12
In what is seen as the culmina- tion of the natural exercise of the faith and sentiments of the majority community across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday performed the ‘bhumi pujan' of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya. This brings to a close, thanks to the Supreme Court's November 2019 verdict, over 500 years of the litigious status of the piece of land over which both Hindus and Muslims had claimed ownership in different periods of time, with matters going out of control in December 1992 when a pre-existing Babri masjid there was razed by frenzied mobs of the Sangh Parivar acting resolute- ly in their mission to build a Ram temple at what they aver is Lord Ram's birthplace. The Supreme Court-mandated Ram temple in Ayodhya also brings to fruition the BJP's ‘mandir' movement that has been the hall- mark of its politics for three decades, taking it to the heights of power. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were among the limit- ed dignitaries who attended the event. The 175-person guest list, courtesy Covid, included lead- ers who formed part of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. As priests chanted Sanskrit ‘shlokas' and assem- bled people rendered bha- jans, the ground- breaking ceremony got under way under a giant marquee decorated in shades of reds and yel- lows. Modi and the other digni- taries, all in masks, maintained social distancing and sat a safe dis- tance away from each other. Slogans of ‘Bharat Mataki Jai' and ‘Har Har Mahadev' rent the air as the Prime Minister laid the foun- dation of the temple. The ancient town of Ayodhya was decked up all over with marigold flowers and festooned with yellow and saffron flags. All roads leading to Ayodhya reflected, through hoardings, images of the proposed temple and of Ram Lalla the infant Ram — now conse- crated in a makeshift temple. Earlier, the Prime Minister arrived in Ayodhya in a helicopter, with UP Chief Minsiter Yogi Adityanath and others receiving him. Upon arrival, Modi first took part in prayers at the Hanuman- garhi temple. From there, he trav- elled to the 'Shree Ram Janmabhoomi' where he per- formed prayers at the 'Bhagwan Shree Ramlala Virajman'. He also planted a parijat (Indian night jas- mine) sapling. He unveiled a plaque marking the laying of the foundation stone and also released a com- memorative postage stamp on the 'Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir'. The Telangana State govern- ment on Wednesday electron- ically moved the Supreme Court, seeking stay orders on the controversial GO 203 issued by the Andhra Pradesh government inviting tenders for the construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS). The TS government has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in this connection via the e-filing system. In its petition, the TS government highlighted how the region constituting the present Telangana State had suffered severe losses in terms of river water sharing in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, with the Bachawat Tribunal upholding TS' stance. It was alleged in the plea that the Andhra Pradesh government took a "unilateral decision and invited tenders for construc- tion of RLIS, expansion of Pothireddypadu project and also increasing the capacity of the Srisailam Right Bank Canal, issuing GO 203 in May this year". TS drags AP to SC on RLIS The construction of the grand Ram temple at Ayodhya, whose 'bhoomi pujan' was performed on Wednesday, is expected to be completed in the next three years, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said. VHP international president Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje said there is enthusiasm among Hindus across the world over the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Ram temple. He blamed the Congress for the delay in the temple's construction.Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ground- breaking cere- mony in Ayodhya for the temple at the spot where many devout Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, marking the beginning of its con- struction. Kokje said, "There is enthusiasm among Hindus across the world over the foundation stone laying for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Ram temple likely to be completed in 3 years Fear gripped scores of resi- dents of Port city Vizag as they woke up on Wednesday to see video clips of a devastating blast at a port in Labanon’s capital, Beirut. Ammonium Nitrate (NH4NO3), which reportedly caused the blast that ripped apart Beirut, is also imported by the Port of Visakhapatnam and is stored at a warehouse here. Also, the streak of industri- al mishaps in Vizag since May this year has induced fear in the mind of the people. The Beirut blast has killed at least 100 persons and left thousands injured, ripping apart the cap- ital city of Lebanon. A common chemical ingre- dient of agricultural fertilisers, the nitrogen rich compound is also the main component of the explosive composition known as ANFO — ammoni- um nitrate fuel oil. In its pure form, ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is a white, crys- talline chemical which is solu- ble in water. It is the main ingredient in the manufacture of commercial explosives used in mining and construction. In the past, illegally pro- cured NH4NO3 ferried in vehicles had been seized by police in North Andhra including Vizag. Fertiliser grade of NH4NO3 is import- ed by VPT here and with prior police permission. TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday slammed Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy for 'not accepting' the TDP's challenge to seek a fresh mandate from the people of the State on his proposed 3 Capitals move. Naidu appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and resolve the Amaravati Capital issue just like the way he has resolved the vexed issue of Ayodhya. The TDP chief addressed a press conference here after the expiry of his earlier 48-hour deadline even as Jagan ignored Naidu's demand to withdraw the three capitals decision or go for fresh elections as a referendum. "YSRCP leaders ran away from our challenge like cow- ards. This Chief Minister says he comes from a family that stands by its word and never breaks promises. Now, his actions show his government has no credibility. The CM has no authority to change State Capital as per his whims and fancies," said Naidu. A Circle Inspector (CI) of Police in Srikakulam district has been sus- pended from duty for allegedly kicking a Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta- tion. According to reports, video clips of the inci- dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy. As per reports, two young- sters Ramesh and Jagan of Palasa town indulged in a brawl in their village and later filed police complaints against each other. Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy has tested positive for Coronavirus and was admit- ted to the Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Balineni underwent tests as his fever did not subside for over a week.Though the first report returned negative, the doctors conducted tests again because of the fever contin- uing. He eventually tested positive for Covid-19. Earlier, YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad for Covid-19. All his engagements in Visakhapatnam have been cancelled ever since. His office in the port city was also closed for the time being. Along with Minister Balineni, many other leaders from Prakasam district have been infected with the virus. Senior MLA Karanam Balarama Krishna Murthy tested positive and was admitted to a private hospi- tal in Hyderabad. His family members also got virus infec- tion but they were home quarantined. AP reports 77 deaths, over 10,000 cases The Covid-19 surge continued as Andhra Pradesh registered 10,128 fresh cases after easing a little in the last few days as the overall tally rose to 1,86,461 on Wednesday. After registering 10,000 plus cases for the third straight day on July 31, the state's daily count dipped till Tuesday with the fresh infections going below 9,000 mark on two days. The fresh cases on Wednesday are just behind Maharashtra (10,309) even as AP remained in the top three states in the country behind Tamil Nadu in overall tally. The state also saw a record number of 77 coronavirus deaths in a day, pushing the toll to 1,681, the latest bulletin said. In the last 24 hours ended at 10 am, a total of 8,729 patients recovered from the infection, it said. The state now has 80,426 active cases after a total of 1,04,354 patients got cured and discharged so far. The infection positivity rate increased to 8.34 per cent after a cumulative number of 22,35,646 tests. Anantapur district became the third in the state after East Godavari and Kurnool to cross the 20,000- mark in total cases. East Godavari (1,544), Kurnool (1,368) and Anantapur (1,260) districts were among the districts with high daily cases. CM ran away from referendum: Naidu The Krishna River Management Board has fixed the Telangana share of the Krishna water at 37.67 tmc ft and that of Andhra Pradesh at 17 tmc ft. Earlier, the Government of Telangana requested the board for use of 7.746 tmc ft from carryover storage of water in Nagarjunasagar for the year 2019-20. However, the government of AP objected to this request. The water year for 2019- 20 ended on May 31. If the water share is not used with- in the deadline, Telangana has forfeited its right to use the water, argued the AP Government. Maintaining that Prime Minister Narendra Modi,by taking part in the 'Bhoomi pujan' at Ayodhya, had failed to uphold the structure of the Constitution, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said his atten- dance at the event was a "vic- tory of Hindutva over secularism". "The Prime Minister of India going over there and attending this B h o o m i Poojan... today is a victory of Hindutva over secular- ism. Today is a victory of majoritarianism over liberty and equality.

ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

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Page 1: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

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In what is seen as the culmina-tion of the natural exercise of thefaith and sentiments of themajority community across thecountry, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Wednesdayperformed the ‘bhumi pujan' of

the proposed Ram temple atAyodhya.

This brings to a close, thanks tothe Supreme Court's November

2019 verdict, over 500 years ofthe litigious status of the

piece of land over whichboth Hindus and Muslimshad claimed ownership indifferent periods of time,with matters going outof control inDecember 1992 whena pre-existing Babrimasjid there wasrazed by frenziedmobs of theSangh Parivaracting resolute-

ly in their mission to build a Ramtemple at what they aver is LordRam's birthplace.

The Supreme Court-mandatedRam temple in Ayodhya alsobrings to fruition the BJP's ‘mandir'movement that has been the hall-mark of its politics for threedecades, taking it to the heights ofpower.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat andUttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath were among the limit-ed dignitaries who attended theevent. The 175-person guest list,courtesy Covid, included lead-ers who formed part of theRam Janmabhoomimovement.

As priestsc h a n t e dS a n s k r i t‘ s h l o k a s 'and assem-bled peoplerendered bha-jans, the ground-breaking ceremony got

under way under a giant marqueedecorated in shades of reds and yel-lows. Modi and the other digni-taries, all in masks, maintainedsocial distancing and sat a safe dis-tance away from each other.Slogans of ‘Bharat Mataki Jai' and‘Har Har Mahadev' rent the air asthe Prime Minister laid the foun-dation of the temple.

The ancient town ofAyodhya was

decked up allover with

marigold flowers and festoonedwith yellow and saffron flags. Allroads leading to Ayodhya reflected,through hoardings, images of theproposed temple and of Ram Lalla— the infant Ram — now conse-crated in a makeshift temple.

Earlier, the Prime Ministerarrived in Ayodhya in a helicopter,with UP Chief Minsiter YogiAdityanath and others receivinghim. Upon arrival, Modi first tookpart in prayers at the Hanuman-garhi temple. From there, he trav-elled to the 'Shree RamJanmabhoomi' where he per-formed prayers at the 'BhagwanShree Ramlala Virajman'. He alsoplanted a parijat (Indian night jas-

mine) sapling. He unveiled aplaque marking the laying of

the foundation stone andalso released a com-memorative postagestamp on the 'Shree

Ram JanmabhoomiMandir'.

� !���*! +����� $�,�!������"�-�"

(��')����*������ ������/��

The Telangana State govern-ment on Wednesday electron-ically moved the SupremeCourt, seeking stay orders onthe controversial GO 203issued by the Andhra Pradeshgovernment inviting tendersfor the construction of theRayalaseema Lift IrrigationScheme (RLIS).

The TS government hasfiled a special leave petition(SLP) in the Supreme Court inthis connection via the e-filingsystem. In its petition, the TSgovernment highlighted howthe region constituting thepresent Telangana State hadsuffered severe losses in termsof river water sharing in theundivided Andhra Pradesh,with the Bachawat Tribunalupholding TS' stance. It was

alleged in the plea that theAndhra Pradesh governmenttook a "unilateral decision andinvited tenders for construc-tion of RLIS, expansion of

Pothireddypadu project andalso increasing the capacity ofthe Srisailam Right BankCanal, issuing GO 203 in Maythis year".

TS drags AP to SC on RLIS

�'�� ������/��

The construction of thegrand Ram temple atAyodhya, whose 'bhoomipujan' was performed onWednesday, is expected to becompleted in the next threeyears, the Vishwa HinduParishad (VHP) said. VHPinternational presidentVishnu Sadashiv Kokje saidthere is enthusiasm amongHindus across the world overthe foundation stone laying ceremony for the Ramtemple.

He blamed the Congressfor the delay in the temple'sconstruction.Prime MinisterNarendra Modi performedthe ground- breaking cere-mony in Ayodhya for thetemple at the spot wheremany devout Hindus believeLord Ram was born, markingthe beginning of its con-struction.

Kokje said, "There isenthusiasm among Hindusacross the world over thefoundation stone laying forthe Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Ram temple likely to be completed in 3 years

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Fear gripped scores of resi-dents of Port city Vizag as theywoke up on Wednesday to seevideo clips of a devastatingblast at a port in Labanon’scapital, Beirut.

Ammonium Nitrate(NH4NO3), which reportedlycaused the blast that rippedapart Beirut, is also importedby the Port of Visakhapatnamand is stored at a warehousehere.

Also, the streak of industri-al mishaps in Vizag since Maythis year has induced fear inthe mind of the people. The

Beirut blast has killed at least100 persons and left thousandsinjured, ripping apart the cap-ital city of Lebanon.

A common chemical ingre-dient of agricultural fertilisers,the nitrogen rich compound isalso the main component of

the explosive compositionknown as ANFO — ammoni-um nitrate fuel oil. In its pureform, ammonium nitrate(NH4NO3) is a white, crys-talline chemical which is solu-ble in water. It is the mainingredient in the manufactureof commercial explosives usedin mining and construction.

In the past, illegally pro-cured NH4NO3 ferried invehicles had been seized bypolice in North Andhraincluding Vizag. Fertilisergrade of NH4NO3 is import-ed by VPT here and withprior police permission.

�'�� 01�������

TDP supremo N ChandrababuNaidu on Wednesday slammedChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy for 'not accepting' theTDP's challenge to seek a freshmandate from the people of theState on his proposed 3 Capitalsmove. Naidu appealed to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi tointervene and resolve theAmaravati Capital issue just likethe way he has resolved thevexed issue of Ayodhya.

The TDP chief addressed apress conference here after theexpiry of his earlier 48-hourdeadline even as Jagan ignoredNaidu's demand to withdraw thethree capitals decision or go forfresh elections as a referendum.

"YSRCP leaders ran awayfrom our challenge like cow-

ards. This Chief Minister sayshe comes from a family thatstands by its word and neverbreaks promises. Now, hisactions show his governmenthas no credibility. The CM hasno authority to change StateCapital as per his whims andfancies," said Naidu.

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A Circle Inspector (CI)of Police in Srikakulamdistrict has been sus-pended from duty forallegedly kicking aDalit man inside theKasibugga police sta-tion.

According to reports,video clips of the inci-dent went viral on socialmedia, leading to actionagainst the copy.

As per reports, two young-sters Ramesh and Jagan of

Palasa town indulged in abrawl in their village andlater filed police complaintsagainst each other.

.�� " ��"���-�� � #"/�$� ��"$����-����� �0($�'�� ������/��

Minister Balineni SrinivasaReddy has tested positive forCoronavirus and was admit-ted to the Apollo Hospital inHyderabad on Wednesday.

Balineni underwent tests ashis fever did not subside forover a week.Though the firstreport returned negative, thedoctors conducted tests againbecause of the fever contin-uing. He eventually testedpositive for Covid-19.

Earlier, YSRCP MP VVijayasai Reddy was admittedto the Apollo Hospital inHyderabad for Covid-19.

All his engagements inVisakhapatnam have beencancelled ever since. Hisoffice in the port city was alsoclosed for the time being.

Along with MinisterBalineni, many other leadersfrom Prakasam district havebeen infected with the virus.

Senior MLA KaranamBalarama Krishna Murthytested positive and wasadmitted to a private hospi-tal in Hyderabad. His familymembers also got virus infec-tion but they were homequarantined.

AP reports 77 deaths,over 10,000 cases�'�� 01�������

The Covid-19 surge continuedas Andhra Pradesh registered10,128 fresh cases after easinga little in the last few days as theoverall tally rose to 1,86,461 onWednesday.

After registering10,000 plus cases forthe third straight dayon July 31, the state'sdaily count dippedtill Tuesday with thefresh infections goingbelow 9,000 mark on twodays. The fresh cases onWednesday are just behindMaharashtra (10,309) even asAP remained in the top threestates in the country behindTamil Nadu in overall tally.

The state also saw a recordnumber of 77 coronavirus

deaths in a day, pushing the tollto 1,681, the latest bulletinsaid. In the last 24 hours endedat 10 am, a total of 8,729patients recovered from theinfection, it said.

The state now has 80,426active cases after a total of

1,04,354 patients gotcured and dischargedso far. The infectionpositivity rateincreased to 8.34 per

cent after a cumulativenumber of 22,35,646

tests. Anantapur districtbecame the third in the stateafter East Godavari andKurnool to cross the 20,000-mark in total cases.

East Godavari (1,544),Kurnool (1,368) and Anantapur(1,260) districts were among thedistricts with high daily cases.

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CM ran away fromreferendum: Naidu +!������,"�!��#�-�������!

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The Krishna RiverManagement Board hasfixed the Telangana share ofthe Krishna water at 37.67tmc ft and that of AndhraPradesh at 17 tmc ft.

Earlier, the Government ofTelangana requested theboard for use of 7.746 tmc ftfrom carryover storage of

water in Nagarjunasagar forthe year 2019-20. However,the government of APobjected to this request.

The water year for 2019-20 ended on May 31. If thewater share is not used with-in the deadline, Telanganahas forfeited its right to usethe water, argued the APGovernment.

�'�� ������/��

Maintaining thatPrime MinisterN a r e n d r aModi,by takingpart in the'Bhoomi pujan' atAyodhya, hadfailed to uphold thestructure of theConstitution, AIMIM chiefAsaduddin Owaisi onWednesday said his atten-dance at the event was a "vic-

tory of Hindutvaover secularism".

"The PrimeMinister ofIndia goingover there andattending this

B h o o m iPoojan... today is

a victory ofHindutva over secular-

ism. Today is a victory ofmajoritarianism over libertyand equality.

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Page 2: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, D.No. New 3-88, Old 3-22, Chandra Theatre, Gosala, Penamaluru Mandal, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh - 521 151, Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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enkataramani Bhaskar,a 1981 batch IAS offi-cer and an

Independent Public PolicyAnalyst, breathed his last onTuesday night following abrief illness. His passing is ashock, and he is mourned byone and all who know him.

Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan and ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao mourned his death byrecalling his services in vari-ous capacities in undividedAndhra Pradesh.

Bhaskar contributed sev-eral thought provoking articleson taxation, public finance,governance, energy regula-tions and policymaking forprominent journals and I haveknown him personally forover 45 years, right from thedays when I was working as alibrarian in BHEL HigherSecondary School.

His mother, Y Padmavathymadam, the illustrious princi-pal of the school, introducedme to him while he was aboutto enter into State Bank ofIndia service as a probationaryofficer in which capacity heserved until he joined the IAS.

We used to participatetogether in quiz competitionscouple of times. He wasyounger to me by five years.

Bhavan’s Public School for-mer principal ManyamJaganmohan Rao was asshocked on coming know ofBhaskar’s demise.

It was only a month ago Icalled Bhaskar to introducemy daughter, who wanted todo an interview with him onCoronavirus and economicramifications, with him.

The last time when I metBhaskar was three years ago atmy house when I hosted a din-ner in honour of DuvvuriSubba Rao, former RBIGovernor.

Bhaskar had experience ininternational, national andregional settings besides exten-

sive experience in both policyformulation as well as imple-mentation, economic analysisand power sector issues.

He played a key role in theThirteenth FinanceCommission that suggestedthe GST reform in first place.Bhaskar’s focus had been onfiscal federalism, state andcentral finances, goods andservice tax, problems of thepower sector, challenges ofregulation, disaster manage-ment and growth-relatedissues.

Bhaskar was Chairman APElectricity RegulatoryCommission, Special ChiefSecretary Finance, JointSecretary 13th FinanceCommission, Chief ElectoralOfficer in undivided AP,Advisor InternationalMonitory Fund, JointSecretary in the UnionFinance Ministry, MD, MetroWater Works, besides servingas Collector of Vizag andAnantapur districts.

Bhaskar was appointed fora period of three years toadvise the present AP govern-ment in mobilising financesand resources for revenuedeficit state which he declined.

Bandaru RamachandraRao, former SBI CGM, onhearing the news, recalled hisassociation with Bhaskarwhen he visited New York 25-30 years ago.

BR Rao who was working

then as SBI Head of New YorkBranch, invited Bhaskar andhis mother to be his personalguests. He took them aroundthe city and says that whatimpressed him most inBhaskar was his flair to under-stand new things about placesof interest.

BR Rao was also equallyimpressed with Bhaskar’sunderstanding of traffic, waterand power management prac-tices in New York.

Duvvuri Subbarao too wasshocked on hearing the news.He was aware of Bhaskar’shospitalisation and was confi-dent that he would defeat thedeadly virus.

Subbarao said that “fantasis-ing is a common humanfrailty. One of my fantasies isthat if the PM or CM were toassign me a special time-bound task, and allowed me tochoose my team, Bhaskarwould be on every team Iwould pick. It is never the casethat a single IAS officerembodies all the virtuesrequired of an ideal civil ser-vant, but Bhaskar came close”.

Subbarao added that, intel-ligent, competent, personable,organised, mature and result-oriented Bhaskar was the typeof officer a CM or a ChiefSecretary would turn to if achallenging task had to beaccomplished.

No wonder minsters andsenior officers vied for gettingBhaskar on their teams. Everydomain Bhaskar was postedin, he was soon recognised as

an expert. “While in the IMF, he was

on top of the nitty gritty ofinternational political econo-my; as joint secretary in theFinance Commission, heunderstood the nuances of fis-cal federalism better than anyprofessional economist; ascommissioner of commercialtaxes, he mastered the indirecttax system so well that hebecame the ‘go to’ person forany design decision on theGST; as finance secretary ofundivided AP, he had a verymature understanding of thepolitics that drive economicdecisions,” said Subbarao.

As Finance Secretary of APfor nearly six years, Subbaraohad to learn to say ‘no’ to evenvery worthy proposals justbecause there was no money.

Bhaskar was for some timeduring that period, head of theHyderabad Metro WaterWorks. One morning, whenSubbarao guillotined one ofhis proposals he came to himto argue his case once again.For over two hours, heexplained why the decision todeny funding his proposalwas short-sighted. He was sopersuasive that Subbarao hadno option except to approve it.

Again, to put it inSubbarao’s words, “Bhaskarwas well regarded by the polit-ical executive across the spec-trum, prized by senior col-leagues, loved by his peers.Bhaskar will easily go down asa role model for a generationof younger civil servants”.

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The Delhi High CourtWednesday allowed managingdirector of a private firm,accused of irregularitiesamounting to Rs 705 crore inthe running of the Mumbai air-port, to appear before the CBIfor questioning through videoconferencing.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru allowedthe request after the CBI con-ceded that Sartaj Ali, MD ofNice Projects Ltd, is notrequired to travel outside Delhiand the probe agency's officialswill examine him eitherthrough video conferencing orat his Delhi residence.

The court was informed thatAli was 67-year-old and had var-ious health issues and due to thepersisting COVID-19 pandem-ic, he be allowed to join theinvestigation only from hishouse. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal,representing Ali, submitted thathe was a senior citizen and sus-ceptible to contact COVID-19,if mandated to travel from Delhito Mumbai as it will includetransit at airports and flights andshall involve him to stay there.

In the petition filed through

advocates Urfee Haider andKunal Srivastava, Ali has chal-lenged the CBI notice directinghim to appear before the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI),EOW branch, Mumbai andproduce certain documents.The court, which disposed of thepetition, was informed that hehas already submitted the doc-uments to the CBI.

Advocate Anupam S Sharma,appearing for the CBI, told thecourt that the agency officialswere ready to examine Alithrough video conferencing.

Regarding the petitioner'splea that a lawyer shall be per-mitted to be present at the timeof interrogation by the CBI, thecourt said as Ali was being

made to join through videoconferencing and not beingmade to appear physically inMumbai, hence this question oflaw is kept open.

According to the CBI, thecase pertains to the allegedsiphoning of Rs 705 crore fromthe funds of the MumbaiInternational Airport Limited(MIAL), a joint venture underpublic-private partnership(PPP) between the GVKAirport Holdings Limited andthe Airports Authority of India(AAI) besides other investors,by showing inflated expendi-ture, under-reporting of rev-enues, fudging of recordsamong others.

In July, the CBI had carried

out searches at the offices of theGVK group in Mumbai andHyderabad after registering acase against its chairman,Venkata Krishna ReddyGunupati, in connection withalleged irregularities.

The CBI has bookedGunupati, a director in MIAL,his son GV Sanjay Reddy, man-aging director in MIAL, thecompanies MIAL, GVK AirportHoldings Limited (a GVKgroup company) and nine otherprivate firms allegedly used tocamouflage the inflated figuresthrough sham deals andunidentified AAI officials.

On April 4, 2006, the AAIentered into an agreement withMIAL for the modernisation,upkeep, operation and mainte-nance of the Mumbai airport.

It is alleged that the promot-ers of the GVK group in MIAL,in connivance with their exec-utives and unidentified AAIofficials, resorted to siphoningoff funds using different ways.

The agency has alleged thatthey siphoned off funds showingexecution of bogus work con-tracts to nine companies in2017-18, causing a loss of Rs 310crore.

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Andhra Pradesh Private Un-Aided Schools’ Managements’Association (APPUSMA) hasfiled a writ petition in the HighCourt seeking permission tocollect fee arrears of 2019-2020and also school fees for 2020-21.

The association filed the writafter the state government didnot respond to its appeal.“Unfortunately, theGovernment is ignoring thefact that the schools are func-tioning fully in online mode.Most of the private schoolteachers are functioning fully

from June 2020 as they are com-pletely engaged for taking onlineclasses. In fact online educationis expensive and involves lot ofexpenditure as observed byHigh Courts of India in variousWrit Petitions,” contended rep-resentatives of the association.

“At present, we have filed thisWrit Petition as the FeeRegulatory Commission andthe Departmental Officers ofEducation Department, haveregularly issuing press state-ments, circulars restraining edu-cational institutions from col-lecting fees from the parents andalso threatening penal action,”

the association added.Pending disposal of the Writ

Petition, the High Court haspassed interim orders restrain-ing the State Government andother respondents from in anyway taking any coercive stepsagainst the institutions.

With the passing of the inter-im orders, the EducationDepartment or Fee RegulatoryCommission cannot take anycoercive steps against educa-tional institutions.

The Writ Petition is posted to August 10 for finaldisposal.

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After the huge success ofRound-1 of the WSP, IIMVisakhapatnam, through itsspecialized entity, IIMVisakhapatnam Foundation forIncubation, EntrepreneurialLearning & Development(IIMV-FIELD), is all set tolaunch Round-2, in collabora-tion with IIMB Innovations(IIMBI), a constituent of thefamed Nadathur S RaghavanCenter for EntrepreneurialLearning (NSRCEL) of IIMBangalore, the globallyacknowledged leader in man-agement education.

The Women StartupProgramme (WSP) aims atsupporting ambitious andaspiring women entrepreneursby enhancing their entrepre-

neurial and managerial skillsand thus enabling them totransform their ideas into busi-ness ventures.

The programme focuses onthe vision of the Governmentof India on ‘Atma-NirbharBharat’ and being ‘Vocal aboutLocal’.

A great opportunity thuscomes calling for all the aspir-ing women entrepreneurs, togive flight to their dreams!Access to the incubation facil-ities and knowledge resources;mentoring and handholdingsupport; networking opportu-nities with industry and

investors; and platforms toshowcase technologies, prod-ucts and services to solutionseekers are all theirs for the ask-ing! With abiding commit-ment to gender equity andempowerment, IIMV is all set,yet again, to playing a construc-tive role in catalysing the cre-ative energies and innovativeefforts of aspiring womenentrepreneurs and looks for-ward to celebrating their suc-cesses. IIMV-FIELD, in part-nership with IIMBI, is invitingapplications for the WomenStartup Program, 2020.

Women Entrepreneurs work-ing in any sector are eligible toapply. The applicant should bea resident of India and shouldbe above 18 years of age. Sheshould be the founder or the co-founder of the idea or the ven-

ture. Early-stage ideas startups(not more than 12 months old)will be shortlisted for the firstphase of the programme.

The programme commenceswith a five-week trainingthrough Massive Open OnlineCourses (MOOC), offered onthe SWAYAM (Study Webs ofActive-learning for YoungAspiring Minds) platform ofthe Ministry of Education,Govt. of India.

In the second and thirdphases of the programme, theselected entrepreneurs willundergo a two-month virtuallaunchpad program followed bya six-month incubation pro-gram designed by NSRCELand its partner institute, IIMV-FIELD. They will then presenttheir product/prototype andpitch to a screening committee.

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As part of 74th IndependenceDay Celebrations, Eastern NavalCommand organised a live per-formance of the Navy Band asa tribute to the Corona Warriorsat Bojjana Konda heritage site inSankaram Visakhapatnam onWednesday.

Cmde Sanjeev Issar, the NavalOfficer-in-Charge (AndhraPradesh) welcomed Dr BeesettiVenkata Satyavathi, MPAnakapalli Lok Sabha con-stituency, the Chief Guest andall the esteemed CoronaWarriors nominated by the dis-trict administration for theevent. The hour-long perfor-mance featured a wide selectionof music ranging from martial,English pop music to somesoul-stirring songs of patrioticfervour.

The performance included

popular and evergreen songs‘Suno Gaur Se Duniya Walon’and ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon’and culminated with the rendi-tion of the Tri-Services songsproviding a fitting finale to theoccasion. DD Hyderabad hadlive-streamed the band perfor-mance on DD Saptagiri and DDYadagiri.

The Military Bands across the

country are, for the first time,celebrating Independence Dayby displaying their perfor-mances across the country fromAugust 1 onwards, as gestures ofgratitude and appreciation of thenation towards the Corona war-riors who have been steadfast-ly fighting to stop the spread ofthe Coronavirus in the countryeven at the risk of their lives.

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A healthy newborn boydumped in a bush neara local tank at theRell ivalasa vi l lageunder Pusapatiregapolice station limits inVizianagaram districtwas rescued onWednesday morning.

Two people of thevil lage heard theinfant’s cries and rescued theboy from the bushes.Noticing that it was hungry,a woman in the village fed thenewborn.

K Appa Rao, a member ofChild Rights ProtectionCommission in Vizianagaramdistrict informed the policeand others.

The Pusapatirega policeled by sub-inspector, V Balajirushed the village and res-cued the infant from awoman, who wanted to adoptthe baby.

The police said that theyfound bruises on the back ofthe boy and he was shifted tolocal government hospitalfor first-aid. The DistrictChild Protection Officershifted the newborn toGovernment Hospital inVizianagaram Town for bet-

ter treatment where he will beunder observation for tendays.

The police said that dump-ing of the newborn mighthave the result of the boybeing born to an unwantedmother or the outcome of anillicit relationship.

The police have registereda case under Section 317 ofIPC and formed a specialteam to trace the mother ofthe newborn. The team alsoexamined the records at theprivate hospitals and gov-ernment hospitals to getsome clues in the case.

The police said that inter-estingly some people came tothe village to adopt the new-born. The boy will be shift-ed to Sishu Gruha once he isdischarged from the hospital,they added.

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In view of the current Covid-19 pandemic, visitors are notallowed inside the office of theCommissioner ofEndowments located inGollapudi, Vijayawada.

E n d o w m e n t sCommissioner, P Arjun Rao,in a press release here onWednesday, said that general-ly, officers and employees ofthe Endowments wing areuniquely positioned torespond quickly to any issuethat comes to their notice.

But in the face of this unex-pected Corona pandemic andthe health of the staff membersbeing paramount, they havebeen allowed to work fromhome with a few exceptionsand are asked not to meet anyvisitors. Since the matters per-taining to the public are equal-ly important, it has been decid-ed that any urgent issue thatneeds the immediate attentionof either the Special ChiefSecretary (Revenue,Endowments), JSV Prasad, orthe Commissioner, Arjun Rao,can be sent by email to themail id [email protected]

If it is so urgent and needsa physical copy to be present-ed to the higher authorities, acopy of the necessary docu-ments can be dropped in thebox installed for the purposeor handed over at the counterat the main entrance gat

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Three children drowned in alocal tank at Narava villageof Gantala mandal inVizianagaram dis-trict onWednesday.

The victimswere identified asG Manoj (9), RSekhar (10) and RVasu (8).

Manoj had visitedtheir relatives' place atNarava to spend some days.

On Wednesday all the threewent to the water tank toplay, slipped into the water.Unfortunately, one after theother, all three were trapped in

the quicksand and could notcome. They all drowned.

Sekhar and Vasu werebrothers and their parents

are farmers. Leavingthe kids at home, the

parents had goneto work on thefarm.

The police saidthat the three chil-

dren went to thewater tank to play

and they slipped intothe water while they were

cleaning their hands. Thepolice retrieved the bodiesfrom the water and shiftedthem to the government hos-pital at Vizianagaram for postmortem.

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Consumer Affairs SecretaryLeena Nandan will be part of acommittee to examine the rep-resentation of officials sackedfor alleged inefficiency or cor-ruption from the governmentservice, according to aPersonnel Ministry order issuedon Wednesday.

The three-member panel hasbeen reconstituted by the min-istry.

Besides Nandan, AshutoshJindal, Joint Secretary in theCabinet Secretariat, will be theother member of the commit-tee, it said.

One member nominated by

the cadre controlling authority(under whose administrativecontrol the alleged corrupt offi-cials come) will also be part ofthe panel, the order issued to allsecretaries of central govern-ment departments said.

The committee examinesthe representation of employeeswho are sacked underFundamental Rule (FR) 56 (J),(I) and Rule 48 of the CentralCivil Services (Pension) Rules1972.

Both the provisions allow thegovernment to examine thecases of government employeeswho can be sacked in publicinterest for being allegedly cor-rupt or inefficient.

Page 3: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

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NTPC, Simhadri has begun itslong-term endeavour towardsa sustainable future fuelled byrenewable energy sources withthe groundbreaking ceremonyon Wednesday for the largestFloating Solar Power Project inIndia.

This has commenced thecivil works of the CentralMonitoring and ControlStation near the raw waterreservoir for the upcoming 25MW Floating Solar Project.

The cost of this pioneerinitiative in the state is Rs 110crore. With the magnitude ofresource and expertise invest-ment, the resultant struc-

ture, post commissioningshall be the largest FloatingSolar PV Plant in the coun-try. This is just another addi-

tion to the rapidly growingrenewable energy portfolio ofthe organisation.

The contract for this power

plant has been awarded toBHEL. This ceremony wasexecuted in the presence ofExecutive Director, NTPCSimhadri, V SudharshanBabu, GM (O&M)- I/C,Shivam Srivastava, GM(Operation), S Srikrishnaand officials from HR, EMD,Civil, FES Departments aswell as BHEL executives.

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The Andhra Pradesh gov-ernment on Wednesdaysigned a pact withHyderabad-based IndianSchool of Business (ISB) forsetting up a public policy labto help achieve economicrecovery and growth in thepost-COVID-19 period.

As per the memorandumof understanding (MoU), thelaboratory called "GoAP-ISBPolicy Lab" would be set upthat would drive evidence-based policy decisions, thestate government said in astatement.

"The lab is modelled onthe lines of the policy lab inthe UK cabinet that willenable greater synergisticfunctioning of departments

and work towards the objec-tive of economic monitoring,recovery, and development,"the statement said.

The lab aims to create aknowledge bank for strategicplanning, policy analysis,data analytics and action-research essential for sustain-ing higher growth rate.

