12
D efence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday informed Parliament that India and China have started disen- gaging their troops from the Pangong Tso (lake) in Ladakh and assured that India did not concede anything while agree- ing for mutual withdrawal. He also said the pullback started after several rounds of talks at the military and diplo- matic levels between the two sides over the last few months. The two Corps Commanders will meet again after 48 hours to review the withdrawal process, Rajnath said. Officials said the two armies were monitoring the withdrawal of tanks and troops from the south and north banks of the Pangong lake through drones and satellite imagery. They also said the local commanders of the two armies were already in regular touch for the last few weeks to commence the pullback and this exercise will continue in future too. They admitted this was the first step in the long process in breaking the impasse lasting more than 10 months and said the mutually acceptable disen- gagement at the lake was a con- fidence building measure to restore peace at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. More than one lakh troops from both the sides were in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation since May last year when the first face-off took place at the Pangong Tso. Moreover, both the sides amassed tanks and artillery guns closer to the LAC as tension grew following the bloody brawl at the Galwan valley on June 15. Twenty Indian Army personnel includ- ing the commanding officer were killed in the incident. Meanwhile, Rajnath in his statement on the present situ- ation in Ladakh said in the Rajya Sabha, “I am happy to inform the House today that as a result of our well thought out approach and sustained talks with the Chinese side, we have now been able to reach an agreement on disengagement in the north and south bank of the Pangong Lake.” As per the agreement, both sides will cease their forward deployments in a phased, coor- dinated and verified manner in these areas, he said. The Defence Minister assured the House that India has not conceded anything while entering into the disen- gagement process, adding there are “some outstanding issues” with regard to deployment and patrolling at some other points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. “It has also been agreed to convene the next meeting of the senior commanders with- in 48 hours after the complete disengagement in the Pangong Lake area so as to address and resolve all other remaining issues,” he said. Giving details of the pact, the Minister said, “The Chinese side will keep its troop presence in the North Bank area to east of Finger 8. Reciprocally, the Indian troops will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3,” he said. “A similar action would be taken in the South Bank area by both sides. These are mutual and reciprocal steps and any structures that had been built by both sides since April 2020 in both north and south bank area will be removed,” Singh said. He also informed the Elders that for the time being patrolling by both the armies in that area will not take place till the outstanding issues were addressed in the future military and diplomatic level parley. “These are mutual and rec- iprocal steps and any structures that had been built by both sides since April 2020 in both North and South Bank area will be removed and the landforms will be restored. It has also been agreed to have a temporary moratorium on military activ- ities by both sides in the North Bank, including patrolling to the traditional areas,” the Defence Minister said. Later, some Congress members tried to seek clarifi- cations from Rajnath but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow. He said this issue pertained to national security and talks between the two countries were still on. Therefore, it will not be appro- priate to seek clarifications, he ruled. The mutual withdrawal of tanks and infantry combat vehicles from heights on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso began on Wednesday a fortnight after the Corps Commanders of the two armies agreed on January 24 to push for an early disengagement of their frontline troops from the flashpoints. I ndia on Thursday warned Twitter and others of strict action for failure to crack- down on content inciting disharmony and posing threat to national security. These plat- forms were also told to adhere to the Constitution and laws of the land. Making this clear in the Rajya Sabha, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said the social media, including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp besides others, were free to criticise the Government. However, fake news and content fanning trouble will not be tolerated and the Government will take strict action, he said. This came a day after his Ministry rebuked Twitter for not complying with its orders to take down inflam- matory contents. Enunciating the Government’s stand on the issue, Prasad said social media platforms cannot give differ- ential treatment while han- dling problems on Capitol Hill and the Red Fort. The Government, he said, was committed to freedom of media and rights of individu- als, but it was equally con- cerned about safety, security, and law and order in the coun- try. “Please don’t spread enmi- ty, violence and misinforma- tion. Please follow the Constitution of India and the law of the land (otherwise we will be very strict),” he said. On Wednesday, his Ministry had expressed dis- pleasure at Twitter for failing to remove all of the over 1,100 accounts and posts it alleged spread misinformation about the widespread protests by farmers against new agricul- tural laws. Prasad said the social media companies took imme- diate action when riots broke out at Capitol Hill in Washington but ignored simi- lar action when farm bill pro- testers ran riot at Red Fort on Republic Day. Continued on Page 2 A s much time has elapsed since the rescue mission started to save the over 30 peo- ple trapped inside Tapovan tunnel in Chamoli district fol- lowing a flash flood caused by glacier burst, the rescue agen- cies have changed their strate- gy with focus on providing life- saving system, possibly to pump oxygen, into the blocked tunnel. Rescue agencies on Thursday began drilling through the hardened debris in the choked tunnel, rather than just shifting mounds of silt and sludge heaped there by the sud- den flood. In the meanwhile, the res- cue operation was stalled briefly on Thursday when the Dhauliganga river began swelling again. Rescue workers at the Tapovan site scrambled to safe- ty, pulling their heavy machin- ery to higher ground. A press briefing ended midway and the operation halted. It resumed after 45 minutes with cautious officials saying they will send in only small teams to the rescue site for now. The centre of the rescue operation remains the 1.5-km “head-race tunnel” — a part of the 2.5-km long network of tunnels — at the 480-MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel power project of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The confirmed death toll in the Uttarakhand disaster rose to 35 with the recovery of another body in Gauchar on Thursday, while 169 others are still missing since Sunday, after an avalanche or a glacier break triggered a surge of water in the Alaknanda river system flood- ing the area. Continued on Page 2 T he Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Thursday allowed airlines to charge 10-30 per cent more for domestic flights with immedi- ate effect while extending its earlier decision of allowing airlines to deploy up to 80 per cent of their pre-Covid domes- tic capacity till March 31, 2021. The minimum fare on all seven sectors has been increased by 10 per cent and the maximum fares are up by 30 per cent. The price capping was put on domestic flight operators to keep the ticket prices in check due to the lim- ited number of flights. The move will help to improve the financial health of the airlines. For instance, in category A where flight duration time is less than 40 minutes — such as Agartala-Guwahati, Amritsar- Srinagar, Bengaluru-Chennai, Bhopal-Mumbai among others — the minimum fare has been increased from 2,000 to 2,200 and the maximum fare from 6,000 to 7,800. For longer duration flight time between 180 and 210 minutes for routes such as Coimbatore-Delhi, Delhi- Thiruvananthapuram, and Port Blair-Delhi, the minimum fare has increased from 6,500 to 7,200 while the maximum fare from 18,600 to 24,200. The subsequent bands are for flights with durations of 40- 60 minutes, 60-90 minutes, 90-120 minutes, 120-150 min- utes, 150-180 minutes and 180- 210 minutes. The fresh lower and upper limits set by the Ministry for these bands on Thursday were 2,800 to 9,800 (Amritsar-Delhi, Bengaluru-Goa among oth- ers); 3,300 to 11,700 (Ahmedabad-Chandigarh, Bengaluru-Kolkata, Bhopal- Hyderabad); 3,900 to 13,000 (Varanasi-Jaipur, Ahmedabad- Kolkata, Bengaluru-Bhopal); 5,000 to 16,900 (Agartala- Delhi, Bengaluru-Jaipur, Chandigarh-Hyderabad, Chennai-Lucknow); 6,100 to 20,400 (Ahmedabad- Guwahati, Bengaluru- Chandigarh, Chennai- Guwahati, Delhi-Kochi ); 7,200 to 24,200 (Coimbatore-Delhi, Delhi- Thiruvananthapuram). Till date, the lower and upper limits for these bands were 2,500 - 7,500;3,000 - 9,000; 3,500 - 10,000; 4,500 - 13,000; 5,500 - 15,700 and 6,500 - 18,600, respectively. The airfare band has been revised upwards now as the price of jet fuel has risen sig- nificantly since last May when the fares were set. The summer schedule begins at the end of March for all the airlines. Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approves both the schedules — summer and win- ter — of all the airlines. Continued on Page 2 F ormer Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a stinging attack on the Modi Government saying the country is being run by four people and that “farming reforms” are aimed to create a business monopoly, help cor- porate, finish “mandi-system” and impoverish “kisan”, “maj- door” and small businessmen. Addressing the Lok Sabha during the Budget debate, the Congress leader did not take any names but apparently referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and two leading businessmen of the country, saying they are the ones running the country. Recalling the Prime Minister’s speech in the House on Wednesday that everyone is talking about the farm agitation but not about its “content and intent”, the Congress leader said “let me make the PM happy” by talking about them. Amid noisy interruptions and point of order raised by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, the MP from Wayanad cited an old family planning slogan, launching “hum do, humare do ki sarkar” jibe at the Central Government. Rahul alleged that the three new agriculture laws passed during the Monsoon Session in 2020 would allow industrialists to buy unlimited quantity of foodgrains and hoard them. He further alleged the Acts will destroy India’s food security system which would hurt the rural economy. “Let us discuss the content and intent of the farm laws. The content of the first farm law is to end the mandis. The second law will allow hoarding by amending the Essential Commodities Act, and the third law doesn’t allow farmers to approach court in case of a dispute,” said Rahul in the House amid vociferous oppo- sition from the BJP members. Continued on Page 2 I nstallation of CCTV cameras for enhanced security, elec- tric fans to beat the heat in the coming months and even a separate optical fibre line for wifi facility in case there is another internet shutdown at the protest site. These are some of the measures taken by the agitating farmers at the Singhu border to prepare for a long haul as a resolution of the stalemate over the new farm legislation seems unlikely any- time soon. The leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, lead- ing the protest, have reiterated to continue the agitation indef- initely till the Modi Government scraps the three contentious farm laws and extends a legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops. “We are strengthening our communication and other infrastructure to continue the agitation for a long period,” said Deep Khatri associated with managing logistics at the Singhu Border protest site. Continued on Page 2 M aharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari found himself in an embar- rassing situation on Thursday morning as he was forced to disembark from a State Government aircraft minutes after he boarded the plane to fly to Dehradun to attend an offi- cial function at Mussoorie, as he had no official permission to use the aircraft. The Governor then left for Dehradun in a commercial flight. Hours after a protocol con- troversy broke out between the Opposition and the MVA Government over the denial of permission to the Governor to use the State aircraft, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) laid the blame at the Raj Bhavan Secretariat saying that the staff there should have ascertained whether the Governor had received the requisite permis- sion from the State Government to use the aircraft. While the State Government stood its ground saying that the Governor faced the piquant situation owing to the lapse on the part of an offi- cial concerned at Raj Bhavan, the incident is being seen as fallout of a frosty relationship that has been prevailing between Koshyari and the Shiv Sena-led MVA Government. The CMO said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had taken serious cognisance of the incident and asked the State administration to fix responsibility on the officials concerned at Raj Bhavan for the lapse. Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: ˇ 8 0 ˚ 1 ˘ &$ 5 ˚ ./ 0$%. 12345 3, 4˛ 5 1 ˚ = ˆ30ˆ 3˝ 4˝4 @6/ 3363˝/ 3 ... · 2021. 2. 11. · remove all of the over 1,100 accounts and posts it alleged spread misinformation

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Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Thursday

informed Parliament that Indiaand China have started disen-gaging their troops from thePangong Tso (lake) in Ladakhand assured that India did notconcede anything while agree-ing for mutual withdrawal.

He also said the pullbackstarted after several rounds oftalks at the military and diplo-matic levels between the twosides over the last few months.The two Corps Commanderswill meet again after 48 hoursto review the withdrawalprocess, Rajnath said.

Officials said the twoarmies were monitoring thewithdrawal of tanks and troopsfrom the south and northbanks of the Pangong lakethrough drones and satelliteimagery. They also said thelocal commanders of the twoarmies were already in regulartouch for the last few weeks tocommence the pullback andthis exercise will continue infuture too.

They admitted this wasthe first step in the long processin breaking the impasse lastingmore than 10 months and saidthe mutually acceptable disen-gagement at the lake was a con-fidence building measure torestore peace at the Line ofActual Control (LAC) inEastern Ladakh.

More than one lakh troopsfrom both the sides were in an

eyeball to eyeball confrontationsince May last year when thefirst face-off took place at thePangong Tso. Moreover, boththe sides amassed tanks andartillery guns closer to theLAC as tension grew followingthe bloody brawl at the Galwanvalley on June 15. TwentyIndian Army personnel includ-ing the commanding officerwere killed in the incident.

Meanwhile, Rajnath in hisstatement on the present situ-ation in Ladakh said in theRajya Sabha, “I am happy toinform the House today that asa result of our well thought outapproach and sustained talkswith the Chinese side, we havenow been able to reach anagreement on disengagementin the north and south bank ofthe Pangong Lake.”

As per the agreement, both

sides will cease their forwarddeployments in a phased, coor-dinated and verified manner inthese areas, he said.

The Defence Ministerassured the House that Indiahas not conceded anythingwhile entering into the disen-gagement process, adding thereare “some outstanding issues”with regard to deployment andpatrolling at some other pointsalong the LAC in easternLadakh.

“It has also been agreed toconvene the next meeting ofthe senior commanders with-in 48 hours after the completedisengagement in the PangongLake area so as to address andresolve all other remainingissues,” he said.

Giving details of the pact,the Minister said, “The Chineseside will keep its troop presence

in the North Bank area to eastof Finger 8. Reciprocally, theIndian troops will be based attheir permanent base at DhanSingh Thapa Post near Finger3,” he said.

“A similar action would betaken in the South Bank area byboth sides. These are mutualand reciprocal steps and anystructures that had been builtby both sides since April 2020in both north and south bankarea will be removed,” Singhsaid.

He also informed theElders that for the time beingpatrolling by both the armies inthat area will not take place till

the outstanding issues wereaddressed in the future militaryand diplomatic level parley.

“These are mutual and rec-iprocal steps and any structuresthat had been built by bothsides since April 2020 in bothNorth and South Bank area willbe removed and the landformswill be restored. It has also beenagreed to have a temporarymoratorium on military activ-ities by both sides in the NorthBank, including patrolling tothe traditional areas,” theDefence Minister said.

Later, some Congressmembers tried to seek clarifi-cations from Rajnath but

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidudid not allow. He said this issuepertained to national securityand talks between the twocountries were still on.Therefore, it will not be appro-priate to seek clarifications, heruled.

The mutual withdrawal oftanks and infantry combatvehicles from heights on thesouthern bank of the PangongTso began on Wednesday afortnight after the CorpsCommanders of the two armiesagreed on January 24 to pushfor an early disengagement oftheir frontline troops from theflashpoints.

���� 3/��0/4��

India on Thursday warnedTwitter and others of strict

action for failure to crack-down on content incitingdisharmony and posing threatto national security. These plat-forms were also told to adhereto the Constitution and laws ofthe land.

Making this clear in theRajya Sabha, InformationTechnology Minister RaviShankar Prasad, however, saidthe social media, includingTwitter, Facebook andWhatsApp besides others, werefree to criticise theGovernment.

However, fake news andcontent fanning trouble will notbe tolerated and theGovernment will take strictaction, he said. This came a dayafter his Ministry rebukedTwitter for not complying withits orders to take down inflam-matory contents.

Enunciating theGovernment’s stand on theissue, Prasad said social mediaplatforms cannot give differ-ential treatment while han-dling problems on Capitol Hilland the Red Fort.

The Government, he said,was committed to freedom ofmedia and rights of individu-als, but it was equally con-cerned about safety, security,and law and order in the coun-try.

“Please don’t spread enmi-ty, violence and misinforma-tion. Please follow theConstitution of India and thelaw of the land (otherwise wewill be very strict),” he said.

On Wednesday, hisMinistry had expressed dis-pleasure at Twitter for failing toremove all of the over 1,100accounts and posts it allegedspread misinformation aboutthe widespread protests byfarmers against new agricul-tural laws.

Prasad said the socialmedia companies took imme-diate action when riots brokeout at Capitol Hill inWashington but ignored simi-lar action when farm bill pro-testers ran riot at Red Fort onRepublic Day.

Continued on Page 2

��+ ���� 0/�'�0�35��167�353/��0/4��

As much time has elapsedsince the rescue mission

started to save the over 30 peo-ple trapped inside Tapovantunnel in Chamoli district fol-lowing a flash flood caused byglacier burst, the rescue agen-cies have changed their strate-gy with focus on providing life-saving system, possibly topump oxygen, into the blockedtunnel.

Rescue agencies onThursday began drillingthrough the hardened debris inthe choked tunnel, rather thanjust shifting mounds of silt andsludge heaped there by the sud-den flood.

In the meanwhile, the res-cue operation was stalledbriefly on Thursday when theDhauliganga river beganswelling again.

Rescue workers at theTapovan site scrambled to safe-ty, pulling their heavy machin-ery to higher ground. A pressbriefing ended midway and theoperation halted.

It resumed after 45 minuteswith cautious officials sayingthey will send in only small

teams to the rescue site for now.The centre of the rescue

operation remains the 1.5-km“head-race tunnel” — a part ofthe 2.5-km long network oftunnels — at the 480-MWTapovan-Vishnugad hydel

power project of the NationalThermal Power Corporation(NTPC).

The confirmed death toll inthe Uttarakhand disaster roseto 35 with the recovery ofanother body in Gauchar on

Thursday, while 169 others arestill missing since Sunday, afteran avalanche or a glacier breaktriggered a surge of water in theAlaknanda river system flood-ing the area.

Continued on Page 2

������*������ 3/��0/4��

The Ministry of CivilAviation (MoCA) on

Thursday allowed airlines tocharge 10-30 per cent more fordomestic flights with immedi-ate effect while extending itsearlier decision of allowingairlines to deploy up to 80 percent of their pre-Covid domes-tic capacity till March 31, 2021.

The minimum fare on allseven sectors has beenincreased by 10 per cent andthe maximum fares are up by30 per cent. The price cappingwas put on domestic flightoperators to keep the ticketprices in check due to the lim-ited number of flights. Themove will help to improve thefinancial health of the airlines.

For instance, in category Awhere flight duration time isless than 40 minutes — such asAgartala-Guwahati, Amritsar-

Srinagar, Bengaluru-Chennai,Bhopal-Mumbai among others— the minimum fare has beenincreased from �2,000 to�2,200 and the maximum farefrom �6,000 to �7,800.

