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  • English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ...€¦ · est MSME package, we are disappointed with announce-ments made by FM.” “Centre has announced 3.6 lakh crore
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A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a special econom- ic and comprehensive package of 20 lakh crore — equivalent to 10 per cent of India’s GDP — for the revival of the coron- avirus-hit economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday came out with a slew of measures for relief and credit support to businesses, especially MSMEs. The FM announced 3 lakh crore of collateral-free loans for small businesses, cut the tax rate for non-salary pay- ments and provided liquidity to non-banking companies to help them tide over the dis- ruptions caused by the lock- down. Announcing the first set of components stimulus package announced by the Prime Minister, she said 90,000 crore liquidity infusion will be made in electricity distribution com- panies to help them fight the current financial stress. The Minister also extend- ed by three months the Government support to com- panies with less than 100 employees to meet retirement fund obligations. For companies, the statu- tory obligation to pay 12 per cent of basic salary as employ- er’s share to employee provi- dent fund (EPF) contribution has been reduced to 10 per cent to boost their liquidity. To boost construction, all Government agencies will give up to 6 months extension to all contractors to complete con- struction, and goods and ser- vice contracts. “Essentially this is to spur growth and to build a very self- reliant India. It addresses ease of doing business, compliance, and due diligence and the intention is also to build local brands,” she said. Sitharaman said collateral- free loans will benefit 45 lakh small businesses. The loan will have 4-year tenure and will have a 12-month moratorium, she said, adding the loans will be guaranteed by the Government. Also, 20,000 crore subordinate debts will be provided for stressed or loan defaulting MSMEs, she said, adding this would benefit 2 lakh such businesses. A fund of funds for MSME is also being created, which will infuse 50,000 crore equity in MSMEs with growth potential. The Government also changed the definition of MSMEs to allow units with higher investment as well as introduced turnover criteria to allow more companies to remain small businesses to get fiscal and other benefits. Also, to help them get more business, global tenders for Government procurement up to 200 crore will be barred. W ith 20 deaths which took place in April and May in the national Capital as report- ed on Wednesday by the authorities, the death toll due to Covid-19 in Delhi has gone up to 106. The total number of coro- navirus cases in Delhi climbed to 7,998 after 359 fresh cases were reported. In a bulletin issued on Wednesday, the Delhi Health Department said the 20 deaths reported on Wednesday, took place in April and May as per case sheets received from hos- pitals, and audited by the Covid-19 death committee. However, it also carried a footnote, saying certain figures mentioned in the bulletin were subject to change on receipt of additional information. In the first week of May, the city also recorded its largest sin- gle-day spike of 448 new Covid-19 cases. On Tuesday, the total num- ber of cases stood at 7,639 with 86 deaths. With 20 more fatal- ities, the death toll from Covid- 19 in Delhi has risen to 106. Of the total deaths, 86 took place at various Covid-19 dedicated hospitals, with RML Hospital accounting for 41 of these fatalities, the maximum among the dedicated hospitals, according to the bulletin, which added that the others took place at other hospitals. I n an effort to give some rest to “overburdened” State police personnel who have been “working day and night in these challenging times of coronavirus”, the Maharashtra Government has requested the Centre to make available 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) ahead of the Eid. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said, “Owing to the outbreak of coronavirus in the State, our police personnel have been working day and night. Considering that Eid is round the corner and we have to maintain law and order situa- tion in the State, the State Government — in order to give some rest to our police per- sonnel — has requested the Centre to make available 20 companies CAPF to the State”. 32 companies of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) are working in tandem with the Maharashtra Police. I n the third attack in the past six months, swarms of locusts from Iran and Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan have invaded parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, com- pounding the woes of farmers, who are battling the coron- avirus nationwide lockdown. The Union Agriculture Ministry has convened a high- level meeting with fertilisers and pesticides companies to discuss the course of action against the locusts. This is the third attack of locusts in less than a year, the worst one began in December and lasted till February of this year. According to global reports, locust swarms are expected to arrive all the way from East Africa and attack farmlands in South Asia in the coming months. According to Locusts Warning Organisation of Ministry of Agriculture, 31 spots in Rajasthan and Gujarat are under attack of locusts, cov- ering thousands of hectare. After a high-level meeting, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh has assured help. “The Government has ordered new machines from the UK to con- trol locust swarms. Tractor- mounted sprayers and fire- tender vehicles are deployed at various locations in these States for locust control. Additional equipment also being pro- cured,” he said. I n a relief to taxpayers, the Government on Wednesday extended the deadline for fil- ing of all Income Tax returns for 2019-20 fiscal till November 30, 2020 and also slashed TDS (tax deducted at source)/TCS (Tax collected at source) rates for non-salary payments to residents by 25 per cent. “From tomorrow till March 31, 2021, the TDS/TCS rates have been reduced by 25 per cent of the existing rate... This shall also apply to all pay- ments for contracts, interest, rent, dividend, commission or brokerage… all of these will be eligible for 25 per cent rate reduction. “This reduction would release nearly 50,000 crore in the hands of the people who would have otherwise paid it as TDS,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Government has also extended, the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme for direct tax dispute resolution has been extended by six months till December 31, 2020. Sitharaman said the income tax department will fast track processing of pend- ing refunds to charitable trusts, LLPs, non-corporate busi- nesses and proprietorship firms, among others. Also, assessments getting time-barred on September 30 have been extended till December 31, 2020 and those getting time-barred on March 31, 2021 have been extended till September 30, 2021. She also said the income tax department has already cleared 18,000 crore worth of refunds where the quantum due was up to 5 lakh. “This coupled with release of pending refunds to all non- corporate tax payers would fast track the revival of business and enterprises,” he added. T he Opposition leaders on Wednesday gave a thumb down to the Prime Minister’s stimulus package of 20 lakh crore terming it hollow announcement. Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram stated there is nothing in what Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said for the lakhs of poor and it’s a cruel blow to those who toil everyday, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee echoed her views and said while people expected to get relief, but the announcements by the FM is a big zero. “There is nothing for the States,” Mamata said. Referring to the economic stimulus package, other leaders, including from Left parties, said neither the PM nor the FM mention about the rehabilita- tion road plan for laborers whose lives have been upend- ed by the lockdown. The former Finance Minister said, “Except for mod- est MSME package, we are disappointed with announce- ments made by FM.” “Centre has announced 3.6 lakh crore in the 20-lakh crore package; where is the rest of 16.4 lakh crore,” Chidambaram asked. He said the Government is a prisoner of its own ignorance and fears. “The Government must spend more, borrow more, and allow states to borrow more but it is not willing to do so,” he said. “Wrong time to bring labour law changes by BJP- ruled States. Wrong precedent set by them,” the Congress leader further opined at AICC video Press conference soon after Sitharaman Press confer- ence. He said in case of the credit guarantee fund, not the entire fund would be spent. W ith Maharashtra record- ing nearly 1,500 new cases and 54 deaths, at least 123 fresh Covid-linked deaths and 3,525 positive cases were reported from across the coun- try on Wednesday taking the toll to 2,544 and total number of infections to 77,889. Of the total number of cases 26,090 people have recov- ered or have been discharged. Of the total deaths in Maharashtra, 40 were record- ed in Mumbai alone taking the overall case count to 25,922 and the number of fatalities to 975. The total number of Covid-19 infected cases crossed the 1,000 mark in Mumbai's worst pan- demic-hit Dharavi on Wednesday, as 66 more persons tested positive for Covid-19. On a day when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) pegged the number of deaths in Dharavi at 40, as many as 66 new infected cases were report- ed from various parts of Asia's biggest slum. With the fresh infected cases, the total num- ber of infected cases rose to a staggering 1,028. Attributing the increase in the number of deaths to the new information received from the BMC's Epidemic Cell, the BMC said, "New nine deaths have been reported by epi- demic cell. These deaths had happened earlier on different dates and conveyed to ward office subsequently." As many as five positive cases were recorded in Dhondu Mistry Chawl, while four cases were reported from Matunga Labour camp. Three cases each were recorded in Geetanjali Nagar, Azad Nagar and 90 feet Road area, while the areas like Kerusheth Chawl, Vijaynagar and Rajiv Gandhi Nagar regis- tered two positive cases. There is a race between Tamil Nadu and Gujarat for the second spot. The former has now replaced Gujarat from the second spot with 9,227 cases, nine cases more than Gujarat. Tamil Nadu reported 509 cases and Gujarat 364 on Wednesday. Delhi, the State with the fourth- highest number of cases, has 7,998 with the addition of 359 new cases on Wednesday. Covid cases in Madhya Pradesh touched 4,173 with 187 new infections while in Uttar Pradesh, the cases surged to 3,664. Bihar reported 932 cases. In Uttarakhand, the total num- ber of cases touched 71. In Punjab, 1,924 Covid-19 cases were reported while 32 people died in the State. Odisha, which a few days ago, was reporting a few cases has now started wit- nessing surge in number daily with 101 new cases on Wednesday pushing up the total to 538 positive cases. T he State’s Covid-19 count witnessed the sharpest hike as a record single-day 101 peo- ple tested positive on Wednesday. With this record number of new cases, the total number of patients surged to 538. While the hardest-hit Ganjam registered 52 cases, 33 were reported from Baleswar district, seven each from Jajpur and Sundagarh districts and two from Keonjhar district. The 33 cases in Baleswar district included 24 Surat returnees, three West Bengal returnees, two Bengaluru returnees, three local cases and one case from a containment zone, according to the Information and Public Relations Department. The seven cases in Sundargarh district included all primary contacts in the Rourkela containment zones. Ganjam continued to be on top of the chart with 210 cases, followed by Jajpur with 90, Jajpur 71, Khordha 50, Bhadrak 31, Sundargarh 23 and Angul 15 cases. However, amid the spurt in cases as many as 27 patient tested negative for the virus and recovered on the day. They included nine patients from Baleswar, eight from Bhubaneswar, four from Bhadrak, two each from Ganjam and Sundargarh, and one each from Koraput and Keonjhar districts. With this, the number of recovered patients rose to 143. Bhubaneswar, which had ini- tially emerged as a hotspot with 50 cases, has now only three active cases. A 40-year-old man, Gangadhar Biswal, of Bajapur of Katanabania gram pan- chayat under Kendrapada block’s Rajkanika block reportedly committed suicide at Haryana after failing to return home. Gangadhar was working at a Yamunananagar-based company. As com- panies were shut down, he and other Odia workers stranded at Harayana. As they could not meet their daily basic needs after a few days, they appealed to the Odisha government by posting a video in social media to help them come back to their vil- lages. As the Governments of Odisha and Harayana didn’t take any step for his return, Gangadhar committed suicide on Tuesday night by hanging self from a tree in Harayana, informed his wife Sabit. The deceased Gangadhar is survived by mother, wife and two minor sons of nine-year and 12-year age. The eldest son is dumb from birth. “The State Government is responsi- ble for the untimely demise of my hus- band,” alleged Sabita. A cyclonic storm is likely to form over the Bay of Bengal (BOB) by the evening of May 16, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Wednesday. Under the influence of a cyclonic cir- culation over the south Andaman Sea, a low pressure area has formed over southeast BOB and adjoining south Andaman Sea. It is very likely to concentrate into a depres- sion over central parts of south BOB on May 15 and further intensify into a cyclonic storm over southwest and adjoining west-central BOB by May 16 evening, the IMD said. It is very likely to move northwestwards initially till May 17 and then re-curve north--northeastwards, it added. “Squally winds, speed reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph, are likely to pre- vail over south and adjoining central BOB on May 15 and 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph over the same region on May 16. Wind speed is likely to increase further becoming gale force with 65-75 kmph gust- ing to 85 kmph over southwest and adjoin- ing west-central BOB from the evening of May 16. Sea conditions will become very rough over southwest and adjoining west- central BOB from May 16 evening,” the IMD said. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into south and central BOB from May 15. Those who are out at sea in these regions are advised to return to coasts by Thursday. However, there is no weather warning for Odisha in connection with this low pres- sure system for next five days (till May 17), said the Regional Office of the IMD here.

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ...€¦ · est MSME package, we are disappointed with announce-ments made by FM.” “Centre has announced 3.6 lakh crore

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Aday after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi

announced a special econom-ic and comprehensive packageof �20 lakh crore — equivalentto 10 per cent of India’s GDP —for the revival of the coron-avirus-hit economy, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon Wednesday came out witha slew of measures for relief andcredit support to businesses,especially MSMEs.

The FM announced �3lakh crore of collateral-freeloans for small businesses, cutthe tax rate for non-salary pay-ments and provided liquidity to

non-banking companies tohelp them tide over the dis-ruptions caused by the lock-down.

Announcing the first set ofcomponents stimulus packageannounced by the PrimeMinister, she said �90,000 croreliquidity infusion will be madein electricity distribution com-panies to help them fight thecurrent financial stress.

The Minister also extend-ed by three months theGovernment support to com-panies with less than 100employees to meet retirementfund obligations.

For companies, the statu-tory obligation to pay 12 per

cent of basic salary as employ-er’s share to employee provi-dent fund (EPF) contributionhas been reduced to 10 per centto boost their liquidity.

To boost construction, allGovernment agencies will giveup to 6 months extension to allcontractors to complete con-struction, and goods and ser-vice contracts.

“Essentially this is to spurgrowth and to build a very self-reliant India. It addresses easeof doing business, compliance,and due diligence and theintention is also to build localbrands,” she said.

Sitharaman said collateral-free loans will benefit 45 lakhsmall businesses. The loan willhave 4-year tenure and willhave a 12-month moratorium,she said, adding the loans will

be guaranteed by theGovernment. Also, �20,000crore subordinate debts will beprovided for stressed or loandefaulting MSMEs, she said,adding this would benefit 2lakh such businesses.

A fund of funds for MSMEis also being created, which willinfuse �50,000 crore equity inMSMEs with growth potential.

The Government alsochanged the definition ofMSMEs to allow units withhigher investment as well asintroduced turnover criteriato allow more companies toremain small businesses to getfiscal and other benefits.

Also, to help them getmore business, global tendersfor Government procurementup to �200 crore will be barred.

����������� ��������

With 20 deaths which tookplace in April and May in

the national Capital as report-ed on Wednesday by theauthorities, the death toll dueto Covid-19 in Delhi has goneup to 106.

The total number of coro-navirus cases in Delhi climbedto 7,998 after 359 fresh caseswere reported.

In a bulletin issued onWednesday, the Delhi HealthDepartment said the 20 deathsreported on Wednesday, tookplace in April and May as percase sheets received from hos-pitals, and audited by theCovid-19 death committee.

However, it also carried afootnote, saying certain figuresmentioned in the bulletin weresubject to change on receipt of

additional information. In the first week of May, the

city also recorded its largest sin-gle-day spike of 448 newCovid-19 cases.

On Tuesday, the total num-ber of cases stood at 7,639 with86 deaths. With 20 more fatal-ities, the death toll from Covid-19 in Delhi has risen to 106.

Of the total deaths, 86took place at various Covid-19dedicated hospitals, with RMLHospital accounting for 41 ofthese fatalities, the maximumamong the dedicated hospitals,according to the bulletin, whichadded that the others tookplace at other hospitals.

����� ���� ��� ��

In an effort to give some restto “overburdened” State

police personnel who havebeen “working day and night inthese challenging times ofcoronavirus”, the MaharashtraGovernment has requested theCentre to make available 20companies of the CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF)ahead of the Eid.

State Home Minister AnilDeshmukh on Wednesday said,“Owing to the outbreak ofcoronavirus in the State, ourpolice personnel have beenworking day and night.Considering that Eid is roundthe corner and we have tomaintain law and order situa-tion in the State, the StateGovernment — in order to givesome rest to our police per-sonnel — has requested theCentre to make available 20companies CAPF to the State”.

32 companies of the StateReserve Police Force (SRPF)are working in tandem with theMaharashtra Police.

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In the third attack in the pastsix months, swarms of

locusts from Iran andBaluchistan and KhyberPakhtunkhwa of Pakistan haveinvaded parts of Rajasthan,Gujarat and Punjab, com-pounding the woes of farmers,who are battling the coron-avirus nationwide lockdown.

The Union AgricultureMinistry has convened a high-level meeting with fertilisersand pesticides companies todiscuss the course of actionagainst the locusts. This is thethird attack of locusts in lessthan a year, the worst onebegan in December and lastedtill February of this year.

According to globalreports, locust swarms areexpected to arrive all the wayfrom East Africa and attackfarmlands in South Asia in the

coming months. According toLocusts Warning Organisationof Ministry of Agriculture, 31spots in Rajasthan and Gujaratare under attack of locusts, cov-ering thousands of hectare.

After a high-level meeting,Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh has assured help. “TheGovernment has ordered newmachines from the UK to con-trol locust swarms. Tractor-mounted sprayers and fire-tender vehicles are deployed atvarious locations in these Statesfor locust control. Additionalequipment also being pro-cured,” he said.

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

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In a relief to taxpayers, theGovernment on Wednesday

extended the deadline for fil-ing of all Income Tax returnsfor 2019-20 fiscal tillNovember 30, 2020 and alsoslashed TDS (tax deducted atsource)/TCS (Tax collected atsource) rates for non-salarypayments to residents by 25per cent.

“From tomorrow tillMarch 31, 2021, the TDS/TCSrates have been reduced by 25per cent of the existing rate...This shall also apply to all pay-ments for contracts, interest,rent, dividend, commissionor brokerage… all of these willbe eligible for 25 per cent ratereduction.

“This reduction wouldrelease nearly �50,000 crore inthe hands of the people whowould have otherwise paid itas TDS,” Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman.

The Government has alsoextended, the Vivad SeVishwas scheme for direct taxdispute resolution has beenextended by six months tillDecember 31, 2020.

Sitharaman said theincome tax department will

fast track processing of pend-ing refunds to charitable trusts,LLPs, non-corporate busi-nesses and proprietorshipfirms, among others.

Also, assessments gettingtime-barred on September 30have been extended tillDecember 31, 2020 and thosegetting time-barred on March31, 2021 have been extendedtill September 30, 2021.

She also said the incometax department has alreadycleared �18,000 crore worth ofrefunds where the quantumdue was up to �5 lakh.

“This coupled with releaseof pending refunds to all non-corporate tax payers would fasttrack the revival of businessand enterprises,” he added.

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The Opposition leaders onWednesday gave a thumb

down to the Prime Minister’sstimulus package of �20 lakhcrore terming it hollowannouncement.

Senior Congress leaderand former finance minister PChidambaram stated there isnothing in what FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaid for the lakhs of poor andit’s a cruel blow to those who

toil everyday,Trinamool Congress chief

and West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeechoed her views and saidwhile people expected to getrelief, but the announcementsby the FM is a big zero. “Thereis nothing for the States,”Mamata said.

Referring to the economicstimulus package, other leaders,including from Left parties,said neither the PM nor the FMmention about the rehabilita-

tion road plan for laborerswhose lives have been upend-ed by the lockdown.

The former FinanceMinister said, “Except for mod-est MSME package, we aredisappointed with announce-ments made by FM.”

“Centre has announced�3.6 lakh crore in the �20-lakhcrore package; where is the restof �16.4 lakh crore,”Chidambaram asked. He saidthe Government is a prisonerof its own ignorance and fears.

“The Government mustspend more, borrow more, andallow states to borrow more butit is not willing to do so,” hesaid. “Wrong time to bringlabour law changes by BJP-ruled States. Wrong precedentset by them,” the Congressleader further opined at AICCvideo Press conference soonafter Sitharaman Press confer-ence. He said in case of thecredit guarantee fund, not theentire fund would be spent.

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With Maharashtra record-ing nearly 1,500 new

cases and 54 deaths, at least 123fresh Covid-linked deaths and3,525 positive cases werereported from across the coun-try on Wednesday taking thetoll to 2,544 and total numberof infections to 77,889.

Of the total number ofcases 26,090 people have recov-ered or have been discharged.

Of the total deaths inMaharashtra, 40 were record-ed in Mumbai alone taking theoverall case count to 25,922 andthe number of fatalities to 975.The total number of Covid-19infected cases crossed the 1,000mark in Mumbai's worst pan-demic-hit Dharavi onWednesday, as 66 more personstested positive for Covid-19.

On a day when theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) peggedthe number of deaths inDharavi at 40, as many as 66new infected cases were report-ed from various parts of Asia'sbiggest slum. With the freshinfected cases, the total num-

ber of infected cases rose to astaggering 1,028.

Attributing the increase inthe number of deaths to thenew information received fromthe BMC's Epidemic Cell, theBMC said, "New nine deathshave been reported by epi-demic cell. These deaths hadhappened earlier on differentdates and conveyed to wardoffice subsequently."

As many as five positivecases were recorded in DhonduMistry Chawl, while four caseswere reported from MatungaLabour camp.

Three cases each were

recorded in Geetanjali Nagar,Azad Nagar and 90 feet Roadarea, while the areas likeKerusheth Chawl, Vijaynagarand Rajiv Gandhi Nagar regis-tered two positive cases.

There is a race betweenTamil Nadu and Gujarat for thesecond spot. The former hasnow replaced Gujarat from thesecond spot with 9,227 cases,nine cases more than Gujarat.Tamil Nadu reported 509 casesand Gujarat 364 on Wednesday.Delhi, the State with the fourth-highest number of cases, has7,998 with the addition of 359new cases on Wednesday.

Covid cases in MadhyaPradesh touched 4,173 with187 new infections while inUttar Pradesh, the cases surgedto 3,664.

Bihar reported 932 cases.In Uttarakhand, the total num-ber of cases touched 71. InPunjab, 1,924 Covid-19 caseswere reported while 32 peopledied in the State. Odisha, whicha few days ago, was reportinga few cases has now started wit-nessing surge in number dailywith 101 new cases onWednesday pushing up thetotal to 538 positive cases.