It would also focus oninvestment flows, their effi-cacy in terms of value addi-tion, employment genera-tion and wealth creation, itsaid.

In addition, the state gov-ernment said it has also col-laborated with ISB in devel-oping indicators for monitor-ing economic recovery inthe state, project onVisakhapatnam as growthengine, focus on food pro-

cessing in Rayalaseemaregion, improving e-gover-nance, data analyt icsunshackling informal sectorgrowth and reshaping theskilling programs.

"The data analytics isdesigned to move from hind-sight to foresight and out-sight i.e. from mere descrip-tive analytics to predictiveand prescriptive policy ana-lytics which is going to be agame-changer in the days tocome," it added.

CEO of Andhra PradeshEconomic DevelopmentBoard JVN Subramanyamand ISB Dean RajendraSrivastava signed the MoU inthe presence of Industriesand Commerce MinisterMekapati Goutham Reddyin a virtual event.

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By attending, the Prime Ministerhas not only laid the foundation of aMandir, but also the foundation of aHindu Rashtra," Owaisi told reportershere.

Modi attended the Bhoomi Pujanfor the construction of a Ram Templeat Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhyaon Wednesday.

The AIMIM leader accused Modiof making India a theological coun-try, which goes against the basic struc-ture of the Constitution.

Owaisi said he and crores ofMuslims, Hindus, Buddhists andSikhs were all emotional because theybelieved in the coexistence, equalityof citizenship.

"I am emotional Mr Prime Ministerbecause you have completely discard-ed your constitutional duty of uphold-ing the basic structure of theConstitution. I am emotional MrPrime Minister because you have vio-lated your oath," Owaisi said.

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IDL, Special Blast Pvt Ltd, BlackDiamond Explosives Limited, SolarExplosives Ltd, Special Blasts Limited,Ideal Explosives, Regenesis Industriesand Salvo Explosives importAmmonium Nitrate and SravanShipping Private Ltd is the shippingagent for the cargo.

The Visakhapatnam Port Trust(VPT) allows these imports but storagein bulk within the port premises is notallowed. This followed new normsbrought in by the Union governmentafter the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.

The shipping agent shifts the sub-stance from the Port to a place that is20-km away, Mindi. As the place is closeto the residential areas, people havebeen raising concern over it.

Indian Institute of Petroleum andEnergy (IIPE) Director, VSRK Prasadsaid, “Storage of Ammonium Nitrate ishighly dangerous, if safety measures arenot followed. The reason for the blastat Beirut is yet to be ascertained.Whether it was sabotage or failure ofsafety measures. However, either way,the substance should be properly han-dled. In case of the storage of the sub-

stance at Vizag, there must be height-ened vigil and full-proof measures.”

“Is Vizag learning lessons?” saidenvironmentalist Sohan Hatangadiexpressing concern over the Beirut portBlast. He pointed out that Vizag alsostores NH4NO3.

“How much is stored? How is ittransported and where? What are safe-ty measures?” For decades, concernedVizagites have asked these questions.The information should be out in thepublic domain. If it is small, safelystored quantity, we need not worry, butif we are not careful, we could be next!,”he said.

The point to remember is that 2,750tonnes of NH4NO3 ripped apart Beirut;Vizag stores 30m000 tonnes.

Former Union Secretary, EAS Sarmawho has raised the issue of the danger-ous substance time and again, said,“The Beirut accident involved only2,750 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate,whereas in Visakhapatnam alone, at anytime, there is a minimum stock of30,000 tonnes. There are six warehous-es that stock the chemicals and fromwhat one could see from the recent LGPolymers gas leak accident, I doubtwhether the local authorities are

inspecting these warehouses regularlyto ensure strict compliance with thestorage rules.”

He pointed out that the authoritiesconcerned should check if the privatecompanies have emergency accidentplans approved by the authorities underthe Ammonium Nitrate Rules and theRules applicable to hazardous sub-stances. In Visakhapatnam, if an acci-dent were to take place, it wouldimpact the HPCL Refinery with dan-gerous consequences, in addition toimpacting the adjacent airport and thenearby thickly populated residentialcolonies, he stressed.

He has suggested again and againthat the Home Ministry should directthe States to exercise close surveillanceover the import, storage and distribu-tion of Ammonium Nitrate consign-ments.

Sarma had suggested that the truckscarrying the chemical should be fittedwith GPS logging devices so that theirmovement could be tracked closely.This was, however, not implementedyet. In Visakhapatnam and elsewhere,it was reported in the past that truck-loads of the chemicals had disap-peared.

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Continued from Page 1

He unveiled a plaque mark-ing the laying of the founda-tion stone and also released acommemorative postagestamp on the 'Shree RamJanmabhoomi Mandir'.

RAM INSPIRATIONFOR HUMANITY

Lord Ram is revered in sev-eral countries, includingIndonesia, which has the largestMuslim population, and thetemple coming up in Ayodhyawill serve as an inspiration forthe entire humanity till eterni-ty, Modi said in his address onthe occasion. He listed theRamayanas popular in coun-tries such as Indonesia,Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia,Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal.References to Lord Ram werealso found in Iran and China,and 'Ram Kathas' were popular

in several countries. In SriLanka, the story of Ramayanaby the name 'Janki Haran' istold, while Nepal's ties withRam are connected through'Mata Janki', the Prime Ministersaid. Hence, 'Ram circuit' isbeing made in the country,Modi said.

The wait of centuries hadended and India was creating agolden chapter in Ayodhya, heunderlined. Beginning hisspeech with “Jai Siya Ram”, thePrime Minister told the gather-ing that a grand temple will bebuilt for “Ram Lalla”, who hadbeen living in a temporary tentfor years. "Many people madesacrifices for the Ram temple.I pay my respects to all of them,”the Prime Minister said. "Socialharmony was the core princi-ple of Lord Ram's governance".The construction of the Ramtemple, was an instrument tounite the country, he reasoned.

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“The Centre warned theJagan Government severaltimes on the cancellation ofPPAs relating to global solarcompanies. Those investors'problems were finally solved atthe intervention of the Centreand with the orders of thecourts. In respect of Amaravatialso, the MoUs were signedwith 29,000 farmers who gaveaway 33,000 acres of theirancestral lands for construct-ing Capital for all 5 crore peo-ple,” Naidu said.

He questioned Jagan

whether he had no confidencein his own decision regardingtrifurcation of the State Capitalor whether he was afraid toface the voters over this issue.“The Congress made a similarmistake by bifurcating APwithout taking the people'sapproval. The Congress paid aheavy price because it did notcorrect its mistake despite themassive protests by the peopleand Opposition parties at thattime. Now also, all sections ofpeople including YSRCPactivists are making humbleappeals for stopping destruc-tion of Amaravati Capital. It is

time the CM realises his follyand take corrective measures,”the TDP chief said.

Stating that the Capital shift-ing was a complex issue, Naidutold the CM that he had noauthority to create 3 Capitalswhichever he liked since thepeople's will would alway pre-vail ultimately in a democrat-ic country like India.Moreover, Jagan and his partyleaders had given assurance onretaining Amaravati as theCapital at the time of 2019elections, Naidu said, andshowed several video clips ofthese assurances.

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Further, the Telangana govern-ment said that allowing the pro-jects currently envisaged by theAndhra Pradesh governmentwould do injustice to TelanganaState, especially the drought-prone erstwhile Mahabubnagardistrict.

The Telangana governmentargued that RLIS is a 'new' pro-ject which requires numerousclearances, including that of theApex Council comprising theUnion Minister for Jal Shakthiand the Chief Ministers of boththe States as per the APReorganisation Act, 2014.Although the Krishna RiverManagement Board (KRMB)had asked the Andhra Pradesh

government to submit detailedproject reports of these projectsand stop any further action untilobtaining necessary approvals,the latter had invited the tenders.

The petition is likely to beheard in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, the UnionMinistry of Jal Shakthi has post-poned the video conferenceinvolving the Apex Council andthe Chief Ministers scheduled forWednesday, following a requestfrom TS Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao. Itinformed that a fresh date for themeeting would be announcedlater.

The AP government on July27 issued a notification invitingtenders for the construction ofRLIP aimed at lifting 34,722

cusecs of water per day from theSrisailam Reservoir on theKrishna river from a depth of800 feet. Tenders worth Rs3,278.18 crore were called forthe construction of the projecton Engineering, Procurementand Construction (EPC) basiswithin 30 months. The last datefor filing of tender bids isAugust 10 and the technical andcommercial bids would beopened on August 12 and 13.After reverse

tendering on August 17, thesuccessful bidder would befinalised by August 19.

The Telangana governmenthas already lodged a complaintwith the Krishna RiverManagement Board, which hadasked the AP government to stall

the process for RLIP. A separatepetition was also filed by aTelangana activist in the NationalGreen Tribunal.

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Continued from Page 1

"The smooth manner inwhich the work of templeconstruction has been goingon after the formation of SriRam Janmabhoomi TeerthKshetra by the central gov-ernment is amazing."

He said, "We hope that theRam temple in Ayodhya willbe completed in three years."

Kokje, a former judge ofthe Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan high courts, saidthe temple will be construct-ed with a slight change in themodel prepared by the VHPunder which stones werebeing carved for the lastthree decades.

"Our model has beenmodified slightly to give theRam temple a grand appear-ance. We have already carvedstones for two floors whichwill be used in the con-struction of the temple," theVHP leader said.

The VHP, which spear-headed the Ram templemovement, started carvingstones for the structure at itsworkshop in Ayodhya in1990.

Kokje said post-indepen-dence, the plan to build aRam temple in Ayodhyalagged behind due to "votebank" pol it ics of theCongress.

He said, "Now Congress

leaders are trying to showthemselves as f r iendlytowards Hindus in thechanged atmosphere in thecountry."

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"A pleasant time hascome. It is the wish anddesire of crores of Hindudevotees of Lord Ramthat the place were LordRam is seated a grandtemple is built. All ofthem are ready to con-tribute mind, body andwealth for this," themahant added.

Gopal Das, UP chiefMinister Yogi Adityanathand Governor AnandibenPatel, and RSS chiefMohan Bhagwat were onthe dais with the primeminister, consecrating thevery first bricks that willgo into building the tem-ple.

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The Andhra PradeshGovernment has provided124 acres of land to the VeeraVahana Udyog PrivateLimited for establishing anelectric bus manufacturingunit in Anantapur districtactualising the MoU signed.

The firm will invest Rs1,000 crore on the plant in thefirst phase. The plant willhave a capacity to produce3,000 buses per year.

The firm is expected tocommence full-scale produc-tion within the next twoyears.

The company has alsodecided to set up subsidiaryunits in the close proximity ofthe plant. Officials of thecompany apprised the stategovernment of their propos-al and it has given its approvalfor the same.

The state governmentauthorities are now workingout the modalities for theallocation of land to enablethe establishment of VeeraVahana e-bus company's sub-sidiary units.

AP IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation(APIIC) Zonal Manager,Hindupuram, Padmavati,said that the state governmenthonoured the MoU allocating124 acres of land inSomandepalli mandal toVeera Vahana company.

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A tripartite committeewill hold a meeting anddecide on the request of thegovernment of Telangana,according to the boardmember-secretary.

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Inspector Venugopalallegedly kicked the Dalityoungster in the police sta-tion and someone filmed it.The incident grabbed atten-tion when the video clipswent viral on social media.

Based on the video clip, theAP DGP's office ordered aninvestigation into the inci-dent. Following preliminaryinquiry, Visakhapatnam DIGKalidas Rangarao issuedorders placing InspectorVenugopal under suspension.

Deputy Chief MinisterDharmana Krishna Das con-demned the action of theInspector. "Orders were issuedto immediately suspend CIVenugopal.

S i m u l t a n e o u s l y ,Visakhapatnam Range DIGand Srikakulam SP have beendirected to conduct a thor-ough inquiry into the incidentand submit a preliminaryreport," the Deputy CM said.

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The Vizagapatam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(VCCI) has expressed concernover the impact on the publicdue to the proposed increase inthe market value of the land bythe state government.

VCCI has been representingvarious business and citizenrelated issues to theGovernment.

President of VCCI VeeraMohan and Secretary RaviGodey spoke to the mediaregarding the impact of the gov-ernment proposal to increase themarket value of the land to thepublic.

They requested the Chief

Minister and the RevenueMinister to look into theirappeal.

Recently, the Government ofAndhra Pradesh proposed toincrease the land values whichwas posted in the APGovernment Website and alsocalled for objections, if any.

“In Visakhapatnam the pre-sent government value of landsare very high and at par with themarket value. In some areas, thegovernment value is much high-er than the prevailing marketvalue. Housing is one of the basicneeds of citizens. Land cost is themajor component in the hous-ing sector. The increase of landrate in government records willlead to an increase in the prices

of house sites, houses, flats andagriculture lands. Any increaseby the Government would final-ly reflect on the end cost to thecommon man,” they argued.

In view of Covid-19, the eco-nomic slowdown has drainedpeople’s finances. With this pro-

posed increase the potentialbuyers, especially the middle andlower middle classes will notcome forward to buy a plot orflat. It will affect the dream ofowning a house/flat of these peo-ple.

The decrease in purchasingcapacity of people will have a cas-cading impact, leading toadversely affecting the buildingindustry and real estate. This willultimately affect the revenue tothe government.

According to VCCI represen-tatives, Andhra Pradesh is one ofthe few states in India that hasbeen revising land rates upwardsevery year from 2015 to 2019. Inthese 5 years the Governmentland rates doubled.

“In fact after the bifurcation ofthe State the market value has-n’t gone up. The previous gov-ernment treated this as a sourceof revenue. Request your goodoffice not to do the same thinglike the previous regime especial-ly during these difficult times,”they urged the government.

VCCI also threw light on theneighbouring states.

Telangana is still following therates that were fixed in 2013while Karnataka announced thatthere won’t be any increase till2021 and are in fact initiating toreduce the guidance value by 5per cent to 10 per cent.Moreover, Odisha has notincreased its benchmark valuefrom 2017.

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YSRCP leaders continue tomake controversial remarksagainst the judiciary, courts andjudges despite the High Courtissuing contempt notices to someof the party’s leaders earlier. OnWednesday, YSRCP MLCPandula Ravindra Babu madecontroversial remarks againstthe courts with impunity.Ravindra Babu was nominatedas MLC under Governor's quotarecently by YSRCP chief andChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy. Reacting to TDP presi-dent and former chief ministerN Chandrababu Naidu’s demand

to dissolve the Assembly andseek re-election over the threecapitals decision, Ravindra Babusaid nobody can even touch astrand of the Chief Minister’shair. “Whether ChandrababuNaidu, cases, courts or evenjudges cannot pluck the hair ofJaganmohan Reddy,” heremarked reflecting the uttercontempt for courts and judges.

Ravindra Babu is not the firstYSRCP leader to make suchremarks undermining the judi-ciary or lowering the dignity ofjudges or courts.

Earlier, the High Court hadserved notices on 94 people,including Bapatla MP Nandigam

Suresh, former Chirala MLAAmanchi Krishna Mohan,Gudivada Amarnath, seniorjournalists Kommeneni SrinivasaRao and Prasad Reddy.

Bapatla YSRCP MPNandigam Suresh was servedcontempt notice for attributingmotives to the judiciary statingthat TDP president and formerchief minister ChandrababuNaidu was managing evencourts. “Chandrababu Naiduseems to know the High Courtverdict 10 minutes in advance.Chandrababu’s call list should beexamined to verify if he isinvolved in the judgementprocess.” Suresh had said.

The High Court also servednotice on former Chirala MLAAmanchi Krishna Mohan whohad found fault with the HighCourt directive to the CBI toprobe the police highhandednessagainst Vizag doctor SudhakarRao. The YSRCP leaders havebeen openly critical of the courtverdicts and attributing motivesto the judges. The High Courtalso took cognizance makingunsavoury remarks on socialmedia posts against the judicia-ry. However, YSRCP Rajya SabhaMP Vijayasai Reddy openlydeclared that he was the in-charge of the social media wingof the YSRCP.

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The International Institute ofInformation Technology,Hyderabad (IIIT-H) is plan-ning to conduct a certificationcourse for college faculty ononline pedagogy. This courseoffered by IIIT-H faculty, is anattempt to address these chal-lenges based on experiences inthe last few months, enrichedby insights from the various ITin education initiatives atIIITH. The seven-day onlinecourse from August 17 to 23 ispriced at Rs 5,000.

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With plasma therapy so muchin news, many people arearranging for a donor as soon astheir family member is testingpositive for corona. AkhilEnnamsetty, an advocate, whowas the first Corona survivorfrom Telangana to donate plas-ma shares, "There seems to besome issue with the way patientsare guided by hospitals takingplasma therapy. The plasmatherapy is not for critical patients.

In fact, the success rate of thistreatment has come down ashospitals wait until very late toadminister the plasma to thepatient. The ICMR guidelinesand various published journalshave suggested that plasma ther-apy is successful only when it isadministered to patients withmoderate criticality.

"But I have observed that thehospitals are administratingplasma to patients who are onmechanical ventilators as well,when it is no good at all."

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From blowing of conch shells andringing of bells to ceaseless chantsof 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'SiyavarRamchandra Ki Jai', streets of thistemple town got immersed in areligious fervour on Wednesday asthe foundation laying ceremony fora Ram Temple got underway here.

Some jewellery shops in thefamous Shrigaar Haat area turnedinto places for community televi-sion spots as passers-by and evensome security personnel andmediapersons joined shopkeepersto watch the live telecast of 'bhoo-mi poojan' by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for the temple andhis speech.

