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Indian HorizonRNI NO: DELENG/2013/51507

Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

MAMATA TO PREPARE VIRTUAL BLUEPRINT FOR

MARTYR’S DAYP-5 P-11P-8

PAK PM LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO PROTECT,

PROMOTE NATIONAL PARKS

HAVE ALREADY STARTED PREPARING FOR AUSTRALIA

TOUR, SAYS KULDEEP

As of Friday morning, the total number of cases increased to 10,842,615, while the fatalities stood at to 520,785.

GLOBAL COVID 19 CASES TOP 10.8 MN

INDIA SEES HIGHEST SINGLE DAY SPIKE OF 20,903 COVID 19 CASESWith these new cases, India’s coronavirus tally has risen to 6,25,544 cases of which 2,27,439 patients are

active cases while 3,79,892 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) India reported the high-est ever single-day spike of 20,903 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours on Friday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.With these new cases, India’s coronavirus tally has risen

to 6,25,544 cases of which 2,27,439 patients are active cases while 3,79,892 pa-tients have been cured/dis-charged/migrated.

379 more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, taking the num-

ber of deaths due to the infection to 18,213.As per the Health Ministry, Ma-harashtra — the worst-af-fected state from the virus — has a total of 1,86,626 cases including 8,178 fatal-ities while Tamil Nadu has 98,392 coronavirus cases in

the state inclusive of 1,321 fatalities.Delhi has re-ported 92,175 cases so far inclusive of 2,864 patients succumbing to the virus.

The Indian Council of Medical Research on Fri-day said that the total num-ber of samples tested till July 2 is 92,97,749 of which 2,41,576 samples were test-ed on Thursday.

Washington, July 3 (IANS) The overall num-ber of global COVID-19 cases has increased to over 10.8 million, while the deaths have soared to more than 520,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Friday morning, the total number of cases increased to 10,842,615, while the fatalities stood at to 520,785, the Univer-

sity’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its lat-est update.

The US accounted for the world’s highest num-ber of infections and fatalities with 2,739,230 and 128,743, respectively, according to the CSSE.Brazil came in the sec-ond place with 1,496,858 infections and 61,884 deaths.

In terms of cases, Rus-sia ranks third (660,231), and is followed by India (604,641), Peru (292,004), the UK (285,268), Chile (284,541), Spain (250,103), Italy (240,961), Mexico (238,511), Iran (232,863), Paki-stan (217,809), France (203,640), Turkey (202,284), Saudi Arabia (197,608), Germany (196,370), South Africa (168,061), Bangladesh (153,277) and Canada (106,643), the CSSE fi g-ures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the UK (44,080), Italy (34,818), France (29,878), Mexico (29,189), Spain (28,368), India (17,834) and Iran (11,106).

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condoled the death of 19 Sikh pilgrims in an accident involving a pas-senger bus and train near Lahore in Pakistan’s Sheikhu-pura district.“Pained by the tragic demise of Sikh pilgrims in Pakistan. My thoughts are with their families and friends in this hour of grief,” he tweet-

ed.The Prime Minister said that he will pray that those injured recover at the earli-est.The Sikh devotees were travelling from a gurdwara in Lahore to Peshawar in the bus when it was hit by the train en route to Lahore from Karachi.Hospital authorities said most of the around 60 injured were in critical condition.

TELANGANA HOME

MINISTER RECOVERS

FROM COVID 19

Hyderabad, July 3 (IANS) Telangana Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, who had tested positive for Covid-19, was discharged from a corporate hospital on Friday.

The minister’s son and grandson, who too were un-dergoing treatment at the same hospital, have also re-covered.Ali was admitted to the hospital on June 28 after he tested positive. The next day, his son and grandson were also admitted.

The minister thanked all those who prayed for his health. He expressed his gratitude to Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao, Aoth-er ministers and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders.

The minister also thanked Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, public repre-sentatives of the state and the leaders of all the parties who spoke to him over the phone while in the hospital.

Ali also expressed special thanks to Apollo Hospital doc-tors and staff who treated him carefully.Advising people to be cautious about corona disease, he, however, urged people not to be afraid to seek treatment as soon as symptoms appear.

THERE IS DOWNWARD TREND OF CORONA CASES IN DELHI : ARVIND KEJRIWAL

MODI MOURNS DEATH OF 19 SIKH PILGRIMS IN PAKISTAN ACCIDENT

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gan-dhi on Friday raised questions about the safety of the com-mon people in Uttar Pradesh after eight policemen were shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district."Another proof of hooliganism in Uttar Pradesh. When the police are not safe, how will the pub-

lic be?" Rahul Gandhi said, quoting a news report.He also extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased police per-sonnel and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.Eight police personnel, in-cluding a circle officer, were shot dead and six policemen seriously injured when a lo-

cal criminal Vikas Dubey and his gang sprayed them with bullets in Kanpur.

Chief Minister Yogi Ad-ityanath has expressed grief over the incident and offered his condolences to the fami-lies of the deceased.A mas-sive search operation has been launched to nab Vikas Dubey. The police are also using electronic surveillance. The police have recovered cartridges of AK-47 from the site of the incident.

ANOTHER PROOF OF HOOLIGANISM IN UP : RAHUL ON KANPUR FIRING

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that there is a downward trend of the coronavirus cases in the national capital due to the con-certed efforts of Delhiites and the governments."There is a downward trend in Delhi, but it does not mean that we will not do anything to address the situ-

ation. We have to be prepared for all situations. I pray to God that this downward trend con-tinues, and that the vaccine is discovered as soon as possible," said Kejriwal.The Chief Minister also alluded to the prediction of 60,000 active cases made dur-ing the re-opening of the city a month ago. "But there are only 25,000 active cases in Delhi to-

day. This is the result of the sustainable efforts of all the two crore people of Delhi, govern-ments, and the society."

On June 23, the capital had witnessed the highest single-day peak of 3,947 cases, but the number has come down steadi-ly since then. Delhi witnessed 2,373 new cases on Thursday and kept its daily tally below 3,000 the whole week.

The turnaround came after several meetings were held be-tween the Central and State gov-ernment officials in mid-June after cases recorded a sharp and sustained spike.

Kejriwal made these remarks after meeting the family of LNJP hospital's late doctor As-eem Gupta, who recently suc-cumbed to coronavirus, and handed over compensation of Rs one crore to them.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) In-terim Congress President So-nia Gandhi has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Union gov-

ernment to extend reservation for OBC candidates in the all-India quota for medical and dental seats to state/UT medi-cal institutions.

Sonia Gandhi said in the let-ter that reservation for OBC candidates under the all-In-dia quota is restricted to the Central institutions only."As per the data compiled by the All India Federation of Other

Backward Classes, since 2017, OBC candidates lost over 11,000 seats in all-India quota due to non-implementation of OBC reservations in state/UT medical education institu-tions," she wrote in the letter.

The interim Congress Presi-dent drew the Prime Minis-ter's attention in the matter of denial of reservation to OBC candidates under the all-India

quota being fi lled through the National Eligibility cum En-trance Test (NEET) in state/UT medical education institu-tions.

She said that the 93rd Con-stitutional Amendment envis-ages special provisions for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in ad-

mission to educational in-stitutions, including private institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, other than the minority educational institutions.

But denial of reservations to OBCs in state medical in-stitutions under the all-India quota, being administered by the Government of India, vio-lates the very objective of the

93rd Constitutional Amend-ment and is a barrier to access to medical education for the deserving OBC candidates.

Under the all-India quota, 15 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent seats are reserved for SC, ST and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) can-didates, respectively, in both Central and state/UT medical education institutions.

SONIA WRITES TO PM OVER NEET QUOTA FOR OBC STUDENTS

Kolkata, July 3 (IANS)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from West Bengal, Locket Chatterjee, tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.

The BJP Lok Sabha member from Hooghly tweeted about her health condition on Friday afternoon, saying: "I have test-

ed positive for Covid-19 this morning; having mild fever and was in self-isolation for the past one week."

The actress-turned-politician also said that she will further update about her health condi-tion. "I will keep everyone post-ed. All is well," she said.

BJP MP LOCKET CHATTERJEE TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID 19

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) In the current season's fi rst ma-jor downpour, rain lashed vast areas of Maharashtra's coastal Konkan, including Mumbai, since early Friday morning, hitting road traffi c movement in several parts of the city, offi cials said.Heavy showers, often accompanied by thunder, were witnessed in Mumbai and the suburbs,

besides Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sind-

hudurg districts.Most parts of south Mumbai received substantial rain and accom-panied by a high tide of 4.41 metres, there was in water-logging at several areas in the city and suburbs, hindering traffi c fl ow, said the BMC Disaster Control.Flooding was reported in Cuffe Parade, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Byculla, Sion,

Chira Bazaar, Masjid Bunder and surroundings.

In the suburbs, waterlogging was reported in Andheri forc-ing closure of the subway, and vehicle movement had slowed down in Borivali, Malad and Jogeshwari areas.To speed up the water fl ow into the Arabian Sea, BMC teams had opened up several manholes in differ-ent parts of the city.

MUMBAI, KONKAN LASHED BY HEAVY RAINS ; TRAFFIC HIT

City2

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The National Green Tribunal has de-ferred its direction for deposition of Rs 25 crore interim fine by the Oil India Ltd, following the gas well leakage and fire in Assam, till the actual amount and its disbursement plans are worked out.

The incident hap-pened in Baghjan in As-sam's Tinsukia district. Enormous volume of inflammable natural gas which was leaking from the Baghjan-5 oil well of the company since May 27 caught fire on June 9, claiming lives of two fire-fighters. On June 25, the tribunal had imposed a heavy fine of Rs 25 crore on OIL for causing dam-age to the environment,

human and wildlife and over its failure to stop the oil well fire. An eight-member committee was also constituted to look into the matter.

On July 2, the tribunal deferred the direction after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appear-ing for OIL, assured that the company has itself taken several measures for rehabilitation of the displaced families and deposited a sum of Rs 4.83 crore with the Dis-trict Magistrate as an in-terim relief.

He submitted that the committee is 'un-necessary' and so is the direction to deposit the amount of Rs 25 crore as the OIL is commit-ted to compensate the victims and restitute the

environment. It will pay whatever amount re-quired on its liability be-ing ascertained, he said.

A bench of NGT Chair-man Adarsh Kumar Goel observed: "In view of this assurance, we defer our direction for deposit of Rs 25 crore till the actual amount and its disbursement plan are worked out in the light of the report of the com-mittee after considering viewpoint of victims as well as the OIL."

However, adequacy of steps taken by the OIL will have to be looked into by the committee and then by this tribunal following due process of law, it added. The tribu-nal said that the OIL is stated to have set apart more than Rs 25 crore

and Rohtagi also cat-egorically assured that OIL being a public sec-tor undertaking, there will be no difficulty in promptly making avail-able whatever amount is required for discharge of its liability.

Baghjan is one of the 23 oil wells set up by OIL to tap the large gas reserves in the Brahma-putra basin located near the Eco Sensitive Zone of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. The blow-out left behind mixture of chemical compounds that are toxic for land and vegetation. It is not only hazardous to the health of the people but also severely affects their livelihood, mainly agri-culture, fishing, and ani-mal rearing.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The Youth Congress organised a symbolic shirtless pro-test in Delhi on Friday against the central gov-ernment over privatisa-tion of Indian Railways after the government invited tenders to run private trains on se-lected routes.

The Youth Congress in a statement said "since the present BJP

led NDA government came to power in 2014, many government PSUs and otherwise government held as-sets have moved to-wards privatisation." The Youth Congress alleged that the anti-poor government at the Centre has also consistently moved to-wards privatisation of Indian Railways, which will gradually lead to

trains becoming unaf-fordable for the com-mon man. The gov-ernment is attempting to turn the Railways into a private business, whereas, on account of it being the most affordable means of travel for the common man, it remains a pub-lic service. Therefore, the IYC opposed the government move in a symbolic "shirtless"

protest at its Raisina Road headquarters, said its spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pan-dey. The Youth Con-gress alleged that the anti-poor government at the Centre has also consistently moved to-wards privatisation of Indian Railways, which will gradually lead to trains becoming unaf-fordable for the com-mon man.

Assam fire: NGT defers deposit of Rs 25 crore fine by OIL

Abducted, bludgeoned to death for insulting another's mother

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) A man in Delhi abducted and brutally killed another, who invited the wrath by insulting the former's mother. The killer along with his friend murdered the man, identi-fied as Sajid.

According to the police, the vic-tim went missing from his house in South Delhi's Fatehpur Beri on June 16. A missing report was filed by his father on June 19. The father already suspected the hand of two men -- Viplav and Rahul -- in his son's disappearance.

"During the course of investiga-tion the suspect Rahul with whom Sajid was last seen, was interro-gated and involvement of another man -- Chaman was established.

"Later, both Rahul and Chaman were interrogated and they con-fessed that they killed Sajid in the jungle in Mandi Valley and left his body there. They murdered him by bludgeoning his head with stones after getting him intoxicat-ed," said DCP South Atul Thakur.

According to police, they stated that Viplav's mother had a quarrel with Sajid's mother before lock-

down and that is why they killed him. "Both the accused were ar-rested and with their help the remains of Sajid's body was re-covered from the jungle around a kilometre deep into the forested area near the Faridabad border," said the officer. Sajid too had some criminal cases registered against him. His motorcycle has been recovered from PS Sitarganj.

This has also led the police to another murder by Viplav, who has been arrested in the

other murder case in Sitarganj town of Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand. In that case Viplav had allegedly abducted one person (his rela-tive Sushant) from Sangam Vi-har and murdered him there. The reason for that murder was apparently Sushant's use of foul language about Viplav's friend. Viplav has been found to be involved in a kidnapping and murder case as a juvenile also.

Indian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 2020

NEW DELHI: As a large number of people show-ing no symptoms being detected for COVID-19, the Union health ministry on Thursday revised the home isolation guidelines to in-clude asymptomatic posi-tive patients in the list of mild or pre-symptomatic coronavirus infection cases.

However, patients suf-fering from immune-com-promised status (like HIV, transplant recipients, can-cer therapy) are not eligible for home isolation.

India reported 20,903 new coronavirus cases and 379 deaths on Friday. The country’s overall count rose to 6,25,544 and the toll reached 18,213. More than 3.79 lakh people have re-covered from the coronavi-rus, according to the union health ministry update on Friday morning.

Here is the list of the new HOME ISOLATION guidelines: Elderly patients aged more than 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions shall only be al-lowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer.

Patients under home iso-lation will stand discharged after 10 days of onset of symptoms and no fever for three days.

Patients will be advised to isolate at home and self-monitor their health for fur-ther seven days.

There is no need for test-ing after the home isola-tion period is over. The clinical status of each case should be recorded by the field staff/call center (body temperature, pulse rate and oxygen saturation).

The field staff will guide the patient on measuring these parameters and pro-vide the instructions (for patients and their care giv-ers).

Details about patients under home isolation should also be updated on COVID-19 portal and facil-ity app (with DSO as user).

Mechanism to shift pa-tient in case of violation or need for treatment has to be established and imple-mented.

All family members and close contacts shall be monitored and tested as per protocol by the field staff. These discharge guidelines shall be strictly adhered to along with issuance of a fitness certificate by the field team. Asymptomatic patients like the ones who are pre-symptomatic and have very mild symptoms can opt for home isolation if they have the requisite

self-isolation facility at their residence so as to avoid contact with other fam-ily members. A care giver should be available to pro-vide care on 24x7 basis and the communication link between the caregiver and hospital is a prerequisite for the entire duration of home isolation. Caregiver and all close contacts of such cases should take hydroxychloro-quine as a preventive medi-cation Download the Aro-gya Setu mobile application and that it should remain active at all times (through bluetooth and wi-fi).

Patients should monitor their health and regularly inform the health status to the district surveillance officer, who will facilitate further follow up by the sur-veillance teams.

Patient needs to give an undertaking stating being diagnosed as a confirmed/suspect case of COVID-19, he/she hereby voluntarily undertake to maintain strict self-isolation at all times for the prescribed period.

Immediate medical at-tention must be sought if serious signs or symp-toms, including difficulty in breathing, dip in oxygen saturation, persistent pain/pressure in the chest, men-tal confusion or inability to

arouse, slurred speech/sei-zures, weakness or numb-ness in any limb or face and developing bluish discolor-ations of lips/face.

States and districts should monitor all such cases, and that the health status of those under home isolation should be moni-tored by the field staff/surveillance teams through personal visits along with a dedicated call centre to fol-low up on the patients on a daily basis. The clinical sta-tus of each case should be recorded by the field staff/call center (body tempera-ture, pulse rate and oxy-gen saturation). The field staff will guide the patient on measuring these pa-rameters and provide the instructions (for patients and their care givers). De-tails about patients under home isolation should also be updated on COVID-19 portal and facility app (with DSO as user). Mechanism to shift patient in case of violation or need for treat-ment has to be established and implemented. All fam-ily members and close con-tacts shall be monitored and tested as per protocol by the field staff. These dis-charge guidelines shall be strictly adhered to along with issuance.

Youth Congress 'shirtless' protest against Railways privatisation

COVID-19: Health Ministry Issues New Guidelines For Home Isolation

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The govern-ment said on Friday that 14 Indians have been killed while 88 others have been injured by Pakistan in over 2,400 unprovoked ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in the last six months.

