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AHMEDABAD l FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 286

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OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD

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COVID-19 UPDATE

GUJARAT3,167

DEATHS1,09,627

CONFIRMED CASES

RAJASTHAN 1,192 DEATHS 97,376 CASES

DELHI 4,666 DEATHS 2,05,482 CASES

WORLD9,10,950

DEATHS2,81,94,321

CONFIRMED CASES

INDIA45,52,021CONFIRMED CASES

76,277DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA28,282 DEATHS 9,90,795 CASES

TAMIL NADU8,157 DEATHS 4,86,052 CASES

KARNATAKA6,937 DEATHS 4,30,947 CASES

A’BAD CIVIL HOSPITAL DENIES RTI REGARDING COVID-19 INFO

Gargi Raval

Ahmedabad: In a bla-tant denial of the Right to Information (RTI), an appeal by a local Congress leader asking about the number of COVID-19 deaths in the city has been rejected by Civil Hospital (Asarwa).

Ever since the pan-demic first broke out in the state, concentrated efforts have been put in by various government authorities in the state to conceal information from the citizens. With the number of COV-ID-19 cases and the death toll reaching a seemingly stagnant fig-

ure, people have ex-pressed concern about censoring of official data by the government.

An application by Congress leader Jo-her Vora before the Civil Hospital (Asar-wa) regarding the ac-tual number of COV-ID-19 deaths in the city was denied.

Notably, the Asarwa campus of the Civil Hospital was one of the most discussed hospi-tals during the months of April and May, for its

mismanagement of data and unreliable ser-vices to COVID-19 pa-tients. Family members of several patients were not even informed about the death of their loved ones for days.

In the hospital’s de-fence, the denial of the RTI petition was purported by hospital authorities citing var-ious reasons under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897- set of regu-lations regarding nov-el coronavirus- which

the state government described as the Guja-rat Pandemic Diseas-es COVID-19 Regula-tions 2020.

“I was shocked that they refused to share COVID-19 information and instead issued a cir-cular. It mentions a highlighted point, ‘To avoid the spread of any rumour or unauthor-ized information re-garding COVID-19, no person/institution/or-ganization will use any print Turn to P6

A petition had been filed by Congress leader Johar Vora seeking death toll data

NO DICE

—FILE PHOTO

New Delhi: The Su-preme Court on Thurs-day ordered interim ex-tension of loan morato-rium till 28 September, directing banks not to tag any loans as non-performing till further directions. The apex court adjourned the case for the last time, grant-ing the Centre, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and banks two weeks to work together and file a con-crete reply on their stand on waiving of in-terest charged during

the moratorium period.The interim order

was passed by the apex court bench headed by Justices Ashok Bhush-an and comprising R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah Turn to P6

New Delhi: Indian Army has occupied heights overlooking the Chinese Army posi-tions at Finger 4 along Pangong lake.

The operations to oc-cupy the heights were carried out along with the pre-emptive actions to occupy heights near the Southern bank of Pangong Tso around August-end, sources said on Thursday. “In-dian Army has occu-pied heights overlook-ing the Chinese Army positions at Finger 4 along the Pangong Tso. These operations were carried out along with the pre-emptive actions to occupy heights near the Southern bank of Pangong Tso around August-end,” a source told ANI.

Sources said the Chi-nese Army had occu-pied the heights near the Finger 4 but the In-dian Army Turn to P6

RAFALE’S ROAR RATTLES CHINA

Ambala: In a clear ref-erence to China over the tense border row in eastern Ladakh, De-fence Minister Ra-jnath Singh on Thurs-day said the induction of five French-made multirole Rafale jets into the Indian Air Force is a “big and stern” message to those eyeing India’s sovereignty.

The first fleet of Ra-fale jets was formally inducted into the ‘Golden Arrows’ squadron of the IAF at the Ambala Air Force station in presence of a galaxy of dignitaries including French De-fence Minister Flor-ence Parly, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bi-pin Rawat and Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria.

“The induction of Rafale jets is a big and

stern message for the entire world, especial-ly to those eyeing our sovereignty. This kind of induction is very important for the kind of atmosphere that has been created on our borders,” Singh said at the ceremony.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly on Thursday said India will have an edge over the en-tire region in defend-ing its people with the induction of Rafale fighter jets, an event she described as a symbol of the rela-tionship between the two countries. She said India and France are now writing a new chapter in their de-fence ties. She said the programme to de-liver the 36 aircraft to India meant a lot.

Turn to P6

INDIA OCCUPIES MORE HEIGHTS AROUND LADAKH

SC: EMI moratorium extended till Sept 28

INDIA-CHINA FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN MOSCOW

Mumbai: Two police complaints have been filed against Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly insulting Maharahstra Chief Min-ister Uddhav Thackeray and creating communal disharmony among the public at large.

One of the complaint, filed by Arun Shreekant Mishra at Dindoshi po-lice station, accused Ranaut of defaming and creating communal dis-harmony among the

public at large. Mishra, in his complaint, said that Ranaut made in-flammatory and deroga-tory remarks aainst Ud-dhav Thackeray. “Ranaut has compared the alleged incident happened against her with the Pundits of Kashmir and by doing this she has tried to create disharmony against a specific com-munity which is also against the law,” the complaint said. Turn to P6

Plaint against Kangana for insulting Uddhav

Mumbai: Reliance In-dustries is offering to sell a roughly $20 bil-lion stake in its retail arm to Amazon.com Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing one unnamed person with knowledge of the matter.

The oil-to-telecoms conglomerate led by bil-lionaire Mukesh Am-bani, which has already raised $20 billion in this year from investors in-cluding Facebook and Google, Turn to P6

RIL offers Amazon $20 bn stake in retail arm

Bulls cheer as RIL powers big gains in SensexMumbai: Equity bench-mark indices were on an upswing on Thursday following a spurt in Asian markets with Reliance Industries and banking stocks leading the rally.The BSE S&P Sensex closed 646 points or 1.69% higher at 38,840 while Nifty 50 gained by 171 points or 1.52 per cent at 11,449.

Turn to P6

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is meeting his Chinese coun-terpart Wang Yi in an attempt to defuse tension after a spike in hostilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two nations. The foreign ministers are in Moscow to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Or-ganisation (SCO) meeting. They met at a Russia-India-China lunch earlier. The Jaishankar-Wang talks are taking place against the backdrop of a fresh stand-off at the southern bank of Pangong Tso on Monday. In the confrontation, shots were fi red for the fi rst time along the LAC in 45 years.

Indian Army consolidates its position around Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh, which allows dominance in Moldo Garrison & Spangur Gap

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi, pose for a photo on the sidelines of a meeting of Foreign Ministers of SCO, in Moscow on Thursday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Kangana Ranaut reaches her Bandra offi ce where demolition work was carried out by BMC, in Mumbai on Thursday. ANI Photo

IAF pilots before fl ying the fi rst batch of fi ve Rafale aircraft during its induction ceremony, at the airbase in Ambala on Thursday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaks during a joint press briefi ng, in Ambala on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

NEWSAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

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CM Rupani gives `400 crore in assistance to 23 lakh farmers

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupa-ni on Thursday dis-tributed Rs400 crore to over 23 lakh farm-ers as benefits under the Saat Pagla Khed-ut Kalyan Yojana and the Mukhyamantri Pak Sangraha Struc-ture Yojana pro-grammes. Addition-ally, heavy rainfall across the state washed out internal roads in several towns. The govern-

ment released Rs160 crore in funds for road repair in 155 na-garpalikas.

Addressing the me-dia, the chief minister asserted that the nagar-palikas must expedite resurfacing work of roads. Ahead of nagar-palika elections in the state, this statement from the state chief does not seem out of place.

Earlier in the day, Rupani unveiled the Saat Pagla Khedut Kalyan Yojana pro-gramme and distrib-

uted financial assis-tance of Rs400 crore to 1.25 lakh farmers. Under the Mukhy-amantri Pak Sangra-ha Structure (Go-down) Yojana, the storage capacity of the state’s godowns

will be increased by 23.32 lakh tonnes and crop wastage will be prevented over the next three months.

The Kisan Parivahan Yojana aims to enable farmers to easily deliv-er their produce to oth-

er markets and earn more income. The max-imum amount of finan-cial assistance for farm-ers looking to purchase small vehicles has been fixed at Rs75,000.

The CM also e-launched the Saat Pagla Khedut Kalyan Yojana at an event or-ganized by the state government’s Depart-ment of Agriculture and farmers welfare and cooperative or-ganizations at 80 places in 33 districts across the state from Gandhinagar.

Under this scheme, seven steps will be taken for the benefit of farm-ers including agricul-ture and economic up-liftment, new crop pro-

duction, crop storage, distribution, cow-based farming, Kisan Pariva-han Yojana and Mukhy-amantri Pak Sangraha Structure Yojana.

Talking about the initiatives, CM Rupa-ni said, “Gujarat has become a leading role model for balanced development with new technology and modern farming methods in agricul-ture, industry, and service sectors. Apart from that, under the Kisan Parivahan Yo-jana, farmers will be able to prosper eco-nomically by selling farm produce in mar-kets by transporting the harvest in their own small vehicles.”

l Nagarpalikas with damaged roads due to rainfall get `160 crore for resurfacing work

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani presents a cheque to a farmer on Thursday. The funds will facilitate construction of a godown. The former is flanked on the left by Minister of State for Agriculture and Panchayats, Jaydrathsinh Parmar.

PROVIDING AID

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The State Election Com-mission recently is-sued notifications regarding new city limits along with the reserved cate-gory seats inducted into the Ahmedabad Municipal Corpo-ration (AMC). The commission also granted 10 days’ time to citizens to come forward and put forth their grievances, re-garding both no-tices, if any.

According to city-based activist Muja-hid Nafees, the time given for a response is not adequate, espe-

cially amid the COV-ID-19 pandemic. “The notification men-tions 10 days’ time for suggestions and opinions of the peo-ple. Last time, when a similar move was pulled ahead of local body polls, the com-mission had granted 30 days’ time,” as-serted Nafees.

“Under the Standard Operat-ing Procedure (SOP), people are not allowed to gather in one place in large numbers. With the upcoming election of local bodies, the dura-tion of 10 days is just isn’t enough time,” he said.

City activist seeks more time to discuss notices on city delimitation, civic polls

State govt continues to prevaricate on Navratri decisionFirst India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Almost two weeks after the issue was last ad-dressed, the state gov-ernment is still unde-cided on whether or not to allow Navratri festivities amid the ongoing health crisis.

Deputy Chief Minis-ter Nitin Patel on Thursday repeated the message that, “The state government will take a decision on Navratri at the appro-priate time after consid-ering all aspects, in-cluding the number of

cases of COVID-19, guidelines from the Un-ion Home Ministry and the health department.”