For longer duration flighttime between 180 and 210minutes for routes such asCoimbatore-Delhi, Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram, and PortBlair-Delhi, the minimum farehas increased from �6,500 to�7,200 while the maximumfare from �18,600 to �24,200.

The subsequent bands arefor flights with durations of 40-60 minutes, 60-90 minutes,90-120 minutes, 120-150 min-utes, 150-180 minutes and 180-210 minutes. The fresh lowerand upper limits set by theMinistry for these bands onThursday were �2,800 to�9,800 (Amritsar-Delhi,Bengaluru-Goa among oth-ers); �3,300 to �11,700(Ahmedabad-Chandigarh,

Bengaluru-Kolkata, Bhopal-Hyderabad); �3,900 to �13,000(Varanasi-Jaipur, Ahmedabad-Kolkata, Bengaluru-Bhopal);�5,000 to �16,900 (Agartala-Delhi, Bengaluru-Jaipur,Chandigarh-Hyderabad,Chennai-Lucknow); �6,100 to�20,400 (Ahmedabad-Guwahati, Bengaluru-Chandigarh, Chennai-Guwahati, Delhi-Kochi );�7,200 to �24,200(Coimbatore-Delhi, Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram).

Till date, the lower andupper limits for these bandswere �2,500 - � 7,500;�3,000 -�9,000; �3,500 - �10,000;�4,500 - �13,000; �5,500 -�15,700 and �6,500 - �18,600,respectively.

The airfare band has beenrevised upwards now as theprice of jet fuel has risen sig-nificantly since last May whenthe fares were set. The summerschedule begins at the end ofMarch for all the airlines.Aviation regulator DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) approves both theschedules — summer and win-ter — of all the airlines.

Continued on Page 2

���� 3/��0/4��

Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Thursday

launched a stinging attack onthe Modi Government sayingthe country is being run by fourpeople and that “farmingreforms” are aimed to create abusiness monopoly, help cor-porate, finish “mandi-system”and impoverish “kisan”, “maj-door” and small businessmen.

Addressing the Lok Sabhaduring the Budget debate, theCongress leader did not takeany names but apparentlyreferred to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Union HomeMinister Amit Shah and twoleading businessmen of the

country, saying they are theones running the country.

Recalling the PrimeMinister’s speech in the Houseon Wednesday that everyone istalking about the farm agitationbut not about its “content andintent”, the Congress leadersaid “let me make the PMhappy” by talking about them.

Amid noisy interruptionsand point of order raised by theParliamentary Affairs Minister,the MP from Wayanad cited an

old family planning slogan,launching “hum do, humare doki sarkar” jibe at the CentralGovernment.

Rahul alleged that the threenew agriculture laws passedduring the Monsoon Session in2020 would allow industrialiststo buy unlimited quantity offoodgrains and hoard them. Hefurther alleged the Acts willdestroy India’s food securitysystem which would hurt therural economy.

“Let us discuss the contentand intent of the farm laws. Thecontent of the first farm law isto end the mandis. The secondlaw will allow hoarding byamending the EssentialCommodities Act, and thethird law doesn’t allow farmersto approach court in case of adispute,” said Rahul in theHouse amid vociferous oppo-sition from the BJP members.

Continued on Page 2

���� 3/��0/4��

Installation of CCTV camerasfor enhanced security, elec-

tric fans to beat the heat in thecoming months and even aseparate optical fibre line forwifi facility in case there isanother internet shutdown atthe protest site. These are someof the measures taken by theagitating farmers at the Singhuborder to prepare for a longhaul as a resolution of thestalemate over the new farmlegislation seems unlikely any-time soon.

The leaders of theSamyukta Kisan Morcha, lead-ing the protest, have reiteratedto continue the agitation indef-initely till the ModiGovernment scraps the three

contentious farm laws andextends a legal guarantee of theminimum support price (MSP)for crops.

“We are strengthening ourcommunication and otherinfrastructure to continue theagitation for a long period,” saidDeep Khatri associated withmanaging logistics at theSinghu Border protest site.

Continued on Page 2

��������������� � ��

Maharashtra GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyari

found himself in an embar-rassing situation on Thursdaymorning as he was forced todisembark from a StateGovernment aircraft minutesafter he boarded the plane to flyto Dehradun to attend an offi-cial function at Mussoorie, ashe had no official permissionto use the aircraft. TheGovernor then left forDehradun in a commercialflight.

Hours after a protocol con-troversy broke out betweenthe Opposition and the MVAGovernment over the denial ofpermission to the Governor touse the State aircraft, the ChiefMinister’s Office (CMO) laidthe blame at the Raj BhavanSecretariat saying that the staffthere should have ascertained

whether the Governor hadreceived the requisite permis-sion from the StateGovernment to use the aircraft.

While the StateGovernment stood its groundsaying that the Governor facedthe piquant situation owing tothe lapse on the part of an offi-cial concerned at Raj Bhavan,the incident is being seen asfallout of a frosty relationship

that has been prevailingbetween Koshyari and the ShivSena-led MVA Government.

The CMO said that ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayhad taken serious cognisance ofthe incident and asked theState administration to fixresponsibility on the officialsconcerned at Raj Bhavan forthe lapse.

Continued on Page 2

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New Delhi: The MughalGardens will open for publicfrom Saturday and visitors willbe allowed to see it onlythrough advance online book-ing, according to a statementissued by the RashtrapatiBhavan on Thursday.

President Ram NathKovind will open the annual "Udyanotsav" of theRashtrapati Bhavan onFebruary 12, it said.

"The Mughal Gardens willremain open for the generalpublic from February 13, 2021to March 21, 2021 (except onMondays which are mainte-nance days) between 1000 hrsto 1700 hrs," the statement said.

As a precautionary mea-sure, walk-in entry will not beavailable this year, it said.

Visitors will be allowed tosee the Mughal Gardens onlythrough advance online book-

ing, the statement said.Booking can be made on

h t t p s : / / r a s h t r a p a t i -sachivalaya.gov.in orhttps://rb.nic.in/rbvisit/visit_plan.aspx.

Seven pre-booked hourlyslots will be available between1000 hrs and 1700 hrs, it said,adding that the last entry willbe at 1600 hrs.

"Each slot can accommo-date a maximum of 100 per-sons. During the tour, visitorshave to follow COVID-19 pro-tocols such as wearing mask,maintaining social distancing.They will have to undergothermal screening at entrypoint. People vulnerable toCOVID-19 are discouragedfor the tour," the statement said.

Entry and exit for all visi-tors will be from gate no 35 ofthe President''s Estate, close towhere North Avenue meets

Rashtrapati Bhavan, it said.Visitors are requested not

to bring any water bottles,briefcases, handbags/purses,cameras, radios/transistors,boxes, umbrellas, eatables, thestatement said.

Arrangements of handsanitiser, drinking water, toilets,first aid/ medical facility areprovided at various placesalong the public route, it said.

Apart from the annualopening of the MughalGardens, people can visit theRashtrapati Bhavan and theRashtrapati Bhavan Museum aswell as witness the Change ofGuard Ceremony, it said.

PTI

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From Page 1While taking a dig at

Modi-Shah by his refrain of“hum-do-humare-do”, theCongress MP said this is notthe first attempt by the PrimeMinister to “impoverish ruraleconomy”. The first, he said was“notebandi” which was “takemoney from poor put in themoney in the bank and give itto ‘humare do’, “ he said.

He alleged that the Modi’seconomy has broken the back-bone of small and mediumbusinesses, kisan, ‘majdoor’and finished employment inthe country.

“It’s not a farmers’ agitationbut of the country, farmers areonly showing the way”. Hesaid the Centre will have torepeal the Acts.

The Congress leader andhis party members stood insilence “in memory of 200kisan died during agitation”.Speaker Lok Sabha Om Birlaobjected to it saying it is not acorrect tradition as the respon-sibility of running the Househas been entrusted to him.

Responding to Rahul’sattack, Union Minister of Statefor Finance & CorporateAffairs and BJP leader AnuragThakur took a dig at theCongress leader, saying somemembers don’t know the rulesof the House as they normallyare absent from the sittings andalso from the country.

He returned Congress MP’sjibe of “ham do hamare do”saying it was a reference toRahul and his ‘jijaji’s family (Priyanka and Robert Vadra).

“A senior MP was speakingbefore me, so I thought he mustbe knowing rules of this Houseand that if one issue has alreadybeen discussed, it is not dis-cussed again. Secondly, I canunderstand that he was not pre-pared to speak on Budget,”Thakur said.

From Page 1This double standard would

not work here, he said, flagginginflammatory content, espe-cially those with the hashtag ofModi planning farmers’ geno-cide. “Yeh kya mazak hai?(What kind of a joke is this?),”the Minister said. TheConstitution of India guaranteesfreedom of speech but Article 19(2) also says it is subject to rea-sonable restrictions because ofthe “sovereignty and integrity”of India. Prasad said whilesocial media platforms havetheir own self-regulatory mech-anism to check and evaluateinflammatory content that does

not mean they will not followthe Indian rules. “This will notwork here,” he said. Askedabout steps taken by theGovernment to check thespread of misinformation onsocial media, he said, “We haverecently flagged Twitter” onthe issue. His Ministry officialsare in talks with Twitter on theissue. On Wednesday, theGovernment told Twitter’s rep-resentatives that the microblog-ging site has to follow its ordersand that it was not a subjectmatter of negotiation.

The Government was riledafter Twitter in a public blogpost said it has taken down onlyhalf of the accounts and postsflagged by the Government.

“In keeping with our prin-ciples of defending protectedspeech and freedom of expres-sion, we have not taken anyaction on accounts that consistof news media entities, jour-nalists, activists, and politi-cians,” it had said.

Prasad, however, tookexception to selectively applyingrules. “Microblogging compa-nies stand by police when theytake action after Capitol Hill ofWashington is ransacked. Butwhen there is an attack on RedFort, which is a sign of our dig-nity, they oppose (action),” theMinister said. He qualified hisstatement by saying theGovernment respects their goodwork and the foreign investment

they bring into the country. “Werespect your good work. You dobusiness, bring FDI and moneybut you have to respect the lawsand regulations of the country,”the Minister said.

On the protection of priva-cy of the individuals of thecountry on social media, he saidthe Government is working onnew guidelines. Gaps will beaddressed when new guide-lines will come, he said. “Workis in progress.” The Minister saidhe wants to convey to mediaplatforms that freedom isimportant but they cannotabuse it by showing unbiddenrevenge sex videos, porn, streetviolence and videos that ignitepassions and fuel violence.

From Page 1“As per the prevailing situation of Covid-19, the

Central Government directs the order dated December3, 2020, shall remain in force till March 31, 2021 or tillthe date of commencement of summer schedule2021, whichever is earlier or until further orders,” theMinistry’s order said. The order effected immediatelyand comes at a time when airlines are staring at a tra-ditionally weak quarter of January-March along withuncertain demand sentiment.

Domestic air traffic on February 10 was at 67 percent of average daily domestic traffic seen in 2019. Itis also important to look at the latest financials of themajor domestic airlines to understand the domestic avi-ation picture better. On May 21, the DGCA issued anorder, according to which airfares on domestic routeswere to be capped from May 25, 2020 with an inten-tion to allow air services to resume without any mas-sive drop or rise in prices. Domestic flights resumedafter a 2-month shutdown due to the onset of Covid-19 pandemic.

From Page 1Thursday’s drama unfolded

as Koshyari, his two ADCs - onefrom Maharashtra and anotherfrom Goa (where he holds theadditional charge as theGovernor) and OSD -- reachedthe Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajInternational Airport (CSMIA)minutes before 10 am. Theyboarded the State Government’s6-seater Cessna Citation XLSaircraft to head to Dehradunonly to be told that theGovernor had no permission touse the aircraft.

Undeterred by the embar-rassment, Koshyari - who hadserved as the second ChiefMinister of Uttarakhad (erst-while Uttarnchal) from 2001 to2002 - and his aides returned tothe departure lounge andbooked a scheduled commercialflight to Dehradun whichdeparted Mumbai at around12.15 pm and he reached hisdestination two hours later.

According to a statementissued by Raj Bhavan here,Koshyari was scheduled to pre-side over a Valedictory Functionof the 122nd Induction TrainingProgramme of IAS officers atthe Lal Bahadur ShastriNational Academy ofAdministration at Mussoorie inUttarakhand at 10 am hrs onFriday.

In its statement, Raj Bhavanclarified: “In preparation of thevisit, the Governor’s Secretariathad written to Government ofMaharashtra authorities seekingpermission for the use ofGovernment aircraft by theGovernor, well in advance onFebruary 2, 2021. The office ofthe Chief Minister was alsoinformed”.

“Today, on 11th February2021, the Governor reachedthe CSIM Airport at 1000 hrsand boarded the Governmentplane. However, the Governorwas informed that the permis-sion for the use of Governmentaircraft had not been received,”the statement said

“As directed by theGovernor, tickets for Dehradunwere booked for the Governoron a Commercial aircraft leav-ing Mumbai at 1215 hrs imme-diately and accordingly, he leftfor Dehradun,” the statementadded.

On their part, several BJPleaders slammed the MVAGovernment for denying per-mission to the Governor to flyto Dehradun to attend an offi-cial function. Former ChiefMinister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis said: “Whathas happened is rather unfor-tunate. The Governor is not justan individual, he holds aConstitutional post. I have neverseen such an egoistic dispensa-tion as the MVA Government”.

While there was no officialword from the CMO, DeputyChief Minister Ajit Pawar saidthat he was not aware of thedetails of the incident. “I do nothave details about the incident.I will have to enquire the offi-cials concerned at Mantralaya(State Secretariat) before Icomment,” he said.

Other senior Sena MinistersSubhash Desai and Anil Paraband NCP Minister ChhaganBhujbal feigned ignorance aboutthe incident. Congress’ MumbaiGuardian Minister AslamShaikh said: “We respect theGovernor. This kind of an inci-dent should not have happened.I don’t know if there were anytechnical issues or had the air-

craft not got the ATC clearance”.However, Shiv Sena chief

spokesperson and MP SanjayRaut said that he had spokenwith the Chief Minister and“rules were followed by theGovernment”.

Later in a statement issuedin the evening, the CMO said:“It was necessary for the the RajBhavan’s Secretariat to ascertainif the Governor had receivedpermission from the StateGovernment or not. Since nosuch confirmation had beenobtained, the Governor had toface such a problem. There is nofault of the State Government atall”. “Raj Bhavan had made arequest to the MaharashtraGovernment that the Governorwould like to use the aircraft (togo to Dehradun). Beforeembarking on such a journey, itwas essential for the Raj Bhavanto obtain permission from theState Government as per rules.It is only after the permission isgiven by the State Government,the aircraft is made available,”the CMO statement said.

“Accordingly, the CMO hadon February 10 informed RajBhavan that the permissionhad not yet been given for useof the aircraft by the Governor.Raj Bhavan should haveplanned the Governor’s journeyonly after obtaining the requi-site permission for use of the air-craft. But, the Raj BhavanSecretariat had not such per-mission from the StateGovernment. As a result theGovernor could not use theState Government’s aircraft”.

Indicating that actionwould be taken against the offi-cial concerned for the lapse, theCMO said: “Since the matterinvolved the Governor’s travel,his Secretariat should have taken

all precautions. Since such athing did not happen, the StateGovernment has taken seriouscognisance. The Chief Ministerhas asked the State administra-tion to fix the responsibility onthe officials concerned”.

It may be recalled that onOctober 12 last year, theGovernor had triggered a con-troversy by rooting for thereopening of temples in theState. In a letter shot off to theChief Minister, questioning thelatter’s Hindutva credentialsand wondering if Uddhav wasreceiving any “divine premoni-tion” to keep postponing the re-opening of the places of worshiptime and again or whether hesuddenly turned “secular”.

Uddhav, who normallydoes not agitated over the crit-icism directed at him or hisGovernment, had hit back atKoshyari on the following daywith vehemence, saying that hedid not need any certificate forhis being practitioner ofHindutva from the Governorand asking the latter if the lat-ter meant “merely opening oftemple means Hindutva and notopening means secular”.

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From Page 1The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the StateDisaster Response Force (SDRF) and the Army are partof the multi-agency rescue effort, which continues evenas hopes of finding the trapped workers alive recedewith each passing hour.

Rescuers began the drilling in the early hours ofThursday. “A drilling operation was started by the res-cue teams at 2 am to peep into the slush-flushing tun-nel that is about 12-13 metres below,” Vivek KumarPandey, the spokesperson for the lead rescue agency,Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), said in Delhi.

As the continuous flow of slush and silt remainsa major obstacle between the rescuers and those trappedinside, a boring operation by a huge machine is beingundertaken to see if this problem can be addressed ina different way and the teams can go further deepinside, he added. Drilling through the debris startedfrom around 68 metres inside the tunnel, GarhwalCommissioner Ravinath Raman told PTI.

The focus at the moment is to set up a “life-sav-ing system”, including oxygen, for those trappedinside by drilling through the debris, Raman said. Thedrilling is to be done for 12 metres to access their prob-able location, he added. Till Wednesday, about 120metres of sludge from the mouth of the tunnel wascleared and the trapped workers stated to be locatedsomewhere at 180 metres, where the tunnel takes a turn.

An officer had earlier said there was no doubt thatthose trapped inside must be in a bad situation with-out food and water. “But there is hope against hope thatthey are surviving somehow as the temperature insidethe tunnel is about 20-25 degrees Celsius and some oxy-gen is possibly available to them,” the officer said.

At the Tapovan press briefing, GarhwalCommissioner Raman was asked about reports of ris-ing water level in the upper reaches of Rishiganga. Theofficial said he had no authentic information, termingit as “no more than a rumour” at that point. Just then,fresh information came in and the press conference dis-persed. “Our strategy is evolving as the situationunfolds,” he told reporters later. “We are coordinatingwith NTPC officials and scientists in running the res-cue operation,” he said. Garhwal Range DIG Niru Gargsaid, “As you can see, all the agencies are working withperfect coordination with a resolve to save as many livesas possible.” When asked about the possible conditionof those trapped in the tunnel for over four days, anoth-er official said, “I am a technical person. I wouldn’t haz-ard a guess. But as the Governor said, let’s all pray toBadri Vishal (Lord Vishnu) that all of them are safe.”