"This year, till June 2020, 14 Indians have been killed and 88 Indi-ans have been injured in more than 2,432 un-provoked ceasefire vio-lations carried out by Pakistan forces," official

sources said. The gov-ernment also conveyed its strong concerns at the continued support being extended by the Pakistan forces for cross-border infiltration of terror-ists, including through covering fire. Despite these concerns having been shared, includ-ing through the channel of Director Generals of Military Operations, the Pakistan forces have not ceased such activities, sources said. India and Pakistan had agreed to ceasefire along the LoC

and International Border (IB) in 2003. However, India alleges that Paki-stan has been continu-ally violating the terms of the understanding. The government also conveyed its strong con-cerns at the continued support being extended by the Pakistan forces for cross-border infiltration of terrorists, including through covering fire. Despite these concerns having been shared, including through the channel of Director Gen-erals of Military Opera-

tions, the Pakistan forces have not ceased such activities, sources said. Official sources said that the Ministry of External Affairs has registered its strong protest with Paki-stan for the continued unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC and the IB. The govern-ment also conveyed its strong concerns at the continued support being extended by the Pakistan forces for cross-border infiltration of terrorists, including.

Pak killed 14 Indians in ceasefire violations in last 6 months

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) At least five persons sus-tained bullet injuries in the national capital after gunmen opened fire in three separate incidents within 24 hours. One of the victims succumbed to the injuries while four are still battling for life in various hospitals.

In the first incident, two sisters were shot by two boys in South West Delhi's Kapashera on Thursday evening. The two girls aged 15 and 13 received bullet injuries

in the stomach and leg respectively. One of the boys was annoyed after the girl's family allegedly scrapped the engagement with him. It was then that he decided to barge into the house of the girl with his friend and shoot her. Both have been nabbed and the two girls are bat-tling for life in a hospital.

The second incident was reported from Delhi's Rohini where in an al-leged case of mistaken identity gunmen shot dead the son of a re-

tired Delhi police ASI on Thursday night. The de-ceased was identified as Nitin Dalal.

"Nitin Dalal, son of a retired Delhi police As-sistant Sub Inspector was shot dead by some unknown persons. They came in a Santro car. Ni-tin was driving his broth-er's car when he was attacked. Neeraj, elder brother of Nitin, is in the property business." said DCP Rohini PK Mishra.

Since Nitin was driving his brother's car the po-

lice suspect it might be a case of mistaken identity where the gunmen mis-took Nitin for his brother Neeraj. In the third case of shooting reported on Friday morning, three to four men entered B Block of Nand Nagri in North East Delhi at around 11.45 a.m. and fired at a 42 year old businessman who has been identified as Naresh. Another man Pramod who was also standing in the lane received a bullet injury in the firing. Both are admitted in a hospital.

In 24 hours, 5 shot in the national capital, one succumbs to injuries

New Delhi, July 3: (IANS) The Indian Air Force has indigenously designed and developed an pesticide spraying tool for Mi-17 choppers -- the Airborne Locust Control System (ALCS) -- to save the country from locust attacks. "The Chandigarh Base Repair Depot indig-enously designed and de-veloped the ALCS for Mi-17 helicopters," said a top Air Force officer.

Anticipating repeated locust attacks in various states across the coun-try, the Indian Agricul-tural Ministry had signed a contract with an UK based company in May

2000 to modify two Indian Air Force Mi-17 choppers for spraying atomised pesticide to arrest locust breeding.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK based firm was unable to manu-facture and supply the modification kit to the IAF before September 2020 for system integra-tion and testing.

Seeing the delay and an unprecedented locust at-tack across states, the IAF decided to develop the pesticide spraying kit.

The IAF tasked the Base Repair Depot located in Chandigarh to undertake the challenging task of in-

digenously designing and developing the ALCS for Mi-17 helicopters.

The nozzles used for the purpose are a mix of commercially available nozzles as well as nozzles developed by the CSIO, Chandigarh.

The pesticide Mala-thion in appropriate con-centration will be filled in the internal auxiliary tank of 800 litre capacity fit-ted inside the helicopter and will be pumped into the nozzles by using an electrical pump as well as compressed air, achiev-ing nearly 40 minutes of spaying duration in the infected zones covering

an area of approximately 750 hectares in each mis-sion. A team of test pi-lots and test engineers of the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment, Bengaluru, has success-fully carried out ground and airborne trials, the force said. The system is being offered for use with Malathion for locust con-trol operations. Being an indigenously developed system, the ALCS would offer inherent advantages of in-house maintenance, future upgradeabil-ity, saving of foreign ex-change and help in mak-ing the country self reliant in aviation related.

IAF develops locust control system for Mi-17 choppers

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) After being grilled thrice in a week by the Enforce-ment Directorate person-nel over alleged links with the Sandesara group, pro-moters of Sterling Biotech, the Congress treasurer has hit back at the agency. Pa-tel in a tweet said, "Thank you officials of Director ED for coming to my house thrice." He added that "I answered each of their 128 questions but they failed to answer my one fundamen-tal question." He posed a query to the probe agency and asked "Who in the Gu-jarat state govt was respon-sible for bestowing multi-ple benefits, privileges and honours on the Sandesara group?" Earlier on Thurs-day after hours of grilling by the Enforcement Director-ate personnel on links with the fugitive Sterling Biotech promoters, Congress trea-surer Ahmed Patel said the financial probe agency is working under some pres-sure as no proof has been

found against him despite answering 128 questions. This is the third time the ED questioned Patel under the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA), 2002. Earlier he was first ques-tioned on June 27 and then on June 30. "I was asked 128 questions based on al-legations but yet no proof was found against me. The agency was satisfied by my replies but the questioning is a result of political ven-detta. I don't know under whose pressure they are working," Patel told me-diapersons. Patel said he is ready to answer more ques-tions. While the Congress has also defended the party treasurer, party spokesper-son Abhishek Singhvi said on Thursday that the BJP is not able to digest the defeat it suffered in 2017 at the hands of Patel. Frustration and political vendetta is writ large. It is a traceable direct link from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

3State

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Delhi Deputy Chief Minis-ter and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday launched a comprehensive e-learning portal called LEAD -- Learning through E-Resourc-es Made Accessible for Delhi -- which has more than 10,000 instructional materials and course content for Classes I to XII. Through LEAD, students will have access to textbooks, study material and course content as per the syllabus of the CBSE, NCERT and the Delhi government's curricu-

lum. This will include digital QR coded textbooks, learning outcome, explanatory videos, practice questions and evalu-ation process.

Sisodia said that through LEAD, the Delhi government is sharing its teaching-learn-ing material on the digital platform, DIKSHA.

"It is a way for us to connect and share our programmes and experiences with the en-tire country. The online portal will also enable us to learn from the teaching-learning experiments and experiences

of other states. It is going to be a mutual sharing and en-lightening experience for all," said Sisodia. The minister also said that during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a huge number of students and their parents have shown great in-terest in online learning. This has raised the team's confi-dence that children will take advantage of e-learning re-sources available on the LEAD portal.

"Education has been the top priority of the Delhi gov-ernment and I am proud that

we are taking steps in the right direction. Teachers should always strive to constantly improve and update the con-tent as per the needs of their students," said Sisodia. In the last five years, the education team of Delhi government has worked towards reform-ing the education system in the national capital by taking steps to provide quality edu-cation to each child, he said, alluding to the Happiness Curriculum, Mission Buni-yaad and Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) He has always believed that a specific geographical location may not contain the identity we possess, despite the fact that we 'belong' there. No wonder, New-Delhi based multimedia artist Gigi Scaria has always considered himself a perpetual outsider.

"Our identity as individuals has a collective sense of be-longing. Yes, that realisation may not hit early on, but all the travelling and displace-ment for reasons beyond our control eventually assert that we are not stand-alone enti-ties."

Adding that differences of cultural, economic, religious and hierarchical positions have a huge role to play, but all these factors restructure to create an alternate self with mobility of its own, he says, "This self might reorient itself after a certain lived experi-ence."

Gigi, whose practice mani-fests in painting, sculpture, photography and film, is known for highlighting the economic, urban and indus-trial growth of Indian cities.

The artist, whose work has been part of major biennales across the world including Venice, Singapore and Kochi believes that he has always been a curious observer of cul-tural and religious exchanges in this country.

And for him, history, an-thropology and philosophi-cal/ theoretical discourses of contemporary times never fail to fascinate. "An urban settle-ment in my mind is a laborato-ry to observe all these different areas of interest. Environmen-tal concerns hit me ever since I experienced the river Ya-muna in Delhi. And I believe in the ability and power of a visual, which can transform our thoughts by its sheer pres-ence. My attempt is to take the viewer through a multi-layered conceptual under-standing when they look at my artwork. I would say migration is the root of our civilizational existence. If we have to talk about ourselves we must tell the story of our journey."

With his painting titled 'Car-pet', being shown at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi as part of the show 'A Mind of One's

Own' (on till July 19), which shows an apartment building in the form of a carpet, the art-ist adds, "This is a fusion of two thoughts, my interest in archi-tectural spaces and the illogi-cal habitats built by the urban logic. A carpet welcomes you to the madness of this urban logic, where your existence is permanently in the state of dizzy." "Remember, the mi-grant labour was not nostalgic, it was not that they felt safer back in their home towns or villages. Just that they were re-minded by their own masters and the state, that they have no role to play when the state machine is temporarily shut down -- 'We are not respon-sible for your existence'. Yes, the state can be indifferent to its own citizens in crisis. This may give us enough thoughts to evaluate the idea of identity and belonging. Migrant labour has become a 'universal' citi-zen in the most tragic way." Having recently completed a new work to be exhibited in South Korea this month, the artist is also working on sever-al film projects. For someone who started working in video

art in early 2000's, when it was still at a nascent stage in India, Gigi, who has been an artist-in-residence at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the Univer-sity of Melbourne (2012) says that the moment he started with video, he did not paint or sculpt for five years.

"I experienced a certain freedom. My thought pro-cesses also started changing drastically. I was handling the camera, editing, sound and all the preparations for shooting on my own. Certainly, that was an empowering experience, which also led towards some unexpected outcomes."

Adding that there were many challenges in terms of a video art practitioner includ-ing understanding the medi-um as well as presenting that to an audience who is not ex-posed to a different discourse being a struggle, he says, "I feel that video has the abil-ity to transform our day-to-day documentation to a time capsule. Multiple dimensions and complex ideas can be ex-pressed through this medium very effectively."

While talking about his work

'Expanded' that had photo-graphs of refugee camps from around the world, the conver-sation comes to the images of migrant workers walking home post the lockdown an-nouncement. Insisting that it was a forced evacuation ow-ing to urban apathy, the art-ist, admitting that he enjoys human interaction more than his "creative loneliness", adds, "Remember, the migrant la-bour was not nostalgic, it was not that they felt safer back in their home towns or villages. Just that they were reminded by their own masters and the state, that they have no role to play when the state machine is temporarily shut down -- 'We are not responsible for your existence'. Yes, the state can be indifferent to its own citi-zens in crisis. This may give us enough thoughts to evaluate the idea of identity and be-longing. Migrant labour has become a 'universal' citizen in the most tragic way." Hav-ing recently completed a new work to be exhibited in South Korea this month, the artist is also working on several film projects.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The ruling party and the opposition have been at loggerheads ever since the central government ordered Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gan-dhi Vadra to vacate the government bungalow al-lotted to her in New Delhi. The Congress is accusing the government of adopt-ing double standards with regard to the Gandhi fam-ily. In such a situation, the government has issued a clarification.

The government said that on the basis of the Public Premises Amend-ment Bill 2019, Priyanka has been ordered to va-cate the government bun-galow. This amended law

came into force in Sep-tember 2019.

It has also been said by the government that ac-commodation is provided for a specified period to those who are in public service. According to this

rule, government accom-modation cannot be al-lotted on the basis of se-curity other than to those who are SPG protected. Priyanka had been get-ting SPG protection since 1997, so she was allotted

government accommoda-tion. But now she is not getting SPG protection.

On giving government accommodation to senior BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Mano-har Joshi, the Centre has said that the Cabinet Committee on Accommo-dation has decided to give Advani and Joshi govern-ment accommodation as an exception based on se-curity threat perception. Based on this rule, Advani can live in a government bungalow for his lifetime, while Joshi is entitled to a government bungalow till June 25, 2022.

Advani and Joshi have got government accom-modation on the instruc-

tions of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the ba-sis of threat perception. Both of them also have Z-plus security. The Ur-ban Housing Ministry has asked Priyanka to vacate the Lodhi Road govern-ment bungalow within a month or by August 1. Besides, she has also been asked to pay the outstand-ing rent of Rs 3.46 lakh for the bungalow. The Minis-try has said in the notice that due to withdrawal of SPG security, she can-not live in a government bungalow now as per the rule. In an official release, the Ministry has said that if she does not vacate the bungalow in a month, she will have to pay a fine.

Advani-Joshi allotted bungalows on security grounds: Govt

Delhi govt launches e-learning portal for school children

Indian Horizon Saturday, July 4, 2020

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it has accepted the international tribunal award in the killing of two India fisher-men by Italian marines and asked it to close the matter pending before it for eight years. The tribunal ruled for the trial of marines in Italy, while holding India is entitled to payment of com-pensation in connection with loss of life, physical harm, material damage to property and moral harm suffered by the captain and other crew members of fishing vessel 'St. Antony'.

The Centre, in the application filed in the top court, said: "The applicant (Union of India) states and submits that the Republic of India has taken a deci-sion to accept and abide by the Award passed by the Tribunal which would have the bearing on the continuance of present proceedings before this court."

In March 2017, the apex court had passed an order where it directed the parties to place on record the award passed by the Arbitral Tribunal consti-tuted under the United Nations Con-vention on the Law of the Sea (UN-CLOS). The Centre submitted that on August 24, 2015, the International Tri-bunal on Law of the Sea (ITLOS), on the request of Italy, rendered an order pre-scribing provisional measures, which stated that Italy and India shall both suspend all court proceedings.

On August 26, 2015, the apex court, in view of the pendency of the issue before ITLOS, stayed the proceedings pending before it and before any other court.

"The Tribunal upheld the conduct of Indian authorities with respect to the incident and highlighted the material and moral harm suffered by the Indian fishermen on board the St. Antony on 15 February 2012. It held that the ac-tions of the Italian Marines breached India's freedom and right of navigation under UNCLOS Article 87(1)(a) and 90," said the Centre, citing salient fea-tures of the award.

However, the international tribunal found that the immunities enjoyed by the marines operate as an exception to the jurisdiction of the Indian courts and, hence, preclude India from exer-cising its jurisdiction over them.

It also rejected Italy's claim to com-pensation for the detention of the marines. "India being a party to the UNCLOS, in accordance with the pro-visions of the UNCLOS and the Rules of Procedure agreed by the Parties, the Award is final and without ap-peal and shall be complied with by the parties to the dispute (Article 11, Annex VII, UNCLOS)", said the Cen-tre's application, placing the award on record before the apex court. On February 15, 2012, two Indian fisher-men aboard the Indian fishing vessel, St. Antony, were allegedly killed by two Italian marines aboard the Italian tanker 'Enrica Lexie' off the coast of Kerala. The Indian Navy intercepted the Italian tanker and detained the two marines, triggering an interna-tional conflict over legal jurisdiction and functional immunity.

After Surjewala's 'Tughlaki Farman' barb, Railways clarifies

Accepted int'l award in Italian marines case, end

proceedings, SC told

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Af-ter Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala tried to take a dig at the Centre by tweeting a Railway Board notification on 'review on policy on creation of posts', the Indian Railways has clarified. It said that it will not surrender any safety category posts required for train opera-tions & maintenance.

"Surrendering of non-func-tional, non-safety vacant posts would help in creating ad-ditional safety posts for new Railway Infrastructure Proj-ects being developed at fast speed," it said. The Railways

added that modern technol-ogy has resulted in needs aris-ing in many new areas, thereby reorientation and reposition-ing of resources is an impera-tive. It cleared the air about recruitment stating, "All on-going recruitment drives for

various categories of posts will continue as usual. No net job reduction in railways." Earlier in the day, the Congress leader targeted the Centre alleging, "This is the "Tughlaki Farman" of the Modi government.1. 50% of railway posts are over. 2.

Home and a question mark Ahmed Patel asks ED, who in Gujarat Govt gave

benefits to Sandesara

New York, July 3 (IANS) Want to get married at a very young age? Kindly take note. Researchers have found that early marriage may lead to un-safe drinking behaviour in young adults with a higher genetic predisposition.

A genetic predisposition (sometimes also called ge-

netic susceptibility) is an increased likelihood of de-veloping a particular dis-ease based on a person's genetic makeup. The cur-rent findings, published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, fol-low previous research that found marriage protects against risky alcohol use

and moderates genetic influences on alcohol out-comes. But previous stud-ies generally focused on older adult samples.

"We found that mar-riage was not uniformly protective against alcohol misuse. In fact, we found that early marriage (i.e., by age 21) seemed to ex-

acerbate risk for alcohol use among individuals with a higher genetic pre-disposition," said study author Rebecca Smith from the Virginia Com-monwealth University in the US. "Thus, early mar-riage does not have the same protective benefit in terms of attenuating

genetic predispositions that have been observed for marriage later in adult-hood," Smith added. The study involved a sample of 937 individuals in a datas-et of people who reported heavy episodic drinking and marital status be-tween ages 21 and 25. The findings showed .

Study reveals why early marriage unsafe for young adults

SOUTH Indian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 20204

K’taka allows home isolation for select corona positive casesBengaluru, July 3 (IANS) Karna-

taka government is allowing select asymptomatic and mildly symp-tomatic Covid-19 patients to re-cuperate at home as part of home isolation guidelines, an official said on Friday.

“Only those who are asymptom-atic or mildly symptomatic shall be allowed to be in isolation at home,” said a health official, high-lighting that such patients should be properly oriented on home iso-lation.

However, before home isola-tion, a health team will visit the patient’s house and assess its suit-ability for executing home isola-tion.

Similarly, the patient should be provided with a tele-consultation

link for initial triage, daily follow up and during the entire home isolation time. For a daily up-date, the patient isolated at home should give a report on his health status to the physician or health authorities.

“The home isolation shall be with the knowledge of the fam-ily members, neighbours, treating physician and local health author-ities,” said the official. Though home isolation is allowed, it is not a blanket permission for all asymptomatic and mildly symp-tomatic cases in Karnataka to avail. “Such cases should have the requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation and also for quar-antining the family contacts. A care giver should be available to

provide care on 24x7 basis,” said the official. Likewise, the caregiver should also have a regular com-munication link between him and the hospital during the home iso-lation.

