12
F uel prices went up for the tenth day in a row on Tuesday despite the Brent crude prices slipping to multi- year-low in the international market, prompting Congress president Sonia Gandhi to accuse the Centre of profi- teering when people are faced with such all-round suffering. In ten days, the price of petrol has been increased by a cumulative 5.47 per litre, and diesel by 5.80 per litre. The Congress president wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “deep distress” over the recent increase in fuel prices and urged the Government to roll back the hikes and pass on the benefit to common people. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was also hiked by 5,494.5 per kilolitre (kl), or 16.3 per cent, to 39,069.87 per kl in the national Capital, according to a price notifica- tion by State-owned oil mar- keting companies. This is the second straight increase in ATF price this month. Sonia mentioned that with international crude oil prices falling by about 9 per cent over the last week, the Central Government’s action amounts to “profiteering off its people” when they are down and out. O ne month from now India might have around 8 lakh Covid-19 cases due to further easing of lockdown, experts from the University of Michigan have warned. “The number of Covid-19 cases at around 3.44 lakh in India is just the tip of the ice- berg, the cases may more than double to 8 lakh by July 15 due to easing of lockdown,” said the forecast by the University of Michigan. “The numbers will place India right behind Brazil at the third spot,” it said. According to the report, the easing of the lockdown will accelerate the virus spread in India. Almost daily, for the past few days, India is adding around 11,000 cases. “You cannot see the peak, it’s been pushed further in time,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of bio- statistics at the University of Michigan who is part of the team that’s modeling India’s pandemic. Interestingly, she removed the longer-term projections from the team’s website because they were causing people to panic. “I wish I could be more positive but I think it’s going to be really hard over the next couple of months.” After more than two- month of strict lockdown, India eased its coronavirus- induced restrictions from June on economic consideration. T he Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Government take the nation into confidence and convene an all-party meeting to brief the leadership of political parties about the ground situation related to the China crisis. While Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh called for strong action against China, the Congress accused the Centre of “main- taining silence” on the issue of violent border stand-off with China across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh take the nation into confidence following the killing of three Indian Army personnel during the de-esca- lation at the LAC with China on Monday night. Through an official state- ment, the grand old party said the Government must come forward to explain the circumstances of the latest development and listed four questions for the Centre to answer. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi urged the Government to “come clean” about the border conflict between India and China and not let speculation escalate amid the coronavirus health crisis. “The Government’s silence about the border situation with China is fueling massive spec- ulation and uncertainty at a time of crisis,” Rahul said. Amarinder Singh said it was time now for the Centre to take some stringent measures as each sign of weakness makes China’s reaction more “belligerent”. C hina’s official media on Tuesday quoted the Chinese military as claiming that it “always” owned sover- eignty over the Galwan Valley region and alleged that “provocative attacks’ launched by the Indian troops resulted in “severe clashes and casualties.” In its first reaction on Monday’s clashes between the two militaries at the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh, a statement quoted by the Chinese media quoting the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theatre Command Spokesperson Colonel Zhang Shuili said, “China always owns sover- eignty over the Galwan Valley.” “The Indian troops have broken their promises and again crossed the line of actu- al control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley region on Monday evening and purposely launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties,” Zhang claimed. An Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, in the first such incident involv- ing fatalities after a gap of 45 years and signalling a massive escalation in the five-week bor- der standoff in the sensitive region. M aharashtra saw a massive jump in the number of deaths from 4,128 to 5,537 on Tuesday, after the State record- ed 81 additional deaths for the day and the health authorities carried out a massive reconcil- iation of fatalities in Mumbai and other parts of the State adding 1,328 deaths that had been missed out to the total death tally. India’s total death count due to Covid mounted to 11,882 on Tuesday and number of cases crossed 3.5 lakh as sev- eral States reported biggest single day spike. Apart from 81 deaths recorded on Tuesday, the State health authorities added 1,328 deaths to the total Covid-19 death tally in the State. As a consequence, the total number of deaths in Maharashtra went up to a staggering 5,537 on Tuesday evening. Confirming that the rec- onciliation has thrown up addi- tional 1,328 deaths, State chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta said, “It is mandatory for us to calcu- late the number of deaths as per the guidelines laid down by the World Health Organization (WHO), Indian Centre for Medical Research (ICMR) and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). As part of the exercise, we had on June 11 asked the district health author- ities to carry out reconciliation of the figures of the deaths. We have now got the results giving us the additional num- ber of deaths”. In the reconciliation exer- cise that contributed 1,328 new fatalities to the total tally, Mumbai alone accounted for 862 deaths, while 466 addi- tional were reported from other parts of the state. In the reconciliation, fol- lowing is the break-up of 466 additional deaths reported from different parts of the State: Ahmednagar-1, Akola- 14, Amravati-6, Aurangabad- 33, Buldhana-2, Dhule-2, Jalgaon-34, Jalna-4, Latur-3, Nanded-2, Nashik-28, Osmanabad-3, Palghar-11, Parbhani-1, Pune-85, Raigad=- 14, Ratnagi5r-1, Sangli-4, Satara-6, Sindhudurg-3, Solapur 51, Thane -141, Washim and Yavastmal-1. Announcement about adding 1,328 additional deaths to the State’s total death tally came a day after the BJP’s former Chief Minister and leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Devendra Fadnavis wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging fudging of figures of deaths by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held video interactions with Chief Ministers to find ways to con- tain further spread of coron- avirus and affirmed that efforts of last few weeks of unlock-1 have made “ green shoots” vis- ible in country’s economy. This was Modi’s sixth video-conference with CMs, Lt Governors and administrators of 21 States and Union territo- ries. The PM held that during the re-opening of the activities Indian experience has been much better than many other countries across the globe. He said death due to Covid-19 has been the lowest in the country and recovery rate has gone up to 50 per cent. The Prime Minister, however, told Chief Ministers that need for maintaining new safety norms is far greater now and the principle of “do gaj ki doori” should be followed with all sanctity. Upset about deaths due to the coronavirus, Modi took feedback from CMs on the unlock-1 and asked them to suggest changes needed in countering Covid-19 with the hindsight of their experiences in containing the pandemic. London: Low doses of the steroid dexamethasone can reduce deaths by one-third in severely affected Covid-19 patients, according to researchers who assessed the performance of the inexpensive drug in more than 2,100 people. Detailed report on P8 I n a major setback to defuse month-long tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, 20 Indian soldiers, including a core commander, were stoned and bludgeoned to death in a violent face-off with the Chinese troops on Monday evening in the Galwan valley. At least a dozen more Indian soldiers are reported to be injured in the incident. Indian Government sources and Chinese media claimed that the Chinese side also suf- fered casualties in the Ladakh face-off, but they didn’t give any number. This is the first-ever such an incident resulting in death in the last 40 years. Major General rank officers of the two sides are now talking to each other to prevent the issue from escalating. Both India and China have issued official statements accusing each other of taking provocative steps. Throughout the day the Indian Army maintained only three casualties and identified them as Colonel B Santosh Babu, Havildar Palani and sepoy Ojha. However, in a late-night statement, the Indian Army confirmed “17 Indian jawans who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub- zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have suc- cumbed to their injuries, tak- ing the total that were killed in action to 20.” The Indian Army said Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan valley area where they had earlier clashed on the night of June 15-16. “Indian Army is firmly committed to protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation,” the statement said. Reports said that the India patrol team was ambushed when it was on a mission near the Galwan valley to inspect if the Chinese had retreated as per the understanding reached between the two sides during several rounds of talks. Insisting that there was no firing from either side, sources said that Chinese sol- diers attacked the Indian jawans with stones, nail-stud- ded rods and clubs, and duster knives. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situa- tion at the border via video call after a meeting with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, the three military chiefs and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Giving details of the inci- dent earlier in the day, the Army said, “During the de- escalation process underway in the Galwan valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers.” Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation. However, the Chinese said the Indian troops crossed the LAC on Monday night and deliberately launched provoca- tive attacks triggering violent physical conflict resulting in casualties. In response to media queries on the situation, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, “After the pro- ductive talks between Corps Commanders, while it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the con- sensus to respect the LAC in the Galwan Valley. C hief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the pace of corona infection is continu- ously slowing down in the State. The infection growth rate of Madhya Pradesh has become half as compared to the country. Now, the number of corona active cases has come below 2500. Transform battle against corona into a public campaign and eradicate coro- na infection completely in the state in cooperation with all, he added. The Chief Minister was reviewing the situation of coro- na in the State and arrange- ments through video confer- encing at Mantralaya today. The Minister for Home and Health Narottam Mishra, Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains, DGP Vivek Johri, Additional Chief Secretary Health Mohammad Suleman and other officers were present on the occasion. Chief Minister Chouhan instructed that health team should visit each ward of Bhopal city at this weekend to conduct health checkups. We have to find out every infected person and give med- ical treatment to him/her and to uproot the infection com- pletely. Chouhan informed that the corona growth rate of the state is 1.82 percent as com- pared to the countrys growth rate of 3.67 percent. Similarly, the doubling rate of corona in the state is 38.43 days, where- as the rate of the country is 19.23 days. The number of active cases in the state has come down to 2 thousand 455. New 148 patients have been found, while 249 patients went back home after the recovery. Ujjain’s recovery rate is 80 percent, more attention must be paid to contact tracing In a review of Ujjain dis- trict, instructions were given to pay more attention to contact tracing in the district, so that Corona infection could be completely prevented. In Ujjain, 103 cases out of 819 positive cases are active and 649 have recovered. The recov- ery rate there is 80 percent. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Fuel prices went up for thetenth day in a row on

Tuesday despite the Brentcrude prices slipping to multi-year-low in the internationalmarket, prompting Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi toaccuse the Centre of profi-teering when people are facedwith such all-round suffering.

In ten days, the price ofpetrol has been increased by acumulative �5.47 per litre, anddiesel by �5.80 per litre.

The Congress presidentwrote a letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi expressing“deep distress” over the recent

increase in fuel prices andurged the Government to rollback the hikes and pass on thebenefit to common people.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF)price was also hiked by�5,494.5 per kilolitre (kl), or16.3 per cent, to �39,069.87 perkl in the national Capital,according to a price notifica-tion by State-owned oil mar-keting companies.

This is the second straightincrease in ATF price thismonth.

Sonia mentioned that withinternational crude oil pricesfalling by about 9 per cent overthe last week, the CentralGovernment’s action amountsto “profiteering off its people”when they are down and out.

����� ��������

One month from now Indiamight have around 8 lakh

Covid-19 cases due to furthereasing of lockdown, expertsfrom the University ofMichigan have warned.

“The number of Covid-19cases at around 3.44 lakh inIndia is just the tip of the ice-berg, the cases may more thandouble to 8 lakh by July 15 dueto easing of lockdown,” said theforecast by the University ofMichigan. “The numbers willplace India right behind Brazilat the third spot,” it said.

According to the report,the easing of the lockdown willaccelerate the virus spread inIndia. Almost daily, for the pastfew days, India is adding

around 11,000 cases.“You cannot see the peak,

it’s been pushed further intime,” said BhramarMukherjee, a professor of bio-statistics at the University ofMichigan who is part of theteam that’s modeling India’spandemic.

Interestingly, she removedthe longer-term projectionsfrom the team’s websitebecause they were causingpeople to panic. “I wish Icould be more positive but Ithink it’s going to be really hardover the next couple ofmonths.”

After more than two-month of strict lockdown,India eased its coronavirus-induced restrictions from Juneon economic consideration.

��� � ��������

The Congress on Tuesdaydemanded that the

Government take the nationinto confidence and convene anall-party meeting to brief theleadership of political partiesabout the ground situationrelated to the China crisis.

While Punjab ChiefMinister Captain AmarinderSingh called for strong actionagainst China, the Congressaccused the Centre of “main-taining silence” on the issue ofviolent border stand-off withChina across the Line of Actual

Control (LAC) and demandedthat Prime Minister NarendraModi and Defence MinisterRajnath Singh take the nationinto confidence following thekilling of three Indian Armypersonnel during the de-esca-lation at the LAC with Chinaon Monday night.

Through an official state-ment, the grand old party saidthe Government must comeforward to explain the circumstances of the latestdevelopment and listed fourquestions for the Centre toanswer.

Former Congress chief

Rahul Gandhi urged theGovernment to “come clean”about the border conflictbetween India and China andnot let speculation escalateamid the coronavirus healthcrisis.

“The Government’s silenceabout the border situation withChina is fueling massive spec-ulation and uncertainty at atime of crisis,” Rahul said.

Amarinder Singh said itwas time now for the Centre totake some stringent measuresas each sign of weakness makesChina’s reaction more “belligerent”.

����� ����

China’s official media onTuesday quoted the

Chinese military as claimingthat it “always” owned sover-eignty over the Galwan Valleyregion and alleged that“provocative attacks’ launchedby the Indian troops resulted in“severe clashes and casualties.”

In its first reaction onMonday’s clashes between thetwo militaries at the GalwanValley in Eastern Ladakh, astatement quoted by theChinese media quoting thePeople’s Liberation Army(PLA) Western TheatreCommand SpokespersonColonel Zhang Shuili said,“China always owns sover-

eignty over the Galwan Valley.”“The Indian troops have

broken their promises andagain crossed the line of actu-al control (LAC) in the GalwanValley region on Mondayevening and purposelylaunched provocative attacks,leading to severe clashes andcasualties,” Zhang claimed.

An Indian Army officerand two soldiers were killedduring a violent clash withChinese troops in the Galwan Valley in easternLadakh on Monday night, inthe first such incident involv-ing fatalities after a gap of 45years and signalling a massiveescalation in the five-week bor-der standoff in the sensitiveregion.

����������� � �

Maharashtra saw a massivejump in the number of

deaths from 4,128 to 5,537 onTuesday, after the State record-ed 81 additional deaths for theday and the health authoritiescarried out a massive reconcil-iation of fatalities in Mumbaiand other parts of the Stateadding 1,328 deaths that hadbeen missed out to the totaldeath tally.

India’s total death countdue to Covid mounted to11,882 on Tuesday and numberof cases crossed 3.5 lakh as sev-eral States reported biggestsingle day spike.

Apart from 81 deathsrecorded on Tuesday, the Statehealth authorities added 1,328deaths to the total Covid-19death tally in the State. As a

consequence, the total numberof deaths in Maharashtra wentup to a staggering 5,537 on

Tuesday evening.Confirming that the rec-

onciliation has thrown up addi-tional 1,328 deaths, State chiefSecretary Ajoy Mehta said, “Itis mandatory for us to calcu-late the number of deaths as per

the guidelines laid down by theWorld Health Organization(WHO), Indian Centre forMedical Research (ICMR) andNational Centre for DiseaseControl (NCDC). As part ofthe exercise, we had on June 11

asked the district health author-ities to carry out reconciliationof the figures of the deaths. Wehave now got the results giving us the additional num-ber of deaths”.

In the reconciliation exer-cise that contributed 1,328 newfatalities to the total tally,Mumbai alone accounted for862 deaths, while 466 addi-tional were reported from otherparts of the state.

In the reconciliation, fol-lowing is the break-up of 466additional deaths reportedfrom different parts of theState: Ahmednagar-1, Akola-14, Amravati-6, Aurangabad-33, Buldhana-2, Dhule-2,Jalgaon-34, Jalna-4, Latur-3,Nanded-2, Nashik-28,Osmanabad-3, Palghar-11,Parbhani-1, Pune-85, Raigad=-14, Ratnagi5r-1, Sangli-4,Satara-6, Sindhudurg-3,Solapur 51, Thane -141,Washim and Yavastmal-1.

Announcement about

adding 1,328 additional deathsto the State’s total death tallycame a day after the BJP’s former Chief Ministerand leader of the Opposition in the StateAssembly Devendra Fadnaviswrote to Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray alleging fudging of figures ofdeaths by the BrihanMumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC).

����� ��������

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday held video

interactions with ChiefMinisters to find ways to con-tain further spread of coron-avirus and affirmed that effortsof last few weeks of unlock-1have made “ green shoots” vis-ible in country’s economy.

This was Modi’s sixthvideo-conference with CMs, LtGovernors and administratorsof 21 States and Union territo-ries. The PM held that duringthe re-opening of the activitiesIndian experience has beenmuch better than many othercountries across the globe.

He said death due toCovid-19 has been the lowestin the country and recoveryrate has gone up to 50 per cent.The Prime Minister, however,told Chief Ministers that need

for maintaining new safetynorms is far greater now andthe principle of “do gaj kidoori” should be followed withall sanctity.

Upset about deaths due tothe coronavirus, Modi took

feedback from CMs on theunlock-1 and asked them tosuggest changes needed incountering Covid-19 with thehindsight of their experiencesin containing the pandemic.

London: Low doses of thesteroid dexamethasone canreduce deaths by one-third inseverely affected Covid-19patients, according toresearchers who assessed theperformance of the inexpensivedrug in more than 2,100 people.

Detailed report on P8

����� ��������

In a major setback to defusemonth-long tension at the

Line of Actual Control (LAC)in Ladakh, 20 Indian soldiers,including a core commander,were stoned and bludgeoned todeath in a violent face-off withthe Chinese troops on Mondayevening in the Galwan valley.

At least a dozen moreIndian soldiers are reported tobe injured in the incident.Indian Government sourcesand Chinese media claimedthat the Chinese side also suf-fered casualties in the Ladakhface-off, but they didn’t give anynumber.

This is the first-ever suchan incident resulting in deathin the last 40 years. MajorGeneral rank officers of the twosides are now talking to eachother to prevent the issue fromescalating. Both India andChina have issued officialstatements accusing each otherof taking provocative steps.

Throughout the day theIndian Army maintained onlythree casualties and identifiedthem as Colonel B SantoshBabu, Havildar Palani andsepoy Ojha.

However, in a late-nightstatement, the Indian Armyconfirmed “17 Indian jawanswho were critically injured inthe line of duty at the standofflocation and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the highaltitude terrain have suc-cumbed to their injuries, tak-ing the total that were killed inaction to 20.”

The Indian Army saidIndian and Chinese troopshave disengaged at the Galwan

valley area where they hadearlier clashed on the night ofJune 15-16. “Indian Army isfirmly committed to protectingthe territorial integrity andsovereignty of the nation,” thestatement said.

Reports said that the Indiapatrol team was ambushedwhen it was on a mission nearthe Galwan valley to inspect ifthe Chinese had retreated asper the understanding reachedbetween the two sides duringseveral rounds of talks.

Insisting that there wasno firing from either side,sources said that Chinese sol-diers attacked the Indianjawans with stones, nail-stud-ded rods and clubs, andduster knives.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh briefed Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on the situa-tion at the border via video callafter a meeting with Chief ofDefence Staff (CDS) GeneralBipin Rawat, the three militarychiefs and External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar.

Giving details of the inci-dent earlier in the day, theArmy said, “During the de-escalation process underway inthe Galwan valley, a violentface-off took place yesterdaynight with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indianside includes an officer andtwo soldiers.” Senior militaryofficials of the two sides are currently meeting at thevenue to defuse the situation.

However, the Chinese saidthe Indian troops crossed theLAC on Monday night anddeliberately launched provoca-tive attacks triggering violentphysical conflict resulting in

casualties.In response to media

queries on the situation, theExternal Affairs Ministryspokesperson AnuragSrivastava said, “After the pro-ductive talks between CorpsCommanders, while it wasour expectation that this wouldunfold smoothly, the Chineseside departed from the con-sensus to respect the LAC inthe Galwan Valley.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan said that the pace

of corona infection is continu-ously slowing down in theState. The infection growthrate of Madhya Pradesh hasbecome half as compared to thecountry. Now, the number ofcorona active cases has comebelow 2500. Transform battleagainst corona into a publiccampaign and eradicate coro-na infection completely in thestate in cooperation with all, headded.

The Chief Minister wasreviewing the situation of coro-na in the State and arrange-ments through video confer-encing at Mantralaya today.

The Minister for Home andHealth Narottam Mishra, ChiefSecretary Iqbal Singh Bains,DGP Vivek Johri, AdditionalChief Secretary HealthMohammad Suleman andother officers were present onthe occasion.

Chief Minister Chouhaninstructed that health teamshould visit each ward ofBhopal city at this weekend toconduct health checkups. Wehave to find out every infected person and give med-ical treatment to him/her andto uproot the infection com-pletely.

Chouhan informed thatthe corona growth rate of thestate is 1.82 percent as com-pared to the countrys growthrate of 3.67 percent. Similarly,

the doubling rate of corona inthe state is 38.43 days, where-as the rate of the country is19.23 days.

The number of active casesin the state has come down to2 thousand 455. New 148patients have been found, while249 patients went back homeafter the recovery.

Ujjain’s recovery rate is 80percent, more attention mustbe paid to contact tracing

In a review of Ujjain dis-trict, instructions were given topay more attention to contacttracing in the district, so thatCorona infection could becompletely prevented.

In Ujjain, 103 cases out of819 positive cases are active and649 have recovered. The recov-ery rate there is 80 percent.

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Confederation of IndianIndustry in Madhya Pradesh

has constituted a State Panel on“Skill Development and HigherEducation” with SiidharthChaturvedi, Director AISECTLtd. as Convenor and Er. B. S.Yadav, Chancellor, IES Universityas the Co-convenor of the paneland the first meeting of Panelwas organised in first week ofJune.

Chaturvedi, handles theentire Strategy and Operationsfor the AISECT Group, AISECTis India’s leading SocialEnterprise working in areas ofHigher Education, SkillsTraining. While, Er. B. S. Yadavis the founder of the InfoTechEducation Society which runsthe IES University, got incorpo-rated in 1999 and imparting edu-cation in the disciplines ofEngineering Technology andManagement Education.

