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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 4 ISSUE 59*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

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CITING OMICRON, ‘MASSIVE THIRDWAVE’ WARNING FROM IMA

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) today urged thegovernment to announce "additional" doses of Covid vaccinefor healthcare, frontline workers, and immunocompromised

individuals amid concerns over Omicron, 21 cases of whichhave been detected in India so far. It also demanded that thegovernment expedite the proposal of vaccinating individualsaged 12 to 18 years. At a press conference, the doctors' bodysaid that cases of the latest variant of coronavirus werereported from a number of major states of India, and the tally,which is in double digits, is bound to increase.

SPICEJET TO DEPOSIT $5 MILLION IN 2WEEKS OR FACE LIQUIDATION: COURT

Madras High Court has ordered winding up ofprivate carrier SpiceJet Limited and directed theofficial liquidator attached to the High Court to

take over its assets, in a plea filed by a Swiss companyover unpaid dues. The airline had failed to makepayment of over $24 million to a Swiss company SRTechnics for maintenance, repair and overhauling ofaircraft engines, modules, components, assemblies andparts. The order was passed by the high court onDecember 6, 2021.

JAYALALITHAA EX-AIDE VK SASIKALAMEETS RAJINIKANTH IN CHENNAI

VK Sasikala, the aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister JJayalalithaa, met actor Rajinikanth at the superstar's housein Poes Garden in Chennai on Monday evening, news

agency ANI reported. Sasikala greeted Rajinikanth on hisDadasaheb Phalke award and also enquired about his health, itsaid. The superstar had undergone a Carotoid revascularisationprocedure in October this year. In January this year, VKSasikala, expelled from the AIADMK following an internal powerstruggle, was released from jail in Bengaluru after serving afour-year imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.

STEEP FALL IN TRANSFER OF FUNDSFROM NGOs TO ASSOCIATIONS

The transfer of foreign funds received by parentNon-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to itsassociations has witnessed a steep fall in the

financial year 2020-21, Minister of State for HomeAffairs Nityanand Rai informed on Tuesday. In a replyto a question over foreign contribution to NGOs, Raisaid that in the financial year 2020-21 just 69 NGOstransferred Rs 38.91 crore foreign funding ascompared to Rs 1314.40 cr transferred by 729 NGOs inthe year 2019-20.

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MONEY 8SENSEX SOARS 887 PTS

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SPORTS 12ASHES COULD REVOLVE AROUND

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HYDERABAD, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

HHYYDDEERRAABBAADDWWEEAATTHHEERR

Updated DECEMBER 07, 2021 5:00 PM

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HHuummiiddiittyy:: 59%SSuunnrriissee:: 6:34 AMSSuunnsseett:: 5:41 PM

AALLMMAANNAACC

TTOODDAAYY

Month & Paksham:

Margashirsha & Shukla Paksha

Tithi : Panchami 21:25

Nakshatram : Shravana 22:39

Rahukalam : 12:08 pm - 1:30 pm

Yamagandam : 8:00 am - 9:23 am

Varjyam : 2:31 am - 4:04 am

Gulika : 10:45 am - 12:08 pm

Amritakalam : 12:55 pm - 2:25 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham : Nil

Failure to procure paddy by TRSGovt means no Re 1 rice, says KishanPNS n HYDERABAD

The non-procurement of paddy bythe Telangana Governmentamounts to stopping the distribu-tion of one rupee rice to the poorby the TRS Government, UnionTourism Minister G. Kishan Reddysaid.

He made it clear that the Stategovernment has to procure thepaddy if it wanted to give one rupeea kg rice to the poor.

He said that the Centre facesproblems with parboiled rice andhad made it clear that the Centrewill purchase only raw rice. TheCentre has never said that it willnot purchase raw rice, Kishan said.

He alleged that the TRS is cre-ating confusion after its defeat inthe Huzurabad by-poll and is try-ing to blame the BJP.

Addressing the media at NewDelhi on Tuesday, Kishan allegedthat the TRS is intentionally politi-cising paddy procurement andthat TRS MPs are staging dharnasfor publicity.

He made it clear that the BJP isnot afraid of the TRS or ChiefMinister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

He reminded that the ChiefMinister had signed the parboiledrice agreement saying thatTelangana will not give boiled riceto the FCI.

Kishan asked whether the TRSGovernment is so weak to sign onan agreement if the Centre placeda knife on the neck of KCR.

He said the KCR Governmenthad signed it then and now it isalleging that the State suppliesparboiled rice only in Rabi season.

The Union Minister said that theCentre had spent Rs 27,000 crorelast year. The Union Minister ofCommerce & Industry, ConsumerAffairs & Food & PDS and Textile,Piyush Goyal, gave an answer on itin Parliament.

He had asked the TSGovernment to procure paddyafter stopping its dharnas, Kishansaid.

Congress losing ground as BJP,TRS cross swords in TelanganaSNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

In Telangana, in the fight betweenpink and saffron the tricolour of theCongress is getting blurred.

The saffron party (BJP) is tryingto dominate the pink party (TRS) bythe 2023 Assembly elections. Caughtbetween these two parties, theCongress is in a state of disorienta-tion. The BJP has intensified itsmoves to expand its roots inTelangana. The victory in the twoAssembly by-elections has given aboost to the BJP and it is now hope-

ful of achieving its goal in the nextAssembly elections.

As planned in its Mission 2023 theBJP is concentrating on baggingimportant leaders. The BJP is nowfocussing on leaders who wereactive during the Telangana move-ment.

TNGOS leader Swami Goud whoplayed a key role in the Telanganamovement has already joined theBJP. Now another leader, TNGOSleader Ch. Vithal, too has joined theBJP. The founder president ofTelangana Employees Union, Vithal,played a key role during the

Telangana movement. JournalistChintapandu Naveen alias TeenmarMallanna, a strong critic of ChiefMinister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, hasalso joined the BJP.

Telangana BJP President BandiSanjay Kumar has given a call to theleaders those who had played a cru-cial role during the Telangana move-ment to join the BJP. There is criti-cism in the TRS since a long timethat it had ignored Telangana move-ment leaders after it came to power.Now the BJP is trying to exploit this.

TS borrowed Rs 500 cr morePNS n HYDERABAD

At the weekly auction of statedevelopment loans, six statesraised just Rs 8,000 crore, whichis 41 per cent lower than the indi-cated Rs 13,600 crore. Seven ofthe 13 states that initially indicat-ed their participation in the auc-tion did not raise funds, even asTelangana borrowed Rs500 crore more thanindicated.

After falling marginallyfor two weeks, the cost ofdebt-funds for the statesjumped again as theweighted average costof borrowings rose by37 bps to a one-month high of 6.80per cent in the auc-tion on Tuesdaycompared to thelast week.

At theweekly auc-tion of state developmentloans, six states raised just Rs8,000 crore, which is 41 per centlower than the indicated Rs13,600 crore, according to ananalysis by Icra Ratings, whichsaid this is the sixth consecutiveweek of lower-than-indicatedissuance.

Aditi Nayar, the chief econo-

mist at the rating agency, said thespread between the 10-year statedebt and the G-secs eased to a 24month-low of 45 bps from 51 bpslast week, while the weightedaverage cost of their borrowingsjumped by 37 bps to 6.80 per centover the past week.

According to another agencyCare Ratings, themarket borrowings

by the states so far inFY22 are 18 per cent less

than that in correspondingperiod of FY21. As many as

29 states/UTs have cumu-latively raised (except

Odisha) Rs 4,19,900crore so far this fis-

cal, down 18.4per cent on-year from Rs5 , 1 4 , 6 0 0crore.

Accordingto Care, thew e i g h t e daverage costof borrowings,

across states andtenures, rose to 6.80 per cent,which is a one-month high whilethe weighted average yield of the10-year bonds was stable at 6.84per cent at last week's level.

Delivery of F-16 wing reflects heightsof Hyderabad aerospace ecosystemPNS n HYDERABAD

Lockheed Martin has formally rec-ognized Tata-Lockheed MartinAerostructures Limited (TLMAL)as a potential future co-producer offighter wings. IT and IndustriesMinister K T Rama Rao participat-ed in the TATA Lockheed MartinAerostructures Ltd 'Fighter WingQualification Ceremony' atAdibatla on Tuesday.

Addressing a gathering at theceremony, Minister said: "The suc-cessful certification and delivery ofF-16 wing is a great testimony tothe heights Hyderabad Aerospace& Defence ecosystem has grown toin a relatively short span of time."

Lockheed Martin and TLMALsigned an agreement to develop afighter wing prototype in 2018.

Through this prototype project,TLMAL demonstrated the capabil-ity to perform detailed part man-ufacturing and delivery of a fully

compliant representative fighteraircraft wing shipset.

Address ‘historicalinjustice’: TS to KRMBo Shift Nettempadu, Jurala projects from Schedule

2 to Schedule 3 of gazetteo ‘The projects lie entirely within Telangana area’

ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

The Telangana government haswritten to the Krishna RiverManagement Board (KRMB) toremove the Nettempadu project aswell as Jurala projects fromSchedule 2 and include them inSchedule 3.

The state government request-ed the KRMB to also treat theNettempadu Lift Irrigation Schemeas a single component in theKRMB Gazette Notification,instead of two components.

The government also wrote thatJurala project and all the compo-nents related to it lie entirely with-in the Telangana area and serveonly Telangana area without anycommon territory shared withAndhra Pradesh.

Further, telemetry has alreadybeen implemented in all the out-lets from this project. Therefore,Jurala project components are notrequired to be kept under thedirect control of KRMB and thisproject could be excluded from theSchedule -2 list and included in theSchedule-3 , Muralidhar, Engineer-in-Chief , Irrigation, wrote in hisletter to the KRMB Chairman.

Eatala shouldapologise forencroaching assignedlands: Balka SumanPNS n HYDERABAD

Stepping up their tirade againstBJP MLA Eatala Rajender afterthe confirmation by the MedakCollector that Jamuna Hatcheriesowned by the Eatala family hadencroached on government andassigned lands, Government WhipBalka Suman has demanded thatEatala should apologise for his actsof omission and commisison.

Addressing a media conferencealong with TRS legislators here onTuesday, Balka Suman said thatEatala who had claimed that he wasan honest political leader owed anexplanation to the public forencroaching the lands of SCs and STs.

Medak Collector Hareesh hadgiven a detailed account of the landsgrabed by Jamuna Hatcheries haddemanded that the lands should besurrendered to the government andassigned lands should be restoredto the poor.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The number of Rs 2,000 currencynotes in circulation has decreasedto 223.3 crore pieces or 1.75 percent of total notes in circulation(NIC) in November this year, com-pared to 336.3 crore pieces inMarch 2018.

Printing of banknotes of partic-ular denomination is decided bythe government in consultationwith the Reserve Bank to maintaindesired denomination mix for facil-itating transactional demand ofpublic, said Pankaj Chaudhary,Minister of State in FinanceMinistry, in a written reply in the

Rajya Sabha."As against 3,363 million pieces

(mpcs) of Rs 2,000 denomination

banknotes in circulation on March31, 2018 constituting 3.27 per centand 37.26 per cent of NIC in terms

of volume and value respectively;2,233 mpcs were in circulation onNovember 26, 2021, constituting1.75 per cent and 15.11 per cent ofNIC in terms of volume and value,respectively," he said.

Chaudhary further said that nofresh indent has been placed withcurrency printing presses for thebanknote from 2018-19 onwards.

"The decrease in circulation ofRs 2,000 note issued after demon-etisation is because no freshindent has been placed for print-ing of these notes from 2018-19onwards.

Beware! Rs 2,000 notes are vanishing!

TRS to boycottParliamentsession overfarmerss’ issuePNS n NEW DELHI

Accusing the Centre of being"ant i- farmer" , the TRSannounced on Tuesday that itsMPs will boycott both houses ofParliament for the remainder ofthe Winter Session and said itwants the BJP-led governmentto go.

Shouting slogans against thegovernment and in support offarmers, the Telangana RashtraSamithi (TRS) MPs staged awalkout from the Lok Sabha andthe Rajya Sabha of Tuesday. Allof them were dressed in black.

IT cos extend work from home NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

IT companies in the city are recon-sidering their decision to callemployees back to office, given thelooming Covid-19 Omicron vari-ant threat. Some of the firms hadinitially extended the option ofwork from home (WFH) up toFebruary, though employees havebeen suggesting that April might bethe month to again revisit workfrom office plans.

An employee from Genpact saidearlier they had asked that they beallowed to work from office fromJanuary; however, it was extendedto February.

Some have not announced thenext date, but extended work fromhome.

A Google employee said that ini-tially they were asked to return onJanuary 10, but later the companyextended it. The company had notinformed the next date of rejoining.

Most companies have certainlyextended work from home.Presently they have taken a pauseon deciding when they employees

should come back. Employees from HSBC and

Capgemini confirmed that no onewas being asked to return to officeand that, based on project, theywere following a hybrid model. Insome projects, employees werebeing asked to come once a week.

Vivek Goel, Vice President,Marketing, Quixy, said, "We havenot mandated return to office yet.

In fact, WFH has become an ele-ment of a successful strategy for us.

Our workforce is now spread acrossthe country, and retention is ofgreat importance to us. Throughinternal dialogue and 100% inputsfrom our remote employees, weunderstand that WFH is of highvalue to most employees as yet".

Hybrid model has been thenorm for many companies as theycould hire people from acrossIndia.

Rashi Srivastav, Vice President atQentelli, said, "We haven'tannounced anybody to come tooffice yet. But we are leveraging theoffice for workshops. We have amandate that if you are enteringoffice show vaccine certificate andfollow Covid protocols.

When we thought more peoplecan be in office, but Omicron hap-pened. We will follow how theOmicron variant impacts us and ifneeded we will go back to the vir-tual model. Trainings have startedfor freshers and we have a combi-nation of virtual and in-persontraining for freshers. Trainings arehappening in the auditorium. So,we are using the entire floor for thepurpose".

Varanasi tocelebrate Kashi-Vishwanath corridor PNS n NEW DELHI

Varanasi will host a month-longcultural exercise following theinauguration of the "KashiVishwanath Dham" (KashiVishwanath corridor) by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onDecember 13, and all BJP chiefministers and deputy CMs willattend the ceremony which willbe broadcast live from over51,000 places nationwide, theparty said on Tuesday.

IT and Municipal Administation Minister KT Ramarao at the TATA Lockheed MartinAerostructures Ltd ‘Fighter Wing Qualification Ceremony’ at Adibatla on Tuesday.

A Google employee saidthat initially they wereasked to return onJanuary 10, but laterthe company extendedit. The company hadnot informed the nextdate of rejoining.

He said that the Centre facesproblems with parboiled riceand had made it clear thatthe Centre will purchase onlyraw rice. The Centre has neversaid that it will not purchaseraw rice.

— G. KISHAN REDDY

Union Tourism Minister

‘The decrease incirculation of Rs 2,000note issued afterdemonetisation isbecause no fresh indenthas been placed forprinting of these notesfrom 2018-19 onwards. Furhter, notes also goout of circulation as theyget soiled/mutilated,’he said.

Representational picture

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21,988 residentialunits registeredin GHMC limits

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

EGG

RATES

HYDERABAD 435

VIJAYAWADA 463

VISAKHAPATNAM 402

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀44..3355

`̀//110000

CHICKEN

RATES

Dressed/With Skin `207

Without Skin `227

Broiler at Farm `112

(IN HYDERABAD)

Palpable discomfortamong sections ofthe public over polit-

ically-influenced stancesof the Jaganmohan Reddygovernment on vitalissues such as the OneTime Settlement schemerelating to housing beneficia-ries, growing dissatisfactionamong government employ-ees over delay in the implemen-tation of the Pay RevisionCommission recommenda-tions, and sub-optimal perfor-mance of the state governmentin tackling the grim floodswhich had claimed at least 60lives of people in different partsof the state has sent danger sig-nals to powers that be.

Various sections of people inAndhra Pradesh have felt thepinch over the questionableattitude of the state government.Central to it is a grave fact thatthere is acute shortage of fundsfor taking up developmentalworks. Poor and middle classpeople who had benefited from

housing programmestaken up by previousgovernments over theyears have not beenspared under OTS.

With the stategovernment desperately

looking for ways to poolfunds even for its routine pro-grammes, anything it contem-plates on the finance frontbecomes suspect. This explainswhy there are intractable issueswith regard to OTS, which ini-tially appeared to have come tothe rescue of the government infund raising. Even those hous-es that were sanctioned withloans sanctioned during theregime of N.T. Rama Raoappear in the lists meant forOTS. The task of collectingmoney from the housing ben-eficiaries under OTS has beenentrusted to the staff working invillage secretariats. They havebeen given daily targets forcollecting money under OTS.This has sparked other issuesrelating to certificates needed by

those beneficiaries. Hence, therewas chaos when the official staffapproached the beneficiaries.

The shocked beneficiariesquestioned the propriety of thegovernment in asking moneyunder OTS for the houses thatthey got from previous govern-ments. Instead of giving money,some of the beneficiaries, inutter frustration, offered to thecollection staff asbestos sheets,slab, stones, doors and windowsfrom their houses. One angrybeneficiary described the imple-mentation of OTS as "nothing

but performing my marriagewith my own wife".

Oral instructions reportedlygiven by a mandal developmentofficer to lower level staff on fix-ing of targets for collection ofmoney under OTS seem tohave sent shock waves to thehousing beneficiaries as well asthe general public. This incidentcame to light when TeluguDesam Party leaders aired audioclips of purported telephonicconversations of that particularofficer with lower level staff ofthe village secretariat. One

Minister made a vain attempt toestablish that people are volun-tarily paying OTS.

At last, the government stat-ed that only Rs.4000-crore duesrelating to housing loans underOTS would come to the stateexchequer, following which theauthorities would provide reg-istration for the houses of thebeneficiaries. The TDP ques-tioned the propriety of the gov-

ernment in collecting duesfrom people under OTS, con-sidering that the present regimedid not provide land, loans forthe housing programmes exe-cuted by previous governments.

YSR Congress party hadassured free registration tothose housing beneficiaries, butthe YSRC government is com-mitted to collect dues underOTS. Regardless of the merit ofthe Jagan government's deci-sion, the OTS payment hasbecome an unbearable burdenfor countless beneficiaries. It hasalso triggered fears of non-receipt of benefits of govern-ment schemes and terminalbenefits, including pensionsand caste certificates, shouldthey not agree to paymentunder OTS.

Government employees havebeen raising their voices for theimmediate implementation ofPRC. Claiming to be a force toreckon with as voters, theyboast that they could unseat thepresent regime. They do hope

that the PRC would be imple-mented soon.

History bears witness to theadamant attitude of employeeswho went on an indefinite strikethat lasted 64 days during theregime of the Congress' toweringpersonality in undivided AndhraPradesh Kasu BrahmanandaReddy in the mid '60s. The Stategovernment employees thenplayed a crucial role in thechange of gaurd in the 2004 elec-tions during ChandrababuNaidu's rule as well!

Inept handling of the floodsituation in various districts ofAP has also dented the image ofthe government. The unprece-dented floods claimed 60 pre-cious lives of people in differ-ent parts of the state. Thebreaching of Annamayya pro-ject in Chittoor district broughtworst ever tragedy for people inits vicinity. The Centreexpressed its view that the APgovernment was not alertenough to handle the grimflood situation and questioned

as to whose responsibility it wasto operate the project.Interestingly, AP IrrigationMinister Anil Kumar Yadavwent on to claim that UnionMinister for Jalshakti GajendraSingh Shekawat 'lied' inParliament on the subject. Theissue may get political colouronce the central expert commit-tee pays a visit to theAnnamayya project for inspec-tion, 'case study' or whatever. Ifit comes out with a list of 'dosand don'ts' on water manage-ment, it may sound as disre-spect to the AP government.

The foregoing issues giveroom for a lot of embarrass-ment for the AP government. Itmay not be easy for it to deflectpublic resentment. These devel-opments may become hurdlesfor the ruling party to drumbeat its case for retaining power.

It is a different matter thatChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy has started planning forretaining power in the 2023polls.

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

The shocked beneficiaries questioned the

propriety of the government in asking

money under OTS for the houses that they

got from previous governments. Instead of

giving money, some of the beneficiaries, in

utter frustration, offered to the collection

staff asbestos sheets, slab, stones, doors

and windows from their houses.

