United, whohave five games remaining.

Eslewhere, Wolves’ ChampionsLeague aspirations stumbled again in

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Barcelona kept their faint titlehopes alive and doomed

Espanyol to relegation onWednesday as Luis Suarez’s goalproved the winner in a pivotalCatalan derby at the top and bot-tom of La Liga.

A cagey contest atCamp Nou explodedinto life for six franticminutes at the start ofthe second half as AnsuFati and Pol Lozanowere sent off, leaving each sidewith 10 men before Suarezstruck.

Suarez profitted after anoth-er superb contribution from areinvigorated AntoineGriezmann, his backheel settingup Lionel Messi to shoot, withSuarez turning in the rebound.

This 1-0 victory was a farcry from the sparkling 4-1 winover Villarreal on Sunday but itmoves Barca to within a point ofReal Madrid, who play theirgame in hand at home to Alaveson Friday.

Espanyol, rooted to the bot-tom of the table, will be relegat-ed. They sit 11 points adrift ofsafety with only three games left

to play.“Life or death” read the

front page of Mundo Deportivoon Thursday morning — forBarcelona, who had to win tostay in touch with Madrid, andfor Espanyol, given they need-ed a victory to prolong their sur-vival effort.

Griezmann’s combinationwith Suarez and Messi, comingafter his sumptuous chip againstVillarreal, sustains theFrenchman’s momentum butthis was more of a gritty winagainst an Espanyol team that hitthe post at 0-0 and had chances.

With the superior head-to-head and a kind last four fix-tures, Real Madrid remain firmfavourites.

“We have to win our nextthree games,” said Suarez. “WhatMadrid do is up to them. If theydrop points, fantastic. We justhave to be there if they do.”

#" �#/ Australia must tourEngland in September “for thehealth of world cricket”, andplayers should then be releasedto join the Indian PremierLeague, coach Justin Langersaid on Thursday.

Despite the challenges ofCovid-19, Langer said Australiahad to play its part in gettingcricket moving again, even if itmeant enduring quarantine,biosecurity restrictions and timeaway from family.

“My personal view is wehave to go. For so many reasons,”Langer told News Corp Australia.“I think we have to go toEngland. There’s lots of chal-lenges of course but we have tofind solutions to make sure thatcan happen if possible.”

Australia’s limited-oversseries scheduled for this monthin England was postponedbecause of the coronavirus, andSeptember has been raised as analternative. Cricket Australia,which has laid off 15% of its staffduring the pandemic, is also des-perate to host a money-spinningTest series against India later thisyear.

“I think for the health ofworld cricket, Australia’s tour ofEngland must go ahead. Asmuch as we’d like India to comeover here, I think we need to rec-iprocate that with England if wecan.” Langer believed releasingAustralia’s big names to join theIPL — whose revised dates areyet to be announced — was alsoessential as a goodwill gesture,to make sure India go aheadwith their Test tour.

“I think we have to. Talkingfrankly,” Langer said. “I hear adifferent story about the IPL’splans every few days. It varies. Sountil there’s some clarity and wecan work out how it affects thedomestic season, how it affectsour players, how it works withquarantine... there’s a lot of con-siderations here.” AP

9�&& *�5 / New Zealand Cricket(NZC) has refuted reports that it hasoffered to host the now-postponedIndian Premier League this year,terming them as “inaccurate” whileaffirming its commitment to theFuture Tours programme.

NZC spokesperson RichardBoock said the cricket board has notexpressed its interest to host the IPL.“This rumour is inaccurate. NewZealand would not be in a positionto host the IPL — even if we wereasked, which we haven’t been. Thedates, and NZC’s commitment tohonouring its Future Tours pro-gramme, means the timing wouldnot allow this to happen,” Boocksaid.

Boock’s statement came after aBCCI official stated that NewZealand have also joined along withUAE and Sri Lanka the race to hostthis year’s IPL if it is shifted out ofIndia because of the pandemic.PTI

�%�0�/�The Indian domestic season will only startwhen it is safe for young players to travel within thecountry for their Ranji Trophy matches, BCCI pres-ident Sourav Ganguly said.