During the meeting, thepanel discussed on challengesbrought by the COVID-19 pan-demic and the way ‘Onlinelearning’ is changing theEducation system. Panel alsodecided to organise a one-daycertification webinar on “Futureof Education post COVID 19’ onFriday, 19th June 2020 from 1600Hrs to 1800 Hrs for Professors/Directors/ Research Scholars /HOD /TPO to re-think andInnovate newer ways for mod-ernization and enhancing effi-ciency in Education sector.

Confirmation from Prof.MP Poonia, Vice Chairman,AICTE, New Delhi, Prof.Kamlesh Mishra, ViceChancellor, RishihoodUniversity, Sonipat, Prof. PulakGhosh, IIMB Chair ofExcellence, IIM Bangalore andAbhishek Pandit, Director,Eduvantage have already beenreceived to address the webinarand interact with participants.

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The State players are enjoy-ing games like Table Tennis,

Chess and Fencing in the citystadium. The stadium alsostarted Sports Science Centrefor the players from Tuesday.

It is to be noted that thesports science centre, fencing,table-tennis and chess gamesopen in the third phase, onlyplayers in the age group of 15to 30 years can participate.Players will practise in SportsScience Centre, Fencing andTable-Tennis games at TTNagar Stadium. While chessplayers will practise the gamein the Ankur Sports Complex.

Keeping in view the Covid19 transition, a guide line hasbeen prepared by the SportsDepartment which incorpo-rates the precautions taken bythe players and sports coaches.Director, Sports and YouthWelfare, Shri VK Singh, hasgiven instructions to ensurestrict adherence to depart-mental guidelines.

Training practice will notbe changed during practice inFencing and Table-Tennis. Infencing and table-tennis games,more than 06 players will notbe able to enter the hall at onetime. In chess no more than 10players will enter the hall at atime. Practice matches will notbe played in chess and playerswill be able to practise on theonline e-board.

In chess, it will be neces-sary to have a distance of 02metres from one table to anoth-er as has been suggested bySports Department whichincorporates the precautionstaken by the players and sportscoaches. Director, Sports andYouth Welfare, VK Singh, has

given instructions to ensurestrict adherence to depart-mental guidelines.

The Sports Science Centrewill operate daily from Mondayto Saturday from 6:30 to 9:30am and from 4:00 to 7:30 pmwith 50 percent staff. At pre-sent, only players of the acad-emy will enter the SportsScience Centre.

Entry of general publicwill be prohibited. In the sportsscience centre, following thesocial distance (social dis-tance), the prescribed protocolfor prevention of Covid 19infection will be followed. Onlya maximum of 05 players willbe able to avail the treatment ata time.

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Gandhi Nagar police hasnabbed two accused near

RGPV college who attacked a22-year-old youth on May 24 atShivaji Ward. The attack wasthe result of an old enmity overwork in which the victim andthe accused were involved, saidpolice.

According to the police, thenabbed accused are TarunPathrole (22) of Nishatpuraand Shubham Jathav (22) ofChhola Mandir who werenabbed on Monday.

The two attacked the vic-tim, Piyush Bhusar, with a

sharp-edged weapon. The injured victim was

rushed to a nearby hospitalwhere he was reportedly sta-ble.

In the initial investiga-tion, it was found that Piyushand Tarun had an old enmityover catching of pigs and thetwo had a fight in the night ofMay 24 in which Tarun, alongwith Shubham, attackedPiyush with a sharp-edgedweapon in his stomach andescaped from the spot.

After the attack, In-chargeof Gandhi Nagar police sta-tion, SS Sengar, said that thetwo are involved in pig catch-

ing. The victim was attackedby Tanu and his aides but asthe victim was not in a state torecord statement, the details ofothers could not be revealed.

Later, the victim lodged acomplaint with Gandhi NagarNagar police and based on thecomplaint and after the pre-liminary investigation, thepolice registered a case ofattempt to murder against theabsconding accused.

After investigation, theaccused were arrested. Policewould investigate crime recordof the accused. The accusedand the victim are resident ofthe same area.

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Indore IG, Vivek Sharma,and DIG, Indore,

Harinarayanchari Mishra havegiven a strict order to curbcrime in the Indore district.Mhow police busted 4 majorcrime in a row. In the first case,a fake Crime Branch officer,Sanjay, introduced himself tothe villager Ramesh Makwanaof village, Bhagora, anddemanded �10,000. In the sec-ond case, a duster car bearingregistration number(MP 34CA 2007) was caught in which45 boxes of country madeliquor was found worth�1,65,600.

In the third case, anaccused who was wanted infake currency racket in whichtwo accused were alreadycaught by police with � 20 lakhfake currency but accusedRamzan son of usmaan man-soori resident of ozer bedipu-ra rajapur was absconding onwhom police has declared aprize money of �20,000 wascaught. In the fourth case, agang of highway robbersinvolved in truck cutting in dif-

ferent States of the country wascaught in which the mainaccused, Golu and other 2kanjaar were caught in simrolepolice station area.

The police confiscated atruck number MP 09 GE 7787a bike 68 liters of kachhi liquorfrom the possession of theaccused. All the four crimeswere busted by the team led byMhow Addl SP Amit Tolani,SDOP, Mhow, Vinod Sharma,Kishanganj T I SashikantChourasia and Simrole TIDharmendra Shivhare. SP WestIndore Mahesh Chandra Jainhas announced award for thepolice team who busted thesecrimes.

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Ashoka Garden police hasnabbed a miscreant and

recovered valuables worth �15lakh from his possession onTuesday. The accused was car-rying a reward of �25,000 onhis head after he had burgledvaluables worth �8 lakh fromBijli Colony on June 6.

Police said that theaccused, identified as GoluVishwakarma, was arrestedwith one pistol, two live car-tridges and a bike.

Later, during investiga-tion, he confessed that he hadcommitted burglary at DMSonawane’s house in BijliNagar colony on June 5 andhad escaped with valuables.

The accused has beenbooked for over a dozen casesby Indore and Sagar police.The accused had been living inIndore for the last 7-8 years.

The recovered motorbikewas stolen from Awadhpuri. The valuablesstolen from Bijli Nagar werekept in Ring road ShantiHomes at Nishatpura. Policehave recovered �4.35 lakhcash stolen from Sonawane’shouse.

Apart from valuablesstolen from Sonawane’s house,police also recovered burgled valuables.

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An online popular lecture on“Eclipse and its Types”

based on Annular Solar Eclipsewill be held on Wednesday. Itis organised by RegionalScience Centre, Bhopal, andwill be broadcast on itsYouTube channel.

The Director of NehruPlanetarium, New Delhi,Nandivada Rathnashree, willaddress the popular online lec-ture. She will be discussingabout Annular Solar Eclipse2020 which will occur on June

21. The lecture will be broad-

casted live at 11:30 am and willcontinue till 1:30 pm. It is agood opportunity for the sci-ence students, lecturers andteachers to listen about eclipsefrom an expert.

Nandivada Rathnashreehas done doctoral work inAstrophysics related to stellarevolution and also has anexpirence in pulsars.

Currently, she is theDirector of Nehru Planetarium,New Delhi. She also does inastronomy outreach activities

across the country. It is to be noted that an

annular solar eclipse happenswhen the Moon covers theSun's center, leaving the Sun'svisible outer edges to form aring of fire or annulus aroundthe Moon.

These eclipses are namedfor their darkest, or maximum,point even if it only lasts lessthan a second.

If the characteristic ring offire is visible from even just onelocation, the whole eclipse iscalled an annular solar eclipse.

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Areward scheme has beenannounced by the Madhya

Keshtra Vidyut VitranCompany to curb power theft.There is a provision for rewardunder the prescribed terms &conditions for informing aboutthe illegal use of power. On thebasis of information, infor-mant will be paid 10 percent ofthe amount after the recovery.There is no maximum limit ofthe amount.

In context to illegaluse/theft, Headquarters of theMadhya Pradesh Vidyut VitranCompany, Regional Offices aswell as Regional GeneralManagers can be informed inwriting or over telephone.Concerned officials will beliable to keep information per-taining to informant confi-dential. The Officers andemployees of the company willnot be considered as informant.Incentive will be paid to infor-

mants from the headquarters ofthe company and it will bedeposited directly in bankaccount of informants.

The 2.5 percent of theamount will also be given in theform of incentive to the depart-mental officers and employeesfor preparing case and recov-ery of amount.

A vigilance cell has been setup at the headquarters of thecompany. Information can alsobe sent to the vigilance cell onits address ‘Office of theManaging Director, MPMadhya Kshetra Vidyut VitranCompany Ltd., Govindpura,Bhopal. Apart from this, thereis also an option to give infor-mation on Call Centre Number1912 or UPAY App.

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Koh-e-Fiza police arrested 7persons including 5

women gamblers and recov-ered �15,000 cash from theirpossession at Jain Nagar onTuesday. The gamblers werefound gambling at a boutique.

After receiving informationof gathering of women at aboutique in a suspicious manner, police team reachedthe spot and when checked, 7persons were found gambling.

At the time of the raid, theboutique was found closedand when it was opened, 5women and two men werefound gambling in a room.

The boutique was operat-ed by Rashim. In the raid,Rashim Nigam, KavitaMotwani, Hema Tejwani, JayaRubani, Maya Bhagwani,Naresh Bhammani andVijayJagwaani were nabbed.

Police said that details ofthe gamblers are under inves-tigation. The gamblers areinvolved in other illegal activ-ities could not be ascertained.

Apart from the cash, policealso recovered mobile phonesand transactions of money.

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The Hanumanganj policehas arrested an abscond-

ing fraudster involved in dup-ing a Jaipur-based woman tothe tune of �6.51 lakh in thename of facilitating admissionin Chirayu College to victim’sdaughter in the year 2011.

Police said that theaccused Manoranjan Joshi(47) of Neemuch was arrest-ed from Indore after policereceived information thataccused is staying in Indore.To evade the arrest, theaccused was staying in Indore.

In the case two accusedwere involved and one of theaccused Ajay Patil was nabbedearlier.

Notably in the year 2011the victim Jaipur basedRoopshila Vajpayee came intocontact with the two accusedAjay Patil and ManoranjanJoshi.

The victim wanted admis-sion in Chirayu Medical

College for her daughter. The two assured that they

would facilitate admissionand demanded �6.51 for theprocess. The victim after get-ting assured provided themoney and original marksheets of class 10 and 12.

After collecting moneyand documents the victim’sdaughter was not providedwith admission and her doc-uments were a lso notreturned. The victim lodgeda complaint with the police.

The police registered acase of fraud against theaccused and arrested AjayPatil but Joshi managed toescape and later he was arrest-ed from Indore after escapingfor 9 years.

During the investigationit was found that few morepeople have been duped inother areas luring the sameand more cases of fraud of thesame nature were revealed bythe victims and complaintswere made.

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Aday after SAD sets up apanel to take up the mat-

ter of displacing more than30,000 Sikh farmers in UttarPradesh, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onTuesday took cognizance ofreports of “attempts” by theUttar Pradesh Government todisplace them by taking overtheir hard-earned arable landand announced to take up theissue with his UP counterpartAdityanath Yogi and the UnionHome Minister Amit Shah.

Capt Amarinder expressedserious concern over somemedia reports suggesting thatthe Sikh families were beingsought to be displaced after liv-ing in UP for three generations.

“If the reports are correct,it is undoubtedly a matter ofworry,” said the Chief Minister,adding that any such act wasagainst the federal structure ofIndia and its Constitutionalpolity, which gave every Indianthe freedom to live in any partof the country.

As per available accounts,these families had been settledin the districts of Rampur,Bijnaur and Lakhimpur forthree generations now, andhad even received proprietor-ship rights from the UPGovernment back in 1980,noted Capt Amarinder, ques-tioning the rationale behind thereported attempts to dislocatethem and push them out oftheir homes.

Reports suggest that these

Sikh families had shifted to the17 villages in the three districtsof Uttar Pradesh in 1947, at thetime of the Indo-Pak partition,and had, with their hard work,converted the forest area intoarable land.

“I would write to bothShah and Yogi Aditynath toascertain the truth of the mat-ter and get to the bottom of it.Any administrative problemsin land ownership of thesefamilies could be resolved byfollowing the due process oflaw, without resorting to suchharsh measures,”said the ChiefMinister.

He said that forcing peopleout of land, which they hadbeen tilling for three genera-tions, was definitely not a solu-tion.

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In a series of arrangementsbeing made to prevent the

spread of Covid-19 infections,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onTuesday approved the issuanceof appointment letters to 642more medical officers by theHealth Department. The select-ed doctors have been asked tojoin their department within 15days.

Haryana Health andFamily Welfare Minister AnilVij said that the appointmentletters have been issued tothese medical officers on theremaining seats of merit list ofMarch 2020 recruitment.

The Health Minister said

that in the last three months,954 medical officers have beengiven appointment letters. InMarch, 312 doctors were givenletters of appointment. In thisway, out of 954 medical officers,166 specialist doctors and 788MBBS qualifying doctors willbe made available in the HealthDepartment. Following this,the shortage of doctors in thedepartment will be overcometo a large extent, he added. Theunified appointment letter willbe uploaded on the website ofthe department and the select-ed candidates can report to theCivil Surgeon as per their wish.They will be appointed by thecivil surgeons according tovacant posts and their require-ments, Vij added.

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Appreciating Punjab’sCovid-19 micro-contain-

ment and house-to-house sur-veillance strategy, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onTuesday asked all other statesto adopt the model, which washelping Punjab successfullycontrol the spread of the pan-demic to a significant extent.

The Prime Minister inter-vened as the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh wasdescribing the state’s model tocombat Covid-19 and suggest-ed that all states should followthe same strategic approach toeffectively counter the pan-demic.

Capt Amarinder informedthe PM that the StateGovernment was working on amulti-pronged strategy to fightthe pandemic. “The focus iscurrently on micro-contain-ment strategy to isolate smallmohallas or village wardsrather than close down largerareas,” he said, adding that a

special app had also beenlaunched for house-to-housesurveillance to detect any pos-sible cases and persons with co-morbidities to catch high-riskpatients early.

“Some restrictions havebeen imposed over the week-ends and holidays, and strictenforcement of all protocols isbeing ensured through fines,”he added.

The Prime Minister wasconducting a video conferencemeeting with the ChiefMinisters of Punjab and someother states, as part of hisscheduled two-day interactionsto review the Covid-19 situa-tion and management strate-gies of all the states. He will beholding a similar meeting withthe Chief Ministers of the otherstates on Wednesday.

During the meeting, CaptAmarinder suggested to thePrime Minister to set up aGroup, which should include afew Chief Ministers, to discussand formulate a coordinatedCentre-State response to the

devastating impact of Covid-19on the economy and govern-ments across the country.

During a video conferencewith the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who wasjoined by Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman and HealthMinister Dr Harsh Vardhan,Punjab Chief Minister request-ed that the Centre should workclosely with the states to easethe distress caused by the pan-demic and the subsequent lock-down.

“While living with Covid-19 is the new normal since thelockdown could not continueindefinitely as the cycle ofeconomy, once broken, takes along time to restart, the need ofthe hour is to take care of bothlives and livelihoods, as thePrime Minister had himselfsaid in his videoconference inApril,” the Chief Ministerpointed out.

Capt Amarinder recalled

that when, in early April, hehad said that Covid-19 couldgo on till September, he hadbeen called an alarmist bysome people. “But with expertsnow warning that the pan-demic could continue evenbeyond September, it is impor-tant to learn to co-exist with itand cope with it better,” hestressed, underlining the need

for the Central and StateGovernments to work in closecoordination for this.

Calling for urgent steps tomitigate Punjab’s financialstress, the Chief Minister saidthat a detailed memorandumhad already been sent to theCentral Government, listingout the impact of Covid-19 andalso seeking fiscal and non-fis-

cal assistance.Even as he thanked the

Prime Minister and FinanceMinister for the release of GSTpayment of around �2800 crorein early June, Capt Amarindersaid that while he appreciatedthat the Central Governmentwas also under financial stress,he had to request for release ofthe State’s pending share oftaxes to tide over the fiscal cri-sis.

The crisis in Punjab waslikely to be acute with around�25,000-30,000 crore shortfallin revenue collection on vari-ous counts, he said.

Even though Punjab’s con-tribution to the all-India caseswas less than one percent atpresent with a mortality rate of2.1 per cent and recovery rateof 75 percent, the curve was ris-ing as a result of inbound trav-elers and the easing of restric-tions and more mixing of peo-ple, the Chief Minister said,giving a status update on theCovid situation prevailing inthe State.

Emphasising the need formore tests, despite the current5,527 tests per million inPunjab being higher than theall India average of 4088, CaptAmarinder reiterated hisrequest to the Prime Ministerto direct the CentralGovernment’s institutions inChandigarh and Punjab toincrease testing capacity.

On the state’s preparednessto tackle further spread of thepandemic, the Chief Ministerinformed the meeting that5000 isolation beds were readyin Government Level II and IIIfacilities, in addition to 10-15,000 beds in Level I CovidCare Centres for mild patients.

These Level I beds can bescaled to 30,000, if the needarises, he said, adding that fortertiary level care, the StateGovernment had also securedthe participation of privatehospitals.

The Chief Minister reiter-ated his request for extensionof free food grains scheme for

the poor by six months, andexpressed the hope that theCentre would take note of hisearlier suggestion on providingrevenue grants to the States forthree months to meet shortfallin revenue and to fund expen-diture on Covid-19.

The 15th FinanceCommission should alsoreview its report for the currentyear as situation has com-pletely changed due to Covid-19, as proposed earlier, headded.

Pointing to the Centre’sdecision to allow increase inborrowing limits under FRBMAct from three to five percent,which required three of thefour conditions to be fulfilledto avail full two percent addi-tional borrowing, the ChiefMinister urged the PrimeMinister to relook some of theconditionalities, given the sit-uation on the ground.

He pointed out that theborrowing was a loan thatStates have to repay and not agrant by the Centre.

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Seven fresh cases of Covid-19including a two years old

male child were reported inChandigarh on Tuesday takingthe total number of cases to 364.The new cases were reportedfrom Sector 25 colony, Sector41, Khuda Alisher village andBapu Dham colony in Sector 26here. Among seven cases, fivecases were related to travelers.Till Tuesday evening, the totalcases stood at 364 while activecases are 56 in the city.

“A 35 years old man fromSector 25 colony is tested pos-itive,” stated the ChandigarhHealth Department’s eveningbulletin. “Three residents ofKhuda Alisher village includinga two years old male child, 55years old woman, 74 years oldman have been tested positive.They are family contacts of analready positive Covid-19 casewho had returned from UttarPradesh,” the bulletin said.

As per the bulletin, twofemale residents aged 22 yearsand 54 years from Sector 41here are also tested positive.They are family contacts of analready positive Covid-19patient who had returned fromDelhi.

Another positive casereported is of a 12 years old boyfrom Bapu Dham colony. He isa family contact of an alreadypositive Covid-19 case.

With passengers coming toChandigarh from other parts ofthe country testing positive inthe last two weeks, theChandigarh Administrationhad on last Friday suspendedthe inter-state operations ofbuses till June 30 and alsorevised its quarantine policy forpassengers.

While the long route busesof Chandigarh TransportUndertaking and other statetransport undertakings weresuspended, the tri-city busesare being operated inChandigarh, Mohali andPanchkula.

80 YEAR OLD RECOVERSAn 80 years old female res-

ident of Bapu Dham colony,Sector-26 has been treated,cured and discharged fromPGIMER on Tuesday. TillTuesday evening, there were 18Covid-19 positive patients inPGIMER. Out of this, sevenpatients are in the intensive careunit at Covid-19 dedicatedNHE, PGIMER. The sevenpatients in ICU included threecity residents, three residentsfrom Haryana and one fromPunjab, a spokesman said. Therecovery rate of Covid-19patients in Chandigarh stood at82 percent on Tuesday whilethe country’s recovery rate isaround 52 percent. The city hasrecorded 364 positive caseswhile 302 have recovered from

the coronavirus.

BAPUDHAM COLONYGETS RELAXATION

In a relief to more than10000 residents in Bapu Dhamcolony (BDC) in Sector 26here, the ChandigarhAdministration on Tuesdaydecided to remove the perime-ter control in seven pocketsexcept a few blocks. The deci-sion came a day after the resi-dents of BDC came out ontothe streets to protest against theUT Administration anddemand lifting up of move-ment restrictions.

The perimeter control putin place in the month of Aprilto stem the spread ofCoronavirus has been removedfrom seven pockets except afew blocks and houses in BDC.

These pockets were part ofthe buffer zone in the BDC.Now, only pocket no. 15 witharound 2,500 populationremains a containment zone inChandigarh while few blocksare in buffer zone. BDC, witha total of 20 pockets is a dense-ly populated colony with EWSflats and residences, which arehousing a minimum of 6-8members per household. Thecolony has a total population ofaround 60000 people.

So far, the BDC has report-ed more than 240 positivecases in the city.

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Punjab’s political scene isheating up over the Central

Government’s agriculturalreforms by passing three ordi-nances. While the state’s rulingparty, Congress, on Tuesdaydecided to launch a statewidemass agitation from June 19against the amendments in theAgricultural Marketing Act,the state’s principal oppositionparty — Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) — has demanded toconvene a special Assemblysession on ordinances passedby the Union Government.