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The Delhi Police has appre-hended a 16-year-old boy,

who allegedly sexually assault-ed a two-year-old child inDelhi’s Subhash Nagar area.Police said that the juvenile wasapprehended from the railwaystation when he was trying toflee away.

According to a seniorpolice official, a man, a residentof Subhash Nagar, reportedthat his two year-old son hasbeen sexually assaulted by hisdomestic servant aged about 16years.

“He alleged that thedomestic servant took the childfrom her mother to the firstfloor and assured her that hewill let him sleep. After that, themother of the kid indulged inother household work. After 4-5 mintues, she went upstairs tosee her son but found that theroom was locked from inside

and her son was crying,” saidthe senior police official.’

“She unlocked the doorand found that the child hadbeen sexually assaulted. Whenshe confronted this to herdomestic servant he ran awayfrom there. She immediatelytook her child to the police andreported the whole incident.The child was immediatelysent to DDU hospital for med-ical examination and conse-quently a case under section377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC)and 6 Pocso Act,” he said.

“During investigation, itwas revealed that the juvenilewas working as a domesticservant for the last two and halfyears and he was a native ofBihar. Suspecting that he mighttry to leave the city, the policeteams carried out intensivesearch and he was apprehend-ed outside New Delhi RailwayStation,” said the senior policeofficial.

������� ������ 3/��0/4��

In a tragic incident, a 22-year-old woman was crushed to

death by a truck after she fell offa scooter in east Delhi's MayurVihar area on Thursday. Policesaid that teams are scanning theCCTV's cameras installed inthe area to identify the truckdriver.

The deceased has been

identified as Swati, a resident ofRajbir Colony in Kondli area.Police said that she was return-ing home from G B PantHospital, where her father haddied on Thursday morning.

According to a seniorpolice official, during enquiry,it emerged that the woman,who was travelling with herneighbour, fell off the scooterwhich hit a speed breaker on

Ghazipur nala road near Chillavillage, and died after a truckcame from behind and ran overher.

“The truck driver escapedfrom the spot. The injuredwoman was taken to a nearbyhospital, where she wasdeclared brought dead,” hesaid.

“A case has been regis-tered under various sections of

the Indian Penal Code (IPC) atthe Mayur Vihar police stationand efforts are being made totrace the truck driver. Policeteams are also scanning CCTVcameras in and around thescene of the incident to iden-tify the driver and ascertain thesequence of events,” saidDeepak Yadav, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), East district.

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A27-year-old woman wasallegedly raped by a man

on the pretext of marriageover a period of two years,while a minor girl was alleged-ly raped by a neighbour atKahnai village in Gurugram,the police said on Thursday.

In the first incident, thevictim, a native of Delhi.

In her police complaint,she said that in August 2019,She met Hari Prakash Pathak- the accused – a resident of

Om Nagar in Gurugram atHuda City Centre MetroStation in Gurugram. Fromthere the duo went for a movieand later on around 1.30 pmthe accused took her to a hotellocated nearby at Rajiv Chowkand raped her against her wish-es for the first time.

The woman also alleged inher complaint that after this inci-dent the accused raped her onseveral occasions on pretext ofmarriage and she got pregnant.

“The woman informedabout her pregnancy to theaccused who stated to the

woman that at this stage hedon’t need child so he had pro-vided a pills to the womanwhich resulting the womansuffer miscarriage. Thereafterthe accused and his familymembers threatened her withdire consequences if sherevealed the matter to anyone,"the woman told the police.

The victim further allegedthat the culprit was raping herfor two years on the pretext ofgetting married. She alsoalleged that the man promisedher on several occasions that hewould soon marry her but

later refused to do so.“In connection with the

incident a zero FIR was filed inDelhi police station they for-ward the matter to theGurugram’s Women police sta-tion (east) for further investi-gation. No arrest has beenmade so far,” Subhash Boken,spokesperson of the Gurugrampolice said.

In the second incident a16-year-old girl was allegedlyraped by her neighbour iden-tified as Arjun during the nightof February 8. The next morn-ing the victim told her ordeal

to her family that the accusedwas harassing her for the past8-9 months.

“In August 2020, Arjunraped my daughter when shewas alone at our house and shegot pregnant. He also threat-ened her with dire conse-quences if she disclosed thematter to anyone,” the victim’smother told the police.

A case under relevant sec-tions of the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act has been regis-tered at the Women police sta-tion (east) in Gurugram.

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During the Zero Hour in theRajya Sabha, senior Aam

Aadmi Party (AAP) leader andMP Sanjay Singh on Thursdaysaid the Central and State Government should pro-vide Rs 25 lakh compensationto the kin of people who havelost their lives or injured in thenatural calamity which took

place at Chamoli inUttarakhand.

The AAP leader said thatthe four lakh compensationcombining the state and centreis insufficient. He said thatmore than 173 people are miss-ing and the CentralGovernment should expeditethe rescue work.

Singh said that the CentralGovernment should give com-

pensation to people who havelost their houses due to this nat-ural calamity.

"Today I want to expressmy tribute to the 34 people whohave lost their lives at theChamoli district ofUttarakhand due to the devas-tating natural calamity whichtook place some days back,” hesaid.

“We are getting continuous

news that the NDRF jawans areworking relentlessly to helpthe local people in the rescuemission. The NDRF teams areworking relentlessly in the tun-nel where many people are stillstuck," he added.

He said, "The state gov-ernment has given Rs 2 lakhsand the same from the centralgovernment. I believe that thecompensation amount should

be Rs.25 lakhs. I want torequest that the state govern-ment and the central govern-ment should discuss and decidetheir shares within themself and to provide thiscompensation amount to thecalamity hit families. Thisamount should be given to thekin of the people who haveeither lost their life or injured,"he said.

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Water Minister andChairperson of Delhi Jal

Board (DJB) Satyendar Jain onThursday instructed the offi-cials to maximize utilisation ofexisting tube-wells to rechargegroundwater so that rainwatercan be harvested during themonsoon period.

The minister convened ameeting of senior officers of theDJB along with its members,wherein he brought forth theneed to augment the city'swater supply.

“The DJB will ensureextraction of around 55 MGDwater from the different WTPcomplexes. In the meeting itwas discussed that most of the‘Water Treatment Plants’ ofDJB are located in floodplainzones where ground water getsrecharged every year in themonsoon during flood, hencethis extraction water will berecharged every year withoutcompromising ground waterlevels. This water will beextracted through tube-wellsand mixed with regular supplywater in the reservoirs,’ hesaid.

DJB has been instructed totake innovative steps to meetwith increasing water demandin Delhi, he added. He furthersaid that water augmentation isthe only solution to meet theincreasing demand of water inDelhi.

Jain also highlighted theneed to augment water capac-ity and spoke about how DJBcan use the existing tube-wellslying defunct for recharginggroundwater along with reduc-ing floods on roads. Due tourbanisation, natural catch-ments, and absorption capac-ity of soil have reduced.

He also added, ''This util-

isation of defunct tube-wells isan opportunity to rechargegroundwater directly in theresidential areas. This will alsoreduce TDS in groundwaterafter dilution of harvested rain-water. The initiative of rejuve-nation of 600 water bodiesand lakes, flood water harvest-ing, rejuvenation of old canalsand irrigation minors will alsobring overall improvement ofgroundwater.”

Delhi government's initia-tives of floodwater harvestinghave also yielded a good resultleading to improvement ofgroundwater up to two metersin Palla area.

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South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) has

decided to restart Atal AaharYojna by remodeling thescheme launched in 2017 inwhich people will get a thali(plate) for Rs 15.

Initially it will be startedwith five ‘Inbuilt KitchenMobile Vans’ (IKMV) in eachzone and later two IKMV willbe made available in each wardof the civic body.

Leader of House Narendra

Chawla during the budgetspeech said that provision willbe made to allocate Rs 25 Lakhfor each ward to improve con-dition of 30 to 60 width roads.

“The civic body will alsoprovide Rs 5 lakh in each wardfor installing LED lights atdark spots. Provision will alsobe made to hike funds to cele-brate festivals like Ramlila,Krishnalila, Chhath Puja fromRs 50 Laky to Rs 1 Crore,” hesaid.

In order to contain dustpollution in Delhi, a provision

to impose fine/penalty of Rs50,000 for dumping buildingmaterial along the roadsidewill be implemented. The movewill help in reducing pollutionespecially dust pollution in thearea, he said.

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The Delhi PoliceCommissioner, SN

Shrivastava, on Thursdaylaunched Delhi PoliceOrchestra. The MusicalOrchestra will have all the lat-est modern musical instru-ments and in the orchestragroup are those selected policepersonnel, who have expertiseeither in playing the musicalinstruments or those who haveflair for singing.

“The first orchestra musi-cal night was organized in theopen air make-sit theatre atSports Ground, New PoliceLines in Delhi, amidst cheeringof hundreds of top echelon ofDelhi Police and the jawans

during the Bara Khana,” saidAnil Mittal, the AdditionalPublic Relation (APRO), DelhiPolice.

“The Bara Khana was orga-nized to celebrate the winningof the Best MarchingContingent Trophy by DelhiPolice parade contingent thisRepublic Day Parade atRajpath, after a gap of 14 years.The Musical nite hadenthralling patriotic songs, hitsof bollywood songs and region-al songs from the differentparts of the country,” he said.

“The Delhi PoliceOrchestra musical membersare those police personnel,who have volunteered andbelong to the different parts ofIndia,” Mittal added.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of Delhi

Police has registered a FirstInformation Report (FIR)against the Haryanvi singerSapna Choudhary and otherson charges of alleged misap-propriation of funds, cheatingand criminal conspiracy.

Police said that onWednesday the FIR was regis-tered after a complaint wasreceived from Pawan Chawla,the director of P&M Movies

Private Limited, a firm engagedin the business of celebritymanagement and events.

According to the FIR,Choudhary approachedChawla in March 2018 througha common friend after herexit from a popular realityshow and showed a keen inter-est to work with the firm to getfinancial stability.

“After several discussions,an artist-management agree-ment was executed betweenChawla and Choudhary in2018. As per the terms and

conditions, she was not allowedto work with or join any othercompany or have contact with

any clients of the complainant.In May 2018, Choudhary andher mother approached Chawlafor Rs 50 lakh citing an emer-gency, following which twocheques of Rs 25 lakh each wasgiven to her, the FIR stated.

“In August, she returned acheque of Rs 10 lakh to Chawlaand by September, she gavehim back Rs 3 lakh. She thentook Rs 1.5 lakh from him byNovember and this way, shetook an amount of Rs 38.5 lakhin total from Chawla,” thecomplainant stated.

She collected money fromthe complainant on severaloccasions citing various emer-gencies, police said. On the pre-text of purchasing a new house,Choudhary also got loansarranged from Chawla but didnot pay the remaining amountdespite several promises, thecomplainant alleged.

In January 2020, anotherartist-management agreementwas executed betweenChoudhary and Chawla duringwhich she had tally entire loanaccounts rendered by the com-

plainant and their associatesand confirmed that Rs 3.5crore loan amount was pend-ing from her side, the FIR said.

In March 2020, Chawlaalleged that he got to know thatChoudhary had opened abranch office of his company inGurgoan and had also involvedone of his employees in herventure.

“The accused persons havecommitted breach of trust andmisappropriated huge amountcollected by organising sever-al events clandestinely. The

intention of the accused was toextract money by way of loanextended to over Rs 3.5 croreon the pretext of emergentneed for purchase of house andother emergencies,” the FIRstated.

In September 2018, at thetime of approaching Chawla forRs 1 crore loan for purchase ofa new house, the accused hadinduced that if she will notrefund the loan amount, shewill surely execute the saledeed of flat in Gurgoan in hisfavour, and on the said

assurance, the huge amountwas disbursed to the accused,it added.

The complainant has alsoalleged that he was intimidat-ed by the accused when heasked her to abide by the termsand conditions of the agree-ment executed between thetwo parties on January 30 lastyear and clear the outstandingloan amount.

A case has been registeredagainst the accused and aninvestigation is underway, asenior police official said.

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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) on Thursday

accused the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) ruled CentralGovernment of sanctioningmore than two acres of land tothe Delhi BJP which was meantfor constructing a school.

Senior AAP leader andchief spokesperson Saurabh

Bhardwaj said that the centrehas sanctioned more than twoacres of land at Deen DayalUpadhyay Marg at just Rs 2crores to Delhi BJP to build theoffice.

He said that this land wasnot for building any politicalparty office but this land was tobuild a school. “At one side BJPgovernment harasses the rulingparty of Delhi and tries to evict

them from the party officeand on the other side providesland to BJP at a negligibleprice. The Delhi BJP must dis-close how they can get suchland at such a low price andwhether this land was to builda school or not,” he said.

"The only group of peoplewho got the benefit of all theschemes of the central govern-ment is the BJP itself. The BJPis running the central govern-ment for their own benefit tobe very precise for their ownpolitical benefit. The DeenDayal Upadhyaya Marg is incentral Delhi which is consid-ered as the area with one of thehighest land costs. We all knowthat the BJP has a big head-quarters in this area alreadyand now the BJP ruled the cen-tral government has givenanother spot to build theirparty office just opposite to theheadquarters," he furtheradded.

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New Delhi: Refuting AAP’sallegation, the BJP cited thedocuments asserting the landwas allotted 809 square meterfor the Pardesh office.

“The assertion came inthe face of false propagandaby the AAP that BJP wasallotted 10,000 square yard ofland,” General Secretary

Kuljeet Singh Chahal,” addedterming the allegation AAP’sfalsehood.

Chahal said that thegovernment policy that allpolitical parties should beallotted land in Delhi andaccordingly, state BJP hadapplied for land for its officein 2001. The party then

moved the Delhi High Courtfor getting this piece of landand the petition number forthe same is 2174/2008, he dis-closed. Thereafter, it was onMay 12, 2010 that land wasallotted to us, he said addingthe party really had to workvery hard for this.

SR

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New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt on Thursday sought astatus report from the citypolice on a petition seekingcourt-monitored SIT probeinto the death of a farmerwhose tractor overturned dur-ing the tractor rally on RepublicDay.

The Delhi police informedJustice Yogesh Khanna that a"generic FIR" has also been reg-istered by Delhi Police. Thematter will now be heard onFebruary 26.

On January 26, NavreetSingh died after his tractoroverturned after ramming intopolice barricades. The accidentwas captured on CCTV cam-era.

Deceased's grandfatherHardeep Singh moved thecourt asserting that he wasallegedly shot by policemen,due to which he lost control.

The Delhi Police had ear-lier released a video showing aprotester speeding and runningover barricades with his trac-tor near ITO, resulting in thevehicle overturning. A post-mortem report revealed thatthe protester died due to theaccident.

The plea has sought for acourt appointed and moni-

tored Special InvestigationTeam probe. It also sought forSIT to file periodic statusreports to ensure time-boundcourt-monitored investigation.

The petition said the foren-sic experts, who reviewed thedescription of injuries in thepost-mortem report, indepen-dently opined that the injurieswere consistent with firearm orgunshot wounds and couldnot have resulted from thetractor overturning.

The petitioner, however,contended, "The haste withwhich Delhi Police made pub-lic statements declaring inci-dent to be an accident, as wellas registered FIRs againstsenior journalists who havepursued the possibility ofNavreet Singh's death havingresulted from a firearm injury,inspires no confidence thatPolice would conduct a fair andhonest investigation into thedeath of his grandson."

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Army Chief General MMNaravane on Thursday, in

an apparent reference to thetension at the Line of ActualControl(LAC), said the situa-tion there highlighted thenature of threats facing India inpreserving its territorial integri-ty and sovereignty, noting thatthe “legacy challenges” haveonly grown in scale and inten-sity.

His observations came ona day when the first step wastaken by both the armies tobreak the ten-month long log-jam at the LAC in EasternLadakh by withdrawing tanksand troops.

Addressing a seminar orga-nized by the Centre for LandWarfare Studies(CLAWS),Naravane said the Indian Armywill continue to prepare andadapt to the future challenges,the more “proximate, real andpresent dangers” on India’s“active borders” cannot beignored.

He said the ongoing devel-opments along the northernborders should make thearmed forces ponder over thenature of the unsettled bordersand consequent challenges withregard to protecting the coun-try’s territorial integrity andsovereignty.

“Without doubt there arenewer threats on the horizon,but the hard reality is that thelegacy challenges have notquite gone away. In fact, theyhave only grown in scale andintensity,” the Army Chief said.

“While the Indian Armywill continue to prepare andadapt to the future, the moreproximate, real and presentdangers, on our active borderscannot be ignored,” he said.

He said the principal chal-lenge before the Armed Forcestoday is that of the growingcapability enhancements in anera of “finite budgets”, addingthe structures, inventories andhuman resources of the mili-tary will need to adapt andtransform accordingly.

On changing contours ofsecurity challenges, Naravanesaid when India focused onbuilding core capacities in thespheres of land, sea and air , thecountry’s adversaries took thebattle to the newer domains ofspace, cyber, and informatics.

He said India’s adversariesare investing in creating a for-midable stand-off enterprise inthe form of long-range preci-sion fires, hypersonic vehiclesand robust air defence capac-ities.

“In order to win futurewars, mere mastery of thetraditional domains of land,sea and air will no longer suf-fice,” Naravane said. He saidas the adversaries expand the“contest to the grey zone”,there is a “dire” need for mod-ern militaries to be as profi-cient in competition as inhard core “kinetics”.

“We need to shed the clas-sical war and peace dispositionand enhance cross govern-mental fusion in order to winaggressively in the competitivespace,” he noted.

The Army chief alsobroadly touched upon how thefuture wars could be foughtwith the use of highly maneu-verable unmanned aerial vehi-cles, electromagnetic spec-trum technology, swarmdrones or use of low orbit sys-tems.

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The Centre has orderedengagement of 2,000 ex-

servicemen in the CISF on con-tractual basis for deployment inunits to secure vital installa-tions across the country.