PIN

POINT

Public discomfort sends danger signals to AP government!

Congress camps create tension

among TRS candidates, rebelsK VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

The Congress’ party’s camps inKarimnagar district for theLocal Bodies’ quota MLC elec-tions are not only shocking theleaders of other oppositionparties but also Congress lead-ers as the party had not field-ed a candidate in Karimnagardistrict.

However, the Congress hasbeen conducting camps likethe ruling TRS. The Congresshas been conducting camps forits Local Bodies’ public repre-sentatives in Manthani andPeddapalli constituencies.

Congress leaders say thatthese camps are only intendedto prevent party voters fromvoting for TRS candidates asthe votes of Congress LocalBodies’ public representativeshave become crucial withrebels and Independent candi-dates entering the fray.

Congress votes can change

the fate of TRS candidates aswell as rebels if they take adecision on whom to vote for.

However, the main objectiveof the Congress in conductingcamps is to ensure that they donot get attracted to other par-ties as it will affect the Congressin future.

It is also learnt that theCongress may extendits support toP a n t h a k a n iSammayya orInumula Satheesh,who are local bodypublic representa-tives from theCongress.

The Congress maysupport one of these twocandidates after taking a finaldecision in a day or two.

Political analysts say that theCongress has been conductingcamps only to prevent the vic-tory of rebels in the electionsand to avoid their candidatesgetting the support of the BJP.

The Congress has been con-ducting its camp to prevent thevictory of TRS rebel candidateSardar Ravinder Singh as theBJP is supporting him.

Political analysts said thatthe Congress fears that it willweaken further if SardarRavinder Singh wins the elec-

tions and hence theCongress has been

c o n d u c t i n gcamps to pre-vent its votesfrom going tothe TRS or TRSrebels support-

ed by the BJP.At their political

camps, all politicalparties are offering every-

thing from entertainment tomoney.

Sources said the parties areoffering Rs 1 lakh besidesspending huge money at thecamps to entertain voters. Butit is learnt that voters aredemanding Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10

lakh and some voters are intouch with opposing parties.

Due to this, camp organis-ers are tensed thinking whetherthey will vote for their candi-dates or not.

The TRS has more votes inthe districts of Karimnagar,Adilabad, Khammam, Medakand Nalgonda. But the TRSfaces trouble from rebels inKarimnagar, Adilabad andNalgonda.

The Congress has fielded itscandidates in Khammam andMedak districts resulting incamp politics in the five dis-tricts.

The Congress is conductingcamps on par with the TRS inKarimnagar district. The BJPtoo has been conducting campsto protect its voters inKarimnagar and Adilabad dis-tricts from December 7onwards.

The Congress camps arecreating tension among TRScandidates.

Birthday boy Santosh tweetsheart-warming throwback pictureML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

A heart-warming picture of a youngman with a lad riding piggy-back onhis shoulders went viral on Twitteron Tuesday.

The young man in the picture isChief Minister K ChandrasekharRao and the lad is his nephew JSantosh Kumar, MP, who launchedthe Green India Challenge. The pic-ture was tweeted by the Rajya Sabhamember on the occasion of hisbirthday with the caption:"Thisbirth is mine, but my life is yours".

The rare picture went viral andseveral Ministers, MLAs, MLCs,TRS cadre and leaders conveyedtheir birthday wishes through themicro blogging site Twitter andcomplimented him as 'Green star'for his passion for afforestationand Haritha Haram programmes.

Several of his followers describedSantosh Kumar variously as "a dearnephew of KCR", "future leader","dear brother of KTR", "lover ofnature and greenery" and the like.They wished him a long life withhealth and happiness and a long stintin public life.

Address ‘historical injustice’: TS to KRMBContinued from page 1

The Nettempadu LIS, originat-ing from Jurala project, hadadequate tmc of water ear-marked by the Telangana gov-ernment and it was commen-surate with the ayacut envis-aged by the erstwhile AndhraPradesh government. Thesame fact was conveyed to theKRMB several times, includingthrough a letter written inJune 2020 itself. Therefore, thecomponents could be deletedfrom Schedule I and 2 of thegazette notification.

Giving the backdrop of theproject, he said the then

Hyderabad State governmenthad proposed three projects toMahbubnagar through gravity-- Bhima, Tungabhadra LeftCanal, Upper Krishna projects.But after 1956, upon reorgani-sations of the States, the erst-while Andhra Pradesh govern-ment did not pursue these pro-jects with the UnionGovernment and these projectsdid not reach Telangana ayacut.Thus, later on lift irrigationschemes became inevitable.

Though Jurala project( StageI gravity 23 tmcs, Stage II Lift28.8 tmc) was proposed by thethen government in 1970because of the severity of the

Telangana agitation. Later on,it was represented to theTribunal to give first priority tothe Andhra projects.Subsequently, the Jurala damwas constructed not with theoriginally proposed capacity of30 tmc, but a barrage with 11tmc capacity was constructed.

But, instead of the originallyproposed gravity-based schemeunder the Bhima lift scheme,dependable waters to someextent were to be given to theayacut under the Jurala leftcanal; yet, no dependable waterswere given on the left side.Therefore, the Nettempadu liftscheme was taken up to provide

surplus waters to the left side aya-cut. Now the Telangana govern-ment was completing theNettempadu LIS on priority andwould allocate water to meet therequirements of the ayacut.

The Telangana governmenthas already represented to theBrijesh Kumar Tribunal to allotdependable waters to all theprojects proposed by Telangana.In light of this, the KRMB hasbeen requested to take measuresto address the historical injus-tice meted out to Telangana andremove the Nettempadu pro-ject, Jurala projects fromSchedule 2 and include them inSchedule 3, Muralidhar said.

Cong losingground as theBJP, TRS...Continued from page 1

Meanwhile, a senior Congressleader of Karimnagar district,Chalmeda LaxminarasimhaRao, has announced his resigna-tion from the Congress and isjoining the TRS on Wednesday.While the BJP is concentratingon wooing TRS leaders theTRS is concentrating on baggingCongress leaders.

The BJP leadership is happythat its TS unit is going aheadwith moves to strengthen theparty in the run-up to the 2023Assembly elections. TheTelangana BJP is taking stepsto emerge as an alternative tothe TRS by strengtheningitself. At the same time theTRS is also taking steps toretain its power in the nextAssembly elections.

While the BJP and the TRSare slowly getting into electionmode the Congress is riddledwith infighting. At the nation-al level too, the position of theCongress is not optimistic asits allies are distancing them-selves.

Delivery of F-16 wing reflects heights ofHyderabad aerospace ecosystemContinued from page 1

Through this it supports F-21 offeringfor procurement of 114 new fighter air-craft - exclusively for India and theIndian Air Force - by proving addition-al indigenous production capability.

He said: "The repeat investmentsannounced by the leading OEMs, includ-ing Lockheed Martin, is a great indica-tor for the robustness of our ecosystem,which is being lauded as the true hub for

'Make in India' in the defence sector."KTR said, "Leading global manufac-

turers from the US, the UK, France,Israel and other nations have chosenHyderabad to establish their state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering,training, and innovation centres inIndia. Telangana today has the mostactive and well-supported Aerospaceand Defence ecosystem in India. Thesector has witnessed unprecedentedgrowth during the past five years,

anchored on the progressive policiesand infrastructure support provided bythe State Government".

"Lockheed Martin partnered withTLMAL to build one of the most tech-nologically complex aerostructures - afuel-carrying 9G, 12,000 hour, inter-changeable/replaceable fighter wing,"said Aimee Burnett, vice president ofstrategy and business development,Lockheed Martin Integrated FighterGroup, adding: "This effort represents

Lockheed Martin demonstrating toIndia, and to the world, the degree ofconfidence that exists in our relation-ships with our partners in India."

Thanking Lockheed Martin andTATA Group for their continued con-tributions made so far for the growth ofAerospace and Defence ecosystem inHyderabad, KTR assured all supportfrom the State government for the cur-rent and future programmes inHyderabad.

TRS to boycottParliament...Continued from page 1

Party leader Keshav Raoaccused the Centre of beinginsensitive to farmers'demands, while assertingthat the TRS is an oppositionparty, not a fence-sitter, andit wants this government togo.

"This is an anti-farmergovernment, insensitive tothe demands of the farmers.Today, piles of grains are rot-ting on the roads inTelangana for the simplereason that the FCI is notlifting the produce," he said,adding that no elected rep-resentative likes to boycottParliament, but the TRS isbeing forced to do so by theCentre.

"Please be clear that we areagainst this government. Weare an opposition party, not afence-sitter, and we want thisBJP-led government to go,"Keshav Rao said while inter-acting with reporters afterannouncing that the party willboycott the remainder of thesession. The nine Lok SabhaMPs and seven Rajya SabhaMPs of the party will notattend the rest of the session,he said.

Varanasi to...Continued from page 1

Lauding Modi as a hero ofIndian culture for fulfilling hisresolve to transform the holycity, BJP general secretaryTarun Chugh said in a pressbriefing that it was almost after250 years that a renovation andbeautification exercise aroundthe famous Kashi Vishwanathtemple has been done.

The mega cultural outreachexercise assumes extra signif-icance as the BJP-ruled UttarPradesh is headed for assem-bly polls early next year, andthe party's work on itsHindutva agenda, includingongoing construction of theRam temple in Ayodhya, is amajor component of its cam-paign besides developmentworks undertaken by its gov-ernments at the Centre and thestate. The inauguration cere-mony has been named "DivyaKashi, Bhavya Kashi" (divineKashi, grand Kashi).

In Varanasi the BJP will alsohold a conference of its chiefministers and deputy chiefministers on December 13and 14 where they will delib-erate on their governments'welfare agenda and how to fur-ther help people, Chugh said,adding that they will leave onDecember 15.

Beware! Rs 2,000 notes are...Continued from page 1

Furhter, notes also go out ofcirculation as they getsoiled/mutilated," he said.

On November 8, 2016, thegovernment had decided todemonetise the then prevail-ing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 ban-knotes to curb black money,among other objectives.

Following demonetisation,Rs 2,000 note and a new

series of Rs 500 note wereintroduced. Later, banknoteof denomination of Rs 200too was introduced.

In another reply, the min-ister said demand for curren-cy depends upon severalmacro-economic factors,including economic growthand level of interest rae.

Precautionary demandgenerated by the public dur-ing fiscal 2020-21 due to

Covid-19 pandemic induceduncertainties is also animportant factor in currencydemand.

"Combination of greaterpublic demand for cash anda contraction in GDP has ledto an increase in Currency inCirculation (CiC) as percent-age of GDP from 12 per centduring 2019-20 to 14.5 percent during 2020-21,"Chaudhary said.

Continued from page 1

“These are the people whoresort to encroachments andthen level allegations againstothers. At least now the peopleof Huzurabad should realise thetruth about Eatala,” BalkaSuman said.

Making it clear that the gov-ernment would definitely initi-ate action as per law againstthose who have grabbed gov-ernment and assigned lands,Balka Suman said the MedakCollector was working sincere-ly but he was being threatenedfor doing his job honestly.

The Collector should exam-ine records and point out if anymore lands have beenencroached in the district, headded.

MLC Puranam Satish con-demned the remarks of EatalaRajender and his wife againstthe Medak Collector. Earlier,Eatala had challenged the gov-ernment to prove the allega-tions of encroachment andnow it has been proved that theEatala family had grabbed 71acres. He demanded that theBJP should suspend MLAEatala Rajender for encroach-ing assigned and other lands.

Criminal cases should be filedagainst Eatala for encroach-ments and other irregularities,he said.

On the paddy procurementstalemate with the Centre,Balka Suman deplored theCentre’s indifference.

The TS Government hadrequested the Centre for anannual procurement plan sothat it could give it to thefarmers. But the Centre has notresponded to the protests byTRS MPs, he said.

Lashing out at BJP’sNizamabad MP Arvind forlevelling allegations against theTRS Government inParliament, Balka Suman saidthat Arvind could not keep hispromise of getting the TurmericBoard to Telangana. Is he awareof the good work done by theTRS Government for the state’sfarmers, he said.

On PCC chief RevanthReddy, the government whipsaid that Revanth had no rightto criticise KCR who hadachieved Telangana. Revanthhad never worked for theTelangana movement. As he isinvolved in the Note for Votecase he has no right to talkabout KTR, Balka Suman said.

Eatala should apologisefor encroaching...

TS borrowed Rs 500 cr moreContinued from page 1

The issuance has trailed thenotified amount for the sixthconsecutive week as the cash-flow situation of the large statesseem to have benefitted from therelease of the final GST compen-sation end-October and therelease of a higher monthly taxdevolution to the states inNovember, Icra said, adding ofthe total funds today, Rs 3,500crore or 44 per cent were raisedin the shorter tenor of 5-9 years,Rs 3,000 crore or 38 per cent in

longer tenors and a just Rs 1,500crore or 19 per cent were in the10-year bucket. As a result, theweighted average tenor of SDLsdipped to 12 years today from 13years last week and the weight-ed average cut-off rose to 6.80 percent today from 6.43 per cent inthe last auction, led by increasein the weighted average cut-offshorter tenor to 6.67 per centtoday from 5.18 per cent lastweek, Nayar said, adding howev-er, the weighted average cut-offof the 10-year SDL stood at 6.84today, unchanged from last week.

This is despite the bench-mark 10-year Gsecs yield hasrisen 6 bps to 6.39 per cent todayfrom 6.33 per cent last Tuesday.This reflects factors such as theUS Fed chairman's commentsregarding accelerating the bondpurchase taper, while acknowl-edging that inflation pressuresmay not be transitory, the partialrebound in global crude oilprices, and the expectation thatwhile the MPC will maintain sta-tus quo in the policy reviewtomorrow, it will signal upcom-ing policy normalisation.

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021 hyderabad 03

G RAVI KIRANn HYDERABAD

The police investigating theBanjara Hills accident foundthat the suspect Rohit had vis-ited three pubs along with hisfriends before the mishap. Hecame out from the last pubintending to stay at a hotel.

The accident happened atRoad No: 2, Banjara Hills, andtwo persons working inRainbow Hospital were killed.After the accident, the sus-

pects tried to escape, but thepolice chased and arrestedthem. Keeping in view thethree accidents that happenedon Monday, police units of thethree commissionerates con-ducted operations to nab

drunken drivers throughoutthe city. They registered 126cases across the city in onenight.

“We conducted ops to nabdrunken motorists through-out the city. We caught 126drunken motorists who weredriving their vehicles. Most ofthem were youths. We areconducting regular drives likethis. We are monitoring allpubs and bars and are check-ing their closing times,” JCPA.R. Srinivas said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A big racket in work visaswas busted by Immigrationofficials at the Rajiv GandhiInternational Airport hereon Tuesday.

The officials said that 44women tried to go to Kuwaitby showing visiting visas toImmigration officials.

Suspecting their

bonafides, Immigration offi-cials checked details andfound that the women werecarrying work visas also andthat the visiting visas werefakes.

An agent from Mumbaihad hatched this plan andhad cheated the women.The plan was to show a vis-iting visa at RGIA and toshow the work visas in

Kuwait.The women were told to

destroy the visiting visasinside the plane and to keepthe work visas with them.

The Mumbai agent hadcolluded with his agents inKuwait to implement theplan. Two agents fromAndhra Pradesh executedthe plan by coordinatingwith them. They duped the

women and took moneyfrom them for consulta-tions.The women hail fromAndhra Pradesh, Telangana,Tamil Nadu and Goa.

Earlier, in another inci-dent, 20 women tried to goto Kuwait like this, andImmigration officials pre-vented them. The policehad arrested two agents inthat case six months back.

But the same agents cameout on bail and repeated thesame fraud.The women whotried to go to Kuwait havenow become double vic-tims. The police are going toregister cases against themand they have been defraud-ed of their money by theagents. The women request-ed the government to securejustice for them.

Anganwadis areexpected to nurture talentamong students. Here is

the one that fosterscreativity among

students.RenovatedAnganwadi in Mulugu,Siddipet has become a

dream come true forstudents. Additional

Collector SiddipetMuzzamil Marriam KhanIAS shared the pictures

DREAM ANGANWADI

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Annual residential property reg-istrations in Hyderabad,Rangareddy and Sangareddy dis-tricts stood at 21,988 units dur-ing the January to November2021 period. As per KnightFrank,real estate consultancy,this marks a 16% growth over theJanuary-November period in2020 for the three districts. Salesin Hyderabad district have grownby 58% YoY during the sameperiod.

The end of the year is typical-ly a slow period in Hyderabad'sresidential market, with home-buyers preferring to postponetheir purchases to the first half ofthe year which is considered tobe more auspicious. Thisaccounted for 41% of the totalsales registrations during theyear (11 months) while just 16%of the total sales occurred in theSeptember - November 2021period.

However, as per Knight Frank,

despite this being a traditional-ly slow period for sales, theSeptember-November period in2021 recorded above-averagegrowth in YoY terms for allmonths in this period. This,along with increasing number ofenquiries at project sites, showsthe growing homebuyer interestin the Hyderabad market.

As per Knight Frank, 66% ofresidential sales registered duringthe January-November period

occurred in the under Rs 50 lakhsize. A closer inspection revealsthat the share of sales of the Rs25-Rs 50 lakh ticket size improvedfrom 31% in 2020 to 34% in2021, while that of the Rs25 lakhand below category declined to32% in 2021, compared to 35%previously. As per the real estateconsultancy, this signifies thestress still being felt in the lowerticket sizes due to the threat ofincome disruption caused by the

economic impact of the pandem-ic. Even in terms of the share oftotal sales, Hyderabad district hasgrown from 29% during January-November 2020 to 45% in YTDNovember 2021. Transactedprices have similarly outper-formed, growing by 16.9% in theJanuary-November 2021 period.

Knight Frank said, prices had

remained resilient in Hyderabadduring the worst of the pandem-ic in 2020 and have grownsteadily in 2021. The weightedaverage transacted price of resi-dential properties showed ahealthy YoY growth of 5.8% inthe nine-month period endingNovember 2021, depicting theunderlying momentum of themarket. Shishir Baijal, Chairmanand Managing Director, said:"Hyderabad continues to beamong the most attractive home-buyer markets, with homebuyerdemand and residential pricesgrowing steadily despite theabsence of any regulatory inter-ventions such as the stamp dutycuts applied by the Maharashtra,Karnataka and West Bengal gov-ernments.

While recent developmentssuch as the relaxation in FSIrestrictions is causing appre-hensions of potential overbuild-ing and an overburdening ofinfrastructure in the city, under-lying market fundamentals con-tinue to inspire confidence."

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Sub-Inspector ofMedipally Police Station inRanga Reddy district com-ing under the jurisdiction ofRachakonda Police Station,was caught red-handed onTuesday at the station whiletaking a bribe.

S-I Ch. Yadagiri Raju had

demanded a bribe of Rs10,000 from the com-plainant, Mallika Prashanth,in an accident case.

The complainantapproached the ACB andthey asked him to give thetainted currency to the Sub-Inspector.

While taking the moneyfrom the complainant, the

ACB officials raided thepolice station and caughtthe S-I red-handed.

They checked the moneywith the S-I and confirmedthat it was the same curren-cy which was tainted bythem.

S-I Yadagiri Raju wasarrested and produced inACB court.

Accident suspect visitedthree pubs before mishap

ACB nabs SI for corruption

PNS n HYDERABAD

With concerns rising about theOmicron variant, private labsin the city are procuring RT-PCR kits which can detect thenew variant directly instead ofthrough genome sequencing.

Testing kits look for thepresence of a specific gene toconfirm the presence of theCoronavirus.

Currently, the Covid RT-PCR testing kits used in citylabs have reagents that detectthe presence of the ‘N’ geneand ‘ORF 1’ gene and not the‘S’ gene.

In the case of Omicron,mutations occurred in the ‘S’gene of the virus.Consequently, labs are nowtrying to refurbish their kits asOmicron cases are gettingdetected in the country.

Dr Amrita Singh, the chief ofLab services at NeubergDiagnostics said, “Initially RT-PCR kits used to have S-genedetection as well. However, indue course, the testing kits gotcustomised as per the require-ments of the disease. In the caseof Covid, RT-PCR kits have notonly the ‘S’ gene but manyother genes. But too manygenes was making it costly. So

the kits were customised.Instead of testing for all sus-pects we could just do for spe-cific ones which might not passon the burden to the end-user.”

