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A s the daily Covid-19 infec- tions crossed a staggering 25,000 mark in Maharashtra for the second consecutive day on Friday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that re-imposition was an option before his Government to check the rapid increase in the number of cases in the State in the recent days, but hastened to add that he would not impose lockdown immediate- ly. On a day when the State imposed a fresh 50 per cent restriction on attendance in private offices across the State, Uddhav said: “The Covid-19 threat is looming large in the State. We reached a peak in terms of Covid-19 cases in September last year. But, now we have crossed those figures. This is a serious cause for con- cern. Under the circumstances, lockdown is an option for us. But we will not exercise this option immediately”. “It is a good thing that people have started wearing masks. But, I expect full cooperation from the people. If we are to do without lockdown, then the people will have to exercise self-discipline and following Covid-19 protocols strictly,” he told mediapersons after a visit to a rural nutrition and rehabilitation centre-cum-vac- cination outlet at Molgi village in the tribal-dominated Nandurbar district in north Maharashtra.“All of a sudden we are witnessing a rapid increase in number of cases. Sometime back, we had dis- covered a new Covid-19 strain that emanated from abroad. But, we had succeeded in arresting spread of new strain. T he Centre and the Delhi Government are at logger- heads over the Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana to provide “doorstep delivery of ration” using subsidised food- grains provided under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) as the former turned down the move saying sub- sidised foodgrains under the NFSA cannot be used for State specific scheme. However, the Centre will have no objection if the Delhi Government comes out with a separate scheme without mix- ing the elements of the NFSA. In a letter to Padmini Singla, Secretary-cum- Commissioner Food and Supplies Department of the Delhi Government, S Jagannathan, Joint Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, said that the use of new nomenclature / scheme name for distribution of NFSA food- grains by the Government of National Territory Delhi (NCTD) is not permissible but this department will have no objection if a separate scheme is made by the State Government without mixing the elements of the NFSA foodgrains. “...therefore requested that the GNCTD may follow the norms and provisions of the NFSA in rightful spirit and manner for the distribution of NFSA food- grains to the eligible benefi- ciaries under the Act”, the let- ter read. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was scheduled to launch the scheme with doorstep delivery of ration to 100 households in Seemapuri area on March 25. The letter further states: “Upon examination of the Delhi Government’s notifica- tion dated February 20, on ‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna’, for door to door delivery of packaged wheat, flour, rice and sugar, it is clar- ified that the subsidised food- grains being allocated by this department of distribution under the NFSA cannot be used for the operationalisation of any State specific/ other scheme under a different name/ nomenclature other than NFSA, as the same is not permissible under the Act. I n a boost to operational pre- paredness of the Armed forces, the Defence Ministry on Friday inked a deal with the public sector unit Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) to acquire 4,960 anti-tank guided missiles at a cost of 1,188 crore for the Indian Army. The missiles, having a range of 1,850 metres, can be fired from the ground as well as vehicle-based launchers and their induction is planned to be completed in three years, the Ministry said. In the last few months, the Ministry finalised a range of procurement projects for the three forces to enhance their overall combat capabilities. The acquisition wing of the Ministry of Defence signed a contract with defence public sector undertaking Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for the supply of 4,960 MILAN-2T anti-tank guided missiles to Indian Army at a cost of 1,188 crore, it said. The missiles are being produced by BDL under license from French defence major MBDA Missile Systems. Officials also said it is a repeat order of contract which was signed with the BDL in March, 2016. The deal with fur- ther enhance the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. This project is a big oppor- tunity for the defence industry to showcase its capability and will be a step in the direction of achieving the goal of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in the defence sector. The Ministry last year banned the import of more than 100 items including weapons and ammunition in order to give a fillip to the local industry. Plans are afoot to increase this list in the coming months. A ir travel will now become a little expensive as the government has decided to increase the lower limit on air- fares by five per cent amid ris- ing aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday. The upper limit on airfares will remain as it is for now. Just a month back, the Centre had increased the lower and upper limits on domestic air- fares by 10-30 per cent due to rising ATF prices. While announcing resumption of scheduled domestic flights in May last year, the Aviation Ministry had placed limits on airfares through seven bands classified on the basis of flight duration. The first band consists of flights having less than 40- minute duration and its lower limit has been increased to Rs 2,310 on Friday. The lower limit for the highest band of flights having duration of 180- 210 minutes was further hiked to 7,560. “There has been a contin- uous rise in price of ATF so it has been decided to increase the lower fare band by 5% keeping the upper fare band unchanged,” Puri tweeted. “We may open the sector for 100% operations when daily passen- ger traffic crosses 3.5 lakhs on 3 occasions in a month.”Currently, the airlines are permitted to operate not more than 80 per cent of their per-Covid domestic flights. “Last few days have seen a decline in the number of air passengers largely due to restrictions & imposition of compulsory RT-PCR test by various states. Due to this we have decid- ed to retain the permissible limit to 80% of schedule,” Puri added. T he Centre on Friday urged the Delhi High Court to restrain Facebook-owned WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service which are to take effect from May 15. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology made the statement in its affi- davit filed in response to a peti- tion challenging the new pri- vacy policy of social network- ing platform WhatsApp. The petitioners, Seema Singh, Meghan and Vikram Singh, have contended that the new privacy policy indi- cates the “fissures” in Indian data protection and privacy laws. Under the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps.A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh listed the matter for fur- ther hearing on April 20. The Centre, in its affidavit, said, “It is humbly prayed that in view of the above submis- sions, the Respondent No. 2 (WhatsApp) may be restrained from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of ser- vice dated January 4, 2021 from February 8, 2021 or any subsequent date pending adju- dication by this court.”The affidavit further said that the IT Rules impose a host of obliga- tions on a company in relation to the security of the data col- lected by it in the course of its business.“Notably, the Rules require a body corporate who collects, stores or otherwise deals with data to issue a pri- vacy policy providing for cer- tain safeguards, in addition to imposing various other oblig- ations. The impugned Privacy pol- icy violates the 2011 Rules..,” it said. The Centre said that the Supreme Court has placed a responsibility on the Centre to introduce a regime on data pro- tection and privacy. “The Union has dis- charged this obligation by introducing the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha. Upon enactment, this law will provide a robust regime on data protection which will limit the ability of entities such as Respondent No. 2 issuing privacy policies which do not align with appropriate standards of security and data protection,” the affidavit, filed through advocate Kirtiman Singh, said. It also said that pending the passage of this Bill, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Rules made thereunder form the extant regime on data protection, any privacy policy issued by a ‘body corporate’ such as WhatsApp must comply with the requirements specified in the Act and the accompanying Rules. The high court had on February 3 issued notice to the Centre and WhatsApp and sought their replies on the petition challenging the social networking platform’s new pri- vacy policy. Another petition, filed in January, challenging the new privacy policy of WhatsApp on the ground that it violates users right to privacy under the Constitution is pending before another bench of the high court. The petitioners have sought directions to ministry and WhatsApp to ensure that people using messaging app are given the option to opt out of sharing their personal data with its parent firm Facebook and its other companies. A t 39,726 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, India witnessed the sharpest surge in Covid-19 infections since November last year, taking the total tally to 1,15,14,331. Meanwhile, total 4 crore peo- ple have been vaccinated against corona as on Friday. A single-day spike of 41,810 new infections were recorded on November 28 last year. The country has regis- tered an increase in the cases for the ninth consecutive day. Maharashtra, Kerala, and Punjab are recording the high- est daily cases, while the death toll is at 1,59,370 with 154 more people dying in the last 24 hours. The fatality has reached 1,59,370 in India. The active caseload has mounted to 2,71,282. With the discharge of 20,654 patients in a day, a total of 1,10,83,679 have been dis- charged so far. A total of 10,57,383 tests were done on Thursday. Total 3.9 crore doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for ‘Covishield’ and ‘Covaxin’, said a senior official from the Union Health Ministry earli- er. More than 17.83 lakh doses were administered on a single day on Thursday. States like Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh continue to report a surge in the daily Covid-19 cases, accounting for over 80 per cent of the new infections, he said. The Ministry also said that India’s total active case- load has increased to 2,71,282 and comprises 2.82 per cent of the total infections. A net rise of 18,918 cases have been recorded in the total active caseload in a span of 24 hours. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 25,833 which is 65 per cent of daily cases. It is fol- lowed by Punjab with 2,369 while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases, the official said. A total of 39,726 new daily cases were reported in a span of 24 hours. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday launched Dial 112, an Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), through video confer- ence.Dedicating the system, the Chief Minister said that from now on, people will dial only a single number 112 for all their emergency needs related to police, fire service, health, disaster and any other emer- gency in times of distress. Thanking the State police for this initiative, the Chief Minister said that the single- number service will be very beneficial for all, especially women and elderly persons. He urged them to work for the safety, dignity and welfare of all by providing faster, prompter and immediate response during emergency and distress. The Chief Minister also inaugurated the state-of-the-art State Emergency Response Centre and flagged off the emergency response vehicles fitted with mobile data terminals.The Government of Odisha has allocated Rs 157.12 crore and 2,500 posts for the project. With the introduction of this new response system, the exist- ing emergency numbers like Police 100, Fire 101, and Ambulance 108-102 will be integrated into the unified toll free number 112 in a phased manner. The Chief Minister said the Emergency Response Centre has been digitally connected to 34 District Coordination Centres at district level and suitably located emergency response vehicles. He urged the people to download 112 India Mobile App and register themselves as 112 volunteers to help others in their locality during any dis- tress. Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra and DGP Abhay, among others spoke, while Secretary to CM (5T) VK Pandian moderated the programme. A fter a period of over one month, the daily Covid- 19 positive count crossed the 100-mark with 110 new cases detected on Friday in 22 dis- tricts and the State pool. With this, the State’s total positive caseload surged to 3,38,599. Of the new cases, 64 were from quarantine centres and 46 local contact cases. Cuttack district, which saw a significant rise of 25 new cases on Thursday, continued to report the day’s highest 20 cases. Besides, three cases were reported from the State pool.Currently, the number of active cases stands at 705 while the cumulative samples tested were 87, 36,689. However, 71 patients recov- ered on the day, taking the total recoveries to 3,35,994 in the State. F ood Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain on Friday informed the State Assembly that paddy would be procured from all “registered farmers” in the State by March 31. However, the Minister’s statement failed to pacify the Opposition as BJP members staged a walkout dur- ing speech. Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik (BJP) said nothing concrete came out from Minister’s statement in the light of the promise made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to BJP MLAs at his residence on Thursday. “We have been deceived (by the Chief Minister),” he rued. While speaking in Zero Hour, Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra ques- tioned as to what was outcome of the BJD-BJP bonhomie on Thursday when people wit- nessed a scene of BJD-BJP ‘Bhai Bhai'. Mishra sat on a dharna near Speaker’s podium as he was not given more time to speak on paddy procurement issue. Other Congress MLAs also joined Mishra and sat on dharna.Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro adjourned House multiple times due to ruckus. Minister Swain made his statement after House had witnessed pande- monium over alleged irregular- ities in paddy procurement and mandi issues in last six days. Swain informed that in the current Kharif marketing sea- son, 61.24 lakh metric tonnes of paddy worth Rs 11,441 crore has been procured in state so far, which is 18 per cent higher than that of Kharif season last year. The procurement process would continue till March 31. He said 51.73 lakh tonnes of paddy have been procured dur- ing Kharif season this year so far while a total 53.31 lakh tonnes had been collected during last Kharif season.The Minister said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed to ensure that reg- istered and bonafide farmers do not face problems in selling their produce. Till date, 11.5 lakh farmers have sold their paddy to the Government against 9.3 lakh last year which indicates more par- ticipation of farmers, Swain said. The Minister called upon MLAs to report if they find any genuine farmer deprived of sell- ing his paddy so that necessary steps can be taken to resolve issue. The Government is taking all possible steps to ensure smooth and hassle-free pro- curement of paddy, he added.

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�������������� ������

As the daily Covid-19 infec-tions crossed a staggering

25,000 mark in Maharashtrafor the second consecutive dayon Friday, Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray said thatre-imposition was an optionbefore his Government tocheck the rapid increase in thenumber of cases in the State inthe recent days, but hastenedto add that he would notimpose lockdown immediate-ly.

On a day when the Stateimposed a fresh 50 per centrestriction on attendance inprivate offices across the State,Uddhav said: “The Covid-19threat is looming large in theState. We reached a peak interms of Covid-19 cases inSeptember last year. But, nowwe have crossed those figures.This is a serious cause for con-cern. Under the circumstances,lockdown is an option for us.

But we will not exercise thisoption immediately”. “It is agood thing that people havestarted wearing masks. But, Iexpect full cooperation fromthe people. If we are to dowithout lockdown, then thepeople will have to exercise

self-discipline and followingCovid-19 protocols strictly,”he told mediapersons after avisit to a rural nutrition andrehabilitation centre-cum-vac-cination outlet at Molgi villagein the tribal-dominatedNandurbar district in north

Maharashtra.“All of a suddenwe are witnessing a rapidincrease in number of cases.Sometime back, we had dis-covered a new Covid-19 strainthat emanated from abroad.But, we had succeeded inarresting spread of new strain.

������ ����� ����� �

The Centre and the DelhiGovernment are at logger-

heads over the Mukhya MantriGhar Ghar Ration Yojana toprovide “doorstep delivery ofration” using subsidised food-grains provided under theNational Food Security Act(NFSA) as the former turneddown the move saying sub-sidised foodgrains under theNFSA cannot be used for Statespecific scheme.

However, the Centre willhave no objection if the DelhiGovernment comes out with aseparate scheme without mix-ing the elements of the NFSA.

In a letter to PadminiSingla, Secretary-cum-

Commissioner Food andSupplies Department of theDelhi Government, SJagannathan, Joint Secretary,Department of ConsumerAffairs, said that the use of newnomenclature / scheme namefor distribution of NFSA food-grains by the Government ofNational Territory Delhi(NCTD) is not permissible butthis department will have noobjection if a separate schemeis made by the StateGovernment without mixingthe elements of the NFSAfoodgrains. “...thereforerequested that the GNCTD

may follow the norms andprovisions of the NFSA inrightful spirit and manner forthe distribution of NFSA food-grains to the eligible benefi-ciaries under the Act”, the let-ter read.

Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal was scheduled tolaunch the scheme withdoorstep delivery of ration to100 households in Seemapuriarea on March 25.

The letter further states:“Upon examination of theDelhi Government’s notifica-tion dated February 20, on‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar GharRation Yojna’, for door to doordelivery of packaged wheat,flour, rice and sugar, it is clar-ified that the subsidised food-grains being allocated by thisdepartment of distributionunder the NFSA cannot beused for the operationalisationof any State specific/ otherscheme under a differentname/ nomenclature otherthan NFSA, as the same is notpermissible under the Act.

����� ����� �

In a boost to operational pre-paredness of the Armed

forces, the Defence Ministry onFriday inked a deal with thepublic sector unit BharatDynamics Ltd (BDL) to acquire4,960 anti-tank guided missilesat a cost of �1,188 crore for theIndian Army.

The missiles, having arange of 1,850 metres, can befired from the ground as wellas vehicle-based launchers andtheir induction is planned to becompleted in three years, theMinistry said.

In the last few months, theMinistry finalised a range of

procurement projects for thethree forces to enhance theiroverall combat capabilities.

The acquisition wing of theMinistry of Defence signed acontract with defence publicsector undertaking BharatDynamics Limited (BDL) forthe supply of 4,960 MILAN-2Tanti-tank guided missiles toIndian

Army at a cost of �1,188crore, it said. The missiles arebeing produced by BDL underlicense from French defencemajor MBDA Missile Systems.

Officials also said it is arepeat order of contract whichwas signed with the BDL in

March, 2016. The deal with fur-ther enhance the ‘Make inIndia’ initiative of theGovernment.

This project is a big oppor-tunity for the defence industryto showcase its capability andwill be a step in the directionof achieving the goal of‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in thedefence sector.

The Ministry last yearbanned the import of morethan 100 items includingweapons and ammunition inorder to give a fillip to the localindustry. Plans are afoot toincrease this list in the comingmonths.

��� � ����� �

Air travel will now becomea little expensive as the

government has decided toincrease the lower limit on air-fares by five per cent amid ris-ing aviation turbine fuel (ATF)prices, Civil Aviation MinisterHardeep SinghPuri on Friday.

The upperlimit on airfareswill remain as itis for now. Just amonth back,the Centre hadincreased thelower andupper limits on domestic air-fares by 10-30 per cent due torising ATF prices.

While announcingresumption of scheduleddomestic flights in May lastyear, the Aviation Ministryhad placed limits on airfaresthrough seven bands classifiedon the basis of flight duration.

The first band consists offlights having less than 40-minute duration and its lowerlimit has been increased to Rs

2,310 on Friday. The lowerlimit for the highest band offlights having duration of 180-210 minutes was further hikedto �7,560.

“There has been a contin-uous rise in price of ATF so ithas been decided to increasethe lower fare band by 5%

keeping the upperfare bandunchanged,” Puritweeted. “We mayopen the sector for100% operationswhen daily passen-ger traffic crosses3.5 lakhs on 3occasions in a

month.”Currently, the airlinesare permitted to operate notmore than 80 per cent of theirper-Covid domestic flights.

“Last few days have seen adecline in the number of airpassengers largely due torestrictions & imposition ofcompulsory RT-PCR test byvarious states.

Due to this we have decid-ed to retain the permissiblelimit to 80% of schedule,” Puriadded.

��� � ����� �

The Centre on Friday urgedthe Delhi High Court to

restrain Facebook-ownedWhatsApp from implementingits new privacy policy andterms of service which are totake effect from May 15.

The Ministry of Electronicsand Information Technologymade the statement in its affi-davit filed in response to a peti-tion challenging the new pri-vacy policy of social network-ing platform WhatsApp.

The petitioners, SeemaSingh, Meghan and VikramSingh, have contended thatthe new privacy policy indi-cates the “fissures” in Indiandata protection and privacylaws.

Under the new policy,users can either accept it or exitthe app, but they cannot opt notto share their data with otherFacebook-owned or third partyapps.A bench of Chief JusticeD N Patel and Justice JasmeetSingh listed the matter for fur-ther hearing on April 20.

The Centre, in its affidavit,said, “It is humbly prayed thatin view of the above submis-sions, the Respondent No. 2(WhatsApp) may be restrainedfrom implementing its newprivacy policy and terms of ser-vice dated January 4, 2021from February 8, 2021 or any

subsequent date pending adju-dication by this court.”Theaffidavit further said that the ITRules impose a host of obliga-tions on a company in relationto the security of the data col-lected by it in the course of itsbusiness.“Notably, the Rulesrequire a body corporate whocollects, stores or otherwisedeals with data to issue a pri-vacy policy providing for cer-tain safeguards, in addition toimposing various other oblig-ations.

The impugned Privacy pol-icy violates the 2011 Rules..,” itsaid. The Centre said that theSupreme Court has placed aresponsibility on the Centre tointroduce a regime on data pro-tection and privacy.

“The Union has dis-charged this obligation byintroducing the Personal DataProtection Bill, 2019 in the LokSabha. Upon enactment, thislaw will provide a robustregime on data protection

which will limit the ability ofentities such as Respondent No.2 issuing privacy policies whichdo not align with appropriatestandards of security and dataprotection,” the affidavit, filedthrough advocate KirtimanSingh, said.