Punjab Congress presidentSunil Jakhar, while presidingover a meeting of Ministers,MPs, MLAs and other office

bearers, said that the Centrehad recently enacted three newlaws regarding marketing ofcrops and all “tantamount tolocking up agriculture oncethey are implemented”.

The Centre has planned tocompletely destroy the farmersby implementing the amendedlaw, he said adding that theparty would launch state-widecampaign to create awarenessamong the farmers and othersections about the adverseeffects of these laws on theentire economy of Punjab.

“The agitation that willstart from Fatehgarh Sahib,and would be followed by sim-ilar small gatherings at all dis-trict headquarters to inform theMLAs and DCC officials,

Sarpanches, Zila Parishad andBlock Samiti members aboutthe adverse effects of theselaws on the farmers. They willfurther brief people in detailabout the hidden agenda of theBJP and Akali Dal’s studdedsilence on the issue,” he said.

He said that the UnionGovernment “conspired” toabolish MSP for crops. “If thishappens, not only the farmersbut also the arhtiya, trans-porters and other stakeholdersin the sector will suffer andfinally, it will prove fatal to theinterests of the states,” he added.

Jakhar appealed to partyfunctionaries to go from villageto village to apprise people ofCentral Government's fatalpolicies for farmers and inform

them about its adverse effects.“Whenever approval is given inview of COVID-19 threat,Punjab MLAs would alsomarch from Punjab Bhawan tothe Prime Minister's residence,”he added.

CONVENE SPECIALASSEMBLY SESSION: AAP

Punjab’s unit of AamAadmi Party has stressed theneed for convening a specialsession of Punjab Assemblyon the issue of three ordi-nances passed by the UnionGovernment recently which,it claimed, would hit the agri-culture sector hard, leavingteeming millions of farmersand labourers and others inthe state to rue and rant for

life.Party delegation, led by

Leader of Opposition HarpalSingh Cheema, met PunjabAssembly Speaker Rana KPSingh on Tuesday to handover a memorandum overthe “anti-farmer and anti-state” ordinances.

“The three ordinances arenothing but a political gim-mickry on the part of theUnion Government in thename of agricultural reforms,”the memorandum adding thatthe ordinances had come as aboon for the patronized fewcorporate houses, while itwas indeed a curse for thefarming fraternity across thecountry.

The party demanded that

the Punjab Governmentshould convene a specialAssembly session compris-ing the elected representativesof all political parties to dis-cuss threadbare the anti-Punjab and anti-farmer ordi-nances being imposed uponthe farmers, and the sameshould be telecasted live.

WHY MISLEADINGFARMERS ON FARMINGPRODUCE AND TRADEORDINANCE: SUKHBIRASKS CM

SAD president SukhbirSingh Badal on Tuesday askedthe Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh not to mis-lead Punjabis by indulging infarcical opposition to the

Farming Produce Trade andC o m m e r c eOrdinance-2020 when hisGovernment had included itsprovisions in the StateAgriculture Produce MarketsAct (APMC) by amending itin 2017.

He asked the Chief

Minister to tell Punjabis whyhis Government had amend-ed the APMC Act to allowcreation of private markets,direct marketing, electronicagricultural marketing andsingle unified license forentire State in 2017.

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has took over the

investigations into the Ghanaurillegal liquor distillery case, inwhich names of political lead-ers from the state have also sur-faced. The Directorate officialsin Patiala met Patiala SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Mandeep Singh Sidhu to getinformation on the case. It hasbeen learnt that the Directorateofficials would meet the accused

already arrested in the case.The matter came to light in

mid-May when the PunjabPolice had raided a godownconfiscating a huge haul of ille-gal liquor in the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh’s homedistrict, Patiala, busting the ille-gal distillery-cum-liquor-bot-tling plant in Ghanaur havingalleged involvement of Congressleaders.

The action came close onthe heels of a huge illegalliquor haul in Khanna in April.

As per reports, the plantwas making huge money dur-ing the lockdown period byselling illicit liquor under theguise of popular brands.

In fact, the police, duringthe raid, had confiscated hun-dreds of stickers of variouswhiskey brands, including RoyalStag, that were pasted on thebottles filled with illegal liquormanufactured at the godown.

A case was registeredagainst Khanpur Khurdsarpanch Amrik Singh — an

aide of Congress MLA fromGhanaur Madan Lal Jalalpurand husband of Zila Parishadmember having affiliation withCongress, and Dipesh Kumar— a confidant of CongressMLA Hardial Singh Kamboj.

Besides, Harpreet Singh,Bacchi, and Amit Kumar havealso been named in the FIR (firstinformation report) registeredunder sections 420 (cheating),467 (forgery), 471 (using asgenuine a forged), 188 (dis-obeying public official’s order)

and 269 (negligent act likely tospread infection) of the IndianPenal Code (IPC), sections ofthe Excise Act, and section 5 ofthe Disaster Management Act.

The distillery, which wasbeing run in a cold store, wasoperating at full capacity sincethe lockdown, and selling theliquor in Punjab and Haryanamaking significant profits bydiluting extra neutral alcohol(ENA), which was available ata cheaper price, and then sell-ing it at exorbitant rates.

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Three more people testedpositive for coronavirus in

Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday,taking the total number ofsuch cases in the state to 560.

Special Secretary (Health)Nipun Jindal said two freshcases were reported fromKangra district and one fromMandi.

A total of 356 people haverecovered from the disease inthe state, while 11 people have

migrated out of the state,Additional Chief Secretary(Health) R D Dhiman said.Seven people have died due tothe infection in the state.

The number of activeCovid-19 cases in the statestands at 184, Dhiman said.

Kangra district has thehighest number of active casesin the state at 47, followed byUna (34), Solan (29), Hamirpur(26), Sirmaur (13), Bilaspur(12), Chamba (10), Shimla andMandi (8 each), Kullu andKinnaur (one each).

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Amidst apprehensions ofcommunity spread, anoth-

er death was reported inPunjab on Tuesday, besides104 new cases of the novelcoronavirus, including 66 withno travel or contact history. Theincreasing numbers has takenthe state’s Covid-19 death tollto 72 and coronavirus count to3,371.

Maximum 31 cases werereported from Jalandhar dis-trict, of which, the source ofinfection for 30 cases isunknown—an indication ofcommunity spread, as perexperts. In June, Punjab hasbeen seeing a steady rise incoronavirus cases with 41 per-

cent of the total cases report-ed in June alone.

Among 66 “new cases”,with no travel or contact his-tory, 12 are the patients ofInfluenza-like Illness (ILI), andone is suffering from SevereAcute Respiratory Illness(SARI), while four of themhave reported about the symp-toms on their own.

Jalandhar with 31 andLudhiana with 22 fresh casestogether accounted for morethan half of Tuesday’s cases.

Out of Ludhiana’s 22 newcases, 13 are the contacts ofalready diagnosed positivecases, three had travel historyto Delhi, and two were catego-rized as ILI (influenza-like ill-ness). A policeman was also

tested positive in Ludhianataking district’s tally to 409.

Among nine cases report-ed from Amritsar, three werethe contacts of already diag-nosed patients, and six werecategorized as ILI. InKapurthala, two prison inmateswere among four positive cases.

Of the new cases, 12 hadtravel history to other statesincluding two from SAS Nagar(Mohali) with travel history toDelhi and Mumbai, Pathankotwith one out of six having trav-el history to Haryana, onefrom Gurdaspur (Delhi). Allthree new cases fromHoshiarpur have a record oftravel history to Delhi, Gujaratand Gurgaon.

Ferozepur (one from

Delhi), Fatehgarh Sahib (onefrom Chennai), Ropar (onefrom Delhi), and SBS Nagar(Nawanshahr) (one fromDelhi) also reported fresh caseswith travel history.

Among the districts,Amritsar is having the highestnumber of cases at 642, fol-lowed by Ludhiana (409),Jalandhar (378), Tarn Taran(169), Gurdaspur (170),Hoshiarpur (144), Patiala(178), SAS Nagar (179), SBSNagar (120), Sangrur (162),Pathankot (151), Faridkot (88),Ropar (80), Muktsar (73),Fatehgarh Sahib (78), Moga(71), Bathinda (57), Fazilka(53), Ferozepur (52),Kapurthala (45), Mansa (34),and Barnala (31).

Top three districts —Amritsar, Ludhiana andJalandhar — account for 42percent of the state’s cases and58 percent of its deaths.Amritsar has reported 21deaths, Jalandhar 11, andLudhiana 10.

With 18 patients, including10 from Mohali, three eachfrom Pathankot andNawanshar, and one each fromPatiala and Fazilka, recoveringfrom the deadly contagion, thestate now has 838 active cases— which is more than thricethe number at the end of May.In all, 2461 patients have beenwon their battle against Covid-19.

SENIOR RAILWAY OFFI-

CIAL DIESA senior Railway official,

who was tested positive forcoronavirus recently, died onTuesday after a cardiac arrest.

Giving information regard-ing the same, FirozpurDivisional Railway ManagerRajesh Agarwal said: “RajKumar, senior DivisionalMechanical Engineer (DME),Carriage and Wagon, Firozpur,an outstanding officer, who wasat CMC Hospital, Ludhiana,since June 11, 2020, has left usfor heaven abode after cardiacarrest at about 1 pm.”

Agarwal said that he wasCovid positive, and his son andwife, who had already arrivedat Ludhiana from Delhi, wereunder quarantine.

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Pointing out that the impo-sition of 75 per cent coro-

na cess on alcohol has badly hitsales, the Confederation ofIndian Alcoholic BeverageCompanies (CIABC) has urgedthe Andhra PradeshGovernment to reduce the cesson alcoholic beverages to a"realistic and sustainable level"which will help save the indus-try and also lead to more rev-enues for the StateGovernment.

In its letter to the APGovernment, CIABC, which isthe apex body of the IndianAlcoholic Beverage Industry,has stated that on May 5, 2020the state government imposedAdditional Retail Excise Tax(ARET) on all types of alco-holic beverages "which hasincreased consumer prices by75% and even up to 100% incertain cases". As per data ofthe State Government excisedepartment, there was 50 per-

cent decline in the liquor salein May. In other words, thestate government has collectedrevenue 50 percent less in Maydue to higher prices.

"We humbly request you toreduce the ARET on alcoholicbeverages to a realistic and sus-tainable level. Such a move willlead to higher tax revenues forthe Government besides ben-efitting all other lawful stake-holders, i.e., companies, trade,and consumers," CIABCadded.

According to CIABCDirector General Vinod Giri:"There is sufficient evidencethat such steep price increaseslead to drastic fall in sales andhence in the Government taxcollection, thus defeating thevery purpose of taxincrease...From the data avail-able, it appears that theseapprehensions are indeed truein case of Andhra Pradeshalso. Post ARET the sale ofliquor has fallen drastically inAndhra Pradesh, which meanslower total tax collection for thegovernment. Further, it is anestablished fact that with suchincrease in prices, consumersstart down trading to cheaperproducts. That means that notonly do total sales come down;the Government’s tax collectionper bottle sold also falls. So, theloss to the state exchequer iscompounded."

Giri further said AP gov-ernment should take a cuefrom Delhi government whichrecently reduced additional taxon liquor from 70% to 5% as

increased prices had led tosharp fall in sales and massiverevenue loss to the government."We presented data to the Delhigovernment to prove this afterwhich it decided to withdrawthe 75% Cess and replaced itwith a reasonable 5% increasein VAT. Early signs indicate thatthis is leading to higher salesand increase in tax collection inDelhi, besides plugging unlaw-ful trade in liquor or illicit alco-hol."

He also said that the bor-ders of Andhra Pradesh areporous and if the price differ-ence between the state andneighbouring states is too high,it is an incentive for anti-socialelements to smuggle liquorinto the state, or worst, produceillicit and harmful liquor. TheAndhra Pradesh governmentshould consider all these pointsand immediately reduce addi-tional tax on liquor to a rea-sonable level so that process tobe a win-win situation for thestate government as well as theindustry.

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The Election Commission(EC) on Tuesday reviewed

its position on false affidavits bycandidates and decided to takecognisance of complaints indi-cating serious omission onpart of the candidate, and refersuch matters to the relevantinvestigating authorities oncase-to-case basis.

As per the extant provision,individuals are filing com-plaints relating to false affi-davits in the competent courtunder section 125A of theRepresentation of People Act,1951.

After the full commissionmeeting chaired by ChiefElection Commissioner SunilArora, the EC said that in pur-suit of level-playing field, it willtake cognisance of complaints

indicating serious omission onpart of the candidate, and refersuch matters to the relevantinvestigating authorities oncase-to-case basis. TheCommission said that it hasbeen receiving complaintsregarding furnishing of falseinformation in the affidavits ofsome candidates. The lack oflegal clarity relating to false affi-davits has led to multiple can-didates, including prominentleaders, getting away by filingfalse information in their elec-tion affidavits.

“Amongst other issues, theCommission discussed thematter of taking cognizance ofcomplaints of false affidavits bysome candidates along withtheir nominations, whichadversely affects the rights ofvoters as well as impinging onthe purity of electoral process,”it said.

In his/her affidavit, a can-didate discloses (i) criminalantecedents; (ii) assets and lia-bilities; and (iii) educationalqualifications. Subsequently,Commission in 2013, decidedthat the assets and liabilities of

the candidates, as filed in theiraffidavits, would be verified byCentral Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT).

In a statement, the EC saidthat filing of false affidavits bycandidates during the nomina-tion process, in terms of false orincomplete information, is a keychallenge as it undermines therights of voters to be fullyinformed about their politicalrepresentatives. “TheCommission views the erosionof this fundamental right as anaffront to the democratic idealswhich underpin the system ofgovernment. Furnishing falseinformation in election affi-davits is a devious design todefeat the right of the voter tobe informed and transparencyin elections. The Commissionhas today decided to robustlyaddress this challenge to furtherensure free, fair and ethical elec-tions in the country,” the state-ment read.

Earlier, the Commissionhad reviewed with LawMinistry over 37 electoralreforms had been pending inFebruary this year.

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At least 22 per cent of theIndia’s population which is

estimated to be suffering withunderlying health conditionslike diabetes and cardiovascu-lar diseases face the risk ofsevere Covid-19, if infected, areport published in the LancetGlobal Health journal has said.

In the world, the figurestands at an estimated 1.7 bil-lion people, having at leastone underlying health condi-tion which are under Covid-19threat, according to the mod-elling study that used datafrom 188 countries.

Globally, less than 5 per-cent of people aged under 20years, but more than 66 percent of those aged 70 andabove, have at least one under-lying condition that couldincrease their risk of severe

Covid-19. Among the workingage population (15 to 64 years),23 per cent are estimated tohave at least one underlyingcondition.

In just six months, nearly8 million people worldwidehave been stricken with con-firmed cases of Covid-19, andat least 434,000 have died. Butthose deaths have not been dis-tributed evenly; among themost vulnerable are peoplewith underlying health condi-tions, such as diabetes anddiseases that affect the heartand lungs.

Although the estimatesprovide an idea of the numberof people governments shouldprioritise for protective mea-sures, not all individuals withthese conditions would go onto develop severe symptoms ifinfected.

The authors estimate that4 per cent of the world’s pop-

ulation (349 million of 7.8 bil-lion people) would requirehospitalisation if infected, sug-gesting that the increased riskof severe Covid-19 could be

quite modest for many withunderlying conditions.

Guidelines published bythe World Health Organisationand public health agencies in

the UK and USA identify therisk factors for severe Covid-19,including cardiovascular dis-ease, chronic kidney disease,diabetes and chronic respira-tory disease. The new studyprovides global, regional andnational estimates for the num-ber of people with underlyinghealth conditions.

The authors based theirestimates on disease preva-lence data from the GlobalBurden of Diseases, Injuriesand Risk Factors Study (GBD)2017, UN population estimatesfor 2020 and the list of under-lying health conditions relevantto Covid-19, as defined bycurrent guidelines.

“As countries move out oflockdown, governments arelooking for ways to protect themost vulnerable from a virusthat is still circulating. Wehope our estimates will provideuseful starting points for

designing measures to protectthose at increased risk of severedisease.

“ This might involve advis-ing people with underlyingconditions to adopt social dis-tancing measures appropriateto their level of risk, or priori-tising them for vaccination inthe future,” Associate ProfessorAndrew Clark from theLondon School of Hygieneand Tropical Medicine(LSHTM), UK, said in a state-ment.

That estimate, published inThe Lancet Global Health,excluded healthy older indi-viduals without underlyinghealth conditions, a group alsoknown to be at risk because oftheir age. It also did not takeinto account risk factors likepoverty and obesity, which caninfluence a person’s suscepti-bility to disease and access totreatment.

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Although there is low preva-lence of coronavirus in

asymptomatic pregnant women,researchers now suggest universaltesting of pregnant women as partof a multi-pronged approach toreduce transmission of the novel

coronavirus in hospitals and clinics.

In India, Covid testing inpregnant women is already beingdone as per ICMR guidelines

which include all symp-tomatic patients anddirect contacts of highrisk patients and asymp-tomatic women resid-ing in hotpot, cluster orcontainment area.

"Although ourresults indicate a lowprevalence of SARS Cov-2 in an asymptomaticpregnant population, webelieve that universaltesting of this populationcan provide a windowinto the communityprevalence of infection.

“This will in turn,help guide decision-making about movingbetween mitigation ver-

sus containment measures in thehospital and in the community,"explained lead author IlonaTelefus Goldfarb fromMassachusetts General andHarvard Medical School.

The team has now provided areport on the prevalence of infec-tions with the virus in womenadmitted to such units in severalBoston hospitals.

Universal testing in the labourand delivery units began morethan 30 days after physical dis-tancing orders were placed inMassachusetts.

Over 18 days of universaltesting in units at the four majorhospitals affiliated with MassGeneral Brigham Health, 757women were tested. Of thosetested, 139 had symptoms possi-bly consistent with Covid-19, ,according to the study publishedin the journal Infection Control&amp; Hospital Epidemiology.

Among symptomatic women,7.9 per cent tested positive (11women) for SARS-CoV-2, thevirus that causes Covid-19.Among asymptomatic women,1.5 per cent tested positive (9women).

Across the four hospitals,none of the positive asympto-matic women developed Covid-19 symptoms during their hos-pitalization, and all 9 newbornstested negative for the SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers noted thatuniversal testing in this specificpatient population is an especial-ly important public health prior-ity given the potential dangers ofCovid-19 for maternal and new-born care during and after birth.

"Tracking prevalence prospec-tively can inform public healthinterventions and our approach-es to testing," said co-seniorauthor Erica Shenoy.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Tuesday

attacked the BJP-ledGovernment in Gujarat follow-ing reports stating that the Statehas the highest mortality rate.

He said the “GujaratModel” has been exposed withthe State recording the highestrate of coronavirus deaths inthe country, almost double thenational average.

The Congress leader, whohas targeted the Government inalmost daily posts over its han-dling of the virus crisis, had aday earlier quoted scientistAlbert Einstein to say: "Theonly thing more dangerousthan ignorance is arrogance".

Gujarat is Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's home stateand before that he was ChiefMinister of the State for morethan a decade.

In a tweet, Rahul Gandhiquoted mortality rate figuresfrom the report from across thestates in the country and saidthe highest fatality rate has"exposed the Gujarat Model".

Tweeting a news reporton a state in India with thehighest mortality rate, RahulGandhi said, "Gujarat: 6.25%,Maharashtra: 3.73%, Rajasthan:2.32%, Punjab: 2.17%,Puducherry: 1.98%, Jharkhand:0.5%, Chhattisgarh: 0.35%.Gujarat Model exposed."

With a little over 24,000confirmed coronavirus cases,Gujarat has India's fourth-highest Covid caseload.

While 1,505 people have sofar died due to the coronaviursin the state, 16,664 have curedof the infection.

Gujarat reported 514 newcoronavirus cases on Monday,taking the count to 24,104,while the death toll rose to1,506 with 28 new fatalities, thestate health department said.

Gujarat is the fourth worsthit state in India's coronavirusbattle after Maharashtra, TamilNadu and Delhi but its mor-tality rate, or the proportion ofCovid-19 patients who havedied, is the highest, more thandouble the national average of2.86 per cent.

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NEW DELHi: The SupremeCourt on Tuesday said theCovid-19 situation in the coun-try is getting only worse and itis not getting any better.

A bench headed by JusticeRohinton Nariman and com-prising Justices Navin Sinhaand B.R. Gavai observed that

the Covid-19 situation in thecountry is worsening. Theremarks were made by thebench while dealing with amatter related to the parole ofa businessman Jagjit SinghChahal from Punjab who isaccused in the Jagdish Bholadrug case.

The Bench noted that itdoes not make sense to sendsomeone back in an over-crowded jail, when he can beout on parole. The top courtgranted parole to Chahal tillthe pendency of his appeal inthe High Court.

The apex court on March

23, had directed all states andUnion Territories to constitutea high-level committee toexamine giving parole or inter-im bail to prisoners and under-trial for offences entailing up toseven-year jail term. The direc-tion was issued as a measure todecongest prisons. IANS

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New Delhi: Amid the raging debateover the death of Bollywood actorSushant Singh Rajput, who wasallegedly depressed before his appar-ent suicide on June 14, the SupremeCourt on Tuesday issued notice to theCentre and Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority (IRDA) on aPIL seeking direction to all insurancecompanies to extend medical insur-ance for treatment of mental illness.

A Bench of Justices RohintonFali Nariman, Navin Sinha and BRGavai issued the notice.

The PIL, filed by advocate GauravKumar Bansal, argues that despiteSection 21 of Mental Health Care Act2017, specifically stating it, followed byan IRDA order in August 2018, noneof the insurance companies are extend-ing medical insurance for treatment of

mental illness. The petitioner hasurged the apex court to direct theCentre, and the IRDA to issue directions to all insurance companiesto do so.