With this, he ech-oed the what Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja had said in Vadodara on August 29.

Patel said the state is monitoring the health situation on a daily ba-sis. “The state is well aware that people are keen to celebrate the nine-night festival but the situation is differ-ent this year. In such a situation, whether to grant permission de-

pends on the spread of the virus. We will also look at the precautions that need be taken, such

as how many persons can be allowed to par-ticipate so that social distancing is main-

tained before saying yes or no for Navratri. The state government will take appropriate deci-sion at the right time,” he reiterated.

Patel also under-played the Opposi-tion’s demand for the question hour in the upcoming Assembly session, saying that the government had merely suggested its cancellation.

“Whether or not to keep it is the preroga-tive of the Assembly Speaker and the Busi-ness Advisory Commit-tee, which includes op-

position party members as well,” he said but pointed out that the state intends to table about 22-24 bills to be enacted, and will hence require time to debate over these.

“If we keep ques-tion hour, we can hardly discuss 25-30 questions in five days, which is meaningless. Instead, it is better to eliminate question hour, take up only ur-gent questions and give quality time for bills, since these are important for the pub-lic at large,” he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel —FILE PHOTO

The state recently issued a notification on expanding city limits. —FILE PHOTO

Haresh Jhala

Palanpur: The state highway was blocked in protest on Thurs-day, but there were no shouted slogans and no black arm-bands. Instead, there was some mooing.

There was also a lot of honking, as traffic piled up behind hun-dreds of heads of cat-tle that had been re-leased onto the street by local panjarapoles (cattle shelters) des-perately seeking fund-ing from the govern-ment to meet fodder needs as private dona-tions dry up. The po-lice had to intervene before the panjarapole trustees had the cattle driven back to their sheds.

Trustees of 154 panjarapoles in Ba-naskantha district have been agitating for 15 days, demand-ing financial help from the state to feed the 70,000 heads of cattle—including a number of cows—under their care.

Jagdish Solanki, a trustee of the Kant Panjrapole, told the media, “Private dona-tions to panjarapoles have shrunk since the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affect-ed trade and industry. The state helped for the initial two months,

with the financial aid of Rs25 per head of cattle, but then it stopped releasing funds.”

Solanki said the issue has been taken up with all the MLAs, some MPs and even ministers but, except for one or two, no one has come forward to even offer to use their influence to ask the state to re-lease more funds for the cattle.

Banaskantha MP Parbat Patel has writ-ten to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, request-ing that he release funds for the cattle shelters.

Solanki adds that the situation has be-come dire. “There are 14 panjarapoles in Lakheni village. Every day, 15-20 ani-mals are dying be-cause of starvation. We expect similar stories to emerge from neighbouring v i l l a g e s — w h e r e shelters are run by trusts—soon.”

Defending the state government, Deesa MLA Shashikant Pandya said that the state government is always concerned about cows and the state is committed to not allowing any cows to die because of fodder shortage. If shelters can’t afford fodder, many animals will have to live on the streets. Shelters say the state had given aid of Rs25 per animal in the first two months of the COVID-19 crisis, but then stopped.

WHO LET THE COWS OUT?FACING MONEY TROUBLES, SHELTERS RELEASE CATTLE OUT ONTO THE HIGHWAY IN PROTEST

—FILE PHOTOS

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

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First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: To mark World Suicide Day on Thursday, city-based Udgam School for Children launched a week-long campaign called “#ItisOKto-Fail”, with the aim of fighting the stigma surrounding mental health and encourag-ing counselling for stress and depression.

During the week, the

school’s teachers will convey message about the importance of life and moving forward to-wards one’s goals with-out worrying about fail-ures. Students and par-ents will also participate in the campaign by shar-ing their own stories of success and failure, as well as by raising aware-ness on the importance of mental health with write-ups, drawings and paintings on various so-

cial media platforms with the hashtag, #Iti-sOKtoFail.

Speaking on the initia-tive, the school’s Execu-tive Director Manan Choksi said, “According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, suicide claimed 10,159 students in 2018. This means that 28 students ended their lives every day in 2018. While it’s easy to applaud success and mock failure, the

need of the hour is to cre-ate positivity, and build students up, rather than knock them down. With this initiative, we expect the management and teachers, as well as stu-dents and parents, to speak up on how they moved on from failure with a positive attitude.”

“The campaign will emphasize the message that, ‘It is OK to get fewer marks in exams. It is OK to fail the race just before the completion line. It is OK to have losses in busi-ness. It is OK to get fired from a job and it is OK to

fail in a relationship. What is not OK is to end your life because of bad phase’,” he added.

As part of the cam-paign, teachers at Ud-gam School for Chil-dren will use online communication plat-forms to explain the im-portance of life and how urge students to seek help if they are de-pressed due to failure. Students who are par-ticularly afraid of fail-ing in the exams will be counselled individually over the phone or via video call.

School launches #ItisOKtoFail campaign to ease pressure on kids MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

Students of Udgam School for Children. —FILE PHOTO

l Week-long initiative by A’bad-based Udgam School for Children began on World Suicide Prevention Day

ALL ABOARD!

City buses left the main terminal in Ahmedabad’s Lal Darwaja for the first time in six months on Thursday. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Surat’s Ratnakalakar Vikas Sangh prez commits suicide over ‘financial pressures’

AMC has no record of graveyard burials: RTI

First India Bureau

Surat: Jaysukh Ga-jera, president of the Ratnakalakar Vikas Sangh, who fought constantly for the rights of gem workers in Surat was found dead by drowning on Thursday morning. His body was recov-ered from the Tapi river but police and fire services person-nel. It is believed that he took his own life.

Kamrej police have begun an investigation.

While the police are yet to find a suicide note,

those close to him say he had been facing severe financial constraints for some time and was un-der a great deal of pres-sure.

Gajera had gone miss-ing on Wednesday night.

His family and friends began to look for him when they could not reach him on his mobile phone. Family members later found his shoes and bike on the bridge in Kamrej. He is believed to

have jumped into the river from this bridge. Locals found his body on Thursday morning and informed the police, who have now sent it for a post-mortem exam.

Gajera was a vocal proponent for their wel-fare. After lockdown ended, he had been try-ing to bring back mi-grant workers by provid-ing them facilities like train tickets, accommo-dation and healthcare. He was also working to-wards getting workers who had been let go due to the pandemic reinstat-ed in their old jobs.

Gargi Raval

Ahmedabad: The offi-cial COVID-19 data re-leased by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which is believed to have been under-re-ported, has sent up sev-eral red flags about the intentions of the local administration. This has compelled many

people to file Right to Information (RTI) peti-tions to try and coax out the actual data. Un-fortunately, even the data on record with the local civic body has re-mained incomplete, with the civic body de-nying having records of graveyard burials.

Congress leader Jo-her Vora had filed an RTI application before

AMC demanding to know the total number of cremations and buri-als conducted within the civic body’s limits.

In response, he was handed over data of AMC-run crematoriums, in which, the number of cremations in January (3,335), February (2,933), March (2,685), April (3,052), May (6,147) and June (4,968) were listed.

There was no data on graveyards in the city.

As per the data re-ceived from civic body officials, the year of 2019 saw less number of deaths than the month of May this year. In May 2019, the number of deaths reported in both graveyards and crema-toriums stood at 3,066.

Vora asserted that the RTI stated that the civic

body doesn’t keep a re-cord of people buried in graveyards. “It was a strange response. They do keep a record of the city and its citizens from cradle to grave. They are the authority which issues death cer-tificates, irrespective of the fact whether some-one was cremated or buried in a graveyard,” he stated.

Jaysukh Gajera. —FILE PHOTO

1,332 fresh cases and 15 fatalities in 24 hours take tally to 1,09,627 cases, death toll to 3,167 First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: The state health bulletin data released on Thursday does not re-flect COVID-19 cases detected in Ahmedabad city, rais-ing the question, “Who is underplaying data, the Ahmedabad Mu-nicipal Corporation or the state’s health de-partment?” Sources say that 422 rapid an-tigen tests were posi-tive in just two wards, but the state bulletin shows only 148 cases from Ahmedabad city.

According to sources in the AMC’s health team, who did not wish to be named for fear of professional blowback, Chandlodia ward alone witnessed 262 new cases from the 12,141 tests con-ducted by the Ognaj Ur-ban Health Centre (UHC) team on Thursday. In the

Bodakdev ward, 12,300 tests were conducted, confirming 160 infected cases. The northwest zone alone had 344 cases.

Senior officers of the AMC could not be reached for comment de-spite several attempts.

Considered a VIP ward, Bodakdev is home

to about 15 High Court judges and more than 100 IAS/IPS officers.

As many as 64 resi-dent doctors at AMC-run hospitals have tested positive in the past two days—26 from SVP Hos-pital, 30 from LG Hospi-tal, and eight from Shardaben Hospital.

Four have relapsed. Similarly, the state

health bulletin states there was one death in Rajkot on Thursday, but local media has reported 30 deaths—from the city, rural areas and neigh-bouring districts—in the past 24 hours.

In the past 24 hours,

the state has conducted 72,151 tests, confirming 1,332 positive cases. Fif-teen patients died in 24 hours. The state now has 16,230 active cases, with 91 patients on ventilator support.

Surat remains at the top even after two months, with 278 new cases, of which 176 were recorded in the city and 102 from rural areas. Cases also emerged in Rajkot (150), Vadodara (124), Jamnagar (105), Bhavnagar (64) Gandhi-nagar (38), Junagadh (37), Patan (31), Amreli, (30) Panchmahal (30), and Morbi (27).

The surge in cases in Rajkot has resulted in a shortage of beds, with just 20 beds now availa-ble in private hospitals. Hence, the local admin-istration has arranged for 40 more beds in Gen-esis Hospital and 60 beds in Doshi Hospital.

Who is underplaying nCov data to mislead Ahmedabad?

A medic takes a break during a testing drive at the Ahmedabad station. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

IMA Rajkot issues red alert

for doctors

First India Bureau

Rajkot: The Indian Medical Associa-tion (IMA), Rajkot Chapter, has issued a red alert for doc-tors in the district. Doctors practising medicine have been advised to take ad-ditional precau-tionary measures during interactions with patients as well as staff.

Dr Jay Dhirwani, IMA, Rajkot chapter president told First India, “The sudden spike in COVID-19 cases with more than 100 doctors getting in-fected with Sars-CoV-2, compelled us to issue an advisory in the form of a red alert for doctors.”