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The State’s Covid-19 countwitnessed the sharpest hike

as a record single-day 101 peo-ple tested positive on Wednesday.With this record number ofnew cases, the total number ofpatients surged to 538.

While the hardest-hitGanjam registered 52 cases, 33were reported from Baleswardistrict, seven each from Jajpurand Sundagarh districts andtwo from Keonjhar district.

The 33 cases in Baleswardistrict included 24 Suratreturnees, three West Bengalreturnees, two Bengalurureturnees, three local cases andone case from a containmentzone, according to theInformation and PublicRelations Department.

The seven cases inSundargarh district included allprimary contacts in theRourkela containment zones.

Ganjam continued to be ontop of the chart with 210 cases,followed by Jajpur with 90,Jajpur 71, Khordha 50, Bhadrak31, Sundargarh 23 and Angul15 cases. However, amid thespurt in cases as many as 27patient tested negative for thevirus and recovered on the day.

They included ninepatients from Baleswar, eightfrom Bhubaneswar, four fromBhadrak, two each fromGanjam and Sundargarh, andone each from Koraput andKeonjhar districts.

With this, the number ofrecovered patients rose to 143.Bhubaneswar, which had ini-tially emerged as a hotspot with50 cases, has now only threeactive cases.

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A40-year-old man, Gangadhar Biswal,of Bajapur of Katanabania gram pan-

chayat under Kendrapada block’sRajkanika block reportedly committedsuicide at Haryana after failing to returnhome.

Gangadhar was working at aYamunananagar-based company. As com-panies were shut down, he and other Odiaworkers stranded at Harayana. As theycould not meet their daily basic needs aftera few days, they appealed to the Odishagovernment by posting a video in socialmedia to help them come back to their vil-lages.

As the Governments of Odisha andHarayana didn’t take any step for hisreturn, Gangadhar committed suicide onTuesday night by hanging self from a treein Harayana, informed his wife Sabit.

The deceased Gangadhar is survivedby mother, wife and two minor sons ofnine-year and 12-year age. The eldest sonis dumb from birth.

“The State Government is responsi-ble for the untimely demise of my hus-band,” alleged Sabita.

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Acyclonic storm is likely to form over theBay of Bengal (BOB) by the evening of

May 16, the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) predicted onWednesday.

Under the influence of a cyclonic cir-culation over the south Andaman Sea, a lowpressure area has formed over southeastBOB and adjoining south Andaman Sea. Itis very likely to concentrate into a depres-sion over central parts of south BOB on May15 and further intensify into a cyclonic stormover southwest and adjoining west-centralBOB by May 16 evening, the IMD said.

It is very likely to move northwestwardsinitially till May 17 and then re-curvenorth--northeastwards, it added.

“Squally winds, speed reaching 45-55kmph gusting to 65 kmph, are likely to pre-vail over south and adjoining central BOB

on May 15 and 55-65 kmph gusting to 75kmph over the same region on May 16.Wind speed is likely to increase furtherbecoming gale force with 65-75 kmph gust-ing to 85 kmph over southwest and adjoin-ing west-central BOB from the evening ofMay 16. Sea conditions will become veryrough over southwest and adjoining west-central BOB from May 16 evening,” the IMDsaid.

Fishermen have been advised not toventure into south and central BOB fromMay 15. Those who are out at sea in theseregions are advised to return to coasts byThursday.

However, there is no weather warningfor Odisha in connection with this low pres-sure system for next five days (till May 17),said the Regional Office of the IMD here.

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In view of the number ofCovid-19 positive cases ris-

ing in Ganjam district due toreturn of migration workersfrom different parts of thecountry, people’s representa-tives and intellectuals of the dis-trict have urged Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik for moreproactive measures for the dis-trict.

Some important sugges-tions made at an interactionmeeting participated byMinisters, MPs and MLAs ofthe district and other peoplethrough videoconferencingwere presented to the ChiefMinister.

“Increase in Covid-19 pos-itive cases has caused panicamong the people of Ganjamdistrict. We are expecting manymore of our migrant brothersand sisters to return to the dis-trict in near future. Kindlyconsider our suggestions forbetter Covid-19 managementin Ganjam district,” wroteGopalpur BJD MLA DrPradeep Kumar Panigrahy.

They suggested that allsanctioned posts of doctors,

paramedical staff, nurses, tech-nical staff and support staff ofthe MKCG Medical Collegeand Hospital and otherGovernment hospitals be filledup soon to ensure treatment ofgeneral diseases, particularly ofpregnant cases, senior citizensand children, beside Covvid-19cases of mild type.

Such manpower in dedi-cated Covid-19 health facilitiesshould be increased takingpossible increase in coronapositive cases in the days tocome. There should be moretesting centres in the district.PPEs should be supplied ade-quately.

The Government shouldprovide more rest centres for thehospital working staff, policepersonnel and Governmentofficials. Covid Voluntary Forcewith proper training on Covidmanagement should beappointed to assist fontal fight-ers and create awareness pro-grammes on community edu-cation with a motto that all areto live with corona pursuingproper healthcare.

The Government shouldcreate Highway Care Cenres onNHs and SHs to provide waterand food packets to thosemigrants returning from farplaces outside Odisha by walk-ing or pedalling. Otherwise,alternatively arrangementsshould be made to send them

to their native places by buses. To boost the economy of

the people, the Governmentoffices may function normallyto address the issues of the peo-ple and also to carry on devel-opment programmes.Necessary planning should bemade to keep the migrantworkers in their ownGPs/blocks so that better atten-tion and service can be pro-vided to them. The districtadministration should take thelocal MLA into confidence ondealing with such issues.

Dr Panigrahy further sug-gested that committees be con-stituted to monitor the Covid-19 management at theParliamentary or Assemblyconstituency level. These com-mittees may be headed bySpeaker Surjya Narayan Patrofor Brahampur ParliamentaryConstituency and MinisterBikram Keshari Arukha forAska Parliamentary con-stituency. If committees areformed at Assembly con-stituency level, they may beheaded by respective localMLAs.

“Kindly consider the pro-posals to strengthen the Covid-19 management as well as inrealising your vision of pro-tecting lives and ensuring liveli-hood opportunities of the peo-ple of Odisha,” urged DrPanigrahy.

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The first-ever direct flightfrom Dubai to

Bhubaneswar carrying Odishapeople stranded in the Gulf citydue to the Covid-19 crisiswould arrive at the Biju PatnaikInternational Airport (BPIA)here on Thursday.

The flight with 149 pas-sengers would take off from theDubai International Airport at3 pm on Thursday and land atBhubaneswar at 9.15 pm, offi-cial sources said.

“A flight is coming fromDubai on May 14 and willreach at 9.15 pm. The flight willbe operated by Air India,” saidBPIA Director VV Rao.

So far, there has been nodirect flight from Dubai toBhubaneswar. The exception isbeing made in view of theCovid-19 crisis and followingthe advice of the OdishaGovernment, ConsulateGeneral of India (CGI) andOdisha Samaj, UAE.

Sources said the OdishaSamaj, UAE initiated talks withthe Ministry of External Affairs,Government of India, OdishaGovernment as well as theIndian Consulate in Dubairequesting them to take requi-site steps for repatriation ofaround 300 Odias, who haveregistered on the CGI websitefor repatriation.

In the first phase, 149 peo-ple would return to the State.The Odisha Samaj, UAE hasexpressed its gratitude to ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik,Union Minister DharmendraPradhan, External AffairsMinister SubrahmanyamJaishankar and CG Vipul andhis team for their help in thisregard.

An Odisha Samaj, UAEmember told the evacuees.“Please follow the rules set bythe Odisha Government onceyou arrive and do not forget toregister on the Covid-19 portalbefore you depart from Dubai.For those who won’t be able totravel on tomorrow’s flight, werequest them to be patient.”

It may be pointed out thatfrom UAE, 11 flights wouldoperate to India for repatriationof stranded people. A total of149 flights would be operatedfrom 33 countries for the sec-ond-phase evacuation processunder the Vande BharatMission. Of the 149, threeflights have been scheduled toOdisha, one each from UAE,the USA and Malaysia.

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The coronavirus is not adeadly killer but a terrible

infector. It multiplies fast in thehuman host cell and spreadslike wildfire because symp-toms of illness, mild or severe,may not show up in 21 days.Symptomatic cases are easy tomanage because they areinstantly taken away to Covidcare facilities. But the asymp-tomatic individuals keep

spreading without anyoneknowing they are doing so.Unfortunately, most migrantworkers from Odisha havebeen in Gujarat, West Bengaland elsewhere since ages. Manyof them have set up homethere. But the unprecedented‘virus panic' has virtuallyturned people witlessly des-perate to rush back to roots. Asper the national norm, duringthe lockdown period, no mat-ter what, every Indians strand-ed outside native States were tobe treated as local residents inwhichever States they gotlocked in. This did not happen.A majority of the host Stateswere keen to have migrantsevicted because they are poorand helpless and looked downupon as suspect carriers of thevirus.

Not many StateGovernments have paid muchheed to PM Modi’s call for tak-ing care of all human beingstrapped or stranded in theirrespective regions. Perhaps,focussing attention on these

hapless migrants turned out tobe a rather difficult job as tak-ing care of locals was a muchbigger responsibility of theadministration.

Fortunately, Odisha hasbeen doing a splendid job oftaking care of all communities,local and migrant, alike.Realising that out-of-StateOdias were in utter distress, theNaveen administration decid-ed to bring them back from dis-tant locations with amazingarrangements for quarantineand cure. The sole objective isto ensure no one at home isaffected. All the same, it wasprobably difficult to foresee theinevitability of infection duringtrain or bus journeys, whichcan never prevent spread of thevirus due to very close physi-cal proximity. Besides, themigrant lot is not so sensitisedto the strict six-foot social dis-tancing protocol, especiallywhen they are desperate to gethome. Hence, the alarmingrise in the number of infectedin Odisha. With little more

prudence and bargaining skill,the State Government couldhave struck deals with otherhost Governments by extend-ing material and manpowerhelp. All talkative politiciansand sly, work-shirking bureau-crats should have been forciblytransported to locations inGujarat, West Bengal, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu and else-where in full personal protec-tion equipments to serve thepeople.

The virus will ultimatelyfail to make any noteworthy lifeclaim, as, evidently, its viru-lence is diminishing fast andpeople’s immunity is risingappreciably. The whole horrif-ic drama is likely to end up insome kind of a highly spe-cialised ‘herd immunity’ hav-ing been achieved sooner thanexpected. But it is clear that thepressure on the State serviceagencies will be enormous. Allthe infected have to be put inhospitals with special attentiongiven to all aspects. That is thebig reason why people feel

concerned about the Puri CarFestival preparations being infull swing. ‘Social distancing',the only ‘preventive vaccine' athand, will take a beating whenpeople congregate at a place inreligious frenzy. The CarFestival rituals involve toomany close-body activities asper the religious norms. Forsure, not many will fall sick orsuccumb to the fragile virus;but the caring, nursing facilitieswill exert tremendous pressureon the state systems with lim-ited or depleting resources.

It would be divinely appro-priate to say here that free ‘over-the-counter' sale of liquor toois perceived as invitation tovirus invasion. Spirited crea-tures craving for alcohol cannever be disciplined. Socialdistancing at liquor shops isonly a fantasy. Either the Stategoes semi-dry with specialliquor permits or home deliv-ery alone becomes the norm.Liquor revenue will never slidedown if that mode is adopted.The administration has only to

experiment just once.At least two hundred ‘flu

viruses' keep waiting for hostsaround the globe, nearly 98%of them ordinary ones withoutpower to infect many andcause severe illness. But lately,flu is becoming unmanage-able among the elderly and theimmuno-weak communities.There is now a critical need fora broad spectrum flu vaccine tobe developed. The coronaviruses have those typicalspikes to cling on to the hostcells. These spikes also keepchanging length and pointed-ness in a process called muta-tion to be able to adapt to anynew-species habitat.

It is absolutely true thatthere’s more than one strain ofthe new coronavirus movingand shaking the human world.So from hence, the humanrace shall never be lax about ahitherto underrated flu virus.The theory about differentstrains of the new coronaviruscomes from a study in China.Researchers were studying

changes in coronavirus RNAover time to figure out how var-ious coronaviruses are relatedto each other. They looked at103 samples of the new coro-navirus collected from peopleand they looked at coron-aviruses from animals. Itturned out that the coron-aviruses found in humansweren’t all the same.

As the coronavirus keepsspreading around the world, itwill probably keep changing.Experts may find new strains.But it is impossible to predicthow those viral changes willaffect mankind. It is still keep-ing medical and scientificresearchers confused. Theymay have to remain glued tothe laboratory desks day in andday out.

Life will never be the sameagain. The human species is athreatened one already.Precautions are the only wayout. Social distancing and dis-ciplined behaviour can save thehuman race. The deadliest fluviruses are here for good. The

heart-rending fact is that vac-cine for one may not work foranother mutated strain. So,preventive measures alone cansave lives. Vaccine businesswill be the most profitable fora long, long time. Soap, sani-tiser and mask making will becottage industry soon.

Interestingly, for certain,the wealthy and the so-calledmighty among humans shallfear to flaunt wealth and powerduring wedding events thesame way as electioneering.The panic situation will not gountil miracle drugs land inhand. The human race has toremain civilised like now or elseperish more out of immunityloss due to fear of death.

The media and some Stateofficials are merrily spreadingmore fear than critical infor-mation to keep the virus ward-ed off. They invariably keepharping on the rising numbersof the afflicted and the dead,rather than emphasising onhow simple it is to remain safe.That is sin.

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The Bhubaneswar-NewDelhi Special Express train

left for New Delhi from theBhubaneswar railway station at10 am on Wednesday with916 passengers as part of agradual resumption of passen-ger train operations by theIndian Railways.

The train had stoppages atBhadrak, Balasore, Hijli(Kharagpur), Tatanagar Jn,Bokaro Steel City, Gomoh Jn(operational), Gaya, Pt. DdUpadhyaya Jn and KanpurCentral, official sources said.

Only passengers with validconfirmed tickets were allowedto enter the railway station. Itwas mandatory for the pas-

sengers to wear face-coversand undergo screening. Onlyasymptomatic passengers wereallowed to board the train,which had 22 coaches.

Tickets for the special trainhad been sold out in 30 min-utes after online booking com-menced through the IRCTCwebsite on Monday evening. The East CoastRailway had asked the passen-gers to carry teir own food andlinen and reach theBhubaneswar station forscreening at least 90 minutesbefore the train’s departure.

The New Delhi-Bhubaneswar special train isscheduled to commence itsjourney from the New Delhistation on Thursday.

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Beating the odds, an 85-year-old woman in the State

has emerged victorious in herbattle against the coronavirus.Probably, she was the State’soldest Covid-19 patient.

The old woman weighingonly 22 kg is a resident of Jajpurdistrict and had been admittedto the SUM Covid Hospitalhere after getting infected withthe virus. Battling for life for 12days, she finally recovered andwas discharged from the hos-pital on Tuesday.

Besides, 14 other Covid-19patients of Jajpur district,including two three-year-oldchildren, were discharged fromthe hospital on Tuesday. Theyalso included a 60-year-oldman, who was diagnosed withdiabetes in the hospital itself. Infact, the treatment helped hispre-prandial blood sugar levelto steeply reduce from 400 to100. Jajpur district has so farreported 71 positive cases,including 38 active cases.

The SUM Covid Hospital,set up in collaboration with theState Government and sup-ported by the MCL, has 525beds, including 25 ICU beds.

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The Odisha State RoadTransport Corporation

(OSRTC) would ply buses in allgreen zones of the State withdouble fares.

Transport MinisterPadmanabha Behera onWednesday said, “TheTransport Department’s pro-posal regarding movement ofbuses in green zones was reject-ed by the private bus owners’association. They did not agreeto ply their buses on the con-dition of 50 per cent occupan-cy.”

Hence, we decided todeploy OSRTC buses for theservice of the people in Greenzones. But the bus fare will bedoubled,” the Minister added.

There are 500 OSRTCbuses in the State and all thebuses will be deployed,” sourcessaid.

Meanwhile, a bus startedplying between Cuttack andBhubaneswar on Wednesdayfor office-goers in the twincities of Bhubaneswar andCuttack with a fare of Rs 30.The Government plans toincrease the number of busesfor office-goers in coming days.

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As valuation of matricula-tion examination answer

sheets is going to begin short-ly and valuation of plus twoanswer sheets is likely to fol-low soon afterwards, manyLecturers here feel the urgencyof going for online evaluationfrom home.

They have opposed thetraditional way of holding

valuation zones and gatheringof evaluators there for sever-al weeks to evaluate theanswer sheets. The lecturerspointed out that as far as plustwo science answer sheets areconcerned, online valuation isnothing new, the only differ-ence being “valuation at val-uation zones, and not fromhomes.”

In view of the pandemic,this can be modified a bit this

year and may be made tocover all the three streams ofscience, humanities and com-merce. Modification meansthe examiners this time maybe allowed to evaluate thescanned answer sheets onlinefrom their homes and this canbe done smoothly, once theyare given their respective Idand passwords, the lecturersclarified.

The proposed process of

valuation has the efficacy ofeffectively breaking the chainof corona virus, givingabsolutely no scope for viola-tion of social distancingnorms, and at the same timewill ensure smooth and satis-factory valuation, they said.The teachers have expressedhope that their suggestionwill certainly be given someserious thought by the author-ities.

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Indian National Trade UnionCongress (INTUC) State

president and former MP DrRama Chandra Khuntia hasurged Chief Minister NaveenPatanik not to increase work-ing hours for labourers fromeight to 12 hours.

“When the world is strug-gling to deal with the Covidpandemic, increasing labourhour from eight 8 to 12 hoursin the name of Covid compul-sions is not wise at all. It willreduce the number of personsat work and create health riskof people,” wrote Dr Khuntia toPatnaik on Tuesday.

He said any such a deci-sion, if taken, would be con-trary to the established law asSection 51 of the FactoriesAct, 1948 envisages that noadult (a person who has com-pleted 18 years of age) shall beallowed to work in a factory formore than 48 hours in a week.

“When more migrantworkers returning home, wefeel what is important is to keepthis workforce healthy andmake work available at theirnative places so that they donot forcefully leave homes,”suggested Dr Khuntia.

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Lok Shakti Abhiyan presidentPrafulla Samantara on

Wednesday urged ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik forrequisite arrangements andmore justice for migrant work-ers of Odisha in different States.

“Even now there are lakhs ofOdia workers in Surat, Bangaloreand many other cities who hadbeen waiting to get trains toreturn their homes. Still many of

them are being deprived of get-ting any food or ration; even theyare not getting free train ticketsto come. The CentralGovernment’s announcementto provide 85 per cent of the tick-et charge has not been imple-mented. Even, a reserved trainwas cancelled as the Ganjam dis-trict administration did not giveclearance. Your intervention isnecessary to pressurise the rail-way ministry to provide freetrain journey to Odisha workers,”Samantara wrote to the CM.

He also apprised that manyOdia workers in Surat ofGujarat informed him that theyneeded more trains from Surat

to come. He requested Pantaikthat each waiting worker begiven Rs 2,000 per month fortheir food. When they return,they many may be allowed toremain in quarantine in theirhouses. He also requested theChief Minister to provide trans-port to the workers who havereached the borders of Odisha bywalking from other States so thatthey can get relief and protect life.

Besides, the suggestedworkers should be scrutinisedin quarantine centres afterseven days of staying healthyand unaffected people be freedand allowed to stay inside theirhouses.

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To bring a change in theCovid-affected industrial

scenario, the Government hasinitiated steps for attractingemployment-intensive invest-ments to the State.

Chief Secretary AsitTripathy chaired an interactivesession with members of theUN-India Strategic PartnershipForum (USISPF) throughvideoconferencing in thisregard on Tuesday. IndustriesSecretary Hemant Sharma pre-sented strong clues for Odishaover other State for invest-ment in metal, non-metal,downstream, electronics and ITsectors.

Replying to the queries ofperspective investors, Tripathysaid, “The corona infectionlevel is well under control in theState. Many of our industrialestates are now in green zone.As of now, around 60 per centof the industries are now run-ning by virtue of the Covid pre-ventive measures.”

He said the State has fol-lowed policy consistency inmatters of industrial promotionand is on the verge of rollingout more progressive regula-tions in matters of land leasing,contract farming, directfarmer-market connect that

will open new avenues ofinvestment.

Sharma said, “Political sta-bility, policy consistency, eco-nomic stability, skilled man-power, lion share of country’smineral deposit, large miningand industrial base, ready avail-ability of land in developedindustrial estates, quality powersupply, ready to move settingfor electronics and IT sectorsalong with sector specific facil-itating policies have been thebenchmark of Odisha”.

He said Odisha is a pioneerState in having a stabilisedsingle window clearance systemfor investment proposals.

Electronics and ITSecretary Manoj Mishra saidthe State has well developedelectronic and manufacturingsector just close to the capitalcity and is rich with skilledmanpower in electronic and IT.

The perspective investorsinteracted with Tripathy andothers under the leadership ofUSISPF CEO Dr Mukesh Aghi.

The leading industrieswhich showed interest in theinteraction included US com-panies like ATC, AvaadaEnergy, Cairn Energy, Cisco,Exxon Mobil, Herbalife, HP,Mars, Microsoft, Oracle andPaypal.

Cuttack: Social worker andBJD secretary Nishitha Karanhas donated Rs 1,01,000 to theChief Minister’s Relief Fund(CMRF) for utilisation in curb-ing Covid-19 outbreak. Karanhanded over a cheque of theamount to Cuttack districtCollector Bhabani ShankarChayani recently. He has beenpraised for his social activitiesand donations from differentquarters. PNS

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NRO Professor DigambaraPatra urged that paddy

procurement in the Stateshould be brought under theambit of 5T to ensure trans-parency in the system.