The petitioner argued that theIRDA was formed with a mission toprotect the interests of the policy-hold-ers, but, it seems to have been divert-ed from its main motive.

"Despite having specific provisionsunder the law, the IRDA is reluctantin taking immediate action. The bias-ness of IRDA is in itself discriminationagainst persons with mental illness andas such is causing immense hardshipfor persons with mental illness. Insteadof levying punishment for not com-plying with MHA 2017, the IRDA isbypassing its responsibilities," saidthe plea. IANS

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesdaydeclined to entertain a plea by Gujarat HighCourt Advocates' Association (GHCAA) pres-ident Yatin Oza in a contempt notice case andasked him not to level allegations that he wasnot getting justice.

The Supreme Court also asked Oza toapproach the Gujarat High Court, which hadtaken cognisance of his alleged remarks againstthe court and its registry and issued a contemptnotice against him. A Bench headed by ChiefJustice of India SA Bobde and comprisingJustices MR Shah and AS Bopanna told Oza'scounsel and senior advocate Abhishek ManuSinghvi: "We are not actually inclined to hearit... we feel you should go back to the HC."

During the hearing, the court alsoremarked: "Don't make allegations that you arenot getting justice." The suo motu criminal con-tempt notice was issued against Oza for hisalleged "irresponsible, sensational and intem-perate allegations of corruption" against the HighCourt and its registry on Facebook.

The Chief Justice told Singhvi that the alle-gations against the petitioner was that he wasmaligning the concept of justice and not anyjudge or court. "You reply to the High Court,"the apex court observed. IANS

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In operation 'All out', thejoint teams of security

forces in Kashmir valleyhave so far eliminated 101terrorists since January 1,2020.

On Tuesday, three ter-rorists were neutralised bythe joint teams of Shopianpolice, 44 Rashtriya Rifles,178 Bn CRPF in villageTurkwagam of Shopian.

Inspector General ofPolice, Kashmir range,Vijar Kumar in a pressbriefing said, “the opera-tion was launched on thebasis of a specific inputabout the presence of ter-rorists in the area lateMonday night”.

According to officialsources, “the cordon in the

area was laid around 12.00a.m and the first contactwas established with the hiding terroristsaround 1.00 a.m. By 7.00a.m in the morning allthree terrorists weregunned down by the secu-rity forces in a neat opera-tion”. The security forcessuffered no collateral dam-age nor any civilian prop-erty was damaged duringthe operation.

In the last 15 days, 24terrorists have been neu-tralised by the securityforces,majority of themwere trapped in Shopiandistrict.

Responding to a ques-tion on elimination of ter-rorists in South Kashmirdistricts, IG Kumar said,“Our focus now will be onnorth Kashmir”.

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It was a Black Tuesday inTamil Nadu as 49 persons

succumbed to Covid-19 pan-demic. This is the highest tallyto be recorded on a single daysince the coronavirus broke outin the State in January.

Tuesday’s death toll tookthe total number of fatalities tilldate to 528, said a bulletinreleased by the Government ofTamil Nadu. There has been areduction in the number ofpersons tested positive in theState. The daily figures whichwere hovering between the

1,850 to 1,989 range in the lastten days showed a small abate-ment on Tuesday. The day saw1,515 persons testing positivefor coronavirus in the State.Chennai accounted 919 per-sons out of the 1,515 tested pos-itive today.

The Government releasealso stated that the total num-ber of positive cases till date inTamil Nadu reached the figureof 48, 019. But as 26, 782 per-sons returning home fullycured from the hospitals, thenumber of active coronavirusafflicted persons in the State(number of active cases)remained 20, 706 on Tuesday.

Tamil Nadu continued itsaggressive testing for coron-avirus by testing 19, 242 per-sons across the State onTuesday. Till date 7.48 lakh per-sons have been tested as 79 lab-

oratories function round-the-clock testing samples.

Out of the 49 persons suc-cumbed to the pandemic onTuesday, four persons were intheir 80s, 13 were in their 70s,14 in their 60s, 12 were in 50sand five were in 40s.

46 patients who died onTueday had co-morbid condi-tions (they were suffering fromdiabetes, kidney ailments, car-dio vascular issues) while threepatients had no co-morbidityconditions, said the release.

As the four districts includ-ing Chennai are getting read-ied for total lock down, chiefminister EdappadiPalaniswamy announced onTuesday that 13.35 lakh differ-ently abled persons who holdidentity cards would be pro-vided �1,000 as financial assis-tance.

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee is most

likely to skip the Wednesday’smeeting between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andthe Chief Ministers of variousStates. The meeting will discussthe country’s strategy to controlcorona pandemic.

According to sources atBengal State secretariatNabanna, Banerjee is unhappyabout the non-inclusion of hername in the speakers’ list“which is why she is unlikely toattend the meeting” and someother Minister of her Cabinetwill be deputed to attend themeeting on her behalf.

The Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Tuesdayinteracted with 21 ChiefMinisters and LieutenantGovernors on coronavirus cri-sis. He is likely to speak to theremaining Chief Ministers dur-ing the second round of videoconference at 3 pm Wednesday.

Taking to Twitter and othermeans the ruling TrinamoolCongress has hit out at theCentre for healing “humilia-tion” on Bengal at every possi-ble instance. This is an “insultfor the people of West Bengal,”the party has said.

Giving strong reactionsenior TMC leader and Stateminister Partha Chatterjee said,“when all the Chief Ministersand leaders can speak in themeeting why Bengal will bekept out… It is being doneintentionally to humiliate us …some people want to suppressthe voice of Bengal which iswhy they have chosen to keep

Mamata Banerjee’s name out ofthe list,” adding “no one will beable to ignore Bengal by sim-ply ignoring our ChiefMinister.”

Earlier he tweeted, “TheCentre has once again humil-iated the people of Bengal anddecided to silence MamataBanerjee. The consultation inthe name of video conferencesis a mere hogwash if the ChiefMinisters aren’t allowed to putforth their concerns.”

“The Centre should explainwhy is it so averse to the peo-ple of Bengal's concerns, as weface this unprecedented crisiswhich should've been foughttogether. Why would you callour Chief Minister for a videoconference, if you fear her somuch that you can't even let herspeak?” questioned TMC MPKakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

Former Railway Ministerand TMC leader DineshTrivedi said, “The Governmentof India was worried thatMamata Banerjee will exposethe Modi regime's failure on the

Covid-19 front.”Reacting to the TMC’s

acerbic remarks Bengal BJPpresident Dilip Ghosh saidthat the Chief Minister hasbeen given many chances toshare her views adding theCentre has to keep in its mindsthe interests and views of otherStates too.

He further alleged “everytime the Chief Minister rises tospeak she makes hefty demandfor money despite the fact thatthe Centre is sending loads offunds to the State to fight its sit-uations.” And whenever themoney comes from Delhi “itgoes into the pockets of the cor-rupt party leaders,” he saideven as his party raised a hueand cry over how governmentfunds sent to tackle postAmphan crisis were being loot-ed in Howrah

Meanwhile, the number ofinfections continued to multi-ply fast in Bengal even as theState neared 12,000 mark withabout 500 deaths and morethan 5,500 recoveries.

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Kerala Government heaved a sigh ofrelief as the number of covid-19

patients in the State showed milddecrease during the last two days. OnTuesday 79 persons tested positive forthe pandemic. No deaths have beenreported from the State during the lasttwo days.

Out of the 79 who tested positive onTuesday, 47 were expatriates whoreached the State as part of the VandeBharat Mission and 26 were those fromthe remaining part of the country.There were five instances of communi-ty transmission as the patients testedpositive failed to explain how they gotthe pandemic.

Health Minister K K Shylaja said onTuesday that the State has to be cautiousas more than two lakh expatriates areexpected to return to Kerala in the com-ing weeks. By Tuesday evening Keralahad 110 hotspots. Malappuram districtwith 15 patients topped the table on

Tuesday.The day also saw 60 persons getting

discharged from hospitals fully cured ofcovid-19 pandemic. The minister saidas on Tuesday there were 1,366 patientsundergoing treatment in the State. Shealso disclosed that 210 persons werehospitalized on Tuesday for suspectedcoronavirus infection.

Kerala has tested 1.57 lakh personsfor the pandemic as on Tuesday. TheState administration has simplified lawsregarding the entry of people from otherStates to Kerala.

Persons who have to visit the Statefor emergency have been freed fromquarantining if the stay is for seven days,said a government order. But the visi-tor has to leave the State without fail onthe eighth day. This relaxation will helpthose individuals who have to come tothe State for official work, examinationas well as personal engagements. If thevisitors violate the restrictions, theywould be put under paid quarantine for14 days, said the order.

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Ascientific research paperauthored by Dr B S

Harishankar, internationally knownarchaeologist and member, acade-mic committee, Indian Institute ofAdvanced Studies, Shimla andwhich was published in the ideo-logical weekly ‘Kesari’ has stirred ahornet’s nest in Tamil Nadu andKerala.

The archaeologist, throughmeticulous analysis and documen-tary evidence substantiated by sci-entific findings has charged that theArchaeological Survey of India’sexcavation at Keezhadi in TamilNadu’s Sivaganga district is withulterior motives and for manufac-turing history by hook or crook.Kanimozhi, MP and daughter of lateM K Karunanidhi, has beendescribed as a person trying tomanipulate and meddle with theexcavation.

“All norms associated withexcavation of a spot have been vio-lated by the self styled archaeologistswho are digging at Keezhadi. Thewhole process was shrouded inmystery and they did not allow evena former director of the ASI toexamine their findings. What is theneed for such a secret operationwhile the entire excavations carriedout in other places of the countrywere open books,” Harishankarwho is credited with two post-doc-toral researches, asks in his paper.

The paper “Global

Interventions in KeezhadiExcavations” charges that the per-sons behind the project are out toprove that there existed a separatecivilization in Keezhadi/South Indiaindependent of the civilization thatexisted in North India. “It is a wel-come move but they should havedone it in a transparent manner.While archaeologists like Dr TSatyamurthy, former director, ASIwere kept away from the site, thematerials they dug out were takento a laboratory in the USA to findtheir antiquity. Though there areenough facilities in India itself to testthe materials, they would not givethe result what they expect. Theywant a separate DNA result toestablish a Dravidian race to raiseseparatist agitation,” said ProfHarishanker.

Dr Satyamurthy said thatHarishankar has raised importantreservations against the Keezhadiexcavations. “They failed to publishat least one in situ picture of theexcavated materials. Whatever hashappened in Keezhadi under thepretext of archaeological excavationis dubious and need thoroughprobe. We should not allow anyoneto assemble or manufacture histo-ry by fame means,” Sathyamurthytold The Pioneer.

The first persons to reachKeezhadi once the excavatorsannounced to the outside world thatthey have come across startlingproofs were M K Kanimozhi MPand her long time associate JegathGasper Raj , a Catholic priest who

was closely associated with theLTTE, the Tamil terrorist organi-sation banned in India. Kanimozhieven approached Madras HighCourt pleading for an order stayingthe ASI from taking the samples ofKeezhadi to laboratories which areunder its jurisdiction.

Though the court had obligedby issuing an interim stay, it vacat-ed the stay when ASI furnished therelevant details. But a number ofChristian theologists entered thescene and this vitiated the atmos-phere. “The NGO headed by GasperRaj who was receiving foreigndonations was trying to launch asecessionist movement in TamilNadu aided by the so calledKeezhadi finsings,” said an intelli-gence official tracking the flow offoreign funds to the NGOs active-ly engaged in Keezhadi.

Pattanam, an excavation site inKerala too is a site created by a sec-tion of modern historians to subvertthe history of South India, saidHarishankar and Prof C I Issac,member, Indian Council ofHistorical Research (ICHR). “Oncethey succeed in establishing thatPattanam and Keezhadi were con-nected through common bondageand linked to Rome, the entire land-scape could be manipulated,” ProfIssac told this newspaper.

Tamil Nadu Government’srecent decision to set up a modernmuseum to display the artifactsfrom Keezhadi is a major win forDMK’s Dravidian Nadu project,said Prof Issac.

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Eleven of the 23 accused inthe much-discussed Palghar

triple lynching case lodged incustody at the Wada police sta-tion have tested positive,prompting the district author-ities to close down the policestation and adjoining talukaTehsildar’s office for two days.

“The 11 infected accusedwere among the eleven accusedwho had been kept in policecustody at the Wada police sta-tion. The confirmation abouttheir testing positive came after

the authorities received testreports earlier today,” a seniorPalghar district police officialsaid on Tuesday.

After the receipt of the firstset of test reports, the districtpolice authorities have sentswab samples of six moreaccused who had been lodgedwith the infected accused incustody at the Wada police sta-tion for testing.

Shocked by the develop-ment, the district police author-ities – along with the healthofficials — have set into motionthe process of identifying peo-ple who were exposed to theinfected accused. “As a pre-cautionary measure, we haveclosed down the Wada policestation for two days. Similarly,

we have closed down theadjoining tehsildar’s office fortwo days”.

With Tuesday’s develop-ment, the total number ofaccused in Palghar triple lynch-ing case has gone up to 12.Earlier, one of the accused inthe Palghar triple lynchingcase had tested positive forCovid on May 1, taking He wasincidentally first person tohave tested positive for the pan-demic in Wada taluka ofPalghar district.

The 12 infected accused areamong the 134 persons arrest-ed in connection with thePalghar triple lynching case.

It may be recalled that onthe night of April 16, three per-sons were lynched by a 200-

strong mob of villagers nearKasa town in Maharashtra’sPalghar district on suspicionthat they were child-lifters.

The villagers first hurledstones at the van, promptingthe driver to stop the vehicle.Later, they pulled three personsout of the vehicle and beatthem to death inGadhchinchale village onDabhadi-Khanwel road, withsticks and rods.

The deceased ---identifiedas Chikne MaharajKalpavrukshagiri (70),Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and dri-ver Nilesh Telgade (30) weretravelling to Surat. Of them onewas the diver, while two are res-idents of Kandivli in northMumbai. The place where the

incident took place is approx-imately 120 km from Mumbai.

After the incident, theeKasa police had registered threeFIRs in connection with thelynching and assault on police-men. All the accused had beenarrested a day after the ghast-ly crime.

In the first FIR, the policehad charged 110 accused withmurder under IPC Section302. The court sent them tojudicial custody in this case.

Subsequently, the CrimeInvestigation Department(CID) sleuths of theMaharashtra police, who tookover the investigations intothe case, arrested 24 more per-sons taking the total number ofthe accused in the case to 134.

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Junaid Azim Mattu, sitting Mayor ofSrinagar Municipal Corporation,

Tuesday lost the crucial floor test inresponse to a no-confidence motionjointly moved against him by theindependent corporators in the house.

However, Mattu blamed both theBJP and National Conference for join-ing hands together to show him the exitdoor.

Congress party with 17 corporatorsabstained along with 11 other inde-pendent candidates during the crucialvoting. “The vote of ‘No ConfidenceMotion’ against me, and the@JKPC_has been passed in the SMCwith 42 votes out of 70,” Mattu said ina tweet while blaming the BJP andNational Conference for voting himout.

Mattu had earlier survived thefloor test in December 2019 winning50 votes in a house of 70.

“The seemingly unthinkable seemsto have happened as @JKNC_and@BJP4India have come together inSrinagar,” he said.

The BJP, however, distanced itselffrom the matter, saying former deputymayor Sheikh Imran was behind themove to bring the present no confi-dence motion.

“Earlier, we had filed no confidencemotion against the Mayor but this timeindependent corporators have filed noconfidence motion against him led byformer Deputy Mayor Shiekh Imran,”said BJP’s media in-charge ManzoorBhat. Exposing the joint strategy of theBJP and National Conference, Mattuwrote a series of tweets after losing thetrust vote.

To begin with, Mattu wrote, “Didn’twant to speak about technical realitiesof today’s floor test in SMC and it’sresult but the record needs to be setstraight about @JKNC_’s exclusiveand facilitatory role in ensuring the suc-cess of the BJP-engineered, orchestratedand backed ‘No Confidence Motion’

“The ‘No Confidence Motion’ waselaborately engineered by the BJPState General Secretary and otheroffice-bearers. This is evidenced by thecaveat and the fact that the gentlemanwho proposed it was the Counting

Agent for BJP in the last Dy. Mayoralelection in December.” he wrote in aseparate tweet

This is the second ‘No ConfidenceMotion’ against @JKPC_ by the BJP insix months! The architects, engineers,allies and players more or less remainedthe same. The strategy - to seemlesslybring together BJP and NC alsoremained the same.

Earlier, the National Conferencevice president and former ChiefMinister, Omar Abdullah had made itclear that in no case his party would goalong with the BJP during the votingprocess against the Mayor.

But after the voting was over, theNational Conference (NC) expelledfour of its corporators for defying theparty whip during the SrinagarMunicipal Corporation voting in whichthe Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu lost theno-confidence motion

“ Four corporators of the NCincluding Neelofar, Danish Bhat, MajidShulloo and G.N. Sofi were expelled fordefying the party whip to abstainfrom the voting process in the SMC, “said the statement issued by the NC.

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,,����19� ���������� �� ����������� ��������:��Bengaluru: Domestic andinternational returnees as wellas infections in contacts ofearlier coronavirus patientscontributed to 317 new cases inKarnataka, taking the state'stotal tally to 7,530, an officialsaid on Tuesday.

The new cases were report-ed from 5 pm on Monday till5 pm on Tuesday, said a healthofficial. On a positive note, 322patients were discharged.

Of the total cases, 4,456patients have been discharged,94 have died while 72 areadmitted in the ICUs. Thenumber of patients in ICUs was56 earlier on.

Domestic returnees werethe biggest contributor to thenew infections -- 107 or 34 per

cent. In all, 99 or 93 per cent ofthe returnees have travel his-tory to Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, corona caseswith international travel histo-ry have been rising consistent-ly. As many as 78 such newcases were reported onTuesday, all returnees fromthe United Arab Emirates.

Among the new cases, 222are males and 95 females,including 19 children below theage of 10.

Covid cases spiked inDakshina Kannada,Kalaburagi, Ballari, BengaluruUrban, Dharwad, Udupi,Shivamogga, Yadgir, Raichur,Uttara Kannada, and Hassan.

Of the new cases, DakshinaKannada contributed 79, fol-lowed by Kalaburagi (63),Ballari (53), Bengaluru Urban(47), Dharwad (8), Udupi andShivamogga (7 each), Yadgirand Raichur (6 each), Hassan(5), Vijayapura, Mysuru,Gadag, Ramanagara,Chikkamagaluru and Koppal(4 each), Belagavi (3), Bidar (2),and Tumkur (1). IANS

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Devotees would not beallowed into the famous

Hindu temple atop theChamundi hills in Karnataka'sMysuru on Fridays of Hinducalendar month ‘Ashada',beginning June 22, to preventcrowding amid the Covid-induced lockdown, a top offi-cial said on Tuesday.

“As thousands of devoteesthrong the Chamundeshwaritemple atop the hill during theauspicious month of Ashada,especially on Fridays and theweekends, we have decided toban their entry to preventcrowding and avoid gettinginfected by the virus,” MysuruDeputy CommissionerAbhiram Shankar told IANShere.

Mysuru, the southernstate's cultural capital and pop-ular tourist spot, is about150km southwest of Bengaluru.

The temple on the city'soutskirts, however, will be openfor devotees from Monday toThursday, as per the extendedlockdown guidelines. Devoteesmust wear mask, maintainphysical distance and not bringholy water to sprinkle or offerprasadam to the presidingdeity.

“Since the temple was re-

opened on June 8 under unlock1.0 after remaining shut for 75days since March 25 due to theextended lockdown, about2,000-6,000 devotees, includingwomen and children, havebeen visiting it daily as per theguidelines,” Shankar said.

The ban will also apply onJuly 13, though a Monday,which marks the birthday ofthe goddess, which is celebrat-ed as Chamundi VaradanthiUtsav (fest).

“The temple's priests willbe allowed to conduct ritualsand other activities from Fridayto Sunday as on other four daysof a week till Ashada ends onJuly 20,” said Shankar.

Admitting that it's the firsttime due to the Covid-19induced lockdown that thedistrict administration wasforced to enforce the ban onthree days of a week till Ashadaends, Shankar said the areaaround the temple was smalland the passage to it throughthe hill was narrow to allow somany people gather at a time.

“As per the guidelines to allreligious places of worship,large congregations or gather-ings are not allowed to ensuresocial distancing. Even com-munity feeding is banned,”said Shankar.

Guwahati: With coronavirus infections on the rise,ahead of the formulation of new strategies, theAssam government has decided to launch the AssamTargeted Surveillance Programme (ATSP) onWednesday to randomly test 50,000 samples in 11days, according to officials here on Tuesday.

Assam Principal Secretary (Health and FamilyWelfare) Samir Kumar Sinha said the random test-ing under the ATSP would be conducted in four cat-egories of people.

In his order, which was tagged to the twitter han-dle of Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,Sinha said under the ATSP, random testing of peo-ple and workers involved in truck parking, loadingand unloading of goods, including railway goodsand godowns, would be conducted.

Similar random testing would be conducted onall frontline district officials, including healthworkers, police personnel, officials of the transportdepartment and the district administration, thoseassociated with Covid-19 management, hotel staffand family members of people released from theinstitutional quarantine centres.

Earlier, the Health Minister said if a sizable num-ber of positive cases were found after testing 50,000samples, several stringent measures, includingtotal lockdown, would be re-imposed in Guwahatiand other vulnerable places.

