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C ricket fans across the world were aghast at the “ill- treatment” of Indian crick- eters, including two speed- sters, from the crowd for a sec- ond successive day in the third Test against Australia in Sydney. The racist slurs from the crowds especially to pacer Mohammed Siraj caused a brief halt in the fourth day’s play, expulsion of some spec- tators from the ground and an all-round condemnation of the incidents. Siraj, still grieving the death of his father a little over a month ago, was called a “Brown Dog” and “Big Monkey” from the SCG stands, BCCI sources told PTI. The 26-year-old, on his maiden tour Down Under, fol- lowed the protocol and promptly went up to his skip- per Ajinkya Rahane and the on-field umpires, who halted play for about 10 minutes and called in the security, which evicted six people. This was after the bowler and his senior pace partner Jasprit Bumrah were abused by a drunk man on Saturday. The BCCI has already complained about it to ICC match referee David Boon. “As series hosts, we unre- servedly apologise to our friends in the Indian cricket team and assure them we will prosecute the matter to its fullest extent,” said Sean Carroll, Cricket Australia’s Head of Integrity and Security, in a Press release affirming zero tolerance to racism. “Once those responsible are identified, the CA will take the strongest measures possible under our Anti-Harassment Code, including lengthy bans, further sanctions and referral to NSW (New South Wales) Police,” he added. BCCI Secretary Jay Shah offered the first official response from the Indian Board, saying “racism has no place in our great sport or in any walk of society.” “I’ve spoken to @CricketAus and they have ensured strict action against the offenders. @BCCI and Cricket Australia stand together. These acts of discrimination will not be tolerated,” he tweeted, tag- ging BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, who is recovering after undergoing an angio- plasty a few days back. In Dubai, the ICC also issued a statement, condemn- ing the turn of events and seeking an action taken report from the CA. Senior off-spin- ner Ravichandran Ashwin articulated the Indian players’ deep sense of hurt at the end- of-play Press conference, say- ing it wasn’t the first time in Sydney. “Look, I would like to point out something. This is my fourth tour to Australia. Sydney, especially here, we have had a few experiences even in the past,” Ashwin said. “I personally experienced it as well. They do tend to get nasty. I don’t know why or for what reason,” he added and called for an iron fisted response to such diatribes. Australia coach Justin Langer expressed his disgust too, calling racism one of his greatest pet hates. “I mean, I have hated it as a player, I have hated it as a coach, we have seen in different parts of the world, it is really sad to see this hap- pen in Australia,” he said, disappointed that racial abuse has overshadowed the engaging cricket that has been played in the match. Australia looked on course for a victory after setting the visitors a tar- get of 407 on Sunday. At stumps, India were two down for 98. T he Centre has prepared detailed guidelines on steps to be taken by the States and Union Territories for identifi- cation, admission and contin- ued education of out-of-school children in the wake of Covid- 19 outbreak. The Ministry of Education has asked the States to conduct a door-to-door sur- vey to identify out-of-school children and prepare an action plan for their enrollment as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pan- demic, especially on migrants, according to officials. The Ministry has also rec- ommended relaxing detention norms to prevent dropouts this year as well as a slew of measures to address learning loss due to the coronavirus- induced shutdown of schools. The move is particularly aimed at identification, admis- sion and continued education of migrant children who have been affected during the pan- demic, they said. The Ministry in a notifi- cation said in order to mitigate the impact of challenges thrown by the Covid-19 pan- demic for out-of-school chil- dren, it was felt necessary for every State/UT to devise a proper strategy for preventing increased dropouts, lower enrollments, loss of learning and deterioration in the gains made in providing universal access, quality and equity in the recent years. “The States and UTs have been advised to carry out prop- er identification of out-of- school children for 6 to 18 years age group through a compre- hensive door-to-door survey and prepare an action plan for their enrolment,” said Ministry of Education official. The Ministry has also issued guidelines for offering support to students during the closure of schools and when they reopen. “To ensure that school- going children have access to education with quality and equity and to minimise the impact of the pandemic on school education across the country, the Ministry of Education has prepared and issued detailed guidelines on steps to be taken by the States and UTs during school closure and when the schools reopen,” the official said. F armers protesting against the Centre’s farm laws here on Sunday vandalised the venue of a “kisan mahapan- chayat” where Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was to address people to high- light “benefits” of the Centre’s three agriculture laws. The Haryana Police used water cannons and lobbed tear- gas shells to prevent farmers from marching towards Kaimla village, where the programme was to be held. The farmers, however, reached the venue and damaged a makeshift heli- pad where Khattar’s chopper was to land despite elaborate security arrangements made by police. Some protesters also uprooted its tiles. They damaged the pro- gramme stage, breaking chairs, tables and flower pots at the venue. Police personnel were also pelted with stones and had to run for cover. They also tore BJP hoardings and uprooted banners in the presence of police. Under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni), farmers had earlier announced to oppose the “kisan mahapanchayat”. Later in the evening, Khattar accused BKU (Charuni) president Gurnam Singh Charuni, the Congress and Communists for “instigating” people. Police had made elaborate security arrangements for the Chief Minister’s visit to the vil- lage where he was to speak to people to highlight “benefits” of the new farm laws. Director General of Police (Crime) Muhammad Akil was also pre- sent at the spot. The protesting farmers earlier carried black flags and shouted slogans against the BJP-led State Government as they attempt- ed to march towards Kaimla village. Police put up barricades at the entry points of the village to prevent them from reaching the programme venue. However, the farmers crossed the barricade put up at Gharaunda on the Kaimla road. Police had also parked several trucks carrying sand at one of the roads to prevent them from entering Kaimla vil- lage. Karnal Superintendent of Police Ganga Ram Punia also tried to pacify the agitators, but in vain. C hina has urged quick return of its soldier nabbed by the Indian Army in Ladakh and said he strayed across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) due to “darkness” and tough terrain. The Indian Army said he was apprehended after transgressing the LAC in the south of Pangong Tso (lake) region near the Gurung hill in Chushul on Friday morning and his questioning was on. China Military Online, a news portal run by the People Liberation Army (PLA), said on Saturday the Chinese soldier went astray “due to darkness and complicated geography”. It also said the PLA noti- fied the Indian side about it the first time, hoping the Indian side could assist in search and rescue of the lost Chinese sol- dier. It said India confirmed the capture of the Chinese soldier nearly two hours after he went missing. The news portal said India also said the Chinese soldier would be returned to China after “receiv- ing instructions from the supe- rior authority”. The news portal said India should “promptly transfer” the soldier back to China and “jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border area”. The Indian Army said the Chinese soldier was “being dealt with as per laid down pro- cedures”. It said the circum- stances under which the Chinese soldier had crossed the LAC were being probed. A stand-off is on there for the last nine months. Incidentally, this is the sec- ond such incident since October last year. Identified as Corporal Wang Ya Long, he was apprehended in Demchok area on October 19 and was later handed over to the PLA. This area is also sensitive as armies from both sides are deployed in large numbers there since the stand-off began in May. The soldier was returned to the PLA the next day at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point, where senior commanders from both armies have held eight rounds of talks to break the continuing logjam at the border. “The PLA soldier was apparently moving from one location to another on the Chinese side of the LAC when he lost his way. “He was carrying a sleep- ing bag, a storage device, his military identity card, and mobile with a charger. He was released after a thorough inter- rogation and completion of the necessary formalities,” offi- cials had said then. C ovid-19 biomedical waste is adding country’s “viral load”! Around 33,000 tonnes of Covid-19 biomedical waste was generated in the country in the last seven months with Maharashtra con- tributing the maximum (3,587 tonnes) to it, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. Covid-19 biomedical waste could include PPE kits, masks, shoe covers, gloves, human tis- sues, items contaminated with blood, body fluids like dressings, plaster casts, cotton swabs, bed- dings contaminated with blood or body fluid, blood bags, nee- dles, syringes etc., among others. Over 5,500 tonnes of Covid-19 waste was generated across the country in October — the max- imum for a month so far. According to the data received from the State Pollution Control Boards, since June 2020, all States and Union Territories have generated 32,994 tonnes of Covid-19- related biomedical. The waste is being collected, treated and disposed of by 198 common biomedical waste treatment facilities (CBWTFs). Sources said while waste generated from the hospitals is being managed properly, it is the waste from the Covid-19 patients under home quaran- tine are posing problems, in the absence of dedicated bins in neighbourhoods, PPE suits, gloves and masks are often dumped along with routine garbage in municipal vans used for door-to-door collection. According to the data, Maharashtra generated 5,367 tonnes of Covid-19 waste, fol- lowed by Kerala (3,300 tonnes), Gujarat (3,086 tonnes), Tamil Nadu (2,806 tonnes), Uttar Pradesh (2,502 tonnes), Delhi (2,471 tonnes), West Bengal (2,095 tonnes) and Karnataka (2,026 tonnes). T he Maharashtra Government has reduced the security cover of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis and his family, former UP Governor Ram Naik and MNS president Raj Thackeray, and withdrawn the security cover of state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. State BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhye termed it as “vendetta politics”, while former Chief Minister Fadnavis said this would not impact his plans to travel and meet people. Detailed report on P5 P resident of the Republic of Surinam, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, is expected to be the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day parade on January 26. The Indian-Origin Santokhi was also the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention organised earlier this week by the Ministry of External Affairs. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was to be the Chief Guest at the R-Day celebration, cancelled his India visit to manage the alarming Covid-19 situation in his country after the dis- covery of a new strain of the virus. A former Dutch colony Suriname has a huge number of people of Indian descent. C arcasses of 215 migratory birds were found in Pong Dam Wildlife Sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district on Sunday, taking the total number of such birds suspected to have died of avian influenza to 4,235, officials said. Each day, hundreds of migratory birds were found dead in the lake area since December 29. Last Monday, the samples tested positive for H5N1, they said. Also, for the fourth day in a row, a large number of dead poultry birds were found dumped by the side of the Chandigarh-Shimla highway in Solan district. The remains of the birds were buried according to safe- ty protocol and their samples sent to a disease diagnostic lab- oratory in Jalandhar. F rom Kerala to Maharashtra and Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh, prices of poultry products such as meat and eggs have taken a beating over the past couple of days as con- sumers have started shunning them amid scare of bird flu. According to poultry traders association, the farm gate prices of chicken was 90 and 100 a kg till last week, it is now being sold for 50-60 a kg. Even the consumption is down by 50 per cent. In Delhi, egg dealers said the sale of eggs has dropped from 200-300 trays per day to just 100-150 per day in the last two days. According to the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, the presence of avian influen- za or bird flu has been con- firmed in seven States so far. On Saturday, the bird flu was confirmed in several districts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In a State report, the Ministry said bird flu confirmed in migratory birds were report- ed in Shivpuri, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Agar, Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, Zoological Park, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Pratapgarh and Dausa districts of Rajasthan. Two poultry of Panchkula district, Haryana also confirmed bird flu. At least 900 hens have died at a poultry farm in Murumba village in Parbhani district of Maharashtra. Poultry traders said the daily consumption of chicken in north India is 2.5 crore kg to 3 crore kg. Egg prices in Mumbai have dropped to 5.45 from 5.65 for the last two days, while in Delhi they have slipped to 5.55 per egg from 6.00 on January 2 and 5.65 on January 4. Prices of live bird also dropped by 20-30 per kg at farm gate. “In just the last two days, the sale per day has come down to 2,000 from 8,000,” informed a chicken soup owner in Delhi. The industry, though, is confident of recovering from the setback within 8-10 days as India has always succeeded in preventing any major outbreak of bird flu. New Delhi : Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said the city Government has finalised 89 sites to roll out the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the nation- al Capital from January 16. Jain said 36 Government hospitals and 53 private hospitals will have a vaccination site each.

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Cricket fans across the worldwere aghast at the “ill-

treatment” of Indian crick-eters, including two speed-sters, from the crowd for a sec-ond successive day in the thirdTest against Australia inSydney. The racist slurs fromthe crowds especially to pacerMohammed Siraj caused abrief halt in the fourth day’splay, expulsion of some spec-tators from the ground and anall-round condemnation of theincidents.

Siraj, still grieving thedeath of his father a little overa month ago, was called a“Brown Dog” and “BigMonkey” from the SCG stands,BCCI sources told PTI.

The 26-year-old, on hismaiden tour Down Under, fol-lowed the protocol andpromptly went up to his skip-per Ajinkya Rahane and theon-field umpires, who haltedplay for about 10 minutes andcalled in the security, whichevicted six people.

This was after the bowlerand his senior pace partnerJasprit Bumrah were abused bya drunk man on Saturday. TheBCCI has already complainedabout it to ICC match refereeDavid Boon.

“As series hosts, we unre-servedly apologise to ourfriends in the Indian cricket

team and assure them we willprosecute the matter to itsfullest extent,” said SeanCarroll, Cricket Australia’sHead of Integrity and Security,in a Press release affirming zerotolerance to racism.

“Once those responsibleare identified, the CA will takethe strongest measures possible

under our Anti-HarassmentCode, including lengthy bans,further sanctions and referralto NSW (New South Wales)Police,” he added.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shahoffered the first officialresponse from the IndianBoard, saying “racism has noplace in our great sport or inany walk of society.”

“I’ve spoken to@CricketAus and they haveensured strict action against theoffenders. @BCCI and CricketAustralia stand together. Theseacts of discrimination will notbe tolerated,” he tweeted, tag-ging BCCI president SouravGanguly, who is recoveringafter undergoing an angio-plasty a few days back.

In Dubai, the ICC alsoissued a statement, condemn-ing the turn of events andseeking an action taken reportfrom the CA. Senior off-spin-ner Ravichandran Ashwinarticulated the Indian players’deep sense of hurt at the end-of-play Press conference, say-ing it wasn’t the first time in

Sydney. “Look, I would like to point out something. This is my fourth tour to Australia.Sydney, especially here, wehave had a few experienceseven in the past,” Ashwin said.

“I personally experienced itas well. They do tend to getnasty. I don’t know why or forwhat reason,” he added andcalled for an iron fistedresponse to such diatribes.

Australia coach JustinLanger expressed his disgusttoo, calling racism one of hisgreatest pet hates.

“I mean, I have hated it as a player, I have hated it as a coach, we have seen in different parts of the world, it is really sad to see this hap-pen in Australia,” he said, disappointed that racial abuse has overshadowed theengaging cricket that has beenplayed in the match. Australialooked on course for a victoryafter setting the visitors a tar-get of 407 on Sunday. Atstumps, India were two downfor 98.

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The Centre has prepareddetailed guidelines on steps

to be taken by the States andUnion Territories for identifi-cation, admission and contin-ued education of out-of-schoolchildren in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak. The Ministry ofEducation has asked the Statesto conduct a door-to-door sur-vey to identify out-of-schoolchildren and prepare an actionplan for their enrollment aspart of efforts to mitigate theimpact of the Covid-19 pan-demic, especially on migrants,according to officials.

The Ministry has also rec-ommended relaxing detentionnorms to prevent dropoutsthis year as well as a slew ofmeasures to address learningloss due to the coronavirus-induced shutdown of schools.

The move is particularlyaimed at identification, admis-sion and continued educationof migrant children who havebeen affected during the pan-demic, they said.

The Ministry in a notifi-cation said in order to mitigate

the impact of challengesthrown by the Covid-19 pan-demic for out-of-school chil-dren, it was felt necessary forevery State/UT to devise aproper strategy for preventingincreased dropouts, lowerenrollments, loss of learningand deterioration in the gainsmade in providing universal

access, quality and equity in therecent years.

“The States and UTs havebeen advised to carry out prop-er identification of out-of-school children for 6 to 18 yearsage group through a compre-hensive door-to-door surveyand prepare an action plan fortheir enrolment,” said Ministryof Education official.

The Ministry has alsoissued guidelines for offeringsupport to students during theclosure of schools and whenthey reopen.

“To ensure that school-going children have access toeducation with quality andequity and to minimise theimpact of the pandemic onschool education across thecountry, the Ministry ofEducation has prepared andissued detailed guidelines onsteps to be taken by the Statesand UTs during school closureand when the schools reopen,”the official said.

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Farmers protesting againstthe Centre’s farm laws here

on Sunday vandalised thevenue of a “kisan mahapan-chayat” where Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattarwas to address people to high-light “benefits” of the Centre’sthree agriculture laws.

The Haryana Police usedwater cannons and lobbed tear-gas shells to prevent farmersfrom marching towards Kaimlavillage, where the programmewas to be held. The farmers,however, reached the venueand damaged a makeshift heli-

pad where Khattar’s chopperwas to land despite elaboratesecurity arrangements made bypolice. Some protesters alsouprooted its tiles.

They damaged the pro-gramme stage, breaking chairs,tables and flower pots at thevenue. Police personnel werealso pelted with stones and hadto run for cover. They also toreBJP hoardings and uprootedbanners in the presence ofpolice. Under the banner of theBharatiya Kisan Union(Charuni), farmers had earlierannounced to oppose the“kisan mahapanchayat”. Laterin the evening, Khattar accusedBKU (Charuni) presidentGurnam Singh Charuni, theCongress and Communists for“instigating” people.

Police had made elaboratesecurity arrangements for theChief Minister’s visit to the vil-lage where he was to speak to

people to highlight “benefits” ofthe new farm laws. DirectorGeneral of Police (Crime)Muhammad Akil was also pre-sent at the spot. The protestingfarmers earlier carried blackflags and shouted slogansagainst the BJP-led StateGovernment as they attempt-ed to march towards Kaimlavillage.

Police put up barricades atthe entry points of the villageto prevent them from reachingthe programme venue.However, the farmers crossedthe barricade put up atGharaunda on the Kaimlaroad. Police had also parkedseveral trucks carrying sand atone of the roads to preventthem from entering Kaimla vil-lage. Karnal Superintendent ofPolice Ganga Ram Punia also tried to pacify the agitators, but in vain.

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China has urged quickreturn of its soldier nabbed

by the Indian Army in Ladakhand said he strayed across theLine of Actual Control (LAC)due to “darkness” and toughterrain. The Indian Army saidhe was apprehended aftertransgressing the LAC in thesouth of Pangong Tso (lake)region near the Gurung hill in

Chushul on Friday morningand his questioning was on.

China Military Online, anews portal run by the PeopleLiberation Army (PLA), saidon Saturday the Chinese soldierwent astray “due to darknessand complicated geography”.

It also said the PLA noti-fied the Indian side about it thefirst time, hoping the Indianside could assist in search andrescue of the lost Chinese sol-dier. It said India confirmedthe capture of the Chinesesoldier nearly two hours afterhe went missing. The newsportal said India also said theChinese soldier would bereturned to China after “receiv-ing instructions from the supe-

rior authority”.The news portal said India

should “promptly transfer” thesoldier back to China and“jointly maintain peace andtranquility in the border area”.

The Indian Army said theChinese soldier was “beingdealt with as per laid down pro-cedures”. It said the circum-stances under which theChinese soldier had crossed theLAC were being probed. Astand-off is on there for the lastnine months.

Incidentally, this is the sec-ond such incident sinceOctober last year. Identified asCorporal Wang Ya Long, hewas apprehended in Demchokarea on October 19 and waslater handed over to the PLA.This area is also sensitive asarmies from both sides aredeployed in large numbersthere since the stand-off beganin May. The soldier was

returned to the PLA the nextday at the Chushul-Moldomeeting point, where seniorcommanders from both armieshave held eight rounds of talksto break the continuing logjamat the border.

“The PLA soldier wasapparently moving from onelocation to another on theChinese side of the LAC whenhe lost his way.

“He was carrying a sleep-ing bag, a storage device, hismilitary identity card, andmobile with a charger. He wasreleased after a thorough inter-rogation and completion ofthe necessary formalities,” offi-cials had said then.

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Covid-19 biomedical waste isadding country’s

“viral load”! Around 33,000tonnes of Covid-19 biomedicalwaste was generated in thecountry in the last sevenmonths with Maharashtra con-tributing the maximum (3,587tonnes) to it, according to theCentral Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) data.

Covid-19 biomedical wastecould include PPE kits, masks,shoe covers, gloves, human tis-sues, items contaminated withblood, body fluids like dressings,plaster casts, cotton swabs, bed-dings contaminated with bloodor body fluid, blood bags, nee-

dles, syringes etc., among others.Over 5,500 tonnes of Covid-19waste was generated across thecountry in October — the max-imum for a month so far.

According to the datareceived from the StatePollution Control Boards, sinceJune 2020, all States and UnionTerritories have generated32,994 tonnes of Covid-19-related biomedical. The wasteis being collected, treated anddisposed of by 198 commonbiomedical waste treatmentfacilities (CBWTFs).

Sources said while wastegenerated from the hospitals isbeing managed properly, it isthe waste from the Covid-19patients under home quaran-tine are posing problems, in theabsence of dedicated bins inneighbourhoods, PPE suits,gloves and masks are oftendumped along with routinegarbage in municipal vans used

for door-to-door collection.According to the data,

Maharashtra generated 5,367tonnes of Covid-19 waste, fol-lowed by Kerala (3,300 tonnes),Gujarat (3,086 tonnes), TamilNadu (2,806 tonnes), UttarPradesh (2,502 tonnes), Delhi(2,471 tonnes), West Bengal(2,095 tonnes) and Karnataka(2,026 tonnes).

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The MaharashtraGovernment has reduced

the security cover of Leader ofOpposition in the AssemblyDevendra Fadnavis and hisfamily, former UP GovernorRam Naik and MNS presidentRaj Thackeray, and withdrawnthe security cover of state BJPchief Chandrakant Patil.

State BJP spokesmanKeshav Upadhye termed it as“vendetta politics”, while formerChief Minister Fadnavis saidthis would not impact his plansto travel and meet people.

Detailed report on P5

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President of the Republic ofSurinam, Chandrikapersad

Santokhi, is expected to bethe Chief Guest at India’sRepublic Day parade onJanuary 26.

The Indian-OriginSantokhi was also the ChiefGuest at the Pravasi BharatiyaDivas Convention organisedearlier this week by theMinistry of External Affairs.

British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson, who was to bethe Chief Guest at the R-Daycelebration, cancelled hisIndia visit to manage thealarming Covid-19 situationin his country after the dis-

covery of a new strain of thevirus. A former Dutch colonySuriname has a huge numberof people of Indian descent.

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Carcasses of 215 migratorybirds were found in Pong

Dam Wildlife Sanctuary inHimachal Pradesh’s Kangradistrict on Sunday, taking thetotal number of such birdssuspected to have died of avianinfluenza to 4,235, officialssaid. Each day, hundreds ofmigratory birds were founddead in the lake area sinceDecember 29.