Currently, demand is notvery high. Diagnostic centresare checking the kits availableand soon orders will be placed.Since these kits have a shelf lifeof 1-2 years, orders will beplaced in phases.

A doctor at a governmenthospital said, “Genomesequencing can be time con-suming and is done only in afew labs. The S-gene RT-PCRkits will be useful. If the S-gene

test is negative, it is Omicronand if it is positive it will beDelta.”

Not only private labs eventhe governments of Telangana,Maharashtra, Kolkata andKarnataka are looking at refur-bishing RT-PCR test kits inview of the Omicron threat.

Highly placed sources saidthat the TelanganaGovernment is likely to pro-cure S-gene RT-PCR test kitsto reduce the time taken toidentify the Omicron variant.The kits will be initially usedfor international travellers andtheir contacts.

Private labs procure RT-PCRkits that can detect Omicron

21,988 residential unitsregistered in GHMC limits

44 women with fake Kuwait visas nabbed at RGIA

PNS n HYDERABAD

The developments andadvances in geospatial tech-nologies are crucial for sustain-able development, GovernorDr Tamilisai Soundararajansaid on Tuesday.

The Governor called forbetter application of geospatialtechnologies and tools for pro-moting sustainable develop-ment in fields like agriculture.

Dr Tamilisai Soundarajanwas inaugurating the 21st edi-tion of the GeoSmart IndiaConference-2021 on the themeof ‘Advancing the Role ofGeospatial Knowledge inIndian Economy.’

The conference was organ-ised by the Geospatial Worldat the HICC, here.

The Governor emphasisedthe effective use of geospatialtechnologies in areas like trans-port, defence, internal securi-ty, and infrastructure.

The Governor also high-lighted the transformationalchanges taking place ingeospatial technologies likemapping, surveying, remotesensing, and geographicalinformation systems.

“It is high time that weneed to explore and apply allthese technologies for the all-round development of thecountry and emerge as the

leader in leveraging theseemerging technologies forprogress and sustainability,”she added.

The Governor hailed theefforts of the Geospatial Worldfor their mission in advocatingthe use of geospatial tech-nologies.

“The space research, tech-nologies and geospatial infra-structure when combined playa crucial role in contributing tothe digital economy. They areempowering tools,” she added.

Delegates from across thecountry representing variousorganisations working ingeospatial technologies attend-ed the event.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana RevenueEmployees Services Association(TRESA) has urged the govern-ment to take up zone-wisetransfers of employees by giv-ing options to them.

TRESA leaders met ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar andhad discussions with him atBRKR Bhavan as per an invita-tion of the government.

The TRESA leaders broughtseveral issues besides the issuesmentioned in GO No.317 to theattention of the CS for inclusionin the pro-forma.

They said the government

must give options to theemployees in district, zonal,multi-zonal transfers of variouscadre posts.

The government mustinclude the medical groundsoption in the pro-forma alongwith spouse and PHC cate-gories, they said.

The government must givepriority to employees and theirfamilies suffering from cancer,neuro, kidney, liver, open heartsurgery, bypass surgery andother ailments, the leadersadded.

The government must givepriority to employees who havemore than 45 per cent handi-

cap in the PHC category.The government must give

priority to employees whounderwent transfers under‘order to serve’ in 2016 whenthe new districts were created,they added.

The government mustinclude the establishment dis-trict along with native districtand present working district,they said.

The government has to eval-uate the highest strength tostrengthen the revenue depart-ment. The government mustprovide promotions to DeputyCollector and Special GradeDeputy Collector which are

pending, they said.The government has to give

postings to leftover DeputyTehsildars who got promo-tions as Tehsildars by gettingthe approval of the DPC. Thegovernment has also to preparenew panels of DeputyTehsildars from 2017-18onwards, they said.

The government must give achance for the district transfersof probationary NayabTehsildars working at far offplaces. The government mustgive transfer options to VROsalso and implement the payscales of VRAs immediately,they added.

Reacting to the issues men-tioned above, the CS, SomeshKumar, assured the TRESAleaders that he will try to con-sider their suggestions.

TRESA President VangaRavinder Reddy, GeneralSecretary K. Goutham Kumar,Associate President MannePrabhakar, Vice-PresidentsBanala Ram Reddy, K. NiranjanRao, K. Nagamani, SecretaryMadhavi Reddy, OrganisingSecretary Nazeem Khan,Executive members Nirmala,Ramakrishna, Raman Reddy,Kishore, Srinivas Reddy,Santhosh Lal and others partic-ipated in the meeting.

PNS n HYDERABAD

At Kondapur, a car wasdamaged due to an ironangular falling from aflyover under construc-tion suddenly, onTuesday. The incidentoccurred, when Mr.Balakumaran was travel-ing from Miyapur toKondapur, nearKondapur circle, sud-denly an iron angular felldown on the car direct-ly, damaging the frontglass and side mirrortotally.

The victim Bal aku-maran said that “It hasfallen on the car, the carwas damaged, But I amrescued. If it falls on abike, then the riderwould have been diedimmediately. It seems,there are no precaution-ary measures at thisworkplace, who will beresponsible for this?.”

He tweeted the dam-aged car photo andtagged HMDA officialAravinda Kumar andMinister K. Taraka RamaRao

‘Geospatial tech key for development’

TRESA urges Govt to consider zone-wise transfers

Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan speaking at the inauguration of GeoSmart India Conference-2021

Iron part fallson a carfrom a flyover

Month 2020 2021 YoY Change

Jan 2,847 3,211 13%

Feb 2,965 2,825 -5%

Mar 2,104 3,020 44%

Apr 736 2,032 176%

May 2,051 893 -56%

June 2,308 2,171 -6%

July 2,137 2,105 -1%

Aug 2,029 2,118 4%

Sep 277 1,150 315%

Oct 918 1,119 22%

Nov 516 1,344 160%

Total 18,888 21,988 16%

Residential Sales Deeds

Registered in Hyderabad,

Rangareddy and Sangareddy

PNS n HYDERABAD

Customs officials at the RajivGandhi International Airporthere have booked a person forsmuggling gold on Tuesday. Thepassenger who arrived by flightNo: J9-1403 from Kuwait was

carrying 233.20 grams of goldvalued at Rs 11.49 lakh. Customssaid that person was carrying thegold by concealing it inside asecret pocket of his trouser.Aftergetting a tipoff, Customs officialsstopped him and checked hisbelongings and clothes.

Man smuggling gold insecret pocket, nabbed

T-Hub onboards 23 more startupsPNS n HYDERABAD

T-Hub on Tuesday announcedthe launch of the seventh edi-tion of its seed accelerator pro-gram, Lab32, with the onboard-ing of 23 startups. The programguides entrepreneurs to refinetheir products for market fit-ness and create maximum eco-nomic and social impact inIndia and elsewhere in theworld.

The program, which com-menced on Tuesday, will end inMarch 2022. It comprisesdemand-driven startups thatwill solve challenges fromemerging sectors such asSustainability, Edtech, Direct toConsumer, Media, FinTech,AgriTech, Supply chain,Blockchain, Big Data,Cybersecurity andCollaboration Tech.

In a press release, SrinivasRao Mahankali, CEO, T-Hub,

said, "The Lab32 acceleratorprogram reflects our commit-ment to support the next gen-eration of entrepreneurs andcommunity leaders. This pro-gram is an important step indeepening our relationshipwith the startup ecosystemwithin the country. We areexcited to bring togetherfounders, investors, and thecommunities we serve to helpaccelerate startups at the fore-front of innovation. We arehopeful that the program willprepare startups for rapidgrowth, making them invest-ment-ready."

The startups will continue toreceive support even after theprogram ends and get access toevents, deals, advisory and tai-lored introductions. The short-listed startups are Skillarthi,SmartchargeEV, Zerotouch,BeaversIn Technology,Rozgarkart, Pompah, Parking

Mantra, Clicinsight, Patasala,Arrive, Affluence, happyhealthy life private limited,Grecollate Technologies,Aspecto Technologies, Aarxz,Lurnweb, AUGR SHOP, IraEdTech, Alfabets Learning,Orangeshark, Nexteen, DigitalTrace and Squadl.

04HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

PNS n KAMAREDDY

The District Collector Jitesh VPatil has ordered the medicaland health officials to achievethe target of complete vaccina-tion in a phased manner evenas he advised the people to getthe vaccination by castingaside apprehensions regardingit. While inspecting a numberof vaccination centers inKamareddy, the Collector said“Getting vaccinated is veryimportant in the present situ-

ation. It gives confidence,health and ensured well being”.There is no point in the fearabout the vaccination as it willprotect everyone from theimpact of the Covid, he stat-ed adding that those whohave not come forward forvaccination should come andget it immediately. After that,he spoke to Mandal level offi-cials through video conferenceseeking their help and coordi-nation to reach the 100 percentvaccination target.

Reach vaccination target,Collector tells officials

PNS n NALGONDA

The returning officer,District Collector PrashanthJeevan Patil said in a state-ment that candidates andpolitical parties should stoptheir election campaign fromDecember 7, by 4 pm, that is72 hours before the close ofpolling for the local bodyconstituency MLC electionsto be held on the 10th of thismonth.

He said that under Section(126) of the Representationof the People Act - 1951,political parties and mediashould not conduct electioncampaigns, public meetings,and rallies.

He said cinematography,television, and campaignmaterials related to the elec-tion campaign should not bedisplayed in a way that wouldinform the public. He saidmusical concerts and otherentertainment should not beheld. He said those who vio-lated the election rules couldface up to two years in prisonor a fine or both.

Campaign for MLCelection closes

PNS n JAYASHANKAR

BHUPALAPALLY

District Forest Officer Lavanyahas cautioned people of the dis-trict against venturing into theforest to harm the tiger, sight-ed by cattle grazers at variousplaces in the district. Sheadvised the people to wait fortwo more days.

She advised the cattle grazersnot to venture into the forestarea and people living in villageson the fringes of the forest areanot to venture into their fieldsespecially at night. Talking toPioneer on Tuesday, she saidthat a tiger is on the prowl inKataram, Malhar,Mahamuttaram, Mahadevpurmandals quoting feedback fromcattle grazers. Vigil on themovements of the tiger in for-est areas has been stepped up onthe basis of complaints from thepeople, she said.

She said that the tiger killeda cow on Odipilavancha villageoutskirts and two

buffaloes on the outskirts ofGuduru on Sunday and

Monday. Kataram DSP BonalaKishan, CI Ranjit Raos onTuesday inspected tell-tale evi-dence

that a tiger is on the prowl.The DSP asked the people totake proper precautions. Thepolice department is conduct-ing an inquiry, he added.

Forest department officialsare probing into this, she saidadding that the tiger is

currently confined to theforest region. If there is no dis-turbance, it will cross the

forest to enter Maharashtra.Therefore, she asked the people

not to harm the tiger. Shewarned the people of initiatingstern action against them iffound harming the tiger. Thestate government will pay com-pensation for the cattle killed bythe tiger. The farmers who sus-tained loss should apply to theforest authorities along with thepost mortem report issued bythe veterinary doctors.

Tiger on prowl, kills 3 cattle PNS n MEDAK

District Collector Harish hasadvised farmers to raise castoroil, groundnut, rapeseed oil,gingelly, pulses, vegetablecrops, and other dry crops asan alternative to paddy inrabi.

Speaking as a chief guest atan awareness programme inPeddachintakunta in NarsapurMandal here on Tuesday, hesaid that the district adminis-tration will send farmers on afield visit to study the cultiva-tion of dry crops.

He appreciated the sarpanch

of PeddachintakuntaSivakumar inspecting thedevelopment of the village. Heappreciated the village parkand appreciated the sanitationin ZP high school, a govern-ment primary school.

Overall, he lauded the san-itation in the village. JointCollector Ramesh, districtagriculture officer Parasuram,assistant director Surekha,pharmacity training officersSrikant, Agriculture extensionofficer Sridhar, farmers’ bodyleaders Yada Goud, SudhakarChary and other farmers tookpart in the programme.

‘Grow oilseeds, pulses asan alternatives to paddy’

PNS n PEDDAPALLY

District Collector Dr. Sangeetahas assured the physically chal-lenged to resolve their prob-lems and strive for their wel-fare.

Speaking at a programmearranged by the WelfareDepartment in connectionwith the International Day ofPersons with Disabilities hereon Tuesday, she appealed to thepeople with disabilities to forgeahead to lead a dignified life onpart with able-bodied per-sons.

Disability is not a hindranceto enable the people with dis-abilities to lead a dignified lifein society, she said addingthat the district administrationis implementing manyschemes meant for the targetgroup. Government sanctionsAsara pensions to them everymonth. Similarly, women’sgroups with people with dis-

abilities have been formed.andloans from banks are beingreleased to the groups, sheelaborated. In the NREGS, jobcards are being issued to peo-ple with disabilities and theirservices are being engaged invarious works, she said.

She assured issue of jobcards to the fresh workers, she

said. She said that she will takesteps to resolve the problemsof the people with disabilitiesat her level. She distributedprizes among the winners ofvarious competitions held onthe occasion. District Welfareofficer Rauf Khan, DRDOofficial Sridhar and otherswere present on the occasion.

Disability is no hindrance: DC

PNS n PEDDAPALLY

District Collector Dr. Sangeetahas warned the farmers thatthey will be at risk if they growpaddy during rabi and wouldhave to sell the paddy all bythemselves in the absence ofthe paddy procurement centersas the FCI backed out to pro-cure rabi paddy. The state gov-ernment is encouraging thefarmers to raise alternativecrops to rule out any problemsto the farmers, she said seek-ing farmers’ support to the gov-ernment in this regard.Speaking at an awareness pro-gramme held at Yadav Nagar inSultanabad Mandal of the dis-trict on Tuesday, the districtcollector, who clarified the

framers’ doubts, askedthe farmers to grow black

gram, red gram, gingelly, and

other remunerative crops. Sheassured the farmers to makeavailable seeds of alternative

crops to them. Only thosefarmers who are required tohonor agreements with seedcompanies should alone culti-vate paddy, she said. She askedthe agriculture departmentofficials to make available theseeds sought after

by the farmers by tomorrow.The agriculture departmentofficials will sensitise the farm-ers on the steps to check topractice crop rotation. n placeswhere there are ponds andthere is an assured irrigationfacility, the agriculture exten-sion officers will undertakefield trips and advise the farm-ers, she said. District agricul-ture officer Tirumala Prasadand others took part in the pro-gramme.

‘Cultivating paddy in Rabi risky’

PNS n MEDCHAL

MALKAJGIRI

CP, Rachakonda invoked PDAct against one Dacoit MirAkber Ali aliyas Bahu,Bahubali, and detained himin the Central prison,Cherlapally.

The accused detenu, a res-ident of Yakathpura ofHyderabad, came in contactwith the notorious rowdysheeter Mohd. Mukram @Pappu through their com-mon friends.

Recently, the three moreoffenders Mohammed AbdulAnsar, Akbar Pasha, SyedSajid belongs to Falaknuma,joined with them.

The five offenders formedas a gang and hatched a planto extort money from busi-ness people on the point ofthreat in Malkajgiri PoliceStation limits.

on August 20th he pro-posed detenu and his fourassociates went to King'spalace hotel in Malkajgiriand threatened the hotelsupervisor by showing a knifethey robbed Rs. 5000 cashand fed away.

PD Act invokedagainst dacoit

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

District Collector S VenkataRao has suggested to farm-ers to raise only those cropsthat suit the soil and atmos-pheric conditions in rabiinstead of paddy.

Speaking as chief guest atan awareness programmeheld on Tues day inIpp a l ap a l l i v i l l age ofMa habubnagar r ura lMandal, he suggested tothem to grow pulses crops,oilseeds crops, including

groundnut. Always culti-vating paddy would affectsoil fert i l ity leading todiminishing yield, he saidadvising the farmers torotate crops at least once.Keeping in mind the prob-lems in paddy procurementand also considering theweather conditions, thefar mers shou ld inc l inetowards alternative crops, hesaid. Agriculture scientistR ajamani , Gaju lap et aSarpanch Chandrasekhar,farmer Ramakrishna Rao,

and others spoke. Whenfarmers highlighted theirproblems in Kharif paddyprocurement, the districtcol lector resolved themimmediately. Ippalapall is ar p anch Ven kat a ia h ,Tahsildar Pandu, agricul-ture officer Israt Sultana,agriculture extension officerNagarjuna and others werepresent.

The district collector gotvaccine administered to twovillages that did not receivevaccine so far.

PNS nKHAMMAM

Red chilli farmers staged aprotest in front of the agricul-ture market yard hereonTuesday for nearly fourhours protesting against thedenial of remunerative price tochili farmers, unlike yesterday.Kisan Congress district presi-dent Mokka Sekhar Goud saidthat the traders formed into asyndicate and lifted red chilli atRs 14,000 a quintal on Tuesday.

Hoping to get Rs 21000 perquintal as was done onMonday, many farmersbrought red chilli to the mar-ket. On Tuesday, the marketauthorities procured red chilliat Rs 21,000 initially and latertraders formed into a syndicateto procure red chilli at Rs14,000 a quintal.

The farmers alleged that themarket committee officials arehand-in-glove with the traders.Irated at traders quoting Rs14,000 per quintal, the farmersprotested in front of the mar-ket yard here. Besides SekharGoud, Mahila Congress chair-person D

Soujanya and others tookpart in the protest.

They alleged that the marketcommittee governing body andmarket committee officialshave ignored the market trendsand not given proper informa-tion to the farmers and accusedthem of protecting traders’interests. The protestersdemanded Rs 21,000 per quin-tal.

During the protest pro-gramme, there ensued an argu-ment between the police andmarket authorities. The farm-ers relented with the interven-tion of the top police officials.

Later, they submitted a mem-orandum to the district collec-tor seeking a remunerativeprice for the red chillies. Theyurged the authorities to cancellicenses of the traderscheatingthe farmers. They also soughtregular inspection of the mar-ket committee and marketcommittee informing the latestprice to farmers to enable thefarmers to bring their producewhen the prices are remuner-ative. District Kisan Congresssecretary Sanneella Venkatesh,farmers B Kotaiah, PS Nagaiahand others took part in theprotest programme.

Price crashes, farmers protest

‘Raise crops that suit the soil’PNS n NALGONDA

State Governor Dr. Tamil SaiSoundara Rajan will partici-pate in various programs atthe Nalgonda district head-quarters on Wednesday. TheGovernor will leaveHyderabad by road and willinaugurate theBhakthanjaneya SantoshiMatha Temple in Nalgondatown. Afterward, she willvisit the paddy purchasingcenters at Arjala Bavi andDuppala Pally in Nalgondatown. After that, she will goto Hyderabad.

Governor to visitNalgonda today

PNS n JAYASHANKAR

BHUPALAPALLY

District Collector BhaveshMisra has directed the districtofficials to make all arrange-ments for the visit of NitiAyog Vice Chairman Dr. RajivKumar who is scheduled tovisit the district onWednesday to discuss pro-ductivity, processing, mar-keting of chilli crops withwomen chilli farmers at RytuVedika in Chelpur ofGhanpur Mandal. He hasreviewed the arrangementsfor Rajiv Kumar’s visit withofficials here on Tuesday.Later, he inspected the RytuVedika in Chelpur.

He asked the officials toinstall stalls of various govern-ment departments on the

premises of the RytuVedika. The vice-chairman isalso scheduled to discussdrinking water, child andwomen welfare in the state.

NITI Aayog VCRajiv Kumar forBhupalapally today

PNS n NAGARKURNOOL

The farmers have beenexpressing concern over pestscausing damage to chilli cropsin Nagarkurnool district. Theyhave apparently taken a lot ofpains to raise the crop over-coming the problems of spu-rious seeds.

They followed instructionsof the agriculture officers, butthrips has played havoc withthe crop at all stages of culti-vation.

They worry about the pestattacking the crops, whichare ready for harvesting.Farmers raise red chilli,groundnut, cotton, maize inKalwakurthy, Atchampet,Kollapur, and NagarkurnoolMandals in black and redsoils. This year, due to heavyrains the groundwater swelledup, and bore wells gotrecharged. Therefore, farmersraised red chilli crop in thou-sands of ac res under bore

wells especially in Telakapalli,Peddakottapalli, Atchampet,Uppununtala, Amrabad,Lingala, Balmuru, Koderu,Bijinepalli, and Timmajipetmandals. The plant growthwas healthy, but there was noflowering. Even if there is

flowering, there was no fruc-tification. Whatever little redchillies formed here and there,the chillies were affected bythrips. The crops were dam-aged in the vast extent oflands. The application of pes-ticides seems to have no effect

to control the thrips. Eachfarmer spent Rs 60,000 peracre on the cost of pesticides.