"It is an open secret inOdisha that 5-10 kg of paddyis deducted per quintal fromfarmers in Mandis as agent feesor citing poor quality, etc.,which directly goes to corruptlocal officials, local politicians,agents and others. And when afarmer denies paying thischarge to this nexus, his/herpaddy is kept for weeks in themandis citing various reasons.In the village and panchayatlevel, more than 60 percentpopulation of Odisha is some-how linked with mandis. Thus,a corrupt mandi system is notgiving a positive message to theGovernance," told Patra in hisletter to CM Naveen Patnaik.

He said it would be wise toalso bring mandis under 5T

Department and punish thosewho practice this illegal cut of5 kg paddy from farmers. Thiswill have a very direct and pos-itive impact in the groundlevel and surely people will fur-ther appreciate your honestapproach to give a transparentand efficient governance, hetold.

Similarly, recently MadhyaPradesh and Uttar PradeshGovernments are speeding upfarm sector reforms duringthis lockdown period by allow-ing private players to openmandis, designating ware-houses and cold storages as pri-vate mandis, and even encour-aging farmers to sell theirproducts to private playersfrom home using online orother technology. It is righttime Odisha also bring suchreform to give better and com-petitive price to the Odishafarmers for their products, hesaid further.

He also drew attention tothe problem faced by the farm-ers of Thuamul Rampur blockin Kalahandi having more than50 percent of tribal population,where there are no registeredfarmers nor any PACS.

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ASurat returnee pregnantwoman, who had tested

positive for coronavirus deliv-ered twins at the MKCGMedical College Hospital hereon Wednesday.

The woman was admittedto the special Covid-19 ward ofthe hospital after she com-plained of labour pain.

Source said that she gavebirth to a baby boy and girl atthe hospital and both thepatient and her twins are sta-ble.

The pregnant woman hadreturned to Ganjam districtfrom Surat in Gujarat withher husband amid lockdown.Following their return, thecouple was under Government

quarantine as part of theMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) guidelines.

On Tuesday, a 28-year-oldwoman, who had returnedfrom Surat, delivered a babyboy at an institutional quaran-tine in Ganjam district.

As per reports, the womanSantoshini Pradhan along withhusband Driver Pradhan wasstaying at the institutionalquarantine in MardakotaHarihar High School underBeguniapada block since May6 after the couple’s return fromSurat. Santoshini underwentlabour in the afternoon andgave birth to the baby boy at3.59 pm at the quarantine cen-tre.

Getting information, alocal doctor reached the quar-antine centre and carried outmedical examination ofSantoshini and her baby. Boththe woman and her baby aredoing fine, the doctor said.

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All persons who havereturned from different

States of the country includingMaharashtra and Gujarat havebeen accommodated in thepre-prepared quarantine cen-tres opened all over the district.

Fortunately, all thereturnees have been behavingpolitely here unlike other partsof the State and are also coop-erating with the administrationand in-charges of the centres,a senior officer from the localadministration said.

Although the districtadministration is not providingthe exact figure of the personscoming from outside, but it is212 so far and expected toincrease as a few more trainsare expected to reach Odishawithin a day or two.

It is further learnt thattotal 1,501 swab tests havebeen conducted so far in thedistrict and 1,221 have been

found to be negative and theresults of the rest of the personsare awaited.

But with the arrival of thepersons from outside the State,people here are panicked.

However a senior officerhere said that there would beabsolutely no threat from theguest labourers as they wouldget no chance to spread the dis-ease further. The moment theywould get gown from buses andtrains, they would be directlytaken to the quarantine centresand hence get no chance tospread the virus to others.

Notably, the districtadministration has also con-verted some luxurious hotels ofthe city to quarantine centreswhere rich people can pay andstay comfortably.

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A35-year -old man, anative of Birmitrapur

area of Sundargarh dis-trict, who was working asan unskilled labour atDelhi, cycled about 1,200km from Delhi toBirmitrapur alone andarrived his native place onMonday evening.

After his arrival, hewas screened and advisedfor home quarantine bythe district administration.

According to sources,Dhiraj Toppo(35), a nativeof Ward No.10 ofBirmitrapur purchased abicycle at Delhi and beganhis journey in the bicycleon April 30 carrying threebags. After cycling daily fortwelve long days, Dhirajreached at Biramitrapur onMonday.

After his arrival, he wasregistered at Birmitrapur bor-der and his health was checkedby doctors there. He was alsoscreened by officials of

Biramitrapur Municipality andwas advised for home quaran-tine.

"After his screening, Dhirajwas advised to go for home

quarantine, since his healthcondition was alright," saidNodal officer, Biramitrapur

Municipality N Das. "Hishealth status however would bemonitored in regular intervalby our health workers, as perthe protocol," Das added.

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The sarpanch of Ostia grampanchayat under Rajnagar

block has started yoga andpranayam class at the quaran-tine centre by ensuring allinmates live with disciplineand in close adherence to rules.

According to sources,sarpanch Kedar Kumar Sahu

has started yoga and pranayamclasses for the inmates quar-antined at Jagannathpur Nodal

High School to keep them fitand fine.

Getting the permissionfrom the district Collector, hehas arranged a yoga instructorof the locality for the purpose.

Even, BDO of Rajnagarblock Mandardhar Mahali, alsoon Sunday ,while visiting to thequarantine centre , too prac-tised yoga with others.

As many as 28 Odiamigrant workers, including sixwomen, are staying at the quar-

antine centre.Meanwhile, to keep a close

watch on the activities of thereturnees on the gram pan-chayat level quarantine centres, CCTV has been installed atRajnagar High School quaran-tine centre, Ostia gram pan-chayat quarantine centre andIswarpur quarantine centre,informed BDO Mahali.

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On April 19, the StateGovernment declared to

empower the Sarpanches ofGram Panchayats and UrbanLocal Bodies (ULBs) with theauthority of district Collectorin their respective jurisdic-tions towards fighting Covid-19 pandemic. This is in accor-dance with the provisions of theDisaster Management Act,2005, the Epidemic DiseasesAct 1897 read with OdishaCovid-19 Regulation.

Odisha is the first and onlyState to make such provisionsas per the Section 44 (1) ofOdisha Gram Panchayat Act1964.

Much higher than the State’s estimation of 5 lakh Odiamigrant workers are strandedin other States. They will returnto their native villages once thelockdown for Covid-19 is lift-ed. The primary objective ofdelegating power to Sarpanchsof 6,798 panchayats in the

State is to do mandatory regis-tration of each new comerfrom outside the state andmakes them to undergo 14-dayquarantine at different quar-antine centres. The Sarpanchswill be responsible for provid-ing food, safety and securityand other facilities during thestay of migrants at the quar-antine centres. After the com-pletion of quarantine periodthe Sarpanch will hand overthem ?2,000 as an incentive.

Why is this declaration?A question may arise as to

how a bureaucratic system hav-ing colonial hangover wouldagree to hand over the powersof a Collector to a Sarpanch ?One may like to ponder overthe reasons that lie behindsuch a unique phenomenon.May be the increase in thenumber of migrants back totheir villages is likely to gobeyond the control of thebureaucrats. In case of anymismanagement, the account-ability will be fixed on theSarpanchs, not on the bureau-

crats.

What is the reality?The reality is altogether dif-

ferent. During the interactionswith Sarpanchs, it was revealedthat till date they have not beengiven either financial power oradministrative power to takedecisions and carry out thesame. They invariably dependupon the BDOs and at times onTehsildars for taking decisions.The Government of Odisha hasdeclared to provide Rs 5 lakheach to the Panchayat.However, the money has notyet reached to the Panchayatsas expected. The Sarpanchsare spending the money previ-ously allotted to them undervarious schemes on the basis ofcounter signature of respectiveBDOs. The Sarpanchs are com-plaining that taking the countersignature of BDOs causes greatdelay and is also difficult, con-sidering the urgency of a crit-ical contingency. Instead theyshould be given the authorityof withdrawing the moneyunder their signatures, subject

to a constant process of socialaudit by Gram Sabha and mon-itoring by the local adminis-tration.

Again the decentralizationprocess should not stop at theSarpanchs only and rather godown to the level of GramSabha. In such a situation, theGram Panchayat consisting ofthe elected leaders from amonga compact and cohesive popu-lation can be expected to actproperly as the executive armof the Gram Sabha. Thus, aredefined functioning of GramSabha and Gram Panchayat willmake the PRI process moreparticipatory and effective.Such norms are already built inthe provisions of PESA, 1996and FRA 2006.

What is the provision oflaw?

As per the 73rdConstitution amendment of1992, the respective StateGovernments have providedfor decentralization of powersto the Panchayats. TheGovernment of Odisha has

also declared its intention tostrengthen PRIs as institutionsof self-Government. In theyear 2003, 21 subjects of 11departments have supposedlydevolved to the PRIs in linewith 73rd constitution amend-ment 1992. In other words,officials of 11 departments areaccountable to the PRIs inthese respects.

After decades of devolutionof powers in Odisha, the ques-tion still looms large is, isthere at all, even a single sub-ject being operationalized byPRIs themselves? The 73rd and74th amendments, no doubt,formally transferred the func-tions to PRIs andMunicipalities, but there hasbeen very little devolution inproper sense of the term in thematter relating to funds, func-tions or functionaries.

In the 90s, the 73rdConstitution Amendment deep-ened a discourse on decentral-isation. The 73rd ConstitutionAmendment Act, 1992 thatcame into force with effectfrom April 24, 1993 and insti-

tutionalised Panchayati Raj atvillage, intermediate and districtlevels. The Act contains provi-sions for devolution of powersand assignment of responsibil-ities to the Panchayats in respectof both preparation of plans foreconomic development andsocial justice. It also provided forthe implementation of the sameincluding the 29 subjects listedin the Eleventh Schedule to theConstitution. The Panchayats asenvisaged in the 73rdAmendment were later onextended to the ScheduledAreas in nine States includingOdisha.

What are the contradic-tions?

In an effort to comply with73rd Constitution AmendmentAct 1992, almost every StateGovernment repealed their oldand outdated Panchayat lawsand replaced them by a single,comprehensive and consoli-dated one. Odisha has threeseparate Panchayat laws such asthe Orissa GP Act 1964,Panchayat Samiti Act 1959 and

Zilla Parishad Act 1991. Therehave been only a few cosmet-ic changes in the above lawsunder the compulsion of 73rdAmendment but real powerscontinue to rest with thebureaucrats at different levels asin the old, pre-73rdAmendment days. Forinstance, in each of Odisha’sthree principal Panchayat laws,there is as of today a Chaptertitled ‘Control’, which endowspowers to bureaucrats from thelowest to the highest level toexercise control of varioustypes and by various degreesover the Panchayats at eachlevel. This is absolutely incom-patible with the letter and spir-it of 73rd Amendment.

What need to be done?Thus, the first and fore-

most task of every votary ofPanchayat Raj in Odishashould be to see how a single,consolidated law covering allthe three tiers of PRIs and thattoo framed in a user friendlylanguage and in conformity tothe mandate of 73rd

Amendment is given effect.The Government of Odishashould amend the existingPanchayat laws in line with the73rd amendment in a timebound manner.

In the present scenario,the Sarapanchs are primarilyresponsible for contenting andpreventing to spread of coron-avirus. They need to have con-crete action plan. In thisrespect, the Governmentshould provide adequate finan-cial and administrative powersto access to the basic minimumamenities besides the otherdevelopment works in the vil-lages. And also, theGovernment should ensurethat every panchayat is pro-vided with adequate facilities,equipment, medical and para-medical man power for thepurpose. Then only theSarpanchs can exercise thepower of district Collector intrue sense.

(The writer is a researcherbased at Bhubaneswar. M:9938063275)

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Jogendra Majhi, a RNFIagent, is located in his village

Khamtari of Nuapada districtproviding digital financialfacilitation services to the ruralpeople of his locality.

"It is a company registeredunder the Companies Act andincorporates several businessactivities including facilitiesfor money transfer," saysJogendra, a high school-edu-cated.

Jhankar Majhi of Kirkitavillage is working in a medi-cine company in Hyderabad.He was in his village on leavefor a week and returned to hiswork place in March last justbefore the lockdown wasdeclared. As the company didnot open, he had to stay idleand required money to man-age his stay in Hyderabad.Bhajman, Jhankar's father, whocould'nt move to the bankdue to lockdown was worried,how to send money to his son.Jogendra came to his rescue at

this juncture. He sent Rs13,501 in five phases tohim. "Before transfer-ring the needed amountI send R 1 as trial to con-firm that the money isremitted to the genuineaccount," says Jogendra.

Jogendra sends themoney through a mobileapp. He doesn't needany office to operate."What is needed is anandroid mobile withinternet facility.”

"Usually, I sit here inthis Jagyan Mandap todo my work, when peo-ple call me for service. Iam in this work sincelast 8 months. This is ofcrucial importance dur-ing the time of lockdown.Most migrants stranded indifferent parts of the countryare in need of money and Ihave already transferred Rs 5lakh in this period," saysJogendra.

One such migrant isMohan, who was working as a

helper in Chennai. He wantedmoney to buy a bicycle toreturn to his village due tolockdown. His father sent Rs6,000 through Jogendra.Mohan immediately bought abicycle and paddled to the dis-trict in ten days. He is now inquarantine centre at Bargaon

of Khariar block. "The Digital India is a

good step. I have already sentmoney to about 1,000 peopleresiding in different parts ofthe country. Many studentsreading outside are also bene-fiting from my service," saysJogendra.

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After walking 300 km fromHyderabad with three

friends to try to reach Odishain view of the lockdown, a 21-year-old migrant worker col-lapsed and died, apparently ofsunstroke at Bhadrachalamon Tuesday.

The group had set out on

foot from Hyderabad onSunday and were on their wayto Malkangiri district, reportssaid. When they reachedBhadrachalam, the man com-plained of chest pain, vomit-ed and collapsed on the road.

His friends informedpolice, who took him to alocal hospital, where he wasdeclared brought dead. Thedoctors at the hospital saidthey suspected he might havedied of sunstroke as his skinand mouth were dry.

Officials later informedthe man’s family membersand arranged for a vehicle totake the body to Malkangiri.The distance from Hyderabadto Bhadrachalam by road is310 km.

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The People’s Liberation Frontof India (PLFI) members

on Tuesday allegedly abducted

a former Sarpanch for refusingto pay them extortion money.

The victim was identifiedas Agnesh Siyush, a resident ofJamdara village.

The illegal outfit membersfired 12 rounds blanks to ter-rorise the locals during the inci-dent..

The miscreants abductedthe Sarpanch from Patob vil-lage under Nuagaon blocklocated on the Odisha-Jharkhand border at around 9pm when he refused to pay

them Rs 3 lakh.Source said that Agnesh

was released in the forest afterbeing assaulted by the PLFImembers.

Following the incident,police reached the village andseized 12 empty cartridges andhave initiated an investigationto unravel more details aboutthe incident. Source said thatAgnesh was suspended fourmonths ago in connection witha solar light scam in the village.

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With Sarpanches havingbeen vested with

Collector’s power ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik, theMarkona gram panchayatSarpanch in Baleswar districtdeclared a 48-hour completeshutdown in the GP onWednesdayas a preventivemeasure of Covid-19.

“The gram panchayat willbe under shutdown from 6 amon May 14 to 6 am on May 16,”informed Sarpanch PradeepKumar Behera.

The decision was taken inpublic interest to preventspread of coronavirus as largenumbers of migrant workershave returned to the villagefrom different parts of thecountry, he stated.

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After the detection of twoCovid-19 positive cases in

Likhiria village in Gudvellablock and subsequent declara-tion of shutdown in that areaby the Balangir district admin-

istration, harvest of ripen Rabipaddy crop has been affected.

"Rabi paddy has ripenedalready. We are unable to har-vest it due to the shutdown inour area. The police are not giv-ing permission to use labour-ers in harvesting work,"lamented secretary of DeogaonPanipanchyat Laxman Podh,adding that several farmerswhose paddy has ripened andready to harvest, were a wor-rying lot.

In the last year flood a por-

tion of Deogaon Sagar wasdamaged and due to the shut-down this year it has not beenrepaired.

After the damages, manyfarmers have not been able totake up cultivation of Rabipaddy, he said further.

However, the paddy whichhas ripened and ready for har-vest is left in the field. But theindefinite shutdown in ourarea has halted the harvest ofpaddy, told Podh. He urged fora review of the decision.

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In an interesting researchamidst the Corona lock-

down, it has turned out that theOpposition has had an upperhand in the Rajya Sabha for 39of the 68 years in terms ofnumbers. The informationshared by Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidusays that despite this, legislativebusiness was not adverselyimpacted, though other con-cerns did emerge.

"The mode of elections toand tenures of Rajya Sabha andLok Sabha are different. Thiscould lead to a situation of theGovernment of the day havingmajority as required in theLok Sabha and not having thenumbers in the Rajya Sabha.This is what had happened overthe years," Naidu noted whilerecounting the journey of the

Upper House on the occasionof 68th anniversary of its firstsitting.

Naidu said the Rajya Sabhaheld 5,472 sittings and passed3,857 Bills till the BudgetSession this year, even as itasserted its independence onsome occasions.

Sharing about the first sit-ting of Rajya Sabha on May 13,1952, Naidu recounted theproceedings and mentionedthe first observation in theHouse was made by the thenSecretary SN Mukherjee, whoread out the order of thePresident of India appointingDr S Radhakrishnan and SVKrishna Moorthy Rao.

And the first ever obser-vation in the House by theChairman Radhakrishnanwhile welcoming the Memberswas: "May I extend to you all ahearty welcome and express thehope that by our activities wewill further the speedy and all-round progress of our people?"

As per the information,197 Members including 9

women from 16 States madeand subscribed the oath oraffirmation on the first day ofthe Council of States. The firstMember to take oath was N.Gopalaswami Ayyengar, thethen Minister of Defence, whowas subsequently appointedthe leader of the House. Thefirst woman to take oath wasPushpalata Das. Some other

prominent members includedKunwarani Vijaya Raje, Prof.Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, VioletAlva and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

Naidu recalled the UpperHouse passing several majorBills relating to GST, IBC,triple talaq, re-organisation ofJ & K, citizenship amendmentetc, even though the presentgovernment does not have thenumbers. “This suggests thatno case can be made against theRajya Sabha as being obstruc-tionist in law making," henoted.

He further observed thatirrespective of the compositionof the House, time spent on leg-islation remained 29 pc of thetotal functional time of theUpper House.

"The line between obstruc-tion and disruption is thinand needs to be put aside," hesaid.

Tracing the evolution of theRajya Sabha, Naidu stated thatit is turning out to be more andmore a deliberative body hav-ing spent 33.54 pc of the timeof the House on discussingissues of public importanceduring 1978-2014; 41.42 pcduring 2005-14 and a high of46.59 pc during 2015-19.

The chairman, however,expressed concern over declin-ing time spent on the oversightfunction of the House amidstrising trend of disruptionseroding the productivity of theHouse.

He observed that the RajyaSabha spent 39.50 pc of thetotal time on ensuring theaccountability of the executiveduring 1978-2004 whichdeclined to 21.99 pc during2005-14 and further to 12.34 pcduring 2015-19.

This was primarily on

account of the "Question Hourbeing abandoned due to dis-ruptions", he said.

Naidu informed that thefunctional productivity of theRajya Sabha used to be about100 pc till 1997 and it slid to 87pc during 1998-2004, to 71 pcduring 2005-14 and further to61 pc during the next fiveyears.

"Since 1978, the annualproductivity of the Rajya Sabhahas been 100 pc in only 12years and it has never been 100pc in the last 29 years," he said,adding that the lowest annualproductivity of 38.63 pc wasrecorded in 2018.

He also referred to threeJoint Sittings in 1961, 1978 and2002 when the Rajya Sabharejected the Dowry ProhibitionBill, 1959, the Banking ServicesCommission (Repeal) Bill,1977, and the Prevention of

Terrorism Bill, 2002, respec-tively. In 1959, the then gov-ernment had majority in theUpper House.

The Rajya Sabha also dif-fered with the Lok Sabha whenit rejected the Constitution(Twenty-fourth Amendment)Bill, 1970, seeking to abolishprivy purses to the erstwhilerulers and two more suchConstitution Amendment Billsin 1989 seeking to strengthenthe Panchayats andMunicipalities which laterbecame the Acts of Parliament.

Referring to delaying ofpassing of some other Bills bythe Upper House, Naidu saidthat if they amounted to check-ing 'hasty legislation', the RajyaSabha passed five ConstitutionAmendment Bills in a day onAugust 25, 1994, when thethen Government did not havethe numbers.

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In an effort to overcome short-age of officers and attract tal-

ent into the armed forces, theArmy is mulling a proposal toallow a three-year ‘Tour of Duty’to common citizens on a trialbasis in the force. The inductionwill be purely voluntary innature and will have no dilutionof selection standards. Thoseselected will on an average get ahigher pay package than theirpeers in the corporate or civil-ian sector besides income taxexemption benefits. At present,the briefest stint is for five to 10years as a Short ServiceCommission (SSC) inductee.

The Army top brass isconsidering all aspects of theproposed ‘Tour of Duty”process where in those menand women desirous of don-ning the uniform, though for ashort period, can serve thenation, sources said here onWednesday.

The proposed scheme willenable the Army both to reduceshortage of officers to a largeextent and also bring down theburgeoning salary and pensionbill, the sources added.

This is expected to free upfunds for modernisation for theArmy too. At present, there isa shortfall of more than 8,000officers in junior positions.