No patient above 50 years will be allowed to avail home isolation.

“If the patient has the follow-ing comorbidities: hyperten-sion, diabetes, obesity, thyroid

disease, they shall be well managed and under good clinical control as assessed by medical officer,” he said.

However, patients with comorbidities such as kidney dis-eases, dialysis, heart

diseases, stroke, tuberculosis, cancer and HIV cannot avail home isolation.

Likewise, immunity compro-mised patients and those on ste-roids also cannot be on home iso-lation.

Though pregnant women are not allowed to avail this facility, lactating women are allowed after due instruction and assessment.

Cong in Kerala accuses Modi Govt of playing foul in Italian marines caseThiruvananthapuram, July

3 (IANS) State Congress pres-ident Mullapally Ramachan-dran on Friday accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government of foul play over the way the inde-pendent court of the United Nations came out with its judgment in the case of two Indian fishermen who were allegedly shot dead by two Italian marines who were on board the Italian tanker ‘Enrica Lexie’ off the coast of Kerala.

The Congress party has said that the case was seen only under the rules of navi-gation , while the criminal case was not looked into and this is a huge lapse on the part of the Modi govern-ment.

The incident took place on February 15, 2012. The Indi-an Navy intercepted the Ital-ian tanker and detained the

two marines, triggering an international conflict over legal jurisdiction and func-tional immunity.

The two marines were re-leased and returned to Italy after two and four years, re-spectively. The Arbitral Tri-bunal of the United Nations was tasked to resolve the conflict over jurisdiction.

Ramachandran in a state-ment wondered why this particular judgement sur-

faced only after a month since it was announced.

“This delay is purposefully done to escape the ire of the people and is also against the directive of the Supreme Court. The then UPA gov-ernment and also then Ker-ala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy did their best to en-sure justice for the victims. But ever since Modi took over the reins, things went in the wrong direction as he

and the Italian government had a secret understanding,” said Ramachandran.

Chandy reacted sharply by saying that justice has been denied to the two fishermen.

“The strong position taken by my government and the Centre led by Manmohan Singh enabled the positive judgement from the apex court of our country and the Italian marines did not get any respite in the criminal case. But it was after Modi took over things started to go in favour of the Italians. None will forget the canards then spread against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on this issue. We demand that India should go in for an appeal against this verdict,” said Chandy and asked the Pinarayi Vijayan government to put maximum pressure on the Modi government to go in for an appeal.

Goa Police mulling online registration of complaints

3rd railway coaching terminal commissioned in Bengaluru

Transgenders to get Madhu Babu Pension in OdishaGoa body opposes cutting of 50,000 trees for central projects

Panaji, July 3 (IANS) Goa Police is considering the options of complaint boxes or online registra-tion of complaints by the public in view of restric-tions forced by the coro-navirus pandemic, new-ly-appointed state DGP Mukesh Kumar Meena said on Friday.

Addressing a press con-ference shortly after taking charge as the Goa Director General of Police, Meena said that he was in touch with police in Delhi and

other states to put in place a mechanism to insulate Goa Police personnel from corona infections.

“The entry to police sta-tions will be restricted to some extent. The com-plaint system will also be improved. We will ei-ther allow complaints to be dropped into a box or through online system,” Meena said.

“We are looking for minimum interaction, but police will have to do their duty in the containment

zones, inter-state border, crowded places, airport, railway stations, every-where. We are working on precautions which need to be taken,” the DGP said.

Asked about the 20-odd Goa police personnel in-fected by the virus over the last few days, Meena said: “I’ve asked my offi-cials to analyse each and every case first, and find the origin of infection; and accordingly, further briefing will be given to the staff,” Meena said.

Panaji, July 3 (IANS) The up-coming 11-day Goa Assembly session has been curtailed to a one-day event, in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cas-es in the state, Speaker Rajesh Patnekar said on Friday.

Leader of Opposition Digam-bar Kamat said on Friday, after an all-party meeting chaired by Patnekar at the state legislative Assembly complex, also said that some legislators had de-manded organising of a virtual session of the state Assembly.

“The Covid-19 disease spread is increasing. The session we had decided on has now been curtailed after a unanimous decision by all MLAs...A longer

session will be held in Decem-ber instead,” Patnekar said.

Kamat said that the meeting called by the Speaker was an informal one to solicit views of the legislators on the duration of the session.

“Today’s meeting was an in-formal one called by the Speak-er. There were discussions on various aspects taking into con-sideration the Covid-19 situa-tion. One suggestion is that the Assembly session should be limited to one day for passing of vote on accounts,” Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told reporters, after emerging from the meeting with other MLAs.

Kamat also said that in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state budget which was pre-sented some months back by Sawant “had no meaning” and there was no point in discuss-ing the financial paper now.

“The budget has no mean-ing. It will have to be reset. All these aspects will be dis-cussed in upcoming (legisla-tive) Business Advisory Com-mittee meeting. The Speaker has also said that information about how states are manag-ing state Assembly sessions in other states like Maharashtra and Delhi will be sought, be-fore the BAC meeting,” Ka-mat said.

Kamat said that the Speaker as well as other MLAs discussed the risks of holding a prolonged assembly session, at a time when Covid-19 cases were ris-ing with a record 90 plus cases reported on Thursday.

“Apart from MLAs, there are hundreds of persons who are present during an Assembly session including civil officers, policemen, Assembly staff,” the Leader of Opposition said.

“There is the air conditioning factor, the rainy season. Cases are increasing on the outside. The Speaker has said let us have a one-day session and then a full-fledged session at a later date,” Kamat said.

Bengaluru, July 3 (IANS) As many as 27 women have been rescued from a brothel in the city in a Central Crime Branch police raid on Thursday night, an official said on Friday.

“On Thursday night CCB women’s wing lead by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mudvi and team detected a prostitution racket and raided a big brothel house,” told CCB Deputy Com-missioner of Police (DCP) Kuldeep Jain to IANS. Among the rescued women,

Jain said there were nine each from Ne-pal and Punjab, four from Delhi, two from Maharashtra and one each from Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal and Ut-tar Pradesh.

“Main pimp Yogesh from Rajasthan and two others have also been arrest-ed,” said Jain.

Yogesh was operating the brothel with women predominantly from northern states within Puttenahalli police station limits in the city.

Bhubaneswar, July 3 (IANS) Odisha has reported 561 COVID-19 positive cases, highest single-day spike in last 24 hours, and two death cases due to the virus, in-formed the health department on Friday.

The death toll due to COVID-19 increased to 29 while the total number of positive cas-es rose to 8,106 in the state.

The two deaths cases were reported from Ganjam district.

“Regret to report the demise of two CO-VID positive cases. A 66-year-old Male of Ganjam district, who was also a known case of Hypertension. A 40-year-old Male of Ganjam district who was also suffering

from Diabetes,” tweeted the department.Out of the 516 fresh cases, 425 cases were

reported from quarantine centres and 136 are local cases.

Ganjam reported 283 positive cases fol-lowed by Cuttack with 81 positives, Raya-gada with 76 cases and Khordha 26. Among others, one NDRF jawan was also found COVID-19 positive.

Out of 81 positive cases in Cuttack, 66 cases were detected from two hospitals. While 55 people were detected in Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC), 11 cases were reported from SCB Medical College and Hospital, informed an official.

Panaji, July 3 (IANS) Goa’s travel and tourism industry stakeholders have oppposed the proposed felling of nearly 50,000 trees in two protected forests areas in the state to make way for three central projects. They pointed out that the move would cause environmental degradation and dampen the prospects of eco-tourism in the

state, which attracted nearly eight million tourists last year.

In a letter to Union Ministers for Environment and Forests and Tour-ism Prakash Javadekar and Prahlad Patel (MoS), the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa urged the duo to reconsider the cumulative impact assessment and rationale of the proj-ects before going ahead with three major projects. “... we would like to

express our concern about the diver-sion of forest land within and around the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanc-tuary and Mollem National Park, both prime locations of hinterland and nature-based tourism. We urge you to consider the intersections be-tween environmental degradation and the future of Goa’s tourism sec-tor which is at a crucial juncture,” the letter to Javadekar stated.

“The 2019-2020 tourist season began with unseasonal weather and tropical storms and is now facing the Covid-19 pandemic. This pushes us to strengthen nat-ural capital and ecosystem resil-ience to strengthen the future of tourism in Goa,” the letter added. Nearly 50,000 trees located in the Western Ghats aera of Goa are slated to be felled for multiple cen-

tral government projects, includ-ing expansion of railway network and highways and drawing a new high-tension power cable, spread across 185 hectares of forested land, several chunks of which are located in the state’s numerous wildlife reserves.

The projects have already been cleared by the National Wildlife Board in April this year.

The Association has also ex-pressed concern over the “im-pact that these three projects will have on the tourism industry”. “We would like an impact assess-ment on the damage done to the protected areas and surrounding forests versus what the connec-tivity benefits are for the tour-ism industry, residents and other stakeholders,” the body said.

Bengaluru, July 3 (IANS) The South Western Railway (SWR) has commis-sioned the Rs 240 crore third coach-ing terminal at Baiyyappanahalli in the city’s eastern suburb for starting passengers trains, an official said on Thursday.

“The third terminal will decongest the main station in the city centre and the Yesvantpur station in the north-ern suburb, as many passenger trains will be operated from Baiyappana-halli station,” the Bengaluru division official told IANS here.

With increasing number of trains from all routes arriving or departing at

short intervals, especially during the morning and night peak hours, plat-forms at the first two terminals have been unable to regulate their move-ments.

“Though all passengers trains have been suspended since the Covid-induced lockdown was enforced on March 25 and was extended further, testing of the yard was completed in the absence of traffic on the tracks,” the official said.

The centrally air-conditioned third terminal will enable the zonal railway to operate more trains to Chennai and Mumbai regions from October 30.

Bhubaneswar, July 3 (IANS) The Odisha government has decided to include the trans-gender community under the social welfare scheme -- Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY), said a minister on Fri-day.

Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Minister Ashok Chan-dra Panda informed that the transgenders can apply for the pension on the website or via application forms. About 6,000 transgenders are likely to get benefit under the MBPY.

Pension ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 900 per month will be provided to them based on their age.

“In 2019 election manifesto, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had

promised to include the trans-gender community under the MBPY. Now, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal in this regard,” said Panda.

The Minister further said the MBPY beneficiaries will get another instalment of Rs 1,000 as financial assistance.

Around 48 lakh people of the state will get benefitted from the scheme.

Funds have already been al-located and the amount will be released soon, said the SSEPD Minister.

In view of the Covid-19 situ-ation, the state government has already allocated advance pension to the beneficiaries for four months -- April, May, June and July.

Bengaluru police rescue 27 women from brothel, 3 held

Odisha reports highest 1-day spike of 561 COVID-19 cases

Goa curtails Assembly meet; MLAs bat for virtual session

NationIndian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 2020 5

Kanpur bloodbath: 2 aides of gangster Dubey shot dead

Kanpur, July 3 (IANS) Two criminals, purportedly be-

longing to the Vikas Dubey gang that shot dead eight po-lice personnel early on Friday, have been shot dead by the police, hours after the incident.

A firearm that had been looted by the assailants from the police, has been recovered from them which substan-tiates the fact that they belonged to the Dubey gang. The encounter took place in Kanshi Ram Nivada village.

IG Kanpur Mohit Agarwal, who led the team, said that local people had identified the two as Prem Prakash and Atul Dubey.

He said that three more criminals were being tracked and would be arrested soon.

A massive search operation has been launched for Vikas Dubey and the police is also using electronic surveillance.

The police have recovered cartridges of AK-47 from the site of the incident.

4 policemen suspended after youth ends life in custody

Lucknow, July 3 (IANS) Four police personnel of the Gomti Nagar extension police station in Lucknow have been suspended following the death of a youth in custody.

The youth, police said, was brought to the police station on Friday morning in connection with a theft and he was later found hanging with a belt.

Police Commissioner in charge, Sanjay Singhal, has sus-pended an inspector and three other police personnel in this regard. He said that if found guilty after probe, a FIR would be lodged against them.

According to reports, the youth was caught by the care-taker when he tried to break into the house of a retired police official in the early hours of Friday and was later handed over to the police.

The youth, identified as Umesh, is a resident of Sitapur district. The body has been sent for the post-mortem.

35 acres of land allotted for buri-al of Covid victims in B’luru

Bengaluru, July 3 (IANS) The Karnataka government has set aside 35 acres of land to exclusively bury Covid victims from the city, following some people objecting to burials near their dwellings, an official said on Thursday.

Lands for burying Covid victims have been earmarked in Bengaluru North and Anekal and at four places each in Yelahanka. Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner G.N. Shivamurthy has issued the orders for the dedicated land and directed the respective tehsildars not to use those par-cels of land for any other purpose.

Following complaints from residents living near some burial grounds for burying Covid victims, Health Minister B. Sriramulu and Revenue Minister R. Ashoka had directed the officials to identify land for burial.

The Health Minister has also warned against irrespon-sible disposal of used personal protective equipment (PPE) kits. “Strict action will be taken against those people,” said Sriramulu, adding that innocent people should not be-come a victim of someone else’s negligence.

Bengaluru leads the southern state’s Covid burden with 5,505 active cases.

CPI-M casts eye on Jose K. Mani, seeks party’s political stand

Thiruvananthapuram, July 3 (IANS) The CPI-M, which heads Kerala’s ruling LDF combine, on Friday asked Jose K. Mani, who heads a faction of the Kerala Congress-Mani, to spell out his party’s political stand.

After the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) decided to keep out Jose K. Mani’s faction out of the UDF meetings for defying its directive to vacate the President’s post in the Kottayam district panchayat, the Left Demo-cratic Front has its eye on the group.

The Kerala Congress- Mani comprises of two factions -- one presently led by Jose K. Mani and the other led by vet-eran legislator P.J. Joseph and practically for all purposes, they have been functioning as two different entities for the past one year. CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and LDF convenor A. Vijayaraghavan said that its is the Jose K. Mani faction which has roots and strength in the state.

Addressing the media on Friday soon after the CPI-M state secretariat meeting, Balakrishnan said the UDF is in shambles because of internal strife.

“Not long ago the LJD (party led by late M.P.Veerendra Kumar) was an ally of the UDF and now they are with us. Jose K. Mani is yet to spell out his political stand and once when he does that, we will take a call.... till this moment, he has not said anything, when he does, we will look into it,” he said .

However after Jose K. Mani’s exclusion from UDF, CPI state Secretary Kanam Rajendran, to repeated questions on whetherthe Jose K. Mani faction would be accom-modated in the LDF, shot it down, saying that they don’t require his help. Balakrishnan, asked about Rajendran’s views, said that every party is free to have their view.

“In the LDF, we take decisions after discussing things and at the moment, Jose K. Mani has not shown or ex-pressed any intent and hence at the moment, there is nothing on it,” he said.

All Nagaland declared ‘disturbed area’, AFSPA extended 6 mths

Mamata to prepare virtual blueprint for Martyr’s Day

Mumbai lashed by heavy rain, traffic hit

Pinarayi Vijayan has badly let down Kerala diaspora: Cong

Kerala baby thrown by father recovers, to be

discharged

Punjab to go for Covid-19 rapid antigen testing

Kohima, July 3 (IANS) The Union Home Ministry (MHA) has extended the Armed Forces (Special Pow-ers) Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland for another six months, offi-cials said here on Thursday.

According to an official of the Nagaland Home De-partment, the mountainous state, bordering Myanmar, has been under the AFSPA for the past several decades.

In a notification, Joint Sec-retary, MHA, Satyendra Garg said that the Central gov-ernment is of the opinion that the area comprising the whole of Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous

condition that the use of armed forces in aid of civil power is necessary.

“Now, therefore, in exer-cise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers)

Act, 1958 (No. 28 of 1958), the Central Government hereby declares that whole of the said state to be a ‘dis-turbed area’ for a period of six months with effect from June 30, 2020 for the

purpose of that Act,” said the notification, issued on Tuesday. The Nagaland gov-ernment official said that the state has been request-ing the Central government to resolve the long-ending Naga issues, involving the numerous outfits. The Na-tional Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), which had several rounds of negotiations with the Indian government in Delhi as well as outside India after signing a ceasefire pact in August 1997, is one of the most in-fluential rebel groups in the northeastern region.

The Bharatiya Janata Par-ty-led government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had signed a “frame-work agreement” with its leadership in 2015. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led

government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had signed a “framework agreement” with its leader-ship in 2015.

Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi is also the Centre’s in-terlocutor to hold talks with NSCN-IM and other Naga outfits. Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi is also the Centre’s interlocutor to hold talks with NSCN-IM and other Naga outfits.

Recently, Ravi had written to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on the “deterioration of law and order in the state”.

The Nagaland govern-ment, however, in a series of statements, claimed that the state is in a normal situ-ation. The Nagaland govern-ment, however, in a series of statements, claimed that the state is in a normal situation.

Kolkata, July 3 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee will hold a meeting with her party colleagues on Friday to decide on the campaign strategy of the Trinamool Congress for the annual showcase event of the party to ob-serve Martyr’s Day on July 21.

Banerjee had earlier said that this year’s Mar-tyr’s Day programme would be different in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and the sub-sequent restrictions on social gatherings across the country.

According to sources in the Trinamool Con-gress, the Chief Minis-ter would finalise the blueprint for the July 21 event in the ‘new nor-mala’ scenario.

This year’s Martyr’s Day would be crucial as the state is gearing up for the high-voltage As-sembly elections sched-uled in 2021.

“The Trinamool su-premo is likely to kick-start the party’s poll campaign this Mar-tyr’s Day. This year the chances of holding the event from a virtual platform is very high as

it’s not possible to hold a huge political gathering amid the coronavirus scare,” sources in the Trinamoool Congress said.

