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ANALYSIS 7THE FLAWS

OF FEEDBACK

OPINION 6PAWNS IN HIS GAME

SPORTS 12STOINIS BLITZ

DRAGS DC TO 157/8

HYDERABAD, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}TAMIL ACTRESS TANYA

RAVI CHANDRAN CAST OPPOSITE

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 342*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

INDIA EXTENDS USD 250 MILLION INFINANCIAL SUPPORT TO MALDIVES

Lok Sabha on Sunday passed a bill to amend the Factoring Regulation Actthat seeks to help micro, small and medium enterprises by providing

additional avenues for getting credit facility. TheFactoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, which wasintroduced on September 14, was passed by voicevote after a brief discussion. The FactoringRegulation Act, 2011 was enacted to provide forregulating the assignment of receivables to factors,registration of factors carrying on factoringbusiness and the rights and obligations of partiesto the contract for assignment of receivables.

BALU STILL ON LIFE SUPPORT AFTERTESTING NEGATIVE FOR COVID

Singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, who recently tested negative for COVID-19 butis still being treated at a Chennai hospital, "has started oral food intake and has

been practicing physiotherapy," said his son, producer-director S P Charan, in avideo message on Saturday. However, the 74-year-old singer isstill on ventilator. S P Balasubrahmanyam was admitted toChennai's MGM Healthcare hospital on August 5 after he testedpositive for the virus. He had mild symptoms when he was takento hospital but after his condition worsened, he was moved to theIntensive Care Unit or ICU and placed on life support. Sharingdetails about his father's health, S P Charan said in a clip: "Appacontinues to be stable. He continues to be on ventilator.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said that asmany as 20 million more girls may not return to schools even after the

COVID crisis is over. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly inNew York on Friday, the Pakistani Nobel laureate acknowledgedthat COVID had been a striking setback to our collective goals ,such as educating women, Dawn newspaper reported. Oneducation alone, 20 million more girls may never go back to theclassroom when this crisis ends (and) the global educationfunding gap has already increased to 200 billion dollars per year,Malala, 23, who once took a bullet from a Pakistani Talibanmilitant for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan, said.

MALALA SAYS 20 MN MORE GIRLS MAY NOTRETURN TO SCHOOLS EVEN AFTER COVID

LS PASSES BILL TO AMENDFACTORING REGULATION ACT

India has provided financial assistance of USD 250 million to the Maldives to help itmitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian embassy here

said on Sunday. The grant, provided under the most favourable terms possible, wasin response to the request made by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to overcome the difficult economicsituation in the Maldives. A handover ceremony was held onSunday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government ofMaldives to mark the occasion in the presence of ForeignMinister Abdulla Shahid, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer,High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir and CEO, SBI, MaleBharat Mishra, the embassy said in a statement.

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Trump backsTikTok dealinvolving Oracleand Walmart

8

World Alzheimer'sMonth: Rememberthose who cannotremember

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Watershedmoment for agri,will ensure trans-formation: PM

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated September 19, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashwin (Adhik) & Shukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Chaturthi: 02:26 am, (Next Day)

Nakshatram: Swati: 10:51 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 04:40 pm – 06:10 am

Yamagandam: 12:09 pm – 01:39 pm

Varjyam: 06:21 am – 07:47 pm

Gulika: 03:09 pm - 04:40 pm

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 02:58 pm – 04:24 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:45 am – 12:33 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: CloudyTemp: 26/23Humidity: 95%Sunrise: 06.04 amSunset: 06.13 pm

Farm bills passed amidunprecedented drama in RSPNS n HYDERABAD

Two of the three big ticket farmbills of the government werepassed in Rajya Sabha by voicevote today amid unprecedenteduproar and protests. The oppo-sition claimed the governmentdid not have the numbers andto cover it up, all rules were vio-lated. "This does not end here,"said Trinamool Congress'sDerek O'Brien, terming it a"murder of democracy". All theopposition MPs are sitting inprotest inside the house, ham-pering the sanitization opera-tions before the Lok Sabha ses-sion which begins at 3 pm.

"They cheated. They brokeevery rule in Parliament. It wasa historic day. In the worst senseof the word. They cut RSTV feedso the country couldn't see.They censored RSTV. Don'tspread propaganda. We have evi-

dence," Derek O'Brien tweeted.The opposition, which lackedthe numbers to block the bills,had demanded that the bills besent to a select committee forfurther discussion.

The trouble started as theDeputy Chairman said theopposition resolution was negat-ed and moved to pass the billsby voice vote. The opposition

demanded a physical voting,pointing out that they were sit-ting in parliament. When theChair refused, they rushed tothe Well of the House, tore upthe rule book and tried tosnatch off the DeputyChairman's microphone.

"Mahabharat has broken outinside parliament," Congress'sGhulam Nabi Azad said.

Opposition MPs could be seenrecording the moment on cell-phones, drawing repeatedrebuke from the chair.

Insisting that the rules werenot being followed, Mr O' Brien,whose point of order was notaccepted, said "This is a brutalmurder of the Parliamentarydemocratic system".

The house was adjournedimmediately for 10 minutesand after it resumed, the voicevote took place amid repeatedopposition slogans from theopposition who again parkedthemselves in the Well of theHouse. In a video statement, MrO'Brien who could earlier beseen waving the rule book, latersaid teh Rajya Sabha TV was"cut off " and censored". "Themembers of the oppositionasked for a vote. We were deniedit... It is a historic day, in theworst sense".

KCR, Jagan take differingpositions on farm billsL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Telangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and hisAndhra Pradesh counterpartYS Jaganmohan Reddy havetaken differing positionstowards the NDA governmentat the Centre yet again.

This was witnessed in theRajya Sabha on Sunday whenthe NDA government movedthe controversial farm bills.While TRS MPs stronglyopposed the farm bills, theYSRCP MPs expressed com-plete support to the bills.Although the MPs went by thedirections of their respectiveparty presidents, the stark dif-ference in the approach of thetwo parties also reflects thechanging contours of nation-al politics.

For, while YSRCP has allalong sailed with BJP-led NDA

partners, the TRS has willy-nilly played into the hands ofthe Congress-led UPA part-ners, fuelling speculations insome quarters over emergingnew political equations at thenational level.

The differing stances beingadopted by KCR and Jagantowards the NDA governmenthave been conspicuous right

from the commencement ofthe monsoon sesssion ofParliament last week.

While major regional partiesTRS, Trinamool Congress, ShivSena, NCP, BJD, AAP, DMK,Samajwadi party held a jointprotest at the Parliament againstthe Centre's GST compensationpayout options to States,

Continued on Page 2

TRS, Oppn poised for pitchedelectoral battles for next 6 monthsPNS n HYDERABAD

It is not yet a question of win-ning power or losing it. It is justa bypoll to an Assembly seat,elections to two MLC seats aswell as to GHMC and theMunicipal Corporations ofWarangal and Khammam.Still, much is at stake for thepolitical parties in Telanganawhen it comes to these upcom-ing elections over the next sixmonths. So, the rulingTelangana Rashtra Samiti aswell as the opposition partiesare engaged in a 'do-or-die'battle. The stakes are high

because these elec-tions will set thetone for theAssembly polls tobe held inDecember 2023.

O t h e r w i s e ,these elections willbe the final ones tobe held in Telanganabefore the 2023 Assembly pollsas all elections -- from village-level to national-level -- will beover and there will be no scopefor any party to gauge the

pulse or mood of votersbefore the 2023 Assemblypolls. No wonder, all parties are

chalking out strategiesand counter strate-

gies to put up astrong fight and winthese polls, comewhat may.

Although the TRSjuggernaut has been

on a roll since 2014, theruling party is taking no

chances and is giving utmostsignificance to retain the seat inthe upcoming DubbakaAssembly bypoll expected to beheld in November 2020 and theMLC polls for two seats inMarch 2021,

Continued on Page 2

For ICU beds; connections, graft matterDURGAPRASAD SUNKUn HYDERABAD

Amidst bewildering reports of'mounting' Covid-19 deaths,'falling' fatalities and 'increas-ing' recoveries, what is gallingfor gasping corona patientsand their anxious kin is thesickening fact that ICU bedsare available only if they have'connections' and are willing toline pockets, because the sever-ity of the patient's complica-tions is typically relegated tothe background.

In a nationwide survey con-ducted on the availability ofICU beds for Covid-19patients, it was revealed that

78% had to use connectionsand clout to secure Covid ICUbeds and only 4% patients gotICU beds through the routine

process in both governmentand private hospitals.

The survey was conductedby LocalCircles, an online

social community platform,following complaints from cit-izens across the country regard-ing their family friends or asso-ciates not being able to find anICU bed at a Government orprivate hospital.

As part of the survey, over17,000 responses from citi-zens located in over 211 dis-tricts of the country were col-lected. Among them, 65%respondents were men, while35% respondents were women.Further, 52% respondents werefrom Tier 1, 26% from Tier 2and 22% respondents werefrom Tier 3, 4 cities and ruraldistricts.

Continued on Page 2

COVID CONUNDRUM

Agra optician's claim threatens nation's banksREUTERS n AGRA

When business evaporated atGajendra Sharma’s eyeglassshop a couple of miles from theTaj Mahal during India’s strictCOVID-19 lockdown, he wasrelieved to hear about a pan-demic debt moratorium thatwould give him breathingroom on his home loan.

Now, however, the 53-year-old optician’s $13,500 debtrisks destabilising India’s banks,authorities warn.

That is because a complainthe brought challenging theloan relief plan, grouped withthose of other borrowers andnow before the Supreme Court,

could mean a $27 billion hit tolenders - more than half theirannual profits - that couldshake the nation’s financialsystem, the industry and reg-ulators fear.

The battle, launched fromSharma’s small shop in thenorthern city of Agra and now

involving more than 120lawyers, has the central bankand government struggling todefend what was meant to bea helping hand.

The problem, as the otherborrowers see it, is that theymust pay additional interest ontheir skipped repayments dur-

ing the moratorium, whichthey call “interest-on-interest.”

The borrowers - including aleading real estate industrygroup, power utilities, shoppingmalls and small businesses -says the scheme unfairly hitsthem even as many have beenfinancially devastated by thepandemic, that the banks mustforgive the interest and com-pound interest that accruedwhile their payments were sus-pended.

Sharma, a voluble man witha thick moustache and a cropof dark hair, says the six-month reprieve, which endedon Aug. 31, increased hisdebt load because of the extra

interest. He is also payingmonthly instalments on a$21,700 business loan, forwhich he did not seek a mora-torium.

“I realized this scheme wasnot to give us relief, but to giveus more grief,” he told Reutersin his shop, where idols ofHindu deities compete forspace with Ray Ban and Pradasunglass displays.

After Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s governmentimposed the world’s strictestCOVID-19 lockdown inMarch, Sharma saw no cus-tomers for months, though hehad to keep paying his $2,700in monthly recurring costs.

Met warns of veryheavy rainfallCM KCR keeps officials on toes

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment has issued a warn-ing that there might be heavyto very heavy rainfall onMonday and Tuesday over iso-lated parts of the state, especial-ly the erstwhile districts ofAdilabad, Karimnagar,Nizamabad, Warangal andKhammam.

Massive flooding and water-logging are likely to occur inlow-lying areas. Falling of treesand electric poles can happen,leading to disruption of normalactivities. Reservoirs, tanks andstreams may overflow, causinginundation of low-lying areasand cause low bridges andcauseways to overflow, posingthreat to traffic and people.

Continued on Page 2

ASIFABAD ENCOUNTER

PNS n HYDERABAD

The bodies of the two Maoistswho were gunned down byspecial police parties in anexchange of fire on Saturday inthe forests of Kadamba villagein Kaghaznagar mandal ofAsifabad district were identi-fied on Sunday. Two weaponsand literature belonging to thered brigade were also recov-ered from the encounter spot.

R a m a g u n d a mCommissioner of Police andIn-charge Superintendent of

Police V Satyanarayana iden-tified the deceased asChukkalu and Badirao, mem-bers of the Kumram Bheem-Mancherial squad led byMailarapu Bhaskar

alias Adellu, who escapedthe police dragnet. Chukkalu,key member of an action team,belongs to Chattishgarh.Badirao, a native ofMandamarri, had joined thesquad three months ago.

Continued on Page 2

PNS n HYDERABAD

Citizens stepping out in rainwith umbrella or whatever,watch out! No one knowswhich step can prove to be adeath trap. For, even as thecity is yet to come to termswith the death of 12-year-oldgirl who is believed to havebeen washed away in an opendrain in Neredmet duringheavy rain, comes a reportabout another tragic incident

that is attributed to ill-main-tained civic infrastrucure.

According to eyewitnessaccounts, a man who wasseen towing his motorcycle onthe mini tank bund along theSaroornagar lake slipped intoit and was washed away onSunday. Due to incessant rains,he could not apparently see thegaping hole that dragged himinto the lake with strong cur-rents of the water.

Continued on Page 2

A person accidentally fallsinto city lake, vanishes

Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien waving the rule book

Screen grab of theperson being washedaway in the lake onSunday

That is because a complaint he brought challengingthe loan relief plan, grouped with those of otherborrowers and now before the Supreme Court, couldmean a $27 billion hit to lenders - more than halftheir annual profits - that could shake the nation’sfinancial system, the industry and regulators fear.

Combing still on to get Bhaskar Slain Maoists members of the Kumram Bheem squad

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PNS n HYDERABAD

Amidst the prevailing uncertain-ty due to China's strategic movesin South Asia, including India,coupled with North Korean dic-tator's latest experiment of nuclearmissiles, the international marketof precious metals, includinggold, silver, platinum and palla-dium,remained divergent duringthe week ended Saturday.Consequently, New York goldincreased and finally closed atUS$ 1,948.90 (per ounce), whilesilver closed at $ 26.72 (perounce). Platinum increased andclosed at $ 923 (per ounce) andPalladium appreciated and closedat $ 2,244 (per ounce).

Other economic parametersremained moderate. Brent closedat US$ 43.15 (per barrel), while

Crude MCX oil was quoted atRs.2,993 (per barrel).While GoldMCX stood at Rs.51,715 (per10 gms), MCX Silver appre-ciated and closed at Rs.67,877(per kg), Copper MCXclosed at Rs.536.85 (perkg). Sensex and Nifty50 closed at 38845.82and 11504.95 points.

Leading foreigncurrencies'e x c h a n g erates were,US $: Rs.73.61, British Pound:Rs.95.08, Euro: Rs.87.15,Singapore $: Rs.54.16, Swiss Franc:Rs.80.76, Australian $: Rs.53.67,Saudi Riyal: Rs.19.63, New

Zealand Dollar: Rs.49.77, KuwaitiDinar: Rs.241.04, Omani Rial:

Rs.191.21 and UAE Dirham:Rs.20.04, Japanese Yen:Rs.0.70, Hong Kong Dollar:

Rs.9.50.In local markets,standard gold (24carats) appreciated

by Rs.420 andclosed at

Rs.53,860(per 10g m s ) .

Ornamental gold too followedsuit and was quoted in the rangeof Rs.49,280 - 49,380 on the clos-ing day. Silver (0.999) remainedsteady and closed at Rs.67,900

(per kg). COMMODITIESThe sentiment in principal

wholesale commodity markets inthe twin cities turned moderatedue to parting rain showers of thecurrent monsoon season. RythuBazars and the various com-modity markets located in BegumBazar, Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj,Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar, Kukatpally,Bowenpally, General Bazar regis-teredmoderate trading.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal, masoordal, moong dal and urad dal andcommodities like chillies andgarlic remained unchanged at

their respective last week's closinglevels, while staple foodgrains andcommon edible recorded a neg-ligible decline.

Common vegetables such ascabbage, cauliflower, ribbedgourd, snake gourd, lady's finger,cucumber, potatoes, onions,tomatoes and French beans, alongwith leafy vegetables, flared up stillfurther in the range of 22% to40%.

The NECC wholesale price ofeggin Hyderabad decreased byRs.13 and closed at Rs.488 (per100). The highest price of Rs.553was recorded at Pune, whileHospetrecorded the lowest ofRs.470.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Monday Mirchi The saga of a transfer

The much-talked-about transfer of SpecialChief Secretary JSV Prasad from the

Endowments Department to the 'famous' APHuman Resources Development Institute atBapatla has not seen the light of day. It was nomidnight coup. The reasons were clear at least todiscerning babus. What beats circles that contrivedthe shift is that even after 15 days of the transfer,the man they cannot stand is still sitting in his chairand doing his work as usual in the EndowmentsDepartment. Now Prasad's well-meaning col-leagues in the AP administration are doubtingwhether the transfer was real, or a stratagemintended to send across a message to officers whodare to raise objections on files forwarded to them.How else can they interpret a situation, in which,despite the good offices of an influential seer anda very powerful officer, the transfer is just sim-ply not happening?

When we posed this query of the quarter overa quarter bottle in the right quarters, a little birdtold us that Prasad recently met the Chief Minister,explained the 'forces' that ejected him, and placedbefore the ultimate authority the truth as he sawit, while citing the reasons for not giving his assentto a land alienation file that caused the whole trou-ble in the first place. Implying that powers thatbe would find him to be a hard nut to crack,Prasad coolly recounted the 'hardships' he hadfaced during the TDP regime for not kowtow-ing to it. Sources shared hearsay among CMOhangers-on that the Chief Minister, after givingPrasad a patient hearing, assured him of 'justice'.Now administrative circles are wondering whatthis variant of 'justice' means: retaining him in thepresent post or giving him anything other thanthe one at Bapatla?

Blooming amid Covid-19

Who in this world is not fearing Covid-19?Even eminent doctors are dead serious about itand do not take the minutest chances. Politiciansmouth big words about learning to live with thevirus and building herd immunity as a long-termstrategy. Still, none of the netas are venturing outto meet people at work and do their part to keepthe wheels of administration well-oiled. Althoughbabus love to follow such bindaas netas in letterand spirit, at least one officer in Telangana is anexception with an exceptional track record. Heis not only coming to office regularly, but alsomeeting people, hitting the roads every day to per-sonally inspect works relating to flyovers, bridges,parks and so on without an iota of fear. That isAravind Kumar, chief of Municipal Administ-ration. Taking advantage of Covid-induced lock-down, he ensured completion of the most com-plicated road-widening works in Hyderabadmuch ahead of the schedule. No wonder, his polit-ical bosses tout or tweet with thrill the comple-tion of so and so bridge, flyover and what notamong the stunning new civic adornments.Aravind's absolute fearlessness, reflected by hismask-on and hands-on approach, is causing con-sternation among his colleagues, most of whomhave chosen to work from home ever since thevirus forced lockdown starting March this year.The unlock phases have not changed their adap-tive workstyle, but Aravind, taking Covid-19 inhis stride with due precautions, is interacting with

construction workers and attending a series ofmeetings to clear files so that the remaining keyworks are completed ahead of the schedule. Anobservant officer quipped: "Biharis are hard work-ers but Aravind proved they are also fearless".Another perceptive colleague added: "A lotus,"they say, "blooms in mud." It is not a coincidencethat Aravind means lotus.

Imbalanced to a single digit

A no-frills or a zero-balance bank accountsounds good on paper. Nobody can afford to takeit seriously for long because bank authorities bom-bard us with messages to maintain minimum bal-ance and force us to cough up some penalty if wefail to adhere to their rules in fine print. Now, whathappens if a state government fails to follow sucha rule with the nation's central bank? No idea, onlyRBI can answer this question. Even RBI was at aloss for words when the Andhra Pradesh govern-ment fell short of the bare minimum balance inits accounts with the central bank, with the stateexchequer registering a single-digit figure as 'bal-ance' for some time on a particular day recently.Everyone knows the reason for this shocking(im)balance. The state government is strugglingto maintain its fiscal parameters in shape as theChief Minister, while picking promises made inthe election manifesto of his party one after theother, is bent on extending new welfare schemesevery month, costing hundreds of crores of rupeesto the exchequer. Due to the Corona-induced cri-sis, revenues have been badly hit; so, the AP gov-ernment sent an SOS to the Centre seeking releaseof all pending payments due to the state.Understandably, the government could not helpdipping into its accounts to the last Rs 10 note.

Unending wait for CCLA

Telangana Chief Minister has brought the newrevenue Bill citing rampant corruption in thedepartment as one of the main reasons. No onebothered to question anyone who counts whysuch a crucial department has been left withouta full-time head for years. Another possibility isthat this government believes in bottom-upapproach and hence it wanted the structure to bein proper shape before finding the right 'head'.Call the approach top-down or bottom-up, thedepartment has suffered a lot due to lack of clearlines of authority and responsibility.

The rudderless department has been awaitinga full-time CCLA for an agonizingly long timenow. A talkative parrot, in the know of things, toldus that 1999 batch IAS officer V Sheshadri hasbeen tipped for the post as the Chief Ministerwants to implement the new revenue act with-out any delay. Sheshadri, who has workedinPMO as joint secretary, has returned to his par-ent cadre, Telangana. Insiders are skeptical abouthis posting as CCLA since the TS governmentnever wanted a strong officer in the revenuedepartment. The long-unoccupied room at thetop reflects its undeclared choice. But there areconflicting signals too. Sheshadari's wife, whoworks with the Union Ministry, also got trans-ferred to Hyderabad as director of PIB. She willlead PIB in Telangana. So, push and pull, both fac-tors are at work now.

—Yours truly

Precious metals remain divergent

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

HC UPADHYAY nHYDERABAD

The most contentious andwidely-debated issue ofpublic representatives such

as Members of Parliament andMembers of LegislativeAssemblies with criminal back-ground once again caught theattention of the apex court onSeptember 16.The SupremeCourt has asked the ChiefJustices of the High Courts toformulate an action plan torationalise the disposal of crim-inal cases pending against MPs,MLAs, and MLCs. The courtalso suggested that the actionplan should cover the vitalaspects such as total number ofpending cases in each district,number of special courtspresently available and morerequired, number of judges andcategories of the cases, tenure ofthe judges to be designated, andthe number of cases to beassigned to each judge.

A bench comprising JusticeN.V.Ramana, Justice Surya Kant

and Hrishikesh Roy passed thesedirections in a PIL plea filed byadvocate Ashwini KumarUpadhyay.

The court also asked the HighCourts to furnish details such asexpected time for disposal of thecases, distance of the courtsto be designated and ade-quacy of infrastructure.The apex court also askedthe Chief Justices of theHigh Courts to designatea Special Bench tobe headed by them-selves and otherjudges in order tomonitor theprogress of these tri-als.

The seriousness ofthe Supreme Courton this subject is evident fromthe fact that besides forming theaction plan, the Chief Justices arerequired to give their commentsand suggestions to the apexcourt, preferably within aweek.The apex court's concernwas revealed in its direction to

the High Courts that all stay-ordered cases should be reviewedand, if a stay is considered nec-essary, the court should hear thematter on a day-to-day basisanddispose of the same, preferablywithin 2 months.

