12
W ith China making repeat- ed bids to breach Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the last three-four days in Ladakh, India has also taken counter measures by “readjusting” its troop levels at the disputed Pangong Tso (lake). This will negate any Chinese threat in the north bank of the lake. The armed forces have fur- ther increased vigil all along the 4,000 km LAC from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. All the border guarding forces besides the Army were directed to enhance patrolling in their respective areas of responsibility. The coming weeks may see the deployment of additional forces along the LAC. Against this backdrop, the Brigadier-level talks on Wednesday after the foiled Chinese attempt to intrude did not yield any results, sources said here. This was the third round in the last three days and more parleys were expected to take place in the next few days to restore peace, they added. On the latest Indian mili- tary step at the Pangong Tso (lake), sources said it is required to deal with the sort of situation that developed on the intervening night of August 29-30 when the Indian Army foiled a major transgression effort on the southern banks of lake by nearly 300 Chinese troops. A swift manoeuvre by the special forces commandos and regular Army troops denied the Chinese the element of surprise and the Indian Army is now dominating all the major hill- tops there including the “Black Top” and “Helmet Top”. Giving details of the important action by the Indian forces on the northern banks, sources said “as part of pre- cautionary deployment on August 30, some readjustments of our positions on our side was carried out.” It assumes significance as China dominates the ridgeline there besides “Finger 4”. Finger means mountain spur. The readjustment or tactical deploy- ment will now check any fur- ther aggressive move by the Chinese there, sources said. In fact, the ongoing stand- offs for almost four months now began in early May from northern banks of the Pangong Tso when the Chinese forces intruded and obstructed an Indian patrol near Finger 4. It resulted in exchange of blows leaving several soldiers from both sides injured. Chinese troops are now fanned out between Finger 4 and Finger 8 area which length wise is about 5 km. The Indian Army is denied to patrol and the Chinese have also erected huts and makeshift bunkers. Despite five rounds of talks at the Corps Commanders level between the two armies, the Chinese forces have not with- drawn from this region leading to tension. The “brazen” and “provocative” attempt to alter the LAC on August 29-30, meanwhile, has further height- ened tension on the entire 1,600 km long LAC in Ladakh sector. The Chinese tried at least three times more to breach the LAC on August 31 and September 1 on the southern banks of the Pangong lake, Chumar, and Depsang. However, prompt counter- measures by the Indian forces did not allow the matters get out of hand. Both sides have now deployed additional troops in the last three days on all the flashpoints. The two armies have also brought forward their tanks and heavy guns. In order to maintain unhindered logistical move- ment, the 400-km long Srinagar-Leh highway is now partially closed for the gener- al public to allow movement of Army convoys. A mid the ongoing border dispute, India on Wednesday banned the 118 more Chinese apps, including the famous PUBG. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the complete list of the 118 banned apps citing a series of reasons related to breach of security. Earlier, India banned 59 apps, including Tik Tok. “The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitious- ly transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers that have locations out- side India. The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to nation- al security and defence of India, which impinges upon the sov- ereignty and integrity of India is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” said the Ministry. F or the first time in the his- tory of Parliament, there will not be any Question Hour. The Government has claimed it took this decision this Monsoon Session of Parliament which starts on September 14 keeping in view safeguard relat- ed to coronavirus pandemic, but the move has outraged the Opposition MPs. Opposition leaders said they were conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that to deal with Question Hour requirement, Ministers would need to be briefed by officials of their Ministries and this would raise the number of vis- itors to Parliament during Covid times. While senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to mark his protest, Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress said the pandemic was being used as an excuse to “murder democracy”. The Question Hour, the first hour in the House, allows members to ask the Government questions. Rajnath, who is also the Deputy Leader of the Lok Sabha, reached out to senior Opposition leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien before finalising the plans. “MPs required to submit questions for Question Hour in Parliament 15 days in advance. Session starts 14 September. So Question Hour cancelled? Opposition MPs lose right to question Govt. A first since 1950? Parliament overall work- ing hours remain same so why cancel Question Hour? Pandemic excuse to murder democracy,” O’Brien said. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, Private Member’s Business, usually fixed for every Friday has also been skipped. The session will have stag- gered timings to accommodate MPs of one House in both chambers and follow strict physical distancing norms. On the first day, the Lok Sabha will have its proceedings from 9 am to 1 pm. Thereafter, from September 15 to October 1, the Lower House will have its sitting from 3 pm to 7 pm. Similarly, from the second day, the Rajya Sabha will be transacting its business between 9 am and 1 pm. The two-hour break between 1 pm and 3 pm will be used to disinfect both the chambers, said an official. The session will have 18 sittings, which includes two working Saturdays and Sundays each, and will end on October 1. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said questioning the Government is the oxygen of parliamentary democracy. A s actress Rhea Chakraborty’s father Indrajit was grilled by the CBI for the second consecutive day in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the late actor’s fam- ily lawyer Vikas Singh on Wednesday alleged that certain television channels were trying to tarnish the image of Sushant’s family to benefit the “accused” Rhea and that the actor’s mental problems start- ed only after Rhea’s entry into his life. A day after he and his wife Sandhya were questioned for more than eight hours, the CBI officials questioned Indrajit Chakraborty once again in connection with the actor’s death case. However, Rhea, her brother Showik and moth- er Sandya Chakraborty were called for questioning on Wednesday. Indrajit and Sandhya Chakraborty are among the persons named along with Rhea, her brother Showik, Sushant’s ex-manager Shruti Modi and others in an FIR lodged by the actor’s father KK Singh with Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna. It was on the basis of this FIR that the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case to the CBI on August 19. Rhea, her parents, her brother and others have been booked as part of this FIR under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful con- finement), 380 (theft), 406 (breach of trust), 420 (cheat- ing), 306(abetting suicide) and 120-B(conspiracy) of the IPC. Realising that the wind is blowing against his client, Sushant’s family lawyer Vikas Singh slammed television channels for “spreading canards’ against the actor’s family, in an apparent effort to counter a narrative that has emerged in the public domain that Sushant’s family mem- bers, particularly his sisters Meethu and Priyanka, were very much in the know of the fact the actor was suffering from depression and schizo- phrenia in the run-up to Sushant’s death. Addressing a news confer- ence, Vikas Singh said, “Three sisters of Sushant met me today…they told me that they were upset because a malicious campaign is being carried out in the media to tarnish the image of the family to provide benefit to the accused Rhea”. The late actor’s family lawyer said, “Sushant Singh Rajput’s three sisters and his father are pained by a negative, false campaign against the fam- ily. The campaign relates to his mental health. A campaign is being car- ried out in the media that Sushant’s family knew about his depression, his bipolar disorder and still the same was con- cealed. The FIR filed (in the case) very clearly says that Sushant, after Rhea came into his life, started having mental problems. The FIR very clear- ly says that Rhea was respon- sible for his problems”. A fter being shut for over five months, all Metro services will restart from September 7 across the country in a gradual manner, except in Maharashtra. As per the new guidelines, Metro having more than one line will open different lines starting from September 7 onwards in a graded manner so that all corridors become oper- ational by September 12. Daily hours of operations will be staggered for the first few days until it is fully operational by September 12. The frequency of trains will be regulated to avoid passenger crowding at stations and in trains. Announcing the guide- lines, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Metros having more than one line should open different lines starting from September 7 onwards in a graded manner so that all corridors become oper- ational by September 12. As per the guidelines, only asympto- matic persons will be allowed after thermal screening, while symptomatic patients will be sent to the nearest hospital/Covid Care Centre. There are 17 Metro corpora- tions in the country. According to the Ministry, Metro trains will not stop at stations where passengers are found not maintaining social distancing. For the Delhi Metro, which is the largest and most suc- cessful Metro in the country, for the first two days only the Yellow Line from Samaypur Badli to Huda city centre will function from September 7. Initially, the Metro will be open from 7 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 8 pm till September 10. From September 11, the Metro will be functional from 7 am to 1 pm, 4 pm to 10 pm. Delhi Metro will run from 6 am to 11 pm from September 12. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear a Netflix petition against a Bihar lower court order restraining it from using Sahara group chief Subrata Roy’s name in its web series “Bad Boy Billionaires”. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, however, granted liberty to Netflix to withdraw the plea and approach the Araria court to avail appropriate remedy against the order. T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved “Mission Karmayogi”, which was dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative aimed at capacity building of Government employees to make them more “creative, proactive, professional and technology-enabled”. The core guiding principles of the competency-driven pro- gramme will be to support a transition from “rules based to roles based” HR management to prepare the Indian civil ser- vant for the future, said a Government statement. “This is the biggest human resource development pro- gramme in the Government,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said during a Press briefing. To cover around 46 lakh Central employees, a sum of 510.86 crore will be spent over five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 under Mission Karmayogi or the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), according to the statement A council, comprising select Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, eminent public HR practitioners among others and headed by the Prime Minister, will serve as the apex body for providing strategic direction, while a Capacity Building Commission is also proposed to be set up. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, who was also present at the briefing, said the scheme will help end subjective evaluation, and ensure scientifically-devised, objective and real-time assess- ment of employees. Mission Karmayogi is an endeavour “to reincarnate a Government servant into an ideal karmayogi to serve the nation by enabling him to be creative, to be constructive, to be pro-active and technically empowered”, said Singh. T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Jammu and Kashmir Languages Bill 2020 which will make five languages — Urdu, Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, and English — the official lan- guage of the region. “This has been done based on demand by the people,” said Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar. “I want to thank the PM for for the inclusion of Dogri, Hindi, and Kashmiri in the other two existing official lan- guages. It is not only a fulfill- ment of public demand of the region but also in keeping with the spirit of equality ushered after August 5, 2019,” said Union Minister Jitendra Singh. C hhattisgarh recorded 6 per- cent higher collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in August this year compared to the same month last year. The state’s collection under GST was Rs 1,873 crores last year, which rose to Rs 1,994 crores in the current fiscal. A statement from the State Government said the higher collection of GST even amid Covid-19 reflects the econom- ic policies that boosted positive growth in the market. The Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, Godhan Nyay Yojana and hike in procure- ment rate of tendu leaves and minor forest produce direct- ly benefiting the villagers, farmers and tribes acted as boosters, said the statement. The statement says that in the GST revenue collection related report released by the Union Finance Ministry, an average downfall of 8 percent was registered in GST revenue collection in the August 2020. Against this backdrop, Chhattisgarh recorded a 6 percent hike in collection, thus placing itself in the fourth position among states. GST revenue collection in Delhi fell by 18 percent, in Madhya Pradesh by 2 percent, in Gujarat by 3 percent, in Assam by 8 percent, in Odisha by 6 percent, in Andhra Pradesh by 8 percent, in Kerala by 28 percent, in Tamil Nadu by 12 percent, in Telangana by 9 percent, in Goa by 38 percent and in Karnataka it came down by 11 percent. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

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Page 1: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

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With China making repeat-ed bids to breach Line of

Actual Control (LAC) in thelast three-four days in Ladakh,India has also taken countermeasures by “readjusting” itstroop levels at the disputedPangong Tso (lake). This willnegate any Chinese threat inthe north bank of the lake.

The armed forces have fur-ther increased vigil all along the4,000 km LAC from Ladakh inthe west to Arunachal Pradeshin the east. All the borderguarding forces besides theArmy were directed to enhancepatrolling in their respectiveareas of responsibility. Thecoming weeks may see thedeployment of additional forcesalong the LAC.

Against this backdrop, theBrigadier-level talks onWednesday after the foiledChinese attempt to intrudedid not yield any results,sources said here. This was thethird round in the last threedays and more parleys wereexpected to take place in thenext few days to restore peace,they added.

On the latest Indian mili-tary step at the Pangong Tso(lake), sources said it isrequired to deal with the sortof situation that developed onthe intervening night of August29-30 when the Indian Armyfoiled a major transgressioneffort on the southern banks oflake by nearly 300 Chinesetroops.

A swift manoeuvre by thespecial forces commandos andregular Army troops denied theChinese the element of surpriseand the Indian Army is nowdominating all the major hill-tops there including the “BlackTop” and “Helmet Top”.

Giving details of theimportant action by the Indianforces on the northern banks,sources said “as part of pre-cautionary deployment onAugust 30, some readjustmentsof our positions on our side wascarried out.”

It assumes significance asChina dominates the ridgelinethere besides “Finger 4”. Fingermeans mountain spur. Thereadjustment or tactical deploy-ment will now check any fur-ther aggressive move by theChinese there, sources said.

In fact, the ongoing stand-offs for almost four monthsnow began in early May fromnorthern banks of the PangongTso when the Chinese forcesintruded and obstructed anIndian patrol near Finger 4. Itresulted in exchange of blows

leaving several soldiers fromboth sides injured.

Chinese troops are nowfanned out between Finger 4and Finger 8 area which lengthwise is about 5 km. The IndianArmy is denied to patrol andthe Chinese have also erectedhuts and makeshift bunkers.Despite five rounds of talks atthe Corps Commanders levelbetween the two armies, theChinese forces have not with-drawn from this region leadingto tension.

The “brazen” and

“provocative” attempt to alterthe LAC on August 29-30,meanwhile, has further height-ened tension on the entire1,600 km long LAC in Ladakhsector. The Chinese tried atleast three times more to breachthe LAC on August 31 andSeptember 1 on the southernbanks of the Pangong lake,Chumar, and Depsang.However, prompt counter-measures by the Indian forcesdid not allow the matters get

out of hand.Both sides have now

deployed additional troops inthe last three days on all theflashpoints. The two armieshave also brought forward theirtanks and heavy guns.

In order to maintainunhindered logistical move-ment, the 400-km longSrinagar-Leh highway is nowpartially closed for the gener-al public to allow movement ofArmy convoys.

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Amid the ongoing borderdispute, India on

Wednesday banned the 118more Chinese apps, includingthe famous PUBG.

The Ministry of Electronicsand Information Technologyreleased the complete list of the118 banned apps citing a seriesof reasons related to breach ofsecurity. Earlier, India banned59 apps, including Tik Tok.

“The Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology has received manycomplaints from varioussources, including severalreports about the misuse ofsome mobile apps available onAndroid and iOS platformsfor stealing and surreptitious-

ly transmitting users’ data in anunauthorised manner toservers that have locations out-side India.

The compilation of thesedata, its mining and profilingby elements hostile to nation-al security and defence of India,which impinges upon the sov-ereignty and integrity of Indiais a matter of very deep andimmediate concern whichrequires emergency measures,”said the Ministry.

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For the first time in the his-tory of Parliament, there

will not be any Question Hour.The Government has claimedit took this decision thisMonsoon Session of Parliamentwhich starts on September 14keeping in view safeguard relat-ed to coronavirus pandemic,but the move has outraged theOpposition MPs.

Opposition leaders saidthey were conveyed by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh that todeal with Question Hourrequirement, Ministers wouldneed to be briefed by officialsof their Ministries and thiswould raise the number of vis-itors to Parliament duringCovid times.

While senior Congressleader Adhir RanjanChowdhury wrote to LokSabha Speaker Om Birla tomark his protest, Rajya Sabhamember Derek O’Brien of theTrinamool Congress said thepandemic was being used as anexcuse to “murder democracy”.The Question Hour, the firsthour in the House, allowsmembers to ask theGovernment questions.

Rajnath, who is also theDeputy Leader of the LokSabha, reached out to seniorOpposition leaders, includingLeader of the Opposition

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congressleader in the Lok Sabha AdhirRanjan Chowdhury andTrinamool’s Derek O’Brienbefore finalising the plans.

“MPs required to submitquestions for Question Hour inParliament 15 days in advance.Session starts 14 September. SoQuestion Hour cancelled?Opposition MPs lose right toquestion Govt. A first since1950? Parliament overall work-ing hours remain same so whycancel Question Hour?Pandemic excuse to murderdemocracy,” O’Brien said.

In view of the coronaviruspandemic, Private Member’sBusiness, usually fixed forevery Friday has also beenskipped.

The session will have stag-gered timings to accommodateMPs of one House in bothchambers and follow strictphysical distancing norms.

On the first day, the LokSabha will have its proceedingsfrom 9 am to 1 pm. Thereafter,from September 15 to October1, the Lower House will haveits sitting from 3 pm to 7 pm.

Similarly, from the secondday, the Rajya Sabha will betransacting its businessbetween 9 am and 1 pm.

The two-hour breakbetween 1 pm and 3 pm will beused to disinfect both thechambers, said an official. Thesession will have 18 sittings,which includes two workingSaturdays and Sundays each,and will end on October 1.

Congress MP ShashiTharoor said questioning theGovernment is the oxygen ofparliamentary democracy.

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As actress RheaChakraborty’s father

Indrajit was grilled by the CBIfor the second consecutive dayin the Sushant Singh Rajputdeath case, the late actor’s fam-ily lawyer Vikas Singh onWednesday alleged that certaintelevision channels were tryingto tarnish the image ofSushant’s family to benefit the“accused” Rhea and that theactor’s mental problems start-ed only after Rhea’s entry intohis life.

A day after he and his wifeSandhya were questioned formore than eight hours, the CBIofficials questioned IndrajitChakraborty once again inconnection with the actor’sdeath case. However, Rhea,her brother Showik and moth-er Sandya Chakraborty werecalled for questioning onWednesday.

Indrajit and SandhyaChakraborty are among thepersons named along withRhea, her brother Showik,Sushant’s ex-manager ShrutiModi and others in an FIRlodged by the actor’s father KKSingh with Rajiv Nagar policestation in Patna. It was on the

basis of this FIR that theSupreme Court ordered thetransfer of the Sushant SinghRajput death case to the CBI onAugust 19.

Rhea, her parents, herbrother and others have beenbooked as part of this FIRunder sections 341 (wrongfulrestraint), 342 (wrongful con-finement), 380 (theft), 406(breach of trust), 420 (cheat-ing), 306(abetting suicide) and120-B(conspiracy) of the IPC.

Realising that the wind isblowing against his client,Sushant’s family lawyer VikasSingh slammed televisionchannels for “spreadingcanards’ against the actor’sfamily, in an apparent effort tocounter a narrative that has

emerged in the public domainthat Sushant’s family mem-bers, particularly his sistersMeethu and Priyanka, werevery much in the know of thefact the actor was sufferingfrom depression and schizo-phrenia in the run-up toSushant’s death.

Addressing a news confer-ence, Vikas Singh said, “Threesisters of Sushant met metoday…they told me that theywere upset because a maliciouscampaign is being carried outin the media to tarnish theimage of the family to providebenefit to the accused Rhea”.

The late actor’s familylawyer said, “Sushant SinghRajput’s three sisters and hisfather are pained by a negative,false campaign against the fam-ily. The campaign relates to hismental health.

A campaign is being car-ried out in the media thatSushant’s family knew about hisdepression, his bipolar disorderand still the same was con-cealed. The FIR filed (in thecase) very clearly says thatSushant, after Rhea came intohis life, started having mentalproblems. The FIR very clear-ly says that Rhea was respon-sible for his problems”.

�������!,-���� �>#�">9*?

After being shut for over fivemonths, all Metro services

will restart from September 7across the country in a gradualmanner, except in Maharashtra.

As per the new guidelines,Metro having more than oneline will open different linesstarting from September 7onwards in a graded manner sothat all corridors become oper-ational by September 12. Dailyhours of operations will bestaggered for the first few daysuntil it is fully operational bySeptember 12. The frequencyof trains will be regulated toavoid passenger crowding atstations and in trains.

Announcing the guide-lines, Union Housing andUrban Affairs MinisterHardeep Singh Puri saidMetros having more than oneline should open different lines

starting from September 7onwards in a graded manner sothat all corridors become oper-ational by September 12. As perthe guidelines, only asympto-matic persons will be allowedafter thermal screening, whilesymptomatic patients will besent to the nearesthospital/Covid Care Centre.There are 17 Metro corpora-tions in the country.

According to the Ministry,Metro trains will not stop atstations where passengers arefound not maintaining social

distancing.For the Delhi Metro, which

is the largest and most suc-cessful Metro in the country,for the first two days only theYellow Line from SamaypurBadli to Huda city centre willfunction from September 7.Initially, the Metro will beopen from 7 am to 11 am and4 pm to 8 pm till September 10.From September 11, the Metrowill be functional from 7 am to1 pm, 4 pm to 10 pm. DelhiMetro will run from 6 am to 11pm from September 12.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesdayrefused to hear a Netflix petition against a Biharlower court order restraining it from usingSahara group chief Subrata Roy’s name in its webseries “Bad Boy Billionaires”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde,however, granted liberty to Netflix to withdrawthe plea and approach the Araria court to availappropriate remedy against the order.

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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved

“Mission Karmayogi”, whichwas dubbed as the biggestbureaucratic reform initiativeaimed at capacity building ofGovernment employees tomake them more “creative,proactive, professional andtechnology-enabled”.