He added, “The cur-rent situation in the district is akin to the worrying condition in Ahmedabad two months ago. The viral load may be low but transmission of infec-tion is very high in Rajkot. Therefore, if a large number of doc-tors get infected, the situation may take a turn for the worse. Currently, there are

1,800 doctors associ-ated with IMA Rajkot, and this means that 5.55% have already been infected with nCov. It is imperative, now more than ever, that all doctors take additional precau-tions and stay safe.”

Dhirwani further stated that while di-agnosing patients, doctors do take ample precautions such as donning a PPE kit, gloves, masks and other headgear. But, they do not keep their guard up while inter-acting with staffers. Since, one cannot de-termine whether someone is a carrier of Sars-CoV-2, IMA advises doctors to be careful in their deal-ings with everyone.

“It seems that we have learnt from oth-ers’ experience and therefore I endorse the association’s advi-sory for doctors. Due to these new guide-lines, now doctors will postpone surgical ac-tivities, which makes them susceptible to the virus,” said Dr Sureja Darshan, Hon-orary Secretary, IMA, Rajkot Chapter.

Rajkot Municipal Corporation. —FILE PHOTO

Audio book launched on Dr Kurien First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Nirmala Kurien unveiled an audio book titled “The Man Who Made the Elephant Dance” on Wednesday, during a webinar held to mark the eight death anni-versary of her father, Dr Verghese Kurien. The audio book, based on his biography, “I Too Had a Dream” was released on drku-rien.com, a website dedicated to the Milk-man of India.

The webinar was at-tended by eminent per-sonalities of dairy in-dustry and associates and around 1000 par-ticipants who have been directly or indirectly been associated with Dr. Kurien and his insti-tutions.

During the event, Nirmala shared her childhood memories with her father of how he always believed in equal opportunity for all and excellence in any work that you do.

AMC office. —FILE PHOTO

� Vol 1 � Issue No. 286 � RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

04www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

ven before Don-ald Trump was elected in 2016, he had been providing Unit-

ed State’s late-night TV show hosts with ample fod-der for comedy.

These late-night TV shows are the spearhead of political satire for liberal America, and many take their orientation from The Daily Show, which began in 1996. With John Stewart as host after 1999, it devel-oped a mixture of political and news satire that be-came a popular genre.

Following Trump’s elec-tion victory, humour was quickly seen by disoriented liberals as both a balm and a weapon. The veteran TV host David Letterman claimed that “comedy’s one

of the ways that we can pro-tect ourselves” from Trump.

Late-night comedy be-came the bellwether of this trend and the intensified focus on political satire proved a ratings hit for many of the hosts.

The Daily Show, helmed by Trevor Noah since 2016, and its offshoots – The Late Show with Stephen Col-bert, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee – led the way. Meanwhile, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Myers also pushed into more political material and Saturday Night Live drew interest in its cold openings that regu-larly focused on Trump.

For liberals, satire fed into a desire for narratives

that would explain Trump’s election and continued au-thority, and also stoked fan-tasies about his inevitable fall. But there was no evi-dence that political satire attacking Trump had slowed Trump’s race to the presidency – or would lead to his defeat. Instead, it

functioned mainly as a form of wish-fulfilment and catharsis for those citi-zens traumatised by Trump’s 2016 victory.

SATIRICAL SHORTCOMINGSFor all the satirical activity in the first year of Trump’s

presidency, questions about the quality and effi-cacy of these shows’ pro-motion of political satire soon began to emerge. Some liberal and progres-sive commentators called them out as “lazy” and “in-effective”.

More and more voices

complained that Trump was resistant to satire, ar-guing that he embodies irony and hyperbole, that he was an “already a walk-ing caricature of himself”. The writer and producer Armando Iannucci, who created the HBO satire Veep, underlined the prob-lem for satirists.

“Just read him and you have found the joke about him,” he said. “It comes out in what he says, which leaves people like me slightly redundant other than just to point it out.”

As humourists have be-come more conscious of these shortcomings and challenges, they have pushed back against those with high expectations for political comedy.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY HAS CHANGED POLITICAL SATIRE FOR EVERYONE

E

How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. —Proverbs 16:16

SpiritualSPEAK

TopTWEET

Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank @DrRPNishank#NEP2020 entails that wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be home language/mother-tongue/local language. #ShikshakParv #NEPTransformingIndia

Mallikarjun Kharge @khargeBoth the organized & unorganized sector has been hit badly & the Ministry of Labour has been missing in action. The 20 lakh Cr package is a non starter & with rising unemployment & dwindling economy, the future is bleak. India is victim of bad governance by Modi. #SpeakUpForJobs

tagflation is a macro-economic situation characterized by in-creasing inflation, high unem-ployment, and negative or stag-nant economic growth.

Conventionally, high infla-tion is an indicator of a grow-ing economy as the demand pushes the prices of products and services. To sustain flour-ishing demand, purchasing power is essential. Purchasing power is prevalent when the economy is performing on low unemployment. Moreover, low unemployment is a factor of growth in economic activity as the corporations seek to access the labor force to achieve po-tential expansion. Therefore, the three elements are inter-linked and stimulate the econ-omy by working harmoniously.

Stagflation stems from an oil crisis in the 1970s which was sparked due to an increase in prices of oil after the Organiza-tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) issued an em-bargo against the Western Coun-tries. The rise in the price sig-nificantly affected the produc-tive capacity of the economies.

HOW IS STAGFLATION ADDRESSED?To alleviate a recessionary economy, a Government aims to increase the money supply in the economy to boost public spending. On the contrary, in-flationary pressure on the economy is subdued by re-stricting money supply, which means pushing borrowing rates to the higher side making money expensive. Opposite re-sponses to inflation and reces-sion make dealing with stagfla-tion a challenge.

As per the theory, if inflation were to keep on rising, unem-ployment will witness a surge again as corporations will car-ry lay-offs unable to sustain increasing labor costs. There-fore, inflation is the first ele-ment that needs caution. Right-ly so, the Government has changed its accommodative stance in terms of further RBI

rate cuts in the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet-ing. A rate cut is not anticipat-ed in the near future.

The next course of action is to provide supply support to the economy by incentivizing the business to produce more. In-centives can be in the form of corporate tax reductions, loos-er business regulations, etc.

HOW TO INVEST DURING STAGFLATION?The way to generate or preserve wealth during stagflation is by routing your investments through securities that focus on yielding profits. Assets provid-ing an internal hedge to infla-tion serve as the best prospects.

Interest rates are unable to keep up with inflation during recessionary phases, suggest-ing that Government bonds or other money market instru-ments are rendered inefficient. The purchasing power of in-vestments in low yielding secu-

rities lags behind inflation. Investing in stock markets is

ideal given that the capital is deployed toward defensive sec-tors and the companies chosen have strong balance sheets of-fering growth potential. Gain-ing exposure by going long on sectors such as Energy, Con-sumer Defensive (food and utilities), Healthcare, and Util-ities can prove beneficial to stock portfolios. These sectors over-perform during economic downturns as they pass on the rising costs to the consumers as reflected positively in sector turnovers.

An alternative to investing in the stock market is investing in commodities through direct purchase on the exchange or through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

WHAT IS THE CURRENT TREND OF INFLATION, UNEMPLOYMENT & GDP?Inflation, resulting from sup-

ply-chain disruptions during complete lockdowns is the lat-est of worries. RBI set an infla-tion target band of 4-6 percent. As an outcome of this out-break, the inflation rate has surpassed the tolerance level of the Central Bank. RBI has cut policy rates by 115 bps amid the pandemic to aid borrowing and survival. The inevitable expansionary stance has given way for inflation to surge.

Unemployment data for Au-gust goes to show that after wit-nessing a recovery in July num-bers, the unemployment rate has shot up to 8.4% from 7.4%. The rural economy has contrib-uted primarily to this increase as the Kharif crop sowing sea-son marked its end. Moreover, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) experienced a loss of work, unable to provide ma-terial jobs to the participating labor force.

The negative 23.9 percent GDP growth of Q1 2020 is alarming in that the activity rate captured by the economic indicator is at its decadal low on the back of nation-wide lockdowns.

An uptick in economic activ-ity prioritizing demand revival can give way to a solid rebound in the discussed parameters.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

IS INDIA STARING DOWN THE BARREL OF STAGFLATION?

S

Stagflation stems from an oil crisis in the 1970s which was sparked due to an increase in prices of oil after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) issued an embargo against the Western Countries. The rise in the price significantly affected the productive capacity of the economies

AS PER THE THEORY, IF INFLATION WERE TO KEEP ON RISING, UNEMPLOYMENT WILL

WITNESS A SURGE AGAIN AS CORPORATIONS WILL CARRY LAY-OFFS UNABLE TO SUSTAIN

INCREASING LABOR COSTS

SWAMY’S ‘COMPLIMENT’

FOR POKHRIYALhe Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for engineering was held amid the pan-demic as planned, despite protests from students over the risks they were re-quired to face. But with the Supreme

Court also weighing in against those opposing the holding of examination last week, students were left with the difficult choice of either writing the examination or dropping out. A controversy has broken out over how many of those who down-loaded the application actually appeared with sen-ior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy suggesting that conducting the tests at this juncture was not a good idea.

After the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal claimed that the number of JEE Main applicants stands at 8.58 lakh, Swamy said that out of 18 lakh students who were supposed to appear only 8 lakh turned up for the exam. This, the Rajya Sabha MP said, was a “disgrace for the nation which extols vidhya and gyan!!”

This led to a twitter exchange between the two BJP leaders. In a sarcasm-laden tweet Swamy said, “With my compliments, Minister! I will soon tweet what the Ministry of Education stated to the SC as candidates registered State wide and abroad at 953,473 at 660 centres. The Minister’s tweet for me to see his facts was 8.58 lakh. Now whose is official?”

When Pokhriyal insisted the figure was 8.58 lakh, Swamy responded with a document to sup-port his claim. Pokhriyal must know that it is not easy to refute Swamy’s facts. The education min-ister will not admit to the poor turnout and in-stead blame it on students.

T

IN-DEPTH

KANGANA STICKS TOSCRIPT, TAKES ON CM

t’s a full blown war between Kangana Ranaut and the Shiv Sena-led govern-ment in Maharashtra with the BJP fighting a proxy war. Direct support for the Bollywood actress has come from

Union minister Ramdas Athawale who met her to extend his support. Workers of Athawale’s party the RPI (A) were at the airport to ensure she has a trouble-free exit from the airport. She has also got support from chief minister of Himachal Pradesh and former CM of Maharashtra.

The actress has it relatively easy because of the indirect political patronage she is currently enjoying. The BMC welcomed Kangana’s in Mumbai demolishing her office for illegal con-structions. Although the demolition work was stopped after the high court’s intervention, the ongoing drama is far from over. At least for the Sena, as Sanjay Raut said, the Kangana “episode” is now over.