Last Monday, the samplestested positive for H5N1, theysaid. Also, for the fourth day ina row, a large number of deadpoultry birds were founddumped by the side of theChandigarh-Shimla highwayin Solan district.

The remains of the birdswere buried according to safe-ty protocol and their samplessent to a disease diagnostic lab-oratory in Jalandhar.

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From Kerala to Maharashtraand Gujarat to Uttar

Pradesh, prices of poultryproducts such as meat andeggs have taken a beating overthe past couple of days as con-sumers have started shunningthem amid scare of bird flu.

According to poultrytraders association, the farmgate prices of chicken was �90and �100 a kg till last week, itis now being sold for �50-60 akg. Even the consumption isdown by 50 per cent.

In Delhi, egg dealers saidthe sale of eggs has droppedfrom 200-300 trays per day to

just 100-150 per day in the lasttwo days. According to theMinistry of Animal Husbandry,the presence of avian influen-za or bird flu has been con-firmed in seven States so far.

On Saturday, the bird flu wasconfirmed in several districts ofMadhya Pradesh and UttarPradesh. In a State report, theMinistry said bird flu confirmedin migratory birds were report-ed in Shivpuri, Rajgarh, Shajapur,Agar, Vidisha district of MadhyaPradesh, Zoological Park,Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh andPratapgarh and Dausa districtsof Rajasthan.

Two poultry of Panchkuladistrict, Haryana also confirmed

bird flu. At least 900 hens havedied at a poultry farm inMurumba village in Parbhanidistrict of Maharashtra.

Poultry traders said thedaily consumption of chicken

in north India is 2.5 crore kg to3 crore kg. Egg prices inMumbai have dropped to �5.45from �5.65 for the last twodays, while in Delhi they haveslipped to �5.55 per egg from�6.00 on January 2 and �5.65on January 4.

Prices of live bird alsodropped by �20-30 per kg atfarm gate. “In just the last twodays, the sale per day has comedown to �2,000 from �8,000,”informed a chicken soup ownerin Delhi.

The industry, though, isconfident of recovering fromthe setback within 8-10 days asIndia has always succeeded inpreventing any major outbreakof bird flu.

New Delhi: Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain onSunday said the cityGovernment has finalised 89sites to roll out the Covid-19vaccination drive in the nation-al Capital from January 16. Jainsaid 36 Government hospitalsand 53 private hospitals willhave a vaccination site each.

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Gearing up for inoculationdrive of Covid-19, the

Delhi Prisons authorities haveasked around 3,600 staff mem-bers including security per-sonnel to enrol themselves toreceive coronavirus vaccineshots.

According to a senior jailofficial, around 1,600 jail staff,1,000 Tamil Nadu SpecialPolice personnel who carryout security duty at Tihar Jailand 1,000 paramilitary per-sonnel are being enrolled.

The date, time and place ofvaccination for each person willbe intimated to him/her ontheir mobile number, they said,adding, however, that noinmate will get the shot in thefirst phase as it has beenreserved for frontline workers.

“We appreciate the dedi-cation and hard work done byjail officials and security forceswho all were at a high risk forcatching Covid-19 due to thenature of job. The vaccinationwill help boost their moraleand to work fearlessly in thistough situation,” said SandeepGoel, the Director General ofDelhi Prisons.

A total of 292 prisons staffhave contracted the infectiontill Saturday, and 289 of themhave recovered, while threeare still under treatment. As for

the inmates, 115 have testedpositive for the virus so far ofwhom 113 have recoveredwhile two died.

“No inmate has tested pos-itive for Covid-19 sinceDecember 10 last year though.The last inmate detectedCovid-19 positive was onDecember 3 and he recoveredon December 10,” said a prisonofficial.

Among the prisons, thefirst case of coronavirus wasreported in Rohini Jail on May13. Two Covid-19 positiveinmates of Mandoli Jail died onJune 15 and July 4. Both weresenior citizens.

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Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain on Sunday

said the Delhi Governmenthas finalised 89 sites to roll outthe Covid-19 vaccination drivein the national Capital fromJanuary 16.

The Health Minister said36 Government hospitals and53 private hospitals will have avaccination site each. “Thefirst batch of vaccines willarrive by Tuesday orWednesday. In the first phase,health care workers will be vac-cinated. Thereafter, frontlineworkers and those aged above50 will be given the doses,” hesaid.

Jain said that the vaccinesfor the Covid-19 will startarriving between 12th to 14thJanuary; the Delhi Governmenthas prepared a very strongand robust storage system tokeep the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The Central Governmenthas finalised around 5,000 sitesacross India. As per the instruc-tion of the CentralGovernment the DelhiGovernment has preparedthese 89 sites which are differ-ent hospitals of Delhi. Out ofthese 89 hospitals, 40 hospitalsare of the Government and 49

are private hospitals. At everycentre, there will be eight tonine people who will handlethe drive. With this prepara-tion, the Delhi Governmentwill start the first phase of vac-cination from January 16,” headded.

“In the first phase of theCovid-19 vaccination the DelhiGovernment will focus on thehealthcare workers, frontlineworkers and then the people ofage above 50. Delhi has2,25,000 healthcare workerswho will get the vaccination.The Delhi Government willalso include teachers who haveworked as frontline workers inthe time of Covid-19 pandem-ic,” he added.

The Minister further said

that the Delhi Governmenthas prepared a very strongstorage system to keep theCovid-19 vaccine. “The wholesystem of vaccination is readyand we are fully prepared tostart the vaccination drive.Right now we are only waitingfor the arrival of the Covid-19vaccine and as soon as the vac-cines start arriving the workwill start immediately,” headded.

The Delhi Government isin the view that every personshould get free vaccine acrossthe country. “We are monitor-ing the situation very careful-ly. From our side, every deci-sion regarding Covid-19 vac-cination will be for the benefitof the citizens of Delhi,” he said.

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With 399 fresh cases ofcoronavirus reported in

the national Capital, the totalnumber of people infected withlife-threatening Covid-19 hasreached to 6,30,200 on Sunday.

However, the situation inDelhi has improved in the lastseveral days, with a low num-ber of cases and reduction indeath count, and the daily pos-itivity rate staying at 0.51 percent.

Delhi Health Minister saidthat Delhi witnessed 519 pos-itive Covid-19 cases onSaturday. “The positivity rate ofCovid infection was 0.65. Thecity has continuously witnesseda higher positivity rate for thepast 15 days. The Covid-19 sit-uation of Delhi has improveda lot and the situation is nowunder control,” he said.

According to the dailyhealth bulletin, the death tollrose to 10,678 with 12 newfatalities reported on Sunday.The number of cases and thesingle-day fatality count nowindicate a marked improve-ment in the situation since thethird wave of the pandemic had

hit the city in NovemberThe highest single-day

spike 8,593 cases till date wasreported on November 11.

As per the bulletin, besidesfall in active cases, the count ofhome isolation cases have alsoregistered a sustained fall, drop-ping to below 1,585-mark,indicating improvement in theCovid-19 situation.

The number of contain-ment zones in Delhi has shownintermittent rise and fall in thelast several days, with the fig-ure standing at 2,781 onSunday.

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The Department of AnimalHusbandry and Wildlife,

Haryana, has swung into actionafter bird flu cases were con-firmed in a poultry farm inPanchkula in Haryana.

The department has con-stituted a rapid response teamconsisting 12 members in thedistrict in view of the virusinfections. All animal hospitalsin the district have beeninstructed to keep in constantcontact with the poultry farm, the officials said on Sunday. The Wildlife Department team has started visiting

Sultanpur National Park andNajafgarh drain to check if anybirds found dead at the locationbut as of now they didn't findany dead birds at the locations.

According to officials, aRapid Response Team has beenconstituted under the leader-ship of all the veterinarians inthe district, in which a com-pounder and two class IV staffalong with a doctor are placed.The Animal HusbandryDepartment has made three-level preparations to deal withbird flu.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of Delhi

Police has arrested a 42 year-old man for availing loan onforged documents from sever-al banks. Police said that theaccused, who is presently,lodged in Tihar prison inanother similar case, haveinvolvement in six case offraud and cheating registered inDelhi and Ghaziabad.

The accused has been iden-tified as Deepak KumarMalhotra.

According to OP Mishra,the Joint Commissioner ofPolice, EOW, a conplaint wasreceived from Phoenix ARCcompany complained thatKarnataka Bank had sanc-tioned OD credit facility of�2.50 crore to Mukesh Kumaron June 21, 2012 against theequitable mortgage of the entirebuilt up in Vikaspuri.

“The said credit facilitywas declared NPA on May 1,2014. Subsequently, this badloan was assigned to PhoenixARC which also discovered

that Union Bank of India hasalso disbursed home loan of�1.10 crore on October 16,2015 against the 3rd floor of the

said property to DeepakMalhotra,” said the Joint CP.

“Further, during investiga-tion, it emerged that accusedMukesh Kumar had also takena loan of �1.80 crore in thename of his firm EliteEnterprises from South IndianBank in Janakpuri against thevery same property by sub-mitting a parallel original chainof title documents,” said theJoint CP.

“During investigation, itwas revealed that DeepakKumar Malhotra filed an objec-tion application before West

District court claiming himselfto be tenant in the mortgagedpremises concealing the factthat he has purchased the prop-erty from Mukesh Kumar. TheEMIs of Deepak Malhotra werealso paid by Mukesh Kumar,”said the Joint CP.

“The accused Deepak gotprepared a second PAN card inhis name to conceal his previ-ous track record as defaulterand got sanctioned the presentloan on the basis of new PAN,”said the Joint CP.

“Deepak Kumar has beenformally arrested in Tihar Jailafter taking permission fromthe court. The accused Deepakand his mother failed to pay theoutstanding amount of Rs2,15,05,217/. When represen-tative of complainant companyreached at the property, someother persons were foundresiding in the property, whoalso filed their claims as ownerof the property in DRT pro-ceeding. Further it was alsocame in their knowledge thatthe property is also mortgagedin Central Bank of India,” saidthe Joint CP.

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A34 year-old labourer diedafter an under construc-

tion basement caved in at theproposed site of the third partof Vegas Mall in Dwarka Sector12 on Sunday evening. This isthe same spot in Dwarka Sector12 where a City Centre is alsobeing constructed.

The deceased has beenidentified as Shek Angar. A callregarding the incident wasreceived around 5:25 PM fol-lowing which four fire tenderswere dispatched for the spot.

According to SantoshKumar Meena, the Deputy

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New Delhi: Doctors at DelhiGovernment-run Rajiv GandhiSuper Speciality Hospital(RGSSH) are slated to conducta heart bypass surgery onMonday, which will be thefirst operation to be done theresince it was declared a dedi-cated coronavirus facility near-ly 10 months ago, officials said.

The national Capital hadreported its first coronaviruscase on March 1 when a busi-nessman from east Delhi hadtested positive for the infection.

LNJP Hospital and RGSSHwere among the facilities con-verted into dedicated Covid-19hospitals soon after the casesbegan to rise.

"Our OPD is scheduled toresume from tomorrow, how-ever, it will be only available onthree days — Monday,Wednesday and Friday,"RGSSH spokesperson DrChhavi Gupta told PTI.

"But, as a super specialityhospital, tomorrow is animportant day for us as after 10months a surgery will be con-ducted at the facility which hadbeen all closed as we hadbecome a fully Covid facility,"she added.

The 650-bed RGSSH was adedicated coronavirus facilitytill recently when it was con-verted into a partially Covid-19hospital, along with six otherDelhi government-run hospi-tals, including Lok Nayak JaiPrakash Narayan (LNJP)Hospital. PTI

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The average air quality was“very poor” in Greater

Noida and “poor” inGhaziabad, Noida, Faridabadand Gurugram on Sunday,according to a 24-hour dataprovided by a Governmentagency.

Pollutants PM 2.5 and PM10 remained prominent in theair of the five immediate neigh-bours of Delhi, according to theair quality index (AQI) main-tained by the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB).

An AQI between zero and50 is considered “good”, 51 and100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

The average 24-hour AQIat 4 pm on Sunday was 280 inGhaziabad, 311 in GreaterNoida, 239 in Noida, 251 inFaridabad and 215 in Gurgaon,according to CPCB’s Sameerapp. On Saturday, the AQIwas 348 in Ghaziabad, 360 inGreater Noida, 346 in Noida,311 in Faridabad and 230 inGurugram.

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The Annual GeneralMeeting of Uttarakhand

Kabbadi Association was heldin Haridwar on Sunday.

It was announced at themeeting that Junior KabbadiChampionship will take placein Garhwal and Kumaon divi-sions of the state on Jan 30 andJan 31. The performance at thischampionship will be the basisfor selection of the final Juniorboys and girls teams of theUttarkhand that will repre-sent the state in the nationalkabbadi events in future.

It was also decided that the

district kabbadi associationswill provide an assistance ofminimum of fifty thousandrupees to UttarakhandKabbadi Association.

The meeting that waschaired by UttarakhandKabbadi Association’sPresident Ranjeet Singh Rawatunanimously also approvedannual financial statements ofthe association. It was also heldthat all the Kabbadi playerswho are attached to variousdistrict and other kabbadiassociations must registerthemselves with UttarakhandKabbadi Association positive-ly by March 31, 2021. It was

also held that those playerswho are attached to associa-tions that are no affiliated toUttarakhand KabbadiAssociation will not be allowedto participate in any of thekabbadi events either organ-ised by Uttarakhand KabbadiAssociation of its district levelorganizations.

General Secretary ChetanJoshi, Mahesh Joshi,Brijbhushan Vidhyarthi,Narendra Singh Rauthan,Major Singh, Shalabh Mittal,Girish Aggarwal, BrijeshDubey and other office bear-ers of the association werepresent at the meeting.

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Commissioner of Police(DCP), Dwarka district, afterreceiving information regard-ing the incident on Sundayinformation at Plot No 4,Sector 12 Dwarka, police teamsalong with Station HouseOfficer (SHO) reached the

spot. “Labours who are work-ing there informed police thatone person is under that soil.The police team also informedMunicipal Corporation Delhiand Delhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA”,” said the DCP.

The animal husbandrydepartment is most focused onthe poultry farm.

According to sources, morethan 40 poultry farms currentlyrunning in the district with atotal of about 50,000 chickens.There are many poultry farmsin the district in which poultryfarming is being done only foreggs. The wildlife officials saidspecial vigil on migratory birdsin Sultanpur National Parkbecause these days these birdsgathered in Sultanpur NationalPark. The team of the depart-ment visited Sultanpur Parkand Najafgarh drain area onSaturday to take stock of the sit-uation.

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The forest department sentfive samples of dead birds

to Bareilly after 165 birds werefound dead in Dehradun dis-trict on Sunday. As per the offi-cial sources in the state, 32 birdsincluding 28 crows and fourpigeons were found dead inRishikesh Range on Sunday.

Moreover, 121 crows werefound dead in Bhandari Baghin downtown Dehradun andone dead eagle in NarayanVihar of Malsi Range. Besidesthis, 10 crows were found deadin Lacchiwala Range and onecrow in Badkot range ofRishikesh. The officialsinformed that the samples of

five birds out of 165 dead birdshave been sent to IndianVeterinary Research Institute(IVRI) in Bareilly to check forthe possibility of avian influen-za in these birds. The chief vet-erinary officer (CVO) SBPandey said that samples werealso sent to National Instituteof High Security AnimalDiseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopalrecently but its result is stillawaited. Moreover, the author-ities further informed that theofficials of all the forest divi-sions of Dehradun districtbesides the members of QuickResponse Team (QRT) are pre-pared and well trained for pre-vention of bird flu. However,they asserted that it would beinapt to panic and assume thatbird flu is the cause of thesedeaths in the district until anylab confirmation is received bythe department.

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Majority of locals remainapprehensive about the

consumption of poultry prod-ucts in Uttarakhand due to thebird flu outbreak in somestates despite the fact thatthey are safe to consume if pre-pared and cooked properly asper the experts. They arguethat they are aware that prop-erly cooked poultry productsare considered safe to consumebut they are avoiding productsas a precautionary measure.

"We might cook the chick-en or egg properly but what ifwe become contagious fromthe butcher selling us thechicken. It is better to be onthe safe side and avoidingpoultry products for a fewweeks is not a big deal," said aDehradun school teacher,Sheetal Garg. Meanwhile, thelocal shopkeepers opined thatsuch apprehensions are caus-ing them loss due to whichthey are being compelled tosell chicken and eggs at lowerrates. According to Adesh, achicken shop owner in

Dehradun, he was sellingchicken at the rate of Rs 180per kilogramme till the firstthree days of this month butnow he is selling it from Rs 120to Rs 150 per kilogramme. "Isold more than 35 kilo-grammes of chicken duringNew Year celebrations butwithin the next three days, thenumber of people buyingchicken dropped drastically,"said Adesh.

Bhoora Saini, a shopkeep-er from Dharampur statedthat many have restricted buy-ing poultry products but theprices of eggs are not affectedmuch. "The regular consump-tion of poultry products hascertainly decreased but manyeducated people are awareand still buying them," saidSaini. Though some peopleasked us for discounts to takeadvantage of panic caused dueto the outbreak, the conditionis still not bad here. Many bak-eries buy eggs in bulk to pre-pare baked goods so if we donot find enough local cus-tomers, we sell eggs to bak-eries," said Saini.

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With migratory birds fromvarious parts of the coun-

try and abroad arriving inUttarakhand in the winter, thethreat of the winged visitorsbeing afflicted by avian influen-za has been taken cognisance ofby the forest department. Inorder to keep a better watch onthe migratory birds, the Teraieast and central forest divisionshave started using drones tomonitor the winged visitors.

The Terai east forest divisionreceives migratory birds in theSitargunj area at Baigul, Dhaura,

Nanaksagar and Sharadasagarwhile the Terai central divisionreceives the winged visitors inHaripura and Baur reservoirs.On the directions of the Teraieast divisional forest officer(DFO) Sandeep Kumar, droneswill also be used to monitor themigratory birds two days in aweek to keep an eye on any signsof avian influenza. The dronewill be used to conduct aerialvideography and photographywhich will be analysed in detailby the department staff.According to the officials, thiswill enable quick response incase any signs of avian influen-

za are witnessed. Apart from thedrone the personnel in all rangesof the forest division are alsomonitoring the spots visited bybirds. So far, no case of avianinfluenza has been brought tothe notice of officials in the Teraieast forest division.

In the Terai central forestdivision, the DFO AbhilashaSingh said that migratory birdsfrom Siberia and other regionsarrive in the Haripur and Baurreservoirs. Stressing on theimportance of these birds, shesaid that the department is alertand in case any signs of bird fluare witnessed, the departmen-

tal personnel will take neces-sary precautions while doingthe needful. Singh further saidthat a training programme wasalso conducted to teach thespecial forest employees tomonitor the birds in the reser-voirs. Stating that so far thedepartment had identified 18bird species in the reservoirs,she said that so far no case ofavian influenza has been seenin the region, adding that thedepartment is still remainingalert and also conducting acount of the aquatic birds incoordination with a voluntaryorganisation.

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What is the biggest crisisour contemporary world

faces that has put the entire lifeon earth at stake? Without ashadow of doubt, it is the eco-logical and environmental cri-sis. There has been another cri-sis in the cob of this crisis,which is taking a virile form—the climate change. Realisingthe rapidly warming of theearth and consequent climatechange, the late StephenHawking, a well-known physi-cist and cosmologist, hadwarned that the earth would

become a fireball in 600 years.The long-running studies havenow made it clear that humanbeings are the biggest cause ofglobal warming and climatechange. It also means that thesolution to this crisis is alsovery much in the hands ofhuman beings.

With the advent of theyear 2021, in the third decadeof this century, we are usheringin a future with renewed hopeand positive vibes. The UnitedNations has declared the thirddecade of the 21st Century(2021 to 2030) as a Decade ofEcosystem Restoration. If allthose programmes which theUN agencies have chalked outare accomplished well in theseten years, we would have hadecological restoration of ourbroken, shattered, degradedand polluted ecosystems—astate of the environment thatwould be phenomenal to saveour living planet and createpathways for us to usher in asecure, bright and promisingfuture.

Why is there a need to rec-tify the present pitiable condi-tion of ecosystems? Landdegradation is negatively affect-

ing at least 3.2 billion people inthe world. The loss of biodi-versity has taken place to theextent that now experts are pre-dicting the sixth mass extinc-tion of the living species.Ecosystem services have dras-tically declined. Global annu-al gross production flowingfrom various ecosystems hasgone down significantly. Theglobal carbon dioxide emis-sions per year due to the eco-logical plight of the earthbetween 2000 and 2009 were3.6-4.4 gigatonnes, a seriousindicator of global warming.Ecological regeneration interms of implementing thenecessary measures by 2030 isa priority to hold the rise ofaverage global temperaturesbelow 2 degrees Centigradeuntil the end of the century, incompliance with the ParisClimate Agreement.Conservation of biodiversitycombined with enhancementof food and water security andsocio-economic progress andnatural development of ecosys-tems are most essential forachieving sustainable devel-opment goals. Ecologicalupgradation of the earth will

increase the productivity offorests, pastures, agriculturallands and all types of land usesystems. Conservation and eco-logical amelioration of riversand lakes and other waterresources will increase wateravailability for developmentalactivities. Biodiversity conser-vation will avert the dangers ofspecies extinction. Control ofenvironmental pollution willrelieve many types of diseases.And above all— the carbon

cycle of the biosphere will beset upright, and the naturalprocesses of climate building-up will become effective.

Rejuvenating the ecosys-tems of our planet, where rootsof whole life lie, connects uswith an opportunity to build ahealthy and sustainable future.We can revive our woundedecological systems throughcomprehensive and positiveresurgence programmes, whichwill preserve wildlife habitats,

conserve our bio-diversity, soil andwater, curb climatechange, strength-en socio-economicinfrastructure andopen up newavenues of employ-ment.

According tothe UnitedNations, all gov-ernments, commu-nities, conservationorganisations andprivate enterprisewill play an impor-tant role in meet-ing the objectivesof the UN Decade.UN agencies, Food

and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) and the UNEnvironment Programme(UNEP) will ensure delivery ofdecade programmes. “We sawa sense of positive competitionwhen we talked about restora-tion,” says Tim Christophersen,the UN's Decade coordinatorwith the UNEP. “More andmore countries and peoplewant to grow more and moretrees. But now it is importantto ensure that the right trees are

planted at the right time, in theright place and with the sup-port of local communities, andthat we upgrade ecosystemsthat are still somewhat under-developed in these global eco-logical regeneration commit-ments, such as our coastalregions, seas and rivers.”