The state’s ruling Tinamool Congress ob-serve July 21 as Mar-tyr’s Day every year in remembrance of the 13 persons shot by the po-lice in Kolkata during a rally organised by the state Youth Congress under Mamata Baner-jee’s leadership in 1993, demanding that voter’s identity card be made the sole required docu-ment for casting votes.

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) In the current season’s first major downpour, rain lashed vast ar-eas of Konkan, including Mum-bai since early Friday morning, hitting road traffic movement in several parts of the city, offi-cials said. Heavy showers, often accompanied by thunder, were witnessed in Mumbai and the suburbs, besides Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhu-durg districts.

Most parts of south Mumbai re-ceived between 4 to 6cm of rain, resulting in waterlogging at some spots and hindering traffic flow, said the BMC Disaster Control. Flooding was reported in Cuffe Parade, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Chira Bazaar,

Masjid Bunder and surroundings.In the suburbs, waterlogging

was reported in Andheri forcing closure of the subway, and vehi-cle movement had slowed down in Borivali, Malad and Jogeshwari areas.

Though Mulund, Bhandup and Powai also received good rain, there were no reports of any dis-ruptions of normal life so far. The IMD Mumbai has forecast very heavy rain in Mumbai and Konk-an over the next 24 hours, with warning to people not to venture outdoors unless necessary.

The IMD has issued an Or-ange Alert for most of the coastal Konkan on Friday-Saturday-Sun-day, besides north and south Ma-harashtra.

Thiruvananthapuram, July 3 (IANS) Senior Congress Legislator and former State Minister for Di-aspora K. C.Joseph on Friday said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has badly let down the Kerala di-aspora on all fronts.

Joseph, who headed the dias-pora ministry for five years from 2011-16 told IANS that all what Vijayan has done is nothing but rhetoric and when the time came to really act, Vijayan has badly fal-tered, especially the way the dias-pora was being handled when the pandemic struck.

“A few days back Vijayan had announced a ‘Dream Kerala’ project for the returning diaspora. If one looks back, a few years ago Vijayan held the much publicised Loka Kerala Sabha ( LKS), first in 2018 and then its second edition earlier this year and the only thing that happened was a grandiose event, and nothing has happened after that,” said Joseph.

“During the Assembly session

held in May 2019, in reply to the question about the follow up of the first edition of the LKS, I had received a few replies. I was sur-prised in the latest ‘Dream Kerala’ project announced just a few days back, the same thing has been re-peated,” said 74-year-old Joseph, who has been representing the Irikkur Assembly constituency in the Kannur district since 1982.

Joseph pointed out that the Norka-Roots department, set up for the diaspora has been rel-egated to just a web portal and the only job they did during the pandemic time was to open a por-tal, where all our diaspora, who wished to return from abroad, had to register.

“Just look into the budget allo-cation for them. Though it’s about a few crores, still there was funds at their disposal which they could have used to provide subsidy to our people who had to return after they lost their jobs, to buy their tickets and even provide a

basic subsistence allowance. But nothing has been done and at one point, Vijayan even announced the diaspora might have to bear the expenses for their mandatory isolation, after they return,” add-ed Joseph.

From May 7 till Thursday, over 900 flights and three ships have brought over 1.50 lakh people from abroad. Chief Minister Vi-jayan himself has pointed out that 52 per cent of the diaspora return-ees have lost their jobs.

For close to four decades, the Kerala diaspora has been the mainstay of the state economy and the diaspora deposits in Kerala banks is around 1,69,944 crores.

‘Dream Kerala’ envisages projects to help rehabilitate the returning diaspora. For these, ideas are being sought and an expert committee will review the various ideas and those which are selected will be put for im-plementation.

Chandigarh, July 3 (IANS) Pun-jab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday gave the go-ahead for launching a pilot project for Covid-19 rapid antigen testing from the coming week, as well as e-registration for people entering the state to ensure strict monitoring of those coming from the high-risk NCR region.

On successful completion of the pilot rapid antigen project, which will cover a minimum of 1,000 tests, such testing would be done on the migrants coming back to the state in the wake of reopening

of industries and for work in the paddy fields. The state will procure rapid antigen testing kits to scale up its Covid testing capacity, which is even now higher than the Cen-tral government’s mandate of 140 tests per million per day in regions with positivity factor of less than 10 per cent.

With positivity rate of just two per cent, Punjab is already con-ducting 242 tests per million a day as part of its strategy to check fur-ther spread of the pandemic. Not-withstanding the Centre’s revised guidelines replacing home quar-

antine for domestic travellers with self-monitoring, the Chief Minister ruled out any such move in Punjab in view of the large number of peo-ple coming to the state every day from Delhi and the NCR, where cases were currently spiralling.

He also made it clear that no ve-hicle should be allowed to enter Punjab without a stringent moni-toring mechanism in place.

Amarinder Singh was review-ing the Covid situation and pre-paredness in the state with senior government and health officials, through video conference.

Kochi, July 3 (IANS) The two-month-old baby girl, who was flung away by her father last month, has recovered and will be discharged on Saturday, accord-ing to the doctors treating her.

The incident took place on June 17, when 40-year-old Shaiju Thomas, in-jured his 54-day-old daughter by hitting her on the head and flinging her on the bed.

The baby then went through anxious moments and a surgery was also per-formed on her injured head.

Following the improvement in her condition, the stitches on her head have now been removed. She has also been taken off from the support breathing system.

The doctors said that normal feeding by the mother has also resumed and will now be discharged on Saturday. The doctors said that normal feeding by the mother has also resumed and will now be discharged on Saturday.

In view of the wide media attention this incident received, the Kerala Wom-en’s Commission also got into the act and has now made all arrangements for the mother and the baby to be moved to a Children’s Home near here.

Thomas is presently in judicial cus-tody for the crime he committed.

Thomas, who hails from Kannur, was living with his Nepalese wife on rent in the Angamaly police station limits, near here.

After this incident, his wife said that once her child gets better she wishes to return to her country.

Thomas was said to be a drinker and had differences with his wife after she delivered the girl child.

It was only after a few rounds of ques-tioning that the truth surfaced about the baby girl being brutally hit by her own father, and that it was not a case of an accidental fall from the bed.

6 Edit indian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 2020

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

indian Horizon

Long opposed to wearing a face mask in public, President Trump has said ‘he is all for masks’, this on a day the US hit a record high of 52,000 coronavirus cases. The surge has been blamed on the ear-ly and rather carefree reopening, ignoring the warnings of public health experts. A serious rethink is on in several parts of the coun-try. Back home, Unlock 2.0 has re-sulted in the lifting of more restric-tions and allowing more public activity. India’s Covid-19 count is mounting by the day, not coming down. The government’s primary consideration apparently is ensur-ing a push to economic pursuits, anything that can ease the pain of the millions pushed to the brink. It cannot be faulted for adopting the strategy. There is no other option.

Business and trade have to and must continue, so should family events that may be difficult to put off, but without compromising on precautions and the established SOPs. Any lapse on this count is a recipe for disaster. The death of the groom, who had symptoms of the disease at the time of the wedding in Bihar, and over 100 guests testing positive is a tragic sequence of completely avoidable events. The stark negligence on display should serve as a remind-er. Self-restraint is a moral obliga-tion, adhering to rules a sovereign duty, for your own health and of everyone around. Life as we know it has decided to take a break, a long one. Respect the changed sit-uation. Normalcy will return, for sure, but in a new form. Respect that too. The onus lies squarely with each and everyone.

The period since mid-March has been particularly tough for those entrusted with the task of gover-nance and physical and mental well-being. There is little likeli-hood of any reduction of the daily grind. Where we can help is by simply following what we have been asked to do: take precau-tions. And, crucially, to not make the pandemic an excuse to do what is not right, what is inhuman and undignified.

By Subir RoyThe decision to bring all urban

and multi-state cooperative banks — effectively the big ones — under the direct supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should have been taken long ago. Its aim is to se-cure the interests of depositors who currently number 86 million and have a massive Rs 4.8 lakh crore — 2.5 per cent of GDP — of their mon-ey in these banks.

The cooperative movement in In-dia, under which these banks have come up, dates back to the early twentieth century. It was meant to offer both short-and long-term credit — mostly in rural areas — to those at the bottom of the pyramid. As these are cooperatives, they are owners and also the customers. The fact that moneylenders still abound, both in rural areas and urban slums, indicates that the cooperative move-ment has not delivered all that it was expected to.

The immediate trigger is the trou-ble that the Punjab and Maharash-tra Cooperative Bank (PMC) got into last year which led to its board being superseded and a moratorium on withdrawals imposed. The deposit-ing public has had to live with the periodic high-profile failure of the cooperative banks that goes back three decades. Harshad Mehta and Hiten Dalal sank the Mumbai-based Mercantile Cooperative Bank in 1991 and Ketan Parekh did the same with the Ahmedabad-based Mad-

havpura Cooperative Bank in 2001. In the PMC Bank, over 70 per cent of the loans went to a single borrower, HDIL, which defaulted.

The government’s action puts these cooperative banks on a par with the scheduled commercial banks, that is regular banks whose branches you see everywhere. The main problem with ensuring that cooperative banks of any size were run in a responsible manner was that they till now came under dual control: the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in the states and the Cen-tre and the RBI.

While the RBI’s remit was to en-sure that the banking operations were conducted in a sound manner, the Registrar of Cooperative Societ-ies oversaw the process by which members of the cooperative insti-tutions, in these cases the banks, selected the directors who ran the bank and also supervised its audit.

Few members of large cooperative banks come to vote at annual gen-eral meetings and these banks have come to be run by small groups, who in turn, have obliged a few powerful borrowers. This compromised the quality of governance in such banks. And when one of these powerful large borrowers got into trouble, they defaulted at the cooperative bank and jeopardised its future, put-ting a question mark over the fate of deposits at the bank.

The cooperative credit societ-ies came into being when a small

and homogeneous group of people got to pool their savings and lend among themselves. But the self-help and cooperative nature of the whole exercise declined when organisa-tions became big and impersonal.

Today, the whole idea of coop-eration has passed its time. Over the years, new institutional structures have come up in the space that was originally set aside for the coopera-tives. Now, there is an entire hierar-chy of institutions that take care of the small savings of small people. Right at the bottom are the self-help groups, often linked to banks, which muster their members’ savings and create the ability for them to borrow.

Alongside, there is the pyramid of microfinance institutions (MFI) which are in the same business of lending to those at the bottom of the pyramid. Over time, the biggest ones among them have come under the supervision of the RBI by registering as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and the most solid among them have been allowed to become small finance banks. And right at the apex is the Bandhan Bank, a for-mer MFI which is now a full-fledged scheduled commercial bank.

The whole idea of a cooperation — a group pooling its resources to accommodate members — has de-clined and the individual is seen as an economic agent in a market-driv-en neo-liberal setup. Given the way the world has moved, large coopera-tive banks have been given by the

RBI the option to turn themselves into small finance banks, but they have shown little interest.

Over the decades, the RBI has mooted several innovations for large cooperative banks. The most distinctive is the creation of an ad-ditional layer— a board of man-agement of fit and proper persons, other than the board of directors, in actual control of operations. But this has not happened and crises still take place.

Ending the duality of the past and putting large cooperative banks fully under the supervision of the RBI is an improvement on the past, but the question is whether the RBI has the time or the human resources to take on this additional burden of over-seeing a large number of institutions spread across the country.

In the case of scheduled commer-cial banks, the RBI has been faulted for stepping in too late, as with Yes Bank. The RBI has been found not to have had its ear to the ground sufficiently when it comes to the operatives in the country’s main fi-nancial centres so that it can spot dark clouds before they are fully visible to all. Now, it will have to be tuned into the financial space across the country since as many as 1,540 cooperative banks will come under its supervision — in contrast, there are 32 scheduled commercial banks, with 12 belonging to the public sec-tor. That is a tall order!

IANS

Will cooperative banks overstretch RBI?

By RajivlochanOn June 26, US President Don-

ald Trump signed an executive order which ensures that future hiring for the government in America would prefer people with skills rather than degrees. This just might be the first concrete step taken in the direction of reducing the importance of useless degrees that have fuelled a market boom in formal educa-tion.

Come to think of it, in India, while the real price of every other economic good — TV, cellphones, cars, comput-ers, shirts, pizzas — has come down dra-matically in the past twenty years, the cost of education has only gone up. Tu-ition has increased more than five times. Books have become equally costlier. To justify such high costs, formal education has become more focused on providing frills to the students, including online learning. Schools and colleges advertise their horse riding and swimming facili-ties rather than their scholastic achieve-ments, to attract fresh students.

The government in India does its bit for ensuring a privileged status to higher education by insisting on hiring its top officers only from among degree hold-ers who have gone through a scholastic test and evaluated by retired professors who have always led a cloistered exis-tence. No experience or ability in the field, for example, can get a constable moved to the officer cadre in the po-lice forces unless they pass a scholastic exam which asks questions like: why did the Harappan civilisation decline? No

rifleman in India can become an officer unless he clears an analogous academic test. It is another matter that every Chief Constable or equivalent in the UK or US starts as a constable and every Chief of the Army Staff in Israel begins his service as a rifleman.

The intelligent within society create the ground to justify the uselessly ‘de-greed’ by insisting that the proper task of education is not to provide skills but a degree. As if having a degree makes a person somewhat superior to those who merely work. The situation has be-come so bad that even the young of In-dia seem to have internalised a culture of non-work. In a case of which I have personal knowledge, two students ran away from their internship. This was from a top-ranking university which worked hard to set up partnerships with industry but, which shall remain un-named, for reasons of my security. Their employers complained to the head of the department and promised never to take any more students for internship or employment. “They were making us work,” the runaway students told the official inquiry committee, expecting a sympathetic response. And, they were absolved. Then there was this student, duly degreed, who left three permanent positions in different colleges for the same reason. “They make me work,” he explained to me. “They have no respect for intellectuals,” was his added grouse.

The fact is that the shoddiness of education is the most dangerous problem facing India today. Shoddi-

ness in education poses a threat to our democracy, creates the ground for people to accept the equivalent of snake oil, magnetic cure and magical remedies as the solution for our eco-nomic, social and political ills. The Covid pandemic, the border crisis with China and Pakistan, in contrast are child’s play. The pandemic will even-tually subside; the border crisis will re-solve itself. The increasing uselessness of the Indian system of education will remain unless we use the opportunity given to us by the forced closure of the educational system of India to force a massive upgrading of the scholastic standards of our schools and colleges.

A little less than one year is all we have got. After that, the pressure for resum-ing normalcy will become too great to bring about any change and we will go back to reproducing a self-consuming shoddiness. Our teachers will continue to be good only for Census operations and elections; gross enrolment ratios will shoot up even as our faculty and researchers produce a lot of glop in the form of PhDs and irreproducible and unusable academic papers. Already, in 2018-19, millions of Indian students wanting to escape mind-numbing me-diocrity, had gone out of the country, taking with them, according to the RBI and MEA data, about $7 billion. This is about a quarter of the total amount of money spent by various governments in India to fund all education.

The greatest problem today is that we have allowed scholastic standards to

slide to disgraceful levels. ‘Our students don’t know how to comprehend Eng-lish’ is a common excuse. The fact is that our students are poor in comprehend-ing any piece of knowledge, in any lan-guage. ‘Our education system is geared towards ensuring social justice and not scholastic standards’ is another com-mon excuse which tries to lay the bur-den of scholastic performance on those who come through the quota system. The fact is that an outcome survey by the University of Stanford for the AICTE and the Government in India in 2017-18, in-dicated that those from quotas showed the greatest improvement in learning. Kamlesh Narwana’s excellent survey of outcomes in a small town in Punjab in 2018-19, too indicates that college stu-dents from the reserved category far out-shine their peers despite being forced to work while studying.

The most popular of all excuses is the absence of government funding. What I would like to point out is that funding higher education is not a problem any-more, the stranglehold of bureaucracies is. The MHRD controls the UGC, AICTE etc. These, in turn, control the universi-ties which control the colleges, which in turn control the teachers, who in turn control nothing — neither the content of what they teach, nor the manner in which they can evaluate their own stu-dents. The emasculation of the teacher is complete. It is responsible for the massive scholastic decay in the educa-tional system.

IANS

Scholastic standards need a massive upgrade

By Lt Gen KJ Singh (retd)Satellite imagery has picked up a

buildup of Chinese armour — medi-um and light tanks — in proximity to the Line of Actual Control (LAC). It is the operationalisation of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) concept, practised in mechanised exercises, in recent years. Manoeuvres have in-cluded a heavy drop of armoured vehi-cles, simulating the capture of passes. There are reports that the 6 Mecha-nised Division has deployed assorted AFVs (armoured fighting vehicles) — medium and light tanks — to leverage their coercive messaging potential, as part of psychological warfare.

At the outset, it will be appropriate to categorically state that India has adequate forces in a prepared and trained state, not only to take care of the threat but even cause criticalities for the Chinese. However, the PLA has more versatility in its fleet with the introduction of light tank, ZTQ, first fielded during the Doklam crisis. Our BMP-2s and ICVs (infantry combat vehicles) can be adapted to a limited extent for relevant tasks.

In the past few weeks, transport aircraft have been making repeated sorties to shore up our mechanised deployment in Ladakh. What is indeed baffling is that there have been discus-sions, questioning the very relevance

of mechanised forces. The unfortu-nate truth is that it has become almost a compulsive habit to occasionally tin-ker with our force mix. Mercifully, a cri-sis jolts us out of such forays. It is also relevant that articles have appeared in magazines, in support of this exercise, sounding the death knell of tanks and calling for major cuts in inventory. Like the proverbial cat with nine lives, tanks have not only survived, but have a bat-tle-winning presence, generating de-terrence and psychological pressure, as is being felt in Ladakh.