A letter with the subject“Engagement of Ex-Army per-sonnel on contract basis inCISF for deployment in PSUs”signed by Deputy InspectorGeneral (DIG), CISF, PK Bhartiearlier this month read, “MHAhas directed to deploy Ex-Army personnel in CISF in theratio of 75: 25 (75 per cent CISF

and 25 per cent Contractual) atselected units by engaging 2000Ex-Army personnel on con-tractual basis in different postson an experimental basis.”

The deployment in theseselected units will be reviewedby the Ministry after sixmonths and twelve monthsfor considering further expan-sion of such deployment atother units.

As many as 13 CISF unitshave been identified for thecontractual deployment on anexperimental basis of ex-armypersonnel.

The units selected for the

contractual engagement of theex-army personnel at SECL,Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, ATPPand OTHPP Obra in UttarPradesh, VSTPP Sidhi,Madhya Pradesh, ONGC,Nazira, Assam, FGUTPP,Unchahar and HTPPKasimpur in Uttar Pradesh,NALCO Angul, Odisha,FSTPP Farakka and GRSEL INWest Bengal, NLC Neyveli,Tamil Nadu, RTPS Raichur,Karnataka and UTPS Ukai,Gujarat.

A total of 63 Sub-Inspectors, 187 Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 424 HeadConstables and 1,328Constables will be absorbed oncontractual basis.

The closing date for sub-mission of application forms bythe ex-army personnel in theCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) has been fixed asMarch 15, 2021 followingwhich recruitment process willbe started.

“In view of the above, con-cerned Sector IsG (InspectorGenerals) are requested toconsider the above facts andmanage posting accordingly.This has the approval of com-petent authority,” it added.

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Amid the rising number ofcoronavirus cases, Saudi

Arabia suspended entry ofpeople for at least 20 countries,including India, said IndianEmbassy in Riyadh onThursday. Indian Embassyposted its advisory on Twittermentioning, “Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia vide its circulardated 2nd February 2021 havetemporarily suspended entryinto the Kingdom for passen-gers coming from the following19 countries, in addition toIndia.”

Saudi Arabia has restrict-ed travel from India,Argentina, the United ArabEmirates, Germany, theUnited States of America,Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,Pakistan, Brazil, Portugal,United Kingdom, Turkey,South Africa, Sweden,Switzerland, France, Lebanon,

Egypt, and Japan. However,there are some exceptions.Saudi citizens, diplomats, andhealth workers coming fromthese countries will be allowedto enter the kingdom “in

accordance with the precau-tionary measures”. Indiancargo flights operating withclearance from the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) do not fall under thepurview of the ban either.

A similar ban was lastimposed in the country inDecember, after a new andmore virulent strain of coro-navirus was detected in theUK. The country had resumedinternational f lights andreopened its ports on January3, 2021.

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The SupremeCourt denied

bail on Thursdayto activist AkhilGogoi, who islodged in jail forhis alleged rolein the violentanti-CAA protests in Assam.

A bench of justices N VRamana, Surya Kant andAniruddha Bose dismissedGogoi’’s bail plea, saying, “Wewill not consider the petitionat this stage.”

The bench, however, toldadvocate Runamoni Bhuyanthat the pet it ioner mayapproach the top court for

bail once the trial starts.Gogoi has challenged a

January 7 order the GauhatiHigh Court, which rejectedhis bail plea in a case relatedto his alleged role in the vio-lent protests against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act (CAA) lodged by theNational Investigation Agency(NIA).

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Recalling the contributionsof party ideologue Deen

Dayal Upadhyay towards build-ing a self-reliant India, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday said that the leaderhad called for self-reliance wayback during the Indo-Pak warin 1965.

“Deendayal Upadhyay’sthoughts are equally relevanttoday and will continue to beso. In 1965, during the Indo-Pak war, India had to dependon foreign countries forweapons. Deendayal had saidat that time that we need tobuild an India that is self-reliant not just in agriculture,but also in defence andweaponry,” PM Modi said.

He was speaking at theSamarpan Diwas on the occa-sion of Upadhyay’s deathanniversary.

“Today, the self-reliantIndia campaign is becomingthe medium for building thefuture of the village’s poor,farmers, labourers and middleclass,” PM Modi said, addingthat the vision on the localeconomy is proof of how prac-tical and comprehensive DeenDayal Upadhyay’s thinkingwas even in those times.

“Today, with the mantra of‘Vocal for Local’, the country isrealising his vision,” he said.

In light of the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic, he said

that with the power of self-reliance, the country had deliv-ered the COVID-19 vaccine tothe whole world.

“In this COVID-19 period,the country displayed the spir-it of Antyodaya, and cared forour country’s poor. With thepower of self-reliance, thecountry has also proved theIntegral HumanismPhilosophy, delivered medi-cines to the whole world, andis delivering the vaccine today,”he added.

He further said that thetransformational changes tak-ing place in the field of infra-structure will make the liveseasier and India will get a newmodern image, and with thestature of the country rapidlygrowing, every Indian will beproud of today’s India.

PM Modi also elaboratedthat in politics, consensus isvalued, and although themajority runs the government,the country runs with consent.

“We value consensus inpolitics. I said in Parliamentthat a majority runs the gov-ernment but the country runswith consent. We have not justcome to run the government,we have come to take thecountry forward. We fightagainst each other in elec-tions, it does not mean that wedo not respect each other,” hesaid.

On the occasion, the PM,along with BJP president JPNadda paid floral tributes tothe leader.

Pandit DeendayalUpadhyay was a RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)thinker and former leader ofthe political party BharatiyaJana Sangh, the forerunner ofBharatiya Janata Party.

He became the presidentof Jana Sangh in December1967. He contested the LokSabha election and lost. Hepassed away on February 11,1968.

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India has become the fastestcountry in the world to fin-

ish 70.17 lakh vaccinationsagainst COVID-19 in 26 days.And 17 States/UTs reported noCOVID-19 deaths in the past24 hours and the country hadthe lowest active cases per mil-lion population globally.

The Ministry of Health onThursday said that Indiaaccomplished this feat in only26 days, while it took 27 daysfor the US and 48 days for theUK to reach the same figures.India has also been the fastestto touch the 6 million mark afew days back.

“The total cumulative vac-cination coverage of 70,17,114includes 57,05,228 healthcareworkers (HCWs) and13,11,886 frontline workers(FLWs till 8 am on February 11.1,43,056 sessions have beenconducted so far. 4,05,349 ben-eficiaries (HCWs- 94,890 andFLWs- 3,10,459) were vacci-nated on Day-26 (10th Feb2021) across 8,308 sessions,’ thehealth ministry said.

As per the data, 13States/UTs have vaccinated over65% of the registered healthcareworkers (HCWs). Bihar leadswith over 79% of the registeredHCWs vaccinated. The num-ber of beneficiaries being vac-cinated every day has shown aprogressive increase. UttarPradesh ( 6,73,542),Maharashtra ( 5,73,681),Rajasthan ( 5,59,990),Karnataka ( 4,64,485) and WestBengal ( 4,27,042) are amongthe top states in COVID-19vaccinations in the country.

At least seven States/UTshave reported less than 40%vaccinations of the registeredhealthcare workers (HCWs).Puducherry has recorded thelowest vaccination performanceof 17.5 percent. While thecountry recorded 108 deathsdue to Covid-19 in the last 24hours, a matter of relief for thenation is that they were limit-ed to a few states and union ter-ritories as 17 states have notreported any fatality due to

Covid-19, the Health Ministrysaid on Thursday.

The ministry also informedthat 17 states and UTs includ-ing Telangana, Gujarat, Assam,Haryana, Odisha, Uttarakhand,Meghalaya, Nagaland,Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Sikkim,Manipur, Mizoram, Andaman& Nicobar Islands, Tripura,Arunachal Pradesh and Daman& Diu, have not reported anyCovid death in the last 24hours.

The total recovered casesare 1,05,73,372. The gapbetween active cases and recov-ered cases is continuouslyincreasing and stands at1,04,30,810.

The data says 83.20% of thenewly recovered cases againstCovid-19 are recorded in 6States. Kerala has contributedthe highest number to thenewly recovered cases (5,745),followed by Maharashtra(2,421) and Gujarat (495).Kerala has reported the highestdaily new cases at 5,980.

It is followed byMaharashtra and Tamil Naduwith 3,451and 479 new cases,respectively. 108 case fatalitieshave been reported in the past24 hours. Seven States accountfor 79.63% of these.Maharashtra reported the max-imum casualties at 30. It is fol-lowed by Kerala with 18 newdaily deaths.

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The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) on

Thursday heaped praise toIndia on handling the coron-avirus pandemic as cases aregoing down consistently.

Dr Roderico Ofrin, WorldHealth Organization countryrepresentative to India said onThursday that over threemonths now, cases of COVID-19 in India have been consis-tently going down...Considering the magnitudeof the population...it’s some-thing the Government of Indiashould be very very proud of.

“Bringing that diligence,discipline & vigour into theirresponse to vaccination cam-paign, we’ve seen it’s been sosuccessful. Around 6 millionwere vaccinated in 22 days. It’sthe fastest as we see rates ofvaccination happening,” ofrinadded.

The WHO country repre-sentative to India furtherhailed Gujarat Government,saying hats off to Gujarat gov-ernment for taking the reviewamid pandemic for informa-tion and better evidence totweak their responses, whichthey have, especially duringthe second wave that happened.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Thursday said it has filedProsecution Complaint(chargesheet) against fiveoffice bearers/members of thePopular Front of India (PFI)and its student wing CampusFront of India (CFI) under theprovisions of the Preventionof Money Laundering Actbefore the Special PMLACourt, Lucknow.

Atikur Rahman, NationalTreasurer of CFI, MasudAhmed, Delhi GeneralSecretary of CFI, SidhiqueKappan, a journalist associated with PFI and Md.Alam, a CFI/PFI member,were arrested by the UPPolice at Mathura while theywere on their way to Hathrasto disturb communal harmo-ny, to incite violence and tospread terror.

The agency init iatedinvestigation in this matter onthe basis of FIR No 199/2020registered by UP Police undervarious Indian Penal Code(IPC) Sections and provi-sions of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Actwere invoked.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Thursday

filed chargesheet in the caserelating to hoisting of Khalistaniflag at Deputy CommissionerOffice Complex, Moga, Punjabby Cadres of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ)) before NIASpecial Judge, Mohali, Punjabunder various Indian PenalCode sections and provisions ofthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act besidesPrevention of Insult to NationalHonour Act, 1971 against sixaccused persons.

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Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Thursday came

out in support of the three farmlaws, saying he is with theGovernment and the laws arefor the benefit of farmers andnot against them.

He said that the Centralgovernment had taken theright path to hold talks with thefarmers to end their agitation.

Nitish, who arrived in thenational capital on Wednesdayevening, met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Parliamenton Thursday.

This is the first meetingbetween the two leaders afterthe Bihar assembly poll resultsin November last year.

After meeting Modi, Nitishtold the media: "The purpose ofthe farm laws is to benefitfarmers and it is not againstthem."

When asked about thefarmers protesting sinceNovember 26 last year,demanding the repeal of thethree farm laws, he said, "Weare with the government andthe government has opted forright path by holding talks."

He said that he is hopefulof a resolution soon.

Thousands of farmers fromPunjab, Haryana and WesternUttar Pradesh have beenprotesting at the borders of thenational capital sinceNovember 26 last year.

The farmers are demand-ing repeal of the three farmlaws and also seeking an assur-ance on MSP for their produce.Earlier, 11 rounds of talksbetween the government andthe farmers remained incon-clusive.

To another question if anydiscussions happened on theinclusion of Janata Dal-United(JD-U) in the cabinet, theChief Minister said, "No dis-cussion on cabinet happened."

He also hailed the UnionBudget presented in Parliamenton February 1 and said: "TheBudget is very good despite theeffect of Covid pandemic."

"Even we will bring a goodbudget in the state," he said.

The JD-U leader said thathe and the PM also discussedthe development of Bihar asduring the assembly polls a lotof promises were made to thepeople.

However, he refused tocomment on the ChiragPaswan-led Lok Janshakti Party(LJP), which has been attack-ing the JD-U since last year.

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Union Home Minister AmitShah Thursday said the

process of granting Indian cit-izenship to refugees under theCAA, including to the Matuacommunity of West Bengal,will begin once the process ofCOVID vaccination has ended.

Accusing the oppositionparties of misleading theminorities about theCitizenship (amendment) Act,he said, its implementationwill not impact the citizenshipstatus of Indian minorities.

Shah said the Modi gov-ernment had in 2018 promisedit will bring in a new citizenshiplaw and kept it when the BJPwas voted to power in 2019.He said, after the country washit by the COVID-19 pan-demic in 2020, its implemen-tation had to be kept inabeyance. "Mamata didi saidwe made a false promise. Shestarted opposing the CAA andsaying she will never allow it.The BJP always fulfils thepromises it makes. We havebrought this law and refugeeswill get citizenship.

"As soon as the COVIDvaccination process ends theprocess of granting citizenshipunder CAA will begin. All ofyou will be respected citizens ofthis country," he said, address-ing a rally here in the bastion ofthe Matua community.Matuas, originally from EastPakistan, are weaker section

Hindus who migrated to Indiaduring the Partition and afterthe creation of Bangladesh.Many of them have beenaccorded Indian citizenship buta sizeable section of the popu-lation has not got it. T h eMatua community, with an esti-mated population of three mil-lion in the state, can tilt thescales in favour of a politicalparty in at least four Lok seatsand more than 30 assemblyseats in Nadia, and North andSouth 24 Parganas districts. Itonce stood solidly behind theTMC but had supported the BJPin the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

A section of state BJP lead-ership is apprehensive that thedelay and confusion over theimplementation of the CAAcould make them turn againstthe saffron party.

Shah asserted that Banerjeewill not be in a position tooppose the implementation ofthe CAA as she will cease to bethe chief minister after theassembly polls likely in April-May this year. "MamataDidi is misleading the peopleon the CAA. But let me tell youthat she won't be a position tooppose as she will not be thechief minister after April-May.We will implement the CAA, itis a law that has been passed byParliament," he said.

"As the Home Minister ofthis country, I want to assurethe minorities of India thatnone of you will lose citizen-ship. The CAA is about grant-

ing citizenship to refugees, it isnot about taking away anyone'scitizenship," he said.

Accusing the erstwhileCongress and the Left Frontgovernments of West Bengal ofnever bothering about granti-ng citizenship to the refugees,Shah said they betrayed themmuch in the same way as theTMC did.Shah also attackedthe Mamata Banerjee govern-ment over Bangladeshi infil-tration, and asserted only a BJPgovernment can stop it.

Courting the Matua com-munity, Shah said if voted topower, the BJP governmentwill propose renaming theThaukurnagar railway station'Shri Dham Thakurnagar' afterSri Sri Harichand Thakur, theirsocio-religious guru.

After coming to power inWest Bengal, the BJP govern-ment will introduce 'ChiefMinister Sharnarthi KalyanYojana' for the welfare of therefugee population. Reactingto Shah's assertion about imple-menting the CAA, MamataBanerjee said he should mindhis language and declared shewill never allow it to beenforced in West Bengal.

"The home minister of thecountry should be careful abouthis utterances. We will neverallow CAA, NRC or NPR inBengal. They can say whateverthey want to. They want todestroy Bengal. We will neverallow them to do that," sheasserted.

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Overenthusiasm to appeaseall those who call on him

for favours and donations havelanded a sitting member of theKerala Legislative Assembly introuble which is likely to jeop-ardize his prospects of fieldedagain in the upcomingAssembly election.

Eldhose Kunnappilli, theCongress legislator represent-ing the Perumbavoor Assemblyconstituency has become acontroversial figure as well asa persona non grata for a par-ticular community in the con-

stituency.Though Kunnappilli, a first

time legislator, with a mediocretrack record over the last fiveyears, in a bid to get re-nom-ination was playing all the

tricks in the game, the RamJanmabhumi Temple hasbecome a milestone around hisdreams.

A group of youngsters withthe picture of the proposedLord Rama Temple at Ayodhyawent to the office of the MLAseeking donation for the con-struction of the temple.Kunnappilli donated Rs 1,000/-to the activists and got himselfphotographed with the youths,reportedly RSS activists of thearea.

The photograph wasbeamed through an IslamicTV channel and the MLA

told reporters that it was hisnature to donate to all religiousgroups working for good caus-es. He said he was aware thatthe youths were mobilisingfund for the construction ofthe Sree Ram temple andhence he donated the amount.

This has snowballed intoa major controversy as manyreligious and political outfitsswearing by Islam accused theMLA of hurting the senti-ments of the community.Organisations like SDPI andPFI took marches to the res-idence of the MLA who has

remained incommunicado onthe issue for the last twodays.

The RSS activists led bySree Cherai who had called onthe MLA told media personsthat they had briefed the lat-ter about the purpose forwhich they had called onhim. “The MLA himself askedhis personal staff to pho-tograpg him holding thenotice seeking donations forthe temple and now he isretracting because he is afraidwhether it would cost him hisre-nomination,” said SreeCherai.

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The relations between theMalankara Orthodox

Syrian Church and theCPI(M)-led KeralaGovernment vitiated further byThursday as the working com-mittee of the Church expressedits concern over the attempts bythe Pinarayi VijayanGovernment’s move to derailthe July 2017 Supreme Courtverdict granting the control ofthe churches in the State to theformer.

“The draft bill allegedlyprepared by the Law ReformsCommission appointed by theState Government is an attemptto subvert and derail theSupreme Court verdict whichhad ruled that the MalankaraOrthodox Syrian Church wasthe rightful owner of all theChurches coming under theJacobite sect. The KeralaGovernment instead of imple-menting the apex court verdicthas been trying to dilute andnullify the same by illegalmeans,” Father Johns AbrahamKonat, chief spokesman of theChurch said in a release afterthe meeting.

The working committeemeeting that was presided overby Baselios Marthoma PouloseII and attended by most of thesenior Metropolitans of theChurch described the KeralaGovernment move to bring ina Bill to dethrone the SupremeCourt verdict as an open chal-lenge to the IndianConstitution and Judiciary.“We strongly believe this draftbill is an attempt by the gov-ernment to divide theMalankara Orthodox SyrianChurch with political inten-tions. The Church will strong-ly resist the move by the KeralaGovernment to split theChurch and the believers with

the intention of harnessingpolitical dividents,” said thespokesman in his release.