The United Nations hadannounced the EcosystemRestoration Decade on March1, 2019. In fact, the motivationbehind this was Lena Pohl, ElSalvador's Minister ofEnvironment and NaturalResources, who proposed thedecade committed to ecosys-tem restoration in a speech tothe UN General Assembly.After a strong demonstration infavor of the support to thePhohl’s proposal, the UNGeneral Assembly announcedthe UN decision on EcosystemRestoration Decade 2021-2030.

The key objectives of theUnited Nations Decade are: totake concrete steps by govern-ments to prevent ecosystemdegradation, to augment thedisintegrated ecosystems, toexchange knowledge on policy,economics and biophysicalaspects, to interconnect various

institutions to enhance effi-ciency and impact, to create arelationship among those inter-ested in building meaningfulportfolios for investment, andto bring out the direct and indi-rect socio-economic benefitsarising out of the healed-upecosystems.

El Salvador is being givencredit for the UN Decade ofEcosystem Restoration. Now,India has opportunity to leadthe world by running mean-ingful, long-term impact andexemplary programmes of eco-logical restoration in its geo-graphical area aimed at fulfill-ing the UN Decade objectives.In order to make the decade inIndia a commendable success,the Ministry of Environment,Forest and Climate Changeshould be given specificresponsibility of coordinatingthe decade programmes.Ministries of Agriculture andHealth could be the partners inthe mission to achieve thedesired goals.

(The author is a former pro-fessor of Environmental Sciencein GB Pant University ofAgriculture and Technology)

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With the aim of raisingawareness among locals

about the registration proce-dure of dog license in thecorporation, the MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) will commence theinspection of dog licenses inthe c ity f rom today.According to the senior vet-erinary officer of the corpo-ration Dr DC Tiwari, the cor-poration has formed fourteams who will examine thedog licenses of the owners

from Monday when the own-ers take their dogs out for astroll which is mostly duringmornings and evenings.

Tiwari said that the cor-poration plans to focus onraising awareness amonglocals rather than penalisingthem for not making thelicense.

However, he added thatthe fine from Rs 500 to Rs5000 will be imposed onthose who will not registerfor dog license within thegiven time even after repeat-ed warnings.

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The President of StateAnganwadi Workers

Association Rekha Negi haslodged a complaint with thedistrict magistrate of Pauridistrict stating that someAnganwadi workers arereceiving calls from some menin Pauri who are abusingthem for not getting thedesired information.

Negi stated that some menwho claimed to be callingfrom the Chief Minister'sOffice ask Anganwadi work-ers about the Pradhan Mantri

Matritva Vandana Yojana(PMMVY) and when theyrefuse to answer, they verbal-ly abuse and harass them.She said the State WomenEmpowerment and ChildDevelopment (WECD)department has instructed theworkers not to reveal anydetails till further orders andhence, none of the workers aresaying anything regarding theprogramme. Stating that thisharassment is going on forseveral days, Negi requestedthe DM to investigate thematter as soon as possible.

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In what could be considereda positive sign amidst the

Covid-19 scenario, more peo-ple were reported to haverecovered from the virus in thestate on Sunday than the num-ber of people reported to havetested positive for the same.While 223 persons tested pos-itive for Covid-19 and fivedeaths of Covid patients werereported, a total of 303 patientsrecovered from the disease inthe state on Sunday. Accordingto the health department, thetotal number of active cases ofCovid in the state is currently3,130 while the recovery per-centage is 93.65 per cent. Thetotal cumulative positiveCovid-19 cases detected in thestate so far are 93,621 out ofwhich 87,673 have recovered

while a total of 1,573 deaths ofCovid patients have beenrecorded so far. The death rateof Covid patients in the statecurrently stands at 1.68 percent.

According to the depart-mental data, of the cases foundpositive on Sunday, the highest- 82 were reported fromDehradun district followed by48 from Almora and 25 inNainital. Among the other dis-tricts, two positive cases werereported in Bageshwar, five inChamoli, zero in Champawat,23 in Haridwar, nine in Pauri,three in Pithoragarh, one eachin Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi,four in Tehri and 20 in UdhamSingh Nagar. When it comes tothe number of active cases,Dehradun leads the districtswith 812 cases followed byNainital with 609 cases and

Haridwar with 398 cases.Among the other districts,Almora has 217 active caseswith 150 in Bageshwar, 111 inChamoli, 70 in Champawat,132 in Pauri, 129 inPithoragarh, 56 inRudraprayag, 168 in Tehri, 156

in Udham Singh Nagar and 122in Uttarkashi.

At present there are a totalof 11 containment zones in thestate. These include three inDehradun district, seven inUttarkashi and one in Pauri.

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The Union Railway Minister PiyushGoyal expressed satisfaction at the

progress in the Rishikesh-Karnprayag railproject. He said that this ambitious pro-ject will be completed on time. While vis-iting the Yognagari Rishikesh railway sta-tion here on Sunday evening, the unionminister said that soon the Char Dhamsin Uttarakhand will also be connected byrail.

The minister who is on a two-day pri-vate visit to Uttarakhand, reachedYognagari Rishikesh- the first railwaystation of the Rishikesh-Karnprayag railproject. The Vidhan Sabha speaker PremChand Aggarwal and Rishikesh mayorAnita Mamgain also reached the railwaystation. Inspecting the new railway stationalong with departmental officials, theunion minister was informed about theprogress in the Rishikesh-Karnprayagproject by the officials. The ministerappreciated the facilities and other aspects

of the new railway station in Rishikesh.Meanwhile, the Vidhan Sabha speaker toldGoyal that people were enthused with thenew railway station set to receive itsmaiden train on Monday. He said that likea train is named after Hemkund, trains

should also be named after Badrinath,Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

It is pertinent to mention here that theRishikesh-Karnprayag rail project cover-ing a length of 125 kilometres is slated tobe completed by 2024-25.

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Aday before Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is to hold

a meeting with Chief Ministerson Monday in the run up to thelaunch of the vaccination driveon January 16, the Centre onSunday said Co-WIN, anonline platform for monitoringCovid-19 vaccine delivery, shallform the foundation for theanti-coronavirus inoculationprogramme which shall be cit-izen-centric so that the vaccineis available anytime and any-where.

The Prime Minister willchair the meeting slated tobegin at 4 pm. He will beapprised by the CMs on theroll-out of coronavirus vaccineas well as the COVID-19 situ-ation in their respective states.

The digital meet wouldbe significant, coming ahead ofthe roll-out of two COVID-19vaccines from January 16 andtwo dry- run of the vaccinepan India.

It is the first interactionbetween Modi and the CMsafter the Drug ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI) gaverestricted, emergency-useapproval to two vaccines -Oxford Astrazeneca’s vaccine‘Covishield’, manufactured inIndia by Pune’s Serum Instituteof India, and Bharat Biotech’s‘Covaxin’.

The Union HealthMinistry said that Co-WIN, anonline platform for monitoringCOVID-19 vaccine delivery,shall form the foundation forthe anti-coronavirus inocula-tion drive which shall be citi-zen-centric so that the vaccineis available anytime and any-where.

As part of preparations

for the nationwide rollout ofCovid-19 vaccine, the Ministryon Sunday held a video con-ference with officials fromstates and Union Territories todiscuss feedback on the Co-WIN software and its opera-tional use gathered from thevaccination dry runs.

The meeting was chairedby Ram Sewak Sharma, thechairman of EmpoweredGroup on Technology andData Management to combatCovid-19 and member ofNational Expert Group onVaccine Administration of

Covid-19.Giving an overall view of

the CoWIN software and theprinciples that shall underpinthe technology backup for thevaccination exercise, he saidrobust, dependable and agiletechnology shall form both thefoundation and the back-up forthe country’s Covid-19 vacci-nation drive.

“The process should be cit-izen-centric and built on anapproach that the vaccine shallbe available anytime and any-where,” Sharma was quoted assaying in a statement.

He stressed on the need forflexibility without compro-mising on quality and reiter-ated that inclusivity, speed andscalability have been kept inmind while designing the dig-ital platform with all its com-ponents being portable, syn-chronous without excessiveand unnecessary dependen-cies.

Underscoring the impor-tance of capturing the vacci-nation data in real time,Sharma said, “This is non-negotiable.”

He also highlighted the

caution one needs to exerciseto ensure there was ‘no proxy’at all, while reiterating that thebeneficiaries of the vaccinationdrive need to be uniquely andundeniably identified.

About the use of theAadhaar platform, Sharmaadvised the States to urge thebeneficiaries to seed their cur-rent mobile number withAadhaar for registration andconsequent communicationthrough SMS.

It is extremely importantto clearly identify a person whois getting vaccinated and keep

a digital record on who getsvaccinated by whom, whenand which one, Sharmastressed.

Under India’s vaccinationdrive, one crore healthcare

workers and two crore front-line workers would be inocu-lated in the first phase. TheCentre plans to also vaccinate27 crore other persons who areat a greater risk of contracting

the virus.PM-CARES ((Prime

Minister’s Citizen Assistanceand Relief in EmergencySituations) Fund may be usedto purchase the vaccines.

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With less than 300 newCovid-19 deaths being

recorded in the country for thelast 16 days, India’s fatality ratecontinues to witness a sus-tained decline, dropping to1.44 per cent. This, the UnionHealth Ministry said onSunday could be possible dueto focused efforts of the Centre,States and Union Territories oneffective clinical managementof the hospitalised cases.

Owing to effective con-tainment strategy, aggressivetesting and standardised clin-ical management protocolsbased on holistic standard ofcare protocol acrossGovernment and private hos-pitals, the number of newdeaths have dipped, it stated.

As part of the COVID-19management and responsepolicy, there has been a sharpfocus of the Centre on notonly containing the viral dis-ease but also to reduce deaths

and to save lives by providingquality clinical care to the crit-ical and severely diseasedpatients.

Collaborative efforts ofthe Centre, States and UTshave resulted in strengtheningof health facilities across thecountry, the health ministrysaid.

“India has one of the low-est deaths per million popu-lation (109). Countries likeRussia, Germany, Brazil,France, the USA, the UK andItaly have much higher deaths

per million population,” itsaid.

The total number ofrecovered cases in the coun-try has surged to 10,075,950and the national recovery ratehas improved to 96.42 percent.

India’’s current active case-load of 2,23,335 was just 2.14per cent of its total cases.Recovery of 19,299 patients in24 hours has led a decline of855 cases from the totalCOVID-19 active caseload.

Maharashtra recorded the

maximum positive changewith an addition of 1,123 cases,whereas Rajasthan shows max-imum negative change with areduction of 672 cases.

Ten states and UTs con-tributed 79.12 per cent of thenew recovered cases.

Kerala saw 5,424 peoplerecovering from COVID-19 ina day, followed by 2,401 inMaharashtra and 1,167 in UttarPradesh.

Also, 10 states and UTshave contributed 82.25 percent of the 18,645 new casesrecorded in a day across India.Kerala reported 5,528 newcases in the last 24 hours, fol-lowed by Maharashtra 3,581and Chhattisgarh reported1,014.

The ministry said that73.63 per cent of the 201 fatal-ities reported in a span of 24hours were from seven statesand UTs. Maharashtra report-ed the maximum 57 deaths,followed by 22 in Kerala and 20in West Bengal.

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Covid-19 patients admittedto intensive care in the

early months of the pandemicexperienced a higher burden ofdelirium and coma than is typ-ically found in those hospi-talised with acute respiratoryfailure, according to a largeststudy of its kind to date.

The research, publishedin The Lancet RespiratoryMedicine journal, tracked theincidence of delirium andcoma in over 2,000 Covid-19patients admitted before April28, 2020, to 69 adult intensivecare units across 14 countries.

According to the scientists,led by those at VanderbiltUniversity MedicalCenter(VUMC) in the U.S., thechoice of sedative medicationsand curbs on family visitationplayed a role in increasingacute brain dysfunction forthese patients.

They said ICU delirium isassociated with higher medicalcosts and greater risk of deathand long-term ICU-relateddementia. Nearly 82% of thepatients in the study werecomatose for a median of 10days, and 55% were deliriousfor a median of three days.

The scientists noted that

acute brain dysfunction lastedfor an average of 12 days.“This is double what is seen innon-COVID ICU patients,”said study co-author BrendaPun from VUMC.

The scientists believeCovid-19 could predisposepatients to a higher burden ofacute brain dysfunction.However, they also noted thatpatient care factors, some ofwhich are related to pressuresposed on health care by thepandemic, also appear to haveplayed a significant role.

With respect to Covid-19,the scientists believe therehas been widespread aban-donment of newer clinicalprotocols that are proven tohelp ward off the acute braindysfunction that usuallyaffects many critically illpatients. “It is clear in ourfindings that many ICUsreverted to sedation practicesthat are not in line with bestpractice guidelines and we’releft to speculate on the caus-es,” Pun said. “Early reports ofCovid-19 suggested that thelung dysfunction seenrequired unique managementtechniques including deepsedation. In the process, keypreventive measures againstacute brain dysfunction went

somewhat by the boards,” sheadded.

Analysing patient char-acteristics from electronichealth records, and care prac-tices and findings from clini-cal assessments, the scientistsfound that about 90% ofpatients tracked in the studywere invasively mechanicalventilated at some point dur-ing hospitalisation, and 67%on the day of ICU admission.

Patients receiving benzo-diazepine sedative infusionswere at 59% higher risk ofdeveloping delirium, theyadded. In comparison, thepatients who received familyvisitation were at 30% lowerrisk of delirium, the studynoted.

“There’s no reason tothink that, since the close ofour study, the situation forthese patients has changed,”said study senior author,Pratik Pandharipande. “Theseprolonged periods of acutebrain dysfunction are largelyavoidable. ICU teams needabove all to return to lighterlevels of sedation for thesepatients, frequent awakeningand breathing trials, mobili-sation and safe in-person orvirtual visitation,”Pandharipande added.

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The CBI has arrested twoaccused persons in an

ongoing investigation of a caserelated to alleged sale/purchaseof child sexual abuse materialover Instagram and other socialmedia platforms.

The two arrested accusedare Neeraj Kumar Yadav(named as accused in the FIR)and another person KuljeetSingh Makan. Yadav is a B.Tech.engineer.

Both the arrested accusedwere produced before theCompetent Court at Saket hereand the duo was remanded tojudicial custody till January 22.

The CBI registered a caseagainst Yadav, a private person,under provisions of theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Act,2012 and the InformationTechnology Act, 2000 on theallegations that the accusedwas advertising over Instagramaccount for sale of objectionablematerial including child porno-graphic material, officials said.

“It was further alleged thatthe said accused had purchased

large volume of data, fromanother accused person, whichwas stored over cloud-basedwebsites containing objection-able material including thechild pornography materialand made payment to himthrough Paytm for the same,”the CBI said.

Thereafter, the accusedallegedly published an adver-tisement for sale of said mate-rial over Instagram. On receiptof payments via Paytm /Google Pay among others fromthe customers/ seekers, theaccused was allegedly sharingthe said objectionable materi-al with them throughWhatsApp, Telegram,

Instagram and other socialmedia platforms. It was alsoalleged that he has gainedmonetary benefits and wasindulging in these activitiessince 2019, it added.

A Special Unit “OnlineChild Sexual Abuse andExploitation Prevention/Investigation (OCSAE)” hasbeen created in CBI, NewDelhi for probing offencesrelating to online child sexualabuse and exploitation. Apartfrom receiving various refer-ences/information, the unit isundertaking investigation ofvarious offences relating toonline child sexual abuse andexploitation.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterBS Yediyurappa on Sunday

met Home Minister Amit Shahhere to finalise the BJP’s can-didates for the upcoming by-polls in the State, the Cabinetreshuffle-in-waiting and also todiscuss the latest political situ-ation in the State.

The Chief Minister wasmeeting Shah soon after theBJP’s success in the ‘GramPanchayat’poll in Karnataka.

“I am going to discuss thepolitical situation inKarnataka.Recently, we wonthe gram panchayat elections ina very big way. Within a month,we are going to face two par-liamentary and an Assemblyby-polls. We have to finalise thecandidates. We will discuss allthese issues with Amit Shah andother important leaders,” theChief Minister said before hismeeting the former party pres-ident.

The BJP leader said he willalso try to meet the partynational president J P Nadda.

Nadda who returned fromhis one-day West Bengal pollcampaign tour is flying to

Assam for a two-day visit onMonday where he would alsoaddress a rally at Silchar.

Asked about the steps taken

to check the spread of COVID-19 in the state, the karnatakaChief Minister said, “InKarnataka, the COVID-19 sit-uation is under control. We aretaking all precautions.”

Earlier, he hinted that thecabinet expansion may also beon the table for discussion dur-ing his meeting with the partyhigh command.The cabinetexpansion in the state has beenon the cards for over a year.

Yeddiurappa has been fac-ing dissidence from within theparty for quite some time.

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Amid a deadlock in theGovernment’s negotia-

tions with protesting farmerunions, the Supreme Court isscheduled to hear on Mondaya clutch of pleas challengingthe new farm laws as well asthe ones raising issues relat-ed to the ongoing agitation atDelhi borders.

The eighth round of talksbetween the Centre and thefarmer unions on January 7appeared heading nowhereas the Centre ruled outrepealing the contentious laws while thefarmer leaders said they areready to fight till death andtheir ‘ghar waapsi’ will happenonly after ‘law waapsi’.

The Monday hearing onthe pleas by a bench headedby Chief Justice S A Bobdeassumes significance as theCentre and the farmer leaders are scheduled to holdtheir next meeting on January15.

The top court, which had

observed that there is noimprovement on the groundregarding farmers’ protests,was told by the Centre on thelast date of hearing that“healthy discussions” weregoing on between theGovernment and the unionsover all the issues and therewas good chance that bothsides may come to a conclu-sion in the near future.

The court had thenassured the government of anadjournment on January 11provided it urges so sayingthat the settlement throughtalks was a possibility.

“We understand the situ-ation and encourage the con-sultation. We can adjourn thematters on Monday (January11) if you submit the samedue to the ongoing consulta-tion process,” it had said.

After the eighth round oftalks, Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar had said no decisioncould be reached as thefarmer leaders did not presentalternatives to their demandfor the repeal of the laws.

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An all-women cockpitcrew set out on a historic

journey, operating Air India’sinaugural San Francisco-Bengaluru flight, going overthe North Pole and taking theAtlantic route to reach theKarnataka capital at the otherend of the world.

The flight number AI176lef t San Francisco onSaturday at 8.30 PM (localtime) and would arrive inBengaluru at 3.45 AM onMonday, according to AirIndia sources.

Union Minister for Civil

Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puritweeted, “Way to go girls!Professional, qualified & con-fident, the all women cockpitcrew takes off from SanFrancisco to Bengaluru on@airindiain’s flight to fly overthe North Pole. Our NariShakti achieves a historicfirst.”

Air India has said thiswill be the longest commer-cial flight in the world to beoperated by it or any otherairline in India.

The total flight time onthis route will be more than17 hours depending on thewind speed on that particu-

lar day, it had said in a state-ment on the eve of the his-toric flight.

Members of the crew are:Captain Zoya Aggarwal,Captain Papagari Thanmai,Captain Akansha Sonawareand Captain Shivani Manhas.

Air India too expressedits elation when it tweeted,“Imagine this : -All WomenCockpit Crew. -Longest flightinto India. -Crossing theNorth Pole It’s here & hap-pening! Records broken.History in the making byAI176 from @flySFO to@BLRAirport. AI 176 iscruising at 30000 feet.

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ANational EmploymentPolicy (NEP) could

become a reality by this year-end following the implemen-tation of four labour codesand completion of four majorsurveys, including one onmigrant workers.

The NEP, to be givenshape by the Ministry ofLabour and Employment, willdraw a broad road map forimproving job opportunitiesin the country, mainly byvarious initiatives like skilldevelopment, bringing invest-ment in employment inten-sive segments and other pol-icy interventions.

Last year, Parliamentpassed three labour codes onIndustrial Relations, SocialSecurity and OccupationalHealth Safety & WorkingConditions (OSH).

The Code on Wages wasapproved by Parliament lastyear and its rules have beenfirmed up. But the imple-mentation of the rules forCode on Wages was held backbecause the governmentwanted to implement all fourlabour codes in one go. Thesefour codes are likely to be

implemented from April 1this year.

The implementation ofthese four labour codes wouldprovide a conducive legalframework for universalisa-tion of social security andother safeguards for the entireworkforce of over 50 crore inthe country.

But for job creation, abroad NEP would be requiredto exploit the potential ofeach segment of different sec-tors of the economy. Thiswould require up-to-date dataon employment across thesectors in the country. Thisgap would be bridged by thefour employment surveys tobe conducted by the LabourBureau, a wing of the min-istry.

Talking to PTI, DirectorGeneral, Labour Bureau, D SNegi told PTI that the bureauhas begun spadework on thefour surveys and field workwould begin by March andthe results would be out byOctober-end this year only.

He said the NEP wouldtake a shape based on the datainputs of these four surveys byDecember this year only.

Thereafter, the NEPwould be sent for the approval

of the Union Cabinet.The document is expect-

ed to aid employment gener-ation in the country to a greatextent, especially when thegovernment is grappling withthe issue of job loss especial-ly due to the pandemic.

Earlier last month, LabourMinister Santosh Gangwarhad also said that the four allIndia surveys on migrantworkers, domestic workers,employment generated byprofessionals and transportsector which will be launchedby early March, 2020 and theresults of these will be avail-able by October 2021.

The Minister had opinedthat for any evidence-basedpolicy making for these work-ers, ‘ ’authentic data’’ onemployment in organised andunorganised sector enterpris-es is highly called for.

The minister had alsoinformed that the bureau willsoon launch an ‘’All IndiaQuarterly Sur vey’’ onEmployment of Enterprises’’that will provide comprehen-sive data on the employmentnumbers in both the orga-nized and unorganized sec-tors to address these dataneeds.

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The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce

on Monday its verdict onpleas seeking review of a ver-dict upholding the Centre’sflagship Aadhaar scheme asconstitutionally valid butstriking down some of itsprovisions, including its link-ing with bank accounts,mobile phones and schooladmissions.