The core guiding principlesof the competency-driven pro-

gramme will be to support atransition from “rules based toroles based” HR managementto prepare the Indian civil ser-vant for the future, said aGovernment statement.

“This is the biggest humanresource development pro-gramme in the Government,”Information and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid during a Press briefing.

To cover around 46 lakhCentral employees, a sum of�510.86 crore will be spent overfive years from 2020-21 to2024-25 under MissionKarmayogi or the NationalProgramme for Civil ServicesCapacity Building (NPCSCB),according to the statement

A council, comprisingselect Union Ministers, ChiefMinisters, eminent public HR

practitioners among others andheaded by the Prime Minister,will serve as the apex body forproviding strategic direction,while a Capacity Building Commission is alsoproposed to be set up.

Minister of State forPersonnel Jitendra Singh, whowas also present at the briefing,said the scheme will help endsubjective evaluation, andensure scientifically-devised,objective and real-time assess-ment of employees.

Mission Karmayogi is anendeavour “to reincarnate aGovernment servant into anideal karmayogi to serve thenation by enabling him to becreative, to be constructive, tobe pro-active and technicallyempowered”, said Singh.

������-������������.����������%��"�(���'�����!

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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved the

Jammu and KashmirLanguages Bill 2020 which willmake five languages — Urdu,Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, andEnglish — the official lan-guage of the region. “This hasbeen done based on demand bythe people,” said UnionMinisters Prakash Javadekar.

“I want to thank the PM forfor the inclusion of Dogri,Hindi, and Kashmiri in theother two existing official lan-guages. It is not only a fulfill-ment of public demand of theregion but also in keeping withthe spirit of equality usheredafter August 5, 2019,” saidUnion Minister Jitendra Singh.

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Chhattisgarh recorded 6 per-cent higher collection of

Goods and Services Tax (GST)in August this year comparedto the same month last year.

The state’s collection underGST was Rs 1,873 crores lastyear, which rose to Rs 1,994crores in the current fiscal.

A statement from the StateGovernment said the highercollection of GST even amidCovid-19 reflects the econom-ic policies that boosted positivegrowth in the market.

The Rajiv Gandhi KisanNyay Yojana, Godhan NyayYojana and hike in procure-ment rate of tendu leaves andminor forest produce direct-ly benefiting the villagers,farmers and tribes acted asboosters, said the statement.

The statement says that inthe GST revenue collectionrelated report released by theUnion Finance Ministry, anaverage downfall of 8 percentwas registered in GST revenue

collection in the August 2020. Against this backdrop,

Chhattisgarh recorded a 6percent hike in collection,thus placing itself in the fourthposition among states.

GST revenue collectionin Delhi fell by 18 percent, inMadhya Pradesh by 2 percent,in Gujarat by 3 percent, inAssam by 8 percent, in Odishaby 6 percent, in AndhraPradesh by 8 percent, inKerala by 28 percent, in TamilNadu by 12 percent, inTelangana by 9 percent, inGoa by 38 percent and inKarnataka it came down by 11percent.

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Prof Gurpal Singh of PanjabUniversity, Chandigarh was

infected by the COVID-19 inthe month of April and hadspent around one month in iso-lation for recovery.

After winning the battleagainst the deadly virus, ProfGurpal Singh not only returnedto his work but also donatedplasma for the treatment ofother COVID-19(Coronavirus) patients. He isamong the seven recoveredpatients who have come for-ward to donate plasma at thePost Graduate Institute ofMedical Education andResearch.

Amid galloping COVID-19 cases in Chandigarh, ProfGurpal, 41, says, “The situationin the city is grim due to sud-den surge in the number ofpositive cases. There are thou-sands of recovered patients,who should now come forwardto donate plasma to save thelives of critical COVID-19patients.”

About his decision todonate the plasma, he says, “Ihave struggled with the virusfor one month and have fullyrecovered. As of now, we do nothave any vaccination againstthis contagious virus so thelight beam of hope is plasmatherapy. The reason behinddonating the plasma was tosave the lives of others.”

“I understand people havesome misconceptions aboutplasma donation. But, there areno side effects of donating theplasma,” he adds.

Sadly, most of the recov-ered COVID-19 patients haveapprehensions and misgivingsconcerning the plasma dona-tion and are not forthcoming.

In the convalescent plasma

therapy (CPT), plasma from aCOVID-19 recovered patient(which is rich in antibodies tofight the virus) is transfusedinto another COVID-19patient to help boost the recip-ient’s immune response to theSARS-CoV-2 infection.

The concept of plasmatherapy is not new and hasbeen used for more than a cen-tury now in treatment of infec-tious diseases, with varyingdegrees of success.

The Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) hadin the month of April begun arandomised controlled study toassess safety and efficiency ofthe therapy. While the resultsof the convalescent plasmatherapy are yet to be made pub-lic, medical institutions in sev-eral states, including Delhi,Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtraamong others have been pre-scribing plasma therapy to theCoronavirus patients.

The plasma therapy hasraised hopes in treatment ofcritically-ill COVID-19patients, however, the largerchallenge remains in finding aplasma donor. Several plasmabanks have been set up acrossthe country but the response toa call to recovered patients fordonating plasma has been luke-warm so far.

The Post Graduate Instituteof Medical Education andResearch here was also amongone of the institutions selectedby the ICMR for the national-level trial of the CPT. Theclinical trial for CPT had con-cluded in July by the PGIMERbut the institute had decided togo ahead with taking plasmadonations with the consent ofthe donors.

Even as the PGIMER isnow in the process of setting upa plasma bank, the biggestchallenge lies in convincing a

recovered patient to donatethe plasma.

“When the CPT clinicaltrial had begun in May, we hadmade calls to around 120recovered patients and amongthe eligible donors, only sevencame forward for donatingplasma and subsequently, wehad collected 10 units of con-valescent plasma for potentialtransfusion into patients withCOVID-19.

Few patients had donatedplasma for more than once,”tells Dr Ratti Ram Sharma,Head, Department ofTransfusion Medicine (BloodBank), PGIMER while talkingto The Pioneer.

"Currently, the PGIMER isleft with not even a singleplasma unit. We are workingout logistics to set up a plasmabank and have been makingappeals to the recoveredpatients to donate plasma,”says Dr Sharma.

The Nehru HospitalExtension, PGIMER is a 200-bedded treatment facility forcritical COVID patients. Thepatients admitted in NHEbelong to Chandigarh, Punjab,Haryana, Himachal and UttarPradesh and so far, more than540 have been discharged fromthe PGIMER after being recov-ered from the virus.

In the union territory ofChandigarh, the total positivecases have crossed 4500 whilemore than 2500 have recoveredfrom COVID-19.

The eligibility criteria fordonors preclude many recov-ered patients, says Dr Sharmaadding that the donor shouldhave had a prior diagnosis ofCOVID-19 with symptoms likefever and cough, and shouldhave completely recovered withno symptoms for at least 28days prior to donation. “Wealso came across recovered

patients who wanted to donateplasma but were not eligibleand did not have desired anti-body level,” he adds.

Based on the ICMR guide-lines, recovered patients abovethe age of 18 can donate theirplasma. Further, it shouldexclude critically-ill patients,pregnant or breastfeedingwomen and patients with anyknown hypersensitivity toblood products.

Dr Pankaj Malhotra,Department of InternalMedicine at PGIMER tells,“The inclusion criterion is alsodetermined by using a P/Fratio, which records the mea-sure of inspired oxygenreceived by the patient.

The P/F ratio of patientsshould fall between 200 and300. These patients are then eli-gible for receiving plasma ther-apy according to ICMR proto-col.”

Elaborating about the clin-ical trial of CPT, he says, “As faras trials in PGIMER are con-cerned, the results have beenpositive and encouraging.

The PGIMER had enrollednine patients, of whom fivereceived plasma treatment andthe remaining four were on thecontrol arm.The patients whowere administered plasma weredischarged after successfultreatment and have shown noside effects.”

The plasma treatment isalready being used in infectedpatients in India, United Statesand other countries while theextent of its effectiveness andsafety is still debated by healthexperts.

The World HealthOrganisation had recently stat-ed that using plasma from therecovered to treat COVID-19 isstill considered an experimen-tal therapy and that the pre-liminary results showing it

may work are still inconclusive.However, with no vaccine orspecific drug available forCOVID-19 till now, the con-cept of plasma therapy hasgained popularity and the doc-tors are doing their bit to savethe lives of critical patientsthrough the procedure.

With no evidence yet tosupport that the plasma ther-apy is a promising interventionto treat critical COVID-19patients, Dr Malhotra says,“The sample size for the ICMRstudy across the country onplasma therapy was 452 and thefinal results are still awaited.Having said that, we still believethat plasma therapy is a safeand effective treatment forCOVID patients.”

Talking about the dauntingtask of finding plasma donors,Dr Malhotra shares, “We havereached out to many recoveredpersons but only a few haveturned up till now. The recov-ered patients have some appre-hensions about the plasmadonation.

We are often asked will giv-ing plasma weaken the recov-ered patients while many arereluctant to donate fearing arelapse. We want to assure thatthe plasma donation is a safeprocess and has no side effectson the donor.”

As per the protocol fol-lowed, the blood bank assess-es the eligibility of donors andcheck their antibody levelsbefore they can donate plasma.

Dr Malhotra adds, “Toboost the plasma donation ini-tiative, the PGIMER is settingup a plasma bank and we havealso recommended startingantibody testing in the institute.To facilitate the donors, wehave also made arrangementsto send a vehicle to their placefor conducting the screeningprocedure.”

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Punjab on Wednesdayreported a whopping 106

casualties, the highest singleday figure reported in the State,triggering alarm bells in thepopulation as well as the healthservice providers.

With the jump, the state’sCOVID-19 death toll hasreached 1,618, pushing themortality rate to 2.84 percentfrom 2.72 percent a day before.Maximum 18 deaths werereported from Ludhiana —highest in any district; fol-lowed by 11 in Jalandhar; 10 inBathinda; nine in SAS Nagar(Mohali); eight each inAmritsar and Gurdaspur; sevenin Ropar; six in Patiala; fiveeach in Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur,and Kapurthala; three each inFatehgarh Sahib and Fazilka,two each in Faridkot, Sangrur,and Tarn Taran; and one eachin Muktsar and SBS Nagar(Nawanshahr).

Continuing the trend, theState has reported a spike of1514 fresh cases — including60 prisoners of which 44 arefrom Bathinda and 16 from

Muktsar — in a span of 24hours for another day, takingthe total number of coronaviruscases in the State to 56,989.

Alarmed over the high rateof casualties in a single day,Punjab Health and FamilyWelfare Minister Balbir SinghSidhu on Wednesday appealedto the people not to risk theirlives by delaying COVID-19testing. On a day when 106deaths were reported due to theCoronavirus in the state, theHealth Minister said thatdelayed diagnosis in patientsreporting for testing or treat-ment at the COVID-19 facili-ties was the main cause of thehigh mortality rate.

“As many as 67 percent ofall COVID-19 deaths are due topatients reporting at the healthfacility for the first time aftersuffering severe signs andsymptoms,” he said adding thatthese cases then become diffi-cult to manage, leading tofatality.

Pointing to reportsreceived from districts aboutresistance in communities tosampling and testing forCOVID-19, the Minister saidthat even symptomatic personswith co-morbidities have notbeen reporting to the health-care facilities till the diseasebecomes acute.

“This is the cause for max-imum COVID-19 deaths being

among patients with co-morbidconditions such as diabetes,hypertension, heart and kidneydisease, said the Ministeradding that more than 50 per-cent of the COVID-19 deathsin the State have been amongdiabetics.

The Minister said that thedelay in patients reporting athospitals and healthcare facil-ities was on account of the falsepropaganda and fake newsbeing spread by anti-social ele-ments regarding testing andisolation of COVID-19 patientsand negative propagandaagainst the health workers.

Appealing to the people ofState to join hands with theState Government to combatthis pandemic, the Ministersaid that in the absence of avaccine so far, the only optionfor all was to follow the healthprotocols in letter and spirit tillthe vaccine is developed.

TWO MORE PUNJAB MLASTEST POSITIVE, TOTAL 35

Punjab’s two more law-makers — Congress MLA fromAmloh Randeep Singh Nabhaand SAD’s Lehra Gaga MLAParminder Singh Dhindsa —have been tested positive forCOVID-19 on Wednesday.With this, the total number oflegislators afflicted by the con-tagion has reached 35. Punjabhas a total of 117 members.

Nabha maintained that heunderwent the test as a pre-cautionary measure, and hisreport turned out to be positive,while his family members havebeen tested negative. “I haveisolated myself completely andI appeal everyone to get your-self tested if you have fever orcough, or you have come incontact with any corona posi-tive persons,” he appealed.

Other MLAs who had test-ed positive include RevenueMinister Gurpreet SinghKangar, jaila MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawa,Industries Minister ShamSunder Arora, Deputy SpeakerAjaib Singh Bhatti, along withMLAs Madan Lal Jalalpur,Hardyal Singh Kamboj, HarjotKamal, Pargat Singh, ManpreetSingh Ayali, NK Sharma, RozyBarkandi, Gurpratap SinghVadala, Nazar SinghManshahia, Harinder PalSingh, Manjeet Singh, KulwantSingh, Principal Budh Ram,Dalveer Singh, KanwarjitSingh, Darshan Singh Brar andSurinder Dabar Singh.

Those who have recoveredfrom the contagion includeCabinet Minister TripatRajinder Singh Bajwa, DrDharmvir Agnihotri, Amit Vij,Amrik Singh Dhillon,Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal,Sanjeev Talwar, Lakhvir Singhand Kulbeer Singh.

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In yet another spike in Covid-19 cases, the union territory

of Chandigarh on Wednesdayreported 239 fresh positiveinfections. Two more residentsdied due to Covid-19 taking thetotal toll to 59.

“The total positive casesstood at 4789 which included2057 active cases. 2670 personshave so far recovered fromCovid-19 in the city,” statedChandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

A day before, 204 positivecases were reported while thecity had clocked its highest sin-gle-day spike with 261 cases onAugust 29. Giving details of thefatalities, the bulletin stated, “A27 years old male resident ofSector 44, a case of DiabeticKetoacidosis, expired atGMCH-32 on September 1. A75 years old male resident ofSector 23, who had a history ofhypertension was testedCOVID positive on August29. He expired at GMCH-32due to type 1 respiratory fail-

ure on September 1.”“The fresh cases in the city

were reported from Sectors 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17,18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27,28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37,38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46,47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 63, 38west, GMCH-32, Dadumajra,Behlana, Burail, Dhanas, Daria,Hallomajra, Kajheri, Industrialarea phase I, Kaimbwala,Khuda Alisher, Kishargarh,Maloya, Manimajra, MauliJagran, Palsora, PGIMER cam-pus, Sarangpur and BapuDham in Sector 26,” as per thehealth bulletin.

With continuous surge inCOVID-cases, the union terri-tory of Chandigarh remainsamong top three in the coun-try in terms of worst COVID-19 parameters. The COVID-19positivity rate, growth rate,active ratio remained higher inthe city while the recoveryrate remains much lower thanthe national average onWednesday. The city recordeda daily test positivity rate (TPR)of 27.5 percent.

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Haryana reported 15 moreCovid-19 fatalities on

Wednesday, taking the deathtoll to 721 as the state record-ed its highest single-day spikeof 1,792 new cases, the healthdepartment's daily bulletin said.

With this, the infectiontally in the state rises to 68,218.

While Panipat, Karnal,Kurukshetra, Yamunanagarand Fatehabad reported twofatalities each, one death eachwas reported in Sirsa, Hisar,Rohtak, Ambala andFaridabad. Districts thatreported fresh cases includePanchkula (216), Gurgaon(184), Faridabad (152), Panipat(142), Karnal (130),Kurukshetra (126), Hisar (114),Ambala (96), Yamunanagar(95), Rohtak (90) and Kaithal(89), as per the bulletin.

The number of active casesin the state stands at 12,622,while 54,875 patients have beendischarged after recovery.

On Wednesday, the state'srecovery rate was at 80.44 per

cent, down from 81.05 percent a day earlier. The fatalityrate was at 1.06 per cent, whilethe rate at which infections aredoubling is 34 days.

The authorities discharged1040 patients from differenthospitals after their completerecovery. The disease is taking34 days to double its numbers.The infection rate (samplestested positive out of total test-ed) is at 5.73 percent, accord-ing to a health bulletin.Meanwhile, health officials wereallegedly stopped and medicalkits burnt when they went totake samples of contacts of acoronavirus patient inFatehabad district, police saidon Wednesday. The HealthDepartment team had gone toNakta village on Tuesday to takesamples of a family after amember had tested positivefor the coronavirus. They wereprevented and the samples werenot given. Some more peoplegathered there and they also didnot let the team perform itsduty, according to a complaintby the health officials.

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Tax research unit of Haryanaexcise and taxation depart-

ment has identified 138 newlyregistered taxpayers under GSTfor their suspicious transac-tions.

Recently, these taxpayerswere identified by the dataanalytics capabilities of the taxresearch unit, an officialspokesman of the state exciseand taxation department saidon Wednesday. He said thesetaxpayers were further sub-jected to physical verificationsby the field offices of thedepartment, and recoveries of� 28.54 lakh have been effect-ed and a credit of �31.63 crore

has been blockedfrom as many as 69t a x p a y e r s . T h espokesman also saidthe verifications ofthe records of theseentities showed thatthese taxpayers havepassed on creditamounting to Rs1,182.23 crore. Hefurther said thesecases have beenreferred to respec-tive districts offices for furthernecessary follow-up action. Adedicated cell in the taxresearch unit will monitor theprogress of these cases at reg-ular intervals. He said thedepartment is further digging

out the beneficiaries to whomthe credit was passed on bythese 69 taxpayers. These ben-eficiary entities would also beliable for recoveries arisingfrom fake transactions, thespokesman said.

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Punjab Government hasdecided to counter the

appalling move by some vil-lagers across the State to quar-antine health concerns by iso-lating themselves fromCOVID-19 tests, and even gov-ernment health facilities.

Right from easing thehome quarantine norms tolaunching a massive aware-ness campaign by involving notonly the lawmakers and seniorofficials but also those affectedby coronavirus and also thosewho have recovered from thecontagion.

That was not all! With theState Government attributingthe people’s resistance fromundergoing tests or gettingadmitted in the governmentrun health facilities to thesocial-media rumours, includ-ing alleged organ harvesting ofcoronavirus patients, the StatePolice force has also been takenon board to check theunscrupulous elements.

Series of incidents have

come to light in the recent pastwherein health medical teamswere either not allowed toenter the villages or were beat-en up. Several villages in dif-ferent areas of the state haveeven resolved, with panchayatspassing resolutions and writingto the respective DeputyCommissioners, to not to givesamples to the health teams vis-iting villages, or getting the vil-lagers admitted in governmenthospitals.

Some panchayats inPunjab’s Malwa region, espe-cially Moga, Muktsar, Patiala,Sangrur, Bathinda, and Mansadistricts, have passed resolu-tions, while in Majha region,there have also been a fewinstances of similar panchayatresolutions. At the same time,barring one instance inNawanshahr, no instances ofpanchayats passing resolutionsagainst COVID testing or hos-pitalization of residents haveemerged in the state’s Doabaregion.

It has been alleged thatthere was a lack of propermedical care at the government

hospitals, including poor food,arguing that the patient couldget better by quarantining andtreating at home only.

Besides, the social mediarumours like removing humanorgans at the time of patient’sdeath are also adding to thewoes of the Health Departmentteams. “This is causing a lot ofproblem including delay intaking samples in any particu-lar area. The teams first have tosensitize people, and then col-lect samples. In many instances,the teams were beaten up orpushed out of villages,” a seniorgovernment official told ThePioneer.

Terming the situation seri-ous, the official maintainedthat health teams find it toughto meet their daily targets,hampering its functioning andto check the spread further.“The videos going around onsocial media alleging inade-quate health facilities, improp-er treatment, and escalatingdeath rate in the governmenthospitals, coupled withrumours regarding removal oforgans and payment to the

health staff for declaring peo-ple corona positive are alsoadding to our trouble,” addedthe official.

Time and again, the Chief

Minister Capt AmarinderSingh has appealed to the peo-ple to get themselves tested atthe first instance of coron-avirus symptom.

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In order to improve the quali-ty of education, the district

administration of Chaibasa incollaboration with a Mumbaibased organisation called Titli-Together in TransformingLearning in India — has beentraining Anganwadi workersand enabling them in develop-ing key skills to provide non- for-mal pre- school education tochildren aged between 2- 5years.