Indeed,this is a very sincereand honest effort by the high-est court of the land as it aimsto cleanse the body politic.

When our august hous-es like Parliamentand Assemblieshave criminal

elements, nothing goodcould be expected from

them. The rightful place forthe criminals,whether mas-querading as politicians,businessmen, industrialists,artists or simply as social

workers, is the jail and not thesacred temples of democracy.

It is indeed a sad that we havenot come up to the expectationsof our great freedom fighters.Today all-important spheres oflife have been engulfed in cor-ruption, violence and intoler-

ance. The legislatures havebecome the wrestling-ringswhere vested interests challengeeach other to settle politicalscores rather than using thesecitadels for the good of thecommon man. The divisive andanti-national forces within coun-try often tend to misuse the pub-lic platforms with the obliquemotives of capturing power andauthority by all foul means.

Today, when we are celebrat-ing 150thbirth anniversary of theFather of the Nation, we shouldnot forget that he always insist-ed on having fair means toachieve fair ends if India as a

nation has to survive and pros-per constantly, we will have torise above petty politics andmyopic views of lofty ideals andgoals. VALIDITY OF CUSTOMARYLAW U/S 29 OF HMA

"A plea of customary divorceis a valid defence in departmen-tal proceedings initiated for mis-conduct of bigamy under ServiceRules/Conduct Rules", theMadras High Court has ruled.The bench noted that it iswellestablished by long chain ofauthorities that prevalence ofcustomary divorce in the com-munity to which parties belong,

contrary to general law ofdivorce, must be specificallypleaded and established by theperson propounding such cus-tom.

"The core question that is tobe decided in this case is thatwhether the plea of customarydivorce is a valid defence in thedepartmental proceedings initi-ated for an action of bigamy asdefined in Section 3(b) of theTamil Nadu Police Rules. Inother words, Personal Law con-cerning the petitioner on thepoint of dissolution of marriageunder customary practice ofdissolution of marriage viz-a-vizmisconduct of offence of bigamyunder the Service Rules govern-ing the police personnel", thecourt iterated.

Court orders FIR againstArun Shourie

The CBI court atJodhpur(Rajasthan) has askedthe CBI to file cases against for-mer Union Minister ArunShourie and formerDisinvestment Secretary Pradip

Baijal over the sale of an ITDCHotel, allegedly at a loss of Rs 244crore to the exchequer.

The court also directed theCBI to file cases against threeothers associated with the sale ofLakshmi Vilas Palace Hotel inUdaypur some two decadesback.LAWMAKERS AGREE TOREDUCE THEIR EMOLU-MENTS

In a rare gesture, the membersof Rajya Sabha passed the Salary,Allowances & Pension ofMembers of Parliament(Amendment) Bill, 2020 andThe Salaries and Allowances ofMinisters (Amendment) Bill,2020 by voice vote. TheBill,which has been alreadypassed by the Lok Sabha,seeks toreduce the salaries of MPs andMinisters by 30% for one year. Italso seeks to reduce constituen-cy allowance and office expens-es allowance of MPs. The Billsaim at supplementing the finan-cial resources of the Centre tocombat the COVID-19 pan-

demic situation.SC ON EXTREME PENALTYFOR DEFICIENT DUTY

A bench of the apex courtcomprising Justice AshokBhushan, MR Shah andR.Subash Reddy held that thepenalty of ten times prescribedunder section 40 (1) (b) of theIndian Stamp Act cannot bemechanically imposed.

Dwelling with section 40 andother provisions of the StampDuty Act, the court observed thatwhenever statute transfers discre-tion to an authority, the discre-tion is to be exercised in further-ance of objects of the enactment.Neither imposition of penalty often times under section 40 (1) (b)is automatic nor can it bemechanically imposed, the courtadded. The purpose of penaltygenerally is a deterrence and notretribution, the court observed,and added "when a discretion isgiven to a public authority, suchpublic authority should exercisesuch discretion reasonably andnot in oppressive manner".

LEGAL

ROUNDUP

Today, when we are celebrating 150th birthanniversary of the Father of the Nation, weshould not forget that he always insisted onhaving fair means to achieve fair ends if India asa nation has to survive and prosper constantly,we will have to rise above petty politics andmyopic views of lofty ideals and goals

Supreme Court watching progress of cases against tainted lawmakers

Hyd airport gets AIC's healthaccreditation for safe travelPNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad InternationalAirport on Sunday said it hasachieved the Airport CouncilInternational's Airport HealthAccreditation for safe travel.Airport operator GMR saidthis recognition comes whenpassenger safety is the topmostpriority of airport operatorsdue to the Covid-19 pandem-ic. Hyderabad is among thefirst airports in the Asia Pacificregion to have received thiscoveted accreditation. TheAHA programme was launc-hed by the ACI in July to assessthe new health measures andprocedures adopted by airpo-rts as a result of pandemic.

In accordance with the rec-ommendations of the ICAOCouncil's Aviation RecoveryTask Force, the programmeassesses procedures like clean-ing and disinfection, physicaldistancing, staff protection,physical layout, passengercommunications and passen-ger facilities. The ACI assess-ment covered the health and

safety measures undertakenby the Hyderabad InternationalAirport for passengers andstaff in all the terminal areasincluding departures, arrivalsand transfers, transportationservices, food and beverageservices, escalators and eleva-tors, lounges, facilities, baggageclaim area etc.

The assessment also cap-tured the initiatives that the air-port took for safety and well-being of employees and stake-holders. According to the air-port operator, with the grow-ing passenger confidence, the

airport is steadily seeing anincrease in passenger traffic.The airport handles an average16,000 domestic passengersand over 170 domestic airtraffic movements daily.

"ACI Airport HealthAccreditation emboldens ourcommitment and consistentdrive towards the safety ofpassengers and the entire air-port community. This has beena collaborative effort and wethank everyone at the airportwho have put in their heart andsoul throughout this period ofglobal pandemic," GHIAL

CEO Pradeep Panicker said.He said during the extraordi-nary times, Hyderabad Airporthas been agile and adaptive tothe latest government regula-tions and norms to ensure air-port operations are runningeven during the lockdown,keeping essential servicesactive with utmost level ofhealth and hygiene for every-one with consistency and qual-ity assurance.

"We congratulate the RajivGandhi International Airportfor being accredited throughACI's Airport HealthAccreditation programmewhich demonstrates that theyare focused on the health andwelfare of travellers, staff, andthe public. Public confidence inair travel will be crucial as ourindustry prepares to sustaincontinuing operations, and theRGIA is leading the way byproviding to passengers andemployees high globally-recog-nized standards on health andhygiene," ACI World DirectorGeneral Luis Felipe de Oliveirasaid.

TCS sets up 11Covid isolationcentres forstaffPNS n HYDERABAD

India's largest software ser-vices firm Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) has set up 11first-line COVID-19 isolationcentres within its premises invarious cities in India, includ-ing Mumbai, Indore andNagpur. According to anemail to employees, thesecentres will provide medicalsupport to associates andtheir dependents (spouse,children and parents /par-ents-in-law) who are asymp-tomatic or mildly COVID-19positive with no other co-morbidities or medical histo-ry/complications.

All the centres will have24/7 medical cover, alongwith daily monitoring bytrained professionals. Thepatients can even connectwith a counsellor virtuallyduring their treatment. Whencontacted, TCS in an emailedresponse said: "Amidst thetumult of the last few months,our priority has always beento safeguard the health andwell-being of our employees."

Combing still on to get...Continued from Page1

Satyanaryana said that theMaoists were shot dead byarmed forces after they openedfire against the police partieswho urged the ultras to sur-render. The firing that beganaround 9 pm lasted an hour.The extremists started firingfirst and the police opened firein retaliation, resulting in thedeath of two Maoists. He saidcombing operations wereintensified to track down fourMaoists who had managed toescape from the spot.

Eight greyhounds personneland six special police partiesare combing the forests andhilly areas where the extrem-ists were spotted, covering aradius of four kilometres. “Theultras will not be able to getout of the forest, which isunder the control of the secu-rity forces,” he added.

The six-member squad, ledby Bhaskar alias Adellu, man-aged to escape from beingcaught by the police forcesthrice in the last five days.

They had a close shave withpolicemen at Chilatiguda vil-lage in Asifabad mandal onSeptember 18.

It may be recalled that thepolice had launched an exten-sive manhunt for crucialMaoist leader and KomramBhim and MancherialDivision Committee SecretaryBhaskar by combing Asifabadforest areas. The operation hasbeen on for the past threemonths. The police realisedthat Bhaskar had been rebuild-ing the party as DivisionalSecretary and recruiting dalammembers. The IntelligenceBureau got information thatBhaskar has been on and offcrossing over to Agency area.

The police suspect that theMaoists entered the agencyarea of Telangana in the garbof migrant workers takingadvantage of the lockdownperiod.

Their movements weretraced to Adilabad, Asifabadand the forest region ofMancherial district and alongthe coast of Pranahita river.

A person...Continued from Page1

According to the detailsacquired by the police duringinvestigations, some passers-by identified the person asNaveen Kumar, a resident ofOld City. Efforts to tracehim were continuing.

Videos showing a person(purported to be Naveen)being washed away in therainwater have been circulat-ing on social media sincethen. It can been seen fromthe videos that the person fellinto the water and due tostrong currents simply drift-ed far into the lake. Evenbystanders were helpless asthe currents were very strong.

TRS, Oppn poised...Continued from Page1

Besides GHMC polls, War-angal, Khammam MunicipalCorporation polls scheduledto be held between Februaryand March 2021.

The fact that TRS chief andChief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and party workingpresident K T Rama Rao haveroped in nine ministers in thedistricts that are going to pollssix months in advance showsthe priority being given by thepink party for the upcomingpolls. Ministers TalasaniSrinivas, Mohd Mahmood Ali,Errabelli Dayakar Rao,Sathyavathi Rathod, PuvvadaAjay Kumar, G Jagadish

Reddy, Singireddy NiranjanReddy, G Jagadish Reddy havebeen told to camp in specifiedrespective districts and over-see poll management for twoMLC seats. The Ministersthemselves are holding man-dal-wise meetings every weekand monitoring the enrol-ment of graduates as voters forMLC Graduates' Constituencies.Finance Minister T HarishRao has been deputed to theDubbaka Assembly segment.He has already launched elec-tion campaign on a big scaleby covering all villages andmandals every day in the con-stituency well before theannouncement of the electionschedule.

Met warns of very ...Continued from Page1

Collectors have been advised toput their entire district admin-istration on alert and strictly fol-low the flood protocol commu-nicated earlier.

This follows Chief MinisterK.Chandrashekhar Rao's reviewof the situation with ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar. TheChief Secretary directed all theSPs and District Collectors to be

alert and to watch the situation.All the officers have been direct-ed to be available at the head-quarters and take measures toensure that there is no loss of lifeand properties.

KCR, Jagan...Continued from Page1

The YSRCP MPs, along withlegislators from BJP-ruledStates, supported the NDAgovernment and accepted'options' offered by theCentre on GST compensa-tion payout.

Similary, when all majorregional parties as well asCongress strongly opposedpower sector reforms pro-posed under the ElectricityAmendment Bil l, the YSRCP, along with NDApartners, supported reformsand even took a decision to install metersfor al l agriculture pumpsets as mandated in thenew Bill.

For ICU beds; connections...Continued from Page1

About 55% of the citizens, whohad said that they did not haveany person in their networkwho needed a COVID ICUbed, were not considered forthe analysis.

When citizens were askedabout the experiences of peo-ple in their social network withregard to getting a COVID-19ICU bed, 78% said they had touse connections and clout tosecure the ICU bed and 7%said they had to bribe (cash orkind) hospital/governmentofficials to secure the ICU bed.Only 4% said they got the ICUbed through routine process.Another 4% said they did notget an ICU bed at all.

One of the key findings ofthe survey was that peoplewanted the Union Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfareand the States' HealthDepartments to issue the rightset of SOP so that hospitalsmake ICU bed availabilitymore transparent by display-ing this information in realtime on their website and atbuilding entrances so the onlycriteria for who gets an ICUbed is the patient’s condition.

The number of COVIDcases in India have crossed 55lakhs and the country hasbeen recording on averageover 90,000 cases daily for thelast two weeks so much so thatit took just 11 days for the last10 lakh recorded cases.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 hyderabad 03

IN BRIEFIN BRIEF

Prof J Prabhakar Rao, Director,India Centre for Excellence in

Information Ethics and Head,Centre for Study of ForeignLanguages, University ofHyderabad (UoH) has been invitedby Asia University, Taiwan as anadjunct professor from Augustthis year to July 31, 2021 in theDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literature. He had visitedAsia University in 2019 and 2020 and delivered lectures inlinguistics and Translation Studies. Prof Prabhakara Rao’s areas ofresearch interest include linguistics, translation studies, foreignlanguage teaching, higher education in India and e-Learning. In2012, Prof Rao was awarded Honoris Causa by Krasnodar StateUniversity of Arts and Culture, Russia and Honorary Visitor Medalby Kazan State University, Russia.

Osmania University plans onconducting the Telangana State

Education Common Entrance Test(TS EdCET) on October 1 from 3pm to 5 pm and on October 3 from10 am to 12 noon, and 3 pm to 5pm. Candidates who applied forTelangana EdCET can downloadtheir hall-tickets from the officialwebsite of examination from September 21 by entering theirregistration number and date of birth.

UoH professor gets invitation from Asia University, Taiwan

The Covid pandemic hasseriously impacted ourlives and it will continue

to shape our actions in thecoming months. The pandem-ic has compounded the chal-lenges faced by people withchronic ailments, especiallythose with cognitive andbehavioural ailments such asDementia, who are unable toaccess essential services ontheir own and require sus-tained support by family ornon-family caregivers. Thisassumes significance consider-ing that September is theWorld Alzheimer’s Month,while the pandemic is surgingacross the world.

World Alzheimer’s Month isthe month-long worldwidecampaign conducted byAlzheimer’s DiseaseInternational (ADI) since 2012to increase awareness aboutDementia. Every year,September 21 is commemorat-ed as World Alzheimer’s Day.The Theme for this year’sAlzheimer’s Day is ‘Let’s talkabout Dementia’.

Dementia is not a naturalageing process but a degener-

ative disease of the brain,characterised by progressivedeterioration in the normalbrain functions, severe enoughto interfere with the activitiesof daily living. Alzheimer’sdisease is the most commontype of dementia, accountingfor at least two-thirds ofdementia amongst people aged65 and above.

Alzheimer’s has subtle andinsidious onset, but progress-es gradually resulting inimpairment of cognitive andbehavioural functions thatinclude memory, comprehen-sion, language, attention, rea-soning and judgement. Themost common initial present-ing symptom is episodic short-term memory loss with relativesparing of long-term memory.This is followed by impairmentof problem-solving, judge-mental and executive func-tioning, lack of motivationand disorganisation, leading toproblems with multitaskingand abstract thinking.

Thereafter, language disor-der and impairment of visuo-spatial skills become apparent.Neuropsychiatric symptoms

like apathy, social withdrawal,agitation and wandering arecommon in the moderate tolate stages.

Studies reveal that 62 percent of health care providersworldwide think thatDementia is part of normalageing. Nearly 35 per cent ofcaregivers across the worldsaid that they had hidden thediagnosis of Dementia of afamily member because of theanticipated stigma. Over 50per cent caregivers admittedthat their health had sufferedas a result of their caringresponsibilities to those withdementia even whilst express-ing positive sentiments abouttheir role. Alzheimer’s is agerelated non-communicable ail-

ment. Higher education, use of

estrogen by women, use ofanti-inflammatory agents,leisure activities like reading orplaying musical instruments,healthy diet and regular exer-cise is known to decrease therisk of Alzheimer's. A world-wide quest is underway to findappropriate therapy to preventslowdown or arrest the pro-gression of the disease. A fewUS-FDA approved drugs arereported to be effective inimproving the memory andthinking challenges. However,these medications do not treatthe underlying cause of thedisease or slow its progression.

On an average, people withAlzheimer’s disease could live

up to twenty years after diag-nosis with different degrees ofcognitive and behaviouralimpairment. ThoughAlzheimer’s disease is unlike-ly to cause death by itself, otherrelated complications includ-ing increased propensity toinfections, aspiration pneu-monia resulting from difficul-ty in swallowing, may con-tribute to early death.

Caring for a loved one withdementia poses many chal-lenges to the family members,especially those who are called

upon to care for them, referredto as caregivers. No one is bornwith or taught skills to com-municate with a person havingdementia. However, theseskills are essential and have tobe learnt by the caregivers.Improving one’s communica-tion skills can help make care-giving less stressful and islikely to improve the quality ofrelationship with the demen-tia patient.

People with dementia retaintheir social skills and aredelighted to laugh with others.Our attitude and body lan-guage have to communicateour feelings and thoughtsmore genuinely than ourwords. Therefore, getting thedementia person’s attentionby addressing her by her name,and helping the person iden-tify the caregiver by nameand relationship, while usingnonverbal cues and physicaltouch, are essential ingredientsof efficient caregiving.Communication must be sim-ple and clear. Simple wordsspoken slowly, distinctly and ina reassuring tone and repeat-ing the message until the

patient captures the attentionare key.

Visual prompts and cueshelp clarify the question andguide the response. One has tolisten with one’s ears, eyes andheart, always striving to con-vey the essence of the feelingsthat underlie the words. Tasksmust be broken down into aseries of simple steps thatmakes the tasks manageable. Ifthe communication does notelicit response, connect withthe patient with affection andreassurance. Holding hands,touching, hugging, and praisewill get the person to respond,when all else fails.

Remembering the good olddays and happy moments ofthe past often have soothingand affirming responses. Someof the greatest challenges ofcaring for loved one withdementia are the personalityand behaviour changes thatoften occur in the caregiver.One can meet these challengesby using creativity, flexibility,patience and compassion. Ithelps to not take things per-sonally and maintain one’ssense of humour despite all the

odds: Let ‘Them Be’.Considering the increased

life expectancy, increased pro-portion of population livingbeyond 65 years of age, andincreasing burden of demen-tia, the national and state gov-ernments must assign specialpriority to the prevention andmanagement of dementia /Alzheimer’s disease in theirpublic health programmes.Given the nature of the disease,which requires sustained long-term tender loving care more,counselling, and supportivemeasures rather than hospital-isation or medication, the gov-ernments must encourage civilsociety institutions to establishtraining centres for bothpatients and caregivers.

Dementia can affect any ofus before we realise the reali-ty. This requires every one ofus to be aware of the sympto-matology of dementia /Alzheimer’s disease and takeresponsibility for ourselves,our loved ones at the earliestsigns of dementia. With loveand affection, we can triumphover any adversity, includingdementia.

DR MANI TOLETYPalliative and Geriatric Care

Professional

World Alzheimer’s Month is the month-longworldwide campaign conducted byAlzheimer’s Disease International (ADI)since 2012 to increase awareness aboutDementia. Every year, September 21 iscommemorated as World Alzheimer’s Day.The Theme for this year’s Alzheimer’s Day is ‘Let’s talk about Dementia’

World Alzheimer’s Month: Remember those who cannot remember

Transport workers demand health, pension facilitiesNAMRATA SRIVASTAVA n HYDERABAD

Transport workers are thebackbone of all the states. Theynot just a mode of commute forthe public but also transportthe essentials from one place tothe other. However, duringpandemic several transportworkers didn't even haveenough money left to run theirkitchens.

To ensure a similar situationdoesn't arise in the future, sev-eral transport associations aredemanding EPFO, ESI andinitiation of a welfare organi-sation for all the transportworkers in the state.

A Sathireddy, GeneralSecretary of the TelanganaState Auto Drivers Federationshares, "Almost all the auto dri-vers in the state have to take

loans to run their houses.Several daily wage earners havea welfare association that looksafter them in such times, butthere transport workers have

no such association and hencethey are left to fend for them-selves. We want some kindfinancial assurance from thegovernment so that this does-n't happen to the drivers again."

Associations point out thatthese demands were put infront of the government foryears, but no one paid anyattention.

Telengana Lorry Owners'Association PresidentManchireddy Rajender Reddyshares, "Telangana has approx-inately 25 lakh cabs, lorries,trucks, buses, which supportthe livelihood of roughly 50lakh people, including theworkers' family. During com-

plete lockdown, several lorrydrivers worked to deliveressentials to the markets so thatpeople don't have the shortageof anything. But, these workershave no guaranteed income.An EPFO account where work-ers' contractors and govern-ment can contribute equallywill help them if similar situ-ations arise in the future."

He further adds, "Most ofthese drivers have no insur-ance, including those workingfor transport apps. If theretest positive for Covid theywon't have any money to evenget admitted. We are demand-ing for insurance for themfrom the government as well."

DRF teams of GHMC clear stagnant water and removing trees that had fallen due to heavy rains on Sunday.

QUICK RRESPONSE

Prices of eggs go through the roofPNS n HYDERABAD

Price of eggs, onions and othervegetables are going throughroof. Compared to the pricesof onions and eggs prevailedduring lockdown, their pricesnow almost doubled.

Burning a hole in people'spocket, the cost of egg has goneup from Rs 3 to Rs 6 per piecein the retail market in the pastcouple of months.

Similarly, the price of toma-toes which was priced Rs 6 perkg as on September 10 lastyear, increased to Rs 41 onSeptember 19. However, theretail market price of tomatoeswas put at Rs 50.

As doctors prescribepatients to eat more eggs toboost their immunity, peoplehave started eating eggs andthe prices of eggs haveincreased.

During lockdown, an eggwas sold at Rs 3.50, as againstprices quoted in the media ofRs 2.50. The poultry ownerssold eggs in spite of sustaininglosses. Now an egg is beingsold at Rs 6 each.

On account of severe dropin import of onions fromMaharashtra and due to severefall in indigenous onion pro-duction due to heavy rains, akg of white onions is nowbeing sold at Rs 45, while redonions are being traded at Rs

40 a kg.The horticulture depart-

ment, in its report to the gov-ernment, said that the areaunder vegetables during kharifcame down to 89,000 acres asagainst the normal area ofcultivation of over 1.50 lakhacres under vegetable crops.

On account of shortage ofagriculture hands, the farmers,unable to bear with high ratesof wages for agriculture work-ers, have switched over to cot-ton, red gram, paddy andother crops.

An officer of the marketingdepartment, who wished toremain anonymous, said thatthe area under cultivation ofvegetables in Ranga Reddy,Mahabubnagar and Yadadridistricts has come down as thefarmers switched over to alter-

native crops. The horticulture depart-

ment stopped selling vegetablecrops seeds on subsidy duringkharif for want of funds.