A five-judge bench, com-prising Justices A MKhanwilkar, D YChandrachud, AshokBhushan, S A Nazeer and B RGavai, will take up in-cham-bers a batch of review pleaschallenging the September26, 2018 verdict.

A five-judge Constitutionbench headed by then ChiefJustice Dipak Misra held thatwhile Aadhaar would remainmandator y for f i l ing ofIncome Tax Return and allot-ment of permanent accountnumber (PAN), it would notbe mandatory to link Aadhaarnumber to bank accounts andtelecom service providers can-not seek its linking for mobileconnections.

In a 4-1 verdict that alsoquashed some contentious

provisions of the AadhaarAct, the top court, however,had held Aadhaar would beneeded for availing facilities ofwelfare schemes and govern-ment subsidies.

Ruling that seeding ofAadhaar would not berequired for opening bankaccounts, availing mobile ser-vices, by CBSE, NEET, JEE,UGC and for admissions inschools and free education forchildren, the top court hadobserved that Aadhaar hadalso become a householdname and that its use hasspread like a “wildfire”.

It had struck down asunconstitutional the portionof Section 57 of the Aadhaar(Targeted Deliver y ofFinancial and other Subsidies,Benefits and Services) Act,2016 that permitted privateentities like telecom compa-nies or other corporates toavail of the biometric Aadhaardata.

Justice D Y Chandrachud,who was part of the bench,had given a dissenting judge-ment in which he ruled theAadhaar Act should not havebeen passed as a Money Bill asit amounts to fraud on theConstitution and is liable to bestruck down.

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More than three lakh farm-ers spread across the States

of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Uttar Pradesh, Haryana andMaharashtra are in cloud ninethanks to an initiative by late CSubramaniam, the Bharat Ratnaawardee and former UnionMinister of Food andAgriculture. Subramaniamcould integrate the services offarmers and buyers withoutany hassles through his initiativeNational Agro Foundation(NAF).

There were and there are noMandis or APMC in TamilNadu even now! Farmers inCauvery Delta (the rice pro-ducing districts of the State) andelsewhere complain about theelusive Minimum SupportPrices announced by theGovernments. But the NAFcompensates for it.

Subramaniam had held theportfolio of food and agricultureduring the most critical phase ofIndia, 1962-67, a period knownas “days of ship to mouth exis-tence”. If the ships laden withwheat from USA fail to turn upat Indian ports, the country’spopulation would starve asdomestic food production wasat its lowest ebb thanks to thesocialist-permit raj. The grainproduction in the country wasa mere 80 million tonnes whichmade India to move around ininternational market with abegging bowl.

Subramaniam along withfarm scientists like M SSwaminathan had launched theGreen Revolution by introduc-ing advanced rice and wheatvarieties so that farmers couldget more yield per hectare. Ithelped the nation tide over thefood crisis, though temporarily.

The man who saved Indianagriculture with “out of thebox” ideas, was disappointed

because of the failure of the pol-icy makers by the 1990s as hesaw thousands of farmers com-mitting suicide because of cropfailure, high debts and poorreturns.

In the year 2000, on his 90thbirthday, Subramaniam, whowas leading a retired life atChennai, launched the NationalAgro Foundation, an institutionwhich he hoped would play asmall role in helping farmers inthe State rejuvenate their farmsand supplement their income.This correspondent was a wit-ness to the small function heldat his residence where the leg-endary Nani Palkhivala andAPJ Abdul Kalam (then the sci-entific advisor to Governmentof India) were present.

The NAF, with the help offarm scientists like MRamasubramaniam andKalpana Rajesh has emerged asa silent but powerful establish-ment that has revolutionised thelives of three lakh farmers in the

seven States. The NAF teamtests the soil and advise farmerswhich crop would be ideal fortheir farms while their man-agement team facilitates thefarmers to sell their crops direct-ly to buyers.

Scientists and managers ofNAF tour the villages like mis-sionaries and evangelize thevillagers about selection ofcrops, how and when to start thefarming operations and how tonourish the crops.”We study soilfertility of each location andanalyze the local climate beforeasking the farmers which cropto select. All our efforts havebeen fruitful,” said M RRamasubramanianm, CEO,NAF.

The soil is tested in thestate-of-the-art chemical labo-ratory to find out the soil fer-tility. “By analyzing the soil, wecan also find out the ideal cropwhich could be grown in thearea. Details like shortage ofnutrients and micro-nutrients

could be understood from thesestudies,” said R Kalpana, NAF’ssoil scientist.

“It is the farmers who nego-tiate and fix the prices of theircrops with the buyers. Theyknow at the time of sowingitself what they would get asprices,” said S S Rajasekhar,NAF’s trustee and son of lateSubramaniam.

Amritraj of Endathur vil-lage in Kancheepuram, a farmerwho cultivates watermelon andReghu, a farmhand who madeprofit through muskmelonfarming owe their prosperity toNAF. All these happen In TamilNadu where politicians andfarmers complain of watershortage and wasteland.

“There is no wasteland ordryland. They are all under-utilised land,” said Rajasekhar.He said he was indebted to cor-porate houses and trade bodieswhich help NAF to sustainitself as part of their corporatesocial responsibility.

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New Delhi: Union Cultureand Tourism Minister PrahladSingh Patel strongly criticisedthe Mamta BanerjeeGovernment regarding the lawand order. He attacked thewage board of the workers ofthe tea gardens and the BengalGovernment for their leaseproblems. Patel accused theState Government of indiffer-ence for cultural activities inDarjeeling. He was talking tothe media during his stay inDarjeeling.

There is no improvementin the status of tea gardenworkers

Union Culture andTourism Minister PrahladSingh Patel alleged that thegovernment of Bengal hasnothing to do with social con-cerns. He said that nature hasgiven everything to Darjeeling,but this area has been the vic-tim of neglect of the state gov-ernment. He told that he hadcome to Siliguri about 10 years

ago to join the program of theBharatiya Janata MazdoorMahasangh. Since then, therehas been no improvement inthe condition of the people ofthe tea gardens. He criticizedthe state government sayingthat the problem of people oftea gardens has remained thesame for years, people have noteven got the lease of the land.He told that the CentralGovernment has implementeda minimum wage board for theplantation employees, whichwill be implemented soon.

This time 200 timesMr. Patel said that our

manifesto is our resolution let-ter. None of our work goes outof tenure. Whatever promiseswe make, we fulfill withintenure. He said that we willfind a permanent political solu-tion to the Gorkha case. Onthe answer of a question, hesaid that on the request of theMP here, we gave the moneyfor his scholarship to Nepalese

research scholars in 3 days, tillthen there was no question ofelections. Mr. Patel said thatmany types of taxes are col-lected here since the time of theBritish, but facilities are notavailable. He alleged that anti-MPs in Bengal cannot spendtheir MP funds in the interestof the people here. He said thatthis is the reason that the peo-ple of Bengal want change that

will happen. Government ofBengal should pay attention toculture, said Patel

Union Culture andTourism Minister PrahladSingh Patel said that there is noplatform for conducting cul-tural activities in Darjeeling.Mr. Patten demanded that thestate government provide aplace like Tagore Culture Spaceand said that if the state gov-

ernment provides the land,then his ministry can do a lotof work here in the field of art.He said that the culture ofBengal is very rich but there isno such academy throughwhich the artists of this placecan know about the culture ofthe place, and can furtherimprove it.

Mr. Patel said that whentourists from India and abroadcome to any area, they do notjust want to see the beauty, butalso want to know about thecultural heritage, which has nosystem here. He said thatwhen his party comes to powerin Bengal, a lot of work will bedone here.

Earlier, Shri Patel offeredprayers at Mahakal Templeand paid tribute to the martyrsby going to the War Memorial.During this time, DarjeelingMP and Bharatiya Janata Partynational spokesperson RajuBisht was also present withhim.

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Amajor tragedy was avertedalong the Line of Control

in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch onSunday after security forcestimely detected and defused animprovised explosive devicepossibly planted by the overground workers of terror out-fits desperately trying to revivemilitancy in the region.

The IED was detected closeon the heels of recovery of sev-eral cache of arms and ammu-nition in the frontier district inthe last few days. Terroristhandlers sitting across the lineof control had earlier directedtheir OGW's to disturb peace inthe region by targeting religiousplaces.

According to officialsources, an IED was detectednear Gohlad-Mendhar road

link early Sunday morning.Initially, local residents in thearea had raised an alarm afterspotting some suspicious mate-rial lying on the roadside in thearea. Soon after the differentteams of security forces includ-ing the members of the BombDisposal squad of the Indianarmy were rushed to the area toneutralise the explosive mate-rial. The vehicular movementwas also suspended in the areato prevent any collateral dam-age. After conducting thor-ough reece and mandatorysearches in the close vicinity themembers of the Bomb dispos-al squad defused the IED bydetonating the same.

Meanwhile, in Kashmirvalley security forces uneartheda well carved out hideout inthe cowshed of a house locat-ed in Chandhara village ofPampore, Awantipora.

According to a policespokesman, “based on credibleinput regarding presence of ter-rorists of proscribed terroroutfit LeT in a hideout con-structed in a particular housein village Chandhara Pampore,Awantipora Police along with50 RR and 110 Bn CRPFlaunched a search operationtoday early morning. Duringsearch one large hideout of LeToutfit was found in the cow-shed and was destroyed subse-quently. “One terrorist associ-ate identified as Adil AhmadShah resident of ChandharaPampore of proscribed terroroutfit LeT was also arrested”during the operation..

“Incriminating materialand cache of ammunitionincluding 26 rounds of AK-47were recovered from the bust-ed hideout”, the spokesmanadded.

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In a development thatunnerved the Opposition,

the Uddhav Thackeray-ledMVA Government on Sundayslashed the security of severalBJP leaders including leader ofOpposition in the AssemblyDevendra Fadnavis, and MNSPresident Raj Thackeray, aspart of what it called the annu-al review of the State VVIPsecurity.

While the Maharashtragovernment downgradedFadnavis’ security from Z-plusto Y-plus with escort, it alsoreduced the security of hisbanker-wife Amruta anddaughter Divija who have nowbeen given X-security fromthe earlier Y-plus with escort.The state government with-drew the security cover ofFadnavis’ aunt ShobhataiFadnavis’s security.

Similarly, the state gov-ernment slashed the security ofleader of the Opposition in theState Legislative Council PravinDarekar of the BJP, while itwithdrew the security of severalothers, including that of StateBJP President ChandrakantPatil.

Upset by the move, theOpposition BJP dubbed themove to either reduce or with-draw security covers of itsleaders as “politically motivat-ed”.

The state governmentreduced the security of MNS

president and chief ministerUddhav Thackeray’s cousinRaj Thackeray from Z to Y-Pluswith escort.

The other BJP leaders,whose security cover has beenwithdrawn arte Minister ofState Ministry of ConsumerAffairs, Food and PublicDistribution Raosaheb Patil-Danve, former Chief MinisterNarayan Rane, former FinanceMinister Sudhir Mungantiwar,former CongressmanKripashankar Singh, closeFadnavis aide and MLC PrasadLad, BJP MLA and spokesper-son Ram Kadam and state BJPVice President MadhavBhandari.

Similarly, the security coverof Uttar Pradesh’s formerGovernor Ram Naik has beenreduced from Y-Plus to Y,while the security covers ofDeepak Kesarkar and AshishShelar had been slashed fromY-Plus to Y and that ofSuryakant Shinde from Y-Plusto X.

Reacting to the develop-ment, Fadnavis said: “I have nocomplaints (about the reduc-tion of my security cover). Justbecause the state governmenthas slashed my security doesnot mean that I will reduce mytravel. Hence the state govern-ment’s decision will have nobearing on me,” Fadnavissaid.

“Giving security or other-wise to the Opposition is basedon threat perceptions. In our

previous government, we usedto adopt this policy. However,this government is giving moresecurity to people who do notface any threats,” he said.

“I had never taken securi-ty in the past. After I becamethe chief minister, I was givensecurity cover. After the exe-cution of Yakub Memon in July2015 and drive against Maoistsin eastern Maharashtra, mysecurity was enhanced andthis was done based on thedirectives by the Centre,” theformer chief minister said.

Former minister seniorBJP leader SudhirMungantiwar, whose securityhas been withdrawn, had a digat the Uddhav Thackeray gov-ernment: “I was given securi-ty because I come from aMaoist-hit district. It has beenwithdrawn, so it appears thatMaoist activities are over. Butthe (government) must ensuresecurity for the common mass-es”.

However, the state gov-ernment has upgraded someothers. While senior lawyerUjjwal Nikam’s Y-plus withescort cover has been upgrad-ed to Z, film actor andCongress leader ShatrughanSinha’s Y-plus cover has beenupgraded to Y-plus with escort.

Deputy Chief Minister andNCP leader Ajit Pawar's wifeSunetra has been accorded X-category cover.

Chairman of stateLegislative Council Ramraje

Naik-Nimbalkar will now getY-plus with escort, Relief andRehabilitation minister VijayWadettiwar will get Y-plus withescort while in Mumbai, ShivSena legislator Vaibhav Naikwho had defeated NarayanRane in Assembly polls gets X-security cover.

Justifying the changesmade in the security coversgiven to the Opposition lead-ers, Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh saidthat the state government hadmade the changes based on therecommendations of a five-member committee of officersthat reviewed the security andcame out with a new recom-mendation.

Maharashtra’s former chiefminister Narayan Rane, whosesecurity has been withdrawnsaid: “My security has been

removed...I have no issues norhave any complaints. But, ifanything happens to me, thenthe state government will beresponsible for it”.

Slamming the BJP for mak-ing an issue of slashing securi-ty of its leaders, State Congressspokesperson Sachin Sawantsaid” “The BJP leaders shouldshout and scream if their secu-rity cover is reduced orremoved considering thereduced threat perceptions tothem”.

“Though the Gandhi fam-ily and ex-Prime MinisterManmohan Singh face threats,the BJP acted vindictively andreduced their security afterwhich the BJP people hadrejoiced But the MVA govern-ment doesn’t have such vin-dictive attitude,” Sawant said.

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At least three persons wereinjured when a four-mem-

ber gang of desperadoesopened fire and attacked theowner and staff at a jewelleryshop at Ambernath in theneighbouring Thane districtwith choppers, and decampedwith gold ornaments worthRs 12.77 lakh on Sunday after-noon.

In an incident that sentshockwaves throughAmbernath township, fourgangsters -- who came on twomotorbikes – fired sevenrounds and attacked the ownerand staff members of the staffwith choppers.

Ulhasnagar’s DeputyCommissioner of PolicePrashant Mohite said that thegangsters decamped with250gms of jewellery worth Rs.12.77 lakh.

“Of the persons injured, thecondition of the two is serious,”he said.

The incident took place at

around 1.45 pm. “The four-some entered the shop andengaged the counter sales staffin small talk and asked to beshown some jewellery for pur-chase.

Later, a couple of gangsterswhipped out revolvers, point-ed them towards the ownersand staffers at the shop andgrabbed the jewellery. Whenthe shop owners and staffersresisted the attempt, the gang-sters opened seven rounds offire and also assaulted themwith choppers.

The injured -- identified asVasan Singh (26), LaxmanSingh (30), both owners andBhairav Singh (25) – wererushed to the UlhasnagarCentral Hospital.

While Laxman sufferedbullet wounds, the other twosuffered injuries during thechopper attack on them.

“We have formed fourteams to look out for the fourgangsters. We have enforced aNaka bandi in the entireregion,” the DCP said.

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Police are on the lookout forthe attackers after the

shooting of the AMU studentclose to Zubair, who was asso-ciated with Munir gang, wasshot late on Saturday night. Inthis case, the police have alsotaken into custody two suspectsand they are being questioned.The student was on his wayhome on Scooty at the time ofthe incident. The attackers tar-geted him a lane before thehouse. The killed student wasjailed in 2018 for killing ayoung man. The police believethat the incident is going on inhis counterpart.

Victim was a BA honorsfinal year student

Atif Khan, the 25-year-oldson of Mohammad JamilAhmed, a resident of ZakirNagar street No 5, was a BAHonors Final Year student atAMU. On Saturday night ataround 10:30, he was cominghome on Scooty to ZachariaMarket leaving friend Zaid. Justthen, the four attackers alreadystanding there stopped himand fired sharply at him, tar-geting Atif. Atif had two shotsin his back and shoulder.

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Amid the Opposition BJP’scriticism of the MVA

Government’s move to slashthe security covers of its lead-ers, NCP chief Sharad Pawarhas asked Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh toreduce his security.

Talking to media per-sons, Deshmukh disclosed:“Pawarsaheb had called me

and asked me to reduce hissecurity”. “Till four years ago,Pawar saheb never had anescort, or a pilot, even whenDeputy Chief Minister AjitPawar was holding no postfor five years, he had nosecurity. There is absolutelyno politics in the whole thing.The security is given to peo-ple by the government on thebasis of threat perceptions,”Deshmukh said.

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In a marked dip in the num-ber of Covid-19 deaths and

infections, the daily death tallyplummeted to 34, while thenew infected cases dropped to3,558 in Maharashtra onSunday.

A day after the Covid-19toll in the state crossed 50,000mark, the number of deathsdropped from Saturday’s tallyof 57 to 34, while the infections came down from3,581 on Saturday to 3558 onSunday.

With 34 new deaths, thetotal number deaths rose from50,027 to 50,061. Similarlywith 3,558 fresh infections,the total number of infectedcases jumped from 19,65,556 to19,69,114.

As 2302 patients were dis-charged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of March this year went up to18,63,702.

The recovery rate in thestate dropped marginally from 94.70 per cent to 94.65per cent.

With five deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbai rosefrom 11,181 to 11,186 while theinfected cases went up by 657to trigger a jump in the infec-tions from 2,98,235 to 2,98,892.

Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total cases in thestate rose from 52,960 to54,179. The fatality rate in thestate dropped from 2.55 percent to 2.54 per cent.

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,77,904 to3,78,539 while the total num-ber of deaths in Pune went upfrom 7821 to 7828.

Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections rose from2,61,425 to 2,61,867 while thetotal deaths climbed from 5631to 5638.

Of the 1,34, 01,170 samplessent to laboratories, 19,69,114have tested positive (14.69 percent) for COVID-19 untilSunday.

Currently, 2,34,845 peo-ple are in home quarantinewhile 2435 people are in insti-tutional quarantine.

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Bareilly: A 15-year-old rapesurvivor who was seven monthspregnant died of pregnancy-related complications here at thedistrict hospital, officials said onSunday. Additional Directorand Superintendent in-charge ofthe hospital, Subodh Sharmasaid the girl was brought to thehospital in a serious conditionlast week and her health deteri-orated further.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice, Bareilly, Rohit SinghSajwan said: “The post-mortemreport said that the cause behindthe death was due to infection.The viscera of the victim havebeen preserved.”

The father of the girl, whowas mentally unsound, said thefamily came to know abouttheir daughter being six months

pregnant on December 6.He alleged that she was

raped by a 30-year-old man ina sugarcane field in June lastyear, when she had gone out ofthe house for some work.

The accused had threat-ened to kill her family membersif she revealed the incident tothem. The accused was arrest-ed on December 6 after the fam-ily filed a complaint at FatehganjWest police station. StationHouse Officer Ashwani Kumarsaid a charge sheet has been filedin connection with the case.

The girl's father had soughtpermission from the districtadministration to abort herbaby but this was denied as asthe doctors cited that the preg-nancy was in an advanced stage. IANS

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With the failure of the7th round of talksbetween the agitat-ing farmers and the

Narendra Modi Government,Indian democracy is once againat a crossroads. The impasse hasbeen created because the PrimeMinister, in a cavalier manner,forced three “black laws” upon thefarmers. As the “peace army” offarmers started for Delhi fromPunjab, the members were hit bywater cannons and harassed bypolice, yet unafraid — like trueSatyagrahis — they marched onwith one demand on their lips:“Repeal the laws.” While thefarmers’ demand remainsunchanged, the Government hastried all the tricks mentioned byChanakya but failed to uproot thefarmers from the Capital’s periph-ery. As despondency grows within the Government and class traitors are exposed, thefarmers’ protest evolves.

Several Machiavellianschemes have failed to end thestalemate. All invectives hurledat the protesting farmers standdiscredited. With time, theprotest has grown to become sortof a revolution, greater than theArab Spring. In fact, it is arguablythe largest “occupy” movementin the history of human race. Yetthe target of the American “occu-py” movement and farmers’ rev-olution in India is the same —one per cent.

Mussolini defined fascism asthe marriage between a corpora-tion and the State (politicalpower). But in just a little over amonth, the farmers have exposedthe robber-barons and theirpolitical pawns. Neo-con eliteand lazy economists may thinkthat there is still hope for Modiand that the farmers will be rout-ed, but people with ears onChilla or Singhu borders knowthe tide has turned.

Nevertheless, let’s contem-plate the Government’s strategyto tackle the crisis on hand.From the farmers’ side, thedemand for repealing the lawsremains unchanged; theGovernment is again stressing onconsidering amendments butsaying an emphatic “no” torolling back the laws. So, we havea deadlock. The Governmentunderstandably prefers theoption of getting the matterheard by the Supreme Court. Butthe farmer leaders, without chal-lenging the apex court, wouldrather have the Governmentdeal with the issue. Even if the

Supreme Court is roped in,can it effectively remove theblockade? At least the farmerleaders don’t think so.

The Government’s advo-cates may carp that the farm-ers are blocking essential roadsand causing public nuisance.But this is not true. The block-ades at all points are allowingvehicular traffic to pass and, infact, the police are obstructingtraffic as seen in the media.Even if the SC issues an order,what will be the basis for it?

Judging from its earlierstatements, the apex court willalso act with caution. Even onewrong word could go a longway in eroding its own credi-bility and integrity. If anycomplicity is seen betweenthe courts and theGovernment, it shall only spurthe revolution. If the courtsremain impartial, the farmershave nothing to fear.

We must also rememberthat the world community isclosely watching every devel-opment as India is only justbreaking in her shoes at theUnited Nations SecurityCouncil. There could be seri-ous questions and politicalramification at any sign ofany collusion by theGovernment. Canada’s PMJustin Trudeau has twicealready signalled the mood ofthe international communityto Modi. The Governmentshould be very careful andensure that a strict and prop-er judicial process is followed.

But, considering for aminute that the Supreme Courtorders for the eviction of farm-ers and removal of blockades,the orders can be carried outonly by the police, paramilitaryor finally the army (God for-bid it comes to that). RakeshTikait has already issued astatement that if the policecame down to evicting them,“We (the farmers) are ready toface the bullets on our chestbut we won’t leave until thelaws are repealed.”