The initiative which wasstarted in January 2019 till beforethe lockdown was imposed inMarch 2020 has trained as manyas 850 workers, helpers and super-visors as early educators across thedistrict. As a part of the seven- daytraining process, the workers areequipped with developing appro-priate activities using naturallyavailable resources. The projectaims to not just improve the atten-dance of the children at theAnganwadi centres but alsoenhance their learning outcomeand make them ready for prima-ry school.“The initiative is a partof the big plan to revive the socialwelfare infrastructure whichincludes creating new Anganwadicentres and also repairing theexisting ones. The Anganwadisevikas are generally not giventraining from the teaching pointof view but with this project wehave managed to transform thecentres into early childhood edu-

cation centres. There has also been an

increase in the attendance of thechildren while a positive changecan also be seen in the motiva-tion level of the sevikas andsahayikas. Initially childrenwould just visit the centres formeals but now they are showinga keen interest in education aswell.

The project was also pub-lished by Niti Aayog as one of thebest practices being implement-ed,” said Deputy CommissionerChaibasa Arava Rajkamal.During the training process, thetrainers from Titli providedhands- on experience to thecandidates and inspired them toimplement similar practices withchildren at their respective cen-tres.

The trainees experiencedthe activities as children in a class-room and later conducted simi-lar ones with toddlers in the pres-ence of the Titli team members.

Sessions on how to com-municate with parents on thechild’s daily routine at the centrewere also held.

A time table was also pro-vided to the candidates for timemanagement and clarity of activ-ities to be conducted in a day. Inorder to motivate Anganwadiworkers for the programme,trainees who had already been apart of week- long sessions werefurther invited to share theirexperiences with the new

batch.“Initially on reaching thecentre, we would start looking forbooks to teach children somevery basic things like alphabetsand numbers. After beingtrained, I have realised that basicknowledge can be provided withthe naturally available resourcesat hand and that too in the child’smother tongue,” said a workerafter being trained requestinganonymity.“Working withAnganwadis has helped us expe-rience the beauty of learningfrom nature. It has been one ofthe most satisfying experiencesfor us till date.

Such training will help statesand districts to achieve the objec-tives of the New Education Policy2020 to enable universal accessfor high quality Early ChildhoodCare and Education across thecountry,” said the Founder andCEO of Titli Pranjal Modi.

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Page 3: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

RAIPUR | THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 3, 2020chhattisgarh 03

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constables posted in Chhattisgarh, Havildar Ravindra Kumar and Jitendra Narayan of 2nd Battalion Sukma andMrityunjay Nayak and Shiv of 74th Battalion Dornapal donated plasma for treatment of Covid-19 patients in Raipur. All four had recovered fromCovid-19 in June/July. CRPF Chhattisgarh Sector IG Prakash. D (IPS) felicitated them. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh recorded theworst ever single day

Covid caseload onWednesday with over 2,000fresh patients and 12 fatalitiesincluding a senior BJP leaderand former mayor.

Now the total number ofCovid positive patients in thestate has reached 35,330, theHealth Department said in itsdaily report.

The state recorded 12more Covid-19 fatalitiesincluding former mayor ofRajnandgaon Shobha Soniwho was a towering BJPleader in Rajnandgaon. Thetotal fatalities in Chhattisgarhhave now reached 299.

So far 35,330 personshave been detected coronapositive in Chhattisgarh

while 18,220 have been dis-charged from hospitals.Currently, there are 16,811active cases in the state.

Meanwhile, the central

government has announcedto rush a team toChhattisgarh to assist thestate in containing the sud-den burst in Covid cases.

Single-day Covid caseloadcrosses 2K, BJP leader dies

Tender Notice(1st Call)

Contractors, Registered appropriate class in UnifiedRegistration System [e-Registration] invited Onlinetenders for the following works :-

Last date of tender Download up to 21.09.2020 17:30 PM

Note :- All eligible/interested contractors are mandatedto get enrolled on the e-Procurement portal(https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in) in order to download thetender documents and participate in the subsequentbidding process.

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDING ENGINEERPUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, CIRCLE NO-1 RAIPUR (C.G.)

Superintending Engineer

P.W.D. Raipur Circle No-1

Raipur (C.G.)G- 83435/6 Ryp/Dtd 2.9.20

NIT.No./System

Tender No.

Name of Work Probableamount of

contract

1 2 3

77/65905 Construction of 4 Nos. ‘G’ Type Qtrs, 4

Nos. ‘H’ Type Qtrs and 8 Nos. ‘I’ Type

Qtrs in N.H. Colony, Pension Bada,

Raipur i/c Electrification Work.

Rs.166.97 Lakh

STAFF REPORTER nBILASPUR

With the arrest of twopersons, police in

Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur dis-trict on Wednesday claimedto have solved an online for-gery in which a retired seniorscientist of the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) lost`14.50 lakh in July.

Bilaspur Superintendentof Police Prashant Agrawaltold The Pioneer over phonethat the accused, GautamKumar (22) and NeerajKumar (18) of Nawada dis-trict in Bihar, have been takeninto custody.

Agrawal said the retiredscientist, C.L. Patel, whoresides in Uslapur locality inthe Sakri police station limits

of Bilaspur, complained thathe received a call on July 30from an unknown number.

Patel was told that he hadbeen selected in a lucky drawfor a first prize of a SUVworth `14.50 lakh. The caller

offered the victim to take theSUV or cash equivalent to itsvalue.

Citing his old age, thevictim expressed his intentionto take the cash. The callerthen asked Patel to deposit a

registration fee of `3,500 inan account number so thatthey could transfer the moneythrough e-banking. Patel didwhat he was told.

Meanwhile, the unknowncaller managed to obtain the

user ID and password of thevictim’s Internet banking andtransferred `14,50,994 to var-ious accounts through onlinebanking.

The victim asked thecallers to refund his money.

They did not do so. They didnot even respond to his calls.

Based on the technicalanalysis of the mobile num-bers used by the cheats, policefound their locations inNawada district. A joint teamof Chhattisgarh and Biharpolice raided a village inNawada and arrested the twomen.

During the interrogation,they admitted duping theretired scientist. They saidthey had accomplices butthey managed to escape.

Police have seized `5.36lakh in cash besides two lap-tops, 21 mobile phones, sixATM cards, eight bank passbooks, two memory cards,four Aadhaar cards, threevoter ID cards and a bankcheque book from theirpossession.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Amid rising Covid-19cases in Chhattisgarh,

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Wednesdayinstructed officials to increasethe number of beds inhospitals and Covid carecentres.

The Chief Minister alsoasked officials to create amobile application that couldinform people about thenumbers of empty beds inhospitals, an official pressrelease said.

This will help Covidpatients to decide which hos-pital to go to, the statementsaid.

By September 1, the num-bers of Covid cases hadcrossed 33,000 inChhattisgarh. The pandemic

has claimed 287 lives in thestate.

Baghel has asked officialsto add about 10,000 beds inRaipur alone. Raipur is nowthe Covid hotspot ofChhattisgarh. By September2, about 12,000 persons hadbeen detected Covid positive

in the city.Raipur has 6,287 active

patients and has seen 55deaths due to Covid.

The Chief Minister alsotold Durg, Bilaspur andRaigarh officials to induct2,000 fresh beds in eachdistrict.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

With Covid-19 positivecases shooting up across

the state, Chhattisgarh StateInformation Commission(CSIC) has banned all person-al appearance in cases of sec-ond appeal as well as com-plaints.

An order states that thepersonal appearance of appli-cant, complainant and PublicInformation Officer or FirstAppeal Officer remainsbanned till the next order.

Arguments and repliescan be submitted in writing tothe Commission through e-mail, WhatsApp and Fax.

Chhattisgarh Chief

Information CommissionerM.K. Raut told the media thatdue to rising number of casesof Covid-19, the Commissionis hearing the second appealand complaint cases throughvideo-conferencing.

The applicant, PublicInformation Officer and FirstAppeal Officer can appear forhearing at the video room ofthe National InformationCentre (NIC) in respectivedistricts and submit theirreply in written format.

Raut said the reply can besent on e-mail [email protected],fax number 0771-2512102 andWhatsApp number 9425502363.

State InformationCommissioner AshokAgrawal's allocated districtsare Surguja, Korea,Balrampur-Ramanujganj,Surajpur, Jashpur, Bastar,Kanker, Dantewada, Durg andRaipur. The email and faxnumbers are the same but hisWhatsApp number is 8109759698.

Information regarding thesecond appeal and complaintcases and hearing dates can becollected from the websitewww.siccg.gov.in,where thename of the appellant/com-plainant, case number andmobile number have to be reg-istered.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Road SafetyCommittee took several

decisions on Wednesday toput an end to recurring roadaccidents and ensuring safertraffic in Raipur.

The Committee decidedto end the ‘black spots’, thehighest accident-prone areas,by making necessarystructural changes.

Participating in themeeting held at the Red CrossSociety, MP Sunil Sonisuggested installing roadsigns in accident prone areas.He asked for betterarrangements for safer trafficmovement.

Raipur Collector S.Bharati Dasan pulled upofficials for delay in construc-tion work of the National

Highway and underlined theneed to complete projectswithin the time period. Hewarned of action of laxity isfound.

The Collector demanded

that all CCTVs installed oncity routes should beoperational. A five-membercommittee from the police,Transport Department, PWDand NHAI will inspect the

accident-prone zones andsubmit an inspection report.

The committee decidedto close illegal gaps on roadsand widen narrow roads. Itwas decided to construct a

50-metre divider fromAnupam Nagar Square toKhamardih-Kachna route,refurbish the Avanti BaiSquare and go for alternativeroutes.

The meeting also decidedto widen the SubashNagar-Naharpara to SanjayGandhi Square-towardsrailway station route, con-struct a divider betweenrailway station gates 1 and 2,build a divider from AnupamNagar Square to BTI ground,widen the road fromBhatagaon square toChandini Square-NehruNagar route for buses andprivate vehicles, and put uproad safety sign boards onVIP road.

Raipur MLA BrijmohanAgrawal, Raipur Mayor AijazDhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting.

‘Poshan Maah’ willhelp identify criticallymalnourished childrenRAIPUR: The whole ofSeptember will be observed as‘Poshan Maah’ in the countryduring which people will be madeaware of the importance of nutri-tion and critically malnourishedchildren will be identified,referred and managed.

During the month, HealthDepartment and Women andChild Development Departmentofficials will organize variousactivities to create public aware-ness on nutrition.

All the activities during'Poshan Maah' will be held ondigital platforms to comply withCovid-19 prevention guidelines.

Meanwhile, community sen-sitization through home visits andVillage Health and Nutrition Dayevents, public awareness on dis-eases and digital competition onthe topic of nutrition will beorganized.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The BJP on Tuesday dis-missed as "a political gim-

mick" Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel's plea to theCentre to provide Rs 2,828crores to Chhattisgarh as GSTcompensation for 2020-21 bytaking a loan from the RBIinstead of asking the states todo so.

State BJP PresidentVishnudeo Sai said in a state-ment that the Chief Ministerhad sought to increase theloan limit up to 6 percent inApril 2020. The extension wasgranted. He asked why theChief Minister did not takethe loan.

Sai said the Central gov-ernment had now given theoption to state governmentsto take loan. Instead the ChiefMinister was looking for a

new tactic to blame theCentral government. Thisamounts to indulging in"mean politics" amid theglobal pandemic.

He added that the stategovernment earlier soughtfrom the Centre three monthsfree ration, The Central gov-ernment announced freeration up to 5 months. Citingadequate quantities of rationwithin the state, this was notlifted.

The BJP leader accusedthe state government of fail-ing to prevent Covid-19 fromspreading across the state. Hesaid the state is seeking fundsfrom the Central governmentevery now and then.

He urged the ChiefMinister to ensure betterhealth services to citizens andrespect the federal structureingrained in the Constitution.

CM asks officials toincrease Covid beds

Baghel indulging inpolitical gimmick: BJP

Steps taken to end road accidents in Raipur CSIC bans appearance ofapplicants during hearing

Two who cheated ex-DRDO scientist arrested

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Taking note of complaintsthat admission fees were

being charged in someschools, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment made it clear onWednesday that admissions inschools is completely free.

“The Directorate of PublicInstructions had issued anorder that students will getfree admission in all govern-ment schools of the state gov-ernment. The DistrictEducation Officers were giventhe responsibility to ensurethis,” an official press releasesaid.

The order said there werecomplaints that some schoolsare, however, charging fees inthe name of Scouts, Red Cross,school development fund andother heads.

The statement said that

currently all educational insti-tutions are closed and there-fore no such charge should betaken from students.

Due to the Covid-19 pan-demic, all educational institu-tions including colleges anduniversities are shut for stu-dents. The state government isyet to decide the opening datesfor schools and colleges inChhattisgarh.

Govt schools notto charge anyadmission fee

There werecomplaints that

some schools are,however, chargingfees in the name ofScouts, Red Cross,school developmentfund and other heads

Page 4: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

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Upping the ante further,Chief Ministers of six

non-BJP-ruled dispensationshave written to the Centre toremind it of its "constitu-tional", "moral" and "legal"responsibilities in the stand-off over the �2.35 lakh-croreshortfall in GST compensa-tion and financial relief due tothe States. The States remind-ed the Centre it had a legalduty to reimburse States' lossof revenue in the first fiveyears of the GST regime.

The letter comes afterFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman last week dubbedthe pandemic an "act of God"and said it had hurt GST col-lection. She said the totalshortfall for fiscal 2021 was�97,000 crore and, includingcompensation because of thepandemic, states were owed�2.35 lakh crores.

The Centre asserted thatthese dues would be clearedbut not before saying that itwanted to stay clear of avoid-able borrowing when it couldbe done at the States’ levelfrom the markets. However,the States said this wouldaffect tax receipts after 2022,as they would have to repay

loans from future collections.The letters written by

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, Kerala CMPinarayi Vijayan, Delhi CMArvind Kejriwal, Tamil NaduEdappadi K Palaniswami,Telangana CM KChandrasekhar Rao andChhattisgarh CM BhupeshBaghel called on the Centre toreconsider its stance of askingstates to meet the shortfall byborrowing from the markets.Other CMs who are inprocess of writing to theCentre are Punjab CMAmarinder Singh hisRajasthan counterpart AshokGehlot, according to sources.

In her letter, Banerjeesaid the "GST imbroglio"amounted to a "betrayal" of

trust and reminded PrimeMinister Narendra Modi thatin December 2013 the solereason why BJP was opposingGST was because it did nottrust then government ofIndia in honouring GST com-pensation to states. "Today(those) words are ringing truein our ears as we are losingour trust in the BJPGovernment at the centre,"the Bengal Chief Ministerwrote.

Banerjee pointed out theCentre's repayment optionsrequired States to borrowmoney at a time when manyare unable to pay salaries toemployees. The centre, shesaid, was better placed toborrow since it would incur alower rate of interest than

States. The Kerala CM reminded

the Centre that "it was agreedupon that States would beassured of an annual com-pounded growth rate of 14per cent in GST revenue...during the initial five years"."From April 1, 2020, no com-

pensation has been released tothe states," he added.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said it was anextremely onerous burden onStates already reeling underfinancial crisis due to short-fall in revenue collectionsand increased commitment of

expenditure from COVID-19 response. Kejriwal too saidassurance of compensationto meet shortfall in collectionswas one of the pillars onwhich the entire GST edificerested.

Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister Edappadi K

Palaniswami, whose party isan alliance of BJP, said thatMacro-economic indicatorscount "overal l generalGovernment deficit and bor-rowing" and not who bor-rowed while Telangana ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao expressed concern over

“the Centre abdicating itsresponsibility of compensat-ing states”. And ChhattisgarhChief Minister BhupeshBaghel wrote: “You are wellaware that as per constitu-tional provisions the centre isaccountable for providingGST compensation,"

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Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on

Wednesday slammed PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andlisted issues such as GDPreduction, job losses, highestdaily COVID-19 cases andexternal aggression at the bor-der as "Modi-made disasters".

The party, for its part,attacked the Centre over thesuicides of farmers and labour-ers, citing data issued recentlyby the National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB).

Rahul has listed six issuesthe country is facing andtermed them as "Modi-madedisasters".

"India is reeling under

Modi-made disasters:Historic GDP reduction -23.9%, HighestUnemployment in 45 years,12 crore job loss, Centre notpaying States their GST dues,Globally highest COVID-19daily cases and deaths andExternal aggression at ourborders," Rahul Gandhitweeted.

Congress spokespersonRandeep Singh Surjewala ina series of tweets targeted thegovernment, alleging that theeconomic misery was caused

due to the "mismanagementof the BJP Government".

"In just one year, 2019, asmany as 42,480 farmers andlabourers died by suicide inthe country. The figures of

NCRB show that youth, farm-ers and daily wage labourersare the most affected by theeconomic misery due to themismanagement of BJP gov-ernment. Farmers were

forced to die by suicide andModiji remained seated withpursed lips," Surjewala said ina tweet in Hindi.

In another tweet ,Surjewala gave a breakup ofthe daily suicides based onthe NCRB data.

"A total of 116 farmersare forced to die by suicideevery day. Not only this, in2019, as many as 14,019unemployed people wereforced to died by suicidewhich means 38 unemployedpeople were forced to endtheir lives in a day. Most wor-rying is that these figures arefor the period before thecoronavirus pandemic. Modiji, how do you sleep at night?"he asked.

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As part of austerity measuresin view of the falling econ-

omy due to the Covid-19 pan-demic, the Centre has prohib-ited the printing of calendars,diaries, schedulers, coffee tablebooks and other printed mate-rials by all its ministries anddepartments and directed themto publish them in digital for-mat. The Government has alsostopped hospitality reimburse-ment until further orders.

Issuing the directives, theFinance Ministry cited globalbest practices and the adoptionof digital technologies toincrease productivity to back themove.

“Given the prevailing cir-cumstances in which the worldis increasingly moving towardsadopting digital force-multi-pliers for productivity, theGovernment of India hasdecided to follow this bestpractice,” it said in a state-ment.

It also said all public sectorunits and state-run banks alsohave been directed to go digi-tal in terms of these regularlyprinted materials.

“There is to be no activitytowards printing wall calendars,desktop calendars, diaries andother such material for use inthe coming year by anyMinistries/Departments/PSUs/PSBs and all other organs of thegovernment,” added the min-istry statement.

It noted that there is to bea concerted effort towardsincorporating innovative meth-ods in such matters. Usingtechnological innovations forplanning, scheduling and fore-casting is well known to be eco-nomical, efficient and effective,added the statement.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Governancemodel have always seen tech-nology as an enabler. Integratingtechnology into our work is inline with his vision,” it said.

Further, post the directive,coffee table books too won’t bepublished by the ministries andgovernment departments andenterprises.

The ministry directed thatinnovative digital and onlinesolutions, which will achieve the“same result” as physical calen-dars or diaries, are to be priori-tised and to be put into practice.

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India reported an average 381suicidal deaths per day in

2019 with the total number ofsuch fatalities standing at1,39,123 during the year,according to the latest datareleased by the National CrimeRecords Bureau (NCRB).

The figures for 2019 suggesta 3.4 per cent jump in suicides(1,39,123) in contrast to 2018(1,34,516) and 2017 (1,29,887),according to the data.

The rate of suicide (inci-dents per 1 lakh population)marginally rose by 0.2 per centin 2019 over 2018.

The suicide rate in cities(13.9 per cent) was higher ascompared to all-India suiciderate (10.4 per cent) in 2019,revealed the NCRB statistics.

Suicide by ''hanging'' (53.6per cent), ‘consuming poison’(25.8 per cent), ''drowning'' (5.2per cent) and ''self-immola-tion'' (3.8 per cent) were theprominent means of commit-ting suicides during the year, thedata for 2019 highlighted.

Family problems (otherthan marriage-related issues)were behind 32.4 per cent of sui-cides, marriage-related prob-lems (5.5 per cent) and illness(17.1 per cent) togetheraccounted for 55 per cent of thetotal suicides in the country in

2019.For every 100 suicidal

deaths, 70.2 were male and29.8 females, as per the NCRBdata collated from the record-ed police cases.

About 68.4 per cent of themale victims were married,whereas the ratio was 62.5 percent for female victims.

Maharashtra topped the listin number of suicides with18,916 cases followed by 13,493in Tamil Nadu, 12,665 in WestBengal, 12,457 in MadhyaPradesh and 11,288 inKarnataka, accounting for 13.6per cent, 9.7 per cent, 9.1 percent, 9 per cent and 8.1 per centof total such casualties respec-tively.

These five states togetheraccounted for 49.5 per cent ofthe total suicides reported in thecountry and the rest 50.5 percent suicides were reported inthe remaining 24 States andseven Union Territories, thedata suggested.

Uttar Pradesh, the mostpopulous state, reported com-paratively lower percentageshare of suicidal deaths,accounting for only 3.9 percent of the total suicides in thecountry.

Maximum cases ofmass/family suicide werereported from Tamil Nadu (16)followed by Andhra Pradesh

(14), Kerala (11), Punjab (9) andRajasthan (7), reveals the NCRBdata.