“The new strategies are being considered tocheck the coronavirus spread in Assam,” Sarma said.

Assam has tested 2.20 lakh samples and found4,319 Covid-19 cases. It has now 2,103 active cases.While 2,205 patients have recovered, eight people,including a 16 years-old girl, died. Assam's neigh-bour Mizoram, which has inter-state borders withCovid-19-hit Tripura and Manipur, on June 8 re-imposed lockdown for two more weeks to curb thecoronavirus spread following return of natives fromdifferent parts of the country. IANS

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Ahead of the 6th Centre-states interaction through

video link on Wednesday,Karnataka has decided to seekfrom Prime Minister NarendraModi leeway from lockdownguidelines in force till June 30to contain Covid-19 spread.

“In my interaction with thePrime Minister on Wednesday,I will seek more relaxations aswe have no plans to re-imposelockdown,” Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa said in Kannada,here on Tuesday.

Unlike other states,Karnataka has unlocked par-tially since June 7 to restorenormal life and revive eco-nomic activity in non-con-tainment areas as it has beenable to limit the pandemic'sspread.

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Amaravati: With 193 newCovid-19 cases, AndhraPradesh's cumulative tallyreached 5,281 by 9 a.m ofTuesday, said the state nodalofficer.

With two more deaths dur-ing the period, the Covid-19toll climbed to 88. One deathwas reported from the Chittoordistrict and the other from thePrakasam district.

Over the past few days, thestate's mortality rate has beenimproving steadily. OnTuesday, it declined to 1.31 percent from 1.33 per cent.Andhra Pradesh stands 13th interms of mortality. The nation-al mortality rate during the daywas 2.89 per cent.

Meanwhile, the cumulativetally of active cases climbed to2,341 against Monday's 2,231,the nodal officer reported.

In a sign of relief for thestate, the number of activecases is lower than recoveries.During the day, 81 people weredischarged from hospitals, tak-ing the cumulative tally ofcured people to 2,851.

Meanwhile, 15,911 testswere conducted in the past 24hours, the nodal officer said.On Monday 15,173 tests hadbeen conducted. IANS

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Prevailing tension in easternLadakh during the ongoing dis-engagement exploded into a fatalclash on Monday night in theGalwan River Valley but without

any exchange of fire though casualties onboth sides were reported. Expectedly, theChinese have blamed the Indian soldiersfor the incident. The Global Times saysChina never announces its casualties. Thisbrutal scuffle between the two nationsbreaks the 45-year-old record of a de factoceasefire and no casualties. This is akin tothe erstwhile Helsinki agreement duringthe Cold War. The site of the fatal clashindicates the military importance of theGalwan River Valley and the determinationof both sides not to yield. Violent scuffleshave the potential to escalate into the useof military weapons that will open a sec-ond front for India, which we can ill-afford.Military diplomacy has serious limits.Going by the events that have followed,Army Chief Gen MM Naravane’s con-tention last Saturday that a lot of disengage-ment has taken place in Galwan does notappear to be an accurate assessment.

Rewind to May 5. Two French wordsencapsulate the incursions and their chang-ing patterns. Fait accompli: Like the Russianannexation of Crimea, China’s aggressionin the South China Sea and its intended butfailed territorial assertion in Doklam. Anddéjà vu: Such incursions have occurred inthe past at Depsang Valley (2013) Chumar(2014) and Sumdorong Chu Valley (1986).But the present month-long multiple intru-sions in Galwan, Pangong Tso and HotSprings area in Ladakh and Nakula inSikkim are different. They are well-planned,large-scale, violent and sanctioned at thehighest political level.

China enjoys distinct superiority in thebalance of military power and infrastruc-ture in areas of contestation. These coer-cive actions target India’s strategic highway,running parallel to the Line of Control(LAC) from Darbuk-Shyokh-Daulat BegOldie (DSDBO) near the Karakoram Pass,which threatens its dominance in Ladakh,especially the disputed Aksai Chin roadlinking Xinjiang with Tibet. Reasons forchange in Beijing’s behaviour?Compensation for China’s reputationalloss due to the mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic; to pacify its domestic audi-ence; display its strength as it did duringthe recently concluded National People’sCongress plenary session; and warningIndia that it can create pressure points alongthe border should it attempt any contain-ment strategy.

China’s strategy of territorial creep hasbeen perfected over the decades on theTibetan border to enlarge disputed areas,extend claim lines and construct roads andfortifications a la Doklam. The People’sLiberation Army (PLA) is perenniallyexploring weaknesses along the disputed

LAC to block India’s legitimateright of patrolling up to itsclaim line while permittingthe PLA a free run. Theincreased display of territorialnationalism — not give up aninch of territory — is in syncwith Chinese President XiJinping’s “China Dream” andexhortation of the PLA in bat-tle readiness. Overall, it invokesSun Tzu’s dictum of winningbattles without fighting.

There is a larger PLA gameplan. Miffed by Union HomeMinister Amit Shah’s vow toretake the Aksai Chin inAugust 2019, following thereading down of Article 370and making Ladakh a UnionTerritory, Beijing wants to pro-vide additional depth to the dis-puted Aksai Chin highway.With short supply lines on theIndian side and improved con-nectivity in eastern Ladakh, thePLA sees this as a long-termthreat. Its contingency plansinclude pushing Indiandefences west of Shyok riverand south of Indus river up toits 1960 LAC claim line. It wor-ries that the Indian road toDaulat Beg Oldi near theKarakoram Pass can pose athreat to the KarakoramHighway and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). On the other hand, ifChina can isolate the

Karakoram Pass, it could gainaccess to the Siachen glacierand join hands with its ironbrother, Pakistan. It is the real-isation of this strategic wedgethat India must prevent.

Maintaining ambiguity onLAC is China’s masterstroke.India tried unsuccessfully in2002 to exchange maps depict-ing each other’s presence andperception of LAC between thethen Foreign Secretary KanwalSibal and his counterpart WangYi, currently Foreign Ministerand Special Representative forborder talks. Similarly, theambitious decision in 2005, toskip LAC clarification andforge a political framework forthe resolution of the boundaryquestion, was aborted. In 2014,during Xi’s visit to India, PrimeMinister Modi urged that bothcountries accept a commonLAC but Xi ignored therequest. The SR dialogue hasbecome about feel good.

India’s strategic culture hascultivated in military psyche areactive strategy except in the1971 war. So in Kargil, theinfantry was assaulting uphill,taking avoidable casualties todislodge Pakistani intrusionsand so on. But atSumdorongchu, though thesecond mover, India’s build-upwas so swift and overwhelmingthat the PLA recognised the

signal of strength. Althoughrestoration of status quo antetook a year, the show ofstrength facilitated a Chineseinvitation to the then PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi toBeijing, breaking the decade-long political hiatus.

China’s escalation is notonly horizontal but also verti-cal. The PLA has shown it canbrazenly intrude at a time andplace of its choosing. That, too,without the use of firearms andcause death and injuries. Of thefive intrusions, one of thehighest strategic concerns forChina is the Galwan valley. Inthese columns last week, thesterling value of Galwan in thedomination of Shyok river andthe highway to DBO wasexplained. Its occupation in1961 by 4/8 Gorkhas and itsloss in 1962 indicate why thePLA covets the strategic enclaveand will not vacate it withouta significant trade-off.

It may use other tacticalintrusions as a bargaining chipfor retention of more valuedreal estate. The absence ofIndia’s will and deterrence isstark. In the mid-1980s, afterSumdorongchu, the IndianArmy had prepared contingen-cies for tit-for-tat operations.Fortunately, the military bal-ance was less adverse thenthan now. Still, operations to

counter the PLA pressurepoints along LAC are needed.Holes in the numerous borderprotocols that have encouragedPLA encroachments need plug-ging. India should offset itscontinental handicap byexploiting its maritime superi-ority in the Indian Ocean tobuzz Chinese vessels con-fronting their Malacca dilem-ma.

Ironically, the fatal clashesare coinciding with the 70thanniversary of India-Chinarelations when both countriesare combating a calamitousCOVID pandemic. The lastfatal incident along the LACwas in 1975 in ArunachalPradesh when the PLAambushed an Assam Riflespatrol, killing 11 soldiers. Asmilitary diplomacy has exposedits weakness, it is essential thatthe 45-day standoff is defusedthrough politico-diplomaticintervention at the highestlevel. New Delhi’s bottom line:Restoration of status quo anteMay 5 will be a long andpainful process. The centre ofgravity is the Galwan RiverValley.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander IPKFSouth, Sri Lanka and foundermember of the Defence PlanningStaff, currently the IntegratedDefence Staff.)

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Sir — The opinion of a group ofexperts that the lockdown was ofno use is incorrect. It ensured thatthe number of cases remained lowand occurred over a longer peri-od of time. This allowed theGovernment to mobilise medicalresources. People, too, got habit-uated to avoiding various socialactivities. Now that restrictions arebeing lifted, we ought to be cau-tious as economic activities con-tinue. On its part, theGovernment must enhance test-ing. No doubt, many lives havebeen disrupted and lost but couldit have been better without thelockdown? I don’t think so. Today,India’s COVID-19 death rate is notanywhere close to countries withsimilar number of positive cases.

Ravi Teja KathuripalliHyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Nepal’s map war” (June 16). It wasnot unexpected that policymakersin Nepal would vote in favour ofthe inclusion of Lipulekh, Kalapaniand Limpiyadhura in the redrawn

map of the country. TheConstitutional Amendment Billwas passed unanimously in theHouse of Representatives and islikely to be passed in the upperHouse as well. It seems that bothChina and Nepal are taking anaggressive stand against Indiawhen it comes to border disputes.

The Centre must strive to resolvethis issue at the earliest and worktowards rebuilding diplomaticrelations between the two coun-tries. If the conflict escalates anyfurther, China might end up beingthe only one to emerge victorious.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Highest single-day spike of 178deaths in Maha” (June 16). Dataand anecdotal evidence showIndia’s healthcare system is unpre-pared to handle the jump in virus

cases. While private hospitals aretoo expensive, Government hos-pitals are overwhelmed asCOVID-19 patients pour in andhospital staff work around theclock. It is vital to focus on PPEkits, safety, salary or even strate-gies to keep the doctors de-stressed in these hard times.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

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Sir — Bollywood actor SushantSingh Rajput’s death has lefteveryone shocked. If depressionwas the killer, it shows howimportant it is for society tohave a conversation about men-tal health. We must let go of thestigma attached to the health ofour minds. We all wear big smilesto show the world how happy weare, all the while isolating our-selves. We have all been there atsome point in our lives. Shareyour stories. Sometimes justspeaking to someone will let youprocess your emotions.

KanikaVia email

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On June 2, the Trump administrationannounced a probe into digital ser-vices taxes that have been eitheradopted or are under considerationby its trading partners viz, Austria,

Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union(EU), India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey andthe UK. This refers to the so-called “Section 301investigation” by the United States TradeRepresentative (USTR) to determine whetherlevies on electronic commerce discriminateagainst US technological giants like Apple,Google, Amazon and so on. The probe could leadto the US imposing tariffs on exports from thesecountries. The reaction of the US and the pro-posed retaliatory measures are triggered by gen-uine actions by the aforementioned countries (andmany others) to salvage a grim situation, where-by they are losing billions of dollars in taxes dueto the manipulative practices of multinational cor-porations (MNCs) in the digital space — most ofthem based in America.

While some countries (for instance, Franceand India) have taken measures to make theMNCs pay the taxes, structured efforts are beingmade under the aegis of the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development(OECD) to arrive at a so-called BEPS (base ero-sion profit shifting) framework agreement. Over135 countries are participating in this project (85have already signed the multilateral instrumenton BEPS) that will form the basis for such taxa-tion.

The OECD had released a draft on “taxingdigital companies” on October 9, 2019. However,progress on this has been stymied by theCoronavirus crisis. The original deadline to com-plete the negotiations was this year, which nowgets shifted to the next year. Meanwhile, it isimportant to unravel the modus operandi used bytechnological giants to dodge tax authorities inthese countries and steps taken by India, a majorsource of income for them, to deal with it.

How does the Indian Government establishits jurisdiction to tax them on their operations inthe country (a bone of contention between theMNC’s host country and India)? What could bethe criteria to bring them under the tax net? Howfar can India go in building a consensus at theOECD around its stance?

By nature, operations of MNCs are transna-tional with entities located in several countriesinvolving a high-level of interdependence andcross-border flows of goods and services betweenthem, as also direct supplies to retailers and con-sumers. For firms such as Google, Facebook andAmazon among others doing business in digitalmode, physical boundaries get blurred. Theystructure their investment arms through a mazeof subsidiaries held outside India in low-tax juris-dictions such as Singapore, Mauritius, Ireland andamong others.

These technology giants invoice Indian cus-tomers via these offshore entities despite havingsignificant revenue, users or paying customers inthe country even as their Indian entity is craftedmore like a service company or commission agentto the parent company located abroad. This helpsthem in booking an overwhelming share of rev-enues in the parent company (registered in a taxhaven) while a very small portion of service/com-mission revenue and income is reported in theentity registered in India.

The firms may be getting away by not pay-ing tax in the source country (India in this case)but the fact remains that their profits are com-

ing from users located within the Indianterritory. Hence, it is none other than theGovernment of India (GOI), which hasthe right to tax these profits. The juris-diction to tax lies with it. This positionis also endorsed by the OECD under theBEPS framework agreement. It states:“Profits of MNCs should be available fortaxation in the country where their cus-tomers are, irrespective of any physicalpresence in that market, and that a for-mula should be evolved for such taxa-tion.”

Coming to the steps taken by India,in 2016, the Government had introducedthe so-called “Google Tax” — alsoknown as Equalisation Levy — with anintent to tax the Business to Business(B2B), e–commerce transactions/digi-tal transactions. The tax is levied at sixper cent on the payment made by a res-ident firm to foreign e-commerce com-panies for online advertisements on thelatter’s platform.

While making a payment, the resi-dent firm has to deduct tax from theconsideration payable to say, Google, anddeposit it to the department. Forinstance, if the consideration is�10,00,000, then the former has towithhold six per cent or �60,000 and paythe net amount of �9,40,000 (the so-called equalisation amount) to the lat-ter. The Google tax of �60,000 is paid tothe legislature. Through an amendmentto the Finance Act, 2020, the scope ofequalisation levy was extended to “allsales, gross receipts or turnover of non-residents not having a PermanentEstablishment (PE is a fixed place ofbusiness normally located in the terri-tory of the source country), who is pro-viding the online sale of goods or pro-vision of services or both to a personresiding in India or a non-resident inspecific circumstances, such as the saleof advertisement targetted to the Indian

market or sale of data collected from theIndian market.” This levy is at two percent on the sum received or receivableby an e-commerce operator and ispayable directly to the CentralGovernment on a quarterly basis.

Whereas the tax imposed in 2016had very limited coverage (revenuefrom online advertisements), the two percent levy introduced this year coversalmost every good and service provid-ed or facilitated by the internet giants.

But this approach is riddled with adhocism and arbitrariness. There is nobasis for having two widely divergentrates depending on the source of revenueviz, online advertisements versus all oth-ers. Besides, the “all others” category isopen-ended and loosely-worded thatleaves room for discretion.

What is even worse is that being alevy on the turnover/gross receipts(instead of profit which is the way itshould be — as the intent is to tax theprofits of MNCs), these are akin to indi-rect tax, which the technological giantsconveniently recover from Indian usersby correspondingly inflating theircharges. They have been doing so in thecase of six per cent levy on advertisingrevenue (in the above example, the res-ident firm is billed for �10,60,000) andwill do the same with respect to two percent levy on goods and services imposedthis year.

This defeats the purpose as insteadof making the technological giants payup, Indian firms end up paying more.Besides, the arbitrariness in thisapproach to taxation leaves the countryopen to criticism. What then is the wayforward? How does GOI get these for-eign firms to pay taxes on the earningsfrom their operations here?

In the normal course, for a foreignfirm having a PE from where it conductstransactions — including sales made in

India — and maintains accounts viz.receipts, expenditure, profit and so onfor local operations, the tax departmenthas a smooth sail. But technologicalgiants don’t have a PE on Indian soil.

To overcome this hurdle, in 2018, acommittee set up by the Central Boardof Direct Taxes (CBDT) had mooted theconcept of digital permanent establish-ment (DPE). The Income-Tax Act pro-vides for levy of tax on the profit attrib-uted to the Indian operations of such off-shore enterprises in the country.

The committee proposed tax at therate of 30-40 per cent, depending on theuser base and revenues (only firms witha user base over 2,00,000 would be con-sidered). As a follow up, in the FinanceAct 2018, the Government proposed that“such offshore firms should be taxed inIndia if they have a market presenceabove a threshold to be defined in termsof their customer base and revenue.” Butthis needs an amendment to India’s taxtreaties with all its trade and investmentpartners. The task will be greatly facil-itated once the BEPS framework agree-ment is put in place. The Governmentshould, therefore, work for early finali-sation of the agreement.

It should vigorously pursue theDPE concept at the OECD and also getready with a criteria for treating a for-eign company as DPE. The criteriashould give appropriate weight to threecrucial parameters viz, the number ofusers, paying customers or annual rev-enue. The tax rate on such companiestreated as DPE should be at par with therate applicable to domestic companies.

Meanwhile, the US should desistfrom its proclaimed actions as India (likeother affected countries) is only tryingto correct a wrong that is being perpe-trated by its technological giants.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst)

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Apolitical slugfest is going on inthe big State of Maharashtraeven as the Uddhav

Thackeray-led coalitionGovernment is trying to face the out-break of the pandemic. While theBJP is yet to reconcile with the ascen-dency of the Shiv Sena supremo BalThackeray, it is becoming aggressiveand is aspiring for power. State BJPleaders are demanding the imposi-tion of President’s Rule inMaharashtra, claiming that the Chief

Minister has failed to check the pan-demic. According to insiders, theBJP is not willing to stake claim atthis point of time. It only wants toget rid of the Uddhav Governmentand rule the State through theCentre.

In the 288-member MaharashtraAssembly, the Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) enjoys the support of 170 leg-islators, including 56 members fromthe Shiv Sena, 54 from theNationalist Congress Party (NCP),44 from the Congress and somesmaller parties. The BJP has 105seats and claims the support of 13other legislators. The boat can berocked any time by encouragingdefection.

Though Chief Minister UddhavThackeray took over in Novemberlast year, he is yet to settle downbecause of various reasons. Thefirst is the nature of the coalition,

which he is currently heading. It wasan unnatural one as there is nothingcommon between his party, theShiv Sena, and the partners,Congress and the NCP. It was anopportunistic coalition and the mainreason for their coming together wasto prevent the BJP from coming topower in the State.

The second and more importantreason is the inexperience of theChief Minister in public administra-tion. Maharashtra is a big State andMumbai is the financial capital of thecountry. Hence, it needs a capableman at the helm. But before he couldcome to grips with the responsibil-ity thrust upon him and learn theropes of the job, Uddhav’s imagetook a beating due to theCoronavirus outbreak.

His inexperience was seen in theway he handled the migrant crisis.He is still learning the tough task of

governance. He did not chalk out aproper COVID-19 strategy, with theresult that today Maharashtra reportsthe highest number of COVID-19cases and the tally is still growing.Uddhav even faced a crisis regard-ing his election to the legislature andhe managed to get elected only afterhis SOS to Prime Minister NarendraModi last month. It is not clear whyhe did not take the help of experi-enced State Congress leaders or theNCP chief Sharad Pawar in tacklingthe pandemic.

Third, Uddhav is facing troublenot only from outside but also fromwithin the coalition. For instance, theCongress keeps demanding itspound of flesh at every step. This isclear from the comments made byCongress leader Rahul Gandhi at amedia conference recently. TheGandhi scion remarked that thoughthe Congress was part of the MVA

and holds key Ministries, “I wouldlike to make a differentiation here.We are supporting the Governmentin Maharashtra but we are not thekey decision-maker in Maharashtra.We are the key decision-maker inPunjab; we are the key decision-maker in Chhattisgarh, in Rajasthan,in Puducherry. So, there is a differ-ence between running aGovernment and supporting aGovernment.”

Local party leaders complainthat Uddhav has not been consult-ing them. According to them, dur-ing the formation of the UddhavGovernment, the Congress got plumportfolios, considering its strengthin the State Assembly. It was alsodecided that the Legislative Councilseats and corporations would be dis-tributed equally among the threeparties of the MVA Government.However, things are not going as per

the discussions. Fourth, the role ofthe NCP chief, who was instrumen-tal in the formation of the UddhavGovernment, is intriguing. Eyebrowswere raised at his recent meetingamid political instability in the Statewith Governor BS Hoshyari, the firstsince the the latter took charge.

Pawar’s meeting is interesting asit came in the wake of the demandfrom the State BJP leaders for impo-sition of President’s Rule inMaharashtra. This demand has beenmade by key leaders, including for-mer Chief Ministers Narayan Raneand Devendra Fadnavis, both ofwhom met the Governor last week.Interestingly, both the Raj Bhavanand the Pawar camp described it asa courtesy call. Pawar is consideredto be one of the ablest Chief Ministersand shrewdest political minds in thecountry. But there is barely any evi-dence of Uddhav consulting his

coalition partners and his Cabinetcolleagues on a regular basis. It is thebabus who are said to be running theshow in the State currently.