But the moot point is if theGovernment can afford to beviolent or fire at the peacefuland unarmed farmers. In mod-ern times, even if one farmeris killed by a police bulletfunded by the tax-payer, thecountry might erupt in angerand Modi — forget aboutbeing remembered like Shivajior Dadabhai Naoroji — will godown in history as “GeneralDyer 2.0” and Delhi’s borderswill resemble Jallianwala Bagh.While the Government mustbe very cautious against usingeven a single bullet, the farm-ers should ensure that theirprotest remains peaceful anddisciplined.

The next point to ponderis that at what stage would theDelhiites sympathetic to thefarmers start protesting? Is theModi Government ready tohave farmers protesting atDelhi’s borders and citizens onthe streets? To prevent thisfrom happening, theGovernment should set an

example and punish all thosewho are spreading conspiracyand the “Khalistani” discoursein public. It will boost thenation’s confidence and buildtrust between the Governmentand farmers.

If things do go awry, it’sCatch-22 for Modi. The onlyway he can remove the farm-ers without repealing the lawsis if he uses the State’s might onthem; he can say goodbye topolitics if he does that.

There is also a third prob-ability, even more ghastly:What if the troops are called inbut they refuse to fire on thefarmers? Will there be court-martials or a coup d’etat? Dokeep in mind that most uni-formed personnel, especially inthe Delhi Police, have propin-quity with farmers. Is theIndian Government ready toforsake the Constitution for thesake of three laws? An astutepolitician wouldn’t do it. Thekisan and the jawan areentwined; the Governmentmust not pit one against theother. This will not only resultin an egregious crime but alsoseed the rot within our foodand military systems.

One might feel that troopsfrom the South or Northeastcould be mobilised but if thatis done, the Modi Governmentwill use the exact same tacticsas employed by the East IndiaCompany to quell the 1857Revolution. The Governmentshould not call any additionaltroops into or around Delhi.

That would be a disaster as thefarmers’ networks are verystrong and they are aware ofsuch tactics. Either way, theGovernment is slowly nearingthe end of the stalemate unlessit softens its position.

Modi also needs to end thedissent within his own party,for they are now starting tosplinter; some of them havesecretly started aiding the farm-ers and leaking information.

The Government can stillsalvage the situation if Modisteps in personally and breaksbread with the farmers, likeAtal Bihari Vajpayee wouldhave done. He needs to win thefarmers’ trust by repealing thelaws rather than patronisingthem. He would do well toconvene a special session ofParliament and mollify dissent.By doing so, he would win notonly electorally but also moral-ly. This will be a happy lessonin democracy for the ages tocome. But if this is not done,the Indian democracy willresemble a kleptocracy at best.The farmers are highly organ-ised, managing to do what thecombined strength of theOpposition couldn’t achieve.

If the righteous farmers arekilled or defeated now, the restof us don’t stand a chance.With demonetisation, our cashwas taken away; with GST, theincomes of our small andmedium businesses eroded;and finally, with the new farmlaws, each morsel of food willbe under corporate control,our farmers will becomeindentured labour in theirown fields and the urban pop-ulace would have to paythrough the nose each time theprice of dal hits �200/kg. Themiddle class and the poorstand to lose the most.

If the common citizensthink that they are unconnect-ed to this farmers’ revolution,one urges them to think again:This movement is not onlyabout the farm laws, it is a lit-mus test for Indian democra-cy. It is farmers for now; in thenext round of “reforms” wecould be targeted and thenthere will be no one to remon-strate for us.

The Government needs tologically analyse the situationand keep ego out of it. To endthe stalemate, the Governmentneeds to repeal the new laws.The farmers are relentless and,in the coming days, theirresolve will only grow. Theyrefuse to be Hitler’s Jews.

If farmers win, we all win;if they lose, democracy dies inIndia!

(The writer is Director,Policy and Outreach, NationalSeed Association of India. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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������������ �������Sir — It refers to the Reserve Bankof India (RBI) annulling licencesof three Non-Banking FinancialCompanies (NBFCs) while sixother NBFCs have surrenderedlicences on their own. The ques-tion that jumps to mind is why atall is the RBI continuing with theconcept of NBFCs which have norole other than being a mid-bodyin the business of lending?

It unnecessarily adds to theinterest rates and some NBFCs areeven said to have been earninghuge profits from the lendingbusiness by having interest ratesas high as 25 per cent or more.

There must be a blanket banon public sector banks financingNBFCs and fetching undue prof-its. Further, the NBFCs adopt ille-gal processes for recovery of loansfrom defaulters. These entities filerecovery suits in cities other thanthe one where the loan is givenjust for harassing the loan-takers.Hiring goons as executives orrecovery agents is another com-mon practice for the NBFCs.These illegal recovery agents oftenpose as police officers and threat-en to arrest the innocent borrow-er.

Madhu Agrawal Delhi

����������������Sir — It refers to the editorial‘Dying humanity’ (January 9).Such gruesome incidents are a bloton humanity and terming it mere-ly “shocking” would be an under-statement. When a tiger or leop-ard turns a man-eater, killing orcapturing it is justified but whena purely harmless creature like dol-

phin is mercilessly beaten todeath, there can be no justificationexcept that those involved in theincident are worse than wildbeasts.

More shameful is the act ofthose who were standing nearbyand capturing the incident on theirmobile phones. They are no less-er culprits and they should also bebooked under stringent laws and

brought to justice. Filming of thevicious attack shows our mis-placed priorities.

It is mentioned in theDirective Principles of State Policyto “protect and improve the envi-ronment and safeguard forests andwildlife.” We must protect ourwildlife at any cost.

Bal GovindNoida

�����������������������Sir — Despite all adverse com-ments from the Opposition parties,the Government is taking all stepsto make the vaccination drivesuccessful. Citizens need not worryas there will be a number ofchecks and counterchecks beforethe launch of the inoculationdrive.

It is a good step that prioritywill be given to healthcare andfrontline workers, who are estimat-ed to be around three crore innumbers. Followed by, those whoare above 50 years of age and thosewho are below 50 years but arewith comorbidities.

The Opposition should notmake unnecessary, unfoundedand politically motivated allega-tions to demoralise theGovernment and should rise abovepetty politics. It should give all pos-sible support to the Centre andStates in this hour of crisis. We, ascitizens must trust our vaccine andshould wholeheartedly cooperatewith the Government to make theinoculation drive a big success.

Gundu K ManiamGhaziabad

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As policymakers push for privacy to be atthe heart of the data protection debate, itis vital that this understanding of confi-

dentiality should not include some citizensmore than others. That is to say, whilst “priva-cy by design” is the need of the hour when itcomes to data protection, there is similarly a needto conceptualise it in terms of “gender bydesign.” By including a gendered perspective todata protection, policymakers will by defaultinclude women and sexual minorities who havebeen unequally subjected to both surveillance andmarginalisation over the years. As both surveil-lance and marginalisation have heightened dur-ing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more perti-nent than ever to look at data protection from agendered lens. It must be done in order to cap-ture the violation of the fundamental right to pri-vacy accorded to all citizens by the Constitutionof the country and to ensure that the technolog-ical progress of our society does not mean thatthe already existing gender divide widens further.

Surveillance and Marginalisation: Sadly,approaches to big data often try to obscure howgendered oppression can appear in ArtificialIntelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)programmes. Often, lack of consent equalswomen being unaware that they appear on cer-tain data sets, and the other end of the spectrumis also possible — that training data fails toaccount for diversity and bases codes withoutcounting women and minorities. Intersectionalfeminism is relevant to understand this issuethoroughly, although women are generallyexcluded from training data. Some of the reasonsfor this exclusion are that there is a dearth ofwomen respondents and they are not a priorityfor data analysts, among other things. It is muchmore likely that the representation of women whobelong to specific castes, regions and tribes willbe much lesser than that of urban, privilegedwomen and those belonging to the upper caste.It is ultimately a simple problem of representa-tion — though women are excluded in society,some are excluded more than others by virtue oftheir position in the “kyriarchy” — and this mar-ginalisation is represented in datasets.

In the same manner that society reflects thegrasp of patriarchy on the everyday lives ofwomen, data does, too. There is no dearth of datacollected on women, especially around the timeof pregnancy. Their past vaccinations, bodyweight, husband’s name, expected delivery dateand a whole gamut of other data points arerecorded. For social interventions or enhancingpublic delivery schemes, this data is passedaround without much regard for the gold stan-dards of data protection. Often, there is no sin-ister motive at play — it isn’t necessary that com-panies or Governments have an agenda to col-lect and share intimate and sensitive data per-taining to women — however, not accounting forthe possibility of surveillance is as much of a dis-service towards gender equality as explicitly mis-using such data.

There could be a number of reasons wherecollecting more data or using technology for aseemingly “good” motive could appear reason-able. For instance, when the Delhi Governmentproposed installing CCTV cameras in classroomsso that working parents could monitor their chil-dren and feel at ease, they weren’t trying to kickup a debate on privacy which inevitably ensued.

While the outcome is safety, policymak-ers must account for how women —especially in their teen years — feelwhile being constantly watched, record-ed and monitored. Similarly, a data setwhich encompasses the private detailsof one’s life, can start a domino effectof feeling surveilled, which can lead toanxiety, paranoia, anguish and even amental breakdown.

Additionally, marginalisation ofwomen doesn’t limit itself to the actu-al technology or its implications onrights and experiences, it even extendsto representation in the industry.Technology, specifically the informationtechnology industry is a male dominat-ed one. This is an extension of the pre-existing gender disparity faced bywomen in technical fields across sec-tors. Such disparity exacerbates otherfundamental issues such as the coretechnology itself having discriminato-ry implications, as the biases carried byindividuals often translate into thealgorithms or technologies they create.The lack of female representation andwomen-friendly practices at technolo-gy organisations discourages themfrom undertaking their education inscience, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM), thereby, furtherpromoting gender bias and acting as abarrier to the entry of women.

This process starts right fromschool, where coders are usually boys,and carries on to colleges and univer-sities where computer science graduatesare mostly men. Gender disparity inSTEM widens, especially when it comesto coding and technology design.

This lack of representation or hav-ing a seat at the table also restricts thesetechnologies from understandingwomen-specific problems that mayarise as a result of such innovations.Thus, to truly make the tech-spacemore favourable for women, in termsof the scientific knowledge they offer

and the environment they perpetuate,we must encourage and make the sec-tor more favourable for them.

Being mindful of gender inclusiv-ity while drafting laws: As more con-versations and research bring to theforefront the bias faced by women indigital space, this change is not reflect-ed in technology or its regulation. It isimportant that these developments areadapted from the nascent stage of for-mulation of policies and regulation, inthe effort to prevent such biases andfurther the concept of “gender bydesign.” If we inculcate a broader per-spective and engage more women andindividuals from marginalised sexualidentities right from the nascent stageand also provide them with moreagency and a voice in the various insti-tutions that implement such laws, wecan create a truly inclusive system.

Especially in the context of the dataprotection debate, we often see that gen-der finds itself mentioned as a side note.The European Union General DataProtection Regulation (EU GDPR),which is considered to be the forerun-ner globally in comprehensive data pro-tection frameworks, often saw genderbeing viewed in silos rather than as anintegral aspect of the larger picture.

It is not surprising that such an atti-tude persists as everything — from datacollection, design of data intensivetechnologies like AI and ML and datainterpretation — is viewed from askewed gender lens, thereby impactingtheir final products and/orwomen/marginalised identities’ expe-riences.

The Indian story: As the countrybegins its own journey in this regard,we may not be able to repeat the samemistakes and be conscious of the gen-der bias at the stage of inception. ThePersonal Data Protection Bill, 2019, isa step in the right direction which envi-sions creating a more accessible poli-

cy, however, there is definitely morework required. On examination of thelegislation on its face value, there aretwo issues that need immediate atten-tion: Representation and the need toexplore gendered concerns arounddata collection, analysis, processing andstorage at large. This will help identifyproblems and experiences specific towomen.

The institutions prescribed in thePersonal Data Protection Bill, theSelect Committee responsible for estab-lishing the Data Protection Authorityand the Authority itself, need to pro-vide for specific representation ofwomen. This is indicative of a largerissue in policymaking and governancein our country, with a large majority ofIndian regulatory authorities beingpredominantly male dominated. Thelack of representation at these stagesand in the institutions, contributes toa myopic understanding of the specif-ic issues that may be faced by the com-munity. It will also help put in place cer-tain preventive measures, as women justlike the physical society, are suscepti-ble to a greater extent of harm even inonline spaces.

How can we be better in future?:In order to truly incorporate “gender bydesign”, it is necessary that theGovernment and civil society recognisethat these are not token conversationsbut they must actively change theirmindset to include these issues in themain conversation. In all kinds of pol-icymaking, there is a need to widen theconversation beyond just groups ofwomen and bring it to the main table.That is the only way one can trulyensure that future legislations areresponsive to gender and inclusive toall.

(Mehta is Strategic Engagementand Research Coordinator and Pande isPolicy Manager, The Dialogue. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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In a 2012 lecture at the Institute ofAdvanced Studies, the late Danish-American historian Patricia Crone

described Omer Saeed Sheikh as an“acculturated native” who had rebelledagainst his adopted cultural mores.

Sheikh is a British citizen who wasarrested in Pakistan for his role in thekidnapping and murder of Americanjournalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Sheikhwas born in London to Pakistani par-ents who had migrated to England in1968. They quickly adopted British cul-tural norms and established a success-ful clothing business there. Sheikh wasenrolled at a prestigious private schoolin London and was then sent toLahore’s equally prestigious Aitchison

College. He returned to England andenrolled at the famous London Schoolof Economics. But he soon dropped outand travelled to a war-torn Bosnia inthe early 1990s. This is when Sheikhthrew himself completely into becom-ing a radical Islamist.

According to Crone, acculturatednatives embrace cultural norms of theiradopted societies. They do so toadvance their status in these societies.These natives may be living in regionswhere they do not have roots, or intheir ancestral regions that have beencolonised by foreign powers. Butwhen, despite integrating the foreigncultural ethos, they feel that theirprogress is being restricted by the pro-ducers of these ethea, they walk outfrom their acculturated selves, rebelagainst it and adopt their ancestral cul-ture.

However, what they believe istheir authentic, ancestral culture isoften a romanticised concoction, oreven an unintentional caricature. Intheir rebellion against their formeracculturated selves, they may begin todress in the manner they believe peo-

ple in their ancestral culture do (orought to), or they may begin to followtheir religion in a more overt manner.

To Crone, the acculturated non-European native’s anger, triggered byhis inability to achieve prestige and suc-cess despite adopting the ethos of adominant western culture, is a rebel-lion against modernity. On the otherhand, according to Crone, it is also afailure of Western modernity. The fail-ure in this respect is its inability to holdon to non-Europeans who had willing-ly adopted modernity but then walkedout to rebel against it.

Crone says this is because of a fearwithin the purveyors of modernity thattheir positions of power might beusurped by those who had adoptedtheir ideas but were not from its raceof origin. To Crone this is not an irra-tional fear, but one that the West needsto let go of if modernity is to retain con-verts and grow. In her 2014 book, TheNativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran,Crone writes that one of the main rea-sons behind the rapid growth of Islamwas the fact that its purveyors hadmade it extremely simple to convert to

the new faith. The religion’s first cen-tury was dominated by Arabs wholived in garrison cities, away from thenatives they had conquered. But thenatives could enter the garrison citiesand enjoy all of its perks and power byadopting Islam.

The acculturated native, in thiscontext, did not face any hindrances toprogress or in his rise to a position ofpower. According to Crone, this is whythe native retained his acculturated selfand did not walk out or rebel againstit, despite his dislike of Arab hegemo-ny. He may have rebelled against theArabs but not the idea that he had con-verted to.

Indeed, the huge influx of non-Arab natives into the fold of Islam con-sequently overthrew the hegemony ofits original purveyors (the Arabs) —especially after the Abbasid Revolutionin 750 CE. But the faith continued togrow. In Pakistan, however, from themid-1970s onwards, certain politicaland constitutional developments haveled to the growth of a particular non-inclusive strand of Islam, alienatingthose who may follow a different one

or may belong to a different faith.They believe that even if they

acculturate themselves with this dom-inant sect, they will not be able toachieve the kind of success or positionthat those who were born into thisdenomination can. They are thusmore likely to walk out and leave theidea of nationhood based on thisstrand vulnerable to contraction. Andit has been contracting.

From the 18th century onwards,Islam as an imperial power began tostagnate. Its nemesis was the Muslimcommunity’s slide into myopia. It waseventually overwhelmed by Europeancolonialism, powered by economic,militarist, political and social moder-nity based on the principles of the ‘Ageof Enlightenment’ i.e. rationalism, sci-ence, democracy, secularism and cap-italism.

This saw vast sections of colonisedMuslims acculturating themselves tothis modernity, so that they were notleft behind. But because of reasonspointed out by Crone, many walked outof it, giving birth to radical Islamistideas based on romanticised notions of

their faith and its history. Interestingly, according to the

British academic Jonathan Israel, in theanthology The Secular State and Islamin Europe, Muslims who had adoptedmodernity were actually integratingideas that were originally inspired byancient Muslim rationalists. This wasalso often pointed out by 19th centu-ry Muslim modernists such as Sir SyedAhmad Khan and MuhammadAbduh.

Israel writes that: “As the seeds ofthe Enlightenment were being sown inEurope, there were European thinkerswho were challenging monarchism andthe Church by debunking their hostileperceptions of Islam, and informingtheir audiences that Islam was a ratio-nal and inclusive faith.”

According to Israel, not all purvey-ors of the Enlightenment agreed. But18th century Enlightenment philoso-phers such as Pierre Bayle, Henri deBoulainvilliers and Denis Diderot pre-sented Islam as a rational and tolerantfaith. Israel writes that these men wereinspired by certain ancient Muslimthinkers and their ideas seeped into the

overall construct of Enlightenmentphilosophies, producing modernity.

Muslim modernists have oftenreiterated this narrative, pointing outthat, by adopting Western modernity,Muslims were simply acculturatingthemselves with an Islamic past thathad been repressed by conservatives.Sir Syed understood this as a battlebetween aqal (reason and logic) andnaqal (copying tradition and rituals).

According to the 20th centuryIslamic modernist and scholar the lateFazal-ur-Rehman Malik, Islam’s ratio-nal past does not fit the world view of“fundamentalists” and radicals who, tochallenge modernity, have construct-ed a largely romanticised past to touttheir disposition as being “authentic.”

In other words, those who reject-ed acculturation (to modernity) byclaiming it was alien, were rejecting arepressed Islamic tradition that hadinspired this modernity and fallingback on a mythical understanding ofthe faith’s history to justify their rebel-lion.

(The views expressed are personal. Courtesy: Dawn)

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Chicago: President DonaldTrump repeatedly claimed inthe final months of his presi-dency — and without a trace ofirony — to have done more forBlack Americans than anyonewith the “possible exception” ofAbraham Lincoln.

He boasted that the AfricanAmerican unemployment ratedropped to record lows underhis watch before the coron-avirus pandemic ravaged theeconomy.

Trump heralded hisadministration's criminal jus-tice overhaul for shorteningmandatory minimum sen-tences for nonviolent drugoffenses and leading to therelease of thousands of incar-cerated people, mostly BlackAmericans. Trump also rel-ished that he increased fundingfor historically black colleges

and universities.But in the end, historians

say Trump's legacy — and hiselectoral undoing — will belargely shaped by rhetoricaimed at stirring significantswaths of his white base thattugged at the long-frayedstrands of race relations inAmerica. His strategy of divi-siveness was on display thispast week as he urged sup-porters, mostly white men, todescend on the U.S. Capitol inthe name of his baseless claimsof election fraud.

After the pro-Trump mobstormed the hallowed halls ofCongress, Trump did notimmediately condemn the vio-lence. He did not denigrate therioters as “THUGS” or warnthat he was prepared to greetthem with “vicious dogs” and“ominous weapons” as he had

threatened largely peacefulBlack Lives Matter demon-strators after the police killingof George Floyd this year.

Instead, his initial responsewas a series of tepid tweets andvideo messages in which heasked his violent loyalists to “gohome in peace,” let them knowhe felt their “pain” and toldthem he loved them.

Trump was frequentlyexplicit in using race as a cud-gel.

He claimed without evi-dence that Barack Obama, thenation's first Black president,wasn't born in the UnitedStates, has said Mexican immi-grants were “bringing crime”and were “rapists” and arguedthere were “very fine people onboth sides” after violence at awhite supremacist rally inCharlottesville, Virginia, left

one counterprotester dead.He privately questioned

why the United States wouldaccept more immigrants fromHaiti and “shithole countries”in Africa rather than fromplaces such as Norway. Trumpeven wrote in a tweet thatappeared to be intended for agroup of then-first-term law-makers — progressiveDemocrats and women of color— to “go back and help fix thetotally broken and crime infest-ed places from which theycame.” “Since the Black civilrights movement of the mid-20th century, there has beenthis kind of tacit agreement inthe American political conver-sation that one could appeal toracial animus, but you had todo so in a particular sort ofway,” said Eddie Glaude, Jr.,chairman of Princeton

University's African Americanstudies program. “Trump madethat all explicit again. Hebrought it to the fore.

He mainstreamed certainassumptions about race thatwere driving our politics any-way.” Human rights activists saythat the Capitol siege was themacabre ending of a presiden-cy that embraced whitesupremacist groups andextremists and fanned theflames of chaos and violence“This is a moment of reckon-ing for the United States,” saidBob Goodfellow, interim exec-utive director of AmnestyInternational USA. “PresidentTrump has repeatedly encour-aged violence and disorder byhis supporters. These are notthe actions of a leader, but aninstigator.” The New York realestate tycoon rose to the pres-

idency despite his complicatedpast with his hometown's Blackand Latino communities. Therewas his refusal to apologize forharsh comments in 1989 aboutfive Black and Latino menwho as teenagers were wrong-ly convicted in a jogger's bru-tal rape in New York City'sCentral Park.

Trump paid for newspaperadvertisements back then call-ing for New York state to adoptthe death penalty after theattack. Early in his real estatecareer, Trump and his fatherwere sued by the JusticeDepartment for violating fairhousing laws by discriminatingagainst Black applicants. TheTrumps ultimately entered aconsent decree but did notadmit guilt.