Giving details of the ‘Tourof Duty,’ the term first used bythe US during Vietnam whenits personnel served stints of sixmonths to a year and then re-inducted for the next ‘tour,’sources said the induction willbe for both officers and otherranks initially for a limitednumber of vacancies and thenexpanded later.

The overall purpose of thisentry scheme is

‘internship/temporary experi-ence’ and so there will be norequirement of attractive sev-erance packages, resettlementcourses, professional encash-ment training leave, ex-ser-vicemen status and Ex-ser-vicemen Contributory HealthScheme (ECHS).

Elaborating upon theexpenditure, they said the costof training incurred on eachpersonnel compared to thelimited employment of themanpower for three years ismore. Explaining the benefitsof the proposed scheme, they

said the cumulative approxi-mate cost of pre-commissiontraining, pay, allowances, gra-tuity, proposed severance pack-ages, leave encashment andother costs is nearly �5.12crore and �6.83 crore respec-tively on an SSC officer if he orshe is released from Serviceafter 10 and 14 years.

The overall cost goes upeven further as 50-60% of theSSC officers opt for PermanentCommission and continue inservice till 54 years and there-after as pension benefits.However, similar costs for

those released after three yearsis just �80-85 lakh, they said.

Similarly, estimates for anon-commissioned soldierwith 17 years of service ascompared to with the ‘Tour ofDuty’ jawan with three-years-ser vice, shows that theprospective lifetime savingsfor just one Jawan is �11.5crore. Therefore, savings foronly 1,000 jawans could be?11,000 crore which could beused for the much neededmodernisation of the Army,the proposal said.

Underlining the advan-tages of the scheme, officialssaid it focuses on those indi-viduals who do not want a fullcareer in the Army but stillwant to put on the Uniform.

Those opting for thisprocess will get a much high-er salary than their peers onan average who start a careerin the corporate sector. Theywill also have advantage afterleaving the Service and goingto the Corporate sector, theproposal States. The Armyhopes this scheme will attractindividuals from the best col-leges.

The proposal has sug-gested several measures toincentivise this scheme like atax-free income for threeyears and a token lumpsum atthe end of three years about� 5-6 lakh for officers and �2-3 lakh for jawan.

The Army’s pay and pen-sion bill has been increasing-ly steeply over the yearsaccounting for 60% of theArmy’s budget allocation.During the last five yearsthough the growth in defencebudget has been 68%, and fordefence salaries 75%, defencepensions have increased by astaggering 146%.

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Making it clear that the hotelindustry needs to be ready

for changes as lockdown restric-tions get gradually eased amidthe Covid-19 pandemic, theGovernment has prepared draftguidelines for hotels and otheraccommodation units to ensuresocial distancing and adequatesafety measures.

Besides listing Covid-19-related must-have amenities athotels, the draft ''Post COVID-19 Protocols forAccommodation Units’ detailsprocedures for check-ins andcheck-outs, room allocationprocess and in-room provisions,daily thermal checking of guestsand staff, room and commonarea cleaning, food service, andother dos and don’ts for hotelstaff and guests.

The Union TourismMinistry has now sought sug-gestions from the stakeholderslike Hotel Association of India(HAI), Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) and Federation ofIndian Chambers of Commerceand Industry (Ficci) andFederation of Hotel andRestaurant Associations of India(FHRAI).

The draft protocols seek tominimise all possible touchpoints between a staff and guestwhile at the hotel, and propos-es a ‘special recommendation’that the staff should have theAarogya Setu app for guest sur-veillance during check-ins.

“As the Coronavirus pan-demic has brought in newnorms in day-today life, turningour lives upside down the timehas come to think and organizeour near future. We know thatCoronavirus has already hadand will also have importanteconomic consequences andthat tourism is one of the sectorsmost affected by this crisis.Draft protocols are way forwardin the Coronavirus times,” saidan official from the TourismMinistry which has prepared theguidelines.

Prepared in consultationwith the Union Health Ministryand other agencies , the proto-cols will be finalised soon, hesaid.

“This policy is developedwith the view of the govern-ment’s guidelines of maintainingsocial distancing at all times bymultiple preventive actions andsafety measures in addition tomaking hotels aware about howto operate and manage runningoperations during the current

situation,” as per the document.It also stated that the guide-

lines endeavour to make thetraceability of guests easier, incase a situation in future war-rants so. Housekeeping staffwould have to wear masks orPPE wherever needed whilecleaning or deep cleaning theroom.

As per the draft guidelines,the hotels should maintain a safedistance of 6 feet from suchguests and should offer themmedical assistance. The staffshould keep a watch over thehealth condition of these guestsand if illness persists the roomof the guest should be locked

and the entire floor, receptionand all common areas should bedeep cleaned and fumigated.

Linen and other items mustbe washed separately. Details ofthe guest, including travel his-tory and medical conditionalong with ID and self-decla-ration form must be providedby the guest at the reception forthe time being.

Regarding the check-outprocedure, the draft SOP pro-posed that guests should informat the reception an hour beforethe check out and they shouldonly check out once he/she isconfirmed by the reception.

In case of a guest is sus-

pected of COVID-19 infec-tion, the draft guidelines saythey should not be deniedcheck-in if they are coughing orsneezing, instead social dis-tancing should be maintainedand medical assistance shouldbe offered.

"In case suspected guestsflee/not traceable, inform thepolice immediately," as per thedocument. The protocols comedays after the Union HealthMinistry prepared guidelinesfor the hotels interested to offertheir rooms/accommodationsfor Covid-19 suspected/patientsneeding quarantine/isolationfacilities.

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New Delhi: The face-offsbetween troops of India andChina have no connectionwith any domestic or interna-tional situation prevailingtoday, Army Chief Gen ManojMukund Naravane said onWednesday.

In an interview with ANI,Naravane said these face-offshave been happening in the pastand it has happened again nowand “we will deal with it as perprotocol between the two coun-tries”.

The Army chief said face-offs between Chinese People’sLiberation Army troops andIndian troops are nothing newas the Line of Actual Control(LAC) is not very “well defined”but asserted that the armedforce will deal with the issue asper the protocol laid outbetween the two countries.

The Army chief ’s remarkscame after Indian forces hadface-offs with Chinese forces innorthern Sikkim and in easternLadakh earlier this week.

“As far the situation innorthern borders is concerned,LAC is not very well defined.There are different perceptionswhere the LAC runs.Accordingly, both sides patrol upto their accepted claimed linesand, therefore, when patrolsreach at the same place and atthe same time such face-offs dooccur. They have occurred in thepast and there is nothing new inwhat has happened in last weekor ten days,” Naravane said.

“It is just a matter of chancethat the face-off in easternLadakh happened during thesame period but we should notread too much into this that thisis part of some coordinatedplan. There is nothing likethat… But we will deal with itas per the protocol which hasbeen laid out between the twocountries and in accordancewith strategic guidelines,” hesaid.

Naravane said that Indian

Army is always working towardsself-reliance and a majority of itsorders have gone into firms inthe country.

“We always workingtowards self-reliance and I havebeen fully in support of theMake in India initiative. In thepast, we have also had new cat-egorisations like Make 1, Make2 which make it much easier forprivate industries to partici-pate in defence-related productsand they can make it in India forus. So, we are not only doingindigenisation through ourPSUs and Ordnance FactoryBoard (OFBs),” he said whenasked about Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s call for self-reliant India.

“We also want to get localindustry and indigenous play-ers into the fold of makingdefence-related products. Morethan 70-80 per cent of Army’sorders both in numbers and costhave gone to Indian firms andwe will continue doing it in thefuture also. Recently, we havesigned an order of �70 croreswith L&T and we will contin-ue to support indigenisationprocess,” he said. ANI

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To protect the interest ofhomebuyers as well as the

real estate sector, the Ministryof Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA) on Wednesdayissued an advisory to all Statesand Union Territories andtheir respective Real EstateRegulatory Authorities(RERA) to automaticallyextend registration of all pro-jects registered under RERAwhich were due on or afterMarch 25 by six months andfurther upto three months ifthe situation in a particularstate or any part thereof needsconsideration in view of theCovid-19 pandemic.

The regulatory authoritiesnow cannot take action

against the developers until therevised timelines get over.

In a statement, the min-istry said it has issued an advi-sory to all States / UTs andtheir respective Real EstateRegulatory Authorities to con-sider the current pandemic ofCOVID-19 as “force majeure”being a natural calamity, whichis adversely affecting the reg-ular development of the realestate projects and extend reg-istration of all real estate pro-jects registered under RERA by6 months and further upto 3months, as per situation evolv-ing in view of the COVID-19pandemic.

According to the ministry,this measure will safeguardthe interest of homebuyers toget them the delivery of their

flats/homes although with thedelay of few months but it willdefinitely ensure the comple-tion of the projects.

To avoid unnecessary liti-gation against real estate devel-opers Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on May13 announced an extension inregistration and completiondate of real estate projectsunder RERA.

“The nationwide lock-down forced the labours toreturn to their home and insuch circumstances, work onthe real estate projects will takequite some time to restart infull gear. In the absence ofurgent remedial regulatorymeasures under RERA, there isalso a possibility of many realestate projects getting stalledleading to litigation etc. Thiswill ultimately result in non-delivery of flats to the home-buyers, who have investedtheir lifetime savings for theirdream homes,” the ministrysaid.

A lot of projects got stalleddue to various reasons leavinglakhs of homebuyers in a verydifficult situation, where theywere running from pillar topost for their booked homes.“It is clear that in such cir-cumstances, work on the realestate projects will take quitesome time to restart in full gear.In the absence of urgent reme-dial regulatory measures underRERA Act, 2016, there is alsoa possibility of many real estateprojects getting stalled leadingto litigation etc. This will ulti-

mately result in non-delivery offlats to the homebuyers, whohave invested their lifetimesavings for their dream homes,”officials said.

The construction work ofongoing real estate projects washalted leading to reversemigration of labourers to theirnative places. Further, therewas large scale disruption inthe supply chain of construc-tion materials which adverse-ly impacted the constructionactivities across the country.The officials further addedthat it is also anticipated thatconstruction activities in pre-monsoon could not be under-taken, which will further delaythe construction cycle.Moreover, due to the impend-ing monsoon season followedby festivals like Dussehra,Diwali and Chhath, the labour-ers are not expected to comeback soon.

Project registration cer-tificates will also be issuedautomatically with revisedtimelines and all timelines forvarious statutory complianceunder RERA are extendedconcurrently. These measureswill destress the developers ofthe compliance burden andwill ensure that they focus onthe completion of the projectas per revised timelines.

There was a demand forproviding special relief for thesector so that it is able to copeup with adverse impact of thecrisis. Covid-19 has alreadydisrupted construction activi-ties due to reverse migration.

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The CISF on Wednesdayrecorded a major spurt in

Covid-19 cases with the detec-tion of 41 coronavirus-infect-ed persons. A maximum of 38Covid-19 positive cases werereported from its unit deployedat Kolkata-based defence PSUGRSEL.

For their part, the BSFreported 13 new cases and theCRPF three cases.

The Garden Reach ShipBuilders & Engineers Limited(GRSEL) is a strategic warshipbuilding facility on the banksof Hooghly River in WestBengal which caters to therequirements of both Navyand Coast Guard.

On Monday, a 55-year-oldAssistant Sub Inspector of theparamilitary at GRSEL hadsuccumbed to the disease. Thiswas the third death from thepandemic in the force with theother two in a unit that guardsthe Indian Museum in Kolkataand the one that protects the

Mumbai international airport.The CISF unit at GRSEL

has 38 active COVID-19 casesnow, with all but one beingreported in the last 24 hours,officials said.

Over 400 armed CentralIndustrial Security Force(CISF) personnel weredeployed at GRSEL in 2016 forsecuring the campus.

In a statement, the GRSELsaid, “An ASI of CISF deputedin GRSE and having history ofdiabetes & hypertension testedpositive for Covid 19 andpassed away on 11 May 2020.The Shipyard stands in soli-darity at this hour with thebereaved family.”

All CISF personnel whoreside within the barrackaccommodation of GRSE MainUnit have been placed underquarantine and their sampleshave been immediately sent fortesting. Personnel found Covidpositive have already beenshifted for treatment at StateMedical Facilities designatedfor treatment of Covid 19, asper extant norms, the Mini

Ratna further said.The GRSE has been under

lockdown since March 23 in

full compliance withGovernment of India and StateGovernment directives.

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Page 5: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ...€¦ · est MSME package, we are disappointed with announce-ments made by FM.” “Centre has announced 3.6 lakh crore

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The economic package announced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday

has failed to enthuse the Micro, Small and MiniEnterprises (MSME) in Tamil Nadu whichdirectly employs 1.3 crore workers in the State.There are 20 lakh such units spread out inChennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Tirupur andErode districts.

“None of the announcements made by theFinance Minister would help us,” said SVasudevan, joint secretary, Tamil Nadu Smalland Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA), theapex body of MSME units in the State.

“The only concession which we havereceived is the announcement by the UnionMinister that the pending payments fromGovernment would be cleared in 45 days.There is no mention about the interest waiveron loans during the lockdown period whichthe industrial units were looking for,” saidVasudevan who is also the spokesman of theTANSTIA. “It was a big disappointment for us.We had sent many representations and appealsbut we deeply regret the same have not been con-sidered. We request our PM to intervene andhelp the MSME sector with suitable relief mea-sures,” said the TANSTIA leader.

But B Radhakrishnan, general secretary,Laghu Udyog Bharati Kerala unit was all praisefor the announcements made by Sitharaman.“There are many concessions which have beengranted. The Government’s move to allocate �3lakh crore for the MSME will go along way inaddressing the problems faced by the sector. Wehad requested the Minister to allocate �5 lakhcrore but the fact that she has kept apart morethan half of what we had asked for is a positivesign. It is difficult to please one and all.

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Leading industrialists and entrepre-neurs owning micro, small and mini

industrial units in South India in gen-eral and Tamil Nadu in particular are ofthe view that banks should show com-passion and kindness towards them. Thisis in the backdrop of the coronavirusinduced economic melt-down and set-back suffered by industrial sector inTamil Nadu.

“The industrialists are willing to takeup any challenge to revive the economyand bring the country back to life. Butwe alone cannot do that. There is anocean of opportunities waiting for us andwe can make it happen with some helpfrom the banking sector,” HariThiagarajan, head of Confederation ofIndian Industries’ Tamil Nadu Council,told The Pioneer.

The export units in Tirupur, headquarters of India’s cotton knitwearindustry, MSME units in Chennai andCoimbatore and major industrial hous-es are encountering a number of prob-lems because of drying up of revenuesources, said Thiagarajan, executivedirector of Madurai based ThiyagarajarMills Ltd. “Lot of export orders got can-celled because of the coronavirus pan-demic. Whatever was cancelled hasgone and there is no possibility of us get-ting it back in the near future. Moreover,we are burdened with the payment to theworkers which we have to disburse infull. This was also the time for pricenegotiation with buyers for exporting theproducts,” said the CII Tamil Nadu chief.

He said it is going to be challengingtimes for all sectors except pharmacy,insurance companies and InformationTechnology units.

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There are 9,227 Covid-19cases in Tamil Nadu as on

Wednesday evening 7 pm. Thedaily medical bulletin issued bythe Government of Tamil Nadustated that 509 persons testedpositive for coronavirus allover the State on Wednesdaytaking the number of patientsto 9,227.

With three more personssuccumbing to the pandemicon Wednesday, the fatalities inthe State reached 64.

Chennai, the capital city,saw the number of covid-19patients going up by 380 mak-ing the total number of patientsin the metropolis to 5,262.This means that the number ofcoronavirus positive persons inthe city increasing two-foldduring the last week.

According to the detailsfurnished by the Government,there were 2,644 patients onMay 7 in the city. This has shotup to 5,262 in six days, ashocking increase.

But Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswami toldreporters early in the day thatthe hike in the number ofcoronavirus cases is due to theincreased testing of sampleswhich he claimed as the high-est in the country.

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Jaipur: It was a tough trail for a 9-monthpregnant woman who walked 196 kilometreson foot, from Ahmedabad with her husband,son (1-year-old) and daughter (2-year-old)for 6 days to reach her native place in MadhyaPradesh's Ratlam.

Surprisingly, no one took pity on her con-dition throughout the way as she crossed dis-trict after district, checkpost after checkpostwith an aim to reach her native place at theearliest.

However, it was her luck to get a few goodsamaritans at Dungarpur checkpost, who see-ing her plight, stopped her and offered herfood and transportation to help her reach herhometown.

Dungarpur SDM Rajeev Dwivedi told

IANS, "This woman, with her family, includ-ing husband and two kids, reached Dungapurcheckpost on Monday evening. The staff atthe location was stunned to see her feeblecondition as she looked quite tired and lackedenergy. When asked if she had food, she sim-ply refused. It also seemed as if she was inpain."

The officials at the checkpoint henceinformed the SDM and other officials. Soona team of doctors from nearby medical check-post arrived at the location to review her med-ical condition. It was evident that she was notin a condition to walk but had walked allalong from Ahmedabad and hence they askedthe family to rest overnight and offered themfood and shelter, said Dwivedi. IANS

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Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Tuesday dis-

missed the ‘muchbandied’ centralpackage worth �20 lakh crore asa ‘big zero’ and ‘eyewash’ intend-ed to ‘hoodwink’ the people of thecountry.

Accusing the Centre for“bulldozing the federal struc-ture” of the country she said “inthe name of a special package thisGovernment has produced aGhorar Deem (mare’s nest) ... itis a big zero, a big eyewashaimed at hoodwinking the peo-ple in the name of fighting coro-na crisis.”

Banerjee was referring to theTuesday’s press conference ofUnion Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman in which she elabo-rated on the Centre’s package.

Claiming that there was “noconsistency between what thePrime Minister said yesterday, andwhat we were given to hear today,”the Chief Minister said “when thePM announced �20 lakh crorepackage, we were hopeful that theinterest of the states will be lookedinto, the FRBM limit would beincreased. But today ... it wasfound that everything that wassaid yesterday was a bluff ...There is nothing in public spend-ing, money transfer, and nothingto fight the pandemic.”

Comparing the central pack-age with her own new schemecalled “Maatir Shristi” --- thatwould entail setting up of envi-ronment friendly units on 50,000

acre of land creating thousands ofjobs --- Banerjee said, the FinanceMinister’s announcement had“nothing to generate employ-ment ... no fund for health infra-structure ... no fund for fightingthe pandemic... neither it has putcash in the pocket of the poorestof the poor who have lost theirjobs and were travelling backhundreds of miles to their villages. ”

Accusing the Centre for try-ing to “bulldoze” and “destroy”the “cooperative federalism”Banerjee said “the State’s rightsare being taken away.” How theStates would run without finan-cial assistance from the Centreshe asked wondering “why thefarmers’ debts were not waived.”

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One more death due to Covid-19 was report-ed from Jammu district on Wednesday after

test reports of a patient, who was admitted in theGovernment Medical College hospital lateTuesday night, tested positive posthumouslywhile 37 fresh cases were detected across Jammu& Kashmir taking the total tally to 971 cases.

The total death toll due to Covid -19 inJammu and Kashmir has gone up to 11. So far,nine deaths have been reported from Kashmirand two from Jammu division.

Out of these 37 fresh cases, Kashmir valleyrecorded 30 cases while Jammu division record-ed 7 new cases of coronavirus. 11 patients weredischarged from the hospitals, 2 from Jammu and9 from Kashmir division. On Wednesday, dis-

trict Anantnag recorded 18 fresh cases, Budgam7 while 4 cases were reported from Kathua and3 from Jammu.

Meanwhile, panic gripped among the hos-pital authorities in Jammu especially among thosewho had handled the patient in the emergencydepartment before the patient breathed his last.Apparently, the patient had no travel history butofficial sources claimed his son had returnedfrom New Delhi recently. The district author-ities have launched contact tracing exercise andsealed the area to prevent spread of coronavirusin the vicinity.

On the other hand, the hospital premises wit-nessed high voltage drama when the familymembers of the deceased patient were deniedambulance facility to ferry his dead body to thecremation ground.

New Delhi: The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) on Wednesday forecastthat a low pressure area hasdeveloped in the southeast Bayof Bengal and the same couldintensify into a cyclonic stormby the evening of May 16. Thelow pressure area, to be named'Amphan' if it develops into acyclonic storm, is likely to movenorthwestwards initially till May17 before recurving north-northeastwards.

According to the IMD,there were 354 heavy rainfallevents — defined by IMD asabsolute rainfall above 64.5 mil-limetres (mm) — across Indiain March and April. Of theseevents, 224 occurred in April,while 130 occurred in March.Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh

were impacted the most (52occurrences), followed by WestBengal (41) and Odisha (40),while Meghalaya recorded 29such events in two months. Theheavy rain and storms led tocooler-than-normal tempera-tures across north, central andeast India.

The IMD recorded someunusual climatic changes toforecast for the upcoming sum-mer. “With no major heat wavesrecorded in the core zones so farand excess rainfall across thecountry, this summer is turningout to be unusual,” it said. In itsweather forecast on Wednesday,the IMD said that a low pressurearea has formed over southeastBay of Bengal and adjoiningsouth Andaman Sea, in theWednesday morning. PNS

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The total number of Covid-19 infected cases crossed

the 1,000 mark in Mumbai’sworst pandemic-affectedDharavi on Wednesday, as 66more persons tested positive forCovid-19.

On a day when theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) peggedthe number of deaths inDharavi at 40, as many as 66new infected cases were report-ed from various parts of Asia’sbiggest slum. With the freshinfected cases, the total num-ber of infected cases rose to ataggering 1,028.

Attributing the increase in

the number of deathsto the new informationreceived from theBMC’s Epidemic Cell,the BMC said: “ Newnine deaths have informed byepidemic cell. These deathshad happened earlier on dif-ferent dates and conveyed toward office subsequently”. Asmany as five positive caseswere recorded in DhonduMistry Chawl, while four caseswere reported from MatungaLabour camp.