The language Kangana Ranaut is using against Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena smacks of her po-litical tutoring as it is heavily loaded with political jargon. When she called Shiv Sena as Sonia Sena or spoke of her office as Ram mandir and referring to Babar she was clearly speaking the BJP’s language.

It was expected that the BMC will quarantine the actress but was spared because she is in Mum-bai “only for a week”.

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Villages should become pillars of ‘ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT’New Delhi: Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that vil-lages should become the pillars of “At-manirbhar Bharat” which will enrich the villages further and strengthen them.

The comments of the Prime Minister came on the occasion of the digital launch of the Pradhan Mantri Mat-sya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).

“Today the schemes that have been initiated, the thought behind that is that our villages be-come pillars of an ‘At-manirbhar Bharat’. The attempt is that now in this century - Blue Revo-lution means work re-lated to fisheries, White Revolution means dairy work, Sweet Revolution means honey produc-tion. It will enrich our villages further, strengthen them,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also launched the e-Go-pala App for farmers along with several oth-er initiatives in the fish-

eries and animal hus-bandry sectors in Bihar.

“Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yoja-na has been set with this goal in mind. Today the scheme is being launched in 21 states of the country. Over 20 thousand crore rupees will be spent on this in the next 4-5 years. Out of this, work worth Rs 1,700 crores is being started today,” he added.

The Prime Minister

further said that with the establishment of pisciculture facilities in various places in Bihar, fish producers will get new markets for their produce.

“In Patna, Purnia, Sitamarhi, Madhepura, Kishanganj and Sa-mastipur many facili-ties have been inaugu-rated and the founda-tion stone laid. With this, fish producers will get new infrastructure,

modern equipment, new markets will also be available,” he said.

“Keeping in mind the trade of fish in every part of the country, in the sea and riverine ar-eas, for the first time such a big plan has been made in the country. Af-ter independence, many times more investment is being made on the Prime Minister’s Mat-sya Sampada Yojana,” he added. —ANI

‘FCRA registration to Golden temple path-breaking move’New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the the government’s decision to allow the Golden Temple in Amritsar to receive foreign funds is a path-breaking move and it will once again showcase the outstanding spirit of service of the Sikh com-munity.

On Wednesday, the Home Ministry approved registration of Sri Har-mandir Sahib under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, al-lowing it to receive for-eign funding.

Golden temple in Am-ritsar is also known as Sri Harmandir Sahib.

“The decision on FCRA at the Sri Harmandir Sa-hib is a pathbreaking one which will once again showcase the outstanding spirit of service of our Sikh sisters and broth-ers,” Shah tweeted.

He said PM Modi is blessed that ‘’Wahe Guru ji’’ has taken ‘’Seva’’ from him. The FCRA registra-tion has been given in the name of the ‘’Sachkhand Sri Harmandir Saheb Sri Darbar Saheb Punjab As-sociation’’, a body set up in 1925.

Union Food Process-

ing Minister and Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal thanked Shah for granting the FCRA registration to the Golden temple.

“Happy to share that MHA has granted ap-proval under FCRA to Sri Harmandir Sahib. This will enable the shrine to receive ‘’sewa’’

from all over the world & go a long way in propa-gating Gurusahab’’s phi-losophy of ‘’sarbat da bhala’’. I’’m grateful to @AmitShah Ji for making this possible,” she tweet-ed on Wednesday.

The FCRA registra-tion will be valid for a period of five years, sources said. —PTI

India-Singapore trust strengthened amid Covid-19: Prez Kovind

New Delhi: Noting mu-tual cooperation be-tween India and Singa-pore during the corona-virus pandemic, Presi-dent Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said the crisis has further strengthened the exist-ing ties of friendship and trust between the two nations.

Kovind’s remarks

came after accepting a Letter of Credence from the Singapore High Commissioner, Simon Wong Wie Kuen in a vir-tual ceremony.

Speaking on the oc-casion, the President conveyed his warm wishes to the High Commissioner on his appointment.

Also congratulating

the Singapore govern-ment on conducting the general elections in July, the Kovind noted that bilateral relations between India and Sin-gapore have deepened.

He also thanked Sin-gapore for its strong support to India at mul-tilateral forums, includ-ing the UN Security Council. —Agencies

PM Narendra Modi addresses after launching the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and e-Gopala App for farmers along with several other initiatives in the fi sheries and animal husbandry sectors in Bihar, via video conference in New Delhi on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

PURI TO REVIEW DARBHANGA, DEOGHAR AIRPORTS ON SEP 12New Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Minister Hard-eep Singh Puri will visit the states of Bihar and Jharkhand to review Darbhanga and Deoghar airports on September 12. “Airports Authority of India (AAI) is developing these airports. With the operationalization of these airports, air connectiv-ity of the region will be

improved. Further, it will give an impetus to local tourism and will generate employment in the region. These airports, through connectivity and in-creased economic activity, would contribute to the overall economic devel-opment of the people of these regions,”Aviation Ministry said in a state-ment.

JHA TO BE JT OPPN CANDIDATE FOR RS DY CHAIRMAN POLLNew Delhi: Various opposition parties on Thurs-day decided to fi eld RJD leader Manoj Jha as their joint candidate for Sep 14 election of the Ra-jya Sabha deputy chairman, sources said. He will fi le his nomination papers in presence of leaders of various oppn parties. Jha will contest against NDA’s nominee Harivansh of the JD-U. Harivansh was RS deputy chairman till his previous term was over. He has since been re-elected from Bihar. RJD and JDU are arch-rivals in Bihar where assembly elections will be held very soon.

HEAD CONSTABLE DIES OF ACCIDENTAL FIRING IN KURNOOLKurnool: A head constable from the Andhra Pradesh Special Police 2nd batallion reportedly died due to accidental fi ring from his service pistol in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district on Thursday morning, informed police. The head constable identifi ed as Soloman Raju was then taken to the Government General Hospital in Kur-nool for treatment, but was declared dead by the doctors. The police offi cials have registeed a case under section 174 of the CrPC at the Kurnool 4 town police station. Probe is underway.

UNION MIN MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI IN LEH FOR 2-DAY VISITLeh: Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi reached Leh for a two day-visit to the Union Territory of Ladakh on Thursday. He was welcomed by Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namg-yal, among others. On his fi rst day of the visit, Naqvi chaired a depart-mental review meeting with administration of the

Union Territory. Namgyal tweeted, “Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi chairs departmental review meeting with adminis-trators of Union Territory of Ladakh.” Naqvi is expected to be visiting various places in Ladakh. He will also be interacting with BJP State Executive Members.

PM also launched e-Gopala App for farmers along with several other initiatives in the fisheries & animal husbandry sectors in Bihar

‘e-Gopala will free farmers from middlemen’New Delhi: PM Naren-dra Modi, at launch of the e-Gopala app for livestock owners in Bi-har, said that the app will give farmers the freedom from middle-men and provide all in-formation related to productivity, health and diet for the cattle.

“Along with the good breed of animals, the correct scientific infor-mation about their care is equally important. For this, technology has been continuously used for the past years. In this direction, the ‘e-Gopala’ app has been started to-day,” he said. “The e-Go-pala app will be a digital medium that helps live-stock owners. It will be easy to choose advanced livestock. They will get freedom from middle-men. This app will give all information related to productivity, health and diet for the cattle.”

AMIT SHAH @AMITSHAHSri Darbar Sahib’s divinity gives strength to us. For decades, the Sangat worldwide was unable to serve there. Modi Government’s decision to allow FCRA to the Sri Harmandir Sahib deepens the

connect of Seva between the Sangat globally and the Sri Darbar Sahib. A blessed moment!

IN THE COURTYARD

New Delhi: The SC sought the attorney general’s help to exam-ine larger issues in-volved in contempt cases with respect to procedures and situa-tions which led to judi-cial corruption allega-tions in a 2009 con-tempt case against Prashant Bhushan.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice AM Khawilkar, deferred

the hearing and im-pleaded attorney gen-eral KK Venugopal in the 11-year old con-

tempt case.The case will be next

heard on October 12.Senior advocate Ra-

jeev Dhavan, repre-senting Bhushan, ap-prised the bench that Venogopal had men-tioned his will to assist the court, for this case, during the previous hearings.

The bench also com-prising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari

and Sanjiv Khanna passed directions for the case records to be sent to Venugopal. The court sought help of the attorney general as amicus curie for as-sistance in this case.

An amicus curie is one who is not a party to a case but assists a court by offering in-sight that has a bear-ing on the issues in the case. —Agencies

PRASHANT BHUSHAN CONTEMPT CASE

SC SEEKS ATTORNEY GENERAL’S HELP ON WIDER ISSUES New Delhi: In a first,

Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha will have to register their attend-ance digitally using a mobile application - At-tendance Register App amid coronavirus pan-demic. According to sources, the app is de-signed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to curtail the risk of COVID-19 spread as they will not have to use or touch the attendance register.

MPs have to be pre-sent inside the Parlia-ment to register them-selves using the coor-dinates provided by the app.

“The app will work only in the Parliament premises. The MPs will have to take their face shot and upload it to identify themselves. Then they have to regis-ter themselves and their attendance will be marked in the safest way possible in this pan-demic,” added a senior official. —ANI

LS MPs to mark attendance via mobile app

2G case: HC issues notice to A Raja, others New Delhi: The Delhi HC on Thursday is-sued notice to all the respondents on the early hearing applica-tions moved by En-forcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI) in the appeals challenging the ac-quittal of former Un-ion telecom minister

A. Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allo-cation case.

The next date of hear-ing is on 21 September.The court has directed

all respondents to file replies, if any.Justice Brijesh Sethi has also reserved his order on the applica-tion moved by a firm, which was acquitted in the 2G scam-related money laundering case, seeking to re-lease its properties worth Rs 22 crore at-tached by ED. —ANI

President Ram Nath Kovind received credentials from HE Simon Wong Wie Kuen, High Commissioner of the Republic of Singapore through video conference, at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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A’bad Civil...or electronic media for information regarding COVID-19 without prior permission of the Health and Family Wel-fare department’” Vora told First India.

Meanwhile, RTI ac-tivist Harinesh Pandya termed the refusal a ‘mechanical’ denial. “The hospital cannot deny information un-der RTI. It must share the information re-quested for in the larger interests of the public or else it will be deemed a grave violation of the RTI Act,” he said.

According to Section 8(2) of the RTI, “Not-

withstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act 1923 (19 of 1923) nor any of the exemptions permissible in accord-ance with subsection (1), a public authority may allow access to in-formation, if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest.”

Supporting the RTI petition, activist Ma-hesh Pandya said that for the sake of medical ethics, any patient’s name cannot be re-vealed, but they (hospi-tal authorities) cannot deny issuing relevant data. “The government is answerable to the

public. The applicant must appeal to the high-est authority and ap-proach the commission-er to invoke Section 18 of the Act,” he said.