There is a huge uncertainty with regards to India’sdomestic tournaments as IPL will be happening inOctober leading to a curtailed season due to coron-avirus.

The 2020-21 domestic season would have start-ed with Vijay Hazare in late August followed RanjiTrophy, Duleep Trophy and Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy. Last season’s Irani Cup was cancelled due toannouncement of Lockdown 1.

Asked about domestic cricket and junior crick-et, Ganguly told Sports Tak, “It is necessary, but it willhappen only after coronavirus. When it is safe, onlythen, especially junior cricket.”

Ganguly reasoned that India was a large coun-try and teams needed to travel from one place toanother for their matches and hence domesticcricket won’t start till everything is safe.

“We don’t want to expose young players. Ourcountry is so large and our domestic cricket is sorobust that everyone has to travel and play. So till thetime it is not safe, it will not happen,” clarified theBCCI boss. Similarly, there are various tournamentsfor age group cricket.

India on Thursday recorded single-day spike of24,879 COVID-19 cases as the overall tally mount-ed to 7,67,296. The death toll stood at 21,129 with487 new fatalities, as per the Union health ministry.

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The Indian men’s team willresume its FIH Pro League

campaign in April next yearwith an away tie againstArgentina, according to arevised fixtures announced bythe International HockeyFederation on Thursday.

India will play Argentina onApril 10 and 11 next year in therevamped Pro League.

The first match in both themen’s and women’s divisionwill see Germany hostingBelgium on September 22 and23. India will then face GreatBritain away from home onMay 8 and 9 before travelling toSpain to play matches on May12 and 13.

They will then take onGermany away on May 18 and19 before finally playing a hometie on May 29 and 30 againstNew Zealand.

The FIH was forced tomake a new schedule because ofthe Covid-19 pandemic that hasaffected all sporting eventsacross the world.

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a last-gasp 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United. NunoEspirito Santo’s men fell to a second straight defeatwhen John Egan’s powerful header won it for theBlades in stoppage-time.

Victory moved United up to seventh, within onepoint of Wolves, who remain seven points adrift ofthe top four.

At the bottom of the table, West Ham failed togive themselves more breathing space from the bot-tom three with a 1-0 home defeat by Burnley.

Jay Rodriguez’s header seven minutes beforehalf-time moved the Clarets into the top half of thetable.

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3�� ��������������������59,���-��������*�*����&5 "5 /�Wicket-keeper batsmanJonny Bairstow and spin bowlingall-rounder Moeen Ali were onThursday named in England’s 24-member training group for thethree-match ODI series againstIreland starting later this month.

White-ball skipper EoinMorgan will lead the side in thethree day-night matches to beplayed behind closed doors atAgeas Bowl on July 30, August 1and August 4.

Others in the side includewicketkeeper batsman SamBillings, who missed out on theWorld Cup last year due to a dis-located shoulder, and all-rounderDavid Willey. Liam Dawson,Liam Livingstone, James Vince,Ben Duckett & Reece Topley willalso be return to the side. PTI

�����(�������#�$���>������'�&�#���(��Madrid: Real Betis haveappointed former Real Madridand Manchester City coachManuel Pellegrini as their man-ager from next season on athree-year contract, the La Ligaside said on Thursday.

Pellegrini, who won thePremier League with City in2013-14 as well as two LeagueCups, returns to Spain where hehad successful spells withVillarreal and Malaga.

Pellegrini replaces coachRubi who was sacked lastmonth after Betis failed to winany of the first three matches intheir return to action. Sportingdirector Alexis Trujillo wasplaced in interim charge untilthe end of the season. Agencies

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����������������������������������3������<%���#�������-����6��������������&�&��8�����/ Struggling to find a mainsponsor for the national team, Pakistancricketers will be sporting the logo ofthe Shahid Afridi Foundation on theirjerseys during the upcoming seriesagainst England.

“We’re delighted that the@SAFoundationN logo will be fea-tured on the Pakistan playing kits, sincewe are charity partners to@TheRealPCB. Thanking #WasimKhan& the PCB for their continued support& wishing our boys all the very bestwith the tour,” former skipper Afriditweeted. PTI