It also said that pendingthe passage of this Bill, theInformation Technology Act,2000 and the Rules madethereunder form the extantregime on data protection, anyprivacy policy issued by a‘body corporate’ such asWhatsApp must comply withthe requirements specified inthe Act and the accompanyingRules. The high court had onFebruary 3 issued notice to theCentre and WhatsApp andsought their replies on thepetition challenging the socialnetworking platform’s new pri-vacy policy.

Another petition, filed inJanuary, challenging the newprivacy policy of WhatsApp onthe ground that it violates usersright to privacy under theConstitution is pending beforeanother bench of the highcourt. The petitioners havesought directions to ministryand WhatsApp to ensure thatpeople using messaging app aregiven the option to opt out ofsharing their personal datawith its parent firm Facebookand its other companies.

������������� ����� ��� ������ ��� ��������������������� ��� ������ ��� ������� ���������������������������

����� ����� �

At 39,726 coronavirus casesin the last 24 hours, India

witnessed the sharpest surge inCovid-19 infections sinceNovember last year, takingthe total tally to 1,15,14,331.Meanwhile, total 4 crore peo-ple have been vaccinatedagainst corona as on Friday.

A single-day spike of41,810 new infections wererecorded on November 28 lastyear. The country has regis-tered an increase in the casesfor the ninth consecutive day.Maharashtra, Kerala, andPunjab are recording the high-est daily cases, while the deathtoll is at 1,59,370 with 154more people dying in the last24 hours.

The fatality has reached1,59,370 in India. The activecaseload has mounted to2,71,282.

With the discharge of

20,654 patients in a day, a totalof 1,10,83,679 have been dis-charged so far. A total of10,57,383 tests were done onThursday.

Total 3.9 crore doses ofcorona vaccine have been

administered in the countrysince the drive began onJanuary 16 after approval for‘Covishield’ and ‘Covaxin’, saida senior official from theUnion Health Ministry earli-er. More than 17.83 lakh doses

were administered on a singleday on Thursday. States likeMaharashtra, Punjab,Karnataka, Gujarat andChhattisgarh continue toreport a surge in the dailyCovid-19 cases, accountingfor over 80 per cent of the newinfections, he said.

The Ministry also saidthat India’s total active case-load has increased to 2,71,282and comprises 2.82 per cent ofthe total infections.

A net rise of 18,918 caseshave been recorded in thetotal active caseload in a spanof 24 hours.

Maharashtra continues toreport the highest daily newcases at 25,833 which is 65 percent of daily cases. It is fol-lowed by Punjab with 2,369while Kerala reported 1,899new cases, the official said. Atotal of 39,726 new daily caseswere reported in a span of 24hours.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Friday launched

Dial 112, an EmergencyResponse Support System(ERSS), through video confer-ence.Dedicating the system,the Chief Minister said thatfrom now on, people will dialonly a single number 112 for alltheir emergency needs relatedto police, fire service, health,disaster and any other emer-gency in times of distress.

Thanking the State policefor this initiative, the ChiefMinister said that the single-number service will be verybeneficial for all, especiallywomen and elderly persons.

He urged them to work forthe safety, dignity and welfareof all by providing faster,prompter and immediateresponse during emergencyand distress. The ChiefMinister also inaugurated thestate-of-the-art StateEmergency Response Centreand flagged off the emergency

response vehicles fitted withmobile data terminals.TheGovernment of Odisha hasallocated Rs 157.12 crore and2,500 posts for the project.With the introduction of thisnew response system, the exist-ing emergency numbers likePolice 100, Fire 101, andAmbulance 108-102 will beintegrated into the unified tollfree number 112 in a phasedmanner.

The Chief Minister said theEmergency Response Centrehas been digitally connected to34 District CoordinationCentres at district level andsuitably located emergencyresponse vehicles.

He urged the people todownload 112 India MobileApp and register themselves as112 volunteers to help others intheir locality during any dis-tress. Minister of State forHome Dibya Shankar Mishraand DGP Abhay, among othersspoke, while Secretary to CM(5T) VK Pandian moderatedthe programme.

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After a period of over onemonth, the daily Covid-

19 positive count crossed the100-mark with 110 new casesdetected on Friday in 22 dis-tricts and the State pool. Withthis, the State’s total positivecaseload surged to 3,38,599.

Of the new cases, 64 werefrom quarantine centres and46 local contact cases.Cuttack district, which saw asignificant rise of 25 newcases on Thursday, continuedto report the day’s highest 20cases.

Besides, three cases werereported from the Statepool.Currently, the number ofactive cases stands at 705while the cumulative samplestested were 87, 36,689.However, 71 patients recov-ered on the day, taking thetotal recoveries to 3,35,994 inthe State.

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Food Supplies and ConsumerWelfare Minister Ranendra

Pratap Swain on Fridayinformed the State Assemblythat paddy would be procuredfrom all “registered farmers” inthe State by March 31. However,the Minister’s statement failed topacify the Opposition as BJPmembers staged a walkout dur-ing speech.

Leader of OppositionPradipta Kumar Naik (BJP) saidnothing concrete came out fromMinister’s statement in the lightof the promise made by ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik to BJPMLAs at his residence onThursday. “We have beendeceived (by the ChiefMinister),” he rued.

While speaking in ZeroHour, Congress Legislature PartyLeader Narasingha Mishra ques-tioned as to what was outcomeof the BJD-BJP bonhomie onThursday when people wit-nessed a scene of BJD-BJP ‘BhaiBhai'.

Mishra sat on a dharnanear Speaker’s podium as he wasnot given more time to speak onpaddy procurement issue. OtherCongress MLAs also joinedMishra and sat on

dharna.Speaker Surjya NarayanPatro adjourned House multipletimes due to ruckus. MinisterSwain made his statement afterHouse had witnessed pande-monium over alleged irregular-ities in paddy procurement andmandi issues in last six days.

Swain informed that in thecurrent Kharif marketing sea-son, 61.24 lakh metric tonnes ofpaddy worth Rs 11,441 crorehas been procured in state so far,which is 18 per cent higher thanthat of Kharif season last year.The procurement process wouldcontinue till March 31.

He said 51.73 lakh tonnes ofpaddy have been procured dur-ing Kharif season this year so farwhile a total 53.31 lakh tonneshad been collected during lastKharif season.The Minister saidChief Minister Naveen Patnaikhas directed to ensure that reg-istered and bonafide farmers donot face problems in sellingtheir produce.

Till date, 11.5 lakh farmershave sold their paddy to theGovernment against 9.3 lakh lastyear which indicates more par-ticipation of farmers, Swainsaid. The Minister called uponMLAs to report if they find anygenuine farmer deprived of sell-ing his paddy so that necessarysteps can be taken to resolveissue.

The Government is takingall possible steps to ensuresmooth and hassle-free pro-curement of paddy, he added.

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Vaccine passport is a newconcept which is to give

people a new freedom. Thevaccine passport is nowhererelated to physical passport. Itis a digital certificate againstCovid-19 vaccination. This ismeant to accept the digitisedvaccination record and to avoidquarantine procedure.It is just

like a vaccination proof toshow. As of now, the efficacy ofCovid 19 vaccination has notbeen proved.

So in the long run, thisvaccine passport will act like apsychological stimulant to feelsafe and make others feel safe.Many countries opted this asthe future of travel documentand concept of new normal.

The idea of vaccine pass-port can be traced to conven-tional vaccine certificate. It isnot new to world. While goingto Africa to work as anAssistant Professor, I had beenvaccinated for yellow feveralong with oral polio vaccine.

Yellow fever vaccinationcertificate is valid for 10 yearsand for citizens of India andthe US, it is a mandatory cre-dential to get entry in Africa.But in case of Covid -19, thevaccine certification is totallydifferent as it should not be

confined to a particular conti-nent or to a particular inter-national travel. To address thiswe need a solution. And thesolution is the vaccine pass-port. It can be helpful fordomestic and internationaltravel and can be a supportivedocument to participate ingyms, restaurants and publicevents.

The vaccine passport wasfirst introduced by Israel in theform of a domestic vaccine cer-tification system. The systemhas provided the access to thepeople who are jabbed againstCovid-19.

Further, it has provided anapproval to utilise the hotels,participate in recreation andtravel without any Covid-19restrictions. China, EuropeanUnion and USA are planningto introduce the same domes-tic certification for their citi-zens. Greece, Cyprus and

Hungary have already theirown setups.

The agenda of vaccinepassport is to digitise the vac-cination status across the worldin a common accessible plat-form by incorporating datafrom different countries. Thedata which is going to supportvaccine passport are collectedfrom hospitals, clinics andvaccine providers.

The vaccine passport willbe a panacea for travel, tourismand hospitality industriesincluding travellers. Last year,it is observed that there is asharp decline of 70 per cent ininternational travel.

Since the rules are gettingrelaxed and the Governmentsare approving air travel, theconcept of vaccine passport isgaining momentum. Manualverification of vaccine status oftravellers cannot be managedwhen a large volume of people

start travelling across theworld. There are many similardigital certificates like vaccinepassport available such asCommons Projects, IATA Passand ICC AOK Pass.

As said earlier, these certi-fications are designed with anovel idea of economic recov-ery by helping travel andtourism sector. But there arepossibilities of canvassing, dataduplicity and data manipula-tion as there are many privateagencies involved.

Let’s discuss about India’svaccine certification system.Yes, India is planning to adoptthe vaccine passport concept.As of now, we don’t have anycommon platform like this.

India’s vaccination certifi-cate is categorised or prede-fined. Elderly people agedmore than 60 years, 45 to 59years with co-morbidities,health workers and Corona

warriors are only subjected toparticipate in our vaccinationdrive.

As of now, 2.56 crore peo-ple have been vaccinated inIndia. India’s vaccinationprocess is divided in two doses.The interval between first andsecond dose is 28 days.

A provisional certificateis given after inoculating thefirst dose. The tourism andhospitality sector is in theverge of a kick-start. In a Statelike Odisha, 1 lakh people arejabbed in a single day. The pro-visional certificate may behelpful to verify the record andvaccination status.

The veracity of vaccinepassport is challenged on theground of efficacy of Covid-19vaccine. The Centre of DiseaseControl and Prevention, USA,has introduced the concept ofUnmasking. It means there isno need to put a mask if some-

body is vaccinated againstCorona. It is to understand thatIndia is the first country tointroduce Mask-on as a policyand as a social vaccine againstCovid -19.

So vaccine passport maybe a new freedom but it is fullof apprehensions and fear.India is backing the certifica-tion system like vaccine pass-port for travellers but withcompulsory use of Covidguidelines.

India has its own contacttracing app named ArogyaSetu which is more or less likevaccine passport. The WHO isnot in a mood to support thevaccine passport mechanism.As per WHO, there is a limit-ed access to vaccine.

Many poor and lowincome countries have notstarted the vaccination driveyet. The rich and developingcountries are buying the vac-

cine only. It is also reportedthat 94 per cent countries vac-cinated their population belongto high income and high-mid-dle income group. It is report-ed that the rural Odisha showsmore vaccine hesitancy than itscounterpart, urban Odisha.

It generally indicates thatif a particular section of peo-ple in India or in the world getvaccine certificate and othersdon’t, then a class disparity,inequality and preferencebased group will be created.

The fear of Covid secondwave is gripping us and lock-downs cannot be avoided, itseems. Six States in India areagain in the clutch of Covid-19infections. Therefore, the vac-cine passport is going to be animportant travel document inIndia.

(Dr Parida is AssistantProfessor, Sophitorium Group ofInstitutions, Khordha, Mob:8456879522)

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The National WaterDevelopment Agency

(NWDA) has been undertak-ing interlinking of rivers fordevelopment of waterresources; and in the process,the feasibility report (FR) ofMahanadi-Godavari riverinterlinking is completed.

Similarly, theSubarnarekha-Mahanadiinterlinking feasibility reportand the Subarnarekha-Damodar interlinking feasi-bility report are also ready,informed Union Minister ofState of Jal Shakti Ratan LalKataria in Lok Sabha onThursday.

He said the Mahanadi(Manibhadra)-to-Godavari(Dowlaiswaram) link wouldcover Odisha, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, AndhraPradesh, Telangana, MadhyaPradesh and Karnataka. TheSubarnarekha-Mahanadi Linkis concerned to West Bengal

and Odisha. The NationalPerspective Plan (NPP) pre-pared by the UnionGovernment for waterresource development envis-ages inter-basin transfer ofwater. This is done for trans-ferring water from water-sur-plus basins to water-deficitbasins.

Under the NPP, theNational Water DevelopmentAgency (NWDA) has identi-fied 30 links, of which 16 areunder Peninsular Componentand 14 under HimalayanComponent.

The Mahanadi-Godavarilink is under PeninsularComponent, for which theFR is completed.The Ministersaid the programme of inter-linking of rivers is carried outin a consultative manner; andefforts have been made forbuilding consensus amongthe concerned States.

He said the Godavari-Cauver y l ink project isplanned in two phases. Phase

I relates to identifying the sur-plus water in the Godavaribasin without affecting theinterests of the co-basin Statesand transferring these watersup to Cauvery through theGodavari-Cauvery link pro-ject. Linking Brahmaputra,Ganga, Subarnarekha,Mahanadi and Godavariwould be taken up in Phase II,thus enriching the Phase Iwith suitable modifications.

A National Task Force forInterlinking Rivers has beenconstituted after consultationsamong the States. In themeantime, the Godavari-Cauver y Draft DetailedProject Report (DPR) is readyconsidering the Phase I optiononly.

While the FRs and DPRsare ready, a decision on exe-cution has not been taken asthe river interlinking projectshave not reached the stage ofexecution, said the Minister.So, no funds are allocated forthe projects, admitted he.

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The State Government hasdecided to have a master

plan for development of anindustrial hub and townshipnear the Dharmra port.

At a high level reviewmeeting held here on Friday,Chief Secretary SureshChandra Mahapatra directed todemarcate the high tide linethrough ground level resurveyof the costal regulation zone forprotection of the eco-system ofthe port area while planning forthe development.

The meeting was alsojoined by Principal SecretaryCommerce and TransportMadhusudan Padhi andChairman and ManagiongDirector IDCO Sanjay Singhamong others.

The Chief Secretary direct-ed the district CollectorBhadrak to protect the landadjoining the port for devel-opment of industrial hub andtownships.

IDCO CMD Sanjay Singhadvised to acquire the land anddevelop the sites for industrialuse in coming years. SecretaryElectronics and IT and SpecialSecretary Commerce andTransport Manoj KumarMishra appraised that Dhamraport was notified by the EastCoast Railway in 2011 as a fullrake handling point for bothinward and outward traffic.

In the meanwhile, DhamraPort Company Ltd (DPCL)has developed three new berthstaking the total berths to five,he said.

The DPCL has also con-structed 62.5 km of rail con-nectivity from Dhamara toBhadrakh connecting the mainHowrah-Chennai railway line,

he added. DPCL ChiefExecutive Officer SubratTripathy apprised that there hasbeen manifold increase incargo handling from theDhamra Port in last elevenyears.

The total export andimport cargo handling hasincreased from 5 MMT in theFY 2011-12 to 29.71 MMT in2019-20. This year, the port hasalready handled 29.37 MMTcargo by February, 2021. Thetotal cargo handling during thecurrent FY is expected to cross30.5 MMT, said Tripathy.

Chief Secretary Mahapatraalso reviewed the progress ofGoplapur Port on the eastcoast.

The port has resumed itsoperation from 2015 after nec-essary repairs and renovation.The port was severely affectedby the cyclone Hudhud in theyear 2014.

It has developed a stockyard of 2, 80,000 sqmt. Itsberth No-2 is also being mech-anised for easy import andexport. The CEO of the portapprised that the mechanisa-tion of the berth would becompleted by March, 2021.

Presently, it has two oper-ational railway siding.Construction of railway yardwith four operational sidingshas been expedited.

This would cater to multi-ple rake handling. Target wasfixed to complete this byMarch, 2021. The Gopalpurport is now running on oper-ational profit with annual han-dling of around 5 MMT cargo.

The port authorities werealso advised to mobilise port-based industrial houses fordeveloping industrial clustersnear the ports.

Sources said these twoports are now providing dailyemployment to around 4,300people in port operations, apartfrom their regular employees.

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Even as the rise in Covid-19count in Cuttack district has

become a cause of worry for theadministration, a city-basedprivate residential college’s 25students have tested positive forthe virus in the last two days.

On Thursday, 12 studentsof the plus two science collegehad been found positive forCoronavirus in the city. OnFriday, 13 more cases werereported from the same college.

In view of the uptick of thecases in the college, the CuttackMunicipal Corporation (CMC)has shut down the college for10 days.A day after 12 studentswere found positive, tests wereconducted on 71 students, whohad come in contact with theinfected students, of which 13

were found positive. All theinfected students have beenquarantined in the college hos-tel, other students, who werefound negative in the test,would be kept in isolation fornext seven days, said a CMCofficial.

Source said that a few stu-dents of the college atArunodaya Nagar had com-plained of Covid-19 symp-toms. Following test, 12 stu-dents of them were found pos-itive on Wednesday. Initiatingcontact tracing process, theCMC collected swab samplesfrom the students with flu likesymptoms.

Following detection of f thenew cases in the college, a spe-cial team has been set up by theHealth Department to monitorthe situation.

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In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases, the

Commissionerate police onFriday issued strict guidelinesfor Dola Melan and Holi cele-brations in Cuttack.

As per the latest guidelines,no playing of Holi is allowed inlarge scale, any kind of gather-ing or crowding in the city.

Similarly, no music system,loudspeaker, DJ would beallowed to be played on the dayof Holi on March 29 on theroads and public places in thecity.“Though the festival ofcolours was celebrated withpomp and grandeur, it is felt

necessary to observe Holi in alow key manner due to the out-break of Covid-19. On the dayof festival of Holi, public areallowed to observe the same intheir own houses,” the notifi-cation read. As per the tradi-tion, the Dola Melan will beorganised in Cuttack fromMarch 23, 2021.

In the notification issuedby the Cuttack DCP, allInspector-in-charge of policestations have been asked toinstruct the organisers of DolaMelan to strictly follow theguidelines and take appropri-ate steps to prevent publicgathering and to prevent spreadof Covid-19.

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Yet another incident ofslums in the capital city

becoming the hub of all typesof antisocial activities, includ-ing drug smuggling, wasreported on Friday. ExciseDepartment officials arrestedtwo person including a womanfor drug smuggling from KargilSlum under the Airfield policestation on Friday .

The accused are RameshBeura (25) and Gita Rauta(30).The officials said theseized brown sugar weighs 195grams and its market value isestimated to be around Rs 19lakh, said excise officials.

Officials said the accusedhad procured the contrabandfrom Baleswar and wereinvolved in the smuggling forpast few months.On inputs,excise officials raided Kargilslum and arrested the accused.

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Youth Congress members onFriday held a demonstration

here protesting the recentMahanga double murder anddemanded ouster of MahangaMLA and Law Minister PratapJena alleging his complicity in thecase.

The Youth Congress mem-bers took out a bike rally fromthe Congress Bhawan andmarched to ghearo the officialresidence of Jena at ForestPark.However, they were inter-cepted by police, who had bar-ricaded the road near SishuBhavan Square.

This led a scuffle as the pro-testors tried to break the barri-cades. They shouted slogansagainst Jena and burnt his effi-gy alleging the Minister’sinvolvement in the double mur-der case. “If Jena doesn’t resignon his own he should beremoved from the portfolio. Heshould be arrested immediatelyand strong legal action should betaken against him.