As much as 12.6 per centsuicide victims were illiterate,16.3 per cent up to primarylevel, 19.6 per cent up to mid-dle level and 23.3 per cent up tomatric level. Just 3.7 per cent oftotal suicide victims were grad-uates and above in educationalqualification.

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The Union Ministry of Health onWednesday released Standard

Operating Procedures (SOPs) onpreventive steps such as maintain-ing physical distancing, mandato-ry use of face covers/masks, fre-quent hand-washing with soap atthe examination centres during theCovid-19 pandemic.

Arrangements for personalprotection gears like face cov-ers/masks, and other slogistic likehand sanitisers, soap, sodiumhypochlorite solution etc. have tobe made by the examination cen-tres.

Only asymptomatic staff andstudents can be allowed inside theexamination hall.

Also, only those examinationcenters which are outside the con-

tainment zone shallbe allowed to holdexaminations whileuniversities/ educa-tional institutions/examination con-ducting authorities/examination cen-tres may plan outthe examinationschedule in a stag-gered manner so asto avoid over-crowding at anyexamination centreon any day, as perthe guidelines.

Examinationcentres are fre-quented by a largenumber of students(as well as their par-ents) and staff tillthe entire durationof the exam andtherefore, it’s vital to

plan and conduct these examina-tions, while following specific pre-ventive measures, the Ministrysaid about the need for the guide-lines.

As per the SOP, the physicaldistancing of at least six feet is tobe followed at exam centres as faras feasible. The use of face cov-ers/masks should be made manda-tory. Frequent hand-washing withsoap for at least 40-60 seconds evenwhen hands are not visibly dirtyshould be practised. The use of

alcohol-based hand sanitisers (forat least 20 seconds) can be madewherever feasible. The installa-tion and use of Aarogya Setu Apphave also been advised to all, as faras feasible.

The examination centre shouldhave a designated isolation roomfor isolating any person who isfound symptomatic at the time ofscreening or during examination,till such time medical advice maybe sought, says the guidelines.

Entrances of exam centres

should have mandatory handhygiene and thermal screeningprovisions.

If any examination func-tionary/examinee fails to meet theself-dec-lara-tion

criteria, they shall not be allowedentry.

All staff and students to beallowed entry only if using facecover/masks.

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The NCRB data revealedthat 36 personnel of the

Central paramilitary forceslike BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP,SSB, NSG, Assam Rifles com-mitted suicide in 2019, takingthe toll such casualties to 433in the last six years. Out of the433 suicide deaths in theForces during the six-yearperiod, the least (28) numberof cases was reported in 2018and the maximum (175) in2014. The number was 60 in2017, 74 in 2016 and 60 in2015. As on January 1, 2019,the strength of the CAPFs was9,23,800 personnel.

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As the number ofCovid-19 cases

rises and patients seektreatment, the UnionHealth Ministry hasdeveloped frequentlyasked questions(FAQs) to furtherbuild the ICU/clinicalmanagement capaci-ties of doctors fortreatment of the crit-ical patients infectedby the virus.

For instance, theMinistry has clarifiedthat drugs likeRemdesivir andtocilizumab and plas-ma therapy are exper-imental therapies andshould not be used asempirical therapy forsuspected cases. It hasalso cautioned the

doctors handling theCovid-19 cases tocounsel and be empa-thetic with suchpatients as they tendto be in depression because ofa number of reasonsincluding staying inisolation, anxietyrelated to disease andsocial stigma, amongothers.

“Remdesivir andTocilizumab shouldbe used only inproven Covid-19patients, where clini-cally indicated,” theministry said, under-lining that there is noevidence to supportthe use of these twodrugs in asympto-matic patients withcomorbidities.

As far as the role

of plasma therapy isconcerned, the FAQssaid that convales-cent plasma collectedfrom ABO matcheddonors with highneutralizing titers canbe given to patients atrisk of developingsevere Covid in earlystages of the disease.However, it shouldalso be considered ane x p e r i m e n t a l therapy and shouldbe used with caution, it stated.

In one of theanswers, the ministrysaid, Tocilizumab isan experimental ther-apy, has a limited role,and should be usedonly in patients withcytokine syndromeafter ruling out activeinfections.

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With an increasing number of non-Covid patients being admit-ted in the emergency department of the AIIMS here, hospital

authorities have suspended routine OPD admissions in general andprivate wards for two weeks. However, routine OPD services to enablepatients seek medical advice and counselling, which were recentlyresumed will continue. (Archana)

To accommodate the increasing number of serious non-COVIDpatients in the emergency department of the All Indian Institute ofmedical Sciences (AIIMS) here, hospital authorities have suspendedroutine OPD admissions in general and private wards for next twoweeks.

However, routine OPD services to enable patients seek medicaladvise and counselling, which were recently resumed will continue,AIIMS Medical Superintendent, Dr D K Sharma, said.

"In view of the need to optimise usage of available inpatient bedsfor hospitalisation of seriously ill emergency/semi-emergency patients,it has been decided to temporarily stop routine OPD admissions togeneral wards as well as private wards in AIIMS hospital and all cen-tres with immediate effect for a period of two weeks which will bereviewed after that," a circular issued by Sharma said.

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In further easing of restric-tions, the Government on

Wednesday permitted Indianairlines to increase the number of

domestic passenger flights to 60per cent of their pre-COVID ser-vices, according to an officialorder.

On June 26, the Ministry ofCivil Aviation had allowed theairlines to operate a maximum of

45 per cent of their pre-COVIDdomestic flights.

The ministry had restarteddomestic passenger servicesfrom May 25, after a gap of twomonths due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

However,the airlines wereallowed to oper-ate not morethan 33 per centof their pre-COVID domes-tic flights.

Modifyingits previousorder of June 26where it had putthe 45 per centlimit on thenumber ofdomestic flights,the ministryissued an orderon Wednesdaystating that, "45per cent capac-ity may be readas 60 per centcapacity."

The averageoccupancy ratein domesticflights sincetheir resump-tion in India onMay 25 hasbeen around50-60 per centonly.

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Page 5: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

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Jammu: A JuniorCommissioned Officer(JCO) of the IndianArmy was martyred in aceasefire violation byPakistan on the line ofcontrol in Rajouri dis-trict on Wednesday.

The JCO receivedcritical injuries during'unprovoked' ceasefireviolation by the Pakistan Army.

According to official sources,“the JCO identified as SubedarRajesh Kumar was deployed at aforward post in the Tarkundi sec-tor when the Pakistani Army start-ed targeting several forward postsin the area”. In response, Indianarmy too retaliated strongly andeffectively to silence the Pakistaniguns.

This is the second incidentwhere a JCO of the Indian armymade a supreme sacrifice in the last

four days. Earlier,another JCO identi-fied as NaibSubedar RajwinderSingh,hailing fromAmritsar, hadattained martyrdomin the Nowsherasector of Rajouri onAugust 30.

M e a n w h i l e ,fresh ceasefire violations werereported from Kirni and Qasba sec-tors of Poonch late Wednesdayevening.

According to a Jammu basedMinistry of Defence Spokesman Lt-Col Devender Anand, “a JCO wasmartyred in the forward area ofRajouri while fresh ceasefire vio-lation was reported along the lineof control in Qasba and Kirni sec-tors of Poonch on Wednesday”. Hesaid, the Indian Army retaliatedbefittingly. PNS

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Two people including a 70-years-oldcorona positive woman died. 136

people, including a senior municipalcorporation official, have been foundinfected took the cumulative number ofcovid-19 cases in the district to 4603.Today 117 patients recovered andreturned to their homes. Current activecases in the district are 1410. In the lastfive months, 97599 people have beentested.

Today, a 65-year-old man, residentof Rafatganj, infected with the coronavirus, died at around 7 a.m. He was alsoa diabetic patient and was admitted toPandit Deendayal Upadhyaya JointHospital since 29 August. According toCMS Dr. AB Singh, death is expectedto be due to cardiac arrest. The seconddeath was recorded in SJD hospital

where a 70-years-old woman, residentof Gyan Sarovar, was admitted.

Today, 136 people were recordedpositive in JN Medical College, PanditDeendayal Upadhyay Joint Hospital,Private Lab and Antigen Test. A totalof 2717 samples were screened. Amongthe infected people, 69 are young and49 are women and a senior municipalofficial is also included. However,being a resident of Prayagraj, his nameis not included in the list. 7 people werefound infected in Brija Nagla, 6 in SaraiMan Singh, 5 in KarpoorinagarNaurangabad and 2 recorded in JNMC.District Magistrate Chandra BhushanSingh said that infected people areeither admitted to covid-19 hospitals orrecommended home isolation based ontheir symptoms. Samples have beentaken for family members and they arekept in-home quarantine.

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When a voice rises fromAligarh, a city of lock and

education, it goes very far andwhen an issue is raised from thestudent’s platform then it willsurely make a headline.Something similar happenedon 12th December 2019, afterDr. Kafeel Khan's speech atBaab-e-Syed gate of AMU.

His provocative speechshook the administration andthe government. Special TaskForce was assigned to arrest Dr.Kafeel and on 29th January2020, STF arrested him fromMumbai airport. NSA has beenslapped on him which causeda political stir.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadraalso wrote a letter to the ChiefMinister in the favor of Dr.Kafeel Khan. Now after theHigh Court order, the entireopposition is putting the gov-ernment in the dock.

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Serious towards road accidents, theUttar Pradesh Government has decid-

ed to conduct a crash investigation on thelines of aircraft accidents. Uttar Pradeshis the first State in the country to con-duct such an investigation.

Agra to Noida via Aligarh YamunaExpressway has been selected for crashinvestigation. The government has start-ed survey work in association with SaveLife Foundation of Delhi.

Under this, suggestions will be madeafter studying various aspects of acci-dents. Separate nodal officers have beenappointed in each district from thetransport department and traffic police

to investigate the accidents on thisexpressway passing through five districts.Agra-Lucknow Expressway is proposedto be selected in the next phase.

Crash investigation happens in thecountry so far due to an aircraft accident.This investigation goes to the bottom ofthe accident, so that future types of acci-dents can be prevented. On the reportof the International Road Federation, acrash investigation of vehicle accidentswas started in Europe and Britain.

A technical examination of theaccident-prone vehicle is done to findout the cause of the accident. Researchis done on the length, width, height ofthe road and the materials used to makeit.

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Dr C V Krishnaswami andhis team of medical

researchers based out ofChennai have come out with aGrand Health Ensurance Plan,a revolutionary, completelytransparent and inclusivehealth insurance model to pro-vide health for all at unbeliev-ably low premiums.

Dr Krishnaswami, 82-year-old medical scientist and awidely respected diabetologist,studied all health insuranceschemes operational in manydeveloped countries likeBritain, USA (National Health Service ) and under-stood their shortcomingsbefore developing a scheme inwhich the rich pay for theirhealth insurance with whichthe poor too would get quali-ty medical care.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Dr Krishnaswami said theexorbitant costs charged bycorporate and private hospitalswere the direct result of the lob-bying by pharma companiesthat saw big opportunities inconverting Healthcare intoMedical care.

“The focus shifted fromhealth oriented to economy ori-

ented. Mortality rates due toAdverse Drug Reaction andunnecessary interventions shotup many fold,” he explained.

The attraction of thisscheme is that those who earn�30,000 per month and theirfamilies need not pay any-thing for the health insuranceand they will get quality med-ical care which the rich gets incorporate hospitals.

Dr Krishnaswamidescribes the NHS as a polit-ically controlled State monop-oly that is inefficient, outdatedand unsustainable.

“It sentences thousands ofcritically ill people to death byputting them on waiting lists ayear or more long or by deny-ing them life-saving drugsmade in Britain and exportedelsewhere. Britain has themost nationalised health ser-vice in the developed world andsuffers the consequence of hav-ing the worst health service inthe developed world in never-ending crisis causing unneces-sary misery and premature death,” said DrKrishnaswami quoting from areport by The King’s Fund, anorganisation that gives insighton health and care policies.

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After the Congress it is the turnof the Trinamool Congress to

express concerns about theFacebook’s alleged prejudicialways. In a letter to FB CEO chiefMark Zuckerberg, TMC leader inRajya Sabha Derek O’ Brien hassaid that his party has enough evi-dence to substantiate the chargesthat the virtual platform wasbiased towards the BJP which hasin fact come up as a strong con-tender for capturing power inBengal in the next year’s Assemblyelections.

Referring to the company’salleged role during the 2014 and2019 general elections, O’Briensaid as India’s second-largest

opposition party, the TrinamoolCongress has had “serious con-cerns about Facebook’s role dur-ing the 2014 and 2019 generalelections in India.”

Expressing his apprehensionsabout the FB’s alleged political biasin controlling the collective polit-ical mind of the electorate hequestioned the company’s act ofblocking some of Facebook pageswhich was anything but impartial.

“With the elections in theIndian state of West Bengal justmonths away, your company’srecent blocking of Facebook pagesand accounts in Bengal also pointsto the link between Facebook andthe BJP. There is enough materi-al now in the public domain,including internal memos of

senior FB management, to sub-stantiate the bias,” O'Brien said.

Informing that the TMCraised the matter in Parliament inJune last year, he said “We wereoptimistic that the issues andconcerns we raised on the floor ofParliament 14 months ago wouldempower other political parties and the media to alsoaddress this substantiveissue.” Earlier the Left leadershiphad also expressed concern at theincreased meddling of the ITplatforms in the Indian politicalaffairs “controlling electionprocess.” Senior Left leader SamikLahiri said “if this is not allowingIndia to be re-colonised by theforeign capitalist interests thenwhat is.”

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Measurement of handgrip strengthon dynamometer could be a sim-

ple way to help identify patients at riskof developing type 2 diabetes,researchers have said after measuring themuscular handgrip strength of 776men and women without a history ofdiabetes over a 20-year period.

The study is published in the jour-nal Annals of Medicine.

In the 779 study subjects, the riskof type 2 diabetes was reduced byaround 50 per cent for every unitincrease in handgrip strength value, saidscientists at the universities of Bristol andEastern Finland in a paper published inthe journal Annals of Medicine.Reduced muscular strength, which canbe measured by handgrip strength, hasconsistently been linked to early death,cardiovascular disease and disability.

Until recently, there was inconsistentevidence on the relationship betweenhandgrip strength and type 2 diabetes.

In a recent literature review of 10 pub-lished studies on the topic, the sameresearchers demonstrated that peoplewith higher values of handgrip strengthhad a 27 per cent reduced risk of devel-oping diabetes.

However, while findings from thisreview suggested handgrip strengthcould potentially be used to predict type2 diabetes, researchers needed to testthis formally using individual patientdata.

In the latest study, the researchersfrom Bristol Medical School and EasternFinland’s Institute of Public Health andClinical Nutrition followed 776 men andwomen aged 60-72 years without a his-tory of diabetes over a 20-year periodand measured the power of their handgrip strength using a handgripdynamometer.

Patients were asked to squeeze thehandles of the dynamometer with theirdominant hand with maximum iso-metric effort and maintain this for fiveseconds.

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Abrupt diversion of AanganwadiWorkers (AWWs) towards

Covid-19-related tasks has disrupt-ed their usual activities of providingfood supplementation under ICDSwhich is likely to increase the num-ber of underweight kids by millions,researchers have said.

They have called for modifiedparameters that focus on borderlinechildren for better identification ofat-risk groups and calibrate policyimplementation accordingly.

Researchers from IndianInstitute of Health ManagementResearch (IIHMR) University notedthat a 0.5 per cent weight loss inthese children, belonging to thepoorest 20 per cent of households inRajasthan will add about 20,849 and144,460 cases of underweight andseverely underweight children,respectively, to the country’s exist-ing burden.

Led by Dr Sunil Rajpal, AsstProfessor, Health Economics,IIHMR University, the study titled‘Living on the Edge’, has been pub-lished in the Journal of ‘Global

Health Science’.“Precision targeting is one of

the fundamental requirements

of any development policy or pro-gramme. However, the success ofsuch interventions depends on howprecisely the policy can identify thetarget, i.e. at-risk population. Stateslike Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are atrisk of experiencing a relativelymuch larger increase due to a high-er population base along with massin-migration. Therefore, it is imper-ative to escalate the efforts forrestoring the ground-level nutritioninterventions,” said Dr Rajpal.

“People belonging to the poor-est section of society are mostlyemployed in the unorganised sector.They have been pushed to the brinkdue to a lack of access to the rightfood and widespread job loss. Thismakes ensuring food supply tothese people an imperative. Failingto provide them, especially children,the requisite nutrition will havelong-term health and economicconsequences for India,” said Dr P.R.Sodani, Pro President, IIHMRUniversity.

According to Government data,as many as 115 million childrenbetween the ages of 6 and 14 aredependent on school lunches fortheir daily dietary requirements,which aimed to address India’schronic malnutrition problem.

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Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmirrecorded 641 fresh cases of thenovel coronavirus, raising thetally to 38,864 while the deathtoll from the disease rose to 732with 15 fatalities in the past 24hours, officials said onWednesday.

Among the new COVID-19 cases, 274 were from theJammu region, while 367 fromthe Kashmir Valley.

Jammu district reported amaximum of 167 new cases,followed by 131 in Srinagar dis-trict, the officials said.

There are 8,053 activeCOVID-19 cases in the UnionTerritory, while 30,079 patientshave recovered from the infec-tion so far, they said. PNS

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In a major spike in infections, Maharashtraon Wednesday logged an all-time high of

17,433 new infected cases, while 292 morepeople succumbed to the pandemic in var-ious parts of the state.

In a development that put the statehealth machinery in a spot of bother,Maharashtra notched a record of sorts byrecording 17,433 cases, surpassing the high-est-ever daily infection tally of 16,867recorded on August 29.

With fresh infections, the total numberof infections jumped from Tuesday’s figureof 8,08,306 to 8,25,739.

With fresh deaths, the total number ofdeaths in the state crossed 25,000 mark totouch 25,195.

Of the 292 deaths reported onWednesday, Pune topped the list with 39deaths, while there were 38 in Nagpur, 34in Mumbai, 21 in Thane, 20 each in Nashikand Kolhapur, 15 each in Jalgaon, Sangli andPalghar, 13 in Solapur and 11 in Raigad.

Similarly, on the lower side, there were7 deaths in Latur, 6 each in Satara andOsmanabad, 5 in Ahmednagar, 4 in Gondia,3 each in Nandurbar, Amravati andYavatmal, 2 each in Dhule, Ratnagiri andJalna and one death each in Aurangabad,Hingoli, Parbhani, Beed, Nanded, Buldhana

and Bhandara. In addition, one person fromanother state died in Maharashtra.The dis-tricts like Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur, Jalgaon,Sangli and Palghar witnessed big spikes,while as many as six districts witnessed zerodeaths.

With 34 fresh deaths, Mumbai’s Covid-19 toll rose from 7,693 to 7,727, while theinfections increased by an alarming 1,622 totouch 148,569.

Pune district with 1,82,212 infected casescontinued to be the worst-affected city-dis-trict in Maharashtra. The number of deathsin Pune increased from 4121 to 4160.

Thane district remained on the thirdspot --after Pune and Mumbai – with1,35,604 total cases, while the pandemic tollrose from 3840 to 3861.

In a related development, as many as13,959 patients were discharged from hos-pitals in the state after full recovery, takingthe total number of patients discharged fromvarious hospitals after full recovery since thesecond week of March this year inched clos-er to 6 lakh figure to touch 5,98,496. Therecovery rate stood at 72.48 per cent. Themortality rate in the state is 3.05 per cent.The state health authorities pegged the num-ber of “active cases” in the state at 2,01,703.

Out of 42,84,000 samples sent to labo-ratories, 8,25,739 have tested positive (19.27per cent) for COVID-19 until Wednesday.

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Page 6: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

Last year, visiting Arab princes fromSaudi Arabia and United ArabEmirates (UAE) were given Pakistani

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s privilegedtreatment of personally chauffeuring themin a bit to dial up charm offensives. Pakistan’ssituation was precarious as its coffers weredangerously depleted and in dire need ofArab largesse. Also embarrassingly forPakistan, both monarchies had justexpressed displeasure at the Pulwama ter-ror attack. While the princes did loosen theirpurse strings and provide generous finan-cial support, something was amiss. Soon theUAE announced its highest civilian award,i.e. Order of Zayed, for the Indian PrimeMinister for boosting “comprehensive strate-gic ties.” A few years earlier, the Saudis hadconferred their highest award, KingAbdulaziz Sash, on the Indian PrimeMinister.