Three cases each wererecorded in Geetanjali Nagar,Azad Nagar and 90 feet Roadarea, while the areas likeKerusheth Chawl, Vijaynagarand Rajiv Gandhi Nagar regis-

tered two positive cases.Rest of the infected

cases were reported frommost parts of Dharavi,where positive cases are

being recorded on a regularbasis.

The spike in the number ofinfected cases in Dharavi camea day after this densely popu-lated slum recorded 46 positivecases and one death onTuesday. Matunga Labourcamp, which on Wednesdayaccounted for four infected, hasbeen the worst-hit area inDharavi. On Tuesday, eightinfected cases were recorded inMatunga Labour camp. OnMonday, this area had regis-tered eight cases.

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Ayoungster from CentralKashmir's Budgam district

Wednesday paid a heavy pricefor jumping the security checkpoint, twice, on Srinagar-Gulmarg road after securityforces stationed there openedfire on him resulting in hisdeath.

The deceased has beenidentified as Mehrajuddin Peerson of Ghulam Nabi Peer res-ident of Makhama BeerwahBudgam.

As news of his death, at thehands of security forces, spreadlike wild fire in the area, thedistrict authorities snappedmobile internet services in thearea and rushed additionalsecurity personnel to handleany law and order situation.

According to police

spokesman, "on Wednesday atabout 10.20 a.m, during JointNaka at Khalisa Kawoosa inthe jurisdiction of PoliceStation Magam, a Wagon-Rvehicle bearing registrationNo. JK02AK-6702 was sig-naled to stop. However, the saidvehicle ignored to stop and fledaway from two Naka points insuspicious condition".

The police spokesman said,"the Naka party opened fire atthe vehicle to thwart theattempt. The driver of the vehi-cle got injured and was shiftedto hospital for medical treat-ment, however he succumbedto his injuries. Police has reg-istered a case and started inves-tigation in to the matter".

Mainstream political par-ties in Kashmir valley con-demned the killing of a civilianand called for an impartial

enquiry to punish the guilty.Former Chief Minister OmarAbdullah termed the incidentas unfortunate. “Very unfortu-nate. The circumstances sur-rounding this shooting need tobe impartially investigated &findings made known. My con-dolences to the family of thedeceased,” he tweeted. Jammuand Kashmir Pradesh CongressCommittee (JKPCC), in astatement, strongly condemnedthe killing of Mehrajuddin.

“The firing should havebeen avoided. The loss of inno-cent lives has the potential tolead to further alienation of thepeople,” the JKPCC said. Theparty demanded a probe intothe circumstances, which led tothe killing of the civilian inorder to fix the responsibility.

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Page 6: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ...€¦ · est MSME package, we are disappointed with announce-ments made by FM.” “Centre has announced 3.6 lakh crore

Amid the ongoing COVID-19crisis, India-Nepal relations arewitnessing a difficult phase as along-time low-profile diplomat-ic row has now intensified

between the two. Following Union DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh’s inauguration of theroad section connecting Lipulekh passwith Dharchula in Pithoragarh,Uttarakhand, on May 8, social media wentabuzz with hashtags such as #GoBackIndiaand #BackOffIndia, with Nepal stakingclaim over the Lipulekh area. The new 80-kilometre link route developed by theBorder Roads Organisation (BRO) in Indiais aimed at cutting down travel time forKailash-Mansarovar pilgrims by almost 80per cent. The newly-constructed road orig-inates from Ghatiabagarh and terminates atLipulekh Pass, the gateway to KailashMansarovar in Tibet.

Previously, Indian pilgrims had toundertake an arduous 90-km trek throughtreacherous high-altitude terrain runningacross the Indian State of Sikkim or throughNepal to reach the site. With the inaugura-tion of the link road, travel time would bereduced by many days since the yatra willbe carried out using vehicles. It is an engi-neering achievement of the BRO as the 80-km road spans altitudes between 6,000 and17,060 feet.

Within 24 hours of the inauguration ofthe road, Kathmandu summoned India’sambassador to protest against its inaugura-tion. In a statement, the Nepal CommunistParty (NCP), the country’s ruling party, saidthe road construction “violates Nepal’ssovereignty. [Our] serious attention has beendrawn to the ‘inauguration’ by India of a linkroad to Lipulekh of Nepal via Nepali terri-tory.” The statement was signed by the NCP’schairman and Nepali Prime MinisterKhadga Prasad Sharma Oli. Using stronglanguage, it said, “In light of this develop-ment, the Government of Nepal calls uponthe Government of India to refrain from car-rying out any activity inside the territory ofNepal.”

The Indian side, too, pushed backNepalese concerns, saying that the disputedregion was “completely within the territoryof India.” The Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) stated, “The recently inauguratedroad section in Pithoragarh district in theState of Uttarakhand lies completely withinthe territory of India. The road follows thepre-existing route used by the pilgrims of theKailash Mansarovar yatra.” The MEA’s state-ment is in the same spirit as the one it madein November 2019 when India had againrefuted Nepal’s alleged encroachment claimsin the Kalapani region on India.

In fact, relations between the two coun-tries had been strained since 2015 when Indiaopposed Nepal’s newly-promulgatedConstitution. What followed next was an eco-nomic blockade. Border tensions haverenewed in the past six months. Particularly,

following the abrogation ofArticle 370, which gave specialprivileges to the erstwhile Stateof Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) andfollowing the issuance of theJammu and KashmirReorganisation Act, 2019, twonew Union Territories of J&Kand Ladakh came into exis-tence on October 31.

With India releasing a newmap, Kathmandu criticised NewDelhi for prominently displayingLipulekh in the border area ofKalapani. But despite its allega-tions that the new Indian maphad wrongly depicted Kalapanias Indian territory, Kathmandufell short of supporting its claimsas the new map was no differentthan the previous one. It was theinternal boundaries that wereupdated. No other changes weremade in India’s internationalborders. Later, it had also comein the public domain that theofficials of the Pakistani embassyallegedly held talks with theNepalese politicians and evenfunded anti-India demonstra-tions in several parts of Nepal.

Time and again, Nepal hascited the Treaty of Sugauli as alegal document to back its claimin these regions. Surprisingly, theArchaeological Survey of Nepaland the MoFA have reportedlynot been able to produce an orig-inal copy of the pact. Even aftergoing through the document,there was no clear demarcationof the borders agreed betweenthe then British IndianGovernment and the King ofNepal. It is only through the

modern-day border manage-ment exercises that the twocountries have demarcated theopen border. A prominentTechnical Committee formedin 1981 to resolve the borderissues has already clarified 76border points out of 78 and morethan 180 strip maps based onGlobal Positioning Systems(GPS) have been established. Infact, most of the differenceswere identified and resolved in2007. On the official front, Indiahas stated that “strip maps per-taining to 98 per cent of theboundary have been agreed toand signed in 2007.”

Additionally, in 2016, thetwo Governments had constitut-ed the Eminent Persons Group(EPG) on Nepal-India relationswith a mandate to recommendmeasures and institutionalframework with a view to elevateexisting relations to a newheight. The group has conclud-ed its task and prepared a con-sensus report, which is yet to bemade public. While Nepal hasagreed with India that technical-ities of the EPG report need tobe worked out before it comesin the public domain, it is unfor-tunate that the NepaleseGovernment has failed toinform the same to its peopleand this is causing confusion.

In Nepal, it is a popular beliefthat it is a unilateral decision ofIndia to not make the EPGreport public. Meanwhile, con-sidering the anti-India senti-ment in Nepal, India is alwaysdepicted in a dark light. This may

be paying off in the rulingGovernment’s political aspira-tions but is indeed not a wise act.

Notably, in the last 10 years,China has been attempting tomanufacture artificial people-to-people relations with Nepal butit has failed tremendously. Onthe other hand, attempts are alsobeing made to demolish the nat-urally existing people-to-peopleties with India. In the long term,Nepal will have to realise the loss.Also, the Nepalese Governmentis well involved in the diplomat-ic exercises with India, includingon border disputes. It has evengone on record to say that Nepalsees “diplomacy as the first andthe last resort in mitigating anydifferences with India.” But hadthis been the case, a road inau-guration in India would havebeen welcomed by it.

The 80-kilometre road con-struction was not an under-ground work that could be com-pleted overnight without a closeneighbour knowing about it,especially when there is an openborder. The construction hasvery much been in line withIndia’s sovereign rights and afriendly neighbour like Nepalneeds to understand this. To itsright, Nepal has protested theroad inauguration through anofficial statement. Still, the use ofa strong language does not indi-cate the essence of the existing“special relations” between Nepaland India. Also, the use of com-mon phrases and language in thestatement issued by the rulingNCP indicated the involvement

of the vested interest that aims tobenefit politically on homeground.

To conclude, relationsbetween India and Nepal are aproduct of the centuries-olddeep-rooted people-to-peoplecontacts of kinship and culture.They are neither artificially con-structed nor based on distrustand blame-game. Hence, rela-tions need to be cherished. Andin case of differences, like everyother close-knit family has, theyneed to be resolved through thediplomatic mechanism with acaution that even diplomacyshould not hamper the demog-raphy of the “special relations”between the two countries.

It was a decade long war inNepal which ousted centuries-old autocratic rule of the Shahkings that led to the establish-ment of democracy there.Therefore, as a democracy, Nepalhas the best chance to interactwith the biggest democracy inthe world and use democratictools to improve relations. Itneeds to critically introspect itsdiplomatic stances because in theworst of confrontations, coun-tries have finally opted for rec-onciliation through diplomaticchannels. With countries facingthe COVID-19 challenge, Indiaand Nepal have successfullydeveloped a cooperative mech-anism to contain it. The sameneeds to reflect in the border dis-pute mechanism as well.

(The writer is ICSSRDoctoral Fellow, Center for SouthAsian Studies, JNU)

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Sir — The incident surroundingthe chats on the Instagram groupcalled “Bois Locker Room” by agroup of teenagers discussinggangrape and objectifying girls isdeplorable. This is not the men-tality that school-going boys andgirls should have. It is such a dis-grace that young children can feelso entitled. They seem to thinkthey can get away with such mis-deeds, which is why they do notthink twice before demeaningwomen. The messages sharedonline contain strong language.This is a clear violation of socialmedia guidelines. The actions ofthe students cannot be justified byanyone.

However, this case hasexposed only one such group:There must be many others. Onehopes that the Delhi police takesserious action against all suchabusive users because cybercrimecan take a grim turn at anymoment. Making sexuallycoloured remarks online is alsosexual harassment. Social medialaws should be made sterner toavoid such events in the future.

Ravi Teja KathuripalliHyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Opportunity in a crisis” (May 13)by Kalyani Shankar. Verily speak-ing, what drove a wedge betweenSonia Gandhi and her politicalresponsibilities as the Congresschief was her deteriorating health

condition, which necessitatedthat her son, Rahul Gandhi takecharge. Ironically, he, too, was dis-enchanted with the top job andput in his papers in the aftermathof the party’s drubbing in parlia-mentary polls. However, to savethe grand old party from dying,Sonia Gandhi took over as an

interim chief again mid-last year. Intriguingly, with the Corona

pandemic affecting political sys-tems across the world, India,too, witnessed a pleasantly bizarrecoming together of Oppositionparties, irrespective of their polit-ical views/ideologies.

As a responsible head of the

Opposition, Sonia Gandhiextended her party’s completesupport when the Prime Ministerannounced a nationwide lock-down. From expressing concernover the abysmal plight of themigrant workers to suggestingways for economic revival, theCongress has not lagged behindin playing a constructive role asthe main Opposition party. Thewriter is spot on to observe thatthis is an opportunity for theCongress to revive itself. But forthat, party members need tounite.

Azhar A Khan Rampur

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Sir — The circulation of fakenews through social media plat-forms to the pliable public is onlygoing to act as a breeding groundfor panic. It is imperative that theGovernment and social mediacompanies work in tandem toprevent the spread of false infor-mation.

SucharitaOdisha

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Two significant developments have taken placein the rural as well as the agricultural sectorafter the outbreak of COVID-19. One, is the

massive disruption of supply chains due to the slowmovement of goods and commodities and the otheris the reverse migration that is currently taking place.Both of these taken together could lead us to a cri-sis as well as open up new opportunities in agribusi-ness. A large part of the world’s agribusiness is con-trolled by a few giant firms. Some of them work asmiddlemen like ADM, Bunge and Cargill, LouisDreyfus and Olam International. They harness effi-ciency, based on large-scale operation and thin mar-gins. The global food production and processing net-work is extremely complex as the crop is producedin one country, milled in another and the food prod-uct is produced in another nation. The recentCOVID-19 outbreak has crippled this process, withtransport facilities coming to a near halt across theglobe.

In India, the farmers are struggling to sell theiragricultural produce like potatoes, onions and veg-etables. Save for a few, most of them are perishable,leaving growers with no bargaining power before sell-ers. One way to tide over the crisis is by encourag-ing water user collectives to upgrade themselves froma user group to an agribusiness one. ParticipatoryIrrigation Management (PIM) through formationof Water Users Associations (WUA) has been iden-tified as a key vehicle for increasing agricultural pro-ductivity in India. As many as 15 States have alreadyformulated legislation to support PIM and formWUAs. According to the Network on ParticipatoryIrrigation Management (NPIM), established in 1998,by the Ministry of Rural Development, there are57,000 functional WUAs covering 13.5 millionhectares across 24 States.

The World Bank has also promoted WUAs indifferent developing countries, including India. Oneof these is being promoted in West Bengal througha programme called the West Bengal AcceleratedDevelopment of Minor Irrigation Project (WBAD-MIP). Under the WBADMIP, there are 2,349schemes and 1,674 WUAs with a potential of cov-ering 68,347 hectares of land and 1,07,707 farmers.These WUAs are not mere user groups of water sup-plied by the Government’s irrigation department butcollective institutions based on principles of cumu-lative actions. Since these groups form institutions,they may reap the benefits of economies of scale inagribusiness and at the same time distribute bene-fits to the poor and marginalised farmers.

Along with encouraging and facilitating theseWUAs to engage in agribusiness, the Governmentmay endeavour to promote them as a medium-termstrategy.

Formation of WUAs: Water associations maybe formed by the Government providing micro-irri-gation systems like tubewells, river lift irrigation sys-tems, surface flow minor irrigation schemes, checkdams, watersheds, water detention structures, sprin-klers and so on. The command area of each WUAmay be around 35 acres. On average, it may cover50 beneficiaries with one-third representation ofwomen. The number of members of each WUA mayvary between 30 to 70, depending on the commandarea and the size of land holding. The members couldbe landowners and their families. Sharecroppers maybe included as the beneficiaries. Two-thirds of themembers could be marginal farmers and one-thirdsmall and large farmers. The members should con-

tribute land or bear some expenses of themicro-irrigation structure. They should bemade solely responsible for its operationand maintenance.

The WUAs should form a governingbody or managing committee of six toeight members with two to three womenin it. The role of the managing commit-tee would be to supervise the day-to-dayactivity of the WUAs. The resources forregular activities of the associations maybe mobilised through yearly membershipfee and water charges.

The associations should maintainmaximum transparency in water distrib-ution and fund collection by keeping therequired records, documents and publicdisplay of the water distribution roster.They should organise periodic generalbody meetings and maintain the minutesof those meetings.

Economic improvements: The avail-ability of additional water, especially dur-ing the Rabi and pre-monsoon season,would increase the production andincome of WUA members. Moreover, asagricultural production increases, demandfor agricultural labour would increase aswell. It may generate 1,000-2,500 addition-al labour days per year, per WUA. Theassociations may be engaged further inagribusiness, with additional manpowerand skills available from labourers whohave returned to their villages. They maybring back some managerial and otherskills as many of them have been exposedto myriad activities. The WUAs may forma sub-group of beneficiaries who may beinvolved in sorting, transporting, selling,and marketing agricultural products.Associations may evolve as an aggregatorand subsequently as an agribusinessorganisation by selling and marking agri-cultural produce in local and otherregional markets. In this way, farmers may

be able to cope with the disruptions oftransport facilities. They may deal with aspecific buyer, based on contract farming.

When farmers form a group, theymay pursue organic farming under theCollective Guarantee Scheme where eachone would guarantee for the other’s prac-tice of cultivation without fertilisersand/or pesticides. They may developtheir own brand of product or may workbased on a contract with some other pri-vate company dealing with organic prod-ucts. Apart from agribusiness, the WUAsmay earn by simply renting out their agri-cultural implements such as tractors andharvesters to other farmers who are notpart of the WUAs.

The members may engage in otherincome-earning activities such as fishery,rearing livestock, orchards and horticul-ture. Being a collective, they would be ableto get better prices in the market. Theymay produce processed food such as driedfish and fruit and cheese. The womenmembers of the WUAs may be engagedin horticulture, vermicomposting, hatch-ery and polyhouse farming. Women maybe engaged in making milk products, pick-les, jam, jellies and so on. In general, foodprocessing should be brought nearer to thefarm. The men and women engaged inthese activities should be given their duereturns out of the surplus generated fromthese activities.

The institution of collective organisa-tion would enable them to get their fairshare. Women of the WUAs may formself-help groups (SHG) for developing sav-ing behaviour and for easy access to cred-it. The collective initiatives of womenwould develop trust and confidenceamong themselves. They would be able toengage in other non-farm activities suchas stitching and embroidery. This wouldempower women and improve expenses

on health and education.Role of the Government: The

Government should support the WUAsby providing an enabling environment. Ifthe associations are not formed, then theGovernment should provide one-timeexpenses for micro-irrigation systemsand form WUAs in areas wheremonocropping is practised. They shouldprovide guidance for at least one year forconducting the operation of the associa-tion, including financial and non-finan-cial record keeping. The Governmentshould facilitate the WUAs with anappropriate legal environment and otherkinds of support to sell their agriculturalproduce through the National AgricultureMarket (eNAM) and in other agricultur-al markets. The State agricultural depart-ments should support WUAs by impart-ing training and knowledge on farmingwith less water and skills in agribusinessmanagement. They should provide qual-ity inputs to the associations. This wouldreduce the incidence of farmers sellingtheir produce at cheaper rates to the inputsuppliers. The Government should organ-ise and encourage the members to visitagricultural fairs and other WUAs forcross-learning of agricultural and agribusi-ness activities. Credit should be madeavailable to the group of farmers at lowinterest rates.

All these initiatives are more effectiveif made for a group of farmers intertwinedby institutional norms rather than for indi-vidual farmers. The money raised for assis-tance and relief, such as the PM CARESFund, may be used to incur expenses forthese initiatives. This would relax not onlysome of the immediate strains but alsogenerate long-term gains.

(The writer is Associate Professor,Institute of Rural Management, Anand,Gujarat. Views expressed are personal)

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��������������������������������������������(���������������������&�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������=��������������������(������������������������������������������

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M, a stand-up comic, creates astory and posts it on herInstagram page. Within

hours, her story is viewed and sharedby millions of people on the internet.Soon, she discovers that somebody hasconverted her story into a short filmand it is available on YouTube. Livid,M wants the short film to be removedand seeks damages against her copy-right infringement.

A lot of questions flow from here.Does M have the copyright over thefilm? How will she get it removed?What if the producer of the film claimscopyright on the same? What can bedone if the film was shared by the pro-

ducer on several other platforms? Copyright is that division of

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)which deals with literature and art.The Copyright Act gives economicand moral rights to an author. Whileeconomic rights broadly include theright to authorise any person toreproduce, store, issue copies, performin public, translate and adapt withrespect to a literary, dramatic, musi-cal, artistic, cinematographic work;rights related to a computer pro-gramme additionally include the rightto sell and rent.

Moral rights include the right topaternity and integrity i.e. the author’sclaim to authorship and right toclaim damages if the work is mutilat-ed, distorted, modified and if such anact is prejudicial to his/her reputation.

Originality is the base of copyrightprotection. The apex court in EasternBook Company and Ors. vs. DBModak and Ors has held that, “Theword original does not mean that thework must be the expression of orig-inal or inventive thought. CopyrightActs are not concerned with the orig-

inality of ideas but with the expressionof thought, and in the case of literarywork, with the expression of thoughtin print or writing. The originalitywhich is required relates to the expres-sion of the thought. But the Act doesnot require that the expression be inan original or novel form, but that thework must not be copied from anoth-er work — that it should originatefrom the author; and as regards com-pilation, originality is a matter ofdegree depending on the amount ofskill, judgment or labour that has beeninvolved in making the compilation.”

Hence, the word original cannotbe interpreted in its literal sense, aderivative work can also qualify for acopyright work subject to the skill,labour, capital and other factorsdepending on the facts of the case.

Copyright subsists on its creation.However, the owner of the copyrightis distinct from the author to whomthe copyright belongs on its creation.The author is normally the firstowner of the copyright unless it is cre-ated under the circumstances enumer-ated under Section 17 of the Act,

which provides for the first owner ofthe copyright in different situations.In compliance with the DigitalMillennium Copyright Act (DMCA),most social media platforms likeFacebook have included a copyrightpolicy in their terms and conditions.

Facebook: Its copyright policy isformulated under and in compliancewith the DMCA which is a UNCopyright Law. Its terms of service andcommunity standard clearly state thata user cannot post anything which vio-lates someone’s IPR. Ownership of acontent lies with the creator. Aninternal notice-and-take down proce-dure set out under the DMCA Act isfollowed by it, under which, a contentinfringing copyright can be reportedto Facebook. Upon receiving a com-plaint Facebook may remove thecontent without informing the allegedinfringer. However, Facebook willsend an e-mail and notification to theinfringer, giving the complaint anddetails of the complainant. Theinfringer may choose to resolve theissue with the plaintiff or file acounter-notification. If the com-

plainant does not respond to thecounter-notification and intimate thats/he has approached court seeking anorder to keep the content down,Facebook will restore it.