The expenses incurred forseeds are put at Rs 4000 peracre. The other costs includetilling the land increased theinput costs to Rs 75,000 peracre.

The farmer pinned hopes toget a yield of at least 20 quin-tals per acre. But the yieldwould be hardly five or 6quintals per acre. The officialscollected the pest-affectedcrop samples for analysis, butno instructions have so farbeen given to the farmers. Theseeds dealers and agriculturedepartment officials said thatit was for the first time to hap-pen like this.

The agriculture scientistswill inspect the damagedcrops and take remedialaction, the officials would sayasking the farmers to wait forthe scientists to inspect theirfarms.

PESTering problems for farmers!Use of pesticides has no effect, crops amounting to crores damaged

M L MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

Opening yet another frontagainst BJP leaders, the newly-elected TRS MLC, KalvakuntlaKavitha, joined the party lead-ership in taking on the BJP andcalled upon people to supportleaders who work for them.

She said that the useless talkof BJP leaders could not bringabout development. TheNizamabad Parliamentaryconstituency is represented byBJP MP Arvind.

Kavitha who laid the foun-dation for several develop-ment projects at Bhimgal in theBalkonda Assembly con-stituency of Nizamabad alongwith Roads and BuildingsMinister Prashanth Reddy onTuesday said that ChiefMinister K. ChandrasekharRao had made Telangana aleading State in the country.

There are leaders who mere-ly speak for the sake of politicsbut people should back those

leaders who work responsiblyto ensure their welfare, shesaid.

The MLC laid the founda-tion for 18 development pro-jects and inaugurated develop-ment projects worth Rs 30crore in Bhimgal town.

In the last seven years,Telangana is the number onein many sectors and that hap-pened due to the hard work ofChief Minister KCR. He foughtfor a separate State and afterachieving that, he had beenworking with the same zealand had launched several wel-fare schemes for all sections ofpeople, Kavitha said.

While the TRS Governmenthad been striving to makeTelangana a leading State, thereare others who are just tryingto gain political mileage. It isnot proper to give the sword toone and ask the other to fight,she said, adding that some BJPleaders were engaging indeceitful talk just for the sakeof politics, she said.

She asserted that peoplewould always support sincereleaders and that is why peopleelected KCR twice as ChiefMinister.

Complimenting MinisterPrashanth Reddy for taking updevelopment projects inBhimgal like never before, shesaid that they would transformBalkonda into goldenBalkonda. She announced thatBhimgal town would be beau-tified and a 100-bed hospitalwould be set up there soon.

Minister Prashanth Reddysaid no other State was imple-menting welfare schemes likeTelangana and asked why theBJP and Congress ruled Stateswere not implementing suchwelfare schemes.

Earlier, Kavitha was accord-ed a warm welcome by thepeople and she interacted withthem before laying foundationsfor development projects.

She later distributed chequesworth Rs 6 crore to Bhimgaltown women SHGs.

BJP leaders’ useless talk won’tbring development: Kavitha

PNS n NALGONDA

District SP AV Ranganath saidthat, Nalgonda Two Town SI D.Narsimhulu and ConstableSK. Nagulmeera was suspend-ed in the case of beating ayouth. Two days ago, SPRanganath came to knowabout the incident throughsocial media and media overthe beating of a Dalit youth byan SI and a constable at theNalgonda Two Town policestation. DTC SP SatishChodagiri was appointed as theinvestigating officer in thiscase. The investigating officergathered information from thedoctors who treated the victimand some others. He said theSI and constable had been rec-ommended for suspension asthey were found to be at fault.On the recommendation ofDistrict SP Ranganath,Hyderabad Range DIG V.B.Kamalhasan Reddy issuedorders suspending them.

SI, constablesuspendedfor beating a Dalityouth

nation 05HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

IND

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R Rahul demands compensation, jobs for kinof farmers killed during farm laws stir

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday demanded compensation and jobs from theCentre for the next of kin of farmers who died during the year-long agitation againstthe three farm laws on the borders of the national capital.Raising the issue during the

Zero Hour, Gandhi slammed the Modi government for its inability to maintain data on thedeath of farmers during the year-long agitation and tabled a list of farmers who were paidcompensation andgiven jobs in Punjab andHaryana. Congress members demanded astatement from the government on theissue and walked out of the House alongwith NCP and DMK members while raisingslogans against the government. “Around700 farmers died in farmers' agitation. Theprime ministerapologised to the farmersand accepted his mistake. On November30, agriculture minister was asked aquestion - ‘how many farmers died in theagitation? Agriculture minister said he hadno data,” the Congress member said.

Deshmukh probe: Former Maha chiefsecretary Sitaram Kunte appears before EDFormer Maharashtra chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte on Tuesday appeared before the

Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record his statement in connection with a moneylaundering case registered against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, sourcessaid. Kunte, who is currently the principal advisor to Maharashtra chief minister UddhavThackeray, reached the agency's office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai around 11 am,they said. The ED had summoned Kunteearlier also but he failed to appear beforeit due to his busy schedule, according tosources. The ED had arrestedDeshmukh, a senior NCP leader, inconnection with a multi-crore moneylaundering case. Notably, the ED hadrecently recorded the statement ofsuspended Mumbai PoliceCommissionerParam Bir Singh in connection with itsmoney laundering probe into allegedirregularities in the Maharashtra policeestablishment.

Bengaluru doctor who recovered from Omicron is Covid positive againThe city-based doctor, one of the two earliest cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 to bedetected in the country, has tested positive for the virus again, while the other, a SouthAfrican national who flew out of here without informing the authorities, has been booked bythe police. The South African, of Gujarati origin, who was quarantined here, later flew toDubai."It is true that the doctor who was infected with Omicron variant has once againtested positive for covid-19," a BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Palike officialtold PTI.Requesting anonymity, theofficial said the doctor is under isolation,but was asymptomatic.Meanwhile,police have registered a case against theSouth African national for flying withoutinforming the authorities in violation ofthe quarantine norms. The managementand staff of a five-star hotel here havealso been booked for allowing theinfected person to leave withoutinforming the health officials.

PNS nBALLIA

Uttar Pradesh minister AnandSwarup Shukla has saidMuslims should hand over amosque close to a temple at theShri Krishna Janmabhoomi inMathura to Hindus, referringto it as a “safed bhavan” (whitestructure).

In provocative remarks onMonday, he said while thecourt had resolved theAyodhya issue, the “whitestructures” in Varanasi andMathura hurt Hindus.

"A time will come when thewhite structure in Mathurathat hurts every Hindu will beremoved with the help of thecourt,” Shukla, the minister ofstate for parliamentary affairs,told reporters Monday evening.

“Dr Ram Manohar Lohiahad said that the Muslims ofIndia would have to believethat Ram and Krishna were

their ancestors and that Babar,Akbar and Aurangzeb wereattackers. Do not associateyourself with any building builtby them," he added.

The minister said, "TheMuslim community shouldcome forward and hand overthe white structure located inthe Shri Krishna Janmabhoomicomplex in Mathura to Hindus.Time will come when thiswork will be completed."

He said on December 6(1992), ‘karsewaks' hadremoved a “blot on Ramlalla”and now a grand temple isbeing constructed there. Hewas apparently referring tothe demolition of the BabriMasjid in Ayodhya byHindutva mobs.

Asked about the conversion

of former Shia Waqf Boardchairman Syed Wasim Rizvi to'Sanatan dharma' (Hinduism),he said Muslims should followand do "ghar wapsi" (return toHinduism).

"All Muslims in the countryare converted. If they see theirhistory, they will find that 200-250 years ago they converted toIslam from Hinduism. We willlike all of them to do 'gharvapasi',” he said, hailing Rizvifor his "courageous" step.

"This step is a challenge forMaulanas and Maulvis who livein the country and promote aTalabani mindset," Shukla said.

He said India's basic cultureis of 'Hindutva' (Hinduism)and 'Bhartiyata' and they arecomplementary to each other.

He termed the Samajwadi

Party, its founder MulayamSingh Yadav and presidentAkhilesh Yadav as “anti-Hindu” and accused them of“ordering firing” on unarmed'karsewaks' in Ayodhya.

On Sunday, BJP MPRavindra Kushwaha had saidwhen the Narendra Modi gov-ernment can repeal the farmlaws keeping in mind theprotests by farmers, it can alsowithdraw the Places ofWorship (Special Provisions)Act, 1991 to pave way for theconstruction of a grand templeat Shri Krishna Janmabhoomiin Mathura.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav PrasadMaurya had also offered sup-port for a new temple inMathura.

PNS n KOHIMA

The cabinet of Nagaland ChiefMinister Neiphiu Rio onTuesday called off the ongo-ing Hornbill Festival in protestagainst the killing of 14 civil-ians by security forces, stateministers said.

The state government alsodecided to write to the Centredemanding the repeal of theArmed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act, they said.

The 10-day HornbillFestival, the state's largesttourism extravaganza held atNaga Heritage Village inKisama near the state capital,was scheduled to end onDecember 10.

During an emergencymeeting, the cabinet wasbriefed about the action takenfollowing the killing, includ-ing setting up of a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT)headed by an IGP rank officerand grant of ex-gratia to thenext of kin of the deceased bythe state and central govern-ments, ministers Neiba Kronuand Temjen Imna Along latertold reporters.

The cabinet has directedthe SIT to complete the inves-tigation within a month, theysaid.

Kronu said that altogether14 civilians have died in theincident, while two seriouslyinjured are undergoing treat-ment in neighbouring Assam,

and six are being treated inDimapur.

The firing incidents tookplace in Oting-Tiru area onDecember 4 and Mon townon December 5.

"All activities of HornbillFestival 2021 should cease inview of mourning announced

for the deceased in the firingincidents in Mon district,"Kronu said.

After the announcement,the tourism department, themain organiser of the festival,held a solemn closing ceremo-ny at the Naga HeritageVillage.

Nagaland calls off HornbillFestival over civilian deaths

PNS n LUCKNOW,

Rashtriya Lok Dal presidentJayant Chaudhary on Tuesdayformally announced his party'salliance with the SamajwadiParty and said if they come topower in Uttar Pradesh nextyear, the first work will be tobuild a memorial for "martyrs"of the farmers' protest.

Slamming the BJP govern-ment in the state for the recentleak of a government compet-itive examination questionpaper and subsequent cancel-lation of the test, Chaudharysaid because of such incidentsyoungsters are not gettingappointments, and they haveto migrate and work in otherplaces.

The BJP will get a befittingreply from the people in theUttar Pradesh assembly pollsnext year as they have under-stood its politics of hatred, theRashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chiefsaid while addressing a rallyalong with Samajwadi Party(SP) president Akhilesh Yadavin Meerut.

Talking about the alliance,Chaudhary said, "Akhilesh jiand I are together, and I am

making an announcement inthis regard. The first work ourdouble-engine governmentwill do is to construct amemorial for martyr farmers,who died during farmers'protest here in the land ofChowdhury Charan Singh."

The BJP talks of "hatred"and "our Babaji (ChiefMinsiter Yogi Adityanath)starts with Aurangzeb andends with the Kairana exodus",the RLD leader said.

The BJP during the lastassembly elections hadclaimed that many Hindu

families had migrated fromKairana town in fear of crim-inals. The claim of migrationhas been contested by somepolitical parties.

"The paper (competitiveexam) is leaked, youths are notgetting appointments. Youthsfrom here migrate due to lackof opportunities and work inother states. Now this time,people will not fall in the trapof 'nafrat ki baatein' (talks ofhatred)," he said. The RLDleader said, "Babaji becomesangry very fast. You havenever seen him smiling.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government on Tuesdaysaid undisclosed creditsamounting to Rs 20,353 crorehave been detected withrespect to 930 India-linkedentities in the Panama andParadise Paper Leaks.

Replying to a question in theRajya Sabha, Minister of Statefor Finance Pankaj Chaudharyalso informed that taxes col-lected so far amount to Rs153.88 crore in the Panamaand Paradise Paper Leaks.

"As on October 1, 2021,total undisclosed creditsamounting to Rs 20,353 crorehave been detected withrespect to 930 India linkedentities in the Panama andParadise Paper Leaks," theminister said in a written reply.

He said tax departmenttakes appropriate actions incase of persons, who are foundto be involved in violation ofthe provisions of various Actsadministered by the IncomeTax Department like the

Income Tax Act, 1961, andBlack Money (UndisclosedForeign Income and Assets)and Imposition of TaxAct,2015 etc.

"Such actions under directtax law include searches andseizure, surveys, enquiries,assessment and reassessment ofincome, levy of taxes along

with interest, levy of penalties,filing of prosecution com-plaints in criminal courts,wherever applicable," he said.

In 52 cases of Panama andParadise Paper Leaks, criminalprosecution complaints havebeen filed under the BlackMoney (Undisclosed ForeignIncome and Assets) and

Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. Further, in 130 cases pro-

ceedings under Black Money(Undisclosed Foreign Incomeand Assets) and Imposition oftax Act, 2015 have been initi-ated.

Some Indian names havebeen released in the mediawhich are allegedly linked tothe Pandora Papers Leak.

Chaudhary further said thegovernment has taken cogni-sance of the same and for thepurpose of coordinated andspeedy investigation broughtthe Pandora Papers Leak underthe umbrella of Multi Agencygroup (MAG).

The MGA has been consti-tuted under the convenor-shipof Chairman CBDT, withDirectorate of Enforcement,Reserve Bank of India,Financial Intelligence UnitIndia and Foreign Tax and TaxResearch division of CBDT asits members agencies.

Further, investigation isunder progress, the ministeradded.

Rs 20,353 cr undisclosed creditsin Panama, Paradise leaks

RLD chief formally announcesalliance with SP, flays BJP's politics

Officer of major general rank to head

Army's court of inquiry into NagalandPNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian Army has ordered acourt of inquiry headed by anofficer of major general rank intothe Nagaland firing incident inwhich 14 civilians were killed,official sources said on Tuesday.Former senior Army officers onMonday called the incident"unfortunate" and "tragic", addingthat the botched up operationwas likely a result of wrong

intelligence.The sources said an officer ofmajor general rank would headthe court of inquiry to probe theoperation of the 21 Para SpecialForces that took place in thestate's Mon district on Saturdayevening.The inquiry will focus on the"intelligence" and the"circumstances" on whichSaturday's operation was basedon, they noted.

Muslims should hand over mosque in Mathura

PNS nGORAKHPUR

Taking a swipe at theSamajwadi Party ahead ofassembly polls in UttarPradesh, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Tuesdayequated "red cap" with "redalert" for the state.

Addressing a public meet-ing here after dedicating to thenation three mega projects,including an AIIMS and a fer-tiliser plant, Modi said, "Today,the entire UP very well knowsthat those wearing red caps areconcerned about red beacon('laal batti') and they are notbothered about your pain andsorrows."

"The red cap people wantpower to commit scams, filltheir coffers, indulge in illegalgrabbing (of resources) and togive complete freedom to themafia," he said.

Stepping up his attack on

the rival ahead of the assem-bly polls early next year, Modisaid, "The red cap people wantto form government to showfavour to terrorists and tofree them from jail. Hence, youshould remember that thosewearing red caps are red alertfor UP, in other words alarmbells." Red cap is a trademarkof Samajwadi Party leaders aswell as workers.

PM’s jibe at Samajwadi Partyon ‘red cap’ and ‘red alert’

PNS nGORAKHPUR

Before 2014, the countrywas known for importingurea, and the shortage offertilisers used to makeheadlines, but the situa-tion has improved now,Prime Minister NarendraModi said on Tuesday as heinaugurated a fertiliserplant here.

Addressing a rally inUttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath'shome tur f Gorakhpurahead of the assembly elec-tions in the state, Modisaid his governmentstopped misuse of urea,and issued soil health cardsto farmers so that theyknow which type of fertilis-er is needed.

The prime minister saidhis government also tooksteps to hike urea produc-tion by reviving closed fer-tiliser plants.

PM Modiinauguratesmajor fertiliserplant, AIIMS inUP's Gorakhpur

PNS n ENGLISH BAZAR

A purported photo of a TMCleader posing with a gun in agovernment office in WestBengal's Malda district wentviral on social media, trigger-ing a political furore onTuesday. In the purportedphoto, Mrinalini MondalMaity, the president of OldMalda Panchayat Samiti, wasseen posing with the gun inone of her hands while beingon her official chair.

Maity is also the presidentof the district unit of TMCwomen's wing. Hitting out atthe TMC, the BJP alleged thatthe ruling party has turnedthe state into a dump yard ofexplosives.

"If she is searched, policewill also get bombs and rifles.This is TMC's culture.

PNS n NEW DELHI

BJP MP Parvesh Verma onTuesday raised in the LokSabha the issue of drug abusein the national capital andaccused the Delhi governmentunder chief minister ArvindKejriwal of taking no "concretesteps" to deal with the growingmenace.

Asking a question in the

House in this connection, theBJP MP said while an increas-ing trend of substance abuse inthe country is a matter ofconcern, Delhi figures in thelist of top five states when itcomes to alcoholism and drugabuse.

"On the one hand the Delhigovernment blows its owntrumpet saying it has improvedthe quality of its educational

institutions, on the other handit leaves children of beggers instreets to die. These childrenuse injection (for drug abuse)which increases the risk ofHIV and Hepatitis," Vermasaid in the Lok Sabha duringthe Question Hour.

He also hit out at the AamAadmi Party (AAP) govern-ment in Delhi over its newexcise policy, saying it is open-

ing as many as 824 liquor'Theka' (vends) to increase itsrevenue even as the nationalcapital figures in the list of topfive states when it comes toalcoholism, substance abuse,use of injection for drug abuse.

"Trend of the use ofparty drugs is increasing fast.Bollywood stars, or their chil-dren or children of beggersthat we see at red lights--all

these are completely involvedin drug (abuse)," he said.

The West Delhi MPsaid that Delhi Police in hisLok Sabha constituency hasdeported more than 300 for-eign nationals who wereinvolved in peddling of bannedsubstance, congratulatingUnion Home Minister AmitShah, who was present in theHouse, for this.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government proposes toamend the Notaries Act torestrict the number of termsa person can practice as anotary to allow more younglegal practitioners enter thefield, the Law Ministry saidon Tuesday.

In a statement, the ministrysaid the proposed amend-ment bill also seeks to extendpower to suspend the certifi-cate of practice in cases ofprofessional misconduct bythe appropriate governmentfor conduct of inquiry.

The proposed amendmentbill also seeks to digitisenotarial work undertaken bynotaries.

As of now the number ofterms of renewal of certifi-cates of practice of a notary is

unrestricted after the initialappointment." ... it is pro-posed to restrict the overallterm of notaries for a periodup to 15 years (initial term offive years and two renewalterms of five years each) bycurtailing renewals of unlim-ited terms..." the ministrysaid.

BJP's West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma raises drug menace issue

Center plans to amend Notaries Act

TMC leaderposes with guninside govt office

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government launched thePM-Ayushman Bharat HealthInfrastructure Mission onOctober 25 this year to fill thegaps in the healthcare systembased on experiences duringthe COVID-19 pandemic, theRajya Sabha was informed onTuesday.

The mission aims to devel-op the capacities of primary,secondary and tertiary carehealth systems, strengthenexisting national institutionsand create new institutions tocater to detection and cure ofnew and emerging diseases,Minister of State for Health

Bharati Pravin Pawar said inwritten response to a question

in the Upper House ofParliament.

PM-Ayushman Bharat HealthInfrastructure Mission launched

the cusp of the world’s largestpublic offering of his compa-ny ie The Ant Group (a flour-ishing empire including theAlibaba, then valued at wellover $1 trillion), was subject-ed to a reality check of over-stepping the mandated red-lines (in this case, criticisingChinese regulatory policies) inXi’s hypersensitive China, andsoon disappeared. Since then,Ja Ma has gone under the radarwith patchy, dubiously organ-ised and sanitised publicappearances, that are typical ofChina’s treatment of anyoneblowing the lid off the officialnarrative. Many others likeaward-winning photographerLu Guang, businesswomanDuan Weihong, actress ZhaoWei, artist and activist AiWeiwei, real estate tycoon RenZhiqiang — all followed thepatented route of inexplicable‘disappearances’. No criticismof the leader, party or its poli-cies is ever tolerated.