Whispers of Pakistani unreliability andundercutting were gaining credence inRiyadh and Abu Dhabi – the Arab monar-chies were picking signs of trapeze artistImran Khan’s growing dalliances with theirnemesis of Turkey, Malaysia, Qatar and Iran.In the imploding world of Organisation ofIslamic Countries (OIC), fissures havedeveloped, and new power centres areemerging to the discomfiture of Saudi-UAEled Gulf Sheikhdoms. Within that churn,Pakistan is no longer perceived as a depend-able ally.

This sudden dissonance was contrary toPakistan’s traditional status as Saudi Arabia’s“closest Muslim ally.” From supportingPakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, oppos-ing the creation of Bangladesh, supportingPakistani machinations in Afghanistan andKashmir, to even supposedly funding the“Islamic Bomb,” the Saudis were once themost generous Pakistani supporters.Pakistanis had reciprocated by providingsecurity to Saudi Arabia in terms of military,training and weaponry, as also affording thesingular honour of taking Riyadh into con-fidence before conducting its atomic tests.The Saudis also entrusted the formerPakistani Military Chief, General RaheelSharif, to lead the Riyadh-based 41 nation,Islamic Military Counter-TerrorismCoalition (IMCTC). UAE was part of thistriumvirate and had conjointly recognisedthe Pak-backed Taliban government inAfghanistan and was the only countryalong with Saudi Arabia to hail the Pakistaniatomic tests as a “bold decision.” Also, ener-gy, commerce and expat repatriation madeboth these Sheikhdoms life-sustaining forgovernments in Islamabad. Above all, the co-religiosity and the Shariaisation project ofPakistani dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, in the80s was principally funded and abetted bythese two nations. UAE’s founding father,Sheikh Zayed, used to consider Pakistan hissecond home and when Dubai’s airlineEmirates was launched, it was PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA) that the Emiratis

turned to. The cash-rich Arabroyalty was feted and they treat-ed beholden Pakistan as theirbackyard, with private houbaragrouse hunting trips arrangedfor their princelings.

But the times soon changedand new considerations andurgencies kicked in with the“war on terror,” Arab Spring,deepening of sectarian faultlinesand the independent assertionof countries like Turkey. ButPakistan refused to change itsways and was embarrassinglycaught harbouring global terror-ist Osama Bin Laden till he was“taken out” and continued play-ing havoc in Kashmir andAfghanistan. Pakistan alsorefused to participate in theSaudi-UAE’s war in Yemen,fearing sectarian repercussionson its own soil, to the chagrin ofRiyadh and Abu Dhabi. ButPakistan’s unpardonable undo-ing with the Saudi-UAE duo wasits growing proximity withTurkey and assuming over-enthusiastically that it couldnow flex its muscle within theummah with the support ofTurkey. While countries likeTurkey, Malaysia, Qatar andIran have historically claimed“fraternal” relations withPakistan – they are nothingcompared to the financial, ener-gy, diplomatic and strategicsupport that had been given bythe Arab duo. Imran Khan hadungratefully partaken the

opportunity to cock a snook athis biggest benefactors.

Pakistani Foreign MinisterShah Mehmood cuttinglyaccused the Saudi-led OIC of“dilly-dallying” on Kashmir andin an unprecedented manneralluded to breaking ranks bysaying, “I’ll be compelled to askPrime Minister Imran Khan tocall a meeting of the Islamiccountries that are ready to standwith us on the issue of Kashmir.”The Arab duo noted the impliedimport of the loaded statementthat intended to shame themand repercussions soon fol-lowed.

They decided to halt theircrucial three-year aid plan toPakistan after just a year. Theyrepeatedly snubbed Pakistanon Kashmir. UAE faced thewrath of “Boycott UAE” trend-ing on Pakistani social media, asit was postured that only Turkey“stood by” Islamabad. To makematters worse for an increasing-ly isolated Pakistan, UAE hasnow recognised Israel and thathas weakened Pakistan’s abilityto rake up issues like Palestineand more specifically, Kashmir,as the practicalities of the loom-ing economic crisis, fight againstCovid pandemic, fight againstextremism and quest for region-al peace override all manufac-tured passions of Islamabad.Pakistan’s duplicity of terror isglobally established and its abil-ity to run with the hare and hunt

with the hound on terrorism inKashmir is becoming indefen-sible for one-time allies likeSaudi Arabia and UAE, whoseek progressive equations withthe West, India and even Israel.Meanwhile, Pakistan is harpingand walking the opposite direc-tion of revisionism and religiousextremism.

It has tried to mend fencesby dispatching the Chief of theArmy Staff to Riyadh but SaudiCrown Prince Mohammed BinSalman refused to meet GeneralQamar Bajwa. Imran Khan isboxed into a tight corner as theSaudi-UAE duo has called thebluff on Pakistan trying to be tooclever by half with Turkey andhas made normalcy condition-al to Islamabad reneging onAnkara. Abandoning Turkey atthis stage will lead to a loss offace for Pakistan as it will countas yet another act of Pakistan’spatented untrustworthiness andunreliability. Clearly ImranKhan has bitten more than hecan chew – he remains saddledwith a flailing economy, disrupt-ed aid lifelines, isolation amonghis traditional allies and a self-ish agenda of Kashmir, in whichnot too many are interested. Theproverbial chickens are cominghome to roost as Pakistan mullsover yet another botched act ofbiting the hand that fed it.

(The author is former LtGovernor of Andaman &Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

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Sir — This refers to the report,‘Road deaths up despite tougherMVA,’ in The Pioneer onSeptember 2. It is a matter ofgrave concern that the nationalCapital tops in fatalities causedby road accidents. Although it isthe drivers who are heldaccountable for the fatalities inmost of the mishaps, one cannotoverlook the poor infrastructureof the roads as a serious cause.

During an inspection by theofficials of the Public WorksDepartment last year, more than2,000 major potholes were foundon the roads of Delhi.

This is terribly alarming aspotholes are one of the biggestcauses of fatal accidents, espe-cially where two-wheelers areconcerned. Besides this, brokenfootpaths, dislocated kerbstones, pillars in the middle ofthe road in many places anduncontrolled growth of treesaffecting traffic flow are some ofthe other anomalies whichaccount for the increasing num-ber of road accidents in thecountry.

It is distressing to note thatIndia ranks first in the world in

terms of road accidents with1.46 lakh fatalities annually asper the latest report of theInternational Road Federation,Geneva. The Government must

review this report and takeurgent action to improve the sit-uation and put an end to thesemeaningless deaths that can beavoided with a little bit of plan-

ning and competence by theauthorities. Of course, we needto change our behaviour, too.

Tushar AnandPatna, Bihar

����������������Sir — Just around four years ago,the IMF chief had extolled theIndian economy as the “brightspot in the dim and dusty globaleconomic scenario.” It would beeasy to say an evil eye caused oureconomy to get eclipsed soonafter. But there were too manybad decisions. First, it suffered therash of demonetisation. Then itgot trapped in lakhs of crores ofNPAs, the decimation of MSMEsand joblessness. Demonetisationproduced no black money either,the raison d’être of an exercisewith historical consequences andprecedence.

Tughlaq had done much thesame in shifting the capital fromDelhi to Daulatabad and back.But the return trip of a bounc-ing economy, never easy in thebest of times, has now been sav-aged by the Coronavirus. TheFM has already classified thispandemic as an “act of God.”The disastrous demonetisation,too, could be bracketed in thisclassification. God help us!!

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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The outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus in thecity of Wuhan in China towards the end of lastyear became a major health emergency and

a global pandemic. Over the last 10 months or so,different parts of the world have been the epicen-tres of this contagion. Governments around theworld have reacted to this unprecedented situationby taking extreme measures like closing internation-al borders and air space, imposing restrictions ondomestic travel, prohibiting huge gatherings likesporting or religious events, shutting down enter-tainment hubs and educational institutes. The tollof the virus on both personal and economicaspects has been tremendous with the huge loss ofhuman lives and slowdown of economies around theworld impacting several industries and the finan-cial markets. Governments have responded by pro-viding a slew of measures to aid the ailing industryby providing liquidity and slashing interest rates,among others.

The insurance industry is one such industry thathad to react quickly to this situation to develop newproducts in the face of the growing spread of theCoronavirus and the socio-economic uncertaintiesit brought in its wake. Lack of education and aware-ness have been the main reasons for India beinglargely under-insured, particularly in the area ofhealth insurance, with only 18 per cent of the urbanand 14 per cent of the rural population availing pro-tective schemes. The Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority (IRDA) recently made theavailability of the standard health policy, CoronaKavach, mandatory. Though it can’t replace the nor-mal mediclaim policy, and all standard indemnitypolicies are covering Coronavirus in India, if peo-ple don’t have a health insurance, or if they are notadequately covered by their health insurance, itwould make a lot of sense to buy this special poli-cy. Especially given the fact that India now has near-ly 37,69,523 confirmed cases of COVID-19, thethird-highest in the world after the US and Brazil.There are no drugs as yet to fully cure patients andwork on the vaccines for the virus is still in the trialstages.

While most people with mild symptoms recov-er with the medicines prescribed by doctors, inextreme cases, infected people require hospitalisa-tion and ventilator support. That is where the billsgo up exponentially and this is where a person whodoes not have health insurance or whose cover isnot adequate will be most vulnerable as the out ofpocket expense will be huge. The features ofCorona Kavach are very standard and cover bothindividuals and families, and it is available in onebasic mandatory cover offered on indemnity basisand one optional cover available on benefit basis.Corona Kavach is a single premium plan where thesum insured is in the multiples of �50,000 where themaximum sum insured is �5 lakh, minimum being�50,000. Not only is the Corona Kavach a standard-ised policy, which is uniform across all the insur-ers, it is also very comprehensive, covering home-care and Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha andHomeopathic treatment, PPE and treatment of co-morbidities when hospitalised, including any ven-tilator and ICU charges, ambulance cost upto �2,000,pre and post-hospitalisation care upto a certain num-ber of days and daily cash allowance of 0.5 per centof the sum insured for a certain number of days.Some insurers do not have a cap on the room rentas long as the room availed is a single private one.

Then there is the Corona Rakshakwhich is an optional benefit-based coverthat can be issued by life insurance com-panies also in addition to health and gen-eral insurance firms. The maximum suminsured is �2.5 lakh, which is offered aslumpsum and can be used at will, espe-cially during home quarantine, on treat-ment, medicines and for nursing charges.The tenure of the policy and waiting peri-od remains the same as that of CoronaKavach. The requirement for claim in theCorona Kavach policy is a positive diag-nosis of Coronavirus from a Government-authorised centre and hospitalisation for24 hours. For Corona Rakshak, otherthings being same, the hospitalisationrequirement is for 72 hours. One is alsounsure of the amount of additional coverrequired if an health insurance policy isa part of the portfolio. An individualshould have a health insurance cover of�8-10 lakh, so depending on this, an addi-tional coverage of Corona Kavach can betaken, to top up your existing health pol-icy. But remember to choose a top-upCorona Kavach policy from the samecompany as your basic health policy toclaim cashless benefits for both. In mostof the cases, co-morbidities will also becovered during the claims. The premiummay vary from as low as �127 per monthto as high as �14,927, based on the suminsured, availing family cover, age of theinsured and so on. The IRDA has givena go-ahead to 29 general and health insur-ance companies, both State-owned andprivate, to market the Corona Kavach pol-icy. Some of the prominent State-ownedinsurers marketing this policy are SBIGeneral Insurance, National Insurance,New India Assurance, Oriental Insuranceand United India Insurance. Otherrenowned private players include AckoGeneral Insurance, ICICI LombardGeneral Insurance, HDFC ERGO General

Insurance and Star Health and AlliedInsurance among others. So how do youchoose the insurance company? There aresome factors, among others, that can helpyou make a wise decision.

Affordability: Choose an insurancecompany that can provide these policiesat an affordable premium.

Choose family coverage: It is alsoimportant to cover your entire family and,therefore, choose an insurance companythat offers coverage to family.

Network: A health emergency canstrike you, anytime and anywhere.Therefore, choose an insurance compa-ny that has a wide network of hospitalsaround the world.

Healthy claim settlement ratio:Choose an insurer who has a high claimsettlement ratio, which means it settlesmore claims than others when comparedto the total claims received.

Although the Corona Kavach is verycomprehensive, there are still circum-stances which are not covered. First, if thediagnosis is negative or not from aGovernment-approved centre. Second, ifhospitalisation is not required and thepatient undergoes only day care proce-dures. Third, if medicines are bought with-out proper prescription; fourth, if the treat-ment is availed outside India and fifth anyvaccination, inoculation expenses used forprevention of the condition are not cov-ered in the policy. So we have to be care-ful about different situations under whichour claims may not be processed. One ofthe reasons a claim may not be approvedis the choice of the line of treatment. It isa grey area as only treatments, which areapproved by the Indian Government, arerecognised by the health insurers. Forexample, the recently-tried plasma ther-apy is not officially recognised by theGovernment. The insurance companiesare claiming that they have eased their

norms to make it easier for their customersto settle claims, like accepting email sub-missions and in some cases, on meetingcertain conditions, without policy docu-ments. The LIC settled more than 561COVID-19 death claims amounting tonearly �27 crore till the last week of July.Although this data looks impressive,there are a number of cases where the kinof Corona warriors like doctors andnurses, who died of Coronavirus, are bat-tling to claim the insurance money. Redtapism is making their lives hell and thefamilies of the deceased health workers arestruggling to prove that they contractedthe deadly infection in the line of duty toclaim the �50 lakh insurance provided bythe Government.

In some cases, insurance claims werenot approved of doctors and nurses wholaid down their lives in taking care ofpatients as they were not CentralGovernment employees. Although theGovernment has provided an insurancescheme for frontline workers like sanita-tion workers, ASHA workers, ward boys,paramedics, doctors, nurses and special-ists, it fails to cover their treatment and islimited to their death. Even after monthsinto this pandemic, several claims arerejected due to the confusion about the eli-gibility and other requirements buriedwithin the fine print of policy guidelinesof the insurance companies.

Although, the Government has takena positive step to introduce a standard pol-icy for battling Coronavirus, hospitalisa-tion and other medical costs associatedwith it, it should also make it easier for theclaims to be settled. Though the insurancemoney can never replace our loved ones,the bereaved family members can at leasthope to pick up the remaining threads oftheir lives with it.

(The writer is Associate Professor,Amity University, Noida)

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According to the PopulationCensus of 2011, there arenearly 104 million elderly

people (aged 60 years or above) inIndia, which has a ratio of 53 millionwomen and 51 million men. Areport released by the United NationsPopulation Fund (UNPF) andHelpAge India suggests that thenumber of elderly is expected to growto 173 million by 2026, which isroughly, 18 crore by the next sevenyears. That’s just a figure, thoughscary enough to tell the story of thechallenge we have right in front of us:Our elders and our responsibilitiestowards them.

Today, the world is facing anunprecedented crisis caused by aninvisible virus, which has the worstimpact on the elderly. However, this

susceptibility is not just limited to theCoronavirus as their immunity getscompromised as they age.

I would specifically like to drawattention to the elderly in HimachalPradesh as I belong to that beautifulState. The number of elderly peoplein Himachal is growing very fast.According to a United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP)report, Himachal has seven lakhpeople aged 60 years or more, whichis 10.2 per cent of the total popula-tion of the State, higher than thenational average of 8.6 per cent. Theelderly population in Himachal isprojected to grow at a rate of 3.1 percent annually and is expected to reach1.1 million by 2026, which will beabout 15 per cent of its total popu-lation by that year. A whopping 90per cent of the population lives inrural areas, so it can be said that anincreasing elderly population is amajor phenomenon in the ruralareas of Himachal.

The significant thing here isthat this elderly population is equal-ly distributed in these districts. As perCensus 2011, Hamirpur has 13.8 percent of the total population of theelderly, followed by Bilaspur (11.9 per

cent), Kangra (11.7 per cent) andAuna (11.5 per cent). Solan andSirmaur (8 per cent) have the lowestproportion of the elderly. Aboutthree-quarters of the elderly (71 percent) live with their family membersand they play an important role infamily decisions such as arrangingsocial and religious events, buyinghousehold items and property.

If we look at the lockdown thatwas imposed for more than 100 daysto deal with the Corona epidemic ina positive light, then it has given usan unprecedented opportunity tocommunicate and commune with theelders.

Things like sitting with them, lis-tening to their experiences, eatingtogether may seem to be insignificantor too small but through these, we areseeing the social institution calledfamily strengthened in society.Recently, in an online discussion heldby the Dadi Dada Foundation, a not-for-profit social organisation work-ing for the rights of the elderly inIndia, I put forth some points that canhelp create a good environment insociety for the elderly.

Give them your time: First,increase communication with the

elderly and spend time with them.Often we leave the elders to live intheir own world. Even if they wantto say something, we tend to ignoreit. This leads to a communication gap,which further gives rise to many psy-chological complexes in them andthat creates social disorder.

Discharge your duties towardsthem: Fulfil your duties towards theelderly and give them care and ser-vice. The obligation is to fulfil themoral and social needs of the elder-ly. Do not forget that to make youreach this point in life, they have dis-charged small responsibilities bydepriving themselves of many world-ly satisfactions.

Learn the rites, rituals and val-ues from the elders and adopt themfor life. Our children spend so muchtime on their mobile phones, gadgetsand so on but taking out time forgrandparents is not one of their pri-orities. Motivate children to receivevalues from their grandparents. Butfirst of all, apply these morals to yourlives as you can teach children morefrom your actions than words.

Make them your role model:Share the achievements of the elder-ly when you talk to the young ones

in your family. Today, our societylacks role models. We continue toseek role models in movies andbooks. Whereas in every householdyoungsters can be inspired by theachievements of their elders, fromtheir real life experiences and hardwork.

Take them along through thechanges in life: Often the elderly areleft out because of the rapid changesoccurring in our lifestyles. To dealwith that, we must include the eldersin our lifestyle changes. Often weassume that they would not be inter-ested in technology, fashion andsocial media and so on. However, itis not like that. At one time, our elderswere the drivers of change in theirgeneration. So we need to introducethem to changes in technology,lifestyle, innovation, social media andfashion in our generation.

Take advantage of their experi-ence: Take suggestions from them atevery turn of life. Later, it dependsupon you whether you fully accepttheir advice or not. But certainly, theirexperience will enrich your decision-making process. Experience-based onage cannot be acquired from a book,so take their opinion whenever there

is confusion or a new turn in yourlife. You will see that some positivesolution will always come out of theconversation to the challenge you arefacing.

Don’t leave them alone: Today,the biggest challenge for the elderlyis increasing loneliness and mentaldepression. In the metropolitan citiesin their pursuit of material things,children are lagging in the dischargeof their duties towards the parentsand grandparents.

Just by managing their carebased on financial help, you cannotassume hundred per cent executionof, and exemption from, your duties.After the birth of a child, untilhe/she begins to speak and walk, thepresence of the mother is indispens-able for the kid. In the same way,elders expect the same affection andintimacy from their children after atime.

Financial support is a must: Asage progresses, the needs and pref-erences of the elderly change. Theywill have to be provided with finan-cial security for every requirementincluding medicines, treatment, foodand clothes. Support them financial-ly if they are not independent and get

banking services and facilities forthose who have pension and othersocial security assistance from theGovernment or other organisations.

Do keep in mind that the elder-ly are the pillars of our society. Thestronger we make them, the strongerthe all-round development of oursociety and nation will be. For thewelfare and care of the elderly, wemust protect the already existingsocial support systems and tradition-al social institutions such as the fam-ily and kinship, neighbourhoodbonding, community bonding andcommunity participation.

Recently we celebrated SeniorCitizen’s Day and Ganesh Chaturthi.Remember the mythological story ofGanesha? To prove his superiority,Ganesha’s brother Karthik went offon a journey of the three worlds whileGanesha simply circumambulated hisparents. When asked why he did so,he answered that his parents Shivaand Parvati constituted the threeworlds and thus he was given the fruitof knowledge. Do give your parentsand grandparents that status in life.

(The writer is General Manager,Corporate Communications, withPower Grid Corporation of India)

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Joe Biden plans to hammerPresident Donald Trump on

Wednesday for not helping thenation’s schools reopen safelyduring the coronavirus pan-demic, as the Democratic chal-lenger tries to keep the spot-light on the Republican incum-bent’s handling of the out-break and the nation’s overallsecurity.

Biden and his wife, Jill, alongtime college professor andformer high school teacher, willmeet with public health expertsto talk about school reopeningoptions.

Then the candidate willdeliver remarks – his secondspeech in three days – outlin-ing his ideas and accusing thepresident of making the coun-try less safe.

The event in Wilmington,Delaware, is the latest in a seriesof dueling efforts by Trump andBiden to cast the other as athreat to Americans’ day-to-day security.

It will highlight their vast-

ly different arguments, withTrump steering debate toward“law and order” and Bidenpushing a broad referendum onTrump’s competence.