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Though many deaths haveoccurred due to manual

scavenging without use ofmachines and any safety equip-ment, neither it has beenbanned by the civic agenciesnor are the workers rehabili-tated even if it has been termedas ‘institutional murder’.

In yet another such inci-dent, two sanitary workersdied due to suffocation whilecleaning a septic tank in theBrahmeswarpatna area atTankapani Road here onFriday.

However, identities of thetwo deceased were yet to beascertained. The mishap tookplace at around 10 am. While

carrying out the cleaning work,the two fell seriously ill due tosuffocation and were rushed tothe Capital Hospital here.However, they were declaredbrought dead by doctors.

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The Commissioneratepolice on Friday released

a sketch of the deceasedwoman, whose skeleton wasfound in a seized vehicle inthe premises of the Janlapolice outpost on the out-skirts of the capital city.

The sketch was preparedby experts from Bengaluru onbasis of the skeleton of theunidentified woman, said cityDCP Umashankar Dash.

“We will put up the sketchat public places, forward it toall the police stations andappeal the public to come for-ward if they know the victim,”Dash said.

The DCP said “ The

deceased woman was agedaround 35-45 years and 164cm tall. She was ill-nour-ished and suffering fromMycobacterium tuberculosis(TB).

Her dead body wasrecovered on February 12,2021. According to doctors,she could have died inbetween September andDecember 2020.”

Moreover, the deceasedhad injuries to her leg andarm bones which were report-edly sustained prior to 45-60days of her death and werehealed irregularly most prob-ably due to malnourishmenthe added.

Dash further sa, “Thoughthe sketch was prepared byexperts and with the help ofArtificial Intelligence (IA), itmay not match 100 per centwith the actual face of thedeceased.”

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Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal onFriday said that everyone

isborn to worship. The word“service” should not just comeonlips. “We all are actually bornto worship. Therefore, neitherhelpnor service, the rites of ser-vice should also be convertedintorituals of worship. Becausesomewhere in service, there isalsoegoism which ends in thespirit of worship,” Lal said.

Inaugurating a local branchof All India Marwari YuvaManch inaugurated in its 13thNational Convention ‘Abhyuday’here, Lal praised selfless serviceof its members. Odisha StateRoad Transport CorporationCMD Arun Bothra, a guest, saidthat during calamities, MarwariYuva Manch always steps for-ward with support and service.

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The State Government hasdevised a massive conser-

vation plan to storage riverwaters in the way of in-streamstorage structure (ISS), statedMinister of Water ResourcesRaghunandan Das in the stateAssembly on Thursday in awritten reply to a question byBJD MLA Amar PrasadSatpathy.

The project with an esti-mated cost of Rs 11,700 croreincludes eight rivers in thefirst phase while other streamswould be included in next

financial year.The water con-servation plan would be imple-mented till the year 2024-25.The Government has alsoplanned to construct a barragein the Hirakud lower streamthrough in-stream storagestructure.

The Minister also made astatement on a gradualdecrease in the Mahanadi riverwater to Odisha during thenon-monsoon period.

This has happened becauseof the ongoing illegal con-struction of barrages in theMahanadi upper stream by theChhattisgarh Government.

As the issue is alreadypending with the MahanadiRiver Tribunal for a finalJudgement, there cannot be anelaborate statement, theMinister added.

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The Covid-19 vaccinationdrive is in full swing at var-

ious centres in Brahmapur city.The city BJP leaders while wel-coming Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s mission fortotal vaccination in the coun-try, sensitised the senior citi-zens and others, who flocked tothe centres to take the jab.

At the Taluka PHC atAgha street , BJP district pres-ident Bibhuti Bhushan Jena,senior leaders Kanhu Pati,Bhabagrahi Palo, Bijay Gopal,Kiran Kumar Sahu, SantoshMohanty, Pravat Sadangi, SunilSahu, Sunil Patro and RakeshSabat welcomed the senior cit-izens and informed on theimportance and usefulness ofvaccine and the other preven-

tion measures required in curb-ing the spread of deadly coro-navirus. In view of hot summer,the BJP activists distributed,water and ORS to people at thecamps.

Anong others, ManoranjanMoharana, Robin Kumar Sahu,Madhu Sudan Sahu, KomalPatra, Gouranga Panigrahiwere present.

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Defying the age-old tradi-tion which allows only

male members to perform lastrites, three sisters of Teragaonvillage under Mahakalapadablock here carried the bier oftheir deceased father to the cre-mation ground and performedthe rituals on Thursday night.

An unfamiliar sightunfolded on the village road asPujarini Behera (21), the elderdaughter of deceased SridharBehera (58) and her two sib-lings assumed the roles that aretraditionally meant for men.

Notably, Sridhar Beherawas suffering from liver cir-rhosis about a year back. Amonth back he became sickand died as the family mem-bers failed to provide treatmentdue to paucity of funds.

Family sources said Sridharhad always wanted his daugh-ters to perform his last rites ashe did not have any son.Pujarini and her duo siblings,Rojalini and Laxmipriya, car-ried the bier of their father ontheir shoulders and lit thefuneral pyre. The funeral wasorganised following thesarpanch provided Rs 2,000under Harishchandra Yojana.

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��������������������������������������������: ��� ���!����� #�%����# �����&� ��!$��'� 8�% ��'���%�#���� �� &�� ����� �#!���%&��&��� �� ��������� �& &�� ����&�� �'�������$��!�%�%��.��#�� ���$��'��!!�8�%���,',��&�#���,�=)�����&�� ���������; �>�& ���#��� ���&��% ���! #�������& ��%$�&��%&���&�# &��#�%����$�&���&%8���%%�!���#�� &������%��� ���,&*;*+C #�%����# $��%��% ��'�%&���# ��# '�& &�� &���&!��& ������&��%;8����D+E'�&#�%����#���&�����&����!&�������!�#����������� �$��&���!�,�=)�����&�����������;&����%&���&���������,��&�0������;��0��#�����)����!��>����#���8�����%%#��?�

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More than two lakh OliveRidley sea turtles have

turned up for mass nesting atthe Gahirmatha MarineSanctuary in Kendrapada dis-trict in last 10 days.

Although not in largenumbers as expected, a totalof 2,03,635 sea turtles havebeen spawning at Nasi-2island of the sanctuary for thepast 10 days, forest officialsources said. The mass nest-ing process had begun onMarch 8 at Gahirmatha.While a minimal number of

the endangered turtles par-ticipated in mass nesting onthe first day, the numberincreased later.

According to data, 300Olive Ridley turtles laid eggson March 8; about 800 onMarch 9; 1,250 on March 10;7,940 on March 11; 425 onMarch 12; 210 on March 13;18,350 on March 14; 32,560on March 15; 72,600 onMarch 16; and 69,200 onMarch 17.

Notably, the turtles’ massnesting at the Gahirmathashore was first spotted in theyear 1975. The State

Government has prohibitedfishing in the sea up to 20 kmfrom Gahirmatha after

declaring it as the first marinesanctuary on September 27,1997.

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With a view to sensitise vil-lagers on forest fire and

its prevention, the Jungle JibanSuraksha Abhiyan, a forum ofcitizens of Balangir district,held a meeting at Patharchepavillage on Thursday. Villagewomen, youths and membersof Vana Suraksha Samiti (VSS)participated and were told howforest fire could be controlled.

The speakers includedHemanta Panda, BirendraJhankar, journalist SudhirMishra and Balangir BlockChairman Golap Bag, amongothers.

The women present in themeeting narrated how theyprotected the forest atThengapali from fire. In viewof a vast area of forest inBalangir district, more localyouth should be engaged by theForest Department to informabout forest fire and preventthe same, suggested a villager.

The members took apledge to check occurrence offorest fire and save forest.

Notably, the forum haslaunched a week-long sensiti-sation campaign about forestfire and its prevention, which

was flagged off on Wednesdayby former Professor ofSambalpur UniversityMadhusudan Pati.

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Tarbha Block EducationOfficer (BEO) Keshab

Chandra Meher on Wednesdayinaugurated a conference hallin his office. Speaking on theoccasion, BEO Meher saidteachers of the block shoulddevelop their own schools by

contributing to the Mo SchoolAbhijaan Programme.ABEOBhubaneswar Dash and formerABEO Harischandra Sahugraced as guests of honor.

The BEO distributed ordersto 84 junior teachers who

were upgraded to RegularPrimary Teacher rank. He alsodistributed wheel chair to twohandicapped students, namelySomyajit Panda andDukhishyam Nayak.

Teachers named PrahalladChauhan, Radheshyam Kuanr,Surendra Pande, DhubalPadhan, Artatrana Taria andSanjib Kumar Sa spoke. Among

others, teachers NarendraKumar Sahu, Suraj KumarSethi, Amiya Kumar Mohanty,Bijaya Kumar Panda, MohanSahu, Mohan Bishi, SwaralataSahu, Snehalata Sahu, Surendra

Suna were present. PradyumnaKumar Mohanty gave the inau-gural speech while SushantaKumar Meher and NilakanthaBagarty coordinated the pro-gramme.

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The painting ofMayurbhanj artist Manas

Ranjan Pati has won warmappreciation at a State-levelpainting workshop and exhi-bition organised recently bythe Lions Club of Burla. Pati'spainting entitled "WoodenHorse" depicted the state ofmind of the modern youth.

The heart-touching pic-ture described how the pre-sent generation boys and girls,who are addicted to mobilephones, move one step for-ward and one step backwardlike wooden toy-horses, fullyforgetting their obligations

to the family and the society.The state-of-the-art paintingwon wide acclaim and admi-ration. And Pati, the father ofthis attractive work of art, wasfelicitated.

This Baripada-born artist,it may be noted, has beenfelicitated for his creations onmany other earlier occasionsalso.

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Three students of a privateuniversity in Bhubaneswar

have developed a uniquedevice that would save ele-phants from fatal accidentswhile crossing railway tracksin forest areas.

Guided by Prof SujataChakraborty, the studentsPayal Bhadra, AbhijitBalabantray and Sujit Sahoo ofthe Centurion University haveproduced the gadget, withthe help of which the locopilot can evade train mishapsby taking necessary initiativeafter getting signal on move-ment of elephants from a dis-tance of 300 meters on railwaytracks.

The student trio had start-ed developing the device inDecember 2019. The gadgetwas showcased at an eventorganised by the IIT Bombayon March 16, 2020. Theprocess to get patent from thecountry’s premier institutionis in a final stage.

Notably, as many as 49elephants have been killed indifferent train mishaps in pastfour years in the country. The2013 tragic incident inJalpaiguri district in WestBengal was said to be the rea-son behind invention of thenew gadget.

“The elephants neverchange their path throughwhich they move in search offood. The construction of arailway track cannot hinderthe pachyderms and they con-

tinue moving on the samepath. Although there isinstruction from the RailwayMinistry to slow the trainspeed on railway tracks builtin forest areas, the loco pilotsat a time fail to get informa-tion about movement of ele-phants on the route for whichmany elephants have beenmowed down on tracks in thepast,” said Abhijit Balabantray.

Giving an instance, hesaid that at least six elephantswere killed by a speedingtrain in November 2013 whilecrossing the tracks in theChapramari wildlife sanctuaryin Jalpaiguri district of WestBengal.

According to the projectprepared by the three stu-dents, there will be three sen-sors in three security zones100 meters away from the rail-way crossing zone. The thirdzone, which is 300 metersaway, will have an AI sensordeveloped by them.

The sensor will detect theelephant and light it accord-ingly. In the second zone, i.e.,the 200-meter zone, there willbe another type of IR sensorwith a different type of redlight and buzzer at a distanceof 100 meters.

The buzzer has beendeveloped in such a mannerthat only the elephant canhear it and be on alert.Peugeot Electric sensors willbe installed on both sides ofthe railway track. The locopilot can prevent accidents,200 meters away from the site.

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As many as 12 students ofthe DAV Public School

Chandrasekharpur here havequalified in the prestigiousKishore Vaigyanik ProtsahanYojana (KVPY) scholarshipexamination conducted by theUnion Ministry of Science andTechnology.

Aatman Dev Swain, aClass-XI student has securedAIR 131, highest rank holder inthe school. Among others,Sthiti Padhi, Srutija Swain,Lokanath Agasti, RashmiranjanPadhi, Subhajit Panigrahi,Ashis Sahu, A AyushmanSenapati, Sambhu Prasad Saha,Sai Jyoti Mallick, SiddharthKumar and Saswat Acharyahave been enlisted with topAIR.

The successful qualifiersare eligible for admission intoIISc, Bengaluru and other pres-tigious institutes of the coun-try with attractive scholar-ships.

This year, only writtenexamination was held inJanuary and viva voce wasskipped. Like previous years,the DAV Public SchoolChandrasekharpur once againproved its mettle in KVPY.

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Aday-long refresher pro-gramme on

‘Implementation of QbD/ DoEParadigms for PharmaceuticalResearch’ was conducted by theResearch Journal of Pharmacyand Life Sciences (RJPLS), aninternational peer reviewedjournal here on Sunday.DrSarwar Beg from the JamiaHamdard University, NewDelhi, was the resource personon the event.

About 70 participantsacross the country who wereregistered participated throughonline mode. The programmewas arranged at the Om SaiCollege of Pharmacy andHealth Sciences in presence ofDr Beg.

Among others, Prof AnjanKumar Mahapatra, Editor-in-Chief, Dr GhanshyamPanigrahi- Editorial Manager,

Dr Prasanta KumarChoudhury- Executive Editor,Dr GS Pasa- Statistical expertof the journal and BhagabanBiswal, Principal Om SaiCollege of Pharmacy andHealth Sciences, were present.Associate Professor of RIPS DrSasmita Kumari Acharya wel-comed the resource person. DrBeg delivered his talk on QbD/DoE, an essential statisticalapproach in research and devel-opment, briefly covering thebasic theories and case studies.

In the valedictory function,on behalf of RJPLS, Dr Beg wasconferred with “EmergingScientist Award” for hisachievements and excellence inthe field of pharmacy. Theprogramme was coordinatedby Assistant ProfessorBichitrananda Tripathy andAjit Nahak of RCPHS alongwith Ladi Vishal from DIP-SARU.

������ �����

The Central University ofOdisha successfully par-

ticipated in the SarthakEduvision National Expo andConference held from March15 to 17 at NoronhaAdministrative andManagement Inst itute,Bhopal.

The national level eventwas organised by theBharatiya Shikshan Mandal inassociation with theGovernment of MadhyaPradesh, UGC, AICTE andResearch For ResurgenceFoundation, among others.

The three-day event fea-tured round table discussionson various aspects of educa-tion by stalwarts of the fieldlike UGC Chairman ProfSingh, Chairman, AICTE DrAnil Saharabuddhe, Secretary,NCERT, Major Harsh KumarVice Chancellor, IGNOU DrNageshwar Rao, NobelLaureates Prof Mohd Yunus

and Kailash Satyarthi, amongothers.

The efforts of CUO, espe-cially in the recent timesunder dynamic leadership ofProf I Ramabrahmam, ViceChancellor, like starting ofBHAROSA, a helpline num-ber by Faculty counselors forcognitive emotional rehabil-itation of students in distressduring Covid-19,

first university to startHome Based Open BookExamination during Covid-19, starting of new courseslike Executive MBA, con-struction of Academic Block,Central Library and staff

quarters and purchase of stateof the art educational equip-ments through Government Emarketplace worth almost Rs3 crore were lauded by the vis-itors to its kiosk.

About100 odd institutionswhich participated acrossIndiaThe CUO representa-tion was led by Dr SouravGupta, coordinator andAssistant Professor,Department of Journalismand Mass Communicationand Sibaram Patra, co-coor-dinator and Section Officer,CUO under mentorship ofVC Prof I Ramabrahmamand Prof P Durga Prasad.

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The IIM Sambalpurlaunched its first Executive

MBA degree programme forworking professionals in anevent on Friday.

The chief guest on theoccasion was CMD, SECL, APPanda. IIM SambalpurDirector Prof Mahadeo Jaiswalchaired while students, alum-ni, faculties and staff of theinstitute besides journalistsattended.

The inaugural programmealso witnessed a discussion on‘Emerging Industry needs andcompetency’ where industry

leaders Associate Director,Deloitte Sandeep Chatterjee,Head HR, Western DigitalIndia Dr Kiranmai DuttPendyala, Vice President HR,Ashok Leyland Uma Rao andExecutive VP, YES Bank

Ranchandra Rao expressedtheir thoughts and views on thetopic. The two-year degreeprogramme will follow theinstitute's innovative experi-ence learning through Flippedclassroom pedagogy in blend-

ed mode (mostly online). Theclasses will be scheduled onweekends and weekdayevenings.

To be eligible for thecourse, a candidate shouldhold a Bachelor’s degree or anequivalent qualification in anydiscipline with a minimum of50 per cent marks or equivalentpercentage.

They must also have aminimum 3 years of PostQualification managerial/entrepreneurial/ professionalexperience as on the last dateof application.

A validCAT/GMAT/GATE/GRE score(not more than three years oldas on 30/5/2021) will also berequired. Candidates not hav-ing a valid test score as aboveshould appear for IIMSAT.

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Ateam from Jharsugudaincluding Health and

Family Welfare Minister NabaKishore Das, Bargarh MPSuresh Pujari and BrajrajnagarMLA Kishore Mohanty metUnion Civil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri at his NewDelhi office on Friday andheld discussions about up-gra-dation of the infrastructure ofVeer Surendra Sai Airport,

Jharsuguda.The team request-ed Puri to take steps for con-struction of a bay, a road to sec-ond taxi parking and anadministrative building in the

airport and flights to morecities from Jharsuguda. Theyalso requested for better ameni-ties for the airport in the com-ing days.

Health Minister Das, MPPujari and MLA Mohantysubmitted separate memoran-dums to Civil Aviation Ministerfor consideration. Puri assuredto transform the Jharsugudaairport into a model one afterdiscussions with Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik.

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A35-year-old woman wasburnt to death by her in-

laws demanding dowry lateon Wednesday late night atBadheipada village under thePattamundai police station,said police sources.

The deceased woman wasidentified as Buli Biswal.According to sources, Buli hadmarried Damodar Biswal in2011. After the marriage, Bulihad been facing torture bothmental and physical, from her

in-laws for more dowry. Theytoo were suspecting her ofbeing infidel to her husband.The in-laws allegedly assaultedBuli and burnt her to deathwith the help of her husband bypouring kerosene on her body.In this regard, Lipan Biswal, thebrother of the deceasedwoman, on Thursday lodgedan FIR at Pattmundai policestation.

The police on Thursdayretrieved the charred body ofBuli from inside the rentedhouse where she was stayingand sent the body for autopsyby registering a case.

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Ayouth was killed in a roadaccident near Boden

Chhack on NH-353 in Khariartown of Nuapada district onFriday. The deceased was iden-tified as Nikesh Sahu ofDumerjor village in Khariarblock.Nikesh was entering theNH from the Boden road whena truck hit this bike, killing himon the spot. Following themishap, an outfit namedHanuman Sena held a roadblockade. The Khariar policearrived on the spot and took

the driver into custody andseized the truck. People blamedthe local administration forallowing vendors to openshops. The parking vehiclesbefore these shops congest theroad. "The road divider of one

metre width in the middlealong with no parking space infront of business establish-ments is a major cause of therising accidents in the town"said Pratap Keshari Pattnaik ofKhariar.