Now, the hardly curiouscase of former No 1 women’stennis doubles player, PengShuai, follows the exact samepath. Her crime: Calling outthe bluff of so-called discipline,propriety and morality withinthe top ranks of the CCP byaccusing former Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexu-al assault. Expectedly, Chinesesocial media platform Weibotook down Peng Shuai’s postand discussions about her

sudden disappearance wereheavily censored within thecontrolled realm of Chinesemedia, and her physical where-abouts remained unconvinc-ingly scanty. Following a con-certed effort by the WorldTennis Association (WTA),the Chinese TennisAssociation issued perfuncto-ry assurances that Peng Shuaiwas safe and “not under anyphysical threat”. In a throwbackto Ja Ma’s carefully calibrated‘reappearances’ that raised a lotmore questions than itaddressed, Peng Shuai too hasstarted making what is increas-ingly getting dubbed as‘hostage videos’. For an inter-nationally active player, therehas been an inexplicable curbon access and ability to reachout to her with strangelyincommunicado and stage-managed ‘sightings’, dishedout as means of meaninglessreassurances of normalcy.Unfortunately, and embarrass-ingly so for the Chinese, theWTA Tour has suspended itstournaments in China andupped the ante, exactly whatthe Chinese were seeking toavoid, in their quest to suppressthe truth and the accompany-ing outcry. Crucially, this spe-cific disappearance (unlikecountless others) could furthersully the Chinese perceptions,weak as they are in the COVIDera, to derail the WinterOlympics which are due in a

couple of months.It’s not so much about

defending Gaoli’s personalreputation (who too remainsaway from public gaze) asmuch as it is about defendingthe linear mirage of the‘Chinese Dream’ (read, Party’sgoverning capacity and infal-libility) and of, therefore,avoiding the dangerous prece-dent of ‘questioning’ any of itsimperatives. The People’s Daily,which noted the “heaven onearth” analogy in 1958,launched its English dailytabloid, Global Times, in 2009with the same level of propa-gandistic enthusiasm — so itnoted WTA’s action as “pursuitof political correctness”, “forc-ing her to comply in accor-dance with the imaginationand expectations of Westernpublic opinion” and as “politi-cisation of sports”, all the whileremaining deflective on thespecifics of Peng Shuai’s disap-pearance. This is the thin iceon which the Chinese society,governance and sustainabilityis predicated; Xi Jinping knowsthis, and therefore among hispredecessors, he prefers MaoZedong’s hard propagandaapproach to the relativelyreformist approach of DengXiaoping.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

THE PANDEMIC IS PERHAPS INVINCIBLE Sir — No country, no community, noindividual is safe until everyone across theworld is safe. The emergence of a newCoronavirus variant has once againbrought the spotlight on how unprece-dented the pandemic is and how precar-ious the situation we’re all in. We mayhave come to think that the pandemic isover, but the virus is still with us. As wespeak, scientists across the world arescrambling to gather more data on theOmicron variant to understand how dan-gerous it is in terms of transmission andseverity, and whether the currently avail-able vaccines will be effective against it.The World Health Organisation hasdesignated Omicron — the B.1.1.529 lin-eage of Sars-Cov-2 — as a variant of con-cern, leading to fears of another globalsurge in cases.

Dozens of countries have imposedtravel bans from South African nations,where the Omicron variant was first iden-tified. Others have imposed strictermeasures to curb the spread of theOmicron variant. As on date, at least 38countries have confirmed Omicron cases.Meanwhile, a number of countries havestarted booster vaccinations as a preven-tive measure against the new strain. Butthe question is: As long as vaccineinequity is not addressed, can the worldthink of defeating the Coronavirus pan-demic and restoring normalcy?

Gautam SR | Bhopal

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSESir — Russian President Vladimir Putin'sIndia visit should bolster bilateral tiesbetween the two countries. Foreign pol-icy is a matter of costs and benefits; notwo nations are permanent foes. NewDelhi, of course, is not on a slippery slopeas far as its military and trade ties withMoscow are concerned. An old and tra-ditional connection cannot go haywirejust like that, and that was exemplified inno uncertain terms by Putin's India visit.The 2+2 meeting between the defenceand foreign ministers of both the coun-tries was held in a conducive atmosphere.India holds 2+2 ministerial meetings with

the United States, Japan and Australiaand, thus, Russia became the fourth coun-try to be accorded that importance.President Putin hailing India as a “greatpower” should do wonders for healthybilateral relations.

Military, space, power, energy andinfrastructure sectors between India andRussia are all set to be further expandedin the aftermath of President Putin's shortbut crucial visit. Interpersonal relationsbetween the two have always been aboveboard. There is nothing unusual in dif-ferences of opinion between the twofriends. Putin kept away from the G20and rescheduled his Beijing visit amid thepandemic; but kept his word on attend-ing the summit in India. New Delhi,therefore, has to engage Russia on a per-sonal level keeping with its dehyphen-ation policy on international relations.

Ganapathi Bhat | Akola

THE BJP SHOULD LEARN TO BE HUMBLESir — There is little doubt that the repealof the three contentious farm laws thatwere hastily passed in September last yearis a victory for the farming community,

and the triumph justly connotes the pop-ular saying, “Farmers are the backboneof the Indian economy.” However, theabout turn made by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is nothing but a sheerpolitical opportunism with an eye on theforth-coming assembly elections in thekey States of UP, Punjab andUttarakhand, and as well in the wake ofthe BJP’s recent dismal performance inbypolls.

The rollback of the farm laws showshow politically difficult it will be forIndia to overhaul a sector that supportsabout 60 per cent of the country’s pop-ulation. The farmers’ victory is a trib-ute to their unprecedented struggle thatit not only withstood the multi-fangedState repression, but, in fact, increasedits defiant resistance massively for a year.The ruling BJP must have learnt a hard-hitting lesson that a community, whichis strongly united for a cause, cannever be defeated.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

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

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HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

06

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Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, the seeds of Mao’s manipulativepropaganda tactics have mushroomed like never before in China

THIS IS THE THINICE ON WHICH THECHINESE SOCIETY,GOVERNANCE AND

SUSTAINABILITY IS PREDICATED;

XI JINPING KNOWSTHIS, AND

THEREFORE AMONG HIS

PREDECESSORS, HE PREFERS

MAO ZEDONG'SHARD PROPAGANDA

APPROACH

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

BHOPINDER SINGH

Despite climbing to the third position inthe list of most wicket-takers in Testcricket in India and leading the team

to victory innumerable times, RavichandranAshwin continues to be criticised andcompared. He has done remarkably well asan off-spinner for Indian cricket time andagain. Whether it is ODI, T20 or Test crick-et, Ashwin adjusts as per the format and sit-uation on ground and plays a pivotal role.

He has won the ‘Man of the Series’ awardnine times in his illustrious career. He standsup to the challenge when the chips are downand can perform with the bat as well.

Ashwin came, saw and conquered thecricketing field with a purpose. Ironically,the last wicket of New Zealand cricketerHenry Nicholls was taken by the ace spin-ner to hasten the end of Kiwi innings in thetwo match Test series. Ashwin has reacheda historic milestone in test cricket. The off-spinner went past Anil Kumble andHarbhajan Singh in taking 50 wickets in acalendar year for the most number of times.Ashwin is a star spinner and instead of crit-icising him or comparing his bowling fig-ures with other bowlers, we should remem-ber the times he held the fort and saved theday for Team India.

CK Subramaniam | Mumbai

Numbers make all the noise

Propaganda aroundChina’s ‘infallibility’

In the early days of ‘helms-man’ Mao Zedong’s Chineserevolution, propagandaassumed a key role in shap-

ing the Chinese optics, discourseand popular narrative. In 1958,the mouthpiece of the ChineseCommunist Party, People’s Daily,wrote: “…today, in the era of MaoZedong, heaven is here onearth….” — ironically, this wasalso the year of the start of theGreat Chinese Famine that hasbeen regarded as amongst thegreatest manmade disasters inhuman history, accounting formillions (estimates ranging from15 to 55 million) deaths. Theinstinctive cover-up reaction ofthe Chinese officialdom entailedreleasing propaganda posters ofChinese children standing atopsurreal green fields of wheat sodense that they could hold theirweight — the reality of the ‘fields’,actually made of deliberatelytransplanted stalks with a benchto hold the children, was hiddenfrom the masses.

Today, in Xi Jinping’s China,the seeds of Mao’s manipulativepropaganda tactics have mush-roomed like never before, and thecuration of the ‘Chinese Dream’is a zealously guarded effort thatbrooks no contrarian viewpoint.Xi’s barely concealed and insidi-ous efforts to “tell China’s storywell” comes packaged with theusual spirit of defensive andreactive censorships, heavily mas-saged headlines, deflections toeven outright buying out interna-tional opinions eg, South ChinaMorning Post. Awkward subjectslike the ensuing dissonance inHong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet orthe Dalai Lama remain subject toeditorial manicuring with therequisite smoke-and-mirrors toensure that the domestic audiencedoes not get ‘brainwashed’ towhat Xi calls “western values ofjournalism”. An important aspectof this control phenomenon is todefine the so-called redlines thatnecessitates the continuing main-tenance of the official charade ofthe Communist Party’s suprema-cy, infallibility and perfection —anyone questioning the samerisks immediate threat or, inChinese context, mysterious dis-appearances.

Last year, flamboyantChinese entrepreneur Jack Ma, at

SOUNDBITEThere is no need to

panic. I request you

all to maintain

social distancing

and wear masks.

Delhi Chief Minister

—Arvind Kejriwal

Right now, the drug companieshave set the pricesat whatever themarket will bear.

US President—Joe Biden

The BJP has

made the country

economically weak

and has created a

rift between

people of different

communities.

SP chief

—Akhilesh Yadav

As I have said earlierand saying it again,Virat Kohli is the best Test captainIndia has ever had.

Former Indian cricketer—Irfan Pathan

The DMK and its natural allies, the Communists, are always in the forefront toagitate against the violation of the right to free speech. But it is shocking thatthe Dravidian Government continues to ban a 2011 production, Dam 999. The

movie, which bagged several national and international honours, was shortlisted foreven the Oscars. However, the TN Government banned it citing law and order prob-lems. Though bans were earlier imposed on certain films like Vishwaroopam andThuppakki fearing reprisal from a minority community, the issues were resolved with-in days and those were released to a grand welcome. Meanwhile, the State Government’s

reason for banning the movie is ambiguous. “Thefilm’s story is woven around the Mullaperiyar Dam;the core issues are pending before the SupremeCourt. If the ban is lifted, there may be widespreadagitation and disruption of peace,” states theNovember 22, 2021, order issued by the AdditionalChief Secretary. Film’s producer-director Sohan Roysays that there was nothing in Dam 999 which couldupset law and order in Tamil Nadu.

“The movie was released all over the world,except in Tamil Nadu, though we had hired manyartists and technicians from that State for the pro-

ject, including national award-winning designer Thotta Tharini. The film makes no ref-erence to the Mullaperiyar Dam and the storyline was based on the bursting of theBanqiao Dam in China in 1975, which resulted in the death of 2.5 lakh people. I neverhad Mullaperiyar in my mind when I was shooting the movie,” Roy adds. The ban isseen as the “true colours” of the Dravidians, according to noted author and film crit-ic PK Sreenivasan. “History is repeating itself in Tamil Nadu. MG Ramachandran wasthrown out of the DMK for questioning the party leadership’s stance on a number ofissues. We cannot expect anything different from them even now,” Sreenivasan com-ments on the ban issue. The truth is that Tamil Nadu does not like to discuss theMullaperiyar Dam. The term ‘999’ evokes nervousness in the powers that be theresince they know that the 999-year-long agreement is a fraud perpetrated on the peo-ple of Travancore by the then Madras Province. How an incident that reportedly hap-pened in China could force the people of Tamil Nadu to violate law and order is any-body’s guess. Dams should not be used for damning creativity!

The summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting RussianPresident Vladimir Putin has tested India’s ability to do a balancing act so asnot to get caught between the brittle relationship between the US and Russia

over Ukraine and the proposed Summit for Democracy. For the record, Modi andPutin reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing ties. Significantly, it was Putin’s sec-ond visit outside Russia since the pandemic’s outbreak, after he visited Geneva thisJune to meet US President Joe Biden. The New Delhi visit underlined Russia’s impor-tance to India as a provider of defence systems. Russia handles over half of all Indianarms imports, technology and joint production agreements. Russia has also agreedto lease a nuclear-powered submarine to India. The icing on the cake is Russia’slong-range S-400 ground-to-air missile defence system which initially attracted the

displeasure of the United States. It was expectedat one time that despite the warm relationsbetween the US and India, Washington might sanc-tion India under CAATSA (Countering America’sAdversaries Through Sanctions Act), which warnsof sanctions for any country buying arms fromRussia. That has not come to pass yet, but the factremains that India looked to Russia, and not the US,for its defence needs. In the case of the nuclear-powered submarine, too, it looked to Russia.Interestingly, the AUKUS pact of September will allowAustralia to become the first non-nuclear weapons

State to acquire a similar nuclear-powered submarine.Even as Modi and Putin vowed to cement their unique ties, New Delhi realised thatRussia used Indian soil to take a snipe at the US. Its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovrecalled that the US tried to undermine Russia-India cooperation on the S-400 dealand tried to make India obey American orders. “We”, Lavrov said, witnessed howthe US tried to make India “to follow the American vision of how this region shouldbe developed”. It appears that Russia used Putin’s visit to put the US in a spot byleaning more heavily than required on its friendship with India. That line of thinkingis open to interpretation because the US has not followed up on the sanctions threat.After all, it understands the challenges India faces from its neighbours in the westand east. Also, the US and India have their association in the Indo-Pacific in the formof QUAD. Lavrov’s statement, however, may have more to do with two areas of cur-rent friction between Russia and the US. One is the Russian troop movement nearUkraine’s borders amid speculations of a conflict. Lavrov’s remarks came just a daybefore the Biden-Putin virtual summit on the issue. The US has said it will send rein-forcements to Nato’s eastern flank if Russia invades Ukraine. The second issue isBiden’s invite to 100-odd countries to his Summit of Democracy on December 9and 10. Ukraine has been invited to the summit, but Russia stands excluded.

Balancing act

Dam it!Tamil Nadu’s ban on Dam 999 continues

since 2011, and on a flimsy narrative

PICTALK

A view of the snow-covered Himalayan range, in Shimla PTI

Putin used the Indian soil to take a snipe at the US, putting it in a spot

Today I completed25 years in our wonderful filmindustry. I am, andwill always be, eternally grateful.

Actor—Arshad Warsi

Colonial outlook can’tfix climate issues now

THE NEIGHBOURING NATION SHOULD FIRST

STOP KILLING INDIAN SOLDIERS, THEN WE

WILL TALK ABOUT TRADE.

—FORMER PUNJAB CHIEF MINISTER

CAPT AMARINDER SINGH

WE WILL SOON WRITE TO THE CENTRE AND

MEET THE UNION HOME MINISTER, URGING TO

OPEN TRADE WITH NEIGHBOURING PAKISTAN.

—PUNJAB CHIEF MINISTER

CHARANJIT SINGH CHANNI

Singling out coal won’t serve the purpose. India’s argument that other fossilfuels used by the rich nations are equally responsible for emissions is logical

The WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), scheduled to beheld in Geneva, stands postponed again because of the outbreakof the Omicron Coronavirus variant. At MC12, whenever it is now

held, ministers will be reviewing the functioning of the multilateral trad-ing system, delivering prepared statements, and taking action on theWTO’s future work programme. As is known, the Doha DevelopmentRound, launched in 2001, has had a very rocky journey with a lowlevel of achievement. Its main success was the adoption of theAgreement on Trade Facilitation at MC9 in 2013. There is, therefore,considerable pressure for a successful outcome at MC12 at a formalmeeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual PropertyRights (TRIPS) on November 18, WTO members agreed to keep active-ly engaging up until the WTO’s MC12 in order to find a common intel-lectual property (IP) response to Covid-19. Members adopted the oral

status report of the TRIPS council The text provides a factual overviewof discussions held at the Council since October 2020, on the pro-posal by India and South Africa requesting a waiver from certain pro-visions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment andtreatment of COVID-19 and the proposal by the European Union for adraft General Council declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and PublicHealth in the circumstances of a pandemic. On the waiver request, thereport indicates that disagreement persists on the fundamental ques-tion of whether a waiver is the appropriate and most effective way toaddress the shortage and inequitable distribution of, and access to,vaccines and other COVID-19-related products. The role of IP in thecontext of the pandemic has become the centre of attention in the run-up to MC12, and a pragmatic and tangible outcome of these discus-sions would be a strong and positive signal to the Ministerial Conferenceand the global community as a whole. The chair of the WTO’s agri-culture negotiations, Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta, told headsof delegations at a meeting on 15 November that she plans to circu-late a revised draft negotiation text as soon as possible. The first draftnegotiation text was introduced on July 29, with the chair proposingsuggestions for a possible agriculture package at MC12. The text encom-passes the seven main negotiation topics — domestic support, mar-ket access, export restrictions, export competition, cotton, public stock-holding for food security purposes (PSH) and a special safeguard mech-anism (SSM) as well as cross-cutting transparency issues. The chairemphasized the draft was based on members’ discussions as well asher consultations in various configurations and served as a startingpoint for the final text-based negotiation phase before MC12. The chairalso reported to WTO members on the state of play in the negotia-tions. She said the most recent consultations have focused on engag-ing members to find convergences on three primary issues: domes-tic support, public stockholding for food security purposes and, to alesser extent, market access. Other members reaffirmed that a mean-ingful MC12 outcome on agriculture will address the compelling issueof food and livelihood security in light of the pandemic and commitmembers to continuing agricultural reform to make the agriculture trad-ing system fit for purpose. Singapore presented a paper outlining itsresponses to the questions posed by India regarding an initiative thatcalls for exempting the World Food Programme’s humanitarian foodpurchases from any export restriction. The initiative has gained widesupport from most members and was described by many as a "low-hanging fruit" for MC12.

(The writer is former senior professor, international trade and member, Vivekananda International Foundation. The views expressedare personal.)

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNWTO AND COMMON IPFOR COVID VACCINES

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

PK VASUDEVA

ASHWANI MAHAJAN

Dissent persists on whether a waiver is answer toshortage and inequitable distribution of vaccines

Recently the United NationsEnvironment Conference ‘COP26’ concluded in Glasgow, UK.India was praised at this confer-

ence, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s"Panchamrit" commitment for safe envi-ronment. Today’s environmental crisis isactually linked to the existence of human-ity. The devastation caused by the chang-ing climate is now affecting the commonman all over the globe.

Cloudbursts in the Himalayan regionof Uttarakhand, excessively low rainfallin some regions and excessive rainfall insome others, and resulting droughts andfloods, and causing diseases and result-ing in climate change inducing naturalcalamities, all are impacting lives in thecountry today. Globally, life on smallislands is endangered due to rising sea lev-els. Environmental hazards are alsobecoming the cause of large-scale dis-placement. If we do not rise to the occa-sion, this earth will not remain a habit-able place in the next few decades.

In view of this concern, environmen-tal conferences are being organized underthe auspices of the United Nations annu-ally since 1994. These conferences are alsocalled ‘United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change’. At theEnvironment Conference held in Kyoto,Japan a treaty was signed, known as the‘Kyoto Protocol’, (with amendments inDoha’s Environment Conference in 2012),according to which countries announcedtargets to reduce their emissions ofgreenhouse gases. The ‘Kyoto Protocol’was the last such agreement in whichdeveloped countries accepted theirresponsibility to reduce the emission ofgreenhouse gases emissions; and the lessdeveloped and developing countries wereexempted from the responsibility ofreducing the emission of these gases forsome time.

After the 2015 Paris’s EnvironmentConference, India, with a liberal changein its earlier stance, unilaterally pledgedto reduce emissions of greenhouse gasesand made it clear that India would notonly live up to its ambitions but also raisethe same. But India had also made it clearthat developed countries should desistfrom blaming India for environmentaldegradation or global warming. Thereality is that if seen from the historicalperspective, today the world is sufferingthe consequences of what happened in thelast 100 years. Whereas the United Statesis responsible for 40 per cent of green-house gases emissions, Europe’s andChina’s contribution is 10 per cent and 28per cent respectively, India is responsiblefor merely three per cent for these emis-sions.