Even the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) Hospital denied reveal-ing the same informa-tion by invading any patient’s privacy.

Rafale’s roar...Meanwhile Singh said the government is deter-mined to do “everything possible” to protect In-dia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Singh’s stern mes-sage to the neighbour-ing country came hours

ahead of an expected meeting between Exter-nal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chi-nese counterpart Wang Yi on the margins of a SCO conclave in Mos-cow. —ANI

India occupies...has now occupied the

heights which overlook the Chinese positions at heights including the Green top.

The Chinese have been sitting at Finger 4 from around April-May timeframe but have re-fused to disengage from there and other friction points in eastern Ladakh sector.

In another develop-ment, armies of India and China held interac-tions at Brigade Com-mander-level and Com-manding Officer-level in eastern Ladakh on Thursday which are aimed at keeping the communication lines open between the two sides. —ANI

Plaint against...It said that Ranaut, on September 9, circulated a video on social media in which she used “in-flammatory and deroga-tory words” against Ud-dhav Thackeray and by doing this she has “tried to diminish the charac-

ter and challenged the dignity” of the CM of Maharashtra.

Another complaint, filed by advocate Nitin Mane at Vikhroli police station, also accused Ranaut of insulting the CM. Meanwhile, in an-other development the BMC has issued a show-cause notice to designer Manish Malhotra for ‘unauthorised con-struction’ in his resi-dential premises.

SC: EMI...while hearing a batch of petitions seeking waiver of interest, or waiver of interest on interest on the suspend-

ed EMIs during the ex-tended moratorium pe-riod amid the nation-wide lockdown due to the covid-19 outbreak.

The apex court will continue hearing in the case on 28 September.

The three-judge bench took on record the submissions made by the solicitor general Tushar Mehta, repre-senting the Centre.

RIL offers...is willing to sell an up to 40 per cent stake in the retail business to Ama-zon, the agency report-ed. Neither Amazon nor Reliance Industries re-sponded to requests for

comment. Reliance Re-tail, with close to 12,000 stores selling a wide range of products, ac-quired rival Future Group’s retail arm last month. —Agencies

Bulls cheer...Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Ex-change were in the green with Nifty PSU bank gaining by 2.46 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and financial service by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, index heavyweight Reliance Industries hit a record high to Rs 2,314.65 per share, up 7.1 per cent on BSE —ANI

FROM PAGE 1

WHO WILL BE THE FIRST CHAIRMAN, NRA ?The million dollar question is - who will be the fi rst Chairman of the newly constituted National Recruitment Agency (NRA) ? One thing is certain that any retired IAS offi cer is likely to be ap-pointed the fi rst Chairman. Names of some IAS offi cers, sources say, are already doing the round for the post.

WHO WILL BE NEW SECRETARY, DOPT ON OCT 1 ?All eyes are on the appointment of new Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), as the incumbent Dr. C Chandramouli is superannuat-ing on September 30, 2020.

ARUN KUMAR MEHTA TO JOIN GOI AS SECRETARYArun Kumar Mehta is all set to join the Govern-ment of India as Secretary. He is 1988 batch IAS offi cer of J & K cadre.

IRS OFFICER DHEERAJ GARG TO JOIN GOVT OF HARYANA ON DEPUTATIONDheeraj Garg will be joining the Government of Haryana in Excise & Taxation department on depu-tation basis. He is an IRS-IT offi cer.

MS. NILA MOHANAN APPOINTED AS DEPUTY SECRETARY, DOPTMs. Nila Mohanan has been appointed Deputy Secretary in the DoPT. She is a 2007 batch IAS offi cer of AGMUT cadre.

ABHIRAM SANKAR APPOINTED AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR, LBSNAA, MUSSOORIEAbhiram G Sankar has been appointed as Deputy Director at Deputy Secretary level in theLBSNAA, Mussoorie. He is a 2011 batch IAS offi cer of Karnataka cadre.

IRS OFFICER TO BE OSD TO MAHARASHTRA MINISTERSachin Balasaheb Sawant has been appointed OSD to Uday Samant, Minister of Higher and Techni-cal Education, Maharashtra. He is a 2008 batch IRS(C&CE) offi cer.

TRANSFER ORDER OF IAS OFFICER CANCELLEDThe MHA has cancelled the transfer order of Mukesh Prasad to A&N Islands. Now he will remain with the Delhi govt. He is a 2007 batch AGMUT cadre IAS offi cer.

AJAY KUMAR SINGH IS PRESS SECRETARY TO PRESIDENTAjay Kumar Singh has been appointed as Press Secretary to the President on contract basis.

DEPUTATION TENURE OF RAKESH AGGARWAL AS JOINT DIRECTOR, CBI EXTENDEDThe deputation tenure of Rakesh Aggarwal work-ing as Joint Director in CBI, has been extended for a period of two years till September 2, 2022. He is a 1994 batch IPS offi cer of HP cadre.

GANGADHARAN STANDS RELIEVED TO JOIN MINISTRY OF CULTUREC Gangadharan stands relieved to join as Director, Ministry of Culture. He is a CSS offi cer.

P C KOUL PROMOTED AS ADDL SECRETARY, LOK SABHAP C Koul, Joint Secretary, has been promoted as Additional Secretary in Lok Sabha.

MRS ABHA SINGH PROMOTED AS ADDL SECRETARY, LOK SABHAMrs Abha Singh Yaduvanshi, Joint Secretary, has been promoted as Additional Secretary in LS.

POWERGallery

By arrangement with: http://whispersinthecorridors.com

UTS TO TEST ALL SYMPTOMATIC -VENew Delhi: Union Health Ministry has noted that in some large States, symptomatic negative cases tested by Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) are not being fol-lowed up by RT-PCT testing. The Guidelines of ICMR as well as the Union Health Ministry clearly state that the fol-lowing two specific cat-egories of persons must necessarily be retested through RT-PCR tests:

(1) All symptomatic (fever or cough or breathlessness) nega-tive cases of Rapid An-tigen Tests (RAT).

(2) Asymptomatic negative cases of RAT that develop symptoms within 2 to 3 days of be-ing tested negative.

In this background, the Union Health Min-istry and ICMR have jointly written to all the States/UTs and urged them to ensure that the all symptomatic nega-tive cases of RAT are mandatorily retested using the RT-PCR test. This is necessary to en-sure that such sympto-

matic negative cases do not remain untested and do not spread the disease among their contacts. This will also ensure early detection and isolation/hospitali-zation of such false negatives. It has also been reiterated in the joint letter that while the RAT is being used to increase access and availability of testing in the field, RT-PCR re-mains the gold standard of COVID tests.

New Delhi: Test, treatment and con-tainment is the motto of the government of India for dealing with COVID-19 pan-demic, said BJP lead-er Anil Jain on Thursday.

Replying to Con-gress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations regarding Central government’s incapa-bility in dealing with the prevention and management of COV-ID-19 pandemic, Jain said people around the world have recog-nised and praised the Indian government’s efforts.

“People know that the steps that were taken were necessary and if not taken on time, we would have been in a far worse

situation,” said Jain.He accepted that

the spread of COV-ID-19 in the country is increasing, but added that the capability of the country to deal with the pandemic is also increasing. “The average recovery rate in the country is in-creasing. The mortal-ity rate in the country is far lesser than most country around the world. If cases are in-creasing, our capabil-ity to deal with them is also increasing,” he said.

‘Test, treatment, containment’ government motto

Serum halts India trials of Covid-19 vaccineNew Delhi: Serum In-stitute of India on Thursday said it is put-ting on hold clinical tri-als of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine for which it has been en-listed to manufacture a billion doses. “We are reviewing the situation and pausing India tri-als,” SII, the world’s big-

gest vaccine manufac-turer by volume, said in a brief statement. The pause by Serum Insti-tute came after the Drugs Controller Gen-eral of India (DCGI) is-sued it a show-cause no-tice asking why trials should not be suspended in India until patient safety is established.

Union ministry stated that such symptomatic negative cases could remain RT-PCT untested

Mamata govt has ‘anti-Hindu’ mindset: NaddaNew Delhi: “Even Ra-bindranath Tagore’s legacy was sullied by TMC-backed land mafia at Visva-Bharati Uni-versity at Santiniket-an,” BJP president JP Nadda said

Launching an attack on the ruling Trina-mool Congress in WB, BJP chief JP Nadda on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee gov-ernment of having an “anti-Hindu mindset and spawning political violence in the state, which has claimed the lives of over 100 BJP workers”. The fact that West Bengal is going to elections next year was not lost on Nadda as he accused the TMC gov-ernment of pursuing “minority appease-ment” policies.

“When the entire country was watching the ‘bhoomi pujan’ (of Ram temple in Ayod-hya), Mamata Banerjee imposed a lockdown in West Bengal on August 5 to prevent people from being part of the occa-sion at the local level,” Nadda said while digi-

tally addressing the new-ly-formed state commit-tee of the saffron party. “In sharp contrast, lock-down was withdrawn due to Bakrid. This shows that the state gov-ernment’s policies are driven by an anti-Hindu mindset and appease-ment politics,” PTI quot-ed Nadda as saying. Lay-ing the roadmap for next year’s assembly elec-tions, Nadda said, “In

2011, we had a 2% vote share in Bengal with 4 seats. In 2014, we got 2 seats but vote share rose to 18%. In 2019, we got a vote share of 40%. We have to continue at the same speed and in the coming elections, we’ve to defeat TMC.” He also accused Banerjee of be-coming “a barrier be-tween the people of Ben-gal and good schemes that would benefit the needy”.

LAYING THE ROADMAP

New Delhi: The Presi-dent of India, Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday ap-pointed veteran actor Paresh Rawal as the new chairman of the National School of Dra-ma (NSD).

The school made the announcement about its new chairman through a tweet. “We are glad to inform ‘Hon’ble President of India @rashtrapatib-hvn has appointed re-nowned actor & Pad-ma Shri @sirpare-shrawal as chairman of @nsd_india.’ NSD family welcome the

legend to shower his guidance to NSD for achieving new heights,” stated the NSD tweet.

Paresh Rawal will be taking over the position of chairman from prominent theatre art-ist Arjun Deo Charan who is chairing it at present. —ANI

Paresh Rawal is new NSD chief

Deepak Kochhar was arrested since he remained evasive: EDMumbai: The ED which arrested Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, over allegations that he had received Rs 64 crore for his company from the Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL), said that he remained evasive on the ques-

tions of “money trail” in connection with a money laundering case

involving loan to the tune of Rs 1,730 crore to Videocon group and Venugopal Dhoot.

Deepak was arrested on Monday by the ED sleuths after several hours of questioning at its Mumbai office under the sections of Preven-tion of Money Launder-ing Act (PMLA).