Therefore, it is not surprisingthat Uddhav has not been allowed tosettle down either by his coalitionpartners or the main Opposition, theBJP. Though Uddhav managed tokeep the Sena afloat after the deathof its founder Bal Thackeray all theseyears, running a Government is dif-ferent and this is where he needs tostrengthen himself. He needs goodadvisors. Other players, too, shouldrealise that this is not the time forplaying toppling games. The first pri-ority should be to tackle the out-break. Politics can wait. After all,people elect them as their represen-tatives and they cannot fail to servepublic interests.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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North Korea blew up aninter-Korean liaison office

building just north of the heav-ily armed border with SouthKorea on Tuesday, in a carefullychoreographed, largely sym-bolic display of anger that putspressure on Washington andSeoul amid deadlocked nucleardiplomacy.

Although the building wasempty and the North had pre-viously signaled its plans todestroy it, the move is still themost provocative act by NorthKorea since it entered nucleartalks in 2018 after a U.S.-NorthKorean standoff had manyfearing war. It will pose a seri-ous setback to the efforts of lib-eral South Korean PresidentMoon Jae-in to engage theNorth.

North Korea’s officialKorean Central News Agencysaid the country destroyed theoffice in a “terrific explosion”because its “enraged people”were determined to “force (the)human scum, and those whohave sheltered the scum, to paydearly for their crimes,” appar-ently referring to North Koreandefectors living in South Koreawho for years have floated

anti-Pyongyang leaflets acrossthe border.

The news agency did notdetail how the office in theNorth Korean border town ofKaesong was destroyed.

South Korea’s governmentlater released military surveil-lance video showing clouds ofsmoke rising from the groundas a building collapsed at anow-shuttered joint industrialpark in Kaesong where the liai-son office stood.

South Korea issued astatement expressing “strongregret” over the destruction ofthe building, warning of astern response if North Koreatakes additional steps thataggravate tensions.

The statement, issued fol-lowing an emergency NationalSecurity Council meeting, saidthe demolition is “an act thatbetrays hopes for an improve-ment in South-North Koreanrelations and the establish-ment of peace on the KoreanPeninsula.”

South Korea’s DefenseMinistry said separately that itclosely monitors North Koreanmilitary activities and was pre-pared to strongly counter anyfuture provocations. TheSouth’s vice unification minis-

ter, Suh Ho, who was Seoul’stop official at the liaison office,called the demolition an“unprecedentedly senseless act”that shocked “not only our peo-ple, but the whole world.”

The North said last weekthat it was cutting off all gov-ernment and military commu-nication channels with the Southwhile threatening to abandonbilateral peace agreements

reached during North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un’s three sum-mits with Moon in 2018.

Some outside analystsbelieve the North, after failingto get what it wants in nucleartalks, will turn to provocationto win outside concessionsbecause its economy has like-ly worsened because of persis-tent U.S.-led sanctions and thecoronavirus pandemic. North

Korea may also be frustratedbecause the sanctions preventSeoul from breaking away fromWashington to resume jointeconomic projects withPyongyang.

South Korea’s response toTuesday’s demolition was rel-atively strong compared to pastprovocations. Moon’s govern-ment has faced criticism that itdidn’t take tough measureswhen North Korea performeda series of short-range weaponstests targeting South Koreaover the past year.

Moon, a liberal who cham-pions greater reconciliationwith North Korea, shuttledbetween Pyongyang andWashington to help set up thefirst summit between Kim andPresident Donald Trump inJune 2018.

The liaison office has beenshut since late January becauseof coronavirus concerns. Theoffice, built with South Koreanmoney at a reported cost of$8.3 million, was opened inSeptember 2018 to facilitatebetter communication andexchanges between the Koreas.It was the first such officebetween the countries sincethey were divided into a U.S.-backed South Korea and a

Soviet-supported North Koreaat the end of the World War IIin 1945. The office was con-sidered a symbol of Moon’sengagement policy.

North Korea had earlierthreatened to demolish theoffice as it stepped up its fieryrhetoric over what it calledSeoul’s failure to stop civiliancampaigns to drop anti-Pyongyang leaflets into theNorth. South Korea said itwould take steps to ban theleafleting, but North Koreaargued that the South Koreanresponse lacked sincerity.

On Saturday night, Kim YoJong, the influential sister ofNorth Korea’s leader, warnedthat Seoul will soon witness “atragic scene of the uselessNorth-South liaison office (inNorth Korea) being complete-ly collapsed.” She also said shewould leave to North Korea’smilitary the right to take thenext step of retaliation againstSouth Korea.

North Korea has threat-ened to dismantle the shutteredKaesong factory complex com-pletely and abandon a 2018bilateral tension-reductionagreement, which observerssay could allow the North totrigger clashes along the land

and sea borders.Earlier Tuesday, North

Korea’s military threatened tomove back into unspecifiedborder areas that have beendemilitarized under agree-ments with South Korea and“turn the front line into afortress.”

On Monday, Moon urgedNorth Korea to stop raisinganimosities and return to talks,saying the two Koreas must notreverse the 2018 inter-Koreansummit deals.

North Korea has a historyof taking highly visual symbolicsteps for political gains. It invit-ed foreign journalists to watchthe detonation of its under-ground nuclear testing tunnelsin 2018 and the demolition ofa cooling tower at its mainnuclear complex in 2008. Bothevents were an attempt by theNorth to show it was seriousabout denuclearization amidrampant outside skepticismabout its commitment.

“It’s hard to see how suchbehavior will help the Kimregime get what it wants fromthe world, but clearly suchimages will be used for domes-tic propaganda,” said Leif-EricEasley, a professor at EwhaUniversity in Seoul.

The Koreas’ neighborsvoiced concerns over Tuesday’sdemolition. Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe said hehopes tensions between theKoreas will not escalate further,adding that Japan will cooper-ate closely with Seoul andWashington while analyzingthe development.

In China, the North’s majordiplomatic ally, foreign min-istry spokesman Zhao Lijiansaid that “we always hope thatthe Korean Peninsula will maintain peaceand stability.”

Inter-Korean relations havebeen strained since the break-down of a second summitbetween Kim and Trump inVietnam in early 2019. Thesummit fell apart because ofdisputes over how much sanc-tions relief the North should getin return for Kim’s dismantlingof his main nuclear complex,which was seen as a limiteddenuclearization measure.

After the Vietnam summit,inter-Korean relations turnedsour again. Kim entered 2020vowing to expand his nucleararsenal, introduce a new strate-gic weapon and overcome theUS-led sanctions that he said“stifles” his country’s economy.

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Melbourne: Australia on Tuesdaylashed out at China and Russia forspreading “disinformation” duringthe coronavirus pandemic andasserted that it would continue topush for reform of global bodiessuch as the WHO.

Delivering a speech at theAustralian National University inCanberra, Foreign Minister MarisePayne underlined that theEuropean Commission last weekissued a report which revealed thatforeign actors and countries, led byRussia and China, had carried out“targeted disinformation cam-paigns” aimed at underminingdemocratic debate and stokingconfusion about the pandemic.

The following day, she said,Twitter suspended over 32,000accounts linked to state-run pro-paganda operations in China,Russia and Turkey, the SydneyMorning Herald reported.

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New Zealand is no longer free fromthe new coronavirus after health

officials say two women who flew fromLondon to see a dying parent had test-ed positive. But before they were tested,the women had been given an exemp-tion to leave quarantine on compas-sionate grounds and had traveled fromAuckland to Wellington by car.

Director-General of Health AshleyBloomfield said that as part of their trav-el plan, the women had no contact withany people or any public facilities ontheir road trip.

Nevertheless, the new cases havesparked a round of testing in NewZealand for anybody who might havebeen close to the women.

That includes passengers and staff ontheir flights, which arrived via Brisbanein Australia, other people at theAuckland hotel they initially stayed at inquarantine, and a family member theymet in Wellington.

����� �;��;�

Low doses of the steroid dexametha-sone can reduce deaths by

one-third in severely affected Covid-19 patients, according toresearchers who assessed the performanceof the inexpensive drug in more than2,100 people.

The analysis is part of the RECOV-ERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) trial which was establishedto test a range of potential therapies forCovid-19, including low-dose dexam-ethasone — a steroid treatment.

The RECOVERY trial included over11,500 patients, enrolled from morethan 175 hospitals in the UK, noted astatement published by the University ofOxford on Tuesday.

In the trial, a total of 2,104 patientswere randomised to receive dexametha-sone six milligrammes once per day —either by mouth or by intravenous injec-tion — for ten days, and were comparedwith 4,321 patients randomised to usualcare alone.

Among the patients who receivedusual care alone, mortality was highest inthose who required ventilation (41 percent), intermediate in those patientswho required oxygen only (25 per cent),and lowest among those who did notrequire any respiratory intervention (13per cent), the scientists said.

They found that dexamethasonereduced deaths by one-third in ventilat-ed patients, and by one fifth in otherpatients receiving oxygen only.

However, the researchers said therewas no benefit from dexamethasoneamong the patients who did not requirerespiratory support.

Based on these results, the scientistsbelieve that the drug could prevent near-ly one death in the treatment of aroundeight ventilated patients, or around 25patients requiring oxygen alone.

“Dexamethasone is the first drug tobe shown to improve survival in Covid-19. This is an extremely welcome result,”said Peter Horby, one of the chief inves-tigators of the trial from the Universityof Oxford in the UK.

“The survival benefit is clear andlarge in those patients who are sickenough to require oxygen treatment, sodexamethasone should now becomestandard of care in these patients,” Horbysaid. The drug, according to the scientists,is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can beused immediately to save lives worldwide.

“These preliminary results from theRECOVERY trial are very clear — dex-amethasone reduces the risk of deathamong patients with severe respiratorycomplications,” said Martin Landray,another chief investigator of the trial fromthe University of Oxford.

Los Angeles: A man was shoton Monday as a heavily armedmilitia group attempted todefend a statue from US pro-testors in New Mexico, officialsand media reports said.

Monuments linked to colo-nialism and slavery are beingtoppled and removed globally asworldwide anti-racism protestscontinue after the death in USpolice custody of George Floyd,an unarmed black man.

Albuquerque city protesterswere demanding the removal ofa statue of the state’s 16th-cen-tury governor, Spanish con-quistador Juan de Onate,according to local media. Asthey tried to pull down thesculpture, a small group ofright-wing militia memberstried to protect it and clasheserupted, the AlbuquerqueJournal reported. The victim isbelieved to be in a critical butstable condition, police said.

Police were investigatingreports “about vigilante groupspossibly instigating this vio-lence,” city police chief MichaelGeier said in a Twitter state-ment. “If this is true will beholding them accountable to thefullest extent of the law, includ-ing federal hate group designa-tion and prosecution,” he said.

Images in US mediashowed police apprehending anumber of men, some dressedin camouflage gear with guns.“The heavily armed individualswho flaunted themselves at theprotest, calling themselves a‘civil guard’, were there for onereason: To menace protesters, topresent an unsanctioned showof unregulated force,” said NewMexico Governor MichelleLujan Grisham said in a state-ment posted on Twitter. AP

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Beijing’s coronavirus situa-tion is “extremely severe”, a

city official warned Tuesday, as27 new infections were report-ed in the Chinese capital froma cluster has sparked a hugetrace-and-test programme.

The coronavirus resur-gence — believed to have start-ed at the city’s sprawlingXinfadi wholesale food market— has prompted alarm asChina had largely brought itsoutbreak under controlthrough mass testing and dra-conian lockdowns imposedearlier in the year.

The new cases took thenumber of confirmed infec-tions in Beijing over the pastfive days to 106, as authoritieslocked down almost 30 com-munities in the city and testedtens of thousands of people.

China had eased much of itsanti-coronavirus measures in

recent months as the govern-ment all but declared victoryagainst the disease that emergedin Wuhan late last year. “Theepidemic situation in the capi-tal is extremely severe,” Beijingcity spokesman Xu Hejianwarned at a press conference.

The World HealthOrganization had alreadyexpressed concern about thecluster, pointing to Beijing’s sizeand connectivity.

Officials in the city saidthey would test stall ownersand managers at all of its foodmarkets, restaurants and gov-ernment canteens. ZhaoHonglei, manager of grocerychain store Shuguoyan, toldAFP his 13 staff members hadall tested negative.

Customers seemed reas-sured by the testing, he said, butonline orders had increasedtenfold in recent days.

“People are concerned thatit might be crowded at shops or

they might get infected,” he said.Beijing’s testing capacity hasbeen expanded to 90,000 a day,according to state news agencyXinhua. Retiree Wu Yaling, 57,was in a long queue of maskedpeople waiting in the scorchingheat for tests at a park oppositeone city-centre hospital.

“I try not to go out as muchas possible,” she said, addingthat her home is near one of theclosed markets.

On Tuesday, the capital’stransport commission bannedtaxi- and ride-hailing services

from carrying passengers out ofthe city, Xinhua said. All indoorsports and entertainmentvenues in Beijing were orderedto shut on Monday, while someother cities across Chinawarned they would quarantinearrivals from the capital.

The National HealthCommission also reported fournew domestic infections inHebei province, which sur-rounds the capital, and a casereported in Sichuan provincewas linked to the Beijing cluster.Authorities were racing to trackpeople from Beijing who hadtravelled to other parts of China,and encouraging those who vis-ited the capital to get tested.

MARKET INSPECTIONS

Beijing officials saidTuesday they had disinfected276 agricultural markets and33,000 food and beverage busi-nesses, closing 11 markets.

Seven more residentialestates were also locked downon Tuesday.

“Beijing’s outbreak willprobably be controlled quitequickly,” said Wu Hulin, a 23-year-old tech worker inXicheng district who got test-ed. “I think (China) is doing abetter job compared to over-seas.” Officials had warnedthat, since May 30, 200,000people had visited Xinfadimarket, which supplies morethan 70 percent of Beijing’s fruitand vegetables.

More than 8,000 workersthere had been tested and sentfor quarantine. Until the newoutbreak, most of China’srecent cases were nationalsreturning as COVID-19 spreadglobally. China’s Center forDisease Control andPrevention said Monday thevirus type found in the Beijingoutbreak was a “major epi-demic strain” in Europe.

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Secretary of State MikePompeo is making a brief

trip to Hawaii for closed-doortalks with a senior Chinese offi-cial, as relations between thetwo nations have plummetedover numerous disputes.

The State Department saidPompeo and his deputyStephen Biegun left Tuesday forHawaii but offered no addi-tional detail about his plans.People familiar with the tripsaid Pompeo and Biegun willmeet on Wednesday with aChinese delegation led by Yang

Jiechi, the Chinese CommunistParty’s top foreign affairs offi-cial.

The private discussions areset to take place at Hickam AirForce Base in Honolulu andwill cover the wide range ofissues that have set the world’stwo largest economies on a col-lision path, according to thepeople familiar with the trip,who were not authorized todiscuss it publicly and spoke oncondition of anonymity.

Washington and Beijing areat odds over trade, China’s han-dling of the coronavirus pan-demic, human rights, the status

of Hong Kong and increasingChinese assertiveness in theSouth China Sea. China hasbecome key element in the2020 presidential campaignwith President Donald Trumpand his supporters seeking tomake the administration’s toughstance with Beijing a main for-eign policy selling point.

Last month, Trump andPompeo announced that theU.S. would be rescinding spe-cial trade and economic priv-ileges it had extended to HongKong after the former Britishterritory reverted to Chinesecontrol in 1997.

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Spoiler alert: 2020 has beenrough on the American psy-

che. Folks in the U.S. are moreunhappy today than they’vebeen in nearly 50 years.

This bold — yet unsur-prising — conclusion comesfrom the COVID ResponseTracking Study, conducted byNORC at the University ofChicago. It finds that just 14%of American adults say they’revery happy, down from 31%who said the same in 2018.That year, 23% said they’doften or sometimes felt isolat-

ed in recent weeks. Now, 50%say that.

The survey, conducted inlate May, draws on nearly a half-century of research from theGeneral Social Survey, whichhas collected data on Americanattitudes and behaviors at leastevery other year since 1972. Noless than 29% of Americanshave ever called themselvesvery happy in that survey. Mostof the new survey’s interviewswere completed before the deathof George Floyd touched offnationwide protests and a glob-al conversation about race andpolice brutality, adding to the

feelings of stress and lonelinessAmericans were already facingfrom the coronavirus outbreak— especially for blackAmericans.

Lexi Walker, a 47-year-oldprofessional fiduciary who livesnear Greenville, SouthCarolina, has felt anxious anddepressed for long stretches ofthis year. She moved back toSouth Carolina late in 2019,then her cat died. Her fatherpassed away in February. Justwhen she thought she’d get outand socialise in an attempt toheal from her grief, the pan-demic hit.

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Tanmay Kumar, IAS, JointSecretary, Ministry of

Power has been appointed asGovernment NomineeDirector on the Board ofNHPC Limited, India’s premierhydropower company, witheffect from 11th June 2020.Currently, as Joint Secretary inMinistry of Power,Government of India, ShriKumar is looking afterTransmission Sector, PGCIL,POSOCO (Power SystemOperation CorporationLimited) and Grid Integrationof Renewable Energy amongstother assignments. Shri Kumaris a 1993 batch IAS officer ofRajasthan cadre and is a B.Techand M.Tech from the presti-gious IIT, Delhi.

Shri Kumar has served invarious capacities in RajasthanGovernment for about 27 years.He was Collector and District-Magistrate of Bharatpur, Alwarand Kota continuously formore than 6 years. He thenserved in the Chief Minister’sOffice for 3 years in the firstinstance as Deputy Secretary,Special Secretary and then asSecretary to Hon’ble ChiefMinister. Later, Shri Kumarserved as Principal Secretary toHon’ble Chief Minister for 5years (2013-2018) in the sec-ond instance.

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Indian equities on Tuesdayfollowed upbeat global mar-

kets to capture the day’s peakbefore losing momentum dueto Indo-China border tensionsthat capped gains on bench-mark indices. The BSE gaugeSensex settled 376.42 points or1.13 per cent higher at33,605.22. Intra-day, the indexswung about 1,069 points, andbriefly ventured into the neg-ative territory in the later partof the session reacting to India-China standoff news. Likewise,the NSE barometer too foughta high volatility before ending100.30 points or 1.02 per centup at 9,914. On the Sensexchart, HDFC Bank was the topgainer, jumping around 4 percent, followed by HDFC, ICICIBank, Kotak Bank, Infosys andHero MotoCorp.

On the other hand, TechMahindra, Axis Bank,IndusInd Bank and ITC wereamong the laggards.

Of the Sensex constituents,15 shares closed in the red and

as many scrips in the green.Sectorally, BSE finance,

bankex, metal, basic materials,IT and consumer durablesindices rallied up to 2.39 percent. While telecom, realty,power, utilities and FMCGindices ended in the red. In thebroader market, midcap andsmallcap indices jumped up to0.37 per cent. Indian boursestracked positive global marketsafter US Federal Reservelaunched a massive programmeto support businesses hit by thecoronavirus lockdown, ana-lysts said.The Fed announcedits Main Street LendingProgramme and an emergency

lifeline under which it will buyup to $750 billion in corporatebonds.

The plan is part of a mas-sive financial backstop put inplace by the bank to protect theeconomy from the worst of thevirus crisis. “The border dis-pute between India and Chinaresulted in volatility in thestock markets, on tensions offurther escalation of dispute.This was in spite of steadyglobal markets following theannouncement of the US FedReserve’s expanded bond-buy-ing programme,” Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services, said.

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Gross direct tax collectiondeclined 31 per cent to �

1,37,825 crore till June 15 of thecurrent fiscal as advance taxmop-up plunged 76 per centamid the coronavirus pan-demic, an official said onTuesday.

The Budget for 2020-21has estimated a 12 per centincrease in gross tax collectionsat �24.23 lakh crore, from �21.63 lakh crore in FY20. Thecollection was lower in the lastfiscal due to corporate tax ratecuts.

The budget target for directtaxes is �13.19 lakh crore,which is 28 per cent higher

than �10.28 lakh crore in FY20,as the Government expects agood response to the tax dis-pute settlement scheme ‘Vivadse Vishwas’.

“Total advance collectionfell a massive 76.05 per cent to�11,714 crore so far in the Junequarter from �48,917 crore inthe corresponding three-months in FY20,” an incometax official told PTI. Accordingto the official, advance corpo-rate tax collection plummeted79 per cent to �8,286 crore inthe first quarter of the currentfiscal from �39,405 crore in theJune 2019 quarter. The advancepersonal income tax collectiondeclined 64 per cent to �3,428crore from �9,512 crore in theyear-ago period, the officialadded.

This has pulled down“gross direct tax collection bya full 31 per cent to �1,37,825crore in the first quarter of

FY21, down from �1,99,755crore in the June 2019 quarter,”the official said.

The official also said afterrefunds, the total net direct taxcollection is only �92,681 croreso far this fiscal, a decline of 32per cent from �1,36,941 crorein the year-ago period.So far inthe June quarter, the depart-ment has refunded �45,143crore. It is 28 per cent lowerthan� 62,813 crore that wasrefunded in the correspondingquarter last fiscal.

The last day to payadvance taxes was June 15 andassessees falling under theambit of advance tax paymentare required to pay 15 per centof the evaluated tax liability inthe first quarter, 25 per centeach in the next two quartersand the remaining 35 per centin the fourth quarter.

Economists said the num-bers are not surprising given

the shape of the economy andthat the Government will missthe budgeted tax numbersgiven the impact of the pan-demic-driven lockdown thathas crippled the economy.

“The 31 per cent decline ingross direct tax collection and32 per cent plunge in net col-lections is on the expectedlines. This is pointing towardsweak economic activities.Corporate tax collection is alsoimpacted by cut in corporatetax rate in September 2019.