India had said that while the richcountries are responsible for a major partof the emissions, they had not lived up totheir promise, made in Copenhagen, toprovide $100 billion to the developing andleast-developed countries to deal with the

THE NEED OF THEHOUR IS THAT

IF THE EARTH IS TO BE KEPT

HABITABLE, THEDEVELOPEDCOUNTRIES

HAVE TO MAKEAVAILABLE THEIRRESOURCES AND

TECHNOLOGY FORIT. THEY WILL

HAVE TO COMEOUT OF THEIR

COLONIALMINDSET THATTHEY ARE THE

RULERS OF THEWORLD AND CAN

DO ANYTHINGTHEY DESIRE

environmental crisis. Moreover,given the magnitude of the prob-lem and the efforts needed to dealwith the same, even $1 trillion mayfall short of the requirement.Unfortunately, there is no referenceto the commitment of $100 billionin COP26’s final document.Rather, all efforts are being madeto put the blame on India for theenvironmental crisis due to overusage of coal. In the draft of thefinal document of theEnvironment Conference ofGlasgow (UK), the rich countriesincluded the condition to phaseout of coal in the draft declaration,and when India refused to acceptthe same, a campaign was startedin the western media to defameIndia that it is becoming an obsta-cle in the way to solution of envi-ronmental crisis.

Whereas the media in thewest is trying to portray India asthe villain of the environmentalcrisis for not accepting the condi-tion to phase out coal usage in thefinal document, countries like theUS, Europe and China, who aremain culprits, are nowhere close tobeing held responsible. We need tounderstand that singling out coalwill not serve the purpose. India’sargument that other fossil fuels likepetroleum and gas are equallyresponsible for emissions is a log-ical one. However, since the USand Europe have an advantage in

using them (petroleum and gas),there is no mention of reducingemissions from these fossil fuels inthe final document, which isdownright unfair.

Today, when the developedcountries are calling India a hin-drance to the environmental treaty,they have to introspect and real-ize that the reason for the presentenvironmental crisis is the uncon-trolled consumption by thosecountries, which is reflected in thefact that the US and Europe alone— where only 14 per cent of thetotal world’s population lives —account for 50 per cent of thegreenhouse gas emissions in thelast 100 years.

Not only this, even today theper capita emission of greenhousegases in India is only 1.77 metrictons, while in America it is 14.24metric tons and in England it is4.85 metric tons, and in China alsothe per capita emission of green-house gases is 7.41 metric tons.The main reason for excessivegreenhouse gas emissions in devel-oped countries is wasteful and irre-sponsible consumption, which isdue to their lifestyle. Developedcountries today are not ready toconcede that the present environ-mental crisis is due to their stub-bornness to not change theirlifestyle. The people of these coun-tries and their leadership will haveto realize that they have to control

their consumption to overcome thecurrent environmental crisis.Whether it is the goal of notallowing the world’s temperatureto rise more than 1.5 degreesfrom the pre-industrial level, or thereduction in smoke, the only solu-tion is the control of consumption,for which the developed countrieshave the main responsibility.

Apart from this, the effortsmade by developing countriesand underdeveloped countrieslike India to reduce the emissionsof greenhouse gases and globalwarming will require the use oftechnology. This technology isavailable mainly with the devel-oped countries, which they wantto share only for a hefty price. Onthe other hand, developing andunderdeveloped countries willhave to increase the use of renew-able energy such as solar energy,wind energy, etc., for which theywill need more investment andtechnology. The need of the houris that if the earth is to be kepthabitable, the developed countrieshave to make available theirresources and technology for it,rich countries will have to comeout of their colonial mindset,that they are the rulers of theworld and can do anything theydesire. It should not be forgottenthat heat emanating from globalwarming will not spare even theserich countries.

(The writer is a Professorin PGDAV College,University of Delhi. The views expressed

are personal.)

Will Congress perishas West Bengal chiefminister Mamata

Banerjee and others believe?Even in the past, many pre-dicted the end of Congress,but it survived manyonslaughts. The latest was in1998 when Sonia Gandhiemerged, Sphinx-like, torevive it and rule from 2004-2014. The 2019 Lok Sabharesults gave Congress 12 crorevotes, though seat-wise it gotonly 52. Even in its secondsuccessive defeat in 2019, theparty retained a solid block of20 percent votes. The Gandhifamily is complacent, believ-ing that the voters will get dis-enchanted sooner than laterand return to the Grand OldParty. No doubt they live ina fool’s paradise as there is anurgent need to revive the

party. Undoubtedly, Congressfaces a leadership crisis andchallenges from many sides.

The first is to quell theinternal indiscipline andrevolt. The group of 23 led byGhulam Nabi Azad is anexample and this disenchant-ment is prevalent in almost allstates.

The second comes fromwithin the Opposition bloc. Oflate, West Bengal chief minis-ter Mamata Banerjee’s attack,backed by the wily NCP chiefSharad Pawar, has intensi-fied. Now that Mamata hasdecided to bid for the PrimeMinister’s post in 2024, she istrying to edge out Congressfrom the opposition bloc. Asa first step, Banerjee is prepar-ing to broad-base her partyand also gain pan-nationalrecognition.

The third is the shrinkingCongress party in many statesand even regions. Congressshould now aim to build uponthe 12-crore voter base insteadof embroiling itself in self-made controversies. Of the186 direct fights between BJPand Congress in 2019, the for-mer won 170 seats, amount-ing to a 91.4 percent strikerate. It bagged 162 of theseseats in the 2014 elections. TheCongress, which won 24 ofthese seats in 2014, has comedown to 15. In Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, Haryana,Uttarakhand, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, Odisha,Himachal Pradesh, and WestBengal, where it ruled in thepast, Congress won only 10out of 286 seats. The party hasno representation from 20states. Further, BJP has takenover the opposition space inOdisha, Tripura, and WestBengal, where Congress wastraditionally the main oppo-sition. Also, the regional par-ties continue to put up amuch better fight thanCongress.

So, what are the optionsfor the party now that thereare cracks within the opposi-tion?

The first is to think of along-term strategy and startpreparing for 2024. Mamata is

doing precisely that. Congressis involved in short-termquick-fix solutions, oftenmessing up the party’s chancesas they did in Punjab recent-ly. But before that, the partyneeds to resolve its leadershipcrisis, which has been goingon since August 2019.

The second is that theparty needs enormousresources and committedbooth committees to competewith BJP. Once these two areaddressed, the other things aremore manageable.

The third is to find waysof uniting the opposition.Sonia Gandhi has the statureto do this as almost all oppo-sition parties might be willingto unite under her leadership,but they have reservationsagainst Rahul Gandhi. If nec-essary, the Gandhi family

should pave the way for someother leader.

The regional leaders real-ize that though they couldcontain BJP in their states,they do not have a pan-nation-al presence. Even today,there-fore, they need a party likeCongress; every village has acongressman.

Last Sunday, Shiv Senamouthpiece Saamna, in itseditorial, said that pushing thegrand old party away fromnational politics and creatingan Opposition grouping par-allel to the UPA (UnitedProgressive Alliance) wouldonly strengthen BJP and "fas-cist" forces. Though Mamatatried to woo the Sena duringher recent visit, Sena does notwant to lose its governmentbecause Congress is its coali-tion partner in Maharashtra.

Rahul Gandhi has been inpolitics since 2004, but he isnot yet accepted as the oppo-sition face. Rahul’s efforts tobefriend second-generationleaders like Akhilesh Yadavhave not succeeded. He needsan image makeover.

The fourth and morecomplex option is to give a callto all those leaders who hadleft Congress to come back.This idea springs up on andoff. Congress has been the par-ent of many ruling parties likethe NCP, TMC, YSRCP. Therehave been suggestions thatsuch a united party couldfunction under a presidiumand collective leadership. Butthe parent party is hesitant totake such a plunge. A unitedCongress, than a dividedopposition, is a more formida-ble opponent to BJP.

All Opposition parties might be willing to unite under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership; however, they have reservations against Rahul Gandhi

The Congress faces a host of challenges before 2024

KALYANI SHANKAR

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Reliance Capital onTuesday said theNational Company Law

Tribunal (NCLT) has admittedthe case of the company forthe corporate insolvency pro-cedure. Shares of the compa-ny declined by more than 4per cent to trade at Rs 14.10on BSE. "Pursuant to orderdated December 6, 2021 of the National Company Law Tribunal,Mumbai, corporate insolvency resolution (CRIP) has been initiatedagainst Reliance Capital Ltd," the company said in a regulatory filing.Nageshwar Rao Y has been appointed as the administrator of thecompany, via order dated December 6, 2021, it said further. TheNational Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday admitted theReserve Bank's plea to initiate insolvency resolution proceedingsagainst Reliance Capital. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had filedan application for the initiation of Corporate Insolvency ResolutionProcess (CIRP) against the company last week.

India has exported 9.39Ltonnes of sugar so far

Sugar mills have exported9.39 lakh tonnes of thesweetener till the first

week of December during theongoing 2021-22 marketingyear that started from October1, and are not in hurry to sellfurther stock in view ofsluggish global price trend,trade body AISTA said on

Tuesday. About 4.68 lakh tonnes of sugar is in transit, the All IndiaSugar Trade Association (AISTA) said in a statement. Mills havecontracted to export 33 lakh tonnes of sugar without thegovernment subsidy so far in the 2021-22 marketing year, it added.The sugar marketing year runs from October to September. Sugarexports this year are being undertaken without the governmentsubsidy. According to AISTA, mills have exported a total of9,39,435 tonnes of sugar from October 1 to December 6, 2021."Indian mills are not in a hurry to sell sugar as previous sales are yetto be executed. Also, they do not like the current global prices,which shall have to move up to attract more Indian sales," AISTAsaid.

Reliance Capital says corporateinsolvency resolution started

The Centre has transferred Rs 299.26 crore to more than 2 lakh ben-eficiary farmers in Nagaland since the launch of the Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme in February 2019,

Parliament was informed on Tuesday. Under the PM-KISAN scheme, afinancial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is provided to eligible farmer fami-lies, payable in three equal installments of Rs 2,000. Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar, in his written reply to the Lok Sabha, said: "Atotal of 2,06,523 beneficiaries have been given the financial benefits ofmore than Rs 299.26 crore through various installments under PM-KISAN Scheme in the State of Nagaland."

Over 2L farmers in Nagalandget Rs 299 cr under PM-Kisan

n MUMBAI

Recovering from a two-sessioncarnage, equity benchmarkSensex rebounded 887 points onTuesday, led by gains in indexmajors ICICI Bank, HDFCtwins and Infosys amid a posi-tive trend in global markets.

According to experts, glob-al equity markets are slightlyrelieved after studies pertain-ing to the Omicron strain ofCOVID-19 suggest that eventhough it is fast spreading, it islargely milder than the Deltavariant.

The 30-share BSE Sensexended 886.51 points or 1.56per cent higher at 57,633.65.Similarly, the broader NSENifty rallied 264.45 points or1.56 per cent to 17,176.70.

Tata Steel was the top gain-er in the Sensex pack, advanc-ing nearly 4 per cent, followedby Axis Bank, ICICI Bank,Kotak Bank, SBI and BajajFinance.

On the other hand, Asian

Paints was the sole laggard."Markets rebounded sharply

after two days of the selloff onaccount of positive global cues.Investors are following thebuy-on dip strategy and thusaccumulating quality stocksat a cheaper price," said ArijitMalakar, Head Research(Retail) of Ashika StockBroking.

Further, he said studies per-taining to the Omicron strainof COVID-19 have shown thatit is largely milder than theDelta variant and that providessome relief to global equity

markets.Additionally, RBI is expect-

ed to keep the interest ratessteady when the MPC willannounce the outcome of itsmeeting on December 8,Malakar added.

Elsewhere in Asia, boursesin Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seouland Tokyo ended with gains.

Stock exchanges in Europewere also trading on a positivenote in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oilbenchmark Brent crude rose2.26 per cent to USD 74.73 perbarrel.

Sensex soars 887 ptson global market trend n BEIJING

Global stock markets followedWall Street higher Tuesday asanxiety about the coronavirus'slatest variant eased and Chinareported stronger Novembertrade figures than expected.

London and Frankfurtopened higher. Shanghai,Tokyo and Hong Kongadvanced. Oil prices rose morethan $1 a barrel for a secondday.

Wall Street futures werehigher after the chief WhiteHouse medical adviser saidMonday the omicron variantmight be less dangerous. Thatmight allow travel and businessrestrictions to ease.

Reports from South Africa,where omicron first was spot-ted, that hospitals haven't beenoverwhelmed “is fuelling someoptimism” among traders whosold earlier, said Yeap JunRong of IG in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE100 in London gained 1% to7,302.61 and Frankfurt's DAXadvanced 1.6% to 15,623.97.The CAC 40 in Paris added

1.7% to 6,982.63.On Wall Street, the S&P 500

future was up 1% and that forthe Dow Jones IndustrialAverage advanced 0.8%.

On Monday, the S&P 500rose 1.2% while the Dowadded 1.9%. The Nasdaq com-posite gained less than 0.1%.

In Asia, the ShanghaiComposite Index rose 0.2% to3,595.09 after Novemberimports surged 31.7% over a

year earlier in a sign domesticdemand might be strengthen-ing.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyogained 1.9% to 28,455.60 andHong Kong's Hang Seng added2.6% to 23,983.66.

The Kospi in Seouladvanced 0.6% to 2,991.72and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200gained 1% to 7,313.90.

India's Sensex rose 2% to57,871.21. New Zealand andSoutheast Asian marketsgained.

On Wall Street, more than85% of stocks in the S&P 500rose Monday, led by technol-ogy and banks.

Airlines, cruise lines andother travel companies thatstand to gain from avoidingmore anti-coronavirus con-trols advanced after DrAnthony Fauci said early indi-cations suggested omicron maybe less dangerous than the ear-lier delta variant.

It will still take a few weeksto learn whether omicron ismore contagious, causes moresevere illness or evades immu-nity.

Global stocks follow WallStreet higher amid virus fears

n NEW DELHI

Microsoft on Tuesday launcheda cybersecurity skilling pro-gramme that aims to skill overone lakh learners by 2022 as partof efforts to address the skills gapand empower India's workforcefor a career in digital security.

The programme is designedto give learners hands-on expe-rience in the fundamentals ofsecurity, compliance, and iden-tity, a statement said.

Microsoft will conduct these

courses along with its strategicconsortium of partners includ-ing Cloudthat, Koenig, RPS,and Synergetics Learning, itadded. The course modules aredesigned to support all levels of

learners, regardless of wherethey are in their cybersecurityjourney.

“Trust and security are at theheart of who we are as a compa-ny, and we work closely with

governments, civil society, andorganisations across the world tohelp them stay secure. Investingin cybersecurity skilling andpreparing the next generation ofsecurity leaders is a big part ofthat effort," Microsoft IndiaPresident Anant Maheshwarisaid. He added that Microsoft isdeeply committed to democra-tise skilling for all and this pro-gramme is a strong step in mak-ing cybersecurity skilling acces-sible and affordable for all.Microsoft has introduced four

new security, compliance, andidentity certifications, of whichthe accredited certification forfundamentals will be offered atzero-cost for any individual whoattends the associated trainingthrough this initiative, the state-ment said. Additionally, in col-laboration with its partners,Microsoft, offers learners deeplydiscounted offers on the rest ofthe advanced role-based certifi-cations to drive deep skills foraddressing cybersecurity chal-lenges, it added.

Microsoft launches cybersecurity skilling program

Citroen to hikeC5 AircrossSUV price byup to 3 pc

n NEW DELHI

NHPC Director (Personnel)Nikhil Kumar Jain has beenrelieved from the service twomonths before the completionof his tenure on performanceground, sources said onTuesday.s

On December 2, 2021, theMinistry of Power had con-veyed to NHPC about its deci-sion to curtail Jain's tenure.Following the directions of theministry, Jain was relieved fromthe post with immediate effect,they said.

"His tenure was till February2022. Even after several warn-ings from the Ministry, he wasnot improving his performance.By not contributing to thedevelopment of the organisa-tion, he was obstructing theprogress of the company," thesources said.

According to them, Jain wasappointed to the post onFebruary 7, 2017, for a periodof 5 years. Prior to his role atNHPC, he was the Director(Personnel) at Air India Limitedsince 2012.

"He was not performing in

his earlier roles also. This will bean example for all those who arenot performing in PSUs," asource in the governmentsaid.Jain holds a bachelor'sdegree in Industrial Engineeringfrom IIT Roorkee. He complet-ed his LLB from DelhiUniversity in 2010.

When contacted, Jain refusedto comment on the matter. AnNHPC official, who wasreached out for response, saidthe move to relieve him fromthe service by the company wastaken following the orders of theMinistry of Power.

Sebi amends delisting rules tomake M&A more convenientn NEW DELHI

Sebi has amended rules per-taining to delisting of equityshares of a company followingan open offer as part of effortsto make merger and acquisi-tion transactions for listedcompanies more convenient.

Under the new framework,promoters or acquirers need todisclose their intention to delistthe firm through an initialpublic announcement, accord-ing to a notification.

If the acquirer is desirous ofdelisting the target company,the acquirer must propose ahigher price for delisting withsuitable premium over openoffer price.

In case the open offer is foran indirect acquisition, theopen offer price and indicativeprice will be notified by theacquirer at the time of making

the detailed public statementand in the letter of offer.

"The indicative price shallinclude a suitable premiumreflecting the price that theacquirer is willing to pay forthe delisting offer with full dis-closures of the rationale andjustification for the indicativeprice so determined that canalso be revised upwards by theacquirer before the start of thetendering period," Sebi said ina notification on Monday.

In the existing framework, ifan open offer is triggered,compliance with takeover reg-ulations could take the incom-ing acquirer's holding to above75 per cent or perhaps even 90per cent.

n MUMBAI

After the setbacks during thesecond wave of the pandem-ic, the microfinance industryshowed an improvement indisbursements, asset qualityand new loan inquiries in theSeptember quarter, a reportsaid on Tuesday.

The portfolio outstandingfor the industry, which typical-ly provides small ticket loansto micro entrepreneurs andwomen borrowers, increasedto Rs 249 lakh crore as ofSeptember, up 2.1 per centwhen compared with the fig-ure in June and 6 per centwhen compared with the year-ago period, it said.

Unpaid loans, which hadbecome a concern because of

the economic activity gettingaffected during the secondwave in the April-June period,also seem to be reducing if onewere to go by the 30-day over-due period, the report byCRIF Highmark, a creditinformation company, said.

The 30-plus days overdueloans declined to 10.4 percent in September from June's15 per cent, while thoseunpaid for over 90 daysremained stable at 3.3 percent, it said.

n NEW DELHI

The government has so far dis-bursed Rs 2,071 crore for 4,003projects under the AgricultureInfrastructure Fund, AgricultureMinister Narendra Singh Tomarsaid on Tuesday. Tomar, in a writ-ten reply to the Lok Sabha, saida total of 8,488 projects have beensanctioned under the scheme sofar with a loan amount of Rs6,098 crore. "Out of which, Rs2,071 crores have been disbursedfor 4,003 projects," he said. Outof 8,488 projects sanctioned sofar, a maximum of 1,954 projectswere from Madhya Pradesh, fol-lowed by 1,424 projects inAndhra Pradesh, 900 projects inKarnataka, 684 projects in UttarPradesh, 654 projects fromRajasthan and 555 projects inMaharashtra. About 5,067 pro-jects sanctioned belonged to pri-mary agriculture cooperativesocieties (PACs), 2,576 projectsof agri-entrepreneurs, 685 pro-jects of individual farmers, 61projects of farmer producer orga-nizations and 53 projects belonged to start-ups, showed thedata placed before the LowerHouse.

Centre disbursesRs 2,071cr loanfor 4k projects

MFI industry showsimprovement after 2nd wave

n NEW DELHI

The government has takenvarious measures to protectbona fide commercial deci-sions of banks to allevi-ate the fear of anyunwarranted hard-ships to officials orsenior executivestaking key deci-sions, FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman said onTuesday in the RajyaSabha.