Trump's 2016 White Housewin over Democrat Hillary

Clinton was aided by the firstdecline in Black voter turnoutin 20 years. Since his Novemberloss to President-elect JoeBiden, he has made unsub-stantiated allegations of voterfraud in large urban centerssuch as Detroit, Milwaukeeand Philadelphia — all areaswith big African Americanelectorates — that proved crit-ical to Trump's defeat.

There has been no evi-dence of the massive fraud orgross error that Trump and histeam alleged in scores of law-suits that judges, whetherappointed by Republicans,Democrats or Trump himself,systematically dismissed.

Still, the RepublicanNational Committee, in theaftermath of Trump's loss, hastried to cast the Trump era asone in which the GOP loos-

ened the Democratic grip onBlack voters. “Because of hisleadership we have changed thepolitical map forever andRepublicans have a road mapon how to be competitive andvictorious in nontraditionalcommunities,” RNCspokesman Paris Dennard saidin a statement.

The Rev. Marshall Hatch, acivil rights activist in Chicago,said that Trump's defeat at thepolls brought a moment ofrelief.

But Hatch said his joy quick-ly was eclipsed by the recogni-tion that some 74 millionAmericans were OK voting forTrump even though he repeat-edly has played down whitesupremacy, vilified women ofcolor and tried to diminish theissue of racial injustice inAmerican policing. AP

Jerusalem: Thousands ofIsraelis renewed weeklydemonstrations against PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu,calling for the long-servingleader to resign over corruptioncharges against him and hisalleged mishandling of thecoronavirus crisis.

Protesters on Saturday heldsigns reading “Go,” and “Bibi,let my people go,” referring toNetanyahu by his nickname.

The protest in a Jerusalem

square near Netanyahus officialresidence comes as Israel is inthe midst of its third nationallockdown, which was recentlytightened to shutter schools,and as the country presses for-ward with a world-leading vac-cination drive. Netanyahus trialwas set to resume this week, butwas postponed indefinitelyamid the tighter restrictions.

Netanyahu has been indict-ed on charges of bribery, fraud

and breach of trust connectedto three long-running investi-gations. He has denied anywrongdoing and says he is thevictim of a “witch hunt” by hos-tile media, law enforcementand judicial officials. Protestersargue that Netanyahu cannotproperly lead the country whileunder indictment.

Israel has seen a recentsurge in cases despite unleash-ing one of the worlds fastestvaccination campaigns. AP

Jakarta: Two landslides triggered byheavy rain in Indonesia left at least 11dead and 18 injured, officials saidSunday. The second landslide inCihanjuang village in the Sumedang dis-trict of West Java province occurred asrescuers were still evacuating people fol-lowing the first disaster on Saturday, saidNational Disaster Mitigation Agencyspokesman Raditya Jati.

Rescuers were among the victims,he said. The rain stopped on Saturdaynight. A bridge and roads were blockedby the landslides as authorities struggledto bring in heavy equipment to clear thedebris. Seasonal rains and high tide inrecent days have caused dozens oflandslides and widespread floodingacross much of Indonesia, a chain of17,000 islands where millions of peoplelive in mountainous areas or near fer-tile flood plains close to rivers. AP

Jakarta: Authorities said theydetermined the location of thecrash site and black boxes of aBoeing 737-500 on Sunday, aday after the aircraft crashedinto the Java Sea with 62 peo-ple on board shortly after tak-ing off from Indonesia's capi-tal.

The head of Indonesia'sNational Search and RescueAgency, Bagus Puruhito, saidofficials believe they identifiedthe location of the flight datarecorder and cockpit voicerecorder — the so-called blackboxes — because emergencysignals transmitted by thedevices were detected by anavy ship's sonar system.

“We have determined theposition of the plane's blackboxes from two signals emittedby the devices,” military chiefHadi Tjahjanto said.“Hopefully we can lift the blackboxes in short time to deter-

mine the cause of the crash.”Earlier Sunday, search and res-cue operations resulted in partsof the plane being found in thesea at a depth of 23 meters (75feet), leading rescuers to con-tinue searching the area.

“We received reports fromthe diver team that the visibil-ity in the water is good andclear, allowing the discovery ofsome parts of the plane,”Tjahjanto said in a statement.

“We are sure that is thepoint where the plane crashed.”He said the objects foundincluded broken pieces of fuse-lage with aircraft registrationparts.

Earlier, rescuers pulled outbody parts, pieces of children'sclothing and scraps of metalfrom the surface.

The break in the search forSriwijaya Air Flight 182 cameafter the navy ship's sonarequipment detected a signal

from the aircraft at a locationthat fit the coordinates from thelast contact made by the pilotsbefore the plane disappearedSaturday afternoon, Tjahjantosaid.

The plane was en route

from Jakarta to Pontianak, thecapital of West Kalimantanprovince on Indonesia's Borneoisland, on a flight that wasexpected to take around 90minutes.

It was still unclear what

caused it to crash. There was nosign of survivors.

“I represent the govern-ment and all Indonesians inexpressing my deep condo-lences for this tragedy,”Indonesian President JokoWidodo said.

“We are doing our best tosave the victims. We praytogether so that the victims canbe found,” he said, adding thathe had asked the NationalTransport Safety Committee toconduct an investigation.

Fishermen in the areabetween Lancang and Lakiislands, part of an archipelagoaround Thousand Islandsnorth of Jakarta's coast, report-ed hearing an explosion around2:30 p.M. Saturday.

“We heard somethingexplode — we thought it was abomb or a tsunami since afterthat we saw a big splash fromthe water,” Solihin, who goes by

one name, said by phone.“It was raining heavily and

the weather was so bad, so itwas difficult to see aroundclearly,” Solihin said. “But wesaw the splash and a big waveafter the loud sound. We werevery shocked and saw the planedebris and the fuel around ourboat.” Tr a n s p o r t a t i o nMinister Budi Karya Sumadisaid the flight was delayed foran hour before it took off at2:36 p.M. It disappeared fromradar four minutes later, afterthe pilot contacted air trafficcontrol to ascend to an altitudeof 29,000 feet (8,839 meters), hesaid.

There were 62 people onboard, all of them Indonesiannationals, including threebabies and seven other chil-dren. The plane was carrying50 passengers, six workingcrew members and six othercrew for another flight. AP

London: The UK on Sundayannounced a major expansionof Covid-19 tests being madeavailable more widely toasymptomatic people as part ofefforts to control the rapidspread of a new coronavirusvariant, which has led to Britainhitting the grim milestone of80,000 deaths from the virus.

The community testingregime, until now available tothose displaying symptoms,has been expanded to coveranyone unable to work fromhome to access the rapid later-al flow tests that give results in30 minutes.

The move comes as hun-dreds of thousands of peopleaged 80 and over were sent let-ters to book a coronavirus vac-cination at new NationalHealth Service (NHS) vacci-

nation centres that will be upand running from Monday.

“With more than 1,000vaccination sites across thecountry, including seven newmass vaccination centres, wewill help protect hundreds ofthousands of vulnerable peopleover the coming weeks as weaccelerate towards offering 12million people the jab inEngland by the middle ofFebruary,” said British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson.

“Our plan is to vaccinate asmany people as possible acrossthe entire United Kingdom asquickly as we can… There aredeeply challenging weeksahead, but today signals anoth-er significant step forward inthe race to protect the public,and defeat the virus,” he said. PTI

Kabul: A roadside bombexploded in Afghanistan's cap-ital on Sunday, killing at leastthree people in a vehicle, thelatest attack to take place evenas government negotiators arein Qatar to resume peace talkswith the Taliban.

Tariq Arian, spokesmanfor the interior minister, said aspokesman for the ministry'spublic protection forces — asecurity force — was one of thethree killed in the attack. Oneother person was wounded hesaid.

No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for theattack. The Islamic Stategroup has claimed responsi-bility for multiple attacks in thecapital in recent months,including on educational insti-tutions that killed 50 people,most of them students. IS hasclaimed responsibility for rock-

et attacks in December target-ing the major U.S. Base inAfghanistan. There were nocasualties.

Taliban militants havemeanwhile continued theirinsurgency against governmentforces while keeping theirpromise not to attack U.S. AndNATO troops.

Sunday's attack comes asAfghan negotiators are toresume talks with the Talibanaimed at finding an end todecades of relentless conflict.Frustration and fear havegrown over a spike in violencethat has combatants on bothsides blaming the other.

The stop-and-go talksbetween the Taliban and thegovernment come amid grow-ing doubt over a U.S.-Talibanpeace deal brokered by theadministration of outgoingPresident Donald Trump. AP

Islamabad: Several cities and townsacross Pakistan plunged into darknessovernight following a major techni-cal fault in the country's power gen-eration and distribution system, theenergy minister said on Sunday.

The power outage was reportedshortly before midnight almost simul-taneously in many cities. Residents ofKarachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore,Islamabad, Multan and others facedthe blackout.

Pakistan Energy Minister OmarAyub Khan, along with InformationMinister Shibli Faraz, told reportersthat the power supply snapped at11:41 pm on Saturday after a techni-cal fault at Guddu power plant in

Sindh province.“It had what we call a ‘cascading

effect' and shut down the power sys-tem, choking about 10,320 megawattof electricity,” he said, adding that itwas the precise amount of energyneeded for the entire country duringthe winter nights.

The minister said that the powerplant's safety systems started shuttingoff automatically soon after it devel-oped a fault, the Express Tribunereported. Khan said that PrimeMinister Imran Khan has beeninformed of the entire situation, thereport said.He said that technicalteams were working to fully restorethe power supply. PTI

Washington: President Donald Trump is expected totravel to the US-Mexico border on Tuesday to highlighthis administration's work on the border wall, the WhiteHouse said Saturday.

Trump will travel to the town of Alamo, Texas. Hewill mark the completion of 400 miles of border wall andhis administration's efforts to reform what the WhiteHouse described as the nation's broken immigration sys-tem. Trump's campaign for the presidency in 2016focused extensively on the president's desire to constructa border wall. He also promised that Mexico would payfor the wall, but it has been paid for by US taxpayers.

While most of the wall went up in areas that hadsmaller barriers, the government has built hundreds ofmiles of fencing as high as 30 feet (9 meters) in a shortamount of time — most of it this year.

The administration prioritized areas where the wallcould be built more quickly, and crews have blasted hillsand bulldozed sensitive habitats in national wildliferefuges and on American Indian land to do it.

The visit will likely be the president's first publicappearance since he addressed supporters on Wednesdayriling up a crowd that later staged a violent siege of theU.S. Capitol. He is anxious to highlight accomplishmentsas his presidency winds down. AP

Lviv (Ukraine): A medical col-lege in western Ukraine hasbeen transformed into a tem-porary hospital as the coron-avirus inundates the EasternEuropean country.

The foyer of the college inthe city of Lviv holds 50 bedsfor COVID-19 patients, and300 more are placed in lecturehalls and auditoriums toaccommodate the overflow ofpeople seeking care at a packed emergency hospitalnearby.

The head of the hospital'stherapy division, Marta Sayko,said the college space has dou-bled treatment capacity. Shehopes a broad lockdownordered Friday will reduce theburden on the Ukrainianhealth care system. AP

Canberra: The Foreign Ministers ofAustralia, the United States, Great Britainand Canada issued a joint statement onSunday expressing “serious concern”about the arrest of 55 democracy activistsand supporters in Hong Kong last week.

The arrests were by far the largest suchaction taken under a national security lawthat China imposed on the semi-autonomous territory a little more than sixmonths ago.

“It is clear that the National SecurityLaw is being used to eliminate dissent andopposing political views,” the four foreignministers said.

The Chinese and Hong Kong gov-ernments say the law is needed to restoreorder in a city that was rocked in 2019 bymonths of often violent anti-governmentprotests demanding greater democracy.

Most of those arrested last week hadtaken part in an unofficial primary for alegislative election that was later post-poned. Authorities allege the primary waspart of a plot to take control of the legis-lature in order to paralyze government andforce the city's leader to resign.

The 55 have not been charged, and allbut three have been released on bail pend-ing further investigation. AP

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Washington: The US has lift-ed the “self-imposed restric-tions” on contacts betweenAmerican and Taiwanesediplomats and officials,Secretary of State MikePompeo has announced, end-ing a long-standing policy to“appease” China.

The move on Taiwan islikely to anger China andincrease tensions betweenWashington and Beijing as theTrump administration entersits final days ahead of theinauguration of Joe Biden aspresident on January 20.

China regards Taiwan as abreakaway province that mustbe reunified with the main-land, even by force. ButTaiwan's leaders assert that itis a sovereign state.

In a statement on Saturday,Pompeo said, “for severaldecades the State Departmenthas created complex internalrestrictions to regulate ourdiplomats, service members,and other officials' interac-tions with their Taiwanesecounterparts.”

The US has maintainedclose ties with Taiwan since itsplit from mainland China in1949 after the end of a civil war.

But until recentlyWashington has avoided majordisplays of friendship so as tonot antagonise Beijing, whichcontinues to view the self-governing democracy ofaround 24 million people as aninseparable part of its territo-ry. Referring to Taiwan as a“reliable” and “unofficial” part-

ner, Pompeo, a staunch criticof China, added that the USexecutive branch agenciesshould consider “contactguidelines” regarding relationswith Taiwan previously issuedby the State Department to be“null and void.”

“The United States gov-ernment took these actionsunilaterally, in an attempt toappease the Communistregime in Beijing. No more,” hesaid.

“Today I am announcingthat I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,” the UStop diplomat said. T h eUnited States governmentmaintains relationships withunofficial partners aroundthe world, and Taiwan is noexception, he said. PTI

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*���������� ���&��������.� ��� �����(���Beijing: China's state medialashed out at the latest move onTaiwan by the departingTrump administration, accus-ing US Secretary of State MikePompeo of “seeking to mali-ciously inflict a long-lastingscar on China-US ties.”

A writer for the officialXinhua News Agency said ina commentary on Sunday thatthe lifting of longstandingrestrictions on US govern-ment contacts with Taiwanesecounterparts proves thatPompeo “is only interested instoking unwarranted con-frontations, and has no inter-est in world peace.”

A commentary postedonline by CGTN, the English-language channel of statebroadcaster CCTV, calledPompeo's announcement “a

cowardly act of sabotage” of the next USadministration.

“The Trump administra-tion, in its continuing effortsto burn the house down beforeleaving office, has crossed adangerous red line with Chinadays before incomingPresident Joe Biden takesoffice,” the commentary readin part.

Biden takes office onJanuary 20.

There was no immediatecomment from the Chinesegovernment on Pompeo'sdecision to end StateDepartment restrictions onhow US officials can interactwith Taiwan, which he saidhad been implemented toappease the Communistregime in Beijing. AP

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;�����E�������������������*�����2C����� Moscow: Voters in Kyrgyzstan

cast ballots on Sunday in anearly presidential election thatwill also determine how muchpower the next president has.

The vote follows the ousterof the previous president inOctober.

The ex-Soviet CentralAsian nation sank into turmoilafter a parliamentary electionthat was swept by pro-govern-ment parties. Opposition sup-porters accused authorities ofrigging the vote and forcedPresident Sooronbai Jeenbekovto step down on October 15.

Sadyr Zhaparov, a 52-year-old politician who was freedfrom jail by protesters andthen spearheaded Jeenbekov'sremoval from office, is widelyexpected to win the presiden-cy.

The unrest marked thethird time in 15 years when aleader of the 6.5-million nationon the border with China wasforced out by a popular upris-ing.

Like the previous uprisingsthat toppled presidents in 2005and 2010, the latest turmoil wasdriven by clan rivalries thatshape the country's politics.

Zhaparov, who had been inprison since 2017 on a kid-napping conviction, becamethe country's interim leader,but he renounced that positionto be able to run for presidentas required by law.

But despite that he hascontinued to call the shots, rely-ing on his allies in parliamentand is broadly expected to winthe race against 16 other con-tenders. AP

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Chennai:SRM Institute ofScience & Technology, a promi-nent Indian higher educationinstitution, recently announcedan exclusive partnership withiSchoolConnect TechnologiesPvt. Ltd., a USA and India-based company that uses AItechnology to provide studyabroad assistance.

This unique partnershipwill benefit all study abroadaspirants at SRM Institute ofScience & Technology. It willprovide them access to expertconsultations and unique AItools which will empower themin pursuing their higher edu-cation abroad.

Regarded as one of the topeducational institutions inIndia, SRM Institute of Science& Technology hosts thousands

of students who latermove on to pursue high-er education. To encour-age students to pursue thebest possible educationaloptions both in-countryand abroad, SRMInstitute of Science &Technology has severalprograms in place. Someof those international objectivesinclude their Semester Abroadprograms, Dual degree pro-gram, and alike. To broadentheir sphere of internationaleducation assistance, the part-nership with iSchoolConnectcame into existence. On theInstitute’s behalf, this initiativeis being led by Mr. KartarSingh, the Director ofInternational Relations at SRMInstitute of Science &

Technology, and his team.When asked about their

motive for partnering withiSchoolConnect, Mr. Singhstates, “Going overseas for high-er studies is a growing ambitionfor many of our students, to gainnew knowledge, experience dif-ferent cultures, position them-selves for the new age compe-tences and skills of a dynamicwork environment and to chartout their careers.

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The logistics sector is at thecusp of the next phase of

growth on the back of thepush for manufacturing andinfrastructure development inthe country, market playersfeel.

With the country emergingout of the pandemic, and tech-nology taking a whole newmeaning in this post-Covidworld, they feel, automationwill be the next big thing inlogistics.

“Multinationals and glob-al supply chains in the revivingtimes are finding India anattractive location to establishtheir manufacturing basewhich will certainly proveinstrumental for our econom-ic growth and will have directimpact on the growth of logis-tics industry,” said Pawan Jain,Founder & Chairman,Safexpress.

He added that governmentinitiatives like ‘AtmanirbharBharat’, setting up of logisticscorridors, giving infrastruc-ture status to the industryamong others are driving eco-nomic growth of the country.

“Resilient and adaptive sys-

tems and proactive readinessfor future, triggered throughtechnology and automationwill be the key approach for2021, an outcome based on thelearnings of 2020 after gettingexposed to our weaknessesand gaps during the pandem-ic,” Jain said.Lancy Barboza,MD of Flomic Global Logisticsnoted that logistics and freightforwarding segment saw a dipin business volumes duringthe month of April 2020, main-ly due to the pandemic spreadout followed by the nationwidelockdown, but once the restric-tions on the movement ofgoods were eased, it picked upsteadily.He was of the view thatthe year 2020 has taught manylessons to entrepreneurs andbusiness leaders who wouldimplement these lessons intheir business strategy for 2021and beyond.

“One learning will be toadopt digitalisation of transac-tions. May it be banking trans-actions, foreign exchangeremittances, or even the inter-nal working in the organisationwhich till Covid was heavilypaper-oriented. The paperless,faceless initiative introduced byIndian Customs will be a game-

changer in the coming days inthe faster and smoother clear-ance of import and export car-goes,” Barboza said.

Ambrish Kumar, Founderof Zipaworld and Group CEOof AAA 2 Innovate Private Ltdwas of the view that 2021 isought to see more digital trans-formation to facilitate the newnormal, be it small and medi-um enterprises or large enter-prises.He also noted the pivotalrole likely to be played by thelogistics sector in the distribu-tion and transportation ofCovid-19 vaccines.

Noting that several coun-tries are banking on India interms of supply of vaccines, hesaid: “However, due to thesupply chain challenges likecapacity crunch and shootingup of air freight prices coupledwith the container shortagescenario for ocean freight,India seems like losing theopportunity and lagging in thecompetition.”In 2021, accord-ing to Soham Chokshi, CEOand Co-founder at Shipsy, themajor themes which will dom-inate will be vaccine procure-ment and distribution alongwith supply catching up withthe demand as economic activ-

ities come to full swing.“We expect demand to

keep building up till the Q2 ofthis calendar year with ratesnormalcy kicking in towardsthe end of summers. Therecord low interest rates glob-ally would help businesses, asalso witnessed in rising com-modity prices, it looks like2021 will bring in strong pos-itivity and economic growth,”Choksi said.Naman Vijay, CEOand Co-founder of ClickPost,emphasised impact of the e-commerce business on thelogistics sector.

“E-commerce sector hasseen unprecedented adoptionof technology during the pan-demic and we see three majortrends that will dominate logis-tics in 2021. Firstly, onlineretailers will prefer workingwith multiple courier partnersto increase reach and reduceshipping costs,” Vijay said.

Secondly, the online shop-pers will expect real-time ship-ment tracking for their orders,and thirdly, e-commerce com-panies will invest significantlyin automating logistics process-es to improve long-term prof-itability, the ClickPost CEOsaid.

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As many as 215 personshave been arrested in the

last two months across thecountry in a drive against fakeGST invoice fraud cases per-petrated through fake entitiesand fly-by-night operators whofraudulently availed input taxcredit (ITC) in multi-layeredscams.

Those arrested by theDirectorate General of GSTIntelligence (DGGI) and theCGST Commissioneratesinclude six CharteredAccountants and one CompanySecretary, sources said.

Others arrested include 71masterminds, 81 proprietors,36 Directors or ManagingDirectors, 15 partners, threeCEOs, and one each broker andGST practitioner, the sourcesadded.

GST intelligence authori-ties have also registered around2,200 cases and unearthedmore than 6,600 fake GSTINentities. Authorities have alsoseized more than Rs 700 crorefrom these fraudsters.

The sources said that thosearrested included operators offake entities and end- benefi-ciaries who connived withthese frauds in running thebusiness of fake invoices oncommission basis.

Use of data analytics, data-

sharing and AI along withBAFTA tool enabled the GSTecosystem and intelligenceauthorities to identify layer-by-layer activities of these fakeentities and pinpoint the fraud-sters with precise input.

To further tackle the men-ace of fake invoice frauds andmisutilisation of ITC, theUnion government has actedon the recommendations ofLaw Committee of GSTCouncil and placed qualifiedrestrictions of 1 per cent on theuse of ITC for tax liability in amanner that does not impactease-of-doing business for gen-uine taxpayers.

DGGI sources said that inthe last two days, 17 arrestshave been made in fake invoicefrauds and further investiga-tions are on. So far, a maximumof 23 arrests have been made inMumbai zone.

In the last two days,Ahmedabad Zonal Unit offi-cials have registered 14 casesand initiated actions againstAK Impex, Mannat Impex,Roselabs Bioscience, amongothers.