YouTube: It has a strict copyrightpolicy and provides content ID whichmanages and identifies content of theowners on YouTube. A video uploadedon YouTube is scanned against thedatabase of files that have been sub-mitted by content owners. An ownerhas the option to block such videos,monetise them by running ads or bysharing revenue with the uploader andtrack the viewership statistics. The takedown process of YouTube is similar tothat of Facebook in many ways.

Instagram: It provides an onlineform for reporting copyright infringe-ment to the designated agent appoint-ed under the DMCA Act. The copy-right claim should have informationreasonably sufficient to permitInstagram to locate such content. Theclaim must be accompanied with adeclaration that the plaintiff in goodfaith believes that the content com-plained about is not authorised by the

copyright owner, its agent, or the law;that the notice is accurate and that thecomplainant is copyright owner orauthorised to act on behalf of theowner of an exclusive copyright thatis allegedly infringed.

Twitter: It also responds to thecopyright claim under the DMCA Act.Before making a copyright infringe-ment complaint, Twitter advises theclaimant to directly contact the per-son who has posted the content.Twitter has some prerequisites for par-ody, commentary and fan accounts.The account name and bio shouldclearly indicate that it does not haveany affiliation with the subject of theaccount. Non-affiliation can be indi-cated by incorporating words such as(but not limited to) “parody,” “fake,”“fan,” or “commentary.”

Non-affiliation should be stated ina way that can be understood by theintended audience. Besides moralduty, these social media platforms areunder statutory obligation to take nec-essary steps for avoiding any copyrightconflicts. However, these policies aresubject to exemption under the copy-

right law. For instance, fair use of copy-right material is permitted and onewhich falls in public domain can alsobe used freely.

Though these social media plat-forms provide a detailed mechanismdealing with copyright infringement,it cannot be confused with the judi-cial procedure. These platforms do nothave adjudicatory powers. The actionstaken by them are merely precaution-ary, in order to avoid any copyrightinfringement.

A person aggrieved by suchaction can approach the competentcourt/tribunal for remedy and dam-ages. However, despite precautionarysteps copyright infringement is notrare. Having evolved as platforms forsharing ideas and showcasing artisticskills, with a massive upsurge duringthe recent lockdowns, it is time usersput pressure on all stakeholders,including the legislature, to ensurestricter control on social media plat-forms to protect the copyrights ofusers.

(Ray is partner and Priyadarshiniis associate, TRS Law Offices)

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Dubai built a city of sky-scrapers and artificial

archipelagos on the promise ofglobalization, creating itself asa vital hub for the free move-ment of trade, people andmoney worldwide — all thingsthat have been disrupted by thecoronavirus pandemic.

Now, with events canceled,flights grounded and invest-ment halted, this sheikdom inthe United Arab Emirates isthreatened both by the virusand a growing economic crisis.Under pressure even before theoutbreak, Dubai and its vastweb of state-linked industriesface billions of dollars in loom-ing debt repayments.

And though it was bailedout a decade earlier, Dubai maynot be able to count on anoth-er cash infusion, given thecrash in global oil prices.

“They facilitate the trans-port and the buying of thingsand the movement of people,”said Karen E. Young, a scholarat the American EnterpriseInstitute who studies Gulf Arabeconomies. “That’s not theworld we’re living in rightnow.” Dubai’s dedication toglobal trade is memorialized inthe first sentence of the firstarticle of its 50-Year Charter,something created last year byits ruler, Sheikh Mohammedbin Rashid Al Maktoum, whohas overseen much of the city’s

growth. “Dubai is destined to be a

crossroad between East andWest, and between North andSouth,” the charter says.

Prior to the pandemic, itreached that status. DubaiInternational Airport for yearshas been the world’s busiest forinternational travel. Its vastJebel Ali Port ranks high glob-ally for its cargo operations.

That economic diversitystems from the classic retellingof Dubai’s story. After discov-ering oil reserves, but nonenowhere as large as those inneighboring Abu Dhabi, then-ruler Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum warned itwould be a finite resource tothe city-state.

To protect against that,Dubai became a companytown. The state-owned long-haul carrier Emirates flies inforeign workers and touristsalike, who buy alcohol fromstate-owned duty-free shops,live in housing largely built bystate-linked developers andhold credit cards from state-backed banks.

The wider nexus webs outinto something U.S. diplomatshave called “Dubai Inc.” Muchof it worked, up until the pan-demic. “The aggregate of allthose crises we faced in the pastdoesn’t equal this one,” saidTim Clark, president ofEmirates airline, on an April 29conference call.

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Achurch in Australia hasbeen fined for unlawfully

advertising a purported “mir-acle” coronavirus cure thatcontains a bleach product, theTherapeutic GoodsAdministration saidWednesday.

The medical regulator saidMMS Australia had received 12 fines totallingAus$151,200 (US$98,000) forpromoting its “Miracle MineralSolution” (MMS), which theTGA said contained a highconcentration of sodium chlo-rite — a chemical used as a textile bleaching agent anddisinfectant.

MMS Australia is a chap-ter of the US-based Genesis II Church of Healthand Healing, which is subjectto a US Justice Departmentinjunction preventing it fromselling or distributing its own version of MMS con-taining the bleach productchlorine dioxide.

A website purportedlylinked to the Genesis II Churchhas listed testimonials claiming— without evidence — thatMMS can cure everything fromAlzheimer’s to malaria.

Australia’s TGA said it hadfined the church because it was“concerned about the harmfuleffects that can be caused by theingestion of MMS”.

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Disease control strategiesemployed by Governments

can dramatically alter the evo-lution of pathogens like thenovel coronavirus, according toa study which says such mea-sures can change the extent ofsymptoms a spreading viruscauses in infected individuals.

The study, published inthe journal PNAS, examinedthe pros and cons of silenttransmission on the long-termsurvival of a virus.

According to theresearchers, including thosefrom the Princeton Universityin the US, the rapid spread ofSARS-CoV-2 throughout theworld is fuelled in part by thevirus’ ability to be transmittedby people who are not showingsymptoms of infection.

The findings, they said,could inform how public healthexperts plan control measuressuch as quarantines, testing,and contract tracing, addingthat such strategies themselvesmay alter the evolutionary

course of pathogenic viruses.In the current study, the

scientists sought to understandif viruses transmitting withoutsymptoms enable the pathogento infect greater numbers ofpeople, or if the lack of symp-toms lessen transmission andreduce the pathogen’s long-term survival.

“An asymptomatic stagefor various reasons could pro-vide certain benefits to thepathogen,” said Bryan Grenfell,study co-author fromPrinceton University.

“With the Covid-19 crisis,the importance of this asymp-tomatic phase has becomeextremely relevant,” Grenfellsaid. He said that viruses, likemore complex organisms, canalso evolve by natural selection.

Mutation of the viralgenome generates new variantsof the pathogen, and if thesechanges benefit their trans-mission, then that strain of thevirus will spread, theresearchers explained.

As mutants spread across apopulation, they said, the

strains with strategies that con-tribute to their success survive,while those with infectionmethods that don’t promotetheir transmission - such askilling the host before the viruscan transmit to new suscepti-ble individuals - will eventual-ly die out. “Viral evolutioninvolves a tradeoff betweenincreasing the rate of trans-mission and maintaining thehost as a base of transmission,”said Simon Levin, another co-author of the study fromPrinceton University.

Kabul: Officials on Wednesdayraised the death toll from a mil-itant attack on a maternityhospital in Kabul to 24, includ-ing mothers, nurses and twobabies. A day after the shoot-ing rampage, 20 infants wereunder medical observation,lying swaddled in blankets inhospital cribs.

Terrorists had stormed thehospital Tuesday, setting off anhours-long shootout withpolice. As the gunfight raged,Afghan security forces carriedout babies and frantic mothers.The clinic in Dashti Barchi, amostly Shia neighborhood inAfghanistan’s capital, is sup-ported by international aidgroup Doctors WithoutBorders. AP

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Wednesday with IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the coun-

try’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank, as Israeli troops shotand killed a Palestinian teen in a clash with stone-throwers inthe occupied territory.

Pompeo’s brief visit to Israel came at a tense time, as Israelitroops searched for the killers of a soldier killed a day earlier bya rock dropped from a rooftop during an army raid of a WestBank village.

With President Donald Trump facing election in November,Netanyahu and his nationalist base are eager to move ahead quick-ly with annexing portions of the West Bank. Annexation is expect-ed to appeal to Trump’s pro-Israel evangelical supporters, but isalso bound to trigger widespread international condemnation.It would crush already faint Palestinian hopes of establishing aviable state alongside Israel, on lands Israel captured in the 1967Mideast war.

Pompeo landed in Tel Aviv early Wednesday, donning a red,white and blue face mask, and headed directly to Jerusalem, receiv-ing an exemption from Israel’s mandatory two-week quarantinefor arrivals due to the coronavirus outbreak. He is the first for-

eign official to visit Israel since January, before the country large-ly shut its borders to curb the pandemic.

Standing alongside Pompeo, Netanyahu said the eight-hourvisit is a “testament to the strength of our alliance.”

The two said their talks would focus on shared concerns aboutIran, the battle against the coronavirus and Israel’s incomingGovernment.

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The FBI and the Departmentof Homeland Security’s

cyber division warned on Wednesday that hackersbacked by the ChineseGovernment may be attempt-ing to steal the work ofresearchers dealing with theresponse to the coronavirusoutbreak.

Both the FBI and the U.S.Cybersecurity andInfrastructure Security Agencysaid that health care and phar-maceutical researchers needto be alert to potential attacksand should take measures toprotect their data.

Neither organisationreleased names of any specificinstitutions that had been tar-geted.

The Department of Justicesaid institutions that havereceived media attention fortheir efforts related to Covid-19, the disease causedby the coronavirus, shouldassume that they would betargeted and should take precautions.

“The potential theft of thisinformation jeopardizes thedelivery of secure, effective, andefficient treatment options,”the Department of Justice saidin a statement.

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US Republican senators proposed legislationthat would empower President Donald

Trump to slap sanctions on China if Beijing doesnot give a “full accounting” for the coronavirusoutbreak.

“The Chinese Communist Party must beheld accountable for the detrimental role theyplayed in this pandemic,” said Senator JimInhofe, one of the sponsors of the “Covid-19Accountability Act.”

“Their outright deception of the origin andspread of the virus cost the world valuable timeand lives as it began to spread,” he said in a state-ment. The legislation will give Trump 60 daysto certify to Congress that China has provideda full accounting on the Covid-19 outbreak toan investigation that could be led by the United

States and its allies, or a United Nations bodylike the World Health Organization.

Trump must also certify that China hasclosed its highest-risk wet markets and releasedHong Kong activists arrested in post-Covid-19crackdowns.

Without certification, Trump would beauthorised under the legislation to impose sanc-tions like asset freezes, travel bans and visa revo-cations, as well as restricting Chinese businesses’access to US bank financing and capital markets.

“China refuses to allow the internationalcommunity to go into the Wuhan lab to inves-tigate,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, anothersponsor of the bill.

“They refuse to allow investigators to studyhow this outbreak started. I’m convinced Chinawill never cooperate with a serious investigationunless they are made to do so.”

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New coronavirus clustershave appeared as nations

struggle to balance reopeningeconomies with preventing asecond wave of infections anddeaths, while in Europe, adebate erupted over the sum-mer travel season.

Authorities in the Chinesecity of Wuhan, where thepandemic first began late lastyear, reportedly were pressingahead Wednesday to test all 11million residents for the viruswithin 10 days after a handfulof new infections were found.

In Lebanon, authoritiesreinstated a nationwide lock-down for four days beginningWednesday night after a spikein reported infections andcomplaints from officials thatsocial distancing rules werebeing ignored.

Despite the risk that loos-ening restrictions could lead toinfection spikes, Europeannations have been seeking torestart cross-border travel, par-ticularly as the summer holidayseason looms for countrieswhose economies rely ontourists flocking to their beach-es, museums and historical sites.

The European Unionunveiled a plan to help citizensacross its 27 nations salvagetheir summer vacations aftermonths of coronavirus lock-down and resurrect Europe’sbadly battered tourism indus-try. The pandemic has prompt-ed border closures acrossEurope and shut down thelifeline of cheap local flights.

The EU’s executive arm,the European Commission,laid out its advice for lifting IDchecks on hastily closed bor-ders, helping to get airlines, fer-ries and buses running while

ensuring the safety of passen-gers and crew, and preparinghealth measures for hotels toreassure clients.

It’s not clear whether EUnations will follow that advice,since they, not Brussels, havethe final say over health andsecurity matters.

Some European countrieshave sought bilateral agree-ments with their neighbors.

Austria said its border withGermany would reopen fully onJune 15, and that border checkswould be reduced startingFriday. Chancellor SebastianKurz said Austria was aimingfor similar agreements withSwitzerland, Liechtenstein andits eastern neighbors “as long asthe infection figures allow.”

But he said it’s too early totalk about such measures withItaly, one of the world’s hard-est-hit countries, with morethan 220,000 infections and30,000 deaths.

“There’s no perspective foropening the border soon,” Kurztold reporters Wednesday.

German Foreign MinisterHeiko Mass said his country

will lift a blanket warningagainst foreign travel forEuropean destinations beforeother places, but didn’t speci-fy when. Germany’s warningagainst all non-essential touristtravel abroad runs until at leastJune 14. The border shutdownshave hit the travel industryhard. The Germany-based tourand hotel operator TUI saidWednesday it expects to cutthousands of jobs due to thepandemic.

Norway said it was open-ing its borders to people fromother European countries whohave a residence there or fam-ily they want to visit.

Tension in balancing peo-ple’s safety from the virus againstthe severe economic fallout isplaying out across the world.

Italy partially lifted lock-down restrictions last weekonly to see a big jump in con-firmed coronavirus cases in itshardest-hit region.

Pakistan reported 2,000new infections in a single dayafter crowds of peoplecrammed into local markets asrestrictions were eased.

Beijing: Expressing serious con-cern over the “dangerousspread” of coronavirus and themounting death toll, ForeignMinisters of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO) member states said onWednesday that the fight againstCovid-19 requires coordinatedand inclusive multilateral effortsunder the UN system.

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar was among theForeign Ministers of the eight-member SCO who attended anextraordinary video confer-

ence on Wednesday to discussthe cooperation to fight againstCovid-19.

A joint statement issued atthe end of the meeting said thefight against the Covid-19 pan-demic requires strong, coordi-nated and inclusive multilater-al efforts with the central roleof the UN system.

The Ministers called foreffective interaction of the SCOwith the WHO and other inter-national organisations andassociations in the fight againstcoronavirus infection, it said.

In order to ensure epi-demiological well-being and biosecurity in the region, the min-isters consider it appropriate toadopt a comprehensive actionplan of the SCO member statesat the upcoming SCO summit inSt. Petersburg, Russia.

The plan includes buildingthe capacity of laboratories,improving the skills of spe-cialists, conducting joint sci-entific research, developingvaccines and effective methodsof treating diseases, the jointstatement said. PTI

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Joe Biden and the last rival he bested tobecome the presumptive Democratic

presidential nominee, Bernie Sanders, onWednesday announced the members ofjoint task forces their campaigns will useto promote party unity by hammering outconsensus on six top policy issues.

They include New York Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will pro-vide input on combating climate changeand potentially become a key conduitbetween strong progressives who supported Sanders and backers of the morecentrist Biden.

Each committee has eight membersand will be focused on health care, immi-gration, education, criminal justice reform,climate change and the economy, which has taken a sharp downturn amidshutdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

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When Michael Flynn was forced from the WhiteHouse, Vice President Mike Pence said he was

disappointed the national security adviser had mis-led him about his talks with the Russian ambassador.President Donald Trump called the deceptionunacceptable.

Now Pence says he’d be happy to see Flynn backin the administration, calling him a “patriot,” asTrump pronounces him exonerated.

What a difference three years makes. The JusticeDepartment’s move to dismiss the criminal caseagainst Flynn marks another step in his transfor-mation, in the eyes of Trump and his allies, fromrogue adviser to victim of runaway law enforcement.

The dismissal rewrites the narrative of the casethat Trump’s own Justice Department had advancedfor the last three years in a way that former lawenforcement officials say downplays the legitimatenational security concerns they believe Flynnposed and the consequences of the lies he pleadedguilty to telling.

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran on Wednesdayof using its resources to “foment terror” even as its people

face the Middle East’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak.“Even during this pandemic the Iranians are using the aya-

tollah regime’s resources to foment terror across the world, evenwhen the people of Iran are struggling so mightily,” Pompeo said.

“It tells you a lot about the soul of those people who lead thatcountry,” he added.

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The country’s largest car-maker Maruti-Suzuki

announced their annual finan-cial results earlier today after atorrid few months. The com-pany sold 1,563,297 vehiclesglobally including 1,461,126vehicles in the domestic mar-ket, registering a decline of 16.1per cent and 16.7 per centrespectively. Net sales stood at�17,690 crore down 13.7 per-cent and net profits were downto �5650.6 crore a decline of24.7 per cent which was drivenby lower sales and higher mar-keting costs even though theGovernment’s announcementof a lower corporate tax ratewas beneficial to the company.

All tis led to the companydeciding to conserve morecash and give out a dividend of�60 per share.

The Maruti scrip ended

the day at exactly �5,000 up by0.98 per cent for the day, but farbelow the gains the scrip hadshown earlier in the day.

Speaking to journalistsover a video-conference, RCBhargava, Chairman of Maruti-Suzuki said that the companyhas not taken any decisions onwhat to do with their cash butis supporting vendors and deal-ers wherever necessary.

He also said that produc-tion had been restarted at thecompany’s Manesar andGurugram facilities to a limit-ed extent.

But believed that it wouldtake time for the company toramp up production and also hinted that the labourshortage might impact some ofthe company’s smaller suppli-ers.

He also said that Maruti-Suzuki has opened several hun-dred showrooms across thecountry, albeit mainly in rural areas as well as over1,900 workshops in the last fewdays. With most bookingscoming through online chan-nels the company even said thatthey have received over 5,000bookings and have delivered1,700 cars ever since thenationwide lockdown beganto be eased.

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Snapping a two-session losingstreak, the BSE Sensex vault-

ed 637 points on Wednesday asinvestors cheered theGovernment’s �20 lakh crorestimulus package for the coro-navirus-hit economy.

After rallying 1,474.36points during the day, the 30-share benchmark surrenderedsome gains to settle 637.49points or 2.03 per cent higherat 32,008.61. Similarly, the NSENifty jumped 187 points, or2.03 per cent, to finish at9,383.55. Indices retreated fromintra-day highs as participantsawaited details of the stimuluspackage from the finance min-ister, traders said.

Axis Bank was the topgainer in the Sensex pack,spurting 7.02 per cent, fol-lowed by UltraTech Cement,L&T, ICICI Bank, SBI, M&Mand Bajaj Finance.

Only four index con-stituents ended in the red -Nestle India, Sun Pharma,HUL and Bharti Airtel, shed-ding up to 5.38 per cent.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had on Tuesdayannounced the new financialpackage on top of the previ-ously announced measures fora combined stimulus of �20lakh crore to revive demandand jumpstart growth.

“The much-awaited stim-ulus package announced by thePM cheered the investors onWednesday which triggered adecent up move in the bench-mark as well.

“The index witnessed ahuge gap up opening and itremained range-bound there-

after. Most sectoral indices, bar-

ring defensive, participated inthe move and posted hand-some gains,” said Ajit Mishra,VP - Research, ReligareBroking Ltd. BSE capitalgoods, industrials, bankex, real-ty, finance and basic materialsindices rallied up to 5.08 percent, while healthcare, FMCGand telecom closed lower.

Broader midcap and small-cap indices climbed up to 1.97per cent. Giving details of thestimulus package in a post-market hours press briefing,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman announced �3 lakhcrore collateral-free automaticloans for businesses, includingMSMEs, as well as �30,000crore liquidity facility forNBFCs, among other mea-sures. Meanwhile, global mar-kets were mixed as investorstook stock of the gradualreopening from coronavirus-related shutdowns.

Bourses in Shanghai andSeoul ended with gains, whileHong Kong and Tokyo closedin the red.

Stock exchanges in Europestarted off with significant loss-es. On the currency front, therupee appreciated by 5 paise toprovisionally close at 75.46against the US dollar.International oil benchmarkBrent crude futures slipped1.30 per cent to USD 29.59 perbarrel.

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Finance Secretary AjayBhushan Pandey on

Wednesday said the clear pic-ture regarding GST collectionsfor April would emerge only byJune 30 - the deadline by whichbusinesses with up to �5 croreturnover can file returns with-out any late fee and interest.

The Government had inMarch extended the deadline tofile GST returns for taxpayerswith turnover of over �5 croreby 15 days till May 5 from thedue date of April 20 withoutpayment of any late fee andinterest.

However, a reduced rate of9 per cent interest will belevied if the return is filed afterMay 5 till June 30. For tax-payers with turnover up to � 5crore, there would be no inter-est and late fee would be waivedif filed within the stipulateddeadline set in June.

Conventionally, the gov-ernment releases GST revenuemop up numbers on the basisof collections in a particularmonth.

Hence, the collection inApril was due to be released onMay 1.

To a query on why theApril GST number has notbeen released, Pandey said,“You know that the GST filingdates has been extended. If itwill be extended, we have saidthat returns can be filed tillJune, people who have turnoverof more than �5 crore they alsogot more time.”

“So after giving theseextensions, a clear pictureabout the revenue collection wewill get only by June 30. That’swhy we have not yet releasedthe figure. People who are ableto file returns have paid

GST and rest have time tillJune 30. It is only after June 30that we will have a clear idea ofthe revenue collected,” he said.