Patna: Former Union minister Raghuvnash Prasad Singh, 74, on Thursday quit the RJD amid speculation that he could join the ruling Janata Dal ( United), or JD (U), ahead of the as-sembly polls in Bihar due next month.

“ I hav e stood solidly behind you for 32 years after the death of [for-mer Bihar chief minis-ter] Jannayak Kar-poori Thakur. But not anymore. I have re-ceived lots of affection from the party, sup-porters, and people. Forgive me,” Singh wrote in the note.

Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Singh quits party

A Healthcare worker collects swab sample from a woman for COVID-19 testing in New Delhi.

JP Nadda addresses West Bengal BJP State Executive Meeting via video conferencing, in New Delhi.

RATHER THAN COUNTING CALORIES, THERE IS A DIET THAT COUNTS MACRONUTRIENTS (FATS, CARBOHYDRATES, AND PROTEINS) FOUND IN THE FOODS AND DRINKS WE CONSUME

While reducing calorie intake is a proven way to reduce your weight, there’s no shortage of

diets promising the same results but with more flexibility. One such popular diet is “If It Fits Your Mac-ros” (IIFYM), which offers users less restriction in what they eat, while still guaranteeing results.

Rather than counting calories, IIFYM counts the daily macronu-trients (fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) found in the foods and drinks we consume. Many people like the diet because it offers flex-ibility and allows them to consume any food as long as it fits into their daily macronutrient (“macro”) re-quirements.

However, there’s currently no scientific research that has specifi-cally examined whether counting

macros is as effective as other methods in achiev-ing different weight goals. Past research has looked into the effects of reduc-ing or manipulating indi-vidual macros for weight loss, such as comparing the effect of consuming a low-fat versus low-carbohydrate diet or comparing four diets con-taining different proportions of fat, carbohydrate and protein. Ultimately, researchers found no significant, long-term difference between the diets on how much weight they helped people lose – and all are difficult to adhere to in the long term.

As such, this makes it difficult to know whether counting calories or macros is more useful when it comes to your different body weight goals.

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MUSCLE GAIN

On the opposite end of the spectrum are peo-ple looking to gain weight to build muscle. Someone looking to gain muscle would

need to increase their basic daily protein intake to around 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for muscles to repair any micro-damage that occurs from resistance or strength training which is necessary for muscle growth. As well as protein, energy and carbohydrate needs must also be met to ensure the body has enough fuel available to work out. This is where keeping track of macros, instead of counting calories, could be useful to ensure all protein and

carbohydrate requirements are met. Timings of macros are also important for muscle

growth. Research shows regular protein intake throughout the day and after

exercise, rather than large single doses, is recommended for mus-

cle growth and refuelling. Ulti-mately, which method you

choose for altering body weight and composition

depends on your goals and how motivat-

ed and tech savvy you are. If you

are keen t o learn more about the nutrients in the food you are eating then counting macros may be for you. For those who find endless counting and monitoring tedious it may be easier to follow more general guidance for weight loss or maintenance or for bulking up.

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

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CALORIES MACROS

OR

The basic principle to achieving weight loss is eat less energy than your

body requires on a daily basis and you will lose weight. Any diet can lead to weight loss as long as this basic principle is applied.

The tricky part is establish-ing what our energy require-ments really are. The most practical and accurate measure of this, indirect calorimetry (a measurement of the gases that we breathe from which energy expenditure can be estimated), is still not 100% accurate. And the prediction equations com-monly used in dietary counsel-ling and by online apps to set calorie intake goals for weight loss are even more inaccurate. This is especially so in those who are overweight or obese due to the equations being based on body weight, and not taking account of fat mass.

But whether you’re counting calories or macros, you still need this starting point to work from to keep within your tar-gets. While our actual energy

requirements are uncertain and can vary greatly depending on how active we are, our re-quirements for macronutrients are more certain, based on gov-

ernment guidelines.An advantage of counting

macros is that it ensures that some essential nutrients are incorporated into your diet,

instead of focusing solely on calories. Counting calories takes no account of nutrients. And while it seems obvious that choosing wholesome nu-tritious sources of calories is better than processed, high-sugar and saturated fat foods, you could hypothetically eat seven chocolate bars (each worth 228 calories, a total of 1,596 calories) and still lose weight if your total energy expenditure is around 2,000 calories a day.

Macro calculations are esti-mated based on body weight, height and activity levels and can be adjusted to your weight goal. While fewer restrictions on what to eat may be a bonus for some on IIFYM, for others keeping track of macro intake and hitting those targets can be difficult and time consuming.

Whatever you’re counting you’ll require an affinity for read-ing food labels and keeping a re-

cord of all foods and fluids con-sumed throughout the day. While there are numerous online nutri-tional databases and apps that help you track macros and calo-ries, they may not always be ac-curate either. Plus there’s the added complication that we may not actually absorb all of the en-ergy or nutrients that food labels list, making it even harder to meet specific targets.

Additionally, neither method will guarantee that you meet all of your other nutrient require-ments. For example, as macros only focus on carbs, protein and fats, they may overlook the im-portance of other vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, which are essential for staying healthy and preventing defi-ciencies. Unless combined with dietary advice about making permanent changes to a healthy balanced diet, neither method is a long-term solution to weight loss or maintenance.

WEIGHT LOSS

If you act and think as per what is right and wrong and the value system, not personal gain- then

you are a man of integrity.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

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THEY SAY NOT ALL PARENTS’ INCOME HIT, SO DISCOUNT SHOULD BE ONLY FOR NEEDYHaresh Jhala

Ahmedabad: Left with a Hobson’s choice over the issue of fees for lockdown period, private schools in the State have come up with a solution of sorts. They submitted in the Gujarat High Court on Thursday that they were willing to work out a fee discount scheme but only for deserving students and not for all.

This was after the State Government pleaded before the High Court that it could not implement the direc-tion issued by the court to issue a circular on fee exemption. The govern-ment had pointed out that after the court’s in-structions it convened meetings with an open mind with the Self-Fi-nanced (private)

Schools Management Association twice, but to no avail.

They had turned down the State’s pro-posal to give 25 per cent discount in school fees to all stu-

dents. Following this, the high court had sought the schools’ reply in the ongoing hearings over the is-sue.

In its response to the court, the association

submitted that the school managements had agreed to the State Government’s sugges-tion against any fee hike for the current aca-demic year. However, the discount formula

suggested by the State was not viable.

The association stat-ed that the management was ready to work out a discount from 10 per cent to 100 per cent but only on a case-to-case basis and not across the board.

Strongly defending the position taken by the Self-Financed School Management Association, its presi-dent Ajay Patel from Rajkot asserted that, “It is not that the in-come of the parents of all the students has been adversely af-

fected during the Cov-id-19 crisis.”

“Parents of a good number of students are working with the corpo-rate sector and their incomes have not been affected. Why should the schools’ manage-ment give discounts to students from such fi-nancially sound back-ground,” he went on.

Ajay Patel said the schools’ management were in fact willing “to give even 100 per cent fee exemptions to students whose family have lost their source of income.”

Schools agree to fee discount, but ‘only for those hit more by Covid’

PRACTICAL SOLUTION?

Autorickshaw owners move Guj HC for govt aid

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Au-torickshaw owners have approached the Gujarat High Court seeking a directive to the State Govern-ment to provide them financial assistance since their incomes took a big hit during the Covid-enforced lockdown period and beyond.

Jagrut Auto Rick-shaw Drivers Union has filed a public in-terest litigation through advocate K R Koshti. Before the first lockdown was imposed on March 21, their average month-ly income ranged from Rs 12,000 to 15,000 and this stopped completely for over 2 months, the Union submitted. The Union said several auto driv-ers and owners had committed suicide be-

cause of financial cri-sis. Though they had represented their case before the govern-ment, there was no ac-tion and so they ap-proached the high court. Citing instanc-es of other states, the Union submitted that the government should compensate them too. Andhra Pradesh Government gave financial assis-tance of Rs 10,000 to 2.62 lakh auto and taxi drivers, while Karna-taka Government pro-vided relief of Rs 5,000, the Union stat-ed.

Two morepersons held with Meow Meow drug

ITIs TO REOPEN FROM SEPT 21 BUT IN PHASES

First India Bureau

Surat: Days after the Special Operations Group (SOG) nabbed 2 persons with 100 gm of banned drugs called mephedrone, popularly known as Meow Meow, 2 more persons were arrested on Wednesday in the same trail with the same synthetic stimu-lant worth Rs 3.25 lakh from Dindoli area in Surat.

They bought the drug from Imtiaz Malek, who was caught with 100 gm of the same substance and currently under custody of Puna police station, a police official said.

The 2 were caught with 60.5 gm of me-phedrone under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Sub-stances (NDPS) Act. They have been identi-fied as Anil Prajapati and Debashish alias Sunny Chaudhary.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Government on Thursday an-nounced that Indus-trial Training Insti-tutes (ITIs), which were shut because of the nationwide lock-down, would reopen on September 21.

The decision has been taken in view of an advisory by the Min-istry of Skill Develop-ment & Entrepreneur-ship to reopen ITIs.

Additional Chief Sec-retary (Labour and Em-ployment) Vipul Mittra said to ensure social distancing and in view of capacity and space

constraints, the ITIs would have staggered batch timings.

“The classes for courses of 6 months, 1 year and the second

year of 2-year courses will commence from September 21, while classes for the first year of 2-year courses will start from October 1. We have issued instruc-tions to ensure that guidelines issued by the State Government, the Ministry of Home Af-fairs, and the Ministry of Health & Family Wel-fare are adhered to,” Mittra said.

The examinations for various courses will be held in November.

Shah kickstarts welfare schemes in Gandhinagar First India Bureau

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday inau-gurated Rs 15.01 crore development schemes in Gandhinagar district and city, while also lay-ing the foundation for projects worth Rs 119.63 crore.

The schemes, which he inaugurated and launched for his Gan-dhinagar Lok Sabha constituency through video conferencing, in-clude Smart City pro-jects, upgradation of gardens, road widening and new classrooms in Girls School. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel also attend-ed the function from Rupaal village.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Shah said, “I am confident that under the leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, we all will endeavour to make Gandhinagar a model Lok Sabha con-stituency.”

The union minister said the country was fighting the Covid-19 crisis under the leader-ship of Modi and in Gu-jarat under the steward-ship of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

“As a result of these continuous efforts, there has been a decline

in the casualty rate while the recovery rate had improved,” Shah said.

However, the Union Home Minister stressed on public awareness and strict maintenance of social distancing norms by the people to tackle the pandemic.