The Metropolitans made itclear that the Supreme Courtverdict was the law of thecountry. “The rulers who oncedeclared that it was not possi-ble to bring in legislationagainst any verdicts deliveredby the Supreme Court shouldnot go back from their words.We hope and trust theGovernment should abide bythe Supreme Court verdict andrule the State as per the law ofthe land,” said the WorkingCommittee meeting.

The spiritual heads of theMalankara Orthodox SyrianChurch had met PrimeMinister Narendra Modirecently and briefed him aboutthe state of affairs in theChurch in the backdrop ofKerala Government’s refusal tohelp the Church officials totake possession of the places ofworship legally belonging to thesect.

The MOSC has a crucialpresence in districts likeKollam, Kottayam,Pathanamthitta andAlappuzha. Meanwhile thefaction owing allegiance to theAntioch has been staging sit-indemonstration in front of theState Secretariat for the last onemonth demanding they behanded over the administrationof the Churches.

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The Gujarat Congress uniton Thursday came out with

a 'PledgePaper', in which itpledged to provide rights to thecitizens which they have beendevoid of under the BJP regimeover the years, through a cardsystem called 'GujRight'.

Talking about the cam-paign, Amit Chavda, theGujarat Pradesh CongressCommittee (GPCC) president,said, "We carried out 'HelloGujarat' campaign some timeago which was well-received bythe people of the state. Basedon the feedback of that cam-paign, we have prepared a 10-point 'PledgePaper', whereinstead of coming out with falsepromises like the BJP, we willbe taking a pledge to providethe urban citizens the rightfulbasic needs. In thisPledgePaper, we pledge to pro-vide free water, better roads,better tax structure, qualityeducation, housing, health,public transport, employmentand better administration."

"The Congress will do arevamp of the Gujarat state,through 'GujRight'. Under thisinitiative, the citizens will beprovided a card through whichthey can avail basic services,facilities and schemes for free.We will be providing free waterto those who are active in con-servation of water and peoplepromoting environmental con-servation efforts will beencouraged. The public will beprovided clean and free publictoilets. We will be rationalizingthe Bus Rapid TransportSystem (BRTS)," addedChavda.

"We will be providing sci-entifically designed service cor-ridors on both sides of theroads in newly developingareas," added Chavda.

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���������DibrugarhUniversity Vice-Chancellor(VC) Prof. Ranjit Tamuli wassuspended by GovernorJagadish Mukhi on Thursdayfollowing allegations offinancial irregularities andmisuse of public funds, RajBhawan officials said.

The officials said that theGovernor as Chancellor ofDibrugarh University suspend-ed the VC and handed over thecharge to Prof. R. N. S. Yadav, aprofessor at the Department ofLife Sciences and the Dean ofthe Faculty of BiologicalSciences, as he is the senior mostprofessor of the state varsity.

An Assam Raj Bhawanrelease also said that variousorganisations and individuals

including Dibrugarh UniversityTeachers' Association, DibrugarhUniversity Officers' Association,Dibrugarh UniversityEmployees' Association andelected representatives had ear-lier submitted petitions to theGovernor complaining grossallegations of financial anomaliesand misappropriation of fundsagainst Tamuli.

"Not satisfied with the expla-nation of Prof. Ranjit Tamuli, theGovernor, in order to ascertainveracity of the allegations andfind out the true facts, consti-tuted a fact finding committeeunder the Chairmanship ofCommissioner and Secretary tothe Government of Assam'sHigher Education Department,"the release said.

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Adivision Bench of theKerala High Court on

Thursday directed the StateGovernment to set up CampusPolice units in educationalinstitutions to tackle drugabuse among students.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice S. Manikumar gave theorder on a case it took up suomoto, based on a letter fromretired police official N.Ramachandran highlightingthe use of drugs in campuses.

The court also suggested

that action should be taken toease the implementation ofthe Narcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act(NDPS Act) in educationalinstitutions and directed theChief Secretary to take neces-sary action, besides seeking ajoint meeting of top officials ofHealth, Education, Police, andExcise Departments to formu-late the necessary rules.

The strict directions cameon a police report which saidaround 400 institutions in thestate are affected by drug abuse,with a whopping 74.12 per cent

of them being schools, 20.89per cent being colleges and pro-fessional institutions, and restother institutions.

The police report alsopointed out that use of drugsfrom ganja and hashish to syn-thetic drugs was taking placeamong the students.

Stressing need for cam-puses in the state to be free ofdrugs, the court listed thecase's next hearing after threemonths, when it would lookinto all the action that hasbeen taken towards this objec-tive.

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An emotional Salman Khanon Thursday thanked the

judge after receiving a breatherfrom the Jodhpur District andSessions Court, which dis-missed two pleas filed by theRajasthan Government againstthe Bollywood actor in a caserelated to submitting a falseaffidavit in the court in 2003.

As soon as the court ofRaghavendra Kachwal said thatthe pleas against him stood dis-missed in the case, an emo-tional Khan, who attended theproceedings virtually, said,"Thank you sir".

Had the actor been provenguilty, a case under Section 193

of the Indian Penal Code wouldhave been filed against him,which entails a provision ofseven-year imprisonment, hislawyer Hastimal Saraswat toldIANS.

Soon after hearing the ver-dict, Saraswat said, "We finallygot justice after years of hear-ings."In 1998, Khan was arrest-ed for hunting two blackbucksin Kankani village near Jodhpurduring the shooting of the film"Hum Saath Saath Hain". At thattime, a case under Arms Actwas registered against the actorand the court had asked him tosubmit his arms licence.

Khan submitted an affi-davit in the court in 2003, say-ing that he had lost the licence.

He also lodged an FIR at theBandra police station inMumbai in this connection.However, the court later cameto know that Khan's armlicence was not lost, but hadbeen submitted for renewal.

Public prosecutor BhavaniSingh Bhati had then demand-ed that a case of misleading thecourt be filed against the actor.However, on Thursday, theJodhpur District and SessionsCourt judge RaghavendraKachwal dismissed the pleasfiled against Khan.Earlier onTuesday, Khan had apologisedbefore the court for 'mistaken-ly' submitting a false affidavitin 2003 during his hearing inthe blackbuck poaching case.

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interest”, which expanded intoIndian diplomatese. In 2004,Junta strongman Gen ThanShwe visited India and signedan assurance that “Myanmarwould not permit its territory tobe used by any hostile elementfor harming Indian interests”.Even from a deeply hyphenat-ed Indo-Chinese perspective ofone-upmanship, Than Shwehad expressed categorical sup-port to India’s candidature forpermanent membership of theUN Security Council. The mur-murs of Chinese “influence”notwithstanding, the Junta wasconversant with the Chinesetact of keeping the kettle boil-ing along its restive borders withMyanmar to have a constantleverage in Naypyidaw. Indiaperceptibly harboured no suchexpansionist instincts. Soon theJunta denied oxygen to multi-ple India-facing insurgentgroups along the 1600-kmIndo-Myanmar border, a cru-cial step that aided the quellingof various North-eastern insur-gencies. Than Shwe returned toIndia in 2010, reconfirmingthe “balance” achieved in Indiandiplomacy to handle its owninterests along with ideologicalposturing seamlessly.

In 2011, Than Shwe passedon the Junta’s leadership to hisprotégé Gen Min Aung Hlaing,who navigated the delicate

transition to democracy whilestill holding key levers. AungHlaing visited India in 2017and confabulated extensivelywith its security establishment.By now, Indians had realisedthe parallel and irreplaceableheft of the Myanmar Generals,concurrently with its civilianGovernment. Since then, Indiaupped its military sales, invest-ments and engagements withMyanmar. Last year, India gaveit a prized Kilo-class submarinethat had been refitted, the firstever supply of such a platformfrom India to any country. TheMyanmar Military (Tatmadaw)acknowledged and reciprocat-ed India’s overtures, in the fullknow of its larger intent tocheckmate China from makingdeeper inroads. Thereafter, arare combined visit by theIndian Army chief and theForeign Secretary to Myanmarwas suggestive of the deliber-ate outreach, irrespective of thebrewing turf wars between theMyanmar Generals and thecivilian Government. Now theTatmadaw has shed all pre-tences of running a parallelshow and ended the diarchy.

Beyond the hoopla sur-rounding the 2015 surgical strikeagainst insurgent groups basedin Myanmar, the clear under-standing with the Junta hadresulted in similar strikes in 1995

and 2006, and a formal agree-ment facilitating cross-borderaccess had been signed in 2010.Myanmar is keen to focus its mil-itary attention and redeploytroops on its anti-insurgencyoperations in the Northern andEastern borders with China,which hosts most of the anti-Myanmar groups. However,China’s stakes and investmentsin Myanmar remain unmatchedand, unlike India, it does not shyaway from taking an amoralposition in favour of Naypyidaw,such as boycotting talks on theRohingya issue in the SecurityCouncil. Yet, despite China’scontinued beneficence,Myanmar remains sceptical ofBeijing’s game. India had comea long way in understanding theregion’s fragility and in the mer-its of retaining the equationwith forces like the Junta.Additionally, the Indian Armychief has tenured personally inMyanmar as India’s DefenceAttaché and therefore would bewell versed with the localdynamics and stakeholders.With the recent coup d’état inMyanmar, Indian security calcu-lus does not get unduly upset,moral posturing aside.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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����������������� ��Sir— This refers to the editorial ‘True Spirit'’(February 11). The camaraderie betweenPrime Minister Narendra Modi and leaderof the Opposition in the Rajya SabhaGhulam Nabi Azad is a complete rarity inthe era of polarised polity. When mudsling-ing and verbal abuse have become the orderof the day in both Houses of Parliament, thedisplay of emotions and respect by both theleaders is really in the spirit of goodwill.

This reminds us of the trust betweenAtal Bihari Vajpayee and PV NarasimhaRao. In 1994, Rao requested Vajpayee, amember of the Opposition at that time, tolead the Indian delegation at a crucial UNmeeting in Geneva, where Vajpayee wasinstrumental in India not getting placedunder economic sanctions by the UnitedNations. We don’t have such trust nowbetween the ruling party leaders andOpposition leaders.

We all wish to see more such bonhomieand partnership among our leaders infuture. The other leaders of Parliament andState Assemblies should take a leaf out ofthe above incident and change their behav-iour against political parties and opponents;after all it is their behaviour which is goingto last longer and not the power or posi-tion.The members of the Houses mustutilise all important sessions for usefuldebates to find out amicable solutions topressing problems like the farm Acts,Chinese aggression along the borders andso on.

V Nagendra Kumar | Hyderabad

������������������������������������Sir —The Central Government seems to betoo generous towards the coastal State ofGoa. It may be because Goa has fought thepandemic in the right way. Union FisheriesMinister Giriraj Singh, during his visit toGoa on Sunday, had announced the invest-ment of �400 crore to make the coastal Statea fisheries hub. But the poor fishermen aredoubtful whether they will be able to reapits benefits. Further, Goa, which is in its dia-mond jubilee year of liberation fromPortuguese rule, got an unexpected bonan-

za from the Union Budget with FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman announcinga grant of �300 crore for the celebrations.

The ambitious plans to boost fish pro-duction in the State are no doubt welcome.But considering the scientific methodsinvolved, it is equally important that thesegrandiose plans do not alienate the tradi-tional fishermen and jeopardise their liveli-hoods.

However, for a protest-ridden State thatGoa has turned into, it is also necessary thatpeople realise that a region cannot remainbereft of development for long periods.Moreover, considering the eco-sensitivenature of the region, it is pertinent to havethe Government envisage plans for sustain-able development in Goa.

Pachu Menon | Goa

��������������������������Sir — India has fought Novel Coronavirusvery bravely. The people have followed theGovernment guidelines regarding COVID-19 and are still following the rules of wear-

ing masks, sanitising hands and so on.However, with the opening of economy,social distancing has gone for a toss.Those travelling by buses and other meansof public transport are now careless and notmaintaining “Do gaj ki doori”. This is verydangerous as COVID-19 has not beendefeated yet.

In many nations, it is returning in theform of new strains against which theavailable vaccines are ineffective. It’s nothard to imagine what will happen if evenone such strain of the deadly virus startsto spread fast among our population. TheIndian economy and the health of publicwill go spiralling down as never before.Further, food delivery guys wear masksand hand gloves but these are dirty andunhygienic. Merely wearing a mask andglove is not sufficient, we must keep themclean also.

Neha Singh | Guwahati

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������������ ����������Seen from the prism of val-

ues and sovereign morali-ties, the tripping of democ-racy by the Junta in

Myanmar should concern India.Seen from the prism of realism,realpolitik and practical leverages,the change of governance inMyanmar really doesn’t matter.While this realisation may bemorally untenable, lessons fromhistory would remind India thatit has suffered more than gainedwhenever it defined bilateral rela-tions on the basis of “moral” posi-tion, viz; formalising ties withIsrael as late as in 1992. A morenuanced approach of retaining“moral” positions is practised bydemocracies like the US, whohave no qualms in allying withautocratic Sheikhdoms in theMiddle East, whilst still posturingfor democratic reforms therein —basically, fronting “national inter-est” over enthusiasm for democ-racy or liberality in other regimes.

Whereas such overt romancewith ideological concerns ledIndia to publicly support the sup-posedly pro-democracy moor-ings of Aung San Suu Kyi fordecades, much to the consterna-tion of Myanmar’s Junta whofaced no such conundrum indealing with China, alternative-ly. Importantly, even though theJunta had perennial suspicion ofChina meddling in its ethnic-based insurgencies such as theUnited Wa State Army (asopposed to harbouring any suchconcern towards India) — the“moral” intransigence expressedby India and, conversely, the easeof doing business with Chinaensured the relative comfort ofdealing with Beijing for theJunta. The vanity and inefficacyof India’s misplaced “morality” inforeign policy was obvious whenSuu Kyi barely reciprocatedIndia’s unstinted support to her,during her days in theOpposition, as she was coldlypractical and transactional in per-sisting with the China tilt as itserved her interests better vis-à-vis India, “morality” be damned.

The “opening up” of the econ-omy in the early 1990s had aspillover impact beyond the realmof economics as it ushered in agovernance culture of much-needed pragmatism and “self-

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The three announcements regarding insurancein the Union Budget have majorly con-tributed to the post-Budget share market rally.

First is the Government’s plan to allow up to 74 percent foreign equity in insurance companies againstthe existing 49 per cent. Second is privatisation ofone public sector general insurance company andthe third pertains to the planned Initial PublicOffering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation(LIC). Insurance is risk management involving agroup of individuals who give away a part of theirearnings against a guaranteed return of a lump sumfinancial support in case of any personal crisis. Thesuccess of such a scheme depends on how many inthe group are at high risk of actually facing the cri-sis. The bigger the group is, the more dispersed therisk is and more successful the scheme.

During 2018-19, the Indian insurance industrycovered 120.75 crore lives under personal accidentinsurance. Of it, 94.71 crore were covered underGovernment-sponsored schemes like the ‘PradhanMantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’, ‘Pradhan Mantri JanDhan Yojana’ and the Indian Railways Catering andTourism Corporation’s (IRCTC’s) travel insuranceplan. In addition, 2.07 crore health insurance poli-cies were issued covering 47.20 crore individuals with75 per cent of them covered under Government-sponsored schemes. In 2017, a whopping 32.8 crorelife insurance policies were in force so almost 75 percent of the Indian population has life insurance cover.

The performance and potential of the insurancesector is assessed using twin indicators of ‘InsurancePenetration’ that is a percentage of the insurance pre-mium to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and‘Insurance Density’ that is defined as the ratio ofinsurance premium to population. In India,Insurance Penetration has steadily increased to 3.76per cent in 2019 from 2.71 per cent in 2001. In con-trast, Insurance Penetration in Malaysia, Thailandand China was 4.72, 4.99 and 4.30 per cent, respec-tively in 2019. As of 2019, life insurance penetrationin India was 2.82 per cent, while non-life insurancepenetration was only 0.94 per cent whereas global-ly insurance penetration was 3.35 per cent for lifeand 3.88 per cent for the non-life segment.

India is ranked 10th in life insurance and 15thin non-life insurance among the 88 countries forwhich data was compiled by Swiss Re. However,India’s share in the global insurance market was only1.92 per cent during 2018. Global direct premiumssurpassed the $5 trillion mark for the first time everin 2018, reaching $5,193 billion (which is 6.1 per centof the global GDP). Life insurance penetration inthe country is 3.6 per cent of the GDP, way belowthe global average of 7.13 per cent and, in the caseof general insurance, it is even worse at 0.94 per centof the GDP, as against the world average of 2.88 percent. This is not surprising because the average percapita income is low and as many as 82 crore peo-ple hold ration cards for getting subsidised foodgrain. Many more have been claimed to be addedto this list. Obviously, when bare necessities are dif-ficult to afford for a huge section of the population,buying insurance can’t be expected to be part of thepeople’s expense planning in India. Of course, if theGovernment pays bulk of the premium, this segmentof the population can be covered. This is indeedbeing done through schemes like the ‘PradhanMantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ and ‘PradhanMantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana.’

At the end of March 2019, therewere 70 insurance firms including 24life insurers, 27 general insurers,seven standalone health insurers and12 re-insurers including foreign rein-surers branches and Lloyds India,eight in public and 62 in private sec-tor. Investments made by the insur-ance industry stood at �38,47,474crore of which the share of life insur-ers was 91.83 per cent and the shareof Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)was 76.40 per cent. As financial lit-eracy spreads and digital technologyreduces the on-boarding cost of newcustomers of insurance products, itshould be possible to spread theinsurance network far and wide.Despite the dominance of the publicsector, insurance penetration is lowand, therefore, there is a need to bringmore competition, more efficiencyand more technology.