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India and the US will onSaturday discuss the entire

gamut of bilateral defence ties inthe talks between visiting USDefence Secretary Llyod JAustin and Defence MinisterRajnath Singh here. They arealso likely to review the situationin the wake of growing Chineseassertiveness in the Indo-Pacificregion.

Austin, who arrived here onFriday is also likely to meetPrime Minister Narendra Modi,National SecurityAdvisor(NSA)Ajit Doval andExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar during his three-day visit. This is the first high-level visit by a US Minister sinceJoe Biden became US President.

Moreover, the talks onSaturday come after heads ofState of India, US, Australia andJapan last week held the firstever virtual summit under theaegis of the Quad. The leadersin a veiled reference to Chinacalled for freedom of navigationand trade in the Indo-Pacific.China has all along objected tothe formation of Quad claimingit will lead to militarisation.

India is the third stop ofAustin’s three-nation first over-

seas tour, and the visit is seen asa strong commitment of the JoeBiden administration to its closeallies and partners in the region.

Ways to further accelerateIndia-US strategic ties, boostingcooperation in the Indo-Pacific,China’s aggressive behaviour ineastern Ladakh, challengesposed by terrorism and theAfghan peace process areexpected to be focus of the talksbetween the two sides, sourcessaid. The two sides will issue ajoint statement after the talks onSaturday.

Sources said India’s plan toprocure around 30 multi-mis-sion armed

Predator drones from theUS for the three services at anestimated cost of over USD 3billion is also expected to figurein the talks. The medium-alti-tude long-endurance (MALE)Predator-B drones, manufac-tured by US defence majorGeneral Atomics, are capable ofremaining airborne for around35 hours and can hunt downtargets at land and sea, theysaid.

However, no deals are like-ly to be inked, they said.Incidentally, the US in the lastone decade has sold weaponsworth over 15 billion dollars to

India.The US Defence Secretary

visited Japan and South Koreabefore arriving in India. Thevisit to all the countries duringhis ongoing tour is perceived asa bid by the new USGovernment to have a unitedfront against China. Austindescribed it as the “pacingthreat”.

“China … presents themost significant threat goingforward because China isascending,” Austin told theSenate confirmation hearingback in January, underliningthat in contrast to Beijing, thethreat from Moscow “is indecline”.

Austin, former US CentralCommand chief, is well awareof the threat to world securityfrom radicalization and terror-ism after seeing the rise of theso-called Islamic State in Iraqand Syria.

He also has first-hand expe-rience of the threat posed byterrorist groups in Pakistan toIndia.

Though no deals or agree-ments are likely to be signedduring the visit, India and USmay prepare a detailed plan tofurther strengthen defencecooperation and intelligencesharing in the Indo-Pacific.

This will be done throughinteroperability exercises andjoint training designed to makethem the first responders in thevast ocean while the navies ofthe two other Quad members,Japan and Australia, hold theother fringes.

The Quad navies plusFrance are scheduled to exercisein the Bay of Bengal from April4-7 under the La Perouse ban-ner.

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Issues ranging from providingfacilities to patients of

Thalassemia to moving to BSVI norms and electric vehiclesto apprehensions on Covid-19vaccinations to shifting peopleliving in land-slide prone zonesto safer areas figured in the LokSabha on Friday.

In the question hour,Congress MP Ravneet Bittuasked if COVID-19 vaccinesaffect the DNA of future gen-erations and pointed to lot ofapprehensions.

Replying to the query,Union Health Minister DrHarsh Vardhan said, “When avaccine is given the final goahead, a lot of trials are doneand data is analysed not justin the country but also at thelevel of the WHO. 0.000432per cent of side effects areseen for COVID-19 vaccine.The data needs to be believed.I want to tell the citizens,don’t have any apprehen-sions.”

NCP MP Supriya Suleasked as to when would theGovernment allow universalvaccination. The Minister saidthat every vaccine doesn’trequire universalisation.

“The National ExpertGroup for VaccinationAdministration decides, onscientific basis, whether it isnecessary that each and everyperson should be given the

vaccine”, he saidBJP MP Maneka Gandhi

said Thalassemia has beenrecognised as a disability andsought the Minister aboutspecific steps taken in termsof free blood bank etc., forThalassemic patients.

The Minister replied thatscreening of such patients,counseling at the stage ofconception, and bone marrowtransplants are ongoing. Hesaid since bone marrow trans-plant is expensive, the Centresuggests that State govern-ments should bear half thecost while the Centre will bearthe other half.

Dr. Vardhan also spokeabout corporates pitching infor bone marrow transplants.

But Maneka suggestedbringing Thalassemic patientsunder the Atal AmritAbhiyan. She said there is nopoint in talking about corpo-rates as “they do nothing”.

The Minister replied thatthalassemic patients are pro-vided free blood. He alsosought specific suggestionsfrom her.

Union EnvironmentMinister Prakash Javadekarspoke about steps like effortsto move to BS VI emissionsnorms and the move to elec-tric vehicles. “3,000 industriesswitched to piped natural gas;3,000 brick kilns were fittedwith Zig Zag technology,” hesays.

The Minister said,“Compared with previousyears, the emission normshave come down.”

Replying to a questionon landslides, Union Earth

Sciences Minister HarshVardhan, spoke about map-ping 4.25 lakh square kms ofland saying 50% of the job isdone.

On the question of shift-

ing people who are vulnera-ble to landslides, the Ministersaid the information collect-ed by the Geological Survey ofIndia is passed on to theState Governments.

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Allaying apprehensions ofthe Elders, the

Government on Friday saidrailways infrastructure willnever be privatised. However,plans are there to monetise theassets of the railways to gener-ate funds to fast track growth.

Giving this assurance inthe Rajya Sabha, RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal saidpassenger train operationstaken up through PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) aretargeted to bring a total invest-ment of about �30,000 crore.

Fielding questions onreported privatization, he saidthe railways plans to monetiseassets including throughEastern and WesternDedicated Freight Corridorsafter commissioning, inductionof 150 modern rakes throughPPP, station redevelopmentthrough PPP, railway landparcels, multi-functional com-plexes (MFC), railway colonies,hill railways and stadia.

When JairamRamesh(Congress)said assetsmonetisation was another formof privatisation, Goyal saidthe Congress leader was notable to understand the differ-ence between privatisation andmonetisation.

“When you privatise, yousell off the assets permanently

and it no more remains a partof the government ownership.In the railways, the plan to ismonetise in terms of how it willgenerate resources, furtherinvestment and growth. Theinfrastructure of IndianRailways will never be priva-tised,” Goyal said.

Elaborating upon the ded-icated freight corridors project,he said they are a separate cor-porate entity and the railwaysare supporting them. He clar-ified that the railways are sup-porting but is not the owner oftracks that the freight corridoris laying. “If we raise funds byleasing them, giving them outto private sector to use in theinterim period we are doing aservice to the nation,” the min-ister said.

He also said assets mon-etisation involves various trans-action processes, and theinvestment expected depends

on the outcome of biddingprocess open to public and pri-vate sectors. Therefore, theactual investment expectedfrom private and public sectorscannot be ascertained as ofnow, Goyal added.

Replying to a supplemen-tary raised by the leader of theopposition

Mallikarjun Kharge abouta proposal to merge three divi-sions of Gulbarga in Karnataka,Goyal said the Railways Boarddid not find it feasible.

In a reply to another sup-plementary, Goyal said forseven routes dedicated to semi-high speed passenger corridors,the Government is talking toState Governments and addedthat there has been goodresponse from the UttarPradesh government which iscooperating on the Delhi-Varanasi route, mostly elevat-ed along the highways.

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At least 30 kids die every dayin road accidents across the

country. Alarmingly, a major-ity of 11,168 children whodied in road mishaps in 2019could have been saved hadtheir parents or caretakersmade them wear good qualityhelmets while pillion-riding, DrRajendra Prasad, seniorConsultant Neuro and SpineSurgeon from IndraprasthaApollo Hospitals, Delhi said onthe eve of the World HeadInjury Day on Saturday.Unofficial death estimates aremuch higher.

Unfortunately, laments Dr

Prasad, while parents are yet totake the issue serious and pre-vent their kids from gettingserious injuries to brains, thereare not good quality head-gears available in the market.An injury to the brain can altertheir kids life forever, warnedthe doctor.

He knows better. TheIndian Head Injury Foundationof which Dr Prasad is a MedicalDirector, is engaged in distrib-uting helmets to the schoolchildren across the country, asa part of its awareness cam-paign on how essential head-gear are to keep children’sdeveloping brains safe.

In the last five years since2015, the Foundation has doled

out atleast 30,000 helmets tothe school kids free of cost.

However, Dr Prasad sharedthat they had to place orders tothe helmet manufacturingcompanies to specially manu-facture helmets as either therewere not enough in the marketwhile those existing did notmeet standards.

The doctor is now hopefulthat the new Vehicle Act mak-ing it mandatory for the parentsto ensure kids wear seatbelts in

the car will also sensitise themto make their children wearhelmets when ferrying them intwo-wheelers or letting thembike. He said, “It is necessary tomake the public aware aboutcauses and prevention of headInjuries. The majority of headInjuries in India are caused dueto road traffic accidents. “

Over 1,50,000 deaths everyyear from road traffic accidents

(RTA). Five times as many areleft with severe disabilities. Asper a report by the UnionMinistry of Road Transportand Highways, around 11,168children lost their lives in roadaccidents in 2019.

Major cause for mortalityon roads were not wearinghelmets and seat belts,untrained first responders,poor pre-hospital care and lackof neuro-rehabilitation facili-ties, he pointed out.

The Indian Head InjuryFoundation (IHIF) in 2007aims to build a comprehensivesystem for prevention, diag-nosis and treatment of trau-matic brain injury and provideneuro-rehabilitation to such

patients in the country.

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Experts have urged theGovernment to step up the

genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 to detect cases ofCoronavirus variants whichare more contagious and lethal.Presently, 400 cases ofCoronavirus patients in Indiahave been found to be affect-ed with three mutant variantsfirst detected in the UnitedKingdom, South Africa andBrazil.

Presently, the Governmentis sequencing just five percentof all positive samples fromeach State in order to identi-fy potential outbreaks andrelated strains as part of con-tinuous surveillance.

Public Health expert andneurologist (HoD of theNeurology Department) ofthe Lady Hardinge MedicalCollege (LHMC) Dr RKDhamija said: “There is noreason to scale down RT PCRtesting as we have seen latelyin many states and that can bedisastrous especially with newmutant variants of the virusmaking entry into our cities.These variants will be seen inIndia as it is difficult to stopthe transmission in view ofrelaxation of movements andin the era of necessary inter-

national travel.“More genomic sequencing

would help us for early detec-tion of these new variantsarriving in the country andwithin the country,” said DrDhamija.

In fact, Minister of State for

Health Ashwini Choubey hadon Thursday told the RajyaSabha, citing findings fromthe World HealthOrganization, that the threevariants are believed to bemore contagious or easier tocatch.

“These three mutated vari-ants also have the potential tore-infect people who have beenpreviously infected with SARS-CoV-2,” he had said.

As of March 10, 2021, atotal of 19,092 RT-PCR positivesamples for SARS CoV-2 havebeen received from variousstates/UTs, in which 4869 sam-ples have been processed.Among the processed sam-ples, 284 samples have beendetected to be positive for the

‘UK strain’ and 11 samplespositive for the ‘South Africanstrain’ and 1 sample positive forthe ‘Brazil strain’, as on March10, the Government told theParliament on Friday.

The Government hasformed genomic surveillanceconsortium INSACOG todetect the presence of differentstrains of coronavirus in India,involving ten regional genome sequencing laborato-ries (RGSLs) namely NIBMGKalyani, ILS Bhubaneswar,ICMR-NIV Pune, NCCS Pune,CSIR-CCMB Hyderabad,CDFD Hyderabad,InStem/NCBS Bengaluru,NIMHANS Bengaluru, CSIR-IGIB Delhi, and NCDC Delhi.

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Taking note of a surge in thenumber of corona positive

cases in some parts of thecountry, Rajya Sabha ChairmanM Venkaiah Naidu on Fridayurged all the MPs to observe allprecautions and remain extracareful.

Making this observationin the Rajya Sabha, he alsoasked the Elders to follow all the

guidelines issued by the healthministry. While the severity hascome down, reports are com-ing from certain states that thepandemic is spreading, Naidusaid.

“...All the members ofParliament, who are here, whoare there in their respectivefields, to be extra careful. Iknow that you are all publicrepresentatives, you can’t live inisolation. But at the same time,while dealing with people,meeting them, or going to theconstituencies or areas, be care-ful, follow strictly the advicegiven by the Health Ministryand Home Ministry, centralgovernment, as well as the

guidelines issued by the stategovernments concerned fromtime to time and see to it thatthey are implemented,” he said.

Naidu further said the MPsshould take interest to see thatcommon people too are guid-ed properly. “One of the rea-sons, as we are seeing, thoughthe severity has come down,but the cases are spreading hereand there, is that people inthose respective areas are notfollowing the amount of disci-pline,” he said, and added “weshould not allow the situationto deteriorate”. The Chairmanalso urged MPs and their fam-ily members, who are eligible,to get themselves vaccinated.

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Lok Sabha on Friday passedthe Bill to amend the Mines

and Minerals (Developmentand Regulation) Act to bringreforms in the sector. Replyingthe debate, Union MinisterPrahald Joshi said that theamendments will bring trans-parency in the mining sectorand asserted that that even if theCentre auctions a mine, all therevenue will go to States con-cerned.

The Mines Minister said theproposed changes in theMMDR Act will help createemployment opportunities andalso allow participation of pri-vate sector players in miningactivities with enhanced tech-nology. “The entire revenueswill go to state governmentseven if the central governmentauctions the mines... All rev-enues will go to states alone...(we are) only making good,transparent policy,” he said.Joshi said India produces 95minerals and has the samepotential like South Africa andAustralia but still imports min-erals like gold and coal.

Currently, he noted thatthe mining sector contributes1.75 per cent to the country’sGDP and through the reformsproposed in the bill, the contri-bution will rise to 2.5 per centand strengthen the economy.“The reform in the mining sec-tor would generate 55 lakhdirect and indirect employ-ment. To enhance mining activ-ity, we will allow private sectorwith enhanced technology inmineral exploration,” he said.

On provisions pertaining toDistrict Mineral Foundation(DMF), the minister said thegovernment is only asking statesto include Members ofParliament in a committee whiledeciding on spending themoney from it. “We are only

sending broader guidelines,” hepointed out. The bill to amendthe Mines and Minerals(Development and Regulation)Act, 1957, would bring in megareforms in the sector with res-olution in legacy issues, there-by making a large number ofmines available for auctions. Itwill also help strengthen theauction-only regime and boosttransparency in the system.

The Bill also seeks toremove the distinction betweencaptive and non-captive minesas well as introduce an index-based mechanism by develop-ing a National Mineral Index(NMI) for various statutorypayments. In order to boostexploration, there will be areview of functioning of theNational Mineral ExplorationTrust (NMET), which will alsobe made an autonomous body.

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The Government has flaggedits concerns with German

organisation Welthungerhilfeon “appropriateness, accuracyand representativeness of data”used to calculate the level ofhunger in India. Responding toAam Aadmi party (AAP) MPSanjay Singh’s comment in theRajya Sabha on India’s poorrank in the Global HungerIndex 2020, Union Minister ofState for Agriculture ParshottamRupala on Friday said theGovernment has already writ-ten to NGO Welthungerhilfe,which compiled the report,expressing concerns about theirmethodology and accuracy ofdata, and is yet to hear fromthem.

The Global Hunger Index(GHI) Report 2020 — pub-lished jointly by ConcernWorldwide and Welthungerhilfe—has given a score of 27.2 for

India and ranked the country at94 out of 107. Whereas in theGHI Report 2019, India hadscored 30.3 and was ranked 102out of 117. “Some NGO in theworld has done the survey. Wehave already asked them onwhat basis have you reached thisconclusion? They have notreplied yet. But this is a separatematter,” the minister said. Hesaid that the GHI score hasreduced from 30.3 to 27.2 dur-ing the period 2019 to 2020.

Rupala mentioned that theComprehensive NationalNutrition Survey (CNNS) con-ducted in 2017-28 showed animprovement in indicators —wasting, stunting and under-nutrition — when compared todata enumerated from NationalFamily Survey 4 (NFHS-4) in2015-16.

These three indicators areused at the national level for mea-surement of the prevalence ofundernourishment, he added.

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New Delhi: A Bill to modify thelist of Scheduled Castes inTamil Nadu by grouping ofseven castes which presentlyexist as separate castes, waspassed by the Lok Sabha onFriday. According to theConstitution (Scheduled Castes)Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021,the Tamil Nadu government hasproposed certain modificationsin the list of Scheduled Castesby way of grouping of sevencastes which presently exist asseparate castes. The RegistrarGeneral of India has conveyedconcurrence to the proposedmodifications, the bill said. Togive effect to the changes, it isnecessary to amend theConstitution (Scheduled Castes)Order, 1950 by Parliament.

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Amid a spike in politicalviolence in poll-bound

West Bengal, a delegation ofTrinamool Congress MPs metthe Election Commission onFriday to register their protestagainst the poll panel’s report-ed decision to not permit Statepolice personnel within 100metres of polling stations.

The TMC parliamentarydelegation comprising SaugataRoy, Yashwant Sinha, MdNadimul Haque, PratimaMondal and Mahua Moitra,described the EC’s approach aspartisan and biased. It is becom-ing increasingly clear that free,fair and transparent elections in

the State of West Bengal isbecoming a distant reality. Thisis evident from the partisan andbiased approach taken by theElection Commission of India(ECI) in respect of the ongoingelections in the State, a memo-randum submitted to the apexpoll panel said.

On the first count, it hasbeen reported in media that theECI has decided to not permitpresence of State police within100 m of polling stations andonly deploy Central Forces insuch arena. If true, this decisionis unprecedented and castssevere aspersions on the repu-tation of the police administra-tion in the State of West Bengal,”it added.

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Kerala Politics underwent atectonic shift in the last 24

hours as the Sabarimala con-troversy, which has been in thebackburner since the last LokSabha election returned to theforefront thanks to the CPI(M)and a BJP leader who has beendeclared as the party candidatefrom Kazhakoottam. This islikely to cause setback to theCPI(M) dream of coming backto power.

Sitaram Yechury, theCPI(M) general secretary, toldjournalists that there is nochange in the party’s stance visa vis women’s entry toSabarimala Temple. He said thatthe CPI(M) is always for gen-der equality and would stand byhe rights of the women to wor-ship in all temples.

The Sabarimala Templewas the centre of a major con-troversy following the SupremeCourt verdict that women inthe age group of ten to fiftyyears should be allowed entryin the shrine while disposing apetition challenging the age-oldcustom of banning women inthe particular age group fromoffering prayers.

The devotees have filed arevision petition in the apexcourt and the matter is beingheard by a Constitution Bench.Interestigly, the Kerala Ministerfor Temple AdministrationKatakampalli Surendran, whowas in the forefront in provid-ing police security to womendevotees to worship in thetemple much to the anguish ofdevotees including women,expressed regret for his actionsin helping women activists toenter the temple.