“President Trump has noplan,” said Biden adviserSymone Sanders, previewingthe former vice president’sremarks on schools and thepandemic. “Instead,” she con-tinued, “he thinks that a fear-mongering campaign stokingviolence is going to help him.”

Biden, she said, “is demonstrating what a safeAmerica could look like” bytalking to experts about schooloptions in a pandemic, whileTrump tries to capitalize on the fact that some racial justice protests have led toproperty damage or turnedinto violent clashes withcounter-protesters.

Trump put his approach ondisplay again Tuesday on a tripto Kenosha, Wisconsin, a citystill reeling from protests andviolence after another Blackman, Jacob Blake, was shot bypolice.

Washington: China is seekingto set up more robust logisticsfacilities in about a dozencountries, including three inIndia’s neighbourhood, to allowthe PLA to project and sustainmilitary power at greater dis-tances, according to a Pentagonreport.

In addition to the threeneighbours of India -- Pakistan,Sri Lanka and Myanmar -- theother countries where China isconsidering to base its militarylogistics and infrastructurefacilities are Thailand,Singapore, Indonesia, UnitedArab Emirates, Kenya,Seychelles, Tanzania, Angolaand Tajikistan, the report saidon Tuesday.

In its annual report“Military and SecurityDevelopments Involving thePeople’s Republic of China(PRC) 2020” that was submit-ted to the US Congress, thePentagon said these potentialChinese military logistics facil-ities are in addition to theChinese military base inDjibouti, which is aimed atsupporting naval, air andground forces projection.

“A global PLA (People’sLiberation Army) militarylogistics network could bothinterfere with US military oper-ations and support offensiveoperations against the UnitedStates as the PRC’s global mil-itary objectives evolve,” the

Pentagon said in the report.China has probably already

made overtures to Namibia,Vanuatu, and the SolomonIslands, it said, adding theknown focus areas of PLAplanning are along the SealLines of Communication fromChina to the Strait of Hormuz,Africa, and the Pacific Islands.

Similarly, the Pentagonsaid, Beijing uses the One BeltOne Road (OBOR) intitiativeto support its strategy ofnational rejuvenation by seek-ing to expand global trans-portation and trade linkages tosupport its development anddeepen its economic integra-tion with nations along its

periphery and beyond.“OBOR projects associated

with pipelines and port con-struction in Pakistan intend todecrease China’s reliance ontransporting energy resourcesthrough strategic chokepoints,such as the Strait of Malacca,”it said.

China leverages the OBORto invest in projects alongChina’s western and southernperiphery to improve stabilityand diminish threats along itsborders, the report said.

First announced in 2013,China’s OBOR initiative is a sig-nature foreign and economicpolicy advanced by PresidentXi Jinping. PTI

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China on Wednesday con-demned a Pentagon report

for claiming Beijing wants todouble its stockpile of nuclearwarheads within a decade as itseeks to deter the United Statesfrom any intervention linked toTaiwan.

The Pentagon’s annualstudy on China’s military powerissued Tuesday said it hasalready matched or outstrippedthe US military in several areasof defence.

It added that the People’sLiberation Army aims to beready to win any conflict withthe US over self-ruled Taiwan,which Beijing considers part ofits territory.

China’s defence ministrycalled the report “utterlywrong” and a misinterpretationof Beijing’s “defence policy andmilitary strategy”.

The report “defamedChina’s military modernisa-tion, defence expenditure,nuclear policy and other issues”,the ministry said in a statement.

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Washington: The Biden cam-paign has announced the launchof ‘Hindu Americans for Biden’,as part of its efforts to attract theover two million members of thecommunity in the US andaddress their issues, includinghate crimes.

I n d i a n - A m e r i c a nCongressman from Illinois, RajaKrishnamoorthi, is scheduled toaddress the first meeting of‘Hindus for Biden’ on Thursday,the organisers said on Tuesday.

The move from the Bidencampaign comes over a fortnightafter the Trump campaign onAugust 14 announced the for-mation of the ‘Hindu Voices forTrump’. In the November 3presidential election,Democratic presidential candi-date Joe Biden and his Indian-American running mate KamalaHarris will challenge incumbentRepublican President Trumpand Vice President Mike Pence.

This is, perhaps, for the firsttime in the history of the USpresidential elections that thetwo major political parties havemade an outreach coalition forthe Hindus in the country. PTI

$�����������%���#����������������������'���#�����7! Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has

agreed to allow UAE flights to“all countries” to overfly thekingdom, state media reportedWednesday, days after allowingan Israeli aircraft to pass overen route to Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia has acceptedan Emirati request to allow“crossing the kingdom’s air-space for flights heading to theUAE and departing from it toall countries”, the official SaudiPress Agency said, citing asource from the civil aviationauthority.

Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu mean-while announced thatMonday’s historic first com-mercial flight of an Israeli air-craft direct to the United ArabEmirates across Saudi Arabiawould not be the last.

“Israeli planes and thosefrom all countries will be ableto fly directly from Israel toAbu Dhabi and Dubai, andback,” Netanyahu said, withoutgiving any timeline.

The announcements comeafter a US-Israeli delegation vis-ited Abu Dhabi on Monday, onthe first direct commercialflight from Tel Aviv to mark the

normalisation of ties betweenthe Jewish state and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia has said it willnot follow the United ArabEmirates in establishing diplo-matic ties with Israel until theJewish state has signed aninternationally recognisedpeace accord with thePalestinians.

But the kingdom has cul-tivated clandestine relationswith Israel in recent years, in ashift spearheaded by de factoleader Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman.

In a sign of its cooperationwith Israel, Saudi Arabiaallowed Monday’s historicflight to cross its airspace, halv-ing what would otherwise havebeen a long detour around theArabian peninsula.

However, Saudi Arabia, theArab world’s biggest economyand home to Islam’s holiestsites, faces more sensitive polit-ical calculations than the UAE.

Not only would a formalrecognition of Israel be seen byPalestinians and their sup-porters as a betrayal of theircause, it would also hurt thekingdom’s image as the leaderof the Islamic world. AFP

Taipei: Ethnic Mongolians,including students and parents,in China’s Inner Mongoliaregion are demonstrating theiranger in rare public protestsagainst a new bilingual educa-tion policy that they say isendangering the Mongolianlanguage.

A high school student inthe city of Hulunbuir said stu-dents rushed out of theirschool on Tuesday anddestroyed a fence before para-military police swarmed inand tried to return them toclass.

“We senior students weretalking and we thought we hadto do something,” said the stu-dent, Narsu, who like mostMongolians has only onename.

“Although this doesn’tdirectly affect us now, thiswill have a huge impact on usin the future.”

The policy, announced onMonday ahead of the start of thenew school year, requires schoolsto use new national textbooks inChinese, replacing Mongolian-language textbooks. Protesterssay they were aware of demon-strations and classroom walk-outs in Hohhot, the provincialcapital, as well as in the cities ofChifeng and Tongliao and XilinGol prefecture.

Nuomin, the mother of akindergarten student inHulunbuir, said she saw policein places she normally would-n’t and a metal barrier in frontof one school. She has kept herchild home since Monday. AP

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Berlin: Tests carried out onRussian opposition leaderAlexei Navalny showed that hewas poisoned by a Novichokchemical nerve agent, theGerman government saidWednesday, demanding expla-nations from Moscow.

“It is a shocking event thatAlexei Navalny has become thevictim of an attack with achemical nerve agent inRussia,” said governmentspokesman Steffen Seibert in a

statement.“The government con-

demns this attack in thestrongest terms. The Russiangovernment is urgentlyrequested to provide clarifica-tions over the incident.”

Tests carried out by the German army in consulta-tion with the Charite hospitalin Berlin, where Navalny is being treated, had found“unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent from

the Novichok family,” Seibertsaid.

Navalny, 44, fell ill afterboarding a plane in Siberia lastmonth. He was initially treat-ed in a local hospital beforebeing flown to Berlin for treat-ment.

The Charite hospital hasreported “some improvement”in Navalny’s condition but henevertheless remains in a med-ically induced coma and on aventilator. AFP

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Paris: Thirteen men and awoman went on trialWednesday over the 2015attacks against the CharlieHebdo satirical newspaper anda kosher supermarket in Paristhat marked the beginning ofa wave of violence by theIslamic State group in Europe.

Seventeen people and allthree gunmen died during thethree days of attacks in January2015. Later that year, a separatenetwork of French and Belgianfighters for Islamic State struck

Paris again, this time killing130 people in attacks at theBataclan concert hall, thenational stadium, and in barsand restaurants.

Those on trial in France’sterrorism court are accused ofbuying weapons, cars, andhelping with logistics. Most saythey thought they were helpingplan an ordinary crime. Three,including the only womanaccused, are being tried inabsentia after leaving to joinIslamic State. AP

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Bangkok: Thailand’s PrimeMinister on Wednesday con-gratulated his countrymen onthe nation having achieved 100days without a confirmed local-ly transmitted case of the coro-navirus, even as security alongthe border with Myanmar isbeing stepped up as a measureagainst the disease.

Health officials did nothighlight the milepost, butPrime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha described it as a “goodaccomplishment”. AP

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Islamabad: Pakistan onWednesday rejected controver-sial American blogger CynthiaRitchie’s application for visaextension and directed her toleave the country within 15days. Ritchie had, in June,alleged that she was raped byPakistan's former interior min-ister Rehman Malik and accusedex-prime minister Yousaf Raza

Gillani and another former min-ister of physically manhandlingher in 2011.

The Ministry of Interiortook the decision after theIslamabad High Court (IHC)asked authorities to make afinal decision about the status ofher stay in the country.

The IHC Chief Justice AtharMinallah in June had sought an

explanation from the ministryabout the status and terms andconditions of the visa issued toRitchie on a petition filed by anactivist of the Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP), asking it to explainif she was entitled to makingpolitical statements, the Dawnnewspaper reported. PTI

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Page 9: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˇ...2 hours ago  · Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal, Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar and other senior offi-cials took part in the meeting. ‘Poshan Maah’ will help identify

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The Government has giventime till November 30 for

authorities, like DGAP, to com-plete anti-profiteering relatedcompliance, which falls duebetween March 20 andNovember 29.

In a notification, the CBICsaid “where any time limit forcompletion or compliance ofany action, by any authority,...

Under section 171 of thesaid Act, which falls during theperiod from the March 20 toNovember 29, 2020, and wherecompletion or compliance ofsuch action has not been madewithin such time, then, thetime-limit for completion orcompliance ... Shall be extend-ed up to November 30, 2020”.

Section 171 of GST Actdeals with anti-profiteeringmeasures.

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Central ministries and PSUshave cleared payments to

the tune of over �6,800 croreowed to micro, small and medi-um enterprises in the last threemonths, the government saidon Wednesday.

It said almost three-fourthsof the monthly dues have beenpaid during the same month bymost of the ministries andCPSEs. The pending amountsare expected to be released inthe normal course of businessand within 45 days. TheMSME ministry, in a statement,said that “more than �6,800crore have been paid by theMinistries and CPSEs in thelast three months alone”.

In May, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had saidthat MSMEs’ receivables fromthe government and CentralPublic Sector Enterprises

(CPSEs) will be released with-in 45 days. The Ministry ofMSME said it followed up onthis announcement vigorouslyand took up the matter with thecentral ministries, CPSEs andstate governments.

Particularly, very activefollow up has been done withthe heads of CPSEs, it added.

To make the reportingeasy, regular and seamless, adedicated online format hasbeen made for reporting themonthly payments and pen-dency, the ministry said. TheMSME Development Act of2006 provides that such duesshould be paid within 45 days.“However, it is seen that MSMEsuppliers of goods and servicesdo not receive their due pay-ments within stipulated time.Public and private entities docross this time limit and hencethey cause hardship to theMSMEs,” the statement said.

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Flipkart Wholesale, digitalB2B (business-to-business)

marketplace unit of Walmart-owned Flipkart Group, onWednesday said it has startedoperations in three Indian citiesand will connect local manu-facturers with retailers.

The move will allow thecompany to compete moreaggressively against rivals likeUdaan and Amazon, whichoperate wholesale business inthe country.

“We are starting with fash-

ion (including apparel,footwear and accessories) inGurugram, Delhi andBengaluru, and we will expandto 20 more cities by year-endand in categories such as homeand kitchen, and grocery,”Flipkart Wholesale Senior VicePresident and Head AdarshMenon told PTI.

He added that FlipkartWholesale is a one-stop solu-tion for the retail ecosystemthat will offer Indian business-es a wide selection of productsat significant value, powered bytechnology.

The aim is to help kiranasgrow their business using tech-nology, Menon said.

In July, the Flipkart Grouphad announced launch ofFlipkart Wholesale and acqui-sition of 100 per cent interestin Walmart India that operat-ed the ‘Best Price cash-and-carry’ business.

Menon said the ‘Best Pricecash-and-carry’ outlets, whichsupport more than 1.5 millionmembers, including kiranasand other MSMEs, continue tooperate separately.

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Online learning andupskilling has witnessed

an uptick in demand followingthe Covid-19 pandemic andcourses on digital skills andremote working have emergedas the top picks for Indian pro-fessionals, according to globalprofessional network LinkedIn.

As per LinkedIn LearningData, in India, there has beenan increase of 245 per cent inthe number of hours spent on

virtual learning from July 2019to June 2020, compared to ayear earlier. LinkedIn onWednesday came out with theannual Most Popular Courseslist, a round-up of top coursestaken most by LinkedIn mem-bers in the past year (from July2019 to June 2020) and offersinsight into topics that profes-sionals globally are keen tolearn in the current scenario.The list is based on the num-ber of unique learners based inIndiaand across the globe.

Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd is aleading Pharmaceutical com-

pany from India. As per IQVIA(IMS), Intas is the 9th largestcompany in India having astrong presence in chronictherapeutic segments. Intasalso has expertise in bloodplasma products through itswide range of Albumin,Immunoglobulins andCoagulation Factors used in thetreatment of various lifesavingconditions. It has been thefirst to launch 4 plasma prod-ucts in the country.

The R&D team at Intas hasdeveloped COVID-19 specificHyperimmune Globulin astreatment for patients sufferingfrom moderate to severeCOVID-19 infection.Hyperimmune Globulin alsohas potential for use as pro-phylaxis for all high-risk pop-ulation in contact with

COVID-19 patients. Thiscould be an important thera-peutic option that can poten-tially help combat the diseaseuntil a vaccine is available.Intas is among the world’s firstto adopt this approach fortreating COVID-19 patients.This will be a Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) initiativefromIntas in collaboration withall Indian Blood Banks,thatwill help to procure convales-cent plasma (plasma extractedfrom patients recovered fromCOVID-19 infection).

Intas has received permis-sion from the Drug ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI), toconduct clinical trial by usingthe newly developed COVID-19 specific HyperimmuneGlobulin. After establishing itsusefulness in the clinical trial,this product will be availablefor use in treating COVID-19.

Gurugram: RITES Ltd. (NSE:RITES, BSE: 541556), the lead-ing Transport InfrastructureConsultancy and Engineeringfirm, conducted its 46thAnnualGeneral Meeting on28th August 2020 throughvideo conferencing due to theCovid-19pandemic.

During the AGM, theshareholders approved all theresolutions including the adop-tion of Audited FinancialStatements of the company forthe FY 2019-20 and approval offinal dividend of �6 per share.This is in addition to the ear-lier two interim dividendswhich take the dividend payoutof the company to 67% on thestandalone PAT of FY 19-20.The cut-offdate for final divi-dend payout was 20th August2020 (end of the day).

The Govthas given

one year exten-sion up toSeptember 1,2021 to LCGoyal asChairman andM a n a g i n gDirector, India TradePromotion Organisation. Hehas been serving as theChairman & ManagingDirector of India TradePromotion Organization sinceSeptember, 2015. Goyal is a1979 batch retired IAS officerof Kerala cadre served as theUnion Home Secretary in 2015apart from holding several keypositions at the Centre and inthe State of Kerala.

CS Vishwakarma, IOFS, hastaken over charge as the

Director General of OrdnanceFactories (DGOF) andChairman of the OrdnanceFactory Board (OFB) w.e.f. 1stSeptember 2020 from Shri HariMohan, IOFS, who superan-nuated from service.

Vishwakarma, an IOFSofficer of the 1984 batch, holdsa Masters Degree inTechnology and a BachelorDegree in MechanicalEngineering with Honours.Before taking over as theDGOF & Chairman, he was theAdditional DGOF andMember of the ArmouredVehicles Group.

In a career spanning 36years, he has contributed sig-nificantly in various capacitiesacross the country. Some of his

assignments were at the GunCarriage Factory Jabalpur, theOrdnance Factory Trichy, theOrdnance Factory Dehradun,the Ordnance Factory Kanpur,the Ammunition FactoryKhadki (Pune), the MachineTool Prototype FactoryAmbernath (Mumbai) and atthe headquarters of theOrdnance EquipmentFactories.

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Equity benchmarks notchedup gains for the second

straight session on Wednesday,propelled by market heavy-weight Reliance Industriesamid upbeat global cues.

However, border ten-sions with China and a weak-ening rupee capped the upside,traders said. After starting ona choppy note, the BSE Sensexgained momentum in late-afternoon trade, before finallyclosing at 39,086.03, up 185.23points or 0.48%. On similarlines, the broader NSE Niftyclimbed 64.75 points or 0.56per cent to close at11,535.Mahindra andMahindra (M&M) was the topgainer in the Sensex pack, ral-lying 5.77 per cent, followed byPowerGrid, Tata Steel,IndusInd Bank, RelianceIndustries, HCL Tech, ONGCand Infosys. RelianceIndustries jumped 1.97%,accounting for over half of theindex’s gains.

On the other hand, BajajAuto, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma,HDFC, Nestle India and HULwere among the laggards, shed-ding up to 2.62 %. “After ini-tially trading with uncertainty,the markets gained strength, insync with positive global cues.European and Asian marketsgained from encouraging eco-nomic data which could beassumed as an indicator towardsan economic recovery in mostof the major economies.“Encouraging US, Chinese andEuropean manufacturing dataand also the expectation that USwould bring in additional stim-ulus kept up the buoyancy in themarkets. “Domestically,investors chose to ignore theborder tensions with China,which led to the volatility in theopening trades. With marketsreacting to stock specific newsand with heightened volatility,investors are advised to remainalert, trade cautiously and keepbooking profits,” said VinodNair, Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

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Markets regulator Sebi hasordered attachment of

bank and demat accounts oftwo dozen defaulters in thematters of three companies -- Mass Infra Realty, SkymargAgro Industries India and LifeCare Real Developers -- torecover dues totalling nearly �40 crore.The defaulters are 11directors of Mass Infra Realty,five directors of SkymargAgro, Life Care and its sevendirectors, the regulator said inthree separate notices.

The decision has beentaken after Mass Infra Realtyand Skymarg Agro failed tocomply with Sebi’s direction torefund money to investors to

the tune of �37.9 crore and�30.67 lakh respectively.

Sebi had directed MassInfra Realty and SkymargAgro in April 2016 andNovember 2017, respectively,to refund money to investors.

The two companies hadraised funds through issuanceof securities without comply-ing with public issue norms.

In case of Life Care, theregulator initiated proceedingsto recover over �73 lakh fromthe company and its sevendirectors after they failed topay the fine imposed on themin January, 2019. The pendingdues include the initial fineamount of �65 lakh, interest of�8.1 lakh and a recovery costof �1,000.

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Mumbai:The rupee depre-ciated 16 paise to close at73.03 against the US dollar onWednesday amid a strength-ening greenback overseas.At the interbank forex mar-ket, the rupee opened on aweak note at 73.10, andtouched an intra-day high of72.90 and a low of 73.13against the American cur-rency. It finally finished at73.03, down 16 paise over itsprevious close. On Tuesday,the rupee had rallied 73 paiseto breach the 73-mark againstthe US dollar, closing at 72.87.Meanwhile, the dollar index,which gauges the greenback’sstrength against a basket ofsix currencies, rose 0.26 percent to 92.58. PNS

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The National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) has

approved the sale of educationassets of debt-ridden IL&FS toLexington Equity Holdings Ltd(LEHL). A two-memberMumbai bench of the NCLTapproved the sale of IL&FS’s73.69 per cent stake inSchoolnet India, formerlyknown as IL&FS Education &Technology Services, to FalafalTechnology Pvt Ltd.Falafal Technology is a step-down subsidiary of LEHL,which already owns 26.13 percent stake in Schoolnet.

Schoolnet has two sub-sidiaries - IL&FS ClusterDevelopment Initiative (ICDI)and Skill Training AssessmentManagement Partners(STAMP) - and also owns 80per cent stake in IL&FS Skill

Development Corporation(ISDC). “We are of the viewthat the sale of education assetshas been done within the res-olution framework and thesame is approved and record-ed,” NCLT said in an orderdated August 31.