Gujarat Secretariat. —FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

Bhavnagar: All her small world came apart for Rehmatben Sheikh, a resident of Konjdi village in Bhavnagar district, first after her two sons lost their jobs during the Covid-enforced lockdown in March. And then, her work as an agricultural la-bourer stopped.

This jolt came during the Rabi harvest period, which would otherwise bring in a decent amount of money. Al-though her sons got some earnings through works under NREGA, the income was woefully inadequate to meet the expenses.

Just then came a blessing in disguise in the form of an initia-tive called ‘Gardens

of Hope - Emergency Kitchen Gardens’.

Started by Gujarat based NGO, Utthan, the programme is helping rural communities in four Gujarat districts of Bhavnagar, Dahod, Ma-hisagar and Panchma-hal to grow their own chemical-free food at home so that their nutri-tional needs are met de-spite the financial crunch during the lock-

down and the conse-quent livelihood crisis.

What makes this initia-tive stand out is that

each family growing vegetables will have to

share the produce with 3 other families who do not have land, water re-sources or currently not growing vegetables.

Rehmatben joined the training sessions on gar-dening conducted by Ut-than in May-June. Since she did not have enough space in her backyard, she decided to begin farming on her rooftop.

“We received a gar-dening kit with seeds (150 grams per person) and organic fertiliser for free — and using that I set up my garden. I am

growing cluster beans, bitter gourd and okra, and share the produce with 3 other families. This solution is helping all of us save money and get healthy food,” says Rehmatben.

Now that she has ac-quired the expertise, she is planning to increase her production post lockdown and earn a stable income from it. Rehmatben’s family is one of the thousands of families who are reap-ing benefits under this sustainable programme.

What’s cooking? All not lost for Covid-stung RehmatbenOUT-OF-THE-BOX IDEA

A cooperative kitchen garden started by NGO Utthan is helping thousands of villages tide over Covid-19 crisis.

A cooperative of sorts initiated by NGO ‘Utthan’ is helping thousands of families in 4 Gujarat districts

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday virtually inaugurated development works in his Gandhinagar constituency.

WHITHER MODEL STATE?

Notwithstanding the tall claims of Gujarat being a model state of development, there are still villages which do not even have arterial roads. People in Ganava village in Sabarkantha district's Poshina taluka have to carry their sick people in a cloth bag of sorts to the nearest hospital.

I am confident that under the lead-ership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, we all will en-

deavour to make Gandhinagar a model Lok Sabha constituency.

—Amit Shah, Union Home Minister and Gandhinagar MP

—FILE PHOTO

—FILE PHOTO

AHMEDABAD, FRIDAYSEPTEMBER 11, 2020

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City First digs into the fusion of science and fashion to make a wearabletechnology & how these innovations are transforming the fashion industry today!

KARISHMA GWALANIkarishma.gwalani@firstindia.co.in

cience plays a major role in the design development of fashion clothing and accessories, just a glimpse into the past will confirm enough to be true. It’s not a jum-bled business of clothes and col-ours, loosely thrown together,

rather, a well-organised industry driven by the sciences, from market research to weav-ing, printing, dyeing, pattern making, and incorporating scientific interventions that support artist’s continuum.

How about having a single garment that one can use both in the summer and winter one that would change texture, colour and even shape in response to external environ-ments? How about wearing an electric lights garment with the sensor to turn on and off the lights, when required? All these are gradually transcending from being mere fantasies to reality.

Let’s look at how the future and already present technology can reshape the fash-ion landscape. Digital clothing that incor-porates sensors in the very clothing that one wears and other fascinating possi-bilities lie in store-courtesy the largely interdisciplinary explorations into the field of fabric and fashion technology. The performative nature of fashion makes it a perfect medium for exploring these new ideas. Especially in the context of dialogue between the body of the wear-er and their environment, including in-teractions with other individuals.

At the periphery of a wider conversation about FashionTech, in both digital/web-based and wearable based technologies is the integration of multi-disciplinary sci-ences into product concepts. Incredible hybrid products are growing out of inter-disciplinary collaborations, using the skills of scientists, computer engineers, manu-facturers and fashion designers.

Collaborations are leading to exciting new products by utilising the skills of dif-ferent industries to create something inven-tive and efficient. These infinite possibili-ties have more space to evolve yet, but with a continuous stream of the new and excit-ing pushes, the fashion industry is not far away from reaching the goal towards the future of fashion.

S

10HOLLYWOOD

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FACE

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E DAY

DISHA MADAN, Content Creator

YOUR DAYHoroscope by

Saurabbh Sachdeva

LEOJULY 24 - AUGUST 23

Be soft with your tone when talking with your seniors. Solve your problem before it gets out of your hands. In

life things do not always happen according to our plans, its ok to change your plans and readjust overtime. You work hard and then play hard.

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Remember those whelped you in challenging times so that you can someday return their favour without

asking. Seeking comfort in life isn’t a problem but only seeking comfort all-time with not willing to do anything is a big problem. Adjusting nature is what makes you special.

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

You are a person with good looks. Trust your instincts thats all. In business sometimes you loose and

sometimes you gain but you have to keep moving forward. You are fi lling your karma bank balance with good deeds. Doubtful nature becomes very irritating for others to tolerate.

SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22

Giving lectures to others is easy but practising what you preach isn’t. Scoring high percentage in not necessary

but knowing everything that has been taught is very very important. Available information must be used to its full potential and it can change the course of your research.

GEMINIMAY 21 - JUNE 21

On home front, some thing are best left for no discussion. Health is fi ne as per your cards. Getting

rewarded is sure shot thing but when is the question. Your spouse will give you the wings to fl y high. Curious nature is a sign of active intelligent brains. Love yourself.

AQUARIUSJAN 21 - FEB 19

Excellent cooking skills has helped you in winning your spouse’s heart. You are very conscious of how you look

and you take your dressing and aesthetic very seriously. You have a hard shell wrapped around you but you are very soft from inside. Helping someone is a good thing to do.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

If you have unconsciously made some mistake then don’t get too hard on yourself. Do as you wish

as long as you are prepared for the consequences. Be professional when it comes to dealing with offi cial matters. Make peace with your past. You are very curious by nature.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

Always taking side of someone irrespective of the fact if they are right or wrong needs to be

stopped. You can confess to your parents if you think you have done something wrong as only they can protect you. Limits and few set rules are very important for everything.

VIRGOAUG 24 - SEP 23

Every time whenever you achieve something always express your gratitude to people who contributed in

your journey. Don’t be scared of what will happen in the future, you just need to relax and enjoy your present or least try to live and breathe free. Your expressions make things clear.

CANCERJUNE 22 - JULY 23

A business person needs an investor and for that you need to look for the right person. Any tempting

deal which leads you to compromise on your ethics shall be avoided for sure. Finally you will get something that you have been waiting for. Life goes around in circles.

PISCESFEB20 - MARCH 20

You can very quickly fool people into believing what you are saying. Working without breaks isn’t good

for your own health so don’t take it lightly. Pursue your career as per your liking and most likely it will be something either related to medicals or law. Self control is appreciative.

SCORPIOOCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Curing the need to do something without really giving ay though is a mature thing to do. Making

big decisions after carefully planning and evaluating all the options is a sure shot thing. Creating hope for the one who has lost is a great move. Blessings from elders is certain.

hris Hemsworth is Holly-wood’s leading man, liter-ally. Maybe it’s his Aus-tralian-ness. Maybe it’s his hobbies (surfing, box-ing). Maybe it’s that he plays a Norse god, com-

plete with godlike biceps. He is the man who plays one of Marvel’s fit-test, most muscular superheroes.

We all know the Flan-Haired One came to fame as a stoic alpha-god in Thor. Even in his artis-tic breakout—in Rush—he was a hard-drinking, model-shagging Formula One racer. And with a packed slate of starring roles in 2015, from playing the world’s toughest hacker in Blackhat to re-prising his role as the God of Hair and Hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Hemsworth isn’t letting off the gas.

Hemsworth the rare Hollywood leading man who is actually ro-bust and manly in the characters he plays. He’s not a Method guy. His philosophy, cribbed from An-thony Hopkins on the set of Thor is “Don’t bring it home. Don’t even bring it to the makeup trailer.” That’s not to say he hasn’t endured some intense physi-cal prep, most recently limiting himself to 500 calories a day on the set of Ron Howard’s upcoming whaling saga, In the Heart of the Sea, to achieve that emaciated castaway look. But the craziest thing Hemsworth’s done to get into character was sit in Michael Mann’s office and learn to type. For ten weeks.

His most critically acclaimed films include the comedy hor-ror The Cabin in the Woods (2012). He also had filmed Men in Black: International, the reboot of the MiB franchise that Hemsworth co-helms with Tessa Thomp-son, and starred in the Netflix thriller Extraction, After be-ing watched by 90 a million households in its initial month of release, the mov-ie broke Netflix’s view-ership record previ-ously held by Bird Box.

Hemsworth’s charis-ma holds together whenever it threatens to spin apart. He won the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor. He has also been honored with Brit-ish Academy Film Awards, People’s Choice Awards. MTV Movie Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards

In 2019, Hems-worth launched a fitness app called Centr, focused on how to train, eat, and live better.

The Manliest Man in HOLLYWOOD

GURMAN SINGHcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

C

Formula One racer. And with a packed slate of starring roles in 2015, from playing the world’s toughest hacker in Blackhat to re-prising his role as the God of Hair and Hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Hemsworth isn’t letting off

Hemsworth the rare Hollywood leading man who is actually ro-bust and manly in the characters he plays. He’s not a Method guy. His philosophy, cribbed from An-thony Hopkins on the set of Thor is “Don’t bring it home. Don’t even bring it to the makeup trailer.” That’s not to say he hasn’t endured some intense physi-cal prep, most recently limiting himself to 500 calories a day on the set of Ron Howard’s upcoming whaling saga, In the Heart of the Sea, to achieve that emaciated castaway look. But the craziest thing Hemsworth’s done to get into character was sit in Michael Mann’s office and learn to type.

His most critically acclaimed films include the comedy hor-ror The Cabin in the Woods (2012). He also had filmed Men in Black: International, the reboot of the MiB franchise that Hemsworth co-helms with Tessa Thomp-son, and starred in the Netflix thriller Extraction, After be-ing watched by 90 a million households in its initial month of release, the mov-ie broke Netflix’s view-ership record previ-ously held by Bird Box.

Hemsworth’s charis-ma holds together whenever it threatens to spin apart. He won the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor. He has also been honored with Brit-ish Academy

In 2019, Hems-worth launched a fitness app called Centr, focused on how to train, eat, and live better.

Terming a document stating that BMC had sent a notice regarding unauthorised construction in her Mumbai

in 2018, as “fake,” actor Kangana Ranaut on Wednesday said that BMC had never “sent any notice” to her until Tuesday.