Heavy rains in Maharashtra,Karnataka, Telangana and APhave affected vegetable cropprospects.

Potatoes are being sold at Rs38 a kg (Last year Rs 13), greenchillies are being sold at Rs 40a kg (last year Rs 13), lady fin-ger is being sold at Rs 45 a kg(last year Rs 12), ivy gourd isbeing sold at Rs 19 a kg (lastyear Rs 10), beans are beingsold at Rs 50 a kg (last year Rs20 a kg), carrot is being sold atRs 60 a kg (last year Rs 27),brinjals being sold at Rs 35 akg (last year Rs 23) and cab-bage is being sold at Rs 21 each(last year Rs 10).

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State RoadTransport Corporation(TSRTC) officials have beenconducting an exercise to oper-ate city bus services most prob-ably from the last week ofSeptember on seven importantroutes to enable the Metro Railtravellers to reach their desti-nations.

In fact, the RTC in GreaterHyderabad region has beenstudying operation of city busservices in other cities.

It may be recalled that theMetro Rail services resumedfrom September 7 adhering to

Coronavirus rules and regula-tions. In fact, commuters arefacing many problems for wantof operation of city buses.

Though the government

allowed district services fromthird week of May, they did notgive permission to run city ser-vices sensing that it is difficultto follow Covid rules.

For want of city bus services,the job holders, daily wageworkers are not able to bear thecost of auto fares.

To reach Metro Rail stationsand reach homes from there,the RTC services are needed.Moreover, running of the buseswill also help the RTC earnsome revenue. In Mumbai,the city services became oper-ational since June. In TamilNadu and Karnataka, the citybus services have resumed.Therefore, the RTC officialsstudied the experiences there.In the first phase, the RTC isof the view to run at least 50per cent of the city bus serviceson seven most busy routes.

City bus services may resume by Sept end

SFI: Students struggling to cope up with online classes

PNS n HYDERABAD

Since the start of online class-es, several students have beenstruggling to get access toonline classes. As per a recentsurvey done Students'Federation of India, approxi-mately 76 per cent of studentsin Telangana do not under-stand the online classes.

Talking about the survey, TNagaraju, State Secretary ofSFI, shares, "Soon after theonline classes started, we start-ed talking to students about theclasses. We did the survey in 26districts of the states, whichincluded 318 mandal, 1163 vil-lages and 12,063 students,from both government andprivate schools. We asked themquestions about the availabil-ity of smartphones or TV at

home, if they understood theclasses, where they able to gettheir doubts cleared etc. About38 per cent kids aren't able tofollow the classes regularly, dueto non-availibility of TV orsmartphones."

The SFI representatives haveshared the survey results withEducation Minister Sabitha

Indra Reddy, who assured totake action which will benefitthe students. Nagaraju shares,"We think that if the schoolscan be opened and students beallowed in batches with all theprecautions, a lot of issueswill resolve. The Ministerheard us and told us that shewill look into the matter.”

nMinister assured to take action to benefit students

Osmania University plansto conduct EdCET in Oct

Man nabbed, gutka worth Rs 8 L seizedPNS n HYDERABAD

The Commissioner's TaskForce team on Saturday nightraided a godown at Chandra-yangutta and seized tobaccoproducts worth Rs 8 lakh.

On receiving credibleinformation South Zone taskforce team along with Chan-drayangutta police raided agodown located at Bandlag-uda. "He was supplyingbanned tobacco productsincluding gutka and foreigncigarettes to customers illegal-ly," said Task Force police.

The police apprehendedMohd Abdul Shukur, who isselling and supplying thesebanned products to cus-tomers and earning moneyillegally.

The accused was handedover to Chandrayanaguttapolice for further investiga-tion.

Traffic policehelp transportlive organsPNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad traffic police pro-vided a green channel forambulance transporting liveorgans on Sunday. Theambulance covered 19.6 kmin 13 minutes.

Hyderabad and CyberabadPolice coordinated andarranged 'green channel' fortransportation of live organsfrom KIMS Hospital atKondapur to KIMS Hospitalin Begumpet. This is the 10thtime in month, the cops pro-vided green channel.

SFI representatives shares survey results with Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy

‘Exemplary effortsby docs is reasonfor low mortality’PNS n HYDERABAD

Despite many challenges,doctors are offering exem-plary services thus ensuringthe low Case Fatality Rate(CFR) among Covid-19cases, said Governor DrTamilisai Soundararajan onSunday.

She said that the country'sCFR was much lower thanmany advanced countriesand this was made possibleby the adherence to proto-cols, commitment and dedi-cation being shown by thedoctors across the country inthese pandemic times.

Tthe Governor exhortedthe doctors to maintain highmorale so as to serve the peo-ple and the nation thoughthere were challenges and dif-ficulties.

Expressing concern overthe high mortality rate ofaround 15 per cent amongthe Covid-19 infected doctorsand other medical profes-sionals, Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan called for spe-cial care to ensure their safe-ty and improvement in infra-structure and other facilitiesin healthcare sector.

GHMC to citizens: Joinfight against mosquitoesPNS n HYDERABAD

The GHMC conducted sever-al awareness camps as part ofnovel initiative to clean upstagnated water and to keepsurrounding neat and clean toeradicate and spread of mos-quitoes every Sunday at 10 amfor 10 minutes.

The Entomology wing con-ducted demonstration on howmany ways the mosquitoes

breeding takes place in stag-nated water in houses and sur-roundings. Speaking on theoccasion Banjara Hills, Corp-orator Vijayalaxmi explainedhow breeding takes place invarious containers like tyres,utensils, left over old items,plates below flower pots andothers. She also told the resi-dents to keep the surround-ings clean and ensure there isno stagnation of water nearby.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY| SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 hyderabad 04

Rural areas bearing brunt of CovidPNS n HYDERABAD

The rural areas in Telanganaare bearing the brunt of Covid-19 even as the number of caseshas considerably dropped inthe state capital. Districts out-side GHMC limits account for80-85 per cent of the 2,200-2,300 new cases added to thestate tally every day.

Till the first half of July, itwas the state capital which wasat the receiving end. With 700-800 cases every day, GHMCwas accounting for 80-85 percent of the daily infections atone point in time. Thirty-twodistricts, excluding Hyderabad,accounted for 137 cases or13.45 per cent of the 1,018cases reported on July 1. Theratio of the districts jumped to50.15 per cent on July 15 (801out of total 1,597 cases).

An analysis of the currentsituation shows that the dailyjump in cases has come downover the last two-three weeksbut the numbers are droppingto below 2,000 only on week-ends when fewer tests are con-ducted.

Reports from the districtsshow that even small villageshave over 100 positive cases.For instance, in Govindapurvillage of Karimnagar, 73 out of90 families were affected.Buoyed by the improvement inthe situation in Hyderabad,

Director of Public Health GSrinivas Rao exuded confi-dence on August 25 that the sit-uation will be under control inthe remaining districts bySeptember-end. He was confi-dent that the cases will bebrought down to minimum.

Chief Secretary SomeshKumar told Cabinet SecretaryRajiv Gauba during a video-conference on Saturday that thenumber of positive cases hasstarted declining in Telangana.

"The government is keepinga close watch on the situationand fully geared up to handlethe pandemic," hesaid.Explaining various mea-sures taken by the state, theChief Secretary said that test-ing has been ramped up. RT-PCR testing is being done onevery person found sympto-matic person detected through

rapid antigen test. The govern-ment has formulated a strate-gy to make all hospital bedsequipped with oxygen facilities.He also said that special focusis laid on managing the situa-tion in the districts.

On August 25, the statereported a jump of 2,579 cases,taking Telangana's total tally to1,08,760. Nine deaths hadpushed the cumulative deathtoll to 770. Since then, the stateadded over 60,409 cases tillSeptember 19 at an average of2,400 cases per day. The statealso witnessed 255 deaths dur-ing the period.

Officials said by ramping uptesting and health infrastruc-ture, they brought down theCOVID-19 fatality rate andimproved the recovery rate aswell as tests per million popu-lation ratio.

State sees 2,173 newcases, tally over 1.7LPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana's Covid tally cro-ssed 1.70-lakh mark as thestate reported 2,173 morecases on Sunday, while eightmore patients succumbed tothe virus. The new casespushed the state's tally to1,71,306 while the death tollwent up to 1,033.

Telangana's fatality ratenow stands at 0.60 per cent asagainst the national average of1.60 per cent. More peoplerecovered from COVID-19than new cases detected dur-ing the last 24 hours. Asmany as 2,192 patients recov-ered, taking the total recover-ies so far to 1,39,700. Therecovery rate improved furt-her to 81.54 per cent as aga-inst average of 79.64 per cent.

According to a media bul-letin issued by the Director ofPublic Health and FamilyWelfare, 70 per cent of all pos-itive cases reported so far inthe state are asymptomatic.

As many as 65.23 per centof positive cases were in theage group of 21-50 while

21.82 were above 51. The pos-itive cases include 12.95 percent who were below 20 years.Officials said 64.83 per cent ofpositive cases were males andthe remaining 38.17 per centfemales.

The number of active casestotal 30,573, including 24,019in home or institutional iso-lation. During the last 24hours ending 8 pm onSaturday, authorities conduct-ed 53,811 tests. These include23,676 primary and 6,457secondary contacts. The totalsamples tested so farincreased to 24,88,220. Atotal of 17 government and 43private laboratories and 1,076rapid antigen test centres areconducting the tests.

Greater Hyderabad Munic-ipal Corporation (GHMC)reported 322 new cases dur-ing the last 24 hours whileneighbouring districts ofRangareddy and MedchalMalkajgiri reported 182 and146 cases respectively.Sangareddy, another districtbordering the state capital,recorded 65 cases.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Animal Husbandry MinisterTalasani Srinivas Yadav onSunday launched a scatingattack on Congress LegislatureParty leader Mallu BhattiVikramarka for allegedly mak-ing baseless allegations onstate government's 2BHKscheme.

"I kept the assurance madeto the opposition in theAssembly that I would takeCongress leaders to see thedouble bedroom houses con-structed in GHMC limits.Double bedroom houses arebeing constructed in variouslocations. Without visitingeven five or six locations,opposition leaders started theircriticism for political gains," hesaid. "Being a responsible gov-ernment, we took the opposi-tion leaders to the localitieswhere houses were construct-ed. Opposition must appreci-ate the efforts of the govern-ment. Instead of that, theopposition is trying to politi-cise the issue," he furtheradded.

No ruling party leaders vis-ited the residence ofOpposition leader and accept-ed the challenge, said Talasani.Calling the CLP leader as 'use-less', Talasani said, "I don't have

to answer Bhatti. He is not ina position to digest the facts. Iwill give the list of double bedroom houses and where theyare being constructed and howthe construction works aregoing on in some places byconducting a press meet," hesaid.

Later, taking on the Centre,Talasani likened BJP-led gov-ernment with Tughlaq regime."The Centre didn't reslease Rs20 lakh crore to the states inregard to Corona pandemic. Itdidn't even issue even guide-lines. TRS MPs, along withsome link-minded MPs, willCorner the Central govern-ment in the Parliament," hesaid. The Minister questionedthe Telangana BJP Chief and

Karimnagar MP Bandi SanjayKumar to reveal as to what hewas doing for the last one andhalf year as an MP. "BandiSanjay did nothing to his con-stituency except for addressingpress meets in Hyderabad," healleged.

He challenged Bandi SanjayKumar to sanction money tothe state from Centre. Talasanisaid that the BJP leaders arecriticising the TRS govern-ment with jealousy as the lat-ter is moving forward with var-ious welfare schemes and pro-jects. He questioned the BJPleaders to reveal whetherschemes like MissionBhagiratha and 2BHK schemeare replicated in any otherstate across the nation.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader Mallu BhattiVikramarka on Sunday statedthat the Congress would abol-ish all anti-people and anti-farmer GOs issued by the TRSgovernment. Stating that theCongress government wouldwin in next elections, Bhattiquestioned Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao to revealwhether he is a Chief Ministeror 'Land Broker'.

Addressing the farmers ofPharma City land victims atKurumidda village inYacharam mandal inRangareddy district on Sundayalong with MLC T JeevanReddy, Seethakka, M KodandaReddy, Malreddy Rangareddy,Challa Narasimha Reddy,Sunketa Anwesh Reddy, Bhattisaid that the then PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi dis-tributed lands to the poor,however, KCR is selling thelands to the corporate compa-nies and behaving like a 'bro-ker'.

"We will not lose anythingexcept clutches of slavery if wewage fight against KCR.Human beings have an emo-tional relation with the land

and Congress will not keepquiet if they take the landsfrom the poor. Congress willnot keep quiet if the TRS gov-ernment gives away farmerslands to Pharma City," hewarned.Bhatti alleged thatKrishna River and under-

ground water will be pollutedwith Pharma City as it has thecapacity of polluting wateraround 100-km radius. Hesaid that the Congress hasaccorded Telangana state forthe sake of unemployed youth,poor and landless poor.

TS irrigation projectsreceive heavy inflowsPNS n HYDERABAD

With the three main barragesof Kaleshwaram Lift IrrigationScheme (KLIS) receivingheavy inflows from the catch-ment areas and almost reach-ing the Full Reservoir Level(FRL), project engineers havelifted gates and are discharg-ing water down the stream.Similar situation is prevailingat all major reservoirs else-where in the State.

At Lakshmi (Medigadda)barrage, the inflow is 2,60,000cusecs and the same quantityhas been discharged by lifting46 gates out of 85 gates. Thequantum of water available inthe barrage is 3.3 tmc and theproject has 94 meters of waterout of an FRL of 100 meters.At Saraswathi (Annaram) bar-rage the inflow and outflowswere 1,60,000 cusecs and 30gates out of 66 gates have beenlifted to let the flood water out.The quantum of water avail-able is 7.6 tmc and the waterlevel is 117.5 meters against anFRL of 119 meters.

At Parvathi (Sundilla) theinflow and outflows were2,00,000 cusecs , the numberof gates lifted were 60 out of

74. Quantum of water in storewas 6.8 tmc and level of waterwas 128.5 ,meters out of anFRL of 130 meters.

On other projects onGodavari and its tributaries,Sri Ram Sagar Project wasreceiving 1,46,874 cusecs anddischarging 1,25,000 cusecs.Sripada Yellampally wasreceiving 2,04,400 cusecs, andthe same quantity has beenreleased. Lower Manair Damwas receiving 55,377 cusecsand the same amount hasbeen discharged. Inflow intoSingur was 23,974 and outflow was only 123 cusecs.

On Krishna, PriyadarshiniJurala continued to receivehuge inflows of 2,01,800cusecs, and outflow was1,95,539 cusecs. Over 21,000cusecs has been utilized by thepower generation station.Inflows into Srisailam were2,60,365 cusecs and outflowswere 4,13,017 cusecs.

Congress will win nextAssembly polls: TagorePNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Congress affairsin-charge Manickam Tagoretook potshots at ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao and said that onlyKalvakuntla family got ben-efitted from separate Telangana. Participating in avideo conference with for-mer MLAs and corporationchairmen, Tagore exudedconfidence that Congresswill come to power in nextAssembly elections. "Congress will win next Assemblyelections even if TRS misus-es power and spends hugemoney. Power is not new toCongress and the support ofpeople is with Congressonly," Tagore said.

"There is nothing toworry for Congress. We willwill win next elections evenif TRS leaders spend hugemoney. The leaders andcadre have to work withdiscipline and the partyshould follow social impor-tance. However, the partygives priority in identifyingthe needs of the peoplerather than power and henceit accorded separateTelangana state in tune withthe aspirations of the people.The leaders should ensurethe victory in the next elec-tions and give the same as agift to the AICC Chief SoniaGandhi. Leaders shouldwage movements unitedly toensure the victory of theparty," he said.

Cantt Boardvice-presidentquits TRS PNS n HYDERABAD

The differences amongSecunderabad CantonmentBoard members reached itspeak on Sunday with Board'svice-president Ramakrishnaresigning to TRS party mem-bership.

It is said that the differ-ences with Board memberswas the reason behind Ram-akrishna's resignation. Ram-akrishna sent his resignationletter to KTR. However, theBoard members demandedRamakrishna to tender hisresignation even to Board'svice- president position.Ramakrishna said that hetendered his resignation withthe discontent of his ownparty members though hewas an active member.

MMTS extension plan gathering dustPNS n YADADRI

The much-awaited Ghatkesar-Raigir multi-modal transportsystem (MMTS) rail link hasbeen gathering dust for the pastfour years. The link is expect-ed to boost connectivity of 33-km from the city to Raigir, thenearest railhead to the templetown of Yadadri.

It may be recalled that theextension of the MMTS trainsup to Raigir was proposedfour years ago, but nothingcould materialise so far. Thetrain service has been proposedfor the benefit of people livingin Hyderabad reaching Yadadriwithout any hiccups.

At the requestof the StateGovernment, the railway board

got the proposals prepared.Currently, the MMTS secondphase has been extended up toGhatkesar. It was proposed todouble the railway track andelectrify it up to Raigiri, whichis 33 km away from here, at acost of Rs 380 crore.

The proposals was readiedin 2016. The same year, theSCR invited bids with the par-ticipation of some constructioncompanies. Because of thetime over run, now the projectcost escalated to Rs 414 crore.The state should provide land

and meet 59 per cent of theproject cost while the depart-ment of railways bears the 41per cent of the project cost. Thetender process has been can-celled as the SCR had writtento the Centre for approval ofthe cost over run. So far, therewas no response for it till2019. Therefore the SCR had tocancel the tenders.

The Centre has approved therevised cost of the project, butthe SCR has been treadingcarefully. The railway officialshave been exploring possibil-ity of inviting bids once again.The Centre has allocated Rs 50crore. The railways wants toforge ahead on the project ifthe state government allocatessome funds.

Bandi Sanjay slams CMfor opposing Farm BillsPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP Chief andKarimangar MP Bandi SanjayKumar on Sunday stated thatabout 1,000 agriculture mar-kets would be set up inTelangana out of 22,000 mar-kets to be set up across thenation with the Central fundsas part of 'Athma NirbharBharat'.

Finding fault with the ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao for opposing the newAgriculture Bill, Sanjay askedthe Chief Minister to revealwhether these 1,000 new mar-kets would help Telanganafarmers or not. "KCR shouldreveal whether there is norole of CM's Committee andtheir recommendations or notin preparing the bill," healleged.

Bandi addressed a letter tothe Chief Minister in thisregard on Sunday. In his letter,Sanjay said that the Modi gov-

ernment is firm on develop-ment of villages and upliftmentof poor farmers. "It is mean-ingless on part of ChiefMinister to criticise theCentre's Farm Bill.

"I strongly condemn thelanguage used by ChiefMinister of Telangana KChandrashekhar Rao againstthe bill. His language exposeshis culture and is meant todivert the attention of thepeople from his misrule. TheChief Minister of Telanganacheated the farmers ofTelangana promising to buy allthe crops during the last sea-

son but he failed. In a major-ity of the IKP centers inTelangana farm produce espe-cially paddy got damaged dueto hailstorm but the ChiefMinister didn't bother to res-cue farmers. Due to lock-down, vegetable and fruitfarmers incurred heavy lossand the government ofTelangana hasn't helped themat all,"0 he said.

He said that Centre, as partof Atmanirbar Barat stimuli,has lifted all restrictions overagri-product transportation toempower farmers to sell theirproduct at their price andtheir choice of location. TheGovernment introduced a billin the parliament in the nameand style 'Farmers produceTrade and Commerce Bill'and the Farmers' (empower-ment and protection)Agreement of Price Assuranceand Farm Services Bill 2020,which both the houses ofParliament passed today.

Bhatti alleged that underground waterwill be polluted with Pharma City as ithas the capacity of polluting wateraround 100-km radius. He said thatthe Congress has accorded Telanganastate for the sake of unemployedyouth, poor and landless poor

Focus on water use effi-ciency is imperative. Theproposed revision of

National Water Policy is a stepin the right direction. TheNational Bureau of Water UseEfficiency (NBWUE), envis-aged as a central body withoverall responsibility ofimproving water use efficien-cy across sectors, shouldtherefore be carefully consti-tuted, keeping in mind thesocio-economic, geographicand sectoral diversity of thecountry.

In any given sector, theoverarching framework of apolicy sets out the intendeddirection. With the passage oftime, even policies have to bereformulated periodically forgrappling with new andemerging issues such as thoseidentified in the water sector.

The revision of NationalWater Policy has been envis-aged to address certain chal-

lenges in the water sector. Adrafting committee was con-stituted on 5th November,2019 to revise the NationalWater Policy within a term ofsix months. The term hassince been extended up to 31stOctober, 2020. The commit-tee's report is expected tohelp determine the contoursof the policy. The one thingthat has been disclosed is theemphasis on improving wateruse efficiency across the sec-tors.

Minister of State for JalShakti & Social Justice andEmpowerment Rattan LalKataria, in a written reply inthe Lok Sabha on Thursday,stated that the broad focus ofthe proposed policy is goingto be on water use efficiency.

A Bureau is expected to beassigned this task. The pro-posed National Bureau ofWater Use Efficiency(NBWUE) will have the over-all responsibility of improvingwater use efficiency acrossvarious sectors, namely irriga-tion, drinking water supply,power generation, industries,

cities and in all other areaswhere water is used.

Straight away, it reminds usabout the National Bureau ofEnergy Efficiency (BEE),which plays an important rolein promoting energy-efficientdevices, energy audit, assign-ing star ratings to variousitems of electrical equipment,

and facilitating an implemen-tation mechanism along withrequisite expertise. Similarly,

there is the PetroleumConservation ResearchAssociation (PCRA), whichhas been largely addressingconsumer behaviour for var-ious conservation practicesin the petroleum sector.PCRA also deals with issuesconcerning efficiencies.

The NBWUE has to be ahybrid of BEE and PCRA. Itmeans essentially three things.First, set up efficiency stan-dards for water user agencies,after research and due dili-gence. Second, encourage pro-duction and usage of water-efficient equipment and prac-tices. Third, and the mostimportant, create awarenessand modification of behav-ioural pattern of various usergroups. The task cut out for

NBWUE is multi-disciplinary,spread across various sectors.Thus, experts and profession-als from the disciplines con-cerned should be an integralpart of NBWUE.

As irrigation accounts forabout 80 per cent of water usein India, maximum volumet-ric returns due to efficiencyimprovements are expected inthis area.

This could be achieved bypaying attention to each of thethree broad components:Storage and extraction effi-ciency, Water distribution effi-ciency from source to farmers'fields, and On-farm wateruse efficiency.