Insurance is a capital-intensivebusiness and requires long-terminvestment from promoters to ensurecompliance with the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority of India’s solvency require-ments (a prescribed asset-liabilitytest). Indian insurers need addition-al capital and technical know-howfrom foreign partners to scale up andoffer more sophisticated and innov-ative products. That is the justifica-tion for allowing Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) in Indian insurancecompanies. The FDI cap on insurancecompanies was raised from 26 percent to 49 per cent in March 2016. In2015, the Government permittedIndian insurance firms to have up to

49 per cent foreign investment pro-vided they remained “Indian-ownedand controlled” and even in the lat-est Budget proposal, foreign owner-ship and control of Indian insurerswill be permitted with some safe-guards. For instance, a majority of theBoard of directors and key manage-ment persons of the insurance com-pany must comprise of Indian resi-dents and 50 per cent of the Boardmust comprise of independent direc-tors. Further, to ensure that sufficientcapital is retained in the books, for-eign-owned insurers will be requiredto hold a specified percentage of theprofits as “general reserves.”

As on March 31, 2019, the totalFDI was �13,810 crore, that was�8,328 crore short of the permissibleFDI limit. Private sector insurers whoattracted this FDI have mobilisedinsurance savings and invested morethan �9 lakh crore with Central andState Governments and Indian com-panies. They have not been allowedto take this money out of India; amajor concern the opponents ofFDI in insurance have always had.

Several insurers have beenrestricted from expanding as the 49per cent foreign investment cap pre-vented foreign shareholder frominfusing capital due to the inability ofcash-strapped Indian Joint Ventures(JV) partners to bring additional cap-ital. The Reserve Bank of India is alsoseeking to cap banks’ investment ininsurance companies to 30 per centto isolate them from risks emanatingfrom non-core businesses. That alsorestricts the availability of capital for

insurance firms. As far as the IPO ofLIC is concerned, it has little to dowith insurance penetration and lackof capital among private insurers.

The LIC has an excellent recordof service with claim its settlementratio being 97.79 per cent. On anequity of �100 crore, the LIC earneda profit of �2688 crore and paid div-idends of �2661 crore in 2018-19. Ithad outstanding investments of�27,60,658 crore against which ofcourse are the liabilities to policyhold-ers. So policyholders’ funds versusshareholders’ funds are intricately anduncertainly mixed up. It is a very pre-cious company whose market valueonce listed can at present be only amatter of guesstimate. Some com-mentators have put the value in therange of over �10 lakh crore. TheGovernment has appointed actuari-al firm Milliman Advisors for ascer-taining the embedded value of theLIC. The Government’s shareholdingis likely to go down from 100 per centto 90 per cent and that can give about�1,00,000 crore by a conservative esti-mate, a handsome premium, and alsoa chance to retail investors to partic-ipate in LIC’s growth story. It is a win-win for the Government and the cap-ital market.

The Government is likely toreserve 10 per cent shares in the IPOfor LIC policyholders. It would bedesirable to reserve a large quota forpolicyholders, retail investors andindividual taxpayers. It will alsoboost LIC’s business and valuation asmore policies are bought to qualify forIPO participation.

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Albert Einstein famouslysaid, “We cannot solveour problems with the

same thinking we used whenwe created them.” This holdstrue even today, given the high-ly dynamic business environ-ment. As markets, competitionand technology have evolved,there has been a heightenedneed for a transition from thetraditional managerial mode ofrunning a business to a leader-ship-driven role. Leaders areseen as trendsetters and influ-encers with their bold moves,inspired visions, enthusiasm,imagination and creativity.These traits to a large extent canbe credited to art where, like anartist, business leaders leveragetheir unique personalities, abil-ities and skills to devise creativesolutions to problems.

As one of the finest ways ofexperiencing, decoding andcharacterising life’s experiences,art and leadership have for

long intermingled for persis-tence and growth. Since timeimmemorial, art has poweredhuman thinking by providinginventive and stimulating ideasin the business world. Acrossindustries, the finest businessleaders are known to be prac-tical dreamers with a persuasivepoint of view and clearlydefined ideas and purposes.These qualities can also beattributed to successful artists.The other common threadsthat bind art and leadership arethose of intricacy, diversity andabstractness, which can be usedas examples, motivation andinspiration to drive solutionswithin the business realm.

Art, business and creativ-ity: Within the corporate worldit is no secret that businesseshave typically been dominatedby the analytical, logical, andorganised left side of the brain.Up until now, many leadershaven’t fully explored their

free-spirited right side of thebrain that focuses on intuition,imagination and creativity.Through art, which uses bothsides of the brain, leaders arenow able to think in an abstractmanner and come up with cre-ative solutions.

Indulging in art as a meansof self-expression can go a longway in sparking creative ener-gies, providing inspiration anddeveloping a leader’s personal-ity to drive business results.While logical planning and itsapplication will only be able todrive business to a certainpoint, keeping pace with anevolving business requiresimagination and creativitywhich are the strengths of agood artist and leader.

Benefits of art for businessleaders: Artists are known to bepioneers of invention andexperimental by nature, makingthem innate leaders. Innovationin particular is based on

thought and imagination,which when fused togetherhave the potential to produceremarkable results and con-cepts. That said, innovation isnot usually an easily exposedconcept, rather, it is one whichcomes to the limelight in tan-dem with creativity. Art has theability to refresh these aesthet-ic concepts in a person’s mindand push a leader to innovateand drive new ideas and possi-bilities as solutions to business

challenges. Through theirworks, artists earn and enjoy areputation for being risk-takers,known for using unorthodoxtechniques and styles. Theyare also known for being opento different perspectives in theirworks, making them naturalleaders. These qualities, whenincorporated in the corporateworld will allow leaders toembrace new ideas and takerisks. Across organisations, it iscommon for them to tend toadopt a conservative approachas they grow. Art has the powerto help leaders eliminate the fearof failure or being judged andencourages them to take cre-ative risks and rise with the scaleof a business.

Artists are naturalobservers and pay close atten-tion to detail. They have aknack for understanding con-cepts beyond a superficial leveland making connections thatothers don’t. Business leaders

who include art in their lives,can incorporate the same attrib-utes in their professional deal-ings as well. Such traits will goa long way in enabling them toobserve even the minutest ofdetails and read between thelines, to deliver optimum resultswithin their areas of operations.

Being able to relay a newnarrative through their work isa skill that artists have masteredover time and is a vital qualityamong leaders. Artists knowthat branding is how you areperceived and every leadershould work to develop thistool. No matter how good aproduct or service might be, itis the experience that counts.Leaders have the power toshape this experience by push-ing a strong narrative andbuilding a story around theproduct. Just as artists are ableto tell compelling storiesthrough their works, similarly,a good leader is able to devel-

op the art of storytelling toentice audiences and ultimate-ly grow the business.

One of the biggest chal-lenges any business leader facesis that of infusing passion, con-gregating energies and stimulat-ing change among his teams towork towards achieving theircommon goals. The role of arthere is to bond and engage withthem and assist them to con-nect with their passions.

As art is a medium thatrelies on communication todeliver a message, indulging init can be a great form of expres-sion and it can facilitate collab-oration to solve challenges inthe workplace.

As Pablo Picasso once said,“Inspiration exists, it has to findyou working.” These words,when engraved in the mind andheart of a leader, can go a longway in creating a corporate cul-ture driven by passion and thedesire to do better at all times.

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The writer is formerSpecial Secretary,

Ministry of Commerceand Industry.

The views expressed are personal.

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The writer is an artist, educator, art critic andco-founder of You LeadIndia Foundation. The

views expressed are personal.

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US President Joe Biden hasannounced a series of

sanctions on the military lead-ers of Myanmar in response totheir recent action to overthrowa democratically elected lead-ership in a coup.

Tens of thousands haveturned out in street protestsagainst the February 1 coup,which overthrew Aung SanSuu Kyi’s democratically elect-ed government in the SouthEast Asian country, despite arecent ban on large gatheringsand a night curfew.

“Today I’m announcing aseries of actions that we’re tak-ing to begin imposing conse-

quences on the leaders of thecoup. The US government istaking steps to prevent thegenerals from improperly hav-ing access to the $1 billion inBurmese government fundsheld in the United States,”Biden told reporters at theWhite House on Wednesday.

In his first public addresson the situation in Myanmar,which the US and several otherwestern countries continue tocall it by its previous name ofBurma, Biden demanded thatmilitary must relinquish thepower it seized and demon-strate respect for the will of thepeople of Burma as expressedin their November 8th election.

Biden said he has approved

a new executive order enablingUS to immediately sanction themilitary leaders who directedthe coup, their business inter-ests, as well as close familymembers.

“We will identify a firstround of targets this week. Weare also going to impose strongexport controls. We are freez-ing US assets that benefit theBurmese government, whilemaintaining our support forhealthcare, civil society groups,and other areas that benefit thepeople of Burma directly,” hesaid.

As protests grow, violenceagainst those asserting theirdemocratic rights is unaccept-able, Biden said the US isgoing to keep calling it out.“The people of Burma aremaking their voices heard.And the world is watching,” hesaid.

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Yangon: Members ofMyanmar’s myriad ethnicminorities marching behindtheir groups’ flags joined thelarge and enthusiastic protestsThursday against the junta thattook over the government lastweek. The resistance to thecoup received a major boostfrom abroad from President JoeBiden, who ordered new sanc-tions and promised more mea-sures to come.

“The military must relin-quish power it seized anddemonstrate respect for thewill of the people,” he said.

Tens of thousands of pro-testers, if not more, havemarched daily in Yangon andMandalay, the country’sbiggest cities. Large rallies alsohave been taking place in thecapital Naypyitaw and manyother cities and towns.

Participants have includedfactory workers, civil servants,students and teachers, medicalpersonnel and other people

from all walks of life. Buddhistmonks and Catholic clergyhave been visible, as haveLGBTQ contingents behindrainbow flags. On Thursday inthe southern city of Dawei, pro-testers wiped their feet andstamped on a poster of SeniorGen. Min Aung Hlaing, themuch-scorned coup leader whonow heads the ruling junta.

The protesters aredemanding that power berestored to the elected gov-ernment and detained partyofficials, including oustednational leader Aung San SuuKyi, be freed. About 200 politi-cians and activists have beenarrested, according to the inde-pendent Assistance Associationfor Political Prisoners.

The junta has shown nosigns of backing down and onWednesday night arrested moresenior members of Suu Kyi’sNational League for Democracyparty, along with other politi-cians and activists. AP

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Thousands of people fromMyanmar sang songs and

waved glow sticks as they gath-ered in Japan’s capital onThursday to protest the militarycoup in their home country.Many of those in front of UnitedNations University in down-town Tokyo wore red in supportof Aung San Suu Kyi, whoseelected government wasdeposed in the February 1takeover.

Some clutched photos ofSuu Kyi, while others held upmobile phones where mes-sages like “Justice” and “SaveMyanmar” ran across the dis-plays.

“I am here because I want torelay what is in my heart,” saidLei Yee Oo, who has been livingin Tokyo for the past two years,studying law while working at asupermarket and a restaurant.

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Prosecutors at Donald Trump’sSenate impeachment trial

have laid out a strong case againstthe former president, showingpreviously undisclosed and chill-ing security camera footage of themayhem that erupted at the USCapitol last month after a pro-Trump mob smashed their wayinto the building and posed athreat to the lawmakers.

The Capitol building wasstormed on January 6 afterthousands of supporters ofTrump gathered in support offalse claims that widespreadfraud denied him victory in lastNovember’s presidential elec-

tion. Five people died, includ-ing a Capitol police officer, asthe mob breached the buildingwhere the November 3 electionresult was being certified.

The US Senate began theimpeachment trial of Trump, aRepublican, on Wednesdaywith impeachment managersfrom the Democratic Party-controlled House ofRepresentatives making astrong case against the formerpresident accusing him of incit-ing the insurrection.

Led by DemocraticCongressman Jamie Raskin, abattery of his party colleaguesfrom the House ofRepresentatives alleged thatTrump incited his supportersfor violence on January 6 asthey stormed the Capitol Hillwherein Congressmen andSenators were performing theirconstitutional duty of counting

and certification of the presi-dential election results.

Trump lost the elections toJoe Biden, who was sworn in asthe 46th president on January20. While the House, where theDemocrats have the majority,impeached him before January20, when he was still the pres-ident, the Senate impeachmenttrial has begun three weeksafter he left office.

This is for the first time inAmerican history that a formerUS president is beingimpeached. Trump, 74, is alsothe first president ever to havebeen impeached twice.

Leading the charge on theSenate floor, Raskin allegedthat Trump willfully incited aninsurrectionary mob to riot atthe Capitol. Several of hisDemocratic colleagues tookthe Senate floor to argue thatTrump be impeached.

Washington: Donald Trumpspent much of his careerdeploying high-poweredlawyers to do his bidding. Nowhe is having trouble findingtop-tier help when he mightneed it most.

Since losing the Novemberelection to President Joe Biden,Trump has been hemorrhagingattorneys. Established firmsbacked away from his baselessclaims of election fraud.

Those he did retain madeelementary errors in cases thatwere quickly rejected as merit-less. His personal attorney, RudyGiuliani, was ridiculed for hisperformance before a federaljudge during one election-relat-ed case.

His legal options contestingthe election exhausted, Trumpstill needed a team to representhim in his historic secondimpeachment trial on a chargethat he incited the deadly Jan.6 US Capitol riot. AP

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The United Nations’ atomicwatchdog agency said

Wednesday its inspectors haveconfirmed that Iran has begunthe production of uraniummetal — another violation ofthe 2015 landmark nucleardeal with world powers.

International AtomicEnergy Agency head RafaelGrossi told member nationsthat his inspectors had con-firmed February 8 that a smallamount of uranium metal, 3.6grams, had been produced atIran’s Isfahan plant, the Vienna-based organisationsaid.

Uranium metal can also beused for a nuclear bomb andresearch on its production isspecifically prohibited underthe nuclear deal -- the so-called Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action -- that Tehransigned with Germany, France,Britain, China, Russia and the

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Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau has said

that he held a “good discussion”with his Indian counterpartNarendra Modi on manyimportant issues, including onthe two nations’ commitmentto democratic principles, recentprotests, and the importance ofresolving issues through dia-logue. Trudeau made a tele-phone call to prime ministerModi on Wednesday.

“I had a good discussionwith Prime Minister@NarendraModi on manyimportant issues, and we’veagreed to stay in touch,”Trudeau tweeted.

“The leaders discussedCanada and India’s commit-ment to democratic princi-ples, recent protests, and theimportance of resolving issuesthrough dialogue,” theCanadian Prime Minister’soffice said in a statement, in anapparent reference to the ongo-ing agitation by farmers inIndia. Trudeau in Decembersaid that Canada will always bethere to defend the rights ofpeaceful protests, and hadexpressed concern over thesituation, evoking a strongreaction from India.

India later summonedCanadian High CommissionerNadir Patel and told him that thecomments made by PrimeMinister Trudeau and others in hisCabinet on the farmers’ protest.

Washington: The United Stateson Wednesday said that thereis no change in its policy onJammu & Kashmir.

“I want to be very clearthere has been no change in USpolicy in the region,” StateDepartment Spokesperson NedPrice told reporters in view ofa tweet from the South andCentral Asia Bureau of the StateDepartment which welcomed

the resumption of 4G mobileinternet in Jammu & Kashmir.

“We welcome the resump-tion of 4G mobile internet inIndia’s Jammu & Kashmir. Thismarks an important step forlocal residents and we look for-ward to continued political &economic progress to restorenormalcy in J&K,” tweeted theSouth and Central Asia Bureauof the State Department. PTI

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United States in 2015. Iran had previously

announced the move, saying itsplans to conduct research anddevelopment on uraniummetal production were part ofits “declared aim to design animproved type of fuel,” accord-ing to the IAEA.

Since the unilateralAmerican withdrawal from thedeal in 2018, the other mem-bers have been working to tryand preserve the accord.

Tehran has been using vio-lations of the deal to put pres-sure on the other signatories toprovide more incentives toIran to offset cripplingAmerican sanctions re-imposed after the US pullout.

The ultimate goal of thedeal is to prevent Iran fromdeveloping a nuclear bomb,something it insists it doesnot want to do. Iran now hasenough enriched uranium tomake a bomb, but nowherenear the amount it had before the nuclear deal wassigned.

The latest move by Tehranfurther complicates the effortsof the other member nations toentice the US to return to thedeal — something PresidentJoe Biden has indicated hewould be open to.

When Iran announced itsplans in January to produceuranium metal, the German,French and British foreignministries issued a joint state-ment saying they were “deeplyconcerned.”

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New Delhi:State-owned IndianBank on Thursday said cus-tomers may face inconveniencelater this week as it will carryout software migration withrespect to its merger withAllahabad Bank. The scheme ofamalgamation of AllahabadBank into Indian Bank cameinto force from April 1, 2020.“Our bank has scheduled tech-nical migration of CBS/ITMSsoftware of erstwhile Allahabadbank with CBS/ITMS softwareof Indian Bank on 13-14February 2021. “As such, someof the services related to bank-ing operations may be dis-rupted from 9 PM on February12 to 9 AM on February 15,causing inconvenience to thebank’s customers/stakeholderson these dates,” Indian Banksaid in a regulatory filing.

New Delhi:Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will inauguratethe second edition of theMaritime India Summit 2021(MIS 2021) on March 2, whichwill be held virutally and isscheduled to be participated by24 nations, Union MinisterMansukh Mandaviya said onThursday.

As many as 56 maritimenations, except China, havebeen invited to participate inthe Summit through Indianmissions in those countries.

The minister said about20,000 delegates will participatein the event and more than 400projects are set to be showcasedin the second edition of the

MIS 2021, being organised bythe Ministry of Ports, Shippingand Waterways (MoPSW)jointly with FICCI as an indus-trial partner and EY as aknowledge partner. Mandaviyasaid MIS is going to provide apowerful platform for interna-tional collaboration and bringin partner countries for mutu-al exchange of knowledge andopportunities.He launched abrochure and the websitewww.Maritimeindiasummit.Infor the MIS-2021. Due to theongoing COVID-19 pandem-ic situation, the entire summitwill be held on virtual platformwww.Maritimeindiasummit.In.

PTI

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Equity benchmarks reversedtheir two-session slide to

finish at fresh closing highs onThursday, propelled by robustgains in market heavyweightReliance Industries. Dovishcomments from US FederalReserve Chair Jerome Powellalso bolstered global investorsentiment, which augurs wellfor fund flows into emergingmarkets like India, analystssaid. Overcoming bouts ofmid-session volatility, the 30-share BSE index settled 222.13points or 0.43% higher at itsnew closing peak of 51,531.52.