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In a bid to provide funds tothe stressed NBFC sector,

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Wednesdayextended a �30,000 crore spe-cial liquidity window for enti-ties that are finding it difficultto raise money from the mar-ket amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Under this scheme, invest-ment will be made in both pri-mary and secondary market ininvestment-grade debt papersof non-bank finance companies(NBFCs), housing financecompanies (HFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs).

“We have been hearingthat NBFCs were not able to getenough resources despite effortsfrom government and RBI,especially those which wereparticularly not highly rated,”the Finance Minister said. Shewas addressing a press briefinghere to provide details of theGovernment’s �20 lakh crorestimulus package for the coro-navirus-hit economy.

The scheme will supple-ment the Reserve Bank ofIndia and Government mea-sures to augment liquidity byproviding guarantee to invest-ment grade securities, sheadded.

These NBFCs are mostlythose which are financing

MSMEs, she said, adding thiswill provide liquidity supportfor NBFCs/HFCs/MFIs andmutual funds and create con-fidence in the market. Further,a � 45,000 crore partial creditguarantee scheme 2.0 was alsounveiled for NBFCs, HFCsand MFIs with low credit rat-ing to help them extend loansto individuals and MSMEs.

Even prior to the coron-avirus crisis, the NBFC sectorhad been under stress.Immediately after the IL&FScrisis in September 2018,NBFCs faced severe liquiditycrunch as mutual funds (MFs)stopped refinancing their loans.

The Government hadannounced a series of measuresincluding partial credit guar-antee scheme (PCGS) in thelast two Budgets.

The earlier scheme hadcertain restrictions which theGovernment has decided to doaway with as NBFCs, HFCsand MFIs with low credit rat-ing require liquidity for freshlending to MSMEs and indi-viduals.The scheme announcedin Budget 2019-20 covered theliability side. The existingPCGS scheme will be extend-ed to cover borrowings such asprimary issuance ofbonds/commercial papers (lia-bility side of balance sheet) ofsuch entities, she said.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Wednesday

announced �90,000 crore liq-uidity infusion into cash-strapped discoms, facingdemand slump due to the lock-down to contain COVID-19.At present discoms have a totaloutstanding of �94,000 croretowards power generationfirms (Gencos).

The Finance Minister saidthere would be �90,000 croreliquidity injection for discomsnoting that revenues of powerdistribution companies(DISCOMs) have plummetedand witnessing unprecedentedcash flow problem accentuatedby demand reduction.Thepower demand during thelockdown dipped by more thana third on many times. TheState-owned shadow bankingfirms Power FinanceCorporation or REC wouldinfuse liquidity of �90,000 crto discoms against receivables.The liquidity in the form ofloans to discoms would begiven against State guaranteesfor exclusive purpose of dis-charging liabilities of discomsto Gencos, it added.Thisscheme would link to specificactivities/reforms by the dis-coms like digital payments.

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It seems like the collective fightagainst COVID-19 is here to stay fora while now. We need to be more

patient within the comfort of ourhomes to flatten the curve of thespread. With most of us spending somuch time online, as we follow the lock-down rules, one can’t miss the trend ofart presentation and appreciation on thedigital platform. There is more of newmusic presentations, dance perfor-mances, painting works, poetry rendi-tions, storytelling, memes, comics,graphic works, animation skits, photostories and short documentaries pre-pared to create awareness on health andwellness.

The majority of us across the worldare trying to add positivity to our livesby occupying our minds with newinterests, experiencing sharing and newlearnings along with the much-neededdaily dose of yoga and meditation ses-sions. To add an element of leisure,many artists are coming online from allover the world and streaming their liveperformances for the audience global-ly while overcoming technological andaesthetic issues.

In these times of social distancing,Spic Macay (Society for Promotion ofIndian Classical Music And CultureAmong Youth) has launched the SpicMacay Rendezvous Series for all agegroups to interact online with some ofthe greatest exponents of Indian classi-cal music, dance, arts and crafts, cine-ma and yoga.

The society has already hostedonline sessions with bansuri guru, PtHari Prasad Chourasia, Indian classicalvocalist, Pt Jasraj, Mohiniattam dancer,Dr Neena Prasad, carnatic vocalist,Sudha Raghunathan, cinema and the-atre actress-producer, Nandita Das andMK Raina, as well as an interaction withsocial activist Vandana Shiva on theEarth Day theme. Spic Macay has beenposting announcements of the forth-coming online programmes under theseries via its website, Facebook,Instagram and Twitter handles alongwith WhatsApp alerts for inviting morepeople to get inspired and appreciate theexperiences.

This lockdown has brought backclean air to our metro cities, granted us

the freedom to re-imagine our lives andengage with our personal interests.However ironic as it may sound, it hasprovided us the freedom to rediscoverrelationships that were almost forgotten.It has given us the freedom to pause andrewind so that we can be human again.Everything appears more organised.Stars seem more visible at night. Anunplanned grand experiment haschanged earth.

We have taken up an initiative call-ing to ‘Save the Artist’ with digital socialnetworking. Artistes from Indian clas-sical music, dance and folk arts areuploading their videos that share theirperspectives on how they think we cansave various art forms. In unique ways,one can also support young artistes inthis difficult time of deadly pandemic.The time is now to encourage people touse this period for their personal devel-opment.

One of the oldest and well-knownSankat-Mochan festivals of Indian clas-sical music, which, over the years hasbeen inviting some eminent artistes ofIndia to Varanasi, is now streaming dig-itally for the first time.

Indian classical dancers abroad aretaking online classes to beat lockdownblues. Arunima, a trained Kuchipudidancer from UK, plans to take perfor-mances online too, under her banner‘Dance Karona’. While entertainingpeople all over the world with their dig-ital and online concerts, artistes are alsoraising funds to support frontline healthworkers. The initiative is to supply themwith masks, hand sanitisers and PPE

kits. Another encouraging story comes

from the Hyderabad Art Society, lead byartist Ramana Reddy, which haslaunched a new initiative to paint theirperspective on ongoing COVID-19, apositive step to motivate youngsters toexpress their thoughts. He shares, “As anactivity, arts give strength where theycan reveal their inner feelings andrespond to the current situation.”

Globally, many popular museumsare inviting people to explore theirshows and exhibits virtually.Administrations and governments arealso announcing support to the artistes’community. The Rajasthan state govern-ment has announced support to the folkartists with the ‘Chief Minister’s FolkArtist Encouragement Scheme’. Thescheme intends to encourage the solofolk artistes living in rural areas of thestate to shoot a 15-20 minutes video per-formance at their homes and send thesame to the government, so that it canbe appreciated through the digitalsocial media platforms.

(The writer is the Director, Media, of Spic Macay.)

Hollywood pressed pauseon releasing most major

films in theatres to combat theCoronavirus outbreak but thathasn’t necessarily been the casefor toys and merchandise relat-ed to those films.

Despite film delays, toyproduction and gaming compa-nies are often staying on sched-ule, releasing a variety of prod-ucts tied to major titles fromBlack Widow to Minions: TheRise of Gru in hopes of weath-ering through the pandemic.Most products are already inretail stores, appearing onshelves and being sold onlineseveral months to a year aheadof the film’s new release date.

Some believe toy-makersmade the right choice to sellproducts now rather than later.Especially, since many of theproducts have already beenmanufactured and packagedfor sale.

“The train had alreadystarted moving on these toysand there was no way to stop it,”said James Zahn, senior editorat The Toy Insider. He doesn’texpect those products to sell asquickly when there’s no film tosupport them, but he believesputting them on sale now ispossibly the best option insteadof being stored away in a ware-house, which he thinks is theworst-case scenario.

Zahn said quickly sellingthe toys and merchandise onclearance could be anotheroption.

“It can become very cost-

ly,” he said. “You’re basicallypaying rent, monthly rent to awarehouse. You need to turnthat product quickly.Everything is on schedule. Now,that schedule is out of sync. It’snot just toys. It’s a full market-ing program that has multiplemoving pieces between differ-ent licensing partnerships.”

Cinemas across the worldhave been closed since mid-March with many film releas-es postponed for a later date.Some states are looking tosoon reopen theatres.

With most theatres closed,studios opted to funnel theirnew or recently released filmson home viewing platforms.That happened with Pixar’sOnward, which played in the-atres for weeks before it wasforced onto a digital platform,making more sense for toycompanies to continue torelease their product to coincidewith the animated film.

Marvel’s Black Widow hasbeen postponed untilNovember, but products relat-ed to the film including toysand books along with charac-ters from the film highlightedon a free-to-play mobile game.A collection of dolls are at retailstores for the live-action remake

of the animated classic Mulan,which was delayed until July 24.

Mattel said products forTop Gun: Maverick, which hadan original July release, willbegin rolling out this summerand continue to launchthroughout the fall leading upto the new release date onDecember 23.

Films such as Minions: TheRise of Gru and F9 from the Fastand Furious saga have beenpostponed for a full year, andGhostbusters: Afterlife wasdelayed by several months. Butproducts for those films can befound online.

LEGO has a particular planin place for next year’s Minionsmovie. “We recently launchedtwo LEGO Minions buildingsets that are inspired by theproperty and characters, but weare holding back the rest of thecollection that is directly linkedto the upcoming film to coin-cide with the new premieredate,” said Mike Ilacqua, headof marketing for LEGO Group.

Zahn said the early releaseof products could be damagingfor F9 and Minions. He also saidthere’s a risk that the emotion-al connection could be harmedfor the child or adult if they areunable to see the actual film. He

calls the film “a commercial forthe product,” especially forcharacters being introduced inthe new films such asTaskmaster and Red Guardianin Black Widow.

In many cases, viewers ofthe film may want to act outwhat they’ve seen. “Certaincharacters may become pegwarmers, as they call it, wherekids are buying the BlackWidow, but they’re not buyingthe other characters that they’rejust not familiar with on a col-lector standpoint,” he said.

Teiko Duplessis, a motherof two, agrees to a certainextent. “If you grew up watch-ing Marvel films, it’s a win-winto purchase the merchandise,especially if you can’t see thefilm,” said Duplessis, an Illinoisresident who bought a ScoobyDoo T-shirt while store shop-ping for her daughter. Theshirt was tied to the WarnerBros. film “Scoob!” which willgo straight to digital on May 15.

Duplessis said she’s gratefulfor her purchase, and thinkingabout buying more. “My kidsare familiar with Scooby Doo,”she said. “The film is a bonus.Whether they have it out or not,it’s not a deal breaker for them.”

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Aglobal team led University of NewSouth Wales (UNSW), Sydney aims

to track the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the mental health of thousands ofpeople from the womb to old age. Theteam will explore for the first time whatthey describe as this pandemic’s toxic com-bination of two extreme psychologicalstressors: existential threat and socialisolation.

They are hoping to recruit around3,000 people from Australia, the UK andUS to evaluate their mood before and afterthe onset of the pandemic and to tracktheir cognitive function and social net-works over the coming months. It has aspecial focus on two subgroups thoughtto be, especially vulnerable to the shockof enforced isolation: adolescents and preg-nant women.

“The COVID-19 pandemic haschanged people’s lives so drastically thatit is difficult to know how protracted theeffects may be,” said study’s chief investi-gator Dr Susanne Schweizer from UNSW’sSchool of Psychology.

“We’re particularly interested inyounger people because they are at a timeof social reorientation away from the fam-ily towards their peers, which is all of a sud-den being disrupted by social distancing,”Schweizer added.

The research team are concerned thatthe long-term effects of social isolation inthis group may come at a cost to their cog-nitive development due to schools being

closed as they are in the US and the UKor drastically changed as in the case ofAustralia.

According to the researchers, initial-ly, participants will be asked to completean hour-long survey online in a laptop orsmartphone browser to assess moodbefore and after the pandemic. They willbe asked to evaluate their connections topeople in their social network and will alsobe invited to complete tasks that assessworking memory — the ability to storeinformation in memory for short amountsof time.

After three months — and then againafter six — participants will again be askedto fill in a shorter survey to track progressin mood, cognitive function and social net-work.

“We hope that by the end of the study,we will have reliable and accurate data sothat we can qualify the long-term effectsof this pandemic. By working togetherwith other research teams at the univer-sities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UKand Oregon and Pittsburgh in the US, weare able to ask these questions across dif-ferent populations,” Schweizer said.

“By investigating the impact of thepandemic on mental health and what hap-pens when the protection of a social sup-port network suddenly disappears, we willbe much better positioned to respond tothe future health care needs of our nation-al and global populations,” she noted.

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University School ofManagement Studies

(USMS), IP University organ-ises FDP for a week on GlobalEconomy in COVID-19:Opportunities and Challengesfrom May 11 to 15. The ViceChancellor of the university,Professor Mahesh Verma inau-gurated it online on the firstday.

According to the Dean-USMS Professor Neena Sinha,the FDP is designed toenhance the participants’understanding of the theme bybringing academia, industryand researchers from diversebackgrounds together. It willexplore the strategies for man-aging the emerging opportuni-ties and challenges and therecent developments in thelight of the pandemic.

Experts like ProfessorHimanshu Rai, Director-IIM,Indore; Atul Gupta, President-ICAI; Dr Narayan Pendse,Principal Consultant-Strategy& Operations at KingsHospital, Sri Lanka; ProfessorWayne Visser, AMS, Belgium;Professor Kiran Momaya, IITMumbai; Professor Madu Vij,FMS Delhi; Dr John Mendy,

University of UK; ProfessorDeepak Tandon, IMI Delhi;Professor K K Aggarwal,Chairman-NBA & founderVC of IP University connectonline as a mentor or resourceperson for this week long FDP.

The FDP deliberates upontopics like Global economyand the Corona crisis:Towardsprotectionism or integration?Adapting HRM in the time ofCorona, remote work duringthis crisis, performance man-agement, building mental wellbeing and resiliency, corpo-rates response, role of ICT, dig-italisation, digitalisation inhigher education, industry 4.0,mathematical modelling, sus-tainable development, manag-ing technology and innovation,CSR, media view, impact ofentrepreneurship, managingglobal recession, final marketsand institutes: the road ahead,safeguarding investments, PPP,anti-virus drugs, marketingstrategies, digital marketing,social media, urban planning,etc.

The FDP is open toresearch scholars & facultymembers of any college or uni-versity.

To deal with theCOVID-19 pandemic,

the government of India isundertaking strict mea-sures of social distancingand quarantine. People sus-pected of been exposed tothe infection are isolatedand the rest have beenasked to practice socialdistancing. Although thesemeasures are in the bene-fit of the community atlarge, the psychologicaleffects of lockdown onchildren cannot be ignored.With restricted mobilityand social distancing, chil-dren will experience socialisolation and loss of con-nectedness with peers lead-ing to subjective alien-ation. As children havelimited resources to under-stand the complexities ofsocial situation, their inca-pability to understand thepresent scenario duringthe pandemic and thenecessity of measures likesocial distancing, lock-down and quarantine maylead to frustration and out-burst of temper tantrums.

The pandemic has alsoled to children missing outtheir school and classeswhich will directly affect

their physical as well asmental health. Disrupteddaily routine with no senseof structure and environ-mental stimulation maymake them feel anxious,depressed and lonely.Moreover, with the changein their regular routine,children may becomeclingier, learn to seek neg-ative attention and becomeincreasingly dependent ontheir parents. During thisperiod of lockdown, chil-dren are physically lessactive, have longer expo-sure to screen time, irreg-ular sleep patterns andunhealthy diets which inturn can lead to unhealthyweight gain and poor car-diorespiratory fitness.

In this scenario, chil-dren need special attention.During the formative years

of life, the role of parents isvery crucial. Any disrup-tion during this phase canhave long term effects onthe perceived attachmentof the child. However, thisdoes not discount the sig-nificant role of parentsthroughout the life.Conflict and poor attach-ment with the primarycaregivers can make a childmore vulnerable and canpose a threat to their men-tal health. Childrenexposed to negative emo-tions are at a higher risk ofdeveloping acute stress dis-order, adjustment disor-der and feelings of sadnessand grief. In times of stress,poor parenting can havelong-term adverse effectson the mental health ofchildren making themmore vulnerable to devel-

op mood disorders, psy-chosis and suicide in adult-hood.

With the ongoing peri-od of uncertainty, parentsact as significant protectivefactors. Therefore, itbecomes increasinglyimportant for all parents topractice ‘AttunedParenting.’ Attunementrefers to state of awarenesswhere parents pay atten-tion to the feelings of thechild and become respon-sive. In times of stress,especially due to the ongo-ing pandemic, childrenmay find it difficult toexpress verbally and theirunderlying feelings maymanifest itself physically,behaviourally and/or cog-nitively in the form ofanger outburst, defiance,sleep problems and psy-cho-somatic complaints.Thus the parents’ role is toobserve for sign of distressand related feelings. Withthe help of few activitiesparents can address nega-tive feeling of the child andfoster positivity and a senseof well being.

(This is an authoredarticle by PsychologistGunjan Joshi.)

IVF man of India Dr Ajay Murdiaestablised Indira IVF group of fer-tility Clinics on May 2, 2011.

Through his facebook post he sharedthat IVF won’t celebrate its ninthfoundation day this year. He alsorequested his Indira IVF family to bea part of candle of hope activity at 7pm on May 2 to send out a positivemessage across.

Talking about Spanish flu andplague, he said that with patience andstrength we will getover theCoronavirus. Healso talked abouthow this is an emo-tional moment forcouples without chil-dren and can bringharmonal disbal-ance.

Dr Ajay alsothanked his team,which includes 200 IVF specialists,more than 135 embryologist andstaffs more than 2,000. “It is the col-lective effort of all of us, we shouldcelebrate it together,” said he.

The group ensures the parentsthat since infertility has challengedyou, we are here to change all that foryou and you are going to come outstronger from it.

It is equipped with updated tech-nology and state-of-the-art infra-structure, which caters for a host ofinfertility treatments like IVF (In vitrofertilization), Laser Assisted Hatching,Cryopreservation, ICSI, IUI,Blastocyst culture and transfer,Laparoscopy, Hysteroscopy includingdonor programs. It is armed with thestate-of-the-art infrastructure,advanced equipment and a pool ofrenowned physicians.

How well is Indian market treat-ing the IVF treatment? Dr Ajay says,“Fertility or IVF treatment in Indiahas undergone a sea of change sincethe first baby was born by this tech-nology in India back in 1986. Evenafter almost 42 years after the world’s

first test tube i. e Louise Brown bornby IVF technique still the accessibil-ity, affordability for acquiring IVFtreatment still remains an issue toaddress. Almost 1 in every 8 couplehave infertility issue. Changinglifestyle & Co morbidities associatedwith it other than medical conditionshas increased the incidence in infer-tility. Despite this the percentage ofinfertile couple seeking the treatmentis very low. Fertility clinics in Indiastill have to penetrate the 2 tier & 3tiers cities let alone the Metro citiesproperly. Affordability & lack ofawareness about the available treat-ment options for infertility is a majorcause for couple seeking IVF bytreatment. While in rural areas infer-tility is still considered a social stig-

ma other than conservative & reli-gious concerns.”

How did he come up with theidea of opening a fertility centre?“Amidst social taboos, male domi-nance and stigmatisation, there wasa time in the year 1988, when peo-ple were concerned about anythingbut women and infertility. All whowere blamed for the misfortuneand infertility were women regard-less of the reality of both can equal-ly be the reason of the same andalways punished the women byremarrying, isolating and even con-sidering them ill-fated. A time wheneverything was biased, I let go of theperks of a comfortable governmentjob and unlike any other man of thattime, named my two room clinic

after my wife Indira,” said Dr Ajay.

The group works on four pillars:

������09>9�;The group has been working to

bring down the cost of IVF treatmentfor the masses. The cost of IVF cyclehas been brought down significantly.It has made the treatment affordablefor various sections of the society.

�:�����The group has been actively

spreading awareness using scientificmethods to deal with infertility.Under the banner Nisantanta BharatChodo, they have organised manyinfertility checkups and free awarenesscamps throughout the nation.

�������To provide advanced fertility set

up across India, they have establishedmany IVF centres throughout thenation. With an aim to make infertil-ity treatment available, it plans to pro-vide its services within walking dis-tance from their home.

�����909>9�;�The success rates speak for them-

selves. The group is equipped with thelatest technology and a hardworkingteam, who are dedicated to bringinghappiness in the lives of every coupleat different Indira IVF centers.

On a daily basis, they see almost60 success stories across 20 states, withthe number growing with its presencepan India.

KVinayak Rao, Indian RailwaysAccounts Service (IRAS) officer

of 1987 batch has taken over thecharge of Member (Finance) fromMay 13 on the Board of the AirportsAuthority of India. Prior to thisappointment, Rao was serving asMember (Finance) in DelhiDevelopment Authority (DDA).

As Member (Finance) of AAI,Rao will be the overall in-charge offinance, accounts and financial oper-ation of the organisation. He will alsobe responsible for evolving, formu-lating policies and strategies relatedto entire gamut of finance operation,including resource mobilisation andstatutory compliances. He will alsoplay a leadership role and provideeffective support in achieving sus-tained growth of the organisation’sbusiness.

During his tenure in IndianRailways, he has served in variouscapacities in zonal railways, con-struction projects, and productionunits. He has worked as ExecutiveDirector (Finance Expenditure) inRailway Board (Ministr y ofRailways) from 2009 to 2014. He wasalso on the Board of Pipavav RailwayCorporation Limited (PRCL) andRailway Energy ManagementCompany (REMC) Ltd.

Apart from this, he also has awide experience in power sector as

he has served as Member (Finance)in the erstwhile Maharashtra StateElectricity Board and Director(Finance) in the four restructuredcompanies from 2003- 2009. Heplayed an instrumental role inrestructuring of Maharashtra StateElectricity Board (MSEB).