The ‘Queen’ actor took to Twitter to share a copy of the said docu-ment and accused the Maharash-tra government of “spreading fake” information. “Paid sources of Maha government are spread-ing fake info, BMC never sent

any notice to me until yesterday,” she tweeted. “In fact I got all the documents cleared myself from BMC for renovations. [?]@myb-mc [?] at least have the cour-age to stand by your audacity. why lie now?,” she added.

The document dated Oc-tober 20, 2018, had been doing rounds on Twitter since Wednesday morning. On Thursday afternoon, Kan-gana reached her office in Mumbai after the act took place. —ANI

As Indian film director Anurag Kashyap celebrated his 48th birthday on

Thursday, stars in the Bol-lywood industry wished him on social media.

His daughter Aaliyah Kashyap was one of the first ones to wish the filmmaker on social media. While she took to social media to wish daddy on his birth-day, Aaliyah posted two pictures on her Insta-gram stories to wish him and alongside the photos, she wrote, “Happy Birthday Papa. Love you and miss you so much.” Later, Taapsee Pannu, who has worked with Anurag in Manmarzi-yaan, took to Insta-gram to pen a note for her ‘punching bag’.

Sharing a photo with the birthday boy, Taapsee’s note read, “Happy Birthday to my official punching bag!” —Agency

While Natasha Ro-manoff ’s fate in ‘Avengers: End-game’ destroyed

MCU (Marcel Cinematic Uni-verse) fans, it was indeed a pleasant, welcome surprise that a Black Widow movie was in the works. Set at a time period between Cap-tain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, we get in touch with Nat’s

previous comrades before be-coming an Avenger. In a recent interview, Johansson spoke candidly about the feminist themes in Black Widow. “I think this film, in particular, is very much reflective of what’s going on in regards to the Time’s Up movement and

the #MeToo movement,” Scarlett disclosed. The 35-year-old actress felt that it would be such a miss if they didn’t address that stuff and take that head-on. Moreover, the Oscar-nominated star shared with Empire that for Black Widow di-rector Cate Shortland, it was so important to make a movie about “women who are helping other

women, who lift other women up out of a very difficult situation.” —Agency

ETCwww.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia AHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

11

ours after Ankita Lokhande penned an elaborate letter explaining her stand on Su-shant Singh Rajput’s death probe, Shibani Dandekar called out the actress. She said Ankita has played “a

major role in this witch-hunt.”“Such a grotesque letter by (Anki-

ta). This princess of patriarchy who has never dealt with her own relation-ship issues with Sushant, clearly she wants her two seconds of fame and has capitalised on Rhea being target-ed. She has played a major role in this ‘witch-hunt’ and she needs to be called out! She also just needs to shut the hell up. Enough Ankita! No one has

more hate in their heart (?) than you,” Shibani wrote.

The backlash came after Ankita said, “When she very well knew about his mental state by publicly stating that he was in depression. Should she have allowed a depressed man to con-sume drugs? How is that going to help? His condition would deteriorate

to a level that would make a man take the action that SSR has allegedly tak-en. She was the closest person to him at that time. On one hand, she says she was coordinating with all the doc-tors for his betterment of health on request of SSR, and on the other hand, she was coordinating drug lo-gistics for him.” —Agency

HSHIBANI SLAMS ANKITA

Me g a s t a r A m i t a b h Bachchan, weeks after

recovering from COV-ID-19, is back to shooting and is cautiously following all the necessary precau-tionary measures.

The legendary actor is currently shoot-

ing for his much-loved television quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepa-ti,’ and has been sharing pictures

from the set on social me-dia platforms. Bachchan who is shooting for the 12th season of the famous show took to Twitter dur-

ing the wee hours of Thursday and shared a col-lage of his pictures from the show’s set. The picture features crew members of

the show clad in PPE Kits, masks, gloves, and shields as they give some final touch-ups to the superstar.

Alongside the pictures, the ‘Sholay’ actor tweeted: “be safe .. be in precaution .. at work and in caution ..”

On August 24, announc-ing the beginning of the shooting for the new sea-son of his show, Bachchan wrote: “It’s back to work .. in a sea of blue PPE .. KBC 12 .. started 2000 .. today year 2020 .. 20 years ! Amaze .. that’s a lifetime.” —ANI

The feminist theme in BW

Birthday wishes for Anurag Kashyap

BIG B BACK TO WORK

AK Drinks Cow Urine Everyday

During an interesting live session on Instagram, Bear Grylls, Akshay Kumar and Huma Qureshi had quite a fun chat. Bear and Akshay spoke about their episode of ‘Into The Wild’ which both

of them had shot together. Huma asked them about the ‘elephant poo tea’ that they were seen consuming during the show’s promo. Surpris-ingly, Akshay went on to say that it wasn’t anything new for him, as he drinks cow urine every day, keeping the Ayurvedic in mind. —Agency

‘BMC NEVER SENT ANY NOTICE’

Shibani Dandekar

Ankita Lokhande

Kangana Ranaut

Anurag Kashyap

Amitabh Bachchan

...his post

Bear Grylls & Akshay Kumar

Scarlett Johansson

...her post

12CITY BUZZ

AHMEDABAD | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

he virus has seem-ingly taken a toll on everyone and while nobody can wait to begin the countdown leading to 2021 on New Year’s

Eve, let’s look at one of the better things this year has brought us. Since the beginning of the lockdown, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of pet adop-tions all over the world. In order to beat loneliness and stress, people are looking to add a furry friend to their family.

There is a growing mental-ity of ‘Adopt, don’t shop,’ ow-ing to which stray animals, and those belonging to NGO’s are being taken care of and are being welcomed into lov-ing homes. Recently, in PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat address, he encouraged people to adopt Indian dog breeds. He empha-sized that such breeds are competent, cost-effective and accustomed to our climate. Some examples of high pedi-gree dogs he gave are Mudhol Hound and Himachali Hound.

Adopting a pet is a win-win situation. Street animals are provided with food, shelter and love and humans too reap various benefits:

n Pets require daily walks which is good exercise for us too

n They help fight loneliness and combat stress, anxiety and depres-sion

n Since we’re all spending most of our time at home, they help take away our boredom

While there are immeas-urable benefits to having

pets, it is important to note that pets are for life and not just for lockdown. They will require the equal amount of care and attention even when all of this is over. The transition from seeing peo-ple all day long to hardly ever can be tough for them so it’s essential that we real-ize that pets need to be cared for their entire lives. While it’s a big responsibility to care for a pet, there’s also quite no feeling in the world which rivals that of the ex-cited face of your dog wait-ing for you after a long and weary day of work.

WHAT’S HAPPENING!

CM Ashok Gehlot with Jigyasa Gaur, Aarti Bhagotiya, Ramesh Sankhla along with other members of Rajasthan Accounts Service, on the occasion of the release of a documentary on Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement act-2012 which explains the provision and rules of the act in simple language, on Wednesday. CM Ashok Gehlot released the 7-hour long documentary, directed by Ramesh Sankha which will be used for training and awareness purposes.

DOCUMENTARY RELEASED!

Jagdeesh Chandra takes a look at the Foot operated Wood sanitizer presented by Vinod Ajmera at the former’s residence on Thursday. The sanitizer stand has been indigenously designed and handmade by Shobha Kraft Global (SKG), a leading manufacturer and exporter of contemporary handicrafts from Jaipur. The flexible height adjustment function makes it convenient to support sanitizer bottles of different sizes. It is easy to maintain and safe as it ensures hands-free operation making it a mandatory and stylish addition to any home or workplace in these COVID-19 times.

Miracles with PawsRASHI CHAUDHARYcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

T

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

CITY FIRST

Teamwork Arts, the producer of the iconic Jaipur Litera-

ture Festival, and the British Library are all set to host a virtual edition of the annual JLF London at Brit-ish Library. The three-day-long Festival will run from 11 – 13 September and celebrate of books, creativity, dialogue, and diversity, bringing South Asia’s unique multilingual literary heritage to life.

Like every year, the Fes-tival features an astonish-ing diversity in program-ming with over 50 speakers discussing subjects like fic-tion, science & technology, food, war, women issues and the ongo-ing pandemic to name a few. The inaugural session, titled ‘Brave New World’, will be addressed by the Indian High Commissioner to UK, Her Excellency Gaitri Is-sar Kumar; Festival Co-Directors & eminent authors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple; Managing Director of Team-work Arts, the Festival producer, Sanjoy K. Roy and Roly Keating,

Chief Executive of the British Library.

The inaugural evening will also feature two marquee ses-sions. Man Booker Prize-win-ning author Bernardine Evar-isto will discuss the idea of womxnhood, culture, class, poli-

tics and race coursing through her iconic writ-ings. She will speak of the binding power of collec-

tive experiences and will give us a peek into the world

of her creative process in a con-versation with writer Anjum Hasan. Following this, award-winning author and screenwrit-er Nayanika Mahtani, National Award-winning actress Vidya Balan and actress & politician Vani Tripathi Tikoo will present a behind-the-scenes look at the recently-released biopic on the life of the mathematical genius, the Late Shakuntala Devi.

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

JLF LONDON STARTS TODAY

Haridev Khatri greets and offers a sweet to his wife Vimla on her 72nd birthday celebration at Bikaner on Thursday.

Haridev and Vimla with their daughter and son-in-law Rekha and Dinesh Mehndiratta and twin granddaughters Khushaali and Khushangi.

RAJASTHAN: On the concluding day of online learning classes ‘Beejakshara’ on Thursday, viewers learned the unique ‘Art of Bookbinding’ on the Facebook page of Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK). The class was conducted by the bookbinder, Rajendra Kumar from Jaipur.

GUJARAT: Committee members of Educated Unemployed stood outside Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on a protest for jobs on Thursday. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

RAJASTHAN: Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) is all set to organize an ‘Online Career Counselling’ session on 14 September for the students seeking admission in various programs.

RAJASTHAN: Ahuja Production shot the third promo of Rajasthan Culture Heritage at Laxmi Palace in Banipark on Thursday. Show director Devesh Ahuja said that dresses of Rajasthan were displayed during the shoot.

Interaction with internationally acclaimed artist Roop Singh Shekhawat and Bhavai dance show will be held live at Net-theat on Saturday evening at 8.30 pm.

RAJASTHAN: The Open Mic Poetry competition will be organised today at JKK, to commemorate the occasion of Satyagraha centered on the basic idea and philosophy of non-violence. The theme of the competition is ‘Satyamev Jayate. The winners will be announced on Monday, 14 September, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

HAPPY B’DAY!

IAS Anjali Rajoria and IPS Anil Paliwal celebrated their birthdays on 10 September, Thursday. We wish them all the best!

KEEPING SAFE!