The fielding of light tanks across the Zoji La pass in 1947 operations, Chushul in 1962 and PT-76 tanks of the 63rd Cavalry racing to Dhaka, are abiding examples of their relevance, provided commanders employ them boldly with imagination. Our ar-moured cars were in the vanguard in the Katanga (Congo) UN peace-keep-ing operations in the 1960s and later in counter-insurgency operations in the North-East. Tank battles of Asal Uttar, Basantar and Chawinda in 1965 and 1971 operations are proof of their potential.

One of the widely proliferated im-ages of the ongoing standoff has been the Chinese Humvee type of patrol cars. Yet, we have chosen to eliminate light tanks and armoured cars, part of most modern armies, from our arse-

nal, citing a host of reasons. The pri-mary justification has been budgetary constraints, especially in the past de-cade. Naturally, the guillotine has to fall on cost-intensive platforms. The other overriding factor has been a Pak-centric approach with excessive focus on proxy war.

Consequently, we have diluted our conventional options, which entail the use of mechanised forces. Such blind-er- driven approach has meant that we are trapped in Pak’s preferred domain of hybrid war and lack deterrence against China. Our mainstay, infan-try, has been denied the much needed protection. Ideally, it should have some proportion of lightly armoured vehicles for quick reaction teams, re-connaissance and commanders. A proposal for such vehicles was torpe-doed within the Army in 2012, despite multiple screening and demand from the other two services. Considering that it takes six to seven years for the proposals to fructify, we are already pushed back. This proposal was re-vived and is now in its last stages. In-terestingly, it was shot down on spe-cious grounds that once mounted, the infantry would lose orientation, a gross under-estimation of their resilience.

The light tank has been another sad story and a part of the blame lies with the hierarchy of mechanised forces,

who have felt that limited budget should be applied on medium tanks like T-90s, T-72s and indigenous Ar-juns. Our current force mix in Ladakh and Sikkim can match the Chinese medium tanks— ZTZ-99 and ZTZ-96 (Types 99 and 96) — though in the long run, it will be appropriate to induct the T-90s. The only way to deter the Dragon is by upgrading our equipment profile. There is also a crying need to create an ecosystem for retrofitting and upgrad-ing our tank fleet, as the prohibitive cost of replacement dictates a need for life extension, coupled with moderni-sation. The current production base is a combination of Avadi (Chennai) and Medak (Telangana). The logistics cost of transportation of equipment for overhaul to South India even when the platforms are deployed on the western and northern borders has been im-posed due to parochial preferences. The new infrastructure for light tanks, armoured cars and retrofitting should leverage the available land and skill base in the vacant HMT Pinjore com-plex. It can be mentored by the Defence Research and Development Organisa-tion (DRDO) labs in the vicinity, such as the Terminal Ballistics Research Labo-ratory (TBRL) and Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), coupled with IIT Ropar and PEC.

IANS

Mechanised forces remain battle-relevant

Life, unlockedDo not compromise

on precautions

7op-edIndian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 2020

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

By Jamal GreenThe scenes appear daily on social

media, taking on the familiarity of rit-ual.

A red-faced customer breathes con-temptuously in a waitress’ face, or tries to muscle past a green-aproned clerk. They’ve been asked to wear a mask and they don’t like it. “I have my rights,” they say.

Claiming rights is a national pas-time. Rights are solemn citations to

the Constitution. But there is no US federal, state or local law or constitu-tional provision that gives Americans a right to an unmasked taco order. Americans have no constitutional right to get a haircut or to dine in at Applebee’s.

Many Americans seem impervious to this truth. We imagine ourselves cloaked in rights, even when we have very few compared with many other modern democracies.

“I’m proud to be an American,” the song goes, “where at least I know I’m free.” But the United States has the world’s highest per capita prison population. It is the only state in the Western hemisphere that executes its citizens. One hundred fifty countries provide a right to a free education in their national constitution. Not ours.

Is America special?One-quarter of the world’s constitu-

tions provide a right against disability discrimination. Ours doesn’t. Germans have a constitutional right to feed pi-geons in a public square or to ride horses in the forest. We don’t.

Many of the world’s constitutions permit citizens to claim rights against private companies. Good luck with that here. Europeans have a right to be forgotten on the internet. We wish.

Americans are obsessed about rights, and yet our Constitution and our courts are rather sparing in granting them.

These phenomena turn out to be re-lated. The American rights fetish runs deeper than it does wide. We might not have that many rights, but when it comes to the ones we do have, we step on the gas. We don’t just claim a right to bear arms we carry assault rifles into the statehouse.

We don’t just have a right against racial discrimination but a right to dismantle college affirmative action programs designed to combat racial inequality.

We are especially dogged when it

comes to free speech, stretching it to cover not just speaking from atop a sidewalk soapbox but also, for exam-ple, marketing drugs to physicians.

This kind of absolutism comes at a cost. When rights are perceived as ab-solute, judges can get nervous about declaring them. The US Supreme Court laid those anxieties bare when it denied the right to an education in 1974, worrying openly that such a right might portend a right to food or shel-ter.

The court in 1987 rejected a right to avoid execution based on proof of ra-cially biased prosecution and sentenc-ing practices, reasoning that recognis-ing such a right “throws into serious question the principles that underlie the entire criminal justice system.”

Lacking constraintAmericans speak a robust language

of rights but lack the language of constraint, of moderation, common in other countries, that would allow courts and the rest of us to be less anx-ious about declaring the kinds of rights that justice actually demands.

Don’t blame the framers of the Con-stitution, who well understood that rights had inherent limits. Rather, this absolutist posture toward rights reflects the bitter struggle against Jim Crow in the 1950s and 1960s, which defined in the popular culture what it meant to have constitutional rights.

But it’s been too easy to jump from this brutal history to the conclusion

that rights are, in their very nature, an exemption from the law a “get-out-of-jail-free” card not so unlike the fake laminated cards many antimaskers have been brandishing.

It finds expression today in the rhet-oric of “all lives matter” and in the failure of many to see any distinction between antimasking and antiracism protests. “Where’s my exemption? I have my rights.”

This feels like madness in the middle of a worsening pandemic, but allow me to propose a truce.

Telling someone they have no right to breathe free air won’t get us far. It feels arbitrary, and it is. Instead of continuing the ceaseless tit-for-tat of “I have rights!”/ “No, you don’t!” we should instead begin to develop a lan-guage of moderation when it comes to rights.

We can concede that an arbitrary masking law, one that, say, required masks only on weekdays or only for men, would violate our rights. But peo-ple also have a right to go food shop-ping without the risk that an unmasked person transmits a deadly disease.

How this conflict is resolved isn’t for me to decide, or for you. We have democratic institutions to reconcile our rights, through law.

But first, we need to see each other as rights bearers and as equal citizens who disagree with one another but who must figure out a way to live together.

Gulf News

Fourth oF July: AmericAns must First try And live

By Stephen MihmDue to coronavirus the global econo-

my remains in the woods. Recovery de-pends on bringing the new coronavirus under control, yet each day brings record numbers of new cases in some countries.

Little wonder people are making anx-ious analogies to the Great Depression.

If these comparisons have merit, we may be in for some lasting changes. It’s conventional wisdom that the Great De-pression created a generation of penny-pinchers, but it wrought more subtle transformations as well — in the way people cooked and in how they spent their leisure time.

The evidence from the 1930s suggests that life hacks made during hard times have a funny way of outliving the crises that beget them. Something similar may be underway today.

Changed culinary habitsConsider, for example, what happened

to the US culinary habits in the wake of the Depression: Wasting food became a dead-ly sin, and leftovers that might previously have ended up in the garbage or down the drain found their way into new dishes.

“You can make the more expensive roast last longer by padding the menu,” declared one cheery advice columnist in The Washington Post in the 1930s. She counselled recycling the roast into meat and vegetable pie, meat loaf or stuffed peppers and then heating the remaining scraps in gravy to serve on biscuits.

Nothing was discarded. After boiling vegetables, cooks would save the water — “vegetable liquor” — to use in soups and sauces. Likewise, vegetables left uneaten on the first round would be puréed, com-bined with other rejects and presented anew. Housewives often resorted to cam-ouflage to conceal this regifting.

A common strategy was to hide left-overs beneath a generous helping of “white sauce,” a condiment made from condensed milk, butter, salt, flour and water.

It was a rare dish in the 1930s that didn’t include a generous helping of this wonderworking sauce. And what of all the leftover white sauce? It would end up in soups, as did most things at some point.

Combining disparate ingredientsAs historians have noted, attempts

to combine disparate ingredients from nearly empty pantries lead to strange mash-ups. Corned beef salad, for in-stance, featured gelatin, canned peas, lemon juice, cabbage and other odds and ends. Gelatin enabled cooks to bind all sorts of disparate ingredients into a jig-gly blob.

Mass-produced processed foods also made their debut in the Great Depres-sion: condensed soups, canned meats and other staples. These novelties saved time, money and cooking fuel. And they could be used in combination with other ingredients to create casseroles.

The casserole had made its debut dur-ing the economic depression of the 1890s and returned again during World War I. But the Great Depression elevated it to culinary stardom. Casseroles could be bulked out with the previous week’s meals, and no two were ever alike.

Cooks in the 1930s also sought out sub-stitutes for meat, creating various vege-tarian versions of meat loaf — including peanut loaf, bean loaf, even lima-bean loaf. Naturally, these loaves often came generously dressed with white sauce.

Most cooks kept up their Depression-era habits into the 1950s. If you look at postwar recipes, you can see how closely they resemble those from the 1930s. Pro-cessed foods and weird casseroles main-tained their grip until the 1970s and ‘80s.

Spending leisure timeThe Great Depression had even more

enduring effects on how Americans spent their leisure time. Suddenly, people had more of it, whether they wanted it or not. And they aimed to fill it as cheaply as possible.

Consider how sociologists Robert and Helen Merrel Lynd described the lifestyle changes in Muncie, Indiana — which the Lynds referred to as “Middletown.” Dur-ing the Depression, the white middle- and upper-class families stopped host-ing formal dinners or meeting friends at the country club and instead prepared cheap, informal buffet suppers at home.

They also rediscovered their own back

yards, adding furniture, outdoor grills and vegetable and flower gardens. All of this “sheltering in place” allowed people to entertain themselves at home.

People began playing Monopoly and other complex board games. Cheaper still, and enormously popular among

white-collar workers, were challenging card games such as contract bridge. By 1931, some 20 million Americans, about a fifth of the population, played bridge. People in the working class preferred poker and blackjack.

Gulf News

CovId-19 may CHangE How pEoplE EaT and HavE fun

There is already a huge upTick of inTeresT in aT-home leisure acTiviTies

Thousands of lives in The us could be saved if more people wore masks

By Nicholas KristofAs the coronavirus rages out of con-

trol across much of the United States, Americans are acting curiously helpless.

Here’s the simplest of steps we could take: Wear a face mask.

In the United States, mask-wearing lags, particularly among men, com-pared with some other countries. A poll finds that many American men regard the wearing of face masks as “a sign of weakness,” and President Donald Trump’s refusal to wear them has sug-

gested that he perceives that masks are for wimps.

Trump may now be switching gears, for he told Fox that he’s “all for masks” and would wear one if he were “in a tight situation with people.”

He shouldn’t waste time: He should tweet a photo of himself in a mask and call on supporters to wear masks as well. Refusing to cover one’s face is reckless, selfish behaviour that imper-ils the economy and can kill or endan-ger innocent people.

A review of hundreds of studies in The Lancet medical journal found that “face mask use could result in a large reduction in risk of infection.” An ar-ticle in Health Affairs found that state mask mandates, which cover about half the population, may have averted more than 230,000 coronavirus infec-tions.

For one study this year, reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases, research-ers placed hamsters with the coronavi-rus in cages next to those without the virus, and found that when surgical masks were used as a barrier between the cages infections plunged by more than half.

Or take a lesson from East Asian countries, where mask-wearing is more common as a sign of courtesy, that have managed to contain the vi-rus. Dr. Kwok-Yung Yuen, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Hong Kong, told me that a crucial rea-son for Hong Kong’s success against COVID-19 (less than one death per million inhabitants, compared with 385 per million in the United States) is that 97% of Hong Kong residents wear masks.

Sign of responsible civilityHong Kong, like some Asian coun-

tries, distributes masks free. The Unit-ed States should do the same, for the cost is negligible compared with hospi-talisation.

A University of Washington comput-er model suggests that 33,000 Ameri-can lives could be saved from COV-ID-19 between now and Oct. 1 if more

people wore masks. The implication is that inconsiderate Americans unwill-ing to wear them could in the next few months kill thousands of their neigh-bours.

“We need to do everything we can to increase mask usage,” said Kate Grabowski, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. But she added: “People shouldn’t see masks as a silver bullet. They’re not going to be 100% ef-fective at preventing transmission.”

So even with masks, we also need dis-tancing, hand-washing, contact tracing and bans on large assemblies. I’m also a big believer in more widespread sew-age testing to provide an early warning that the virus is in the neighbourhood.

To be sure, we need more research, and masks vary in effectiveness. N95 respirators work very well — so much so that they make breathing difficult. Disposable surgical masks are more comfortable though less protective, and cloth masks are reusable but less effective.

Masks protect your neighbours, but a new Goldman Sachs report finds that expanding mask mandates could also help the US economy.

“A national face-mask mandate could potentially substitute for re-newed lockdowns that would other-wise subtract nearly 5% from GDP,” Goldman Sachs said. “The economic benefit from a face-mask mandate and increased face-mask usage could be sizeable.”

#RealmenwearmasksRepublicans seem to be coming

around. Vice President Mike Pence ear-lier eschewed masks but now says that wearing them “is just a good idea.”

Sen. Marco Rubio urged, “Just wear a damn mask.” Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted a photo of her father, former Vice Pres-ident Dick Cheney, wearing one, with the hashtag #realmenwearmasks. Good for them! Sen. Marco Rubio urged, “Just wear a damn mask.” Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted a photo of her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, wearing one, with the hashtag #realmenwear-masks. Good for them!

But Trump has resisted. Republicans talk a good game about “personal re-sponsibility,” so it’s time for Trump to display some — and to call on his supporters to wear masks as well. As we celebrate our independence, this is how they can show patriotism, protect the economy and save the lives of their neighbours.

The White House press secretary, KayLeigh McEnany, deflects questions about Trump and masks by insisting that mask-wearing is simply a “per-sonal choice.” The White House press secretary, KayLeigh McEnany, deflects questions about Trump and masks by insisting that mask-wearing is simply a “personal choice.”

No, it’s not. Refusing to wear a mask is no more a “personal choice” than is drinking all evening and then stum-bling into your car and heading down the road. In a time of plague, shunning a face mask is like driving drunk, put-ting everyone in your path in danger.

Gulf News

Refusing to weaR a mask is Reckless

AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH RIGHTS MAY BE KILLING PEOPLE IN CORONAVIRUS

international Indian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 20208

Washington, July 3 (IANS) The United States should restore sanctions against Russian intelligence and defence sectors, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after being briefed by top intelligence officials on the Russian-Taliban bounty intelligence.

Pelosi said at a press briefing on Thursday that the White House had previously asked the Congress to "take out the sanctions on Russia that pertained to the intelligence and the defence sectors, the very sector that is accused of possible threats on our men and women in uniform", Xinhua news agency reported.

"We must restore those sanctions and we must act upon them," she added.

Pelosi also criticized

President Donald Trump's handling of US-Russia relations. "This is at the same time as the White House was aware of this threat to security of our men and women in uniform, the President was still flirting with the idea of having Russia be part of the G8 in total opposition to the wishes of the other members of the G8."

CIA Director Gina Haspel earlier in the day briefed a group of senior lawmakers from both parties, known as "Gang of Eight," on the Russian-Taliban bounty intelligence.

In a joint statement following the classified briefing, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested "our

Armed Forces would be better served if President Trump spent more time reading his daily briefing and less time planning military parades and defending relics of the Confederacy."

The White House, however, accused the Democratic Party of politicizing this issue. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that "Democrats should come forward in good faith ... and you have the Democratic Party politicizing this information, which I think is absolutely disgraceful."

Top US officials continued defending the administration's response to the intelligence as well as Trump's dealing of US-Russia ties. National Security Adviser Robert

O'Brien stressed again on Wednesday that Trump had not been briefed on this "uncorroborated intelligence," adding that "no one had been tougher on Russia than Trump since the end of the Cold War. "

The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump had been briefed on the intelligence that Russian intelligence units secretly offered bounties to Taliban-related militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan during US-Taliban peace talks.

The report also said that the National Security Council discussed this issue at an interagency meeting in late March, while the White House thus far has not taken any actions to respond.

Pelosi urges expansion of US sanctions against Russia

Islamabad, July 3 (IANS) Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan launched an initiative to preserve nature by protecting and promoting 15 national parks in an effort to increase the country’s forest cover.

The prime minister on Thursday inaugurated the Protected Areas Initiative which is part of his government’s Green Stimulus vision launched earlier this year to increase forest cover and create jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The government will

protect, govern and manage 15 national parks ecologically,” said Khan, adding that out of these national parks nine will be new while six others were announced previously but were never protected.

He told the launching ceremony that the initiative will benefit future generations and almost 5,000 direct jobs will be generated related to these parks in the initial phase.

According to the prime minister, the national parks will be opened for the public once the government has finalized the guidelines for tourists.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said one of the purposes of the project is to rebuild the pandemic-hit economy and stimulate sustainable green growth.

Pak PM launches initiative to protect, promote national parks

Pyongyang, July 3 (IANS) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for "maximum alert" against the coronavirus pandemic, during a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party, warning that premature easing of anti-virus measures will lead to "unimaginable and irretrievable crisis," state media reported on Friday.

It was the second time in three months that the North has convened a politburo meeting to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. That suggests North's situation could be serious, though Pyongyang claims there has not been a single case.