As per available studies,overall water use efficiency inthe irrigation sector is about

32%. It means that if oneTMC of water is released atthe source, only 0.32 TMCwater is used by crops with'distribution efficiencybetween 50 to 70%' and 'on-farm water use efficiency ofabout 50 to 60%' in an opencanal irrigation system.Higher water use efficiency ispossible by opting for piped,micro and drip irrigation. Onthe behavioural side, it getstranslated into change in crop-ping pattern and farmingpractices.

In so far as industrial anddomestic use of water is con-cerned, after setting up effi-ciency standards (differentfrom the present consumptivescales), a policy of carrot andstick (incentives and disincen-tives in terms of economics)has to be followed for promot-ing the trinity of reduce, reuseand recycle.

(With Rhea Joshi)

SHAILENDRA KUMAR JOSHI

FORMER CHIEF SECRETARY

OF TELANGANA

ADVISOR OF TELANGANA

GOVERNMENT.

Reformulating National Water PolicyStraight away, it reminds us about the

National Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE),

which plays an important role in promoting

energy-efficient devices, energy audit,

assigning star ratings to various items of

electrical equipment, and facilitating an

implementation mechanism along with

requisite expertise

Tahsildars to besensitised onRevenue ActPNS n HYDERABAD

The government has pre-pared an action plan to trainover 590 tahsildars in batch-es from September 23 or inthe last week of September forabout five days on the imple-mentation of new RevenueAct, which will come intoforce from next month.

In case, tahsildars proceedon leave or not able to attendoffice due to various reasons,the deputy tahsildars willalso be given training toenable them to step into theshoes of tahsildars in thelattter’s absence.

Talasani takes a dig atBhatti over 2BHK scheme

TRS govt ‘anti-farmer’: Bhatti

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Watershed momentfor agri, will ensuretransformation: PMNew Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Sundaydescribed the passage of twofarm sector bills as a"watershed moment" in thehistory of Indian agriculture,asserting that they will ensure acomplete transformation of thefarm sector and empowercrores of farmers. In a series oftweets, Modi said theseproposed laws will liberatefarmers from numerousadversities as he noted thatpeasants were for decadesbound by various constraintsand bullied by middlemen. He again assured farmers thatthe existing governmentsupport system for them willcontinue. Farmers in states likePunjab and Haryana have beenprotesting against these bills,with their leaders alleging thatthe legislations will dismantlethe existing system and leavethem to the mercy of corporateinterests.

It is a landmark day:Rajnath on passageof farm bills in RS New Delhi: Defence MinisterRajnath Singh hailed thepassage of two big ticket farmbills by Rajya Sabha onSunday, calling it a "landmarkday" for India's agriculturesector and farmers.While major opposition partiesare against the bills, thegovernment has beenmaintaining that the proposedlegislations will help small andmarginal farmers securecompetitive prices for theirproduce. "With the passing oftwo landmark agriculture Billsin Rajya Sabha today, India hascemented the strongfoundation for ‘AtmanirbharAgriculture'," the defenceminister tweeted. "This is theresult of endless dedication anddetermination of the Govtunder the leadership of PMShri @narendramodi," he said.

No data on numberof plasma banks incountry: GovtNEW DELHI: Convalescentplasma therapy has not beenrecommended by the Ministryof Health as a mainstay ofCOVID-19 therapy and there isno proposal underconsideration to set up plasmabanks, Rajya Sabha wasinformed. In a written reply,Minister of State for HealthAshwini Choubey said stateshave taken initiative to establishsuch banks to provide plasmatherapy to COVID-19 patientsbut no central database of suchbanks is maintained. He was responding to aquestion on the total numberof plasma banks running atpresent to provide plasmatherapy to the Corona patients. Convalescent Plasma therapyhas been included in theClinical Management Protocolfor COVID-19 as aninvestigational therapy for usein a defined subgroup ofpatients only, Choubeyunderlined. "Convalescentplasma therapy has not beenrecommended by the Ministryof Health as a mainstay oftherapy and there is noproposal under considerationof Ministry of Health to set upplasma banks for providingCOVID-19 therapy. "States, however, with a view

to ensure availability ofplasma, in case needed, havetaken initiative to establishsuch banks in certain banks.No central database of suchbanks is maintained," heclarified.

BJP hails passage of farm billsPNS n NEW DELHI

BJP president J P Nadda hailedParliament's nod to two farmsector reform bills on Sunday,saying they will give farmersfreedom in selling their pro-duce and rid them of middle-men.

He also hit out at the oppo-sition parties over the ruckusin the Rajya Sabha after theChair proceeded to take up thebills for passage as he termedthe behaviour "highly irre-sponsible" and an attack ondemocracy, and hoped thatthe House chairman will takenote of that.

Opposition members alsoviolated COVID-19 protocols

by storming the Well of theHouse, he told reporters.

Amid massive uproar byopposition members, the RajyaSabha on Sunday passedFarmer's Produce Trade and

Commerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020, andthe Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreement ofPrice Assurance and FarmServices Bill, 2020. They were

passed by the Lok Sabha onThursday.

Nadda asserted that the min-imum support price (MSP)and Agriculture ProduceMarket Committees (APMC)will continue even as farmerswill get more and betteroptions under these bills,which will become laws afterbeing notified.

"Showing foresight, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hastaken these steps for a betterfuture for farmers. They willplay an important role in dou-bling their income," he said.

The Modi government hastaken a number of steps forfarmers' welfare, includingimplementing the

Swaminathan Commissionreport and announcing over Rs1 lakh package for the agricul-ture sector, he said.

Attacking the Congress, theBJP president said the opposi-tion party had promised abol-ishing APMC in its 2019 gen-eral election manifesto whilethis will continue under theModi government.

The Congress and its leaderRahul Gandhi do not want tosee farmers empowered, hesaid.

The Congress did nothing toundertake any reform toempower farmers and this is anold habit of the party to do pol-itics by misleading the poorand farmers, Nadda alleged.

5 states account for60% new recoveriesPNS n NEW DELHI

With 94,612 people recuper-ating from COVID-19 in aspan of 24 hours, the totalnumber of recoveries in thecountry has surged to43,03,043, taking the nation-al recovery rate to 79.68 percent, the health ministry saidon Sunday.

As many as 60 per cent ofthe new recoveries werereported from five states --Maharashtra, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, UttarPradesh and Tamil Nadu --which also accounted for 52per cent of the new cases, theministry highlighted.

Maharashtra continued totop the chart with more than23,000 new recoveries, whileboth Karnataka and AndhraPradesh accounted for over10,000 single-day recoveries, itsaid.

The country has reportedmore than 94,000 recoveriesfor two successive days, theministry said.

A total of 92,605 freshCOVID-19 cases have beenreported in the country in thelast 24 hours, taking the totalnumber of such cases to54,00,619.

"Also, 52 per cent of the newcases are concentrated in fivestates. These are also the statescontributing maximum to thenew recoveries," the ministryunderlined.

Maharashtra accounted forover 20,000 (22.16 per cent) ofthe new cases. Both AndhraPradesh and Karnatakaaccounted for more than 8,000cases, it said.

A total of 1,133 deaths dueto COVID-19 were registeredin a span of 24 hours, pushingthe death toll to 86,752, theministry said, adding that 425or 37 per cent of the fatalitiesreported on Saturday werefrom Maharashtra, followed byKarnataka (114) and UttarPradesh (84).

Ayodhya to stage Ramlila before Ram comes homePNS n NEW DELHI

The first ‘Ramlila' in the his-toric city of Ayodhya since thestone-laying ceremony of theRam Temple will witnessrenowned actors from acrossthe country descend on thebanks of Saryu river and act outthe greatest battle depicting thevictory of good over evil.

In a show of valour, loyalty,and Hindu traditions, the epicof Ramayan will unfold at theLaxman Qila, less than twokilometers from the under-construction Ram Temple,from October 17-25.

TV actors Sonu Dagar willplay Ram, while Kavita Joshiwill play Sita.

With Delhi BJP MP andactor Manoj Tiwari playingthe role of Angad (Ram's emis-sary), Gorakhpur BJP MP andactor Ravi Kishan playingBharat (Ram's brother), andVindu Dara Singh enactingthe role of Hanuman, “Ayodhyaki Ramlila” will be a star-stud-ded gala.

Actor Ritu Shivpuri willenact the role of Kaikeyi,Asarani will play Narad,Shahbaz Khan of Ravana,Rakesh Bedi of Vibhishan,Rakesh Puri of Nishadraj, RazaMurad of Ahiravana andAvatar Gill will play Janak.

Talking about his role ofHanuman, which became syn-onymous with his father Dara

Singh, Vindu told PTI that thisyear's Ramlila comes as aunique opportunity to playthe role of Lord Ram's loyal ser-vant in the city of his birth.

"This is the first time I havegot a chance to go to Ayodhyaand such an incredible oppor-tunity it is that I am going toplay the role of Hanuman in

Ayodhya,” Vindu told PTI.According to the legend,

Hanuman was commanded byRam to stay on earth till theend of time even after the lat-ter departed.

“If Hanuman is still on earth,where else can he be found ifnot in Ayodhya. I believe heonly has made it possible that

we are building the RamTemple now,” the 56-year-oldactor said.

For years, starting withRamanand Sagar's televisedseries “Ramayan”, late actorDara Singh portrayed the roleof Hanuman. It was the unfor-gettable acting of Singh thatmade him immortal in the eyesof all Indians, Vindu said.

“I have played the role ofHanuman for some 20 yearsnow on different platforms, myinspiration has always been myfather. Even though I aminspired by him and try to walkin his shoes, those are honest-ly very big shoes to fill.

“Even now when peopleclose their eyes to think of

Hanuman, Dara Singh's imagecomes to mind. The way helived the character, nobodycan ever match that. It used tofeel as if Hanuman was on thestage when he played the role,”Vindu added.

If it's about filling his father'sshoes for Vindu Dara Singh, forChandrakanta-fame actorShahbaz Khan it's about por-traying the biggest villain in theworld -- Ravan. "It's a dreamrole for any actor, to play thebiggest villain," Khan said.

The 54-year-old actor, who'sknown for his negative roles,added that all famous actorsmade it big by playing strongnegative characters on screenand stage.

Global plastic production up by60 MMT in 5 years: ResearcherPNS n PANAJI

Global plastic production hasgone up from 300 millionmetric tonnes to 360 millionmetric tonnes in the last fiveyears, claims a scientist fromthe

Goa-based NationalInstitute of Oceanography.

Also, microplastics pose aserious threat to the environ-ment as they get into the bod-ies of marine animals like fish,turtles, shrimps, sea birds, andthen enter the food chain,

affecting humans as well, sci-entist Mahua Saha said.

She was addressing a webi-nar organised by a Mumbai-based NGO in collaborationwith the National Centre forCoastal Research on Thursday,ahead of the InternationalCoastal Cleanup Day whichwas observed on Saturday.

Plastics less than five mil-limetres in length are called'microplastics' and the relative-ly larger particles, of morethan 5 mm, are classified as'macroplastics'.

Speaking on Microplastics:An emerging threat to marineenvironment and biodiversity,Saha said, "Plastic productionhas been constantly increasing.In just five years, the globalplastic production increasedfrom 300 million metrictonnes to 360 million metrictonnes."

Out of this, 50 per cent issingle use plastic and onlynine per cent is reusable, whereis the rest going? Is it accumu-lating on the shoreline andcoast column? she said.

Ex-PTI scribe who witnessed freedomstruggle, three wars turns 100 PNS n MUMBAI

In his long career as a reporter,Walter Alfred has seen manythings, including the launch ofthe Quit India movement,wars and the inside of aPakistani jail.

Alfred, who had a longinnings with the Press Trust ofIndia (PTI) as a journalist,turns 100 on September 21.

He has covered many warsIndia has fought, includingthe 1962 war with China andthe 1965 war with Pakistan.

Reminiscing about hisreporting days at his house inMira Road township on theoutskirts of Mumbai, he said,"For me, the 1962 war withChina was a painful memoryas it deeply affected the thenPrime Minister JawaharlalNehru.

"The shock of China defyinghim was severe for him," hesaid.

Now, as Indian troops areonce again locked in a stand-

off with China, Alfred saidback then, there was "nodearth of official information"about the border develop-ments.

There was a clear communi-cation from the governmentand a detailed statement wasmade in Parliament, he said.

"I covered several eventswith Nehru, including his visitto the Ahmednagar fort asprime minister. He excitedlyshowed me his cell and theplaces he was allowed to visitas a prisoner during the inde-pendence movement," he said.

The British had chosen theAhmednagar fort to lodge

Nehru and other national lead-ers to prevent intensification ofthe Quit India movement.

Among the more dramaticevents of Alfred's life was hisincarceration in a jail inPakistan during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

"The proclamation of warinvited charges of espionageagainst me. I was kept in soli-tary confinement inRawalpindi jail for almost afortnight and got hardly anyinformation about the chargeslevelled against me," he said.

He said negotiationsbetween the two countries andalso pressure from the UnitedNations led to his release andhe returned to India as part ofan exchange of journalists ofthe two countries.

"I was so traumatised due tomy incarceration that my officeoffered me some days' leave forrecovery, after which I wasposted as PTI's South Asia cor-respondent in Malaysia," hesaid.

Delhi zoo to getmore than 10animal speciesfrom statesGAURAV SAINI n NEW DELHI

The Delhi zoo, which hoggedthe headlines due to a largenumber of animal deathsover the past two years, willbring in more than 10 speciesof wildlife, including a rhino,a tigress and crocodiles, fromother states through anexchange programme,according to officials.

The zoo's director,Ramesh Pandey, said the ani-mal mortality rate in the zoohad declined by around 45per cent in the last six monthsby implementing a series ofmeasures.

"There are 83 species ofanimals in the zoo at present.Work is underway to addmore than 10 animal speciesto its population," Pandeysaid.

The zoological park willbring a pair of chinkara fromthe Chhatbir zoo inChandigarh, he said, addingthat an exchange of birdswould also take placebetween the two. The loneremaining chinkara had diedon June 14 last year.

There were four of themat the zoo till 2018. They diedone after another due to var-ious reasons, including oldage, another official said.

The Delhi zoo is alsoplanning to bring ostrichesfrom Kanpur, nearly fouryears after the lone ostrichdied under mysterious cir-cumstances.

Vistara: No layoffsPNS n NEW DELHI

Vistara, which has implement-ed various cost-saving mea-sures amid the coronaviruspandemic, will review salarycuts in January but has not laidoff any of its nearly 4,000employees, according to theairline's chief.

Domestic airlines industryhas been significantly impact-ed by the coronavirus pan-

demic and subsequent suspen-sion of local and internation-al flight services.

Vistara's Chief ExecutiveOfficer Leslie Thng told PTIthat there have been no jobcuts at the airline in the wakeof the coronavirus pandemic.

"There have been no jobcuts at Vistara, and therefore,the staff strength remains thesame as earlier – nearly 4,000employees," he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Foreign Contribution(Regulation) Act (FCRA) is allset to be amended, underwhich providing the Aadhaarnumbers of the office-bearersof any NGO will be mandato-ry for registration and publicservants will be barred fromreceiving funds from abroad.

The Foreign ContributionRegulation (Amendment) Bill2020, to be introduced in theLok Sabha on Sunday, alsoproposes to enable the Centreto allow an NGO or associa-tion to surrender its FCRA

certificate.The draft bill proposes that

not more than 20 per cent ofthe total foreign funds receivedcould be spent on administra-tive expenses. Presently, thelimit is 50 per cent.

‘Handling of Covid key issue in Bihar polls’ASIM KAMAL n NEW DELHI

With the Centre rolling out aslew of development projectsfor Bihar ahead of theAssembly polls, RJD leaderTejashwi Yadav on Sunday said"grandiose PR exercises" are apoor substitute for governance,and the real issues in the elec-tions would be unemploy-ment, "corporatisation of agri-culture" and handling of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview to PTI,

Yadav also asserted that it is"undisputed and settled" thatthe Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)is the "natural leader of the'mahagathbandhan' (grand

alliance)" and seat sharing willbe settled soon.

"These bills will strip farm-ers of their financial securitynet which has been safeguard-ed by provisions like publicprocurement and MSP (mini-mum support price)," Yadavsaid.

Why did a Union cabinetminister resign if the bills werenot "anti-farmer", he askedreferring to Shiromani AkaliDal leader Harsimrat KaurBadal quitting the Cabinet lastweek over the farm bills issue.

The Opposition has beenhitting out at the governmentover the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Bill, the Farmers' ProduceTrade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)Bill and the Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Bill, alleging that theyare anti-farmer, a claim thegovernment has denied, stress-ing that they will be beneficialfor the agriculture sector.

3 months’ posting at dist hospmandatory for medical studentsPNS n NEW DELHI

All post-graduate studentspursuing MD or MS in broadspecialities in medical collegesacross the country will have toundergo a compulsory resi-dential rotation of threemonths in district hospitals aspart of the course curriculumin the academic session 2020-21.

Such rotation shall takeplace in the 3rd, 4th or 5thsemester of the postgraduateprogramme.

This rotation shall betermed as 'District ResidencyProgramme' (DRP) and thepostgraduate medical studentundergoing training shall betermed as a 'District Resident',the notification issued by theboard of governors in supers-

ession of the Medical Councilof India (MCI) said.

According to the“Post-grad-uate Medical Education(Amendment) Regulations,2020”, satisfactory completionof the district residency shallbe an essential conditionbefore the candidate is allowedto appear in the final examina-tion of the respective postgrad-uate course.

MUHAMMED MAZHAR SALEEMn LUCKNOW

The mosque to come up inAyodhya pursuant to theSupreme Court verdict in theRam Janmabhoomi case mayhave a shape that is differentfrom the traditional shape ofmosques and will not benamed after any emperor orking.

Secretary and spokespersonof the Indo-Islamic CulturalFoundation (IICF) AtharHussain told PTI on Sunday,"A mosque measuring 15,000square feet will be built inDhannipur village. It will be ofthe same size as that of theBabri mosque. The shape ofthe mosque may be complete-ly different from that of othermosques. It may be square-shaped like the Kaaba Sharif inMecca, as hinted by architectSM Akhtar."

To a question on whetherthe mosque at Dhannipur will

have no domes or minaretslike the Kaaba Sharif, Hussainsaid it could be a possibility.

He said the architect hasbeen given a free hand in thisregard.

"The mosque will not benamed Babri Masjid. It will notbe named after any king oremperor. My personal opinionis that it should be called theDhannipur Masjid," Hussainsaid. He also informed that thetrust is making its portal sothat people can donate for themosque and the museum,hospital and research centrewhich will be built inside thecomplex.

Clone trains will arrivebefore parent trainsANANYA SENGUPTA n NEW DELHI

With the Railways rolling out40 clone trains from Monday,waitlisted passengers on hightraffic routes can hope toreach their destinations two-three hours before the corre-sponding parent train, a seniorofficial said on Sunday.

These clone trains -- pri-marily higher speeds and adeparture time before the par-ent train -- come as a boon forthe passengers who have totravel in an emergency orhave made last-minute plans,

the official said.Their stoppages will be lim-

ited to operational halts or theHeadquarters en-route, there-by reducing their journeytime, the official said.

"These trains will reachtheir destinations two to threehours in advance. That's howthey have been planned," asenior official told PTI.

“We are assuming that dur-ing these times, people willtravel only in an emergencyand we want to make sure thaton the high traffic routes, wecan accommodate all passen-gers who want to travel.”

Govt formscommittees forinspection ofCOVID hospitalsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre has formedexpert committees for inspec-tion of government and otherCovid facilities followingdirections of the SC.

The expert committeesconstituted by the Ministry ofHealth have been tasked toinspect, supervise and guidegovernment and other hospi-tals dedicated to Covid,Minister Ashwini Choubeytold the Rajya Sabha.

Disposal of PPEkits challengeduring Covidpandemic: GovtPNS n NEW DELHI

Disposal of biomedical wasteincluding PPE kits worn byhealthcare professionals andpublic became a challengeduring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the UnionHealth Ministry told theRajya Sabha on Sunday.

“As informed by CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB), disposal of bio-med-ical waste including PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE)kit worn by healthcare profes-sionals as well as generalpublic became a challengeduring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Minister ofState for Health and FamilyWelfare Ashwini KumarChoubey said. The ministerwas responding to a query byBJP MP Mahesh Poddar inthe Upper House over thedisposal of biomedical wasteduring the coronavirus crisisin the country.

Govt set to amend FCRA;Aadhaar to be mandatory

Mosque may not have‘traditional shape'

As women have come intotheir own, do they realisethat they continue to beobjectified even in changedcontexts for purposes of

mass consumption? And are projectedfor the wrong reasons than the rightones? That they legitimise the male gazeas a uniform societal response by fallinginto a trap of imaging they believeempowers and acknowledges them?Further, if they happen to be celebritieswith a fair sweep of popular culture, thenthey are prone to be more “sextualised”as it were as talking heads. So much sothat they are now being itemised for pol-itics instead of the big screen, used foradvocacy rather than reason, prized fortheir appearance than their intelligence,made icons of causes that thousands offaceless women are struggling with anddrawing accolades and likes that may notbe earned or deserved. And should suchunevolved but rapidly recognisablefaces happen to represent binaries, thenyou have a catfight that has become thenew prime-time fix. In the end, fightingwomen make a mockery of all that fem-inism has tried to achieve so far.

What else would explain the obses-sive coverage of Kangana Ranaut, RheaChakraborty, Urmila Matondkar andtheir ping-pong exchanges by the mediaor their appropriation by political par-ties of the day to amplify their respec-tive narratives? Let’s begin with KanganaRanaut. An actor par excellence, she haslived through sordid exploitation anddisplayed a rare grit to carve her spaceand more importantly, own it. Therehave been many outsiders in the filmindustry, co-opted or rebels, but she wasneither. Instead, she challenged a systemthat was based on nepotism and dynas-tic privileges and insisted on a democ-racy that would enrich the creative space.She even did her bit, though not the onlyone, to push the envelope, choosing fleshand blood roles that made real womenprotagonists as much a revenue-earnerfor the film industry as its male stars.And there was a straight-forward hon-esty and boldness about her approachthat endeared her to everybody. Most ofall she appeared independently sensibleand not just fashionably articulate. Andmuch before #MeToo, she called out hermale exploiters in the industry, not deny-ing what she had been subjected to butwas frank enough to admit that shespoke when she had equal power andrespect.