Many recalled that these sceneswere similar to ones quite com-mon in late 1980s when 'Ramayan'serial was telecast on Doordarshanand people used to gather at fewhouses and shops having TV sets.

Rooftops of buildings in thearea, close to HanumangarhiTemple, became hubs and vantagepoints for video journalists andphotographers, while roadsidetrees provided the much-neededshade to security forces deployedfor the occasion.

Some shopkeepers were alsoseen distributing laddoos (sweets),while saffron flags with pictures ofLord Ram and Lord Hanumanwere seen on many balconies,verandahs and rooftops.

While only a few shops wereopen and police barricadesstopped people well before the cer-emony area, crowds gathered onrooftops with social distancingmaking way for heavy jostlingamong people to get a glimpse ofwhat many described as a historicmoment for Ayodhya, a Sanksritword that means 'unconquerable'and has long been known asbirthplace of Lord Ram.

Chants of Jai Shri Ram, blowingof conch shells and ringing of bellsreached a crescendo the momentthe word got around about Modi'sarrival at the main venue, whereaccess was highly restricted due tosafeguard measures in place tocombat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another round of chants beganwhen the prime minister began hisspeech with 'Jai Siya Ram' andcrowds in front of TV sets alsoresponded loudly to Modi's'Siyavar Ramchandra ki Jai' slogan.

Wearing a green-coloured mask,

60-year-old Shanti, who was gluedto a TV set at a jewellery shop,said, "I feel extremely over-whelmed to experience this glori-ous and historic moment. I feelhappy that now the Ram templewill be built."

Mahendra Yadav, seated next toShanti, said, "It is a very importantmoment in my life, and I am goingto cherish it to the hilt. If possible,I will tell stories about this day tomy grandchildren."

Many were also seen recitingcouplets of Ramcharit Manasquoted by Modi in his speech.

Nagraj said, "Though, I am sit-ting at Shringaar Haat, I feel likesitting at the site of Bhoomipujan."

Shiv Dayal Soni, a third-gener-ation jeweller, said, "It was a dif-ferent type of footfall at my shoptoday. I did not get any customerstoday and instead devotees camehere and watched the live telecastof Bhoomipujan and the speech ofPrime Minister Modi."

Glued to TV at the same place,along with many passers-by andsome security personnel, SavitriSoni said, "I feel proud to witnessthis momentous occasion. Peoplecoming here at the shop andwatching this event on televisiongives me immense satisfaction.Today's scene reminds me of thefirst Ramayan serial, when peopleused to gather the house of a per-son having a television, andRamayan was collectively viewed."

As people were chanting 'Jai ShriRam', a 'Chabiwala Baba' also arrivedon the scene with a nearly 3-feet longkey made of cardboard. When askedabout the key, he said, "This is the keyof knowledge and it has the powerto bring transformation and changeof heart."

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Indian-Americans across the UScelebrated the foundation stonelaying ceremony of the historicRam Temple in the holy city ofAyodhya by lighting diyas andtaking around a tableau truckdisplaying digital images of theRam Temple around the USCapitol Hill.

The groundbreaking cere-mony for the construction ofthe temple took place onWednesday in Ayodhya withPrime Minister NarendraModi performing the ‘bhoo-mi pujan' of the temple,bringing to fruition the BJP's‘mandir' movement thatdefined its politics for threedecades and took it to theheights of power.

In the US, various Hinducommunity groups would beorganising virtual events to markthe importance of the occasion.

In Washington, membersfrom the Vishwa HinduParishad, America took out atableau truck on Tuesday withthe digital image of Ram Temple,and went around the Capitol Hillwith chanting of slogans “JaiShree Ram” and moving around

the city later. In other parts of theUS, Hindu community memberslit diyas at home.

“Congratulations to all Indiansespecially to Hindus, Jains and allwho worship Lord Ram on thishistoric day of the laying thefoundation stone for building theRam Temple in Ayodhya,” AjayJain Bhutoria, a California-basedcommunity leader, said.

While the public celebrationswere limited due to the pandem-ic, a number of virtual eventskicked off in various parts of the

country.A mega event is scheduled at

New York's iconic Times Squarewherein images of Lord Ram andthe proposed temple would be ondisplay on gigantic screens.

“Individuals are celebrating intheir homes too by performingpujas, lighting lamps. It will beearly diwali for many. The enthu-siasm among the Indians here isvery high,” a community mediarelease said. Deepak Sridhar, asoftware engineer based inAustin, said he will be doing a

puja at home at the same time asthe ceremony in India.

Another Indian-Americanprofessional, Manik Advani, saidhe plans to stay up all night towatch the ceremonies online.

“I plan to watch the cere-monies and also perform pujaand seek blessings from theDivine that this will help usherin a new era of peace and well-being in the whole world!” saidAdvani, a senior executive in theSilicon Valley.

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Ahead of the foundation-stone laying ceremony of theRam temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday offered prayers at theHanumangarhi temple here.

Accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, the prime minister arrived at the templedressed in traditional dhoti-kurta. Modi was gifteda headgear by the chief priest of the temple.

After spending some time at the temple, he head-ed to 'Shree Ram Janmabhoomi' where he will takepart in pooja and darshan of 'Bhagwan ShreeRamlala Virajman'. He will subsequently perform'bhoomi poojan' there.

On the significance of visiting Hanuman templefirst, Hanuman Garhi Mahant Raju Das said thataccording to legends, it is believed that no work iscomplete without the blessings of Lord Hanuman.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath onWednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sforesight and wisdom paved the way for peaceful reso-lution of the Ram temple issue and fulfilling the dream.The power of Indian democracy and judiciary under theleadership of PM Modi has shown the world how solu-tions to problems can be found through democratic andconstitutional means, he said at the groundbreaking cer-emony for the temple here. "Prime Minister's foresightand wisdom paved the way for peaceful resolution of Ramtemple issue," he said. Yogi said people have struggledfor 500 years for the construction of Ram temple inAyodhya. Prime Minister Modi earlier performed the'bhoomi pujan' of a Supreme Court-mandated Ram tem-ple in Ayodhya, bringing to fruition the BJP's 'mandir'movement that defined its politics for three decades andtook it to the heights of power.

On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court settled thefractious issue going back more than a century and backedthe construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the dis-puted site. It also ruled that an alternative five-acre plotmust be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.

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Colourful lights and saffronflags adorned temples in thenational capital and chants of "JaiShri Ram" rent the air as devo-tees thronged them to performspecial puja on the occasion ofground-breaking ceremony fora Ram temple in Ayodhya. At aChattarpur temple, devoteesstarted arriving around 6 am,just after the morning pujaended, temple's administratorKishor Chawla said.

"A puja has been going onnon-stop for three days. The'Ram darbar' has been decorat-ed. A replica of 'shila' (founda-tion stone) has been preparedand it will be sent to Ayodhyaalong with other material," hesaid. Thirty-two pandits per-

formed a special puja amidbeating of dholaks and tam-bourines and recital of bhajans.Considering the restrictions dueto COVID-19, only a limitednumber of people are allowed atany given time. A self-dispensermachine has been installed for'prasad' distribution, Chawlasaid. Alankar Yadav, a 57-year-old resident of Chattarpur,clapped vigorously as the loud-speakers blared "Ram dhun"."It's a dream come true. I amlucky that I am alive to see thisday," he said.

Anukriti Bansal, 41, drove tothe temple in the middle of rainto have darshan of 'Ram lala'. "Icould have watched it on televi-sion, but I chose to come hereand spend some time listeningto 'Sunderkand'," she said.

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Coinciding with the Ram templebhoomi pujan', publishing houseBloomsbury on Wednesdayannounced their latest book that willshed light on the history of Ayodhya.

Titled "Amazing Ayodhya", the bookby Neena Rai promises to offer "authen-tic information about the city, which willnot only help understand the life andtimes of ancient Hindus, but also therevered figures of Rama and Sita.

"No one grows up in India untouchedby the beautiful story of Ram and Sita.Every Deepavali, one hears about Ram

and Sita's welcome back to Ayodhya.But amongst all the celebrations onehardly pays attention to the fascinatingcity of Ayodhya. All that we hear aboutAyodhya is how the city was lit up towelcome its king and queen.

"In order to understand the avatarswe worship, we must understand howlife and times were in their yug'.Amazing Ayodhya' is an attempt ingaining knowledge of Ayodhya, itsarchitecture and other details -- likehow big was Ayodhya? How was itshaped like? What were the houseslike? Who established Ayodhya? Whatkind of animals lived there?" Rai said.

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As Prime Minister NarendraModi laid the foundation

stone for Ram Mandir atAyodhya on Wednes-

day, thetemple

town of Udupi in southernKarnataka is missing its mostbeloved seer, Swami VishweshaTeertha of Pejawar mutt, who was inthe forefront of the RamJanmabhoomi movement.

Swami Vishwesha Teertha, whopassed away on Decemeber 29 lastyear, would have been the happiestman at the time of the BhoomiPoojan on this day if he were alive.

Vishwesha Teertha, who presidedover the Udupi Sri Krishna templefor five Paryaya periods, had beenthe strongest votary of the Ayodhya

Ram Janmabhoomi movement,while being one of the liberals

among the seers of the Ashtamutts of Udupi who

worked for socialreforms including his

fight againstuntouchability.

BJP veter-an and for-

m e r

deputy Prime Minister LK Advani,who spearheaded the Rath Yatrawhich culminated into Ayodhyamovement, was a staunch disciple ofSwami Vishwesha Teertha and tookhis blessings before launching hisYatra.

The Swami was an active memberof the Vishwa Hindu Parishadspanel for the Ram Janmabhoomimovement.

He also played an active role inurging the leaders of the movementto take the Muslim community intoconfidence to achieve its goal.

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The Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam inneighbouring Kancheepuram hassent gold and silver coins, holy soilcollected from the Kamakshi templeand the mutt, besides Vasthu (tradi-tional Indian system of architecture)materials to be used in the Bhoomipujan for constructing the Ramtemple in Ayodhya on Wednesday.

The soil specially obtained fromthe temples like EkambranatharSwamy, Kamakshi and other Vishnutemples in the town have been sentby flight to Ayodhya ahead of the

Bhumi pujan, said Sri VijayendraSaraswathi Swamy, the 70th Acharyaof Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.

Two bricks were also sent with theblessings of his predecessors andgurus Sri Jayendra andChandrasekharendra Saraswati, thepontiff of the centuries-old mutt saidin a statement. "Sri JayendraSaraswati (69th Pontiff) and theKanchi mutt share a very close rela-tionship with the Sri Ram templecoming up in Ayodhya. This isGod's will.

The Acharya made severalattempts on various occasions tohave a temple for Sri Rama builtin Ayodhya by holding talkswith many groups. Hewished for the temple tocome up soon," SriV i j a y e n d r aSaraswathi said.

" C o i n c i dentally, theB h u m ip u j a

in Ayodhya and Sri Jayendra's birth(star) celebrations fall on August5. This only denotes SriJayendra's bhakthi and affec-tion for Sri Rama," hesaid.

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"Peaceful resolution ofthe Ram Temple dispute put

to rest a wound that had beenunnecessarily festering," founder

and spiritual guru of IshaFoundation, a spiritual organisation,

Sadhguru JaggiVasudev has said.In his tweet on the

'bhoomi pujan' (ground-breaking ceremony) for Ram

Mandir in Ayodhya, he said, "Alot of minds & hearts are cooler

now." May the whole nation celebratethis resolution and resurrection of spir-it of nationhood and unity, he saidreferring to the Supreme Courts ver-dict on Ayodhya that has paved theway for temple construction on a long-disputed land. "The temple is impor-tant because in many ways at least inthe northern part of the countryRama is their spirit. So, it is not justanother temple. It is a resurrection ofIndias spirit because it is not just oneparticular denomination or religion(that) looks up to Rama," he said.

He said Rama is celebrated becausehe went through severe trials and tribu-

lations in life and yet remaineduntouched by them. His passion for thewellbeing of his people was limitless toa point of self-sacrifice which is eulo-gised in so many ways through the epicRamayana," the spiritual guru said.

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Babri Masjid built by MirBaqi, commander of Mughalemperor Babur.

����February 5, PM

announces in Parliament15-Member Trust for RamTemple in Ayodhya.

February 19, RamMandir Trust appointsoffice bearers.

August 5, PM Modiconducts 'Bhumi Pujan'at Ayodhya for initiationof temple construction,lays foundation stone.

����Nirmohi Akhara files suit

seeking possession of thesite.

����April 3, 'Acquisition of

Certain Area at Ayodhya Act'passed for acquiring land byCentre in the disputed area.

Various writ petitions, includ-ing one by Ismail Faruqui, filedin Allahabad HC challengingvarious aspects of the Act.

SC exercising its jurisdictionunder Article 139A transfersthe writ petitions, which werepending in the High Court.

����September 30, HC, in a 2:1

majority, rules three-way divi-sion of disputed area betweenSunni Waqf Board, theNirmohi Akhara and RamLalla.

���� by Nov 17.Oct 16, SC concludes

hearing; reserves order.Nov 9, SC grants entire

2.77 acre of disputed landin Ayodhya to deity RamLalla, possession of landwill remain with centralgovernment receiver. SCalso directs Centre and UPgovt to allot 5 acre land tothe Muslims at a prominentplace for building mosque.

����May 9, SC stays HC verdict

on Ayodhya land dispute.

����February 8, SC starts hear-

ing the civil appeals.July 20, SC reserves verdict.Sep 27, SC declines to refer the

case to a five-judge Constitutionbench. Case to be heard by anewly constituted three-judgebench on October 29.

October 29, SC fixes the casefor the first week of Januarybefore an appropriate bench,which decides the schedule ofhearing.

December 24, SC decides totake up petitions on case forhearing on January 4, 2019.

���October 24, SC says in his-

toric Ismail Faruqui casemosque was not integral toIslam.

����April, HC begins hearing on

determining who owns thedisputed site.

����March 13, SC says, in the

Aslam alias Bhure case, no reli-gious activity of any nature beallowed at the acquired land.

���UP Sunni Central Waqf

Board files suit for possessionof the site.

���February 1, Local court

orders the government toopen the site for Hindu wor-shippers.

����August 14, Allahabad High

Court orders status quo inrespect of the disputed struc-ture.

����December 6, Babri Masjid

demolished

����Mahant Raghubir Das files

plea in Faizabad district courtseeking permission to builda canopy outside the disput-ed structure. Court rejects theplea.

���Idols of Ram Lalla placed

under central dome outsidethe disputed structure.

����Gopal Simla Visharad

files suit in Faizabad dis-trict court for rights toworship the idols of RamLalla.

P a r a m a h a n s aRamachandra Das files suitfor continuation of worshipand keeping the idols.

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Terming the foundation laying ofRam temple in Ayodhya as a"historic and proud day" forIndia, Home Minister AmitShah on Wednesday said it her-alds the beginning of a new era.

He said by starting the con-struction of the grand Ramtemple in Ayodhya, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi haswritten a golden chapter in thehistory of the great Indian civil-isation, and asserted that the gov-ernment remains committed tothe preservation of Indian cul-ture and its values. "Today is ahistoric and proud day for India.The consecration of the grandRam temple by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at Lord Ram'sbirthplace has written a goldenchapter in the history of greatIndian culture and civilisationand heralded the beginning of anew era," Shah, who is recuper-ating at a private hospital inGurgaon after contractingCOVID-19, said. He said theconstruction of the temple is theresult of centuries long sacrifice,struggle and penance of the

innumerable devotees of LordRam. "On this day, I salute allthose ascetics who fought for thispriceless heritage of them whostruggled for years to preservethis precious heritage of Sanatancivilization. Jai Shree Ram," hetweeted in Hindi. "The construc-tion of the grand Ram templedemonstrates the strong anddecisive leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

"My heartiest congratulationsto all Indians on this unforget-table day. The Modi governmentwill always remain committed tothe preservation of Indian cul-ture and its values," he also said.

Shah said the ideals andthoughts of Lord Ram reside in

the soul of India. "His characterand philosophy are the founda-tion of Indian culture."

With the construction of theRam temple, this sacred land ofAyodhya will once again rise toits pristine glory in the world, hesaid, adding that the amalgama-tion of religion and developmentwill also generate employmentopportunities. "The constructionof a Ram temple in Ayodhya hasbeen a symbol of faith of Hindusacross the world for centuries. Byconsecrating the Ram temple inRam Janmabhoomi today, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hashonoured the faith of crores ofpeople for which I express myheartfelt gratitude to him," he said.

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For relatives of many karsevaks who were killed in theSabarmati Express coach fireincident in Gujarat's Godhra in2002, the 'bhoomi pujan' for aRam temple in Ayodhya onWednesday brought a sense ofclosure to the pains of losingtheir near and dear ones for thecause of the temple.

"All I can say is that theirsacrifice will not go in vain,"said Bipin Thakkar, who hadlost his father-in-law andbrother-in-law in the Godhraincident.

Thakkar, who lives inAhmedabad with his wife, saysmany people had sacrificedtheir lives for the cause ofbuilding the temple of LordRam at his birthplace inAyodhya.

"It is a matter of great delightthat the temple is finally com-ing up," he said referring to thebhoomi pujan performed byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin Ayodhya earlier in the day.

59 'kar sevaks' returningfrom Ayodhya were killed inthe Godhra train burning inci-dent on February 27, 2002,triggering the worst communalriots in the history of Gujarat

in which over 1,000 people,mostly belonging to a minor-ity community, were killed.

A kar sevak is someone whooffers services for free to a reli-gious cause. Thousands of kar

sevaks had participated in theRam Janmabhoomi movementand the Rathyatra in the year1990.