The meeting held on Thursday included no mention of inter-Korean

relations, an apparent indication that Kim might be focusing on internal unity, rather than external issues, amid lingering fears about the global pandemic, Yonhap news agency reported.

"He stressed the need to maintain maximum alert without a slight self-

complacence or relaxation on the anti-epidemic front, and rearrange and practice stricter anti-epidemic effort," the Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim also made "sharp criticism of inattention, onlooking and chronic attitude getting prevalent

among officials, and violation of the rules of the emergency anti-epidemic work as this work takes on a protracted character," it said.

North Korea claims to have no coronavirus infections, but it has taken relatively swift countermeasures since January, such as closing its border and toughening quarantine criteria.

Experts said that the North appears to be placing its priority on tackling domestic issues, such as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The immediate concern for North Korea must be resolving issues related to people's daily lives," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said.

Kim Jong-un calls for ‘maximum alert’ against COVID-19 50 injured in fireworks factory explosion in Turkey

Ankara, July 3 (IANS) At least 50 people were injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in Turkey’s northwestern province of Sakarya on Friday.

Citing a statement of Sakarya Governor Cetin Oktay Kaldirim, the state-run TRT broadcaster said

50 people have so far been rushed to the nearby hospitals.

Kaldirim stated that there were 172 people inside the factory, which contained 110 tons of explosive material.

Over 60 ambulances and two helicopter ambulances have been dispatched

to the area, according to press reports. The NTV broadcaster noted that three of the injured are in critical condition. Kerem Kinik, president of the Turkish Red Crescent, urged people who live close to the explosion area to close their doors and windows to avoid the smoke, noting that the chemicals in the smoke can badly affect health, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority announced that the incident should be considered as an industrial accident, and no radiation source has been detected at the factory.

United Nations, July 3 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminded the Security Council of the multi-faceted implications of COVID-19 on international peace and security.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to profoundly affect peace and security across the globe,” he told the Security Council on Thursday. “The risks are diverse.”

The consequences can be seen even in a number of countries traditionally seen as stable. But the impacts are particularly apparent in countries already experiencing conflict or emerging from it -- and may soon engulf others, he said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tensions are rising as a

result of the severe socio-economic fallout of the crisis. Trust in public institutions is being eroded further in places where people perceive that authorities have not addressed the pandemic effectively or have not been transparent about its impact, said Guterres. As pre-existing grievances and vulnerabilities become more accentuated and entrenched, the potential for instability and violence only grows, he warned.

The pandemic is exacerbating gender inequalities, as women make up the vast majority of the sectors most affected. There has been an alarming spike in gender-based and domestic violence, and it is increasingly difficult for victims to report

abuse, seek shelter and access justice, he said.

In some countries, fragile peace processes could be derailed by the crisis, especially if the international community is distracted. In other places, conflict actors, including terrorist and violent extremist groups, see the uncertainty created by the pandemic as a tactical advantage, he said.

Many countries have had to consider how to move ahead with elections slated for 2020 while trying to manage the health crisis. In the Central African Republic, there are tensions due to attempts to use the pandemic as a pretext to postpone the holding of elections planned for the end of the year, he noted.

Decisions on postponing or indeed proceeding with

elections raise complex legal, political and public health challenges. Difficult as they are, such decisions are best made on the basis of broad consultations with all stakeholders, to avoid fueling political tensions or undermining legitimacy, said Guterres.

COVID-19 has also made diplomacy more challenging. Mediation can be a very personal endeavor, an almost-tactile reading of a person or a room. With movement restrictions limiting such contacts, and with online discussions often the only alternative, it can be harder to establish the trust and nurture the willingness to compromise that are at the heart of preventive

diplomacy, he said.The pandemic also

highlights the risks of bioterrorist attacks, and has already shown some of the ways in which preparedness might fall short if a disease were to be deliberately manipulated to be more virulent, or intentionally released in multiple places at once, he said. “So, as we consider how to improve our response to future disease threats, we should also devote serious attention to preventing the deliberate use of diseases as weapons.”

He called for the universality and strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention, which lacks an oversight institution and contains no verification

provisions.“Given the speed at which

pathogens spread in an interconnected world, we must ensure that all countries have resilient and appropriate capacities to respond quickly and robustly to any potential global and deliberate biological event,” he said.

Meanwhile, stigma and hate speech are on the rise. And an epidemic of misinformation online has run rampant, said Guterres. Another risk for the long term is the shifting of resources away from gender equality initiatives, education and other economic sectors. Indeed, this could have intergenerational impacts, including on women’s rights and participation in political and peace processes, he said.

UN chief warns of impacts of COVID-19 on peace and security

Paris, July 3 (IANS) French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has expressed his country's concern over the current tense situation in Libya, stressing importance of Libya's security and stability.

Le Drian made his remarks during a telephone call with Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Thursday, where the two officials discussed the latest developments in Libya, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's information office.

"During the call, the French Foreign Minister expressed his country's concern about the current tense situation

(in Libya), stressing that France's efforts are aimed at achieving stability in Libya, and that the interests of the Libyans, Libya's neighbors, and Europe lie in Libya's security and stability," the statement said.

"Le Drian called for speeding up achievement of a cease-fire that would allow a return to the political track through the efforts of the United Nations and its central role, adding that Italy and France agree on this approach," the statement added.

The French Foreign Minister expressed his country's rejection to foreign interference of all kinds and sources in Libya, Xinhua news

agency reported.Serraj highlighted

the recently discovered mass graves in the city of Tarhuna, as well as the deadly booby traps and landmines in the south of the capital Tripoli, stressing the need to bring those responsible to justice, the statement said.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said Thursday that 130 Libyans were killed or injured by booby traps in the south of Tripoli over the past five weeks.

Serraj's UN-backed government has accused the rival eastern-based army of planting landmines in conflict areas in southern Tripoli before their withdrawal.

France expressses concern over tense situation in Libya

Budapest, July 3 (IANS) Hungary will not allow citizens from non-European Union (EU) countries, except for Serbia, to enter the country in wake of an EU recommendation, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

Orban on Thursday spoke in a video message posted on his Facebook page, after the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted a recommendation to lift entry restrictions for residents of some third countries starting Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The council recommended the lifting of travel restrictions for residents of Algeria, Australia,

Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay.

The council also recommended that residents of China be allowed to travel to the EU, subject to confirmation of reciprocity. While highly anticipated, the council’s recommendations are not legally binding, since border control is still its member states’ competency.

The prime minister also said that his government decided to restore the use of the mandatory corridor for transiting traffic across Hungary. “Travellers passing through the country, just as during the peak period of the coronavirus epidemic, cannot leave the designated route and border controls will remain strict,” he said.

Paris, July 3 (IANS) French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe presented the demission of the government to President Emmanuel Macron, the French presidential palace announced on Friday morning.

Philippe “assures, with the members of the government, the dealing of affairs until the government is formed,” said Elysee Palace in its press statement.

A new Prime Minister will be named in the coming hours, reported local BFMTV channel.

In an interview with regional newspapers published late on Thursday, Macron, cornered by local election blows and fierce opposition to his reforms, said he would ensure a new phase of his presidency with a refreshed cabinet to inject new life into his administration to meet economic, social and

health challenges, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The new phase entails new goals of independence, reconstruction, reconciliation and new methods. Behind that there will be a new team,” Macron said. “I will have to make choices to lead the new path.”

Macron remained reticent about the future of Philippe and the main figures that would comprise his executive staff. Meanwhile, speculation is mounting over the entry of environmentalists into the government following their big success in mayoral elections.

The ruling centrist The Republic on the Move (LREM) party -- founded by the president ahead of his 2017 election win -- failed in local contests without winning a single major city.

Hungary will not allow entry of non-EU citizens: PM

French PM Edouard Philippe, government resign

business Indian Horizonsaturday, July 4, 20209

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) The Indian stock market rose for the third straight day on Friday with the BSE Sensex closing above the psychological mark of 36,000 points.

Positive global cues supported the Indian indices during the day, analysts said.

Rahul Sharma, Market Strategist & Research Head, Equity99 Advisors, said: "Markets settled at a four-month high today on positive clues from Asian and European markets on hopes of a global economic rebound."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd,

noted that global sentiments continue to be buoyant on the back of more positive economic data from the US and China which bolstered hopes of a global economic rebound. China's services sector in June expanded at the

fastest pace in over a decade, and US non-farm payrolls saw a better-than-expected jump.

"Market is factoring in positive macro-economic data, onset of timely monsoon and optimism over potential Covid vaccine emerging

soon. However, concerns over rising coronavirus cases and chances of a second round of lockdown along with trade tensions between US-China continue to linger. Thus, despite the near term momentum being positive, traders should look at booking profits at regular intervals," he added.

On the technical front, Khemka said that Nifty has to hold above 10,500 to extend its move towards 10,800 while the support is placed at 10,450-10,330 levels.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 10,607.35, higher by 55.65

points or 0.53 per cent from the previous close of 10,551.70 points.

The BSE Sensex closed at 36,021.42, higher by 177.72 points or 0.50 per cent from its previous close of 35,843.70.

It had opened at 36,025.38 points and touched an intra-day high of 36,110.21 and a low of 35,872.38 points.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel (up 4.05 per cent), Bajaj Auto (up 2.28 per cent) and TCS (1.88 per cent). The major losers were IndusInd Bank (down 1.50 per cent), Tata Steel (1.49 per cent) and HDFC Bank (1.42 per cent).

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Edelweiss Asset Management on Friday said that it will launch the second tranche of BHARAT Bond ETF on July 14 with two new series, after the successful launch of the initial series of ETFs in December 2019 and plans to raise up to Rs 14,000 crore.

The BHARAT Bond Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) program is an initiative of the Government of India, from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and the latterhas given the mandate to Edelweiss AMC to design and manage the product.

The two new Bharat Bond ETF series will have maturities of April 2025 and April 2031.

New Fund Offer (NFO) will

start from July 14 and end on July 17, 2020. Through the launch of these two new ETF series, Edelweiss Mutual Fund proposes to raise an initial amount of Rs 2,000 crores with a green shoe option of Rs 6,000 crores in 2025 Maturity and initial amount of Rs 1,000 crores with a green shoe option

of Rs 5,000 crores in 2031 Maturity based on market demand.

The ETF will invest in constituents of the NIFTY BHARAT Bond Indices, consisting of AAA rated public sector companies, an Edelweiss statement said. BHARAT Bond Fund of Funds (FOF) with

similar maturities willalso be launched for investors, who do not have demat accounts, it added.

Rashesh Shah, Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss group said: “The first launch of BHARAT Bond ETF was highly successful and since then it has seen healthy growth in AUM and good liquidity on exchange. We hope that the BHARAT Bond ETF program achieves its ultimate objective of creating a liquidyield curve for CPSE bonds and helps further the agenda of development of bond markets.”

Speaking during a webinar for the announcement Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, DIPAM, Ministry of Finance said: “BHARAT Bond ETF

program has achieved some important objectives that were envisioned while creating the blueprint of this program. It has provided aggregate savings in borrowing cost for participating CPSEs/CPSUs/CPFIs.”

He added that the organic increase in assets under management (AUM) of existing BHARAT Bond ETFs even during these uncertain times resembles investors building confidence with the product.

“In upcoming issue, we expect to raise anywhere between Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 14,000 crore. This will help CPSEs in their capex programs in coming months,” Pandey said.

Equity market rises for 3rd day, Sensex settles above 36,000

Edelweiss MF aims to raise Rs 14k cr from Bharat Bond Series II

San Francisco, July 3 (IANS) Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again provoked the US market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, while celebrating the surge in the company’s stock.

In a tweet on Thursday, Musk referred to the SEC as the Shortseller Enrichment Commission.

The tech billionaire made a similar reference to the SEC in October 2018 after the regulator accused him of securities fraud, The Detroit News reported.

In September 2018, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk over a tweet that claimed that he had funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

As part of the settlement, Musk had to step down as Tesla Chairman for a period of three years, besides a $20 million fine. San Francisco, July 3 (IANS) Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again provoked the US market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, while celebrating the surge in the company’s stock.

In a tweet on Thursday, Musk referred to the SEC as the Shortseller Enrichment Commission.

The tech billionaire made a similar reference

to the SEC in October 2018 after the regulator accused him of securities fraud, The Detroit News reported.

In September 2018, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk over a tweet that claimed that he had funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

As part of the settlement, Musk had to step down as Tesla Chairman for a period of three years, besides a $20 million fine.

On Thursday, Musk even joked that Tesla would “make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim.”

“Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times,” he said in another tweet.

According to a report in MarketWatch, Tesla shares rose almost eight per cent to close at a record $1,208.66 on Thursday, after the company announced it produced over 82,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter of this year.

“While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels,” Tesla said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk again taunts US market

regulators SEC

Service sector downturn loses further momentum in June: PMI

Tomato prices skyrocket to Rs 70/kg in Delhi-NCR

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) De-growth of India’s service sector decelerated in June, a macro-economic survey report showed on Friday.

Consequently, the de-growth rate of India’s overall business activity which includes the output of both services and manufacturing sectors also slowed.

In terms of index reading, the IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index recorded 33.7 in June from May’s unprecedented low of 12.6, but remained below the neutral 50 mark for a fourth successive month, signalling another decline in service sector output.

“Although the downturn lost further momentum in June, it remained excessively strong as the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed intakes of new work and disrupted business operations,” the survey report said.

“The slower rate of decline was reflective of some stabilisation in activity levels, with around 59 per cent of firms reporting no change in output since May. Meanwhile, only 4 per cent registered growth, while 37 per cent recorded a reduction.”

Accordingly, the Composite PMI Output Index, which measures combined services

and manufacturing output, rose to 37.8 in June, up from 14.8 in May but still below the crucial 50 level which separates growth from contraction.

“Overall, the latest data signalled a further steep, albeit considerably slower rate of decline in private sector activity. Both manufacturing and service sector output fell when compared to May, although rates of decline differed vastly,” the report said.

“While manufacturing production fell moderately, edging closer to stabilisation, services activity continued to decrease substantially.”

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) With the onset of the monsoon tomato prices soared to Rs 70 per kg in New Delhi and its surrounding areas on Friday.

Crop failure in the rainy season and the late arrival of tomatoes in the mandis (wholesale markets) have led to the price hike. However, the prices are expected to fall after the arrival of the new crop from Himachal Pradesh next week. A month ago, the price of tomatoes in Delhi’s Azadpur mandi was between Rs 1.25 and Rs 4.75 per kg, while the wholesale price on Friday was between Rs 6 and Rs 44 per kg.

The model rate of tomato was Rs 3 per kg in Azadpur

mandi on June 3, which has increased by 10 times to Rs 29 per kg. On July 2, the wholesale price of tomatoes rose to Rs 52 per kg in the mandi, which means there has been an increase of about 995% in the last one month. Due to the rise in wholesale prices, tomatoes were sold at Rs 80 per kg on Thursday in Delhi-NCR and Rs 50 to Rs 70 per kg in Greater Noida.

Azadpur Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) chairman

Adil Ahmad Khan said prices have gone up due to late arrival of tomatoes. The quantity of tomatoes received at Azadpur mandi was 528.2 tonne on June 3 while on July 3 it was 281.6 tonne.

The quantity has thus been reduced by nearly 50 per cent in a month. Only 241.9 tonne were received on July 2 due to which the wholesale price was ranging between Rs 6 and Rs 52 per kg while the model rate was Rs 32 per kg, Khan added.

He attributed the hike in the prices of all vegetables and fruits, not only tomatoes, due to the increase in diesel prices, which led to an increase in the transportation cost of vegetables.

From next week, the arrival of the new crop from Himachal Pradesh will lead to a decline in the prices of tomatoes. He said at present 90 per cent of the tomatoes in Delhi arrive from Himachal Pradesh while only 10 per cent are received from Haryana and Karnataka.

The consumption of all green vegetables, tomatoes and onions has declined during the past few months because of the shutdown of hotels, restaurants, canteens and dhabas following the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the corona pandemic. This led to a marked fall in prices. The wholesale price of tomatoes had come down to less than one rupee per kg.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Bharti Enterprises on Friday announced that a UK government's consortium led by the company has won the bid for the bankrupt satellite company OneWeb. In a statement, Bharti Enterprises said that the deal will enable OneWeb to complete the construction of a global satellite constellation that will provide enhanced broadband and other services to mobile and fixed terminals in countries around the world.

"OneWeb was formed with a mission to offer high-speed, low-latency wireless broadband access to billions of people across the globe, especially in rural areas, through a constellation of satellites in low-earth orbit. Bharti was one of the founding members of OneWeb and had a strategic stake in the

company," it said.Commenting on the development,

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said: "I am delighted that Bharti will be leading the effort to deliver the promise of universal broadband connectivity through OneWeb, with the active support and participation of the British government."

He said that in addition to the strategic opportunities across a wide range of other applications and working with a broad range of international partners, this business has substantial commercial use in telecom, enterprise, aviation and maritime sectors. "With strong operational execution, we will be able to generate an attractive return for investors, while ensuring that Britain plays a leading role in space and next- generation communications," he said

Founded in 2012, OneWeb had attracted billions of dollars for its plans to launch a constellation of hundreds of satellites for bringing Internet connectivity to the most remote corners of the world, but the company went bankrupt earlier this year.

Bharti-led consortium wins bid for satellite firm OneWeb

RIL net debt to dip with rights issue, Jio stake sale

US stocks rise following better-than-expected jobs report

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Asset monetization in Jio Platforms along with the $7 billion rightsissue s hould reduce Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)s net debt by more than half, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

It said that multiple catalysts are in play with faster than expected deleveraging, improving demand and margin

outlook on refining and chemicals, top quartile earnings CAGR of 23 per cent over F20-23, and digitisation, supporting multiples. Reliance Industries announced today an investment of $252 million by Intel Capital for a 0.39 per cent stake in Jio Platforms.

This investment values Jio Platforms at $68.8 billion,along similar lines

as the recently announced stake sale.