She did carve out a new constituen-cy among the chatterati and was con-scious enough to use it to magnify herown appeal. She became a regular atmedia summits and talks, thereby devel-oping another facet outside films thatwould lengthen her shelf life. Themedia, in turn, used her to grab eyeballs.As she became sure-footed, she sailed

with the prevailing politicalwinds, beginning with national-ism and then professing herRight wing loyalties. Every citi-zen, including actors, is entitledto his/her ideological prefer-ences but Kangana, who tookyears to craft her own disruptivebrand, has been waylaid andabsorbed this time around. Usingher troll-worthy capacities and noholds barred verbal ammunition,the BJP has just made her a pawnin its grand design, whether it islampooning the Nehru-Gandhis,taking on its arch enemy, the ShivSena in Maharashtra, or stokingfires in the mysterious death ofSushant Singh Rajput. And it ishere that Kangana has falteredand given into the prevailing rantand sentiments of the day thancalibrating them to her advan-tage. Undoubtedly, the Shiv Senaleaders are not known for theirstandards when they decide toshred somebody apart but forKangana to liken Mumbai toPakistan-occupied Kashmir wasnot only politically immature butmore hurtful to her own self thanthe Sena. Of course, the BJP ben-efitted from the scream fest with-out dirtying its fingers. Andcompared to the troublesomeAnurag Thakur and KapilMishra, it has found a palatablepublic lobbyist of some repute.The fact that she is from the filmindustry would work both waysfor it, as an asset if she got trac-tion, maybe a liability at timesand a salacious aberration atworst if she failed.

But it is in the process ofcleansing the drug taint from thefilm industry that she has goneoverboard, attacking women col-leagues in the industry, unarmedwith logic and defeating the verywomen’s cause that she loves torepresent. She locked horns withJaya Bachchan, actor and RajyaSabha MP of the Samajwadi

Party, an industry veteran and anactive parliamentarian who hasspoken out on societal issues.Rightfully, she decided to arguefor an industry that was being vil-ified over a few bad apples anddrug abuse, generalised as a sincity than the enormous talent itnurtures and made to look likea villain of all societal ills whenfact is, it supported jobs and cre-ated opportunities. This, shesaid, despite the “non-support ofthe Government.” Kangana’srebuttal for the sake of one notonly lacked refinement, it undidthe work of several women actorswho made it possible for her tomake her current space and beheard. Taking a potshot at Jaya’sremark that actors were ungrate-ful to the industry that fed them,Kangana retorted, “Got one thaaliwhich included two minutes offame in item numbers and oneromantic scene with the hero,that too after sleeping with him.I have taught feminism to thefilm industry.” Reality check?Jaya Bachchan has been a biggerpath-breaker than her becauseshe etched powerful womencharacters despite a hostile cli-mate set by the movie mafia, thesingle-hero domination and a lessthan encouraging commerciallogic where strong womenonscreen were considered artsyand NFDC material. Jaya tried tomainstream that discourse.Kangana perhaps also forgot herown sensuous numbers onscreen before she called actor andnow Congress member UrmilaMatondkar a “soft porn” star.Apart from a pervert televisionaudience that sees news as enter-tainment, this discourse didnothing but perpetuate thestereotype that “women are theirown worst enemy.” Somethingthat Jaya’s peer and BJP MPHema Malini realised as shesupported Jaya’s speech instead of

mindlessly toeing what her partypropagandists would have want-ed her to do.

Kangana may get a BJP ticketto contest elections in the futurebut she would again not earn itby her own rules but by conform-ing to the misogynistic mindsetthat sees women stars as a whiffof fresh air in the dry world ofpolitics. She should have takenlessons from the late Tamil NaduChief Minister J Jayalalitha,whom she is portraying onscreen.Jayalalitha became the respectedleader she was by mastering allrules of the political game, work-ing the ground, breaking out ofthe shadows of her mentor MGRand battling the authoritarianismthat had already been estab-lished by her male counterpartson equal terms. Kangana, sadly,is in danger of looking like astooge. Does she realise that forall her headline grabbing acts onsocial and visual media, she isbeing used to divert attentionfrom the nation’s more pressingproblems like the pandemic mis-management, the Ladakh incur-sions or the tanking economy?That she is fuelling exactly whatthe ruling dispensation wants herto do, namely create a cloud ofinconsequential nothingness?

At the other end is starlet RheaChakraborty, who is on every-body’s search engine, not becauseof her films or work but as anexploitative girlfriend of lateactor Sushant Singh Rajput. Nodoubt he was a talent snuffed outtoo early, but the mysterious cir-cumstances of his death, histroubled history with drugs andmental health, his Bihari identi-ty and his “outsider” status in thefilm industry have far too manyelements to be exploited bypoliticians and their new hand-maiden, the broadcast media.The conspiracy theory that shemight have pushed him to addic-

tion, swindled him, could havediverted funds and in the processpushed him over the edge byentrapping him in a world of debtand drug cartels, has become acredible story that the nation isdevouring hungrily. Simplybecause legal evidence and coldfacts of the actor’s death are toodry to be juiced out for newscycles. Simply because a good-looking starlet allows the mass-es to project their sinful obses-sions, aspirations and high crimesto her kind and claim moralrighteousness by exclusion. SoRhea’s going to jail becomes avisual that is more satisfying asa portrait of instant justice. Manyfilm personalities have beeninvolved in the drug racket. YetRhea’s arrest, for possessing just59 grams of weed, makes aseething urban sub-culture asensational discovery. She, too, isaware of the fame that the unfor-tunate death of her boyfriend hasgiven her. Flashing a victorysign and sporting T-shirts embla-zoned with “down with patri-archy” slogans, she, too, couldemerge out of this mess as aprime pick for advocacy ofwomen’s rights and the lynchmob trial she was subjected to.She may or may not be a successin films going forward but, likeSushant, has been appropriatedas a political tool. If the BJP isfuelling the “justice for Sushant”campaign, the Congress hastaken up the “justice for Rhea”crusade. Self-appointed activistsshouted slogans opposing the“vilification campaign” againstthe “daughter of Bengal” and heldup placards that said, “We will notstop till she gets justice.” BengalCongress chief Adhir RanjanChowdhury even invested herwith casteist respectability, call-ing her a “Bengali Brahmin.”What Rhea wouldn’t appreciate,if she walks into this trap, is thatshe is hated mostly by womenwith a patriarchal mindset overtea and conversations, seen as awoman who made capital out ofwhat is called “easy virtue.” In thissense, both the newsmaker andthe news recipient are defeated,simply because neither getsrespect nor understanding. Butthey certainly perpetuate a maleconstruct of how women are.

Sadly, women newsmakersfrom popular culture aroundthe globe are being chased fortheir representational rather thantheir authentic selves. Theiractivism, therefore, appears to bemore and more fake. And as theyuse social media to build intimatepartnerships with their commu-nities and followers, they areshaping a market economy ofmedievalism, where women aredependable worker bees but areactually living in a shell believingthey are the queen bees.

(The writer is Associate Editor,The Pioneer)

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has comeback to our screens and by the time you readthis, the first set of matches would have been

played. Early favourites would have been deter-mined, new heroes would be on the tips of every-one’s tongues, old stars would find themselvesrejuvenated and superstars could be down in thedumps. It is taking place six months after it wassupposed to start and the entire tournament istaking place in the United Arab Emirates withmatches being played in Abu Dhabi, Dubai andSharjah. The return of the IPL will give many of

us an indication that things are returning to normal. The additional consumptionthat the event will drive ahead of the festive season might give a major boost tothe economy over the next six weeks and provide the much-needed succour fortelevision viewers from hate-filled and spiteful content that masquerades as newson most channels.

Yet, part of the excitement of the IPL, and this is despite previous tournamentswhich have been played on foreign soil, are the crowds. Purists of regional andnational identity-based cricket may not like the idea of franchise cricket, let alonethe T20 format, but it does make for compelling entertainment and some strangebedfellows. Whoever thought that a boy from Ranchi could become the biggestsuperstar in Tamil Nadu or that a Delhiite could become a hero in Bengaluru andadored by the crowds? Of course, cricketers are used to playing Test and domes-tic cricket, where scant crowds are the order of the day, but not having crowdsin the IPL defeats the purpose of such a spectacle for some. Then again, otherprofessional leagues such as those in the US and professional football leaguesin Europe have also restarted without crowds, although the former is now allow-ing in limited spectators. The Wuhan contagion has changed many aspects ofmodern life but it appears that professional sport has been the hardest hit of all.The return of the IPL might not take away from the fact that the number of casescontinues to rise sharply but it could prove that things might return to normalsooner rather than later. And you know what, that is not a bad thing.

Vaccine nationalism is rearing its ugly headagain even as the Coronavirus pandemicrages on. The implications of manipulating

access to essential drugs, particularly HIV-AIDSones in developing countries, due to bulk purchas-ing power of richer nations and honouring of phar-maceutical patents, are already known. That cri-sis worsened. Sadly, the trend continues as therace to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 intensi-fies with five leading candidates currently in phasethree clinical trials. Who gets hold of the vaccineand when determines which country stops the

caseload from going up exponentially, saves lives, escapes the second and thirdwave predicted by experts and gets on the path of economic recovery faster.However, with the pharmaceutical industry being largely cartelised, it won’t comeas a surprise if developing countries are at the far end of the line. Remember the2009 H1N1 flu pandemic? Australia, which was the first country to come up witha vaccine at that time, blocked exports while some of the wealthiest countriesentered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies.The US alone obtained the right to buy 6,00,000 doses. It was only when theH1N1 pandemic began to recede that developed countries offered to donate vac-cine doses to poorer economies. However, the damage at that time was not assevere as it will be this time round because the Coronavirus is far more infec-tious and deadlier than the H1N1 and has almost strangled the have-not nations.If a recent report released by Oxfam is to be believed, wealthy nations, account-ing for just 13 per cent of the global population, have cornered a whopping 51per cent of the promised vaccine doses. It is just what poorer nations and theWorld Health Organisation (WHO) had feared, that while they would be prime picksfor vaccine trials, they would get to use doses the last. The inevitable result wouldbe a deepening of the pandemic. Right now, many world leaders, like US PresidentDonald Trump, who is facing a re-election in November, will not listen to the fee-ble voice of the poor or the WHO. A vaccine is his ticket to the White House, heneeds it for his voters. This “vaccine nationalism” has also emerged at a timewhen global majors are trying to establish their political prowess while using theirscientific superiority to validate the claim. Thus, whoever has the first access tothe vaccine will end up on the top of the global pyramid of power, apart fromreaping the enormous monetary benefits that come out of it.

One of the developers of the COVID vaccine is Moderna, which has received$2.48 billion in committed taxpayers’ money. It intends to profit from its vaccineand has sold supplies to rich nations at prices that range from $12-16 per dosein the US to around $35 per dose for other countries, leaving poorer nations outof the procurement loop entirely. However, according to reports, the company’sproduction capacity is barely enough for 475 million people or six per cent of theworld’s population. Even if all five vaccine candidates succeed, which is ratherunlikely, it is only by 2022 that two-thirds of the world’s population will have accessto them. Also, even if one country does get vaccinated, how will its policy ontravelling restrictions change? Will the restriction be limited to those who are yetto get access to the vaccine or will they have vaccines for those entering theirland? Remember it’s a global pandemic and just like the WHO warned, creatingvaccinated pockets will not be beneficial for long if one is aiming for a stable econ-omy. This is why various organisations are calling for a “people’s vaccine”, freeof the monopolistic control of the pharmaceutical companies over its sale andurging nations to share the needed information with others so that it is availableto every single human being at affordable rates and can be distributed on a need-based rather than a paid-for basis.

If all the five vaccines work, Oxfam says that would amount to a combined pro-duction capacity at 5.94 billion doses, enough for 2.97 billion people, keeping inmind that the vaccines will most likely require two doses. The supply deals alreadyagreed upon are for 5.303 billion doses, out of which 2.728 billion (51 per cent)have already been procured by developed countries including the UK, US, Australia,Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel, as well as the EuropeanUnion. The remaining 2.575 billion doses have either been bought by or promisedto emerging countries, including India, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Indonesia andMexico among others. This also includes the 300 million doses of the AstraZenecavaccine pledged to the Covax Advanced Market Commitment (AMC), the vac-cine pooling mechanism, promised to developing countries. It is essential for glob-al powers to understand the gravity of the situation and on ethical grounds workin favour of public health and the global economy.

No people’s vaccine

New farm BillsSir — The Lok Sabha passed threecontentious agriculture Bills in theongoing monsoon session amidstrong protests by Opposition par-ties. The outcome of the proposedlegislations can only be the cor-poratisation of the farming sector,leading to commercial exploita-tion of agricultural lands.

These reforms will re-introducethe zamindari system in a newinsidious form. Forced to take tothe streets due to the pandemic,the farmers need more than theritual obeisance paid to them forbeing the backbone of society.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

Ban cryptocurrencies

Sir — Reports of the Governmentpondering over a ban on cryp-tocurrencies is doing the roundson social media. Earlier in April2018, the Reserve Bank of Indiaissued a circular, thwarting anyexchange which facilitated the useof cryptocurrencies. However,later on, the Supreme Courtquashed the RBI’s circular. Now,the Government must take a callon how to regulate cryptocurren-

cies but only after thoroughlyanalysing its long-term effects.

Rahul ChouhanUjjain

Section 144 re-imposed

Sir — Section 144 was alreadyimposed in Mumbai but its re-imposition has caused panic

among many. The section pro-hibits the gathering of four ormore people in an area, effective-ly not changing anything. Thisextension will be applicable tillSeptember 30 as Mumbai is oneof the worst pandemic-affectedcities and the numbers of infect-ed people continue to rise. It ishigh time for people to under-stand the gravity of the situation

and remain indoors as theGovernment has assured thatthe supply of essential goods, ser-vices and medical emergencieswill remain unaffected.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

Fined for nothingSir — Advocate Saurabh Sharma

was issued a fine of `500 for notwearing a facemask while drivingalone in his car. During the hear-ing, KC Mittal, appearing forSharma, argued that the guide-lines issued by the Delhi DisasterManagement Authority merelystated that masks were to be wornin a public place or workplace,and not inside an empty vehicle.

Sharma’s challan must bequashed and the fined amountrefunded. The advocate alsodeserves to be compensated fortime wasted besides mental agonycaused.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

Time to actSir — After Nepal’s Parliamentapproved a new political map,showing three Indian territories(Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh andKalapani) as part of Nepal, it hasnow introduced the same map inthe school curriculum. It is high time India breaks its silence as it stands to lose itsterritory to both Nepal and China.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionHYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

06

Pawns in his gameThe sordid reality of the 21st century's portrayal of Indian female celebrities is

that it defeats all that feminism has tried to achieve so far

Peru cannot come to a halt dueto the content of some audioswithout any validity; the man-agement of the pandemic andeconomic reactivation cannot be suspended.

Peruvian President—Martin Vizcarra

Protect the farmers

The Centre may have rushed through farm reformlegislations without confabulating with all parties andstakeholders concerned or creating a defined

architecture for farmers to follow the new template onthe ground. The Bills intend to create a viable alterna-tive to Agricultural Market Produce Committees(APMCs) and facilitate contract farming to help smallfarmers discover fair prices for their farm produce. Truthbe told, APMCs haven’t lived up to their promise dueto cartelisation and small farmers continue to have prob-lems transporting their produce to APMC market yards.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a weightypromise to farmers, 86 per cent of whom are small andmarginal farmers, to double their income by 2022. Thestatus quo, including minimum support price (MSP),isn’t helping enough farmers, unlike direct benefit trans-fers, besides distorting markets and cropping patterns.

The Centre has clarified that it isn’t underminingAPMCs or MSPs but merely increasing competition byallowing agri-businesses, food processors, whole-

salers, exporters and big retailers to source directly fromfarmers. Even though the Opposition parties are join-ing the protests to reap political mileage, the Governmentmust immediately ensure that the corporatisationimplicit in these steps doesn’t rob the farmer of his auton-omy or replace one clique with another.

N Sadhasiva ReddyBengaluru

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

The IPL is back

As rich nations corner more than half the doses, they must realisethat vaccinated pockets don’t lead to stable economies

The entire experience will be very different withoutcrowds cheering on the teams

RINKU GHOSH

All three ordinances ofagriculture shall encour-age middlemen and willpromote the big industri-alists. Also, black market-ing will shoot up.

Rajasthan PCC Chief—Govind Singh Dotasar

We will talk withWashington on all issuesof interest solely on thebasis of equality mutualbenefit, and the search fora balance of interest.

Russia’s Foreign Minister —Sergey Lavrov

Mumbai Indians andChennai Super Kings arethe two franchises thatare most loved by thefans and that's how IPLhas become special.

Cricketer—Hardik Pandya

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

S O U N D B I T E

The flaws of feedback

THE CENTRE’S BUDGETARY ALLOCATION TO UTTAR

PRADESH FOR MINORITY WELFARE WAS REDUCED BY

50 PER CENT OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

—BSP MP

KUNWAR DANISH ALI

ATTEMPTS ARE MADE TO DISCREDIT THE BJP BY CITING

STATISTICS. EVERYONE KNOWS HOW MUSLIMS HAD

BEEN REDUCED TO A MERE VOTE BANK IN THE PAST.

—UP BJP SECRETARY

CHANDRAMOHAN

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Feedback is a very important tool to nudge peo-ple and organisations to adopt desirablebehaviour. Nobel laureate Richard H Thaler and

his co-author Cass R Sunstein, in their internation-al bestseller Nudge, suggest feedback as one of thestrategies to motivate agents to adopt responsivebehaviour. It is against the idea of command and con-trol policies of governments or paternalism of anyinstitution. Nudging human behaviour in a desir-able direction without any command and controlis what they call “libertarian paternalism.” A nudgein the right direction may be as simple as the lap-top warning the users to plug in the charger whenthe battery is about to die out, or the display screenof a car suggesting that the driver change gears whenthe gear applied and the speed of the car mismatch.These feedback mechanisms are alarms which nudgepeople to take corrective measures.

Education, being delivered by organisations,Government or private, benefits from feedback tospearhead in the intended direction. It may be feed-back on the course, faculty or educational institute.It helps enhance performance and improve the deliv-ery of education service through the voluntary adop-tion of corrective measures. In higher academics, theranking of journals, again based on the feedback onthe quality of research work published, is animportant mechanism to improve research and pub-lication. Feedback, when made public, increasescompetition among peers. Then comment works asa mechanism to remove the asymmetry of informa-tion in the market. The potential customers or ben-eficiaries become aware of the quality of goods orservices offered. Different agents or stakeholders givecomments for all elements of education andresearch. On the course and faculty, it is studentswho provide the feedback. It is meant to improvethe course content and delivery of the faculty.Educational institutes are given ratings by differentagencies, including the Government, national andinternational bodies and media about their infra-structure, processes and quality of education. Theassessment of research journals is obtained by thenumber of citations of research articles publishedin them over a stipulated period. In all this, the mootquestion is how far does the feedback mechanismserve the purpose of delivery of education servicesin the desired direction?

If we consider that the feedback on the courseand faculty is given by the students, then it may becounterproductive. The desired pattern of deliverymay not be best determined by students as they arenot competent enough to assess. Nevertheless, manyrenowned educational institutes use their feedbackto evaluate faculty performance. It is even consid-ered for promotions. However, there are exceptions.Harvard Business School does not take studentresponse on any course or faculty. When asked aboutit, one tenured professor replied that “we do not takefeedback from amateurs.” If they have to assess acourse or faculty, some experts of the area attendthe class and appraise the course delivery.

Research is an extremely complicated outputwhich is determined by the methodology, results andoverall interest on a particular topic. The citationof the articles may depend on all these factors. Thejournals in the area of social sciences and manage-ment at times may prefer publishing certain typesof results. Journals may aim at increasing citationand hence prefer the articles which deal with sub-jects that are likely to have enough research fund-

ing in future. New ideas or results whichcontradict some existing dominant ideamay not receive enough funding andattention. Thus, it creates an endogenoussystem which encourages a dominant ideaand is detrimental to newer, provocativeideas.

This problem is more severe for less-er-known institutes from developingcountries. Each research article goesthrough a peer-review process conduct-ed by the journals. The editors take a deci-sion on publication after taking intoaccount the reviewers’ comments.Nevertheless, the reviewers’ performanceis not predictable. In a 2007 study on 306experienced reviewers, published in PLOSMedicine, researchers found that there isno scientifically-established predictor ofreviewer performance. Hence it is not pos-sible to systematically improve the selec-tion of reviewers and implement a routinereview rating system.

Sadly, journals do take reviewer rat-ings from the editors. Furthermore, jour-nal editors may find articles with a verynew or provocative idea or result contraryto dominant ideas unacceptable, more sowhen the researchers are affiliated torenowned institutes, or they themselves arewell-known. Hence, the feedback processin research may not always encouragepath-breaking discoveries, especially fordeveloping nations.

Ranking or rating of educationalinstitutions is considered as a way of giv-ing feedback on the performance of theinstitute on certain predetermined indi-cators. Over the years, ranking andaccreditation have gained strength andmomentum globally, including in India.Ranking is perceived as an indicator ofquality of services offered by education-al institutions. There seems to a be grow-ing consensus that ranking influences theperception of stakeholders (students,recruiters and investors) about the

prospect of educational institutions. Whilethere is no denying that ranking has madeinstitutes look at the quality of services,it also introduced new practices within thesector. From the viewpoint of organisa-tional research, ranking has offered a newtemplate to educational institutions andcodified them in different categories.Post the ranking announcement of theNational Institutional Ranking Framework(NIRF), it has been observed that manyof the educational institutes have show-cased their positions on their websites todemonstrate their skills, achievements anddesirability to stakeholders.

The organisational template propagat-ed through ranking carries its own char-acteristics. For example, under the NIRF,the template is assessed through five para-meters focussing on teaching, publications,consultancy, employability and overall per-ception. Institutes are measured alongthese parameters to identify the “best”ones scoring the highest marks/pointsacross these parameters. Going forward,these institutes would become a role modeland irrespective of their individual values,purpose and origin, all would be in a raceto adopt a codified organisational tem-plate. This would have a detrimentalimpact on institutions striving to pursuea niche domain. The codified organisa-tional template would often fail to recog-nise the unique features of educationalinstitutions by virtue of their values andorigin. As a result, such institutes wouldoften fall behind in the so-called perfor-mance indicators, creating a poor impres-sion about the quality of educationimparted by them. This, in turn, wouldhave a detrimental impact on their abili-ty to attract resources and eventually leadto quivering of the very existence of indi-viduality among organisations.

As the ranking is made public, thisfeedback mechanism ignites fierce com-petition among the educational institutes.

The urgency to perform well in theranking exercise has resulted in manyadopting the recommended organisation-al template in a hurried manner. The high-speed diffusion of the template is oftenfacilitated by a new breed of “institution-al intermediaries” i.e. entities helpingorganisations to build capacity so as toadopt the new template. In recent years,the ranking industry in higher educationhas been populated by intermediaries cer-tifying institutions through their ownranking exercises. Their role was primar-ily limited to assessment of quality on indi-cators. We should now expect to see moreintermediaries who would be helping theeducational institutions to build theircapacity to perform well in rankings andadopt a standardised template.