But Pinarayi Vijayan, chiefminister, corrected his minis-ter the next day and declaredthat the Government wouldnot do anything to deny thewomen in the ten to fifty agegroup from worshipping inthe temple.

Sobha surendran, the BJPleader who is taking onKatakampalli at Kazhakoottamsaid on Friday that it was adivine intervention whichresulted in her candidature andshe would defeat the minister

with the blessings of LordAyyappa, the presiding deity ofSabarimala.

All Hindu organisationsin the State came out in theopen asking the LDFGovernment to make its stanceclear on the issue and thestatement by Yechury was inconnection with this issue.

“The Sabarimala Templecontroversy is going to be themajor issue in the April 6assembly election. The devoteesare still in a state of shock andfear,” said J K Ambika, politicalcommentator who has beentouring the constituencies tofind out the mood of the voters.

The Congress led UDFhad swept the 2019 Lok Sabhaeection by winning 19 out ofthe 20 seats from Kerala. Thishas been only because of theconsolidation of Hindu votesbehind the UDF. “The BJP inKerala is yet to get an efficientleadership and hence the vot-ers lined up behind the UDF,”said Bimal Roy, writer andcommentator.

The last three months sawvarious youth organisations lay-ing siege to the Kerala secretariatto protest the indifference of theGovernment to their requeststhat those who figure in therank list prepared by the PublicService Commission be offeredletters of appointment withoutdelay. “All opinion polls held byvarious agencies that forecastthat the CPI(M) -led LDF wouldreturn to power after this elec-tion were unanimous in twoissues. More than 40 per cent ofthe people who responded tothe question on Sabarimalaissue said that the PinarayiVijayan Government was a mis-erable failure in handling thepeople’s reaction while an equalnumber of participants said theGovernment had failed in pro-viding jobs to the unemployedyouth,” pointed out P Rajan,former editor, Mathrubhumi.

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Four million new jobs in thenext five years and houses

for all Scheduled Castes andTribes in the State form themanifesto of the CPI(M)-ledLDF. The comprehensive man-ifesto was released on Friday byA Vijayaraghavan, the secretaryof the Kerala CPI(M) in thepresence of leaders of otherconstituents in the front.

The manifesto promisesthat the welfare pension for theaged would be hiked to Rs2,500/- per month and allhome makers would getmonthly pension. The agricul-tural income would be hiked by50 per cent in the nest fiveyears, though the manifesto issilent about the resources forthese programmes.

Taking a cue form the set-back suffered by the State in

controlling the Covid-19 pan-demic, the LDF manifesto hasassured the electorate that itwould set up health care ser-vices of global standards.

The Government to beformed by the LDF wouldbring in investment worth Rs10,000 crore in the next fiveyears. The number of MSMEunits in the State would beincreased to 3,00,000 in thenext five years.

“This is the best manifestothe State has ever seen in its his-tory. The next five years of LDFrule would elevate Kerala to thebest developed State in theworld,” said Vijayaraghavan.

The Government wouldoffer development loan up toRs 15 lakh to 4.5million house-holds as part of poverty erad-ication scheme. The Statewould see investment worth Rs60,000 crore to develop infra-

structure facilities over thenext five years, says the mani-festo.

The LDF will usher inalternative schemes for devel-opment which would act as arole model for the rest of India.

Veteran political commen-tator P Rajan said the promises made by the LDF arenot at all viable and feasible ason date.

“In 2016 the LDF hadpromised 3.5 million jobs butin the last five years they couldnot provide at least 1 lakh jobs.The finance minister ThomasIssac was heard blaming theNarendra Modi governmentfor the LDF Government’s fail-ure in meeting the promises.Election manifesto should havecredibility and feasibility.Political parties should offeronly what they could do,” saidRajan.

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Continuing with her “out-sider rhetoric”, Bengal

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said that thepeople of the State did not wantto see the face of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and“Duryodhanas andDushasanas” who come in histrail asking the people of theState to say “good bye” to theleaders whose sole job was topromote riots.

Launching a blisteringattack on the Prime Ministershe said “we don’t want to seethe face of Modi. We don’t wantrioters, looters to come toBengal … Say good bye to theBJP’s Duryodhanas andDushasanas,” who would tryeverything to win power inBengal.

Asking the people toremain on vigil --- against thevote looters --- not only beforeor during the poll but also thefull one month after it till thecounting takes place, the ChiefMinister said, “They will tryevery trick to rig the polls andeven the EVM machines and soyou will have to remain onguard for the whole monthafter the polls … at least 25people will be required to keepa watch on the strong roomswhere the EVMs will be kept.”

She asked the people to“ensure that the EVMs functionproperly,” adding “do not leavethe area if the EVM malfunc-tions… because it will be their

trick to make you return with-out voting… so hand aroundtill the EVMs are replaced andcast your vote and then gohome.”

The TMC chief had beenusing the “Bengali pride” as herpoll plank and had been con-stantly attacking the nationalBJP leaders as “outsiders whoare coming to Bengal to disturbpeace and engineer riots.”Asking the women to remainvigilant she said “if you findoutsiders roaming about yourarea then you don’t have to doanything … because you haveyour rolling pins and broomswith you.”

Saying the Prime Minister’sbid to rouse Bengali senti-ments by addressing the audi-ence in Bengali language theChief Minister said, “Modisays Kemon Acho Bangla (Howare you Bengal) not on his own,but by being guided by ateleprompter.” Calling thePrime Minister a “tukli master”(copycat) the Chief Ministersaid “poriborton (change) is aslogan used by me (during2011 Assembly elections)…and now they are stealing thisslogan. I want to ask why willyou steal my slogan … youcopycat?”

The Chief Minister wasspeaking at a rally at Egra inEast Midnapore. Raising onceagain the issue of her ankleinjury that she suffered duringa campaign at Nandigram onMarch 10, Banerjee who hasbeen using wheelchair while

addressing the crowds said“they (the BJP) thought thatthey will immobilize me byinjuring my leg … but I am adifferent metal. I have injuriesall over my body… I haveinjured, head, back… I haveoperations in my stomach …and still I can work continu-ously … no one can stop mefrom reaching my people.”

Apparently referring to theturncoat Trinamool Congressleaders including her opponentin Nandigram SuvenduAdhikari --- who switchedover to the BJP in the recentpast --- as Mirzafar (the trai-torgeneral of Nawab Siraj udDaulah of Plassey fame)Banerjee said “I blindly lovedthem … I trusted them butthey betrayed me … Theywere in touch with the BJPsince 2014 … they did all thesemischief behind my back …still I have full faith in my peo-ple who are the ultimate deci-sion makers.”

Attacking the BJP formaligning Bengal by raisingwomen’s issues she said the BJPshould first take a look at theBJP-ruled states like “UttarPradesh where women areraped and murdered… The

father of a rape victim waskilled recently.”

Referring to the BJP alle-gations of corruption againsther Government and party shesaid “when a poor man stealsRs 500 we punish him … butwhat about the BJP stealinglakhs of rupees in jumla, whatabout lakhs of cash being plun-dered in the name of selling ofPSUs? These thefts by BJPleaders are never known pub-licly… and then they come toBengal with all kinds of falsepromises and hopes … letthem know that Bengal is inpeace and prospering well.”Adhikari on the other handattack Banerjee for misusingthe administration and using“ghuspaitheye (intruders) andPakistanis” for electoral rigging.

Saying that Banerjee wasthe “queen of rigging” Adjikarisaid that the Chief Minister wasgetting furious because the ECwas blocking the path of rig-

ging. “The election will happenin a democratic way and that iswhy she is disturbed. Evennow she is misusing adminis-tration, police and using ghu-spaitheye (intruders) andPakistanis. Police is a mutespectator. But the people arewith us,” he said.

Meanwhile, a BJP delega-tion on Friday appealed to theElection Commission to putBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on notice forindulging in misinformationcampaign not only against thePrime Minister Narendra Modiand Home Minister Amit Shahbut also trying to subvert thereputation of ElectionCommission by peddling liesagainst it.

“We have brought to theattention of the ElectionCommission how ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee isspreading misinformationabout BJP leaders like Prime

Minister Narendra Modi ji andAmit Shah ji … we have toldthe Commission how she istelling that Amit Shah ji is con-trolling the EC … this is adirect affront on the credibili-ty of the poll panel … this isaimed at diminishing the peo-ple’s faith in the Commissionand we have requested the ECto take appropriate action asper the election laws and putthe Chief Minister on notice,”BJP leader and Union MinisterDebashree Chowdhury said.

The Commission was alsotold about how the ChiefMinister was trying to drawsympathy from the people bytelling that the BJP was behindthe ankle injury she received atNandigram on March 10.

“This is in sharp contrast towhat the EC said … it said thatthe Chief Minister receivedthe injury in an accident” andnot in an attack the BJP leader said.

Mumbai: The MaharashtraAnti Terrorism Squad (ATS),which is probing the death ofThane businessman MankukhHiran, is likely to seek custodyof arrested-suspended AssistantPolice Inspector Sachin Vazefrom the Special NIA Court,official sources said on Friday.

Official sources said thatthe ATS has collected sufficientevidences in the case for whichVaze's custody may be requiredand for this, it will approach the

Special NIA Court.Earlier on Friday, the ATS

opposed the anticipatory bailplea of Vaze - currently in theNIA custody till March 25 - ata hearing before the ThaneSessions Court.

The anticipatory bail plea- which was filed by Vazebefore his arrest and subse-quent suspension - had comeup for hearing on March 12when the court declined anyrelief, but served notice to the

state government and posted itfor hearing on March 19.

After a brief hearing thisafternoon, the Thane courthas now posted the matter forfurther hearing on March 30.

The NIA is probing theSUV case involving the aban-doned Scorpio found nearindustrialist Mukesh Ambani'shome on Feb 25 along with 20gelatin sticks and a threat note,while the ATS is handling theHiran death case. IANS

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Spate of protests within theBJP continued throughout

Bengal even as the saffronworkers protesting againstnomination of “corrupt turn-coats” from the TMC van-dalised party offices torchedfurniture and blocked roads.

Reports of violent protests,sloganeering and road block-ades came in fromHarishchandrapur, Malda,Sujapur, Fazol in Malda dis-trict, Chakulia, Karandighiand Raiganj in North Dinajpurdistrict, Jalpaiguri, Burdwan

east, Purbasthali,Pandabeshwar— from whereTMC turncoat Jitendra Tiwariis fighting, Bally — from whereBaishali Dalmiya former TMCMLA and the daughter of lateBCCI president JagmohanDalmiya is contesting ---Ranaghat North East and otherplaces sources said.

Party office was vandalizedat Harishchandrapur wherethe old-timers alleged “theBJP leadership has providedtickets in lieu of cash to theTMC turncoats who are down-right corrupt people andagainst whom we had been

fighting all these years.”Even as Mamata pooh-

poohed the saffron outfit for“fielding the borrowed candi-dates from Trinamool,” remind-ing how “relieved I am havinggot rid of the black sheep andtraitors who have now becomethe headache of the BJP” StateBJP spokesperson SamikBhattacharya said “such thingshappen in bigger parties …this is a sign that the BJP is grow-ing and the people’s aspirationsaround this party is increasing… things will die down soonand all will work together to oustthe Trinamool from Bengal.”

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ArrayBengaluru: RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) highestdecision-making body Akhil BharatiyaPratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) commencedits two-day meeting here on Fridaywhich will end with the election of thenew sarkaryavah (General Secretary)on Saturday.

While, this will be the seventhABPS meeting in Karnataka, but forBengaluru, the city will be the first oneto elect a new sarkaryavah outside theRSS-based headquarter in Nagpur.

RSS Sarsanghchalak MohanBhagwat and current SarkaryavahSuresh aka Bhaiyyaji Joshi offered flo-ral tributes to the portrait of 'BharatMata' heralding the commencement ofthe meeting. Bhaiyyaji's term expires onFriday.

The ABPS meets once in a year andalso elects the Sarkaryavah who is thetop executive head, with each term hav-ing three years, every third year. TheABPS' election meeting is being regu-larly held in Nagpur but this year dueto the Covid pandemic, it has beenshifted to Bengaluru. The 2019 ABPSwas held in Gwalior, while the 2020meeting was scheduled in Bengalurubut was cancelled in the wake of thepandemic.

The number of participants hasbeen reduced to 450 from 1,500 as partof the Covid protocol. The remainingdelegates will participate in the ABPSmeeting from their respective statesthrough videoconferencing.

"This year the ABPS was scheduledin Nagpur but due to the spike inCovid-19 cases, it was later shifted toBengaluru," said Manmohan Vaidya,Sah Sarkaryavah of the RSS.

The RSS has 11 zones calledkshetras which are further organised as44 working units called prants(regions). Many delegates from thesekshetras and prants will attend theABPS online.

The two-day Akhil BharatiyaKaryakari Mandal meeting that con-cluded on March 18 in Bengaluru hasdecided the agenda of the ABPS and theresolutions to be presented and passed.

Vaidya said the ABPS meets everyyear to deliberate on the year gone byand plan for the next year.

"The ABPS will review its activitiesof 2020 and plan for the coming year'sprogrammes besides electing the newSarkaryavah for the next three years. Theparticipants will also deliberate onexpansion of Sangh work and the organ-isational activities," he added. IANS

Guwahati: Assam Minister and BJP'spointsman in the northeasternregion, Himanta Biswa Sarmaaccompanied by the Chief Ministersof Assam and Manipur as well as topparty leaders, on Friday submitted hisnomination papers for the Jalukbariseat. The Congress turned saffronparty leader was elected from here forthree consecutive terms until 2016.

Sarma, who holds the Finance,Health, Education, PWD and otherportfolios, had won the seat by a mar-gin of over 85,000 votes in 2016.

Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal, his Manipurcounterpart N.Biren Singh, BJP'snational Vice-President BaijayantJay Panda, Union Minister RameswarTeli, a host of other senior leaders leda mega roadshow when Sarma sub-

mitted his candidature for theJalukbari seat at the DeputyCommissioner's office at Panbazar inGuwahati.

Jalukbari will go to the polls onApril 6 in the third phase.

Convener of the BJP-led anti-Congress alliance of regional parties-- North East Democratic Alliance(NEDA), Sarma, who was alsoaccompanied by his wife RinikiBhuyan Sharma and son Nandil, hasbeen winning this seat since 2001 asthe Congress nominee before hejoined the BJP in 2015.

"I expect that the winning mar-gin would be increased this time andwould be in between 1,20,000 to1,50,000," Sarma told the media.

Sarma since last year off and onsaid that he would not contest the

elections but latter agreed to fight thepolls fuelling debate on the BJP's chiefministerial candidate in Assam as theparty has been non-committal ondeclaring incumbent CM SarbanandaSonowal, as its CM candidate. Aheadof the rally, Sarma offered prayers atthe famous Kamakhya Devi Temple,which was rebuilt in 1565 by Kochking Naranarayana and is one of the51 holy and venerated sites in India.

Thousand of BJP supportersplayed musical instruments to greetSarma while hundreds of women, incolourful attires, performed thefamous Bihu dance on the 2-kmstretch from Sonaram High Schoolfield at Bharalumukh to the deputycommissioner's office at Panbazarwhich the rally covered in a span ofthree hours. IANS

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Jaipur: Chief Minister AshokGehlot has expressed seriousconcern over the danger of sec-ond wave of Covid-19 epi-demic in the State and hasdirected all health and admin-istrative officials to make avail-able the resources available forcontrol of the epidemic basedon their old experience.

Use it. Re-tighten the rulesof over-testing, crowd control,wearing masks, frequent handwashing, and social distanceprotection from corona.

Gehlot was addressing areview meeting on Thursdayabout the condition of coronainfection through video con-ference at the Chief Minister'sresidence. He said that the

increase of 3 times the positiverate of corona contraction in aweek is very worrying.

He said that on the basis of

our shared experience of fight-ing corona during the last oneyear, we have to save the peo-ple from danger of secondwave. For this, discussions willbe held with various politicalparties, social organisations,activists and religious leadersetc. He said that we have beenable to successfully fight thewar against Corona so far bytaking all sides together andwith mutual coordination.

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Thiruvananthapuram: Barely a fewhours after Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan attacked the globali-sation and liberalisation policies of theCongress and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), Leader of OppositionRamesh Chennithala on Friday said itis laughable to hear the Chief Ministermake such a comment.

"We were all laughing hearingVijayan speaking to the media on theill-effects of globalisation and liberal-isation and then claiming to be the onlystate in the country which is fighting it.This could well go down as the biggestjoke during the election time," saidChennithala.

Earlier in the day, Vijayan said,"Today there is a 'Kerala Model' tie-upbetween the Congress and the BJPwhich is now spreading canards againstthe ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF)government. The Left has taken analternate route for overall developmentwhich is not what these two outfits didafter the Congress started with the lib-eralisation policies and now followed bythe BJP. We have taken a different routeand hence these people are spreadingcanards against us, but the people of

Kerala have seen what has happened inthe past five years under our govern-ment."

Chennithala said if one looks intothe various actions by Vijayan, one canreally find out what Vijayan is. One ofthe misdeeds committed by him was toreveal all the health data of the peopleof Kerala to a US-based marketing firm'Sprinklr' and all the rules are applica-ble in a court of law in the US only.

"He was getting ready to allow theopening of an office of multinationalconsulting company PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) in the state.Then he went to the London StockExchange and rang the bell for listingof a masala bond of the KeralaInfrastructure Investment Fund Board(KIIFB) which was followed by the lit-eral sale of Kerala seas to a US firm,"the Congress leader added.

"It's indeed laughable to hearVijayan say his government is fightingglobalisation and liberalisation byengaging in the above acts which iscompletely against the Communistideology. On the eve of the elections,Vijayan is taking people for a ride," saidChennithala. IANS

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The Telangana Remote Sensing Application Centre (TRAC) has developed aplant growth monitoring system.The system was presented to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other senior

officials during a meeting on plantationS on Friday.The system facilitates in identifying potential avenue, block and individual

sites for plantations through high resolution satellite data. The TRAC has alsocreated a portal through which potential plantation site information can beaccessed through mobile. A dashboard containing total information about theplantation was also developed.

The Chief Secretary congratulated the TRAC team headed by Srinivas Reddyfor doing an excellent job and observed that this can usher in real change in thefield. He observed that this system will be a game changer, is very timely and insync with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's vision of making the state green.

It would help the officials to focus on multi-layer avenue plantation, inchby inch plantation along the lakes, roads and scattered lands so as to ensure thatno area is left vacant, he added.

Special Chief Secretary, Forest, Shanti Kumari, Principal Secretary, MA &UD, Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, IT, Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, PR&RD,Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Principal Cchief Conservator of Forests, R. Sobha,Principal Secretary, Finance, Ronald Rose, and other officials attended the meet-ing. TRAC develops plant growth monitoring system.

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Producers Group, formed bythe women of Bundelkhand,has achieved a turnover of �46crore and a profit of �2 croredespite the pandemic, is trulyinspiring. Many such innova-tive efforts by the State’s youthand women are becoming thefoundation for realising thedream of a “self-reliant UP”.

As UP takes rapid stridestowards self-sufficiency, it isnoteworthy that 40 lakh fam-ilies got houses and 1.38 croregot electricity connections injust four years. Besides, workon the optical fibre network inthe countryside is taking placeon a war-footing. The basis ofour rapid progress is our solideffort to establish world-classconnectivity. Also, zero toler-ance on corruption, a transpar-ent work culture and robustlaw and order have created aconducive environment forbusiness and development.The result is that UP is the firstchoice for the investors today.Within four years, the Statehas risen to number two in thenational ranking of “Ease ofDoing Business”. The per capi-ta income in 2015-16 wasjust �47,116, which has risenup to �94,495 now. On thebasis of GSDP, UP hasemerged as the second largesteconomy of the country.