Intel Capital is the investment arm of Intel corporation. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested $12.9 billion in more than 1,582companies worldwide. RIL highlighted that it plans to work with Intel on new technologies.

To date, RIL has sold 25.1 per cent of Jio Platforms, which equates to raising

$15.7 billion at current exchange rates. “We believe asset monetization in Jio Platforms along with the $7 billion rights issue should reduce RIL’s net debt by more than half,” Morgan Stanley said in the report.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Jio Platforms Limited on Friday announced that Intel Capital will invest Rs 1,894.50 crore in Jio

Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

Intel Capital’s investment will translate into a 0.39 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. Intel Capital joins the list of marquee firms who have recently invested in Jio Platforms, taking the total investment amount to Rs 1.17 lakh crore.

New York, July 3 (IANS) US stocks ended higher after data showed the economy added 4.8 million jobs in June.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 92.39 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 25,827.36. The S&P 500 rose 14.15 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 3,130.01.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 53.00 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 10,207.63, Xinhua news

agency reported.Nine of the 11 primary

S&P 500 sectors closed higher, with materials and energy up 1.85 per cent and 1.13 per cent, respectively, leading the gainers. Real estate and communication services, however, struggled.

Total nonfarm payroll employment in the United States rose by 4.8 million in June, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, beating

market consensus. The unemployment rate declined to 11.1 per cent from 13.3 per cent in May. Economists were expecting a rate of 12.4 per cent, according to Dow Jones.

“These improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19)

pandemic and efforts to contain it,” said the bureau in a statement.

Meanwhile, US initial jobless claims registered 1.427 million in the week ending June 27, the Department of Labor said in a separate report released on Thursday.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast 1.4 million new claims.

Investors continued to focus on the rising

coronavirus cases across the country.

More than 2.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States, with over 128,000 deaths, as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

US markets will close on Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

businessIndian Horizonsaturday, July 4, 2020 10

JioMeet joins ‘local ke liye vocal’ call as India bans Chinese appsNew Delhi, July 3 (IANS)

In a filip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for local ke liye vocal amid the country banning 59 Chinese apps, Reliance Jio has launched a free video-conferencing application called JioMeet that takes on various other such apps which are growing in leaps and bounds as millions of people work from home in India.

The application that has already been downloaded more than 1,00,000 times on Google Play Store within no time comes with enterprise-grade host control and security, and can be used for 1:1 video calls and hosting meetings with up to 100 participants.

Other highlights include easy sign up with either mobile number or email ID, meeting in HD audio and video quality.

It offers support where the users can click on a JioMeet invite link and join from his or her browser without downloading the application.

“Conduct meetings with your customers, partners and people outside your office. Join from laptop/desktop or mobile device or even your legacy video device as it supports the legacy conferencing devices,” according to Jio Platforms.

Back-end technology optimises experience with HD video quality even at lower bandwidths and

intuitive and user-friendly interface enhances overall conferencing experience.

“All your meetings are encrypted and password protected, ensuring complete privacy and data protection,” said the JioMeet team.

Industry experts hailed the arrival of a desi video meet app, at a time when onus is on the Indian corporate and enterprise world to create world-class apps that can reach global heights.

As we move to a neo normal where online collaboration tools hold supreme - both in professional and personal spheres - the launch of JioMeet is apt and timely.

“The current market dynamics will potentially

provide enough tailwinds to JioMeet to gain currency, on the back of its features, such as no limits on call durations, and seamless switching between devices,” Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR), told IANS.

JioMeet can be used for creating instant meetings to chat with friends and also to schedule a meeting in advance and share meeting details with invitees.

It offers unlimited meetings per day and each meeting can go uninterrupted up to 24 hours.

The application can be used on Android, Windows, iOS, Mac, SIP/H.323 systems.

Each meeting is password protected and the host can enable a “Waiting Room” to ensure no participant joins without permission.

“Security and privacy have got more prominence and scrutiny in recent times, and any vendor which is able to offer enterprise-grade security will curry favour,” said Ram.

JioMeet comes at a time when the government is providing greater support to startups working towards enriching the digital universe.

Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said this week that while Indians download a lot of apps from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) The key Indian equity indices rose on Friday morning with the Sensex trading above the psychological mark of 36,000 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading just above the 10,600 mark.

The domestic indices rose tracking a positive trend in the Asian markets.

At 10.23 a.m., Sensex was trading at 36,004.28, higher by 160.58 points or 0.45 per

cent from its previous close of 35,843.70.

It opened at 36,025.38 and has so far touched an intra-day of 36,110.21 and a low of 35,872.38.

Nifty50 was trading at 10,601.95, higher by 50.25 points or 0.48 per cent from its previous close.

The top gainers on the Sensex so far were Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and Hero MotoCorp, while the major losers were Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Fuel prices have gone for a longer pause after rising on 22 of the past 27 days as oil marketing companies (OMC) kept the pump prices of petrol and die-sel unchanged again on Friday.

In the national capital, pet-rol price on Friday stood at Rs 80.43 per lit re and diesel at Rs 80.53 a litre, same level as last three days when OMCs went for pause and kept the prices unchanged.

Sources in public sector oil companies said that consum-ers could get relief from the regular price rise of the two petroleum products in coming days as the pause for four days now could be replicated in sev-eral of the coming days if global oil prices remained soft.

Also, the oil companies have covered most of the shortfall arising when for 82 continuous days (from March 14 to June 6) petrol and diesel prices re-mained unchanged while gov-ernment substantially raised taxes on the products.

Starting from June 7, petrol price has increased by Rs 9.17 and diesel by Rs 11.14 in the national capital. In the other cities the magnitude of in-crease was similar.

With global oil prices now again rising climbing over $42 a barrel, ther e could be instance that petrol and dis-tal price may begin their dai-ly rise a gain. But for this to happen, the current level of crude price has to be main-tained and rise further.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) In a major relief to the GST taxpay-ers, the government has de-cided to cap the maximum late fee for Form GSTR-3B at Rs 500 per return for the extended tax period of July 2017 to July 2020 subject to the condition that such returns are filed before September 30, 2020.

The Central Board of In-direct taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified that there will be nil late fees if there is no tax liability; and, if there is any tax liability then a maxi-mum late fee of Rs 500 per return would be applicable to such GSTR-3B returns filed upto September 30.

Earlier, the GST Council in its meeting on June 12 decid-ed to reduce the late fee on the filing of GSTR-3B returns for the period between July 2017 and January 2020 to Rs 500. For February, March and

April, it reduced interest rate on late payment for small taxpayers while exempted this category from late fee, if the returns in FORM GSTR-3B for the supplies effected in the months of May, June and July, were furnished by September end.

CBIC said that various rep-resentations were received to give further relief in late fee charged for the tax periods of May 2020 to July 2020, in ad-dition to earlier provided re-lief for February 2020 to April 2020 and relief provided for cleaning up past pendency of returns from July, 2017 to January, 2020.

Also, a uniform late fee is simpler in design and easier to implement on automated common portal.

So the late fee is capped at Rs. 500 only per return, a CBIC statement said.

Sensex above 36,000 mark, Nifty at 10,600

Petrol, diesel prices pause for 4th consecutive day

Late fee on GST returns capped till July to Rs 500

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) In what may bring about major reform and efficiency in the insolvency regime in India, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has proposed to limit the number of cases an insolvency professional can handle to five as it noted that few insolvency professionals (IP) are handling too many cases

In a recent discussion paper, the board noted the “skewed” work allocation and has come up with a matrix for allocation of cases.

Citing observations by courts and tribunals, the paper said: “Keeping in mind the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, the

skewed work allocation amongst the IPs and the observations of the Supreme Court or Adjudicating Authority, and given the expansive and intense responsibilities of an IP in corporate processes, it is proposed to issue necessary guidelines to IPs advising them to limit the maximum number of assignments handled by them, to five, at a given point of time.”

As per the proposed matrix an insolvency resolution

professional (IRP) can handle a total of five cases of resolution or liquidation, including voluntary liquidation, wherein the turnover of the corporate debtors is less than or equal to Rs 1,000 crore. As the matrix progresses, an IRP handling the case of a corporate debtor with the turnover of Rs 50,000 crore would be able handle only that very case, and no more.

“On the basis of information available, it is observed that

a few IPs are handling too many assignments under the Code, which is detrimental to the institution of IP in the long run,” it noted.

The IBBI’s discussion paper said that the processes under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) require a unique combination of skill sets in terms of subject matter knowledge and management skills for an IP and at different stages of transactions, different sets of skills are called for.

A spike in one area of expertise will not be sufficient to create a uniform experience for stakeholders. Further, it cannot be ignored that no two IPs possess identical sets of qualification,

experience, skills and expertise, it said.

“Similarly, no two CIRPs are same as it involves diverse businesses, complex corporate structures, varied stakeholders. The said restriction on an IP will put a check on undesirable instances of delay and disturbance to the processes led by IPs while simultaneously handling too many assignments under the Code.”

The Board was of the view that with limits in place, quality of output is expected to improve and it will facilitate the realisation of the objective of value maximisation as enshrined in the Code.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) In a bid to check proliferation of Chinese equipment in the critical power sector, the central government plans a major policy shift that will incentivise domestic manufacturing while putting restrictions on all imports where local capacities exist.

Power Minister RK Singh said that as part of the new policy initiative a mega manufacturing programme is being launched to incentivise a phased manufacturing plan through investments while scaling up existing manufacturing capacities so that India not only reduces it

import dependence but also becomes a major exporter of energy equipment.

“There is no need to go for imports of things available in the domestic market. We want to build Atmanirbhar Bharat, so power project developers using local equipment will get encouragement by way of lower interest on loans from state funding agencies such as PFC, REC and IREDA compared with those who rely on imports. Also, import of items manufactured in the country will attract a higher duty,” Singh said during a media interaction after a meeting with state energy

ministers.He said that in conventional

power segment, India lacked only in equipment manufacturing at present. “We will encourage phased manufacturing here so that even these capacities come up soon and thus reduce import dependence,” Singh said without mentioning whether tariff and non-tariff action were directed at China.

In 2018-19, the total imports in conventional power sector were to the tune of Rs 75,000 crore, of which imports from China stood at over Rs 21,000 crore.

In renewable energy

segment, imports stood at $2.9 billion in FY19, with close to 70 per cent of it from China. Singh said even in renewable energy segment, sufficient domestic capacities for both solar modules and Veela existed in the country that should discourage imports. The minister said that in solar cells, the existing domestic capacity is being increased by more than three times from present 2,500 MW.

About 4,000 MW of fresh cell manufacturing capacity is coming up while 3,000 MW additional capacity will be added under manufacturing-linked bids for solar projects.

The Power Minister said that in case of solar modules as well, 7,000 MW in capacity is being added. This, he said, should be sufficient to meet the country’s needs as well as exports.

To discourage imports of solar equipment, the Power Ministry has already proposed a 20-25 per cent basic customs duty on solar module imports for the current year, which will go up to 40 per cent in the next year.

Also, the duty on solar cells has been proposed at a lower 15 per cent for the first year and a higher 30-40 per cent in the next year.

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) After a long stint of 10 years, Rajan Mathews on Friday resigned as the Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

Following his resignation, COAI has announced the appointment of S.P. Kochhar, former head of the ICT wing of Indian Army, as its Director General.

“Kochhar, a decorated

military veteran, retired as Signals Officer in Chief, the head of the ICT wing of the Indian Army, where he was responsible for planning, executing and operating all Telecom and IT networks of the Army. Prior to that, he was Additional Director General Personnel of the Indian Army, handling HR and empowerment of the 11 lakh strong army,” a COAI statement said.

He was till recently the CEO of Telecom Sector Skill Council of India.

The development comes a day after the telecom

industry body ended its Annual General Meeting and announced changes in its leadership with Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel as its Chairman for the year 2020-21.

Speaking to IANS, Mathews said that he would move back to the US. Describing his 10 year tenure as “fulfilling”, he said that the sector is at the

cusp of 5G and the future looks bright for telecom in India.

“It think we have been through the worst, I think Covid has shown us that the networks are absolutely essential. We are on the cusp of 5G,” he said.

Noting that the industry has passed through its worst phase, he said: “I really see a very bright future for the industry.”

IBBI proposes to limit cases with insolvency professionals

Plan to restrict power sector imports if domestic capacities exist

Mathews quits as COAI DG, S.P. Kochhar to take over post

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The Central government proposed to again discipline state power utilities by linking funds under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) with credible reforms by way of time-bound reduction in losses and ensuring uniform metering.

Power Minister R.K. Singh told state energy ministers on Friday that a new scheme will soon be announced after merging the DDUGJY and the

IPDS that will make Centre’s funding to states conditional. The states or UTs whose distribution companies (discoms) are not in loss will have no problem in getting the funds but the states/UTs whose discoms are in loss will have to give a proper plan as to how they are going to eliminate the losses to get funds.

The minister added that State/UT governments will get some flexibility in the new scheme to enable them to plan according to their specific

needs. He said that despite central funds to improve the infrastructure in power sector, the same situation keeps repeating itself due to

lack of non-adherence to loss reductions trajectory.

That is why adhering to new scheme to link the funding to the reforms is

proposed, he said. The DDUGJY’s objectives include separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders, strengthening and augmenting sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas and rural electrification, while the IPDS’ objective is 24x7 power supply for consumers, reduction of AT&C losses and providing access to all households.

During the meeting, state Energy Ministers asked the Centre for extension of the

discom liquidity scheme of Rs 90,000 crore announced earlier to cover for losses upto June 30. In the current shape, the scheme covers discom dues to generators upto March 31, 2020. Singh said that the states’ request will be considered. In the second session of the video conference, issues of New and Renewable Energy were discussed. The Minister said that they were planning to launch a new variant on KUSUM Scheme in which the feeders to the agriculture

sector will be solarised. It will eliminate the burden of subsidy on state governments for irrigation in next 3-4 years. Singh also highlighted the need of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in the power sector. He said that the country’s import bill for power equipment was around Rs 71,000 crore, including imports of Rs 20,000 crore from China, in 2018-19 even when it had manufacturing facility & ability for various requirements of the power sector.

Govt proposes to link power infra upgradation funds with reforms

Sports Indian HorizonSaturday, July 4, 202011

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Fast bowler Mohammed Shami is back in the nets, albeit not within the setup of the national team. Shami tweeted a video of him bowling in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.

“Quality practice session at my farmhouse all brothers together,” said Shami in his caption to the video.In the video, Shami can be seen bowling in good rhythm. He has been able to find outdoor space to train during the

lockdown and had previously tweeted a video of him sprinting with his dog.

He had earlier said that it will take at least a month to get used to not using saliva at all on the ball. The usage of saliva for shining the ball has been banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) temporarily so as to ensure the safe resumption of

cricket amid the coronavirus pandemic.“Using saliva is a habit now. Replacing it with an external substance like wax or Vaseline is going to be difficult. We’ll need to assess how well the external substance works and will need at least a month to get used to it. Otherwise it’s a guaranteed fine on us bowlers,” Shami told ESPNcricinfo.Shami is part of

a fast bowling attack that is considered among the best in contemporary Test cricket.

It includes Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Commenting on who bowls with the new ball, Shami says, it’s often a difficult choice, especially when the first-choice trio of himself, Ishant and Bumrah play

together.“We surround Virat Kohli and ask him to make the decision,” Shami said.

“But he normally says, ‘don’t get me involved in all this; you decide among yourselves, I don’t have an issue.’ That is the kind of fun we have in our team meetings. I let the other two start. I have no objection to bowling with a semi-new ball.”

SHAMI GETS BOWLING PRACTICE AT HIS FARMHOUSE

ZIDANE WANTS MESSI

TO STAY IN LALIGA AMID EXIT RUMOURS New Delhi, July 3 (IANS)

Indias left-arm unorthodox spin bowler Kuldeep Yadav has revealead that he has already started preparing for the Australia tour, scheduled to take place towards the end of the year.

India are currently scheduled to play three T20Is against Australia in October. Then in December-January, both teams will contest in the four-Test series where India will look to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After that, both teams will take on each other in three-match ODI series.

“Sometimes taking a break helps refresh the mind. We’ve had three-four months off now, so when we start again, it will be a fresh start, like a new innings. I feel this is the time to push myself because a lot of people are not able to practice,” Kuldeep said while speaking to Deep Dasgupta in the third episode of ESPNcricinfo’s Cricketbaazi.

“That can give me an edge. A break is very important. You learn from whatever happened in the last year about planning your bowling.

You need to spend time and come up with a plan every time. I have already started preparing for the Australia tour (later this year), so that I go there and play a confident cricket,” he added.2019 was not a great year for Kuldeep as he struggled with his form.

“It was mentally very tough for me. When you are looked at as a wicket-taking bowler but you are not able to pick wickets, you start doubting your skills. I spoke to Bharat Arun (India’s bowling coach) who showed confidence in me which boosted my morale.”

HAVE ALREADY STARTED

PREPARING FOR AUSTRALIA TOUR,

SAYS KULDEEP

Madrid, July 3 (IANS) Putting his rivalry aside with Barcelona, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has said he wants star forward Lionel Messi to stay at the Catalan Giants amid rumours linking him with a move away from the club.According to Spanish outlet Cadena SER, Messi has stopped contract negotiations with Barcelona amid reports of

growing tensions within the club. His current deal runs till 2021.

“I don’t know what will happen but we hope not because he is in this league and we want the best in this league,” Zidane said after Real’s 1-0 win over Getafe on Thursday night, as per Goal.com.Barcelona find themselves four points behind Real Madrid in the LaLiga title

race with just five matches to go this term.

Earlier, Messi’s boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys’ vice-president Christian D’Amico had stated that there remains a chance that the six-time Ballon d’Or winner might end up finishing his career in Argentina.

Messi joined Newell’s as a six-year-old before moving to the famed Barcelona youth academy La Masia at the age of 14.“I don’t know if it’s

impossible. It’s a decision exclusively made by him and his family. We have to have the best possible context to help make a decision,” D’Amico was quoted as saying by TNT Sports as per Daily Mail.