The feedback mechanism shouldnudge desirable behaviour, but it may becounterproductive to education andresearch when that feedback is made pub-lic. Then it becomes a means of increas-ing competition in a particular direction.Two major problems in the evaluationmechanism in education have been iden-tified. One, when feedback is taken fromthose whose expertise, capability or eligi-bility to provide an assessment is question-able. A difficult subject would be eventu-ally dropped from the curriculum or astrict instructor would be penalised. Biasin the assessment of a new idea or con-tradictory results in research may throt-tle publication in journals. Second, whenassessment is based on a standard set ofcriteria and is made public, then it nulli-fies the emergence and growth of educa-tional organisations with diverse ideas andobjectives. Competition brought throughthe feedback system may drive all in thesame direction at the cost of diversity.

(De is Associate Professor and Sarmais Assistant Professor, Institute of RuralManagement, Anand. Views expressedhere are personal)

Competition in education and research brought through the evaluation system maydrive all in the same direction at the cost of diversity

07F I R S T C O L U M N

Not such a bigdeal after all

GWYNNE DYER

The only thing that actually happened in DC was that the UAE and Bahrain went public on their previouslycovert ties with Israel, especially in the arms trade

INDRANIL DE

SUSHANTA SARMA

EDUCATIONALINSTITUTES ARE

GIVEN RATINGS BYDIFFERENTAGENCIES,

INCLUDING THEGOVERNMENT,NATIONAL AND

INTERNATIONALBODIES AND MEDIA

ABOUT THEIRINFRASTRUCTURE,

PROCESSES ANDQUALITY OF

EDUCATION. THEFEEDBACK FOR

RESEARCHJOURNALS IS

OBTAINED BY THENUMBER OF

CITATIONS OFRESEARCHARTICLES

PUBLISHED INTHEM OVER A

STIPULATEDPERIOD. IN ALL

THIS, THE MOOTQUESTION IS HOW

FAR DOES THEFEEDBACK

MECHANISM SERVETHE PURPOSE OF

DELIVERY OFEDUCATION

SERVICES IN THEDESIRED

DIRECTION?

US President Donald Trump declared “the dawn of a new MiddleEast” in Washington recently as the United Arab Emirates(UAE) and Bahrain signed public agreements with Israel for

the first time. Not “peace agreements”, as President Trump claimed,since neither country has ever been at war with Israel. Just doc-uments involving an exchange of ambassadors, trade deals andthe like. And it was significant that while Trump and Israel’s PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu were there in person, the UAE andBahraini rulers just sent their foreign ministers for the signing ofthe papers. The only thing that actually happened at the White Housewas that two of the Gulf’s most progressive States went public ontheir ties with Israel, especially in the arms trade. This had previ-ously not been a secret, but at least their ties with Jerusalem hadbeen discreet. Apart from that, it’s still the same old Middle East,as corrupt, violent, dysfunctional and ironically as ambitious, glit-tering and fashionable as ever. The last time Israel fought an actu-al war against any of its Arab neighbours was in 1982, a full-scaleinvasion of Lebanon that ended in a prolonged Israeli military occu-pation of the southern part of the country. That’s long over now,although Lebanon remains a ghastly mess, but all the region’s otherwars trundle on uninterrupted. The second Libyan civil war con-tinues into its sixth year, with a cast of foreign participants and sup-porters that now includes Russia, Turkey, France, Egypt and theUAE. The atrocious foreign military intervention in Yemen, led bySaudi Arabia but involving most of the autocratic Arab States andtheir Western arms suppliers, is only one year younger and stillkilling around 5,000 a month.

The Syrian civil war is in its ninth year. It has killed at leasthalf a million people and driven almost half the population fromtheir homes. It may be creeping towards an end now, with onlyone province still in rebel hands, but the rebels have Turkish mil-itary support and the Russian air force fights for the Assad regime.

Iraq is enjoying only its second year of relative peace sincethe US invasion of 2003, but the signs are multiplying that IslamicState is going to launch a major comeback bid there. The collapseof the oil price has left much of the population destitute. Urban youthare in open revolt, with hundreds shot by the police this year. Andwhen something genuinely new does crop up in the endless churnthat distinguishes the region’s politics, it is often unwelcome. SaudiArabia, once the stable, conservative linchpin of inter-Arab poli-tics, has turned into a loose cannon, starting unwinnable wars (likeYemen), funnelling money and arms to jihadi extremists (in Syria),and commissioning the cold-blooded killing of critics of the regime(as in the murder and dismemberment of journalist JamalKhashoggi).

Overshadowing all these wars, and actually driving some ofthem, is the religious and strategic confrontation between revolu-tionary Shia Iran and the conservative Sunni monarchies and dic-tatorships of the eastern Arab world. That’s what those huge Arabarms purchases are for, not for fighting Israel. Indeed, Jerusalemis a silent partner in this region-wide Cold War between the SunniArab States and Iran; that’s what made the little ceremony at theWhite House possible. There is no Arab-Israeli conflict. The majorArab players are already undeclared Israeli allies, and the Israeliarmy refers to its sporadic punitive strikes against the Palestiniansas “mowing the lawn.”

Real change in this region happens with glacial slowness, ifat all, but that does not mean that it is stable. On the contrary, itcould tip suddenly into a radically different state. It almost did soin 2010-12, the years of the aborted ‘Arab spring’, and the forcesthat drove that uprising are even stronger now. Half the populationin Middle Eastern and North African countries is under 25. As pop-ulations have soared (Iraq’s has doubled to 40 million since thefirst Gulf War in 1990), economies have not kept pace and livingstandards have fallen almost everywhere. A huge, mostly joblessyoung population living close to despair is now the Arab norm.

The oil-rich Gulf States used to be the exception to this rule,but no longer. The oil-price crash this time is not temporary: Demandis falling and will continue to fall as the climate crisis and cheap-er new “clean energy” sources eat into oil’s traditional markets.The recent pantomime at the White House was about tidying upa few of the loose ends of an old conflict. It would have a certainrelevance if the future was going to be just more of the present,but that is not the case. The timing is uncertain but the destina-tion is clear: Big changes are coming that will sweep away manyof the existing regimes and reshape the politics of the region. Happyendings are not inevitable, but different endings are practically guar-anteed.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’)

In his book Blood and Rage, Britishhistorian Michael Burleigh writesthat as soon as Nazi Germany lost

World War-II in 1945, there was a con-centrated effort by the new GermanGovernment and polity to complete-ly erase the country’s Nazi past. OnMay 9, 1945, at 11.01 pm, the AlliedForces ceased their attacks on thealready destroyed Berlin and this, toGermans, came to be known as “StundeNull” or Hour Zero.

From this point in time, Germanywas to begin anew. Burleigh writes thatthis also meant a collective effort by“new Germany” to repress all memo-ry of anything that had to do with thedramatic rise of Nazism in Germany,the collective euphoria that had accom-panied its consolidation and the many

atrocities that Nazism had encouragedand justified as an ideology. Indeed,there were thousands of Germanswho had directly participated in themany physical and psychological actsof violence in the name of racial supe-riority. But millions of Germans whowere not necessarily members of theNazi party and its affiliates, had stoodaside, choosing to ignore increasingevidence of their State’s violent conductagainst those it believed were raciallyinferior or enemies of the “nationalbody.”

The German State and govern-ments that replaced the fallen Nazis,and German society as a whole, beganto vigorously exorcise memories relat-ed to Germany’s Nazi past. The Britishdocumentary filmmaker, Adam Curtis,in his 1995 documentary The LivingDead, demonstrates that this exorcismwas encouraged by the US and Britainonce Germany became an ally andrebounded as an economic power-house within a decade after the war.Because, even though a number of for-mer Nazis who had survived thedefeat were tried and executed or givenlong jail sentences, many, who were

bureaucrats and scientists, were even-tually allowed to integrate into the newGerman State and society to aid thecountry’s revival.

In the first few years afterGermany’s defeat, Nazism was rightlydemonised but, according to Curtis, thecause of its rise was never fully inves-tigated. The memory of it was thencompletely repressed. German profes-sors, teachers, politicians and parentssimply stopped talking about it, as ifthere was never a Nazi Germany.

According to both Burleigh andCurtis, an inconvenient past, whenrepressed without being fully under-stood, eventually re-emerges as anunresolved entity. In the late 1960s,German youth, who were born justbefore the war or immediately after-wards, began to question their leaders,teachers and parents, not only abouttheir country’s unspoken Nazi past butalso about their role in it. Violence soonfollowed as German youth outfitsaccused their elders and State of beingformer Nazis. This commotion didproduce some studies investigating thereasons behind the rise of a hateful ide-ology, and the support it had received

from millions of Germans. But accord-ing to Curtis, such efforts were ham-pered by the ideological tendencies andviolence of the youth, many of whobecame as myopic and totalitarian intheir acts and beliefs as the past thatthey were now raging against. By1977, the lid was once again placed onit.

It blew off again after the collapseof the Soviet Union and the subsequentend of the Cold War in 1991. The unre-solved, repressed fascist past, not onlyin Germany but in the rest of Europetoo, returned. A brutal civil warbetween ethnic groups in what wasonce Yugoslavia, and the rise of violentexpressions of ethno-nationalism inEurope and the former Soviet statesproved that the “victory of democrat-ic nations” during World War II did nottreat the conditions that triggerfascist/nationalist hatred and chauvin-ism. Instead, this victory had simplyplaced a lid on these conditions. Itkeeps blowing off. Dread and violencehas been spewing out from this holeever since.

As a student of history, I spentalmost a decade studying the silence

that one comes across Pakistan’s vari-ous segments of the intelligentsia,educational and cultural productsbetween 1971 and the early 1990s, onwhat is often referred to as the 1971“East Pakistan debacle.” In 2018, I wasable to further this study by accessingWashington DC’s Library of Congress,the largest library in the world. I wentthrough 177 newspapers, magazines,journals (both English and Urdu)published in Pakistan between 1972and 1992, plus 27 Urdu films releasedduring this period. After 1974, therewas almost no mention of the 1971 civilwar in the former East Pakistan whichhad dismembered the country. Articlesand editorials did emerge across 1972,but only a handful tried to explore thereasons behind the “debacle.”

An investigation was launched(The Humoodur Rahman InquiryCommission) by the Government,but its findings were never made pub-lic until 29 years later. Instead, andespecially from 1973 onwards, theemphasis was put on demonisingethno-nationalist politics and then onexplaining what remained of the coun-try as its “natural” state (along the River

Indus). There was then a systematiceffort to forgo a past before 1971, byfirst admonishing it for failing tomake Islam central to Pakistan’s nation-al body and then treating this past asan almost alien occurrence, whosememory had no place in the “newPakistan.”

There is hardly any mention of aregion that was once called EastPakistan in Pakistani films and TVplays made after 1972. By the mid-1980s, its memory and the memory ofa Pakistan before the “debacle” hadbeen successfully repressed. Even par-ents wouldn’t talk about it as such. Butit was an unresolved memory that keptre-emerging, sometimes violently, inthe shape of ethnic riots.

In the mid-1990s, some journal-ists began to once again speak of theHumoodur Rahman Report. I was asenior reporter and saw rookie journal-ists having no idea what that was.Finally, parts of the report began toemerge from 2000 onwards. In 2003,while watching a TV talk show on thereport, an elderly relative of mineexhibited a most painful expression andsighed, “what’s the use of talking

about this?” A painful memory thathad been repressed (but never resolved)had returned to haunt him. He was inEast Pakistan during the civil war as aGovernment employee.

Conditions that lead to painfulepisodes cannot be made to go awayby just repressing the memories of theepisodes. On a collective level, thesekeep coming back in various shapes,because the conditions that led to thepain were not treated. After watchingNazi atrocities, a Scottish psychiatrist,Donald Ewen Cameron, theorisedthat if “bad memories” could be wipedaway from a person’s mind, s/he canavoid mental illnesses and also theimpulse to commit atrocious acts.

Dr Cameron devised a method hecalled “psychic driving” that used acombination of electric shock therapyand powerful sleep-inducing drugs onmentally disturbed patients, to elimi-nate painful memories. He was large-ly successful. But what resulted wereindividuals with no memories, beyondbasic instincts. And some regressedinto a vegetative state. Not the ideallyblissful state to be in.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Face the bitter truth of the past, not bury itA repressed history that is not fully understood eventually re-emerges as an unresolved entity

NADEEM PARACHA

HYDERABAD| MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com analysis

HYDERABAD | MONDAY| SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Karnataka's industrialpolicy to push mobileproduction in state New Delhi: The new industrialpolicy of Karnataka is expectedto push mobile production invalue terms in the state to Rs30,000 crore and create 1.2lakh jobs by 2023, mobilehandset and electronics bodyICEA said on Sunday. InAugust, Karnataka announcedNIP 2020-25. The ICEA,whose members includeApple, Winstron, Lava, amongothers, said specific policyincentives such as productionlinked incentive of 1 per centof annual turnover during thepolicy period for five years is awelcome and bold step by thestate government."We areconfident that such initiativeswill help the ESDM sector togrow. Currently the state'sshare in the country is 1-1.5per cent (Rs 2,500 crore) ofmobile production, which isexpected to cross 7 per centor Rs 30,000 crore by 2023,"ICEA Chairman PankajMohindroo said.

India Inc's businesssentiment recoversin Jul-Sep: SurveyNew Delhi: India Inc'sbusiness sentiment hasimproved during July-September quarter as thegovernment gradually unlockedthe economy and businessactivity resumed, according tothe CII's business outlooksurvey.The latest CII BusinessConfidence Index has surged tothe level of 50.3 in July-September 2020, bouncingback from its lowest reading of41.0 recorded in April-June2020, the industry chambersaid in a statement. "The stellarrecovery in the index has beensupported by the remarkableincrease in the EI, which rose46 per cent quarter-on-quarter,to the level of 55.2, aslockdown restrictions werelifted and businesses graduallybegan to reopen during theJuly-September quarter," itadded. CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said whilea recovery is underway, it couldbe expedited through continuedgovernment support andhandholding of businessesduring this crisis. The surveywas conducted during August-September 2020 and sawparticipation of over 150 firmsacross different sectors.

5 pc import duty onopen cell used inTV manufacturing

New Delhi: A 5 per centcustoms duty will bereimposed on the import ofopen cell for TVs from October1 following the end of oneyear exemption period, afinance ministry source said. The government had last year

exempted customs duty onopen cell, a kep component ofTV, for a year till September30 as the domestic industryhad sought time to buildcapacity. With the exemptioncoming to an end, 5 per centduty would be reimposed onopen cell from October 1, asource said. The sourcefurther said that this move iselemental to the PMP oftelevision and its componentsto bring the industry out ofmere television assemblingwhile being totally dependenton imports for all its parts."Manufacturing in India cannotsurvive on support of importforever," the source said. Tilllast year televisions worth Rs7,000 crore were beingimported. The government hassupported the televisionindustry through custom dutystructure. A customs duty of20 per cent has been imposedon imports of television sinceDecember 2017.

Covid provides opportunity toIndia, Japan to strengthen tiesPNS n NEW DELHI

The COVID-19 pandemic hasprovided a unique opportuni-ty to both India and Japan tofurther strengthen economicties by enhancing cooperationin areas like software develop-ment, modern technology,infrastructure and manufactur-ing, according to a report.

The report, prepared byShardul AmarchandMangaldas and FICCI, alsosaid that Japan has alwaystreated India as a preferredpartner in terms of economics,trade and commerce.

COVID-19 pandemic hasprovided great opportunitiesfor the two nations and itsbusinesses to join hands andforge a new alliance in termsof harvesting the fruits ofdemographic dividend thatIndia provides, and push Indiatowards becoming a majorglobal manufacturing hubamidst the changing econom-ic atmosphere," it said.

The Japanese business com-munity is upbeat about its

investments and ventures inIndia, it said adding Japan con-tinues to be the fourth largestinvestor in India.

It suggested that policyreforms are required in Indiato bring in greater synergiesand reap the benefits of the de-risking activities being under-taken by Japanese companiesto move their supply chainsout of China to countries likeIndia, Vietnam, Thailand,Indonesia, Malaysia andMyanmar.

Shardul S Shroff, ExecutiveChairman and NationalPractice Head - Insolvency

and Bankruptcy, ShardulAmarchand Mangaldas & Co,said, "We need to look at thepandemic as an opportunity tobring India and Japan's eco-nomic relationship closer".

He said that the Indianeconomy holds the potential tobounce back quickly on theback of a slew of fiscal and eco-nomic measures undertakenby the government such asreduction in corporate taxrates, further reforms in theGST regime, revamping labourlaws, taking measures toensure ease of doing business,to attract foreign investment.

While the Indian govern-ment has taken plethora ofmeasures and policy decisionsto make India an investorfriendly destination for theJapanese business community,a lot more needs to be done tomeet the new challenges posedby the pandemic and to har-vest the investor sentimentslooking for safe investmentdestinations," he added.

Rudra Kumar Pandey,Partner, Shardul AmarchandMangaldas & Co said that thetechnological and economicprowess of Japan coupled withIndia's strengths in manufac-turing, skilled workforce andits large domestic markets willfurther strengthen the rela-tionship between India andJapan.

The report recommendedcertain steps such as simplifi-cation of the form to incorpo-rate a new company andappoint directors, ensuringeasy customs clearance proce-dures, and immediate refundsof GST credit related toexports.

Trump backs TikTok dealinvolving Oracle and WalmartPNS n WASHINGTON/BEIJING

US President Donald Trumphas announced a proposeddeal on TikTok involving twoAmerican companies - Oracleand Walmart – that wouldallow the US operations of theChinese video sharing applica-tion, which was placed on aban list due to security con-cerns.

The deal mandates the cre-ation of a new American com-pany -- incorporated in Texas-- and the prospect of 25,000new jobs. Further, TikTok willgive USD 5 billion to fund theeducation of American youths.

The US on Friday issuedorders to ban popular Chinesesocial media apps - TikTokand WeChat - from Sunday tosafeguard national security.The ban on downloadingTikTok, originally scheduledto take effect on Sunday, waspostponed to September 27,according to the USDepartment of Commerce.

Last month, PresidentTrump signed an executiveorder to ban TikTok andWeChat by September 15unless the ownership of thetwo Chinese companies

changed to American."TikTok is moving along.

We're dealing with Oracle,which you know of, in combi-nation with Walmart, anoth-er great American company.The security will be 100 percent. They'll be using separateclouds (data) and a lot ofvery, very powerful security,"Trump told reporters at theWhite House on Saturday.

"They'll (TikTok) be makingabout a USD 5 billion contri-bution towards education.We're going to be setting up avery large fund for the educa-tion of American youths, andthat will be great. I've beenasking for this (educationfund)," Trump said.

"They'll be hiring at least25,000 people. It will mostlikely be incorporated inTexas. It'll be a brand newcompany. It will have nothingto do with any outside land,any outside country. It willhave nothing to do withChina. It will be totally secure,"Trump said.

"I think it's going to be afantastic deal. The technologyis superior to anything in theworld, and we like that. Again,a lot of jobs, a lot of money forour country. Billions of dollarsof taxes will be paid every year.Hundreds of millions of users,and they'l l be happy.Everybody will be happy," hesaid.

Global trends, F&O expiryto move stocks this weekPNS n NEW DELHI

With no major macroeconom-ic domestic data to beannounced this week, globaltrends, geo-political worriesand F&O expiry on Thursdayare likely to move stock mar-kets this week, analysts said.

Markets may witness volatil-ity amid derivatives expiry onThursday, they said.

Benchmark index Sensexpared gains to close almost flatlast week as the US FederalReserve's guidance triggered arout in global equities.The USFed did not unveil any addi-tional stimulus measures at itspolicy meet, even though ithinted at the key interest ratestaying close to zero at leastthrough 2023.

Federal Reserve ChairmanJerome Powell also said theeconomic outlook is "highlyuncertain", stoking fears ofmore pain in store for busi-nesses.

"Markets have been tradingwith uncertainty and the clearlack of direction to either sidewas visible in the last week'strades. Due to lack of any freshtriggers for the market, the

current uncertainty is expect-ed to continue. But any newswith regards to the bordertension with China, or globalevents can impact the marketson the downside," said VinodNair, Head of Research atGeojit Financial Services.

Investors would also close-ly monitor domestic and glob-al coronavirus cases.

Going forward, marketwould continue with its cau-tiousness with positive bias asinvestors would keep a closeeye on the US and its responseto the further stimulus demandto deal with the pandemic.Some of the other key data thatwould be released this weekwould be PMI for the US, theUK, Eurozone. On the domes-

tic front, investors would trackdevelopments around India-China border issues,"Siddhartha Khemka, Head -Retail Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services Ltd said.

Sumeet Bagadia, ExecutiveDirector, Choice Broking saidthat factors such as key glob-al economic data, geopoliticalnews and development relatedto vaccines will continue togovern the market.

Other important drivers formarkets like trend in Brentcrude oil and the rupee wouldalso be tracked by investors.

During the last week, theSensex dropped 8.73 points or0.02 per cent, while the Niftyadvanced 40.50 points or 0.35per cent.

Thermal, cokingcoal imports dip PNS n NEW DELHI

Hit by coronavirus-relateddisruptions, both thermal andcoking coal imports at India's12 major ports dipped 27.93per cent to 45.77 milliontonnes (MT) in April-August2020 over the same period ayear ago, according to theapex ports' body IPA.

Thermal coal importsdropped 25.42 per cent to28.93 MT and coking coalshipments fell 31.87 per centto 16.84 MT during this peri-od.

Coal volumes at these 12major ports under the controlof the Centre declined for thefifth straight month in August2020, as per the Indian PortsAssociation (IPA).

These ports had handled38.79 MT of thermal coal and24.72 MT of coking coal in theApril-August period of theprevious financial year.

The IPA, which maintainscargo data handled by theseports, in its latest report said"percentage variation fromthe previous year" in thermalcoal and coking coal han-dling was 25.42 per cent and

31.87 per cent, respectively.Together, thermal and cok-

ing coal handling saw a declineof 30.83 per cent at theseports in the April-July periodat 36.7 MT.

Thermal coal is the main-stay of India's energy pro-gramme as 70 per cent ofpower generation is dependenton the dry fuel, while cokingcoal is used mainly for steelmaking.

India is the third-largestproducer of coal after Chinaand the US, and has 299 bil-lion tonnes of resources and123 billion tonnes of provenreserves, which may last forover 100 years.

In the wake of the Covidoutbreak, sharp declines werealso witnessed in handling ofcontainers, coal and POL(petroleum, oil and lubricant)among other commodities.