The tribunal has alsoallowed other reliefs regardingthe deal sought by IL&FS.According to the order, theCommittee of Creditors (CoC)has already approved the dealwith a voting share of 75.46 percent by value.

Justice D K Jain, whois supervising the resolutionprocess of IL&FS, hadapproved the Schoolnet deal onJune 4, 2020. The resolu-tion process of IL&FS is beingdone on the lines of corporateinsolvency resolution processunder the Insolvency &Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

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./������/����%������ �������/���8/� ��%��/-�-�2 ��1/�?������-�/1����/����R�9�� ��?� New Delhi: With an aim to

providing help to the under-privileged during Covid-19times, Pyramid IT ConsultingPvt Ltd, along with its socialwelfare initiative PyramidCares, has partnered with CRY(Child Rights and You) anddonated over 500 personal pro-tective equipment kits to suchchildren and their families inGhazipur, East Delhi. “Wemust continue to give supportthrough financial donationsand providing neededresources,” said Anil Lanba,India operations head.

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To understand consumer interest insustainable materials and theircurrent knowledge, Lenzing

Group (Lenzing), a global leader in sus-tainably produced wood-based special-ty fibers, announced findings from itsglobal consumer perception survey. Itassessed the perception and behaviourof the conscious consumer towards sus-tainable clothing, home textiles and rawmaterials.

A total of 9,000 respondents acrossnine countries aged between 18 and 64were surveyed using online question-naires. The report provided a glimpseinto consumer habits towards pursuinga sustainable lifestyle, their knowledgeof the raw materials and home textiles,their perception towards the brands andpreferred product descriptions. Thesurvey also reflected the need for clos-er collaboration within the clothing andhome textile industries to provide con-sumers with more transparent informa-tion about the products that they pur-chase. Here are the key findings of thesurvey:

�Conscious consumers actively engagein pursuing a sustainable lifestyle andare constantly educating themselvesabout raw materials.

Almost all (86 per cent) respondentsbelieved in purchasing clothes madefrom sustainable raw materials. It was akey component of living a more sustain-able lifestyle. They frequently purchasedproducts from the brands that are com-mitted to using sustainable raw materi-als (80 per cent) or recycled products (77per cent). The survey revealed that themajority of respondents actively learnedabout sustainability through researchingthe production process of the products(76 per cent in clothing and 74 per centin bedding and home textiles). They alsotend to read label hang tags (88 per centin clothing and 86 per cent in beddingand home textiles). Most of the respon-dents were willing to pay an average of40 per cent more for clothing or hometextile products with descriptions thatreflect sustainability.

When shopping for clothes andhome textile products, around 44 percent of the respondents considered the

material type to be their most importantchoice, which was above price, design,brand reputation and function.

�Products described as eco-friendly ornatural with a biodegradable or recy-clable afterlife appeal to consumers.

When asked about the definition ofsustainable clothing, respondents con-sidered products being processed ormanufactured using eco-responsibletechniques. They preferred productsmade from natural, organic or botanicmaterials. Over 80 per cent of therespondents expressed that they were“extremely interested” or “very interest-ed” in slow fashion and purchasingclothes made from sustainable rawmaterials.

When asked about their preferencefor clothing and home textiles, half ofthem said that they would be more like-ly to purchase a product described as“eco-friendly” or “natural”. Whereasover 60 per cent of respondents weremore likely to purchase products with a“recyclable” or “biodegradable” afterlife.Given the popularity of such terms,brands should provide greater clarity anddetailed information to the customersabout the materials that they have used,production process and afterlife of theproduct.

�Brands with greater transparency onraw materials and ingredients cangain consumer trust.

Most of the respondents considered

brands that were transparent with theiringredients (83 per cent) and the originof their raw materials (82 per cent) astrustworthy. At the same time, they alsoconsidered brands that were transparentabout their production process (82 percent), sustainable practices (81 per cent)and where their raw material comesfrom (82 per cent) as trusted ones.Approximately 87 per cent of the respon-dents believed that knowing what rawmaterials were used in their clothing andhome textile products was important tobuild confidence in a brand.

“The findings of this survey provethe value of the group’s ongoing effortsin driving the sustainability dialogueacross the textile supply chain, from yarnmakers to consumer brands. Based onthe survey, we gained a more compre-hensive understanding of consumerperceptions globally. The rating of mate-rial type being the top consideration fac-tor when shopping for clothing andhome textile products has also echoedour belief that consumers value andactively look out for sustainable prod-ucts. This survey provided us, our part-ners and brands with insights to curatemore targeted strategies and pro-grammes to drive sustainability, not onlyon raw materials, but also productafterlife. In the long run, we hope tobring optimal value for the clothing andhome textiles industry supply chain andhelp brands achieve new heights, drivesustainability and safeguard our planet,”said Florian Heubrandner, VicePresident of Global BusinessManagement Textiles at Lenzing.

�Collaboration in the fashion and tex-

tile industry is essential for drivinggreater transparency.

Though sustainability has been a hottopic among brands to enhance trans-parency, there is still room for the sup-ply chain to evolve communications onraw materials, production process andproduct afterlife. Given consumers arealready actively searching for sustainableproducts, it is important for the indus-try and brands to revolutionise howtechnical knowledge is translated intoconsumer language on websites, prod-uct tags and labels.

To drive this change, the companyhas been taking the lead with a three-pil-lar approach to increase industry collab-oration and shift towards sustainabilityby ensuring a higher degree of trans-parency and enabling verification of rawmaterial origin from production processto final garment. The three-pillarapproach covers special fiber identifica-tion technology, a blockchain-basedtracking system and proactive supplychain collaboration and planning.

“We are thrilled to see more con-sumers embrace a sustainable fashionlifestyle by making informed purchas-es based on research and reading prod-uct labels. With rising consumer expec-tations towards sustainability, over thepast few years, we have been transform-ing and upgrading the Tencel brandexperience through proactive engage-ment programmes on sustainable cellu-losic fibers,” said Harold Weghorst,Vice President of Global BrandManagement at Lenzing.

“Consumer interest in eco-friendlyand biodegradable products aligns withour ongoing commitment to bringbrands and consumers more sustainableand biodegradable options to the cloth-ing and home textile industries. Derivedfrom sustainably sourced wood, Tencelbranded fibers offer breathability, qual-ity and biodegradability to clothingand home textile fabrics that are used inour everyday lives. While we continueto advocate for innovation in sustainableraw materials, we will continue to gobeyond fibers and look for new ways toengage brands and consumers, enablingthem to embrace sustainability anytime,anywhere,” added Weghorst.

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana isundergoing a massive physical

transformation for his next, a pro-gressive love story that is beingdirected by filmmaker AbhishekKapoor. It has come to light that heis being severely elusive on hissocial media and hasn’t been post-ing new images of himself. All thatpeople are getting to see are hisendorsement shoots that he haswrapped some time back.

Ayushmann fueled this theoryfurther through his new socialmedia update. The actor told hisfans that he has indeed started histraining to achieve the desiredphysique. He captioned thisscreenshot: ‘Here we go!’ andtagged his director Abhishek.This practically confirms thatAyushmann has begun histransformation journey.

Ayushmann plays a crossfunctional athlete in the film. Heput up a screenshot of him dis-cussing his training schedulewith his trainer Rakesh Udiyar.However, he again refrainedfrom coming online andshowing himself whichmeans there could be vis-ible changes due to histransformation.

“It is now certain thatAyushmann is hiding his look. Heis purposely being elusive on socialmedia because he doesn’t want any-one to get a glimpse of his transfor-mation before he starts shooting.Since he plays a cross functional ath-lete for the first time, Ayushmann

will have to change his bodytype completely and thatfirst look is definitely a bigvisual for everyone to catch

hold off. He is definitelyprotecting his look orelse why would he notupload his images?”says a trade source.

“Ayushmann canreally protect hist r a n s f o r m a t i o nbecause he is inChandigarh and wethink he intends to do

just that till the first lookis released by him. By the

way he is being elusive, itseems like it will be a lookto watch out for. Abhishekand Ayushmann have defi-nitely planned a big sur-prise for the audience. So, let’skeep an eye on how andwhen Ayushmann’s lookcomes out,” says the source.

Discovery has continued itstradition of featuring icon-

ic Indians by getting AkshayKumar on-board in the latestepisode of Into The Wild WithBear Grylls. Akshay follows thefootsteps of superstar Rajinikanthwho made his TV debut earlierthis year with the show. Notably,last year, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi featured in amemorable episode of Man vsWild with Bear Grylls and PMModi. Shot at Bandipur TigerReserve, the show will follow allmilitary style drills with formerBritish military personnel BearGrylls taking charge along withAkshay Kumar, son of a militaryofficer.

The buzz around AkshayKumar’s episode is immense asthe show featuring PM Modigenerated historic high ratingsfor the infotainment genrewhereas Into The Wild withRajinikanth is the second high-est rated show ever in the genre.

“I have always admired BearGrylls for his energy, passion andwhat he has stood for all theseyears. It was a humbling experi-ence being with him in the wildas he went about unfolding onechallenge after another. It is dif-ferent out there as compared tothe movie sets as there is noback-up — that sense of realismis very overpowering. Bear is aknowledge reservoir and hedipped well into his knowledgeof surviving in the wild, andshared interesting and new tech-

niques with me,” said Akshay.“What I found interesting aboutthe show is how nicely purposeis incorporated in an entertain-ing, survival and adventure-ledshow. With regards to Bharat KeVeer, it is a project which remainsclose to my heart and I will con-tinue to use all opportunities tohelp promote it with an aim to

ensure that more and more coun-trymen become a part of it,”added he.

“I did my homework prior tomeeting Akshay. I knew he is asuperstar but what struck me themost during our time togetherwas his humility, his easyapproach. He is, at heart, still thatguy next door. Lots of common-

alities between the two of us —including passion towards fitness,dedication to family et al, I real-ly enjoyed being with him.Akshay’s eyes lit-up with themention of a new challenge andbelieve me, not many celebrities,across the world, have reacted sowarmly to some harsh tasks thatI can conjure,” said Grylls.

Megha Tata, ManagingDirector – South Asia, Discovery,said, “Bear Grylls’ expedition inIndian wilderness with iconicIndians has already emerged as themost wanted, the most watchedshow in the infotainment genre.Akshay, the khiladi himself, fits thebill perfectly as we aim to ensurethat this IP garners unprecedent-ed traction.”

Beyond Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Grylls has alsohosted prominent celebrities in thepast such as then sitting AmericanPresident Barack Obama, KateWinslet, Roger Federer, JuliaRoberts and many more. (Whilethe show streams on September 11on Discovery Plus at 8 pm, thebroadcast premiere of the show isscheduled for 8 pm on September14 across 12 Discovery channels.)

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Promoting widespread finan-cial inclusion is key to

ensure continued developmentand growth of any nation. InIndia, the rapid penetration offinancial services over the yearshas been quite noteworthy, andthe increasing ownership ofsmartphones, especiallyamongst the low-incomegroups of the country, has beeninstrumental in reforming thefinancial services landscape ofthe country. As per a marketresearch from techARC, Indiahad about 502.2 million smart-phone users as of December2019. A stark improvement ascompared to the previous years,it implies that over 77 per centof Indians now have access towireless broadband throughtheir smartphones. A crucialstudy conducted byASSOCHAM and PwC revealsthat the number of smartphoneusers in India is likely to rise by84 per cent to 859 million by2022.

The reasons for this notablesurge in smartphone ownershipacross the nation could becheaper smartphones,improved distribution, expan-sion of networks by the opera-tors, high-speed connectivity,etc. As smartphones make theirway to an increasing number ofhouseholds, especially the poorones, more businesses now gaineasy access to a gamut of finan-cial services at affordable costs— all this with just a few clicks!With this successful marriage ofsmartphones and financial ser-vices leading to more Indiansparticipating in the country’sfinancial sector, financial inclu-sion would certainly not be adistant goal to achieve.

Digital banking is already awidespread trend across tier-1

and tier-2 cities. However, thechallenge has been to reachthose umpteen number of peo-ple in tier-3 and tier 4 cities,and other towns and ruralareas, which have for long beendevoid of participating in thissector. By giving these peopleaccess to basic financial instru-ments and allowing them toavail easy credit, the internet-enabled smartphones can giveenough power in the hands ofthe poor.

Right from creating a bankaccount to making payments,transactions, fund transfers,applying for loans, managinginsurance, pensions, chequebook requests, etc, smartphonescan allow people to fulfil alltheir financial requirements,without them having to physi-cally visit banks or any otherfinancial institution. The intro-duction of Unified PaymentsInterface (UPI) has also con-tributed towards the seamlessshift to digital payments.

In times like these when theworld has come to a standstilldue to the pandemic ofCOVID-19, smartphone own-ership could indeed be a boon,mobile banking apps can allowall financial transactions, pay-ments, and transfers digitally.Benefits of digital bankaccounts could be enjoyed sit-ting in the safe vicinity ofhomes.

Having said this, thoughincreased smartphone owner-ship has paved a bright way forfinancial inclusion in India,there is still a long way to go.Barriers like lack of financial lit-eracy, irregular incomes, etc,still continue to prevent largesections of the society fromparticipating in the formalfinancial landscape.

- . � ) / 2 �

The SRM Institute ofScience and

Technology (SRMIST),Kattankulathur, is offer-ing free education to300 students fromPerambalur parliamen-tary constituency. Thiswas announced bySRMIST’s FounderChancellor andPerambalur MP, Dr TRPaarivendhar in 2019,which will be followed

this year too. This wasalso a part of DrPaarivendhar’s electionmanifesto.

Students from thePerambalur Lok Sabhasegment, who wish topursue Engineering, Arts

and Science,H o r t i c u l t u r e ,Management, HealthSciences, etc, are eligibleto apply. Applicants fromeconomically weakersections will be selectedbased on their perfor-

mance in their respectiveboard examinations.

The scheme willcover complete tuitionfees and be renewed onthe basis of academicperformance. In view ofthe COVID-19 pandem-ic, hostel facilities willnot be provided thistime.

Dr Paarivendharsaid that the SRM groupwould strive to make

education at private uni-versities beneficial tothose from the econom-ically weaker section. Hesaid, “Students shouldutilise this opportunityto pursue higher studies,”assuring that the deserv-ing students will alsoget placements.

(Applications can besubmitted online on orbefore September 10,2020.)

The Life Insurance Corporation ofIndia (LIC) entered 65th year of

its existence on Tuesday. In its 64 years,it has spread its wings to 14 countriesand has also ventured into other finan-cial services through its subsidiariesand associates.

Starting with an initial capital of�5 crore in 1956, LIC has asset baseof �31,96,214.81 crore, with life fundto the tune of �31,14,496.05 crore.National priorities and obligation ofreasonable returns to the policyhold-ers are the main criteria of their invest-ments. The total funds invested for thebenefit of the community at large are�30,69,942 crore as on March 31.

LIC serves its customers througheight zonal offices, 113 divisionaloffices, 74 customer zones, 2048branch offices, 1526 satellite offices,3,354 life plus offices and 31,556 pre-mium points. It has over one lakhemployees, 12 lakh agents and 28.92crore plus policies in force. It offersa bouquet of 28 plans for sale underIndividual Business, each catering tothe needs of various segments of thesociety viz endowment, term assur-ance, children, pension, micro insur-

ance, health insurance and unit linkedproducts.

During 2019-20, it registered agrowth of 25.17 per cent in the newbusiness in terms of the first year pre-mium. The total first year premiumamounted to �1.78 lakh crore at theend of March 31, capturing 68.74 percent market share. As on that date, itsmarket share in terms of number ofpolicies was 75.90 per cent garnering2.19 crore new policies, highest in sixyears.

Pension & Group SuperannuationBusiness crossed one lakh crore andcollected �1,26,696 crore as NewBusiness Premium Income registeringa growth of 39.46 per cent.

The company’s focus has nowshifted to improving the online anddigital presence in order to remaincustomer-centric, improve pricingand create operational efficiencies. Ithas provided digital platform for newbusiness and servicing operations toboth, internal and external customers,

including channel platforms likebanks and other agencies. ItsCustomer Portal System is designedto enhance the digital experienceand provide online services to the cus-tomers. The Customer Mobile App,which is available on both Androidand iOS, has more than 34 lakh users.MPIN based access to mobile appli-cations is in place for ease of use to thecustomers.

It has also leveraged various dig-ital platforms for electronic premiumpayments to provide a seamless expe-rience to customers. Renewal premi-um collection transactions throughthe digital infrastructure have reached40.23 per cent. It has launched a chat-bot, named LIC Mitra, for the conve-nience of online visitors to the corpo-rate website. It is capable of answer-ing a variety of questions on the plansavailable for sale, servicing relatedqueries and also premium paymentinquiries.

On this anniversary, they re-ded-icate themselves to the welfare of thecustomers in true spirit of theirmotto, Yogakshemam Vahamyaham— thy welfare is our responsibility.

The Jay Prakash NarayanInternational Airport, Patna, is

under the works for some moderni-sation with a project cost of �1,216.90crore. The airport is one of India’sfastest growing in terms of annualpassenger growth in last five yearswith the existing terminal handlingalmost 4.5 million passengers perannum.

The project, which includes con-struction of a new integrated termi-nal building with state-of-the-artfacilities, cargo complex, multi-levelcar parking, air traffic control-cum-technical building, Airport FireStation, and New Apron with 14 air-craft parking bays, is scheduled to becompleted by March, 2023.

After the completion, the annu-al handling capacity of the airportwill be increased to eight million pas-sengers per annum with total area of7,00,000 sqft having separate depar-ture (upper) and arrival (lower) lev-els with departure level connected viaa flyover to airport entry gate and viaa link bridge to the multi-level carparking.

The new integrated terminalbuilding will be a 4-star GRIHA-rated energy-efficient building,

which will be equipped with 52check-in counters, in-line baggagehandling system, five conveyor beltsfor arriving passengers, well-con-

nected with lifts and escalators, cen-trally air-conditioned, five aero-bridges and interiors depicting thearts and culture of Bihar. Provision

of commercial space of 62,000 sqfthas also been kept for world-classshopping facilities (multi-brandretails and F&B) for passenger

delight.A five-storied building in three

lakh sqft area to manage 750 passen-ger vehicles and top floor of 31,000sqft. commercial area is going toenhance parking and, in turn, pas-senger convenience. The parking willbe connected with the departure levelof the new terminal building througha link bridge for pedestrian move-ment.

The existing terminal building ofthe airport is also being extended andmodified to de-congest and enhancepassenger experience. With the com-pletion of extension work inSeptember 2020, new areas ofapproximately 2,000 sqm will beadded in the existing terminal. Thiswill result in an increase of check-incounters from 15 to 20; arrival con-veyer belts from two to three; spacefor placing five Hand BaggageScanning Machines (from existingthree), Registered Baggage ScanningMachines (from existing three),Four Female Frisking Booths (inplace of existing two).

This additional infrastructurewill significantly reduce waitingtime in queues and improve passen-ger movement.

Rajiv Chaudhr y, GeneralManager Northern & North

Central Railways held a perfor-mance review meeting with thedepartmental heads of NorthernRailway through video conferenc-ing from Baroda House, NR head-quarter office. Among variousissues, deliberations were on safe-ty, enhancement of speed, infra-structure and train operations.

Keeping safety as the primefocus, he emphasised on improvingthe maintenance standards oftracks, coaches, wagons and loco-motives. He also advised on train-ing the staff and crew of the trains.

He added that maintaining thetracks and its setup during the peaksummer, monsoon and winter sea-son should be done with utmostcaution, as this is the time whencases of rail fractures, weathering,corrosion and displacement ofsleepers are encountered. He alsoemphasised on periodical removalof vegetation and tree choppingalong the tracks.

Speed enhancement of pas-senger trains to 160 Kmph andbeyond is a challenging work takenby them. In this regard, infra-structure upgradation work inexisting sections are being assessed

and planned. Some sections whichare on high density routes, havetheir own challenges, as obtaininglong blocks for carrying out worksis a major constraint. Executionstrategies are being planned in theform of pre-fabrication of struc-tures so as to complete maximumwork in the short period allottedwithout disputing the normal traintraffic.

To encourage use of railwaysfor movement of freight, goodssheds are being revamped for easeand convenience of loading andunloading of goods. Many railwayyards are also set for futuristic

remodeling. This will enhancecapacity for coaches and wagons.Staff deployment for such dedicat-ed works will be increased, so as tocomplete the projects efficiently.

Speaking on the Stat ionRemodeling of Ayodhya, Varanasiand Lucknow Railway stations,GM advised to put in sincereefforts to plan and execute thework. Expressing satisfaction onthe performance of the variousdepartments, Chaudhary said, “Thepandemic is far from over, it is tobe ensured that all laid down rulesof staying safe from COVID are fol-lowed strictly all over NR.”