“Based on the evolving sit-uation on the economic growthfront in FY21, the probabilityof touching even last year’s col-lection is low,” DevendraKumar Pant, the chief econo-mist at India Rating said.

Echoing similar views,Aditi Nayar, the chief econo-mist at rating agency Icra, saidthe extent of contraction in netdirect tax collection is in line

with the de-growth that isexpected in the non-agricul-tural portion of the economy inthe first quarter due to the lock-down.

She said that for FY21 asa whole, net tax revenue is like-ly to fall short by �3.9 lakhcrore of the budget estimate.

The expected shortfall,she said, is based on the antic-ipated compression in con-sumption and income levelsfollowing the pandemic, thegain to the Government fromthe hikes in excise duty onfuels, and adjusting for lower-than-budgeted central taxdevolution to the States. Duringthe first two months of the Junequarter, a nationwide lock-down was in place to controlthe spread of the coronaviruspandemic and it had also dis-rupted around 80 per cent ofthe economic activities in thecountry.

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Despite events like FranklinTempleton closing down

schemes after COVID-19 out-break, domestic rating agencyCrisil on Tuesday said invest-ing in debt mutual funds canhelp investors.

The rating agency’sresearch wing suggested it iswise to invest in debt mutualfunds and the investments canstill pay but one needs to knowhow to invest their savingsinto it. It can be noted that ear-lier this year, FranklinTempleton shut its debtschemes citing market condi-tions with a commitment topay unit holders over time andtriggered a massive concernamong the investor communi-ty.”…things aren’t all bad.Indeed, dive a little deeperand there are streaks of silver– options among various cate-gories of debt mutual fundsthat can help ride over the chal-lenges being posed by the pan-demic’s economic blow,” Crisilsaid in a note. It said equitymarkets are down 21 per centfrom January 1 onward, andalso acknowledged that thedebt markets have not beenspared either as over �1.94lakh crore of outflows wererecorded in March.

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Shares of Tata Motors onTuesday fell by nearly 6%

after the company reported aconsolidated net loss of�9,863.73 crore in the fourthquarter ended March 2020.It tumbled 5.67% to close at�94.75 on the BSE. During theday, it tanked 8.41% to � 92. Onthe NSE, stock of the compa-ny plunged 5.87% to close at �94.60. In traded volume terms,108.45 lakh shares of the com-pany were traded on the BSEand 21.54 crore shares on theNSE during the day. TataMotors on Monday reported aconsolidated net loss of�9,863.73 cr in the fourth quar-ter ended March 31, 2020,with the coronavirus-inducedlockdown taking a toll onBritish arm Jaguar Land Roveras well as its domestic business.

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ASebi panel on Tuesday sug-gested measures to

strengthen markets watchdog’senforcement mechanism andimprove the system of recoveryof siphoned off money.

The committee headed byformer Supreme Court JudgeAnil Dave has proposedmethod of quantification ofprofit made by the defaulterand loss caused to investors.

In addition, the commit-tee has examined the insol-vency, recovery and securitieslaws jurisprudence of Indiaand abroad and suggested suit-able changes in the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code toensure that insolvency law isnot used as a refuge by default-ers, thereby protecting theinterest of investors.

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The Government is takingsteps to revamp the

National Highways Authorityof India (NHAI) and large-scale reforms are needed fur-ther, Union Minister NitinGadkari said on Tuesday.

NHAI has been mandat-ed the task to develop, maintainand manage NationalHighways, the arterial roads ofthe country, for inter-statemovement of passengers andgoods.

The total length ofNational Highways at presentis abut 1.5 lakh km, about 2 percent of the length of all theroads, but they carry about 40per cent of the total traffic.

“We are taking steps forrevamp of NHAI....Majorreforms are needed in theAuthority,” the Road Transport

and Highways Minister saidaddressing a webinar organisedby industry body Assocham.

The minister said theneed of the hour is to devisebankable projects suitable forthe market with acute preci-sion and accuracy citing howNHAI devised �5,000 crorehighway monetisation pro-jects under TOT (toll-opera-tor-transfer) mode whichcould only be bid by foreignplayers.

“It took six months to con-vince them (Authority) tocome out with small �500crore packages for asset mon-etisation under TOT as �5,000crore package could only bebid by foreign players,” Gadkari said adding “the pro-ject mode should be marketdriven and bankable” and notjust which are taken in “board-rooms.”

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With coronavirus lock-down further precipitat-

ing downturn in the economywitnessed even before theCOVID-19 crisis, swift recov-ery requires the Government toloosen its purse strings as onlypublic spending can triggereconomic revival, BrickworkRatings said.

In a report on ‘COVID-19 and Growth Challenges’, itsaid a sharp downturn was wit-nessed in the economy evenbefore the pandemic.

And the coronavirus battlehad to be fought by a wound-ed economy.

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India continues to remainranked 43rd on an annual

World Competitiveness Indexcompiled by Institute forManagement Developmentwith some traditional weak-nesses like poor infrastructureand insufficient educationinvestment keeping its rankinglow, the international businessschool said on Tuesday.

Singapore has retained itstop position on the 63-nation

list.Denmark has moved up tothe second position (from 8thlast year), Switzerland has

gained one place to rank 3rd,the Netherlands has retained its4th place and Hong Kong hasslipped to the fifth place. UShas moved down to 10th place(from 3rd last year), whileChina has also slipped from14th to 20th place. Among theBRICS nations, India is rankedsecond after China, followed byRussia (50th), Brazil (56th)and South Africa (59th). Indiawas ranked 41st on the IMDWorld CompetitivenessRanking, being produced bythe business school based inSwitzerland and Singaporeevery year since 1989, but hadslipped to 45th in 2017 beforeimproving to 44th in 2018 andthen to 43rd in 2019.

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Just after brief information about thesteroids, GSB academy is back with

another initiative of teaching andpreparing fitness trainers online. In itslast update, they shared their idea tomake the country steroid-free.

This time they have started onlinecourses for fitness trainers aspi-rants.The Coronavirus pandemic hasdeeply damaged almost every indus-try however, considering the need ofthe hour and the conspicuous interestthe academy is all set to deliver the bestfitness knowledge.

The course contains a lot of newpractices that will not just teach about

the syllabus but will also update learn-ers on how to handle a client when notin close proximity.

All it takes a little will to enrollwith all fitness aspirants, great ideasand motivation.

The academy has internationallycertified team to look after every cor-ner of the syllabus which they havebeen following for the past 15-yearsand also they have a exhaustive levelof knowledge in terms of nutrition.The owner has nearly 50 certificationsin fitness, nutrition, ergogenic,steroids, lifestyle and weight manage-ment courses.

For more information studentscan visit gsbfit.com.

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The Managementschool of IP

University —University School ofManagement Studies(USMS) has bagged57th position in NIRF2020 ranking releasedby the HRD ministry.It has improved itsrank this year; its rankwas 62 last year in theranking.

USMS is one ofthe oldest schools ofthe university. It offers

studies of managementupto the level PhD.Apart from regularMBA, it also offersExecutive MBA forworking professionalsand MBA in FinancialMarkets.

It is a greatachievement for theuniversity as theschool has carved aniche for itself intough fight for rankingunder hundred, most-ly dominated by wellknown managementschools of the country.

The world is witnessing the biggestdisruption phase of all time,

which is being led by technology. Inrecent years, there has been a hugesurge in how the Internet of Thingsand technological advancements areinfluencing business strategies worldover. Subsequently, artificial intelli-gence has made its way into the B-school curriculum for managementprogrammes.

As organisations invest heavilyin AI and ML technology, it raisesthe demand for a newer version ofmanagement courses, the one whichis compatible with the technologicalinnovations and ever-growing spe-cialised knowledge. Since a majorchunk of millennials, looking for-ward to a career in management, willbe the future business leaders, it isimperative to train them on businesstrends to make them industry-ready.

The global AI market size isexpected to grow by USD 75.54 bil-lion during 2019-2023, growing at aCAGR of over 33 per cent, accord-ing to a new report by Technavio.

There is an increasing demandfor professionals with skills andadvanced knowledge to develop,evaluate and implement AI-enabledapplications and strategies into busi-ness processes. Given the speed oftechnological advancements and itsintegration into businesses, the

demand for management profes-sionals with a comprehensive skill setof artificial intelligence, machinelearning, big data analytics, andblockchain, will continue to rise inyears to come.

Artificial Intelligence, havingthe capability to perform undertak-ings with ease, speech recognition,and visual perception, is beingincreasingly adopted by organisa-tions to achieve enhanced efficien-cy. AI can analyse the significantscattered information which other-wise is a cumbersome process if donemanually. It is helping businessenthusiasts make smarter choicesand effective business decisions.

AI-driven curriculum in business schools

Various important componentsmust form a part of AI curriculumin management schools. To elabo-rate, the basis for teaching AI tomanagement students has to be dif-ferent from algorithm or computerscience perspective, what AI is typ-ically believed to be. It should berather focussed on principles ofinformation systems and knowl-edge representation to make studentsunderstand how programmes canfind solutions to problems with AIintegration.

AI curriculum targeting futurebusiness leaders should be focussedon engaging them with issues ofimmense possibilities, substantialchallenges, and problems. It willteach them how to meet the com-mon problems of businesses in atechnology-driven way– competi-tion, market growth, branding, mar-ket growth, employee management,and productivity. The curriculumshould be able to help studentsgrasp that AI has the potential toaffect and disrupt all these aspects ofthe business.

There are various areas where AIcan help future business leaders. Let’sdig deep into the direct uses ofArtificial Intelligence in businesses.

AI has the potential to under-

stand behavioural tendencies in theexisting data, thereby, profiting busi-nesses to focus on correct clients foran item. AI can make sales and mar-keting more proficient as it can pullout behavioural tendencies of theclient thereby enabling customisedpromotion.

Talent acquisition with the inte-gration of AI, can be made easierbeyond imagination as HR managersdon’t need to go through a pile ofresumes manually.

Artificial Intelligence, by aug-menting and automating, can help inkeeping up an efficient store networkwhich, generally, relies on crowds offactors.

Artificial Intelligence is gainingimmense popularity globally. E-commerce giants and start-ups areon a continuous hunt to find suitablecandidates who are adept in AI anddata science.

The premier management col-leges that produce top-notch man-agement professionals are increas-ingly integrating AI into their man-agement curriculum and offeringseveral related courses such asDescriptive and Predictive Analytics,Advanced Business Analytics,Forecasting Models and EnterpriseResource Planning.

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The JEE Main 2020 is conducted byThe National Testing Agency(NTA) for admission to under-

graduate programmes in NITs, IIITs andother Centrally Funded TechnicalInstitutions (CFTIs), in the next acad-emic year (2020-2021) in two phases,the first phase for Admissions toBE/BTech(Paper-1) & BArch/BPlanning (Paper-2) was held from Jan6 to Jan 11, 2020 and the second phasefor admissions to BE/BTech (Paper-1)& BArch/BPlanning (Paper-2) earlierscheduled in April, will be now be heldbetween July 18 to July 23, 2020.Students have the option to appear inone or both phases. The result will how-ever consider the students’ perfor-mance in the best of the two phases. Dueto COVID-19 students had the optionto change their test centres till May 3 asearlier announced by NTA.

The JEE Main Paper 1 will be con-ducted in two sessions per day and thecandidates will be allotted slots keepingin mind social distancing and studentswill also be required to adhere to safe-ty measures while taking the exam. Thesafety guidelines will be made availableto the students in their e-hall ticketswhich will be issued to the students. Forappearing in the JEE (Main) examina-tion there is no age limit for the candi-dates. The candidates who have passedClass XII/ equivalent examination in2018, 2019 or appearing in 2020 irre-spective of their age can appear in JEE(Main) examination — 2020.

Study plan in the last one month:The last one month should gener-

ally be utilised to consolidate one’spreparation by focusing on revision ata glance, problem solving and over-coming the weaker areas in preparation.However, the following points should bekept in mind:�Build your immunity to stay physi-cally and mentally fit.�Remain focused and maintain a pos-itive attitude while studying.� Develop speed by solvingquizzes/Mock Tests of JEE Main levelproblems with time management.�Speed & Accuracy will be your key tosuccess in JEE Main�Take Online mock-test series to builda winning exam temperament.�Sample papers will give you a fair ideaabout the pattern of questions and helpone improve time management.�Solve the previous year’s JEE/AIEEE

papers for understanding the level ofquestions asked.�Focus on your weaker areas andimprove your concepts.�Remember it is the quality of timespent and not the quantity alone.Hence, take short breaks of five to tenminutes after every one or two hours ofserious study. Relax completely whenyou take a break.�Practice meditation to develop innercalm, poise, confidence and power ofconcentration. �Don’t overstress yourself. Relaxationexercises may help to regain freshness.Avoid over-sleeping during the day.� If one has the right attitude requiredtowards preparation for the JEE Main,then even an average student can crackit.�Finally, don’t be nervous if you findthe paper tough since it is the relativeperformance that counts. Put yourbest analytical mind to work and

believe in your preparation.Strategy to attempt the questions

in JEE(Main) paper:Sometimes the Right Strategy and

Time Management play a vital role indeciding the rank for an aspirant. So, onemust be quick enough to adapt to thelevel of the paper and act promptly. Thefollowing points may however be keptin mind when attempting the questions.

Dos:�Attempt easy questions first.�Choose sections that have less risk andmore gain.�Carefully scroll through the entirequestion paper in the first five minutes.�Keep a check on time while attempt-ing the paper.�Attempt all numerical based typequestions first as there is no negativemarking.

Don’ts�Don’t start from question you don’tknow.

�Don’t get upset if any section is tough.You can score in other sections.�Don’t guess if you have no idea aboutthe concept involved in a question.�Don’t be nervous if you find the papertough, since it is the relative perfor-mance that counts. Hence, put your bestanalytical mind to work, it will take youahead.

Key points that will decide yourRank in JEE Main (Paper-1):�How well you have mastered theimportant topics in each of Physics,Chemistry & Mathematics.�How much practice you have doneon similar levels of questions as askedin JEE Main.�How well you have perfected on yourtiming of solving an objective type ques-tion.�How much attention you have givento time management & Strategy apartfrom covering your syllabi.�How much calm & confident you are

when you take up the actual exam.Tips for the JEE(Main)-final

exam day & a day before:�Think positively and don’t discussabout your preparation as this may indi-rectly make you nervous even if you arewell prepared. Don’t talk anythingabout JEE (Main) with others.�One day before JEE Main, do notstudy anything new.�Stay calm, confident and trust your-self.�Brush up important formulae in allthree subjects.�Relax yourself or indulge in medita-tion a day before the actual exam inorder to give your best on the exam day.�Don’t ask your friend how much theyhave studied. It will create unnecessarypressure.�Have a sound sleep for at least six-seven hours.

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Agribusiness in our country isone of the fastest growing yetoldest sectors. However, it is

also one of the most unorganisedsectors. Currently, it is the sector ofhigh commercial importance andhas evolved from low-level farmingto commercial farming. In India,out of the total food products, only14 percent is processed and about35 percent of the food is expendedduring packaging and transporta-tion. This lack of expertise andknowledge has led to the emergenceof a new sector called Agribusinesswhich has the need for skilledagribusiness professionals.

Modern farms and agricul-tural operations work far differentlythan those a few decades ago, pri-marily because of advancements intechnology, including sensors,devices, machines, and informationtechnology. Today’s agricultureroutinely uses sophisticated tech-nologies such as robots, tempera-ture and moisture sensors, aerialimages, and GPS technology. Theseadvanced devices and precisionagriculture and robotic systemsallow businesses to be more prof-itable, efficient, safer, and moreenvironmentally friendly. However,in order to use this technologyeffectively there is a need forskilled workforce who has enoughknowledge of both technology andagriculture management.

In the post COVID-19 sce-nario, it is even more critical thatwe put in focused efforts by extend-ing technology-led support toproduct strategy, public invest-ment in infrastructure, researchand development of crops, live-stock, fisheries, with a view toenhance food production and itsavailability to the end consumersthrough proper food supply chains.

During the current pandemic,we have seen lakhs of migrantworkers going back to their nativeplaces. Traditional occupation ofthese migrant workers is farming.Because of lack of education andresources they had migrated to big-ger cities in search of livelihood.Now, in absence of that option any

more, they have to go back to theirtraditional occupation which isfarming.

It is an opportune time to helpthese farmers by promoting Agri-innovations, entrepreneurship, andtechnology to improve productiv-ity post-COVID-19. Precisionfarming methods could pave theway for optimising cost of pro-duction with an objective to achievefood security in the post-COVID-19 scenario.

In order to achieve these goalsthere is a need of skilled workforcewho can make use of both agri-culture management and technol-ogy.

MBA in Agribusiness could bea very good option to acquire thisknowledge which broadly coverssubjects like Rural and RetailMarketing, Microfinance, AgriSupply Chain Management andAgri Import Export Management.These subjects cover variousaspects of agriculture manage-ment while touching upon theimportance of technology to drivethe business successfully.

Thus, it’s quite evident thatagribusiness has a bright futuregoing forward and one can be apart of this growth story by gettingeducated in this sector from areputed institute. ���������������������(�"��������������������

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The Institute of Laser &Aesthetic Medicine

(ILAMED) brings you anMSc programme in Plasma &Aesthetic Laser Medicine(MSc PALM) of theUniversity of Greifswald,Germany with the teachingstaff of DALM Post GraduateProgramme from Germany,Austria & Switzerland;Stavropol State MedicalUniversity, Russia;Kwangwoon University,Seoul; Leibniz Institute of

Plasma Technology,Germany.

The duration of thiscourse is two and a half years(part time) and contains lec-tures, seminars and hands-onpractice, where the studentswill implement and test;acquired knowledge underclinical and practical condi-tions, as well as record expe-riences and individually pre-pare suitable treatment pro-cedures.

On the other hand, a sci-entific focus where the stu-dents will gain an extensive

interdisciplinary overview ofavailable methods and possi-bilities and acquire the abili-ty to scientifically handlemethods and their princi-ples in photonic sciences.

The post-graduate edu-cation is targeted towardsalumni and graduates of allhigher education professionsinvolved into research, devel-opment and clinical applica-tion of laser medicine, notonly in aesthetic medicine.

Access pre-requisites area state-approved universitydegree with professional qual-

ification in human medicine.ILAMED is the internation-al incharge of the programmefor conducting the pro-gramme in English languagefor the non-German speakingworld.

After finishing the post-graduate education, studentswill have interdisciplinary in-depth knowledge and skillsacross the area of applied andscientific photonic medicine.For more information, stu-dents can visitwww.ilamed.org or call on+919650500965/9599224093.

The SRM Institution ofScience and Technology,

Kattankulathur has beenranked 21 among Indian uni-versities by the Nature Index2020. The ranking was donebased on Nature Index datafrom January 1, 2019 toDecember 31, 2019.

Among the four broad sub-ject areas, SRMIST ranked19th in India for Chemistryand 28th in Physical Sciences.The Nature Index also rankedSRMIST 5th in India amongNature and Science journalgroup. Some of the top articlesby altmetric score in currentwindow are: ‘The GenomeAsia100k Project enables geneticdiscoveries across Asia’ whichwas published in Nature(December 2019) and ‘A bac-teriophage nucleus-like com-partment shields DNA from

CRISPR nucleases’ published inNature (December 2019).Apart from this SRMIST’soverall publications hasreached 22,000 as on date (puttogether in all IndexingDatabases). Our university’sh-index has increased to 83(Scopus based).

The nature index is a data-base of author affiliations andinstitutional relationships. Theindex tracks contributions toresearch articles published in82 high-quality natural sci-ence journals, chosen by anindependent group ofresearchers.

This index providesabsolute and fractional countsof article publication at theinstitutional and national leveland, as such, is an indicator ofglobal high-quality researchoutput and collaboration.

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�"��4 ������������The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, after consid-

ering the prevalent situation due to COVID-19 pandemic,has decided to further postpone its June-2020 SessionExaminations of Foundation Programme, Executive Programme,Professional Programme and Post Membership Qualification(PMQ) scheduled to be held from July 6 to July 6, 2020.

The examinations of the above session will now be held fromAugust 18 to August 28, 2020.

Accordingly the 1st CS Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) isalso postponed from July 17, 2020 to August 29, 2020 and thelast date for registration for CSEET is now July 27, 2020.

The Company Secretaryship Course, one of the most soughtafter professional course, with its set pattern and syllabus con-ducts its examination twice a year throughout the country andin Dubai.

As ICSI President, CS Ashish Garg said: “While on the fore-front, it is only the students visible as giving Examinations andthe Institute conducting them, a closer look would reveal thatthe entire ICSI Examination Process is an edifice of the collab-orative efforts of many. The examination centres, invigilating staff,support staff, ICSI Members as general observers and Team ICSI,all are equally involved in the smooth and successful conductof CS Examinations”.

The examination time-table is available on the institute’s web-site: www.icsi.edu.

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At a time when the rough draft versionof the India’s new education policy

encouraged Indian institutions to devel-op their own online programmes, theglobal Coronavirus pandemic has alreadypaved the way for it. Social distancing andself-quarantine measures to cease thespread of novel cornovirus have made, thehigher education institutes to suspendtheir classes and adhere to the onlineteaching and training process to contin-ue the education.

Through online learning, both teach-ers and students can make use of a widearray of resources that are available on theinternet for teaching. It’s one of the eas-iest modes for students, provided theyhave good Internet bandwidth. One canenjoy it to the fullest and make best useof this form of learning if he follows self-discipline, time management skills, deter-mination and a strong motivation like theclassroom education.