Over Rs 70K cr loanssanctioned to discomsPNS n NEW DELHI

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Asmuch as Rs 70,590 crore worthof credit has been sanctionedto discoms under the liquidi-ty package for payment of duesby these utilities, Parliamentwas informed on Sunday.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in May this yearhad announced a Rs 90,000crore liquidity infusion intocash-strapped discoms forclearing their outstanding duestill March 2020.

Now, the government is inthe process of enhancing thispackage to Rs 1.2 lakh crorefactoring in discoms outstand-ing dues till June this year.Some states had urged the cen-tral government to hike thisliquidity package by factoringin outstanding dues of Apriland May as well.

"As against Rs 90,000 croreof liquidity infusion packageannounced by the govern-ment, Rs 70,590 crore worth ofloans have been sanctionedand Rs 24,742 crore hasalready been disbursed/released till September 16, 2020,"said Power Minister R K Singh

in a written reply in the RajyaSabha.

The government is infusingliquidity in the power sectorthrough PowerFinanceCorporation (PFC) and RECLtd to enable the sector tomaintain power supplies ascash flows had plummetedduring lockdown imposed tocontain the spread of COVID-19.

Under this intervention, theREC and PFC are extendingspecial long term transitionloans of up to 10 years to dis-coms for liquidating their out-standing dues of CentralPublic Sector Undertaking(CPSU) Generation (Genco)& Transmission Companies(Transcos), IndependentPower Producers (IPPs) andRenewable Energy (RE) gen-erators. In separate reply to theHouse, the minister statedthat power demand wouldincrease from 1,399.91 bil-lion units (BU) in 2019-20 to2,047.43 BU in 2026-27.

He also told the House thatthe peak power demandwould increase to 298.77GWin 2026-27 from 200.69GW in2019-20.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Honda Motorcycle and ScooterIndia (HMSI) has supportedcalls from various industryquarters for reduction in GSTon two-wheelers, saying themove would act as a 'tailwind'for reviving the sector whichhas been facing challengingbusiness environment.

In an interview to PTI, asenior official of the Japanesetwo-wheeler major said thesector has been currently fac-ing various headwinds due toeconomic slowdown that hashampered the growth of thesector.

We are also confident thatany such move that willincrease affordability for thebuyer and which adds to theirsavings, why not (bring it),"

HMSI Director Sales andMarketing Yadvinder SinghGuleria said.

He was replying to a querywhether the reduction in GSTon two-wheeler segmentwould be helpful in revivingthe sector.

It will definitely help and actas a tailwind for the industry

against what we are seeingtoday, the headwinds frommultiple sides," Guleria noted.

Elaborating on the situation,he said that people want to pre-serve cash these days due toeconomic slowdown relateduncertainties.

Despite that people are stillwilling to take personal mobil-

ity options due to COVID-19situation and in that case it willhelp if affordability of owninga two-wheeler improves,Guleria said.

The two-wheeler industryhas been demanding for longreduction in GST on two -wheelers from 28 per cent to 18cent. They argue that a two-wheeler is basic necessity fortransportation of millions ofmedium income group house-holds in the country.

Last month, even FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamancontended that the segmentmerits a GST rate revision.

When asked about start ofproduction from newly con-structed assembly line inGujarat-based facility, Guleriasaid the infrastructure is readybut units won't roll out soon.

GST reduction will act as tailwindfor two-wheeler industry: HMSI

PSBs report frauds worthRs 19k cr in Apr-Jun: RBIPNS n NEW DELHI

Public sector banks (PSBs)reported frauds worth overRs 19,964 crore in total 2,867cases during the April-Junequarter of the ongoing fiscalyear, according to a reply toan RTI query.

The country's largest lenderState Bank of India (SBI) sawthe highest number of fraudcases; however, Bank of Indiawas the worst hit in terms ofvalue, as per a reply from theReserve Bank on fraudsreported by these lenders toRTI activist Chandra ShekharGaur. Of the 12 PSBs, SBIreported the maximum 2,050fraud cases involving Rs2,325.88 crore during April-June 2020.

Bank of India took the

biggest hit in terms of valua-tion at Rs 5,124.87 crore in 47cases, followed by Canara BankRs 3,885.26 crore in 33 cases,Bank of Baroda Rs 2,842.94crore in 60 cases, Indian BankRs 1,469.79 crore in 45 cases,Indian Overseas Bank Rs1,207.65 crore in 37 cases andBank of Maharashtra Rs1,140.37 crore in 9 cases.

As compared to these, thesecond largest public sector

lender PNB reported much lessamount of fraud at Rs 270.65crore, even as the number ofcases stood at 240. Among oth-ers, UCO Bank had Rs 831.35crore as fraud reporting in 130cases, Central Bank of India Rs655.84 crore in 149 cases,Punjab and Sind Bank Rs163.3 crore in 18 cases andUnion Bank of India reportedthe lowest amount of fraud atRs 46.52 crore in 49 cases.

Stock trading via mobiles grow during lockdownPNS n NEW DELHI

As more and more retailinvestors flocked to equitymarkets, trading in stocksthrough mobile phones surgedduring the coronavirus-induced lockdown, brokeragehouses said.

Going forward, the trend oftrading via smartphones isgoing to further pick up asmobile medium enables cus-tomers to have real-time accessto key developments related totrading and investments, theyadded.

The lockdown witnessed aremarkable shift in tradingactivity from desktop to mobiledevices, as the need for ease-of-convenience increased when

multi-tasking at home,"FYERS CEO and co-founderTejas Khoday said.

The growing demand formobile-based trading is major-ly among millenials, who arealso first-time investors, headded.

Jaideep Arora, CEO ofSharekhan by BNP Paribas,said there has been a visible

increase in usage of mobile appfor trading.

Online trading activity hasseen a 47 per cent increase innumber of customers duringJanuary-July 2020 as com-pared with the year-ago peri-od. There has been a 91 percent jump in the number oforders placed via theSharekhan app, he added.

Ravi Kumar, co-founderand CEO, Upstox said moderntechnology has made mobileapps extremely intuitive anduser-friendly, driving the surgein mobile trading.

From analysing market toviewing charts and placingtrades, everything can be donewith a few taps on a smart-phone, making it easier totrade on the go, he added.

Currently, over 85 per centof Upstox customers carryout daily trades on smart-phones.

Around 75 per cent of itscustomer base, amounting tomore than 1.6 million peopleas of August 2020, is in the18–35 age group, which isextremely tech-savvy, he said.

In April-August period, 83per cent of orders placedthrough Upstox mobile appwere from tier-2 and tier-3cities like Nashik, Surat,Nagpur, Kolhapur, Ernakulam,Malappuram, and Jaipur.

Prakarsh Gagdani, CEO of5paisa.com, said, "We alwayshave been a mobile first com-pany and have 70-75 per centof our turnover throughmobile."

"We see this trend onlyincreasing going forward, aspeople have become highlyadaptable to evolving techno-logical advancements andwould want to make the mostof affordable data plans, con-venience and ease that mobiletrading offers," he added.

Dues of 4 airlines to AAI doubled PNS n NEW DELHI

Dues of four major domesticairlines -- IndiGo, SpiceJet,GoAir and AirAsia India -- tothe Airports Authority of India(AAI) have more than doubledbetween February and Julyamid the coronavirus pan-demic, senior officials said.

The national carrier's duesto the AAI increased by 2.75per cent to Rs 2,258.27 crorein this period, the officialsnoted.

An airline has to pay vari-ous charges like air navigation,landing, parking etc to theAAI to use facilities at any of

its more than 100 airports.Both Air India and the AAIwork under the Civil AviationMinistry.

India has six major domes-tic carriers, IndiGo, SpiceJet,GoAir, AirAsia India, AirIndia and Vistara, which owedto the AAI a total of Rs2562.04 crore as on August 1and this was around 10 percent more than on February 1,the officials told PTI.

They said India's largestairline IndiGo's dues stood at41.62 crore on February 1,which increased by 130.6 percent to Rs 95.99 crore in thesubsequent six-month period.

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MondaySeptember 21, 2020

‘Online trolling is a part & parcel of social media'

or a celebrity, it’snot uncommonto receive fancalls and mes-sages, which canbe quick to spam.

Southern star SamanthaAkkineni says that over

the years, she hasstopped speaking

over phone due tounwanted calls,

and even herfriends and fam-ily have to mes-sage her. “I’mnot comfort-able withpicking upcalls becauseevery secondor third call

is somebody I don’t know,who has my number, whoshouldn’t,” she told IANSlife.

“Even for the food deliv-ery agents, if you want yourfood delivered and if youdon’t want to go hungrythat night, you have to giveyour phone number. And I got so many calls, after my food was delivered, Igot follow-up calls like ‘are you really Samantha? Isthis Samantha’s number?’Then the next day sevenothers call because hewould have shared thenumber with his friends,

because its fun to talkabout. So it spreads and Ican’t even count the num-ber of times I had to changemy phone number becauseof this. But, then again whatoption do you have?” theTelugu and Tamil starshared in a video interview.

Samantha reveals that sherecently activated herDoosra number, which is a10-digit, SIM-free mobilenumber, which users canshare at any place wherethey are compelled to sharetheir personal mobile num-ber including on digitalplatforms. All incomingcalls to the Doosra numberare either automaticallyblocked or sent to voicemailor let through dependingon the User’s settings andpreferences on Doosra app.All the incoming messagesare silently placed in theMessages folder on the appand can be reviewed atleisure. This helps usersprotect their number fromendless spam calls and mes-sages, continuous attemptsof scam, phishing, fraud,non-stop harassment bystrangers, and constant vio-lation of privacy by brands.

“This is something that isneeded for the hour. Withour numbers going every-

where, our personal infor-mation goes everywhere, itthankfully now one feelsthat you are protected andwhoever you want to giveyour number to i.e. yourfriends and your family, arethe only ones to have accessto you.”

She ties it to feeling saferand secure as a woman.“Suddenly, you feel a lotmore protected as awoman.”

Samantha added, “some-times I get messages on myphone saying someone istrying to type your pass-word. It’s all because mynumber is out there, it’sexposed. My number isconnected to all my socialmedia accounts. And Iremember this time where Igot this message just beforeI was taking off in a flightand the flight was like threehours and for those threehours I was petrifiedbecause I didn’t have thetime to go and change thepassword or tell my agentor do anything. I was thereand I had to switch off thephone and I was thinkingwhat photos are going to goout, what are they going todo with my account? That’sall I was thinking about forthree hours and that’s nerve

wrecking.”The actress also crosses

12 million followers onInstagram this week. This iswhat she has to say aboutonline trolling, “There aregods and then there aredemons. It’s a part and par-cel of social media. Theyneed somebody to love andthey need someone to hate.”

Doosra Founder andCEO, Aditya Vuchi, sharedwhat prompted the idea tocome into being. “I went toa sporting goods store,bought my products, wentto the billing counter andsaid that I’d like to pay withmy credit card or cash.They said we need yourmobile number. I was like,why do you need mymobile number? I am buy-ing a product and I am giv-ing you the money. Thetransaction has ended. Butno, they said unless we haveyour mobile number, wecannot generate a bill. Ithought, this is not the wayit needs to be.”

Doosra is a virtualmobile number that can beshared anywhere and withanyone, instead of a person-al mobile number to avoidspam, unknown callers, cir-culation, and theft of per-sonal information.

Fame that comes with responsibility

orn in a modesthousehold, Madanwas raised inhumble circum-stances for themost part of his

life. It was the infamousSwathi Murder Case thatmade him raise a voice andturn to YouTube fulltime afew years back. Madan recallshaving heard the case aboutan Infosys employee beingmurdered in broad daylightand recollects the uneasinesshe felt on hearing the newsand being unable to respondin any way while he pursuedhis education in the U.S. Hisemotional video on the samegarnered over 50K+ viewswithin just 24 hours ofrelease. Soon after he gradu-ated, Madan knew exactlywhat he needed to do. Hedeclined a job offer there andcame back for the love of hismotherland.

On being asked how hemakes salient use of theYouTube platform, he says, “I make videos on issues thatusually tend to be disregard-ed. The recent intimidationby the police leading to thecustodial killings of Jayarajand Bennix forced me tomake a video, despite know-ing that it won’t fetch me anymonetary gains. What mat-tered to me the most wasdrawing people’s attention to it.”

Bearing the brunt ofredundancy during the lock-down, Madan believes loca-tions aren’t a big problem forcontent creation, and thatyou can still make the mostviral videos in the comfort ofyour drawing room. On morepeople turning to YouTubefor entertainment, to stayinformed, and to guide themthrough lifestyle changes andnavigate through this

unprecedented situation,Madan says, “As creators, wehave the opportunity to cre-ate new content and meetthis demand. We can help byusing our platforms to sharehelpful information in ourown niches — we can alsobuild an audience for thefuture, even if revenue isdown now. Being a sensationis quite different from beinga successful YouTuber. Everyentertainer dreams of becom-ing a viral sensation nowa-days but competing with themillions of other videos onthe ever-growing behemoththat is YouTube is the chal-lenge.”

Roasting is back in thenews! The format made pop-ular by the TV channelComedy Central was madefamous in India by AIB’sKnockout roast. In this for-mat, performers and audi-ences are temporarily allowed

to be cheeky. When askedabout this trending roast cul-ture on YouTube, theYouTube sensation shares, “I have friends on YouTubewho can roast someone with-out getting personal orunpleasant. I also know ofpeople who are cyberbullieshiding under the word called“roast”. The onus lies on acreator now and audiencesare the best judges.”

Madan recalls having failedto upload a video one partic-ular day and receiving com-ments from his audienceabout them missing his voice.Ever since, there has hardlybeen a day where he missedout on uploading a video. Heis now known to be single-handedly producing qualitycontent on his channel andstrongly insists on the contri-bution of his viewers inimproving his content overthe years.

Madan Gowri, a well-knownhousehold name in the South, is a

YouTuber with over 3.6 millionsubscribers and most viral videos

to his credit on YouTube. Withmore than 550 million views on

his channel, Madan's ability to winthe audience with his flair for

explaining complex subjects insimpler ways has gained him astrong following. Madan, who

makes videos on topics that rangefrom current trends in science,

philosophy, politics, humanitarianissues history, opens up with The

Pioneer's SHIKHA DUGGALabout his journey, handling fame,and the trending YouTube culture,

and more

B

OTTs line up interesting shows for festive season and beyond

rom epic come-backs to newthrilling journeysto flashback intoreal life inci-dents, streaming

services are all set to addnew chapters to their con-tent library as the festiveseason comes up and cine-ma halls continue to remainshut.

Amid the ongoing Covidcrisis, people are opting toget their dose of entertain-ment from the OTTs, mak-ing the platforms go theextra mile to keep pace withthe never-ending demand.

We lists few showsthat should create thebuzz:

MIRZAPUR 2

It’s finally time for thesecond season to unfold.Starring Pankaj Tripathi, AliFazal, Rasika Duggal andShweta Tripathi, the secondseason is expected to bemore bloodsoaked andvengeful. It will be interest-ing to see how the storyunfolds after the death ofVikrant Massey’s character,Bablu. The show drops onAmazon Prime Video,October 23.

CRACKDOWN

The espionage thrillermarks the digital debut ofdirector Apoorva Lakhiaand features Saqib Saleem,Iqbal Khan, ShriyaPilgaonkar, Waluscha DeSousa, Rajesh Tailang andAnkur Bhatia. The show isabout a covert operationswing that investigatessmaller decoys to expose agrand conspiracy thatthreatens national security.The series will premiere onVoot Select, September 23.

THE FAMILY MAN 2

Manoj Bajpayee returnsin the second chapter, andjoining the cast this time issouthern star SamanthaAkkineni. While Bajpayeeimpressed with his role inseason one of the show,Samantha grabbed attentionwith her role in the digital-ly-released Tamil film SuperDeluxe. Season two of The Family Man streams on

Amazon Prime Video,the release date is yetto be officiallyannounced.

TANDAV

Saif made an impressiveOTT debut with SacredGames. He now returns tothe medium in Tiger ZindaHai director Ali AbbasZafar’s show Tandav, whichis about the dark edges ofIndian politics. The showalso stars Sunil Grover,Mohammad Zeeshan Ayuband Sarah Jane Dias. It willstream on Amazon PrimeVideo, release date yet to beannounced.

SCAM 1992 THE HAR-SHAD MEHTA STORY

Filmmaker HansalMehta’s series will tell thestory of one of the biggestfinancial scams in theIndian stock market. Thefinancial thriller is based onDebashis Basu and SuchetaDalal’s book The Scam. Itdrops on SonyLiv and theofficial release date is yet tobe confirmed.

A SUITABLE BOY

Mira Nair’s screen adap-tation of the Vikram Sethnovel A Suitable Boy fea-tures Tabu, Ishaan Khatterand newcomer TanyaManiktala. It is a story oftwo young lovers who dareto break tradition andstereotypes in newly inde-pendent India. The limitedseries has already wonapplauds upon its interna-tional release on BBC One.For Indian viewers, it willstream on Netflix soon.Date yet to be confirmed.

BOMBAY BEGUMS

Bombay Begums followsthe journey of five womenin contemporary urbanIndia, who wrestle withdesire, ethics, personalcrises and vulnerabilitiesand ambition. Directed byAlankrita Shrivastava and

Bornila Chatterjee,it stars Pooja Bhatt,Shahana Goswami,Amruta Subhash,Plabita Borthakur,and Aadhya Anand.

To be released on Netflix,the date is yet to be con-firmed.

MUMBAI DIARIES26/11

The series, starringKonkona Sensharma andMohit Raina, is expected tobe a fictionalised account ofthe terror attack that tookplace at Cama Hospital,among other venues, onNovember 26, 2008.Directed by Nikkhil Advani,it will stream on AmazonPrime Video. Date yet to beconfirmed.

GORMINT

The political satire fea-tures Amol Palekar andManav Kaul with ShikhaTalsania and GirishKulkarni. Plot details andrelease date announcementof the Amazon Prime showare awaited.

F

Theactressspeaks

about fakecalls,

activatingher Doosranumber, a

10-digit,SIM-free

mobilenumber,dealing

withonline

trolls andmore...

F

10

Hyderabad Monday September 21 2020 what’s brewing?

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

NUSHKA

SHARMA

Actress and mum-to-be Anushkashared the impor-

tance of dental hygiene onInstagram. The actress-produc-er spotlighted the necessity ofregularly practicing the ancientAyurvedic method of oilpulling. She shared a string ofpictures on Instagram whereshe is seen performing the“morning ritual”.

“My morning ritual of Oilpulling in the company of mysweet-smoosh-doggo Dude!Oil pulling is an ancientAyurvedic practice known as‘kavala’ or ‘gundusha’, a dentaltechnique that involves swish-ing little oil in your mouth onan empty stomach for few min-utes and then spitting it out.This action is excellent for den-tal hygiene and health and alsodraws out toxins in the body.As we are all using this time totake better care of our healthand improve our immunity Ithought of sharing this.Hopefully, it will be as benefi-cial to you too,” she wrote.

RAVEENA TANDON

Raveena shared the ancientremedies to prevent hairfall.She shared a video onInstagram, where she talkedabout the benefits of “amla” orgooseberries.

In the video, she said inHindi, “Stress and chemicals inwater are a reason for hairfall”,adding, “There’s no better solu-tion for hair fall than amla.”

For thin or falling hair, shesuggests eating a couple ofamlas everyday. She also sharedthe recipe of creating a hairmask to control hairfall.

She captioned the video,“#itsawednesday! Bringing toyou the ancient remedy tostrengthen your hair and pre-vent hair fall! Do try this!#beautytalkieswithravz.”

BHUMI PEDNEKAR

Bhumi treated her followers

with a tutorial on how she doesher make-up. In the video, theactress gave a step-by-stepdemonstartion on how to putmake-up on.

“Just for fun!” she captionedher effort.

MALAIKA ARORA

Dancing diva Malaika Aroraposted a video talking aboutthe benefits of aloe vera, andshared that she uses it on her-self because she has sensitiveskin.

Alongside the video,Malaika wrote, “Skin issue issomething that almost every-one in the world resonateswith irrespective of their ageor gender. Some have dryskin, some have oily, somehave acne prone skin andsome have extremely sensitiveskin like I do. I have to beextremely careful of what Iput in my skin cos any wrongproduct can do more damagethan benefit.”

Malaika said she swears byfresh aloe vera gel. “A naturalingredient that I swear by formy skin is fresh Aloe vera gelright from my very own homegarden. Fresh Aloe vera agreeswith most of the skin types soanyone can try it. Just cut onepiece, slice it open and scoopup the gooey goodness fromwithin and apply it evenly onur face like a cooling mask.Rinse it with cold water aftersometime and voila! Your skinwill feel fresh and smooth allday long.”

KIRTI KULHARI

Kirti shared that having nat-ural juices is her secret of ener-gy. She posted a picture drink-ing a glass of vegetable juice.

Alongside the image, shewrote, “Juice is the secret of myenergy... I love juices... This is amixed vegetable juice...Contains lauki, beetroot, palak,pudina, adrak, tomatoes,cucumber, nimbu and somesendha namak (salt) prettymuch my whole fridge con-tents.”

The Covid-19lockdown hashelped manyexplore skillsbeyond what

they usually do.While most have

been cooking,baking, kitchen

gardening andeven cutting

hair, someBollywood

actresses turnedbeauty experts

for fans, withskin and haircare

solutions andmake-up

tutorials onsocial media.

Here are a fewof the Bollywood

celeb set, whoshared their tips

and tricks tolook good

without stepping out.

A

B-TOWN STARS WHO TURNEDLOCKDOWN BEAUTY EXPERTS

he Pioneer hasearlier reportedthat Karthikeyawill be teamingup with anotherdebutant director

Sri Saripalli for a gritty real-istic drama with commer-cial bells and whistles. Tothis end, the latest is thatthe project, produced byRamareddy, was announcedofficially on Sunday to coin-cide with Karthikeya’s 28thbirthday today. Tamilactress Tanya Ravichandran,who is the granddaughter ofMalaysian Tamil actorRavichandran, will be mak-ing her Telugu debut withthe flick. She was seen inVijay Sethupathi-starrerflick Karuppan (2017).

Sri stated that Karthikeyawill be seen as an NIA offi-cer and that he approved thestory after the first narrationitself. While he didn'tdivulge more details, a sig-nificant part of the film wasshot before the lockdownwas first enforced.

The likes of TanikellaBharani, SudhakarKomakula, Pasupathi andHarsh Vardhan will be seenin supporting roles in theuntitled film, a PrashanthVihari musical.