In similar movement, thebroader NSE Nifty advanced66.80 points or 0.44 per cent toits all-time high of

15,173.30.Reliance Industrieswas the star performer in theSensex pack, rallying 4.07%,followed by Sun Pharma, BajajFinance, PowerGrid, BhartiAirtel, Nestle India and HUL.

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The Government onThursday said that a total of

1.83 crore pregnant womenhave claimed benefits underPradhan Mantri MatruVandana Yojana (PMMVY)from 2018-19 till January 29this year.

Replying to an unstarredquestion in Rajya Sabha byPratap Singh Bajwa about thedetails of the total number ofpregnant women eligible toclaim benefits under PMMVYand Janani Suraksha Yojana(JSY) from the years 2018-19till 2020-21, Union Minister forWomen and ChildDevelopment Smriti Irani said,“The total number of pregnantwomen who have claimed ben-efits under PMMVY schemehas been 1,83,12,303 from2018-19 till January 29.”

Bajwa also asked about the

total number of pregnantwomen who were actuallyenrolled under the PMMVYand the JSY along with detailsof the total number of pregnantmothers below the age of 19years who have undergoneinstitutional deliveries for theyears 2018-19, 2019-20 and2020-21.

The minister said, “AllPregnant Women andLactating Mother (PW&LM)(except those who are in regu-lar employment with theCentral Government or StateGovernment or Public SectorUndertaking or those who arein receipt of similar benefitsunder any law for the timebeing in force) are eligible toclaim benefits for first livingchild of the family under thePMMVY. Under the JSY, preg-nant women undergoing insti-tutional delivery are eligible forthe benefit.”

Mumbai: High commodityprices along with lower salesvolumes are likely to put pres-sure on automakers’ marginsafter an improvement Q3FY21,Fitch Ratings said in a report.“We believe the price hikesannounced by automakers inJanuary 2021 will not fullyoffset higher costs,” the reportsaid.”

We expect a quarter-on-quarter decline in volume from3QFY21 on account of higherprices and a modest supply dis-ruption due to a semiconduc-tor shortage. IANS

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Indias Budget presented onFebruary 1 by Union Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitharamanpoints to a loosening of fiscalpolicy to support the countrysongoing economic recoveryfrom the pandemic and willconsequently lead to a rise inpublic debt.

The debt/GDP trajectory iscore to our sovereign ratingassessment, meaning higherdeficits and a slower consoli-dation path will make India’smedium-term growth outlooktake on a more critical role inour analysis, says Fitch Ratings.

India entered the pan-demic with little fiscal head-room from a rating perspective.Its general governmentdebt/GDP ratio stood at 72 percent in 2019, against a medianof 42 per cent for ‘BBB’ ratedpeers.

“We revised the Outlookon India’s ‘BBB-’ rating toNegative, from Stable, in June2020, partly owing to ourassumptions about the impactof the pandemic on its publicfinance metrics. The budget’sdeficit projections for the fiscalyears ending March 2022(FY22) to FY26 are about 1ppa year above our previous esti-mates between, which couldmake it more challenging to

put debt/GDP on a downwardtrajectory,” Fitch Ratings said.

“We now expect publicdebt/GDP to rise above 90 percent of GDP over the next fiveyears, based on the revisedbudget targets and with ourother previous rating assump-tions remaining unchanged.However, recent reforms andpolicy measures, includingthose announced in the budget,could also influence our growthexpectations and, thus, ourdebt trajectory forecasts,” FitchRatings said.

Fitch’s latest economic out-look projected growth at 11 percent in FY22 then at around 6.5per cent a year through toFY26.

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E-commerce major Amazonhas moved the Supreme

Court in a bid to block Futuregroup’s �24,713-crore deal withReliance, according to sources.

The development comesafter a recent Delhi HighCourt’’s ruling that stayed aprevious order on status quo ofthe deal and ruling that statu-tory authorities cannot berestrained from acting in accor-dance with law.

Amazon has approachedthe Supreme court in the mat-ter against Future, sources closeto the development said.

Future and Amazon didnot respond to e-mailedqueries.

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New Delhi:Moody’s InvestorsService on Thursday saidIndia’s economic recoveryreduces the risk of a sharpdeterioration in public sectorbanks’ asset quality, but thecapital would remain insuffi-cient to support credit growthand absorb unexpectedshocks.

With high credit costscontinuing to suppress theirprofitability, the banks’ capital

buffers will remain insuffi-cient. The government plansto infuse �20,000 crore inequity capital into PSBs nextfiscal. While the amount willhelp the banks meet Basel cap-ital requirements, it will notboost credit growth, Moody’ssaid.”We expect the Indianeconomy to recover in 2021,and this reduces the likelihoodof a sharp deterioration ofasset quality at the banks.

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Mumbai:The Indian rupeeended 3 paise lower at 72.87against the US dollar onThursday amid a firm trendin the domestic equity mar-kets. At the interbank forexmarket, the local unitopened at 72.81 against thegreenback and witnessed anintra-day high of 72.65 anda low of 72.87.

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New Delhi: As India has seena steep downfall in the exportvalue from April 2020, theGovernment has reduced thetax burden on Indian exportersby implementing Remissionof Duties and Taxes onExported Products (RoDTEP)scheme to boost exports.

“The RoDTEP schemeaims to refund currently un-refunded duties/taxes/levies atthe Central, State and locallevel, borne on the exportedproduct, including prior stagecumulative indirect taxes ongoods and services used in themanufacturing of the exportedproducts. However, if RODTEP

is not specifically claimed in theshipping bill, no RoDTEPwould accrue to the exporter.RoDTEP rates will be notifiedas per the RITC Code andtherefore, there will be no needto declare any separate code orschedule serial number forRoDTEP. Also the tax assess-ment will become fully auto-matic for exporters which willbring more transparency andmake taxation smoother.Besides, the scheme will makeIndian products cost-compet-itive in the international mar-ket,” explained Hans RajChugh, FCA, FCS and partner,ASHM & Associates. PNS

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With Valentine’s Dayjust around the cor-ner, it’s time to start

putting together that specialdate look. Of course, yourlook will depend on what’splanned for the day or theevening. But we’ve got youcovered with these excitinghead to toe looks, includingface masks to complimentyour overall attire. TheValentine’s Day store onAmazon fashion and beautyhas an array of fashion andbeauty selections which willwoo your beau and makethem fall even more in lovewith you. Here’s a look.

������Look 1: The Girl Next Door

Printed Crop Tops: Ifyou’re planning a breakfast orlunch date, a printed crop toppaired with a flared skirt or apair of pants will make for theideal look. Pick one with anunusual fusion print andyou’ll find that you stand outeven in your casual best.

Casual Flared Pants: Pairyour fusion crop top with apair of chic flared pants.

Choose one in a comple-menting shade and you’ll havemastered the ideal casual chiclook.

Sleek Analog Dial Watches:A sleek wristwatch is the onlyaccessory you need whenyou’re trying to keep it casu-al. Choose one with a metal-lic strap and an analog dial.

Skincare Combo-kit:Prep your skin for Valentine’sDay with an all-natural skin-care combo kit that will keepspots at bay and nourish youskin. After all, nothing looksbetter than naturally glowingskin.

White Sneakers: Saveyour heels for the evening andgo comfy with a cool pair ofwhite sneakers. These go wellwith the crop top and jeanslook and give you the casualchic effect you were aimingfor.

Pastel-coloured Face Masks:With an entire outfit dedicat-ed to creating a statement, optfor a pastel-coloured facemask that matches your lookand doesn’t take away the

glam-factor as you step out.

Look 2: Indian Traditional Gota Salwar Suit:

Whoever says you can’t pulloff a traditional look onValentine’s Day is mistaken.Surprise your loved one withan all-out traditional gota sal-war suit and watch his jawdrop as you make an entrance.

Textured Bag: A state-ment textured bag goes wellwith a traditional look. Shadesof brown go perfectly with agota salwar suit. Remember to

keep it simple so as not to takeaway from the overall look.

Flower Motif Earrings:Nothing spells traditionalmore than a pair of floralmotif earrings, especially ifthey’re in a complementingcolour. A minimal pair will goa long way in helping you pulloff a classy traditional datelook.

Nude Lips: Make sureyou accentuate your eyes, butkeep your lips subdued witha nude shade. You’ll find that

he won’t be able to take hiseyes off you.

Look 3: Temptress

Red Mini Dress: A redmini dress, is the perfect attireto opt for on Valentine’s Day,especially if you have plans inthe evening. Be it a minishirt dress or a knee lengthsolid red A-line dress, nothinggoes better with a red minidress than truckloads of con-fidence.

Pearl Earrings: Teamyour red dress with a pair ofpearl earrings that will accen-tuate the overall elegance ofthe look. The best thing aboutpearls is whether you chooseminimal or statement pieces,you will always look classy.

Gold ShimmerEyeshadow: While a red dressgoes best with red lips, high-light your eyes with a dash ofgold shimmer on your eyelids.You will find that it adds to thenatural glow on your face.

Floral Fragrance: Add awhiff of a flirty floral fra-grance to complete yourValentine’s Day date nightlook. You’ll leave everyone inyour path mesmerised.

�������Look 1: The Boy Next

Door

Fine-knit Pullovers: Fora casual day date with yourloved one, pair a fine-knitpullover in a solid colourwith a pair of nicely fitteddenims.

Smartwatches: Add anelement of sporty casual witha smartwatch. Change thestrap to one that contrastswith the colour of yourpullover, and you have a win-ning recipe.

Tinted Aviators:Transform your brunch orlunch date look with a pair oftinted aviators. Choose onethat frames your face well.

Woody Fragrance: Thereis a certain charm to woodyscented perfumes.Quintessentially masculine,these work wonders on yourconfidence levels besidesweaving a spell on your lovedone.

Look 2: Casual Chic

Printed Polo T-shirts:There’s nothing quite like apolo t-shirt. It’s stylish yetsimple and can pass off for aday date. Steer clear of t-shirts in solid colours andchoose micro prints andstripes instead.

Chinos: If jeans aren’tyour thing for a date look, gocasual with a pair of chinosin shades of beige and khaki.These will go well with theprinted polo you intend towear.

Suede Loafers: A care-fully crafted pair of suedeloafers are minimalistic andeasily adaptable and will gowell with your printed poloand chinos look.

Skincare Regime Kit:While dressing up is half thecharm, the other half is howgood your skin looks. Prepfor Valentine’s Day with askincare regime kit that suitsyour skin type and you’ll beable to flaunt healthy andfresh-looking skin.

Printed Face Masks: Totop it all, opt for a face maskin vivid colours and prints,that will be a seamless addi-tion to your look.

Look 3: Dashing

Navy-coloured Shirt: Aslim-fit formal shirt in navyblue tucked into a well-fittedpair of black trousers is theperfect combination for aValentine’s Day date nightlook, especially if you’replanning to make it anevening to remember.

Metal Strap Watches:Be your fashionable bestwith a sophisticated metalstrap watch. Choose onewith a large classic analogdial and you’ll be at yourclassy best.

Black Leather Oxfords:A well fitted pair of blackleather Oxfords standsunmatched because of itssleek and sophisticated aes-thetic and will go well withyour formal date night look.

Beard Grooming Kit:Staying well-groomed is veryimportant. For the picture-perfect moment, invest in anall-encompassing groomingkit that serves all the require-ments for a tame beard.

Let me take some time to talk aboutthe title of this review, the ship of

Theseus. This gentleman in Greek leg-end was the mythical founder of thecity-state of Athens and he once had aship. Now, this ship was venerated bythe Athenians for centuries afterTheseus lived, but wood, particularlyexposed to seawater does rot away even-tually and planks need to bechanged. This led to variousplanks on the ship beingswapped out often and led to arather interesting situation,debated over for centuries. Ifevery part of the ship was even-tually changed, is it the sameship? My friends in college studyingPhilosophy had to debate this, but it isa very pertinent and interesting issue,particularly with the vehicle we will betalking about today — the new LandRover Defender.

The first generation Defender,which was just the ‘Land Rover’ untilthe Discovery came about, was in pro-duction for just short of seven decadesand there were over two million of thembuilt. It was a rugged, go-anywhere sortof vehicle that was popular with armiesand agriculturists alike. In the latest sea-son of The Crown on Netflix, you mighthave even seen the Queen take MargaretThatcher around her Balmoral Estate inScotland in a Defender. And as theDefender’s rivals got more advanced,vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, the Defender remained ananachronism, a remnant of the past ina rapidly modernising world. The prob-lem however became that it could notbe sold in America anymore, not onlythe world’s largest car market but a mar-ket where such a car would shine.

So, late in 2019, Jaguar Land Rover

brought us the ‘New’ Defender. Thisvehicle has nothing in common with theold car but the name. It is not even abody-on-frame design, rather a mono-coque, like regular hatchbacks and

sedans where the body itself providesthe vehicle structural integrity. A fewyears ago, nobody could believe that amonocoque could do serious offroad-ing, but it was actually driving the

Compass Trailhawk. I realised thatbetter manufacturing and metallurgyhas made monocoque offroaders pos-sible. With that singular, fundamentalchange of manufacturing philosophy,nothing about this new Defender is thesame as the old one. But because itwears the same name, is it anything likethe original?

Well, to start, Land Rover did notsell the old Defender for Indian roads,the fleet of them hauling tourists andlocals around as well as working in tea-estates in Darjeeling being remnantsfrom the 1950’s and 1960’s. I have dri-ven an old Defender in the UK, thoughnot a late-build one, but rest assured thenew one plays up comfort. I believe thepromotional videos about the newDefender and its ability to go anywherewill have to be checked through a pan-India journey. This car can wadethrough three feet of water and has asonar system to help you do that, its ter-rain response 2 system can drivethrough almost any sort of surface andwhen the going gets tough, you still havefour-wheel drive low range.

There is another thing though, theDefender 110SE, the long wheelbasemodel with the two-litre petrol enginethat I was driving is just a tad expen-sive. And this was the second DefenderI drove, the first being the dealer car inDelhi that had several additional acces-sories. The Defender SE has a regularex-showroom price of �86 lakh, almosta crore on the road but once you addaccessories such as the panoramic sun-roof, the nicer blacked-out alloys, theashwood finish to the doors and on theconsole and the leather seats, all ofwhich the media fleet car had, you willadd almost 10-15 lakh to the final price.I am not sure how much rough road

driving an owner of a one and a quar-ter crore vehicle would do. No doubt,there are those who would, but for manyothers, this is what I describe as a tashanvehicle, a ‘statement’ vehicle, much likethe Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon is, and theGerman vehicle is still body-on-frame.

Even with the smaller two-litrepetrol engine, this is not a very eco-nomical car. While Land Rover has adiesel engine and is offering a Plug-InHybrid, one reason it needed to makea whole new platform is that the300PS engine is quite thirsty indeed.Even with a soft foot, the best I man-aged was around eight kilometres perlitre and with petrol going to touch�100 soon in Delhi, that isn’t cheap torun. Although, I am curious to drivethe PHEV and I hope I get a chance todo that soon enough.

Yes, it is a seven-seater, but if Iwanted a practical luxury seven-seater,I’d jump at a Volvo XC90. If I wantedsomething good-looking for the citybut with some rough-road chops, heckthe Velar makes more sense at thisprice. This is a Land Rover Defenderand paying BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS money for this does not real-ly compute in my head. But I writeabout cars for a living, and I know bet-ter than most that logic often escapescar buyers. The ‘new’ Defender is avehicle that can go anywhere, it is alsoa vehicle that if you drive around thecity, you will be noticed, in a way thateven a Velar will not, let alone a X7 orGLS. Seriously, if you want to make astatement, whether you are an actor ora politician and want to be seen in a big,bad bruiser of a car, this is the car foryou. However, remember that justbecause the name is same, the vehicledoes not have to be.

There is a popular belief thatart is the motivation, inspi-

ration and creation of creativeminds and beliefs. Those wholove art, like to enhance their col-lection of unique and beautifulitems. If you are bundled withlove and passion for art, a pas-sionate collector and enjoy col-lecting antiques, you are at theright spot. Here is a list of fivemust have antiques by Karabi ArtCommunity.

ANTIQUE FURNITUREAny time you stumble across

antique designs of chairs, table,bed or any other furniture item;it attracts you. While some ofyou might find these collec-tables worthless, the trained eyeor those who know the value ofart would know their worth.Antique furniture is often verywell made and well functional,which makes it a must have forthose who love col lectingantiques.

DISHESChances are many of you

have at least one antique crock-ery item stacked in a cabinet.Perhaps all of us love shoppingfor these collectables. Whetherthey’re displayed in a bookcase,on a table, on a corner table ofyour living room or on a wall, theglint of the polish and the artis-tic design creates an interestingplay with light in a room. Thebest thing about this category ofcollectible antiques is that they

are a beautiful and inexpensivedecoration.

COINS AND CURRENCYTop collectable coins and

currency are valuable and worththe price. Though it is rare, wemight come across expensivecoins and currency out of theblue. So, if that happens or youcollect those unusual and rareitems purposely, make sure youtake good care of them.

RUGSWhile buying antique rugs,

make sure that you spend themost you can afford otherwiseyou might end up with a glori-fied bath mat. There are rugs thathave been traipsed on for over100 years and still look good andattractive. Your trained eyeknows how to spot a beauty.

ANTIQUE BOOKSAntique books are one of the

most inexpensive yet wonderfulways to decorate. Neither theyhave to be pretty nor too old,they just need to be placed well.Placement is the key here! Onshelves, mixed in with art andcollectables or your favouritephotos; a couple of books undera small ornament; and a sectionof vertically stacked books givethe eye a place to rest.

So whether you are a newcollector or just seeking to addto your already existing collec-tion, make sure you have thesemust haves with you.

Actor Arjun Kapoor has come forward to supporta cause that is close to his heart. In the run-up to

Valentine’s Day, he has helped 100 cancer couples.Arjun, whose mother passed away due to cancer,

pledges to support people affect-ed by the virus. He has teamedup with the Cancer Patients AidAssociation (CPAA) for this ini-

tiative.Arjun says, “The pandemichas taught us the importanceof helping one another andspreading love. We look for-ward to celebratingValentine’s month to makeour loved ones feel special.But I have decided to dosomething different thistime. I am supporting med-ical treatment for 100underprivileged coupleswho are impacted by cancer,which means one partner isbattling this deadly disease as

the other one is supportive inevery step of this fight.”