"Construction of a grandtemple of Ram Lalla atAyodhya is the solemn vowtaken by all Hindus, which isrealised now. Lord Ram isadored by all Hindus," saysAshok Prajapati, whose fatherJaver Prajapati was charred todeath in the S-6 coach of theAhmedabad-bound train onthe fateful day.

Mahesh Shah, who was partof a group of kar sevaks on thattrain, recalled his escape fromthe burning coach, the imagesof which still continue to haunthim.

"19 of 90 kar sevaks fromAhmemdabad had lost theirlives in the incident," Shah said.

Shah, an officer-bearer of'Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad'floated by former VishwaHindu Parishad chief PravinTogadia, said he survivedbecause he jumped out of a win-dow of the burning coach.

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A festive atmosphere prevailedat the Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) headquarters at R KPuram, once the nerve centreof the Ramjanmbhoomi move-ment, as senior leaders of saf-fron outfits gathered to watchthe live telecast of the groundbreaking ceremony for a Ramtemple in Ayodhya onWednesday.

In 1984, a 'Dharm Sansad'(religious conclave) of Hinduseers was held in Delhi whereit was decided that the VHPwill undertake the activitiesrelated to Ram Janmbhoomi,joint general secretary of VHPSurendra Jain said. VHP stal-wart Ashok Singhal was amongthose who spearheaded themovement. "In the next fewyears, the headquarters servedas a centre of initial discussionsamong prominent leaders ofthe movement. Ashok Singhalji used to have discussionswith a close group of 15-20 per-sons over how to achieve thegoal of Ram temple inAyodhya, at the meditationhall of this building," Jain said.

Jan 8, SC sets up a five-judgeConstitution Bench to hearthe case headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and com-prising justices S A Bobde, NV Ramana, U U Lalit and D YChandrachud.

Jan 25, SC reconstitutes 5-member Constitution Bench tohear the case. The new benchcomprises Chief Justice RanjanGogoi and Justices S A Bobde,D Y Chandrachud, AshokBhushan and S A Nazeer.

Jan 29, Centre moves SCseeking permission to returnthe 67-acre acquired landaround the disputed site tooriginal owners.

Feb 26, SC favours media-tion, fixes Mar 5 for order onwhether to refer matter tocourt-appointed mediator.

May 9, 3-member mediationcommittee submits interimreport in SC. May 10, SCextends time till Aug 15 tocomplete mediation process.

Aug 6, SC commences day-to-day hearing on the land dispute.

Oct 4, SC says it will wrap uphearing on Oct 17, judgment

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A thick blanket of security was thrownover Ayodhya in view of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's visit here onWednesday to lay the foundationstone of the Ram Temple, and it hasbeen ensured that all 300 police per-sonnel deployed for PM's security areCOVID-19 negative. All the roadsleading to Ayodhya have been sealed,while 500 workers of the templetown's civic body have been deployedto control stray animals. As the Ram

Janmabhoomipremises is situat-ed between thedensely populated areaof the town, SPG com-mandos and sharpshootershave been deployed at all hous-es and roofs of nearby temples.

Ayodhya DIG Deepak Kumar toldPTI that borders of the district havebeen sealed. Also, border of Ayodhya'sneighbouring districts with that ofNepal have been sealed with the dep-utation of heavy security forces andsenior police officials, he said.

About 100 check-posts have beenactivated on all roads leading toAyodhya. The district has beendeclared 'no-fly zone' and securityforces have been deployed on Saryuriver, the police officer said.

Over 300 young police personnelwho have tested COVID-19 negativehave been deployed for the prime min-

ister'ssecurity,Kumar said.Modi per-formed the 'bhoo-mi pujan' of aSupreme Court-man-dated Ram temple inAyodhya, bringing to fruitionthe BJP's ‘mandir' movement thatdefined its politics for three decadesand took it to the heights of power.

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Page 6: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

Aspecial f lightequipped with med-ical equipment andadvanced techno-logical treatments

for Coronavirus flew to Indiafrom Tel Aviv last week. Also onboard were defence and securi-ty experts as well as Israelidiplomats returning to theirembassies and consulates in theregion. The Israeli team will joinhands with researchers in Indiato develop a rapid testing solu-tion for COVID-19. Dozens ofsophisticated ventilators, whichwere loaded onto the specialflight before take-off, made thename of the mission that muchmore meaningful: BreathingSpace.

Israel went out of its way toapprove the export and transferof these ventilators to India,while both countries continue tofight against the spread of thevirus. Israel’s exceptional gesturewas a welcome “thank you” toIndia, which just a few monthsago sent medicine and otheressential diagnostic equipment,in severe global shortage at thetime, to Israel. In this way,Israel and India successfullytransformed this unprecedent-ed global pandemic into anopportunity to assist one anoth-er and enhance their relations.

The Israel-India relation-ship has improved dramatical-ly over the past several years. It’shard to believe that just threedecades ago, Indian passportswere valid “for every countryexcept Israel.” Today, India hasbecome one of our most signif-icant friendships in the Asianregion. The scope of mutualtrade between the two countrieshas grown from approximately$200 million in 1992 to some $4billion in 2018.

Since former PrimeMinister Ariel Sharon’s first his-toric visit to India in 2003,Israeli and Indian Presidents,Prime Ministers and ForeignMinisters have enjoyed a host ofbilateral visits and discussions.One of the first discussionsForeign Minister GabiAshkenazi held upon enteringhis new role was with his Indiancounterpart, Minister ofExternal Affairs S Jaishankar.

Israel’s Alternate PrimeMinister and Minister ofDefence, Benny Gantz, too, hada word with Indian Defence

Minister Rajnath Singh,expressing hope that the strongbilateral ties between the twocountries would contribute sig-nificantly to the global effortsin combating the COVID-19pandemic. These are just someof the indicators of the surgethat has occurred in relationsbetween the two countriessince diplomatic ties were fullyestablished in 1992.

This upward trend hasyielded success in other fieldsas well. Although it’s difficult toimagine direct flights whileliving under the cloud ofCOVID-19, Air India’s directflight between New Delhi andTel Aviv, inaugurated two yearsago, minimises flight durationby flying over Saudi Arabia.This contributes towards thenormalisation of Israel’s tieswith the Arab world and assuch, assists Israel in achievingits strategic goal of improvingits relations with the region.

Other flights — El Al toMumbai, Arkia flights to Goaand Cochin — are an impor-tant bridge between Israel andIndia. This bridge is furtherstrengthened by a visa reliefpolicy for Indian citizens,which saw the number ofIndian tourists visiting Israelgrow from 16,000 in 2000 to

over 70,000 in 2018.One of India’s most critical

national security challenges isthe provision of food securityto its immense population.Israel’s Foreign Ministry hasconsistently invested a tenth ofthe Agency for InternationalDevelopment’s (MASHAV)budget into India for severalyears now. This has financedthe establishment of more than28 “Excellency Centres” acrossthe many States that make upIndia. These centres serve asagricultural “demonstration”farms, introducing Israeliexperts and innovative Israelitechnologies to Indian farmers.

During his last visit toIndia in January 2018, PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahuescorted Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to his homeState of Gujarat. In an excep-tionally moving moment, hun-dreds of farmers rushed tomeet them and share theirpersonal stories. One afteranother, they recounted howtheir fields’ crop yields hadimproved by a hundred percent following their training atIsrael’s Excellence Centres.

Relations between Israeland India clearly don’t justexist between Governmentsbut also between societies. The

Israel-India relationship haspermeated all elements ofIndian society, including that ofthe 650 million Indian citizenswho make a living from agri-culture and who represent halfof the workforce in India.

Israel’s contributions havealso risen to prominence infields ranging from health,security, industry and more.Most critical on our sharedagenda, however, is water andIsrael is uniquely placed to pro-vide solutions to the criticalwater shortage issue that Indiafaces. Both countries share adeep and mutual appreciationfor the benefits that their jointcollaboration brings them atthe community level.

Under the leadership ofNarendra Modi, India isassuming its role as a regionaland world power and ourdiplomacy has succeeded inshowing India the many advan-tages that can come fromstrengthening its ties withIsrael. The Foreign Ministry isdetermined to cultivating itsties with India to ensure thatour relations continue to thrivein the future.

(The writer is DeputyDirector General for Asia andthe Pacific at the Israeli Ministryof Foreign Affairs)

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Sir — This refers to the edito-rial, “Forlorn hopes” (August5). Automobile sales in Julyoffered hope that an econom-ic recovery is nearing. Ascompared to June, there hasbeen a substantial improve-ment in car sales in July. It washeartening to see that manu-facturers such as MarutiSuzuki and Tata Motors haveseen higher car sales. However,unless other car manufactur-ers, like Ashok Leyland andBajaj Auto, too, start showingpositive results, we should notassume that we have reachedpre-COVID days of sales.

We need to factor in onecritical factor which is that dueto the pandemic, there is andthere will still be a shift in thethought process of buyers, atleast for some time until thingsnormalise. Yet people areavoiding the use of the publictransport system and areinstead using two-wheelers orpre-owned cars. The Indianautomobile sector is on a slowroad to partial recovery butthere’s a long way to go.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — It has been a year sincethe abrogation of the special

status of Jammu & Kashmir butNew Delhi’s intent to establishpeace and create economicdevelopment in the Valley hasnot yielded concrete results.

The Government’s promisethat such a decision wouldusher in economic develop-ment has not been successful.Most political leaders and

activists remain in detention;there’s a complete absence of apolitical process; no access toInternet and mobile connectiv-ity. Meanwhile, civil and demo-cratic rights of the peopleremain stamped out.

The suspension of theInternet has impacted educa-tion and health. The continueddetention of political leaders isonly an indication that there isno space for opinion or dissentin India’s democracy.

Shariq AlaviLucknow

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Sir — The probe intoBollywood actor Sushant SinghRajput’s death is going on forthe past 40 days and has left twoStates — Bihar andMaharashtra — warring duringthe pandemic. Now that thecase will be handed over to theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI), a fair probe must bringclosure to what has become aneedless mess.

MN MusaeedMumbai

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Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyanscheme unveiled in May, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had promised a special

loan of �90,000 crore to fledgling power distribu-tion companies (discoms) to enable them to cleartheir dues to independent power producers (IPPs)and generators in the public sector viz. NationalThermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and so on,subject to their implementing certain reforms. TheGovernment is now keen on hiking the loan amountto �1,25,000 crore and relaxing reform conditions.

This is not the first time that discoms are in direfinancial straits and the Government has bailed themout, subject to their implementing reforms. Since2000, three such bailouts were granted, the latestbeing in 2015 under the Ujwal Discom AssuranceYojana (UDAY) which condoned their whoppingdebt of about �4,00,000 crore. Each time, a promisewas extracted from them and their owners (StateGovernment) for carrying out reforms, only to beflouted with impunity.

From time to time, our policy makers haveharped on reforming Power Purchase Agreements(PPAs); introducing “open access”; making the tar-iff-setting process transparent and reducing cross-subsidy; Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT); trading inelectricity; increase in share of renewals and so on.In each of these reform measures, two objectives res-onate. These are: Electricity supply to consumers ataffordable rates and making discoms “viable.” Yet,what we see on ground zero, is just the opposite.

A PPA is a contract between an IPP and a dis-com which lays down terms of electricity purchaseby the latter from the former, including tariff whichis subject to approval by the State ElectricityRegulatory Commissions (SERCs). Nearly 86 percent of power is sold through long-term PPAs. Ofthe balance, 10 per cent is covered under short-termagreements and four per cent sold on trading plat-forms.

Discoms purchase power from IPPs/NTPCbesides their own generating stations and sell to con-sumers. While sale to poor households and farm-ers is normally made at subsidised rates/free, i.e.below the cost of purchase, wheeling and distribu-tion, the charges for industries and businesses aremuch higher than the cost of supply. Put simply, thetariff policy uses excess payments by the latter tocross-subsidise the former.

The discoms are expected to sign PPAs withthose IPPs who can deliver power at the lowest pos-sible tariff (in fact, the Central Government runs sev-eral schemes which help IPPs to reduce the cost ofgeneration, say by lowering the cost of fuel such ascoal or gas and so on) with the sole objective of mak-ing it affordable to consumers. Unfortunately, thereality is far from it. Let us look at a few examples.

In Andhra Pradesh (AP), promoters of 139power plants based on solar and wind energy (aggre-gate capacity 8,000 mega watt or MW) had signedagreements with the discoms during 2014-19under the erstwhile dispensation led byChandrababu Naidu. Apart from being environ-ment-friendly, the other advantage of buying elec-tricity from these sources was the low cost of sup-ply, about �2.43 per unit, which was nearly half ofthe cost of sourcing it from thermal power plants.Yet, under the PPAs, the discoms had agreed to payIPPs �4.8 per unit i.e. almost double.

The new Government, led by YS JaganmohanReddy, set up a high-level committee in early July,2019 to review those agreements, citing malprac-tices with a mandate to bring down the tariff. The

decision was challenged by IPPs inAndhra Pradesh High Court (APHC). Inits order of September 2019, the APHCstruck down the State’s order on review-ing/renegotiating PPAs and asked the APElectricity Regulatory Commission(APERC) to decide on the matter. Duringthe interim period, it directed the discomsto pay these plants at a provisional rate of�2.43 per unit. Meanwhile, the StateGovernment has asked APERC to levytransmission and distribution charges forwheeling power for these plants, which sellpower directly to industrial consumersthrough the “open access” mechanism.These charges include �3 per unit wheel-ing, �1.5 per unit cross-subsidy and �0.5per unit as distribution charge. Ultimately,the cost to consumers will be �7.43 perunit. What is given from one hand is beingtaken away from the other.

At another extreme, IPPs had agreedto charge low tariff, using the tariff-basedcompetitive bidding (TBCB) method.Under the long-term PPAs signed by TataPower Limited (TPL) and Adani PowerLimited (APL) for their Ultra MegaPower Projects (UMPP) in Gujarat, thesecompanies had committed to sell at therate of �2.26 per unit and �2.35 per unitfor supplies to discoms in the State. Bothare based on coal.

In 2012, TPL/APL petitioned theCentral Electricity RegulatoryCommission (CERC) seeking “compen-satory tariff.” They argued that followingan order of the Indonesian Governmentin September 2011, fixing a minimumexport price (MEP) of coal, they wereforced to pay more, which should be com-pensated. This was allowed by the CERCin February 2014 and confirmed by theAppellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL)in December 2016. The Supreme Court,(SC) after initially rejecting the claim, final-

ly directed the CERC “to amend the PPAsto enable pass-through of fuel price esca-lation subject to a cap”. In short, the lowertariff advantage emanating from theTBCB concept, that was promised on sup-plies all through the life of these UMPPs,was taken away. For all future projects, theGovernment excluded fuel costs from thebidding process, which is a “pass-through.”This means that whenever there is a hikein fuel cost, discoms have to pay more.

The policy of “open access” under theamended Electricity Act (2003) allowsbulk consumers (those with consumptiongreater than one MW) to choose their sup-plier. This enables a consumer to drawelectricity directly from an IPP whooffers lower tariff. The SERC is expectedto exercise regulatory oversight andensure that the correct tariff is charged. Butanother provision in the Act requires himto pay an “open Access Surcharge (OAS)”to the discom s/he wants to leave.

The State Governments fix the sur-charge at a level so as to ensure that post-switch, the effective cost to the consumerviz. tariff charged by new supplier plusOAS is higher than what he pays to thediscom. In other words, the levy of sur-charge (embedded in the Act itself) killsthe very soul of the “open access” policy.The OAS was meant to be temporary —to be reduced over a period of time — butStates continue to use this as an instrumentto shield discoms. In the above example,even as discoms in Andhra Pradesh arenow required to pay IPPs at a lower rateof �2.43 per unit under orders from theAPHC, consumers won’t get this benefitas the State gears up to collect the OAS of�1.5 per unit (besides �3 per unit wheel-ing charge and �0.5/unit as distributioncharge). In case the APHC decides infavour of IPPs, requiring discoms to payat the rate of �4.8 per unit as per original

agreements (very likely), the tariff charge-able from consumers would be �9.8 perunit. This is bizarre.

Reducing cross-subsidy by loweringcharges from industries and businesses(under the ‘New Tariff Policy’ in the works,discoms can recover only up to 15 per centof under-recovered power supply costfrom other consumers) is theoretical, tosay the least. This connects with the larg-er issue of State Governments forcing dis-coms to charge less from poor householdsand farmers and revenue loss arising fromlarge-scale theft and underbilling. Aslong as status quo continues in all theseareas, it won’t be possible to reduce tariffon supplies to industries and businesses.

DBT is a transformative reform.Under it, subsidy is given directly to thebeneficiaries even as tariff is market-deter-mined. It will foster competition, improveefficiency, reduce cost, eliminate theft andaugment revenue. This is the most potentway of making power affordable to con-sumers on the one hand and making dis-coms viable on the other. Both the UPAand NDA regimes have made tall claimsin this regard but none has walked the talk.

Opening of power exchanges fortrading is a good move enabling price dis-covery and may help some consumers getattractive price for their needs. However,given that electricity traded on theexchange is a miniscule four per cent ofthe total, this hardly makes an impact onthe overall scenario.

None of the power reforms has takenoff as our netas remain in election modeperennially and are unable to do all thatis needed to make them work. Till theycan deliver on their promises, industrieswill continue to pay high tariff and dis-coms will continue to make losses.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

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In most parts of the world, the rainbrings with it relief and joy.However, in India, the monsoon

season brings with it a host of prob-lems. For instance, a three-hourdownpour on July 19 in the nationalCapital resulted in serious flooding onthe city’s streets, particularly under theMinto Road bridge and caused thedeath of a mini-truck driver bydrowning. The State administrationactually had to remove a DelhiTransport Corporation (DTC) busand the mini-truck along with othersmaller vehicles submerged in thewater that had collected under thebridge. In Uttar Pradesh, rain dam-

aged the roof of a hospital in Bareillyand flooded a Coronavirus ward aspatients watched in horror. Floodwaters reached the COVID-19 wardof Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad,too.