These include amendmentsto Prevention of CorruptionAct (PC Act), 1988, requiringprior permission before initi-ating investigation against a

public servant, setting up ofAdvisory Board for Bankingand Financial Frauds (ABBFF)for first level of examination ofsuspected frauds of banks and

financial institutions inexcess of Rs 50 crore,

finalisation ofConsolidated StaffAc c ou nt abi l i t yFramework etc, shesaid.The govern-

ment, in consulta-tion with Central

Vigilance Commission,has recently finalised a consol-idated Staff AccountabilityFramework for non-perform-ing assets (NPAs) accounts upto Rs 50 crore, other thanfraud cases, she said.

Steps to protect bonafide

decisions of bank: FM

Govt cuts short tenure of NHPCDirector N K Jain by 2 months

n NEW DELHI

The government on Tuesdaysaid that for higher supply ofcoking coal in the country andto ensure that it is provided ata cheaper rate, it is consider-ing measures like linking theprice of domestic coking coalto the imported dry fuel.

The development assumessignificance in the wake of aninter-ministerial panel sug-gesting formulating an importparity-based pricing mecha-nism for domestic coking coalfactoring the quality parame-ters.

"For higher supply of cokingcoal in the country and to

ensure it is provided at acheaper rate, the decision to yetreduce ash percentage withupgraded technology and theprice of coking coal to belinked to imported coal are themeasures under considera-tion," the coal ministry said ina statement.

The committee, headed bythe coal additional secretary,

has also suggested the identi-fication of additional cokingcoal blocks for production byCoal India Ltd (CIL) and theprivate sector and auction ofCBM overlap coking coalblocks.

Recently, the formed inter-ministerial committee, includ-ing industry stakeholders, tostrategise augmentation of cok-ing coal production in Indiahas submitted its recommen-dations, the ministry said inthe statement.Based on this,the coal ministry has set up themission coking coal to evolvea road map for increasing pro-duction and utilisation ofdomestic coking coal.

Decision to link price of desicoking coal to imported one

n MUMBAI

Electric two-wheeler maker AtherEnergy inaugurated on Tuesday itsnew retail outlet at Vesu (Surat),its second such facility in the stateand 25th in the country.

The latest showroom at Surataims to educate customers aboutevery aspect of the vehicle andwitness the engineering andmechanical efforts that go into themaking of each Ather scooter, thecompany said.The company alsosaid it has installed two fast-charging points, Ather Grid atSurat and plans to add 8-10 moreto strengthen the charging net-work and make the transition toelectric scooters stress-free andconvenient.

Ather Energyopens 2ndoutlet in Surat

n NEW DELHI

The Tamil Nadu governmenthas been asked to submit adetailed project report (DPR)with cost estimates for a mul-tipurpose seaweed park to beset up under a central schemePMMSY, Parliament wasinformed on Tuesday.

Minister of Fisheries, AnimalHusbandry and DairyingParshottam Rupala, in his writ-ten reply to the Lok Sabha, said,"Yes, Sir. A MultipurposeSeaweed Park has been pro-posed in Tamil Nadu to pro-mote the seaweed cultivationunder the Pradhan MantriMatsya Sampada Yojana

(PMMSY)."The Tamil Nadu govern-

ment has submitted a projectproposal. The state govern-ment has been asked to submita Detailed Project Report withcost estimates. Further, theminister informed the LowerHouse that implementation ofthe PMMSY has commencedduring the middle of 2020-21and cumulative number of ben-eficiaries supported underPMMSY so far is 9,42,761. TheCentre has approved projectproposals worth Rs 5,336.96crores with a central share of Rs1,823.50 crores to states andunion territories and otherimplementing agencies.

TN govt asked to submit DPR for seaweed park

Tanla and Vodafone Idea onTuesday announced a pactunder which Tanla will providesolutions to secure, encrypt andenhance performance for inter-national messaging traffic onthe telco's network. Announcing the alliance, thecompanies in a joint state-ment said that India's interna-tional messaging market (mes-sages originating outside Indiaand \minating in India) is esti-mated to be Rs 3,500 croreannually.

n NEW DELHI

MedPlus Health Services Ltd, apharmacy retail chain, onTuesday fixed a price band of Rs780-796 a share for its Rs 1,398crore initial share sale, which willopen for public subscription onDecember 13. The three-day ini-tial public offering (IPO) willclose on December 15. The bid-ding for anchor investors willopen on December 10. The ini-tial share-sale comprises freshissuance of equity shares worth600 crore and an offer for sale(OFS) of up to equity sharesaggregating up to Rs 798.30crore by promoter and existingshareholders.

MedPlus HealthIPO to open onDec 13 at Rs780-796/share

n MUMBAI

The rupee erased most of its ini-tial gains but managed to settlemarginally 4 paise higher at 75.41(provisional) against the US dol-lar on Tuesday as heavy buying indomestic equities supported thelocal unit. Analysts said thatuncertainty around the new coro-navirus variant Omicron and for-eign capital outflows continued tocheck rupee's rise. At the inter-bank forex market, the local unitopened strong at 75.31 against thegreenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 75.26 and a low of75.49 during the day's trade.

Rupee rises 4paise to end at75.41 against $

n NEW DELHI

Automaker Citroen Indiaon Tuesday said it willincrease price of its premiumSUV C5 Aircross by up to 3per cent from January nextyear to offset the impact ofrising input costs.

The effective priceincrease will be up to 3 percent on the existing ex-showroom prices of the Feeland Shine variants of themodel, the automaker said ina statement.

A continued rise in thecost of commodities andocean freight costs hasnecessitated this priceincrease of the vehicle, itadded. The price of C5Aircross currently starts atRs 31.3 lakh (ex-showroomDelhi).

Some carmakers havealready announced a hike invehicle prices from nextmonth such as MarutiSuzuki and luxury automak-ers Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

Tanla to providesecure solutions

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WednesdayDecember 8, 2021

Romance is Shaheer Shah’s go-to genre for every mood

K RAMYA SREE

ctor-model Shaheer Sheikh, whorose to fame after playing Arjunain Mahabharat, is known for play-ing intriguing characters on thesmall screen. His professional andpersonal life is the most talked

about in the telly town. The actor recentlywelcomed his first child with his wifeRuchikaa. Photographs he shares on socialmedia along with his wife gives one the realcouple goals vibes, making it seem likeShaheer is leading the most romantic life ofall.

Now, who better than Shaheer Shah tobecome the face of the latest romance cam-paign?

Tata Sky Romance is a one-of-a-kind ser-vice that will offer a variety of romantic con-tent across Hollywood, Bollywood, andTelevision, curated for the good old-fashionedromantics. Small screen divas Shaheer Sheikhalong with Sana Makbul have been roped in asthe faces of the campaign that highlights aquirky way to test one’s romance quotient.

Shaheer, who bagged this opportunity, ison cloud 9 as his audiences will enjoy everyshade of him.

“Personally, romance is my go-to genre forevery mood in life, and to have a platformthat curates the hits, classics, and cults of thegenre is a gift, I believe everyone will love tohave. The gamut includes evergreenHollywood movies as well as some popularUrdu shows that are known for theirromance,” shares an excited Shaheer, adding,“Larger-than-life romantic dramas andmovies have always been close to my heart.This service will allow audiences to get accessto more international content on their TVscreens.”

For Shaheer, 50 First Dates, The Notebook,and Descendants of The Sun are his top threefavourite romantic films.

Having spoken much about the actor’sfavourite genre — romance — wonderingabout the actor’s best on-screen romantic lifethat has captured a lot of hearts? Let him

answer this for you in detail: “While I haveplayed various characters and been associatedwith various projects, people still remember

me as Anant from Navya and I still receiveoverwhelming love and appreciation for that.I am extremely happy that my audiences

enjoy every shade of me but they prefer theromantic characters somehow, therefore Ithought it would be great to get them a ser-vice that allows them to enjoy romantic con-tent from across the West in the language weprefer.”

Sharing his experience shooting for thisproject, the Pavitra Rishta actor shares, “It wasgreat fun to shoot for the campaign film. Sanaand I really had a good time shooting for thecampaign and I am looking forward to seeingwhat the audience feels about this association.”

Meanwhile, Shaheer has just finishedshooting for Pavitra Rishta and Kuch RangPyaar Ke. He is planning not to take up any-thing long-term right now he says his fanswill see him in a few music videos and a shortfilm very soon.

-SHIKHA DUGGAL

here are so many die-hard fans ofcinema; they always have an eyeon who’s the next fresh talent tostep into the industry. Be it anactor, actress or a director. Yes,we are talking about the recog-

nized debuts of 2021 that carried an affec-tive intensity on the film audiences andwere continuously in news. Pointing out toa new future, any new debut always adds onmore to the cinema’s mettle. However, eachto its own, every debutante carries theirown distinct style too and that’s what setsthem apart from one another. Let’s look atsome of the most versatile, latest andpromising debutants of 2021

Impressive debuts of 2021

KRITHI SHETTY

Krithi Shetty made a sensa-tional debut in Uppena,

and the film broughther many covetedoffers. She currentlyis acting in nearlyhalf a dozenmovies as pernews reports.The makers ofher next release

on block titledBangarraju have

released the first lookof Krithi Shetty from the

film too and it has garneredso much of positive response. At the

moment, the actress is hoping to strikeback with another bang!

SANDHYA RAJU

Hyderabad-basedKuchipudi dancerSandhya Raju, madeher feature filmdebut with Natyamthat made her a sen-sation down-south.In the NamahShivaya song, onecan see thatSandhya’s effortshave paid off watch-ing Kamal’s transfor-mation as aKuchipudi dancer.Sandhya Raju deserved an appreciation forventuring into a territory not many woulddare to. Sandhya Raju had taken the man-tle to expand her repertoire to Telugu cine-ma basically.

KETIKA SHARMA

Before actually takinga shot at films, KetikaSharma enjoyed herprofessional career asa swimmer at state-level championships.Then her debut movieRomantic had man-aged to get a fairamount of buzz withthe teaser and trailer.With crime and fortune that entails theactions of the lead, the climax of themovie left Ketika as the rememberedone. And, now her upcoming filmLakshya’s trailer left a remarkableimpression among viewers too.

VIJAY KANAKAMEDALA

Young director VijayKanakamedala madehis Tollywood debutthis year with a super-hit crime courtroomdrama Naandhi. Vijay,did not choose foot-steps of entertainersfor his directorialdebut but made a seri-ous film and impressedboth moviegoers andcritics alike. And now,if reports are to be believed, VijayKanakamedala is in plans to make hissecond film with Akkineni NagaChaitanya.

LAKSHMI SOWJANYA

Lakshmi Sowjanya made her directori-al debut with family entertainerVarudu Kavalenu, starring NagaShaurya and RituVarma in the leadroles bankrolled bySitharaEntertainments. It wasso much of a hypedaffair because thedirector ensured pro-motions to next level.The lead pair of thefilm were seen attend-ing real weddings asper the theme of themovie goes, some-thing that has nevertaken placed before in telugu cinema.Now she has penned a script for hernext that revolves around the conceptof identity and the Aadhar card.

VAISHNAV TEJ

Vaishnav’s debut filmin Telugu, Uppenamade fans megahappy. Now, Vaishnav

is gearing up for hisupcoming project

with directorKrish. VaishnavTej’s breathtak-ing first look for

Kondapolam filmalso created a huge

buzz on social media, however the filmrecieved mixed response. PanjaVaishnav Tej sported a rather intenseexpression that was remembered by thefans! But his former romantic lovestory featuring Krithi Shetty as thefemale lead, became a blockbuster giv-ing a solid debut.

SREELEELA

Sreeleela made herTollywood debutwith K RaghavendraRao’s Pelli SandaD,starring popularactor SrikanthMeka’s son RoshanMeka. Although the filmbombed at the boxoffice, failing to sellas many tickets as itwas expected to, Sreeleela with her per-formance grabbed much attention. Theactress has apparently received manyoffers but she at present she took abreak from acting to concentrate onher medicine examinations.

PRAVEEN KANDREGULAPraveen made his directorialdebut Kandregula with CinemaBandi, it took a massive roll onNetflix. Every documentarylover had Cinema Bandi rollingon their lips. Praveen pitchedthe story to filmmaker duo Rajand DK at the NFDC FilmBazaar in 2018. He concedesthat the documentarySupermen of Malegaon wasone of the inspirations! Praveenweaved a wonderful commen-tary about why Veerababuwanted to make a feature filmin the first place and how hediscovers that it’s easier saidthan done.

SUJANA RAO

The new-comer’sGamanam explores howcharacters in story copewith distress following tor-rential downpour. She hassaid that she wanted toexplore how floodingaffects people in differentage groups, from an infantto an elderly person, torepresent the circle of life.It is reported thatGamanam is a compilationthat recounts three stories!

s 2021 draws to a close, the multi-talentedactor Abhishek Singh is all set to wowmusic lovers once again, as he joins forceswith none other than the musical sensationBadshah along with the ravishing SeeratKapoor. Rightfully termed as the dance

anthem of 2021 — Slow Slow shows the tall, dark andhandsome actor in a suave avatar. Abhishek Singh hasdelighted us with his charismatic presence earlier instellar music videos and the recent one tops the charton every aspect. It’s great to witness the IAS officerclimbing the ladder of success, moving quickly fromone achievement to the next. Abhishek surely hasbecome the most sought-after stars to feature in toprated music videos in the country!

An excited Abhishek shares with The Pioneer, “It’swonderful to be a part of such an energetic and melo-dious song — Slow Slow. This is the third music videothat I have shot for and I am loving the entire experi-ence! Badshah is a dear friend and collaborating withhim is truly an honor. We are absolutely confident thatthe foot-tapping song and its tasteful video will beloved by music lovers all over the world.”

Talking about the song alongside Badshah andAbhishek Singh, Tollywood diva Seerat Kapoor shares,“Something else about a team that clicks together likea house on fire! Badshah is born natural and veryenthusiastically makes room for everyone on set tofeel equally involved, invites creative inputs and aboveall ensures that the team enjoys the shooting process.Collaborating with him has truly been memorable.”

Sharing fun moments on screen, Seerat Kapoor fur-ther adds, “Can’t think of one! With badshah on set,we don’t know which next min the entire team wouldbreak into a laughter.”

Slow Slow has been creating waves since themoment it was launched. The magical voice ofBadshah coupled with the brilliant performance byAbhishek Singh makes this a complete chartbuster!

Larger-than-life romanticdramas and movies havealways been close to myheart. This service willallow audiences to getaccess to moreinternational content ontheir TV screens.

— SHAHEER SHEIK

Slow Slow is a perfectmix of all ingredients

oxic relationships can be different foreveryone. They don’t always tart out toxic,so it can be tricky to identify if you are inan unhealthy relationship. Even if you haveidentified it, it can be really hard to leavethe partner for many different reasons.

While everyone’s recovery is different, here are sometips on how to heal after a toxic relationship.

” Practice good self-care and take some extratime out for yourself and your emotions. Themore you know yourself and practice radicalself-acceptance — including the dark emotionsthat show up, the more love you will have foryourself.” Be socially active with supportive friends andfamily members” Stop blaming yourself for the relationship notworking out. Stop living in guilt.” Learn to forgive yourself. Be kind to yourselfand respect yourself. Learn to let go and freeyourself from your past.” Don’t be in a rush to jump into another rela-tionship. Take your time. The loneliness youmay be feeling is better than being in anothertoxic relationship. Besides, you may need towork on yourself and deal with the traumabefore starting a fresh relationship.” Healing from heartbreak takes time and astrong, supportive community to help youshed all those layers of shame, self-doubt andfeelings of perhaps not being good enough.

((TTHHEE AAUUTTHHOORR,, DDRR VVIIHHAANN SSAANNYYAALL,, IISS AA PPSSYYCCHHOOTTHHEERRAAPPIISSTT))

Dealing with the aftermath

of a toxic relationship?Here are some tips

A

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Hyderabad Wednesday December 8, 2021

PAR

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what’s brewing?

l Ishaan Varma and Sanya Khan l Prashanth Reddy, Mohammed Abdul Rahim, Jaffer Hussain Meraj and Arekapudi Gandhi

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l Anee Master and Shashi Nahata l Hari Kirthana and Sai Nitya

SHOPPING TIME

Tollywood dance choreographer andformer Big Boss contestant AneeMaster, along with Shashi Nahata,

Alok Nahata and Anath Nahata,inaugurated Meena Bazaar at AkritiExhibition held at HITEX ExhibitionCentre in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

LOCKED FOR EVER

It was an evening filled with joy as Dania Abdul Rahim tied the knot to KhajaFaizan Ahmed, s/o Late Alvia Ahmed, a business man. The happening event

took place in Banjara Hills that saw in attendance many elite personalitiesincluding Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, AK Khan, Professor Kodandaram, among many

others.

l Kodamdaram l Sridhar Babu l AK Khan l Sohail

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

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l Adil Mohammadl Chinna Jeeyar Swamy giving his blessing to the bridegroom

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Vikrant Rona getsrelease date

ega’s beloved villain Kichcha Sudeep’s fantasyaction-adventure thriller — Vikrant Rona —finally got its release date. The film will openin theatres on February 24, 2022, worldwide.Themovie

will be released in3D format in fivelanguages.ActorsAnoop Bhandari,Neeta Ashok,SidduMoolimani,

MadhusudhanRao, among others

will be seen in significantroles. JacquelineFernandez has done a spe-

cial number for the movie.However, the female lead of

the film is yet to be revealed.Speculations are rife thatMilana Nagaraj is the heroineof the movie, which is yet tobe confirmed by the team. Amajor portion of the shoot-ing has happened at

Annapoorna Studios inHyderabad. The moviehas already created highexpectations with its promos and posters will be one of thebiggest releases in Sandalwood in the next year.

ll eyes are onAvantika Mishra, as theactress bags promisingprojects in bothKollywood and

Tollywood. From a successful model to ashining actress, the journey of Avantika

Mishra is nothing but the product of talentand hard work, coupled with graceful looks. The

Delhi native, who studied in Bengaluru, repre-sented many popular brands before making her

cinema debut with Neelakanta’s Maaya. She thenplayed the lead in Meeku Meere Maaku Meme

alongside Tarun Shetty. After films like Vyshakam,Meeku Maathrame Cheptha, and Bheeshma in

Telugu, she is making her Tamil debut with EnnaSolla Pogirai being directed by debutante

Hariharan for Trident Arts production co-starringAshwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan. She is also partof Nenjamellam Kadhal and D Block. These apart,the actress is set to sign on the dotted line for a fewmore promising projects in both Tollywood andKollywood. In D Block, she is acting alongsideArulnidhi. Directed by Vijay Kumar Rajendran, it istipped to be a college-based drama. An elatedAvantika said, “I am so happy to bag interestingprojects which have offered me good roles. All thatI look for is challenging characters that provideme scope to perform. I am so happy to receivethe love of the Telugu audience and amthankful to them. I am sure I will receive thesame from the Tamil audience too, as TamilNadu is always known for recognising tal-ent. I will continue to act in both Tamil

and Telugu movies.” Ask her whether she has faced any lan-

guage barrier while acting in southIndian languages, the actress said,

“No, not at all. Art has no lan-guage. As an artist, it is my

duty to make the audiencehappy no matter what the

language is.”

11

Hyderabad Wednesday December 8, 2021 tollywood

K RAMYA SREE

ollywood’s heartthrob ShriyaSaran is back to entertain herfans on big screens with anintriguing project —Gamanam — where she playsKamala, yet another hard-hit-

ting character. Shriya, who is the moth-er of a baby girl now, wants to do filmsthat make her daughter proud.

Her approach to choosing any char-acter has changed after motherhood,says the Manam actress.

Shriya who is carrying the samegrace and courage she did 20 years ago,explaining in detail the kind of projectsshe wants to do, says, “My attitudetowards movies has changed now. Iwant my daughter and my family to feelproud when they watch my movies. Mysoul should feel happy with the kind ofcharacters I play. I don’t want mydaughter to feel I do the same kind ofroles.”

The actress who is very happy to playKamala in Gamanam lost her belovedfriend while shooting for the film, yetshe remained strong and continued toshoot. She says she feels very proud ofher work.

“When the story was narrated to me,I had tears rolling down my cheeks.That’s when I decided to do this movie.I am looking forward to doing suchchallenging characters,” asserts Shriya,who is happy that she is able to enter-tain audiences for the last 20 years andwants to continue the same.