Four years ago, our

Government’s journey of pub-lic welfare started with thewaiving of farmer loans.Today, our growers are mov-ing towards agricultural diver-sification by connecting withadvanced technology. We areleaving no stone unturned toreduce their costs and doubletheir income. The StateGovernment has completedseveral irrigation projects thathad been pending for decades.We have made a record pay-ment of �1.27 lakh crore tothe sugarcane farmers to date.The prosperity of farmers isone of our top priorities.

Our policies are clear interms of both faith and econ-omy. In our policies, bothexpressions have a parallelmovement. Today, I am gladto report that cultural nation-alism illuminates the heart ofevery believer in UP. The‘Ganga Yatra’ helped fulfill theobjectives of both faith andeconomy. Similarly, the much-awaited laying of the founda-tion stone for the grand Ramtemple in Ayodhya took placein 2020. Our Government’svision is to present Ayodhyaas the meeting point of theVedic and modern cultures onthe global stage.

The Prime Minister hasshown us the path of “Sabkasaath, sabka vikas, sabka vish-

was”. As our Governmentcompletes four years in office,I am happy that we are reli-giously following this path.Our political opponents alsobelieve that there has notbeen a single case of discrim-ination in the last four years onthe basis of caste or religion.

Some time ago, when wecalled UP a State of possibili-ties, some people mocked ussaying that nothing could hap-pen here. But today, thedreams of the State are com-ing true due to our determina-tion to do the larger good. Thelast four years have witnessedthe emergence of “New India’sNew UP”. Four years ago, theState, which was known as aBIMARU State both within thecountry and abroad, is settingexamples of progress for oth-ers to emulate. The State is thesame, the resources and theworkers are also the same, butthe work culture has changed.

This committed, trans-parent work culture withdedicated spirit is the hall-mark of this new UP. Nomatter how big the chal-lenges are, no matter how dif-ficult the road may be, thiseternal journey in the largerinterest of the people willcontinue.

(The writer is the ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh.)

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Completing four years ofour solemn pledge tomeet the aspirationsof the 24 crore people

of Uttar Pradesh (UP), I feel thatour services for the well-beingof the State and its people haveencouraged us to continuedoing good work. It’s my firmbelief today that it is not diffi-cult to achieve your goals byworking with dedication, hon-esty and purity of intention.

A year of intense strugglewith the COVID-19 pandemichas passed. It has been a greatlearning experience. I rememberthe day of the “Janata curfew”when the President and the Vice-President spoke to me on thephone and collected informationabout the State’s preparedness inthe midst of the deepening cri-sis. They were concerned abouthow UP would cope with theglobal pandemic with its weakhealth infrastructure, dense pop-ulation and geographical diver-sity. Nevertheless, I assured themthat UP would do its best to con-tain the virus and we eventuallydid. Strictly following PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s “test-ing and tracing” mantra, wemoved on with a well-definedstrategy on the ground to containthe virus on the one hand andsave lives and livelihoods on theother. Both the residents andmigrants have been taken care ofduring this crisis. We were sen-sitive towards the problems facedby our migrant workers in themetros and tried to help them asmuch as we could. We also triedto help the workers from otherStates while fulfilling the needsof UP’s residents. It gives meimmense satisfaction to say thatevery section of society united-ly fought the epidemic. TheCOVID management by UPwas appreciated globally. And itwon’t be an exaggeration to saythat the pandemic has seen theemergence of a new, vibrant UPon the national platform.

Uttar Pradesh is committedto contributing substantiallytowards the Prime Minister’svision of making the country a $5trillion economy through self-reliance. In this context, the man-ner in which the Balinee Milk

SOUNDBITE����������� ������������Sir — The induced, if not forced, resigna-tion of Pratap Bhanu Mehta from theAshoka University has come as a worryingdevelopment. We are disheartened that thishas happened in a prestigious institutionthat is held in great esteem for its intellec-tual exertions and output.

Economist Arvind Subramanian, whoquit the university in solidarity with his illus-trious colleague, has described Ashoka’sinability to provide a space for academicfreedom and expression to the faculty asominously disturbing. What good is a uni-versity if it is unable to protect its autono-my and academic freedom and keep itsintegrity intact to do what it is supposed todo?

That the private university could notaccommodate such a gem of a professor asMehta says a lot about the times we live in.A university is a centre for critical thinking,creativity and originality and not an arm ofthe Government of the day. As such, the rea-son cited for the high-profile exit — Mehta’sintellectual interventions do not suit the“current political environment” — is anencroachment on academic freedom.

A pre-eminent political theorist andcommentator who has a mind of his own,the courage of his convictions and isn’t afraidto say what he thinks, Mehta cannot beexpected to sing from the hymn book in theruling dispensation’s hands. He has showngreat strength of character and spoken thetruth to power. The shrinking space for pub-lic intellectuals aborts wide diversity of opin-ion and renders democracy poorer. It is timewe wake up to the seriousness of the situ-ation and guard against the threats to ourhard-won rights and freedom.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

����� �� ������������ �Sir — The World Sparrow Day is the dayto redeem our pledge to save this beautifulbird from getting extinct. There are manykinds of sparrows but the house sparrow isthe most common. They are famous forgreeting us with their musical notes earlyin the morning. We must raise awareness

and protect the common house sparrows,which are not so commonly seen now.

The house sparrow is believed to bedeclining for various reasons, ranging fromthe destruction of its habitat to lack of foodfor the young and even the increasing wavepollution from mobile phone towers. Onthis day, we must undertake sparrow mon-itoring in and around our homes. We mustspend at least 15 minutes observing the birdfrom a location in our house, neighbour-hood garden or terrace and count the num-ber of sparrows. We must also rope in kidsand ask them to keep a bowl of water andgrains for the sparrows to feed on.

Jubel D’Cruz | Mumbai

����������� ����� ���� ���Sir — The recent surge in the number ofCOVID-19 cases in some parts of India,particularly in Maharashtra, clearly

points towards a grim situation and pos-sibly the beginning of a second wave.Needless to say, the crisis is far fromover, and the road ahead is long and dif-ficult. The war against the pandemic isnowhere its end and needs to be carriedforward more vigorously by way ofincreasing testing, vaccination on warfooting and strictly adhering to standardsafety protocols for COVID.

Also, we must take all necessary pre-cautions to keep infection at bay and mustwear face masks and sanitise our hands. Wemust also maintain proper social distanc-ing and avoid crowding public spaces.Remember, masks work best when every-one wears one.

Ramesh G Jethwani | Bengaluru

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Reports have been coming in from variousplaces in Delhi and Gurugram of presi-dents of Residents’ Welfare Associations

(RWAs) and their satellites and sub-satellitesharassing and assaulting people feeding andlooking after stray dog.

They clearly do so because they hate straydogs and, therefore, those who look after them.They hate stray dogs because they fear them.Fear leads to hatred. Both fear and hatred cloudreason, blur the line between fact and fictionand send morbid imaginations soaring, project-ing stray dogs as monsters, attacking and killingchildren, hurting adults and spreading rabieswhich, once contracted, causes death.

People get paranoid about rabies because ofthe highly exaggerated figures of its incidencein circulation. For example, the survey Assessingthe Burden of Rabies in India: The World HealthOrganisation (WHO)-sponsored multi-centricrabies survey, 2003, by the Association for thePrevention and Control of Rabies in India, putsthe annual number of human deaths fromrabies in the country at 20,565.

The survey is flawed on many counts. It ismerely a projected estimate and not the totalof recorded deaths from hospitals in variousparts of the country. The sample is very small.The actual figures are very different. Since 2005,the Union Government’s Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare’s Central Bureau of HealthIntelligence (CBHI) has been annually publish-ing a National Health Profile for the country.According to its 2018 edition, there were 97cases of human deaths from rabies countrywidein 2017.

According to the relevant preceding annu-al National Health Profiles, there were 86human deaths from rabies in 2016, 113 in 2015,125 in 2014 and 132 in 2013. Going back fur-ther in time, there were 386, 365 and 485 deathsfrom rabies in 1997, 1998 and 1999 respective-ly. The number was 486 in 2000 and 488 in2001.

Clearly, the facts are very different from pro-jected estimates! Nor are stray dogs ferociousand intrinsically malevolent creatures foreverready to lunge at humans. Erich Fromm wrotein his landmark work, Anatomy of HumanDestructiveness, “Man is the only mammal whois a large-scale killer and a sadist.”

Indulgence in destruction and cruelty canalways cause a man to feel “intense satisfaction.”Animals, he states, “do not enjoy inflicting painor suffering on other animals. Sometimes ananimal seems to display sadistic behaviour —for instance a cat playing with a mouse; but itis an anthropomorphic interpretation that thecat enjoys the suffering of the mouse; any fast-moving object can serve as (a) plaything,whether a mouse of a ball of wool.”

He adds, “Man’s history is a record of extra-ordinary destructiveness and cruelty andhuman aggression, it seems, far surpasses thatof man’s animal ancestors, and man is in con-trast to most animals, a real killer.”

Dogs are animals, and share their funda-mental attributes. More, far from being inim-ical to humans, they display an instinctive ten-

dency to be friendly. As KonradLorenz wrote in Man Meets Dog,“The whole charm of the dog liesin the depth of the friendship andstrength of the spiritual ties withwhich he has bound himself toman….”

Blinded by hatred, people donot see this and demand themass killing and removal of straydogs, which several WHO docu-ments like the Technical ReportSeries 931, Technical Report Series824 and Guidelines for DogPopulation Management (which itissued along with the WorldSociety for the Protection ofAnimals), show will be counter-productive.

As the WHO has repeatedlystated, the only way to controlstray dog population is to imple-ment the canine animal birthcontrol programme under whichstray dogs are removed from

their habitats and brought backthere after neutering and vaccina-tion.

Given the fact that dogs areterritorial and guard their turfszealously, they would, on theirreturn, keep out other dogs thathave not been vaccinated andneutered, which can then betaken up area-wise.

Stray dog-haters should knowall this. The Animal Birth Control(Dog) Rules, the legal bedrock ofthe animal birth control pro-gramme in India, were original-ly enacted as early as December2001.

The only explanation of theimperviousness of their heads toinformation and logic, and theirinsistence on mass killing orremoval of stray dogs, is a desirefor genocide.

A person calling for the masskilling of a category of people

would be severely condemned ina sane, democratic society andaction taken to forestall hisdesign.

On the other hand, a call fora genocide of stray dogs may notonly not attract condemnation buteven allow the person concernedto strut about as a great defend-er of human civilisation againstmonsters in canine form.

Finally, stray dog-haters haveshown their proneness to violencethrough their attacks on peoplecaring for these canines. Since thelaws of the land stand in the wayof the implementation of theiragenda of exterminating straydogs, their desire for mass killingmay well target humans.

They may not be able to per-petrate a genocide, but may causeviolence and/or individual mur-ders. They pose a greater threat tosociety than any stray dog.

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The introduction of tech-nology in the Indianagriculture sector

occurred in a systematicmanner during the GreenRevolution. At that time, itsaim was to attain self-suffi-ciency by increasing the over-all yield. However, the goal-post was gradually shiftedfrom food security to foodsafety in the last decade.

Extensive researches haverevealed the direct impact oframpant adulteration on thehealth of consumers. At thesame time, an expandingpopulation means that foodsecurity can’t be ignored.Consequently, there is now apressing demand for increas-ing food safety while ensur-ing that overall yields arenot impacted.

Precision farming couldoffer a solution to these chal-lenges by ensuring food safe-ty in a planned and efficient

way and by streamlining pro-duction in a sustainable andcost-effective manner. Itinvolves an extremely precisemethodology to increase theaverage yields with minimalchemical traces. An informa-tion and technology-basedfarm management system, itis employed to identify,analyse as well as managespatial and temporal vari-ability in agriculture. Themain aim of precision farm-ing is to achieve optimumproductivity, efficiency, sus-tainability and protection ofland resources by minimisingproduction costs. It entails theusage of several disruptivedevices and the smart appli-cation of big data to offer sig-nificant results.

Global PositioningSystem (GPS): A navigationtool based on the positioningof longitudes and latitudes,GPS allows farmers to locate

the exact spot on the field foracquiring information such assoil type, pest presence, weedinvasion, water holes, bound-aries and obstructions.Additionally, with the help ofreliable location identifica-tion, adequate inputs —seeds, fertilisers, pesticides orherbicides — can be suppliedto the field, simultaneouslyboosting the overall perfor-mance of the farm and curb-ing the concerns of over orunder supplementation ofthe crop.

Sensor technologies:Primarily used for measuringfactors like humidity, vegeta-tion, temperature, texture,structure, nutrient level,vapour presence, these tech-nologies have multiple ele-ments such as electromagnet-ic conductivity, photo elec-tricity and ultrasound. Thedata obtained via remotesensing is used to differenti-

ate crop species, pinpointstress conditions, locate pestsand weeds, monitor droughtand check the health of bothsoil as well as of the plant.One of the main reasonsbehind the popularity of sen-sors is that they are time-sav-ing, efficient and provideimmense amount of datawithout the help of laborato-ry analysis.

Crop management: Notwo pieces of land are the

same, nor are two regionswithin a field similar. Eachportion has its own specificneeds; some might have highnutritional content, whileother parts might require lessirrigation. Satellite data helpsfarmers in gaining an in-depth understanding of thevariation in soil health andtopography that affect cropyield within the field. Withthe availability of such infor-mation, farmers can precise-ly manage factors linked withproduction, thus simultane-ously increasing the quality aswell as quantity of the pro-duce.

Yield monitors: A com-bination of various compo-nents, it includes sensors,data storage devices, userinterface-friendly keypad anddisplays along with a centralcomputing system that con-trols the interaction of allthese elements. The grain

flow sensors are used to mea-sure the mass or volume ofthe grains. A recent develop-ment in these sensors hasintroduced the system oftransmitting microwave ener-gy beams to measure theportion of the energy thatbounces back after hitting theseeds. Yield monitors alsoinclude devices that keeptrack of weight, moisture andother crucial parameters.

Rate controllers: Theseare devices that are meticu-lously designed to curb thepresence of chemical ele-ments such as fertilisers andpesticides, either in liquid orgranular form. Their functionis to keep a check on thespeed of the sprayers usedacross the field. These toolseven monitor the rate andpressure of liquid chemicalsand make real time adjust-ments during the time ofapplication.

Food safety has gainedparamount importance inrecent times. Consumers areopting for fresh fruits andvegetables, which are residue-free, organic or have minimalchemical content. Precisionfarming methods tend tobenefit both the parties — thebuyers and the sellers. Asthese procedures help inreducing the usage of fertilis-ers and pesticides, they makethe product safe for con-sumption. On the other hand,it helps farmers draw opti-mum results from theirresources. It enables them toenhance the quality andquantity of their output. It issafe to say that precisionfarming is the one-stop solu-tion to numerous agrarianchallenges faced by the coun-try. Its thoughtful adoptionwill remarkably work towardsstreamlining the agriculturesector.

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POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The writer is aConsulting Editor with

The Pioneer.The views expressed

are personal.

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US Secretary of State TonyBlinken has bluntly told

China’s top diplomats thatBeijing’s actions have threat-ened the rules-based orderthat maintains global stability,as the two sides exchangedsharp rebukes in public duringtheir first in-person high-levelmeeting since President JoeBiden took office.

The talks involvedSecretary of State AntonyBlinken and National SecurityAdviser Jake Sullivan on the USside, facing off with China’s topforeign policy official, YangJiechi, and foreign ministerWang Yi. In his openingremarks to the much-antici-pated US-China talks beingheld in Anchorage, Alaska, on

Thursday, Blinken said thatthe issues to be raised by hisdelegation are relevant notonly to the two countries but toothers across the region andindeed around the world.

The Biden administration,Blinken asserted, is committedto leading with diplomacy toadvance the interests of theUnited States and to strength-en the rules-based interna-tional order.

“That system is not anabstraction. It helps countriesresolve differences peacefully,coordinate multilateral efforts

effectively, and participate inglobal commerce with the assur-ance that everyone is followingthe same rules,” Blinken said.

“The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in whichmight makes right and winnerstake all, and that would be a farmore violent and unstableworld for all of us,” he said.

At the first-ever meeting ofthe Quad last week, USPresident Joe Biden, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,Australian Prime MinisterScott Morrision and JapanesePrime Minister Yoshihide Sugasaid they were committed topromoting a free, open, rules-based order, rooted in inter-national law to advance secu-rity and prosperity and counterthreats to both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

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China said on Friday a“strong smell of gunpow-

der and drama” resulted fromtalks with top American diplo-mats in Alaska, continuing thecontentious tone of the firstface-to-face meetings underthe Biden administration.

Foreign Ministryspokesman Zhao Lijian, speak-ing in Beijing, said Americanofficials at the Alaska meetingshad provoked Chinese offi-cials into making a “solemnresponse” after US officialsmade “groundless attacks”against Chinese foreign anddomestic policies.

Secretary of State AntonyBlinken and ChineseCommunist Party foreignaffairs chief Yang Jiechi tookaim at each other’s country’spolicies on Thursday in theirmeeting in Anchorage.

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Two more journalists weredetained in Myanmar on

Friday, part of the junta’s inten-sifying efforts to choke offinformation about resistance tolast month’s coup.

Mizzima News reportedthat one of its former reporters,Than Htike Aung, and AungThura, a journalist from theBBC’s Burmese-language ser-vice, were detained by menwho appeared to be plain-clothes security agents outsidea court in the capital ofNaypyitaw. The journalistswere there to cover legal pro-ceedings against Win Htein, a

detained senior official fromthe National League forDemocracy, the party that ranthe country before the takeover.

The coup reversed years ofslow progress toward democ-racy after five decades of mili-

tary rule. In the face of persis-tent strikes and protests againstthe takeover, the junta hasresponded with an increasing-ly violent crackdown and effortsto severely limit informationreaching the outside world.

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Confusion over what exact-ly happened during recent

attacks on factories inMyanmar has highlighted thecomplex and troubled nature ofthe country’s relations withChina amid a broad publicbacklash against a February 1coup.

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The Taliban warnedWashington on Friday

against defying a May 1 dead-line for the withdrawal ofAmerican and NATO troopsfrom Afghanistan, promising a“reaction,” which could meanincreased attacks by the insur-gent group.

The Taliban issued theirwarning at a press conferencein Moscow, the day after meet-ing with senior Afghan gov-ernment negotiators and inter-national observers to try tojumpstart a stalled peaceprocess to end Afghanistan’sdecades of war.

President Joe Biden’sadministration says it is review-

ing an agreement the Talibansigned with the Trump admin-istration. Biden told ABC in aninterview Wednesday that theMay 1 deadline “could happen,but it is tough,” adding that ifthe deadline is extended itwon’t be by “a lot longer.”

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The Kremlin said on Fridaythat President Vladimir

Putin’s offer to speak by phonewith US President Joe Bidenwas intended to prevent bilat-eral ties from completely fallingapart over the American’sremark that the Russian leaderwas a killer.