At least eight companieswere found non-existent buthad availed or utilised ITC ofmore than Rs 113 crorethrough fake invoices in gar-ments, copper waste, medi-cines, ferrous waste, cementand coal, the sources said.

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Telecom major Bharti Airtelon Sunday announced the

appointment of Pradipt Kapooras its Chief Information Officer(CIO).

In his new role, Kapoor willdrive Airtel’s overall engineer-ing strategy and be a key play-er in helping realise the com-pany’s digital vision, BhartiAirtel said in a statement.

He will be member of theAirtel Management Board andreport to Gopal Vittal, MD &CEO, Bharti Airtel.

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Retail fuel prices across thefour metro cities remained

unchanged for the third con-secutive day.

In the national capital,petrol was sold at the recordhigh of �84.20 per litre, reachedon Thursday (January 7).

In Mumbai, Chennai andKolkata, the fuel was priced at�90.83, �86.96 and �85.68 perlitre, respectively.

Petrol and diesel priceshad increased on two succes-sive days last Wednesday andThursday taking gasoline torecord high levels in Delhiwhile keeping its prices veryclose to record high levels inother metro cities.The risecame amid rising crude oilprices. Currently, Brent crudeprice is high near the $56-per-barrel mark.Diesel price alsowas the same for the third con-secutive day across the metros.In Delhi, Mumbai, Chennaiand Kolkata, diesel was pricedat � 74.38, �81.07, 79.72 and�77.97, all unchanged levelssince Thursday.

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Macro-economic datapoints along with expec-

tations of healthy quarterlyresults and developments sur-rounding the rollout of anti-Covid vaccine are expected togive further imputes to the cur-rent market rally.

However, observers citedthat even volatility on accountof profit booking will likelytrigger in bottom fishing, there-by reigniting the up move.

“The results season beganon Friday with TCS coming outwith excellent Q3FY21 num-bers. As more companies comeout with their numbers, thefocus could shift from index toindividual stocks and peerstocks,” said Deepak Jasani,Head of Retail Research atHDFC Securities.

“There is still no reversalsignal for the index. Anothertwo odd weeks of gains seemplausible though not at thesame pace.”

The week ahead will beheavily influenced by Q3FY21corporate earnings as compa-nies like HCL Tech, PVR,HDFC Bank, Wipro andInfosys are expected toannounce their quarterlyresults.

“The focus of the Indianmarkets have currently shiftedto third quarter earnings.Healthy business figuresreported by banking and autosectors have led to a betterquarterly outlook which is like-ly to continue in the comingweek keeping the sectors in thelimelight,” said Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeogitFinancial Services.

Apart from the healthy Q3results, the Central StatisticsOffice (CSO) is slated to releasethe macro-economic datapoints of Index of IndustrialProduction (IIP), ConsumerPrice Index (CPI) on January12.

Besides, investors will lookforward to the macro-eco-nomic data points of WPI(Wholesale Price Index) andIndia’s trade figures.

“Next week a lot of macrodata will be out includingIndia’s Inflation, loan growthand Industrial output,” saidSiddhartha Khemka, Head -Retail Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

“As the long term marketstructure remains positive, wewould advise investors to adoptBuying on Dips strategy toaccumulate quality stocks.”

����� 670579:�

India’s economy is showingdecisive signs of a ‘V-shaped’

recovery in 2021 with thereturn of consumer confi-dence, robust financial mar-kets, an uptick in manufac-turing and exporters braving itout in the global market withnever-say-die spirit, Assochamsaid on Sunday. The industrychamber said it expectsimmense accruals of econom-ic benefits from the COVID-19 vaccination programmeabout to be rolled out.

“The high-frequency datais a strong pointer to a V-shaped recovery in 2021 withthe seeds bursting into greenshoots over the last two monthsof 2020 itself,” AssochamSecretary General DeepakSood said. India’s GDP is esti-mated to contract by a record7.7 per cent during 2020-21 asthe COVID-19 pandemicseverely hit the key manufac-turing and services segments,as per government projectionsreleased on Thursday.

“With India about to rollout its vaccination programme

with approvals of the two vac-cines, the accruals of the eco-nomic benefits would be sig-nificant, especially to sectorssuch as hospitality, transporta-tion, entertainment, whichwere hit hard during the pan-demic,” Sood said.

According to Assocham,the most definitive of the datais the record collection of Rs1.15 lakh crore in the Goodsand Services Tax (GST) duringDecember.

“The state-wise collectionshowed the fightback spirit inconsumer confidence.Illustratively, the largest con-sumption state of Maharashtra,which was amongst the severe-ly affected by the COVID-19pandemic, has posted a healthy

growth of seven per cent inGST collection; even as thetotal GST mop-up was up 12per cent year-on-year,” Soodsaid.

He said the Budget for2021-22 would be a major cat-alyst. “Great focus on health-care, agriculture and revival ofdemand would be imperativesin Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman’s Budget”.

The entire healthcare valuechain from hospitals to medicaleducation, primary health cen-tres, scientific laboratories andfurther to the pharmaceuticalindustry along with the logis-tics is most likely to receive abooster shot of support fromthe forthcoming Budget, Soodadded.

����� 670579:�

Consumers may have to shellout more money for their

daily use products as FMCGfirms, which are facing infla-tionary pressure on their keyraw material inputs, are con-sidering marginal hike on theirproducts price to offset it.

Some FMCG companieslike Marico and others havealready gone for price hike,while some which includeDabur, Parle and Patanjali areclosely monitoring the situa-tion.

FMCG players have beentrying to absorb the priceincrease of raw material inputssuch as coconut oil, edible oiland palm oil, but they areunlikely to hold the prices oftheir commodities for a longtime as that will impact theirgross margins.

“We have seen a significantrise in input cost and especial-ly edible oil in the last three tofour months and that is puttingpressures on our margins andcosts. As of now, we have nottaken any price hike but we areclosely monitoring it and if itgoes like this then probably, wemay go for a price hike,” ParleProducts Senior Category HeadMayank Shah told PTI.

According to him, thesecommodities are cyclic in

nature.When asked about the

price hike, Shah said: “It will beacross products as edible oil isbeing used in all products. Itwould be at least 4 to 5 percent.”

Dabur India CFO LalitMalik said the recent monthshave seen inflation inching upfor some key raw materials likeamla and gold.

“Going forward too, weexpect some inflationary pres-sure in key commodities. Ourefforts will be to absorb the rawmaterial price increase throughour synergies and cost effi-ciencies, and undertake onlyselective and judicious pricehikes, which will also dependon the competitive scenario inthe market,” said Malik.

While for Haridwar-basedPatanjali Ayurveda, it’s still a‘wait and watch’ situation andyet to take a final call on thisbut hinted that it is also mov-ing in that directions.

“We always try to absorbthe market oscillation but ifcompelled by the market fac-tors, we would take a final deci-sion on that,” said Patanjalispokesperson S K Tijarawala.

Marico, which own brandsas Saffola and Parachute, hasfaced inflationary pressure andhad to go for an effective pricehike.

����� 670579:�

Aspecial unit has been cre-ated by the Government in

the countrywide investigationwings of the Income Taxdepartment for focussed probein cases of undisclosed assetsheld by Indians abroad andpossession of black money inforeign shores, officials said.The Foreign Asset InvestigationUnits have been recently cre-ated in all the 14 investigationdirectorates of the tax depart-ment located in various parts ofthe country that are primarilytasked to undertake raids andseizures, and develop intelli-

gence to check tax evasiondone by various methods.Atotal of 69 existing posts in thetax department were “diverted”by the Central Board of DirectTaxes in Nov last for the cre-ation of this unit after approvalfrom Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, a seniorofficer told PTI.The CBDTframes policy for the IncomeTax department.”The FAIUshave been created as new wingswithin the various investigationdirectorates of the tax depart-ment to bring focus on cases ofundisclosed assets held abroadby Indians and black moneystashed abroad.

����� 670579:�

The Government shouldbring natural gas under

the Goods and Services Tax(GST) regime to realise PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’svision for a gas-based economyand raising the share of theenvironment-friendly fuel inIndia’s energy basket, the indus-try has said.

Natural gas is currentlyoutside the ambit of GST, andexisting legacy taxes -- centralexcise duty, state VAT, centralsales tax -- continue to beapplicable on the fuel.

“Non-inclusion of natur-al gas under GST regime is hav-ing adverse impact on its pricesdue to stranding of taxes in thehands of gas producers/sup-pliers and is also impacting nat-ural gas-based industries due tostranding of legacy taxes paidon it,” the Federation of IndianPetroleum Industry (FIPI) said.

In a pre-Budget memo-randum to the FinanceMinistry, FIPI, which boasts ofmembers from across the oiland gas spectrum, said thevalue-added tax (VAT) rate onnatural gas is very high in dif-ferent states -- 14.5 per cent in

Uttar Pradesh and AndhraPradesh, 15 per cent in Gujarat,14 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.

“Since gas-based industriesdo not get the benefit of taxcredit of VAT paid on pur-chases of natural gas, it isresulting in an increase in costof production of such industrialconsumers and would have aninflationary effect on the econ-omy,” it said.

Inclusion of natural gasunder the GST ambit will havea positive impact on gas-basedindustries, promote usage ofthe fuel and avoid stranding oftaxes, it said.

����� 670579:�

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has expressed some

concerns over zero-couponbonds for the recapitalisation ofpublic sector banks (PSBs) anddiscussion is on between thecentral bank and FinanceMinistry to find a solution,according to sources.

The Government resortedto recapitalisation bonds witha coupon rate for capital infu-sion into PSBs during 2017-18and interest payment to banksfor holding such bonds startedfrom the next financial year.

To save interest burdenand ease the fiscal pressure, thegovernment has decided toissue zero-coupon bonds formeeting the capital needs of thebanks.

The first test case of thenew mechanism was a capitalinfusion of Rs 5,500 crore intoPunjab & Sind Bank by issuingzero-coupon bonds of six dif-ferent maturities last year.These special securities withtenure of 10-15 years are non-interest bearing and valued atpar.

However, the RBI hasraised some issues with regardto calculation of an effectivecapital infusion made in anybank through this instrumentissued at par, the sources said.

New Delhi:Realtors’ apex bodyCREDAI has suggested theGovernment to increase taxexemptions in the upcomingBudget to boost housingdemand and enhance limit ofdeduction under section 80C ofincome tax for principal repay-ment on home loans. It alsosaid that there should be a sep-arate exemption for principalrepayment on home loans.

The Budget for financialyear 2021-22 will be presentedon February 1. TheConfederation of Real EstateDevelopers’ Associations ofIndia , which has around20,000 members from acrossthe country, also recommend-ed tax incentives to boostinvestment in Real EstateInvestment Trusts (REITs).

“Real estate sector hasbeen under stress for more than2 years. Economic uncertaintyenforced by COVID-19 pan-demic has only made sit worsefor the sector. After battling forsurvival, the sector is slowlymoving towards revival,”CREDAI said.

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Raipur: Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel saidthat the minimum support price of Kodo-Kutkiwill also be declared from this year. Theannouncement was made by the Chief Ministerin Bijapur. He announced Kutru and Gangaluras tehsils in Bijapur district. He sanctioned fundsfor deepening and beautification of 12 ponds ofthe district including development work beingcarried out in Bijapur for upgrading and beau-tification of Loha Dongri, Mahadev Talab anddevelopment of 10 roads in the district and busstand in Bhairamgarh, Awapalli and Mander.

Chief Minister approved setting up of pro-curement centers for paddy procurement atTongpali and Bhadrakali. On the occasion, ChiefMinister Mr. Baghel said that there will be noshortage of funds for development works inBastar division. He said that along with the pro-motion of culture and civilization of people of

this region, Education, Health and Sports willalso be promoted with highest priority.

He said that there is no shortage of talentin Bastar and the talents needs to be given oppor-tunity. The government is committed to pro-vide opportunities for the betterment of Bastarpeople. He said that forest rights community andindividual pattas are being given by the gov-ernment.

The government is giving the right to landto the landless people in Bastar. He said thatpower has become a part of the basic needs ofthe people in today's era. The work of provid-ing electricity in this area is going on a war foot-ing. Closed schools have been restarted by thegovernment. Local youth are being givenemployment opportunities. The amount ofDMF is being used for education, health andlivelihood.

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���������������Set in the lush and royal country of Zamunda, newly-

crowned king Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his trusted con-fidante Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embark on an all-new hilar-ious adventure that has them traversing the globe from theirgreat African nation to the borough of Queens, New York— where it all began. It releases on March 5 on AmazonPrime Video.

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This year will be characterised bytwo phases. The early part ofwhich will be a continuation of

2020 where employees will refrain fromcoming to work and organisations willstill be somewhat lackadaisical in call-ing back people. However, as the vac-cine programme rolls out and by thefirst half of the year if it has been estab-lished that the vaccine has helped incontrolling the pandemic then peoplewould start coming back to workaround July. The new norm, as peoplestart coming back to work, is going tobe around the role that technology willplay in enhancing the safety standardsof food at work. As people begin com-ing back to work, there will be three key

drivers for the adoption of new technol-ogy solutions in ensuring the safety ofthe food which is served in the work-place.

The first one will be the need fordigital platforms to crack the behaviourswhich are needed in the post-pandem-ic world eyeing to continue for allow-ing social distancing to take place,ensuring there isn’t crowding in the cafe-teria and lastly to minimise contact inthe delivery of food. This can only befacilitated through digital platformswhich have algorithms that can track theflow of traffic in office cafeterias.Hence, most of the organisations will belooking for foodservice providers whocan use technology in ensuring that the

food served at work is safe. There is going to be another criti-

cal role that technology will play whichwill be at the back end. Increasing useof technology-driven solutions toenhance the nutritive value of the foodand to monitor the calorific intake ofemployees. Digital platforms will helptrack consumption behaviours at anindividual level and therefore, providegranular data to organisations on foodconsumption trends at the workplace.This will help in recipe development forboosting immunity through naturalmeans, as also enhancing the sensitiv-ity of employees towards consuminghealthy food. One of the biggest chal-lenges in India has been that taste always

triumphs over health but in the post-pandemic world health will triumphover taste, a key driver of that will be theuse of safe ingredients in cooking. Thisis going to be the single biggest changein the post-pandemic world.

Before the pandemic, employees inlarge cities were very comfortable con-suming unhealthy food. For example, inthe city of Mumbai, you could see scoresof people consuming food from the foodcarts lying alongside the roads. Thesefood carts typically use water from thetoilet on the ground floor of the officesin front of which they park their carts.Such behaviours are going to be cata-strophic in the post-pandemic world asthe spread of infection of any kind will

add to the challenges that the health caredelivery system already faces. So organ-isations will need to ensure that work-spaces do not just get cramped with deskbut also provide for employees to havefood safely. This will be a key driver ofconsumption behaviours and there-fore, food service providers will now berequired to ensure the water that theyuse in cooking is safe because mostinfections in India came to be water-borne and in a post-pandemic world,any infection is going to create panic.

The last driver is going to be aroundthe agriculture commodity supply chain.There is going to be an increasing needfor traceability to ensure that food thatis cooked is done so with safe ingredi-ents, particularly when it comes to foodlike chicken, mushrooms and eggs.These tend to carry high levels of con-tamination in our country and traceabil-ity, therefore, becomes important toensure that if there are outbreaks ofinfection, one can identify the sourceand cull it there itself. Even as we speak,we have been hearing about bird flu inparts of Kerala and this only showsabout the dangers of unhealthy practis-es in the post-pandemic world.Organisations will now need to bemore sensitive, allocate greater budgetsfor food at work and be willing to investin making sure that employees are saferather than having multiple vendors intheir food cafeterias who do not havethe scale and therefore, unable to deliv-er food safely. These are going to be thechallenges which only technology willbe able to solve because, without scale,no technology solution has the capabil-ity of being viable.

Corporate cafeterias are going to seea lot of digitalisation and automation.Where we will see automation is morein the areas of payment and order pro-cessing through digital solutions. Thereason being is a wider requirement ofbringing down contact points in food-service delivery. The automation areaswill be limited to a few production anddispensation points because essential-ly the key area of improvement in QHSEis around limiting the contact pointsbetween the cooking of the food and itsconsumption.

Organisations are going to invest inbackend automation but this will onlybe of relevance to those cafeteriaswhere the kitchen is in-house andhence, restricted to large corporationswho have a significant employee basewhich allows for onsite infrastructuredevelopment for food services. However,there is a contra trend where the highcost of real estate is forcing corporationsto avoid allocating real estate for foodservices. There could be a reversal ofthis trend with the post-pandemicworld, what that would mean is thatproduction processes in the kitchen ofthe corporate cafeteria will need to seemore automation so that there arehigher production efficiency and out-put but lesser utilisation of space.

All of this, of course, can be signif-icantly optimised with the digital solu-tion as an overlay on the automationplatforms.

(The writer, Sanjay Kumar, is theCEO and MD of Elior India.)

Actor Arshad Warsi feelsit is easy to get stereo-

typed as an actor, and verydifficult to break away fromit. The actor says he hasmanaged to evade the imagetrap despite his overwhelm-ing popularity in comic rolesonly because his serious roleswere equally loved.

“It is difficult (to breakaway from stereotypes). Weall get stereotyped — all of usdo, every actor does. That’show it is. You do a certainrole or you do somethingthat people enjoy, and thenthat is what you keep gettingbecause that is ringing thebox office,” Arshad said.

“It becomes difficult toget out of it. Fortunately forme, I’ve managed to do thatpurely because people haveenjoyed my serious acting aswell as my comedy,” headded.

The actor continued,“Usually, when somebodydoes comedy, a lot of(his/her) serious roles don’twork because you can’t getthat person out of the head.”

Opening up about hisway of doing it, Arshad said,“I tend to get into the char-acter so much that I makeyou forget who I am. I makeyou forget what my previousone was, and that works forme. In Asur, people justaccepted me in such a seri-ous role as a forensic scien-tist. And then Durgamati:The Myth was on the samelines, I got to do somethingcompletely different fromwhat I’m usually offered,which is a breath of fresh airand it feels wonderful.”

Before enteringBollywood as an actor,Arshad worked as an assis-tant director and choreo-graphed a song for the 1993film Roop Ki Rani Choron KaRaja. He made his acting

debut in 1996 with Tere MereSapne, which was a boxoffice success.

Over the years, he hasimpressed the audience andcritics alike with varied char-acters in films like theMunna Bhai series, theIshqiya films, the Golmaalseries, Dhamaal, Jolly LLBand Seher.

Last year, he made hisdigital debut with psycho-logical thriller Asur. He wasalso seen in the role of apolitician in film Durgamati:The Myth, which ditchedtraditional route of releaseand premiered digitally onAmazon Prime Video.

Asked how his lifechanged in the COVID-19era, he said, “It hasn’t, butI’m glad it has changed thelives of the world. I havelived like this even whenthere was no pandemic. Istay in my room, I do myfilms, I come back home, Ilike hanging out with mykids. So I enjoy doing that.I got to do that at a largescale with the kids at home.It was really nice. So, my lifehas been like that.”

“I’m glad that the rest ofthe world got a chance toexperience the whole feelingof not being in a rush to liveyour life, to sit down andrelax and not do anything.It’s nice to do that. It’s real-ly nice to just sit down andnot let life just pass you byand enjoy it a little bit,” headded.

Arshad is currentlyshooting for BachchanPandey along with AkshayKumar, Kriti Sanon andJacqueline Fernandez inJaisalmer. Shoot will contin-ue till March. The team isexpected to shoot at placeslike the Gadisar Lake andJaisalkot.

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������������������Determined to master their enchanting powers, a

group of teens navigate rivalry, romance andsupernatural studies at Alfea, a magical boardingschool. Starring Abigail Cowen, Hannah Van DerWesthuysen and Precious Mustapha, it releases onJanuary 22 on Netflix.

��������������������In the near future, a drone pilot sent into a war zone

finds himself paired with a top-secret android officer ona mission to stop a nuclear attack. Starring AnthonyMackie, Damson Idris and Emily Beecham, it releaseson January 15 on Netflix.

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We all get stereotypedas actors: Arshad

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The buzz around the webseries, Scam 1992, which is

based on the Indian stock mar-ket scam or the security scam of1992, refuses to die down evenafter months. The story remind-ed all of us about the plain truththat every action — good or bad— bears fruit, sooner or later. Noone, however high or mighty,can escape the result of his or heractions. Of course, every actiontakes its own time to ripen, yetno action remains totally barrenfor life. Moreover, one mayescape the clutches of law forsome time or the government ofthe day may favour a person andmay leave him/her without tak-ing any action against him/herbut the law of action, or what iscalled the ‘principle of Karma’ isinviolable and no government,however unwilling and mighty,can stand in its way. It will takeits course and punish an evil-doer, ultimately.

There is no iota of doubtthat the people involved in thecase of the security scam werevery influential. They had con-tacts with those who occupiedthe seats of power. They them-selves had the power of money.They had friends and well-wishers who held great positionsin society. Also, no one suspect-ed these people to be doing suchcrimes and anti-social activitiesuntil the scam was out in open.But we all have seen that a timecame when the situationsbecame such that even their bestfriends could not help them andtheir power of money, whichthey had considered as a greatboon. Money eventually turnedinto a deep curse for them asthey had earned it throughcriminal or sinful methods.They had thought that theyhad been able to fool the govern-ment, hoodwink the people inauthority, escape the attention ofthe invigilators and gag thosewho were expected to raisevoice. However, in fact, they hadbeen leading themselves nearerand nearer to a situation of greathorror and severe retributionand punishment. Thus, theyfelt shocked when they discov-ered that they had landed them-selves in trouble of great andunimaginable magnitude.

Most of us do not realisethat evil actions cloud a person’sintellect and judging abilities. Itdeludes a person’s mind. Insteadof feeling shameful about theiracts, one looks at it as a proudor a successful moment — as ifone is rising high on the ladderof social positions and gainingeconomic power. Ultimately,sooner or later, a day arriveswhen the ladder suddenlybreaks under one’s weight and hefalls down from “great heights.”And the result is certainly griev-ous. He bleeds with pain andshock. His honour gets badlyfractured. His face gets smearedwith dust. He feels humiliation,which is worse than death. Hethinks that his friends and well-

wishers are mere spectatorswho could not save him fromthis steep fall. He does not darestand and look at his kith andkin because he has guilty con-science and thinks that he hadbeen hiding his true picture evenfrom them and had been pro-jecting himself as a great figure.Thus, he wishes that the earthopens up and makes way forhim to lie deep under it ratherthan go back to the society,where he has now been declareda criminal.