The actress who precisely remembersshooting for her first film says shecould come this far only because of herfans. Shriya, who wants to do moviesuntil she breathes her last, further tells,“During Covid, many people experi-enced many kinds of difficulties. Manywere left without work. Now the filmindustry is recovering. I want to keepacting and make movies till my lastbreath. ANR garu acted even during hislast days for Manam. I want to be suchan actor who continues to act even dur-ing their last days.”

The actress in her 20-year-longcareer has worked with many femaledirectors. When asked the differencebetween working with female directorsand their male counterparts, sheexplains, “Until now, I have workedwith many female directors. I did amovie called Midnight Stories, directedby a woman. This is the first time inTelugu that I working with a female

director. Working with them can bevery comforting. We can open upabout personal issues too with.”

The actress finds all threestories in Gamanam to bevery inspiring. “The storyrevolves around how peo-ple get trapped in a naturaldisaster escape. This is nota woman-oriented movie,”she says.

Shriya apparentlylearned sewing clothes tomake her characterKamala look even morenatural in the film.

Shriya had her ownmantra of dealing withpregnancy and post-preg-nancy issues. Despite beingvery active on social media,none figured out that shewas pregnant. “Manychanges took place sincepregnancy. I did workoutsand focused on fitness andpracticed Kathak. My momtaught me yoga from a youngage. Doing yoga improved myhealth and fitness,” says theactress who feels more respon-sible after giving birth to a child.

annada cinema lovers onsocial media are celebratingafter their favourite popularactress Pooja Hegde, whomade it big in the Telugu andTamil film industries. stated

that she is proud of her roots.Pooja Hegde was in Bengaluru

to launch an awards eventwhen she said that sheloved the fact that shehailed from Karnatakaand the coastal town ofMangaluru in DakshinaKannada district. Poojamaintained that shegrew up in Mumbai,yet she always insisted

that she was from Karnataka, born andbrought up in Mumbai. She said she wasvery happy to have come from a state thathas produced great talent for Indian cine-ma.

Pooja, who made her acting debut in2016 in the Hrithik Roshan-starrerMohenjo Daro, added that wheneverKarnataka is mentioned, people ask her ifthere is something in the water that pro-duces so many beautiful actresses andgood-looking women.

A much sought-after actress inTollywood today, Pooja said she was readyto act in a Kannada movie if she’sapproached with a good script. That wasmusic to the ears of her fans in her originalhome state.

ctor Prabhas on Tuesday introduced adonation of Rs 1 crore to the AndhraPradesh Chief Minister’s Relief Fundto assist flood victims within the state.Recently, heavy rains lashed Tirupatiand its surrounding areas, leaving

many distressed.Moved by the plight of the flood victims, earli-

er, stars resembling Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, JrNTR and Ram Charan had contributed Rs 25lakh every to the Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund.

During the devastating rains in Hyderabadand coronavirus-induced lockdowns in 2020, theTelugu movie fraternity had come ahead to assistthe needy. While Prabhas donated Rs 4.5 crore,different celebrities too contributed considerably.

On the work entrance, Prabhas has romanticdrama Radhe Shyam set to launch on January 14.The actor lately wrapped up the filming ofAdipurush. He is presently busy taking picturesfor Project Okay and Salaar.

Prabhasdonates

Rs 1 cr to AP

‘I want to act infilms until I die’

tating that ‘mother' and ‘motherland' werenot different from one another, actorParthiban has made an emotional appealto the public, asking them to donategenerously to the Armed Forces on FlagDay on Tuesday. In a video clip that the

actor shared on his timeline on social media,the actor-director says, “December 7 is Flag

Day. Even when someone, who is relativelyunknown to you, does you some good, weusually ask them, ‘How are you bro?' and welook to return the favour in some small way orthe other.” Pointing out that “our brothers whoprotect our motherland which is like our mother,must be healthy and prosperous,” the actorurged people to donate generously on Flag Day,

which he said one could also call PhilanthropyDay. “How we live as beautiful humans deepinside our hearts is determined by the mannerin which we share our wealth. A day that bringsout the godliness in us is this Flag Day.Therefore, to help protect the interests of ourbrothers, let us all willingly donate andparticipate in this Flag Day,” he said.

Pooja Hegde saysshe is a proud

Karnataka girl

Parthiban wants public to contribute to armed forces

T

k

e

a

a

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AvantikaMishra

grabs allattention

Chance for youngsters to impress ahead of IPL mega auction

sports 12HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 8, 2021

AP n SYDNEY

Novak Djokovic has beennamed in the Serbian

team for January’s ATP Cup,an indication that Djokoviccould play in the AustralianOpen a week later despitecontroversy over his vaccina-tion status.

Organizers on Tuesdaysaid 18 of the world’s top 20players will take part in the16-country tournament inSydney from Jan. 1-9, withDjokovic leading top-seededSerbia. Djokovic hadn’t pub-licly committed to defendinghis Australian Open title atMelbourne Park or revealed

his vaccination status, with amandate that he needs to bedouble-vaccinated to play.

While the ATP Cupdoesn’t have the same entrycriteria, his inclusion for theATP Cup means he nowappears likely to chase a 10thtitle and 21st Grand Slam sin-gles title at Melbourne Park,which would break a tie formajor singles wins withRoger Federer and RafaelNadal.

To play without beingvaccinated in Sydney, theNew South Wales state gov-ernment would have to applyfor an exemption forDjokovic and the 34-year-oldwould have to undergo 14days of quarantine uponarrival.

PTI n NEW DELHI

This year’s I-League seasonwill kick off on December

26 in Kolkata with a matchbetween TRAU FC of Manipurand All India FootballFederation’s developmental sideIndian Arrows.

The matches will beplayed across three venues --Mohun Bagan Ground inKolkata, Kalyani Stadium andNaihati Stadium.

With three new entrants -- Sreenidi Deccan FC ofAndhra Pradesh, RajasthanUnited FC and Kenkre FC ofKolhapur -- this season, thenumber of teams has increasedto 13.

All of them, along with thereferees, officials and volun-teers, will be housed inside bio-

secured bubbles in four differ-ent hotels across Kolkata.

“The AIFF has been a pio-neer in Indian sporting ecosys-tem in hosting sporting eventsfrom inside bio-bubbles, andwe are happy to continue pro-viding a safe heaven for play-ers, referees, and everyone else

involved in running the league,”said AIFF Leagues CEOSunando Dhar in a release.

“We need to thank all ourpartners, because the logisticaland financial effort to house 13teams in a bio-bubble for anentire season would not havebeen possible without their

help.”Rajasthan United FC and

Kenkre FC have made theirway to the I-League by virtueof finishing first and second inthe Qualifiers.

As per the tournament for-mat, all the teams will playagainst each other once in around-robin format in Phase 1,before being split into twogroups in Phase 2 of the league.The top seven teams will makeup Group A and the bottom sixwill make up Group B.

Once the divisions aremade after the end of Phase I,the teams of each group willplay against each another in asingle leg round-robin format.While the teams in Group Awill play to determine thechampions, those in Group Bwill be in a relegation battle.

MUMBAI: Ruturaj Gaikwad will lead a20-member Maharashtra team in theVizay Hazare Trophy one-day crickettournament beginning on Wednesday.

Rahul Tripathi was namedGaikwad’s deputy by the selection com-mittee.

Maharashtra have been clubbedwith Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Kerala, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh inElite Group D to be played in Rajkot.They play their first match againstMadhya Pradesh on Wednesday.

The Squad:Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt.), Rahul

Tripathi (vice-capt.), Yash Nahar,Naushad Shaikh, Azim Kazi, AnkeetBawane, Shamshuzama Kazi, MukeshChoudhary, Pradeep Dadhe, ManojIngale, Ashay Palkar, DivyangHinganekar, Jagdish Zope, SwapnilFulpagar, Avdhoot Dandekar, TaranjitSingh Dhillon, Siddhesh Veer, YashKshirsagar, Pavan Shah, DhanrajPardeshi. PTI

AP n DHAKA

Offspinner Sajid Khan claimed a career-best 6-35 as Pakistan reduced

Bangladesh to 76-7 and produced a glim-mer of hope of forcing a result in the sec-ond and final test on Tuesday.

After day three was washed out,Pakistan resumed the fourth day from 188-2 and declared at 300-4 after lunch. Thenspinners Sajid and Nauman Ali got to workuntil stumps was called an hour earlybecause of bad light. Bangladesh trailed by224 runs and still needed 25 runs to avoidthe follow-on at the end of a dramatic day.

“After the declaration, our target was togive us the best chance to win the game andattack relentlessly and that’s what we did,”Sajid said.

“Fortunately, there was turn and bounceaplenty. We two spinners bowled in partner-

ship. We will try to get the three wicketstomorrow and force them to bat again andwin the game.” Bangladesh’s last hope to

avoid the follow-on was Shakib Al Hasan on23. Taijul Islam was with him, the tailenderyet to score after facing 10 balls.

With the light insufficient to allow anymore than just the one over from fast bowlerShaheen Shah Afridi, Sajid and Naumanbowled relentlessly in a desperate bid to winthe rain-hit game.

Rain and bad light have eaten up themajority of the game and just 63.2 overs werepossible in the last three days.

Nauman was slightly luckless, ending upwithout a wicket, but he gave the control thatallowed Sajid to rip through the Bangladeshlineup.

Sajid dismissed all but skipper MominulHaque, who was run out for 1 by a directhit from Hasan Ali at point.

The Bangladesh batsmen, however,also invited the trouble by playing rash shotsas if it was a Twenty20 game.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Out of favour India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has

decided to skip Vijay HazareTrophy (National One Dayers)starting across the country fromWednesday as he is undergoingan extensive rehabilitation pro-gramme in order to regain hisbowling fitness.

“The Baroda CricketAssociation (BCA) had sent ane-mail to Hardik enquiringabout his availability for the VijayHazare Trophy. He has rarelyplayed for Baroda in last threeyears. However he gave a one-line reply that he is currentlydoing rehab in Mumbai,” asenior official privy to develop-ments in BCA told PTI onconditions of anonymity.

Asked what is theinjury he iscarrying atthe moment,the official said: “Eventhe BCA doesn’t know. Itis understood that he istrying to do somestrength and condi-tioning module forhis back which isno longer in best ofshape post surgeryin 2019,” the source

revealed. The official informed that

Hardik’s elder brother Krunalhad joined Baroda’s pre-Hazarecamp for a week after he wasinstructed by the state board thatattending the camp is mandato-ry for being part of the finalsquad.

“BCA told Krunal that hecan’t just land up during tourna-ments and he has to be a part ofthe camp. Then he came andtrained with the team for aweek,” the source said.

If Hardik doesn’t play thedomestic tourna-ments, he willnot be consid-ered for a come-

back in the Indianside for the whiteball tourna-

ments. “Thec u r r e n tn a t i o n a ls e l e c t i o n

c o m m i t t e ehas told all theplayers that allthose who are

not in the India squadshould go back andplay domestic crick-et — Hazare andRanji Trophy,” the

source added.

PTI n MUMBAI

Indian fringe players would getone last chance to impress

ahead of the IPL Mega Auction in theVijay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket

tournament beginning onWednesday. The auction is slat-

ed for January and a standout performance in the

50-over event couldlead to a hefty pay

p a c k a g ewith anI P Lf r a n -

chise.The likes of Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar,

Deepak Chahar, who were not retained bytheir respective franchises in the IPL, wouldlook to make it count when they representtheir respective states in the domestic one-dayers.

The IPL has seen a number of youngstersmaking it big overnight as it also has serveda big platform to represent the country andit would be no different this time around.

In the opening day’s action, defendingchampions Mumbai will take on TamilNadu who would be riding high on the con-fidence of winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophyrecently. All-rounder Shams Mulani will lead

Mumbai in their Elite Group B campaign inTrivandrum. Mulani had also captained theteam when they had toured Oman and inabsence of senior players, who are onnational duty. The team will have formida-ble left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswalalong with Arman Jaffer, crisis man SiddheshLad and all-rounder Shivam Dube to bankupon, while the bowling attack will be led byexperienced Dhawal Kulkarni.

The Tamil Nadu side would be bolsteredby the inclusion of Dinesh Karthik andWashington Sundar as they would look tomake amend of their show last seasonwhen they failed to make the last-eight.

Bengal will be boosted by the inclusion

of senior batsman Anustup Majumdar whowill give stability to their side as they opentheir campaign against Baroda who cappeda poor show in the Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy winning just one match out of five.

Sudip Chatterjee-led Bengal impressedin patches before bowing to Karnataka in thequarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy and they would look to go the dis-tance in the fifty-over format.

In Maharashtra, all eyes would be onRuturaj Gaikwad who was retained by hisfranchise Chennai Super Kings after a stupendous show as an opener thatsaw the MS Dhoni-led side clinch theirfourth IPL title.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former India off-spinnerHarbhajan Singh will be seen

in a different avatar during nextyear’s Indian Premier League asa key member of the supportstaff in one of the high-profilefranchises. The 41-year-oldHarbhajan, who featured in a fewmatches during the first phase oflast IPL for Kolkata KnightRiders, didn’t play a game in theUAE leg of the league.Harbhajan is expected to official-ly announce his retirement fromcompetitive cricket some timenext week and after that he willdecide on one the offers he has

got to be a part of the supportstaff of at least a couple of fran-chises.

“The role could be that of aconsultant, mentor or part of theadvisory group but the franchisewith which he is talking are keento use his vast experience. He willtake active part in also helpingthe franchise decide on their auc-tion picks,” an IPL source privyto the development told PTI onconditions of anonymity.

Harbhajan has alwaysshown keen interest in groom-ing players and that was also hisrole in the later years withMumbai Indians where he spenta fruitful decade.

AP n BRISBANE

One particular contestbetween bat and ballcould shape this Ashes

series. Pat Cummins is set tolead the home team, putting afast bowler’s perspective onAustralia’s test cricket captaincyfor the first time since the 1950s.Joe Root is primed to leadEngland with the bat again in aseries he thinks may define hiscareer.

“A bowling captain forAustralia and a batting captainfor England — two captainsgoing toe to toe will be great,”England wicketkeeper JosButtler said on the eve of the firsttest.

Root was already feelingsome pressure before it wasconfirmed that JimmyAnderson, England’s all-timeleading test wicket taker, will

miss the first test startingWednesday at the Gabba.

Buttler said the senior play-ers in the team were ready tostep up to support Root, and thereturn of inspirational all-rounder Ben Stokes would alsohelp.

“We know he’s our bestplayer, we want to support him,help him, share that load,”Buttler said of Root “He’s beenin incredible form. He comeshere determined to continuethat. “It’s a massive series forhim.” Root heads into this seriesas the leading test batsman in theworld, having scored 1,455 runsin 12 tests in 2021 at an averageof 66.

But England has lost nine ofthe 10 tests it has played inAustralia since its drought-breaking series win DownUnder in 2010-11, mostly by bigmargins. Root has been on the

last two tours, and was captainfor the 4-0 loss in 2017-18.

And then there’s England’srecord at the Gabba, where ithasn’t won a test since 1986 andhas recorded only two winssince 1946.

Buttler said England wasonly looking back as far asJanuary, when an injury-deplet-ed India squad clinched a serieswin by ending Australia’sunbeaten record at the Gabbathat dated to 1988.

“I don’t think we have any-thing to lose ... (rather) every-thing to gain,” he said. “Youknow to do that against Australiahere, you have to be at your best.”

England released a 12-mansquad later Tuesday, leavingmost speculation over the for-mation of the bowling attack.Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes,Mark Wood and Ollie Robinsonwere included as specialist pace

bowlers, and left-arm spinnerJack Leach was also in the mix.The starting XI will be con-firmed at the coin toss.

Cummins revealed his start-ing XI well ahead of time, giv-ing himself plenty of time toadjust to his new job. That nowincludes attending the pre-match news conferences andgoing out for the coin tossinstead of marking out his run-up to prepare to bowl.

The 28-year-old Cumminsmade his test debut as a teenag-er in 2011 and was elevated tothe captaincy when Tim Painequit last month after mediareports he’d been investigatedfour years earlier by cricketadministrators for sending anexplicit text to a work colleague.

He said he plans to relyheavily on his experienceddeputy Steve Smith, who wasreplaced as Australia’s test cap-

tain by Paine in 2018 after theinfamous Sandpapergate scan-dal in South Africa.

He served a suspensionfrom leadership positions andwas the leading batter whenAustralia retained the Ashes inEngland in 2019.

“Smithy and I have beenreally good mates for a longtime. When I was 18, I’d sleep onhis couch on occasions,”Cummins said. “He’s a legend ofthe game. Of course I’ll be lean-ing on him for ideas at times.

“There’ll be times when Ineed a rest — I’ll have no prob-lem handing over to him.”

Alex Carey was given thewicketkeeper gloves to replacePaine and Travis Head wasretained to bat at No. 5.

The Australians haven’tplayed a test since the 2-1 seriesloss to India in January, whileEngland has played in Sri Lanka

and India and hosted NewZealand and India in series.

But the wet weather andquarantine requirements meansneither team is going into theseries with a lot of red ball crick-et form.

The bulk of the Australianteam was involved in theTwenty20 World Cup victory inthe United Arab Emirates lastmonth, where coach JustinLanger gave the playing groupmore control over the prepara-tions.

It’s something Cumminswants to carry into the testarena.

“The environment we cre-ated at the World Cup is a blue-print,” he said. “The relaxedenvironment, empoweringeveryone to do it their own way.Tailor the preparation. They’regreat lessons we learnt the WorldCup that worked.”

Ashes could revolve around contest between Cummins, Root

ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA TEST ENCOUNTERS

- It will be 181st Test match between the two teams in Australia and 352nd overall. Australia have won 95, lost 57 anddraw 28 in 180 previous Test matches played against England at home. Overall, Australia have won 146, lost 110 anddraw 95 in 341 Test matches played against England

- Australia have won 33, England 32 in 71 Ashes series played between the two teams. The remaining six series endedin a draw. The last series played in England in 2019, were drawn, both teams have won two matches each while onematch ended in a draw

Venue M Eng won Aus won Draw

In England 171 53 51 67

In Australia 180 57 95 28

Total 351 110 146 95

At Gabba 21 4 12 5

HIGHEST INNINGS TOTALS

England in England: 903-7dec in 335.2 overs at The Oval 1938

England in Australia: 644 in 177.5 overs at Sydney 2010-11

Australia in England: 729-6 dec in 232 overs at Lord’s 1930

Australia in Australia: 662- 9 dec in 179.3 overs at Perth 2017-18

LOWEST INNINGS TOTALS

England in England: 52 in 42.1 overs at The Oval 1948

England in Australia: 45 in 35.3 (4-ball) voers at Sydney 1886-87

Australia in England: 36 in 23 overs at Birmingham 1902

Australia in Australia: 42 in 37.3 (4-ball) overs at Sydney 1887-88

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL SCORES

England in England: 364 Len Hutton at The Oval 1938

England in Australia: 287 Tip Foster at Sydney 1902-03

Australia in England: 334 Don Bradman at Leeds 1934

Australia in Australia: 307 Robert Cowper at Melbourne 1965-66

BEST BOWLING IN AN INNINGS

England in England: 10-53 Jim Laker at Manchester 1956

England in Australia: 8-35 George Lohmann at Sydney 1886-87

Australia in England: 8-31 Frank Laver at Manchester 1909

Australia in Australia: 9-121 Arthur Mailey at Melbourne 1920-21

BEST BOWLING IN A MATCH

England in England: 19-90 Jim Laker at Manchester 1956

England in Australia: 15-124 Wilfred Rhodes at Melbourne1903-04

Australia in England: 16-137 Bob Massie at Lord’s 1972

Australia in Australia: 13-77 Monty Noble at Melbourne 1901-02

LAST FIVE ASHES SERIES

Season Venue Winner Result

2013 England England 3-0 (5)

2013-14 Ausralia Australia 5-0 (5)

2014 England England 3-2 (5)

2017-18 Australia Australia 4-0 (5)

2019 England Drawn 2-2 (5)

FAISEL FEATURES

Organisers say Novak Djokovicset to play in ATP Cup

Ruturaj to lead Mahain Vizay Hazare

I-League to start on Dec 26, to be played

in four venues in and around Kolkata

Hardik undergoing rehab in Mumbai, decidesto skip Hazare Trophy

Bangladesh trying to avoid follow-on with one day left Harbhajan set to join support staff of

major IPL franchise for next season