Parts of Kerala and Karnataka arealso witnessing floods and on thewestern coast, massive overflows arebeing reported from certain parts ofMaharashtra and Gujarat. However, inthe entire country, the States of Biharand Assam are the worst-hit so far.The situation is grim in Bihar aswaters from overflowing rivers, most-ly those originating in Nepal, inundat-ed large parts of the State, leaving over55 lakh residents of over 1,000 villagesaffected. Till date, 4.18 lakh peoplehave been evacuated and 23 teams ofthe National Disaster Response Forceand some of the State DisasterResponse Force have been pressedinto service. However, theGovernment of Bihar is preparing forAssembly elections while the peopleare suffering from heavy rains andfloods.

Assam is in a similar conditionand the floods have affected morethan 56 lakh people in 30 of the 33 dis-tricts of the State, claiming 110 lives.More than 2.6 lakh hectares of thetotal crop area have been affected andthe Kaziranga National Park is inun-dated, too, killing over 100 animals inthe sanctuary. Though now theBrahmaputra and its tributaries havestarted receding, 7,000 people are stillin relief camps and nearly four lakhpeople in 19 districts have beenaffected. Given the massive destruc-tion, it is time to introspect why wehave to go through punishing floods

year after year. The answer is unthink-ing and unchecked development,without any environmental concerns.The fact remains that changes in landuse associated with urban develop-ment affect flooding in many ways.Removing vegetation and soil, grad-ing the land surface and constructingdrainage networks increase runoff torivers and streams after a heavydownpour. As a result, the peak dis-charge volume and the frequency offloods increase in nearby streams andrivers. Changes to channels of riversand streams during urban develop-ment can limit their capacity to

absorb flood waters. Similarly, roads and buildings

constructed in flood-prone areasincrease the danger of floods, includ-ing inundation and erosion. Plus,deforestation in the green belt caus-es landslides which results in riverschanging course and flooding villages.

Floods used to happen earlier, too,but because there were miles of forestson the slopes between the hills and theplains, their effect was not as devas-tating as it is now and their durationused to be shorter too. Plus, as theflood waters carry nutrients and sed-iments, which they deposit on floodplains, enriching the soil, farmerswould wait for them. Yet anotheradvantage of floods is that theyrecharge the water table, ponds andother water bodies and flush out accu-mulated organic and chemical sub-stances brought by untreated drainagewater from farmlands and untreatedeffluents from factories. They restorethe ecological health of stagnantrivers and streams by diluting themand providing clean water.

In 2015, well-known river expertand convenor of the Barh MuktiAbhiyan, Dr Dinesh Mishra, hadsuggested to the Central Governmentthat it control unchecked urban devel-opment and remove obstacles to riverand flood water flow. This wouldensure that the flood waters werespread thin over a larger area and fora shorter duration. This would ensurethat they could spread rich silt on thebanks and the floodplains, rechargethe water table and fill up and cleanthe water bodies in their path.

Even though the Governmentaccepted the importance of Mishra’srecommendations, nothing has beendone to implement them and yearafter year the nation continues to suf-fer from the effects of devastatingfloods. Restoring the green cover, giv-ing rivers back their floodplains andwater harvesting are the only effectivemethods to protect us. If we chooseto ignore conventional wisdom, wewill continue to suffer.

(The writer is a social activist andauthor)

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Drug firm BDR Pharma ceu-ticals on Wednesday said ithas launched its antiviral drugFavipiravir for the treatmentof COVID-19 patients inIndia at a price of Rs 63 pertablet. The company has alsocome up with a patient assis-tance programme which willallow patients and institu-tions who have limitedresources to purchase themedicine at a highly sub-sidised rate, BDRPharmaceuticals said in astatement. BDR pharma hasreceived an approval fromthe Drugs Controller Generalof India (DCGI) to manufac-ture Favipiravir to treat mildto moderate patients withCOVID-19 symptoms. Thedrug has been launched underthe brand name 'BDFAVI', itadded. The company hasdeveloped Favipiravir tabletsin 200 mg strengths with astrip of 10 tablets, BDRPharmaceuticals said.

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83% of educational institu-tions have either shifted to orare planning to shift examsonline, according to a reporttitled The State of OnlineExaminations 2020. The sec-tor's swift embrace of onlineplatforms to conduct examsreflects its desire and resilienceto maintain educational conti-nuity amid the lack of clarityon the return to normalcy. Therecently launched report byMercer | Mettl, a leading glob-al online examination andproctoring company, deep-dives into the impact ofCOVID-19 disruption on uni-versities and their challenges inshifting all stakeholders toonline exam platforms.

The report surveyed over500 leaders, consisting ofdeans, directors, CIOs, ITheads, HoDs and controllers ofexaminations (COE) fromreputed colleges and universi-ties in India and abroad. Mosteducational institutions areused to traditional centre-

based exams and are lateentrants to the online educa-tion technology space. About77% of respondents have neverconducted online entranceexaminations, as per the report.

COVID-19 and the ensuinglockdown caught most of theeducational institutions off-guard and unprepared to tack-le the pandemic-led disruption.Almost all (90%) respondentshave agreed to disruption intheir present examination

schedules. Despite the disrup-tion, 85% of respondents saidthey would go ahead withtheir exams. Nearly half of theparticipants (48.81%) havealready incorporated onlinesolutions at their institutesand over two-thirds (67%) areseeking online solutions for thetimely conduct of exams.

"The report further consoli-dates the trends we have beenobserving in the Indian educa-tion landscape lately due to the

coronavirus-induced restric-tions. The concerns about stu-dent's safety in large gatheringsas well as securing their futureare fast-forwarding the shift toonline exams. It's surely going todefine the education paradigmas we have never known before,"said Siddhartha Gupta, CEO,Mercer | Mettl on the launch ofthe report. Almost 6 out of 10(58%) participants feel theCOVID-19 impact will expeditethe shift to online exams that islikely to sustain, the report said.

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Zenara Pharma, afully owned sub-sidiary of BiophoreI n d i aPharmaceuticals,announced that ithas receivedapproval from theDrugs ControllerGeneral of India(DCGI), to manufacture andsell Favipiravir tablets as atreatment option for patientswith mild to moderate symp-toms of COVID-19.

The tablet, which will besold under the brand name'Favizen', is being manufac-tured at Zenar's US FDAapproved facility here, a pressrelease from the drug makersaid.

Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty,Co-founder and ManagingDirector of the firm, said, "Inthe ongoing pandemic, it hasbecome extremely critical forpharmaceutical companies to

quickly provide safe and effec-tive treatment options forpatients with COVID-19.

I am proud to say that wehave our own in-house APIand are not dependent onany imports for the produc-tion.

We believe that this willensure stability and rapid pro-duction and availability ofthis treatment for the Indianmarket." Thecompany isalso intalks with various institutionsto make the tablets available atdiscounted or no cost tounderprivileged patients, headded.

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Billionaire Mukesh Ambani'soil-to-telecom conglomerateReliance Industries has beenranked second biggest brandafter Apple on the FutureBrandIndex 2020. "This year's highestentrant at number two, RelianceIndustries excels on everyattribute," FutureBrand said,releasing its 2020 Index. One ofthe most profitable companiesin India, Reliance is, "very wellrespected" and "seen as behav-ing ethically" as well as beingassociated with "growth", "inno-vative products" and "great cus-tomer service", it said. "In par-ticular, people have a strongemotional connection with theorganisation."

FutureBrand, which is a glob-al brand transformation compa-ny, said part of Reliance's suc-cess could be attributed toMukesh Ambani's recasting ofthe firm as a one-stop-shop forIndians.

"The chairman built on theexisting petrochemicals busi-ness, transforming it into adigital behemoth designed tomeet every customer need.

"Today, this company isengaged in a number of sectorsincluding energy, petrochemi-cals, textiles, natural resources,retail, and telecommunications.Now that Google and Facebookare taking equity stakes in thefirm, we may see Reliancejostling for the top spot in the

next Index," it said.FutureBrand said six years on

from the first FutureBrandIndex, the world has changeddramatically, priorities haveshifted and the globe's top 100companies are dealing withchallenges unthinkable even 12months ago.

"The FutureBrand Index is aglobal perception study thatreorders PwC's Global Top 100Companies by Market Cap onperception strength rather thanfinancial strength," it said."While the FutureBrand Index2020 has uncovered a numberof seismic shifts in the way com-panies work and how they pre-sent themselves to the outsideworld, one key theme has stoodout: individuality."

The 2020 list is topped byApple, while Samsung is rankedthird, followed by Nvidia,

Moutai, Nike, Microsoft, ASML,PayPal and Netflix.

Reliance ranks 91st on PWC2020 list, it said.

"A slew of new entrants to ourIndex include ASML Holdings,PayPal, Danaher, Saudi Aramco,and American TowerCorporation. In total, there are15 new entrants this year, sevenof which make it into the top 20,including Reliance Industriesslotting in at number two," it said.The FutureBrand Index is notbased on consumer research.Unlike most other rankings, theIndex offers a rigorous assess-ment of how prominent compa-nies are doing and are likely todo over the next few years.

"We are living in unprece-dented times," it said, adding theworld is living through theworst healthcare crisis in a cen-tury.

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The phMumbai, Aug 5 (PTI)Rising cases of COVID-19 andsubsequent lockdowns aredeterring migrant labourersfrom returning to their work-places and will impact smallbusinesses the most, particular-ly in Maharashtra and Delhi, areport said on Wednesday.

Despite the labour shortageaccelerating a shift to automa-tion, entities in the manufac-turing sector will be facingheadwinds in the near term likelow capacity utilisation, high-er production cost; and hence,a contraction in profit margins,India Ratings and Researchsaid.

Desperation led lakhs ofpeople living in cities to return

to their villages in the initialdays of the total lockdown inMarch and April this year, in areverse migration, as theirlivelihoods had disappearedand living in the city entailedhuge costs, it noted.

With the process of unlock-ing getting started, the agencysaid hopes are pinned on therevival in the economic activ-ity.

“The recent surge inCOVID-19 positive cases and

subsequent lockdown imposedby various states are preventingthe return of migrant labour-ers to their workplace, thoughsuch measures are necessary tocontrol the outbreak,” it said.

The manufacturing sectorwill be at the forefront of thedisruption particularly micro,small and medium enterprisesin Maharashtra and Delhi, itadded.

The agency said it assessedthe dynamics and impact ofreverse migration triggered bythe pandemic on Indian statesand sectors.

Maharashtra, Delhi,Haryana, West Bengal andGujarat are the top fivemigrants receiving states andthe analysis pointed out thatindustrial units in Delhi and

Haryana are highly vulnerableto reverse migration whileMaharashtra Gujarat were theleast vulnerable.

Manufacturing will beamong the sectors bearing thebrunt, it said, pointing that itemploys 60 lakh inter-statemigrants. The unavailabilityof skilled labourers, who havemoved back to their respectivestates, has led to significantpressure on the output, leadingto underutilised capacity.

“In fact, some micro, smalland medium enterprises wit-nessing some demand recoveryfrom exports are operational-ly challenged due to the labourshortage,” it said.

An increase in manufactur-ing cost is led by either loss ofeconomies of scale or higher

wages of workers, as demandexceeds supply. This will, inturn, impact the margins forsuch companies in Q2FY21, itsaid.

Construction has a higherdependency on intra-statemigrants but even as move-ments within a state are possi-ble, the dented real estatedemand and subsequent hit toconstruction activity will havean impact on labour.

Bihar may be the biggestcontributor of migrant labourto rest of the country, but itselfdepends on people from otherstates for its agriculture, itsaid, adding that 85 lakh suchpeople from other states workin its farms which will result inchallenges on the agriculturalfront.

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The pharmaceutical industryin the country has a pivotalrole to play in global health-care, and the city-based ElgiEquipments is to address itsneeds in a new way, its man-aging director Dr JairamVaradaraj said on Wednesday.

The industry is predicted togrow at 22.4 per cent annual-ly and touch US $100 billion by2025.

The sector is expected toaddress over 50 per cent of theglobal demand for vaccines, 40per cent of the demand forgenerics in the US and 25 percent of all medicine require-ments in the UK, he said.

With the growing scrutinyby the Food and DrugAdministration (FDA), strictwarnings over toxic impuritiesand delicate pharmaceuticalmanufacturing processes, thequality of compressed airmeeting the highest standardsare of importance, he noted.

"At Elgi, we endeavoured toaddress the needs of the phar-maceutical manufacturing

industry in a new way," JairamVaradaraj said in a statementhere.

"The Elgi AB Always Betterseries is a disruption in oil-freecompressed air technology,and were delighted to witnessits growing adoption as thecustomers choice for sensitivepharmaceutical applications,"he said.

The Elgi AB series has aunique air-cooling systemwhich ensures ample conden-sation of water from air parti-cles, aiding the self-replenish-ment of water in the closedloop, which eliminates the

need for external water top-upand also reduces the load onthe driers and the water man-agement system.

The country's leading phar-maceutical companies rely onthe Elgi AB series range of oil-free screw compressors todeliver pure, clean, class 0 oilfree air, he said.

With high reliability, consis-tent air quality, better return oninvestment, lower cost of own-ership, and fast, efficient ser-vice support, the AB seriesrange of air- compressorsmeets the ISO compliancerequirements, he added.

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Triveni Turbine onWednesday reported over 11per cent decline in consoli-dated net profit to Rs 27.25crore for the June quarter,mainly due to lower rev-enues. The company hadposted a net profit of Rs30.70 crore in the quarterended June 30, 2019, it saidin a regulatory filing.

Total income in the quar-ter declined to Rs 169.85crore, from Rs 216.72 crore inthe same period last year.

Its consolidated net profitwas Rs 121.78 crore in 2019-20. Total income stood at Rs832.45 crore in the fiscal.

The company and its sub-sidiaries (together referred toas the Group) primarily oper-ate in a single reportable seg-ment – Power GeneratingEquipment and Solutions.

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Markets regulator Sebi willauction properties of RoyalTwinkle Star Club and CitrusCheck Inns on August 14 at areserve price of over Rs 68crore.

The move is part of Sebi'sefforts to recover funds worththousands of crores of rupeesraised by the companies in thegarb of sham ''timeshare'' hol-iday plans.

In a notice, the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) said it will auctionproperties of the companieson August 14 at a reserve priceof over Rs 68 crore.

These properties werescheduled to go under thehammer on March 27 but dueto the imposition of nation-wide lockdown, the auctionhad to be postponed, as perthe notice. The properties tobe auctioned include a landparcel, a hotel and a officepremise in Mumbai, Lonavalain Maharashtra andAlappuzha in Kerala.

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Ride-hailing company Uber onWednesday said it is hiring 140engineers for its tech teams inBengaluru and Hyderabad tobuild products in various areassuch as rider and drivergrowth, delivery and customerservice.

The US-based company,which competes with Ola andothers in the Indian market,has over 600 people in itsHyderabad and Bengaluruteams.

In May, Uber hadannounced laying off about

600 employees in India - abouta quarter of its staff in thecountry - as business hadtaken a major hit amidCOVID-19 pandemic. Themove had impacted driverand rider support operations,and other functions of its India

operations. "Uber is recruiting140 more engineers for itstech teams in Bangalore andHyderabad to build cutting-edge products in areas such asrider and driver growth, deliv-ery, marketplace, customerservice, digital payments, riskand compliance, safety, andfinance technology," a state-ment said.

These expansion plans are inline with its vision to makemobility and delivery moreaccessible, and to become thebackbone of transportation inthousands of cities across theglobe, it added.

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Realty firm Godrej Propertieson Wednesday reported a con-solidated net loss of Rs 20.23crore in the first quarter of thisfiscal year and said it hasraised Rs 1,000 crore throughissue of debentures.

Its net profit stood at near-ly Rs 90 crore in the year-agoperiod.

Total income also declinedto Rs 195.66 crore in the firstquarter of the fiscal from Rs713.84 crore in the corre-sponding period of the previ-ous year, according to a regu-latory filing. During the last fis-cal year, net profit stood at Rs267.21 crore on a total incomeof Rs 2,914.59 crore.

Godrej Properties is the realestate arm of the Godrej group.

On operational front,Godrej Prooerties said its salesbookings increased to 2.51million sq ft worth Rs 1,531

crore in the April-June quarter,as against 1.35 million sq ftworth Rs 897 crore in the year-ago period.

"Raised Rs 1,000 crore inJuly through the allotment ofunsecured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures on aprivate placement basis for aterm of 3 years at 7.5 per cent,the lowest NCD rate achievedin the real estate industry," thecompany said in a statement.

Pirojsha Godrej, Executive

Chairman, Godrej Properties,said: "With the lockdown inplace for most of the quarter,construction activities duringthe period were extremely lim-ited leading to almost no rev-enue recognition and to pooroperating cash flows."

He said the company's salesteam demonstrated agility byrelying on digital tools toachieve strong sales therebydelivering its highest ever mar-ket share in a quarter.

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German automaker BMW AGlost 212 million euros (USD250 million) in the sec-ond quarter as thecoronavirus pan-demic shutdownscut vehicle salesby a quarter inthe April-Juneperiod.

The companysaw a rebound inChina, its biggest market.The net loss compared to aprofit of 1.48 billion euros inthe same period a year ago.