He adds, “This disease severe-ly impacts one’s immunity, making

them extremely vulnerable to theCoronavirus. The previous year hasbeen very painful for these couples.Not only were they fighting a hard bat-tle, but they were also confined to their

homes facing the severe threat ofCOVID. Many of them did noteven have the source of income

to buy food and essential medicines.”

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It’s that time of the year again when peo-ple give a fresh chance to love and per-sonal relationships in life. Well, after

almost a year of staying put and away fromour loved ones, Valentine’s Day will be spe-cial with a whole new vibe this year. It willbe a time to create fresh memories as cou-ples find newer ways to meet each otherand celebrate their love. So while planninga date outdoors, have a look at what dif-ferent outlets in the city have on offer forthe lovebirds.

���������������Jasmeet Singh Banga, founder of the

restaurant, says, “Love is creamy anddreamy. Hence, we have created specialdesserts, which will be on offer for all thepeople who believe in love. One can enjoyour specially-curated menu like Blueberrymirror glaze cheesecake (heart shape), Redvelvet mascarpone pastry (heart shape),Gulab malai kheer and a special drink, LoveAt First Sight, which is a combination ofwhite spirit and peach finished with cran-berry juice.”

�����E������������!�����Shivam Sehgal, founder of Josh, says,

“Lets celebrate this Valentine’s Day withjosh at Josh. Get a glass of fun, and thenadd another one. It’s the time for a DailyDrinkathon, with offers of 1+1 on Sangriaon Friday, 1+1 on cocktails on Saturday,1+1 on mocktails on Sunday. Not only this,one can also enjoy our heart-shaped Jelloshots for everyone.”

*�� ��Kampai can be the perfect place for

your cozy love date. Avantika Sinha Bahl,owner at Kampai, says that Valentine’s Dayis all about the perfect expression for yourlove and what else could be better than toexpressing it over a great food. “You canimmerse yourself into five courses special

menu right from soups, salads, carpacio,dimsums, baos, sushi platter, to chef ’s spe-cial dessert platter. Cocktails are also a partof the package, where mixologists havestirred drinks with love. Drinks such asRobust lad, Floating on cloud and Clover’sclubs are on offer,” adds she.

����������� �����B�������Saurabh Luthra, founder of Romeo

Lane and Mama’s Buoy, says that RomeoLane is a lane designed to celebrate love.“It’s an ode to Romeo and Juliet. Specialslike Love triangles, Melted heart, Heartbeats, Love trouble, Romeo Juliet pizza, Kisscalzone, Love at first sight and more are onoffer. Enjoy the specials such as Colors oflove, Basket of my feelings, Greek styleromance, Proposal pizza and My little heartat Mama’s Buoi,” shares he.

���� �����������Admire each other and indulge your-

self in the specially-curated menu, whichhas love-based cocktails, strawberry-basedfood and tempting fondues. On theOfferings are cocktails like Pink lady, Cwhat I mean, strawberry bruschetta, fierychicken wings with strawberry and more.

To end your date and mealon a sweeter note, youcan enjoy choco-late fondueserved withbanana, chocochip muffin,red apple, lit-tle heartcookies andmarshmallow.

V i k r a n tBatra, founder,Café DelhiHeights, says,“This Valentine’sDay indulge in roman-tic flavors. We at CaféDelhi Heights believe thatlove needs no boundaries, andso the taste of food. Hence, we havecreated a menu keeping in mind all theflavours.”

�������Let’s celebrate love portions and love

bites at Viet:Nom. One can enjoy drinkssuch as The rose, romance, My love, Be myvalentine, Bae, Lovey dovey and more.

Delicacies like Claypot tofu with chilli andcherry, Vietnamese mango curry, Rosescented blue pea jasmine rice, Strawberrypomelo sago, Dimsums and more are onoffer. Manish Sharma, owner of the restau-

rant, says, “There is no sincere love thanthe love of food. Hence, we have curateda special menu to celebrate the true spir-it of love in true foodie style.”

� �����Immerse yourself in an experience of

luxury where your senses travel throughmystique scents and delectable delicacies.“Love is perfect only when you make itperfect,” says Akshay Anand, co-founderof Ophelia. A special menu is curated withlove for your love to celebrate love.Delicacies like Risotto d’or, insalata –Noir(inspired by Olfa Originals Oud D’or)

Roseate churros (inspired by OlfaOriginals Oud Roseate), Crème obsede

(inspired by Olfa Originals OudObsede) and Truly yours and Lovebomb are on offer.

�B� ���The bakery house launches

Valentine’s Day special straw-berry products such as straw-

berry tart and strawberry fraisi-er. Strawberry tart is a colourful

dessert full of fresh cut strawberriescircling a small island of diplomat

cream and strawberry mousse on top ofa “pâte sucrée” biscuit. The classic Frenchstrawberry fraisier is cake made with twolayers of genoise sponge, diplomat creamand a strawberry syrup. “These treats canbe enjoyed in combination with beverageslike hot tea or coffee,” says LaurentSamandari, Managing Director of L’Opéra.

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“Let’s celebrate the day of love throughmusic that touches heart as well as the soul.Since music has the power to bring nos-talgia, live your memories of you and yourpartner started dating,” says Kanishk Tuteja,founder of Nukkad, We Qutub and 1 Oak.Artist Deene Khan, who sings a wide reper-toire of traditional folk and sufi songs, willbe performing live at Nukkad Cafe & Bar.

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Priyank Sukhija, founder of First FiddleRestaurants, who owns Plum by Bentchair,Flying Saucer and Warehouse Café, says thatValentine’s Day has always been special atmy places. “The idea of expressing love toyour partners is important, and if it getscoupled with perfect music, food and cock-tails, the day becomes all the more special.This Valentine’s Day be surrounded by the#Plumazing vibes of Plum by Bent Chairamid the romantic aura as we ‘Let the loveplay’ cupid sway with your bae on thehandpicked playlist all day long. A specialpackage starts at �1,600, which includesflowers, two cocktails and a dessert.Flying Saucer will set your spirits high asAfsana Khan is giving a live perfor-mance. Lord of the Drinks is set to playcupid by offering heart shape cakes.There’s a 10 per cent discount for all thegirls and all the boys table at WarehouseCafé.

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Sofia Kenin’s emotionalAustralian Open defence

ended in a second-round defeaton Thursday but top seedAshleigh Barty overcame ablip to reach the last 16.

The highly-strungKenin has struggled tohandle expectations inher first Grand Slam

title defence andadmitted to having a

few tears during atense opening-

round win on Tuesday.The fourth seed shed more

on Margaret Court Arena onThursday after her 6-3, 6-2defeat in 64 minutes to theEstonian world number 65,becoming the highest-rankedplayer to go out of the tourna-ment.

“I felt like I wasn’tthere, my head wasn’t

there,” a teary-eyedKenin admitted

later.A

s t r o n g -s e r v i n g

K a n e p iproved a bad

match-up forKenin, who had 22unforced errors andoffered little resistance asher title defence ended

with a whimper.Kanepi, however, has been

in strong form, finishing run-

ner-up in the warm-upGippsland Trophy followed bya straight-sets victory overLatvia’s Anastasija Sevastovain the Open’s first round.

The 35-year-old plays 28thseed Donna Vekic of Croatianext.

Meanwhile world No 1Barty cast friendship aside witha straight-sets victory overcompatriot Daria Gavrilova,but appeared to lose focusserving for the match beforeclosing out for a 6-1, 7-6 (9/7)win against her Fed Cup team-mate.

Ukrainian fifth seed ElinaSvitolina scored an efficient 6-4, 6-3 win over 16-year-oldCoco Gauff.

Sixth seed KarolinaPliskova had few alarms inbeating American DanielleCollins, a semi-finalist atMelbourne Park two years ago,7-5, 6-2.

Swiss 12th seed BelindaBencic was pushed harder byveteran Russian SvetlanaKutznetsova before comingthrough 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in 2hr39min.

TSITSIPAS PREVAILS IN EPICWorld No 6 Stefanos

Tsitsipas was pushed to amarathon five sets by wildcardThanasi Kokkinakis beforemaking the third round whileAndrey Rublev extended hisunbeaten start to the year.

Later, birthday boy Daniil

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England wicketkeeper BenFoakes, who is set to don

the big gloves in the secondTest against India, feels thefresh Chepauk track will keeplow and might start offeringturn earlier compared to theseries opener at the samevenue.

England won the first Testby 227 runs but it wasn’t untilthe fourth day when the red-soil Chepauk pitch startedoffering sharp turn. However,with India down 0-1 in thefour-match series, the hostswould like to play to theirstrengths in the upcomingmatches.

Asked how did the pitchlook, Foakes said onThursday: “It’s different tothe last one. It’s a different soiland darker soil. I think itmight be quite low and slow.But I haven’t had a lot of expe-rience with wickets but thatwould be my guess.”

The 27-year-old, who hasplayed five Tests and has beenan understudy to Jos Buttler,spoke to reporters during avirtual interaction.

To a query if the pitchwould offer turn earlier than

London: Senior wicketkeeper-batsmen Jos Buttler and JonnyBairstow were on Thursdaynamed in a 16-memberEngland squad for the fiveT20Is against India, scheduledin Ahmedabad between March12 to 20.

Buttler has gone back homeafter the opening Test, whichthe visitors won by 227 runs,while Bairstow has been restedfor the first two five-day games

of the four-match series as partof England’s rotational policy.

Also coming back is all-rounder, Sam Curran, who wasrested for the Test series.Veteran pacers James Andersonand Stuart Broad no longer playwhite-ball games but JofraArcher will be available for thefive-match series, which meanshe might be rested at somepoint during the ongoing Testrubber.

The squad also has latestT20 dasher Dawid Malan, whocould be a hot pick at theFebruary 18 IPL auction.Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), JonnyBairstow, Sam Billings, JosButtler, Liam Livingstone,Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, BenStokes, Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer,Sam Curran, Tom Curran,Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid,Reece Topley, Mark Wood. PTI

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Barcelona’s hopes of winning the Copadel Rey this season were left hanging

by a thread on Wednesday after Sevillawon the first leg of their semi-final 2-0.

Jules Kounde furthered his growing

reputation as one of the world’s most excit-ing central defenders by scoring a stunninggoal at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan beforeIvan Rakitic came back to haunt his for-mer club by adding a second later on.

The 22-year-old Kounde dribbledpast three Barca defenders and shot intothe corner while Rakitic’s strike turned asetback for Ronald Koeman’s side into whatnow looks like a formidable challenge tomake the final.

The winner will meet either AthleticBilbao or Levante, who play the first legof their semi on Thursday, in the final.

“The result is a bit unfair, the rewardfeels too much for them,” said Koeman.“The return will be complicated at 2-0 butwe have had chances and we have to keepgoing. At home, this team is capable of any-thing.”

Koeman had described the cup asBarcelona’s “shortest route” to a trophy thisterm and the sight of Kounde ghostingthrough his defence hardly inspires con-fidence ahead of next week’s meeting withParis Saint-Germain.

Barca face PSG at Camp Nou in thefirst leg of the Champions League last 16on Tuesday.

Yet all is not lost in the cup. AlthoughKoeman fielded his best available XI, afterresting players against Real Betis in La Ligalast weekend, he will also hope to haveinjured defenders available again for thereturn game at Camp Nou on March 3.

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Nearly 12 years after hecrashed out following a

freak accident, a more deter-mined and experienced NarainKarthikeyan is back to com-plete an “unfinished business”in the Le Mans Seriesendurance racing.

India’s first Formula Onedriver, Karthikeyan, dislocat-ed his shoulder in June 2009,forcing him out of the 24Hours of Le Mans, which isconsidered one of the world’stoughest races. The 44-year-old is now back, forming an allIndian team comprising for-mer F2 and European Le MansSeries racer Arjun Maini and2020 IMSA PrototypeChallenge champion NaveenRao.

“Yeah, absolutely, I’m hereto complete an unfinishedbusiness. Le Mans is one of thegreatest races in the world andI want to go back and get thejob done and not only drivethere but be competitive,”

Karthikeyan said during a vir-tual media conference onThursday.

The trio will representRacing Team India which willmake its debut in the Asian LeMans Series in Dubai thisweekend in a bid to secure aninvitation to the coveted 24Hours of Le Mans, to be heldin France on June 12-13.

Racing Team India’s Dubaidebut will make it the first out-fit with an all-Indian driverline-up to compete in interna-tional endurance racing.

“It’s such a great thing tohold an Indian licence. Allthree Indian drivers compet-ing for top honours in LMP2would be awesome.”

The trio will compete inthe top class LMP2 categoryover two, four-hour-long racesat the Dubai Autodrome.

The two runnings of thefour hours of Dubai will takeplace on Saturday and Sundayrespectively before moving toAbu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuitfor another round of two,

four-hour races on February19 and 20.

The distance covered inthis one single race is equiva-lent to 18 Formula 1 races,making it the most extremetest of the man and hismachine in the world ofmotorsport.

“It’s l ike the wholeFormula One race, the cham-pionship in 24 hours,”Karthikeyan said.

“It’s all about endurance,preserving the car, and tryingto get a great setup on the carand work as a team.

“The pit stops need to beright, the driver changes, thechallenges are so many drivingat night and you know nearly,400 kilometres per hour everylap, lap after lap.

“Going through traffic. It'sa very unique challenge and it’sthat's why it's one of the, it isthe toughest race in the worldwithout a doubt. We’re allexperienced but nothing pre-pares you for Le Mans,”Karthikeyan concluded.

Karthikeyan hopes to complete ‘unfinished business’

Bergamo: Italy’s Matteo Pessina scoredtwice as Atalanta beat holders Napoli3-1 on aggregate on Wednesday tobook a place in the Italian Cup final.

Pessina’s efforts, both set up byDuvan Zapata, were enough to secureAtalanta a second final in three seasons,after the goalless first leg, where theywill face Juventus.

On Tuesday, Juve’s goalless drawwith Inter Milan took them to the May19 final in Rome after winning the firstleg 2-1.

“It’s a great satisfaction. We dedi-cate it to the fans,” Atalanta coach GianPiero Gasperini said.

“We will think about the finallater. For us it’s already a great success.Now we have many important games,we will host Real Madrid.

That will be an event for Bergamo,”he added ahead of hosting the Spanishgiants in the Champions League last 16on February 24. AFP

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Medvedev added another win tohis red-hot streak as the Russianfourth seed demolished RobertoCarballes Baena to ease into thethird round and second seedRafael Nadal wrapped up pro-ceedings on the show courtswith a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win overMichael Mmoh.

Medvedev, who turned 25on Thursday, powered past theSpaniard 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 on JohnCain Arena for his 16th straightwin dating back to November.

The popular Greek stardropped only four games in hisfirst-round match, but faced a farsterner challenge from the267th-ranked Australian. Hefinally came through 6-7 (5/7),6-1, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4

Kokkinakis, who has beenplagued by injury and illnessduring his career, fought hard.With the home crowd becom-ing ever more vociferous intheir support, he gave as good ashe got in a close first set, withboth players trading blows inlong rallies and big serves.

The Australian saved twoset points at 4-5 and took it toa tiebreaker, where he prevailedon the back of a Tsitsipas dou-ble fault. But the Greek’s supe-rior firepower and fitness cameto the fore in the second set andby the third Kokkinakisappeared to be running out ofsteam, unable to match Tsitsipas’consistency.

He found a second wind,though, in the fourth set and

after saving a match point at 4-5 took it to a fifth, buoyed by theenergy of the crowd. However,Tsitsipas’ unrelenting return onserve wore him down and he gota decisive break in fifth game asKokkinakis tired.

The 22-year-old next playsSwede Mikael Ymer, who beatpromising Spanish teenagerCarlos Alcaraz.

Seventh seed Rublev hasbeen in impressive form and bat-tled past Brazilian left-handerThiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(10/8) in workmanlike fashion.

He will next play veteranSpaniard Feliciano Lopez. The39-year-old was taken five setsin his record-extending 75thconsecutive Grand Slam beforebeating Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. No one hasmade more consecutive GrandSlam appearances than Lopez,who is playing his record-extending 75th in a row, havingnot missed one since the FrenchOpen in 2002.

Elsewhere, world number192 Mackenzie McDonald beatBorna Coric 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 tohand the Croatian 22nd seed thebiggest upset of his career.

Italians Fabio Fognini andSalvatore Caruso had to be sep-arated by an official during afurious argument after theirfive-set classic. Fognini, the 16thseed, prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (14/12) in nearly fourhours after a fierce battle on JohnCain Arena.

Melbourne: India’s DivijSharan and Ankita Rainacrashed out of the AustralianOpen men’s and women’s dou-bles events respectively, aftersuffering straight set defeats inthe opening round here onThursday.

Ankita, the third Indianwoman tennis player to securea place in the main draw of aGrand Slam event, and herpartner Mihaela Buzarnecuof Romania lost 3-6, 0-6 in justone hour and 17 minutes at thehands of Australian wild cardpair of Olivia Gadecki andBelinda Woolcock.

India’s challenge alsoended in the men’s doubles

competition after Divij and hisSlovakian partner Igor Zelenaylost 1-6, 4-6 against theGerman combination ofYannick Hanfmann KevinKrawietz in the first roundmatch that lasted one hour andfour minutes.

The veteran RohanBopanna, who lost his open-ing men’s doubles match onWednesday, still has a chanceto make amends as he willpartner China’s Yingying Duanin the mixed doubles and willbe up against the pair ofAmerican Bethanie Mattek-Sands and United Kingdom’sJamie Murray in the firstround. AFP

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usual, he replied: “I found itquite tricky to read thewicket. I found in Indiaobviously that’s (turners)an avenue they would like togo down.

“The last wicket proba-bly played pretty well forabout two and half-threedays, may be slightly longer.I guess there is a potentialthat it would spin earlier (onthis track). I wouldn’t like tolook too far ahead with thatand just look to see what’sgiven on the day and try andplay accordingly,” said theman, who played the last ofhis five Tests, in 2019.