As the world gears up tobattle the COVID-19 pan-

demic, businesses galore aregrappling to stay afloat andcontinue the momentum.Amidst the chaos, most of theemployees have been givenstrict mandates of workingfrom home. Many are stillprocessing, adapting and tothe new normative while step-ping out only when absolute-ly essential.

Most of us are dealingwith this situation with mixedfeelings about working fromhome. Not being able to seeyour work buddies or evensuddenly craving that instantcoffee from the office cafete-ria can let many of us down.Some of us, on the other handrelish these special moments ofbeing able to just work in ourjammies with a hot cup offreshly brewed tea at home.

For those struggling toconcentrate or those revelingthe peaceful quite of theirhome workstation, here arefive tricks to ensure a produc-tive WFH:

Set-up a specified work-space: While it’s fun and quiterelaxing to work from yourbed or working up a cool pre-sentation as you laze about onthat laid-back couch, studieshave validated that workingfrom a set area has a positiveimpact on an individuals’ pro-ductivity. A desk not onlyallows us to differentiatebetween work and family timein this period of self-isolation,but also encourages and addsto better efficiency, minimaldistractions and reducedfatigue.

Skill building: Whilestepping out of the house is notbe an option, doing an onlinecourse could help you build on

your expertise and up-skill, oreven allow for a fun change ofpace. Courses ranging fromdigital marketing, art courses,disaster management (espe-cially in these times), music,business management etc.could help you keep busy andentertained.

Family time: A lot oftimes working from homeresults in 12-14 hours of work-ing. When you are in yourcomfortable space the worktimings are bound to gobeyond the normal 9-6. In astressful time like this allowmultiple 15 minute designat-ed breaks to yourself, to movearound and spend time withyour family.

Wellness and happiness:Social isolation, while ademanding period, could be aperiod of healing and learning.Find something you havealways wanted to do but could-n’t because you didn’t have thetime, or something that youhaven’t touched in a long time.This time can be utilized tofocus on individual wellness,happiness and overall mentaland spiritual growth.

Safe distance: Social dis-tance is the go to phrase thesedays but screen-distance hasbeen taught to several of ussince our childhoods. The idealdistance of your screen fromyour face is about the length ofyour arm, so sit at a relaxed stateand stretch out your arm. Ifyour finger lightly touches yourscreen, it’s at the perfect distanceand will help reduce the strainon your eyes. So distance it outand play safe. Enjoy while youwork at home.

(This is an authored articleby Chulamas Jitpatima,Director, MQDC India.)

The team of next-tech lab ofSRM University, Andhra

Pradesh, has brought laurelsto the institution by winningthree hackathons in a row.

During the lockdown,while some devoted their timeto newfound hobbies, theyoung researchers successful-ly developed a fresh multi-player virtual reality gamecalled ‘Whack A Mole’ and acloud-based multiplayer FPSin Virtual Reality called‘Desert Shooter’. The three-member team has successful-ly bagged the second prize inthe International /Professional Award atSKYHacks2020; Best echoARHack at Silicon Valley Hacks;and Best AR/VR hack atHackNow, organised by CalHacks, a non-profit organisa-tion at the University ofBerkeley, California.

When asked how the ideaof making such a gamecrossed their minds, EpperlaKarthik, a second year studentof Computer Science andEngineering, said, “My fami-ly loves attending tradeshows.Every time we attend any, myfather and I challenge eachother to win a game of WhackA Mole. But due to the strict

quarantine that we are follow-ing, it’s been a while now thatwe exchanged such challenges.My teammates and I, beinggaming and virtual realityenthusiasts, decided to devel-op a VR version of the game.”

‘Whack A Mole’ is a mul-tiplayer virtual reality gamethat allows users to play

against the computer or theirfamilies or both. One can useit both on iOS and Android.It is built on Unity3D, on topof Photon PUN andGoogleVR SDK. It is alsointegrated with GoogleFirebase. “This is the firsttime we have worked ondeveloping virtual reality

games and networking. Aswe had to run the game onour phone to record the game-play, the output video onYouTube is a bit blurry,”explained Khushboo Sharma,another member of the teamand a second year student ofComputer Science andEngineering. “We completed

the development of the gamein approximately 20 hours,beginning from the scratch.We developed a few of ourown UI elements and gameassets. I feel the User-Interfaceof the app and the effects arepretty cool. VR developmentis real fun. Moreover, there area lot of API and SDK that

unity supports,” exclaimedKoushik Bhargav, a third yearstudent of Computer Scienceand Engineering and the thirdmember of the team.

The team has plans tomake this game to be a cross-platform game. Therefore,their next plan of action is todevelop its web version andgive the users an immersiveexperience.

‘Desert Shooter’ is anoth-er multiplayer virtual realitygame developed by the teamthat allows users to playagainst the computer or theirfamilies or both. You can con-nect with your friends andplay together. The game con-sists of a swarm of robot shipsmoving towards you and youhave to protect yourself fromthem. “The interesting part isthat all of this happens inmixed reality, which makes thegame immersive. We built iton Unity3D, on top of PhotonPUN and GoogleVR SDK,Echoar. It is also integratedwith Google Firebase and theassets are stored in echoarcloud. This project won thebest AR/VR hack at ‘Hack:Now’ which is organised bythe University of Berkeley,California,” said Epperla.

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Star batsman Babar Azam onWednesday took over thereins of Pakistan’s white-ball

cricket after being appointed as theODI skipper. Azhar Ali will con-tinue to lead in Tests, the PakistanCricket Board announced.

Babar, who was one of theworld’s leading batsmen acrossformats last year and already theT20 skipper, replaced wicket-keeper batsman Sarfaraz Ahmedas the ODI captain for the 2020-21 season. Pakistan is scheduledto play six ODIs and 20 T20Is,besides the Asia Cup and the T20World Cup this season.

“I want to congratulate AzharAli and Babar Azam for gettingcaptaincy extensions,” chief selec-tor and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said in a PCB statement.

“This is absolutely the rightdecision as they also require cer-tainty and clarity on their futureroles. I am sure they will now startlooking to the future and startplanning so that they can buildsides that can perform at theexpected levels.”

“We have kept in mind whocan serve us in the long run. Wehave kept the 2023 World Cup inmind while picking Babar as ODIcaptain. He is the captain of T20side, he is a top-class performerand this is the right time to

groom him,” Misbah said.“He is taking the challenge

head on. Since he became our T20captain his Test performance hasalso improved. So why not, if hecan take responsibility,” said theformer Pakistan captain.

Pakistan are scheduled toplay two T20Is in Ireland in Julyand after that they are slated totravel to England to play threeTests and as many T20Is.

However, a decision on theEngland tour will be made bymid-June amid the ongoing coro-navirus pandemic, PCB chiefexecutive Wasim Khan has said.

The officials of both the PCBand England and Wales CricketBoard will be having an onlinemeeting on Friday.

Pakistan also announced an18-player men’s central contractlist for the 2020-21 season, whichwill come into effect from July 1.

Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amirand Wahab Riaz missed out, whileImam-ul-Haq, Sarfaraz Ahmedand Yasir Shah slipped one cate-gory each.

“The selectors have made thetough decisions to leave out Amir,Hasan and Wahab but consider-ing Hasan missed most of the sea-son due to an injury and Amir andWahab decided to focus on white-ball cricket, this was the rightmove,” Misbah said.

“However, Amir and Wahab

are senior and experiencedbowlers and they remain in con-tention as we believe they can stillcontribute to the Pakistan men’s

cricket team and also mentor ouryoung battery of fast bowlers.”

On former skipper Sarfaraz,Misbah said: “I feel Sarfaraz can

play all three formats. He has beenvalued. He is not captain so he hasbeen demoted. But he is verymuch in our plans. MohammadRizwan is there but he will be con-sidered. He is still a valuableplayer.”

Naseem Shah and IftikharAhmad are the two new faces inthe contract list.

The 17-year-old Naseem hadbecome the youngest Test bowlerto take a five wicket haul and a hat-trick in consecutive Tests againstSri Lanka and Bangladesh inKarachi and Rawalpindi, respec-tively, while Iftikhar had playedtwo Tests, two ODIs and sevenT20Is in the 2019-20 season.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, whotook 18 Test and two T20I wick-ets for Pakistan in the 2019-20 sea-son, moved up in Category A.

Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwanand Shan Masood have beenawarded Category B.

PCB also created a newEmerging Players’ Category andincluded Haider Ali and pacersHaris Rauf and MohammadHasnain as initial inductees.

“I am thankful to the PCBChairman for supporting our rec-ommendation to give emergingplayer contracts to Haider, Harisand Hasnain. This is part of ourforward-looking strategy andinvesting in the future, while alsoencouraging potential futurenational team players,” Misbahsaid.

PCB CENTRAL CONTRACT LISTCategory A: Azhar Ali, BabarAzam, Shaheen Shah Afridi.Category B: Abid Ali, AsadShafiq, Haris Sohail,Mohammad Abbas, MohammadRizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed,Shadab Khan, Shan Masood,Yasir Shah.Category C: Fakhar Zaman,Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim,Imam-ul-Haq, Naseem Shah,Usman Shinwari.Emerging Players’ Category:Haider Ali, Haris Rauf,Mohammad Hasnain.

�:��> 9� The Indian women’s cricket team needsto develop the mental toughness that the mightyAustralians possess to end its drought of winning aworld title, feels veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami.

Like the men’s team, Indian women have beenconsistently reaching the knock-out stages of ICCevents of late but have failed to lay their hands on thetrophy. In fact, they are yet to win a world title.

“Obviously, it is a mind issue but it doesn’t meanthe players don’t have it in them go all the way. Wehave been playing well in the last three years, just notbeen able to win world titles. Australia are far aheadbecause they know how to win big games,” Jhulan,the leading wicket-taker in women’s ODIs, said.

India had beaten Australia in the league stage ofboth the tri-series and T20 World Cup but lost to themin the final on each occasion.

“You know you can come back after losing in thegroup stage but you can’t in knock-outs. Mindset playsa big role in that scenario, more than the skill.

“It shows how mentally strong you are, how youcontrol your nerves. If you can do that, you will beahead of the other teams,” said Jhulan.

“Not just the women’s team, you see men’s andU-19 team also losing finals recently,” the 37-year-oldsaid referring to India’s loss in the men’s U-19 WorldCup final. The Indan men’s team too has not won aglobal trophy since 2013.

Jhulan feels the Australian women owe theirunmatched success to the women’s Big Bash League,which has given their players exposure and stiff com-petition.

“The current women’s Australian team is like theAustralian men’s team of the past (which won threeODIs World Cups from 1999-2007). There is a rea-son why they are such a superior side. Their set-upis much bigger and Big Bash has given them a lot ofopportunities and exposure,” said Jhulan.

She said Indian women’s cricket too needs a T20league to get better.

“You see how Indian men’s cricket improved afterthe IPL (in 2008). Earlier there was a gap between anIndian cricketer and domestic player but it changedafter the IPL. The youngsters look more confident andknow how to handle the big stage.

“We don’t have a competitive league at themoment. First-class structure is also important butleagues like WBBL and IPL prepare you for the bigstage,” Jhulan, who only plays 50-over cricket, reck-oned.

Calls for a women’s IPL have been growing butsome argue that the local talent pool is not enoughfor a full-fledged event.

The womens team is in need of more power-hit-ters like Shafali Verma and world-class medium pac-ers like Jhulan and Shika Pandey, especially in the T20format.

Jhulan said it takes time to produce pacers andinsisted that there is enough talent available.

“It is the not that we don’t have enough mediumpacers in domestic cricket. It takes time to groomthem. You can’t produce them overnight. It is a processand we have all gone through that. Shikha is also notan overnight product,” she said. PTI

��9�� ���������

An “imposing character” likeVirat Kohli will not be

comfortable sharing power andhence split captaincy is notsomething that will work inIndian cricket, feels formerEngland skipper NasserHussain.

However, he does feel thatthe Indian team managementoften messes up selections asthey did in that World Cupsemi-final against NewZealand and split coachingmight be a good idea.

Asked if split captain-cy can work in India, likeit did in England,Hussain didn’t soundconfident.

“It depends onthe character, Virat(Kohli) is such animposing charac-ter, all encompass-ing, it would be dif-ficult for him to handover, he wouldn’t wantto hand anything over.Whereas withEngland, we have(Eoin) Morgan and

(Joe) Root, two likeable, laid-back (characters),” Hussainsaid during a podcast onCricbuzz.

However, split coaching is nota bad idea, said Hussain, arespected voice in world cricket.“...Coaches have so much to do,whether you should have a splitcoach, they have so much on theirplate. Just to give you a fresh per-spective like Trevor Bayliss forexample.

“He cracked white ball forEngland, we didn’t really crack

Test match cricket. So maybetwo different coacheswould be the right way togo,” he opined.

“One thing they don’tdo well is selection likethey couldn’t get a num-ber 4 despite having somany great batsmen.Unlike New Zealand,who have only that

many players tochoose from, Indiahave so much of tal-

ent, that after twofailures, a newplayer comes inand then anext,” he said.

9����� 3>���>

Former India coach Greg Chappell said thatMS Dhoni is the most powerful batsman he

has ever seen.Chappell was coach of the Indian team for

two controversy-riddled years between 2005 and2007 in which he clashed with several seniormembers of the team, especially then-captain andcurrent BCCI President Sourav Ganguly.

His time, however, was also known for therise of several younger players in the squadincluding Dhoni and Suresh Raina.

“I vividly remember that I was left awestruckwhen I saw him batting for the first time. He wasdefinitely the most exciting cricketer in India atthat time. He used to hit the ball from the mostunusual positions. He is the most powerful bats-man I have ever seen,” said Chappell during achat session on the Facebook handle of thePlaywrite Foundation.

“I remember his knock of 183 against SriLanka and how he tore them apart. It was powerhitting at its very best. The next match was inPune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along theground more instead of trying to hit every ball

to the boundary’. We were chasing 260 odd andwere in a good position and Dhoni was playinga contrasting innings to the one he had playedjust a couple of days before.

“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoniasked me, through 12th man RP Singh if hecould hit sixes. I told him not until the target wasin single digit. When we needed six runs to win,he finished the game with a six,” he said.

In later years, Dhoni would become one ofthe most successful captains of all time, leadingIndia to the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011World Cup titles. He would also become knownfor the efficiency with which he managed to suc-cessfully finish run-chases with his innings struc-tured in the manner Chappell spoke about.

“I always used to challenge him if he couldfinish the game. There used to be a boomingsmile on his face, whenever he used to score thewinning runs. He is definitely the best finisherthe game has ever seen,” said Chappell.

��9�� ��������

India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is expect-ed to be the BCCI nomination for the prestigious

Arjuna Award this year after missing out on senior-ity to Ravindra Jadeja in 2019.

The BCCI office-bearers are expected to zeroin on nominations for the men’s and women’s cat-egories later this month but the Gujarat pacer’s stu-pendous performance in the last four years makeshim the most worthy candidate.

If BCCI decides to send multiple names in themen’s category, senior opener Shikhar Dhawancould also be preferred as he missed out in 2018despite the Board sending his nomination.

“Last year, we had sent three names in men’s sec-tion — Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and MohammedShami,” a BCCI source said.

Bumrah lost out as he had completed only twoyears in international cricket while the criteria ofselection requires performance of at least three yearsat the highest level.

“That’s why Bumrah, who completed three yearsof international cricket last year, missed out to Jadeja,who is senior as well as a consistent performer formany years,” the source added.

The 26-year-old has 68 wickets from 14 Tests,104 wickets from 64 ODIs and 59 wickets from 50T20Is, making for a phenomenal four years in Indiacolours.

“He certainly has the best credentials. He wasICC’s No 1 ranked ODI bowler. He is the only Asianbowler to pick up five-wicket hauls in South Africa,England, Australia and West Indies,” the source said.

It is highly unlikely that BCCI will sendMohammed Shami’s name this time around as thepolice case filed against him by his estranged wifealleging domestic violence and adultery means thathe won’t be eligible.

In case of Dhawan, his seniorityis a factor as all his contemporaries(Virat Kohli, RavichandranAshwin, Rohit Sharma, AjinkyaRahane, Cheteshwar Pujara andJadeja) have got the award.

Dhawan was, however,out of action for a con-siderable period lastyear after sustainingmultiple injuries.

In the women’ssection, all-rounderDeepti Sharma, forher consistentshow over the pastfour years includ-ing India’s highestODI score of188, is one ofthe namesalong withpacer ShikhaPandey.

��>��0�� Sri LankaCricket on Wednesdaysaid it will take a call onIndia and Bangladesh’supcoming tours to theisland nation later thisweek.

“The two cricketboards (BCCI and BCB)wanted time till May 15 toassess the situation and wehave given them that. Wewill arrive at a collectivedecision at the end of this

week,” said SLC chiefexecutive Ashley de Silva.

India was sched-uled to tour SriLanka in June-Julyfor three ODIs and asmany T20Is whileBangladesh was dueto visit in July-August for a three-Testseries as part of the ICCWorld Test C’ship.

If the tours didn’tmaterialise, it will be the

third home series of SriLanka to be cancelled in a

row because of theCovid-19 pandem-ic.

England’s tourto Sri Lanka for athree-Test serieswas cancelled in

mid-March after the out-break of the pandemic inthe middle of the secondwarm up game of thetour. PTI

>9����>� Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopprecently had his say on the age-old debateas to which footballer is better betweenArgentina maestro Lionel Messi andPortuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

Over the years, the two have brokenmultiple scoring records and set new ones

and have set unbelievable standards for oth-ers to follow.

Klopp, who has come up against thesetwo many-a-times with Borussia Dortmundand Liverpool, stated he finds Messi a notchhigher than Ronaldo.

“For me Messi, but I couldn’t admireRonaldo more than I do already. The expla-nation is the following. We’ve played againstboth already and both are almost impossi-ble to defend. But Messi has much lowerphysical requirements from birth on,” Klopptold Freekickerz in a video uploaded on theirYouTube channel

“If you could paint yourself a perfectplayer, it would have Ronaldo’s height, hecould jump and run as high or quick asRonaldo can do.

“And what is then even added to that ishis total attitude, it is absolutely perfect andprofessional, it couldn’t be any better,” the2019-20 Champions League winning coachadded.

“And on the other side there is the smallMessi who makes everything look so sim-ple. And therefore I like him maybe a lit-tle bit more as a player on the pitch,” headded. IANS

����� �93� �����3

US superstar Serena Williamssays she’s ready to play “real

tennis” after the enforced rest ofcoronavirus quarantine.

“I really look forward to gettingback on the court,” the 23-timeGrand Slam champion said in achat with elder sister Venus duringan Instagram Live workout onTuesday.

“It’s what I do best. I absolute-ly love playing.”

Tennis is on hiatus until at leastmid-July thanks to the pandemic,with the French Open postponeduntil autumn and Wimbledon can-celled. Serena said she’d come to seethe break as “a necessary evil.

“I felt like my body needed it,even though I didn’t want it,” saidthe 38-year-old, who last won aGrand Slam title at the 2017Australian Open. “And now I’mfeeling better than ever. I’m feelingmore relaxed, more fit. Now I cango out and play real tennis.”

����� �9��9�

Crystal Palace man-ager Roy Hodgson is

ready to take part in thePremier League’s pro-posed restart during thecoronavirus crisis despitebeing in the vulnerableage group.

Hodgson is the old-est manager in PremierLeague history at 72,potentially putting theformer England coachin danger if he contractsthe virus.

But Hodgson said hehad no fears about get-ting back to work if thePremier League stick totheir plan to let clubsstart training next week.

Asked if he would beable to return, Hodgsontold beIN SPORTS: “Yes.No concerns. Age is age.It’s how you feel really.Your age doesn’t neces-sarily relate to your fit-ness or how you’re feel-ing, or your capacity to

do a job.”Hodgson, whose

long managerial careerhas included stints atLiverpool and InterMilan, said he had usedthe enforced break sinceto work on his fitness.

“So I have no qualmswhatsoever,” he said.“When I’m called back towork I shall be veryhappy to go back towork.”

Several PremierLeague players haveexpressed concern aboutputting themselves andtheir families at risk.

Hodgson said he andPalace chairman SteveParish would not have aproblem if any of hisplayers did not want toreturn to work beforethey felt completely safe.

“This is going to be amatter for the individualand a matter for the clubat the end of the day,”Hodgson said.

“I would be very sur-prised, knowing my cluband Steve Parish as I do,that he would not besympathetic to a playerthat came and said:‘Look, I have seriousreservations about play-ing’.”

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2� ���������������������"3�������������� MaxVerstappen suggested onTuesday that Carlos Sainzwould replace SebastianVettel at Ferrari after say-ing he didn’t think DanielRicciardo would move tothe Italian Formula Oneoutfit next season.

Ricciardo andSpaniard Sainz are thefavourites to move to theScuderia following Vettel’sannouncement onTuesday that he would beleaving at the end of the2020 campaign.

Ita l ian-speaking,Australia-born Ricciardois in the last of a lucrativetwo-year contract withRenault.

Asked by former F1racer David Coulthardwhether the seat would goto an Italian soundingname or a Spanish sound-ing name, in reference toRicciardo and McLarendriver Sainz, Verstappensaid: “I think it’s not goingto be the Italian soundingname.”

“Let’s see. At the end of theday, it’s just a guess. We’ll haveto wait and see,” he added dur-ing the Instagram Q&A.

Ricciardo, 30, has wonseven Grand Prixs during hisF1 career, while 25-year-oldSainz is yet to win a singlerace.

Verstappen also ruled

himself out of moving toFerrari, saying that he “defi-nitely” would not be leavingRed Bull at the end of a sea-son whose start has beendelayed until July.

“I’m at Red Bull. I sawsome questions coming alongif I was going to Ferrari, butI’m not,” he said. AFP

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