The company has since re-started all its factories andCEO Oliver Zipse said

Wednesday he was “cautious-ly optimistic” about the secondhalf of the year, predicting theautomaker would still make

some profit selling cars.“Our swift respon-

siveness and consis-tent managementstrategy enabled usto limit the impactof the corona pan-demic" during the

first half of the year,he said. The company

said a positive trend wasemerging in China, which washit earlier by the virus butreopened earlier. Sales thererose 17 per cent in the secondquarter compared to the year-earlier quarter.

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Page 9: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

onu Sood, for the Tamilmovie viewers, has untilnow been the actor whoplayed the villain inKallazhagar and severalothers. Come Covid-19

era and the 47-year-old Sood turnedhero for many, including Tamilmedical students studying in Russia.

The students were stranded inMoscow owing to Covid-19 pan-demic and the resultant cancellationof flights. Sood organised a char-tered flight from Moscow to fly thestudents back to Chennai andreunite them with their loved ones.

When asked about his new role ofvillain turned real life hero he said,“This is the best role I have everplayed. The best script done in mylife. The ‘thank you’ notes from par-ents and the students is what moti-vates me.”

“Medical students in Moscowreached out to me for help to reachtheir homes in Chennai,” he toldIANS over phone. The SpiceJetflight that took off on August 4from Moscow was initially plannedto be a direct one to Chennai. But astopover in Delhi was arrangedowing to requests.

“We were not able to board theVande Bharat flight from Moscowon July 3 as our course got over onlyon July 6. There were about 200 stu-dents who got stranded. We weretold there will not be any VandeBharat flights. Then we startedsending mails to all the officials,”T.R. Sakthipriyadarshini, a studentwho had come back here said.

She had graduated from KurskMedical University, which is about500 km from Moscow.

“One of the students had seenSonu Sood organising a flight tobring back Indian students. So, wethought if he can do that fromKyrgyzstan, he can also help us,”Periyannan Somasundaram, anoth-er student who returned heresaid.

Somasundaram saidthey sent a mes-sage to Soodon July 23and thenextdaygot areplyand

from then onwards there wasconstant communication. “Somestudents took the flights operated bytour operators. In the end a total of100 students boarded the SpiceJetflight to Chennai in Moscow,”Sakthipriyadarshini said. Accordingto her, there was no problem for thestudents after they had graduatedsince they were staying in apart-ments and life was normal.

“We had to come back early towrite the screening exam that allthose who had passed medicalcourses overseas have to give. Wehad to prepare for that. The exam ison August 31. So it was importantfor us to come back home as early as

possible,”

Sakthipriyadarshinisaid.

Sonu Sood said, “Initially I start-ed helping out migrant workers whowere returning to their homeland byarranging buses and vans.” Inspiredby it his friends have also startedchipping in with their contribu-tions.

From hiring buses and vans thebig jump of arranging flights startedwhen Indian students in Kyrgyzstanhad approached him on socialmedia for help to come back toIndia. “Chartered flights have beenarranged for students to come backform Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,Cyprus, Philippines and Moscow,”he said.

According to Sood, initially hehad used Air Asia flights and thenSpiceJet. “The students pay a nomi-nal amount and I pay the balance.Even if the number of students arefar less than the seating capacity ofthe plane, I see that they come backto India,” he added.

According to him, the task ofarranging the logistics is challeng-ing as official permissions have tobe obtained, arranging local logis-tics for the students in a foreigncountry and other aspects.

“The Ministry of External Affairs,Indian Ambassadors in variouscountries and others were very help-ful making the job much easier,” hesaid. “The only challenge is arrang-ing local transport in foreign coun-tries for students to reach a partic-ular airport. In some cases, stu-dents have to travel 12-13 hours. Iwas never trained to do this. Ialso speak to overseas logisticsproviders,” Sood added.

Sood said he makes it a point tospeak to all the students on Zoom.As an anecdote he recalled receiv-ing about 300 calls from overseasstranded Indian students between1 a.m. and 3 am.

When asked about Sood as anactor, Sakthipriyadarshini said, “Ihave seen his Tamil and Hindimovies. I like his acting. I amnot saying this just because heorganised the chartered flight.But today he is the real herofor us, though he may be a vil-lain actor.”

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others have alwayshad it hard, espe-cially first-timemothers, who haveto deal with a set ofchallenges, ques-

tions, explore, and figurethings out themselves on whatworks and what doesn’t.Breastfeeding and the concernsit brings along is a whole otherlevel of challenges. Helpingeach other with just that is theBreastfeeding and Pumpingsupport community in India,where mothers of all ages,kinds, and backgrounds cometogether to help each other slaytheir roles as mothers.

The group was founded byHannah Grace, a Bachelor ofScience (Nursing) from theChristian Medical College,College of Nursing. She is aregistered nurse, a midwife,and a qualified LactationEducator. Through this plat-form, she has been providingyeomen service for the pro-motion of breastfeeding andcomplementary feeding. Shebrings with her passion, com-petence, and commitment tomake a change in the feedingpractices of mothers and chil-dren. A mother of two chil-dren, she is constantly explor-ing newer facets of this amaz-ing life and treading innova-tive approaches.

“Our community,which has a strongpresence on socialmedia platformslike Facebook andInstagram, aims to pro-vide support for allbreastfeeding relatedissues. We hope to helpthe members of theircommunity reachtheir goals in theirbreastfeeding jour-ney, be it via nursingor exclusively pumpingbecause ‘liquid gold is pre-cious’,” Hannah Grace tells us.“Breastfeeding contributespositively towards a baby’shealth — it is sustainable, ecological,and good for human health,” she adds.

So what made her start agroup like this? “When I was afirst-time mother, people (out-side of my family) gave me

unsolicited advice aboutbreastfeeding. Every time mybaby cried, even just momentsafter I fed him, they’d tell memy milk wasn’t enough, mynutrition is bad, not evenonce thinking it could be theanxiety upon seeing newpeople that made him cry.After this happened a fewmore times, I realised manyothers could be going throughstress during this phase. Therewas another incident when Ispoke to a mother who fed her two-month-old baby herbreastmilk, water, and juice,and when asked, said it wasrecommended by her doctor.WHO recommends thatbabies until they turn sixmonths, are to be fed nothingbut breastmilk! That’s when Idecided to help them out. Irealised that a simple digitalspace such as Facebook andWhatsapp can be a bridge formothers to receive supportand help through evidencedinterventions. A friend ofmine, Princy, helped learn andperfect the basics of socialmedia management since Iwasn’t great at it and was skep-tical of taking it forward.That’s how this group started

in 2018, withan aim to

support,offer

help andeducate

each otheron the plat-

form, with able support frommy mother, mother-in-law,and family,” Hannah shares.

The community works24/7, answering queries, offer-ing to counsel, or just lendingan ear. They also help findpeople to help the mother,reach out to lactation consul-

tants and seek guidance fromdoctors on various issuesranging from burping tech-nique to breastfeeding. Thecommunity encourages eachother to try and give them-selves another chance andnever be guilty of not doingenough. Relactation, pumping

are some things theyencourage mothers totry. The Breastfeedingand Pumping group has

on its team, IBCLC, lacta-tion consultants, doctors

childbirth educators, nurses,midwives, and mental healthprofessionals to support the

mothers and provideexpert advice. The focusis on providing care dur-ing the first 1,000 days of

life, starting from the preg-nancy (lasting 280 days)through the first two years ofthe child’s life. One of themothers from the groupshares, “I’m a first-time moth-er of a girl child who is now14 months old. I had zeroknowledge of breastfeedingand assumed that it is a natur-al process and breastfeedingwill be smooth. I was told tojoin the breastfeeding andpumping page by my lactation

consultant. There I started mylearning on this liquid gold.My phase of the journey wasamazing from the time ofbirth. My baby latched verywell and didn’t give me anydifficulty initially. A fewweeks after discharge fromthe hospital, I had trouble

making her latch and mybaby would cry her lungs outdue to hunger. During thosedays, I started hand expressingthe milk and fed it to herusing a spoon. But I did notgive up on breastfeeding. Thecontinuous counselling fromthe group helped me andthere has been good improve-ment and progress.”

Breastfeeding during thetime of the pandemic hasraised several questions andfears among mothers. What ifthey’re asymptomatic and canunknowingly transfer it totheir baby? If they choose tobreastfeed, what precautionsare they to take? How to dealwith the anxiety, uncertaintyand many such questions havebeen plaguing several moth-ers. So what is this groupdoing to help calm these anx-ious mothers? “Ten motherswho’re part of the group testedpositive for COVID. The firstthing we asked them to do,was not panic. Even thoughmany have been asking thesemothers to not breastfeedtheir babies we brought tolight the fact that WHO andUNICEF recommended nurs-ing mothers to continue feed-ing their baby with necessaryprecautions. We asked them tobathe well before holding thebaby, wear a mask, disinfectthe surfaces they come in con-tact with, and have everyoneelse in the house wear a maskand follow precautions. Thebasic idea is to not expose thebaby to respiratory secretions,"Hannah advises.

The community is a beauti-ful group of mothers who areextremely respectful of eachother, who do not shame oneanother. Rude tones, judg-ment, attitude, or any othersuch behaviour is a strict no-no here. You can check theirFacebook page or follow themon Instagram for moreupdates, information, etc.

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ThursdayAugust 6, 2020

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Page 10: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

ctor AmitabhBachchan iscounting hisblessings whilealso ruing thedisastrous year

humanity is goingthrough. On earlyWednesday morning,Amitabh shared a pictureof his wrist on Instagram,covered with colourfulrakhis.

Sharing the picture,Amitabh wrote, “Keepcollecting blessings, Ihave heard that property,fame and ego do not lastvery long.” Amitabhreturned home earlierthis week after being dis-charged from the hospi-tal, where he receivedtreatment for Covid-19.

On his blog, Amitabhalso talked about living ina ‘prison cell’ since hisreturn home. “And in thesolitude of your ownhome .. no contact.. a prison cellwhere the

visiting hours , often seenin films, occurs throughglass shields and tele-phoned conversation .. tosee and connect in handactions .. they be family ,just a few inches away, yetso far,” he wrote.

Amitabh, his sonAbhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya andgranddaughter Aaradhyawere admitted to the hos-pital after their coron-avirus diagnosis. WhileAishwarya and Aaradhyaspent almost a week athospital, Amitabh wasseveral days later.Abhishek has still nottested negative for thedisease and it still at thehospital.

He also mentioned thedeath of friendand

theatre doyen EbrahimAlkazi. “And anotherfriend lost .. Kolkata days.. younger brother of exboss .. gone suddenly ..Alkazi, the mentor of theNational School ofDrama and the builder ofsome of the most brillianttalent in the Country,passes away,” he wroteand added a sad emojinext to ‘2020’.

On Tuesday, Abhishekposted a picture onInstagram, wherein hehighlighted the colours ofnature and shared thescenic view of a cloudysky. The picture featureda trail of lush green plantsin flower pots, and thesky. “The colours ofnature never fail toimpress,” wrote the actor,adding the hashtag“always look on the bright

side of life .”

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Yesterday’s solution

n a big develop-ment in theSushant SinghRajput death caseon Wednesday,Solicitor General

Tushar Mehta informed theSupreme Court that the Unionof India has in principleaccepted the recommendationby Bihar government to ordera CBI inquiry into thecase. Mehta, appear-ing for the Centre,submitted beforeJusticeHrishikesh Roythat the notifi-

cation for the Central Bureauof Investigation will be issuedsoon, preferably by the end ofthe day.

The top court, in its order,gave three days to all parties toput on record their respectivestand. It also noted that theMumbai Police must submitsit's records of investigations

done so far.Hearing onthe matter is

scheduledfor next

week.“We

want

to know what Mumbai policehave done so far,” said JusticeRoy.

The counsel for theMaharashtra governmentopposed the CBI probe andargued that it is the MumbaiPolice that is authorised toinvestigate under the CrPC.

The Maharashtra govern-ment counsel also said thatthe Bihar Police’s actions are “politically motivated” andinsisted that under theCrPC, it is only the MumbaiPolice that has “duty, powerand function to register thecase”.

�.��!.*5!..��,�1&&�9/&!7&��,�/�-*��:�0.*�- ctress Vaani Kapoor

would love to do abiopic and says itwould be an absolutehonour for her toplay astronaut

Kalpana Chawala on screen.“Kalpana Chawla is a huge

role model for women aroundthe world and for anyone whohas ever dreamt of being anastronaut. She’s an inspirationand her story is definitely one tobe celebrated and told. I wouldreally, really want to play heron-screen. It’ll be an absolutehonour,” she said.

Vaani feels she would love totake risks as an artiste and tryher hand at doing the biopicand also experiment with sever-al other genres.

“I’ve tried to pick the bestfrom what came my way and itfeels amazing to have workedwith some of the best in theindustry. I have been able to getopportunities for roles so dis-tinctive. From the smalltowngirl Tara in Shudh Desi Romanceto a girl who is Frenchin Befikre, to anindependentsingle motherin War, to acompletely

different era in Shamshera, it’sbeen pretty good,” she said.

“However, there are manymore films one desires to bepart of — genres like action,comedy, rom-coms, drama, sus-pense, and thriller, and manymore versatile roles to discover,”she said.

Talking about what attractsher to sign a film, Vaani said,“It’s about connecting to a storyand then to the character. I tryand pick parts that can bediverse, yet meaningful, andexciting.”

Despite not being a traineddancer, Vaani has impressedwith her dancing on screen. Sheshared how hard she had towork on herself to get to thislevel of dancing.

“I enjoy dancing but, yes,really didn’t have any sort ofexpertise in any of the danceforms. So, it did require manyhours of rehearsals — especiallythe dance sequences in Befikre. Ihave given around eight hours(sometimes more) to rehearsals

to get the dancesequence in Love is

a dare right,”she says.

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Slovenian qualifier Kaja Juvan upsetsecond-seeded Markéta

Vondroušová of the Czech Republic 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of thePalermo Ladies Open, the first officialtennis tournament since March.

Vondroušová won the first set injust 29 minutes and then came from 4-0 down in the second to take a 5-4 leadand was just two points away from win-ning the match before Juvan recov-ered. Juvan took another 4-0 lead inthe third set and secured the matchwhen Vondroušová hit a forehandinto the net. It was her first careerwin against a top-20 rankedopponent.

“She started off reallywell and I was a little bitnervous, she’s my firsttop-20 player,” Juvansaid in a video con-ference.

“The condi-tions were reallyhard but in the sec-ond and third set Icalmed myself andI started play-ing much

better.” The WTA tournament marksthe return of tour-level tennis - men’sor women’s - following a five-monthbreak for the coronavirus pandemic.

A limited number of fans wereallowed into the 1,500-seat stadiumcourt and had to follow social distanc-ing measures. There are also strict rulesfor the players, such as handling theirown towels, not shaking hands withtheir opponents, and no autographs orphotos with fans. Juvan was spoken to

by the umpire after throwing itemsincluding her visor and wristbands

to the crowd.“Obviously we get tested a

lot so I understand their concernbut it was actually like aninstinct,” Juvan said.

“All of us that are hereare negative and so I was like‘well I got the result againtoday' so I thought I mightas well give it to them.Yeah, maybe I won't do it

the next few days.” Juvanwill next face Camila

Giorgi, who became thefourth Italian to progress tothe second round after beat-

ing Rebecca Peterson 7-5,6-4.

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Selflessness defines a leader inRohit Sharma’s captaincy rulebook

and that’s why he has no hesitationin calling himself the “least importantperson” in the Mumbai Indiansteam, the most successful franchisein IPL's history.

Indian cricket will hit the restartbutton with the IPL from September19 in the UAE even as the world con-tinues its frenzied battle to contain theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The man, who led MumbaiIndians to four titles, knows that ascaptain, it will not just be about himgetting back into the groove after aforced seven-month break.

“I believe in a theory that whenyou are captain, you are the leastimportant person. Others becomemore important in the larger schemeof things. It works differently for dif-ferent leaders but as far as I am con-cerned, this theory works for me,”Rohit told PTI in an exclusive inter-view. Suresh Raina recently comparedhis cool quotient to that of Mahendra

Singh Dhoni. He prefers to play downthe comparison but there is one unde-niable similarity between the two —Rohit can also remain as unfazed asthe former India captain in the mostdifficult of situations.

“Not showing anger is not a con-scious effort,” he laughs.

“That’s a natural instinct that youhave and you don't try and be some-one that you are not. Try and be your-self all the time,” he said.

“You do get angry, lose temper attimes but it’s important not to showit to your teammates. Hiding youremotions is the most crucial part.”

The Indian vice-captain believesthat there is “enough time” before theIPL starts and he would slowly buildon his strength, stamina and skillsduring the next one month after thelong lay-off.

“Hopefully, the gym will openthis week and I can start my indoor(strength training) sessions. Rightnow, due to Mumbai monsoons, youcan’t train outdoor. I am planning towrite a letter to MCA (on usingindoor facilities),” he said.

Having won an Asia Cup inDubai in 2018, he has a fair idea aboutwhat awaits his team next month interms of conditions.

Rohit said the plan is to build upslowly after being away from his batfor the longest he can remember.

“We have lot of time in ourhands...I will be taking it slow.Luckily, I don’t think there is any rushthat I need to show. We have enoughtime. I will work on getting back tothe ground slowly because the tem-perature in Dubai is 40 degrees. It’snot easy,” he said.

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Chennai SuperKings’ star all-

rounder Suresh Rainabelieves the upcomingIndian Premier League,to be played in theUAE amid theCOVID-19 pandemic,will pose a lot of newchallenges for the play-ers, and clarity ofthought would be keyfor a player to succeed.