Putin made it clear that “itmakes sense to have a talk tomaintain Russia-US Relationsinstead of trading barbs,” and hewanted to make it public to help

defuse tensions over Biden’s“very bad remarks,” said hisspokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

In an interview broadcastWednesday, Biden replied “Ido” when asked if he thoughtPutin was a “killer.” Russiaresponded by recalling itsambassador in Washington forconsultations and Putin onThursday pointed at the USHistory of slavery, slaughteringNative Americans and theatomic bombing of Japan inWorld War II in an “it-takes-one-to-know-one” response.

Dar Es Salaam: Samia SuluhuHassan, 61, made history Fridaywhen she was sworn in asTanzania’s first female presidentat State House, the governmentoffices in Dar es Salaam, thecountry’s largest city.

Wearing a hijab and hold-ing up a Quran with her righthand, Hassan took the oath ofoffice, administered by ChiefJustice Ibrahim Jumavowing, in

which she vowed to uphold theEast African country’s consti-tution. AP

Atlanta: One was new mother taking a rare breakfrom caring for her baby girl. Another was anArmy veteran who installed security systems inthe Atlanta area.

They were among eight people killed Tuesdayin shootings at three metro Atlanta massage busi-nesses. Police have charged a 21-year-old manwith the slayings.

Seven of the slain were women, and six ofthem were of Asian descent. Authorities have notreleased all of the victims’ names but did iden-tify 33-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun, 54-year-old Paul Andre Michels, 44-year-old DaoyouFeng and 49-year-old Xiaojie Tan, who ownedone of the massage businesses. AP

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Berlin: The scientistwho won the race todeliver the first widelyused coronavirus vac-cine says people can restassured the shots aresafe, and the technologybehind it will soon beused to fight anotherglobal scourge — cancer.

Ozlem Tureci, whoco-founded theGerman companyBioNTech with her husband, was working on away to harness the body’s immune system to tack-le tumors when they learned last year of anunknown virus infecting people in China.

Over breakfast, the couple decided to applythe technology they’d been researching for twodecades to the new threat, dubbing the effort“Project Lightspeed.” AP

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Jakarta: Indonesian PresidentJoko Widodo on Friday urgeda halt to violence in Myanmarand asked the fellow leaders ofSoutheast Asian countries tohold a summit on the crisis.

“Indonesia urges that the useof violence in Myanmar bestopped immediately to avoidmore victims,” Widodo told atelevised address, offering hiscondolences to the victims andtheir families. More than 200people have been killed by secu-rity forces since the February 1coup, according to credible tallies.Nearly 2,000 have been jailed.

Widodo, the leader ofSoutheast Asia's largest economy,said that he will immediately con-tact the sultan of Brunei, whichholds the rotating presidency of

the 10-member Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations, to setup an ASEAN summit to addressMyanmar's turmoil.

Widodo's comments cameafter ASEAN foreign ministersheld their first meeting earlythis month since the coup,which deposed Myanmarleader Aung San Suu Kyi andher allies.

Brunei issued its own chair-man's statement after the min-isters apparently failed to agreeon a declaration in the meetingwhere Myanmar's top diplomatbriefed them during a videoconference. It said the ministerscalled on all parties in Myanmarto refrain from instigating fur-ther violence and start talks ona peaceful solution. AP

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Vehicle Scrappage policywill provide a fillip to auto-

motive industry volumes andspur demand for new vehicles,rating agency ICRA said onFriday.

The voluntary vehiclescrapping policy announced inthe Union Budget for 2021-22provides for fitness tests after20 years for personal vehicles,while commercial ones wouldrequire it after the completionof 15 years.

"The Government of Indiaannounced the much-awaitedscrappage policy yesterday,

which along with several othersupporting measuresannounced over the past fewmonths, is expected to pro-gressively remove unfit vehiclesfrom the road.

This would simultaneous-ly spur replacement demand inthe ecosystem, thereby aug-menting new vehicle demandas well," ICRA said in a state-ment.

As announced by theFinance Minister during theBudget speech in February2021, the policy would be vol-untary in nature.

The mandatory fitnesstest requirement would beapplicable for heavy commer-cial vehicles from April 2023and for other vehicles pro-gressively from June 2024.

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The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) continued to remain

net buyer of the US dollar inJanuary after it bought USD2.854 billion from the spotmarket, the data showed.

In the reporting month,RBI purchased USD 18.225billion and sold USD 15.371billion in the spot market, theRBI said in its monthly bulletinfor March 2021.

In December 2020, RBInet purchased USD 3.991 bil-lion from the spot market.

In January 2020, RBI wasa net buyer of USD 10.266 bil-lion. It had purchased USD11.486 billion and sold USD1.22 billion during the month.

In FY20, the central bankhad net purchased USD 45.097billion. It had bought USD72.205 billion and sold USD

27.108 billion in the spot mar-ket.

In the forward dollar mar-ket, the outstanding net pur-chase at the end of January was

USD 47.383 billion, comparedwith net purchase of USD39.792 billion in December, thedata showed.

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Harvesting of wheat andother rabi crops have been

completed in 44 per cent of thetotal 697 lakh hectares sownarea during 2020-21 rabi sea-son, according to data releasedby the agriculture ministry onFriday.

Harvesting of rabi (winter)crops begins from March. Themain rabi crop is wheat.

As per the ministry’s data,wheat crop has been harvestedin 64.96 lakh hectares, 21 percent of the estimated total cul-tivated area of 315.77 lakhhectares during the rabi seasonof the 2020-21 crop year (July-June). Pulses like gramhave been harvested in 106.07lakh hectares, 67 per cent of thetotal sown area of 158.09 lakhhectares in the season.

The ministry said pulsescrops are reported to be ingood condition. In case ofoilseeds, harvesting has beencompleted in 72.71 per cent oftotal estimated cultivated areaof 80.01 lakh hectares duringthe season and the crops’ con-dition is reported to be normal.

Harvesting of coarse cere-al crops like jowar have beenfinished in 64 per cent of thetotal cultivated area of 49.22lakh hectares.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday urged

advanced economies to scaleup their climate change financ-ing commitments and helpemerging countries build cli-mate resilient infrastructure.

She said India hasannounced a NationalInfrastructure Pipeline (NIP)consisting of nearly 7,000 pro-

jects and the government hasadopted the route of revivingthe economy through buildinginfrastructure.

Sitharaman said the gov-ernment is also looking at var-ious routes for funding infra-structure, including by way ofinfrastructure debt fund ornational bank for fundinginfrastructure, which wouldbe taken up by Parliamentsoon.

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Equity benchmarks Sensexand Nifty regained footing

on Friday after five days of loss-es as investors snapped upRIL, FMCG and IT stockseven as global markets tumbledamid concerns over rising USTreasury yields.

Participants shrugged offa spurt in COVID-19 cases inmultiple states, though reim-position of localised lockdownscan pose a threat to economicrecovery, traders said.

After opening with signif-icant losses, the 30-share BSESensex made a U-turn to end641.72 points or 1.30 per centhigher at 49,858.24. On sim-ilar lines, the broader NSENifty surged 186.15 points or1.28 per cent to finish at 14,744.

NTPC was the top gainerin the Sensex pack, rallying4.58 per cent, followed byHUL, PowerGrid, RelianceIndustries, ITC, UltraTechCement and HCL Tech.

Index heavyweight

Reliance Industries accountedfor the lion’s share of the gains.On the other hand, L&T, TechMahindra, Bajaj Auto andTitan were among the lag-gards, slipping up to 1.20 percent.

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The initiatives taken by thegovernment in the 2021-

22 Union Budget will step-upgrowth momentum in themedium term, according to anRBI article.

"The Union Budget2021-22 strikes the right chordby prioritising counter-cycli-cal investment-led fiscal sup-port to post-COVID recoveryin growth," said the article on

the assessment of the UnionBudget. The inbuilt reformspackage which includes pri-vatisation, asset monetisation,new initiatives on long-termfinancing of infrastructureand clean-up of the non-per-forming assets in the bankingsystem, and incentive-linkedtargeted promotion of activi-ty in the manufacturing sec-tor will further step-up thegrowth momentum in themedium-run, it added.

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New Delhi: Gold in the nation-al capital on Friday gained�168 to � 44,580 per 10 gramsupported by recovery in glob-al precious metal prices,according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, ithad closed at �44,412 per 10gram. Silver, however, declinedby �135 to �66,706 per kilo-gram from �66,841 per kilo-gram in the previous trade.

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The rupee ended on a flatnote against the US dollar

on Friday as a stronger dollaroffset gains from weak crudeoil prices and FII inflows.

A firm trend in domesticequity markets also supportedthe rupee.

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Two slice-of-life comedies. Ananthology drama using digi-tal formats with different

cameras, including a handycam, anamateur film camera, a securitycamera, an underwater camera andspy cameras. A political thriller. Amystery action period film. DibakarBanerjee’s trajectory has been asdiverse as the different hats that hewears including film director,screenwriter, producer and even anadvertisement-filmmaker.

Explaining the reason for tak-ing up any particular topic and theirdiversity Banerjee says that the twogo hand in hand. “What you chooseand what you choose to tell dependson who you are at that moment oftime in that whole growth cycle.What comes first is how I amgrowing and where are my con-cerns? In any of my experiences howmuch I want to forget, remember,change or remain the same auto-matically points me towards thetopic. The last thing is what kind ofa film should I make next in termsof where I want to go next. This canbe seen in terms of covering newgrounds or going back to somefamiliar grounds and telling it in anew way and reinventing it,” says thedirector whose newest film SandeepAur Pinky Faraar hit the theatresyesterday.

His last outing was in GhostStories (2020), an anthology of hor-ror stories which he directed alongwith Zoya Akhtar, Karan Joharand Anurag Kashyap which wasreleased on Netflix. Banerjee says,that there is no inspiration behindtaking up different genres rather itstems from deep within him. “Thereis a certain impatience and frustra-

tion with my abilites which leads tome charting newer directions eachtime because I always feel I am fail-ing my expectations. So I keepchanging my challenges each timeto come up with something newand rise to my own expectation.Though, I must say that it is anongoing struggle and I don’t forgivemyself easily,” he says.

And nowhere is the diversitymore evident than if you compareit with his debut film Khosla KaGhosla (2006) which took a humor-ous look at a quirky family whoseplot is fraudulently taken over by theland mafia. The director says, “If Imake a film, I would go totally withmy heart and then use my head (tomarket it).”

His latest venture also marks thelast in the series of three-film dealwith Yash Raj Films (YRF). Banerjeefeels that the experience has beenenriching. “In hindsight, during thecourse of directing, producing andexhibition of Detective ByomkeshBakshy! (2015), Titli (2015) andSandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, I reallyhave matured. The learning that hascome while working with YRF willstand in good stead for a lifetime,”he says.

Banerjee says that to play thelead Sandeep, he always had actorParineeti Chopra in mind. “I want-ed a city girl on scratching whosesurface a small-town girl with all herfears, suppressed trauma, desiresand ambitions surfaces. It reallyneeded somebody, who whenpushed to an extreme, whose corecharacter shows through. I think, inParineeti I have always seen some-thing grittier and slightly morecontrasted and that is why I chose

her because she had that contradic-tion. There is an amazing conflictgoing on,” says Banerjee. Incidentallyhe also decided that breaking Hindifilm industry’s norms, Parineeti’sname appears before the male actor,Arjun Kapoor’s in the credits. Thiswas done because Sandeep is thefocal point in the film who brings allthe characters together.

Pinky, on the other hand, isdefined by the class of the character,the profession and the situation. “So

Arjun had to do a lot of workshopson the accent, the life of a policemanand do a lot of rehearsing as well aslanguage coaching to become thecharacter,” says Banerjee.

While clearly cinema is chang-ing, has the recent pandemic broughtabout any transformation in theindustry? “I have no idea how thepandemic has changed the actorsand topics. The technique, for sometime till we are all vaccinated, willinvolve shooting with extreme safe-

ty. Therefore, there will be some kindof limits as far as crowds are con-cerned, the amount of congregationthat you allow on the set. Also, therewill other limitations of budgets andthe canvas,” he says and adds a pos-itive note, “Yet we will come up.”

However, he is not certain aboutwhat the future holds for theatresand the OTT platforms. “Nobodyknows the future. Nor do I. I can tellyou the future that I want is thatOTT and theatrical stay together.This will give the audience a choiceand we have more variety. Any kindof monopoly and any kind of con-centration leads to stagnation,” hesays.

As for his forthcoming projects,the director says he does not have afuture beyond Sandeep and PinkyFaraar. Certainly, he has sightsfirmly fixed in search of perfection,yet again.

Radhika Madan has made a markas a Bollywood actor with her

roles in Angrezi Medium, Pataakhaand Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota.However, before her film debut in2018, she was a well-known televi-sion star.

Talking about her transitionfrom television to films, the actorsaid it was important to shed the egothat comes with television stardom.

“In television, fame comes real-ly quickly, so you get the ego boostvery fast. Once the ego is high upthere and you want to start withfilms. I don’t think a lot of peopleare ready to bring their ego downand start as a student,” she said.

Was it easy for her to leave herego behind? “I wouldn’t have sur-vived otherwise. It’s a differentmedium. The dialogues are differ-ent, the delivery scenes are differ-ent. Here, the viewers sit in a darkroom, in front of a huge screen,without any distraction. Whereas intelevision, people watch it, especial-ly the saas-bahu sagas, while takingcare of their kids or cutting vegetableor doing household chores. Theactors’ performance needs to be upby a notch to get the attention butin films, even if you blink an eye,you miss the scene,” she said.

For Radhika, who played thelead in television show MeriAashiqui Tumse Hi between 2014and 2016, taking the leap wasn’t dif-ficult because she was ready toevolve in accordance to her newmedium.

“It (change of medium) was notdifficult in my head. I understoodboth the mediums and I think peo-ple see you as you see yourself.Because it wasn’t a hindrance in myhead, I don’t think people saw it ashindrance as well. I was aware thattelevision is a different medium andcinema is different, and I needed tochange my acting style. I needed tounlearn whatever I have learnt,” saidshe.

Radhika, who will soon be seenin the film Shiddat, added: “The

problem comes when you want toapproach films with the same atti-tude, with the same acting style asTV and you expect them to takeyou. It is about understanding themedium. Unlearning happens withevery project.”

Radhika will also be seen in twoOTT original films. She says that sheis open to the probability of the websome day overpowering films.

“Earlier, there used to be a cer-tain taboo connected with OTT. Ifyou are coming on a digital platformthen it was a step down. Now if youare a digital star, people are in aweand they also want to be you. A timemay come when digital stars are big-ger than films stars. I wouldn’t besurprised then,” said Radhika.

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Music has always inspired,” says singerPurva Mantri, who is a part of the

show Indian Pro Music League (IPML).It’s something that has travelled with herthrough thick and thin. She adds, “Thereare some songs that have touched myheart and I listen to them, again andagain, depending upon my mood.” Weask her to share five of her all-timefavorite tracks.

Duma Dum Mast KalandarThis is one song that mends every

mood. I truly mean it. You can hear it atall times and cheer yourself up. Today,there are many versions of this track andeach one has its own feel. It can make yougroove to its beats and create a party vibeat any place. Honestly, this song has thepotential of breeding life at any place andat any time. You can listen to it as a goodlistener or dance on it if you are a gooddancer. When I want to feel great ener-gy, I listen to this track myself.

Aaj Jane Ki Zid Na KaroI am sure this song is a favourite of

many in the world. The lyrics are magi-cal and the symphony is extremely calm-ing. This is one of my midnightfavourites. When I want to take a breaklate at night, after my shoots are done orif I wake up at midnight and I want to lis-ten to something that’s soothing, this isthe song.

UljhiThis is very close to my heart because,

of course, it’s my first indie track as anartist. However, the most importantthing is it’s a mother-daughter duo. Thecomposition is delicate and inspira-tional. It could instantly make you realisethe value and the sacrifices a mother

makes. Anyone who listens to this songwould feel very close to their family, espe-cially mother.

Ab Ke Saawan I am a big fan of Shubha Mudgal! I

always love to attempt this song as a singerbecause I feel, after Shubha Mudgalji, thissong is meant for me. If I get a chance, Iwould definitely love to recreate this songofficially. In fact, I love all Usha Uthupsongs because it’s very difficult to chooseone. When you idolise someone, you can’tbe choosy. She is my love, her voice, her

aura, her charisma, everything.

IntehaaI just love this song. The lyrics and the

voice complement each other. I havereceived great appreciation for this song.I listen to it a couple of times when I wantto remind myself of the potential I have andhow much I need to explore it further. Theindustry has appreciated the way I project-ed the song. People from the industry andoutside are just praising the voice textureand my take on this song. It constantlykeeps me motivated to do more.

6A1+):B

Tamil director PrabhuSolomons trilingual film

Haathi Mere Saathi stars RanaDaggubati, and is scheduled torelease across India on March26. He believes that as a story-teller he shouldn’t tell storiesthat are cliched.

“As a filmmaker I want todo something useful for soci-ety. I don’t want to be a clichedfilmmaker, showing a guy fight-ing for love, society or nation.Everyone has seen a lot of this,and there are many people tofight for that. What about ani-mals and our ecosystem? Whois going to give a voice or be avoice to the jungle?” Prabhuraised concern.

His film showcases a man’sstruggle to save the forest andwildlife, especially elephants.“Elephants are a big part of thejungle. We have forgotten theimportance of saving forests,elephants and the ecosystem.The reason the pandemic hap-pened reflects how we dis-turbed nature,” said Solomon.

The filmmaker’s biggesthit so far has been the 2010romantic tragedy film Mynaa.He worked with elephants forthe first time in his 2012 filmKumki.

Talking about his yearningto tell diverse stories, and howthe idea of an elephant-centricfilm came to his mind, Prabhusaid: “For me as a filmmaker, Imust not do something thatleaves me with similar kinds ofscripts. I want to do somethingout of the box and when I wasdoing my Tamil film Kumki, I

did my research on storiesabout elephants. I wanted toone day do a story properly onwhat is happening with theseanimals in India. This seemedthe right time for Haathi MereSaathi to come out. It is reallya big experience to do a filmwith elephants.”

Actor Rana Daggubatiplays Bandev in the film, whichwill be released in Tamil,Telugu and Hindi language. ForPrabhu, working with the actorwas an easy task.

“Rana was a good friend.He met me one day and weplanned to do a movie togeth-er. He is a down-to-earthhuman being and for this kindof the film it is important thatthere is no attitude, and thatwas a good thing about Rana.He was very passionate aboutthe character and it was veryeasy for me to work with him,”shared the filmmaker.

Any plans to direct an out-an-out Hindi film? “As of now,it is all about Haathi MereSaathi. It is a pan-Indian film.I feel that the Hindi audiencewill really like it because theywill see a film with elephantsafter Rajesh Khanna’s HaathiMere Saathi,” he said.

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�What made you a part ofAnimals Gone Wild?

The most important thingwas National Geographic. Iused to read their magazineswhen I was kid. At that point,they were quite expensive butI used to somehow manage.Approximately, a decade ago,there was a CD collection of100 years of Nat Geo... I canstill recall buying one for Mr(Amitabh) Bachchan for oneof his birthdays and one formyself. What they did as achannel and are doing throughtheir powerful visual story-telling and exploration isbeyond words, at least for me.The way they bring our plan-et to you, exploring animals,humans, our environment... Iam a fan of how they oftenadopt a compelling and uniquestyle to narrate their stories ofthe world we live in. Actuallythe channel came much later,it’s my connection with themagazines. I am also a firmbeliever and promoter ofwildlife conservation, and withthis show, we create awarenessof the life and behaviour ofanimals around us in a humor-ous manner. It’s an associationthat I am really truly happyabout.