To achieve one billion tonnes(BT) coal production by FY2023-24 and make the nation

“Aatmanirbhar” in coal, Coal IndiaLtd (CIL) will invest over �1.22 lakhcrore in about 500 projects related tocoal evacuation, infrastructure, pro-ject development, exploration andclean coal technologies. UnionMinister of Coal and Mines PralhadJoshi said on Tuesday while address-ing a Stakeholders Meet organised byCIL through video conferencing.

“Engagement and involvement ofall concerned stakeholders in compa-ny’s affairs will reduce and uncover theproject risks. Such two-way interac-tions help pave way for mutually ben-eficial newer ideas, improvementareas and project-related expecta-tions,” said Joshi.

Out of the proposed spend of over�1.22 lakh crore, CIL has planned toinvest �32,696 crore on coal evacua-tion, �25,117 crore on mine infra-structure, �29,461 crore on projectdevelopment, �32,199 on diversifica-tion and clean coal technologies,�1,495 crore on social infrastructureand �1,893 crore on explorationworks by FY 2023-24.

Addressing the stakeholders, Joshisaid that avenues for business oppor-tunities with CIL are huge. The com-pany would be investing around�14,200 crore by FY 23-24 in twophases for its 49 First Mile connec-tivity projects. First Mile connec-tivity is the transportation of coalfrom pitheads to dispatch points.This will make coal transporta-tion and computer-aided load-

ing more efficient. Similarly, in atransformative plan to increase coaloutput and reduce import dependen-cy of coal in the ensuing years, CIL hasidentified 15 greenfield projects tooperate through MDO mode thatwould entail a total investment planof about �34,600 crore, out of whichlikely investment ending in FY 24 willbe about �17,000 crore.

For evacuation infrastructure,investments in rail logistics likedeveloping major railways (about�13,000 crore), railway sidings(about �3,100 crore) and pro-curement of own wagons (�675crore) would total up to a like-ly investment of over �16,500crore by FY 23-24. “Coal Indiaand its subsidiaries are engagedin procurement of various

types of goods, works and servicesamounting to approximately �30,000crore per year. This is where the roleand importance of stakeholder stepsin,” said the Minister.

“Coal India, in its endeavour toprocure goods, works and services infair, transparent and equitable man-ner, has made numerous updates,changes in its manuals and guidelinesfor the benefit of vendors and stake-holders to enhance the ‘Ease ofDoing Business’ and adherence toprinciples of transparency,” Joshiadded.

Secretary (Coal) Anil KumarJain, CMD CIL Pramod Agarwal andother senior officials from theMinistry of Coal and CIL attendedthe meet and interacted with thestakeholders.

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Dr Rajendra Prasad Singh, for-mer CMD, POWERGRID and

independent director, Azure PowerGlobal Ltd, has been nominated asChairperson of Board of Governors(BOG) of Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Bhubaneswarfor three years with immediateeffect.

Dr Singh is known for his sin-gular contribution in bringingeconomy in project cost as well asoperational cost through his non-conventional approach. In spite ofinterruptions in getting WorldBank loan due to sanctionsimposed after India tested nucleardevice at Pokharan, POWERGRID,under his leadership, built theTalcher-Kolar (Odisha-Karnataka)2,100 km transmission system in 33months with an investment of�3,300 crore against an estimatedtime of 42 months and expenditureof �4,200 crore. It was nine monthsahead of its schedule with a costsaving of �900 crore. This feat wasrecognised by the then PrimeMinister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee,who as PM inaugurated the projectand held it as an example for oth-ers to emulate.

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Suresh Raina has broken hissilence over his unexpected

pullout from the IPL, saying hereturned to India for his familyand he might even fly back toDubai to rejoin the ChennaiSuper Kings for the tournamentbeginning September 19.

Raina, whoannounced his interna-tional retirementalongside M S Dhonion August 15, also rub-bished reports claiming arift between him and hislongtime franchise.

The contingentrecorded 13 Covid-19cases, including two play-ers, and Raina’s pulloutwas attributed to that.

“It was a personaldecision and I had tocome back for my fami-ly. There was somethingthat needed to beaddressed immediatelyon the home front. CSKis my family too and

Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) is veryimportant to me and this was atough decision,” Raina toldCricbuzz.

“There is no issue betweenCSK and me. Nobody will justturn their back on �12.5 croreand walk away without a solidreason. I might have retired frominternational cricket but I’mstill young and I am looking for-ward to playing for them in theIPL for the next 4-5 years,” he

said.He also dropped ahint on rejoining

the team inDubai whenasked abouthis futurewith CSK.

“ I ’ v ebeen training

even whilequarantining

here. You neverknow you might see me in

the camp there again,” saidthe southpaw.

Team owner NSrinivasan was not happy

when he first got to know aboutRaina’s withdrawal from thetournament. The batsman saidthe former BCCI president islike a “father figure” to him andhas every right to snap at him.

“..He’s always stood by me

and is close to my heart. Hetreats me like his younger sonand am sure a lot of what he saidwas taken out of context. Ekbaap apne bacche ko daant saktahai(A father can scold his son).

“He didn’t know the real

reasons for me leaving when hegave those comments. Now he’sbeen informed about them andhe even sent me a messagethereafter. We’ve chatted aboutit and both CSK and I just wantto get over with it,” said Raina.

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This was the sort of matchAndy Murray came back for,

the sort of competition andcomeback he always lived for,the reason he went throughtwo hip operations and all thehard work that followed.

And it was the type of vin-tage Murray performance —undaunted by a deficit, adjust-ing on the fly, muttering all theway — that was too compellingnot to watch, so while there areno fans allowed into this USOpen because of the pandemic,fellow pros made their way intothe stands to see the popular2012 champion save a matchpoint Tuesday and, eventually,win.

Playing his first Grand Slammatch in nearly 20 months,toiling on his metal hip for 4hours, 39 minutes in ArthurAshe Stadium, Murray puttogether his 10th career come-back from two sets down andbeat Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4.

“It was pretty emotionalstraight after the match fin-ished, when I got back to thelocker room — sort of look atmy phone, see the messagesfrom family and friends, theteam and stuff. They’re the peo-ple that have kind of seen me gothrough everything, been there,seen the tough times,” said

Murray, who next plays 15th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, a20-year-old from Canada.

“I don’t know how many ofus actually believed I’d be backkind of winning matches likethat.”

The 33-year-old Murray,who was treated for blisters onhis two big toes by a trainer dur-ing a medical timeout said,“That’s by far the most tennis I’veplayed since 2019, really.”

And so many of the sport’sbiggest names were there to wit-ness it.

They included NovakDjokovic, Dominic Thiem,Naomi Osaka, GarbiñeMuguruza and others, somenoshing while sitting on the bal-conies of their personal“lounges” — Ashe suites thatnormally bring in hundreds ofthousands of dollars during thistournament but were assigned toseeded players because of theban on spectators.

“It’s rare that you have lotsof, like, players watching yourmatch,” Murray said. “In someways, that can be a little bit dis-tracting, if you look up andyou’ve got guys that are in theTop 5, Top 10 in the worldwatching you and stuff.”

Thiem, a three-time majorrunner-up, and Muguruza, atwo-time Grand Slam champi-on but never in New York,advanced earlier, as did 2014 USOpen champion Marin Cilic.

A player who can appreci-ate Murray’s journey perhaps asmuch as anyone is AndreyKuznetsov, a 29-year-oldRussian who missed about 2½years because of his own hipinjury. Kuznetsov eliminatedSam Querrey 6-4, 7-5 (6), 6-2,becoming the first unrankedman to win a Grand Slammatch since Nicolas Kiefer at

Wimbledon in 2007.

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Making quick work ofan opponent for achange, Serena

Williams wrapped up her102nd career US Open matchwin to break a tie with ChrisEvert for the most in the pro-fessional era.

Then Williams headedback out to the Arthur AsheStadium stands on Tuesdaynight, her dog in tow. Williamshad a match to watch — herolder sister’s, which did notwork out as well.

Serena Williams, whoturns 39 this month, defeatedKristie Ahn 7-5, 6-3. ButVenus Williams, who is 40, lostin the US Open’s first roundfor the first time in 22 appear-ances, beaten 6-3, 7-5 by No 20Karolina Muchova.

It is the fourth time in thepast five Grand Slam tourna-ments that Venus exited in heropening match.

“I just ran out of timetoday,” Venus said.

Venus, who won two ofher seven major singles cham-pionships in New York, was

trying to become only thethird woman in her 40s to wina US Open singles match.

“We would have neverthought we would still be outhere, to be honest,” Serenasaid.

“I love my job. At the endof the day, I love what I do. I’vealways said, ‘You can’t do it for-ever,’” she said after delivering13 aces and droppingonly six points onher serve.

“One of thesedays,” Serena said,“it’s going to end.”She has won 23Grand Slam singles titles, themost in the professional era,which began in 1968; onlyMargaret Court collectedmore, with 24.

Six of Serena’s trophiescame at the US Open, and shealso was the runner-up fourtimes, including each of thepast two years.

Entering Tuesday, Serenahad been 3-2 since tennismatches resumed after a hia-tus because of the coronaviruspandemic — and all five wentthree sets. So Tuesday’s matchwas a welcome change.

“It’s been years — since the‘90s — since I won a match instraight sets,” Serena joked.

“I’ve been playing a ton oftight matches,” she said. “I feltlike, all right, I just wanted tobe ‘Serena-focused’ from thefirst point to the last point,no matter what happens.”

Her career mark at thehard-court event is 102-13, a winning percentageof .887.

“In a weird way, Ifeel like every time Icome here, I’m beingtold I broke anotherrecord,” Serena said.

“It’s cool. I don’tthink I appreciate it

enough, which is unfortu-nate,” she said. “But I’m in themiddle of a Grand Slam, so it’snot the time to be focused forme on records when I’mthinking about winning atournament.”

CLIJSTERS OUTKim Clijsters’ first Grand

Slam match in eight yearsended in defeat whenthe Belgian veteran wasbeaten in three sets byEkaterina Alexandrova.

Clijsters, 37,launched the secondcomeback of her career

earlier this year only to see herreturn thwarted by the Covid-19 crisis.

However she raised hopesof scoring a massive upset overher 21st-seeded Russian oppo-nent on Tuesday after takingthe opening set. Alexandrovaasserted her class thereafterthough, levelling in the secondbefore completing a 3-6, 7-5,6-1 win.

Australian Open champi-on Sofia Kenin advanced tothe second round with a

straight-set win

over Yanina Wickmayer.The 21-year-old Moscow-

born second seed neededjust over an hour to score a 6-2, 6-2 win over her unseededBelgian opponent. She willnow play Canada’s LeylahFernandez in the secondround.

Tenth seed GarbineMuguruza, the 2016 FrenchOpen champion and 2017Wimbledon winner, advancedto round two with a 6-4, 6-4victory over Japan’s NaoHavino.

She dedicated the win tocompatriot Carla SuarezNavarro, who revealed onTuesday that she had beendiagnosed with Hodgkin lym-phoma and will require sixmonths of chemotherapy.

“You know, she’s such anice woman, so sweet, so kind,so humble. When these thingshappen to these good people,I feel, like, so sad about it,” saidMuguruza.

And ninth seed JohannaKonta beat compatriotHeather Watson 7-6 (9/7), 6-1 in a tie dubbed the Battle ofBritain.

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Veteran al l-rounderMohammad Hafeez praised

teenage debutant Haider Ali’s com-posure after the pair combined toset up Pakistan’s five-run victoryover England in their tour-endingthird T20I at Old Trafford onTuesday.

It was Pakistan’s first victory in66 days of being in a bio-securebubble in England and meantthey squared this three-matchseries at 1-1 after a 1-0 loss in lastmonth’s three-Test series.

Hafeez made 86 not out andHaider 54 in Pakistan’s 190-4.

There was a 20-year age gapbetween the 39-year-old Hafeezand the 19-year-old Haider butyou would not have known itwhile they shared a stand of exact-ly 100 after coming together at 32-2.

Hafeez’s knock followed his 69in England’s five-wicket win at OldTrafford on Sunday and was hisfourth fifty in his last five T20Iinnings.

Haider came in at 2-1 afteropener Fakhar Zaman was out forone but demonstrated a maturitywell beyond his years during a 28-ball fifty featuring five fours and

two sixes.“He was good under pressure

and just expressed himself,” saidplayer of the series Hafeez ofHaider in a post-match interviewwith Sky Sports.

“I was just trying to back himevery time, tell him ‘you are play-ing well, continue like that,’” headded. “It is great to see youngsterscoming from our system and per-forming well.”

England were 69-4 in their

chase before Moeen Ali, whoshould have been stumped by for-mer Pakistan captain SarfarazAhmed on seven, revived theirhopes with 61.

But when veteran pacemanWahab Riaz, in for the injuredMohammad Amir, ran out Chris

Jordan and then caught andbowled Moeen, England were 174-8 with seven balls left.

They needed 12 off two ballswhen Tom Curran hit a six.

But Curran could not repeatthe shot when paceman HarisRauf bowled a last-ball yorker.

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World champion P V Sindhu haspulled out of next month’s Thomas

and Uber Cup Finals due to “personal rea-sons” and could also miss the subsequentSuper 750 tournaments in Denmark.

The Thomas and Uber Cup Finals,scheduled to be held from October 3 to11 in Aarhus, Denmark is the first tour-nament in the revised calender

“Sindhu will not be able to participatein the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals dueto some personal reasons,” the OlympicSilver-medallist’s father P V Ramanatold PTI.

“She has some personal work, sounfortunately she will have to skip theevent. We have informed the BadmintonAssociation of India about her decision,”he added.

The Thomas and Uber Cup Finalswill be followed by the Denmark Open I(October 13-18) and Denmark Masters(October 20-25).

Asked if she would be participatingin the two 750 events in Denmark,Ramana said: “Actually that is also (indoubt) ... I mean the entries have been sentfor both the events, but it depends on herpersonal work if she would be able to playboth or not. “She may have to skip onetournament in Denmark. If she cancomplete her personal work then she willplay one.”

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Sumit Nagal becamethe first Indian ten-

nis player to win around at a Grand Slamin seven years whenhe downed AmericanBradley Klahn in his

first round match, set-ting up a contest against worldnumber three Dominic Thiem.

Returning to the FlushingMeadows where he took a set off

Roger Federer last year, the Indiangot past the local rival, ranked justa rung above the Indian at 126th inthe world, 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in twohours and 12 minutes on Tuesdaynight.

Somdev Devvarman was thelast Indian to win a main drawmatch at a major and incidentally,it was at the US Open in 2013 whenhe beat Slovakia’s Lukas Lackoafter coming through qualifiers.

“I qualified for a junior Slam in2013 here and then the men’s and

now to win my first round heremeans a lot. I enjoy playing hereand it has worked out in my favourfew times,” Nagal said.

Somdev, who retired in January2017, had reached the secondrounds of Australian Open, FrenchOpen and US Open in 2013 apartfrom playing a second round at theWimbledon in 2011 but neverwent beyond that.

Up next for him will beAustria’s top player Thiem, whoadvanced when his Spanish rival

Jaume Munar retired before thestart of the third set. Thiem wasleading 7-6(6), 6-3 when Munarfound it difficult to continue as heinjured his knee during the secondset.

A fierce fighter, Nagal hardlycares for reputations and is expect-ed to make it tough for the worldnumber three on Thursday.

“I am ready and excited to playhim. It’s going to be fun and (I will)see where I stand in terms of mytennis level,” he said.

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In his first high-profile cap-taincy assignment, K L Rahul

is looking to lead from the frontand use the nuggets of leader-ship knowledge he has collect-ed while observing the likes ofM S Dhoni, Virat Kohli andRohit Sharma.

Rahul has been handedthe Kings XI Punjab captaincyafter two stellar seasons withthe bat at the top of the order.

“Of course. They have beenthe most inspiring cricketersand leaders in the last 10 yearsat least. Having the opportu-nity to play under them is greatlearning,” Rahul said whenasked about the possibility ofseeing shades of Kohli andDhoni in his captaincy.

“Both (Kohli and Dhoni) ofthem are completely differentindividuals and lead the teamdifferently. But their passion forthe team is the same, theyalways want to win and push

the team together.“I also want use the same

approach with my team andlook to lead from the front. Itshould feel like a team, itshould feel like family.”

Rahul said he has pickedup the tricks of the leadershiptrade not just from his Indiaskippers but also oppositioncaptains.

“We are always constantlywatching the game on the field,I always keep my eyes open tolearning. You learn a lot watch-ing the likes of Rohit (MumbaiIndians captain and India cap-tain at 2018 Asia Cup).

“Guys like KaneWilliamson. Hopefully, it (thelearnings) is all stored in theback of my head (for me to usein the tournament),” said thestylish opener.

To start with at least, Rahulwill be opening the batting andwicket-keeping besides plottingthe opposition’s downfall ascaptain. It could be too muchwork in a high-pressure eventlike the IPL but Rahul is excit-ed about the challenge.

“I don’t know if it is goingplay a part or hamper anythingbut I am quite looking forwardto the responsibility, it is some-thing I have always enjoyed. Iam going in with an openmind and learn on the go,” hesaid.

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Ricky Ponting remains at oddswith R Ashwin on the con-

tentious issue of ‘Mankading’but proposes introducing a one-run penalty for batsmen backingup too far at the non-striker’s endfor stealing a single.

The Delhi Capitals coach, astaunch critic of the practicenamed after former India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, backedthe senior India off-spinner whenhe asked if the batsman shouldalso be penalised for leaving hiscrease at the non-striker’s endbefore a ball is delivered.

Ashwin, who will turn out forDelhi Capitals in the upcomingIPL, asked Ponting: “Now noballs are being looked at veryclosely, every single ball of a T20game... Can the batsman also bereprimanded on a similar line ifhe crosses the line?”

Ponting responded in thepositive.

“I think so,” the Australiangreat said.

“There should be some sortof run penalty. Like if you are toget to the top of your bowlingaction and stop, and it shows that

the batsman is cheating, he is outof his crease, I think put a runpenalty on him.

“... And do it right from thestart, because that will stop himstraightaway. Imagine taking 10runs off the team total becauseyou have taken a yard out of yourcrease. It’s got to be... Those sortof things need to be looked at.”

The issue became a talkingpoint when Ponting, head coachof Ashwin’s team Delhi Capitals,said he would have a discussionwith the bowler on the controver-sial manner of getting a batsmanout.

5�%�&����%�����4���&�%����%.9�����"���New Delhi: Suresh Raina is likea “son” to him but ChennaiSuper Kings owner NSrinivasan on Wednesday saidthe all-rounder’s return to theside this IPL season after anunanticipated pullout would bedecided by the team manage-ment led by skipper MahendraSingh Dhoni.

“I have treated him like one(son). The reason for CSK’ssuccess in IPL over the years isbecause of the fact that fran-chise never poked its nose intocricketing matters,” Srinivasansaid.

“We own a team, we own

the franchise but we do notown players. Team is ours butplayers are not. I don’t own theplayers,” he added.

For Srinivasan, the deci-sion on Raina will lay with theteam management, whichmeans skipper Dhoni and CEOKS Viswanathan.

“I am not the cricket cap-tain. I have never told them(team management) whomto play, whom to take in theauction, never. We have thegreatest captain of all times. So,why shall I even interfere incricketing matters?” Srinivasansaid. PTI

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Australia coach Justin Langersaid his side would be ready to

face a “dangerous” England teamafter he watched them duringtheir T20 series against Pakistan.

Langer’s men face England inthree T20s at Southampton,with Friday’s opener at theAgeas Bowl their firstmajor match since March,before playing the 50-over world champions inthree ODIs inManchester.

Langer told a confer-ence call from Australia’straining base inSouthampton onWednesday that he waswary of Eoin Morgan’s men.

“Dangerous... that’s what

I made of England. I’ve watched theway Eoin Morgan plays, it’s excitingto watch, he just comes out andsmacks it from ball one.”

“They’ve been the best one-dayteam in the world for a fewyears now.... We came heretwo years ago and got

smashed 5-0,” addedLanger, who said beingwhitewashed had put“hairs on the chest” ofa youthful team.

“We came herelast year, won twoout of three games,

just didn’t win the bigone in the (World Cup)semi-final. They are avery good cricket team,well led.

“We know what toexpect and we’ll be ready.”

)����R�D/����%����������0�2 ����.,��2��-�����/��������������/����-��2�������%������?��,� ����� Defending champi-ons Mumbai Indians onWednesday announced thesigning of Australian pacerJames Pattinson as a replace-ment for Lasith Malinga for theupcoming IPL.

The veteran Sri Lankanpacer is unavailable for the sea-son due to personal reasons.“Lasith Malinga has requestedunavailability for the season forpersonal reasons and to be withfamily back home in SriLanka,” a media release issuedby Mumbai Indians said.

Pattinson will join MI,currently based in Abu Dhabi,this weekend. PTI

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