“When Maradona came to Newell’s, nobody thought that he would come either. I hope to do something similar with Leo. Obviously, that’s not to be selling smoke. It’s a difficult topic.

HAMILTON UNVEILS NEW HELMET IN SUPPORT OF ‘BLM’ MOVEMENTSpielberg, July 3 (IANS)

Reigning Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has unveiled a new helmet in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement for the upcoming season which begins with Austria GP. He wore the helmet in the first practice session on Friday.Hamilton’s customised helmet comes after Mercedes

had announced black-liveried cars for the 2020 season as the world champions aim to make a visual stand against racism and for diversity.Apart from the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message, Hamilton’s latest gear also has ‘Still We Rise’ message engraved on the back of the helmet which is predominantly black in colour with shades of purple.“The

whole reason my helmet has changed colour, the suit has,

and also the car, it’s all for equality above all, and just really continuing to solidify that message,” Hamilton said in a video uploaded on his Twitter handle.

“We currently now have the mic, and people are starting to listen. We’ve got the opportunity to really push that message and really hold people accountable.“Brands

and the teams in Formula 1, everybody here needs to be held accountable and be open to educate themselves, be open to understand why the movement is happening, and why around the world we need to keep pushing for equality,” he added.“Because it’s not good enough. Even if someone says to you we’ve been doing something or we’ve been

trying, they need to try harder, because it’s still a big issue that the world is fighting, 60 years later after Martin Luther King was fighting for it.

“That’s what it’s about. I kept the purple from what I planned to start this season, it’s my favourite colour, and yeah, I hope that you get to see it when I’m in the car,” he further said.

London, July 3 (IANS) Legendary tennis player Martina Navratilova heaped praise on 16-year-old America sensation Coco Gauff for her powerful speech at a ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest recently.

Gauff had delivered a strong message last month during a demonstration at Delray Beach in Florida in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police personnel.Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam singles

titles during the course of her illustrious career, stated Gauff wants to change the world for the better and her immense following at such a young

age can help her realise that dream.“She’s (Gauff) just so poised on and off the court. She was just really brought up with great qualities and it shows how she plays, it shows how she’s active now politically,” Navratilova said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“I smile so much when I see the reach that she already has now and she will have in the future. She’s one of those people that can change the world for the better and she seems to want to do that.

GAUFF CAN CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER, FEELS NAVRATILOVA

Paris, July 3 (IANS) World Athletics has announced that it will stand down both the Doping Review Board (DRB) and the Russian Taskforce as it has not received the payments due from the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF), nor any information on when the money may be paid, despite reminders and correspondence with the federation, the deadline of which was July 1.

“...World Athletics will stand down both the Doping Review Board (DRB) and the Russian Taskforce until World Athletics’ council has reviewed and discussed the situation at their meeting on July 29-30, as set out in the decision made by the council on March 12,” World Athletics said in a statement.The payments due from

RusAF by 1 July are $5 million (fine) and $1.31 million (reinstatement conditions & verification criteria costs incurred from June 30, 2019 to March 31, 2020, including legal & CAS costs; task force costs; doping review board costs, and lysenko investigation costs).“Both the Russian Taskforce and the DRB have, in good faith, moved forward in a number of areas such as the process to recruit two independent experts to work alongside RusAF and its Reinstatement Commission on a detailed reinstatement plan.

“The DRB has also opened up the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) process to facilitate the granting of ANA status for athletes returning to competition, in preparation for the fine being paid by July 1. Both of

these processes will be put on hold until the council meets at the end of July to ensure World Athletics is not incurring additional costs that may not be reimbursed,” it added.

World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe, said: “We recognise these are difficult times, but we are very disappointed by the lack of progress made by RusAF in terms of the requirements set in March.”

“The serious allegations of breaching the anti-doping rules resulted in a new RusAF administration and we had assurances and hoped that change was on its way. However, the experience of the Russian Taskforce, chaired by Rune Andersen, is that this has fallen well short of expectations.

World Athletics freeze two Russia panels over unpaid fine

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The 2020 Indian Open golf tournament has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian Golf Union (IGU) announced on Friday. The tournament, which was originally scheduled to be held in March, was initially postponed to later part of the year following the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

The IGU said that

the decision was made in consultation with the European Tour, sanctioning partner for the competition. "It was a very difficult decision but the right one under the present circumstances of the ongoing pandemic," IGU Acting President and former vice-chief of Army staff, Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu said in a statement.

"With no likelihood of any respite in the foreseeable future,

safeguarding the health and well being of all players, officials and spectators is of paramount importance."

The tournament was originally scheduled to take place from March 19 to 22 at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram. On March 11 however, the European Tour and the Asian Tour said in a statement the decision to postpone the tournameny was made following consultation between the two and the tournament's title sponsor Hero MotoCorp Ltd.

Indian Open golf tournament cancelled due to COVID-

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Indian women's football team forward Bala Devi feels that the announcement of India hosting the AFC Asian Cup 2022 has further motivated her to remain at peak fitness as and when she can hit the training ground once again.

The mercurial Indian striker is quietly working away at her own fitness at her home away from home in Glasgow, Scotland, where she also awaits the restart of the Scottish Premier League.

"There really isn't a lot to do as of now, apart from train and keep yourself at the peak of fitness," Bala said to www.the-aiff.com. "I was really excited when I saw India were announced as the hosts. It really is an honour

to host such a prestigious tournament. It means so much for women's football in India – the announcement has given us all that extra motivation."With the addition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup to the long list of prestigious international tournaments

(AFC U-16 Championship 2016, FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2021) that India will be hosting, Bala feels that a lot has indeed mobilised on the football front in the country."As a footballer, you really can't ask for much bigger platforms than to play a World Cup and an Asian Cup in your own backyard," said Bala. "The U-17 World Cup is a terrific platform for the young girls, and I hope they come out of it with a lot more experience.""The women's Asian Cup will be the biggest tournament that we (the senior women's team) will play at home. I hope that the entire country comes out to support us," she continued.

Hosting AFC Asian Cup 2022 will give us extra motivation,

says Bala Devi Nairobi, July 3 (IANS) Olympic bronze medal-winning distance runner Wilson Kipsang on Friday was banned for four years for anti-doping violations by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

The AIU stated that Kipsang had violated the whereabouts clause as many as four times between April 2018 and May 2019 and has been handed with a backdated ban."The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal has banned long-distance runner Wilson Kipsang of Kenya for four years with effect from Jan. 10, 2020 for whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony," the AIU said in a statement on their Twitter handle.

Kipsang was handed with a provisional ban in January due to the violations. According to the rules, three missed test within a 12-month period results in the athlete getting suspended.

Kipsang won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Games while he is also a five-time gold medalist at marathon majors across the world.

AIU bans Kipsang for four years for

anti-doping violations

SATURDAY - JULY 4, 2020

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Actress Emma Watson says she is happy that people feel empowered

by her "self-partnered" label.In an interview with Vogue, the actress said that she is en-tering the next decade with a new perspective on her life as a single woman.

She said that instead of let-ting her relationship status defi ne her, she has decided to live a "self-partnered" lifestyle -- hinting that she is happy being in a relationship with herself. The new coined term soon became popular.

"I literally said it as a throwaway comment think-ing it would go no further.

And then I woke up the next morning and my phone's blowing up and I don't know why and it's all my friends messaging me being like, 'self-partnered'?

This thing's gone crazy," she told E!'s The Rundown.Watson said that she is "100 percent" committed to being self-partnered even when she is in a relationship.

"It's much more about your relationship with your-self and the feeling of not somehow deficient in some way cause you're not with someone," the 29-year-old explained.

For the world premiere of her new movie Little Women, Emma walked the red carpet with the entire cast. She wore a billowing, black Balenciaga gown and velvet boots, with her hair twisted into a mess of tumbling tendrils.

IANS

Emma Watson happy with popularity of her 'self-partnered' comment

TAAPSEE PANNU: Shoot for Mithali

Raj biopic to start in mid 2020

Taapsee Pannu is gearing up to play former captain of the Indian women's cricket

team, Mithali Raj, in the biopic "Shabaash Mithu". The actress informs shooting for the fi lm will start in the middle of 2020.

"It is going to be diffi cult, I know. I watch cricket a lot but I never played the game. So, it is going to be challenging for me. Mithali (Raj) has already told me that 'I'd like to see how you play the cover drive!'So, I dream of cover drives now," Taapsee laughed."I will start preparing for the fi lm at the start of next year because we are going to start shooting of the fi lm from middle of 2020," added the actress.On December 3, Taapsee took to Instagram to wish Mithali Raj on

Ranveer Singh's

conman act inspires

Kunal Jaisingh for

TV role

Actor Kunal Jaisingh revisited Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh's

conman act in the fi lm " Ladies vs Ricky Behl" to prepare for his role in the upcoming TV show "Pa-vitra Bhagya".Kunal will be seen playing the char-acter of Reyansh in the serial."Reyansh's personal-ity is completely opposite of mine. I am trying to under-

stand him better as a person in order to do justice to the role. I am taking inspira-tion from Ranveer Singh's character in 'Ladies vs Ricky Behl'. He is similar to him and lives life on the edge. I am trying to adapt his man-nerisms, action and the way he delivers his lines," Kunal said."Pavitra Bhagya" will air on Colors TV.

IANS

KATRINA KAIF :

Actress Katrina Kaif feels fortunate that biggies like Shah Rukh Khan,

Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Ku-mar and Salman Khan are her friends, and says she respects them and ego doesnt come into friendship."I don't need to look at, 'why have you hurt my ego'. That's your problem.Disrespect is different. You must stand up and defend (against) that. What purpose does ego serve?

I'm just a person," Katrina said."Whether it is Shah Rukh or Hrithik, Akshay or Salman, I'm very fortunate to call them friends and they are important to me. I can talk to them any time. I respect them and when you respect someone, ego doesn't come into it," added the actress.

The actress will soon be seen in "Sooryavanshi" with Akshay and she says that the oft-repeated perception that she is a "blockbuster star but not a great actor" never bothers her.She said: "My focus was to be a star. I wanted to be loved by people and seen by people. That came from when I was growing up.

I have zero inhibitions about hiding and changing that. That's my journey and my story, and I have to own that. I did exactly what I set out to do. Every day I realise how fortunate I am to say that. I wanted to be known in every household, my idol was Hema Malini ji and that's what I was interested in being.

"For Katrina, life is all about striking a balance. "There's a lot that you need to try and balance. A lot changes, so it's very hard to talk about your career. It becomes a subcon-scious engrained habit to whether I'm doing well.

IANS

I don't believe in ego

her birthday with a series of pictures and a heart-warming message, along with which she made the formal announcement of the fi lm. IANS

CELEBS MOURN DEATH OF 'A TECHNICIAN PAR EXCELLENCE' SAROJ KHAN

Actress Vidya Balan is spending her lock-down period by watch-

ing classic fi lms, and says it is great to watch older fi lms and revisit the memories.Asked how she is spending quality time with her family during lockdown, Vidya said: "I love watching my fi lms

on television with my entire family. It is always great to watch older fi lms and revisit the memories grooving on evergreen songs."

The actress is admired by fans for her roles in movies like "Tumhari Sulu" and "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". She essayed the role of a radio jockey in both the fi lms.Talking about her experience being as an RJ, Vidya said:

"I think the most fasci-nating aspect of an RJ is that you have to convey everything through your voice. Yet with this chal-lenge, it's great to see how RJs connect so beauti-fully with the listeners.In

both my films 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' and 'Tumhari Sulu', the RJs were com-pletely different people with completely different styles and I think that was very challenging for me."

The actress said that she "can never get bored of watching" her fi lm "Tumhari Sulu" again and again on "television especially when I see my family enjoying it".

"'Tumhari Sulu' is a story that gives hope to viewers that everything is possible. Whenever you need inspi-ration please watch the film," she added."Tumhari Sulu" will air on Sony MAX on June 3.

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VIDYA BALAN : ALWAYS GREAT TO WATCH OLDER FILMS

Here's what the celebrities have written:

Amitabh Bachchan: T 3582 - Prayers .. haath jude hai, mann ashant.

Hema Malini: Ace choreographer and unique personality Saroj Khan is no more. A personal loss to all artistes who have worked with her & to the entire fi lm industry. I have myself danced to her vibrant cho-reography in many fi lms like Mrig Trishna which is an alltime favou-rite with me

Akshay Kumar: Woke up to the sad news that legendary choreogra-pher #SarojKhan ji is no more. She made dance look easy almost like anybody can dance, a huge loss for the industry.

Sanjay Dutt: This news has left me heartbroken. Saroj ji was not

just a legend but also a humble person. We shared a beautiful re-lationship & worked in many fi lms together. Her contribution to the industry is irreplaceable as there was no one who could dance like her. Om Shanti.

Ajay Devgn: Being a Technician's son, I've always known that cinema is as much about a behind-the-scenes person as it is about actors. RIP Saroj ji. You were an institution; your craft inimitable. Condolences to your family.

Mahesh Babu: Saddened to hear about the demise of ace choreog-rapher #SarojKhan... Her timeless classics will continue to inspire gen-erations to come. The end of an era... Heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones. RIP Saroj Khan.

Shilpa Shetty Kundra: A LEG-

END has left us. Can't forget the moment I fi rst met you when you came to choreograph 'Kitaabe' ( Baazigar) and I burst out crying

(I was a huge fan of your work) I couldn't believe you were actually standing in front of me.

Parineeti Chopra: When you think "choreography", you think Saroj ji. When you think "heroine", you think Saroj ji. I think she gave the term Bollywood heroine its true meaning. Creator of legends, and a legend herself. RIP Ma'am. We will celebrate you forever.

Sonali Bendre Behl: I've lost a guru today. So talented... an amaz-ing woman and a fantastic dancer whom I learnt so much from. I re-member coming into fi lms with no dance training and no understand-ing of how songs were shot. Master-ji, who had never worked with such a skinny non-dancer before, took me under her wing and straight-ened me out for 'English Babu Desi

Mem' which had all kinds of danc-es. RIP #SarojKhan ji

Manoj Bajpayee: Rest In Peace Saroj Ji.

Boney Kapoor: #SarojKhan - an inspiration for all Actors and choreographers .She would put great emphasis on expressions than just movements. Cherish the work we did together for the songs of my fi lms. Condo-lences to the Family. #RIPSa-rojKhan #TrueLegend #Guru

Kunal Kohli: Hindi cinema has lost its adaa #Saroj Khan.

Farah Khan: Rest in peace Sarojji.. u were an inspiration to many, myself included. Thank you for the songs #SarojKhan

John Abraham: Heart broken ... Rest In Peace #SarojKhan.

IANS

All through Friday, Bollywood continued to pay condolences to the late Saroj Khan.

Actor Ayushmann Khur-rana is determined to stay super fi t during

the pandemic and has taken up cycling. He says he has been a cycling enthusiast all his life.

Ayushmann, who is cur-rently in Chandigarh, said: "Maintaining fi tness is an extremely important aspect today, given the crisis we are engulfed in. We will need to fi nd our own fi tness regimes to stay fi t because it is very important.

So, since I'm in Chandi-garh spending time with my family and parents, I decided to take up cycling."For Ay-ushmann, his cycling time is adding a much-needed bal-

ance to his daily routine."I have been a cycling enthu-siast all my life but my work schedule always prevented me from doing this. I am lov-ing doing this now because it is not just helping me stay fi t but it is also giving me the alone time to focus on things, ponder about life, and plan

my way forward," he said.He added that cycling alone is quite a meditative experi-ence for him.

"I can focus on one thing at a time and close those loops in my head," he said.

However, Ayushmann ad-mits that he can't wait to be on the sets again and resume shooting his back-to-back fi lm projects.

"I can't wait to start shooting and I'm missing being on the sets bigtime. I'm ready to start shooting multiple things. As soon as the production teams figure out and lock on the safest ways to start work, I will be back on the sets!"

IANS

AYUSHMANN KHURRANA : I HAVE BEEN A CYCLING ENTHUSIAST ALL MY LIFE

Nazar" actor Malhar Pandya feels very lucky to have got

the opportunity to essay the role of Karna in "Rad-haKrishn".He grew up lis-tening to many chapters from the Bhagavad Gita.

"I am very thankful to my grandmother and my mother as both of them have given me important knowledge related to my-thology, including stories of many great warriors from 'Ramayan' to 'Ma-habharat' and Parashura-ma," said Malhar.

During the lockdown, he watched films related to mythology and read books based on the character of

Karna."They helped me understand the character better," said Malhar.

"Speaking about Karna, he is considered a true and great warrior. He's also an important charac-ter in the chapter of 'Ma-habharat'.

I am very lucky to have received this opportunity and will give my 100 per-cent to further enhance this character.

I hope that my hard work behind this charac-ter will be seen on screen by the audience," added the "Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev"."RadhaKrishn" is aired on Star Bharat.

IANS

MALHAR PANDYA FEELS LUCKY TO PLAY KARNA IN 'RADHAKRISHN'

Bigg Boss 13" winner and television actor Sidharth Shukla has shared a few

words of wisdom on life.Sid-harth took to Instagram, where he shared a picture of himself dressed in a blue jersey.

"If life's a sport .... play it with sportsman spirit," he wrote on the image, which currently has 301k likes on the photo-sharing website.In March, Sidharth featured in the song "Bhula dunga" along with Punjabi actress-singer Shehnaaz Gill.

Sung by Darshan Raval, the song's video showcases the chemistry between Sidharth and Shehnaaz, who made a lot of headlines with their close bond in the "Bigg Boss 13" house.Sidharth is also known for his performance in TV shows like "Balika Vad-hu" and "Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na" among others.

He has also featured in mov-ies like "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania".

IANS

SIDHARTH SHUKLA SHARES WORDS OF WISDOM ON LIFE