The IPL this yearhas been shifted to theUAE because of thepandemic and will beheld in three venues —Dubai, Abu Dhabi andSharjah — fromSeptember 19 to November 10 amid COVID-19 proto-cols laid down by the ICC and BCCI.

“This IPL would be very interesting to see how theplayers are thinking,” Raina said in a webinar after beingnamed as the global brand ambassador for WTF Sportsapp. “You are playing in different circumstances and youhave a lot of protocol from ICC and at the same time youare going to go through tests every two-three weeks.”According to BCCI’s Standard Operating Procedure(SOP), the Indian players and support staff will have toreturn negative for COVID-19 at least five times beforethey start training in the UAE and subsequently will betested every fifth day during the IPL.

“So, I would say coming out from all those tests youneed to be clear with your head on what you are goingto do on the field because at the end of the day when youare playing a sport, you need to enjoy the game,” Rainasaid. Insisting that fitness would be key to success afterbeing struck at home since March due to the pandem-ic, Raina said he was eagerly waiting for the tournamentto begin.

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Beating arch-rivals Englandin their own den and

achieving Test success in Indiaare the “two big mountains”which Australian batting main-stay Steve Smith wants to climbbefore calling time on his career.

Australia had retained theAshes in England last year witha 2-2 draw but the defeat in thelast Test at The Oval still ran-kles Smith, who was the star ofthe series with 774 runs at anaverage of 110.57 from fourTests.

The 31-year-old had scoredthree centuries during the four-Test series in India in 2017 butAustralia still ended up losing1-2 and a Test win against

Virat Kohli and his men rankshigh in his list.

Australia are scheduled totour India in October 2022.

“They’re the two big moun-tains to climb and if you can dothat, it would be pretty special.Hopefully I get another crack atit, we’ll see how we go,” Smithwas quoted as saying byCricket.Com.Au.

“I’m getting a bit old now.You never know how long I'vegot left, and you never knowwhat the future holds. But it'scertainly something to strivefor, that’s for sure.”

Talking about last year’sAshes, Smith said: “To knowthat we’d got the Ashes back waspretty special. Unfortunately, wecouldn’t win them which is

something I’d still like to do.“It just doesn’t feel the same

… you get to the end of theseries and we're there holdingup the Ashes but we’d just lostthe last Test match, and weactually hadn’t won anything.

“ was cool to get them back,but I was actually more disap-pointed that we hadn’t wonthem.” Australia will hope toretain the Ashes at home in2021-22 before getting a chanceto beat England away with thetour scheduled in 2023.

“From my personal per-spective, I think it’s unfinishedbusiness. It’s great to retain theAshes but it just doesn’t sit rightwith me when you don’t win it.We drew the series - good, butnot great.

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Babar Azam reached a half-cen-tury just before rain brought an

early tea on the first day ofEngland’s opening Test againstPakistan with the tourists 121-2 onWednesday.

After being invited to bowlfirst by visiting captain Azhar Ali,the hosts will have been happy witha lunch score of 53-2 - Jofra Archerand Chris Woakes with a wicketapiece.

Woakes welcomed star batsmanBabar to the crease with a wonder-ful delivery that might easily haveclipped either the outside edge orthe off stump but the 25-year-olddominated proceedings in the after-noon session.

He hit nine boundaries as hereached 52 not out in just 71 balls,almost every one of them imperi-ous, as he set about proving all ofthe praise he has garnered in recentmonths is well placed.

The players were forced off thefield by a shower just before 3pm

and would havewelcomed thechance to regroupafter Babar’sonslaught.

As well as stallingEngland’s progress hisefforts also placedShan Masood in the shade,the opener having groundout a valuable 45 not outacross more than threehours.

England began byconf irming anunchanged XI, BenStokes again selected asa specialist batsman asuncertainty over hisnagging quad injury

continued.Pakistan began

their inningsunder moody

skies and with the floodlights on,but openers Masood and Abid Alishowed sufficient composure tonegotiate the first hour for 32 with-out loss.

Both men were beaten on theoutside edge on a couple of occa-sions but stuck admirably to thetask of seeing off the challenge ofJames Anderson and Stuart Broad.

In the end it was the first-change bowlers, retained here ahead

of Sam Curran and MarkWood, who got Englandback into the conversa-tion.

Archer, who createdmore headlines off the

f ield than on itagainst the

Windies, need-ed just sevendeliveries tomake hisp r e s e n c efelt.

A f t e rpushing theb a t s m e n

back in hisfirst over, he

started the sec-ond with a fullerball at Abid, jag-ging it in off thepitch and peggingback off stump.

He made hisway back for 16, anexit made all the

more frustrating bya brief rain showerwhich forced thesides off after onlythree more deliver-ies.

It was only abrief recess butwithin 10 minutes

of the restart Woakessent captain AzharAli for a more perma-nent trip to the pavil-ion.

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Defending championRafael Nadal will skipthe U.S. Open because

of the coronavirus pandemic,putting on hold his bid toequal Roger Federer’s men’srecord for Grand Slam titles.

Nadal explained his deci-sion in a series of tweets sentin Spanish and English onTuesday.

“The situation is verycomplicated worldwide, theCOVID-19 cases are increas-ing, it looks like we still don’thave control of it,” Nadalwrote.

The 34-year-old fromSpain called sitting out thetournament scheduled tobegin Aug. 31 in New York “adecision I never wanted totake," but addedthat he would“rather not travel.”

“Rafa is oneof the greatestchampions in oursport and we sup-port his decision,”U.S. Open tourna-ment directorStacey Allastersaid.

The current No. 1-rankedwoman, Ash Barty, alreadyhad announced she would bemissing the U.S. Open. TheU.S. Tennis Association’s entrylist announcements Tuesdaynoted that 2019 women’schampion Bianca Andreescuis in the field - at least for now;players can withdraw until thestart of play - but made nomention of Nadal.

The professional tennistours have been on hiatussince March because of theCOVID-19 outbreak, withplay resuming for women onMonday in Palermo, Italy.The first men's event on themain tour is scheduled to beheld later this month.

Nadal’s planto skip the U.S.Open cameshortly afterthe MadridOpen, sched-

uled forSeptember, was

c a n c e l e dbecause ofthe pan-demic.

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Front foot no balls will be decid-ed by the TV umpire and not the

on-field officials for the first time inTest cricket with the series betweenEngland and Pakistan, theInternational Cricket Council (ICC)announced on Wednesday.

The ICC added that the frontfoot no-ball technology will beassessed before any decisions aretaken regarding its use in futuregames.

“Front foot no-ball technologyto be used in ICC World TestChampionship series featuringEngland and Pakistan, with thesupport of both teams,” the ICC

tweeted.“Performance of the technolo-

gy in these Tests will be reviewedbefore any decisions taken on itsfuture use in Test cricket,” it added.

The front-foot no balls wereexclusively monitored by the thirdumpire in the recently concludedODI series between England andIreland, whichwas part of theICC World CupSuper League.

Last year, thetechnology wasput to trial in thelimited overs seriesbetween India andWest Indies.

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India captain Virat Kohli and hisdeputy Rohit Sharma retained the top

two positions in the ICC ODI rank-ings for batsmen, while pacerJasprit Bumrah held on to theno.2 spot among bowlers in thelatest list issued on Wednesday.

Kohli holds the numerouno status with 871 points, fol-lowed by Rohit (855) andPakistan’s Babar Azam (829),while with 719 points Bumrahcontinued to be steady at thesecond spot in the bowler’s list,which is being headed by NewZealand’s Trent Boult.

The batting chart saw some

movement with Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnieimproving four places to 42nd spot after his 113-run innings against England in the final matchat Southampton, while his deputy Paul Stirling's142 lifted him one slot to 26th.

Rookie Curtis Campher's impressive firstseries, which saw him score half-centuries bothtimes he batted, has helped him make a note-worthy entry into the batsmen’s list at the 191st

position.In the bowling chart, Ireland fast bowler

Craig Young’s six wickets in the series has liftedhim 40 places to a career-best 89th position, whileMark Adair (up six places to 138th) and JoshuaLittle (up 38 places to 146th) are the others tomove up after the rubber, which ended 2-1 inEngland’s favour. England captain Eoin Morgan,

who also scored a century in the final ODI, hasgained one place and is ranked 22nd, while

Jonny Bairstow has moved up a slot to 13th posi-tion, thanks to his knock of 82 in the secondmatch. Sam Billings has re-entered the rankingsat 146nd position after aggregating 132 runs.

Among England bowlers, leg-spinner AdilRashid has advanced from 29th to 25th with fivewickets in the series, while left-arm pacer DavidWilley’s eight wickets, including a haul of five for30 in the opening match, not only won him theplayer of the series award but has also lifted himsix places to 51st position.

England’s series win got them 20 points inthe ICC men's World Cup Super League, whichwill see 13 teams vie for direct qualifying placesin the next World Cup in India in 2023. Irelandare on 10 points.

India and seven other teams will make itdirectly from the league with the remaining twogetting a second chance through a Qualifier.

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India captain Harmanpreet Kaur isexcited about playing in the UAE for the firsttime and is looking forward to come out ofthe long break and headline the Women’sT20 Challenge, to be held during the IPL inNovember.

The women’s exhibition games wereconfirmed by the BCCI president SouravGanguly last week. The Indian team has notplayed since T20 World Cup final in March.

The event will have three teams withfour matches expected to be played betweenNovember 1-10.

“Yes definitely (I'm excited for theWomen’s Challenge), because this is our firsttour to Dubai and we haven’t played there

before,” Harmanpreet said during a webinaron Wednesday.

Harmanpreet was named as the globalbrand ambassador of WTF Sports, whichlaunched an app in India.

The T20 skipper is not perturbed by theconditions in the UAE. The event is alsoclashing with the Women's Big Bash inAustralia and it remains to be seen howmany star foreign players turn up in theUAE.

“I had questions like how the wicketswould be. We need to play to our strengthsbecause if you don’t play to your strengths,then your natural game doesn’t come out,”added Kaur, who has played 114 T20s and99 ODIs.

According to Harmanpreet, the players

would like to make most of the opportuni-ty.

“I hope that we grab the opportunitythat we get and we are equally excited forthe women’s IPL (Challenge) like the men’sIPL. I hope we play good cricket in the fourgames that we will get and entertain every-body,” added the dashing batter.

Harman also said that after a big break,it is the mental strength which is a key forany player.

Cricket in the country has come to agrinding halt since mid March due to out-break of COVID19.

“When there is a long break and afterthat however good touch you are in, youstart doubting yourself. Mental strengthhelps here,” she said.

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Page 12: ˆ*! +˚˛ $ ,! ˛˜ˆ˜-...1 day ago  · Dalit man inside the Kasibugga police sta-tion. According to reports, dent went viral on social media, leading to action against the copy

amil filmmakerLokeshKanagaraj, whowon the love ofTelugu audiencewith his Khaidi

last year, is in talks withpremier production houseMythri Movie Makers forhis Telugu debut. Accordingto a source close to thedevelopment, the directorhas responded positively toMythri’s request for aTelugu-Tamil bilingual.“Lokesh has given his in-principle consent to collab-orate with Mythri. Herespects the fact that Mythriis a top banner in Teluguand has earned the reputa-tion of not compromisingon the film's content. Plus,

the banner has promisedthe director an actor of hischoice for his Telugudebut,” points out thesource.

The source, however, isquick to mention this col-laboration might take timeto have the cameras rolling.“At first, Lokesh needs towrap up his commitmentsin Tamil, which includefilms with Kamal Haasan,Suriya and a possible sequelto Khaidi. So it may taketime,” the source adds.

As of now, Lokesh isawaiting the release ofMaster with Tamil superstarVijay. The film’s summerrelease had to be deferredindefinitely due to COVID-19 outbreak.

opular comedianPrudvi Raj hassaid that he hasbeen hospitalisedfollowing highfever for the past

10 days. He pointed out thathe has undergone manytests, including COVID-19test but hospital authoritiesdeclared he was negative. “Ieven had undergone a CTscan among other tests.Doctors of other hospitalstold me that some COVID-19 tests may induce negative

results before advising me toget into quarantine for aperiod of 15 days. It is thereason why I got admitted ina hospital on Monday night.I hope to have people andlord Venkateswara’s blessingsto get through this,” a ratherfrail-looking Prudvi postedin a video on Tuesday.

‘30 years Prudvi’ as he isfondly called is best knownfor his turns in Loukyam,Bengal Tiger, BabuBangaram and Ninnu Koriamong other films.

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egendary playbacksinger SP Bala-subrahmanyam isthe latest tinseltown celebrity tohave been tested

positive for coronavirus. The74-year-old veteran, who hasto his credit multiple nation-al awards for his works inTelugu, Tamil, Kannada andHindi in a career spanningmore than five decades, gothimself admitted at theMGM Healthcare hospital inChennai on Wednesdaymorning. Taking to his pop-ular Facebook page, hereleased a video, saying thathe has low symptoms andthat he will be discharged ina couple of days.

“Since last two-three daysI was having a little discom-fort… discomfort meanschest congestion which for a

singer is non-sense. Phlegmforming and then cold andon and off fever. Except forthese three things, I didn’thave any other problem. ButI didn’t want to take it easy,so I went to the hospital andchecked. So they said it wasjust a mild, mild, mild, verymild positive of corona.They said you can stay homeand self-quarantine yourself.But I didn’t want to do thatwith the family around; theycan’t leave you alone. Theyare very concerned. So I gotadmitted to the hospital,” thesinger stated.

He appealed to his fans toavoid calling him as hejoined the hospital to takerest. “All my friends are here,they are taking good care ofme and I am in good hands.And I have good health.Nobody has to worry about

this one. So please don’tbother to call me to find outhow I am. I am perfectlyalright except the cold andfever. Fever has also sub-sided. In two days, I will bedischarged and I will behome. Thanks for the con-cern. Lots of people havebeen calling me. I couldn’tattend all the calls. I havecome here mostly to take restso there won’t be any distur-bance to me and to takemedication. Don’t bothercalling me. I am fine, I willbe fine,” he concluded.

A recipient of civilianawards such as Padma Shri(2001) and Padma Bhushan(2011) from the Governmentof India, SPB as he is fondlyreferred to as has also dab-bled in production and indubbing.

SPB’s announcement

comes a day after pop singerSmitha revealed that she andher husband Shashank havetested COVID-19 positive.“Mad mad day yesterday.Had some body pains whichI thought was due to heavyworkout but got tested to beon safe side. Shashank & Itested covid positive. Mostlyasymptomatic. Waiting tokick Covid out, donate plas-ma & chill. We Stayed HomeStayed Safe but Covidcame home(sic),” shewrote onTwitter onTuesday.

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ctor Shruti Haasan,who has opened upabout the nepotismdebate in her latestinterview, hasadmitted that her

entry into cinema was onaccount of her fatherKamal Haasan. In herinterview with CinemaExpress, Shruti said itwould be criminal to denythat being Kamal Haasan’sdaughter helped her enterthe industry.

“The doors ofthe filmindustryopenedfor mesimply

because of my surname. Itwould be criminal to denythat. But over the years, Ilearned that things are dif-ferent in Tamil and Telugucinema when compared toBollywood,” Shruti said.

She further explained:“I made my debut along-side a star like Suriya inTamil, an actor who alsogot his break because ofhis father, Sivakumar sir.

And yet, his path to star-dom was

carvedby

his work. After that initiallaunch, every actor has toprove their talent andwork hard to get theirnext offer, especially inTelugu and Tamil cinema.Your background stopsbeing such an influenceafter your debut. I am notsure whether this is thecase in Bollywood. I thinkit’s different there.”

Recently seen inTigmanshu Dhulia-direct-ed film Yaara, which hadits release on Zee 5 overthe weekend; Shruti has aproject each in Tamil andTelugu in her kitty.

In Tamil, she will beseen in Vijay Sethupathi’s

Laabam, which hasbeen directed by SPJananathan. In Telugu,

she has reunited withRavi Teja for upcomingTelugu actioner Krack

after Balupu. Both thesefilms are gearing up forrelease soon.

Shruti is also busywith her independent

music career. Not longago, she took a sabbaticalfrom cinema to focus

more on singing.

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ctor Krishnudu, whoplayed the lead inVinayakudu andVillage loVinayakudu, hasturned producer by

floating Nithya Creations underhis daughter Nithya’s name. The

first film from his banner istitled My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend.It has been cleared by theregional censor board and isready for release. Krishnudusaid the film reflects the feel-ings of today’s youth and he isextremely happy with the final

output. “Telugu audiences have accept-ed me as an actor. Now I’vestarted my journey as a produc-er and I hope to get their bless-ings again,” he said. L Jayaramis being introduced as a direc-tor with the flick.

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lose on the heels of announcinga film with Nikhil, producersNarayan Das K Narang andPuskur Rammohan Rao havenow tapped Sharwanand for anew feature under Sree

Venkateswara Cinemas LLP. As is thecase with Nikhil’s film, this new film toohas no director attached. A source closeto the production house informs us thatboth Narang and Rao have set their eyeson making multiple movies in the nextcouple of years and emerge as a topbanner to reckon with. “It isthe reason why they aresigning A-list actorswithout hesitating onthe paycheck. Theyare leaving the choiceof directors to theactors themselves,”points out thesource.

However, filmwith Sharwa maymove to floorssometime in thesecond half of nextyear or in 2022, asthe actor’s docketincludes films withSudhakarCherukuri andVamsi-Pramodafter he wraps upMind Sreekaramand Telugu-Tamilbilingual with ShreeKarthick.

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