�How informative was yourexperience? What were themajor learnings?

See, I used to watch somany shows, and now Ibecame a part of one. So, thelearning has already played itspart because I have watchedseveral series. Through this,you can say that I got to knowanimal behaviour and theirinteraction with humanbeings... This, for me, washow animals and humans con-nect and how they behave orlook at human beings around.I got interesting insights intoanimals like bears, lamas,gorillas, elephants and, also,snakes for that matter. Theinteractions were fascinating.It didn’t result in any kind ofdisaster. With shows like these,

we learn how human intrusion into theanimal's space has made a difference.Scientists are usually drawn towards thestudy of animal behaviour for variedreasons. The field is extremely broad,ranging from research on feedingbehaviour, habitat selection to mating.

The point of this show is to let wildanimals be wild. Let’s not tame andmake them pets, and bring them intoyour home. Wild animals are wild, youmust keep a distance. They are notused to you and you are notused to them. And we should-n’t even try doing that.Elephants are not made tostand on two legs and dance in acircus. We still use them for hardslogging and heavy lifting. Loggingis particularly ideal for them andthey are trained to uproot treesand move large logs. We usehorses for pulling carts...but if you look at itclosely, are they reallymeant for that? We aretaking them out of theirterritory and just slavingthem in a way, which is not right.

�There have been many showsthat have given viewers an insightinto the unexpected world ofanimals. How and why do youthink this is different?

It’s not something radical-ly different. It’s been happen-ing. You have been seeing

human interaction with animals. Wejust captured their movements candid-ly to learn about how they behave. Theway we have been doing it here isthrough incorporating someone like mewho brings humour to the context.While the show promises to be witty,entertaining, funny, yet educational, I,as a host, will be seen in multiple quirkyavatars like CamRay, Gullu Guide,EggJact-Lee among others to make it

more fun and interactive for theviewers. It’s a very good

balance of informationand humour.

�You are seen inmultiple quirkyavatars... So how

have been they con-ceptualised?

We, of course, start-ed with having a creative

team. I had this idea ofpresenting various

characters. So wehave a guy calledTony Tiewala,who’s a newsreader from the

70s. He hasgot a verytypical styleof readingthe news.Then thereis CamRay,who’s ben-

gali wildlife photographer. There is alsoJaved as Javed... I am interacting withthese different characters, who arepresenting various facts and storiesfrom the jungle. So the stories that theygive are connected with the so-calledvideos. For instance, while a video isplaying, you can see my commentaryon certain things that are happening inthem. There is a lot of Indianness in theway I speak because the differentavatars are from various states of ourcountry. This involved a lot of editingand restructuring of the pre-existingshow. We cut shots from the existingshow and put my character in betweenthe videos to convey whatever informa-tion has to be given to the audience. Ithink it has worked pretty well.

�Were there any striking discoveriesthat you didn’t know earlier?

You can never know how an animalbehaves in a certain situation. You grad-ually learn how they behave. It’s a trialand error method of understandinganimals and how to use it further.When we gain insight into animalbehaviour, we are in a stronger positionto understand vexing conservationproblems, such as how to save endan-gered species, assess environmentalquality, design nature preserves, andevaluate the importance of human-related threats to survival in otherwisefit animals.

(The show airs on March 22 at 8 pmon National Geographic India.)

Actor Mouni Roy feels theBhagwat Geeta must be

made a part of academic cur-riculum across India. She addsthat she turned to the Hinduscripture during the lock-down and, having discoveredits core value, believes itshould be inculcated at schoollevel.

“I read Bhagwat Geeta KaSaar in childhood but didn’tunderstand it until now. See,one of my friends startedreading the Bhagwat Geetaand I also joined the class —this is before lockdown — andI didn’t make many classes dueto hectic schedule. But duringthe lockdown, I was very reli-gious. I think it should be apart of our school curriculum.I genuinely feel that it is morethan a religious book. It is lifeka saar (crux of life), eternalknowledge, and it is veryimportant. If you have a ques-tion in your head, the Geetahas the answer,” said Mouni.

Asked if the entertain-ment sector needs to inculcatethe teachings of the Geeta, shereplied, “The Geeta is neededworldwide, not just in India orBollywood or school. In India,it could change the orthodoxthought process in families.We talk about Beti Bachao,Beti Padhao, instead it shouldbe Beta Padhao, Beta Bachao.I think society is in need ofthis knowledge or awareness.”

“We literally live in igno-rance, and we actually comefrom a country of the Vedasand the Upanishad, yet wedon’t do anything. We are sit-ting on a gold mine and wedon’t do anything it. Theentertainment industry is astressful place, you don’t havethe concept of Saturdays andSundays, a 9-to-5 job, and weare constantly consumed inour minds and thoughts. So,for sure, the Geeta is neededhere, but having said that Ithink (be it) the rural, theurban, and the metros, every-one is in dire need of theBhagwat Geeta’s teachings,”

added Mouni.Mouni will be seen in

Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy actionadventure Brahmastra along-side Amitabh Bachchan,Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhattand Nagarjuna, with ShahRukh Khan in a cameo.Talking about working withsuch a talented cast, Mounisaid: “Ayan Mukerji is a bril-liant mind. He is all heart andI think he has given this pro-ject his life. If I remember itright, he told me that he hasbeen working on this project

for almost seven to eight yearsnow. He is god’s child, forsure.”

“Ranbir Kapoor and AliaBhatt are fire on screen andthey are beautiful humanbeings on sets. So, I feel verylucky. With Brahmastra, I gotto work with Nagarjuna, andobviously Amitabh Bachchan— he is the greatest. I cannotforget the day I met ShahRukh Khan. So, it’s like adream you’d never thoughtwould come true, and it hascome true,” she summed up.

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Having outsmarted Englandin challenging conditions,a confident India will back

themselves to win the series-decider here on Saturday andtake another firm step towardsfinalising their core for the T20World Cup.

India, who went into theseries with a fresh and fearlessapproach in the shortest format,find themselves well-placed intheir preparations for the megaevent at home later this year, irre-spective of what happens in thefifth game.

The Virat Kohli-led side,which did not have the depth ear-lier to attack in all situations, findsitself full of ‘x-factor’ with the

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England star all-rounder BenStokes says losing a tight game

like the fourth Twenty20 againstIndia on Thursday and going into a‘winners-take-all’ contest will onlyprepare them better for the WorldCup as they will get used to pressuresituations.

Eyeing an unassailable 3-1 lead,the Eoin Morgan-led side faltered ina tricky chase of 186 to go down toIndia by eight runs.

The fifth T20I, scheduled forSaturday, is now like a summit clash.

“Whoever wins that game winsthe series so you know that’s great forus as a team, and especially with theT20 World Cup coming up, themore pressure situations we get intoas a team, the more we will benefitfrom it,” Stokes told reporters duringthe post-match interaction onThursday.

“The more pressure that we getunder as a team, the more that’s goingto do for us in that World Cup,because World Cups can end veryquickly. Every game is a big game.”

Stokes nearly carried Englandhome with his 46 off 23 balls but he

and captain Morgan were dismissedoff consecutive Shardul Thakur deliv-eries at the start of the 17th over fromwhere it was tilted in home team'sfavour.

“One of us have got to be there tillthe end. Leaving that many runs forour bottom order to have to deal withobviously is less than ideal. In that sit-uation, one of our middle-order needsto be there till the end to get it over theline. It’s always more frustrating whenyou feel like you’ve got the game inyour hands.”

“Rather than going away andbeing too down on myself you got to

look at these things and assess themand learn from them. You know we’vegot a T20 World Cup coming up andthere’s no doubt it will put in a simi-lar situation at some point in that tour-nament so these are all great learningexperiences for us as players,” he said.

Talking about Saturday’s game, hesaid: "It is a final because if we don'twin then we lose the series, and wedon’t want to lose the series.”

“We want to make a habit of win-ning. As I said the more situations weget put into where we’ve got pressureon us and we keep prevailing, that’s justgot to do with the world of good.”

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Karnataka pacer PrasidhKrishna, all-rounder

Krunal Pandya andSuryakumar Yadav earned theirmaiden ODI call-up on Fridayas selectors named them inIndia’s 18-member squad forthe three-match series againstEngland.

Krishna and Krunal havebeen rewarded for their goodperformances in the recentlyheld Vijay Hazare Trophy whileSuryakumar’s selection was nota surprise given his stupendousT20 debut in the fourth T20against England.

Krishna, who has been onthe radar for a while and hasalso earned Virat Kohli’s praise,took 14 wickets in the domes-tic 50-over competition whileKrunal, who has played 18T20s, earned his maiden ODIcall-up by scoring two hun-dreds and as many fifties in fivegames for Baroda.

All three ODIs will beplayed in Pune, starting March23. “Feels surreal when you getthe call to play for your coun-try. It's like a dream cometrue. Excited to play my partand contribute to the success ofthe team. Thanks @BCCI.Can't wait to get started,”Krishna tweeted.

Stupmer-batsman RishabhPant and pacer BhuvneshwarKumar are back in the side andso is Washington Sundar, whoplayed his only ODI inDecember 2017.

Bhuvneshwar, who hasdone well in the ongoing T20series, is set to play his first ODIsince August 2019.

In the absence of the rest-ed Jasprit Bumrah, who recent-ly got married, and injured

Mohammad Shami, the UPpacer will lead the pace attack.

Left-arm pacer T Natarajanhas regained fitness and there-fore finds a place in the squadfollowing an impressive outingin Australia.

It seems, the squad hasbeen picked in such a way thatIndia continue to work ontheir preparation for the T20World Cup.

Ishan Kishan has not beenpicked despite his impressiveshow in the T20s probablybecause the team already hastwo wicket-keepers in KLRahul and Pant.

Rahul opens batting inT20s but he would bat in themiddle order in ODIs withShikhar Dhawan and Rohitbeing team’s preferred openers.

Pant would keep wicketsand also bat on middle order,leaving no place for Kishan inplaying XI.

Pressure will be on ShikharDhawan to perform from gameone considering India are spoiltfor choice in the openingdepartment that also has K LRahul and Shubman Gill.

Mohammed Siraj has alsobeen picked for the games to beplayed in front of empty stands.

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India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has been ruledout of the opening women’s T20 International

of the three-match series against South Africa heredue to an injury, vice-captain Smriti Mandhanasaid on Friday.

Harmanpreet suffered a hip-flexor injurywhile batting in the fifth ODI against the sameopponents on Wednesday.

The series opener will be held on Saturday.“She (Harmanpreet) is out of tomorrow’s

match and rest of the update on her condition willbe given by the medical team,” Mandhana, a left-handed opener, said during a virtual pre-matchpress conference.

India were outplayed by South Africa in thewomen’s ODI series with the visitors pocketingthe rubber 1-4.

But Mandhana said the ODI series is a thingof the past as their focus shifts to the T20 rub-ber. “We will try to forget the ODIs and focus onthe T20 series. Yes, the ODI series was a disap-pointment but we need to forget that and moveahead. Some new faces have come in the team,so we need to think fresh,” Mandhana said.

“We had a discussion on how to go about ourpreparation, what went wrong in the ODI seriesand how to go forward. We now need to concen-trate on the T20s. We are now looking at the ODIseries as a preparation for T20 series.”

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Paul Pogba scored the win-ner on his return from

injury as Manchester Unitedbeat AC Milan 1-0 onThursday to join Arsenal in theEuropa League quarter-finals,while Dinamo Zagreb knockedout Tottenham Hotspur afterextra time in Croatia.

The France midfielderstruck the only goal at the SanSiro four minutes after replac-ing Marcus Rashford as a half-time substitute, scooping homeafter an ugly scramble insidethe Milan area.

United goalkeeper DeanHenderson produced an excel-lent reflex save to deny ZlatanIbrahimovic an equaliseragainst his old club and securea 2-1 aggregate victory forOle Gunnar Solskjaer's team.

Arsenal also qualifieddespite suffering a 1-0 loss toOlympiakos in the second leg.

Youssef El-Arabi's deflect-ed second-half strike earnedOlympiakos another victory atthe Emirates but Arsenaladvanced 3-2 on aggregate,avenging their exit to theGreeks on away goals last sea-son.

Jose Mourinho's Spurscrashed out of the competitionafter surrendering a 2-0 leadfrom the first leg, with Dinamoforward Mislav Orsic scoringa brilliant hat-trick for theCroatian champions.

Dinamo coach ZoranMamic resigned this week afterbeing sentenced to four yearsand eight months in jail formulti-million euro fraudinvolving Luka Modric's moveto Tottenham and other trans-fers.

However, Orsic curled in amarvellous shot from the cor-ner of the area to give Dinamothe lead on 62 minutes andthen capped off a fine movewith a thumping finish to sendthe match to extra time.

Orsic completed his treblein style as he ran past threeplayers and hammered a lowdrive beyond Tottenham goal-keeper Hugo Lloris from theedge of the box on 106 min-utes.

Harry Kane nearlysnatched a late goal that wouldhave put Spurs through onaway goals but his effort wasclawed out by Dinamo goal-keeper Dominik Livakovic asthe hosts won 3-2 on aggregate.

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Indian captain Virat Kohli onThursday questioned the concept of

requiring “conclusive proofs” to over-turn a “soft signal” of the fieldumpires, saying that rulesshould be made simpler sothat teams do not suffer inhigh-stake games.

During the fourthT20I against Englandhere, which India won byeight runs, there were atleast two dismissals thatbenefitted England forwant of conclusive proofs.

Asked about the inci-dents at the post-match pre-sentation, Kohli went back to aTest match against England, which pre-ceded the T20I series.

“There was an instance during theTest series when I was next to Jinks(Ajinkya Rahane) and he clearly caughtthe ball but he wasn’t sure so we wentupstairs. If it is a half and half effort andthe fielder is in doubt, there is no waythe umpire from square leg can see itclearly. “The soft signal becomes thatimportant and it becomes tricky.Where there should be conclusiveproof? I don’t know why there can’tbe an ‘I don’t know’ call with theumpires as well. It is similar toumpire's call as well. “These aredecisions that can change the

course of the game, especially in thesebig games. We were on the receivingside today, and tomorrow it could besome other team.”

Suryakumar Yadav was unluckyto have been given out in the 14th over

after repeated replays of DawidMalan’s catch off Sam Curran bythe TV umpire. A part of theball seemed to have touchedthe ground but the TV umpiredid not overturn the on-fieldumpire’s decision (soft signal)due to a lack of conclusiveproof.

Washington Sundarwas also given out in thelast over after repeated

replays by the TVumpire to see if Adil

Rashid had touched theropes with his back heel

while taking the catch failed to geta conclusive evidence.

The Indian captain said therules should be made simple by“ironing out” the grey areas.

“... Keep the game really simpleand linear. It isn’t ideal in high pres-

sure games and have a lot of clarity onthe field.”

On him leaving the field during thenervy late overs, when Rohit Sharma wasleading the side, Kohli said, “I ran for aball and threw it and I just aggravated myleg a little bit. Nothing serious, I should

be fine for the game in a day and a half.

FINALENCOUNTER

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emergence of Ishan Kishanand Suryakumar Yadav,whose willow bludgeonedthe England bowlers, mak-ing it a dream debut onFriday.

His innings at numberthree was pure delight andleft even the likes of Kohli“stunned”, reinforcing therole of IPL in providing pol-ished talent to the nationalteam.

It was not a surprisethat Suryakumar found aplace in the squad for theupcoming ODI series.

“It’s not easy to walk inat three in your first gameand we all were stunned. Hestamped his authority andallowed the likes of Shreyas,Hardik and Pant to do theirjob. I am a fan of theseyoungsters,” said Kohli refer-ring to Suryakumar.

With Kishan andSuryakumar making massiveimpact in their maidenseries, Haryana all-rounderRahul Tewatia is the onlyone in the squad left tomake his debut and thatcould happen on Saturday.

Another big plus forIndia in the series has beenHardik Pandya contributingwith the ball regularly. Hewas among the star bowlerson Thursday, taking twowickets for 16 runs in fourovers.

Leggie Rahul Chahar,playing in place of

Yuzvendra Chahal, also dida decent job whileWashington Sundar had arare off day.

India will now be hopingK L Rahul fires at the top,having showed some form inthe previous game followingscores of 1, 0, 0.

Kohli must have got a lotof satisfaction out of the factthat India were able to to putup a big score and defendwith the dew around in thenight. It was the first time inthe series that the team bat-ting first went on to the winthe game.

England, on the otherhand, will expect Jos Buttlerand world’s number onebatsman Dawid Malan toshow more consistency withthe bat.

The pace duo of JofraArcher and Mark Woodhave been impressive butthey have not got a lot ofsupport from Chris Jordan,who leaked most runs in thefourth T20.

“We are just trying tolearn as much as we can inthis series. The progressionto the World Cup in sevenmonths is important,” saidMorgan following the eight-run loss.

“....We really want toplay in must win games likethese. Certainly all to play fornow. Playing away fromhome and winning will begreat.”

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Holders BayernMunich will face

last year's beatenfinalists Paris Saint-Germain in the quar-ter-finals of this sea-son's ChampionsLeague, while Friday'sdraw for the last eightalso threw up a clashbetween Liverpooland Real Madrid.

The draw alsopitted Premier Leagueleaders ManchesterCity against BorussiaDortmund, withChelsea set to playPorto in the other tie.

Bayern defeatedPSG 1-0 behindclosed doors inLisbon last August towin their sixthEuropean Cup andremain the team tobeat in Europe, hav-ing won 18 and

drawn one of their 19games in theChampions Leaguesince the beginning oflast season.

The first leg is setto be played inGermany on April 6or 7, with the returnin Paris a week later.

Meanwhile, the meetingof Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool andReal is another re-run of arecent final, with the Spaniardsbeating the Reds 3-1 in Kiev in2018 to win the last of theirrecord 13 titles to date.

Liverpool bounced backfrom that to lift the trophy forthe sixth time in Madrid in2019 but their Premier Leaguetitle defence this season hasunravelled, with the Anfieldclub sixth in the table havinglost nine times in 17 games in2021.

Klopp's side are due to beaway from home in the first leg,but it remains to be seen wherethat match will be played.

The winner betweenLiverpool and Real will goonto a semi-final against eitherChelsea or Porto, throwing upthe possibility of an all-Englishlast-four tie. Liverpool beatChelsea in the semi-finals in2005 and again in 2007.

Real have often struggledthis season too but they may beoptimistic about their prospectsin the wake of the draw.

Steven Gerrard's Rangersfinished with nine men in a 2-0 home loss to Slavia Prague,as the Czech side won 3-1 onaggregate.

Ajax made sure of theirpassage into the next round asa David Neres goal and DusanTadic penalty rounded off a 5-0 aggregate win over YoungBoys.

Gerard Moreno's double inSpain gave Villarreal a second

2-0 victory over Dynamo Kievin as many weeks, whileGranada extended their debutrun in Europe, going through3-2 overall despite a 2-1 loss toNorway's Molde in Budapest.

Roma also progressed as a2-1 victory courtesy of twogoals from Real Madrid loaneeBorja Mayoral againstShakhtar Donetsk in Kievwrapped up a 5-1 win onaggregate.

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