Release-wise though,Karthikeya’s other film with

GA2 Pictures,ChaavuKaburuChallagawill takeprece-dence.Theactordes-peratelyneeds a hit to getback into win-ning ways, as hissubsequent soloventures,Hippi and 90ML, afterRX100,crash-landed attheturn-

he COVIDpandemicthrew aspanner inthe works ofproducer Dil

Raju who wanted toslot Power star PawanKalyan’s comeback filmVakeel Saab, a remakeof Hindi hit Pink, as asummer release, a sea-son which the actorfavoured for long in hiscareer. The film’s shootwas progressingsmoothly when thelockdown forced theunit to take a break,which has now extend-ed into sixth months.With Tollywood gettingback on its feet slowly,we’ve understood thatRaju has asked the crewto get on with theshooting.

Contrary to somereports, the film is notresuming onWednesday. A sourcesays the unit will swingback into action fromtoday in Hyderabad.Safety has been givenutmost preference andas is the case withmost Telugu filmswhich have resumed inthe last 20 days, theproduction house istesting everyone beforethey proceed with theshoot. “Director Venu

Sreeram is resumingthe shoot by filmingportions that don’tinvolve the lead cast,including that ofPawan Kalyan. NivethaThomas, Anjali andAnanya will join theongoing schedule asthe week progresses,while Pawan’s return isexpected a little late-mostly after he com-pletes his Chaturmasyavrata deeksha. Thefilm will be wrapped inanother 28-30 workingdays,” adds the source.

In the courtroomdrama set inHyderabad, Pawan willbe seen as an eccentriclawyer who defendsthree women fromtrumped-up charges ofassault and prostitu-tion, while using hislegal acumen to makea larger commentabout consent and vio-lence. The women arepaying the price forcomplaining against acrime of sexual assaultcommitted by an influ-ential and entitledyoung man and hisfriends. The Teluguremake, a joint pro-duction venturebetween Raju andBoney Kapoor, hasmusical notes byThaman.

11

Hyderabad Monday September 21 2020tollywood

IT’S COURT TIME FOR

VAKEEL SAABAfter a six-month hiatus,

director Venu Sreeramwill be recommencingfilming on the highly-

anticipated Vakeel Saab,toplined by Pawan

Kalyan, from today, findsNAGARAJ GOUD

T

Tamil actress TanyaRavichandran cast

opposite Karthikeya

Tctress-film-makerRenu Desaiis set todon thegreasepaint

again. After her pro-posed project, abiopic on notoriousthief of Stuartpuram,Tiger Nageswara Raowith Dongata directorVamsi Krishna —where she was to playHemalatha Lavanam,a social reformer anda writer who protest-ed against untoucha-bility and the castesystem-failed to takeoff due to reasonsbest guarded, theactress is now goingwith the trend, as shehas green-lit a webseries.

Directed by MRKirhsna Mamidala,the project, a jointproduction venturebetween DS Rao andRajanikanth S underSai KrishnaProductions, will seeRenu playing a deter-mined woman who isin search of the truth.“And back to being infront of the cam-era…Super happy andexcited to announcethat I have signed abeautiful web series toact in and we willbegin shooting nextmonth. I will postmore details about itin a few days (sic),”she wrote on herInstagram page onSunday, adding thatshe is “super excited”to be in front of thecamera again.

Interestingly, Renulast week met GoretiVenkanna for thelyrics of her directori-al project on farmers.It remains to be seenwhether it took abackset for her actinggig.

A

RENUset forheractingcome-back

bserving hisgrandfatherAkkineniNageswaraRao’s 97th birth anniver-

sary on Sunday, actorSushanth revealed that hewill be resuming work onIchhata VahanamuluNilaparadu, directed bydebutant S Darshan, fromnext week. “March is longgone and September ishere.. Switch gears &roll!!! #IVNR #NoParking(sic),” the actor wrote onTwitter.

A concept-driventhriller, the film, launchedin January-end earlier this year, was close to 80 percent wrapped upwhen the filming was suspended due toCOVID-19 outbreak.Femina Miss India 20181st runner up, MeenakshiChaudhary is making herTelugu debut with thefilm, a joint productionventure between RaviShankar Shastri, EktaShastri and actor Harish

Koyalagundla.Darshan earlier said

the story is inspired froma real incident which happened to his friend in Chennai in 2010 andthat he was a part of it aswell. “I was compelled tomake it into a full-fledgedscript in 2013,” the direc-tor, who assistedSreenivass Redde in thepast, had said.

Venkat, VennelaKishore, Priyadarshi,Abhinav Gomatam, RaviVarma, Aishwarya andKrishna Chaitanya areplaying supporting rolesin the film, a PraveenLakkaraju musical.

SUSHANTHBACK TO WORK

O

FEMINA MISS INDIA2018 1ST RUNNERUP, MEENAKSHICHAUDHARY ISMAKING HERTELUGU DEBUTWITH THE FILM

Talluri to releaseBogan in Telugu

017 Tamilsuper hitBogan,whichstarredJayam Ravi,

Arvind Swamy andHansika Motwani, isgetting dubbed intoTelugu. Made on amodest budget, the

original went on tomint more than Rs 25crore at the Tamil boxoffice. Ram Talluri ofSRT Entertainmentsis releasing the filmin Telugu.

He said the film’sTelugu dubbing workhas been completedand that the trailer

will release onSeptember 26.

An action-thriller,the original told thestory of a cop Vikram(played by Ravi) whois hot on the trail ofvillain named Aditya(Swamy) while inves-tigating a bank rob-bery case.

2

n the developmentfor over a year, RajTarun’s next withgood friend writer-director SrinivasGavireddy had a

low-key muhurat at AnnapurnaStudios, Hyderabad on Sunday.Surpiya, Naga Susheela, RajTarun, Gavireddy and his crewwere among a few who attend-ed the muhurat.

A production venture ofAnnapurna Studios, the film,an out-and-out entertainingdrama with family emotions,will roll in the third week ofOctober in Hyderabad, asource tells us. “The idea is towrap up the filming in two

months. All COVID-19 safetyprotocols will be observed onthe sets and Annapurna is strictabout it. The second scheduleof a month will be shot inBhimavaram where the story isset. Gavireddy has designed aunique characterisation for RajTarun and he is confident thathe has a winner of script athand," the source says.

The source further adds thatthe makers are in talks with anew girl to be cast opposite RajTarun. Technically though,Gopi Sunder has been signedon as the tunesmith and themusic sessions with him havealready begun.

— NG

I

Gopi Sunder’s tunes for Raj Tarun

Ambati Rayudu 71 runs

Mohd Shami 3 wickets

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

12

MOTION PICTURE

DUGOUTI concentrate on bowling dotballs and putting pressure onthe batsman so he can takerisks. My focus is the team'srequirement, what helps theteam is important to me

Every team has a perfect mixof world-class overseasplayers and quality Indianplayers. Ours is a pretty goodbalanced side in alldepartments

None of our batsmen carriedon for us, like du Plessis andRayudu did for CSK. Credit tothe CSK bowlers, theybowled well at the end to pullback things

The pitch was doing a bitwith the new ball but it camea bit easier once the dewcame on. We just wanted toget stuck in there and getthrough

TODAY

Live from 7:30pmSTAR SSPORTS 11 && 3

AFP n NICE

Kylian Mbappe returned to the startingline-up for Paris Saint-German on

Sunday and scored the opener in a 3-0 winat Nice which marks another step on the roadto recovery for the French champions.

The 21-year-old, who tested positive forcoronavirus on September 7, was on targetfrom the penalty spot in the 38th minute.

Angel di Maria added a second justbefore half-time and Marquinhos headed thethird after 66 minutes. Mbappe thought hehad scored a fourth late on but it was ruledout for offside.

It was a second successive Ligue 1 winfor PSG who began the season still smartingfrom defeat in the Champions League final.They lost their opening two games and thesecond ended in a mass brawl againstMarseille which led to the suspension ofBrazilian forward Neymar.

Angel Di Maria celebrates with Mbappe after scoring

AFP n SOUTHAMPTON

Son Heung-min destroyedSouthampton with a four-goal

blitz as Tottenham Hotspur earnedtheir first Premier League win of theseason with a 5-2 victory at StMary’s on Sunday.

Just 24 hours after Tottenhamsigned Gareth Bale, South Korea for-ward Son delivered a virtuoso dis-play that showed Jose Mourinho’sside already have plenty of firepow-er.

Danny Ings put Southamptonahead in the first half, but Sonequalised before the break andscored three more in the second half.

Kane, who hit the back of the nettwice in the first half only to havethem ruled out for offside, cappeda swaggering display with his secondgoal of the season.

After losing to Everton in theirPremier League opener last week-end, Tottenham have lifted thegloom with this vibrant second halfperformance after the Bale coup.

DEVASTATING SSPURSIngs has been linked with a

move to Tottenham after a prolificcampaign last term and the quali-ties that attracted Mourinho were onshow as he put Southampton aheadin the 32nd minute.

Running onto Kyle Walker-Peters’ long pass, Ings displayed hisastute movement as he got in behindEric Dier, then demonstrated hispredatory instincts by guiding hisshot across Lloris into the far cor-ner.

With Tottenham lookingincreasingly bedraggled, it was a sur-prise when they equalised againstthe run of play in first half stoppage-time.

Tanguy Ndombele picked out

Kane on the left and the striker’scross reached Son, who ignored theacute angle to clip a sublime finishpast Alex McCarthy.

Son’s goal was a huge boost toTottenham’s morale and they tookthe lead with a well-crafted goal twominutes after half-time.

Once again it was Kane and Sonwho prised open the Southamptondefence as the England captain fedthe South Korean with a delicatepass.

Son surged through on goal andcalmly guided a precise strike pastMcCarthy with his left foot.

Tottenham’s star forwardsweren’t finished yet and they leftSouthampton for dead in the 64thminute.

Dropping deep to devastatingeffect, Kane was the provider witha superb lofted pass over the Saintsdefence and Son finished in emphat-ic fashion.

Southampton had no answers toKane and Son and another deft passfrom the Tottenham striker in the73rd minute picked out the SouthKorean, who was never going tomiss from close-range.

Kane and Son have now com-bined for more Premier Leaguegoals (24) than any other duo in thecompetition since August 2015.

Kane got the goal he deservedwith a close-range finish in the 82ndminute before Ings netted again witha 90th minute penalty awarded forhandball by Matt Doherty.

AFP n ROME

Top seed Simona Halep oustedSpaniard Garbine Muguruza in

three sets to advance to her third finalat the Italian Open on Sunday, playedon front of a small number of specta-tors for the first time.

The Romaniandropped her sec-ond set on clay inRome before seeingoff Muguruza 6-3,4-6, 6-4 in a battleof former FrenchOpen championsbefore RolandGarros in a week’stime.

Halep — the2018 French Open winner — will nextplay either Czech defending championKarolina Pliskova, the second seed, orMarketa Vondrousova for a place in thefinal.

The Wimbledon champion, 28, hasfinished runner-up in her two previousfinals at the Foro Italico in 2017 and2018.

Ninth seed Muguruza, the 2016Roland Garros champion, fell to herfourth semi-final defeat in Rome, thefurthest she has gone in the tournament.

World No 2 Halep extended herwinning streak this season to 13 consec-utive victories.

Naples: Victor Osimhenproved decisive on his SerieA debut inspiring Napoli toa season-opening 2-0 winat Parma on Sunday, thefirst game in which fanswere allowed to return toan Italian stadium.

Italy’s Governmentfrom Sunday allowed up to1,000 spectators at open-air sports events.

And Rino Gattuso’sNapoli and new Parmacoach Fabio Liverani’s sidefaced off on front of asparse gathering at theStadio Ennio Tardini.

After a barren firsthour in Emilia Romagna,Osimhen came off the

bench to provide an elec-tric shock for Gattuso’sside.

Dries Mertens andLorenzo Insigne scoredboth goals after his arrivalwhich were set up byMexican Hirving Lozano.

“Oshimen at thismoment has an extra gear,”said Gattuso of the 21-year-old Napoli paidFrench club Lille a clubrecord 80 million euros forthis summer. “He’s a seri-ous lad who does not for-get where he comes from,he lost his parents as achild, he is a young manwith the head of a 40-year-old.” AFP

PTI n DUBAI

Virat Kohli will begin hisquest for an elusive IPL title

when perennial under-achieversRoyal Challengers Bangaloretake on David Warner’s low pro-file but consistent SunrisersHyderabad in their openingIPL encounter here on Monday.

Both teams possess danger-ous batsmen who can single-handedly take the game awayfrom the opposition.

Kohli has always led fromthe front but he knows hissearch for a maiden title willremain incomplete if the teamdoesn’t perform in all depart-ments.

The addition of Australianlimited overs captain AaronFinch to the squad gives the star-studded batting line up morefirepower. Expectations are alsohigh from highly rated youngopener Devdutt Padikal.

On the other hand, Warner,whose exploits in the IPL includewinning the ‘Orange Cap’ thriceand leading his side to a maid-en title triumph in 2016, will

once again pair up with the dan-gerous Jonny Bairstow.

Sunrisers also have the bat-ting prowess of KaneWilliamson, Manish Pandey,Mitchell Marsh and FabianAllen.

Following a nightmarish2019 season when they fin-ished last, RCB seem to havemuch better balance but thereability to hit late in the inningsis yet to be tested.

Sunrisers’ blind spot also liesin the lack of depth in their bat-ting order. The franchise hasinvested in youngsters like ViratSingh, Abhishek Sharma,

Priyam Garg, and Abdul Samadand the management in thehopes that one of them couldbecome the vital cog in the mid-dle order.

A team that is known for itsdepth and variation in bowling,Sunrisers’core unit remainsunchanged. BhuvneshwarKumar will spearhead the pacedepartment with SandeepSharma, Siddarth Kaul and BasilThampi playing secondary roles.

Armed with presence ofthe top T20 bowler Afghanistanleggie Rashid Khan and No 1 all-rounder in the formatMohammad Nabi.

RCB also boasts of a potentspin unit, leg-spinner YuzvendraChahal will again be the key ashe has been over the past sea-sons with Washington Sundar,Pawan Negi, Adam Zampa andMoeen Ali lending moreoptions.

RCB have also addressedthe issue of their weak deathbowling that plagued their cam-paign last season. The franchisehas bought South African bowl-ing all-rounder Chris Morris.

PTI n DUBAI

Australian batsmanMarcus Stoinis stole

the thunder fromMohammed Shami with abelligerent 21-ball-53which lifted the DelhiCapitals to 157 for eightagainst Kings XI Punjab intheir IPL match onSunday.

The Capitals scored57 runs in the last 18 ballswith Stoinis producing awhirlwind knock that hadseven fours and three sixes.

The pitch had a tingeof grass, the ball wasswinging and pacer Shamirelished the bowling on ahelpful track.

His wicket-taking andrun-choking act seemed tohave made the differencebefore Stoinis' outstandinghitting changed the com-plexion of the game inmatter of minutes.

It was a pitch thatrequired patience from thebatsmen but reckless shotswas how Delhi Capitalsbegan after being invited tobat, with Prithvi Shaw (5)paying the price for hisextravagance and ShimronHetmyer (7) failing tocheck his shot.

Shikhar Dhawan (0)was run out to a horriblemix-up and the score-board was not a pleasantsight for the Delhi side at

13 for 3.However skipper

Shreyas Iyer (39) andRishabh Pant (31) respect-ed the conditions to raise73-run stand for the fourthwicket while Stoinis' knocktowards the end putCapitals in a psychologi-cally advantageous posi-tion.

Iyer and Pant largelyrelied on singles to keepthe scoreboard moving.Iyer took Gowtham to thecleaners in the 13th over,creaming off 15 runs withtwo well-measured straightsixes.

Suddenly, Iyer seem to

be snatching the momen-tum and it forced Punjabcaptain KL Rahul to bringback his best bowler —Shami, who did not disap-point and got rid of Iyer.Delhi seem to be limpingbut Stonis rescued them.

BRAVO TO MISS COUPLE OF GAMESChennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming hasconfirmed that their star all-rounder Dwayne Bravo willmiss another couple of matches of the 13th IPL.“Dwayne Bravo is out for a couple of games,” Flemingsaid. Bravo picked a niggle during the recently-concludedCaribbean Premier League and didn’t bowl in the finaldue to a knee injury.

CURRAN SURPRISED BY DHONI’S MOVESam Curran says he was left “surprised” by “genius”Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s move to send the England all-rounder ahead of himself during the IPL opener againstMumbai Indians. The 22-year-old all-rounder played aninstrumental role in CSK’s win. After an economical spellwith the ball, he scored a quick-fire 18 off just six balls tohelp his side start the campaign on a positive note. “Tobe honest, I was very surprised that I went in. He(Dhoni) is a genius and obviously thought something(about sending me before himself),” Curran said. “Wetargeted that over (18th) and I went in with a six or outmentality... Sometimes it comes off and sometimes itdoesn’t,” he added.

ISHANT SUFFERS BACK INJURYSenior pacer Ishant Sharma suffered an injury duringtraining on the eve of Delhi Capitals’ IPL opener againstKXIP on Sunday. A report in Cricbuzz said the 32-year-old Sharma injured his back during practice session andis set to be sidelined for a considerable period of time.

BUTTLER TO MISS RR OPENING GAMEEngland wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler will missRajasthan Royals’ opening IPL game against ChennaiSuper Kings on Tuesday as he is in the middle of hismandatory quarantine period, having arrived here withhis family. “I’m unfortunately going to miss the firstmatch for Rajasthan because I’m going to be doing myquarantine period because I’m here with my family —which is great that the Royals have allowed me to havemy family out here,” he said in an Instagram Live fromthe official Royals’ handle.

RASHID FOCUS TO BOWL ECONOMICALLYWith 55 wickets in three seasons, Rashid Khan is one ofthe lethal bowlers operating in the IPL but theAfghanistan spinner says his focus is not on takingwickets but bowling economically. The world numberone T20 bowler, who plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad, saidhe "never thought about taking so many wickets." Heenjoys the best bowling economy of 6.55 at an averageof 21.69 in the IPL. "My focus is always bowlingeconomically well for the team. When I bowleconomically it helps the bowlers on the other end totake wickets," Rashid said. "I concentrate on bowling dotballs and putting pressure on the batsman so he can takerisks. My focus is the team's requirement, what helps theteam is important to me."

CUMMINS REALLY ADMIRE MCCULLUMKKR pacer Pat Cummins has said he is happy to havehead coach Brendon McCullum by his side as the teamaims to win a third title. Aussie pacer Cummins, afterserving his room-quarantine, will be joining the rest ofhis teammates at KKR in just a few days' time. "The firstthing that I am really excited about is that I don't have tobowl to him (McCullum) anymore," Cummins told kkr.in."He was one of the best and most feared hitters I havecome up against in my career. It can be the first ball ofthe match and he might be hitting over your head for asix." Cummins said he admires Bazz for his aggression."So, I am happy that he is in my team as a coach andthat I don't have to bowl to him. He is someone I reallyadmire for his fire.

TENDULKAR BACKS MI TO WIN TITLEBatting great Sachin Tendulkar has no doubts as towhich team he is supporting this season in the IPL.Tendulkar, who captained the Mumbai Indians for fouryears, said that he favours the reigning champions todefend the title while adding that all teams are on equalfooting. "Of course, the Men in Blue, are there anydoubts? I've always been in blue everywhere.

PTI n ABU DHABI

Chennai Super Kingsskipper Mahendra

Singh Dhoni has saidhis team’s tremendous“experience” proved to bea crucial factor in itsfive-wicket victory overdefending championsMumbai Indians in theIPL opener.

Ambati Rayudu andFaf Du Plessis set up thewin with a 115-run standfor the third wicket,while Piyush Chawla wasexceptional with the balland was aided by likes ofSam Curran, DeepakChahar and Lungi Ngidi.

“The experiencepays off, everyone talksabout it. You get it onlyafter you play a lot ofgames. 300 ODIs is adream for anybody toplay and when you putan XI on the field, youneed a good mix ofyoungsters and experi-

enced players,” Dhonisaid.

“You need the expe-rienced players to guidethe youngsters on and offthe field. The youngplayers get 60-70 dayswith the seniors in theIPL,” the veteran addedat the post-match pre-sentation ceremony.

Dhoni also spokeabout what all things theteam learnt from the firstgame.

“We may practiceenough but when you goon the field you need toassess the conditions andgive it your best. It tooktime for the bowlers tofind the right length on

this pitch. Plenty of pos-itives but still plenty ofareas for us to improve

“In the second halfthere is a bit of move-ment till the dew sets in.If you don’t lose wicketsearly, you have the upperhand. These are thelearnings. Rayudu had awonderful partnershipwith Faf. Most of us areretired so luckily noinjuries as well.”

MI skipper RohitSharma was upset thatnone of his batsmencould carry on the initialmomentum that theygained.

“None of our bats-men carried on for us,like du Plessis andRayudu did for CSK. Ithink we were 85 in thefirst 10 overs. Credit tothe CSK bowlers, theybowled well at the end topull back things.Something for us tolearn,” Rohit said.

Stoinis blitz drags DC to 157/8

DUBAI: Kings XI Punjabskipper KL Rahul chose tobowl first after winning thetoss against Delhi Capitals onSunday and said that hedoesn’t really know what toexpect from the pitch at theDubai International Stadium.“Fresh wicket, don’t reallyknow what to expect. I’mconfident and so is the entireteam, great opportunity to goout and play some cricket,”said Rahul after the toss."Staying indoors was difficult,but it also gave us time tothink about our strategy,Maxwell, Pooran, Jordan andCottrell are our four overseasplayers."Delhi Capitals captainShreyas Iyer said that theywould have bowled first aswell."I have learnt to takesome responsibility, with thelikes of (Ricky) Ponting and(Sourav) Ganguly, it makesmy task a bit easier. Lookingforward to a great season.We have plenty of optionsand it was difficult settling forthe best XI," he said. IANS

Staying indoors wasdifficult but gave timeto strategise: Rahul

DUBAI: RavichandranAshwin made his debutfor Delhi Capitals againsthis former team Kings XIPunjab on Sunday but thespinner said that healready felt like one of theseniors when he firstcame to the team.Ashwin captained KXIPlast season and this yearhe will be joining Indianteam mates ShikharDhawan, Ajinkya Rahane,Rishabh Pant, PrithviShaw and captain Shreyas

Iyer, among others.“Playing the game is closeto my heart. Six months isa lot of time. There’s a bitof nervous energy, feelslike I’m starting all overagain,” said Ashwin onStar Sports on Sunday.“It’s been great becausemost of these are boysI’ve played with in theIndian team. They’ve beennice to me. I’ve felt verynice, I've felt like thesenior walking into theteam.” IANS

Felt like a senior walking intothe team: Ashwin

Kohli begins hunt for elusive title Experience of 300 ODIs pays off: Dhoni

PSG is back in form

Osimhen stars on debut Halep reachesItalian Open finalSonday

Heung-min nets fouras Spurs batter Saints

Aussie all-rounder smashes 21-ball 53; Delhi hit 57 off last 18 balls