India has the most number of peo-ple using smartphones and other tech-nologies like the US and China. And, therise in the usage of the Internet haschanged the way of life in India. Peoplelike to do everything online, they shoponline, do business online, make friendsonline, learn online, order food online,book cabs online among others. Thenwhy not learning online? Online educa-tion and learning also stand right next tothe evolving e-commerce industry.Internet is already loaded with ever-increasing information available and thecountless number of online coursesmany people in India prefer to learnonline designed by various universities.As a part of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s Digital India project, many collegesand universities have already startedoffering online correspondence courses.

Here are some of the benefits ofonline teaching/training:

Managing the poor teacher-stu-dent ratio: In India, mostly colleges anduniversities have less faculty members ascompared to the growing number of stu-dents and that's the reason some studentscan't utilize their time effectively duringclassroom learning. But through online

training this gap can be bridged. Ateacher can overview all the studentsthrough online learning and share guid-ance to each students separately. Studentscan even learn on their own and can doextensive research on a particular subject.It has also made the education processinstant.

Curation of robust content: This willhelp our education and learning processmore advanced. Teacher and students canbuild out the resources they would beneeding for course topics. This is howthrough an online format, one can buildupon a robust curated libraries of content.To make it easier for future reference, onecan tag them and organise them proper-ly. This in a way not only help the studentsin gaining knowledge but also help themto form a bond with their teachers.

Online academic learning cannotreplace face-to-face teaching: Besides,our teachers need training to be onlinetutors. With elite schools turning to‘online only’ instruction, disparitybetween privileged schools and affordableschools are bound to widen due to vary-ing contexts in the students’ home envi-ronment.

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The Udacity has collabo-rated with Microsoftto confer scholarships

for its all new MachineLearning Nanodegree pro-gramme in Microsoft Azure.The new scholarship pro-gramme represents the firstof several programmes. Thescholarship will be conferredin two phases. After review-ing the applications, 10,000selected candidates will beenrolled to pursue the firstphase of scholarship.

The phase begins with atwo-month-long foundationcourse in introduction tomachine learning on Azurewith a low-code experience.This is a single coursefocused on completing pre-requisites for the full nanode-gree programme.

Speaking about the schol-arships, Gabriel Dalporto,CEO of Udacity said: “Withthe AIcontinuing to grow at afast pace and AI engineers inhigh demand, especially asmore enterprises build newcloud applications and moveold ones to the cloud, ourtraining programme presentsan amazing opportunity forthose looking to furtherexpand their skill set. We’reexcited to partner withMicrosoft to create profes-sionals with these specialised

skill sets.”Application deadline: It

is June 30, 2020.

The Humber Collegeinvites applications for fulland partial renewabletuition grants for new inter-national undergraduate stu-dentsfor September intake.

Eligibility: Students com-ing directly from highschool/secondary schoolstudies, who are non-transferholders (haven’t attended col-lege or university, or studiedin Humber’s EAP pro-gramme), and are unlimitedin quantity. Applications willbe considered based on acad-emics, community involve-ment, referee/reference lettersand statement of interest.Applicants must have a previ-ous degree. Applications willbe considered based on acad-emics, community involve-ment, referee/reference lettersand statement of interest.

Language requirement:Applicants demonstrate theirEnglish language proficiencyensures they are prepared forthe rigors of the academiccurriculum and able to suc-cessfully complete any work-place components of the pro-gram (such as co-op place-ments).

International candidatescan apply.

How to apply: Visit theofficial website.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isAugust 15, 2020.

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Long gone are the days whenthe majority of people wouldcomplete school, find them-

selves a job, and then stay with thatemployer for the rest of their work-ing lives. While we understand thatwork or a job takes up a major partof the human experience, con-suming most of the part of our lifealong with contributing to one'sheightened sense of self-worth andindividual identity. But statistical-ly speaking, nearly a third of thegeneration sees their work as a merejob rather than a career or even astepping stone, for that matter, tomove towards a career they're pas-sionate about.

But isn’t having a job and acareer just the same? The answer tothis viable question is, ‘no’. With thepassage of time, the differencebetween the two terms has blurredbeyond reconciliation. It’s timethat one understands the differencebetween a job and career. A job isan activity that an individual per-forms in order to fuel his livelihood,a career involves many such activ-ities that an individual undertakesin order to pursue his passion. Inother words, a job fits you in a posi-tion of regular employment, whichis paid. Conversely, a career poten-tially implies the progress of an indi-vidual in a particular profession ofchoice.

This explicitly explains, whileone can always work hard at a joband even get paid a handsome

amount for the same, a careertakes much more motivation andforward-thinking into regard. Dueto the very same reason, studentsshould worry more about makinga career for themselves then bag-ging a job. We say so with convic-tion because the secret to happinessis being able to love whatever it isyou do in life. You can make yourpersonal goals a part of your careerthan work for a typical job whichdoesn’t entice you.

How do you make the rightchoice of choosing the right coursewhich will ultimately build upyour career? Check out our boileddown version of some useful tipsthat will help you choose the rightcourse to kick-start your career.

The most important thing thatyou need to consider while choos-ing your course is to ask ‘why?’ Whyare you looking to study it? Is it thatyou want to build a career in it byextending your skillset — if yes,then you should go ahead andchoose a course in a subject thatoffers a natural progression to yourexisting qualifications and skills.Studying a subject can sometimesbe a one-way route, so be sure tofully research your prospectivecareers and employment opportu-nities. Next step is to think con-sciously. Think about interests anddecide on the course one would fur-ther want to gain your expertise in.You need to contemplate on thevery thought, that are you choos-

ing this course because you can seeyour exciting, glittering careerahead? Or is it that your decisionis influenced by what your parentswant? By regressively questioningyourself now, you can map out theexact path and course you wouldwant to walk on.

There are essentially two partsto where would you like to study.You will have to find out the bestcountry that offers extensive cours-es in your subject area, affirm thatit has plenty of internships alongwith some graduate work oppor-tunities. Or look for a city withaccess to specific resources, forinstance, if you want to pursuemarine biology, you can considerstudying the world’s largest coralreef in Australia and learn right atthe source?

Another way of looking at itcan be: Where in the world wouldyou like to live for good four-fiveyears of your life. This decision willalso come with opportunities tolearn a new language, make newfriends and create new experi-ences of life.

Least to say, if you’re happy andsettled in your new life, you maydouble your chances of excelling inyour profession, too.

The best way to do one’s home-work is by narrowing down all youroptions to about five real and prac-tical choices. It does take a lot ofresearch - you can start by readingstudent blogs over the web to

understand the base reality and seewhat it’s really like. The fact aboutthose glossy prospectuses is thatthey don’t always tell you the fullstory, so it’s always better to talk tothe people you know who havestudied in that country or collegeand gauge all the plausible infor-mation.

The next step is to weigh yourcareer prospects. Studying overseascan be heavy on your pocket, sotake it as an investment in yourfuture, in terms of your career andsalary both. You can try to speak tothe college alumni network, findout where the other internationalstudents at that university haveworked after graduation or evenmeet the industry leaders duringthe tenure of your course.

Details are important. Everysubject has the scope of studying somany different options, so it’salways a good exercise to explorethe most specific interest you have.

Yes, you are allowed to makemistakes. If at any moment yourealise that this is not what you wantto do, you can talk to the studentcounselor on your campus and seekadvice. You can try other optionsinstead of spending the next fiveyears staring at the textbooks whichdo not coincide with your passion.

So, choose a course and careerthat matches your interests andskillset, and also the lifestyle youprefer.

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Pep Guardiola fears hisManchester City play-ers are not ready for

the gruelling demands ofthe Premier League restart.

Guardiola’s reigningchampions will hostArsenal onWednesday in thesecond game ofthe PremierLeague’s return toaction following the coron-avirus hiatus.

City play again onMonday when Burnleycome to the Etihad Stadiumand the pace does not dropuntil the planned end of theseason in late July.

With Premier Leaguechiefs determined to playthe remaining 92 matchesin less than six weeks andteams given only a shorttime to prepare, City man-ager Guardiola is concernedthat his stars are not fully fitfor such a hectic schedule.

“We are ready to playone game, but three daysafter another and four daysafter another, we are notready,” Guardiola toldreporters in a video pressconference on Tuesday.

“We have to rotate anduse all the players. You canplay a game after threeweeks on holiday but wespent two weeks on thesofa doing nothing much.That is why the players arenot fully fit.

“The way we are rightnow, I think other clubs and

teams as well, if you ask mehow the team is, I don’tknow.”

Guardiola said thegame against Arsenalwould show him whatlevel of fitness his play-ers had.

“What we areworried about over thethree weeks is the lack ofpreparation, not like inGermany or Spain, wherethey worked five or sixweeks,” he said. “We knowit is not enough but it iswhat it is.”

City, who resume 25

points behind leadersLiverpool, will welcome

back Guardiola’s for-mer assistant MikelArteta for the firsttime since he tookcharge of Arsenal inDecember.

“We are delight-ed he will come back,

especially if he is happythere. We sent a messageabout an hour and a halfago,” Guardiola said.

“It was about the winewe are going to drink afterthe game if social distanceallows.”

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Maurizio Sarri takes onhis former club Napoli

in Wednesday’s Italian Cupfinal looking for his firsttrophy as Juventus coachdays before Serie A resumesafter a three-month shut-down.

Juventus are chas-ing a record-extending14th Italian Cup againstfive-time winnersNapoli in Rome, afterthe Turin giants’ four-year cup-winning streakwas ended last season.

Sarri took over atJuventus one year ago after aseason with Chelsea duringwhich the Premier Leagueside won the Europa League.

Before that the 61-year-old spent three seasons withNapoli, battling Juventus forthe title, before falling outwith club owner Aurelio DeLaurentiis.

Sarri’s return to Napoli’sStadio San Paolo ended in a2-1 league defeat in January.

But the former Chelseamanager will have anotherchance for just the secondtrophy of his 30-year coach-ing career at an empty Stadio

Olimpico.A win would help the

eight-time defending Serie Achampions set the tone whenthe title battle resumes nextweek, with Lazio just onepoint behind in second place.

Juventus striker GonzaloHiguain, who helped Napolito their last Italian Cup tri-

umph in 2014 and wasSerie A’s top-scorerwith 36 goals underSarri in the 2015-2016season, remains adoubt for the Turinside with a thigh injury.

Cristiano Ronaldo,who missed a penalty inFriday’s semi-final secondleg against AC Milan, willstart up front for Juventus,while Napoli winger DriesMertens is fresh from break-ing the club’s all-time scoringrecord with a last-four goalagainst Inter Milan.

Ronaldo, who has scored25 goals this season, can lifta 30th career trophy inRome.

Napoli are sixth in SerieA, and chasing their first tro-phy since 2014, after a diffi-cult start to the season withGennaro Gattuso replacingAncelotti in December.

)%#���2 Sevilla suffered a set-back in their bid to qualify fornext season’s Champions Leaguegroup stage as a late own goal byDiego Carlos allowed visitingLevante to grab a 1-1 draw onMonday.

Julen Lopetegui’s side, whosit third in La Liga, hold a five-point lead over fifth-placedGetafe, although most of theirclosest rivals still have to play inthis round of matches.

Sevilla took lead in the firstminute of the second half, as for-mer Barcelona player ElHaddadi teed up Dutch strikerLuuk de Jong to score his sixthleague goal of the season.

Levante managed to createsome late pressure and centre-back Carlos put through his own

net three minutes from timeafter a mix-up with goalkeeperTomas Vaclik.

The draw helped 12th-placed Levante move 10 points

clear of safety with nine match-es to play.

Later, Roberto Soldado res-cued Granada a 2-2 draw at RealBetis in a dramatic game whichsaw three goals in the final sixminutes.

The away side looked set tomove within three points ofSociedad as they led late onthrough Carlos Fernandez’s29th-minute strike, but SergioCanales equalised from the spotwith five minutes to play, beforeCristian Tello put the hosts infront.

Former Spain strikerSoldado had the final saythough, as the substitutesnatched a point in injury timewhich moved Granada aboveVillarreal into eighth. AFP

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Former club captain Steven Gerrard believesLiverpool should build a statue for current man-

ager Jurgen Klopp outside Anfield after he endstheir league title drought. The Reds are on the vergeof winning their maiden Premier League title andfirst top-flight crown in 30 years.

Gerrard feels Klopp’s name should be taken insame breath as that of club legends Bill Shankly, BobPaisley and Kenny Dalglish, who saw great successduring their respective times at helm.

“Knowing Jurgen, he won’t want to be put inthat bracket. I know what he’s like, he’s humble andrespectful,” Gerrard was quoted as saying by TheAthletic.

“When you look at the scale of the job he’s done,for sure he deserves to be mentioned in the samebreath as those iconic managers.”

Klopp took over Liverpool in 2015 when theywere struggling outside the top-four in England.He has since overseen a remarkable turnaround thatsaw Liverpool become Champions League winnersand potential Premier League winners.

“What you need to take into consideration isthat when Jurgen took over Liverpool they weren’tclose to being the best team in the country, theyweren’t even in the top four,” Gerrard said.

“To come to Liverpool when he did, get to theamount of finals that he has, deliver the sixthEuropean Cup and then deliver the first league titleafter 30 year.

“For me, someone like Jurgen shouldbe rewarded now. It seems like in foot-ball we often wait until people getolder before theirachievementsare fullyrecognised.

“But Iknow theowners ofLiverpoolwon’t letthat happen.When Jurgendelivers theleague theyshould already bestarting work on astatue of him,” headded.

'�'!�2 Virat Kohli nei-ther has Chris Gayle’s“strength”, nor A B deVilliers’ “ability” but hasstill managed to eke out asuccessful T20 career onthe back of his supreme fit-ness levels, feels formerIndia opener GautamGambhir.

Kohli, who has beensuccessful in Tests andODIs, has also made amark in T20Is, scoring2,794 runs from 82 gameswith an average of 50.8.

“He (Kohli) was alwaysa very smart cricketer, butthen he turned his entireT20 career into a very suc-cessful one, just by being

supremely fit,” Gambhirsaid on Star Sports show.

“Probably because hedoes not have the strengthof Chris Gayle, he doesn’thave the ability of AB deVilliers,” he observed.

The southpaw wasasked what makes theIndia captain so effective inthe shortest format of thegame. “The biggeststrength he’s got is now hisfitness and he’s turned thatinto his game as well, that’swhy he has become sosuccessful, so you got togive it to the guy.

“The most importantthing is that he runs real-ly well between the wick-

ets, not many people do it,”added Gambhir.

Kohli has also beensuccessful in the IndianPremier League, havingscored 5,412 runs from177 games.

“There are very fewcricketers in world cricketat this time who can rotateof every ball and that iswhat Virat Kohli does real-ly well and that’s why he’sdifferent from the rest,”said Gambhir.

According to Gambhir,Kohli is more consistentthan his teammate andstar batsman RohitSharma, when it comes torotating the strike.

“You see RohitSharma, probably RohitSharma doesn’t have thatquality which Virat Kohlihas to rotate the strike,” hesaid.

Rohit Sharma has theability to hit those bigshots, but that’s whereVirat Kohli is more consis-tent than Rohit Sharma,”added the former Delhibatsman.

“Chris Gayle or AB deVilliers don’t have thatability to rotate the strike,especially against spinbowling, but Virat Kohlihas that, that’s why heaverages 50,” Gambhirsigned off.

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Cricket Australia chairman EarlEddings on Tuesday conceded

that this year’s T20 World Cupamid the Covid-19 pandemic seems “unrealis-tic” as it will be difficult to fly in 16 teams to thecountry.

The fate of the event, scheduled to be heldin October and November, is shrouded in uncer-tainty as several countries continue to have inplace, strict travel restrictions due to the coro-navirus outbreak, which has infected over 8.1million people across the globe.

“While it hasn’t been formally called off thisyear, or postponed, trying to get 16 countries intoAustralia in the current world, where most coun-tries are still going through Covid spiking, I thinkit’s unrealistic, or it’s going to be very, very dif-ficult,” he told reporters.

Eddings said Cricket Australia had put for-ward a number of options to the InternationalCricket Council. “The ICC are having meetingsas we speak, it’s a bit of a movable feast at themoment,” he said.

T20 World Cup chief executive NickHockley, who on Tuesday took over as inter-im Cricket Australia chief, said he expected theICC to make a decision about the tournament'sfuture next month. “We’ve got a fantastic localorganising committee who are busy preparingfor every eventuality and the decision that willcome,” he said.

Eddings said India’s Test tour inDecember-January appeared set to go ahead,with the tourists willing to undergo quaran-tine to enter Australia.

“We’ve had a lot of very positive chats withIndia, they’re very keen to tour,” he said. “Nowit’s a matter of how we get over the hurdles withCovid-19 for them to come into the country.”

��� � �;��;�

The West Indies pacebattery can challenge

any team, according toassistant coach RoddyEstwick, who reckons thecurrent attack could shapeup to a lethal force reminis-cent of the famedCaribbean bowling of thepast.

Estwick said the teamhas worked on its fitness,which was a key factor inthe success of the ferociousWest Indies pace attack of‘70 and ‘80s, but insistedthe current crop needs to“forge their own identity.”

“We’re beginning toget blessed with fast

bowlers again in the WestIndies, so that’s an excitingtime for us,” Estwick wasquoted as saying byESPNCricinfo.

“What we’ve done isimprove our fitness. That’sone of the key things. Ifyou look back in the 80s,that’s one thing the fastbowlers had, was fitness,”he added.

Armed with a strongpace attack, comprisingthe likes of Kemar Roach,Shannon Gabriel, AlzarriJoseph and captain JasonHolder, West Indies are setto take on hosts England ina three-match Test series,starting July 8 inSouthampton.

“The other thing isthey’re now understandingfast bowling, they’re gettingto the age, Kemar andShannon, where they’releading the attack, they’revery, very experienced,”he said.

“Jason Holder hasbecome a lot better Testmatch bowler in the lasttwo years, Alzarri Joseph isnow beginning to show hispotential. So we’ve got fourfast bowlers where we canchallenge any team in theworld,” he added.

The 58-year-old saidthe team is looking for-ward to the series to seehow the speedsters per-form.

+��� ����B;89

The US Open tennis tournament is togo ahead as planned pending formal

Government approval, the New YorkTimes reported on Monday.

The Times cited four tennis officialsspeaking on condition of anonymity assaying that the Grand Slam event wouldtake place in its usual late August-September slot.

The Times report said the tourna-ment would take place at FlushingMeadows without fans from August 31to September 13 after receivingsupport from the ATP and WTATours.

The US Tennis Association isexpected to announce the decisionlater this week, The Times report-ed.

Forbes magazine also reported thatthe Open would take place as scheduled,with a decision expected “soon”.

The proposed plans for the tourna-ment had been met with widespread

reservations amongst leading players ininternational tennis, with world num-

ber one Novak Djokovic the mostoutspoken critic.

Under proposed safety proto-cols, US Open players would beconfined to a hotel outside ofManhattan and would only be

allowed to bring one member of theirentourage to the event.

Singles qualifying would be elimi-nated while the doubles tournamentswould be reduced from 64 pairings tojust 24.

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As football aroundEurope returns after a

long suspension, UEFA is setto announce the format forthe latter stages of theChampions League at a keymeeting on Wednesday.

The Champions Leaguewas frozen in mid-Marchbefore the last-16 stage hadbeen completed.

UEFA has for sometime been working on a wayof completing its season inAugust, which looks feasibleas leagues restart and theEuropean death toll fromCovid-19 slows.

With that in mind, theExecutive Committee meet-ing, to be held by videocon-ference, is set to approve theidea of a “Final Eight” inLisbon, as widely reportedby media across Europe inrecent days.

That would mean find-ing a way to play out the fourremaining last 16, secondlegs before bringing togeth-er all the quarter-finalists inPortugal’s capital for a seriesof one-off games to crownthe European champions.According to reports, thefinal would be on August 23.

In the current context,grouping all teams togetherin one place and reducingtravel is the wisest solution,although it remains to beseen how many fans, if any,could attend.

Gdansk in Poland wasslated to host the EuropaLeague final but that com-petition also looks set to fin-ish in a watered down “FinalEight” format.

German newspaperBild reported last week thatthe closing stages would beswitched to the regionaround the western city of

Cologne.A similar format could

be brought in for thewomen’s ChampionsLeague, the final of whichwas due to be played in

Vienna.UEFA’s announcements

will have a knock-on effecton when next season canstart around Europe.Everything could bederailed by a second wave ofcoronavirus infections.

Euro 2020 was meant tobe in full swing by now, butpostponing the tournamentby 12 months was one of thefirst big decisions taken asthe crisis intensified.

Staging the EuropeanC’ship in 12 different coun-tries, from as far apart asBaku and Saint Petersburgto Dublin and Bilbao,already looked question-able before the virus struck.

Now UEFA mustpotentially make some bigdecisions about its format,and president AleksanderCeferin recently hinted thatthe number of host citiescould be reduced.

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.���������!��%&�$&�2� Premier Leaguechief executive RichardMasters has warned fans tostay away from stadiumsonce the top-flight returnsbehind closed doors onWednesday.

There are fears somesupporters will ignoresocial-distancing rules bycongregating outside thegrounds where their teamsare playing.

Aware of the scrutinythe league will be under,

Masters has issued a plea tofans not to gather aroundstadiums during matches.

“Please stay away andenjoy the matches at home.By turning up to the gameyou are putting things atjeopardy,” Masters told BBC.

There will be no fansallowed into any PremierLeague games this term,but Masters is optimisticthere could be some even-tually given entry nextseason. AFP

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