And the outcome of thescam, what happened? We allknow that a promising entrepre-neur, who introduced the term‘scam’ to India, spent much ofhis time in earning by sinfulways, against his conscience. Hetried hard to hide this moneyfrom the watchful eyes of the taxauthority. He lost his peace of theday to earn and his sleep ofnights to the fear of beingcaught. For a while, he gotsome make-believe respect fromthose whom he had befooled.Even this respect was not rel-ished by him because, deep inhis mind, he knew that he wasnot an honourable man. And,then, at the end of all his endeav-ours, he stood humiliated, reject-ed, dejected and utterly disap-pointed.

Alas, the man understoodthe inexorable law of Karma welland in time. The multitude ofmankind does not even botherto understand it. Some, whohave a cursory knowledge of it,do not act according to thisknowledge. Others lay the pal-try knowledge of this asidewhen they act. And a vastmajority of men and womeninternally violate this lawbecause they think that othersalso are doing it or because theythink that no one knows thatthey have done somethingwrong. Still others think thatthey are doing a sinful action fora noble cause. Thus, man isdeceiving himself in many waysand is thus sowing the seeds ofsorrows and sufferings. Maythe scam and many such eventsserve as another powerfulreminder for the humankindthat a good act is inherentlygood and is a precious attain-ment and a bad act is a loss anda punishment from the time itis done till the time of its finalsettlement.

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How exciting to thinkof a full-size treelocked up within each

seed still clinging to thebranches of sugar maples,hornbeams, oaks, sycamoresand other trees at the end ofsummer.

It was with such visionsthat I dropped an apple seedinto some potting soil in aneight-inch clay flowerpotone autumn day years ago.

I wish I could write thatthe seed has now beentransformed into a majestictree. But no, the seedgerminated, started to grow,then stalled at about fourinches high.

The reason for the lackof growth was that appleseeds, like the seeds of manyother trees native to coldclimates, need pre-treatmentbefore they will germinate orgrow well. I was lucky theseed germinated at all!

Since then, I’ve learnedthe tricks of growing treesfrom seeds.

������������If an apple or maple seed

grew as soon as it touchedground in late summer orearly fall, the life of thetender young seedlingswould be short indeed,snuffed out with the firstfrost. So most tree seeds thatripen in fall are able to staydormant until they’reconvinced that winter isover.

You can fool such seedsinto growing sooner bykeeping them cool and moistfor a couple of months. Packthe seeds into plastic bagswith moist potting soil, thenput the bag in therefrigerator or garage. Thisprocess is called“stratification” becausenursery growers used to do itby alternating layers of seedswith layers of soil in boxes.

Of course, you could alsojust sow seeds directly

outdoors and let them waitout the winter naturally, butthen they face hazards likesquirrels, birds, flooding andmore.

It is cool, not cold,temperatures that awaken aseed from sleep. Hours ofchilling accumulate onlywhen it’s between about 32and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.So chilling might begin inautumn but not finish untillate winter or spring, thusreducing the likelihood of aseed sprouting during aFebruary warm spell. Or allthe chilling might take placein late winter or spring.

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Some seeds have a hardcoating which must be madepermeable to water beforethe seed is stratified. Oneway to let water into redbud,juniper, hornbeam and otherhard-coated seeds is to nickthem with a small file.

Dank warmth willaccomplish the same thing asnicking with a file. Pack theseeds into plastic bags, asdirected above, but leavethem in a warm room fortwo or three months beforestratification.

Sycamore and catalpa areamong the few fall-ripeningseeds that don’t needstratification. Perhaps this isbecause they hang on thetrees late enough into winterso that, by the time theydrop to moist ground,temperatures are too cold forgermination. Or else it isspring, and just the righttime for germination.

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Stratified seeds usuallysprout as soon as they haveaccumulated the number ofchilling hours they need. Forsugar maple, that meansthree to four months; fordogwood, four months; for

apple, two to three months.Keep an eye on

stratifying seeds, becauseone week they’ll be asleepand a week later — bingo! —they’re sprouting fat, white

roots. Once seeds sprout,either pot them up or keepthem cool enough to holdback growth until it’s time toplant them outdoors.

You might wonder, why

go to the trouble of plantingthese seemingly delicate seedswhen you can just buy a sturdyyoung tree at a nursery? Hey,you’re reading this, aren’t you?You’re a gardener; you like to

grow plants. Not to mentionthe satisfaction you’ll get yearsfrom now as you look up intothe branches of a tall tree youplanted from seed.

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Anew study has revealedthat religious people are

making use of some of thesame tools that psychologistshave systematically identifiedas effective in increasing well-being and protecting againstdistress, anxiety and depres-sion.

Religious people look forpositive ways of thinking abouthardship, a practice known topsychologists as “cognitivereappraisal.”

They also tend to haveconfidence in their ability tocope with difficulty, a traitcalled “coping self-efficacy.”

Both have been shown toreduce symptoms of anxietyand depression, said the teamfrom University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign in the US.

“This suggests that sci-ence and religion are on thesame page when it comes tocoping with hardship,” saidFlorin Dolcos, a professor ofpsychology at the University ofIllinois Urbana-Champaign.

The research was prompt-ed in part by earlier studiesdemonstrating that people whoare religious tend to use a cop-ing strategy that closely resem-bles cognitive reappraisal.

For example, when some-

body dies, a religious personmay say, ‘OK, now they arewith God,’ while someone whoisn’t religious may say, ‘Well, at

least they are not suffering any-more’.

In both cases, the individ-ual finds comfort in framing

the situation in a more positivelight, said Dolcos in a paperpublished in the Journal ofReligion and Health.

To reach this conclusion,the researchers recruited 203participants with no clinicaldiagnoses of depression oranxiety.

Fifty-seven of the studysubjects also answered ques-tions about their level of reli-giosity or spirituality.

The researchers asked par-ticipants to select from a seriesof options describing their atti-tudes and practices.

The researchers also eval-uated participants’ confidencein their ability to cope andasked them questions designedto measure their symptoms ofdepression and anxiety.

“If we are just looking at

the relationship between reli-gious coping and lower anxiety,we don’t know exactly whichstrategy is facilitating this pos-itive outcome,” said study co-author Sanda Dolco.

“The mediation analysishelps us determine whetherreligious people are using reap-praisal as an effective way oflessening their distress.”

The study should be ofinterest to clinical psychologistsworking with religious clients.

“I hope this is an exampleof where religion and sciencecan work together to maintainand increase well-being,” Florinsaid.

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Cheteshwar Pujara was leftto summon his trademark

doggedness with skipperAjinkya Rahane after Indialost their openers in pursuit ofan improbable 407, setting thestage for an intriguing finalday of the third Test againstAustralia in which the visitorswill primarily try to bat outthree sessions here.

Having drawn flak for his50 off 176 balls in the firstinnings, none would mindsuch an effort from India’s Testspecialist after the visitorsfinished the fourth day on 98for 2 largely due to a 71-runopening stand between RohitSharma (52) and ShubmanGill (31).

Rohit’s untimely dismissalat the fag end, trying to pullPat Cummins, did hurt Indiabut it’s two best defensiveplayers Pujara (9 batting off 29balls) and skipper AjinkyaRahane (4 off 14 balls) were atthe crease when stumps weredrawn.

The pitch, with variablebounce and the dark patchesacting like snake pits forNathan Lyon, would pose itsown set of challenges for ateam with two injured bats-men in their line-up.

Both Rohit (52 off 98balls) and Gill (31 off 64balls) showed admirable appli-cation under pressure butmost importantly didn’t let thebad deliveries go unpunished.

The three cover drives offRohit’s blade and a cross-bat-ted straight drive of Gill wereout of top drawer.

Rohit, for good mea-sure, pulled CameronGreen over mid-wicketfor a six and they bothlooked comfortable whilenegotiating theAustralian attack.

It was after 53years that an Indianopening pair hadstruck two 50 pluspartnershipsin the sameTest DownUnder.

Last t imealso it was inSydney whereF a r o k hEngineer andSyed Abid Alihad a decent out-ing albeit in a lostcause.

It took apeach of a deliv-er y from JoshHazlewood (1/11in 8 overs), comingfor his second spell,which straightened

after pitching and the resul-tant nick, ended an impressive71-run stand.

Pujara, just after comingin, successfully asked for aDRS review after beingadjudged leg before.

A delectable chip shotcoming down the track offLyon helped Rohit bring uphis half-century but his dis-missal in the next over leftfans yearning for more.

As far as Australia areconcerned, they hardly put afoot wrong during the two ses-sions that they batted.

Steve Smith (81 off 167balls) missed out on a secondhundred but rookie CameronGreen flayed a hapless Indianattack with a well-made 84 off132 balls that had four sixes.They declared at the stroke oftea, having scored 312 for 6.

Marnus Labuschagne (73off 118 balls) once again bat-ted positively during his sec-ond century partnership of thematch (103 runs) with men-tor Smith, who employed amore cautious approach.

The butter-f ingeredIndian fielders also didn’t helpthe bowlers’ cause as HanumaVihari, vice-captain Rohit andRahane missed regulationcatches at square leg, slip andgully respectively.

While RavichandranAshwin (2/95 in 25 overs) cantake solace in the fact that hedenied Smith a hundred witha successful review, he would

be the first to admit that hewas well below his bestduring the match.

Green, the 6 feet 7inch gentle giant, wascautious but didn’t let

the loose deliveriesget away and the sixoff Siraj (1/90 in 25overs) over widishmid-on gave aglimpse of his qual-ity.

As if to showthat he can do it

repeatedly, hem u s c l e danother oneoff thes a m e

bowler inthe same region

and then againinto the Cow

Corner for fun.The final ses-

sion was marginal-ly better for India butit's still a long way to gobefore Rahane will beable to heave a sigh of

relief.

����� 45674

Seasoned off-spinner RavichandranAshwin on Sunday said racistabuse from the crowd at the

Sydney Cricket Ground is not newand needs to be dealt with an iron fistafter some spectators were asked toleave for targetting Indian playersduring the ongoing third Test againstAustralia here.

Speaking at the end of the fourthday’s play, Ashwin said the Indian play-ers have faced racism in Sydney earli-er too and “disappointment” will be a“mild word” to describe how they arefeeling after young pacer MohammedSiraj was subjected to racial slurs ontwo consecutive days.

“Look, I would like to point outsomething. This is my fourth tour toAustralia. Sydney, especially here,we have had a few experiences evenin the past,” Ashwin said at the vir-tual press conference to a query as tohow the team is looking at theunsavoury incident.

Local media reported that sixpeople were expelled from the groundby the security during the nearly 10-minute halt in the on-ground proceed-ings during the fourth day of the ongo-ing Test. On Saturday, the BCCIlodged a complaint with the ICC afterSiraj and Jasprit Bumrah were abused.

“They have been quite nasty andhave been hurling abuses as well. Butthis is the time when they have goneone step ahead and used racial abus-

es,” the senior member of the team said.Ashwin said that both umpires

Paul Reiffel and Paul Wilson havetold them to report any incident ofracism immediately.

“Like we already mentioned, wehave lodged an official complaint yes-terday and umpires also mentionedwe must bring it to their notice as andwhen it happens.

“It is not acceptable in this dayand age when we have seen a lot,”said Ashwin.

He said in no unequivocal termsthat this needs to be dealt with aniron fist.

“This roots back to upbringing andthe way one sees, this needs to be def-initely dealt with iron fists. We mustmake sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ashwin said that the team didn’tface any racism in the earlier Testvenues like Adelaide and Melbourne.

“Personally, I think Adelaide andMelbourne weren’t as bad but like I saidthis has been a continuous thing atSydney. I personally experienced it aswell. They do tend to get nasty. I don’tknow why or for what reason.”

Ashwin was surprised that thesecurity personnel didn’t round up theperpetrators at the first instance and letit linger for a long time.

“Unless people don’t find thenecessity to look at it in a differentway, in fact I was surprised that a sec-tion in crowd continuously did andthey were not made to surround orpulled up for it.

“They needed to be dealt with andyes, disappointing is actually a verymild word, I must say,” he said

Ashwin then went on to narratesome of his own experiences on pre-vious tours.

“If I take myself back to the firsttour of 2011-12, I had no clue aboutracial abuse and how you were madeto feel small in front of so many peo-ple and people actually laugh at youand another set of people who laughalong when these things happen. I hadno idea at all what this was,” he said.

“When you stood at the boundaryline, you wanted to come in 10 yardsinside to avoid all these things. Asthings have moved on and we havetoured more and more, this has defi-nitely been not acceptable,” he said.

“So when Siraj brought it up,Ajinkya, Rohit and myself, we all gottogether and reported the matter to theumpires. A new boy like Siraj knows,this is a line someone cannot over-step.We were quite happy that these peo-ple were evicted,” the eloquent Chennaiman said.

����� 45674

Australia coach Justin Langer onSunday called it a shame and

one of his greatest “pet hates” aftersome spectators directed racialabuse at Indian players during thethird Test and were expelled fromthe Sydney Cricket Ground fortheir behaviour.

Reacting to the two episodes ofracism against the visiting team inas many days, Langer said it was ashame that such a hard-foughtseries was tarnished by incidentslike these.

“Sorry, it is upsetting and it isdisappointing,” he asserted.

“...It is one of my greatest pethates in life, that people can thinkthey can come to a sporting event,whether it is cricket or any kind

and pay their money and think thatthey can abuse or so whatever theylike.

“I mean, I have hated it as aplayer, I have hated it as a coach,we have seen in different parts ofthe world, it is really sad to see thishappen in Australia,” he said.

Langer said it is especiallyfrustrating when the cricket itselfhas been nothing less than excitingso far.

“I think our series so far hasbeen played in such great spirit, ithas been incredible cricket, it hasbeen brilliant to watch on field, it’sbeen really played in good spiritbetween both the teams.

“It’s a shame to see (the series)getting marred by incidents likethat we are hearing about today andlast night.”

Sydney: Senior India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, whodislocated his left thumb onday three of the third Testagainst Australia on Saturday,has been ruled out of the firsttwo games in the upcomingseries against England.

Jadeja was not able tobowl in Australia’s secondinnings after a short ball fromMitchell Starc hit him on thegloves, requiring immediatemedical attention.

“Ravindra Jadeja is out off irst two Tests againstEngland. He will need 4-6weeks minimum to recuperateand complete rehab whichrules him out of first 2 tests,”a BCCI source said.

The four-Test seriesagainst England starts with adouble header in Chennaifrom February 5.

The left-handed cricketer,who made a valuable 28 andtook four wickets in the first

innings might take a painkillerinjection and come out to baton the final day of the gameat SCG as India seek to savethe Test.

“He might bat if neededwith injection to save theTest,” the source added.

Rishabh Pant, who suf-fered an elbow bruise willbat, confirmed senior playerRavichandran Ashwin.

����� 45674

Australian head coach JustinLanger on Sunday said the

dismissal of India opener RohitSharma late on day four was ahuge wicket for the hosts andhoped that off-spinner NathonLyon will help them take a 2-1series lead on day five of thethird Test here.

“It was a bit of a relief for usto see Rohit Sharma out there inthe end, that’s a huge wicket forus because we know he’s a worldclass player. We know he’s one ofthe all-time great one-day play-ers so if he was out there, he’sgoing to keep scoring quickly,”Langer said at the virtual post-day press conference.

The former Australia open-er hoped that the surface wouldstart spinning more on day fiveto make their task easier.

“There’s very little in thiswicket, we’ve seen that through-out the whole Test match. Greatcredit to the bowlers but we’regoing to have to squeeze reallyhard, keep the pressure on and

hopefully the ball will start spin-ning a bit more again tomorrowfor Nathan Lyon.

“And we’ll just keep doingwhat we’re doing. There’s a lit-

tle bit of variable bounce, hope-fully that plays a part for ustomorrow as well,” said Langer.

According to the headcoach, Lyon’s role will be crucial

on the final day.“...I thought he bowled par-

ticularly well in the first inningswithout luck, he might get a lit-tle bit more luck in the seconddig. He’ll play a big part,” he said.

Langer was also all praise for

his bowling unit.“When you’ve got a bowling

attack like we’ve got at themoment, I’m actually in awe ofit. To see the way our fastbowlers are going about theirbusiness and to have Nathan

Lyon (and) have a young kidcalled Cameron Green who canplay a real role for us now andinto the future.

“I’m in awe of our attack.Let’s hope they get the job donetomorrow,” he added.

����� +9;-

Suresh Raina’s half-centuryand a three-wicket effort

from Bhuvneshwar Kumarwent in vain as Punjab defend-ed a modest 134 against UttarPradesh in their opening matchof the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophyhere on Sunday.

Punjab posted 134 forseven in a Group A game withopener and wicketkeeperSimran Singh scoring 43 off 41balls. Anmolpreet Singh (35 off27) was another batsman whomade a valuable contribution.

Bhuvneshwar, who had topull out of the IPL with a thighmuscle injury, was impressive inhis comeback game, returningwith figures of three for 22 infour overs.

However, UP fell short ofthe target and ended at 123 forfive in 20 overs to lose by 11runs.

Raina, playing his firstcompetitive game in over 18months, made an unbeaten 56off 40 balls but it wasn’t enoughto take his team over the line.

In other Group A matches,Karnataka beat Jammu &Kashmir by 43 runs, whileRailways chase 170 run againstTripura to win by six wickets.

CAPTAIN KRUNAL STARSVadodara: Krunal Pandya’s all-round show helped Barodabeat Uttarakhand by five runs.

Put into bat in a Group Cgame, hosts Baroda first rodeon Pandya’s blazing 76 to posta competitive 168/7 on theboard before the bowlers heldtheir nerves to restrictUttarakhand to 163/6 despite afighting 77 by Dikshanshu Negi.

Krunal, who is Baroda’scaptain, also contributed withthe ball handsomely to returnwith figures of 2/33.

For Uttarakhand, right-handed batsman Negi ham-mered nine boundaries and

six in his 57-ball 77 run knock,while Kunal Chandela, whocame in at number seven, stucka 26-ball 48 but the two couldnot take their side home.

In same group match atMotibaug Ground Gujarat wonby 29 runs against Maharashtra.

TN TROUNCE JHARKHANDKolkata: Host Bengal begantheir campaign with a thump-ing nine-wicket win againstOdisha in an Elite Group Bmatch.

In another match in thegroup, Tamil Nadu posted acrushing 66-run win overJharkhand, courtesy opener CHari Nishanth’s unbeaten 92-run knock and an all-roundeffort by the bowlers. Debutantmedium-pacer R Sonu Yadavpicked up three for 31 to star inthe winning start.

��� �+-*79@6+

First it was Pedro ‘Pedri’González shining with his

assists. Then the injury-proneDembele Ousmane earned aspot in the attack. Now the oft-maligned Antoine Griezmannis back to scoring goals.

All in all, Barcelona isslowly showing signs this sea-son might not be a wash afterall.

Griezmann scored a braceand set up Lionel Messi for oneof the Argentine’s two goals onSaturday to lead Barcelona toa 4-0 win at Granada.

Barcelona’s first three-match winning run in theleague under Ronald Koemanput it four points behind leaderAtlético Madrid, whose homegame scheduled for Saturdayagainst Athletic Bilbao waspostponed due to a blizzardthat has shut down the capital

and made transit almostimpossible through much ofcentral Spain.

“Our situation is still com-plicated, but the team is bettingbetter. We have had three

games on the road and won allthree,” Koeman said.

“We are more focusedfrom the start of the gamesnow, and when we are focusedand move the ball with pace,there are few teams that cancontrol us.”

Second-placed RealMadrid was one point behindAtlético after being held atOsasuna to 0-0 in a matchplayed in steady snowfall andwith barely any scoring chancesfor either side.

Griezmann got Barcelonastarted with his first goal innearly a month in the 12thminute when a pass by SergioBusquets was deflected to himby a Granada defender.

Griezmann set up Messi todouble the lead with a left-foot-ed shot from the edge of thearea in the 36th.

Messi got his league-lead-ing 11th goal in the 42nd

when he drove a free kickunder two players who jumpedin the defensive barrier. It washis first goal from a free kickthis season.

Griezmann rounded offthe big win in the 64th whenhe beat goalkeeper Rui Silvafrom a tight angle afterDembele played him clear witha lobbed pass.

It was Griezmann’s firstmulti-goal game in nearly ayear.

“They weren’t going infor me, and now they are. Ihope they keep coming,”Griezmann said.

Granada played the last12 minutes minus JesúsVallejo, who was sent off forfouling Martin Braithwaitewith only Silva to beat.Braithwaite had gone on inthe 65th to give Messi a rarebit of rest with the game wellin hand for the visitors.

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Nasty behaviour in Sydney not a first for India

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Ravichandran Ashwinreckons that the 22-yard

strip at the SCG has easedconsiderably and backed twoof India’s finest exponents ofTest match batt ing —Ajinkya Rahane andCheteswar Pujara — to onceagain come good in a pres-sure situation.

India will need to bat 90plus overs on the final day of

the third Test and scoreanother 309 runs with Pujaraand Rahane aiming to savethe match by batting out thewhole day.

The first session on dayfive will be crucial andAshwin has full faith inPujara and Rahane’s abilities.

“It is very very importantthat we play a good first ses-sion tomorrow,” Ashwin said.

“A very very ideal andgood first session would be

to not lose a wicket. Thesetwo gentlemen out in themiddle have proven throughtheir career how good theyare playing this format of thegame and playing many goodknocks for us.

“Ajinkya has got a hun-dred at MCG and Puji(Pujara’s team nickname) hasgot a fifty in the first innings.We are all very hopeful thatthey will put in a good per-formance.”

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/��������=�������� ��>���� Jadeja out of first 2 Eng Tests

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New Delhi: The BCCI onSunday decided to increasethe hosting fee of the six stateassociations staging the SyedMushtaq Ali Trophy from�2.5 lakh to �3.5 lakh besideshiking the participation feeof teams from �50,000 to�75,000. The tourney isplayed across six cities and ina bio-bubble, which increas-es the cost for the host asso-ciation. “After receiving thefeedback from the stagingassociations at the recentlyheld AGM in Ahmedabadand the subsequent discus-sions with my colleagues atthe BCCI, I am pleased toannounce an increase in thehosting fee for Syed MushtaqAli T20 tournament for2020-21 season from theexisting �250,000 to�350,000,” wrote BCCI sec-retary Jay Shah to the sixhosting associations. PTI